The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-08-15
THE STAKE IN PENNSYLVANIA.

THE STAKE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
All the barbariuns do not live in
the South. on saturday night negro
named Ezekiel Walker killed Special
Policeman Rice. who discovered him
While he was engaged in robbing one
OF the miners in the nelghborhood OF
Coatesvillc. The community was ter
ribly aroused by the commission of
this crime and started OF u hunt for
I the murderer who was captured on
sunday after long chase Anticipat-
ing the fate probably awaiting him.
the negro tried to take his own life by
I shooting himself in tho mouth His
aim was bad, however, and he was
taken to tho local hospital, where ar
ter receiving medical attention he was
bound 10 cot and placed under the
special guard of another policeman.
Sunday night mob comp osed of 400
men battered down tho doors OF the
hospital, seized tho negro and carry
| ing him out OF the hospital on the cot
| dragged him to the place where he
had killed officer Rice, and there put
him to death with tho most hendish
cSuelty Manacled to the cot, his ex-
ecutioners heaped piles OF old fence
rails and other easily burning material
over him and roasted him alive This
is the brief account OF the horrible
sceno as described by the New York
Sun:
The lynching was accomplished only
after the negro mad from pain had
| leape6 from the blazing fagots piled
over him and tried to escape. dragging
the bed to which he was bound by his
handouts.
| A crowd of 1000 watched the mob
leaders beat the negro with fence rails,
and force him shr!eking back into the
/ flames.
| Throe times he bounded UP and three
times was thrust back, until finally his
/ quiverlng body fell into the fire Only
| then was the mob satisfied
! The account given in The Times
! says that when the poor wretch at
tempted to escape from the mob they
thrust him back into the flames with
pitchforhs. and the Apaches could not
have invented more terrible death.
Coatesville Is only about forty miles
distant from Philadelphia. the City
of Brotherly Love-" and was probably
n station on the old Underground Rail
road; It Is certainly in the heart OF
one of the great States, which boasts
OF the civilization OF its people, Its
churches and Sunday Schools, It's
Young Mems Christian Associations.
its general piety and respect for Law.
The mob did its work on Sunday night.
ono of the reports representing the
people running out of the churches to
keep up with the progress of the event
II not to assist in the burning OF the
negro The funeral pile was set in
the presence of 1000 people who stood
and gazed at the fearful spectacle. and
not one man in the whole company
protested against the atrocity The
whole community is said to have STAY
ed awake the whole night expecting
trouble with the colored people, and
ready to do still further violence up
on the slightest provocation. No lynch
ing ever committed in the South was
attended by acts of greater barbarity,
and while we cannot and do not de-
fend our own crimes we can at least
point 10 this affair in Pennsylvania as
! exceeding in the art of cruelty any act
OF the mob that has stained our annals
and .brutalized US in the eyes OF tho
world
Only few years ago one OF the
most brutal lynchings in American
history was committed in Delaware.
Negroes have been slain by the mob
in New York, In Illinois, in Ohio. in
Indiana and in other Northern States
and all to the shame OF the American
people. The outrag es committed against
property, tho loose methods by which
laws are passed and justice admins
tered are beginning to have their eff
feet upon the security OF life What
will Pennsylvania do about this aw-
ful crime? Nothing. The mob which
was strong enough 10 defy the law
VIII be strong enough to defeat tie
law.
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