Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-12
MOB RULE EPIDEMIC
Busy Season for Lynchers and
Wou|d-Be Lynchers.
SOME SUCCEED; SOME FAIL
In One Case Girls Plea Saved As.
sailant From Vengeance.
JURIES FAIL TO CONVICT
Men Charged With Lynchings in
Pennsylvania and South Caro-
lima Are Set Free.
SOME SUCCEED; SOME FAIL
JURIES FAIL TO CONVICT

| NEW YORK October IA posse of
2O0 men, led by a squad of police and a
detachment of United States soldiers
| from Fort Hamilton, secured the woods
in the vicinity Of Bay Ridge. Brooklyn.
! early today in search of a man who last
night attacked Miss Agnes Waugh in a
| field near her home, and after fearful
| struggle left her in a dying condition by
the roadside. The girl is nineteen years
old, and was on her way home from her
place of employment in New York when
the attack occurred.
| Twenty policemen led the search, which
lasted all through the night, and was con-
tinued afresh this morning. Police dogs
were also employed, but no clue of value
had been discovered up to an early hour
today
| Miss Waugh, who is in a. semi-conscious
condition in the Norwegian Hospital in
Brooklyn. described her aSailant as a
foreigner of medium height. but pro-
digious strength. She believes that she
disfigured him so badly by scratching him
| about the face and hands that he can be
easily identified when seen. The girls in
juries include a fractured skull and more
| than a hundred bruises and Commissions.
Mob scours Countryside.
SHREVEPORT. La. October IAN
armed posse Of more than 100 men, in
| Guiding every available member of the
police and sheriff's force. 10 hunting the
countryside for the negro assailant of
Miss Florence Ashford. aged twenty, a
pretty telephone operator. who was
found choked almost into insensibility in
| a vacant lot near her home late yester-
day.
Saved by Girls Plea.
COATESVILLE, Pa, October 12-The
vigorous protest against mob violence
made by Miss Amy McElhaney saved her
alleged negro assailant, Thomas Har-
| mon, from probable lynching at the
! hands Of an angry mob of 700 men who
threatened to storm the court house here
yesterday.
After the seyenteen-yea girl had
identified Harmon. and while the pre-
| liminary hearing was on before District
| Attorney Robert S. Gawthrop, the mob
began to press toward the doors of the
county building. There were violent
mutterings and vehement threats of a
fate that awaited Harmon when Miss
McElhaney walked out to face the angry
villagers.
Behind the address delivered by the girl
to mob bordering on infuriation lies a
story of pleadings for hours by District
Attorney Gawthrep.' The girls father de-
|
tice-the kind accorded horse thiefs in
the old frontier days.
Pleaded With Father.
Miss McElhaney enlisted immediately in
the cause of the district attorney and ex-
planned to her father how the lives of
numbers Of Coatesville's residents would
be placed in Jeopardy should they be
goaded on to taking the life of the negro
in the manner contemplated.
WEST CHESTER, Pa, October 12.-At
the moment that Miss Annie McElhaney
was pleading with mob at Gainesville
not to lynch her negro assailant jury
in the Chester county court house here
was acquitting William Gilbert and AL
bert Berry of a charge of murder in con-
nection with the burning August 13 at
Gainesville of Zack Walker
Drives Off Assailants.
BUTLER, Pa, October PA posse was
organized here last night to hunt two ne
groes who attacked Mrs Thomas Wat
son, a bride of twenty-five, in the home
of her husband, a farmer, early yester-
day afternoon.
Mrs. Watson was able to ward off the
negroes when they attacked her. She
snatehed up dOuble-barreled shotgun.
The contents of one barrel she discharged
into the thigh Of one negro. who limped
away bowling Seeing his companion
wounded the other black man tried to es-
cape Mrs Watson fired over his head
as he disappeared around a corner of the
house.
May Have Been Innocent.
CARUTHERSVILLE, No., October H.
An Infatuated mob that battered down
| the doors of the city Jail here dragged
| forth two negroes-A. Il. Richardson and
Ben Woods-and lynched them in the
public square
The negroes pleaded pitfully. declaring
they were innocent OF having attacked
white girls Disregarding the protests of
| the sheriff. who said q mistake might
| have been made in the arrest of the men,
| both negroes were strung up.
Lynchers Go Free.
"Met death at the hands of parties I'M
| KNOWN" Is the substance of a verdict
rendered by coroner's jury that inves-
| tigated the lynching OF Willis Jackson.
This decision was rendered In the face
of Sheriff J. p Poole's startling asser-
| ton that Joshua Ashley. member of the
legislature and mentioned for Congress.
| led the mob that took Jackson from the
| sheriffs guards.
| Sheriff Poole said that he and his men
| were pursued in automobiles for seventy
| miles Monday night by the mob which
| declared Jackson to be the assailant of a
| white girl and promptly lynched him.
| Gov Blease took no action to prevent
| the lynching, though at the coroner's in
vestigation it was stated he had ample
| time to do so. In following this course
| Gov Blease has adhered to his announced
| determination not to call out the militia
| to save from mob violence a negro guilty
| of attacking n white woman.
When JacksOn's body was cut down to-
day il was found that his fingers and toes
| had been cut off as souvenirs.