Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-06-04
FOUR WHITE BOYS
 AWAIT EXECUTION
North Shows None of the Anxiety Manifested Over Gilchrfst.
(By A. w, Parke.)

Little Rock, June 4.-In three short years a wonderful change has come lover the people residing north of the
 Mason-Dixon line. Less than that
 number of years ago nine-tenths of |the daily papers of the north were |contributing unlimited space to ad- |vertising the alleged fact that "Arkan-
 sas was to legally murder negro boy" Today, with four white boys in
 the shadow of the electric chair at the Arkansas penitentiary, not word is said by our northern friends in their behalf Earl Gilchrist, an overgrown negro youth, in spirit of revenge, and with the wantonness of savage, murdered a playmate. He was convicted and |sentenced to hang. The northern papers took up the fight, and thou sands of letters poured in daily on Gov. G. w. Donaghey. The result was that the sentence of Gilchrist was [commuted, and he was sent to the Lpenitentiary for life, where he has lsince gained an unenviable reputation
 as an unruly convict. | None of the sentiment lavished on a lnegro is to be found or expressed for Ithe four bright-faced white boys who | are soon to be executed for murder Ilunless executive clemency is shown. EFour handsome, yet unfortunate boys, Hall sons of good mothers, look through | the barred windows of the death cells lat the Arkansas penitentiary, recelv- Hing but few words of cheer, at time Iof life when they should be prepared for life work.
 E Arthur Dewein, runaway youth |from East St. Louis, occupies death Icell with Arthur Tillman, twice con- |.victed of the murder of his sweet heart, Amanda Stephens. Both boys are frank of countenance, have pierc
 | ing black eyes and coal black hair. No one would look at these beardless youths and suspect they had commit
 ted murder, or that it would be pos sible for them to. DeWein has con- fessed that he took part in the mur- der of an aged merchant at Benton. A boy not used to the hardships of the world, thrown on his own resources. consented to rob tn emerchant, and in l the act, the old man was struck on the head and killed. Tillman is charged with murdering his sweet heart by shooting her in the head and
 then weighting the body and casting ! it in a we'll. The emost damaging evil dence against him was that of a neighbor who testified to seeing Till man go to the we'll at night and look over it's brink. Tillman claims the crime was committed by married | man in the vicinity, to cover another crime of which he was guilty: The jury evidently believed the witness and not the youth, yet it does seem as though there is sufficient element of doubt to spare the life of the boy and leave it to later years to unravel the mystery. It would be rather sad affair for Tillman if in later years a deathbed confession would remove from him the stain of guilt, and Till man had been executed for the crime. 70 Arthur Hodgins, red-headed, freckle faced, and possessing all the energy ! of the country youth. Hodgins just grew up." Like. Topsy, he lacked the l guiding hand of a mother. He never knew what motherly love Is, and l from early childhood he was forced l to shift for himself. It is claimed that 1 he was afflicted with mental afflic- | tion, and this did not add to his l chances of success. About a year l ago he got into trobule for some tri- val offense against the peace and | dignity of the Clarke county vicinity | in which he resided. He was arrest l ed and on the way to jail, jerked a revolver from the pocket of the of ficer and killed him. No one has petitioned from the far north, or from the state either,s for the commu- 1 tation of Hodgins' sentence.
 Joe Strong, the swarthy little cell mate of Hodgins, was convicted of | the murder at Benton, for which Dewein was also sentenced to death. | He is all boy, effervescent, cheerful and boisterOus. Even the close proximity of the electric chair does not get upon his nerves as it does l upon the other three of the Quartette.