The weekly soliphone., 1915-08-20
(BY GRIFFIN SMITH)

hysteria-those who attempted te
recruit their flock by the simple
process of talking fear into the
hearts of sinners by painting lurid
pictures of the devil with a forked
tail and double-decked horns
could find much material of a sub
stantial character in the Jail at
Osceola with which to recharge
their visions of the wicked and the
damned Without stretching the
imagination beyond the bounds OF
propriety, they could see in the
Kentons, the Pattersons, Dave
Hearne, J. A. Osborne, Red
Thompson and all the others who
were taken when the Dragnet OF
Righteous Indignation swept over
Island Thirty-seven, all of the re-
pulsive physical and mental de-
formities which are so freely and
gratuitous passed around by Sin in
his regular occupation of marking
those with whom he comes in close
communion. With the ability to
correctly impart to others impress
sions gained by even casual OBJ
servation of these human degener-
ates it would be task of easy at
tainment for minister bent upon
flashing the ghost of horror before
his hearers to substitute real con-
dition for an imaginary one and
tell how the keepers of these dives
on Island Thirty-seven now stand
cringing, whining and begging at
the bar of justice, destroyed ment-
ally, morally and physically-so
palpably marked by the unmistaka-
BILE signs of sexual disease that
they are not even fit subjects for
prison material where an associa-
with other criminals is made nee
essary. If all could be huddled to-
gether-white men. negro men
black wenches and white degener-
ates and together cast into the in
fernal melting pot, you could ex-
pect to see the finished product APP
pear in the form of Beelzebub him
self, sardonic, imperial in his COM
mand over hell.
Andy Crum,
The Proprietor
Andy Crum, around whom flock
ed these cogs in his machine OF de-
bauchery, is dead. In another
sphere must he answer for all the
crimes he has committed, for the
heartaches he has occasioned, for
the immoral atmosphere he has
created along the environs of the
Mississippi river adjacent to the
Osceola district; for the human
lives he has blighted and for the
corrupt motives he has planted in
the hearts of the susceptible negro
element and the low-bred whites
who answered to his beck and call.
1t may be that justice was handled
rather carelessly when a dozen cit
liens of the county that elected
Sam Mauldin to enforce its laws
entered the Jail last week and shot
to death this breeder of shame and
corruption. Mob violence cannot
be excused upon any defensible
ground, but certain it is that if
the Tennessee authorities, instead
of making unjust and unreasonable
and unlawful demands of Missis-
sippi county, had pledged their
good offices to the assistance OF
the citizenship of their neighbor
across the river; had the Memphis
Commercial Appeal sent staff cor
respondent to the bleeding city to
ascertain facts instead of publish
ing incorrect details supplied by a
Covington correspondent; had
Clyde Going not been employed to
appeal to Judge Youmans for a
federal writ of habeas corpus with
the expressed view of robbing Mis-
sissippi county of the constitution
ally-bestowed privilege of trying
within her own borders the plum
derers of her own manhood and
womanhood and her citizenship
If these things had not been flash
ed before the minds of the indig-
nant people of Osceola, Andy Crum
would have been alive today and
his trial before an impartial jury,
sworn to return verdict according
to law and evidence, would have
begun in that city tomorrow.
1t is just bit easier to understand
how passion can spread and be-
come uncomfortable in such in
stances if attention is called to the
fact that condition in measure