The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-20

had taken Frank from the prison and
 lynched him sometime between 10 and
 II o'clock that night. was shocked
 beyond measure by the information.
 q had been working through five
 days following the legislatures ad
 journment, reading and signing bills.
 with very little cessation, night or day for the whole five days and was com
 pletely exhausted. Nevertheless imme-
 diate effort was made to get in com
 municaiion with the sheriff of Bald
 win county but the lines being down
 no information could be obtained. The
 sheriffs in several counties along the
 route, which 1t was believed the mob
 was travelling, were notified to keep a sharp lookout for the party. The sher- ifs of Putnam. Morgan, Newton. Rock dale, Fulton and Cobb counties were notified.
 "It is now understood, however. from the subsequent events. that the party with Frank had passed north about an hour and a half before the county au- thorities on the road were reached. Near daybreak I was called by Col onel Haas. one of the lawyers of Frank, who stated that he had just received a message to the effect tha t Frank was lynched between Milledge- vile and Macon and said that an agent of the Central of Georgia rail-
 road at some point had given him his information.
 Postponed Journey
 q had an engagement to go to Fitz- gerald to the old soldiers reunion on Tuesday morning, but when I heard of
 the lynching decided to postpone the journey. At o'clock. however, I tried again by telephone and found that 1t was generally believed that the pris- | oner had been lynched sometime be- fore and so I finally decided to go on to Fitzgerald. directing my secre- 1 taries to keep in touch with me all the way over the road. so that should the occasion arise, I might issue any nec- essarv orders instanter. Adjutant Gen | eral Nash had been duly notified and I was ready to take appropriate steps l to control the militia if the word had 1 been received.
 l "The public is advised of the unfor- tunatc and tragic result
 1 "I have found on inquiry of the | prison commission that Frank was still l in the hospital, confined to the sim gle room where he had been kept since tine attempt upon his life by William
 Green. He had not been taken into the | common quarters, but was in confine- | nent in the hospital, which, though
 under the same roof with the prison
 is separated from 1t by partitions and passageways extending through the l building. .
 l There Is no man in the bounds Of
 the state that regrets more deeply than 1 do this unfortunate occurrence. 1 l shall do all in my power to discover and bring to justice the perpetrators 1 believing that the people at large dc I not justify the wave of lawlessness l that seems to be spreading throughout l the state. Mob law should never talk C ] the place of statute law. There will be
 no safety to life. liberty or property 1 until this is recognized by our people. l Tt was especially distressing to- me l because the attack was made upon the states own prison, built not to resist the violence of>its citizens outside. but
 to keep in confinement the weak and helpless convicts who were unfit foi
 service in the chain gang of the coun- l ties"
 Urge Thorough Investigation | Atlanta, August 19.-The board of direc