The weekly soliphone., 1917-05-24
INFURIATED MOB CUTS HEART
 OUT OF NEGRO; SLAIN GIRLS MOTHER URGES CRUEL METHOD
Continued From First Page)

without parallel in the history of the south. The approximate hour and place of the lynching were ad- vertised widely, but the organized forces of law and order, operating through the medium of the courts, dared not say nay to the outraged community in which Antoinette Rappel lived.
 Yet throughout the entire pro- ceedings there was perfect order. Leaders in the execution pact time and again implored the hundreds of men so eager to lay hands upon the negro not to shoot. The crowd was dominated completely by the com mittee which had planned and ex- ecuted the capture of the black slayer from the state authorities, and none offered violence not coun- tenanced by the summary court. Persons went to his death terri fled beyond the power of expres- sion. His animal eyes rolled and shifted unceasingly, and he ire quently moistened his parched lips, through which speech was scarcely audible, but he did not finch when led to the funeral pyre nor cry out when the oil flames surged over his body.
 | His death was almost instantane- ous The negro drank deep of the first sheet of flame and smoke, and relaxed upon his hellish couch. When the body had been burned Isufficient to satisfy the lust of the executioners, one man in the crowd cut out the negro's heart, two oth- CTS cut off his ears, while another hacked off his head.
 In his dying statement to the crowd at the lynching Persons con- fessed his own guilt, but shunted part of the blame of the fiendish crime upon. two other negroes, De- Witt Ford, a deaf and dumb wood chopper, and Dan Armstrong, whom "The Dummy previously had ac- cused of implication in the murder
 There was an instant cry for the lives of the other two negroes, and many in the crowd yelled pledges to the school girls mother that they would be burned.
 Leaders counselled against anoth- or Ivpobipo bowavar bocauca tbay did not place full credence in the dying words of Persons, whom they knew had lied in other respects. They professed to believe that Arm strong might know something of the crime, but were inclined to let the courts define his guilt. Few believed that "The Dummy" was guilty of implication.
 Nevertheless, some of the more radical members of the mob slipped away in autos to find Armstrong Iand Ford in the vicinity of the Ma tional cemetery. They succeeded eventually in locatingT both. Arm strong was taken before the com mittee, but was released after he Istoutly maintained his innocence. Il CROWDS WATCH THROUGHOUT
 NIGHT.
 Fifteen hours had elapsed from the time Persons was seized from officers at Potts Camp until he was delivered into the hands of the mob at the scene of his crime. Many in the crowd, especially those who had stood vigil near the bridge for nearly 24 hours, were impatient to put an end to the negro.
 Shortly before midnight Monday might the Commercial Appeals car of reporters sped through the witches night to the execution grounds. Storm clouds which had released a torrent of rain were driv- en across the sky before chill wind. Branches of trees. wet and dripping, bowed and danced gro testquely against the starry portion of the cleared heavens. fulIN 0UU CUTS lIOIH MeHipilo anu the surrounding country were park ed on each side of the Macon road for a mile or more from the bridge. II A long, lank countryman, who Iflourished a pistol menacingly, su- perintendent the parking of each arriving auto.
 Keep the roadway clear" he yelled at intervals. ''If you don't II keep in line I'll shoot you in line" II large group of men and wo- men were stationed at the Wolfang residence, mile from the bridge, and men stood in small crowds all the way along the Wolf river levee. At the end of the bridge, few feet from the spot where the girl was killed, a wood fire burned duly and threw out weird reflec- tions.
 |l Hundreds of men gathered at the bridge waited expectantly for the arrival of the committee with the negro. They spoke freely of the