SOCIETY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES OF AMERICA.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 525, 29 May 1869, Page 4

SOCIETY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES OF AMERICA.

Southern society in the remoter districts appears to be in a very disorganised state, an(l General Grant will have, hie hands full of this difficult business on his advent to power. We find a very able cirticle in the Yarh Tribune, which sheds a painful degree of light on the social condition of Texas. '( To give you an idea of the state of things here," writes this correspondent, "I need only refer to !Baker and Bickerstaff, ihe outlaws,. They are leaders of small parties of desperadoes, and roam over the conntry committing every k^nd of depredation from the meanest to the most horrible and indis: criminate of murders." A catalogue of Baker's crimes is. then given, from which it is manifest that a more bloodthirsty ruffian never lived. Later accounts report that Baker had been killed by a man whose life he had attempted to take several weeks previously, He left his iutended victim for dead, but the latter fortunately recovered, and was the instrument by which justice at last overtook the assassin. The man who shot him will receive two thousand dollars from the State of Texas, and one thousand from the State of Arkansas. The people of Jeffer-son. are in a state of great excitement consequent upon the murder of Lieutenant Smith, a retired officer in the Federal service, who had rendered himself qbnoxions to the community by the indiscreet boldness, with which he gave expression to his opinions. He was attacked by a mob who endeavored to kill him, but he defended himself with so much courage that he not only escaped unarmed, but shot two of his assailants. He then gave himself up to the commander of the troops who were stationed in the town, and he, to ensure the poor man's safety, transferred him to the public gaol. The mob, however, broke into the gaol and murdered both Lieutenant Smith arid several negroes, " who," says the correspondent, "appear to have been confined on charges mamifactured for the purpose." Murders and lynchings are the order of the day in several of the Southern States.