POPULAR JUSTICE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1052, 23 March 1882, Page 4

POPULAR JUSTICE.

A most exciting incident is reported in the American papers. A murder took place somewhere in Kentucky, and the mob showed signs of taking the law in their own hands. Getting wind of this the authorities determined to send the murderers to Marysville for safe keeping, but the lynchers took a steamer and went in -pursuit. So much interest was evinced in the chase, that bulletins, as they may be called, were telegraphed from every station on the route, and a vivid description of the varying incidents of the hue and cry is thus afforded. One of theeailicr ones significantly says : " It is thought the prisoners may reach Marysville another, “The prisoners reached here at 2 p.m.; the mob are understood to be trying to head off the murderers at Portsmouth, or the nearest point below,” and so on. Finally the lastscene is told in a despatch from a place called Vanceburg:—The steamer Mountain Boy arrived here at halfpast two this afternoon with the Ashland fiends on board, expectingto reach their destination, the Marysville Gaol, about midnight. Word was received that a train loaded with lynchershad started from Ashland, and was expected at any time. Fearing the mob, the Mountain Girl, which was lying at the wharf, was chartered to convey' the prisoners to Marysville. While the Girl was raising steam, a train from Ashland rolled iu with about 500 determined Regulators on board. The sheriff, with a parly of ten guards, by an adroit movement removed the prisoners from the gaol to the wharf; but as soon as the crowd saw the prisoners they started down the bank with loud yells of indignation, gathering arms and missiles ready lor an assault. The sheriff, seeing the mob descending, the Girl not having steam up, boarded the ferry' boat w it,h his party, and ran down the stream. ’1 he mob crowded on the Girl, cut her loose, and commenced a determined chase. The Girl not having sufficient steam, soon fell behind, but in a short time she got into shape, and commenced gaining rapidly on the slow ferry, and in a short lime approached so closely lhalj a caplure seemed imminent. But, fortunately for the fiends, the Mountain Boy nas a faster vessel than the Girl, and approached the scene on her regular trip up from Ashland to Louisa. She was hailed by the sheriff, pressed into service, and the party rapidly transferred to her. When the transfer had been successfully made, the Girl, biack with an excited, raging, and howling mob, wa> right on their heels, and the chase was resumed; but the Boy, flying fight, soon distanced her. Near Ashland, the Hudson, with the Kentucky Militia, was met in mid-stream, .and Captain A. C. Respass, of the Mason County Guards, and 25 men were transferred to the Boy, and took charge of the prisoners.