UNKNOWN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 207, 21 August 1908, Page 4

UNKNOWN

NINE NJiUHOES EXECUTED. THKEATENED KACE WAlt. N «w !fork, July 14. vir, e i negroos wero i ,ut to jcsteiday by a lynching mob of white "w-Mi, and as a result there seeing a prospect of a race-war over large tracts of icxas. live young negroes were hanged from a tree, and iour others were riddled with bullets. This wholesale slaughter followed the murder of two white men at Heniphilj, hi Texas 0 , ,i'g clse > ik ij declared in the despatches from Houston, Texas, to-day would have availed in repressing the blacks' 18 " ISOlence and outl «wry of the Hugh Dean, a young white farmer, on'i 1 Wed by tlie negroes and it was because t)he friends M the deceased believed that justice was being delayed that they broke down the doors of the goal in which "ix alleged negro culprits wero bein" confined, and took tlhem away to the woods, under a powerful armed escort. As they readied the place of execution a picturesque grove of oaks—the loader of the lynchers said to the trembling blacks, "Say your prayers; w<mi give von .seven miautes." The negroes fell on their knees panic-3triek-en, and began praying and cursing most excitedly.

11l the meantime tJie seven minutes had ibeen ticking off, and then u rope descended over each negro's head. One of them succeeded in detaching himself from the rope, a 11J commenced -to run, but. before he had gone 11 hundred vards a shower of bullets killed him. "

Subsequently three other negroes, all suspected of being concerned in ' the death of Jlr Dean and Mr Johnson, wore discovered and shot before midnight.

Mio scene of these promiscuous, 'slaughtering wa* laid in a focal option community. Mr Dean, a white farmer, was killed at a negro church, whither he had gone clandestinely to buy a bottle of whisky for a member of" the congregation wJio dealt in contraband, lie was shot down in the club adjoining the church, which is a rallying place for the negroes. Smce that event the friction between the two races has been very serious, and the affair was ibrought to a climax by the murder of Jfr Aaron .lohnSou in his home fast Saturday. .Johnson was lying on a cot playing with h.s baby, while Jiis wife sat near. A ehargv from a double-barrelled gun crashed through the window, and Johnson was killed immediately. The deceased man was u friend of Mr. Dean

and very active in upholding wlhites against blacks.

At tile present time, when whites and negroes are going about armed, in Sabine County, Texas, there is a chance of a moro serious fucd at anv moment, and sucli fued may expand beyond the limits of its place of origin. Amongst the while residents of the Southern States, there .seems to be general agreement that a "few good lynchings,' especially in places where Macks outnumber tire whites, would he more effective in curbing the vieiousness of the negroes Mian any number of goals and courts.