LYNCH LAW.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1926, 6 August 1889, Page 4

LYNCH LAW.

CONEMAUGH TRAGEDIES. Here is a vivid picture of the ghastly scenes, only partially reported, which took place after the flood. A number of Hungarians collected about a number of bodies at Cambria which had been washed up and began rifling the trunks. After they had secured all the contents, they turned their attention to the dead. The ghastly spectacle presented byithe distorted features of: those who had lost their lives during the flood had no influence upon the ghouls, who acted more like wild beasts than human beings. 'hey took every article from the clothing on the dead bodies, not leaviug anything of value or anything that would serre to identify the remains. CUTTING OFF "WOMEN'S EAES AND FINGERS. It being reported that three men were going along the banks stealing the jewels from the bodies of the dead wives and daughters of men who had been robbed of all they' had dear on earth, five burly men, with looks of terrible determination written 00. their faces, started at once for the scene of plunder, one with a coil of rope over his shoulder and. another with a revolver in his hand. In twenty minutes, so, it is ■ stated, they had overtaken two of the wretches, who were then in the act of cutting pieces from the ears and fingers from the hands of the bodies of two dead women. THE BETJTES AT BAT. yfitfi t revolver levelled at the scoundrels the leader of the posse shouted : " Throw up your hands, or I'll blow your heads off!" With blanched faces and trembling forms they obeyed the order and begged for mercy. They were searched, and as their pockets were emptied of their ghastly finds the indignation of the crowd intensified, and when a, bloody finger of an infant, encircled with two tiny gold rings, was found among the plunder in the leader's pocket, a cry went up," Lynch them! lynch them! " Without a moment's delay ropes were thrown around their necks and they were dangling to the limbs of a tree, in: the branches of which an hour before were entangled the bodies of a dead father and son. It is added that an Alleghany County official wss one of the most prominent actors in this justifiable homicide. TEE 'MISOEEANTS FIGHT OVEB THEIE SPOILS, After the miscreants had removed all their plunder to dry ground a dispute arose over a , division of the spoils. A pitched.battle followed, and for a,time the situation was alarming. Knives and clubs were used freely. As a result several of the combatants were seriously wounded and left on the ground, their fellow-countrymen not making any attempt to remove them from the field of strife. HOW THE FIENDS WE BE LYNCHED. ihe way of the transgressor in the desolated-valley of the Conemaugh is hard indeed. Each hour.reveals some Bew and horrible story of suffering and outrage, and every succeeding hour brings news of swift and merited punishment meted out to the fiends who have dared to desecrate the stiff and mangled corpses in the city of the dead, and torture the already halfcrazed victims of the cruellest of modern catastrophes. Just as the shadows began to fall upon the earth last ""evening a party of thirteen Hungarians were noticed stealthily picking their way along the banks of the Conemaugh toward Sang Hollow. Suspicious of their purpose, several farmers armed themselves and started in pursuit. Soon their most horrible fears were realised. Ihe Hungarians were out for plunder. Lying upon the shore they came upon the dead and mangled body of a woman, upon whose person there were a number of trinkets of jewellery and two diamond rings. In their eagerness to secure

the plunder, the Hungarians got into a squabble, during which one of the number severed the finger upon which were the rings and started on a run with his fearful prize. The revolting nature of the deed so wrought upon the pursuing farmers, who by this time were close at hand, that they gave immediate chase. Some of the Hungarians showed fight, but, being outnumbered, were compelled to flee for their lives. Nine of the brutes escaped, but four were literally driven into the surging river and to their death.