LYNCH LAW IN TENNESSEE.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 7264, 12 October 1891, Page 4

LYNCH LAW IN TENNESSEE.

(Continued from Uhpags.)

to the number of several hundred hara sworn to revenga the death of John Bell, and hare left their itilli and fields and, armed with riflei and llbarally supplied with liquor, hare taken poiBeoflion of the region about Woll'i Greek* Ballew, old Bell, and their sympathisers are back in the mountain!, also armed, and a oonfllct between the two faotions is ineritabie. The ooronor of Polk oounty is unable to hold an inquebt, No one ii willing to serve on the jury. Polk oounty is in the extreme south-eastern oorner of Ten* neseee, remote from railroad of telegraph facilities. The women who were said by Ballew to have taken part in tha whipping were committed to gaol, but the constable was warned not to attempt to take any of them in charge under penalty of death, Bell declares that the murdoreri of his wife shall pay the penalty of their orime, even though hie daughters go to the soaffold, And he vows that if necessary he will take the law in hit own hands. He expresses no regret at the killing of his son John by Ballew, saying it was the providence of God that he should die for hii miserable conduct. ' Bell for fifty years has been an aotive member of the Hardshell Baptist churoh. He is a man of wealth and influence, and a local preacher. His infatuation for Mary Williams is said to have hastened his first wife's death. It is now reported by the people opposing him that aho did not die a natural death, but that he and Mary Williams oonspired to poison her. ,

Wolf's Creek is a litilo hara'ot in the midst of the Frog mountains on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. Its population is made up of mountaineers of more than avorage intelligence, who nro nil moro or less interested in illicit whisky. ' • Id Man' I*ell h is for many years been the patiiuch of this community, tho leader of many n midnight foray which loft tho dead body of a United States marshal as a warning to others who might a&tempt to disturb tho serenity of the moonshiners' occupation Bcll'u wife died on March 18. He seemed crazed with grief then, but though he has passed his alloted three score years and ten, three weeks later he led to the altar Mavy Williams a handsomo mountain lass of 17 summers. His family protested, his daughters raged, his sons fumed, but ' Old Man ' Bell asserted his right to do as ho pleased. Mary Williams, though young, was not above repioach, and tho Bell family determined to diivo her away, She scorned their throats, and clung closer to hor stalwart husband. Ono day about tho middlo of last month, a few women induced Mary to go with them into tho woods in search of strnwbemes. When half a mile from her house- Maiy found herself surrounded Ih sixty masked women and a few men. A committco disrobed hor, nnd whilo her screams awoko only tho echoes from the sunounding rocks, tied her to a troc. Then the stepdaughtcis, the old man's three girls, administered alternately 100 lashes. Beforo tho last was given Mary had fainted away and j the bluod was flowing freely from her mangled flesh Whon she wai curlifd home 'Old Man' Bell becamo furious ts mong tho men present at the whipping was John Ballcw, who gave Bell the names of sorao of the women, nnd the old man swore out a warrant for their arrest, but before the trial at tho just ice's office his wife died, shrieking with ogony. Tho mountaineers approved of the whipping, and deter mined to make an example of John Hallow. After filling up on 'moonshine' whisky, forty of them went to Ballew's house, lie heard tho diunkon mob before it reached his cabin and w.is prepaicd to receive it with his Winchester. • Come out, you white-livered scoun • drcl !' yelled John Bell. Bang ! and Boll fell dead from Ballew's first) shot. Bill Bell, Hiram xMartin, and John Johnston wore mortally wounded, and o hera were wounded before 'he crowd retreated. Craig Miles, of the Ducktown Koporter, wrote an account of the affair. Twenty or thirty of tho Bell party, armed with Winchesters, rode into Ducktown with tho avowed purpose of killing Miles, who was compelled to flee from the town. Tho Bell faction and their sympathisers (Go?Uinued on \ut Page.)