Lynch Law Horrors.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIX, Issue XII, 20 September 1902, Page 716

Lynch Law Horrors.

It is utterly impossible for any race on the face of the earth to suffer greater wrongs ait the hands of the whites than the negroes meet with in the Southern States of America. It would shock the whole civilised world if half the truth could be made known. The negro that was burned in Texas on May 22 was first tortured in the most barbarous manner. Before the fire was kindled underneath him his eyes were burned out. Burning wood was held to his neck and other- parts of his body until his clothing was burned off. He was gashed with knives, and tortured until his head drooped. Then the fire was started by the husband of the woman who claimed that the negro had assaulted her. The ' poor wretch’s sufferings were horrible, while he •begged piteously, “Please, Mr white man, shoot me!” There were several thousand persons present ; some newspapers say seven thousand. The whites clamoured for the tortures to be prolonged, but they were ended by the death of the victim in thirty-five minutes. Six other negroes have been burned within a few months, and were similarly tortured. These lynching “picnics” are becoming common. Whait can be the effect of taking

children to such scenes of cruelty? The sufferings of-the negroes in isolated convict camps in the South are also terrible. One convict has been put to death with red-hot irons. Everything possiMe to be said and written against the negroes is concocted, so as to influence white opinion against them. A well-educated negro physician said the other day, “Our whole race is judged of by what a few ignorant vicious negroes do!” Every act of a bad negro is exaggerated in the newspapers; while, at the same time, he may not ‘be half as guilty as the whites around him.