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“THAT FOURFOLD MISSISSIPPI HORROR”
Dear Brother Upshaw:
A copy of one of the most choice periodi
cals in all the land lies before me. It is The
Golden Age of February 27, containing a very
forceful article on “That Fourfold Mississippi
Horror.” Allow me to say in the outset that
1 love the editor, and am always glad to me -t
him, for he stirs my heart and helps my life
and I never miss an opportunity to hear him
in his “cyclone” utterances against Satan and
his diabolical sins. How you did stir our hearts
before the legislature in Jackson on the nefar
ious business of the devilish whiskey traffic.
I only wish we could have you for a whole
year in the Magnolia State to thunder against
the demoniacal bulwarks or the “blind tiger”
and every form of alcoholism. I love to read
after you, for you use a healthful, heartful,
helpful quill filled with your own rich, racy,
red blood.
It is not my purpose in what I shall write
to criticise unjustly any statement of facts,
nor to take issue with you in the main upon
your forceful deliverance on “mob law,” which
find a hearty response in my very soul. But
as a resident pastor and citizen of Houston,
being on the ground and knowing the facts
and conditions better than hundreds of
miles from the awful scene, I wish in a modest,
dispassionate, yet in a frank way, to say just
a few things.
First, as to Houston and the personnel of
her citizenship. Houston is an old and, until
some ten years ago, interior village, twenty
miles from any railroad, but now a thriving
town of 1,500 to 2,000 people, and two rail
roads.- She has been noted all these years for
churches, schools, wealth, industry and general
good standing in the state. There has gone
out from Houston more prominent lawyers,
judges, congressmen, educators, financiers and
leaders of men than from most any other town
in the state. Houston once bore the distinc
tion of having one of the best legal bars to be
found. We have a strong bar here now of nine
strong lawyers and they are all honorable, tal
ented, Christian gentlemen, and I have the
honor of being pastor of six of them, one of
whom is a superintendent of my Sunday school.
The sheriff (a deacon), the deputy sheriff, the
mayor and the district attorney are members
of my church. So far as I know, the horrible
killing of Rev. W. T. Hudson four years ago,
down to the day and hour of the late tragedy,
“THIS CLOD LIVES.”
Dr. Talmage said he never swore an oath in
his life, but there were times when he “didn’t
“I am, 0
God! And
Surely Thou
Must Be!”
last week in the beautiful article “Springtime
and God” from the pen of our gifted corre
spondent, Miss Virginia Hargrove of Marshall
ville, Ga. “This clod lives through some high
er energy” began the quotation, and the poor
printer said “This cold lives.” z
Go back and read her article of last week
and get the lofty quotation in full: “This clod
lives through some higher energy; for from
itself alone it could not be. I am, 0 God, and
surely thou must be!”
feel very devotional.” If such
a feeling ever does come to a
thinker of thoughts and a writer
of ideals it is when the “printer’s
devil” makes some shocking mis
take like the one which occurred
The Golden Age for March 27, 1913
for which the negro was hanged to which you
refer, is the first event of the kind that ever
happened in Houston. I cite these things that
the readers of The Golden Age may get some
thing of the history of the town and charac
ter of her peopie, and that they may not con
clude that Houston is made up of barbarians
and savages, for those who sanctioned and took
part in the lynching represented only a small
per cent of her citizenship.
Second. As to the facts of the tragedy.
At the noon hour on February 6, Mr. J. C.
Williams, deputy chancery clerk of Chickasaw
county, went to his newly established home for
his dinner expecting his beautiful, bright-eyed
bride of only a few weeks to meet him at
the door with her usual greeting and words
of good cheer, but the raven of disappointment
met him instead. He opened the door and
went in, but seeing the shades all pulled down
and receiving no answer to his call of love, he
went to a nearby phone and called her mother,
Mrs. Farr. Receiving the answer, “No, Bessie
is not here,” he rushed back to his little home
carrying a neighbor lady with him, and after
investigation, found his heart-love in the cellar
under the kitchen horribly mutilated, dead!
Within a short while the dogs were put to
work and soon trailed up a negro. An inves
tigating trial was immediately instituted, con
ducted by Mayor Parker and Justice of the
Peace Blair, which was continued till after mid
night, and upon the evidence of two negro
women who testified under oath he was pro
nounced “guilty of the crime charged,” and
was hanged. On the following day (Saturday)
another negro confessed to the crime. Dis
trict Attorney R. 11. Knox had his court ste
nographer take the confession. The town by
this time was full of men from over the coun
try, hundreds having, come in on the trains,
and soon the air was rife with “Burn him!
Burn him!” Sheriff Harrington and District
Attorney Knox conferred with Gov. Brewer,
who said to tell the people he would call a
special court and grant an immediate trial.
Mr. Knox made a telling speech, at the close
of which he asked that all who were opposed
to “burning” to hold up their hands, and at
least three-fourths voted in', the affirmative.
In the meanwhile, the fuel was being prepared
and at 2:30 p. m. the negro was led to the
stake and torch applied. While no punishment
ever so severe could be meted out commensu-
GOV. NORTHEN PASSES AWAY.
Just as we are ready to close our forms the
sad news (comes that Ex-Governor William J.
Northen, of Georgia, has been call
ed from his home in Atlanta to
the Christian’s “Home of the
Soul.” It is impossible here to
give more than a passing notice
to the death of this great and
good man. As governor of Geor
gia, president of the Georgia Bap-
Georgia’s
Noble
Christian
Statesman
Dies In
Triumph.
tist Convention, president of the Southern and
National Baptist Conventions, a leader in ev
ery worthy work for God and man, and the
fearless, faithful friend of the Christian up
lift of the negro race, William J. Northen
came as near filling the full measure of Chris
tian manhood and usefulness as any man we
have ever known. And few public men in this
rate with the crime, yet the larger part of
the citizenship was loathe to see the return of
the days of the “burning of Negro,’’and I think
I could count on my two hands the citizens
who in any way encouraged it. There were
enough, however, controlled by the same feel
ing that seized you for the moment (for you
say “We confess as we read the murderer’s
recital of shocking details the first impulse
came to join the mob”), that morbid thirst
for sordid vengeance to make interference
hazardous, and the quiet submission to the in
evitable perhaps prevented a general riot and
much bloodshed. There was no semblance at
any time of a “race riot” as was heralded by
a certain Georgia paper, but on the contrary
the most substantial negroes expressed them
selves as anxious for justice to take its course.
Third. As to the charge of “Fair feminine
barbarism.” You state, “Private letters tell
us that fair women, that beautiful school girls
in Mississippi have been heard to say: 'Oh,
well, of course, it seems bad that that innocent
negro was hung at Houston, but then the town
is better off without him.” Now I don’t know
who are the authors of those letters, nor who
nor when the “girls” are who gave out such
utterances—if they did, which I very much
doubt—but I unhesitatingly resent any asser
tion or implied suggestion that such “fair wo
men” or “school girls” represent the woman
hood of Mississippi.
Fourth. As to the mass meeting and disor
derly saloons. On Sunday afternoon following
the tragedy, at my own instigation, I made a
call for a “mass meeting of men only” and
about 300 men met at the Baptist church. Af
ter addresses from some of the leading citizens
on the betterment of the town, a committee
was appointed to draft a set of resolutions,
which they presented to a like number of men
on the following Tuesday.
As to the “disorderly saloons,” it may be
of interest even to Georgians to know that
there has not been a saloon in Houston for
25 years.
I close by again saying that I endorse your
position on mob voilence, and appreciate your
sympathy for “poor mob-ridden Houston.”
Asking your further sympathies, prayers and
help in the future, I am,
Yours for law and order,
G. W. RILEY,
Houston, Miss. Pastor Baptist Church.
generation or any other made his life count
so vitally for God - and His 'cause.
To his stricken wife and daughter, his
church, his state, and the nation, we offer the
condolence born of tender friendship and love.
Esther Ferrall’s Experiment.
Mrs. O. S. Paynes beauti
fully bound, fascinating story
and The Golden Age one
year, $2.25. Write to
day. Address 13 Moore
Bldg., Walton Street, Atlanta,
Ga.
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