Newspaper Page Text
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u uu \ u
Convicted Murderers of the Hodges
Family Die in Horrible Agony.
MILITIA POWERLESS
Reed and Cato Forcibly
Taken From Jail by a
Mob, Lashed to a
Tree and Cre~
mated.
At Statesboro Ga. Tuesday after
will Cato aa.1 Paul Reel, two
ike principals in the horrible murder
and burning of Henry Hodges, wife
and three of their children, six miles
from Statesboro, three weeks ago,
were burned at the stake.
With their clothing saturated with
kerosene, writhing and twisting in
their agony, screaming to heaven for |
mercy that the mob would not show, j
the two victims died within a few min-j
ntes after the flames started. ;
Shortly after the noon hour a deter
mined mob charged upon the court j
house, overpowered the military mob, I
secured Cato and Reed, who had been j
found guilty after a legal trial, and
sentenced to he hanged, took them two
miles from Statesboro, and there exe
cuted the fearful penalty.
The forenoon passed quietly, the
trial of Paul Reid, the ring leader in
(he murder, being concluded and a ver
dict of guilty rendered. Sentence was
Imposed upon both him and Will Caro,
sentenced the day before, and Septem
ber 9 was fixed as the date for the
execution txtcuuon.
Vp to the hour of noon there was
no intimation that so soon was to be
enacted the terrible climax. In the
trial of Reid, little delay was caused,
and upon its conclusion the prisoners,
as before, were hustled into the wit
ness room, where a strong guard of
military was placed over them.
In the corridors. the agitation be
gan. The spectators left the court
room, and from the lawn outside many
ent entered ere ;1 the me hallwavs uau\>a.>s. Phortlv -uumj before
10 o’clock the crowd was addressed by
a tall man, who seemed to inflame it
greatly. He called on those about him
to follow him.
With fixed bayonets, but unloaded
rifles, the guards stood. The mob IUUU
surged toward them, but were repuls
ed several times.
Before the mob could be prevented,
they had caught two of the guards,
wrested their weapons from them and
thrown open the breech blocks. The
weapons were empty.
That was what the crowd wanted to
ascertain, The troops had been given
orders not to load their rifles.
The captured soldiers w-ere held
pnsoners. The same policy was fol
lowed with others of the soldiers. Alan
after man, caught isolated was re
lieved of his rifle after a struggle.
After the mob had overpowered the
soldiers, the jail was entered and the
negroes secured. ,
The crowd numbered 500. Tliev
dragged the men along, shouting and
cheertng , . along , the , roadway . leading to
the Hodges homestead, where the fr-p
members of the family had been
dered and burned. That was their
destination, but the heat was so in
tense that the crowd wearied when
two miles of the six-mile ... route , , had ,
been traversed. Going a short ilis
tance into the woods the crowd halted,
The two negroes were made to seat
themselves on a log. They were told
That they had but a short time to live
and that they should confess.
Reid was the first to speak. He
confessed, implicating other negroes,
as he had In the court room. He de
nied, however, that he had taken an
active part in the murder.
Cato begged to be shot or hanged,
MYSTERY OF MISSING MEN CLEARED.
Skeletons of Horse and Mule Indicate
Tragic Deaths in Colorado.
The mysterious disappearance of
f^ederick Smith, of New Orleans, and
Jackson Wilson, of Nashville, Tenn..
• who suddenly dropped out of sight in
the vicinity of Divide, Colo., four years ,
ago, is believed to have been explain-'
ed by the finding on a hill near Fort
Clyde, of the, skeletons of a horse and ;
mule tied to a tree with briddles and
saddles clinging to them. It is now !
believed that the two men met death
t>y falling over some high cliff in the
vicinity.
saying that he was innocent; that he
. i ad had no part in the erime. Some
of the more humane wanted to grant j
his request, but they were in the mi
nority. The rest wanted to visit the
same death upon the negroes that
they had visited upon the Hodges fain
iiy
To a large stump twelve feet high j !
trie men were lashed , , , with ... ropes and .
trace chains. Then a wagon load of
pine wood was hauled to the spot. It 1
was piled „ , around the men and , ten
gallons of-kerosene was thrown over
thorn.
A photographer was present and the
crowd was cleared back that ho might
<- et several views <3f the men bound to
the stake and ready for the burning,
The scene which followed beggars
description. Just as the match was
applied to the pyre, one of those in |
front asked Reid didn't he want to | |
tell the truth before he died: I
“Yes, sir; I killed Mr. and Mrs. |
Hodges,” he replied.
“Who killed the children?” he wa3
asked, I
“Hapriy Bell,” came the response as
the flames leaped upwards and further
questioning was impossible in the
wild tumult. The spectacle was |
frightful, |
As the flames touched Reid’s naked
»il-s«aked skin. he twisted his head
around in an endeavor to choke him
•self and avoid the fearful torture. Only
once did he complain. He s.vd:
“r „Y ord have pifri-v j 1 ”
Cato screamed m . agony and , . begged ,
that he be shot. His heavy hair,
which was oil-soaked, was almost the
d rsT G'-mg the flames fastened on. and
sc * iming with agony, while Hie hemp
became a collar of fire around his
rteca a thrill of horror ran through
the frames of the more timid. Before
the flames had quenched Cato s life
the rope was burned in two and hts
head swung from side to side, as he
endeavored to avoid the fiery tongue,
■ Reid was the first to exhibit uncou
| sciousness. and was perhaps the first
dead. Before the flames had progress- 1 ®
e d very tar up hts . body his head sank
f or ward, and many believed that the
FOt into his lungs and killed him.
As Cato's head swung to and fro some
°f the more excited members of the
i party commenced throwing & light wood
! knots at it.
As soon as it was seen that ihe
men were dead .the crowd commenced
dispersing. A large number remained
behind, however, piling more fuel on,
until both bodies were burned .all ex
cept the trunks, Others employed
themselves in threshing out the fire,
j vhich commenced spreading along the
j dry streaks of pine needtes.
, Late in the afternoon, after the last
member of the mob had left the scene,
j hundreds of citizens who navi tn no
wise participated in the execution, re
paired to the scene and many remain
p d until long after nightfall, picking
up whatever souvenirs they could find.
r’msniniinne conspicuous among amraip the .ne crowd* crowds wan was
a number of small boys in knee pants,
j Murder „f,*u of th Hodgeu \j A R--.rv.iiv, Family.
j e n r >~.
j The murder of the Hodges family
j was probablv the most horrible ever
committed Georgia. . The family
m
consisted of Henry R. Hodges, his
j wife and three little children.
. All , , butchered , the _ night .... of
| were on
July 29th, at their home six miles
from Statesboro, and their home burn
ed.
The remains were found in the
I ruins of the home, There were blood
stains outside the building, and inves
tigation showed that Hodges, his wife
and one child had their skulls broken
apparently with an ax. There were
no signs of an assault upon the young
: er children, but they were too young
I to protect themselves from the flames.
WILL MARCH SEVEN HUNDRED MILES.
Artillery Company in Vermont to “foot It
All the Way to Manassas.
Orders haA'e been issued at the war
department for the thirty-third and
twenty-seventh batteries of field artiK
lery and two squadrons of the fifteenth
cavalry, stationed at Fort Ethan AI
len. Vermont, to march , from . that ,
point to Manassas, Ya., to take part
in the maneuvers in September, a
distance of 700 miles. It is calculated
that the trip will occupy about five '
weeks’ time. This probably is the long
est march of United States troop* to
recent times.
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE*ENTITLED,
‘ WHO ARE SONS OF COD? n
ih? Rev. Rofiert A. MacFadilen Declares
That the Four Sources of Success Are
riood, Will ot the Flesh, Will of Man
ami Goa.
r’KOOKr.v.x. X. Y. The Rev. Robert A.
V I 1C Fadden, of Danvers, Mass., preached
iav i tne Lafayette Avenue Presby
teriau t 'hi ch. In the morning his subject
- "Who Are the Sons of God?” He
.My subject is “Who Are the Sons of
God and my test John i: 13: "Which
j i ere born not of blood, or of the will of
ho flesh or or the will of man but of God. ■ }
•'ere are four sources of success set in
contrast—blood, God. will of the flesh, will of
man and At first sight they are
coua : but a second sight reveals the war
tiiat ever goes on between heredity
nnu environment on the one hand and
faith in God on the other, This contrast
implies, though does not state, that the
one true cess is spiritual success, and
■or this a secret power is to be furnished.
'o t-ne final, m | ife a victory ».' ean ? «il over the difficulties, way through and
difficulties cannot be ultimately overcome
except ' through hfe this secret power.
lA lived and every work done has
somewhere its sufficient explanation. God
has never yet permitted an accident in
H:s world. Every deed lias its pedigree,
S
j s no such thing as luck. - Every life has
hl pedigree. Young men are so apt to
[: so "jV' tUcy hance wait f P>«y® lor their the chance. Part Ihey in life, see
some one do easily the thing he under*
takes, and they leap to the belief that there
is some thick about it. If they only had
the trick they could do it, also. Such
young men need to be informed. The man
who succeeds to-day in business, scholar
ship or politics succeeds because he knows
how, and he knows how because he has
learned how. He who does not know how
is foreordained to failure. There is no
more ask important himself question i lie young • man
can than how he can prepare
lor life as not to be a castaway; “not lost
in the next world, but shipwrecked in
1 in
Cor the ratio between what a man is and
what be can do is a constant ratio. E very
man will have all the power he earns, and
the power that he has will tell, not because
people like it or like him, but because it is
power, and as such can keep elf erect
without bcins: propped up by a labor union
or held in its place because it is somebody's
son.
It follows, then, that the most import
ant inspiration thing a boy can do is to get ready, it
rs to know iLat cverv ounce of
enemy put irto work in the early vears is
S() lmK q, distinct guarantee of usefulness in
the adult years. And next to getting
!' eaiiy ’ the >Mouul le 1 ‘ !lls Hv that
be must get ready lor rough , weather. The
boy must learn to handle the boat of his
own experience if he is not to be driven
) l i ,on Gte shallow.- <>- into tne breakers. As
beset him getting out of the harbor of the
high school or the college, he is equipping
himself for the enemies that will assail
on the high seas,
John. then."here points out the pg-sime
wavs of getting ready. He asserts that
i Idoo’^AviH ofThe flesh, not or will depend of upon man,
] )ut solely upon <;od. Let me translate
thG into t he four i"s: Family, force, am
lllhllin g- K - ' a! 1 ''
I , ■ John says favst a mau s success does not
depend upon hi- family. Dr. Eyman Ab
bott has developed thi.- thought rational
ly: I hat no peojtle are great or good sim
ply because of their ancestry. "The great
ness of -America doc- not depend pritnari
ly upon its Pilgrim history." No one would
f° r » moment dispute tnisnith Imn. But
J desire to emphasize this from the domes
tic viewpoint. A maws spiritual "success,
says John, does not depend upon his fam
ily. Then it makes no difference what the
! i family, the Bible lays no stress upon hert
dity. He who says this does not know the
Bible. The Biblevlays great stress upon
heredity. When it writes the life of a
great man it begins -with his parents. The
foundations of one generation are in all
I respects laid in the antecedent generation.
Jh-e^Wen’h'iL^ IK?" 1 The
child is the parent continued down into a
new generation. This is science, and it is
: good science. But this is Scripture, and it
is good Scripture. Scripture emphasized
heredity long before• science was born.
Hannah, the mother of Moses; Elizabeth,
Mary, Lois and Eunice are all magnificent
monuments. The Christian women who
would dun licate these glorious sons must
«i-st duplicate their matchless mothers.
believers m the Bible we have an m
tprest jn hereciUy j t is the Gospel expec
tation that the children grow up bearing
the physical features of tneii- parents, so
’ emplify n t ’ me they will come to embrace and ex
the parents’ faith. That’s what
Timothy did. in whom the great apostle
! y ’°‘ L ' ed «« mucli. Heiedity is mighty, but
I . let us not think it almighty. Heredity
is
gives us tendency, hut it gives us noth
mg else. The children of good parents
take in goodness more easily than the chil
dren of bad parents. The children of edu
cated parents acquire ideas more easily
I than those of ignorant parents. The fath
er - wl, o for five and twenty years has been
i raying: " I wo times two are four, I guess
' I II make it five, gives to his baby child
: the tendency to make the same niultipli
cat ion, but the child must make the choice
j before it becomes to him a sin. How I
''.F-i. Ward Y Beeecher at 8 reat "Heredity sermon Influence” of Henrv
on
cwli - d be printed as a supplement to our
courses m ethics. ’1 hat sermon makes
: men tremble at what they may bequeath
to their children. But after all, the grace
• nes/^defnV^re Vo-/’ 01 * ** stronger than the sin of Weak- man.
choice is made by the handed individual down,' but The
j I Your spiritual himself,
! depend success, young man, does
not upon your ancestry, your her
i eddy, your fathers habits, or your tamny.
John says no man is safe simply because
| of his family.
I But it does not depend upon your per
j sonal force, which is a free translation for
' the New Testament word “flesh It
stands for the animal man. not necessarily
bud animal man. It means a strong,
vigorous force in the man himself, Now,
John say.-; this strong, vigorous force wi.l
.. his spiritual
never give a man supremacy.
**•' " u ; non-uute. rathes-^than debate, the
umj/lgm him again,-t Wm drunkenness. wdll! ’lint 1 i’^did'^not 2
p!/p Samson had a
!ou,s\areci°i,i ly ‘i'I overclirnffig' 11 /\ " as no obstacle--!^hat . match for the
vigor! What power* But in the presence
victchtiii. f'//i Inc io Rev. J e ho Artlirr Y as DinunerJdlc* T v eak , a V d
in that greatest American novel. "The
Scarlet Letter,’’ had a mighty will, but he
was lost in the presence of Hester Pryntie.
That great Irishman, greater than any
other, who ruled with a rod of iron; who
rook the miserably misunderstood prob
lem of home rule and lifted it into a cen
tral place in the world's thought; who
t lira shed the London Times; who wrought
miracies in the House of Commons, and
who lifted William E. Gladstone into the
ofliec of Prime Minister for the fourth
time; that man, at the zenith of his pow
er, ; discovered to have invaded another
rua home and The was peonle living in Great a hidden Britain and
•it way of
vore him Rom his throne, trampled his
name m the Uust . and within three months
he was laid away in his grave with a brok
tn heart As the traveler to-day walks by
in unmarked "rave in the Mt. Joy Ceme Pan
tery of Dublin, he says: "Xo, Mr.
nen. a mighty i does not make every
great man sail What shall fathers tell
their boys That a weak will is the better
for them? Xav. veruv. Great force is to
the boy what momentum is to the rifle
ball. A boy without will cannot live. He
needs every ounce he can acquire, but this
alone will not make him morally safe or
spiritually strong. The hope of a man is
not in his family, not in his force, nor vet
is it in his lurnishmgs, which I use as the
equivalent for the will of man. John says will
neither the individual nor the world
be saved by its furnishings. When Jonah
went to Xineveh, one of the reasons for
his going was tliat 120,000 people needed
education "they could.not tell their right
hand from their left. J - ,mt same cry goeE
up to-day. , Only educate , and tram; tnat
is sufficient. Your section is not so white
uashed with this system of ethical culture
a s ne others I know. But we never can
emphasize too often or too positively the
axial tenet of Christ's creed that what a
man needs primarily is not accession of
lu.dn. but a fresh heart; not illumination,
but reconstruction, the establishment m
him by grace or something that is not in
him by nature. Illumination of the brain
is never clarification of the heart. There
Mas a man in our American life who was
born of ihe best family, with a captivated personal
force t that commanded men and
women, whose furnishings could scarcely
he surpassed, and vet there has not walked
across the pages of American history a
blacker hearted vidian than Aaron Burr.
I am as far as possible from saying that
knowledge makes a man worse; my only
contention is that it has not in itself the
power of making men better. Ideas, edu- the
cation alone, can neither reconstruct
lim nor recreate ti c heart.
This is a thouginrul age; men are
brainy; all about us there is a passion necessity for
new ideas; but our most urgent What
is not of idea but, of power. but bap- we
need most of all is not schooling
tism. and that is to come through faith.
What is this faith that is to give us the
supreme victory insure our safety? It
is at this distinct point that we begin to
learn the tea meaning and purpose of
faith. Evert little while I am told by one
and another that he would like to have
faith in this particular matter in regi : I'd to
the Bible, or in regard to Christ in the fu
ture life as though if his mind could only
be brought intellectually to consent to it,
the consummation would be reached and a
great result achieved. particular Being prepared to
assent to this or that statement
in regard to Christ, for example, is a very
ammet i • thing from faith, Faith is per
sonal attitude, personal relationship, . Faith
is such a personal yielding of ourselves to
another as brings us into living recipient contact
with that other and so makes us
■ - what it lies in that other to confer. The
child becomes like his father by faith in
his father, because his faith is that inward
surrender that makes him susceptible his to
every impression that goes forth from
bather. A child's faith toward his mother
i, ,„h tu.h Uu,t
f i-ue; it is faitli in his
himself in the one life that enwraps them
both, so that he lives in the sweep of her
inspiration and grows up toward manhood
by the appropriation ot personal made vigor, him. wis
dom and sweetness hourly mold over Gos
And that is vast in the same as i
pm faith which is as a cord by which the
living ( hmt holds the believer to Him- •
-.elf. Faith is not a condition wherein we
bold to something or somebody, as that in
which we are held by something or some
bod'-. It is not holding a doctrine, but be
ing'held by a person. The "I know whom stick to I
have believed.” iron filings
the magnet, not because they uy so haul
to stick, bur because they are mastered
by Faith, the magnet. then, for
has 1 its very essence a
personal worth self-commitment, whole one of intellectual ounce of
which is a ton j
affirmation. It is this sense of being held
by God that makes a man safe and secure,
I do not know how the grace of God can
lake a man like Saul of Tarsus and make
him Paul the Apostle; but no man will
question his knowledge when he says: "I
live, yet not I. but Christ liveth in me.”
Thai: is exactly what John B. Gough cried
r-.s he went like a flaming torch blazing the
way for a multitude of hopeless drunk
ards. The hope, and the only hope, loi
ns all is in the grace of God. If I were to
strike a tuning fork on this desk and hold
it to my ear not one in this room could
hear the sound thereof, but I could hear
it and tune my violin. Strike it again and
instead of holding it to my ear, set it up
on this desk. Instantly the sound would
be heard everywhere. But what do you
hear? Not the tuning fork, for the tuning
fork makes no louder sound the second
tune than it did the first. What do you
hear? You hear this hard wood desk.
which has no music in itself, but just as |
soon as it conies in contact with a musical •
instrument it itself becomes musical and
delights every one that has music in his i j
soul. !
The individual life may be insignificant good j
«lone by itself: it may come from a j
family or a bad; it may have great force j
ir little; it may have choice furnishings will or j
jot; but the safety and security of all
depend upon the personal self surrendei
o the Son of God, who alone has the pow- i
;v to make them Sons of God. which are
born not of a family or of force or of fur- |
tnsnmgs. but ot faith.
Power of an Ideal.
A beautiful statue once stood i.i the
market, place of an Italian city. It avus the I
statue of a Greek slave girl, it represented
tha slave as tidy, well dressed and hand
some. A ragged unkempt, forlorn street
rhild, Coming across the statue in her
play, stopped and gazed at it in admira
ion . She was entranced and captivated
by it. She gazed sudden long and admiringly. she
Moved by a impulse, event
home and evashed her face and combed her
liair. fore the Another day sin* stopped admired again be
same statue and it, and
received now inspiration. Next and mended. day her
tattered clothes were washed
Each time she looked at the statue she
c und something in its beauties until she
«yas ligious a transformed Thought. child.—Treasury of Re
The help of God is the only bop* «f
man.
MORE MOB VICTIMS.
suspects Implicated by Reed - ^ Cato
Shot by Marauding Bands Ar
Statesboro. cuna
"We shall have trouble with
groes here just as Ion? lhe se
s a tv. in
. , „ the cant
citizen _nave, of was Statesboro, remark of a i^adi; L'.
Ga \\ "fcdoesday
ls he commented on the Jerribi,
of . _ Tuesday when P
Cato were burned teed and
at the stake.
That he wag nQ j
shown , , by ,, the developments , , wa3
S of
nesday—®one negro found by the
roadside, five miles east of town
-
,. lls body . , pierced , . by
two winchester
bullets; two negroes, one of the ' • old- '
tlme darkies” and hi s son u a- 1 years
- -
0if i. shot In their cabin during the
late hours of Tuesday night v
known marauders; ’ half a dozen cases
hogging, which are of ni nightly occur,
reiice, too frequent to excite niore
than passing noXce—such w as the h;s
tor/ ot the day.
The scene of excitement agricultJ ha s
from the town to the rich ti.tnral i
*
. rounding it.
re gions bui ,
Men are reported as roaming the
county at large whipping 6 J
wherever . found , who thought ,
are to be
in any way Implicated by deed or wor 1
of m outh i n the Before'Day ■ Cmh u '
Negroes- are now reported sleeping
in the woods, while along the line of
ra j] roarts come reports of many hmrf
•
, J n ^ trains , , .or other .. points. . The
dan
gor to the whites of Bulloch countv
'
now ]ies more in the large deporiaf j on
labor and consequent effect on the
cotton picking season than from any
0 , j )p ,. eause
One negro, said to be Hsndv Et;!,
whom Reed charged with the murder
0 f pjj e Hodges ~ Children, wa- reported
stl0t . , to , P , C S
" "
In explaining why Handy Bell and
{p e other prisoners were released rf
ter Reed and Cato- implicated them ia
the Hodges murder, Sheriff Kendrick
saui:
“I got my orders from the judge and
turned them loose, as he stated that
their testimony was not sufficient to
hold the witnesses.”
Sheriff Kendrick denies a report
generally circulated that one of his
deputies assisted in overpowering the
guards. Captain Hitch and ethers of
the soldiers maintain its truth in offi
cial reports.
GEORGIA FARMERS l\ CQNUftTtOft.
Die State Agricultural . Sociefv . Holds . forlli
in liawkinsville.
The convention of the Georgia State
Agricultural Society begsn at Haw
kinsville Wednesday, and the opening
«» made ly Pop,
Brown, president of the Farme Club
of Pulaski county. Mr. Brown praised
the legislature for the passage of the
bill authorizing the expenditure oi
money With which to figth the bell
_ n , Ceorgia ° , in protection 1 of the
Georgia farmer, and also paid his high
respects to that body for The recom
mendation of industrial education
saying be hoped to see -a state agn
cultural college before long, at which
no j. on j v farmers’ sons, but any man?
•
.
son who wanted to make a first-class
farmer, could be educated in an indus
trial way.
Mr. Brown’s addres-s elicited much
applause in his assurance of welcome
to the state society and in his genera:
remarks.
Colonel Tom Taylor followed Mr
Brown in an address of welcome on
the part of the city.
Immigration wras the theme of tlt(
first day's session.
PLOT TO WRECK PENITENTIARY.
Dynamite and Nitro-Glycerine Found •*
Uncle Sam's Prison at Columbus
A special from Columbus. O.. says,
A plot was discovered Wednesday 1'?
Foreman Griever to blow , up the h P™ ,, pn j
tentiavy.
He found a stick of dynamite and 3
half pint of nitroglycerine mixed with
paint hidden in one of the shops.
Dispensarv Law Declared Void
At Uniorttown. Wednesday. in Ehe
casp of gtate of Alabama versus Jo
seph Green and city ., of , t-r, l inn town
versus Joseph Green. Judge Parti'Mi
declared the dispensary law passed M
the last legislature void.
BLOODY HEADS FOR STRIKERS
Fierce Riot Precipitated io Vic’mitv o?
Stock Yards At Chicago.
The fiiercest riot of the stock Y 1 "
strike at Chicago occurred Thurso?
evening when hungry dwellers () -
packing house district sought to cap
ture and kill eight steers which had
escaped from the yards, The mob
numbered four thousand persons and
the streets were cleared only after ^
policemen, in five squads, had
the rioters four sides. Shots v
on club
fired and scores of rioters were
bod.