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170 THE CRISIS

when the lynching occurred. At Hot Springs, Ark., a colored man for an alleged assault on a white girl. At Jacksonville, Fla., and at Americus, Ga., for killing the sheriff. At Reuben, Miss., for killing the postmaster. At Lambert, Miss., for the murder of a lumberman. At Bonifay, Fla., for assault on a woman. At Greenwood, Miss., a mob hanged the charred body. of a Negro who had set fire to his house and shot himself therein when pursued by the mob after he had killed the cook of a "prominent citizen." At Newport, R.I., the lynching of a Negro who had accidentally shot and killed a 14-year-old boy after having stabbed a sailor in a fight was averted by the police.

[] The governor of Maryland has been asked to take action against William F. Lankford, superintendent of the House of Correction, whose atrocious beating of a colored lad ended in the boy's death. The doctor had given a certificate of death from tuberculosis, but one of the guards who witnessed the beating could not allow his conscience to remain silent, left the institution and made the following statement:
"It was a terrible beating. The boy was lashed over the back and over his breast. He cried for mercy and a guard struck him in the face with his fist. I do not know how many lashes there were.  I did not count them, but there was a man within hearing who told me he believed there must have been ninety. The boy could not dress himself after it was over. Next morning he did not eat any breakfast and he went to the hospital and stayed there until he died. Then he was buried the same day he died. When he died the marks of the lashing were still on him. He was lashed for bad work in the shop. Lankford was very mad and did the beating himself."

As we go to press, word comes that the investigating committe appointed by the governor has presented a report exonerating Lankford. The Sun and other Baltimore papers are demanding a new investigation. The Sun says of the white washing:
"Is not this plea in confession and avoidance a confession of incompetency, or of brutal indifference, or of both? It is difficult to speak of it in the language of moderation or restraint. It sets the heart on fire to think that such things as this are possible in a Christian country in this year of supposed grace and civilization. 
"Who is at fault? What is responsible? What the people of Maryland want to know is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, no matter whom it may hurt. A great wrong has been committed, and more of the same sort are possible. A searching investigation and a complete remedy are demanded, and the governor cannot wash his hands of the solemn responsibility that confronts him"
[]Another account of a convict-camp, horror comes from the Mobile Item: 
"Thomas Ross, a 19-year-old colored boy, was sent from Mobile to a convict camp in Atmore. At the time he was in good health, sound and hearty. His stepfather, and industrious and respectable man, having heard his son was sick, went to the camp. He found his son was almost blind and deliriously dodging imaginary blows. He was told by his son and others this was due to the severe and cruel punishment the boy had received. When next the father went to see his son he was gone. He was found later at an asylum, blind and insane. 
"The Item has always fought the convietlease system, but at this time it makes a terrible assignment of the State of Alabama, and calls on the governor to investigate this outrage and punish the guilty parties"
[] President Wilson has sent a message to Congress urging and appropriation to succer the indigent family of an Italian subject who was lynched in Florida two years ago. Colored Americans who contemplate residing in Florida or Mississippi or Georgia or Mr. Wilson's native State would do well first to go to Rome and transfer their allegiance to Sua Maesta` Re Vittorio Emmanuele before they take the "Jim Crow" car that leads to protection under the majesty of American law. In the meantime they out to present a united and equally determined front in demanding justice and respect for Negro manhood everywhere, just as the Italians have made Mr. Wilson respect the manhood of their people and the dignity of their nation. Until then it will take more than Southern Christianity "to solve all the race problems." The Italians of Florence have a saying, "God provides, but he does not deliver the 

ALONG THE COLOR LINE 171

goods." The Negro will never be freed by the holding out the hand and taking off the hat to await the pleasure of the white man. 

[] The Coatesville Times says "The latest sensational story,while sent broadcast, is totally disbelieved here." Here is the story and its cause as related in the same paper:
"Ever since the lynching of walker all sorts have been sent broadcast through the press of numerous outrages by 'brutal Negroes' in this section, which evidently were written with but one object in view-- to educate the public mind to the belief that the crime of lynching Walker was justifiable. 
"The injury such sensational statements have done Coatesville can never be computed. The youngest child in the town to-day cannot possibly live years long enough to outlive the disgrace which has been cast on our town and its people by such slanderous reports-- yes, generations yet unborn will like in derision, on account of the disgrace those who would treacherously betray its fair name have cast on it. 
"Only this week a sensational story has been sent broadcast of the fiendish crime of the two Negroes in this town on Wednesday night, that shows to what extent unscrupulous writers will ply their art to create racial prejudice to stir up strife and cast odium on a community. 
"It is impossible to conceive of more false or sensational accounts of a crime than that published in the Press and Ledger yesterday of a crime in this borough on Wednesday night. 
"We do not pretend to say that a crime was not committed by someone; but is there is a man or woman with any knowledge of the attending circumstances whose mind is so clouded, and whose discernment is so dense that they can bring themselves to believe it was the work of two brutal Negroes, or that the highly colored published reports of the crime that are true, such as one is a fit person for an insane asylum, and a commission should be taken out for him at once.
"The stories of the crime were so illogical and bore so many earmarks of falsity, in so far as Negroes participated in it, that it was laughed to scorn, and no sensible person gave it the slightest credence. But the poison sent broadcast of the lawlessness in Coatesville has done its deadly work before the world. The true story of the alleged crime will never overtake the columns of falsehoods which have been published. 
"Let us hope that after the August grand jury has finished its work, and the statues of limitation will stop any further prosecutions being brought against the fiends who conceived or carried out the crime of lynching Zach Walker, that there will be no further need for the manufacturing of sensational rot of the crimes of 'brutal Negroes' in this borough and that the fair name of Coatesville will cease to be held up to the scorn and derision of the civilized world."

[] In Vermont the workmen who drowned a young Negro as a joke have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. 
[] Allan von Behren, the son of the rich manufacturer at Eatsville, Ind., received a sentence of two to twenty years' imprisonment for the murder of three Negro workmen who had "sassed" him. 
[] A groceryman at Macon, Ga., killed "an abusive Negro" Th grocer had gone to the Negro's house to collect a bill for twenty-five cents.
[] Eighteen years ago Missouri, with considerable satisfaction, made chicken stealing a penitentiary offense and expected a large harvest of black State slaves as a result. About 70 per cent. of the conviction under the act have been white men, and last month, at Montgomery, Mrs. Addie Paye, a white woman, was sent to the penitentiary for two years under this act.  

FOREIGN

Among the officers of the Brazilian dreadnaught "Minas Geraes," which visited New York last month, were several colored men. Two of these called at our offices. A copy of THE CRISIS went away in the cabin of the captain, who is not colored. 
[] Hon. H. Walter Reece, K. C., has been appointed Soliciter-General of Barbados. This is just one step removed from the office of chief justice of the colony, which has been held by a white man since the death of the distinguished colored jurist, Sir William Conrad Reeves. 
[] The French colonial troops were received with great enthusiasm by the populace of Paris at the review on July 14.