SWIFT JUSTICE.
An Ohio Murderer Taken from Jail and Hanged by a Mob of Infuriated Citizens.
The mining town of New Straitsville, Ohio, was last week the scene of a horrible double tragedy and lynching. Albert Guess, a conditionally paroled ex-convict, got into a difficulty with the City Marshal of the town, the trouble ending in Guess shooting the officer three times, inflicting a mortal wound. During the firing by the ex-convict a boy about 10 years of age was shot in the abdomen, also fatally. Guess was afterward captured and taken to jail. About 10 o'clock at night a band of nearly 200 armed and masked men went to the jail and demanded the prisoner. The officer refused to deliver the keys of the prison, but some of the mob took them from him by force and went into the cell, where Guess was confined. He fought like a savage when confronted by the angry crowd, but he was soon overpowered, and, at the head of the party, led to the outskirts of the town. Here a rope was thrown across a limb and the prisoner placed on the top of a barrel, with the rope about his neck. He was given five minutes to pray, which time he improved. Immediately afterward the barrel was kicked out from under him, and he was left dangling in the air. His contortions were terrible and before they ceased his body was riddled at the hands of the mob. After the hanging the crowd went back to town, scattered even more rapidly than they gathered, and the body of Guess was left dangling at the end of the rope.
Our first article of interest comes from the Harrisburg Daily Independent (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) dated May 21, 1884:
Secret Organization of Lynchers.
CHARLESTON, W. Va., May 21.—A rumor has been in circulation here for the last day or two that there exists a strong secret organization in this and the adjoining counties, having for its object the lynching of the five murderers now confined in the Kanawaha county jail. The authorities are extremely reticent on the subject.
Our second article of interest comes from the Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) dated May 22, 1892:
BOMBS FOR LYNCHERS.
Negroes of Boston Taking Lessons of Anarchists, to Use in the South.
BOSTON, May 21.—The Boston Republican, printed by colored people in this city, has an article to-day to the effect that certain colored men of Cambridge and Boston, belonging to secret societies, have for some time been earnestly discussing the numerous lynchings of colored men in the South.
These men have been taking lessons from Socialists and Russians as to the making of dynamite bombs and other explosives, with which they propose to return to the South and take revenge unless these outrages are stopped. the men are bound together by a solemn oath, and indignantly refused to be classified as Anarchists.
Thank you for joining me and as always, I hope I leave you with something to ponder.
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