Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1893 — HE WAS BURKED ALIVE. [ARTICLE]

HE WAS BURKED ALIVE.

AWFUL PUNISHMENT OF A NEGRO MONSTER. Tortured with Red-Hot Irons and Then Consumed by Fire—Ten Thousand Feople Qather at Paris, Texas, to Witness the Fearful Proceedings. A Fearful Fate. Henry SmUbi the Paris (Tex.) negro Who first killed 4-year-old-Myrtle Vane'S, has expiated in part hia awful crime by death at the stake. Ever since the perpetration of his awful crime the city and entire surrounding country has been in a wild frenzy of excitement. When the news Came that he had been captured near Hope, Ark., that he had been identified by B. B. Sturgeon, James T. Hicks and many others of the Paris searching party, the city was wild with joy over the apprehension of the brute. Hundreds of people poured into the city from the adjoining country, and the word passed from lip to lip that the punishment of the fiend should fit the crime—that death by fire was the penalty Smith should pay. The curious and sympathetic alike came on train and wagons, on horse and on foot, to see if the frail mind of mind could think of a way to sufficiently punish the perpetrator of so terrible a crime. Whisky shops were closed, unruly mobs were dispersed, schools were dismissed by a proclamation from the Mayor, and everything was done in a business-like manner. Officers saw the futility of any effort to quell the almost riot. So law was laid aside, and the citizens took into their own hands the inhuman beast and burned him at the stake. Never before since the days of the Spanish inquisition, when cruelty was law, has there been such terrible punishment meted out to any man; but so horrible was the crime, in its magnitude so inhuman and so ghastly, that the punishment inflicted upon him was infinitely small in comparison. He was brought through Texarkana, where 5,000 people awaited the train, anxious to see a man who should receive the fate of Ed Coy. At that place speeches were made by prominent Paris citizens, who asked that the prisoner be not molested by Texarkana people, but that the guard be allowed to deliver him up to the outraged and indignant citizens of Paris. Arriving in Paris, the train was met by a surging mass of humanity 10,000 strong. The negro was escorted through the city so that all might see the most inhuman monster known in current history. Smith was placed upon a scaffold six feet square and ten feet high, securely bound, within view of all the beholders. Tortured by Ked-Ilot Irons. Here the victim was tortured for fifty minutes by red-hot iron brands thrust against his quivering body. Commencing at the feet the brands were placed against him inch by inch until they were thrust against the face. Then, being apparently dead, kerosene was poured upon him, cottonseed hulls placed beneath him and set on fire. In less time than it takes to relate it the tortured man was wafted beyond the grave to another fire hotter and more terrible than the one just experienced. The cause of the crime was that Henry Vance when a deputy policeman in the course of his duty was called to arrest Henry Smith for being drunk and disorderly. The negro was unruly and Vance was forced to use his club. The negro swore vengeance and several times assaulted Vance. In his greed for revenge he last Thursday grabbed up the little girl and committed the assault, then tore the child limb from limb. The father is prostrated with grief and the mother lies at death’s door, but she lived to see the slayer of her innocent babe suffer the most horrible death that could be conceived.

The negro for a long time after starting on the journey lo Paris did not realize his plight. At last when told he must die by slow torture he begged for protection.' What protection could he get with thousands of people from Hope to Paris demanding his life? He was willing to be shot and wanted Marshal Shanklin, of Paris, to shoot him. He pleaded and writhed in bodily and mental pain in anticipation. Scarcely had the train reached Paris than this torture commenced. Hl3 clothes were torn off piecemeal and scattered in the crowd, people catching the shreds and putting them away as mementos. The child’s father, her brother and two uncles then gathered about the negro as he lay fastened to the torture platform ana thrust the hot irons into his quivering flesh. Every groan from the fiend, every contortion of his body, was cheered by the thickly packed crowd of 10,000 people. After burning the feet and legs the hot irons were rolled up and down Smith’B stomach, back and arms. Then the eyes were burned out and irons were thrust down his throat. The men of the Vance family having wreaked vengeance, the crowd piled all kinds of combustible stuff around the scaffold, poured oil on it and set it afire. The negro rolled and wriggled and tossed out of the mass only to be pushed back by the people nearest him. He lossed out again and was roped and pulled back. Hundreds of people turned away, but the vast crowd still looked calmly on. Evejy train that came in was loaded to its utmost capacity, and there were demands at many points for special trains to bring people to see the punishment of a fiend for an unparalleled crime, and when the news of the burning went over the country like wildfire at every country town anvils boomed forth the announcement. Gov. Hogg telegraphed the officials at Lamar to protect the negro, Henry Smith, from mob violence, and after hearing of Smith’s fate wired them to take the names of the parties principally concerned in the affair for prosecution.