Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1898 — SOUTHERN. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHERN.

John Henry James, a negro of Charlottesville, Va., was lynched by an armed posse of 200 men. A special grand jury had been summoned to try his case, and the court was in session when the news came that the prisoner had been hanged and his body riddled with bullets. Tlje Cuban Development Company has been incorporated under the laws of West Virginia, with a capital of $5,000,000. A number of prominent railway and steamboat men are interested in the company. The company will encourage immigration, raise sugar and tobacco plantations, and construct railroads. At Oxmore, Ala., Mrs. James Melvin heard a burglar at work in the room adjoining the sleeping apartment of herself and husband. She arose in her night garments, and, going into the next room, struck a match. As soon as she did so a burglar crouching in the darkness fired a pistol shot at her. The ball took effect and Mrs. Melvin died from the wound. Just before a terrific rainstorm commenced at Prattville, Ala., a very peculiar accident occurred. Mallard Goodson, a colored youth, was in the act of splitting a piece of wood when an upraised ax in the youth’s hands was struck by lightning and melted, as was also a saw at the boy’s feet. The boy himself and Tommie Rawlinson, a white boy, standing near, were killed. A double lynching. in which Jim Redd and Alex Johnson, negroes, were the victims, occurred at Monticello, Ark. A mob broke down the doors of the jail and entering the cellroom poured a volley of shots into the cages where the men were confined. Johnson is dead and Redd is fatally wounded. They were convicted of killing W. F. Skipper, a rich planter and merchant of Baxter, and were sentenced to bang. Appeal to the Supreffie Court had granted them a new trial.