Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1918 — GENERAL AND STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL AND STATE NEWS

Telegraphic Reports From Many Parts of the Country. SHORT BITS OF THE UNUSUAL Happenings in the Nearby Cities and Towns—Matters of Minor Mention From Many Place*. VICTIM CHARGES CONSPIRACY Williamsport Man, Tarred and Feathered, to Appeal to Governor. Attica, April 20.—William A. Hunter; a wealthy Warren county farmer, who was tarred and feathered and publicly branded as disloyal by residents of Newellton, La., Tuesday, arrived at his home ten miles west of this city Thursday. He was keenly humiliated over the ordeal through which he had passed, and declares he will demand an official investigation from the Governor of Louisiana and, failing in that, will appeal to the federal authorities.’ Hunter is prominent locally and his friends regard his treatment in Louisiana as an outrage. His loyalty is above question, those who know him here declare. He is the controlling stockholder of the Central Bank at West Lebanon and owns one of the best farms in the county. In addition he owns a plantation of 4,200 acres in Tansas parish, Louisiana, and it was while on a visit there that he was assailed. A committee attempted to sell him Liberty bonds, and, when he declin ed to buy, grew insistent and finally threatening. He told them that he had no ready money available, and that if he had he would buy his bonds through his home bank in Indiana. j Tuesday morning, • a week after J the committee’s visit, two bile loads of men, among whom I were a local justice and constable, I came to the plantation, loaded I Hunter into a machine and took I him to Newellton. He was taken to a poolroom and tar was smeared over his clothing and face, after which feathers were applied. The justice of the peace told hjm that he was being thus decorated because .he was disloyal to the United States, that he had made remarks derogatory to the Third Lib--1 erty loan and that they were sending him out of the community, if he returned, the justice declared, it would be worse the next time. He then was hustled aboard a train, the dozen men who had him in charge accompanying him to Tallulah, county seat of the adjoining parish, twenty-five miles from Newellton, where he was paraded around the public square and jeered by the crowd on the streets. At the station at Tallulah a large crowd gathered, a local lawyer mounted a truck and madb a flamboyant speech, and women sang patriotic songs. Some hotheads urged that Hunter be strung up. but a minister and another man in ' the crowd restrained them, and when the train arrived Hunter was placed aboard, three of the vigilants accompanying him. A number of soldiers were on the train, and they started to jeer him, but were restrained by an officer, who ordered them to stay out of it.

(Blunter arrived at Vicksburg arrayed as he left Tallulah, and was taken in charge by the police and taken to the United States deputy marshal’s office, where he removed the tar and obtained new clothing, leaving on a later train for hime. Hunter declares the charge of disloyalty was trumped ,up in'order to frighten him out of the community. The leader of the mob, he said, was Duncan Farer, former manager of the plantation, whom Hunter had discharged two years ago, and who, Hunter asserted, has held a grudge against him since. Another

leader was an adjoining land owner, with whom Hunter had had labor troubles. Newellton is in the “black belt,” there being only 250 white voters in the parish. IJunter expects to return to his plantation if he can obtain protection from the state. Hunter bought $5,000 worth- of the Second Liberty loan and before leaving for the South he left

an Order with his bank to reserve $5,000 worth of the Third loan for him, which was done. Hunter is sixty-eight years old and was horn and reared in Warren county. He is a brother of James A. Hunter, who represented Warren county in .the state legislature a few years lago.