Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1892 — A RACE WAR. [ARTICLE]

A RACE WAR.

Guthrie, Oklahoma.. ..Comes to the FrontdneXegro Shot to Death, and an Attempt to Lynch Another—Accused of AsSAoltlng White Women. A special from Guthrie, Okjp., °n the 13th, says: There is great excitement in this city to-night occasioned by two criminal assaults by negroes upou white womcn today.. A negro lad named Holley assaulted Mrs. Charles Moore, the wife nfn, freighter, who.was away from home at the time... Be wa3 arrested and a mob surrounded the jail, threatening to lynch him. The .negroes of the town claimed that Holley ' was innocent, although he had confessed his guilt to the sheriff. A war now seems imminent. * “Judge” Perkins, a negro lawyer, was spokesman for the colored men. During the excitement he said: “Let the whites harm that man, and-the town will be in ashes before morning.”. The second outrage was thatmade upon the wife of James Genken, who is the engineer of the electric plant, by an unknown negro, who. escaped. A posse, headed by started on his trail, intending to lynch him. A great mob of negroes now surrounds the jail and more are arriving every few minutes. The negroes have sent couriers to Langston City, the negro colony, ten miles distant with the report that the whites are about to lynch an innocent negro and many negroes aro flocking here, determined to protect the objcctof the white men's veugeance. Many of the blacks are armed and hundreds of whites •are carrying Winchesters aud revolvers. The police have been largely reinforced. Intense excitement prevails, and any insignificant encounter between a black and a white may lead to a serious outbreak;. Sheriff. Hixon and Chief of« Police Kelly aredis--arming the Jiegroes. As many as fifty old shotguns and rifles have been taken, also a' number of small firearms. Three weapons were taken from three colored men who have just arrived from Tohee, seventeen miles distant. Col. H. P. Clark, commander of the territorial militia, is in the city. He reported to acting Governor Martin for duty, but the situation dpes not now seem serious enough to warrant the calling of troops. Gangs of exeitbri people are on the street corners. All congregations of negroes are being ordered to disperse. ' \ At midnight information reached the sheriff here that the negro who outraged Mrs. Genken was overtaken by the posse at 9 o’clock Sunday night, six miles south of town, and was shot to death. This news has greatly intensified the excitement, and the negroes are threatening violence. The have been aware of the lynching for Somo hours,* and began disarming the negroes before it became generally known, anticipating that the news would d-iive the negroes into frenzy. At 1 o’clock a.ip, police officers Lester and Kitchen, with one or two nervy citizens, ordered a lot of negroes who were stationed on thb corqer next to the jail to move on. Several offered resistance, but l he officers used their clubs effectually. One or two negroes jumped on boxes, and made speeches to the excited crowds. Two or three shots were fired. An excited African named Perkins yelled, “Hang the editor of the News.” There was adispo ; sition to act upon the suggestion, but the whites defied them, and there was no attempt to obey the injunction. A company to patrol the city lias been organized and is under the leadership of good men. Groups of negroes stand on every corner and manifest their intention to take the city if necessary. The rendesvousof the committee is crowded with fathers and husbands, Republicans and Democrats alike, who take the stand that negro reign is at an end in Oklahoma. The city is alive with armed men, who are ready to fight to the death if need be. E. P. McCabe, the negro ex-auditor of Kansas, is held responsible for the crimes being committed, and violence is feared.' He cannot be found to-night. Whistles are blowiug, shouts and yells resound from every quarter of the city. This city of ten thousaud people is a pandemonium and no one sleeps to-night. The yell of a de* termined mob is momentarily expected, and no power on earth seemed able now to save the brutal ravisher’s life. The electric lights have been extinguished and the worst may happen.

—'s — : ' — 5 Samples of Alleged Wit. Smidgins is the most forgetful man I ever saw,” said one actor to ano.ther. , . ; —Pis that so?” -- “Yes. He'd forget his lines if he were going fishing.”—Washington Star. - * ‘t “Do you like living in the country? “I do; there is only one drawback to it.” * “Indeed! What Is it?” “You can’t get any good milk, butter, eggsi or fresh vegetables without sending to the city for them.”—New York Press. • '. *■. y ykc. , ‘u. ~ ■ Hicks—Poor TibUetson is getting poorer than ever.” Wicks—What has , happened to him pow? Hicks—l don’t know the exact nature of his new misfortune, but I understand that hejbrought home another dog last night.—Boston Transcript. * Foggs—My rank is bijifher than yours. Boggs—Ldeny that. Foggs—l always precede you to dinner.” Boggs—And I always precede you back to the drawing-room—Judge. “The trouble with Tompy is that he is shallow.” “Tornpy? Nonsense. If you had ever tried to fill Tompy with cham'pagne you’d have chapged your mind about that?’’r-Truth.