Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1893 — A NEW PEAL. [ARTICLE]

A NEW PEAL.

A Negro Robber Protected From a. Mob by Militia. Would-lM I.yncher* Meet With Vnex. pcctcd ttcalxatuee—Eleven of the Mob Killed. Wednesday night, at Roanoke, Va.. a mob aUempted ro take a negro from jail and iyncn him. The militia were called out and ordered to fire. They did so with deadly effect. Eleven persons were killed and nearly a score wounded, some fatally. Robert Smith, a negro, Wednesday, assaultcd and nearly killed Mrs, Henry Bishop. Mrs. Bishop was at the market with a load of produce and Smith bought a box of grapes. He asked her to go with him to get the money, and taking her to » house near by, locked the dbor and bound her. Then drawing a razor he demanded her money. She gave it up and while doing so jerked the razor from his hand. The negro choked her, threw her down and pounded her head with a brick, leaving her for dead. Mrs. Bishop shortly afterward regained consciousness, and returning to the market, to’.d of the outrage. Detective Baldwin soon arrested the negro 1 The excited crowd attempted to take Smith away from the officer and lynch him, but Baldwin; with the prisoner on a horse, dashed away at full speed and soon had him behind the bars. An Immense crowd of people came to the jail, but were finally persuaded by the Mayor to disperse, but later the crowd reassembled. At 5 o’clock the Roanoke light Infantry marched to the jail by orders of Mayor Trout. About dark the crowd, increased by a hundred men from the vicinity of the woman’s home, headed by Mrs. Bishop’s son, attacked the jail. At 8 o’clock portions of the mob battered at the side door of the jail, where the militia and Mayor Trout had retired. The shooting was commenced by the mob, and the Mayor was shot in the foot/ The militiamen were then ordered to return the fire, and a volley from about twenty-five rifles was poured into the mob, with the result stated above. During the excitement the negro was taken from the jail by officers and secreted. The dead and wounded were removed to a drug store and to the offices of near by physicians. The militia then dispered. The militia are still under the Mayor’s orders, and he is firm In the position he has assumed and declares that he will uphold the law.