University of South Carolina Libraries
FOUR YEARS IN PEN > Sentence Given Greene and Gaynor by Judge Speer. ATLANTA PRISON NAMED * Fines of $575,694.90 Are Also Assessed, Which Defendants Can Easily Escape Paying?Appeal Will Be Taken?End Not Yet. Benjamin Greene and John F. Gaynor were sentenced by Judge Speer in the federal court at Savannah Friday morning to serve four years in the federal prison at Atlanta, and to pay each a fine of $575,794.90, the amount they are charged with having embezzled. Upon one indictment the sentence was to two years and upon each" of the other indictments four years, but the court directed that the sentence might all be served concurrently, which reduced the term to four years. Thus, with the allowance of three months off each yeai during which the behavior of the prisoners may be good, the sentence reduces to three years. The fine need not be paid if, on completing the sentence, the prisoners take the pauper's cath and make affidavit that they are not possessed of more than twenty dollars. In lieu of paying the fine, they may serve thirty days longer. Counsel for the prisoners announce that an appeal will be taken. An order of court grants ten days for the filing of a bill of exceptions. Judge Speer, in sentencing the pris: oners, said, in part: "The most painful judicial duty Is the imnosition of a sentence to penal servitude. This is peculiarly true when those convicted are men of fine intelligence, men of affairs, men who have had the opportunities of education, or who have been trained by the teachif Ings of experience. One of the prisoners has been distinguished by his state; has been an important official of one of the great political parties; J. * a man of large acquaintance; perhaps, with multitudes of earnest friends. \ The. ether is a graduate of distinction S of our great military academy at West \ ! Point, and he at one time was a captain in that famous corps of engineers whose roster bears such names as Robert E. Lee and George Gordon . Meade, a corps whose record was ! stainless before the occurrences which have been developed in evidence here. *T am told that it has been cynically said that no man who has a million dollars can be convicted of crime in America. The verdict of this jury of plain, clear-sighted, honest Americans, has falsified such pessimism." "(Notwithstanding the gravity of your offense, it is not deemed necessaTy to impose upon you the extreme penalty of the law by cumulative sen% tences. Such sentences might aggreJ gate seventeen years' imprisonment at hard labor and $595,749.90 fines. "I recognize that you have been In jail for more than a year, that both of you are elderly men, both of you are educatde men, accustomed to a life of comparative luxury and to the comforts of home.. -My sentence to you, > therefore, is far more severe that a much greater sentence, if imposed upon those who commit offenses which demonstrate by their savagery and that they are brutes without discourse of reason. "In view of -ycur conviction for embezzlement, I deem it my duty in obedience to the statute relating to that crime to impose on you a fine equivalent to the amount embezzled. "Your terms of imprisonment will aggregate, as expressed technically Jn the sentence, -Lur years in the United Stages penitentiary at Atlanta. "I may add. however great your mortification now. ycur case is by no means hopeless. The sanitary conditions and fcod secured by the humane management of that great prison both will be far better than that to which you are accustomed. *T trust that you will emerge from your imprisonment restored in neaitn and in strength and that for the rest of your lives you "will recall the words and cherish its teaching of the psalmist The little that the righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.'" * EDITORS HONOR JEFFERSON. Missouri Press Association Pulls Off a Biq Banquet Five hundred Missouri democrats attended a banquet at the Midland hotel in Kansas City Friday night, given bv the Missouri State Democratic Press Association to commemorate the birth of Thomas Jefferson. p/mitucpncpc to APPOINTED oW I I Itaitiv toi?v > W w ? - .. As Delegates to Pan-American Conference in Rio Janeiro. President Roosevelt has decided to appoint Charles B. Aycock, former governor of North Carolina, and Van Leer Polk, of Tennessee, members of the delegation from the United States to the pan-American conference,which is to meet in July at Rio Janeiro. These appointments are to be made in accordance with tne wisnes 01 southern members of consress. , \ "BAHNESNOGENTLEMAN" Tillman Fights president's Appointee for Postmaster at Washington. Cites Mrs. Morris Episode. A Washington dispatch says: Senator Tillman, Friday, filed formal charges with the sub-committee considering me nomination 01 Benjamin r. Barnes, assistant secretary to the president, to be postmaster at Washington, and protested against his con- ! firmation. These charges relatd" to the expulsion of Mrs. Minor Morris from the executive offices and assert Inhuman and brutal treatment of the woman and also allege that Barnes made a false statement about the case. , The charges ar? four in number, and are: That Mr. Barnes is lacking in gentlemanly and manly consideration for ladies, which caused him to abuse his authority so far as to order the expulsion from the executive offices of Mrs. Minor Morris on January 4, 1906, without any justification or good reason therefor. That having issued the order, he stood by and saw it executed in a most brutal and outrageous manner without interference, compelling th8 policemen to drag and finally, with the aid of a negro employed at the white house, to carry her, with the negro holding her by the ankles and with her limbs exposed, the entire distance from the executive offices at the western end of the white house to the eastern exit, where she was thrust into a cab and sent to the house of detention, where her life was endangered and health seriously impaired from shock and injuries received. That after this tyrannical and outrageous abuse of his authority he lodged charges of insanity against Mrs. Morris and compelled her to remain in prison for more than four hours, thus adding insult to injury and producing in the public mind impressions derogatory to her reputation and her mental condition. That he made a statement to the press which was full of falsehoods and which proves him to.be lacking in integrity and high character which a high government official should have. Senator Tillman asks that seven witnesses, including all the newspaper men at the white house at the time, be summoned before the committee. TEMPEST IN THE HOUSE. Effort to Expunge Unparliamentary Language Leads to Row. At Friday's session of the house, more unparliamentary language was indulged in during an effort to expunge certain alleged unparliamentary language from the house record than has been heard in congress in many years. It all started over the consideration of a resolution introduced by Mr. Gardner of Massachusetts to expunge from the record certain remarks of Mr. Hopkins of Kentucky, which he declared to be an unjust and unwarranted reflection upon Mr. Bennett of New York. 'Hopkins charged that Bennett had deceived the house in inducing it to adopt a resolution for the admission to this country of a German girl named Fannie Diner, who, it developed, was an idiot. This fact, it was asserted, had been carefully concealed from the house, and Mr. Hopkins intimated that these who brought it forth were working in the Interests of the steamship company always anxious to land undesirable immigrants who were outside the requirements of the law. PARKS ENDORSED BY G. A. R. MEN Approve Plan to Have Government IViarK Aiiania oame urounus. A national military park on the battlefields around Atlanta is an assured certainty if the congress of the United States will support the wishes and the desires of the Grand Army Veterans, now residents of Georgia and South Carolina. An emphatic endorsement of the plan was given by the department of Georgia in its eighteenth annual encampment Friday afternoon. D. A. R. IN CONVENTION. Fifteenth Continental Congress in Annual Session at Washington. The fifteenth continental congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution assembled in Washington, D. C.f Monday. For the second time the proceedings were conducted in Conti nental hall, a building erected by tne Daughters. An unusually large representation of delegates was in attendance when the president general, Mrs. Donald MacLean of New York called the congress to order. MOTORISTS FORM ASSOCIATION. Interesting Meeting Held at Atlantic Beach?To Work for Good Roads. Those interested in the building of good roads throughout the south, especially a main trunk line from Richmond, Va., to Jacksonville, Fla., met in an enthusiastic session at Atlantic Beach, Fla., Thursday, and perfected the organization of the -Southern Motorists' Federation. VERDICT OF GUILTY | Against Greene and Gaynor Quickly Rendered by Jury. LONG TRIAL AT AN END Famous Fugitive Defendants Wore Charged With Conspiracy to Dofraud Government and Con victed on All Counts Benjamin D. Greene and John F. Gaynor were found guilty of conspiracy against the government, presenting false claims and embezzlement in the federal court, at Savannah Thursday afternoon. The defendants were found guilty with no recommendation, upon each of the indictments. The verdict was returned a few minutes before two o'clock, after the jury had been out three hours and a h a If. For fourteen weeks the case had Wen in progress, and there was the stillness of the tomb in the courtroom as Judge Speer asked the Jury if they had agreed upon a verdict. ! Foreman Hope Thomas answered in the affirmative, and the three indictments were taken and the findings read by the clerk. The jury at the request of the counsel for the defense was then polled, and each mem- 1 ber stated that the verdicts rendered ! upon the indictments were his. The maximum sentence that the court may impose under the law is an aggregate term of seventeen years in the penitentiary and a fine of $575,000, the amount of the alleged embezzlement It is not believed, however, that the sentence will be of extreme severity. Before adjournment to Friday morning, Judge Speer said: "I have no disposition toward these unfortunate men except to be just as merciful as my duty under the law will permit." The minimum sentence permissible " A * ? under the law is two years m penitentiary and a fine of $1,000. The defense's counsel will not discuss the next steps to be taken in the case nor will District Attorney Marion Erwin say what will be done regarding the indictments against Oberlin M. Carter, Michael A. Connally, William T. and Edward F. Gaynor, who were jointly indicted-with the defendants who now stand convicted. Mr. Erwin received a telegram from Attorney General Moody expressing the congratulations of the president and the attorney general upon the outcome of the case, upon which Mr. Erwin has been engaged for seven years. The trial of Messrs. Greene and Gaynor consumed about fourteen weeks. The defendants were charged with conspiracy to defraud the government, and embezzlement, in connection with. the big government engineering works at Savannah. They were indicted in 1902, and, after fighting extradition proceedings in New York, fled to Canada. After lengthy proceedings there, they were finally extradited and were brought to Savannah for trial. Captain Oberlin M. Carter, of the engineer corps, who had charge of the Improvement works under Greene and Gaynor contract, was courtmartlaled for his complicity *5n the alleged frauds, and was sentenced to be dishonorably discharged from the army and to serve a term of imprisonment cf five years. ASHES DOING DEADLY WORK. Their Weight Causes Collapse of Many Buildings Near Volcano. From all quarters reports are received in 'Naples that the situation has ameliorated, but ashes from Mt. Vesuvius are falling everywhere, the houses are collapsing and burying the occupants and roads near the volcano are no sooner opened than they are closed again by falling cinders. TORNADO HITS TEXAS TOWN. Village of Briggs Almost DestroyeJ. Three Victims; Thirty Injured. The little town of Briggs, Texa:', was swept by a tornado about five o'clock Thursday afternoon, and almost completely destroyed. Three persons are reported killed and thirty injured. The school building was completely demolished, and every business house in town was either badly damaged or destroyed. Th9 town contained about 250 inhabitants. LEGISLATIVE SESSION EXTENDED Mississippi Governor Gives Solons More Time on State Code. A Jackson, Miss., dispatch says : Governor Vardaman Saturday transmitted to the legislature a proclamation extending the session until next Saturday in order to complete the work on the new state code. The session was to have ended on the 14th. !lET THE PEOPLE SELECT* | | House Committee Recommends That Ur.ued States Senators Be Eiected by Popular Eallot of People. A Washington special says: A resolution providing ior the election or senators by direct vote 'of the people I has been favorably acted on by the house committee on election of senators and representatives in congress. The resolution, which was introduced by Mr. Norris of Nebraska makes the term of members of the house four years instead of two. Both propositions are to be accomplished by amendments to the constitution. .Reasons why the terms of members should be four years are stated to be because no party can inaugurate 1I3 policy in two years. "The people are tired," the report says, "of this continuous drama, and as a result are inclined to give no attention to the primaries and the conventions?the very foundation of our political system?the forum wherein the country's interests can best oe guarded and protected. "With an election every two years the political grafter who thrives on partisan strife and on the nervous uncertainty controlling candidates for office is able to live from one election to another by the boodle secured at his unholy business. The adoption of the proposed amendment would render it less possible for this creature to ply his trade." Regarding the election of senators by direct vote, the report says: "The proposition to provide for the election of senators by the direct vote of the people has been before the house of representatives and has re* ceived favorable consideration upon several different occasions, a proposition to amend the constitution having this object in view, has passed the house of representatives at four different times, and each time by a practically unanimous vote." CRIMINAL LIBEL CHARGED Against Editor as Outcome of Red Hot Political Squabble. At Marietta, Ga., after three days deliberation into the charges of fraud alleged to have been committed at the Cobb county primary of April 4, John Awtrey and D. F. McClatchey, against whom charges were preferred by Hon. N. A. Morris, have been freed of blame by the grand jury, and no true bills returned, while Mr. Morris and his paper, the Marietta Courier, have been indicted on two counts, each for criminal libel. The reversal of the tables In this case will perpetuate for some time irnncor: in a mn?t fit" CUC UUCCIU^OO am citing campaign. The case will conn up at the July term of court. The charges of fraud and irregularity in the management of the polls grew out of the primary of April 4 for the naming of a senator, representative and county officers. In the next issue of the Marietta Courier, of which Hon. N. A. Morris, ex-speaker of the Georgia house of representatives, is president and managing editor, violent attacks were made editorially charging fraud and corruption and specifically charging fraud against Awtrey and McClatchey, it being alleged that in some instances the ballots were actually changed after being handed them to put in the box. PREACHER ROUTS ROBBERS. Reverend Was Asked to "Hand's Up" and Made Surprising Move. "Not on your life" was the response made by Dr. J. L. Brooks of Washington, D. C., when invited late at night by a highwayman in Dallas, Texas, to hold up his hands. Suiting the action to the words, Dr. Brcoks ' * -- ? J I KDOCKCa Uie UJau uuvvu, ana iiicu turned to the man's companion, when both quickly decamped. Dr. Brocks chased them four 6r five blocks, and then notified the police. Dr. Brooks is a Methodist minister, and was attending the Methodist Educational convention of Texae in session at Dallas. HE DENIES PEACE OVERTURES. Dowie Says He is Determined to Fight It Out With Zionists. A Chicago dispatch says: Dowie has upset the plans for a peaceable adjustment of his troubles with Zlon church, as previously announced. Early Thursday he directed his attendants to announce to all inquirers that the report that he was about to compromise with Overseer Voliva and his followers was nntruc. He said that he would conduct a legal contest in the courts and get his property back. MEIAS IUlll/?DATIAM Bll f nuft nil ivi ivinn i ivii ?ibk Reported in Senate Will Be Qreat Thing for the South. Of special interest to the southern states is the new immigration bill re# ported to the senate of Dillingham of Vermont. As it will be amended by the terms of this bill, the immigration law will open a way for the southern *9 fnfAfl onnnrn n f o t r nrnnnrHftn r\f ouilvo VVS C^V/Ul C U ICUi vyw* Vivu the desirable immigration from Europe?at least it is so designed. BY MISSOURI MOB1' i ; Most Horrible Lynching Occurs in Springfield, ! I r VICTIMS WERE CREMATED ' I ] Two Negroes, Suspected of Crime of ' Rape, and Another Under Charge < of Murder, Swung from Statue * of Goddess of Liberty. I 1 At Springfield, Mo., a mob of 3,000 1 men took two negroes, Horace Dun- i can and Jim Copeland, from the ooun- " ty jail, hanged thein to the Goddess ] of Liberty on the court house and built a fire under them and roasted 1 them to death. The men were charg- 1 ed with assaulting Miss Mabel Edwards. Mis? Edwards had come to Springfield recently from Monett, Mo., and obtained employment as a domestic. Saturday night while Miss Edwards and a young man were riding in a buggy they were stopped by two negroes, who beat the young man, named Cooper, into unconsciousness and dragged Miss Edwards into the woods Ly the roadside. Duncan and Cope !and v/ere arrested on suspicion, but there was little evidence against them. An immense mob soon gathered at the county jail, where the prisoner were confined. Instead of attacking the jail at first, the mob stormed the residence of the county sheriff breaking down doors, smashing windows, destroying practically all the furniture in the lower part of the house and rendering the sheriff's wife unconscious from fright. Overcoming the resistance of the sheriff and a posse of deputies, the mob secured the key to the jail and gained entrance. When the committee who entered the jail came out with the two negroes, the mob bdgan to clamor for summary execution, shouting "hang them!" "burn them!" The men were taken to the public square and hanged to a statue of the Goddess of Liberty, A fire was then kindled under them, in which they were roasted to death, a crowd of 3,000 watching their agonies. After the negroes were dead the bodies were left burning. A Second Lynching. At 2:15 o'clock Sunday morning, William Allen, a negro, was taken from the jail and lynched in the public square by the same mob that two hours earlier had hanged Horace Duncan and James Copeland. The body of Allen later was burned to ashes, as had been those of the other negroes, beneath the spot where they had been lynched. The militia was finally called out, and soon cleared the public square. Squads of militia paraded the negro districts. The authorities assert that Copeland and Duncan, two of the vie-* tims, were innocent. This is the general belief. Following the lynching of Duncan and Copeland, some one suggested that Allen and Bus Cain, two other negroes known to be in the jail, should also be lynched. The mob, now bloodthirsty and wrought up to the highest pitch of excitement. readily took up the cry and soon the charre l bones of a third victim Jay beneath the statue of the Goddess of Liberty. Cain escaped. Allen and Cain were being held upon suspicion of having murdered O. P. Ruark. When the mob left the jail at midnight with Copeland and Duncan, fourteen prisoners escaped in the excitement. Among them was Cain. When the rope had been thrown about Allen's neck he was lifted and thrown over the railing. Allen turned a somersault in the air, and as the rope became taut his neck cracked like a pistol shot. The rope broke and he fell in the bed of coals on top of the other two negroes. There he kicked and floundered around until another rope was brought, thrice looped around the neck, and he was again suspended in mid-air. More boxes were brought, another big fire was kindled and soen the swaying figure, now dead, fell into it, sending up a spray of live sparks. After that most of the men went home, but some men and boys stayed by the tov^er ail night and fed the fires. When daylight broke upon the scene there remained only the blackened trunks and charred remains ef the three negroes. Five thousand persons saw the trio hanged and burned. Among the crowd of spectators were hundreds of women and children, girls and boys. EXCITEMENT KILLED FAN. Wealthy St. Louis Man Succumbs After Witnessing Ball Game. Henry G. Paschall, a wealthy bachelor at St. Louis, died from heart disease Friday night as the result of excitement after watching the thirteen inning ball game between the National League teams of St. Louis and Pittsburg. % .. - .V- ... - J* . i--.; : -2 WOB VICTIMS INNOCENT ; ' A'oman Declares Negroes Hanged and Burned Were Not Her Assailants. Mob Members Being Arrested. Four men were put under arrest it Springfield, Mo., Monday, charge! with being leaders in the mob that ;roke into the county jail Saturday * sight and lynched three negroes. Two )f the alleged mob leaders are in jail and two have been released on bond. 3ne of the men arrested told Sheriff Horner that a collection would be :aken to pay for the damage done by .lie muu lu iue suenu s yi uyt-i . iuc offer was refused. Judge Lincoln of the criminal court has ordered a special grand jury convened to make a thorough investigation of the lynching and the other acts of the mob and to indict all the leaders that may be apprehended. The , * M better clas3 of citizens are now strong in their demand that the rioters 'be punished to the full extent of the law and every effort will be made to secure convictions. Jg After the meeting of the criminal court, Roscoe Patterson, prosecuting attorney, said: "I shall file information and issue warrants for the arrest of every man I can learn was concerned in ' the J:(MI lynchings or the assault upon the jail These arrests will be made as quick- , ly as possible, without waiting for the grand jury to act." Warrants for twenty-five persons charging them with being leaders ia the mob were issued. ' :M Mabel Edmcndson, the white girl. WHO was assaulted, ueciartru iviuuuttjr that Duncan and Copeland, two of the negroes lynched, were' not her assailants. Notwithstanding the presence of armed troops the fact that a grand jury has been called to indict the leaders of Saturday night's mob; that the county prosecutor has promised ~'M to issue warrants immediately, and the best citizens have decried the ' ' triple lynching, the streets were full of people who approve the mob's work and who curse all negroes and advise that they be run out of town. Danger of mob violence is not past. Hundreds of men openly cui;e and jeer the soldiers. Hundreds of men boldly utter the threat that if arrests are made the people will arise and rescue the men, drive the militia as well as the negroes from the city. ' Everywhere the threat is heard : "This town is too small for negroes and whites to live. One or the other must go." An incident showing the trend of tne leenng iook piace neai uic courthouse where hundreds of people were gathered, walking aimlessly about. A negro, leaning against the court house, with the troops nearby, made the remark in a swagger manner: "Give the colored men the guns and we'll show you." White men threatened to close in on the negro, but officers hustled him away to jail. In another minute apparently he would have been trampled ~ .|| to death. Conservative citizens, knowing how deep seated is the feeling toward the negroes, fear that some trivial incident may at any time start a bloody riot. / GEORGIA LAW IS UPHELD. Statute Anent Running Freight Trains on Sunday Passes Muster. By dismissing for want of jurisdiction. the case of J. N. Seale against the state of Georgia, the United States supreme court leaves in force the decision of the ueorgia supreme court upholding the validity of the state law which prohibits the running of freight trains on Sunday. In 1903, the superintendent of the x Southern iailway was indicted, tried and convicted in Habersham county upon the charge of violating the law in question. He appealed the case to . ;j| the state supreme court, which sustained the lower court, whereupon Seale sued out a writ of error to the United States supreme court on the ground that the law is repugnant *to the federal constitution. GREENE-GAYNOR IN MACON. Prisoners Transferred from Savannah to Central City Prison. At Savannah, Saturday, Judge Speer passed an order in the United States court directing that Greene and Gayonr be taken to Maccn for safe keeping, pending their transfer to the penitentiary at Atlanta. They left on Saturday night, accompanied by United States Marshal White and deputies. The United States court was adjourned, Judge Speer and officers of the court al30 having left for Maccn. GIGANTIC TIMBER LAND DEAL. Property Aggregating $600,000 Changes Hands in Mississippi. A deal for th6 purchase of $600,000 worth of timber lands and which j means the construction of a railway ap the Pearl river valley was closed at Jackson, Miss., Thursday, the purchase money being paid and the deeds formally transferred. < The transfer embraces over 50,000 acres of yellow pine and hardwood timber lands. ::fi