The men of the Vance family having wreaked vengeance, the crowd piled all kinds of combustible stuff around the scaffold, poured oil on it and set it afire.  The Negro rolled and tossed out of the mass, only to be pushed back by the people nearest him.  He tossed out again, and was roped and pulled back.  Hundreds of people turned away, but the vast crowd still looked calmly on.  People were here from every part of this section.  They came from Dallas, Fort Worth, Sherman, Denison, Bonham, Texarkana, Fort Smith, Ark., and a party of fifteen came from Hempstead county, Arkansas, where he was captured.  Every train that came in was loaded to its utmost capacity, and there were demands at many points for special trains to bring the people here to see the unparalleled punishment for an unparalleled crime.  When the news of the burning went over the country like wildfire, at every country town anvils boomed forth the announcement.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN AN ASYLUM

It may not be amiss in connection with this awful affair, in proof of our assertion that Smith was an imbecile, to give the testimony of a well-known colored minister, who lived at Paris, Texas, at the time of the lynching.  He was a witness of the awful scenes there enacted, and attempted, in the name of God and humanity, to interfere in the programme.  He barely escaped with his life, was driven out of the city and became an exile because of his actions.  Reverend King was in New York about the middle of February, and he was there interviewed for a daily paper for that city, and we quote his account as an eye witness of the affair.  Said he: 

I was ridden out of Paris on a rail because I was the only man in Lamar county to raise my voice against the lynching of Smith.  I opposed the illegal measures before the arrival of Henry Smith as a prisoner, and I was warned that I might meet his fate if I was not careful; but the sense of justice made me bold, and when I saw the poor wretch trembling with fear, and got so near him that I could hear his teeth chatter, I determined to stand by him to the last.

  I hated him for his crime, but two crimes do not make a virtue; and in
  the brief conversation I had with Smith I was more firmly convinced than
  ever that he was irresponsible.

I had known Smith for years, and there were times when Smith was out of his head for weeks.  Two years ago I made an effort to have him put in an asylum, but the white people were trying to fasten the murder of a young colored girl upon him, and would not listen.  For days before the murder of the little Vance girl, Smith was out of his head and dangerous.  He had just undergone an attack of delirium tremens and was in no condition to be allowed at large.  He realized his condition, for I spoke with him not three weeks ago, and in answer to my exhortations, he promised to reform.  The next time I saw him was on the day of his execution.