The matter came up for judicial investigation, but as might have been expected, the white people concluded it was unnecessary to wait the result of the investigation—­that it was preferable to hang the accused first and try him afterward.  By this method of procedure, the desired result was always obtained—­the accused was hanged.  Accordingly Benjamin Jackson was taken from the officers by a crowd of about two hundred people, while the inquest was being held, and hanged.  After the killing of Jackson, the inquest was continued to ascertain the possible connection of the other persons charged with the crime.  Against the wife and mother-in-law of the unfortunate man there was not the slightest evidence and the coroner’s jury was fair enough to give them their liberty.  They were declared innocent and returned to their homes.  But this did not protect the women from the demands of the Christian white people of that section of the country.  In any other land and with any other people, the fact that these two accused persons were women would have pleaded in their favor for protection and fair play, but that had no weight with the Mississippi Christians nor the further fact that a jury of white men had declared them innocent.  The hanging of one victim on an unproven charge did not begin to satisfy the mob in its bloodthirsty demands and the result was that even after the women had been discharged, they were at once taken in charge by a mob, which hung them by the neck until they were dead.

Still the mob was not satisfied.  During the coroner’s investigation the name of a fourth person, Rufus Bigley, was mentioned.  He was acquainted with the Jacksons and that fact, together with some testimony adduced at the inquest, prompted the mob to decide that he should die also.  Search was at once made for him and the next day he was apprehended.  He was not given over into the hands of the civil authorities for trial nor did the coroner’s inquest find that he was guilty, but the mob was quite sufficient in itself.  After finding Bigley, he was strung up to a tree and his body left hanging, where it was found next day.  It may be remarked here in passing that this instance of the moral degradation of the people of Mississippi did not excite any interest in the public at large.  American Christianity heard of this awful affair and read of its details and neither press nor pulpit gave the matter more than a passing comment.  Had it occurred in the wilds of interior Africa, there would have been an outcry from the humane people of this country against the savagery which would so mercilessly put men and women to death.  But it was an evidence of American civilization to be passed by unnoticed, to be denied or condoned as the requirements of any future emergency might determine.

LYNCHED FOR AN ATTEMPTED ASSAULT