shouted, “Burn him!” But there was no time to make a fire.  When Walker got into the lobby a dozen of the men began beating and stabbing him.  He was half dragged, half carried to the corner of Front Street and the alley between Sycamore and Mill, and hung to a telegraph pole.

Walker made a desperate resistance.  Two men entered his cell first and ordered him to come forth.  He refused, and they failing to drag him out, others entered.  He scratched and bit his assailants, wounding several of them severely with his teeth.  The mob retaliated by striking and cutting him with fists and knives.  When he reached the steps leading down to the door he made another stand and was stabbed again and again.  By the time he reached the lobby his power to resist was gone, and he was shoved along through the mob of yelling, cursing men and boys, who beat, spat upon and slashed the wretch-like demon.  One of the leaders of the mob fell, and the crowd walked ruthlessly over him.  He was badly hurt—­a jawbone fractured and internal injuries inflicted.  After the lynching friends took charge of him.

The mob proceeded north on Front Street with the victim, stopping at Sycamore Street to get a rope from a grocery.  “Take him to the iron bridge on Main Street,” yelled several men.  The men who had hold of the Negro were in a hurry to finish the job, however, and when they reached the telephone pole at the corner of Front Street and the first alley north of Sycamore they stopped.  A hastily improvised noose was slipped over the Negro’s head, and several young men mounted a pile of lumber near the pole and threw the rope over one of the iron stepping pins.  The Negro was lifted up until his feet were three feet above the ground, the rope was made taut, and a corpse dangled in midair.  A big fellow who helped lead the mob pulled the Negro’s legs until his neck cracked.  The wretch’s clothes had been torn off, and, as he swung, the man who pulled his legs mutilated the corpse.

One or two knife cuts, more or less, made little difference in the appearance of the dead rapist, however, for before the rope was around his neck his skin was cut almost to ribbons.  One pistol shot was fired while the corpse was hanging.  A dozen voices protested against the use of firearms, and there was no more shooting.  The body was permitted to hang for half an hour, then it was cut down and the rope divided among those who lingered around the scene of the tragedy.  Then it was suggested that the corpse be burned, and it was done.  The entire performance, from the assault on the jail to the burning of the dead Negro was witnessed by a score or so of policemen and as many deputy sheriffs, but not a hand was lifted to stop the proceedings after the jail door yielded.

As the body hung to the telegraph pole, blood streaming down from the knife wounds in his neck, his hips and lower part of his legs also slashed