On the 19th the Constitution assures the public that interest in the
pursuit of Hose does not lag, and in proof of the zeal of the pursuers
said:
“‘If Hose is on earth I’ll never rest easy until he’s caught and burned
alive. And that’s the way all of us feel,’ said one of them last night.”
Clark Howell, editor, and W. A. Hemphill, business manager, of the
Constitution, had offered through their paper a reward of five hundred
dollars for the arrest of the fugitive. This reward, together with the
persistent suggestion that the Negro be burned as soon as caught, make
it plain as day that the purpose to burn Hose at the stake was formed by
the leading citizens of Georgia. The Constitution offered the reward to
capture him, and then day after day suggested and predicted that he be
burned when caught. The Chicago anarchists were hanged, not because they
threw the bomb, but because they incited to that act the unknown man who
did throw it. Pity that the same law cannot be carried into force in
Georgia!
Hose was caught Saturday night, April 23, and let the Constitution tell
the story of his torture and death.
From the issue of April 24th the following account is condensed:
Newman, Ga., April 23.--(Special.)--Sam Hose, the Negro murderer of
Alfred Cranford and the assailant of Cranford’s wife, was burned at
the stake one mile and a quarter from this place this afternoon at
2:30 o’clock. Fully 2,000 people surrounded the small sapling to
which he was fastened and watched the flames eat away his flesh,
saw his body mutilated by knives and witnessed the contortions of
his body in his extreme agony.
Such suffering has seldom been witnessed, and through it all the
Negro uttered hardly a cry. During the contortions of his body
several blood vessels bursted. The spot selected was an ideal one
for such an affair, and the stake was in full view of those who
stood about and with unfeigned satisfaction saw the Negro meet his
death and saw him tortured before the flames killed him.
A few smoldering ashes scattered about the place, a blackened
stake, are all that is left to tell the story. Not even the bones
of the Negro were left in the place, but were eagerly snatched by a
crowd of people drawn here from all directions, who almost fought
over the burning body of the man, carving it with knives and
seeking souvenirs of the occurrence.
Preparations for the execution were not necessarily elaborate, and
it required only a few minutes to arrange to make Sam Hose pay the
penalty of his crime. To the sapling Sam Hose was tied, and he
watched the cool, determined men who went about arranging to burn
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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