"Having a bedroom adjoining my office, I spent that night in town. I did not go to sleep until late, and had not been asleep long when I was awakened by the continual repetition of a monotonous sound. At first I thought I was dreaming, but as I aroused it came to me distinctly: the sound of blows in the distance struck regularly. I awaked fully. The noise was in the direction of the jail. I dressed hastily and went down on the street. I stepped into the arms of a half-dozen masked men who quietly laid me on my back, blindfolded me and bound me so that I could not move. I threatened and struggled; but to no purpose, and finally gave it up and tried expostulation. They told me that they intended no harm to me; but that I was their prisoner and they meant to keep me. They had come for their man, they said, and they meant to have him. They were perfectly quiet and acted with the precision of old soldiers. "All the time I could hear the blows at the jail as the mob pounded the iron door with sledges, and now and then a shout or cry from within. Then one great roar went up and the blows ceased suddenly, and then one cry. "The blows were on the inner door, for the mob had gained access to the outer. They had come prepared and, stout as the door was, it could not resist long. "In a little while I heard the regular tramp of men, and in a few minutes the column came up the street, marching like soldiers. There must have been five hundred of them. The prisoner was in the midst, bare-headed and walking between two mounted men, and was moaning and pleading and cursing by turns. "I asked my captors if I might speak, and they gave me ten minutes. I stood up on the top step of the house, and for a quarter of an hour I made what I consider to have been the best speech I ever made or shall make. I told them in closing that I should use all my powers to find out who they were, and if I could I should prosecute them, every one, and try and have them hanged for murder. "They heard me patiently, but without a word, and when I was through, one of the leaders made a short reply. They agreed with me about the law; but they felt that the way it was being used was such as to cause a failure of justice. They had waited patiently, and were apparently no nearer seeing justice executed than in the beginning. So they proposed to take the law into their own hands. The remedy was, to do away with all but proper defences and execute the law without unreasonable delay. "It was the first mob I had ever seen, and I experienced a sensation of utter powerlessness and insignificance; just as in a vast disturbance of the elements—a storm at sea, a hurricane, a conflagration. The individual disappeared before the irresistible force. "An order was given and the column moved on silently. "A question arose among my guards as to what should be done with me.