Salt Lake Herald | 1896-11-17 | Page 8 | His Nerve Saved Him

HIS XEKATJ SAVED HIM Coolness of Tom SyUes at u Very Critical Time Columbus Ga Nov 16The cool 1ov ness of Tom Sykes a white man who ha been working for the Southern railway rail-way saved him from being lynched and ha just resulted In his acquittal by the courts of a heinous crime Sykes was arrested and charged with making an assault upon Louise Crouch the daughter of a farmer living near this city His description tallied with that of a tramp who visited the city and who was supposed to have attempted the outrage He was identified by the child and her mother A crowd of angry countrymen neigh 1 1 J j hors and friends of the Crouchs surrounded sur-rounded the man armed with rifles Two men called for the death of the man A rope was placed around his neck but standing there and looking them in the eye lie declared his innocence in-nocence daring the men to put upon themselves and their childern the curse of having taken the life of an innocent man His coolness resulted in his being be-ing turned over to the proper authorities authori-ties and the full investigation by the courts has resulted iii his acquittal