| Show TEE URBANA TRAGEDY The tragedy at Urbana 0 is a deplorable de-plorable affair in every respect It is deplorable that the assault by the negro Mitchell upon a respected woman was made I is deplorable that a couple of citizens were killed by the militia in repelling the assault upon the jail it is deplorable that the man Mitchell was finally lynched I The man who had made the assault upon the woman was in the hands of I the officers Moreover he had pleaded guilty and been given the full penalty 1 of the law What more could the people of Urbana ask I is evident they did nOt care 5 much to vindicate the lnw as to wreak vengeance on the prisoner I Being in the hands of officers It was their duty to protect him at < all hazards and this they started out to dobut failed ignominiously That mob had no business around the jail where the prisoner pris-oner was confined and I was there simply to get possession of the prisoner to lynch him this was eventually done The militia company only did Its duty when it opened fire but why it ceased to do its duty at the last moment is j inexplicable Had the Springfield com j pany been marched up to the jail the majesty of the law would most likely I have been maintained This was not done The deputy sheriff told the cpI tan of the company the milKia was I not needed so I returned to the depot That deputy sheriff was an accessory I before the fact to the murder through lynching of the prisoner Mitchell The Ohio people are shoving themselves them-selves quite as ready to indulge in lynchings as the people of Tennessee and the manner in which they jumped upon and beat their victim before they hang him shows they could very soon be induced to burn a man at the stake So far a3 the course of the local company com-pany of militia is concerned there is this to be sakl in extenuation of Its action in refusing to do more to repel the mob that there was the discouraging discourag-ing Washington court house case in which men members cf the militia were pursued and hounded as thouch theV had been outlaws for merely doing do-ing their duty One cannot help wondering won-dering whether the Urbana affair is to be a repetition of the Washington court house affair I it is it will be an additional ad-ditional disgrace put upon Ohio |
