| Show THE birmingham TRAGEDY THE scenes which occurred at birmingham ming bam alabama on saturday night and sunday morning are entitled to a place in the volume of borrois as one of 0 its most conspicuous eb chapters apters the terrible terrin le transactions are mina minutely tely detailed in our report today but ol of course no DO mere verbal description can convey even a lemoie remote idea of the situation as it Is at the scene 0 the great disasters nor can anything we are able to say saly add to its ing or descriptive character A man in jail on a charge of having murdered his bis wife and two is wanted by a mob at least an unauthorized body of armed meu men in order that the laws delay delav may be obviated and a species of jantice at itice which contains over much of vengeance be sati satisfied sAed at once the sheriff being the officer ol of the law having charge ot 01 the prisoner cannot recognize the demands made tor for suren surrender cier and takes proper precautions to uphold the law unit ana maintain his own position as its servant this necessitates force deadly force and when entre entreaties entreaty ati es fail fab and he gathering not only show a disposition to overcome all impediments i merits but ac actually LuallY a as the itie sheriff sayo are the first ahot tie he orders the deadly gatling discharged and the death of a lot of men inen and the wounding ot of perhaps twice as many more is the result this was a desperate thing to do bat we should also consider that in upholding the law toe tae officer was involuntarily placed in a deb desperate position tift he be had to meet force with force sufficient to overcome even though among the slain were some that were entirely innocent of participation in nor or sympathy with the mob the facts when all can be coolly and deliberately summed up will snow whether he be acted with undue haste or not but that on the face of the thing there was nothing criminal in his bi conduct conduce appears on the face of the affair naturally rally there was and is great excitement cit ement in birmingham and the neighboring country rumors of a more or less lurid character and threats of vengeance dire and deadly against the officers were for a time so numerous and dangerous that perhaps the arrest of the officers and p placing g them in jail was the best thing afe ahat t C could be done this may have toe e effect of so far satisfying the robbers that they will desist tor for the present and with every hour of time thus gained the danger of a general conflict naturally diminishes unless in the interim something new of an inflammatory nature should be developed |
