ered by the thickly packed
crowd of 10,000 persons. The mass of beings 600 yards in diameter, the
scaffold being the center. After burning the feet and legs, the hot
irons--plenty of fresh ones being at hand--were rolled up and down Smith's
stomach, back, and arms. Then the eyes were burned out and irons were
thrust down his throat.

The men of the Vance family having wreaked vengeance, the crowd piled all
kinds of combustible stuff around the scaffold, poured oil on it and set
it afire. The Negro rolled and tossed out of the mass, only to be pushed
back by the people nearest him. He tossed out again, and was roped and
pulled back. Hundreds of people turned away, but the vast crowd still
looked calmly on. People were here from every part of this section. They
came from Dallas, Fort Worth, Sherman, Denison, Bonham, Texarkana, Fort
Smith, Ark., and a party of fifteen came from Hempstead county, Arkansas,
where he was captured. Every train that came in was loaded to its utmost
capacity, and there were demands at many points for special trains to
bring the people here to see the unparalleled punishment for an
unparalleled crime. When the news of the burning went over the country
like wildfire, at every country town anvils boomed forth the announcement.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN AN ASYLUM

It may not be amiss in connection with this awful affair, in proof of our
assertion that Smith was an imbecile, to give the testimony of a
well-known colored minister, who lived at Paris, Texas, at the time of the
lynching. He was a witness of the awful scenes there enacted, and
attempted, in the name of God and humanity, to interfere in the programme.
He barely escaped with his life, was driven out of the city and became an
exile because of his actions. Reverend King was in New York about the
middle of February, and he was there interviewed for a daily paper for
that city, and we quote his account as an eye witness of the affair. Said
he:

I was ridden out of Paris on a rail because I was the only man in Lamar
county to raise my voice against the lynching of Smith. I opposed the
illegal measures before the arrival of Henry Smith as a prisoner, and I
was warned that I might meet his fate if I was not careful; but the
sense of justice made me bold, and when I saw the poor wretch trembling
with fear, and got so near him that I could hear his teeth chatter, I
determined to stand by him to the last.

I hated him for his crime