red Negroes among us, and it is truly unfortunate that they should
have to pay, even in part, the penalty of the offenses committed by the
baser sort, but this is the way of the world. The innocent must suffer
for the guilty. If the Negroes as a people possessed a hundredth part of
the self-respect which is evidenced by the courteous bearing of some
that the _Scimitar_ could name, the friction between the races would be
reduced to a minimum. It will not do to beg the question by pleading
that many white men are also stirring up strife. The Caucasian
blackguard simply obeys the promptings of a depraved disposition, and he
is seldom deliberately rough or offensive toward strangers or
unprotected women.

The Negro tough, on the contrary, is given to just that kind of
offending, and he almost invariably singles out white people as his
victims.

On March 9, 1892, there were lynched in this same city three of the best
specimens of young since-the-war Afro-American manhood. They were
peaceful, law-abiding citizens and energetic business men.

They believed the problem was to be solved by eschewing politics and
putting money in the purse. They owned a flourishing grocery business in a
thickly populated suburb of Memphis, and a white man named Barrett had one
on the opposite corner. After a personal difficulty which Barrett sought
by going into the "People's Grocery" drawing a pistol and was thrashed by
Calvin McDowell, he (Barrett) threatened to "clean them out." These men
were a mile beyond the city limits and police protection; hearing that
Barrett's crowd was coming to attack them Saturday night, they mustered
forces, and prepared to defend themselves against the attack.

When Barrett came he led a _posse_ of officers, twelve in number, who
afterward claimed to be hunting a man for whom they had a warrant. That
twelve men in citizen's clothes should think it necessary to go in the
night to hunt one man who had never before been arrested, or made any
record as a criminal has never been explained. When they entered the back
door the young men thought the threatened attack was on, and fired into
them. Three of the officers were wounded, and when the _defending_ party
found it was officers of the law upon whom they had fired, they ceased and
got away.

Thirty-one men were arrested and thrown in jail as "conspirators,"
although they all declared more than once they did not know they were
firing on o