of the present day like procedure. It is
true, however, that there are very few lynchings in which these
formulas have not been unconsciously followed. There must be a hue and
cry and pursuit along the trail. The murderer must be immediately
pursued. The person against whom the crime is committed or his next of
kin must raise an immediate outcry, and they and the neighbors must
proceed at once in pursuit. If they caught the criminal within a
reasonable distance or within a reasonable time, they then were
endowed by primitive law with the right to execute justice upon him
themselves. Commonly the criminal was hanged (even for theft) when
caught in the act, but barbarous punishments were not uncommon. That
was legal procedure, provided the cry was raised, the pursuit
undertaken, and the criminal caught within a reasonable number of
hours or days as the case might be. The mob had the right to execute
the law, and it is not often that lynchings take place long periods
after the commission of the crime. Such for many centuries was the law
in Europe for whites. Self-help applied in particular to men of
different tribes or communities who were not of the same blood kin.

If self-help applied under certain conditions within the blood kin as
it unquestionably did, that is to say, within the law, it applied with
greater force to all classes and offenders who were outside the blood
kin and were outside the law. If a stranger or an alien came within
the community bounds and did not sound his horn, community law
sanctioned his instant killing by anyone who met him. Men could not
peaceably enter the precincts of the German tribes as late as the year
500 or 600 A.D. without being liable to instant death unless they
complied with certain definite formularies. Until within five hundred
years, the stranger was practically without rights in any country but
his own, and might be dealt with violently by individuals or bodies of
citizens. One has but to remember the tortures visited upon the Jews
in all European countries with impunity to realize the truth of the
doctrine of self-help when applied to strangers. There was literally
no law to govern the situation. The courts did not deal with it, no
penalties were provided for the restraining of individuals or of the
community at large, dealing with strangers until a relatively recent
time.

Is it not true that the difference in blood between the Negro and the
white man has caused a surviva