The next morning, in a house in the coloured section of Central City, there sat a girl. … Her eyes were dry. … Her face was that of despair. … Her grief was too deep for tears. … In her lap there lay a soft, white, lustrous, fluffy mass. … It looked like cream charmeuse … looked like a wedding-gown. … A woman entered the room. … Her eyes were haggard. … Around her shoulders an apron. … She’d put it on, thinking it a shawl. …
“Honey! Honey!” she cried. “Mamie was sleeping … so I ran over a minute.” … She put her arms around the younger woman tenderly. … The dam broke. … The relief of tears came. … Hot, blinding, scalding tears rained down on the soft mass that now would never be used. … And the women cried together. …
In the newspapers of the country there appeared the same day an Associated Press dispatch. It was sent out by Nat Phelps, editor of the Central City Dispatch and local agent for the Associated Press. It read:
Another Negro Lynched in Georgia
Central City, GA, Sept. 15.—“Doc” Harper, a negro, was lynched here tonight, charged with attempted criminal assault on a white woman, the wife of a prominent citizen of this city. The husband was away from the city on business at the time, his wife and young daughter, who is seriously ill, being alone in the house. Harper evidently became frightened before accomplishing his purpose and was caught as he ran from the house. He is said to have confessed before being put to death by a mob which numbered five thousand. He was burned at the stake.
This is the second lynching in Central City this week. On Thursday morning Bob Harper, a brother of the Negro lynched today, was killed by a posse after he had run amuck and killed two young white men. No reason could be found for their murder at the hands of the Negro, as they had always borne excellent reputations in the community. It is thought the Negro had become temporarily insane.
In a telegram to the Governor today, Sheriff Parker reported that all was quiet in the city and he anticipated no further trouble.
Colophon
The Fire in the Flint
was published in by
Walter White.
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