became general, and ere it was ended nine men were dead and
more than forty wounded.

This stubborn stand on behalf of law and order disconcerted the crowd and
it fell back in disorder. It did not long remain inactive but assembled
again for a second assault. Having only a small band of militia, and
knowing they would be absolutely at the mercy of the thousands who were
gathering to wreak vengeance upon them, the mayor ordered them to disperse
and go to their homes, and he himself, having been wounded, was quietly
conveyed out of the city.

The next day the mob grew in numbers and its rage increased in its
intensity. There was no longer any doubt that Smith, innocent as he was of
any crime, would be killed, for with the mayor out of the city and the
governor of the state using no effort to control the mob, it was only a
question of a few hours when the assault would be repeated and its victim
put to death. All this happened as per programme. The description of that
morning's carnival appeared in the paper above quoted and reads as
follows:

A squad of twenty men took the negro Smith from three policemen just
before five o'clock this morning and hanged him to a hickory limb on
Ninth Avenue, in the residence section of the city. They riddled his
body with bullets and put a placard on it saying: "This is Mayor Trout's
friend." A coroner's jury of Bismel was summoned and viewed the body and
rendered a verdict of death at the hands of unknown men. Thousands of
persons visited the scene of the lynching between daylight and eight
o'clock when the body was cut down. After the jury had completed its
work the body was placed in the hands of officers, who were unable to
keep back the mob. Three hundred men tried to drag the body through the
streets of the town, but the Rev. Dr. Campbell of the First Presbyterian
church and Capt. R.B. Moorman, with pleas and by force prevented them.

Capt. Moorman hired a wagon and the body was put in it. It was then
conveyed to the bank of the Roanoke, about two miles from the scene of
the lynching. Here the body was dragged from the wagon by ropes for
about 200 yards and burned. Piles of dry brushwood were brought, and the
body was placed upon it, and more brushwood piled on the body, leaving
only the head bare. The whole pile was then saturated with coal oil and
a match was applied. The body was consumed within an hour. The cremation
was witnessed by