n as new policemen.
Late last night half a hundred white citizens got together and planned a
big lynching party which was to raid the city from centre to
circumference to-day.
There were six Negroes in jail who had been arrested during the
excitement of the day, and who some people of the town thought should be
summarily dispatched. One was a leader, Thomas Miller, who was charged
with declaring that he would wash his hands in a white man's blood
before night. Another was A. R. Bryant, charged with being a dangerous
character; the others were less prominent, but had been under the ban of
the whites for conduct calculated to incite trouble.
Mayor Waddell and his associates put a veto upon the proposed lynching.
They said that good government was to prevail in Wilmington from this
time, and would commence immediately. The would-be lynchers were so
insistent that the Mayor called out a guard and kept the jail surrounded
all night. This morning the six Negroes were taken out and escorted to
the north bound train by a detachment of militia, to be banished from
the city. The citizens cheered as they saw them going, for they
considered their departure conducive to peace in the future.
G. Z. French, one of the county leaders, attempted to escape. He ran
through the streets, but was overtaken at the depot by several members
of the posse.
A noose was thrown over his head and was drawn tightly around his neck.
Gasping and half choked, he fell upon his knees, begging for his life.
NEGRO BEGS FOR LIFE.
"Do you solemnly promise that you will leave and never come back?" asked
the leader of the posse.
"Oh, yes; yes. For God's sake, gentlemen, let me go, and I'll never come
back any more!"
The frightened wretch was allowed to go and crawled aboard the train,
scared half to death.
After finishing with French the "red shirts" made a raid on Justice
Bunting's residence. He was away from home. The mob tore from the walls
of his house the picture of his Negro wife and that of Bunting, and put
them on exhibition on Market street.
They were labelled: "R. H. Bunting, white," and "Mrs. R. H. Bunting,
colored." From Bunting's residence the mob proceeded to the house of a
Negro lawyer named Henderson. The hard-knuckled leader knocked at the
door. "Who's there?" came the query. "A white man and a friend," was the
reply. Inside there was the deep silence of hesitation. "Open the door
or we'll break it down," shouted the le
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