at time these boys have been found to be absolutely innocent of the
charge. Of course that discovery is too late to be of any benefit to them,
but because they were Indians the Indian Commissioner demanded and
received from the United States Government an indemnity of $13,000.

April 23, 1899, at Palmetto, Ga., Sam Hose was burned alive in the
presence of a throng, on Sunday afternoon. He was charged with killing a
man named Cranford, his employer, which he admitted he did because his
employer was about to shoot him. To the fact of killing the employer was
added the absolutely false charge that Hose assaulted the wife. Hose was
arrested and no trial was given him. According to the code of reasoning of
the mob, none was needed. A white man had been killed and a white woman
was said to have been assaulted. That was enough. When Hose was found he
had to die.

The Atlanta Constitution, in speaking of the murder of Cranford, said that
the Negro who was suspected would be burned alive. Not only this, but it
offered $500 reward for his capture. After he had been apprehended, it was
publicly announced that he would be burned alive. Excursion trains were
run and bulletins were put up in the small towns. The Governor of Georgia
was in Atlanta while excursion trains were being made up to take visitors
to the burning. Many fair ladies drove out in their carriages on Sunday
afternoon to witness the torture and burning of a human being. Hose's ears
were cut off, then his toes and fingers, and passed round to the crowd.
His eyes were put out, his tongue torn out and flesh cut in strips by
knives. Finally they poured coal oil on him and burned him to death. They
dragged his half-consumed trunk out of the flames, cut it open, extracted
his heart and liver, and sold slices for ten cents each for souvenirs, all
of which was published most promptly in the daily papers of Georgia and
boasted over by the people of that section.

Oct. 19, 1889, at Canton, Miss., Joseph Leflore was burned to death. A
house had been entered and its occupants murdered during the absence of
the husband and father. When the discovery was made, it was immediately
supposed that the crime was the work of a Negro, and the motive that of
assaulting white women.

Bloodhounds were procured and they made a round of the village and
discovered only one colored man absent from his home. This was taken to be
proof sufficient that he was the perpetrator of the deed. When he