Mob Law

Danville, Illinois, is the latest community to come to the front with the lynching of a colored man. The mania for burning human beings at the stake seems to be spreading. Our people seem to find a something in the writhings of the burning wretch as he slowly consumes in the flames to satisfy their savage instincts. It is horrible and the brutalizing influence is terrible to contemplate, but it must be acknowledged that this species of savagery is in our people. Nor is it confined to any particular section. The spirit is just as rampant at Danville, Illinois, Evansville, Indiana, and Wilmington, Delaware, as in Texas or Alabama or South Carolina. It is to be said, however, to the everlasting credit of Governor Durbin of Indiana that he prevented the consummation of the murderous impulses of the mob at Evansville. The apparently rapid development of this heathenish spirit is alarming and it ought to arouse every officer of the law to the full performance of his duties, no matter what the consequences may be to the members of the mob. Apparently the only way to take care of these murderers and burners of human beings is by the methods pursued by Gov. Durbin, of Indiana, for no jury seems disposed to mete out justice to the "respectable citizens" who thus indulge their savage instincts. If the mob understood that a similar treatment would be extended to all indulging their disposition to lynch a fellow being, there would be fewer mobs and fewer lynchings.