Chapter I: Part 1

MOB RULE IN NEW ORLEANS: ROBERT CHARLES AND HIS FIGHT TO DEATH, THE STORY OF HIS LIFE, BURNING HUMAN BEINGS ALIVE, OTHER LYNCHING STATISTICS

BY

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT

1900

[Transcriber's Note: This pamphlet was first published in 1900 but was subsequently reprinted. It's not apparent if the curiosities in spelling date back to the original or were introduced later; they have been retained as found, and the reader is left to decide. Please verify with another source before quoting this material. Of special note are the names Cantrell/Cantrelle, Porteous/Porteus, and Ziegel/Zeigel.]

+INTRODUCTION+

Immediately after the awful barbarism which disgraced the State of Georgia in April of last year, during which time more than a dozen colored people were put to death with unspeakable barbarity, I published a full report showing that Sam Hose, who was burned to death during that time, never committed a criminal assault, and that he killed his employer in self-defense.

Since that time I have been engaged on a work not yet finished, which I interrupt now to tell the story of the mob in New Orleans, which, despising all law, roamed the streets day and night, searching for colored men and women, whom they beat, shot and killed at will.

In the account of the New Orleans mob I have used freely the graphic reports of the _New Orleans Times-Democrat_ and the _New Orleans Picayune_. Both papers gave the most minute details of the week's disorder. In their editorial comment they were at all times most urgent in their defense of law and in the strongest terms they condemned the infamous work of the mob.

It is no doubt owing to the determined stand for law and order taken by these great dailies and the courageous action taken by the best citizens of New Orleans, who rallied to the support of the civic authorities, that prevented a massacre of colored people awful to contemplate.

For the accounts and illustrations taken from the above-named journals, sincere thanks are hereby expressed.

The publisher hereof does not attempt to moralize over the deplorable condition of affairs shown in this publication, but simply presents the facts in a plain, unvarnished, connected way, so that he who runs may read. We do not believe that the American people who have encouraged such scenes by their indifference will read unmoved these accounts of brutality, injustice and oppression. We do not believe that the moral conscience of the nation--that which is highest and best among us--will always remain silent in face of such outrages, for God is not dead, and His Spirit is not entirely driven from men's hearts.

When this conscience wakes and speaks out in thunder tones, as it must, it will need facts to use as a weapon against injustice, barbarism and wrong. It is for this reason that I carefully compile, print and send forth these facts. If the reader can do no more, he can pass this pamphlet on to another, or send to the bureau addresses of those to whom he can order copies mailed.

Besides the New Orleans case, a history of burnings in this country is given, together with a table of lynchings for the past eighteen years. Those who would like to assist in the work of disseminating these facts, can do so by ordering copies, which are furnished at greatly reduced rates for gratuitous distribution. The bureau has no funds and is entirely dependent upon contributions from friends and members in carrying on the work.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett Chicago, Sept. 1, 1900

MOB RULE IN NEW ORLEANS

+SHOT AN OFFICER+

The bloodiest week which New Orleans has known since the massacre of the Italians in 1892 was ushered in Monday, July 24, by the inexcusable and unprovoked assault upon two colored men by police officers of New Orleans. Fortified by the assurance born of long experience in the New Orleans service, three policemen, Sergeant Aucoin, Officer Mora and Officer Cantrelle, observing two colored men sitting on doorsteps on Dryades street, between Washington Avenue and 6th Streets, determined, without a shadow of authority, to arrest them. One of the colored men was named Robert Charles, the other was a lad of nineteen named Leonard Pierce. The colored men had left their homes, a few blocks distant, about an hour prior, and had been sitting upon the doorsteps for a short time talking together. They had not broken the peace in any way whatever, no warrant was in the policemen's hands justifying their arrest, and no crime had been committed of which they were the suspects. The policemen, however, secure in the firm belief that they could do anything to a Negro that they wished, approached the two men, and in less than three minutes from the time they accosted them attempted to put both colored men under arrest. The younger of the two men, Pierce, submitted to arrest, for the officer, Cantrelle, who accosted him, put his gun in the young man's face ready to blow his brains out if he moved. The other colored man, Charles, was made the victim of a savage attack by Officer Mora, who used a billet and then drew a gun and tried to kill Charles. Charles drew his gun nearly as quickly as the policeman, and began a duel in the street, in which both participants were shot. The policeman got the worst of the duel, and fell helpless to the sidewalk. Charles made his escape. Cantrelle took Pierce, his captive, to the police station, to which place Mora, the wounded officer, was also taken, and a man hunt at once instituted for Charles, the wounded fugitive.

In any law-abiding community Charles would have been justified in delivering himself up immediately to the properly constituted authorities and asking a trial by a jury of his peers. He could have been certain that in resisting an unwarranted arrest he had a right to defend his life, even to the point of taking one in that defense, but Charles knew that his arrest in New Orleans, even for defending his life, meant nothing short of a long term in the penitentiary, and still more probable death by lynching at the hands of a cowardly mob. He very bravely determined to protect his life as long as he had breath in his body and strength to draw a hair trigger on his would-be murderers. How well he was justified in that belief is well shown by the newspaper accounts which were given of this transaction. Without a single line of evidence to justify the assertion, the New Orleans daily papers at once declared that both Pierce and Charles were desperadoes, that they were contemplating a burglary and that they began the assault upon the policemen. It is interesting to note how the two leading papers of New Orleans, the _Picayune_ and the _Times-Democrat_, exert themselves to justify the policemen in the absolutely unprovoked attack upon the two colored men. As these two papers did all in their power to give an excuse for the action of the policemen, it is interesting to note their versions. The _Times-Democrat_ of Tuesday morning, the twenty-fifth, says:

Two blacks, who are desperate men, and no doubt will be proven burglars,
made it interesting and dangerous for three bluecoats on Dryades street,
between Washington Avenue and Sixth Street, the Negroes using pistols
first and dropping Patrolman Mora. But the desperate darkies did not go
free, for the taller of the two, Robinson, is badly wounded and under
cover, while Leonard Pierce is in jail.

For a long time that particular neighborhood has been troubled with bad
Negroes, and the neighbors were complaining to the Sixth Precinct police
about them. But of late Pierce and Robinson had been camping on a door
step on the street, and the people regarded their actions as suspicious.
It got to such a point that some of the residents were afraid to go to
bed, and last night this was told Sergeant Aucoin, who was rounding up
his men. He had just picked up Officers Mora and Cantrell, on Washington
Avenue and Dryades Street, and catching a glimpse of the blacks on the
steps, he said he would go over and warn the men to get away from the
street. So the patrolmen followed, and Sergeant Aucoin asked the smaller
fellow, Pierce, if he lived there. The answer was short and impertinent,
the black saying he did not, and with that both Pierce and Robinson drew
up to their full height.

For the moment the sergeant did not think that the Negroes meant fight,
and he was on the point of ordering them away when Robinson slipped his
pistol from his pocket. Pierce had his revolver out, too, and he fired
twice, point blank at the sergeant, and just then Robinson began
shooting at the patrolmen. In a second or so the policemen and blacks
were fighting with their revolvers, the sergeant having a duel with
Pierce, while Cantrell and Mora drew their line of fire on Robinson, who
was working his revolver for all he was worth. One of his shots took
Mora in the right hip, another caught his index finger on the right
hand, and a third struck the small finger of the left hand. Poor Mora
was done for; he could not fight any more, but Cantrell kept up his
fire, being answered by the big black. Pierce's revolver broke down, the
cartridges snapping, and he threw up his hands, begging for quarter.

The sergeant lowered his pistol and some citizens ran over to where the
shooting was going on. One of the bullets that went at Robinson caught
him in the breast and he began running, turning out Sixth Street, with
Cantrell behind him, shooting every few steps. He was loading his
revolver again, but did not use it after the start he took, and in a
little while Officer Cantrell lost the man in the darkness.

Pierce was made a prisoner and hurried to the Sixth Precinct police
station, where he was charged with shooting and wounding. The sergeant
sent for an ambulance, and Mora was taken to the hospital, the wound in
the hip being serious.

A search was made for Robinson, but he could not be found, and even at 2
o'clock this morning Captain Day, with Sergeant Aucoin and Corporals
Perrier and Trenchard, with a good squad of men, were beating the weeds
for the black.

The _New Orleans Picayune_ of the same date described the occurrence, and from its account one would think it was an entirely different affair. Both of the two accounts cannot be true, and the unquestioned fact is that neither of them sets out the facts as they occurred. Both accounts attempt to fix the beginning of hostilities upon the colored men, but both were compelled to admit that the colored men were sitting on the doorsteps quietly conversing with one another when the three policemen went up and accosted them. The _Times-Democrat_ unguardedly states that one of the two colored men tried to run away; that Mora seized him and then drew his billy and struck him on the head; that Charles broke away from him and started to run, after which the shooting began. The _Picayune_, however, declares that Pierce began the firing and that his two shots point blank at Aucoin were the first shots of the fight. As a matter of fact, Pierce never fired a single shot before he was covered by Aucoin's revolver. Charles and the officers did all the shooting. The _Picayune_'s account is as follows:

Patrolman Mora was shot in the right hip and dangerously wounded last
night at 11:30 o'clock in Dryades Street, between Washington and Sixth,
by two Negroes, who were sitting on a door step in the neighborhood.

The shooting of Patrolman Mora brings to memory the fact that he was one
of the partners of Patrolman Trimp, who was shot by a Negro soldier of
the United States government during the progress of the Spanish-American
war. The shooting of Mora by the Negro last night is a very simple
story. At the hour mentioned, three Negro women noticed two suspicious
men sitting on a door step in the above locality. The women saw the two
men making an apparent inspection of the building. As they told the
story, they saw the men look over the fence and examine the window
blinds, and they paid particular attention to the make-up of the
building, which was a two-story affair. About that time Sergeant J.C.
Aucoin and Officers Mora and J.D. Cantrell hove in sight. The women
hailed them and described to them the suspicious actions of the two
Negroes, who were still sitting on the step. The trio of bluecoats, on
hearing the facts, at once crossed the street and accosted the men. The
latter answered that they were waiting for a friend whom they were
expecting. Not satisfied with this answer, the sergeant asked them where
they lived, and they replied "down town," but could not designate the
locality. To other questions put by the officers the larger of the two
Negroes replied that they had been in town just three days.

As this reply was made, the larger man sprang to his feet, and Patrolman
Mora, seeing that he was about to run away, seized him. The Negro took a
firm hold on the officer, and a scuffle ensued. Mora, noting that he was
not being assisted by his brother officers, drew his billy and struck
the Negro on the head. The blow had but little effect upon the man, for
he broke away and started down the street. When about ten feet away, the
Negro drew his revolver and opened fire on the officer, firing three or
four shots. The third shot struck Mora in the right hip, and was
subsequently found to have taken an upward course. Although badly
wounded, Mora drew his pistol and returned the fire. At his third shot
the Negro was noticed to stagger, but he did not fall. He continued his
flight. At this moment Sergeant Aucoin seized the other Negro, who
proved to be a youth, Leon Pierce. As soon as Officer Mora was shot he
sank to the sidewalk, and the other officer ran to the nearest
telephone, and sent in a call for the ambulance. Upon its arrival the
wounded officer was placed in it and conveyed to the hospital. An
examination by the house surgeon revealed the fact that the bullet had
taken an upward course. In the opinion of the surgeon the wound was a
dangerous one.

But the best proof of the fact that the officers accosted the two colored men and without any warrant or other justification attempted to arrest them, and did actually seize and begin to club one of them, is shown by Officer Mora's own statement. The officer was wounded and had every reason in the world to make his side of the story as good as possible. His statement was made to a _Picayune_ reporter and the same was published on the twenty-fifth inst., and is as follows:

I was in the neighborhood of Dryades and Washington Streets, with
Sergeant Aucoin and Officer Cantrell, when three Negro women came up and
told us that there were two suspicious-looking Negroes sitting on a step
on Dryades Street, between Washington and Sixth. We went to the place
indicated and found two Negroes. We interrogated them as to who they
were, what they were doing and how long they had been here. They replied
that they were working for some one and had been in town three days. At
about this stage the larger of the two Negroes got up and I grabbed him.
The Negro pulled, but I held fast, and he finally pulled me into the
street. Here I began using my billet, and the Negro jerked from my grasp
and ran. He then pulled a gun and fired. I pulled my gun and returned
the fire, each of us firing about three shots. I saw the Negro stumble
several times, and I thought I had shot him, but he ran away and I don't
know whether any of my shots took effect. Sergeant Aucoin in the
meantime held the other man fast. The man was about ten feet from me
when he fired, and the three Negresses who told us about the men stood
away about twenty-five feet from the shooting.

Thus far in the proceeding the Monday night episode results in Officer Mora lying in the station wounded in the hip; Leonard Pierce, one of the colored men, locked up in the station, and Robert Charles, the other colored man, a fugitive, wounded in the leg and sought for by the entire police force of New Orleans. Not sought for, however, to be placed under arrest and given a fair trial and punished if found guilty according to the law of the land, but sought for by a host of enraged, vindictive and fearless officers, who were coolly ordered to kill him on sight. This order is shown by the _Picayune_ of the twenty-sixth inst., in which the following statement appears:

In talking to the sergeant about the case, the captain asked about the
Negro's fighting ability, and the sergeant answered that Charles, though
he called him Robinson then, was a desperate man, and it would be best
to shoot him before he was given a chance to draw his pistol upon any of
the officers.

This instruction was given before anybody had been killed, and the only evidence that Charles was a desperate man lay in the fact that he had refused to be beaten over the head by Officer Mora for sitting on a step quietly conversing with a friend. Charles resisted an absolutely unlawful attack, and a gun fight followed. Both Mora and Charles were shot, but because Mora was white and Charles was black, Charles was at once declared to be a desperado, made an outlaw, and subsequently a price put upon his head and the mob authorized to shoot him like a dog, on sight.

The New Orleans _Picayune_ of Wednesday morning said:

But he has gone, perhaps to the swamps, and the disappointment of the
bluecoats in not getting the murderer is expressed in their curses, each
man swearing that the signal to halt that will be offered Charles will
be a shot.

In that same column of the _Picayune_ it was said:

Hundreds of policemen were about; each corner was guarded by a squad,
commanded either by a sergeant or a corporal, and every man had the word
to shoot the Negro as soon as he was sighted. He was a desperate black
and would be given no chance to take more life.

Legal sanction was given to the mob or any man of the mob to kill Charles at sight by the Mayor of New Orleans, who publicly proclaimed a reward of two hundred and fifty dollars, not for the arrest of Charles, not at all, but the reward was offered for Charles's body, "dead or alive." The advertisement was as follows:

+$250 REWARD+

Under the authority vested in me by law, I hereby offer, in the name of
the city of New Orleans, $250 reward for the capture and delivery, dead
or alive, to the authorities of the city, the body of the Negro
murderer,

+ROBERT CHARLES+,

who, on Tuesday morning, July 24, shot and killed

Police Captain John T. Day and Patrolman Peter J. Lamb, and wounded

Patrolman August T. Mora.

PAUL CAPDEVIELLE, Mayor

This authority, given by the sergeant to kill Charles on sight, would have been no news to Charles, nor to any colored man in New Orleans, who, for any purpose whatever, even to save his life, raised his hand against a white man. It is now, even as it was in the days of slavery, an unpardonable sin for a Negro to resist a white man, no matter how unjust or unprovoked the white man's attack may be. Charles knew this, and knowing to be captured meant to be killed, he resolved to sell his life as dearly as possible.

The next step in the terrible tragedy occurred between 2:30 and 5 o'clock Tuesday morning, about four hours after the affair on Dryades Street. The man hunt, which had been inaugurated soon after Officer Mora had been carried to the station, succeeded in running down Robert Charles, the wounded fugitive, and located him at 2023 4th Street. It was nearly 2 o'clock in the morning when a large detail of police surrounded the block with the intent to kill Charles on sight. Capt. Day had charge of the squad of police. Charles, the wounded man, was in his house when the police arrived, fully prepared, as results afterward showed, to die in his own home. Capt. Day started for Charles's room. As soon as Charles got sight of him there was a flash, a report, and Day fell dead in his tracks. In another instant Charles was standing in the door, and seeing Patrolman Peter J. Lamb, he drew his gun, and Lamb fell dead. Two other officers, Sergeant Aucoin and Officer Trenchard, who were in the squad, seeing their comrades, Day and Lamb, fall dead, concluded to raise the siege, and both disappeared into an adjoining house, where they blew out their lights so that their cowardly carcasses could be safe from Charles's deadly aim. The calibre of their courage is well shown by the fact that they concluded to save themselves from any harm by remaining prisoners in that dark room until daybreak, out of reach of Charles's deadly rifle. Sergeant Aucoin, who had been so brave a few hours before when seeing the two colored men sitting on the steps, talking together on Dryades Street, and supposing that neither was armed, now showed his true calibre. Now he knew that Charles had a gun and was brave enough to use it, so he hid himself in a room two hours while Charles deliberately walked out of his room and into the street after killing both Lamb and Day. It is also shown, as further evidence of the bravery of some of New Orleans' "finest," that one of them, seeing Capt. Day fall, ran seven blocks before he stopped, afterwards giving the excuse that he was hunting for a patrol box.

At daybreak the officers felt safe to renew the attack upon Charles, so they broke into his room, only to find that--what they probably very well knew--he had gone. It appears that he made his escape by crawling through a hole in the ceiling to a little attic in his house. Here he found that he could not escape except by a window which led into an alley, which had no opening on 4th Street. He scaled the fence and was soon out of reach.

It was now 5 o'clock Tuesday morning, and a general alarm was given. Sergeant Aucoin and Corporal Trenchard, having received a new supply of courage by returning daylight, renewed their effort to capture the man that they had allowed to escape in the darkness. Citizens were called upon to participate in the man hunt and New Orleans was soon the scene of terrible excitement. Officers were present everywhere, and colored men were arrested on all sides upon the pretext that they were impertinent and "game niggers." An instance is mentioned in the _Times-Democrat_ of the twenty-fifth and shows the treatment which unoffending colored men received at the hands of some of the officers. This instance shows Corporal Trenchard, who displayed such remarkable bravery on Monday night in dodging Charles's revolver, in his true light. It shows how brave a white man is when he has a gun attacking a Negro who is a helpless prisoner. The account is as follows:

The police made some arrests in the neighborhood of the killing of the
two officers. Mobs of young darkies gathered everywhere. These Negroes
talked and joked about the affair, and many of them were for starting a
race war on the spot. It was not until several of these little gangs
amalgamated and started demonstrations that the police commenced to
act. Nearly a dozen arrests were made within an hour, and everybody in
the vicinity was in a tremor of excitement.

It was about 1 o'clock that the Negroes on Fourth Street became very
noisy, and George Meyers, who lives on Sixth Street, near Rampart,
appeared to be one of the prime movers in a little riot that was rapidly
developing. Policeman Exnicios and Sheridan placed him under arrest, and
owing to the fact that the patrol wagon had just left with a number of
prisoners, they walked him toward St. Charles Avenue in order to get a
conveyance to take him to the Sixth Precinct station.

A huge crowd of Negroes followed the officers and their prisoners.
Between Dryades and Baronne, on Sixth, Corporal Trenchard met the trio.
He had his pistol in his hand and he came on them running. The Negroes
in the wake of the officers, and prisoner took to flight immediately.
Some disappeared through gates and some over fences and into yards, for
Trenchard, visibly excited, was waving his revolver in the air and was
threatening to shoot. He joined the officers in their walk toward St.
Charles Street, and the way he acted led the white people who were
witnessing the affair to believe that his prisoner was the wanted Negro.
At every step he would punch him or hit him with the barrel of his
pistol, and the onlookers cried, "Lynch him!" "Kill him!" and other
expressions until the spectators were thoroughly wrought up. At St.
Charles Street Trenchard desisted, and, calling an empty ice wagon,
threw the Negro into the body of the vehicle and ordered Officer
Exnicios to take him to the Sixth Precinct station.

The ride to the station was a wild one. Exnicios had all he could do to
watch his prisoner. A gang climbed into the wagon and administered a
terrible thrashing to the black en route. It took a half hour to reach
the police station, for the mule that was drawing the wagon was not
overly fast. When the station was reached a mob of nearly 200 howling
white youths was awaiting it. The noise they made was something
terrible. Meyers was howling for mercy before he reached the ground. The
mob dragged him from the wagon, the officer with him. Then began a
torrent of abuse for the unfortunate prisoner.

The station door was but thirty feet away, but it took Exnicios nearly
five minutes to fight his way through the mob to the door. There were no
other officers present, and the station seemed to be deserted. Neither
the doorman nor the clerk paid any attention to the noise on the
outside. As the result, the maddened crowd wrought their vengeance on
the Negro. He was punched, kicked, bruised and torn. The clothes were
ripped from his back, while his face after that few minutes was
unrecognizable.

This was the treatment accorded and permitted to a helpless prisoner because he was black. All day Wednesday the man hunt continued. The excitement caused by the deaths of Day and Lamb became intense. The officers of the law knew they were trailing a man whose aim was deadly and whose courage they had never seen surpassed. Commenting upon the marksmanship of the man which the paper styled a fiend, the _Times-Democrat_ of Wednesday said:

One of the extraordinary features of the tragedy was the marksmanship
displayed by the Negro desperado. His aim was deadly and his coolness
must have been something phenomenal. The two shots that killed Captain
Day and Patrolman Lamb struck their victims in the head, a circumstance
remarkable enough in itself, considering the suddenness and fury of the
onslaught and the darkness that reigned in the alley way.

Later on Charles fired at Corporal Perrier, who was standing at least
seventy-five yards away. The murderer appeared at the gate, took
lightning aim along the side of the house, and sent a bullet whizzing
past the officer's ear. It was a close shave, and a few inches'
deflection would no doubt have added a fourth victim to the list.

At the time of the affray there is good reason to believe that Charles
was seriously wounded, and at any event he had lost quantities of blood.
His situation was as critical as it is possible to imagine, yet he shot
like an expert in a target range. The circumstance shows the desperate
character of the fiend, and his terrible dexterity with weapons makes
him one of the most formidable monsters that has ever been loose upon
the community.

Wednesday New Orleans was in the hands of a mob. Charles, still sought for and still defending himself, had killed four policemen, and everybody knew that he intended to die fighting. Unable to vent its vindictiveness and bloodthirsty vengeance upon Charles, the mob turned its attention to other colored men who happened to get in the path of its fury. Even colored women, as has happened many times before, were assaulted and beaten and killed by the brutal hoodlums who thronged the streets. The reign of absolute lawlessness began about 8 o'clock Wednesday night. The mob gathered near the Lee statue and was soon making its way to the place where the officers had been shot by Charles. Describing the mob, the _Times-Democrat_ of Thursday morning says:

The gathering in the square, which numbered about 700, eventually became
in a measure quiet, and a large, lean individual, in poor attire and
with unshaven face, leaped upon a box that had been brought for the
purpose, and in a voice that under no circumstances could be heard at a
very great distance, shouted: "Gentlemen, I am the Mayor of Kenner." He
did not get a chance for some minutes to further declare himself, for
the voice of the rabble swung over his like a huge wave over a sinking
craft. He stood there, however, wildly waving his arms and demanded a
hearing, which was given him when the uneasiness of the mob was quieted
for a moment or so.

"I am from Kenner, gentlemen, and I have come down to New Orleans
tonight to assist you in teaching the blacks a lesson. I have killed a
Negro before, and in revenge of the wrong wrought upon you and yours, I
am willing to kill again. The only way that you can teach these Niggers
a lesson and put them in their place is to go out and lynch a few of
them as an object lesson. String up a few of them, and the others will
trouble you no more. That is the only thing to do--kill them, string
them up, lynch them! I will lead you, if you will but follow. On to the
Parish Prison and lynch Pierce!"

They bore down on the Parish Prison like an avalanche, but the avalanche
split harmlessly on the blank walls of the jail, and Remy Klock sent out
a brief message: "You can't have Pierce, and you can't get in." Up to
that time the mob had had no opposition, but Klock's answer chilled them
considerably. There was no deep-seated desperation in the crowd after
all, only, that wild lawlessness which leads to deeds of cruelty, but
not to stubborn battle. Around the corner from the prison is a row of
pawn and second-hand shops, and to these the mob took like the ducks to
the proverbial mill-pond, and the devastation they wrought upon Mr.
Fink's establishment was beautiful in its line.

Everything from breast pins to horse pistols went into the pockets of
the crowd, and in the melee a man was shot down, while just around the
corner somebody planted a long knife in the body of a little newsboy for
no reason as yet shown. Every now and then a Negro would be flushed
somewhere in the outskirts of the crowd and left beaten to a pulp. Just
how many were roughly handled will never be known, but the unlucky
thirteen had been severely beaten and maltreated up to a late hour, a
number of those being in the Charity Hospital under the bandages and
courtplaster of the doctors.

The first colored man to meet death at the hands of the mob was a passenger on a street car. The mob had broken itself into fragments after its disappointment at the jail, each fragment looking for a Negro to kill. The bloodthirsty cruelty of one crowd is thus described by the _Times-Democrat_:

"We will get a Nigger down here, you bet!" was the yelling boast that
went up from a thousand throats, and for the first time the march of the
mob was directed toward the downtown sections. The words of the rioters
were prophetic, for just as Canal Street was reached a car on the
Villere line came along.

"Stop that car!" cried half a hundred men. The advance guard, heeding
the injunction, rushed up to the slowly moving car, and several, seizing
the trolley, jerked it down.

"Here's a Nigro!" said half a dozen men who sprang upon the car.

The car was full of passengers at the time, among them several women.
When the trolley was pulled down and the car thrown in total darkness,
the latter began to scream, and for a moment or so it looked as if the
life of every person in the car was in peril, for some of the crowd with
demoniacal yells of "There he goes!" began to fire their weapons
indiscriminately. The passengers in the car hastily jumped to the ground
and joined the crowd, as it was evidently the safest place to be.

"Where's that Nigger?" was the query passed along the line, and with
that the search began in earnest. The Negro, after jumping off the car,
lost himself for a few moments in the crowd, but after a brief search he
was again located. The slight delay seemed, if possible, only to whet
the desire of the bloodthirsty crowd, for the reappearance of the Negro
was the signal for a chorus of screams and pistol shots directed at the
fugitive. With the speed of a deer, the man ran straight from the corner
of Canal and Villere to Customhouse Street. The pursuers, closely
following, kept up a running fire, but notwithstanding the fact that
they were right at the Negro's heels their aim was poor and their
bullets went wide of the mark.

The Negro, on reaching Customhouse Street, darted from the sidewalk out
into the middle of the street. This was the worst maneuver that he could
have made, as it brought him directly under the light from an arc lamp,
located on a nearby corner. When the Negro came plainly in view of the
foremost of the closely following mob they directed a volley at him.
Half a dozen pistols flashed simultaneously, and one of the bullets
evidently found its mark, for the Negro stopped short, threw up his
hands, wavered for a moment, and then started to run again. This stop,
slight as it was, proved fatal to the Negro's chances, for he had not
gotten twenty steps farther when several of the men in advance of the
others reached his side. A burly fellow, grabbing him with one hand,
dealt him a terrible blow on the head with the other. The wounded man
sank to the ground. The crowd pressed around him and began to beat him
and stamp him. The men in the rear pressed forward and those beating the
man were shoved forward. The half-dead Negro, when he was freed from his
assailants, crawled over to the gutter. The men behind, however, stopped
pushing when those in front yelled, "We've got him," and then it was
that the attack on the bleeding Negro was resumed. A vicious kick
directed at the Negro's head sent him into the gutter, and for a moment
the body sank from view beneath the muddy, slimy water. "Pull him out;
don't let him drown," was the cry, and instantly several of the men
around the half-drowned Negro bent down and drew the body out. Twisting
the body around they drew the head and shoulders up on the street, while
from the waist down the Negro's body remained under the water. As soon
as the crowd saw that the Negro was still alive they again began to beat
and kick him. Every few moments they would stop and striking matches
look into the man's face to see if he still lived. To better see if he
was dead they would stick lighted matches to his eyes. Finally,
believing he was dead they left him and started out to look for other
Negroes. Just about this time some one yelled, "He ain't dead," and the
men came back and renewed the attack. While the men were beating and
pounding the prostrate form with stones and sticks a man in the crowd
ran up, and crying, "I'll fix the d--- Negro," poked the muzzle of a
pistol almost against the body and fired. This shot must have ended the
man's life, for he lay like a stone, and realizing that they were
wasting energy in further attacks, the men left their victim lying in
the street.

The same paper, on the same day, July 26, describes the brutal butchery of an aged colored man early in the morning:

Baptiste Philo, a Negro, seventy-five years of age, was a victim of mob
violence at Kerlerec and North Peters Streets about 2:30 o'clock this
morning. The old man is employed about the French Market, and was on his
way there when he was met by a crowd and desperately shot. The old man
found his way to the Third Precinct police station, where it was found
that he had received a ghastly wound in the abdomen. The ambulance was
summoned and he was conveyed to the Charity Hospital. The students
pronounced the wound fatal after a superficial examination.

Mob rule continued Thursday, its violence increasing every hour, until 2 p.m., when the climax seemed to be reached. The fact that colored men and women had been made the victims of brutal mobs, chased through the streets, killed upon the highways and butchered in their homes, did not call the best element in New Orleans to active exertion in behalf of law and order. The killing of a few Negroes more or less by irresponsible mobs does not cut much figure in Louisiana. But when the reign of mob law exerts a depressing influence upon the stock market and city securities begin to show unsteady standing in money centers, then the strong arm of the good white people of the South asserts itself and order is quickly brought out of chaos.

It was so with New Orleans on that Thursday. The better element of the white citizens began to realize that New Orleans in the hands of a mob would not prove a promising investment for Eastern capital, so the better element began to stir itself, not for the purpose of punishing the brutality against the Negroes who had been beaten, or bringing to justice the murderers of those who had been killed, but for the purpose of saving the city's credit. The _Times-Democrat_, upon this phase of the situation on Friday morning says:

When it became known later in the day that State bonds had depreciated
from a point to a point and a half on the New York market a new phase of
seriousness was manifest to the business community. Thinking men
realized that a continuance of unchecked disorder would strike a body
blow to the credit of the city and in all probability would complicate
the negotiation of the forthcoming improvement bonds. The bare thought
that such a disaster might be brought about by a few irresponsible boys,
tramps and ruffians, inflamed popular indignation to fever pitch. It was
all that was needed to bring to the aid of the authorities the active
personal cooperation of the entire better element.

With the financial credit of the city at stake, the good citizens rushed to the rescue, and soon the Mayor was able to mobilize a posse of 1,000 willing men to assist the police in maintaining order, but rioting still continued in different sections of the city. Colored men and women were beaten, chased and shot whenever they made their appearance upon the street. Late in the night a most despicable piece of villainy occurred on Rousseau Street, where an aged colored woman was killed by the mob. The _Times-Democrat_ thus describes, the murder:

Hannah Mabry, an old Negress, was shot and desperately wounded shortly
after midnight this morning while sleeping in her home at No. 1929
Rousseau Street. It was the work of a mob, and was evidently well
planned so far as escape was concerned, for the place was reached by
police officers, and a squad of the volunteer police within a very short
time after the reports of the shots, but not a prisoner was secured. The
square was surrounded, but the mob had scattered in several directions,
and, the darkness of the neighborhood aiding them, not one was taken.

At the time the mob made the attack on the little house there were also
in it David Mabry, the sixty-two-year-old husband of the wounded woman;
her son, Harry Mabry; his wife, Fannie, and an infant child. The young
couple with their babe could not be found after the whole affair was
over, and they either escaped or were hustled off by the mob. A careful
search of the whole neighborhood was made, but no trace of them could be
found.

The little place occupied by the Mabry family is an old cottage on the
swamp side of Rousseau Street. It is furnished with slat shutters to
both doors and windows. These shutters had been pulled off by the mob
and the volleys fired through the glass doors. The younger Mabrys,
father, mother and child, were asleep in the first room at the time.
Hannah Mabry and her old husband were sleeping in the next room. The old
couple occupied the same bed, and it is miraculous that the old man did
not share the fate of his spouse.

Officer Bitterwolf, who was one of the first on the scene, said that he
was about a block and a half away with Officers Fordyce and Sweeney.
There were about twenty shots fired, and the trio raced to the cottage.
They saw twenty or thirty men running down Rousseau Street. Chase was
given and the crowd turned toward the river and scattered into several
vacant lots in the neighborhood.

The volunteer police stationed at the Sixth Precinct had about five
blocks to run before they arrived. They also moved on the reports of the
firing, and in a remarkably short time the square was surrounded, but no
one could be taken. As they ran to the scene they were assailed on every
hand with vile epithets and the accusation of "Nigger lovers."

Rousseau Street, where the cottage is situated, is a particularly dark
spot, and no doubt the members of the mob were well acquainted with the
neighborhood, for the officers said that they seemed to sink into the
earth, so completely and quickly did they disappear after they had
completed their work, which was complete with the firing of the volley.

Hannah Mabry was taken to the Charity Hospital in the ambulance, where
it was found on examination that she had been shot through the right
lung, and that the wound was a particularly serious one.

Her old husband was found in the little wrecked home well nigh
distracted with fear and grief. It was he who informed the police that
at the time of the assault the younger Mabrys occupied the front room.
As he ran about the little home as well as his feeble condition would
permit he severely lacerated his feet on the glass broken from the
windows and door. He was escorted to the Sixth Precinct station, where
he was properly cared for. He could not realize why his little family
had been so murderously attacked, and was inconsolable when his wife was
driven off in the ambulance piteously moaning in her pain.

The search for the perpetrators of the outrage was thorough, but both
police and armed force of citizens had only their own efforts to rely
on. The residents of the neighborhood were aroused by the firing, but
they would give no help in the search and did not appear in the least
concerned over the affair. Groups were on almost every doorstep, and
some of them even jeered in a quiet way at the men who were voluntarily
attempting to capture the members of the mob. Absolutely no information
could be had from any of them, and the whole affair had the appearance
of being the work of roughs who either lived in the vicinity, or their
friends.

+DEATH OF CHARLES+

Friday witnessed the final act in the bloody drama begun by the three police officers, Aucoin, Mora and Cantrelle. Betrayed into the hands of the police, Charles, who had already sent two of his would-be murderers to their death, made a last stand in a small building, 1210 Saratoga Street, and, still defying his pursuers, fought a mob of twenty thousand people, single-handed and alone, killing three more men, mortally wounding two more and seriously wounding nine others. Unable to get to him in his stronghold, the besiegers set fire to his house of refuge. While the building was burning Charles was shooting, and every crack of his death-dealing rifle added another victim to the price which he had placed upon his own life. Finally, when fire and smoke became too much for flesh and blood to stand, the long sought for fugitive appeared in the door, rifle in hand, to charge the countless guns that were drawn upon him. With a courage which was indescribable, he raised his gun to fire again, but this time it failed, for a hundred shots riddled his body, and he fell dead face fronting to the mob. This last scene in the terrible drama is thus described in the _Times-Democrat_ of July 26:

Early yesterday afternoon, at 3 o'clock or thereabouts, Police Sergeant
Gabriel Porteus was instructed by Chief Gaster to go to a house at No.
1210 Saratoga Street, and search it for the fugitive murderer, Robert
Charles. A private "tip" had been received at the headquarters that the
fiend was hiding somewhere on the premises.

Sergeant Porteus took with him Corporal John R. Lally and Officers
Zeigel and Essey. The house to which they were directed is a small,
double frame cottage, standing flush with Saratoga Street, near the
corner of Clio. It has two street entrances and two rooms on each side,
one in front and one in the rear. It belongs to the type of cheap little
dwellings commonly tenanted by Negroes.

Sergeant Porteus left Ziegel and Essey to guard the outside and went
with Corporal Lally to the rear house, where he found Jackson and his
wife in the large room on the left. What immediately ensued is only
known by the Negroes. They say the sergeant began to question them about
their lodgers and finally asked them whether they knew anything about
Robert Charles. They strenuously denied all knowledge of his
whereabouts.

The Negroes lied. At that very moment the hunted and desperate murderer
lay concealed not a dozen feet away. Near the rear, left-hand corner of
the room is a closet or pantry, about three feet deep, and perhaps eight
feet long. The door was open and Charles was crouching, Winchester in
hand, in the dark further end.

Near the closet door was a bucket of water, and Jackson says that
Sergeant Porteous walked toward it to get a drink. At the next moment a
shot rang out and the brave officer fell dead. Lally was shot directly
afterward. Exactly how and where will never be known, but the
probabilities are that the black fiend sent a bullet into him before he
recovered from his surprise at the sudden onslaught. Then the murderer
dashed out of the back door and disappeared.

The neighborhood was already agog with the tragic events of the two
preceding days, and the sound of the shots was a signal for wild and
instant excitement. In a few moments a crowd had gathered and people
were pouring in by the hundred from every point of the compass. Jackson
and his wife had fled and at first nobody knew what had happened, but
the surmise that Charles had recommenced his bloody work was on every
tongue and soon some of the bolder found their way to the house in the
rear. There the bleeding forms of the two policemen told the story.

Lally was still breathing, and a priest was sent for to administer the
last rites. Father Fitzgerald responded, and while he was bending over
the dying man the outside throng was rushing wildly through the
surrounding yards and passageways searching for the murderer. "Where is
he?" "What has become of him?" were the questions on every lip.

Suddenly the answer came in a shot from the room directly overhead. It
was fired through a window facing Saratoga Street, and the bullet struck
down a young man named Alfred J. Bloomfield, who was standing in the
narrow passage-way between the two houses. He fell on his knees and a
second bullet stretched him dead.

When he fled from the closet Charles took refuge in the upper story of
the house. There are four windows on that floor, two facing toward
Saratoga Street and two toward Rampart. The murderer kicked several
breaches in the frail central partition, so he could rush from side to
side, and like a trapped beast, prepared to make his last stand.

Nobody had dreamed that he was still in the house, and when Bloomfield
was shot there was a headlong stampede. It was some minutes before the
exact situation was understood. Then rifles and pistols began to speak,
and a hail of bullets poured against the blind frontage of the old
house. Every one hunted some coign of vantage, and many climbed to
adjacent roofs. Soon the glass of the four upper windows was shattered
by flying lead. The fusillade sounded like a battle, and the excitement
upon the streets was indescribable.

Throughout all this hideous uproar Charles seems to have retained a
certain diabolical coolness. He kept himself mostly out of sight, but
now and then he thrust the gleaming barrel of his rifle through one of
the shattered window panes and fired at his besiegers. He worked the
weapon with incredible rapidity, discharging from three to five
cartridges each time before leaping back to a place of safety. These
replies came from all four windows indiscriminately, and showed that he
was keeping a close watch in every direction. His wonderful marksmanship
never failed him for a moment, and when he missed it was always by the
narrowest margin only.

On the Rampart Street side of the house there are several sheds,
commanding an excellent range of the upper story. Detective Littleton,
Andrew Van Kuren of the Workhouse force and several others climbed upon
one of these and opened fire on the upper windows, shooting whenever
they could catch a glimpse of the assassin. Charles responded with his
rifle, and presently Van Kuren climbed down to find a better position.
He was crossing the end of the shed when he was killed.

Another of Charles's bullets found its billet in the body of Frank
Evans, an ex-member of the police force. He was on the Rampart Street
side firing whenever he had an opportunity. Officer J.W. Bofill and A.S.
Leclerc were also wounded in the fusillade.

While the events thus briefly outlined were transpiring time was a-wing,
and the cooler headed in the crowd began to realize that some quick and
desperate expedient must be adopted to insure the capture of the fiend
and to avert what might be a still greater tragedy than any yet enacted.
For nearly two hours the desperate monster had held his besiegers at
bay, darkness would soon be at hand and no one could predict what might
occur if he made a dash for liberty in the dark.

At this critical juncture it was suggested that the house be fired. The
plan came as an inspiration, and was adopted as the only solution of the
situation. The wretched old rookery counted for nothing against the
possible continued sacrifice of human life, and steps were immediately
taken to apply the torch. The fire department had been summoned to the
scene soon after the shooting began; its officers were warned to be
ready to prevent a spread of the conflagration, and several men rushed
into the lower right-hand room and started a blaze in one corner.

They first fired an old mattress, and soon smoke was pouring out in
dense volumes. It filled the interior of the ramshackle structure, and
it was evident that the upper story would soon become untenable. An
interval of tense excitement followed, and all eyes were strained for a
glimpse of the murderer when he emerged.