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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
page 47 of 73 (64%)
order that the trucks of the cars might be examined. There was a string
of armed men on each side of the railroad track and in a few moments a
Negro was espied riding between two cars. A half dozen weapons were
pointed at him and he was ordered to come out. He sprang out with
alacrity and was pounced upon almost before he reached the ground.
Robert Moore grabbed him and pushed an ugly-looking Derringer under his
nose and the Negro threw up both hands. Constable Dannenhauer and
Patrolman Keegan took charge of him and hustled him off to jail, where
he was locked up. The Negro does not at all resemble Robert Charles, but
it was best for his sake that he was placed under lock and key. The
crowd was not in a humor to let any Negro pass muster last night. The
prisoner gave his name as Luke Wallace.

But now came the real excitement. The train had slowed down almost to a
standstill, in the very heart of town. Somebody shouted: "There he goes,
on top of the train!" And sure enough, somebody was going. It was a
Negro, too, and he was making a bee-line for the front end of the train.
A veritable shower of bullets, shot and rifle balls greeted the flying
form, but on it sped. The locomotive had stopped in the middle of the
square between La voisier and Newton Streets, and the Negro, flying with
the speed of the wind along the top of the cars, reached the first car
of the train and jumped to the tender and then into the cab. As he did
several white men standing at the locomotive made a rush into the cab.
The Negro sprang swiftly out of the other side, on to the sidewalk. But
there were several more men, and as he realized that he was rushing
right into their arms he made a spring to leap over the fence of Mrs.
Linden's home, on the wood side of the track. Before the Negro got to
the top one white man had hold of his legs, while another rushed up,
pistol in hand. The man who was holding the darkey's legs was jostled
out of the way and the man with the pistol, standing directly beneath
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