MEETING OF CITIZENS

About 2 o'clock Friday a mass meeting was called at the courthouse and
captains appointed to search for the child. She was found mangled beyond
recognition, covered with leaves and brush as above mentioned. As soon as
it was learned upon the recovery of the body that the crime was so
atrocious the whole town turned out in the chase. The railroads put up
bulletins offering free transportation to all who would join in the
search. Posses went in every direction, and not a stone was left unturned.
Smith was tracked to Detroit on foot, where he jumped on a freight train
and left for his old home in Hempstead county, Arkansas. To this county he
was tracked and yesterday captured at Clow, a flag station on the Arkansas
& Louisiana railway about twenty miles north of Hope. Upon being
questioned the fiend denied everything, but upon being stripped for
examination his undergarments were seen to be spattered with blood and a
part of his shirt was torn off. He was kept under heavy guard at Hope last
night, and later on confessed the crime.

This morning he was brought through Texarkana, where 5,000 people awaited
the train, anxious to see a man who had received the fate of Ed. Coy. At
that place speeches were made by prominent Paris citizens, who asked that
the prisoner be not molested by Texarkana people, but that the guard be
allowed to deliver him up to the outraged and indignant citizens of Paris.
Along the road the train gathered strength from the various towns, the
people crowded upon the platforms and tops of coaches anxious to see the
lynching and the negro who was soon to be delivered to an infuriated mob.


BURNED AT THE STAKE