would not order his deputies and the police to disperse the crowd by
force. The pacific policy of the sheriff impressed the mob with the idea
that the officers were afraid, or at least would do them no harm, and
they redoubled their efforts, urged on by a big switchman. At 12 o'clock
the door of the prison was broken in with a rail.

As soon as the rapist was brought out of the door calls were heard for a
rope; then someone shouted, "Burn him!" But there was no time to make a
fire. When Walker got into the lobby a dozen of the men began beating
and stabbing him. He was half dragged, half carried to the corner of
Front Street and the alley between Sycamore and Mill, and hung to a
telegraph pole.

Walker made a desperate resistance. Two men entered his cell first and
ordered him to come forth. He refused, and they failing to drag him out,
others entered. He scratched and bit his assailants, wounding several of
them severely with his teeth. The mob retaliated by striking and cutting
him with fists and knives. When he reached the steps leading down to the
door he made another stand and was stabbed again and again. By the time
he reached the lobby his power to resist was gone, and he was shoved
along through the mob of yelling, cursing men and boys, who beat, spat
upon and slashed the wretch-like demon. One of the leaders of the mob
fell, and the crowd walked ruthlessly over him. He was badly hurt--a
jawbone fractured and internal injuries inflicted. After the lynching
friends took charge of him.

The mob proceeded north on Front Street with the victim, stopping at
Sycamore Street to get a rope from a grocery. "Take him to the iron
bridge on Main Street," yelled several men. The men who had hold of the
Negro were in a hurry to finish the job, however, and when they reached