A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 1, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 18.

“A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.”

That is what a true-spoken paper of Tampa, Florida, calls the act of a civil officer in the incident below. We get the story from the Morning Tribune of that city, dates March 24 to 26. The story is as follows: A young white man, Frank Hart by name, who was suffering from bowel and heart difficulty, was arrested as a vagrant while lying under a tree near the school-house. Not pleasing the judge for some reason—reports are conflicting—he was fined $8, which refusing to pay, he was sentenced to work it out on the street. When the seventh day came, Hart told the officer that he could not work that day, as it was the Sabbath; he was knocked down and brutally kicked. He was then asked if he would work, when he again refused. A crowd gathered and expressed disapproval, but the officer went on with his cruelty. On the young man’s refusing, the officer took twine from his pocket and strung the young man up to the telephone pole, till one of the indignant onlookers telephoned to the chief of police, and the boy was let down. He was taken back to jail by the officer, where one of his legs was chained up as high as it could be stretched, and he was forced to remain standing in that position for three hours. He was also brutally kicked in his cell. The following is the paper’s protest, referred to above:—

“A young man was hung by the thumbs to a telephone pole on a public thoroughfare in this city yesterday morning, and subjected to the excruciating pain resulting therefrom for six minutes, while a large crowd gathered about and watched the proceedings with all the excitement that would attend a lynching.

“The outrage was not committed by a mob, or a desperado; nor was it a dramatic reproduction of one of the tortures of the Spanish inquisition. It was done by an officer of the city of Tampa, and for the reason that the victim was of a religious sect which forbade his working on the seventh day of the week.

“The enactment of such an outrage in a civilized city by an officer of the law almost baffles belief. It was a disgrace to the community, a reflection on its government, and it calls for swift and emphatic rebuke and punishment.

“The officer who perpetrated this heinous outrage has been suspended from the service which he has disgraced; but this is not enough. He should be criminally dealt with, as a lesson to others that the methods of the Ku Klux and the Peckites will not be tolerated in the city of Tampa, at this stage of enlightenment and civilization.”

Citizens, righteously indignant, talk of summary punishment upon the officer; and we are glad indeed that there are hearts which feel over such outrages.

Still, dear reader, we are not pleading for young Hart, even tho he did suffer; those who caused him to suffer, those who are led by the principles which impel men to act as did this officer, are in the worse condition. The only thing which will save men from this kind of work is Christianity. Men may be indignant over outrages similar to the above; but unless they yield to the religion of Christ, they will sooner or later find some pretext for justifying persecution. In speaking of this very thing Jesus said, “These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor Me.” John 16: 1-3. Christianity will not persecute its bitterest enemies.