FIRST CONVICTION OF A LYNCHER.
By G.
MUCH comment is made over the fact that in North Carolina the ringleader of a lynching mob has been convicted in court and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment. It has been intimated by some that, because he was the only one of the mob officially punished, the fact of his being an ex-convict accounts for his conviction and sentence. Stress is also laid on the fact that this is the first conviction of a lyncher in the South that has been secured. There has been considerable criticism of the South because of the lynching habit; but it would be well for the critics to remember that for some time the lynchings north of the line have outnumbered those on the south side, and there has not yet been even one conviction of the offenders against the law. It would be well for sections, as well as for individuals, to remember the scriptural admonition: "Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same thing. . . . And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" Rom. 2:1-3.