The Palestine Texas Race War
One of the worst race wars which is on record opened near Palestine, Texas, July 30. It was brought about by a Negro killing a white man who had come to collect from him a debt which he owed. He, it is said, deliberately waylaid and shot the man before anything was said. He fled to a company of his own people and declared that two white men were after him; and they, not knowing his crime, attempted to shield him, and out of it grew the war in which hundreds of men were engaged on both sides. The Negroes a thousand strong entrenched themselves in the everglades and defeated two companies of state troops and a body of 300 armed planters. The whole Negro population is aflame with racial bitterness. Fifteen white men have been killed. The latest news at this writing is that many of the colored people have yielded themselves to the sheriff on promise of protection, and it is thought that the most serious difficulty is over. A little consideration at the beginning would have saved all these lives.