Protect Those Prisoners at All Hazards Says Bickett. . . "Shoot Straight," Is the Order Given by the Governor to Captain in Charge of Machine Gun Company at Graham
Asheville, July 18--"Captain Fowler, protect those prisoners at all hazards, and notify the people I have ordered you and your machine gunners to shoot straight if an attempt on the life of the prisoners is made," was the order given by Governor Bickett to-night over long distance telephone from Asheville to Captain Marion B. Fowler, captain of the Durham machine gun company, which is protecting the jail at Graham, in which three negroes, charged with an assault on a white woman, were lodged to-day.
Later Governor Bickett got into communication with Captain Fowler and learned that the machine gun company had the situation well in hand, and at 10 o'clock to-night quiet prevailed.
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Graham, July 18--Making two attempts in broad daylight to-day to lynch three negroes held in the Alamance county jail here, an angry mob of over 1,500 persons was held off by Sheriff C.B. Story of Alamance and four deputy sheriffs until the machine gun company sent to Graham to-day from Durham, under orders of Governor Bickett, arrived to check further trouble. The mob was outtalked by Sheriff Story.
The three negroes, William Lee and Jim Hazel, both of Burlington, and Arthur Veasey of Elon College, are being held in the Alamance jail on suspicion of having criminally assaulted a white woman, aged 27, of Burlington, at he home of her husband and there last night at 9 o'clock. Her husband, an electrician at the power house there, had gone up to the business section of Burlington when a negro entered the home, drew a pistol on the wife, who was alone with her little child, attacked her and made his escape. Upon her husband's return home, the alarm was sounded and the search for the negro continued all night without result.
Sheriff Story sent for bloodhounds at Raleigh, which arrived at Graham at 6 o'clock this morning. They immediately picked up the trail and ended it a few miles from Burlington at a negro house where Jim Hazel and Arthur Veasey were arrested on suspicion as he seemed to resemble the description given by the woman of her assailant. He was arrested near the Burlington hospital at the home of his father. He had been employed at the hospital.
The negroes were taken before the woman this morning but she was unable to identify positively any of the three as her assailant. She is in a rather serious condition and nervousness resulting from the attack helped ot make identification impossible.
By this time the mob was large and at about 12 o'clock to-day made the first attempt to secure the negroes and lynch them. Sheriff Story told the mob that none of the negroes had been identified as the guilty person and asked it to disperse. The mob left he jail and made no further attempt until 5 o'clock this afternoon when a second attack was made, the mob beating on the doors of the jail. Again Sheriff Story asked the mob to let the law take its course, and the mob left again.
It was a thoroughly aroused collection of men from Alamance, Guilford and Orange counties. None of the members of the mob wore masks.
At 6 o'clock this afternoon the Durham company militia arrived, about 35 men under the command of Captain Fowler coming through the country in trucks and immediately went to the jail to prevent mob violence. By this time the rain was falling and the mob began to disperse. The city has quieted down after a day of turmoil and no further trouble is expected.
It is the intention of the authorities to remove the negroes to the penitentiary at Raleigh for safe keeping. The request for troops was made to Governor Bickett at about 2 o'clock to-day by the county commissioners of Alamance county.
The three negroes all deny any connection with the crime. They range in age from 22 to 2? (can' read) years.
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