222 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



stantly drives reason from the field. It is 

 not long since a perfect furore of excitement 

 was aroused there by the sensational speeches 

 and recitals of a coloured woman in regard 

 to an evil of which only one side could by 

 natural sequence be presented and that, 

 moreover, to audiences for the most part 

 ignorant of the environment which produces 

 lynch law, still more so of its causes. Carried 

 away, nevertheless, by that form of senti- 

 mentalism which is as a lion in the path of 

 the practical reformer, they arose with an 

 impetuosity inflamed by ignorance to get a 

 snubbing on this side for * interference ' and 

 ' meddlesomeness/ with the advice thrown 

 in that they would do better to clean out 

 their own stables before howling at the con- 

 dition of those of their neighbours. 



To consider this horrible matter of lynch- 

 ing with a proper amount of dispassionate- 

 ness is indeed no easy task. To enlarge on 

 its horror and wrong is superfluous. But 

 even here the old adage that from wrong is 

 born wrong finds place, and no one personally 

 acquainted with the conditions prevailing in 

 some sections of this country, more particu- 



