228 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



that mob violence in its most repulsive form 

 has occurred. A short shrift and a speedy 

 end is the common form of procedure. But 

 even at the worst there are circumstances to 

 be considered over and above the loss of 

 faith in legal authority redress, alas ! there 

 cannot be circumstances which, while very 

 far from being extenuating, assuredly deserve 

 attention. 



That the negro excites mob violence with 

 considerably more frequency than does the 

 white man is a fact at once accurate and 

 misleading. To anyone familiar with the 

 South it needs no explanation. * Perse- 

 cution ' is not a factor, the case being 

 merely that the negro is so constant an 

 offender. 



From the early days of the exploration of 

 New Mexico, when Black Estevan, the com- 

 panion of Fray Niza, lost his life at the 

 hands of the original inhabitants, up to the 

 present time, history repeats itself. The 

 Indian braves avenged their squaws in the 

 savage manner, and nineteenth-century civili- 

 zation continues to record the crime and its 

 punishment in characters as savage. The 



