A noose was thrown over his head and was drawn tightly around his neck. Gasping and half choked, he fell upon his knees, begging for his life.
NEGRO BEGS FOR LIFE.
"Do you solemnly promise that you will leave and never come back?" asked the leader of the posse.
"Oh, yes; yes. For God's sake, gentlemen, let me go, and I'll never come back any more!"
The frightened wretch was allowed to go and crawled aboard the train, scared half to death.
After finishing with French the "red shirts" made a raid on Justice Bunting's residence. He was away from home. The mob tore from the walls of his house the picture of his Negro wife and that of Bunting, and put them on exhibition on Market street.
They were labelled: "R. H. Bunting, white," and "Mrs. R. H. Bunting, colored." From Bunting's residence the mob proceeded to the house of a Negro lawyer named Henderson. The hard-knuckled leader knocked at the door. "[Who's] there?" came the query. "A white man and a friend," was the reply. Inside there was the deep silence of hesitation. "Open the door or we'll break it down," shouted the leader. Henderson, badly frightened, opened the door.
"We want you to leave the city by 9 o'clock Sunday morning," said the leader.
"All right," replied Henderson, "all I want is time enough to get my things in order."
A Negro lawyer named Scott was also banished and left the city before morning.