The details of the awful tragedy of Friday evening are
yet fresh in the minds of the people of Waco, and it is
bootless to recount them. Two of the principals thereto
have passed to the beyond and a third is in the hands of
the outraged law. And with him let the law deal. In
life Captain Davis was our friend. His assailant was
our enemy. In death they take on the proportions of
common humanity. Upon the bier of one we will lay
the myrtle of never-dying remembrance. Over the coffin
of the other let the mantle of forgetfulness rest. The
Times-Herald makes no war upon the dead.
It is not with the dead we deal to-day, but the living--
the citizenship, the municipality, the people of Waco
who must suffer, who must endure, and who must survive
the blow that has fallen upon us. Not because two brave
men are dead, but because of the stain of blood guiltiness
that has again besmirched our fair escutcheon. This
tragedy has harmed Waco almost beyond the power of
men to help; because it has again been blazoned to the
world that here human life is cheapened; that men's passions
rule rather than the written law and that our Christian
civilization is but the thinnest veneer atop of the savage.
Yet out of this may yet come a blessing to Waco. If
it shall teach men to rule their passions and their speech;
if it shall show us the way to lean upon the arm of the
law rather than upon the might of our own strength; if
it shall make us more tolerant of the opinions of our
neighbor; if it shall incline us to encourage the public
weal, rather than private animosities, the shadow of
tragedy may yet pass and the sunlight of humanity prevail.
The Times has no heart for moralizing. It will add
no pang to the grief of those who mourn. It asks of the
people of Waco that upon the two new mounds made in
Oakland to-day the seeds of forgetfulness may spring into
verdure, covering feud and hiding passion, and that the
dead past will bury its dead, leaving to the present hope,
and to the future fruition.
Here follow the contents of the May, 1898, ICONOCLAST
published by Brann's friends after his death.