Braggadocio

Citizens of a Missouri town called Braggadocio hammered and sawed industriously in their town square. Idlers eyed the workmen judiciously and offered suggestions. The workmen were building a scaffold.

The night before, Mrs. Ella Henderson, a Braggadocio widow of 31 with two children, had called the constable and told him that she had been attacked. From her emotional description the constable made out that Mrs. Henderson's assailant was Will Sherod, 30, a Negro, whom he forthwith lodged in Pemiscot County jail, 15 miles from Braggadocio.

Now the Braggadocians had taken Mr. Sherod from jail and brought him home. Now the scaffold was finished. Now they tied Mr. Sherod's hands and suspended him thereby from the scaffold. Now the Braggadocian guns were loaded, Braggadocian epithets flew, Braggadocian powder burned. Mr. Sherod died by writhes and jerks after a dozen bullets had passed through his dangling body. The Braggadocians smiled grimly at one another and went home to bed.