he Lynching Rope

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

One of the favorite activities of the people of Lilliland is to go horseback riding in the park and on the many bridal paths in the Alpine Mountains of Lilliland.

The ownership of a horse was a source of great pride to the citizens of Lilliland. Baron Von Lodge liked nothing better than going for a ride on his favorite horse, Ridgeway, with Lady Angela of Alpine Castle.

One of the prominent people of Lilliland took his horse to the blacksmith to have new shoes put on. The blacksmith wanted to have the horse for a day or two to make sure that the shoes fit properly and did not hurt the horse.

It was urgently reported to the prominent man that a stranger was seen riding a horse at night and it appeared that he was stealing the horse. Since the stranger was unknown to the people of Lilliland, it was easy to think that he had no business riding a horse that belonged to a prominent citizen of Lilliland.

Quickly a group of well-intentioned men grabbed the man for stealing the horse and were going to lynch him. They got a lynching rope and were going to teach any outsider a lesson by example.

Fortunately, the Baron arrived on the scene in time to stop the lynching and more carefully investigate the situation.

It turned out that the stranger was not really a stranger at all but a relative of the blacksmith who was learning the trade of caring for horses. The Baron took the names of all those involved and had them attend a meeting to review their very bad behavior. They almost, in the heat of gang reaction, killed an innocent person.

This type of behavior is not allowed in a peaceful country like Lilliland. They were all asked to leave Lilliland for good. Everyone was happy again.