None of the lynch mob wore masks and did not seek to hide their identities, giving their names to journalists who were present. On the tree where Hose had died, a sign was attached reading "We Must Protect Our Southern Women" One white Southern woman objected, a Mrs. P.H. Mell of Atlanta, who proudly noted in her letter to the editor of the "Atlanta Constitution" that she was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, and spoke of her horror about what was done to Hose, urging white women to protest the "unparalleled brutality" committed in the name of protecting them. Another woman, future United States Senator Rebecca Felton, wrote a letter protesting against Mell's letter, saying that any "true-hearted husband or father" would have done the same to the "beast" Hose, arguing that Hose needed to be killed in the same way that a mad dog needed to be put down, except "the dog is more worthy of sympathy".