Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PUBLISHED THREE TD WRECK AND FIRE / , ;, ... ' ' ' '-' , ? A Passenger Trais Plunges Through a Burning Trestle Sunday. THE TRAIN BURNED UP Engineer Hank Taylor and Fireman Simon Dunbar, Colored, Go Down With Engine.?Mail Clerk Bloom Seriously Hurt.?Sixteen Passen gers Slightly Injured. Passenger Train No. 2, on the Spairtanburg division of the Charles ton and Western Carolina, due to ar rive in Augusta, from Spartanburg, W 5.15 p. m., Sunday, ran into a burning trestle about a mile from W?odlawn, resulting in the total de struction of the train, the death of Engineer Hank Taylor, of Laureus, S. C, and Fireman Simon Dunbar, colored, of Augusta, and slight in jury to sixteen passengers. When the train was entering onto a reverse curve Baggagemaster Geo. Box directed the gaze of Conduc tor W. B. Verdery to large volumes of smoke, which he believed to be coming from the trestle, then a mile ? distant from the train, and which had . been burned before. At that time the fire was on the left side of the train and could not have been seen by Engineer Taylor. ..Conductor Verdery watched the smoke until the train had rounded the reverse curve, when he saw that the fire was on the trestle. Imme diately he pulled the danger signal, and ran from the baggage coach to the first', class passenger coach and pulled the emergency brake, but al ready the engine had run onto the trestle and plunged through to the little creek below, pulling with it the tender, baggage car and the front of one of che passenger coaches. . The coach, tilting from the wreck age to the road bed above, formed a fije. through which the flames from the trestle debris were carried to the train proper, and in less than five minutes the entire train was aflame. ? - - Engineer-' - Taylor ' and Fireman Dunbar went down with the engine, and were caught under the tender, which was thrown directly on tcp of the engine. Both of 'these were either mashed or burned to death, and the bodies are still in the wreck age, i Baggagemaster Box also went down with his car, but succeeded in escaping from the fire with but slight injurrles. Mail Clerk Bloom, of Spartanburg, did not leave his car and was ser iously,, though not fatal'.y, injured. He remained in the wreckage after the concussion, working with his mail, and succeeded in saving the bulk of it from the flames. None of the passengers were In jured beyond minor cuts and bruises and of these the larger number were among those in the negro coach and smoker, the white coach escaping any extensive damage beyond a se vere shake up, until the flames reached it. In a statement by Superintendent Anderson, given out after midnight, it is shown that the road had reason to believe that the bridge was fired and investigation is being made in that connection. The last train to pass over the bridge ahead of the wreck, was six and a half hours ear lier and tbe officials contend that this does away with any idea of fall ing hot coals starting the trestle fire. CHATTER. OF TRAGEDIES. Caused by a Negro Excursion on Last Saturday. Two negroes killed, another ser iously slashed with a knife, and tne promoter of the excursion robbed was part of the results of a negro excursion from Macon to Hawkins ville, Ga., Saturday, when five car loads of blacks were brought ro Hawkinsville, Ga. At Cochran a ne gro fell under the cars and was cut in twain. At the baseball game in the afternoon Deputy Sheriff Home undertook to arrest Jim Harris, and whei two other ' negroes attempted to liberate Harris, they tripped up Home who, from the bottom of the heap, shot his way to freedom. At one time it looked as if a riot would be the result, but Sheriff Rogers brought order after arresting more than a dozen negroes. BITTEN BY A RATTLER. While Cleaning Out a Spring Big Rattler Strikes. A special dispatch from Lexington to The State says J. A. Lucas, a prominent farmer of Edward, that county, is lying in a precarious con dition at his home as a result of a rattlesnake bite, received while at tending a singing school at Bethel church at noon Friday. Mr. Lucas was in the act of cleaning out a spring when the snake leaped upon him without warning from the bush nearby, sinking his teeth deep into the left knee. The snake was killed by J. A. Kyzer, who happened to' be near when the snake did it work, j It measured five feet in length and I carried seven rattle6 and a button. 4ES A WEEK. THE BRUTAL MURDER OF A LITTLE GIRL IS QUICKLY AVENGED BY CITIZENS. The Fiends Lay in Wait for Their Little Victim.?Her Body Found in a Fool of Water. Two negroes, pleading vainly for ? ' ? . . . .A. their lives, were s'?? ~->g up by an / *o v infuriated mob be^ v <o^nifay and Dady, Fla., Saturday^. <ty . a?d while they were dangiK j^f ropes were perforated by thv Cfy^ ^ of from fifty to seventy-five men of the surrounding country. \ The crime which caused the lynch ing is one of the most brutal ever known In that ^county. The two ne groes confessed to murdering little Bessie Morrison,' the 12-year-old daughter or Mrs. .Mary Morrison, who lives near Dady, in the extreme western end of Holmes county, whose body was found Saturday morning in a pool of water between the Mor rison homestead and the little school at Dady. The little girl sttarted for school Friday morning alone, the first in timation of a tragedy being when she failed to come home in the af ternoon. After a reasonable time had elapsed a searching party was formed and, after a quest lasting through Friday .night, found the mangled remains of the little girl in a pool of water in a swamp near the girl's home. * Her body was badly mangled and the shrubbery in the vicinity told of the one-sided.fight of the girl against the two negro fiends. After commit ting the murder the negroes drag ged the body into a nearby swamp and threw her remains there, where they were found by the searching party. As soon as the significance of the find dawned on the residents, the searching party was transformed in to a mob searching for the culprite. The sheriff of Bonifay was notified and he, tosether with two assistants, went to Dady where the two negroes were already arrested. A conres sion, giving some of the grewsome details of the criminal assault ana subsequent murder were made by the two men 'and feeling was run ning high but cool heads prevented a lynching on. the sspot. The "sheriff saw that "the only thing to he done was to rush the two men to the county'jail, and at once Btarted out from Dady,* but the res idents, who at this time-were aug mented by the arrivals of others, got wind of the sheriff's plan and started in pursuit and overtook the sheriff on a lonely road, overpower ing him and taking the two negroes to the nearest tree, ropes were al ready provided for and it was only a short time before the negroes were swung up. The two negroes were employed on a turpentine camp and were know to be of a bad character. They, ac cording to their confession, laid along the road in wait for the lit tle girl, who would be going to school in the morning. This was af ter they bad looked around and found that there was.no white men in the vicinity. The details of the tragedy are ertremely gruesome. The sheriff of Holmes county ar rived in Bonifay Saturday night and told the full details of the crime, as far as he knew it and of the lynching. According to the sheriff the mob was in such a mood that it could not be controlled, and he read ily saw that white blood would be spilled if he did not turn the negroes over to them. No further trouble is apprehended by the sheriff. * AUTOIST KILLED AT ATLANTA. Speedway Races Go on, However, "Without Accident." Few in the big crowd which wit nessed Saturday's automobile races at the Atlanta speedway knew that two hours before the meet began a life had been sacrificed to high speed on the track. As the .pistol cracked for the first event the body of T. B. Dial, of Atlanta, was quietly carried from the grounds. Dial was a me chanician, and his car, a Marion; while on a practice spin became un manageable, ripping up over 100 feet of the inside fence on the first turn of the track and then turning two complete somersaults. The me chanician had one side of his head crushed. No one was near enough to see exactly how he met death. He lived twelve minutes after the accident. The races were run with out an accident, both amateur and professional drivers participating. Meet After Many Years. Judge A. M. Duffle, of Malvern, Arkansas, arrived recently and will spend sometime with his brother. Rev. R. L. Duffle, at Westminster. He has been circuit judge for sixteen years. It has been 32 years since the brothers last met and you can but fairly imagine how good it is to them to meet again and talk of the days of yore. * Tiied of Life. ?Explaining that -he was terribly bored with life, a man named Jos eph Reslowsky, committed suicide at Budapest, Hungary, at the age of 102. He left a letter stating that after waiting patiently for half-a-1 century he decided to take the mat ter into his own hands. OBAVOBBt LOST HIS LIFE TRYING TO SAVE THE LIFE OF A LITTLE CHILD. The Fatal Accident Occurred by the Sinking of a Little Steam Govern ment Launch Near Savannah. A dispatch from Savannah, Ga., says at least two persons were drowned and six others had narrow escapes from death wiieu a covered launch, owned by the government and used by the soldiers at Fort Screveu, sank In Lazaretto creek, 4* >r the fort, late Friday afternoon ^,te the outgoing tide was rushhlng ..rough the creek at race horse horse speed. The dead are: Sergeant Oliver, one of the best known non-commis sloned officers in the coast artillery corps; a 6 year old son of Sergt. Belke. It is believed that SergL Oliver, who is an old man, lost his life while trying to save that of the child. A woman member of the party was caught by the tide and carried down the creek for several hundred yards, screaming for help until she lost consciousness. Fishermen fur ther down I he stream heard .her and put out in boats. She was caught as she was sweeping by them, hur ried to the bank and after a long time was revived. Other occupants of the launch, It is believed now, escaped after a bat tle with the tide. The accident oc curred where the Tybee railroad crosses the creek on a low bridge. The top of the launch struck the bridge, the craft careened and was sv/ept under water in a moment. A passenger train crowded .with pleas ure seekers on the way to Tybee beach reached the bridge soon after the accident. Passengers cared for the survivors. Reports of the accident at Fort Screven sent a detail of soldiers to the creek in an effort to recover ihe bodies. It is feared the sea-ch w'.'l be very difficult as it is problable the tide carried them out into the month of the Savannah and possi bly to sea. The survivors, dripping and suffering from fright, were tak en aboard the train and hurried to the fort. The launch probably is unhurt and can be raised. * REPORTS FROM COUNTIES. Show Th.il Cotton Will Yield Sixty Per Cent. Crop. Reports made by forty members of the State Farmers' Union from 20 counties indicate that the cotton crop is about 60 per cent. For the twenty counties the estimate for the corn crop is 71 per cent, wheat 71 per cent, and oats 70 per cent. The report shows that the crops have been damaged to a great extent by the recent rains. All reports indi cate that there is a spirit among ail farmers for the production of grains and that the condition of g.*i.-i is much better than cottor. The fol lowing is the conditions of the col ton crop as estimated by the mem bers of the union for twenty coun .ties: Colleton ?S; Spartanburg 67; An derson C6; Dorchester 68; WilUa ?i.j burg 50; Pickens 50; Sumter61; Richland 51; Chester 75; Edgefield 50; Dillen SO; Hampton40; Lan caster 50 Lee 60; Chesterfield 7o; Florence 65; Oconee 60; Greenville fin, Lexicon O'rangvbu.g 00; Total 60. * WANT THEIR SHAKE. The Negroes Are Holding a Political Wnr Dunce. At Washington the negro Republi cans are war dancing because no patronage plums have come their way. Various organs of the negroes are teeming with unpleasant things about the administration. Complaint is made chat the President has fail ed to give a single original appoint ment to the colored wing of the par ty. Also, that he has actually de posed a large number of colored of fice-holders and given their jobs to whites. The number of places so lost is placed at 75 to 100. They are talking of reprisals. In Indiana they are threatening to vote the -so cialist ticket and also for Beveridge. because he has fallen out with Pres ident Taft. THE COTTON CHOP. Reported to be in Very Poor Condi tion Everywhere. The report of the Natdonal Gin ners' assocoation, issued at Memphis Friday, indicates a condition of 72.9 per cent for cotton up to July 25. This, the report says, with aver age of weather conditions, would se^m to indicate a yield of from 11, 000,000 to 1 1,500.000 bales. The report by States follows: Alabama 67; Arkansas 70; Flori da 72; Georgia 67; Louisiana 04; Mississippi 6S; South Carolina 6S; Tennessee 75; Texas 78; average 72.9. * Denied His Guilt. In the presence of S00 people, Brooks Foiey, a negro convicted of criminal assault upon a woman of his own race at Archer last spring, met death on the gallows at Gaines ville, Fla. Foley stoutly denied his guilt even after the rope was about a is neck. lRix< S.C, TUESDAY, Al A Scheme Laaoched to Revolutionize the Cotton Industry. STAPLE TO BE STORED In Warehouse to be Established in the Sections Where the Cotton is Grown.?The Projectors Count on Saving 830,000,000 a Year to the Funnel's and Spinners. Having for tts purpose revolution izing the cotton Industry of the United States, a conference was held Friday at the home of John Hays Hammond at Gloucester, Mass., at which there were present besides Mr. Hammond, Daniel J. Sully, the New York operator, and Scot Del geish of Cairo, Egypt, the represen tative of the Hirsch syndicate of London. Briefly, the idea is to establish warehouses in all parts of the cotton pro-ducting district of this country as well as in the manufacturing cen tres for storing the cotton crop, so that instead of selling it from hand to mouth, as has been the practice heretofore, It will be marketed through the entire year when desir able. It is believed that economies will be effected in the marketing of cotton, which will *esult in a sav ing of not less than $50,000,000 an nually. The General Cotton Security com pany, of which Mr. Hammond is the president, and Mr. Sully is vice-pres ident and general # manager, is to be the organization through which this economy is to be effected. The Hirsch syndicate, it is understood, has already underwritten the pro ject. J "Any formal statement of our plans would be premature, as we have met only for an informal dis cussion of the possibilities of the plan to establish warehouses," was the answer that Messrs. Hammond, Sully and Del gleish hade when J questioned concerning the results of their conference Friday. The con ferees wished to make it plain that their object in considering such 'a I plan was not to'corner but to help the cotton raiser. Should their plan be consummated, they said, th<v hoped to bring about the standardi zation of cotton and to assist the| grower in selecting the proper seed. No definite steps were taken today and probably none would be for some time, they said. A dispatch from Atlanta says the project of Daniel J. Sully and asso-. ciates to establish bonded cotton warehouses throughout the South and at various manufacturing cen teres throughout the country, the tentative plans of which already have been laid before bankers and cotton factors of the south by Ml. Sully in person, has met with a fav- j orable reception throughout the coc ton growing states. Following the visit to Atlanta last week of Messrs. Sully and Del gleleh. the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution favorinor the establishment of a chain of ware houses, such as Mr. Sully proposed. Presiuent Fred J. Paxton of the Chamber of Commerce, said the suc cessful operation of the Sully plan would greatly aid the south in fi nancing the cotton crop and believed it would result in the saving of r.ililions of dollars yearly to the cot ton growers. During the recent visit of 'Messrs. Sully and Del gleish to Atlanta It was announced that the warehouses, which it was planed to buy or build through out the south in time for handling much of the 1910 crop would be bonded by the Hirsch syn dicate of London. On the cotton stored in the warehouses negotiable certificates are to be issued, intend ed to be available as collateral in either this country or Europe. * BAIL ROAD.SHOPS BURN. Carolina and Northwesterrn Suffer From Blaze. The shops of the Carolina and Northwestern Railway located at Chester were burned Friday morn ing. The flames spread rapidly and in a short time the whole building, including the engine room, machine shop, car shop, storehouse and slta-l tion room were enveloped. The re-1 suit was total destruction of these departments, with all their contents. One first class passenger coach was likewise destroyed. Of two passen ger locomotives in the shop, the wood work of one was burned off. the other is badly damaged, the axles and wheels being all that is left. The loss is estimated to reach more than $1 00,000 and the insur ance will but partially cover t.be loss. * Marries His Mother-in-I,uw. At Louisville, Ky.. Henry Knitz. having lived to the ripe old age of ?75 years Sunday upset all traditions of the comic papers by wedding h'rs mother-in-law, 69 years old, while the thermometer stood 100 degrees in the shade. His bride before the wedding was Mrs. Elizabeth Fuchs, whose daughter divorced Krintz sev eral years ago. * 2; 1910. FIEND'S AWFUL CRIME ASSAULTED A WHITE LADY AND SHOT A NEGRO MAN. ? The Fiend is Being Hunted by a Large Crowd and Will Be Lynch ed When Caught. iMany posses have been scouring the woods around Axis, Ala., eigh- j teen miles from Mobile, since short-' j ly after one o clock Sunday morn-| ing for Bill Walker, a negro, who bad been loafing around the mill town, and who criminally assaulted Mrs. Nettie Gibson, 31 years of age, wife of J. 0. Gibson, superitendent of a truck farm. The negro told Mrs. Gibson a friend was dead and that he had been sent to accompany her to the house, where she was wanted to help prepare the body. Proceeding a few hundred feet from the Gibson home, the negro began using his knife and later accomplished his purpose. The woman is badly cut up. Her 8-year old brother. Clarence Ho well, hear ing her screams, ran to the scene and tried to protect his sister. He was also cut by the ne?ro. Walker, after forcing Mrs. Gibson to give him what money she had, left for the home of Jesse Brown, another negro. He slipped up to Brown's window and shot him while asleep. Walker then forced Brown's wife to accompany him. They have not been found. Citizens of the com munity say that the law will not be needed if Walker is caught. Sheriff Drago, has his force work ing ch the case. The sheriff promis ed the citizens if Walker is captur ed he would ask Mobile County Courts to hold a special session to try him. Walker's crime Is a capi tal offence in Alabama. Mrs. Gib son and her brother are not fatally cut. but Jesse Brown will die. The neighborhood for miles is stirred up over the affair. At midnight Sunday reports reach ed Mobile that the posse had caught and shot Walker, the fiend, after he had been strung up. So the State will be spared the expense of a trial. NEW CAR BEING USED. Electric Motor Car Service Inaugu rated on Southern Road. Electric motor car service is now being given on the line of the South em Railway and the Blue Ridge Railway between Greenville and An derson, the intermediate terrUi'ry being peruaps the most thicklv sot tied milling section in the South, in cluding the important points, Pie.i mont, Pelzer, Williamston and Bel ton. Only one motor car is now opera - ed and two round trips a day are made. Though a large num*;er ??f stops are made the car has nu trou ble in making schedule time. The car now In use is the property of che General Electric Company and will be used until two cars being built by that company especially for the Southern Railway are delivered. The new cars will provide seats for ~? passengers. The car is run by electricity gen erated by a gasoline engine. The powerful machinery is compactly placed in the forward end. It is. easily manipulated and the car is handled with perfect ease. The greatest interest is felt throughout the section in the motor car and it is crowded every trip. The first day it, was greeted by great crowds at every station. At one place a citi zen was so anxious to get a view that he left the barber's chair run ning to the station with his face co" ered with lather. The new service is in addition to the steam trains run between Green ville and Anderson and iE expected to prove a great convenience. The op eration of these cars, the first of their kind in the South, will be watched with great interest. BROTHER SHOOTS SISTER. I,ad of Eighteen Vires Through Door of His Home. Friday night at her home in the Bregan mill little Annie Edmunds, aged 12 years, was in a critical condition with gun shot wounds in her neck and face, haveing been shot that night by her brother, Elbert, aged 1">. He is in the country jail, and she may die. Their parents had gone to Green ville on a visit. The boy states that the gun went off accidentally; but neighbors say that he and his aged grandmother quarreled and that he ciimbed through a window in his father's room, secured the gun and fired through the locked door. His sister had her hand on the door knob in t.he other room and the entire load of shot with (lying parts of the door hit her in the neck and face. A doctor was sum moned and many shots were remov ed. The boy lias a reputation of be ing very high tempered. * Fatal Auto Ride. At Statin ton, Va., W. G. Moffat is dying and L. Bowman and Daniel Porter was seriously injured as the result of an automobile accident. They were returning from Harrison burg in machines and speeding along one of the roadways approaching the city when they crashed with terrific force into a telegraph pole. * COTIONIN BAD SHAPE DROI GHT HAS HURT BOTH TEX AS AXD OKLAHOMA. There Has Been Some Improvement In the Other States, But the Weed Ls Small. The Memphis Commercial Appeal published this summary or tue cot ton crop condition ou Monday': The cotton crop deterioated during, the week In Texas and Oklahoma by reason of drought, but improved elsewhere on an absence of rain. The situation in Texas and Okla homa is fast becoming serious, some shedding being reported in the dry est places. Temperatures were very high at most times, w.hich makes the lack of moisture more acute. A good rain immediately would help tne crop! wonderfully, but its growth and fruiting has already been arrested. The fields east of the Mississippi River are now nearly clea'n and the cotton will be "laid by" In a fairly good state of cultivation. The pro cess of cleaning some of them has, however, been severe and the plant has not yet recuperated and drought continued for long will work great injury. During the coming week moderate showers would be help ful. Keports are irregular. There are some that are indifferent and some that are exceedingly poor. The plant is generaly small and is now begin ning to bloom freely and make bolls. It will be cultivated much later than usual, and if the frost date is de layed and the August and Septem ber moisture supply is suffiicient to enable the setting of bolls to con tinue late, there is yet hope for a fair or good crop. Without a late autumn reports in dicate a very moderate out turn in the valley and Atlantic States. TOOK' THE ROPE ROUTE. Black Fiend Found, in Young Gill's Room Lynched. Screams of the young daughter of John Wade, ten miles northeast of Cairo, Ga., Sunday night, resulted in the capture and lynching o,f a negro who had entered her room ard was discovered at her bedside. ?, ? . ,! T.he negro, entering through a window, made a noise in the room' and the young girl awoke. She it once began to scream and the mem bers of the family rushed into the room. The negro had no t-'me' 'to < escape, but dived under the bed and lay still in an eSrot to save himself. He was dragged out from his hid ing place at once. News of . the capture was sent, from house to house among t.he neigh bors, and a body of men quickly gathered. A conference was heid, and it was decided to punish, the ne gro immediately. He was placed in a wagon and one end of a rope, was tied around his neck and the other tied to a limb. The wagon wan driven from under him and a volley of shots rang out. RAVAGES OF CHOLERA. Thousands Die From the Dread Dis ease in Russia. A cablegram from St. Petersburg, Russia, says the extent of the chol era epidemic is revealed in figures made public Saturday by the gov ernm^"t sanitary commission. The stricken region now includes forty two provinces and territories of Eu ropean Russia and since the outbreak of the disease there have been a to tal of 37,ti52 cases, with 16.651 deaths. Recently there has been a startling increase in the number of victims. During the week ending July 23 no less than 13,374 cases were reported and of these 5,979 terminated fatally. Some time ago the scourge made its appearance in St. Petersburg and for the past fort night there .has been a daily average for forty cases and twelve deaths in the capital. Saturday there were 54 cases and 14 deaths reported, in the St. Petersburg hospital there are 514 cholera suspects, including 3S children. RUN DOWN AT LAST. The Fiend Who Murdered a Little Girl Is Run Down. Dragged from beneath a sink in the wash room of a lodging house, at San Francisco, where he had been hiding for twenty-four hours, Joseph H. Wendling, accused of the murder or little S-year-old Alma Kellner, in Louisville. Ky., ?>e man \v.ho has baffled the police for four months, was arrested Saturday by Detectives Burke and Ryan, of Tie San Fran cisco police department. Wendling admitted iiis identity, but protest ed his innocence. A few hours after the arrest Captain of Detectives J. P. Carney, of Louisville, arrived to learn that his 1 1.000 mile search for Wendling had been crowned witn success. Falls Nino Stories. While working on the ninth floor of the new Forsyth building at At lanta Saturday Art.hur R. Peary, a carpenter, suddenly slipped and plunged to the sidewalk below, meet ing instant death. Nearly every bone in his body was broken. rWO CENTS PER COPY A RACE RIOT Several N-grocs Were Kilkd and Sever al White Men Wounded. \ OCCURRED AT SL0C?M Some Reports Go So Far as to Pbi"e Death Roll of Negroes at l-'ory: Disturbance Quieted by the Aii. lal of ji.-?.'?? Trouble Di' wuig for Several Days. At least 18 negroes were killed in a racial clash in the extreme e<j.i - em section of Anderson county, Tex., Friday night and Saturday, the cul mination of an enmity between the races brewing for several weeks. Eighteen is the cumber of the dead, according to more conservative esti mates which have reached Palestine l from the isolated section where.; the disorder occurred. Other reports place the total fatalities at between 30 and 40. . .-, . It was' reported that several white men were either kii.ed or wounded, but each rumor as to casualties among the whites has met an-au authoritative denial. Saturday night troops reached Palestine and imme diately began an overland march of about 25 miles to the scene- of the rioting. The arrival of the soldiers had a wholesome effect, and the be ligerents are reported to be dispers ing Further bloodshed will In. all probability be averted. The flr^l advices of the disturbance reached Palestine Saturday morning. Officers were sent to the scene, local ammunition stores ordered to. sus pend sales and the saloons closed- It was quickly apparent, however, Jthat the situation was beyond the control of the local officers, and troops ..were asked for. A company of militia.un der command of Captain Godfrey Fowler, former United States army officer and more recently engaged in Nicaragua in the cause of the insur gents, dispatchedfrom Marshal, Texas, arrived Saturday; night. The rioting began near the village of Slocum. ? Several reasons are as signed as the: cause for the racial feeling. First, the refusal of a ne gro to-pay an obligation on. which a white farmer stood sponsor. This was some days ago. ..Later .a., .white man received notice- that he should perform road work under the .super vision of a negro. The white, man refused. '. Later came reports of secret meet ings among the negroes and, an al leged confession of a negro that the murderer of.; the man. in question, James Spurger, and his family; was planned.. . .The. situation reached a climax, however, when a. negro, was discovered advancing on .Spurger from the rear, armed with a shot gun. He was trailed for sorne dis tance and shot by a posse wtfen he refused to surrender. With the shooting of the negro those of both races armed themselves am! the rioting began late Friday night. Throughout the night the meeting of parties of the two races was the signal for a resort to. arms, fatalities attending many of the en counters. Finally the negroes were driven to the cover of a heavily tim bered section and the crowd of whites" about 200 in number, formed into posses and followed scattering over a wide area. ? As -the small bands met they clashed and,'. Record ing to those returning to Palestine in each instance the negroes wej:e forc ed to give groud and finally- disap pearing. .... * COTTON CROP VERY POOR. It Has Suffered from Rain, as Well as Drought. ' " The .Memphis Commercial''Appeal printed this summary of the cotton crop on Tuesday: "This week gives mixed ah'd rath er uncertain returns from the cotton fields. Considerable improvement at tendant upon dry weather is shown in Alabama, Tennessee. Mississippi and Arkansas, while n mhern Louis iana is rounding into a state of fair promise. ' ?' ? "The Carolinas and Georgia suf fered from heavy rain? early'in the week, so that little cultivation was done on the later days, while Texas and Oklahoma, without rain, are ap proaching a time when the crop may suffer. In fact, some loss has already been sustained in suothern and south-western Texas. "In the central and eastern"- States the crop is being "laid by".in'a rath er poor condition, some of* the fields still being very grassy. Tfen days without rain would permit'of.a rath er considerable improvement, but the ? rop has received mut.-h Ip?s work than it would have gotten with normal weather. The plant remains small and seems late. If has put on little fruit, and in many place? has not begun to bloom-freely. Es timates on condition seldom run higher than 75 per cent, and are of ten below this. There are limited districts In all the Valley ami At lantic States, however, that give a good acount. ? ? ? Three Americans Killed. News was received of the assas sination on July 22 in the Yaqual valley near Coccorit, Mexfco, of Mrs. Jennie Shoudeler, an American wo man, and her two sons.