Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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SC \4) --~t MUdo*i 4 47 51PI --If_ VOL XLII. NO. 140 XPlJWBERRY. S. 0. T-VE4SDX--Y, DE(''-MB-)EB- 19. 190- 5.TIEAXEKS)0kYR M. BLEASE SWORN BEFORE COHNITTE ASKED TO BE PUT ON WITNESS STAND, Dispensary Committee Met in Columbi Yesterday anI Adjourned Untill January I0, Special to The Herald and News. Columbia, December 18.-After hearing a sworn statement from Hon. Cole Blea'se, of Newberry, a memb'er of the committee, and au thor of the resolution passed by the legislature which created it, the dis pensary .investigating committee, which met in Columbia, at Wright's hotel. today' at noon, adjourned to meet in the senate chamber at 3 o clock p. m. on January 10. At the next meeting all the testimony nec essary for the report to be submit ted to the legislature will be taken, if possible. If for any reason the committee should not be able to se cure all the other testimony at this time. it will continue its sessions during the session of the legislature, getting its report in shape before the adjournment of the general as sembly. At the session this morning Mr. Bleae asked to be placed on the witness stand. and was sworn by Chairman J. T. Hay. Mr. Blease stated that he 'wanted to give his statement 'made at Spartanburg, be fore the committee while it was in session-there; in order that it might get in the record, and that he want ed also to add a few lines to it. Mr. Blease's statement before the com mittee at its meeting in Spartan burg was published in full in The Herald and News at the time and it is -unnecessary to give more than the substance of it here. It will be recalled that it was made while L. E. Farlev, a witness, was on the stand. 'Mr. Farley testified that he had been assisting the marshall of the committee in finding witnesses, and \that he had seen Mr. S. J. Cathcart and asked him to appear before the committee, and Mr. Cathcart told him they couldn't force him; (Cathcart) to appear that Mr. Toland had seen Mr. * Blease "and I don't know wvheth.er I will come or not." While -Mr. Farley was on the stand in Spar tanburg Mr. Blease arose and sta ted that he had heard his name brought into the matter for ma licious political reasons until he was tired of it, that Toland had had no conversation at all with him about the committee or its examinations, and as to representing the Atlanta Brewing and Ice company, he had represented the company in one set tlement in Spartanburg, the matter being purely a business transaction between the Atlanta Brewing com pany and John H. Morris. at that time a beer dispenser in Spartan burg, and tha,t Mr. Blease had been brought into the matter in a purely business way at the request of Mr. Dunwoody, of the company, whom he happened to meet in Spartan burg while attending. the May fes tival there. That when this trans action was over his connection with the Atlanta Brewing company, eith er as attorney, or otherwvise, ceas ed,and that he had not since been coimected with the Atlanta Brew ing and Ice company in any man ner whatsoever. Mr. Blease repeated this Spar tanburg statement in full before the committee to.day, and stated fur ther, adding to this statement, that he did not now and had never rep resented the Atlanta Brewing and C Ice company or Mr. Dunwoody as attorney or otherwise except in the one settlement above referred to, and that in that settlement. he did s not mention the name of the com- t mittee or any sub-division of it to Morris arid did :hot know that any member of the committee had ver [seen Morris, and he. had- never him-1 self seen him until fhat day. That .wvhen Morris told bim he had paid $25 to the dispensarf newspaper fund, he said to him: Did you pay that money with the promise of be ing reelected? Morris said, I did. Mr. Blease stated that he then told t Morris he thought he had been C treated damn dirty .and that he would demand his monev back and t advised him to demand his money. Mr. Blease said that Morris told him he didn't know how to get it,I and Mr. Blease told him he would' write an order' for him, and he wrote the note because he thought r that Morris should have his money back; that he had never' mentioned the matter to any one who had the money or was supposed to have the money., and had never made any ef-s fort to get the money for Morris. As to Toland he had not seen him or had'any conversation with him in the past four or five years except the one referred to in the Spartan burg statement. the full'details of which were given by Mr. Blease to the committee at that time. Mr. t Blease said that Toland's own evi- a Ia d (ence before the committee showed t that he did nothing to Jkeep Tolandl or any one else from appearing be fore the committee or to keep from the committee anything that he knew. The Spartanburg conversa- t tion with Toland referred to by Mr. Blease as'the only one he had had with him in the past four or five~l vears was when .Toland came to iim and told him if Charley Smith would give him (Toland) one hun 0 dred dollars he wouldn't appear be- ~ fore the committee and Mr. Blease r told *Toland he didn't have anything k 'to do with Charley Smith and (lid not want anything to do with To- t land, and walked into the hotel. . Mr. Blease said fhat he had written Senator Hay about the work of the committee, and had said to him that he had heard complaint' of the way Lyon and Christensen: had been acting in securing testi mony, and he didn't receive thiss complant from Morris or Toland and he had made no complaint of the methods of Lyon and Chris-q tensen. b)ut on the contrary turned over to them letters which he had 1SI recevedl in regard to their part of Ithe work, and one of those letters was from Smith to the Newberryv dispenser. He had never said a r word or done one thing to hinder in any manner the committee fromat getting all the proof that it could, but on the contrary had done his full duty as a member of it, and thie tb record would show that he by reso THE FARNUM PAPERS. atch of Papers Represented to 'e the Farnum Papers Given to Supreme Court. Spe:aI K The I-Ierald and News. Colubia,, December i8.-In re ponse to the order of the supreme :ourt recently passed, in the matter )f the Farnumi papers, the long ought papers, or a batch of papers -epresented to be the papers ought by the dispensary investiga i' committee, were handed to the up'rene court this morning by Far ium's attorneys, The papers have iot -:t1heen, examined, and it is not :ndwn vhat the 1::kage contains. It vXill -be .recalled that a sub-di 'ision: of the dispensary investiga ing comniittee, while in Charles on, demanded some papers of Mr. S. Farnum. The demand was re used, and the matter was carried to he supreme court. The supreme :ourt without passing upon the nerits of the contention, ordered he papers to be produced for ex miination by 'the court. Three Dollar Gold Piece. A three dollar gold piece is a very are thing. In fact we do 'not re all ever .to have seen but one and at one is in the possession and the roperty of ir. Lambert W. Jones. t was made in 1865. It is about the ize of a $5 gold coin ekcept, of ourse, it is not as thick. Pastor Called. The members -of the West End aptist church have called the Rev. .uther B. White,. of Clyde, N. C., > become their pastor and he has ccepted. He will take charge on be first of January. Mr. White is a South Carolin mn, being formerly of .Johnston. tion adlded a number of questions > the original resolution, and these uestions led to other lines of in estigation. Mr. Blease referred to is speech at Pomaria last summer ren he advised the people to rait for the -repo.rt of the investi ating committee, and promised to esign his seat in the senate if it as not an honest report. He would ~ave it to the people of South Caro na to judge from the record as be veen Morris and Toland and him elf. "I have no fear but that all air-mir ded and unprejudiced men ill sav- that 1 have not clone any iing to justify the criticisms which 'ce people and newspapers have ~en fit to make on account of per >al or political animosity, or p)os bly both, as it is wvell known that iy political position on some of the iestions before the people and in ie general assembly for the past everal y'ears have made many ene ies among a certain faction of eople and newspapers. Let the eople read the record and pass .idgment fairly and I don't fear the esult." Mr. Blease warmed up dur ig his statement. When' referring > his Ponmaria speech lie said this ras a nmonth before the Spartan urg nmeeting, "when I first knew of 1s dirt scheme on the part of some eole." REV. u. W. '-iETON VS. MEH. CONFERENCE PRESIDING EL')R AND MR. CREIGE TON DISAGREE. Chgrges Preferred --Mr. Creighton Avows His Readiness to Meet His Accusers and Sift the Matter to the Bottom. Spartanburg, December T4.-A sensation was developed at the ses sion of the Methodist conference this morning immediatelv after Bishop Candler called the twenti eth question to ex-amine into the character of ministers. When the name of the Rev. C. W. Creighton. edito- of the Chris tian .\ppeal. published at Green wood, was -called, the presiding el der of Cokesbury district arose and preterred charges against the min ister in the following words: "That Mr. Creighton. while editor of a paper, was guilty of uttering state ments false, slanderous and unbe coming a Christian minister." Mr. Creighton replied coolly as possible under circumstances, saying: "I do not know. Bishop, but I suppose these charges grew out of the edito rial management of the Christian Appeal of which I was editor and owner tor more than two years. I am a lovaI Methodist and I ask only for fairness, and I propose to go to the very bottom of the.charges so that my course and conduct may be justly set forth. I shall ptiblish every line of the testimony." Mr. Creighton spoke with deep, suppressed emotion, but outwardly I was calm and cool. He perhaps succeeded in: purging his manner of anything like defiance. but spoke like a man who would see the mat ter through to the finish. He has a reputation of being a hard fighter for what he believes to be right. Mr. Creighton was asked to leave the church whlile the conference act ed on his character. The Bishop stated that the church was very stricf on such matters, and the con ference decided not to vote on char acter. The following committee was ap pointed to investigate the charge preferred against Mr. Creighton: Revs. M. L. Carlisle. R. WV. Barber and T. C. O'Dell. A record of their finding will be made as soon as pos sible. A heated discussion of the case of Rev. C. WV. Creighton was precipi tatedl when the committee through the chairman. Rev. M. L.. Carlisle. mrade his report. The committee report was to the effect that they were. unable to de cide the case and that more time was needed than was available dur ing the session of the conference and recommended that the matter be referred to the presiding elder in charge of Mr. Creigh ton during the coming year. Then the discussion was brought on, when Rev. J. WXalter Daniel arose and said: "Brethren, I am here to appear for Mr. Creighton. I consider this rather remarkable re port and I do not understand how the conference can adopt such. Not only is his character held up but he seft/ without work for another year. the procedure appears irregu "toreover. I an it iformed the matt(r vas brought up before the mneetig~of the presiding elders this week andi his character arrested and ' if fhere was evidence to arrest his character surely there ought to be something definite. I do not see how charges can be brought for im morality and slander when he has been under the eve of the presiding elder for two years when these things are alleged to have taken place, and when nothing was said" Mr. Daniel said that the black est criminal is supposed innocent by the law until he is proven guilty and. he did not see hoW the charge could rest over Mr. Creighton and he be made to suffer, next year by having his work taken from him and the accusation resting against him when the committee says nothing definite t and it is not known that he is guilty. A motion to pass the character of the defendant until a trial or further iinvestigation could be held was kill- " ed by the conference. Chairman Carlisle of the commit tee- said that it was recognized by them that it would take more tine than was available for them to et. all the evidence and do justice f6 the " defendant and that for this +eason the committee had taken the atien6 they had reported. The bishop stated that the report neither convicted or vindicated the . defendant-that it was non-commit tal. Then it was moved that the same- . committee: take the matter in hand again and report back to the con _ ference definitely whether a trial". was necessary or not. This motion was carried with. few dissenting votes and the com mittee has again taken up the mat ter of a trial for Rev. C. WV. Creigh' ton. Rev. Mr. Daniel stated to the conference that if a trial were ren dered they would ask for the mm utes of the presiding elders at the time they held up the character .of the defendant in their ,neeting. The bishop stated that this meeting~ was not an integral part of th1e confer ence but was a matter that inter ested the presiding elders only. The entire discussion evoked .a good deal of excitement and inter est and every member of the confer ence displayed the deepest concern - in th outcome. The case against Rev. C. W. Creighton, against whorp- charges were mare by his presiding eider fr making false and slanderous statements against presiding elders f the church has been postponed. It s thought the matter will be allow ed to drop. A Star Attraction. The managers of the opera house y special inducements will have oe of the three big attractions trav elling the south at the opera house ' on Saturday night. It is not often hat an attraction like "Robin Iood" will take in a town the size f Newberry. It is up to the musement loving public to say by he encouragement given this at raction what we shall have the next eason.