Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

THURSDAY, MAY AIKEN NEGRO, 14, ADMITS HIS GUILT SAYS HE ATTEMPTED ASSAULT ON GIRL OF FIVE. •^LeRoy Jackson Confesses to Officers at Penitentiar}\-~-Sp(iedy Trial Is S^en. Undernurished, lank and lean in hi s 90 pounds, LeRoy Jackson, who will be “15 years old the fourth week of May,” quietly sat in the office of the captain of the penitentiary guard Thursday and talked himself into trouble. He confessed to officers and Colum bia men that he had attempted assault on a five-year-old white girl near Graniteville Wednesday. He absolved entirely Ernest Washington, his pal, who was spirited to the penitentiary with him Wednesday after their arrest at Jackson’s home. In the meantime Aiken County offi cers prepared to place the Jackson case before the general sessions court now meeting and to bring the youth to trial. Extreme penalty fof the crime for which Jackson is held is death in the electric chair despite his 14 years of age. Under the South Carolina law the criminal intent |Of a person be tween seven and 14 years is debatable by the jury but above 14 the intent or the ability of intent is not questioned and the jury ha s to decide only on the facts in the case. Talks to Officers. In the presence of Captain of the Guard J. Olin Sanders, and State Con stables J. W. Richardson and T. J. Cunningham, Jackson meekly told of his deed. He gave the officers a writ ten confession, signed it with his scrawling hand and then went back to his cein * A short time later he emerged again to repeat the confes sion and hear it read to newspaper men and the officers. The confession does not contain the name nor any other means of identi fying the five-year-old girl upon whom the assault Was attempted. In no way does it identify the so-called victim of Jackson’s young lust. The statement Jackson made fol lows in part: * “LeRoy Jackson says that he had started to his grandfather’s house yes terday, May 14, and passed some little girls playing in the woods and says that he fooled them and told them there was some whiskey up there in the woods. Told them to come on up there. “I shoved one of the little girls hack and caught the other little girl and threw her down on the ground in the sand. And laid down by the side of her. . . She began hollering. (■iris Ran Away. “Then all of the children got to hollering and ran away from the place. The mother of this litle girl ran out there and called them. I then ran on across the hill and got my bicycle where I had left it. I then went to Mr*. Johnson’s house (a fiiend) and sharpened my knife so I could cut the shoe out of an old tire to repair my bicycle tube which was punctured. “Then went on home and changed clothes. I was at home in the kitchen when the sheriff came to our house.” Jackson denied that he had hid under the bed as Washington had told officers. Both boys were at Jack son’s house when arrested. “I don’t know why I did it,” the youth remarked. “I had not planned anything of the kind.” Jackson went to school until this session when he went to work taking threads off bobs in a Graniteville cot ton mill. There he had an altercation with his boss and was fired. He was out of work Wednesday when he says he committed the assault. The confession secured by the offi cers was released after J. Austin Lati mer had conferred with Governor Richards and with Solicitor B. D. Car ter, of the Second circuit. Sheriff James P. Howard, of Aiken, came to Columbia Thursday afternoon and took Washington back to Aiken to give him his freedom. Jackson re mained in the penitentitry a s a safe- keeper.—The State. • ♦ ♦ - ■ Beautiful Venice Of all the beautiful cities In the world noiae can rival Venice and its lagoons. Artists and poets of all ages have felt the charm of this unique city, where genius and nature have met to create a perfect harmony. The square of St. Mark, with its basilica scintillating with gold; the solemn lines of the procurate; the ducal pal ace; the Grand canal, with its marble palaces, whose decorations ' seem copies from the famous laces of Borano an^ Torcello; the churches and bridges, and the gondolas slipping silently through the water—all arouse in the visitor Intense emotions and admiration. • QL BERMUDA IcSLANDcS Map Showing Location of the Bermudas, With Inset Map of the Islands. (Prepared bjr the National Geographic Society, Washington. D. C.) T HE Bermudas, Island outposts in the Atlantic of the‘North American continent, have long been a resort for sojourners from the eastern United States, but never before have they been so speed ily reached from the mainland as re cently when the trip was made from New York by seaplane in almut eight hours flying time. Boats from New York require 48 hours for the voyage. In the Pacific, where there Is much island competition, the Bermudas would be a negligible group; but in the almost islandless Atlantic they have played an important role. They form a microcosm, the catastrophes, the vicissitudes, the political, eco nomic, and religious controversies, and the development of whose people, as a solitary unit, far out to sea, reflect much of the world history of the Eng lish speaking peoples. They are a group of what are said to be 365 islands (one for every day in the year) north latitude 32 degrees and west longitude 04 degrees. There are only flve important islands, and all of the group are so close together that those capable of use are united by bridges and vP use ways, so as to give to the sojourner In his drives the impression that they are but one island, with large indenting hays and inlets. Strung together, they have the form of a fishhook with the stem pointed to the northeast and the curve of the hook to the southwest. From the northeast end to the point of the hook, you can piece out a curving drive 22 or 23 miles long, and the width of tlie land from sea to sea through which you drive will hardly average a mile. The superficial area of the whole group is miles. The Islands are nearly 000 miles from Cape Hat (eras, the nearest mainland; they are TOO mile?* from Charleston, S. C.. opposite whica they lie dn the Atlantic; they are nearly TOO miles from New York and about 50 miles farther-from Halifax. They are about SOO miles from the nearest of the West Indies; they are nearly 30 miles from the southern or southeastern edge of that river of warm water, 100 fathoms deep, flow ing over an ocean depth 2,500 fathoms, from the gulf of Mexico to New Bruns- wlck, Nova Scotia, and />eyond to Eu ropean shores, which we call the Gulf stream. Pulverized Shell on Volcanic Rock. They are irregular hills and ridges of pulverized shells, reaching in some places to a height of 250 feet, drifted and deposited by the wind on the top of a mountainous column of volcanic rock rising from the floor of the sea three miles below. This peak is a solitary one in all that part of the Atlantic ocean. It lias been covered by this wind-formed limestone and a tliinner plaster of coral rock. After the expedition of H. M. S. Challenger on her scientific explora tion of tie Atlantic ocean bottom and Islands in 18T3 had disclosed the lonely column upon which the Ber mudas rested, there was an effort to reconcile what seemed a pile of coral rock three miles high in the sea with Darwin’s conclusion that the coral animal would not work more than 100 fathoms below the surface. A desire to find fresh water on the islands led to the sinking of a wet) 1,200 feet deep, and while it did not bring w-hat was sought, it greatly grat ified ft lot of puzzled scientific men by disclosing that the coral rock and limestone were a mere cap to what was an old volcano sticking its cra tered top up to within less than one thousand feet of the shining surface of the translucent sea. The top of this undersea mountain is much greater In superficial area than that of the visible islands, but It Is everywhere crowned with coral and limestone, which protrude In dan gerous reefs on the north, west, and south aides of the islands, as far as eight and ten miles from their shores, sometimes peeping above the surface; and at others lurking Just beneath. One need not say that such a situa tion makes Bermuda m awkward place for ships to reach and safely land, aiyt this circumstance Isantm- portaar factor In her history. Bermuda Is all by herself in the scientific and naturalist world. Her soil, which Is red, is nothing but the result of the working of the weather on the limestone and coral rock. These Islands came from the wind and drift and currents of the seas. As one writer says: “Probably we could not select a more perfect example of cur rent-formed islands than the Bermu das.” This origin has turned the closest attention of natural scientists to these islands and brought out from them many articles and volumes on the ge ology, conchology. zoology, . astlnolo- gy, arachnology. Ichthyology, meteor ology, and the flora and fauna of this little punctuation point on the sur face of the Atlantic. While we cannot entirely exclude from the enthusiasm and prolific ac tivity of our scientific men the ’mo tive which the charm and bodily com fort of the islands famished for these expeditions thither, the publications manifest an exceptional interest on their part In this tiny spot on the world’s and ocean’s surface which the peculiar history of its creation has justified. Some of the most fruitful sources of tl»e spread of life, animal and vege table. are wind, current, and birds; and here we have the result of them all in an isolated form, so set apart as to permit the most satisfactory study of their results. The turtles must in old times have been of huge size; one, it was said, was large enough to give a good meal from Its meat to fifty men, and the eggs and the pil of such monsters were equally useful. There are tur tles there still, but they have been discouraged in their expansive ambi tions and do not furnish forth a mar riage feast as generously as in the dawn of civilization in that little com munity. , New Varieties of Life Flourish. The Bermudas are the land of adopted nativity. They are most hos pitable to new varieties of life. Some enterprising grower of plants intro duced a toad to take care of the In sects which were troubling him in his garden, and though this was only in the latter part of the last century, one runs across everywhere frequent evidence of these immigrants. Very early in the settlement, and before 1620, a vessel brought some en terprising rats, which, with enthusi asm worthy of a better cause, multi plied until they ravaged the islands, ate everything in sight, swam in great multitudes from one island to another, leaving havoc In their train. Cats were introduced, hut to no im mediate purpose. Even the fish took part in resisting the rats, and many of the finny tribe were caught with rats in their stomachs. Suddenly they disappeared as they^ had come and left nothing but a plague of cats, wdth their night blooming character istics, as a reminder of this rodent visitation. , ' . Lovaly Flowers and Climate. The luxuriance and wealth of color of the flora of the Bermudas have at tracted the-poets, w ho have sung their beauties. The purple bougainvillea, with* its varying shades in and out of the sun light, is entrancing in its beauty and welcomes one into the grounds of the government house, climbing over the smoothly cut walls of coral through which the white road makes Its way to the home of the governor. The oleanders are so fine and so gorgeous in their hues that it has been suggested' that these be called the Oleander islands. Coffee, indigo, cot ton, and tobacco are of spontaneous growth. It^ may not‘recall pleasant associa tions in the minds of the youthful to say that in do place does the castor oil plant grow more perfectly than here. The climate of Bermuda has a max imum temperature of about 88 de grees, a minimum of about 48 degrees, and a mean of about 70 degrees. This mild climate assists the growth of es culent plants and roots and promotes early growth of onions, potatoes, car rots, tomatoes, and beetroots, as well as Illy bulbs tod arrowroot, though the last two hate not been ful of lata. Pioneer Fertilizer Mined on Barren L^tnds in Chile Introduction to United States in 1830 Marked First Use of Commercial Fertilizer. T HE Urst hundred years In the use of commercial fertilizers can now be recorded In the agri cultural history of the United States. The practice of using commercial nitrogen as a fertilizer was started in 1830 when the first Shipment of nitraU of soda was brought to this xmntry. Up to that time only lime and marl of the Inorganic aubstances now com monly used fo^ agricultural purposes w’ere known to the early farmers. Used continuously since that time, nitrate of soda, or Chilean nitrate, as farmers commonly call it, is now rec ognized as the oldest of the present- day commercial fertilizers. Although nitrate of soda has become a commonplace article on farms throughout the country, it is not gen erally known that one of the romances of modern civilization is woven around this fertilizer. It is a product of a barren desert, high Jn the Andes Mountains of northern Chile. There Is no rain or vegetation In the entire nitrate zone, which occupies a region nearly as large as the combined area of New York and Pennsylvania. Not a blade of grass springs from the soil, beneath which is one of the most im portant fertilizing compounds known to Nature. The nitrate ore is found at varloua depths below the surface, the average being about three feet. It varies In richness from 5 to TO per cent sodium nitrate. Open-cut mining is practiced In removing the ore, after which It !• transported to a refining plant erected near by on the desert. The refining of the ore is an extremely technical proc ess. The objective of the operations, however, Is to remove the Impurities from the ore and to concentrate the •odinm nitrate so that when ready for shipment the fertilizer contains 96 to 99 per cent sodium nitrate and an-. alyzes 15.5 per cent nitrogen. Iodine,. which Is also present in the ore, is .a by-product of the refining process. Small quantitlea of thlc element are found in the fertilizer, as are aleo traces of boron and magnesium. Conservative estimates by geolo gists and engineers in Chile Indicate that the deposits are of sufficient size to supply the needs of the world for generations to come. I BLLI8 BfQDfBKRDfG OCX ► / Land Bwrveylag I a G Red Letter Events Found in American Agriculture 1830—Nitrate 1 of soda introduced into United States. In point of ser vice, nitrate from Chile is exceeded only by lime and marl of the in organic substances now used for farm purposes. 1842—Lawes in England took out patent for making superphosphate. .Since that time pnospnate deposits have been discovered in our south ern states and in Afrira. I860—Potash from German mines first utilized for farm purposes. Atlantic Fertilizer Gt. FISH GUANO SPECIAL ASPARAGUS FERTILIZER. Call 78 R. L. HAIR, Repreaentatirr WilHston, S. C. N Governor Richards Decides Not to Run Saya It'la Not Hia Purpose Now to Offer for Any Position in Elec tions This Year. Governor John G. Richards, first of the four-year term governors of South Carolina has no “purpose now to offer for any position in the elections this year,” he declared in a prepared state ment given out Saturday. The full text of the statement was as follows: \ \ * “I have received more requests to run for the United States senate in the Democratic primary this summer and have been given more offers of support than for any other office in my experience. “Of course, I deeply appreciate this evidence of continued confidence and the kindness of my friends. However, it has never been my purpose nor is it my purpose now to offer for any position in the elections this year. “I shall devote my efforts to the discharge of the duties of the great office that I now hold, with full reali zation of the responsibilities involved an<f with grateful appreciation to the people of South Carolna for past and present honors and for the opportuni ties of service which they have so gen erously given me.” ■ ♦ Would You Knot* On* if You Saw ItT If you ever came face to Hot with *. “ ki Of course win would you noognise it is not likely that you ever b a germ, unlern you own a. tremendously powerful microooops, far you would nave to magnify ant oosr a thousand times to make it as mg aa a pin head. But you should the fact that then tiny into your blood stream ■nalleat cut, and ghre you ferer, tuberculoma, lockjaw, poisoning, and ma and pomps fatal one sure safeguard against dangers — washing every on matter how small, thoroughly liquid Boroeone, the safe tic. You can get liquid Ba R. A. Deason, Barnwell, 8. C. Epps’ Pharmacy, Blackrille, 8. G Advertise in The People-Sentinel Luke Reilly Says, “The Rat Died Be fore Reaching the River* “Since moving near the river two years age, we’ve always used RAT- SNAP. Watched a vicious water rat» nibbling at RAT-SNAP outside tin house. About 15 minutes later In darted off for the water to cool Ma burning stomach, but he died reaching R." Three sisea. Sic, $1.26. Sold and guaranteed by Best Pharmacy and Deason’s Drag Store, Barnwell. WISE TO CHOOSE A SIX These modern features make it wise to choose a i * * * Chevrolet Six In selecting a low-priced car, bear these ali-important facts in mjnd: The new Chevrolet is a SIX—and offers all the smoothness, flclxibility and durability of a 50-horsepower valve-in-head six-cylinder motor. The new Chevrolet is the only car offering the style, comfort and safety of Body by Fisher at such low prices. And the new Chevrolet is the only car in its field with this great combina tion of modern engineering ad> .*495 ROADSTER Th» Coach or Coupj5h$ The Sport Roadster *555 The Sport Coupe.. H55 Trucks: Light i ssrz&ti# 1 * vaheements * au»<vricss f. o. a. factory, flint, high. four long semi-elliptic springs, four Lovejoy hydraulic shock absorb ers, completely enclosed four-wheel . brakes, a modern “pump” method of fuel supply with the gas tank in the rear, adjustable driver's seat, Fisher non-glare-windshield und twin-beam headlamps. See your nearest Chevrolet dealer today. Learn for yourself why it’e wise to choose a Six. Learn for how small a down payment and on what easy terms you can own a new Chevrolet Six* OR PHAETON The Chth Sedan....*25 TheSedan H75 The Spedai Sedan..*725 (4 mire wheels standard) Chassis. SMS; The Sodan .t3»: I * Ton Chassis (fich-mp boa CHEVROLET SIX GRUBBS CHEVROLET CO. Barnwell, S.C. Six •CYLINDER SMOOTHNESS AT LOW