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Yol I. No. 19 This Issue of The Progress Will Go Into the Homes of More Than 2,000 Coffee County Taxpayers MASS MEETING HELD SATURDAY ELECTED COUNTY COMMITTEE A mass meeting was held at the Court House last Saturday morning, and after appointing Col. W. R. Frier temporary chairman, and Col. Levi O’Steen temporary secretary, the following County Executive Com mittee was elected : Douglas J. M. Ashley, Levi O’Steen, W. R. Frier, J. F. McDonald. Tanner Dan Hall, John Roberts, J. A. Davis. Piekren J. C. Ellis, B. T. Burket, Warren Lott. Wooten J. C. Roddenberry, G. W. Corbitt, E. L. Bledsoe. Phillips Mill Dr. Ivy W. Moorman, T. J. Holland, T. H. Brown. Willacoochee- Elisha Corbitt, Geo. McCranie, J. M. Roberts. Pearson J. 0. White, F. E. McNeal R. Vickers. Mora- M. L. Aldridge, T. J. Douglas, J. O’Steen. McDonald A. F. Wilson, W. W. Stewart, J. H. King. The time of holding the next pri mary was discussed at length and the concensus of opinion seemed to be that an early primary was desired, and the following resolution was passed : “Resolved, That it is the sense of the mass meeting assembled, that the primary for county officers be held not later than May 1 and the citizens of Coffee County do hereby in mass meeting assembled ask the incoming executive committee to call same not later than May 1,1914.” A resolution was then offered and NEW STEAM LAUNDRY READY FOR BUSINESS The new steam laundry, located on South Gaskin avenue near the A. B. & A. railroad, is ready for business. This is a decided addition to the enterprises of Douglas and with the management of Mr. McLendon there is every reason to believe that the laundry will be a success and fill a long felt want. The laundry, while not as large as those in cities like Atlanta, is as well equipped as any in the State com- i paring with such establishments anywhere. Mr. A. M. McLendon, who has all his life been in the laun-, dry business and knows nothing else, will manage the business and for the past three weeks has been constantly at work installing new machinery which is the latest modern type. Mr. McLendon stated to a Progress reporter that their plant would be strictly sanitary in every respect and ! that they were in position to do work j of every class. He said that he con fidently expected that as soon as the people of Douglas found out what a splendid laundry was being operated here it would be necessary to enlarge ! the plant. Suffice it to say that The Progress heartily welcomes the Douglas Steam Laundry and feels certain that it will be a permanent institution in the city, for Douglas is noted far and wide for her hearty support of any thing that tends to make the city a better place to live in. L. S. Peterson Recom mended for Postmaster The many friends of L. S. Peterson both in Dougias and the County at large are delighted with Congressman Yv alk er’s action in recommending him to President Wilson for the position of Postmaster at Douglas. The recom mendation is a popular one and meets with the general approval of the patrons | of the office. Mr. Peterson is in e\er\ way qualified to fill the office with credit and to the entire satisfaction of both the Government and the people. Con gressman Walker is sticking to nis post and the of his district feel that he is making good in his new role. HAVE RETURNED TO DOUGLAS After spending a year at Arcadia, Fla., Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Smith have returned to Douglas to make their fut ure home. They formerly lived here and their many friends in the city are glad to welcome them back again. Mr. Smith holds a position with the Georgia anu f' lorida shops. (M B ftt (gottttjfl Praams. offering Judge Quincey as a candidate for Congress from this district. The i resolution was as follows: “Resolved, That whereas there is to be elected this year a Congress man from the 11th District, And, whereas, we have in our | county a distinguished citizen and a | man in every way qualified to fill ! this high and important office, and a man that well deserves any confi dence placed in him by the citizens of this State, we, therefere, in mass meeting assembled suggest and offer the name of J. W. Quincey, of Doug las, Ga., to fill this important posi tion, and earnestly ask him to make the race in the approaching primary, hereby promising and pledging him our ardent support for this office, provided he decides to offer for same.” A motion to endorse Judge Dart for the office of Judge of the Superior Court of the Waycross Circuit was passed and the following endorsement given him: “Whereas, at the coming election it will be necessary to select a Judge of the Superior Court for the Way cross Circuit, and, whereas, we re cognize and appreciate the many qualifications of our esteemed fel low citizen, Judge F. Willis Hart, be it “Resolved, That we here and now, as an evidence of our apprecia tion of Judge Dart, unanimously en dorse him, and pledge him our sup port for this very important office.” THREE HOUSES BURN SUNDAY MORNING With a brand new March wind blowing a gale, fire broke out in one of John McLain’s houses, just south of the A. B. & A. railroad, Sunday morning between 10 and 11 o’clock and for a time it looked as if the whole of that end of Douglas would go up in flames. However, valiant men working hard and the fire de partment’s arrival with hose kept the fire from spreading beyond the two houses adjoining the one which first caught. Three houses, two belonging to John McLain and one to Ed Dar bee, colored, were destroyed. Most of the contents were saved. The buildings will be a total loss as there was no insurance on them, it is said. The fire’s origin is not known as the tenants of the house which first caught were not in the building when the fire broke out, but it is supposed that some embers in one of the fire places started up and the strong wind blew them on the floor. Miss Stanfield Was Elected Supervisor The regular monthly meeting of the county school board was held at Superintendent of Education -J. Gordon Floyd’s office last Monday morning. All the members of the board were present except Mr. Tom Morris. Routine business occupied the at tention of the hoard for some time. Mr. E. Corbitt was inducted into office, he having been recommended for the place on the board by the last grand jury and later appointed by the governor. Miss Bertie Standfield was elected as Nelson Supervisor for this county. Miss Stanfield is now principal of the Shepherd school and will take up the work assigned to her through the Nelson movement as soon as her term ends. Miss Standfield will also have charge of the Girls’ Canning clubs throughout the county and hopes to work up a great deal of in terest in this industry. Has Located Here. Dr. J. D. DeLamar, of Hamilton, has removed to this city where he will reside in the future. He is ac corded a hearty welcome. Douglas, Georgia, Friday, March, 6th 1914 OFFICERS WERE SHOT AT'WHILE TRYING TO MAKE ARRESTS Tuesday night Deputy Sheriff Jeff Kirkland, of this city, and Bailiff W. M. Summerlin, of Willacoochee, went to the negro section of Douglas in search of a negro whom they ! thought was in hiding there and be | lieved to have been guilty of com -1 mitting murder at Willacoochee. The officers thought that they had located the negro in one of the houses and entered. They were met inside by a negro and they began to quest ion him concerning the one they were in search of. • The negro addressed claimed ig norance of' the whereabouts of the one the officers wanted and while they were conversing with him, of ficer Kirkland recognized him as one he had a warrant for and started to lay his hand on him, saying: “I know you. and have a warrant for you.” As he did so the negro drew forth a gun and began to shoot, running in to an adjoining room. The offiicers followed as far as the door, which was slammed in their faces, and at the same time a bullet hit the butt of the revolver which Mr. Summerlin held in his hand, breaking off a large piece of it. The huilet barely missed Mr. Summerlin and only the deflec tion of the bullet off the revolver butt saved him. * Before the officers could get into the room, the negro had made his escape and is still at large. - • Judge Quincey Had to Correct Lawyers Judge J. W. Quincey presided at court atCharltui Wednesday an:] among other cases tried wus one for the State vs. T. A. Christie in which a game of draw poker was alleged. During the trial of the case the lawyers for both the State and the defence got badly mixed up in using terms relative to the game, Judge Quin -ey had frequently to come to their rescue. It is said that Judge Quincey expressed it as his pri vate opinion that the attorneys showed a lack of knowledge of the game. Christie was convicted, however, and fined $75. JUDGE F. W. DART MAKES FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT V. . ", ■ ■ £■: . _ ■/"•.V " i •. ■ ’ . IJII Judge F, W. Dart makes his formal announcement as a candidate for Judge of the Superior Co.uft,WaycrossCircuit,in this issue of The Progress. Judge Dart clearly sets forth his purposes if elected to this important office as well as giving a brief resume of his life and the part hr has played in public matters. Judge Dart is warmly supported by many loyal friends in this city and county and will no doubt make a stroner race, as he is well and favorably known through' >utjthe whole district. Judge Du t will speak to the voters of the county at the court house Monday n.iai h.g rrd asks that as many of the people come to hear him in reference to his campaign as can. MOULTRIE PACKING HOUSE BE READY SEPTEMBER FIRST It is a matter of great interest to the farmers in this county that a packing house which will handle all kinds of live stock is to be ready for operation at Moultrie by the first of the coming September. This pack ing house is to he operated by the men living in Moultrie and will af ford a market for stock raised in the whole of South Georgia. Mr. John YV. Greer, well known to the people of this county, was in the city recently and explained the propo sition quite fully to the farmers. He urged the farmers to take the news of the opening of the packing house into serious consideration, pointing out to them the advantages they would have in raising and disposing of stock and thereby being able to partly avoid the distress that would attend the advance of the boll weevil into this county. Mr. Greer said in part as follows: That Moultrie was building a hun dred thousand dollar packing house for the purpose of buying hogs, cows, sheep and goacs, killing and curing the meat of same and selling it to the public as do the great packing houses of the west, such as Armour, Swift, Morris, Cudahy and others. The packing house will be com pleted and operation started on Sep tember 1 of this year, after which it will buy every meat animal presented* pay the Chicago price and pay it in cash as do the cotton merchants for cotton. The packing house will have a nor mal capacity of 30,000 hogsannually, but this can be easily increased to twice that number and it is more than likely that it will require all the hogs raised in South Georgia for the next two or three years to keep it running, as the packing house wi 1 run every working day in the year and buy stock every working day. Of course if the packing house is a Robbers Thought to Have Caused Fire at H est Green Last Saturday morning, about 3! o’clock, the country roundabout West Green, formerly Garrant, was aroused by a tremendous explosion, the noise be ; ng plainly heard in Doug las and at Broxton the people thought that a small earthquake had taken place. Later in the day it was discovered that the depot at West Green had burned'and at the same time three box cars one ’of them j loaded with fertilizer. Some 300 pounds of dynamite was in the station warehouse, having been consigned to various parties to blow stumps, and it was the explos ion of this powder that caused the shock which was distinctly felt for a radius of 10 miles. It is thought that robbers, either purposely or by accident, caused the fire. However this is not a certainty as the station, a building about 35x75 feet, including the warehouse, was totally burned together with the cot ton platform adjoining, and no trace of marauders could be found. It is not known whether anything was stolen from the depot, if robbers were there, because of the fact noth ing remains of tickets, etc., to check up. The agent at that place states that he had taken the money in hand, only a few dollars, home with him Friday night and that if robbers vis ited the place they did not get any thing of value out of the ticket of fice. They might have secured some freight, but this is not definite. success, others will be established in other points over South Georgia. But the main thing for the people of South Georgia to do now is to make this one a success, for if this one should fail, another would not be built for many years to come. The packing house will benefit Coffee County just as much as it will Colquit County, for the reason that the farmers in this county will be able to sell their stock to it by bring ing them to the railroad centres. Buyers will have certain days of the week to visit Douglas, Willacoochee, Pearson and other points in the county and the farmers will he ap prised of these sale days and have their stock at those places. The Moultrie Packing House will pay Chicago prices that is the Chi cago quotations will govern the Moultrie price as they do for all meat animals in the United States. Last year, the Chicago prices for hogs averaged about eight and a half cents a pound on foot. That is, a two hundred pound hog would bring about sl7 at the Moultrie packing house. That hog costs the average South Georgia farmer $6.00, thereby giving him a profit of sll on every two hundred pound hog produced, Mr. Greer said the most popu lar breeds for South Georgia country are the Duroc, Poland China and Berkshire, He avowed that the history of the packing house is that it has paid the farmers out of debt in five years wherever it has been established. That all one crop countries and wherever stock has been added, the farmers soon pay out of debt and be- THE GRAY LUMBER COMPANY SUIT HEARD THIS WEEK. The suit of the Douglas Grocery Co., et al, vs. Gray Lumber Co., in volving some $300,000, was heard be fore Hon. James F. McCracken, as special master for the District Court of the United States, at Waycross this week. Messrs. O’Steen & Wal lace and Messrs. McDonald & Will ingham appeared for the petitioning creditors; Judge W. C. Lankford represented the Gray Lumber Co.; and Col. Lawson Kelley was attorney for the Citizens bank. The hearing of the* suit occupied all of Monday and Tuesday and Judge McCracken will take all the evidence into consideration and $1 Per Annum Mrs. Matt Kirkland Dies From Cancer While not altogether unexpected, the people of Coffee County were sad dened to learn of the death of Mrs. Linnie Kirkland, wife of Dr. Matt Kirkland, at their home about five miles from Douglas, Tuesday. Mrs. Kirkland had been a great sufferer for more than a year with a cancer and although everything had been done for her that medical science knew to do, the disease con quered. Mrs. Kirkland before her marriage was Miss Linnie Gillis, and as a young woman was considered one of the belles of the county. She developed into a most lovely womanhood and was possesed by a most estimable character and disposition. She will be mourned by hundreds throughout the county, and her death is a severe blow to her husband and immediate family. The funeral was conducted from the home Wednesday afternoon and interment was made in the family cemetery at Mt. Zion. The great number of people attending the rites attested the high respect in which the deceased was held. Besides her husband, Mrs. Kirk land is survived by three children, Mr. Elton Kirkland, of Louisana, Mr. Leroy Kirkland and Miss Stella Kirkland. She was a sister of Sher iff Gillis and there are many other relatives in this and adjoining coun ties. ■ Overturned Box Car Ties up A. B. & A. An eastbound freight was pulling into Douglas yards Monday morning when one of the cars in the train turned over for no apparent reason while the train was about 100 yards west of the station. The car was loaded with fertilizer, [ and as it lay directly across the main line, the westbound passenger train I due to leave here at 10:40, was de layed until the overturned car could be righted, which was after noon. Aside from spilling some of the contents of the car, the accident did no damage. Young Farmer Dies Near StoKesville. Mr. John Mashburn, whose home was near Stokeaville, this county, died there Sunday night from drop sy. The deceased was a young man of thirty three years, and had the res pect of his neighbors who deplore his death at so early an age. He is survived by his wife, and four children, his parents an many realtives throughout the county. come the lending instead of the bor rowing classes. He said eighty four percent of the farmers are in debt, but if the farmer would begin to raise stock for this packing house they would soon be the richest peo ple on the American continent, make his report to the United States Court April 1. This case has attracted consider able attention and is the outcome of a petition by certain creditors of the Gray Lumber Co., for the concern to be adjudged bankrupt. The com pany has filed a plea that they have committed the acts alleged and admit willingness of being adjudged bankrupt, but certain creditors other than those asking for the ad judgement are opposing the petition. The case is liable not to be settled for some time to come as a large amount of money is represented in the suit.