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prayer, the condemned wu asked if he had any
thing to say. and when he shook his head the
black-cap was adjusted, the Sheriff called good
bye and gave the- signal; the deputy below
For on* h^Ad ^nd ftiir^two yearf^he
P* 01 * 1 * h » Te celebrated the day on
i ^nrch erlittle band of heroic men, gathered from
thirteen antes, met and laid the foundation fori
the structure of human liberty and a people’s
* uu itw a|UU, HIV UV F“V —— ■ . , . 1 “
swung his shining hatchet and the thousand* "* tl f° vern ' Tomorrow, it will be cele-
A Hanging in the Olden Time.
Forty years ago, execution- by hanging
were not the private affairs of today. Not only
were they public, but they were so rare that
they were made rather festive occasions for all
except the officers in charge and the condemned.
Men in those days settled their differences by
law or by those nature's arbiters known as fist
and skull; both methods having.their enthusias
ts devotees. Killings were rare, ahd when they
came were usually in self-defense, or if other
wise the aggrieved either took vengeance into
their own hands, or realizing their helplessness,
bore it as best they might. Consequently thbre
were few murder trials, still fewer convictions,
and a hanging was the event of the decade.
When one came, people traveled many miles to
see it. paranta encouraging young people to
make the trip under the impression that the
horrible eicdinple would prejudice the youthful
mind against homicide.
But all rules have their exceptions, and the
hangings came occasionally. One county had
been in existence for half a century and had nev
er had a hanging. Once a gallows had been
built for a condemned man, but he managed to
evade its use and for years the structure stood,
a thing of awe to passing youth. But at last the
exception came. A man was tried, convicted,
sentenced, his case went the rounds of the
courts and the day of his execution was set
The word went out. and from fifty miles around
the people gathered. Wagon, ox-cart, horse
back horse cart and buggy crowded the road
leading from the county-site to the place of exe
cution, a crescent-shaped hollow at the head of
a tiny stream. It was remote from human habi
tation because no home would allow such a thing
near it, and was surrounded by the ever-sighing
pines.
The gallows stood in the bottom, all around a
thick carpet of wire-grass. The structure was
formed of two heavy posts of lightwood pine,
four smaller posts supporting the platform. It
was of generous height, surmounted by a hewn
crosspiece from which the rope dangled. In
the center of the platform of pine plank was the
trap-door, the two wings swung on hinges
and held in position by a rope, which was run
from the trap to one of the upright posts, over
a peg, and then down the post to the bottom,
where it was tied. The method of operation was
aimplicity itself. The sheriff and clergyman ac
companied the condemned .up the gallows steps
to the platform, where the sheriff adjusted the
noose and cap and gave the signal. His deputy
below, with a swing of the hatchet, cut the
taught rope, which released the trap and the
condemned dropped. 1 he gallows was crude,
but for the purpose was sufficient.
Where a crowd gathered, even then as
the commercial element was in evidence. There
were lemonade, candy, fruit, and cigar stands,
—soda water, cigarettes and ice cream were
comparatively unknown— and all through the
crowd hucksters and catch-penny gamesters
were busy. The crowd was there two hours be
fore the time set for the execution—noon of a
blistering July day—and the gathering on tfle
sloping hillsides gave the occasion a festive ap
pearance. Young men in their holiday best,
young women in their gayest -and brightest,
laughed and talked and courted, as young folks
will, even up to the moment the crash of the
falling platform ushered a soul into nterenity.
Then only a pause of horror, blanched faces,
and soon the merry-making went on as before.
These people were not callous; their holidays
were few, and even at best, the condemned was
not of their race and not an object of sympa
thy. And while the young laughed and played,
the older ones swapped gossip, talked crops or
. politics.
It was the hour of noon when the procession oj
which the condemned was the center came wind-
ing over the hill. Seated between the sheriff
and his deputy on the box which contained his
coffin, as tradition said he should sit, the com
demned rode in a wagon. He was a sullen
brute, a negro with ape-like features, scarcely
out of his teens, who had slain the object of his
hatred at.night with a blow from a maul. He
had eaten a hearty breakfast, drunk heartily,
and now rode to his death aaying nothing and
only mumbling replies to questions. In front
of the wagon, on either aide and behind, march
ed the guard. Forty men, as tradition said,
each carrying a double-barreled shot-gun with
its charge of thirty buck-shot; a man wearing-a
jacket o( Confederate gray was their captain.
The condemned man wore a robe of black cloth,
the cap hanging down his back. This robe had
seen made by amateurs, who had no idea of the.
height of the man whbwaS to Weir It, and cut
it for a full-grown; it would have trailed behind
when, he walked had it not 'been necessary to
loop it up for him to step.
looking on caught their breath as the black-
swathed body plunged downward, while with
a banging crasl^ the doors 6f the trap swung
back against the gallows posts.
A thrill of horror followed the shock, for the
black object, with scarcely a pause, shot down
ward to the earth. The rope had parted with a
■nap, and the work was-all*to do over again.
The guards kept back the curious crowd
while physicians and officers gathered around
the huddled lump of black, but the man was on
ly knocked senseless, with s slight abrasion on
the side of his neck. In s few minutes he was
restored, and in half an hour was ready to go
through the ordeal again.
Many were the inquiries and rather warm
waxed some of the discussions, some taking the
view that having gone through thfe ordeal, the
condemned had earned his life and should go
free. In reply to this, the Sheriff showed the
sentence, which read that the condemned should
be “hung by the neck until he was dead.” He
was still alive; therefore there was nothing to
do but to hang him again.
Another rope had been procured, the same
procession went up the scaffold again, there was
the same proceeding except the reading of the
warrant until the man was asked if he wanted
to say anything. Then the change came. He
who before was as dumb as an oyster, was now
as loquacious as a pebbly stream. He stepped
to the side of the platform and the words bub
bled from his mouth like wster from a jug; he
told of his crime, of hte repentance, and urged
his hearers to profit by his fate and keep out
jail. Where before he would not talk when urg
ed, now he was only stopped by the Sheriff’s
"time’s up,’’ and the second adjustment of ths
cap. As he pulled the cap into place, the Sher
iff stepped back and gave the signal.
This time the rope did not break.
THE LOST AND FOUND COLUMN.
“Tift county sends out an agricultural S. 0> [
S. signal notifying everybody that nearly six
thousand acres of perfectly good Georgia dirt
have disappeared frdm the tax digest and may
be running around loose. Ever mindful of the
power of the press it is respectfully suggested
that a small advertisement in the Lost and
Found column probably would locate -the wan
dering acres,” says the Savannah Morning News.
The virtue of advertising has been- demon
strated already in this case. Fouf years ago,
Tift county’s tax digest checked up short 16,000
acres of land. The same was duly advertised,
and over half this land has been either located
as given in under eerror, returned in other dis
tricts, or brqught to the tax books. This year,
instead of 16,000 acres short, there were only
6,610 acres short when the fact was published,
and already several tracts-of this-shortage have
been located. That is what advertising does.
Carelessness in making tax returns Is respon
sible for much of the shortage, which is more ap
parent than actual. The owner will return so
many acres of lot number so-and-so. when his.
land is actually located on another lot. There
fore, when the lot is checked up by the assess
ors. it shows a shortage. Then, in this county,
a peculiar condition exists. In the western part
of the county an error was made in the original
survey in running the line between two chains
of lots, and nearly 100 acres each were tak
en off the lots in one chain and added to the lota
on the other chain. There is no record of this
error, either on the county maps or in the offices
of the Comptroller-General in-Atlanta, which
makes the returns hard to check up. One thing
is notable: Property owners of the small lots
are very careful to return only the actual niJfci-
her of acres their lots contain, while the owners
of the large lots all uniformly return the stand
ard of 490 acres each.
The Morning News is right. Advertising is
rapidly bringing Tift county’s lands to the tax
books. It is true, no one Li paying for this ad
vertising, but newspapers render many public
services for which they neither receive nor ex
pect pay.
By the gaUows the w«T>n halted; the hand-
uu . m — if aaaiifA/1 hff tKa *
cuffed man
lb*.
I assisted by the sheriff
Mped «p <fce
» Mac a constant later*
The negro is not the physically sound speci
men of manhood in which he was once classed.
Nine of the negro Selectmen sent from Lowndes
county last week were rejected on physical ex
amination.
brated throughout the civilized world by the
people of every nation to whom liberty has be
come a sacred word and principle worth dying
to perpetuate.
Tomorrow, it will be celebrated in the Mother
Country, from whom this liberty was wrested.
For to that Mother the name has become s pre-
cions thiijg; a thing for which she has cast into
the die of fate every resource, every hope, every
thing which as a nation She held dear. The mo
ther of the Eagle bSS-learned well the 1.
from her sturdy son. Today the Stars and
Stripes represent the last hope of the British
nation, as they represent the last hope of the
cause of Liberty.
Tomorrow it will be celebrated in France, the
country which sent the galjant LaFayette and
the sturdy Rochambeau to help the struggling
nation to set itself free. For to France the Star
ry flag comeB as the emblem of rescue; the tok
en that the Almighty will not suffer His people
to die in vain.
Old Glory will wave tomorrow over the arm
ed camps of a million crusaders who have taken
up arms for Humanity, who are encamped on
the soil of invaded and bleeding France, to re
deem it from the foot of the ravisher and to set
up there once more the realm of a sovereign
people. And while it waves over the camps of
the American armies, it will also decorate the
tomb of Napoleon, float over the Field of the
Cloth of Gold where Henry and Francis met;
it will rustle its silk folds in sympathy over the
tomb of LaFayette; it will lend its gay col
ors to the Invalides and bring cheers from the
crowds which throng the Elyseea. But best of
all, it will furl and unfurl in the pulsing hearts
of the French people; its red stripes the fresh
blood flowing in as the token of a new life; its
blue field emblematic of the eternity of Right;
its silver stars the hope of a people redeemed.
In Italy it floats over a people fighting with
their backs to their loved and cherished soil,
summoning their last-atom of strength and re
source to repel the invader. Here the Stars and
Stripes have brought to a people a new mean
ing; a new hope; the certainty of victorj^
Everywhere as our flag is welcomed with glad
acclaim by a people in distress; everywhere as
it is greeted as the emblem of liberty, of unsel
fishness and thq triumph of right; everywhere
(except with the arch enemy of mankind) as its
graceful folds bring a new hope and a new mes
sage from a sovereign and a free people, so
does the day which this flag represents take
a deeper and a dearer meaning for us; its cele
bration a something holy and sacred, second on
ly to the birth of the Savior of Mankind. For
even thus do we feel assured that this starry
flag and the gallant men who fight thereunder
represent & people chosen-of God as His instru
ments to rescue a world from the clutch of the
■ prince of evil and to give to all peoples the
right to live.their lives in peace and pursue their
happiness and worship their God in their own
chosen
wiB do all that calomel w
7saa ago, when p
_ WfcyTAa
7SSX
of about one hundred went before the Board of
County Commissioners at Nashville Monday and
aaked that vats be put in at once. The commis
sioners promised to look into the matter. This jj—
is an altogether different condition of affairs wartltfcvw—
%o that existing in some counties a few monthal-^ffij^?,^,,
ago, when the County Commissioners were try- ’ Ang wereaatedMa 1
ing to persuade people to use the vats they had Jj^,** 1 * * ihneo r
provided, and the vata were being blown up j Pr.Thactefcte
with dynamite. The Berrien farmers are in.*Jj*|i B *j* irt*r
earnest. They have formed a county live stock I *bo3 do, andyei
association and ask their Senator and Represen-
tative to provide “such a law as will result in jMchjw.* 100 "*}**
statewide and complete tick eradication.'" Thej**!?*—? 1 "^.,., rriidw
meeting also called on candidates before the -1
fall primaries to make their position known *
on this question. Berrien has great natural '
resources for live stock raising. These people
are evidently determined that such resources
shall be develop^, and we wish them success.
THE ARMY OF EDUCATION.
While we are at war, we must not forget the
great army of education, and its responsibilities.
In Tifton and Tift county there are 4,284
children of school age, 678 more than we have
ever had before. To look after the needs of this
steadily growing army, an army on which the
future of the city and county depends, requires
constant vigilance, and a broad-minded, pro
gressive spirit.
Tift county has appro ximaiely $225,0G0
invested in school buildings, grounds and equip
ment, including those of the Second District!
Agricultural School. Tifton haj approximately
$100,000 invested in school buildings an*? -quip-]
ment; Ty Ty has voted bonds for A school build
ing this year, Chula has voted $1£,0<h> tor a
school building and Omega is following suit
Tift county is building well in the education
of its children. The ever-increasing number
attests the necessity, even % as .understanding
makes clear the advisability.
SJffitiSS’SK.SB '
"I Uiia* D*.
KwiKrt Uwna Bleed•
irSgaffiWfcP 1 *
JssszssgSBGB
•■SVSSf
eom plaints. It 1* a powerful tacMSIM
blood purifier and can be wed will
‘‘sraagfl&Mg-iyj
“/SJS^'sLlwand Blood 87*3 .
ter wle by dealete In medlriw e»«y- ■
One of the things hard for the novice to- un
derstand for the past six months has been the re
lation of the spot cotton market to the future
market. A sale 'of 500 bales of spot cotton
made in Tifton this week at a price four
cents in advance of the New York quotations
for July futures. Later when the market ad
vanced 180 points in one day, np^dvance could
be obtained on spot cotton on this market. The
inference ia plain: The future market is purely
speculative, but when buyers must have*the ac
tual cotton, they-are obliged to pay the actual
price.
THE EAGLE’S BROOD.
SIGH FOR GOOD OLD TIMES.
From Rochester. N. Y., Post-Express.
"Saturday. Night Sketches: Stories of'Old
Wiregraas Georgia. By J. L. Herring. Boston
The Gorham Press.
Life ill Georgia fifty years ago is described
with apparent fidelity in Mr. Herring’s book,
‘Saturday Night Sketches.’’ In those days the
railroad was a novelty and the telephone waa
not even dreamed of. The author revive* for
us a state of society which has passed away. He
shows how the bridegroom on horseback with
a number of his friends came to take away the
bride, how “grandma” worked at her apfnnjng-
wheel. how the Fourth of July waa celebrated
by Gargantuan consumption of barbecued
meat, how the country folk of GeorMa danced
gaily to the music of the violin, an3 how the
extraction of syrup from the sugar cane waa
made the occasion for boisterous merry-mak-
'o road this book .irto make us sigh tor the
"good old times."
■hjW.U.
A newspaper writer In om- of the political
centers calls attentions^© the fact that this is
"laying by time," that the farmers will be com
ing out more, and that the season for political
speeches and joint debates is at hand.
True, the rush of work in crop cultivation is
past for the season, and fanners are "coming
out more.” But they have nei’her the time nor
the inclination for joint debates or political har
angues. In due season, they will do what ia
necessary at the polls, bdt now their minds are
not on politics—thev are on the war. ,Few will
walk two blocks tohear a political speech, but
if a man who has seen things comes to tell about
the great conflict, they will drive-teR miles to
hear him.
There is no political palaver or discussion.
The people are serious-faced. The .Eagle has a
million" sons 3,000 miles across the water, fight-
tig for the cause of liberty. Well they know
tliat before the dragon of militarism expires,
his dying throes will cost the lives of many good
men and true. Already, in the half million
men facing the Hun as he gathers his strength
for "the supreme effort, there are sons from
nearly every county and community in the land.
Nowhere is there the slightest doubt as to the
result; that right and justice will triumph. But
before victory comes, many must pay the price
and not a parent who has a boy Over There but
knows that the blow may fall on him, as it may
fall oa his neighbor. So it is a time for serious
thought, for prayer, for a marshalling of cou
rage that-we may prove, worthy fathers of
worthy-aona.
When the Eagle's Brood is in battle, the Ea
gle has no time to listen to the cawing of jack
daw*
BUSS!
WB drtee tw mm mraito S|
niiwi KhoiiMmmm CorrectmC
A QUEER CONDITION OF AFFAIRS.
OSSTirAI
WNfflS ImSAASn
Ftader. G».
Professional Directory
THE MURDERED EMPEROR
Poor, martyred, Nicholas Romanoff of Rus-
i! Inheritor-of the despotic errors of centu
ries of ancestors; personally a home-loving, pub
lic-serving likable man. he has run the gamut of
degradation and suffering, to die before the
muskets of assassins.
Since the revolution which cost him his
throne, he has seen first his son and then all his
earthly possessions go and has endured what
man in this country knows at the hands of his
persecutors. That the sins of the fathers are
visited upon succeeding generations ^ras never
more forcefully illustrated.
Had Nicholas continued to reign in Russia,
the war would doubtless have been over ere
this, and America spared a task which will
bring much sacrifice and suffering.
PROFITS IN LIVE STOCK.
This is no year for the martyr to pose for pub
lic sympathy. If Eugene Debs, who was ar
rested in Cleveland Sunday by the Federal au
thorities under a charge of sedition is disloyal,
he wiH get no sympathy from the better ele
ment of his own Party or from any one else.
Uncle Sara is at war and his people are getting
the fighting spirit They are in no mood for
foolishness, and the sooner those whb would
play upon public sentiment to bolster their own
ambitious ends find this out the sooner we will
all be buckling down to the main job.
A Tifton citizen casually remarked yester
day : “I bought a good mare a few years ago,
for which I paid $200. I have sold $319 worth
of her colts, and the mare is now worth as much
as when I bought her.”
Which again brings the question, why do not
more of our people raise their own horses and
mules? It has been demonstrated that we
need no lpngecgo Weat -for our -pork -products;
wh* not make the same true of all our live
sto*.k?
ONLY A POOR SIDESHOW
Another myth exploded. Its inventor claim
ed that “Garabed" would make possible a fleet
of ten thousand air dreadnaughts, which co.uld
drop thirty-eight thousand tons of explosives
the Germans every night That would be an
easy way of pitting them out of the war,
wouldn’t it? But the board of five scientists
appointed to examine into the stuff said that it
was not only worthless, but that even the princi
ple upon which it was supposed to be founded
was unsound.
There is only one way to win the war —to
outfight, out-build and outlast Germany. For
this, the fighters and the builders must be fed,
and the country supplied with money to buy
what it needs, when it needs it That is war,
in a grim nutahell. and all these visionary and
chimerical side-shows but work,«h*n° in that
they detract attention from t he foain object
Senator Townsend comes forward with a
measure to provide for tick eradication which
is understood to have the endorsement of the
Georgia Land Owners’ Association and others
interested in the development of our live stock
This work is largely one of education
and much good along that line has been accom
plished in the last two yean.
10 YEAH FARM I CITY LOANS
Vr hate aa unlimited amount
to loaa Ml fans lamb an* cl
ty. In liberal amouBta. at 1
per real mtralyht talar Ml
loaa* ia may county aad fM I
B. C. WILIJFORD. ATTT.
Crewa mad It
Sera is Kent BuUdinx formerly ^
pied by 1 >r. IMe
OBee Phoae M
DR. A. G. FORT
EYE. EAR. NOSE mad THROAT
(or. aid Street aad Lore A
Offlrr Phoae 1ST HrmU
DR. A K. OQUINN
FIRST CLASS DENTAL WORK
Crown aad Itridte Wort. a Special
Qtrr Plakatoa'm l>rut Store
SUPPOSE TOD HAVE A I
NIGHT?
Deal pat of tbm ■