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OUT ON A— LIMB by Bo McLeod I hate to admit it, but I have not seen anything of the escapee that was suppos ed to be visiting in Southwest Georgia and County Seminole this week. That doesn’t mean Ben Mathis wasn’t here, but simply that I haven’t seen hide, hair or scar of him. According to Gil Kelley, law officers have Mathis sur rounded in the vicinity of the Florida-Tennessee border, so I guess things are in pretty good hands. —o— I don’t understand why President Johnson sends so many men into Mississippi to search for those Civil Rights workers, but expresses no interest at all in apprehending an escaped convict accused of murdering an elderly couple who were at home, minding their own business. It must have something to do with votes, I guess. —o— to Miz Dot You mans, for any inconvenience we caused her by printing the item about babysitting serv ice on Saturday afternoons. The item was reprinted from The News of June, ’44, an 4 it was printed last week under that head, but it is ea c v to see how it could be misunderstood. Dot didn’t get angry and fussy about it, and we appre ciate this. Gyp was pretty Calm about it. too. But, shucks, it would be all right with a lot of us who are parents, if Dot would reacti vate her babysitting bureau. I have two or three she could sign up as customers- Had a note from C. J. Pat terson the other day, saying he has arrived in California, and things are looking good out there. I knew the letter was from Mr. Carl before I read it, be cause a long clipping of small type weather info fell out of the envelope before I read the message he wrote. I’m glad to hear they have weather in California. It’ll give Mr. Carl something to do while he waits for his violets to start blooming. —O— The city has purchased an insect killer machine. That s the oily smell you have notic ed at various times of late. Tim Williams and Jack Wright are pretty pleased to have the machine- They say it will put out enough fog to cover D’ville in no time at all, and just a little while ago I overheard a bug say “This stuff just kills me!” Two things are of interest, as we gaze at yon fogging machine: It can pift out enough fog to hide Donalsonville, making it easier to elude bill collect ors. and I like this. It looks a lot like a Kool cigarette com mercial after the machine goes by. The city is not assessing an additional charge nr the fog ging, something they may have overlooked, and I like this part of the program most of all. Have a happy, safe, care ful, cautious Fourth of July, that’s an order! Unless you want to have a sad, drab, dreary one, that is. D’ville stores will close Saturday The stores and business houses of Donalsonville will be closed all day on Saturday, July 4th, in celebration of Independence Day, according to Charles Burke, president of the retail merchants association. Burke says the decision to close was made at a re cent meeting of the organization. He says he expects 1 most of the stores to join the move to close. Also to be closed are both banks and the post office- ©nnalfionuillr Nma Single Copien: Ten Cento VOLUME XLVI Summer: Lake Time lip* ‘ ' wl ■ ' - Jr I ?' U |2a| W UH HF > fHWF ng ' ■fa** -<■ Like many Georgians, these Milledgeville girls are taking advantage of Georgia’s many recreational facilities this summer. Here, from left, Nicki Spase, Patsy Rogers and Diane Woodard enjoy the sun and pleasant breeze at Lake Sinclair in Middle Georgia. Second largest lake wholly within Georgia, it is one of 18 reservoirs formed by Georgia Power Company’s hydroelectric developments. Seminole is declared disaster area because of heavy rain of April, May SEMINOLE COUNTY has been designated as a disaster area by the United States Department of Agriculture, and is eligible for emergency conservation assistance because of excessive rainfal and flooding of farmlands in April and May. This was announced by Senators Richard B. Russell and Herman E. Talmadge. The department of agricul ture has approved allocation of SBO,OOO in funds to the Georgia Agricultural Stabili zation and Conservation Cob mittee for use in Seminole County, in bearing with farm ers the cost of emergency re storation measures under the 1964 Agricultural Conserva tion (Program, the senators said. Restoration measures will include smoothing and grading land areas; recon structing terraces and water ways. and repairing drainage ditches. Leon Barnes, manager of the ASCS office here, says as soon as the funds are received a special program will be set up and farmers can apply for the assistance. The aid will not be a loan, but the farmer must pay for one-third of the cost of the work on his farm. A Seminole disaster com mittee, headed by Rayo King Official Organ of County of Seminole and City of Donalsonville, Georgia DONALSONVILLE (GA.) NEWS THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1964 'is chairman and composed of Royce Hall, county agent, and Kenneth Reynolds, FHA di rector, had requested the aid in early May- Barnes is l the committee’s secretary, and R. P. Armstrong, soil conserv ation service, is a consultant. Barnes' says the committee estimated the damage to the county’s crops and farmland at $862,000. and they had asked for $382,309. He ex plained the rains of late April had already filled the ditches and saturated the land, and when the early May rain fell, it caused great damage. Barnes says work under the plan submitted by the local committee could be started this year, but it will take sev eral years for completion. The focal committee asked for 912,825 cubic yards of drainage ditches, 5,470,000 linear feet of terraces, 684 acres of .waterways, and the leveling and grading of 10,940 acres. AU available men will be on duty on the state's high way during the holidays, says Sgt. R. R. Floyd, who say® the predicted holiday toll is 16 deaths and 204 injuries in 525 accidents, from 6 p.m. Thursday until midnight, Sunday, July 5. No special programs are planned for the holidays here. The Seminole Boating Club will make its annual sojourn to Panama City during the week end. Search for escaped convict moves to Seminole as reports continue coming THE SEARCH for an escaped convict charged with the murder of an elderly Enterprise, Ala. couple, spilled into Seminole County Wednesday. Donalsonville police, the state highway patrol and GBI agent Cecil Franklin searched an eastbound freight train a mile east cf Donalsonville Wednesday morning but they did not find the fugitive, Ben Mathis, a negro who escaped from Camp Enterprise on June 21, where he was serv i a 10-year sentence on a manslaughter conviction. Police here were notified Mathis had been seen on train at Gordon. When f'e train arrived at Donalson w’lle it was stopped and searched. Sheriff Dan White says the escapee had been reported seen by a Seminole fisherman Tuesday afternoon and an intensive search was started then. W. F. Avant was fish ing near the Florida side of ’ the lake when a man answer ing Mathis’ description called to him and asked to be car ried to a doctor. Avant start ed his motor and went instead to Neal’s Landing. There he told Wilson Patrick about the man and Jackson County of ficers were notified- Blood hounds were brought in and a search was made of the area north of Neal’s Landing on the Florida side until dark forced an end to the search- Police Chief Spurgeon North says the man seen on the lake and the one reported Wednes day morning in Gordon, Ala., could be the same one, or it could be different people. Sgt- R. R. Floyd of the state patrol has received word from the Alabama patrol that Mathis definitely had crossed the river into Georgia, but no further information was known. Law officers have been re ceiving m - s of Ma- tnis’ be: , e he es- caped. T . . Dprehen- THIS YE t AL j At <*■ The tota, ' Sem inole County ,t six months of 196^ds at an official 35.46 inched, says R. P. Armstrong. Armtsrong says 4.92 inches were recorded by him in June. During the first six months of ’63, 23.34 inches were re corded. Normal for the entire year is 52 inches, thus the county lacks only 16.54 inches of a full year’s rainfall. $3.00 a Year in Advance sion difficult, but each “lead” must be checked, for one may prove to be correct. An armed posse, including National Guardsmen, have been searching the area a round Ozark for over a week, seeking some trace of Mathis. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Edward Morgan were found in their Enterprise home June 23. They had been knifed to death. Only a few minutes earlier, Ozark Policeman Arn ice Cooper said a negro ansiwer i ir.g Math'js’ description leaped i from an automobile and ran I when he stopped him as a suspected drunk driver. There were reports that Mathis 1 had been seen in the area of Ozark since the Mor gans’ bloodispattered automo bile was stopped by Cooper I and the negro ran from it. A prison shirt, heavily stained with blood, was found in a creek near the Morgan home three days after the murders were discovered by policemen checking on the possibility that their car had been stolen- The negro suspect is be lieved to be wearing some of Morgan’s clothing. Mathis, 43, has served a number of prison sentences. He is about five feet, eight inches tall and weighs about 126 pounds. He has 1 deep scars on his cheek, chest and both elbows. He is armed and con sidered extremely dangerous. Morgan, 67, and his wife Estelle, 63, apparently were knifed to death in the den of their home by someone who entered through a bedn'tm window after partially remov ing the screen. They had been stabbed repeatedly, according to Dr. Paid Sohoffeit, state toxicologist who performed an autopsy. The Morgan home is less than (half a mile from Camp Enterprise, where officials said Mathis pulled wire from a solitary confinement cage and escaped. Dogs trailed the negro to within several hundred yards of the Morgan before losing the scent on the pavement. Mrs. E. H- Lord spent sev eral days recently at Fort Rucker, visiting her son and family, Sgt. and Mrs. Calvin Lord. Shannon Lord returned home with her for a visit. NUMBER 10