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THE FITZGERALD ENTERPRISE
; THREE TIMES A WEEK
By the FITZGERALD PRINTING COMPANY -
ROSS E. HAMMOCK & HARRY W. BURNETT, Lesstes
JESSE MERCER, Ebrror
82.00 Per Year in Advance. $2.50 il Subscription is Allowed to Lapse
Entered at the Fitzgerald, Ga., P. 0. as Mail Matter of Second Class
ADVERTISING RATES:
Fifteen Cents per inch net cash: No advertisement for less than
€1.(0. Will not contract for “position.” 5 cents per line for locals
end readers.
SATURDAY. APRIL 13, 1912,
Adieu.
I have sold TeE ENTERPRISE.
This the last issue under my management and ownership.
The duties of a State office requiring all of my time is the impell
ing influence that forcesme to seek relief from twelve to eighteen hours of
labor every day. For months I have realized that 1 could not possibly
do my duty to the readers and patrons of the paper.
Last December I leased the plant, retaining the editorial control.
Now I have sold the paper outright—plant, subscription list, name, etc.
The owners will carry out the contracts with subscribers, advertisers
~and others.
Since September, 1899, with the exception of several months in
1909, I have devoted myself and this paper to what I considered the best
interests of Fitzgerald, this colony and state. :
With a steadfast purpose to do my whole duty for the town and
the section in a material and moral sense, I have always striven shouder
to shoulder with the business men and the good people, constantly sacri
ficing business and arousing the emnpity of those that it has been neces
sary to oppose in the fight against the uglier and immoral influences.
In the facinating work, that has given me more pleasure and less
profit than anything I could have done, I have had the hearty co-opera
tion of the business people in the material, and the ministers of the gos
pel of Jesus Christ and the good women in the continual war on vice and
against the vicious, that has brought me thuusands of letters and verbal
expressions of thanks and of encomium from the best men and women in
the state. : . |
Within the last few weeks we have devoted more effort and paid
out of our slender purse more money than all the publishers of all the
other papers besides in the long years we have served the people of this
blessed community.
The net results have been encouraging, tho they might have been
much more gratifying, but for the fact that the wide open element, who
believe in prostituting morals to increase business, have had an organ on
which they could depend, and around which they rally in cases of pro
secution. Sometimes it has been vicious and troublesome; of léte, it has
been cunningly bad, and plausibly unscrupulous.
The sale of the Enterprise comes in the midst of a most active
and strenuous campaign against blind tigers and the saloon element
that is bound to result in great geod.
I regret that, for we need the Enterprise in the fight, but as long as
we are right I have no fear of the results.
To the good boys of the state press, GOD BLESS THEM. I say
good bye, probably for all time, for 1 baven't now a remote
idea of returning to the work. You have been generous with your kind
words and charitable in the treatment of my frailties.
To the subscribers and business people who have patronized the
paper, 1 thank you; I feel under no special obligations for I be
lieve your patronage has been based on business principles, and inffu
enced by business reasons. I have asked no favors, nor have I adopted
any policy—l despise the word. I have tried to give you dollar for dol
lar, and if any man has reason to believe that he has not received
value in that proportion, we are ready and prepared to make restitution
~ To the good people who want a bigger and better city, a prosper
perous and Christian Community, a progressive and law abiding people,
I do not say good bye, for I am with you to the end.
Jesse E. MERCER.
Watson, Hearst, Graves! In 1908 these arch-traitors to dem
ocracy were all helping the republican party to defeat the dem
ocratic ticket. In 1912 the loyal Democrats of Georgia are ask
. ed to follow the leadership of these and throw their votes away
' on a candidate who has no chance to receive the nomination.
In 1908 this Mafia ganged worked outside the party to knife it.
In 1912 they are carrying on the work inside the party, with the
help of some of those who denounced them most, and Georgia
democracy is being used to further the iniquity. It is an insult
to the intelligence ot Georgia democrats.—Macon News.
THE GOOD AND BAD OF IT.
The world is growing better. By that we mean that the men in
it, and the women also, are much better than they were.
The improvement in our life time is immense. What we call
bad men now, are simply bad by comparison. We have the fewest
number of realy bad men. Of course those, who appear not to be good
are merely not as good as the best. ’
Pick out the worst citizen in the community and he has many
good traits, enough to overcome the bad under normal conditions, but
circumstances effect, and direct in many instances, the course the in
dividual pursues.
But we are none too good, merely good by comparison with'the
past. Compared with what we are to be—bound to be, most of us are
bad because the tendency is in the direction of good, and it is the duty
of every man to accellerate that tendency.
: We would love to devote this paper to that thought mainly.
: TOM WATSON.
We have been laying off to lay it onto Tom.
But we are about to miss the oppertunity; we have been quite
busy with other and more important matters. Usually we poke the prod
into Tom's ribs when we happen to find a leisure moment between trains,
He is hardly worth one’s while if one has any one thing else to do.
We were up in his town, Thomson, the other day and heard that
he had said something about the State Game Commissioner not devoting
all of his time to the duties of his office. We have been too busy (with
the duties of the office) to see the article, but we do not doubt that he
said it, for Tom, although he would h:ve you believe he is so busy that
he eats his sandwich on the tripod, drinks his coffee in the saddle, changes
his shirt without a bath and goes to bed without washing his feet, finds
time, plenty, to attend to other people’s business.
But Tom’s natural weaknessesses are lying and stealing, though
he wastes much time,—devotes his greatest efforts to slandering people
who are infinitely superior to him, or any of his tribe. Never a word
from him against a "sorry white man.” He selects the best men for tar
gets for his mud batterries.
, He is king of character assassins.
While his capacity for mean and unreaso.ing slander is astonish
ing, his cupidity is marvelous. :
He praised and boosted Hoke Smith, then because he would not
pardon one of his criminal friends and henchmen, a wife murderer, we
believe, he turned his serpent tongue on the governor and has never
ceased to slander and lie about him.
He boosted Joe Brown (mainly because of his hate for Brown's
opponent), and when he refused to appoint one of his political friends and
henchmen to office, he turned cn the dovernor and ridiculed his personal
appearances and his physical or mental iufirmities, or alleded lack of
good manners or good sense. His article of criticism and ridicale quoted
in part in these columns a few weeks ago was childishly petulant, and
characteristically mean.
When we called attention to the peculiarly inconsist nt distribu
tion of his venom he rehashed an old lie he has been using from time to
time about the Boyd estate.
The facts about the story: Capt. P. E. Boyd (the best man we
ever knew), died July 6, 1906, leaving about two hundred thousand
dollars worth of lands and mules, and directions in his will that we, as
co-executor, should sell out the business and divide it between fifteen of
his nephews and neices. i
Some of the legatees had marri>d men we had never seen. One
of them, a populist, living in Alabama, wrote to the old he-pop, otherwise
Tom Watson, of Thomson, that his wife had inherited a large estate over‘
in Georgia. \
T. E. W, alias “yours tr.l.” was sc rusy filching money from ig‘norant‘
and uninformed dupes, boys and girls living on Georgia R. F. D. routes,
induced to take stock in his publishing company, without ever know
ing the amount of stock to be issued or the hope of getting returns from
it, or the probability of having a voice in the control of the property.
He turns the letters over to'W. J. Green, a good old man who had failen a
victim to the dope habit, and had come down from somewhere in North
Georgia and formed a co-partnership with Tom’s drunken somn, who was
then in an inebriate asylum, and Mr. Green going down among the simp
ler-minded heirs of the Boyd estate and boarding with them weeks and
months, induced several of them to sign allegations necessary to get the
Boyd estate into court.
There was nothing to the case, and no excuse for it, except the
fees filched from the unsuspecting victims of the right shrewd lawyer.
‘They lost in every court. Green and Watson probably knew they would
from the start, but that did not cut into their fees and that is what they
were after.
Finally, after establishing their right to claim a fee before the
court, they settled the case, taking $6,000.00 as their share, leaving their
clients and dupes much less than half the money received by the other
legatees at the hands of J. R. and J. E. Mercer, Executors.
Then the greedy Tom Watson hogged poor old man Green, who
soon went to his death bed, out of a large large share of the fee.
He did not “HOG IT ALL,” but he hogged more of it than he was
entitled to, after he hogged the heirs of the Boyd estate out of thousands
of dollars he did not earn, in a case that an honest lawyer would have
advised against. :
It was a groundless suit, growing out of the greed of an unscru
pulous lawyer for a fee, encouraged by the ignorance of their clients, and
which they had no chance to win in any court.
The clients from which Watson received thousands of dollars in
fees, not only failed to receive the slightest benefit, but on the other hand
lost more than half their interest in the estate.
The allegations were signed by clients who never read them, and
who swear they never read them, did not know the contents were libelous,
fraudulent and untrue, as preven by every court up to the Supreme
Court of this state, and were drawn for the purpose of extracting a fee
from the dupes and clients of the Thomson fraud, who -is thriving and
growing rich on the money he takes from people who do not know his
true character.
THE REAL ATLAS. ;
Through all antiquity Atlas bears the world on his shoulders, <aid
to be a punishment for rebellion against Zeus, the god of broad daylight.
From this mythological fable there has originated the theory that
Atlas, having no real existence, represented Man.
“Man,” the men of old declared. “bears on his shoulders the burden
of the world and its progress. Without him it would fall and chaos re
sult.” s
| The women of old had no voice. If they had, it would have been
‘a weak approval of the declaration of their masters.
The centuries have told a different story in fact, but the picture of
Atlas remains the same. The world of today is borne on the shoulders
of the women, but the men point to Atlas and claim the credit.
In the early days the squaw trailed after the “brave,” bearing on
her shoulders the pole of the wigwam.
| In a crude way, she bore the burden of the home, and in every
part of the world Wears that burden today.
With her back aching with the burden of her miniature world, she
has found time and strength to bear the burdens of the world outside.
Beginning with the desire to lighten the burden ot -the-man she
loves, she has gradually edged her shoulders under the world Atlas cai
ries until now more than half its weight rests on her back. :
With no voice in public matters, and with a vision that beholds a
Promised Land for all the inhabitants of the world if she can some day
have her say, she calls the attention of the world to her share in the
world’s work, and asks for recognition.
It is a day of getting away from, old ideals and old ideas, and ac
cepting the new.
The new ilea recognizes the burden, the brain, the fitness of wo
man; the right'to have a voice in the control of that world she carries on
Ler back. <N
“Tan, A HAPPY
g HOME
B HO
e a i) I[N REACH
ee e £
joy \ ki.",,f.-__ 2 ~ v F AL .
AND ST ’:'s%4\ %
SICKNESS = “a.“ 488
DON'T CHURM '
- W o L
TO BE HAPPY KEEP WELL V &
USE ORNLY i
DR. KING’S VTN
NEW DISCOVERY /(s roucHhT)
l ~TO CURE L 30Y !
COUGHS AND COLDS \ TO :
t WHOOPING COUGH \_ paillions /
| AND OTHER DISEASES OF ) N P o
E?HRQAT AND LUNG& Price 50c and $5.00
SOLD AND GUARANTEED BY ERNFREUSICRuETEE
DENMARK DRUG COMPANY
- SUMMEROUR’S
SEED FOR SALE
At Planters’ Warehouse and Bakers’ Supply Co.
We offer for sale at $3.00 per bushel the seed from
eight bales raised last year, the returns of which are
as follows:
Date Ginned Pounds Seed Cotton Pounds Lint
9-13-11 1240 530
9-19-11 1432 : 625
9-20-11 1420 ; 618
9-21=11 1300 560
9-22-11 1430 628
9-26-11 1225 545
10-11-11 iy 1180 490
ANNOUNCEMENT.
“To the Voters of the Third Congressional District I have
the ambition to represent the Third district in congress. As to
my fitness and worthiness, I propose to submit that to the vo
ters of the district, along with the other gentlemen who may
aspire to the honor, in a democratic primary.
“I am a farmer, was born and reared on a farm in this dis
trict, and have contributed all that I possibly could to the ad
vancement of the farming interests of my section of the coun
try.
“As a member of congress I would be controlled largely by
the same desires and purposes that have actuated me as a pri
vate citizen in advancing the farming interests of the state and
county, which ultimately is the interest of every person, wheth
er merchant, lawver, doctor, banker, mechanic or citizens fol
lowing other callings. - ;
“T shall be glad to meet the voters face to face in every coun
ty of the district before the day of election.”
Sincerely,
JouN R. MERCER.
! - Noticer
h Notice is hereby given to the
public that if no good and sufficient
lcause is shown to the contrary, the
!Commissioner of roads and revenues
!will on the first Tuesday in June
{pass an order establishing a public
;road as follows: Commencing at
the Southeast corner Ten (10) acre
‘Tract number twenty three hun
dred and ninty three(2393), thence
west to the Southwest corner of Ten
(10) acre tract numbor Twenty
‘four hundred and thirty five (24359
Said road having been formerly
laid out by the American Tribune
Soldier's Colony Company, and to
be known as “Inglewood” road.
Thisroad is to run Letween Ten
acre tract numbers 2393, 2406, 2407,
2420, 2421, 2434, 2335 in Land Lot
number 86 in the 3rd. Land Dis
trict on the North, and Ten (10)
acre tracts 2491, 25904, 2505, 2518,
2619, 2532, 2533 in Liand Lot num-
ber 65 in the 3rd. Land District on
the South. :
'By order of County Commissioners
this March 15. 1912.
f J. G. Minshew,
| H. M. Warren,
Wesley R. Walker,
R. L. King, Clerk County Com.
| .
RHODE ISLAND RED EGGS—From
pen of 10 extra fine color and
shape pullets and grand cock
bird $5.00 per 15. From my
} next best pen headed by a excep
‘ tionly fine cock $3.00 per 15.
From pen of 40 good hens and
4 very large, fine strong
~ cockerels, on free range $1.60 for
15, $4.60 for 60, $B.OO for 100.
Eggs from a fine flock White
Leghorns $2.25 for 15. Satisfac
tion guarenteed.
T. L. MARCHANT,
42-4 t-W. : Milan, Ga.
Carbon papéer and typewriter
ribbons at the Enterprise office.