Newspapers / The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, … / April 19, 1928, edition 1 / Page 4
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Thursday, April 19, 1928 THE j CHATHAM RECORD O. J. PETERSON Editor and Publisher SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: One Year $1.50 Six Months Thursday, April 19, 1928 The Record does not expect to try the Lawrence case. We have learned enough to leave such mat ters to the court. However, we shall try to keep our readers infor med as to the progress of the case, sc far as a weekly paper can do it Thus far, the solicitor claims to have evidence that will convict, while we are authoritatively informed since the writing of the first-page article that Mr. Lawrence will be able to present a perfect alibi. While some body is guilty of the crime, ?«. i natural that c-ne should hope that Mr. Lawrence a native of the county and a man who has never beioie been in the least bit of trouble, will be able to come out with tlying col ors. On the other hand, the Record commends the diligence and peise\er ance of Sheriff Blair, and hopes that if he hasn’t the right man now he will finally get him. The week of April 22 to April 29, has been proclaimed by th e Presi dent and by the Governor as forest week. Chatham people should be in terested in forestry if any people should. We have th e soil and the climate which multiplies trees i*. giv on a half showing and the fire haz ard in this county is at the mini mum. Suppose during the next week owners of land consider what areas need thinning and what areas should be planted. Open spaces in the woods should have attention. • REMINISCENT A visit of Judge Lyon to our town always sets our reminiscent machine agoing. But this time a chat with \\ ill ass first cranked it up. Will mentioned the late Judg e George W. Ward, and Ward’s name suggested his lirst court at Elizabeth"! Nvh&Te Judge L\on was solicitor, and his second the next week at Lumberton, and here fs Judsre Lyon on the spot this week, holding a two weeks special term at Pittsboro. But bad: to Will Yass. Did you ever hear of him? He was the brightest bov in the largest class oi young men to graduate in North Carolina from the palmy days of the University before the war up to th* date of his graduation at Wake Forest in 1892. There were 38 In his class, but two, trying to ride, the hurdles of the final examina tions, played the Prince of Wales trick of being thrown by their pon ies and failed to get their diplomas. Os the even three dozen, Will Vass was valedictorian. You haven’t heard of him, but it is simply be cause he hasn’t given a cent wheth er you hav e or not. The only son of the late Major W. W. Vass and ab solutely independent financially, he took charge of the Wake County Savings Bank and has spent his life thus far in the even tenor of his ways. He is a perpetual trustee, and if the writer had all Uncle Bim’s millions he would not hesitate to leave them in the conservative hand of Will Vass. Will says he must have a regular job to enable him to enjoy life. His banking hours systematize his days He plays tennis for exercise, and the simplicity of the boy, though a Chatham youth employed in the ov ershadowing Citizens’ National by the side of which nestles Will’s mod est institution, speaks of him as be ing a mighty fine old man, may be summed up in his own unique ex pression of the philosophy of his life. “Some people want money and prominence,” says the modest bank er, “but all I want is sunshine and tobacco.” Verily, Will Vass is to be envied, though he is not quite so fortunate as the classic poor fellow who, asked by Croesus what he could do for him, is related to have said “Mov e out of my sunshine.” The towering Citizens’ National buil ding has cut off Will’s sunshine at the bank and won’t move out of it, so that he must wait till the after noon to get his smaller share of the sunshine upon the tennis court. But the Citizens’ cannot prevent his en joyment of his tobacco all the day long. George Ward was one of the older boys, graduating with Governor Bick ett in 1890. He was the first of the Wake Forest boys of our day to at tain the dignity of the bench, with Howard Foushee as a close second. He was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Elizabeth City district, and his first court was at Elizabethtown, and practically his first case a capi tal one, in which tw° negroes met their doom for rape and murder. At that time th e writer was editor of the Lumberton Argu s and was at Elizabethtown for the trial. As Ward was going to hold court at Lumberton the next week, we in vited our old school fellow to take supper with us. When we got home and told Mrs. Peterson that the judge would take supper with us the next week, we decided that we would make an event of it and have the Lumberton bar with us, including Solicitor Lyon. O, ther e was a stir in the little cottage. It was the writer’s job to get the fires going in all the rooms before the arrival of the guests and he put on his old wood-chopping coat and hustled out. The guests came and th e supper hour, and things were going fine, w hen Mrs. Peterson discovered that her husband still had on his old coat with holes at the elbows. But it hadn’t made a bit of difference to him or the guests, and we learned that almost any old coat will serve any occasion if one wears it without embarrassment. And that reminds us of our moth er’s embarrassment when on an oc casion when ther e were important guests in the home and she had in sisted upon her husband putting on a starched shirt, one of those hav ing a boardlike bosom. His every day shirt opened in front, and not behind like Starched-bosom shirts. So h e unwittingly put the thing on backwards and, as he wore an alpac ca coat, the stiff bosom in the back wrought havoc with the fit of the garment. She discovered the acci dent at the dinner table, and could hardly decide whether to b e more amused or c-hagrinned. Amusement prevailed. As for fatner, that staurch old farmer didn’t care a cent. And this and the announcement in the Duplin Record of th e death ol Duplin’s veteran sheriff and old time gentleman. Bland W allace, at the age of 93, reminds us of our childhood days and of our first visit to Duplin. We were over at Uncle Stephen Boone's near Magnolia, and he had one of the prettiest, proud est and crowingest little dominicked roosters you ever saw. He named him “Bland Wallace” because of his proud strut and small statue. The two little boys carried that rooster back to Sampson with them as a gitf from their uncle, and he was “Bland Wallace” and a regular pet with them till he died. Verily, we were surprised when we read that Sheriff Bland Wallace ha s just died. We imagined that he was an old man nearly fifty years ago, when his namesake was our pet, Peace *’b bis asbes. Yb e town of Wallace, we presume, is a memorial to the doughty little sheriff of long ago, and when we assume Commissioner Grists’ job of “moving the straw berry crop,” our visits to this head quarters of the delicious berry will always remind us of the former sher iff and his namesake. But let us parenthesize here by saying that when we supersede Mr. Grist Samp son’s huckleberry crop and Chat ham’s rabbit crop shall not be neg lected. (And I just dare the printer to spell supersede with a “c.” But back to Judge Lyon. The first political convention we eer attended was presided over by that then handsome young man and now handsome and benign old one. It was the famous contest between Col. Wharton J. Green of Cumberland and Col. W. T. Dortch of Wayne. Green had been Congressman for two or three terms and Col. Dortch was contesting the nomination. Ayccok was a mere yuoth and championed Dortch’s cause, making one of the best speeches, we believe, that thei later eloquent governor ever made.. The battle waged from morning un til evening. The two boys had to leave. On the way home we madej our first successful political pre- ! diction. Asked by our brother who: would win, we said neither, but that, McClammy would come in as a; “dark horse. I'’ 1 '’ That was a new word to the yuonger brother, but we had guessed right. was nominated. He was at home, away down on Topsail Sound pull ing fodder when the news came toi him that he had been nominated for Congress. That was close to forty five years ago, and the young pre siding officer is holding court this week. And, fellows, let us tell you 1 candidly, we have one of the state’s choicest men with us this week. He is a stalwart character, an upright, judge, and a man this writer just naturally loves. May he live as long' as did old Sheriff Bland Wallace,; and rest as peacefully as his own[ countyman of the long ago, thej honored farmer of Bladeh who '■overnor of his state and might have been president of the United States and whose dust lies just yonder in St. Bartholomew’s church yard. Th e logic of circumstances is as inexorable and as invincible as that of the sylogism. Max Gardner has been marked a s it. The same kind . of marking has been developing in a broader arena. It is inescapable. Reference is made in the Editor’s announcement to his activities in the enforcement of the liquor during his career, but Chatham is one county in which we have not had to lift our hand. Sheriff Blair and his active deputies have been Johnnie on the spot, and when the men whose real business it is to attend to a thing actually attend to it we do not busy ourself about it. But it was quite a different thing when we had been in Sampson a year after our return from Louisiana and it was estimated that there were two hundred dis tilleries in the county and yet not one had been reported as captured by the county officers in the year. As editor of the Democrat, we an nounced that something would be , a-doing. Judge Grady, then mayor of Clinton, read the statement and came in and assured us that he would co-operate, and something, sure enough, was done. Anybody that wants to see beauti ful woods need not leave Chatham. Just drive down the Moncure road and see the Judas trees and dogwood in their glory and rejoice in the beauty of spring. Mr. Shipman practically declares Mr. Grist inefficient. Granting this, the point, then, is: Is Mr. Shipman, a man who has held the job 16 years the only man who is capable of fill ing the position acceptable? We believe not. Several, including Mrs. Peterson, have asked what a commissioner of labor and printing has to do. Drat if I know. I don’t get over fences till I get to them, but I know that I can climb as high a one as either Frank Grist or Milt Shipman. Bob Gray says it is a gentleman’s job. that there is not much at all to do. And that may account for the fact that a fellow who has had it 16 years is seeking it after being thrown out once. But Brother Shipman will find that getting back is a different thing from staying in. It looked once as if the race for lieutenant governor would hold the lime-light this time, but it is shifting fast to the race for commissioner of labor and printing. Poor Grist is already beaten, it seems though he will probably be hard to convince of the fact. He is reported indirectly have said that it took two years’ salary to pay up the campaign ex penses us four years ago. But, sure ly, he will have sense enough not to risk the last two on a money campaign this time. In fact, our candidacy for the job appears to be a test of the possibility of a poor man’s getting a state office without mort gaging his future. A victory for Peterson will mean more than a mere personal victory. It will mean that a poor man may enter the contest for a state office without facing ruin. It would seem that the Republi cans picked this editor’s friends for their candidates. For governor they have chosen our old school mate, H. F. Seawell; for lieutenant governor Harrison Fisher of Clinton w T as cho sen. Dr. J. D. Gregg, of Randolph and Chatham, is slated for corpora tion commissioner, George Butler is one of the two candidates for commissioner of Labor and Printing, and L. L. Wrenn, of Siler City, for congress. I know and like the last one of the bunch named. They are good men, and likable ones, and would do their 'best to serve their state with honor and credit. If Doctor Gregg- should be elected, which he candidly confesses that -he has no ‘hopes of being, he w ould put. up a fight for better service from, the old Yadkin Valley R. R. The honors our friends have received are clearly rather empty ones, but if 1 honors were to be passed around, we congratulate the Republicans upon the fine taste displayed in the choice ! of recipients. Chatham and Samp son wer e very liberally treated by the conventions. Editor Steele of the Harnett News i certainly mistook our point. In an editorial about county hospitals we were making the point that what we wish to see is a hospital that is | open for everybody, just as the pub- I lie schools are now, where the serv | ice will be free to any citizen in the j county, rich or poor, when just as inow with regard to the public schools any *«*an who is not satisfied with THE CHATHAM RECORD what he gets at the free institutions may choose another and pay for what he wants. That puts all on a level, just as in the public schools, and gives those who pay the taxes the advantage of getting free serv ice if they desire it, and also saves the self-respect of the poor man who ( might otherwise feel that he is upon a pauper basis. We can hardly see how Editor Steele so badly misinter preted the intent of our editorial. We believe in county hospitals, if that unit is large enough, but we want to see them fre e to everybody. Otherwise, the men who pay the taxes for the support of the hospital would get no benefit from it. To day the well-to-do who have to go to hospitals must pay an excessive charge to enable the institutions to meet the expenses of the poor pa tients —a most unjust arrangement. The same thing would be true, but not in so great a degree, if the rich sick supported the hospital with their taxes and had to pay their own bills | for treatment. We want free treat ment for the body as well as for the mind, and for all. Surely, that is | plain. The significance of the gathering of 3000 people at Raleigh last Thurs day evening to hear George Gordon Battle bear testimony to the high personal and official character of A! Smith is of more importance than what Mr. Battle said or how he said it. That was a militant bunch to whom Mr. Battle spoke, and a small group of that kind of folk can put up a surprisingly strong fight against an opposition that is without a goal, f and would be nowhere if it should { beat Smith. Such a week as this, when big news is developing, is the time that the weekly newspaper man feels his j handicap most. But there is noth ing to do but grin and bear it. We went to press Tuesday night just the same as if nothing- were happening, for there was no telling how long the present case would last and what would develop in the Lawrence case. ; l)r. W. R. Cullom, professor of the Bible at Wake Forest, has sent us an announcement of the ten-day school for Baptist preachers to be held at Meredith college in early June. The very reading of the an nouncement itself should make many a praec-her realize that he is I living at a time when he must do I much reading and thinking, especial- ! ly the latter, if he is to be worth a flip to his community constantly j laising the level of its intelligence, i Prof. Cullom says that the school j will attempt to do for preachers what six months of unaided reading would do for them. Let them go by k aii mean*. We are due many thanks to our newspaper friends for courtesies i shown in our campaign. They are making it possible this time for a new man to get his name before the people of the state, which is noth ing but fair to the readers of the papers. Here w e wish to tell our folk again, that the three candidates for lieutenant governor are Major John D. Langston, of Goldsboro, who as a youth taught at Goldston, and for which reason we mention him first, as one some of the Chat ham folk know; W. H. S. Burgwyn, j one of the ablest and most courage ous legislators the state has had in many years, and R. T. Fountain, who served exceptionally well as speaker of the last House, and is one of the stronger young men of th e state. All three of them are fine fellows, honest, honorable, cap able, likable. Pay your money and take your choice. ‘ You cannot go far wrong in any case. KIMBALTON NEWS Oscar Dorsett and family, l of Charlotte, N. C., wer,, visitors of W. B. Dorsett. - v , , Mrs. Ernest 11 spent the week with ’her parents last week. Ernest Harris was there for the week *end. Barney Burk P went home with ■ Jim Brown, of Bun Level for a few days. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence McMan ess, of Bear Creek, were here one day last week. Mrs. W. B. Dorsett had a real serious nose-bleed last Monday. Then the doctor plugged her nose and her eyes were bloody for a while. She is doing nicely now. Claude Pickard’s children have had the measles for the past week but are improving rapidly. Gordon McMath and family of Greensboro spent the week end with Mr. and Mrs. Brooks McMath. A grafter by any other name would still be a thief. Sometimes a wife can read her husband like a blank book. Lots of men secretly envy the tramp s don’t car* disposition. . man who is always hunting trouble never has need to borrow 1 any. MAN LIVES 34- YEARS FEARING MURDER CHARGE f Doubting He Could Prove In nocence, Returns Home to Find Charge Dropped . Omaha, Neb—After living for thirty-four years in fear, knowing that he was wanted for a murder in which he had no hand but of which he could not prove his innocence, John K. Van Ness, sixty, has just found himself a free man. He can go about and do as he pleases. And all because he had de cided to risk prison for a glimpse of the faces of members of his family. Ran Away From Home. Thirty-four years ago Van Ness and two companions ran away from their homes, in Omaha. Neb. They became separated on the way to Chicago. The companions of Van Ness and another man who had joined them engaged in a battle in which two railroad po | licemen were killed. The two Omaha i men were sent to prison, but the I third suspect disappeared. Police at once began searching for ! Van Ness, for he was the third mem ber of the party when the youths left Omaha. Van Ness, fearing that he could not prove his innocence, changed his name and tied to Florida. There twenty years ago he pretended i to his family that he had been drowned. Worked and Lived in Swamps. Van Ness worked and lived in seclu sion in the swamps. Always he feared that he would be arrested. A few months ago, however, he de cided to see the faces of his loved ones. He went to Omaha and was re united with members of his family, j Some one in Onmha recognized the I man, however, and he was arrested. Omaha police got in touch with I railroad police, only to learn that the fugitive slayer hau been captured and j|. .Worked and Lived in Seclusion in the Swamps. S that he had confessed many yeai*9 ago. So Van Ness, a free man, had been making a fugitive of himselt for a long time uselessly. “It’s great ro be free again!” ex claims Van Ness as he goes about Omaha renewing old acquaintances. Self-Accusd Leprosy Plotter Held Insane Portland, Ore. —Fears of a hideous plot, nationwide in scope and spon sored by America’s enemies, to spread leprosy germs throughout the United States were dissipated when an ex amination of William Nash, self-ac cused plotter, in Judge Tazwell’s court, showed the man to be mental ly unsound. Dr. William House, alien ist, who conducted the examination under orders from Judge Tazwell found that Nash is suffering from tabo paresis, a form of softening oi the brain, in addition to being physi cally unsound. He was committed tc the state hospital in Salem for treat ment and observation. Delusions and fancies had caused him to write letters about his germ spreading activities, be admitted un der examination. At the bearing Nash said he wat born In Michigan in 1875.' He said lie had been married, but failed to ac count for the whereabouts of his wife and that he was the father of two children. Man in Jail Six Years by Error Is Liberated Pittsburgh.—After serving more than six years in the penitentiary here by mistake, Joe Sarappa was given his freedom. In September, 1919, Sarappa was convicted as an accessory after the fact in the murder of Tony Fardello, in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl vania. He was accused of assisting the killer to escape and was sen tenced to serve from ten to twelve i years in the Western penitentiary here. Habeas corpus proceedings were in siitilted in an effort to gain Sarappa’s release, his attorneys contending the sentence was illegal. In ordering the release Judge A. B. Reid held the sentence was excessive and void, since the law provided only a two-year penitentiary sentence m such cases. TWIN HEIFER HAS TWINS Mr. G. G. Ward, of Baldwin township, is about to produce a very I prolific strani of cattle. He has two ! twin heifers, which are so much alike htat h P had to clip one’s tail to enable him to tell -which is which. On eof them, whether the clip-tailed one or the other we are not inform ed, has herself given birth to twins, but the latter progeny are entirely different in color, size and features* He has named the two “Good Fri day’’ and “Easter,” from th P season of their birth. Few men will admit being wrong as long as there is a change to make others believe they are right. Though the world may owe every man a living, only the persistent collector gets it. NOTICE OF CHANGE OF VOTING PLACE IN BALDWIN TOWNSHIP North Carolina: Chatham County: Pursuant to the powers conferred upon us in Section 5926 of the Con solidated Statutes of North Carolina, and by order duly made by th G un dersigned members of the County Board of Elections for said Chatham county, on the 14th day of April, 1928, notice is hereby given that the poling place in and fpr Baldwin township, Chatham county, North Carolina, be, and the same ig hereby changed from Tom Hobby’s store, in said township, to the old J. T. Hen derson store place now occupied by BiJly Hamlet, in said township, and that all future precinct meetings for the purpose of organization, togeth er with holding primaries and elec tions. shall be, and the sam e is here by ordered to be held at said place. F. C. MANN, Chm. WADE SILER. Sec. DeWITT SMITH. Members of County Board of Elections for Chatham County, N. C. May 3-3 t. NOTICE OF RE-SALE OF REAL ESTATE Under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in a certain de cree entered in that special proceed ing entitled “C. C. C. Brewer, Ad ministrator, vs. Essie Smith Tally et als” now pending in the Superior court of Chatham county, North Ca rolina. the undersigned commission er will, on Saturday the 28th day et April, 1928, at 12 o’clock noon, in front of the courthouse door in Pilisboro, Chatham cou'nty, North Carolina, offer for sale to the high est bidder for cash, those two cer tain tracts or parcels of land lying and being in Chatham county, North Carolina, and being mor P fully de scribed and defined as follows, viz: First Tract: Lying and being in Bear Creek township, adjoining the land?; of John Cheek, J. H. Gilbert, J. D. Stone, et als, and Beginning on John Cheek’s line in the center of the Bonlee & Western Railroad, and running- with Cheek’s line north I degrees east 99 1-2 poles to Gil bert’s line; thence with his line N 87 degrees west 194 poles to J. D. Stone’s line; thence S 4 1-2 degrees west 34 2-3 pole* to the old Sandy Creek road; thence with said road southeastwardlv to the center of the said Bonlee & Western railroad at Blue Rock flag station: thence with c aid railroad N 72 1-2 degrees E Cfrom end of curve) to the beginning containing 106 acres, more or less, same being designated by the map and survey as No. 72. Second Tract: Adjoining the lands of .J. D. Stems, W. M. Brewer. I. H. Dunlap, J. W. Cheek et als, and Be ginning at a knot in J. H. Cheek’s line, T. H. Dunlap’s corner: thence N with Dunlap line 79 poles to a knot and pointers, W. M. Brewer’s bne; thence west with Brewer’s line 202 poles to a knot W. M. Brewer’s west ccvner in J. D. Stems line; then S with Stem’s line 79 poles to knot C. V. Tally home tract of land; thence E with Tally lsn P 202 poles to the Beginning, containing 100 acres, more or less, this being a part of the tract of land that was con veyed by J. R. Gilbert to W. N. Brewer and C. V. Tally, and known as the Harper land. This the 12th day of April, 1928. WADE BARBER. Commissioner. Siler & Barber, Attys. NOTICE OF ORDER TO ADVER TISE FOR UNPAID TAXES In compliance with an act of the legislature of 1927, The County Board of Commissioners at their reg ular meeting on the first Monday of April, 1928, ordered that the Sheriff of Chatham county advertise the Ist of May, 1 928 the lands of those who have not paid their taxes befor p the Ist of May, 1928. I am duty bound to comply with this order, regardless of my personal wishes; therefore, I hope that you will come forward and settle your taxes before May 1, 1928. Thanking you in advance to co operate with me sin this matter, I am, .V- -• Yours verv truly, G. W. BLAIR, Sheriff Chatham County. Say men we have a few more dozen good blue overalls for only— sl.oo a pair STROUD & HUBBARD Sanford, N. C. futs-Burns Vicks* healing, anti sePt*c ingredient* ip bring soothing re lief. Apply gently visM PAGE FOUR I
The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.)
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April 19, 1928, edition 1
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