PAGE TWO
Oxford Citizens Protest
Bill Before Legislature
Oxford, Jan. 16.—An opon forum,'
meeting of citizens of Oxford was 1
. held Friday night in the Granville
■county courthouse to discuss a bill
* which originated in the ciiy adminis
' tration and now is pending in the
’state legislature. '1 he measure is de
* signed to permit the clerk of the Ox
ford board of commi. sinners and the
city tax collector to issue warrants
and other processes of the court.
* The open forum was held as the re
sult oif protests against the bill by
several citizens of Oxford, Senator \
.< John S. Watkins and Representative j
J. W. Horner were present to hoar •
the discussions and get the expression |
; from the people. Neither legislator j
- would commit himself as to
what action would he taken in re
gard to the bill. They said, however,
that the city commissioners would
- meet within the next few days and
RANTBEDCULTTREi
1 »
■ Tightly-Fitted, Board-Side
wall Recommended As
Precaution
— I
... College Station, Raleigh, .Tan. 16. —
At a time when plant beds are up
• permost in the minds of tobacco grow- J
■* ers of North Carolina, J. O. Rowell j
entomologist of the State College Ex
* tension Service, offers this advice:
To eliminate early injury to tobac
-2 co plants by the fie a tnd where
- blue mold treatments are to be made,
n a tightly-fitted, boa:e-sidewall plant
*■ bed is recommended. ,W'. ; le flea beetle
attack may be prevalent ihroughout
the entire plant bed period, the young
plants are always more urceptible to
injury during the f; ten days fol
- lowing seed germination.
A board-sidewall plant bed should
} he as tight-fitting as ii is possible
.. to make it. The wails should be bank
•* ed firmly with dirt on the outside, j
*; Wide-base banks are preferable, since
they stand up longer under washing l
jt rains.
•i The plant bed co”or should have at
least 25 strands to the inch each way.
BY M r rOBNF RELEASED BY /YH
#v! • fa. • i » KJ i\ J j Smm CENTRAL PRESS ASSOCIATION
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“PERSONALLY,” Phil said,
lighting, ttuotlrer cigaret; “I’m bet
ting on ycur Richard. He looks
guilty as hell to me. And I think
Daphne knows it and is shielding
him.” Phil, Mac Mclntyre and I
were waiting for Mr. Horace to
appear.
“Do you mean to say,” I demand
ed, trying to remain cool and col
lected, “that you seriously believe
those two kids, one or both, would
have the brains and the cunning
to carry out the murders?”
“I seriously think so.”
“But the motive?”
“A million dollars is a lot of
money.”
“A million dollars?” I stared at
him, wide-eyed. “What lias a mil
lion dollars to do with it?”
“Guess that’s another item we
neglected to mention, Elsie,” Mc-
Intyre said, apologetically. “Tell
her about the will, Benson.”
“Gladly.” He blew a cloud of
smoke into the air. “I dropped in at
Middleware’s office early this
morning and had a peek at the old
lady’s will. Mrs. Witherspoon left
to each of her grandchildren one
million dollars, cold cash, and nu
merous securities.”
“Oh!” That was all I could say.
“Oh!” *
“In Daphne’s case,” he went on,
“there was a string attached. She
was to inherit providing at the
time of her grandmother’s death
she was engaged to marry or had
already married Count Orsini. Er—
what did you say, Elsie?”
“Nothing, nothing at all!” I tried
to smile, but my lips were stiff. The
motive! I had the motive! Far back
in a corner of my mind a voice was
shouting! Daphne’s voice! “I tell
you I won’t go through with it! I
won’t! I’ll do something awful'
You’ll see!”
And so,” said Mac, his eyes bor
ing into mine, “and so we have at
least one person in the house who
had reason to wish Mrs. Wither
spoon dead and out of the way.”
I opened my mouth to protest,
but nothing came out of it. My
tongue was like cotton; it clung to
the roof of my mouth.
“Say!” Phil had been wandering
from shelf to shelf examining* the
j books. “Here’s a volume on toxi
cology! He pointed to a thick
green book wedged tightly between
two smaller ones. And as his hand
worked to remove it, the book
slipped from his grasp and fell
face up and open, to the floor!
Lord!” LOrd! ” he exclaimed * "Good
i spoke sharp
ly- Find something*, Benson? 0
“Did I find something!” He
rushed to us and placed the vol
ume into the detective’s lan “Takp
a look at that!”
“What—what is it?” i s t am - !
mered.
“So!” Mac sounded grim. I ]
jumped up and ran around behind *
him. The print of the page was 3
small and dim; the words danced 1
before my eyes.
“What is it?” I cried again, and ]
his finger moved slowly to the cen- i
ter of the page and paused. ,
“Cyanide!” I whispered. “Cya- <
nide! In bold, black type! And in 1
the margin, lightly penciled, there I
was a small check mark! All at
make a request either to let the bill
cl lap. or to continue to fight for its
passage.
The measure was introduced by
Senator Watkins, and passed in the
upper body. It was introduced in
the house by Representative Horner
and sent to the committee on coun
ties, cities, and towns. This was
where the bill was when protests
were raised by several Oxford citizens.
The open forum was attended by a
large throng. Following discussions
| for approximately one and one-half
| hours, a vote was taken to determine
j the sentiment of those attending.
There were five votes in favor of the
I bill, while the remainder, estimated
by some to be approximately 100, and
others to be nearly 150 to 200, voted
against its passage.
The meeting was presided over by
William Medford, mayor of Oxford.
and should be fitted so that there is
no opening between the cover and the
top of the sidewalls. It should be con
siderably wider and longer than the
bed.
I Do net remove the cover while the
j plants are young unless it is necessary
in the performance of such operations
as weeding, fertilizing, treating for
the ccr . f ‘her .nsects, or for
the contra* ci oiue mold. When it is
| necessary to remove the cover fer any
reason, it is advisable to keep one-half
of the bed covered while the other
half is being treated.
Detailed information on the control
of tobacco insects will be found in Ex
tension Circular No. 174, “Control of
Tobacco Insects,’’ which may be ob
tained free upon request to the Agri
cultural Editor at State College.
TWO SLIGHTLY HURT
AS BUS OVERTURNS
Women Treated At Oxford Hospital
Following Early Morning
Accident.
Oxford, Jan. 16.—Two women and
a driver escaped serious injury Sun
day morning about 3:SO o'clock when
a bus o; the Carolina Coach company
overturned as it was making a sche
duled trip from Richmond, Va., to
Oxfor'd and Raleigh.
The driver of the bus, Mr. Melvin,
refused to state any reason for the
accident. According to information
“Take a look at that!”
once my legs gave way at the
knees.
“Easy, kid!” Phil caught me in
his arms. He carried me to the
arm chair I l ad occupied.
“You see, 1 lsie,” Mac said softly,
“someone in this house knows all
about cyanide. I think maybe that
someone had been studying up on
it for a long, long time.”
“I see,” I said, and suddenly I
was incredibly weary. I did not
want to hear any more about poi
sons or murders. I wanted to rise
and to go away from the Manor,
thousands and thousands of miles
away. I closed my eyes.
“Brace up, baby!” Phil implored.
“We have work to do!” He slapped
me on the shoulder and moved
backward. There was a crash and
a chair tottered on its legs and fell
sideways. A firecracker exploded in
my brain.
“Phil! Mac!” I cried. “I have it!”
“Huh?” They stared at me.
“Have what?”
“That chair crashing—remember
I told you—the chair in the salon—
night before Mrs. Witherspoon
died—” I was so excited I could not
wait to finish my sentences.
“The one that changed posi
tions?” Phil questioned.
“Yes. Don’t you get it? It was
the murderer who upset the chair!
He was pasting the poison to the
hood!”
“So as to kill off anyone who
happened to want a shampoo and a
wave, I suppose ?” Phil said nastily.
“What! Oh!” My excitement
oozed and died. “Oh, I did think—”
I was too disappointed to continue.
“Don’t feel badly,” Mac said
kindly. “There’s something in what
you say. I can’t, at the moment,
name the reason for the murderer’s
presence in the salon that night—
for I’m convinced that it was the
murderer—but I do know that he
wasn’t baiting his trap then. Ac
cording to your account of Sun
day’s events, you used all four of
the driers without fatal results un
til Mrs. Witherspoon passed away.”
“Yes, that’s true,” I admitted,
• • <*;
HENDERSON, (N. C.) DAILY DISPATCH MONDAY, -JANUARY 16, 1939
Address Newsmen
xßr&iws-iv Ja&jra&rexx
° Wan- J. McCambridge
William J. McCarr bridge, Assistant
General Manager of the Associated
Press, who will be one of the speak
ers at the annual North Carolina
Newspaper Institute this week at
Chapel Hill and Durham. Mr. Mc-
Cambridge will speak at the Friday
morning ‘session at Chapel Hill on
“Looking at Facsimile Around the
Corner.”
received here the bus went slightly
to the right side of the road, hitting a
soft wet shoulder then see-sawing
back and forth across the road, final
ly going into the front yard of Mr.
Brinkley’s home, knocking down two
oi* three yard trees and a corner of a
garden fence, before going back on
the highway and turning over on its
aide.
The two occupants of the bus were
a white woman of New York, who re
fused to give her name, and a Negro
woman of Oxford, Charlotte Johnson.
Both were treated at a local hospital
for shock and slight bruises.
A Cleveland taxicab driver has
driven for eight years without so
much as denting a fender. Probably
he had Sundays off.
The man at the next desk says
drinking and driving don’t mix, and
that he’s just as well satisfied that
he never learned to drive.
feeling very much like a deflated
inner tube.
“Therefore X knew to the sec
ond when the old lady was to have
her beauty treatment.”
“Yes.” '
“Let’s reconstruct this thing!’*
He became brisk and businesslike*
“For a reason unknown X visits
the salon in the middle of the night
previous to the ball. You interrupt;
later X steals away. In the morning
you open the beauty parlor; all day
long you work on first one and then
another of the women in the house*
And all day long the driers are in
perfect and harmless condition. No
one is overcome by cyanide fumes.
“At eight o’clock you shampoo
Mrs. Witherspoon’s hair and set the
wave and carry her to the first
drier. You turn the switch; you dis
cover that the drier is out of order*
And you remove the old lady to the
second drier. O. K. so far?” ,
I nodded.
“When during the day were you
absent from the salon ?”
“Let me see—l went to my room
for lunch. I was there about an
hour. In the evening I dined below
stairs. That took another hour.”
“Below stairs for dinner, eh? So
that gives X sixty good minutes to
jimmy the driers and attach the
poison. Sure you weren’t out at any
other time?”
“Well—” I lowered my lashes.
That fatal half-hour I had spent in
the pantry with Phil. I had omitted
this incident in my story of the
murder and the events leading up
to it. And it was too late now to
admit my guilt, and besides had I
not promised Mr. Horace to say
nothing of my lapse? I plunged on:
“No —no, I wasn’t out of the room
at any other time.”
“So!” Mac shifted in his chair and
I shot a quick glance at Phil. He
was frowning. I shook my head
slightly. He must not give me
away! His right eye closed briefly.
I breathed a sigh of relief. I was
safe!
You knew Sum * • •
cl S
*
If you were raised in the country you’ll remember the
old general store. It hasn’t been so very long ago since
~a trip to Sam Barnes at Simpkin’s Corner was the one
and only way to stock the pantry and furnish the home.
You knew Sam and Sam knew you. He’d send you
word when he had a bargain in coffee and spices, a
new bolt of dotted swiss, or feathered hats from the
city. A changing world ... a modern world with
countless new desires and a higher standard of living
. . . has made it difficult for one man or one store to fill
al] your requirements. Chain store and independents,
department stores and specialty shops . . . there are
many “Sams'’ and you don’t know them all personally.
But there is away to become better acauainted with
i
these men.
Read Their Advertisements
The advertisements are the advertiser’s voice and per -
sonality. He tells you about new labor-saving devices,
of tasty foods, of new dainties for your home. And
when he has unusual values in furniture, dresses, or
some other necessity, he’s the first to let you know.
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