Huntsville gazette., 1885-07-18
MEMPHIS.


Bluff City Pulpit Orators Move on se-
cret Societies. Shaw as a Disturbing
Factor in the Democratic Camps. 9th
er Notes of Interest.
Correspondence Huntsville GAZETTE
MEMPHIS, Tenn, July 10Th.
To the delight of laborers the music of
the hammer and trowel resounds all over
the city.
One death from sun stroke and two per-
sons badly injured was caused by extreme
hot weather the past week.
Fl. II. Haines one of our school teachers
has received an appointment as Bailiff by
U. S. Marshal Freeman.
Owing to petty spites threa of our best
teachers are to be dropped, and in consee
quence general uproar exists in our pub.
lie schools.
Our Pastors are making
WAR ON SECRET SOCIETIES,
having failed to squelch impoverlshing ex-
carslons. Several members have been
turned out of their churches. The ques-
ton is the religious topic Of the day and no
small stir is the consequence.
The Memphis new Natatorium or swim
ming school that opened up here on the
10th. has had the i'll luck to drown white
youth aged Is. 1t seems that some bathers
in a row pushed the unfortunate boy into
11-fcot water and being unable to swim
and uunoticed, met his watery grave.
THE MEMPHIS WATER WORKS
were condemned on the 11th as a nuisance
by the Grand Jury. Unfortunately for the
health of this city it has been supplied with
the most filthy liquid that ever passed by
the name OF water. 1t is gotten from Wolf
river and tor two or three years has not
only been unfit for ordinary domestic use
but unfit to bathe in. As for drinking it,
| it was never fit for that. The present sup-
ply serves to wash ont sewer pipes, and
hardly answers that purpose. This causes
an extensive use of beer here, that beverage
even being used to wash down whiskey.
UNDER BONDS.
Well, Mr.. George Battien and his colored
bride Mrs. Mary Battien, of whose recent
recent elopement and marriage at Helena,
you were informed. have been arrested and
each placed under $500 bond. The
question is, why should the great State of
Tennessee pass unnoticed the same couple
living together unmarried for eight or nine
years. and now as soon as they are legally
welded pounce down upon them like a
hawk. Which is the greater crime, and
why should one be winked at while the
other is sought to be brought to punish
ment
Memphis has its political sensation just
now in the appointment of
SHAW AS SURVEYOR AT THIS PORT.
Mr.. Ed Shaw is prominent citizen and
leading colored Democrat here The white
politicians think it dreadful" to have to
be offered a clerkship under him. Yet the
latter pays best.
Up to 1880 when Shaw was defeated for
Sheriff, he was one of the strongest Repab,
licans in West Tennessee, and he certainly
served his party with great zeal for fifteen
or twenty years. Two years later be switch
ed over to the tail end of the Democratic
party. His services were accepted. 1t is
not an underestimate to say that there are
not fifty colored Democrats in Memphis,
and Shaw's appointment will not increase
the number to the dignity Of coIored
element i'll the Democratic party. On the
| contrary it is estimated that the appoint
ment will drive many white Democrats ont
of the party, more than the number of
black recruits Shaw can possibly muster
into Democracy.
The war between the Nashville american
aud the Avalanche of this city waxeth truly
hot on this subject. The anti Shaw faction
insist that the doughty statesman should
have rested satisfied with the pay he got
for work in the campaign. and disappeared
from the public gaze. But like Banquo S
ghost Shaw does not down at any body s
bidding. w. Ii l..