The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1885-01-28
TUT nc aI-AVI II" NJ
Clayton Calls a Halt.

NeA, | Deileve the newspapers have
about got through with the Smith
Davis ar II, but didn't they keep It hot
for awhile? II would take d dozen Phil
adelphia lawyers a life-time to untangle
the thread they have woven. And didn't
they give u, Clayton people some uUkind
threats now and then? Why, we thought
we were about as good "a the common
run" of people. We have been brought
up about under the caves Of old John
ston Liberty church, from whose pulpit
the ethics OF the Bible have been pro
mulgated for four generations. and we
thought we'd sorter do, but, jeewlllkIns,
weren't we mistaken? We've been made
to blush with shame at the picture OF
depravityr which has been indlscriminate-
" thrust before our vision. We We been
accu sed Of being strangely retlcent
about the matter. Now If some OF those
pa pers had been a little more "retIcent'
they would have shown a little more dis
erection. Old Davie Crockett's rule-"Be
sure you are right, then 90 ahead was
a mighty good one, and Major Jones
showed he wasn't much of d fool when
he said-''Its a mighty nice thing for a
teller to know when he has gone just lar
enough, aud stop right thai. We have
been "reticent" but it was because we
were like the boy that the calf run over
I'VE had nothing to say" Ii a iel-
Icr's got anything to unload, its well
enough for him to thrust his gang
plank" out and go at it, but If he hasn't,
he'd better shut his ''~hatch-way' and
keep il shut. Now these same newspa
pers seemed to know so much more about
this affair than we did we concluded we'd
let them rave all the credit of telling it.
Aud didn't they tell it? They first mus
tered up one hundred mounted men,
over-awed the guard and took the trem-
bling prisoners from their keeping, led
them to Gulley's bridge, loaded them
with trace chains and unheedIng taeir
pIteous cries for mercy, plunged them
forty feet through the AR INTO the sur
gtng waters, I've made short crops the
past year and had no trace chains to spare
on any such cattle.
They saw the waters close over them
and heard the unfeellng yell Of these
one hundred mounted Claytonites as they
retired. For twenty-four hours with the
thermometer down nearly to zero. they
watched them hOunderlug around Bills
Smiths fsh-trap. They then took Henry
Davis out, GeavIng Charlie Smith in,)
and carried him to the house OF a negro
woman on Watson's plantation. There
they cared for him four days and then
assisted him through the slough" of
Bufaloe, the marshes of "opliey Koout'
swamp and the briers of Jump and
Run" Branch, to the house ofhis brother
on w. Ii. Brankly's plantation in Nash
county. There they left him to be in
terviewed by Norfleet Jeffreys, Jr., and
Stewart Ellison but somehow or other,
he didn't interview "wuth a cent
This same duo raid a nocturnal
visit" 10 the woman on Watson's place,
that cared tor Davis. No sunlight
shone upon their pathway" Just before
day they called up f. G. B. at Arther
Lodge and said, please tell US the way
to the Clayton covered bridge, we want
TO pass that before day-break." 1t SEEM
ed that they too, had imbibed the idea,
from the tone of the Raleigh papers mot
alb that they were scouting among a
race of ''cannibals."
All this time Charlie Smith had en-
dured the monotony of his cold bath"
in Neuse River. relieved only once or
twice by a coroner's inquest. And then
his trail was taken up and ne was fol-
lowed to the house of Bump Jones in
Franklin county and there they left him.
| an glad to be able to say that Mr..
G.. S. Gable, the man who SO narrowly
escaped death at the hands of Charlie
Smith and Henry Davis last week led to
the hymenial altar Miss Ellen Creech,
one of Ciayton's most worthy young
ladies', and with his bride is now visiting
his relatives in Guilford county.
ESSCI