The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-14

hand tt weatt then went home. got gun
and when coming along Jefferson street
hunting Ray, he met j. X. Taylor. another
negro, and began cursing him. Taylor told
him he was not Ray. Thweatt answered,
- it, you'll do just as well, and will
kill you" At these words he fired, striking
Taylor's left leg Thweatt then fed
Americas Republican: win Cottle, son
of o. ]. Cottle, is in a peck Of trouble.
From what we can learn Win had his four
mules out in his field grazing last Sunday,
win boy minding them. The mules
Jumped out and into Mrs. Lucy Pitchers
field and from the field Mrs. Pitcher drove
them into her lot Cottle demanded his
mules, but Mrs Pitcher refused to give
them up. Cott!e at once proceeded to take
them out Of the lot, but Mrs. Pitcher would
not stand this and began to fight Cottle,
who in turn slapped her down several times,
when she began on him with boards. Cotte
returned the favor by throwing one OF
them at her and fracturing her skull. Cottle
ga up 10 the Offices Tuesday aud had a
| committal trial at Ellavills yesterday.
| Greensboro Sun: 1t is strange how acct
dents, misfortunes and blessings, too, come
in schools and seldom alone. Our attention
ha been called to this from the recent num-
! Der of accidents in our town in which
horses were all concerned. The first case
was that of Master Henry Branch, who had
hIs wrist dislocated by falling from horse;
then DR.. w. L. Bethea was thrown back
ward from his buggy and sustained frac-
ture Of the thigh: few days later Dr.. j. f,
Walker had his horse to fall through
bridge with him, the doctor having a
rib fractured and receiving several abra
sions. The next was FluJo Park, whose
horse stumbled and hurt him. Our young
friend, Pearce Brown, had his elbow and
wrist dislocated in jumping from buggy.
That night Lewis Irvine (colored) was
thrown from his buggy and received severe
injuries. Last week Parkie Dawson was
badly hurt by being thrown from horse.
These seven accidents, almost similar, oc-
CURED within a space of less than five
weeks.
Eek Sheriff w. ii. Matthews of Webster
county died in Sumter county from an
overdose of laudanum. There are many
who insist that it was a suicide Matthews
was sheriff of Webster when Susan Eber-
hardt was hanged. She was the only white
woman ever hanged in Georgia. In 1871
Miss Eberhardt, a buxom country girl,
aged Is, was an inmate OF the house of a
well-known farmer named Spann. One
morning Mrs Spann was found dead in
bed, while her husband and the girl were
missing. The wife had been choked to death
by stufiing a white handkerchief down her
| throat The excitement which followed
spread to all parts Of the state. For six
days the guilty pair were pursued on a
| dozen different trails, aud were
| finally run down on the Alabama line.
1t was only through the most vigor-
GUS measures that the pair were saved from
| lyncaing On the trial of the case it was
| developed that Mss Eberhardt slept on a
| cot in the same room with Mr.. and Mrs.
| Spann At o'clock in the morning Miss
| Eberhardt was awakened by Spann, and
invited to aid in putting Mrs. Spann out of
| the way. Miss Eberhardt stuffed the
| handkerchief down the unfortunate wom-
ans throat, while her husband held her
| down. The pair were convicted and
| sentenced to death. Gov. Smith. who had
| just Eeen elected, was at once besieged by
| people all over the state to commute Miss
| Eberhardt's sentence to life Imprisonment
They held that it would be
disgrace to Georgia to hang a woman.
Populations of prominent ladies waited
upon the governor, and petitions from New
York and other places poured in. All the
arguments against the execution of women
were presented. Gov. Smith, however, was
firm, and the law took its course. Miss
Ebsrhardt, with her guilty lover, were
hanged in an open field near Preston. While
the execution was in progress Gov. Smith
| received, it is stated, forty-five kilograms
| begging him to commute the woman's SEN
tence. Sheriff Mathews, who was then n
| hale and hearty man, dreaded the task be-
| fore him. and though he had strong sense
| of duty, yet he could never recover from
| the shock of having to hang woman. The
| circumstances of his death, while claimed
by the superstitious as confirming the theory
81 o,,in3