The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-09-23
VANN'S STORY OF 1T |!
He Explains Why He Was Bounced
from the Poor House.
A Story Worse Than Wine and Women
Ever Caused.
OTHER SIDE WILL BE HEARD LATEF
ties Of Interest to All Readers
of The Globe.

The poor house is still living, but is in
bad way just now. The honorable
board Of county commissioners, or at
least majority Of them, were ont at
the poor house yesterday on an inYcsti-
eating tour-somc bad reports having
leaked out which called for an investi-
CATION. In order that the readers of
TIE GLOBE mayhave a clear understand
ing Of the matter which called for the
investigation in question, will now give
hurried and detailed account OF the
affair; and to do this will have to 20
back to tie beginning Of the trouble.
About . years ago woman, Lou Latta,
was admitted into the poor house as a
pauper This Latta woman is one Of
those fallen angels of whom you read
about now and then in the public prints
is badey "fallen," SO much so in fact
that her own color will have nothing to
do with her. Now in order to crafty
her base passions she has had recourse
to the colOred brethren, and few nights
since one Of those dusky sons of Ham
was caught in Miss Latta's bed by Mr..
Fred Sparrow, one Of the guards on
duty. A few nights previous to this the
same guard caught this identical negro,
Sam Thompson, in the act Of crawling
through the bed room window of the
aforesaid Lou Latta, but seeing that he
was detected in his clandestine endeavOr,
faced the guard and remarked that he
had borrow ed a needle from Miss Lou
and had come to return it; this was
sometime after night, and after "Miss
Lou had gone to bed This Sam
Thompson is negro convict al the work
house, but has been "trusty" for some
time, and had been employed as a cook
for the other prisoners, and was not un
der lock and key at night, nor under the
direct charge of the guards during the
day time. Lou Latta has frequently
been seen with negro men, while at the
poor house, in a strip of woods near
that institution, and under circumstances
entirely inconsistent with her claims
upon virtue.
About seven months back | had occa-
sion to order Miss Lou out of my room,
and for this reason: she had annoyed
and aggravated me to the point where
fOrbearance ceases to be a virtue, and at
the same time | requested the superin-
tendent, Mr.. Leigh, to make her stay out
of my room, which he did. / was pres
ent when Sam Thompson was taken
from her room; and on that occasion she
came to her door, in her night clothing,
and rOundly abused me for taking, as
she supposed, an active interest in her
exposure. | was in bed asleep when
Mr.. Sparrow informed me that he had
caught Thompson, and requested me to
come out and see the fun. | am man
of "fun," therefore went out and viewed
the elephant by the dim light Of the stars.
At TIE investigation yesterday, five
witnesses were examined exclusive Of
Lou Latta and myself, each one testify
ing to the fact that they had never seen
nor heard of any undue liberty between
Lou Latta and myself, and in the face of
all evidence to the contrary | was con-
vcted Of "grossly immoral conduct and
discharged from the poor house. I've
been told by two lawyers to day that
there is no appeal from this decision
that have no redress, but must submit
to this ukase Of the powers that be. |
was convicted upon the unsupported
evidence Of this abandoned creature,
Lou Latta, a woman whose past life, as
| am prepared to prove, has been spent
in the company of negro lovers The
evidence in my favor was ignored by the
court that tried the case, and | am now
told that this is 'justice." Such justice
is on par with that Of some of Judge
Boykin's decisions. Take the Ella
Thompson case for sample of his kind
of justice, and go your way and sin no
more | think that the tax PAYERS of
Durham county could apply their money
to better purpose than to the support
of such characters as Lou Latta and her
negro lovers at the county poor house
what think you, ye horney-tsted sons Of
THE GLOBE:
This decision of the commissioners
leaves me without a home and destitute
of all means whateyer-must beg on the
streets of Durham or perish will the
citizens let me suffer in order that pre-
judice may be vindicated?
l.. d. NANN.