The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-02-26
TIE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
IMPORTANT PROCEEDINGS OF SEN.
ATE ANE HOUSE.

Bills OF Much Interest Considered and Dis
posed of--Hard at Work.
COLUMBIA, S. c., Feb. II. The sen
ate met at S:l5 tonight after rest
since Friday but was not in the mooo
to tackle the big bills and contenteo
itsele in going through the calendar
passing the bills on which there was
no question and continuing the others
1t was in session but forty minutes
when an adjournment was had till II
a. m. tomorrow. One of the second
reading bills passed was the house bill
to declare the liability of railroad cor
porations for injuries sustained by
persons while in their employ.
The house did little at the morning
session, the lonly matter of any inter.
est acted upon being the passage of
Mr.. Townes' bill TO protect shad and
sturgeon during certain seasons of the
year. Josh Ashley's bill to build
court house and Jail at Honea Fath
passed
The house made one step toward ad,
juournment at night when it adopted
a five minute rule on all measures not
special orders.
The result will be to pile on the spe-
cial orders, of course, but there Is a
pospect of making haste little less
Slowly henceforth. Mr.. Lotions first
bill was reconsidered and recommitted
and the senate building and loan bill,
which it is claimed is the work OF a
foreign building and loan man intro
duced as a kind of Trojan horse with
aprovision exempting those companies
from the penalties attached to usury,
was killed. The balance of the night
was spent on two county government
bills, one of which was recommitted
and the other, relating to the salaries
of supervisors; passed, with numerous
amendments.
COLUMBIA, Feb. 1s.-1he chief de-
bate today was on the election law.
Mr.. Manning spoke earnestly for his
Australion ballot bill,
Mr.. Bacot then moved to strike out
the enacting words of No. 1891, the
eight-box law to which the house re-
fused to agree to.
Mr.. Tatum then moved to table Mr..
Manning's substitute, which was
agreed to by an aye and nay vote of rs
to II, as follows:
Yeas-Adams, Anderson, Ashley,
Barry, Blackwell, Bowman, Breeland,
Bramlett, Brown. Caruthers. Caugh-
man, Connor, L. S.; Connor, j: B.. :;
Davis, @. M. Davis. w. G.; Eadens,
Edwards, Elder, Ellerbe, .FinKlea.
Goodwin, Gregory, Hammett, Hardy,
Harper, Harvey. Hiott, Hollis, Hollo-
way, Hough, Hunter, Humphrey,
Ilderton, Johnston, Johnson, Kennedy,
Kindard, Kirk, Lancaster, Lennon,
Lesesne, Leverett, Love, Magill, Mel
lard, Miles, Mishoe, Mitchell, I. F.;
Mitchell, J. W.; Moore, Murray, Nc.
Intosh, McSweeney, Nunnery, OTIS;
Pickens, Pollock, Prince, Rainsford,
Rowland, Shuman, Skinner, Sturkie,
Tatum, Thompson, Todd, Townsend,
Thurmond, Tyler, War;, Watson,
Whitmire, Williams, T. S.; Williams,
L. j.; Williams, Fred; Williamson,
Wolff, Wyman- -76.
Nays-Burns, Crum, Devereux,
Dothage, Fowler, Lotion, Manning,
Mehrtens, Mellett, Patton, Price,
Pyatt, Sanders. A. K. Saunders, John
g.; Weston, Wilson-17.
The eight.box bill was then taken
up, and a motion to strike out the en-
acting words was voted down,
The committee amendments were
then adopted, and number of verbal
amendments were added.
Mr.. Townsend then offered the fol-
lowing as substitute for section 9,
which was agreed to:
Section 9. At the general election
for the year 1896 and all special elec.
tions thereafter held up to January 1,
1898, the managers of election shall
require of every elector offering to
vote at such election, before allowing
him to vote, in addition to the produc
ton of a registration certificate, proof
of payment of poll tax six months be-
fore said election of any poll tax then
due and payable. After January 1,
1898, they shall require of any elector
offering to vote at any election, be-
fore allowing him to vote. in addition
to the production of registration GER
tiicate, proof of the payment of all
taxes, including poll tax assessed
against him and collectable during
the previous year. The production of
a certificate or of the receipt of the Of
fcer authorized to collect such taxes
shall be conclusive proof OF the pay
ment of the same.
Mr.. Patton moved to amend section
II, requiring managers of election to
post statement of the result of the
election in some conspicuous place at
the polling place.
Mr.. Thurmond moved to table the
amendment.
Objection was raised that the require
ment was unnecessary and expensive
and troublesome to managers. Mr..
Thurmond objected that it would cause
contests.
Mr.. Patton said that it would cause
no more contests on table than on a
tree. His object was to protect the
purity of tho box for the next three
days until the box was opened at the
court house.
The amendment was then tabled by
a vote of 80 to %.
Mr.. Manning offered an amendment
to provide for bipartisan representa-
tion on the boards of commissioners
and managers, consideration of which
was interrupted by recurrence to the