The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-23
Messenger Bureau. Park Hotel,
Raleigh. n. g. March 10.

Messenger Bureau, Park Hotel.
Raleigh, n. c. March 1s.
Yesterday afternoon there was a
meeting Of the board of internal i'm
p~rovements, at which Governor Rus
sell and J.. c. L. Harris were present.
G.. A. Cook. the other member, being
at Washington. 1t was decided to ap-
point a new board of directors OF the
Atlantic and North Carolina railway.
1t was also decided that no informa-
ton as to the matter was to be given
out until today, when the commissions
were issued. Nevertheless, the news
leaked" Today the following letter
was sent each member of the old d.
rectorate: You are hereby notified
that at a meeting Of the board Of in
ternal improvements, composed Of the
governor, Cook and Harris, held today,
you were removed as a member Of the
board Of directors"
Today commissions were issued to
the new board, as follows: Robert
Hancock (who is to be ~president), T.
D. Hewitt, William H. Sawyer, Council
Wooten, John F.. Mewborne, w. j.
Pope, E. H. Meadows.
The old board will not retire without
a legal contest and decision. It's mem
bers claim that the new act, taking
the road out of their hands, is uncon-
stitutional in several features.
The executive department people are
in a quandary as to the AsheviIle
charter act. One OF the great features
Of this was a provision that the gov
ernor should appoint a police justice,
who as far as all trials are concerned,
was to displace the mayor But the
plan to commission this police Justice
fails, it seems. The act as ratified is
not as introduced. The very portion
which PROVIDED for the appointment is
gone. The private secretary who ex-
amined the bill says he cannot see that
there is any power to appoint.
Benjamin knight, 60 years old, died
at the soldiers home this morning.
During the war he served in Compa-
ny H, Thirtieth regiment of Cumber-
land.
The largest and finest crystal of
mica ever discovered was placed in
the state museum yesterday. 1t weighs
104 pounds, and came from the Bowen
mine, in Macon county. It is worth
$500.
1t has rained every day in March
save two. 1t is asserted that farm
work was never more backward.
The purpose Of the three Episcopal
dioceseS in this state is to raise 800. 900
for the endowment Of ST. Mary's fe-
male school here.
AT the term OF court which begins
here next week three persons will be
tried for murder.
The most amazing wager on record
in this state was made at Durham
and was settled tonight. w. f. Hol-
man, colored, agreed to eat a baked
cat if Corbett was defeated in the
prize fight.
Victor Dockery, son of Hon. Oliver
H. Dockery, is appointed steward Of
the penitentiary.
Republican State Chairman Holton
will get the place of United States at
torney for the Western district. There
had been a long contest for this be-
tween him and Marshall Mott.
Late last night William G. Burk-
head, Of Whiteville, died here of
Bright's disease. He was a lawyer
and a. son of the late Rev. DR.. l.. S.
Burkhead, a widely known Methodist
preacher, and was Al years of age He
was reading clerk in the legislature
four terms. His wife is a daughter Of
the late Edward Gayle, Of Portsmouth
and Raleigh.
Some Of the newspapers are pub
fishing extracts from a letter of Gov
ernOr Russell to The New York Tri-
bune in 1888, in which he says of the
southern states that the extreme
remedy is for to declare that
they have violated the fundamental
conditions under which they We're re-
admitted to the union and remand
them to a territorial status"