The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-02-17
pvpFRIENCE WITH UNCLE BILLIE
SHERMAN OF WEBSTER.
His Struggle With Juror in Trying
TO Ascertain His Competency to
Serve IN a Murder Case Pro-
duced Laughter Among
His Friends in
Court.

General. and many stories and anecdotes
are related of him by friends in the
sontb who knew him so well as prose-
cptipg attorney for the state.
Clarence Tate gave the Galveston
News the following good story, which
illustrates Crisp's amicable disposition,
and his persuasive influence over con-
trarv witnesses and jurors:
In the summer of 1872 negro barber,
Lee Smith, in a fit of jealousy, killed his
wife, AS the deed was committed in
Webster county, Smith was indicted for
murder and arraigned for trial at Pres
tom at the fall term of the circuit court.
To detail an incident connected with
This particular trial this article is special
ly written.
An apparent depression must be made
here to make personal mention of an in
dividual whose presence in the relation
of this incident is as necessary as is tire
character of Hamlet in the play of the
mad prince Of Denmark.
Near Preston, Ca, in the '70s, there
lived-and may live today-a character
BY the name of William Sherman. He
was Familiarity known as "Uncle Billie
to the people of Stewart and Webster
counties. A plain, unpublished farmer,
be might have quietly plodded along
down the sequestered vale of life I'M
known to fortune and to fame had not
the writer, to adorn this tale, rutElessly
yanked him from the oblivion of the
past and on the dizzy heights of fame's
dread mount held him up to the admir-
ing gaze of discriminating public, or
words to that effect.
Although plain and unasSuming, I'm
Gle Billie was possessed of an extraordi-
nary characteristic, to whose singularity
lie owes this brief notice. This id;osyn-
Grassy of Mr.. Shermans was his absolute
refusal to give an unmodified negative
OrpOsitive answer to direct question.
He exhibited as inordinate an inversion
to saying yes or no as that shown by an
elephant in crossing a bridge, or the re.
pugnance evinced by young miss in
seeing the new moon over her left shout.
der
For instance, had Uncle Billie been
asked, "Do you believe there is a God?"
be would probably have answered after
this wise: II have been taught from
childhood that there is Supreme Ruler
who Directs" and thus he would have
gone on, leaving you to infer what his
belief was; or had he been asked wheth-
er or not he was married, he would have
replied: 81 have two girls and a boy"
10 further illustrate, had he been asked
on wintry day: care you cold?'' he
would have said: 81 am not pevspiring
to a great EXTENT" or when a boy had
he been asked by his teacher: SIS tie
world round?" he would have replied:
You couldn't sail around it if it were
hat Indeed, it is stated upon good
authority that upon Mr.. Sherman's wed
ding night, when the officiating minister
pronounced to him the customary query:
DO you take this woman to be your
lawful welded wife, to cherish her?'
and SO forth, this wonderful equivocator
IIeephed: my dear sir, l came here for
that purpose"
Now, Uncle Billie was summoned as a
juror In the case of the state against Lee
Smith for wife murder: so the reader
Will readily understand what hard nut
10 crack SOlicitorG General Crisp had
"neh oJ the usual questions he sought
" render Mr.. Sherman a competent ju-
Tor.
II must be stated that the sum total
VI me Stereotyped questions pronounced
ny lne solicitor to Georgia juror was
90 long as the moral law, and since two
UdyS OF the Lee Smith trial had been con.
ulI I IN trying to empanel a Jury of
o"eIye men and only four had been Sc
$ T"lGu me court was apprehensive that
ene jury box would be emptied before a
'oulIe could be empaneled.
az oAno tlme previous to the session of
:a 00u'O II was the practice of the sher-
of ~ aye a great number of the names
ns,,nYII maze taxpayers of the COUNTY
nTr" Wy more than half of the entire
ano 81 IN ~ what's called the iurv box.
or r, .ioHl TINS list the Jurors were drawn
statoJ 10 supposed to be drawn As inst
snIoot;, TWO days had been taken mn in
bv tba jury. Some were cballenoed
nv fa n1 .Sldte, others by the nrisonar Rnt
t5a Ial ine greatest portion disoualitied
s0lne of tic " Hot being able to answer
eSSarV To mol. luis IN the manner nee
The nj nina make them competent Jurors.
trial Col Ut T. OF the second day of the
self wero '' o.; hawkins, Mr.. Crisp and my
the o "T1o sitting in the public room Of
and H ayI Tavern of the town of Preston,
Latino n" tES!s and Crisp were in turn re,
Crisn9 ro rnelT legal experiences. when
he ePo lelnarked that the greatest trouble
some in rnCered was his endeavor to make
I toid J Lin understand the Questions
at all c I'm ne had never seen any trouble
ner re, oon parable to that he wonId evD
une IN a., should it ever be his misfort-
and wh handle" Uncle Billie sbermao
NJ "nen l explained 80 " a'.4, - ''n'