The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-28
atlanta.
AGNEW,s CHANCES BAD.
FEATURES OF HIS CASE CONTINUE
TO ATTRACT ATTENTION.

OcaIas Past ana Future-Befter
Times for the Town Close mt Hand.
A state Senator's Iuness-SOme
specuIatiOns in Respect to 1.-THE
Sale of the Citizen-A Few Words
About It's Purchaser.
Ocala, Fla, Feb. H.-The tempest in
teapot stirred up by the expulsion of e.
w. Agnew from the Baptist church. be-
cause of his recent conviction in the
United States court has about subsidized.
All OF the local papers have Joined in the
hue and cry. and the pastor and the pillars
of the church have had their hands full
in defending their course.
Public opinion is somewhat divided in
this matter, and in the Agnew matter gen.
orally. Mr.. Agnew has never been a pop
uiar man in Marion county. He had too
much money. too little suavity; and in the
old days of cotton and credit, held over
the heads of the impoverished farmers,
too many notes and mortgages. His fail
ure and the collapse of his bank completed
the tale. Some of his closest friends turn
ed against him, and few could be found to
say a good word for the fallen man. Mr..
Agnew, however, is as good to-day as ever
he was, and the spectacle of the old man,
badgered and baited by evil fortune. has
won him friends where he least expected
them. The petition for his pardon has
received many signatures, and the Hon.
John e. Hartridge, of Jacksonville, as
already stated in the Morning News, has
been retained to present the paper to the
President. The mandate of the United
States supreme court in the case was ex-
pected here yesterday. It's arrival means
Mr.. Agnew's departure as a felon.
No city in the state has suffered more
from the series of calamities that have
fallen upon Florida in the last two years,
than Ocala, and the manner in which her
people have faced the music
shows that there is still life in the old
town. The great freeze of SO swept away
in one night the orange groves from
which the revenue of the county had been
so largely drawn the terrible depression
in phosphate followed, and then, as
natural sequence, came the collapse of
the two local banks. But already signs
of Improvement are visible; many of the
groves will soon be bearing again; the
phosphate interest is destined to become
q profitable industry, and the fine lands
of Marion county are such as will event
ually restore the prosperity of the Brick
City.
The Ocala house, which, under the COM
petent management of Phil Brown, now
forms an important link in the Plant sys-
tents chain of palatial hotels, was never
so well kept as now. 1t is enjoying a
generous patronage, and the opening of
the new Silver Springs railroad has ad-
ded another attraction to the tourists
itinerary.
Brumley Mcconnell the president of the
defunct Merchants National Bank, is still
confined 10 his house by illness. The trou-
BILE into which State Treasurer c. B. Col
Inns has gotten himself by deposlting some
$4,000 of the funds in his hands In this
bank is by no means at an end; and
some highly interesting developments may
be expected in the near future.
The death of two of the recently elect
ed state senators lends additional inter-
est to the serious illness OF DR.. S. II.
Bitch, who represents the counties of
Marion and Sumter in the Senate. All
three of the senators in question were
credited TO the anti-corporation faction,
and Senator Blitch's death would prove
serious blow to that wing of the party.
The recent sale of the Citizen In Jack
sonville to the Hon. George w. Wilson
has nowhere excited more interest than
in Ocala. Mr.. Wilson formerly resided
here, and some twelve years ago conduct
ed very able ana lnuuentlal local jour-
nal. He has for many years been closely
identified with the county in many direc-
lions. His beautiful country seat and
orange grove, known as Oaklawn, on the
Florida Southern railroad, near Orange
Lake, has long been one Of the county's
show places; and Mr.. Wilson has always
been prominent not only as a fruit grow
er, but as a politician of the better sort
and a public-spirited. broad-minded citl-
zen. whose intelligence and generosity
have always been equal TO all demands
made upon them. Under his management
the Citizen cannot fail to be power in
the land. The paper has always been a
good one, but its columns have too often
been pervaded with an air Of aloofness
which led ex-Congressman Charles Doug
las to remark upon one occasion that he
believed the Citizens editorial matter ITO
be written by some gentleman away over
yonder In Australia"
There viii be no "Australianism" under
George Wilson's regime. and the paper will
soon be brought closely into touch with
the people OF the state 1t is designed to
serve.