The age-herald., 1898-10-19
JEMTSON COVERED
 HIM WITH A GUN Young LaCy'S Side of the Tuscaloosa
 Difficulty. MAYOR CAME IN TIE NIGHT
He Alleges That the Attack Vas Made
 While He Was UnaPmed.
ALAN HANSON PARED AS OTHERS
Lacy Asserts That Twelve Men Did Not Jump on Him-Says the Mayor Ac- knowledged His Wrong Be-
 fore Episode Ended.

The Age-Herald telegraphed to young MT. Lacy at the University of Tuscaloosa to give him opportunity to have printed his side of the now famous difficulty with Mayor Jemison of that city. His reply fol- lows:
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 In answer to your telegram asking for facts in the university episode, l make the following statement:
 On Thursday all the freshmen, including Mayor Jemisons son, were initiated into the university by receiving the usual buck ing, which is always given to freshmen all the "rats," or freshmen were bucked alike, Mayor Jemisons son receiving no more than the others, and he took the bucking in the usual friendly way. l know of my own personal knowledge that no leather straps were used in bucking young Jemson, and no such strap was in the pos session of any of the boys in school. And l also state that it is not true that twelve men engaged in bucking Jemisons son that l know of The bucking this year was not any more severe than that given last ses son when l was a rat" and received the same initiation of bucking.
 Thursday night some time after mid night, when all the lights were out and the sentinel had gone off duty, and all were sound asleep MT. Jemison came to my room, and in a pleasant voice asked to see me. l went out to the stoop, undressed and unarmed not expecting any trouble. Mir. Jemson asked me if l had bucked his son any. l told him had. Then he struck me with a stick or something like 1t. He start ed to strike me again, but I caught the stick and warded off the blow. Then I stepped in my room and told Jemson that that was all right. He halted me and I turned myself, covered with a pistol. He commanded me to stand still and said that if l moved that he would kill me. He then cursed me and after a short time he let his pistol down by his side, and l stepped forward, intending to make an explanation of the bucking of his son. He immediately raised his pistol and said he would shoot me down like a dog I told him that he could do so easily, as I was only an un- armed boy. Then he let his pistol drop and asked me how old I was, and I told him I was IS.
 Then he apologized to me and seemed penitent and asked me to forigve him. which I refused to do at first. but after wards we shook hands. About this time Colonel Pettus came up, and Jemison told him that he had done wrong and acknowl- edged to me that he had acted a coward Then he and MT. Pettus went down the stoop.
 I take this opportunity of telling the peo- pie of our state that the bucking and haz- ing al the university is not as brutal as has been stated.
 I will leave it to the chivalry of our state to decide whether or not Mayor Jemison's. conduct that night was not that of das- tardly coward and unparalleled in the state with devilish cowardice which the lowest knave or vagabond would hardly stoop to.
 When we realize the cowardly part that he, the mayor of city, in whom the good people of Tuscaloosa have imposed the high trust of upholding the law, the order and the peace of their town, that he should arm himself with pistol and stick and wait till the darkest hour of night, the hour when none but thieves and assassins are known to be skulking around in dark alleys and byways, to go to a boys room, awake him and in the tones of a friend call him otu of his room and then when he comes out undressed and unarmed and not ex- pecting any assault, that he should strike him without warning, then we know that there is man who would commit acts of which the venomous rattler would not be guilty of.
 When this affair was first made public, expected Mayor Jemison to act the part of a gentleman and explain the whole mat ter fully to the public as he promised to do, but his act was too low and cowardly for him to acknowledge
 (SigneO CECIL LACY.
 We, the undersigned, who were in the room which MT. Lacy occupied the night of the 9th, are ready to make affidavit that the above statement is entirely correct. (Signed) JACK SHEPHERD,
 EARL G. GOODWIN.
 Tuscaloosa, October IS.