The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1899-02-15
We cannot be undersold on Clothing
M. GREENWOOD.
BROOKHAVEN, MISS.
A Slander on jackson Refuted.

Mrs. Angelo MiaZZa, one of the old
est living residents of Jackson, who
has been spending some time with her
son, Mr.. JAS F. MiaZZa, assistant cash
ier of the Commercial Bank, rather in
dignantly resents the old war story,
revived last week by our Albany, Ga,
correspondent, to the effect that dur
ing the civil war, the people of Jackson
did not want Confederate soldiers to
use the side walks. Mrs. MiaZZa was
in jackson all during the war, and with
other well known Jackson ladies who
were her contemporaries, did her full
share for the comfort and aid OF Con
federate soldiers, and said in conver-
sation with the editor of The LEADER
few days ago, that the only foundation
for the story was the following facts:
At certain period during the war
large amount of powder and other
ordnance material was received IN
jackson, and for the lack of regular
arsenal or other safe place to store it,
the basement story of the Angelo Hotel
and Restaurant on State street, oppo-
site the Capitol, was pressed into ser
vice by the Confederate authorities
A part of this basement in which the
powder was stored extended out under
the regular sidewalk with an open
lattice covering, over which all passers-
by walked Men walking along this
sidewalk smoking pipes and cigars were
liable at any time to drop fire down
through the lattice on the powder be
low and cause an explosion that would
have demolished the whole block. Mrs.
MiaZZa says that at this time she was
dangerously sick in one of the upper
stories of the hotel, with several small
children around her, and that her hus-
band, realizing the danger of the sltua-
ton, called the attention of the author
tiles to it. Col. F. S. Hunt, well
known citizen of Jackson was provost
marshal at the time and an order was
promptly issued and enforced pro-
hibiting the people of Jackson gener-
ally las we'll as soldiers) from walking
on the sidewalk at that particular
place until the powder was removed,
which was but little while.
Mrs. Miazza says this is absolutely
all the foundation there is for the an
cient slander about jackson people de-
nying the soldiers the privilege of
using the sidewalks; but, that having
once been started, she supposes 1T Will
continue to be repeated and believed
to the end of time, just like the false
hood started by the Yankees that jeff
Davis was captured while attempting
to escape disguised in his wife's
clothes.
Mrs. Miazza added in the above con-
nection that another equally unjust
slander on jackson, often repeated,
was that Confederate soldiers could
not get water there during the war
without paying for it. She says that
the less than half truth on which this
cainard was based was this: Capt.
John Mizell, well-known Jacksonian
of war times and since, owned min
eral well, the waters of which gained
some celebrity for their medicinal
properties. Mrs. Mizell conceived the
idea of selling this water to such per-
sons as chose to purchase it and dona-
ted the proceeds of the sales to the
soldiers hospital at Jackson; yet out
of this simple act of goodness and
charity to the soldiers, had grown the
cold -blooded slander on the people OF
jackson above referred to.
In closing her conversation with the
editor of The LEADER Mrs. Miazza
said she had no desire or ambition TO
have her name appear in print but at
the same time she was not willing to
see such unwarranted aspersions as
these on jackson and her people pass
in0 as facts at this late day, without
challenge or the real truth being
known.