The age-herald., 1901-08-24
BROWN ENJOYS 4 WATERMELON St CIaIr County Negro Placed in the Condemned Cell DENIES HIS FIRST CONFESSION Details of How He Was Snatched from Hands of WouId-Be Lynchers.
 Mob Fired First
 Shot.
DENIES HIS FIRST CONFESSION

Jim Brown, the St. Clair County negro, seems perfectly at home and contented in the Jefferson County jail. Here at least he is safe from all fear of mob violence | Warden Berry has put Brown in the condemned cell recently occupied by the negro Alonzo Williams, who was hung the same day on which Frank Miller was executed His cell is entirely bare and devoid of all furnishing except pair of blankets. Before being put into the cell it was thoroughly searched and Brown himself was searched and everything taken away that he had except the l.Oo which he made as the price of eonfes- sion when coming down on the train rom l Ashvile to Birmingham.
 Brown, it is said, would have confessed his crime on his trial Thursday except that he was advised not to.
 l He denied yesterday that he had made a confession coming down on the train 1 despite the fact that 1t was made in the hearing of almost a dozen men. Enjoys a Watermelon. | When seen by an Age-Herald reporter | yesterday Brown was enjoying water melon which he had purchased with part of the s1O5. He did not seem in the least 1 concerned as to his impending doom, but was enjoying the watermelon to the ut most.
 Were you scared when you were being tried, Jim?' he was asked.
 "No sir" he replied in good English. | "Were you scared when the shooting began?"
 No sir, I wasn't much scared, and yet I was in way"
 How did you get out of the court house and away from the mob?'
 Well, sir, We came down stairs from the court room into the lower hall and l then went out the back door,
 Did you run or walk as soon as you got out of the court house?"
 we walked at first There were few people around but they didn't bother us. It was raining hard and the mob was in | front of the court house. After we got out of sight we ran some.
 l "We walked most of the way to the l railroad. We then Jagged freight train
 and got on it. We came to town and got off the train somewhere near the freight
 depot, and I was brought here. l didn't | feel much scared on the way" he added
 in reply to another querry.'s
 Brown is sentenced to be hung on Sep
 tember 20. He said yesterday he had not
 sent for a preacher, though he probably
 would. He appears as If he hadn't care | in the world and talked as unconcernedly | as he ate his watermelon as if he had 1 been sitting on a rail fence in the conn- trv as free as the air which blew about
 him. l How Ills Life Was Saved. Ex-Sheriff Treece and w. A. Storm,
 who brought the negro safely to Birming- ham. left for their homes yesterday. MT. | Treece went to Ashville and MT. Storm to | Coal City. The daring of these men saved | Brown from horrible fate.
 | Shortly after the shooting MT. Treece went to Judge Pelham, who was In the court house at Ashville with the deputies. 1 It was raining hard, and the mob had 1 scattered in groups in front of stores 1 across the street. It was felt that the at- | tack on the court house might be renewed as soon as the crowd had time to recover from the first shock. MT. Treece suggest | ed the plan of escape to Judge Pelham l and volunteered to assist in carrying 1t out. Judge Pelham approved of it, and Mir Storm volunteered to assist.
 The only way to get to the second story | of the Ashville court house is up the front | stair way. The steps lead up from hall way, and Brown was brought down these steps and then through the middle corri- dor of the building to the rear. Here came the dangerous feature of the plan. | Brown had to walk across one side of the square, but fortunately the leaders of the mob were watching the front of the build | ing, and there was no one in the rear. In | the driving rain the two men walked | across the square, with Brown between I them, and made for the woods. No one saw them, and none of the guards knew how or where the negro had gone. They saw him marched down the steps. and | that was all.
 | Action Was Quick. | Judge Pelham said to one of the news- paper correspondents few minutes after wards:
 l q have placed the negro in the hands of two men can trust with instructions to land him in Birmingham. do not know how they are going to do 1t or what route they will take"
 MT Treece and MT. storm did not know at first which way they would go, but when they reached the woods they turned | in the direction of Whitney Becoming
 fearful that they might be traced, MT
 storm turned the horse he was riding loose in the woods and made the res | of the journey afoot. MT. Treece held {