The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-03-12
NO SESSION
This Il the Latest Talk Among Legis-
lators-House to Remain I'm Session.
Reply OF Impeachment Managers
FiIed-The Railway Mileage Tax Bill.
Messenger Bureau.
Raleigh, March s.

Today the board of managers of i'm
parchment filed their replication to the
answer of the accused judges.
Last night there was talk of an ex-
ira session. Today there were intima-
ions that the house wiz not adjourn
until the senate gets through with its
| work as a court of impeachment. Some
senators hold fast to the belief that
they cannot draw pay after the sixty
days OF the regular session ends. There
is no dispute as to the right of the sem
session. In fact the counsel for thu
judges so say and Will make no point
as to that right.
The interesting case of Debnam vs..
the Southern Bell Telephone Company,
from Durham which was in the su-
preme court. is compromised. Debnam
was hit on the head by a piece of iron
dropped from a pole by a lineman. He
sued for $40, 200, and got judgment IN
the superior court for $4,000. The COM
pany tried 10 remove the case to the
federal courts. but the supreme court
said that under the Craig act his could
not be done. The company was ar
ranging TO appeal the case from the
supreme court of the state to the United
States supreme court. when a compro-
mise was mad for 81. 400.
Governor Aycock today pardonei
o Abrams, a white man of Raleigh,
who was under a sentence of seven
years for bigamy. The case was an
odd one. The magistrate who perform
ed the second marriage ceremony as
sured Abrams that as the latter and his
wife a been separated seven years he
could, of right. remarry. Wife No. |
has since obtained a divorce. The Sec
ond wife has a young child which 5
being cared for by charitable people.
Abrams, as by law allowed, now desires
to remarry wife No. 2 and care for her.
To this date 721 legislative acts and
resolutions rave been ratified. A great
mass of work yet remains undone. t
was a comment today by members that
legislation is being rushed through too
rapidly during the past few days.
The biggest stir in theSlegislature thus
far was regarding the adoption yester-
day evening of an amendment to the
revenue bill imposing a mileage tax
on railway earnings. 1t is said that
two men in the state have for months
been working in various ways to get
this step taken. in the face of the tax
compromise effected by the state and
the railways, which has the endorse
NNS
the governor, etc. One man in the leg
islature figures as the special champion
of such a tax. The vote was recon
sidered as soon as the more conserva-
tive democrats found what had been SC
, hastily lone with a light house, for but
little more than half the members wee
present at the time.
At chambers today before Judge
Purnell there was argument in an in
| taraStino h. pkrl1nt0u n9SQ that % fhe
Carolina Lumber Company, limited, OF
Durahm. The company made a deed
of trust to a bank there. n then tbs
creditors forced it into involuntary
bankruptcy. The banks attorney de-
murs to the jurisdiction of the court or
the ground that the company was or
ganiZed under the laws of Michigan
This morning the company, from New
York city, filed an answer asking that
it be declared bankrupt, alleging coer-
cion upon the part of the bank, in
threatening suit in the state courts b.
which the deed of trust was secured.
The company ask that it be declared
bankrupt and that it's creditors share
equally.
There is a difference of opinion as 10
whether the bill for a iegaliZed primary
will pass. Some members say it will
others say it will not. The original bill
was for the whole state. The one
drawn today by a committee of the
caucus and submitted to the caucus to-
night provides that the law can be ap-
piled to counties. The primary pla-
has some warm advocates and some
strong opponents.
Senator MCNEIL is elated at the pas
sage of the Cumberland county prohibi.
ton bill. and says he has $50 signatures
to petitions for prohibition. He says
his course is rop and that eighteen
months hence the people will vote fol
high license.