The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-02
TO BE EDITED BY WOOD
Ex-DALLAs POLITICIAN MAY
 RUN WEEKLY PAPER.
Negro Woman Dies from the Effects of Spree Caused by Eating
 Chinaberries--Negre Im-
 paled on Fork.
Advertiser Bureau,

Selma, Jan. 1st. It has been known since the new con- | stitution vas adopted that new weekly | paper would be startedin Birmingham by | the opponents of the present organic law. It was given out that Judge Pet Canee | was to be the editor of this new paper | and that General Charles M. Shelley was | to be the business manager Whether | there is any truth in the statement that | these two men are to be connected with the paper is not known. but the supposi- | tion is very strong that Judge Caffee will have something to do with the editorial department of the paper. This rumor Is strengthened by the facts alluded to above. that MT. Mardis l.. Wood. formerly of Selma, would nave charge of the editorial department and be manager of the paper. Judge Caffee and MT. Wood, for many years past, have been warm personal and political friends, and there seems to be no doubt in the world but that the rumor that Mardis Wood Is to edit the paper Is cor rect.
 For many years Mardis Wood was a power in Dallas County and in the State politics in Dallas longer than any man ever did. What he said was law. He made and unmade politicians. He did as much as any man in Alabama in keeping the white man on top.
 He was the nominee of the Democratic party for Congress in this district, but resigned and went to Denver, Colorado where he has resided for several years past He has a great many friends who will be glad to know that he is coming back to Alabama, to re-enter public life. but many of his old followers will regret to hear that he is to be connected with a paper that has for its object the over throw of the Instrument that has just been adopted by the white Democracy of Alabama by an overwhelming majority.
 Mardis Wood is fine writer, but he will find that the great bulk of the men who used to follow his leadership down here in the blackbelt will be against the policy that he will advocate. In his l county of Dallas the majority for the new constitution was 1900. in round numbers. | and ninety-nine per cent of the Demo- | crats of this county were for the new constitution. The people of Dallas Coun- | ty and the black belt will look forward to the new paper with a great deal of interest. especially when they learn that it is to be edited and controlled by Mardis L. Wood It is not known to your representative when the first issue of the new paper will make its appearance. Killed by Chinaberries.
 A peculiar death occurred at Cahaba a day or so ago, and that will attract the attention of the medical profession and Of the small boys all over the coun- try who use chinaberries in their pop guns. Henry Peoples Is good old colored man who lives down at Cahaba and his wife is named Tissier. She was a weak-minded old woman and has wandered about through the former capi- tai of Alabama, perfectly harmless, being treated with the greatest kindness by the few white people living there and by the large negro population that culti- yates the soil where the former proud metropolis of the State once stood. Some two or three years ago old aunt Tissier contracted the habit of eating china berries. Many who read this will re- member seeing robbins get drunk on Chinaberries. The berries seemed to have the same effect on Aunt Tissier that they do on the robin redbreasts, and she could be seen most any day in the fall of the year. after the frost had killed the leaves on the chinabefry trees and ripened the fruit, staggering toward home as if she had been to some nearby grogshop and filled up on mean whiskey. The old woman could eat an immense amount of these berries and they did not seem to hurt her.
 But on Christmas day she over did the act, just as great many men uio Wltn the extract of corn juice and rye. She climbed an old stunted chinaberry tree, filled her apron with the fruit, and sat there in the fork of that tree and ate berries and jabbered and talked to her self but when she tried to get down she found to her sorrow that she was too drunk to assist herself down from the forks of the tree where she had been enjoying the repast, Just before shutdown | .1- .I.,.l were passing by and they took her down | from her high perch, where she was quietly sleeping off her chinaberry drunk. | It is supposed that the old woman ate half peck of the berries. for she was in beastly state of intoXication and she | lah In a stupor all night long, but those | who had seen her drunk on the berries | before thought that she would be all | right in the morning. But the sun arose l and still the old woman did not arouse | from her stupor and as the shades of evening gathered on the day after Christmas she expired.
 It is feared by some at Cahaba that if the fact leaks out that chinaberries will make a person drunk, the negroes of the | black belt will go to gathering china | berries and quit purchasing whiskey for | their Christmas drunks. This would af- feet the whiskey traffic very materially | and the wholesale and retail dealers of | Selma are discussing the effect that the | general consumption of this berry by | the negroes would have on the trade.