The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-22
COUS, JUSTICE OF PEACE,
 A SENSATIONAL WITNESS
Although an EmplOye of Lumber Company, He Tried Negroes For Defrauding Company and
 Turned Them Over to Franklin.

w. H. Cous. Notary Public and ex- officio Justice of the Peace of Clay Coun- ty, told of some rather sensational meth- yesterday on the witness stand in the United States Court during the trial of Robert N. Franklin, charged with viola ton of the peonage statutes.
 Cous is an employe of the Sample Lum- Der Company of Rollins, Clay County. He is also Notary Public and Justice of the Peace of that community, and, &C., cording to his own testimony, tried Pat Hill and several other negroes for false pretense in order to recover money paid out by his employees for transporting the negroes from Roanoke to Rollins. This money the company lost by the negroes jumping their labor contract. Cous also turned the negroes over to Robert N. Franklin, the defendant, who is alleged to have sold them into the servitude to J. w. Pace. He frankly testified that after the peonage indictments had been found against Franklin, he allowed a legal rep resentative of the defendant to change the minutes of his court in reference to the Pat Hill case and swore that the fine imposed on the negroes and for which they are alleged to have been sold into peonage was never collected by him until last Monday. This change he swore was made at the suggestion of D. H. Riddle, one of the attorneys in the Franklin case.
 Cous seemed from his demeanor on the witness stand to be perfectly honest in everything he swore to. He made no se- cret of the fact that he knew practically nothing of Alabama law and admitted that most of the advice he received in the Pat Hill case was from D. H. Riddle, coulsel for Franklin.
 The Pat Hill Case.
 The Government elected to try the first Franklin case on his alleged violation of the peonage statutes in causing Pat Hill, a negro to be held in involuntary servi tude.
 Court met at 1O3O o'clock yesterday morning. Pat Hill. the alleged peon. was the first witness called by the Govern ment. .t,
 The negro testified that he was living at his home in Roanoke. in April, 1902. A negro labor agent whose name he knew not came to Roanoke and induced the witness and four other negroes to go to Rollins to work in lumber mill. They were promised $1 a day, transportation, board and lodging.
 On reaching Rollins the witness swore they were carried down a railroad track several miles. where they were put to work grading the road. They were com pelled to buy their own dinner and were given sleeping quarters in an old shanty in which there were no beds or pallets. About midnight the negroes slipped away from the camp and made their way on foot to Goodwater. where they were arr rested by Robert N. Franklin. brought back to Rollins. fined s each for desert ing contract by a Justice of the Peace. and carried by Franklin to the farm of J. W. Pace. where fill said he made contract to work for seven months At the Pace farm the witness was kept un- der guard and imprisoned at night He swore that he was whipped twice. En- deavoring to make his escape, he was recaptured and brought back to the Pace farm. convicted of escape by Justice of the Peace and stayed with Pace for elev- en months when he was paid out by Mack Carlisle of Roanoke.
 At the conclusion of Hill's testimony the Court took a recess until o'clock.