The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-23
THE BONNER NEGRO
 GIVES HIMSELF UP
Is Charged With Stealing Pro-
 hibition Petition
.ENLARGING THE INSTITUTE
Several State and Other Schools Will Open Soon at alladeqa-Popula- tion Is Largely Swelled
 Therefrom.

Talladega August 22.-(SpeciaI )-Aleck
 Bonner, the negro who is charged by
 the prohibitionists with stealing their
 petition, gave himself up to the sheriff
 last night, and promptly made a bond
 for $500 to appear before Justice w. T.
 Thornton next Saturday, to answer d charge of grand larceny. Four prominent
 citizens signed his bond, neither of them
 being connected with the liquor business.
 The evidence for the defense it is al- legged will show that George Vice, the person who was carrying the petition
 around for signatures had been drinking
 in the saloons during the day, and was
 in the saloon at the time of the loss of
 the petition, standing in a group com posed or drummers and customers of tho
 bar, with the petition under his arm.
 The drummers Were guying him about prohibition, when he suddenly missed the
 paper, and called out: Where is my petition?' One of the drummers cried out
 Run, boys, runi' and the bystanders scattered, Aleck Bonner among them.
 Vice pursued Bonner, who had q crum
 pied white hat in his hand The friends or the defendant allege that 1t will not
 Je shown that Bonner got the petition
 at all. The result of the whole matter IS summed up in the statement that the leaders Of the prohibition movement made
 sllSht error in selecting person to
 carry around the petition who fndulged
 Tn hquor while asking signatures and
 that the abstractlng of the petition from
 his custody was d serious political blum
 der on the part of the anti-prohibition-
 ists.
 At tie State Institute for the Deaf and Dumb workmen are busy repairing inc gables of the original central building and building another story to the annex Just south of 1t. A rear veranda has been added to Taylor hall, and the large columns in front are receiving d coat
 of paint.
 There is a man here from AshevjlIe N. C., quiet citizen. q church member who looks like he might be d distant rela-
 tive to George Washington, the Paw of
 His Ccuntry. Now this Ashevile man
 asserts that common ordinary, suuirrny
 red worms, the kind that bull-heads and minnows like best, when soaked in whis-
 ky and thrown to the fish will make the fnny tribe so drunk that catching them
 is dead easy. He swears he has seen two or three pound of black bass "un- der the influence" walk in the water standing upon their tails, and hutter out to the bank, where they become an easy
 prey.
 old Moth Kalliney is hard to down The state schools will open here Sep tember 23, at a. m-ths includes the blind schools. both white and colored and ', the School for the Deaf. Taken altogether 1he opening of the schools add nearly 1000 persons to the population comprising as it does the Taladega college, city free
 school Isbell college. state schools and
 private schools. The city school will open
 September 16.
 Pending the erection of a new passenger and freight depot the Louisville and Nashville railroad will occupy as a pas
 senger depot a part of the shop of the
 Moretti Statuary company. or Jacobs manufactory, at the crossing of alley
 vita Battle street. immediately east of
 the present freight depot-a temporary
 structure will be put up south of the present track for use as freight depot. The contract fig to be let within the next ten days. It is certainly time for
 the Louisville and Nashville road to do
 something for the accommodation of pas sengers, as for years 1t has permitted it's customers to use joint for pas sen-er depot that would shame an ordi- nary negro cabin, and that too. in the
 face of continued complaint from the peo- pie.