The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-02-04
BUSY SESSION FOR
 COURT AT LAUREL
Special Chancery Term for New
 Mississippi District
ISSUE COURT HOUSE BONDS
Elections Are at Hand-compress Running at Full Capacity to Clear Up the Big Stock on
 Hand.

Laurel, Miss. February s.-(speciall- The present month will be a busy one for Laurel and the second court district of Jones county. A special term of the chancery court has been ordered to be convened on the 18th inst. and to hold not longer than twenty-one days. This will be the first court held in the new district recently created. The board of supervisors will hold their regular month ly meeting here also and this will be their first meeting in the new district At this meeting of the board of super visors, which will convene in the tenn porary court house here tomorrow, the bond Issue for the purpose of erecting a court house will be made and a site for the court house selected Bonds for the sum of $l20,0O0 will be issued for the purpose of building two court houses, one in this city, for the second district of the county, and one at Ellisville. the site of the old county court house and the first district of the county. s60,0OO going to each district for court house purposes.
 Jones county has spent thousands of dollars during the past year in the erec- tion of bridges and steel bridges ara taking the place of the old wooden struo- lures. A few years ago many Of the wooden bridges were washed away by the floods and the board of supervisors thought it economy to erect bridges that would be proof against the high waters during the rainy seasons of this sec tion and as a result some twenty or more steel bridges have been put in and the work continues. The work of plac- ing these bridges is done with the county convicts. Jones county was the first coun- ty in the state to adopt the plan of working her own convicts and the re- suit has been that the county has some of the best public roads of any in the state. A county convict farm is main tained also and on this farm probably enough is raised to defray the expenses of keeping the convicts.
 This is election year in Jones county and announcements of candidates are al- ready in order. w. H. Bufkin announces for reelection to the office of chancery clerk and J. H. Crawford, the present sheriff. seeks the same office
 c. B. Smith and James Richards of this city and Amos Jordan of Ellisville want to be sheriff Mir. Jordan served the county as sheriff four years ago and made a capable and efficient officer. MT. Smith was city marshal of Laurel two years ago and is at present acting as deputy sheriff of the county, having charge of the affairs of the second dis- trict here. James Richards is an old resi- dent of the county, having merchandised in Laurel and E1lisville and is well known to the voters. Of late years he has been on the road as a travelling man.
 J. T. Taylor the incumbent, and T. p. Waldrup, editor of the Ledger of this city, are the announced candidates for the office of superintendent of education. Both are well known educators and the result of the election will be watched with IA oil CT George T. Tisdale and J. w Walters are announced Green B. Landrum announces for reelection to the office of tax as- sessor This from all accounts is only a starter and the woods are full of can didates yet to announce in the public press.
 The city democratic executive commit tee have ordered a special election to be held or the 14th inst, to elect mayor, which office was made vacant by the death of the late Olin c. Hunt, and one alderman to succeed Dr. w. F. Davis in ward three, who has resigned to enter the race for mayor. Dr. Davis Is act ing as mayor, pro tenn. The other candi- dates for mayor to date are: Edward D. Pierce and T. H. Oden, prominent local attorneys and Albert w. Noble, editor of the Laurel Chronicle. MT. Oden is in his second mayoralty race within twelve months, having been in the race when the deceased mayor was elected. He was in the second primary with MT Hunt and was within a few votes of being elected. The four candidates are among the city's best known and prominent cit izens and the result of the election will be watched with much interest. MT. H. B. Justice is the only announced candi- date to date for alderman to fill the vacancy in ward three caused by the resignation of Dr. Davis.
 Frank Gardner has resigned as presi- dent of the Laurel Cotton Compress and a meeting of the board of directors has been called for the ith inst, to elect a successor Mir Gardner Is endeavoring to get his various interests in such shape that he can take a much needed rest, hence his resignation The Laurel Cotton compress, one of the biggest in the state. is doing the largest business in its his- tory, the platform room being too small to accommodate the large amount of cotton on hand and as result a large amount of the feecy staple is now on the ground and the press is being run to its utmost capacity to clear up the stock on hand. A meeting of the compress people was held recently to devise some means to take care of the great supply and the matter will be looked further into at the coming meeting of the di- rectors on the 4th inst.