Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-02-04
That is the Startling Cues tion Being Asked by Many People in Little Rock.
MYSTERIOUS TRIPS
Ii iS known Fact that a Determined
 Inquiry is Being Made Into the Al-
 ieged Use of Free Transportation
 by Davis While He Was Governor.

(FrOm Arkansas Democrat Feb. g.
 Senator Jefferson Davis met Lewis
 Rhoton last Monday morning, only 24
 hours before the Arkansas Legisla- ture elected him to the United States Senate, and implored the prosecuting attorney not to ruin his chances of election by instituting proceedings against him. Senator Davis had req
 son to believe when he saw Mr. Rho- ton that the grand jury had been Investigating his alleged use of free transportation on the Iron Mountain
 railroad. The grand jury knows
 whether that was true or not, and
 Prosecuting Attorney Rhoton knows It is reported on what is believed
 to be reliable authority that among the secret indictments which were
 returned by the grand jury just prior
 to it's adjournment were three true bills against men who are prominent in political life. It has been stated that by consent of the jury Prosecut-
 ing Attorney Rhoton took possession of these three indictments to hold them until certain evidence had been procured bearing on these and other cases
 Who are the three prominent par , ties whose names are contained in
 these bills?
 It is not charged that Senator Dav- is has been indicted but it developed yesterday that a dete/lined inquiry
 was being made into his alleged use of free passes over railroads of the state.
 After Senator Davis visit to Mir.
 Rhoton last Monday, when it became
 apparent that the latter had deter
 mined upon the course he would pur-
 sue, the senator made a hurried visit
 to St. Louis. He was in that city
 when Rhoton's charges contained in , the letter to Attorney General Kir- by were made public.
 , Rumor has it that Prosecuting At i torney Rhoton was apprised Friday
 morning by an agent that Senator Davis visited a prominent railroad official in St. Louis.
 Prosecuting Attorney Rhoton was
 not in the city yesterday, and no in- formation was given out at his office as to his whereabouts. It was sur
 missed, however, that he, too, had gone to St. Louis. .t
 MT. Rhoton had understood before
 he left Little Rock that Senator Dav. is purposed to give out an answer to the charges he had made in his let
 ter to Attorney General Kirby. Friends of Mir. Rhoton who ought
 to know said last night that he would produce not only evidence to sub- stantiate his chargest but that more sensational developments were to fol- low.
 Regardless of whether or not the grand jury investigated the charges lit is known fact that the alleged use of free transportation by Senator
 Davis has been presented to Prose-
 cutting Attorney Rhoton within the
 week by prominent party who does not hesitate to say that he and oth-
 CTS witnessed transaction on rail- way passenger train in the state which looked so questionable that he offered the train auditor $5 to drop or lose the slip which Senator Davis had used.
 It is believed that should Mir. Rho ton become convinced that Senator Davis had violated the law in this regard, a warrant will probably le |issued for the senator at once. Beer Inspection Bill. In Senator Davis answer to IIr. Rhoton published in the Democrat yesterday evening he asked Mir. Rho- ton why he had not "caused the in- dictment and arrest of prominent business man of Little Rock and a