The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-03-09
Sidewaik Penciiings
.sCIaib,' Was Pooh-pah Of selm..

@Ciaib" Was Pooh-Dah of Selma.
 1T Claiborne Manassas Jones has really rolled ttno the Alabama river and been drowned" said a former resident oL selma yesterday. the Central City nas lost one of it's most picturesque figures. Claib was native of Will ne was a boy. He was one of the quickest negroes l have ever known, ana his memory was marvellous. With altoee.bsr he eassation ho he gave himself he was could be.
 Ciaib's prime passed many years ago-when he was really quite young. What should have been the years of ii5 prime, incessant drunkenness ren- dered his senility. But fifteen years ago the man was marvellous He had degree of proficiency. He was press man for The Selma Morning Times, The selma Evening Journal, The Selma weekly Mirror; he was emergency car Ter Tor each of them, with the result that he often delivered routes on each or them in one day and Ciaib has 1t to nis credit that he never failed to leave getfulness; if you didn't get your pa per you knew rlaib had swapped 1t for
 Quite frequently claib assisted in tain instances he was suspected of hav- ing handled" some bits of news: and really C1aib did have a nose for news m addition to these duties he was per ter and sampler in a cotton office, and the factotum for everybody on Water street. He ran--or walked-errands. took care of horses. washed dogs. rush gaod so sne Ia fan Tor lale cotton clerks in the their possum suppers in the winter. He did everything in the world and never forgot Business men trusted Claib with preparations for important directors meetings two weeks before the appointed day--the office was al-
 "claib's talents included the gentle art of politics. When he was at the height of his glory. he was Chairman of the colored Republican Executive Committed of Dallas County. item Sec tive Committee of Dallas County. and the discovery of this fact at a meeting of the Republican Committee with the subsequent belaboring with bricks and story that was most delectable. His chameleonfc strategy was valuable to the Democratic party which in "Dad- dy's Days had opposition.
 sT have said that Clab was drunk. think he has not been sober in ten years. Sometimes he was less drunk than ,others-this was the only notable more than one of his old friends among the newspaper men was nothing more than the price of drink, and the promise of $ If he should live to He has lived to his last Christmas. He was his own worst enemy, and he new CT harmed anyt one else. Only II think The newspaper men will certainly miss him"
 The Land Fraud Trials.
 T noticed in The Advertiset this New Eschange @ Hotei S'nln iast nan evenike 'as as he chewed a toothpick in a self fEsatis- fled manner. that they are bringing out some very damaging evidence in the trial at Washington against Binger Hermann, the former commissioner of the general land office, who is being tried for the destruction of some rec ords of the land office when th b time came for his. retirement. BeinS from that part of the country, take great deal of interest in the developments of that trial as well as other features of through the Northwest.
 MT. Hermann is being tried at the bar of public opinion on muck graver charge than that which was read to federal court at Washington. Ills of fense is in reality, according to the popular conception of it, having violat- ed the unwritten law, as well as that public official shall have no inter- est or concern in the matters that shall come before him for adjudIcation. Tt is claimed that Hermann, as well as other public officials, including the late Senator Mitchell who died with charges of fraud hanging over him, ex- Congressman Williamson of the State, and a horde of lesser conspirators. planned together to defraud the United States Government out of thousands of acres of the finest timber land any where in the world. Hermann was at that time commissioner of the genera al land office, and it is claimed, it was his part to see the steals went through all right, without too close investiga- tion, getting his share of the pro-
 'The steals went through all right. too, and everything looked like easy money but Francis J. Heney, the man extortion against Mayor Eugene Schmitz of San Francisco. upon which he is now being tried, was secured by conspirators on p on the " run. M S The fight % Seo tween law and order and honesty on the one side, and conspiracy and per jury and the desire for the almighty dollar on the other has been a most in- teresting one to those of us who have
 "The whole series of suits has em- phasized: to me; the newly. newly awakened ak; Twenty or thirty years ago. nothing would have been thought of a public official being engaged in a. little steal Ou lnc 1Ou pSOplS hStO iu Iuo South don't need even to go back to the days of Reconstruction to think of men prominent in public affairs who did not hesitate to get little money on the side when a good opportunity offered. But in these later days. woe be unto the official or the public amploye, in whatever capacity; who dares to de- part from the straight and narrow path! It is all a very good sign fo me-"
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 Complains of Nuisance.
 A citizen has written a note address 1 ed to the man who writes the Sidewalk | Penctlings, in which he endorses the | statement that the health of Montgom- | cry is very good.
 T agree with you in that assertion" says the writer. But we are some what careless in preserving that good | health. There Is, for instance. a big | trash dump in the railroad yards where | the Western crosses the track of the | Seabohrd Air Line This hole is twen- tv feet broad and fifty feet long. It Is about twenty feet deep They have for several weeks been filling that hole | with trash and garbage. The kind of | garbage they have been using. is not | a very choice kind. The odor from | that garbage pile can be discerned 100 | yards away. There Is a lot of water, | too. at the bottom of the hole. and al- | together it seems to me this spot Is a | menace to the health of the people | who live or who have to work near it."
 R @ @
 Governor Conner has gone to Birm-