The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-25
WILLIAM PEARSON
 IS GIVEN PARDON
For Crime Committed Many
 Years Ago
HE ESCAPED PENITENTIARY
President Charles Henderson of the Railroad Commission Is Investqat- ing River Transportation
 Rates-Plenty of Game.

Montgomery, August A-(Speclal)- Gov. $. B. Conner has relieved William Pearson. now a resident of Palestine, Tex, of the penalty of crime committed nearly thirty years ago. the man having since that time become one of the prom inent citizens of Texas, to whose good name the governor of the state a mem Der of Congress. a member of the legisla- ture, and many other gladly testify. A full pardon is issued. with restoration of all civil and political rights
 Pearson was convicted in the circuit court of Clay county in 1S76 of the theft of hog valued at $S. He was given sentence of two years in the peniten- tiary. He served a short while and es- caped. since which time he has been in Texas, where he has married aid raised a family and become a leading oitizen Gov. T. M. Campbell says that he has known him for many years and has found him in every way good man and worthy citizen, Congressman A. w. Gregg and Legislator J. J. Strickland say the same. all joining in an appeal to the governor of Alabama to grant clemency.
 The petitioners aver that the life of Pearson Is one to arouse the highest comm endation; that he has made himself useful and has long ago repented for the offense, if such it was, committed in his youth. The records of Clay county are meagre, simply showing the name of Pearson and the fact that he was ad judged guilty and sentenced. Governor Conner is glad to be able to give what seems to be so deserving a man a new chance in life.
 Looking After Rivers.
 President Charles Henderson of the Ala bama railroad commission, has been much of the past week in the river sections of the state, looking into the possibilities of the development of river traffic, which
 has seemed, in all the prosperity, to
 have been gradually declining to almost nothing He visited Gadsden on the
 Coosa, Decatur, Sheffield, Florence and
 Tuscumbia on the Tennessee, and Selma
 on the Alabama.
 It is not generally known that the sum
 mer session of the legislature put steam
 boats under the control of the commits
 sion. Having taken over this feature MT.
 Henderson is very anxious to become
 fully posted oD the needs of the streams
 and the towns that may be benefited by
 them. He is not yet able to say what
 will be done or what policy will be pur-
 sued, but Is making every effort to get fully posted, as a result of which a line of policy will be mapped out. The question of rates on compressed cot ton, which will come before the commits sion on September 16, Is likely to bring
 out an interesting, far-reaching discus sion. P. F. Parker, business agent of
 the Farmers union, makes the complaint
 and the object is to get the same rates
 on compressed cotton to mill points as are now had on uncompressed. 1nciden-
 tally, other matters will crop out with regard to the rates on cotton In the state.
 Plenty of Game.
 From reports received by the depart ment of game and fish, conditions indi- | cate that there will be a great increase in
 the supply of game in Alabama over last year. The prospects for good quail shoot ing are most excellent. This indication is assigned to the fact that promptly on the first day of last March the shooting of quails stopped, and the old birds. after they had mated, were not shot this year. as was formerly the practice. It looks like the woods will again abound with that king of American wild birds, the wild turkey There has been no shoot ing of squirrels during the spring and summer months, consequently they have multiplied largely.
 Before the new game law was passed, | in some localities the reverbration Of shotguns during the summer months sounded like a battle between two well equipped armies, but this year the bale tul practice of summer hunting has not zen indulged in.
 one of the best signs of the splendid effect of the new game law is the fact that the sale of black powder shells has fallen off from GO to 80 per cent in Ala bama One travelling salesman for lead ing ammunition house recently stated that his sales alone In this state were S75. 900 short of his sales this time last year. The merchants have recognized the fact that the negroes and pot hunters have been eliminated from slaughtering the game of the state, and that there will be no demand for low grade shells. Sportsmen all over the state are ruo- ping up their guns, procuring their hunt- CTS license and when the ides Of golden autumn comes will invade the waving woods and fields to enjoy the best sport that has been afforded since the war. Dead From Drug.
 B. F. Ozburn, an employe of J. M Balls loan office, died this morning as result of an overdose of morphine, taken. it is understood. to relieve violent headache with which he was suffering last night. He went home last afternoon and said he was sick. His wife helped him to undress and he had a drug in his hand which he took. She asked what it was and he said he had gotten them, the tablets, to re- lieve headache.
 After q while MT. Ozburn went to