The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-12
STATE ASSESSMENT
 BOARD IS BUSY Taxes of Railroads May Not Be
 Increased ROUTE OF LOCATING BOARD Judge Kumpe of Lawrence County Pre- sents the State With an Old
 Time Flint Lock
 Horse Pistol.
ROUTE OF LOCATING BOARD

Montgomery, February 11-(Special J. Most of Tuesday was taken up by the state board of assessment in hearing from the Louisville and Nashville and the Gen. tral of Georgia railways. No action has yet been taken. It IS not expected that the taxes will be raised over last year. Governor B. B. Conner came from Bir- mingham in time to sit with the board.
 J. s. Hudson of Gaylesville has been appointed tax commissioner of Cherokee county.
 High School Trip.
 The high school locating board will be in Autauga and Russell counties next week. The members will be taken over in buggies Monday, and the speech-mak- ing will be at night. On Wednesday they will be at Pittsview in the morning and Scale at night. Friday night will be spent at verbena and Saturday at Jemi- son and C1anton.
 The following week the board will take trip to West Alabama, going Tuesday. February 25, to Berry and Oakman. Jas- per will be visited Wednesday morning and Carbon Hill in the evening Thursday will find the party at Sulligent whence they will drive to Vernon for the night From there they go to Kennedy. driving to reach there for a meeting between s and 10 o'clock Saturday. From Kennedy they go to Millport for an afternoon meet ing, and from there back to Fayette for night session, getting away later for Birmingham.
 Superintendents' Meetinq.
 Much interest centers in the meeting Of the department of superintendence of the National Educational association at Washington February 26-2s. Many of the leading educational workers of the state will go, among them being State Super- fntendent of Education H. c. Gunnels and his chief clerk, W. F. Feagin; Superin- tendents c. l.. Floyd, Montgomery: J. H. Phillips, Birmingham; s. S. Murphy. Mo- bile, and many others. It is regarded as one of the most useful meetings of the educational work.
 OId-Time Pistol.
 Hon. J. c, Kumpe, Probate Judge of Lawrence county, has presented to Dr. Ihomas M. Owen, director of the depart -ASAAe VI oiChAfcS history, a Hlnt-lOCk horse pistol
 After examining the pistol. Hon. John Ii. Wallace, state game and fish commits sloner, has prepared the following inter- esting memorandum:
 This primitive firearm is 15 inches in length, while the barrel is nine inches long. The pistol is in perfect condition and the flint flashes in the flash pan as true as it did the day it was made. The bore is smooth, and Is the size of 12- guage gun.
 sThe mountings are of brass. and if ia very handsome weapon The stock ex- tends along the entire length of the bar rel. When the pistol was loaded it was primed' by placing powder in the flash pan, then when the trigger was pulled and the hammer fell, the flint struck the steel covering of the flash pan and ad- mitted the sparks to the powder. which acted as fuse, and imparted ignition to the powder in the pistol barrel which caused the explosion and therefore the discharge of the load.
 'Flint-lock firearms were generally used by the pioneers of Alabama in fighting indians and In killing beasts. They now are relegated to the collection of curlos of the country, and owners of automatic repeating guns wonder at the difficulties that beset the warriors and sportsmen among the early settlers"