The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-31
ONE LITTLE CLUE
 ID MISSING MAN Straw Hat That Belonged to
 Lex Brame Is Found DEATH IS STILL A MYSTERY Western Union Telegraph Go. Files List of Offices Which They Wish
 To Close With Mississippi
 Railroad Commission.
DEATH IS STILL A MYSTERY

Jackson. Miss, July 3o.-(Special.)- Judge L. Brame and John P. Stevens, uncle and brother-in-law of Lex Brame Jr.. returned yesterday noon from Vicks- burg, where they had been in response to telegrams announcing the finding Of evidences of the death of their knsman. who disappeared in that city nearly one year ago, and for the recovery of whose body dead or alive liberal rewards have been offered.
 The report that became current on the streets yesterday morning was to the effect that a shallow grave containing what were probably the remains of the missing man, had been found on the bank of the canal, and that a straw hat be- longing to the young lawyer had been found in the possession of negro near where the grave was discovered.
 Judge Brame informs the Clarion-Led- ger that there is no doubt about the hat being the one worn by Lex Brame when he left home last August for vicksburg and that it bears his name on the inside. However, the bones found were not of human being The straw hat was crushed in behind as if from blow on the back of the head and there were spots of what appeared to be blood over the sur face, but that might not be.
 The local attorneys of the Western Union Telegraph company, Messrs liar ris & Willing, have filed a list of tele- graph offices with the railroad commits sion which their company desires to close and discontinue for the reason that the receipts are a great deal less than the cost of maintenance. There are 96 of these offices, and it is affirmed that they do not average s5 worth of business per month The telegraph office and the depot agency have been maintained Joint ly by the railroads and the telegraph company, and in the event the telegraph company is granted permission to close, the railroads will doubtless demand the same privilege in a very short while. There is no intimation as to what the railroad commission will do with this petition, but it Is hardly probable any such wholesale curtailment of telegraph company expenses will be thought of A day will probably be set for hearing, and when II rOllS around representatives, from a great many of the towns named will be on hand to fight the proposition. By the accidental discharge of a shot gun a white convict on the Rankin coun- ty farm was almost instantly killed this morning. The convicts had been let out of their cells or stoclxade at an early hour and started to their work in the fields. J. B. Lewis. a young white man 1 sent up last June to serve a five-year l sentence for manslaughter in Simpson county, was in a squad of eight in charge of Guard John McBryde who was armed with a shotgun. In some unaccountable manner the gun was discharged and the load of buckshot passed through Lewis ] stomach, except two or three which i struck his companions, infiicting slight ] wounds. The killing was purely by acci- ] dent, the gun having been left cooked 1 over night and when McBryde realized
 what he had done he sat down and cried 1 as if his heart would break. He sur
 rendered to a justice of the peace and
 was placed under nominal bond.