Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1908-09-12

hitNA ithaihiuk silent TOT more
than three weeks after our first ar.
ticle in regard to the conditions In
Mcdowell county. the Mcdowell
Recorder. a weekly newspaper pub
lished at Welch, the county seat,
| comes out In an article and admits
that our charges are true. In an
article under the caption of me
Dowell county Slandered by Dail;
Leader" the Recorder in the sec
ond paragraph of its article says:
WE DO NOT DENY THAT
CLUBS AND OTHER PLACES
HAVE BEEN RUN IN THE CoUN-
TY IN VIOLATION OF THE LAW,
but we do deny that they were up
he'd by the county officers. and the
reason they are RUNNING is that
su fficiant evidence could not be Sc
cured to convict them"
Let us see how true the state
ment of the Recorder is on that
point. Was not Dan Cole. ne
gro justice or the peace, caught red
handed in the Keystone den when
1t was raided by Deputy Sheriff
: tFelts and the officers of Northfork?
Were not two negro policemen from
Keystone in the same den? Was
not ID. G. Payne. who is now a can
dldate for justice OF the peace in
Big Greek district also caught I'm
this place OF iniquity and did not
Calhoun and w. w. Whyte endeav-
or to have the commission OF l.. c.
F'clts taken away from him because
h had raided the den? Does w.
ator, uphold Calhoun, your member
OF the board OF education. in his
gambling dives and liquor JONES?
In referring TO our articles the
Recorder says, The trend of these
articles is that there are but few
respectable people In the county
and those few are democrats. and
that with few exceptions all else are
either negroes or are in favor OF
negro equality and submit to negro
domination"
The above statement by the Rec
order was made either in ignorance
of the facts or with a wilful in
tention to misinform the people.
In the first paragraph Of our first
article on conditions in Mcdowell
we say.
1t would be unfortunate. indee J.,
If Mcdowell county should be judg-
ed by what we have to relate, and
we wish to say in the outset there
are THOUSANDS of good people in
Mcdowell county who are anxious
to be rid OF the incubus Of negro
domination and social equality.
mixed juries, negro officials, de-
bauched ballots and other ills tina
now innict the court" Read the
Leader Of August 18th and rcqd
this weeks Recorder and judge for
yourself who has told the truth in
this matter.
The Recorder claims that the roa-
son the clubs were RUM ng is that
sufficient evidence could not be Sc
cured TO convict tham This was
not the case. The facts are that
indictments were returned by a
grand jury against social clubs and
houses OF prostitution in Keyston,
| but were not tired because a mIvc1
jury meant hung jury and a vase
| Of time and money
The juries were selected at ran
dom without regard TO color or
character, until Judgs Strother ap-
| pointed new commissioners at the
last term OF court Since the ap-
pointment Of w w Henritze and
J. Frank Johnston as commission
ers we shall doubtless see an i'm
provement in the selection Of jur.es
The Recorder says that the raid
was planned by an officer from
Welch. We know that Sheriff Bral-
ley and Captain r. r. Smith are
doing all they can to break up
these dens in Mcdowell. but when
we mentioned these names as being
lined up for law and decency they
We're referred to as political dis
7 gruntles" n men latc Bradley an1
Smith are the political disgruntles
in Mcdowell county, for sake of
decency, give us more "d.sgrun-
/ ties"
The Recorder is not satisfied by
sticking to facts II does not quote
us correctly. Tt attempts to distort
in every way possible
In one paragraph it says: