The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-07
.SORSBY'S FRIENDS ARE IN TROUBLE.
Aiding In Escape of Fugitive
 Will Be Punished
PRISONER KEEPS SILENT
Newspaper Men Can Learn Nothing of Sorsby's Movements, as His Attor- neys Have Told Him To
 Say Nothing.

Sdy Notnln9s
 i Jackson, Miss. January 6-(Special. l Governor Noel has paid the $500 reward
 offered by the state for the capture oi l Will Sorsby. and the slayer of Charles
 Fitzgerald, postoffice inspector. has been 1 transferred from the city to the county i jail, and is now in the hands of the sher- l iff, where he will remain till the March term of court.
 Sorsby is safely locked in a steel cage ] his companions being Erwin King, under l sentence to three years in the pententiary
 for shooting young man named Ware l some six months ago, and Kid" Prewitt 1 a young sport from Yazoo City, who is
 being held on the charge of robhing a visitor from lndiaEa of $50 in cash and
 couple of watches a few weeks since his assistants in the hold-up being a
 couple of negro hacknen
 Sorsby has persistently refused to see or
 talk to the reporters. his attorneys hay ing advised him to that course where fore no statement as to his movements after the killing of Fitzgerald, what his line of defense will be, nor any other
 particulars can be had from that source. It is understood here that Sorsby's fam
 fly is negotiating with J. w. Cutrer of Clarksdale, one of the foremost criminal lawyers in the state, to conduct his de- fense. but what the defense will be is
 not known.
 Since Sorsby's arrival here Sunday noon his mother, wife and several other relatives and friends from Clinton have been to seeh i'm. That he has a great many | friends at Clinton and elsewhere over the county who are going to stand by him to the bitter end. there is no doubt and it may be that some of them will land in the middle of serious trouble before the trial of Sorsby is ended Those who have aided and abetted him are accessories before and after the fact and that is a felony in this state. Robert Johnson the merchant at whose house Sorsby was captured. declares he did not know he was there that night any other night, but Mrs. Johnson states she did know it. that she had done all she could for Sors- by and his broken-hearted young wife, and that she would do the same thing again, having been a lifelong friend and chum of Mrs. Sorsby
 Twenty thousand dollars of city prop- erty went up in smoke yesterday when Jackson's colored school house was burned to the ground There does not seem to be the least doubt that the fire was of incendiary origin, as the big brick building was burning in three or four diff ferent places when the fire department arrived on the scene, and there had not been a fire in the building for nearly two weeks, the school having been given that time as Christmas holiday. The city carried S7000 insurance on the building and furniture, which was not | half the cost, but it Is stated that the walls are in fairly good condition and will not have to be knocked down This leaves Jackson without any negro school house whatever, but Superintendent Bailey states that he will try to lease a building or two so as to keep the higher classes going till the end of the session Insurance Commissioner T. M. Henry who is secretary of the Soldiers Home at Beauvoir, and Hon. Clay Sharkey mem Der of the board of trustees, have re- turned from Beauvoir and report that ev- everything is running smoothly, though the accommodations are insufficient for all the applicants on file. There are now in the home, counting a few whose applica- tions have recently been accepted, 14O old soldiers a few being accompanied by their wives.
 All of the buildings authorized by the last legislature have been completed, and all available space is being used for the benefit of the veterans. There are several applications on file, but the board of trus- tees found 1t necessary to adopt a reso- lution to the effect that no more could be admitted at present, or until more ac- commodatious are provided.
 It Is very evident that the legislature will have to make arrangements to care | for a larger number. The veterans are growing older and more feeble year by year. and more of them need assistance | now than did a year or two ago. Even now there are a few in the county poor houses and it has always been the policy of the board to take them out as soon | as possible.
 c. H Neyland, superintendent of the state convict farms, is in the city to at | tend the meeting of the board of trustees l of the penitentiary tomorrow. He reports the convicts in good health and as having
 enough work to do to keep them in prac-
 tice. He has finished picking cotton on all 1 the farms except Belmont, and VIII wind J that up in a efw more days
 I The convicts, or the majority of them, are now engaged in cleaning up clearing ] land cutting ditches, building fences, | houses, etc., and getting everything In shape for another crop year. He has about $50 or 400 acres of land to clear, but will ask the board of trustees for
 permission to sell the timber off same before he begins the clearing process, con
 sidering the timber worth as much as the | land.
 | S,perintendent of Education Powers re- | ports that all the Normals for next sum- mer have been located. there being six ir all. They are at the State university, the Agficultural and Mechanical college, Hat | tiesburg, Newton, Brookhaven and Sher man. Pontotoc county. Hefe the teach CTS of the state will have opportunity ant
 abundant facilities for study and work during the long, dull summer months, and the board of education is in hopes thai the attendance will be even better thar
 ever before