The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-18
ARTHUR COOK IS
 KILLED AT HOLT
Drops Spark From Pipe in keg
 of Powder
BOB CLIFTON INJURED
Mystery Surrounds Killing of Dave Yates at New Lexington-Negro Has Been Arrested-Dr. Searcy
 Will Take First Vacation.

Tuscaloosa. July Especial )-Arthur
 Cook, a young man about 19 years of age, died last night as the result of a powder explosion at Holt yesterday. Young Cook was a crane engineer in the employ of the Central Iron and Coal company at that place, and went into small tool house for few minutes about Il o'clock. While there he lit his pipe and in some way a spark from that fell into half full powder keg in the house. A terrific explosion followed and Cook was fatally burned. He was carried at once to the hospital of Dr. A. D. Killian and relieved as much as possible of his terrible pain.
 He was @ son of MT. and Mrs. H. F. Cook and formerly lived here before &C., cepting a position at Holt. He was also a brother of Mrs George Morgan, Jr., of this place. His untimely end is great ly deplored by the company which em- ployed him.
 Bob Clifton was also injured Thursday at Blair mines, seven miles above here on the river. Clifton was engaged in the work of making a new opening in the mines when the rock and earth caved in and completely buried him for short while. He was extracted from his peril ous position in short order however, and his life saved. It was discovered, upon his being carried to the hospital of Dr. A. D. Killian at Holt that he had sus- tained internal injuries and his back was broken. It is thought, though, that his injuries are not necessarily fatal. An operation relieved his condition consider ably and left him resting easily.
 A fuller report of the mysterious mur- der which occurred few days ago at Lexington, about 20 miles north of here in this county. was brought down by the coroner and witnesses attending the ; inquest. It will be remembered that on last Saturday Dave Yates was discovered dead in his bed by his wife on being aroused in the morning. His wife stated that she didn't know what had happened to him and had been in no way disturbed during the night and the matter remained quite a mystery. At the investigation, 1 however, it developed that a negro, Bud Wells, had made threats against Yates i and that his statements as to his where abouts on Friday night were contradic- 1 tory and evasive. He was committed by 1 Justice J. D. Thomas and has been lodged 1 in jail here. Mrs. Yates was held be- 1 fore the preliminary, but has been re- leased, as there was no evidence to con | meet her with the crime. The simple | facts, as nearly as can be ascertained,
 are: Mrs Yates was awakened early
 Saturday morning by some one calling her
 husband. She went to wake him and
 found that he was dead with a gun
 shot wound under his jaw, on the side of
 his face upon which he was lying at the time. She called in the visitor and made the statement then, which she later made on the stand. that she had heard no shot 1 during the night nor other sound and | could give no sort of explanation of the murder. The examination showed that ] there was a large enough crack under the door to admit of the insertion of gun 1 barrel, and a shot fired from that place l would have penetreated Yates jaw just l in the manner that it did There are 1 still many puzzling circumstances about ] the case. and more evidence may be se- ] cured later. The nature of the crime ! has attracted considerable attention and interest all over the county.
 The board of trustees of the Alabama Insane hospitals met at the hospital | building yesterday, the following mem- i bers being present: Dr. E. D. Bondurant of Mobile, Dr. w. w. Wilkerson of Mont gomery. Col. S.. W. John of Birming ham, Dr. J. L. Williamson of Tuscaloosa : and c. B. Werner of Tuscaloosa. In the absence of Dr. W. G. Somerville, who is now in Europe, c. B. Werner was made secretary, pro tempore. In addition to routine matters Judge J. c. Rich of Mo- bile was elected a member of the board to fill the vacancy made by the death of E. M. Robinson. The board also voted 8 months leave of absence to the superin-
 tendent, Dr. James T. Searcy. This Is the first vacation that pr. Searcy has
 had since he accepted the superintend- ency in 1892.
 | A N Walker of Scranton, Pa, and
 J. H. Hagerty of Anericus, Ga., who
 have been in the city day or so, left
 yesterday after looking over matters in
 which they were interested here. They
 made the statement that they intended
 organizing a company at once for the 1 purpose of erecting a combined gas, elec-
 trio and light and power plant. It de-
 veloped also that they were particularly
 interested in an electric car line for this
 place and the plant will probably contem- l Iafn faaf