The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-08-12


especially when of a local nature,
and ON a subject that is now agd-
tating the publis mind-that of blind
tigers-I will give this one for their
perusal:
Before entering into the details of
this homicidal affair, lit lis necessary
to assign a reason why the blind
tiger was started. After diligent in
quiry, find it impossible to give
exact dates, but can come SO near
as not to make any material differ
ence.
Prior to 1855, or thereabouts, there
were no saloons-everybody having
the right to keep liquor in his home
i'm any quantity he saw fit, and sell
lit to whom he pleased, Except
slaves) i'm small or large quantities,
Pure unadulterated whiskey at that
time could be purchased for so to rs
cents a gallon-the same brand were
it now upon the market would cost
at least 8 or 10 dollars per gallon;
but l have a physicians word for
| it that most all whiskies imported
into our state, were more or. less
tinctured, and unless the stomach
was in a healthy state it was very
| dangerous to drink it.
Some time after 1855, our State
Legislature passed a law prohibiting
paid Mcanse so to do, and i'm the,
town of Lexington, Holmes county,
Miss, there were three or four IL
censed houses started.
A short while afterwards a very
prominent physician, and man of
some means, and good practice, open-
led tiger joint just a little right
| obHque from the north door of the
court house Unlike most tigers, who
keep in blind this was in am open
room, that is, where the drinking was
] going ON, the bar being concealed
| i'm a back room The doors of the
front were kept open day and might;
j i'm fact were never closed. Strange
las it may appear, the people patron
! lied this place a great deal more
than they did the licensed dram
shops, Notwithstanding the price of
drinks were just the same, and just
the same brands. 1t was nothing un-
lusual to see the room crowded with
patrons, waftingtheir opportunity to
drop their dime into the slot that
was labeled for the kind of drink he
WANTED
This state of affairs existed for
quite while, no one making any
petense whatever to put stop to
it, Finally, however, the licensed
linen, seeing the way the ''cat was
hopping laid I'M their complaint to
the Board of Police, and demanded
that the tiger be broken UP. The said
attorney, president of the Board of
took the matter in hand. He was a
Police and the Board S attorney,
fine lawyer, courageous as a lion
and went about it in the right spir
it He ordered the officers to bat
ter down the door of the back room
and arrest the person or persons on
| the inside. This was done and lit was
ascertained to be the property of
the said physician. Suit them being
instituted against the physician, he
concluded to fight lit. He was also a
brave and desperate man, and iIt was
as the old Saying is, when Greek
meets Greek then comes the tug of
war;" They both certainly had the
nerve and grit of Greeks. The case
fingered in courts until the physician
began to get somewhat financially
embarrassed and concluded to cease
the litigation, paying the fine and
costs.
! 1t was not very long after that
when the doctor moved with his
family to Texas, I believe, and Moth
ing public was heard of him for sew
eral years.
In 1858, or somewhere about that
time, he resolved to go to Lexing-
Son, and as was afterwards proven,
for the purpose OF taking ine life of
the attorney who had so relentlessly
prosecuted him. 1t was Thought that
the doctor, broOding over his loss i'm
HOMES, the giving up of mis- large
and lucrative practice, was the cause
of his contemplating this rash act.
There being no railroad transpor
tation at that time, he came by
the river route to Yazoo City, where
he continued ais journey by stage !
route, there being a line from Yazoo l
City to Lexington at that time. When
he arrived in Yazoo City, he visited