The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1910-02-02

charge bis official duties. 70 my
surprise the stranger in whose room
/ found him objected to my carry
ing him out, but said that might
see with him if / wished in pri-
vate conference. in one Of two
small rooms opening into the larger
one. AS my friend seemed too
drunk to appreciate the situation
and was unwilling then to leave, ]
accepted this expedient, carried
him into one Of the small rooms
and did my best to make him real
ize his condition and the danger he
was in, and to persuade him to 90,
to his own private boarding house
or some other safer place for man
with an uncomfortable appetite for
lliquor. When I had finished talk
| ing to him, he said he could not
leave the room with me on account
of the others who were there, but
would excuse himself and follow
me down to the lobby in a few
minutes. As passed back through
the main room, the drunken legis-
lator from the Delta who called out
that didn't have the right knock
at the door, had returned and in
dignantly volunteered the informa-
tion that a Vardaman PhilistineI
had beguiled and debauched the
friend for whom / had been seek
ing, and that he and other good
Samaritans of the Percy camp had
rescued HIM, procured for him
medical attention, brought him to
his present quarters and environ
ment and were determined that no
Vardamanite should take him out
of their possession, etc.
Just at this juncture, and before
this good Samaritan from the Delta
with excited imagination, blood
shot eyes and odoriferous breath,
had finished explaining, the closed
door opened again and in came a
young legislator from another
South Mississippi county who had
been beguiled into voting against
the wishes of his constituents and
who didn't seem to see anything
when he first got in except the bot
ties and the glasses on the table,
but not his entrance or anything
else had ever aroused from his
drunken stupor the man who sat at
the table on my entrance into the
/ waited two hours in the lobby
of the Edwards for my inebriate
Legislative friend who had promised
to come down and join me in a few
minutes. and when he at last ap-
peared he was leaning unsteadily
on the arm of the man who had
claimed proprietorship of the room
in which | had left him and was
drunken, if possible, than when /
had last seen him. I approached
him and requested him to take sup
per with me, still intending to get
him away from the Edwards House
to a place Of greater safety; but his
lnew-found friend said that he had
promised to go to supper with him,
insisted on his going. and again he
yielded to this sinister influence,
promising to join me and 20 to the
Capitol with me after supper,
where the caucus was to be held.
However. when he finally came out
from the dining room. this same
man asserted when | asked him a
third time to go with me, that he
had agreed to go with him to the
| lCanitol. Dlaced him in q closed cab.
in semi-dozed condition and
disappeared.
Upon my turning about and
making inquiry as to this mans
business at jackson, I was told that
his name was Frank Cannon of
Greenville, Miss. and that he was
the keeper Of what was known as
Mr.. Percy's liquor headquarters
and had charge of the drinkables
for the Percy contingent. Suspect-
ling that this report might be due
to partisanship and not wishing or
intending to say or do anything
that would do Mr.. Percy the least
injustice, | resolved to 60 to that
lgentleman personally, tell him
what | had seen and knew, and ask
lhim whether or not this were true
and he ii any manner directly re-
sponsible for what / bad witnessed.
This / did at the first opportunity
4 few hours later, when this gem
tIeman emphatically disavowed all
responsibility in the matter but
frankly stated that q number Of his
lFrianda kent 1inlsaf IN their rooms