Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-12-15

Ethridge and Ragland. Senator Tol : ,, ey finally carried his point and th hearing of Ethridge's case proceeded.
 Five witnesses were heard during the day and a number last might court being held until nearly 10 o'clock. It is understood that nearly 1 fifty witnesses will testify and the hearing will probably not be conclud- ed before Saturday afternoon. Laura Ragland, 13 years old, daugh- ter of Doe Ragland, the negro whd declares he was with Ethridge when he fired the fatal shot that sent Me- Way to his grave, was the first wit ness put on for the state. She was recently brought here from Fall Back, Miss, and although the attor- neys for Ethridge have been trying to locate her since her arrival, they did not learn until she was cross exam ined yesterday that District Attorney Nixon had her at his home, living with his cook.
 The girl declared that when she and her parents lived on the Walker place near this city Ethridge spent a week there at their home, but nev- CT permitted others to see him. She told of conferences which Ethridge, Ragland and Mary Rutherford, ne ,La aif yesterday from South Carolina, to~tes- tify for the state, had, although she said she was never permitted to hear what was said. She said they Cher family) lived within 75 yards of Eth ridges home at Fall Back; that Mary Rutherford lived with Ethridge, oc- cup'ed the same bed with him and ate at the same table. After being brought to Pine Bluff she was per- mitted to see her mother in the coun- ty jail and then was taken to the Nixon home.
 Meyer Solmson, editor of the Graphic, was called as the second wit ness and testified as to an interview which he had with Ethridge in, the county jail, which was published in the Graphic at the time with one or two exceptions as to statements.
 Deputy Sheriff L. N Vaught, os Greenville, Miss, who arrested Eth ridge, testified that he did not see OF hear any undue influence used to get statements from witnesses by either Sheriff Brewser or Prosecutor N Xon while they were at Greenville or Fall Back. He said he introduced them. to Ethridge, after his arrest, as i sheriff and district attorney. The state brought out evidence 10 the ef- feet that barrel containing whiskey had been found in Ethridge's room at Fall Back, after Senator Toney in the cross examination had asked Vaught if he was ever in the wh'skey busi- ness.
 Doc" Ragland, the most important of the state witnesses, reviewed the story of the crime and the incidents that led up to the killing of McVay. During the cross examination, Sena- tor Toney produced an alleged confes- sion of Ragland, in which the negro while in the county jaile here, made statements conflicting with those al- legged to have been made in written confession at Edna, Texas, before and after his arrest there. This statement, Senator Toney declared, was sworn to in the presence of Circuit Clerk G. D. Lytle and Hardy Kilgore, and all though Ragland cannot write he is, alleged to have stated that every state ment in the written confession was true, fixing mark under it as his signature. He said on the witness stand that he thought he was making a cattle mark when he signed it. He that District Attorney Nixon, Sheriff Brewster and Deputy Clint Green had advised him repeatedly to tell the truth and he declared en- phatically on the witness stand that he was doing so. The negro made the statement, however, that he had been asked to sign so many state ments that he "jes didn't know what 1t was all about One charge was made during the hearing that F. H. Walker and Sheriff Brewster had in ,imidated him while he was i'm jail, md Senator Toney says he has an af- ridavit to this. effect. Ragland, when questioned, said that