The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-12-19

oAAN - s@--e =" NSh VI OoAiy hOAs W CChs
The Bilbo case, set for Wednesday !
morning, was passed, the court being !
busy drawing the venire and no fur
Their ruling has yet been made in re-
gard to it.
When court was opened Thursday
morning it was discovered that twen- !
ty-six defense witnesses, living in
Washington county, had not yet arriv-
ed.
Negroes Kept OF Jury.
Vigorous efforts were made by the
state to proceed with the trial, but the
absence Of these witnesses caused it
to be delayed until this morning.
District Attorney ]. D. Thames, in
opposing this delay, made vigorous
speech, insisting, that the defense
should be required to show to the court
the material character Of the testi-
mony Of these witnesses, and what was
expected to be proven by them.
He was replied to by Attorney ].
w. Cassidy, for the defense, who ex-
pressed the willingness of his side to
outline to the court what points the
License expected to prove by the alb
sent witnesses. This was not required
by the court, and the trial was sus-
pended accordingly. Several Of the
expected witnesses arrived from
Greenville on the II o'clock train.
Judge Mounger has only ten more
days, Sundays and Christmas excepted,
in which to preside. He has announc.
ed that If the trial is not finished he.
fore he retires from office he will dis
charge the trial jury and announce
mistrial.
In selecting the list Of prospective
jurors to try the case the names Of all
deceased persons, physicians and coun-
ty officers were excluded. Those VINO
were known positively to have re-
moved from the county were also not
included the list of three hundred.
When the selection of the list was
started the names of several negroes
were drawn, and these remain on the
list. Subsequently, however, attorneys
for both sides agreed to skip names of
negroes when they came up in order
for selection.
Chosen In Open Court.
There was some proposal that the
voters from the Palmyra District not
be summoned, inasmuch as there are
only three qualified voters there, but
the district attorney said that in the
selection he would insist that every
part Of the county be represented.
The defense is very we'll satisfied
with the method followed in selecting
the jury the placing of names in the
box and drawing therefrom in open
court being in accord with their
wishes and contentious.
| in the afternoon the venire of 100
men to try the Hobbs case was chosen.
The names were chosen in open court
| by Sheriff Hyland and were picked out
IRON the list Of 900 made out in the
morning. The drawing of the 100
names were done in the presence OF
attorneys for both state and defense.
Sheriff Hyland announced that he
would send out force of bailiffs and
expected every man summoned on the
venire to be on hand at the opening
Of court this morning at $50 o'clock,
until which time a recess was taken.
1t is not believed that trial jury
can be picked from the venire of 100
men chosen and that it will be neces-
sary to draw additional names from
the box later on after the 100 have
been exhausted.
Who's a "BIunderbuss."
The following statement by Lieuten-
ant Governor Bilbo, in answer to that
Of Detective Dan Lehon, was made
public Thursday:
"My attention has just been called
to a statement of Dan Lehon, who was
tried convicted and discharged, on a
charge of bribery, from the police serv-
ice of Chicago, that w. D. Robinson,
newspaper correspondent, had fur
nished me information concerning the
crooked record of this blunderbuss
sleuth. In justice to Mr.. Robinson /
wish to say that l did not get this in
formation from Mr.. Robinson, but, IN
stead, got it direct from Lehon's
home-Chicago, ILL.,"
When shown the statement of Mr..
Bilbo, Detective Lehon laughed. His
only comment was: 1.-THE trapped
mouse is still squeezing. Just wait,
please, Mr.. Reporter, and hear the
evidence, and we will all see who is