The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1913-06-27
Are to Face Charge of Alb
Quoting 14-Year-Old Girl
Negro Bell Boy is Call
ed III o-Magistrate
Can't Says 1t Is Courts
Duty to Protect Innocent
Girls.
saturdays Spartanburg JournaD


son, Ia, from having their lives
blighted, Magistrate CAN'T late yes
terday bound Carlisle Wilkins and
Moody Henry, youths, sons of prom
inent families of Cowpens, over to
the grand jury charging them with
abduction.
Wilkins and Henry, according to
the evidence given at the preliminary
trial, registered under assumed
names at local hotel Thursday
about midnight. They were accom-
panied by Miss Eva Johnson, who
was persuaded to register under the
name of Mary Scruggs.
The young men, says the hotel
clerk, were assigned to a room on the
third floor and the young woman to
one on the first floor. Miss Johnson
was recognized by a negro bell boy
as the daughter of a former employ
er of his. During the night, accord
ing to Miss Johnson's testimony, one
of the young men came to her room
but was Immediately asked to leave
by the bell boy, who in the meantime
had notified the girls father, who is
a merchant at Chesnee.
Later the young men, according to
the testimony, complained to the ho-
tel clerk that they would like to have
access to the room occupied by the
girl. This was denied them and at
about 5 o'clock Friday morning the
Soung men are said to have left the
hotel.
Nichols is Eloquent.
Attorney Sam Nichols, for the
girls father, declared the action of
the young men to be "high-handed."
His plea that the defendants be held
subject to the action of the grand
jury was able and eloquent Attor-
ney Chas. P. Sims, for the defense,
insisted that the action of his clients
showed no intention of abduction and
pleaded that they be set free.
Miss johnson, who is beautiful
and upassuming girl, told the court
that there were no improper relations
between her and the defendants.
That she met them in picture show
here while she was sojourning in the
city enroute to her home at Chesnee
from Cowpens where she had been
on a visit for week. She accom-
panied the young men, she said, to
Mayo, small town near here, with
the intention of visiting a cousin and
later going home. She found her
cousin away from home and one of
the young men, she alleges, telephon-
ed for a conveyance to take her to
her final destination but when the
carriage arrived it was sent back
empty because she had been persuad-
ed In the meantime to return to Spar
tanburg where, the young men told
her she said, they could stay all night
at hotel and that she would be
we'll taken care of and on Friday
morning she could return home.
"The fact that the young men
found the young woman in Spartan
burg and left her where they found
her." according to Attorney Sims, "is
conclusive evidence that abduction
was not their intention" The court
ruled that the young woman. under
the age of consent, was still under
the control of her parents and that
the evidence showed that the young
men attempted to divert, or did di-
vert, her from her fathers legal con-
troll while in the city.
Mother in Court.
Miss Johnson's mother, with a
small child, was seen in the court
under heavy mental strain and was
sobbing part of the time.
The defendants seemed not to re-
alize the gravity of the charge hang
ing over them. Their youthful faces
seemed to be eagerly scanning the
crowd and only at intervals were
they turned in the direction oc the
combat to save them from going be-
fore jury.
Attorney Nichols was high in his
praise of the negro bell boy who he
declared, "saved the young woman
from ruin"
Miss Johnson made the following
statement:
Family Separation.
Desiring to make known once for
all my share in the case of yester-
day, l want to make a full and com |
plete statement of how the whole at
fair started and how I found myself |
in the predicament which I had aot.