The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-12

-.al.ts,E oconfinuad.n aM as4.ss

air as he started down the road jest far fun, and mebby he is running yet.
 The feller had been talking like he was a lawyer, so asts him what crime we was charged with. But he didn't answer me And jest then we gets in sight of that schoolhouse
 1sset on top Of a little hill, partially in the moonlight. with a few sad looking pine trees scaEeRred around it, and the fence in front broke down Even after night you could see it was a shabby looking little place
 Old Daddy Vithers tied his mule to the broken down fence Somebody busted the front door down. Some body else lighted matches The first thing I knowed we was all inside, and four or five dirty little coal oil lamps with tin refectors to 'ena, which s.pose was used ordinary fur school exhibittonss was being lighted
 We was waItzed up on to the teach CTS platform, Dr. Kirby and me. and set down in chairs there, with two men to each of us. and then a tall. rawboned feller stalks up to the teach eris desk and faps on it with the butt end sof a pistol and says:
 -Hentiemen. this meeting will come to erder''
 They Set down in the school kids seats or on top of the desks. and their legs stuck out into the aisles, and they looked uncemfortable and awk- ward These here men wasn't toughs by any manner of means, but the most part of 'em respectable farmers, They had a look of meaning business.
 Gentlemen. says the feller who had rapped, +who will yoh have for your chairman ?D
 -'I reckon you'li do, Will,'' says an other felIer to the rawboned man. which seemed to satisfy him. But he made 'em vote on It before he took. office
 tsNow. then says VIII. .'the accpsed must have counsel.''
 -sWfn,' says smother teller very nasty, whats the use of all this fuss an feathers7 Ton know as well as do there's nothing legal about this. It's only necessary- For my part
 Buck Hightower," says VIII, pound Ing on the 0esk, you will please come so order" which Buck done.
 'Now,v says the chairman. turning toward Dr. Kirby, who had been set fling there looking thoughtful from one man to another. Ike he was sizing each one up, now I must explain to the chief defendant that we don't i'm send to lynch him 7
 He stopped a second on that word lynch as if to let 1t soak fn- The doc tor, be bowed toward him very cool and ceremonious and says, mocking of him
 You reassure me, Mfr. ATr.- What is your nameg He said 1t ina way that would-of made a saint mad
 ..AIy name aia't any dfference,' says VIII, trying not to show. he was net lied
 s.You are quite right,'' says the doc tor. looking VilI up and down from head to foot very slow and insulting e.Its of no consequence in the world
 vin. he flushed up, but he makes himself steady and cool, and he goes on with his little speech There is to be no irnching here tonight There is to be trial and if necessary an exc cutfon 1"
 Would 1t be asking too much, says the doctor very polite. If were to inquire who is to be tried and before what court and upon what charger
 Then an undersized little felIer who wasn't a farmer by his clothes got up and moved toward the platform. He -l44 4 Uul&lll& .OLLl lOIE4GGQt ana E41n lips and a quick, nervous way about him
 You are to be tried, g he says to the Hoct0r. speaking Tn a kind of shrill sing song that cut your nerves in that room full of bottled up. excitement like q locust on a hot day. You are to. Se tried before this seif constituted court of Caueasian eitizens-AngIo- Faxons. sir. every man Of them, whose Forbears were at Runnyrnedel The sharge against you is stirring up the negroes of this community to the point of revolt You are aceused, sir, of representing yourself to them as some kind of a Moses. You are arraigned bere for endangerfng the peace of the county and the supremacy of the Cau- Rasian race by inspiring In the ne groes the hope of equality"
 Old Daddy WIthers had been setting pack by the door seen him get up and slip out It didn't look to me to be any place fur a gentle old poet. While that little felIer was making that charge you could feel the air get ting tingly, like it does before a rain storm
 Some feIIers started to clap their hands like at a political rally and to say, ~Go it, Billy That's right, Har- denF Which I found out later Billy Harden was in the state legislature and quite a speaker and knowed it EEiIlz the chairman, he pounded down the applause. and then he says to the <@ctor. pointing to 5sSsiy Harden:
 -So man shall say of us that we did not give you fair trial and square deal I'm goin' to appoint this gentle man as your counsel. and I'm goin' to give you a reasonable time to talk with him in private and prepare your case. He is the abIest lawyer in southwest Georgia and the brightest son of Wat son eeunty-''
 The doctor looks kind of lazy at Billy Harden and back agin at VIII, Ahs chairman. and smiles out of the