The weekly soliphone., 1915-03-26
JAIL SQUATTERS;
DESTROY HOUSES
Deputy Marshal Ad Grayson Re-
turns from Dangerous Raid in
Bottoms Near Lepanto.

| Those who think the life of fed
eral officer charged with enforce
ment of the laws and orders of I'm
| Gle Sam is snap have another
guess coming, according to AID
Grayson, deputy United States mar
shall, who Saturday night returned
from perilous trip to Little river
bottoms near Lepanto where he and
| two other deputies went to take
! bodily possession of five negroes
and to execute the orders of the fed
eral court to burn the buildings oc-
cupied by the negroes. The de-
PENDANTS were charged with apprO-
priating to their own use certain
lands belonging to the Chicago Mill
& Lumber Company. A negro law
yer named A. w. Cheatum who
came into the Little River bottoms
several years ago from Mississippi,
pretending to know all about gov
eminent land, had fleeced a number
of ignorant negroes out of their saw
ings for locating them on fine
homesteads. He had organized a
club and regular contributions were
made into the Jack pot" to pay
Cheatum for his legal services and
advice in locating them and pro-
tecting them from the officers of
the law. So certain were they that
Cheatum knew what he was doing
that the negroes became insolent
toward the deputy marshals and the
courts and refused to obey any sum-
mons or to attend court when cited
to show cause why they should not
be elected from the land.
Several weeks ago Mr.. Grayson
went to the bottoms and served no.
tices on the negroes to appear be-
fore the United States commission
er and defend themselves in pro-
ceedings instituted by the Chicago
Mill e Lumber Company. They re-
fused to obey the summons. Mr..
Grayson was then sent to the bot
toms with ejectment orders giving
them five days to get off the lands.
On this occasion Mr.. Grayson says
for the first time in his life he
took some Clip" from negro.
Cheatum manifested an ugly dispo-
sition, defied the law and said he
would not get off nor would any of
the negroes whom he had located
obey the orders of the court. He
took final shot at the officer by
saying they would fight to death.
Wednesday Mr.. Grayson went to
Little Rock and got two experienced
deputies, one of whom was C. o.
Payne, and Thursday afternoon they
went to the bottoms. AS they ap-
preached Cheatum's house the ne
gro came to the porch and before
he realized what was up the Off
GERS covered him with their guns,
took him in tow and placed the
handouts on him, Cheatum's son
prOtruded his head out of the room
to see what the trouble was and
he too was suddenly confronted with
the Presentation of firearms. His
hands went up on orders from the
officers. Three other arrests were
made, the prsonal effects of the ne
groes were taken out of the shacks
| anu Tic DulluluSS DuTueu. Inc ne
/ groes were taken to Jonesboro
where they were given a prelimi-
nary trial before Commissioner
| Mathes and bound over to the grand
| jury.
Mr.. Grayson says ninety per cent
of the ''squatting'' on privately
owned land is done by ignorant par
| ties who follow the advice of de-
signing scamps who pose as lawyers.
They bleed their victims of every
penny they can get out of them,
assuring them all the time they are
safe in the possession of the lands
and that they will not be molested.
When court processes are served up
no them they look to the shyster
lawyer for protection and he ad-
vises them to ignore the courts and
stand pat. Usually when the show
down comes the lawyer manages to
skip out, leaving his deluded clients
to extricate themselves as best they
| can.