The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-09
BESSEMER NEWS

BeSSenlef, NONembef S.--(SpecIal. )-The city of Bessemer is to receive a 10 per cent discount in all electric bills in this city from this time on, the lower rate having been secured through the efforts of Mayor I. A. Lewis who for the past week has been looking into the reatter with J. P. H. DeWindt of the Birming- ham Railway, Light and Power company An agreement was reached and the an- nouneement was made this morning by addition to the regular 10 per cent dis count when light bills are paid before the 10th of each month, and means 6 great saving for the citizens of Besse- mer, which now has the same rate as the people of Birmingham The new re- duction will take effect at once and the bills for November payable December will be less the discount. This means saving of between $500 and $700 for the city of Bessemer.
 After considering the plea in the man damps proceedings instituted by J. A. Estes, T. T. Huey, G. F. Goodwin, F. R. Mathews and w. & Welch, committee
 
 against the board of revenue of Jefferson county to force it to comply with the recent act passed by the legislature es- tablishing branch offices of all counvy offices in Bessemer, Judge J. c. B. Gwin this afternoon overruled the plea as to the jurisdiction of the Bessemer city court, which was filed Saturday after noon by w. K. Terry. attorney for the hn ard af murrers to the bill which were also over ruled by Judge Gwin. The plaintiffs in the case will prepare and file answers to the demurrers. ssS .
 The Bessemer committee is seeking to compel the board of revenue to establish the branch offices named in the above mentioned act of the legislature, that body having refused to do same when requested to furnish suitable offices and prepare and furnish stationery and SUD- plies, after consulting it's attorney stat ing that the law was unconstitutional Whichever way the matter is settled it will be appealed and the supreme court asked to decide whether the board of revenue has the right to refuse to follow out the law set forth in the act men, toned.
 Detectives are at work on what ap- pears to have been a case of incendiarism as a deliberate attempt was made to burn an unoccupied dwelling house on lIxter avenue and Sixteenth street some time last night. The officers received a call this morning from Mrs. Ada Gray who asked them to. come to her house for the purpose of Investigating where an attempt had been made to burn a dwelling, kerosene oil having been used by the incendiaries. Mrs. Gray stated that she had recently moved out of the house and it had just been repapered. The interior walls of the house were badly burned and a gallon oil can and also a lialf-gallon bucket, which was used to throw the oil on the walls, was found by the officers. After throwing the oil over the walls the house was then set fire and the culprit escaped The house was not badly damaged as the paste used by the paperhangers was not dry enough to burn quickly and the fire went out I There have been several fires of incen- diary origin in Bessemer in the past few weeks
 The Bessemer Business college, a new enterprise for Bessemer, was opened this morning with appropriate exercises, which were opened with prayer by the Rev w. K. Locker. pastor of the Packer Me- morial Baptist church of Birmingham, who also made a short talk. c. l. Griffin Jr president Of the college spoke along the lines of work to be done by the school and asked for the cooperation of every citizen of Bessemer. G. H. Stevenson next made talk while Thomas T. Huey, T. J. DeJarnette and C. l.. OdeL also made a few remarks and expressed them- selves as being highly pleased at the new school locating in Bessemer. The day class will be from 9 to 2 o'clock while the evening classes will be from 630 to s30 o'clock. Something over 20 pupils were enrolled, and it Is xpected that the attendance will grow daily. Mrs. Will son will have charge of the stenographc department while A. T. Collins will be in charge of the commercial department as will MT. Griffin and MT. s. K. Kerr. A wedding in which society has been interested for sometime was that of Miss Lallah Mae Hyde, the niece of Mir. and Mrs. James Sullivan, and MT. James C..