The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-16
SOCIAL CRIMINALS
 ARE ON INCREASE Mississippi People Wrought Up at Conditions in State DOCTORS ARE ACCUSED
Girls Alleged to Have Been Debauched and Then Killed by Medical Men Who Practice Unlawfully-Peo-
 pie to Pass on One-Quart Law


 people of Mississippi are at one and the same time sorely tempted o take the law in their own hands in order that Judge Lynch may mete out little in the way of even-handed justice 60 men charged with the murder of their women folks.
 Three Mississippi girls have been de- bauched-two of them are alleged to have been butchered and murdered by ply ysicians the other poisoned, it is sup posed, by the brute who was the author of her ruin, but who has not yet been apprehended.
 One of these cases developed at Vicks- burg, and is now on trial. A few months ago Miss Blanche Pace of Winona a pretty young stenographer, who had lived short while in Jackson, went to Vicks- burg to have a criminal operation per formed. She died and pr. E. R. Cook was charged with the crime. The girl was seen in his office-next day her body was in the parlors of the undertaken. The citizens of the town were indignant then and are now, though several months have elapsed, and are taking great in- terest in the trial of the physician.
 The next case to develop was at Aber- deen, where Miss Blanche Miller, hand scme and highly connected school teacher, was butchered by two physic- ians one white man and the other a negro. The girl had been attending the summer normal at the A. and M. college and was accompanied to Aberdeen by the young man who is supposed to have been responsible for her condition. He placed her in a negro house, in charge of a notorious woman of the town, and where she was seen and operated on by the doctors. Next day she died, and when the circumstances of her death became known the sheriff had to spirit his pris- tn afex roe ar1ip else, it is said they would have been lynched. The three men have had a pre- liminary hearing, and have been re- manded to jail without bail to await the October term of court.
 The latest case to develop was near Pelaha tchie, where Miss Annie Atkinson, aeed 19, daughter of a prosperous farmer died in convulsions last Friday week. Poisoning was suspected by the coroner's jury, and the physician who reached her but few moments before she breathed her last, and the stomach was sent to pr. C. R. Staingily, state bacteriologist, at Jackson. He reports finding a large quantity of strychnine, but the trouble is that it may never be known whether the girl swallowed the poison with suici- dal intent or whether she was ignorant of what she was taking. The package of medicine was sent to her by mail, and her heartbroken father is confident he knows who sent it, but does not know where he lives.
 E These three cases coming to light at almost one and the same time have set tongues wagging all over the state. In dignation runs high against the Lotharios as well as against the interruptions doc tors, and there is a demand for a quick return of those times when such affairs meant funeral or a wedding. The fath- CTS and the brothers of the present day and generation are not standing guard over their daughters and sisters with the same degree of persstency and de- termination they exercised quarter of century ago, but such incidents as those enumerated above are sufficient to make the blood boil in the hearts of real men, and if the courts of the state do not do their duty the mob spirit will grow and the unwritten law again come into it's own. God speed the day." old men in Ja ckson have been heard to excaim, when the shotgun or Winchester will be used on the traducers and seducers of the girls of the land.'
 The time limit provided by law for fil- ing initiative and referendum election petitions having expired, Secretary of State Power has counted the signers and found them as follows:
 Against the fish and game law, pat termed after the Alabama law, there were 7674 signatures; on the one quart every 1 two weeks laws 6651; on the anti-advertis- 1 ing law 625S; on the $300.OO0 bond issue for repairing the old capital and promot- ing the Gulfport centennial, 1000; on tick eradication about 3000
 Immediately on announcement that there were sufficient signatures to or der the election on the prohibition propo- sitiens the leaders of the dry forces served an injunction on the secretary of | state restraining him from taking any | further steps toward an election, and that put temporary stop to proceedings. l It is understood that a motion to dis l solve the injunction will be made in | few days, and the chances are that it will | be dissolved, the constitution clearly pro- viding that pending an election under the initiative and referendum the new law is l to be held in abeyance. That would | mean that the people of Mississippi could
 purchase one gallon of liquor or one cask l of beer every day for four or five months l or until the courts have decided all the questions involved, and which includes ] the legality of the insertion of the ini- tiative and referendum amendment into 1 the state constitution, it being claimed | that it never carried by the proper ma jority. However, there will be an election for and against the game and fish law, and
 
 1 jection at the polls next November The secretary of state has already issued his proclamation ordering the election, ana there can be no injunction on that There | is one feature of the law that .the peo- | pie of Mississippi do not like, and be- cause of which the law is scheduled for defeat-that is that all persons must pay | a license of $2 per year to hunt on thelr own lands, They can stand the other l features of the law, that is most of them can but they have an idea this Is taking
 from them a God given right, and they do not propose to stand for 1t.
 | Last Wednesday was Trades Day. in Jackson and the Board of Trade offered a prize of $5 for the best sheep exhibited. There was not a single sheep shown, as
 was natural, nobody in this section pay | ing any attention to sheep. though in the l southern part of the state 1t is great | and growing industry. Farmers declare it is useless for, them to try to raise sheep 1 so long as the country is full of worth less, egg sucking, sheep killing CUTS. And l yet they are the very men who kick and protest against any kind of dog law that | will get rid of the dogs Dogs eaten | 'possums, and sheep don't.
 | About three years ago the state of Mis- | sissippi laid the foundation and built the stone work for monument to the ''Women of the Confederacy' in the cap l tol lawn. This stone work was to be surnounted with handsome bronze statue of typcial southern woman and i the contract for same was let to Miss
 Belle Kinney of Nashville a southern ar
 tist of great merit After all this delay
 she has asked and has been granted an | extens sion of six months. being unable on