The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1922-01-29
BLACKGUM HALL

Away back years ago it was the
custom of the Columbus editors when
the news trail got cold to hop on
the ten mile shoals land make the
Tombigbee river navgable all the
year round, setting up competition
with the railroads, reducing freight
rates and putting the price Of goods
down in reach of the poor. Did
you know that the possibility Of the
ten mile shoals was almost as great
as that Of the Muscle Shoals in the
4 Tennessee river?
When a boy | lived just a short
distance from the foot of the ten
mile shoals. and on several occasions
tried to run a skiff through the shoals
in low water time. Many places the
water was not sufficient deep to float
the craft and it had to be dragged.
/ 1t was great place to catch fish,
Especially of large size. When big
fish undertook to pass up or down
the shoals it could be seen and easily
caught. An extra big fish that
could not pass, lay in wait at the
lower end of the shoal for the small
fish as they came down Here he con-
tinued to feast on the little fry till
rise in the river put him out Of his
Job. A fisherman, Mr.. Winton, at
Moores Bluff, just below the shoals
had a lot Of set hooks out about this
time. Winton was a trapper also On
his round to his traps he found one
missing. Attached to the trap was
trace chain and a pillow line to make
the trap fast to tree on the river
bank. All were gone.
Then came the visit to his set
hooks oil one Of which he found the
monster fish from the shoals. He
had left his post and was drifting
down near the bank and the tempt
ing bait on the set hook proved his
undoing He was finally towed to
land and the intestires removed. Here
/ Mr.. Winton found his steel trap, trace
chain, plow-line and a full grown
beaver. The beaver was caught in
the trap. The fish swallowed the
beaver, trap, trace, line and all, then
got hung up on the set hook, Mr..
Winton said he had no way to weigh
the fish but it measured three feet
between the eyes.
Amy one that may doubt this fish
story / refer them to Mr.. L. A.
Vaughn and Mr.. big jim" Cox.
If the Chamber Of Commerce will
tackle the Ten Mile Shoals, get Mr..
Ford or some French gentleman to
develope them, the lime stone is just
across the river and cheap fertilizer
can be furnished the farmers and
electricity to light up the South.
If men had the natural instinct Of
the lower grade animals they would
not lose their heads so often. Last
week a citizen OF Artesia unloaded a
COW from box car about II o'clock
at night, carried her home, but the
next morning the COW was out and
gone. She made her way through
the switch yard to the stock shute
and was found there next morning
waiting to be loaded on another car
Can you beat il?
Mrs. Nora Adair, of New Salem,
is not only one of the best farmers
i'm the neighborhood but is quite
handy at other work in maintaining
her little family of girls She buys
the leather and puts halfsoles on the
shoes Of the family. How many men
can do so? BY the way she was made
to pay a poll tax. There are five
widows right near New Salem and
all have to pay this tax and not one
Of them want to vote. The present
legislature could do q wise thing in
passing an act to relieve the women
Of the payment OF a poll tax and to
have the tax already paid refunded.
It's am outrage on the women Of the
State Ii is enough for a woman to
support herself and children and to
saddle on hey a tax that so many
ablebodied men evade, is a gross in
justice.
Look here, Splivins, you write
Nl'hhAt.ti# ANNtAA bAt N'A XIV ~ iAiN"t's''
You told ali about Flint Hill last
week, but YOU failed to say where
Flint Hill is, whether in Europe,
Asia. Australia or South America. If
IT is the place ] think it is and where
/ thing It is, it is neither a Flint nor
"a Hill Whore is Flint any how?
I'm your next letter give US the geo
graphical whereas and whereforos.
A few DAYS ago a friend and | were
discussing the conditions that pre-
vail in most Of the churches today
and he said chat is why I have
never Joined the church. The mem
hars walk disordcrly and are guilty
of conduct unbecoming to an out
slider and the church seems indiffer-
emit" The question IS. sis the church
q light or @ stumbling block?" What
viii our answer be-
How DO we regard our children