The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-14
DEPUTIES DISPERSE POSSEMEN Mobs Broken Up Without Disorder, Late Reports
 Indicate NO LONGER OF AID, SAYS DEPUTY HILL Reports Of Terrorization Of Motorists Prompt
 Decision SEARCH FOR MILTON. PASSES FIFTH DAY Negro Believed To Have Eluded
 Officers And
 Posses
SEARCH FOR MILTON PASSES FIFTH DAY

Scores of heavily armed possemen, who have main- tained a day and night vigil on the Lewisburg road for five days, terrorizing natives of the district and firing on passing automobiles that. failed to heed their orders to stop, were dispersed late. Wednesday night by Chief Deputy Sheriff Henry s. Hill and 8 squad of assistants.
 The mob was broken up easily. re- ports to the sheriffs office said, and without noticeable resistance. Appar- ently abandoning hope of capturin. John Milton, negro convict, who bru- tally attacked white woman and killed her infant daughter last Friday, the grim-faced guard returned to their homes, many of them to spend their first full night of rest since the man hunt started.
 Reports in Birmingham that the Clispersing had been effected quietly ended rumors, of friction between the deputies and possemen, who, 1t was feared, would question the advisabil- z fly of placidlg returning to their homes and foregoing a continued vigil
 The posses had ceased ke be an aid to constituted atithorikie Chief Dep uty Hill said on his return from the scene, and their actions had Siven rise to strong protests by innocent cit izens whose machines had been stopped on the road All new clues aa to Mil- toms Whereabouts are being run down with all possible speed, and we believe that we are entirely capable of ham ding the affair."
 Newspapermen Fired Upon
 Widespread reports of wholesale ter rorization of passing motorists by the heavily-armed mob that remains sta tioned near Lewisburg were given added weight. Wednesday by statements of three Birmingham newspaperment, who declared that they had become targets of possemen's bullets. Members of the guard on the road fired on their ma chine, they reported, when they failed to stop after Q shouted order.
 Although they could not be verified late Wednesday night, rumors were prevalent over the city during the en- tire day that fusillades inevitably fol- lowed failure of motorists to comply with gruff orders to halt. Prominent business men are reported to have undergone the experience.
 Move of the deputies against the posses was the. lone important develop ment in the hunt for Milton, who has now been at large since Friday after noon. During the day number of suspects were taken into custody by police, both here and in other parts. of the state, but none of them an- swered to the description of the negro wanted.
 Escape Belief Growing.
 Dispatches from Jasper and Carbon Hill Wednesday declared that Sheriff Guy O'Rear and posse were still fol- lowing the trail of negro who engaged in a running gun battle with white man there.
 While the feeling and resolution to , hunt for Milton until he is found still was high around the scene of the att tack and in localities where he Is reported to have been seen, the general im- pression Is growing that the black somehow has eluded posses and is now in some other part of the country. That few negroes would carry food or drink to Milton through fear of implication in his crime is given as reason for be- lief that he is not in this territory.