The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-10
MOTHER UNAWARE
 INFANT IS DEAD
Baby Girls Body Lies Tn Fathers Hillside
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STATE AND COUNTY
 POST $S5O REWARD
Innocent Negro Saved From Lynching By Mine
 Official

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 While hundreds of grim visaged mo unt ain m e n searched the swamps and thickets of Jefferson county Saturday night, capture of John Milton, negro ax mur- derer, appeared certain.
 Virtually a ring of steel surrounds the section in which possemen are sure the negro is concealed. Bioodhounds are covering every inch of terri tory, seeking a warm trail as the band of determined men closes in like a human moose, to throttle out of the swamps whatever the : dark streams and tangled thickets contain of human life.
 E And in the meantime, Mrs. Blaney Collins, mother of the infant who fell victim of John Miiton's ax, lies at Hillman hospital, recovering from wounds but facing mental shock far worses than m aA might inflsct. Sse lhss not yeg eelfy ferned that her l baby. Maedfon Collins, is dead On a hiiIslde, high above tho town ship of Norris, Blaney Collins SaEur- day night was keeping silent vigil over a fiux white easket containing the body of his eikht-months old girl. His only utterance has been plea that the kill CT, if captured, be turned over to him, so that he might mete out justice with his own hands. t-
 Posses Find Traces
 Traces of the negro have been found by the posses, reports declared late Saturday night. There were the re- mains of a nasty meal of roasted corn and imprints which the mountain men said was made by the negro's feet.
 R. J. Stewart, Mrs. Collins father, mountain man, visited his daughter Saturday at the hospital.
 If my daughter had thought there was danger abroad" he said, II know she would have had my gun in one hand and her baby in the other. She has never learned to know fear, and she has walked the paths of these mountains of ours for years, and has tramped the hillsides with me on hunting trips. She could shoot. I've seen her knock down 8 chicken hawk on the wing"
 Story Of Crime
 Mir. Stewart heard the story of the crime from Mrs. Collins,
 ''She was just going home," he said. When she got down the road a little ways, this negro made insulting sugges- tions to her. She attempted to repulse him. He came for her with an ax. She told her children to run and call for help, and the negro started after them, She screamed and he turned on her. His first blow broke her shoulder and gashed her head"
 Lynching will follow capture of the negro convict unless a squad of depu- ties is on hand to protG : him, Chief Deputy Henry S. Hill said Saturday. Sentiment among the possemen is run ming high and open declarations of lynching have been heard Every pos sible effort will be made by the county authorities to insure a lawful trial for Miltons Mir. Hill said, in instructing his deputies accordingly.
 $S5O Reward Offered
 Rewards totalling $350 have been of- fered for his capture.
 AsCpOAAo that SAS HCSEO udu CudHSCu his clothing late Friday night and en- tered an automobile, driving toward Birmingham, proved to be without foun- dation. These reports were started by group of men who stopped the ma chine in which two negroes were rid Ing, only to have one of the pair fling himself from the car and dash into the woods alongside the main road near Lewisburg.'
 The negro riding with him in the machine declared the runaway was Bul. ger Battle, an assistant engineerman for the Alabama company at it's Lewis- burg mine. He was unable to account for his companions behavior, but de- claEed that both he and the other ne- gro were innoncent of wrong-doing.
 With sentiment running strong, mem bers of the posse located at Lewisburg are said to have been near lynching the negro who remained in the ear, Willie Garrett, another employe of the com
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