Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1899 — SOUTHERN. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHERN.

* Augusta, Ga., will erect a monument to Hon. Patrick Walsh. An unknown number of negroes have been lynched in Little River County, Ark. The whites claim the negroes were planning a race war. Two hundred employes of the La Belle iron works at Wheeling, W. Va„ employed in the plate mill aud as laborers, have received an increase of wages averaging 10 per cent. At Columbus, Ga., three river steamers —the Owens, Flint and Bay City—were destroyed by fire, together with two barges. Loss $40,000, partially covered by insurance. At Port Arthur, Texas, seven miles of ship canal connecting the waters of Sabine lake and the Gulf of Mexico were formally opened with a celebration in which 5,000 people participated. At a meeting of the Georgia Fruit Growers’ Association it was decided there would be no peaches for shipment from that State this year. The reason given is that the trees were injured by recent frosts. Montezuma University, at Bessemer, Ala., was destroyed by fire. The fire originated from a defective flue and forty pupils got out of the building without injury. The building; cost $30,000, insured for $5,000. At Thomaßville, Ga.. fire destroyed the opera house aud three other buildings. lajss about $40,000. The large Piny Woods Hotel, filled with Northern guests, escaped uninjured, after no exciting night for its inmates. Liberty, Tenn., is almost wiped off the map. A tornado swept over it. wrenching trees from their roots and felling houses in all directions. Damage to property in the storm’s path is enormous, but no fatalities are reported. At Sweetwater, Texas, F. P. Woodruff, a lawyer, attacked aud shot Judge John H. Cochran in chambers with arevolver, the trouble growing out of the court's refusal to approve a bill of exceptions in a lawsuit. A bystander named R. P. Watts was shot in the hip. While O. H. Skinner, a saloonkeeper, waa lying ill in an upper room of bis house, near Gray, W. Va„ be and his wife were attacked by a negro, who assaulted Ifhem and attempted robbery. Skinner got hold of his revolver, apd while the man was attacking his wife, shot him three times iu the head, killing him instantly. There was a wreck on the Atlantic Coast line inside the city limits at Augusta, Ga. The rails spread on a very sharp curve after the engine had passed. The first-class coach left the track and fell off a slight embankment, completely turning over. The passengers were severely shaken np. The only one seriously hurt was the 0-year-old daughter of President Mack of Denmark.