Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1879 — THE YAZOO MURDERS. [ARTICLE]

THE YAZOO MURDERS.

An Accursed Region Were Murder Has Gone Unpunished for Years. THE TRUE CHARACTER OF DIXON, THE BULLDOZER. AND AN ACCOUNT OF HIS MURDERS. . ————●———— His Eminent Services for the Democratic Party, and the Bloody Canvass He Inaugurated. SINGLETON'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS VALUABLE AID IN ELECTING HIM TO CONGRESS BY SLAUGH— TERING NEGROES. Chicago Times of September 25th. .¶ Captain Dixon become a professional gambler, and during a part of the time in past years ran a gambling house in Yazoo.” .¶ In 1872 our [or] 1873 he was indebted to a man named Hilliard Greenleaf for a small amount of money. Greenleaf asked for it, and Dixon refused to pay. The man used some offensive language, and Dixon drew a pistol and shot him dead. .¶ Dixon was not considered a desperate man, but he was revengeful, vindictive, quick with the pistol, and otherwise about the same kind ot a man gamblers are in Chleago and elsewhere. He first came prominently into notice in politics in the campaign of 1875, that campaign so eventful for the introduction of bulldozing. For ten years the whites had been under negro rule, and they determined to end it. The papers put at their heads: “We will carry this election—peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.” The Republican meetings were broken up by mobs, speakers and leaders were shot. others were run out of the country by bands of armed men, obstreperous negroes were killed or whipped, the party organization was shattered, and the Democrats carried the election because the negroes dared not vote. To do all this the Democrats had to call in a grim monster—violence. The bulldozing was done by the brutal element in the party, and the respectable element stood looking quietly on, patting the others on the back, or, at any rate, winking at the wrong. Not all the better class of Democrats in the South approved the course. Some were very much opposed to it, but were powerless to prevent it. All thought the case a desperate one, and a desperate remedy justifiable. So the better element said nothing in protest. .¶ Resistance was useless, and violence carried the day. But natural law is being fulfilled, and the violence is coming back to punish those who appealed to it. The brutes learned their powers, and in getting used to killing negroes they became used to killing human beings. There is a fable that the sheep, being terrified by wolves, called in the bears to defend them. The bears did their work and killed the wolves, but, that done, they were sole masters of the situation, and they devoured the sheep. That is the threatened condition of affairs in the South, and the conservative, respectable Democratic leaders are now filled with alarm, lest the brutal element which they made use of in 1875, to master the Republican party, will in turn irretrievably master them. The Chisolm massacre and the Dixon shooting affair have filled them with horror, and already a strong reaction has set in. There are independent tickets in nearly every county. and more are corning; Yazoo county has a full ticket in the field, receiving the support of about three hundred whites and four thousand blacks, from a total voting population of six thousand; Warren county, in which is Vicksburg, has four or five independent candidates for sheriff alone, and the prospect is that, if all the independent candidates are to be killed off this year, there will be a big job on hand. .¶ The bulldozing in Yazoo county commenced and carried on in this way: The Republicans began the campaign on the evening of September 5, 1875, with a mass-meeting in Wilson's Hall. While it was in progress, and the hall was crowded with negroes and white men, the Democrats, with Dixon—who has always been until recently a violent Democrat himself—at their head, came in, and began interrupting the speaker and disturbing the meeting, and ended by precipitating a fight. Shooting began, the lights went out, and the howling, yelling mob was wrapped in darkness. In the midst of the horrible scene from fifty to one hundred shots were fired, and the walls and ceiling yet show the scars where they were raked and torn with bullets. Richard Mitchell, a white man, was shot dead by Dixon: at any rate Dixon always claimed the honor of having killed him. A negro waa shot and dangerously wounded, and for some time had his life despaired of, but he finally recovered; men jumped through the windows—the hall was on the second floor—to the ground; some jumped into a cistern being dug there; many were hurt by the fall; they scrambled to their fact, tore down the back fence, and scattered like sheep, to their homes, or to hiding-places. The leading speaker was one Morgan, a carpet-bagger, a white man, who had been educated at Oberlin, and had gone from Ohio to Yazoo, and at the time of the riot was sheriff of the county. He had married a mulatto woman, not to make himsels [himself] popular with the negroes, but because he was a sort of monomaniac on the negro question, a good deal like Thad. Stevens, of Pennsylvania. during the war. Morgan fled for his life, took refuge within the city, and remained in his place of concealment thirteen days. Then Dixon heard of his whereabouts, took some of his scouts and ran him out of the country, compelling him to leave so suddenly that his family remained behind and had to be sent after. The other leaders were ran out of the country; no more Republican meetings were held; no ticket was nominated; the negroes, terrified by this and by what followed, refrained from voting, and the Democrats carried the election, only two Republican votes being cast, and those by white men. There are in Yazoo county 6,000 voters—2,000 white and 4,000 black. Of the white voters, twenty or twenty-five are Republicans. Incidentally it may be stated that there are now from two to three hundred whites supporting the independent ticket Mrs. Dixon said on yesterday: “The very men for whom my husband was working when he ran Morgan out of the county are the men who killed or consented to the kill-

ing of him. I wish they had Morgan back for sheriff now a while." .¶ Mention has been made of “Dixon's Scouts," but more must be said, for they are an important factor in the history of those days. There was in Yazoo about that time a company of you young men, semi-military in character, of which Dixon was lieutenant. He had a marvelously magnetic influence over, not only women, but men too, and wonderful executive ability. He soon became the captain of the company, and so devoted were they to him that they called themselves "Dixon's Scouts." The compaay was made up of the leading young men in town, "high-spirited" young gentlemen, the kind that grew up into men who talk much of their “honah;" who say, ‘I'm a gentleman, sah," and put you under great obligations in letting you know it; and who are always assuring you. after the manner of “chivalry," that they are personally responsible for what they say." It was a company of fifty or a hundred such men as these. with Henry Dixon, then twenty-nine years old, at their head, who formed the Yazoo County bulldozers, and who, in greater or less numbers, accompanied Dixon when he hung seven or eight negroes in that county during the few months that formed the political campaign. Barksdale, the man who shot him. was one of them; Frank Dixon, Henry’s brother, now in the pension office at Washington, was another; and, in fact, they included about all the leading young men of the county. They wore no uniforms and no masks They rode through the streets of Yazoo. and through the country at night, with tbeir guns on their pommels, and sometimes with ropes dangling from their saddles, “regulating" affairs. Dixon was recognized as just the man to lead in the work that was on hand, and he went on unopposed. The Democrats are now claiming that they are not responsible for his acts at that time, and that he did not represent them or act by their authority. Their denial comes too late. Everybody know he was committing murder under the form of a judicial farce, but he was not arrested, and no effort was made to stop him. The next man that he killed was a negro named Patterson, a member of the Legislature, living in the upper part of the county. Patterson had had as a mistress a mulatto woman, subsequently the wife of another negro. Patterson got the [unreadable], and the husband complained to Col. Campbell, his employer. Patterson hired a negro for $50 to kill the husband. Col. Campbell became alarmed, as that part of the county is densely populated with negroes, and he and another man were about the only whites there, and he sent to Yazoo for aid. A warrant was sent for the arrest of Patterson, and [unreadable] of twenty armed men. taken either in part of or in whole from Dixon’s scouts, was detailed to serve the warrant. Dixon went along, but instead of bringing in Patterson, they hung him. A mock trial is said to have been held. Dixon stood on the piazza of the house and told all in favor of hanging the man to stand on one aide, and all opposed on the other; and the crowd decided in favor of death. Then he wanted some one to volunteer to handle the rope, but, no one doing so, he said with an oath that he would do it himself. .¶ A tree was found, and Patterson was asked if he had anything to say. He had. His mother and his sister were living, he said, in Xenia, Ohio. He had on his person $1,600 in money and securities, and he asked as a last request that the crowd see to it sacredly that the funds were sent to them. This was agreed to, the funds were placed in the hands of a man in the crowd, and Patterson was hung by Dixon until he was dead. The negro who did the shooting for $50 was brought to town, subsequently tried, and on his own confession of guilt, sentenced to the penitentiary for life. The fact that this was done shows that the courts were not powerless, and that there was no necessity for Dixon to take on himself the execution of the law. But the worst is yet to be told. Dixon asked for, and obtained from the man who had received it in trust, the $1,600, and from that day to this it has never been positively traced. The mother and sister in Xenia have never received it, but what became of it no one knows. Dixon declared that he had used it in legitimate Democratic campaign expenses, that is that he had turned it into the campaign fund. This shocking confession created considerable indignation and disgust in the community, and one gentleman, to satisfy himself, made a private examination of the books of the treasurer of the campaign fund. The books showed a total receipt of about that amount, but they also allowed from whom every dollar was received, and how it was spent, and no mention was made of Patterson’s money. Of course, the money might have been expended in campaign purposes, and no account kept of it, and the probability is that no account would have been kept; it would have been too dangerous. Dixon was once asked publicly what he had done with the money, and he replied, pointing across the street, “It is over there in that safe, and I mean the boys shall have a good time with it.” One of his "scouts” was standing by and heard the remark, and he replied. “I am oue of those boys, and for my part I do not want to have a ‘good time’ on the money. You must send it to Patterson’s mother and sister." What really became of it is unknown, but the following letter published by Dixon in a local paper under the heading of “A Card to the Public," shows what he says he did with it: .¶ “Yazoo City, May 30.—Owing to certain reports now in circulation that Patterson, a member of the Republican legislature, who was hung in the eventful campaign of 1875, had a considerable sum of money on his person, and that said money was used for my own benefit, I feel in honor bound to vindicate myself, although I deplore to refer to the past, as it will bring before the public many of our best citizens. I will briefly state that said money and large sums, were raised and used to defray the ex penses of the campaign, and to stuff the ballot boxes, if necessary; to purchase certificates of election for two officials now holding offices of trust and emolument in our county. I have in my possession the necessary proof, and if called on will furnish it. .¶ “I ask no credit for what I did in the campaign of 1875, as many did fully as much as myself, if not more, but I do humbly beg that no shame be attached to me and mine for what benefited the entire county. There are parties who aspire to political position who are aware of the connections of my statement, and who acted as stakeholders in this matter. .¶ “I call upon many active workers in our Democratic ranks to bear me out in my innocence. Respectfully, H. M. Dixon. " .¶ To this letter Dr. McCormick, chairman of the Democratic committee, replied that the Democratic party had nothing whatever to do with the "raising of the money.” or with the spending of it, and that the ballot-boxes were not stuffed in 1875. .¶ It will be observed that in this case there was nothing directly political, but in its terrifying effect on the negroes there was much that was so. The Republicans were doing nothing, they held no meetings, put up no ticket, took no measures whatever to oppose the Democrats, simply because the events which were occurring paralyzed the black man. Dixon’s scouts were, therefore, acting directly as a band of "regulators” in a country where the courts were potent, and indirectly as a band of bulldozers to keep down the negroes. .¶ There used to live in this county a somewhat determined negro named Hammond, who undertook to wreak vengeance on Dixon and his night riders. Hammond got together a band of armed negroes, and laid in wait for Dixon. .¶ This gives a good opportunity to remind the reader that the negro may be dangerous when he is angry. Several well-authenticated instances are already on record of negroes having gone armed by night to retaliate for a wrong, real or imaginary. One night, for example, several of them lay near a bridge, in this county, waiting to shoot some white man to avenge the death of a negro killed at the same bridge oolv a short .time before. Th* reader will remember the dreadful case in Vicksburg in December, 1877, when Crosby, the negro sheriff, was ousted by the county board. He sent for the negroes to come in and keep him in office, and they responded in force, nearly two thousand pouring into the city early in the forenoon, and a good part of them armed. A fight ensued between them and the whites. One white man was killed, but the negroes broke and fled at almost the first fire. They were pursued and shot down as they ran through the fields; more than one hundred were

slain. owe know* wye foil at tb« white* gawoloe fear of an HubsmmH was of the kind who give like tor Ilk*, and to laid ia wait for Dixon, tomitt without gsttiug nim. Dixon heard of R. however, wentowt with his scouts, gava tho negro * amok trial, and hang him. Albert Angaria* was a negro who. having had a difficulty with another negro- ro Demoeret s*yn that Angaries asked the other nevro to info* Republican olnh, and that the negro ref used—placed himself in onnce*lment before •*•**’* door one night, f.r to* puroere of killing him. Tto man’s wife oame to tho door, aad Aaraatus mistook her for ber lm«tond. He Area end killed her. Dixoa wont oat with hw sonata, gave him a mock trial nod hoof AiflL •; . ... . V" a few of to* instance* daring the fail of 1875 hi which Dixon killed area himsrir. or did ttwito hiam-oat*. There ere two or tore* other weli-aesarod cures, end tto Information some* pretty straight that to bang seven iu all, or fear more than are tore mentioaod. Thees “ft® wore bang during too months of September and October, while tto politioal oampaign was In progress, and sons* of the hangings at least were for politioal reasons. Bat it ia not »®ay to gat at tto foots. Mysterious thing® occur hero. A gentleman was oat riding tto other day with Dr. McCormick, the chairman of the oounty Dero<-orntio executive committee. Tbe gentleman's attention waa attracted to something at the roadside which looked like a grave. Both got oat, aad found a hale about six test long, three foot wide and four feat deep, empty, and with the dirt whioh had been taken from it Iving in a hesp on the opposite •ide. It looked like aa nnuaed grave, and had the appearedoe of being trom six months t« two yea re old, perhaps more. The gentleman asked the doctor what this meant, but he waa as ig> orent as hi* guest, end aa the subject might he a drlieate one, the Utter did not press it. But he atilt wondered wbar that lonely grave by toe roadside, in a lonely palmetto swamp, was for.

Dlxnn’a service* were foil v appreo’ated hv the Democrats during the campaign. When it waa °v®r. and the victory was won, h« wsa tho hero of the hoar. A reception was given him. the mas® meeting was held, ■fp-eohs* entorising him war * mad® by prominent Demoer®tn, Hon. O. R. Bingleton t**l«graphed him, “I owe to yoo mv election:" he wa« escorted home by a proorgsion and a band of niusto. a piroe of mu«io w»« written in hi* honor and de licated to him. and wa® the popular piece tor a time in Demooratto social circles, and every mirk of anprob ition wa® given of what he had dona. Now the Democrats are* struggling desperately to ahow that they are not responsible for what he did, aa he did it without their authority. Their worser nature® predominated then. This latter sanfimnnt f* their better nature coming to-tho surface. They know that dnring all of Dixon's .course in hanging negroes, not one of thorn interposed to •rop it, and not so much at a coroner’s inq-v-st wa® ever held on a negro’s ceruse! And when an effort was made by R»nnhltoan* tn Washiugfon, in the winter of 1876, to prove that Dixon was a bad and de«pera'e man, aa shown by hia act®, the Democrats rail ed around him. and sneh witnesses as the distriet-atto'ney, the presidential elector for that district, and ov n a leading minister of tho gosnel in Ynsoo. all gave it ®a their opinion that Dixon was a flnetoned Southern gentleman, an exemplary man e®" * peaceable cirisen! Dmnoerstlo party having, threngh Dixon's services, o -me Into power, tho now men wore induete I into nffioe in Janitsrv. 187 C. 1 he very day after this occurred. howeveV, the community was startle! with the information that the oounty treasurer'* safe had been robbed tbe night before of $33,000. Of oonr«e, the most intense excitement prevailed. The Republican treasurer was a negro, bnt ho had •tnrned over every doll >r dne the count?, snd had received that dav from the incoming treasurer a receipt in full, so that the Repnblioan party got clear of any blame. The question was, who took it! To this day tlio rorstory Is unsolved, bnt in Its nr ogres* It ha* oaused one foirfnl tragedy. There had lived in thisoonnty for manv years a man named Saranol Harrison, a professional gambler, like D'xon, and a quint m>ip. thon-h one who wonld fight if pushed. He was a Ginoinnatl in in, and traveled a good but a greater part of his time wsa spent in Yaaoo. He obtained some evidence which made him think that Dixon wsa the thief, and he undertook to work up the case, charging publioly in the meanwhile that Dixon w is, in his opinion, the guilty man. Those charges came to Dixon, and hatred naturally tallowed. Whenever, in conversation with otters, the matter oame np, Dixoff always asset ted that Harrison lied, and that he would shoot his accuser. E t«h threatened the other with death, and once or twice they had wordy oncoauters, though without eotning to shots. F<*r example, Dixon onci met Harrison on the street, blustered np to him, and said: “I nnder--81 and that yon oarrV a big gnn bnrkled around yourself ior ntel” “Yes." replied Harrison, drawing an enormona revolver and oov®r'UK. D-xon with it, “and if you want it J will give yen some right now-* “lan unarmed." answered Dixon, and the rencontre terminated This disgusting* pises of bus ness Wall looked upon by that class of “gentlemen” in Yasoo who constantly assert that they will bo “personally responsible for what they say" aa likely to lead to a duel. Bnt in these days, when both contestants return from tho field uninjured and frightenpd nearly oat of their wit®, the code of dishonor has fallen in esteem, and it is oonsltlered safer to shoot a man in the baok, as the Galiya did Chisolm, Gilmer and old man MeOHan. Tnerefore, no snob meeting P ; aoe- But, one day early tn tbe rear 1878, Dixon stationed himself behind a pile of barrels on the sidewalk in front of a saloon on Main street, and waited an honr and forty-five minutes—as tbo evidence subsequently showed —tor Harrison. One or two observant men, not knowing what was coming, felt certain, however, that trouble was brewing, for Dixon was seen taking a drink at a bar. a thing he never did unless something waa wrong. Finally Harrison, suspecting nothing, came along, and when he reached the barrels behind* which Dixon was concealed. Dixon, without any warning, opened npoc biin a rapid fire from a self-oookiug revolver. The first abot was fata); others followed, and Harrison 101 l into th* gutter; *'<d at his prostrate form Dixon snapped hia revolver ooeo more. He had fir.-d fire shots, aad snapped his weapon onoe. Harrison could not oven drew hi* revolver. This killing wa* looked upon bv the ett'sens of Yaaoo as an atrocious and cold-Mooded morder. Dixon had already fallen into disfavor with tto totter olass of oitwena, and this extended his unpopularity. HU I told upon the publio esteem was perceptibly declining. He was arrestol and oon fined in jail for several months, toil being refnsed. Bat on bU trial be Naa acquitted; and, after the verdict waa rendered, some of hU friends, for he atßi had many, formed a procession and escorted him home with e band of music aad a groat parade. Barksdale and bis friend* claim that tto killing was entkclv for personal reasons, Dixoa had slandered Barksdale’s sister «"ii mother. The friends of Dixon admit the otter- »“«• ®f tb* language upon whioh tho charge U bat they denv that it does, In foot, ■loader the ladles.- It ahoald to elated ia the outset that the ladies themselves are estimable pereSaq standing high in toe community, re ■pocted and tolovsd by all, ssd no one knew better toon Dixon, probably, that aught reproaohful oould not to said agiUnst them. Dixou himself as id te a lady la tto oity rooently that there were no ladle* for whom to oatertolaed a respeot higher than for Barksdale's female relatives, aad to asserted that if Bark* dale or any on* ate* would show where he had eversiauderedoaeof them to would willingly make It right. He seemed to lack tho porerte ■“kl’SS.'yaiSL*-•sS* “*“ - All over the State, among Republicans, and also among them Democrat* who are horrified at the killing, there te a teoUag that Dixon did imt slander the ladies, and toot the charge bos hero tramped ap, after the deed was dune, as a shelter against th* fearful condemnation, of the sot. Aa Investigation of toe laeta show, however, tost there was ground for the eharse: enough, say bow, to giro the Democrats some ■uowisg or do lease, sad they are waking all ih* use they can of it. 14sn obtained my iatormattea wa this paint, not from Dixou’s oaemioA. bat exclusively from ladepeuueats, tto Renobliaaamaad such of bis Democratic friends aj I have folt would tell tho rigid trauh And the earn te bod enough, even then. Boms of. *ho language that D xou oaod writ not only ©b-

aomm, tela so horribly os that by a* proeibto daily talk to was wrefimo aad filthy, eve* among hi* frioodx But when to earns to aprok chance*to'say that it**d!d teoMl* relatives; sine* it. at tto asms Arne, permit* Ms Meads to say that, strictly aprokmg, it did net: sod. since Barksdale’s satire defense Fill probably to tusde of this. It tooone* a dteas to tow for Barksdale’s plea is a goon eoe. Of coona, to ea’led Barksdale a sob of a b—, aad apo* this te based tto obaige that he slandered Bark*, 1 alt's mutner. Heoalled Barksdale this so frequently, tost tto number of times te utterly lost sight of. Ho bad a way ot saying,—not of Barksdale, particularly, bat of anybody, ia general, if to. happened oat to like him—that the men would oommit incest with his owa sister; Irat, in saving so, to used of ooorae, no toohobml tonus, but the v'lest word* toot a vile mouth oould alter. He waa strongly opposed to tho ooaventioa *y*tem of nouunatiag, preferring tho priua y elcotion system; and he used te say that a man in favor of a convention would Have sexual intercourse with hi* owe rioter. On on* occasion, whoa the Demooratio executive committee wa* la aeeret session, to told a B-poblieon friend that H was to devise mesas to prevent Barksdale from farther injuring himseli by the preotioe ot solitary rise. The friend replied that to ought not te apeak jkk tm Barksdale, though a politioal opponent, was a gentleman. Dixon replied that Barksdale was so far from being a gentleman that if be should find a “back nigger" having intercoar-e with bis (Barksdale’s) sister, to would not remove the negro. It is such language as this last, and particularly this last, which the friends of Dixon have in mind when they say that be did not, in reality. slander tho lady or impeach tor honor. Their oaee te that ho only wanted to ahow hia disgust for Jfarksdale, and to do that he dragged the lady into tho o -mpari ont. Ho did not aay, they aosert, that she would doanoh a thing,-but he said that if ahe should do it, aud Barksdale should find thorn la the act. hs wonld not remove the negro. Bnrksda'e was thaone Dixon waa after, and Dixon supposed a case in order to get something bad enough to compare Barksdale with. The Republioans assert that he did not, therefore. actually slander the lady, although they ito not for a moment pretend to justify hit lauguage. J This is a* far as the Republioans and Independent* will eoneede Dixon t-> have gone. Tito Democrats assert that he went further, and did, iu fact, slander tbe lady, and In support ot this »h«#y bare two witnesses. One is a farmer, who lives four mile® south of here, has lived here twenty-one years and has known Dixon eight retire They have often banted together, and, off and on. have been quite intimate. The farmer says that be liked Dix»n dnring all these years very well exoept for one thing—be woe so shockingly ob®oene in his language when bo wanted to be. Thev wfere on good term®, however. np to tho time of Dixon's death. The reader mast bear in mind three tilings: That the farmer ii a Democrat: that-while personally on good term* with Dixon he #aa still po lifioaliv oppodbd; and that, like all human beings. liable to err. he may have misunderstood what Dixon aotuslly did sar. Tho farmer is aa honeat man; what no says is told with snob an air aa to convince the hearer of Ids sincerity; and he evidently believes that he nnderatood Dixon aright, whether he did or not He says that he heard Dixon speak of Barksdale aa a G—d d—n son of a b —, who, having now no sister to have sexual intercourse with—referring to the fact that the sister wa* married—waa gratifying himself in aolitndo. The former also assorts that he ha.® heard Dixon make tho name remark of other men in the city, during the past few weeks the other persons being related to B trksdale, aud opposed to Dixon oolitioallv. The reader oan transfer these sentence*, of whioh only the i leas are given, into the vilest language thst om be imagined, without anv fear of making them worse than they were, as Dixon is said to have ottered them. Tills is the ease as presented by Barksdale's friends but the friends of Dixon say that they never heard the ohnrge of slander until after the killing bad been done, and many, in faot nearly all the Democrats aay the same thing. Some of Digon’a friends are asserting that this talk was not learned of till after the killing, that Dixon was killed for politioal reasons alone, and that tho ante-mortem offense te really a prof- mortem or alleged oausa. And on mv way to Yasoo I was cautioned bv many «trong Democrat a, who are horrfled at tho death. not to be hoodwinked br tho allegation of slander, sinoe it had been trnnped r up to make the killing Ism dreadful. It ia true that even in Yasoo the slander theory was not heard of before Dixon’* death, exoept bv a very few. Bat by those few it oertainly wa* heard: for among Ihe few are some Independents and Republicans who oon fees it, though reluct an tly end sorrowfully. The reason why it we® not hoard ot. rterheps. was that iM)ad not been ra-tniag very long. Only nine day.® elapsed from the time tbst D’xon oame ont the seoond time nntil he wa® killed. He did not utter those slanderous words constantly, only here and there; and. as every one knows, snoh things, under snob bitter and exciting circumstance®, are apt to go straight to the man slandered mnoh quicker than te a whole oity fail of uninterested persons.

This pMnt is slso worth considering: A dimming tbai Birkidala was not Dominated with the understanding that if Dixon did not leire the ennntry or withdraw. Barksdale should take oarn of him, it mar be that aorae Democrat, seeing in the slander a means or getting Dixon out of the way. and making it appear tint the killing was fir persona) reasons, told Barksdale of what Dixon was saving. Barksdale, fired at the insult, did just what was expected he would do, and two birds were killed with one stone. The news that Dixon was again a candidate onme oat August 10. and a terrible teer aed feeling or exeitemmt took boid of the community. Men looked askance, and assassination was talked of In lew tones. All the devilish hate that one ran imagine was oooped op in the city. Ou Friday, August 15, a Democratic tanas meeting was held The proceedings were published in eironlir form, and •* the end, and as a part of the business — for the announcement wm made in the meeting—was the following note: “The secretary has had placed in his bands the names of two gentlemen living in Tnseo county who heard H. M D xon diaeu«s : ng plans looking to the assassination of James A. Barksdale, Demooratio candidate for eheacary dork." That note sounded to Dixon like a deathwarrant He felt that it was part of a scheme to kill him. He denied ever haying d inn Hud any plan to kill Barksdale, and he seat hie friend. E. H. Kelly, to the secretary of the meeting. Hr. John Posey, asking for the names of the two men. Mr. P.eey deolined to give them at onoe, tearing what Dixon might do to them, and he required time to get their leave to have their names iaraisbed to Dixon. One of tbe men lived in the oeaatry; toe time wore away, and Dixon did not get tlw names. In fact, he never learned who they were, as he was killed just as the information was ea tbe way to hiss. The arrangement had bean made that Dtxoa should ba confronted by the two men on tbe morning of A must 19, b«t tbe ssea tailed ta gas togeth- ?*. aadPoeay waa on hie way up town with the letter which he had written to Dixea, which gave the aamea, aad which waa to he handed to Dixon instead of Dixon meeting the men. As has *“• «MOotte wsy uptown when Barksdale fired toe fetal -hot. Tba men ware A. G. Morrell ami J. E. Everett,tba latter residing tu Yssoa. That they should have com •trued what they heard Dixon nay late a plan to assassinate Barksdale shows What aa exeitad ibgs. They were eo situated that thaw overhoard Dixon talking with a friend, aad Dtxoa said: If I were to kill Barksdale I should here ro kill about twenty more,* Fairly oeasi rued, that weald seem to be net a ofam to kill Barksdale* hot a fisgrsssliea of any sash thing. The city wm perradat with tost tease e*eitomcat, that foreboding of evil, which comes when people knew that a terrible tragedy ta impending. The entire populace- -ignorant that Dixon bad said anything siandarnns fid! that ha was ahoat to Ite kiUeth