Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1898 — SOUTHERN. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHERN.

Mrs. Lucille Blackburn Lane, daughter of ex-Senator Blackburn of Kentucky and wife of Thomas Lane, who accidentally shot herself at Washington two weeks ago, is again in a serious condition, an abscess having formed near the wound. Former Attorney General W. J. Hendrick of Kentucky has been disbarred in Franklin County. Tlie cause whs an insufficient response to a rule requiring him to pay idto court (he sum of $1,300 collected by him for the State during his term as Attorney General. A race war is imminent in Lonoke County, Arkansas. The whites are preparing to drive all negroes out of the county and many of the blacks are arming themselves preparatory to making a stubborn resistance. Notices have been posted oh nearly every negro cabin in the county notifying the occupants to vacate within a certain time or suffer the conseconsequences. A suit has been brought against the State treasurer of Georgia by O. Hopkins & Sons, Atlanta attorneys, seeking to invalidate legislation passed at the last session of the late Assembly on the ground that the clocks in the halls were tampered with to permit of more time in consideration. If the Supreme Court sustains the contention it will mean the nullification of the convict reform bill, which was in reality passed at 3 o’clock of the morn-ing-subsequent to the constitutional session, while the official clock indicated only 11:30 p. m. An official roller gin test, conducted under the direction of the office of fiber investigation of the Department of Agriculture at Cuero, Tex., upon Texasgrown Egyptian cotton, has been concluded with most successful and gratifying results. For several years culture experiments have been carried on in Texas by W. H. Wentworth from the Egyptian seed distributed by the department.with a view to the production in this country of Egyptiari cotton. A serious obstacle to success has been the need of a proper gin to separate the seed from the lint, the ordinary gin injuring the eottou to a ruinous degree, but this has been overcome by n special form of gin. The engineer expert states that the cotton produced from the Egyptian seed plant iu Texas is stronger than the native Egyptian. The imports of Egyptian cotton are steadily increasing and now amount in value to over $5,000,000 annually. With the ginning question settled those who ure interested in the growth of Egyptian cotton in Texas claim that production in this country is assured.