THE MATHISTON PRESS
ISSUED EVERY FRIDAY BY E. LOVETT, PUBLISHER AND PROPRITOR
ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT
VOLUME 1 NUMBER 9 (CONTINUED)
MARCH 18, 1910
CUMBERLAND CULLINGS [By Violet]: Miss Ruby Avent visited home folks at Mathiston Saturday and Sunday. - Mr. and Mrs. George Farley of Mathiston visited relatives here Saturday and Sunday. - Bob Hoskins of Clarkson spent Sunday as a guest in the Kimbrell home. - Mr. and Mrs. Charles Crismond of Eupora visited the latter’s mother here last week. - Farmers in this section are getting busy. - On account of measles there was no preaching at Marvin Hill Sunday. - Mrs. Ben Denny spent Sunday with Mrs. Lee Dalton. - Mr. and Mrs. Charles Crismond and Miss Zola Kimbrell spent Saturday night in the Berry home. - Mr. and Mrs. Crowley have returned from a visit on Sun Creek. - Mr. and Mrs. James Davis visited relatives out of town Sunday. - Wonder why A. D. Lucious was looking so blue Sunday? Cheer up A. D., measles will soon be over. - Mr. Finch is visiting her son this week. - Boys, it is time to get out your fishing tackle and make war on the “finny tribe.”
REMINISCENCE OF SENATOR PERCY: A former Mississippian resident in Fort Worth, Texas comes forward with a reminiscence of Senator Percy at a time when he had little though that the whirligig of time and chance would inject him into the whirlpool of political activity, the story finding its way into the columns of the Fort Worth Record. The accident calls to mind a tragedy in the delta a few years ago. “Half a dozen years ago, three young men, Cooke, Lauderdale, and Smith, members of well-to-do delta families, capped a long series of lawless acts by the murder of a passenger on a Yazoo and Mississippi Valley train and forced the engineer to uncouple his engine and carry them from Leland, the point where the crime was committed, to Greenville. The people of that entire section arose in protest and demanded the punishment of the men. Confident in their belief based on past experience, that they could not be convicted, Cook and Lauderdale, who were cousins, went to Percy and tendered him a fee, probably the largest ever tendered a lawyer. “ ‘No,” Percy replied, “not for ten times that sum would I appear before a Washington county jury in defense of men for such a crime.’
He then volunteered his services to the state, and it was mainly through his efforts that Cooke, Lauderdale, and Smith were convicted, Cooke and Lauderdale being sentenced to hang, and Smith escaping with a life sentence.’”
