Cashier of Bank of Midland Charged with Arson, June 17, 1926

Blakeney Charged with Arson; Out on $10,000 Bond. . . Cashier of Bank of Midland When it Burned, Arrested in Charlotte Yesterday Afternoon. . . Scott Had the Warrant Issued. . . Father and Uncle of Defendant Sign Bond—Preliminary Hearing June 22nd Here

Carl T. Blakeney, cashier of the Bank of Midland when it was burned several weeks ago, was arrested yesterday on a warrant issued by W.A. Scott, State deputy insurance commissioner. The warrant charges are arson.

Mr. Blakeney was arrested at his home at 527 Sunnyside Avenue, Charlotte, by detectives who were sent there by Deputy Sheriff Honeycutt of Cabarrus County, and Commissioner Scott, who went to Charlotte during the afternoon and turned the warrant over to the Charlotte officers for service.

Later in the afternoon the officers returned to concord with Mr. Blakeney, who was taken before ‘Squire G.M. Lore, who set his bond at $10,000. The bond was immediately raised by W.S. and P.P. Blakeney, uncle and father, respectively, of the defendant. The bondsmen reside in Monroe, it is said, the former being president of the Bank of Union.

Mr. Blakeney, it was stated, did not discuss the case at all, except to say that he had worked hard for the bank and did not deserve to have a crime laid against him. Before leaving Charlotte he communicated with relatives and his uncle and father arrived from Monroe shortly after he arrived from Charlotte.

Mr. Blakeney told the officers, they said, that he had not been working in Charlotte, where he has been living since the latter part of May. He expected to get lined up shortly, he said, and start to work there.

After the bond was signed, ‘Squire Lore set June 22 as the date for the preliminary hearing, to be held in Concord. Mr. Blakeney has retained Frank Armfield of the local bar and the State will be assisted by H.S. Williams and Harsell & Hartsell, also of the local bar.

The Bank of Midland was burned early on the morning of April 8th while Mr. Blakeney was at work in it. The building was completely destroyed along with some of the records and books on which the defendant has been quoted as saying he was working. Bank examiners took the cash and books from the safe several hours after the fire had been extinguished and later the American Trust Company of Charlotte was named receiver for the bank at the request of bank examiners.

Mr. Blakeney has been quoted as saying that he was struck on the head by some unknown party or parties who set fire to the bank, after robbing or trying to rob it. He was found near the front corner of the bank by persons who first reached the fire and was under the care of a physician for several days.

Mr. Blakeney went to the bank about 4:30 o’clock on the morning of the fire, it was said, following a custom he established soon after becoming cashier of the bank. Often when business was heavy, he is said to have stated, he went to the bank at an early hour to get in a full day. He had been in the bank for half an hour or more when the fire was discovered.

Bank examiners, so far as is known, have never made a public report of the check-up they made of the money taken from the safe. Whether robbers took any on the morning of the fire has not been stated, since the examiners have not made a report.

It is said that a number of prominent men of the county have been summoned as witnesses by the State.

From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, June 17, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-17/ed-1/seq-1/

James McAllister Christmas Fund for Cross Creek Township Negroes, June 17, 1926

Trust Fund Created of Negro’s Possessions. . . Left His Property to Multi-Millionaire Who Will Create Fund

By International News Service

Fayetteville, June 16—Enhancement in value of a little cottage of a humble old negro drayman who died here three years back and left all his possessions to a multi-millionaire has resulted in the creation of a $5,000 Christmas fund for the benefit of Cross Creek Township negroes.

W.W. Fuller, New York lawyer, is the donor of the trust, which will be known as the James McAllister Christmas Fund, bearing the old negro’s name.

The little home on a Fayetteville side street has increased in value since his death, and the millionaire, finding it worth more money than the slave-negro ever dreamed of possessing himself, converted into a trust fund to be administered by three Cumberland County citizens. The trust consists of 8 per cent preferred stock of the Bethlehem Steel Company.

“When I have been in trouble or needed help or advice,” the old negro’s will read, “I knew where to turn, and Mr. Willie never failed me. He may not need my little home . . . but he will know better what to do with it than I; and in this I want to show my appreciation of what he has done for me.”

Among McAllister’s possessions was the horse and dray which he had driven on the streets of Fayetteville for years. This was kept by the beneficiary of the will, and is now at Fuller’s winter home at Pinehurst, where a canopy has been built to preserve it. And there the two-wheeled dray will remain, compelling proof that sentiment is not dead.

From page 4 of The Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, June 17, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-17/ed-1/seq-4/

W.B. Ellis Given Road Terms for Criminal Libel, June 17, 1926

W.B. Ellis Is Given Road Term; Appeals. . . Winston-Salem Man Is Convicted in City Court in Two Cases Charging Criminal Libel

Winston-Salem, June 16—W.B. Ellis, manufacturer and capitalist of this city, was this morning sentenced to serve four months on the county roads in each of two cases charging him with criminal libel, the sentences to run concurrent. The judgment, rendered in the municipal court, was appealed from and bond was fixed at $500.

The cases charging Mr. Ellis with libel grew out of the issuing over a period of several years pamphlets in which the character of various local men were attacked. The specific warrants were issued on the strength of pamphlets recently gotten out, in both of which he charged that certain attorneys perjured themselves on the witness stand in the case wherein several local attorneys and attorneys from out of town were suing Ellis for a $15,000 fee which he refused to pay them for their appearance for him in a case last year.

The character of the attorneys appearing for him last year, numbering several local and prominent lawyers, is also ridiculed in the pamphlets.

From page 4 of The Concord Daily Tribune, Thursday, June 17, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-17/ed-1/seq-4/

Unable to Face Second Crop Failure, Henry Hutchen, 58, Kills Himself, June 16, 1926

Fearing Failure of Crop, Yadkin Farmer Ends Life

Elkin, June 14—the funeral of Henry Hutchens, aged 58, who committed suicide by hanging himself in his barn at his home near Boonville, was conducted yesterday from Forbus Friend’s Church in Yadkin.

No motive for the deed other than worry over the outlook of a second crop failure on account of drought, could be suggested.

The funeral was conducted with honors from the Junior O.U.A.M. The attendance was estimated at 3,000.

From page 4 of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 16, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-16/ed-1/seq-4/

Convicted Murderer Allowed to Sit at Side of Dying Child, June 16, 1926

Paroled to Go to See Sick Child

Raleigh, June 15—Some may maintain that “there ain’t no such animal” when it comes to tender hearted or sympathetically included State officials, especially when it concerns the question of paroles. But in North Carolina things are done different, because things are different here.

Today T.K. Smith is at his little home in Anson county at the bedside of one of his sick children. Smith is serving a sentence of 10 years in State prison here for homicide, and has already completed about four years’ time. Yesterday he was informed that one of his children weas very ill and might not live. H. Hoyle Sink was advised of the facts of the case, and he was granted a parole until Thursday at 6 p.m. And today is back with his family, the first time in four years. No officer went with him, but he will be back at the prison Thursday afternoon.

Yes, it is different in North Carolina.

From page 4 of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 16, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-16/ed-1/seq-4/

Cars Related to Serious Increase in Out-of-Wedlock Births, June 17, 1926

This One of Our Greatest Problems

From a news story in the New York World we learn that 42 per cent of unmarried mothers cared for in the last two years in 15 Salvation Army homes in the Eastern territory were school girls of an average age of 16, Col. Margaret Boville, in direct charge of that branch of the Army’s work, said recently in a statement covering a survey made June 9th. Of these, one was 12, one 13, and many 14 and 15, she said.

Of the total of 397 unmarried mothers cared for, 169 were of 16 average and 137 of the 397 blamed automobile flirtations for their troubles.

Philadelphia had the greatest percentage of mothers of school age with a mark of 75 per cent. In New York “City the percentage was only 20, while Boston with 13 had the smallest per centage.

“Twenty years ago,” said Colonel Boville in her statement, “our resuce homes were always filled with woman of mature age who had deliberately degraded themselves. This is not t the situation today.

“In spite of reforms, such as doing away with red-light districts, the Salvation Army now has in this territory twice the number of maternity homes it operated in these urid days of the past, and they are all filled to capacity—by whom? Not by professional, but by school children, many of whom have been obliged to leave their desks in high or elementary grads to go direct to our institutions.

“The average age of these girls is 16. Any intelligent observer will see what this means. To have an average of 16 means that we must have an astounding number of girls who are becoming mothers between the ages of 11 and 14. “In a majority of cases we find the same cause—automobiles with predatory drivers. In hundreds of cases we have found girls either on the way to school or on the way home from school have been picked up by men in automobiles with disastrous results.

“In other words, we have relatively few deliberate and consciously bad women in our institutions. Those we have now mostly are girls good at heart, most of them with good homes, but who, as a result of indifference toward personal control or any kind of moral or ethical guidance, have allowed themselves to make mistakes.”

The cities covered in the survey and the per cent of girls whose age averages 16 in the Salvation Army maternity homes of each of these cities follow:

Philadelphia, 75 per cent; Jersey City, 60 per cent; Pittsburgh, 50 per cent; Buffalo, 40 per cent; Cincinnati (white) 70 per cent; Cincinnati (Negro) 60 per cent; Birmingham, 25 per cent; Boston, 13 per cent; Cleveland (white) 22 per cent; Cleveland (Negro) 60 per cent; Louisville, 20 per cent; New York City, 20 per cent; Richmond, 40 per cent.

It is this “indifference toward personal control or guidance” that creates the great problem for parents and for civilization. Apparently our young people have the “don’t care” attitude and that more than anything else accounts for the number of unmarried mothers of youthful years.

Figures quoted here furnish seed for deep thought. This is a very serious question, one that demands co-operation between the parent, the home, the school and the Church. These youthful mothers not only ruin their own lives in most instances, but worse still they bring into the world children that have no chance. The children are born in rescue homes and after a while are turned loose with the mother to get along as best they can. Such influences are not conducive to better citizenship.

Lack of inspiration, we heard a speaker say recently, is the greatest curse of the average young man today. It’s lack of inspiration all right, along with lack of regard for public opinion and the rules of nature that ruin so many young men and young women. When we can get the youths to strive for things they will protect their bodies, but so long as they drift along without aim or ambition, their immorality will ever increase.

From page 4 of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 16, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-16/ed-1/seq-4/

Children Can Catch Typhoid Playing in Polluted Streams, June 16, 1926

Kiddies Must Not Wade in Polluted Streams. . . Always Danger of Contracting Typhoid Fever, Physician Points Out

The season of outdoor sports is at hand but there is one, indulged in for the most part by kiddies, that must be watched, a Concord physician stated Tuesday.

That is the habit of wading in streams that appear pleasing to the eye. Grave danger of contracting typhoid fever is being encountered by many youngsters who are being allowed to go wading and swimming in polluted streams, the physician stated, after he had noticed a number of kiddies enjoying life in a stream that is not as clean as it should be for such sport.

“In such cases,” the physician stated, “it is impossible to keep the youngsters from putting their hands to their mouths, and it is in this fashion that the disease is contracted. Parents must see to it that their children are kept out of those streams if the proper safeguard is to be taken.” In a number of instances the doctor said, he knows that children contracted typhoid fever from dirty streams.

Only a very few cases of typhoid fever have been reported in Cabarrus county in recent years, a survey of the records shows, health authorities having been active in removing fever sources as far as possible. In addition, hundreds of persons have been inoculated, the city water supply is constantly watched and everything else done to rid the city and county of this dread malady.

Where persons have not been inoculated, the physician urges that this be done at once, either by the family physician or at the county health department.

From page 2 of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 16, 1926

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1926-06-16/ed-1/seq-2/