Typed as spelled and written
Lena Stone Criswell

THE MARLIN DEMOCRAT
Eighteenth Year - Number 14
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, May 30, 1907
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AFRAID TO LEAVE GUN AT HOME.
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       Was the Negro's Defense But It Did
Not Work.
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       Will Walker, a negro denizen of the Hog Island baliwick, plead guilty to a pistol charge in county court today and was fined a hundred plunks and the perqusites, which brought it up to $122.  The negro is a tenant on George Lenoir's farm and George paid the cash and carried Walker home.
       Walker's defense was out of the ordinary.  He was at a revival meeting and the preacher was  expounding the word when some other negro "jostled" Walker and the gun fell from his pocket to the floor.  His excuse was that he left his children at and was afraid they would get the pistol and hurt themselves.  His explanation failed to explain to the satisfaction of the court.

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Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers for
printing by The Democrat, Marlin, Falls Co., Texas