Typed as spelled and written
Lena Stone Criswell

THE MARLIN DEMOCRAT
Eighteenth Year - Number 12
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, May 16, 1907
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Fined for Carrying a Gun.
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       In county court Friday Sam Smith, a one-legged negro, was convicted on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon on his person.
       Sam "fit" the case to a finish, and was tried before a jury.  His line of defense was that he had no pistol.  That the instrument he flourished was not a pistol at all but one of those glass affairs in which candy pellets are sometimes encased.  He swore that he meant no harm, but was "a foolin."
       The jury attached just enough importance to what he said to let him off with a 30-day-jail sentence and a hundred dollar fine.  It could have been worse, but Sam thinks it is a plenty.

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printing by The Democrat, Marlin, Falls Co., Texas