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Horrible Tragedy   Guthrie, Ky., Feb. 10. -  Early this morning George Rawlings, a farmer living near St. Bethlehem, Tenn.,  arose and went to the barn to feed, leaving his wife sick in bed, and the cook, a negro man named Jim Gordon in the kitchen preparing breakfast.  As soon as he thought all were  at the barn, the negro went in to Mrs. Rawlings' room and asked her for the money Mr. Rawlings had put away.  She at once began to call for her husband and a lady that was in the house.  But when she screamed and before help came, he sprang upon her and cut her throat, killing her instantly.  The screams of the two ladies, however, called Mr. Rawlings to the scene, while the negro ran back into the kitchen trying to escape. Before he could get out of the house the enraged husband shot him three times and then beat his head into a jelly with the butt of the gun.  The  people all over the country are wild with excitement and would have mobbed the negro if the husband had not done the work himself.   The motive of the crime was clear- ly robbery, as the woman's purse, with about $8 in it, was found on the  negro's person.  He had taken it from beneath her pillow.  About two weeks ago he had come sudden- ly into her room with an armful of  wood and seen her counting about  $80. She had reported the occurrence to her husband, begging that he bank the money at once.  Yesterday he die so.  The negro had planned for his crime with great ingenuity, wrapping a heavy red table cover about his right arm, evidently mean- ing to catch all possible blood upon it and burn it up in the stove.   The murdered woman was one of the most beautiful girls ever reared in Montgomery county, a daughter of W. H. Killebrew, one of the lead- ing planters in this section.  She was just 20 years old, and had been mar- ried only a year last Christmas.  The husband, brothers and sisters and aged mother and father of the victim are nearly crazed with grief.   The families of the husband and wife are among the best people in the county, and the husband a well- to do farmer.

---------------------------------- For Sale--- Two Second-Hand Buggies cheap.  Apply to          B.E. Boone, Elkton, Ky. ----------------------------- PLEASANT GROVE.   Miss Berrie McBride' is visiting friends in the Grove this week.   Miss Verna Dill is q2uite sick at this writing.   Miss Babe Due was visiting Miss Florence Hadden last Sunday.   Rev. Sweeney preached an inter- esting sermon at the Grove last Sunday. Jim Talley, of the Forest Grove neighborhood, was in our midst last week on business.   C. E. Cartwright and family were visiting friends in the Grove last Saturday and Sunday.   The singing at Monroe Gresham's was highly appreciated and attended by a large crowd Saturday night.   We are glad to report that L. B.  Bennet, who has been sick for the past six weeks, is up again.   Tom Stigal was in our midst last week on business.            RED AND WHITE ROSES. --------------------------------------   Elkton is soon to lose its clever citizen, Mr. T.L. Porter, who, together with his wife and Miss Rheba Williams, are going to Clarks- ville to reside.  They will probably leave Monday, as nearly all of their household effects have been shipped. Dr. S. M. Lowry will occupy Mr. Porter's residence. ------------------------- V. B. Nuckols,               ...Coal Dealer. 25 bushels best Screened Nut....$3.12 25 bushels best Lump................$3.75 Prompt delivery.  Telephone both  at yard and residence. -----------------------------

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------------------------------- Dr. J. W. Stephens had stolen from him about six weeks ago a splendid saddle, and until Wednes- day evening had given up all hope of recovering it, but a "lucky throw" brought him in contact once more with his long-lost property and he wasn't long in taking advantage of it.  A colored man, who claimed to  have recently bought it for $2.00 from a white man, was in possession at the time Dr. Stephens reclaimed it and offered little resistance in giving it up.  Rastus rode bare back home, and Dr. Stephens in con- gratulating himself on his good luck. ---------------------------------- Great opportunity offered to good, reliable men.  Salary of $15 per week and expenses for man with rig to introduce our Poultry Mixture and Insect Destroyer in the country. Send Stamp. American Mfg. Co., Terra Haute, Ind. ------------------------- Buy your Seed and Farming Im- plements of Wells, Miller & Perkins. ----------------------------- A Costly Fire.   Thursday evening at 6 o'clock the handsome residence of Mrs. Cynthia Sullivan caught fire and was, together with most of its contents, distroyed.(sic)  The fire originated in an upstairs room while the family were at supper, and when discovered had gained such head way as to be beyond control. A large crowd soon gath- ered and by quick work succeeded in saving several hundred dollars' worth of household goods.   This residence was, perhaps, one of the most substantially built houses in the county and cost, when erected, about $10,000.  It was furnished in elegant style.  The total loss is esti- mated at $11,000, insured for $5,500. -------------------------------------- Marriage licence was granted Wed- nesday to Mr. J. Edward Thomas and Miss Leticia Rudd. ---------------------------------- COMMISSIONER'S SALES.   By order of the Todd Circuit Court J. R. Mallory, Master Commissioner, last Monday disposed of the follow- ing:   Martha Fulcher's administrator vs. Rhoda Fulcher; a small country place. Bought in by Dr. L.P. Trabue, for $53.00.   H.W. Bibb vs. Wes Calloway; 5 acres land at Old Allensville.  Bid in by W. B. Reeves, Jr.; for $210.00.   G.W. Grisham's administrator vs. Mr. Emma Grisham, et al; small tract of land near Kirkmansville. Bought in by Charles Robinson for $225.00.   Mary Harrell vx. Robert Harrell, et al; 2 tracts of land 5 miles north of Elkton, containing 80 acres. Bought in by B.B. Petrie for $571.   Safty Building and Loan Company vs. James L. Cardin, et al; farm near Trenton containing 280 acres. Bought by A. H. Cardin for $4,500. -----------------------

Letter From            The Philippines   Mrs. Mattie J. Howard, of Clifty, is in receipt of the following letter from her cousin, Charles L. Latham, of Co. C, 6th U.S. Infantry, now in the Philippine Islands. It is dated December 20, 1899:   Your letter of September 27th was received yesterday.  You see it takes quite a while for news to reach us here in the orient.  I began to think  you had not answered the letter I wrote from Jare.  When coming in from guard-duty I found your's  awaiting me. Being on first relief I was compelled to go on post duty at once. Had it not been on post duty at guard house where there is always on duty an officer, I should certainly have violated orders by reading while on duty. I did not, however; but it was the longest two hours I have passed since I came to this side of the earth.   You asked what our amusements  were; and if I had anything to read, in order to dispel the monotony of life as a soldier. Amusements are few indeed.  As to reading--I have some old letters in my locker, which I read and re-read.  Except these I have nothing save a work on rhet- oric which I bought of a comrade.  It was a commong belief among the boys before we left Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, that we would be supplied with books and stationery by the Y.M.G.A., but except about one half-dozen sheets of paper and same number of envelopes, which we received while on transport coming over, we have had neither books, paper, nor envelopes furnished to us. What stationery we buy is of very inferior quality and extravagant in price- we pay 25 cents for six sheets.   It would excite your laughter and disgust to see how the natives dress when they dress at all. Some of the men wear a shirt without other gar- ments, some pants without a shirt, some shoes or hat, while others are almost nude. The better class of  women dress in style much as do the Japanese.   Most of the next lower grade will adorn thewsleves in a skirt with a pair of enormouse ear-rings. All of them smoke, and you would laugh to see a woman with a basket of banannas and cocoanuts on her head, come trotting down the street with a cigar as large as your thumb and  six inches in length, making more  smoke than Pete Shadowen's tar-kiln. After smoking they eat the askes of their cigars and chew the stump.  I  have seen some old women who would take a knife, bore the nicotine from the sides and bottom of her rank old pipe and eat it with appar- ent relish.   They live in bamboo huts with thatched roofs- have no chairs or seatts of any character. One is forci- bly reminded of the Indian in his wigwam. They are fond of fishing. Often you will see them packing their nets in small fishing junks,  with a pot of boiled rice and a jug of water, row out into the bay and remain five or six days, and even longer with no other subsistance than rice and water.  Their water jugs are made of bamboo, six or eight feet long by about four inches  in diameter. They have also water pots which remind us of the pictures we see in the Bible. These are principally used for carrying a pro- duct of the cocoanut tree, called tuba. This tuba looks and taste something like our apple cider. It is obtained by cutting off the end of the young shoots of the tree that  would have produced cocoanuts, and catching the sap in bamboo buckets. Early every morning from twenty to fifty girls and women come in s____ file down the street with a p_______ tuba on their heads and a small ____ of rice in their hands. This _______ when fresh sells for one ducko____ pint. A ducko equals one half ___ (American).   The natives cook their sowsow (a term to denote anything to eat), in little earthenware pots varying from one pint to two gallons in size. Preparing a meal for themselves is a very simple task. They boil some rice with a small fish; place this in the center of the room and all squat in a circle around the pot, using  their hands instead of knives, forks or spoons. The way they throw the rice into their mouths is a wonder to see, jabbering away all the while like a gang of ducks or geese around a basket of corn.   Their beast of burden is the water buffalo, a very clumsy and uncouth animal. Their vehicle is a prim____ tive cart, to which they attach one buffalo.  They are indeed a very primative people.  Were I with you at____ by a good warm fire I could tell you more of Philippine life, customs and manner than I could write in a long while. ___________________________

Transcibed by Karen Combs  © 2001.
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