Typed as spelled and written
Lena Stone Criswell

THE MARLIN DEMOCRAT
Eighteenth Year - Number (Missing)
Marlin, Texas, Thursday, August 22, 1907
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Two Negroes Engage in Mortal Combat
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       Joe Mason and John Kennedy, two negroes employed at the Fannin livery stables engaged in mortal combat at ten o'clock this morning.
       The scene of the conflict was at the stable east of the Central tracks and for a time it seemed the fight was to the death.  Joe was armed with a hammer and a pair of mule shears and John was armed with a hoe.  It was a toss up as to which got the worst of it, but when they finally separated each one looked like he had been through a slaughter house and needed the services of a surgeon to close the wounds and stanch the flow of blood.
       John was struck in a numbere of places on the head and one ugly wound inflicted.  Joe was also struck on the head several times with the hoe and his head would have been a good subject for a phrenological examination.  The fact that all blows were landed on the head explains why neither negro was not killed, probably.  The same number of blows of the same force directed in the neighborhood of the solar plexus or the heel would have undoubtedly put them out of commission for an indefinite time.
       Joe was prevented from using the shears by John closing in on him and pressing him close to the ground.  As Joe is said to be an expert at handling shears he would have likely turned out a neat and artistic job had not John's superior strength and activity prevented him.

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