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