| Show THE SOUTH CAROLINA INCIDENT I 1 COLUMBIA SQ june on sunday last june ards ard we had bad so a b sp appointment to preach at brother 8 L sloans eighteen miles suit east of bf here we went down in that section of country in the middle of the be week in arder toV to visit left the saints and abd f friends at the appointed time on sunday bund ay the neighbors gathered in to hear bear the plain simple gospel of christ as taught by the latter day saints Sain tsi though our numbers were few we had a time of rejoicing and enjoyed a full now flow of the spirit of god after meeting we answered several questions in regard to the message we bear to the entire satisfaction of those present we stayed with brother sloan that night and before going to bed we enjoyed en oyed ourselves vos singing the songs of zion and bork conversing on on the principles of the gospel elders alders smith sod and patrick were sleeping together at daylight monday morning elder braley came to our bed room and informed us that there were two constables in the house bouse with warrants for our arrest on the charge of vagrancy we dressed as soon as possible and went to meet the constable one of them arose when we entered the room and read the warrant to us of course we bad to submit to toe the arrest the good christians fians of this section have been th holding a large protracted meeting and they all ali claim to have got sanctified and ome come of them got so full of it 16 that they went before the trial justice and got god out warrants war ranta for or our arrest we were taken before trial justice taylor and arraigned tor trial our accuser and the witnesses witness ep with one exception were men we nad never seen fleen before but that did not seem to make any difference they had made up their mauds to convict us and they intended to do so ao so the judge said to one of our friends his henord c alice or the court room was a dingy dilapidated old hut but in one end and was a large stone atone chimney with a fireplace fire place large enough to put a good sized load of wood li it close by the chimney curner corner a tood stood ll 11 the judged desk a flour barrel barre with one end knocked in his seat was an old wooden stool and the rest of us had no seats at all however we managed to find a plank about eight feet long which we stuck through a crack in the huta hut and propped the other end and up this served as aa a seat for the defendants defendant fen fend dant ants at the other end of the court room were the accuser witnesses constables and spectators abou arou around ad on the floor in every conceivable mannor manner whittling sticks aud and squirting their filthy tobacco juice allover all over ube the floor door the constable called the court to order by shouting at the top of his voice hats hate oft offe elder braley was the first one called for trial he entered a plea of not guilty our accuser was the first witness he testified that he bad only seen the defendant once he did not know of his bis having any place of abode in the county or any visible means of support the other witnesses testified to about the same mine thing elder braley then proved beyond a doubt that he was a licensed minister of and had money sufficient to pay his bis expenses after the evidence was all in elder braley arose and plead his bis own case after which the be judge asked the accuser it 11 he be had anything to say BAY he arose and said he be did not have much to say only that we had no right in this country and he threatened it if we did not leave he and his men would put us out in a hurry the judge just sat oat and ana laughed at him the judges name is john taylor he then said the state had bad found elder braley guilty of v vagrancy a 9 and he must pay a line flue of 10 or go to all ail for twenty days elder alvin smith was then called for trial he also plead not guilty the evidence given in his case was similar amilar to that in elder braley bralens Br aleys a he was convicted and the same fine imposed elder patrick was the next one on the program he also plead not guilty after examining two state witnesses his honor arose and said the he state had failed to find a case against himon him on the grou grounds ads that he be was only inthe county on a visit and did not intend to stay long lon elders braley and smith then took an appeal to the coart of general see ee alonto be held in columbia the last of this mouth month their bonds were fixed at 1 each and the court adjourned amid threats of violence and warning us to leave the county or they would put the buggy tugs on our backs they said all manner of evil against us falsely but we refuted their assertions and stood up for the ibe truth like true mormon boys we then started for columbia to get a friend to go our bonds we arrived at mr W H bower bobera Bo wera lo a warm friend to the elders at p m he lives three miles from the city he said he would only be too pleased to go our bonds or do any anything thing he be could to help UP consequently we all started for columbia we arrived there at p m mr bowers jr and elder pali ck started to hunt for a trial jui tice to fix the bonds they hunted until 11 but could not find one in the meantime the he constable had committed the elders to jail until we got the bonds fixed but as the bonds could not be fixed that night they had to remain there all night next morning early we got the bunds fixed and the elders liberated we then hired a lawyer to represent us in the higher court the whole thing was a concocted scheme of a mob with a trial justice at their head bead to got get us out of the country we expect the higher court will over rule the decision or judge taylor all good citizens we have spoken to about it feel indignant there are some good kind friends to the servants of god in this country but there are a great many who love darkness rather loan light because their deeds are evil persecution is a heritage of the faithful and all who live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution we feel to rejoice that bat we have been accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the gospel gospels s sake make the elders in this bis state with one or two exceptions are getting along very nicely in their labors labom we have been successful in bringing quite a number into the fold of christ since the spring opened this little affair will only have a tendency to spread pr 0 ad the truth when a person kicks kick a s mustard plant we the seeds fly and so it is in this case some borne of the newspapers in this aou country seem to encourage such proceedings proceeding yours in the cause of truth W G PATRICK G L BRALEY ALVIN SMITH |
