MISSING RECORDS.
A Matter of Importance to Land Owners.

During the war several of the county records were destroyed and many people own lands the titles of which are not on record at all.

Legislative enactment provides for those whose deeds were recorded in the lost books to have them recorded again.  The books destroyed were B, D, E, F, J, K, L, M, N, and O.  Parties can look up their old deeds and compare with this list and they can determine whether they are on record or not.

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BURY HER DEAD
Officials Will Appeal To Prison Commission To Bury Convicts.

Atlanta Journal.

A case is now before the state authorities, which will in all probability bring about a settlement of the question of whether or not the state is to prepare for burial, under the new law, convicts who die in the camps.  Under the old law the attorney general held that the lessees of the convicts had to prepare them for burial when application was made for their bodies.

When a convict dies his body is put in the vat and preserved in alcohol for sixty days, at the expiration of which time, no one having claimed it, the body is turned over to the state medical board and used as a “subject.”  If, however, application is made for the body within sixty days, it must be turned over to the applicant prepared for burial by the anatomical board of Georgia colleges, who own the vat and promised to bear the expense of burial of those whose bodies were applied for.

This question was settled at the time Bankston, said to have been whipped to death, died at the Bartow camps.  Now that the lessees have been relieved by the new law of the expense of the preparation of the bodies for burial, it remains to be determined whether the state will bear the expense when confronted with the refusal of the college representatives to do so.

On April 18 E. S. Burt, of Oglethorpe, died at the Bartow camp, known to the convicts as Sugar Hill.  Application has been made for his body, which is now in the vat.  As the body was perfectly nude and the applicant was unable by reason of poverty to obtain a coffin, the body could not be removed because the anatomical board refused to shoulder any expense.  The matter was brought before the governor, who showed unusual feeling, exclaiming with trembling voice:

“Cannot Georgia bury her dead?  I do not care what a man’s crimes have been; after he is dead we still owe him the debt of humanity.”  Burt had been convicted of arson.  The governor visited the office of the prison commission to see if anything could be done, but found that in the absence of the commission he was powerless.  It is well known at the capitol that not long ago, under similar circumstances, the governor paid out of his pocket all expenses incurred in the preparation and burial of a convict whose mother had applied for aid.

Only a few weeks ago the governor paid out of his private means for the transportation of a dead lunatic whose relatives had appealed to him.

A prominent official said:
“Governor Candler has secretly helped many unfortunates who have appealed to him in his official capacity, not knowing that he was powerless, and he has always assisted them and always out of his private purse.”

When asked about the case Attorney General Terrell said:
“I am helpless.  The commission will take this matter up and it will be settled and some permanent rule adopted, or if it be found that no law authorizing them to act exists, effort will be made at the next legislature to have one passed.”

He said some provisions must be made for the decent burial of the dead by the state as the relatives were generally too poor to accomplish it.

The case will be taken up with the commission as soon as it returns.  The attorney general, in his capacity as legal advisor, can do nothing until the commission calls upon him for advice.

Gov. Candler declared that he would not rest until some provision was made by which dead convicts would be properly buried, saying that if no law existed he would push the passage of one when the next legislature meets.

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Page 12.

Five Forks, May 3.—By the way, it is reported that Mr. J. F. Fowler, our worthy constable, is happy beyond comparison—it is a fine new girl.