Daily Tobacco Leaf Chronicle

Was it Made or Not?—What a Member of the County Court Says of It.
To the Tobacco Leaf-Chronicle.

In your issue of March 11th H. C. Merritt states that Judge Tyler failed to comply with the law requiring him to give bond before entering upon his duties as chairman of the county court. This reflection upon the county court is unjust. I suppose Mr. Merritt examined the records of the clerk of the county court's office, where all public bonds should be kept, and failed to find Judge Tyler's bond. If this be so I will state for Mr. Merritt's and the public's information that at the October term after the election of Judge Tyler, he submitted his bond to the county court and it was approved by that body. The first term of the court after the death of P. G. Johnson, who was one of his bondsmen, he offered Mr. Poindexter, cashier of the Franklin Bank, in place of Mr. Johnson, and he was very promptly accepted.

If the bond has not been made as Mr. Merritt charges, then Judge Tyler has perpetrated a fraud and deceived the County court. So much in vindication of the county court. In regard to Judge Tyler's management of county finances. Since its agitation in the press it has attracted general attention, and been a great deal discussed. And I have not found a man, whether friend or foe of Judge Tyler, that approves of his course in remaining silent, and none who know him personally that believes he has appropriated one dollar of the county money to his own use. If it be true, as charged, that nearly eight hundred thousand dollars in taxes and bonds has been paid to liquidate a debt of two hundred and fifty thousand, and over one hundred thousand of that debt still unpaid, there must be bad management somewhere, and the tax-payers certainly have the right to demand of Judge Tyler how this money has been used.

MEMBER OF COUNTY COURT.