Direct Examination

Direct Examination.-Witness lives in Tuscaloosa; knows Ryland Randolph; was present and saw tho difficulty be- tween Randolph and Eddins; it grow out of a fight between- Hollingsworth and a negro named Brown; Hollingsworth and Brown were fighting; for sometime nobody interfered; finally they were parted; the difficulty seemed to be over; Eddins came up armed with a big stick, cursing the white people, and swearing they shouldn’t run over his brother; Hollingsworth came out of the store and, walked through the crowd ¿of negroes; didn’t think Hollingsworth had seen Eddins; Eddins struck Hollingsworth with n stick; about the same time Hollingsworth threw a piece of iron at Eddins; Eddins was about to strike Hollingsworth again, when Randolph came* up from the opposite side of the street; there were several persons between Randolph and Eddins; Randolph spoke “to Eddins and fired his pistol; the pistol was vated; the ball struck tho wall ton or twelve feet from the ground; Eddins run at Randolph as soon as the pistol was fired and struck at him with his stick; Randolph, witness thought, caught the blow on his arm; they clinched and Randolph cut Eddins with a knife; don’t know in how many places Eddins was cut; they separated; and Eddins wont one way and Randolph went the other; there were several persons between¡Randolph and Eddins when the pistol was fired; the pistol was elevated enough to go above all their heads; didn’t think Randolph shot at Eddins; ho couldn’t have done it without probably hitting others; this occurred in Tuscaloosa on a Saturday, about the 28th of March; lit was about 15 or 20 steps from where the fight was to Foster’s corner; after the alleged stabbing, Randolph went towards his office, in an opposite direction from Foster’s corner; saw Hollingsworth and Eddins in a fight before Randolph came up; Eddins struck Hollingsworth twice with a stick; didn’t’ see anybody strike Eddins after he and Randolph parted; didn’t see Hollingsworth use a knife in his fight with Eddins; Hollingsworth used a knife in his fight with Brown; from Eddins’s position when he fell, Randolph could not have thrown a brick-bat or rock to-hit him; they were about 30 steps apart; saw Eddins strike at Randolph twice before they clinched; before Eddins struck Randolph, Randolph told him not co strike that white. man; didn’t see Eddins fall at Foster’s corner; Randolph did not appear to shoot at any particular person; he fired over the heads of the crowd; witness is 54 years old; has lived in Tuscaloosa since 1832; the stick used by Eddins was a very largo one Edding’s conduct was very violent; ho was cursing generally everybody there; he said they shouldn’t run over his brother; Brown is not Eddins’s brother.