Charleston Had It All #39 The Bingo Trials Begin
By Mildred Reeves Burnett
Deventer schoolhouse was white clapboard with a bell on top and two cloak rooms inside the front door.
One was elevated a step or two with coal storage beneath. On cold days children were warmed by a coal-burning stove.
They delighted in singing during music period while the teacher played for them on an upright piano in the schoolroom.1
Besides the pitcher hand pump behind the school, a privy for the girls and one for the boys stood back there, but all were goodly apart. Each privy contained an out-dated catalog or newspaper. Toilet tissue was unavailable to them.
When a student went to be excused, he or she left a book at the door to be picked up on returning. No other student could be excused if there was a book at the door. Only one person at a time was excused and sometimes on returning, the book was left forgotten. 2
Children took their lunches wrapped in newspaper or brown paper made from grocery sacks. Lunches consisted of peanut butter and crackers, graham cracker and marshmallow cream sandwiches, ham or sausage and biscuit; whatever the family had to eat.
Sometimes children had sliced baked “light bread” instead of biscuits, since Mr. Isaiah Park of Charleston Bakery had a delivery route to country homes charging 10 cents a loaf. 3
Children walked to school. In deep of winter dirt roads were muddy and utterly impossible for children to walk; hence school began April and ended Christmas. Sometime after county roads were graveled, school had regular sessions, but let out four or five weeks for cotton- picking come September. 4
Archibald Cooper, who was janitor at the Deventer school in those long ago days, said winters were so cold and the mud so deep on shoes he’d have to rake the mud out of the school with a hoe.5
The older girls in the school taught the younger students, and were assigned a particular one for the school year. Ozie Franklin married Jim Reeves (my uncle) during her tenure of teaching at Deventer School in the early thirties. Opal Staples and Mary Wilson followed Ozie Reeves. Norma Powers from East Prairie taught there also. 6
Teachers were paid thirty dollars a month by school treasurer, Steve Reeves, a Deventer farmer (my uncle). When the School Board ran out of funds the teachers were issued warrants for the month’s pay. They took the warrants to merchants or others who bought them at a discounted rate. The merchants held onto the warrants, until the school board had enough funds to redeem them. 7
To picture the seriousness of those unique Bingo trials, Clifton Banta, Sr., a young lawyer, along with his wife, Mary Ellen, shuddered at the danger of his disbarment. 8 Tom Brown, Jr. who had thrown his hat in the ring for prosecuting attorney, faced the same dilemma. And there was Circuit Court Clerk Ellis Howlett, whose job hinged on trial outcome as well.
On the lighter side, telephone party-lines likely hadn’t quit ringing since the arrests of the eleven Junior Jaycees at the Watermelon Festival back in August, by folks prattling juicy information they’d gotten from “the horse’s mouth”.
If news wasn’t juicy enough they’d simply embroider on it. There’d be those on party lines listening in to the scuttlebutt and those anxious to use the line. Some individuals listened in as sheer entertainment.
In days before private telephone lines, one line furnished calling service for two to several households. There were simply different telephone ring signals for the households such as a long or a long and short ring. Each party knew its special ring. What a tie-up of telephone party lines there must have been.
Even if the young men on trial got off the hook, they wouldn’t be able to walk into either a barber shop or coffee shop in town without taking a lot of razzing. My, My! What a pickle!
Come let’s slip inside the school room and stand close to the back door and watch and listen to the trials. If darts fly, we can dart out the door. Be real quiet and no one will notice we’re here.
Look, there the so called “jailbirds” are sitting with hats in hand: “Cliff” Banta, Dee Rolwing, Ed Coon, “Peachy” Lutz, Gordon Barks, Enoch Burnett, Tom Brown, Jr., Wyman Beasley, Ellis Howlett, James Atteberry, and Lex May.
While editors and reporters with their pencils wrote, defense attorneys argued that “the framers of the gambling statute had no intention of including such innocent, harmless amusement games as Bingo, and that most persons played the game purely for pleasure and not for petty prizes offered.” 9
Mr. Haw contended, however, that “strictly interpreted, the game should be included since it was being played for money or goods of value.” He argued also that the Jaycees enticed others to gamble by using a loud speaker to invite players to the game. 10
Witnesses for the State included Julian Thompson, Ivan Thompson, Lee Vaughn, C. D. Jackson, the Rev. A. B. Cooper, Lawrence Boyce, and others who outlined the general set-up of the Bingo stand and the method of play.
The State exhibited a number of articles including Bingo cards, buttons, control cards and a number of prizes. Most of the witnesses for the State testified as to the excellent character of the defendants. 11
During testimony, former sheriff C. D. Jackson laughingly remarked that he and former prosecuting Attorney Frank Ashby “played lots of Bingo.” 12
1 info as remembered by Harold Reeves, telephone interview.
2 Ibid 3 Ibid 4 Ibid
5 Archibald Cooper, telephone interview
6 Harold Reeves, telephone interview.
7 Ibid
8 Cliff Banta, Jr., interview.
9 Enterprise Courier Sept. 17
10 Ibid 11 Ibid 12 Ibid
Note: A rundown on families is in mind for proper time, so don’t get hot under the collar.
To Be Continued
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