W. S. Talbert on Trial for Murder – Presentment of the Grand Jury.

CAMDEN, Sept. 10. – Special – The court acquitted John A. Blackwell, white, of perjury yesterday afternoon, and commenced this morning the trial of W. S. Talbert for the killing of his second cousin, H. T. West, in a drunken brawl near Kershaw, on June 3d, 1891. The court house is crowded, there being hardly standing room. Messrs. Trantham and Clarke are defending Talbert.

The grand jury’s presentment, Joel Hough, foreman, which was read in court today, is a long paper, on which there was evidently done a great deal of hard work, and the judge justly commended the grand jury for their careful and painstaking attention to duty. The books of the county officers, as far as examined, were found all right, and several roads and bridges are discussed. The most important suggestion is, that the present fiscal year be extended to December 31, 1891, and make thereafter the same as the calendar year, and that the time for payment of taxes be discontinued on the 15th of December, and at no time extended, all, of which it is thought, ill prevent mistakes in paying claims for moneys belonging to the money fiscal year, as has recently been done, and which has caused the apparent trouble in the school commissioner’s office. The matters will be given to the public more fully when the pending settlement of our county officials is completed.

The experts employed by the grand jury only found that the county treasurer had paid some $600 of school claims out of the moneys belonging to another fiscal year, which the treasurer states would have been prevented if the school commissioner had given him a descriptive list of all approved claims.