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Title: Type of News Writing
Author: Bleyer, Willard Grosvenor
Language: English
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Libraries.)
TYPES OF NEWS WRITING
BY
WILLARD GROSVENOR BLEYER, PH.D.
_Author of “Newspaper Writing and Editing” and Professor of
Journalism in the University of Wisconsin_
[Illustration]
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY WILLARD GROSVENOR BLEYER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE · MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A
PREFACE
This book has been prepared with the purpose of furnishing students
of journalism and young reporters with a large collection of typical
news stories. For college classes it may be used as a textbook. For
newspaper workers it is offered as a handbook to which they may turn,
in a particular case, to find out what news to get, where to get it,
and how to present it effectively. Every young writer on a newspaper
is called upon to do kinds of reporting in which he lacks experience.
If, with the aid of an index, he can turn readily to several instances
where more experienced writers have solved problems like his own, he
will undertake his new task with a clearer idea of what to do and how
to do it.
For systematic instruction in news writing it is desirable that
students have in convenient form representative stories for study and
analysis. Newspapers, it might be thought, would furnish this material,
but experience has shown that it is often difficult to find, in current
issues of newspapers, examples of the particular kind of story under
consideration, and it is likewise difficult to supply every student
in a large class with a copy of the issue that happens to contain the
desired example.
The selection of specimens for this book has been determined largely
by two considerations: first, that the news which the story contains
should be typical, rather than extraordinary or “freakish”; and second,
that the story should present the news effectively. It has been assumed
that the student must first learn to handle average news well in order
to grapple successfully with extraordinary happenings. A considerable
part of the book deals with more or less routine news, because it is
with this type that a large portion of the reporter’s work is concerned.
Since newspapers are read rapidly, it has been taken for granted that a
story is most effective when its structure and style enable the reader
to get the news with the least effort and the greatest interest. Many
pieces of news can best be treated in a simple, concise style, with the
essential facts well massed in a summary lead. Such straightforward
presentation does not mean that the style must be bald and unoriginal.
The examples illustrative of this purely informative type of news story
are generally marked by a simplicity and directness of expression that
are characteristic of good journalistic style.
Informative news stories in which the so-called “human interest”
element has been developed have also been included in considerable
number, not only because they are perennially popular, but because
some news may be presented very effectively by bringing out its human
interest phases. As a type distinct from these stories with news of
some value are those entertaining and appealing stories, containing
little or no real news, that are generally known as “feature” or “human
interest” stories. Both of these types illustrate the application to
news writing of recognized methods of fiction. The use of these methods
is entirely commendable. The danger for the reporter lies in failure
to discriminate between fiction and its methods. To use the devices
of fiction in order to portray faithfully actual events is one thing;
to substitute fictitious details in order to heighten the effect is
quite another. No stories have been included in this book that are
unquestionably fictitious. Some that may have imaginary details have
been given to furnish material for discussion.
The examples presented here are not put forward as models for the
student to imitate in every respect. Few news stories are perfect
in structure and style. The conditions under which they are written
and edited make careful revision almost impossible. For the purpose
of analysis, work that is not so well done as it might have been is
valuable as showing the student what to avoid in his own writing.
The stories have been grouped in chapters partly on the basis of
subject matter and partly on that of the methods used. This arrangement
has been adopted not as a complete classification of news, but rather
as a convenient grouping for purposes of study. In each chapter has
been included a brief discussion of the chief points to be considered
in analyzing and in writing the type of story in that division. None of
the points has been treated at length owing to lack of space and to the
fact that most of them have been taken up in detail by the author in
another textbook, “Newspaper Writing and Editing.”
Attention has been called in each chapter to the underlying purpose
that should determine the selection and the presentation of the kind of
news included in that group. This has been done in the belief that the
reporter should consider carefully the probable effect on the reader of
every story that he writes. Since “the food of opinion is the news of
the day,” the kind of food that he serves and the manner in which he
serves it is a matter of consequence, not only to him and his newspaper
but to society as a whole. Not until a reporter realizes the influence
that his news stories may have on the ideas and ideals of thousands of
readers, does he appreciate fully the significance of his work. The
possibilities of what has been termed “constructive journalism” have
been dwelt upon at some length because it is evident that well-edited
papers are undertaking more and more to present the news so that it
will have a wholesome effect on their readers.
The selections in this book have been taken from daily newspapers
in all parts of the country and may be said to illustrate current
practice. The name of the paper has been attached to each example, not
only in acknowledgment of the credit due, but in an effort to lead the
student to consider the story from the point of view of the policy of
the paper and of the character of the readers to whom it appeals. The
student should compare all of the stories taken from each paper and
should, if possible, examine the current issues.
Although it has not seemed desirable to print the examples in so small
type as that commonly used in newspapers, the column width has been
retained in order to reproduce, as far as possible, the effect of the
original form. Headlines have not been given because they are not
an integral part of the story. In a few instances stories have been
condensed when it was possible to do so without destroying the effect.
For obvious reasons names and addresses have frequently been changed,
and errors that escaped notice have been corrected in a number of the
stories.
The author is deeply indebted to Alice Haskell Bleyer for invaluable
suggestions and criticism in connection with every detail of this book.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON,
_January_ 20, 1916.
CONTENTS
I. NEWS WRITING 1
II. THE STUDY OF NEWS STORIES 6
AN OUTLINE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF NEWS STORIES 12
III. FIRES AND ACCIDENTS 15
IV. POLICE NEWS AND CRIME 46
V. CRIMINAL AND CIVIL COURTS 76
VI. INVESTIGATIONS, LEGISLATION, AND MEETINGS 107
VII. SPEECHES, INTERVIEWS, AND REPORTS 126
VIII. EXHIBITIONS, ENTERTAINMENTS, AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS 141
IX. ILLNESS AND DEATH 168
X. POLITICS AND ELECTIONS 179
XI. LABOR TROUBLES AND STRIKES 186
XII. WEATHER 192
XIII. SPORTS 200
XIV. SOCIETY 221
XV. MISCELLANEOUS LOCAL NEWS 232
INDEX 261
TYPES OF NEWS WRITING
CHAPTER I
NEWS WRITING
=Contents of newspapers.= The average daily newspaper includes a
larger amount and variety of reading matter than most readers realize.
In one issue of a large daily paper, which contains from 60,000 to
80,000 words exclusive of advertising, are usually to be found examples
of practically every type of literary composition. The contents range
from news of accidents and crime to humorous and serious verse, from
market reports to a short story or a chapter of a novel, from dramatic
and musical criticism to cooking recipes and cosmetic formulas, from
argumentative editorials to reports of boxing matches and baseball
games. Vivid description, spirited narrative, critical appreciation,
logical argument, lucid explanation, moving pathos, vigorous appeals,
wit and humor--all are often exemplified in a single issue of a
well-edited newspaper. Scarcely any other form of publication has
regularly so great a variety of writing as the daily newspaper. Thus,
although a newspaper is ordinarily thought of solely as a medium for
the publication of current news and editorials, the average daily paper
supplies its readers with much entertaining reading matter as well as
considerable advice and useful information.
=Classification of contents.= Diversified as are the contents of
a typical daily paper, they may be grouped in seven classes: (1) news
stories; (2) special feature articles; (3) editorials; (4) dramatic,
musical, and literary criticism; (5) practical advice and useful
information; (6) humorous matter; (7) fiction. Of these seven classes,
the first four--news stories, special feature articles, editorials, and
dramatic, musical, and literary criticism--are generally considered to
be the distinctly journalistic types of writing.
News stories present (1) timely events of interest and significance to
readers, and (2) timely incidents of little or no news value that are
made entertaining by the manner in which they are presented. The first
is the common type of news story; the second is usually called the
“human interest” or “feature” story. Although it is sometimes said that
anything that has ever happened is news if it has not been generally
known, it is evident that events that have occurred in the past are
not worth publishing as news unless they have a timely interest and
significance. A distinction is generally made between “spot news,”
which is news of events when they occur, and “detail” or “situation”
material that is presented some time later in the form of special
correspondence or of special feature articles.
Special feature articles are detailed presentations of (1) matters of
recent news that are of sufficient interest to warrant elaboration,
(2) timely topics not directly connected with the news of the day, (3)
subjects of interest that are neither timely nor connected with current
events. They are informative in character and are generally of some
length. They are usually published in magazine sections of Saturday or
Sunday editions, but in some papers they appear daily.
Editorials have as their purpose the interpretation of news and of
current issues and the discussion of matters of general interest,
particularly with a view to convincing readers of the truth or the
falsity of some proposition and of persuading them to act in accordance
with the convictions thus created. In this way they differ from both
news stories and special feature articles.
Dramatic, musical, and literary criticism consists of reviewing and
passing judgment on current dramatic performances, concerts, and books.
To the extent that some reviews of plays and concerts merely give
informative news concerning the event, they are like news stories, but
in so far as they are critical, they are more like editorials. Book
reviews, likewise, may simply give information regarding the contents
of a book, or they may undertake to evaluate it by pointing out its
merits and defects.
Practical advice and useful information in special fields, humorous
matter, and fiction, as given in the daily newspaper, do not differ
materially from similar matter published in other forms and cannot be
considered distinctly journalistic types of writing.
=How news is gathered.= Since the day’s news is the essential part
of the daily newspaper, the gathering, writing, and editing of news
is naturally the chief concern of journalism. From the point of view
of newspaper organization for handling news, it is divided into two
general classes: (1) local news, and (2) telegraph news. Local news,
which is that of the city where the paper is published as well as of
its immediate vicinity, is gathered (1) by reporters working under
the direction of the city editor of the paper, and (2) by reporters
working under the direction of the head of a local news association
or bureau, the news service of which the paper uses to supplement its
own news gathering. Telegraph news includes all news not local, which
comes to the paper by telegraph, long-distance telephone, cable, or
mail, whether sent by its own correspondents or by a news association
such as the Associated Press or the United Press. The reporters and
correspondents of the press associations work under practically the
same conditions as the newspaper’s own correspondents, but they are
responsible to the division head of the press association, whereas the
newspaper’s correspondents are under the direction of the telegraph
editor or of the state editor of the paper. The work of news gathering
is not essentially different, whether done by a reporter or by a
correspondent in the employ of a newspaper or of a news-gathering
association.
=How news is written.= After the reporter has obtained the news,
he returns to the office and writes his story as rapidly as possible,
in accordance with any instructions that the city editor may give
him. If it is inexpedient for him to return to the office, he writes
his story quickly at some convenient place and sends it to the office
by messenger or by telephone. Under some circumstances, particularly
when lack of time prevents his writing the story and sending it in,
he telephones the facts to a rewrite man in the office, who writes
the story from the data thus secured. The reporter for a local news
association prepares his stories, as directed by the news editor of the
association, under practically the same conditions as the newspaper
reporter.
The correspondent, after writing his story, mails it, files it at the
telegraph office, or telephones it to the newspaper office. He, too,
may telephone the bare facts to have them written in news-story form by
a rewrite man in the newspaper office. The correspondent of a general
news-gathering agency handles his news in the same way except that he
sends it by mail, telegraph, or telephone to the district office of the
association or agency that he represents. At this district office it
is edited and sent out to those papers in various parts of the country
that use the association’s service.
As news stories, whether local or telegraph, are edited before they are
printed, practically all stories as they appear in the newspaper are
the work not only of the reporter or correspondent who gathered the
news, but of one or more editors and copy-readers. Well-written stories
of reporters and correspondents usually undergo little change when
edited. A poorly written story, on the other hand, may be made over
into a very effective one by a rewrite man, an editor, or a copy-reader.
=Conditions affecting news writing.= The structure and the style
of news stories are determined (1) by the conditions under which they
are written, (2) by the character of the readers, (3) by the conditions
under which newspapers are read, (4) by the typographical form of
newspapers, and (5) by the popular taste.
Newspaper writing must be done rapidly under considerable pressure
and generally without opportunity for careful revision. Although this
haste does not excuse incorrect and slovenly English, it does result
in looser, less finished writing than might be produced under more
favorable circumstances. In rapid writing, and particularly in handling
similar material from day to day, the writer, unless he is on his
guard, is likely to fall into the habit of using stock phrases, trite
and colorless.
The large amount of available news that must be crowded daily into
limited space makes it essential to present the news in compact form
and concise style. “Boil it down” and “Cut it to the bone” are constant
admonitions in every newspaper office. Conciseness is a necessary
quality of newspaper style.
The average newspaper, in order to succeed, must appeal to all classes
of readers in the community. It must present its contents in a way that
will attract and interest the so-called masses as well as the business
and the professional classes. The style of writing is generally adapted
to readers of limited education no less than to the well educated.
Comparative simplicity of expression, accordingly, is the rule in
newspaper writing.
Newspapers are read rapidly by practically all classes of readers.
They must, therefore, be written in a style that makes rapid reading
easy. Important details are placed at the beginning of paragraphs and
sentences, where they will catch the eye at once. The emphasis thus
given by the initial position is one of the distinctive characteristics
of newspaper writing. To the most important details made prominent in
this way are added the less significant but necessary particulars, one
by one, in natural order. This arrangement results in a loose rather
than a periodic sentence structure and eliminates the possibility of a
climactic effect in the paragraphs or in the whole story.
The shortness of the line in the narrow column affects newspaper style
because it necessitates a proportionate shortening of the paragraph.
Paragraphs that appear long seem heavy and uninviting, especially to
the rapid reader. Since but six words on an average can be crowded
into a line in newspapers, as compared to ten or twelve in a line in
most books, newspaper paragraphs can be only half as long as those in
ordinary prose without loss of effectiveness.
The popular demand for novelty and variety prevents any form of
newspaper writing from becoming fixed, and results from time to time in
the development of new forms and new styles of news writing. To make
some news stories entertaining rather than purely informative, a number
of newspapers abandon the conventional summary beginning, or lead,
and use unconventional ones like the beginnings of short stories. They
likewise give prominence to trivial happenings worked up into so-called
“human interest” or “feature” stories, because in that form they make
entertaining reading.
=Characteristics of news writing.= As a result of these various
conditions and influences news writing has come to have certain
well marked characteristics. It must be (1) concise, (2) clear, (3)
comparatively simple, (4) easily read, and (5) attractive to all
classes.
Conciseness requires that needless words be omitted, that only such
details be given as are necessary for effective presentation of the
subject, and that the length of the story be proportionate to the
importance of the material. In order to be concise, however, news
writing does not have to be bald and unattractive.
Clearness is secured in journalistic style by comparative simplicity of
diction, of sentence construction, and of paragraph structure. Learned
diction, elaborate figures of speech, and involved sentences have no
place in news writing intended to appeal to all classes of readers.
To be attractive to the average rapid reader newspaper style must be
easy to read. It is made easy, as has been pointed out, by placing
the important points in conspicuous positions at the beginnings of
sentences and paragraphs. To satisfy the popular taste newspaper
writing must also be interesting in form and in style. It sometimes
adopts the more or less striking devices of fiction in order to add
to its effectiveness. Furthermore, attractiveness is secured by such
typographical means as the use of a frame, or “box,” and bold-face
type, for facts of especial importance.
CHAPTER II
THE STUDY OF NEWS STORIES
=Value of study.= Every good news story may be regarded as a
solution of a difficult problem in gathering, selecting, and weaving
together a number of details. The steps in the solution may be as
carefully followed as the steps in solving a problem in algebra or
in performing an experiment in physics. As in the analysis of such
problems and experiments, so in the analysis of news stories, the
ultimate purpose is to find out how to solve similar problems as they
arise in actual experience. However interesting the theories and
principles of the art of news writing may be for themselves, it is the
practical application of them in the writer’s own work that gives them
their value for the student of journalism.
=Aims in studying news stories.= The purpose in analyzing typical
examples of news writing should be to discover in detail (1) how to
obtain news, (2) how to determine its value, and (3) how to present
it most effectively. Most stories reveal the means by which their
contents were obtained and the importance which the writer or editor
attached to each of the details. Sources of information and standards
for evaluating material are thus shown by a careful examination
of examples. A study of well-written news stories makes clear the
application of the principles of prose composition to the writing of
news. A comparison of several news stories of the same type brings
out the variety of ways in which similar material may be handled.
The writer must know the varied possibilities of treating material,
because, in working on similar matter from day to day, he is in great
danger of dropping into conventional forms and stereotyped expressions.
=Methods of analysis.= In the study of a news story the following
points should be considered: (1) the value of the news; (2) the sources
of the news; (3) the methods by which it was obtained; (4) the purpose
of the story; (5) the type of the story; (6) the structure; (7) the
literary style; and (8) the typographical style.
=News and news values.= News, as commonly defined, is anything
timely that interests a number of readers, and the best news is that
which has the greatest interest for the greatest number. Constructive
journalism is not satisfied to present merely what readers are
naturally interested in; it aims to give news that is significant
to them from the point of view of their personal affairs as well
as from that of the welfare of society. It likewise undertakes to
create interest in significant news that of itself may not interest
a considerable number of readers. Each story, therefore, should be
examined in order to determine why the news in it was considered of
interest and significance to the readers of the paper in which it was
published, as well as how great the interest and the significance were
believed to be as indicated by the space given to the story.
News values are based largely on the reader’s interest in (1) timely
matters, (2) extraordinary events and circumstances, (3) struggles for
supremacy in politics, business, sports, etc., (4) matters involving
the property, life, and welfare of fellow men, (5) children, (6)
animals, (7) hobbies and amusements.
The degree of the reader’s interest in these matters of news is
proportionate to (1) his familiarity with the persons, the places, and
the things involved, (2) the importance and the prominence of these
persons, places, and things, (3) the closeness of their relation to the
reader’s personal affairs.
The distinction between local news and general news grows out of the
greater degree of interest on the part of the reader in persons and
places that he knows and in matters that are closely related to his
business and his home. News of significance concerning the community in
which he lives is of prime importance to every reader. Interest in news
may generally be said to vary inversely in proportion to the distance
between the place where the news originates and the place where the
paper is published. Local interest is given to general news by bringing
out those phases, or “local ends,” of telegraph news that are of
significance in the community in which the paper circulates.
Every story indicates the evaluation of the news that it presents
as made by the reporter or correspondent, and by the editor or the
copy-reader. By determining the basis of this evaluation, the student
acquires a criterion by which to judge the news value of whatever he is
called upon to report.
=Sources of news.= From the details of a news story it is almost
always possible to infer the sources from which the news was obtained.
Public and private records, reports, officials, eye-witnesses, for
example, are often cited as authorities for the facts in the story.
These sources should be noted carefully, so that they may be drawn
upon by the student in his own reporting. In fact, a list of sources
compiled from news stories of various kinds, such as those of crime,
accidents, fires, etc., will be found helpful to the beginner.
=Methods of news gathering.= How the details of the news were
obtained may also be ascertained from an examination of the story. In
the report of an interview, for example, the reporter’s questions may
be inferred from the person’s replies. Not infrequently the story
shows indirectly the circumstances under which the reporter secured
the material. The student will do well to note every such hint and
suggestion.
=Purpose.= Every news story should present the details of the news
as accurately as possible and as completely as the significance of
the news warrants. The embellishment of news stories with fictitious
details to make them more interesting or more entertaining, as well
as the distortion and suppression of significant facts of the news in
order to accomplish some end, are alike opposed to the fundamental
purpose of the newspaper. Besides reporting the news with fairness
and accuracy, however, the writer, consciously or unconsciously, may
accomplish other ends by the manner in which he presents his material.
By giving prominence to certain details and aspects of a piece of
news, he may produce one effect upon the reader’s mind; by emphasizing
others in the same piece of news, he may produce an entirely different
impression. Thus news of accidents, crime, courts, and similar matters
can be presented so as to exert either a wholesome or an unwholesome
influence on readers; that is, it may be constructive or destructive in
its effect. Stories of crime, for example, may be written in a manner
that tends to make the wrongdoer more or less of a hero, and hence may
encourage others to imitate his career; or they may be written in a way
that tends to deter readers from committing similar crimes. Whether
wrongdoing is made attractive or unattractive in news stories depends
not so much upon giving the facts fully and accurately as upon the
reporter’s attitude toward his material.
Some newspapers simply record the news without emphasizing either its
constructive or its destructive phases. Newspapers of this type have
been likened to mirrors that reflect impartially whatever comes within
their range. This policy is expressed in the dictum of a well-known
editor when he declared, “Whatever the Divine Providence permitted to
occur, I was not too proud to report.” Purely informative news stories
and entertaining feature stories in these papers are written without
particular regard for their influence on readers.
Other newspapers, not satisfied with reporting the day’s events in an
accurate but colorless manner, without any particular consideration
for its effect upon their readers, deliberately undertake to give news
in such a way that it tends to be helpful and constructive in its
influence. They publish not merely the usual details regarding fires
and accidents; they emphasize the causes, the responsibility, and the
frequency of such occurrences, in order to impress upon readers the
importance of taking preventive measures against the recurrence of
such disasters. They also recognize the fact that some legitimate news,
even when given in what is ordinarily considered an unobjectionable
manner, tends to have a bad effect on readers in that it suggests
to them ideas and ideals inimical to the best interests of society
as a whole. So-called “waves” of crime and suicide they realize are
often the result of suggestions given to morally unstable readers by
newspaper stories of crimes and suicides. By constructive treatment
of such news, they attempt to reduce to a minimum these undesirable
suggestions and to substitute for them suggestions that tend to prevent
similar criminal and anti-social acts.
Another class of newspapers, apparently disregarding the unwholesome
effect upon their readers, give prominence to sensational, ghastly,
and scandalous phases of the news because they know that such details
appeal to the morbid interest of many readers. The not uncommon
explanation made by these newspapers for such treatment of news is that
they are giving the public what it wants. Critics of these papers deny
the validity of this excuse and point out that it would apply equally
to the selling of habit-forming drugs and adulterated food, acts now
forbidden by law.
Since the underlying purpose of the writer plays an important part in
the selection and the arrangement of material for news stories, as well
as in the effect that stories produce upon readers, it deserves careful
consideration in the analysis of news stories.
=Type of story.= There are two general types of news stories: (1)
the informative news story, the chief aim of which is to give the facts
of the news; and (2) the feature or human interest story, the chief
aim of which is to take material of little or no news value and make
it interesting. The fundamental difference between these two kinds of
stories is the news value of the contents. The presence or absence of
so-called “human interest” is not the basis of this classification, for
informative news stories may be developed by bringing out the human
interest element in the news.
The informative news story may be one of two kinds: (1) the story the
chief purpose of which is to record the facts of the news without
particular regard to its effect upon the readers; and (2) the story
that presents the facts of the news in such a way as to produce a
wholesome effect.
The purely informative news story usually presents the facts of the
news so that they can be grasped readily in rapid reading. Its length
is determined by the value of its news as measured by the ordinary
standards of news values. It may be made interesting by bringing out
the human interest element and by any literary device that is adapted
to the subject. Usually it has a summary lead.
The informative story of the constructive type aims to interest the
reader in the significance of the facts of the news, and the length of
the story, accordingly, is determined by the importance of the news
from this point of view. By bringing out the human interest element
in the constructive type of story, the writer is able to make the
emotional appeal to the readers that is particularly effective in
accomplishing the purposes of this kind of story. Stories of this type
may or may not have a summary lead.
In the entertaining feature story that contains little or no news, the
interest lies entirely in the manner in which the facts are told. The
literary ability of the writer is here tested to the utmost, for a
story is read only so far as it interests. The length of these stories,
therefore, is determined by the writer’s success in sustaining the
reader’s interest.
News stories in method are (1) narrative, (2) descriptive, (3)
expository, or (4) any combination of these three forms of discourse.
These forms are often to be found combined in a single story. The
reporter, for example, may in one story narrate a series of incidents,
describe the persons and places involved, and explain causes, motives,
and results.
In the purely informative news story that is narrative in form there is
little suspense, because the essential facts are usually summarized in
the beginning, or lead. In the narrative feature story, however, the
interest is frequently sustained by the same devices that are used in
fiction.
Description in news stories may be either suggestive or detailed. In
most stories lack of space makes it impossible to do more than sketch
briefly the appearance of persons and objects by suggestive touches.
In long stories, however, when circumstances warrant it, descriptions
may be given in considerable detail. The purpose in both kinds of
description should be to convey to the reader impressions of sights,
sounds, etc., as vivid as those the reporter himself experienced.
News stories are expository, as a whole or in part, whenever situations
must be made clear by explaining motives, causes, results, and other
phases of the news, or by summarizing the whole or a part of speeches,
reports, etc. Such exposition should always be as simple and lucid as
possible.
=Structure of the story.= The structure of the news story is
concerned with (1) the beginning, or lead, and (2) the body of the
story. The informative story usually begins with a summary lead that
answers the reader’s questions Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Thus
the summary lead includes the following details: (1) the persons,
(2) the event, (3) the place, (4) the time, (5) the cause, (6) the
significant circumstances. Any one of these elements of the news may be
“featured” in the place of prominence at the beginning of the story,
although the time and the place are seldom played up in this way. The
story of entertainment or appeal, on the other hand, usually avoids
the summary lead by beginning in one of the ways common to fictitious
narratives. In its beginning, its effort to sustain suspense, and its
semblance of plot the human interest or feature story closely resembles
the short story.
In the body of the story the details follow a logical order. The
arrangement in narrative stories is usually chronological. Only such
of the details summarized in the lead are repeated in the body of the
story as are needed for clearness. Although it is well to round out
stories in the last paragraph, the ending does not receive so much
attention as in other prose, because the exigencies of “make-up” often
necessitate the cutting off of the last paragraph or two.
=Literary style.= The style of a news story is concerned with such
elements as (1) paragraphs, (2) sentences, (3) words; and with such
qualities as (1) clearness, (2) force, (3) animation, (4) humor, (5)
pathos, (6) taste.
Analysis of paragraphs and sentences should include: (1) the length
of the paragraph and of the sentence; (2) the unity of thought in the
sentence, and the unity of topic in the paragraph; (3) the coherence,
or connection between the parts; and (4) the emphasis given to the
important ideas by their position in sentence and paragraph.
Because of the narrowness of the columns the newspaper paragraph must
be comparatively short to avoid appearing heavy and uninviting. The
typical newspaper paragraph contains from 35 to 75 words, whereas the
average paragraph in ordinary prose is from 150 to 250 words in length.
In sentence length, and in paragraph and sentence unity and coherence,
the style of the news story does not differ from that of other prose.
Involved constructions, long periodic sentences, and similar rhetorical
devices, however, have no place in journalistic writing, because they
tend to prevent rapid reading.
The emphasis given to an important point by placing it at the beginning
of a sentence or a paragraph, is a distinctive characteristic of
newspaper style, growing out of the fact that in rapid reading the eye
catches important points quickly if they occupy these initial positions.
Specific words in original combinations are always preferable to
colorless, general terms and trite phrases. Technical, scientific,
and learned words should be avoided unless fully explained. Slang and
colloquial expressions may be used when the tone of the story justifies
them.
Clearness, which is essential to rapid reading, depends upon the
arrangement, the connection, and the expression of ideas, and the
student will do well to analyze these essential factors in well-written
stories. How brisk movement and steady progress can be secured is also
worthy of notice. Humor and pathos are not infrequent in news stories,
particularly in those of the feature and human interest type. The
student should observe how humor may be effective without ridicule,
buffoonery, or vulgarity, and how offensive facts may be presented in
news stories without violating the canons of good taste.
=Typographical style.= Peculiarities in such details of
typographical style as abbreviation, capitalization, hyphenation,
and the use of numerical figures should be noted in each story and
associated with the newspaper from which the story was taken, for each
paper has a typographical style of its own. One style is as good as
another, but it is essential that consistency be maintained.
The printing of significant facts in a box at the beginning or in the
body of a story, often in bold-face type, the method of arranging lists
of dead and injured, the forms for market reports, scores in sports,
and similar details should be carefully noted.
AN OUTLINE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF NEWS STORIES
NEWS VALUES
1. In what paper was the story published?
2. What are the policy and the character of the paper?
3. How widely does the paper circulate outside of the place in
which it is published?
4. Does the paper appeal to a particular class of readers?
5. Is the piece of news presented from the point of view of
this class?
6. What, for the average reader, is the source of interest in
the news contained in the story?
7. How much would the news interest the average reader? Why?
8. Do you think that the news was worth more or less space than
was given to it? Why?
9. What more significant phases might have been played up or
developed?
SOURCES OF NEWS
1. How did the news originate?
2. Where was the first record of it probably made? By whom?
3. What records and what persons may have been consulted in
securing the news?
4. What reference books or material may have been used in
getting or in verifying the details of the story?
5. What other possible sources might have been consulted?
METHODS OF NEWS GATHERING
1. What evidence does the story give of the methods by which
the news was obtained?
2. Is there any evidence that the reporter or correspondent
failed to get any of the important details of the piece of
news?
PURPOSE
1. Does the story seem to be fair and unbiased?
2. Is there evidence that any important facts were suppressed or
that the story was colored to conform to the policy of the
paper?
3. Is the handling of the news constructive or destructive in
its effect?
4. What, if any, is the constructive purpose of the writer?
5. Is the story so treated as to tempt the reader to imitate
anti-social acts?
TYPE OF STORY
1. Is the primary purpose of the story to inform or to entertain?
2. Is the story largely narrative and descriptive? Is it largely
explanatory? Is it largely direct or indirect quotation?
3. If the story is narrative in form, is the order chronological?
4. Is the narrative clear or confused?
5. Does the narrative move slowly or briskly? Why?
6. Are accounts of the event by participants or eye-witnesses
used? If so, are these accounts in direct or indirect
quotation form?
7. Are remarks and conversation of participants and
eye-witnesses given?
8. Is the description detailed or suggestive? Is it effective?
Why?
9. Is there a striving for effect in the description?
10. If the story is that of a speech, report, etc., is the
material arranged in logical order?
11. Is much or little made of the personal, or human interest,
element in the story of the speech or the interview?
STRUCTURE OF THE STORY
1. Has the story a summary lead or an unconventional beginning?
2. Does the lead contain the essential facts concisely
presented?
3. Is the most striking detail played up as the feature in the
first group of words of the opening sentence of the lead?
4. What other element in the news might have been featured in
the lead?
5. Is the lead proportionate in length to the whole story?
6. How are the details arranged in the body of the story?
7. Is there any evidence that the story was cut down in making
up the paper?
8. Are the paragraphs closely connected?
9. Is there unnecessary repetition in the story?
10. Could the arrangement of the details be improved? How?
LITERARY STYLE OF THE STORY
PARAGRAPHS
1. What is the average length of the paragraphs?
2. Are any of the paragraphs too long or too short?
3. Is each paragraph a unit?
4. Are the details well arranged and closely connected in the
paragraphs?
5. Does the first group of words at the beginning of each
paragraph attract the reader as his eye glances down the
story?
6. Could any of the paragraph beginnings be made more
effective? How?
SENTENCES
1. What is the average length of the sentences?
2. Are any of the sentences too long or too short?
3. Is the construction of each sentence evident in rapid
reading?
4. Is each sentence a unified expression of a closely related
group of ideas?
5. Are the parts of the sentences combined in firm, closely
knit construction?
6. Do the sentence beginnings attract the reader by the
importance and the interest of the ideas expressed in the
first group of words?
7. Do any of the sentences trail off loosely into a succession
of phrases and clauses?
8. Is there variety in sentence length and sentence
construction?
WORDS
1. Is the style concise or wordy?
2. Is the diction original or hackneyed?
3. Is the style marked by many adjectives or by superlatives?
4. Are the verbs specific and forcible?
5. Is the diction too learned for the comprehension of the
average rapid reader?
6. Are words used idiomatically and accurately?
7. Are slang and colloquial expressions found in the story?
What is the effect of them?
8. Is the diction is keeping with the tone of the story?
QUALITIES OF STYLE
1. Can the details of the story be easily comprehended in rapid
reading; that is, is the style comparatively simple?
2. Upon what does the general clearness of the story depend?
3. Is the movement slow or rapid? Why?
4. Is there any humor or pathos in the story? How is the
humorous or the pathetic effect secured?
5. Has the news possibilities for humorous or pathetic
treatment that are not developed?
6. Is the story in good taste?
TYPOGRAPHICAL STYLE
1. What are the peculiarities of abbreviation, capitalization,
hyphenation, and use of numerical figures?
2. Is the typographical style consistent throughout the story?
3. Are any details of the story given prominence by
typographical devices? If so, why?
CHAPTER III
FIRES AND ACCIDENTS
=Type of story.= Many newspaper reports of fires and accidents may
be considered as typical examples of narrative and descriptive news
stories of the purely informative type. The essential facts of the news
are presented in a simple, direct, concise manner without any attempt
to give the story any greater interest for the reader than the facts
themselves possess. Such a fire story is that of the “Large Tannery
Fire” (p. 16) and such an accident story is that entitled “Automobile
and Car Collide” (p. 24).
When human life is involved in these events, some newspaper writers
take advantage of the opportunity to add to the interest by developing
the personal, or human interest, elements of the news in the
informative type of story, while at the same time presenting the facts
fully and accurately. Accident stories of this type are those headed
“Entombed Miners” (p. 38) and “Baby Drowns” (p. 42).
Less important fires and accidents that might otherwise go unnoticed,
or be dismissed with a few lines, may have in them some element that
lends itself to the feature, or human interest, treatment. A small fire
story of this type is found on p. 19; a humorous feature story of an
accident is that of the “Child in a Runaway” (p. 25); and a pathetic
human interest story is that of the “Boy Killed by Car” (p. 25).
=Purpose.= Stories of fires and accidents, particularly when such
occurrences result in fatalities, may be written so as to be either
constructive or destructive in their influence upon readers. The
constructive effect lies in emphasis upon those elements that tend (1)
to turn the reader’s attention to preventive measures, (2) to create
sympathy for the victims, or (3) to inspire admiration for heroism or
other virtues. Stories that give prominence to immediate or underlying
causes and responsibility in cases of fires and accidents, as well as
to possible preventive measures, have a helpful effect. Stories that
create sympathy for victims deserving of aid generally result in prompt
offers of relief. Examples of constructive stories are those entitled
“Fire in Stables” (p. 18), “Lodging House Fire” (p. 21), and “Runaway”
(p. 22). The story that aims to satisfy readers’ interest in ghastly
and sensational phases of fatal fires and accidents panders to a morbid
curiosity and inevitably has an unwholesome influence, even though the
facts that it presents are true.
=Treatment of material.= All types of fire and accident stories
give opportunity for spirited narrative and vivid description.
Possible means for lending life and interest to the narrative include
accounts of the disaster, either in direct or indirect quotation
form, as secured by interviews with survivors and eye-witnesses, and
conversation between persons involved.
=Contents of story.= Among the important details to be considered
in analyzing stories of unexpected occurrences, such as fires and
accidents, are: (1) number of lives lost; (2) number of lives
endangered; (3) names of dead and injured; (4) prominent persons and
places involved; (5) character and extent of damage; (6) property
threatened with damage or destruction; (7) cause and responsibility;
(8) investigations; (9) preventive measures against recurrence of
event; (10) probable or actual effects; (11) peculiar and unusual
circumstances; (12) humorous and pathetic incidents. Almost any one
of these details may be the feature of the story, and as such may be
played up in the lead. The space and prominence given to each of these
details are determined by its relative news value.
* * * * *
LARGE TANNERY FIRE
_Boston Transcript_
Following an explosion of fuel oil, fire spread
like a flash through the plant of the George C.
Vaughn Sole Leather Tannery on Upper Bridge street,
Salem, shortly before noon today and destroyed
three large buildings and a power house, with a
loss estimated from $325,000 to $350,000, covered
by insurance. Many times the flames leaped to the
neighboring wooden structures that surround the
plant, but by the efforts of the entire Salem fire
department, assisted by men and apparatus from
Beverly, Peabody and Marblehead, a conflagration
was narrowly averted.
More than a quarter million dollars’ worth of sole
leather was stored on the premises. A. J. Vaughn,
president of the company, said after the fire that
$200,000 worth of new stock had recently been
received and that the old stock, machinery and
buildings were worth $150,000 in addition, bringing
the total loss to $350,000.
The fire, which broke out at 11.15 A. M. in the
basement of the main tannery building, spread so
quickly that the employees at work on the upper
floors had difficulty in escaping to the street.
Even before the first alarm had been sent in, the
advancing flames reached a large tank of oil, used
for fuel in the power house. A heavy explosion
followed and the fire gained irresistible headway,
since the power house stood in the centre of the
plant and was flanked on three sides by the tanning
houses.
Unable to check the flames in the plant, the
firemen bent their energy to keep the fire from
spreading. Calls for assistance sent to the
surrounding towns met quick response, and by 12.30
the blaze was under control.
The buildings of the plant comprised a two-story
stone tannery, 200 feet long; a single-story drying
and rolling house, built of wood, with a frontage
of 150 feet; and a beam house, also of wood, with a
frontage of 125 feet. They were grouped on three
sides of a square surrounding the power house. The
plant was formerly known as the F. A. Lord tannery,
but was enlarged and remodelled after its purchase
by the George C. Vaughn Company.
* * * * *
UNIVERSITY BUILDING BURNS
_New York Times_
Three important collections of books and documents,
two of which were held by their owners to be
priceless, since they represented the lifework of
the collectors, were destroyed in the fire which
swept through the superstructure of the uncompleted
University Hall on the Columbia University campus
early yesterday morning.
While the fire was burning, between 1 and 2
o’clock, the interest of the student body was
centred principally in the gymnasium, where there
was a grand piano and much apparatus to be saved,
and in the rooms of the Columbia University crew,
where there were many trophies, oars, and banners.
In the rush to save athletic trophies, the
documents in rooms near by were overlooked. They
were finally pitched out of the windows by firemen
cleaning up after the fire, and they were made up
into three great rubbish heaps on the lawns about
the burned building.
Before these rubbish heaps a Professor of
Mathematics and a Professor of Germanic History
stood yesterday with tears in their eyes, their
shirtsleeves rolled up for work. They toiled
through the débris looking for personal papers and
for notes and documents which they said regretfully
they feared they could never replace.
The collections destroyed included all the personal
library on the history of Germanic civilization
brought to this country by Dr. Ernst Richard,
Professor of Germanic History. With Dr. Richard’s
documents went his personal notes, which he had
gathered in a lifetime of study. While he stood
over the rubbish pile in front of the window of
what had been his office, Dr. F. N. Cole, Professor
of Mathemetics, searched another big rubbish pile
near by.
Dr. Cole also contemplated his loss with deep
sorrow. In the pile before him were all the
official documents and records of the American
Mathematical Association, which had its
headquarters in the building. Dr. Cole was its
Secretary, and he had moved the documents from East
Hall two years ago because he feared that East Hall
might burn, while University Hall, except for the
temporary superstructure, was fireproof.
The documents had been accumulating since the
association was founded. The files of the first
ten volumes of its publication, the American
Mathematical Society’s Bulletin, were destroyed
together with the stock collection of copies of
all subsequent volumes. All of Dr. Cole’s personal
papers were destroyed with the society’s papers.
The fire, which apparently originated in the
kitchens behind the Commons eating quarters on
the main floor, swept through wooden partitions
separating various offices on that floor, and
through a temporary wooden roof which had been put
on against the time when seven more stories should
be built.
As the lower floors, which were part of the
permanent structure, were fireproof, the flames
did not work down through them, but died out when
they had consumed the temporary superstructure. The
gymnasium on the lower floor was unharmed, except
by water, and the swimming pool below it was ready
for use yesterday.
The offices on the upper floor which were
destroyed included the headquarters of The
Columbia Spectator, The Jester, the Prison Reform
Association, and the American Mathematical
Association, the rooms of the Columbia Crew,
the Commons Restaurant, and the offices of the
departments of mathematics and Germanic history.
The athletic trophies in University Hall, it turned
out, were of only minor value, having been won
at training bouts on the Harlem River. The rich
trophies of the university were kept in another
building with fireproof walls and floors.
E. Stagg Whitin, Secretary of the Prison Reform
Association, joined the downhearted group early in
the afternoon. “What will Thomas Mott Osborne say
when he hears of this,” he remarked, as he looked
over the débris that had been notes and documents.
“All our work was here,” he said, “all the fruits
of our years of investigation. And there was even
material we intended to use in a lawsuit against
some Connecticut prison labor contractors.
“I don’t see how we can replace what we have lost.
The reports of our investigators made up a good
part of it. We spent our funds preparing this
material, and the only way we can replace it is to
raise another fund to do it all over again.”
The ruin of University Hall’s superstructure
was not permitted to repose even an hour. Dean
Frederick Goetze, the university Controller, who
drove in by automobile from Orient, L. I., on
hearing of the fire, had wagons loaded with lumber
on the Campus before the firemen were through
tearing out the embers. He had 150 men at work
before noon rebuilding the roof, and had orders
placed for all material to replace the offices.
He notified the gymnasium instructors that they
might hold classes as usual on Monday, and posted
a notice to students that meals would be served as
usual in the Commons Monday noon.
A special announcement which pleased university
oarsmen was that their annual dinner, scheduled
for Oct. 21, could be held in the gymnasium.
Invitations to 1,000 former students had been
accepted, and postponement would have robbed the
oarsmen of the rowing season’s great event.
Coach Jim Rice ordered the rowing squads to report
on Monday for barge work on the Hudson, remarking
that real rowing was better than work on the
machines in the gymnasium.
The loss on the building was officially placed at
“less than $100,000,” which, it was said, was fully
covered by insurance.
* * * * *
FIRE IN STABLES
_Boston Transcript_
Fire that partly destroyed the Thornton Stables, a
five-story brick building at 85 to 95 West Mifflin
street this morning, has aroused Mayor Curley to
the immediate necessity of legislation to enable
the city to raze buildings, without the fear of
resultant liability, when such buildings have been
condemned by the building department. He will ask
the incoming Legislature for such a law.
For sixteen years the West Mifflin street building
had been regarded as one of the worst firetraps
in the city, according to the mayor. In 1898 it
was condemned and an order was issued by the fire
commissioner forbidding firemen to enter the
building in case of fire. During these years the
building was constantly under inspection by both
the fire and building departments, and why it was
not ordered vacated has not been explained. The
walls were shored up, or strengthened by iron rods,
as the foundation had settled, and yet the firemen
realized that, once a fire got under way, the walls
would not last long, as their thickness was about
eight inches.
Before the fire was extinguished today, Mayor
Curley and Building Commissioner O’Hearn visited
the scene and discussed with Fire Commissioner
Grady and Chief McDonough the dangers that exist
in other buildings throughout the city which have
been condemned but which are still occupied and are
regarded as a particular menace in case of fire.
The party looked over the surrounding property,
and the Building Commissioner pointed out three
buildings on the same street and practically
adjoining the stables that were being torn down
on his orders. These were ramshackle buildings
that had been fire menaces for years. It was the
prevailing opinion that if the stable fire had got
under greater headway when discovered, and if a
heavy wind had prevailed, the best efforts of the
firemen could not have prevented a serious spread
of the flames. The buildings on the southerly side
of the stables are all of wood, and the flames
would have had little difficulty, had they got
beyond the control of the firemen, in sweeping over
the site of one removed building to those of most
inflammable nature used as lodging-houses.
Mayor Curley directed Fire Commissioner Grady
to prepare a list of buildings of sufficiently
dangerous fire risks to warrant orders from
headquarters forbidding the firemen entering them
in case of fire. That there are many such buildings
in various parts of the city of substantial
proportions was admitted. The fire commissioner
declared that he had received a legal opinion that
the city is not justified in tearing down buildings
which have been condemned, unless the owner or
owners give their consent. The city has authority,
however, to vacate buildings. Section four,
Chapter 550 of the Acts of 1907, provides that the
building commissioner, or one of his inspectors,
shall inspect every building which he has reason
to believe is unsafe or dangerous to life, limb or
adjoining buildings, and, if he finds it unsafe or
dangerous, shall notify the owner to secure the
building, and shall affix in a conspicuous place on
its walls a notice of its dangerous condition. “The
commissioner may, with the written approval of the
mayor, order any building which in his opinion is
unsafe to be vacated forthwith,” in the words of
the law.
Fifty buildings have already been condemned this
year. Many of them have been removed, but in every
case the owners have consented to the removal. The
building commissioner sends his lists of condemned
buildings to the City Council, which gives hearings
on the appeal. There is a long list of such
buildings now pending before the council, and the
mayor will go before that body at its next meeting
and urge that the list be given immediate attention.
The law department has handled two hundred egress
cases for the building department in the last
two years, Assistant Corporation Counsel Edward
T. McGettrick having full charge, and in not a
single case has the department been obliged to
vacate after the bill in equity has been filed
in court. Most of these cases, however, are of
lodging-houses, the owners preferring to obey
orders in providing sufficient fire-escapes rather
than fight the case in the courts.
* * * * *
SMALL FIRE
_Savannah News_
A tiny, golden-throated canary bird was the hero of
a midnight fire in the lobby of the Geiger Hotel on
Broughton street last night.
It was due to the bird that the attachés of the
hotel investigated and found a blaze in the wall
caused by a defective flue in the rear of the cigar
stand cases. The loss will amount to between $500
and $600. The bird hangs in a cage near the cigar
stand. About 11:30 o’clock S. D. MacMartin noticed
it suddenly wake from its sleep and flutter noisily
about the cage. He thought a cat was attempting to
get the bird and made an investigation. He climbed
on a chair and a puff of smoke and a blaze shot
towards him.
A telephone alarm was sent immediately to fire
headquarters, and Chemical Company No. 1 answered.
They extinguished the blaze in a short time. It was
necessary to chop away the partition, and the cigar
stand and cases were moved into the lobby of the
hotel from the wall. The owner of the stand stated
that his loss would be considerable.
With all the excitement in the lobby none of the
guests in the hotel was awakened.
* * * * *
LIVES LOST IN FIRE
_Chicago Tribune_
A careless electrician, a gas pocket in a fireproof
vault, a stab of flame from a blown-out fuse--and a
deadly “sane Fourth” argument for a city which has
ceased to need one.
Such, in brief, was the story read by Coroner
Hoffman and other official investigators yesterday
in the ruins of the Pain Fireworks Display
company’s plant at 1320 Wabash avenue, after an
explosion of the $5,000 stock of cannon crackers,
torpedoes, roman candles, skyrockets, and
pyrotechnical set pieces had wrecked the firm’s own
building and rocked adjoining structures.
The electrician, upon whom the authorities are
inclined to put the blame, was Joseph Johnson,
employed in the fire sprinkler department of the
American District Telegraph company.
Johnson was one of five persons trapped in the
building and killed. Late in the afternoon the
bodies of the other four victims--H. B. Thearle,
president of the company; Miss Florence Hill, his
personal secretary; Edward Connors, a salesman; and
R. H. Wolff, the stockman--had been recovered, but
Johnson’s was not found until night.
The explosion--or rather the explosions, for
there were three or four of them at half second
intervals--occurred shortly before 11 o’clock in
the morning. Mr. Thearle was sitting at his desk
in the middle of the building, a deep, narrow,
one story structure of concrete and steel. At his
side was Miss Hill, taking dictation in shorthand.
Connors was busy at an adjoining desk.
Wolff, the stockkeeper, was in the rear part of
the basement, in which most of the company’s stock
was stored. At the front end of the basement two
electricians were at work--Johnson and Michael
J. Callahan, his foreman. The job on which the
electricians were employed centered in the Coca
Cola building, adjoining the Pain plant, in which
an outfit of automatic sprinklers was being
installed.
Duty called Callahan into the Coca Cola building
just in time to save his life. A minute after the
foreman electrician had walked out the front door,
Thomas Byrnes, sales manager for the fireworks
company, stepped into the alley at the rear of the
building. He had taken only a few steps when there
was a flash and a roar and his feet shot from under
him.
As Byrnes fell, a body came sailing out into the
alley. It stopped short against one of the pillars
of the south side “L” structure, which runs through
the alley, and Johnny Costello, the Pain office
boy, let out a yell of terror. The yell was his
last for several hours, for he immediately lost
consciousness.
At the Wabash avenue end of the building other
things were happening. With the first explosion the
big plate glass window disappeared and a mountain
of flame burst into the street. The street car
tracks were clear for a hundred yards north and
south, except for which fact, it is believed, there
would have been many more killed and injured.
The flame rolled across the street and scorched the
front of the building of the Howe Scale company,
all the windows of which had been shaken out by the
explosion. On the heels of the dissipated flame
mountain a pillar of smoke several hundred feet in
height rolled out of the Pain building.
Columns of flame and smoke climbed through holes in
the fireworks store which marked the places where
two big skylights had been, and an instant later a
dozen shutters on the north wall of the Coca Cola
building were afire, and panic-stricken employés,
many of them girls, were racing for the south fire
escapes.
Firemen responding to a 4-11 alarm found the
bodies of Mr. Thearle, Miss Hill, and Connors just
inside the front door, all badly burned. Hours
later the body of Wolff was found in the rear of
the basement. It was after nightfall when firemen,
working in the glare of a searchlight, took
Johnson’s body from the ruins.
By that time the building had been carefully
inspected--and it was regarded as a tribute to the
strength of its reinforced concrete construction
that there was any of it left to inspect--by
Coroner Hoffman, J. C. O’Donnell, chief of the
bureau of fire prevention and public safety, and
investigators for the new municipal department
of public service. All were of the opinion that
Johnson was responsible for the explosion, but the
blame will not be definitely placed until Monday,
when a jury impaneled on the spot by Coroner
Hoffman will hold an inquest.
O’Donnell, who is third assistant fire marshal,
planned to combine his investigation with the
coroner’s. He was satisfied, he said, that the
Pain company had taken all reasonable precautions
and that favorable reports made on the place by
inspectors of his bureau had been justified by
conditions.
The building had been specially constructed for the
storage of fireworks, and had been occupied by the
company, formerly located in the loop, for three
years. The basement had been divided into three
sections by stout partitions, in much the same way
that bulkheads are built into a ship. Into each of
the partitions was set a steel door. But there had
been no time to close the doors.
“The Pain people thought they were absolutely
protected against accidents,” said O’Donnell. “This
goes to prove there is no such thing as absolute
protection when explosives are being handled.”
* * * * *
LODGING HOUSE FIRE
_New York World_
The lives of six persons who died in a lodging
house fire at No. 1516 Eighth avenue early
yesterday morning, might have been saved if orders
issued by the Fire Department last May 27 had been
obeyed, says a report which J. O. Hammitt, Chief of
the Bureau of Fire Prevention, made late yesterday
to Commissioner Robert Adamson.
Five of the dead persons were identified as Bernard
Lynde, thirty-five, a laborer; Edward J. Ryan,
thirty-five, a lunchman; Louis Detter, fifty-three,
a laborer; a man named Hagan, about fifty; and John
Cutter, eighty-four, a laborer. The sixth man was
unidentified.
There were sixty-five men registered in the hotel
when Peter Kelly, a watchman, saw the smoke and
gave an alarm. Sergt. John Butler of the Salvage
Corps ran to the roof of a neighboring building and
assisted fifteen of the men to safety.
Lieut. Reed of Hook and Ladder No. 12, and Hugh
Bonner, the son of the ex-Chief, mounted extension
ladders to the top floor and assisted many more to
the ground. Three bodies were found on the third,
and three on the top floor.
Coroner Healy and Fire Marshal Prial believed that
the fire was caused by a careless smoker.
Following the issuance of the report, it was
announced that an investigation would be made by
the District-Attorney’s office to determine whether
anyone could be held responsible for the loss of
life.
The orders were for the enclosure of an unenclosed
stairway, up which the fire spread, and for the
installation of an interior fire alarm system. Both
orders had been turned over to the legal department
for enforcement, and work on the stairway enclosure
was in progress the day before the fire. Plans for
the fire alarm system were approved Oct. 22.
Mr. Hammitt stated that the day before the fire an
inspector learned that the direct communication
of the lodging house with fire headquarters had
been cut and ordered its restoration. The report
says that Peter Loos, the proprietor, called at
fire headquarters at 9 o’clock and said that the
communication had not been re-established because
it was the work of the landlord, but that there had
been a fire in which “three persons were slightly
injured.” According to Mr. Hammitt, Edward Brown is
the owner of the building.
* * * * *
CAUSE OF FIRE
_New York Times_
A glowing match, carelessly tossed into a baby
carriage standing in the hall, is believed to have
started the fire in which thirteen persons lost
their lives in the three-story tenement house in
the rear of 986 North Sixth Street, Williamsburg,
as told in THE TIMES yesterday. Poor
lighting in the hallways may have been an indirect
cause of the fire, according to Tenement House
Commissioner John J. Murphy.
As in more than 2,000 structures in the city,
Commissioner Murphy said, kerosene lamps were used
to light the halls. Often the lights go out or
are turned out by 11 o’clock, so that persons who
go into the buildings later are forced to strike
matches to find their way. It probably was a match
struck in this way that started the fire.
After an inspection of the district about ten days
ago all the property owners were warned that they
must keep their lights lighted, according to the
law. The inspection disclosed that about 70 per
cent. of the houses were poorly lighted.
“Prosecutions for violations of the law relating
to lighting are almost without exception in vain,”
Commissioner Murphy told a TIMES reporter
yesterday, “If the owners are taken to court, they
say that the lights went out, or were blown out.
The reason for the law is primarily to see that the
means of exit are lighted. The danger from matches
used to light the way had not been thought so
great.”
Except with regard to lighting, possibly, the
burned tenement complied with all the provisions of
the law, the officials said. The fire escapes were
as prescribed, and it was due to excitement on the
part of the occupants that they did not use them
instead of trying to go down the stairs. Only one
of the windows opening to fire escapes was found
broken.
All of the victims were suffocated by smoke. Five
were members of the family of Michael Blund, and
two others were boarders with him; three were
members of the family of Michael Lenko, all of whom
lived on the top floor. John Whatso and his wife
and an unidentified man who boarded with them were
found on the second floor.
The house was occupied by six families, two on each
floor. It is owned by John Korno, a banker, of
667 Grand Street, who owns several other tenement
houses in the neighborhood. As told in late
editions of yesterday’s TIMES, flames were
seen shooting out of the windows by a passerby, who
turned in an alarm. The firemen, when they arrived,
found it difficult work, so excited was the crowd
in front of the burning building.
The interior of the building was scarcely touched
by fire. Several of the bodies were lightly
scorched, but it was apparent that suffocation
had caused the deaths. On one of the floors the
tenants had opened the door and left it open
creating a draft. Apparently all of the victims had
been asleep when the fire started.
Commissioner Adamson, Fire Chief Kenlon, Fire
Marshal Brophy, Deputy Tenement House Commissioner
Hickey, Assistant District Attorney Wilson, Captain
Shaw of the Homicide Squad of the Police Department
and Coroner Wagner made investigations. At first
it was thought that the fire was of incendiary
origin, and the theory was that it had been started
by one of Korno’s tenants who had been evicted.
The officials were hampered in their investigation
because most of the tenants were foreigners and
could not speak English.
* * * * *
RUNAWAY
_New York Evening Post_
Dragged from his own horse while trying to stop a
runaway in Central Park this afternoon, Mounted
Patrolman Stephen Dowling, although thrown under
the wheels of a light carriage, jumped to his feet,
remounted his horse, and, after a chase of ten
blocks, caught and stopped the other animal. His
uniform was torn and he received contusions about
the body, but he remained on duty throughout the
day. The runaway horse was attached to a light
runabout, driven by a man and woman, who said they
were Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Hamilton of No. 775 West
Ninety-fifth Street.
They were driving slowly on the West Drive when,
at Ninetieth Street, the bit broke and the animal
bolted. Dowling saw the runaway and pursued it on
his own horse, which overtook the fleeing animal at
One Hundred and Sixth Street.
Because of the broken bit it was impossible to
stop the running horse by catching the bridle, so
Dowling leaned far out and wrapped his arms around
the neck of the runaway. He clung in this manner
for a few minutes, and then, his own horse shying,
he was dragged from the saddle and fell directly
beneath the wheels of the runabout. Two wheels
passed over his chest.
Although dazed and bruised, Dowling jumped to
his feet and caught his horse, which stood near,
mounted and set off at a gallop after the Hamilton
rig.
At One Hundred and Sixteenth Street the runaway
swerved and the light carriage was thrown against
a truck. Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton were thrown out but
escaped with a few slight bruises. Dowling had
almost caught up when this occurred. He halted
long enough to see that the man and woman were not
injured and then started after the running horse.
Near One Hundred and Seventeenth Street he was even
with the animal and again leaned over and wrapped
his arms around the horse’s neck. This time his
own horse did its share of the work, and Dowling’s
weight soon told on the runaway, which stopped
within half a block.
“Just in the day’s work,” said Dowling, when he was
congratulated.
* * * * *
AUTOMOBILE COLLISION
_Boston Herald_
Tossed into a blazing pool of gasoline when two
touring cars collided and the gas tank of one
exploded, Miss Alice Cushing, 22, of Nahant, and
Percy Mason of 765 Washington street, Lynn, were
probably fatally burned at 8 o’clock last night on
the Nahant road at Little Nahant.
Walter Hanley of 11 Moore street, Swampscott, was
hurled 30 feet with his clothing a mass of flames,
but saved his own life by plunging into the surf
and extinguishing the fire about him. Ten other
passengers in the machines were bruised and shaken
up, but were able to return home after medical
attention.
The accident happened opposite Wilson road, when
a seven passenger touring car in which were Mr.
and Mrs. J. Fred Farley of Danvers, their three
children, Richard, Fred and Helen Farley, and Mrs.
Farley’s mother, Mrs. O. B. Merton of Danvers,
turned abruptly to one side to go down upon the
beach. It was struck from behind by a public
touring car operated by Hanley and containing six
passengers.
Hanley’s machine ploughed into the rear of the
Farley car, tearing a hole in the gasoline tank.
The lamps ignited the gasoline and an explosion
followed which sent several gallons of burning
fluid upon the road.
It was into this that Miss Cushing and Mason fell
when they were thrown from the public machine by
the impact. The young woman was made unconscious
by the fall and was lying helpless in the centre
of the fire when she was rescued with considerable
difficulty by H. C. Wilcox of Beverly, who was
driving by on the road. He rolled her in an
automobile robe and, after extinguishing the
flames, took her to the Lynn Hospital. There it
was said there was practically no chance of her
recovery. She was burned from head to foot and had
inhaled much of the flames.
Mason was rescued by Dr. Newton A. Stone of
Somerville, a Cambridge dentist, who heard the
explosion and saw the glare of flames while driving
in his machine farther down the road. He put out
the fire about Mason with auto robes, assisted
by the passengers of the public machine who had
recovered from their shock. The dentist worked over
him while another man drove his machine to Union
Hospital, Lynn. Mason’s burns were so severe that
his name was immediately placed on the danger list.
In the excitement which followed the wreck, it was
believed that Hanley, the driver of the public car,
had been burned alive. A half-hour later, however,
he was discovered in a cottage off Wilson road. His
clothing was ignited by the explosion, and he was
hurled over the road upon the sand, his clothes a
mass of flames.
He had to run toward the surf, but was seriously
burned before he could reach the water, some 50
yards away. After he had extinguished the flames
himself, he made his way to a cottage and sank
exhausted on the piazza. Later he was removed to
Lynn Hospital, where it was stated his burns were
serious, but probably would not prove fatal. He was
burned about the face and upper part of the body
and the flames had entered his mouth, burning his
tongue and throat.
Before the Nahant fire department could reach the
scene both automobiles were destroyed. The Farley
machine had been badly wrecked by the collision
and the public car was telescoped. In the latter
machine were Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hanley of Lynn,
Arthur Wright of Fiske avenue, Lynn, and Leo Sale
of Lynn, besides those who were burned. They were
all more or less bruised.
The Farley party narrowly escaped being burned and
were cut and bruised when they were thrown from
their seats. Mrs. Farley told the police that she
held up her hand to signal the other machine as her
husband turned his auto toward the beach. Hanley
was in no condition to discuss the accident. He is
said to have been driving at about 18 miles an hour.
Miss Cushing lived on Willow road, Nahant, and
was employed as a waitress in the Colonial Café,
Nahant. Mason roomed at 765 Washington street,
Lynn, and for many years was a resident of Peabody.
He was employed in a Nahant restaurant.
Mr. Farley is a machine manufacturer in Danvers.
* * * * *
AUTOMOBILE AND CAR COLLIDE
_New York Tribune_
George C. Hurlbut, the aged librarian of the
American Geological Society, and his daughter,
Miss Ilione Hurlbut, were seriously injured last
night in a collision between the automobile in
which they were riding and a surface car in the
86th street transverse road in Central Park. Father
and daughter were removed to the Presbyterian
Hospital, where it was said that the skull of each
was fractured. Miss Hurlbut’s right arm was broken.
Both were unconscious when they were received
at the hospital, and it was said they could not
recover.
Mr. Hurlbut lives at No. 560 West End avenue and
is seventy years old. His daughter, Ilione, is
thirty-five years old and is his assistant in his
work. Yesterday afternoon they engaged William
Agg, of 86th street and Broadway, to take them for
a drive in the Fifth avenue section, saying they
would afterward have him drop them at No. 106 West
55th street, where they intended to have their
Christmas dinner with William Hurlbut, a nephew of
Mr. Hurlbut.
Agg started toward Fifth avenue by way of the
transverse road. Less than half of the distance
to Fifth avenue had been covered when he heard a
westbound car approaching. The automobile was at
that moment opposite the Park Department workshops.
Agg attempted to turn out, but the slippery road
and rails caused the rear wheels of the automobile
to skid. Both the car and the automobile were
travelling at a rapid rate, and the front of the
car struck the body of the machine, overturning
it. Before the motorman could bring his car to
a stop the automobile had been crumpled up like
cardboard, and the aged librarian and his daughter
lay unconscious among the wreckage. Agg had saved
himself by jumping before the car struck the
machine.
The car was crowded, and there was intense
excitement among the passengers, who were shaken up
and struck by flying glass. Policeman Talt heard
the noise made by the collision and immediately
telephoned for an ambulance. Before it arrived,
however, a passing automobile was pressed into
service, and the injured man and woman were placed
in it and hurried to the Presbyterian Hospital.
Lieutenant Arnett, of the Arsenal station, ordered
the arrest of the motorman of the car, James
Gannon, of No. 419 Third avenue, and Agg, who lives
at No. 160 Manhattan avenue.
Mr. Hurlbut has been the librarian of the American
Geological Society, at No. 15 West 81st street, for
twenty-five years, and is considered the foremost
authority on that class of work in this country.
He was born at Charleston, S. C., about seventy
years ago, and before he came here was engaged in
geological study and writing in San Francisco and
was president of the Mercantile Library.
The library of the American Geological Society
consists of 40,000 volumes, and is second only in
completeness to the geological library at Paris.
Mr. Hurlbut is also editor of the monthly bulletin
which the society publishes. George Greenough,
the secretary of the society, was greatly shocked
by the news of the accident to Mr. Hurlbut and
his daughter. He said last night that the loss of
the librarian’s services, even for a short time,
would be an irreparable loss to science and to the
society.
Since the death of his wife, eight years ago, Mr.
Hurlbut has lived with his daughter, Ilione. They
occupied a suite in the building at No. 560 West
End avenue, and Miss Hurlbut acted as her father’s
assistant.
He has two nephews, William J. Hurlbut, author of
the play “The Fighting Hope,” now at the Stuyvesant
Theatre, and Stephen A. Hurlbut, professor of
Greek at Barnard College. Mr. Hurlbut’s brother is
said to have been the owner and editor of “The New
York World” before it became the property of Mr.
Pulitzer.
* * * * *
CHILD IN RUNAWAY
_Boston Advertiser_
NEW YORK, Dec. 23--Walter Jackson is a lucky baby.
His parents admit that he is something more than
that, but take it as things go in this world of
chance, he’s lucky.
A horse attached to a delivery wagon was standing
in front of 942 Columbus ave. One of the front
wheels was tied to a rear wheel. Jacob Katz, the
driver, was in the building.
Along came a fat boy with a Christmas tree on his
shoulder and longings in his heart. He stopped to
look into a shop window and swung the tree around
sweeping the face of the horse. The horse ran away.
When he got to the corner of 87th st. the horse
took to the sidewalk.
On the sidewalk, along with many other shoppers,
were Walter Jackson and his wife. Just ahead
of them was Miss Rose Williams, and just ahead
of Miss Williams was a baby carriage, and in
the baby carriage was another Walter Jackson,
three-months-old and lucky.
The first Walter Jackson was knocked down and his
face looks now as if the horse stepped on it. Mrs.
Jackson was knocked down and the wagon ran over
her. Miss Williams was knocked down also.
As the rear wheel of the delivery wagon passed,
it caught the baby carriage; the baby stuck, and
in another minute was going just as fast as the
delivery wagon. Walter Jackson the second, stuck to
his carriage and incidentally to the delivery wagon.
Half way down the block the wagon struck a sidewalk
showcase and the crash of glass further frightened
the horse. He plunged back to the street, going
through a line of Christmas trees with the wagon
and the baby carriage.
Once through the trees, he smashed into an L pillar
and there parted company with delivery wagon and
baby carriage.
The wagon parted company with itself, and about
all there was left of the baby carriage was that
very limited portion of it immediately adjacent to
Walter Jackson.
The baby looked much mussed up, but when Dr. Monaco
of the Polyclinic Hospital examined him there
wasn’t a mark to be found.
* * * * *
BOY KILLED BY CAR
_San Francisco Examiner_
NEW YORK, December 17.--“Over on Broadway there’s
a regular Santy Claus,” said 10-year-old Johnny
Nugent to his chum, 7-year-old Eddie Bowler, as
school let out on the East Side this afternoon. “I
never seen no Santy Claus--only pictures. Did you?
Let’s go over?”
They put their books away, Johnny in his home,
Eddie in his. Then they trudged, skipping curbs and
whistling, across to the region of a department
store at Broadway and Thirty-fourth street.
“I was a kid last year,” said Johnny. “Me mother
couldn’t let me come here and I dasn’t go without
asking.”
They didn’t have any money, of course. Johnny’s
mother is a widow and Eddie’s folks have little to
spare for the children. But an idea seized Johnny;
he would start earning money at once. He went to a
newsboy, and the latter, with the freemasonry of
the streets, “lent” him two papers to sell. In a
moment he was yelling “Extry--All about the murder
trial!”
Eddie helped him to yell.
A customer beckoned from across the street. Johnny
darted toward him just in front of the Hotel
Martinique. A Broadway surface car loomed up
suddenly. There was a little cry, then the forward
pair of wheels ran over the boy and his body became
jammed in the rear wheels.
While a tremendous crowd of shoppers surrounded the
car, some men--and Eddie--crawled underneath. The
men came out with Johnny’s body. His little chum
had his torn cap and the two evening papers.
In the police station, before a group of policemen
who wept, Eddie told the whole story while he clung
to the battered relics.
“Mr. Lieutenant,” he asked at the end, “do you
think Johnny will get alive again?”
“Maybe Santa Claus will take care of him,” said Dr.
Gilhooley gravely, and he turned quickly away.
* * * * *
SUBWAY ACCIDENT
_New York Times_
Seven persons were killed and eighty-five injured
shortly before 8 o’clock yesterday morning when a
blast of dynamite in the excavation for the new
Seventh Avenue subway carried away all the plank
thoroughfare between Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth
Streets, sweeping down into the great hole a
crowded trolley car and a brewery automobile truck.
That the toll of dead and injured was not many
times greater was due to the fact that the
supports of the subway structure gave way slowly,
affording an opportunity for hundreds of persons
who were on their way to work to scurry to side
streets and to the walks which were at the sides
of the excavation. Most of those injured were in
the Seventh Avenue trolley car, which was of the
closed type and was north-bound. When the tracks
sagged the car slid into the hole. It crumpled
like pasteboard when it struck the tangle of iron,
wood, and rock in the bottom of the excavation. Two
of the persons killed were passengers in the car.
All the others were laborers in the tunnel caught
beneath the wreckage.
Within an hour after the accident happened seven
independent investigations to place the blame
were under way. These inquiries were started by
District Attorney Perkins, the Fire Department,
the Public Service Commission, Coroner Feinberg,
the contracting company, the State Industrial
Commission, and the Street Railway Company.
The investigators said that before the
responsibility could be determined positively
they would need the testimony of August Midnight.
Midnight is the licensed blaster who set the
dynamite charge. He was seen after the accident,
but disappeared, and up to a late hour last night
had not been found. The police sent out a general
alarm for his arrest.
According to Policeman Daniel O’Shay of the West
Twentieth Street Station, who was standing at
Twenty-fourth Street and Seventh Avenue, it was
about 7:50 o’clock when he heard the explosion,
which was followed by a sudden rising and then a
sagging of the temporary roadway in Seventh Avenue.
A few seconds later the structure gave way and with
a crash settled down into the big hole. The street
car was directly in front of O’Shay, and he saw
it drop with the crumbling roadway, and heard the
cries of the terror-stricken passengers.
O’Shay instantly ran to a fire box and turned in an
alarm, after which he notified Police Headquarters
by telephone. When he got back to the accident to
do his part in the work of rescue, the scene down
deep in the excavation was appalling.
All that was left of the car, it appeared, was the
roof and the steel trucks. The passengers inside,
flung together in a confused mass, were screaming
and struggling. On top of the debris, not far from
the Twenty-fourth Street side of the wreckage, was
the body of a stout, well-dressed woman. Persons
on the sidewalk more than thirty feet above her
saw that she was injured terribly. She was still
alive when taken from the excavation, but died in
a few minutes. The body was identified as that of
Mrs. Martha V. Newton, 67 years old, of 243 Waverly
Place.
Fire ladders were let down into the hole, and
firemen and policemen, reckless of danger to
themselves, scrambled over the debris to rescue
the injured and recover the dead. Mrs. Newton was
one of the first of those carried up the ladders
to the sidewalk and into the National Cloak and
Suit Company, where she died. This company, which
operates a model welfare department for the benefit
of its 4,100 employes, has an up-to-date hospital
connected with its plant, and to this infirmary
scores of the injured were taken to have their
wounds dressed.
Ambulances from all parts of the city were called,
and soon there was a force of thirty surgeons
and as many more nurses at work. Several hundred
emergency men employed by the contractors were
hurried into the excavation to facilitate the
rescue. Mayor Mitchel, Chairman McCall of the
Public Service Commission, Police Commissioner
Woods, District Attorney Perkins, and other city
and county officials arrived early and witnessed
the removal of some of the injured and the dead.
The rescuers found many wounded people and one dead
man in the wreckage of the street car. The dead
man was Louis Krugman, a garment worker, of 308
East Eighth Street. Another of those in the car
died soon after being removed from the wreckage.
The worst injured were taken into the emergency
hospital of the Suit Company, while others were
treated in the streets by ambulance doctors and
sent to their homes.
Two priests from St. Colomba’s Catholic Church,
Fathers Rogers and Higgins, descended into the
excavation and aided the rescuers. William
Dennison, the subway engineer who was taken to
St. Vincent’s Hospital and was expected to die,
was found with a girder across his chest, but was
conscious, and Father Higgins anointed him before
he was carried away. When a stimulant was offered
to Dennison to alleviate his suffering, he refused,
saying he did not drink.
The stifling odor of gas from broken mains hampered
the rescuers. The Department of Water Supply, Gas
and Electricity had employes at the cavity in
eight minutes after the accident. They found that
one twenty-four-inch high pressure fire main and
several six-inch water mains had been broken, and
that the water was rising in the excavation. Within
half an hour they had all the high pressure mains
closed, and thirty minutes later arrangements had
been made through adjoining mains so that the high
pressure system was ready for use. The smaller
mains were shut off by the subway contractors, and
temporary services were installed to meet the needs
of the residents of the block.
Through the fortunate presence at Seventh Avenue
and Twenty-third Street of a patrolman for the
Consolidated Gas Company, the gas was shut off
soon. Two mains had been broken; but on account of
the experience in the construction of the Boston
subway, when men were asphyxiated by escaping gas
in a similar accident, the gas mains are laid along
the curb in all the present construction in New
York; so that while a considerable amount of gas
escaped on the street it did no damage.
Fire Chief Kenlon directed much of the rescue work,
and fifty additional firemen without apparatus were
called out as soon as the nature of the emergency
was known. Forty-four alarm boxes were put out of
commission by the breaking of wires when the street
went down, but service was restored with overhead
wires an hour later.
Immediately after the arrival of Acting Chief
Inspector Dillon, who directed the police reserves,
called from all parts of Manhattan and the Bronx,
tenants were ordered to quit the houses in Seventh
Avenue from Twenty-third to Twenty-fifth Streets
until the authorities decided whether it was safe
for them to return. At 7 o’clock at night they were
permitted to return to their homes.
Acting Police Inspector Joseph Conroy, in
conjunction with officials of the construction
company, sent policemen at night throughout the
five boroughs to the homes of 200 employes on the
company’s payroll. All of the men were accounted
for except two--J. X. Zavina of 300 Avenue A and
John McCormick of 317 Bowery. McCormick had been
reported dead earlier in the day. At the address
given for Zavina it was said that no man of that
name lived there.
The Seventh Avenue car service was suspended south
of Thirty-second Street, and it will be at least a
week, it is said, before service is resumed below
that point.
The thousands of spectators who crowded as near
the great cavity as they could during the morning
and gave the police reserves a hard task at the
danger zone ropes, became alarmed when it was
reported that dynamite was still beneath the fallen
structure and that more explosions might follow.
Twelve sticks of unexploded dynamite were carried
up at one time, and the firemen took charge of it.
The engineers later said that there was no more
dynamite in the cavity, and that the twelve sticks
had been carried down early in the morning by a
powder man who was to explode them in small blasts
after the big explosion at 8 o’clock. The rules
were strict regarding the handling of dynamite, the
company officials said, and they were sure that
there was no further danger to the lives of the
rescuers after the twelve sticks had been taken out.
Colonel William Hayward of the Public Service
Commission stood at the edge of the great hole and
pointed to the crumpled wooden car.
“Look at that car,” he said. “That’s what we ought
to investigate, for before you is a picture of
what is going to happen when one of the old wooden
cars on the elevated takes a jump to the street.
I fought against those old cars going on the
elevated, but I was voted down. I will always fight
them or any other sort of wooden cars for New York
traffic.
“If that car down there had been a steel car I do
not believe a person would have been hurt. At least
the passengers would not have been crushed.”
The contract for the subway work affected by
the accident was awarded originally to Canavan
Brothers, but was taken over by the United States
Realty and Improvement Company on Dec. 31, 1913.
The price was fixed at $2,401,306.75. The job was
75 per cent. completed yesterday morning. The part
is designated officially as Section 5, Route 4 and
38 and extends from midway between Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Streets to midway between Thirtieth and
Thirty-first Streets.
The company also has a contract for the section
from Commerce to Sixteenth Street, and for Section
2 of the Broadway subway from Twenty-sixth
to Twenty-eighth Street. The total amount of
all subway contracts held by the company is
$6,996,037.75, of which 40 per cent. has been paid.
The contractors are under a $75,000 bond for the
completion of the construction and 15 per cent.
of the payment will be withheld until the work is
accepted.
The contractors are liable under the provisions of
the workmen’s compensation law for death and injury
of employes. The company is insured, according to
officials, against losses by other accidents.
The United States Realty and Improvement Company
has enormous assets. Its capital is $30,000,000.
Among the realty properties listed in its name are
the Flatiron Building, Broadway and Fifth Avenue;
17 Battery Place, 85 and 87 Beaver Street, 96 and
98 Mercer Street, 67 and 69 Wall Street, 91 and
93 Wall Street, 123-27 West Twentieth Street,
124-28 West Twentieth Street, 112 West Twenty-first
Street, 118 West Twenty-first Street, 122-26 West
Twenty-first Street, 41-45 East Twenty-second
Street, 128-32 West Thirtieth Street, 202-08 West
Thirty-seventh Street, 111-19 Broadway, 304-12
Fourth Avenue, 400 Fifth Avenue, 494-98 Seventh
Avenue.
Following are the officials of the company which
faces enormous damage suits for the accident:
President, Wilson S. Kinnear; Secretary, Richard
G. Babbage; Treasurer, Byron M. Fellows;
Directors--Harry S. Black, Chairman; R. G. Babbage,
Frank A. Vanderlip, John F. Harris, William A.
Poillon, John D. Crimmins, P. A. Valentine, Harry
Bronner, William A. Merriman, W. S. Kinnear, C. E.
Hermann, F. W. Upham, Franklin Murphy, and B. M.
Fellows. The main offices are at 111 Broadway.
The Superintendent is E. A. Little. C. H. Stengle
is chief engineer. S. S. Jones is in charge
of the construction work which collapsed. The
supervising engineer is B. C. Collier, and the
engineer immediately in charge of the division
which caved in is H. R. Jacobson.
Supervising the work for the Public Service
Commission are Alfred Craven, chief engineer for
the commission; Robert Ridgeway, supervising
engineer in charge of subway construction; Andrew
Veitch, in charge of the section, and Stephen
Koronski, immediately in charge of the division
that caved in.
* * * * *
RUN DOWN BY TRAIN
_Boston Traveler_
In a race with an express train over Lyman’s bridge
on the Southern division of the Boston & Maine
railroad at Waltham, Gerald Ross, 15-year-old son
of Herbert Ross of 95 Carroll street, Waltham,
was overtaken and instantly killed yesterday. A
companion, Kenneth Harrison, 11 years old, of 145
Fourth street, was struck by a cylinder of the
engine and suffered a broken arm. His brother,
Norman Harrison, 14 years old, escaped uninjured.
The boys stood in the middle of the single track on
Lyman’s bridge, a long trestle over which trains
cross a small stream. They were watching a group
of their friends sporting in Lyman’s pond, and did
not notice the approach of the 4 o’clock express
from Boston.
The locomotive’s warning whistle startled them as
the train rounded a bend 100 yards away. The bridge
was too narrow for the boys to remain on it safely
while the train passed. To cling to the girders and
hang suspended over the rocky bed of the stream 25
feet below while the express shook the trestle was
hazardous. As the locomotive bore down upon them
the three boys started to race toward the end of
the bridge.
The engineer shut off steam, but the locomotive
continued to gain on the fleeing trio, the whistle
shrieking the warning to the boys to jump from the
trestle.
Norman Harrison realized his danger and leaped to
the ground, 12 feet below. Kenneth turned to the
side of the track and was about to jump when the
engine hit his arm and threw him from the trestle.
Gerald Ross raced on between the rails, hoping to
reach the end of the bridge. The engine struck him
and he died instantly.
Ross would have entered the Waltham high school as
a freshman this morning.
A police ambulance carried Kenneth Harrison to the
Waltham Hospital. Norman Harrison escaped with
bruises.
* * * * *
TRAIN DERAILED
_Milwaukee Journal_
Two hundred people narrowly escaped death or
serious injury early Monday when the engine on
passenger train No. 13, on the Fond du Lac division
of the Chicago and Northwestern road, due in
Milwaukee at 12:10 a. m., going over forty miles
an hour, jumped the track two miles north of Lake
Shore Junction.
The tire on one of the rear drive-wheels came off,
throwing the locomotive from the track. It tore
along for over 150 yards, across a trestle, and
just as the nose of the engine turned down the
fifteen-foot embankment, Engineer Frank Purcell
brought the train to a stop.
The train was over a half hour late and was
pounding hard to make up time. But few of the
people knew of their danger, the rattle of stone
and gravel against the cars being the only sign
that something was wrong.
Some of the passengers dared the biting cold and
walked to the end of the car line, four miles away,
but most of them remained to be brought into the
city at 4 a. m. by a relief train.
The train blocked traffic on the Fond du Lac
division until a late hour Monday. Several trains
were held up, both north and south bound. The
wrecker, which did not get out until 4 a. m., took
over two hours to get the engine on the rails and
bring the train into town.
Hurrying to Milwaukee to the bedside of Mrs. Grant
Gilson, 3307 Western-av, were her husband and her
mother, Mrs. W. Gilson. When the train was wrecked,
the two were made nearly frantic by the information
that it would be two hours or more before a relief
train would arrive. With a few others, they
tramped, unmindful of the stinging cold, to Lake
Shore Junction, thinking they could make street
car connections there. By good luck they caught a
southbound freight on the Lake Shore division.
* * * * *
FATAL RAILROAD WRECK
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
JERSEY CITY, N. J., Nov. 6.--Four were killed
and over 200 were injured in the wreck of a
Philadelphia local on the Pennsylvania railway,
which ran through an open switch at Brunswick
street junction, crashed into a dead yard engine
and piled up four cars in a heap of tangled
wreckage on Saturday.
Every ambulance, police patrol and fire wagon
available has been utilized to remove the injured,
many of whom are seriously hurt. The wreck took
place on the elevated structure upon which the
Pennsylvania enters Jersey City, and the fire
department was needed to get the injured to the
street level that they might be hurried to the
hospitals.
The following are the dead:
JOHN MONROE, Perth Amboy, engineer.
JOHN M’CLURE, Newark, N. J., fireman.
JOHN SPILLE, Trenton, N. J., engineer.
STENCIO DIOGOSIE, Jersey City, track walker.
The list of injured, made at the various hospitals,
follows:
Max Donelson, 42 years old, New York, bruised about
body; unidentified man, suffering from shock,
probable internal injury; F. H. Clark, Metuchen, N.
J., cut about face and head; George E. Siddell, 30
years old, Elizabeth, N. J.; Miss A. P. Rook, 24
years old, Elizabeth; A. C. Allison, 29 years old,
New York; George L. Tench, 35 years old, Newark; W.
E. Wing, 27 years old, Allendale, N. J.
Fireman Daniel Meade, Newark, of the light engine,
jumped as the trains came together and was unhurt.
The police, on investigation, found a broken rail
on track No. 3 at the scene of the accident, and
agreed that this was the cause of the wreck.
Towerman Williamson, who had been arrested, charged
with throwing the switch and bringing the train and
engine together, was at once discharged.
The train left Philadelphia at 7:58 Saturday
morning and was filled with commuters going to
their work.
Engineer Monroe of the passenger train was running
at a good rate of speed to make up time, and
neither he nor his fireman had a chance to jump and
save themselves.
The engine of the passenger train toppled over,
part of it lying across the trestle work, in
imminent danger of crashing to the street.
A passing policeman, hearing the crash, turned in
the alarm, and the reserves and all ambulances
possible were soon at hand, extricating the
injured, which was a difficult task. Most of them
were pinned down by the wreckage.
In the mail car, which was directly behind the
engine, was more than $1,000,000 in specie, which
was being transferred to New York by the Adams
Express company. A special guard was hurriedly
placed around this car.
When the wreck occurred, the Jersey City station
was crowded with men and women about to leave for
Princeton for the Princeton-Dartmouth football
game. This crowd was thrown into great confusion
until the officials informed them that they might
proceed to their destination via the Jersey Central
railroad, the Pennsylvania tracks being blocked.
At the hospitals it was reported that none of those
taken there were seriously hurt, and that all would
recover. The bodies of the dead have been taken
to Hughes’ morgue. The officials of the road are
investigating the cause of the wreck.
That a hundred were not killed was due to the
equipment of the cars. They were of steel, with
steel beams and concrete flooring into which the
seat frames were set. When the cars toppled over,
there was no splintering of wood, and when the
windows were shattered, the glass flew outward.
Nearly all of the injured, as soon as their hurts
were attended to, left the hospitals and resumed
their journey without giving their names.
* * * * *
FATAL RAILROAD COLLISION
_Milwaukee News_
New York, Dec. 31.--Spencer Trask, one of the
leading financiers of the United States, was killed
today by a freight train running into the rear of
the New York Central passenger train on which he
occupied the drawing room section at the rear end
of the last car.
The accident occurred near Croton, N. Y. One other
passenger was seriously injured, and the negro
porter of the sleeping car was also badly hurt.
Mr. Trask, who was coming into the city from his
home at Saratoga, was dressing in his compartment
when the freight train plowed into the heavy
passenger train, which is known as the Montreal
Express. When his torn body was removed from the
wreckage, it was found that he had only partly
dressed himself.
The express had been stopped by a block signal, and
why the freight behind it was not stopped has not
been explained. The freight struck with such force
as to demolish the rear end of the last sleeper,
telescoping the front end with the sleeper ahead.
Many of the occupants of the five sleepers had not
fully dressed, and they were precipitated, half
clad, into snow banks, with the temperature far
below the freezing point.
Wrecking and relief trains were dispatched from the
Harlem yards of the New York Central, and officials
of the company hurried to the scene. Mr. Trask’s
body was removed to the Croton morgue, and the
injured passenger and porter were cared for by the
local doctors. The passenger was unable to tell his
name.
Those injured were for the most part in the smoking
compartment at the extreme rear of the sleeper,
where a group of passengers were gathered as the
train proceeded down the river. Mr. Trask was on
his way to this city from his home in Saratoga.
Engineer Flanagan of the freight train stuck by his
locomotive, but escaped serious injury.
Failure of a brakeman to walk far enough to the
rear of the stalled Montreal train to flag the
freight in time, is said to have caused the smashup.
The news of the banker’s death had no effect on the
stock exchange, where prices were slightly above
the close last night.
Spencer Trask, who was born here in 1844, entered
the banking business immediately on his graduation
from Princeton. His financial acumen was quickly
recognized, and he soon became a power in the
banking world.
Mr. Trask was among the first to recognize the
genius of Thomas A. Edison, and identified himself
with the Edison electric enterprises. The banker
was a director in many railroads and realty
companies and was deeply interested in educational
and philanthropic societies. Several years ago he
bought and reorganized The New York Times. He was
president of the National Arts club and a member of
numerous other prominent New York clubs. Mr. Trask
was married in 1874 to Miss Katrina Nichols.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following two stories should be
compared as reports of the same accident given in
two New York morning papers._
DIVERS DIE IN SHIP’S HOLD
(1)
_New York Tribune_
Death followed triumphant achievement with terrible
swiftness for three men yesterday, when they
were smothered in the hold of the steamship H.
M. Whitney, of the Metropolitan outside line to
Boston, which they had helped to raise only a few
hours before after a month of hard work in the
raging currents of Hell Gate.
One, a diver, went down into the hold to see if a
patch he had put on the wrecked bottom from the
outside was holding well. He died, it is supposed,
as the poisonous gases rose about him, and two
more, going after him to see why he did not return,
met the same fate.
It was not until three men lay dead in the fetid
hold, suffocated by the gases that the cargo of
hides, beer and perhaps half a hundred other things
gave off, that a glimmering of reason seemed to
come to those in charge of the work. Then the
needless sacrifice of more lives was prevented.
Some one took charge, and men equipped with divers’
helmets rescued two more men who had gone down for
their comrades, and brought up the bodies of the
dead.
Augustus Bjorklund was the diver who brought about
the fatal ending of the day’s work. No one knows
just why he went down into the hold, warned as he
had been to beware of the poisonous gases that
always accumulate when a vessel has lain long in
the water, but the officials of the Merritt-Chapman
Wrecking Company suppose that he wanted to see his
work from inside.
Reports of what happened next on the Whitney were
vague. While the men were going down and dying, no
one seemed to know anything. There was no panic;
there was no excitement. Michael Menus, one of the
wrecking crew, apparently followed Bjorklund to see
if anything was wrong, and died as he reached the
bottom of the hold, falling unconscious from the
ladder he descended. Then Herman Fabricius went
down, and he, too, died almost at once.
John Hanson was the next man to go down, with
a rope and some caution this time, for it was
beginning to be realized that something was amiss.
Hanson came back alive, but unconscious. Captain
Kivlin having realized that a disaster had come
upon the ship, divers went down and saved Hanson’s
life, bringing up the bodies of the three dead men
besides.
That account of the tragedy is as much as could be
gleaned with any certainty yesterday. It was hard
enough to get aboard the Whitney at all, and no one
there seemed to know much. The coroner’s office
made a brief investigation yesterday afternoon,
and the bodies were removed to an undertaking
establishment in West 24th street. The police found
out little more than the casual spectators who
thronged the pier.
The H. M. Whitney went aground in Hell Gate on
Middle Four Reef just a month ago yesterday, and in
the early morning she was floated after long and
hard efforts. It had been a hard job, and those
who had accomplished it were more than happy. The
ship had been brought down to East 102d street,
and about all the work that was being done was
to keep the pumps working. The lighters with the
huge derricks lay alongside, and when the tragedy
occurred many of the men in charge of the work were
at luncheon.
None of the men who died had orders to go down into
the hold. This was dwelt on with much emphasis by
the officials of the wrecking company. Captain
Kivlin, who was in charge of the work, was arrested
and taken to the Harlem court, where Magistrate
Herrman refused to do more than remand him to the
coroner. Apparently no one in charge of the work
could have foreseen the accident and no one could
be held responsible.
Both Bjorklund and Fabricius lived at Stapleton,
Staten Island, and Menus lived at 1 Atlantic
avenue, Brooklyn. Supt. Kivlin said that Bjorklund
was one of the most experienced divers in the
company’s employ and he couldn’t understand how
the man happened to venture into the gas-ridden
hold without testing it for the poisonous vapors.
“With such a mixed cargo as the Whitney is carrying
submerged for thirty-one days, it was certain to be
almost fatal for any one to go into the hold until
it had been thoroughly ventilated,” he said. “He
should have taken the precaution to drop down a
lantern before he went down himself.”
Capt. Hone of the Henry M. Whitney said yesterday
that the damage to the steamer can be repaired very
quickly when she gets into drydock. As a result of
his steamer’s misfortune the Government has decided
to put a bell buoy on the reef.
The pilots of the Sound steamers breathed easier
yesterday afternoon when they approached Hell Gate
and found the steamer out of the channel. The
larger vessels, especially the Fall River Line
steamers, have had a tight squeeze sometimes, and
in foggy weather it was exceedingly dangerous to
attempt the passage.
(2)
_New York Sun_
Nobody was hurt when the steamboat H. M. Whitney
went on Nigger Point reef, Hell Gate, in a fog
a month ago, but three men were killed on her
yesterday an hour after she had been raised. She
had been pumped out by the Merritt-Chapman Wrecking
Company and floated over to the foot of East 102
street. Three of the wrecking crew went down the
forward hatchway into the hold, were overcome by
carbonic acid fumes and were taken out dead.
One was August Bjorklund, a veteran diver, who had
patched up one of the big holes in the side of
the steamer. He took with him Herman Fabricius, a
blacksmith, and Michael Menus, a laborer. Supt.
Thomas Kivlin, in charge of the wreckers, and Capt.
George Hone of the Henry M. Whitney had warned all
the wreckers and members of the crew that it would
be unsafe to venture into the hold until the air
had been purified.
The Whitney’s cargo consisted mainly of green
hides, miscellaneous freight made up largely of
rubber, resin and molasses, and a quantity of coal.
Some 500 tons had been taken out and yesterday
1,800 tons remained. The divers had patched the
hole in the boat’s bottom, and yesterday morning,
having pumped her out, the wreckers got two immense
chains under the bow and stern of the Whitney, and
she was lifted almost out of the water by four
powerful floating derricks. Shortly before noon the
derricks headed for the Manhattan shore and an hour
later the freighter was lying at the foot of 102d
street.
The derricks had scarcely been tied up there when
Bjorklund and his two assistants went down the
second forward hatchway. No one saw them go, but a
few minutes later one of the wreckers, happening
to pass the hatchway, looked down into the hold
and saw the three men stretched out on the bottom.
Supt. Kivlin was notified, and he called the
members of his force and the crew of the steamer
around him.
“The man who goes down after those men takes his
life in his hand, but there ought to be somebody
here brave enough to do it,” said Kivlin. “If we
can get them out of that rotten gas promptly we may
save them.”
There wasn’t any response for a moment, but
suddenly Diver Jack Hanson worked his way through
the little group around the hatchway with a diver’s
helmet over his head. Hanson didn’t speak until he
had taken half a dozen steps down the ladder, when
he said:
“I guess I’m about the best friend Gus Bjorklund
had, and if the boys will keep me supplied with air
I’ll get those poor fellows out as quickly as any
one could.”
He tied a rope around Bjorklund’s shoulders,
and while Bjorklund was being pulled up on deck
two more ropes were thrown to Hanson. He secured
the ropes around Menus and Fabricius, and in
ten minutes all three men were on deck and were
receiving first aid treatment. Ambulances were sent
for, but it was nearly half an hour before Dr.
Moeckel of the Harlem Hospital arrived. The three
men were dead then. Supt. Kivlin was arrested and
taken before Coroner Acritelli, who released him
to appear at the inquest.
* * * * *
SHIPS COLLIDE IN FOG
_Boston Transcript_
In a fog bank that had closed in only about twenty
minutes before, the four-masted schooner Alma E.
A. Holmes of Philadelphia was rammed and sunk by
the Eastern Steamship Corporation steamer Belfast,
just outside of Graves Light, shortly after six
o’clock this morning. That no lives were lost was
undoubtedly due to the action of Captain Frank
Brown of the Belfast, who held the bow of the
steamer in the hole in the schooner’s side until
Captain Henry A. Smith and the eight members of the
crew had climbed aboard the Belfast. Two minutes
after the Belfast backed away, the Holmes, which
had been struck on the starboard side between
the fore and mainmasts, plunged bow first to the
bottom, her stern lifting so high out of the water
that about twenty feet of the keel was visible to
those on the steamer.
The Belfast, with about 150 passengers, was on the
way here from Bangor and Penobscot River ports. The
weather had been thick all night, and Captain Brown
had been constantly on duty in the pilot house.
Shortly before the collision occurred those on the
Belfast heard the schooner’s fog horn sounding
at intervals. The steamer, too, was sounding her
whistle, when out of the fog and directly ahead
appeared the Holmes. At the first glimpse Captain
Brown ordered the engines reversed. The distance
between the vessels, however, was too short, and
a moment later the sharp stem of the Belfast cut
through the schooner’s side.
Frightened passengers hurried out on deck as they
felt the shock of the collision, but within a few
minutes they were assured by members of the crew
that they were in no danger. Many, nevertheless,
feared that the Belfast was going to sink.
Meantime, Captain Brown held the steamer’s bow
where it was, as he realized that the damage was
serious and that the schooner, laden deep as she
was with coal, would go down quickly if the sea was
permitted to rush in.
Meanwhile, the skipper and crew of the schooner had
got on deck, two or three of the sailors in scanty
attire, as they did not have time to dress after
being roused from their bunks. Captain Smith was
on deck when the accident happened, and perceived
when the steamer was sighted that the collision was
bound to occur. He shouted for all of the crew to
come on deck, and nearly all responded before the
crash.
While passengers crowded forward on the decks of
the Belfast, a ladder was let down to the deck of
the schooner, and one after the other the crew of
the Holmes climbed to safety. Captain Smith had
some difficulty in impressing some of the crew
with the necessity of quick action, one man being
particularly stubborn. The rescue was accomplished
in about ten minutes, according to Captain Brown
of the Belfast, and then the steamer backed away.
As she withdrew from the hole in the schooner’s
side, it was seen that the Belfast’s stem had been
twisted over to port. Otherwise she was apparently
undamaged, and was not leaking, according to
Captain Brown, after she docked at India Wharf.
The sight of the schooner going to the bottom was
one that the passengers will remember. In Captain
Brown’s opinion it was spectacular, in view of
the manner in which the craft seemed to stand on
her head, with the stern rearing almost straight
out of the water, until she disappeared beneath
the surface. Every one of the passengers praised
Captain Brown highly for the manner in which he
handled the situation and rescued the shipwrecked
men. According to Captain Brown of the Belfast,
the collision took place about four and one-half
miles northeast of the dumping ground buoy outside
of Graves Light, and the schooner sank in about
twenty fathoms of water. Neither he nor Captain
Smith cared to make any statement regarding
responsibility for the accident. An investigation
to determine this will be made by the United States
Steamboat Inspectors.
The Alma E. A. Holmes was bound from Norfolk to
Salem with 1819 tons of coal. She sailed from
Norfolk a week ago Wednesday. She was a craft of
1208 tons gross register, 1069 net, 202 feet long,
41 feet beam and 18 feet deep, and was built at
Camden, Me., in 1896. Joseph Holmes, Sr., of Toms
River, N. J., was the owner.
* * * * *
BOAT BATTERED IN GALE
_Philadelphia Ledger_
ATLANTIC CITY, Nov. 20.--As gallant a fight as
South Coast mariners have put up in many a day,
with life as the stake, was made by the skipper
and crew of the Drake, one of the fastest and
smartest of the Inlet fishing fleet. Coast guards
hardly knew her when she staggered into port this
afternoon, battered and torn, a leaking scarecrow
of her former trim self.
On board Mark Broome, master, Tomkins, the mate,
and the nine members of the crew were in much the
same state as their vessel. All hands were half
dead from loss of sleep and completely worn out
after a 36-hour battle with the gale that swept the
Atlantic yesterday.
The Drake was making a full speed ahead plunge for
Absecon late Thursday night, when the gale, ripping
up the coast, struck her. There was nothing to do
but turn and fly before the tempest, with everybody
aboard hoping they might escape the treacherous
shoals running miles seaward of Brigantine.
Then, to make matters worse, the Drake’s engine
jammed and went out of commission and Tomkins, the
mate, almost was swept overboard by a boom, while
he clung to the bowsprit trying to pour oil on the
waves. Broome, the skipper, saw his mate’s peril,
and his presence of mind saved Tomkins from going
into the sea.
It looked for a time last night, when the Drake
sprung a leak, as if the staunch craft never would
see harbor again. Everybody took turns at the
pumps, except Broome, who stood over his flagging
men, keeping them awake when exhaustion gripped
them. The Drake was minus half her cargo of fish
when she finally came in over the bar today.
* * * * *
FATAL SHIPWRECK
_New York Times_
ASTORIA, Ore., Sept. 19.--Between seventy and
eighty men, women, and children, coastwise
passengers and crew, were drowned late yesterday
when the three-masted schooner Francis H. Leggett
was pounded to pieces in a gale sixty miles from
the mouth of the Columbia River.
Two men were rescued by passing steamers and
carried to Astoria and Portland. They told how
the sea tore the vessel to pieces, and how the
passengers were drowned, a boat load at a time, as
the lifeboats capsized, or met their fate a little
later when the vessel turned over.
Alexander Farrell, a survivor, said that, at
the height of the storm, Capt. J. Jensen of San
Francisco, a passenger, who had lost his own ship
six months ago and had been marooned for four
months on an uninhabited island, went to the aid
of Capt. Moro of the Leggett, took command of the
passengers, and controlled them until he sank with
the schooner.
The schooner’s wireless, on a route alive with
ships, raised only the Japanese cruiser Idzumo, and
sank hours before any craft reached her position.
The steamer Beaver, which caught the Idzumo’s
report of the Leggett’s distress, said that the
Idzumo gave no position for the distressed vessel.
She asked for more details, but got no response
from the warship.
Plunging on her course for the Columbia River, the
Beaver ran upon the oil tanker Buck, standing by a
swirl of wreckage and timber which indicated where
the Leggett had sunk. The Buck transferred Farrell
to the Beaver for treatment. She remained for some
time searching for bodies afloat, or for some other
men, who, like Farrell, might have been fortunate
enough to seize a bit of lumber and strong enough
to cling to it for many hours in the icy water.
The other rescued passenger, George H. Pullman
of Winnipeg, Canada, is on board the Buck, which
now is lying off the Columbia bar awaiting calmer
weather before crossing in.
It is believed that Capt. Moro of the Leggett was
washed overboard shortly before the ship sank,
for it was Capt. Jensen, Farrell said, who was in
charge of a futile attempt to launch two lifeboats,
which foundered as soon as they struck the water.
Farrell, who had recovered considerably tonight
from his exhaustion, said that the Leggett carried
a full list of passengers, between forty and fifty,
while the crew numbered about twenty-five. Among
the passengers were six women, a girl and a boy,
including the Captain’s wife, the mate’s wife, and
the wife of Capt. Anderson of the schooner Carrie
Dove.
“We left Grey’s Harbor Wednesday morning,” said
Farrell. “Later the sea became rough. The Leggett
began to pound heavily and the Captain gave orders
to jettison the deck load. Then the seas swept off
the hatches, and the hold began to fill. Capt.
Jensen ordered the passengers into their cabins,
and many were still there when the boat went down.
“When it was seen that there was no hope for
the vessel, Capt. Jensen ordered the lifeboats
launched. In the first boat there were thirty
persons, two of whom were women. There were only
six women on board, and the other four were not at
that end of the ship when the boat was launched.
“As soon as the boat struck the water it capsized,
and all the occupants were thrown into the sea and
drowned.
“A few minutes later an attempt was made to launch
the second lifeboat. It contained four women and
their husbands. The boat met the same fate as the
other boat.
“I was standing on the bridge when the ship went
down. The boat capsized as she sank. I don’t know
how long I was under water, but when I came to
the top I grabbed a railroad tie and hung on. The
wireless operator was also hanging to the tie. I
saw men sinking all around me, but could not hear
their cries owing to the screeching gale.
“It soon became dark, but it was 1 o’clock in the
morning when the Beaver picked me up. The wireless
operator clung to the tie with me for several
hours, and then, benumbed by cold, he dropped off.
No one was to blame for the wreck. The boat was
unable to stand the storm.”
* * *
The Leggett was a three-masted schooner of 1,606
tons gross registry and a capacity of 1,500,000
feet of lumber. She was operated by the Charles R.
McCormick Company of San Francisco.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following two stories illustrate different
arrangements of the same material and were probably
telegraphed by different news associations._
EXPLOSION IN MINE
(1)
_San Francisco Examiner_
MARIANNA (Pa.), November 28.--Within three
minutes after a State mine inspector and the mine
superintendent had returned from an inspection
of the district, the model Marianna mine of the
Pittsburg-Buffalo Coal Company was blown up by an
explosion to-day.
At midnight the rescuers, penetrating through a
portion of the shaft, came upon the bodies of 142
men, most of whom had been killed instantaneously
by the debris flung upon them by the explosion.
Many of the remains were badly mangled. Eighteen
bodies were immediately carried to the top of the
shaft, where they were encoffined. Six others,
killed at the top of the shaft, had been previously
recovered. Whether any more remain in the wrecked
mine will not be known until morning.
When she learned that her husband was among the
dead, Mrs. Joseph Jones broke through the guard
of fifty State constabulary and attempted to dash
herself to the bottom of the mine. She was caught
and restrained just as she was about to make the
fatal jump. Mrs. George Acker became violently
insane when she heard that her husband was in the
mine, and was arrested and placed under restraint.
At 1 o’clock Peter Arnold, an American, was brought
out of the Rachel shaft alive. Joseph Kearney, one
of the rescuers, reported that others were living.
The Marianna mine, which had been in operation less
than three months, was considered the model mine of
the world. Every device known to modern invention
had been installed to prevent just such a tragedy
as occurred to-day. But, wrecked by a mysterious
explosion, the very machinery which was to have
made accident impossible hampered the rescuers at
their work. They did not understand the wonderful
mechanism which bolstered the great mine with such
a network of contrivances, and they were delayed in
the attempt to bore through to the bodies of the
men lying dead in the bottom of the shaft.
The explosion came just before the noon hour in the
Rachel shaft. It was so terrific that the blast,
blowing up the whole length of the deep shaft, tore
loose the giant elevator cage at the surface of the
mine and hurled it 300 feet away.
Two men were in the cage at the time. Both were
instantly killed, the head of one of them being
literally blown off.
Immediately following the explosion, rescuers began
frantically to burrow at the mouth of the mine in
a futile effort to dig down through the tremendous
masses of coal that blocked the upper reaches
of the shaft, while other rescuers, headed by
President John K. Jones, of the Pittsburg-Buffalo
Coal Company, rushed to the scene in special trains
from Pittsburg and Monongahela with the latest
appliances, which were erected at the head of the
shaft to bore to the entombed men.
Five thousand women and children and miners
thronged the mouth of the mine, the former weeping
piteously and pleading for the rescue of their
fathers or brothers.
The officials of the mine are in a pitiful
condition. They have spent hundreds of thousands of
dollars to make the Marianna fireproof, and experts
have assured them that such a disaster as occurred
to-day was impossible. In the excitement and panic
it is impossible thus far to learn the names of the
victims. But the books of the company indicate that
the majority of the 275 buried in the Rachel are
Americans and that most of the others are English
miners imported by the company two months ago to
work the richest shafts.
(2)
_Chicago Record-Herald_
PITTSBURG, Nov. 28.--Two hundred and seventy-five
men, a majority of them Americans, are believed
all to have perished in an explosion which wrecked
the mine of the Pittsburg-Buffalo Coal Company at
Marianna, Washington County, shortly before noon
to-day. Marianna is considered the model mining
town of the world, and the mine itself was claimed
to be as nearly perfect in equipment as modern
science could devise.
Since the blast entombed all the men in the mine,
smoke has been issuing from the shaft, showing that
the workings are afire, and rescuers who entered
were compelled, after progressing only a short
distance, to retreat on account of the intense heat.
The explosion happened at 11:30 o’clock this
morning, when the full force was at work. The
explosion was terrific, and if all in the mine
were not mangled by its force, it seems certain
that they perished in the subsequent fire or were
suffocated by the deadly fumes.
The force of the explosion can be imagined when it
is known that the heavy iron cage which carried the
men from the surface to the workings was blown 300
feet away from the mouth of the shaft. Two men who
were in the cage at the time were killed, the head
of one of them being blown off.
Three foreigners who were at the mouth of the mine
when the explosion occurred are in the hospital in
a critical condition from injuries received when
the mine cage was blown out of the shaft. They also
inhaled the poisonous fumes.
The fanhouse was partly demolished and the fans
stopped for over an hour.
The explosion was in shaft No. 2. The only way to
reach the workings is through that shaft, as shaft
No. 1 is not completed. Some of the officials of
the coal company believe it will be necessary to
dig through 800 feet of solid coal before they can
reach the workings.
State Mine Inspector Louttit and Mine Foreman
Kennedy had just completed a two days’ examination
of the mine, and had come from the mine only three
minutes before the explosion occurred.
When the town was shaken by the blast, all the
people rushed from their houses. Learning of the
extent of the disaster, the members of the families
of the doomed men rushed to the mouth of the mine,
and a pathetic scene followed. Wives, mothers and
relatives of the men are gathered about, and their
cries are pitiful.
It is said there is a large gas well in the
vicinity of the mine. Whether the gas from this
well was communicated to the mine and became
ignited, or whether powder and dynamite used
for blasting purposes exploded, cannot now be
ascertained.
Rushing as fast as steam could carry them, special
trains from this city and Monongahela went to the
scene of the disaster. On them were officials of
the coal company and many prominent miners who
are considered experts in the work of rescue.
The latest appliances from the new United States
laboratory in this city, which were recently tested
before foreign and American experts, for the saving
of life in mine explosions, were hurried to the
mine.
John H. Jones, president of the Pittsburg-Buffalo
Coal Company, was almost a physical wreck when he
learned of the accident. He trembled in every limb
and could scarcely speak. Accompanied by other
officials of the company, and by J. W. Paul of the
United States mine testing station located here,
President Jones went at once to the scene in a
special train.
Two assistants accompanied Mr. Paul, carrying
patented helmets that make work possible in the
most dangerous mine. With these men Mr. Paul
expected to be able to save many lives.
Early reports as to the number of victims of the
disaster varied greatly. The mine officials first
claimed that not more than 100 men could have been
caught, but it now is certain that 275 were at work
at the time and that none in the shaft escaped.
State Mine Inspector Louttit and Mine Foreman
Kennedy, who had just completed a two days’
examination of the mine, declared that they had
found it in perfect condition. At the present
time, they say, it is impossible to state whether
the explosion was caused by gas or by a powder
explosion. Mr. Jones, president of the company,
stated that almost the entire force of men were in
the mine at the time of the explosion, but he did
not know the full extent of the casualties.
Marianna was built recently by the
Pittsburg-Buffalo Coal Company. It necessitated a
great outlay of money, as it was the intention to
make the mine up to date and the living conditions
of the miners the same as could be secured in a
large city. The houses were of brick construction,
and each contained a bathroom. When completed
the town was said by foreign and American mine
officials to be the most perfect mining town in the
world.
* * * * *
ENTOMBED MINERS
_Kansas City Times_
JOPLIN, MO., June 18.--The occasional
“rap-rap-rap” which has encouraged the men who
are battling with the tons of rock and earth
imprisoning two men in the Longacre-Chapman mine
ceased yesterday afternoon. Daniel Hardendorf and
Reed Taylor, the men who are buried, have now been
in the mine since 6 o’clock last Friday night.
There is hope yet for their rescue, but that hope
grows weaker as the night wears on.
The best shovelers in the Joplin district, 150 of
them, are working quietly, feverishly, knowing that
every minute lost means that much less chance of
rescuing the men. They work with strained nerves,
in squads of eight which enter the shaft, then come
up at the end of two hours completely exhausted.
A crowd of about five hundred persons, miners,
friends and relatives, are at the mouth of the
shaft. It’s a strange, pathetic crowd, alternately
weeping and praying.
Through this crowd tonight four big, pale men
elbowed their way. They were William Lester, Roy
Woodmansee, Edward Spencer and A. H. Harwood,
miners who were taken from the shaft Tuesday night
after having been entombed themselves four days
in another part of the mine. They pleaded to be
allowed to help in the rescue work.
“Let us save them. It’s hell down there, poor
fellows,” one said grimly.
A tragic figure in the crowd is Mrs. Hardendorf,
wife of one of the entombed men. As the shifts of
men go down she stands by and pleads with them to
exert every effort. When the men, exhausted by
their efforts, come up to be relieved, she works
with the other women, passing around coffee and
food.
Thirty-five feet of rock and earth separate the
entombed miners from liberty. The two men have been
without food, water or air more than eight days
now. When the tapping ceased yesterday afternoon
many shook their heads.
“They are dead,” they say sadly.
But the crowd about the shaft never diminishes and
the shovelers never quit.
“Maybe they have gone farther into the drift to get
better air,” some say hopefully.
About $1,500 has been raised by popular subscriptions
to pay the men who are helping in the rescue work.
The amount soon will be increased.
Experienced miners say it will be late Saturday
night or early Sunday morning before the tons of
rocks and earth can be shoveled away. If the
buried miners have fainted from lack of air, there
is little hope of reaching them alive. But if they
have gone back farther in the drift they can be
saved.
* * * * *
FALL FROM SCAFFOLD
_New York Times_
Because he had refused to take a seriously injured
man in his automobile to St. Luke’s Hospital
yesterday afternoon, the chauffeur of a machine
standing outside of South Field, opposite Columbia
University Library, was set upon by a crowd of Yale
and Columbia University students and threatened
with bodily injury unless he did so. Thoroughly
frightened, the chauffeur consented to take the
injured man to the hospital, where his condition is
said to be serious.
The injured man was Peter Bunn, a bricklayer, of
No. 231 East 80th street, who was working on Kent
Hall, a new Columbia University building, at 116th
street and Amsterdam avenue. Bunn and his brother
John were on a scaffolding on the third floor of
the building, overlooking South Field, the athletic
field of the university, where Yale and Columbia
were playing a game of baseball.
As the crowds began to leave the field, the two
men shouted from their high perch and imitated the
cheers of the students. While they were jumping
about on the platform of the scaffold, it swung far
out from the wall, and Peter fell to the ground.
* * * * *
TWO BOYS DROWN
_Chicago Tribune_
Joseph Tordio, 19 years old, of 920 Townsend
street, tried to save Albert Arrigo, 8 years old,
of 457 West Superior street, from drowning in the
north branch of the river at Superior street last
night. Both drowned.
Arrigo, a mere stripling, was fishing. He lost his
balance and toppled from the pier. Screams of his
brother, Charles, 12 years old, attracted Tordio.
He threw off his shoes, coat, and hat and jumped
in. For fifteen minutes the battle with death ran
on.
Tordio did not know the science of rescuing a
drowning person. He might have stunned the boy
and got back to the pier. But he merely used his
muscle. Then the little boy, in a death grapple,
tightened his arms around Tordio like two small
bands of steel.
The larger boy tired. The murky water ran over his
face. For an instant he thought he might lose. That
was his undoing. Fear unnerved him. He fought in a
frenzy. They went down together, the younger boy
strangling but still clasping his two small bands
of steel around the rescuer’s body.
They came up, or Tordio’s face did. With the terror
of death on him, Tordio made a last desperate
effort. It failed. He opened his mouth to call for
help, but the voice was drowned with the gurgling
water. He quit. His hands went up in a last act of
despair. Then they went down. In a moment there was
nothing on the water at that point save a few tiny
waves and a few bubbles.
The police came with grappling hooks. The body of
little Arrigo was recovered. The doctors worked for
an hour to drive air back into the water bloated
lungs. It was futile.
Tordio’s body is still on the floor of the river
somewhere. He did not know the boy he tried to save.
* * * * *
INVESTIGATION OF CAUSE OF DROWNING
_Boston Herald_
The city authorities, the police and the district
attorney have been asked to investigate conditions
at the deserted wharf on Albany street at the foot
of Union Park where one boy was drowned on Tuesday
afternoon and another narrowly escaped drowning
on the morning of the same day. Residents of the
neighborhood say that in the last decade the place
has claimed no less than seven victims and has been
the scene of a score of accidents more or less
serious.
So far no one directly responsible for the
recurring fatalities has been found. The premises
are private property, the boys who frequent the
place are trespassers under the law, the city
believes that it has no right to interfere and the
police of the district say that the only way they
could deal with the situation would be to have an
officer stationed on the ground day and night.
With a frontage of some 200 feet on Albany street
the lot extends back over a grass-grown area about
50 feet to the South bay. At the edge of the water
are the ruins of an old pier, a stretch of broken
boards and a group of broken piles.
The whole place is absolutely open to the street
and is unguarded by fence or barrier of any kind.
It has all the attractions of a playground and
swimming hole and is doubly alluring to the lads of
the neighborhood owing to the fact that they have
been warned off from time to time by the police.
All during the summer scores of boys of all ages,
but chiefly between 5 and 14 years, haunt the old
wharf, jumping from pile to pile or taking an
occasional dip when the officer on the beat is not
looking. From the shore the channel shelves down
sharply to a depth of about 30 feet.
The nature of the danger was shown Tuesday
afternoon. Alexander Penney, the 7-year-old son
of Alexander Penney of 114 Maiden street, while
playing fireman with several companions among the
piles, slipped and fell into the water. His body
disappeared and was not found until it was picked
up yesterday morning near the Dover street bridge
by the crew of the policeboat Watchman.
In the morning of the same day Arthur York, 5 years
old, of Albany street, stumbled overboard and
was rescued with considerable difficulty by John
Melanphy, who was forced to dive before he could
bring the boy to the surface.
Similar accidents have happened in the past
with such frequency that the citizens of the
neighborhood are demanding that some action be
taken to close the wharf and keep the children away
from it. Joseph E. Ferreira of 1 Pelham street,
a business man, well known politically in the
section, circulated a petition asking the city
to take action. There were over 250 signers, but
when the petition was presented to the mayor it
was found that the city had no legal right to act.
Mr. Ferreira has since appealed to the district
attorney and to the police in an attempt to have
the wharf fenced in.
Mayor Fitzgerald paid a personal visit to the scene
of Tuesday’s accidents yesterday morning. He looked
over the ground carefully and interviewed numerous
small boys who had been attracted to the spot.
Several of them were playing about the wharf end,
apparently unmindful of the danger.
“The situation here is a deplorable one,” said
Mayor Fitzgerald, “but up to the present I have
been unable to discover any way in which the city
can act. The premises are privately owned, and the
city, so far as I am informed, has no right to
fence the place in or otherwise block it from the
street.
“Something should be done, however, to prevent the
recurrence of drowning accidents. It would seem
that much of the trouble would be obviated if the
owners would consent to erect a high board fence.
I believe also that the police might be a bit more
vigilant, although I realize that the only sure way
to keep boys off a lot like this would be to have
an officer stationed here all the time.
“The place as it stands is a temptation to every
child who loves the water. In the hot weather it
is bound to lure about every healthy boy in the
vicinity. If funds were available, I should suggest
that the happiest solution of the difficulty would
be for the city to take the land over and transform
it into a bathing park. The neighborhood is crowded
and the nearest public bathing place is at Dover
street.
“The accident calls attention to the relatively
small number of our boys that can swim. I have
always advocated swimming instruction for our
children, and the fatality of Tuesday only
emphasizes the need of it.”
Mayor Fitzgerald allowed himself to be photographed
at the spot where the accident occurred, and as he
did so seven urchins grouped themselves about him.
Six of them were under 10 years and the other 13
years old.
“How many of you boys can swim?” asked the mayor.
The six younger boys shook their heads and the
oldest admitted that he could “a little.”
“That is a fair example of conditions,” said Mayor
Fitzgerald, “and a good argument against allowing a
place like this to exist.”
The property has been idle for a number of years
and is said to have been the subject of litigation.
The assessors’ books give the owners of the
property as Grant and Alice Nilson, neither of whom
is a resident of Boston.
If the owners do not take measures to shut the old
wharf from the street, Mr. Ferreira and a number of
other South End residents say they will appeal to
the courts in an effort to secure a remedy.
* * * * *
BOY SAVES DROWNING MAN
_New York World_
Johnny Donivan, fifteen years old, No. 2005 Second
avenue, went down to the Battery yesterday to look
for a job, and the only job he found was to save
a man from drowning. Johnny had no objection to
saving a drowning man, but was much disappointed at
not finding work, for his father has been out of a
job since last Christmas, and there are eight in
the family.
Daniel Wilson, who has been a deep-sea fireman,
went to sleep on a pier and rolled off into the
bay, striking his head on a rock. Then he floated
seaward.
Johnny Donivan jumped in after Wilson. With both
hands the fireman grabbed the boy so tightly around
the throat that he almost squeezed the breath out
of him.
Johnny seized the man around the waist, was pulled
under water twice, but swam with Wilson to the
pier, where the Liberty Island steamer makes fast.
Policeman Joseph Murry hauled them out.
John Brown, watchman in the Barge Office, lent
Johnny Donivan his old shirt and trousers while the
boy’s raiment was drying in the sunshine. Johnny
said he had a place in a picture frame store in
Beaver street until eight weeks ago when he was
let out. The only one in the family working is one
of Johnny’s sisters, and she earns $3 a week as a
dressmaker’s apprentice. A year ago he dived into
the East River at One Hundred and Second street and
saved a ten-year-old boy from drowning. On that
occasion a policeman gave him five cents so he
wouldn’t have to walk home.
* * * * *
BABY DROWNS
_Brooklyn Eagle_
Mrs. Rose Stock left her rooms, on the second floor
of 550 South avenue, at 10 o’clock this morning to
step across the street to make some purchases at a
grocery store. As she closed the door, the baby,
Harriet, 3 months old, was sleeping quietly in its
crib, and Louis, 5 years old, with Dorothy, 3 years
old, her other children, were playing.
Scarcely had the mother gone when an idea seized
one of the two. It was probably Louis, although
he credited Dorothy with it when asked about it.
Why not take the baby out of its crib and give it
a bath in the tub, as they had seen mother do so
often? It was a brilliant thought. So Louis went
and fetched the baby and took it to the bathroom.
The tub was full of water and clothes, for Mrs.
Stock had been washing there the night before, and
had not finished soaking the clothes. They set the
baby in the water, which was about a foot deep.
The baby gasped, gurgled and was still. It did not
appear to enter into the spirit of the game at all.
Louis had never seen the baby so quiet before when
its mother bathed it. He could not quite make out
just what was wrong, but a vague foreboding that
he had done something he ought not to came over
him. He ran out into the hall and met his mother
returning with her arms laden with groceries for
the dinner hour.
“Oh, mama!” he cried, “the baby is in the water.”
Mrs. Stock ran up the stairs, but before she got
there Mrs. Rose Leiser, a next-door neighbor, had
lifted little Harriet out of the tub and laid her
on the bed.
Dr. Joseph Strong of 566 Waite avenue was called
in and tried artificial respiration. Every time he
moved the little arms a jet of water gushed from
the baby’s mouth. His efforts were in vain.
When a reporter called at the little home some time
later, Mrs. Stock was seated in one room surrounded
by a semicircle of sympathizing neighbors, and in
the next room Louis, who has sunny Lord Fauntleroy
curls and a dimpled face, was down on his knees
looking through a photograph album. He looked up at
the visitor with steady blue eyes and a smile when
he was asked who put the baby in the water.
“Dorey did,” he replied.
“Where is the baby now?”
“I know,” he said. “It’s on the bed. It’s sleeping.”
Then he turned to his photograph album, but when a
search was made for little Dorothy, he led the way
up the stairs and showed the visitor how to open
the door.
Brown-haired Dorothy, with ear-rings in her ears,
hid her face behind the skirts of a neighbor. She
thought the man who came was going to take her away
somewhere, and she hung her head.
“Louis put the baby in the water,” she said. That
was all she seemed to know about it. Louis laughed
and went back to his album. He could not understand
why his mother was crying so in the next room.
Wasn’t the baby on the bed just as she had left it?
* * * * *
SHOOTING ACCIDENT
_Chicago Tribune_
Elgin, Ill., Oct. 28--[Special.]--Walter Black, 17
year old son of August Black of 416 Carroll street,
came home from a hunting trip at 7 o’clock tonight
and stood his single barrel shotgun up in a corner
of the kitchen.
“Big bruvver’s a sojer,” lisped Harold Black, 5
years old.
“Naw, there ain’t any war in Elgin,” replied
August, aged 11.
Walter went upstairs to change his clothing. Harold
went to the corner and attempted to drag the heavy
gun along.
“Le’s play sojers,” he said.
“You ain’t big enough to carry the gun,” retorted
August. “Let me take it.”
August took the gun, swung it across his shoulder,
and marched around the kitchen shouting “Hep! Hep!”
with Harold composing the rear guard of the army.
“Now we’re at the war,” sang out August. He turned
suddenly and pointed the weapon at Harold, his
finger on the trigger. There was a roar and a spit
of flame. The muzzle was only a few inches from
the head of the younger boy. He fell dead with the
whole charge in his head.
Mrs. Black ran to the kitchen and fainted when she
saw what had happened. An inquest will be held
tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following three stories
published in Milwaukee evening papers should be
compared as different versions of the same incident
in a suburb._
SEARCH FOR LOST CHILD
(1)
_Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin_
WEST ALLIS, Oct. 21.--After 2000 residents of West
Allis had spent an entire night searching for
Walter, the 18-months’-old son of Mr. and Mrs.
Ernest Strong, 5402 Fargo avenue, the little fellow
was found sleeping in a coal bin in the basement of
the home of Mrs. Johanna Bitter, Fifty-fourth and
Fargo avenues.
The little lad had wandered away from his father’s
yard on Friday afternoon and reached the yard of
Mrs. Bitter. While at play near a basement window
he probably tumbled through to the coal below.
There he slept soundly until early this morning,
when he was found by Mrs. Bitter when she went to
the basement to clean out the bin. She picked the
child up and carried him in her arms to the home
of the distracted mother, who had been waiting and
watching all through the night for the return of
her baby.
With a cry of joy she seized him and clasped him to
her breast and imprinted kiss after kiss upon his
face. The father, who, with a party of neighbors,
had been searching every corner of the village, was
notified and hurried to his home to see his boy.
Walter was playing on Friday afternoon with his
brother Willie in the back yard of the home.
About 3 o’clock Willie went into the house, and
his mother asked where Walter was. The brother
told her that he was playing in the yard. She was
entertaining visitors and forgot about the lad
until after 4 o’clock.
When she went into the yard, the boy was not there.
She searched through the neighborhood for a time
and then notified her husband, who works at the
Allis-Chalmers plant. He organized a searching
party and spent the entire night with almost 2000
others in trying to locate the baby.
At first it was feared that the child had been
kidnaped, as a man with a young child was seen
driving down Fargo avenue shortly after the Strong
child was missed by the mother.
(2)
_Milwaukee News_
He was such a little chap--only 18 months
old--and when he started out yesterday to take
his pedestrian exercises, in which he had not
progressed very far, he met with a mishap in
tumbling through the basement window of a
neighbor’s house into the coal bin.
His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Strong,
Fiftyfourth and Fargo avenues, called him Bootsie.
When Bootsie found himself in a pile of coal, it
tickled his childish fancy to learn what beautiful
black marks the coal made on his hands.
He tired of playing with the coal, rolled over
and went sound asleep. Then the trouble started.
An older brother who had been left in the yard to
watch the baby, came into the house alone.
“Where’s Bootsie?” the mother asked.
The little fellow shook his head and said he didn’t
know. The mother ran to the yard. No Bootsie was
in sight. Inquiries were made among the neighbors.
Then the news of the mysterious disappearance of
Bootsie traveled from mouth to mouth until West
Allis became aroused.
Deputy sheriffs got busy; the West Allis police
force was brought out; neighbors, relatives and
friends to the number of almost 1,000 gathered near
the home.
The father came home to supper, learned of his
son’s disappearance and was puzzled. Mrs. Strong
wept and at times was on the verge of hysteria.
Women called and tried to comfort her.
Then a searching party of many hundred started over
the territory, “with a fine tooth comb,” the police
said, to look for Bootsie.
Ponds in the neighborhood were dragged, and until
far into the night, lanterns could be seen bobbing
over the fields, going here, there, everywhere,
searching for Bootsie Walter Strong, youngest son
of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Strong.
Then someone brought in a clew. An evil-looking man
with a black mustache and smoking a cigarette was
seen driving through West Allis about 6 o’clock in
the evening. He had a child on his knees.
The child answered the description of Bootsie. He
was crying and struggling to get away. The black
mustached man leered at people in driving by and
disappeared.
The child had been kidnaped! There was no
use denying it. Had not the clew been almost
conclusive? By midnight the search for Bootsie
had been abandoned. Searchers returned home
disheartened.
About 5 o’clock this morning Mrs. Johanna Bitter,
who lives at 5418 Fargo avenue on property
adjoining the Strong home, went to the basement to
get some potatoes.
There on top of the coal pile was Bootsie--he of
the mysterious disappearance--sound asleep, with
his mouth open. The child was carried home by
Mrs. Bitter, and when the crowd of last night’s
searchers called at the Strong home again this
morning, it was met by the wide-eyed Bootsie,
munching on a cookie, with evidence of coal dust
still lingering in his golden hair.
(3)
_Milwaukee Journal_
If Walter Strong, 18 months, 5402 Fargo-av, West
Allis, were to try and make up during the next
four years the sleep that he caused to be lost
Friday night, he would fail. It would be impossible
because 2,000 nights o’ sleep went a-glimmering in
the twelve hours of darkness.
But that doesn’t worry Walter Strong, 18 months.
Not at all. That sleep didn’t belong to him, but
was the property of 2,000 neighbors.
Friday afternoon, when the baby’s father, Ernest
Strong, was at work in the Allis-Chalmers plant and
his mother, Mrs. Anna Strong, was busy with her
household duties, young Walter toddled out into the
yard in front of his home. That yard, the street
beyond and the highways and byways that Walter
could indistinctly see stretching out before him,
were to him as were the unexplored new worlds to
Columbus.
It was 3 p. m. when Walter began his journey. At 6
p. m. he had not returned. Strong had come home;
the mother had noticed that her baby was missing,
and a search was begun. At 9 p. m. Walter was still
missing. An alarm was spread in the neighborhood.
Then the search began. The good neighbors of West
Allis scurried to and fro, listening to stories
of kidnaping, following various clews, telling
of strange men seen in the neighborhood and,
altogether, creating intense excitement. This
lasted until 6 a. m. Saturday.
What Baby Walter thought as he toddled out of his
yard cannot be told, for Walter is unable to
say. He walked up Fargo-av until he observed a
peculiar--to him--scene. To most of us it would
have been an ordinary cottage at 5418 Fargo-av, the
home of Mrs. Johanna Bitter, but to Walter there
was a great cavern underneath a pile of wood. This
cavern had a screen across the mouth, and, peering
through, Walter could see a pile of dark stuff. To
others that would have been a cellar filled with
coal.
Walter was highly interested in his discovery and
began to pry at the screen. Ah! the screen moved!
It opened! Walter pushed his head inside and gazed
about. Then he tumbled in.
Perhaps he cried a little when he fell, but if he
did no one heard him. He soon reconciled himself to
his imprisonment and began playing with objects
at hand. Soon, however, he became sleepy and what
makes a better bed than a large pile of potato
sacks?
So while his frantic parents and the neighbors were
searching for him, Baby Walter slept peacefully
within a few hundred feet of home and mother.
Early Saturday Mrs. Bitter, who lives alone,
entered her cellar to get some potatoes for
breakfast. She carried no light, and when she
neared the bin, stumbled over the sacks. The baby
cried out. That ended his trip.
When Baby Walter sat on his father’s knee Saturday
morning calmly munching a biscuit, he blinked and
smiled. The father and mother were busy thanking
the neighbors for their interest and assistance.
CHAPTER IV
POLICE NEWS AND CRIME
=Type of story.= Since police news ranges from slight misdemeanors to
the most serious of crimes such as murder and suicide, it offers widely
different material for news stories. Because of the general interest in
the material with which stories of crime deal, the purely informative
story is sufficient in itself to insure reading (cf. “Burglary,”
p. 54, and “Murder of Business Man,” p. 59). The strong personal
element in stories of wrong-doing gives occasion for effective human
interest presentation in the informative story (cf. “Forgery,” p. 49,
and “Street Car Bandit,” p. 57). Amusing aspects of minor offenses,
and even of burglary, hold-ups, or fraud, often furnish inspiration
for humorous treatment (cf. “Charged with Intoxication,” p. 48, and
“Hold-up,” p. 57).
=Purpose.= In no other kind of news should the effect of the story on
the reader receive more careful consideration than in news of crime.
The evil effects of news stories of criminal acts on many readers have
already been pointed out (cf. p. 8). That these destructive influences
can be offset to a considerable extent by constructive handling of
news has also been shown. In order that the crime story may have a
deterrent effect, the crime must be shown to be wrong, even though the
wrong-doer deserves some sympathy. The results of wrong-doing, not
only in the form of legal punishment imposed but in the remorse and
the pangs of guilty conscience that the wrong-doer suffers, as well as
in the disgrace that he brings to others through his criminal acts,
when emphasized in news stories tend to deter others from risking the
dangers of such penalties.
Constructive presentation of crime news may also include emphasis on
underlying causes and responsibility, especially when these can be
traced to bad conditions in the community or in society as a whole,
since such emphasis leads readers to consider the necessity for
changing the conditions that are directly or indirectly responsible
for the criminal acts. In so far as the criminal is the victim of
these circumstances it may be legitimate to create a sympathetic
understanding of his act (cf. “Hold-up,” p. 56, and “Story of Escaped
Convict,” p. 68).
A danger in writing stories of crime lies in creating sympathy for
the undeserving wrong-doer by a sentimental treatment of him and his
act. By making more or less of a hero of him, news stories may lead
undiscriminating readers to regard him and his crime as not unworthy
of emulation. There is also a temptation in writing crime stories to
sacrifice truth and accuracy of detail in order to secure greater
picturesqueness or stronger dramatic situations, but such treatment is
an indefensible deviation from the fundamental duty of presenting the
news fairly and accurately.
Whatever influence a story of crime may have on the reader should be
the result of the reporter’s selection and presentation of the actual
facts. Moralizing or “editorializing” concerning the facts is not only
unnecessary but undesirable in news stories.
=Treatment.= Dramatic narrative and vivid description, when true
to the facts of the news, are both legitimate and commendable. It is
important to keep consistently to one point of view in arranging and
presenting the details, particularly in constructive stories. Available
material for making the narration and the description effective
includes confessions, interviews with witnesses and persons involved,
and clues to the identity of the perpetrator or to the solution of any
mysterious phases of the crime. Fairness requires that persons accused
of wrong-doing as well as their accusers be given a hearing in news
stories. It must also be remembered that a person accused of crime is
not a criminal unless he has been convicted; until he has been found
guilty, he is described as an “alleged” criminal, or is said to be
“charged” with the crime.
=Contents.= In police news and crime stories details of
significance are: (1) number of lives destroyed or endangered; (2)
names of victims; (3) names of persons charged with the crime; (4)
arrests of suspects and detention of witnesses; (5) clues to the
identity of the perpetrators when these are not known; (6) causes,
motives, and responsibility, known or conjectured; (7) amount and
character of loss; (8) methods employed in commission of the crime; (9)
measures to prevent similar crimes.
* * * * *
BOY RUNS AWAY
_Chicago Herald_
Somewhere between Chicago and Lansing, Mich.,
Harvey L. New, a fair-haired boy of 14, is
wandering along the dusty roads carrying a
nightcap, a pocket full of feed and Sarah Jane, a
stub-toed chicken.
In his boyish heart he carries a love for his
chicken, the life of which he felt bound to save at
the cost of his home.
Harvey visits his grandfather’s farm near Lansing
every summer. A year ago his grandmother presented
him with Sarah Jane, then only three weeks old.
He brought the chicken to his home at 4969 Prairie
avenue and built a coop in the back yard. Every
morning he arose early and fed and fondled the
chicken. When he returned from school his first
thought was for Sarah Jane.
One night last winter the cold penetrated the
cellar where he kept her and froze off her toes. He
nursed her until she got well.
As time went on his love for the chicken grew. The
chicken also grew, until one day Harvey’s parents
jokingly remarked that she was getting large enough
for a stew.
Harvey shuddered, but said nothing. Last Sunday his
parents again threatened to sacrifice his pet.
Early Monday morning, when Harvey’s father entered
the boy’s room, he found his son gone. In the mud
beneath the bedroom window he saw footprints. He
made a search about the house.
Then he noticed that Sarah Jane also was gone,
likewise a coop that Harvey had made from an old
fruit crate. The boy’s nightcap, presented to him
by his grandmother, also was missing. Harvey has
not been heard from since.
“I believe the boy actually thought I was going
to kill his beloved pet,” said his broken-hearted
father, James New, yesterday. “He probably will try
to make his way to the home of his grandparents
in Michigan. He loved his grandmother more than
anybody else in the world, with the possible
exception of Sarah Jane.”
When Harvey left he wore a gray suit, a brown
overcoat and a blue cap. He stammers slightly when
excited.
Harvey’s father has promised that Sarah Jane never
will be made into stew.
* * * * *
“ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH”
_New York Times_
Frank H. Thompson of 981 West Fifty-second Street,
who runs an elevator on ordinary days, took a day
off yesterday and celebrated so heartily that, when
he tried to buy a ticket to the Crescent Theatre, a
moving picture and vaudeville house at 1,175 Boston
Road, the Bronx, at 6:30 o’clock last evening,
they refused to admit him. Thompson then strolled
down an alley leading to the stage entrance, and
finding no one at the door, stepped inside, leaned
heavily against the wall, and went to sleep.
Inside the theatre, where 600 persons were gathered
to watch the election returns, which were flashed
on the screen between acts, there was great
excitement, for all the lights went out, even those
of the electric sign outside the place. Thompson
had leaned against the master switch.
They found him there, turned the lights up again
and turned him over to Policeman Fitzgerald, who
locked him up in the Morrisania Station.
* * * * *
CHARGED WITH INTOXICATION
_New York World_
Business has been bad with Isaac Einstein, who
keeps a “gents’” clothing and furnishing emporium,
No. 918 Paris avenue, the Bronx.
To encourage trade he marked down his goods until
it was a shame to take them at the prices he asked.
The gilded youth of the Bronx could buy of Einstein
a suit of evening clothes “like King Edward wears,
$2.98: reduced from $29.80.” Still, nobody would
buy the suit.
The lack of customers made Einstein despondent. It
is suspected that yesterday he sought to drown his
low spirits in others. After a rather long absence
he returned to his store and began to act as if the
thought had struck him, “If I can’t sell ’em I can
give ’em away.”
Einstein pulled in the first man that came along
and made him a present of a pair of trousers.
“They cost me $4 wholesale,” said Einstein,
tearfully. “I can’t sell ’em for $1.50. You’ve got
fine legs; you will show off this check well. Take
’em, my friend, take ’em. But take my advice, too.
You are a married man? Yes. You have children? Yes.
Don’t wear ’em in the house when the babies are
asleep.”
To the next man Einstein gave “a real Panama straw
hat” knocked down from $19 to 90 cents; to the
third a suit of near-silk underwear such as “the
Sultan wears when he goes visiting.”
In a very short time 500 men and boys were
scuffling to get into the store. Patrolman Buck
could not restrain the mob, and sent for the
reserves of the Alexander avenue police station.
“At last I have a bargain crowd,” cried Einstein.
“See what a rush.”
Einstein thoughtlessly left his store. Policeman
Buck grabbed him, charged him with intoxication and
locked him up. Then Buck locked up the store.
* * * * *
SWINDLE
_New York Tribune_
Frederick A. White, fifty-six years old, who says
he is a broker and lives at No. 345 West 116th
street, was arrested yesterday by Detectives
Fitzsimmons and Flood, of the District Attorney’s
office, charged with swindling James H. Burns, of
Knoxville, Tenn., out of lumber land in Marion, N.
C., worth $65,000.
Burns says that through fraud and misrepresentation
White obtained possession of the deeds to the
property on May 10. Burns became suspicious, and,
coming to this city, went to Police Headquarters,
where, according to the police, he picked out
White’s picture, No. 4,391, in the Rogues’ Gallery.
He then communicated with the District Attorney’s
office, and the alleged swindler was arrested in
the office of W. E. Wells & Co., lumber dealers, at
No. 29 Broadway.
Burns, who is staying at the Hoffman House, is the
owner of extensive lumber lands in South Carolina.
He came to this city in January, and advertised
in an organ of the lumber trade that he had some
property for sale. He says White, representing
himself as a broker, called on him in answer to
the advertisement, and said he had a prospective
purchaser of the land. He introduced Burns to
Frederick A. Cannon, who lives in The Bronx, as
the ostensible purchaser. The negotiations which
followed were completed in Washington.
Burns was to receive two bonds for $25,000 each and
three notes for $5,000 each, he says. The bonds, he
understood, were guaranteed by a trust company of
this city. The notes were for three, five and seven
months.
Shortly after the transfer of the property to
Cannon it passed into the hands of the Standard
Lumber Company, of which White is president and
Cannon is vice-president. Burns says he tried to
get possession of the $25,000 bonds but failed,
notwithstanding repeated demands.
When the first note fell due, on August 20, Burns
did not receive the $5,000. Then the man from
Tennessee grew suspicious, and on investigation
he learned that the bonds were not guaranteed. He
learned also, he says, that the Standard Lumber
Company consisted of three shares valued at $5 each.
The title to the land subsequently changed hands
again, this time to the Southern Lumber Company.
White was arrested, the police say, about five
years ago, under the name of Wilce.
* * * * *
FORGERY
_Kansas City Star_
Sister sick. No work. Money gone. Everything that
could be pawned or sold outright gone. Then Laura
Walsington, 20 years old, 14 West Thirty-second
Street, took to forgery.
That was in July. Since then she has cashed forged
checks for sums from $15 to $75. She was arrested
this morning, was taken to police headquarters and
there confessed.
Slumped down in a chair in the office of Larry
Ghent, chief of detectives, she wept bitterly.
“Sister and I were living together,” she said.
“Then she got sick. She had to go to a hospital and
be operated on. We had a little money, but that
soon went. Then I pawned everything I had, and then
everything Sis had. Then those things were gone.
Then I lost my position. I was desperate.”
After that, she said, she decided on forgery.
On receipts for supplies of butter and eggs,
she had the name of a dairyman of Parkton, Kas.
After practicing the name until proficiency had
been acquired, she telephoned to a Lakeview bank
to inquire if the dairyman’s checks were good.
Informed they were, she began, July 23, to cash
checks, signed in his name. The Eagle Clothing
Company, the Smith Garment Company and the Wilson
Coal & Coke Company all cashed checks for her
aggregating $119.
The name of the physician who had attended her
sister was next. After practice, Miss Walsington
issued checks signed in his name for sums totalling
$170. The checks were cashed at the London Cloak
Company, Peck’s, French Cloak and Suit Company and
the Mond Suit Company.
Then, November 10, Miss Walsington, in a downtown
bank, found a deposit slip signed in a woman’s
name. After practicing the signature, she
telephoned the bank, inquiring if checks by that
name would be honored. She drew and cashed checks
on the woman for a total of $45.
Miss Walsington was arrested at the Wilson Coal
and Coke Company this morning. She was recognized
as having previously cashed bad checks there and
detained until the arrival of two detectives.
“I’ll pay it all back,” she cried in Chief Ghent’s
office. “Only give me another chance. Why, I’ve
been respectable all my life until this happened.”
She is being held.
* * * * *
WORTHLESS CHECKS
_Topeka Capital_
Frank Green and Ruth Blair were childhood
sweethearts at New Rapids, Kansas. Five years ago,
when both were 16 years old, Ruth married a man
named Bird, 13 years her senior. The bride moved
away while Frank remained in high school and tried
to forget.
Frank developed into a youthful speaker. A year
ago last September on Labor day, Green, then 20
years old, delivered the labor oration before
1,500 persons at New Rapids. Then he went to Baker
university. Young Green played in several games
with the Baker football team and was active in the
debating societies. He returned to his home in June
to find his former sweetheart back in New Rapids.
Her life with Bird had been unhappy and she had
secured a divorce.
The old friendship was renewed. In a few weeks the
two were married in Atchison, “on the sly,” as
Green said, because his parents did not approve of
the match. With a few hundred dollars the happy
couple left New Rapids to make their way. First
Green tried getting subscriptions for magazines.
This failing, other propositions were tried in
various towns, including St. Joseph and Kansas
City. The store of dollars dwindled until, when Mr.
and Mrs. Green reached Topeka from Lawrence, where
they had looked vainly for work, only $3 remained.
That was a week ago Saturday.
Still optimistic, Green took his wife to the Fifth
Avenue hotel, confident that he could find work and
meet expenses. But work was lacking, Green says.
Meanwhile Frank Long, manager of the Fifth Avenue
hotel, suggested several times to Green that his
bill had not been paid.
Completely discouraged Thursday, Green cashed
several small checks not good. That night two suit
cases were lowered by a rope to the street from the
room occupied by the Greens. Then the young husband
led his wife through the hotel lobby “to find a
dentist to help her toothache,” as he explained
to the night clerk. The two went to the Santa Fé
station and boarded train No. 117, Oklahoma City
bound.
A telegram from Sheriff L. L. Kiene arrived ahead
of Mr. and Mrs. Green. When they entered the
Oklahoma City station they were arrested.
“We were taken to the city jail like murderers,”
said Green.
Saturday Sheriff Kiene arrived. The return trip was
ended last night, when Mr. and Mrs. Green slept in
the county jail.
Penitent would hardly describe the feeling of the
two as expressed to big-hearted Sheriff Kiene.
Pretty Mrs. Green was nearly a nervous wreck
from the continued uncertainty and the shocks.
Apparently it is the first affair with the law for
either.
“My record has been clear,” said Green. “I never
have been arrested before. One hallowe’en night
they almost got me, but I outran the cop.”
How the present escapade will end, is not known.
Last night Green prayed for another chance for his
wife and himself.
“I will make good,” he said.
* * * * *
NOTE--_How, with additional information,
a striking follow-up story can be written a few
hours after the first story was published is well
illustrated by the following two stories, the first
of which appeared in the Saturday evening edition
and the second in the Sunday morning edition of the
same paper._
EMBEZZLEMENT
(1)
_Kansas City Star, Saturday evening edition_
John E. Jones, jr., formerly a clerk at the
Merchants Bank, which day before yesterday was
absorbed by the Commercial Trust Company, is being
detained at police headquarters this afternoon
pending an investigation of his accounts. He is
about 22 years old and is married. It was asserted
there was a discrepancy amounting to something like
$9,000.
The difference was found when an audit of the books
of the Merchants Bank was made in turning over its
money, books and business to the Commercial Trust
Company.
In a statement made to the police this afternoon
young Jones told a queer story. He admitted
falsifying the books for an amount he calculated
to be about $9,800. But he said that he received
only about $500 of that amount, the rest going to
a lawyer friend. The lawyer is being detained and
questioned this afternoon in the office of Larry
Ghent, chief of detectives. There is some doubt as
to whether the lawyer would be criminally liable
although he got most of the money.
Jones lives at 4510 Walker St. He did not dissipate
or spend recklessly and it is believed he can
restore the greater part of the money.
This was the method of the bookkeeper and his
lawyer friend. The friend wrote checks on an
account he had in the Merchants Bank. When the
canceled checks appeared at the Merchants Bank
from the clearing house to be charged against the
lawyer’s account, they first went to Jones, whose
task at the bank gave him that opportunity. He held
out those checks and destroyed them. He covered the
discrepancy by making a false entry on his books.
Jones says he received $160 at one time with which
he purchased a motor cycle, but the rest of his
share went to him, he says, in comparatively small
amounts.
Young Jones told the police that he had been forced
by the lawyer to keep up the system of destroying
checks and falsifying the books after once he
started, for fear of being exposed. The bookkeeper
said that he first fell into the clutches of
the lawyer when the attorney representing an
installment furniture house, threatened to take
back the furniture he had partly paid for. A
payment was due on it and the bookkeeper could not
meet it. He says the lawyer proposed the scheme for
destroying the checks and falsifying the accounts.
Once he started, Jones said, his master made him
keep it up. The amounts of the checks at first were
comparatively small, but they kept getting larger
until one day the lawyer compelled him to put over
a check for $2,000.
At 3:30 o’clock this afternoon the police were
still investigating the lawyer. He cashed the
checks, but was in no way connected with the bank.
(2)
_Kansas City Star, Sunday morning edition_
After drifting in a current that both knew must
lead to wrack and ruin, two Kansas City men are
on the rocks today. One is Henry A. Black, 47,
smart lawyer and man of affairs. His companion in
dishonor is John E. Jones, jr., 21, a pallid bank
bookkeeper.
Accompanied by detectives and lawyers, Black went
to his offices in the Commercial Building yesterday
afternoon and produced from his safe cancelled
checks totalling $9,800. The checks, drawn on his
account at the Merchants Bank, had been paid by the
bank but never charged against him. Jones, the tool
in this game of foolish finance, pocketed them as
they came in.
Around Black were men in whose class the lawyer
had only recently counted himself. They were all
staring at him. He felt the need of explanation. He
spoke slowly:
“I was under a great financial strain and I had to
resort to methods of raising money that otherwise I
never would have used.”
He said nothing more and the little group
returned to police headquarters. Black and the
young bookkeeper, who for months had juggled the
lawyer-promoter’s account at the bank, were held in
jail over night. Tomorrow both will be charged with
a felony, the prosecutor said last night.
Black is a church member and was for many years a
Sunday school teacher. He is a cold man and even
his close friends have known only in a general way
about his business affairs. He was an exceptional
scholar. In the last ten years he has not practiced
much at the law, but has sought to promote
telephone corporations and large land businesses.
He has a lot of that force that is sometimes called
character but more often described as personality.
He was the first man possessed of any considerable
personal magnetism who ever came into the life of
John Jones, bank clerk.
The man of affairs began to notice Jones months
ago and Jones glowed under the attention. Married
at 18 to a girl a year his junior, earning for a
time $35 a month, while his wife added to this by
wages from a wholesale coffee house, Jones had had
a dull life. He had been graduated from a grade
school at 14 and gone through a business college.
Several jobs followed and he finally worked in
one bank until his salary was raised to $50 a
month. After that he helped his father in a grocery
and then went to work for the Merchants Bank for
$70 a month. When that bank was absorbed by the
Commercial Trust Company last week, he was getting
$75.
This was the young bookkeeper, pallid, unassuming,
rather thin chested, beside whose place at the bank
railing Black, one of the bank’s customers, stopped
one morning.
Black asked how his checks totaled. The bookkeeper,
returning in a moment, told him his account would
be overdrawn $110. Black thanked him, said he would
go out and get the money, and passed a 10-cent
cigar over the railing.
Many times this happened, Jones said yesterday. His
pocket was quite used to the “feel” of one or two
good cigars by now.
Then one day Jones, the bank clerk, needed a
friend. He had lost a little home out on Walker
Avenue which he had sought to buy on installments.
Now an installment house was threatening him for
furniture purchased.
Well, he guessed he had a friend, a lawyer-friend,
too. His intimacy with the man, whom he considered
one of the bank’s best customers, had grown. Black
now was trusting the bookkeeper to notify him
whenever that exasperating account was about to be
overdrawn.
Jones was not disappointed. The installment people
were placated. In one interview his friend of the
10-cent cigars arranged a basis of settlement and
even advanced the first payment of $7.50.
This was the story that Jones told yesterday to
a roomful of lawyers, bankers and bond company
representatives, and to one woman--the little girl
who had married him at 17.
In the next chapter it was his benefactor who
needed a favor.
It was in the power of the bank bookkeeper, the
financial weakling, to favor the man of affairs.
Black had written more checks than he could meet.
He wanted a check for $100 held out for a day. It
would be easy for the bookkeeper to slip it from
the pile that came in from the clearing house. Of
course, the man of affairs might ask Mr. White, the
cashier. But sometimes Mr. White was willing to
favor and sometimes not. It depended a good deal on
how he felt. And this was important.
That $100 check was not made good the next day. It
went over to the “next day.”
Others, at the insistence of the man of affairs,
were added to this.
The picture Jones drew in the minds of those that
heard him was of a nervous young man, hurrying from
the bank to the office of the man of affairs and
greeting him with all the apprehension that had
grown upon him every time he looked at a bank book.
“For God’s sake get this money and get this
straightened up.”
“Now, that’s all right. I’ll look after this.”
And after a few minutes Jones would be surprised
to find himself picking up some of the other’s
confidence. He would go back to his post confident
that the money would soon be raised and his
duplicity toward his employers wiped away.
Jones would get such messages as these:
“Meet me at 7:30 in the morning.”
“Drop in at 6 o’clock at night.”
“93, 94, 95, 96 are coming in. Take care of them.”
It had reached $9,800 when the prospective
consolidation threatened disclosure.
Jones had the advice of the man of affairs--to keep
quiet and trust in him as his lawyer.
When arrest came Friday, Jones called for his
lawyer. The lawyer was at church. The messenger
reached the church too late.
At midnight Black was at police headquarters. The
police would not let him see his young client. At 8
o’clock yesterday morning, and again at 10 o’clock,
Black was back at the jail. But Jones, under the
sweating of the detectives, was keeping his faith.
Then his young wife, leaving their 2-year-old baby
at home, came into the room. She pleaded for the
truth. Then Jones took her hand and told the queer,
pitiful story.
The chief of detectives stared hard.
“Can you tell that story before Black?” the chief
demanded.
In a little while Black was brought into the room.
The two men, so radically different in character,
education and manner, sat on either side of a desk.
Again the young man told his story. Black played
with a lead pencil.
“Well, sir, what do you think of that?” the
detective chief asked sharply.
The answer was ready enough.
“The boy is having a wild dream. It is
preposterous!”
But a little while afterwards Black said, briefly,
that the cancelled checks, given him by the accused
clerk, were in his office safe.
There the checks were found. And Black, who had
gone to the bank officials the day before and
pleaded for time for his client’s sake, now
pleaded for time for himself, time in which to
clean everything up, time to make that restitution
delayed so many months.
In the matron’s room at the jail were the boy and
his wife. They had been crying.
“A headache I’ve had for weeks is gone,” the boy
said.
He was not vindictive.
“I was the fool,” he said. “I thought that he was
prosperous and that it would all come out right.”
The disclosures of the day brought to police
headquarters another wife, Mrs. Black, from the
home at 215 Wilson Place. With her was the Rev.
A. Brittingham Brown, Mr. Black’s pastor. Black’s
7-year-old daughter was at home, asleep and
ignorant of the day’s cumulative events.
Mrs. Black brought for her husband in a valise a
change of clothing.
Black was summoned from the cell-room and conducted
to the office of the night captain. He came in, his
hat pulled forward, head bowed.
Then he saw his wife. They advanced to each other
with open arms. They kissed and hugged. Neither
said a word for a long time.
They all sat down, the wife holding her husband’s
hand.
“We are very sorry, indeed, at this sudden
trouble,” the minister said. “The sympathy of
pastor and of members is with you and we are going
to stand by you. This is a time to stand by a man.”
Black and Mrs. Black wept.
Other friends entered the room. No one spoke of the
case and Black volunteered no information.
After his friends had gone, Black went back to the
cellroom, leaving on the captain’s desk the valise
brought by his wife. The pajamas inside would have
given slight comfort on the iron slats upon which
he was to sleep.
* * * * *
BURGLARY
_San Francisco Chronicle_
Diamonds and other stones to the value of $3500
were stolen yesterday afternoon from the apartments
of Mrs. Dennis M. Patrick at 1907 Woolworth street
by a burglar, who ran away in such haste that he
left jewelry to an equal value spread out on the
bed, besides money and other valuables.
The burglar seems to have been familiar with the
hiding places of Mrs. Patrick’s valuables and with
her movements as well. While she was out of the
house between 2 and 4 o’clock in the afternoon,
he entered the rear door with a key which he took
from the place where she had hidden it, picked up
a screwdriver in the kitchen, and, going straight
to the bedroom, pried open the locked bureau drawer
where the jewels were.
The burglar spread the loot out on the bed and was
evidently engaged in sorting and packing it up when
Mrs. Patrick’s daughter, Dorothy, came home from
school at 3:30 o’clock. The little girl went up to
the back door, and, finding it locked, went back to
the street and down to the corner. Apparently, when
the child tried the back door the burglar ran out
through the front way, as Mrs. Patrick found that
door open when she came home half an hour later.
The stolen jewels included thirty-seven diamonds,
eight emeralds and eight pearls, all set in
platinum, principally in the shape of rings and a
lavalliere. Most of the stones were heirlooms and
prized by Mrs. Patrick beyond their value. The
jewels which the burglar left behind in his hurry
included a diamond bracelet, besides other diamonds
and emeralds, and a quantity of gold jewelry.
Several hundred dollars’ worth of silverware and
about $20 in coin had not been touched. But the
burglar did take about 55 cents from the little
girl’s purse.
A cigarette on the floor, a room full of smoke and
an excellent set of finger prints on a hand mirror,
which Detective M. T. Arey found last night, were
all the clews the burglar left.
* * * * *
BURGLARY
_Chicago Herald_
Helen Walker is 12 years old. Her father is John
Walker, a lawyer, and the family resides in Oakland
Park. Mr. Walker always has been proud of his
daughter. But he boasts about her now.
Helen’s mother, when she kissed her girl good-by
yesterday morning, had said she would not be home
till late. That’s why Helen grew suspicious.
She heard some one walking upstairs when she came
home from school. It couldn’t be her father.
And the step was too heavy for her mother; and,
besides, her mother wasn’t home.
So she tiptoed upstairs and into her father’s room,
and she found a big revolver in a bureau drawer.
Then she walked quietly into the room where the
noise seemed to come from.
She saw a man putting things into a
bag--silverware, bric-a-brac, ornaments,
jewelry--all her mother’s pretty things.
The girl drew in her breath sharply. The burglar
turned. His little eyes glared at her--a slim
little creature with a halo of golden hair and
a revolver--and blue eyes that looked into his
unafraid.
For a moment they kept the pose. Then--
“It’s loaded,” said the girl. “Don’t you think
you’d better drop my mamma’s silver comb?”
The burglar did. Likewise a rope of pearls.
“Hadn’t you better turn the bag upside down on the
bed there?” the girl continued.
The burglar, without a word, complied.
Then she made him turn his pockets inside out, and,
keeping the revolver trained on him, walked him
down the steps and onto the porch.
And there he turned and spoke.
“Say, kid, you’re all right,” he affirmed, and
walked away.
And Helen went and told the neighbors--and was
afraid to go back into the home she had just
defended--until the arrival of her mother.
* * * * *
HIGHWAY ROBBERY
_Chicago Herald_
About to be married and needing money, Edward
Russell, 19 years old, decided it would be easier
to steal the money than work for it.
So he turned auto robber, and was captured with
three other young men, after they held up Edward
Bessinger and took his satchel, containing $3,000.
They told their stories yesterday in the Chicago
avenue police station and gave their strange
motives for becoming criminals.
“I was going to be married and knew I would need a
lot of money,” said Russell. “I couldn’t get enough
by working and thought a holdup would be the best
way.”
John Harper said he joined the other robbers
because his father was in trouble.
“He is a saloon-keeper in Walsingham, Ill., and was
caught staying open after hours,” said Harper. “He
needed money to help him out, and the only way I
had to get it was to steal it.”
“I was just trying to collect what Bessinger owed
me,” declared Arthur Raymond, who planned the
robbery. “I worked in the Bessinger restaurant at
Halsted and Hamilton streets and got paid next to
nothing for it. You can’t work for such small wages
and have any money.
“I decided I would get enough out of Bessinger to
pay me handsomely for the time I worked there. I
knew he carried money in the satchel and planned
the holdup.”
“Let the others talk themselves into the
penitentiary if they want to,” said George Wilson,
the fourth prisoner. “I have nothing to say about
it. We tried and fell down. That’s all.”
The four men were arrested after they had run their
automobile into a fence while trying to escape
with the satchel. They had knocked down Bessinger,
who is a collector for the Bessinger Restaurant
Company, and the automobile ran over his leg,
causing the machine to swerve. The money satchel
was recovered.
* * * * *
THEFT OR LOSS
_Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin_
It will be Christmas without the “merry” for Jules
Alexander, Brussels, Belgium, who will spend it
in Milwaukee penniless, because of either an evil
twist of fate or the daring of a hotel thief.
Monsieur Alexander, a young Belgian, is an American
representative of a large machinery plant in
Brussels. He has been in Milwaukee about two weeks
and is staying at the Hotel Pfister.
Thursday afternoon M. Alexander decided that his
suit needed pressing. Hurriedly--it must have been
hurriedly--he made a change of wardrobe, rang for
a bellboy and had the suit taken down to the hotel
tailor.
Little did M. Alexander know that a $130 roll of
crinkly American bills, practically his assets
in toto, reposed in the left hand hip pocket of
the tailor-bound trousers. In the newly donned
suit there was not a franc, not a sou, not even a
centime.
Later in the afternoon, having left the hotel, M.
Alexander had use for some change. He felt in his
hip pocket and found nothing. He found the same
thing in all his other pockets. All at once it
dawned on him that he had left the precious roll of
bills in the other suit.
M. Alexander went back to the hotel on the run. He
told the clerk of his loss. Quickly but quietly
a search for the lost or stolen money was made
through the hotel, but without avail. Evidently
both tailor and bellboy declared that they knew
nothing of the money.
M. Alexander is positive that the roll of bills
was in the pocket of the trousers sent down to the
tailor. As the tailor is in the same building,
there was no chance of the money’s dropping on the
street, and yet the hotel corridors, elevators and
lobbies have been searched inch by inch.
This morning M. Alexander went to the central
police station and reported the loss, or theft.
Detective Paul Pergande was detailed on the case.
“It was 650 francs I lose; all I had, aussi,” said
M. Alexander this morning, with a deprecatory
French shrug of the shoulders. “I do not know what
shall I do if the gendarmerie, the police, soon
do not find the money. It is of a probability,
certainement, that I can get some more, but it will
take time and I am what you call ‘broke’--n’est-ce
pas?
“You see, monsieur, my compagnie--it is in
Bruxelles--allow me an expense account and we
representateefs do not carry with us so much. That
which one has stolen is all that I had. Voila!
“I must find that money, monsieur. Certainement I
can explain to our New York agents and they will
send me some money to live with. Assuredly I hope
that they will not doubt my explanation and wonder
how I use so much expense account. Six hundred and
fifty francs--it is much, monsieur!
“King Albert, I? Oh, oui, we have a new and fine
king, but just now I worry so about my money that I
have not thought much of our new king.”
* * * * *
HOLD-UP
_Kansas City Star_
Liquor was responsible for starting out two young
men last night on a brief career as holdup men
which lasted only a few hours and ended in cells
at police headquarters at midnight. The men are
Herbert Wilson, 24 years old, 910 East Nineteenth
Street, and Sherwin Carter, 28 years old, 143 Payne
Avenue. Carter is married.
The holdups were eight in number, occurring in the
district between Twenty-first and Thirty-seventh
streets and Penn Street and Forest Avenue. The loot
obtained amounted to $12 in cash, eight diamond
rings, four purses and three watches. The robberies
came in quick succession and so did the calls of
the victims to police headquarters. Two policemen
in a motor car finally caught the pair at Linwood
Boulevard and Forest Avenue.
Carter is the son of Dr. Eugene Carter, Hampshire
Apartments, president of Standard Lumber Company.
Doctor Carter, when notified of his son’s arrest,
immediately blamed liquor for the young man’s
downfall and said that ordinarily he was a “good
boy.”
“I’d been drinking for three days and didn’t know
what I was doing last night,” young Carter said
this morning at police headquarters. “I was out of
a job and didn’t have any money to speak of. And,
say, I’m kind of responsible for Wilson’s getting
into this, too. It was my scheme to hold up people.
“I’ve been a little wild, but I’ve never been in
trouble for holding up people. Say, this’ll be hard
on my wife.”
Wilson, too, blamed liquor.
“I’d never have dreamed of robbing people if I
hadn’t been drunk,” he said. “Carter thought it
would be an easy way to get some money and so we
went and borrowed a gun from a negro that he knew
and went to holding up people. I’d hold the gun and
Carter would search them.”
Both men were shaking and wild-eyed this morning.
After their continued drinking of whisky for three
days, their nerves were far from steady.
* * * * *
HOLD-UP
_Kansas City Star_
.......................................................
. See now how real life beats the reel life every .
. now and then. Here, for instance, is the strange .
. history of The Man in the Black Mask, as acted upon .
. the stage of Kansas City’s streets in the deserted .
. hours of the morning when everybody slumbers except .
. holdup men, belated wayfarers and policemen. .
.......................................................
REAL I.
Ed Wilson, alias E. Harry Miller, known in the
family album at police headquarters as a “gunman,”
fares forth very early this morning with a
companion to make his living. At 2:30 o’clock at
Thirteenth and Charlotte streets, they meet a man
and begin their pleasant labors.
“Don’t do it, gents,” says the stranger, “don’t do
it. It ain’t perfessional. I’m one of the same.
Here’s my gun and here’s my black mask. See?”
“Excuses,” says Spokesman Ed. “Have ’em back. Luck
to you.”
REAL II.
Frank Mathis, one of those belated wayfarers who
afford occupation to holdup men, is held up half
an hour later at Thirteenth and Charlotte streets
by two men. By the illumination of an arc light he
observes the two closely. So does Timothy Dalton,
policeman. Timothy comes up rapidly and the two
flee, bombarding the air, Timothy doing the same.
The robbers escape.
Mathis then furnishes Timothy descriptions of the
two, which Timothy, in turn, furnishes police
headquarters, which, in turn, furnishes them to
whatever policemen can be reached by telephone.
REAL III.
(_In two scenes._)
SCENE I--Frank Hoover, another policeman with
insomnia, sees a man approach him at Eleventh and
Charlotte streets about 4 o’clock. The man seems
to answer the description of one of the two holdup
chaps.
Hoover runs and so does the man.
Another batch of shots are fired. This time they
find lodging.
The fleeing man drops with a bullet in the left
leg and another in the left hip. Hoover stoops
down, picks up something clutched in the wounded
man’s hand, stares at it curiously, puts it in his
pocket. The ambulance arrives and the wounded man
is taken to the General Hospital.
SCENE II--Furnished with descriptions of the two
fleeing holdup men, another policeman at 4 o’clock
at Tenth and Holmes streets, arrests Ed Wilson, our
hero of “Real 1.”
REAL IV.
At police headquarters today Wilson is identified
by Mathis as one of the pair who held him up.
Wilson agrees with him and tells his partner’s name.
Mathis then goes to the hospital, but fails to
identify the wounded man, who gives the name of
Harry Walters.
From this Wilson gathers that the wounded man is
not his pal.
But who, then, is he?
“You say this Hoover cop picked up something when
he shot the fellow?” queries Wilson.
“What was it?”
“A black mask, eh? Well, ain’t that the limit?”
“Why, that must be the fellow we held up to begin
with and turned loose because he was in the
business.
“And here he goes and gets shot because a cop
thinks he looks like me. That’s luck for you!”
* * * * *
STREET CAR BANDIT
_Los Angeles Times_
Two pairs of arms entwined the neck of Harry
Blair, wounded and confessed streetcar bandit, as
he lay chained to a cot in the Emergency Hospital
yesterday morning. While his young wife embraced
him, sobbing, their year-old baby laughed and
cooed. He crawled across the pillow on which
Blair’s head rested, and, snuggling close to his
father, threw his chubby arms around Blair’s neck.
Hospital folk and the police are used to pathetic
scenes in the hospital, but that sight seemed too
much for them, and silently they stole from the
ward and closed the door, leaving the wife to her
grief, the husband to whatever thoughts he had, and
the innocent babe to its joy.
It was a decidedly hard-luck story that the Blairs
related to the detectives and nurses. The first
year of their married life happiness and prosperity
smiled on them, they said. But when the stork
visited the Blair household in Dallas it brought
not only a bright-eyed baby but also a nemesis.
Their savings went for doctor’s bills and clothing
for the little one. Then Blair had difficulty, he
says, in finding steady employment at his trade,
painting. When they were reduced almost to poverty
they decided to come to Los Angeles. They have been
here six weeks. In that time, Blair says, he was
unable to earn enough to provide properly for his
sick wife and impoverished baby.
The last dollar the couple had went a few days
ago for rent. Weary of tramping the streets in
quest of work, weak from lack of nourishment, and
worried because he couldn’t buy food, clothing
and medicine, Blair says he conceived the idea of
turning highwayman.
“Even then my nemesis followed me,” he said,
choking. “I got a few dollars from the conductor
and was hurrying home to give it to my wife for
food and things when I was stopped by a police
officer. I escaped from him and was climbing a
fence when the bullet caught me in the leg.”
Blair will be confined in the criminal ward at the
County Hospital until he is physically able to be
arraigned. He will be charged with highway robbery,
the police say.
* * * * *
FREE-FOR-ALL FIGHT
_New York World_
With whistle screeching and hundreds of passengers
yelling for help out of the windows, a northbound
Third avenue elevated train was held in panic late
last night by a crowd of roughs, who terrorized the
passengers and assaulted a conductor.
More than a dozen women, returning from the
theatre, fainted, and Mrs. Sadie Arthur, of No.
991 East One Hundred and Seventy-eighth street,
was thrown into violent hysterics and taken to the
Lebanon Hospital.
The riot started at One Hundred and Thirty-eighth
street and continued all the way to One Hundred
and Sixty-sixth street. There policemen shoved
through a great crowd, which had been attracted
by the whistling, and arrested Adolph J. Weiss,
eighteen years old, of No. 444 East One Hundred
and Sixty-fifth street. His companions in the
excitement managed to escape.
Weiss, who is somewhat of a fighter, was the
ringleader of the disturbers. They began their
horseplay by throwing hats about the car, smashing
hats and jostling the passengers. Dresses were
torn and women insulted; yet no one took a hand to
suppress the outrage.
“Shame on you men,” cried some of the women.
“Haven’t any of you enough spirit to protect us?”
Just as one woman received a severe blow in the
face, Conductor Thomas J. Boyce, of No. 108 East
One Hundred and Twenty-first street, who is known
on the road as “Scrappy Tom,” jumped into the
fracas and hit straight from the shoulder.
“Beat him up,” yelled the gang, and they all jumped
on “Scrappy Tom.”
“Come on, all of you,” he roared, his fighting
Irish blood aroused. One, two, three of the
brawlers hit the dusty mat, and finally Boyce
reached Adolph and landed hard on his jaw.
The fight ranged up and down the car, with Boyce
taking care of the entire gang. Three or four
women who had fainted and fallen to the floor were
trampled upon.
Windows were raised throughout the train. Yells
of “Murder!” “Police!” alarmed the Bronx. The
motorman started his whistle going, and this tipped
Policemen Wilson and Dempsey, of the Morrisania
station, who lay in wait at One Hundred and
Sixty-sixth street.
The crowd that was bunched there prevented their
making more arrests and furnished a means of escape
to Weiss’s “pals.”
Pieces of hats, feathers, ribbons and lingerie were
scattered from end to end of the car. A number
of the women had not revived, and Mrs. Arthur
appeared to be in a critical condition. A hurry
call was sent to Lebanon Hospital, and Dr. Singer,
hastily treating the others, hurried Mrs. Arthur
to the institution. He said she was in a dangerous
hysterical condition.
The line was tied up for half an hour by the riot.
Weiss looked as though he had stayed in the ring
twenty rounds with Bill Papke. His face was
unrecognizable.
“I never knew that any of these conductors could
fight,” he sputtered through swollen lips, as he
was led to a cell.
“Over in the old country,” said “Scrappy Tom,” as
he watched the ex-champion led to a cell in the
Morrisania station, “I used to throw a couple of
lads like you over my head before breakfast just
for an appetizer.”
* * * * *
MURDER OF BUSINESS MAN
_New York Tribune_
Walter H. Hammond, a well known business man of
Jersey City and a brother of Colonel Robert A.
Hammond, was shot and instantly killed yesterday
afternoon in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company’s
ferry house at Jersey City. Peter Grew, a man he
had befriended, was arrested as the slayer of
Hammond.
Mr. Hammond was about to have his luncheon in the
restaurant in the railway station, on the second
floor. He had ascended the stairs and turned toward
the restaurant, when he was confronted by Grew, to
whom he made a cheery remark. Without a word in
reply, the police say, Grew drew a revolver, which
he carried in his coat pocket, and fired at him.
The bullet entered the left temple and ploughed
into the brain. Two more bullets were fired into
his body after he fell.
Calmly replacing the weapon in his pocket, Grew
started to walk down the stairs to the street,
but Patrolman Amann, who was on duty at the ferry
house, dashed up the stairs and, meeting him half
way, arrested him. Grew remarked, Amann says, as
he handed the revolver to the officer: “The thing
is all over, and I might as well give up.” Later
he persistently refused to admit that he did the
shooting.
The police say their investigation has revealed
that Grew, who has been regarded as eccentric
and impulsive, had frequently threatened to kill
Hammond. They say that Grew had recently been
drinking excessively.
The victim of the shooting was the head of the
Hammond and Wilson Stock Company, dealers in
butterine and eggs at Jerome and 4th streets,
Jersey City. He was a bachelor and forty-two years
old. He was a director of the Second National Bank
and of the Commercial Trust Company, and an active
member of the Union League Club, of Jersey City. He
lived at No. 314 Harrison avenue, Jersey City.
Grew had been in the same business. Some time ago,
the police say, he was arrested in Brooklyn for
making and selling oleomargarine without stamping
it properly. Hammond gave him a new start in
business. His business dwindled to nothing, and
he accused Hammond of persecuting him. Grew owned
a flathouse at No. 244 3d street, Jersey City, in
which he, his wife and six children lived. This
house he conveyed to his wife during his business
troubles. It is said that Grew complained that his
wife was under the influence of Mr. Hammond and
refused to permit him to have any of the revenue
derived from the rental of the building. Ten days
ago he was arrested for beating her. Judge Harmon,
before whom he was arraigned, ordered him committed
to jail for ten days, but relented when he promised
to refrain from abusing or beating his wife.
Otto S. Wilkins, of No. 21 Park street, who has a
butter business at No. 52 Hudson street, Jersey
City, met Grew less than an hour before the
shooting. He told Captain Larkins, at the Jersey
City Police Headquarters, of a conversation he had
had with Grew. He said that Grew asked him to give
him a job.
“I then told him,” Mr. Wilkins said, “that I
understood that he was in such a financial
condition that he could live without working. He
said, ‘No,’ that his property brought him in $120
a month, and that after he had paid the interest
on a small loan which stood against it, with taxes
and repairs, it left very little to live on; that
his wife would not let him have any of that, and
that Mr. Hammond was responsible for her attitude
in withholding funds from him. He was in a natural
state of mind to-day, cool and collected, and
talked to me in the same strain that I have always
known him to use. He used to tell me four or five
years ago that he had it in for Mr. Hammond and
would shoot him some time.”
In a statement to the police Grew said he had known
Hammond for sixteen years and had done business
with him. “I am not going to answer that,” was his
reply when asked if he had had any trouble with
Hammond. He said that he was on his way home from
Manhattan when he met Hammond, and that Hammond
spoke to him, but he did not reply. “I had the
revolver in my right hand in the inside pocket of
my sack coat,” said Grew, “and that is all I have
to say.” He stated that “Hammond had been pounding
me and had got the inspectors to pound me.”
Mrs. Grew said that her husband’s mind had been
affected by brooding over his failure in business,
and she shared her husband’s opinion that he had
been persecuted.
* * * * *
MURDER IN LITTLE ITALY
_Kansas City Star_
MURDERS IN LITTLE ITALY SINCE JANUARY 1.
January 9--Mario Ippolito shot down and killed by
unidentified assassin.
January 11--John Kanato shot by John Herwetine;
died two days later.
January 23--John Janoka shot by Nick Hontrogen;
died same day.
January 24--Lusciano Musso murdered by gunmen in
daylight.
February 4--Salvador Cangialosi shot and killed by
Angelo Mannino.
February 24--Giovanni Seculo shot down by
unidentified assassin, will die.
SHOOTINGS.
January 24--H. C. Petro, shot in his home, 110
Watkins Avenue, by someone who fired through the
window; not fatal.
February 13--Robert Jordan, 1039 East Fourth
Street, was shot twice by Tony Filo; not fatal.
That impenetrable air of mystery which closed down
on the attack last night on two Italians, as it has
closed down upon every one of the weekly murders
of Little Italy, a sable cloak hiding details,
obliterating the trails of assassins who shoot men
in the back and flee, is not such a mysterious
thing after all. There is only one policeman at
night in Little Italy.
Giovanni Seculo and Tony Boni are walking along
Cherry Street near Fourth Street. It is 10 o’clock
at night. A shotgun barks, once, twice. Seculo
falls, a death wound in his back. Boni falls, shot
in the hip.
Presently a policeman comes, who was blocks distant
at the time.
Little Italy shrugs and avers it was all sound
asleep when Seculo and his companion were shot.
The assassin escapes.
There is nothing different in the main threads
of the chronicle from those of all the other
unpunished crimes of Little Italy.
Always, the crime is committed in some part of
Little Italy distant from that lone policeman.
Little Italy extends from Independence Avenue to
the Missouri River, from Oak Street to Tracy Avenue.
“There should be at least four policemen in that
district at night,” said Larry Ghent, chief of
detectives, this morning. Then he revealed some
figures on the police department.
In the district comprising Little Italy, Hick’s
and Belvidere hollows, which are unsavory negro
neighborhoods, and others almost as notorious, a
district extending north of Independence Avenue
and east of Main Street to Jackson Avenue, there
are at night only four patrolmen.
In the central district, taking in the whole of
the North Side, fourteen out of thirty-one police
“beats” are without patrolmen at night.
In all Kansas City there are only 264 patrolmen,
exclusive of officers. Many of these work as clerks
in stations. The police force is at the lowest that
it has been for years. The city is increasing in
population.
Ghent withdrew detectives from other cases this
morning and sent four of them, under the direction
of Patrolman Louis Olivero, into Little Italy to
attempt to ferret out the attack on Seculo last
night.
Seculo, proprietor of the Neopolitan Macaroni
factory at 516-18 East Tenth Street, and an
influential Italian, probably will die. His
condition was slightly improved today, however.
Neither Seculo nor Boni knows why he was attacked
or by whom.
* * * * *
MURDER
_New York Sun_
Trying door knobs early yesterday morning,
Policeman Merkle of the East 104th street station
found that the door of the little Italian grocery
shop at 321 East 109th street opened. He entered,
thinking that the place might have been robbed.
At the rear of the dark, smelly little shop he
found another door that opened, and as it did so,
a bulldog sprang at him. The policeman shut the
door and ran out to the street and rapped for
assistance. Policeman O’Connell came and the two
went back into the store.
They coaxed the dog into good humor, and, on
lighting the gas in the squalid room, they found
its master kneeling beside his bed in a pool of
blood. Another door in the rear was forced open.
Peter Mutolo, who lives there with his wife and
three children, said they had heard no noise.
They said that the murdered man was Frederick
Cinci, who had kept the shop about a month. He had
been in this country about a year. No one knew of
any enemies.
On the table were three dirty glasses and an empty
wine bottle. Friends sometimes came to see him, the
neighbors said. Nobody knew whether visitors came
to see him before his death. On the floor below his
body they found a stiletto, long of blade, which
was bent double. In his neck, lungs, stomach and
kidneys the ambulance surgeon found five thrusts.
The body was still warm; death hadn’t come long
before the police found him. Some money, $1.60,
was found in his pockets, and his gold watch had
not been taken. Six dollars was found in the cash
drawer of his shop. No one killed him to rob him
of money. The dog, the police think, would have
attacked a stranger and probably recognized the
murderer.
* * * * *
MURDER
_New York World_
Pietro de Angelo ran along Columbus avenue,
Montclair, N. J., yesterday. Plainly De Angelo, a
sturdy fellow of twenty-two years, had run far and
hard. He came from the direction of the Brookdale
section of Bloomfield. He was leg weary, his steps
grew shorter. Panting, he looked over his shoulder
ever and again at an older man who ran behind him
at some distance.
The older man carried a shotgun which swung by
his side in his grasp as he plodded along. He
seemed to be in no hurry; he seemed to be able to
run forever; straight he ran, with his eyes fixed
always on De Angelo, who looked back, fearfully.
Christopher street and Columbus avenue is the most
fashionable part of Montclair. Wealthy persons
live in that neighborhood. Men on the street or
looking from their dwellings had no idea of the
tragedy that was to be enacted. Being law-abiding,
having no reason to run, in flight or pursuit, the
Montclair men thought that De Angelo and the older
man who ran behind him were both fleeing from the
same pursuer.
“The police are after those fellows,” said one
Montclair man.
“Or the game wardens,” said another. “See, the
second chap has a shotgun--been poaching most
likely. The young fellow has outstripped him.”
Not so. Where Christopher street intersects
Columbus avenue De Angelo halted, swayed, almost
fell. His bolt was shot, his breath was spent. He
turned and slowly walked back to the older man, who
did not even hasten his gait, but approached De
Angelo--approached as inexorably as death itself.
As he got nearer, De Angelo stretched out his hands
toward him in mute pleading. The older man, never
hurrying, never slackening his gait, got within ten
yards of De Angelo, stopped, raised his shotgun
to his shoulder, pulled the trigger, and sent the
charge from one barrel into De Angelo’s left breast.
The younger man pitched down on his face, arms
extended, palms down. The older man looked down at
him an instant--yes, one barrel was enough--then,
dropping the gun from his shoulder, he kept on
running, no faster, no slower, than before.
And he escaped. A dozen most respectable citizens
of Montclair all had the same thought, to notify
the police. The dozen rushed to their telephones.
When the police arrived De Angelo was dead. He had
died instantly.
Deputy County Physician Muta went from Orange and
had the body taken to the Morgue at Orange. De
Angelo lived at No. 961 Wilson street, Montclair.
His parents say he had dinner with them there at
noon, then went out. They do not know where he
went. The police are trying to learn.
* * * * *
MURDER
_Kansas City Star_
In the parlor of the rooming house at 57 Green
Street A. C. Hobson was busily tuning the piano
this morning. As he bent above the humming wires,
the lid of the instrument thrown back, a light step
sounded down the corridor. Then he heard a fresh
young voice, singing softly. Hobson smiled and
ceased his work to listen.
The voice sang a line or two touching on cows and
green fields.
“A kid from the country,” Hobson said, and went on.
A heavier step clumped on the stairway leading up
from the street entrance. The song ceased abruptly.
“Hello, Maggie,” Hobson heard a man’s voice say.
“What made you leave me?”
There was a little pause; then a girl’s voice
answered sharply:
“Why do you follow me, anyhow? I don’t love you.”
“I came to take you back with me,” said the man.
Hobson had stopped his tinkering. The sound of the
man’s heavy breathing came in to him through the
open doorway from the dim corridor. “Kiss me,” the
man’s voice commanded.
The girl’s voice rose. “No,” she cried. “No. I
don’t love you.”
The man swore. “Then no one else’ll have you,” he
shouted.
Hobson stood motionless, as though paralyzed. Then
he heard a scuffle; the girl cried out sharply. The
restraint on him was broken at that, and Hobson
rushed into the corridor. The struggling forms of
man and woman were disappearing through the doorway
of another room down the hall. An instant or two
later, Hobson heard the crack of a revolver shot
followed closely by a second. Then the moans of a
woman in agony succeeded. Hobson ran into the room.
Man and woman writhed on the bed.
Going to a telephone, Hobson summoned the police.
Sergt. James O’Rile, acting captain of the
Walnut Street Police Station, responded. It was
twenty-five minutes before the ambulance arrived.
The woman was Mrs. Maggie Towes, 24 years old,
who left her husband, John Towes, in Homeville,
Mo., four months ago. Towes came to Kansas City a
week ago, finally, this morning, finding his wife
at the rooming house of Mrs. Mary Howe, where she
had found employment as housekeeper. Towes is a
blacksmith’s helper and is 32 years old.
As he lay on the bed in that twilight state between
the conscious and the unconscious, Towes reached a
hand gropingly towards his wife.
“Kiss me, honey,” he mumbled; “kiss me before I go.”
They were taken to the General Hospital. Mrs. Towes
was shot through the abdomen, Towes through the
left breast. Both probably will die.
* * * * *
MURDER
_New York Sun_[A]
[A] Written by Frank Ward O’Malley.
Mrs. Catherine Sheehan stood in the darkened parlor
of her home at 361 West Fifteenth street late
yesterday afternoon, and told her version of the
murder of her son Gene, the youthful policeman whom
a thug named Billy Morley shot in the forehead,
down under the Chatham Square elevated station
early yesterday morning. Gene’s mother was thankful
that her boy hadn’t killed Billy Morley before he
died, “because,” she said, “I can say honestly,
even now, that I’d rather have Gene’s dead body
brought home to me, as it will be to-night, than to
have him come to me and say, ‘Mother, I had to kill
a man this morning.’
“God comfort the poor wretch that killed the boy,”
the mother went on, “because he is more unhappy
to-night than we are here. Maybe he was weak-minded
through drink. He couldn’t have known Gene or he
wouldn’t have killed him. Did they tell you at the
Oak Street Station that the other policemen called
Gene Happy Sheehan? Anything they told you about
him is true, because no one would lie about him. He
was always happy, and he was a fine-looking young
man, and he always had to duck his helmet when he
walked under the gas fixture in the hall, as he
went out the door.
“He was doing dance steps on the floor of the
basement, after his dinner yesterday noon for the
girls--his sisters I mean--and he stopped of a
sudden when he saw the clock and picked up his
helmet. Out on the street he made pretence of
arresting a little boy he knows, who was standing
there--to see Gene come out, I suppose--and when
the lad ran away laughing, I called out, ‘You
couldn’t catch Willie, Gene; you’re getting fat.’
“‘Yes, and old, mammy,’ he said, him who is--who
was--only twenty-six--‘so fat,’ he said, ‘that I’m
getting a new dress coat that’ll make you proud
when you see me in it, mammy.’ And he went over
Fifteenth street whistling a tune and slapping his
leg with a folded newspaper. And he hasn’t come
back again.
“But I saw him once after that, thank God, before
he was shot. It’s strange, isn’t it, that I hunted
him up on his beat late yesterday afternoon for
the first time in my life? I never go around where
my children are working or studying--one I sent
through college with what I earned at dressmaking,
and some other little money I had, and he’s now a
teacher; and the youngest I have at college now. I
don’t mean that their father wouldn’t send them if
he could, but he’s an invalid, although he’s got a
position lately that isn’t too hard for him. I got
Gene prepared for college, too, but he wanted to go
right into an office in Wall street. I got him in
there, but it was too quiet and tame for him, Lord
have mercy on his soul; and then, two years ago, he
wanted to go on the police force, and he went.
“After he went down the street yesterday I found
a little book on a chair, a little list of the
streets or something, that Gene had forgot. I knew
how particular they are about such things, and I
didn’t want the boy to get in trouble, and so I
threw on a shawl and walked over through Chambers
street toward the river to find him. He was
standing on a corner some place down there near the
bridge clapping time with his hands for a little
newsy that was dancing; but he stopped clapping,
struck, Gene did, when he saw me. He laughed when
I handed him the little book and told that was why
I’d searched for him, patting me on the shoulder
when he laughed--patting me on the shoulder.
“‘It’s a bad place for you here, Gene,’ I said.
‘Then it must be bad for you, too, mammy,’ said he;
and as he walked to the end of his beat with me--it
was dark then--he said, ‘There are lots of crooks
here, mother, and they know and hate me and they’re
afraid of me’--proud, he said it--‘but maybe
they’ll get me some night.’ He patted me on the
back and turned and walked east toward his death.
Wasn’t it strange that Gene said that?
“You know how he was killed, of course, and how--
Now let me talk about it, children, if I want to.
I promised you, didn’t I, that I wouldn’t cry any
more or carry on? Well, it was five o’clock this
morning when a boy rang the bell here at the house
and I looked out the window and said, ‘Is Gene
dead?’ ‘No, ma’am,’ answered the lad, ‘but they
told me to tell you he was hurt in a fire and is
in the hospital.’ Jerry, my other boy, had opened
the door for the lad and was talking to him while
I dressed a bit. And then I walked down stairs and
saw Jerry standing silent under the gaslight, and
I said again, ‘Jerry, is Gene dead?’ And he said
‘Yes,’ and he went out.
“After a while I went down to the Oak Street
Station myself, because I couldn’t wait for Jerry
to come back. The policemen all stopped talking
when I came in, and then one of them told me it was
against the rules to show me Gene at that time. But
I knew the policeman only thought I’d break down,
but I promised him I wouldn’t carry on, and he took
me into a room to let me see Gene. It was Gene.
“I know to-day how they killed him. The poor boy
that shot him was standing in Chatham Square
arguing with another man when Gene told him to move
on. When the young man wouldn’t, but only answered
back, Gene shoved him, and the young man pulled a
revolver and shot Gene in the face, and he died
before Father Rafferty, of St. James’s, got to him.
God rest his soul. A lot of policemen heard the
shot and they all came running with their pistols
and clubs in their hands. Policeman Laux--I’ll
never forget his name or any of the others that
ran to help Gene--came down the Bowery and ran out
into the middle of the square where Gene lay.
“When the man that shot Gene saw the policemen
coming, he crouched down and shot at Policeman
Laux, but, thank God, he missed him. Then policemen
named Harrington and Rouke and Moran and Kehoe
chased the man all around the streets there, some
heading him off when he tried to run into that
street that goes off at an angle--East Broadway,
is it?--a big crowd had come out of Chinatown now
and was chasing the man, too, until Policemen Rouke
and Kehoe got him backed up against a wall. When
Policeman Kehoe came up close, the man shot his
pistol right at Kehoe and the bullet grazed Kehoe’s
helmet.
“All the policemen jumped at the man then, and one
of them knocked the pistol out of his hand with a
blow of a club. They beat him, this Billy Morley,
so Jerry says his name is, but they had to because
he fought so hard. They told me this evening that
it will go hard with the unfortunate murderer,
because Jerry says that when a man named Frank
O’Hare, who was arrested this evening charged with
stealing cloth or something, was being taken into
headquarters, he told Detective Gegan that he and
a one-armed man who answered to the description of
Morley, the young man who killed Gene, had a drink
last night in a saloon at Twenty-second street
and Avenue A and that when the one-armed man was
leaving the saloon he turned and said, ‘Boys, I’m
going out now to bang a guy with buttons.’
“They haven’t brought me Gene’s body yet. Coroner
Shrady, so my Jerry says, held Billy Morley, the
murderer, without letting him get out on bail, and
I suppose that in a case like this they have to do
a lot of things before they can let me have the
body here. If Gene only hadn’t died before Father
Rafferty got to him, I’d be happier. He didn’t need
to make his confession, you know, but it would have
been better, wouldn’t it? He wasn’t bad, and he
went to mass on Sunday without being told; and even
in Lent, when we always say the rosary out loud in
the dining-room every night, Gene himself said to
me the day after Ash Wednesday, ‘If you want to say
the rosary at noon, mammy, before I go out, instead
of at night when I can’t be here, we’ll do it.’
“God will see that Gene’s happy tonight, won’t he,
after Gene said that?” the mother asked as she
walked out into the hallway with her black-robed
daughters grouped behind her. “I know he will,”
she said, “and I’ll--” She stopped with an arm
resting on the banister to support her. “I--I know
I promised you, girls,” said Gene’s mother, “that
I’d try not to cry any more, but I can’t help it.”
And she turned toward the wall and covered her face
with her apron.
* * * * *
MURDER
_Kansas City Star_
A boy of 19, carefree, enamored of the life of the
road, ran away from a good home in Elm Grove, Kas.,
on a sunny day last March.
Down in the wilds of Northern Arkansas, riding in
a freight car, one day in the middle of March,
a brakeman came upon him and they fought--the
brakeman angered at the lad, the boy hot with the
lust of youth that welcomes a fray.
The boy, Charles Hyde, hit the brakeman on the
head with a bolt. The brakeman went down, like a
shot thing, and fell from the car under the flying
wheels, which ground him to death.
Then the boy went on. Later he heard a coroner’s
jury had reached a verdict of “accidental death.”
Then began the flight. It was flight--not from the
far-reaching arm of the law; for the verdict of the
backwoods jury had placed no suspicion on any man.
But it was flight from a dread thing that haunted
him, making his nights of no comfort and his days
of dark despair.
Conscience, men call it, and Retribution. But by
whatever name, under whatever guise, the dread
thing caught the boy at last, caught and enfolded
him. And the lad who had been carefree a few short
months ago, now a trembling, quaking, white-faced
wreck, stumbled into the Mulberry Street police
station, down in the West Bottoms yesterday--and
surrendered.
“I killed a man,” he said. “I killed a man when I
didn’t have any idea of doing it. And he’s been
after me. I’ve got to give myself up; I’ve got to
confess. It’s the only way I can get rid of it.”
They heard the boy out, those policemen in the
bottoms, not understanding, sensing only dimly
the fear that was on him. Then they took him to
police headquarters and wired to the authorities in
Arkansas.
“Last night wasn’t so bad,” said Hyde at police
headquarters this morning. “It wasn’t so bad, now
that I have given myself up. That’s made me feel
better. But all the other nights since it happened
have been hell. We’d be fighting in the car again,
with the wheels clicking away underneath us, him
hot and gettin’ the best of me. Then I’d stumble
against something and pick it up and feel it in my
hands, and know he was mine.
“My God!” said Charles Hyde, helpless toy of fate,
entrapped in the coils of a retributive nemesis.
“My God!” And he covered his gaunt boy’s face with
shaking hands.
Back and forth, up and down, across the harvest
lands of the Middle West, went Hyde, riding
in freight cars, clinging to the rods of
trans-continentals, always seeking to escape from
the thing that pursued him--and always failing. In
the hot fields, laboring with his hands, staggering
in the heat of the day but pressing on, he found no
surcease. And then, despite his efforts, hard work
brought no sleep at night. And he was alone with
his fear.
“I know the law’s got me,” he cried. “I know it can
hang me or put me in prison. But I had to do it. I
had to give myself up.
“And to think I never meant to kill him, only to
lay him out and make him let me alone!”
Then Charles Hyde cried, not the tears of blessed
relief, but the scalding tears of those who
must stand helpless and non-understanding before
grim-countenanced Fate.
* * * * *
A WAYWARD GIRL
_Chicago Herald_
They called her Mandy on the farm and they made
much of her.
She was the only daughter the Noyers had and
nothing was too good for her. So “dad” said--and
mother agreed.
Mandy didn’t realize how happy she was. She was
ambitious and wished to see the city. She had an
aunt in Chicago, Mrs. H. Bole, of 1856 Dolphin
street. Why couldn’t she go to Chicago, study
stenography and live with auntie?
Her parents didn’t like to have her go, but she
insisted. So they kissed her and sent her away.
She went to the Weston School at 175 North Wabash
avenue for some time--and then, last June, she had
a quarrel with her aunt and went to live at 1809
West Wilson street.
She made the acquaintance of Thomas Hazen of 4009
Jackson boulevard and Mandy quit the school. Only
she wasn’t Mandy any more. Her name was Thelma
Beyers.
Hazen and the girl, who is only 16 years old, were
arrested by Detective Sergeant George E. McCormick
and Mandy wept and told her story.
It had been a gay life, she said, fascinating and
swift.
But if mother and “dad” down in Siddon, Ill., will
forgive her she will go home and stay there for
good.
But Mandy is needed as a witness against Hazen
and five other young men for whom warrants were
obtained yesterday.
And she will have to appear against the proprietors
of the Congress Café, Charley West’s, the Café De
Luxe, the Delaware, and eight or ten other cafés
which sold her gin fizzes, highballs and other
drinks; and against the owners and proprietors of
eight or ten hotels that admitted her--a girl just
out of short skirts--without asking questions.
Then there is a woman of a good family on the West
Side who will be charged with contributing to the
delinquency of a minor.
So it will be a long time before Mandy can go home.
* * * * *
VIOLATION OF MANN ACT
_Kansas City Star_
Michael O’Rourke loved his wife and his two little
daughters and their little home. That was in
Airdale eight years ago.
Then one day Michael discovered something that
broke him up completely. His little girls’ mother
was not the kind of woman he had believed her to
be. It cost Michael more than outsiders could
realize, but he got a divorce. The court gave him
the custody of his daughters, Rosie and Maggie.
He brought them to Kansas City in an effort to
forget--and to get away from their mother. He put
them in St. Joseph’s Orphan Home, Thirty-first and
Jefferson streets, and went to work there himself
as coachman.
But the mother did not stay in Airdale. She
followed her children here and tried to take them
away from the home. Several times she tried it, but
the watch kept on the little girls was too close
and she did not succeed. At last, Michael, fearing
that sooner or later he would lose them, gave up
his job and took the girls away. Rosie, the elder,
did not want to go. Even in those days she was
attached to her mother.
Michael took Rosie and Maggie to Seattle, where he
put them in a convent. Most of his earnings went
to pay for keeping them there. After a year or two
he joined the navy and intrusted to Uncle Sam the
payments for their education from his wages as a
sailor.
The long voyages kept him from seeing them more
than once or twice a year and he fancied they
were forgetting him. That, and the difficulty of
providing for them on what he was earning, made
him desperate. He deserted the navy. He took his
daughters from the convent and made a home for
them.
One day when he was away at work a veiled woman
drove up to the cottage in a motor car.
“Why, it’s mamma!” exclaimed Rosie, and rushed to
greet her.
When the woman drove away, the girls and their
belongings went with her. Michael came home that
night to an empty house.
He found them in Airdale--in their mother’s house,
where the blinds were drawn all day long. He
started habeas corpus proceedings and got back the
younger girl, then 15 years old. Rosie had become
18 in the meantime and refused to leave her mother.
Michael took Maggie to St. Louis and put her in
a convent there. Up to this time the government
officials had not troubled him and he had almost
forgotten that his desertion was still hanging over
him. But someone told, and Michael was arrested. He
was convicted and taken to the naval prison in New
Hampshire.
A short time later a woman in a motor car stole
Maggie from the convent. This time there was no one
to follow them.
Yesterday in Airdale a house was raided by
government officers. Rosie and Maggie were found
there. Their mother, who is known now as Mrs.
Pearl Perkins, was arrested. She was charged with
transporting Rosie from Seattle in violation of the
Mann Act. She will be arraigned before the United
States commissioner in Springfield today.
Rosie has gone far on the path her mother led her.
Maggie was rescued from the same life in the nick
of time.
Michael, in his cell, can only wonder what has
become of them.
* * * * *
CAPTURE OF ESCAPED CONVICT
_Chicago Inter Ocean_
Every evening at 5:33 a fast train whizzes through
the mining town of Denville, Ill., favoring the
little, box-like station with a derisive flirt of
its tail car as it takes a curve. Every evening at
5:30, except when infrequent duties interfere, it
is the custom of the village constable of Denville
to saunter up to the “deepo” and solemnly watch the
flyer pass. Once, they say, a pretty girl waved to
him from a Pullman window.
George Brown, station agent at Denville, knows the
constable’s time as well as that of the train. When
he thought it was getting pretty near the hour for
the appearance of constable and flyer yesterday
afternoon, he looked at his watch. It was 5:20
o’clock.
The station agent was particularly anxious to see
the constable, for he had real news to relate. A
short time before, answering a ring at the station
telephone, he had been informed by the deputy
warden at Joliet penitentiary that Matthew Starn,
a life convict, with two coldblooded murders to
his discredit, had escaped from the prison and was
believed to be headed in the direction of Denville.
“He’s a cool hand and a mighty desperate man,”
warned the warden. “Don’t take any chances with him
if you see him.”
A few minutes later, while Brown was straining his
ears for the distant sound of the flyer’s whistle
and his eyes for a glimpse of the constable, a
man wearing an ill-fitting, rough, all-enveloping
garment of blue and a blue cap of the same
material, walked into the station.
“When is the next train to St. Louis?” he asked,
his eyes boring into Brown’s.
The station agent had instantly recognized the odd
garb of the man before him as the Joliet uniform.
He fought to keep his tone even and casual as he
replied:
“Can’t get out tonight.”
Brown turned away, pretending to consult a time
card hung behind the wicket. Really he was looking
out the window, hoping to see the familiar form of
the constable.
“Well, ain’t you curious about me?” demanded his
visitor. “How do you think I got here?”
“Beat a freight, I suppose,” Brown hastily guessed.
“That’s against the rules, but I always have a
lot of sympathy for a man like you. What’s your
trouble?”
“Broke!” said his visitor, tersely. “I ain’t had
nothing but hard luck these last five years.”
In the distance the whistle of the flyer tooted.
The man in blue eyed a stack of bills in the open
cash drawer.
“I don’t know whether to beat it or to--to visit
a while with you,” he murmured, glancing at the
station door, and then back again at the cash
drawer.
Brown consulted the time card again--and looked
out the window, inwardly breathing a prayer. Sure
enough, there was the constable, trudging down the
road toward the station, a bit behind schedule but
not speeding to make up lost time.
“I guess you--you’d better--stay!” said the agent.
Brown went through a few tense moments after that
remark, that he said later he wouldn’t experience
again “if they made me president of the road.”
The constable took up his stand, not on the station
platform, as usual, but a couple of hundred feet
away. Stolidly he watched the flyer pass, then
looked undecidedly toward the station. He seemed to
be debating whether or not to forego his routine
visit with the agent. Twice he turned his back and
started away, only to halt, wheel and resume his
meditation. A Niagara of sweat coursed down Brown’s
cheeks as he waited. The man in blue was standing
close to the wicket, still peering into the drawer.
His right hand was in his hip pocket.
Brown dared direct his gaze out the window no
longer. He stood silently watching his blue-clad
visitor, waiting to see what would be in his hand
when it came from the bulging hip pocket.
Then the station door opened. In it stood the
constable. He took in the significance of the blue
figure as Brown’s sinister visitor wheeled, and
the Denville police revolver, rusty with age, but
loaded, flashed from his pocket.
“Hands up!” remarked the constable.
Ten minutes later Matthew Starn, escaped “lifer,”
who had worsted the restraining walls of Joliet,
was held securely a prisoner in the amateurish
village calaboose.
Starn, who is 26, shot and killed two Joliet
business men, who had the misfortune to resist him
when he robbed their stores. The “five years of
hard luck” had been spent in prison, where, despite
his criminal record, he became a “trusty” through
good conduct in the penitentiary. At 7:30 o’clock
yesterday morning he was given a message to deliver
outside the prison walls. When he did not return
within an hour two posses of guards, deputies and
policemen started on his trail and word was flashed
through the surrounding territory. Denville is
about twenty miles southeast of Joliet.
* * * * *
STORY OF ESCAPED CONVICT
_Chicago News_[B]
[B] By Ben Hecht.
Lockup Keeper O’Malley brought him out of the cell
in the detective bureau and he stood in the sun,
blinking--a little man with brown eyes and a sober,
deadly sober face.
“A fella wants to see you, George O’Brien,” said
Lockup Keeper O’Malley, and left the little man, an
escaped “lifer” from Joliet, standing against the
cell wall and blinking. The sun that came through
the dirty basement window fell full on his face and
he stood staring into it, twisting his felt hat in
his hands.
“They’ll take me back in the morning,” said the
little man, as if he were talking to himself, as if
he were repeating something he had sat up all night
in his cell thinking about. “And I won’t see her. I
want to explain to her. Good God.”
It was a prayer. The little man’s throat trembled,
the muscles of his face quivered and his eyes
glistened in the sun.
Four days ago the little man was married, after
three months of liberty. Fourteen years lay behind
him when he walked away from the honor farm at
Joliet. He told the story himself, the whole story
without any omissions. But first he said again:
“I don’t care so much about going back; I’m used
to the life down there. But they’ll put me in
solitary, with a ball and chain on my feet, and I
won’t be able to see her for six months--if I don’t
see her before they take me back.”
Tears came now and rolled over the drawn face of
the little man and his voice was so low that the
listener had to bend down to hear.
“She didn’t know about my being an escaped lifer,”
he went on. “I couldn’t tell her. I was afraid. She
was the first woman who smiled at me after fourteen
years--when I got my job--and she was like an angel
to me.
“I want to see her and tell her--so’s to let her
know all about it. I’ll tell it to you, and, if I
don’t see her, print it in your paper just as I
say--so’s she can know.”
The little man seized his listener’s hand. He
couldn’t talk, but he clung to the hand until his
voice cleared, and then he said: “So she’ll know I
was trying to live straight--so she’ll not think I
was all wrong.”
So here’s your husband’s story, Mrs. O’Brien, the
story he never told you because you seemed like
an angel to him and he was afraid of losing you.
They’ll tie ball and chain on his feet and seat
him in a cell for six months and then they’ll take
the ball and chain off and let him live inside the
walls the rest of his life. Never mind that. He
said he didn’t care if he could only get this story
to you, so that you wouldn’t think rotten of him,
Mrs. O’Brien.
“If I could only see her for a minute,” he
murmured, and then he went on as he had promised.
“I was a kid,” he said, “about 17, and I had a
good home. But I fell in with a lot of fellows who
weren’t any good. And one of them--Larsen--planned
to hold up somebody. He got me to get a gun for him
and we both went out. The gun was half cocked and
it went off in the holdup and the man was killed.
I was standing away at the time. I was a kid. They
sent us both up for life. That was in 1901. And I
lived in the prison until July. D’ye understand?
Every day was the same, every night was the same,
and I lived in the prison for fourteen years. D’ye
understand? And they made me an honor convict.”
The little man laughed.
“I saw fellas come for worse things than I’d
done--regular criminals--and get out, pardoned. And
they’d come back again--and get out. And I lived
in the prison. Fourteen years. All the time I was
young. Every day was the same. And I dreamed of
gettin’ out. But they wouldn’t pardon me. I never
knew any politicians. I was only a kid when they
sent me up.
“And every night was the same. Good God. I wanted
to get out. I wanted to live. I knew I was
straight. There was nothing wrong with me. I was
only a kid when it happened. And I learned in the
prison. It was fourteen years.”
The little man’s face was shaking and his hands
trembled as if they were on fine springs.
“So one day I walked out. I was an honor convict.
I broke my pledge. But I knew, I knew I could be
straight. And I wanted to live. Every day was the
same down there. Tell her that,” said the little
man. “You can write it better’n I can talk it. But
get it to her--I was only a kid when they sent
me up--and every day was the same and I wanted
to live. Then I got out. I went to Lakeside and
boarded. My brother knew, but didn’t tell. He gave
me a chance. I got a job. They didn’t ask me for
references. It was with the American Motor Machine
Company. The fella looked at me and hired me. I
worked. They raised my pay after I’d been there a
month. I was livin’ straight.
“And then I met Sarah Wilson. She worked in the
office. I used to dream of women--of some one like
her--and she liked me, even though I am a little
fella. Aw say, she was an angel. If I could only
see her for a minute--to tell her.”
The little man was shaking all over.
“We got married four days ago,” he went on, “and I
had it all planned. Nobody was goin’ to know about
me bein’ a lifer. I was goin’ to forget it myself.
Say, I was happy.”
A rare smile came into the little man’s face.
“Say, I had a home--a home.”
The smile changed and he laughed in a peculiar way.
He laughed until Lockup Keeper O’Malley looked up
and said: “Cut it out!” And then he went on talking.
“I had it all planned--every bit. I was a good
worker, had a job in the stockroom. I was going
to live with her. Last night she called me out of
the kitchen. I was fixing the sink. I came out all
smiling. I liked company and she said there was
someone to see me.
“I came out. God. I’ll never forget. I came out in
my slippers--say, they were waitin’ at the door,
six of them. And they took me away. They didn’t let
me talk to her. They took me away and I won’t see
her again--if she don’t hurry up and come. They’ll
take me down this morning. But I don’t care if
you’ll print this story--say, I don’t care. I’m
used to it. Only get it over to her--God--and I’ll
pray for you.”
“George O’Brien!” called a voice down the stairway.
“He’s here,” said Lockup Keeper O’Malley. Two men,
one of them the parole agent, came walking down
the steps. “They’re takin’ me back,” whispered the
little man. The two men walked over to him. One of
them dangled a pair of handcuffs.
* * * * *
SUICIDE OR ACCIDENT
_New York Mail_
With gas pouring from an open jet in a bathroom
adjoining his sleeping room, Frederick H. Herman,
the indicted ex-president of the Universal Reserve
Life Insurance Company, was found dead in his bed
to-day at his home, 851 East Seventy-eighth street.
He drew his last breath just as his family entered
the room.
Members of Mr. Herman’s family scouted the theory
of suicide, declaring that his death was purely the
result of an accident. The police reported the case
as a “supposed suicide from gas poisoning.”
Coroner Acritelli, after making an examination of
Mr. Herman’s room, said that death undoubtedly had
been due to accidental gas asphyxiation.
The coroner said that his physician, Dr. Weston,
would make an examination of the body this
afternoon, and that an inquest would be held later
this week.
Dr. Ralph Wilson, of 836 Madison avenue, who was
summoned immediately, declared that the gas in the
room was not enough to have caused death alone,
and that Mr. Herman had died from a combination of
heart trouble and gas inhalation.
Mr. Herman, said Dr. Wilson, also had been a
sufferer from diabetes, and in his weakened
condition was not so able to resist the influence
of the gas as a man in normal health.
The discovery was made by Mrs. Herman at 5.30 a. m.
She slept in a room alongside that of her husband.
On awaking she smelled gas and went to Mr. Herman’s
room to investigate.
Adjoining the bedroom is a bathroom, the door of
which was open. The gas was coming from that room.
Mrs. Herman hurriedly summoned the butler, who went
into the bathroom and found that the valve of a
pipe leading to a small gas heater was open. This
he shut off.
Dr. Wilson was telephoned for, but before he
arrived Mr. Herman was dead. Two or three minutes
after Mrs. Herman entered her husband’s room his
son, Frederick R., went there in response to his
mother’s call. He found his father propped up in
his bed just breathing. At the elder Herman’s side
lay an opened magazine and his eyeglasses.
Windows were thrown open and an attempt made to
revive Mr. Herman but it was unsuccessful.
The gas was carried to the heater by a pipe that
led from the wall. There were two valves on the
pipe, one near the wall and the other near the
heater.
The family declares that the lower valve had been
turned off, but that the one at the wall was on
full and in some way the gas had succeeded in
escaping.
John L. O’Brien, the personal counsel for
Frederick H. Herman, was notified of his client’s
death and arrived at the house shortly after. Mr.
O’Brien saw reporters who called at the house,
explaining that members of the family did not care
to be interviewed.
Mr. O’Brien denied that Mr. Herman committed
suicide. He said that the circumstances surrounding
his death made it appear that it had been
accidental.
“Mr. Herman’s death was purely accidental; of that
I am convinced,” said Mr. O’Brien. “He was not
worried by the civil litigation in which he was
engaged with the receivers of the Universal Reserve
Life Insurance Company, and he long ago became
satisfied that he would never be brought to trial
for the criminal indictment that was hanging over
his head in connection with the alleged misuse of
money to influence legislation at Albany.
“If it had been Mr. Herman’s plan to take his life
by gas he would have gone about it differently.
The gas in his own room was turned off, and it is
reasonable to assume that if he had had suicide in
mind he would have turned on the gas in his room.
“He was fully twenty feet away from the gas heater
in the bathroom and there was a constant current of
air flowing between the two rooms.
“There was some trouble with the furnace, and Mr.
Herman, who likes his room warm, had turned on the
gas in the bathroom. Air was coming from the open
furnace register.
“It is evident that Mr. Herman had been reading,
had gone into the bathroom and turned off the valve
near the heater, had then returned to bed, read a
while, and finally turned out his own gas.
“He went to bed at 11.30, and must have remained up
reading through the night.
“I had never seen Mr Herman more optimistic than
he was in the last few weeks. He had been busily
engaged with me in preparing for litigation in
connection with the Universal Reserve Company
affairs. He had no financial troubles that I know
of. His family life was most peaceful and happy.”
Mr. Herman’s bedroom was on the second floor,
directly over the parlor. Other members of his
family slept on the same floor and the servants on
the floor above.
Mr. Herman’s son, Frederick R., his daughter-in-law,
Ethel, and the latter’s mother, Mrs. William Wilson
of 961 Columbia Avenue, Worcester, Mass., were in
the house. Mrs. Wilson had come to New York to spend
the holidays with her daughter and son-in-law.
Dr. Wilson, on being questioned by reporters, said:
“The case appeared to be purely accidental. The
gas was escaping from the stove, and from all
appearances, after Mr. Herman had turned off the
gas, he accidentally turned it on again. Mr. Herman
had a weak heart, and the gas undoubtedly affected
him more quickly than it would a person with a
stronger heart.”
Dr. Wilson said that shortly before 6 a. m. he
called up the coroner’s office to report the death,
and a clerk there told him to notify the police.
This was done, according to the physician, and
a policeman from the East Sixty-seventh street
station arrived at the house.
An ambulance was also sent to the residence,
although, according to Dr. Wilson, he had told the
police that he was a physician and that Mr. Herman
had been dead for some time.
* * * * *
NOTE.--_The different points of view from which the
same facts may be told in news stories are very
well shown in the two following examples._
SUICIDE
(1)
_New York World_
Facing starvation, Victor Schwartz and his wife,
Louise, a respectable old Swiss couple, committed
suicide yesterday by inhaling illuminating gas
in their rooms back of a small confectionery and
stationery store, which they carried on at No. 85
Arnold street, Williamsburg.
Each was sixty-seven years old. They had made
careful preparations for their deaths. Every hole
and crevice in their sparsely furnished rooms had
been plugged with paper and rags, and in several
places tacks had been driven into the woodwork to
make sure that neither the rags nor paper would
become dislodged. It was this hammering on Sunday
night which caused neighbors to wonder what the old
couple were doing, as they always retired before 10
o’clock.
When the Schwartzes rented the store and two rooms
back of it eight months ago for $12 a month, they
told neighbors that three years before their only
child, a daughter of thirty-one years, had died.
They said they had never recovered from the shock.
Business during the summer had been very poor, and
of late Schwartz and his wife had a hard struggle
to get along. The woman frequently told neighbors
that she believed their misfortune would soon end.
On Sunday evening Schwartz and his wife distributed
much of their stock in the store to the children
in the neighborhood. It is evident that they had
decided on suicide.
Mrs. Rose Black, who has a grocery adjoining the
Schwartz store, and Mrs. Kate Weck, a second floor
tenant, heard the couple hammering in their rooms
up to midnight Sunday, and yesterday at daybreak
the two women were the first to detect the odor
of illuminating gas from the Schwartz apartments.
Policeman McCaffrey, of the Hamburg avenue station,
was called in and, forcing an entrance, found
Schwartz sitting dead in a chair in the kitchen,
fully dressed. He had one end of a rubber tube in
his mouth, the other end of which was fixed to an
open gas burner. The woman lay dead on her bed in
a night dress with a rubber tube in her mouth,
fastened to another open gas burner. Ambulance
Surgeon Sibbel, who came from the German Hospital,
said the couple had been dead several hours. On
a small card was a request that Edward Black be
telephoned for at “421 Thirty-eighth street.” A
dime lay on the card to pay for the telephone
message. In the room was found 67 cents. The bodies
were removed to the Brooklyn Morgue.
(2)
_New York Times_
“Auntie Schwartz” was the way in which Mrs. Louise
Schwartz soon came to be known to the children of
the neighborhood when she and her husband, Victor,
each of them 67 years old, opened a small candy and
stationery store at 85 Arnold Street, Williamsburg,
about eight months ago.
Her small customers just kept the business going
in the little shop, but it was a penny business,
and when the rent of the store was raised recently
from $12 to $15 a month, “Auntie” Schwartz almost
despaired of continuing to make a living. Her face
grew sad and careworn, and one day, when one of
her little customers was grieving over the loss
of a pet doll which a dog had chewed up, “Auntie”
Schwartz did not console her with a cheerful word
and a chocolate drop or two, as she was wont to
do. Instead she took her on her lap and told of
the little girl she had lost three years ago. She
did not explain that her “little girl” had been
31 years old, and that she had helped greatly in
making a living for the old folks, who were now
staggering under the burden of age, increased rent,
and a precarious trade. The old people seemed
always oppressed by the sadness of the loss of
their only child.
Day by day recently the children noticed that
“Auntie” Schwartz was less cheerful that usual.
Their elders seldom visited the little store, and
so none who might have helped knew that old Victor
Schwartz and his wife were almost starving to
death, or that the old couple were slowly making up
their minds to end their troubles together.
So it was that the children were the first to
discover yesterday that the little store was not
open for business when they passed it on their way
to their first day at school, and “Auntie” Schwartz
lost many pennies which her small customers had
intended to expend for lead pencils and erasers.
“Auntie” Schwartz had called them all in on Sunday
evening and had distributed among them all her
small stock of candy, telling them that she would
have a full new stock for the beginning of school.
Meantime, Mrs. Kate Weck and Mrs. Rose Black, who
live above the store, were puzzled by the odor of
gas which permeated their apartments. At last the
women traced it to the store, which they found
closed and locked. The gas came from the two living
rooms which the Schwartzes occupied behind their
store, and Mrs. Weck and Mrs. Black finally got
Policeman McCaffrey of the Hamburg Avenue Station
to smash down the door.
The policeman and the women found the old man
seated in a chair in the kitchen, a gas tube
clutched between his teeth, the other end of which
was made fast to a gas jet. He was dead. In the
little bedroom they found also the body of Mrs.
Schwartz dead like her husband from the gas which
she had inhaled. Like him, too, she had tied the
tube around her head, so that it should not slip
from her mouth.
A search of the rooms showed that the old couple
had been in the most abject poverty. Only 67 cents
was found in the flat.
* * * * *
SUICIDE
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
CHICAGO, Ill., March 3.--Emma Johnson died on
Monday. She was the grave faced little seamstress
from La Crosse, Wis., who used to sit every day
near a dingy window at 42 Wilson avenue, plying
her needle in silence, wearing an expression like
that of a nun. And every one said she “looked so
peaceful.”
But the coroner’s jury found that the little woman,
in whom no one would have suspected deep emotion,
had been tempestuously in love, that she had not
been able to win the man she wanted, and that she
had sat there at her seams, “praying for strength
to wait for a natural death.” She did not want to
kill herself. But she did.
She went to the home of Mrs. Jennie Nelson, 4212
North avenue. Mrs. Nelson’s brother, William
Larson, is the man she wanted to marry. He “was
fond of her, too,” as Mrs. Nelson said, “but his
health was poor and he did not want to marry for
the present.”
Emma Johnson turned on the gas and died. She left a
letter, in which she said:
“Dearest Friends--When you have read this I have
crossed the bar. Ambition, energy and strength have
deserted me and every hope and dream is shattered.
Death is the only relief. I have called upon heaven
to save me from myself--to send me a natural death.
I don’t want to die like this. I want to live and
be happy, but that is not to be.
“I’ve had my hell here, but it is hard to go like
this, hard to bring this sorrow upon my folks,
bitterly hard.
“For the one who has driven me to do this I feel
only love, and if I am permitted to enter heaven I
shall wait for him.
“Perhaps he will love me then; he will feel bad
about this, but help him understand that I forgive
all, and I hope some one else will be to him what I
never could, a joy and a comfort, and that she may
make him happy as I had hoped to do. I wish I could
look upon the faces of my dear father and brothers
and sisters again. I can’t still the voice in my
heart. I haven’t the strength. Forgive me and pray
for me. Only another lost soul.”
* * * * *
SUICIDE OF SCHOOL GIRL
_Chicago Tribune_
Rose Lubin’s younger brother, Max, wanted help
with his “home work” last night. Rose, who is 16,
is proud of her standing at the head of the eighth
grade in the Winfield school.
“I can’t do my own work and yours, too,” she told
Max. “I’ve got enough to keep me busy till bed time
and I’m not going to lose my marks on your account.”
Max went to his father and the father went to Rose.
“If you don’t help your brother I’ll take you out
of school,” said Lubin.
Whereupon Rose changed her mind about the manner in
which the nickel she had earned in the afternoon
was to be spent. She bought acid with it, returned
to her home at 951 West Fifteenth street, and drank
the poison.
Rose will not be at school today. Perhaps she will
never go back. She is in the county hospital.
Physicians there fear she will not recover.
* * * * *
CAUSE OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE
_New York Evening Post_
Mary Stober, eighteen years old, of 951 East
135th Street, who tried to kill herself last week
(Friday) because she has no piano, is home again
from the Lincoln Hospital, and is starting in to
live again in a world where no hope is, since she
cannot have a piano.
To dream every night that you have a piano and
“play just grand,” and then wake up to hear the
alarm clock buzzing six o’clock; to forget where
you are, and half close your eyes and pretend
that the movements your fingers are making are on
a piano, instead of having something to do with
the bobbin of a machine in an embroidery factory;
to hear beautiful music suddenly in the midst of
your work, and listen, startled and ecstatic, for
a moment until it is lost in the endless whirring
of the machines--these things, if you have never
done them, may seem a certainty that Life is, after
all, very splendid while there is such a thing as
imagination, and that the gray of it is woven full
of unexpected and vivid threads of color.
Or it may impress you as deliciously funny that the
lack of a piano can seem tragic, if you have a big
enough view of tragic things to see that some of
them are greater. But to this girl, who does them
every day and night of her life, they are simply
the things which have twice made her try to kill
herself, the reason why she is “disgusted, always
disgusted,” as she says, very simply.
Mary Stober has a pale, strong face, with a
stubborn chin and a wistful smile, very gray eyes,
light brown hair in a bang on her forehead, and
very red lips. She looks very young and very
determined and very wistful and somewhat sullen.
Her hands are red and rough and square-fingered
from hard work.
She was dusting one of the rooms this morning in
the soggy apartment house of which her mother
is janitress, and where they and the six other
children live and pay half-rent. She goes back to
the factory on Monday. She sat down in one of the
innumerous chairs to tell her story, fingering
the grimy dust-cloth with her red fingers, which
are never quiet for a minute. Her mother stood up
through the recital--the little German mother who
speaks English only brokenly, who wears a little
shawl over her head while she sweeps down the long
flights of stairs and who used to play the piano
herself when she was a girl in Germany--and looked
at Mary with a worried, gentle, almost heartbroken
look.
“When I was ten--that was when I stopped school and
went to work--I thought always about when I would
be eighteen and a grand piano player,” Mary began,
fingering the dust-cloth. “Then I was eighteen
and I didn’t have a piano yet, and I was almost
crazy. Eight years I have worked, and I haven’t got
anything yet. And what’s worrying me now is where
we’re going to go. We can’t stay here. Other places
we’ve been we’ve had coal and things, and our money
could all go for the food and clothes. But now
we’ve got to pay for a stove and coal.”
She and her sister, who is nineteen and who can
play the piano by ear when she can find one to
play--Mary herself can only play with one hand by
ear, and “people don’t like to hear that kind o’
playing,” she says--and the oldest brother, are the
only ones who make money. Mary makes seven dollars
a week. All of these details, which she tells
simply, go to show that there is little hope for
a piano. The little, crumpled mother from behind
the chair she is leaning on says, in her broken
way, that a piano is not so easy to get, and looks
hopelessly at her daughter.
“Then we got phonograph, but she only cry every
time he play,” the mother said.
“I can’t bear to hear it,” interrupted Mary. “I’d
rather play myself.”
And so finally the brother took the phonograph
away, about a month ago, since it only made the
girl more miserable than ever.
“And in every house I go to,” she said, “there is
a piano. And one girl comes to the factory, saying
she can play grand, and her father wants her to
play in a cabaret. She’s only sixteen, too. I can’t
be happy,” she finished simply. “I can’t be happy.
And it gets my goat when anybody laughs. And every
single night I dream I’ve got a piano and play so
nice, and every day at work I imagine I am playing.
All I want to do is to play a piano. I don’t want
clothes. If I have good clothes the girls would
want me to go out with them, and I don’t want to go
out. It is only trouble comes of it. All I want to
do is to stay home and play the piano.”
All the family like music, it seems, “but none of
them but me would die for it,” she says. “And my
father hated it. He wanted me only to work, day
and night to work, since I was ten. But he’s gone
away now. They took him away--Randall’s Island.” It
was when the father was home, though, and earning
a little now and then, that the phonograph, which
proved a doubtful blessing, was made possible.
Mary Stober says, and her chin looks very square,
that she knows she could pay for lessons--she
would walk to the factory instead of riding and go
without lunch--if she only had a piano to practice
on at home.
It was a mixture of lysol and iodine that she took
last week--the only things she could find. “I don’t
care what I take,” she says, “if I can’t get what I
want. Eight years I’ve worked and I haven’t gotten
anything yet.” It was last August that she tried
before to kill herself.
CHAPTER V
CRIMINAL AND CIVIL COURTS
=Type of story.= As all forms of judicial procedure are included
under court news, stories of this class cover such matters as police
court news, criminal trials, civil suits, divorce suits, bankruptcy,
wills and other probate court matters, decisions of higher courts,
and findings of judicial officers. Since much court news is of a
routine character, the matter-of-fact informative news story is a
frequent medium for presenting it. This does not imply that such news
is necessarily dry and uninteresting, for by bringing out salient and
significant phases of such matters as decisions of higher courts, legal
documents, wills, and bankruptcy cases, as well as of criminal and
civil suits, the facts of the news can be made of interest even to the
casual reader (cf. “Supreme Court Decision,” p. 88, and “Opinion of
Attorney General,” p. 90). Criminal and civil cases often have a strong
human interest element that, if rightly developed, may be a valuable
part of the story (cf. “Criminal Court,” p. 83, and “Supreme Court
Decision,” p. 89). The little comedies and tragedies of the police
court have long been favorite subjects for entertaining and appealing
human interest stories (cf. “Municipal Court,” p. 78, and “Forgery
Case,” p. 78).
=Purpose.= To give fair and accurate publicity to significant
phases of the administration of justice is the obvious reason for the
publication of court news. Court proceedings, like those of legislative
bodies, are activities of important branches of government and hence
are matters of public concern. In reporting sessions of these bodies,
the writer’s aim should be to direct the reader’s attention to those
details of the proceedings (1) that are significant to him personally,
(2) that affect the interests of the community, and (3) that relate to
the welfare of society as a whole.
The wide-spread publicity given by newspapers to the punishment
inflicted on wrong-doers tends to deter others from similar illegal
acts, and thus aids in accomplishing the chief object of punishment.
“The wages of sin is publicity,” as one editor has expressed it. What
has been said of the value of constructive stories of crime applies
with equal force to stories of criminal trials.
Destructive, or anti-social, influences, opposed to the best interests
of organized society, are found in those court stories--particularly
those of criminal and divorce cases--that play up disgusting or
scandalous phases of such trials in order to gratify the morbid taste
of some of their readers. Another evil connected with the newspaper’s
treatment of court news is the so-called “trying the case in the
newspaper” by means of news stories and editorials published before
or during a trial. Some newspapers undertake to prove the innocence
or the guilt of an accused person by printing whatever evidence they
can secure, even though some of it would be excluded from the trial
under the rules of evidence. In this way they create public opinion
and arouse public feeling to such an extent as to prevent the accused
person’s having the fair trial to which he is entitled.
=Treatment of material.= To find matters of general significance
and interest, particularly when they are buried in legal technicalities
and verbiage, and to present them clearly and attractively without
sacrificing accuracy, are the main problems in handling court news. The
task is not an easy one, but it is worth doing well, for court news,
if well treated, can be made interesting and significant even to the
casual reader.
The body of court news stories usually consists of summaries of
arguments, decisions, testimony, or legal documents, or of excerpts
from them, with the necessary connective material. In some instances
the story is largely a history of the case or action and of the persons
involved. The lead is usually determined by the status of the case. Any
one of the important points may be made the feature.
Testimony in news stories is given in one of three forms: (1) the
question indicated by “Q” and the answer by “A,” both question and
answer given in one paragraph without quotation marks, (2) the question
and the answer in quotation marks, each followed by the necessary
explanatory matter and each in a separate paragraph, like verbatim
conversation in fiction, (3) a summary of the testimony of each witness
in indirect quotation form, with the name of the witness at or near the
beginning of the first sentence of the summarized testimony.
=Contents of story.= Because of the variety of material presented
by different kinds of court news, it is difficult to indicate
specifically the points to be considered in each story. Among the
important details, however, are (1) the verdict and the conditions
under which it was rendered, (2) the sentence imposed, (3) the decision
rendered and its significance, (4) important testimony, (5) net results
of the day’s proceedings in a trial, (6) the history of the case or
action, (7) provisions of a will, (8) liabilities, assets, and cause in
bankruptcy, (9) the award, or finding, (10) the grounds on which a suit
is based.
* * * * *
POLICE COURT CASE
_Savannah News_
If you own an automobile and are fond of joy rides
in the evening, it will be a good idea to keep your
weather eye on the gasolene tank, for none will be
filled in Savannah after sundown if the efforts of
the fire department are successful.
Chief John H. Monroe is seeking to have enforced
the ordinance prohibiting the handling of gasolene
after sundown, believing it will reduce the fire
hazard.
Every city has a number of laws that are forgotten
because they are seldom enforced. This is true of
the gasolene ordinance here. It was not generally
known that such a law was on the statute books
until Barney Kolman was arraigned in the Police
Court yesterday, charged with violating it by
selling fuel to a motorist at night. He was fined
$10 or thirty days in jail by Judge John E. Schwarz
and the fine was remitted.
“No gasolene shall be handled in any way for
charging or filling any tank or repository by
artificial light, and never at all after sundown,”
reads the ordinance, passed in 1906. A fine of
not more than $100 and imprisonment not exceeding
thirty days, either or both, is provided.
“It is dangerous to handle such a fire producer
as gasolene after sundown because people become
careless and in many cases use open torches,
candles or matches, to get enough light to see
what they are doing,” said the fire chief. “Such
carelessness leads to increased danger from
gasolene explosions.”
It was because of efforts of the fire department to
stop violations of the law, which, it is said, have
become common, that Kolman, whose place of business
is at No. 435 West Bond street, was docketed.
The ordinance was passed April 13, 1904, and
amended Oct. 10, 1906, and August 14, 1907.
Recorder Schwarz remarked, in hearing the case
against Kolman, that he had never heard of the
ordinance, and that if it did exist he had seen it
violated a number of times.
* * * * *
MUNICIPAL COURT
_Kansas City Star_
Down Main Street drove Carl Wilson, 1228 Jenifer
Street, yesterday on the seat of an undertaker’s
ambulance, blowing on his fingers to warm them.
Presently he saw a familiar figure on the sidewalk.
It was Gus Hart, 2231A Holton Street.
“Hey, Gus,” he called. “Come on and take a ride.”
Gus climbed to the seat beside Wilson and smiled
expansively.
“Fine day, ain’t it?” said he.
“Yes, it ain’t,” said Carl. “I’m cold through and
through.”
“Oh, this is real weather,” said Gus.
“How can any man like this?” said Carl angrily.
“You must be crazy.”
“Crazy yourself,” said Gus.
“Bing!” said Carl’s fist.
“Crack!” said Gus’s chin.
Then they fought on the seat of the undertaker’s
ambulance, while the horse took the opportunity to
snatch a few moments of rest.
Both were taken into the South Side Municipal Court
this morning. Carl looked at Gus and Gus at Carl.
“Say, judge,” said Carl. “We’re friends. But even
friends fall out about the weather. Let us off,
will you?”
Acting Judge Casimir J. Welch let ’em off.
* * * * *
FORGERY CASE
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
With his young wife clasping him in her arms and
sobbing bitterly, Louis Short stood with hanging
head in District court on Friday, heard himself
branded as a forger, and in a shaking voice told
how he had forged the check because his baby had
died and he had no money to bury the little body.
A hush fell over the courtroom at the sight of
the young couple standing in the prisoners’ dock,
crushed and broken after the bitter, losing fight
against poverty and temptation. They have been
married but two years and were happy in their
little home in Chicago until the boy husband lost
his job.
Misfortunes crowded upon them after that. They
became driftwood on the sea of life, washed hither
and thither and finally cast upon Milwaukee. Then
the baby died. It was the last blow, and nagging
temptation won its victory.
Short forged a check for $48 on the German-American
bank. He made it out to Louis Short, signed the
name “J. Seikler, president,” and passed it in Mrs.
Mary Moore’s saloon, 251 Herst avenue, on July 28.
With the money the baby was buried. Then came the
law and Short’s arrest.
Short pleaded guilty, admitted everything, and
tried to be brave. So did his girl wife, but the
strain was too much. She broke down, threw her arms
around his neck and hid her face on his shoulder.
“O, Louis, Louis!” she sobbed.
Judge Neelen adjourned the case one week, for there
is a possibility that Short’s father will send him
the money to pay Mrs. Moore back.
* * * * *
CHILDREN’S COURT
_New York Evening Sun_
There was a soft patter on the floor of the
Children’s Court this morning, and in through the
gates, swung open for them by a tall policeman,
advanced two little maids, eyes cast down, doll
feet taking quick, small steps. Justice Wyatt
brushed aside the dry legal documents before him
and looked down from the bench with more interest
than he had displayed all the morning. The benchers
craned their necks and the court officers were
all eyes. Here was something out of the usual
routine--two little Chinese maids. Somehow they
didn’t fit into the picture of juvenile offenders,
mothers from the tenements full of cares and
burdened with babies, the motley array of parents,
complainants, street arabs and heavyfooted
guardians of the law. On the Yang-Tse-Kiang,
perhaps, the little maids would have fallen into
harmony with their surroundings, but not in the
hurly-burly of an Occidental court room. Who were
they and what was the occasion of their coming?
An agent of the Children’s Society explained. He
was Obadiah Cunningham. The almond-eyed visitors
were the Misses Moy You Toy and Chin Fung Toy, who
had strayed beyond the boundaries of the three
crooked streets which mark the limits of the local
Chinatown. For two moons the quarter had been
upset. The joss gave no comfort when his aid was
sought and one night threw the luck sticks into
the air in his temple ever so many times; but no
matter if they came down with the wished for side
uppermost, not a word came from beyond the pale,
out of the wide spreading territory of the “white
devils,” about either Moy You Toy or Chin Fung
Toy--that is, not until this morning, when the
lost were found again and taken to the Children’s
Court. Then the Chinese women--the men do not care
so much about the disappearance of a girl as of a
boy--could once more eat with a relish their dried
fish, and duck eggs dug from the soil of their
native land, in which they had remained packed
until the day of consumption.
Chin Fung Toy and Moy You Toy, the first named 13,
and the other 14 years old, trembled much in the
presence of the austere figure on the high seat,
who they had no doubt was a ruler of mighty power;
but he spoke kindly to them and they saw that it
was not his intention either to eat them or cast
them into a dark dungeon. Still, though his voice
was gentle, they longed somehow to be at home again
at 30 and 34 Mott street, respectively, to look
upon their own people and hear their own tongue
spoken.
It was not to be--not at once, anyhow. The
agent who had charge of them submitted a paper
to the Magistrate, in which was contained the
information in terse, legal phraseology that
there was no proper guardianship for the two
maids, and Justice Wyatt committed them to the
care of the Society, setting the case down for an
examination next Wednesday. It was represented to
the Court that there was reason to believe that
their so-called parents were not their parents at
all. Superintendent Jenkins of the Gerry Society
promised to say something about that phase of the
question later. In the meanwhile Moy You Toy and
Chin Fung Toy will look on the world through the
windows of the Society’s building at Twenty-third
street and Fourth avenue, and not from the closely
shuttered blinds of Mott street.
How were Chin Fung Toy and Moy You Toy found? That
is another story, which has not been told yet; but
there are hints of interesting developments to
follow before the wanderings of the children of
Mott street become known.
The statements issued from the offices of the
Gerry Society this afternoon, statements made
by the little girls through an interpreter,
put an entirely different complexion on their
disappearance and made it appear that they had been
little white slaves in Mott street. They were both
sold like common chattels in China, they said,
and in the quarter they got more kicks and blows
than kindness. For instance, Moy You Toy, after
stating that she is 14 years old, according to
our reckoning, and 15 years old according to the
Chinese, giving the place of her nativity as Sung
Hing district, Moy-how city, said:
“My address has been 34 Mott street, Room 11.
My father died when I was very young, and my
mother married again and left me alone with my
grandmother, who was very, very poor. I was sold to
the wife of Moy See Chai, who brought me over here
to America about two years ago, and I have been
with her ever since.
“I have had to work very hard in the house, making
buttons and button loops from early morning until
late at night. When I take a rest I get scolded and
beaten. Whenever my mistress’s boy called to me to
do certain things, and when I was not able to do
them fast enough, the boy would beat me.
“I do not want to say anything that is not true
against them; they fed me well, of course, nothing
luxurious.
“My mistress often said to me: ‘You must be
careful of Miss Banta [Miss Mary E. Banta,
superintendent of a school in Chinatown]; you can’t
depend upon her all the time, and complain to her
and display your feelings’ (meaning by this that I
should not make any complaints to Miss Banta).”
The girl continued that her mistress had even said
to her, “If I killed you they could only arrest
me.” Once, she added, she got a terrible beating
because she had gone to the country with Miss Banta.
Chin Fung Toy or Choy said that there was a man
named Ing Yee Yue of Washington, D. C., who has a
son and wife in China, and that Fung Choy was sold
to his son.
“I was sold to his son and was brought to America
by Pang Sam,” she continued. “Pang Sam was a friend
of Ing’s. I was told that the price the son paid
for me was $160.
“I came from a village in China, but don’t know
its name. About eight or nine months ago Ing Yee
Yue said he was going back to China and was not
able to keep me any longer; he then brought me to
New York and sold me to Chin Hing for $500 gold. I
have been with Chin Hing ever since, about eight
or nine months. I have had to work in the family
all the time, making buttons and button loops for
stores. Some mornings I had to get up at 7 o’clock
and sometimes work right on until 2 o’clock in the
morning. I was not allowed to go out.
“If I didn’t work all the time I got beaten,
although I am told I was treated much better than
the former slave girls. The other two were married.
One is here in New York yet and the other has gone
down South. I had to do all the washing--sheets and
all. The only teaching I ever received was from
Miss Banta, who taught me for an hour or so every
Monday.”
Fung Choy did not want to go back to Mott street,
after all, she told the Gerry agents, no matter how
downcast she may have seemed in court. She would
rather die than be sent back to Mott street, she
declared.
She won’t be.
* * * * *
RUNAWAY BOY IN COURT
_New York World_
Morris Steiner is a bad boy and Morris Steiner is
a good boy, and whichever he is most Magistrate
Naumer in the Flatbush Court, Brooklyn, must soon
decide.
Morris, now in Raymond Street Jail, says he will
not live with his stepmother. He braved hunger and
privation because of this idea. He built himself
a hut, lived a queer gypsy life for weeks, cooked
his own meals and slept in his queer camp. He did
his own washing and cooking. And, curious boy that
he is, he did his own praying, which was that his
own mother would forgive him for running away,
and would come to him as he slept and kiss his
forehead. That, he says, was the prayer he made in
his hut.
Morris, who is sixteen years old, could never
get along with his stepmother. He has a brother
eighteen years old and another fourteen, and they
live on good terms with their stepmother. It was
nine years ago that the brisk little woman married
Aaron Steiner, a travelling salesman. He was a
widower with four children.
The Steiners have not only a comfortable but a
pretty home at No. 991 Sixtieth street, Brooklyn.
It possesses shade trees and carefully trimmed
hedges and a beflowered piazza. Mrs. Steiner said
to a World reporter there yesterday:
“Such a queer boy! This home is not for him. He
will not have it because I am his stepmother. From
the time he was seven years old he would hardly
speak to his father, because I had come to the
home. My other stepchildren love me. But he will
not. I could not pet him. He would shrink from me.
Or he would laugh. I thought all the time that when
he got older it would be all right. But it was not.
The older he got the less he would think of this as
his home. He would always run away.”
This habit of the boy brought him into the Flatbush
Court yesterday on a charge of being incorrigible.
When the boy disappeared the last time he made his
way to a spot about half a mile from his home. It
is in a garden overgrown with rank weeds back of
an abandoned carpenter shop. The lot is at New York
and Thirteenth avenues, Brooklyn.
The boy built a house of old planks, nailed
together with a carpenter-like proficiency. Inside
he constructed for himself a couch and a fireplace
with a chimney outlet; on a peg on the wall hung
a stiff whisk-broom with which the earthen floor
might be kept smooth.
The youngster also put up pegs on which he hung
an extra suit of clothes. He was not without
an artistic sense, for he nailed to the walls
cartoons and other newspaper drawings, the most
prominent one being that of President Taft, with a
background portraying the reception on the return
of the ex-President and the lonely Taft exclaiming:
“Nobody loves a fat man.” The boy was evidently in
sympathy with the loneliness of the fat man.
For six weeks the youngster made his home in this
hut. Scraps of dry bread were the only signs of
food in the place when he was arrested. But word
was sent him that one of his little stepsisters,
of whom he was very fond, had been awake all night
crying for his return. When he heard that he went
back home. It was true about the little girl crying
for him. But also, when he got back his father
handed him a summons to appear in the Flatbush
Police Court. At that the boy flew into a rage.
He tore the summons to bits and flung them at his
father. His father thereupon caused his arrest.
In court yesterday the youngster stolidly looked at
his stepmother. He frowned at his father.
“Do you know,” demanded the father, “that you are
arrested?”
“I don’t care,” said the boy.
“Don’t you see what a trouble you are?” insisted
his parent.
The boy for answer turned to the Judge.
“I can’t live with my stepmother,” he said. “I
don’t do anything wrong. I don’t want to. But I get
along by myself. I’ve been living in my little hut,
and I like it there all by myself, with nobody to
get sore on me. That’s all. I wish I could only be
left alone--that’s all.”
His Honor, with an eye on the youthful face,
shook his head and held the boy in $300 bail for a
further hearing Friday morning.
* * * * *
CRIMINAL COURT EXAMINATION
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
For the first time the inner history of the daring
theft of the Boston store’s $3,500 pay roll from
the messenger in the First National bank on Feb. 15
was told on Tuesday, when Joseph Wilson, awaiting
trial for complicity, turned state’s evidence
against George O. Watts, in his preliminary
examination in District court.
Wilson said that Watts recruited in Chicago a
quintet for the express purpose of “cracking a
crib” in Milwaukee. Wilson said that the theft of
the money-laden satchel was not premeditated, but
that the gang had set out to “work” the banks.
According to Wilson’s story, Chester Bangs, who is
now awaiting trial, cleverly sneaked the satchel
at the feet of the Boston store messenger, and the
other four “blanketed” him while he slipped out of
the bank.
Watts, whom Wilson’s testimony clearly showed
to have been an accomplice, was bound over to
Municipal court. Bail was set at $9,000 despite
Attorney W. H. Rubin’s plea for a lower figure.
Wilson said that the gang was composed of Watts,
Bangs, Oates, Carter and himself. Of these, Oates
and Carter are still at liberty. The other three
have been bound over for trial.
Wilson told his story freely and fully, using
considerable slang.
“Two days before this deal was pulled off I had a
talk with Watts in a saloon in Chicago; he sent me
a note by Oates to meet him,” said Wilson. “I had
been out of jail four days. Watts asked me to come
in on the scheme of cracking a crib in Milwaukee
and told me that he had three other fellows to go
along.
“I agreed and Watts ‘made a meet’ opposite the
union depot in time to take the 7 o’clock train to
Milwaukee on Feb. 15. We met there, the five of us,
and came to Milwaukee.
“After we left the station we stopped in for a
drink in a small hotel at the corner of the station
park. Watts said: ‘This’ll be a good place for a
meet if we’re piped off.’ After that we started in
to work the banks. We went to the First National
twice.
“On the second trip we piped the messenger filling
his pay roll satchel. That was our chance. It was
fixed that Bangs should turn the trick. We four sat
on one of the benches near a window. In a minute
Bangs signaled us to come up, and we did.
“While the messenger was looking over some papers
Bangs reached under and grabbed the satchel. Then
we crowded around and blanketed him until he had
gotten out of the bank. Then we went out and
scattered. I saw Bangs, with the satchel, hop on a
street car.
“I walked up Wisconsin street and was later joined
by Oates. When we got in front of the postoffice
some one hollered. I turned around. It was Bangs.
We joined him beside the building. He opened the
satchel, and I saw it was filled with paper and
silver. He kept the paper money, tied in packages,
and loaded all the silver on me. Of course I did
not count it, for we were right on the sidewalk.
“That noon I caught an interurban car for Racine at
Clinton street. Watts was on the car. He came and
sat with me.
“‘We come off pretty clean,’ he said. ‘There can’t
be no “rap” to this.’ I told him it was a fool
trick to carry so much silver as I had in my bundle.
“The whole bunch was on the car. When the car
stopped at a corner in Racine we all got off and
scattered.
“In a minute I decided that I was being trailed. I
caught up to Oates and told him so. He told me to
go in a saloon and find out. I did, and the fellow
trailing me came in too. I went out of the saloon,
saw Watts and told him I was trailed.
“‘Ding that and duck,’ he said, pointing to my
bundle.
“‘Cover up and give me a chance,’ I said.
“He did, and I ducked down a side street, but that
fellow was still trailing me. After walking about
a quarter mile I stepped into a cigar store, for
I’d made up my mind to duck that fellow. I got the
proprietor to take me out in the back yard. Then
I climbed over two fences and hid in a shed until
dusk.
“Detective Sullivan nailed me about 9 o’clock that
night.”
On cross-examination, Wilson freely told his
long criminal record, which includes several
convictions. He gave his age as 53 years. He said
that Joseph Wilson is his real name, but that he
has used three aliases.
Asked what his business is, Wilson said:
“I’m a professional thief.”
District Attorney A. C. Backus announced that he
would file information charging Watts with a second
offense, for which the penalty may be twenty-five
years in prison.
* * * * *
CRIMINAL COURT
_Detroit News_
Some 20 years ago a ragged little newsboy stood
shivering on a busy corner in the heart of St.
Louis. His last paper was yet to be sold and his
free hand jingled a pocketful of loose coins. A
hurrying pedestrian snatched the final copy and
thrust a nickel in the hand of the boy. He did not
wait for change. Five minutes later the ragged and
cold and hungry boy stood with his nose buried in a
volume of “First Steps for Chemists” in the musty
atmosphere of a second-hand book store.
Wednesday morning the same boy, now grown to
manhood, stood before the federal court in Detroit
and heard a stern judge sentence him to 10 years in
the federal prison at Leavenworth and affix a fine
of $5,000 on three counts charging counterfeiting.
It was the cause and the effect.
The boy was Harry Wilson, alias Peter Smith, said
to be one of the cleverest counterfeiters in the
United States.
“I loved chemistry from the time I was a boy,” said
Wilson from his cell. “That was really my downfall.
I was left alone in the world when I was seven
and I sold papers for years. I do not know why
chemistry had such a fascination, but when I was
still in knee breeches and earning a few pennies a
day I saved until I could buy second-hand books on
the science. I studied at every possible moment,
and although my English is not the best in the
world, and I may misspell many words, I am familiar
with the majority of chemical formulas and I can
spell any chemical symbol, drug, instrument or
process, Latin, Greek or German.
“I longed for a laboratory of my own. I wanted
enough money to enable me to give up my life to
chemical research. To achieve this I wanted a trade
and engraving seemed to open the doors to a good
salary, as well as allow me to come in contact with
chemicals. I got a position after I had taught
myself the rudiments of the trade and discovered I
had a talent for drawing. But the salary I received
did not seem to be enough to allow me to obtain the
realization of the dreams for many years.
“One day I picked up a magazine and there was a
story by Detective Burns on counterfeiting. I read
it and then read several following stories. The
idea came to me slowly, bit by bit, that here was a
way whereby I could obtain enough to buy a private
laboratory. If I could make bills good enough I
thought they would continue to circulate and no
one would lose. I tried it and I have failed.
I am sorry, of course. I am sorry I went wrong
from a standard of morals and more sorry from the
standpoint of what I might possibly have done for
the benefit of the world in chemical research.
“Those unfortunate persons who were convicted
because they associated with me must know how
badly I feel over their arrest. I do not know what
they did before they met me, but I feel personally
responsible for this bit of trouble and I wish I
could bear all their sentences. They would never
have known the horrors of imprisonment but for me.
In a way they were tools that I used and I do not
believe any of them knew just how serious a thing
they were getting into.
“I shall be as good a prisoner as I know how,
and should I be released before my sentence is
completed or should I have to wait all the time,
when I get out I am going into chemistry with a
determination to give to the world more than I
robbed it of.”
* * * * *
MURDER TRIAL
_New York Sun_
Jack Rose’s jester and the playboy of the Rosenthal
murder, Sam Schepps, testified for six hours and a
quarter yesterday in the trial of Lieut. Becker,
and exhibited the qualities that made him the joy
of the gamblers in their lighter hours.
Murder trials are not supposed to be humorous
affairs and Justices bend severe glances upon
flippant witnesses, but Schepps somehow dissipated
the gravity of the proceedings and lightened
the black tale of crime. Even the austere Judge
permitted his eyes to twinkle and some of the
jurors laughed outright.
Schepps was so pleased with himself, so proud of
his skill in coping with John F. McIntyre, his
inquisitor, so naive in his appeals to Justice
Goff, so pugnacious and alert that his listeners
were in smiles most of the time. He took it for
granted that the court appreciated him at his own
valuation, and Justice Goff seemed to regard him
as an extraordinary specimen of another world, one
that must not be banged about by counsel for fear
of the total loss of a curiosity worth studying.
But the amusing characteristics of the State’s
principal corroborative witness by no means
lessened the effect of the testimony he gave
against Lieut. Becker. Resisting every device of
Mr. McIntyre to trap him into admitting he was
an accomplice with Rose, Webber and Vallon, and
insisting that he was kept in the dark and used
only as an errand boy by Rose and Webber, Schepps
swore that the night after the murder he talked
with Becker in Becker’s house and that Becker sent
this message to Rose:
“Don’t mind anything. I’ll fix it all right. They
have to prove who killed Rosenthal before they can
convict any one.”
And Schepps added that Becker, in the darkened
dining room of the apartment, wouldn’t let him
smoke and said:
“Don’t light that match. Somebody is across the
street and if they see a light they will suspect
something. They have been trailing me all day.”
Schepps was an exasperating witness to Mr.
McIntyre. He had the dimmest of memories for times
and dates, but he had an extraordinary faculty for
recalling previous statements, and he frequently
corrected the lawyer. Mr. McIntyre resorted to the
traditional methods of hectoring and storming and
fist shaking, but Schepps hectored and stormed and
gestured back at him. Once he called Mr. McIntyre
a liar for saying he had paid the gunmen, and
while Mr. McIntyre was fuming before the jury and
shouting that Schepps was “a thing,” “a creature,”
the witness was suavely and deferentially
apologizing to the court for “language that a
gentleman ought not to use.”
Lieut. Becker’s chief counsel concentrated his
efforts to make Schepps say something that would
indicate that he knew Rosenthal was to be murdered
and that he was one of the conspirators. It was an
attack of the utmost importance to the defence. A
good deal of Becker’s money had been spent in an
excursion to Hot Springs, made for the purpose of
showing that Schepps had incriminated himself while
there and had exculpated Becker.
Lawyer Hart, who was with Rose the night Schepps
was with Becker, cross-examined Schepps about his
conversations with Hot Springs people and failed
absolutely to establish contradiction. McIntyre
had tried his hand at this work previously, and
had raged when Schepps volunteered the statement
that one of the principal Hot Springs witnesses for
the defence had been a pickpocket in New York for
twenty years.
Mr. McIntyre and Mr. Hart gave up the
cross-examination late in the evening, apparently
running out of ammunition. Mr. McIntyre insisted
plaintively that he was wearied, totally exhausted,
unable to continue, which drew from Justice Goff,
who has a very dry humor, the comment:
“Tut, tut, Mr. McIntyre. You talk of being
exhausted. I am upward of 70 years old.”
Schepps was the only witness yesterday. It had been
the purpose of the prosecution to call Mrs. Herman
Rosenthal, but there was no time left for the long
examination that would be necessary and Justice
Goff rather reluctantly consented to adjournment.
The widow of the murdered gambler will be the first
witness to-day.
When Schepps appeared from the witness room at
10:30 A. M. all eyes were turned in his direction.
From the first he has been one of the most
interesting characters of this case. His childlike
vanity, his delight at posing as an oracle
among the rudely informed men and women of the
underworld, his reputation for impudence and wit,
his adventures dodging detectives in the Catskills
and his sojourn among admiring citizens in Hot
Springs had given him a kind of reputation second
only to that of Rose.
He was nervous at first. His sharp eyes squinted
behind his nose glasses and his glances darted
sidewise. He twisted his fingers together and tried
to cross his legs, a proceeding frowned upon by the
court officer who stands at the witness chair.
He wore a blue suit, a black four-in-hand tie and
black low shoes, and he carefully drew up his
sharply pressed trousers so that his white silk
socks would be exposed.
As the day went on he lost much of his nervousness
and controlled his tendency to flippancy, but he
became more and more pugnacious and more and more
determined that counsel for the defence should not
get the better of him.
Assistant District Attorney Frank Moss conducted
the direct examination. The testimony was:
Q. Where do you live? A. Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Q. What is your business? A. Portrait enlarger.
Q. Do you know Jack Rose? A. Yes; I have known him
for fifteen or eighteen years.
Q. Did you ever meet the defendant Becker? If so,
where? A. At the Lafayette baths.
Q. Ever again? A. Yes, at the Sam Paul raid.
Q. Did you ever carry to him a message from Jack
Rose? A. Yes.
Q. What was it? A. That Rose would meet him at the
Union Square Hotel.
Q. Were you at Dora Gilbert’s house on July 15? A.
Yes.
Q. What were you doing there? A. I was asked to go
there by Rose to get an affidavit for Becker.
Then he said that, after leaving Dora Gilbert’s, he
drove with his friends to Sharkey’s, where the gray
car was called by telephone.
Q. Who drove it? A. William Shapiro.
Q. Who got into that car? A. Vallon, Rose and
myself.
Q. What did you do then? A. We went up to Seventh
avenue and 145th street.
Q. What did you do next? A. I stepped out and
pressed the bell of Baker and Harris’s apartment.
Dago Frank put his head out of the window and we
called him out. He got into the machine and we went
to Forty-second street and Sixth avenue.
Q. Who did you find there? A. Sam Paul, Leftie
Louie, Whitey Lewis and Gyp the Blood. Webber
excused himself and said he would be back shortly.
Q. Did he return? A. Yes; he said Rosenthal was at
the Metropole.
Q. What was done then? A. They left the room.
Q. Who left? A. Gyp, Lefty Louie, Whitey Lewis and
Dago Frank.
Q. What did you do? A. I stayed in the room.
Q. How long? A. About fifteen minutes.
Q. In what direction did you then go? A. I went
into the Times Square drug store and purchased a
soda. A short time after I got there I heard four
shots.
Q. What did you do? A. I ran in the direction of
the shots.
Q. Did you see Lieut. Becker that night? A. Yes,
sir.
Q. Where? A. He was riding in an auto with a
chauffeur at Sixth avenue and Forty-sixth street at
1:30 o’clock A. M.
Q. When you ran to the scene of the murder, on what
side of the street were you? A. On the south side.
Q. Did you meet any one that you knew? A. I met
Harry Vallon at the Elks Club. A great crowd had
gathered and the body was lying in the street.
Q. What did you and Harry Vallon do then? A. We
went to Fourteenth street, to the house where he
lived, and stayed there until 6 o’clock the next
morning, when we went to a house at 145th street
and Seventh avenue.
Q. What was it that awoke you? A. The entrance of
Jack Rose.
Q. After Rose spoke to you and you went to 145th
street and Seventh avenue, did you see any one? A.
Yes, we saw Lefty Louie, Whitey Lewis, Dago Frank
and Gyp.
Q. Did you say anything to them? A. They wanted to
know when I would bring them the money. I made an
appointment to meet them at Fiftieth street and
Eighth avenue.
Q. Where did you see them? A. At Fiftieth street
and Eighth avenue.
Q. Prior to that time had you seen Webber? A. Yes,
sir.
Q. Did you receive any money from him? A. No, sir.
Q. Did you see anything passed by Webber to any one
else? A. I saw Webber pass money to Jack Rose.
Q. Was that money presented to the gunmen at
Fiftieth street and Eighth avenue? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Who had it? A. Jack Rose.
Q. What did he do? A. He passed it to Lefty Louie.
Q. Did you go away then? A. Yes.
Q. Did Lefty Louie? A. Yes, and took the money with
him.
Q. What did you and Rose do? A. We went to the home
of Harry Pollok on Riverside Drive.
Q. How long did you stay there? A. I stayed for
dinner.
Q. Then where did you go? A. To the Lafayette
Baths.
Q. The next morning, what did you do? A. I went to
Pollok’s and remained about four hours. I then went
downtown and later returned to Pollok’s. I stayed
until about 10:30.
Q. Where did you go next? A. I went to Lieut.
Becker’s apartment.
Q. Did you see Becker? A. Yes.
Q. Where was that? A. At the Belleclaire apartments.
Q. How did you happen to go there? A. Jack Rose
sent me.
Q. Repeat the conversation you had with Becker. A.
I told Becker that Jack Rose was sick and worried,
and that he sent me to him to see what he was going
to do. Becker said Rose was not to worry. He said:
“Don’t mind anything. I’ll fix it all right. They
have to prove who killed Rosenthal before they can
convict any one.”
Q. What then? A. Then I left. As I was about to
leave I pulled out a cigarette and started to light
it. Becker said, “Don’t light that match; somebody
is across the street and if they see a light they
will suspect something. They have been trailing me
all day.”
Q. Was the apartment lighted or dark? A. It was
dark.
Q. Did Becker say anything else? A. Yes. He asked
me if the gunmen had been paid and I told him that
they had. Then I left.
Q. Then what did you do? A. I went back to Pollok’s.
Q. Did any one arrive while you were at Pollok’s?
A. No; somebody was there before I got there.
Q. Who was that? A. Mr. Hart.
Q. Who do you mean? A. Attorney John Hart, who is
sitting there.
The witness nodded toward John W. Hart, who has
been Becker’s lawyer since before the murder of
Rosenthal.
Mr. Moss had no further questions to put to the
witness and the direct examination ended at 11:02
A. M., having occupied only twenty-seven minutes.
[_The report of the cross-examination and other
details of the day’s proceedings in the trial
followed under separate heads._]
* * * * *
GRAND LARCENY CASE
_Duluth Herald_
Commercializing his remarkable faculty for
imitating a paralytic has proven to be the downfall
of Charles F. Koch, 45, the black sheep of a
respectable German family residing at Rosedale,
Iowa. And because his game of faking injuries and
collecting large sums from railroad companies and
other corporations has been detected and exposed,
Koch must look forward to serving a term of years
in the Minnesota state penitentiary.
It took a jury just nine minutes in Judge Fesler’s
division of the district court yesterday to find
Koch guilty of the crime of grand larceny in the
second degree under an indictment which charged
him with having defrauded the Duluth & Iron Range
Railroad company out of $1,000 on a fake personal
injury. The jury retired at 3:36 o’clock and
returned with a finding of guilty at 3:45 o’clock.
The same blank, fixed expression which has
characterized Koch since his trial began did not
change one iota when the verdict of guilty was
read in his presence. He maintained the same
expressionless attitude of indifference as to what
was going on about him and seemed to be unconcerned
as to whether he would be acquitted or not. The
crime of which he stands convicted is punishable by
imprisonment in the state penitentiary from one to
ten years.
On Oct. 14, 1914, Koch was a passenger on No. 61,
of the Duluth & Iron Range, a mixed train leaving
Duluth at 11:30 p. m. On arriving at Two Harbors
at 12:45 a. m., he left the coach and as he did
so, according to his claim, his raincoat, which
he carried on his arm, caught on an angle cock or
brake staff and he was thrown to the depot platform
and suffered an injury to his back. As a result,
he claimed, his lower limbs, bowels and bladder
were paralyzed. Examination by surgeons seemed to
indicate that he was permanently disabled, and on
Dec. 7, the company settled with him for $1,000 for
his alleged injuries. Koch, who had been moving
with great difficulty on crutches, immediately
left the city and at once discarded his crutches.
The railroad authorities secured a warrant for his
arrest and after detectives had chased him through
several cities of the Middle West, he was arrested
at Tonopah, Nev. He was brought to Duluth under an
extradition process and stood trial on the charge.
During the course of his trial much of his past
history, and a more or less unbroken story of his
operations, were brought to the light of day.
Koch was born forty-five years ago in Germany
and emigrated to this country when a boy of 15,
settling at Rosedale, Iowa. He married when a
young man, but, after his wife had lived with him
ten years, she secured a divorce from him on the
grounds that he had been convicted of a crime and
committed to the Iowa state penitentiary. This was
in 1903. She remarried. Koch’s parents are old and
respected residents of Rosedale.
In 1903 Koch joined the army, enlisting in the
state of Washington. Two months later, however,
he was discharged on account of “chronic anaemia
and debility.” In 1906 he claimed that he had been
injured while working at Missoula for the Northern
Pacific, brought suit for $50,000 and recovered
$5,000 in the lower court. The case dragged on
six years in the Montana courts and judgment was
finally reversed in January, 1912. A portion of
the time Koch spent on a poor farm, supposedly a
down-and-out cripple, forced into the almshouse by
the law’s delay. He went by the name of C. F. Post.
In July, 1911, at Portland, Or., posing as C. F.
Pantle, he secured from the Portland Light & Power
company a sum of money on a fake injury. On Feb.
16, 1912, at Breckenridge, Minn., under the alias
of C. F. Jones, he secured $4,500 from the Great
Northern Railway company for injuries claimed to
have been sustained in falling from a passenger
coach step. On Aug. 12 of the same year, as
Clarence F. Main, he again tried to work this game,
but unfortunately ran up against the same claim
agent at Great Falls, Mont., who recognized him as
an impostor and had him arrested. He served four
months in the Montana penitentiary.
On Feb. 28, 1914, at Hampton, Iowa, he claimed that
he was injured while alighting from a train, and on
May 9, 1914, collected $600 from the Minneapolis
and St. Paul Railway company. On July 23, 1914,
while crossing a railroad crossing at Grand Rapids,
Mich., he was injured, he claimed, and he later
extracted $1,600 from the Grand Rapids & Indiana
Railroad company. His latest offense was the affair
of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad company.
Koch will be brought before Judge Fesler later
for sentence. Those who are familiar with Koch’s
history declare that whiskey brought about his
ruin and that as soon as he made a good haul while
operating his game he would spend it all for liquor.
* * * * *
SUPREME COURT DECISION
_Brooklyn Eagle_
That an employer is not responsible for the acts
of his servant that cause damage to another when
those acts are not committed in furtherance of
the master’s business, was the decision of the
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First
Division, when it reversed a case which the lower
court had decided against a Manhattan department
store. The reversal in favor of the department
store was given by the court on an appeal taken by
the attorney, Abraham Oberstein, of 299 Broadway,
Manhattan.
This case is of considerable importance to
employers, for the reason that their employes
often get into altercations with employes of other
concerns, damages sometimes ensue, and then the
question arises whether the employer is responsible
for the acts of his servant. As the justices of
the Appellate Division view the question, the
issue is not whether an inflicter of damages was
in the employ of a certain firm, but whether he
was promoting the firm’s interest in inflicting
the damages. If he was, then the master is
responsible, providing it was within the scope of
the employer’s duties, and if it was not, then the
master is not responsible, no matter how grievous
or serious the injury inflicted may be.
Adolph Miller, through his guardian, instituted
suit for assault against Attorney Oberstein’s
client. Miller was a driver in the employ of
another concern, and was about to deliver goods
at the store when one of the latter’s drivers
asked for the berth Miller was entitled to. Miller
refused. The other driver, he alleges, assaulted
him. Then he directed suit against the department
store concern, under the employers’ liability act.
The lower court decided for Miller, but Lawyer
Oberstein appealed and the Appellate Division
reversed the decision, saying that Miller’s suit
should have been dismissed.
The opinion, written by Presiding Justice
Gildersleeve and concurred in by Justice McLean,
says:
“The test of liability in such cases depends upon
the question whether the injury was committed by
the authority of the master, expressly conferred,
or fairly inferable from the nature of the
employment and the duties incident thereto. The
mere statement of this rule answers the question
in favor of the defendant in this case. The act of
the driver was a wilful and malicious act. It was
not done in furtherance of his master’s business
and was in no way connected with or incident to
the performance of any of the duties intrusted
to him as a driver, or which could be considered
as promoting the defendant’s interests. The rule
as stated in Gervin vs. N. Y. Central R. R. Co.,
166 N. Y. 289, is as follows: ‘If a servant goes
outside of his employment and, without regard to
his service, acting maliciously or in order to
effect some purpose of his own, wantonly commits a
trespass or causes damage to another, the master
is not responsible.’ The plaintiff failed to prove
any liability on the part of the defendant and the
defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint should
have been granted.”
* * * * *
SUPREME COURT DECISION
_Duluth Herald_
Eighteen months have elapsed since little Florence
Lemoine, a pretty, dark-eyed dancer of 18 years,
fell from a sidewalk on West Fourth street and
sustained an injury to her back and spine which
has left her a helpless and lifelong paralytic.
Unconscious of her true condition and hopeful of
the future, the once popular little vaudeville
performer lies on her cot at her father’s ranch
near Moscow, Idaho, planning theater engagements
she will never fill and dreaming of new gowns and
dances.
Yesterday the Minnesota supreme court handed down
a decision which affirms the judgment of the
district court of this city where, a few months
ago, a $5,000 verdict was obtained against the city
of Duluth in her favor. A jury last April awarded
her damages in that amount, but the city asked for
judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Judge Kesler
denied the motion and an appeal was taken by the
city to the supreme court, the municipality denying
its liability. The higher tribunal held that the
city was liable.
On Aug. 17, 1913, Florence stepped off a sidewalk
on the lower side of West Fourth street between
Lake and First avenues west. The accident occurred
during the evening while Mrs. Jane Lemoine
was escorting her two daughters, Florence and
15-year-old Grace, to the Happy Hour theater, where
they were filling an engagement. The sidewalk at
this point is elevated several inches above the
abutting property and at the time of the accident
was unprotected by a rail.
Florence slipped and fell on her back. Her injuries
at first were believed to be of a slight nature.
Later surgeons pronounced her suffering from spinal
trouble and paralysis of the lower limbs. She was
taken to her room at the Frederick hotel, where
the Lemoines were stopping, and there remained
until after the trial of the suit against the city
last April. The Lemoines left for Moscow, Idaho,
about six months ago. Denny & Denny, attorneys for
Frederick Lemoine, the girl’s father, who brought
suit on behalf of his injured daughter, recently
received word that the girl’s condition was not
much improved. She is still in bed. Since her
accident Florence has been of a cheerful frame of
mind, probably because her true condition has been
carefully withheld from her.
At the time of the accident, the two girls were
appearing in a singing and dancing act at the local
theater. Both are talented in their line and their
appearance in Duluth was during their second season
on the stage.
The Lemoines, up to five years ago, lived in
Baltimore. The two girls appeared in a number of
amateur theatrical performances in that city and
there received their training for professional
work. In 1910 their father, who was then suffering
from a nervous breakdown, moved West, taking his
family with him.
After the Lemoines had settled in the West, the
children became much in demand at church socials
and amateur theatricals on account of their talent
along that line. Later, the girls were offered a
vaudeville engagement with a song and dance act.
At first the mother refused to allow her daughters
to go on the stage, but after a flattering salary
had been offered, she finally consented. She
accompanied them on their tour as chaperone. The
season was about half over when Florence met with
her accident. The father remained on the ranch in
Idaho because of his poor health.
During the trial of the case last April, Florence
was brought into the courtroom on two occasions,
both times on her cot. She nervously twitched at
her bedclothes and at her jewelry while she told
the story of the affair as she remembered it. She
told the jury that she was spending most of her
time now drawing sketches and that until she got
well enough to get back to the stage she expected
to devote her time to art.
The two girls were earning from $75 to $140 a week
with their act, according to testimony which was
adduced at the trial.
* * * * *
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISION
_San Francisco Chronicle_
The Supreme Court of the United States has decided
in the case of Mrs. Ethel Coope Mackenzie of
San Francisco that the federal expatriation law
of 1907 is constitutionally applicable to women
that continue to live in this country after
marrying foreigners as well as to those that marry
foreigners and live abroad.
The ruling settles finally a test case that has
become internationally famous in suffrage circles.
In effect, it is much more sweeping than the bare
recorded fact would indicate, including in its wide
range a host of women, in and out of states where
they have the vote, who are married to men not
citizens of the United States.
It means, applied locally, simply this: A woman
born in California, herself a citizen of the United
States with the right to vote, automatically
relinquishes her citizenship and that right the
moment she becomes the wife of a foreigner, whether
the foreigner is a resident or not.
Mrs. Mackenzie, who brought the test case, is the
wife of Gordon Mackenzie, known on the concert
platform as Mackenzie Gordon, the Scotch tenor. Her
husband, who is a nephew of the late Sir Morell
Mackenzie, a famous English surgeon, has been a
resident of San Francisco for the last twelve
years. He has lived in this country for more than
twenty years. She was herself born in California,
the daughter of J. F. Coope of Santa Cruz, a well
known California pioneer. But the fact that her
husband, born a British subject, has never taken
out citizenship papers in this country, makes Mrs.
Mackenzie, by the ruling of the supreme court, an
alien in the eyes of the law of the United States.
A curious feature of the unusual case is that Mrs.
Mackenzie was one of the most ardent of the workers
for suffrage during the campaign which resulted in
the women being given the vote in California.
The ruling affects also, in sweeping fashion, a
large number of other women socially prominent in
San Francisco. It includes Baroness Van Eck, who
was Miss Agnes Tillman and who is still a resident
of this state; Baroness Von Brincken, formerly Miss
Milo Abercombie, also living here; Countess Von
Falkenstein, who was Miss Azalea P. Keyes; Mrs.
John Hubert Ward, who was Miss Jean Reid, and a
great number of others.
Mrs. Mackenzie, who, since her marriage to the
famous tenor in August, 1909, has been living at
2832 Jackson Street, was among the first to appear
at the polls after the state had enfranchised its
feminine population. She was refused the privilege
of voting. The California courts, in which the case
was instituted, decided against her. Now the ruling
of the highest tribunal in the country upholds the
lower courts.
“It was something of a shock,” she said, “to learn
that after two years of hard work to bring suffrage
to California I could not enjoy the right I had
helped to give other women. Investigation showed,
of course, that I could gain my citizenship and my
right to vote, and also retain my husband, by his
application for naturalization papers, but I did
not wish to accept citizenship on those terms, and
so I brought a test case.
“My husband kindly delayed his citizenship until my
case might be presented in the courts. Now that it
is decided, he will become a citizen. This means
that I shall be received back into the fold, but
only because I am his wife.”
Concerning the effect of her test case, Mrs.
Mackenzie stated that she had just heard that a
Mackenzie Club had been organized in Oregon, for
the purpose of “looking into the matter.”
* * * * *
OPINION OF ATTORNEY GENERAL
_Wisconsin State Journal_
Excess fare cannot be charged of passengers on the
railroads of Wisconsin when tickets are purchased
on the trains, unless provision is made to refund
the amount of overcharge.
This is the effect of an opinion rendered by
Attorney General F. L. Gilbert today. Prior to the
passage of the two-cent fare law the Northwestern
and St. Paul roads charged 10 cents in addition to
the regular fare when the fare was paid on trains.
This practice was temporarily discontinued when the
two-cent fare law was passed, because of the heavy
penalty provided for violations. An attempt has
been made to find out if the railroad commission
would not permit this additional fee being charged.
An opinion was asked of the attorney general. He
said:
“It seems to me that the plain spirit, intent and
purpose of the law in question was to establish a
maximum passenger rate beyond which common carriers
could not, in any event, go and retain the excess
as their absolute property.
“I am therefore of the opinion that such excess
fare cannot be legally collected from a passenger
unless provision is made for refund, or an act of
the legislature is passed allowing the collection
and retention of said excess as a penalty for
failure to purchase a ticket at a point where
facilities are provided.”
About two weeks ago, Lloyd W. Bowers, general
counsel for the Northwestern and Burton Hanson,
general solicitor for the St. Paul, brought this
matter before the commission. During the course
of a conference, the railroads claimed that the
old law allowing an excess fare to be charged had
not been abrogated. The attorney general held
differently.
* * * * *
INSANITY CASE
_Chicago Herald_
Baptiste Bardoli is on his way.
Over in Italy, on a big estate at Lenno, near the
shores of Lake Como, Baptiste’s aged father is
waiting to see him--that is, he was waiting to see
him when Baptiste last heard, about three months
ago.
Baptiste was on his way to Italy last June when he
left his home in Oakland, Cal., provided with some
$200 in cash, long green tickets for the train and
small red tickets for the boat--clear to Italy.
Baptiste also took with him two large bottles of
Zinfandel. The bottles were wrapped in twisted
straw, through which the red wine could be seen
sparkling inside the green glass.
The traveler arrived in Chicago without the bottles
but with the contents. Policemen met Baptiste at
the railroad station. They stopped him from biting
the iron fence of the train shed. They took him to
the Harrison street police station.
A man wearing a white coat came in and looked at
Baptiste. The man took a yellow sheet of paper and
wrote as follows:
“June 30, 1914.--I have examined Baptiste Bardoli
and believe him to be insane and recommend his
commitment to an institution. He is on his way from
Oakland, Cal., to Italy and arrived in Chicago on
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company.
Respectfully,
ALFRED LEROY, M. D.,
Assistant City Physician.”
Baptiste was taken to the detention home. On
July 2 a jury composed of one physician heard
testimony concerning Baptiste’s actions and
returned a verdict to the effect that Baptiste was
insane--that he had “alcoholic hallucinosis”--that
he manifested suicidal and homicidal tendencies and
had about $96 on his person.
County Judge John E. Owens appointed Walter F.
Sommers, an attorney, conservator for the money,
and turned Baptiste over to the Chicago State
Hospital for the Insane at Dunning.
Baptiste “came to” on July 4 and called for his
trousers. He was denied. He protested his sanity.
He admitted his temporary inebriety, but swore that
he had no more bottles of green glass wrapped in
straw. It was no use.
Baptiste wrote letters to the Italian consul. He
implored the doctors and pictured for them the
father who was waiting to see him on the shores
of Lake Como. About a month ago he convinced the
Dunning authorities of his sanity, and they began
to arrange for his release.
Investigators at the office of the Italian consul
declared that they tried to get Conservator
Sommers to turn over some money to Baptiste, so
that he could be released. They say Attorney
Sommers replied that under the Illinois law he
had been appointed for a year, and as far as the
court records showed, Baptiste was still insane.
Moreover, it was vacation time, and there was no
session of the Probate Court.
Yesterday Judge Owens entered an order restoring
Baptiste to his civilian rights. Probate Judge
Gregg ordered the restoration of the funds held by
the conservator. The funds were restored. He was
freed from the asylum.
In Illinois the records, however, will show until
a year has passed that Baptiste is insane and that
he can only conduct business legally through his
conservator, who can’t be removed for a year.
But Baptiste is happy--he’s on his way to Italy.
* * * * *
PROPOSED LAW SUIT
_New York Sun_
For why should the Kaminoka Strumolova Sick and
Benevolent Association pay out money for burying a
man who is not yet dead? For why that hearse, $8;
that headstone, $35; those two funeral coaches for
$11 when Leon Welfish, the dear dead one, is alive
already and in his own town of Kaminoka, Galicia?
Not for often will the Kaminoka Strumolova Sick
and Benevolent Association make such a fool of
itself and those money spendings for the hearse,
the headstone, the funeral coaches and all the rest
making of Two Hu-u-ndred dollars!--to the court
here by a lawyer the Kaminoka Strumolova is going
for recovering. To the court by Lawyer William
Schneider the Kaminoka Strumolova is going and
make for getting back all that money because Leon
Welfish did not have the use of it, being not at
all dead and buried.
Aye-yah; it is all right enough for the hospital
people in the place at Central Islip to say that
there was mistaking in sending Leon Welfish to be
buried by the Kaminoka Strumolova when it was not
Leon at all who had died, but some one else. It’s
all right to say these things, but that does not
pay back the moneys for such a comfortable funeral
that some one else enjoyed. Oh no. The State of
New York by the courts will have to pay back those
moneys for those mistakes. It is to the Court of
Claims in Washington that the lawyer is going
to make the State to pay up these losses by the
Kaminoka Strumolova.
Listen.
Came to this country from Kaminoka, which is in
Galicia, which is of Austria, Leon Welfish, a young
man who did not have great strength but who was
honest and who would never try to cheat anybody.
Came Leon Welfish by New York and he worked as
tailor until one night when he didn’t work, but
fell down on the sidewalk by Lewis street and they
takes him to Bellevue. They looks at him for three
days--observations, they calls it--and then they
sends him to the State hospital for poor insane
ones at Central Islip. Leon goes and everybody is
sorry that he is one of the poor insane ones.
But then, before Leon Welfish is by the hospital
very long, comes the immigrationers from Ellis
Island and they say Leon Welfish is unfit for being
in this country and never should have come by New
York. Back he goes to Kaminoka, Galicia; so say
these immigrationers.
Everybody believes that Leon Welfish must go back
to Kaminoka, and his friends by Rivington street
are mourning that such a good boy goes home. Then
one day--it was the 5th day of August, two years
ago--comes to one of Leon Welfish’s friends by
Rivington street this message from the hospital:
“Leon Welfish is dead. Pleurisy makes it. Shall we
bury him or do his friends make the buryings?”
Of course it is to be that the Kaminoka Strumolova,
which is the society belonging to Leon Welfish,
shall make the buryings. Leon was a member standing
good and every member has for his money a good
burial or good doctors when in sickness. So says
the Kaminoka Strumolova, “We make the buryings.”
They makes. It costs all the $8 for hearse, $35
for headstones and the rest of those $200 which
belongs to Leon Welfish for being a dead member of
the Kaminoka Strumolova. Nobody sees Leon Welfish
before the buryings, for the hospital people sends
it so no one sees. All of the society makes of
itselves assessments for paying the funeral and
three members of committee wear white gloves and
rides in those for $11 hacks to Mount Zion Cemetery.
Leon Welfish’s papa and mamma, which are by
Kaminoka yet, gets a letter from the Kaminoka
Strumolova which says Leon is dead and has a good
buryings for $200--a very good buryings--and very
sorry to have to say these sad tidings. Then Leon
Welfish’s papa and mamma make mournings by their
dead son, and all of his friends by Kaminoka make
mournings.
Comes to Kaminoka then one very dark and rainy
night Leon Welfish, who was sent home by the
immigrationers. Comes Leon and knocks at the door
of his papa and mamma’s house.
“Hello, my papa; hello, my mamma!” says Leon when
they opens the door, and Leon’s papa calls for
police and Leon’s mamma has a fit on the floor
right in front of him.
After that Leon Welfish and Leon’s papa and mamma
make a great rage because he was dead and is not
really dead. They make writings to the Kaminoka
Strumolova to know for why was that mistake made.
Strumolova makes investigations and now it goes to
court by a lawyer.
* * * * *
SUIT FOR SEPARATION
_New York Telegram_
Alleging that for the sake of her three children
she had endured verbal and physical abuse of
violent character for seventeen years, Mrs. Clara
Hansen, of No. 10 Western Parkway, to-day filed
suit for separation in the Supreme Court against
her husband, Harry L. Hansen, worth a million,
and half owner in the Schmidt and Hansen Brewing
Company of Newark. Mr. Hansen makes his home at No.
190 East Ninety-ninth street.
Accompanying the affidavits of Mrs. Hansen is a
deposition from her sixteen-year-old son, Oscar,
in which he corroborates many of the stories of
beatings and other abuses alleged by his mother,
and makes the statement that his father’s treatment
of himself was such that he was glad when his
mother established a second home and took the
children with her. In addition to Oscar, the
Hansens have a daughter, Nellie, thirteen, and
another son, Henry, twelve years old.
Mrs. Hansen was represented in the preliminary
court proceedings by Mrs. Harriette M.
Johnston-Wood, of the law firm of Wood & Wood,
No. 2 Rector street, a well known leader of the
suffragist movement.
In the papers filed Mrs. Hansen states that she was
married to Harry L. Hansen in this city in 1897
and that they went from New York to Washington to
begin their honeymoon trip. Three days after the
wedding, she alleges, while they were still in
Washington, her husband became violently angry and,
after choking her, threw her against the furniture
in their room.
Later, at the Grand Hotel, at St. Augustine, Fla.,
he refused to talk to her, she asserts, and they
returned to this city without speaking to each
other. Their first home, she says, was established
in a house owned by Mr. Hansen, at No. 99 East
Eightieth street, and there, she sets forth, he
beat her frequently and repeatedly swore at her,
and said, “I hate your peaceful face; I’m tired of
it.”
Before Oscar was born, in 1898, she further
alleges, her husband accused her of being on
friendly terms with the tradesmen who came to the
house. After the boy was born he told her that,
since he had an heir, he had no further use for her
and, opening the front door, said, “This way out.”
In 1900, she says, while she was in Berlin with her
husband, she was compelled to go to a sanitarium,
and later, when they were in the Alps, he left her
and went to England, where she finally located him.
To escape his abuse two years later, she went to
Philadelphia, and in 1909 she went to Europe with
her daughter, returning later at her husband’s
earnest requests. The final separation, she states,
took place in 1911, when she established a separate
home for herself and her children.
In the deposition made by the son Oscar, he states
that on several occasions he saw his father beat
and abuse his mother. The boy also states that his
father had violent fits of temper on an average
of once a month and that on one occasion, when he
became displeased with the boy, he drew a knife and
destroyed the wireless apparatus which the child
had spent an entire winter in building.
Mrs. Hansen asks for $200 a week temporary alimony
and $25,000 counsel fees. She states that the
brewery in which her husband is interested turns
out 750,000 barrels of beer annually and that he
has other sources of income.
* * * * *
DIVORCE CASE
_Detroit News_
The story of the married life of Dr. Arthur and
Mildred S. Smith, from 1900 to 1913 reads the same
as that of any struggling young physician in a
large city. But--
In 1913 the physician found fortune smiling on him
and he turned to look at his wife and his gold. She
had faded during those years when $1 was made to
last longer than $10 would now.
“I am just in his way now,” said Mrs. Smith to
Judge Van Zile, while testifying in her suit for
divorce. The doctor filed his bill several months
ago and she filed a cross-bill.
A younger girl, with golden hair, red cheeks and
lips has come between the doctor and his wife,
according to Mrs. Smith.
“I filled in all right when someone was needed to
slave and dig the dirt out of the office floors
and dust the furniture,” continued the woman. “He
didn’t have time to look at me then to see whether
I looked good to him or not.
“We worked mechanically, shoulder to shoulder. I
played my part and he played his. The business and
my husband’s bank account would lead anyone to
think that it was a success.”
Mrs. Smith, a little woman, her eyes filled
with tears, seemed to reflect a moment and then
continued:
“Perhaps it is a success. It seems that success
must be measured in dollars and cents no matter who
gets the gold. He undoubtedly is happy, but--I--I
am a wreck.”
Mrs. Smith said that when her baby was born her
husband told her not to stay in the hospital too
long as she was needed in the office. She says that
she left the hospital in three weeks and the child
died at the end of five weeks.
“It was always so,” she continued. “He always
wanted me in the office and I was willing to stay.
It was only a few years ago that he went abroad,
and I remained at home, as we both agreed that
it would cost too much for us both. Then he took
several other equally expensive trips, but he never
asked me to go.”
Mrs. Smith said she and her husband had always been
active in the Summerfield Methodist church, and
that her husband even carried his dislike for her
to the church, urging her not to go to any of the
meetings, either social or religious.
“I was active in home missionary work,” said Mrs.
Smith, “and he told me that it didn’t look well for
me always to be mixing in with the church affairs.
I told him I couldn’t conscientiously drop my
church work and wouldn’t.”
Mrs. Smith declared her husband had told her he
couldn’t afford to live with her any longer as she
wasn’t so attractive as another girl he knew and
her company tired him instead of affording him rest
and comfort.
“His father also told me that I might as well
get out right away as Walter had to have some one
younger and more attractive,” she said. “The old
father said: ‘You don’t fit into Walter’s station
in life and you might as well get out without a
fuss, as you will have to move some time.’”
Mrs. Smith testified that her husband’s practice
is worth between $400 and $600 a week, and that he
owns three automobiles.
“I just rode in one of them, however,” she added.
“The office girl rides in them most of the time.”
Dr. Smith stated in his bill that his wife had an
ungovernable temper and that she called up his
patients and advised them not to consult him. The
doctor further stated that these and other things
ruined his health and his business.
Mrs. Smith was given the decree.
* * * * *
RECEIVERSHIP PROCEEDINGS
_Chicago Tribune_
Inflated reports of sales by managers of branch
houses, extending over a period of three years,
and resulting in a misleading annual statement,
it was said yesterday, were responsible for the
receivership proceedings for Robert Z. Link & Co.
The Chicago banks which were the principal
creditors of the corporation discovered the
character of these statements a few days ago in
an audit of the books, and at once took steps to
protect creditors.
The other explanation advanced for the crisis in
the company’s affairs came from Secretary William
H. Arthur.
“In the panic last fall,” he declared, “poor
people, who are the firm’s principal customers,
could not afford to buy even the cheapest fish.
They became vegetarians. If we could have tided
over our financial difficulties until after Lent
we would have weathered the storm. Trade was just
beginning to pick up.”
Developments of the day were as follows:
Receiver William T. Harrison, learning that fish,
oysters, and other sea foods were lying in the
cars, took measures to obtain the fullest powers in
conducting a business based upon transactions in
perishable products.
Four Chicago banks that hold nearly $2,500,000 of
the firm’s paper, some of it accepted two months
ago, held a conference and discussed reorganization
of the company.
Minority creditors prepared to organize.
Efforts were made to find out what the company
did with the proceeds of $1,000,000 worth of
preferred stock issued last October. Officials say
it was used to take up short term notes and to
buy warehouses and plants to prevent competition.
Creditors believe exorbitant sums were paid for the
plants.
Ancillary receivers were appointed for branch
plants of the company in various parts of the
country.
Receiver Harrison issues a statement practically
exonerating Link brothers for blame for the
financial straits of the Company.
An official of one of the four Chicago banks which
hold nearly $2,500,000 of the firm’s paper said
that the receiver was appointed after the banks had
learned that some persons connected with Robert
Z. Link & Co. had issued misleading statements
concerning its volume of business. The Link
brothers are not believed to have known anything
about these false statements.
The company, it appears, has a number of ambitious
managers of its branch houses in various parts
of the country. Each manager gets a percentage
on his total sales. Some of them, to obtain the
commission, it is asserted, juggled their reports
in such a manner that their total sales appeared
to be much larger than they really were, and the
annual report was in consequence misleading. The
company had no system of checking up these reported
sales, and it was not until the bankers put an
auditing firm upon the books, after they suspected
something following the issuance of the last annual
statement, that the discrepancies were discovered.
The fact that the last annual statement does not
account for new money, the proceeds of the last
stock issue, also is being investigated.
Secretary Arthur had a different explanation to
make.
“The panic of last fall, and vegetarianism to
which the poor were reduced when thrown out of
employment,” he declared, “are responsible for most
of our troubles.
“It is a well known fact that the company supplied
two-thirds of the oysters, fish, and all sea food
eaten in this country. The bulk of this trade is
among poor people. The company’s chief business has
been in fish that retails at 8, 10, and 15 cents a
pound, especially in large cities. We depended most
upon our business in fresh water fish--the largest
in the world in herring, lake perch and such
cheaper varieties. This trade came from working
people.
“When the working people were thrown out of
employment and stopped buying fish, our trade fell
off tremendously. It has just begun to pick up, and
if the bankers had not taken alarm and had given
us a little more time, we should have come out all
right.”
Mr. Arthur said that the $1,000,000 acquired in the
last issue of preferred stock had mostly gone to
pay short term notes.
Receiver Harrison in the afternoon went to Lake
Geneva to hold a conference with Judge Kohlsaat,
who had been originally selected as the judge
before whom the receivership proceedings were to be
held.
“I wish to secure the fullest authority for
conducting the business, which is based so largely
upon perishable products, so that there will be
no loss,” said Mr. Harrison. “I already have
that power, but I want to have it specified more
clearly.”
Representatives from several railroads called on
Mr. Harrison before his departure to ask what
should be done with quantities of fish that were
standing in the cars on sidetracks. The company
has $600,000 in available cash to carry on its
business. It is estimated that $1,000,000 will be
needed.
Mr. Harrison made a statement in which he said:
“From the examination of the books of Robert
Z. Link & Co. that has been possible since my
appointment as receiver I should say that the Link
family owns about 60 per cent of the preferred, and
about 50 per cent of the common stock. When the
$1,000,000 of preferred stock was issued within the
year, it would appear that the Link family paid
their assessment on this stock and took their full
pro rata, and I cannot find that any transfer of
any of their shares has been made.”
* * * * *
ASSIGNMENT
_New York Times_
Henry W. Williams, who carried on a banking and
brokerage business at 33 Wall Street, assigned
yesterday for the benefit of his creditors, to Mark
T. Cox of the firm of Robert Winthrop & Co. Mr.
Williams was the publisher of Williams’ Investors’
Manual, and is a director in several other concerns.
No figures were given out yesterday as to the
extent of his liabilities, but it was said by a
representative of important banking interests that
no complications involving other Wall Street houses
need be expected as a result of the failure. First
estimates put the loss at between $5,000,000 and
$10,000,000, but as the part which H. W. Williams
& Co. has played recently in the money market has
been steadily diminishing, it is believed that
the liabilities will amount to from $1,000,000 to
$2,000,000. Hawkins & Delafield are the attorneys
for some of the principal creditors of the firm.
Lewis L. Delafield of this firm conferred yesterday
afternoon with John L. Cadwalader of Strong &
Cadwalader, the attorneys for the assignee. They
gave out this statement after the conference:
Henry W. Williams, transacting business in
the State of New York under the name of H. W.
Williams & Co., has made a general assignment for
the benefit of creditors to Mark T. Cox of Robert
Winthrop & Co. There are no preferences beyond
such as the statute gives to employes.
A superficial examination justifies the belief
that if the creditors, who are few in number,
will co-operate in enabling the assignee to
effect a favorable liquidation of the assets, a
large sum will be realized for their benefit.
Written assurances of important financial
assistance to such creditors as will co-operate
to that end have been given.
Neither Mr. Cox, the assignee, nor Messrs. Robert
Winthrop & Co. are interested as creditors or
otherwise in the assigned estate.
None of the lawyers yesterday would make an
estimate of the extent of the failure. Some
surprise was expressed at the wording of the deed
of assignment filed in the County Clerk’s office.
It read: “H. W. Williams, trading as H. W. Williams
& Co.” as though the assignor had no partners in
the firm. The latest corporation directories give
the firm’s personnel as H. W. Williams, Frederick
A. Farrar, W. N. Phoenix, Franklyn W. Hunt, Charles
F. Cushman, and Henry V. Williams. Of these Messrs.
Farrar, Hunt, and Cushman live near Boston, where
the firm had a branch office.
It was said at the office of Hawkins & Delafield
that Henry W. Williams some time ago filed the
necessary deed with the County Clerk authorizing
him to use the firm name after his partners had
resigned their interests. No information could be
obtained as to when the dissolution of partnership
took place.
It is understood that Mr. Williams’ resources have
been dwindling for some time. His firm engaged in
several unprofitable consolidations, and in the
slump in stocks of March, 1907, it was reported
that the concern was hard hit. The October panic
found it again in bad shape to meet a financial
storm.
Mr. Williams began business in 1865 as H. V. &
H. W. Williams, and became widely known as the
publisher of Williams’ Investors’ Manual. In 1880
he entered the banking business as a partner in the
house of Anthony, Williams & Oliphant. A year later
this concern was succeeded by Williams, Oliphant &
Co. It was, however, as a member of the house of
Williams & Greenough that Mr. Williams attained
his greatest prominence in Wall Street. He was
particularly active in leather and ice, and is said
to have made about $5,000,000 by his operations in
these lines.
In 1899 the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Williams
continued in business as H. W. Williams & Co.
Since then he has been interested in a number of
consolidations which have turned out to be heavy
drains upon him. Among these was the Colonial Sugar
Company, which has since been absorbed by the Cuban
American Sugar Company.
Mr. Williams formed the Colonial concern by merging
a number of Cuban and Louisiana sugar properties
in which he was interested. The venture was
unprofitable, and it was said last night by an
officer of the company that Mr. Williams’ firm had
dropped between $300,000 and $400,000 in it.
Another of his interests was the Newton &
Northwestern Railroad of Iowa, which has since been
taken over by the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern
Railroad. Suit was brought against him recently by
Howard Willetts on account of the investment which
he had made in the road on the recommendation of
Henry Williams & Co. Mr. Willetts is suing for
$243,000, the price of 200 of the bonds of the
company, on the ground that the line is not earning
enough to pay its fixed charges. The case is still
pending.
Other concerns in which Mr. Williams has had large
interests are the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway
Company and the United States Casualty Company, of
which he was a Director, and the Postal Telegraph
Cable Company of Texas, of which he is President,
now a part of the system of the American Telegraph
and Telephone Company.
For some years H. W. Williams & Co. has maintained
an office in Boston. It has dealt exclusively in
bonds, bidding for local, as well as Massachusetts
State, and city issues. The last issue in which the
Boston branch figured was that of the United States
Envelop Company of Worcester, Mass., which issued
$2,000,000 worth a couple of months ago. The firm
has also invested heavily in American Telephone
Company and Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic
Railroad bonds. Boston bankers do not consider that
the failure will have any important effect on other
houses.
Outside of financial circles Mr. Williams occupied
an important position in society and was an art
lover. His house at Tuxedo Park has been known
as one of the finest examples of modern country
residences. His town house, 1 Lexington Avenue,
facing Gramercy Park and exactly opposite to the
residence of the late Stanford White, one of his
warm friends, has been renowned for its rich and
artistic decorations.
Mr. Williams was a liberal supporter of music, and
helped many students to follow their profession. He
is, however, best known as a book collector. For
years he spent large sums on rare editions and fine
bindings. He brought together a library with hardly
an equal in America. Among his special treasures
were a first edition of Thomas à Kempis’s “Imitatio
Christi,” Higden’s “Polychronicon,” and some rare
Americana. His collection was estimated as worth
between $200,000 and $300,000.
A few months ago it was announced that this library
was to be sold at auction. It was the first
intimation to the world at large that Mr. Williams
was in financial difficulties. The sale began on
Nov. 12, and the first day’s offerings brought in
$19,000. Some of the leading book collectors of the
country, such as J. Pierpont Morgan and Senator
Henry C. Lodge, sent representatives, and by the
time the first two sections had been disposed of
$75,000 was realized. It is understood that the
three other sections are still more valuable.
Five years ago Miss Edith Williams was married to
Capt. James K. Modison of the Warwick Regiment of
the British Army. It was one of the most brilliant
social functions of the year, the best man being
Sir E. Stewart Richardson, and the ushers Pierre
Lorillard, R. Monroe Ferguson, Arthur Derby,
Frederick C. Havemeyer, Jr., J. Insile Blair,
Jr., J. M. Waterbury, Jr., Henry V. Poor, and
Roger Poor. The bridesmaids were the Misses Violet
Cruger, Janet Fish, Muriel Robbins, and Helen
Cutting.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The way in which the human interest can be
brought out in what might ordinarily be considered
routine news, is shown by the second of the
following two stories._
PATENT AWARD
(1)
_New York Times_
The Board of Examiners of the Patent Office decided
that the man who made the hydroaeroplane possible
was not Glenn H. Curtiss, but Albert S. Janin, a
poor cabinet maker of Staten Island.
In 1910 Mr. Curtiss began testing a canoe device
to carry the planes on the water till the momentum
necessary to lift them was obtained, but it did not
work.
In the controversy that followed the use of the
present device, which consists mainly of outrigging
to keep the planes on an even keel, it came out
that Mr. Janin had really produced the device in
1909, about a year before Mr. Curtiss had failed to
raise his machines at Hammondsport.
Thomas A. Hill, a lawyer, of 233 Broadway, took up
Janin’s claims and put them before the examiners of
Interference of the Patent Office. Mr. Hill alleged
that on July 3, 1910, Curtiss tried four times in
vain to raise his plane from Lake Keuka; also that
Curtiss admitted the failure. It was shown that
drawings of the successful device now in use were
made by Janin long before this date, and that he
tried to build a machine to test it in operation,
but couldn’t get the money.
Mr. Curtiss contended that the device was his, and
that it had failed at Lake Keuka because the motors
were not strong enough to do their share of the
work. In deciding against Mr. Janin the Examiners
of Interference said:
While he (Curtiss) was thus engaged Janin was
sleeping on his rights, from which slumber he did
not awake until after the achievements of Curtiss
had been widely published.
Then the case was taken before the Board of
Examiners, who found for Mr. Janin. Their opinion
reads in part:
He (Janin) is a poor man, evidently struggling
for a sufficient income to meet his current
living expenses. From what his witnesses testify,
it is apparent that he was continuously striving
to raise funds to develop his ideas, which were
regarded by many as illusionary.
It also came out that Janin, in the years he was
working on his water flyer, was the butt of many,
who looked upon him as unbalanced by one idea.
Concerning the statements of Curtiss that his
motors were not powerful enough, the Examiners said:
An excuse of this kind for failure to make
flights could probably be advanced in good faith
by hundreds of inventors of aeroplanes, who have
been seeking patents for the last forty or fifty
years.
Mr. Hill said yesterday that Janin’s success
probably would make him wealthy; also that an
order for 200 hydroaeroplanes is awaiting any
manufacturer who can furnish security that they can
be delivered. He said the order was from one of the
belligerents in Europe, but did not know which.
“The Curtiss factory,” he said, “can turn out about
ten planes a week at a cost of about $7,000 each.
But no matter who turns them out they will have to
pay a royalty to Mr. Janin.”
(2)
_New York Evening World_
Albert S. Janin, cabinet maker, the other night
took off his apron in the shop in which he has
worked eight hours a day for the last fourteen
years at Rosebank, Staten Island, walked up to the
foreman and resigned his job.
He didn’t quit in a huff--a fact that was plainly
attested by the manner in which the foreman wrung
his hand and his fellow workmen crowded around him,
their faces beaming.
“Congratulations, Al,” said the foreman simply.
From somewhere in the crowd spoke one of Janin’s
intimates:
“The ‘Bug’ has made good. Whaddaya know about
that?”
“Well,” rejoined Janin, good-naturedly, “it no
longer will be Janin, the cabinet maker, or
Janin, the Bug, the dreamer and the impostor.
I guess the handle to my name has been pretty
firmly established as ‘Janin, inventor of the
hydro-aeroplane.’”
And that night the modest little 5-room Janin flat
was the scene of a celebration the like of which
has never been seen at Rosebank. Most enthusiastic
of the guests were men who, for the last ten years,
have scoffed at the strange looking winged craft
in the Janin back yard, which, the poor carpenter
persisted, would some day be recognized by the
patent office as the first flying boat.
Rosebank went on the map to stay at 2 o’clock
in the afternoon, when word was received from
Washington that the board of examiners-in-chief of
the patent office had decided unanimously that the
man who made the hydro-aeroplane possible was not
Glenn H. Curtiss, but Albert S. Janin, the poor
cabinet maker of Staten Island. For four years the
powerful Curtiss interests had fought the claims of
the obscure and almost penniless carpenter, through
the patent office and to its highest court--the
board of examiners-in-chief.
He would not have won out probably had not Thomas
A. Hill, a patent lawyer of New York, taken
the case, out of a sense of justice, without
compensation. As a former president of the
Aeronautical Society of America, and at present a
director, Mr. Hill went into the litigation to see
fair play.
Just how it feels to a struggling workman, whose $5
a day is barely enough to provide the necessities
of life for a wife and seven children, to find
himself suddenly famous with a fortune within his
grasp, Janin tried to explain.
“We put it over, didn’t we, mother?” Janin beamed,
affectionately patting his wife. “If it hadn’t been
that she stuck to me--believed in me, when all the
rest were poking fun and scoffing--I never would
have made it.”
“And if it hadn’t been,” Mrs. Janin interrupted,
“that after your hard day’s work for almost
every night in the last ten or fifteen years, you
burned the oil at your work bench until long after
midnight, you never would have made it.”
“The best part of this invention is that, unlike
a whole lot of others, it’s going to bring us
money--gobs of it,” Janin broke in. “For years we
have felt the pinch of poverty, but thanks to Mr.
Hill and his work in Washington, I guess that day
is past. You know the decision of the patent office
gives me a royalty on every hydro-aeroplane turned
out in this country dating from the day a few weeks
hence on which my patent is printed and issued
by the government. Mr. Hill tells me that the
royalty can be fixed arbitrarily by the inventor.
The failure of any of these companies building
hydro-aeroplanes to come to terms, of course, would
be followed by an infringement suit, but we don’t
expect any such difficulty.
“What will I do with the money? The first thing
will be to get a home of our own with plenty of
ground around it for the kids to play in. No more
of these flats for us. But we are going to stay
right here in Rosebank, where my wife and I were
born and brought up. You know we were sweethearts,
even at old public school No. 13, around the
corner. Most of the kids are now going to that same
school. The oldest girl, Antoinette, who is now 14,
can realize her ambition to go to normal school and
take up teaching, if she wants to--but she don’t
have to now.”
* * * * *
AN ADOPTED CHILD
_Kansas City Star_
The Patrick Sullivans had a bad three hours last
night.
You see, it was only a month ago that theirs was
a childless family. Mary had grown up and was
teaching and there were no babies around the house.
Then they found a 1-month-old baby boy, abandoned
in St. Aloysius’s Church, and adopted him. The
cheery household it has been since then!
But yesterday a young woman arrived at the
Sullivan home, 961 Walnut Street, and said that she
was the baby’s mother, and that the baby’s father
had only abandoned him temporarily because they
were then in desperate straits, but that everything
had come out all right financially and now wouldn’t
the Sullivans give her back her boy?
The Sullivans wouldn’t. Not last night.
That’s when their bad three hours began. If their
hearts were wrung so at abandoning a baby not their
own, what must be the mother’s feelings? That won
the day.
Papa Sullivan went to Judge Hinton this morning.
He, had been to him last week to adopt the baby
legally. Now he wanted to know if that legal
process would stand in the way of his returning the
baby to its mother. Judge Hinton said it would not
prevent such action, and he believed that it would
be best to give the child to its mother. But he
didn’t look at Papa Sullivan when he said it. Men
don’t like to see each other wet-eyed.
“She’ll come back,” said Papa Sullivan, “and she
can get him.”
Judge Hinton this afternoon made an order at the
request of Mr. Sullivan declaring the adoption of
the baby by the Sullivans void. The request was
made on the ground that the mother had appeared and
had shown herself capable of properly caring for
the child. The mother did not appear in court. No
further action will be necessary. The mother need
only go to the Sullivan home and get her baby.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The provision in the will given in the New
York court story making bequests to Chicago nurses,
formed the basis of the local story in the Chicago
paper; both stories follow._
WILL ADMITTED TO PROBATE
(1)
_New York Sun_
The will of Walter H. Hammond, the wealthy
butterine manufacturer, who was shot dead in the
Pennsylvania station in Jersey City ten days
ago by Peter Grew, who had a fancied grievance
against him, was admitted to probate in Jersey
City yesterday. After making a number of specific
bequests, including amounts of $500, $250 and
$100 to thirty-seven old employees, the residue
of the estate goes to the next of kin, share and
share alike. Col. Robert A. Hammond is one of the
brothers.
Col. Willard C. Ward, who drew the will on October
1 last and filed it yesterday, said that he didn’t
care to discuss the value of the estate, as he
believed that the bequests indicated about what
the value is. He wouldn’t give an opinion as to
the value of the butterine business or how much of
the estate will be left for the four brothers, two
sisters, two nieces and a nephew after the bequests
have been settled. The estate is believed to be
worth at least $800,000, and probably $1,000,000,
as Mr. Hammond is said to have owned much property
in addition to his butterine business.
Mr. Hammond leaves his entire holdings in the firm
of Hammond & Person, of which he was practically
the only stockholder, to three legatees. They are
Miss Alice C. Hagan, daughter of a Jersey City
policeman, who had been his private secretary for
many years and was said to have been engaged to
him; Dr. Oscar Bauer, his physician and one of
the executors of the estate, and Henry C. Berger,
superintendent of his butterine plant.
One of the first bequests provides for the payment
of $25,000 to Anna Louise Cooley of New York city
as soon as possible. Of this amount $500 is to be
paid at once and the balance at the rate of $100
a month. Sarah B. Johnson and Mabel E. Wilkins of
Jersey City, employees of the firm of Hammond &
Person for many years, receive $1,500 each. Nellie
P. Hamilton, a stenographer in the office of Col.
Ward, who assisted in drawing the will, gets $250.
Gertrude M. Burns, a daughter of Henry Burns of 314
Devine avenue, Jersey City, where Mr. Hammond lived
for seventeen years, receives $500. John J. Jones,
manager of Mr. Hammond’s butterine company, gets
the shares in the American Butter, Cheese and Egg
Company that were owned by Mr. Hammond. Concerning
one of the bequests the will says:
During several days’ illness in Chicago I was
a patient in the Presbyterian Hospital, where
I was faithfully nursed by the trained nurses.
I desired to recognize the care I received at
their hands. I therefore give and bequeath to the
following members of the Illinois Training School
for Nurses: Nellie G. Burke, $500; Minnie C.
Phillips, $500; Jennie Van Horn, $1,500.
This illness occurred about six years ago, when
Mr. Hammond had typhoid fever. His physician, Dr.
Bauer, was with him at the time, and was also ill.
In making the bequests of from $500 to $100 to
thirty-seven employees, who include men and women
working both in the office and in the butterine
plant, and truck drivers as well, the will says
that they are remembered for their faithful
services to the corporation of Hammond & Person.
The will allows the executors five years in which
to make payment of all the legacies, and the
remainder of the property, real, personal and
mixed, is bequeathed “to the next of kin and their
survivors.” The relatives named are Robert A.
Hammond of New York, and Samuel A., Frederick D.
and Franklin A. Hammond of Pittsburg, brothers;
Josephine Block of Greensburg, Pa., and Anna Emma
Dell of Los Angeles, Cal., sisters; Paul Martin,
nephew, and Gladys Brown and Madeline Martin,
nieces, all of Pittsburg and children of Mr.
Hammond’s deceased sister, Sadie Martin.
The total cash bequests amount to $41,710, of which
$10,460 goes to the thirty-seven employees named
together.
Col. Robert A. Hammond, who was in Jersey City most
of the afternoon yesterday, said when he returned
to his office at 16 Broadway that he was acquainted
with the provisions of the will and had been at
Col. Ward’s office during the afternoon. He said he
was to see the will at 9 o’clock this morning, and
was not aware that it had been admitted to probate.
“No one has any cause for complaint over the
will,” said Col. Hammond. “It was just what might
have been expected from the fairest, smartest boy
that ever walked the face of God’s green earth. No
more generous chap ever lived than that boy, and if
he had not remembered his employees as he has done
it would have been most unlike him. His relatives
do not begrudge the money he has left to those he
chose to reward.
“There has never been the slightest break in the
cordial relationship between Walter and myself or
between him and any other member of the family. All
this talk that has come up since my brother’s death
is pure foolishness. I am the oldest and the head
of the family, and the relationship between Walter
and me has been almost that of father and son. I
gave him his first start in life when he was a boy.
I have never asked anything from him or from any
one else in my life and I do not ask it now.
“Walter was the pleasantest, sunniest boy you ever
knew. He did not sit at the right hand of Mr.
Parkhurst, but nothing ever came up to smirch his
record during his lifetime, and nothing will come
up now that he is dead.
“We are all sorry that our best brother was killed
and our thoughts are not on the provisions of his
will, but on seeing that the man who shot him down
without giving him a chance for his life is made
to suffer the full penalty of his act. My entire
time from now on will be devoted to that purpose.
There isn’t the slightest doubt that I will get my
brother’s murderer. I haven’t been wasting any time
since Walter’s death.
“I know that the man who murdered my brother has
been sleeping well every night and eating three
square meals a day. I don’t propose to permit
him to escape with an insanity plea. I have been
going over the testimony of seventeen witnesses
with the prosecutor and helping to get it into
shape. My experience in that line makes me of some
assistance, and I intend to see the prosecutor
every day if necessary, in order that full justice
may be done to my brother’s murder.”
(2)
_Chicago Evening Post_
Three Chicago nurses came into their reward to-day
for faithful services and devotion six years ago to
Walter H. Hammond, a wealthy butterine manufacturer
of Jersey City, who was shot dead on Nov. 17
in that city by Peter Grew, who had a fancied
grievance against him.
Under the terms of his will, which was filed
yesterday in Jersey City, $500 is bequeathed to
Miss Nellie G. Burke, 981 Carroll avenue, a like
sum to Miss Minnie C. Phillips, 14 Green Tree
street, and $1,500 to Miss Jennie Van Horn of
Chicago, who is now with a patient in Japan.
While in the city on a business trip six years ago,
Mr. Hammond was taken ill with typhoid fever at the
Annex. His physicians, Dr. J. B. Herrick and Dr.
Frank Billings, had difficulty in finding nurses
who suited the patient. At length Miss Burke was
sent for and placed in charge of the case, and she
selected for her assistants Miss Phillips and Miss
Van Horn.
“I remember Mr. Hammond very well and the
circumstances attending his illness,” said Miss
Burke to-day. “He was seriously ill and for a long
time it was a question as to his recovery. We made
every effort to save him and felt a keen personal
delight when we knew we had won. He had always, up
to the time of his death, remembered all of us,
sending us presents and flowers at the holidays and
in many ways showing his deep gratitude.
“We were notified by his secretary immediately
after his death, but until to-day we had no idea
that he had remembered us in his will. I had charge
of his case two months and then had to take another
patient. Miss Van Horn was with him five months
during his convalescence.”
In the little apartment at 14 Green Tree street
there was a sound of laughing and dancing feet.
Answering the ring of a visitor Miss Phillips
opened the door with such a smiling countenance as
to obliterate any memory of downcast skies.
“I have just heard of Mr. Hammond’s great
kindness,” she said. “Just think of $500; why it’s
a nest egg for a fortune! He has always done so
many nice things for us girls ever since we cared
for him, but to think of his remembering us in his
will! I was with him several months and we grew to
be great friends after the crisis of his illness
was past.
“He often came to Chicago, and frequently would
call us up on arriving and arrange for us all to
go to the theater, or to dinner. He was by far the
most grateful patient any of us has ever had.”
* * * * *
SUIT TO BREAK WILL
_New York Herald_
An effort to obtain approximately one-half of the
bequest of about $2,000,000, left to Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt for the promotion of the cause of
woman suffrage, by the late Baroness de Bazus,
who was Mrs. Frank Leslie, was begun in the
Supreme Court yesterday by two step-grandchildren
of the Baroness. They ask $400,000 each and
allege that $200,000 is due to each of two other
step-grandchildren.
The plaintiffs in the two actions, which are
brought through James H. Westcott, of No. 40 Wall
street, are Mrs. Lonetta Leslie Hollander and Mrs.
Florence Leslie Weissbrod. Both are grandchildren
of Frank Leslie by his first wife, Mrs. Sarah Ann
Welham Leslie. They allege that by an agreement
made between the Baroness and Frank Leslie December
1, 1879, she promised, in return for receiving his
entire estate, to distribute by her will two-thirds
of it among the children of his first wife or their
heirs. This agreement, they allege, she entirely
disregarded in the document which left the large
residuary estate to Mrs. Catt.
William Nelson Cromwell and Louis H. Cramer,
executors of the estate of the Baroness, are the
defendants in both actions.
Frank Leslie was born in 1821 and in 1854
established the publishing business which at one
time issued thirteen periodicals. In 1841 he
married Miss Sarah Ann Welham. There were three
children by the marriage, Frank Leslie, 2d; Alfred
A. Leslie and Scipio L. Leslie. Mrs. Hollander
is the only child of Scipio L. Leslie, who was
married in June, 1875, and died in February, 1879.
Mrs. Weissbrod is the only child of the late Frank
Leslie, 2d, who was married January 5, 1874. Alfred
A. Leslie, who was married in August, 1868, and
died in August, 1905, had two children, Frank
Leslie, 3d, and Arthur Leslie.
Following the death of his first wife, Frank Leslie
married the Baroness May 1, 1875. She was then Mrs.
Miriam Florence Peacock Squires. Her first husband
was David Peacock, her second Ephraim G. Squires.
There were no children by any of her marriages.
Before her marriage the Baroness had been employed
in the publishing business of Frank Leslie. She was
born in 1828 and entered his employ in 1860. Her
maiden name was Miriam Florence Follin.
Frank Leslie became financially involved about
September 8, 1877, according to the two complaints
now on file. It is alleged that he assigned the
greater part of his property March 20, 1879, to
Isaac W. England for the benefit of his creditors
under an agreement whereby he was to receive the
property back again in three years if the business
had succeeded in clearing all indebtedness. It is
said that the business did not clear the debts but
that Mr. Leslie died before the property could be
returned.
Mr. Leslie also agreed with his wife, it is said,
to leave his entire estate to her on the condition
that she would use the income and dispose of the
principal in her will as follows:--One-third in
any way she desired; one-third of the remaining
two-thirds to each of the three children of Frank
Leslie by his first wife or to their issue.
The complaints allege that the Baroness received
everything which she possessed from Frank Leslie,
who died leaving about $1,000,000. This was
increased by her to at least $1,800,000, it is
said. The plaintiffs do not ask that the agreement,
which is not produced in connection with the
complaint, be fulfilled. They seek instead
$400,000 each as damages and allege that $200,000
is due also to Frank Leslie, 3d and Arthur Leslie.
* * * * *
WILL
_Springfield Republican_
The bequest of a bit of the wool of Mary’s lamb to
the Somerville historical society in the will of
Mrs P. H. Derby, which was entered in the probate
court in this city yesterday, brings to light the
interesting information that the nursery jingle,
“Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as
snow,” had a basis in fact. The piece of wool in
question was given to Mrs Derby in 1880 by Mrs Mary
E. Tyler, the original of the little lamb jingle.
It is a piece of yarn tied in a bow and fastened
on a piece of paper with pale blue ribbon. Under
it is written the words, “wool from Mary’s lamb.”
It seems that when the Old South church of Boston
became involved financially one of the ways hit
upon to raise money was suggested by Mrs Tyler. She
took a pair of old wool stockings that her mother
had knit for her from the wool of her pet lamb,
and that she had never worn, but kept in memory of
the departed lamb. These were cut up into lengths
and made into bows, like the one that was in the
possession of Mrs Derby, and sold for 25 cents
each. The result was that $200 was realized, and
thus the little lamb helped to save the Old South
church.
The story of Mary and her lamb is authenticated and
the incidents bear a close relation to the events
of the poem, or rather, jingle. Mary E. Sawyer was
born in Sterling, March 22, 1806, and the house
in which she was born is still standing. She had
two sisters and four brothers, none of whom ever
had themselves immortalized in rhyme as Mary did.
Mary’s father was a farmer and kept sheep. One
cold morning in March, 1814, just about 100 years
ago and one year over, twin lambs were born in
the Sawyer sheepfold one of which was to be known
in nursery rhyme for time immemorial. Like all
geniuses, she--for it was a girl--displayed the
vagaries of it before she was many hours old. So
much so in fact that her mother would have nothing
of her. Little Mary, age eight, took pity on the
young thing and asked her father if she might have
it, not thinking of the greatness that would come
of this charitable deed. She fed and tended it, and
the two became very fond of one another.
It was but natural that the lamb should in time
come to have a thirst for knowledge, and, as the
first stanza of the jingle has it, “It followed
her to school one day,” “Which,” we are told, “was
against the rule,” and, as might be expected, “it
made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at
school.” It seems that the teacher laughed too, and
everything was lovely for a time. But discipline
had to be maintained, and:--
So then the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.
All of which is strictly true to fact. It appears
that when Mary arrived at the school the teacher
had not come yet and so the mischievous Mary hid
the pet in her desk, which was a box-like affair.
When school began and the children were called out
for their classes, the lamb trotted out to have a
hand in the proceedings. And this, alas, caused it
to be put without the pale.
Now it happened, so strange are the immutable
workings of fate, that a young man of 17, a
freshman at Harvard, by the name of John Roulstone,
Jr., was visiting the teacher at the school that
day. The incident inspired him, and a short time
after he wrote and sent to Mary the jingle that is
so well known. The ideal way to have the thing work
out would have been the marriage of Mary and the
budding genius. But no, he died a few years later,
never having seen Mary again, so far as there is
any record.
The strain of being a celebrity was too much for
the lamb and after bearing up bravely under it
for two years it gave up the struggle, got in the
way of a bull on Thanksgiving day, 1816, and was
gored. It died an hour later, with its head on
Mary’s lap.
In 1835 Mary was married to Columbus Tyler,
superintendent of the McClean hospital for the
insane at Somerville. She became a matron at the
institution, a position she held for 35 years, and
several years after her husband died. She died
in Somerville, December 12, 1889, and was buried
in the Mt Auburn cemetery, near Boston, the same
cemetery in which the poet, Longfellow, is buried.
The glowing example of what happened to Mary ought
to inspire little children to be kind to dumb
beasts that they too may some time taste the fruits
of immortality.
Besides the lamb’s wool bequest, Mrs Derby left
the following legacies to various charitable
institutions: Springfield branch of the woman’s
board of missions, $300; Norton memorial fund
of the same organization, $200; Congregational
women’s home mission society of Massachusetts,
$300; trustees of the national council of the
Congregational churches of the United States,
$3000, to be applied to ministerial relief;
Massachusetts society for the prevention of cruelty
to animals, $200. Certain books from Mrs Derby’s
library are bequeathed to the Springfield city
library association and the remainder of the estate
is to be divided equally between her two nephews,
Dr Edward C. Booth of Somerville and Harry D. Booth
of Albany, Ill. Charles A. Gleason is named as
executor without bond.
* * * * *
NOTE--_How the same piece of news may be treated in
different ways is illustrated in the following two
stories._
VALUE OF AN ESTATE
(1)
_Chicago Tribune_
Doubtless Michael Kennedy’s schooling never
progressed to the point where he reaped the
manifold intellectual bounties of McGuffy’s second
reader. That venerable text book explains school
ma’ams. Their purpose is to teach the young idea to
shoot, it says.
Consequently there were those who believed Michael
misguided when he opened up his shooting gallery
in a basement on North Clark street near West
Erie street. There Mike--for the consideration
of 5 cents for five shots--taught the young idea
marksmanship after a fashion of his own.
“Mike, the ne’er-do-well,” they called him for
years. But a smile was Mike’s only answer. He
went right on loading rifles for whoever came and
painting out the bullet marks on the white targets
in the gallery.
On May 23, 1913, Mike died. Public Administrator
James F. Bishop took charge of the estate, hoping
he would get enough out of it to bury the target
tender. Mr. Bishop was surprised when he found
that Mike, the “ne’er-do-well,” had a snug bank
account--some $400.
Another surprise came yesterday when Administrator
Bishop announced the result of his seventeen
months’ investigation into Mike’s affairs. It was
learned that the “ne’er-do-well” left a nephew in
Blackburne, Lancashire, England, named as his sole
heir. In a safety deposit vault Mike had $42,000
worth of bonds--the products of teaching the young
idea to shoot.
(2)
_Chicago Herald_
“Mike” was a shiftless guy. Any of the bunch would
tell you that. Of course he always had money. But
then, too, he was always giving it away. He’d lend
you anything he had if he knew you, and many’s the
“bo” who got the price of a bed from him.
Mike at one time was known as Michael Kennedy, but
that was not during the time he kept the shooting
gallery in North Clark street. He was a rough
fellow, and not very affable with strangers. But
he’d go a long way for a pal.
He had his place of business in a basement room.
He slept there, and entertained his friends there
when not busy loading rifles for his patrons. And
everybody said that he could have a good home if
he were not so shiftless.
Well, “Mike” died a year ago last May, and it was
found he had $400 in the bank. The county buried
him and charged $106.75 to his estate. The fellows
he had befriended went to the funeral and said “We
told you so.” But they agreed that Mike was a good
fellow.
Public Administrator James F. Bishop was appointed
to take care of the shooting gallery owner’s
estate. He started an investigation.
He discovered that Kennedy had a nephew in
Blackburne, Lancashire, England, and that
the shiftless, open-hearted, free-handed
“ne’er-do-well” had just a little over $42,000
worth of gilt-edged stocks and bonds in a safety
deposit vault in the Masonic Temple.
The amount was turned over to the nephew, James
Kennedy, yesterday.
CHAPTER VI
INVESTIGATIONS, LEGISLATION, AND MEETINGS
=Type of story.= News stories of various kinds of meetings
constitute a distinct class. In the term “meeting” are included
sessions of state legislatures, meetings of municipal councils,
conventions of various organizations, and meetings of local societies.
Investigations and hearings as conducted by committees of legislative
bodies are also placed in this class, although they are often more like
judicial proceedings.
The purely informative type of story is the common form for reporting
meetings, investigations, and hearings. The parts of the proceedings
that are of general interest and significance make up the contents
of such stories (cf. “State Legislature,” p. 116, and “Meeting of
Safety Council,” p. 120). In meetings of some importance are to be
found humorous or pathetic phases that may be brought out legitimately
to heighten the interest and to emphasize the significance of the
proceedings (cf. “Hearing on Proposed Ordinance,” p. 113, and
“Testimony in Investigation,” p. 110). Some meetings lend themselves to
humorous treatment, and when the news interest in them is slight, such
stories about them constitute typical human interest stories (cf. “Old
Clothes Men’s Meeting,” p. 122).
=Purpose.= To give the facts accurately and as completely as their
significance warrants should be the first aim in reporting proceedings
of official bodies, because, like court proceedings, they are matters
of public concern. The desire to accomplish some end, no matter how
laudable that end may be, does not justify distortion or suppression
of the news of the doings of official bodies. A constructive purpose,
such as that of exposing sinister influences that may be affecting
legislative action, is entirely justifiable, but distortion or
suppression of facts in order to make out a stronger case is not
legitimate and should not be necessary. Politically partisan news
stories that misrepresent public matters in order to create opinion
favorable to the cause that the paper upholds, whether they be reports
of official proceedings or of political campaign meetings, not only
hurt the reputation of the newspaper that publishes them but tend to
cast doubt on the truthfulness of newspapers generally.
Much more effort should be made by newspapers in this country to show
the significance of acts of representative public bodies, in relation
not only to the home and business interests of the individual reader,
but to the welfare of the community, the state, and the nation.
Intelligent interest in government on the part of the individual
citizen, which is generally recognized as absolutely essential to the
success of a democracy, can be more effectively created through the
news columns of the daily newspaper than by any other means.
=Treatment.= To make interesting what is often considered dry
and unattractive in proceedings of various public meetings, is the
chief problem in writing news stories concerning them. Simple, clear
explanation of the meaning of significant parts of the proceedings,
lively accounts of debate on various measures, and vivid description
of persons and scenes connected with them--all add to the interest of
the stories. Too often, however, insignificant incidents of casual
interest are played up as features of meetings of importance to the
subordination or even to the exclusion of matters of vital concern.
Testimony in investigations and hearings sometimes has dramatic phases
like that in court trials. The questions and the answers in these
proceedings are handled like those in court stories, and testimony is
dealt with in much the same manner (cf. “Congressional Investigation,”
p. 109 and “Testimony in Investigation,” p. 110).
To select the vital matters, to present them concisely, and to condense
routine but necessary details into the smallest possible compass in
stories of this class, require effort and skill.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following two stories give
the results of the first two days’ work in the
investigation of conditions growing out of a coal
strike. Both were sent by the Associated Press._
CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION
(1)
_Chicago Inter Ocean_
CHARLESTON, W. Va., June 10.--The power and
authority of the government of the United States
came to West Virginia today to determine who is
responsible for the conditions which have kept the
state in virtual civil war for more than a year.
Opening the investigation of the coal mine strike,
which has dealt death and destruction in the Paint
Creek and Cabin Creek mining sections, the Senate
mine strike investigating committee tonight called
upon the military authorities for the records of
the proceedings prior to, and under the declaration
of, martial law in the strike territory.
Judge Advocate General George S. Wallace, Adjutant
General Charles D. Elliott, Major James I. Pratt,
Captain Charles R. Morgan and Captain Samuel L.
Walker were summoned before the committee this
evening, to produce the state records regarding
the declaration of martial law and the proceedings
of the military committee which was placed in
authority in the strike district.
Senator Borah of Idaho desired their testimony and
their records as a basis for the branch of the
inquiry which he is conducting, as to the charge
that citizens have been “arrested, tried and
convicted in violation of the Constitution or the
law of the United States.”
Opening his case under the section of the Senate
resolution authorizing the investigation which
directs an inquiry into this subject, Senator
Borah, at a brief session of the committee this
afternoon, read into the record several excerpts
from the constitution of West Virginia. The first
was the provision declaring that the constitution
of the state and of the United States shall always
be in effect. The second provision declared, under
no circumstances shall the right of habeas corpus
be denied.
The third was the usual provision that no citizen
shall be deprived of life, liberty or property
without due process of law. The fourth set forth
that the military authority shall not supersede the
civil powers, even under the plea of necessity, and
others provided for trial by jury in open court for
all criminal offenses.
The activities of the state authorities in
connection with the strike will be probed by
the committee, in view of these constitutional
guarantees, and the charge that the mine workers
have not been accorded their full rights will be
investigated with these provisions in mind.
A formidable array of counsel was on hand. For the
miners there appeared Frank S. Monnet, formerly
attorney general of Ohio, Seymour Stedman of
Illinois, and M. M. Belcher and H. W. Houston. The
operators were represented by Z. T. Vinson, E.
W. Knight and C. C. Watts, with a half score of
assistants.
Two lengthy preliminary statements were filed with
the committee by the attorneys for the operators.
The first was filed by Mr. Vinson for the operators
generally, and the second by Mr. Watts for the
Paint Creek Collieries company. Both were pleas of
“not guilty” and both denied in detail and in toto
the charges made in the resolution passed by the
Senate authorizing the inquiry.
The operators in their brief made the counter
charge that the United Mine Workers of America,
in its attempts “to organize” the coal miners in
the West Virginia field, was responsible for the
violence which has characterized the strike.
The operators declared they expect to prove that
firearms and ammunition were brought into the state
“for acts of lawlessness and violence, which were
designed to keep the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek
mines idle and prevent shipments of coal therefrom
until the United Mine Workers of America should be
recognized.”
The statement presented by the Paint Creek
Collieries company made similar denials and similar
charges.
Former Governor Glasscock, who was Governor when
the strike began and who declared martial law in
the district, will appear before the committee
on Thursday. He sent a telegram to the committee
today offering to testify, and at the suggestion
of Senator Borah it was arranged to examine him on
Thursday.
* * * * *
(2)
_Chicago Inter Ocean_
CHARLESTON, W. Va., June 11.--War time rule in the
coal strike regions of West Virginia was described
before the Senate mine investigating committee
here today, and after three military officers had
told of conditions, the committee expressed itself
as satisfied as to the charge that “the citizens
of West Virginia had been tried and convicted in
violation of the Constitution and laws of the
United States.”
Two members of the military committee, which
at three different times have assumed absolute
dominion over some 150 square miles of West
Virginia territory, testified. They were Captain
Charles R. Morgan, a lawyer, and Major James I.
Pratt, who was president of the second military
court which took charge of the strike district.
Both told the committee that their proceedings
were conducted without regard to the civil laws
of the state; that they arrested, arraigned,
tried, convicted and sentenced offenders without
recourse to civil courts and without regard to
the limitations imposed by the statutes of West
Virginia.
“We considered that the strike district was in a
state of actual warfare,” said Captain Morgan, “and
we acted according to the procedure of the United
States Army in time of war.”
“But the constitution of the state provides,”
interjected Attorney Monnet, for the miners, “that
the military shall be subordinate to the civil
power, and that no citizen, unless engaged in
military service of the state, shall be tried or
punished for any offense that is cognizable by the
civil courts of the state.”
“My understanding was,” replied Captain Morgan,
“that during the state of insurrection which
prevailed, the constitution of the state of West
Virginia was suspended by the acts of those men who
were burning, killing and destroying property.
“We believed that to perpetuate the state of West
Virginia and restore the constitution was to use
extreme measures.”
A dozen pictures of men clad in prison clothing
were identified by Major Pratt as those of men who
had been sentenced by the military commission. One
man was given a sentence of seven and a half years;
several others were given three, four and five year
terms.
“Was there any indictment against these men?” asked
Senator Borah.
“No,” answered Major Pratt; “they were arraigned on
charges prepared by the judge advocate general.”
Senator Borah elicited that Captain Morgan, as a
lawyer, believed that there was no appeal from the
decision of the commission, if approved by the
Governor, except to the Supreme court of the United
States.
“Then a man did not have to commit a statutory
offense to make himself amenable to the action of
your commission?” asked Attorney Monnet.
“No.”
“You could arraign him for anything that in your
estimation was an offense?”
“Yes, except that the Governor’s proclamation
specified statutory offenses.”
Senator Martine ascertained that after the
commission had heard the testimony in a case it
went into secret session, executed sealed findings
after the manner of a verdict, and sent them to the
Governor. It was developed that forty-nine accused
men were tried at one time by the commission.
“There was no opportunity given a man to secure a
new trial, or bail, no possibility of a stay of
execution; your decision was final,” suggested Mr.
Monnet.
“Yes.”
“If you had sentenced a man to death, there was no
way of stopping the execution?” asked Senator Borah.
“We did not contemplate imposing death sentences,”
replied the witness.
Adjutant General Charles D. Elliott occupied the
morning session and part of the afternoon session.
Tonight Senator Borah took up witnesses produced
by the Mine Workers to testify as to charges that
peonage obtains in the Paint and Cabin creeks
sections. A hundred brawny miners came in from the
hills today, and the attorneys for the Mine Workers
weeded out the witnesses they wanted to call.
Following today’s speedy work, the committee
decided to divide up the inquiry tomorrow, allowing
Senator Borah to proceed alone with the peonage
investigation, and probably requiring Senator
Kenyon to begin an individual inquiry into general
conditions in the strike zone, while the remainder
of the committee take up other branches of the
inquiry.
* * * * *
TESTIMONY IN INVESTIGATION
_Milwaukee Free Press_
NEW YORK, Feb. 3.--Mrs. Mary Petrucci, a coal
miner’s wife, today told the federal industrial
commission how her three small children met death
at her side in the Ludlow strike massacre of 1914.
Women wept and tense faced men bent forward
eagerly, as the bareheaded, black clad woman, in
low, passive tones, reflecting the deep melancholy
of her face, recited the dramatic events of the
night of April 20, when fire and machine guns swept
the strikers’ camp in the southern Colorado hills,
collecting a toll of twelve children, two women
and five men. It was a remarkable recital and a
memorable scene.
Mrs. Petrucci is 24 years old. She was born of
Italian parents in a Colorado mining camp. She was
married at the age of 16 and had four children when
the strike of the Colorado Fuel & Iron company
employes was declared in 1913. She lost one child
in March of the following year as a result of
privations occasioned by the strike. With the grief
of that loss still upon her she went to live in the
tent colony at Ludlow after the strikers had been
driven from the company settlement. There the final
tragedy of her life was enacted.
She took the witness stand today with listless
manner and haunted eyes. Throughout her testimony
she alternately bit at her finger nails and twisted
in her frail hands a cotton handkerchief.
Her sweet voice at no time rose above a
conversational tone, and the matter of fact manner
in which she told the story of her grief served
only to bring out with more striking force its
tragic import.
“Yes,” she said in answer to Chairman Walsh’s
questions, “we had good times in the tent colony.
I liked it there better than in the company camp.
Over there the militia came up every day and
insulted us. The Sunday before the fire was the
Greek Easter. The men in the camp celebrated it.
We had a baseball game, and that night there was
singing, and the boys came with banjos and we had a
good time.”
Into this background of merriment she fitted the
picture of the woe that followed.
“April 20 I didn’t leave our tent at all,” she
said. “Our tent was No. 1, and right behind it was
the maternity tent. A cellar had been dug in that
tent and there several babies were born while we
lived in the colony. We also had a cellar in our
tent. It was about 6 o’clock that night. I was
down in the cellar and smelled a fire. The children
were playing around. I went up and discovered that
the tent was all on fire. I seized my children, and
taking one in my arms, I got another by the hand,
and the other one took hold of my skirt and we ran
out of the tent.
“When I ran out I saw a lot of the militiamen
around. They hollered to me to look out and were
shooting at me as I ran. As quick as I could I ran
into the maternity tent and down the steps into the
cellar.”
“You are sure you saw the militiamen,” asked Mr.
Walsh.
“Oh yes, sir,” replied the witness. “They were
about twenty-five yards away.”
“And could they see you?”
“I saw them. And they hollered at me; yes, sir.”
She looked at Walsh with frightened eyes as if
recalling in her mind the scene of the night and
continued:
“There was a door down to the cellar inside the
tent and there were earth steps. The door was left
open as I went down, and I don’t know how it came
to be closed later. When I got down in the cellar
there were three women and eight children there. I
knew them all. I had my baby in my arms. It was six
months old. The others were close to me and my boy
had hold of my dress.”
Twirling the handkerchief in her hands, the woman
looked over at Mr. Walsh and in a voice from which
all emotion seemed to have been drained, she said:
“He would have been 5 years old yesterday--my boy.”
“You lost all three of your children there?” said
Walsh.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, soft and low. “I lost them
that night.”
And again she twisted the handkerchief into a knot.
A woman on the front row of benches sobbed audibly.
A shuffling of feet and the deep breathing of the
spectators swept over the room. Mrs. Petrucci gazed
dully at her questioner.
“We were in the cellar about ten minutes,” she
said, “when the tent over our head took fire. I
don’t know how it started. It was not on fire
when I went in. Pretty soon after that we all lost
consciousness.”
“But before that,” asked Walsh, “didn’t you try to
escape?”
“It was all on fire over our heads,” replied the
woman simply.
“Did you do anything to save your children?”
“What could I? Oh, yes. There was a woman there
with a blanket. I asked her to share it with me
for my babies; one was 6 months, you know, and the
other 2½ years, and my boy 4. She told me it was
only big enough for herself.”
Mrs. Petrucci sighed. It was the only display
of emotion she made during the recital. That
blanket--a corner of it might have saved one of the
babies from the suffocation that quickly overtook
all there. She sighed at the recollection.
“The next I knew,” she continued plaintively, “was
when I woke up at 5 the next morning. I ran out
for water for my babies. They were lying there. I
thought water would help them. I did not know what
I was doing. I felt like I was drunk. Outside I saw
guards walking down the railroad tracks. They were
laughing. I kept turning back all the time. I was
afraid they would shoot me.”
Again the frightened look came into her dark
ringed, black eyes. A score of women in the
audience were weeping now. Save for their smothered
sighs the room was in absolute silence. The
clanging of a bell on one of the lower floors of
the Metropolitan building rang out like a funeral
note.
“I went to the railroad station,” said Mrs.
Petrucci. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I asked
Mrs. Horning to go look for my babies. She said she
could not find them. Someone bought me a ticket
for Trinidad. I was in bed there nine days with
pneumonia. I did not see my children again.”
A woman on the front row groaned and Mrs. Petrucci
looked down at her with dazed eyes.
“Don’t you know how the fire started?” asked
Commissioner Weinstock.
“No, sir; the beginning of the fire was in my tent.
It was about 6 o’clock. It was still light. It
started outside.”
“But when you went out didn’t you see anyone?”
“No, sir, only the militiamen.”
For a full two minutes the commissioners gazed
silently at the woman. Then finally Weinstock asked:
“When you went to the railroad station what did you
think had become of your children?”
“I wasn’t thinking of anything,” replied Mrs.
Petrucci, clasping her handkerchief to her breast.
Mother Jones took the woman in her arms as she
stepped from the stand and led her away.
Andrew Carnegie will probably be called on Friday.
* * * * *
HEARING ON CITY ORDINANCE
_New York Herald_
If there is any general opposition to an ordinance
to guard the public against the nuisance of smoking
automobiles, it failed to develop at a public
hearing in the matter held yesterday afternoon by
the Committee on Laws and Legislation of the Board
of Aldermen. One man appeared when opponents of
the bill were asked to express their views, but he
admitted that the ordinance would be a good thing
if operative only in Manhattan.
He was Herbert G. Andrews, of the Committee on
Laws and Legislation of the Long Island Automobile
Club. He said the club favored the abatement of
the nuisance, but would like to have the ordinance
altered in certain respects.
In the form introduced by Alderman Nicoll the
ordinance is identically the same as one now in
force prohibiting smoking automobiles in the parks.
It says that “no person shall run a motor vehicle
in the streets and highways of the city of New York
which emits from the exhaust or muffler thereof
offensive quantities of smoke, gas or disagreeable
odors,” and that “any violation of the provisions
of this ordinance shall be deemed a minor offence
and, upon conviction thereof before a city
magistrate, shall be punished by a fine of not more
than $10 or by imprisonment in the City Prison, or
by both; but no such imprisonment, however, shall
exceed a term of five days.”
Mr. Andrews suggested that the word “offensive”
be changed to “excessive” and that the fine be
graduated--slight for the first offence and heavier
for subsequent offences.
William H. Palmer, of the New York Transportation
Company, a taxicab concern, said that it would be
easier to determine the offence if the ordinance
made some reference to the distance at which smoke
extending from an automobile was unlawful.
In support of the bill there appeared many persons,
including two women. Alderman Nicoll said that
smoking automobiles were the cause of a great blue
haze often to be found at places such as Columbus
Circle and Forty-second street and Fifth avenue.
The smoke penetrated stores, he said, and made it
necessary for merchants to keep their doors and
windows closed to protect their goods.
The alderman told of riding in a taxicab from
Cortlandt street to Fiftieth street on Thursday
afternoon and of passing one hundred and sixty-four
automobiles, of which, he said, thirty were smoking.
Paris, London and Berlin have laws prohibiting the
emission of smoke from automobiles, he said, and
the law in force in Paris is even more drastic than
his ordinance.
Dr. Holbrook Curtis corroborated Mr. Nicoll in his
claim that smoke had a bad effect on the health
of the people who inhaled the fumes. He said it
was especially injurious to persons suffering from
gastritis.
Mrs. John Rogers, as chairman of the Hygiene
Committee of the New York City Federation of
Women’s Clubs, pleaded for the passage of the
ordinance for the sake of little children, whose
noses and eyes were affected by the smoke, she
said. Mrs. Katherine S. Day, of the Women’s
Municipal League, also urged the passage of the
measure.
Others who spoke in favor of the measure were
Charles J. Campbell, counsel for the Hotel
Association of the City of New York; Frederick G.
Cook, president of the Fifth Avenue Association;
John C. Coleman, of the West End Association, and
William Kirkpatrick.
Mr. Coleman said that on the upper west side
chauffeurs often vie with one another to see how
much smoke they can emit and how much noise they
can make.
The claim was made that the emission of smoke
could be prevented without difficulty, and nobody
contradicted the statement. Taxicabs were said to
be the worst offenders.
* * * * *
HEARING ON PROPOSED ORDINANCE
_New York Times_
Nearly 500 persons living in New York who raise
chickens on their fire escapes, in their backyards,
or on vacant lots, for eating purposes or for their
eggs, went by invitation to the offices of the
Department of Health yesterday afternoon and made
a mighty protest against the proposed ordinance to
prohibit the raising of hens within seventy-five
feet of the nearest residence or public building,
and the keeping of roosters anywhere.
Their complaints against the hardships of the
regulations under consideration were heard with
great patience by Dr. Haven Emerson, Deputy
Commissioner of Health, in charge of the Sanitary
Bureau. Dr. Emerson had difficulty in keeping order
at the meeting, because all the chicken owners were
disposed to talk at once. On this account, too,
many of those who probably had good arguments to
use against the tentative ordinance were unable to
get a hearing.
The lecture room on the fifth floor of the
Department of Health Building was packed with
chicken owners long before 4 o’clock, when the
meeting was called to order by Dr. Emerson. The
gathering was composed of every kind of chicken
raiser, from the head of a family which kept
just two pullets for their eggs, to the fancier
who boasted of the finest breed of fowl in large
numbers. Seated on either side of Dr. Emerson
were several members of his staff, including Dr.
John Barry, Assistant Sanitary Superintendent of
Queens, and Dr. John Sprague, Assistant Sanitary
Superintendent of Richmond.
The meeting was opened by Dr. Emerson, who
explained that the Sanitary Bureau had received
more than 14,000 complaints on account of chickens
since the first of the year. Furthermore, he
asserted that inspectors were occupied one-third of
their time investigating applications for permits
to keep chickens, or complaints about them. He then
started to read some of the hundreds of letters of
complaint on the subject of chickens, when one of
the owners interrupted:
“I don’t think it’s fair to take up our time with
letters of complaint, because we already know
what’s in them. We want to find out what’s the
best the Department of Health can do for chicken
raisers.”
A member of a delegation from Sheepshead Bay said
that the proposed seventy-five-foot limit would
entirely wipe out chicken raising in his section,
and he believed it would have the same effect in
other suburban districts. He said:
“I have a plot 100 by 100 feet, and my house
is constructed so that it would be impossible
for me to keep chickens in accordance with the
seventy-five-foot limit. The average suburbanite
lives on a plot 50 by 100 feet.”
The suggestion that the new limit would practically
eliminate the chicken industry from this city,
brought forth a chorus of groans not unlike that
of Sing Sing when a convict is led from the death
house to the electric chair.
Dr. Emerson was the target for a score of different
questions from every part of the room, and, as the
best way out of the difficulty, he asked all who
had killed chickens on their plots to raise their
hands.
“Don’t you do it; you’ll be fined,” was the warning
shouted by one of the chicken owners, and this was
the signal for another series of groans.
It took the Deputy Health Commissioner some little
time to restore order and to explain to the men
and women that no police officers were present
to start proceedings against offenders of the
anti-chicken-slaughtering regulations.
One of the chicken raisers pointed out that the
law was absurd in that it said that a chicken coop
could not be kept within seventy-five feet of a
factory.
“Is a chicken going to harm a factory?” he asked.
Dr. Emerson then tried to tell the complaining
chicken owners that milk-bottling works, on
the sanitation of which depended the lives of
thousands of babies, were among the “factories”
protected by the regulation. He also said that
there was no intent in the seventy-five-foot limit
to discriminate against chicken owners any more
than there was to discriminate against saloons,
which are required to be 200 feet removed from the
nearest church or school. Here he was interrupted:
“You see a lot of drunken men coming out of
saloons, but you never see a drunken chicken coming
out of a chicken coop.”
When Dr. Emerson asserted that 150,000 chickens
were slaughtered in New York City every year in
violation of the law regulating slaughter houses,
several men and women jumped to their feet. All at
once the men protested:
“But we slaughter them in a more sanitary way than
the licensed slaughter houses.”
When this period of excitement had somewhat
subsided, a little woman arose quietly and, on the
ground that she kept two chickens for their eggs,
protested against further reference to the killing
of fowls as “slaughter.”
J. Howland Leavitt, Superintendent of Highways
of Queens, endeavored to calm the chicken owners
by assuring them that it must be the idea of the
Department of Health to improve bad conditions
without being too strict with those persons who
complied with the health regulations.
“For instance,” said Supt. Leavitt, “I keep
chickens within sixty-five feet of a school house.
They do not disturb any of my neighbors, and there
has never been any complaint about them, to my
knowledge.”
“Have you ever received a permit to keep those
chickens?” asked Dr. Emerson.
“No,” replied Mr. Leavitt, and the chicken owners
were forced to laugh--for the first time.
On behalf of citizens of Queens and Richmond
Boroughs in their districts, Aldermen Burden of
Flushing and O’Rourke of Richmond made certain
objections to the proposed ordinance. Alderman
Burden said his constituents were satisfied with
the present law, and only asked for adequate
inspection. Alderman O’Rourke said it would be more
in keeping with the Mayor’s policy to apply home
rule to chickens and leave each Assistant Sanitary
Superintendent with jurisdiction in his borough.
The fears of the chicken raisers were somewhat
allayed when Commissioner Emerson read a letter
from one of their number suggesting a few
modifications to the proposed ordinance. He took a
vote on the suggestions and the majority indorsed
them.
Before the meeting was closed the chicken owners
voted their thanks to Dr. Emerson for his patience
in hearing their complaints.
* * * * *
HEARING BEFORE COMMITTEE
_Chicago Herald_
Are women less brave than men in time of danger?
J. C. McDonnell, chief of the fire prevention
bureau, precipitated the second chapter in the
controversy yesterday when he appeared before
the judiciary committee of the city council and
reiterated his contention that public safety
demanded the substitution of men for women ushers
in Chicago theaters.
“Women ushers are not as brave as men when danger
comes,” he argued.
“Experience has proved that statement purely
theoretical and absolutely untrue,” responded the
managers of playhouses which employ girl ushers.
“Women ushers are all right to hand out programs
and show patrons to seats, but that is all,” the
fire prevention chief remarked.
And thereby Armageddon was set down in the midst of
the theatrical world.
The first strategic move of the opposing
forces--the girl ushers of Chicago-consisted in the
organization of an effective fighting machine.
“The Girl Ushers’ Anti-McDonnell League” it is
called--and the name conceals little of the
organization’s plans of procedure.
“Our work is to us what other kinds of work are to
other girls--our means of earning a livelihood,”
said Miss Marie Donlan of the Princess Theater,
chairman of the league. “To the assistant fire
chief the change from women ushers to men would
mean only the vindication of an idea. To us it
would mean the loss of our positions.”
The campaign contemplated by the league has no
place in it for consideration of the feelings of
the fire prevention head.
“We shall ignore him with pleasure,” volunteered
Miss Blanche Lamb, head usher of the Garrick.
Here is the plan worked out by the members of the
league’s impromptu war council: A petition will
be prepared and presented to Mayor Harrison by
a committee selected from the membership of the
league. The petition will recite actual instances
in which girls have proved their bravery “under
fire.”
New friends sprang to the defense of the young
women at the council committee meeting. They were
Aldermen Coughlin and Dempsey. The former cited the
instance of the Iroquois Theater fire, when “men
ushers failed to prevent terrible loss of life.”
Alderman Dempsey said it would be wrong “to throw
so many girls out of employment.”
Girl ushers active in the new league include the
Misses Eleanor Cline and Gertrude White of the
Princess Theater, the Misses Lucile Perkins and
Blanche Lamb of the Garrick, and the Misses T.
Crowley, D. Dennis and G. Kennedy of Powers’.
The council judiciary committee voted to defer
action until after the managers of the theaters had
been given an opportunity to be heard.
Meanwhile--who are braver, girls or boys?
Theatrical managers say girls.
Assistant Chief McDonnell says boys.
And you--?
* * * * *
STATE LEGISLATURE
_St. Louis Post-Dispatch_
JEFFERSON CITY, Jan. 21--Opposition of Democratic
politicians in St. Louis to a reform of the Justice
of the Peace system in the city developed in the
House yesterday over a bill modeled along the lines
of the Municipal Courts bill, which has three times
been killed through the influence of politicians
who sought to perpetuate the present system in the
minor courts of St. Louis.
William R. Handy, Democratic member from the
Third District in St. Louis, yesterday succeeded
in keeping the Justice of the Peace bill in the
Committee on Municipal Corporations after the House
had voted to request that committee to return the
bill that it might be referred to the Committee on
Justices of the Peace, to which it properly belongs.
Handy is a member of the Municipal Corporations
Committee, and with the bill in that committee, it
is always under his eye, and he is in a position to
have a voice in determining whether it shall ever
be reported. Through many sessions Handy has fought
to kill the municipal courts bill.
The Justices of the Peace bill was introduced by
John C. Harrison of St. Louis. Harrison is a lawyer
and a former Justice of the Peace.
His bill provides that Justices of the Peace shall
be elected at large in St. Louis and that each
shall have jurisdiction throughout the city. It
places each Justice on a salary of $3000 a year and
provides for a reduction in the number of Justices
from 11 to 7. Each Justice, the bill provides, must
be a licensed attorney.
One clerk is provided for, to be elected by the
Justices. There are to be such deputy clerks as
are required. One Constable is provided for in the
bill, his salary to be $2500 a year. Deputy clerks
and Constables shall be paid $1800 a year each. In
addition to his salary, the Constable is allowed
2½ per cent of all amounts collected by him on
execution.
The bill does not require that all the justice
courts shall be in one building, but provides that
the Board of Aldermen shall provide suitable rooms
and offices, which shall be centrally located.
The bill is opposed by ward politicians, as was
the Municipal Courts bill in previous sessions,
for the reason that it would abolish many jobs
of Constables and would break up the political
organizations in the Justice of the Peace districts
in St. Louis.
Democrats are opposing it on the additional ground
that under the present system the Democrats are
able to elect some Justices and Constables, and
they fear that, if such officers were elected at
large, the Republicans would win all the jobs.
The controlling motive of the opposition, however,
is the danger of breaking up the organizations
through which political bosses are able to reward
faithful henchmen or get jobs for themselves.
The requirement that a Justice must be a practicing
attorney would end the present system, practiced
in many of the districts in St. Louis, of ward
politicians having themselves elected Justices of
the Peace.
Harrison’s bill was introduced a week ago. It
was referred by Speaker Ross to the Municipal
Corporations Committee, of which Handy is a member.
Yesterday Harrison requested that it be taken
from that committee and sent to the Committee on
Justices of the Peace, of which he is a member.
Handy objected. He said that he was opposed to
having the bill in Harrison’s committee. Speaker
Ross said that it was customary to refer a bill to
any committee the member introducing it desired,
but Representative James J. Blain made the point
that Ross had no power to take the bill out of the
Municipal Corporations Committee.
Harrison then offered a motion that the committee
be instructed to return the bill to the House.
Blain objected to the form of the motion. He
said that the committee should be requested, not
instructed. Harrison changed his motion.
The Municipal Corporations Committee met yesterday
afternoon. Handy was present. The committee voted
to refuse the request of the House and to retain
possession of the bill. The only Democrats on
the committee voting to return the bill were
Representatives White of Cole County and O’Brien of
Wayne County.
Harrison said this morning that he would renew his
motion and that he would ask that the House order
the Municipal Corporations Committee to return the
bill.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The second of the next two stories
follows up the news of the introduction of an
ordinance given in the first story._
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
(1)
_Philadelphia Ledger_
(Condensed)
Authority for the immediate erection of a two-track
elevated railway from Front and Arch streets
to Rhawn street, Holmesburg, is granted in an
ordinance introduced in Common Council yesterday by
Peter E. Costello, of the 45th Ward.
Asserting that he had introduced the bill upon his
own volition, Mr. Costello said that he did not
even know whether it embraced the recommendations
made by Director of City Transit Taylor for such
a road. The people in the northeast want it, he
said, and are certain that it will be a paying
proposition. Republican Organization leaders are
understood to be behind the measure. The bill
relegates Director Taylor to second place in
approval of the plans for the project. It provides
that work shall be started within six months after
the plans have been approved by the “Departments of
Public Works and of City Transit.”
Attention was called to the fact that the Costello
ordinance, by clearing the way for the Philadelphia
Rapid Transit to accept a Northeast “L” proposition
by itself, might seriously hamper the projects of
Director Taylor by eliminating one of the main
features in the Taylor plans, which contemplate
the new high-speed system as a unit. The deep
significance of the ordinance, councilmanic
observers said, lay in this fact.
In accordance with the agreement between the city
and the Rapid Transit Company, the latter has first
refusal of the franchise. If within 90 days after
passage of the ordinance that company does not
indicate acceptance or rejection, the Mayor shall,
by public advertisement, request tenders for the
construction of the elevated and report the same
to Councils, “to the end that the said new company
or the city of Philadelphia may proceed with the
construction of the same.”
The company submitting the successful tender is
given six months within which to present complete
plans for approval to the Departments of Public
Works and of City Transit. Within six months after
approval of such plans actual work of construction
must be started.
In consideration of the franchise the company is
to pay to the city 10 per cent. of its net profits
in cash before any dividends are paid. The rate of
fare is not to exceed 5 cents for a continuous ride.
The road throughout is to have an overhead
clearance of 14 feet above street grades. From
Front and Arch streets to Frankford, the Costello
route is declared to be the same as that laid down
by Director Taylor.
As provided in the ordinance, the route of the
road is to be from Front and Arch streets, along
Front street to Kensington avenue, along Kensington
avenue to Frankford avenue, along Frankford avenue
to Rhawn street.
Stations are to be established at Front and Arch
streets, at Noble street, Girard avenue and Berks
street; along Kensington avenue between Somerset
and Cambria streets, between Allegheny avenue and
Westmoreland street and at or near Tioga and Adams
streets; along Frankford avenue at Unity, Arrott,
Bridge, Comly, Tyson and Rhawn streets.
The road is to be operated by electricity or any
power other than steam. The ordinance was referred
to the Committee on Street Railways, of which
Charles Seger is chairman and Mr. Costello a member.
The announcement that an ordinance had been
introduced for the construction of the Frankford
elevated was a complete surprise to Director
of Transit Taylor. He so told the audience he
addressed last night at a mass-meeting in Tioga. He
refused to discuss the matter at any length.
“After I carefully study that ordinance,” he said,
“and learn more about it, I will make a public
statement. That will be tomorrow afternoon.”
A resolution introduced by Select Councilman Harry
J. Trainer, to grant permission for the use of the
south side of Pier 16, South, for loading supplies
by the American Commission for Relief in Belgium,
was passed.
An ordinance for a “curb market” on Marshall
street, between Brown and Parrish streets, also was
passed.
A resolution providing for the extension of the
Greenmount Cemetery, which recently passed Common
Council, was objected to by William R. Rieber and,
on motion of Louis Hutt, of the 29th Ward, was laid
on the table.
A resolution was passed providing for the extension
of Fairmount Park by the addition of a plot of
ground at Rittenhouse street and Wissahickon avenue.
Resolutions were introduced providing for the
appropriation of $26,000 for a bridge on Sherwood
avenue over the east branch of Indian Run; for
the opening of Beulah street from Shunk street to
Oregon avenue, and Charles street from Bridge to
Harrison streets; for an appropriation of $6500 for
the improvement of Connell Park; for the opening
of a playground and recreation centre between
Frankford and Erie avenues, Venango street and
the Pennsylvania railroad; and for $12,000 for the
purchase of a Delaware wharf property on the south
side of Pine street.
A communication was received from the East
Germantown Improvement Association, calling
attention to the dangerous condition existing
along York road by reason of the absence of
properly paved sidewalks, and urging better police
protection. A letter also was received from Judge
Barratt, urging that the Sons of the Revolution be
permitted to erect a bronze tablet to the memory of
John Nixon in Independence Square.
A plea also was received from the Mutual Beneficial
and Protective Association of the Bureau of Water,
requesting a 15 per cent. increase in salaries for
employes now getting $1400 a year or less.
Select Councilman George T. Conrade, of the 5th
Ward, introduced a resolution granting the use of
Washington Square for the proposed “mongrel” or
“yellow dog” show, to be held on December 19.
(2)
_Philadelphia Ledger_
(Abridged)
Opposition to Councilman Peter E. Costello’s
ordinance proposing the early construction of
an elevated railroad to Frankford, with the
Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company receiving first
preference as a building and operating company,
was sounded yesterday by prominent councilmanic
leaders, Republican Organization colleagues of Mr.
Costello.
In a joint statement setting forth that they had no
knowledge of the Costello ordinance previous to its
introduction last Thursday, Charles Seger, chairman
of Councils’ Joint Committee on Street Railways,
and John P. Connelly, chairman of Councils’ Finance
Committee, declared themselves opposed to any
ordinance which does not embrace transit facilities
“on a broad basis” for the entire city.
At the same time Director of City Transit A.
Merritt Taylor, after an analysis of the Costello
bill, issued a statement declaring that the
passage of such an ordinance would be “an
unthinkable betrayal of a public trust,” in that it
would serve to defeat the plan of the department
to connect every important section of the city
with every other important section by high-speed
lines for a single 5-cent fare. To hand over to
any corporation at this juncture the Frankford
“L,” said Director Taylor, would be to “give away
the most effective lever which the people have to
secure adequate rapid transit for Philadelphia.”
Protest against the Costello plan was forthcoming
from many sections of the city in letters, in
telephone messages and in visits to Director Taylor
from delegations of citizens. The Philadelphia Navy
Yard led the way by sending a delegation, headed
by G. H. Williams, chairman of the League Island
Improvement Association, who declared against a
“one-legged proposition of any kind” and in favor
of transit development for all Philadelphia.
This delegation pointed out that Costello’s bill
contained no provision for transfers from the
Frankford “L” and Market street “L” to Navy Yard
lines, making necessary two 5-cent fares rather
than the single 5-cent fare proposed under the
Taylor plan.
Adherents of the Taylor plan pointed out that the
Costello ordinance provided for extension of the
Frankford elevated from Bridge street, Frankford,
the northern terminal of the Taylor elevated,
to Rhawn street, in Holmesburg. This, it was
pointed out, was a projection three miles long
through an undeveloped territory, which, however,
contains choice building lots now held by realty
corporations and private owners.
In the face of all the protest, Councilman Costello
announced that Frankford, with one-third of the
entire population of the city, was entitled to
first consideration in transit development, and
that it had been trying to get better facilities
for 25 years. He said he was not considering the
needs of Darby, Logan or any other section of the
city. He did not care whether the Rapid Transit
Company or an independent concern built and
operated the line. Further, he had consulted no
one in drafting his ordinance.
* * * * *
MEDICAL CONVENTION
_New York Times_
The man isn’t born who can tell a lie under the
close observation of physiological experts without
an increase in the pressure of the blood, according
to a statement made by Dr. Louisa Burns of the A.
T. Still Research Institute of Chicago, at the
final meeting of the sixteenth Annual Convention
of the New York Osteopathic Society, yesterday
afternoon, at the Park Avenue Hotel, Park Avenue
and Thirty-third Street. Dr. Burns has drawn her
conclusions from a long series of experiments,
conducted in her laboratory.
It was pointed out to the three hundred osteopaths
by Dr. Burns that any habitual liar could tell an
untruth without betraying the slightest sign of
deceit in the expression of his face or in the
movement of his body. But the action of the pulse,
she said, was far beyond the control even of the
best liar. She explained that this was so because
the pulse or pressure of the blood was influenced
chiefly by the change of emotions, and the most
finished liars, she observed, had sometimes the
strongest emotions.
“The action of the blood pressure is an indicator
to the person who is accustomed to work with it. By
watching it you are able to get the true history
of a case, even in spite of the reticence of the
patient, in the same way in which you are able to
find a hidden object in the game of hide and seek,
when your search is guided toward that hidden thing
by the warning, ‘You’re getting hot,’ and away from
it by the counter warning, ‘You’re getting cold.’
“When a patient comes to my office I always find it
is better to work with him as he lies on a table.
In order to avoid distracting his attention, it is
better to sit quietly beside him rather than stand
over him. He is engaged in a conversation at first
simply about the nature of his complaint. Meanwhile
I have found his pulse, and as the conversation
progresses, the patient soon forgets that his pulse
is the one thing under observation. If the patient
is asked about a certain thing which may have been
true of his case, he will confirm your guess by the
action of his pulse, even though he may evade your
question. If he is trying to keep from disclosing
this fact to you, the pressure of his blood will
inevitably be increased.”
Dr. Burns said that she was certain she could
take a witness in a criminal case and find out
absolutely to her own satisfaction whether he
was telling the truth or lying. However, she
would be unwilling to give testimony this way
for conviction. Asked if a man of low mentality
responded differently in the pressure of his blood
from a man of higher mentality, Dr. Burns explained
that he did, yet the truth and the lie were as
easily distinguishable in one as in the other.
The management of pneumonia, scarlet fever, and
typhoid fever with technique was discussed by E.
C. Link, D. O., Stamford, Conn.; G. V. Webster, D.
O., Carthage; J. A. De Tienne, D. O., Brooklyn,
and J. E. Foster, D. O., Butler, Penn. “Osteopathy
and Acute Conditions,” was the subject of a paper
by Dr. George M. Laughlin, M. S. D., D. O., of the
American School of Osteopathy.
These were elected officers of the society: W.
A. Merkley, D. O., Brooklyn, President; Louisa
Dieckmann, D. O., Buffalo, Vice President; C. M.
Bancroft, D. O., Canandaigua, Secretary, and Cecil
Rogers, D. O., New York, Treasurer.
* * * * *
MEETING OF SAFETY COUNCIL
_Chicago Herald_
There is one railroad company in the United States
that has solved the difficulty presented by boys
who delight in “flipping” cars and “milling”
locomotive turntables at considerable risk to life
and limbs.
The remedy? Bribery, nothing less. Nicely embossed
“Safety First” buttons, or, as a last and
never failing resort, a swimming pool near the
round-house.
This revelation of latest railroad safety methods
was made yesterday at the closing session of the
third annual congress of the national council for
industrial safety at the Hotel LaSalle, by W. B.
Spaulding of St. Louis, chairman of the central
safety committee of the Frisco System.
“Every railroad has trouble with boys who ‘hop’ and
‘flip’ trains and play with the turntables,” said
he. “I am glad to be able to report that the Frisco
road has solved the problem with success, so far as
we are concerned. We awarded ‘Safety’ buttons to
those who swore off on these juvenile pastimes, and
when that failed, we installed swimming pools near
the roundhouses, under railroad supervision.
“The swimming pool never has failed to work.
All that is necessary to steer a boy away from
dangerous pastimes is to provide a sane outlet for
his excess energy.”
The 500 members of the council, representing more
than 1,000,000 workingmen throughout the United
States and covering almost every line of industrial
endeavor, unanimously adopted resolutions against
the use of alcohol, in part as follows:
“It is recognized that the use of alcoholic
stimulants is productive of most industrial
accidents and works against the safety and
efficiency of workmen.
“Therefore, be it resolved, That it is the sense of
this congress that the members pledge themselves to
the elimination of the use of alcoholic stimulants
among the employes of their plants and factories.”
M. A. Dow, general safety agent of the New York
Central lines, thought “the public must be educated
to believe that a railroad’s safety rules are for
their benefit, rather than to save the company
damage suits.” As evidence of the progress of the
“safety first” propaganda, he cited figures of
his company showing that for the year ending June
30, 1914, there had been 109 fewer deaths from
accidents and 132 fewer injuries.
The inculcation of accident prevention should
start in the kindergarten and continue through
high school and college, in the opinion of Martin
J. Insull, vice president of the Middle West
Utilities Company, Chicago.
“The public’s extravagant disregard for the value
of its safety is shown during the automobile
season, when our papers constantly report
terrible accidents invariably caused by suicidal
carelessness,” said he.
Melville W. Mix, president of the Dodge
Manufacturing Company, Mishawaka, Ind., and head
of the manufacturers’ bureau of that state, placed
the blame for 75 per cent of factory accidents on
the disinterested and indifferent attitude of the
employer toward his employe.
“Safety first is not a philanthropic movement on
the part of employer to employe,” said he. “Safety
first is a hard practicality of business extension.
That seems a hard statement, but it is not without
its qualifications, as there is a blood-and-soul
side of every phase of business life.
“We see wealthy magnates lay fabulous sums at the
disposal of a world peace tribunal, and we see in
what short space of time the martial strength of a
continent may apparently forget the life-conserving
principles to which they have subscribed. Do we
see any such enthusiasm in the cause of commercial
or industrial safety? Is the blood spilled at
the lathe, the forge, the throttle or the grade
crossing less red, less valuable than that shed on
fields of battle?”
* * * * *
RAILWAY COMMISSIONS’ CONVENTION
_Madison_ [_Wis._] _Democrat_
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.--“More deaths are caused by
improper ventilation of train coaches and waiting
rooms than by train accidents.”
The committee on railway service and railway
accommodations so reported to the annual convention
of the national association of railway commissions
today.
“The noxious gases that fill coaches, especially
sleeping cars, in connection with the peculiar
character of dust therein, are most conducive
to germ breeding where proper ventilation is
lacking,” the committee added.
In regard to the lighting of railway coaches, the
committee said that this problem has been fairly
satisfactorily solved on the trunk lines, but that
on many branch lines the dingy, dirty oil lamp is
still in evidence. A vigorous campaign against this
condition is recommended.
Carelessness in providing drinking water at
stations and on trains is noted, and it is
recommended that railroad commissions abolish the
stationary water cooler and prescribe a cooler with
a portable container. Uniform methods of cleansing
such containers, sanitary methods of handling ice,
and sanitary drinking cups, to be provided free of
charge for the public are also recommended and the
placing of ice in the receptacle is deprecated.
The failure of suburban trains to arrive and depart
on time is the cause of wide complaint, says the
committee. Another source of complaint is the lack
of adequate service on Sundays. The committee
believes that at least one train should operate in
each direction as a minimum Sunday service.
The committee recommends the elimination of the
practice of paying freight bills carrying manifest
over charges. Delays in handling and settling
claims are also complained of, and the committee
concludes that the best means of minimizing such
delays is to require the railroads to pay interest
on the true claim amount from the date the amount
of the claim went into their hands.
On the question of substitution of steel for
wooden cars, the committee recommends that the
interstate commerce commission be given full power
to prescribe the character of equipment to be used
in interstate commerce.
* * * * *
CLUB VOTES TO DISBAND
_Ohio State Journal_
The Social Workers’ Club is dead.
The end came peacefully at 10:10 last evening,
after a protracted period of wasting away. The
immediate friends of the deceased were present at
the last.
While a divergency of opinion existed among those
called in to treat the patient, a majority seemed
to feel that the demise was due to malnutrition
and faulty assimilation. It was felt that the
Social Workers’ Club had failed to take its own
medicine--it was not social.
At a consultation held last evening at the Y. M. C.
A. 30 persons were present. They had appeared out
of a list of 78 who had been advised that the end
was near. The main question was whether digitalis
and oxygen should be administered, or whether
nature should be allowed to take its apparent
course, unhindered. On a roll call six voted to let
it die. Four voted for resuscitation. The remaining
20 did not care enough to vote, or were animated by
high humanitarian motives which forbade holding out
hope to a doomed patient.
The Social Workers’ Club was born about five years
ago. It was a healthy infant at first, with strong
pulse and regular respiration, and took nourishment
regularly once a month. Social experts from all
over the country came and told it how to get along.
It passed through its second summer and teething
period without serious disorder. The third year it
showed a difficulty in digesting all that it heard.
Under treatment this disorder did not disappear,
but seemed rather to augment. A series of special
dinners drained its vitality to the lowest ebb.
One of the reasons advanced for this condition
last night was that the family income was not
sufficient to support the child as it required, two
other children, the Council of Churches and the
Philanthropic Council, having divided the natural
resources.
Miss Blanche Green prescribed a treatment of play,
but it did not meet with general approval. She said
it wasn’t Gowdy that brought people down town last
night, but just a desire to play. She confessed
to an occasional desire for a game of mumbly-peg.
“Social workers, who are trying to reform the
world, have forgotten how to be social,” she said.
Rev. H. W. March was inclined to the belief that
the treatment had been regular and academic
throughout. He thought that if the patient had
to die, no criticism could lie against those who
attended in its last hours. Prof. H. R. Horton was
inclined to adopt the Green diagnosis, but thought
a return to the treatment administered during the
first two years might prolong life.
The other children, the Council of Churches and the
Philanthropic Council, survive, and kind-hearted
neighbors will look after them until they adjust
themselves to the new condition of things.
* * * * *
OLD CLOTHES MEN’S MEETING
_New York Sun_
Around the corner from the weather-beaten Church
of the Sea and Land in Henry street yesterday
afternoon there was a buzzing of voices which grew
in time to a loud and angry chorus and drew all the
children of the quarter. The children thought there
was a fight, but the policeman who was passing the
time of day with a café keeper whose name ended in
“opoulos,” knew better, grinned and went on about
his business.
The old clothes dealers, whose profit lies in
shambling through the better residence streets in
the early morning and shattering the quiet with
their singsong appeals for trade, were meeting to
denounce Gen. Bingham, Commissioner of Police.
Since last Monday, when the police muffled the
strident voices of the “cash-for-clo’” men as a
consequence of his belief that there was entirely
too much unnecessary noise in this town, the
dealers have accumulated bitterness in their
insides.
Therefore yesterday afternoon in the hall at 49
Henry street they howled their woes against the
walls and let out pent up sounds. Principally, it
appeared, their wrath was directed against the
Police Commissioner. He was a tyrant. He was a
czar. He was several distinct and wholly different
kinds of things which could only be expressed
in Yiddish. English was quite unequal to their
necessities. But the aristocrats of their trade
who gabble at the corner of Bayard and Elizabeth
streets came in for full scorn. Why were these
allowed to buy and sell with appropriate outcries
and calls when the itinerant pedlers were muzzled
by the law?
At Bayard and Elizabeth streets is the great old
clothes exchange of New York city--of the whole
country, for that matter--where any day in the week
you will find in the open street several hundred
old and bearded men, with green frock coats that
sweep to their knees, dealing in cast off garments
and shoes. The Jewish women of the East Side,
thrifty souls, go there to trade cloth, ironware,
dishes, ribbons, anything they can spare, for hats
or coats or trousers or shoes that their men might
wear. Old clothes brokers from the South--as far
south as Atlanta--haggle with the dealers of the
East Side, and take back to their homes great packs
of clothes bought cheap in money, dear in words.
It was the complaint of the Old Clothes Dealers’
Protective Association, the itinerant pedlers,
that the police mandate against noise has not been
applied to the market place at Bayard and Elizabeth
streets.
The voice of Ikey Cohen, veteran hawker,
rumbled toward old Jacob Jahr, president of the
association, who sat high on the rostrum, high hat
over his ears, pulling at his gray streaked beard,
and lost itself in the recesses behind a great
seven branched candlestick.
“No more I must gif my calls,” he complained with
outspread hands. “If so much as I gry, ‘Gaaaa-ssh!
Ol’ Clo’s. Gaaaa-ssh!’ a bolisman he koms from
Bingham and grabs my arm by him and he says, ‘Gut
id owid! If you make a holler you’ll be peenched!’”
[Applause.]
And all around the long room, a place of prayer and
meditation on the Jewish Sabbath, the men nodded
their heads solemnly grunting in their beards,
saying in Yiddish:
“Truly, that is the way we have found it. How is
a citizen to prosper in these days, I ask you, my
friend?”
Old Louis Stein, pedler for twenty-five years, and
reputed to be rich, orated in English after his own
fashion.
“Der city it owes us a liffing? Say you so? Vell,
then. How vill beoples know vat we vant unless ve
make cries? Uddervise, ve might as well chump in
der river! Ledt us write to Bresident Roosevelt! He
vill tell Mister Bingham [very scornfully was this
said] where to make a gedt off!” [More applause and
a great stamping on the floor.]
Along toward evening, when the meeting of the
400 old clothes pedlers had run for three hours,
and nearly everybody had had a say, most of
them comparing New York to St. Petersburg, the
advantage lying entirely with the latter capital,
they decided to send a delegation to Commissioner
Bingham to-day to beg that they be permitted once
more to seek trade with their tongues. They agreed
among themselves to call very softly, only twice
or three times in any street, if the General would
permit them to open their mouths. Also, they intend
to ask that the permanent exchange at Bayard and
Elizabeth streets be muffled if they are to be kept
quiet.
The House and Wagon Pedlers’ Association, which
takes in all the fruit and vegetable venders, met
last night at 304 East 101st street and decided to
send a committee of their own to the Commissioner.
They, as well as the old clothes merchants, said
that business has fallen off at least 50 per cent
since the anti-noise order was put into effect.
* * * * *
FRIENDS’ ANNUAL MEETING
_New York Evening Post_
“If it does not seem like hurrying our business,”
said the clerk of the meeting, “we will now hear
read the letter from the Philadelphia Meeting.” And
the soft stillness of the Yearly Meeting in the
old Friends’ Meeting House on Fifteenth Street,
softened into even greater stillness and quiet, to
listen. The voice of the clerk, his grave, slow
courtesy, and his wish for no unseemly haste, were
in perfect blending with the old, buff room lighted
only through the great, square-paned windows below
and above the gallery, through which the green of
the old trees in the yard could be seen, in perfect
harmony with the gentle, kindly, gracious spirit of
the people gathered there, for communion with one
another.
“Let us miss no opportunity of expressing the love
we feel one for another, one for another,” said one
of the eight women who sat on the facing seats, an
old lady with silvery hair under her black bonnet.
The words, “one for another” might have been the
text of the morning, not alone of the woman who
first spoke them, but of all the words which were
said.
Another woman spoke. She was an English woman
who, with her husband, represented the London
Meeting. “Why do we not have a crusade for love?”
she asked. “War goes on, and we do nothing about
it. If this love which we have in our hearts could
be irradiated about the world, war could not be
possible. Thoughts of love, if sent out by us
steadily and consistently, must reach to the ends
of the earth, as the ripples which a stone makes in
a pool.”
But the war was little touched upon. That, with
almost all of the more important business of the
meeting, will be taken up in the later meetings
this afternoon, tonight, Wednesday afternoon, and
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. This
morning was held apart almost entirely for the text
“One for another.”
It could almost have been a country meeting. The
old, square, red-brick building on 15th Street
hears little of the noise of the city. This
morning there was little sound but the stirring
of raindrops on the panes. And the unhurried,
quiet time was given up to greetings and welcomes,
messages to those who could not come, the reading
of messages from Friends in other places, and slow
emphasis on the kindly details of their fellowship
one for another.
The meeting was opened when the eight women and
the five men had taken their places on the facing
seats and exchanged their silent handclasps, with
which also the meeting closes. They were, truly,
the elders of this house, the ones who can remember
farthest back into the times when all the women,
and not just three or four, wore close Quaker
bonnets. A tiny woman in gray rose twice from her
facing place to confirm what had been said. Some
one had greeted the members of the London Meeting
and recalled her own warm welcome at that meeting
many years ago. The little old woman rose swiftly,
and, looking down at the English people, said, with
infinite dignity and sweetness in her voice, “We
are very glad to have these Friends with us. I also
remember the very cordial welcome I received from
the London Meeting.” The very slow, quiet words had
the sound of deep ceremony, of the conferring of
great and unforgettable honor upon these visitors
from another country.
There was a prayer for strength “to partake of Thy
Spirit,” a poem read which said, “Has the Gospel of
Peace then failed us, That such a thing can be?”
and many suggestions concerning appreciations,
sympathies, letters, to be sent. Resolutions,
called minutes, were gently put, and a soft voice
would come from somewhere, saying, “I should
approve that,” followed by a chorus of “So should
I.”
In the Gymnasium are the old books, the record of
the things which the oldest Friends remember, and
of things which happened so far back in the years
that May was spoken of as Third Month instead of
Fifth. This was in the oldest book of them all,
unbound until recently, with yellowed, stained,
finely written pages, the “Paper of Advice” sent by
George Fox to the Quakers of Long Island. It was
brought there by John Burnyeat on the twenty-ninth
day of the then third month, 1671. Records of all
births, deaths, marriages, removals, are here
since 1672, long before other denominations or
governments began to keep such close watch of
statistics. For birthright membership is the very
basis of the old faith, the heritage which comes
down from father to son through the centuries
and which keeps the bonds so close that bind the
families and the friends of Friends, one to another.
Out in the meeting-room, with the sight of the
leaves and a red brick wall outside the high
windows, there is little to make one know that the
old yellow leaves were written so very long ago,
after all. Perhaps in those old days there were no
white and purple lilacs in the front of the room to
nod and drowse and sweeten through the long hours.
Perhaps then there was not so much true kindliness
as has come with the years of Friendliness. To-day,
when one of the oldest women rises from her place
to speak, an old man says gently, “Elizabeth,
thee need not rise to speak unless thee prefer.”
He might not have done that in the old days, but
surely her answer would have been the same, “Thank
thee, Charles, but I prefer to stand when I speak,”
with just a hint of reproof in her tone.
CHAPTER VII
SPEECHES, INTERVIEWS, AND REPORTS
=Type of story.= Speeches, lectures, addresses, and sermons may be
considered in the same class with interviews and reports, because all
are alike in being some form of utterance. Hence news stories of them
consist largely of reproductions of the words and ideas of some person.
A speech and a report differ only in the fact that one is spoken and
the other is written. An interview, likewise, may be regarded as an
informal address delivered to an audience of one. When an interview is
given in question and answer form, it resembles cross-examination in a
court story more than it does a speech.
As reproductions of utterances, news stories of speeches and reports
must be largely informative. Except for an occasional opportunity to
describe the speaker or the audience, they offer practically no field
for human interest development. In interviews, on the other hand, it
is possible to bring out the human interest element in portraying the
character and personality of the person interviewed (cf. “Interview,”
p. 135). Otherwise interviews, like speeches and reports, are largely
informative (cf. “Interview with Official,” p. 133).
=Purpose.= To reproduce as accurately as possible the ideas
expressed by a speaker, by a person interviewed, or by the author of
a report is obviously the only object in writing a news story dealing
with such material. Four common faults that endanger the accuracy of
news stories of this type are carelessness in taking down what is
said, the playing up of statements that taken from their context are
misleading, unintentional distortion due to giving disproportionate
space or emphasis to some points, and misrepresentation because
of political partisanship or other bias. All quotation, direct or
indirect, should be accurate not only in substance and form but also
in spirit. A statement taken verbatim from a speech, interview, or
report, may be played up in the lead in such a way that it does not
give the actual thought or purpose of the original. By confining his
news story to only one or two phases of the subject discussed, a writer
often gives an erroneous impression of the whole speech. Distortion and
suppression of speeches, interviews, or reports because of political or
other bias is indefensible.
=Treatment.= Since news stories of this class must consist
largely of direct and indirect quotation from an utterance, the
problem of presenting news of this kind is usually that of condensing,
summarizing, and combining different parts of the available material
into a unified, coherent whole. This requires effort and skill.
In writing up interviews and speeches the reporter has a chance to
portray clearly and attractively the speaker and the circumstances,
thus stimulating the reader’s interest in the utterance (cf.
“Interview,” p. 136). As the purpose of an interview is to present
the ideas of the person interviewed, the reporter’s questions, which
are a necessary means of obtaining an expression of these ideas,
are suppressed in many stories. In other stories, the questions are
embodied in the answers or are repeated by the person interviewed.
There is a growing tendency, particularly in signed stories of
interviews, to give the reporter’s questions.
* * * * *
SPEECH
_Kansas City Star_
Switzerland is a haven of peace in a weary waste of
war. Why? Charles H. Grasty answered that question
Wednesday in his address before the City Club. It
is because Switzerland, a valorous David, inspires
respect from the Goliaths that surround the little
republic. And Switzerland has said that it would
defend its neutrality with all its strength.
Switzerland is the best equipped for fighting--size
considered--of all the nations. Every man from
20 to 48 is a trained soldier. Those who are
unable physically to qualify are formed into trade
and professional groups and are available for
supplementing the work of the army.
The system is compulsory, but it is also a
voluntary system, since it was installed by the
direct vote. The people of Switzerland decided that
they were free citizens of a free republic, and
that it was their duty to keep it a free country.
Every man is more than willing to do his bit, and
the service is held in such high respect that
bankrupts and criminals are denied the privilege
of taking part in the national defense. Instead,
they are required to pay a special tax in lieu of
service.
It is surprising how little time each man is
required to contribute to the army. He enlists at
20, and that year he spends from sixty to ninety
days in training, according to the branch of the
service to which he is attached.
From then on he spends two weeks a year, for a
period of years, in brushing up the military
knowledge he gained and in acquiring new training.
That is all. There is no rigid system that compels
him to give up from two to five of his most
fruitful years to service with the colors. It’s a
free man’s system, conducted by free men.
The system begins in the public schools, where
every boy is compelled to take athletic training.
Several hours a week are spent teaching the
youngsters military subjects, so that when the
boy reaches his twentieth year he is a piece of
fine timber. His body is strong, and he has some
knowledge of what discipline means. Every boy gets
the preliminary training, even in the private
schools.
At 20 he enlists in the “elite” or first line. For
two or three months he receives intensive training.
They make real work of it while it lasts, but they
are over with it quickly.
The rudiments of military life are drilled into
the new recruits without any waste of time or money.
Soldiers and corporals, after the first year, go
back every year for two weeks’ training until they
are 27 years old, and then they are through, except
for a final training trip when they enter the
second line division, which begins at the age of
33. Noncommissioned officers and subalterns go back
every year during their first line service, and
once every four years in the second line service,
which lasts until the age of 41. From 41 to 48
years is the age division for the third line.
Officers are not appointed through civil
authorities but are selected for merit and by
examination after they have completed the special
courses offered by the government for those who
desire commissions. The officers give more time to
their studies than the privates, and they assemble
quite often for war games and tactical discussions.
That is all there is to the system. There is no
standing army, no military class, no terrible
burdens of taxation. There is a general staff,
a few officers to look after the details of
recruiting and a number of instructors--less
than two thousand men in all who are connected
permanently with the army.
Yet in 1912 a fighting force of 490,430 men was
available out of a total population of 4 million.
The expense of the whole system that year was
$8,229,941, or $16.77 a man.
In the United States in 1913 94 million dollars was
spent on the army--ten times and more above what
Switzerland spent--and all it paid for was a scant
ninety thousand fighting men. An army less than
one-fifth as large as Switzerland’s cost more than
ten times as much.
As an economic proposition it would appear that
compulsory service was a better bargain in defense
than the American system as it exists today.
The strong point of the Swiss system is that it
renders every man available for defense without
imposing a burdensome tax on the country. The Swiss
citizen becomes an actual, tangible part of his
country. He takes pride in the citizen army, and
in many cases the government fosters semi-official
societies that aim to give additional training to
those who care for it.
The beautiful thing about the Swiss plan is that it
works. Surrounded by thundering cannon, Switzerland
is at peace.
* * * * *
NOTE--_Following the lead given below was
a verbatim report of the speech._
SPEECH
_New York Times_
Strict neutrality, extreme caution in the
publication of unconfirmed news, and “America
first” were the keynotes of a speech by President
Wilson that aroused great enthusiasm among
newspaper editors and publishers from all parts of
the country at the luncheon of The Associated Press
at the Waldorf-Astoria yesterday.
Each telling point the President made in his
speech, every word of which he seemed to weigh
before uttering, was applauded by the audience of
more than 300 at the tables and by a gallery of
about 100 men and women.
The importance attached to his clear statement of
the neutrality policy of his Administration was
reflected in a request made by Melville E. Stone,
Secretary and General Manager of The Associated
Press, just before the Chief Magistrate was
introduced, that all newspaper reports of the
President’s speech be based on the verbatim copy
to be taken by a stenographer and supplied to all
of the newspapers and news-gathering associations
represented.
Frank B. Noyes of The Washington Star, President
of The Associated Press, praised President
Wilson’s masterful maintaining of true neutrality,
and said that the President had borne his great
responsibility nobly. The applause that the
laudatory remarks received would have done justice
to a Democratic Nominating Convention. All arose
and drank a toast to the President, and arose again
when the orchestra struck up “The Star-Spangled
Banner,” and again when the President stood up to
speak.
In introducing President Wilson, the guest of
honor, Mr. Noyes made brief reference to the scope
of The Associated Press, saying he believed that,
in scope and importance, it was “the greatest
co-operative non-profit making organization in
the world.” Its function, he said, was to furnish
its members a service of world news untainted and
without bias of any sort.
“To insure this,” he said, “we have formed an
organization that is owned and controlled by its
members, and by them alone; one that is our servant
and not our master. So we are here today, Democrats
and Republicans; Protestants, Catholics, and
Jews; Conservatives and Radicals, Wets and Drys;
differing on every subject on which men differ, but
all at one in demanding that, so far as is humanly
possible, no trace of partisanship and no hint of
propaganda shall be found in our news reports.
“Because of its traditions and its code, and
perhaps also because of the never ceasing
watchfulness of 900 members, it has come to pass
that few people on earth are capable of giving the
management of The Associated Press any points on
maintaining a strict, though benevolent, neutrality
on all questions on which we can be neutral and
still be what we are--loyal Americans. We know,
too--none better--that the genuine neutral, the
honest neutral, is always the target of every
partisan, and we find some solace in the fact that
this is now being demonstrated to the world at
large.
“Today, however, we willingly lower our crest
to one who has demonstrated in these agonizing
times his mastership of the principles of
true neutrality, and who, fully realizing the
dreadful consequences of any departure from these
principles, has nobly borne his terrible burden of
responsibility in guarding the peace, the welfare,
and the dignity of our common country.
“Our distinguished guest, who so honors us today,
may surely know that in the perplexities and trials
of these days, so black for humanity, he has our
thorough, loyal, and affectionate support.
“God grant him success in his high aims for the
peaceful progress of the people of the United
States.”
After the toast and cheers and hand-clapping, the
Grand Ballroom became silent as the President began
speaking.
* * * * *
SPEECH
_Madison [Wis.] Democrat_
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31.--The place of united
pan-America in the situation which will confront
the world at the end of the European war was
pictured to the Pan-American Scientific Congress
today by Director General John Barrett of the
Pan-American union.
The delegates were electrified by his prediction
of an evolution of the Monroe doctrine into a
pan-American doctrine for a mutual defense against
aggression from overseas.
He defined such a doctrine as meaning “that the
Latin-American republics, in the event that the
United States were attacked by a foreign foe,
would, with all their physical and moral force,
stand for the protection and sovereignty of the
United States just as quickly as the United States
under corresponding circumstances would stand for
their integrity and sovereignty.”
Wherever the pan-American delegates gathered the
director general’s declaration was discussed with
the greatest interest and it was regarded generally
as one of the outstanding events of the congress,
pointing the way to a new pan-American unity.
“Both victor and vanquished in the European
war will be hostile to America at the close of
hostilities,” said he. “The former will say it won
in spite of the attitude of the United States and
the other American republics, and the latter will
say it lost because of the attitude of the United
States and its sister republics.
“In the mind of everybody interested in
pan-Americanism is the question, ‘What is going
to happen to pan-America when this war is over?’
Immediately there is the reply: ‘The American
republics must stand together for the eventualities
that may possibly develop.’
“While everyone would deplore any agitation or
suggestion that a European nation or a group of
European nations following this struggle should
undertake any territorial aggrandizement in the
western hemisphere, or in any way take action
that would contravene the Monroe doctrine, it
must be borne in mind, and cannot be for a moment
overlooked, that whatever way this war results
there may be little or no love for the United
States and the other nations which form pan-America.
“No matter, therefore, how just and fair the
nations of America have been in their efforts
to preserve their neutrality and in no way
interfere on either side of this conflict, the war
passions and the war power of the peoples and the
governments of the victorious group of nations may
force a policy toward pan-Americanism, toward the
Monroe doctrine, and toward their relationship with
individual countries of the western hemisphere
which will demand absolute solidarity of action
on the part of the American republics to preserve
their very integrity.”
* * * * *
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT
_Kansas City Star_
INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 8.--Half playfully,
half earnestly, President Wilson told three
thousand people at Richmond, Ind., this afternoon
that this nation is heeding what is “none of your
business”--Europe’s affairs. In place of this,
he counseled serious deliberation on America’s
business, its future and its part in the betterment
of mankind. The nation, he said, must maintain its
equilibrium; it must face, too, the problem of the
future now that the administration has endeavored
to break the shackles on American business.
The President said:--
“You know I have been confined for a couple of
years at hard labor and am out on parole for a day
or two, but I want to say this, my fellow citizens,
that it is very genuine pleasure to me to get
abroad again and stir among the people I so dearly
love.
“Because the one thing we have to think about down
in Washington is the best thing to do for you and
the thing that you want us to do for you, and that
is a mighty hard thing to find out, particularly
when you are not thinking about your own affairs
and are constantly thinking about what is none of
your business, namely, what is going on on the
other side of the water. I say that in playfulness,
but I mean it half in earnest.
“It does not do, my friends, to divert our
attention from the affairs of this great country.
“The duty which this country has to perform to the
rest of the world largely depends upon the way in
which it performs its duty to itself.
“I have always thought with regard to individuals
that if a man was true to himself, he would then
be true to other persons; and I believe that that
applies to a great country like ours, that a
nation that is habitually true to its own exalted
principles of action will know how to serve the
rest of mankind when the opportunity offers. That
is a very deep philosophy of life which it is very
thoroughly worth while living up to.
“We have been trying at Washington to remove some
of the shackles that have been put upon American
business; but after you have removed the shackles
you must determine what you are going to do with
your liberty. And there are many tasks to perform
for mankind. There are many things to be bettered
in this world which we must set ourselves to make
better. So what I want to say to you now is merely
this:
“Let us seek sober, common counsel about our own
affairs, and then when the time comes, when we can
act upon a larger field, there will be no mistake
as to what America will do for the peace of the
world, having found her own peace and having
established justice in her own mind.”
* * * * *
ADDRESS
_Chicago Tribune_
For many years Glencoe boasted a wonderful spring
of pure water gushing from a bluff and running in
crystalline beauty down to the lake. The spring was
constant even in the dryest seasons. It always ran
a generous, spirited stream, clear and cold. Then
along came the village manager, a new official in
the new order of things--H. H. Sherer, appointed to
put the affairs of the suburb on a business basis.
In a curious moment Mr. Sherer shut off the water
in the mains. Then he went back to the “spring” and
awaited results. In forty minutes the perpetual
spring ceased to flow.
Glencoe had been paying 7 cents a thousand gallons
to pump the water that ran off into the lake night
and day the year around.
The story of the spring was a part of Mr. Sherer’s
address last night before the Wilmette Civic
association. He explained the work of village
management as a business enterprise and told of
important savings gained.
* * * * *
LECTURE
_New York Herald_
“I don’t believe in the public cooking of milk, or
in the public cooking of anything else to be used
in the home,” said Dr. Thomas Darlington, formerly
Commissioner of Health in this city, during an
illustrated lecture last night at the headquarters
of the Agora, a civic association which is a branch
of the John F. Curry Association, at No. 413 West
Fifty-seventh street.
Unsanitary conditions under which milk was
detected being brought into this city during his
administration of the Health Department were
described and shown in detail by Dr. Darlington,
as well as the conditions under which the milk is
pasteurized in up-State and local dairies.
“Pasteurization may be good, but personally I
do not believe in it,” he said. “The object of
pasteurization is the destruction of bacteria which
it may contain by a process of heating the milk
to from 140 to 160 degrees. It is not a process
of boiling, but merely of bringing the milk to a
percentage of heat at which the bacteria will be
destroyed.
“In my opinion the home and not a public place is
for the cooking of food products which are to be
used in the home. It can and should be done just as
well there as in any other place.”
An absolutely perfect milk supply is impossible in
this city, according to Dr. Darlington, at a retail
price of less than twenty cents a quart. To add to
this the cost of pasteurization, he said, would
raise the price still higher.
He pointed out that the excessive cost of
production under conditions that would result in
absolutely pure milk would make the retail price
almost prohibitive.
* * * * *
LECTURE
_St. Louis Globe-Democrat_
WASHINGTON, February 6.--Telling of times when
dog meat--and the meat of starved-to-death dogs
at that--tasted better than any porterhouse steak
he had ever eaten; picturing a region where the
average velocity of the wind is fifty miles, where
a bunting flag goes to shreds in a few minutes,
a flag of stoutest canvas is threshed to pieces
in an hour, and a flag of tin is battered out of
shape in the first gale, so that sheet iron is
the material that must be used; describing sea
elephants that weigh sometimes as much as four tons
each and measure 25 feet in length, Sir Douglas
Mawson has presented before the National Geographic
Society one of the most remarkable stories of polar
exploration that has ever come from those regions.
In his account of his researches along the great
Antarctic continent discovered by Rear Admiral
Charles Wilkes--the same Admiral Wilkes who figured
in the historic Trent affair, in which he, during
the American civil war, held up the British packet
Trent, and removed from her, Mason and Slidell--Sir
Douglas paid tribute to the explorer and his work.
Mawson and his party undertook the work under
the patronage of the Australian Government. The
steamer Aurora, formerly plying in American waters,
was the ship that carried them away. A midway base
with a wireless relay station through which the
party could keep in touch with civilization, was
established at Macquarie Island, which was on the
old sailing ship route between Australia and Cape
Horn and whose beaches are lined with the wrecks of
many a ship. The main base was established at Cape
Dennison, on the Antarctic continent, and a second
base several hundred miles further east.
Pictures were brought back by Sir Douglas showing
the nesting places of a number of birds of passage
who go to the Polar continent to nest and whose
eggs have never been seen before. The birds and
sea elephants were absolute strangers to fear, and
would inspect the camera man with as much seeming
interest as the camera man inspected them.
The character of the winds that blow on the edge
of the Antarctic Continent was graphically shown
by the fact that the men had to lean out upon it,
at an angle of perhaps forty-five degrees, to walk
in the ordinary wind, while no camera could record
anything but a blank when the blizzard was at its
height.
The hut which was the headquarters of the party
had one window, which was in the roof. The breath
of the men and the steam of the kitchen caused
this to become frosted over to the thickness of 5
inches. Men going out to take the records of the
climatological instruments had to break the ice
that froze before their faces, from one side of
their hoods to the other, and pictures showing how
their faces were covered with great patches of
frost bite, told an eloquent story of suffering.
But the scene was not all somber. The cellar was a
natural refrigerator, and consisted simply of the
space under the floor of the hut. When the cook
wanted a piece of meat he would send a dog down to
get a penguin or a leg of mutton, and would take
it away from him as he came out. One day the dog
got away with a leg of mutton, which was rescued
only after a chase of two hours, and then it was
so damaged that the party voted to give it to
the dogs, after all. Reading matter was in great
demand. One of the party read the Encyclopedia
Britannica through to the O’s.
Upon one occasion Sir Douglas set out with Mr.
Mertz and Lieut. Ninnis on a coast charting
expedition. After going about 200 miles Ninnis
and his sledge were lost in a great crevasse.
Hours of calling brought no response, and the
smashed-to-pieces sledge at the bottom told a
painful story of his fate. Thereafter Mawson and
Mertz turned around and started back to camp. They
ate all the dogs, one by one, as they died by
starvation.
Finally there was only one dog left--Old Ginger.
“Old Ginger was a noble animal,” said Sir Douglas,
“and he was game to the last. But when he died of
that sheer hunger of the Antarctic wilderness of
ice and snow, Mertz and I had to eat his carcass.
We ate the bony parts first, breaking every bone
so as to get out the marrow. Raw dog meat may not
sound attractive at a distance, or when one is this
far removed from the ultimate hunger in which the
stomach seems to attack its very self, but there it
tasted as good as anything you ever ate.
“Finally Mertz began to sicken and to weaken,
and in a few days,--January 17 it was,--he died.
I almost turned cannibal, so starved out was my
condition, but with it all I buried him, and then
started back on the 100-mile journey that lay
between me and safety. Sore of body and sick of
mind, it was more by crawling than by walking
that I was able to get back to camp only to see
the Aurora disappearing over the horizon. It left
provisions for me, however, and six men to search
for me. Nothing but Providence saved me from the
fate of Mertz and Ninnis.”
Sir Douglas showed pictures of beds of coal that
tell of a time when tropic summer once reigned
in this great home of the blizzards, and others
revealing great ice cliffs with the stratified
snows of a hundred winters upon them, each stratum
standing out as clearly as though it were of
sedimentary rock.
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH OFFICIAL
_Indianapolis News_
WASHINGTON, October 28.--That the United States,
in a business and financial sense, can now view
the war in Europe without serious apprehensions
is the opinion of George E. Roberts, director of
the mint, one of the keenest economists in the
government service. Mr. Roberts talked about the
situation today and made it plain that despite many
disadvantages he sees no danger to this country.
“The situation with respect to cotton,” said
Mr. Roberts, “is the chief drawback. With the
market for cotton limited and prices low, the
south suffers seriously and the effect is felt
on the entire country. The effects of the cotton
situation, on the other hand, are to a considerable
extent counteracted by the fact that in the north
good prices are commanded by wheat, corn, live
stock and other products of the northern farms.
“This country may expect to be fairly prosperous
during the period of the war in Europe. Capital
will be dear and this will tend to prevent the
starting of new enterprises. We can not have really
good times unless money can readily be obtained for
new enterprises.
“I do not expect to see money available for the
building of railroad improvements and extension
and new lines. I do not expect to see new business
enterprises to any considerable extent started
while the war lasts. I expect to see business in
many lines already established run along about as
usual. In certain directions it will be improved.
“The European countries, which are now at war,
will go on putting out one issue of securities
after another. It is a question how much of
that they can float without compelling holders
of American securities abroad to dispose of our
securities. On the whole, I should expect most of
the ready capital in this country, which under the
conditions would be hunting for investments in new
enterprises, to be absorbed for some time to come
in taking up American securities parted with by
foreign holders.”
Mr. Roberts doubts whether the stock exchanges
will soon reopen. He says one strong influence
against it is the banks which have made loans on
the basis of securities. They do not want, on
the one hand, to call in their loans, and, on
the other hand, they do not want to incur any
danger of seeing stocks and securities they hold
as collateral quoted at low figures. He thinks it
will be a considerable time before the exchanges
are reopened. He pointed out that it would be
impossible long to dam up traffic in securities.
“Already they have in New York the ‘gutter
market,’” said Mr. Roberts. “I am informed that
the volume of business done in this way is
considerable, and it will grow. You can not stop
for any length of time the business of exchange. If
the exchanges are closed the buyer and seller will
find some other method of coming together.”
Due in part to the fact that the new federal
reserve system will release a large volume of
reserve money, and in part to the fact that the
bankers and the country generally have recovered
from the first shock of the war and now confront
it without fear, Mr. Roberts thinks the banks will
have plenty of money to lend. He looks for little
disposition to lend money on new enterprises; but,
on the other hand, he believes there will be plenty
of money to advance to meet the needs of ordinary
business and to extend the loans of the average
borrower.
As for the settlement of American indebtedness
to Europe, concerning which there has been much
discussion of the shipment of American gold abroad,
Mr. Roberts thinks this problem will be adjusted.
He pointed out that it would be partly adjusted
by the growing volume of sales to Europe. It will
be partly adjusted by the individuals who owe the
debt, and who obtain extension. In one way and
another the volume of the debt will be whittled
down so that, according to Mr. Roberts, this
problem is not at all insurmountable. As for the
cotton situation, he hopes to see this worked out
by the pool.
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH EDUCATOR
_Indianapolis News_
Exemplification. Two short breaths and a stutter
and then as follows: e-x, ex; e-m, em, exem;
p-l-i, pli, exempli; f-i, fi, exemplifi; c-a,
ca, exemplifica; t-i-o-n, shun, exemplification;
there’s your exemplification.
“Correct, Johnnie,” and the schoolmaster, with a
spelling-book in one hand and a lamp in the other,
sends Johnnie to the head of the line and walks on
through the dimly lighted country school building,
pronouncing “jaw breakers,” teaching the youth to
tread the flowery paths of knowledge, and in all
ways carrying out the plans of a good old-fashioned
country spelling match.
Many men and women now well advanced in years
learned to be good spellers largely by means of
spelling matches supplemented by special spelling
exercises on Friday afternoons. But Fassett A.
Cotton, State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
has some new ideas in regard to the best methods
of teaching spelling, and this subject received
considerable attention in the course of study which
Mr. Cotton is now preparing, and which is to be
used in the schools of the State during the coming
year.
“Spelling,” says Mr. Cotton, “can not be taught
incidentally. It must have the systematic attention
of the teacher as a separate subject and his
constant care in all written work. While oral
spelling is a helpful aid in fixing forms, it is
generally conceded that written spelling must
receive the larger stress. The eye rather than the
ear must be trained. Indeed, correct spelling must
be made an eye and muscle habit. Constant drill in
writing correct forms of a word serves to build it
into one’s very physical make-up.
“There are certain laws, a knowledge of which is
valuable in teaching spelling. The work should
be inductive; that is, words spelled according
to these laws should be presented in groups and
the children led to construct the laws. There is
a certain economy in learning the laws, because
through them a group of words may be learned as
easily as a single word. The fact that there are
exceptions to the laws by no means destroys the
claim for economy. There are two sides, then,
to the spelling process, the mechanical and the
rational, and the teacher must keep them both in
mind. They go together. Both are essential. The
return to the use of a spelling book indicates a
belief in the need of more systematic work in oral
and written spelling.”
In regard to the subject matter of spelling, Mr.
Cotton believes that here, as in other subjects,
the dominant community interest should be taken
into consideration. Each community, Mr. Cotton
points out, has its own vocabulary. The assignment
in spelling, he says, should be worked out as
carefully as the assignment in any other subject,
and, as in every other subject, the home life
should dictate the point of departure.
The assignment may from day to day, Mr. Cotton
suggests, consist of lists of ten or twenty words
covering the entire range of life in the community.
The teacher may ask the class to hand in a list
of ten words that are names of kitchen utensils.
If there are five or six in the class, it may be
that twenty or more different words will be named.
Such a device furnishes the fairest test of the
child’s ability to spell these words, because
he suggests them to himself and is not aided by
having them pronounced. The teacher should correct
the lists and hand them back, and then the twenty
different words should be used as a spelling lesson
and made the basis of a permanent list. Similar
lists may cover other home departments, industrial
departments, or farm life, and there may be lists
covering the vocabulary of the social, the civil or
governmental, the religious and the school life of
the community.
The assignment may take another form, Mr. Cotton
suggests, and accomplish the same purpose. The
teacher may have it in mind to teach inductively
the meaning of the word synonym. He gives
the following list of words: farmer, grower,
cultivator, agriculturist and husbandman. He then
has the pupils pronounce each word, tell the
meaning, use one of the words in a sentence and
substitute as many words as possible for it. Other
groups of farm words may be used in the same way.
While Mr. Cotton concedes that the teacher must
select, in the main, his own devices for teaching
any subject, he offers the following suggestions
for teaching spelling:
“The words to be taught should be the words needed
in the school vocabulary and in life.
“The work should be based as much as possible upon
the laws governing spelling, and should be done
inductively.
“Constant drill is essential, and absolute accuracy
in all written work must be insisted upon.
“It is a good practice to keep a list of words most
commonly misspelled and point out and emphasize in
some attractive way the difficulties in spelling
these words.
“Word building and word analysis are excellent
devices.
“The use of words in sentences different from those
in which they are found in the text-book is good
practice for the vocabulary of the pupil.
“It is especially important that pupils should
learn to use in sentences of their own construction
the many simple words which are alike in their
pronunciation, but which differ both in their
spelling and in their use. The teacher will find it
advantageous to make the list of homonyms in the
spelling book the basis for language exercises as
well as for spelling lessons.
“The new speller should be in the hands of each
and every pupil. The work is outlined by grades in
the book. No pupil should be promoted till he has
mastered all the words in the grade in which he is
working.”
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH WOMAN PHILANTHROPIST
_Kansas City Star_
A little woman, her shoulders laden with the burden
of a great effort to rid the world of poverty, came
to Kansas City this morning. She is Mrs. Joseph
Fels, widow of the Philadelphia philanthropist
and manufacturer. With Daniel Kiefer, chairman
of the Fels fund, and Mrs. Kiefer, Mrs. Fels is
touring the principal cities of the United States
in the interests of the idea to which Joseph Fels
devoted his life, the taxation of land values. The
philanthropist died last February.
Mrs. Fels’s eyes kindled when the war was mentioned
to her at the Savoy Hotel this morning. She was
dressed simply in black, but the soberness of
her attire was eclipsed by the animation of her
features when she was given the opportunity to
plunge into the subject to which she is now giving
her life.
“The war,” she cried softly. “It wouldn’t have come
about if Europe had been listening. ‘More land,’
the nations say; ‘more land,’ with a wealth of it
within their own borders owned by great landlords.
Yet they must fight to extend their boundary lines.
“Is it possible to think that the good Lord would
make a world in which there were more people than
could be provided for? It is that idea that keeps
us fighting on to make people realize. Freedom
for each individual to earn his own living; we
ask only for that. Tax the land; take the taxes
off produced necessities; force landlords to quit
holding empty land for the profit that comes from
other people coming to live around it. Do you know
that Philadelphia has 40,000 empty lots--not on
the outskirts but in the city? London has 50,000
of them. ‘Congestion,’--we speak of that, but what
congestion would there be if every man could till
the soil, and if selfishness and greed were not
allowed to appropriate the earnings of others?”
The diminutive figure of Mrs. Fels seemed to grow
as her voice let escape in its tones something of
the passionate conviction which she feels in the
rightfulness of the land value taxation propaganda.
“The world has had enough of charity, a poor
patchwork of a poor system of civilization. We
are trying to prevent the need of charity, trying
to spread justice and freedom, to free the worker
from the landlord’s domination and give him
opportunity. For us opportunity is freedom.”
Before the death of Mr. Fels, the philanthropist
spent a good deal of time in England. Mrs. Fels
still resides there half of the year.
“England has a king,” she said, “but fundamentally
the English government is more democratic than
the United States. We call ourselves a democracy,
but in reality we are a plutocracy. The idea of
a democracy is a fine thing to hold up before
the eyes of the people, but in the present
circumstances it is only to blind them to real
conditions.”
Mrs. Fels is of German descent, but her sympathies
and her blame for the war are with all of the
fighting nations.
“I am sorry for all of them,” she said, “but I
know that all are implicated. Perhaps some good
will come out of it. If the people of the warring
nations are made so poor that the nations will
have to take extreme measures to exist, the great
estates of Europe will be thrown open to intensive
farming and to all the other methods of adding to
productiveness.”
Daniel Kiefer, chairman of the Fels Fund, told some
facts that Mrs. Fels appeared too modest to relate.
When Joseph Fels was living he proposed to match
dollar for dollar any fund that was raised in the
United States to forward the single tax propaganda.
He did the same thing in fifteen other countries.
In this country in the last five years the Fels
Fund has given more than ¼ million to less than
half that amount raised by others.
Mr. Kiefer explained that Mrs. Fels was giving
herself to carrying on the movement in which her
husband had shown so great an interest.
“Giving myself and all I have and am,” added Mrs.
Fels. This afternoon Mrs. Fels spoke at Central
High School and at Swope Center. She will speak at
the City Club at 8 o’clock tonight. A reception for
Mrs. Fels by the Council of Clubs will be held from
3 to 5 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Mrs. Fels will
speak again at a public meeting at the City Club at
8 o’clock tomorrow night.
* * * * *
INTERVIEW WITH OPERA SINGER
_Chicago Daily News_
Mme. Tamakai Miura hid behind a baggage truck and
pressed her fingers into her miniature ears. It was
her first visit to Chicago.
“Ooo!” exclaimed Mme. Miura. “Ooo!”
The Twentieth Century limited was backing out of
the LaSalle Street Station.
“She is the first Japanese grand opera singer in
the world, the first to sing in America and one
of the best sopranos in the company!” shouted the
press agent above the roar. He led the way to
Mme. Miura. She stood half frightened and half
amused, seeming like a figure that had escaped
from a Japanese print and got lost in a Meissonier
landscape. For Mme. Miura was still dressed in her
native costume. She might have just wandered off
the stage from a scene in “Madame Butterfly” in
which she is going to sing for the Boston Opera
Company.
She wore a purple robe, with a dull red and gold
girdle. It enveloped her in folds and a dull pink
scarf covered her patent leather colored hair.
American shoes, an American handbag and American
furs testified to her acquired cosmopolitanism.
“I like come here and sing,” said Mme. Miura,
removing her fingers from her ears. “I been in
London and all over the world. I am only singer
in Japan. In Japan women don’ sing so much or do
anything. They have no suffrage an’ only listen
to the nightingale and the wind blow through the
cherry tree. But art will liberate the ladies of
Japan.”
Mme. Miura glanced coquettishly at a Japanese man
who stood near her.
“What you think?” she inquired of him.
“He is my husband,” she explained.
Becoming more accustomed to the baggage truck and
the Twentieth Century, Madame Miura continued:
“When I come to America I all the time ’fraid
people don’t like me because I hear about Japanese
not being much liked, but when I come to New York
everybody like me and is most nice to me. And I am
sure everybody in Chicago like me. It is so full
of noise, is it not? All America is full of noise.
“I like most American scenery which the railroad
show me. It is better than English or German
scenery, because in English scenery all the trees
look like doll trees and in Germany all the trees
look like they have been straightened with mower of
the lawn. In American scenery everything is big and
wild and maybe full of animals, is it not?
“And there is so much. I pass miles and miles in my
ride, more than whole Japan.”
Madame Miura’s English required the greatest
concentration on her part. She paused and thought
and then resumed.
“Opera is new art in Japan. We have only very few
singers. Because women have no great chance, but
now maybe they have. I study in London and Berlin.
I have sing before king and queen in Albert Hall.
I sing Irish song, Scotch song, Italian and French
song and English song. Isn’t that nice?”
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following three telegraph
stories show three different forms for a group
of several interviews on the same subject, which
in this case was a decision of the Interstate
Commerce Commission granting the railroads the
right to charge higher freight rates. As originally
published, these stories followed stories from
Washington, D.C. giving the details of the
decision._
GROUP OF INTERVIEWS
(1)
_Milwaukee Free Press_
CHICAGO, Dec. 18.--Wholesale merchants and shippers
of Chicago were elated today at the decision of the
interstate commerce commission. Here is what some
of them say:
JOHN G. SHEDD, president Marshall Field & Co.:
“Everyone should rejoice over the action of the
interstate commerce commission. I regard this
decision as marking the turning point in the
business situation, and expect to see hereafter a
marked advance on the road of prosperity by all
lines of American industry.”
JULIUS ROSENWALD, president of Sears-Roebuck &
Co.: “Representing one of the largest shippers, I
am glad to say that we rejoice in the decision. I
believe it will have a far-reaching effect. It will
help the whole United States and stimulate business
all over the land.”
JOHN V. FARWELL, president of the John V. Farwell
Co.: “I am glad the application of the railroads
for an increase in freight rates has been granted,
as I believe the decision will be an essential
factor in stimulating and encouraging all branches
of business in all parts of the United States.”
(2)
_Chicago Tribune_
New York, Dec. 18.--Howard Elliott, president of
the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad
company, and chairman of the board of directors,
commenting on the decision of the interstate
commerce commission, said:
“Careful calculations indicate that the increase in
the gross freight earnings of the New Haven road,
because of the decision of the commerce commission,
will be less than $250,000 per year, and probably
not much in excess of $200,000 a year on the
present volume of business. So far this fiscal
year, the freight earnings of the company have
decreased $1,399,000.
“We are gratified to have the commission recognize
the necessity of increasing freight rates and we
are glad to have even this modest increase.”
A. H. Smith, president of the New York Central
lines, made the following statement:
“As nearly as I can learn from preliminary reports,
the commerce commission has granted an increase on
perhaps a little more than one-half of the tonnage,
but to the extent that the increase has been
granted it will help the railroad situation. It
should also promote general public confidence for
the future.
“The commission has recognized not only the needs
of the railroads but the effect upon the railroads
of the present peculiar conditions. The increase
granted will not solve the transportation problems
of the day, but we are thankful for the help given
and will endeavor to make the best possible use of
it.”
(3)
_Chicago Tribune_
Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 18.--“The granting of the
5 per cent freight increase will have absolutely
no effect upon the passenger increases,” declared
George W. Boyd, general passenger traffic manager
of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. “We want
to establish the two departments of our road on
an independent basis, and to do this we need the
passenger increase as much as the freight increase.”
“I am glad for any decision that would bring
prosperity to the people of Pennsylvania,” was the
only comment of Gov.-elect Martin G. Brumbaugh.
The commission will aid in smoothing the way
to prosperity, in the opinion of Alba Johnson,
president of the Baldwin Locomotive works.
* * * * *
OFFICIAL REPORT
_Boston Transcript_
Twenty-five States are represented in a crusade
which the lawmakers and school authorities of
the country are waging against the high school
fraternity, according to a report which has
just been issued by the United States Bureau of
Education. Of these, thirteen States have passed
legislative enactments hostile to the secret
orders, while the school boards of important cities
in the other twelve States have adopted like
measures within their own jurisdiction.
All States having laws on the subject provide a
penalty of suspension or expulsion from school for
all those who join these orders. The most drastic
laws were passed by Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska,
whose legislatures made it a misdemeanor for anyone
even to solicit members to these organizations.
Michigan and Ohio made it a misdemeanor for a
school officer to fail or refuse to carry out the
anti-high school fraternity law. Other States
which prohibit these orders are California,
Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, and Vermont.
Massachusetts empowers the Boston School Committee
to deal with the secret-society problem in its own
way, while Washington gives the same latitude to
the school boards of its larger cities.
The more important cities whose school boards have
passed regulations restricting or forbidding high
school fraternities, are Denver, Meriden, Chicago,
Covington, New Orleans, Lowell, Waltham, Worcester,
Kansas City, Mo., St. Joseph, Butte, Oklahoma
City, Reading, Salt Lake City, Madison, Milwaukee,
Racine and Superior. The commonest penalties are
suspension, expulsion, or debarment from athletic
or other teams of the school.
The United States Bureau of Education’s report
also cites some of the more important court
decisions, every one of which upholds the school
authorities in dealing rigorously with the high
school fraternity, on the ground that the measures
so taken are authorized as a part of the school
board’s discretionary powers. Most courts cited,
however, will not allow the offending pupils to be
barred from classroom exercises, although they can
be barred from participating in all athletic or
other contests.
* * * * *
REPORT OF SCIENTIST
_New York Evening Post_
LONDON, August 1.--Boiling over a slow
fire is the happiest death a lobster can meet;
so it has been determined at the Jersey Marine
Biological Station. The experiments were carried
out by Joseph Sinel, a well-known biologist, for
the Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, whose members associated the prevalent
method of killing lobsters with mediæval torture.
Lobsters, says Mr. Sinel, are extremely difficult
to kill. Piercing the brain does not seem to cause
the lobster more than temporary annoyance, since
his brain is a mere nerve ganglion the size of a
hemp-seed. He has to be killed all over. To throw
him into boiling water fails to do the work either
mercifully or quickly, since he struggles violently
to escape for about two minutes.
The pleasantest way to end a lobster’s troubles,
Mr. Sinel finds, is the old-fashioned way of
placing him in cold water and bringing him to a
boil. As the water warms, he becomes merely lazy
and rolls over as for a sleep. By the time the
water reaches the comparatively mild temperature of
70 degrees, Fahrenheit, he becomes comatose. At 80
degrees, he is dead. To use a human illustration,
the biologist says it is like a person succumbing
to a heat wave, with loss of consciousness and a
painless end.
* * * * *
REPORT OF FEDERAL OFFICIAL
_San Francisco Chronicle_
WASHINGTON, January 15.--Asiatic immigration, the
“Hindoo propaganda,” and particularly immigration
to Continental United States from Hawaii and the
Philippines, are discussed at length in the annual
report of Anthony Caminetti, Commissioner-General
of Immigration, made public here today.
“I believe it is quite generally conceded that
immigration from the Far East is detrimental to the
welfare of the United States,” says the report,
“not because it has heretofore been so extensive
in numbers, but because of its peculiar effect
upon the economic conditions and the possibilities
of an almost unlimited increase in volume if left
unregulated and unchecked. Our Oriental immigration
problem, arising more than a quarter of a century
ago, has never been satisfactorily solved; the
exclusion laws need many amendments, not in purpose
but in prescribed method.
“The Hindoo propaganda, as yet in its infancy, is
calculated to give much trouble unless promptly
met with measures based upon, and modeled to take
advantage of our past experience in trying to
arrange practicable and thorough, but at the same
time unobjectionable, plans for the protection of
the country against an influx of aliens who can not
be readily and healthfully assimilated by our body
politic.”
Of immigration by way of the insular possessions
the Commissioner says: “It will be observed that
15,512 aliens came to continental from insular
United States during the last seven years--10,948
from Hawaii, 3,950 from Porto Rico and 614 from the
Philippines--and that of these, 10,740 landed at
San Francisco, 3,910 at New York and 631 at Seattle.
“Aliens coming from Porto Rico have been handled
with a fair degree of success, but those coming
from Hawaii and the Philippines have given the
service a great deal of trouble, the former with
regard to the admission of aliens to the territory
and their subsequent migration to the continent,
and the latter with respect to the coming of
aliens to the mainland from the Philippines only,
the immigration service having nothing to do
with respect to the admission of aliens to these
possessions.
“It has been regarded as desirable to encourage
the settlement in Hawaii of European aliens, and
correspondingly to discourage the settlement there
of aliens from the Orient, the idea being that the
former does, and the latter does not, tend toward
the ‘Americanization’ of the territory, which
already has a large Asiatic population. Failure to
retain the immigrants secured through the exercise
by the Federal Government of a very liberal
policy, is believed to be due to the fact that the
conditions of work and labor are unsatisfactory and
the standard of wages too low.”
Of the flow of immigration the Commissioner says:
“Immigration, judged from the results of the year,
has apparently reached the million mark, and unless
some affirmative action is taken by the Federal
Government to restrict it, or steps are taken by
European and other nations to reduce the steady
stream of persons leaving the various countries
of the Old World, we need hardly expect that
the number annually entering the United States
hereafter will fall far below 1,000,000.”
Immigration to the United States for the fiscal
year aggregated 1,218,480, only 66,869 less than
for the year 1907, which showed the greatest tide
of immigration in history. As 633,805 aliens left
the United States during the year, the net increase
of population through immigration was 769,276.
Of the alien applicants for admission to the United
States during the year, 33,041 were excluded on
various statutory grounds, the debarments being 66
per cent greater than for the previous year.
The suggestion is made tentatively that some
diversion of the immigrant fund be made to protect
the immigrants after their landing in this country,
in an effort “to relieve industrial centers by
securing employment for the surplus labor found
therein, whether native or foreign, either on farms
or in other rural occupations or in settling people
on lands.” Such relief would be, the report says,
of benefit to all the people.
CHAPTER VIII
EXHIBITIONS, ENTERTAINMENTS, AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS
=Type of story.= News stories in this division may be grouped in
two classes: (1) those of display, such as exhibitions, shows, fairs,
and parades, and (2) those of banquets, holiday celebrations, and other
special occasions, such as college commencements. Although the subject
matter covers a wide range, the method of handling the news is much the
same.
=Purpose.= The aim in these stories is not only to portray
attractively the events and scenes but to bring out the spirit of the
occasion. There is generally a dominant note in all these events,
and the effectiveness of the description can be greatly heightened
by selecting those details that bring out this note. The selection
and presentation of details from the point of view of their value as
showing the mood of the occasion results in a story of much greater
interest than does the mere recording of the different incidents.
Accuracy in news stories of this kind, therefore, is not simply
faithfulness to fact, but truth of sentiment. Untruthfulness lies in
adding fictitious details in an effort to heighten the appeal, and in
substituting sentimentality for true sentiment.
=Treatment.= The chief problem in writing these stories is to
select picturesque and significant phases from the large mass of
available material, and to reproduce the scenes and incidents with
vividness. These events offer one of the few chances in news writing
for pure description. In general the description is of the so-called
dynamic type, in that all of the details are selected with the purpose
of bringing out one impression rather than of giving a complete picture.
In descriptions of holiday celebrations an emotional appeal is possible
because every festival and holiday has its own particular sentiment.
Christmas is distinctly the children’s day and is characterized by
generosity. Memorial day is marked by patriotic reverence for dead
heroes, Fourth of July by patriotic jollification, and Thanksgiving day
by the idea of feasting. For banquets and similar occasions in which
the spirit of good fellowship is the dominant note the descriptive
method in a lighter vein is particularly appropriate.
When speeches and toasts are delivered in connection with these
events, they are treated like other speeches and are fitted into the
story as incidents of the occasion, or, if they are of sufficient
significance, they may be played up as the feature.
* * * * *
AUTOMOBILE SHOW TO OPEN
_New York Times_
The National Automobile Chamber of Commerce will
open its Fifteenth Annual National Automobile Show
in Grand Central Palace next Saturday, Jan. 2.
The Show Committee of the N. A. C. C., which has
the exhibition in charge, consists of Col. George
Pope, H. O. Smith, Wilfred C. Leland, and S. A.
Miles, manager. Instead of opening at night, the
doors will be unlocked at 2 P. M. Displays of goods
conservatively valued at more than $3,500,000 will
occupy the 150,000 square feet of floor space on
four floors of the building. About 50,000 more
square feet of floor space is available this year
than in previous seasons.
There is a total of 338 exhibits. Gasoline pleasure
cars will be shown by eighty-one manufacturers; six
companies will show electric cars, and thirteen
will display motor cycles. The remaining 238
exhibitors are makers of accessories. More than 400
complete cars will be shown. These will be found to
range in price from $295 to $7,500. No commercial
cars will be exhibited, but there will be a
special information bureau for commercial vehicle
manufacturers.
In order to make a beautiful setting for the cars
and show them to advantage, the interior of the
palace has been converted into a Persian palace.
The decoration color scheme is white, gold,
and crimson. The lobby of the building will be
decorated to resemble a California garden.
Following the custom of former years, Wednesday,
Jan. 6, has been set aside as Society Day, upon
which double admission will be charged. There will
also be a Theatrical Day, Monday, Jan. 4, upon
which representative players will be guests of the
management. The exposition will remain open for
one week, until Jan. 9. On the first day the doors
will open at 2 P. M., and on other days at 10 A.
M., with the exception of Sunday, when the building
will remain closed.
* * * * *
POULTRY SHOW
_New York Evening Post_
The twentieth annual exhibition of the New York
Poultry, Pigeon and Pet Stock Association was
opened several hours before daybreak this morning
with appropriate barnyard pomp and ceremony. One of
the 6,500 fowl assembled in Madison Square Garden,
with bold disregard for the conventions of city
life, started things at 3 A. M., and in an instant
the whole family was flapping its wings and crowing
sociably one to another.
Even though it was only the light from an arc lamp
outside, which the birds mistook for the rising
sun, they resolved to make the best of it, and at
noon all the inmates were in excellent voice.
The great arena, filled row upon row with every
variety of domestic fowl, resounded with echoes of
the farm.
It was one long, continuous cock-a-doodle-doo, that
gave the impression that all the barnyards of the
world had suddenly been combined in one.
A flock of white Wyandottes, looking very pompous,
supplied the baritone parts of the medley, while
occasionally a peevish falsetto cackle could be
discerned issuing from the bantam household.
Melodious squawks from several turkey gobblers,
who had escaped the axe this season, added to the
hoarse cackle of numerous ducks, helped to fill in
the gaps.
One change was noticeable to-day in the absence
of Canadian-bred birds. In former years, fowl
from across the border have been among the most
interesting in the exhibit, affording a basis for
comparison of the poultry of the two countries.
But, owing to the strict quarantine regulations
now in force, officers of the New York State
Association found it impossible to include this
feature in this year’s show. The fact that there
are no Canadian entries is accountable for the
smaller number of exhibits, some six hundred
Canadian specimens having been withheld by the
Canadian fanciers. The reason, it was stated, was
the prevalence of disease among cattle at the
present time. The Canadian inspectors had announced
that they would not allow consignments shipped to
the exhibition to reënter the country.
All States north of the Ohio and east of the
Mississippi have sent specimens to the exhibit,
while a number of Southern and Western States are
represented also.
On the main floor the entire space is devoted to
fowl, of every variety, displayed in steel cages.
The centre of the arena is occupied by a small
tank, used as a duck pond, and grouped around this
are several large cages, containing specially rare
specimens. The balcony, circling the enclosure, is
devoted to pigeons and pet stock, including guinea
pigs, rabbits, and white mice.
Along with the poultry display, there is the usual
accompaniment of farmyard devices, brooders,
incubators, and patent feeders, which occupy
booths in various parts of the main floor. John,
a fine white Wyandotte cock from Jersey, was on
hand to-day to do his share in exhibiting a device
for grinding bones. He was hitched to a miniature
mill, in which he had been trained for months to
make the circuit like a horse. But everything at
the Garden was so different, and so unlike life in
the peaceful Jersey farm, that the rooster had an
attack of stage-fright and couldn’t navigate the
turn. He crouched down in the traces and refused to
budge, while the demonstrator applied persuasion
and a horsewhip to coax him on.
But the trained hens, who were there to show how a
combination “feeder and exerciser” worked, lived up
to expectations, and gave an admirable performance.
They were caged in a shed with a miniature
turnstile in it, and every time they took a few
steps, the stile was sure to move, bringing down
upon their heads a shower of corn.
* * * * *
AGRICULTURAL FAIR
_Boston Herald_
SALEM, N. H., Aug. 21--Fair skies, weather of
ideal coolness, the grand circuit races, a horse
show of unusual excellence, pedigreed cattle
and blue-blooded poultry, fruit and vegetables
that made the onlooker hungry, in fact, all the
accessories of half a dozen county fairs rolled
into one--not forgetting the Looney Lane and its
leather-lunged ballyhoo men--lured to Rockingham
Park today a crowd variously estimated at between
60,000 and 80,000 persons.
Whatever the correct figures of attendance may have
been, it is certain that the grand stands were
jammed solid with cheering humanity, that men,
women and children of all ages and types swarmed
like a colony of ants through the various exhibits,
and that automobiles of every kind known to the
trade were paraded all over the parking space.
It was a happy, good-natured crowd, in which the
millionaire rubbed elbows with the farm boy,
and those who came by trolley had just as much
chance for enjoyment as those who came in the most
expensive touring car. To be sure, the horse is the
star performer at Rockingham fair, but that is no
reason why the other features should be overlooked,
and they were not.
This was Governor’s day on the program, but in
reality it might better have been described as
Everybody’s day. At least, that is the way it
looked to the visitor. Gov. Samuel D. Felker of New
Hampshire was on hand, of course, with Mrs. Felker
and members of his staff.
He was received fittingly with the customary brass
band accompaniment, was whisked across the track in
a miniature procession of automobiles and escorted
to the grandstand. There he made an appropriate
speech, or went through an animated pantomime, the
impression differing with the distance the listener
was from him. At any rate, the crowd judged him
by his good intentions and applauded heartily.
Gov. Foss was unable to be present, but was well
represented by Mrs. Foss and his two pretty
daughters.
“Something doing every minute” seems to have been
the motto of the fair management, and the motto
was well observed. Apart from the racing, the fair
has enough attractions to keep a visitor busy for
a couple of days at least, and then said visitor
would be better satisfied if he could possess
himself of an extra set of eyes.
The effect of the place is kaleidoscopic, or rather
that of a talking moving picture run wild. It is
a perfect jumble of color and sound. Bands are
playing, husky barkers are shouting, bulls are
bellowing, cows are lowing, sheep are baaing, hens
are cackling, auto horns are tooting--all off the
key but in a pleasant discordance.
And people--as an exhibit of the plain people and
of the varnished people, too, the place has few
rivals. There is the man from back in the hills,
whose bucolic chin whisker wags in rapture over
some particular breed of hogs, and there is the
landed proprietor, who is as interested as an
amateur in some particular strain of stock. You
see an overalled individual drawling casual orders
to a stolid yoke of oxen, and then, turning again,
you come upon Arthur Waldo in the pink of sartorial
neatness, sizing up a prize sheep.
There is contrast everywhere. If you are looking
for the latest in horsey fashion, stroll about
the grandstand, and if you want to see what the
agriculturist considers a good all-purpose costume,
run down to the sheds. Young America with his best
girl is much in evidence in the vicinity of the
ice-cream cone and lemonade stand, and Old America
is there, too, just as young as any of them.
Away over behind the grandstand are the cattle
sheds, where one may fill his eye with as many
different kinds of cows, bulls and oxen as he
ever imagined. There they are--the Jerseys, the
Guernseys, the Holsteins, the Ayrshires, and
whatever other kinds there be, all beautifully
groomed, with horns polished. Some are decked
with blue ribbons and some with red, and some
which have no ribbons at all appear about as good
as their rivals. Out in the field to the rear,
quiet men take technical notice of good points of
competitors, and make the awards without any fuss.
Judges are everywhere. They are busy with cattle
and they are busy with hens and with geese, with
hogs--there is a whole exhibit of blue ones--with
fish, with fruit, with vegetables, with embroidery
and with needlework. By the way, the housewife
should not be overlooked, for the skill of the
woman of the Rebeccas and the Granges, either with
the needle or the cook-stove, is not to be despised.
There is much to attract the serious-minded, and
for those who are not so serious there is the
Looney Lane. It is a long lane, a good half mile,
if not more. And there is to be found about every
side show that ingenuity has yet devised.
The streets of this midway are dense, and the
business flourishing. You can try your luck on a
“beautiful, blue-eyed baby-doll,” or a teddy-bear,
on umbrellas, on rings, on stickpins and a variety
of other useful commodities. You can visit strange
oriental houris, see the wild girl, or pay your
money for some allurement that is “for men only.”
Lady wrestlers, diving girls, freaks without
number, even the “original cigarette fiend” are all
to be viewed “for the trifling and inconsiderable
expenditure of one dime.” But what’s the use--they
are all there with “spielers” to match.
With the exception of the races, probably the most
interesting feature was the horse show. Yesterday’s
program was one of unusual excellence, and ran
through several of the most striking classes of
saddle horses and hunters and jumpers.
The Lawson cup, presented by Thomas W. Lawson, for
gig horses not under 15.1 or over 15.3 hands, went
to Sir James, Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s entry. Glen
Riddle’s The Virginian carried off the Copley-Plaza
cup in the Corinthian class, and Mr. Riddle was
again fortunate in capturing the Andrew Adie cup in
the class for hunt teams of three each.
One of the prettiest classes of the afternoon was
that for park four-in-hands with lady drivers,
which was won by Mrs. P. T. Roche of Leominster,
after a skillful exhibition. Another spectacular
number was the tandem race, a one-mile dash on the
race track, which was won by P. T. Roche.
* * * * *
OPENING OF MARKET
_New York Times_
Crowds of many thousands filled Washington Market
yesterday to celebrate the formal reopening of
the building since it has been reconstructed and
converted into a model market of glass, marble,
porcelain, enamel, and nickel flooded with light
from a series of large overhead windows.
The ceremonies began with the arrival of a
procession with a band at its head, city officials
in automobiles following and the forty exempt
firemen with their antiquated engines bringing
up the rear. The main floor and galleries were
thronged, and hundreds of persons had to be turned
away while the speechmaking was going on.
Mayor Mitchel said that the reopening of Washington
Market as a modern institution was only a step in
the plan to dot the city with model markets.
“The new Washington Market,” he said, “is a link
in a chain of retail markets which I hope that
the city will some time own and control. Such a
system of retail markets will be a part of a still
more comprehensive system of food distribution.
The entire plan will comprise wholesale terminal
markets which will receive supplies of all kinds
for distribution with the least possible handling
and waste and will have a marked effect in keeping
down the cost of living.
“We want to reduce the cost of bringing food
into the city, and this can be done by means of
better transit facilities with terminal markets to
increase the convenience of the people of this city
in buying at retail in some of the finest and most
sanitary markets in the world. The plans are only
now in the process of formation and I hope that the
people will support the city officials in bringing
them to completion.”
George McAneny, President of the Board of Aldermen,
briefly reviewed the history of the market and of
its reconstruction.
“This building was a disgrace to the city four
years ago,” he said. “But the new building is
offered as a promise that this in time shall be
the standard of all markets of the city. The start
toward the reconstruction of Washington Market
was made six years ago by the money saved through
other economies. We saved nearly $500,000 from the
$3,000,000 given to us to use and $43,000 of this
saving went toward the remodeled market.”
The history of Washington Market and a detailed
explanation of the great improvements that had been
made were given by Matthew Micolino, President
of the Washington Market Merchants’ Association.
Others on the speakers’ platform were Ralph Folks,
Commissioner of Public Works; Simon Steiner, one of
the oldest dealers in Washington Market, and Mrs.
Julian Heath, President of the National Housewives’
League.
Borough President Marcus M. Marks, Chairman
of the Market Committee, who called up on the
long-distance telephone from San Francisco when he
was at the exposition to settle some of the details
of the market and to decide on the date of its
opening, told yesterday of the visits paid to the
old market by Edward VII. when he was Prince of
Wales and by Presidents Grant, Garfield, Arthur,
and Cleveland. He added:
“Presidents bring honor, but residents bring
business. I wish you both--business and honor.
The oysterman, Cornelius Vanderbilt, was among
those who in early days helped to make the market
a success. In the old building the business had
been carried up to more than $5,000,000 a year,
and I prophesy that your business will run up to
$10,000,000 a year.”
Controller Prendergast said that the new market
ought to arouse the people of the city to the
possibilities of having a fine market system.
“We have been trying to solve the market problem
through three or four unrelated departments,” he
said, “but nothing can be accomplished without
central authority. Last Spring we asked the
Legislature for authority to amend our charter
to provide for a Department of Markets, but it
refused. I think this was a great mistake. We shall
make the same application again this Winter. If the
new Constitution goes through we will ask the Board
of Aldermen to pass a bill creating such a body.”
During the week the special exhibits will occupy
places in the galleries. Up in the gallery is a
woman suffrage booth, from which printed arguments
in favor of giving women the vote were distributed
yesterday, with oral arguments for those who stayed
to listen. In another corner of the gallery the
National Security League had an exhibition of
modern small arms and various charts showing the
low rank in military strength held by this country
in comparison with other powers. The National
Housewives’ League had a booth from which advice on
reducing the cost of living was issued and various
patent foods were advertised.
Today will be given over to an exposition of the
pure food principles for which the market stands.
The speakers will be Alfred W. McCann, Joseph
Hartigan, Commissioner of Weights and Measures;
John Boschen, Sidney H. Goodacre, and Frank H.
Hines. Tomorrow will be suffrage day and Thursday
the day of the National Housewives’ League. Friday
and Saturday will be market days, with reduced
prices on everything.
* * * * *
OPENING OF TUNNEL
_Chicago Record-Herald_
NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 2 a. m.--Just at midnight
an electric train, jammed to its capacity with
marveling passengers, slipped out of the Nineteenth
street station, darted down beneath the Hudson
River and, a few moments later, pulled into the
terminus at Hoboken, N. J.
This train was the first actual passenger train
to run through the new $60,000,000 tunnel and
submarine system which connects New York and New
Jersey, and which had been officially opened at
3:40 o’clock yesterday afternoon, by the pressure
of the presidential finger on a gold-mounted
telegraph key on President Roosevelt’s desk at the
White House.
At the instant the signal flashed over the wires
from Washington, the power was thrown into the
machinery and the first official train of the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company, which
constructed the tunnel, started on its way.
Governor Hughes of New York, Governor Fort of
New Jersey, city officials and railroad men of
prominence, 800 altogether, were in the official
party.
The official train carried eight cars, all of them
filled to overflowing. Millionaires joined the
ranks of the straphangers on this occasion, E.
H. Harriman among the number, while further down
the same car Cornelius Vanderbilt was propped up
against a door jamb.
Under the bed of the river midway through the tube
the train hesitated for a moment where the boundary
line between New York and New Jersey was marked by
a chain of glittering incandescent lights. The two
governors arose and clasped hands, and then the
train dashed on and climbed out of the big hole
into the Hoboken depot of the Delaware, Lackawanna
and Western Railroad.
There a jollification meeting was held over the
successful accomplishment of a task which has been
repeatedly attempted, but without results until
William McAdoo took hold. Governors Hughes and
Fort were the chief speakers and there were short
addresses by representatives of the railroads and
of the cities interested. President Roosevelt sent
a personal letter to President McAdoo, which was
read.
The letter follows:
Feb. 17, 1908. My Dear Mr. McAdoo:--Now that a
beginning is to be made in opening for operation
the Hudson tunnel system, I write to express my
regret that I cannot be present in person, and my
high appreciation of what you have accomplished.
The tunneling of the Hudson River is indeed a
notable achievement--one of those achievements
of which all Americans are, as they should be,
justly proud. The tunnel itself and the great
buildings constructed in connection therewith
represent a work of extraordinary magnitude,
represent extraordinary difficulties successfully
overcome, while difficulty and magnitude are even
surpassed by the usefulness of the achievement.
The whole system is practically below tidal
water, and this makes it much the greatest
subaqueous tunnel in the world. It is a bigger
undertaking than any Alpine tunnel which has yet
been constructed, and the successful completion
represents the moving of New Jersey bodily three
miles nearer to New York in point of time and
immensely increases the ease of access from one
state to the other. You who have brought this
great achievement to a successful conclusion
ought to be most heartily congratulated. It is
the kind of business achievement which is in the
highest degree creditable to the American people,
and for which American people should feel and
publicly acknowledge their hearty gratitude.
Sincerely yours,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
After the oratory, the guests were escorted through
the imposing system of underground terminals at the
New Jersey end of the tube, and then the official
party retraversed the tunnel to New York.
Last night, the celebration of the event, which is
believed to be the first step in a great system
of tunnels under the Hudson, was continued with a
banquet at Sherry’s. The regular service began with
the starting of the first train at midnight.
President Roosevelt pressed the button which
formally opened the tunnel at 3:40 o’clock eastern
time, yesterday afternoon, immediately following
the receipt of this telegram from President McAdoo:
The first official train of the Hudson and
Manhattan Railroad Company, under the Hudson River,
awaits your signal and pleasure.
* * * * *
UNVEILING OF STATUE
_New York Evening Post_
With the unveiling on Monday of the new statue
on Riverside Drive, Jeanne d’Arc takes her place
permanently in New York city. New York is not
the most natural of settings for Jeanne d’Arc,
burgerette of Domremy-sur-Meuse, warrior, woman
saint of France, but since she is to be here, the
Drive is a good place for her. There is an open
sweep of view there, and hills beyond. And, in
early mornings, and at twilight when the lights
on the river begin to show coral in the blue-gray
mist, something very like the spirit of the city is
made visible.
It is this same characteristic--the seeing of the
invisible, the touching of the intangible--which is
in the statue and makes it what it is. Anna Vaughn
Hyatt, its sculptor, sees only the spiritual in
Jeanne, and in her work she holds indefinitely for
us the moment after the finding of the consecrated
sword, which Jeanne holds high over her head as
she stands erect in her saddle, her head thrown
back in exaltation. The horse is all but prancing.
There is something of certainty and joyousness
about the whole which could be inspired by nothing
purely material or temporal. The upward gesture
of the sword is not without meaning--it is the
natural movement of a person who has had a great
revelation, a deep creative instinct. She is
holding the sword up to God.
The idea of the statue for this city, to celebrate
the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Jeanne in 1412, and to be made by an American woman
sculptor, is about six years old, and originated
with J. Sanford Saltus and George Frederick Kunz.
They are, respectively, the honorary president and
president of the Joan of Arc Statue Committee,
founded December 4, 1909, of which Gabriel Hanotaux
and Pierre Loti, membres de l’Institut Français,
are the honorary vice-presidents. The work has
taken time and it has been well done. Besides the
Committee of twenty-four members, and the sculptor
herself, there was an architect, Prof. John V.
Van Pelt, a landscape architect, Carl F. Pilat, a
consultant on armor, Bashford Dean, Ph.D., curator
of armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cass
Gilbert, adviser of architectural competition, a
jury on architectural competition, and a Committee
of the Municipal Art Commission on Whole Design.
The whole idea has been a combination of the
American with the French. Miss Hyatt herself is of
French descent and has studied largely in France.
The very foundation of the statue is made of stones
from the Tower of Rouen, in which Jeanne was
confined.
And the dedication at 2:30 on Monday afternoon,
at Riverside Drive and 93d Street, to which
twenty-one societies and institutes, both French
and American, will send delegations, bears out the
idea well. These delegations will come from the
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society,
the Alliance Française de New York, the American
Numismatic Society, the Daughters of the American
Revolution, Daughters of the Revolution, Fédération
de l’Alliance Française aux Etats-Unis, Fine Arts
Federation, France-America Committee, Jeanne D’Arc
Home, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of French
Art, Institut Français aux Etats-Unis, National
Academy of Design, National Sculpture Society, New
York Historical Society, Société des Architects
Diplomés par le Gouvernement, Société Nationale
des Professeurs Français, Society of Beaux Arts
Architects, Society of the United States Daughters
of 1812, Society of the War of 1812, Sons of the
American Revolution, Sons of the Revolution.
The service of dedication will open with the
American National Anthem played by the French
Band of the Lafayette Guards. The Very Rev.
Théophile Wucher, pastor of the French Church of
St. Vincent de Paul, will give the invocation,
Dr. Kunz the address of welcome, and J. Sanford
Saltus the address of presentation. The statue
will be unveiled by Mrs. Thomas A. Edison, one of
the Committee members, and the unveiling will be
followed by the French National Anthem and salute.
After the statue has been received in the name of
the city by Park Commissioner Cabot Ward, a letter
of congratulation from President Wilson will be
read and addresses will be made by J. J. Jusserand,
French Ambassador to the United States; Robert W.
de Forest, LL.D., president of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art; McDougall Hawkes, president of
the Museum of French Art, l’Institut Français aux
Etats-Unis; Professor Delamarre, secretary-general
of the Federation de l’Alliance Française aux
Etats-Unis, and J. Alden Weir, president of the
National Academy of Design. If the weather is not
fair on Monday, these exercises will be held in the
American Museum of Natural History.
President Wilson’s letter which will be placed in
the pedestal with letters from Governor Whitman and
leading city officials, says:
“My dear Dr. Kunz:
“I hope that on Monday, December the sixth, you
will convey to the Joan of Arc Statue Committee
my warmest congratulations upon the successful
completion of their work.
“Joan of Arc is one of those ideal historic figures
to whom the thought of patriotic people turns back
for inspiration. In her seems to have been embodied
the pure enthusiasm which makes for all that is
heroic and poetic.
“Cordially and sincerely yours,
“WOODROW WILSON.”
This statue is the fifteenth equestrian statue of
Jeanne d’Arc, but it is the first one made by a
woman. Thirteen of these are in France, and one in
Philadelphia. The figure of the Maid was modelled
after Clara Hunter Hyatt, the sculptor’s niece,
but the face is idealistic, giving Miss Hyatt’s
own conception of the way Jeanne looked. The
horse was modelled in Paris, but the final work
for the statue was done in Miss Hyatt’s Studio in
Annisquam, Massachusetts, where she worked almost
entirely outdoors. A model of this statue has been
placed in the Cathedral at Blois where Jeanne was
confirmed and a bronze copy will be placed in front
of the Cathedral as soon as the money can be raised.
Especially numerous are the statues and memorials
of Jeanne in and around Domremy, now called
Domremy-la-Pucelle in her honor. A statue of her
by E. Paul, erected in 1885, stands in front of
the village church and above the door is a mural
painting by Balze representing her as she listened
to the Voices. In the garden of the cottage where
she was born, near to the church, is a group by
Mercié showing her as she left her home led by the
Genius of France, and over the door are the royal
arms of France and those given to Jeanne and her
family. In a niche above is a kneeling figure of a
girl, made about 1456, and the cottage has become
almost a museum, filled with small belongings
of Jeanne herself. It is hard to come back from
Domremy-la-Pucelle to the corner of Riverside Drive
and 93d Street. But, even here, the Maid may feel
not entirely homeless. She brings her joy and her
certainty with her, and at twilight, if she glances
out over the river to the hills, she may find,
where the lights show coral through the mist, a
glimpse of things unseen.
* * * * *
Note--_The next two stories, which describe a
pageant parade, should be compared with reference
to style and tone._
AUTOMOBILE PAGEANT PARADE
(1)
_New York Herald_
More than three thousand automobiles, many of them
handsomely decorated and illuminated, helped to
impress upon throngs of spectators in the city
streets last night the fact that great strides have
been made in the development of both pleasure and
service vehicles. The pageant, which was a feature
of the Tercentenary celebration, also gave to
thousands an hour of brightness and pleasure.
The parade started in Harlem, and, after covering
the principal streets there, swept down town and
passed the reviewing stand in front of the New York
Public Library. Governor Glynn and Mayor Mitchel
reached the stand at the head of the column. They
were accompanied, the Governor by his staff, and
Mayor Mitchel by prominent citizens.
As both officials had other engagements, they
left before the second division arrived, but they
enjoyed seeing the motorcycles dash past, many in
grotesque decorations.
As one of the motorcycles sped down Fifth avenue
below Forty-second street it encountered a big
automobile. Policemen managed to draw them apart.
One of the amusing features of the division was the
musicians riding on motorcycles. They had on war
bonnets and were escorted by a band of Indians.
One young woman in white duck trousers, coat and
cap, her costume being the counterpart of that
of her male companion, attracted a good deal of
attention, as the two sped past the official stand.
The celerity with which this division went down
Fifth avenue led spectators who filled the three
stands--the Governor’s at the south, the Mayor’s
in the centre and a third at the north of the
block--as well as the thousands forming a solid
mass along the streets, to believe that the pageant
would move quickly. But a wait of almost half an
hour ensued after the passing of the “Indians.”
At last the intercepted line of decorated
automobiles began to appear, and for more than an
hour there was an unceasing flashing of brilliant
lights, massed flowers, bunting, pennants and
flags, all of which formed attractive decorations.
“Neutrality” was greeted with applause when an
automobile filled with young women dressed in the
national colors whizzed by the judges’ box. “He
Comes Up Smiling,” showing an unusually tall man
wearing bathroom attire, who frequently plunged
into the depths of a huge bathtub, brought forth
shouts.
The suffragists had four automobiles in one
division. These were decorated with “votes for
women” colors and pennants and big banners across
the tonneau with “Victory in 1915” in black letters
on yellow or blue.
Louis Annis Ames acted as grand marshal and William
G. Poertner was marshal. The judges of decorated
cars were George W. Breck, W. A. Boring, Alan R.
Hawley, William W. Knowles, Harry H. Good, E. A.
McCoy and William H. Page. The associate judges
of the automobile division were Alfred Reeves and
C. F. Clarkson; of the motorcycle division, F. V.
Clark and J. L. Sauer, and of the advertising, O.
J. Gude, William H. Jones, Russell Field, A. M. Van
Buren and George B. Van Cleve.
A reception to Governor Glynn and Mayor Mitchel was
held after the parade at the Automobile Club of
America, No. 247 West Fifty-fourth street.
* * * * *
(2)
_New York World_
Have you ever been in a smoking car when the man
in the seat ahead was trying to prove that forced
draught does not improve the natural perfume of a
rubber plant in a cigar make-up? If you have not
it will be impossible to bring to you from last
night the atmosphere of the automobile parade in
celebration of New York’s three hundredth business
birthday.
The fact that many of the automobiles were
charmingly decorated proved nothing except that one
can never tell by the band what sort of smoke it is
wrapped around.
Take a pretty light blue scarf of oil smudge
and weave it about festoons of parti-colored
incandescent globes suspended along the sidewalks,
and you have the scene at Fifth avenue and
Forty-second street last night, as the parade
snorted past the reviewing stand in front of the
public library.
The plan was to have Gov. Glynn and Mayor Mitchel
sit in the stand and watch the parade go by. But
the Governor and the Mayor had so many other
engagements last night that they started with the
parade, arrived half an hour before it, and got
away before the parade arrived at the reviewing
stand.
Fortunately, however, most persons in the
automobiles did not know that, and the men saluted
just as correctly, and the women bowed just as
sweetly, as if the rulers were on the job--so
nobody could see that it made much difference that
they were not.
Officials in charge said that the reason the
motorcycle portion of the parade arrived about
half an hour before the next section was that the
motorcycles could not stop or they would tip over.
The fact that there were several long gaps in the
parade was due to no fault of theirs, the officials
added.
The gaps gave spectators--when they weren’t
thinking how chilly it had got all of a sudden--a
chance to observe how neat and roomy the Fifth
avenue roadway looks when there is no traffic on
it. Many persons thought this the most remarkable
sight of the evening.
More than 2,000 automobiles and trucks and 1,000
motorcycles were in line. Prizes worth more than
$6,000 had been offered--$5,000 worth by the
Tercentenary Commission.
By way of proving that some persons will try
anything once to win a prize, women in some of
the most beautifully gotten up cars failed to put
on the same amount of clothes they would fail to
put on if they were going to the opera. Nobody
denied that this was a fetching idea in automobile
decorations--but it was cold enough last night to
wear at least a necklace, which, indeed, some of
those women did.
Among the floats was one advertising a make of
auto tire. Two gigantic human shaped figures, made
of tiring--or whatever they call the stuff they
make tires of--wobbled about on a big float. Then
there was a man who kept coming up smiling from
the depths of a big bathtub. When one saw him at a
distance one was thrilled, but on nearer view one
perceived that he was really wearing tights.
The Peace Float, the Santa Claus Ship (which
The World is going to send to Europe laden with
presents for the fatherless), The World’s own
float, showing the way New York got its news three
hundred years ago and the way it gets it to-day
(in The World, of course), the Woman Suffrage
automobiles, and private machines covered with
flowers, were among the entries which drew applause
from a quarter million persons who banked the line
of march from One Hundred and Twenty-fifth street
and Madison avenue through numerous other streets,
including Broadway and Fifth avenue to the point of
dispersal at Columbus Circle.
It might be mentioned that Ralph De Palma,
automobile racer, carrying officials in his car,
and under instructions to hustle from the tail
to the head of the parade, bumped into a touring
car at Fifty-seventh street and Fifth avenue. The
touring car lost a mudguard.
A reception for Gov. Glynn and Mayor Mitchel, who
are Honorary Presidents of the Commission, was held
in the Automobile Club of America after the parade.
* * * * *
MEMORIAL DAY PARADE
_New York Times_
Eight hundred white-haired veterans of the
civil war paraded yesterday under faded and
bullet-riddled flags in the Memorial Day procession
along Riverside Drive from Seventy-fourth Street
to Ninety-second Street. Because it was the
fiftieth anniversary of the end of their days on
the battlefield, because the Grand Army men had
felt the vibration of patriotic feeling in the
atmosphere, and because it was a perfect day, the
soldiers of the civil war, in spite of the waste
in their ranks which old age had made in recent
years, turned out yesterday in greater number than
they have at any Memorial Day procession in the
preceding three years.
The weather brought out great crowds along the
Drive and in other parts of the city where
Memorial Day exercises of one kind or another were
held. With the sky cloudless and the sun shining
brilliantly, breezes from the Hudson River kept the
marchers and the spectators cool and put life even
into flags which shells and time had almost reduced
to ribbons.
Probably more than 50,000 people had gathered
along the line of march. As the crowd was larger
it was also more enthusiastic than usual. The big
demonstrations were, of course, for the game old
men and the pathetic ruins of their colors. In
spite of the fact that the majority of them had
passed three score and ten and that many crippled
by old wounds and age had to carry canes, they
responded quickly to tactical orders from their
commanders and as a body moved with the precision
of a smooth-running war machine.
Receiving cheers and shouts of encouragement at
every block, they were kept busy smiling and
saluting. They passed thousands and thousands of
American flags, as a large proportion of those in
the crowd carried small ones. Flags were hung out
of windows all along the Drive.
The flag display throughout the city yesterday, as
well as along the line of march of the procession,
was the greatest the city has seen since Spanish
war days at least. Along many of the residence
streets flags hung in clusters. Along Broadway,
wherever there was a flagpole, there was a large
flag out, while small ones by thousands flapped
from windows and thousands of tiny ones stuck out
of buttonholes.
Special cheers along the line of march were given
for the twelve doughty old Zouaves who appeared in
faded red baggy trousers with the characteristic
jacket and tasseled fez. Also the crowds approved
noisily of occasional ranks of veterans who
appeared with swords drawn and the blades flashing
brightly.
One of the marchers who was cheered all the way
along the route was George Sebech of Reno Post,
No. 44, who carried medals for service both in the
Mexican and in the civil war. He marched sturdily,
and continually saluted and waved his hat at the
ovation he received. He said:
“I am 98 years old, but I’ll be marching here ten
years from now, when these Spanish war boys are
getting gray.”
A platoon of mounted police formed the head of the
column and was followed by a battalion of regular
troops of the Coast Artillery. Next came the First
Division of the National Guard, commanded by Major
Gen. John F. O’Ryan. Following were the survivors
of the Grand Army, headed by the Grand Marshal,
Commander Sherburne C. Van Tassel, who rode a
bay charger. The members of his staff were Adjt.
Gen. Joseph B. Lord, Past Grand Marshals William
E. Van Wyck, George M. Barry, Samuel Mildenburg,
Isidore Isaacs, George H. Stevens, George S. Drew,
Simpson Hamburger, and William Kirchner, Assistant
Adjutants M. B. Wood, John H. Wood, Charles W.
Brown, H. J. Kearney, Frank J. Schleder, Harry
B. Dennison, E. K. Fassett, William H. Elliott,
Captain Howard M. Graff, Chief Aid and Aids David
Loria, Hugh Fitzpatrick, Henry Holmes, Charles
Farmer, Daniel D. Lawlor, Theodore Joffe, and
George Blair.
The guard of honor to the Grand Marshal included
Farragut Naval Post, No. 516; Farragut Fleet, Port
of New York; the Monitor Association, Port of
Brooklyn; the Ella Bixby Tent, No. 18, Daughters of
Veterans, and Adams Goss Post, No. 330.
There were four divisions of Grand Army Posts,
and in the other divisions marched several
columns of Spanish War veterans in khaki and blue
flannel, numerous fife and drum corps, bands and
semi-military organizations.
In the reviewing stand at Eighty-ninth Street were
Rear Admirals C. D. Sigsbee, General N. W. Day,
General Anson G. McCook, Colonel George E. Dewey,
Colonel James E. March, General Horace Porter,
Colonel C. Blakewell, and Captain J. B. Greenhut,
besides many city officials and prominent men.
* * * * *
CHRISTMAS
_Washington Times_
Santa Claus, Inc., President of the Christmas Cheer
Corporation. Organized in the District of Columbia
under charter of December 24, 1915.
It had to come. The job was getting too big for one
jovial, rotund man, and he was afraid he would miss
some chimneys. So Santa, this year, is a captain of
industry, operating in every home in the District
of Columbia, and in institutions as well, and so
far the Sherman anti-trust law hasn’t got him.
Sleighs were too slow. Anyway there isn’t any snow.
Bells were too noisy.
The motor truck has taken the place of the sleigh.
And instead of depending upon his own efforts,
Santa has enlisted practically every organization,
every lodge, every society, every church, every
settlement house and every mission, and thousands
of individuals in his gigantic Christmas cheer
enterprise.
Like all great magnates, Santa is not seen by
his workers. But his spirit presides over the
entire project, and societies, clubs, groups and
individuals are working busily in his name.
Every church, for example, is planning its annual
Christmas celebration. An effort is being made this
year to have every church provide for the poor in
its territory, and, instead of the erstwhile custom
of giving gifts to its own members, many Sunday
schools have applied to the Associated Charities
for names of families to whom they might carry
Christmas dinners and other gifts.
For the homeless of the District the Salvation
Army, the Gospel Mission, and the Central Union
Mission are giving turkey dinners, to be followed
by Christmas trees for those children where the
home Christmas might not be as happy as it should
be.
At the Associated Charities volunteers are busily
working today arranging baskets to be taken to the
homes of families on that organization’s list,
and in every case the Christmas dinner will be
accompanied by some gift more lasting, such as a
quantity of coal or clothing. These gifts are paid
for from special contributions to the Christmas
fund, and they are in addition to the fourteen
“opportunities” by which the Associated Charities,
co-operating with the newspapers of the city, hopes
to make fourteen homes happy throughout the year.
At both the Central Union and the Gospel Missions
turkey dinners will be served, and at the Salvation
Army there will be a Christmas breakfast in
addition to the dinner.
In enlarging the scope of his work and his force of
helpers, Santa Claus has not forgotten that he is
primarily the patron saint of children. One of his
principal helpers is the Santa Claus girl, whose
home at 70 Seaton place is piled high with gifts
for those children whose names have been furnished
through charity organizations, or by friends, and
by letters written to Santa Claus.
Dolls, drums, engines, skates, sweaters, and
everything in which the child heart delights are
piled high at the headquarters of the Christ Child
Society, 929 G street, awaiting distribution among
poor children. This year there are 2,000 names on
the list to receive presents.
Miss Mary V. Merrick is in charge of this work, and
she has been assisted by Miss Charlotte Campbell,
Mrs. James Gowel, Miss Florence Roach and Miss A.
Ives. Scores of dolls were contributed by the doll
guild, of which Miss Leta Montgomery is director.
Sewing circles have given large quantities of
clothing and the American Security and Trust
Company has provided vans for the distribution of
the bundles.
Entire Government departments will celebrate
Christmas; other Government bureaus, business
houses, and military posts will have community
celebrations.
An unusual celebration will take place this evening
in the office of the chief clerk of the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing. All week the clerks have
been buying small gifts suitable for children.
Names of all the clerks who are “playing the game”
will be placed in a hat this evening, and then
drawings will be made for the presents. After the
gifts have been drawn, and the joke at the expense
of the recipients appreciated, all the toys will be
turned over to some institution, and any left over
will be sent to the home of the Santa Claus girl.
This plan was conceived by and carried out under
the direction of Miss Mary A. Carpenter.
Over at Fort Myer Uncle Sam’s soldiers will
decorate a Christmas tree in the gymnasium under
the direction of wives of officers at the post,
to be exhibited on Tuesday for the benefit of the
children of the retired soldiers and those of men
now on duty at the Philippines.
Not only the poor, but those who are away from
home, will have plenty of provision made for their
Christmas cheer. At the Y. M. C. A. the usual
visitation will be made to the rooms of all young
men, and during the day there will be Christmas
activities of various sorts by the clubs and
departments of the association.
The Young Women’s Christian Association has planned
a day which, it hopes, will drive homesickness from
the heart of any girl who is away from her home at
this season. The building at 619 Fourteenth street
will be open from 3 until 9 o’clock. A Christmas
party will be in progress during that time. Games
will be played, Christmas carols will be sung by
the Y. W. C. A. Choral Club, and a tree will yield
gifts for everyone. Refreshments will be served.
In addition to the distribution of baskets to be
made by the Salvation Army and the missions, Almas
Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, is to give
away 500 Christmas baskets, Central Union Mission
will distribute between 400 and 500 baskets and
Gospel Mission will send about 500. Boy Scouts have
been enlisted in the work of distributing these
gifts.
The observance will spread to inmates of District
institutions. At the workhouse at Occoquan men will
be given a holiday and a special dinner, and they
will attend a special Christmas service tomorrow
afternoon. At the District jail a special dinner,
which includes turkey, will be served.
At the Petworth School playgrounds there will be
a community Christmas tree celebration tonight at
7 o’clock. A large tree will be decorated with
lights, and school children will form a chorus
to sing Christmas carols. This celebration will
be under the auspices of the Petworth Citizens’
Association.
This afternoon there will be a Christmas
entertainment at Washington Barracks, when Kris
Kringle will appear with a bag laden with toys and
good things for the children. The tree will be
on the platform of the post exchange building. A
musical program will be given by the post band.
At the Central Presbyterian Church, where the
President attends services, gift-bringing as well
as gift-giving was a feature of the Christmas
exercises. For that reason the services were held
on Monday, and gifts brought at that time are being
sent to the Lynchburg Orphanage, the Mountain
School, at Grundy, Va., and the Red Cross war
fund, to the city missions, and several charities
of the city.
At the Neighborhood House, Friendship House, and
Noel House, there will be Christmas trees, and
celebrations extending until New Year, with daily
features, such as entertainments, plays, musicales,
and other provisions for the children of those
neighborhoods.
Students from Washington who are attending colleges
and schools away from Washington began to pour into
the city to-day, and enlivened the crowds on F
street. Washington schools and colleges have closed
for the holidays. Many activities have been planned
for the holidays by students at George Washington
University. Teas, dances, suppers, banquets, and
theater parties are among the functions planned
by fraternities, student societies, and groups of
students.
* * * * *
CHRISTMAS IN CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
_Providence Journal_
“Hey, you, I got more Christmas presents ’n you
did. An’ I gotta pitcher taken thing with a snake
in it. Wot’dju git?”
“I gotta chu-chu, an’ a lotta other stuff and
things. An’, an’, I gotta dawg.”
This was the conversation, no, only a part of
the dialogue, which passed between Little Jimmie
Trupper and Mildred Conner at the Rhode Island
Hospital yesterday afternoon, after Santa Claus had
entered through the window and dispensed his good
cheer from a tree which stood in the centre of the
children’s ward.
Jimmie has been in a form for months, being treated
for spinal trouble. He could only move his hands,
roll his head and laugh. But, oh, how he did laugh,
and sing, too. And little Mildred, she was strapped
to a board. Mildred has not advanced far enough to
be taken off the board and put into a form; but
she, too, could move her hands and roll her head
and laugh and cuddle her “dawg” to her bosom.
The ward contains 39 children at present, suffering
from injuries and being treated for various
ailments. Perhaps some of them will never have
another Christmas. But if you had closed your eyes
and heard them laughing and singing, you would
never have thought you were in a hospital. Many of
them were able to sit up, and so that they could
all be in one room, two were put in some beds.
Those who could sit up had little red wrappers over
their nighties, and propped up around the sides of
the room, they looked for all the world like little
animated red holly berries.
Santa was delayed. He told them he had gotten as
far as the grounds, and then, having forgotten
one present, had to drive 5000 miles back to his
ice-covered palace. And then, when he returned,
Jerry, one of his reindeers, had fallen into the
pond in front of the hospital, and it had taken two
hours to fish him out; honest, it did.
But, oh, what a reception he received. Thirty-nine
little bed-ridden tots singing “Jingle Bells” when
he bounded in the window. Singing, did we say?
Could they sing? You should have heard them. Angels
never sang sweeter. They warbled and caroled, just
as if they were as free as the birds, instead of
being inmates of a hospital ward.
And, my, what a tree! It touched the ceiling, and
its boughs hung down with its heavy burdens. Only
a Christmas tree can bear such products--and such
trees as that one don’t grow everywhere and don’t
bring such cheer. There were dolls and games,
houses and boats, dogs and cats, stoves and balls,
and bags and bags of candy. The tree was decorated
with chains and strings of pop corn and Santas
which had been made by the children themselves.
The presents were given out first, and then came
the candy and oranges. The bags of candy were torn
open, almost greedily, and there was a general
sticky munching.
“Aren’t you afraid you will make yourself sick
eating so much candy?” Richard Lynch was asked.
“No, I ain’t,” he replied. “I never gits sick.”
Richard has been in a form a long time now, and so,
of course, he’s not sick. Alfred Morrisetti was
in the next bed, and between crammings of sweet
stuffs, they compared their much-valued presents.
“Didja see my ball?” asked Richard, as he held up a
rubber ball which he will hardly be able to get the
full benefit of for a long, long time yet.
“Yes, but it ain’t half as nice as my bug,” Alfred
replied, holding up a wriggley creature which
shivered and shook as it was waved about. “I’m
goinna call it Hinny ’cause its all on hinges.”
There was little Mary Hayes, another spinal case,
who received a set of dishes and a broom and a dust
pan and insisted she was going to play “keeping
house.” Each present was better than the other, and
there were many for each patient.
Flitting from bed to bed, winding up toys and
adjusting pillows was Miss Laura B. Anderson,
the nurse in charge of the ward. Along with Miss
Anderson was Miss Margaret Smith, the children’s
teacher, who taught them the songs they sang, and
makes herself much beloved by the young charges
entrusted to her care.
Many convalescent adult patients were present,
having been helped in from other wards. They were
all remembered, too, as well as the children, when
the candy and fruits were passed out by Dr. H. D.
Clough, who played the part of Santa Claus. Several
trustees, a number of the house staff and visiting
doctors, with their wives, were also present.
Music was furnished by Miss Virginia Boyd
Anderson’s Orchestra. Piano solos were rendered by
Dr. N. B. Cole and instrumental duets by Drs. Cole
and W. O. Rice. A vocal quartet was also made up of
Drs. Cole, Rice, H. G. Calder and B. H. Buxton. In
every part of the programme the children joined and
clapped until one would have thought their little
hands would be sore.
Early this morning the nurses visited various
parts of the hospital singing carols. The choir
from Grace Church will sing at the hospital this
afternoon and St. Stephen’s choir will be there
Sunday afternoon. To-day the children will have
another presentation, when they will be visited by
their parents and friends.
* * * * *
CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME
_New York Times_
Just as the strolling players of old England put up
their booths in the public square, so the players
of Stuart Walker’s Portmanteau Theatre arranged a
stage for a pantomime last night in Madison Square.
The play, it had been announced, would begin at 9
o’clock, but many of the players were unable to get
away from engagements at uptown theatres on time.
Meanwhile the crowd grew.
It was a long wait. The arc lights in the park had
been turned off. The clouds, which were hanging so
low that their soft masses could be seen flying
past the light on the top of the Metropolitan
tower, threatened to pour down a shower at any
minute. All of the lights on the giant Christmas
tree near by had been turned off, except the star,
and the wind whistled and moaned in the tree as it
tossed the waving green branches. Only a band which
was concealed behind the stage kept any liveliness
stirring.
Finally, at 9:30, concealed lights on the stage lit
up the blue scenery and the pantomime began. The
name of the play was “The Seven Gifts, a Fantasy of
Christmas Giving.” The principal characters were
the Wanderer, the Majordomo, the Emerald Queen,
Jack-in-the-Box, the Lowly Man, his Son, the Rich
Man, the Haughty Lady, the Humble Woman, the Brave
Man, the Strolling Player, Pierrot, the Moon Lady,
and the Dear Child. Placards at the side of the
theatre announced the action of the play so that
all might understand.
The trumpeters signaled for silence. The crowd of
about 2,500, which stretched on all the paths as
far as Fifth Avenue, became still. Chimes sounded
as the Wanderer, an old man with a pack on his
back, clad in garb of brown, blue and yellow, came
from among the spectators. He saw the stage with
its closely drawn curtains. What was it all for, he
mutely questioned, and started to pull the curtains
of the theatre within a theatre to investigate,
but at that moment out stepped the prologuist and
answered his question by telling mutely, “The
theatre is for you, Wanderer, and for you and you
and you,” to the audience, “and for all who come to
share this fantasy.”
Then the inner curtain slowly rose and disclosed
the court of the Emerald Queen with her attendants.
In the course of the play seven gifts were brought
to her. The first was Jack-in-the-Box, which
part was taken by Tom Powers, who danced for the
Queen. Then the Lowly Man and his son brought in
a scraggly little Christmas tree, which, however,
being the best they had, was acceptable to the
Queen. The Haughty Lady brought flowers, but would
take no notice of the Lowly Man and his son.
The Richest Man in the World brought to the Queen
many treasures, but when a bubble blew across the
stage and the Queen wished for it, neither he nor
his attendants could capture it. Finally, when he
managed to touch it, it burst.
Then the Humble Woman came with her bird, but when
a cage was brought for it she set it free, refusing
to give it into captivity. The Haughty Lady was
very much touched and became repentant of her proud
action. The Bravest Man in the World then entered
and had an amusing fight with Jack-in-the-Box, who
simulated a tiger. Then came the strolling players
with their play.
Scenery was set up and a pretty story of Pierrot
and the Moon Lady enacted.
The Moon Lady first appeared as an old hag to whom
Pierrot offered food. But she wanted kisses, for
only by the kiss of one who had never kissed a fair
lady could she regain her maidenly form. Pierrot
was evidently the one to do the job, for as soon as
he kissed her she became the beautiful Moon Lady
once again and Pierrot fell madly in love with her.
He chased her, but she eluded him, wafting her veil
tantalizingly in his face. At last, when the sun
rose, she was forced to leave him altogether, and
Pierrot was quite broken up about it.
The seventh gift was from the Dear Child, who
presented her own doll, somewhat the worst for
wear, to the Queen. But this gift came from the
heart and was worth all the others. The Queen told
her that she might take what she would of the many
presents that had been brought. Looking at all the
gifts her eye finally lighted on the bright star at
the top of the great tree in the square. She said
she wanted that, and as the Queen and courtiers
followed her gesture the huge tree burst into
light. The Queen dismissed the others and departed
herself.
Turning, the child saw that the room was empty, and
there was her gift on the throne. She took the doll
to look at each present, but the doll, too, refused
them all. Then the child placed the doll on the
Queen’s throne, to play at being Queen, while the
lights on the stage grew dimmer and dimmer, as the
fantasy ended.
Many left because the narrow paths of the park were
crowded, but had there been one wide-open space,
ten times the number could have seen the play.
* * * * *
LAST DAY FOR STRAW HATS
_Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin_
Died, on August 31, 1909, at 60 minutes past 11,
S. Traw Hatt, aged 92 days and some minutes, at
his late place of abode at 41144 Cranium place.
Deceased was a prominent figure in the downtown
district, being usually accompanied by a band. His
démise was not unexpected but was nevertheless a
shock to many who were accustomed to take chances
with the lake breezes until far into autumn. Hatt
and Dame Fashion were closely allied during the
summer silly season, but his departure from this
existence apparently is not mourned by the fickle
despot, who herself had foretold that September
1 would see the last of Hatt. Hatt, despite his
unmistakable masculinity, was frequently mistaken
for the mysterious Miss Dolly Dimples of The
Evening Wisconsin, and it was a common sight to
see him madly pursued by a score of irate but
prominent citizens in the vicinity of Grand avenue
bridge on a windy day. It probably was because of
Hatt’s close proximity to many classic brows that
he was so popular in various Greek boot-black
establishments, where the swarthy sons of Hellas
spent ten minutes at a time in putting him through
oxalic baths with the hope of insuring longevity
and pristine luster. Hatt’s only near relatives
are Miss Peach B. Asket and Mrs. Sue P. Bowle.
Appropriate requiem services will be held at the
board of trade today. Interment will be in the
family attic or a handy ash barrel. Inscribed on
the tomb will be the legend:
“We loved our Straws but oh you Felts.”
* * * * *
BANQUET
_New York World_
In response to the toast, “The Land o’ Cakes,”
Andrew Carnegie, speaking last night at the St.
Andrew’s Society banquet, practically rolled all
the cakes there are into one big doughnut, bit off
the entire rim for Scotland, and left England,
Ireland, America, Asia and Africa to divide the
hole among themselves.
Entirely surrounded by Scotch flags, Scotch music,
Scotch whiskey and gentlemen in kilts, Mr. Carnegie
looked the most pleased man in the world as he got
up to speak. He had just led the singing of the
“Star Spangled Banner,” and “God Save the King,”
and remarked in his first paragraph that he hadn’t
much voice left for his speech.
But, with Scotland for a text, he managed to talk
brawly for about twenty minutes, and by the time
he was back in his seat Scotland had claimed
everything in sight.
“Scotland is a land of small population, but her
sons, though few, are deep,” said the Ironmaster.
Everybody laughed at that, but Mr. Carnegie held up
a deprecating hand and said that he wasn’t trying
to be funny, that he was seizing the occasion to
make known just a little of what Scotchmen had done
for the world.
Whereupon he harked back to the fifth century, at
which time he declared mankind began to look to the
land o’ cakes for pattern and example.
Running then somewhat rapidly down the centuries,
he maintained that for all those years Scotland had
been supreme in three branches above all others:
religion, politics and education.
Nobody on earth, for instance, ever had more
religious liberty than Scotchmen have always had.
The humblest cotter over there was as free to
worship His Maker in his own way as was His Majesty
the King. Mr. Carnegie had observed that much in
Scotland in his boyhood and had been forcibly
struck with it every time he had been back since.
In America, to sum up on the count of religious
liberty, there is as much liberty as in Scotland,
but no more, and, anyway, America borrowed the idea
from the free kirk.
When he came down to political greatness, Mr.
Carnegie gave his hearers a shock. The United
States owed its Constitution to a Scotchman, Judge
Wilson, and Mr. Carnegie proved it by quoting a
letter which he said George Washington had written
Wilson, saying “we owe the American Constitution to
you.”
Quickly slipping in Alexander Hamilton, making
him as Scotch as possible and crediting him with
everything that hadn’t been already cornered by
Judge Wilson, Mr. Carnegie then got along to the
matter of education, and showed that Scotland, as
copied by America, led the world.
Witness John Witherspoon, of the early days of
Princeton, America’s model educator ever since. On
account of him and for all the aforesaid reasons,
said Mr. Carnegie, a Scotchman always feels
at home in the United States; Scotland is his
mother, America is his wife, and there is nothing
inconsistent in his loving both.
Besides Mr. Carnegie, the speakers of the evening
were Hamilton Mabie, Gen. Leonard Wood, E. Theodore
Martin, Irving Bacheller, Julius M. Mayer, Dr.
Alexander McGregor and Harry Lauder. Lauder
responded to the toast “Honest Men an’ Bonnie
Lassies”; Gen. Wood, to the “Army and Navy.”
A bagpipe band played alternately with a string
orchestra, and a lot of the Scotsmen present came
in kilts and bare legs. It was noticeable, though,
that most of the latter wore long fur overcoats and
went home in closed automobiles.
In addition to Lauder, Messrs. John Reid, E.
Theodore Mayer and George A. Fleming, all well
known Scottish singers, enlivened the evening with
ballads. A few of those present were:
Robert Foulis, Frank W. McLaughlin, Rev. David G.
Wylie, Alexander McGregor, of Boston; Lieut.-Col.
Allan C. Bakewell, Dr. Neil MacPhatter, Rev.
Anthony H. Evans, D. D., Evert Jansen Wendell,
Gen. John T. Lockman, Edgar L. Marston, Rev.
George Alexander, Robert C. Ogen, Courtenay Walter
Bennett, British Consul-General at New York;
J. Edward Simmons, president of the Chamber of
Commerce, and Rear-Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, U.
S. N.
* * * * *
SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT
_New York Times_
The crippled children of Public School 2, Primary,
almost believed that they were the butterflies
and bees and flowers that they impersonated in
the playlet of “Cinderella in Flowerland” in
the auditorium of Public School 62, at Hester
and Essex Streets, yesterday afternoon, for the
entertainment of the primary children of other
schools in the neighborhood. And a happy woman was
Mrs. Elizabeth Waldo Schuarz, Principal of Public
School 2, Primary, who has taken the crippled
children’s annex under her special supervision. As
the children sang and haltingly danced on their
unstable little legs she smiled and almost wept by
turns.
Other grown-ups in the audience, too, had recourse
to handkerchiefs as children dressed as butterflies
fluttered in, some with creaking braces on their
legs, singing:
Lightly, lightly winging, on the breezes swinging,
Airy little fairies, full of grace and glee,
Dancing with the sunbeams, weaving dainty day dreams,
Could mortals be as light and free? Airy fairies we!
It was the old story of Cinderella, but the
characters were flowers, Sunshine, Bonnie Bee, the
good old Godmother, and Mother Nature. Cinderella
was a daisy bud, and because her petals had not yet
unfolded she had no fine dress to wear to the ball
of Prince Sunshine. Cinderella was Marie Schatter,
who is well on the road to recovery from a bad
case of curvature of the spine. The stepsisters,
Hollyhock and Tiger Lily, were proud indeed,
although they did limp a little.
Mother Nature, the good fairy godmother, however,
summoned Bonnie Bee, who, in his efforts to call
the sunshine to open Cinderella’s petals, quite
forgot that he had a tubercular knee. When the
sunshine did come and Cinderella’s petals opened
up, she smiled as only a little girl who has
suffered much can smile.
At the ball the part of the Prince was taken by
Celia Weller, who has not lost hope that her back
may some day be straight. Among the flowers was a
little girl, all in white, who carried a bunch of
blossoms almost as big as her stunted self.
The play from the ball on followed the time-honored
version. In the final scene, where the Prince finds
his true love by the try-on of the tiny slipper,
all the thirty children in the play came upon the
stage.
In spite of their physical handicaps, the children
put great spirit into the play, much to the credit
of the educational system that lifts little
sufferers into Fairyland.
* * * * *
CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL ENTERTAINMENT
_New York Mail_
A sweet-faced woman stood beside the crib of little
Jack MacIntyre in the surgical ward of St. Mary’s
Free Hospital for Children this afternoon, and
watched him hold court with the little queens of
Fairyland, whom De Wolf Hopper had imported from
the Majestic theatre. Above the crib was a copper
plate bearing the inscription, “In Loving Memory
of Katherine Harris Wilkes,” and it was between
this plate and the happy group paying homage to
little Jack that the woman divided her attention.
Sometimes it seemed as if tears were responsible
for the glistening in her eyes, but this impression
died away when her gaze rested on the little man in
the crib.
He was a happy little fellow, and his smile was
contagious. Even the staid little members of the
“Pied Piper” chorus, exalted to the pinnacle of
dignity by being permitted to take part in a
“benefit performance,” melted before it. They had
approached his crib shyly, but the effusiveness of
his greeting was irresistible.
“I was goin’ home to-day,” he gurgled, “but I’m
goin’ to stay now for the show. I like shows, I
do, and I like”--this with an arch smile--“I like
girls, too.”
“You little dear,” said Miss Marguerite Clarke, who
plays the part of Elvira in the Hopper show. Jack
accepted this tribute complacently, for when one is
four years old and the pet of an entire hospital
staff, homage becomes almost commonplace.
“Which of these little girls do you like best?”
queried the smiling nurse, who was chaperoning
Jack’s guests. Now Jack’s last name is MacIntyre,
and he proved right then and there that he was a
bona fide “Mac,” blarney and all.
“I like,” he said, and his eyes roved smilingly
over the entire party, “I like ’em all.”
This diplomatic answer won so much commendation
from the little girl guests that it is probable
that Jack would still be holding court if the
performance planned to gladden both him and his
little comrades had not been scheduled to start at
1 o’clock sharp. Chirps of impatience from other
parts of the ward warned the party that their visit
must be cut short; so the little fairy queens
left Jack and prepared for their entrance on the
miniature stage which had been erected in the
middle of the big room. Only the sweet-faced woman
who had stood silently beside the crib remained,
and Jack turned his beaming face upon her.
“Are you happy, dear?” she said.
“Sure,” he chuckled; “there’s goin’ to be a show.
Ain’t you never seen a show?”
The woman turned from him a second and looked up at
the inscription on the plate above his crib. Then
she looked down at his smiling face again and said:
“It’s been a long time since I have seen one,
dear, but I’m going to watch the show here to-day
with you. May I?”
“Sure,” he said. And then he stretched his tiny arm
through the bars of the crib and laid his moist
little hand in hers--“You and me, together.”
* * * * *
LAWN FETE
_Kansas City Times_
A quaint old fashioned garden, gay with rose
trees and wistaria-twined archways, a garden
which blossomed in a day, was the setting for
the delightfully costumed fete given yesterday
afternoon for the benefit of the little sufferers
of Mercy Hospital. Girls in primitive Yorkshire
peasant garden smocks assisted in the welcoming of
those who came to see the pageant and to give their
mite for charity. Little ones of every age who
followed the “pied piper” were reproductions of the
children of Kate Greenaway. Flowered chintzes gave
aid to the blossoms in the garden in adding to the
color effect.
It was a fete for the delight of all the grownups,
but it really belonged to the little Miss Muffets
and their brothers and sisters. This little bit
of a Mother Goose child was there in the person
of Mary Belden, who looked so bewitching in her
flowered ankle-long frock demurely laced in front
with velvet ribbon, her fascinating mob cap and
strapped white slippers that even then she might
have been in a terrible fright of the wicked spider
had it not been for the wonderful mitts she wore.
They were quaint and black, and Miss Muffet’s pride
in them apparently gave chase to her timidity.
Riding a pony with all his might was little J. W.
McGarvey. A pale blue long-tailed coat had he, and
a stunning high hat sat proudly and securely on his
head.
Betty Banks wore a long yellow postilion coat over
her pretty white frock and also a big black riding
hat.
Far from contrary and altogether fascinating were
the “pretty maids all in a row,” and even the
original contrary Mary might have been forgiven for
her contrariness had she appeared in the frock
this Mary (Miss Virginia Aikins) wore. Her costume
was a checkered one in many hues, banded about the
bottom with velvet ribands. Her big, big hat in
Leghorn and her extensive lace collar gave her a
very important air.
The pretty maids were decked in flowered frocks
of gayest chintzes, bobbing poke bonnets and Maud
Muller hats. Ribbon streamers mingled with their
curls and gave to the costumes a graceful touch.
The two little Pussy Cats were attractive little
kittens in posied skirts and black coats.
Almost too heavy for little Jacky Horner was the
big Christmas pie. But the broadly checked long
trousers and the checked “runabout” composed a very
stunning suit.
Too pretty to tumble in were the costumes of Jack
and Jill, Virginia and Penelope Smith. Jack’s suit
of sprigged chintz and Jill’s plaid swirling skirts
were topped by a high hat and a bright bonnet with
plaid bands. With his faithful crook, a gay yellow
suit and a cocked hat Little Bo Peep took his way
after his sheep very energetically.
“The Merchantmen” were costumed in velvet doublets
and hose. These were in bright blue and rose and
green and purple. Their velvet Beef-eater hats were
true to the type and very becoming to the wearers.
Outside the garden the grounds were turned into
Arcady where booths were created into miniature
kingdoms, the prettiest of the young matrons
and girls presiding. Miss Felice Lyne and her
assistants, Mrs. William Perry, Miss Virginia
George, Miss Dorothy George, Miss Helen Furguson,
Miss Katherine Harvey and Mrs. C. N. Seidlitz, jr.,
were at the refreshment booth. Miss Lyne sold the
cigarettes there.
Miss Josephine Bird, Miss Elizabeth Marsh and Miss
Ada Lee Porter served at another booth near.
All these young women wore the picturesque
garden smock and some type of hat which properly
accompanied it.
Pretty peddlers everywhere were dressed in airy
summer frocks with skirts of great expanse,
ruffle trimmed and suggestive in every way of
the picturesque Victorian era. They were selling
sweets and flowers and balloons. To the lot of Mrs.
Kenneth Dickey fell the task of disposing of the
balloons. Mrs. Dickey wore a white net gown trimmed
in velvet bands and a large hat with transparent
brim. A silk sport coat added a bit of color.
Among the other venders who plied their trade for
charity’s sake were:
Miss Annette McGee,
Miss Virginia Beeler,
Miss Elizabeth Dodge,
Miss Catherine Firey,
Miss Madeline Dickey,
Miss Gwendolyn Green,
Miss Flora Markey,
Miss Dorothy Johnston,
Miss Florence Haight,
Mrs. List Peppard,
Miss Helen Foran,
Miss Ada Lee Porter,
Miss Josephine Bird,
Miss Elizabeth Marsh,
Miss Elizabeth Cook,
Miss Helen Mace.
* * * * *
JUBILEE SERVICE IN CATHEDRAL
_New York Evening Post_
It is seldom that New York goes to church in honor
of a foreign potentate, and a royal monarch at
that. Yet some thousands filled St. Patrick’s
Cathedral to-day to listen to a solemn high mass,
celebrated with all the stately pomp of the Roman
Catholic ritual, in honor of the diamond jubilee of
his “Apostolic Majesty Francis Joseph I, Emperor
of Austria and King of Hungary, of Bohemia, of
Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of
Jerusalem, Archduke of Austria, Count-Prince of
Hapsburg, Seigneur of the Wendish March, Grand
Voyvode of Servia,” and any number of additional
titles.
Archbishop Farley sat in his high seat at the left
of the chancel, surrounded by monsignori in violet,
while the glimmer of many-hued cassocks, the
rustling of stoles, and the shimmer of the purple
gowns of the acolytes filled the broad altar with a
constant play of shifting colors.
Through windows, high up, the cold early-winter
sunshine poured, warmed by the gracious tones of
the panes, and mingled with the yellow light of the
candles on the high altar. At intervals along the
nave and in the side aisles bunches of electric
lights twinkled dimly.
The church filled rapidly, and by the time the
first premonitory rumbles of the organ started
the echoes flying back and forth among the lofty
arches, the front part, clear across the transept,
was full, and scarce a pew throughout the entire
body of the edifice that did not have its quota of
the devout.
Not all were Austrians or Hungarians, or any one
of the myriad nationalities ruled over by the aged
Emperor-King; not all were Catholics, either. Many
were there simply to do honor to a man who had
ruled the most scattered country in the world for
sixty years, the span of an ordinary man’s life.
In the front pews sat the diplomats and guests of
honor, with here and there among them the glitter
of a uniform or a decoration. An Austrian in the
full uniform of his country’s service, his glazed,
yellow-plumed shako on his arm and sword clanking
at his heels, strode up the centre aisle to a pew.
His stiff pompadour and little moustache reminded
one of the slim lieutenants who haunt the cafés of
Vienna and Buda-Pest. While one felt instinctively
that he would have been out of place on Fifth
Avenue, somehow his strange uniform fitted in with
the atmosphere of the church.
The organ started and the procession of altar boys,
acolytes, priests, and deacons appeared. Candles
glimmered, rose and fell, to the organ’s swelling
prelude. With the clergy ranged in orderly rows
before the altar, the chant of the Te Deum was
taken up by the archbishop. Then the celebrant of
the mass, the Rev. John Hauptmann, and his deacons,
the Rev. Urban Nageleisen, and the Rev. Rudolph
Nickel, clad in shimmering gold vestments, advanced
and commenced the preliminary ceremonies of the
mass.
It was all very beautiful and imposing, and the
vast congregation sat spellbound through the scene,
while the clergy, the celebrants, and the masters
of the ceremonies, the Rev. J. V. Lewis and the
Rev. A. Blaznick, conducted the rites.
Later, there were sermons by the Rev. Ambrose
Schumack and Father Mateus. Father Schumack spoke
in English with a marked German accent, taking for
his text “Fear God, honor the King.” He told of
the work of Francis Joseph, of his long and stormy
reign.
“On this glorious day,” he said, “it would hardly
be fitting to go into the sadnesses of his life.
We may pass over the wars, bloody and terrible,
into which he was dragged; we may pass over the
tragedies in his family history. He is an old man,
who has ruled his country for sixty years, and
who has kept her, until to-day, whole and strong.
He has kept her so, largely, I think, because
of the aid which he has been afforded by Divine
Providence. ‘Fear God; honor the King.’ That is a
motto which can hurt none of us.”
One could not avoid a quiver of historic interest
at the words. Perhaps never, since the days when
Clinton’s grenadiers garrisoned New York, has a
clergyman preached from such a text.
Father Mateus, who followed Father Schumack, spoke
in the Magyar tongue. Many there were in the
audience who leaned forward attentively in their
seats, drinking in the unwonted words. To them it
was like a breath fresh from the fatherland. But
the majority of the audience could only appreciate
the priest’s fine delivery, which sent his resonant
words clanging distinctly into every farthest
corner of the building.
At last, Father Mateus climbed down from the
pulpit, and the service was continued. And
then, when it was nearly time to go, the whole
congregation rose and joined with the choir and the
priests in singing the mighty “Volkshymne,” which
runs:
Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze
Unsern Kaiser, unser Land!
Maechtig durch des Glaubens Stuetze,
Führ’ er uns mit weiser Hand!
Lass uns seiner Vaeter Krone
Schirmen wider jeden Feind;
Innig bleibt mit Habsburg’s Throne
Oesterreichs Geschick vereint.
Besides Mayor McClellan and his secretary, others
who attended were Patrick McGowan, president of the
Board of Aldermen; Lawrence Grosser, president of
the Borough of Queens; Louis H. Haffen, president
of the Borough of the Bronx; Bird S. Coler,
president of the Borough of Brooklyn; Thomas F.
Murphy, assistant postmaster; Robert Watchorn,
immigration commissioner; Samuel S. Koenig,
secretary of State-elect; Rear-Admiral Goodrich;
Gustave Lindenthal, Judge Hough of the United
States District Court, and the justices of the
Supreme Court, Charles H. Truax, Henry Bischoff,
jr., Leonard A. Giegerich, John W. Goff, Mitchell
E. Erlanger, Lorenz Zeller, and W. H. Olmstead. The
city magistrates were represented by Henry Steinert
and Peter T. Barlow.
Practically all the diplomatic representatives
of the various governments maintaining consular
offices in this city were present, including the
Austrian consul-general, Baron Otto Hoenning
O’Carroll; the Austrian consul, Georg von
Grivicic; Karl Buenz, the German consul-general;
Leg. Rat Karl Gneist, German consul; the Count
Hannibal Massiglia, Italian consul-general;
Courtenay W. Bishop, English consul; Étienne
Lanel, French consul; Baron A. Schlippenbach,
Russian consul-general; Kokichi Midzune, Japanese
consul-general; John R. Planten, consul-general of
the Netherlands; Julius Clan, consul-general of
Denmark; Jose Joaquim Gomes dos Santos, Brazilian
consul-general; Jose V. Fernandez, consul-general
of Argentina; Ricardo Sanchez-Croz, consul-general
of Chili; Wallace White, consul-general of
Paraguay; Juon J. Ulloa, consul-general of Costa
Rica, and Ramon Bengoeches, consul-general of
Guatemala.
The officers of the Austrian Society of New York,
Emil Fischel, Dr. Edward Pisko, Dr. Karl Weiss, and
Leopold Selzer, together with many of the members,
were likewise present.
* * * * *
UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT
_New York Evening Post_
NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 17.--Seven hundred and
seventy-eight degrees were conferred upon students
of the class of 1914 at the 213th commencement
exercises of Yale University here to-day. The
ceremonies were held in Woolsey Hall, in the
presence of a great and distinguished academic
gathering. Twenty-one honorary degrees were
conferred, among them that of doctor of laws on
Romulo S. Naon, Ambassador from the Argentine to
the United States, and now one of the envoys in the
mediation proceedings at Niagara Falls.
The same honor was awarded to Surgeon-Gen. William
Crawford Gorgas, who yesterday received the degree
of doctor of science from Princeton. In view of the
centennial celebration of the Yale Medical School,
it was natural that the number of medical men to
receive honorary degrees should be much greater
than usual.
The gathering of the candidates for degrees was
preceded by the customary procession, formed in
Vanderbilt Court, through the central green and
thence through College Street to Woolsey Hall,
while the Trinity Church chimes on the Green
and the band which headed the procession played
“Onward, Christian Soldiers.” The formal exercises
included music conducted by Prof. Horatio Parker,
dean of the Music School. Three of the numbers
were composed by Jean Sibelius, who was among
the recipients of honorary degrees. Prayer was
offered by the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, of
New York City, a member of the Yale Corporation.
Prof. Wilbur L. Cross, of the Scientific School,
presented the candidates for honorary degrees.
For work done in the various departments of the
University the 778 degrees were conferred as
follows: In Yale College, 287 bachelors of arts,
313 bachelors of philosophy; in the School of
Divinity, 27 bachelors of divinity; in the School
of Law, 29 bachelors of laws, 6 masters of laws,
2 doctors of laws, 2 bachelors of civil laws; in
the School of Forestry, 24 masters of forestry; in
the Graduate School, 32 doctors of philosophy and
30 masters of arts; in the Sheffield Scientific
School, 1 degree of electrical engineer, 2 of civil
engineer, 8 of mechanical engineer, 4 of engineer
of mines; in the School of Fine Arts, 1 bachelor
of fine arts and 2 bachelors of music. The prizes
in all departments were announced yesterday, and
the chief honors were published in the _Evening
Post_.
Of the men receiving honorary degrees, the
following were awarded the degree of Master of Arts:
Edwin Howland Blashfield, mural decorator, winner
of many prizes, and editor of Vasari’s “Lives of
the Painters.”
Edward Robinson Baldwin, M.D., right-hand man
of Dr. Trudeau at Saranac Lake, and an American
authority on tuberculosis.
William Herbert Corbin, ’89, honored because
of his important work as Connecticut Tax
Commissioner.
Capt. Charles Franklin Craig, M.D., ’94, an
officer of the United States Medical Corps, who
has distinguished himself chiefly by work on
malarial and tropical diseases.
John Howland, ’94, professor of pediatrics at
Johns Hopkins University.
James Hartness, president of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, inventor of useful
mechanical parts, instruments, etc.
Henry Hun, Ph.B., ’74, well-known neurologist and
formerly president of the Association of American
Physicians.
Elliott Proctor Joslin, ’90, a physician of note
in Boston, who is connected with the Harvard
Medical School.
Fred Towsley Murphy, ’97, professor of surgery in
Washington University, St. Louis.
Oliver C. Smith, president of the Connecticut
Medical Society, and a leading surgeon of
Hartford.
William Francis Verdi, M.D., ’94, a leading
operative surgeon of Connecticut.
Miss Mary Emma Woolley, president of Mount
Holyoke College.
Jean Sibelius, the leading Finnish composer, was
honored with the degree of doctor of music. The
degree of doctor of science was conferred upon
Edgar Fahs Smith, provost of the University of
Pennsylvania and a well-known American chemist, and
upon Richard Pearson Strong, Ph.B., ’93, professor
in the Harvard Medical School, an authority on
tropical diseases.
Sidney Gulick, professor of theology at Doshisha,
author of “The Social Evolution of the Japanese,”
and influential adviser of the Japanese and
American Governments on matters of race adjustment
on the shores of the Pacific, received the honorary
degree of doctor of divinity.
The following received the degree of doctor of laws:
William Crawford Gorgas, surgeon-general of
the United States, chief sanitary engineer of
the Panama Canal, and a member of the Isthmian
Commission.
George Wharton Pepper, an eminent lawyer and a
citizen vitally interested in the work of Christian
unity and missions.
Rómulo S. Naón, Ambassador of Argentina to the
United States, formerly Minister of Education, and
a jurist of note.
John Kimberly Beach, 77, formerly of the firm
which for many years has been the counsel of the
University, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of Connecticut, and professor of mercantile law and
admiralty jurisprudence in the Yale Law School.
Peter Ainslee, leader in the Church of the
Disciples, worker in the cause of Christian unity,
and the author of the standard history of his
communion.
A commencement week made historical by the
endowment and promise of further endowment in its
centennial year of the Yale Medical School, was
brought to a close by the exercises to-day. In
every way, this week marking the completion of the
213th year of the conferring of Yale degrees is
generally regarded as a notable one. On the class
reunion side, the usual bizarre effects have been
gained by the adoption of class costumes. Various
classes appeared as polo players, Colonials,
British soldiers, and Chinese mandarins, and some
two hundred members of the academic triennial class
were decked out as playing-cards. Many classes
report record attendances, those back for regular
reunions including numerous distinguished sons of
the University. One gathers the impression that
this year’s commencement has brought back greater
numbers than any previous occasion, barring, of
course, the bicentennial celebration, in the fall
of 1901.
Two innovations were tried out this year on the
social side of commencement week. The so-called
“1492 Dinner,” inaugurated some years ago to
provide a Tuesday evening dinner for all returning
graduates not included in regular reunion classes,
was taken over by the class secretaries’ bureau
and rejuvenated under the more formal title of
the “United Graduates’ Reunion Dinner.” Held in
Woolsey Hall, where the Newberry organ was used to
accompany the singing of old Latin hymns, and where
the surroundings were conducive to a more informal
and intimate gathering than in the University
Dining Hall, the dinner was a success under the
new auspices. Charles W. Littlefield, ’03, of New
York, presided, and two of the speakers were John
H. Finley, Commissioner of Education of New York,
and Dudley Field Malone. At the end of the Tuesday
evening reunion celebration, a general alumni
gathering on the College campus brought men of all
classes together. This meeting was an improvement
on last year’s gathering, spectacular fireworks,
general singing, and athletic contests being the
features of the programme.
The final event of the Yale commencement of 1914
was the president’s reception in Memorial Hall this
afternoon.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following two stories show how the same
incident was reported in a Chicago morning paper
and in a New York evening paper of the same day._
COMMENCEMENT INCIDENT
(1)
_Chicago Tribune_
Champaign, Ill., June 17.--[Special.]--Discipline
at the University of Illinois is not what it used
to be in the days when they decided to make an
example of Porter Gray, the boy who wouldn’t go to
chapel.
Chapel cutting in those times was considered a
pretty serious offense; yet here was the Gray boy
back on the campus today with the full knowledge
and consent of the faculty.
And more than that, the faculty--regardless of the
fact that it wasn’t much more than twenty-nine
years ago that he was suspended--patted him on the
back, defied the rules of dignity by joining the
student body in an oskey wow, wow, and wound up by
making him a bachelor of science.
Those of the town folk who saw Porter the day he
packed up his other shirt and collar and marched
defiantly into exile remarked on his changed
appearance on his return. The hair that fringes the
new bald spot on top of his head is gray, he has
become exaggeratedly round shouldered, and he can’t
see without the aid of thick lensed glasses. But
that, says Champaign, is what fast city life will
do to any youngster.
Porter had not been back at school long before he
met another bad boy--a chap named Harrison Coates
Earl, who got into trouble with the university
authorities and left as hastily as his classmate,
Gray. Harrison has changed a lot, too. He has
put on flesh, and he says that even without the
recommendation of his alma mater he got a good
position in Chicago as a municipal judge.
The new school educators in charge at the
university treated Harrison Earl as they did the
Gray boy--only it was a bachelor of literature they
made him.
The two disciplined classmates had been wandering
around the campus unrecognized amid a swarm of
hurrying, nervous seniors. They met at the bursar’s
office.
“Here’s $5--my diploma fee. I’m Gray, ’85,” jerked
Porter through the wicket, when a hand thumped
against his back.
“Gray, ’85, eh; little Port Gray? Why, you’re
suspended for cutting chapel. You’d better get off
the campus before they catch you.”
Gray, ’85, whirled around. He recognized the heavy
handed speaker.
“Harrison Earl,” he cried. “Do you mean to say
they’re taking you back, too?”
“Not Harrison, but Judge Earl, if you please,” said
the other severely. “Your guess is right. They’ve
called me back to get my degree. In a few hours
I’ll be a bachelor of literature. I don’t know,
though, that it’s going to help me any in the law,
but I’ll be glad to get it just the same. How about
you?”
Gray shook his head.
“I’ll be a bachelor of science when they
get through with me at the exercises,” he
answered. “The degree might have done me some
good--twenty-nine years ago--but I don’t think
it’ll be of any great assistance to me now. It
might make me eligible to the University club.
But they probably wouldn’t want me there. I’m a
professional masseur.”
Back in the early ’80’s seniors at the state
university didn’t go in for caps and gowns at
commencement, but it never did take Porter Gray
long to pick anything up. After looking over the
new fangled outfits on display along the campus, he
went into a shop and rented one for himself.
In cap and gown he paraded into the university
auditorium with the rest of the candidates for
degrees. In the section to which he was ushered
he found a dozen familiar faces, all seamed with
wrinkles like his own, and most of them adorned
with spectacles. The owners of the faces remembered
him, too, as he was whispering greetings.
“Will Brown--you still alive? Bob Dunlevy--why,
Bob, you need a shave. Joe Holt, did you come all
the way from California for this?”
To those of his old schoolmates who hadn’t read
of the university’s intention of calling it quits
and conferring on him the degree held back for
twenty-nine years, Gray explained the reason for
his return.
Gray told how, after losing his battle for
reinstatement in the courts, he had decided to
cut himself off forever from the university; how
the alma mater had forgotten his existence, and
then, with the unearthing of some old records, had
“discovered” him and offered him a degree.
“If they had not said the first word I never would
have taken it,” Gray protested. “If I had it to do
all over again I would not change my course. I was
an agnostic, and I am one still. They couldn’t drag
me to chapel if I thought I could put the time to
better use with my books.”
(2)
_New York Evening Post_
CHAMPAIGN, Ill., June 17.--Suspended twenty-nine
years ago because he was an agnostic and would not
attend chapel, Porter Gray, of the class of ’85,
received his degree of bachelor of science from the
University of Illinois to-day.
Gray was working his way through the University
back in the eighties. It was his ambition to become
a Government entomologist. He was forced to take
leave of absence for one year to earn money to
complete his course.
In spite of his narrow means and close attention
to his studies, Gray began to acquire a campus
reputation as the man who never went to chapel.
Attendance was compulsory in those days. Selim H.
Peabody, then president of the University, called
Gray on the carpet, but the student was firm.
“I am an agnostic,” he said. “I will not go to
chapel.”
“Write a statement that chapel attendance is
repugnant to your religious convictions, and that
will suffice,” said Dr. Peabody.
“I will not. I have no religious convictions; I am
an agnostic. I simply will not attend chapel,” said
Gray.
He was suspended forty days before he was to have
been graduated.
President Edmund J. James, of the University, came
upon the papers in Gray’s old and forgotten case a
short time ago when he was engaged in rounding up
the old alumni for a home coming. He wrote to Gray
in Chicago, and urged him to visit the University.
Gray, embittered by a vain fight that had taken
his last dollar years ago and had ended only in
the State Supreme Court, to compel the University
to give him his degree, replied curtly that all
he wished the University to do was to forget him.
President James wrote again that chapel rules were
obsolete now, and that they wanted to give Gray his
belated degree. Gray came here to-day, and from a
big crowd of undergraduates he will hear for the
first time the cheer of Illinois. College yells
were not much known in Gray’s day here.
* * * * *
UNIVERSITY CLASS DAY
_New York Sun_
The Columbia seniors had an honorary valedictorian
at their class day exercises yesterday afternoon
whose name was not on the programme but whose
presence on the platform called for ten minutes’
continual cheering. Fifty years after he had been
graduated, and upon the eve of his retirement
from the university, Dean John Howard Van Amringe
became an honorary member of the class of 1910, and
yesterday, when the class was celebrating its last
reunion as undergraduates, Van Amringe, ’60, made a
farewell address to the class.
When the class marched out of the gymnasium at
the conclusion, the white haired dean and the
senior president went out side by side, on the
“pilgrimage” to Hamilton Hall, where the class ivy
was planted.
The exercises were held early in the afternoon in a
room thronged with the relatives and friends of the
graduates, who marched into the gymnasium dressed
in academic cap and gown. Robert Scarborough
Erskine delivered the president’s address of
welcome. Francis N. Bangs, a son of Francis S.
Bangs, who had much to do with the abolition of
football at Columbia five years ago, was the class
historian, and he divulged class secrets. He made
the statement that a ballot of the class showed
that forty-one of the eighty-seven members have
more than a passing liking for beverages stronger
than water, while fifty-two delight in using
tobacco. Bangs did not go any further into the
intimate history of the class.
Harry Wilson of Sioux Falls, S. D., was selected
the most popular man in the class, the one who
has done most for Columbia, the most likely to
succeed, likewise the noisiest, and the biggest
politician. Howard Delane was chosen the best all
around man and the best natured; he was elected
the recipient of the alumni association prize to
the most faithful and deserving student, which is
the highest honor a senior at Columbia can gain.
John Mentil was elected the best athlete; that
distinction he gained with ease because he has been
captain of a championship basketball team and is on
the varsity baseball team. Clarence Renton won the
rather doubtful honor of being the biggest fusser
and likewise the most foolish man in the class.
Sidney Glide took first place in the race for most
conceited and grouchiest while Arthur Schuarz was
designated the laziest, biggest sport and biggest
bluffer.
The statistics of the class as a whole showed that
the average height was 5 feet 10½ inches, the
average weight 151 pounds and the average age 21
years 5 months, making the 1910 men the youngest
set that has been graduated from Columbia in some
time. Most of the members of the class were born
and live in New York, although every part of the
country is represented. Thirty-one men intend to
study law, ten will take up engineering, nine have
chosen medicine and eight will go into business.
The others were hazy as to just what they were
going to do, or were too modest to tell about their
plans. More than half the class is Republican, and
there are only ten Democrats. One man declared
himself a “Bryan Republican.”
The class decided that Prof. Hervey was the best
teacher and the hardest professor to bluff. Prof.
Charles Arthur Beard was elected the most popular
professor, and William Clinton Densmore Odell, a
brother of the ex-Governor and a professor in the
English department, was elected the most polished.
The history department was considered the best
in the university, while the French department
increased its lead in the contest for the least
desirable, getting the fifteenth successive annual
vote for that honor.
Benjamin Berinstein, one of the two blind men in
the class, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, with
Thomas Alexander, Paul Williams Aschner, Ernst
Phillip Boas, Mortimer Brenner, Louis Grossbaum,
John Dotha Jones, Russell Thorp Kirby, Herman
Joseph Muller, William de Forest Pearson, Edward
Heyman Pfeiffer, Maurice Picard and Rollo Linsmore
de Wilton.
Berinstein stood at the head of the list. He has
studied for the last year in the law school, having
completed the first three years of his course
in the college last June. James Henry Mullin,
the other blind member of the class, received
commendation for his work.
Condict W. Cutler read the class poem, and the
class prophecy was delivered by C. Homer Ramsdell
of Newburgh, N. Y. Geddes Smith of Paterson, N. J.,
made the ivy oration, after William Langer and Dean
Van Amringe had delivered their valedictories.
William Allen White will deliver the annual Phi
Beta Kappa address in Earl Hall this afternoon, on
“A Theory of Spiritual Progress.” In the morning
the seniors and the faculty will play the annual
baseball game on South Field.
CHAPTER IX
ILLNESS AND DEATH
In this class of news stories are included those concerning the illness
or death of persons known in the community or in the world at large,
as well as those dealing with illness, surgical operations, and deaths
that are sufficiently unusual to be matters of general interest.
Stories of this kind are primarily informative in character, but the
importance of the personal element permits effective human interest
development. Pathetic phases of illness or death sometimes give value
to news that otherwise would be of slight interest. The seriousness of
the subject demands dignity of treatment.
In writing an obituary the purpose should be not only to give
biographical facts but to bring out the significance of a personality.
A well written obituary is a constructive interpretation of the meaning
of a person’s life and work.
* * * * *
ILLNESS
_Kansas City Star_
NEW YORK, Nov. 23.--Ye Olde Caxton Book
Shop, Brooklyn, was closed long after 7 o’clock
yesterday morning. Nobody stirred behind the brown
paper curtains which hung on a coarse string over
an improvised cross wall of musty old volumes,
their titles long ago hidden beneath a layer of
dust.
Solicitous neighbors, tradesmen of the block,
children on their way to school peered eagerly, but
vainly, through the rain-streaked window, beyond
careless rows of less ancient authors and orderless
festoons of classical sheet music. Mere solicitude
increased to anxiety, and anxiety to fear that an
old man, loved by the neighborhood, had died among
his treasures.
Some one told the police and two men came to
force the door, with an ambulance surgeon from
the Bushwick Hospital, ready to give him aid if
needed. Richard Wright was not dead, but how much
longer he would have lasted if help had not come is
uncertain. He lay there on a rude couch, home made
and stretched across cases of books in the back of
his store. Hunger, added to the natural weakness
and feebleness of his 78 years, had almost claimed
him for its victim.
“No, no,” he feebly said. “Don’t take me to the
hospital; I’m too old. I don’t want to cause
trouble to anyone. I want to die quietly among my
books.”
Nailed against one of the bookcases was a small
notice on black tin, “We refer all needy cases to
the Brooklyn Charity Bureau.”
* * * * *
INDIAN DYING
_Milwaukee Free Press_
Tse-Ne-Gat is very weary.
Soon he must go on the long, long journey,
following the shadowy trail of all his people.
For the white man’s plague has laid its ruthless
hand upon him, and the white man’s plague has done
what the white man’s rifles and the white man’s
courts could never do. It has broken the spirit of
Tse-Ne-Gat, and the heart of sorrowful old Ma Old
Polk.
It was while he waited for the white man’s court to
sit, that the plague came to Tse-Ne-Gat. Justice
the white man gave him, but with justice came the
plague. This is the story of it:
Tse-Ne-Gat, so the government said, murdered Juan
Chacon, Mexican sheep-herder, and for the slaying
Tse-Ne-Gat must be hanged. Cowboys and ranchers
rode into the hills to take him, and Tse-Ne-Gat,
his father and a few followers fought them off.
They had sworn that they would not yield to all the
armed forces of the United States, for they knew
Tse-Ne-Gat had not killed the sheep-herder, and the
Ute should not die a shameful death unjustly.
Then Gen. Hugh Scott, U. S. A., rode into the hills
alone. He promised that the Indian should have
justice, and Tse-Ne-Gat was content. Out of the
hills he rode with Scott, out of the hills and into
the white man’s jail. There he waited until the
white man’s court should sit to grant him justice.
In the jail were other prisoners, and the great
white plague stalked silently among them.
Tse-Ne-Gat, pining for the hills and the arroyos
and the great open spaces of the Ute reservation,
was a shining mark for its unseen fatal arrows. So
Tse-Ne-Gat began to cough the cough that all men,
white or red, fear most of all, for it has not even
the swift mercy of the rifle bullet.
Attorney W. J. Kershaw, when the call for his
help came from Colorado, left his office in the
Germania building[C] to appear as counsel for
Tse-Ne-Gat, and before the court of United States
Judge Robert E. Lewis, in Denver, he acquitted him.
And Tse-Ne-Gat was free to go back again to the
reservation. Only, the order of the court could not
free him from the white man’s plague, which the
white man’s jail had given him.
[C] Milwaukee.
So Tse-Ne-Gat and old Ma Old Polk went to a
hospital, near Denver. Tse-Ne-Gat made for himself
a long whistle from the green stalk of a plant.
On it he whistled, imitating the calls of the
birds he knew, and so well did he do it that
the birds answered and came to the yard of the
great hospital. That sight the other sufferers
there loved, the sight of Tse-Ne-Gat wrapped in
his blanket, whistling softly to the birds that
gathered at his feet to eat of the crumbs he
scattered for them when they answered his call.
More troubles came. The white man’s doctor said
that he might not smoke and live. His cigaret
was banished. Ma Old Polk was determined that he
should not smoke, so she fought the craving with
him as she watched him. Neither did she smoke, for
his sake, and from the deprivation she suffered
more than he, only she could slip out to the reeds
by the river now and then when the demand seemed
irresistible.
Back at the reservation, Tse-Ne-Gat felt better.
The call of the woods grew stronger, and one
morning Ma Old Polk awoke to find that her son and
his gun were missing, gone no one knew where. That
night he returned, exhausted and broken, until he
could scarcely bear his gun. He wrapped himself
in his blanket, too tired even to whistle for the
birds. It was two weeks before the watchful mother
heard of the rabbits Tse-Ne-Gat had shot but had
been forced by weakness to throw away before he
brought them home.
That is the story that has come to Milwaukee and to
Tse-Ne-Gat’s attorney here, who cannot help him in
this fight. Tse-Ne-Gat still goes walking, but not
so far. He walks as one weary of long traveling.
Sometimes he disappears for half an hour or more.
If the doctors suspect that he is following the
example of his mother and stealing the smoke he
loves so well, they say nothing. They have nothing
but sympathy for Tse-Ne-Gat.
Tse-Ne-Gat has sympathy, too, for the judge who
gave him justice. For he has learned that on the
very day that the story of his own rapidly failing
life had been reported to Judge Robert E. Lewis a
telegram had come to the judge, telling him that
his father, Col. Warner Lewis, was dead. Col.
Warner Lewis was the only survivor of an Indian
massacre in 1863 near where Coffeyville, Kas., now
stands. And it was the son of that sole survivor of
Indian vengeance who gave justice and freedom to
Tse-Ne-Gat.
* * * * *
SURGICAL OPERATION
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
The surgeon’s knife instead of the reformatory; an
operation in place of an application of “the rod.”
Is this the manner in which wayward youths are to
be made good?
The strange case of Anton Heim, a 14 year old
Milwaukee lad, at least lends emphasis to the vast
possibilities for the skilled surgeon as a reformer
of certain criminally inclined persons.
As he came from a good family, there seemed to be
no hereditary reason why Anton should be addicted
to stealing and other mischievous acts. His case
was a puzzle until physicians learned that at the
age of 5 he had been the victim of an accident
in which a door had fallen on him and caused a
dent in his skull, and it was their theory that
the consequent pressure on the brain might have
unsettled his mind and thus affected his actions.
The operation was performed on Oct. 19 in Trinity
hospital by Dr. W. C. F. Witte.
Since then Anton’s taciturn, irritable disposition
has given way to ambitious and honest traits. The
operation has not only meant much for Anton Heim,
but is full of significance as to possibilities
along these lines.
Another case is cited by a Milwaukee physician
wherein a Norwegian youth who received a skull
injury in his childhood before coming to America,
has been relieved through a similar operation and
been changed from a dependent to a self-supporting
man.
“Persons suffering from such skull injuries,”
explained the physician, “are irritable, depressed
and subject to an idea that they are being
persecuted. This Norwegian lad previous to the
operation was thoroughly shiftless. Now he has
been holding a position for three years and has
recovered his ambition and desire to work and save
money.”
* * * * *
SURGICAL OPERATION
_Philadelphia Inquirer_
WASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 19.--By massaging the heart
of a colored boy who was apparently dead, doctors
in the Emergency Hospital succeeded in reviving him.
The boy was under the influence of chloroform, and
the surgeon was operating on an infected knee,
when respiration suddenly ceased. The pulse died
and finally stopped; the body became cold, the
limbs rigid. Artificial respiration was resorted
to, but there was no responding pulsation of the
heart. After six minutes of suspense, during which
the physician resorted to every possible method to
revive the patient, he realized that there was only
one chance to save the boy’s life.
With delicate skill he opened the boy’s abdomen and
for seven minutes massaged the patient’s heart with
his fingers. Finally, when he was about to give up
all hope, the boy took a faint voluntary breath,
and for several minutes the heart pulsated gently.
Plying the heart with his fingers to stimulate
circulation of the blood, the physician after
eighteen minutes had the heart pulsating normally
and knew that he had succeeded in his almost
miraculous operation.
For a day and a half following the operation the
boy remained in excellent condition and every hope
was held out for his recovery. But the infection
of the knee had spread to the left side and had
infected the glands of the neck. Blood poisoning
set in and, despite all efforts to save him, the
boy succumbed.
The operation on the heart is regarded by medical
students as unique in the annals of medicine. It
also opens up a new field in surgery, and means,
physicians say, that many persons who expire while
under anesthetics may possibly be revived by such
methods.
Within a few months several eminent physicians
of this city will conduct vivisection tests to
determine how far the heart massage can be carried.
Dogs will be placed under anesthetics and allowed
to succumb, it is said, so that physicians may
determine after how long an interval an animal
apparently dead may be restored by heart massage.
* * * * *
SUDDEN DEATH
_Chicago Inter Ocean_
While joking with several fellow employes over the
recent baseball trade between the Chicago American
league baseball team and the New York American
league team, Robert Nash, 118 Webster Place, a
clerk employed by Sprague, Warner & Co., 600 West
Erie street, dropped dead from heart disease
yesterday in his place of employment.
Herman Schweitzer, 2849 Christiana avenue, a
department manager, and J. B. Willott, 508 Melrose
avenue, were hoaxing Nash about the trade. They
told Nash that the Chicago team had obtained Chase
of the New York team, a “hoodoo,” and that they
would be unable to win any more games.
Nash laughed at their joke and walked to a chair.
He fell to the floor, and was dead when a physician
arrived.
Nash was one of the oldest employes of the
Sprague-Warner company. He had been in the grocery
company for thirty-seven years. Heart disease is
believed to have caused his death.
* * * * *
ENGINEER’S DYING REQUEST
_Boston Herald_
CHICAGO, Dec 21--Charles W. Walter, veteran
conductor on the Nickel Plate Railroad, died
yesterday on his run from Bellevue, O, to
Chicago, and members of the train crew fought snow
and slippery tracks to carry out Walter’s last
request that No. 1 be brought in on time, thereby
preserving his record of never having been late.
Walter took the train at Bellevue, where he lived,
at 7:55 a. m. yesterday. An hour later he became
ill and placed the train in charge of Samuel
Wilson, an extra passenger conductor.
“Be sure and bring her in on time, Sam, and keep
my record clean,” Walter requested. Stops were
shortened to a minimum. The engineer kept the sand
running on the slippery rails, and his fireman
hardly took his hands from the shovel.
Near Leipsic Junction, where doctors and ambulance
awaited, Walter died. No. 1 pulled into the
Lasalle-st Station, Chicago, on the dot. To the
dispatcher, who was surprised to see him report
instead of Walter, Wilson said: “Charlie has made
his last run, and be sure to put it down we’re on
time.”
* * * * *
WOMAN DIES ALONE
_Kansas City Star_
Police officers forced their way into the home of
Miss Mary R. Wilson, daughter of John H. Wilson, a
former mayor of Kansas City, at 961 Cane Street,
shortly before 6 o’clock yesterday afternoon, and
found her dead in bed in her room on the second
floor. Dr. Harry Czarlinsky, county coroner, said
that the cause of death was pneumonia brought on by
exposure.
Since the death of her mother seven years ago,
Miss Wilson had lived in the big house on Cane
Street alone. She kept no servants and her only
companion was a pet dog, Danny. Miss Wilson, who
was more than 50 years old, had ignored the advice
of friends, who believed she should live with
relatives.
She was last seen alive Thursday night, when Mrs.
B. F. Strong, wife of B. F. Strong, the vicar of
St. James Church, who lives at 965 Cane Street,
noticed her moving about in the rear of the house
with a lamp. Friday passed without either Mrs.
Strong or Mrs. Albert Hart, the neighbor north of
the house, seeing Miss Wilson. The snow had drifted
evenly over the front walk and the blinds at the
window were drawn.
Mrs. Hart telephoned Sanford B. Green and Porter
Home, Miss Wilson’s attorneys. Mr. Green called
several of Miss Wilson’s intimate friends and was
unable to find out anything of her whereabouts. He
then called the chief of police and asked that a
search of the house be made.
When the officers entered the room, they found
Miss Wilson attired in night clothing lying on her
bed. Her pet, Danny, was curled up at the foot of
the bed. Weak from want of food, he growled at
the officers. The coroner said that life had been
extinct twenty-four hours.
A small diary which Miss Wilson had kept for years
testified to her illness. An entry Tuesday read:
“I haven’t felt well all day.” Wednesday it said:
“I think the weather has brought on an attack of
grip.” Thursday’s entry was the last in the book:
“I know I’m in for a bad case of pneumonia.” No
explanation can be given why Miss Wilson did
not get medical attention when she knew she had
pneumonia.
Miss Wilson was a niece of the late David Brewer,
associate judge of the United States Supreme Court.
Her father figured actively in Kansas City politics
as a leader of the Democratic party and in 1874
was elected mayor of this city, a position which
he held two years. He was a widely known business
man. Miss Wilson’s only sister, Ella Wilson, died
in Leavenworth, Kas., in 1865. Her mother, Mrs.
Alice Strong Wilson, died in the family home on
Cane Street in 1907. Miss Wilson had no relatives
in Kansas City.
The body was taken to the Stine undertaking rooms.
* * * * *
DEATH OF VETERAN FIREMAN
_Springfield Republican_
William C. White, 72, veteran fireman, who was
retired from the active service of the fire
department last June after 35 years of continuous
service, died at the Wesson Memorial hospital
yesterday after a long illness. Mr White had been
identified with the fire service of the city for
more than 50 years. During his period of active
service, Mr White spent most of his time as
engineer, taking charge during his later years
of the engines in the North-street fire station.
During his 35 years of service, Mr White was
absent from his post only one month, and then on
account of illness. There was probably no man in
the department who was better known or who was
better liked by the men in the department. He was a
skilful machinist, and his worth to the department
was frequently recognized by the different chiefs
under whom he served.
Mr White was born at Amherst, October 11, 1842. He
removed with his parents to this city when he was
12 years old. He received his early education in
his native town, and after he came here he attended
the Union-street school. His first employment was
in the United States armory, where he practically
completed his trade as machinist. He subsequently
worked for Smith & Wesson for four years as
tool-maker, and it was there that he received the
training which fitted him for his work in the fire
department. While he was employed at the Smith
& Wesson shop, he became a call man in the fire
department. He was appointed to the permanent
service in 1872, just nine years after he became
affiliated with the department as a call man.
His first active duties were as hose-man. He was
stationed at the old fire station, formerly located
in the rear of where the Granite building is now.
His next work was as stoker on the Hanson No 2
engine, stationed on Sanford street. He later
became a full-fledged engineer on the old monitor,
George Dwight. Mr White was later assigned to the
Pynchon-street engine-house, where he served as
engineer on the No 1 engine. He was stationed there
from 1872 until 1876. In 1876 he was transferred
to the Bond-street engine-house, where he remained
until his retirement in June. It was a matter of
notable record in the fire department that during
all this time he ran the old No 1 engine without
experiencing any accidents or having his engine
tied up because of failure to work properly.
When Mr White first became affiliated with the
fire department there were but four companies,
with 26 men each, in service in the city. The
companies were located on Pynchon street, on the
Hill, near the old railroad station, and on Sanford
street. During the early ’70’s the system of
naming fire engines was succeeded by the present
system of numbering them. When Mr White entered
the service, L. H. Powers was chief engineer, and
he was succeeded by Hosea Lombard. It was during
his regime as chief that the present department
actually came into existence. It is a singular fact
that Mr White saw service in the department during
the period that Springfield experienced its biggest
fires. From the date of his connection with the
department until his retirement there were seven
very disastrous fires.
During his many years in the department he was
constantly drafted from one engine-house to
another to do repair work. His expert knowledge
of apparatus made him invaluable in this respect.
When the company at the Bond-street engine-house
was transferred to the North-street station several
years ago, he went with it and remained there until
his retirement, June 15 of this year. Mr White held
several patents on devices used on fire apparatus,
but never troubled to have them put on the market.
Some of these devices, however, have been used with
satisfaction.
Mr White was taken ill last May, and it was with
difficulty that he was persuaded to leave the
active list. He eventually went to the Wesson
Memorial hospital, where he remained constantly
until his death yesterday. Mr White was married,
and for many years lived at 961 Second street.
His wife died a number of years ago, and since
that time he has made his home at the North-street
fire station. He was a member of De Soto lodge of
Odd Fellows and of the Firemen’s aid association.
He leaves no near relatives, but Arthur Green,
secretary of the Putnam woolen mills at Putnam,
Ct., a cousin, is expected in this city to take
charge of the funeral.
The funeral will be held to-morrow afternoon at
Washburn’s chapel. Rev Dr Frank W. Merrick of Faith
church will officiate. The burial will be in the
Springfield cemetery.
* * * * *
DEATH OF A POLITICIAN
_New York Times_
Martin Engel is dead. This does not mean anything
to those unacquainted with New York politics,
nor to those whose political interests have been
quite recently developed, but to the “old-time”
politicians familiar with the days when “Boss”
Croker ruled Tammany Hall and “Big Tim” Sullivan
was the man highest up in the Bowery district the
death of Martin Engel means the passing of another
of the Tammany leaders who led when to be an east
side leader was greater than to be a silk-stocking
Republican.
At the age of 68, several years after he had lost
his leadership in the old Eighth District--“De
Ate,” to those who were of it and in it in the
“good old days”--Martin Engel died yesterday in
his home at 29 East Third Street. He made money in
his business of politics, and it is said that his
son, Alfred S. Engel, will inherit a comfortable
fortune. His death was due to Bright’s disease,
from which he had been a sufferer for some time.
Martin Engel rose to political power when the
immigrant Jews from Russia, Rumania, Bohemia, and
Hungary began to crowd the Irish out of the east
side. The son of a “kosher” butcher, he was born in
the Bowery and began life, after leaving the public
schools, in his father’s butcher shop. After the
death of the father he continued the business, and
even after his business became politics and his
“office” for all important purposes was in “Silver
Dollar” Smith’s Hotel, near the Essex Market Court,
he remained the nominal head of the market, from
which fact he became known in the east side as
“Butcher” Engel.
“Big Tim” Sullivan, Irishman, and Martin Engel,
Jew, were the combination that held the power
in “De Ate,” where fully 80 per cent. of the
fixed and floating voters spoke Yiddish. Engel
was apparently devoted to Sullivan, and was ever
faithful to “Big Tim” in matters political, and,
until the Republican leader, “Charley” Adler, began
to make trouble in the Eighth, he always “swung the
district” at election time.
Those who followed Engel as their political leader
could never, in their own opinion, exaggerate his
virtues. He was generous, as all Tammany leaders
of the east side have been, and he was successful
in “landing jobs” for those who served the party.
Also he was known to have a strong “pull” with
the police, and many an east side youth who “got
in bad” with the authorities owed his liberty to
Engel’s influence. Because of all these things he
was the leader, and because he was the leader he
cultivated the character and quality that enhanced
his leadership.
But to reformers Engel was the personification of a
vice that, though seen with disturbing frequency,
could never be even endured, much less embraced. In
“De Ate” was what was known for many years as “The
Red Light District.” Engel’s political enemies used
to dwell with views of alarm upon the protection
under which the district thrived, and Engel was
always named as the protector.
Those who have seen Engel remember as his most
striking facial characteristic a “dented” nose.
The bridge of his nose had been broken, and until
his death there was a depression in the centre of
his face that never failed to attract attention.
The scar was a mark of Engel’s rise to political
power. He received the original injury in a fight
years ago--and there have been stories of this
fight to Engel’s credit and to his discredit. The
only positive and printable fact is that a man who
became enraged against Engel struck him across his
nose with a bung-starter or some other equally
destructive weapon.
Besides “Silver Dollar” Smith’s hotel, which
later became the property of Engel himself, the
leader of “De Ate” had several “headquarters” in
the district where those who knew his habits and
haunts might find him. His home was at 29 East
Third Street, where he died; but in the days of
his power he could be found most often at some of
his “hanging-out” places--such as the clubrooms of
the Martin Engel Association, at Ludlow and Grand
Streets, or the old Café Boulevard, in Second
Avenue, where, for a number of years, he regularly
received his henchmen between noon and 3 o’clock.
Although the kind of politics accepted as
legitimate by Engel is passing for the good of
society, there are those in the east side who will
feel real regret for the death of their former
leader, for whatever his vices were, Engel was
sympathetic and generous in his own way and in
his moods, and many a family would not have eaten
had he not supplied a meal, many a man or woman
would have gone barefoot had he not furnished
shoes. Also, many a “down-and-outer” would have
gone thirsty if Engel had not “set ’em up” to the
drinks. So, somewhere east of the Bowery, where
there were not many of the Ten Commandments, and
where a man could raise a very great thirst, Engel
had his friends who will mourn him now.
* * * * *
DEATH
_New York Evening Post_
The odor from the chestnut roasters is as fragrant
as ever, the heaped-up mounds of lettuce and kale
on the mile of push carts are just as crisp and
green, and there is the same glistening sheen on
the pyramids of green and scarlet peppers, but,
nevertheless, things seemed altogether different
in Mulberry Bend to-day. There was less noise, the
hurdie-gurdies were not playing, and groups of
dark-haired women talked solemnly on the corners.
Down in front of No. 26 there were many children
looking into the window, but, unlike children of
the Bend, making no noise. That’s where the cause
of all this change was. For No. 26 is Charles
Bacigalupo’s chapel and undertaking rooms, where
for twenty-eight years the services for the
dead of the Italian colony have been held; and
now--Bacigalupo himself is dead.
He was much more than an undertaker. He was a
benefactor of the quarter, a man with a motto of
his own that he lived up to. It hardly could be
called a business motto, but Bacigalupo always
adhered to it in his business, and it was that no
Italian should be buried in the Potter’s Field, if
he could help it.
A north of Italy man and a devout Catholic himself,
“Charlie,” as the colony called him, never asked
what a dead man’s religion had been or whether he
was Sicilian, Neapolitan, or Genoese. The chapel
was always open, day and night, and there was
always a hearse and at least one carriage ready
whether there was anything to pay for them or not.
It was so in the beginning, twenty-eight years ago,
when Bacigalupo, who had come to the country when
he was thirteen, decided that he would no longer
work for undertakers by day and black boots on
Broadway in the evening, but go into business for
himself.
He had saved money enough then to buy a second-hand
hearse and a dilapidated hack. At the outset he
had to hire the horses, and the only room in which
he could do his work was the one room in which he
lived.
Within a week after this start an Italian was
murdered on Mulberry Street. Nobody knew him, and
the body, after the coroner had got his routine
description of all the knife wounds for repetition
in court, was to go to Potter’s Field--after the
usual custom. But Bacigalupo changed the custom so
far as Mulberry Bend was concerned. There was a
real funeral in his room for the unknown victim of
the stiletto, and the man who could not afford to
keep his own horses did all the work and paid all
the bills.
That was when the motto was adopted, and the
records at Bacigalupo’s chapel today show that
he has saved nearly a thousand “unknowns” and
“unfortunates” from the Potter’s Field.
Most of them were Italians, but some were the more
unfortunate white girls of Chinatown.
He prospered in spite of all this free service and
he has averaged three funerals a day for ten days.
From the one room his place developed into a whole
floor, and for the living room in which services
were held for that murdered Italian twenty-eight
years ago, there was substituted a fine chapel with
altar fires and many pictures and tapestries, which
Bacigalupo brought from Rome on his return from
frequent visits to his home country.
But as gorgeous and elegant as the place became, in
the eyes of the Italian quarter, it was still free
for all who could not pay.
Bacigalupo never talked about these things himself
when asked about his business life in the Bend. It
was his private business, the number of big black
hearses he sent, free of charge, for the laborers
who had died while out of work, and the number of
small white hearses with the angel figures on the
side which he had provided for the children whose
parents were penniless. Neither would he talk about
the times he had paid other people’s coal bills or
put a stop to dispossession proceedings by paying
the rent of people whom he simply knew as Italians.
And only his intimate associates knew that he owned
a half-acre in Greenwood Cemetery and another big
lot in Calvary, in which he put the bodies which
otherwise would have gone to the graveyard of the
morgue’s unknown.
All these things Bacigalupo was remarkably reticent
about. On the other hand, there were some things
that he liked to boast of. He used to say, for
instance, that the proudest day in his life was
that in which he drove, himself, the second coach
in Gen. Grant’s funeral. He groomed his own horses
for that procession.
And when Meucci, the Italian patriot who came over
with Garibaldi, died on Staten Island Bacigalupo
had charge of the big Italian funeral service, in
Tammany Hall, and it was the undertaker of Mulberry
Bend who prepared the revolutionist’s body for
shipment to Italy.
When King Humbert was assassinated Bacigalupo had
charge of the memorial service in this city. And
now the most conspicuous pictures at the entrance
to the chapel are those of the dead King and of
President McKinley, both nearly life size.
Bacigalupo also took a little pardonable pride
in the fact that his establishment had grown to
include a big stable with 250 horses, 10 hearses,
and many coaches; that he had the only automobile
hearse in town, and that it was he who introduced
the custom of having dirge-playing bands in the
funeral processions on the Bend.
Four years ago Bacigalupo went to Rome to present
to the Pope $5,000 which had been contributed by
the immigrants in the Italian quarter, and to the
money he added as his own gift a wonderful jewelled
robe for his holiness. The Pope granted him an
audience and gave him his picture and autograph,
which Bacigalupo brought back to Mulberry Street.
Then there was that wonderful Chinese funeral
several years ago when the bones of nine Chinamen
were removed from a Brooklyn cemetery and sent back
to the ancestral graveyards in China. Bacigalupo
had that affair, and it overtaxed even his stable
resources, for there were 300 coaches in the
procession that wound through the streets of
Chinatown, all filled with Chinamen, while the rest
of the Mott and Pell Street colony walked behind
over the route laid out for them by the Italian.
These were the things that the undertaker was
willing to talk about when he was asked what he
had done in America. But they are of secondary
importance on the Bend to-day. It is the coal
bills, and helps with the rent in hard times, and
the free funerals that everybody in the quarter,
including the policemen on their beats and the one
black native from Abyssinia who speaks Italian, are
talking about now that the crepe is on Bacigalupo’s
own door.
* * * * *
DEATH OF GREAT EDITOR
_Philadelphia Ledger_
KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 13.--Colonel William
Rockhill Nelson, founder, owner and editor of
the Kansas City Star, died at his home here this
morning. He was 74 years old, and had been
confined to his home since last December. Uremic
poisoning caused his death.
Colonel Nelson took an active part in the
management of the Star until about a month ago,
for even after his illness began members of the
Star staff gathered at his bedside several times
weekly for discussion of questions of editorial
policy. At these conferences he dictated editorials
and outlined ideas for cartoons and special news
articles. Although his physicians advised against
this activity, he reminded them that it was in the
building of the Star he had been happiest.
A day or so before he became unconscious Colonel
Nelson said to a friend:
“The Lord has been far better to me than I deserve.
I have had a long and happy life, with great
opportunities for usefulness. My only regret is
that I have not accomplished more. If this is the
end, I am ready.”
Throughout his illness the problem of the poor was
of intense concern to him. He made large gifts to
local charitable institutions and was absorbed in
the work of a soup kitchen, which his daughter,
Mrs. Kirkwood, inaugurated and conducted.
While no formal statement was made, it was
announced that “as far as is humanly possible, the
Star will be conducted in accordance with the aims
and ideas of Mr. Nelson.”
Although Colonel Nelson did not enter the newspaper
field until he was nearly 40 years old, he brought
to it such ability and energy that he built up one
of the greatest newspapers of the country. He was
born in Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1841, and was educated
at Notre Dame University. After a short experience
in cotton growing he became a general contractor.
When 34 years old he was Samuel J. Tilden’s Indiana
campaign manager.
His interest in political leadership caused him
to turn to newspaper work. He bought an interest
in the Fort Wayne Sentinel and a business reverse
caused him to decide to devote all his time to
journalism. He and his Fort Wayne partner, Samuel
E. Morss, went to Kansas City and started the
Evening Star on September 18, 1880. Mr. Morss
withdrew after a few months.
When the Kansas City Times failed, in 1901, the
Star bought that paper and its news franchise. The
venture proved a marked success, and the Star now
has a circulation, morning and evening, of more
than 200,000 a day.
In politics Colonel Nelson was, as he often said,
“independent, but never neutral.” He never would
consider any elective or appointive position.
* * * * *
DEATH OF COLLEGE DEAN
_New York Evening Post_
John Howard Van Amringe, former dean of Columbia
College, where for half a century he endeared
himself to thousands of students, who knew him best
as “Van Am,” died suddenly yesterday at the Keeler
House, in Morristown, N. J. Professor Van Amringe,
who was seventy-nine years old last spring, retired
from the Columbia faculty five years ago, and for
some time past his health has been failing. He
suffered a stroke of apoplexy just before luncheon,
and died within an hour. His daughter, Miss Emily
Van Amringe, was with him.
The story of the venerable ex-dean’s life is
almost a history of Columbia College for the last
fifty-odd years. To Columbia men he was more than
a teacher. As Charles Halsted Mapes remarked, when
the alumni presented a bronze bust of the dean to
the Columbia University Club, in 1913: “Van Am
has become more than a mere man to us; he is a
sentiment. What the Yale fence is to Yale, the ivy
to Princeton, Van Am is to Columbia--a tangible,
concrete expression of sentiment to which our
memories lovingly cling.”
He was born at Philadelphia, on April 3, 1836, the
son of William Frederic and Susan Budd (Sterling)
Van Amringe. His grandfather, Lionel Van Amringe,
was a soldier under Frederick the Great, and
emigrated from Holland in 1791. His family removed
from Philadelphia to New York in 1841. He received
most of his early education from his father, but
was later sent to the Montgomery Academy, Orange
County, N. Y., where his father was instructor for
a time. In 1854 he entered Yale, and would have
graduated in 1858, but left the College at the end
of his sophomore year and taught private pupils for
two years. In the fall of 1858 he entered Columbia
College as a member of the junior class, graduating
with the degree of B.A. in 1860.
Van Amringe, the undergraduate, displayed a
fondness for mathematics and debating, and in
after years these were always his favorite
subjects. Those who listened to him in more recent
years, addressing undergraduate mass meetings or
speaking at alumni reunions, or presenting some
distinguished candidate for this or that honorary
degree on commencement day, could trace his flow of
oratory back to its beginnings in the classroom,
where, as a student, he used to hold forth in the
presence of old Professor Nairne, who taught moral
and intellectual philosophy and literature. Nairne
had a way of holding impromptu debates in the
classroom, pitting one student against another. But
it was in mathematics that Van Amringe excelled,
and he taught this subject to generations of
Columbia men.
When Van Am came to Columbia he was possessed of a
brilliant head of red hair, which in later years
turned white. He also wore flowing moustaches, and
these became immortalized in the song that Columbia
men never tire of singing:
D’ye ken Van Am with his snowy hair,
D’ye ken Van Am with his whiskers rare,
D’ye ken Van Am with his martial air,
As he crosses the Quad in the morning?
CHORUS.
The sight of Van Am raised my hat from my head,
And the sound of his voice often filled me with dread,
Oh, I shook in my boots at the things that he said
When he asked me to call in the morning.
Yes, I ken’d Van Am, to my sorrow, too,
When I was a freshman of verdant hue.
First a cut, then a bar, then an interview
With the Dean in his den in the morning.
But we love Van Am from our heart and soul,
Let’s drink to his health! Let’s finish the bowl!
We’ll swear by Van Am through fair and through foul,
And wish him the top o’ the morning.
D’ye ken Van Am with his fine old way,
The Dean of Columbia for many a day?
Long may he live and long may he stay
Where his voice may be heard in the morning.
One of his undertakings at Columbia was the
organization of the Alumni Association of Columbia
College, which he began as soon as he had become an
alumnus himself. The Association was then more dead
than alive, but through his efforts it has become
the most flourishing and influential of all the
Columbia alumni organizations.
The dean had few outside interests; his life was
devoted almost entirely to Columbia, and the few
other activities in which he engaged were closely
allied to his work at the College. He was a member
of the American Mathematical Society and of the
New York Historical Society, and, at one time, was
president of the New York Mathematical Society.
He was also a fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science and a vestryman of
Trinity Church. Some years ago he edited a series
of Davies’s mathematical works.
As prime mover in the organization of the Columbia
University Club, he was its first president, and
there never has been any other.
As an authority on matters relating to the history
of the University he was without an equal. He
wrote a “History of Columbia College,” and to the
volume known as “Universities and Their Sons” he
contributed the Columbia section.
One of the things that endeared him most to
Columbia men was his championship of football. In
1905, after Columbia had been severely criticised
for her football tactics, and the faculty, in a
historic meeting, decided that the sport should
be dropped, the Dean was the only friend the
undergraduates had. In that meeting he took
the stand of the undergraduates and earnestly
championed the game. After the close of the
football season of 1906 more than two thousand
students stormed the Faculty Club, where the Dean
was at lunch, and, after singing his song, demanded
that he make a speech to them on football. They
told him they wanted football, and he said: “I know
that, but you know I cannot give it to you. You
have behaved as I have always known you to behave,
with propriety and dignity, and if you keep on
there’s no telling what you may get.”
Football will be played once more at Columbia this
year, and more than one alumnus will regret that
the venerable Van Am is not in the stands when the
opening game is played on South Field.
At the time when Columbia began to expand from a
college to a university of many departments, the
proposal to do away with the college altogether,
and to convert Columbia into a group of graduate
schools, was considered. The idea “took” with
some of the authorities, and had it not been for
vigorous opposition, in which Van Am took a leading
part, it is not unlikely that the change would have
been made.
When it became known, in the spring of 1910, that
the dean was to retire, the students prepared a
petition to the faculty, asking them to place him
on the roll as dean emeritus. The parchment was
afterward framed and hung in the Trophy Room.
At the dinner given by the Columbia alumni to
celebrate Dean Van Amringe’s fiftieth year of
connection with the University, the presiding
officer read from Oliver Wendell Holmes’s class-day
poem, and turned to the venerable dean as he quoted:
Was it snowing, I spoke of. Excuse the mistake!
Look close--and you’ll see not a sign of a flake!
We want some new garlands for those we have shed,
And these are white roses instead of the red.
CHAPTER X
POLITICS AND ELECTIONS
Most political news falls into one of the general classes of stories
already considered. Party conventions, campaign meetings, political
speeches, interviews with candidates and party managers, for example,
are treated like similar material in other fields. Elections, on
the other hand, require a different handling. Three common kinds of
election stories are: (1) an analysis of political conditions preceding
an election with or without a forecast of the result, (2) a description
of election day conditions and events, (3) the results of the election.
Although some newspapers are sufficiently independent in politics to
treat political news without partisan bias, many papers still present
such news from the point of view of their editorial policy. There is a
growing tendency, however, to present both sides fairly in news columns
and to confine partisanship to editorials.
Election return stories consist largely of summaries of the most
important results of the election, such as: (1) the candidates
elected and defeated, (2) the majority or plurality of the successful
candidates, (3) the effect of the election on the political complexion
of legislative bodies, (4) causes of victory and defeat, (5) statements
by candidates and party managers in regard to the results.
* * * * *
POLITICAL FORECAST
_Springfield Republican_
Estimates as to the relative strength of the
three leading political parties are at variance,
but some of the best informed politicians are of
the opinion that the alignment this year will be
vastly different from what it was last year. Local
political workers are of the opinion that the
republican vote for governor in this section this
year will be much larger than it was last year.
This contention is made by prominent republicans
who have canvassed the western counties very
carefully, and who have done considerable campaign
work in this section. Their predictions are made
on the ground that the republican candidate last
year antagonized a large element in the party, who
either voted for Gov Walsh or for Mr Bird or did
not vote at all. The check lists in almost every
town and city in Western Massachusetts, with the
exception of a few places in Berkshire, showed that
the average republican vote last year was about 75
per cent of the normal vote of the party.
The leaders figure that Mr McCall will command a
large percentage of the republican vote that was
lost last year. They likewise figure that both
Joseph Walker and Gov Walsh will suffer serious
defections this year. They believe that Mr Walker
will not poll more than two-thirds of the vote
polled by Mr Bird last year. They figure that Gov
Walsh will lose at least 5 per cent of his vote
of last year. If these predictions should come
true, they say that Mr McCall would profit by the
defections from the other candidates. This would
mean a close call for Gov Walsh and possibly his
defeat.
While the democrats and progressives express
confidence that their respective candidates will
be winners, politicians who are not showing any
active interest in the campaign believe that
the contentions made by the republicans deserve
consideration. Figuring on the basis of last year’s
vote, local republicans predict that Gov Walsh
will be fortunate if he receives 175,000 votes.
This would mean a loss of about 8000 from his
vote of last year. Should the progressives poll
80,000, they would suffer a loss of about 43,000
on the vote for governor. These defections would
probably go to Mr McCall, who then would come very
close to defeating the democratic candidate. The
figures submitted are not impossible, as the vote
last year indicates. Mr Bird, then candidate for
governor, ran far ahead of the other candidates
on the progressive ticket. This in itself shows
that the true strength of the party was more
nearly represented in the vote cast for the other
candidates on the ticket than for the candidate for
governor.
Western Massachusetts may not prove to be such a
tremendous factor in deciding the campaign this
year, but if the signs of the times are read
correctly, Mr McCall will receive an unusually
large vote throughout this section of the state.
It is quite probable that Mr Walker may command a
sizeable vote, but his strength is not apparent
now. The injection of prohibition into the
progressive campaign is thought to have injured the
Walker cause, not because the average progressive
is opposed to prohibition, but because many of
them believe that the cause of prohibition should
be confined to the party that raised it as an
issue. The enthusiasm which characterized the
progressive campaigns in the two years past is
noticeably absent this year. Try as the leaders
will, they cannot raise the excitement of former
years, and this is not a healthy sign in the
opinion of those who have followed politics closely.
The progressives, however, maintain that they have
not suffered any losses, and they again predict a
large vote this fall. Richard J. Talbot, chairman
of the progressive city committee, claims that
one-third of the new registration will be found
voting with the progressives on election day. Mr
Talbot likewise goes on record as predicting that
the contest for governor this year will be between
Mr Walsh and Mr Walker. He believes that Mr McCall
will run third, as Mr Gardner did last year.
The progressives and the democrats will follow
closely on the heels of the republican spellbinders
who will invade the city Monday evening. A big
republican rally is planned for that evening when
Mr McCall, Senator Burton and Congressman Gillett
will be heard. The local republican city committee
has planned a reception for the candidates from
7.15 until 8 o’clock. The rally will be held in the
Auditorium. The democrats will hold their rally in
the Auditorium on Wednesday evening, the 28th, and
it is possible that the progressives will follow on
the 29th or 30th.
* * * * *
ELECTION DAY
_New York Times_
The fair weather and the fact that the new modified
Massachusetts ballot gave the voters little trouble
made ideal conditions yesterday for rapid voting.
Voters began to crowd polling places within five
minutes after the polls opened at 6 o’clock. They
voted in steady streams until 9 o’clock, when the
first lull set in, and a tabulation of figures
revealed the fact that nearly half the votes were
cast.
It was a record for early voting for any election
in recent years. By noon 65 per cent. of the
total vote was in, and at 4 o’clock reports
indicated that the late afternoon rush would be
inconsequential, as 85 per cent. of the vote had
already been cast. The total vote was recorded in
several election districts more than an hour before
the polls were scheduled to be closed.
Trouble had been expected from the new ballots, but
as voter after voter emerged from the voting booths
within a minute after entering, the watchers began
to gain confidence that the day would pass without
serious confusion.
In the districts near Columbia University some
voters took as long as nine minutes to vote,
their extreme deliberation indicating that they
were splitting their tickets with much care. In
the downtown districts political parties set up
sample voting places as near to the polls as the
law would allow. With sample ballots and the aid
of instructors, they taught the voters who had not
had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with
the new ballots earlier, how to vote in the normal
amount of time.
The “place of stay” voters were conspicuous by
their absence. Watchers for the Honest Ballot
Association, who were employed in squads of 100
members each, scoured the city with warrants for
the arrest of men who were suspected, but they
went empty-handed for the most part, although they
challenged a few suspects.
One young man became very indignant and wanted
to fight when challenged. He rushed into the
office of Supt. of Elections Voorhis, denouncing
everybody in general connected with the election,
and demanding that an escort be given to him to
see that he got his legal chance to vote. He was
asked where he voted last year and he said in New
Jersey, insisting, however, that he had lived here
a year since that time. Supt. Voorhis with a smile
informed the young man that the election last year
was on Nov. 4, so that if he swore in his vote this
year he “would be taking a pretty long chance.” He
changed his belligerent mood at once and left, with
thanks for Mr. Voorhis’s warning.
The only serious quarrel of the day occurred
at the opening of the polls in the Fourteenth
Election District of the Eighth Assembly District
at 180 Eldridge Street. A Democratic Captain
objected to Joseph Strulowitz as a member of the
Board of Inspectors. Strulowitz was supported
by Misha Hymowitz, Chairman of the board, and a
seventeen-minute argument ensued that sometimes
grew so warm that bystanders had to separate the
contenders.
While it lasted not a single vote could be cast,
and it was finally settled by the protests of more
than 100 voters, who urged that they had to be on
their way to work and couldn’t afford to stand
about just to see a row. Strulowitz finally was
permitted to take his place. Supt. Voorhis had to
send a Special Inspector to a Brooklyn election
district on receiving a report from a Deputy that
only three Inspectors instead of four, as provided
by law, were on duty.
Mr. Voorhis sent out 300 Deputies in a search
for election frauds. Upon receiving reports from
them as to the speed and quietness of the voting
throughout the city, Mr. Voorhis announced that it
was the quietest and most smoothly working Election
Day he had ever known.
The entrance of former football stars into the
business of watching the polls provided in some
districts an element of interest that almost
overshadowed the voting. L. Bigelow, Jr., Captain
of Yale’s football team in 1907, led the football
forces that had volunteered as watchers. He was
the centre of admiring throngs of boys when he
visited voting places in lower Fifth Avenue. With
him were Walter Logan and John Kilpatrick, ends on
the Yale team in 1910; “Pop” Foster, a Yale tackle
in 1908; Arthur Howe, an All-American quarter back,
selected from the Yale team of 1910; S. D. Baker of
Princeton, and “Big Ed” Farley of Harvard.
The football squad worked with 250 college men,
who were registered as members of the Volunteer
Watchers’ League and were under the direct control
of Assistant District Attorney Weller. Some of them
remained in automobiles at the Criminal Courts
Building ready to respond on an instant’s notice to
any call for help.
A bit of humor that enlivened the day in the upper
east side was contributed by the fact that four
Election Inspectors, a ballot clerk, a poll clerk,
and a policeman had to remain on duty all day at an
election district where the entire vote was cast
at 9 o’clock and there was no possible prospect of
getting any more votes through the long day’s wait.
The voteless watch occurred at the Forty-seventh
Election District of the Nineteenth Assembly
District at McGowan’s Pass Tavern in Central Park.
At 8:58 o’clock 50 per cent. of the district’s vote
was cast when Max Boehm cast his vote, and the
other 50 per cent. was cast when Max Boehm’s son
Bertrand emerged from the booth two minutes later.
They were the only two registered voters in the
district.
Women from the Women’s Political Union visited the
different polling places distributing suffrage
literature. The women were on duty, some of
them from 6 A. M., and they remained until the
close. Hundreds of women passed in and out of the
headquarters of the union at 25 East Forty-fifth
Street during the day to get literature and
directions for distribution. Mrs. Harriot Stanton
Blatch, the President, was at 623 Columbus Avenue,
her own district, with her daughter and little
granddaughter, the latter distributing literature
with her elders. Mrs. John Winters Brannan was at
the polls in the cigar shop, 103 West Forty-sixth
Street, and Miss Anna Constable, at 631 Park
Avenue. Polling places on the lower east side were
thoroughly covered by the women.
* * * * *
STATE ELECTION RESULTS
_New York World_
(Lead only)
By a change of more than 330,000 votes the electors
of New York State yesterday brought about these
results:
Swept the Democratic party from the control of the
New York State government by electing Charles S.
Whitman, the Republican candidate, Governor by a
plurality of 129,642 over Martin H. Glynn, Democrat.
Elected James W. Wadsworth jr., Republican, to
the seat in the Senate now held by Elihu Root,
over James W. Gerard, by a plurality of probably
55,000. Mr. Gerard, however, ran many thousands of
votes ahead of Mr. Glynn, not only in the City of
New York but in the country districts. He received
132,000 plurality in New York City; Mr. Glynn
57,000.
Turned over to the Republicans the control of
both branches of the Legislature, the next
Senate probably containing 32 Republicans and 19
Democrats, and the Assembly 106 Republicans and 44
Democrats.
Reduced the Democratic representation in the New
York delegation to the House of Representatives
from 31 to 23.
Gave a surprisingly large vote to William Sulzer,
the Prohibition-Progressive-American candidate for
Governor, not only in the country districts, but
in the Tammany stronghold of Manhattan. He carried
Steuben County by 300.
Showed a slump in the Progressive vote in every
part of the State, in some instances the number of
ballots cast for Mr. Davenport, the Progressive
candidate for Governor, being negligible. The total
Progressive vote was apparently about one-fifth of
the 393,183 given Mr. Straus two years ago.
* * * * *
STATE ELECTION RETURNS
_New York Times_
PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 3.--Boies Penrose was re-elected
to the United States Senate today by a plurality
approaching 100,000.
Dr. Martin Brumbaugh, Republican candidate for
Governor, was elected by more than 125,000, and
the entire Republican State ticket was swept into
office, according to latest unofficial returns from
all parts of Pennsylvania.
This estimate is based upon the heavy Republican
vote polled in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and the
sweep of the Republican column in such Democratic
strongholds as Lehigh and Lycoming Counties.
The commanding lead of the Republicans indicates
that the Democratic delegation in the National
House of Representatives will be reduced from
twelve to seven, the Progressive delegation reduced
from seven to two, and the Republicans increased
from 17 to 27.
The Republicans will have a large majority in both
Houses of the State Legislature.
Until late tonight, Democratic State leaders
claimed the election of Vance McCormick, Democratic
candidate for Governor, by 135,000, despite the
all-apparent Republican victory. Progressive State
leaders admitted defeat shortly before midnight.
A. Nevin Detrick, State Chairman of the Progressive
Party, said tonight:
Returns indicate an overwhelming victory for
Penrose and Brumbaugh. I attribute this vote to a
revulsion against the Democratic Administration
and the belief on the part of the electorate that
the Republican Party is the instrument through
which there will be a revival of prosperity.
State issues seem to have been lost sight of by
the voters, and the entire result is apparently
based on national traditions. Returns from over
the State are too meagre to predict from as to
the district, Congressional, and Legislative
candidates, but there is little doubt that the
returns for the head of the ticket will prevail
throughout the list.
Gifford Pinchot, Progressive candidate for United
States Senator, said:
During the campaign just ended, I made the
statement that, win or lose, I would keep on
with the fight for the conservation of natural
resources for the use of the people, against
the monopolies and special interests, and in
particular against the kind of government that
Penrose represents. I reaffirm that statement now.
A. Mitchell Palmer, Democratic candidate for
United States Senator, ran second, with Pinchot,
Progressive, third. Palmer commanded a much larger
vote than had been conceded by the opposition
leaders.
The four Republican Congressmen at large, Scott,
Crago, Lafean, and Garland, were elected, and the
Republicans in all probability have carried into
office nineteen of the twenty-seven members of the
State Senate.
Latest returns from this city indicate that
Brumbaugh carried Philadelphia by a majority of
115,000 and Penrose by 100,000. Republican leaders
in Philadelphia asserted that this sweep meant that
the full Philadelphia delegation of six Congressmen
had been won by the Republicans.
The vote throughout Pennsylvania was exceptionally
heavy, and it is estimated that upward of 1,000,000
citizens went to the polls.
While no estimate of the complete Pinchot vote is
yet possible, it is believed that Col. Roosevelt’s
recent invasion of Pennsylvania aided little in
bringing support.
* * * * *
CITY ELECTION RETURNS
_St. Louis Globe-Democrat_
The St. Louis vote in Tuesday’s election was a
landslide for the Republicans.
The tabulated vote from all the 474 precincts
shows majorities ranging from 3000 to 25,000. The
St. Louis County vote also was carried by the
Republicans.
The final count shows that the Democrats elected
only one congressman, three members of the
Legislature, four justices of the peace and four
constables.
The home rule police and excise laws carried in St.
Louis by a majority of 8400. The vote in the state,
however, defeated the home rule laws.
The woman suffrage amendment received a hard blow
in St. Louis, the majority against it being 57,135.
The total Republican and Democratic vote in St.
Louis is estimated at 114,000. The vote of the
Progressive party almost disappeared. Arthur N.
Sager, the Progressive candidate for United States
senator, polled only 1600 votes.
The Socialist vote, which has not been tabulated,
is estimated at about 8000.
The Republican ticket was led by Howard Sidener,
candidate for re-election for prosecuting attorney.
His plurality was more than 25,000 over Walter A.
Kelly, the Democratic candidate. The plurality of
Louis Alt for license collector was over 25,000. He
defeated Dennis P. O’Brien, Democrat.
Karl Kimmel defeated Glendy B. Arnold, who led the
Democratic judicial ticket, by 3000 votes. George
H. Shields, Republican, had a plurality of 15,378
over John J. O’Brien, low man on the Democratic
judicial ticket.
By a majority of more than 14,000 over Edward
A. Feehan, Democrat, Charles W. Holtcamp was
re-elected probate judge. For each of the more
important offices, the Republican candidates’
pluralities exceeded 12,000.
By the election of L. C. Dyer in the Twelfth
District over John P. Collins, the Republicans
will gain one congressman from St. Louis. Henry A.
Hamilton, the Republican candidate in the Eleventh
District, was defeated by William L. Igoe by a
plurality of more than 1900. Collins lost to Dyer
by 2100.
Jacob E. Meeker, Republican candidate, was elected
in the Tenth District by a plurality over Francis
M. Curlee of more than 14,000 in the city. Meeker,
who will succeed Richard Bartholdt, had a large
majority in St. Louis County.
The Democrats elected their representatives in
the Legislature from the Third District only, the
successful candidates being J. J. Moroney, Charles
Rizzo and Martin Ward.
The Republicans elected three state senators and
thirteen members of the House of Representatives.
The election gives the Republicans of St. Louis
sixteen votes in the General Assembly of the state.
A. C. Wiget, Jr., defeated Maurice J. Cassidy, the
Democratic incumbent from the Thirteenth District,
in the State Senate.
Four justices of the peace were elected by the
Democrats--Edward Rice winning over Col. Dick
Johnson in the Third District, Andrew Gazzolo and
Rod Gorman being elected in the Fifth District, and
James P. Miles winning in the Sixth District.
George Grassmuck, Republican, defeated Andrew
Scully, member of the House of Delegates, for
justice of the peace in the Eighth District by a
large plurality. W. D. Moore, Republican, defeated
Robert J. Carroll, Democrat, in the Ninth District.
Lawrence P. Daley, Democratic city committeeman in
the Seventeenth Ward, was defeated for constable
in the Fourth District. The Democrats elected only
three constables. Daley led Turpin in the voting,
but fell behind Floyd E. Bush, Republican, who was
elected.
Republican majorities were piled up in the
First, Second, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth,
Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Twenty-first wards.
* * * * *
VOTE ON LIQUOR ISSUE
_Chicago Record-Herald_
Richmond, Va., Sept. 22.--[Special.]--Virginia will
join the other dry states Nov. 1, 1916, a majority
of the voters of the state having cast their
ballots to-day in favor of state-wide prohibition.
Anti-liquor forces carried the election by not less
than 25,000.
The cities of Alexandria, Danville, Norfolk and
Richmond were the only ones that gave a majority
against state-wide prohibition. Richmond voted
4,287 for prohibition and 6,011 against. The vote
in the twenty cities of the state was 21,726 for
and 19,699 against state-wide prohibition.
Scattering returns from all the counties show heavy
dry majorities.
The surprise of the day was the vote in Petersburg,
2,122 for state-wide prohibition and 1,123 against.
The wets had figured on carrying that city as well
as Newport News, which went dry by a vote of 1,024
to 761.
In Alexandria, the home of a large brewery, the
vote was 387 for and 1,132 against. Bristol, which
voted wet in the last local option election, voted
424 to 282 for state-wide prohibition.
Roanoke joined the dry column by a vote of 2,329
for and 1,226 against, and the vote in Lynchburg
was 1,713 for and 973 against.
The counties of Amelia, Page and Greene are the
only ones so far heard from that registered a wet
majority.
Ninety of the 100 counties voted dry in previous
local option contests.
The result of the election will cause the state to
lose in revenue about $700,000 annually. It will
cause all of the liquor manufacturing concerns
to remove from the state. Only manufacturers at
present engaged in the production of wine and its
by-products, cider and beer, of not over 3½ per
cent alcohol, can manufacture in this state after
Nov. 1, 1916, and the product must be shipped
outside the state and into territory where its sale
is legally authorized.
The day was a perfect one throughout the state. No
disorder was reported in any town or county.
CHAPTER XI
LABOR TROUBLES AND STRIKES
Strikes, lock-outs, and similar labor troubles, as disturbances in the
economic life of the community, are of interest to many readers who are
not directly affected. Important issues of wide-spread interest, such
as the recognition of trades unions, the eight-hour day, and a living
wage, are often involved in labor disputes. Acts of violence committed
in connection with strikes have for the average reader the same kind of
interest as do other similar acts.
A fair and accurate presentation of the points of view of both the
employers and the employees is essential in all stories of this kind.
Statements from both sides, therefore, are important. Although stories
in this class are largely informative, there is also a chance for
human interest treatment. Accounts of living and working conditions,
for example, as obtained from workmen and their families often give
a better picture of the circumstances that produced the strike than
do formal statements by labor leaders. Sympathy may be legitimately
created for the strikers and their families, especially when they are
in actual want or are plainly the victims of oppression. Because the
settlement of labor troubles not infrequently is brought about by the
influence of public opinion, constructive journalism recognizes the
importance of furnishing readers with all of the facts necessary for an
intelligent understanding of the issues and conditions involved.
* * * * *
POSSIBILITY OF STRIKE
_New York Herald_
CHICAGO, Saturday.--Admissions were made
on both sides to-night that the controversy between
30,000 firemen operating on 150,000 miles of
railroads West, Northwest and Southwest of Chicago,
and the railroad managers, had become critical and
that the question of a strike, tying up practically
all systems between here and the Pacific coast,
would be settled within forty-eight hours.
W. S. Carter, president of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, on behalf of
the firemen to-day sent to the General Managers’
Committee of the railroads a request for a
clear statement of the employers’ position. The
brotherhood asked for information on three points
in their demands: Increased wage scale, which the
railroads say would amount to an increase of 22½
per cent, but which the firemen say would equal
only 12½ per cent; the right of the union to
represent the fireman after he has been promoted
either to an engineman or to any other capacity;
the right of the union to have authority in
questions of seniority or the promotion of old time
employes.
In previous negotiations the Brotherhood said that
they were willing to submit the wage question to
arbitration under the Erdman act, provided the
other two points were settled without the aid of a
third party.
It was announced by the general managers’ committee
to-night that an answer was directed sent to Mr.
Carter, denying this request and leaving it to the
union, despite their “strike vote,” to take what
future course they think best. It is said that the
recent vote, showing more than eighty per cent of
the men to be against accepting the offer of the
railroads, would enable the national officials to
call a strike at any time.
Negotiations have been on for six weeks. About
forty-nine Western railroads are involved. If
a strike were called, it is said, 25,000 other
employes would be thrown out.
* * * * *
STRIKE
_New York Evening Post_
If you failed to find a red auto-cab on the street
this morning, it was because the 475 drivers of the
New York Taxicab Company had gone out on strike at
five o’clock. At noon the strike was still on, the
men, who are members of the Chauffeurs’ Protective
Association, not having reached an agreement with
the company.
Most of the cabs are stored in the big Gospel
Tent, next to the Y. M. C. A. building, on West
Fifty-seventh Street, and if the company fails
to get any of them moving by to-morrow, there is
likely to be no room for the worshippers who attend
the evangelistic services.
So sudden was the action of the drivers that
the company was totally unprepared to cope with
the situation, and hundreds of orders remained
unfilled. Many persons were disappointed during the
day. At the offices, No. 546 Fifth Avenue, it was
said no statement would be made, for the reason
that the company did not know yet just where the
trouble was.
At Washington Hall, where the drivers established
their headquarters, the officers of the association
were in session nearly all morning, and out on the
street in front of the building the members stood
about in groups, waiting for an announcement as to
the success or failure of their action. They did
not hesitate to tell their grievances, either.
“The whole question sizes up about like this,” said
one of the be-goggled and helmeted chauffeurs. “The
company expects the riding public to keep us alive
on tips. But the riding public is losing the tip
habit, if anybody should ask you, and it has been a
starving game for us.
“Now, we fellows have got to live, like any other
workingmen. Just because we drive automobiles don’t
prove that we’re all millionaires. We want a fair
wage and opportunity to earn it. We don’t care how
many hours we work, as long as there is a chance to
make the money.
“But we can’t do much under the present system.
Here is the way the company proposes that we will
make a living: We run the cabs for a week and take
20 per cent. of the fares. Out of this we have to
pay for all the gasolene we burn, the polish we use
to keep the cabs bright and shiny, and two or three
uniforms a year.
“Supposing a driver takes in $20 a week? Out of
that he would get 20 per cent., and out of that
four dollars he is expected to pay for six or seven
gallons of gasolene at fifteen cents a gallon,
besides laying aside a clothing allowance and
buying his polish. Of course, he is allowed to keep
his tips, but tips are getting smaller every year.
“Last week I made just seven dollars after all
expenses had been deducted. I owed the company
after the gasolene charges had been paid, and my
tip money pulled me out seven to the good.”
* * * * *
BEGINNINGS OF STRIKE
_Chicago Tribune_
Five hundred employes of wholesale grocery houses
yesterday joined the strike begun on the preceding
day by the porters of Sprague, Warner & Co. Many
nonunion men joined with the unionists, and in
some of the houses the tie-up practically was
complete. Boys and girls employed in the canning
departments of some of the houses caught the strike
fever and walked out with the men, although they
are not organized. Two of the larger houses, those
of Steele, Wedeles & Co. and Reid, Murdoch & Co.,
escaped the strike yesterday, but their employes
may go out to-day.
The strike came as a sort of April fool joke on
the merchants. They had offered to arbitrate the
differences with the union, and did not believe
that the men would obey a strike order. There has
been no trouble in the industry for the last six
years, and the merchants were inclined to believe
that the entire controversy would be adjusted at a
conference held yesterday morning. They found the
union representatives firm in their demands for a
fifty-four-hour week all the year.
The merchants offered to grant a Saturday
half-holiday for eight months, but insisted that
while the fall rush was on in September, October,
November and December the men would have to work
full time. This was met by a proposition that they
be paid time and one-half for the overtime on
Saturday afternoons, but the merchants declared
that would be an increase in wages which trade
conditions did not warrant.
Immediately after the negotiations were broken
off the union officials hurried from one house
to another and called out the men in most of the
houses. A few of the older employes stuck to their
posts, but the number was so small that they could
not handle the business. Among the larger houses
where the men went out are:
FRANKLIN MACVEAGH & CO.
SPRAGUE, WARNER & CO.
W. M. HOYT COMPANY.
JOHN A. TOLMAN & CO.
HENRY HORNER & CO.
W. J. QUAN & CO.
S. PETERSON & CO.
“We have a few men left at work,” said Rollin A.
Keyes of Franklin MacVeagh & Co., “but I would
not like to bet that we will have them to-morrow
morning. They seem to have caught the strike fever,
although I think our position is eminently fair.
We made them as good a proposition as we believed
the business would stand, and when that was not
acceptable to them we offered to submit the entire
matter of wages and hours to arbitration. They told
us they had tried arbitration once and did not want
any more of it. I cannot say how long the strike
will last or how extensive it may be, but so far
as this firm is concerned, we are always ready to
meet our employes. I don’t see, however, that a
conference will do any good at this time, as the
strike will have to run its course.”
Alex Gilchrist, business agent of the Wholesale
Grocery Employes’ Union, declared that the demands
of the men were conservative and that the offer to
arbitrate was made too late in the negotiations to
be taken up.
“The merchants have had our demands before them for
a month,” said Mr. Gilchrist, “and they offered
us nothing until the last moment, when they knew
we would strike. They are trying to break up our
organization, and the men think that they might as
well fight it out now. If the trade is so heavy
during the fall months that they cannot grant us
a half-holiday it is all the more reason why they
should pay us overtime for Saturday afternoons
during those months. Our men believe that they
cannot get anything without fighting for it, and
that is what we have decided to do.”
The Freight Handlers’ Council will meet to-night
and take up the strike of the grocery employes.
A sympathetic strike in some of the railroad
freighthouses is said to be probable unless the
difficulty in the grocery houses is settled soon.
* * * * *
SERIOUS CLASH IN BIG STRIKE
_Chicago Tribune_
Trinidad, Colo., April 21.--[Special.]--Twenty-five
dead, more than two-thirds of them women and
children, a score missing, and more than a score
wounded, is the toll known tonight to have resulted
from the fourteen hour battle which raged
yesterday between state troops and striking coal
miners in the Ludlow district. The battle occurred
on the property of the Colorado Fuel and Iron
company, the Rockefeller holdings.
Today both sides maintained an ominous quiet, but
it is feared the battle will be resumed tomorrow
with greater bloodshed than that which has occurred.
The militia, which yesterday drove the strikers
from their tent colony and, it is charged, set fire
to the tents, involving thereby the greatest loss
of lives, are preparing for a machine gun sortie
at daybreak from their position along the Colorado
and Southern railroad tracks at either side of the
Ludlow station.
On the surrounding hills, sheltered by rocks and
bowlders, 400 strikers await the coming of the
soldiers, while their ranks are being swelled by
men who tramped overland in the dark, carrying guns
and ammunition from the neighboring union camps.
Italian, Greek, and Austrian miners have appealed
to their consular representatives for protection,
and John McLennan, president of the local union
district, today wired the Red Cross in Denver to be
prepared to render aid.
Both strikers and militia have a plentiful supply
of ammunition on hand. Five thousand rounds were
taken to the troops at Ludlow on a Colorado and
Southern train from Denver early this morning, and
this supply was supplemented by a shipment from
Trinidad this noon.
The strikers by the seizure of an engine in the
Denver and Rio Grande yards at Elmoro early
yesterday were also able to replenish their stock.
The militia number 200. Detachments from Walsenburg
and Lamar got through the lines early yesterday.
The fighting began early yesterday, when a militia
detachment under Lieut. Linderfelt started to
investigate the cause of firing near Cedar Hill.
As the day progressed, word of the clash reached
officials, and a relief expedition consisting of
fifty members of the newly organized Trinidad
militia company were sent to the scene on a
special train. The militia went south of Ludlow
and came upon the strikers barricaded in the
pumping station.
Maj. P. J. Hamrock, in a statement this morning,
declared that the main battle was precipitated
about dusk by a crowd of Greek strikers under Louis
Tikas, who opened fire upon a detachment of his men
while they were drilling near the military camp,
and in sight of the tent colony.
The strikers retreated along a gully back of the
tent colony, followed by the militia, who swept the
valley with machine guns.
The fire of the troops set many of the tents on
fire. While the flames were spreading several
thousand rounds of ammunition stored in the tent
of John Lawson, Colorado member of the national
executive board, United Mine Workers, according to
the military reports, was exploded.
Terrified by the rain of bullets which poured
through the blazing canvases above their heads,
the women and children, apparently more afraid of
the lead than of the flames, remained huddled in
their pits until the smoke carried death to them by
suffocation.
When it appeared that no more men remained in the
colony the militia ceased its fire and went to the
work of rescue. Women ran from the burning tents,
some with their clothing afire, carrying their
babes in their arms. Many were forced to abandon
their older children to their fate.
Trembling, hysterical, some apparently dazed, the
women were escorted by the troops to the Ludlow
station, where they were held until this morning,
when a Colorado Southern train brought them into
Trinidad.
The camp was abandoned to its fate following the
departure of the women, and the strikers retreated
to the arroyos back of the colony and to the
surrounding hills.
This morning the camp was a mass of charred
débris. In the holes which had been dug for their
protection against the rifle fire the women and
children died like trapped rats when the flames
swept over them. One pit, uncovered this afternoon,
disclosed the bodies of ten children and two women.
* * * * *
ONE DAY OF BIG STRIKE
_New York Times_
(Condensed)
LAWRENCE, Mass., Sept. 30.--For the first time
in this country a “demonstration strike” against
the imprisonment of labor leaders took place here
to-day. After hand-to-hand fights between rioters
and police, from the opening of the textile mill
gates in the morning until the closing at night,
the demonstration was called off by the Industrial
Workers of the World.
The strike was called for twenty-four hours,
beginning this morning, in protest against the
imprisonment of Joseph J. Ettor, Arturo Giovanitti,
and Joseph Caruso, whose trial in connection
with the death of Anna Lopizzo opened in Salem
to-day. Seven thousand of the 30,000 operatives
in the cotton and woolen mills here obeyed the
call, forcing out 5,000 others, either through
intimidation or lack of work because of closing
down of departments. Then, at a mass meeting late
this afternoon, the workers were told to go back
to-morrow morning, ready to come out again at the
call of the Industrial Workers, if the leaders
should not be satisfied with the progress of the
trial at Salem.
The worst of the rioting occurred at the opening
of the mill gates this morning. Pickets armed with
revolvers, knives, sledge hammers, iron bolts and
other weapons, attempted to stop operatives from
going into the mills. When the police tried to
maintain order, the pickets struggled with them
desperately. Swinging their clubs with effect,
the blue-coats drove back the rioters. A score of
arrests were made, many of the prisoners having
cracked heads, while there were many others who
escaped through the crowds to their homes with
bleeding heads and bruised faces.
Men, women and children on their way to work were
held up and assaulted by strikers or sympathizers.
The morning’s trouble began at the corner of Essex
and Mill Streets. A fireman was escorting his young
daughter to her work in one of the mills when he
was attacked by a crowd of pickets. The fireman
put up a hard but successful fight to protect his
daughter from interference. After seeing the young
woman safely within the mill gates, he returned to
the crowd of pickets. Here he pointed out a man,
who, he said, had struck his daughter. The alleged
assailant was arrested.
A short time before the hour for opening the mills
a stream of operatives began to pour down Essex
Street and through the side streets leading to
the factories. Pickets intercepted the workers
and attempted to prevent them from entering the
mill gates. Lunch baskets were snatched and hurled
into the faces of the women and children. One gray
haired woman was rescued, with two companions, from
a group of pickets who had bruised her face.
Fathers and brothers, some of them armed, escorted
daughters and sisters to the mills. One boy was
struck over the head with a bottle and rendered
unconscious.
Cars bearing workers were intercepted by pickets
and stalled for a time. One motorman had to fight
with the crowd for possession of his controller.
Private automobiles were used as patrol wagons by
the police. Timid women operatives were taken in
charge by the police and conveyed by automobiles to
their mills.
Leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World said
that the organization could not be held responsible
for the disturbances. Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
in a statement said: “I, personally, and other
leaders have constantly cautioned workers against
any violence, particularly in the present strike,
which is one of demonstration rather than of
grievances. The trouble this morning was caused by
some excitable youngsters, whose actions can hardly
be controlled by any one.”
Against this statement must be weighed the language
of one of the addresses in Italian that aroused
the crowd at the afternoon mass meeting. It was
translated into English and given out to-night
in the form of a statement by the speaker, Carlo
Tresca, an editor of Pittsburgh. It said:
“If Ettor, Giovanitti, and Caruso are found guilty,
or either of them is found guilty, the Industrial
Workers of the World will march to Salem, storm the
jail, and rescue the prisoners, if possible.”
Only one hospital case was reported, that of an
operative who was thrown headlong from a street car
and knocked unconscious. He was later discharged.
No policeman was wounded, and no shots were fired.
The decision of the Industrial Workers’ leaders
to call off the strike was made public at a mass
meeting attended by 5,000 persons in a vacant lot
this afternoon. There was no dissent, although
many of the operatives said they had expected the
strike to last much longer. No vote was taken
at the meeting on the matter of formally ending
the strike. Archie Adamson, who presided, said
afterward that the usual vote was dispensed with
because it was feared some of the hotter heads
among the strikers might insist upon remaining out,
and thus create disturbances.
CHAPTER XII
WEATHER
The universal interest in the weather, which makes it the most common
topic of conversation, is due to its effect upon health, business,
and pleasure. Official forecasts of the weather are given a place
of prominence on the front page of most papers, and are read with
interest by most readers. The business man, the farmer, the shopper,
the pleasure-seeker, all are concerned with the state of the weather
and the predictions regarding it. Besides the official reports, there
is opportunity for weather stories of various kinds. The change of
the seasons, extremes of heat and cold, storms, and unusual weather
of any sort serve as subjects for weather stories. Two stories of an
eclipse of the sun have been included in this division, although, of
course, such phenomena should be classed as astronomical rather than
meteorological.
Although the purely informative type of story is the usual one for
weather, the subject may be treated in a lighter vein. There is often a
chance for life and color whether the treatment be informative or more
or less humorous.
* * * * *
FIRST WINTER WEATHER
_Boston Transcript_
Start up the furnace fire and begin the inroads on
that well-stocked coal bin (if it is well stocked),
for winter has come. The Old Man of the North put
in appearance this morning, long enough to register
officially at the Weather Bureau with a few flakes
of snow. There was a welcome rainstorm during the
night, and the snowflakes were just a tail-end
contribution from the storm, a few raindrops turned
into frozen particles when struck with the chill
wind that blew in from the northwest.
The forecast says: “Fair, continued cold tonight
and Wednesday; freezing tonight.” The forecaster’s
official verdict will be believed readily enough by
all those who have been out during the day. When
the temperature reading is only 41° in the middle
of the day, as was the case today, it is a sure
enough sign that winter is approaching, especially
when a strong northwest wind is doing its best to
find all the cracks and crevices in the buildings
of the community, so that it will know where to
locate them later in the year without wasting time
in the search.
It was colder at eleven o’clock this morning, by
thirteen degrees, than it was at midnight, while
the lowest temperature reading of the morning was
between eight and nine o’clock, 39. That is not the
lowest of the season, however, for nearly a month
ago, Sept. 29 to be exact, there was a reading of
34°. Forecaster Smith thinks that mark will be
passed tonight; in fact, he would not be at all
surprised if the minimum between now and tomorrow
morning were around 28 to 30°. After tomorrow there
will be a shift back to weather warmer than normal,
or at least it looks so now.
Today’s brand of weather is much nearer the normal
than what the month of October has previously
brought forth. Up to today there has been an
accumulated excess of 156 degrees in heat, or an
average of about six degrees a day.
* * * * *
SNOW STORM
_Springfield Republican_
Boisterous storms which broke over the whole
eastern and southern quarters of the United States
yesterday prepared the first “white Easter” this
land has experienced in years. The snowy tumult
swept in across the Atlantic from the south and
east late Friday night and all day yesterday,
bringing a considerable quantity of wet ocean with
it, which was distributed high above tide levels
along the whole sea coast from Maine to Florida,
drowning out business in some cities and driving
street car and automobile patrons to boats. Coastal
shipping was paralyzed, rail traffic in many salt
water districts was halted and wire lines were
prostrated throughout the southern coast states.
Louisiana and Texas saw the first scums of ice that
have ever been frozen in those states in April.
Hardy New England refused to be daunted by the
large rough patches of “weather” flung down here.
Rails and wires stood up well under the strain of
blustery winds and snow ranging in depth from six
inches to more than a foot. But the storm was no
fun.
All Western Massachusetts and Connecticut gasped
and floundered yesterday afternoon and last night.
The wind and flurries of snow presaging trouble
were here before noon, but the real snowfall did
not start until about 1 o’clock. Then a continuous
fall with swirling gusts whisked through city
streets and over country hills, drifting always
where drifts were not desirable. Around Springfield
the snow was about eight inches deep on the level
and heavy drifts formed all over town. The
railroads out of this city managed to keep within
half an hour of schedule time, however.
The snow was hardly soggy enough to put a serious
crimp into traffic, and trains contrived to do
their own drift-bucking, though the old reliable
snowplows stood ready in the yards with dabs of
axle grease on their snouts ready for quick calls
to battle. Trolly lines about the city were open
all afternoon and night, thanks to eight plows
and a couple of sanders, with cars running as
near schedule as possible. The Feeding Hills line
was tied up two hours early in the evening when
snow-choked switches refused to slide, and two cars
were bounced off on the ground.
All over town the going was treacherous enough to
send many a smoothshod pedestrian to sudden and
sometimes ignominious downfall. On one Main-street
corner a perfectly respectable old gentleman went
the “zip-bang!” route, as the sporting writers
would have it, and startled passers-by with dark
blue language when he spied his shiny Easter hat
whiff hastily across the street and cave in against
an adamant store front. On a busy corner at the
evening rush hour, a swarthy, well-dressed young
man went to the pavement all spraddled out, and
tripped a woman with a potted lily in her arms. The
lily pot collapsed with the well-known dull thud.
The woman was outraged when the young man hopped
up, looked frightened and dived into a nearby
lunch-room, without a word. The manager of the
lunch-room, who has to be an interpreter in order
to hold his job, said that the swarthy, who was
his assistant chef, had not tarried to apologize
because he didn’t know how to do it in English.
When the snow began to fall in the afternoon, the
street department made a few desultory attempts
with sweepers to keep it confined to the gutters,
but the storm became too persistent for that.
Drifts filled the crossings in spite of gangs of
shovelers and traffic of all sorts was enfeebled
though not halted. Traffic officers and drivers
were blinded by the fine flurries at times and
the police consider the day a lucky one because
only one slight crash occurred. Harry Edwards,
driving N. L. Byron’s undertaking car, failed to
see the warning palm of the officer at the corner
of Main and State streets soon enough, and with
wheels locked his machine skidded into a broadside
collision with a Fiberloid company’s truck. The
Byron car came off with a crushed fender and a few
scratches.
Easter week business in hats and Sunday trumpery
was badly handicapped. The storm yesterday did all
the crimping left undone by the trolly strike,
which kept folks at home Wednesday and Thursday; so
that practically all of the downtown store owners
admitted last night that their week’s business was
ruined. The Forbes & Wallace, the Steiger, the
Kinsman-Campbell and a few other of the larger
store managements were irked at the sight of their
sales staffs standing around idle last night, and
closed a half-hour early. The flower stores, too,
were badly hit by the storm, some of them having
perishable stocks left on their hands last night,
which will have to spoil for want of a market.
The weather conditions yesterday caused a big
rush of business for the telephone company, extra
girls being called in and kept going at top speed
all day. During the rush hours the service was
especially heavy, being about double that of an
ordinary day, and the exchange boards were a blaze
of lights. In spite of the demand the company
responded well, giving fine service. Ordinarily
about 110,000 local calls are handled each day,
but the number went far in excess of that figure
yesterday. But in spite of all there were large
feelings of thankfulness in many bosoms yesterday
when the street cars were observed going about
their regular business. Had the trollymen’s strike
not been called off Thursday evening, the city
would have been utterly paralyzed. The strike
occurred on two days when the weather was fine.
Apparently the gods did a little charitable
figuring before the week’s program was arranged.
However much people may have been surprised by
April snow, yesterday’s fall was not unprecedented.
Springfield has been almost snowed under several
times during the month of April, light falls having
been seen here frequently. A few of the heaviest
snows recorded were as follows:--
April 19, 1821, two feet.
April 6, 1852, tremendous storm. Snow a foot deep
on the level.
April 17, 1854, heavy storm, with two-foot drifts
and good sleighing.
April 3, 1861, deep drifts, traffic suspended.
April 2, 1862, over a foot of snow.
April 7, 1868, seven inches of snow.
April 1, 1872, a six-inch fall.
April 25 and 26, 1874, severe storm with 18-inches
of snow.
April 5, 1876, heaviest snowstorm of the winter,
two feet on the level.
April 8 and 9, 1907, about seven inches on the
level.
* * * * *
FIRST DAYS OF SPRING
_New York Herald_
Central Park was filled yesterday with throngs of
visitors out to enjoy the balmy air of a spring
day. Automobiles, victorias and other smart
equipages passed in continuous procession along the
drives. Fifth avenue stages unloaded hundreds who
streamed through the park and joined the throng
already there. The new life of springtime was
manifest on every side.
In mid-afternoon, under the warming influence of
the sun, couples seated on the benches began boldly
to hold hands. The Mall was peopled by thousands
who walked or travelled on cars from all parts of
the city. There were long rows of family parties.
At every avenue of approach were venders of
balloons and whirligigs displaying their wares to
children.
The space on the walks not covered by pedestrians
was taken up by perambulators and go-carts. Even
the squirrels seemed to be surprised by the
outpouring of visitors and the increase in the
peanut supply.
Boats splashed in the lakes and streams bearing
happy couples and shouting, happy faced youngsters.
Along the railings overlooking the bridle paths
stood thousands watching the smartly dressed
equestrians gallop by.
The menagerie was the magnet that drew and held the
largest crowds; fully fifty thousand viewed the
animals. For the first time many of them saw the
new members of the zoological family that arrived
during the winter. James Conway, the veteran
shepherd of the park flocks, had twenty brand new
lambs to show, and it was with a great sense of
pride that he displayed them upon the hillside.
In addition to a new staff he had at his side the
beautiful collie Jack, recently presented to him by
Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan.
Warmed by a soft breeze from the south, Coney
Island had a spring festival. Fifty thousand
persons, responding to the invitation of the vernal
equinox, spent the afternoon at the resort by the
sea. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company had to put
on extra trains. Automobiles were out in great
number.
Coney Island has awakened from its winter sleep
earlier than usual this season. The roller coaster
railways and many merry-go-rounds already open were
augmented yesterday by the opening of the “loop
the loop.” The horse race feature of Steeplechase
Park will open next Sunday, and the whole park will
begin its season on the following Sunday.
Dreamland Park will open on May 14. Work of getting
the park in shape will begin this week. Luna Park
will open, as usual, about the first week of
May. It was reported yesterday that a well known
Manhattan restaurateur will open an establishment
next month adjoining the New Brighton Theatre.
Isaac Stein, a merchant in Surf avenue, Coney
Island, asserts that he is the first man to don
a straw hat for the 1910 season. He put one on
yesterday and sat for two hours on his porch.
* * * * *
COLD SUMMER WEATHER
_New York Evening Post_
June has carried off the year’s honors in weather
record-breaking, with the cold winds of last night
and to-day. At six o’clock this morning the Weather
Bureau’s thermometer registered 48 degrees. Since
1871, when the tabulations of the Weather Bureau
began, no such temperature has been noted after
June 9. There have been one or two days of chillier
weather in past Junes, with 45 degrees as the
record for low temperature, but none of these have
come so late in the month.
New Yorkers who woke up in the cold June dawn
and went groping into bottoms of trunks for the
blankets of January may take some malicious
pleasure in the fact that it was colder in some
places in the State. The most uncomfortable
community in New York appears to have been Camden,
in the north, near the St. Lawrence, where the
mercury slid down to 36 degrees. Rochester was
in little better condition, with a frigid summer
morning’s air at 40 degrees, and Syracuse shivered
over its cereal and cream in a hardly more cheerful
atmosphere at 42 degrees. A prevailing, if not
popular, temperature in many places was 44 degrees,
which chilled Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and
Scranton, Pa. Over the line in Vermont, Northfield
was delighting in a temperature of 40 degrees.
The explanation of all these rare days in June
for those who are not content with knowing that
it is too cold for comfort at this time of year,
is that there has been an area of high barometric
pressure hovering around the Canadian Northwest
recently, and that it has been moving eastward and
down over a part of the United States on its way
out to sea. Everywhere it has been accompanied by
drops in temperature of from 14 to 20 degrees,
so that New York is no worse off than any other
State. Yesterday this area was over northern
Minnesota, and last night it was over Lake Huron.
It is still with us in New York, and is likely to
be with us to-night, the weather experts say, so
that housewives may as well keep their blankets on
the beds, now that they are out. Just how far the
thermometer may drop to-night cannot be predicted.
The weather man thinks there may be frost in the
country districts to-night.
A serious side to the prospect of frost is the
danger of damage to fruit trees and gardens.
Last night, fortunately, frosts were prevented by
the rain which fell early in the night and which
left the trees and crops safe as the sky cleared
later. Tonight, however, different conditions are
to be faced and farmers will have to protect their
produce as far as they can. There were damaging
frosts on one or two of the cold nights of last
week.
So far there has been an interesting weather
contest between months this year. May furnished
the hottest weather on its 26th and 27th that
had been recorded for that month in 34 years,
with temperatures of 89 and 91 degrees. June has
outclassed May and made it impossible for any other
month to better her record, by outdoing all known
feats. With to-morrow, June 21, the summer solstice
and the longest day of the year, the official
beginning of the supposedly hot season is expected
to usher in a period of normally settled weather.
* * * * *
HIGH WIND
_New York Times_
Wind, which seemed never to be of remarkable
velocity, but which blew in gusts that whipped a
fine rain into stinging particles, blinding to
pedestrians and to drivers of vehicles, caused
the death of two men yesterday and injury to many
others, and did damage to property in Manhattan
and Brooklyn that threatened many other lives. One
of the victims of the storm was run down by an
automobile; the other was blown into the bay and
drowned.
A derrick was blown from a six-story building
and fell into the roof of a moving-picture house
adjoining, four stories below. In Brooklyn, the
front wall, 100 feet long, of a grain elevator
crashed into the street, and the spire of St.
Paul’s Roman Catholic Church was partly blown to
pieces.
It was in Columbia Street, between Pacific and
Amity Streets, Brooklyn, that the greatest damage
was done. There are the buildings of the Dow
Stores and Grain Elevator Company. One of the
buildings, more than 80 feet in height, runs for
100 feet along Columbia Street. Its front wall was
of brick, windowless and blank above the street
floor. Behind it ran wooden bins, in which grain
was stored, and between it and the bins were no
cross-beams or supports. It was this that fell.
Tons of brick crashed into the street just after 8
o’clock, carrying down the trolley poles and lines
of the crosstown line of surface cars and smashing
against the walls opposite. Like the wrecked
building, however, these were storehouses and
factories, and little damage was done to them.
The roar of the falling wall sounded like an
explosion, and Policeman Guthrie of the Amity
Street Station and the crowd which rushed to
Columbia Street thought a bomb had been exploded.
The whole wall, 100 feet long, had fallen into the
street from the roof to a point twenty feet above
the sidewalk.
John Snackenberg, an Inspector in the Building
Department, said that grain stored in the building
might have exploded by spontaneous combustion or
the accumulation of years which had dropped between
the bins and the outer wall might have swollen and
forced the brick wall out. He would not say that
either of these things had happened, however, and
it was generally believed that the wind had started
the wall swaying until it had toppled over.
John Callahan and his three-year-old son, John,
Jr., were on their way home to 81 Congress Street
when the wall fell, and they were cut and bruised
by bricks. John Sullivan of 100 Baltic Street was
hurt in the same way, and all were treated by Dr.
Lee of the Long Island College Hospital.
The crowds returning to their homes from the
place were warned away from the corner of Court
and Congress Street. There a big piece of copper
about fifty feet long was swaying from the tip of
St. Paul’s spire. The church, which is the oldest
Catholic Church in Brooklyn, since the renovation
of St. James’s Pro-Cathedral, in Jay Street, has a
spire covered with slate and protected along the
edges with strips of copper.
The wind detached one of these, twenty-five feet
long, and blew it across the street to the roof of
a tenement at 196 Court Street, where it smashed
through the skylight and put the tenants in a
panic, though none was hurt. The second strip, only
partly detached, blew to and fro like the pendulum
of a huge clock, occasionally knocking pieces of
slate into the street as it banged against the
spire. The police blocked off the corner with red
lanterns and prevented pedestrians or vehicles from
passing.
In Manhattan the wind blew a 300-pound derrick
from the roof of a six-story building at 801 Third
Avenue, near Fiftieth Street. It fell on the roof
of the two-story building adjoining, and the crash
startled the 200 occupants of a moving picture
house on the floor beneath. They hustled for
the doors, and women’s dresses were torn in the
struggle. None was hurt, however.
James Costello, a retired policeman and special
watchman in a bank in Williams Street, and Charles
Smith, employed on a barge moored to the end of
Long Dock, in Erie Basin, were the storm’s victims.
Costello was run down by an automobile in front of
7,210 Fourteenth Avenue, Brooklyn, when he tried
to cross the street, his vision shielded by an
umbrella, which the wind forced him to hold over
his face.
Smith, with Edward Jurgeson, was crossing on a
plank between the end of the pier and his barge
when a gust of wind blew him off. Jurgeson
stretched out a hand and caught Smith’s arm. He
could not hold him and was pulled into the water.
Other bargemen, hearing them yell, threw ropes, and
Jurgeson caught one. He was hauled into the barge,
but Smith was lost. His body was recovered.
Three fourteen-year-old boys were hurt in Paterson,
N. J., when the wind blew down a barn at 80 Plum
Street, in which they had taken refuge from the
rain. They were Louis Krager of 6, Frank Carman of
71, and Louis Rose of 34 Plum Street.
The boys were buried in the wreckage of the
building until firemen dug them out. Then it was
found that Krager had his right arm and left leg
broken and both the others probably had fractured
skulls. Young Krager was caught beneath several
heavy beams and could not be moved until firemen
had rigged a block and falls and lifted the beams.
The youngsters were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital.
According to the weather forecast, the wind, which
blew from the northeast yesterday, will haul to the
northwest to-day, and may blow even more heavily.
* * * * *
NOTE--_In the next two stories the facts about the
same eclipse are given in different ways._
ECLIPSE OF SUN
(1)
_Washington Herald_
That feeling of awe inspired by the shutting off
of the sun’s light was prevalent in Washington
yesterday morning for about three hours.
All over the city groups of men, women, and
children were formed to view the phenomenon through
smoked glasses. Those who had not been informed of
the eclipse, or who had neglected to ascertain the
time of the sun’s darkening, mistook the appearance
of things as foreboding rain.
The darkness was not like the darkness of night. It
was a gloomy blackness, and seemed to carry a chill
with it as it passed over the earth.
At the Naval Observatory, on Georgetown Heights, a
corps of five astronomers were making observations
of the spectacle, and photographs were taken by a
forty-foot photo-heliograph.
Under the direction of Prof. W. S. Eichelberger,
the observers recorded the first contact of the sun
and moon at thirty-five minutes and twenty-eight
seconds after 9 o’clock, just ten seconds before
the predicted time. The sun was in partial eclipse
until forty-nine minutes and two seconds after 12
o’clock.
Photographs were taken at different intervals of
the moon’s transit by Prof. George H. Peters.
Those who assisted in making the observations were
Profs. F. B. Littell and G. A. Hill, assistant
astronomers, Mat Frederickson and C. W. Frederick.
According to the astronomers, only about 75 per
cent of the sun’s face was darkened, but the
eclipse was total in Florida and Mexico.
This was the second eclipse of the year, the other
having occurred on January 3. As the sun yesterday
was not completely hidden, the phenomenon of the
“corona” was not visible. The shadow was visible,
however, over the whole of North America, the
northern portion of South America, the southwestern
part of Europe, the northwest corner of Africa, and
the Northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The spectacle was regarded by astronomers at the
observatory as highly instructive, many crescent
images being seen.
Last evening, immediately after sunset, Jupiter,
Mercury, Mars, Neptune, and Venus were noticeable,
grouped together in the West. These stars,
according to astronomers, will not be seen again in
such proximity for several hundred years.
In other days, the combination of two such
phenomena, the grouping of large planets, and
an eclipse of the sun, would start all sorts
of forebodings, but with the general spread of
astronomical knowledge, events like these are
accepted as part of the workings of the great law
that rules the universe, and have ceased to strike
terror.
* * * * *
(2)
_Washington Post_
Sooty nose tips were quite the fashion in the
National Capital yesterday forenoon. People got
them by squinting through bits of smoked glass at
the sun and moon. Our Lady of the Night, instead of
being decently abed with her star children in the
celestial nursery, was up and abroad in the full
glare of the June morning, and had the astronomical
rudeness to cast a shadow on Sabbath newspapers by
passing between their readers and the light.
It took her 3 hours, 13 minutes, and 34 seconds, to
a dot, to march across the sun, and all Washington
flocked into the front yard to gaze on the lady’s
transit. They bore gingerly in their fingers small
pieces of glass darkened by wick smoke, and such
as in their innocence yielded to the promptings
of mischief-minded folk to “Hold it closer, dear,
closer, so you can see,” reaped the reward of the
unsophisticated in smudged noses and gay shouts of
ribaldry at their cost.
It was 35 minutes and 28 seconds past 9 o’clock,
standard time, when the partial eclipse began.
At that instant occurred what astronomers call
the first contact, when the windward edge of
the roistering moon impinged on the sun’s
periphery. Get it? Periphery--circumference--rim.
(Representing the difference between the Naval
Observatory, Connecticut avenue and South
Washington. All the same, but seconds different.)
It was 1 hour 36 minutes and 47 seconds later, or
11:12:15 a. m., when the Pale Orb of Night (phrase
borrowed) reached the half-way point in her morning
stroll across the perpendicular path of the light
dispenser, and achieved the casting of a shadow
on the world that, if it didn’t send the birds to
roost, at least fooled some lazy folk into turning
over with a happy sigh of surprise for a longer
snooze.
It was 29 minutes and 2 seconds past the hour
of high noon when her ladyship blew off to bed,
scandalous jade, and the smoked-glass gazers went
to lunch.
At the Naval Observatory, on Wisconsin avenue
Heights, during the eclipse Prof. W. S.
Eichelberger and his full staff were as busy as 97
eggs in an incubator at hatching time.
“The eclipse,” added the professor, “arrived ten
seconds ahead of the predicted time and lasted
thirteen seconds less than the predicted period.
Five observers noted the times of contact--Prof.
F. B. Littell, U. S. N., Assistant Astronomers
G. A. Hill, J. C. Hammond, Matt Frederickson,
C. W. Frederick, and myself--who directed the
observations. A photograph of the maximum eclipse
was taken by Assistant George H. Peters, and a
print was obtained through the courtesy of Capt.
W. J. Barnett, U. S. N., superintendent of the
observatory.
“The photograph was taken with the 40-foot
photoheliograph installed at the observatory. All
other official observations were made by equatorial
telescopes. The day was fine for observations.
The image of the sun was very steady at the first
contact, but somewhat less steady at the last.”
The photoheliograph is a photographic camera, forty
feet long, mounted horizontally. Within two feet of
the front end of the forty-foot tube (or bellows,
to borrow a photographical term) is the telescope
lens. Two feet in front of it is a wedge-shaped
piece of unsilvered glass, called the mirror. This
mirror receives the sun’s rays direct, diverts the
major portion of the light, and reflects the small
remainder upon the lens, which in turn imprints the
image upon the sensitive plate at the near end of
the tube.
This near end--earth end, it might be called--is
inserted in one wall of a square, dark room, within
which the photographer stands. A vertical slit,
one-sixteenth of an inch wide, in the near end
of the tube, admits the light from the lens. At
the precise moment the photographer, by a quick,
strong pull on a lever, shoots the sensitive
plate across this slit, thereby accomplishing an
“exposure” of about one one-hundredth of a second
in duration. In that infinitesimal fraction of time
the desired image of the eclipse is--and yesterday
was--imprinted upon the photographer’s plate.
In case of a total eclipse the operation is
different. On account of the complete obscuration
of the luminary by the moon, a time exposure of
about two minutes is required, and to achieve this
a clock mechanism turns the camera tube so as to
keep the heavenly object always centered on the
lens.
The diameter of the sun is 800,000 miles. The
diameter of the moon is 4,000 miles. But the sun
is 92,500,000 miles away from the earth, and the
moon is only 24,000 miles away. So, upon the ocular
principle that the nearer an object is the bigger
it looks, the moon, when it passed between the sun
and the earth yesterday, had an apparent diameter
as great as the actual diameter of the sun. That
is why, when there is a total eclipse, the moon
is big enough, looked at from the earth, to all
but completely hide the sun, though the sun is 200
times as large as the moon. Otherwise there could
not be such a thing as a total eclipse.
So yesterday in Florida and Mexico, where the
eclipse was central, at the moment of the maximum
eclipse all that the people could see of the sun
was a brilliant ring around the circumference of
the moon, like a molten circlet.
CHAPTER XIII
SPORTS
=Interest in sports.= One of the marked characteristics of
American newspapers is the large amount of space, both absolutely
and relatively, that they devote in every issue to news of sports.
Although there is undoubtedly a healthy interest in athletic contests
on the part of many readers, newspapers have greatly stimulated this
interest and have created a considerable part of the present demand for
sporting news and gossip. Hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers
who have never seen a major league baseball game follow day by day the
doings of the various teams and players, not merely during the playing
season but throughout the greater part of the year. Newspapers have
also assisted in developing intercollegiate football from a game in
which students and alumni were primarily interested into a sport of big
spectacular contests that attract the general public. Even after prize
fighting was barred in most states, newspapers, by the space given to
the contestants for months before every fight, were able to maintain
wide-spread interest in the results. In order to furnish readers with
a very large amount of reading matter concerning both major and minor
sports, most papers have a special staff of sports writers under the
direction of the sporting editor.
=Type of story.= Sporting news stories may be divided into three
classes: (1) those that deal with the contestants and the conditions
before the event, (2) those that report the contest itself, and (3)
those that analyze the event and its results. Stories that discuss
the relative merits of the contestants and forecast the results of
the game are based on first hand observations of the writer or on the
observations of others, regarding the showing made by the contestants
in previous events and in practice. The general and the detailed
accounts of a contest can, of course, be written only by writers who
have witnessed it. The analysis of the event and of its results may
be based either on the reporter’s own observations of the contest
or on the reports of it printed in newspapers. In covering a big
sporting event, a newspaper frequently assigns two men to report it,
one to write a general account and one a detailed story. It is evident
that all sporting news stories can best be written by men who are
thoroughly familiar with the sport itself and with the contestants.
=Purpose.= The general aim of sporting news stories should be
to satisfy a normal, healthy interest in legitimate sports. That
newspapers have stimulated an excessive interest in professional
baseball and intercollegiate football, as well as in prize fights,
is a criticism deserving careful consideration. The evil effects
on schoolboy athletes, and even on some college players, of undue
newspaper publicity have been pointed out by educators and should also
be considered by the sports writer. Accuracy and fairness are as vital
to news stories of sports as to any other news stories. Although the
interest that readers have in local contestants may warrant a writer
in devoting considerable space to them, it does not justify him in
slighting or treating unfairly their opponents in whom the readers have
less interest. The spirit of fair play that is essential to sport is
equally necessary to reports of sporting events.
=Treatment.= The handling of sporting news presents several
problems. The review of conditions preceding the contest and the
analysis of the game and its results require careful observation, clear
thinking, and a good expository style. In some respects this kind
of interpretation is not unlike editorial and critical writing. The
account of the event itself demands spirited narrative and description
that portrays not only the scenes but the spirit of the occasion.
The contrast between the emotions of the victors and those of the
vanquished may be used to good advantage. Because of the popular
interest in individual players, many events give ample opportunity for
developing the personal, or human interest, elements. The term “heroes”
as often applied to athletes is not inappropriate, for it is the heroic
qualities of the contestants that appeal to the spectators and the
followers of the sport.
Style is also an important element in sporting news stories. The
very popularity of a subject that demands much writing on the same
or similar material day by day necessitates variety of presentation.
Efforts to avoid constant repetition in reporting baseball games
have resulted in some picturesque diction and some original figures
of speech in the stories of the clever few, and in much more cheap
humor and almost unintelligible jargon in the work of their mediocre
imitators. That readable stories can be written in good English with as
much originality of style as is to be found in other well written news
stories, has been repeatedly demonstrated by a number of writers on
sports.
* * * * *
FOOTBALL TEAM PROSPECTS
_Philadelphia Ledger_
When the University of Pennsylvania football
eleven lines up for its game with the Navy team
tomorrow afternoon on Severn Field it will in all
probability be without the services of three of its
star backfield men. Howard Berry, “Bill” Quigley
and “Vic” Welch are the trio who will be forced to
witness this contest from the sidelines. Berry,
who was injured the early part of last week, has
been unable to get into any of the scrimmages this
week, while Quigley and Welch have been out of
the game since last Saturday, when both received
injuries which will very likely keep them out of
the contest, unless it is absolutely necessary to
call on them for active service.
The loss of these three men will prove a serious
loss to the Red and Blue, and unless the men
who are sent in to take their places can gain
through the Middies’ defense, “Old Penn” will be
in a serious predicament. The result of the game
tomorrow afternoon will be very closely followed
by all of Penn’s coming opponents on the gridiron
this fall; and unless the Quakers can come close to
the score made by the Pittsburgh team last Saturday
against the Admirals, the chances for defeating the
Smoky City athletes are very slim.
Yesterday’s workout in the rain did not slow up the
practice a great deal, as the men put all of their
energies into their play, and if the same spirit is
prevalent in tomorrow’s game the Red and Blue team
should bring victory to Philadelphia. Ray Grant,
who has been directing the team during the last two
days, will in all probability be first choice for
the quarterback position, with Williams, Ross and
Derr behind him.
In the workout yesterday these four men gained
consistently against the freshman and scrub
elevens, and all of the coaches were well pleased
with the scrimmage work of the men. In the freshman
contest the Varsity went over for a touchdown in
20 minutes of play, and in the scrub game they
shoved the pigskin for another tally. Tackling was
practiced, and every man was given the “call” if
he did not down the runner in the proper manner.
This department of the game will be drilled into
the head of every man, and before the season is far
advanced there should be a vast improvement in the
tackling of every Penn player.
At the close of today’s practice the men will go
to the training house for dinner, after which they
will pack their grips for Annapolis. The squad will
not go direct to Annapolis tonight, but will stay
in Baltimore. The team’s headquarters overnight
will be the Hotel Belvidere. Saturday morning the
men will board cars for the Naval Academy. Coaches
“By” Dickson, Torrey, Wharton and Dr. Carl Williams
will in all probability take the trip with the team.
That the students at the University are interested
in the outcome of this contest is certain, for
tomorrow morning a “Pennsylvania special” will pull
out of Philadelphia with more than 150 Penn rooters
on board. There are certain to be some lively
times on the Navy field tomorrow afternoon, when
the rooters cheer their teams on the banks of the
historic Severn River.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The two stories following, although
taken from the same paper and dealing with similar
material, afford an interesting contrast._
THE DAY OF THE GAME
_New York Evening Post_
PRINCETON, N. J., November 6.--With ideal
football weather for the annual game between
Princeton and Harvard to-day, the thousands of
followers of the rival teams who are here from all
sections of the East expect to witness one of the
most spectacular struggles of the season. The Tiger
coaches consider their eleven 20 per cent. stronger
than when Dartmouth was defeated two weeks ago, and
while not over-confident, are hopeful of victory.
There are many in the Princeton camp who say it
is the first time in four years that the Orange
and Black have entered into battle with Harvard on
apparently even terms.
Although the unbeaten Princeton team appear to have
the better of Harvard in playing form and all-round
strength, it is realized that in the Crimson,
defeated by Cornell two weeks ago, there are great
possibilities, and that Rush’s men will have the
battle of their careers if victory is to be theirs.
With the exception of Halsey, right tackle, who
was injured last week, the Tigers are in prime
condition and prepared for a gruelling contest.
Parisette, who replaces Halsey, and Lamberton, who
takes Brown’s place at right end, are the only
changes announced by Coach Rush. The remainder of
the team is the same that started the Dartmouth
contest. Lamberton until recently was a substitute
halfback. The changes are believed to have
materially strengthened the Princeton combination
at its weakest point.
Harvard will present a team on edge for the battle,
and, with the remarkable open-field running of
Capt. Mahan, hopes to carry away the honors. The
Crimson, however, is to face a much stronger
opponent than it did last year, when Princeton was
defeated 20 to 0. Neither of the rival coaches will
make any predictions prior to the start of the
game; both are hopeful, however, and say their men
will fight to the last ditch.
The largest crowd that ever saw a Harvard-Princeton
game in this little town is on hand to see the
fray. The demand for tickets was so great that
the supply of 41,000 was exhausted. It was the
usual colorful crowd, bedecked with the crimson of
Harvard and the yellow and black of the Tigers,
that wended its way from the special trains from
New York and Philadelphia early to-day to Palmer
Stadium. Automobiles by the hundreds brought
thousands of spectators. Old Princeton graduates,
back for the annual game, held impromptu reunions
on the campus or on Nassau Street, or made a tour
of inspection of the University buildings to note
the changes since they were last here.
The Cambridge players came in from New York on a
special during the morning, and were given a great
welcome by hundreds of Harvard men who had preceded
the squad here. Members of the scrub elevens of
the two institutions who have worked hard all
season giving practice to their respective ’varsity
teams played a game in the forenoon which attracted
a big crowd.
The lineup will be as follows:
PRINCETON. HARVARD.
Highley, l. e. Soucy, l. e.
McLean, l. t. Gilman, l. t.
Nourse, l. g. Dadmun, l. g.
Gennert, c. Wallace, c.
Hogg, r. g. Taylor, r. g.
Parisette, r. t. Parson, r. t.
Lamberton, r. e. Harte, r. e.
Glick (c), qb. Watson, qb.
Shea, l. hb. King, l. hb.
Tibbott, r. hb. Boles, r. hb.
Driggs, fb. Mahan (c), fb.
Officials: Referee, W. S. Langford, Trinity;
umpire, Dr. Carl Williams, Pennsylvania; field
judge, E. S. Land, Annapolis; head linesman, G. N.
Bankart, Dartmouth. Time of periods fifteen minutes
each.
Game starts 2 P. M.
* * * * *
THE DAY OF THE GAME
_New York Evening Post_
BY FAIR PLAY.
CAMBRIDGE, November 7.--Brave north-west
winds, a blue sky with heavy clouds drifting
across, sunlight with a glint of steel in it, and
air with a tang, were the weather conditions which
added zest to the spirit with which Cambridge
greeted the day of her big game of the season, the
contest for gridiron supremacy between the Harvard
and Princeton football elevens. The game with Yale
will be played two weeks hence at New Haven, and
as a consequence Nassau takes Eli’s place in the
Cantabrigian scheme of things.
Enthusiasm is keen both here and in Boston; for
since the Crimson and Orange and Black resumed
football relations in 1911, after a lapse of
fifteen years, interest in this annual struggle has
increased in the public mind, as in the estimation
of adherents of the rival universities, until now
it has taken a place among the gridiron classics of
the year.
The fact that of all the important university
elevens Harvard and Princeton are the only two that
have not met defeat this season is taken into
account as emphasizing the importance of the game,
there being something of a supplemental thrill in
the probability that by five o’clock this afternoon
the record of two unbeaten elevens will be reduced
to one.
A striking note about Cambridge to-day is the
absence of Crimson banners in the hands of Harvard
enthusiasts. Red flags are barred under the
law, and the Socialists have insisted upon the
enforcement of the ordinance. No one is permitted
to carry the colors of fair Harvard, under pain
of arrest, and, while there was a tendency on the
part of certain indignant students and alumni to
make a test of the law which, by the way, was
aimed at anarchists and militant Socialists, the
Harvard authorities deemed it unwise thus to force
the issue. So a formal request was issued by the
management that Harvard’s arterial red be not borne
to-day. This is said to apply, also, to arm-bands
and to handkerchiefs, which will defeat the ancient
Harvard custom of the Cambridge cheering section
forming a red-and-white H. An attempt will be
made to have the law amended, so as to exempt the
University from its provisions, which afflict
Harvard so grievously at present.
The whole thing is ridiculous, absurd; but the law
stands, and it has to be obeyed. In the meantime
there appears to be no objection to red carnations
and American beauty roses, nor even to red neckties
or hosiery. Just the same, the Harvard stands are
likely to be more sombre this afternoon than is
usual when big games are played in the stadium.
There is no ban, however, upon the orange and the
black, and so, Princetonians, of whom there will
be several thousands inside the gray walls of the
arena on the River Charles, may be as garish as
they please.
Cambridge was overlaid with gold to-day, not the
gold of Old Nassau, but nature’s purest sunlight.
It rested on old buildings of the yard, flooded
the streets, and tipped the tiny wavelets of the
Charles with silver. No day better qualified for
football at its best ever smiled upon this old
university seat. On the inspiring breeze was borne
the odor of burnt leaves and of wood smoke; the
call of the great out of doors was too potent for
even the most dry-as-dust professor to resist.
Every one was out early; every one was talking
football. Concrete point to the excitement
developed shortly after noon when the graduates and
students began to assemble for their parade through
the University and thence to the field. The alumni
representing classes as far back as the sixties,
and coming down to the class of 1913, met in front
of University Hall, the seniors in front of Weld,
the juniors at Grays, the sophomores at Matthews,
and the freshmen at Massachusetts. The procession
was scheduled to start at one o’clock, headed by
a band, which was to lead the way about the yard,
and finally after a season of cheering both for the
various classes and the University and the football
eleven, the route led out of the Johnson Gate and
so to the Stadium.
The Harvard team passed the night in seclusion at
the Brookline Country Club--so, as a Harvard wag
put it, they would not be forced to hear even the
faintest echoes of the Harvard-Princeton Glee Club
“massacre” in Memorial Hall. The Tigers rested far
from the heart of turmoil, out at the Woodland Park
Hotel in Auburndale. In the meantime, the Princeton
supporters, who had not the necessity of keeping
strict training, disported themselves in various
agreeable ways at the Copley Plaza, while Harvard
men, staying up late, were to be found everywhere.
Neither team physically is in just the condition
that the coaches would like to have it. Not that
they are overtrained at all, but various important
cogs in either machine have suffered in the remote
or recent past from sprains and pulled tendons,
which, while healed, may recur at the most
inopportune moment. For Princeton, Glick, Talbott
and Ed. Trenkman are liable in this respect, while
Mahan and Pennock of the Harvard eleven are in the
same boat. Wallace, the Harvard centre, will not
enter the lineup because of slow recovery from
a blow in the head received in the game against
Michigan. Thus Bigelow will have to play in his
place, and this is regarded as weakening the
Crimson centre to some extent. Highley and Shea
will start as ends for Princeton. Managers of both
elevens express themselves as delighted with the
condition of the gridiron, and are pleased, also,
with the assurances of the weatherwise that by
afternoon the wind will be a negligible quantity.
The line-up follows:
HARVARD.
Player, class, and position: Age. Ht. Wt.
T. J. Coolidge, ’15, l. e. 21 5 11¾ 175
K. B. G. Parson, ’16, l. t. 22 6 02½ 187
M. Weston, ’15, l. g. 20 6 03½ 194
D. J. Wallace, ’16, centre 21 5 11 174
S. B. Pennock, ’15, r. g. 22 5 08½ 203
W. H. Trumbull, ’15, r. t. 21 6 01½ 190
H. R. Hardwick, ’15, r. e. 22 5 11 171
M. J. Logan, ’15, qb. 21 5 08½ 150
E. W. Mahan, ’16, l. hb. 22 5 11 169
F. J. Brandlee, ’15, r. hb. 21 5 11½ 178
H. Francke, ’15, fb. 20 6 00¾ 189
SUBSTITUTES.
J. L. Bigelow, ’16, t. and c. 22 6 00 182
C. A. Coolidge, jr., ’17, e. 20 5 10½ 161
L. Curtis, ’16, e. 21 6 01½ 175
W. Rollins, ’15, hb. 20 5 07½ 158
H. St. J. Smith, ’15, e. 23 6 01 174
E. G. Swigert, ’16, qb. 22 5 07 147
D. C. Watson, ’16, qb. 19 5 09 148
A. J. Weatherhead, ’15, e. 22 5 10 168
W. Whitney, ’16, hb. 21 5 10 157
W. Wilcox, ’16, qb. and hb. 19 5 08 143
F. B. Withington, ’15, g. 23 6 01½ 184
PRINCETON.
H. M. Lamberton, ’16, l. e. 21 6 00 178
W. McLean, ’17, l. t. 19 5 11½ 180
W. J. Shenk, ’15, l. g. 23 5 10½ 179
A. E. Gennert, ’17, c. 18 5 11 180
E. Trenkman, ’15, r. g. 21 5 11¾ 194
H. R. Ballin, ’15, r. t. 20 6 01 194
H. G. Brown, ’16, r. e. 20 5 11 174
K. L. Ames, jr., ’16, qb. 20 5 10½ 160
F. Trenkman, ’15, l. hb. 23 5 08 180
F. Glick, ’16, r. hb. 21 5 09 178
E. H. Driggs, jr., ’17, fb. 19 5 11 178
SUBSTITUTES.
P. Bigler, ’17, t. 21 5 10 176
J. S. Baker, ’15, e. 20 5 10 174
M. A. Charles, ’17, e. 21 5 10½ 176
J. T. A. Doolittle, ’15, hb. 22 5 08¾ 159
C. A. Dickerman, ’17, hb. 22 5 10 169
C. C. Highley, ’17, e. 19 5 11 162
T. T. Hogg, ’17, g. 20 6 04 193
W. D. Love, ’16, t. 21 5 10 186
B. C. Law, ’16, hb. 19 5 11 163
R. Nourse, ’17, c. & t. 19 5 11½ 186
E. L. Shea, ’16, e. 21 5 10 166
D. M. Tibbott, ’17, hb. 18 5 10 170
* * * * *
NOTE--_The detailed story, play by play,
followed this under a separate head._
FOOTBALL GAME
_Springfield Republican_
Yale. Princeton.
Brann, Gould, l e r e, Shea, Brown
Talbott, Loughridge,
C. Sheldon, l t r t, Ballin
Conroy, Oakes, l g r g, E. Trenkmann, Hogg
White, c c, Gennert, Haviland
Walden, r g l g, Shenk, Swart
Betts, J. Sheldon,
Von Holt, r t l t, McLean, Love
Stillman, Carter, r e l e, Highley, Lamberton,
Rayhill, Brown
A. Wilson, Easton, q b q b, Ames, Eberstadt, Glick
Ainsworth, Cornell,
l h b r h b, Glick, F. Trenkmann,
Boland, Law
Knowles, Scovil, r h b l h b, Tibbott, Dickerman
Le Gore, Guernsey, f b f b, Driggs, Moore
Score, Yale 19, Princeton 14. Touchdowns,
Ainsworth, Brann, Scovil, Moore, Glick. Goals from
touchdowns, Le Gore, Law 2. Referee, Nathan Tufts
of Brown. Umpire, Carl Marshall of Harvard. Head
linesman, J. W. Beacham of Cornell. Field judge,
Fred W. Burleigh of Exeter.
* * * * *
The Yale football team defeated Princeton’s eleven
yesterday afternoon, 19 to 14, in a game which, for
thrilling climax, rivaled modern stage craft at its
best. Beaten back and scored upon with apparent
ease during the first three periods of play, the
Tigers tore loose with a smashing attack in the
final 15 minutes of the game and fairly riddled
Eli’s line. Twice the orange and black swept
across the blue goal line and the Princeton men
were fighting desperately for the third touchdown,
which would have given them victory, when the
timer’s call ended Princeton’s chances and Yale’s
apprehensions.
No similar situation has developed in the
annual game between these two university teams
in many years, and with its thrilling moments
of spectacular play and gripping uncertainty,
the contest formed a most fitting dedication of
Princeton’s new Palmer memorial stadium.
The setting for the Tigers’ dying rally of the
season of 1914 was as perfect as if the final
scenes had been planned weeks in advance. Forty
thousand spectators from all points of the compass
invaded Princeton, bearing the flags and emblems
of the rival institutions. The weather man’s gift
to the day’s contest was perfect weather overhead
and a turf unsurpassed for football. The great
gray horseshoe with its innumerable tiers of seats
was filled, with the exception of the curve at the
north end. With a warm sun and an almost entire
absence of wind, heavy wraps were unnecessary, yet
down on the green turf of the gridiron shaded by
the high walls of the stadium the players fought
out the struggle to the end without suffering the
inconvenience usually experienced by combatants on
an Indian summer day.
During three-quarters of the game there was nothing
to indicate the sensational climax with which the
Princeton team was to mark its first game against
Yale in its new football arena. Forced to take
the defensive from the very beginning of play,
the Tigers showed little defensive strength at
any time, and the blue combination scored in each
quarter.
The contest opened with an exchange of punts,
intermingled with the efforts of the rival
quarterbacks to ascertain the strength and
weaknesses of their opponents. Princeton soon found
that she could make no progress either through
the line or around the ends, and punted at every
opportunity. Yale opened with an assortment of
stabbing line plunges and knife-like dives just
outside of tackle. The progress, however, was
not rapid, and the Elis soon fell back on their
mixture of forward and rugby passing. The initial
score came when, having secured the ball well in
Princeton’s territory, Wilson took his center’s
pass and, after a short run along the left side
of Princeton’s line, passed the ball back to Le
Gore. The powerful Yale fullback in turn ran a
short distance and made a beautiful forward pass to
Ainsworth, who had rushed up-field, and the latter
ran more than 20 yards for a touchdown, from which
Le Gore failed to kick goal.
Similar tactics were pursued in the second period,
when Yale, with short gains by line plunges and
overhead passes, reached a point inside the Tigers’
final five-yard mark. Here Princeton held firmly
and the blue was obliged to seek the aerial route
for scoring, Le Gore making a short pass over the
line to Brann, who touched down the ball, whereupon
Le Gore added an additional point by a goal
following the punt out.
Scarcely had the third period opened when a
40-yard forward pass, Le Gore to Brann, gave Yale
the ball inside Princeton’s 20-yard mark. Six
rushes, in which Scovil, Wilson and Le Gore worked
alternately, put the ball across the line for
Yale’s third and final touchdown. Le Gore failed
to kick the goal, and with a 19-point lead Coach
Hinkey of Yale began to send in his substitutes.
For a few minutes the Eli second string of players
held the Tigers safe, but with the opening of the
final quarter Princeton’s jungle men took heart
and made a savage and maintained attack on Yale’s
substitutes with the result that in less than 15
minutes they had rolled up 14 points and were
threatening to snatch victory from the blue when
time expired.
The orange and black team played like a new
combination after the final minute of rest,
opening up a rushing game which swept the blues’
substitutes off their feet. Three, five and eight
yards at a clip, Princeton’s juggernaut rolled up
the field until Moore, on a zigzag 16-yard run
which twice carried him through the Yale line and
secondary defense, went over for the touchdown
from which Law kicked goal. Following the kick-off
came an exchange of punts and then the Tigers cut
loose again, ramming holes through the Eli forwards
and sweeping around the end, aided by close
interference until Glick plowed his way through the
blue combination for a second touchdown and Law
kicked goal.
Hinkey was by this time rushing back his ’varsity
players into line and backfield, but the Tiger,
once he tasted Yale blood, was not to be frightened
away. With less than five minutes of playing
time remaining, Princeton started its rush for a
third touchdown. Capt Talbott urged his players
frantically to make a last stand, and the Elis
responded nobly. Princeton found its gains cut
down from yards to feet and resorted to forward
passes, hoping to gain overhead the ground denied
them by straight football tactics. Forward pass
after forward pass was flung far up the field,
to be grounded or blocked by the blues’ alert
backfield until, when the timer’s whistle ended the
struggle, Princeton was holding the ball not far
from midfield.
Aside from this surprising flash of offensive
strength in the last quarter, Princeton was as
completely outplayed by Yale as by Harvard a
week ago. The wide open attack in which the blue
backfield passed the ball from player to player
in runs around the end and then suddenly switched
to long forward passes, appeared to bewilder and
dazzle the Tiger line and secondary defense just as
much as the crimson’s close formation and concealed
ball offense.
The jungle team appeared to have little if any plan
of campaign, punting frequently upon the first or
second down with the apparent idea that the ends
would recover the ball following a Yale fumble. In
this respect the Elis refused to be accommodating,
Le Gore and Wilson handling Driggs’s and Law’s
drives cleanly and frequently running the ball back
from 10 to 15 yards before being downed.
Princeton was outdistanced in these kicking duels,
Le Gore gaining steadily on each exchange of punts
with Driggs. When these gains had driven the Tigers
well into their own territory Yale struck viciously
and, with a bewildering attack, quickly carried the
ball over for a score. From a defensive standpoint
the Yale first-string team was never in danger
from Princeton’s attack, and it was not until the
second and third-string substitutes went in that
the orange and black football machine could make
consistent progress.
The statistics of play bear out the superiority of
the Yale team. Yale gained 298 yards by rushing
to Princeton’s 145 and made 15 first downs to the
Tigers’ 11. Yale essayed seven forward passes to
Princeton’s 10, gaining 69 yards to Princeton’s 0.
Yale punted 27 times to Princeton’s 40 and showed
an average gain of close to four yards in each
exchange of punts.
Penalties were numerous throughout the four
periods, Yale losing 80 yards in eight setbacks
to Princeton’s 60 in seven infringements of the
rules. Yale made three fumbles to Princeton’s
one, recovering one to Princeton’s two. Including
the original line-up, substitutions and
re-substitutions, 57 players took part in the game,
which is in all probability a record for a contest
of the caliber of the Yale-Princeton match.
While in all-around team work Yale outshone
Princeton, the Tigers uncovered several players who
from an individual standpoint held their own with
the Eli stars. Capt. Ballin was, as usual, a tower
of strength. E. Trenkmann also played a splendid
game, both these men frequently penetrating the
blue backfield and stopping rushes or going down
field under kicks on a line with their ends.
Gennert’s passing was at times ragged, but he was
hurried by the concerted charging of his opponents.
In the last quarter Dickerman and Glick showed
remarkable ability in line plunging and end runs,
frequently carrying several Yale tacklers from one
to three yards before they were finally swept from
their feet.
For Yale, Le Gore and Scovil were the stars from an
offensive standpoint. When carrying the ball they
kept their feet, following interference or finding
holes in the line with remarkable skill. Le Gore
also figured prominently in the forward passing,
his long spiral heaves to Brann and Ainsworth
at times reaching the proportions of a kick.
Quarterback Wilson handled his team cleverly and
selected plays with splendid judgment.
In the line Capt. Talbott played a game which
proved that he has fully recovered from his
injuries and will give the Harvard men plenty of
work next week at New Haven in the closing game of
the Yale and Harvard schedules.
* * * * *
FOOTBALL GAME
_Springfield Republican_
CAMBRIDGE, Saturday, October 24.
Harvard narrowly escaped defeat to-day by Penn
State, which outplayed the crimson in all
departments. The score ended in a tie, 13 to
13. For 46 minutes Penn State drove the Harvard
’varsity substitutes about the field, and scored a
touchdown and a goal from the field in the first 12
minutes of play.
The visitors outrushed, outkicked and outmaneuvered
the crimson, but lost a chance for victory through
two costly fumbles. In the second period, with
the score 10 to 0 against it, Harvard recovered a
fumble on Penn State’s eight-yard line. On three
attempts Harvard could make no gain, but a score
came when C. Coolidge caught a forward pass across
the goal line. Penn State increased its lead to 13
points toward the end of the game on another field
goal.
Two minutes before play ended, Harvard recovered
the ball on a fumble on the visitors’ 40-yard
line. On the second play, three rapidly-executed
lateral passes, based on the rugby game, as
recently taught the crimson squad by the Canadian
players, completely mystified Penn State. Willcox
ran the distance to the goal line for the score.
He was tackled with a yard to go, but managed to
fall across the line. Amid a breathless silence
Withington kicked goal and the score was tied.
Penn State rushed 54 times for 173 yards gain,
while the crimson made but 95 yards on 72 rushes.
Penn State had six first downs, while Harvard made
but two.
Lamb, Penn’s big tackle, booted the ball on the
kick-off to Francke on Harvard’s 10-yard line. The
new back came in to his own 32-yard line, where he
was downed. On the third play, Francke was forced
to kick. James caught the ball on Penn’s 30-yard
line, returning seven yards. Here the Penn State
power flashed. Tobin snatched two yards at right
tackle, followed by James, who made a quarterback
run around the same side for 15 yards, placing the
ball past midfield.
Tobin then, huddled behind superb interference,
sped around Coolidge’s end for 25 yards. After two
plays had failed, Lamb kicked a field goal for Penn
State from the 32-yard line.
Tobin took Bradlee’s kick-off on his own 13-yard
line and ran it back 21 yards. Higgins then
slipped around right end for five yards, and his
interference so successfully smothered Soucy that
the new Harvard end was carried from the field.
At the hospital it was found that he had pulled a
ligament in his right leg, which was badly bruised.
It was not long after the first score that the
visitors carried the ball down the field again.
The tally came after McKinlock failed to make a
drop kick, the ball falling into James’s arms on
his five-yard line. After several big gains, Clark
carried the ball over on a delayed run around left
end. Lamb kicked goal. The first quarter ended with
the score 10 to 0, in favor of Penn State.
Toward the end of the second period Harvard got
a chance to score. On the fourth down Bradlee
kicked to James, who was downed in his tracks on
the seven-yard line. Penn State tried another
trick play and again a fumble lost her the ball.
Swigert had replaced Watson at the beginning of the
quarter. He dropped back and heaved the ball to C.
Coolidge, who stood with one foot almost on the
line marking the limit of the zone behind the goal
line, when he successfully pulled down the ball for
a touchdown. Bradlee failed to kick goal.
About the end of the last quarter Penn got another
chance to score, when Tobin intercepted a forward
pass from Swigert. Lamb booted a placement goal
over from the 26-yard line, making the score 13 to
6 for Penn. There were only six minutes to play and
Harvard was desperate. Willcox replaced Rollins
at left half and made it possible for Harvard to
tie the score. When James fumbled the ball, R. C.
Curtis gathered it in and made it Harvard’s ball on
the 49-yard line. There were two minutes to play.
On the first play there was a general mix-up, and
suddenly the ball shot out from the Harvard line to
Willcox, who started like a shot for Penn’s goal
line. He dodged Barron, and then went flying past
three more backs. The last five yards were covered
with Kratt and Higgins hanging to him, but, when
the two visitors had been peeled off Willcox, the
ball was found over the line by several inches.
Withington’s sure kick tied the score for Harvard
with one minute left to play. The line-up:--
Harvard. Penn State.
T. J. Coolidge, C. Coolidge, le r e, Thomas,
Barron, Morris
R. C. Curtis, Parson, l t r t, Lamb
Underwood, Withington, l g r g, McDonnell
Wallace, c c, Wood
Weston, r g l g, Miller
Bigelow, r t l t, Kratt
Soucy, Weatherhead, r e l e, Higgins
Watson, Swigert, q b q b, James
McKinlock, Whitney, Rollins,
Willcox, l h b r h b, Tobin
Francke, King, r h b l h b, Welly,
Edgerton
Bradlee, McKinlock, f b f b, Clark
Score, Harvard 13, Penn State 13. Touchdowns, C.
Coolidge, Willcox, Clark. Goals from touchdowns,
Withington, Lamb. Goals from field, Lamb 2.
Referee, W. N. Morne of Penn. Umpire, Fred W.
Murphy of Brown. Head linesman, G.V. Brown of
Boston A. A. Time, 30-minute halves.
* * * * *
ANALYSIS OF FOOTBALL GAME
_New York Evening Post_
(Condensed)
BY FAIR PLAY.
If there was a Yale graduate who did not feel the
impulse to stand in his place and uncover silently
to a little knot of athletes in blue gathered to
give their bulldog bark of victory at the close
of a bitterly fought struggle with Princeton in
the Bowl on Saturday, that graduate had lost the
edge of a certain fine spirit which the sons of
Eli are supposed to take with them out into the
world. From their seats the undergraduates stormed
on to the field, gyrating in their uncontained
exuberance, cheering, shouting, writhing in the
intricacies of the snake dance. And they did well,
these ebullient undergrads--precisely what they
should have done; but to the thinking Yale men
whose remoteness from their student days has seen
year piled on year, there must have come deeper
emotions which made, shall we say, for reverence,
rather than for the casting off of mental, not to
say physical, restraint. For the Yale eleven did a
memorable thing on Saturday. Through sheer spirit,
through indomitable determination, through utter
willingness to give the final measure of physical
sacrifice, those men of Yale lifted from the muck
a bedraggled, bedaubed blue banner, holding it
on high so that it floated and snapped proudly
once more, glorified by the light of victory. It
was fine. It meant more, that victory--stood for
more--than the mere winning of a football game.
It went deep into the roots of extra-curricular
endeavor and gave that sanction for intercollegiate
contest which does not always appear. The elements
that won that game against a powerful, spirited
rival are elements that not even the most dryasdust
pedant, wedded to the scholastic cloister, can
talk down. And it is good for Yale or any other
university, to have these developed upon the field
of competitive athletics as in other departments
of college life, essential and subsidiary. In the
matter of Saturday’s game, this applies as much to
those who, filled with foreboding, assembled none
the less thousands upon thousands to cheer and sing
for Yale, as to the players.
“I don’t know that we can hold Princeton,” said
a Yale coach a few hours before the contest.
“Privately, I don’t think we can. But you may count
upon this: not a man of Yale will yield to-day
until he is carried from the field.”
That was the spirit that won for Yale, the spirit
that won against an eleven better equipped to play
finished football, against an outfit which gained
two yards to Yale’s one, which made twelve first
downs to Yale’s four.
* * *
If the Tigers had not matched the best fighting
qualities of Princeton spirit against the best that
Yale spirit stands for the lustre of Yale’s feat
would not have been so bright--would have lost
much of its significance. But that grim, undying
quality, win or lose, that Princeton partisans look
for and expect was not lacking in the Orange and
Black. The contest was fought out to the end, with
the enormous throng standing spellbound, cheers
and inarticulate cries muffled in their throats,
watching the balance of victory as it inclined this
way and that. The contest had not the technical
excellence of some big games we have seen--from
this standpoint the Harvard-Princeton game was
superior--but in its spectacular characteristics,
in its sequence of thrills, in its swift, shuttling
changes, it stood out by itself.
* * *
In Princeton Yale defeated an eleven which
possessed a stronger and more varied attack,
with a defence which could keep the Blue from
rushing the ball into what may be termed promising
touchdown territory. In all that the term implies
the Tigers had a machine which was superior to the
Yale machine, inasmuch as it had the power not
only to gain in midfield, but to cross the chalk
marks. The Tigers made one touchdown by clean
rushing and forward passing, and had a break not
occurred at the supreme moment, her rushing prowess
in the last quarter would have been rewarded by
another touchdown. Further Glick’s generalship
was execrable upon many occasions. In the first
quarter Wilson dropped a long booming punt from
Driggs, and Highley, picking it up on the bound,
was tackled one stride short of getting clear for a
touchdown. The ball was on Yale’s thirty-yard line.
Now, instead of going outside tackle, Princeton
essayed a series of centre bucks with quarter and
halves, which every Princeton scout must have told
Glick could not succeed against Yale. Thus the
downs were exhausted. Guernsey punted weakly from
his twenty-yard line, giving Princeton the ball on
Yale’s twenty-seven-yard mark, where instead of
going off tackle or around the end Princeton tried
two line plunges and then threw the ball away by
a forward pass over the goal line, the same being
translated automatically into a touchback for
Yale. Thereafter, throughout the game, Princeton
turned time and again to centre plunges, usually
unsuccessfully, whereas not many of her sweeps
around the Yale wings failed to gain materially.
They say her gains in this way were sporadic,
but this was only because the play was attempted
sporadically. Nassau’s off-tackle plays and delayed
passes gained a great deal of ground and put Yale
in danger more than once; yet usually a down or
two were used up on centre bucks, when Princeton
should have known she was wasting her strength.
Where Yale was vastly superior to Princeton was in
following the ball and in holding it.
* * *
Yale’s first goal was clean and untarnished.
Guernsey kicked it from the fifty-three-yard
line, and it was as fine an effort as I have ever
seen. The ball struck the cross bar and toppled
over. But Yale’s second field goal was a direct
gift from Princeton. Brown was sent in to relieve
Highley and committed the gross and inexcusable
error of speaking to Capt. Glick before reporting
to the referee. The referee promptly and justly
set Princeton back fifteen yards to her own
twenty-eight yard line. After two rushes had failed
to gain, Yale did the obvious thing; she sent
Guernsey back to kick a field goal. This he did.
Princeton then fell to work and rushed the ball
downfield to the Yale goal line, where the ball
was held directly on the final chalk-mark before
it was finally pushed an inch or two over; it was
a splendid piece of grim defence by Yale, but the
ball was too close. Thus the half ended. The half
was characterized by a piece of roughness on the
part of a Princeton man who hurled himself upon a
prostrate Yale receiver of a forward pass after he
had been downed. Princeton was justly penalized
for undue roughness, as she was in the last period
when a Princetonian roughed a Yale player in a play
which ended out of bounds. Such incidents leave a
bad taste in the mouth. It was done in the heat of
a hot game, and no injury resulted because of no
real design to injure, but that is no excuse.
* * *
The second half assumed a blue tinge almost
immediately when Tibbott dropped a long spiral
from Guernsey and Way picked up the ball and
ran for a touchdown. The remainder of the third
period was characterized by one or two well-worked
forward passes and some goodly gains off tackle by
Princeton, with Yale on the defensive satisfied
as matters stood. The fourth period saw Princeton
hungry for a score, playing like all-possessed,
with Yale conducting herself cautiously, and
always seeking to get Guernsey in a position to
drop a field goal. But the Elis--who were not
able to make a first down in this half--would
not have got sufficiently near to Princeton’s
goal to try a kick for score had not Dickerman
dropped a Yale punt on his eighteen-yard line,
Yale recovering. The Blue could not gain, but
profited by Dickerman’s fumble to the extent of
giving Guernsey a chance for a dropkick. He made
the goal cleanly, but it did not count because of
holding on the part of Yale; the holding may or
may not have affected the success of the kick, but
rules are rules, and the holding was obvious even
to some of the spectators. A few minutes later
Princeton, with Moore in the lineup, took advantage
of a weak punt against the wind by Guernsey and
unleashed an irresistible attack, which started
from Yale’s thirty-two-yard line. End-runs and
off-tackle plays, with a forward pass to spread
Yale’s defence, took the ball to Eli’s seven-yard
line. Here was what the Princeton adherents had
been looking for; the multitude of sixty-odd
thousand became so quiet that the quarterback’s
signals echoed and reëchoed throughout the immense
amphitheatre. An assault at the line was killed for
a loss. Then, with the Yale defence packed closely
to the left, Glick took the ball and gave it to
Dickerman. The Yale defence dashed straight in. The
fleet-footed Moore, sprinting to the right, was
completely clear. Dickerman threw the ball to him
laterally. It was not a perfect throw, but it was
within reach of the fast-running Moore, who, with a
clean catch, could have walked over the goal-line.
But it glanced from his fingers. He still had time
to pick it up on the bound and score; the oval hit
his knee and bounded over the side-line, in touch.
Right there waned and flickered Princeton’s last
hope, a hope valiantly essayed, a hope which died
at the moment when it was being translated into a
flaming reality. The contest ended a few minutes
later. In justice to Moore it may be said that
Dickerman’s toss might have been better done. It
came too swift, too much in a line, still, the
throw might have been spoiled had it gone too
slowly.
* * *
Where Yale shone, wherein she has hope to make
trouble for Harvard, is in her punting and
drop-kicking, her down field ability and sharp
tackling of her team; the close, unerring following
of the ball and the splendid spirit of the players
individually, and as a whole. Her wing defence and
defence off tackle must improve between now and
next Saturday, probably will. Her forward-passing
game is not dangerous, and she launches a driving
attack from her Minnesota shift formation better
qualified for midfield gains than for gains inside
her opponent’s thirty-five-yard line. Perhaps she
can work up her off-tackle slashes so that they
will carry farther than they did against Princeton,
but if she can repeatedly get Guernsey anywhere
from Harvard’s forty-yard line on she may not need
touchdowns in order to win. For Guernsey is a toe
artist of real stature. As to the Yale players
individually it is impossible to speak, because not
being numbered, the various men were identified
only by word of mouth and word of mouth is usually
inaccurate and misleading. Guernsey, of course,
was recognized because he did the punting, and Way
was known because he was prominent as a baseball
pitcher and, besides, wore no head guard. But as
to the exact identity of most of the rest I have
no notion upon which I may rely. One of the Yale
halfbacks played a slashing game offensively, and
the entire backfield shone in returning punts and
kickoffs. The three centre men were impregnable,
but the tackles and ends worked inconsistently
on off-tackle plays and end runs. Harvard may
take some unction in the fact that Yale can still
be fooled by an elusive attack. Yale’s basket
formation for forward-pass defence, four men
back, was well conceived--it was patterned after
the Harvard defence--but her normal defensive
arrangement of backs, three abreast, twelve yards
back, is open to grave criticism. She got her shift
into action in good style, and the backs started
quickly. She lacks long-gain plays.
* * *
John Rush has not the slightest cause for being
disheartened over the results of his first
season’s work. He gave to Princeton the first
offensive team she has had since 1899, a team which
made a splendid reputation up to her big games,
both of which, as a matter of fact, might have been
won under different circumstances. Rush constructed
an engine, a strong, impressive engine, several
parts of which snapped under high tension in the
course of the two supreme tests. In no way can Rush
be charged with the loss of either game. In both,
failures came through manual errors on the part of
individuals, and these no coach can prevent. Vide
Haughton and the Harvard-Cornell game. Princeton
in Rush has a rare jewel, who has made good
convincingly.
* * * * *
BASEBALL GAME
_Boston Post_
NEW YORK, Aug. 22.--New York made it two straight
over Chicago today, winning the second game of the
series by a score of 8 to 1. Cheney was wild and
ineffective in the third inning, when the champions
took a winning lead by scoring three runs. Vaughn,
a former member of the New York Americans, who is
trying to come back with Chicago, was not hard hit,
but the champions bunched their three hits with his
two passes for four runs.
Tesreau, the New York pitcher, was very wild,
but the Chicago batsmen could not hit him with
men on bases. Zimmerman fouled out twice with
the bases full. Chicago filled the bases in the
first inning with none out, on Leach’s triple and
passes to Evers and Schulte. Only one run was
scored, however, Saier’s infield out putting over
the tally. New York tied the score in the second
on Merkle’s single and steal, Snodgrass’ infield
out and McLean’s single. Three runs followed when
Cheney hit two men, issued a pass and was hit for a
single and a double.
Herzog made two doubles and a single in four times
up, and was responsible for five of the New York
runs, driving in two and scoring three. Archer, the
Chicago catcher, had a bad day. Five bases were
stolen on him, and he had two passed balls, one of
which let in a run.
The score:
NEW YORK. AB. R. BH. TB. PO. A. E.
Burns, l f 3 1 0 0 1 0 0
Shafer, 2b 2 1 0 0 1 5 0
Fletcher, ss 2 2 0 0 0 3 0
Herzog, 3b 4 3 3 5 2 0 0
Merkle, 1b 4 1 2 2 10 0 0
Murray, r f 4 0 1 1 3 0 0
Snodgrass, c f 3 0 0 0 4 0 0
McLean, c 4 0 1 1 6 0 0
Tesreau, p 4 0 0 0 0 3 0
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
Totals 30 8 7 9 27 11 0
CHICAGO. AB. R. BH. TB. PO. A. E.
Leach, c f 4 1 1 3 0 0 1
Evers, 2b 2 0 0 0 2 3 0
Schulte, r f 3 0 1 1 1 0 0
Zimmerman, 3b 4 0 1 1 1 4 0
Saier, 1b 3 0 1 1 11 1 0
Williams, l f 4 0 0 0 1 0 0
Bridwell, ss 3 0 0 0 1 1 0
Archer, c 4 0 1 1 4 2 0
Cheney, p 1 0 0 0 1 1 0
[_a_]Stewart 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Vaughn, p 1 0 0 0 2 0 0
[_b_]Good, 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
Totals 31 1 5 7 24 12 1
[_a_] Batted for Cheney in the fifth.
[_b_] Batted for Vaughn in the ninth.
New York 0 1 3 0 1 0 3 0 --8
Chicago 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--1
Two-base hits--Herzog 2. Three-base hit--Leach.
Stolen bases--Burns, Merkle 2, Murray, Herzog.
Double play--Fletcher to Shafer to Merkle. First
base on balls--Off Tesreau 6, off Cheney 3, off
Vaughn 2. Hit by pitcher--Fletcher, Snodgrass (by
Cheney). Passed balls--Archer 2. Hits--Off Cheney 4
in 4 innings, off Vaughn 3 in 4 innings. Time--1h.
50m. Umpires--Rigler and Byron.
* * * * *
BASEBALL GAME
_Boston Globe_
BY T. H. MURNANE.
The fourth game of the important series with the
Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park was a clean-cut
victory for the Boston team by a score of 2 to 1.
It was a great pitchers’ battle between Coveleskie,
the left-hander, and Ernie Shore, and the Boston
man won out by outstaying the Tiger pitcher.
It was the second time that Coveleskie has worked
in the series here, while Boston presented Shore
for the first time, although he proved by far the
strongest boxman the club had to tame the Tigers
with.
The visitors started off in a savage manner on the
Boston pitcher, scoring their only run on three
singles in succession. After that Shore seemed
to find himself, and with the assistance of some
clever throwing to second by Forrest Cady and grand
ground-covering by the Boston outfield, as well as
smooth work around the infield, Shore prevented the
Tigers from making the rounds of the bases after
the first inning.
The Boston run that tied the score in the second
was a gift by Owen Bush, who made a wild throw to
first on Barry’s grounder, and the winning run was
scored in the seventh inning on a single by Lewis
and a double by Barry, Crawford allowing the ball
to pass him while making a great try for a low
drive.
The intense rivalry between the two teams, although
subdued, was visible in many ways; and yet the game
went off smoothly, as most games do when umpired by
Billy Evans, and the large crowd was delighted with
its afternoon’s outing.
* * * * *
It was Rockland Day at Fenway Park and fully 1000
fans were present from that energetic town. Before
the game they marched around the field to the music
of a band; then they were ushered into the right
wing of the grandstand, where they had a delightful
afternoon, rooting for the Red Sox and punctuating
their applause with the bass drum.
As Rockland is a town where President Lannin
spent many of his boyhood days, he was especially
delighted to see such a splendid gathering. A
beautiful gold watch and chain were presented to
the Red Sox president.
There was also a large delegation of Boston waiters
present as President Lannin’s guests, and still
another large delegation will be out today. As the
waiters could not all leave business at once, they
split up their calls between two games.
The attendance given out, 11,315, did not include
the fans from Rockland or the waiters from Boston.
The day was dark and cloudy, and before three
innings were over a light sprinkling of rain caused
the fans in the bleachers to make for the covered
pavilions, where they were allowed to go. There was
quite a heavy sprinkle again in the fifth inning,
but the game went on, with a strong, cold wind
blowing across the field.
So intensely interesting was the game that the fans
sat as if glued to their seats until the last man
went out, when a good, stiff shout went up for the
Speed Boys, and the Tigers walked off the field
sore to the quick and in the worst kind of humor
for fan talk.
* * * * *
With one out in the first inning, Bush singled.
Cobb hit safely to center on the first ball.
Crawford singled over second, scoring Bush. Veach
was thrown out at first, and Burns was disposed
of by Janvrin, Boston getting out of a very bad
corner. The Red Sox went out in order on three weak
infield flies.
In the second Young was safe at first on a wild
throw by Cady. Baker hit to Janvrin, who refused to
toss the ball to Barry, but instead ran to second,
touched the bag and threw wild to first. No damage
was done, however, as Coveleskie flied to left and
Vitt was thrown out at first.
Gainor was hit by a pitched ball and sacrificed to
second by Lewis. Gardner struck out. Barry hit a
ball to short that Bush took well back of the line
and threw short to first, the ball bounding over
Burns’ shoulder and allowing Gainor to score the
tying run.
Bush opened the third with a single. Cobb smashed
a liner to center that Speaker made a great catch
of. Then Crawford and Veach sent high flies to the
outfield. Boston could make no headway against the
Tiger pitcher.
In the fourth inning both teams went out in order.
Gainor, having reached first, was doubled up on
Lewis’ grounder to the pitcher.
In the fifth, with two down, Bush was given a base
hit when Janvrin failed to get a ball that came to
him on a merry bound. Cobb got in a scratch single,
and with big Sam Crawford up it was a trying moment
until he sent a long fly that Speaker pulled down.
With two down in this inning, Cady dropped one in
right field for two bases, to see Shore thrown out
at first.
The Tigers went out in order in the sixth. Young,
drawing a pass, was nailed when he tried for
second, as Cady was in fine throwing form. Janvrin
was hit by a pitched ball, but never left first.
With two down in the seventh, Vitt singled and
tried for second, but again Cady’s throw was
perfect.
Lewis led off with a single to center. Gardner was
patient and got Coveleskie in for three balls. Then
came two strikes and Larry was forced to hit, Young
handling his fast grounder in fine style. Barry hit
a low liner to right that Crawford made a great try
for, the ball hitting the ground and rolling past
him, Lewis scoring what proved to be the winning
run.
It was now up to the Red Sox to hold their
advantage and keep the Tigers from scoring. Bush, a
hard man to get, was called out on strikes, Shore
displaying remarkably clever form at this stage
of the game. Cobb was forced to hit, as Shore was
putting the ball over the center of the pen. Ty
missed twice and then hit a sharp grounder that
Janvrin played to first. Crawford sent one to
Hooper and things brightened for the home team.
* * * * *
In the ninth Veach smashed a line fly to right that
Hooper timed to a nicety while playing very deep
and pulled down after a sharp run. Burns smashed
the first ball to the bank in left center for two
bases, and the Tigers got busy on the coaching
lines and in the dugout, cheering like wild men for
a hit.
Kavanagh was sent in to bat for Young, and drew a
pass, as Shore would not take a chance to groove a
ball for this slugger. McKee went to bat for Baker
and was thrown out by Shore.
With men at third and second, where a hit would
more than likely win the game for the Tigers, Dubuc
was sent in to bat for Coveleskie, with two down,
and he smashed away at the first ball dished up,
driving the leather to left center, where Speaker
pulled it down after a sharp run, and the game was
over.
The best fielding features were furnished by Bush,
who displayed remarkable ability in covering
ground, really making hard plays easy by his
phenomenally quick starts. Hooper and Speaker, as
well as Barry and Cady, did some sharp fielding for
the Red Sox.
But to Shore belongs about 75 per cent of the glory
for winning the game, for after the first inning he
settled down and was steady as well as effective.
He was given what belonged to him by Umpire Evans,
and was not forced to suffer as the other Boston
pitchers were, with Mr. Chill behind the plate. The
score:
BOSTON AB R BH TB PO A E
Hooper rf 4 0 0 0 2 0 0
Janvrin ss 3 0 1 1 2 3 0
Speaker cf 4 0 0 0 4 0 0
Gainor 1b 2 1 0 0 11 0 0
Lewis lf 3 1 1 1 2 0 0
Gardner 3b 3 0 0 0 0 1 0
Barry 2b 3 0 1 2 2 4 0
Cady c 3 0 1 2 4 2 1
Shore p 3 0 0 0 0 2 0
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
Totals 28 2 4 6 27 12 1
DETROIT
Vitt 3b 4 0 1 1 1 0 0
Bush ss 4 1 3 3 2 3 1
Cobb cf 4 0 2 2 1 0 0
Crawford rf 4 0 1 1 0 0 0
Veach lf 4 0 0 0 1 0 0
Burns 1b 4 0 1 2 11 0 0
Young 2b 2 0 0 0 3 4 0
Baker c 3 0 0 0 5 0 0
Coveleskie p 3 0 0 0 0 4 0
[D]Kavanagh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
[E]McKee 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
[F]Dubuc 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
Totals 34 1 8 9 24 11 1
[D] Batted for Young in ninth.
[E] Batted for Baker in ninth.
[F] Batted for Coveleskie in ninth.
Innings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Boston 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 --2
Detroit 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--1
Earned runs, Detroit, Boston. Two-base hits, Cady,
Burns, Barry. Sacrifice hit, Lewis. Base on balls,
by Shore 2, by Coveleskie. First base on errors,
Boston, Detroit. Left on bases, Boston 5, Detroit
7. Struck out, by Shore 4, by Coveleskie 3. Double
play, Coveleskie, Young and Burns. Hit by pitched
ball, by Coveleskie, Janvrin, Gainor. Time, 1h 52m.
Umpires, Evans and Chill.
* * * * *
BASEBALL GAME
_New York Times_
Look: there he goes!!
Ty Cobb is loose again on a base galloping spree.
He romps to first on a single. Slim Caldwell
pitches to Nunamaker, and the ball nestles in his
big mitt. Cobb, a few feet off first, suddenly
bolts into action and races to second. Nunamaker,
amazed at the Georgian’s daring, stands dumfounded.
He throws the ball to Dan Boone just as the
Southern Flyer jumps into second base. The steel
spikes flash in the waning sun and Cobb is lost in
a cloud of dust. Nunamaker’s nervous toss rolls
into centre field and the Georgia Gem bounds to
his feet and tears to third. He’s as safe as the
Bank of England. Cobb’s sarcastic smile angers his
hoodwinked opponents.
Now the speed-crazed comet dashes up and down the
third-base line, trying to rattle Caldwell. Will
Cobb have the nerve to try to steal home? You said
it; he will. Caldwell doesn’t think so. No one
thinks so, but Cobb. The Yanks’ lanky pitcher hurls
the ball at the batsman like a rifle ball. As the
ball left his hand Cobb bounded over the ground
like a startled deer.
At the plate crouched Nunamaker. He was so
surprised that he didn’t know his own name. Cobb
dashed through the air toward the scoring pan. His
lithe body swerved away from Nunamaker’s reach and
clouds of dirt kicked up by his spikes blinded the
eyes of Nunamaker, Caldwell, and Silk O’Loughlin.
The umpire ruled that the catcher didn’t touch
Cobb. He also ruled that Cobb hadn’t touched the
plate. While the Yankee players were protesting
Cobb sneaked around the bunch and touched the
plate.
A smart young feller, this same Cobb.
The bold piracy of Captain Kidd was like taking
ice-cream cones from children compared with
that. Caldwell threw his glove high in the air
in derision at O’Loughlin’s decision. Naturally
Caldwell and Nunamaker were in a very disturbed
state of mind.
So is a man when a “dip” relieves him of his
watch-chain and wallet. Cobb pulled the wool over
their eyes like a “sharper” unloading mining stock
on a Rube. Caldwell was put out of the game for
being mad because Cobb had outwitted him.
Aside from this outburst of daring the Southern
Flyer also contributed all the other means whereby
the Detroits were able to shut out the Yankees at
the Polo Grounds yesterday by a score of 3 to 0.
Oscar Vitt had teased a pass from Caldwell in the
first inning. Cobb strutted chestily to the bat.
From the coaching lines pearls of oratorical wisdom
began to drop from Hughie Jennings’s chiseled lips.
It sounded like this: “Come on you, Ty boy,
attababy. Only one out, O, Ty. Bring ’em in; you
kin do it. Old pepperino, Ty boy. Attaway to hit a
baseball. E-E-E-Eh Yah, here we go.”
Cobb gracefully swung on the ball. With a
resounding crash it started on its dizzy flight
between right and centre fields. The Georgia racer
gathered speed as he went along. Bounding over the
ground like a phantom, he turned first, flashed
past second, and pulled up smiling at third, with
Vitt already over the pan. Cobb’s batting .400.
Going up?
Then came old Sam Crawford, Cobb’s partner in the
pitcher-wrecking business. Sam would never leave
his friend Cobb stranded like a wooden Indian
on the bases, not if he could help it. Crawford
reasoned this way. He figured that if he didn’t
propel Tyrus home, Cobb would steal home, anyway,
and cause the Yankees a lot of embarrassment. So
Wahoo Sam cracked out a single and Cobb walked
home. The score:
DETROIT.
AB R H PO A
Bush, ss 4 0 1 4 4
Vitt, 3b 3 1 0 3 3
Cobb, cf 4 2 2 1 0
C’ford, rf 4 0 1 1 0
Veach, lf 4 0 0 0 0
Kav’h, 1b 4 0 1 13 1
Young, 2b 3 0 0 1 7
McKee, c 2 0 0 4 0
Dubuc, p 3 0 0 0 0
-- -- -- -- --
Total 31 3 5 27 15
NEW YORK.
AB R H PO A
M’sel, 3b 4 0 1 0 0
P’p’gh, ss 4 0 0 4 4
Cree, cf 4 0 1 5 0
Pipp, 1b 3 0 0 9 1
Cook, rf 3 0 0 1 0
H’tz’l, lf 3 0 1 2 0
Boone, 2b 4 0 1 1 1
Sw’ney, c 3 0 0 5 0
[G]High 0 0 0 0 0
N’m’ker, c 0 0 0 0 1
C’well, p 3 0 0 0 2
Pieh, p 0 0 0 0 0
-- -- -- -- --
Total 31 0 4 27 9
[G] Ran for Sweeney in seventh inning.
Errors--Vitt, Nunamaker.
Detroit 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1--3
New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0--0
Two-base hit--Maisel. Three-base hit--Cobb. Stolen
bases--Cook, Cobb (2.) Earned runs--Detroit, 2.
Sacrifice hit--McKee. Left on bases--New York, 7;
Detroit, 4. First base on error--New York. Bases
on balls--Off Caldwell, 2; off Dubuc, 2. Hits--Off
Caldwell, 4 in 8 2-3 innings; off Pieh, 1 in 1-3
inning. Hit by pitcher--By Dubuc, (Cook.) Struck
out--By Caldwell, 5; by Dubuc, 2. Time of game--One
hour and fifty-five minutes. Umpires--Messrs.
O’Loughlin and Hildebrand.
* * * * *
COLLEGE CREW PROSPECTS
_New York Times_
After a long rest, candidates for the Columbia
’Varsity crew will be called out next week to start
the long training for the Spring races and for the
intercollegiate regatta on the Hudson in June.
Jim Rice, coach of the Blue and White navy, will
order the men to the rowing machines on the opening
day of college following the Christmas recess,
for practice until the end of the examinations
following the first term. Daily work on the
machines will then be ordered, and the crew men
will not have any further let-up in their training.
Rice is confronted with a difficult task this
season in finding the material to build up a
winning crew to match the eight which swept the
Hudson last June and won the intercollegiate
championship of America. Only three men of this
crew have returned to college. A new stroke must be
developed, and practically an entirely new eight
built up, from the junior squad of last season.
Those who have seen Coach Rice whip together crews
will not, however, be discouraged at this time. In
years past Coach Rice has started out the season
with an untrained and comparatively small squad of
oarsmen and has startled college circles with a
wonderful eight, ready by the time the Spring races
rolled around. It is fair to assume that a similar
feat will be performed this year.
An example of Coach Rice’s ability in this respect
was furnished last season in the building up of
a junior ’Varsity eight. With the exception of
Robinson, the oarsmen from the two freshmen eights
of 1915 and 1916, both of which finished last in
the freshmen races at Poughkeepsie, were whipped
into shape as the junior eight and finished
second against all the other colleges in the
intercollegiate regatta.
It is on these eight men, with the three men left
over from the ’Varsity eight and a couple of
freshmen of last season, that Coach Rice will have
to depend for this year’s ’Varsity eight. The most
telling loss this season is the graduation of C. F.
McCarthy, who stroked the winning eight, and Capt.
Irving Hadsell, who rowed at No. 7, two of the
best and gamest oarsmen who ever sat in a Columbia
shell. Steddiford Pitt is another splendid blade
who is lost to the crew this year, and the strength
and fight found in Rothwell are hard to spare.
The three men who must serve as the nucleus for
this year’s eight are Bratton, who rowed at No. 6;
Sanborn, who rowed at No. 4, and Naumer, who rowed
at bow. Bratton was one of the strongest men in
the eight, weighing 180 pounds, and there is no
question but that Coach Rice will place him back
in the waist of the shell this season. Naumer is
a good oarsman, and obtained his seat at bow last
season purely on his merits, as evidenced after a
long tryout against Cronenberg for the position.
It is highly probable that Naumer will be moved
further down in the boat this year, and that
Cronenberg will get his place at bow.
Much speculation centres about the selection of
stroke of the eight. Ex-Capt. “Irv.” Hadsell
predicts that Frank McCarthy will find a way to
get back in his old position this Spring, but
positive denials by McCarthy seem to indicate
otherwise. The two logical men for the position as
pacemaker of the eight are Myers, who stroked the
junior boat last season, and Sanborn, who stroked
the 1915 freshmen crew, rowed at No. 2 in the
’Varsity four of 1913, and held down the place at
No. 4 in the ’Varsity of 1914.
The student body is faced with the task of raising
$2,700 to take care of the crew debt contracted in
1913-14. A few of the alumni have been supporting
the crew with large donations, and at present they
hold notes for the above amount. Recently, however,
an appeal was sent out to the undergraduates to
help bear the burden, and their response has been
quick and loyal.
The Greek letter fraternities at Columbia have come
forward with $500, and the undergraduates prior to
leaving for the holidays pledged an equal amount.
Further efforts will be made when the students
return, and it is confidently expected about the
campus that a good share of the indebtedness will
be paid off within a few months.
* * * * *
COLLEGE ROWING REGATTA
_Christian Science Monitor_
HARVARD-YALE WINNERS FOR 1915
FIRST VARSITY EIGHTS
Yale 20m. 52s.
SECOND VARSITY EIGHTS
Yale 10m. 40s.
FRESHMAN EIGHTS
Yale [H]8m. 6s.
FRESHMAN FOURS
Harvard 6m. 21s.
GRADUATE EIGHTS
Harvard 3m. 5½s.
[H] Mile and a half by agreement.
* * * * *
NEW LONDON, Conn.--By making a clean sweep of
the three major events of their annual regatta
with Harvard on the Thames river Friday, Yale is
today champion over Harvard in rowing, and, with
previous victories over Cornell, Pennsylvania
and Princeton, will be generally regarded as
intercollegiate rowing champions of the United
States for 1915.
That Yale deserves the victories which she won over
the Crimson Friday is certain. The Eli varsity
captured one of the biggest victories over the
Harvard varsity when she won by about five lengths
in the record time of 20m. 52s., that the Blue
has registered against the Crimson in many years.
The race was rowed upstream, which makes the time
a new record, and it is stated by those who have
followed rowing on the Thames for many years, that
had the race been rowed down stream Yale would
probably have broken the record of 20m. 10s. for
the course. It is also interesting to note that the
Harvard varsity was inside of the old record for
the upstream course.
Yale owes her victory to the coaching of Guy
Nickalls, the famous English college oarsman. It
was the second year that Nickalls had coached the
Yale varsity and both years he has turned out crews
which have defeated the Crimson.
Yale took the lead at the very start of the varsity
race and was never caught by Harvard. Rowing a
lower stroke almost the entire distance, Yale kept
drawing away from the Crimson oarsmen and, despite
the fact that Stroke Lund succeeded in getting his
crew to raise the stroke to as high as 34 beats to
the minute over the last part of the race, Yale,
rowing a much lower and easier stroke, was able to
increase its lead.
While the Harvard crew appeared to be a smoother
rowing eight than Yale’s it did not move through
the water nearly as well. There was a perceptible
drag to the Harvard varsity between strokes, while
the Yale eight went evenly and showed very little
if any slowing up between the strokes. At all times
the Harvard crew appeared to be better together,
but it did not make as good use of the slides as
the Yale eight. The rigging did not appear to fit
the Harvard oarsmen to the best advantage.
Yale won the freshman race by about a length and
a half. This race was a very unsatisfactory one.
The event was to have been rowed in the morning,
but was postponed until after the varsity race.
It did not start until about 7:30 in the evening.
After the race had been under way a few minutes
the Harvard stroke caught a crab and the crews
were stopped. It was then agreed to start again
and row a mile and a half instead of the customary
two miles. Yale finally won this race although
the Crimson oarsmen made the contest much closer
than the varsity race. Yale’s time was 8m. 6s. and
Harvard 8m. 10s.
The race for second varsity eights was the hardest
fought of the day and the Yale victory in 19m. 40s.
opened a very successful day for Yale. The official
times of the varsity and freshman races by half
miles follow:
VARSITY
Yale Harvard
½ mile 2:05 2:08½
1 mile 4:40 4:45
1½ miles 7:27½ 7:34
2 miles 10:05 10:14
2½ miles 12:39½ 12:52
3 miles 15:27 15:39
3½ miles 18:22 18:40
4 miles 20:52 21:13½
FRESHMEN
Half mile 2:22 2:23½
Mile 5:20 5:22
Mile and a half 8:06 8:10
* * * * *
TENNIS MATCH
_Kansas City Star_
Playing masterful tennis and repeatedly downing
every attempted rally made by his opponent,
Clifford J. Lockhorn yesterday defeated Jack
Cannon, the Kansas City champion, in the finals
match in the invitation tennis tournament staged on
the K. C. A. C. courts. Lockhorn’s winning count
was 6-2, 6-4, 6-2, and, after the finish of the
first set, at no time did it appear that the local
crack had a chance to defeat the Cincinnati expert.
Let it be said in Cannon’s defense that he did not
play his best game, the game that downed Rolan
Hoerr in the Missouri Valley tournament last year,
and the game that made him run Joseph Armstrong a
hard race for the final title in that classic. The
courts yesterday were heavy, sogged by the recent
rains, and Cannon looks best on a fast, light
ground. And, knowing before he started the first
set the handicap he was working under, the Kansas
City star appeared a trifle nervous before play had
been running long.
But Lockhorn’s work was marvelous! The crowded
stand which witnessed every moment of the day’s
play was applauding his every move as he finished
up the last set. His head work was perfect, and his
strokes sure. An easy side-arm shot, apparently
simple for his opponent to fathom, gained him point
after point in Cannon’s back court. His direction
was always good, and clever placements followed
successively in such lightning-like order that
Cannon was kept running about the court most of the
time. And when the new player showed that wonderful
assurance, verging almost on carelessness, which
characterized his every move, the crowd was with
him. They couldn’t help but be.
Cannon opened up the first set well, taking the
first game handily on his own serve, after Lockhorn
had raced it up to deuce twice. The next three went
to Lockhorn in rapid succession, the “dark horse”
showing Sphinx-like steadiness on his own serve,
and passing Cannon repeatedly at the net when the
local player’s second shot on his own serve would
be too easily placed. With the score 3-1 against
him, Cannon braced, and took the fifth game,
game-thirty, but the spurt was short lived and
once again Lockhorn started his old sure, steady,
thoughtful play, running out the next three games,
and winning the set, 6-2, in clever fashion.
The second set was perhaps Cannon’s best one. He
seemed to have lost a trifle of the wildness that
had marked his opening play, and repeatedly drew
applause from the gallery for his brilliant returns
of Lockhorn’s back-line placements. The first six
games were divided, three and three. Then Lockhorn
took “seven” and “eight,” raising the score to
5-3 in his favor. Cannon took the ninth game,
game-fifteen, on his own serve, but Lockhorn, with
the possibility of a deuce set facing him, allowed
Cannon just one point in the last game, and the
second set ended 6-4, “all his way.”
The third and deciding set started out like a
walk-away for the Cincinnati player. Cannon,
scenting defeat in the air, grew over anxious and
wild. His own service was frequently off in its
direction, and he often smashed Lockhorn’s serve
into the net or the fence, without opening up a
chance for a volley at which he generally is so
successful. Lockhorn quickly took five of the first
six games in this set. The seventh he dropped,
after he had had match point on Cannon once. But he
rallied on his own service in the eighth game, and,
though it went to deuce, he shot two clever drives
down Cannon’s sidelines for the last two points of
the set, which gave him the match, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
Lockhorn, the most feared player in Kansas City
because of his untouted victory over Cannon
yesterday, is a clever player to watch on the
courts. He never gets excited, and seems almost
lazy in the easy indifference with which he plays
his opponent’s hardest strokes. The highest
pinnacle of his play has been unexplored by local
cracks--at least in this tourney. Every time out he
shows a little more “stuff” and exerts himself just
enough to beat his next rival.
Kansas City followers of tennis will watch
Lockhorn’s work anxiously in the Missouri Valley
tournament in the fall. Alexander Squair and Walter
Hayes, R. F. Shelton and J. B. Adoue, jr., Paul
Darrough and Gene Monett will be there; so will
Roland Hoerr and Drummond Jones. Perhaps Lockhorn
may uncover a little of that “old stuff” of his
then. Kansas City enthusiasts want to see just what
he has, anyway.
* * * * *
GOLF MATCH
_Boston Transcript_
There was nothing of the runaway about this
morning’s half of the final round for the John
Shepard, Jr., trophy between Francis Ouimet and
Paul Tewksbury, chums and both members of the
Woodland Golf Club, where the match is being
played. The national amateur champion led by one
up at the end of the morning play, after a round
in which the margin at no time was more than two
holes. They play the final eighteen holes this
afternoon, and considerably more of a gallery is
expected than witnessed the play in the morning.
As a general thing Mr. Ouimet plays the Woodland
course around 73 to 75 in his matches, but this
morning he kept out of the 80 class only by a
single stroke. Mr. Tewksbury had one bad hole, the
thirteenth, so that his medal was 82. The pair
halved one hole in 7, which is decidedly unusual
for them, and another in 6.
The first hole went to Mr. Ouimet on the strength
of an exceptionally fine putt, where he faced a
stymie and had to slice around his opponent’s ball
to get down in 4. Luck was with the champion at the
second, where his topped approach rolled through a
bunker onto the green about ten feet past the hole,
whence he ran it down for a 3 and became 2 up.
Neither reached the third green in 2, against the
wind, and they halved in 5, as was the case also at
the fourth. Mr. Ouimet required another 5 at the
fifth, failing to get on from the tee, and then
taking three putts. He lost that hole and also the
sixth, where he drove into the woods. This squared
the match.
After a succession of four 5s, which in itself is
decidedly unusual for the champion, he managed to
get back to normal with a 4 at the seventh, which
won it; he then played such an accurate approach
at the eighth that he holed the putt for a 3 and
became 2 up once more. He pulled one out of bounds
at the ninth, which cost him the hole and left him
1 up at the turn.
They halved the tenth in par 3. Mr. Tewksbury’s
superior play netted him a 4 at the eleventh,
which squared the match again. There was something
spectacular at the twelfth, where Mr. Tewksbury hit
the cup on an approach shot from the embankment
above the green and stopped near enough to get down
his putt for a 4. Mr. Ouimet was off the green
also on his second, but approached close enough to
sink his putt for the half. The thirteenth was a
nightmare to Mr. Tewksbury, who played about four
shots and then gave up the hole. He had a chance to
square the match at the fourteenth, where a long
drive and equally fine second put him within seven
feet of the hole, but it was a difficult putt and
he missed his 3.
The 600-yard fifteenth hole was a stiff
proposition, owing to the strong wind, and neither
player got home in 3. Then, singularly enough, they
took three putts apiece for a half in 7. That was
in decided contrast to the play at the sixteenth,
which they halved in 3. To the other long hole,
the seventeenth, Mr. Ouimet was hole high, but a
number of yards below the green in 2. His short
approach was much too strong and he failed to get
his fourth dead or to hole his putt for a 5. Mr.
Tewksbury, who was little better situated in 3 than
Mr. Ouimet in 2, finally had a putt of four feet
to win the hole. He missed it, and they halved in
6. Then they halved the home hole in 3. It was a
striking finish--to halve four successive holes in
7, 3, 6, 3. Their cards:
Ouimet 4 3 5 5 5 5 4 3 6--40
Tewksbury 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 5--41
Ouimet 3 5 4 4 4 7 3 6 3--39--79
Tewksbury 3 4 4 [I]7 4 7 3 6 3--41--82
[I] Approximated.
CHAPTER XIV
SOCIETY
Interest in social and personal news is so great that practically
every newspaper maintains a society department under the direction of
a society editor. The form and style suitable to such news are partly
determined by social usage. The typographical style of the society
columns often differs somewhat from that of other parts of the paper.
Society news taxes the writer’s ability to give variety to stories of
the same kind of events as they take place day by day. In no other kind
of news is he more frequently tempted to use stock phrases over and
over again. It is possible, however, to give considerable variety to
society stories as well as to avoid trite, colorless, description.
Unusual courtships, engagements, and weddings may be treated as regular
news; in that case the stories of them are not often placed in the
society section. Such news not infrequently has humorous and pathetic
possibilities that the writer may develop without violating the canons
of good taste.
* * * * *
UNUSUAL COURTSHIP
_New York Herald_
Having failed in eight years of effort to find a
guardian, governess or housekeeper who would take
a proper interest in his two small motherless
children, Lorenzo Villette, a prosperous French
merchant, living at No. 90 North Harwood place,
Brookbank, decided he would try to find a wife.
A preliminary search failed to find a suitable
candidate and he turned to the church, being a
devout member of St. Anthony’s, in Brookbank.
Two weeks ago he completed a novena, and on the
ninth day of his continuous prayer he expressed the
wish that a wife who would be a good mother would
be granted to him.
Nothing happened until the second day after he had
finished his nine days of prayer. On that day Miss
Mary O’Connor, of No. 72 Laclede avenue, Brookbank,
made a social call upon her friend, Miss Frances
Smith, a cousin of Mr. Villette, in her home, in
Forest avenue, at Railroad avenue.
While the two young women talked Miss Smith said to
her friend:--
“You seem so downcast recently, Mary. You should
find a husband.”
“Yes, I suppose,” was the answer, “but the right
man has not knocked at the door yet.”
Just then Mr. Villette rang the bell at his
cousin’s home. He was introduced to Miss O’Connor
and an hour later accompanied her to her home.
Three days later he escorted her to a theatre and
the following day met her relatives.
Then she met Mr. Villette’s children and called at
his home, and last Saturday they obtained a license
to be married. St. Michael’s Church, which the
O’Connor family attends, is preparing for one of
the largest weddings of the season on next Tuesday.
“I am very happy,” said Miss O’Connor last night,
“and I am so thankful that Mr. Villette said a
novena and that I was sent to him.”
* * * * *
UNUSUAL ROMANCE
_Chicago Inter Ocean_
Firemen one night last summer stood on the street
before a blazing apartment building at West
Fourteenth and South Sangamon streets. They played
their streams of water on the fire, although they
realized that the building could not be saved.
Suddenly from above came the scream of a girl. She
was seen clinging to a window ledge on the third
floor before a background of flame.
That was the beginning of the story.
Its close came yesterday afternoon within the dim
and quiet church of St. Francis of Assisi, when the
girl, Miss Mary Wilkins, became the wife of the man
who had dared and accomplished her rescue, Arthur
Sheer, truckman of hook and ladder company No. 5.
Of all the firemen who stood before the burning
building that night, Sheer alone volunteered to
attempt the rescue. A ladder was rushed to the
red and cracking wall. Blinded by the flames and
smoke and with his heavy clothing fired from the
heat, Sheer groped his way up the ladder. His mates
played streams of water along the course of his
climb. He reached Miss Wilkins and carried her to
the street and to safety.
“And that’s how it was,” the bride said as she
left the church clinging to the arm of her big and
blushing husband. “He and I learned to know each
other after the fire, and--and--well, that’s how it
was.”
The blush on Truckman Sheer’s face deepened when
the interview was directed upon himself.
“Ah--er--any fireman, you know,” he stammered,
“would--would--but say, you’d ought to see the
place we’ve got fixed up. We’re--ah--we’re moving
in today.”
The home of the couple will be at 919 West
Twenty-third place.
* * * * *
COWBOY WEDDING
_Chicago Herald_
“Snorky Dan” Sammons tied his pony to the rack at
the stockyards yesterday, doffed his chaps, wiggled
into “the conventional black” and, with the able
assistance of 300 wildly enthusiastic “boys from
the yards,” was roped, tied and branded at the
altar.
It was the biggest “cowboy wedding” the yards ever
saw. When “Snorky” knocked off buying hogs for the
Bismark Packing Company early in the day and got
ready to hit the trail for the Holy Cross Church,
East Sixty-fifth street and Maryland avenue, he had
no hint of the scheme on foot.
Late in the afternoon the South Side, however,
became aware that there was something doing besides
the Cubs-Sox battle. First a two-wheeled phaeton,
dragged along by a gaunt, underfed mule and driven
by a cowboy, made its appearance. A big banner was
stretched across its sides giving the bridegroom
this welcome admonition:
“Don’t weaken, Snorky.”
On its heels came a “hungry five” German band
playing Irish melodies, riding in a “cripple wagon”
driven by a red-coated negro. A tractor engine,
pulling a chain of twelve “clean-up” chariots,
came next, and in its wake a couple of hundred
yelling, plug-hatted cowboys led by “Rags” Murphy
and Tom Dorney. As marshals of the “round-up” there
were “Tex” Hobart, “Jim” McGuirk, “Spuds” Grady
and “Skinny” Kenny. Even young Edward Morris, who
recently went to work in the packing business, was
on the job.
The cavalcade drew up in front of the church and
awaited “Snorky.” It was about 5 o’clock when he
arrived in a big touring car with bride-to-be, Miss
Mary Cowman, 6876 South Chicago avenue, daughter
of the late John Cowman, wealthy coal dealer. As
the party entered the church every noise-making
device, from the cowboy yell to automobile horns,
was brought into play.
While the Rev. D. D. Hishen was “tying the knot”
inside, the automobile was lassoed. The bridal
party, upon re-entering the vehicle, attempted to
make their getaway, but in vain. Surrounded by the
prancing ponies, they were paraded to the yards at
Root and Halsted streets, and after “Snorky” had
made a little speech he was permitted to go.
* * * * *
ELOPEMENT
_Chicago Herald_
Just because she was a girl, Charlotte Smith,
daughter of a Parkhurst contractor, saw no reason
why she should not learn from her father all about
building houses on well-located lots.
Charles Ferris Short, son of a real estate dealer
in the north shore suburb, had been getting
information about the value of a piece of ground
upon which a house could be built.
What, then, more natural than for Charles, filled
with knowledge about home locations, and Charlotte,
wise in the manner of erecting a home and having,
meanwhile, notions that other persons in the world
didn’t count for much anyway, to conclude to join
their knowledge for their own profit?
Nothing, they agreed. But Charles was only 21 years
old, and Charlotte 19.
“Too young,” parents of both agreed.
Having visions of a piece of property selected by
him and improved by a house designed by her as a
place where they, together, would not be annoyed
by unsympathetic parents, and reading in the
HERALD that twelve couples had eloped to
Crown Point Monday to be married, they boarded a
train for Indiana yesterday. Last night they were
Mr. and Mrs. Short.
Charlotte’s parents didn’t know a thing about it
until told by the HERALD; neither did
Charles’s people.
“Oh, well, I guess there’s nothing to do but say
it’s just fine,” Charlotte’s mother said. “But she
hasn’t a bit of table linen. We’ll have to get busy
right away.”
So it was all right after all.
Others on the train taken by the Parkhurst couple
were Peter Felker and Miss Sara Sorley. They
had planned to be married for some time. It was
inconvenient to take a honeymoon trip. So they,
too, eloped to Crown Point.
* * * * *
SEPTUAGENARIAN ROMANCE
_Chicago Herald_
More than seventy years ago a barefoot boy and a
rosy cheeked girl trudged together each day along
the roads of Albion County, Michigan, to a little
red school-house, where, at adjoining desks, they
studied “readin’, ’ritin’ and ’rithmetic.”
Yesterday the same “boy” and the same “girl” left
Fair Oaks together for the county building in
Chicago. There they obtained a marriage license. A
few minutes later they were married. Thus has Fair
Oaks furnished its first septuagenarian romance.
The bridegroom is Rudolph Gray, 77 years old, the
possessor of two grandchildren. The bride, until
yesterday, Mrs. Mary J. Vanson, is a year his
junior. She has three grandchildren.
After the ceremony the couple returned to the
residence of the bridegroom’s daughter, Mrs. Clara
A. Hawkins of 1231 Jenifer avenue, Fair Oaks. There
the bridegroom told the story of the romance.
“We’ve known each other as far back as either of us
can remember,” he said. “We were reared together
in Albion County, went to the same district school
together, and later, when we were a little older,
went to the same dances and parties together.
“Then our families moved away from Albion County,
and we lost track of each other for a while. I got
married and served through the civil war. Sarah
was married to an Illinois man.
“Her husband was killed in 1892 in a railroad
accident, and my first wife died about three years
ago. A few months ago we learned of each other’s
whereabouts, started to write back and forth, and
today were married.”
The ceremony was performed, according to Mr. Gray,
by S. M. Schall, in the latter’s office at 118
North LaSalle street. Later the couple had their
wedding supper at the Hawkins residence in Fair
Oaks. In a few days they will leave for Manheim,
Ill., where they will make their home.
* * * * *
WEDDING
_New York Times_
The wedding of Miss Emma Martin Willis, daughter
of James S. Willis, President of the United States
Bank of Commerce of this city, and Mrs. Willis,
and Lesley Green Shafter of Greenville, Penn., was
celebrated at 8 o’clock last night in St. John’s
Episcopal Church, Montclair, N. J. The Rev. Dr.
William R. Bolton, rector of the church, officiated.
The bride wore a gown of ivory satin and a veil of
lace, which was caught up with a chaplet of orange
blossoms. She carried a shower bouquet of white
orchids and lilies of the valley. Her father gave
her in marriage.
The maid of honor was Miss Martha Houghton of
Calumet, Mich., a former schoolmate of the bride.
She wore a pink satin gown, draped with tulle and
net, and carried pink Killarney roses.
There were six bridesmaids, including the Misses
Emma Dickens, Elsie Walter, Anna Wilson, Helen
Holton, Mary Smith, and Katherine Wilkins. They
were gowned alike, in blue and white chiffon, and
carried Aaron Ward roses with streamers of blue
ribbon.
Clinton M. Shafter was best man for his brother.
The ushers were George H. Kennedy, John C. Lane,
Arthur Carpenter, and Dr. James Stratton Collins,
Jr., of Greenville; Morris B. Lamb of this city,
and James S. Willis, Jr., of Montclair.
The church was decorated with autumnal flowers and
foliage. Along the centre aisle were large clusters
of white chrysanthemums. Ascension lilies were used
on the altar.
More than 200 guests from New York and near-by
towns attended the reception, which was held after
the ceremony at the home of the bride, 144 Nedwick
Avenue, Upper Montclair. The couple received the
congratulations of their relatives and friends
under an arbor of pink and white roses in the
reception room. The house was decorated throughout
with autumnal foliage and flowers.
The bride was a pupil at Miss Spence’s School in
this city in 1909-1910. Mr. Shafter was graduated
from Williams College, class of ’10, and is a
member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. His
father, who died several years ago, was the owner
of large coal fields and mines, which Mr. Shafter
has managed since leaving school. Mr. and Mrs.
Shafter will live in Greenville.
* * * * *
WEDDING
_Boston Transcript_
Scarboro, Oct. 23--St. John’s School Chapel was
the scene of the marriage, at noon today, of Miss
Violet Otis Gray to John Stanley Hart. Miss Gray is
the older daughter of Rev. William Green Gray, D.
D., head of St. John’s School, and Mrs. Gray, who
was before her marriage Miss Martin. The bride is
the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. William
C. Martin of Boston, who long were summer cottagers
at Nahant. Herbert F. Martin and Harrison Gray
Martin are her uncles, and Mrs. Smith of Washington
and Ipswich, wife of Rev. Richard Otis Smith, D.
D., is an aunt. Miss Gray has a younger sister,
Margaret, and four brothers, William G. Gray, Jr.,
Sigourney Gray, Appleton Gray and Robert Gray. The
bride made her début three seasons ago.
Mr. Hart, the bridegroom, is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Francis Stanley Hart of Commonwealth avenue,
Boston, who have a country estate in Bedford. He
was graduated from Harvard with the class of 1913.
He is interested in rowing and is a member of the
Union Boat Club. William A. Hart, of the Harvard
class of 1915, is a younger brother.
Dr. Gray, the bride’s father, was the officiating
clergyman, and gave his daughter in marriage. The
bride was dressed in a gown of white satin and
tulle, made with a pointed neck and long, full
train. It was trimmed with fine old lace, and
her veil, also of lace, was the one which had
been worn by her mother, and still earlier by
her grandmother, Mrs. Martin, on the occasion of
their weddings. It was held in place with orange
blossoms. The bridal bouquet was of lilies of the
valley, white orchids and delicate ferns.
The younger sister, Miss Margaret Gray, was flower
girl and wore a high-waisted dress of white net
with embroidered ruffles, with which was worn a
small hat of pink satin trimmed with lace and
pink rosebuds. She carried pale pink roses. The
bridesmaids were Miss Elizabeth Howard of Boston,
cousin of the bridegroom; Miss Anna Appleton Graves
of South Orange, N. J., and Miss Mary Appleton
of New York. Miss Graves and Miss Appleton are
the bride’s cousins. These three attendants were
dressed in pale pink taffeta with sleeves and long
tunics of pink tulle. They wore large flat hats
of dark blue velvet and carried bunches of pink
rosebuds mixed with bluets. Mrs. Gray, the bride’s
mother, wore dark blue silk and a hat of dark blue
velvet trimmed with feathers of the same shade.
Frederic Hart of Boston, Harvard, ’13, a cousin
of the bridegroom, was best man, and those who
served as ushers were Charles Pelham Morgan, Jr.,
Harvard, ’14; Edwin Curtis, Harvard, ’13; Wilkins
Frothingham, Harvard, ’13; George William Meyer,
Jr., Harvard, ’13; Bayard Tyler, Harvard, ’13;
Tudor Jenkins, Harvard, ’13; Richard Courtland,
Harvard, ’16; George Bartlett, Harvard, ’13;
Sigourney Gray, Amherst, ’18, brother of the bride.
* * * * *
WEDDING
_New York Herald_
Southern smilax and palms made the background
for the bower of white and pink cut flowers and
plants ornamenting the chancel of the Church of the
Divine Paternity last Tuesday when Miss Florence
I. Gardiner, daughter of Mrs. Curtis Gardiner, of
No. 949 West Eighty-fifth street, was married to
Mr. Frederick Guild Jenkins, Jr., the Rev. Dr. Hall
officiating.
The bride wore a gown of ivory white satin trimmed
with pearls and embroidered with orange blossoms
with court train of chiffon and satin. Instead
of a veil she wore a cap of princess lace, and
she carried a bouquet of lilies of the valley and
white orchids. She was attended by her sister,
Mrs. Deland Roswell Morton, who wore a gown of
pink satin trimmed with brown lace and beaver fur,
with picture hat to match; she carried Killarney
roses. Little Ruth and Virginia Gardiner, the
flower girls, wore frocks of white lingerie with
pink sashes, and carried white French baskets of
sunburst roses.
Mr. David Pelham was best man, and the ushers were
Messrs. John Burton, Harrison Kneeland and John J.
Surl, of this city, and Harold Warren, of Fishkill,
N. Y. After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins
started on a wedding trip through the South.
* * * * *
WEDDING
_Philadelphia Ledger_
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3.--Miss Emily Curtis, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Curtis, was married
today to Captain William Raines Darlington, Coast
Artillery, United States army. The ceremony took
place at the home of the bride’s parents in
Georgetown. The Rev. D. H. Markham officiated. The
attendants were Miss Winifred Deland and Captain
Robert Bruce Scott, U. S. A. The latter and the
bridegroom wore full uniform. The bride wore white
satin, with tulle overdress, and a tulle veil.
Following a wedding breakfast, Captain and Mrs.
Darlington left for the South, the former being
stationed at Fort Garfield, Ga.
* * * * *
ENGAGEMENT
_Chicago Post_
Mrs. Francis T. Calkins, 1253 Hamilton avenue,
announces the engagement of her youngest daughter,
Imogen Hammond, to Mr. Percy Chapman, son of Mr.
and Mrs. A. L. Chapman, 3024 Sigourney street.
Miss Calkins’s father was the late Colonel Francis
T. Calkins, first colonel of the Seventeenth
Regiment, I. N. G. The bride elect is president of
the Delta Gamma Mu Sorority and a member of the
Beta Phi Epsilon Sorority. Mr. Chapman is a member
of the Delta Omicron Fraternity and is known in
athletic circles. No date has been set for the
wedding.
* * * * *
ENGAGEMENT
_New York Times_
The engagement of Miss Agnes P. Colby and Frederick
E. Chandler has been announced. Miss Colby is the
daughter of the Rev. Dr. J. Wilson Colby, the noted
evangelist, with whom she made a globe-encircling
trip several years ago. She is spending the Winter
with her aunt, Mrs. Charles Stratton Wilce, at
Springfield, Mass.
Mr. Chandler is a graduate of Williams College,
class of ’12, and is a Director in the Industrial
Bonding Corporation of New York. The wedding is to
take place in the early Spring at the Colby home at
Jamaica Estates, L. I.
* * * * *
WEDDING PARTY DINNER DANCE
_New York Times_
Mrs. Ralph H. Devine, whose brother, Harry Curtis
Livingston of Cleveland, Ohio, is to marry Miss
Hope Alexander, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. A.
Alexander, tomorrow afternoon in the Church of the
Heavenly Rest, entertained last night at the St.
Regis in honor of Miss Alexander and her fiancé.
Covers were laid for twenty-six guests, and the
table was decorated with lilies of the valley
and pink roses. Silver bonbon boxes were given
as favors. The guests included some of the girl
friends of the bride-elect, the best man, Frederick
R. Devine, and the ushers, Sidney Dillon, Arthur
G. Alexander, Benjamin Noyes, Martin Otis Tilden,
Harrison Prescott, and Frederick Cheever.
There was informal dancing afterward, for which a
few additional guests were invited.
* * * * *
COLLEGE FRATERNITY DINNER
_Topeka Capitol_
The Kappa Sigma men of Washburn college celebrated
Founders’ day with a dinner at the Mills tea
room yesterday evening. The men of the active
chapter, Gamma Nu, and many of the local alumni
gathered together for the fraternity’s forty-fifth
anniversary. It was on December 10, just forty-five
years ago, that the fraternity, now the largest in
number of chapters, was founded at the University
of Virginia.
The tables were decorated with the fraternity
flower, lily of the valley, and the colors,
scarlet, white and emerald. Toasts, with Mr. Earl
Trobert acting as toastmaster, were responded to
by Mr. William Whitcomb, for the pledges, Mr.
Merrill Ream, for the actives, Mr. James Coleman,
on the “Fraternity Relations to the Alumnus,” Mr.
Monte Kistler, on “Fraternity Expansion,” Dr. A.
B. Jeffrey, on “Internal Development,” and Mr. W.
K. Miller, on “The Why of a Greek.” The fraternity
songs were sung as a finishing touch.
The Kappa Sigmas at the affair were: Mr. Monte
Kistler, Mr. Irwin Keller, Mr. Clayton Kline, Mr.
Robert Drum, Mr. James Coleman, Dr. A. B. Jeffrey,
Mr. W. W. Miller, Mr. D. Elton McIntosh, Mr.
Kenneth Kline, Mr. Dwight Ream, Mr. Merrill Ream,
Mr. Wayne Cook, Mr. Robert Whitcomb, Mr. Richard
Whitcomb, Mr. Earl Trobert, Mr. Warren Humphrey,
Mr. Charles Kesler, Mr. Robert Ward, Mr. Russell
Swiler, Mr. John Ripley, Mr. Clifford Olander, Mr.
Forest Rice, Mr. Duane Van Horn, Mr. Elwin Olander,
Mr. Ned Brown, Mr. Edwin Tucker, Mr. Harold Cone,
Mr. William Whitcomb, Mr. John March, Mr. Ray
Enfield, Mr. Jay Jenson and Mr. Jackson Brown.
* * * * *
CHRISTMAS DINNER REUNION
_Chicago Herald_
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hinton of 891 East Twenty-first
street will give the annual dinner for members of
the Hinton family Christmas night. This will be the
sixty-fourth Christmas dinner and reunion in the
Hinton family. Among those who will be present are
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Hinton, State’s Attorney and
Mrs. Maclay Hinton, Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Whitcomb,
Mrs. Gertrude Hinton Humphrey and Mrs. Charles C.
Coleman. Covers will be laid for thirty-five.
* * * * *
ANNOUNCEMENT OF DINNER PARTY
_Chicago Herald_
Miss Camille Russell Ward of 1891 Grand boulevard,
who made her début Thanksgiving day, will give a
dinner Sunday in honor of Miss Irene Rice, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Robert G. Rice of 3736 Elton
avenue, who is to be married Dec. 29 to Edmund
Cook, son of Dr. and Mrs. E. Walton Cook.
* * * * *
DANCE FOR CHARITY
_Chicago Herald_
Hungry babies will be fed, and the coffers of at
least a dozen South Side day nurseries will be
filled, from the proceeds of the annual ball of the
Friendly Aid Society to be given Monday evening
at the Blackstone Hotel. Mrs. Edward E. Hammond
is president of the society. The beneficiaries
include Bethlehem Creche, Chicago Refuge for Girls,
Children’s South Side Free Dispensary, Home for
Convalescent Women and Children, Home for Destitute
Crippled Children, Jackson Park Sanitarium, Legal
Aid Society, Margaret Etter Creche, Stockyards Day
Nursery, Boys’ Shelter, Visiting Nurses and the
Juvenile Protective Association.
* * * * *
SORORITY’S FORMAL PARTY
_Kansas City Star_
The spring formal of the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority
was given in F. A. A. Hall Friday evening. The
chapter president, Miss Elsa Bartell, and the house
mother, Mrs. Anna Stratton, headed the receiving
line. A very clever electrical effect was carried
out in the sorority colors, gold and black. Kansas
City guests were Mr. Emmett Donnet, Mr. Arthur Dix,
Mr. James Sampson, Mr. Carl Bright, Mr. Edward Dix,
Mr. Robert Campbell, Mr. Harland Hamilton, Mr.
Albert Rook, Mr. George Bright, Mr. Ivan Bean, Mr.
Ben Sweet, Mr. Charles Hagen and Mr. Richard Smith.
Kansas City Thetas are: Miss Marie Hedrick, Miss
Emma Mae Root, Miss Katherine Kiezer, Miss Louisa
Hedrick, Miss Helen Tompkins, Miss Barbara Martin,
Miss Marjorie Hile, Miss Mable Perkins, Miss Elsa
McClure, Miss Ida Perry, Miss Caroline Nutt, Miss
Virginia Gray and Miss Josephine Stone.
* * * * *
CLUB DANCE
_New York Herald_
A dance for the members of the Colony Club will
be given in the Marseilles Hotel to-morrow night.
The patronesses will include Mmes. Edward Burton
Williams, William Grant Brown, Emma Kip Edwards, H.
W. Harding, Hartwell B. Grubb, William L. Sands,
Edward Donnelly, Harry Grimes and Upton Slingluff,
and Misses Florence Guernsey and Ella L. Henderson.
* * * * *
DANCING PARTY
_Chicago Herald_
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Maxwell of West Walton
place gave a dance last night at the Chicago Latin
School for their daughter, Miss Rosalie Maxwell,
and her young friends at home from school for the
holidays.
* * * * *
MUSICALE
_Chicago Post_
Mrs. Lamson Neil Pelham of Evanston entertained a
number of guests at a musical this afternoon at 3
o’clock at her home, 1460 Appleton avenue. She was
assisted by Mrs. Henry P. Parker and Mrs. Walter
W. White. The artists were Mr. Heath Gregory, who
gave a group of songs, and Mr. Theodore du Moulin,
cellist of the Chicago Orchestra, with Mr. Shynman
as accompanist. The house was prettily decorated
and in every room there were masses of flowers and
pots of heather.
* * * * *
COLLEGE ALUMNAE MEETING
_Chicago Herald_
The regular meeting of the Chicago Alumnae
Association of Kappa Kappa Gamma will be held Dec.
30, in room A of the Chicago College Club. Mrs.
L. J. Lamson will talk during the tea hour on the
work and needs of the Margaret Etter Creche, which
was founded by Mary F. Etter, a Kappa of Epsilon
Chapter. Miss Louise Merrill, a former president of
this association, will pour.
* * * * *
ANNOUNCEMENT OF LUNCHEON
_Philadelphia Ledger_
Mrs. Seymour Thornton has issued cards for a
luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton, to be followed by a
matinee theatre party, Saturday, December 19, in
honor of Miss Elinor Judd Wilson, the débutante
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Wilson. Among
the guests will be Mrs. Charles H. Wilson, Mrs.
Joseph B. Melton, Miss Katharine Torrey, Miss
Marjorie Deland, Miss Eleanor B. Robinson, Miss
Ethel Hastings, Miss Frances Tyler, Miss Elizabeth
C. Jenkins, Miss Eleanore Curtis, Miss Elizabeth E.
Mills, Miss Helena Rawlins, Miss Christine Rice and
Miss Edith Harrold.
* * * * *
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THEATRE PARTY
_Philadelphia Ledger_
Dr. and Mrs. T. Bradford Cotton have sent out
invitations for a theatre party, followed by
supper, at their home, 1802 Ashbury place, Monday
night. Miss Hilda Taylor, the débutante daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Taylor, of Medina, is to be
the guest of honor and the other guests are to be
débutantes and men of the younger set to the number
of 18.
* * * * *
THEATRE PARTY
_Philadelphia Ledger_
Mr. and Mrs. James Francis Cheltenham gave a
theatre party last night in honor of Miss Margaret
Rand, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Augustus Rand.
Afterwards the guests were entertained at a supper
at the Ritz-Carlton.
* * * * *
CARD PARTY
_Kansas City Star_
Mr. and Mrs. Grant Milton Coffey entertained with
an auction bridge party Friday evening, at which
the engagement of their sister, Marion Perkins
Clark, to Dr. Earl Bispam was announced. The place
cards were water colored sketches of Cupid carrying
envelopes in which were the announcements. Favors
were won by Miss Eugenia Devine, Mrs. J. W. Harter,
Dr. Earl Bispam and Mr. Benjamin G. Root. Guests
were limited to the friends of Miss Clark.
* * * * *
CARD PARTY
_Philadelphia Ledger_
A “500” party will be given by the feminine members
of the Valley Green Canoe Club in the clubhouse
Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock, to be followed by
a buffet supper and dancing in the evening. The
entertainment will mark the opening of the new
English grill room, where the dancing will take
place, and also the new library and reception hall.
The members who have charge of the affair are: Mrs.
James Perkins, Mrs. Edmund Chynoweth, Miss Bessie
Maxwell, Miss Irene Carter, Miss Margaret Creig and
Miss Mabel N. Donaldson.
* * * * *
DÉBUTANTE’S PARTY
_Philadelphia Ledger_
Miss Elsa Catlin, débutante daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Theodore W. Catlin, will be the guest of
honor at a party which John Wilkins Frothingham,
Jr., of School House lane, Germantown, will give
at The Rabbit tomorrow night. The chaperones will
be Mrs. Catlin and Miss Sarah Wilkins Frothingham,
the latter the sister of the host. The guests will
be Miss Charlotte Harding, Miss Virginia Racine,
Miss Emilie P. Jackson, Miss Josephine Wooton, Miss
Alice Thompson, Miss Margaret Burton, Miss Cordelia
Brown, Miss Pauline Dickens, Albert E. Kennedy,
Jr., William Barry, Rodney N. Land, Harry R. Neil,
John C. Bell, Jr., Thomas K. Fenton, Jr., Alexander
Mercer, Jr., Joseph G. B. Renton, John B. Knox, 2d,
Barclay Wood, Lewis Smith and Andrew Van Brunt.
* * * * *
ENTERTAINMENTS FOR DISTINGUISHED GUEST
_Philadelphia Ledger_
Mrs. Pethick Lawrence will be given several
entertainments during her stay in this city. A
reception will be held for her tonight at the home
of Miss Mary McMurtrie, 1104 Spruce street. Those
who will receive with Miss McMurtrie and Mrs.
Lawrence will be Mrs. Edward Troth, Miss Anne H.
Wharton, the writer, Mrs. Edward Parker Davis, Mrs.
Morris Jastrow, Mrs. Francis D. Patterson and Mrs.
Thomas F. Kirkbride.
Mrs. Lawrence will be the guest of Mrs. H. H.
Donaldson over Sunday.
* * * * *
VISIT
_Chicago Herald_
Ensign and Mrs. Wilson K. Spring of Boston are
visiting their parents, Colonel and Mrs. Taylor E.
Spring, at 9652 Kenwood avenue. Mrs. W. K. Spring
was Miss Florence Berwin before her marriage last
August. They will return immediately after New
Year’s to join Ensign Spring’s ship “Oklahoma,”
which will sail early in January for Cuba.
* * * * *
ENTERTAINMENTS FOR GLEE CLUB
_Chicago Post_
The program to be rendered this year by the Harvard
Musical Clubs on Wednesday evening, Dec. 30, at
8:15 o’clock, in Orchestra Hall, is an especially
attractive one. The Glee Club, which last year
distinguished itself by winning a competitive
glee club meet in New York, occupies the central
position. Three Chicago men are making the tour
this year. They are Mr. Arthur Dee, 3d, of Oak
Park, Mr. S. P. Priestley and Mr. D. H. Curtis, who
was this year chosen assistant manager of the clubs.
Following the concert Mrs. John Cotton Barclay, 240
Lake Shore drive, will give a dance at her home in
honor of the members of the clubs. As the dance
this year is to take place in a private home, the
invitations are limited. Mrs. Barclay’s son, Mr.
Burton Barclay, is a Harvard man, and his roommate,
Mr. Charles Brunswick of Detroit, formerly of
Chicago, is a member of the Glee Club and will take
part in the concert.
Mrs. Charles C. Graves, 1404 Oaklawn place, will be
among those giving dinners before the concert.
* * * * *
ENTERTAINMENT FOR CHARITY
_New York Times_
Announcement has just been made of the débutantes
and members of the younger generation in society
who are to take part in the annual entertainment
for charity of the Junior League, which is to be
held on three nights, beginning Monday, Jan. 25,
at the Waldorf-Astoria. This entertainment is
always the culmination of the formal season for
the débutantes who make up the membership of the
League, and it is largely attended by society.
The entertainment is to be called “Le Jour Férie,”
(“The Holiday,”) and besides a programme of dances,
there will be booths and a soda water fountain,
presided over by one of the débutantes of the
season. Rehearsals for the dances have been in
progress for some time at the homes of Mrs. C. B.
Alexander, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Mrs. R. Fulton
Cutting, and Mrs. William J. Schieffelin.
Mrs. Courtlandt Nicoll of 405 Park Avenue is in
charge of the sale of tickets.
There is to be a carnival procession, after which
the special dances will be shown. Miss Mary J.
Schieffelin is Chairman of the Irish dance, in
which the Misses Lillian Talmage, Sylvia Holt,
Eunice Clapp, Josephine Wells, Marie Thayer,
Eugenie Rand, Rita Boker, Margaret Erhart, and an
equal number of young men are to take part.
In the mirror dance will be Mrs. Walter Stillman,
Miss Beatrice G. Pratt, William Boulton, Jr.,
Lynford Dickinson, and Horace Allen.
Miss Mary Alexander is Chairman of the Pierrot
dance, in which are to appear Mrs. John Rutherford,
and the Misses Elsie Stevens, Marie Tailer, Carol
Harriman, Muriel Winthrop, Ethel Crocker, John
Elliot, Schuyler Parsons, Bradish J. Carroll,
Jr., Stuyvesant Chanler, Suydam Cutting, George
Rushmore, and Reginald Rives.
In the Russian dance, of which Miss Edith Mortimer
is Chairman, Mrs. Louis W. Noël and the Misses
Alexandra Emery and Lisa Stillman, with Anderson
Dana, George B. Post, Jr., Auguste Noël, Maurice
Roche, Gerald Murphy, and Edward Shippen are to
appear.
Miss Margaret Trevor is in charge of the dance
called “Moment Musicale,” Miss Mary Canfield is
head of the Gavotte dance, and Miss Frances Breese
and Marie Louise Emmet have organized the Harlequin
dance. Miss Eugenie Philbin is Chairman of the
Frivolité dance, in which there will be a fancy
fox trot. Miss Florence Blair heads the list in
the Spanish dance, while Miss Josephine Nicoll is
Chairman of the Saltorella dance and Miss Gladys
Fries of the Tyrolean dance.
Fifty society girls, many of them débutantes, and
as many young society men are to take part in the
carnival procession.
* * * * *
CHARITY BAZAAR
_New York Herald_
Members of the Universal Sunshine Society,
foreseeing the demand that will be made this winter
by the poor in New York for help, are devoting
their energies to their annual bazaar, which is to
be held in the McAlpin Hotel on the afternoon and
evening of Tuesday. Mrs. Florence Hart Jerome is
chairman of the sale.
A feature of the bazaar will be the flag exhibit at
the Peace and Plenty table, with the official peace
flag and autographed photograph of the President
which will become the property of the person who
takes the flag. Mrs. Clarence Burns, president,
Mrs. Jane Pierce, general secretary, and branch
presidents will preside over the various tables.
These will be:--Aprons, Mrs. C. D. Baldwin; tea
table, served by actresses; refreshments, Mmes.
Damon Lyon, M. B. Gates, Stuart Smith and J. J.
Coudrey, and the Misses R. Burlingham, M. Loughey
and M. Mutterer; fancy table, Mrs. F. H. Dean and
the Misses Eva Bolger and Edna Schoneck; flower
table, Mrs. H. G. Kost and the Misses Helen Kost,
Leonore Erikson, Sadie Spencer, Helen Gibbons,
Alma Wolfe, Margaret Davies, H. Nealy, F. L. Hurt
and L. H. Macdonald; candy table, Mrs. S. J.
Scherer; home made cake table, Mrs. R. G. Spencer
and the “In Memoriam” branch, of Brooklyn, Miss M.
de Comps and small children. Miss Victorine Hayes
will sing during the evening. The bazaar will open
at two o’clock and continue until midnight.
CHAPTER XV
MISCELLANEOUS LOCAL NEWS
=Type of story.= Although most local events have been included in
the various classes of stories discussed in preceding chapters, there
remain several forms of city news that require separate consideration.
Much interesting, timely information is to be found in schools, public
libraries, museums, parks, and various departments of city government.
As activities supported by public money, these institutions should be
of interest to every citizen. Real estate, building, manufacturing,
and business matters also furnish news of considerable interest and
importance. Besides this information, there are many little incidents
in the daily life of every city that have no significance as news
but that can be written up as entertaining stories. Hotels, railroad
stations, docks, and street cars are frequently the scenes of little
comedies and tragedies that the reporter with keen insight into human
life and with ability to portray them, turns into readable sketches.
Animals no less than persons may be the central figures in these
stories.
=Purpose.= The aim in one class of these local stories is to
furnish timely, significant information in attractive form concerning
public institutions and business activities. The purpose of the other
class is to entertain the reader with little glimpses of the life of
the city. Constructive journalism undertakes to stimulate the interest
of every citizen in municipal affairs and in public institutions
by putting prominently before him from time to time significant
information about them.
The utmost accuracy in presenting information of public affairs and
business matters, it is needless to say, is absolutely essential. It
is important to maintain the same standard of truthfulness in writing
entertaining feature stories, not because their contents are of vital
importance, but because a newspaper, in order to command the confidence
of its readers, cannot present anything in its news columns that is not
true. Fictitious details are no more justifiable in feature stories
than in news stories.
=Treatment.= In order to interest the average reader in news
of various municipal activities it is necessary to make the stories
attractive in form and style. Striking facts and figures or unusual
statements, featured at the beginning, catch the reader’s eye and lead
him to read the story as long as its subject matter and style interest
him. Effective use of statistics and comparisons is shown in the story
“Public Schools Open,” p. 233. Two stories that begin with unusual
statements are those entitled “School for Backward Children,” p. 235,
and “New Feature in Manufacturing,” p. 243.
Since there is practically no news interest in entertaining feature
stories, the reader’s attention is attracted and held by the way
in which the story is told. Narrative and descriptive beginnings,
conversation, suspense, humor and other devices used in short stories
and novels are well adapted to these news stories.
* * * * *
NOTE--_The following story was published
some years before the European War._
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPEN
_New York World_
There trooped into the public schools of New York
yesterday an army without weapons that in numbers
exceeded the great military force of the German
Empire, with its 613,000 fighting men; that was
greater than the standing army of France, with its
force of 529,000 available soldiers, and that more
than doubled Great Britain’s defenders.
The school-house doors of the consolidated city
were thrown open to 625,000 pupils, commanded by
17,000 teachers, or a greater number of commanders
than now direct the movements of the combined
military forces of the three powerful nations in
the world.
The United States Army, with its 70,000 men and
officers, is a little more than one-tenth of this
multitude. The entire budget of the War Department,
which includes a vast expenditure outside of actual
expense for the maintenance of the army posts in
time of peace, was $103,000,000 last year. New
York’s Board of Education, which in 1907 spent
$19,845,870 for teachers’ salaries alone, has asked
this year for $31,641,326.75 to carry out its plans
for providing additional accommodations for pupils.
The maintenance on a peace footing of Japan’s
army of 220,000 men, which is a little more than
one-third of New York’s army of school children,
will cost $35,000,000 or $40,000,000 at the most.
The pay of a New York Superintendent of Schools is
greater than the pay of a German general, and only
slightly below that of a British commander of equal
rank.
The eight associate superintendents in New York
command larger brigades than any of the officers of
equal rank in France, Germany or Austria-Hungary.
Public School No. 1, which is located in the most
populous centre in the city--Catherine, Oliver and
Henry streets--and which has 2,800 pupils on its
roster, was thrown open at 9 o’clock yesterday
morning. There is no other school like it in
Manhattan, and its opening always has attracted the
interest of educators.
In the boys’ department, during exercises, the
principal cautioned the boys that only boys over
ten would be allowed to sell newspapers, after
school hours, and that each must get a license to
do it.
“We are exceedingly crowded in the first grade,”
said Mr. Veit, “but I do not think the school
has greatly increased in numbers. The removal of
houses for the erection of the Manhattan end of the
Manhattan Bridge has taken out many families.
“We have four Chinese boys in this school. Teachers
would never have nervous prostration if they had
Chinese boys to teach. They have great respect and
reverence for their teachers.”
All registration figures were broken in the Bronx,
and when the schools opened every seat was filled.
At the Morris High School, One Hundred and Sixth
street and Boston road, of which John H. Denbeigh
is principal, there were about three hundred new
applicants. Mr. Denbeigh expects there will be
about two thousand seven hundred pupils.
There was a distinct innovation in the inauguration
of a school for deaf mutes in the old High School
Building, at No. 235 East Twenty-third street.
Superintendent Maxwell is greatly interested in
the prospective work of the school. Although there
are many deaf mute children, unschooled, in New
York City, there were only sixty-five registered
yesterday, owing to the fact that few persons knew
that a deaf mutes’ school was to be opened.
Annie Hamilton, “stone deaf,” who a year ago could
not distinguish a word or articulate a sound, was
brought to the new school by an older brother.
Miss Regan extended her hand to the child and said:
“Good morning, Annie; how are you?”
“Very well, thank you,” the child replied,
indistinctly.
Miss Regan smiled and shook her head. Then she
placed a finger at the child’s thorax and indicated
that the vibrations were not as they should be.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Annie Hamilton.” This time the reply was quite
plain.
The questions of the teacher were understood by the
reading of the lips.
* * * * *
NEW SCHOOLS
_Chicago Herald_
Two agencies designed to add to a boy’s “chance in
the world” were opened in Chicago yesterday. One
of them intends to train children in the rudiments
of the art of earning a living; the other hopes
to reclaim those who, through lack of economic
equipment, have stumbled and fallen.
The first is the Pullman Free School of Manual
Training, created under the terms of the will of
George M. Pullman, millionaire car builder. The
second is the vocational school for prisoners at
the bridewell.
Ninety children, two-thirds of whom were boys,
enrolled at the Pullman school. It is designed to
provide free industrial training for those to whom
circumstances otherwise might have denied it.
The bridewell school is operated in conjunction
with the psychopathic hospital. Its plans
were explained yesterday by John L. Whitman,
superintendent of the prison.
“Many of the petty offenders against law are
mental defectives,” he said. “Lacking mental grasp
and manual efficiency, they soon find that the
industrial world has no place open for them. The
next step is crime. His sentence at the bridewell
over, the boy returns to the world. Thus society
punishes without removing the cause of the
individual’s wrongdoing.
“By opening this school we hope so to train these
boys that when they return to the world they
will, by virtue of the training received at the
bridewell, have at least the chance to do right.”
The enrollment at the bridewell school yesterday
was twenty-five. It is a small beginning for a
big ideal. The Pullman school is a big beginning
for an even more worthy ideal--making the need of
“reclaiming” unnecessary.
Mr. Pullman’s will contained a bequest of
$1,250,000, to be used as a trust fund for the
establishment of the school, his life’s dream.
Trustees under the will invested the money wisely,
for it since has grown until at present it
aggregates more than $3,000,000.
Under the terms of the bequest the school is open
free to “the children of persons living in or
employed at Pullman.” Thus its benefits are not
restricted to children of employes of the Pullman
Company.
The courses to be taught will include cabinet
work, pattern-making, blacksmithing, foundry work,
machine shop work, electric construction and steam
and electric operating, engineering, English,
mathematics, drawing and household arts and
sciences.
* * * * *
SCHOOL FOR BACKWARD CHILDREN
_Kansas City Star_
“Dummy! Dummy! Gee, but you’re a dummy!”
There are from 1,500 to 2,000 “dummies” in the
public schools of Kansas City, it is estimated.
They are the boys and girls who can’t have anything
“drummed into their heads” and so are the laughing
stock of their classmates. Between five and six
hundred of them are feeble minded. A large per
cent of the “dummies,” however, are not all around
“dummies” and might be saved from becoming feeble
minded and a menace to society.
“What are you going to do with them?”
That is the question Dr. E. L. Mathias, chief
probation officer, is asking Kansas City.
“Kansas City has got to wake up to the situation,”
said Doctor Mathias yesterday afternoon, in
discussing the report of the Juvenile Protective
Association of Chicago. A resume of the report was
printed in The Star of June 10. In that article the
statement was made by one authority that the menace
of the feeble minded was even more grave than a
foreign war or a native pestilence.
“Kansas City is sixteen years behind the times
in taking up this problem,” continued Doctor
Mathias. “Boston was the first city to provide
special training for its backward and feeble minded
children. Other cities have followed suit and
Kansas City must do the same. If numerous surveys
in other cities have revealed a ratio of one feeble
minded person to every 250 it is reasonable to
suppose that a like condition exists in Kansas City.
“Most of the backward children in the schools are
retarded by some physical defect or taint of feeble
mindedness. A very small number of the mental
defectives ought to be in institutions. But the
largest per cent of the retarded children could be
saved by being given special training in separate
classes.
“The entire problem of the feeble minded is even
more serious. Little can be done with the adults,
except to place them in institutions. Yet much can
be done with the present generation by directing
the minds of the mental defectives into useful
channels so that they will not become a burden on
the community and a menace to society.”
The board of education is considering the problem
and probably will start next fall in a small way
with a separate class room and expert teachers.
* * * * *
READING IN SCHOOLS
_Christian Science Monitor_
Reading is to be given especial attention in the
public schools of Boston again this winter in the
hope that next June will see the finest lot of
readers the schools of the city have ever produced.
Five points are to be especially observed: 1.
Correct pronunciation of words at an acceptable
rate of speed; 2. Expression of the meaning of what
is read; 3. Distinct reading; 4. Pleasing use of
the voice; 5. Ability to get the meaning of what is
read silently.
Silent reading ability is to be made a point of
special attention, as it calls for the application
of the child’s mind to definite reasoning, which
will in turn develop his mental powers.
In a circular now being sent out to masters
of elementary districts by the assistant
superintendent in charge, Mrs. Ellor Carlisle
Ripley, and approved by Superintendent Dyer, they
are requested to repeat this year the general plan
pursued last year for increasing the interest in
oral reading. They are then asked to devise ways
and means of increasing the child’s power to get
ideas from paragraphs read silently. The result is
expected to be two fold--to make more intelligent
and pleasing oral reading, and to develop in
children a fondness for reading when it is done
without the companionship of others.
As last year there are to be reading contests. On
two occasions in the course of this school year
in all grades above the third the children will
hear, in their school hall or some other selected
place, readers from their respective rooms. These
readers are to be selected by means that will tend
to improve the reading of all the pupils.
It is desired that the first series of readings
will be concluded by Dec. 23 of this year, and that
the second series be held during the week beginning
March 27 next.
No centralized arrangement will be made this year
for sending trained readers to the schools, but as
all colleges of reading have expressed themselves
as very ready to co-operate with the schools, it is
believed the masters can secure readers at desired
times.
Inter-district readings will begin April 25 and
continue to June 1. Each school is requested to
send one reader and one alternate reader to the
inter-district reading assigned to his school. At
these readings each child will be allowed three
minutes for reading a familiar section supplied by
his school. Sight reading will also be furnished
and brief tests of silent reading will be made.
* * * * *
READING TESTS IN SCHOOLS
_Chicago Herald_
In the little red schoolhouse, if Johnnie was slow
in reading he was put in a corner, where he held a
ponderous volume, if he escaped corporal punishment.
Now if Johnnie is a pupil in the elementary
department of the school of education at the
University of Chicago he is sent to the reading
clinic of Dr. C. Truman Gray.
Dr. Gray, former reading expert at the University
of Texas, has been selected by Director Charles
H. Judd to conduct an investigation here financed
by the general education board of New York.
Dr. Abraham Flexner, head of the Rockefeller
educational body, is watching the investigation
with interest.
At Dr. Gray’s clinic Johnnie will spend half an
hour a day for five days. After Johnnie’s teacher
has given Dr. Gray all the information she can
about his vision, hearing, breathing and attention
Johnnie will be given some reading tests.
When Johnnie has read several prose selections,
each of increased difficulty; several bits of
poetry of a similar gradation, and a bit of oratory
he will be given a set of printed questions,
to which he will write the answers, and then a
number of printed stories, which he will read and
reproduce.
A careful record of Johnnie’s time and his number
of errors on each of these experiments will be kept.
Then Johnnie will be ready for the machines. He
will be taken into a darkened room and a printed
selection will be projected on a screen. As Johnnie
reads the selection a blank phonograph record
will record his performance, an elaborate camera
will take pictures of his eye movements, and an
instrument fastened over his chest will record his
breathing.
A camera shutter device on the projecting machine
will make it possible for the light to be shut off
the screen at any point, and the number of words he
can recall beyond the word he was pronouncing when
the selection disappeared will show the area of his
attention.
From the careful examination of these records Dr.
Gray hopes to arrive at the causes of poor reading
and to find remedies.
Dr. E. M. Freeman of the faculty of the school of
education is conducting a parallel investigation
into the teaching of writing in the school.
* * * * *
MEDICAL INSPECTION
_New York Globe_
The medical inspection of the public school
children is unsatisfactory, according to the
local school board of District 29, Brooklyn. This
district lies within Flushing avenue, Marcy avenue,
Myrtle avenue, Tompkins avenue, Lexington avenue,
Sumner avenue, Fulton street, Albany avenue,
Eastern Parkway, Washington avenue, Fulton street,
and Waverly avenue. The members of the board have
been “keeping tabs” on the doctors sent to the
schools by the Board of Health. They have found
little uniformity in the work, some visits lasting
only a few minutes, and others a whole afternoon,
while anywhere from nine to thirty pupils have been
examined.
As a result of the investigation, the local board
has submitted a report to the Board of Education
suggesting that a more definite method of
examination be required of the visiting physicians.
The board states that it “found that there is no
uniformity in their methods, except that they call
daily at the schools assigned to them. The calls
vary from five minutes to one and a half hours, and
the number of children examined from one or two
or none, to twenty or thirty per day. Some of the
physicians visit the classrooms, and others see
only the children who are reported by the teachers
as needing attention.”
This is the second criticism of the medical
inspection received by the Board of Education this
summer, the first coming from the Principals’
Association of the City of New York, which
forwarded resolutions to the effect “that the
medical supervision of our schools is incomplete
and generally unsatisfactory.”
While there is no marked indication of such an
outcome at the present time, it would not be at
all surprising if an attempt were made by certain
of the members of the Board of Education to induce
the board to take steps to take over the control of
the medical inspection by establishing a department
of school hygiene. This has been advocated by City
Superintendent Maxwell and by Dr. Luther H. Gulick,
director of physical training. While not as yet
approved by the Board of Education, the proposition
is under consideration by the Charter Revision
Commission.
The recent criticisms of medical school inspection
bear out those published by Dr. Maxwell in his
latest annual report, in which he declared that
“existing physical examinations made by the
Department of Health are generally inadequate, and
even when they are adequate are not followed by the
desired results.” In support of this statement Dr.
Maxwell quoted from principals’ reports to show
that in only 248 schools--less than half the total
number--were any examinations made for physical
defects--as distinguished from examinations to
detect contagious disease. In these 248 schools not
more than one-third of the pupils were examined.
It is only a few months since any examinations for
physical defects were made outside of the boroughs
of Manhattan and the Bronx, and then only because
of the criticisms emanating from the New York
committee of physical welfare of school children.
* * * * *
PUBLIC LIBRARY
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
“In the thirty-seven years’ history of the
Milwaukee public library we have never been able
to trace a single case of contagious disease to a
library book that had been passed from a home in
which the disease existed to one hitherto free.”
This was the reply of J. V. Cargill, assistant
librarian of the Milwaukee public library, to
Dr. John Dill Robertson, health commissioner of
Chicago, who has expressed the belief that library
books are a medium for spreading such diseases
as grippe, sore throat, measles, whooping cough,
small pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis
and erysipelas. Dr. Robertson has sent a letter to
Librarian Henry E. Legler of the Chicago public
library asking co-operation in an effort to stamp
out any danger of spreading diseases in this way.
According to Mr. Cargill every possible effort is
made by the Milwaukee library to prevent the spread
of disease. In this the officials co-operate with
the Milwaukee health department. Daily lists of
the homes in which contagious disease is found
are furnished to the library, and books that are
returned from such homes are fumigated in a large
vault at the main library. When a health inspector
visits a home in which there is contagious disease,
one of his first questions is whether or not there
are library books. If such books are found the
cards identifying them are removed by the inspector
and mailed to the library, according to Mr.
Cargill. When the patient recovers and the health
department fumigates the house, the library books
are also fumigated as an added precaution.
The average book passing from home to home is never
fumigated or otherwise disinfected, Mr. Cargill
admitted, but he expressed doubt that any diseases
were spread by such books.
Among the ways in which Dr. Robertson of Chicago
says disease may be spread are the following:
Dampening the fingers to turn pages, placing books
open side downward upon a bed, coughing or sneezing
upon the pages or giving books to convalescent
patients.
* * * * *
MUSEUM
_New York Times_
Rain gods, storm charms, rattles to make the
thunder come, strange amulets which invite the
lightning, more than five hundred devices in
all which the Zuni Indians believe open up the
sluice-ways of the skies, were unpacked early
yesterday morning at the American Museum of Natural
History.
They had just come from New Mexico, where they had
been collected for the museum by Dr. A. L. Kroeber
of the University of California, who at great
trouble and expense had induced the bad weather
gods to come east. About the time the lid came off
the first packing case the wind carried sheets of
water against the attic where the collection is now
on view and the tempest howled and shrieked until
the little rain gods themselves shook under the
hurly burly out-of-doors. The water god, Long Horn,
rolled over to where the flower god was lying, and
shook himself for very joy, for he felt that the
man tribe of this great city would certainly be
very thankful for all the downpour.
It is so dry in the venerable town of the cliff
dwellers, Zuni, that most of the time the streets
are filled with dust, and top stories of the old
cliff dwellings powder up and blow away in all
directions. The Indians have lived there for 365
years without being in any way affected by the
manners and customs of the white men, according to
Dr. Kroeber, who has just come from a residence of
several months among them. Even though the United
States Government has made a big reservoir and dug
irrigation ditches for the Zunis, they still keep
up their primitive worship, which revolves around
the prayer, “Gods, give us rain.” As the tribe
lives almost entirely upon the maize it raises, the
ceremonies of rain-making bear an important part
in its life. Most of the conversation of the Zunis
consists of “Do you think there will be a shower?”
and “Neighbor, how is your corn growing?”
In many centuries there has been built up a ritual
for the worship of the sky gods which is very
intricate and mysterious and includes many secret
observances. The study which Professor Kroeber has
made is a very important one, for he will be able
to describe observances about which little has been
known. Many of the sacred symbols in his possession
were acquired after much trouble and not a little
risk, for the Zunis have an unwritten law that no
white man is to have any of the objects used in
their ceremonies, and that any one parting with
them is entitled to have his throat cut.
The rain gods are dressed in fantastic garb, and
the clash of their primitive hues can be heard
at a great distance. One of the symbols of the
lightning is a blue pantagraphlike arrangement of
lattice work which suddenly opens out to represent
the quick discharge of the bolts of the gods. There
are charms made like the forked flashes placed
over the doors to invite the showers. In the great
dances the participants wear wooden headgear carved
to represent cloud forms and the moon and stars.
Every creature which loves the wet is worked into
the symbolism of Zuni worship. There are tadpoles,
frogs, turtles, ducks, and geese, all of which are
represented by the masks worn when the invocations
to the gods of the rain are given.
There are rattles made of shells, which, attached
to the knees, make a prodigious noise. Peculiar
spindle-like devices attached to long thongs may
be swung about the head until they give a sound
which to the Zuni imagination suggests the roll of
thunder. One of the most valuable articles of the
new collection is a bowl, probably of the period
before Columbus came to this continent, which
is notched all around with a step-like device,
typifying the clouds and adorned with raised
figures of fish and polliwogs and ducks. It is
filled with water when the rain dances are given,
and a mass of suds is made in it by adding soap
weed. The priest stirs up the mixture with his
hands, and the lather brimming over the sides of
the bowl gives the effect of fleecy clouds.
The collection, which is one of the most important
ever brought out of the Southwest, is to be
arranged by Dr. Kroeber, who has obtained a leave
of absence from the University of California for
that purpose. He was kept in the Museum all day by
the snow, sleet, and rain.
* * * * *
MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS
_Boston Transcript_
Traffic conditions are regarded as so dangerous
at the corner of Tremont and School streets, on
account of the laying of the high-pressure pipes,
that the mayor has ordered the contractor to work
night and day, with forces as large as practicable,
until the work is finished.
The mayor was informed of the situation when he
arrived at City Hall this morning and immediately
made a personal inspection. He found large piles
of dirt at each corner of School street and wagons
used by the contractor so placed in receiving their
loads that at times it was practically impossible
for vehicular traffic to move at all. School street
is one of the one-way thoroughfares and the volume
of traffic that moves into it at the corner of
Tremont, from both Tremont and Beacon streets,
is very large at certain times of the day. Under
the best conditions dangers are daily presented
with swiftly moving automobiles coming down Beacon
Hill, either to make the turn or to move straight
ahead. It will probably be necessary to close
School street some time this week, and, in fact,
many persons declared today that such an order
might prevent a serious accident, with conditions
continuing as they are at present.
The laying of the high-pressure pipes along Tremont
street has been anything but agreeable to the
contractor. The various underground wires and
conduits of the public service corporations are
ordinarily well placed in the files, but the ground
beneath the asphalt of this thoroughfare contained
numerous obstacles which were not anticipated by
the city engineers who planned for the new system.
At the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets the
contractor found that, in order to carry the pipes
in accordance with the blue prints, a huge two-foot
main conduit of the gas company would have to be
shifted. This caused much delay and it will be
weeks before the changes will be made to satisfy
the city authorities. Today a large space on the
surface was boarded. Then followed the every-day
difficulties encountered by the laborers in digging
up the ties of the old street railway, which were
not removed when the line was banished from the
street.
Today the laborers met with a still greater
surprise when they encountered solid rock, brick
and concrete obstructions far beneath the surface,
and also deeply imbedded piles which had remained
in the earth for scores of years and which do not
appear on any blue print of the street that the
City Hall records contain. It was learned, however,
that the tunnels of brick and concrete were parts
of an old steam-heating system installed many years
ago by a company that planned to heat buildings at
much less cost to the occupants than could possibly
be done by individual plants. These operations were
of short duration, and when they were given up,
the city authorities failed to oblige the removal
of the tunnels, which are eight feet beneath
the surface and of no hindrance to the other
underground works.
The laborers are also digging up today the remnants
of the physical property of the old Massachusetts
Telephone Company, which existed nearly twenty
years ago.
* * * * *
MUNICIPAL WORK
_Springfield Republican_
Co-operation between the city and the public
service corporations to a greater extent than
before in order to prevent the tearing up of newly
laid pavement is expected to result from the
Dickinson-street case, in which a pavement that
has been down only two years is being broken open
so that the United electric light company can put
in its conduits. Samuel L. Wheeler, inspector of
underground wires and conduits, who prescribes what
wires shall be put underground each year, will try
to place before the public service associates the
plans for his work a year or more in advance. Thus
the companies will have a chance to get their wires
underground before the streets are paved.
Mr Wheeler is obliged by law to order a mile of
wire put underground each year in order that
eventually all wires within a two-mile radius of
the City hall shall be underground. In his 15
years of work this is the first time that such a
situation as that on Dickinson street has arisen.
Superintendent Fred H. Clark of the department of
streets and engineering said yesterday that no one
is really to blame, since the street had to be
paved when it was, and it was impossible at the
time to order the wires underground before the
paving was put down. The electric light company has
expressed its willingness to co-operate in every
way that it can. The supervisors have ordered the
paving of Pine street and between Cedar and Walnut
streets the company’s wires are still above ground.
Although Mr Wheeler has not ordered these wires to
be put underground, the company has said it will
try to get them under even though its appropriation
for this work has been made for the year.
The supervisors and the street railway officials
will confer this afternoon to plan for the relaying
of tracks so that the work will precede street
paving. The company intends to relay its tracks on
Main street between the arch and the car barns and
on Chestnut street between Allendale street and
Jefferson avenue. Paving is to be done on these
streets but it will follow the track work. The
company does not want to relay its tracks on State
street near the New England railroad, however,
although the city wants to pave there, and a
similar situation may arise on other streets where
the company thinks its tracks good for a year or
two longer. It is to consider these situations that
the conference will be held.
* * * * *
NEW MUNICIPAL EQUIPMENT
_Boston Transcript_
Bursting water mains are not so great a menace in
Boston since the water department installed a motor
truck with a power appliance for quickly closing
the heavy gates. Work which formerly required
four men, laboring continuously for forty-five
minutes, can be done in ten minutes by using the
power of the truck. This mechanical device, an
invention of George H. Finneran, superintendent of
the distribution branch of the water department,
not only conserves the water supply and reduces
the damage due to breaks, but permits of rapid
regulation of water volume at fires, facilitates
the testing of gates and relieves the anxiety
always attending derangement or damage to the water
system.
In one of Boston’s most important thoroughfares,
lined with costly buildings, there is a water main
which, if completely broken apart, would allow the
escape of 50,000 gallons of water each minute.
Controlling this line are gate valves thirty-six
inches in diameter which, in closing, require 307
turns of a gate wrench and, formerly, the services
of four men for about forty-five minutes. A few
minutes’ delay sometimes meant the loss of life and
thousands of dollars. These gates, the largest in
the city, can now be closed in ten minutes by one
man and the motor truck, which was built for the
purpose by the White Company of Cleveland.
The truck is required to respond to fire alarms and
other emergencies where water must be controlled to
prevent loss or damage. The calls are frequently
overlapping, and crews are on duty day and night.
The runs vary from one block to the farthest
end of the water system. Under the old scheme,
when several gates had to be closed, the few men
available at night were almost exhausted before
shutting the last gate. By its ability to work
continuously the truck has relieved the fear of
being unable to cope with any emergency.
The gate-closing device consists of a universal
wrench socket with a worm gear, enclosed in an
aluminum housing and mounted on the running board
of the truck, so that it can be easily brought into
position immediately over a water-gate manhole.
When the truck is in position a wrench is slipped
through the socket. This wrench fits the nut on
the gate-gear below. The universal wrench socket,
together with a universal joint on the end of the
wrench, affords sufficient flexibility in case the
truck is not on level ground, or in case the wrench
socket is not directly over the gate nut. It is an
easy matter, however, for the driver to bring his
truck into the exact position.
The worm gear is driven off the regular
transmission of the truck. The device is operated
by a lever placed upon the side of the truck and
easily accessible to the driver. In closing gates
the forward speeds of the transmission are used.
In opening the reverse is used. All gears are made
of chrome or nickel steel. All bearings are ball
bearings. The aluminum housing is firmly bolted to
the frame of the chassis and well braced to resist
torque. The wrench is a hollow square steel tube
terminating in a specially hardened steel socket
with universal joint between socket and tube.
The gates are equipped with indicators showing the
position of the valve and informing the operator
when the valve is seated or entirely opened. Where
indicators have not been attached to the gates a
counter is used. This counter is placed on the
end of the wrench recording the number of its
revolutions. This helps the operator to determine
when the valve is entirely up or down. As a means
of safety in the event of the valve seating with
force or before the operator expected, a pin of
known strength, placed in the universal joint of
the wrench, breaks off and breaks the line of force
between the engine and the gate, thus preventing
damage to either the gate or the gate-operating
device.
* * * * *
SAFETY CAMPAIGN
_New York Herald_
With the belief that Long Island will be the
touring ground for more motor cars this summer than
ever before, largely on account of the European
war, James A. McCrea, general manager of the Long
Island Railroad, has announced the beginning of
a campaign of sign display asking the public to
co-operate with the railroad in saving human life.
Enormous signs, 2½×10 feet, electrically
illuminated at night, will be stretched across the
highways, in many cases attached to the structure
of the modern overhead crossings, making a plea
to the motorists as they speed under them to be
careful in approaching and passing over the grade
crossings that still remain on the main highways of
the island. The railroad has eliminated more than
three hundred grade crossings at an expense of 15
million dollars, and yet fatal accidents occur in
some places where there is a wide open view of the
railroad in both directions. There are still 631
grade crossings between New York City and Montauk
Point. Of these more than three hundred are guarded
by gate-men, two at some points, at a cost to the
railroad of $25,000 a month.
Careful motorists do not combat in the least
the statement, frequently made by the railroad
officers, that many of the fatal grade crossing
accidents on Long Island were the result, pure and
simple, of the motorists’ recklessness. Many of
them drive too carelessly over the crossings, the
officers maintain, assuming all the time that the
locomotive driver is looking out for them. Mutual
watchfulness is observed in the city, and it is
contended that the same should be true in the
country.
Ten great signs already have been erected at
prominent points, where they cannot fail to
attract the attention of motorists. They are in
black and white letters that may be read several
blocks away. They caution:
........................................
. THIS SIGN MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE TODAY. .
. .
. All the precautions in the world .
. will not save the lives of those who .
. drive automobiles recklessly over .
. railroad crossings. .
. .
. When approaching a crossing please .
. stop, look and listen. .
. .
. We are doing our part. Won’t you .
. do yours? .
. .
. LONG ISLAND RAILROAD. .
........................................
Mr. McCrea says the grade crossing problem has
been a stupendous one, particularly since the
advent of the motor car. He is open to suggestions
that will eliminate the danger at any point and
immediately accepted two that were made to him by
persons interested only in the safety of the public
in general. One was in reference to a dangerous
crossing, now guarded by men and lights, but where
the conformation of the ground so places the lights
that they are practically valueless as a warning.
The other was in reference to the color of the
gates used by the Long Island Railroad and all
others in this country. The universal custom in
this country is to paint the gates white.
In Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria, all
the railroad gates, toll gates and custom house
gates are painted black and white. They can be
seen for long distances and are almost as easily
observed in the night as in the day.
Not only is the railroad putting up signs calling
the attention of motorists to the danger of driving
recklessly over grade crossings; it will conduct an
advertising campaign with a series of “life saving
bulletins.” These will appear regularly and will
plead for greater care on the part of motorists.
One of its “life saving bulletins” will read in
part:
Watch for the flagman’s lantern.
Listen for the warning bell.
Slow down.
Look up and down the rails.
We are doing all that time and money permits in
abolishing grade crossings. Will you help us end
accidents by doing your share?
* * * * *
BUSINESS MERGER
_Milwaukee Sentinel_
Through a deal involving about $400,000, the
Milwaukee-Western Fuel company has bought out
entirely the docks, property and business of the
Northwestern Fuel company’s Milwaukee branch.
The big merger has been pending for a year.
Agreement was finally reached on Wednesday,
although details were not arranged until Saturday.
The Milwaukee-Western will take full possession on
Monday.
It is in no sense a consolidation. As far as
Milwaukee business is concerned the Northwestern
Fuel company has ceased to exist. As one of its
Milwaukee officials remarked after the deal was
closed, “They have swallowed us whole, head and
tail.”
The Northwestern company was one of the oldest coal
firms in Milwaukee, having had offices here for
thirty-two years. In sales it did a yearly business
in the city of about $2,000,000.
The deal brings a great amount of valuable property
into the hands of the Milwaukee-Western Fuel
company. Its bought out rival had on hand about
75,000 tons of coal. It possessed two large coal
docks. One, at the foot of Washington street, with
two slips on the Kinnickinnic river, is 1,000x500
feet in size. This dock is on the Chicago and
North-Western road. The other is at the foot of
Seventeenth street and has 1,000 feet frontage
on the Menomonee river. It is on the Chicago,
Milwaukee and St. Paul road.
The capacity of the two docks combined is estimated
at 150,000 tons of anthracite and 200,000 tons of
bituminous coal. Their loading capacity aggregates
150 cars a day.
The Milwaukee offices of the Northwestern Fuel
company were at 152 Second street. For a time they
will be used by the Milwaukee-Western company
as a branch office. The Northwestern will also
use them until its affairs are settled. Whether
the offices will be continued as a branch of the
Milwaukee-Western Fuel company’s big offices at 14
Wisconsin street has not yet been determined.
Under the terms of the deal the purchaser will
assume responsibility for all unfilled contracts
of the Northwestern company. The Milwaukee-Western
expects to be able to give positions to nearly all
the Milwaukee employes of the Northwestern.
The deal makes the Milwaukee-Western Fuel company
sole agents in this city for the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western road’s Scranton anthracite
and standard hard coal, for which the Northwestern
Fuel company was also agent.
Officers of the Milwaukee-Western say that the
change will increase their company’s business by
from 300,000 to 400,000 tons yearly.
The headquarters of the Northwestern Fuel company
are in St. Paul, and it has big docks in Duluth and
Superior. Its chief business lies in that section
of the country. This will remain unimpaired, for
the present deal affects only the Milwaukee branch.
The officers of the Milwaukee-Western Fuel company
are: President, Edward A. Uhrig; vice president,
Alexander Uhrig; secretary and treasurer, Charles
W. Moody.
* * * * *
NEW FEATURE IN MANUFACTURING
_Chicago Tribune_
This is the story of a world war, a despairing
manufacturer, and a cow’s ear.
The despairing manufacturer shall be nameless here.
In Chicago and all over the country his name is
well known as one of the greatest makers of water
color paint in America.
The part taken by the world war is told in the
trade columns, where its effects on industry in the
United States have been vividly shown. The cow’s
ear belonged to a cow that may have been called
“Boss” or “Bess,” but that isn’t so important.
The agency that overcame the world war, that
soothed the manufacturer, that found the cow’s ear
and introduced the two shall receive its deserved
mention--it was the Chicago Association of Commerce.
It was more than a month ago that the water color
paint manufacturer came to the civic industrial
division of the Commerce association and told of
his business woes.
“We are about to shut down on account of the war,”
he said. “We can send out no more paint to our
trade. For years we have supplied them with an
imported water color paint brush with each box.
“The brushes are made in Germany. It is a secret
process. They use either camel’s hair or rabbit’s
hair of a fine quality. They are excellent brushes.
Our trade is demanding them. We have none left. We
can get no more on account of the war. We shall
have to close down.”
Anderson Pace, industrial commissioner for the
association, told the manufacturer to hold on a
little longer. He started inquiries in all lines
known to the association. The country was ransacked
for imported water color brushes, and all to no
avail.
Then the investigators, right here in Chicago,
and without wasting a postage stamp, got in
communication with a stockyards savant who was
the originator of the boast that “none of the pig
escaped but the squeal.”
“The most tender, delicate, yet strong and soft
hair in the world is to be found only in a cow’s
ear,” said the stockyards genius. “Camel’s hair and
imported rabbit’s hair can’t touch it for quality.
It makes the best water color brushes that can be
made.”
At the stockyards today men with shears are
snipping the tender hairs from Bossy’s ears as
the bodies of the slain animals are conveyed from
the killing pens. In New York a broker has made
arrangements with a brush manufacturer, who is
putting out an article that artists say fits itself
much more readily to the application of water color
than the old brushes imported from Germany.
In Chicago the nameless great manufacturer of water
color paint despairs no more. His plant is running,
his force is busy, his employés are happy, and the
orders are coming just the same as before the war.
* * * * *
REAL ESTATE
_Chicago Tribune_
Another of the old exclusive homes in the one
time fashionable block on Prairie avenue between
Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, is to be given
over to business uses, the Arthur Meeker residence
at 1815, which has been purchased by D. C. Heath
& Co., school book publishers. The conveyance was
made by Mrs. Grace M. Meeker, and a consideration
of $35,000 is named in the deed, which was filed
for record yesterday.
The house, which is a large, attractive three story
stone structure, was erected by Joseph Sears about
thirty years ago, and about ten years ago was
purchased by Mr. Meeker and extensively remodeled
by him. It contains twenty-one rooms. It occupies
a lot 75x140 feet extending back to a twenty foot
alley, and there is a large garage in the rear.
The Heath company, which is the third largest
school book publishing house in the country, and
is now located in the Studebaker building on South
Wabash avenue, will locate their business at their
Prairie avenue purchase about March 1, using the
house for their general offices, and the garage,
which will be enlarged, for their stock room. The
sale was negotiated by Eugene A. Bournique & Co.
* * * * *
REAL ESTATE
_Philadelphia Ledger_
The six and a half acre plot of ground at 5th and
Cayuga streets, which has been used as a picnic
park for a number of years, under the name of
Central Park, has been sold by S. C. Abernethy for
Joseph S. Slomkowski to a builder, who will begin
the work of developing the ground in the spring
by the erection of about 30 houses on the 5th
street front and 65 houses on Reese street. The
price paid for the ground was close to $60,000.
Practically all of the tract has been sold with
the exception of a small section south of Cayuga
street. The seller reserves for his own use a plot
of ground 120 feet by 130 feet at the corner of 5th
and Cayuga streets, on which he will build a new
hotel. The ground sold has a frontage of more than
700 feet on the west side of 5th street to Annsbury
street, with a frontage of 307 feet on Cayuga
street to the North Penn Railroad, and a frontage
of 400 feet on the north boundary. The sale is the
largest transaction in ground made in this section
of the city for several years. Central Park has
for years been a favorite picnic ground during the
summer, particularly with labor organizations.
* * * * *
PROPOSED NEW HOTEL
_Boston Transcript_
Another large hotel, to cost about $1,250,000, is
to be erected in the retail section of the city,
at the corner of Washington and Avery streets. The
Commonwealth Associates, Inc., who acquired title
to the land last month, have let the contract for
the construction of an eleven-story building to the
Haynes Construction Company. Clarence H. Blackall
is the architect and Hurd & Gore are the consulting
architects. Morse Brothers have taken a lease of
the hotel for a period of twenty years.
With the exception of the Washington street
frontage and about 100 feet fronting on Avery
street, which will be used for stores, the entire
building will be devoted to the purposes of a
first-class commercial hotel. On the first floor
will be the office, reading-room, large public
dining-room and buffet. In the basement, under
the corner of Haymarket place and Avery street,
there will be a rathskeller, entered both from
the hotel and from the street, with the kitchens,
serving-rooms, etc., in the rear, under the hotel
lobby. A sub-basement will contain storerooms,
machinery, heating plant, etc.
The second floor will be largely taken up by
another public dining-room, banquet-room, etc., the
remainder of the building being given over to guest
rooms, with the exception of the eleventh story,
which will contain specially fitted sample-rooms
for commercial travellers. The rooms will be
unusually spacious, with convenient alcoves for
beds. Large windows will light the room proper
and the alcove. The finish will be of carefully
selected Missouri red gum, stained a rich mahogany.
The building will be fireproof in every particular,
and will be constructed in accordance with the
most approved methods, practically no wood being
used except for the doors and windows. All floors
will be of concrete, with tile and marble-finished
flooring in the public rooms and corridors, tiling
in all the bathrooms and carpets elsewhere.
The building will be heated and ventilated in
an approved manner and furnished with all the
electrical appliances. The elevators and stairs
will be centrally located, so as to give immediate
access to all parts of the house.
The exterior will be of limestone and brick in the
style of the French Renaissance, which effect will
be carried through the decorations and finish of
the principal rooms. A broad marquise finished in
bronze will mark the entrance of the hotel proper
and extend along the whole frontage. A service
entrance will be at the rear on Haymarket place.
Leases for the stores have already been arranged on
long terms with David H. Posner and Coes & Young,
both of whom have stores in other parts of the
city. The Commonwealth Associates, Inc., owners of
the property, were organized through the office of
Codman & Street, Easton Building, with George U.
Crocker, president; Max Shoolman, vice president,
and Gerald G. E. Street, treasurer.
* * * * *
MUNICIPAL BOND SALE
_Springfield Republican_
City Treasurer E. T. Tifft yesterday surprised
himself and financial experts as well by selling
a bond issue of $1,000,000 at remarkably good
terms, in spite of the tying up of money by war
conditions. The issue was sold to N. W. Harris &
Co of Boston, who will pay the city a premium of
$5670, bringing the interest rate down to 4.30 per
cent. This rate is less than one-half of 1 per cent
higher than the rate for last year’s issue, and
congratulations are coming to the city and to the
city treasurer on this success from many financial
men who have been looking with interest on this
issue as the first test of the bond market since
the war began.
The bid of the winning company was 100.567, while
the second bid was made by the Third national bank
of this city offering 100.44. E. H. Rollins Sons,
A. B. Leach & Co, Perry, Coffin & Burr, and Blake
Bros & Co, all of Boston, made a joint bid for the
issue which was third, the bid being 100.176. Of
the $1,000,000 there was $200,000 on the municipal
building loan paying 4 per cent, and the remaining
$800,000 is in 4½ per cent bonds. The issue was
made up of the following loans: Municipal building
loan, 20 years, 4 per cent, $200,000; high school
of commerce, 20 years, 4½ per cent, $150,000;
Fulton-street loan, 20 years, 4½ per cent,
$400,000; Myrtle-street school addition, 20 years,
4½ per cent, $136,000; land for school, Franklin
and Greenwood streets, 20 years, 4½ per cent,
$64,000; Brightwood school addition, 20 years,
4½ per cent, $25,000; Walnut-street engine house
addition, 20 years, 4½ per cent, $25,000; total,
$1,000,000.
The rate at which these bonds were sold shows
that the state of the money market is not as far
from normal as was feared by many people, and at
the same time an opportunity is given to local
people to invest in the city bonds at a price
which will bring them a better return than can be
obtained on the issues in usual times. These bonds
are tax exempt, the exemption extending to the
federal income tax. Interest on municipal bonds is
collectible without certificates of ownership and
individuals are not required to report the income
to the federal government. The successful bidders,
N. W. Harris & Co, are represented in this city by
Percy O. Dorr, who has offices in the Massachusetts
Mutual building.
The Boston News Bureau, commenting on the sale,
says: “The sale of $1,000,000 bonds to N. W.
Harris & Co by the city of Springfield to-day is
striking evidence of a revival of confidence in
the bond market. The bankers are offering the
bonds on the following bases: For the 4½’s, 1915
maturity, 4¼ per cent basis; 1916-1919, 4.20
per cent basis; 1920-1934, 4.15 per cent basis.
For the 4’s, 1915 maturity, 4¼ per cent basis;
1916-1919, 4.20 per cent basis; 1920-1954, at
99. To gain some idea of the attractive level
at which these bonds are being sold, compared
with prices for previous issues, it need only be
remembered that in 1913 the city obtained a 3.88
per cent basis for an issue of bonds, a 3.81 per
cent basis in 1912 and a 3.51 per cent basis in
1911. The current sale is the most important bit
of public financing which has been accomplished in
the local market since the war began. It is more
than ordinarily significant that one of the biggest
New England banking houses should take hold of this
Springfield issue at a time when the bond market
is suffering more or less from excessive timidity.
It serves the double purpose of providing for the
financial needs of one of New England’s largest
cities and of creating a little interest in the
bond market on a basis which is fair both to the
city and to the investor. There is evidence of
returning courage and confidence.”
* * * * *
RAILROAD DIVIDEND
_Chicago Tribune_
Directors of the Pennsylvania company declared
yesterday a semi-annual dividend of 1 per cent as
against the usual dividend of 4 per cent at this
time of the year. Since 1910 the Pennsylvania
company has paid 7 per cent yearly, divided into
two semi-annual installments of 3 per cent in the
first half and 4 per cent in the second half of the
year.
The issued capital of the Pennsylvania company
is $80,000,000. The annual disbursement has
been, since 1910, $5,600,000 annually. This year,
however, the company has declared only 4 per cent,
or $3,200,000, so that the reduced amount of
dividends is $2,400,000.
The Pennsylvania company operates all the lines of
the Pennsylvania system west of Pittsburgh. All the
stock of the Pennsylvania company is owned by the
Pennsylvania Railroad company, and to the latter
corporation all the dividends have been paid.
The outstanding capital stock of the Pennsylvania
Railroad company is $499,265,700. The annual
dividends from the Pennsylvania company have been
equal to something over 1 per cent on the capital
stock of the Pennsylvania Railroad company, and the
cut made yesterday in dividends is equal to about
½ per cent on the railroad company’s stock. The
railroad company pays its shareholders 6 per cent
per annum, this rate having obtained since 1908.
The railroad company’s earnings last year, that is,
1913, were 8.02 per cent on the share capital.
The 5 per cent raise in freight rates granted by
the interstate commerce commission was denied to
coal, coke and iron ore. The coal and coke business
of the Pennsylvania system amounts to about
one-third of the company’s gross business and on
that no advance will be received.
In connection with the reduction of the
Pennsylvania company’s dividend, the directors
issued a statement saying that the cut was due
“chiefly to a large decrease in traffic and a
material reduction in the revenues of the lines
west of Pittsburgh.”
Meanwhile the directors of the Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, one of the
controlled lines of the Pennsylvania company,
met and decided not to consider the semi-annual
dividend distribution until the next meeting of the
board, on Dec. 30.
* * * * *
RETAIL PRICE OF BEEF
_Boston Herald_
That there is no truth in the report emanating from
Chicago to the effect that the record-breaking
drought in Kansas will cause the retail prices of
beef to go to unheard of prices in the winter, is
the declaration of local provision dealers. It
is their opinion that, as the dry spell is only
in certain sections of Kansas, it cannot affect
materially the prices in the East.
There has been no increase in prices lately, they
further declare, and certain choice cuts are, in
fact, a great deal lower than at this time last
year. The choicest cuts in sirloin steak are more
than 10 cents lower than they were in 1912 and
other cuts are in the same proportion.
“There is no danger of the prices of beef being
raised in the winter in the East,” declared a local
representative of a large packing house. “There
need be no fear that the steady rush of cattle
to the big live stock markets of the middle West
will materially raise the prices here. In fact,
the prices are lower on some cuts than last year
and I see no reason why they should not continue
to stand at the same price. One must remember that
the drought is confined only to certain sections of
the state of Kansas and that other sections of the
country are not affected. If there is a raise in
prices it will be confined only to those immediate
regions where the drought is.”
That the packers are making fortunes during the dry
spell is also denied by the local dealers. While
live stock prices are to a certain extent lower
now, the wholesale prices on the average have also
decreased and the housewife is getting the benefit
of it, is their assertion. They further declare
that the packers make a small profit at best and
also that the retailers’ profit is not great, as
they have unusually heavy expenses.
* * * * *
LOCAL MARKET PRICES
_Boston Transcript_
Peaches, peaches, and then more peaches, meet
the eye of the visitor to the market section in
these closing days of summer. Little baskets, big
baskets, crates and carriers full of the luscious
fruit are displayed everywhere. Wholesale prices
are reasonable, as usual when the crop is large,
but prices at retail rarely fall below a certain
level. This is one of the hard things for the
layman to understand, why a big crop does not bring
low prices. Wholesalers say that the retailers
are to blame, and the latter say that they cannot
afford to handle the fruit except with a generous
margin of profit. The consumer thinks that the
retailer ought to be content with something less
than 100 per cent profit.
Current supplies of peaches are coming from widely
separated points. Few California peaches are now
offered, and most of the Georgia crop has also been
marketed, but West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey
and Connecticut are shipping freely to this market.
In late years much of the New Jersey crop has been
shipped into the convenient markets of New York and
Philadelphia. In this market New Jersey peaches
have to compete sharply with Connecticut grown
fruit, and, as freights from Connecticut are less
than from New Jersey, the former have a manifest
advantage. Freights and packing cost the New Jersey
farmer about 50 cents for an ordinary peach basket,
and more for a six basket carrier, which is now
the favorite way of shipping fine table fruit. As
a full basket of Connecticut peaches can be had at
retail at 75 cents to $1, there is not much margin
for the more distant shipper. New Jersey fruit
does not stand up for shipping so well as other
varieties.
When one goes into the market for peaches, one
finds a wide variety of qualities and packages.
As a rule, early peaches are clingstones and late
peaches are freestones. The latter have manifest
advantages, but when they are desired care should
be taken to see that the buyer gets what is wanted.
One needs to remember that freestones from Georgia
and the South may be selling side by side with
clingstones from farther North. Sweetness and
flavor should also be insisted upon, while it is
always a mistake to buy half-rotten fruit because
it is cheap. By the dozen, good peaches can be
bought for 10 to 25 cents. The small baskets that
come in the carriers bring 40 to 50 cents, while
old-fashioned peach baskets sell at 75 cents to
$1.25. West Virginia is shipping peaches in bushel
baskets, a shape first made familiar by Michigan
shippers. That state has not yet begun shipments,
but they will come later. These large baskets cost
$1.25 to $1.75 wholesale, and about $1.50 to $2.25
at retail.
While peaches have the right of way at this season,
other fall fruits are being freely offered,
especially crabapples and plums. “Crabs” were
selling in North Market street Wednesday at 50
cents a bushel, but housekeepers are paying at the
rate of $1.60 a bushel by the peck. Another case of
“quick sales and small profits”? Native preserving
plums are selling at 25 to 40 cents a basket.
Damsons and damson plums are in the market, and
sell at 30 to 40 cents. This is a great year for
New England apple and plum orchards, and, in fact,
fruit of all kinds will be plentiful and cheap.
Exports of apples from this country are likely to
be materially lessened by the war, and the surplus
fruit must be absorbed by home markets. Apple men
are talking $1 a barrel as probably the wholesale
price in this market later. Just now small lots of
apples are selling at 40 to 50 cents a peck for
cooking and 50 to 60 cents for table fruit.
Blueberries from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island are still in the market and sell at 18 to
20 cents, watermelons bring 50 to 60 cents each
and cantaloupes 8 to 10 cents each. California
plums sell at 40 to 60 cents a basket, Bartlett
pears at 20 to 30 cents a dozen, California grapes
at 40 to 50 cents a basket for Malagas and seedless
and 50 to 60 cents for Tokays. Native grapes sell
at 15 to 20 cents for Delawares and black varieties.
Summer vegetables are in seasonable supply, and
low prices are quoted for most varieties. Green
corn is selling at 20 to 25 cents a dozen ears,
early celery at 15 cents, green peas at 65 to 75
cents a peck, string beans at 5 to 8 cents a quart,
shell beans at 8 cents for Limas and horticultural,
cauliflower at 10 to 20 cents each, cucumbers
at 5 cents each, egg plant at 15 to 20 cents,
tomatoes at 8 to 10 cents a pound, mushrooms at $1
to $1.25 a pound, white potatoes at 25 to 30 cents
a peck, sweet potatoes at 5 cents a pound, onions
at 8 cents a quart for native, 8 cents a pound
for Spanish and 18 cents a quart for small white
pickling, squash at 4 cents a pound for marrow, 5
cents each for summer and 20 to 25 cents each for
vegetable marrow, cabbage at 8 to 15 cents each,
beets at 8 cents a quart, carrots at 3 cents a
pound, turnips at 5 cents and parsnips at 8 cents.
Salad vegetables are unchanged, lettuce still
selling at 5 cents and other vegetables at 5 to 8
cents.
Prices of lamb have declined, and a cash customer
can now get a good hind leg or hind-quarter
at 22 cents, though a charge customer who is
particular about quality will have to pay 25 cents.
Forequarters are selling at 14 cents, sides at 20
to 21 cents, loins at 25 cents and chops at 38
to 40 cents. Mutton is unchanged at 18 cents for
loins, 11 to 12 cents for forequarters, 25 to 28
cents for chops and 18 cents for “hung” legs. Veal
cuts are selling at 40 cents for fillet, 45 cents
for steak, 30 cents for chops and 22 cents for
loins.
Beef prices are easier at wholesale, but retail
prices are still firmly held at 33 to 38 cents for
sirloin steak, 40 to 50 cents for rump steak and 25
to 35 cents for round steak. Roasting pieces sell
at 35 cents for the back of the rump, 25 cents for
the face, 25 to 30 cents for the first cut of the
rib and 20 to 25 cents for the second cut. Corned
pieces are selling at 25 cents for brisket, 18
cents for rib, 18 cents for the sticking piece and
10 cents for flank.
Pork provisions are selling at 25 cents for pork
loins, 22 to 25 cents for whole hams, 30 to 35
cents for sliced ham, 25 cents for bacon, 17 cents
for smoked, corned, pickled and fresh shoulders, 15
cents for salt pork, 22 to 25 cents for sausages,
16 cents for Frankfurters, 15 to 18 cents for lard,
10 to 12 cents for pigs’ feet, 12 to 20 cents for
tripe, 25 to 30 cents for tongue, 45 cents for
dried beef, 15 to 16 cents for beef liver, 30 cents
to $1 each for sweetbreads, and 50 to 90 cents each
for calves’ liver.
At the poultry stalls trade is quiet, as usual
at this season. Fall trade has not yet begun in
earnest. Native roasting chickens are selling at 35
cents, Western chickens at 28 cents, Philadelphia
capons at 38 cents, Western capons at 30 to 32
cents, native broilers at 30 cents, Western
broilers at 28 cents, hothouse broilers at $1.25 a
pair, frozen turkeys at 30 to 32 cents, native fowl
at 25 cents, Western fowl at 23 to 25 cents, spring
ducklings at 25 cents, spring geese at 28 cents,
broiler turkeys at $3 to $3.50 a pair, squab at 35
to 50 cents each, and pigeons at $3 a dozen.
Butter and eggs have not been advanced further, but
prices are very firm. Northern creamery butter in
tubs sells at 38 cents, and in boxes at 40 cents,
with individual prints at 40 cents, unsalted prints
at 50 cents, Western creamery in tubs at 35 cents
and Vermont dairy at 33 cents in tubs and 33 to
35 cents in boxes. High prices have promoted the
use of both butter and eggs from cold storage.
Total stocks in local cold storage warehouses at
last report were 300,191 packages, against 299,020
packages a week ago and 321,303 packages a year ago.
Eggs are firm and unchanged, best hennery stock
being quoted at 45 cents, Eastern at 40 cents,
Western at 33 cents and storage at 32 cents. Total
stocks of eggs in local cold storage warehouses at
last report were 399,589 cases, against 402,004
cases a week ago and 490,945 cases at the same time
last year.
Large mackerel are scarce and high, but medium
mackerel are to be had at 25 cents each and small
mackerel at 18 cents. Spanish mackerel sell at 25
cents, Eastern salmon at 30 to 35 cents, Western
salmon at 20 to 25 cents, smelts at 30 to 35
cents, bluefish at 15 cents, weakfish at 15 cents,
striped bass at 35 cents, black bass at 18 cents,
butterfish at 12½ cents, scup at 15 cents, tautog
at 12 cents, swordfish at 25 cents, halibut at 25
to 30 cents, cod and haddock at 8 cents, brook
trout at 75 cents, flounders at 10 to 12 cents,
eels at 18 cents, sea perch at 20 cents a dozen.
Oysters are in season again, but it needs cool
weather as well as an “r” in the month to bring
about a demand. Providence River sell at 45 cents
and Cotuits at 75 cents. New York scallops are
in the market and sell at $1 a quart, though the
close time is not yet off in this State. Lobsters
are selling at 33 cents for live chicken, 35 cents
for large live and 40 cents for large boiled,
soft-shell crabs at $1 a dozen, little necks at 30
cents a dozen or $1.75 a peck, clams at 30 cents a
quart shucked or 50 cents in the shell by the peck,
and quahogs at 60 cents a quart shucked. Finnan
haddie sells at 12 cents.
* * * * *
HOTEL STORY
_New York Herald_
When a clerk at the desk of Bretton Hall picked up
the desk telephone in response to a ring about nine
o’clock last Friday evening he caught the words of
the operator to a man in one of the rooms.
“Indeed, I don’t know what you want, sir,” she was
saying; “but here’s the clerk. You can explain to
him.”
“If they’s such a thing as a bootjack in this
metropolitan hostlery,” a co’n and cotton voice
enunciated in exasperated accents, “I wish yo’ all
would send it up to mah room fo’ about two minutes.”
“Certainly, sir,” said the clerk. “Front! Send the
bootblack up to 846.”
The bootblack came down on a run, talking Greek to
himself. The desk telephone rang again before the
clerk could ask questions.
“I don’t want any bootblack. I don’t want ’em
painted. I want to pull ’em off. Send me a jack.
Don’t yo’ all understand English?”
“Tell the engineer to rush a man with a kit of
tools up to that room,” the clerk hurriedly
ordered. “Right away, sir,” he spoke into the
telephone.
“If it wasn’t for losin’ me job, I’d a kilt that
felly,” the engine room assistant reported when he
quickly returned from the eighth floor. “Th’ way he
talked I’d not stand”--
The elevator door flew open with a crash and a
tall, elderly man with light hair worn long strode
to the desk, his jaws set, but his lips twitching
with each step.
“By gad, suh!” he shouted, pounding the desk and
leaning across it to glare at the astonished clerk.
“I ain’t goin’ to allow no paper collared, Yankee
clerk to make spo’t of me. If I wa’n’t absolutely
certain that yo’ are jes’ one provincial New Yo’ker
of the ignoramus variety I would give yo’ all the
canin’ of you’ mis’able life, old as I am.
“Neveh mind explanations. Yo’ jes’ send that long,
lanky No’th Ca’lina lookin’ boy yondeh up to mah
room with me and we’ll see if I got to go to bed
with mah boots on or go back to Geo’ga to get ’em
off.”
The lanky boy reported that the boots were “sure
some tight,” but his co-operation in their removal
had netted him “fo’ bits.”
* * * * *
SUBWAY STORY
_New York Times_
“Wake up! Your station next,” shouted the Subway
guard, as he shook a sleeping passenger. The
passenger managed to let a “thank you” escape him,
and propped his eyes open until the train came to a
stop at the station.
“How did you know he got off at that station?” the
guard was asked as the train moved on.
“How did I know? Why, he is on here every night,
and he goes to sleep as soon as he gets on the
train. I have awakened him so regularly that he
thinks now it is one of my duties. He would never
forgive me if I overlooked him.
“See that man sleeping over there in that middle
seat, and that one over yonder near the other door?
They work downtown somewhere and come up every
night on this train. I always have to wake them up.
The first man there gets off at 145th Street and
the one by the door at 168th. We know practically
all the regular passengers on the late night
trains. Some work, while others are just rounders
who are out every night, returning always on the
same train with as much regularity as those who
work.
“I have never missed but one, and he seemed
terribly cut up about it. He talked like I was paid
to ‘mind’ him. I look out for him now. I have
scraped up a good many acquaintances in this way.
Sometimes the sleepers are newspaper chaps, and
they give us an early morning paper; others give us
a smile and say ‘howdy?’ when we meet.”
* * * * *
A MIRAGE
_New York Sun_
Cap’n Duke, who hangs about the beach at Far
Rockaway and tells stories of the sea to little
children, saw a mirage yesterday afternoon just
as the sun was setting. He was talking to a group
of little ones at the time and he called their
attention to it.
“See that four funnelled steamship hanging up there
in the sky upside down?” he said. “And then off
there on the starboard bow of the steamer don’t you
see a five masted schooner with all sails set and
her booms to port?”
“Oh, yes, Cap’n Duke,” cried the children. “And
there is still more.”
“What do you see, Johnny?” asked the captain.
“Why, there is a battleship and a ferryboat, and
over on the right I see the Statue of Liberty.”
Cap’n Duke took off his specks, rubbed them with
his red handkerchief and looked hard.
“To be sure, to be sure,” he said. “And astern of
the battleship there is a torpedo boat, and after
that comes a school of whales and a yacht race.
Never see the likes of that even in the Desert of
Sahara.”
In half an hour it was all over and the children
went home for dinner. It was noised about Far
Rockaway last night that really there was a
beautiful mirage to be seen at sunset, and there
was not a soul in the place who refused to believe
it. Cap’n Duke and the children had seen it and
that was enough.
* * * * *
STORY OF SAILOR
_San Francisco Examiner_
If you had done nothing worse than going to sleep
in an out-of-the-way place on a bay steamer and
awakening to find yourself in State’s prison with
a fifteen-year sentence hanging over your head, how
would you feel?
John Larsen had such an experience last Friday. He
was, and may yet be, a deckhand on the schooner
Mary. He imbibed a quantity of refreshment on
the water front and then hid away in the steamer
Caroline for a quiet nap. He didn’t know that the
Caroline was about to go over to San Quentin with
a load of supplies for the prison. The first thing
he did know was that a husky guard with a big gun
was prodding him into wakefulness and saying hard
things. Captain Smith of the Caroline was standing
near.
“Yes, it’s that fifteen-year man, all right,” the
guard said, as he gave Larsen a stiff jolt under
the ribs.
The sleepy sailor was yanked out into daylight and
taken ashore, where he saw only prison walls and
men in stripes all about him. He was marched to the
office of the captain of the guard, the man beside
him meanwhile commenting on the fine disguise
Larsen wore. The poor sailor was dumb from fright,
and could not make an intelligible protest. But
when the officials looked him over, they laughed
and told the guard to throw him out. He was not the
man.
“Ay scart lak djefoul ven woke oop in yale,” said
Larsen yesterday after he had got back from San
Quentin by ferry. “Ay ban sleep on bale yute in
Caroline ven gun stick me in ribs an’ ay see mens
vid stripes all aroond, an’ man vid gun say ay ban
fifteen-year faller. You bat heart went in boots
and ay ban sick. Ven man stick gun in ribs an’ say
‘Git!’ You bat ay coom quick avay. No more sleep in
Caroline on bale yute, you bat!”
* * * * *
A STOWAWAY
_Boston Journal_
Abraham Grabau wanted to get into the United States
mighty badly.
He was poor and had never had a chance. But he had
read a lot about America and thought how fine it
would be to come here and retrieve himself and
really do something worth while before it was too
late.
So at Port Said he hid away on board the steamship
St. Patrick, which was bound for Boston from
Yokohama.
Of course he knew it wasn’t right to become a
stowaway, but he couldn’t see what real harm there
was in it. Besides, he hadn’t any money and it
seemed to be the only thing that was left. And he
never dreamed that the great free country beyond
the seas often keeps worthy men outside its borders
just because they haven’t the price of a ticket.
But he learned many things that worried him from
the St. Patrick’s crew during the passage, after he
had made himself known, when he couldn’t starve any
longer, and had been put to work.
He was told that an alien stowaway has a mighty
poor show of “getting by” with Uncle Sam--that, in
fact, he hadn’t a chance on earth of being landed
here. It nearly broke his heart, for there seemed
to be no way out. But he finally found one--and
why not? It was as good a way as any other. And,
besides, he might win.
While the St. Patrick lay at anchor off quarantine
Thursday night, Abraham slipped off his shoes and
stole on deck noiselessly. He placed his shoes
on deck alongside the railing and pulled down a
life-buoy.
He gave a last look toward the lights that were
twinkling on shore and dropped into the water.
Next morning the shoes were found near where the
life-buoy should have been.
Of course the ship was searched, but Abraham was
missing. Immigration officials at Long Wharf and
the harbor police were notified of the escape. But
there was no trace of the stowaway.
Yesterday the Hebrew’s daring act was talked of
admiringly in many quarters, and the hope was
expressed that he had won. There is a slight chance
that he was picked up and carried to safety. But
those best informed declare that the little Hebrew
has beyond a doubt reached the Port of Missing
Men, where entry is never refused, even to the
friendless and the hopeless and the forlorn.
* * * * *
SEARCH FOR LOST TREASURES
_New York Sun_
In the gray hours before the dawn this morning,
when all Ulmer Park sleeps and nothing is heard
along the reaches of Marine Basin but the crowing
of the restless cocks, will slip from her moorings
a low, rakish craft. With hawseholes muffled and
silence cloths on port and starboard anchor,
hatches muzzled and even the kick of her propeller
smothered by a blanket, this phantom will speed
past the clam factories and chowder distilleries
out to the bounding main.
Hush! ’Tis the Mayflower, onetime defender of
the America’s cup, bearing her daring crew of
gentleman adventurers down to the isles of spice
and the bloodied seas where Morgan trod piratical
quarterdecks and Teach snicked off the heads of
treasure bearers. Skipper Scull is at the helm,
Buck Harrison in the galley; four more, good men
and true, stand in the port chains and shade their
eyes as they scan the waters of Gravesend Bay for
the police boat.
Romance lies behind the horizon and the glint of
the rising sun has the glint of Sir Henry’s gold.
For, mark ye well, Skipper Scull has wrapped in
tarpaulin, next to his open front undershirt,
a chart. Red and blue is the chart; it marks a
reef in the Caribbean; it limns in the sea the
boundaries of a precious spot; it tells where lies
the English corvette, Good Faith, out of Santo
Domingo City in 1684 with five millions in plate
and minted doubloons in her strong boxes.
But who are these men, tried and found trusty, who
sail with Skipper Scull on the converted yacht
Mayflower out of Marine Basin this morning? Skipper
Scull, Harvard, ’98, a venturesome soul who lived
in Tokio many, many months, and who, wishing to be
a war correspondent, finally was allowed to get
as near as forty-five miles from the scene of a
battle. Then there are Gordon Brown, Yale, ’01, who
was captain of the football team that laid Harvard
so low in 1900, Stephen Noyes, Harvard, ’03, H.
L. Corbett, Harvard, ’03, Buck Harrison, Harvard,
’04, fullback, whose name was a terror to all
opponents, and Roger Darby, Harvard, ’05, a tower
of strength on the Crimson line in his time.
Consider this, that Matsukata, whose father is
a Baron in Japan and holds fief over hundreds
of samurai, was offered a place in the intrepid
crew--as cook. Matsukata yearned for adventure, but
he could not so demean himself, and that is why
Buck Harrison of the line holds his place in the
galley when the Mayflower slips out of the Basin
this morning.
With the Mayflower steaming out of Gravesend Bay,
nose to the south, there must come a hiatus in this
tale, and the curtain of the past must be lifted,
revealing dark and bloody scenes.
.................
. .
. CURTAIN .
. .
.................
It is a fair day in June, Anno Domini 1684, and
the tropical palms that fringe the beach about
Santo Domingo Bay are nodding in the breeze. [Santo
Domingo Bay is used as a disguise of the real port,
which it wouldn’t do to reveal.] All is astir about
the wharf, for the good English corvette, Good
Faith, is sailing this day for Plymouth, laden
fair to the gunwales with plate of price, spoils
of cathedrals in Mexico and hard minted gold in
doubloons--and oh, yes, pieces of eight!--that is,
the ransom of cities in Salvador and the Guineas.
Spanish gold it is, torn from the grasp of bleeding
men.
A cheer, a roundelay as the anchor comes up, and
with sails bellying and the crosses of St. George
and St. Andrew whipping from the gaff, the Good
Faith ploughs her way past the reef and out to sea.
But wait! From around the bluff beyond the sea
gate, which is hidden from the Good Faith by the
rocky headland, come stealing two long feluccas.
The brass of cannon glints from bow and taffrail;
sails strain with the wind; the gorgeous banner of
Spain streams from the mainsail peak.
The watchers on the headlands of Santo Domingo City
drop on their knees in prayer at the sight, for
are not those two feluccas the sea vultures of
Don Sebastian Fernando Hacienda y Juan Fernandez,
plunderer of towns and pillager of altars?
At gaze stand the citizens of Santo Domingo City as
they watch the feluccas steal into the track of the
Good Faith. Tortured with anxiety are these good
folk when they behold the Good Faith swing about
the headland and come into view of the dastard
Spaniards. Now the Good Faith is aware of her
peril. See her crowd the canvas on! See her leap
to the tug of the wind and race for her life down,
down the watery way to the horizon! The feluccas
follow fast; they gain yard by yard; still they
gain and yet still.
The horizon rises and swallows up the Good Faith
and the Don’s feluccas, mere dots on the horizon.
Alack, never again did man set eyes on the Good
Faith. Plymouth awaited her in vain; Santo Domingo
City sent out sloops and men-o’-war to search for
her. Never again did Don Sebastian ravage the
coasts of Salvador and plunder the galleons of the
Main. Men forgot that there had ever been a Good
Faith or a Don Sebastian.
* * * * *
[Stars here indicate hiatus of 220 years.]
A fisher of sponges, an American fisher of sponges,
in sooth, is sailing his craft about the Caribbean
in search of his prey. It is some years later.
It is only a few years ago in fact. A storm
comes roaring out of the Gulf, and the fisher of
sponges with his native fishermen is driven in his
cockleshell far, far out of his course. In the dead
of night and the murk of the storm the boat is
piled up on a reef and they rub elbows with death
until the ruddy streaks of dawn come.
Then this fisher of sponges, this American fisher
of sponges--he was also a diver and he helped
raise the Merrimac in Santiago harbor once--looked
over the side of his boat and he saw down about
fifteen feet in the blue water the prow of a ship.
Straightway he dived. He came up with pieces of
eight sticking through the cracks of both fists, or
maybe it was doubloons.
Forthwith all of his native fishermen dived,
and they came up with silver and golden coin
representing maybe $1,221.34 American, who knows?
They dived again and brought up the ship’s bell.
About the rust eaten rim was graven this motto:
“Good Faith yclept Dom. 1680 Plymouth. Ringeth this
Belle God’s hours and telleyeth man’s life Space.”
Straightway did this American fisher of sponges get
him his sextant and his latitude. He had to guess
at the longitude. Then with the ship’s bell and the
pieces of eight he sailed to Jamaica.
There he found one who was interested in his tale.
Together they went to a lawyer, and he recommended
them to another lawyer, whose name is Reginald R.
Leaycraft and whose office is at 129 Pearl street,
this city. Many old records in Santo Domingo City
and in England were gone over, so say this fisher
of sponges and his lawyer, and at last the shipping
register of the original Good Faith was discovered.
Then they knew of her fatal journey out of Santo
Domingo City on that June afternoon so long ago,
and knew, so say both, of the treasure that was in
her bottom.
Skipper Scull, and he alone, knows how it was
that the sponge diver happened to meet such an
adventurous spirit as himself here in New York.
Yet, hark ye, within a month after the sponge
fisher and Skipper Scull had met fortuitously,
all of those other brave gentlemen and true from
Harvard and Yale had met to form a solemn bond and
compact.
This was the bond and compact: That the
organization should be made under the auspices of
the Southern Research Company, a duly registered
organization; that the sponge fisher and his lawyer
should have share and share alike with the others;
that the sponge fisher should be one of the party
of discovery, in that he knew best how to interpret
the chart that he had made that blue morning after
the storm; and that, chief of all, Matsukata, the
man whose father is a baron in Japan, should be
cook.
All of these conditions, save the last, so
recalcitrant did Matsukata prove, were fulfilled
to the letter. Then went the representatives of
the company to Mrs. Eva M. Barker, the owner of the
old cup defender, Mayflower. Five years ago the
old defender had been converted into a sloop with
auxiliary power. The Mayflower was brought around
to the Marine Basin and all sorts of strange stores
in boxes and crates were lowered into her hold.
Diving suits flopped upon her decks and grappling
hooks shoved their prongs through burlap sacking.
Skipper Scull was there on the deck of the
Mayflower each day to shoo away the curious and
to scowl at the prying. Not a word would the war
correspondent skipper say to the most veiled
interrogations. Until the Mayflower slipped past
the chowder distilleries in this morning’s early
light the mystery of her mission and her bourne
remained inviolate.
But Skipper Scull, Buck Harrison and the rest have
overreached themselves in their secretiveness. For
know that over a long glass clinking with ice one
sleepy night up at the Harvard Club on Forty-fourth
street one of the sextette of adventurers revealed
the scheme of the expedition. That is why not even
Skipper Scull knows what fell plot is now a-brewing
to rob him of his putative treasure.
This is the plot: Up in Boston lives Alexander
Forbes, the grandson of John Murray Forbes. He is
the possessor of the yacht Merlin. To his ears
came the tale of the treasure hunt. Not long did
the grass grow under the Forbes foot. He called
together the following men, known to be desperate
pirates: Jim Field, Harvard, ’03; Donald Gregg,
Harvard, ’02; Ralph Page, Harvard, ’03; Buz Baird,
Harvard, ’04, and W. Davis Conrad, also of Harvard.
To them he broached his counter plot, and all
gleefully agreed, if they did not sign a pact with
their life blood.
So it will be--and one of these Boston pirates
said yesterday that it cannot but be--that
after the Mayflower has gone to her all but
secret destination in the Caribbean and is
sailing homeward, either laden with gold or with
experience, the yacht Merlin will one day stalk out
of the horizon and confront her. The Jolly Roger
will fly from the peak of the Merlin and a six
pounder will cough out demand for the Mayflower’s
surrender. The Mayflower will have to heave to
and be robbed or go to the bottom with all of her
gallant gentlemen adventurers weltering in their
own blood.
It will be about three weeks hence, so swore this
Boston pirate by book and ring yesterday, that the
Merlin will sail on her fell mission. After that
the Spanish Main will roar again and bloody death
will be abroad over the mellifluous waters of the
Gulf stream.
* * * * *
RELIEF SHIP
_New York Evening Post_
Capt. Pickels--“Pickels of the schooner Cluett,”
as they called him on the Labrador coast--standing
on the deck of that stanch little vessel, which
will soon be bucking ice in Baffin Bay, is not
the figure of an Arctic explorer. To the mildly
interested visitor to the East River dock, where
his ship was moored, there was nothing about the
square-set skipper in shirt sleeves and straw
hat, watching supplies come aboard, to suggest
that he is the man selected to command the
relief expedition which will search for Donald
B. MacMillan, starting to-day. MacMillan set out
from New York just two years ago to find mythical
Crocker Land, and now the American Museum of
Natural History, one of the chief backers of his
expedition, is sending Pickels to find MacMillan.
Both the captain in summer city garb and his little
schooner, dwarfed by the overhanging pier, and not
so different to the unpracticed eye from hundreds
of sailing craft loading here, refused at first to
fit into the picture which he painted in simple
language of the months ahead. Within a few weeks
the Cluett will be feeling out open reaches in
the ice which is rarely absent after Nachvak Bay,
on the north Labrador coast, is passed, laying a
course almost due north up Davis Strait. Thence to
Melville Bay, near Etah, the MacMillan expedition’s
base, it will be nip and tuck between the Cluett
and rapidly descending winter. She will be late,
and, skirting the ever-present “middle ice” of
Baffin Bay, on a course not far off shore, she will
be lucky to reach her objective before the waters
close entirely.
And luckier still if she finds MacMillan and
his party waiting. For then there is the chance
that, with more good fortune and able seamanship,
Capt. Pickels may be able to bring all hands out
through the thin crust which by September will
cover all those waters. In that event he will
have made a season’s record to be very proud of.
What is far more likely--and that is the reason
for the two years’ supply of foodstuffs on board
the Cluett--the schooner will nose her way into
Melville Bay with hardly enough time in which to
select a winter berth in the ice. If MacMillan has
to be waited for or search made for him, the long
winter will make either task easy. The diminutive,
unpretentious wooden sailing ship which now reeks
of oil and ship stores under the warm sun, will
then find herself encompassed with leagues of ice.
Eskimo ice huts will spring up around her like
mushrooms, and in the long Arctic night it would be
difficult to identify the little Cluett with the
picture at the foot of East 21st Street.
But closer acquaintance with Pickels and the Cluett
helps one’s imagination to bridge the gap. Ever
since she was built at Tottenville, some four
years ago, for the Grenfell Mission service on the
Labrador coast, Pickels has commanded her. She
was designed for work in northern waters. As the
bronze plate in the captain’s cabin sets forth,
she was presented to Dr. Wilfred Grenfell in July,
1911, by George B. Cluett, of Troy, N. Y. That she
went to sea with purposes other than those of the
ordinary trading schooner, the plate makes plain
in these few words: “The Sea is His and He made
It.” The inscription in the brass band which binds
the wheel, “Jesus saith I will make you fishers of
men,” serves to distinguish her from the run of
fishing craft which infest the Labrador waters. But
for these symbols of a higher vocation she is just
like them, save that she is much more stanch.
From stem to stern the Cluett measures 142 feet,
and her beam is 26 feet. Every foot of timber
in her is white oak. And back of the thin steel
plate on her bows, where the impact of ice is
concentrated, she can boast about two feet of solid
timber. The outer shell forward is composed of
white oak timbers eight inches thick. Behind them
is nearly a foot of timbering, and then an inner
shell of six-inch white oak all stiffened with
drift bolts. The Cluett can be counted on to stand
up to the force of her eighty horse-power kerosene
engines, against all but solid ice. And she has
proved it more than once.
That brought the captain to the recital of an
achievement which probably had much to do with the
selection by the Museum authorities of him and
his ship for the work in hand. Making ordinarily
about three trips a year as supply ship to the
chain of missions established by the Grenfell
Association, it was no new thing for the Cluett to
show her seaworthiness in ice and dirty weather.
But last summer she did something out of the
common. Chartered for a few months by the Carnegie
Institution for magnetic investigations in Hudson’s
Bay, she and Capt. Pickets displayed remarkable
facility for edging into ice-strewn waters and
slipping out with promptness.
In a month’s time she made the circuit of Hudson’s
Bay, undeterred by almost constant snow-storms and
gales, frequently traversing untried waterways.
She escaped without misadventure, where a less
careful pilot might have lost his ship. Once the
two principal members of the party, the observers,
were swamped in a small boat. Losing instruments
and all their equipment they went five days without
food or fire, and owed their lives to Capt.
Pickels’s prompt appearance with relief. Getting
into Hudson’s Bay in mid-summer of last year was
not easy on account of the ice. After cleanly
threading Hudson Strait, the Cluett encountered a
Canadian icebreaker, smashed by the very element
she was designed to combat, and breaking up. As
this point was a long way south of his present
destination, Capt. Pickels is mindful of what may
be in store for him this summer. But he regards the
MacMillan relief expedition with as much serenity
as if it were one of his regular northern visits,
and with as little timidity as might be expected
from a mariner who has navigated every ocean and
circumvented ice in Bering Sea as successfully as
in Grenfell’s Tickle.
Although the proved nimbleness of the Cluett leads
her charterers to hope that she may slip into
Melville Bay and out with the rescued MacMillan
party in time to get back to New York in November,
the way food supplies have been poured into her
show that no chances are to be taken, in a locality
where, as the captain remarked, “ye can’t fetch
stuff from a grocery ’round the corner.’” He shed
light upon what for a dozen men might be considered
a two years’ food supply. Some two thousand pounds
of beef, nearly half of it canned and the rest
pickled in brine, and an almost equal quantity of
mutton and pork, formed the backbone of the stores.
Beans and potatoes and barrel on barrel of pilot
bread set off this impressive meat supply, which
winter hunting is to vary with fresh steaks and
roasts.
Several hundred pounds of coffee and a hundred of
tea, onions and many gallons of lime juice to ward
off scurvy, were important items; strangely enough,
not a particle of chocolate or cocoa. A comment
upon the rather small supply of milk--condensed,
of course--as compared with, for one thing, three
hundred pounds of rolled oats, drew from the hardy
captain the explanation that crews in the North
preferred molasses with their oatmeal, and of
molasses he had nearly a hundred gallons.
Perhaps these assurances of creature comfort have
had their attractions. At any rate, Capt. Pickels
has been pestered with would-be passengers who want
to make the trip with him or put in a winter of
hunting on Melville Bay. And they were not all men.
One young person from Vassar sent a request. But
Capt. Pickels will have none of them. So that, when
he starts on the last leg of his journey north,
with decks piled high with barrels of kerosene--the
Cluett is to be stocked with nearly five thousand
gallons of kerosene and 900 gallons of gasolene
for her engines--the only person aboard beside his
crew of eight hardy Nova Scotians, will be the
representative of the Natural History Museum. Capt.
Pickels’s Newfoundland dog “Chum” completes the
list.
* * * * *
SQUIRREL
_New York World_
Somebody let a squirrel loose in City Hall Park
yesterday, or more likely Saturday night, and as a
result that part of the green grass plot just north
of the Nathan Hale statue was the only busy section
in the business district from 2 until 3 o’clock
on the Sabbath. If there was one cat there were
thirty. Of all sizes and conditions they ranged,
hailing from Cherry Hill and other points. Toms,
tabbies and kittens were all there, and in circles
they sat about a big tree on which a gilt sign read
“Ulmus Americanus.”
Above, perched in the branches, was Mr. Squirrel.
Intently he looked down at the cats and the crowd
of park loungers and others leaning on the fence
and flicked his gray tail saucily at the feline
delegation. One venturesome Tom scooted up the
tree, but when he began to crawl out on the branch
on which “Brer” Squirrel sat the latter lightly
jumped to an adjoining tree, not labelled, and
chattered back at Tomcatus Cherryhillibus.
The other cats with uplifted eyes watched the
flight of the squirrel and camped under the second
tree, while the crowd of human onlookers increased.
The siege was getting interesting.
“I wonder will the cats get him, Jimmie,” said one
young woman, but the squirrel only kept on scolding
to himself.
Not long after a young man in a gray suit stepped
over the fence and stood beneath the tree. He
carried a small bag over one shoulder. The moment
the squirrel saw him he ran down the tree and
perched on the man’s other shoulder. When the man
opened the bag he popped in, and they started off
for a Jersey ferry.
The disgusted cats dispersed and the crowd melted
away.
* * * * *
POLICEMEN’S PET
_Philadelphia Telegraph_
Just as the “joker” tapped 12 o’clock today in the
Trenton avenue and Dauphin street police station, a
file of unhelmeted patrolmen marched silently into
the back yard and reverently placed the remains of
“Benny” in his last long resting place.
For a moment they stood sad-eyed, while Bill Tufts,
the old turnkey, softly dropped the earth upon the
coffin, and then, when only a memory marked the
spot near the patrol house where “Benny” slept,
they went back to the roll-room and discussed in
whispers the unexpected death.
“Benny” died at 11.20 o’clock, despite the efforts
of House Sergeant Site, who immersed him in fresh
water and tried in every way to restore the
fast-ebbing life. But a broken heart could not thus
be appeased, for “Benny’s” heart had undoubtedly
been broken when a younger rival for the affections
of the bluecoats turned up in the station house not
long ago.
Old age might also have contributed toward the
death, for “Benny” was 7½ years old, and his
species never exist longer than seven years,
according to Street Sergeant Murdock, who is well
posted on the subject. “Benny” holds the record
for age around the station house. There have been
others of his ilk there constantly for fifteen
years, but “Benny” was the longest liver of the
entire crowd.
“Benny” was a fan-tailed goldfish.
* * * * *
ZOO STORY
_New York World_
This rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I.
--Hippopotamus Pete.
“He’s a pig-headed brute,” say the keepers in
the Bronx Zoo after they have been up all night
watching Pete, who weighs 1,300 pounds--more than
four Tafts.
“He’s a wise old guy,” say the keepers admiringly
after they have slept and are wondering at Pete’s
sagacity.
Director Hornaday, of the Zoo, and the keepers
fondly hope to remove Pete to-day from his old cage
in the antelope house to his apartment in the new
and splendid elephant house. But whether Pete goes
or stays in the antelope house depends upon how
hungry he was last night.
The World has told of the futile efforts to move
this Gibraltar of hippopotamus flesh. As a last
resort, Director Hornaday has been starving Pete
for two days and nights. When Pete is hungry he
is very hungry, indeed. He eats a wagon load of
provender a day, shovelling in the food as stokers
shovel coal into a steamship’s furnace.
Taking advantage of this, Director Hornaday had
placed in Pete’s cage a “moving case,” a very
strong box big enough to hold Pete. At one end of
the box is a drop door rigged to a fall and tackle.
At the closed end of the big box the keepers placed
a tempting meal of all the things Pete likes best.
It was all very simple. Two keepers watched Pete
every hour of the twenty-four. Pete, hungry, was to
walk into the box after the food, the keepers were
to let the drop door fall and--there you are, or,
rather, there Pete was.
The simple plan did not work out well. By day Pete
seemed to have lost all appetite. But by Saturday
night he had thought out a plan in his turn. While
the sleepy keepers watched, Pete entered the box,
but he carefully stretched back his hind legs so
that they remained outside it. The keepers dropped
the door; it fell on Pete’s hind quarters.
Pete backed out, scooping the food along with his
fore legs. Once outside he had a hearty meal, which
he seemed to enjoy exceedingly.
They built a much longer moving case yesterday and
put food at its closed end. A hippopotamus is not
built like a dachshund. To get that food Pete must
include his whole bulk in the box.
* * * * *
CAT
_Chicago Inter Ocean_
Tom Stroller is dead.
Tom Stroller was only a cat, and he was old and
ugly and never even had been allowed within the
sacred precincts of a cat show, so, perhaps, it
doesn’t matter much.
And yet there were a hundred girls, students at the
Art Institute, who looked wistfully at the desk of
the Klio Club when they went to their lunch. And
there were 100 others who didn’t smile as they sat
about the tables. One or two attempted a eulogy,
but the efforts were not inspiring, for the best
that could be said of old Tom Stroller was that “he
was such a friendly cat.”
Time was when Tom was young and useful. Those were
the days--twelve years ago--when there was a stern
work to be done at the Klio Club, then at South
Michigan Avenue and East Monroe Street. Those
were the days when Tom stepped proudly through
serried ranks of rodent dead, the days when he was
tolerated because he was useful, and was forgiven
his ugliness because he was so friendly. Those were
the days when Tom achieved his first love--the love
of Mrs. Bush, mother of the club.
Side by side Tom and Mrs. Bush grew old together.
When the girls at the institute moved their club
to 26 South Wabash Avenue, Tom, now toothless, and
Mrs. Bush, now almost at the end of the road, were
established together at the cashier’s desk.
New students came to look amused and remained to
love them both. Old students came back to Chicago
to rush up to the Klio Club and cry: “Why, if there
aren’t Tom and Mother Bush. God bless you both!”
But one day last year Mrs. Bush was stricken with
an illness that soon may prove fatal. She was taken
to the Mary Thompson Hospital and a new cashier
came to the club’s desk. She was kind to Tom and
stroked his grizzled fur, but things were different
now, and Tom began to grow old very fast. He died
yesterday morning.
* * * * *
DOG
_Chicago Herald_
Colonel is only a dog, but he is believed to be
dying because he did his duty.
Colonel is a dignified St. Bernard, with a fine
head and kindly eye. He belongs to Sven Carlson,
a saloon-keeper at 3300 North Racine avenue. When
Colonel could lie on the floor, keeping one eye on
the door and the other on his master, the dog was
happy.
Carlson was proud of Colonel, too. He boasted
of the dog’s cleverness--how he would fetch and
carry from the grocer’s, and even carry notes to
tradesmen in the neighborhood. Colonel never failed
to go to the right store.
It was for Carlson that the dog sacrificed himself.
A few minutes before closing time Saturday night
Carlson went behind the bar and Colonel followed
him.
Two men entered the saloon and walked over to the
bar. They did not see the dog.
“Hands up,” ordered one man.
“It’s late, gentlemen; if you wish to drink you
have no time for such joking,” replied Carlson.
Both men drew revolvers.
“It’s a long way from a joke,” said the man. “Hands
up or we’ll shoot.”
“Go for ’em, Colonel,” ordered Carlson.
The dog sped around the end of the bar as though he
had been shot from a catapult, his hair bristling,
uttering deep growls; and the bandits backed away.
Then one of the men fired a shot, and the dog
toppled over and lay still.
Carlson gave a roar of rage when he saw Colonel
fall, and, grasping a bung starter, climbed over
the bar.
The holdups fled.
Carlson chased them a block before he gave up the
pursuit.
Colonel was taken to Thomas Kendrew’s veterinary
hospital at 3039 Sheffield avenue, bandaged and put
into a private kennel with clean, sweet straw to
lie upon.
“He surely will die,” said Dr. Kendrew. “I think
there is no hope for him. The bullet went into his
hip and through some of his vital organs.
“If every man could die as gallantly as Colonel
this would be a better world.”
* * * * *
TRICK MULE
_Kansas City Star_
If you’ve been to the horse show this week you’ve
seen Henry and Zip. Henry--his last name is
Harbaugh--is 18 years old and lives near Bedford,
Mo., when he’s at home. Zip is 8 years old, and if
you don’t believe he’s the most wonderful trick
mule in the world, you’d better not mention it to
Henry.
Zip knows how to sit up on his haunches like a
rabbit and walk around on his hind legs with Henry
on his back, and walk across the tanbark arena on
his knees, and--oh, innumerable things. Also he can
buck in the most humorous way--you’re quite sure
nobody but Henry could stick on.
There’s an interesting story connected with Henry
and Zip. Zip is an educated mule, and he is helping
make Henry an educated boy. For, the money that
Henry receives for his talents and Zip’s goes for
Henry’s education. The boy is half way through the
high school at Avalon, Mo., and when he finishes,
he hopes to go to the University of Missouri.
And the talented Zip is a great help to a fellow
who’s trying to get an education. For Henry is
drawing down $50 and expenses for his week’s work
at the Kansas City Horse Show, and he has hopes of
repeating the performance at St. Louis next week.
Col. W. V. Galbraith, general manager of the horse
show, got a letter from the trick mule’s owner
last week. The letter told about all the wonderful
things Zip could do--and he can, too--and said if
the colonel could find a place for him, please to
let Henry know at once, as it’s one hundred miles
from Bedford to Kansas City, and it would take some
little time to ride. The boy, having no money to
spend on railroad fare, proposed to ride his mule
to Kansas City. The colonel was so pleased by the
boy’s enterprise that he sent him word to come and
enclosed money to bring Zip by railroad. Of course,
strictly speaking, a mule doesn’t belong in a horse
show, but Colonel Galbraith figured that a trick
mule named Zip was too good a bet to overlook.
The boy started training his mule five years ago,
when he was 13 years old and Zip was 3. Henry lived
on a farm and he had no brothers and sisters. So
he made a pet of Zip, and taught him all sorts of
tricks. Then he began showing him at county fairs
and saving the money that he got to spend for
education. One of these days he hopes to be as well
educated for a boy as Zip is for a mule. And if
they gave degrees to mules, Zip would certainly be
a Ph.D.
Zip is also quite a teacher. He has taught this
country boy a philosophy of life.
“You have to be patient--patient and kind,” Henry
said yesterday. “The first thing I ever taught Zip
took me two hours and a half. I wanted to see if
I could make him lie down. I grabbed his opposite
foreleg and held it up. I just had to tire him out,
but at last he keeled over. Next day he did it in
two minutes. He had learned what I wanted. It was
easy after that.”
Henry had never seen a trick mule, but he began
thinking of other tricks. With infinite patience he
showed Zip what was wanted.
“Then he did it because he loved me,” said the boy
simply.
Henry never uses a whip to teach Zip tricks. He
feeds him sugar, and is just kind to him and works
with him and is patient. Now he learns faster
than ever. You can teach an old mule new tricks,
according to Henry.
INDEX TO NEWS STORIES
Accident, automobile, 23, 24.
Accident, drowning, 39, 40, 42.
Accident, fall from scaffold, 39.
Accident, humorous treatment of, 25.
Accident, marine, 32, 34, 35.
Accident, mine, 36, 38.
Accident, pathetic treatment of, 25.
Accident, railroad, 29, 30, 31.
Accident, shooting, 42.
Accident, storm, 35, 196.
Accident, subway, 26.
Accidents, 22-44.
Addresses, 127-131.
Adoption of child, 100.
Agricultural fair, 143.
Alumnae meeting, 228.
Animal stories, 19, 256-259.
Anniversary, church celebration of, 228.
Arrest for embezzlement, 50.
Arrest for forgery, 49.
Arrest for hold-up, 55, 56, 57.
Arrest for intoxication, 48.
Arrest for murder, 59, 65.
Arrest for passing worthless checks, 50.
Arrest for swindle, 49.
Arrest, humorous treatment of, 48.
Arrest, pathetic treatment of, 57.
“Asleep at the switch,” 48.
Assignment in bankruptcy, 96.
Attorney general, opinion of, 90.
Automobile bandits, 55.
Automobile collision, 23, 24.
Automobile drivers’ strike, 187.
Automobile ordinance, violation of, 78.
Automobile parade, 149, 150.
Automobile show, opening of, 142.
Bandit, automobile, 55.
Bandit, pathetic story of, 57.
Bandit, street car, 57.
Bankruptcy case, 95, 96.
Banquet, 157.
Baseball, 212-216.
Baseball game, humorous treatment of, 215.
Bazaar, charity, 230.
Bonds, sale of municipal, 245.
_Boston Advertiser_, story from, 25.
_Boston Globe_, story from, 212.
_Boston Herald_, stories from, 23, 40, 143, 171, 246.
_Boston Journal_, story from, 251.
_Boston Post_, story from, 212.
_Boston Transcript_, stories from, 16, 18, 34, 138, 192,
219, 224, 239, 240, 244, 247.
_Boston Traveler_, story from, 29.
Bridge party, 229.
_Brooklyn Eagle_, stories from, 42, 88.
Building of new hotel, 244.
Burglary, 54.
Burglary, human interest treatment of, 54.
Business merger, 242.
Card party, 228, 229.
Carnegie, Andrew, toast by, at banquet, 157.
Cat, death of, 258.
Cathedral service, anniversary, 160.
Charity bazaar, 230.
_Chicago Daily News_, stories from, 68, 136.
_Chicago Evening Post_, stories from, 102, 226, 228, 229.
_Chicago Herald_, stories from, 47, 54, 55, 66, 91, 95, 105,
115, 120, 222, 223, 227, 228, 229, 234, 236, 258.
_Chicago Inter Ocean_, stories from, 67, 108, 109, 171, 222, 258.
_Chicago Record-Herald_, stories from, 37, 146, 184.
_Chicago Tribune_, stories from, 19, 39, 42, 73, 105, 130, 137,
138, 164, 187, 188, 244, 246.
Children, news stories of, 25, 26, 39, 41, 42, 43, 47, 54, 154,
158, 159, 250.
Children’s court, 79.
Chinese girls in court, 79.
_Christian Science Monitor_, stories from, 217, 235.
Christmas dinner, family reunion at, 227.
Christmas in children’s hospital, 154.
Christmas pantomime, 155.
Christmas, preparations for celebrating, 152.
Church, anniversary celebration in, 160.
City bonds, sale of, 245.
City council meeting, 117.
College alumnae meeting, 228.
College class day, 166.
College commencement, 162-166.
College crew prospects, 216.
College crew races, 217.
College fraternity dinner, 226.
College glee club, entertainment for, 229.
Collision, automobile, 23, 24.
Collision, railroad, 30, 31.
Collision, ships in, 34.
Colorado miners’ strike, 188.
Colorado miners’ strike, investigation of, 108.
Commencement exercises, college, 162-166.
Common council meeting, 117.
Conventions, 119-123.
Convict, capture of escaped, 67.
Convict, pathetic story of escaped, 68.
Council, meeting of city, 117.
Counterfeiter, human interest story of, 83.
County fair, 143.
Court decisions, 88, 89, 90.
Court, pathetic story of, 78.
Court, police, 78.
Courts, civil, 88-105.
Courts, criminal, 81-87.
Courtship, unusual, 221, 222.
Crew, prospects of college, 216.
Crew races, college, 217.
Dancing parties, 226, 227, 228.
Deaths, 171-177.
Decision, court, 88, 89, 90.
Decoration Day parade, 151.
Defalcation of bank clerk, 51.
Delinquency of young girl, 66.
_Detroit News_, stories from, 83, 94.
Dinner parties, 226, 227.
Disorderly conduct, arrest for, 58.
Divers, death of, in ship’s hold, 32.
Dividend, railroad company’s, 246.
Divorce suit, 93, 94.
Docks, stories from, 250-254.
Dog, death of, 258.
Drowning, 39-42, 196.
_Duluth Herald_, stories from, 87, 89.
Easter, 193.
Eclipse of sun, 197.
Elections, 179-184.
Election day, 180.
Election, forecast of, 179.
Election, returns of city, 183.
Election, returns of state, 182, 183.
Elopement, 223.
Embezzlement, 51.
Engagement, announcement of, 226.
Entertainment, Christmas, in hospital, 154.
Entertainment, Christmas pantomime, 153.
Entertainment for charity, 230.
Entertainment in children’s hospital, 158.
Entertainment, lawn fête, 159.
Entertainment, school, 158.
Exhibitions, 142.
Explosion, cause of fire, 16, 19.
Explosion in fireworks plant, 19.
Explosion in mine, 36.
Explosion in subway, 26.
Explosion in tannery, 16.
Failure, commercial, 95, 96.
Fair, agricultural, 143.
Fall from scaffold, 39.
Fête, lawn, 159.
Fight on elevated train, 58.
Fight on wagon, 78.
Financial news, 245, 246.
Fire, fatal, in factory, 19.
Fire, fatal, in lodging house, 21.
Fire, fatal, in tenement, 21.
Fire in university building, 17.
Fire, investigation of cause of, 18, 21, 22.
Fires, 16-22.
Football, 202-212.
Football game, 205, 207.
Football game, analysis of, 209.
Football game, day of, 202, 203.
Forgery, 49, 50, 78.
Forgery, pathetic treatment of, 78.
Golf match, 219.
Hearing before investigating committee, 108, 110.
Hearing in investigation, pathetic treatment of, 110.
Hearing on city ordinance, 112, 113, 115.
Hearing on ordinance, humorous treatment of, 113.
Highway robbery, 55.
Hippopotamus, story of, 257.
Hold-up, 55, 56, 57.
Hospital, Christmas in children’s, 154.
Hospital, entertainment in children’s, 158.
Hospital, surgical operation in, 170.
Hotel, new, 244.
Hotel story, humorous, 249.
Humorous stories, 25, 47, 48, 55, 57, 58, 78, 91, 92, 113, 121,
122, 142, 150, 156, 157, 198, 215, 222, 249, 250, 252.
Illness, 168.
Indian, dying, 169.
_Indianapolis News_, stories from, 133, 134.
Insanity case in court, 91.
Inspection, medical, of schools, 236.
Interview with educator, 134.
Interview with official, 133.
Interview with opera singer, 136.
Interview with woman philanthropist, 135.
Interviews, 133-137.
Interviews, group of, 137.
Investigation, congressional, of strike, 108.
Investigation of drowning, 40.
Investigation of fire, 18, 21, 22.
Investigation of strike, 108, 110.
Investigation, pathetic treatment of, 110.
Jubilee service in cathedral, 160.
Juvenile delinquency, 66.
_Kansas City Star_, stories from, 38, 49, 51, 56, 57, 60, 62, 65,
66, 78, 100, 127, 130, 135, 168, 172, 218, 227, 228, 235, 259.
_Kansas City Times_, stories from, 159, 171.
Labor difficulties and strikes, 186-190.
Larceny, conviction for, 87.
Law suit, humorous treatment of, 92.
Lawn fête, 159.
Lawrence, Mass., textile strike at, 190.
Lecture, 131.
Legislature, meeting of state, 116.
Library, public, 237.
_Los Angeles Times_, story from, 57.
Luncheon, 228.
_Madison Democrat_, stories from, 121, 129.
Mann Act, violation of, 66.
Manual training school, opening of, 234.
Manufacturing, new method in, 243.
Marine news stories, 32, 34, 35, 250, 251, 252, 254.
Market, opening of, 145.
Market prices, retail, 246, 247.
Mawson, Sir Douglas, lecture by, 131.
Medical inspection in schools, 236.
Meeting of city council, 117.
Meeting of Friends, 123.
Meeting of old clothes men, 122.
Meeting of safety council, 120.
Meeting of state legislature, 116.
Meetings, 116-123.
Memorial Day parade, 151.
Merger of business concerns, 242.
_Milwaukee Daily News_, stories from, 31, 43.
_Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin_, stories from, 43, 55, 156.
_Milwaukee Free Press_, stories from, 110, 137, 168.
_Milwaukee Journal_, stories from, 29, 44.
_Milwaukee Sentinel_, stories from, 30, 73, 78, 82, 170, 237, 242.
Mine explosion, 36, 38.
Miners, attempt to rescue, 38.
Miners, strike of, 188.
Mirage, 250.
Mule, trick, 259.
Municipal bonds, sale of, 245.
Municipal equipment, new, 240.
Municipal improvements, 239.
Murder, constructive treatment of, 60, 62, 63, 65.
Murder, pathetic treatment of, 63, 65.
Murder trial, 84.
Murders, 58-66.
Museum, public, 238.
Musicale, 228.
Nelson, William Rockhill, death of, 176.
_New York Evening Mail_, stories from, 70, 158.
_New York Evening Post_, stories from, 22, 74, 123, 138, 142, 147,
160, 162, 165, 174, 177, 187, 195, 202, 203, 209, 254.
_New York Evening Telegram_, story from, 93.
_New York Globe_, stories from, 236, 249.
_New York Herald_, stories from, 103, 112, 131, 149, 186, 194, 225,
227, 230, 241, 249.
_New York Sun_, stories from, 33, 61, 63, 79, 84, 92, 100, 122, 166,
250, 252.
_New York Times_, stories from, 17, 21, 26, 35, 39, 48, 72, 96, 98,
113, 119, 128, 142, 145, 151, 155, 158, 173, 180, 183, 190, 196,
215, 216, 224, 226, 230, 238, 250.
_New York Tribune_, stories from, 24, 32, 49, 59.
_New York World_, stories from, 21, 41, 48, 58, 61, 71, 81, 99, 150,
157, 182, 233, 256, 257.
Obituaries, 172-177.
Obituary of college dean, 177.
Obituary of editor, 176.
Obituary of fireman, 172.
Obituary of Italian undertaker, 174.
Obituary of politician, 173.
Obituary of William Rockhill Nelson, 176.
_Ohio State Journal_, story from, 121.
Old clothes men, meeting of, 117.
Operation, surgical, 170.
Opinion of attorney general, 90.
Ordinance, hearing on, 112, 113, 115.
Ordinance introduced in city council meeting, 117.
Ordinance, opposition to proposed, 118.
Pantomime, Christmas, 154.
Parade, automobile, 149, 150.
Parade, Memorial Day, 151.
Parties, social, 227-229.
Patent case, award in, 98.
Pathetic news stories, 25, 38, 42, 57, 63, 65, 68, 72, 73, 78,
110, 168.
Penitentiary convict, escaped, 67, 68.
_Philadelphia Inquirer_, story from, 170.
_Philadelphia Ledger_, stories from, 35, 117, 118, 176, 202, 225,
228, 229, 244.
_Philadelphia Telegraph_, story from, 257.
Police court case, 78.
Police news stories, 47-74.
Poultry show, opening of, 142.
Probate court case, 100, 104, 105.
_Providence Journal_, story from, 154.
Railroad accidents, 29-31.
Railroad company declares dividend, 246.
Railroad wreck, fatal, 30, 31.
Railroad’s safety campaign, 241.
Real estate transactions, 244.
Receivership proceedings, 95.
Regatta of college crews, 217.
Report of federal bureau, 138.
Report of federal official, 139.
Report of scientist, 138.
Rescue of drowning man, 41.
Robbery by automobile bandits, 55.
Robbery, highway, 55.
Robbery, hold-up, 56, 57.
Robbery, pathetic treatment of, 57.
Robbery, story of, told in court, 82.
Rowing, college crew races, 217.
Rowing, prospects of college crew, 216.
Runaway boy, 47.
Runaway boy in court, 81.
Runaway, heroism of policeman in, 22.
Runaway, humorous treatment of, 25.
Safety campaign by railroad, 241.
Safety council meeting, 120.
Sailor, story of, 250.
_St. Louis Globe-Democrat_, stories from, 131, 183.
_St. Louis Post Dispatch_, story from, 116.
_San Francisco Chronicle_, stories from, 54, 90, 139.
_San Francisco Examiner_, stories from, 25, 36, 250.
School entertainment, 158.
School for backward children, 235.
School, new manual training, 234.
School, new vocational, 234.
Schools, 233-236.
Schools, medical inspection in, 236.
Schools, new method of spelling in, 134.
Schools, opening of new, 234.
Schools, opening of public, 233.
Schools, reading in, 235.
Schools, reading tests in, 236.
Search for lost child, 43.
Search for lost treasure, 252.
Separation, suit for, 93.
Sermon, 160.
Ship battered by gale, 35.
Ship, divers die in hold of, 32.
Ship news stories, 32, 34, 35, 250, 251, 252, 254.
Ships, collision of, 34.
Shipwreck, 35.
Shooting accident, 42.
Shooting, murders by, 58-66.
Shows, automobile, poultry, etc., 142.
Snow storm, 193.
Speeches, 127-130.
Sporting news, 200-220.
Sporting news, baseball, 212-216.
Sporting news, football, 202-212.
Sporting news, golf match, 219.
Sporting news, rowing, 216, 217.
Sporting news, tennis match, 218.
Spring, first day of, 194.
_Springfield Republican_, stories from, 104, 172, 179, 193,
205, 207, 240, 248.
Squirrel in city hall park, 256.
Statue, unveiling of, 147.
Storm batters fishing vessel, 35.
Storm causes shipwreck, 35.
Storm damages building, 196.
Storm, snow, 193.
Storm, wind, 196.
Stowaway, 251.
Street car accident, 24, 25.
Street car bandit, pathetic story of, 57.
Street car collision with automobile, 24.
Street car kills boy, 25.
Street improvements, 240.
Strike at Lawrence, Mass., 190.
Strike, congressional investigation of, 108.
Strike, investigation of, 110.
Strike of Colorado miners, 188.
Strike of taxicab drivers, 187.
Strike of textile workers, 190.
Strike of wholesale grocers’ employes, 187.
Strike, possibility of, 186.
Strikes, 186-190.
Subway, accident in, 26.
Subway, human interest story of, 250.
Suicide attempted by schoolgirl, 73.
Suicide, cause of attempted, 74.
Suicide of business man, 70.
Suicide of old couple, 71.
Suicide of seamstress, 73.
Suicide, pathetic treatment of, 72, 73.
Suicides, 70-74.
Suit at law, humorous treatment of, 92.
Supreme court decision, 88, 89, 90.
Supreme court decision, human interest treatment of, 89.
Surgical operation, 70.
Swindle, 49.
Taxicab drivers’ strike, 187.
Tennis match, 218.
Theatre parties, 228.
Toast at banquet, 157.
_Topeka Capital_, stories from, 50, 226.
Train derailed, 29.
Train wreck, fatal, 30, 31.
Trick mule, 259.
Tunnel, opening of, 146.
University building destroyed by fire, 17.
University class day, 166.
University commencement, 162-166.
Unveiling of statue, 147.
Vocational school, opening of, 234.
Vote, forecast of state, 179.
Vote on state-wide prohibition, 184.
Voting, election day, 180.
_Washington Herald_, story from, 197.
_Washington Post_, story from, 198.
_Washington Times_, story from, 152.
Wayward girl, 66.
Weather, 192-199.
Weather, cold summer, 195.
Weather, first winter, 192.
Weather, high wind, 196.
Weather, snow storm, 193.
Weather, spring, 194.
Wedding, elopement, 223.
Wedding of cowboy, 222.
Wedding of septuagenarians, 223.
Wedding, result of unusual romance, 222.
Weddings, 221-226.
Wharves, stories from, 250-254.
Will admitted to probate, 100, 104.
Will, suit to break, 103.
Wilson, speech by President, 128, 130.
Wind, accidents due to, 196.
Winter weather, 192, 193.
_Wisconsin State Journal_, story from, 90.
Zoo story, 257.
Transcriber’s Note:
While the width of the articles given within is narrower than regular
text in this ebook, the column width as printed in the original
publication has not been retained.
Punctuation has been standardised. Alternative spelling and variations
in hyphenation, and punctuation have been retained as in the original
publication except as follows:
Page 29
surpervising engineer is _changed to_
supervising engineer is
Page 34
before Coronor Acritelli _changed to_
before Coroner Acritelli
Page 39
susbcriptions to pay the men _changed to_
subscriptions to pay the men
Page 43
neighborhoood for a time _changed to_
neighborhood for a time
Page 53
at the insistance of the man _changed to_
at the insistence of the man
Page 118
Philadephia Ledger _changed to_
Philadelphia Ledger
Page 229
DEBUTANTE’S PARTY _changed to_
DÉBUTANTE’S PARTY
Page 248
and canteloupes 8 to 10 _changed to_
and cantaloupes 8 to 10
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Type of News Writing" ***
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