Fort Mill times. (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, February 03, 1910, Image 3
WITNESSES ROW
Want Wads Pass b Hearing Oi Postal
Rale Increase
CHARGE OF GRAFT MADE
>
L 8epraMBUUv? of Agriculture
^ Press League Testifies Before the
I House Committee in Wasliiiyton.
Things Wax Warm n*.vl *
- - - ... U ,.m\
8plrite<l imhcusoiuu n<u >?...
"The American Republic can't
stand forever with this sent of
thing being run in the people's ears
?these anarchistic statements,"
angrily declared Representative
Smith of California Friday, adiress
ing Herbert Myrick, representative
of the Agricultural Press League, a
witness before the house committee
in Washington on postoffice* and
post roads at its hearing on the subject
of increasing the postal rate on
second-class mall matter. He was
referring to an editorial which Mr
Myrick acknowledged came from
one of the publications which he
represented.
"I protest that the farmers ot
this country are not anarchists and
I protest that I am not a traitor,"
' hotly retorted Mr. Myrick, who
shortly before had been further alluded
to as being responsible fop
traitorous utterances.
Asked by Chairman Weeks if he
had been canvassing the country with
circulars and editorials in an en
deavor to defeat the proposed raise
for rates on second-class matter,
Mr. Myrick gave an affirmative response.
Mr. Weeks then produced
several of the circulars and editorials
and Mr. Myri^'r acknowledged
authorship of them. They were entitled
"A Fresh Attack Upon Liberty,"
"Still Another Tax," and "New
n,"vM oriri VpprIi Robbery."
"Are these your conclusions? Do
you think there is any robbery?"
asked Representative Smith of California.
"I saw that the postmaster general
had reported that it cost 9 cents
a pound to carry second-class mat
ter while the government receives
but 1 cent a pound. If the govern
ment intended to raise it to nine
cents, It would bonistitute robbery,
In my opinion," replied Mr. Myrlck
"Your editorial refers to fresh
robbery. Do you mean that there
have been other robberies?" asked
Mr. Smith.
"Some people," answered the wit.
ness, "consider the tariff a robbery,
and if this raise in rates occurred,
ft would be a fresh robbery."
Mr. Smith replied by saying that
there was no Intention of raising the
postal rate to 9 cents, but merely
enough to make up the $17,000,000
{x>Btal deficit.
One of the editorials referred to
"scheming" and "graft" going ou in
congress in connection with the proposed
increase and Messrs. Weeks
Smith and Fassett, members of the
committee waxed angry over these
characterizations.
Mr. Myrlck stated that ho referred
to the relations of the railroads
to the government In the carrying of
mail, and did not intend to refleel
upon the members of the committee.
"Don't you use the word "Robbery"
to mean something wicked?"
Interjected Mr. Smith. "Didn't you
mean a slur upon congress?"
"No." said Mr. Myrlck.
"That is the impression you convey,"
said Mr. Smith.
"I don't think so," answered the
witness.
"Then you think the word 'Robbery'
is a polite form for criticism
I suppose," continued the California
member.
"I merely had reference to the pro
posed heavy increase in the posta1
rate," replied Mr. Myrlck.
Mr. Smith said that he was gettlnr
a large number of letters speaking ol
anarchy and giving the impressior
of hatred against the Institutions ol
the country. He declared such ideal
were fostered by the editorials ir
question and others like them and
that they constituted treason.
Mr. Myrlck hotly denied that tb:
farmers of the country were anar
chists or that he himself was guilt)
of treason.
Representative Murdoch of Kan
sas, another member of the commit
tee. called attention to the fact thai
the government was paying $50,00(
a year for carrying the mails acros
en old bridge at St. Louis, Mo., wher
It might he carried for a much small
er sum across a new bridge whicl
was now receiving only a part of th
business.
"I think that is what you mea'
by your charge of graft, isn't it?'
said he, addressing Mr. Myrick.
"That's It, exactly," said Mr. My
rick.
Chairman Weeks then stated tha
a sub-committee engaged In draf'
lng the postofflce appropriation bi1
bad discovered this evil and woul
correct it. It was the only one c
the kind they found, he said.
They are talking of Mr. Rooseve
for speaker of the house. Can li
be more of a speaker than he wi
while president?
J
MANY DIE IN WRECK
OF RAILWAY TRAIN NEAR LONDON,
ENGLAND, SUNDAY.
)
Two TWrd Class Can and Pullman
of Speeding Train Crash Into Station
at Stoat's Nest.
One of the most serioas railway accidents
in England since the disaster
to the steamer train at Salisbury, in
July, 1908, when many Americans
lost their lives, occurred at Stoals
Nest near London on the London and
Brighton railway Sunday afternoon.
Eight dead and about thirty injured
were taken from the wreck.
Two third class cars and Pullman
of a train from Brighton, traveling at
a speed of about 40 miles an hour,
crashed into the station. The third
class cars were completely wrecked
and a part of the building was demolished.
The Pullman was thrown
violently into the air but was comparatively
little damaged. Its nas
sengers escaped with minor injuries.
One account says that the wreck
was due to the derailment of a portion
of the train and another that it
was due to the breaking of the coupling
between the first and Becond
cars. The two third class cars reared
almost on their ends and toppled over
on the platform, bringing down a
mass of iron girders and timbers
from the station, with a tremendous
crash.
Doctors, ambulance detatchments
and boy scouts with stretchers soon
appeared. The critically injured were
taken to a local hospital while the
others were carried to Londan. Several
of the injured will die, as they
are very seriously hurt. A rigid investigation
will be made into the
cause of the wreck. Such accidents
occur very seldom in England.
STRIKES IlliOW FOR OLEO.
Atlanta Health Oominittee Urges
Congress to ltcpcal Tax.
Declaring the tax of ten cents
per pound on oleomagarlne to bo
largely responsible for the Increased
cost of living, thj Atlanta Chamber
of Commerce lyalth committee a
few days ago adopted a resolution
memorializing congress to repeal the
tax. The resolution Bets forth that
the tax is "class legislation, which
.lanrluao V? ~ ? *
vivi'UfCO Uiu I'CUCIftl ^U> CI unit.'lit UI
$2,000,000 revenue, while it shuts
out of the market a wholesome product,
made of milk, cotton oil and
beef fat, which otherwise would be
in reach of the masses."
The effect of this tux, it is concluded
has greatly Increased the
price of butter.
It is announced that in a letter to
the Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Harvoy
W. Wiley, chief chemist of the
Federal government, states that the
repeal of the tax on oleomargarine
would in no way lnterefre with
the enforcement of the pure food
laws, adding that he considered
oleomargarine a wholesome product.
*
ANSEL SUSPENDS MAGISTRATE.
I>. Lester Gault Confesses to Bet
ting on Game of Chance.
Governor Ansel Friday suspendel
Magistrate D. Lester Gault of Helton,
Union county, "for betting a fe*>
times on a game of chance" last
Fourth of July, In spite of splendi?l
affidavits from leading people ol
Union county that Mr. Gault is 1
- sober and industrious man and z
conscientious and efficient magistrate
' and that they had never heaid of hn
gambling. Gault's own affidavit
the Governor sadly discovers, co j
fesses that "he did bet a few times,*
t ind this being a violation of the law
the Governor decapitated him.
The affidavits in Mr. Gault's favo
! are from the mayor of his horn*
town, J. W. Smith; H. C. Little, elgh
: years a member of the legislatur.
> from Union county; J. H. Bartles
i county treasurer; J. G. I^ong, sherlfT
' W. W. Johnson. Judge of probate. '
1 Little Hopes for Recovery.
1 A dispatch from Hryson City, N
C., hold little hopes for the recov
ery of Barrett Banks, whose eye:
were blown out in a dynamite ex
plosion at the court house then
a few days ago. Banks arouse*
enough to say he did not knov
t whether he or Conley were to blame
j Register of Deeds Francis' skull 1
fractured and his hearing perma
nently Injured, but h? has a flghtin:
' chance. The damage to the cour
house is estimated at $5,000.
I _
Wrestler Killed.
, A dispatch from Bluefleld, W. Va
? says Walter Lewis shot and fatal)
wounded Oeorge Hall, in Wise cour
.. tv, a few days ago. Lewis is 1
jail. The men wrestled to settl
t a dispute. Lewis 'lost and late
.. shot Hall in the arm and abdomen.
II * *
j Five Men Killed.
?f A special from Port Llmon. C. II
reports the death of five men and tt
Injury of two others at the Plani
It Cebedilla mine near Port Limon c
ie January 12. The premature expl
is "Inn of dynamite was responsible f<
the tragedy.
TM t
> . ; ' WOMAN
ROASTED
]
Tied Hard aid Fast aad Gagged aid Pit
m a Ligkted Gas Stare
? \
REALLY BURNED ALIVE
The Cruel Fate That Overtook Mrs.
Alice Van Zandt at Clncinnatti on
Saturday Morning.?Her Husband
and Six Associates Are Arrested
Charged With the Awful Crime.
Bound and gagged the body of Mrs.
Alice Van Zandt. burned to a crisp,
was found Satlirdnv mnm I T? tr Irlnor nn
top of the gas stove in her kitchen at ,
Cinclnnattl. The woman had met her
death while her three young children '
were playing, .unconscious of the
tragedy, in an adjoining room.
Jesse A. Van Zandt, the murdered
woman's husband, is being held as a
witness by the police. The man admits
that he quarrelled with his wife
all Friday night and up until he
left the house Saturday morning, an
hourH he claims before the discovery
of the murder.
According to the coroner, Mrs. Van
Zandt was first chocked into unconsciousness,
then bou.i-* and gagged
with strips torn from a lace curtain
and placed across the stove with her
head in the flames of the burner. The
horror of the crime is increased by
the coroner's statement that the wohan
must have recovered consciousness
before her death.
When found all the clothes had
been burned ofT the body and the
flesh charred to cinders. The police
discovered late Saturday evening that
Van Zandt had been paying marked
attentions to a young girl for some
time. The father of this girl had
protested strongly against the daughter's
conduct and had Anally brought
her before a police magistrate who
ordered he committed to the house of
refuge. On her father's recommendations,
however, she was sent instead
to a convent.
Charles Berry, Edward Rattman,
Patrick Langen, Ada Friendship, Mrs
Mary Ford, and the latter's fourteenyear-old
daughter, Lillle Ford, were
also arrested.
The police assert they have information
that Jesse Van Zandt, husband
of the murdered woman, who is
being held on suspicion, spent considerable
time recently in the house
of the persons arrested, in company
with Agnes Berry, sister of one of the
men arrested, and t h at It Is believed
their testimony will develop something
on which a formal charge
against Van Zandt can be based.
Van Zandt spent the day in a cell
and continued to assert his Innocence.
DETECTIVE BO YE It PASSES.
Succumbs to Wound Indicted by Negro
Car Thief in Columbia.
Southern Railway Detective S. H.
Boyer, who was shot through the
lung by one of three negro car
( thieves whom he surprised at work
. in the Royster yards near Columbia,
, died Friday morning at the Colum.
bia hospital.
I The sheriff and his deputies apf
parently have little hope of ever capt
turing the negroes, and the police
l are completely in the dark. From
, the best information obtainable the
, negroes are probably making their
way through "North Carolina on their
. way to the North or West.
The officers are looking for Eugene
Davis, Ben Little and Dave Richardson.
Negroes fitting their descrip
tions were taken aboard the Coast
* Line train going out of Columbia
* the morning of the shooting . They
3 got off at Easter, in Richland county.
Thursday the same negroes. Sheriff
Hood of Fairfield, is confident, ap,
peared at the home of L. R. Free,
in the Ruckhead section of Fairfield
county. Sheriff Hood at once notified
all his county officers and also
* those of Chester to De on the lookout
for the negroes. *
3 _
B Two Killed in Wreck.
1 Two pasengers were killed in s
, rear end collision of two westbound
,, Lake Shore trains at Ashtabula. Ohio,
3 early Sunday. Extra train. No. 19.
New York to Chicago, was struck by
? train No. 21, and only the fact that
t the fast train was proceeding under
? reduced speed prevented a serious accident.
Couldn't Stand f^ect ure.
y Because his wife chided him. Bank
i- Burrow, a mechanic, fired a bullet in
n to his brain on the porch of hl3 ho^'e
l? at Memphis, Tenn., late Saturday.
>? The suicide followed a struggle w?*l,
his wife and two small children for
possesion of the weapon.
><t Suspended for Betting.
?o Magistrate D. L. ater Gault, of Belts
ton. Union county, was suspended foi
>n "betting a few times on a game o!
o- chance." hy the Governor on las'
!>r Saturday. The betting was done ot
the last Fourth of July. ?
WORK OF BOLD THUGS
HIGHWAYMEN SANDBAGED AND
ROBBED THREE CITIZENS.
Victims Held Up Separately sad la
Different Sections, But Acts Are
Work of One Band.
The boldest robber/ in the history
>f Goldsboro, N. C., occurred Saturlay
night when three men were Bandlagged
by several masked men. who
rnlipvpH thorn of tKol?
, _ v? vuvii naiwuco, 111Uli*
jy and everything else of value.
Each of the victims was held up
jeperately In different parts of the
:Ity. Mr. Phil Howell, a prosperous
farmer of the county, was the heaviest
loser, his lo&s being $500 and he
was badly bruised about the head
and otherwise severely used by the
handitB. Mr. Howell states that he
was on his way home and was passing
through the southern portion of the
city, when several masked men suddenly
approached In his path and demanded
that he throw up his hands,
and that before he could comply with
the request, one of te highwaymen
struck him a blow behind his head
which rendered him unconscious and
when he revived he fov nd that he
had been robbed of everytvng of value.
The second hold-up was reported
from the northern part of the city,
when a negro man was found in an
unconscious condition by a party who
happened to see him lying in the gully
and when he regained consciousness
he told about the same story as
Mr. Howell?that he had been sandbagged
by a crowd of masked men
and robbed of his valuables.
The third holdup .was reported
from near the Union Station, but at
this time particulars are meagre.
It is thought by the police that
the robberies were committed by the
same band, who were beyond a doubt
professionals and the boldest bunch
of crooks that ever operated in that
city. The robberies have caused a
good deal of excitement and the entire
police force Is now on the trail
of the robbers.
"WIDOW'* FOOLEI) A WIDOWER.
She Told Him She Was in "Love"
miu fnrurea
Detectives in the employ of A. E.
King, a retired business man in
Lincoln, Neb., are seeking to make
an arrest among the social set of
Kansas City, Kan., as the result of
a peculiar love affair. It appears
the woman in tue case represented
herself as a widow, when in fact
she is married and has a husband
living. Mr. King alleges she told
him that she was about to receive
a large amount of cash from New
York and secured money to the
amount of $20,000 on this pretense.
Later she declared the money was
only a loan and that the cash had
been spent. She is charged with obtaining
money under false pretense
and may be prosecuted. At present
she has two motor cars and lives in
a fine home with expensive furnishings.
MAIL CARRIER ROKREI).
Held 1'p by Highway men and Relieved
of Valuables.
The star route mall carrier from
Dobson to Mouut Airy, N. C., was
held up recently by three unknown
negroes and robbed of all his personal
effects, consisting of a watch and
$17. The hold-up occurred just outsite
the city limits of Mount Airy in
a dense wood and nearly frightened
the mail carrier to death. When at
the forks of the road the three negroes
explained to the carrier that
he would have to change his usual
route on account of a bridge being
unsafe, and this necessitated his iaking
the road that leads through the
woods. The negroes held a gun in
his face, dragging him from his buggy
and relieving him of his watch and
money.
The Smallest Mao.
A message from Putnam, Conn.,
says Reuben Steere, whom Darnum,
the circus magnate, called the smallest
man in the world, is dying of
pneumonia at his home near there.
He is now seventy-two vears old.
Steere weights fifty-five pounds, and
Is forty-seven Inches tall. Ho married
Miss Annie \lyer, another Lilliputian,
In 1887.
Premier Mobbed.
Following the election of Premier
Asquith, the premier waB mobbed
in London by militant suffragettes.
The women in a body charged time
after time in their attempts to reach
the minister and there were several
lively skirmishes with the police. Mr
Asquith was conveyed to a place ol
afety.
Kngine Hursts, Two Killed.
Two men were killed and two, per
haps fatally scalded when the en
gine pulling the westbound Denve
f and Rio Grande freight *raln, e*
t ploded on Sunday a mile and a hal
i east of Laveta, the first, station wes
* of Walsenburg, Col.
*
1
DIED IN AMINE
One Hundred Lives Snuffed Out By a
Terrific Eiplesiea
AT PRIMER, COLORADO
The Awful Disaster la Said to be the
Worst that Has Ever Happened in
the History of Weetera Coal Mining
and Has Cast Gloom Over the
Surrounding Section.
A dispatch from Primero, Col.,
says more than a hundred men arc
believed to have been killed by a
terrific explosion In the Primero mine
of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company
at 4:30 Monday afternoon.
Eight bodies have been recovered
u..u .covuc i>ai ui-s ai e iiiaKing nesperate
efforts to reach the Interior
workings cut off from the outside by
the caving of the main shaft.
Three men were killed at the
mouth of the mine slope by the force
of the explosion.
Tloth fans with which the mine is
equipped were shattered and it was
impossible to enter the mine until
they were repaired.
As soon as the fans were repaired
General Superintendent J. F. Thompson
and a rescue party entered by the
main air shaft, but they wore unable
to reach the main shaft, which is
completely blocked. The party returned
to the surface after securing
five bodies, which were badly burned.
A party equipped with oxygen helmets
replaced this party, the workings
were reached through an air
shaft and they are now searching
for more bodies/
Miners were rushed to Prlmero
from Trinidad, Segundo, Starkville,
Sopris and Coperville, and are laboring
frantically to clear away the
main shaft, relieving each other every
few minutes. It is impossible to
determine how far the main shaft
has caved, and it may be days before
the shaft is cleared and the total
death list known.
There is little hope that any of the
men in the mine are alive. The company
clerk reports that 79 safety
lamps are missing, and it is sure that
that number of men are entombed.
Many of the miners, however, say
that 150 men are missing.
Most of the men are Slavs and
Hungarians. Pit lloss Wilheim is
known to be among the missing..
The camp is a scene of indescribable
horror. While every ablehodied
man is taking his turn with pick and
shovel to clear the shaft, the women
and children, kept back by ropes,
have gathered about the shaft, weeping
and calling wildly upon their
loved ones, who have not been found.
At ton nVlnrlr gxm
w muuua/ IIIteen
bodies had been recovered from
one of the main slopes. The bodies
were literally blown to pieces and
were unrecognizable.
Officials of the company state that
the disaster Is the worst in the htstory
of the coal mining in the WeBt.
A similar explosion, In which 20
were killed, occurred In the same
property January 23, 1907.
Superintendent of the Wooten
Mines, and J. E. Mlnley, mine inspector,
will head another rescue
party, as soon as batteries for electric
lights arrive by special train.
Members of the special rescue party
say that the effect of the explosion
underground is Indescrilmble. The
bodies recovered were horribly burned
and unrecognizable. One body
wus impaled on broken timbers.
BLACK HANI) GANG SENTENCE I).
Leader Gets Sixteen Years and Others
from Two to Ten Years.
A dispatch from Toledo, Ohio, says
all fourteen of the Sicilians, charged
with a "Black Hand" conspiracy,
were found guilty by a jury Saturday.
Salvotore Lima, the leader, was
sentenced to sixteen years imprisonment.
Agostlc Marflsi, Vincenzo
Argi and Salvotore Rizr.o were granted
new trials and the others were
sentenced from two to ten years.
Dentil Had to Steal Him.
Death in a violent form was!
fought off four times by Joseph Roevalle,
of Connersville, Ind., during his
61 years of life, only to find him
napping, this week, when he was
found dead in bed. When a young
man he fell on a pitchfork, each
prong entering his liody. His skull
was fractured In a fight and in his
last accident be was run down by a
train. *
Must Have R*vn Crazy.
i At Macon, Ga., after an attempt to
i kill his brido with a pistol, Attus
I Jackson, aged 21, stabbed himself
. with a pocket knife and Inflicted Int
juries, which will probably prove fatnl.
Mrs. Jackson was shot through
the hand as she struck the weapon
from her husband's handr.
Black Hands at Work.
r A bomb Sunday blew out the fronl
- of Francisco Dalafarno's grocery !r
f Queens, N. Y. No one was Injured
t The police say Delafarnos refused tc
* pay blackmail to Black Handera.
w
PARTNER WITH NATURE
SOUTH CAROLINA BOY WIN A
GOVERNMENT PRIZE.
*
A High Tribute Paid to Young
Bascom Usher for the Grand Production
of Corn on One Acre.
We get the following rrom the
New York Evening Mall: There
probably is nothing more prosaie
to the superficial observer than n
one-acre cornfield, unless It Is another
just like It, or possibly a little
more so. It is merely a patch of
growing crop, where the combined
forces of man and the favoring sunshine
are coaxing nature more or
less effectively to smile with a harvest.
From the hour of planting,
down through successive hoeings to
the final processes of cutting and
uuamug, me neia la nothing more
to the unthinking man a commonplace
scene of human activity, In
which the work is hard and tho returns
uncertain.
But Bascom Usher's one-acre cornfield
was distinctly different. It
was the theatre not only of an exploit
which charms one's imagination,
but of an agricultural triumph
that should make every American
boy proud.
Bascoiu Usher is 17 year old, and
lives in South Carolina. Now, every
year the Government organizes a
national corn contest for boys, in
which $10,000 in prizes is awarded
for various achievements, Including
one for the largest yield from a
single acre. Bascom Usher entered
last year's contest. He ploughed his
acre, planted it. cultivated it as ha
believed it should be, and watched
and tended it as if it were some delicate
flower bed. The work was hard
?everybody that ever hoed corn,
knows that?but Bascom Usher forgot
his fatigue in the sheer Joy of
watching that corn grow. 1*1 due
Ecason it was cut and shuckel, and
a little later it was huksed. Then
the ofllclal committee came a-ound,
looked over the results.and decided
that Bascom Usher's aero had won
the first prize.
Please consider what this victo.y
meant to Bascom Usher in a practical
way, and quite apart from the
exaltation of pride, which it must
have brought to him. His oneacre
field sold as prize seed at $2
a bushel, making $1105, and the fodder
for $30, or a total of $335
Allowing $135 for labor, the oneacre
cornfield returned a net profit
of $200?a yield rich enough to mako
the average grown-up corn grower
gasp.
But the sense of conquest was
worth more than the money. Bascome
Usher has learned how. He
is a master of the soil. He has discovered
a new charm in land an-i
become a joint partner with nature
in a combination capable of transformlnor
bin ?l- l ? ?
.w.ui.ub maun luniii ana sunsnine
Into gold.
o
MUST WORK OX FARM.
I/P\in(jt?n, Ky., Woman Makes a
Novel Will.
A novel solution of the problem
of keeping not only boys, but the
girls on the farm, is disclosed in the
will of Mrs. Arthursa Epperson,
of Lexington, Ky., which was filed
In the probate court there a few days
ago. The last codicil of the Instrument
provides for the division of a
large estate equally among her children,
with the reservation "that if
any of my children marry or qu't
working on the farm, or on my real
estate before five years shall havo
expired after my death, he or sho
shall forfeit ol) interest in my estate
when final disposition is made excep*
I the amount of $1."
Child Painfully Itumed.
A few days ago after Mr. and
Mrs. M. I. ShoWs little J-ycur-old
child, of Hessemer City, N. while
playing around the stove javght fire
and was painfully, though it is
thought, not dangerously bii'ved. before
the fire could be extinguished.
Mrs. Sholer, Miss May Woolen and
Rev. Mr. Wooten, sister and father
respectfully, of Mrs. Sho'or. were
downtown when the accident, occur
red. The little one war 'csting
very well at last report.
Tackled the Wrong Woman.
Rosa Miller, colored, who resides
between Ten Mile and Charleston,
heard some one In her house lata
one night recently and she secured a
shot gun and went to investigate
rne tnirglar ran into the yard an 1
began "sasslng" Hosa, who shot him
In the calf of the leg. The thief
proved to be Henry Lawrence, a notorious
negro charactor. He wai
captured. The wound is not serious.
Unknown Man Killed.
An unknown negro was run over
and killed by a train near Meggetts
one night last week. Tha
coroner's jury rendered a verdict
i that the negro came to his death
through his own carelessness an-I
> no blame was attached to the train
; crew.
, 1