The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, March 23, 1922, Image 1
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Wat Samterg
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> * $2.00 Per Year in Advance. BAMBERG, S. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1922. Established in 1891.
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- Nat Felder,,
* Street Si
\
~ j
fcv
A most deplorable tragedy occurred
in the early hours of Sunday
morning last on Bamberg's Main
street, in front of the barber shop of
^ ' F. B. Hooks, which resulted in the
death a few hours later of Nat Z.
Felder, Jr., a wen Known yuuug man |
of this city and a member of one of
the community's most prominent
^ ' families. T. Curtis Hutto, night policeman,
is formally charged with the
homicide.
i
K It has been many years since there
? < has been an incident in Bamberg s$
widely discussed as the Sunday
morning tragedy. Mr. Felder was a
young man who enjoyed the friendship
of a wide circle of friends and
v acquaintances who deplore the un
timely end he met. The remains
were interred Sunday afternoon at
the Zeigler burial ground a few miles
from Bamberg in the presence of a
large concourse of friends and relatives.
The funeral service was conducted
by Rev. S. O. Cantey. Mr.
Felder was a member of the local
.Baptist CUUrtu.
$ The tragedy occurred between
12:30 and 1:00 o'clock Sunday
morning in a pistol duel between Mr.
Felder and Mr. Hutto, the latter escaping
unhurt. Mr. Felder was car%
ried into the barber shop and given
first aid by a hastily summoned physician,
afterward being taken to
Mark's Drug Store. The physician
pronounced his condition very critlcal
with little hope for his recovery
and relatives were summoned to his
side.
Upon/the arrival of the five o'clock
train for Charleston, the injured man
was placed on it an attempt to get
\ . . *him to a Charleston hospital for an
operation with the possible hope of
saving his life. As the train neared
Br&nchville the physician saw that
he was in a -dying condition, and at ]
V his, request the train was delayed a
few minutes in Branchville, Mr.
Pelder breathing his last on the train
about 6:00 o'clock Sunday morning.
The body was brought (back to Bamv
. beng on the same train, reaching
x here about 6:30 o'clock.
^Occurred on Street.
" As usual on Saturday nights, thfe
^ barber shop had remained open until
a late hour. The business in the
shop had been concluded and prepa^
rations were being made to close up.
?Mr. Felder and the three barbers,
- , P. B. Hooks, J. B. Scarboro, and L.
O. Lee, were the only persons in the
? shop at the time. As -Mr. Felder
came out, Mr. Hutto was sitting, ac"
* cording to the witnesses, on the garbage
can in front of the shop. He
accused Mr. Felder of haying dis.
charged his pistol in the rear of the
(barber shop, and demanded a $10
bond for the alleged offense. Mr.
Felder, it was testified, demanded to
^ - "know who the officer's informant
> was, and an argument ensued, in
which both parties are alleged to
have used strong language.
All the witnesses agreed that Mr.
Felder proposed shooting it out, and
that Mr. Hutto agreed to the proposition,
some of the witnesses saying
that he tried to reason it out with
Mr. ireiaer Deiore uoing so; mat
~ Mr. Hutto had his gun in his hand,
and that Mr. Felder had his hand in
^ his right coat pocket. The shooting
beghn suddenly and continued rapidly
until some six or eight shots
i were fired, the witnesses agreeing
that appearances indicated Mr. Felder
fired the first shot, though both
first shots were very close together.
Bullets Enter Stores.
$ Two of the bullets fired entered
the store of A. Kirsch and the barber
shop, respectively; the barber
shop door being penetrated and the
bullet being stopped against the hot
water tank in the rear. The other
went through tin show window of
Kirsch's store.
During the firing both parties appeared
to clinch, and fell from the
sidewalk to the street; Mr. Hutto
l * getting up, and Mr. Felder trying to
do so, falling to the sidewalk mortally
wounded. Mr. Hutto was placed
in the custody of Sheriff Ray, and
v at the inquest Sunday afternoon at
3:00 o'clock was formally charged
with the homicide by the coroner's
jury.
Three shots struck Mr. Felder,
one between the third and fourth
^ ribs; another between the fourth and
fifth ribs, and another striking the
4 left thumb. One bullet came through
i
* *
& % ' * "
Jr., Slain on
inday by T.
War Follows Move '
To Operate Cars
Columbia, 'March 20.?When the
?k;? Pniin-gv Has and Electric
VyUJLUHiUia lvaiinu;,
company today attempted to operate
three of its street cars, idle since
February 15, because of a strike of
motormen and conductors, it resulted
in open warfare. Four men, engaged
in operating the cars, received
minor injuries from two separate attacks
on cars and four men, three of
them strikers and one a sympathizer
of the strikers, were placed under j
arrest for assault and battery wit'h;
intent to kill, and warrants have f
been sworn out for at least three!
other strikers, all alleged to have \
been implicated in 4he attacks. j
Following a conference in the of-1
fice of Governor Cooper tonight,
participated in between the executive,
.city and county authorities,
and the management of the company,
it was decided to put three
cars in operation tomorrow under
complete police protection.
* >> I
'"rue puunc can kc&l d so ui cu,
said Governor Cooper tonight following
the conference, "that the company
and the public will be protected
in the-company's lawful efforts to
operate its cars, even though the entire
law enforcement forces or this
state, including the National Guard,
be necessary to guarantee this protection.
The public may be assured
that mob rule will not supplant the
orderly process of law."
The governor further stated that
he woulfl not take sides in the industrial
dispute, but that he. did intend
to see that the company should
operate its cars unmolested as it had
a legal right to do, particularly as
operation had been ordered by the
state railroad commission.
helnw the neck, and the other lodged i
just under the skin under the should- 1
er and was extracted by the physician.
Internal. 'hemorrhage was
the immediate cause of death.
Well Known Citizen.
Mr. Felder was the son of Mr. and
Mrs. N. Z.' Felder, Sr., of Bamberg,
and was 36 years of age. He
was born and reared in this community,
and had been engaged in
various business enterprises in the
vicinity. He is survived by his
mother and father, and the following
brothers and sisters: D. G.
Felder, o? Asheville, N. C.; Mrs. W.
J. Heflin, of Birmingham, Ala.,
Mrs. Carrie Boyd, of Spartanburg;
Mrs. Clint Hooton, of Denmark; and
R. T. Felder and Tom Felder, of
Bamberg.
Mr. Felder was a brother of Henry
Felder, known to his associates as
"Punch," who was a member oft the
ill-fated crew of the Cyclops, which
disappeared so mysteriously during
the world war, and of which not the
-- - - - - * i I
slightest trace nas ever ueeu uiacovered
since it left a South American
port for America; the presumption
being that it was either blown
up by the Germans or sank in the
Atlantic from other causes.
The Testimony.
The following is the testimony of
the coroner's inquest, conducted, in
the illness of Coroner Zeigler, by
Magistrate E. Dickinson, E. L. Price,
Sr., transcribing the evidence:
J. B. Scarboro, duly sworn, said:
"As we closed Hutto was sitting on
garbage can?Mr. Lee and myself
first. When Mr. Fe!d?r got to sidewalk,
Hutto asked Felder for $10
bond. Felder asked for what, and |
reply, for shooting in rear oarDer
shop.
"Felder says, 'lock me up.' Hutto
says, 'No.' Felder says, 'I am not
afraid of you,' and Hutto answered
that he was not afraid of Felder.
After considerable cursing between
the two, Mr. Hutto took his gun
from his pocket and told Felder that
he didn't want to hurt him, but if j
he had to he would. Felder drew his j
gun and both commenced firing.!
Think Felder shot first, but both
first shots were almost together."
F. B. Hooks, duly sworn, said:
"As Nat and I came from door, Hutto
requested $10 bond. After some
argument Hutto got up; Nat facing
Hutto and advancing. Hutto pushed
him back and said he did (not)
want any trouble.
"Nat proposed to shoot it out and!
(Continued on page 6, column 3.)
Main
Curtis Hutto
I
Reformed Burt
Attempt on i
(Reprinted from the January issue of.
The National Brain Power by special
permission.)
For more than two years what has
been termed a "Crime Wave" has
been flooding the country. Banks,
held up in daylight by organized bandits,
have lost millions. Transportation
companies have suffered as great.
Even the mails have been looted of
stupendous sums.
We read of these robberies almost
daily, but we seldom read of the capture
and punishment of the robbers.
Wlhy?
What has caused the "Crime
Wave?' "War and unemployment"
is the invariable answer from the police,
the newspapers and the people,
generally. But is this the right answer?
To the editor of the Brain Power
recently a most interesting individual:
A reformed bank burglar wfto had
been pardoned by the governors of
three states, and by the president of
the United States. In the past he
had stolen millions of dollars from
o V, 11 r? rl roH hij n Ire W fk wac in
JUOOri xj a, auuuiuu -.-w
terested in our magazine, and told
a most a*mazing story of the brainpower
of the cracksman pitted
against the brain-power of the safebuilder.
He was asked if he would put his
remarks into writing. Ho stated that
he was no writer?but he agreed to
make the attempt* Here is his story,
almost word for word as he wrote it.
In a style so readable that it might
be evinced by many authors, he has
told the story of the bank robber
from the days of the old key-lock
safe until the recent achievement that
has caused three times as many day
light -hold-ups of banks as there were
night-time robberies in the past.
There was a heavy sense of excitement
at Baltimore's police headquarters
one night during the* winter
of 1916. A raiding squad waited
for the word "Gb."
It was to be a big night, one that
would cover the police department
with glory and the morning newspapers
with headlines. Early in the
^vpninor a deDartment "stool-pigeon"
had sent in the tip that a gang of
bank burglars were in the city to
talk things over.
When the meeting was in full
swing a signal was flashed to headquarters.
In a bac? room of a saloon,
fifteen of the cleverest bank
robbers of the country were in session?for
bank robbing is as much
of a business as banking or advertising.
The police swept in and took
them all, without a scrap, for the
cops were carrying drawn guns and
the burglars were genuinely surprised.
That was in Baltimore in 1916.
In Toledo, in 1921, a police squad
left .headquarters to make another
raid. Shrewd detective work had
gained information as to the whereoVirmta
nf a p-aner that had looted the
post office of $1,000,000. But this
tim^the cops didn't go to the hack
room of a saloon for their men. They
turned up one of the best residential
streets in the city and found them in
an apartment house known to be the
residence of people of wealth and
culture.
These contrasting incidents show
at a glance what has happened in the
Underworld; how, in the past/ five
years, it has literally stepped from
the gutter to the middle of the best
sidewalk the community provides.
"Hold-up men," says a recent
statement issued by the American
Bankers' Association, "obtained approximately
$1,250,000 from the
banks of the country during 1920."
A statement by the National Surety
Company shows that the burglary
losses paid by big insurance companies
in the United States in 1920
was $10,189,853.
Never in the history of American
crime have there been such stupendous
hold-ups as were committed in
the past two years against the United
States mails. Glance at the figures
represented by these three mail'
hold-ups:
Pullman, Illinois $ 200,000
\
Dr. S. P. R
Neck E
qlar Tells of
Denmark Bank
Dearbon, Illionis ? 275,000
Toledo, Ohio 1,000,000
The great Wall Street bond thefts
or iyzu, totalling $o,uuu,uuu, are sun
fresh in the memory, and none of us
will ever forget the almost daily holdups
in our largest cities which have
been terrorizing our bankers and
merchants for more than two years.
A recent hold-up of a mail truck on
the most prominent street of our
largest metropolis netted the bandits
$2,000,000.
What has caused this unparalleled
wave of banditry?
That is what I propose to show in
this article.
I preface pay story with these, huge
figures so that the reader may get
a mental picture of the seriousness
of the recent crime wave that has
swept this great American country
from coast to coast during the last
two years.
The whole world is changing, but
in no class of sicety has there been
such a'decided change as marks the
upward course of the criminal. The
new Underworld is bursting with
prosperity.
As 1 go along I shall point out
the things that have caused this
crime wave, how the Underworld has
evolved, and the parts played by
prohibition, the reformer, the banksafe
maker, and every factor that
has contributed to the making of the
new Underworld, with its new criminal
with his new methods and his
new woman.
During the past six months I have
talked wibh at least one hundred detectives
in New York, Boston, Chicago
and Detroit about the crime
wave of bank hold-ups. I was aston'
ished beyond expression to learn that
not a single one of these bloodhounds
of the law had the slightest
conception of the fundamental unrierlvine
causes of the bandits' sud
den plundering of banks. Like newspaper
and magazine editors, business
men and citizens, they all echo
"War and unemployment."
War and unemployment have created
a lot of petty-larceny thieves,
sneak thieves, pickpockets and footpads,
but never bank burglars or
bank hold-up men. The bank holdup
man is not an over-night creation.
He is the product, as I sjiall point
out, of an evolutionary process that
has been functioning for forty years
or more.
. In the days of Mark Shinburn,
George White, Jimmy Hope and Big
Frank 'McCoy the burglarizing of
banks was largely a matter of getting
key impressions, mastering lock combinations,
and, where force was required,
drills ajid ^un-powder. Were
these aristocrats of the years gone
by to return today to apply theif oldtime
ideas to the present modern
bank with the screw-door safe and
' * - - 1 1- ? H~
automatic time-iocK. vemno,
would starve to death.
For fifty years there has gone on
in this country a battle of wits between
the safe' maker and the safe
burglar. Most of the time the burglar
ihas worn the victor's laurels.
For thirty of these years, his career
was a succession of successes, blasting
to smithereens every invention
of the safe builder, outthinking him,
outwitting him, anticipating him.
Think of the ingenuity, the resourcefulness,
the cunning?the brain
power, in fact?of the burglar who
competed for thirty years, and predominated
over the best safe-making
brains in the country.
It has been a tremendously interesting
battle, with a multitude of
sensational sidelights, and many safe
burglars have given their lives in
this competitive conflict. I have
known many of them who have had
arms and legs blown away during
their experiments with dynamite
and nitro-glycerine. Many were
blown entirely to pieces. There have
been sacrifices to endeavor in the
Underworld as well in the upper.
Langdon Moore was the prince of
American bank burglars from 1850
to 1880. Fifty per cent, of the safes
that he robbed were old key-lockers
that were fashioned as simply as the
door to your house. Moore was so
successful in getting key impressions
\entz Meets L
bofaen by Ov
Robbery of Stores
! Brings Fatal Result
| Trenton, March 20.?J. C. Moore,
i alleged safecracker and escaped convict
from the Georgia penitentiary,
where he was serving a sentence of
20 years, was shot and killed early
I this morning by Ernest Crouch whije
the former was in the act of opening
a safe in the store of Mathis & Whitlock
here, and L. K. Rawls, of Columbia,
alleged to have been an accomplice
in the robbery, was later
apprehended on the highway to
Aiken and has been lodged in the
Edgefield jail.
Mr. Crouch has rooms above the
^tore and was awakened by a noise
in the store underneath. Takihg 'his
gun, he went out and Moore emerged
from the store with a pistol and a
flashlight. Mr. Crouch fired twice,
the first load of buckshot taking effect
in the left leg. The second shot
proved fatal, Moore falling dead with
the flashlight gripped in one hand
and a pistol in the other.
The safe in the store was ready for
blowing, the dial having been pried
out, soap spread over the load ond
the fuse attached.
Prior to entrance into the Mathis
& Whitlock store, tne store or <j. w.
Wise had been entered and the safe
blown open. A knife and $50 were
| taken from the ^"ise store. The knife
I was found on Rawls. .
i *
Residents, awakened by the shots,
j gathered hurriedly and G. W. Wise,
j L. C. Edison, Lewis Harrison, Hilton
i Duncan and J. D. Mathis, Jr., follow{
ed the track of the automobile in
: which a second man disappeared
when Moore was shot. A heavy rain
had fallen about midnight and the
track was easily followed. Near j
Aiken and about daylight the posse
' came upon Rawls, his car -having
; stuck and negroes were assisting him
. in his efforts to extricate the car.
fWhen arrested Rawls was armed
| with a large pistol and had on his
J person a knife later identified as
| having been taken from the Wise
- A AAA J ^ + Am O TIT A
I store, $ ? u duu Ck lctici 11 vui c* ?v v
man asking that he desist from doing
certain things. Rawls claimed that
he was from Augusta and denied any
knowledge of the robbery at Trenton.
A conductor on one of the
Southern trains through here says
he saw Rawls and Moore in Columbia
Sunday afternoon and in Batesburg
Sunday night.
| While in Wise's store time was
taken to eat some apples.
Moore had in his pockets a jar of
fuses and also a map of the surrounding
country.
Mrs. Moore came tovTrenton from
Columbia and identified Moore. She
said Moore and Rawls left Columbia
together. She did not ask for the
body, which will be buried by the
county authorities.
Until a few months ago Rawls is
I said to have operated a store in
! Batesburg, and since that time to
I have been making his home in Co
'
lumbia.
that the safe-makers decided it was
time they devoted their energies to
the designing of a safe that locked
otherwise than with a key. The result
of Moore's battle of wits with
them produced what"was then known
as the "front-lock" safe, in which
the lock and combination were placed
behind the first sheeting in the door.
Moore then resorted to drills and
gun-powder. He was the first safe
j burglar to use explosives. Again the
safe maker was beaten by the burglar.
About 1885 the safe maker came
out with the back-lock safe, the combination
lock and tumblers being located
behind the last sheeting in the
door. The burglar easily mastered j
this by having his drills made longer. J
Once more the safe-maker was de- j
feated. Bank robbing then became j
so common that the bankers and sare :
I
builders lay awake nights wondering i
how the ingenuity of the burglar i
could be combated. The burglar1
was having a comparatively easy
time. The matter of getting into a j
bank offered not much more resist-1
t
ance than getting into a can of toma-!
toes. But the safe makers were not'
asleep. Out of every defeat they |
met at the hands of the burglars j
(Continued on page 4, column 1.)
# \
N
~)eath;
erturned Car
|
Coming as a climax to a week of
tragedies in Bamberg county was the
sad news Tuesday afternoon of the
death of Dr. S. P. Rentz, who met an
untimely end on the Hunter's Chapel 1
road as he was returning home from
v Vi oiifnm aKiIa !
.Del Hi UCIg W lieII 1115 1 ui u autuiuuuAiu
overturned in a ditch by the roadside
WJSk
about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
When the news first reached Bamberg,
it was thought Dr. Rentz had
been pinned under his car in several
feet of water and drowned, but examination
by hastily summoned physicians
revealed the fact/that hie
neck ihad been broken and death was,
therefore, instantaneous.
Dr. Rentz was in Bamberg about
2 o'clock in the afternoon and left
here going to his home, perhaps making
some professional calls on his
way, as was his custom in his extensive
practice. Supervisor W. B.
Smoak, his son and a salesman were
in an automobile a short distance
behind Dr. Rentz, and were witnesses
to the ?ad tragedy. As Dr. Rentz'g
car reached a point about one mile
north of Hunter's Chapel Baptist
?-/->Vinr-nVi Yfi? Qmnci L- 'o nartv ca W thfi
VUU1 VU) 'AUi KJ yw.* WM ?? WMbw
machine go into the ditch and turn
completely over. They hurried to the J
spot and attempted to remove the
car and extricate Dr. Rentz, but it
was found that the three men were
unable to get it out and help had' to
be secured. Jj
Some twenty minutes had elapsed
before the car was lifted out, and the
limp form of the beloved physician
removed. In Che meantime one of
the party had been dispatched to
Bamberg for physicians, and Drs. A.
S. Weekley and H. J. Stuckey made a
record run thinking that perhaps his
life mieht be saved from drowning, . J
but the examination showed that
drowning was not the cause of death,
but a broken neck. The body had
been caught in some way under the
car when it overturned. No 'other .
bruises were found on the body, and ^
the lungs were not filled with water.
? The body was removed to the doctor's
home a short distance beyond,
and the funeral and interment occurred
at Zion Methodist church
nearby. Ornan lodge, No. 38, A. F.
M., was in Charge of the burial, Dr.
Rentz being a most faithful and devoted
member of this lodge, of which
he was the treasurer for many years.
In addition to his connection with
the Masonic lodge, Dr. Rentz was a
member of the Scottish Rite, the
Knights Templar an>d the Shriners,
all of which he took a deep interest
in.
Simon Peter Rentz was born 54
years ago a short distance from hfil
late home, the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Jacob Rentz, who preceded him to the '
grave last year, his mother being I
buried one year ago from the date
nf his Heath He received his boy
/hood schooling in the neighborhood,
and then entered the South Carolina
| Medical college, Charleston, comi
pleting his professional education at
the University of Maryland, Baltij
more. On completing his medical
training, Dr. Rentz located in Cottageville,
where he was physician for
| the Horse Shoe Mining company, a
thriving industry at that time. After !
remaining in Cottageville for four
or five years, he decided to return to
his old home for the practice of his
profession, and since that time has
lived at Hunter's Chapel.
He was married to Miss Hattie
Rhoad, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N.
B. Rhoad, of Hunter's Chapel, the
former of whom survives him. Two
/
children survive him, Horace and
7~?" D f or
XI clip JUL tug ivx iuvi A voauxuq
with (his parents and the latter residing
a short distance from the old
home place. The following brothers
and sisters survive him: C. W.
Rentz, Sr., Bamberg; D. P. Rentz,
Lakeland, Fla.; Mrs. J. L. Herndon,
Hunter's Chapel; Mrs. Docia Blocker,
Charleston; Mrs. E. F. McMillan, Hahira,
Ga.; Mrs. Annie E. Jones, Numatilla,
Fla, and Mrs. Frances Folk,
Bamberg.
Not a person in Bamberg will be
more sorely missed from his community
than Dr. Rentz. Electing to
serve ibis own people in his professional
career, he had t deeply entrenched
himself in the hearts of his
constituents. His disposition was
one of geniality, and the occasion
was rare indeed that he did not have
" .1
(Continued on page 6, column 4.)