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WITNESSES ROW" ? < Vara Wards Pass la Hearing On Postal Rate Increase CHARGE OF GRAFT MADE Representative of AgrliUiturai c Press league Testifies Before the t' J House Coiuiuittee iu YVaslii'ipton. j< rot. i tt? -mmr ^ iiungH mux m unit nwu ? . ^ Spirited Discussion was Had- H * "The American Republic can't stand forever with this soit of o thing being run in the people's ears ? ?theso anarchistic statements," ' c angrily declared Representative c Smith of California Friday, adiress-j" ing Herbert Myrick, representative 1 11 of the Agricultural Press League, a v witness before the house committee P in Washington on postoillces and 8( post roads at its hearing on the sub- | ject of increasing the postal rate 011 * eecond-class mail matter. tie was referring to an editorial which Mr. Myrick acknowledged came from " one of the publications which he Ci represented. i n "1 protest that the farmers of 0 this country are not anarchists and | n I protest that I am not a traitor," j fl hotly retorted Mr. Myrick, who i Cl shortly before had been further al- 1 luded to as being responsible for ( a traitorous utterances. ; ai Asked by Chairman Weeks if he " had been canvassing the country with ()l circulars and editorials in an en 1 01 deavor to defeat the proposed raise ai for rates 011 second-class matter, V( Mr. Myrick gave an affirmative re8ponse. Mr. Weeks then produced 0( ? - ? A * - - 1 1 ? .. -i ?I several or me circulars auu uuuurials and Mr. Myrick acknowledged authorship of them. They were entitled "A Fresh Attack Upon Liber- A ty," "Still Another Tax," and "New Taxes and Fresh Robbery." "Are these your conclusions? Do you think there is any robbery?" p( asked Representative Smith of Call- ja fornia. co "I saw that the postmaster gen-! oj eral had reported that it cost 9 cents a pound to carry second-class mat- j m ter while the government receives ta but 1 cent a pound. If the govern ment intended to raise it to nine fjc cents, it would conistitute robbery, . in my opinion," replied Mr. Myrick ol "Your editorial refers to fresh (ll robbery. Do you mean that there Pc have been other robberies?" asked jn Mr. Smith. I "Some peoplo," answered the wit.!cl ness, "consider tho tariff a robbery, \ pr and if this raise in rates occurred, it would bo a fresh robbery." \ Mr. Smith replied by saying that VG there was 110 intention of raising tho p( postal rate to 9 cents, but merely , re ^ enough to make up the $17,000,000 ( W( postal deficit. | One of the editorials referred to ja "scheming" and "graft" going on in ol ! U I. AL ^ congress 111 conxiecLioii wilii me piu- ^ posed increase and Messrs. Weeks, j Smith and Fassett, members of the ! ^ committee waxed angry over these characterizations. D Mr. Myrick stated that he referred to the relations of the railroads to the government In the carrying of mail, and did not intend to rcllect upon the members of the committee, v "Don't you use the word "ltob- ? bery" to mean something wicked?" Interjected Mr. Smith. "Didn't you ' mean a slur upon congress?" a "No," said Mr. Myrick. Ll "That is the impression you con- j 80 vcy," said Mr. Smith. | J() "I don't think so," answered the ai witness. J fV "Then you think the word 'Rob--, bery' is a polite form for criticism j ( I suppose," continued the California ar member. j 1 "I merely had reference to the pro-1 posed heavy increase in the postal . ar rate," replied Mr. Myrick. | ? Mr. Smith said that he was getting a large number of letters speaking of n CO anarchy and giving the impression w of hatred against the institutions of the country. He declared such ideas were fostered by the editorials in question and others like them and that they constituted treason. sa Mr. Myrick hotly denied that tho Wf farmers of the country were anarty, chists or that he himself was guilty ^ai nf troaann a VI l/l .1 Representative Murdock of Kansas, another member of the committee, called attention to the fact that the government was paying $50,000 a year for carrying the mails across re] an old bridge at St. Louis, Mo., when , in; it might be carried for a much small- j Ce er sum across a new bridge which Ja was now receiving only a part of th? , sic business. th< "I think that is what you mean ! ? by your charge of graft, isn't it?" i a > said he, addressing Mr. Myrick. | inj "That's It, exactly," said Mr. My.. ha V rick. I co Chairman Weeks then stated that thi SUBSCR r 0 MANY DIE IN WRECK IF RAILWAY TRAIN NIC Alt LON DON, ENGLAND, SUNDAY. rwo Third Class Cars and Pallnmi of Speeding Train Crash Into Station at StoaTs Nest. One of tho most serious railway acidents in England since the disastei o tho steamer truln at Salisbury, in uly, 1908, when many Americans 3st their lives, occurred at Stoala Jest near London on tho London and Brighton railway Sunday afternoon, light dead and about thirty injured ere taken from the wreck. Two third class cars and Pullman f a train from Brighton, traveling at speed of about 40 miles an hour, rashed into the station. The third lass cars were completely wrecked nd a part of the building was delollshed. The Pullman was thrown iolently into tho air but was comaratively little damaged. Us pasengers escaped with minor injuries. One account says that the wreck ras due to the derailment of a porlon of the train and another that it 'as due to the breaking of the coupng between the first and second irs. The two third class cars reared lmost 011 their ends and toppled over 11 tho platform, bringing down a lass of iron girders and timbers *om tho station, with a tremendous rash. Doctors, ambulance detatchments nd boy scouts with stretchers soon ppeared. The critically injured were iken to a local hospital while the thers were carried to Londan. Sevral of the injured will die, as they re very seriously hurt. A rigid instigation will be made into tho luse of the wreck. Such accidents icur very seldom in England. STRIKES BLOW FOR OLEO. tlunta Health Committee Urges Congress to Repeal Tux. Declaring the tax of ten cents >r pound on oleomagarino> to bo rgoly responsible for the increased st of living, the Atlanta Chamber ' Commerce l/.alth committee a w days ago adopted a resolution emorializing congress to repeal the x. The resolution sets forth that e tax Is "class legislation, which sprives the Federal government of !,000,000 revenue, while it shuts it of the market a wholesome promt, made of milk, cotton oil and )of fat, which otherwise would be reach of the masses." The effect of this tax, it is conuded has greatly increased the ice of butter. It is announced that in a letter to e Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Harty W. Wiley, chief chemist of the 3deral government, states that the I peal of Lhe tax on oleomargarine ould in no way interefro with ie enforcement of the pure food ws, adding that ho considered eomargarino a wholesome promt. * nseii suspends magistrate . Lester Guult Confesses to Ret ting on Game of Chance. Governor Ansel Friday suspendel agistrate I). Lester GaulL of Kel n, Union county, "for hotting a few mes on a game of chance" last Durth of July, in spite of splendid fidavits from leading people of nion county that Mr. Gault is a her and industrious man and a nscientious and ellicient magistrate id that they had never heaid of his imbling. Gault's own allldavit e Governor sadly discovers, co isses that "he did bet a few times,' id this being a violation of the law, e Governor decapitated him. The affidavits in Mr. Oanlt's favo* e from the mayor of his home wn, J. W. Smith; II. C. Little, eight ars a member of the legislature r>ni Union county; J. H. Uartles, unty treasurer; J. G. Long, sheriff. W. Johnson, judge of probate. * "Wrestler Killed. A dispatch from Rluefleld, W. Va., ys Walter Lewis shot and fatally ninded George Hall, in Wise coun, a few days ago. Lewis is in II. The men wrestled to settle disputo. Lewis lost and later ot Hall in the arm and abdomen. * Five Men Killed. # A special from Port Limon, C. R. ports the death of five men and the |nry of two others at the Planta bedilla mine near Port Limon on nuary 12. The premature explom of dynamite was responsible for 0 tragedy. sub-committee engaged In draff? the postofllce appropriation bill d discovered this evil and would rrect It. It was the only one of d kind they found, he said. * IBE NO " WOMANROASTED Tied Hard and Fast and Gagged and Pnt on a Lighted Gas Stave REALLY BURNED ALIVE Tli? Cruel Fato That Overtook Mrs. i Alio? Van Zandt at Olncinnatti on i Saturday Morning.?llor Husband and Six Associates Are Arrested Charged With the Awful Crime. Hound and gagged the body of Mrs. Alice Van Zandt, burned to a crisp, J was found Saturday morning lying on j top of the gas stove in her kitchen at ( Cincinnatti. The woman had met her j 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 ad- , inits that he quarrelled with his wife all Friday night and up until he j left the house Saturday morning, an \ hour, he claims before the discovery of the murder. According to the coroner, Mrs. Van Zandt was first chocked into unconsciousness, then bound and gagged with strips torn from a laco 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 off tho 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 unie. Tiic father of this girl had I protested strongly against the daughter's conduct and had finally brought her before a police magistrate who ordered he committed to the house of refuge. On her father's recoinmen(in'ionp, 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, Lillic Ford, were also arrested. 1 The police assert they have infor-I niation 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 believ-| ed their testimony will develop something on which a formal charge! against Van Zandt can be based. I Van Zandt spent the day in a cell and continued to assert his innocence. * DETECTIVE BOYER PASSES. Succumbs to Wound Indicted by Negro Car Thief in Columbia. | Southern Railway Detective S. H. I 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, I died Friday morning at the Columbia hospital. The sheriff and his deputies apparently have little hope of ever capturing the negroes, and the police are completely in the dark. From the best information obtainable the negroes are probably making their way through North Carolina on ihnif I way to the North or West. The ollicers are looking for Eugene Davis, Hen Little and Dave Richardson. Negroes fitting their descriptions were taken aboard the Coast Line train going out of Columbia the morning of the shooting . They [ got off at Easter, in Richland county. Thursday the same negroes, Sheriff Hood of Fairfield, is confident, appeared at the home of L. R. Free, 1 in the Buckhead section of Fairfield J county. Sheriff Hood at once notl- i fled all his county officers and also those of Chester to be on the lookout for the negroes. ' i Two Killed in Wreck. I Two pasengors were killed In a < rear end collision of two westbound \ Lake Shore trains at Ashtabula, Ohio, I early Sunday. Extra train, No. 19, 1 New York to Chicago, was struck by i train No. 21, and only the fact that i the fast train was proceeding under i reduced speed prevented a serious accident. * Couldn't Stand lecture. Because his wife chlded him, Bank 1 Burrow, a mechanic, fired a bullet in to his brain on the porch of hid hoe'o f at Memphis, Tenn., late Saturday, t The suicide followed a struggle w iL I his wife and two small children fc t possesion of the weapon. W TO WORK OF BOLD THUGS HIGHWAYMKN SANDBAUKD AN I IlOnnEl) TIUtKN CITIitKNH. Victims Held Up Beperatelj and In Different Sections, But Acts Arc Work of One Band. | l'he boldest robbory In the history J of Goldsboro, N. C., occurred Satur! day night when three men were sandI bagged by several masked men, who i relieved them of their watches, money and everything olse of value. Each of the victims was held up seperately in different parts of the city. Mr. Phil Howell, a prosperous farmer of the county, was tho heaviest loser, his loss being $500 and he was badly bruised about the head and otherwise severely used by the bandits. 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 lie 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 fovnd that he had been robbed of everyting 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 liim lying in the gully and when he regained consciousness he told about the sanio 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 aro meagre. It is thought by the police that the robberies were committed by the same band, who wore bovond n dmiio professionals and the boldest bunch of crooks that over operated in that city. The robberies have caused a pood deal of excitement and the entire police force is now 011 the trail of the robbers. "WIDOW" FOOLED A WIDOWER. She Told llim She Was in "Love" and Secured $20,000. Detectives in the employ of A. E. King, a retired business man in Lincoln, Neb., are seeking to make an arrest among tho social set of Kansas City, Kan., as the result of a peculiar love affair. It appears the woman in the case represented herself as a widow, when in fact she is married and has a husband living. Mr. King .alleges she told him that sho 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 tine home with expensive furnishings. * MAIL CARRIER RORRE1). Hold I'p by Highwaymen and Relieved, of Valuables. The star route mail carrier from Dobson to Mount 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 ho would have to change his usual route on account of a bridge being unsafe, and this necessitated his laking the road that leads through the woods. The negroes heid a gun in tiis face, dragging him from his buggy and relieving him of his watch and money. The Smallest Man. A message, from Putnam, Conn., jays Reuben Steere, whom Barnum, :he circus magnate, called the smallest man in the world, is dying of meumonia at his home near there. f-Io is now seventy-two years old. Steere weights fifty-flve pounds, and 8 forty-seven inches tall. He mar*ied Miss Annie Mver nnnth?r t ni_ j MaavrvttVt UU?~ mtlan, in 1887. Premier Mobbed. Following the election of Premier \snulth, the premier was mobbed n London by militant suffragettes, rhe women in a body charged time ifter time in their attempts to reach ;he minister and there were several j ively skirmishes with the police. Mr., \squith was convoyed to a place of afety. 1 THE HOI * DIED IN A MINE > One Hundred Lives Snuffed Out By a Terrific Eiplositn i * AT PRIMER, COLORADO The Awful DlNAMtcr In Sulci to t>o the Worst that Hon Kvor Happened lu the History of Western Coal Mining and Has Cast Gloom Over tho Surrounding Section. A dispatch from Prlmero, Col., says more than a hundred men are believed to have been killed by a terrific explosion in the Prlmero mine of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company at 4:.10 Monday afternoon. Fight bodies have been recovered and rescue parties are making desperate efforts to reach tho 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 tho explosion. Itoth fans with which tho 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 were unahln to roach the main shaft, which is completely blocked. The party returned to tiie surface after securing five bodies, which were badly burned. A party equipped with oxygen helmets replaced this party, tlio workings were reached through an air shaft and they are now searching for more bodies.* Miners were rushed to Primero from Trinidad, Segundo, Starkville, I Sopris and Coperville, and are laboring frantically to clear away the I main shaft, relieving each other ev-1 cry few minutes. It is impossible to I determine how far the main shaft I has caved, and it may lie days before the shaft is cleared and tho total death list known. j There is little hope that any of thel men in the mine are alive. The com-I pany clerk reports that 7 9 safety J lamps are missing, and it is sure that that number of men are entombed. I Many of the miners, however, say I that 150 men are missing. ! Most of the men are Slavs and I Hungarians. Pit Hoss Wllhclm is I known to be among the missing.. I The camp is a scene of indescribable horror. While every ablebodled man is taking his turn with pick and shovel to clear the shaft, the women I and children, kept back by ropes, I have gathered about the shaft, weep-1 ing and calling wildly ui>on their I loved ones, who have not been found. I At ten o'clock Monday night iif-l teen bodies had been recovered from 1 one of the main slopes. The bodies I | were literally blown to pieces and were unrecognizable. I Officials of the company stato that the disaster is the worst in the hts-1 tory of the coal mining in the West. I A similar explosion, in which 201 were killed, occurred in the same property January 23, 1907. [ Superintendent of the Wooten I Mines, and J. E. Minley, mine inspector, will head another rescue party, as soon as batteries for electric lights arrive by special train. | Members of the special rescue par-I ty say that the effect of the explosion underground is indescribable. The bodies reoovf?rn#i > vi v<i m u nui i i my niirned and unrecognizable. One ijody was impaled on broken timbers. lifjACK HANI) (1AN(J SENTENCED. Leader Ciets 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. Agostic Marflsi, Vlncenzo Argi and Salvotore Itizzo were granted new trials and the others wore sentenced from two to ten years. * ? Death Had to Steal Him. Death in a violent form was fought off four times by Joseph Itoevalle, 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 ho fell on a pitchfork, each prong entering his body. His skull was fractured In a fight and in his last accident he was run down by a ' train. - ? Black Hands at Work. A bomb Sunday blew out tho front of Francisco Dalafarno's grocery In I Queens, N. Y. No one was Injured. , The police say Delafarnos refused to pay blackmail to Black Handera. DRY HEH ft , .. * > Jl L?' -* *'dXnllk*' -w - ' - PARTNER WITH NATURE SOUTH CAROLINA ROY WIN* 1 GOVERNMENT PRIZE. A Ifl^ch Tribute Paid to Yonng BoMcom 1'fther for th? Grand Production of Corn on One Acre. Wo got the following rrom the Now York Evening Mail: There probably is nothing moro prosaic to tho superficial observer than a one-acre cornfield, unless it Ib 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 booings to the final processes of cutting and husking, the field is nothing moro to the unthinking man a commonplace scene of human activity, in which the work is hard and tho returns uncertain. Hut Bascom Usher's one-acre corn'Held was distinctly different. It was the theatre not only of an exploit which charms one's imagination, hut of an agricultural triumph that should make every American boy proud. Bascom Usher Is 1 7 year old, and lives in South Carolina. Now, every year the Government organizes a national corn contest for hoys, in which $10,000 in prizes is awarded for various achievements, including one for the largest yield from a single acre. Bascom Usher entered ! 1<>u? * ...ou J cm a uuniOSL. no ploughed his aero, planted it, cultivated it an 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. l*i due season it was cut and shuckel, atid a little later it was huksed. Then the official 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 tho exaltation of pride, which it must have brought to him. His oneacre field sold as prize seed at $2 a bushel, making $305, and the fodder for $30, or a total of $335 Allowing $135 for labor, tho oneacre cornfield returned a net profit of $2 00?a yield rich enough to mako the average grown-up corn grower gasp. But tho sense of conquest was worth more than the money. Bascomo Usher has learned bow. He is a master of the soil. Ho has discovered a new charm in land and become a joint partner with naturo in a combination capablo of transforming black loam and sunshine into gold. MUST WORK OX FARM. Lexington, Ky., Woman Makes m Novel Will. A novel solution of the problem of keeping not only boys, but tho girls on the farm, is disclosed in tho will of Mrs. Arthursa Epperson, of Lexington, Ky., which was filed in the probate court there a few days ago. The last codicil of tho instruaoI -J jmuviucs ror mo division of a largo 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 live years shall hav9 expired after my death, he or shi shall forfeit all interest in my estate when final disposition is made excep* the amount of $1." fluid Painfully Itemed. A few days ago after Mr. and Mrs. M. I. Sholor's little J-yenr-old child, of Itessemer City, N. while jdaying around the stove caught fire and was painfully, though it Is thought, not dangerously bit* red, before the fire could be extinguished. Mrs. Sholer, Miss May Woo!en and Rev. Mr. Wooten, sister and father respectfully, of Mrs. Sho'or. were downtown when the accident occur red. The little ono waj ' csting very well at last report. Tackled the Wrong Woman. Rosa Miller, colored, who resides between Ten Mile and Charleston, heard some ono in her house latn one night recently and she secured a shot gun and went to investigate The burglar ran into the yard an 1 began "sassing" Rosa, who shot him in tne calf of the log. The thief proved to bo Henry Lawrence, a no* torlous negro character. He wa* captured. The wound Is not serious. 1 IALD _