University of South Carolina Libraries
DEALT DEATH And Destruction to Hundreds of Miners Down in the Mine WITHOUT ANY WARNING Nearly Two Hundred Workers Are Ituried Alive in an Alabama Mine. There Is Very Little Hope that Any of tlie Unfortunate People Escaped Death and Are Alive. Forty-five white men, and between 130 and 145 negroes, are entomued in No. No. 3 coal mine at Palos, Ala., as a result of an explosion occurring Thursday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock. Palos is forty miles west of Birmingham, an.l the mines are owned by the Palos Coal and Coke Company, controlled by Drennen Brothers, of Birmingham. State Mine Inspector .Tames Ilillhouse, who is on t.he scene thinks all of the men in the mine are dead. Two bodies were found early Thurs day night, but it is expected that few of them can be recovered before morning. The flames reaching from the explosion shot into the air from the , mouth of the slope for two hundred feet, and the shock was felt for miles around. Timbers from the slope were hurled several hundred feet from the mine's mouth, and rocks from the roof of the slope caved in and made access to the mouth very difficult. The fan machinery was badly damaged, but air is being pumped into the mine in the hope that some of the men are still alive. Local rescuers at Palos began at once to do what they could, but relief work was not started in earnest until the special train from Birmingham arrived in Palos, shortly after four o'clock. This special train carried State Mine Inspector James Hillhouse, J. J. Uutledge, Government expert, in charge of the geological station at Knoxville, Tenn., wko happened to be in the district investigating the recent disaster at Mulga; eight physicians and surgeons, four undertakers and a numf ???>/ . 5 r? 1 b 1 r\ A V O Ut)I U1 spcuai o. The hospital relief car of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, was also taken. This car contained helmets and all of the other necessary paraphernalia for entering gaseous mines. Tho first rescuers who went into the mine after the explosion, were overcome by fire-damp and had to be carried out. Mr. Rutlege was among the first to enter, and after working his way 1,400 feet down the slope, found a second right entry cave-in. The two bodies recovered were in the main slope. (James Gousby, a mail carrier, was killed thirty feet from the mouth of the slope, and his body was hurled thirty feet. It was judged from this that the force of the explosion was such that none of the men on the Inner side could possibly be alive. There are a number of mining camps within two or three miles of the Palos mine, and within a short time after the explosion a great crown had gathered about the ilJfated slope. Hundreds of women and children were around the mine, wringing their hands and crying piteously. The Palos mines have been worked for a number of years, and the entries were extensive. The only hope that some of the men have escaped and are still alive lies in the possibility that they were far enough away from the explosion to have missed its force. It is thought that the explosion was caused by the accumulation of gas in some of tho old abandoned entries, which are rarely visited. The Palos Coal and Coke Company is owned entirely by the Drennens, of Birmingham. The mines have a capacity of over 600 tons I and have done an enormous business for the past two or three years, working night and day. The como A %_? _ * 1 .. A 1 .11.. pany whs 0110 01 me iew in me ui?trict which has always signed up with the miners' union, and they have always worked union miners only. The mines are in what is known as the Warrior basin, and are within two miles of Flat Top and the Jlessie mines, two of the largest and most valuable mines in the district. The disaster is regarded as especially distressing as coming so soon after the Mulga explosion, Thursday April 21, in which 41 men lost t.heir lives. The lied Cross and other relief work for the widows and orphans at iMulga hag not yet been completed Two Government experts, J. J. Rutledge. and George F. Rice, have been in the district since the 'Mulga explosion, investigating its cause and botdi of them have gone out to Palos. ? Rig Shipment of Kggs. From Hickory Harris & Little on Monday shipped 180 crates or 5,100 dozen eggs?a big carload. This is said to be the largest shipment ever going out of this leading egg emporium of North Carolina. WASTED PUBLIC MONEY | GEN. IW>YJ> MAKES THIS CIIAKGE AGAINST imOCK. And Calls for un Investigation of the Expense Account and Action of that Gentleman. A statement Issued on Wednesday at Columbia by Adjutant General Boyd, asks that Governor Ansel appoint a court of inquiry to investigate the expense account of Col. W. T. Brock, the assistant general, that was incurred by inspecting the militia of the State. It is charged by General Boyd that Colonel Brock .has wasted the money of the State. It is asked that Colonel Brock's other actions as an o flic or of the State be investigated. Both are in the race for adjutant general. General Boyd recently attacked Colonel Grock in a statement with reference to politics. Colonel Brock immediately asked for a court of inquiry. Governor Ansel refused to discuss the situation. The statement follows: To the People of South Carolina: "W. T. Brock, my assistant during the past several days, has spent several hundred dollars more than was necosc1 ?*y in making the inspections of the State militia. "He has wantonly wasted the State's money, and 1 hereby call upon him iu give proof that ho spent $12 and $33.50 (for two days) for hotel hills at at any hotel in South Carolina. "The United States has made the inspections of the State militia for the past several years. 11 is expenses traveling over the same route as Colonel Brook's were as follows: 1907. $140; 1 908, $144; 1 909, $ 1 f>0.02. The first year that Colon" 1 Brock made the inspections of the State militia he spent $400. Last year he spent $4 20. This year he dre'< out $500. His accounts on the surface appear to be in a tangled condition. "I would like for him to explain the matter of lending the United States army officer who accompanied .him the sum of over $1S0. By what right did the State of South Carolina have to defray the expense of a regular United States army officer? His itemized accounts show that he claimed to have purchased four mileage books. I would like for him to show to the public of South Carolina where he traveled 4,000 miles in making the inspections. "He has extravagantly spent the money of the State and his itemized statements of expense will not bear investigations. "I hereby call upon Governor Ansel to appoint a court of inquiry to make an investigation of the expense accounts and other acts Colonel Brock has committed while in the service of the State as assistant adjutant general. J. C. Boyd." BOY KIDNAPPT1) IIIMKLF. Started for the West After He Had Seen Moving Pictures. Tn New York Harry Spindle, a bnisk little boy of 13 years, is being held by the Children's Society on his own confession that he kidnapped himself, terrorized his parents with hlackhand letters, and then, when they failed to procure the money he needed toget. west, in""' '"l i o-rit .rinh.ii 11 iclr sphnnin that nottod him $100 in hes than a week. A string of sad little girls, his tools, and their angry mothers, his victims, corroborated his story. Harry's plan, as told by himself was to find some little girl on the street, at tor her with news of how her father had just been elected president of a lodge, and then get the mother to borrow $11, $1 or $f> from the corner grocer to buy flowers for a surprise to father when he came home. Then Harry would offer to run to the orists with the money, but .he never came hack. With his pal, Arthur Gulden, 12 years old, Harry left home more than a week ago, fired with an ambition to go west, after having seen a thrilling moving picture show. The Itoyd-llrock How, The Boyd-Brook row continues to excite a certain measure of interest at the State House. Thursday Adjt Gen. Boyd sent Col. Brock a communication stating that his resigna' tion would be accepted. Col. Brocn declares that he will not act upor this request, and he does not consider tJhat Gen. Boyd is qualified tc mako it, holding that such a re quest should come from the Governor, and for cause. Mlephant Kills Trainer. nn i.i p/mic (inuilnvn 'I'lio Willi-il Jl T) ( another fatally Injured as the resuii of an outbreak of an elephant ai Marietta, Ohio, Monday. Samue Montgomery, an animal trainer, was trampled by the infuriated beast and fatally hurt. Wm. Evans took refuge on top of a wagon but fell frorr it during the excitement, suffering s chuahed skull. Ho died a few minutes later. A thing of beauty is a Joy until the styles change. o SAVE THE GIRLS White Slaves Are Being Bought and Sold oo the New York Market. DEALERS RAN TO EARTH Two Young Karnest Women Workers Make Most Revolting Discoveries ami I*ncover the Vilest ami Most Horrible of Trollies and Itring the (juilty Fiends to Justice. The New York World says white slavery in that city was suown m l>e a real, hideous ract in the last P'\v days. The following proof of the above we take from the World: After three months of careful planning by District Attorney Whitman and John I). Rockefeller, Jr., foreman of a Grand Jury now in session, four girls were bought in New York by an Assistant District-Attorney and two courageous women, graduates of Smith and Radcliffe Colleges, who had worked* with the Rockefeller Grand jury on the cases. The girls were purchased in the open market. The I^strict-Attorney has the receipts for the money paid for them. The were sold with the direct understanding that they were to be carried to Alaska for immoral purposes. They were sold as slaves, without any reservation, according to the evidence in the possession of the District-Attorney. lEach of the girls gave her age officially as sixteen and seventeen years old. One girl wJren found by the authorities cried bitterly for a half hour because she had been taken so quickly from a home of vice that she did not bring her doll. Another little girl cried equally .hard for her Teddy bear. Three arrests have already been made in the cases and other arrests are predicted by the District-Attor ney within a short time. The first was that of Harry Levenson, 2 7 years old, living at No. 16 East 3rd street. The District-Attorney charges that through the agency of Assistant District Attorney James D. Reynolds, and the two college women two girls were purchased from him. The second arrest was that of Belle Moore, a negress, living at No. 34S West Forty-first street. The District Attorney charges that two white girls were purchased from her last wvek by the same agents. In connection with the woman's arrest the District Attorney stated that not one-quarter of the facts could be made public at this time. Later in the evening Alex Anderson, who is employed in the Union Cafe in Broadway, near Fortieth street, and which is said by the officials to be under the management of George Considine, was arrested. The officials admitted that warrants are out for several other persons, but said they did not expect any more I o vraetu hwfnro morniner. While the arrests were being made the police were searching all the hospitals in the city for an eleven year old girl, w.ho had been bargained for and who, it is declared, would have been sold but for the fact that she became so ill because of niistreatement in an immoral resort that she had to be sent to a hospital. There is reason to believe that the girl has been found and will tell her story later, but her whereabouts are being kept secret. The investigation was made by the grand jury and Mr. Rockefeller, who each devoted a large sum of money to the search for the root of the white slave trade. it was found for them by two young college women who had devoted thorns- Ives to the interests of their distressed sisters. They went to Alaska, where the traffic is fierce, and there got acquainted with theuuder world and with the people who trafllced in debauchery. They got in touch with their correspondents in all parts of the country, and finally got letters to parties in New York, the state for which they were working. They returned home, took the district attorney's office into their confidence, and with a member of the grand jury nailec the trafficerB beyond question, as > ronnrtful above. They found that formerly \vhit< girls could be bought for $5 t< . $50, but the activity of the grain . juries all over tho country ha< ; made the price of these articles o i commerce rise, so that the dealeri . claimed $200 for the great risk tha ) they ran. Tlrcy found also that little whit . girls were brought and sold for de bauchery to w-hite men or negroes They found many things most re volting and sensational, but they wil . not talk much until tho cases an ^ brought to trial. The recitation o t much that is published, even nov j may well make one question w.hoth ^ or this is a christian country or not' 1 Village Destroyed. i The village of Plymouth, six milei i southwest of Emporia, Kansas, is re . ported to have been destroyed by i tornado 'Monday night. Plymouth 1 a small town with 4 00 populatioi I and on the Santa Fo railroad. A1 wires are down. THAT COTTON POOL SENATOR SIMMONS ARRAIGNS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. Which, He Said, Had Only Undertaken to Prosecute the Roosters of Cotton Prices. In a speech delivered in the Senate Wednesday Senator Simmons, of North Carolina, attacked the methods of the department of justice in the matter of its prosecution of the cotton pool. Jle did not complain because of the suits, but because the cotton producers and spinners had been inovlved in the matter. Complaining of partiality in the enforcement of the Sherman antitrust law, Mr. Simmons said that in undertaking to prosecute the bulls and not the bears, the department had undertaken only a partial prosecution. He said that the proceeding amounted to a usurpation of authority. Senator Simmons made oitter complaint against a course which he said had had the effect of placing t.he real cotton men in the light of speculators when the efforts had been in exactly the opposite direction. "If the cotton spinners of the country will co-operate in the same line which the cotton spinners of the South are pursuing, all the exchanges of the country will be on a spot basis instead of a paper basis," he said. He contended that contracts for future sales of cotton should be for a real and not a sham delivery.*' The Attorney General's attitude toward the price of cotton was sharply criticiced. He said that official had attacked prices not because of the pool, but because he considered them a national evil. "He has the whole matter wrong; prices are not abnormally high," said Mr. Simmons, they are certainly not above the level of prices fixed by the tariff and in the interect of monopoly." He said there had been no protest from the Attorney GeivfTal when the bears had squeezed $15 out of the price of cotton. He contended that the high prices of the present day were due to short crops and other natural causes. He said prices were not high -nough, and he thought they would go higher. "And the Attorney General cannot prevent that, whatever proceedings he may institute in the interests of foreign buyers," he added. 'Mr. Simmons refused to concede this Government the right to interfere with the purpose of affecting the price of the staple. "It is as startling as it is unpatriotic and it is as unpatriotic as it is untenable," he declared, speaking of the Attorney General's course. As our chief article of export, he declared, that the price of cotton should be kept up. He said that while the South always would be the first to receive the benefit of any increase the whole country would profit. 1)KPIX)KKS CHRISTIAN DIVISIONS Hisliop Anderson Urges Unity in Kvangclization. "Enough energy and money are wasted by rival railway and overlapping of the different denominations in America to preach the Gospel to the entire world. We must get together and stop this waste." Thus spoke Bishop Charles P. An derson, of Chicago, before the 'Men s National Missionary Congress in that city Wednesday. "Our divisions are unchristianlike and unstat smanlike, the speaker continued. "They are une.hristian, for Christlike Christians cannot be kept apart. A reunited church posessessed with faith and zeal would ho irresistible. It could evangelize the world in a generation. Let us spend our lives and money unifying the church and in universalizing the Gospel of Christ." ? mi ki>i;i{i:ks idextifikd. By One of the Men They Attempted to Assassinate. t I Tt begins to look as if the two ; negroes who held up a car, murdering the motorman, and danger3 ously wounding the conductor, near i Atlanta, Ga., some time ago has been 1 caught. Willie Johnson and Charlie 1 Walker, have been identified by f Conductor Walter Bryson as the asp sailants of himself and Motorman S. t T. Brown. Brown was killed on spot. Almost by a miracle Bryson, b w.ho was shot through and through, - is fast on the road to recovery. He . will be released from the hospital - within a day or two. Bryson, who i ~ r.. i ? In hie I <1 f?n 1 1 fi ! I lU!Vei I <11 1171 Oil wnv.v in mu b tlon, says the negro .Jackson shot f him and that Walker killed Brown, v ?? ? A Fatal Fall In the collapse of a scafTold on W'hich the bricklayers were working at the new Central of Georgia ltails way shops Monday at Macon, Ga., - four men were injured, one of them ft dying a few hours later at the Macon b Hospital. Without a moment's warni ing the temporary structure gave 1 way, and the men fell a distance of about fifty feet. FARMERS UNION Meet in Convention at St. Louis to Discuss General Matters. W. J. BRYAN WILL SPEAK The Assembly Represents Millions of American Producers.?President Barrett Sounds High Note for the Planters.?Farmers Should Command and Not Bog. The joint convention of the Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of America, the American Society of Equity and 400 subsidiary organizations opened in St. Louis on Monday morning. Ninety addresses are on the program, which concludes Saturday nip lit with jiii nddross bv W. J. Bryan. Samufl Gompers, president of t.he American Fed-eration of Labor, spoko Monday afternoon and outlined his plans for bringing about a ne.v political party through an affiliation of the farmers with the laboring men. President Barrett in opening the meeting made an excellent speech. He began his speech by saying that as the "representative of 3,000,000 militant American farmers, whose organized army rests one flank upon the Atlantic and the other upon the Pacific ocean, I give to you a cordial greeting, which shall know 110 boundaries of State or section, no narrowness or political partisanship or bigotry, but a tolerance as broad as justice and as wide as that sincerity that underlies our common heritage of American citizenship." Among other things he said: "the American farmer of tradition has been the farmer of the more of less humorous cartoon or caricature, variously represented as fair prey to the green goods man or the gold brick artist. And the farmer has been slow in awakening. His environment, in the first place, was against his awakening. The tardiness of facilities for communication, the infrequency with which newspapers penetrated to the far rural districts, and the natural suspicion, which is a part of his temperament all militated to keep him in shackles as to his own jxiwer, and his duty of self-government in the premises. "The era of sleep is at an end' The era of wakefulness to self-duty, to the obligation of self-help, to the obligation of duty to country is already dawning! I do not say that the farmer as a class is roused to hiB national importance and to his notional obligations. But I do assert, with all the emphasis at my command, and supported by all the experience of a lifetime, that the leaven or readjustment of revolutionary change is stirring throughout the mass of the American farmer." After stating that vandalism and graft are b'dng eliminated from our political life, the speaker said: "We are standing more resolutely each day for a literal interpretation of the doctrine of the 'square deal.' We are determined that the people and not the politicians shall rule. The Farmers' union is responsible both for the awakened farmer and the awakened nation, as regards the farmer. I'lonriintr far sincere. constructive leadership among the farmers. President Barrett said in the degree that this pervails, now and in the days to come, "we shall solve the agricultural problems perplexing the best and most consecrated thought of this country." lie said the solfir.h leadership is inevitable incendiary and destructive. "For it is almost criminally seltisJi aims it is willing to turn the farmer against his neighbor against his merchant, against the banker, against the resident of the city. It is ledership for revenue only, without one redeeming aspiration. "A distinct part of the rural problem is the cultivation of a better and a more cooperative spirit between the city man and the country man. Af* - ~ K. - yv ? * In (Y t't all, t iioy dhvg hiiuum t*vci ^ iuih^ in common. We ate both interested in the curbing and purging, not the destruction, of great agencies of civilization. We are noth interested in building up a more staunch AineriI can citizenship, free of pollution from damaging alien strains, bred and brought up to fulfill the ideal of pure and militant Americanism. And unless we realize this close mutual relations we shall both suffer." Speaking of the campaign of the t/>?v,' union for the enactment o( r ai uiui o Univ.. .? certain national legislation, Mr. Barrett said: "Politicians in general have paid and are paying more attention to the farmer, and that is because the farmer is paying more attention to the politician. Once let the public ofilcer conceive the id'\i that he is being watched continually by his constituent, and that the latter is carefully comparing promise with performance, and we shall elevate the standard of public sorvicc in this country. "I have urged upon Farmers' union members to refuse to let their attitude toward their congressmen be colored by any trival gifts on the part of the congressmen, the bribery of a petty office for a relative, or a cordial hanshake from the great man J TILLMAN IN AUGUSTA I IS QUITE FEEBLE BUT IS LOOKINU VERY WELL. 'Vj The Visit of the Senior Senutor Was of a Personal Nature, but Took a Shot at Teddy. The Augusta Chronicle says Senator Tillman was in Augusta for a few hours Tuesday, and while t.hero . was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Morrison. Senator Tillman was accompanied by his wife. The object of his visit was of a personal nature, 1 to look after t.he improvement of certain property of his in the city. "Senator Tillman was seen by a renni't / 'rPho Pli i*/\n i/il/i { not h/>f a*?/\ |/u? tv. i \/i i iiu w?i i wu iv/iv; j uni. uui v;i ^ te boarding the train Tuesday afternoon J for liis home. The senator, though J somewhat feeble, and lacking the ac- ] customed heartiness of handshake, 1 was very cordial in his answers to { questions regarding his health. . y/Jj Having found that his visit was T a purely of a personal nature, the re- \ \ porter asked Senator Tillman if .he had kept up with the happenings of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. ; Tho senator's look and silence spoke more than any amount of sarcasm or ridicule could have done. After a few minutes he mildly replied that he no longer tried to k<?ei> up with Roosevelt, that in his family the newspapers were read to him, J htit all references to Roosevelt were skipped. ^ "He is the grandest fakir in the world," said the senator, "and he has t.he best staff of press agents that there is in the world." IWihen asked to talk further upon topics of tho day, especially the I switch of Republican strongholds to Democratic strongholds, the Renator asked to be ercused, pleading weariness. ills menus in Augusta wore glad VJ to learn that the senator was well | enough to make the trip to Augusta. He came to Augusta from his home in Trenton, S. C., and returned there Tuesday afternoon. ^ Sl'MTEK MAX SUICIDES. Charles S. Poole Ends His Life by j Taking Poison. Anothern suicide has occurred at Sumter. Leaving a sealed not addressed to his wife, the contents of y wJiich is unknown, and with no known reason for the act, Charles S. Poole died (Monday at the Hotel ' Sumter, at 3 o'clock, from the effects / of a large dose of bicloride of mercury. which he administered to himself. Mr. Poole, who is a native of Sumter, but who has made his homo away for the past several years, was in the city on a visit. To all outward appearances he was his normal self, and there was no reason to suspect his rash act. Sunday night he registered ar the v Hotel, was assigned to a room, but do fore retiring, he went Into the writing room and there wrote a letter, which afterwards proved to he the one addressed to his wife. Ho went to 4iis room after 2 o'clock, and shortly before three, a hell hoy wsib summoned to his room. He was found in a horribly nauseated condition, and instructed the boy to phone for his w'fe, and to inform her that .he was dying. Mrs. Poole was summoned and a physician s'lit for at once, every possible effort being made to save him, ? but he succomed to the terrible ravages of the drug at three o'clock Sunday afternoon, just twelve hours ^ after it was administered. Poole was twenty-seven years old. HKVNION OP VKTURANS. v +. The Old Confods Will Meet in Spartanburg in August. Spartanburg is potting ready for the Confederate reunion. At a joint meeting of committees from Camp 1 Joe Walker, of the Confederate Veterans, the city council and the Chamber of Commerce, held Thursday \ morning, August 17 and 18 were the dates set for the annual reunion of Confederate Veterans, to be held in that city. These three bodies will cooperate in making all arrangements for the entertainment of the , old soldiers and arranging a pro. gramme for the reunion. It is \ , thought that reunion this year will be the largest that the Veterans , have ever held in this state, and the i city of Spartanburg Is making plans , for giving them a royal welcome. Alabama I/ooal Option. Alabama had an election on Tucr day and the returns from sixty-seven ; counties show that Emmet O'Neal? l local optionist?was nominated for uovernor in me lwiiiuuiiuii; ijinuni; .hold in that State by a majority of s 1,200 over his opponent, II. S. D. Mallory. Mallory ran on a state-wide > prohibition platform. himself. The tost of worthiness of continued endorsement at the polls is i deeds, not flattery, and that man is a > traitor to his country and to his r ideals who betrays his fellows by coni sidering a public obligation cancelled i by a private favor.