Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FOUR DIED AT FORT CAPT. HANNA DIES FROM WOUNDS RECEIVED ? MANY BARELY ESCAPED The llmvh of the Gun Was Torn Into Many Pieces and They Flew in Kverjr Direction, One Piece t?oing Four Hundred Feet and Ilerc ing a ltoof. The News and Courier says flags were at half-mast Friday over Fort Moultrie in recognizance of the only catastrophe of moment that has occurred since the establishment of the army post on Sullivan's Island. Only the half-masted flags and a sentry posted over the shattered gun remained Thursday in mute evidence of the fact that four lives had been sacrificed and at least three men in the service seriously injured because of a single defective shot. At 9:20 Thursday night Gun No. 2, of Rattery Lord, burst when the fourth shot was fired in target practice. Pieces of metal from tho exploded breech flew in every direction, menacing the safety of a score or more of army officials who were either operating the gun, directing its discharge or viewing the proceedings. The force of the explosion expended itself rearward so that the projectile dropped but a short distance before tho gun. ,When the smoke and confusion had cleared away Private Alton McD. Baxter and Private Arthur Christian lay dead and mutilated on the ground. Terribly injured Capt. Guy R. G. Manna pitched into the arms of Capt. Clarke, of the 144th company. His right side practically blown away, Private Hoy Dalton lay unconscious. Shoulder and hand were badly lacerated in the case of Private Stinespring; Hospital Steward Sergt. Lomar was knocked down and his right hand badly torn, while Private Swaggerty had his shoulder and hand cut hv flvini* iimfnl ~ ' *v n VTIir injured were rushed to the irmy post hospital, where I>r. James A. Simpson, the recently arrived army surgeon in charge, found himself unable to cope with the unusual situation. A hurry call to Charleston for medical and surgical assistance mot with instant response of a most generous nature, and shortly after midnight the yacht Grace cleared from the Carolina Yacht Club with seven Charleston physicians aboard, bringing with them equipment invaluablo in the emergency to be faced. Despite the best efforts of the medical men Private Baxter died almost immediately, so terrible were his injuries, although heroic operations were first performed. Capt. Hanna was resting fairly comfortably when the Charleston delegation left at 3 o'clock Thursday morning, but suffered a relapse and succumbed shortly after 9 o'clock. The injuries of ths others were successfully treated and they are on the road to recovery. Sergt. Lomar, however, found himself in a peculiarly unenviable position. Wtih Dr. Sinvpson hardly able to copo temporarily with the moro serious aspects of the accident, he was unable to find treatment nearer than Charleston. With his hand bleeding terribly he set out in the lighthouse tender for this city, under the care of Light Keeper H. S. Svendsen. The passage was rough and disappointing in the extreme, for when the launch landed in Charlestno it was learned that the local physicians were already en route in a body for tho scene of the accident. Sergt. Tx>mar Immediately returned, but so busy were the doctors with thoso whose injuries were of a more serious nature that it was some time before he could secure proper treatment. Saturday morning tho body of Capt. Hanna was put aboard the Carolina Special for Louisville. Capt. Hanna was thirty-four years old and is survived by a widow. He was appointed in March, 1899, and attained his captaincy in March, 1911. He had been stationed at (Moultrie for the past eight months. Dalton's body was shipped to Conway, Ky.; 'Piaster's to Cosby, Tenn., and Christian's to Ixmgstreet., Ohio. Two sisters of Private Haxter, who came down from Asheville, N. C.( to accompany him home on a furlough to ho granted at tho end of the target practice, which has been temporarily suspended, left Charleston in deep grief. To Investigate tho matter and make a detailed report of the cause of the trouble, Major Albert (L Jenkins, commanding the Fort Moultrie post, will appoint a board of officers It. i? possible that a special ordinance officer will represent the Federal authorities at the investigation. Col. F. S. Strong and Major Chas. Nugent, umpires of the practice, practice, were watching at the time of the accident. The men were tiring by moonlight and tracers were being used to show the hits made. The steamer Lieut. Leo was towing the target at the time. Gunner Commander Cass with Corpl. O'Leary was in charge of Section 1, and Corpl. Weston in charge of the second section. Parts of the WOULD HELP THE NAVY TILLMAN KEPOKTS HIS ANN A PC), i LIS MKASI KK. The Senior Senator Thinks His Measure Will Help to Prevent Shortage of Officers. Senator Tillman Friday made the i following report on a bill which ho rvceuuy uurouucea increasing tlie number of midshipmen at the naval academy: "Act of congress approved March 3. 1 903, provides that two midshipmen shall bo allowed for each senator, representative and delegate in congress until the 30th of Juno, 1913, and that after that date but one instead of two shall be authorized. The samo act provides for five midship, men e>ach year at large and ono from Puerto Kico, which will continue in force after June 30, 1913. "It is recommended that the law , for two midshipmen for each senator, representative and delegate in congress be continued indefinitely and , that the law for tho appointment of midshipmen at large be changed to read 'ten appointed each year at , large'. "The proposed law would give the president ten appointments each year, with a possible maximum of 10 midshipmen at largo in the academy at one time, which is the same as now allowed for West Point. The present law for 'five each year at large', was construed to mean not five such appointments each year but 20 in all , allowed at the academy at one time, t works unsatisfactorily, because in some years one or two vacancies occur, whereas in other years there are as many as seven or eight. , "The capacity of the naval academy is sufficient without enlargement to furnish officers for the line and stuff of navy and marine corps in adequate numbers for many years to come; but if the number of appointments be reduced, the relative cost of educating each midshipman will increase, while the existing shortage in the navy will grow rapidly worse. There is little likelihood of more graduates from the naval academy than the government will require. "It is most desirable that favorable action be taken at the extra session in order not to delay sending out notifications of vacancies to senators and representatives and the letters authorizing candidates to report for the examination in February and April, 1914, which would be the case if action by congress were delayed until the regular session." HEATH IN A FREE FIGHT. Four Men Have a Shooting Match at llerling, Georgia. Horace Homage is dead, his father, J. M. Homage has his head laid open with the butt end of a shot gun and Jerry and Jim Hart are believed to be dying as the result of a fight that took place on a road near Berlin, Ga. The two latter operate a saw mill and had been buying timber from the Homages. It is stated that there had been trouble about the purchase and in the morning the two Homage men, accompanied by Mrs. Homage, attempted, it is said, to intercept wagon loads of lumber, belonging to the Harts. The latter went to the scene in a buggy. What took place in the fight that followed ia not clear, but the four men mixed it with guns, hand to hand, and with rocks, until the only one of the party able to stand was Mrs. Homage, whom, it is alleged, fired the shot that brought down Jerry Hart. She went for a doctor when the flght was over. Horace Homage died three hours after the affray. CONFESSED AND ACQUITTED. ? Man (ietsS Iteilgion and Tells of Murder lie Committed. At Carcassonne, France, iMIquel Vallespi, who recently returned from the Argentine Republic and gave himself up to the police, declaring that he wished to go to the guillotine for the murder of a woman fifteen years ago, was given his freedom. Vallespi rebated his story in the assize court before a jury, and told of his struggles with his conscience, which finally led to his spiritual conversion and irresistibly impelled him to give up a prosperous position in Argentina to expiate his crime in France to satisfy the law. The jury, without leaving the box, acquitted '< him amid applause. ? ? White Carriers Strike. Seven white special delivery messengers at the Washington post o. .ee resigned because they declined to serve with negroes. mutilated rifle were found a great 1 distance away from the scene of the explosion, the plunger having been 1 hurled fully 400 feot through the 1 roof of 0. H. Moffett's house. While the accident was of a severity almost equal to that which killed eleven men at Monroe some years ago, it is the unanimous opinion of those who were witnesses that many must have had hairbreadth escapes from serious injury. 1 BRIBERY CHARGED . j THOMAS B. FELDER AG UN IN THE LIMELIGHT. ?.? i TRAPPED BY AN ENEMY Col. Folder, Who lHctaKraphcd Oth- ' < ers, is Himself Victim of Dictiv- ( graph?(liurged With Attempting ' < to Hribo City Kmployeo for Records < in the lMiagan Murder Case. The Mary Phagan murder ease in Atlanta took a new and decidedly interesting turn Friday. While the Fulton County grand Jury was considering the evidence so far secured as to tho murder of the pretty little ' fourteen-year-old factory girl, thore were developments tending to show the case has become entangled in a local political tight involving the war that has been waged against Chief of Police Heavers, who recently identified himself with the reform movement which wiped out the segregated district in Atlanta. It is alleged the political opponents of Chief Heavers and his assistants in the police department, have endeavored to make the investigation of the Phagan case a factor in the fight against him. On the other hand, it is claimed the local police have resented what they regard as aspersions against them in the efforts to bring outside detectives to the city to aolve the baffling murder mystery. It is also claimed that they have endeavored to entrap Col. Thomas H. Folder, a local attorney, who recently raised a fund to bring a detective of international reputation to Atlanta to investigate the murder of the Phagan girl. Col. Folder is widely known throughout the South. He was the attorney for Charles W. Morse, the New York banker, when the latter nhtnlnod lliu rnlnoun tVni.i ? Iw. ? ...? i v, i v, in iV' ii win int: r cueral Penitentiary at Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal printed late Friday what purports to be a stenographic record of a conversation between Col. Folder and F. C. February, secretary to N. A. Lanford, local chief of detectives, with a third party present. The conversation is alleged to have been secured by means of a secret telephonic device installed in an Atlanta hotel room at the directions of Atlanta detectives. The device is the one made famous by the detective whom Col. Felder employed against Governor Cole L. Please, of South Carolina, during a controversy with that Executive. The stenographic record in the local case was made by George M. Gentry, nephew of Col. W. T. Gentry, president of the Southern Bell and Cumberland Telephone companies. The Journal further presented a series of affidavits from Atlanta detectives and city employees, including February, which assert that Col. Felder offered them $1,000 if they would place in his hands certain papers in | the Phagan case which he declared i the Atlanta police had manufactured, or "framed", and which he believed i would be sufficient "to drive Beavers and Lanford from office." One of the affidavits in question ] was made, the detectives said, by J. ( \V. Coleman, stepfather of the Pha- j gan girl, who denied that he had ever ^ employed Felder to represent him in ; the prosecution of the case. This af- 1 fldavit also declares that the "affiant < is thoroughly satisfied with the great ; work done by Chief of Police Beavers ann unier or Detectives Lanford," and urges the citizens of Atlanta "to stand behind the Atlanta police department". Coleman is also a city employee, in the sanitary department. The detectives say the papers Col. Felder want- 1 ed were in the safe of the chief of ' detectives. They declare they told : the attorney they might be prosecut- 1 ed if they abstracted them, but say 1 he replied they could not he put in f the penitentiary so long as "his friend ' Hugh Horsey, was solicitor general". 1 They also declare that Felder said ( he could "control" the Criminal 1 Court Judge, iMayor Woodward and ' Solicitor Horsey. One of the affi- * davits asserts Felder said he could ' get Governor "Joe" Hrown, or Gov- 1 ernor-elect "Jack" Slaton to release c any of the men involved If an attempt were made to Jail them. February and A. R. Colyar, an investigator, in affidavits declare Felder denounced Chiefs Heavers and ^ Hanford as "grafters" and said: "I r can call a mass meeting to-morrow 1 afternoon and have 1 0,000 of the host ' citizens in this town meet at Five Points to-morrow night and go to L the station house and hang Heavers / and Lanford to telephone poles, the r two corrupt grafters and thieves." { Col. Felder Friday night said he ( had positively declined to pay any money for the evidence mentioned in j llio r> (Y!/lo biao U 11 lun v I to. | "I stated to thorn that I would in- ( troduco a gentleman, namely, Mr. E. < f). Miles, who might ho interested in securing possession of this ovidonoo. 1 am informed that Mr. Milos, aftor c mooting tho party, introdnrod Mayor ( Woodward and sovoral othor gentle- j men, who aro intorostod In probing N tho police department. I will later ]> make a complete reply to those nffl- t davits, and In addition to tljls I will c WILL HAVE NEW BOARD ' CIVIL SEKVICE COMMISSIONKHS TO ( IIAXGK. ? President Wilson Wants Men oil the Honrs I Who Will Impartially A(l- ' minister the Law. The Washington correspondent ot The News and Courier says South 1 Carolina scores again in the semi-offl3lal report that President Wilson will in a few days nominate Charles \l Galloway, secretary to Senator E. I). SutitIt. and clerk of the Immigration committee of the Senate, te succeed fJr>n I?Sn <' ? ' " ....... uv/iiu v . Dim i\ an a uu'iuut'r 01 tho United States civil service commission. , At the same time the President will , nominate Geo. it. Wales, of Vermont, , who Is now chief examiner of the < commission, to succeed William | Washburn, of New York, as a member of the commission. , The third member of the present civil service commission, John A. Me- i llhenny, of Louisiana, will be retain- , ed, and will become ,by seniority tho < president of the body. Mclihenny is a Democrat and former Rough Rider, , who was appointed by President Roosevelt. lie supported Wilson in the campaign. Wales is a Republi- , can. j Tho decision of tho President means that ho lias determined to have a "rattling of dry bones" in the ; administration of the civil service, which has been the target of steady and effective attack by Democratic ( Senators ever since the new administration came into power. It lias been demonstrated that in spite of the supposedly non-partisan 1 rules of the commission, the result of i its labors for a number of years past i lias been to give the Republicans an | enormous advantage in the distribu- 1 tion of offices. After having a number of flagrant charges brought to i in* aiu-nuon, president Wilson made up his mind to change the personnel , of the commission and give the conn- \ try a new deal. < Mr. Galloway is a lawyer and a ; former telegraph operator and news- | paper man. having been news editor i of the Columbia State when chosen | by Senator Smith to he his secretary. ; By his ability and courtesy, he has made a great many influential friends in Washington, who were glad to en- | dorse him for the important position i to which he is about to be appointed. ! He is generally admitted to have high : qualifications for the oifi'ce. 'Both of ? the South Carolina Senators have < urged his appointment, and the ma- ; jority of their Democratic colleagues have backed them up. ( # # # 1 WIIKKK IS THK FOOL KILLFK? 1 ^ ! He Seems to be Kudly Ne<xle<l in i i New York City. , The Countess Helen Krasieka, who 1 was 'Miss Helen Montgomery of New 1 York, arrived on the Atlantic trans- ' port Minneapolis to visit her mother 1 in that city recently. For no other 1 reason, she says, would she ever have ' returned, as she hates America and everything American. 1 "Yes, I am American born and I'm mighty sorry to have to acknowledge 1 It," she declared. "American moth- ^ ods are abominable. I have been liv- ( ing in Brussels, and I think it would 1 pay you New Yorkers to send a com- f mittce over there to study how to 1 live. The average American has no culture." < OPPOSED BY TIMAIAN. senator Says Anderson Shall Not be ^ Postmaster. A dispatch from Washington says jays Senator Tillman has held up the , nomination of (i. M. Anderson at S'inoty-Six, and declares that he shall lever be confirmed. Senator Tillman's opposition is based on the assertion that Anderson has always jeen a bitter anti-Tlllmanlte, said democrats could not win and that he lid not vote in the general election ast November. Senator Tillman has nsisted that Representative Aiken ihall name another man for the place ! io will do. If Senator Tillman sticks o his position Anderson will loose >llt. a Explosion kills Three. Seventeen hundred pounds of pow- f ler in a mine maglzine at Sackhart, ?fd., exploded recently, killing throe r nen and doing damage to nearby louses estimated at thousands of dolars. indertake to show to the people of r Vtlanta a condition which exists in espeet to the so-called detective de- a >artment that will bo appalling to n hem as it was to ine." * Folder said he interested himself c n the Phagan case at the request of c leighbors and friends of the Cole- 1 nans, parents of the murdered girl. Mr. Coleman." lie said, "personally * ipproved the employment." The grand jury adjourned until laturday for further consideration of he case against Loo M. Frank, su- r lerintendont of the pencil factory, r vhere Mary Phagan worked, and .1 s'ewt. Lee. negro niglit watchman \ here, who had been held by the cor- t iner's jury. I Faxed to death * JAPAN COULD NOT ENDURE ANT ADDED BURDEN ? ? FERRIFIC INCOME TAX I/ctt??r from CoiihuI (icncral at Yokohama Shows XVhot lengths Japan owe Are Willing to Go to Support Government, Hut the Tuxtvt Arc a (jr?'Rt Burden. Apropos of two questions of present interest to tlie people of the United States is a communication just received from Consul General Thomas Summons, stationed at Yokohama, on the income tax in Japan. The information from Consul General Salomons is striking from two points of view. It Indicates tho astonishing lengths to which the people of Japan have been willing to go in nupportting their Government, and it indicates that they could not well endure any additional financial burden at this time. Mr. Summons says that a new income tax law has been adopted in the Island Empire. Under the former law tho rate on private incomes began with 2 per cent, on incomes above $150 a year, rising successively to 2 Vh per cent, on incomes be-1 t ween $ 2 5 0 an d $ a 0 0, t o 3 % per cent, on incomes between $500 and $1,000, to 4 per cent, on incomes between $1,000 and $1,5 0 0, to 4 % between $ 1,500 and $2,500, to 6 between $2,500 and $5,00, to 7Vi hotween $5,000 and $/,500, to 0 between $7,5 00 and $10,0 0 0, to 11 Vi between $10,000 and $15,000, to 14 between $25,000 and $50,000 and to 20 1-3 per cent, on all abovo $50,000! As if t llO nlfl rnln u'/irn vy.x. i uixj n Viu IIUl IM'Cl \ y enough, tho now law provides for a lax of 2 V& por cent, on all private incomes below $500 a year, for 3 on ill between that figure and $10,000, for 4 % between $1,000 and $1,500, for 5 V& between $1,500 and $2,500, for 7 between $2,500 and $3,500, for 8% between $3,500 and $5,000, for 10 between $5,000 and $7,500, for 12 between $7,500 and $10,000, for fourteen between $10,000 and $15,000, for 1G between $15,000 and $25,000, for 18 between $25,000, and $2 5,000, and $25,000, for 20 between $35,000 and $50,000, and for 22 pjer 2ont. on all private incomes above $50,000. On commercial incomes the old law >xacted 4 V6 per cent, below $2,500 a pear, whereas the new law reduces ibis tax to 4 0 per cent. Between $2,>00 and $5,000, however, commercial ncomes have to pay 5 per cent., an ncrease over the former rate. Be:ween $5,000 and $7,500 tho rate Is now 6 per cent., as compared to the previous rate of 5. Between $7,500 ind $10,000 the Japanese merchant must pay now 8 per cent., instead of 5 % , as formerly. Between $15,000 and $1 00,000 this rate now runs from 9 to 1 3 per cent., when it used lo run from 8% to The puzzle is now the Japanese citizen manages to exist under such a burden of taxation, which would iause the overthrow of any Occidental Government. That any nation itruggling under such a financial load would venture on war with a country like the United States over a quesion such as now agitates tho Pacific loast states is almost inconceivable. WOMAN STARVED TO DEATH. Pound Dead in a Handsomely Furnished Old Mansion. In a large residence at Yonkers, N. V., occupied by herself and brother >11 a fashionable residence street, Ada Ounscomb, a middle aged spinster, vas found dead Thursday night, a dctim of starvation, according to the oroner. Searchers found no food in he house. A physician was called >y S. Dunscomb, aged BO, the wonan's brother, who found the woman >11 a couch in a room, hor body clad n rags. The Dunscomb residence ias been a house of mystery to the leighbors for twelve years when the amily moved there. The blinds havo ilways been drawn. No servants were tmployed and no visitors have been een at the mansion. Officials say ostly old furniture is falling to deces from neglect. Dust has accunulated,-apparently, for years. This Patient Got Well. A well known Wedgeffeld nhvsl ian, discussing the case of R. Sanlers Walker of Macon suprlsod his Liiditors hy telling them that ho had i patient a few years ago who took, hrough mistake, six consecutive sevn-grain tablets of bichloride of morury four hours apart. The patient lad a vomiting spell after taking ach tablet, which Is all that saved ilm. South Carolina Plums. The president sent the following lominatlons of South Carolina postmasters to the Senate Thursday: oseph M. Poulndl, Charleston: J. F. Vay, Holly Hill; S. M. Ward, Cleorgeown: Rouls Stackoy, Kingstree; P. I. Fike, Spartanburg. MAKING SOME CHANGES ELIMINATING N EG HOES FHOM TIIE OFFICES. Whore They Have Precedence Over Hundreds <if White Men and Wn. iuen Employee#*. A Washington letter Hays as a Ron- B eral thing. this Administration 1b not B disposed to cater to the colored vote B by letting negroes hold ofllces which H carry authority. Tho President's in Cabinet may not be absolutely a unit B in Its view of this matter, but It B comes nearer being unanimous about B the desirability of obHerving the ||j racial line than any other Admlnls- p|| tration ainco tho war. ilf The colored Assistant Attorney B (leneral of the United States, who r! was appointed by President Taft, has Iff been eliminated by tho simple process I ,r. of abolishing liis oflice, and the samo B plan Is being considered with regard I to tho $4,000 position of reglstor of I ^ the troasury, now held by J. C. Na- I pier, of MisslsRlppi. ^ j This place has been considered tho H | special plum of "tho colored brother" I j for many years. Secretary of the I Treasury McAdoo recently referred to I First Assistant Secretary John Skel- H ton Williams the (luestion of what to I do about Napier's place, and Mr. Wil- I Hams is believed to have reported I that it could be dispensed with with- H out impairing the efficiency of the H service in the least. Secretary McAdoo and Assistant I Secretary Williams aro both South- fl ern men and fully appreciate tho un- H desirability of having negroes in of- I flclal positions where they havo i>rec- I edenco over hundreds of white men I and women employees, to say nothing H of tho public. An order has been promulgated by I Mr. Williams requiring that the whlto | and colored clerks In the treasury i, department shall not eat together at r;'< lunch, but that separate places for I-.;/ their recreation shall be provided. H Au l not a inurmur has been heard H against this change in Washington, H which is really very tired of the undue "swing" which has been hereto- k| fore allowed the negro for political ip reasons. H j * * * ;;; FOUND IN COTTON FIKLD. || Spartanburg Ilnhy Iyo.st in Runaway ||| Enjoys Escapade. ||ji A Spartanburg special to The News E| and Courier says G. N. Nichols, his H wife, two year old daughter and H nursing baby were riding in a buggy H Sunday afternoon on their way homo H to Fairmont from that city when the 1|| horses took fright and ran away. As l|| tho horse turned sharply to one side BP of tho road, Mr. Nicholls was thrown H The two-year-old child next fell out of the side of the lurching buggy and lij the horse darted across a cotton field, ||| where tin- baby was deposited. About half a mile further down tho road ^B tho horse ran the buggy against a H tree and Mrs. Nichols was thrown out BB and painfully but not seriously inj u red. I! The mother, father and two-year-^B old child scrambled to their feet and ^B eventually met. In a perfect tremor ^B of apprehension they then started to Bra find the baby. In tho cotton patch, E| sitting up on a tiny hillside, crowing H| and cooing, the little mito was found ?a picture if happiness. |fl ? ? AIKEN FAMILY POISOVPn S$1 One Child lias Succumbed and Three Bjg| Others May I)le. |||j| Advices received at Aiken Thursday afternoon stato that Mr. Matt Clark and seven children, of Eg White Pond, aro suffering from pto- Eg maine poisoning, caused by eating Kg canned goods. |j| Two physicians have been in con- KB stant attendance, but despite this^| fact, one child is already dead, and three others aro not expected to live. For Mr. (Mark and the remaining children, the physicians still hold out 111 some hope. MB The afflictions visited upon thisH|! family during the past six days areBg most tragic and unusual. Just about E| a week ago, the father and ten of his^B children were bitten by a dog who^B had the rabies. ^B The entire party was carried f<>^B Columbia for treatment and had Just Hi returned home, when this second BS blow fell upon them. The wife and BB mother Is beside herself with grief. lara rsine .Men were Lost. HH Nine men were drowned Sunday KB night when a Btorin blew a pile-driv-^H er and a barge ashore near Katelta.^ffl Alaska. The men wore building a^n fish trap for (lie Northwestern Fish-HB erics Companj at the mouth of Mar tin river near Katelta. \ furious^H storm started Sunday night and^H broke six anchors with which the^H pile driver and barge were mad ' IH They were driven eighteen aiib-s^H along the shore, where tho> struck " IH the beach. I Killed l?y llrother-iii-law. H Mile Martin, for many years agcnt^H of the Central of Georgia Railroad at^H Dunlap, nine miles from Athens. Ga., was shot to death Wednesday^! afternoon by his brother-in-law.