University of South Carolina Libraries
I k flje fotwtu llecotb. - - . ? ^ . ' VOLUME 36?NO. ^ 4*1 THE COUNTY RECORD, KINGSTREE, S. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1922. PRICE $1.50 A YEAR IN ADVANCE + t , HORRIBLE DISASTER IN WASHINGTON ROOF OF MOVING PICTURE THEATER CAVES IN UNDER WEIGHT OF SNOW. The Knickerbocker theater, a large moving picture show house in the city of Washington caved in Saturday night under the weight of the heavy fall of snow. Up to Sunday night the toll of dead had read ed 107 persons when a final canviss was made of the city hospitals and all of the several emergency ^medical stations which had been established ^ f to care for the victims. This was said to indude everybody thus far recovered from the ruins. The list of injured totalled 134 and of these 14 were recorded as having sustained serious hurts. Of those in hospitals some sustained injuries in many cases of such character that the icvtims, if they recover, will be maimed for life. Ninety-two of the victims had oeen identified when the force of volunteer workers, 24 hours after the disaster, approached the end of their long search of the debris. Nine additional bodies of those who had succumbed to injuries after rescue lay in city hospitals. The large majority of the victims, both killed and injuried, were residents of the city, although many came recently from other places. Exploration of the ruins went on unchecked after dark but those in charge believed few additional bodies would be found. Without regard to their own risk soldiers, marines, sailors, police, firemen and citizen volunteers had fought their way beneath the wreckage over practically the whole floor space of the auditorium. The exact number ;n the .theater when the steel and concrete span of the roof buckled and fell under its three foot load of snow probably will never be known. The more than 800 in the audience was roaring in laughter at a filmed comedy when the roof fell on them like a blanket, car-, rying down the front of the wide balcony in its path. Normally the theater-has every seat filled at that hour and nearly 2,000 persons was its capacity. The same unp:-ecedented snowfall which brought death to the venturesome few kept the many at home. Street car traffic had been abandoned and streets and sidewalks were all but impassable wfth drifts. Recovered from the wreck and horror of the ruined Knickeibocker theater, a pitiful stream of mangled bodies, dead and living, flowed all niaht and Sundav into the lower rooms of a Christian Science church a few hundreu yards away. As, the first word of the disaster, the place was thrown open to the sricken folks and the hundreds of others who came to search for their dead or injured. And as the full weight of the losses became known the dead monopolized the space, crowding the injured in the all too small rooms. It was merely a first aid station for those taken crushed, but alive, frtm the wreckage. They were carried on stretchers over the slippery pavement with lines of soldiers keeping the crowds back. Doctors and , ' nurses and women eager to bring their sympathy and cheer to the suffering or bereaved, waited in the church. They tenderly washed away the gray dust of crumbled concrete, the grime and caked blood, blackened some times by hours of waiting pinned under the debris until the rescuers cut the victims loose. Bandages were applied and then the injured were whisked away to hospital or home. Sought by Relatives. But the dead lay long in the double rows in which they stretched across the floor, lay until a tearful relative or friend, a husband or wife or father or mother, recognized the crushed form at last Up and down these aisles of the dead walked those whose fears had drawn them here because of some one missing in the family circle. Women already weeping in certainty of what they must find sooner or later beneath the kindly blankets . that shielded the sleepers made the journey of sorrow many times before N 0 they found what they sought. Men with working faces leaned to draw r tack the coverings and then gasp with short lived relief as they moved on to the next huddled form. , 4k Some of these seekers came with the dirt and grime of the wreckage upon them still. Some had passed - Co DASHES TO DEATH j TO ESCAPE FLAMES! DAMAGES ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Clio, Jan. 29.?Fire near noon today destroyed business establishments in Clio and entailed a loss of approximately $125,000. A tragedy in connection with the fire was the death of R. D. Quick, who collided with a truck as he dasheel to safety from a falling wall and was killed almost instantly. The truck was driven by P. H. Lipscomb. The body was placed in a nearby building and the coroner notified. Empaneled a jury and an inquest held Monday morning. The tragedy is greatly deplored but could not be avoided by Mr. Lipscomb, who is deeply affected by it. Just how the fire originated is not known. The first evidences of it were in the Blackman & Mclnnis Drug store about 11:30 o'clock and for more than two hours it raged with the resultant loss as follows: Blackman & Mclnnis Drug store, $8,500, with $3,000 insurance; Covington company, $76,000, stock insurance about 60 per cent; Covington company's buildings, $25,000, partially insured; Wright & Powers, stock $6,000, with $2,500 insurance; D. K. Wright's building, $5,000, partially insured; J. C. Covington's building, $5,000, partially insured; Southern Bell Telephone company's office equipment, unknown. J, E. Harrison, telephone operator, lived over the drug store and all his personal effects were lost, as he and Mrs. Harrison were away when the fire was discovered. Bennett Hedgepetn Hardware company had a loss by moving out their $8,000 stock which was covered. Damage to the Melinda building in which Bennett Hedgcpeth were located was considerable from the falling wall of the Covington company building. A lot of cotton ignited from Calling sparks at the Atlantic Coast Line depot, which is a loss to the railroad, as it was covered by bills of lading, ten bales being damaged. The fire department iiom Bennettsville came to the rescue and rendered much assistance. through the crash of the roof and balcony only to leave a dear one dead in the tangled mass. They had worked hours with the rescuers to find that one, only to turn now and then for a hurried trip to the chamber of death. Eleven times death struck down husband and wife, side by side. They died as they had sat to see the swift picturing of the film. But many other times it was only the wife or the husband who perished and the survivor must make the terrible pilgrimage of recognition in the grim chamber of the dead. The times when children were taken were sparingly few. Usually the big theater has been in its earlier hours of a Saturday the gathering place of a host of youngsters who come witfr their parents for the week's amusement. But the storm that wrecked the Knickerbocker kept most of the little folks at home that night. A Victim Tells of Crash. An avalanche of broken plaster, bricks, snow, splintered wooden and twisted steel beams catapulting upon the audience while the orchestra played and a comedy film ground out is the description of the Knickerbocker theater disaster given today by Representative John H. Smithwick of! Pensacola, Fla. He was in the bal-1 cony of the theater when the roof! j collapsed under its weight of snow j and escaped unaided?just how he I can not recall?with more or less serious hurts. "The orchestra was playing beautiful music and a comic film was running," said Mr. Smithwick, lying in his bed, bandaged and with his face and hands covered with cuts. "Suddenly there was a sharp crack. I looked up and saw a great fissure running across the ceiling. It was right over my head. I instantly realized what was happening. The plaster began to fall, dropping down in large and small chunks all over' the theater, it seemed to me. While I was looking up a great piece right over my head started to fall. I duck-, ed, crouching, involuntarily, I suppose down between the seats. The piece struck the seat right where I had been sitting. The force was broken (Continued on last page) I ii . V- K ;: - i.;. .v.'. : v -.,,v COURT REFUSES BIGHAM APPEAL ATTORNEYS, DISAPPOINTED, HAVE NOT DETERMINED UPON FUTURE STEPS. In an opinion handed d wn late Thursday afternoon the Supreme court refused a new trial for Edmund D. Bigham, all the members of the court concurring in the decision. This means that the sentence cf the lower court will stand. Bigham, however, will be brought to Florence during the^Iarch term of the criminal court which begins on March 20 to b. re-sentenced. Any action that may be taken by his attorneys to cany the case further will be taken at that time. In discussing the decision Mr. A. I. King, attorney for Bigham, stated Thursday: "The decision comes as a great surprise to the appellant's attorneys for the reason that they submitted the case in all good faith believing that practically every question presented was meretorious. The decision is especially disappointing," he continued, "for the reason ?that a vast majority of the bar who had expressed themselves, were of the opinion that the case would be reversed." No word of cnticism was voiced by Mr. King in discussing tne cecision of the Supreme court. It was plain, however, that his disappointment was bitter. The attorney feels that he 1ms exhausted every element of the case that has developed up to this time in his appeal to the Supreme court, and that he has made a good, clean fight for Bigham. He does not hesitate to say, however, that he still has graVe doubts of Bigham's guilt. Mr. King stated that he had not decided what steps to take to carry the case further, if any. "This will not be decided," he said, "until I have a consultation with Judge Mendel M. Smith, who is associated with me in the case. Whatever is done, however, will be done when Bigham is brought here in March to be resentenced to death and a date set for his electrocution." Mr. King suggested that there were M." V Clttl ftVCUUCO IVf UIV * va the case in the event that he and his associate decided to avail themselves of any of them. There was the possibility of carrying the case to the Supreme court on the ground that there were noi women on the jury, as' is being done in several cr.ses pending now, this constitution providing that juries shall be drawn from the whole population, or that an appeal for a new trial could be made on the round of after discovered evidence. Mr. King stated frankly that he (lid not care to resort to mere technicalities, and whatever step he took would have a solid foundation in law. He expects to have a consultation with Judge Smith in near future. The announcement of the decision of the Supreme court created a great deal of interest there Thursday. The case is one of the most notorious that has ever been tried in the Florence courts and its progress has been followed by thousands throughout the State. In it?? review of the Supreme court decision the "State said Thursday: "The Supreme court Thursday handed down an opinion dismissing the appeal of Edmund D. Bigham and affirming the lower court verdict The court dismissed all the objections raised by defense counsel as to an un fair trial and unjust cnargmg oy Judge Memminger. "Chief Justice Gary wrote the opinion and Associate Justice Gothran concurred. Justice Fraser wrote a separate concurring opinion. "Bigham was convicted of killing his brother, L. Smiley Bigham, the tragedy occurring near Pamplico on January 15, 1921. He was charged with the murder of Smiley Bigham, his mother, Mrs. L. S. Bigharh; his sister, Mrs. Margery Black, and Mrs. Black's two adopted children, Leo and John McCracken. He has never been tried for the killing of any members of the family except L. Smiley Bigham. First Degree Verdict. "Bigham was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to die April 8, 1921. He appealed to the Supreme court and Thursday this court dismissed his appeal. Bigham has been in the death house at the penitentiary since a few days following his conviction. Bigbam will be carried to Florence i ' STATE BIRTH RATE SECOND IN COUNTRY DEATH RATE LOWEST SINCE RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT. When it comes to the baby crop of 1921, the year of financial depression, South Carolina is second to only one state in the union, according to the records in the bureau of vital statistics. The one state that outpointed South Carolina in he matter of births in 1921 was North Carolina. In 1921 the total number of births in this state was 49,342, which is at the rate of 29 babies per 1,000 population. This was next to the highest rate in the registration area in the United States, according to health officials. Not only was the birth rate high, but the death rate was low?the lowest South Carolina has maintained since she was admitted to the registration area. The total number of deaths in the state in 1921 was 20,162, which was at the rate of 11.9 people per 1,000 population. These figures were t^ken from the records of the bureau of vital statistics of the state board of health. South Carolina was admitted to the registration area not very long ago. The admission means that national nfflmol': MMomiTP tVip stfltistiw furnished as approximately accurate, and recognition was awarded after an investigation had shown that the figures and records kept at the office were accurate and reliable. The bureau of vital statistics has registered and indexed the 49,342 births, according to the state health officer. The supreme court of the United States, on Monday decided the boundary dispute between Georgia and South Carolina, holding that where there are no islands in the river the line shall be midway between the two states a normal flow stage and that where there are islands the line shall be midway between the islands and the South Carolina shore. The island in the Chattooga river were awa > ded to Georgia. county at the next term of general sessions court for resentencing. . "The crime was one of the most revolting in the history of Florence county and great interest has been kept up in thfe case. The first theory advanced was that Smiley Bigham had killed the members of his family and then committed suicide, but an investigation resulted in the arrest of Edmund Bigham and latter his conviction. "After his conviction, Bigham went before the Supreme court on a habeas corpus proceeding, claiming that he had never been tried, in that the Florence court was unlawful due to the fact that Judge Memminger continued the court longer than the term was supposed to have run. The supreme court dismissed this plea and Bigham then went before the court in regular appeal at the fall term in 1921. "In the opinion handed down by the court it is clearly stated that all of trie oDjecnons raisea are wiuiuui. grounds for reversing the circuit court. The refusal to grant a change of venue was proper, the court says and adds that Bigham received the benefit in Florence of the prejudice against Smiley Bigham, who had been tried for a "revolting murder," but acquitted. Regarding Charging. "Edmund Bigham claimed Smiley Bigham had killed the members of the family and then committed suicide, and one objection raised was that Judge Memminger charged improperly on this point as to suicide "A part of Judge Memminger's charge, "as to the case," was objected to, but the court says the charge was absolutely just and was not prejudicial to BighaVn. "Probably the most important odjection was that Judge Memminger < did not charge the jury that Bigham ' was clothed with a presumption of in- 1 nocence, but the court says Judge ?' Memminger did make this clear in i part of his charge. 2 "As to the language used > by the : judge to Attorney King the court $ays 1 Mr. King did not speak court language < and that Judge Memminger was cor- 1 rect in stopping Mr. King when he 1 did stop him, adding that a judge may < lose control of his court within half i a minute if he does not take imme- J diate charge of any situation arising." 1 FORD EAGER 10 AIT AT MUSCLE SHOALS PROMISES CHEAP FERTILIZER TO FARMERS IF CONGRESS WILL AUTHORIZE LEASE. 1 Detroit,. Jim. 27.?Henry Ford is near the goal of pricps he set out to attain several years ago when he announced he would sell "a car, a tractor and a truck fcr $1,000." The price for the three now is $1,173. Today he cut the price of the tractor 37 per cent?$230. On the yearly production of 500,000 tractors this means a cut of $115,000,000 in revenue from tractor sales. ? i 11 ?... 1.VA ? "1 nave Deen a iarmer an my in-c, Mr, Ford said, "and am vitally interested in solving the farmer's problems, especially that ve:-y acute problem .of reducing cc3ts of farm production. Although during the last eighteen monchs farmers l:ave bettered their financial conditions, production costs are still tco close to selling prices to allow fair margins of profit "We are doing our part in bringing the cost of power machinery within the farmer's reach. Another way is through fertilization of the soil, building up the yield of crops per acre. If Congress will lease Muscle Shoals to us we'll show the American farmer what we can do to bring a very cheap and effective fertilizer within his reach." "But," it was pointed out to Mr. Ford, "it is charged in Washington that you cannot make fertilizer at Muscle Shoals at a price cheaper than the present market price." "If that were so, why is the fertilizer trust so strenuously opposing our getting the property?" Mr. Ford asked in return. "I can tell you right now that if we get Mu9ele Shoals the thing we will do is to start making cheap fertilizer. The most impressive fact that entered my mind after my recent trip down here was that those great plants are all ready to be set in motion. "A crew of men could get everything in place and adjusted in a very few days. Then well take the steam power plant there on the property, start it up, and have the big plants going within a week of the time we get the lease. Fd lfide to go down that way again pretty soon, nut wnen I do I want to start those plants running. Spring is coming on now and its time to get to work." WOMAN BURNS TO DEATH Attempting to Thaw Out Frozen Water Pipes. Her clothing becoming ignited while attempting to thaw frozen water pipes under her house with a burning kerosine soaked sack, Mrs. R. E. Tollison, aged' 31, was burned to death at Greenwood Friday of last week before assistance could reach her. Mrs. Tollison was the wife of R. E. Tollison, bookkeeper for the Greenwood Grocery Company. Mrs. Tollison was alone at her home when the tragedy occurred. She had driven home In her car and was still muffled ih her wraps when her clothing caught afire. Before the flames were extinguished almost every thread of clothing had burned off and her features had been charred until they were unrecognizable. In response to her screams for help, a next door neighbor went to the burning woman's assistance. By the time lie reached her she was unconscious and her -* ??1 ? Ada. Doras provea i&uu. ** mm imcu gallon kerosine can and a handful of matches were found on a box in the yard near her body. Mrs. Tollison's hucband was not at home at the time and fire trucks passed him on the way to his house. He did not know of the accident until he saw the body of his wife covered with a quilt in a room at his home, where she had been carried, o South Carolina is paying its 1921 debt at the rate of a half million a week. State Treasurer Carter states that so far he has been able to meet all the notes due this month. The state borrowed last year $4,000,000 for running expenses and $1,000,000 for some past-due debts. The $4,000,000 is coming due now at the rate of $500,000 a week, running from the second week in January until the Bret week in March. The $1,000,000 of renewed notes is due May 9. State < tax money is slow this year, but so far, says Mr. Caiter, the big notes lave been met hjT- *' ?>?'; i 'J*2 \ '?|T * . ,*3T ' : ? *? ' ' . /.: ... SERVICE HEN SEEK ACTION ON BERGDOLL MOVEMENT IN CONGRESS TO UNEARTH COMMITTEE REPORTS. A Washington dispatch to the Charleston Sunday News says: Some six months ago there were laid be- > fore the House of Representatives the majority and minority reports of the special committee of five members which was appointed to investigate the circumstances of the escape of the country's best-known slacker, f Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, of Philadelphia, who sought and obtained refuge in Germany?the enemy's conntry at the time he fled. Now that we have made a treaty of peace with Germany and have resumed diplomatic, relations, many members of the House, and partku- ' V larly those with service records, desire to seek the extradition of Berg* doll without any further loss of time. . They want to put it op to Germany to return this breaker of his conn- 'i try's laws. In order to ventilate the matter they will seek to pull the reports of the special investigation \ committee out of the pigeonholes in which they have been reposing for . half a year or so. Therp will be some hot debate over j > J the disposal of these reports?though :. y it would probably have been hotter * if Representative Henry D. Flood, of Virginia, had not died. Mr. Flood . submitted a scathing majority report, signed by himself and Representar tives Johnson, of Kentucky, and 4 Luhring, of Indiana, recommending ' | the punishment of certain army officers responsible for the safe-keeping of Bergdoll and in calling for the disbarment from federal practice ef s former Gen. Samuel %T. Ansell, who A was one of the counsel for BergdoB y W and had given personal assurances to the War Department that it waa all right to let the slacker go with . two guards in search of a "pot of * gold" which Bergdoll claimed to have, hidden somewhere in Maryland. Bergdoll induced the twp guards to accompany him to his mother's home K & in Philadelphia on the vay, and. during that visit he made his celebrated escape. For some time during the war period Ansell had been Acting JudgoAdvocate-General of the army.* He g had a bitter controversy with See- ^ retary of War Baker and Judgb-Ad- /: v ocate-General Crowder over the administration of army justice and * \i.tj signed to enter the private practice ' J of law, becoming counsel soon afterwards for the special committee which the Republicans of the House ap- .j pointed to investigate the conduct ef | the war by the Wilson Administration. The minority report cf the special j Bergdoll committee was signed by * its chairman, John A. Peters,, of ? - - . T* LI* Maine, and by one otner Xvcpuuucan member, Representative ^McArthur,, . * of Oregon. This report wac very \ ,j much milder than the Flood-Johnson- ). Luhring report, and that was why . Representative Luhring, an Indiana ?j Republican, parted company with his two Republican colleagues and weat over to the two Democrats, thus making the latter's repcrt the majority finding of the committee. But for the act"- <r-in J turning his back upon the Peters- ' I McArthur report as inadequate to the situation, the report of the special committee on the Bergdoll case would have assumed ?. straight partisan aspect, with the three Republicans signing what is now the minority report and the two Deare- ? crat signing what is now the ma- " jority report But the course of this Indiana Republican member broke up j the prospect for a straight party fight and embarrassed some of the 4 ? a Republican leadens not a little, iney did not mind letting the Babject slum- % ber in the desk of the Clerk of tie ? ; House just as long asjt could. In the meanwhile, ^ Bergdoll has plenty of time to move with hiK/wpot o: gold" into Russia if lie fears that Germany might deliver him over to the country from whose justice he , is a fugitive. ' o , ' -a At midnight last Thursday the Senate Daased the inheritance tax bill -J by a viva voce vote. A fight, led by Senator Baker, of Florence, on the measure collapsed and the bill was ordered returned to the House with amendments. This is the first of the v remedial tax measures to pass the Senate. .. * J