THE
WINFIELD COURIER.
WINFIELD,
COWLEY COUNTY, KANSAS, THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1886.
SIX
PAGES.
Professional
Cards.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ATTORNEYS.
SAMUEL DALTON. ATTORNEY AT LAW. Office corner
of Ninth avenue and Loomis street.
J. F. McMULLEN. ATTORNEY AT LAW. Winfield,
Kansas. Ninth Avenue. Practices in all courts.
HACKNEY & ASP. ATTORNEYS AT LAW.
Winfield, Kansas. Office in Hackney Building, opposite the Court House.
WILL T. MADDEN. ATTORNEY AT LAW. Practices in
all courts. Prompt attention given to all business entrusted to him. Office
over J. J. Carson’s store.
J. E. SNOW. LAWYER. Justice of the Peace and
Notary Public. All business entrusted to me will be promptly attended to.
Office 213 E. 9th avenue, Winfield, Kas.
W. H. TURNER. ATTORNEY AT LAW. Winfield,
Kansas. Loans money on real estate on short notice. Money loaned on chattel
mortgage security and notes bought on reasonable discount. Office in Fuller
& Torrance Block.
PHYSICIANS.
R. F. HOYT PILCHER. Is permanently located for
the practice of Medicine and Surgery, at New Salem, Kansas.
DR. C. M. RILEY. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON.
Office over Curns & Manser’s, where he can be found day and night.
DR. S. J. GUY. Office in McDougal building
over Baden’s, where he can be found day and night when not professionally
engaged.
DR. C. C. GREEN. Office in McDougal Building.
Residence fourth house west of Spotswood’s Store, north side of street.
J. W. ARNOLD. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON.
Winfield, Kansas. Office and residence 508 east 6th. Calls attended
to day and night.
DR. F. M. PICKENS. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON.
Calls promptly attended day and night. Office over Carson’s clothing store, N.
Main. Residence 3rd Ward.
EMERSON & TANDY. [GEO. EMERSON. T. B.
TANDY.] PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS. Office over Harter’s drug store, South Main,
Winfield, Kansas.
H. L. WELLS, M. D. ECLECTIC. Office over
Express office back of Goldsmith’s; residence 1809 Lowry street, Winfield,
Kansas. Sole control of the Brinkerhoff system.
S. B. PARK. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON. Winfield,
Kansas. Office over Hudson Bro.’s Jewelry. Residence 902 east 8th
avenue. Telephone Exchange.
M. T. BALSLEY. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON. Office
in Torrance-Fuller block. Office hours, 8 to 11 a.m., 2 to 5, and 7 to 9 p.m.
Night calls promptly answered.
H. J. DOWNEY, M. D. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON.
Winfield, Kansas. Office in Torrance-Fuller block over Friend’s music store.
Calls attended promptly day or night from the office, unless absent on
professional business.
WRIGHT & PUGH. [W. T. WRIGHT. C. E.
PUGH.] PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS. Winfield, Ks. Especial attention given chronic
and surgical diseases. Office in Torrance-Fuller block, upstairs.
THOS. H. ELDER. PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON.
Winfield, Kansas. Office over Curns & Manser’s real estate office.
Residence corner 11th avenue and Loomis Street. Special attention
given to Diseases of Women and Children. Calls promptly attended.
S. R. MARSH, M. D. Offers his professional
services to the citizens of Winfield and vicinity in the practice of medicine
and surgery. Office on 10th avenue, west of McDonald’s store, where
he may be found at all hours day or night when not professionally engaged.
DENTISTS.
F. H. BULL, DENTIST. 910 Main Street. Teeth
extracted without pain.
T. S. BROWN, DENTIST. Graduate of the Ohio
College of Dental Surgery. Office corner 10th and Main streets, over
Baden’s.
DR. J. O. HOUX, DENTIST. Office in
Torrance-Fuller block. Teeth extracted without pain by the use of nitrous-oxide
gas—perfectly harmless.
DR. VAN DOREN, DENTIST. Office on Main Street
over Curns & Manser’s. Teeth Xtracted without pain. References: His
numerous patrons in and about Winfield.
DR. H. C. BAILY, SURGEON DENTIST. Office 2
doors west of post office. Nitrous Oxide Gas. Teeth examined free of charge.
All work warranted. Having secured the exclusive right to use Dr. Baldwin’s
Preparation for the painless extraction of teeth, for this city, I am prepared
to apply it to any person that has teeth requiring extraction.
MISCELLANEOUS.
S. A. COOK, ARCHITECT AND SUPERINTENDENT.
Correspondence solicited. Office in McDougall building.
S. H. CRAWFORD. CONTRACTOR & BUILDER. Job
work of all kinds and charges reasonable. The Manufacturer and Dealer in the
Four Pig Washer. Orders from a distance solicited and promptly filled. Shop on
Ninth Avenue, east of Main street, Winfield, Kansas.
M. D. COVELL, WELLINGTON, KANSAS. Percheron
Stud Farm. For 15 years a breeder and importer of Percherons. RECORDED
STUD-BOOK and HIGH-GRADE, acclimated animals of all ages and both sexes for
sale. For reference, inquire of Jennings Brothers.
AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. Any one wishing to
obtain a copy of the Scriptures, who is unable to pay for it, can have the same
by applying at the Depository, Brown & Son’s Drug Store.
MOTHER
GRUNDY’S NEWS-BUDGET.
Her
Chronicle of the Comings, Goings, and Doings of Persons at Home and Abroad.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
G. F. Lee, of Cherryvale, is in the city.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Hon. J. C. Long went to Wellington Friday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
W. P. Hackney is having his yard filled up.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Ab. Holmes, Wilmot’s merchant, was down
Thursday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Lewis M. Dalgarn was down Saturday from New
Salem.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Miss Hulda Goldsmith is visiting friends in
Newton.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
M. G. Trout is off for Ashland, for a few
days, on business.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Charley Grant, Atlanta’s livery man, was down
Thursday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Ed. P. Greer and wife were up at Latham
Wednesday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. F. McMullen went to Wellington Thursday on
legal biz.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Landlord Weitzel is out after a severe
struggle with a sore throat.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Jack Barnthouse is out again after a severe
sickness of several days.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
N. T. Snyder, Arkansas City’s live real
estate man, was in the city Saturday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Laben Moore went to Harper last Friday to put
in some sidewalks.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
O. F. Hall, Detroit, Michigan; and R. C. Mighill,
Plano, Illinois, are at the St. James.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. Musgrove, a sister of Dr. Graham, went
home Friday to South Haven.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. B. Stannard, the architect, has moved his
office into Randall’s new building.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Ed Donnell is back from a four weeks trip to
Clark County, and reports a good time.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. Van De Water is putting up an addition to
Ed. Jarvis’ home in the Third Ward.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Judge Beck is now out of danger, after a
terrible struggle with ulceration of the stomach.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mayor Graham proclaims the necessity of
observing Arbor Day, April 1st, in Winfield.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. E. Fuselman, of Indiana, an old friend and
school mate of Grant Stafford, is in the city.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
C. D. Austin has a unique paint sign at his shop,
of several barrels one on top of the other.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
L. D. Russell, traveling passenger and
freight agent of the Frisco, was at the Brettun Thursday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Capt. Myers is putting in some hitching posts
in front of George Liermann’s business house.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. Halyard, Mrs. C. E. Fuller’s mother, is
back from the west and will probably remain.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Prof. R. B. Moore, principal of the Burden
schools, was sailing around the Metropolis Saturday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. D. C. Stevens, who lived one mile south
of Wilmot, died Friday. She weighed 335 pounds.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
F. E. Gilleland has returned from a western
trip and reports everything looking well out there.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
N. B. Sandner is putting in some fine
sidewalk for P. C. Croco and G. C. Wallace at their new houses.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. B. Stannard, the architect and builder,
has taken rooms in I. W. Randall’s new building, South Main.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Judge Gans went down to Hackney Thursday eve
to join in wedlock Oliver M. Akers and Estella Anderson.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Dick Walker and A. W. Jones, of Wichita, have
been granted a franchise to put in a gas plant at Wellington.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A. B. Wilkinson, of the Udall Record, was
in the hub Saturday, going to Cambridge for his Sunday devotionals.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Sam Strong is down from Rock, and says work
has commenced on the extension of the Santa Fe from Douglass.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Thomas Burdge and family arrived Friday from
Montezuma, Ohio. They have come to stay and are delighted with our city.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
George Jackman has gone to Argonia to go into
business. George is a hard and good worker and we wish him success.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
C. C. Harris, after a tour of the western
counties, is home again. He will open a loan office with O. C. Ewart at
Ashland.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
B. F. Duncan, agent of the Frisco at Mound
Valley, is visiting his friend F. W. Stockton, operator at the Frisco depot
here.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Miss Maggie Jones, after a very pleasant
visit with the family of D. E. Douglass, left for her home in Wichita, last
Friday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Wm. G. Dickinson, of Topeka, right of way and
town site man of the Santa Fe, was in the city Friday, a guest at the Brettun.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Ida Goodrich, little daughter of Mr.
Goodrich, of Bliss & Wood’s mill, cut her tongue quite severely while
playing at school.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Landlord McKibben’s little boys, of Central,
picked up a check Thursday calling for $850, given by Bliss & Wood to A. R.
Downs.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. W. Howrey, Fairland, Indiana; J. F. Sawyer
and F. H. McDearmon, Kansas City; and D. S. Miller, Garden City, were at the
Brettun Friday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Frank L. Crampton, well known here, has
entered the newspaper field at Scott City, Scott County, as one of the owners
of the News.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
H. A. Mann, head man of the “Little Nuggett”
company, fell in on THE COURIER Thursday. His show is billed for Winfield on
April 2nd.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Elder H. T. Wilson, the eloquent Kentucky
evangelist, is still giving soul-stirring sermons at the Christian Church. He
will continue all week.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mr. Joe Anderson, of Floral, was in the city
Friday. He says the farmers are all done sowing oats and are busy getting the
ground ready for wheat.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A. L. Millspaugh, the jolly St. Joe man of
leather, and one of “our boys,” came in Saturday and went up the country to
see—well, we promised not to.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
M. L. Robinson is largely interested in the
new county of Wichita, and is giving considerable attention, with his varied
other matters, to its development.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. A. B. Sykes and children left last
Friday to join her husband at Coronado. This is a sure go, and the third time
THE DAILY has sent them off.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Ledru Guthrie, Wellington, was over Thursday
eve, to visit Dr. Mendenhall, his brother-in-law. Mr. Guthrie is city attorney
of his city, and a bustling young lawyer.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Read Robinson, the corpulent and jolly
representative of Cohn’s clothing, Kansas City, is in the city for a few days
visit with his brothers of the First National. His wife accompanied him.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. G. L. Gray, wife of the Telegram’s handsome
foreman, left Thursday on the S. K. for two months with her mother, at David
City, Nebraska. George went along as far as Kansas City.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. T. Hackney thinks of going to Illinois on
a visit in a couple of weeks. His sister, from Portland, Oregon, is to be
there, whom he has not seen for thirty-four years, as well as a family reunion.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Al Linscott, the diseased criminal, has been
removed from the jail to the jury room in the court house and put in charge of
John Gill. The boy’s flesh is swelling and it looks like he wouldn’t be here
long.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
O. F. Hall, banker and large capitalist of
Detroit, Michigan, is a guest at the St. James. He is viewing Winfield with an
eye to investments and location. He is a friend of H. B. Schuler of the
Winfield National.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Not even the old Methodist Church of years
ago, on east Ninth avenue, is exempt. It, too, must go into a business house.
E. C. Seward is now building a front on to it and will completely spoil its old
memory.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
W. W. Cone, traveling agent for the Topeka
Capital, was in town today and called at THE COURIER office. He represents
one of the largest, liveliest, and best daily and weekly newspaper
establishments in this state or any other. The Capital has become the
great Kansas paper and its energy, brightness, popularity, and worth are known
and recognized throughout the State.
THE
DEXTER HOMICIDE.
More
Points Gleaned Here and There.—The Body Buried.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Many seem to think that time will prove that
Chastain and Alma Elliott were married while they were in Arkansas, though the
girl stoutly denies it.
Coroner Wells and Attorney Webb got home
Wednesday from the inquest which, as THE COURIER stated, resulted in a verdict
that Chastain came to his death from a shotgun charge in the hands of Elliott
with the intent to kill.
Since Chastain’s return from Arkansas, his
trunk full of clothes have been in Winfield. They were sent out Thursday and
the body was buried in the Dexter cemetery this morning. There was no
funeral—only a few of his more intimate friends attending to the interment.
Elliott was brought before Judge Buckman
Thursday, in hopes of getting bail and waiving preliminary examination. We
press too early for the result. If the Judge refuses bail until the evidence is
presented, the examination will likely be set for the first of next week.
Just before arriving at Dexter the last time,
Chastain wrote to J. W. Ward, asking him to do the kindness of getting three
good citizens to go to Elliott and ask him to settle the difficulty and let
Chastain have the girl. He believed the thing could be compromised. Ward didn’t
do this. Chastain got there the same day this letter did.
Lee Richardson, the first man on the ground
after Chastain was shot, swore at the inquest that the Smith & Wesson
pistol was lying near Chastain’s shoulder. The body was forty feet from where
it was shot, dragged by his foot in the stirrup, indicating that the revolver
had fallen out of the left side pocket from the dragging jolt. From this it
would appear that Chastain hadn’t drawn his revolver.
It now turns out that Chastain and Alma
Elliott had a scheme fixed up, not long before the Arkansas trip, to get
married. The girl was to get a rig, pick Chastain up somewhere, and together
they would come to Winfield and wed. This was spoiled by the fact, learned
afterwards, that no license could be procured without the parent’s consent, the
girl being under age.
County Attorneys Webb & Swarts drew the
complaint against A. B. Elliott today, charging him with murder in the first
degree. The warrant was served Thursday, and Elliott, who has been under the
freedom of the outer Sheriff’s office in waiting for the complaint, was placed
in the jail proper. After the preliminary, if the case is made bailable, there
will be dozens of good men ready to go on his bond.
It now turns out that the eleven hundred
dollar deposit check, on the First National Bank of Winfield, had been drawn on
to the full amount. Chastain’s property, sold just before he left for Arkansas,
brought seventeen hundred dollars in money and notes. The notes were shaved for
cash here in Winfield, and it is thought that, after paying some debts at
Dexter, he took the rest away with him. As far as can be ascertained, the $113
found on his person was all he had left, after his expensive meanders after the
girl. His father is said to be wealthy.
J. D. Ward, who was as well acquainted with
Chastain as any one at Dexter, telegraphed Tuesday to Chastain’s father, at
Elgay, Georgia. It was found today that the telegram, through some mistake in
sending, hadn’t been delivered, the addressed living out of Elgay some
distance. It was delivered today. Mr. Ward recently bought a seven hundred
dollar farm from Chastain, taking the deed without the signature of a wife,
believing Chastain’s story that the woman was only an unlawful mistress. Ward,
however, being a real estate man and assisting in the sale of the house and lot
to Hines, registered the papers to Doc’s father to get the wife’s signature.
They came back signed all right, “Mary E. Chastain.” Mr. Ward said he had seen
several of Alma’s letters to Chastain and they were nicely composed and
overflowing with unquenchable love.
ANOTHER
CHARMING EVENT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Doane opened their
agreeable home Thursday to one of the gayest gatherings of young folks.
Receptions by this popular and very social couple are always marked by the
freest and most acceptable enjoyment. Their graceful entertainment admits no
restraint—all go in for a genuine good time, and they always have it. Those experiencing
the free-hearted hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Doane on this occasion were Mr.
and Mrs. J. L. Horning, Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Kretsinger, Mr. and Mrs. W. J.
Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Oliver, Mr. and Mrs. Frank W. Doane; Mrs. E. H. Nixon,
Mrs. B. H. Riddell; Misses Nettie and Anna McCoy, Margie Wallis, Nellie
McMullen, Ida Ritchie, Leota Gary, Jennie Hane, Sadie French, Anna Hunt, Jennie
Bangs, Ida Johnston, Hattie Stolp, Eva Dodds, Lena Oliver, Nellie and Kate
Rodgers, Nellie Cole; Messrs. W. C. Robinson, Chas. F. and Harry Bahntge, Lacey
Tomlin, James Lorton, W. A. and Walter Ritchie, Tom J. Eaton, Ed J. McMullen,
Byron R. Rudolph, C. E. Vosbourgh, Addison Brown, Harry Sickafoose, Frank F.
Leland, Wm. D. Carey, Ivan A. Robinson, Will E. Hodges, and Frank H. Greer.
Indulging in the ever popular whist and other amusements, with the jolliest
social converse, until after the serving of the choice luncheon, the music
began and the Terpsichorean toe turned itself loose. The evening throughout was
one of much delight, and all bid adieu fully realizing that Mr. and Mrs. Doane
are foremost among the most admirable entertainers of social Winfield.
ANOTHER
CAVALRY CHARGE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A large and jolly crowd was out last Thursday
for a horseback ride. The move of the column was like a cavalry charge, and the
sound of the hoofs of the high-stepping chargers resounded on the evening air
in a way that attracted everybody, and made lots of fun and invigorating
exercise for the participants, who were Misses Ida Ritchie, Nellie and Kate
Rodgers, Jennie Bangs, Mary Berkey, Ida Johnston, Mattie Reider, Nellie
McMullen, Margie Wallis, Messrs. Addison Brown, Lacey Tomlin, F. F. Leland,
Will E. Hodges, Chas. F. Bahntge, Ward Day, Ed. J. McMullen, and Tom J. Eaton.
The party raised the wind, which began to hurl clouds of dust, as the evening
advanced, being the only alloy to the event’s pleasure. Winfield has some fine
riders, especially among the ladies, who are rapidly acquainting themselves
with the fact that no more healthful or enjoyable pastime has ever been
inaugurated.
THE
CHICKEN THIEVES.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Friday came up before Judge Snow the great
case of the age—one that involves judicial problems worth the thoughts of the
most profound brains. It charges C. C. Sullivan and George McCurry with “then
and there, unlawfully and feloniously, steal, take, and carry away one chicken
of the goods, chattels, and personal property of Joseph Bucher, of the value of
25 cents.” A jury was empaneled and at this time the court is grinding away on
the case, with a dozen or two witnesses. Rock township, where the depredation
was committed, is down in full force to see the thing through. The supposition
is that these fellows are responsible for a large amount of petty thievery that
has been going on in their neighborhood. The only thing that could be surely
placed at their door was the stealing of this old hen. The boys are said to
have been caught in this act and it is taken as a basis for proof of others.
MAP
OF WESTERN KANSAS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
We have received from the publishers, Bennett
& Smith, of Wa-Keeney, Kansas, a very fine sectional map of Western Kansas,
showing the exact location of all the new towns, all the streams, railroads,
rivers, and each section of land. This map is printed on fine plate paper, with
48 pages of reading matter, containing a full description of the country, and
the most perfect synopsis of the public land laws it has ever been our pleasure
to read. This map, with full description of the country and synopsis of land
laws, is sent postage paid for 25 cents.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Walter G. Seaver, the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat representative here, has a request for the pedigrees, manner
of gaining their opulence, with their standing on the silver dollar. The
smallest capitalist in the list obtained shows $75,000, and several run over
$200,000. The Democrat is compiling the silver dollar states among
Kansas capitalists.
THE
COLLEGE TRUSTEES.
A
Most Harmonious and Important Meeting Here Yesterday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The Board of Trustees of the Methodist
College of the Southwest Kansas Conference met in Winfield Thursday, in the
lecture room of the M. E. Church. All were present except Rev. Hodgson, of
Wichita, who is in New Orleans. Those here were: Dr. D. W. Phillips, of El
Dorado; Rev. W. H. Cline, of Arkansas City; Rev. J. D. Botkin, of Wichita; Rev.
H. Waite, of McPherson; H. H. McAdams, of Newton; Rev. B. Kelly and W. C.
Robinson, of Winfield. The Board organized by electing as permanent officers:
Dr. D. W. Phillips, president; Rev. J. D. Botkin, secretary; M. L. Read,
treasurer. The Building Committee are: B. Kelly, M. L. Gates, T. B. Myers, and
N. S. Buckner, of Winfield; and W. H. Cline, of Arkansas City. N. S. Buckner,
formerly M. E. pastor at Arkansas City, was elected Financial Agent of the
College and directed to proceed at once to raise endowment and other funds for
the college and take charge of its entire financial business. Rev. Buckner will
move to Winfield at once, occupying at present the Laycock residence on east
Tenth and building later in College Hill, where he owns lots. Architect Ritchie
was instructed to advertise for bids at once for the completion of the College
building. The Board resolved to open correspondence with a view of selecting a
first-class College man to take charge as president, who will probably be
elected at the Board’s April meeting. The Board also resolved to be satisfied
with none but the best material and to make this college second to none in the
west. The Board, as well as the entire conference, are a unit in the
determination to spare no effort to make this college a grand success. No
Methodist college in the Union ever started out with more flattering prospects
than the Southwest Kansas M. E. College. It is a plant that means great things
for Winfield. The trustees are gentlemen of the highest integrity, energy, and
ability, and will manage the affairs of the college in a manner eliciting the
greatest pride and satisfaction of the conference and the people of Winfield.
The building, beyond a doubt, will be done in time to open the various
departments, a full-fledged college, in September. The Board adjourned to meet
April 20th, when the contract for the remaining construction will be
let. There is not a voice in this conference that objects to location of this
institution to Winfield, and all are enthusiastic in the desire to make it an
honor to its founders and the whole State of Kansas. The trustees examined the
basement and first story, now almost completed by contractor J. Q. Ashton, and
found the work to be exceptionally well done.
THAT
MIGHTY CASE AGAIN.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
With the court room crowded with anxious
spectators, Judge Snow called, yesterday afternoon, the case of the Great State
of Kansas vs. C. C. Sullivan and George McCurry, charging them with stealing
one chicken of the value of 25 cents, from the henery of Joseph Bucher, in Rock
township. The jury men were: W. B. Little, W. E. Augerman, G. D. Headrick,
Bennett Pugh, S. Allison, H. C. Buford, Jno. Bobbitt, Wm. Hudson, C. McClung,
Jno. Gill, Jas. Williams, and T. J. Harris. County Attorneys, Webb &
Swarts, were there for the prosecution, and Judge McDonald and O. Seward for
the defense. Judge McDonald, with becoming dignity, demurred to the charge; it
was not specific enough—it didn’t state whether the chicken was a rooster, a
hen, or a maiden pullet. His objection was overruled and Mr. Bucher took the
stand and swore positively that he saw McCurry make a fowl attack on his hen
roost under the bright rays of the beautiful moon, that he saw him walk off
with a chicken, age, color, or sex unknown, under his left arm, and said
chicken did squawk and make diverse other noises, and that the said C. C.
Sullivan kept watch while the thievery was going on. Then the court took a rest
to this morning, when the case went on. A dozen or two witnesses were examined
on both sides, among them three or four women.
Just before noon today the case went to the
jury, which discharged the prisoners, on the ground that there was no evidence
proving that the chicken was carried off the place; nobody saw this part of the
thievery. The main object of the whole suit was to stop numerous petit thieving
that has been going on in that neighborhood and laid pretty surely at the door
of these boys, who live in a dugout on the banks of the Walnut. This case will
make a memorable record.
NORMAL
SCHOOL NOTES.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The Webster Literary Society held its regular
meeting at Normal Hall last night. The question for discussion was: “Resolved,
That the statesman deserves more honor than the soldier.” Decided in favor of
the negative.
The question for next Thursday night is:
“Resolved, That foreign emigration to the United States should be prohibited.”
This is one of the most interesting debating
societies we have ever had the pleasure to attend, and will surely be of great
benefit to all the members.
On Monday morning last there were five new
pupils enrolled at the Normal; C. J. Herrin, F. A. Limbocker, of this city;
Miss Brilla Read, of Floral, and Misses Alice and Estella Harbaugh, of Hackney.
BE
ORNAMENTAL.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Winfield, in the older portion, is really a
forest city. But in the newly improved portion, in the many additions that have
filled up like magic, there is plenty of room for trees. Winfield is now the
handsomest town in the state. But the universal planting of trees, careful
grading, and generally esthetic improvements can make it much more beautiful
yet. The streets are wide and handsome. There is just natural variety enough in
the lay of the land to form, with nice residences and trees, a most pleasing
landscape. It ought to be the aim and ambition of every citizen to add
something in this direction each year, and it can be done in this way gradually
and with small expense and labor.
AN
HEIR.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The editor has received the following letter
from Westboro, Massachusetts.
“Can you locate the man that was in Winfield
and went by the name of J. W. Sanborn or J. M. Sanborn? He is the man that
buried his wife May 18, 1882. If you can tell me where to find him, I wish you
would do so as he has fallen heir to a large estate in this town and it is
impossible to settle said estate until it is ascertained whether he is dead, or
alive.”
Anyone of our readers who knows the whereabouts
of Mr. Sanborn, please inform Mr. Fitch by postal card.
NOTICE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Notice is hereby given to the public that the
legal city scales of the city of Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas, is situated
at 614 Main Street, nearly opposite Brettun House, and that Van Vleet &
Sage are the duly appointed weighmasters of the same.
Signed,
W. G. Graham, Mayor. Dated March 18, 1886.
IN
A BAD FIX.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Augusta appears to have a citizen in a bad
fix. He writes a letter to “Eny Hardwear or Tin Man, Winfield, Kansas,” as
follows: “I am in nead of a job and if eny of you can give me a job I can give
you a good recmend have had 25 years experance in Tin Bisnis or on gass fit or
eny Kind of job work.”
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
One of our citizens stepped into a hardware
store this morning and inquired for a steak-pounder. The pleasant clerk brought
forth a fifteen pound sledgehammer, to the dismay of the customer. No doubt
this would tender the toughest steak, and probably that clerk had been
devouring only tough steak for some time, and had thought the matter over, and
concluded the pounders usually used were not heavy enough, and this would be an
improvement, and do the business successfully. It is needless to say that clerk
fainted when he found out what was needed. Hot poultices and violent rubbing
brought him to, but he still feels the shock.
WINGATE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Wingate is a new town, just laid out, on the
K. C. & S. W., at the county line between Cowley and Butler. It is on high,
rolling prairie on the divide between Timber and Rock creeks and mid-way
between the towns of Atlanta and Latham. Already nine buildings grace the town
site and as many more are commenced. S. P. Firestone has built two excellent
business houses and is arranging to build others. El Dorado Republican.
THE
NEW WEST.
Observations
of a Courier Man in Stanton County.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The junior editor of THE COURIER has spent
the last two weeks in the west, and as many of our people are interested in
hearing the true facts about that part of the State, we will attempt to give
them. Leaving Winfield on the Santa Fe at 3:00 p.m., we landed at Syracuse at
5:00 in the morning. From thence we took the stage south 28 miles to Veteran
City. There are two stage lines running from Syracuse south through Veteran
City to Richfield, and both stages go loaded to the guards every day. The first
three miles of the road was through “Sand Hills.” These passed, the country
opened into rolling prairies, as beautiful as the eye ever rested upon. At noon
we arrived at Veteran. This town was laid out by Capt. Nipp and other Winfield
gentlemen last fall. It is in the center of old Stanton County and will be the
county seat when the boundary lines of this county are re-established next
winter. It now contains a fine hotel, stores, restaurants, livery stables, and
other accessories to a new “western town.” It is just rising on the swell of
the western “boom.” People are pouring in and within the next sixty days almost
every quarter of land in the county will be taken. Men are seeking locations
there in all branches of business, and buildings are springing up in every
direction. The most wonderful thing in these towns is the increase in values in
town property. Business lots in desirable locations near the center double and
thribble in value in a week. This is probably due to the high rents which
prevail. Frame business buildings near the center that cost four hundred
dollars are eagerly taken on a year’s lease at twenty-five dollars per month.
Wherever there is a building, someone stands ready to put a stock of goods into
it, and as a rule these early-day merchants prosper. The certainty that Veteran
will be the county seat tog ether with the fact that the country surrounding it
is very choice and being rapidly taken up by the settlers, attracts many there.
Desirable business lots in the town are being sold by the town company at one
and two hundred dollars each. These are selling rapidly. As fast as they pass
from the hands of the company, they are advanced from one to three hundred per
cent and will readily bring it as soon as the company sells out. Mr. W. R. McDonald
is the Secretary and resident agent of the company, and is now living there
with his family. He has a fine claim adjoining the town site. He has the energy
and business ability, is backed by abundant capital, and with the fine country
and splendid prospects surrounding it, will make Veteran one of the best towns
in the west. Since looking over the country, we have an abiding faith in the
future of this town, and our opinion is endorsed by everyone who has been
there. We predict that within year Veteran will be a city of six hundred
people.
DIRT
FLYING.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Geo. W. Pence and Mr. Alexander were down
from Mulvane to spend Sunday at home. Mr. Alexander has the contract for
building the fifty mile branch of the Santa Fe from Mulvane to Kingman, and
dirt has been flying right along for a week, the right of way having been
privately bought. Mr. Pence is working his half dozen mule teams on the grade
and has charge of the graders’ stables. The object of this branch is probably
to head off the Frisco’s extension from Arkansas City to Wichita. No aid was
asked for. This line will also be extended to Denver, making a direct line from
Denver to Ft. Smith, via Winfield.
SOME
HOPE YET.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
That a citizen of Arkansas City never leaves
town without malicious and felonious intent has become self-evident. We are
glad, however, that there is one exception—one ray of sunshine in all the
darkness. We know of no one more likely to create this happy and encouraging
exception than Rev. S. B. Fleming. The following postal, received Saturday
evening, explains all.
“You state in your weekly issue, and, of
course, in your daily, that James L. Huey, F. J. Hess, and myself were at Elk
Falls in the interest of the ‘State Line’ road. Your first guess was that we
had gone to Kansas City and St. Louis. You missed it on the first guess; you
missed it on the second. We were not in Elk Falls in the interest of the State
Line road. Guess again. I am going to Presbytery at Peabody next week—to save
you the trouble of guessing I thought it wise to tell you so that you might not
be led to the sad extremity of making capital for your ‘fish hook’ road out of
a legitimate trip away from home.
“Yours
truly, S. B. Fleming.”
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Al Linscott, who has been in our bastille for
some months, a U. S. prisoner, held for stealing cattle in the Territory, is
about to die. He is about eaten up with a disease too loathsome to mention. He
is only about twenty-three years old and used to live with his widowed mother a
few years ago, on a farm three miles southwest of town. They went to Texas,
where his mother died, and where Al started in his tough career. He weeps
bitterly over his inevitable fate. Jailor Harrod has telegraphed to Topeka to
have him removed from here, fearing he will infect all the prisoners. The floor
has been saturated with carbolic acid and cedar oil.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The motto of Kansas does not instruct her
people to await the favor of luck or the frowns of fate. To the young man it
points a brighter bonus awaiting arduous labor, in the face of adversity and
difficulty. No cloud so dark but it has a silver lining.
THE
OLD AND THE NEW!
Our
Walls Do Draw a Most Kindly Benefactor.
Farewell
Old Towel.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Ah, surprise most wonderful! Arise all ye
COURIER force for here, right before our very eyes, is a roll, fresh from the
hands of Uncle Sam, bearing his mark at Leavenworth. Some noble-hearted
benefactor and reader, stirred to tears by our dissertations on the office
towel, hath taken pity. Ye gods! What glory! Gaze on the magnificence with
which thy visages, oh, boys, will have therefrom the dampness wiped. Look! That
one, bedecked in royal fringe, hath thereon, “For the Editors!” and upon its
bosom doth appear two owls, “Linen from the Owl Country;” upon that other doth
appear, “For visitors only;” and bless thine eyes, oh, boys, thou has not been forgotten,
for on the one thou holdest is inscribed, “For the boys.” Can it be a dream, or
do our eyes revel in reality? Ye swarthy devil, go ye to the dark and “sinky”
corner and yank from its wonted haunt, yea from where for twelve years it hath
stood in all its black dismay, that old towel. But hold! A second thought bids
me speak kindly; bid it an affectionate farewell, for it hath done great
things. Old towel, we regret thy departure from thy begrimed and sacred haunts.
The old rusty nail upon which thou hast so long reclined must now have another
tenant, so decreed by one unfamiliar with thy great worthiness and fidelity in
the place. The dirt-laden floor where so oft thou didst flop under ignominious
hoofs, is too good for thee now. It grieveth us much at this parting, but kind
fate hath decreed it—thou must get thee from our sight forever. For thee this
office will ever have kind memories. Thou, like these which in my hand doth
lie, wast once fair to look upon; but that wast long, long ago—aye, so far back
that memory saith not. Wherefore doth thou complain? Hast thou not been dealt
kindly with, thou ungrateful thing? The hand of no heathen washee hath walloped
thee around in dirty suds nor spat upon thy face with squirt; nor did red hot
smoothing iron ever, to the knowledge of the oldest denizen of this shebang,
scorch thy dusky bosom. (Enter Devil and places a bright new towel on the old
nail.) Turn thee about and feast thy caloused soul upon the gorgeous thing
there suspended. Ah, a jewl it is—pretty as a brindle poodle. New it is, and
thou art a thousand years old. It is clean and white as a lily of May; thou art
di—just gaze on thyself. Yet we fain would retain thee in some minor role; but,
alas! we are overpowered. Ofttimes hath the imp who reigns over the rumbling
bulwarks of the press room, the autocrat of the broom and lye brush, rolled
thee up till thou wert of the wickedness of a mighty club, and having spat upon
his hands, did flourish thee around as a deadly war club; and with devilish
mien and bitter, mocking words, did swear he a head would put upon us. Now some
fair and kindly sympathizer hath endowed the old ten-penny nail with a glory
far better suited to the dignity of a COURIER valet. Open thine ears and hear
that devil now. List! Hear him swear that thou art longer fit for naught but
hand-spike; or post, whereat to tie the lowly mule. And to this kindly and
distant friend who did, our dignity and whiteness the better to maintain,
invest this handsome divided of coin and taste and sympathy and thoughtfulness
in these bright new towels, the same which do now hang so proudly from the old
nail, we do bare our bald pates in reverence and profound thanksgiving. Amen.
CITY
SCHOOLS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Weekly report of tardiness for week ending
March 19, 1886.
Department.
Teacher, No. Tardinesses.
Central
Building.
High, W. N. Rice, 10.
Grammar, Lou Gregg, 7.
Grammar, Lois Williams, 8.
2nd Intermediate, Sada Davis, 2
1st Intermediate, Maude Pearson,
3.
1st Intermediate, Ivy Crane, 11.
1st Intermediate, Fannie Stretch,
2.
2nd Primary, Bertha Wallis, 3.
2nd Primary, Belle Bertram, 3.
1st Primary, Jessie Stretch, 3.
1st Primary, Mary Berkey, 4.
1st Primary, Josie Pixley, 3.
Second
Ward.
2nd Intermediate, Flo Campbell, 2.
1st Intermediate, Mrs. Leavitt, 3.
2nd Primary, Clara Davenport, 3.
1st Primary, Mary Randall, 11.
Third
Ward.
2nd Intermediate, Allie Dickie, 4.
1st Intermediate, Mattie Gibson,
1.
2nd Primary, Mrs. Flo Williams, 3.
1st Primary, Mary Bryant, 4.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
M. L. Robinson has selected a beautiful site
in West Side on which he will erect an elegant home—one of the finest in
architecture, finish, and general comforts. He is now having plans drawn for a
third story, a mansard, for his present large residence, but will transform it
into a fashionable boarding house—one that will accommodate a large number of
the best resident boarders. With its fine grounds and porches, and its
convenient location, it will make a magnificent place for such purpose.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Somebody points out that this year came in on
Friday and will go out on Friday and have fifty-three Fridays. Two months in
the year come in on Friday and two go out on Friday. There are five months in
the year that have five Fridays. The phases of the moon change five times on
Friday and the sun was eclipsed on March 5th, which fell on Friday.
The longest day of the year and the shortest both fall on Friday. People who
have a superstitious prejudice against Friday will be apt to see strange
coincidences in all this.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Capt. Bogardus and son, Eugene, the great
shootists of the world, being unable to get the Fair Grounds Thursday, for
their advertised exhibition, gave a little shoot in the evening, west of the
Frisco depot, the boys chipping in for a small purse. They are certainly great.
Gene can plug almost anything you can throw in the air: nickels and dimes being
bored with unerring precision and lightning rapidity, to the admiration of all
who delight in such sport.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mr. Peter Jackson, a prominent and wealthy
citizen of Hancock County, Illinois, has been in this city a few days and is so
well assured of the future of Winfield that he has invested in real estate and
placed a considerable money at interest, and he intends to return in the fall
and may make this city his future home. We were very much pleased with his
intelligence and gentlemanly bearing.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The preliminary examination of A. B. Elliott,
for the murder of Dr. Chastain, has been set for next Tuesday at 10 o’clock,
before Judge Buckman, at the courthouse. The prosecution objected to any
hearing of bail before, at least, a portion of the evidence was presented. The
complaint against Elliott was sworn out by Deputy Sheriff Joe Church.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The conductors’ fare penalty law, passed by
the late legislature, went into effect Wednesday. Twenty miles and under, 10
cents extra; anywhere, from 20 to 100 miles, 15 cents extra; anywhere, from 100
to 150 miles, 25 cents extra. If you don’t want to get caught, buy your ticket
of the agent before you board the train.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Sheriff McIntire has put a high fence on the
east of the jail, to keep galloots from sticking things through the windows to
the prisoners. It will also prevent the gassy prisoners from yelling at
everybody who goes to or from the courthouse.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
With life comes death. Tuesday heralded the
birth of twin boys in the home of Prof. and Mrs. Inskeep. Last night one of the
little souls passed into eternity. The other will hardly survive.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
There are seventy-two subpoenas in the Hank
Mowry murder case, which comes up among the first cases of the April district
court.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The new law office of Hackney & Asp,
opposite the courthouse, is going up rapidly, and will be a very neat building.
PITHY
PIOUS POINTS.
What
Transpired at Our Different Churches Sunday.
Various
Religious Nuggets.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Rev. John Young discoursed, as usual, at the
A. M. E. Church Sunday. His sermons are always practical and timely.
Rev. J. C. Miller, of the Presbyterian
Church, goes to Peabody to Presbytery, this week, when his call to Winfield
will be presented and confirmed.
Rev. Kelly’s sermon at the Presbyterian
Church Sunday morning was from Luke ii:25-29. The main points were the
relations of man to man and of man to God—what they should do, as christians
and citizens, for heaven and humanity.
Rev. Reider preached at the Baptist Church
Sunday from Heb. ii:3: “How shall we escape if we neglect to great salvation.”
This salvation is for everyone who will accept it. Man was born to sin and
without this great salvation, he must go down to eternal death. Who will accept
this salvation and come to the Lord his God. The ordinance of baptism was
administered after the preaching services.
If you know anything about your church that
would be of interest to the public, collar our scribe and give it to him, or
jot it down and hand it in for Monday’s COURIER. This is our Sunday—our
religious day, and we want a column of pious points. We can settle some, but
when it comes to hovering over seven churches, our wings are too small. If your
church items don’t get in print, blame nobody but yourself.
Rev. J. H. Snyder preached his first sermon
in this conference year at the United Brethren church Sunday. His return to
this charge, while fully expected, is very gratifying not only to the church
but to our people generally, who greatly admire his ability, zeal, and general
requisites as a successful pastor. This church is gradually increasing in
strength and soon hopes to construct a fine place of worship.
Revs. Kelly and Miller, of the Methodist and
Presbyterian churches, exchanged pulpits Sunday morning. This is an appropriate
novelty—one pleasing alike to ministers and congregations, giving the zealous,
conservative church members an opportunity to hear another preacher of their
town without entering a strange pew, and giving the pastor an opportunity to
look into the faces of other citizens, who, like many of his own flock, deem it
their conscientious duty to always be found in their own pew, those who “change
off” only in the absence of their own pastor.
Rev. Wilson, in connection with Rev. Vawter,
the pastor, has done effective work at the Christian church. Coming to Kansas
on a short visit to old friends, he enlisted in the work here. His eloquent and
soul stirring sermons have been listed to by members of all denominations with
great pleasure and they were productive of great good. At the close of the
meeting last evening one hundred had been taken into the church. This is one of
the largest revival meetings ever held here. Night after night the house has
been packed, many having to leave for the want of room. We hope again some time
soon to charm all with his eloquence.
Rev. H. T. Wilson at the Christian church
Sunday delivered an eloquent discourse on the influence of example. He showed
that theory was a failure unless put to practice. Also influence of church
members by their example of every day life. Common honesty between man and man,
the speaker thought to be most essential in this day. At the close of his
sermon he thanked the people of Winfield for the attention shown him during his
stay here and the many kind and encouraging words given him. All are sorry that
he has closed his labors here, as it was a treat to hear such an orator. He
left on the Frisco this morning for Oswego, where he will assist in a revival
meeting.
Rev. Kelly delivered, at the Methodist church
Sunday, one of the strongest discourses ever delivered to a Winfield audience.
It was on “the rights and wrongs of man and how to protect the one and correct
the other,” a theme as wide as the universe and as weighty as life itself. The
only inexorable law for man is the Bible. It is the sovereign guide and
preceptor. He painted the grand rights and freedom enjoyed by Americans. The
paramount right is the right to dispose of the product of your labor. Among the
conspicuous wrongs of man, besides the sin and woe and misery entailed by his
vicious nature, is the tyranny of monopoly. The speaker was not in favor of
strikes. He pointed to the ballot box as the great correction of all these
financial wrongs—right executive management of the nation, state, and county, with
laws equalizing the chances of man, giving all the same show in the exercise of
the prerogatives conferred by nature and moral equity.
If a minister, after toiling hours and hours
to coin a discourse worthy of a place in the minds and hearts of his congregation
and delivers it with all the ardor and force with which his being is capable,
could but unfold the craniums of his audience, he would feel sick at heart and
crave some lone and quiet toil where mortals are free from pain and sorrow. It
matters not how good the sermon; it may reach the loftiest heights of eloquence
and go into the lowest depths of practical logic, yet half the congregation
can’t tell two of the points made, a day after the sermon. THE COURIER scribe
has forcible occasion to know this, frequently tackling individuals for
pointers on sermons. Your own mind will convince you that we are right. Ask
yourself, gentle reader, right now, what your preacher said Sunday. Don’t know
a thing hardly do you? Now, hereafter when you go to church, have some
concentration and don’t let the sermon die away in a confused murmur. And when
you get home, go off in the corner and ask yourself, what the preacher said,
and apply it. There never was a sermon so poor that much good couldn’t be
gleaned, if properly applied. Winfield has very few poor sermons. Preachers,
punch your hearers on inattention—make that the subject of a ringing discourse.
Church-goers, don’t sponge your lodging off the church; if you must sleep, stay
at home. If you must dream, sit in the old arm chair in your domicile. The
proper thing is to go to church, and drink in the whole thing. It will never
hurt you: it is sure to do you good, intellectually if not spiritually.
AN
ESSAY ON WIND.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
If there is a paper on earth that fully
understands wind, in double concentrated doses at slaughter sale, it is the Wichita
Eagle. After shooting wind from his faber for years and years about the
great “Windy Wonder,” Marsh turns on the wind itself and lets this fall athwart
the ambient breezes.
“The spring winds are here again, sweeping
over this boundless realm of brown and gray, and as the sun goes higher, and
soon a billowy sea of emerald will roll away encompassed only by a shore of the
rising and setting suns and planets of a bending sky of blue. Dear reader, the
wind blows nowhere else in the world like it does on our Kansas prairies. For
thirty years have we listed to its autumnal sighings and moanings, felt its
vigorous winter pressure, witnessed its invisible grandeur as it bore along on
its irresistible wings the darkly portentous storm of the summer solstice, and
yet again to its springtime antics, when it is won to set on its hind legs and
howl at Aries, or tear up the gravel, or the hair off your head;, and, we are
sure that to those who appreciate really a Kansas wind, the average calm of
every other country is tiresomely monotonous. The songs of a Kansas wind are as
varied as the moods of a maiden and as lovable for him whose pulse has been
quickened up to the life begotten of its energy and the breadth of its sweep
across our limitless domain.”
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Joseph R. Mann and P. S. Hills will establish
a real estate and loan office at Larned, for which place Mr. Hills leaves
tomorrow. Mr. Mann is a capitalist from Mr. Hills’ old Pennsylvania home. The
departure of such a sterling young man as P. S. Hills is greatly regretted. Of
exceptionally admirable character, backed by a genial nature and bright intellect,
he certainly has before him a promising future. That his expectations in this
move may be full realized is the warm hope of his many friends here.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
In A. V. Alexander’s office on Saturday, we
were made acquainted with T. V. Lamport, formerly of Vincennes, Indiana, who
has purchased an interest in Alexander & Co.’s lumber business, and will
make his headquarters in Winfield. This enterprising firm now has six yards in
operation, emulating the example of the large companies which diffsed
themselves over an entire state. Besides the yard in this City, A. V. Alexander
& Co. have yards in Larned, Kinsley, Walnut City, and Rush Center. Arkansas
City Traveler.
WINFIELD
COURIER.
D.
A. MILLINGTON, Editor.
COOKING
BY GAS STOVES.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
In this city a considerable attention is
being turned to the matter of gas stoves for cooking purposes and many
questions are being asked of those who are using them. We use one in our house
and have learned the following points. Our stove is used to do the cooking,
etc., for a family averaging four or five persons. It costs us an average of
not over seventy-five cents a week for that purpose. This is more than gasoline
would cost, but it has the advantages that it is perfectly safe, takes no time
or trouble to procure oil in cans, fill magazines, etc., but is always ready at
the lighting of a match. This feature is a luxury which costs very little. It
requires some experience, observation, and good sense to do perfect work
economically. The first week an intelligent cook uses gas, she will turn on a
full head of gas every time, burn everything she attempts to cook, and waste
two-thirds of the gas. For that week it will cost three dollars for gas. The second
week she will have learned that gas gives three times as much heat as gasoline
and will turn on only one-half of a full head for ordinary purposes; but she
will forget to turn off the gas when she gets through with it. Her viands will
not always be burned at the bottom or top and she will have discovered that a
biscuit can be thoroughly well cooked and still be about as white outside as
inside. Her gas bill for the second week will be reduced about half. The third
week she will have learned to watch her cooking carefully, keeping the gas shut
off enough that there is not too much heat and shutting it off entirely the
moment she has got enough heat. She will have noticed the workings during the
two former weeks and will intelligently apply her experience so that her work
will be properly done without scorching and her gas bill will be reduced to a
little less than seventy-five cents. Of course, that class of persons who
believe that bad cookery is simply the result of bad luck and not of departure
from the rules; who consider a nicely cooked and savory dish the result of good
luck and not of knowledge carefully and accurate applied; who have no idea of
definite proportions or of weights and measures as applied to cookery; will
never learn to cook well and economically on a gas stove, and we might add, “or
any other.”
There are many highly educated, logical, and
intelligent persons in most things, who encounter one or more thing which they
are absolutely incapable of learning. Some such can never learn music; some
cannot learn to play whist; some cannot learn to spell correctly; some cannot
learn mathematics; and some cannot learn the chemistry of heat and definite
proportions as applied to cookery. Persons who are good cooks soon learn the
difference of management needed in using gas and are delighted with the gas
stove over any and all others.
DISASTROUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
It seems that merchants and businessmen of
the cities and towns are not alone in their losses and damages entailed by the
strike. The farmers are suffering in consequence of it. For the last few days
we have heard many complaints from Cowley County farmers who want to sell their
produce and say nobody wants to buy, and if anyone will buy at all, he will
only pay about half price. And it is so all over the state. The farmers condemn
the strike as without sufficient cause and foolish, and say, if it damaged only
the railroads and the strikers, they would not care much, but it damages
everybody except other railroad companies where there is no strike. Last year
the sympathies of the people were with the strikers; this year the sympathies
are on the other side.
Last year the Governors of Kansas and
Missouri intervened and soon procured an adjustment of the differences between
the railroads and strikers, and work was soon resumed. This year the Governors
again intervened but failed because somebody’s dignity was in the way of
settlement. We don’t know all the workings of this matter but want this strike
ended as soon as possible. The men whose dignity or obduracy shall prevent a
settlement will lose their popularity and power by this struggle, and it may be
the cause of important changes of officers and management either of the Gould
system of roads or of the Knights of Labor, whichever is believed to have been
in the way of an immediate settlement.
DEATH
FROM AN ELECTRIC SHOCK.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., March 20. Daniel Coyle,
employed as a lineman by the Northern Electric Light Company, located at
Germantown avenue and Diamond street, was killed this evening by an electric
shock which he received while fixing a light. Coyle had been sent by the
company to fix a wire which was burning an awning, and to permit him to handle
the wire in safety, the current stopped. Before Coyle had finished the repairs,
however, the current was turned on, and his hand coming in contact with the
bare wire, he reeled over into the awning without uttering a word. A man who
was at the second story window assisting Coyle caught hold of him and received
a severe shock from his body. The awning was cut and the body lowered and taken
to a neighboring drug store, but life was extinct. The deceased was 25 years of
age and leaves a wife and one child. He was an expert workman and had
previously been employed with the Brush Electric Company for five years.
Globe-Democrat.
We have noticed of late, in the news reports,
several other casualties of a like nature from electric light apparatus. One
occurred in Kansas City not long ago. The question arises: Is not this
tremendous power for lighting purposes extra hazardous to life? And who is
responsible for damages? We should suppose that the electric light company
would be as much responsible for the death of a person by such a shock,
resulting from the neglect or ignorance of its employees, as is a railroad
company. Some cities require a heavy bond of electric light organizations to
cover such damages. Wichita is in a furor for electric lights, and the gas
company and one other are each starting an electric light plant, and the city
council requires heavy bonds from each company.
DEMOCRATIC
NEWSPAPERS.
“In
a Horn.”
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A year or two ago the newspapers of the
western counties of the state were nearly all Republican; now they are mostly
Democratic, and one might judge from this fact that the people of that section
were abandoning the Republican party by the wholesale and going over to the
party of Cleveland; or that the vast immigration is composed exclusively of
Democrats. But if you pick up one of these Democratic papers (edited perhaps by
a Republican) and look it over, you will quickly discover what is the matter.
You will notice from ten to fifty $5 advertisements, being notices of final
proof of right to enter lands, signed by blank, Register of the U. S. land
office; and when you remember that Uncle Sam’s land is sold by Democrats this
year, you will see how it is.
MRS.
WHITENECK.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. Whiteneck has again opened her
Dressmaking shop, first door south of the St. James Hotel, upstairs, and
invites her old customers and other ladies to call and see her work.
THE
GREAT STRIKE.
The
Line Drawn at the Right Place.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Governors Martin and Marmaduke have struck
the key to the situation in their proclamations, commanding the railroad
companies to run their freight trains for the accommodation of the public and
commanding the police of the state to protect them in it and arrest and punish
all who obstruct the movement of their trains and interfere with their
business. Railroads are the creatures of law and organized and given “special
powers and privileges,” made public highways of commerce in a sense, that the public
may be accommodated and benefitted by their uninterrupted operation; and it is
the duty of these corporations to operate their roads. The state should see to
it that they perform this duty faithfully and well, and in so doing must
protect them against obstruction and interference by the exertion of all the
powers of the state necessary. The line must be drawn somewhere and this is the
place to draw it. Employees may organize in their own interests; may refuse
singly or in a body to work longer for the corporation under the conditions it
imposes; may strike and boycott such employees as refuse to join them in the
strike; but they must offer no violence; must not otherwise intimidate them;
must keep away from the property and premises of their late employers and place
no obstruction or hindrance in the way of the operation of their roads as best
they can without the aid of the strikers. The line is clearly drawn and
whenever individuals or organizations cross this line, they become law-breakers
and criminals and should be dealt with as such.
The interests of the employees and workmen
should be protected, their rights should be held sacred, so should the rights
and interests of the farmers and businessmen, the men who must labor or who
prefer to labor on the terms they can get, and of the people at large.
So long as the employees do not overstep this
line, they will have the sympathies of the community, however foolish their
strike may be considered. The moment they go beyond this line, they lose the
sympathies and support of the people and their organization suffers the most
serious injury. The Knights of Labor have suffered discredit in this great
railroad strike from the fact that they have arrested and sidetracked trains,
disabled engines, intimidated workmen by violence, and prevented the movement
of trains by force. These unlawful acts have had the effect to convince the
public that the strike was ill conceived and foolish, the work of some
rattle-headed head center or boss, who may be only one of those imported cheap
laborers. We know little about the Martin Irons who seems to have bossed the
job, but it looks as though it was time that some intelligent Knight with an
American name was put in his place. It seems from what the national head of the
order, Powderly, has said that he did not approve of or consent to this strike
and that he holds to the same ideas and sentiments which we have expressed. He
seems to be a clear headed man and the right kind of a man for his place; but
he does not seem to have power to control the Martin Irons of the order.
There should be no power outside of Kansas
that should be able to compel Kansas employees to strike. Kansas has a law
providing for the settlement of difficulties between employers and employees by
arbitration and the latter are in a better condition than in other states.
Therefore, there is every reason that the workmen of other states whether
“foreign cheap laborers” or native should not be able to cause Kansas laborers
to punish Kansas farmers and businessmen for giving employees just the law
demanded as their chief measure by the Knights and other labor organizations, a
law intended to obviate the need of strikes which are as damaging to the
employees as to the employers.
Of course, we write, as Cliff says, in
ignorance of the details of the organization of the Knights of Labor and though
Powderly may be the inventor and owner of the order, we presume that he is just
as ignorant. If it is not outlined on the plan we recommended in a former
article, we wish it was, and then it would neither suffer such failures as the
late strike, or damage Kansas Knights, farmers, tradesmen, corporations, and
people generally.
DON’T
LIKE IT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The Burden Eagle don’t like the
appointment of Mr. Cal. Swarts for county attorney, and thinks it “strange
freaks” that Judge Torrance should appoint an Arkansas City man of “moderate
abilities;” that his choice should have fallen on a “ring candidate” and
favorite of Mr. Asp; that Mr. Asp should have resigned just at that time; that
an opponent of the prohibitory law should become Mr. Swarts’ assistant, and
that the county treasurer should stump his district against himself and in
favor of Swarts. Perhaps we have not got this last clause in the shape it was
intended, but it is just as well. We think the appointment a good one and not
at all strange. Perhaps the Eagle don’t know much about Cal. Swarts or
Webb’s position on prohibition. In due time it will discover that the ability
of the said man is not so “moderate” and that the prohibitory and other laws
will be ably enforced by both. Unless the Eagle should cut up some
“dude” and get into their clutches, it will then admit that the appointment was
a first-rate one and that there was nothing strange about it. Wait and see.
Several good men have come up out of Arkansas City and there are a few more
left of the same sort.
THE
QUESTION ANSWERED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ARKANSAS CITY, March 22, 1886. Mr. Editor: I
asked the Republican, of this city, a question which they could not
answer. Please inform me through your columns. Is St. Louis too near Arkansas
City for one to realize a fair profit on money invested in real estate in the
former city? A CONSTANT READER.
We answer, decidedly, in the affirmative. St.
Louis is too near Arkansas City to ever amount to much. Invest in Arkansas City
by all means. It will soon be an important part of the City of Winfield, and
then it will boom right along.
ANOTHER
BOYCOTT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Some of our “terminus” neighbors give out
that they will not buy a thing in Winfield or of a Winfield man. All right; we
can stand it if they can. If they will bite off their own noses, we cannot help
it. We shall nevertheless buy of them whenever it seems for our interest to do
so, and would advise them to invest in Winfield real estate all the spare money
they can scrape together.
THE
WOMEN BEHAVE BEST.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Attica,
Kansas, March 29th, 1886.
EDITORS COURIER: While waiting for a train
home, I ran across the following, which I clip from the New York Tribune, that
is too good to keep.
“It is interesting and gratifying to observe
that in nearly all of the accounts of what happened on board the Oregon after
the collision, the first credit is given to the women passengers for coolness,
bravery, and dignified behavior. The men in the first cabin are said to have
come next in freedom from panic and in the repression of selfishness, but not
all of them had self command enough to refrain from convulsive struggles to get
into the boats, and not all of them remembered at that exciting moment the
courtesy habitual to them. The women, however, behaved nobly, so far as can be
ascertained, perfectly. Helpless and utterly dependent as they were, they made
no trouble, got in nobody’s way, abstained from all nervous collapses, did not
add to the general distress by screaming and crying, implored no one to save
them, but conformed to all the requirements of the situation as calmly and
promptly as if they had been thoroughly used to shipwreck.
In such critical junctures character is
exhibited free from all disguise and varnish. The selfish people throw off all
pretense of caring for anyone but themselves. The brutal people push out of
their way all who impede their efforts to secure their own safety. The animal
nature asserts itself with hideous candor at the supreme moment, and those who
betray no littleness in passing through such an ordeal are beyond doubt true
metal. The women passengers of the Oregon were probably quite average specimens
of their sex. There is no reason to regard them as exceptional. But they acted
with a gentle, quiet self-abnegation beautiful to contemplate, and they did not
appear to have to put any compulsion upon themselves to do this. The
explanation, of course, is not far to seek. Women are, as a rule, far less
selfish than men; far more altruistic, to borrow a word from the evolutionary
terminology. Their lives are spent in self-sacrifice very frequently. They
learn to think more of others than themselves. And though some pessimists have
latterly broached the heretical assertion that modern social ways and
educational arrangements were gradually diminishing the most attractive and
lovely characteristic of women, the case of the Oregon proves how idle such an
apprehension really is, by demonstrating that in danger, in the face of death,
the calm courage and sweet unselfishness of the “suppressed sex” put them as
far above the tyrant man as they are, incontestably, in minor matters of tact,
and taste, grace, and the amenities of life.”
I wonder what the masculine minds who oppose
giving woman the ballot will say about the weakness of her sex now? This
article reminds me of another scene witnessed by myself and thousands of others
on the second battle of Corinth, on the 4th day of October, 1863.
Van Dorn’s army had whipped us all day the 3rd, and were massing on
the morning of the 4th in our front, preparatory to making that
awful charge upon Forts Williamson and Robinett, which marks one of the bloody
epochs of the late war. And as column after column of rebel gray massed into
position in our front, I think it was the 10th Ohio Battery that
galloped into position just behind where my regiment occupied the front line
ready to receive the shock of battle that must come in a few moments. Guns were
unlimbered and shotted to muzzle almost, the men were at their posts, and
everything ready for the awful shock of battle which came only too soon.
The captain commanding this battery was a
tall, fine looking young fellow, who sat his horse as only a soldier can who
fights for an overpowering and high principle, and beside him sat a lady, his
wife, elegantly mounted, with as sweet and resolute a face as ever graced a
drawing room or spoke peace to a dying soul, and as she sat her horse with her
face to the foe, brave men clamored for her to go to the rear. She simply shook
her jet black curls, but remained; and when the boys cheered as only brave men
can, she bowed her acknowledgments.
A bugle in front sounded. The compact mass of
rebel gray moved at a right shoulder shift arms, with banners flying. At first
they came in measured tread, then quick steps, and then with a yell that seemed
to shake the very earth itself, they were upon us! Our front line, which was
only an advanced heavy skirmish line, opened with a volley. The front of the
rebel line waved for a moment and closed upon us, and we backed to the main
line, while the artillery opened upon them not five hundred rods away, with
terrific effect. They wavered for a moment, when an officer gathered a flag and
darted toward us and the rebel column with yells, followed. On they came while
shot, shrapnel, and canister from our artillery and minnie balls from our thousands
of muskets plunged, plowed, and tore through their solid columns, covering the
field with awful carnage, yet they did not halt but amidst a perfect storm of
shot, shell, and musketry they pressed forward and upon us into the very
throats of the cannon. They clambered over the ramparts of Fts. Robinett and
Williamson on the left and right of us, and our right line broke and fled from
the field, and our left, though driven from the fort, rallied; and charging
with the bayonet, the 11th Missouri Infantry retook Ft. Robinett on
our left, and drove the rebels back.
And during all this time in our immediate
front a desperate battle with musketry was going on at close range with the
battery to help us. The men of the battery were falling at the guns, hundreds
of men were bleeding and dying all around this solitary woman, who without
changing her position, sat on her horse like a queen, as she was, while amidst
the dreadful conflict regiments, brigades, and divisions of men fled from the
field, her husband’s battery galloped from the field, when or what because of I
don’t know, and the bravest of the brave (who are the first into the field and
the last to abandon the fight) slowly and reluctantly gave way and fell back.
This woman turned her splendid steed, whose
courage was only equaled by the rider’s, and galloped back down the street of
Corinth, while the writer and others followed, only to be called to a halt with
hundreds of others, some three hundred yards from where they had first left the
line, by the pleading tones of this woman, who, there on her horse in the
middle of the street, in the face of danger, to the very god that he can be
when spurred to action by a great motive and the pleading voice of woman, “Men,
face about! Rally to your flag! Will you leave me?” and other pleadings not now
remembered.
Men halted for shame and formed a line there
in the street. Men faced about to look upon this woman, and then fell into
line. Artillery galloped into position. Regiments, brigades, and divisions
reformed, fixed bayonets, charged, and drove the enemy from the field. A great
victory was gained for our cause.
Our commander, William Starke Rosecrans, was
promoted and given the credit for the victory, when he was a mile in the rear.
This woman, who by her actions alone won the day, was lost sight of in the
grand charge that saved to us a grand victory. That day she dropped out of the
memory of most of the men who witnessed her bravery, and is today unknown, and
her praises unsung, and yet she saved an army while others enjoy the honors.
What a cowardly set of men we are anyhow, to
withhold from woman the only weapon in our government with which she can
protect herself, namely the ballot, that which we cherish above all else. Put
upon the hypocrisy of men who reform women equality before the law and don’t
talk to me about the right of labor until labor is willing to do right by women
on any grounds whatever.
No man is so bad that some woman cannot
reclaim him. No woman can fall so low that she will not find myriads of men who
have fallen lower than she ever can, be she even so bad. She is man’s
inspiration, and the link that binds him to his God, and without woman, man, of
his own innate degradation becomes lower, viler, and meaner than the brute.
Aye, warn them, the nonentities and cowards,
who disgrace journalism and outrage a noble profession by pretending to be
editors of so-called newspapers of Arkansas City.
W.
P. HACKNEY.
NOT
SETTLED.
The
Strike on the Missouri Pacific Railroad Remains in Full Force.
Complications
Arise Over the Conference Between Powderly and Gould.
Cars
Upset, Engines Killed near Kansas City, East St. Louis, and Alvarado, Texas.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 30. Last night, while the
executive committee was in session, the following dispatch was received from
New York.
Complications have arisen since morning as to
the methods of arbitration. Another conference will be held tomorrow. By order
of the board. (Signed) T. V. POWDERLY.
When this telegram was received, the
committee were discussing the question of ordering the men to return to work
this morning, but their plans were arrested and the committee adjourned for the
night. Shortly afterward Mr. Cooper, one of the committee, said to a reporter
that owing to the condition of affairs in New York nothing could be done by the
executive committee in the way of ordering the men back to work until further
instructions were received from Mr. Powderly. No order will now be issued.
Nothing can be done while there is no certainty that arbitration will be agreed
to. Mr. Irons, the chairman of the committee, is expected back from Sedalia
this morning, and he will then sit with the committee.
QUIET
AT ST. LOUIS.
Warrants were sworn out yesterday at the
instance of special attorneys of the Missouri Pacific road against J. J.
McGarry, Judge Advocate of District Assembly 101, C. M. Chase, and a man named Burdette, under the general
charge of felony, but for the specific offense of obstructing trains and
trespassing upon the property of the company. Traffic has been practically
resumed on the Iron Mountain road. Two trains left yesterday, one about noon,
another at 2 p.m., and three trains arrived from the south. Quite a number of
men applied for work at the yards of this road today and they were employed.
About two o’clock yesterday afternoon three crowds of strikers left the Relay
depot and went to the yards of the Ohio & Mississippi and Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy railroads and to the National stock yards and killed an
engine at each place. The Wabash started out a train at 2:30. The situation in
the Missouri Pacific yards yesterday morning was one of quietness and order.
The crowd present was small and not demonstrative and no interference was
offered to the running of trains. One freight train started out soon after one
o’clock and another followed an hour later. Neither of them excited any
particular attention. Up to noon none of the strikers had presented themselves
at the shop or yards to resume work and probably none will.
DISORDER
IN EAST ST. LOUIS.
The situation in the East St. Louis yards was
one of disorder, and at times it looked as though there would be real trouble.
Large crowds congregated at the Relay depot and in various yards, and when an
effort was made to start a freight train in the Vandalia yards, a crowd swarmed
around it, drew the coupling pins, and otherwise obstructed its movements to
such a degree that the train was abandoned. In the Indianapolis & St. Louis
and the Louisville & Nashville yards, efforts were made to make up trains;
but as fast as cars were brought into position, they were uncoupled by strikers
and finally the attempt to move them was abandoned. In the Wabash yards deputy
marshals are now making up a train and it will be sent out some time this
afternoon. No effort was made in the other yards to move trains and probably
there will be none till protection is offered by the State authorities. It is
reported that Sheriff Replequet, of St. Clair County, who was present this
morning and unable to control the strikers, has appealed to the Governor of
Illinois for military aid, but this has not been verified.
TROUBLE
AT PARSONS.
PARSONS, Kansas, March 30. An effort was made
by the railway company to move freight trains out on the different lines
diverging from this city yesterday. The sheriff’s posse, numbering about 100,
sixty-five of whom were armed, and put into possession of engines to help them
from being disabled, and others were scattered along the line of the road to
keep the bystanders away. Mayor Brown, of Parsons, ordered out and had about
200 of the best citizens, property owners, and taxpayers to aid the sheriff and
the officers of the company in the movement of the trains. About 800 or 900
people assembled on the track, with women and children, and put themselves in
opposition to the movement of the train. The crowd stood upon the track in
front of the train and defied the engineer and firemen to run over them, using
rotten eggs extensively, calling the engineer and fireman all sorts of names,
and blockading the passage of the engine. The first engine had come down. The
Knights of Labor saw an opportunity and disabled it by letting the steam out
and drawing the fire. The second engine was not disturbed, but the multitude of
people, with women and children, stood on the track and defied the engineer and
fireman to run over them. Some of the women seized the guns of the guards, and
others placed themselves in a position that a train could not move without
injuring them, and thus they held the fort triumphant, until it was ascertained
it was fruitless on the part of the sheriff and posse to move the train, the
engine backed to the roundhouse, and ran into one of the stalls. It seems the
strike is much stronger here than the officials and law-abiding citizens
anticipated. The sheriff and mayor, with other citizens, have wired the
Governor the status of the situation, and that they believe that a train cannot
move through this place without the aid of military force. Judge Kelso advised
the sheriff and his posse not to do any shooting, as it was very plain to be
seen that if any shot was fired, it would provoke a collision, and probably
many people might have been injured who were not to blame in this matter.
TRAINS
UPSET AT KANSAS CITY.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 30. Three attempts
were made to run trains here yesterday, two of which were attended with
difficulty. The first was at 7:30. Mr. Drake, Mr. Dalby, and several other
officials had been in the yards since four o’clock, and at the hour mentioned
had a train of twenty cars loaded with grain ready to go out. A few strikers
were in the yard, but after having pulled a few coupling pins, they were driven
away by Sergeant Newgent. At Appleton the train was met by citizens with flags
and a brass band. At noon another train of twenty cars was sent east. This one
was flagged at the distillery by strikers and the engineer at their request
backed the train to the State line. Here the fireman and two brakemen left the
train and refused to go back. Their places were supplied by other men, and at
three o’clock another start was made with Roundsman McGinnis and Officers Sol
Davis, William Davis, Clarkin, and Foster in the cab. This time no interruption
occurred, the officers remaining on the engine until Independence was reached.
The last train out was one sent west at 1:20. At Rama, about eight miles from
Wyandotte, some thirty men sprang out of the woods and signaled the engineer to
stop. As he did not do so, one of the men turned the switch and the engine ran
down on a side track. When the train was halfway past the switch, the latter
was turned back and two cars wrecked. The men allowed the engineer to clear the
main track, but as soon as he had done so, the engine was killed. Mr. Drake
says he has the names of several of the party and that one of them was a
switchman who struck with the Knights of Labor. A freight engine came in on the
Missouri Pacific from the east about eleven o’clock last night and started for
the roundhouse in the Cypress yards. Just after it crossed the State line, it
was run off the track, the strikers having opened a switch. The engine was not
damaged, as it was going slow at the time.
MORE
ENGINES KILLED.
ALVAREDO, Texas, March 30. An engine and ten
cars arrived here yesterday from Fort Worth. The strikers drove the engineers
from the cab and killed the engine, and last night thirty masked strikers
locked up the guard at the roundhouse and disabled the engines in it. A strong
guard is watching the building.
NEWS
NOTES.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The case of Manix, assignee of the Purcell
estate, has been settled in the Cincinnati Probate Court.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The Portuguese Government has issued a decree
authorizing the free exportation of gold and silver coin.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Barney McAuley, the well-known actor, died in
St. Vincent’s Hospital, New York, recently, of delirium tremens.
THE
BITTER END.
Jay
Gould Says He Will Fight the Strike on the Missouri Pacific To the Bitter End.
He
Gets Legal Advice.
Governor
Marmaduke Issues A Proclamation Commanding the Railroad to Resume
Traffic
and the Strikers to Disperse.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
NEW YORK, March 25. The Tribune publishes
a long interview with Mr. Jay Gould in regard to the strike on the Missouri
Pacific railroad, the essential features of which are herewith given.
Mr. Gould said: “There can be no compromise
in this case and so far as I know there has been no attempt toward one by
either side. There is no room for a compromise for the strikers have confessed
in effect that they have no grievance against our company. I am bound to fight
this question to the bitter end for this very reason. The proposition is a
simple one; if we had once interfered with the management of the Texas Pacific,
we should have been in contempt of the United States Court, which has charge of
that road. The men on our own lines have made no complaint against us, but are
striking to enforce the demands of a workman on another road not under our
control. There can be no compromise of such a strike and I have asked the
opinion of Judge Dillon as to our legal rights under such circumstances, and
his decision is that it is our duty, not alone our right, to prevent the
interruption of the business of the road by all legal means.
“The company has a clear legal remedy against
the members of the Knights of Labor organizations in suits for damages, and we
propose to test this action in the courts. We shall sue members of the
organization, and the papers in the case now are being prepared in accordance
with Judge Dillon’s opinion. We propose to recover damages from every member of
the association who has any property. A great many employees of the Missouri
Pacific, especially machinists and engineers, have homes which they have bought
out of their savings. Some of the men are worth $15,000 or $20,000 apiece. They
are responsible to us for the losses we have suffered if they belong to the
Knights of Labor. We will show them that we intend to enforce all our legal
rights, and we shall bring suits against members of the order who have property
on other lines of railroads and in other States. We shall attempt to recover
damages from every member who has property that we can attach. It is time that
these things should be settled and this is a favorable opportunity. I propose
to fight it out on this line. There is another feature of the case, and that is
that every shipper and manufacturer and in fact, every person who has suffered
loss by this strike, has the same legal redress as the railroad company has.”
Mr. Gould said that the position taken by
Vice President Hoxie in his card to the strikers had been fully approved by the
board of directors. The effects of this strike, he said, would unsettle
confidence throughout the world, and these workmen would be the first to feel
its disastrous consequences. He had no news which would lead him to suppose
that the strike would extend to the East and intimated that he might ask for an
injunction restraining working Knights of Labor from contributing to the
support of those on a strike.
MARMADUKE’S
PROCLAMATION.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., March 25. Governor
Marmaduke at a late-hour last evening issued the following proclamation
relative to the strike on the Missouri Pacific railroad.
The internal commerce of the State of
Missouri is carried on almost entirely by railroads. These roads are owned by
private corporations belonging to that class of persons whose property is
subject to a public use, and that use is in this case as a thoroughfare on
public highways, as defined in section 14, article 12, of our State
constitution. Railroad companies are declared by the same section of the
constitution to be common carriers. As such it is their duty to receive all
passengers and freight that are offered, to transport the same with reasonable
dispatch, and to deliver them uninjured at their destination. In order that
these public highways may be opened and these common carriers established in
business upon them, the State has granted to these companies the privilege of
incorporation whereby their stockholders, after paying in the par value of
their stock, are exempt from any further liability of the company or to its
creditors, no matter what amount of debt may be incurred by it. They are also
authorized to issue stock to the full amount of the cost of their property and
in addition the State and its lesser public corporations such as cited,
counties, and townships have subscribed these companies so liberally that in
some localities debts were created therefor, to pay which generations to come
will have to be taxed. The State has exerted in the railroads’ favor its right
to eminent domain by condemning private property for their use, which act alone
stamps their property with an indelible mark signifying “devoted to a public
use.”
In return for all these privileges,
immunities, and favors, the State claims nothing except that her people shall
have the use of the transportation facilities, thus created and provided in the
manner indicated by their constitutional and other legal rights. The right to
the enjoyment of this use by the people is paramount, ought to be and shall be
respected. The railroad companies themselves have by accepting these conditions
assumed the responsibility of securing to the people these enjoyments. Every
stockholder in these companies has knowingly assumed his share of that
responsibility, and every employee from president to trackman has knowingly
entered a service on which this responsibility rests and has voluntarily
assumed the actual performance of a part of the duties incidental thereto.
The lines operated by the Missouri Pacific
Railway Company carry nearly one-third of all the railroad traffic of Missouri.
On these lines no freight has been moved during the last seventeen days.
Thousands of tons are stopped in transit, and the people are consequently
suffering enormous inconvenience, damage, and loss. This is caused by the
refusal of a part of the employees of said company to perform their duties or
to allow others to take their places. It is alleged that there are unsettled
grievances of some sort between them and the chief executive officers, which is
to say, there is some disagreement between two classes of employees of the same
company. In the eye of the law, they are all component parts of the same
organization and they must settle whatever differences there may be among
themselves in some other way than by inflicting upon the people of the State
the incalculable injury which this stoppage of the freight traffic involves.
Wherefore, I, John S. Marmaduke, Governor of
the State of Missouri, by virtue of the authority in me vested, do hereby call
upon the Missouri Pacific Railway Company and upon all of its officers, agents,
and employees of every grade each in their several capacities to assist in
resuming traffic of all kinds in the usual way on all of the railroad lines
operated by said company in Missouri, and I warn all persons, whether they be
employees or not, against interposing any obstacle of any kind whatever in the
way of said resumption and, with a firm reliance upon the courage, good sense,
and law-abiding spirit of the public, I hereby call upon all good citizens to
assist in carrying out the purposes of this proclamation, and I also hereby
pledge the whole power of the State, so far as it may be lawfully wielded by
its chief executive officer, to sustain said company and its servants in said
resumption and to restrain all that may oppose it.
In testimony whereof I have hereto set my
hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of the State of Missouri. Done at
the City of Jefferson on the 24th day of March, A. D. 1886.
JOHN
S. MARMADUKE.
By the Governor.
MICHAEL K. McGRATH, Secretary of State.
GOULD
SEEKS ADVICE.
NEW YORK, March 25. The following
correspondence explains itself and the legal opinion it contains is of much
interest at the present time.
To Messrs. Dillon and Swayne, general
solicitors, New York.
Gentlemen: A secret organization known as the
Knights of Labor have for more than two weeks, by combination, force, and
violence prevented the company from operating its road to such an extent that
for that period the company has been unable to run any freight trains or do any
repairs to locomotives or cars. For example, this morning when an endeavor was
made to start a freight train from St. Louis west a force, or a mob, of about
eight hundred men assembled and prevented it. I am instructed by the company’s
directors to inquire of you what our legal rights and duties are in the
premises and particularly if this organization and the members of it are liable
to the company for the damages which it has suffered by their preventing it
from operating its road. Yours truly, JAY GOULD, President.
To Jay Gould, Esq., President, etc., New
York.
NEW YORK, March 23. DEAR SIR: Your letter
states a case of illegal conspiracy and combination against the company,
accompanied with violence and force, preventing it from discharging its public
duties and inflicting upon it and the community serious pecuniary damages. It
is the duty of your company to use all lawful means in its power to this end:
The law is well settled that, where an unlawful end is sought to be effected,
all persons who, actuated by a common purpose, work together in any way in
furtherance of such an end, are conspirators and do-wrong-doers, and each is
liable for the acts of all. The body which directs the illegal acts, as well as
all persons who aid, abet, counsel, or assist in furthering their
accomplishment are equally liable, and each one is liable to the extent of the
whole aggregate damage, and all or any may be sued therefor, and recovery in
the civil suit in no wise affects the criminal liability. Yours truly,
DILLON
& SWAYNE, General Solicitors.
CONGRESSIONAL.
The
Senate Laboring on the Edwards Resolutions.
The
House Passes the Indian Appropriation Bill.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 25. The Chair laid before
the Senate yesterday a petition from 700 citizens of the Pacific coast,
protesting against the cruel treatment of the unoffending Chinese. It was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
The Army Increase bill was then taken up and
Mr. Seller opposed the increase to $30,000. He said he would not discuss in
detail the Indian policy, but he saw no reason in the Indian question for an
increase. The country could take a number of Indian children from the hostile
tribes, put them in the Indian schools, and treat them as hostages for the good
conduct of their parents.
The hour of two o’clock having arrived, the
army bill went over and the resolutions reported from the Judiciary Committee
were placed before the Senate.
Mr. Morgan addressed the Senate in opposition
to the majority report. Referring to the determination of the majority not to
confirm nominations when papers about the suspensions were not furnished, he
said the Senate might as well, in a fit of passion, declare at an end all
intercourse with the President. The Senate had no power to prevent the
President from performing his constitutional duty. It could reject his
nominations if it thought fit, but could do no more.
Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon, concurred in the
report of the majority of the committee, in so far as it asserted that it was
the duty of the executive officers to furnish when called upon by the Senate
papers relating to the administration of an office by a suspended official. He
would not be disposed to insist, however, that the presence of such papers in
the Senate was absolutely necessary to the discharge by the Senate of its
constitutional duty in advising and consenting to the proposed removals from
office. With that qualification he conceded in the report of the majority. He
believed the Attorney General plainly in error in refusing to furnish the papers
called for, but if called on to vote on the series of majority resolutions as a
whole, he would do so reluctantly and under positive protest.
Considerable cross fire occurred in a debate
between Senators Hoar, Grey, Edmunds, Butler, and Harris, and without action on
the resolutions the Senate adjourned.
HOUSE.
When the House met yesterday, Mr. Blanchard,
of Louisiana, from the Committee on Civil Service Reform, reported a resolution
calling on the various Cabinet officers for information as to whether or not
the employees in their departments were permitted to employ substitutes to
perform their duties; whether such substitutes were employed or appointed, and,
if so, by whom; and whether they had passed the civil service examination. The
resolution was adopted.
Mr. Anderson, of Kansas, asked unanimous
consent that an order be made allowing the Committee on Labor to report for
action at any time, not to interfere with revenue or appropriation bills,
legislation for the purpose of providing arbitration in strikes on railroads.
Mr. O’Neill, of Missouri, thought that the
order should properly come from the Committee on Labor. There was no objection
and the order was made.
In the morning hour the House resumed its
consideration of the Congressional Library bill. Without action on the bill the
morning hour expired and the House went into Committee of the Whole on the
Indian Appropriation bill. The pending question was on the point of order
raised by Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota, against the appropriation for the Salem
Indian school.
Mr. Nelson said that he thought the committee
was wrong yesterday in ruling out the clause relative to Captain Pratt and that
that decision was applicable to the pending clause. But he did not wish to
delay the passage of the bill and he therefore withdrew the point of order.
After a debate upon an amendment offered and
rejected, the committee arose and the bill was passed. Yeas 226, nays 5.
The House immediately went into Committee of
the Whole on the Post-office Appropriation bill.
Consideration of the bill lasted until
adjournment.
GOVERNMENT
PRINTERS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 25. The Senate Committee on
Labor decided to report favorably a bill to increase the wages of the employees
of the Government Printing office, so composition shall receive 60 cents per
thousand ems, and those who are paid by the day shall get 20 per cent more than
they receive now. The Government now pays printers, pressmen, and binders more
than is received by this class of artisans anywhere in the world.
EL
DORADO SCORCHED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
EL DORADO, Kansas, March 25. A fire last
night destroyed Gordon & Son’s drug store, O. Beaman’s dry goods store, J.
S. Ewing’s grocery, and Charles Richard’s jewelry store. Including the
buildings the total loss is about $85,000, which is well covered by insurance.
A new brick block will be put up in the place of the old buildings.
SILVER
SOAP.
The
Silver Question Gets Another Soaping Over in the House.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 29. In the House Saturday
the debate on the silver question was opened by Mr. Culberson, of Texas. He
said that he was not afraid of silver and was in favor of placing it on the
same plane with gold. It was necessary to provide some further legislation in
order to break up the practice in the Treasury Department of repudiating the
silver dollars and cause their application to the payment of the public debt,
principal, and interest. When the people declared that the financial policy of
the Republican party should be enforced, their mandate was respected and
obeyed, but when the people revolted against the oppressive exactions and
extortions of that financial policy and declared that the financial policy of the
Democratic party should be enforced, it seemed that their mandate fell
still-born, and they were deprived of the fruits of their great victory by the
exercise of official discretion and the interests of the people were sacrificed
on the altar of gold. Unfortunately for the people there was no law that
required the Secretary of the Treasury to pay the surplus money on the public
debt, but a discretionary power in this regard was left with that officer, and
since experience had shown that that discretion had been exercised to defeat
the will of the people, it should be withdrawn at once. He would make the
coinage of silver free, and he would pass a law compelling the Treasury
Department to pay the surplus on the public debt.
Mr. Long, of Massachusetts, said the simple
common sense thing to do was to call a halt. This country had an abundance of
silver, more than the efforts of the administration could force into
circulation, and silver coinage should be given a present or prospective rest.
In the interest of bi-metallism, in the interest of silver itself, it was time
to cast an anchor and take bearings to suspend, or at least fix a time for the
suspension of the coinage and then to see if some international arrangement
with the other great commercial nations could not be made. In conclusion, Mr.
Long said: “I appeal to the victorious majority of this House, flushed with
success and now entering on the full administration of the Government. In this
the Democratic standard, this the first act of the Democracy, now regaining
full national control, that it strikes its first blow at public and private
credit, that it refuses to sustain its own executive in keeping the financial
flag at the masthead, and that it announces to the world that Democratic
supremacy and leadership are only another name for impaired credit, for
half-mast financial standards, and for transferring its republic from the
financial rank among the foremost nations of the earth to that of India and the
“Heathen Chinee?’”
Mr. Dorgan, of South Carolina, made a strong
plea for the establishment of a single gold standard, and advocated the
suspension of coinage under the Bland act, declaring that the so-called
debt-paying dollar was in reality a debt-scaling dollar, nothing but eighty
cents worth of bullion with a falsehood stamped upon it. “I repudiate,” said
he, “the suggestion that it is for the interest of the South to unite with the
West against the East and North in enacting such laws as will enable us to pay
the national debt in depreciated silver dollars. I deny that it is for the
interest of the South or of any other section that this great Nation should
evade directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, the payment of the whole of
its just debts according to the spirit as well as according to the letter of
its contracts.
Mr. Halsell, of Kentucky, said that the
people had spoken in no uncertain voice against the suspension of silver
coinage, and the question was whether Congress, their servant, should heed
their voice, or legislate in the interest of those who were seeking to enrich
themselves at the expense of the working class. The stopping of silver coinage
meant a stagnation of trade, a paralyzing of labor, and an infliction of all
the evils which would surely arise from a derangement of the industries of the
country.
J. M. Taylor, of Tennessee, briefly favored
free coinage, and then the House adjourned.
SUCCESSFUL
SWITCHMEN.
The
Switchmen’s Strike in Kansas City Ends in the Reported Success of the Men.
The
Agreement Kept Secret.—Labor Movements Elsewhere.
Secretary
Turner in Favor of Congressional Action.
New
York Carpenters Succeed.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 25. The switchmen’s
strike, which for three days paralyzed the business of this city and stopped
the traffic at a dozen roads, was brought to a sudden termination at five
o’clock yesterday afternoon and at seven the night crews in all the yards
except the Missouri Pacific returned to work. The exact terms of settlement are
unknown even to the men, the grand master, who conducted the arbitration for
them, being sworn to secrecy. Enough is known, however, to justify the
statement of a striker that the agreement is on the basis of Chicago rates.
From a superintendent it was learned that the men are to return to work at the
schedule of the 13th inst., and that the roads are to be allowed to
regulate the working hours of crews. That the agreement does not end here is
evident, and an official high up in authority did not hesitate to say that
after April 1, the pay would be the same as the Chicago standard. As has been
stated, until yesterday the superintendents had refused to elect Grand Master
Monaghan. Vice President Smith, of the Santa Fe, General Manager Callaway, and
General Superintendent Smith, of the Union Pacific, arrived in the city
yesterday morning, and with General Manager Nettleton, of the Fort Scott, and
General Manager Barnard, of the Hannibal & Council Bluffs, held a
conference at the Fort Scott offices. It took them but a few minutes to decide
that the superintendents should confer with the representative of the strikers,
and at three o’clock the latter did so in the office of the Union depot
superintendent. Besides Mr. Monaghan there were present Messrs. D. J. Chase,
General Superintendent of the Santa Fe, and Mr. Nichols, Superintendent; Mr. T.
M. Bates, General Superintendent of the Alton, and Mr. W. E. Gray, Assistant
Superintendent; Mr. R. G. Butler, Superintendent of the Wabash; Mr. L. W.
Towne, General Superintendent of the Fort Scott; and Mr. J. O. Brinkerhoff,
Superintendent of the Union Pacific. Mr. Barnard, who went to St. Joseph at
three o’clock to look after the strike there, had so far reached from his first
position that he left the matter of settlement entirely in the hands of the
other superintendents, agreeing to acquiesce in anything they might do.
The conference lasted two hours, at the end
of which time terms of settlement had been put in writing and signed by all
present. Mr. Monaghan then hurried to the hall on West Twelfth street, where he
found President Hill and most of the strikers awaiting him. A session was
immediately held with closed doors.
“Have you confidence in me?” were Mr.
Monaghan’s first words.
“We have,” exclaimed every man in the room
with one voice.
“Then the night men will go to work at seven
o’clock and the day men will report for duty at seven tomorrow morning. My lips
are sealed until Sunday, but I assure you that your interests have not been
compromised. I will say further that if this agreement is not religiously
observed by the roads, I will order you out and Chicago along with you.”
A deafening cheer greeted this last remark
and the session closed, the night men going to their homes to prepare for the
night’s work.
“The men will work the same as though no
strike had occurred,” said Mr. Monaghan. “I can’t say what the agreement is. I
will say, however, that we will fix this matter up so that there never will be
another strike.”
The object of imposing secrecy on the Grand
Master is not apparent. Some railroad men think that the superintendents have
granted everything the men demanded, but expecting an early settlement of the
Missouri Pacific strike, prefer to keep the fact secret for a time so that
other employees may not be induced to strike by the prospect of receiving
higher wages.
Five minutes after the adjournment of the
superintendents’ meeting, the news had been telephoned all over the city. The
effect on business was electric. Before night every manufacturer and wholesale
merchant in town had telegraphed to every point in his territory and was making
preparations to get delayed consignments out as soon as possible.
OTHER
STRIKE MATTERS.
PHILADELPHIA, March 25. Secretary Turner, of
the Knights of Labor, received a telegram today from a prominent official of
the order at Washington, stating that ex-Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, was
about to introduce and urge the passage of a resolution in the House of
Representatives providing an investigation into the cause of the refusal on the
part of certain railroad companies to arbitrate existing labor difficulties in
the West. The Knight states that he had been requested by the promoters of the
resolution to ascertain the sentiment of the order to the proposed inquiry.
Secretary Turner has replied by wire that the order will approve any object
having in view a possible settlement by arbitration and would concur in the
proposed Congressional action.
WALKOUT
EXPECTED.
OMAHA, Neb., March 25. A delegation of
Knights of Labor from Denver, Cheyenne, Rawlins, and Laramie arrived here
yesterday and held meetings all the afternoon with members of the order here.
It is understood that they are formulating a demand on the Union Pacific
Company for an entire adjustment of the wage schedule and unless their demand is
acceded to there will be a general strike all along the line. A walkout among
the yardmen at this place is expected to occur today.
ANOTHER
ENGINE KILLED.
OMAHA, Neb., March 25. The fifth futile
attempt of the Missouri Pacific to move freight trains out of this city
occurred yesterday. At two o’clock an engine and caboose started with the
intention of picking up cars at Papillion, just outside the city. The Knights
of Labor killed the engine and ran it on the belt line tracks, where they left
it guarded.
ENGINE
WRECKED.
PARSONS, Kan., March 25. The first violence
that has been enacted here during the present strike was committed last night
when some persons ran one of the switch engines (up to the last day or two
performing the switching of passenger trains) into the turntable at the
roundhouse, completely wrecking the engine, causing considerable damage.
PICKETING
A FIRM.
CHICAGO, March 25. Bruschke & Ricke,
furniture manufacturers, yesterday decided to ask for an injunction against the
Furniture Workers’ Union No. 9, as an organization, and its sixty-four members
individually, to prevent the “picketing” of the factory, where a strike is
progressing. By picketing, the firm means that the strikers have guards along
all streets leading to the factory by which non-union hands who might be going
there to work are intercepted and discouraged.
THE
DAYTON STRIKES.
DAYTON, Ohio, March 24. The strike among the
drivers of the Third street car line still continues, with no prospect of a
settlement soon. The Oakwood line struck at noon, and it is expected that the
Fifth and Wayne street lines will follow in the strike tomorrow. The moulders
of the city are off duty today, not on a strike, but to aid the railroad
strikers. All the employees of the glass and cigar manufactories struck today
because the proprietors refused to make them union factories.
COERCING
STREET CAR COMPANIES.
ANNAPOLIS, Md., March 25. The bill making it
compulsory on the part of street car companies in Baltimore to reduce the hours
of labor of the conductors and drivers to twelve hours per day was unanimously
passed by the House of Delegates today, minus the obnoxious amendment which the
companies sought to have attached to the bill abolishing the park tax.
NEW YORK, March 25. The carpenters’ strike,
involving between 5,000 and 6,000 men, in this city, is virtually at an end,
not more than twenty-five men being out now, the demand for $3.50 per day for
nine hours being acceded to. The 4,000 workmen on clocks in the city who are on
a strike for better hours and pay are winning their case. Most of the
manufacturers are willing to concede and work will probably be resumed in a few
days.
INVESTIGATING
BLACK.
Jobs
Put Up on the Pension Commissioner.
Jockeyed
by Clerks of Opposing Faith.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 25. The examination of
Pension Commissioner Black was continued by the Senate Committee on
Expenditures of Public Money yesterday morning.
Senator Harrison took up the case of Captain
John A. Whitsit, one of the twenty cases furnished by Commissioner Black to
sustain his charge that the Pension Office had been managed as a political
machine by his predecessors.
Commissioner Black said he did not wish to be
examined on that case and that he would withdraw it from the investigation.
Senator Harrison asked whether the withdrawal
was in consequence of the politics of the claimant.
Mr. Black declined to answer the question.
Mr. Harrison asked whether the withdrawal was
not made because of the discovery that the claimant was a Democrat.
The witness said he did not know, yet he had
completed the case.
Senator Harrison again asked the reasons
which impelled the witness to withdraw the case.
In reply Commissioner Black said that he was
told yesterday by a man that the committee had an excellent joke which they
were going to spring on him; that there was the case of one man who was a
Democrat and the chairman of a Democratic county committee. He [Mr. Black] ran
over the list hurriedly and became satisfied that the man Whitsit was a
Democrat.
Senator Harrison asked if the witness knew
that claimant has always been a Democrat and was a chairman of the Democratic
committee of Indianapolis, to which the Commissioner replied in the negative.
Commissioner Black said he had not dropped
Whitsit; he did not know whether he should do it. Emphatically he thought the
testimony was sufficient to keep him on the rolls.
The case of Reuben Neil was then taken up and
Senator Plumb conducted the investigation.
Commissioner Black in reply to inquiries said
that the other claim was allowed, but was suspended before the certificate
reached him, in consequence of a statement by Congressman Pettibone that he was
informed claimant was a fraud and suggesting a further investigation. It was
still in a condition of suspension.
Mr. Plumb asked what there was in this case
that was irregular.
General Black said that the case had been
examined on two occasions and had been recommended for admission and there
seemed to be nothing in the case that was adverse to its admission. It was
suspended upon suggestion by Pettibone, who had never seen the claimant and had
no personal knowledge of him.
Mr. Plumb asked whether the witness would not
have suspended the case under like circumstances.
General Black said he might have done so. It
would depend on what he knew of a case. All the evidence in the case was in
favor of the claimant; yet the case was suspended upon the letter of a man who
had never seen the claimant and admitted he knew nothing about the case personally.
Mr. Plumb asked if the committee had
reinstated this claimant.
Witness said he had not. His reason was that
in such cases he wished to proceed with more caution than in ordinary cases.
General Black in conclusion asked to submit
the endorsement noting the suspension of the case. This endorsement, he said,
in reply to an inquiry, was made before he [Black] became Commissioner.
Mr. Plumb then called attention to another
endorsement which he asked the witness to read.
Commissioner Black read as follows:
PENSION OFFICE, Jan. 19, 1886. Claimant,
through Hon. A. H. Pettibone, informed same was dropped, as additional evidence
does not change the status.
Commissioner Black appeared never to have
seen or heard of this endorsement before. In reply to Senator Plumb he said:
“That would indicate that the thing has been jockeyed within my office. A man
who has only one or two clerks of his own persuasion in a great division like
that has to take some chances.”
The committee adjourned to meet next
Wednesday.
HOG
CHOLERA IN KANSAS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 25. The report of the
Statistical Agent of the Agricultural Department for Kansas relating to live
stock in that State, published today, is as follows: “Cattle and sheep are
unusually free from epidemic diseases. A few isolated instances of black leg
are reported, but no serious losses have occurred. “Scab” has about disappeared
from among sheep and “foot rot” is almost unknown in the State. Glanders among
horses has appeared in many counties, and much apprehension is felt at its
progress. The State Veterinary Surgeon, together with the State Live Stock
Sanitary Commission, are working faithfully under an insufficient law to
suppress it, and have accomplished much, but the disease is more prominent in
the State now than ever before. Cholera among hogs is noted in nearly every
county in the eastern two-thirds of the State and is causing serious loss. In
some of the more eastern counties a loss of from 20 to 30 per cent is reported,
and the epidemic is growing rapidly. The disease has spread from infected
corrals by the aid of rivers and creeks, and the loss is so serious that some
sanitary measures will have to be taken.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
VALLEY FALLS, D. T., March 29. Miss Clara A.
Root, one of the teachers in the public schools and a sister of Herbert Root,
President of the Farmers and Merchants’ Nations Bank, died suddenly last night
under circumstances that led to the belief that she had committed suicide. An
inquest was held at which it was shown that she had drank an ounce of carbolic
acid. For more than a year it has been rumored that there was trouble of some
kind in the Root household, owing to which Miss Root left her brother’s home, and
has been boarding with friends, among whom was the family of Rev. Mr. Sims, in
whose house she died. A letter was found in the handwriting of the deceased in
which she accused a female relative of Herbert Root with being the cause of the
trouble which led to her suicide. The inquest is not yet finished. The affair
creates great excitement, as all parties are well known in the Northwest.
BLOODHOUND
PROOF.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
EUFAULA, Ala., March 29. On Friday night the
barn and other outbuildings belonging to Mr. Thos. Countess, in Tuscaloosa
County, was set on fire and destroyed by an incendiary. Countess got Reuben
Garner’s bloodhound, and started on a trail through a laurel thicket, which led
to the house of a colored man named Silas Brown. The door was opened and the
bloodhound, after sniffing the other members of the family, finally went to a
bed on which Silas was lying, and seized him by the leg. The examination of the
track showed it corresponded to his shoes, and he was lodged in jail.
AN
OLD GAMBLER’S SUICIDE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
LEADVILLE, Co., March 29. John Timmerman, an
old professional gambler, arrived in this city from Fort Scott, Kansas, without
any money. He had always been a dealer and was considered one of the best in
the West. Being old he failed to secure employment here and became discouraged,
and at noon yesterday he took a dose of laudanum from which he died in a few
hours. Deceased was 53 years old, a native of Louisville, Kentucky. He leaves a
wife and four children in St. Louis, in which city and Cincinnati he spent most
of his life.
WINANS’
WICKEDNESS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
NEW YORK, March 29. The hearing in the case
of Mrs. Alice O’Keefe Winans against Ross R. Winans, the Baltimore millionaire,
was resumed before Referee Stephen P. Nash, today. The suit is for divorce,
Winans claiming that he was never married to the woman. Counselor Carter, in
behalf of Winans, introduced the enactments of William I. and George IV, to
indicate the laws of England governing matrimonial obligations. Mrs. O’Keefe
then took the stand and commenced to contradict statements made by Winans in
his examination.
A
DISAGREED JURY.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
FREDERICKTOWN, Mo., March 29. The attorneys
in the Nance case concluded their arguments Saturday and the case was given to
the jury at six o’clock. The jury wrestled with the case all night and until
four o’clock yesterday afternoon, when they informed the Judge that it was not
possible to agree upon a verdict. The Judge immediately discharged them. They
stood ten for acquittal and two for conviction.
A
SORRY FOOL.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WHEELING, W. Va., March 29. A Fayette County
farmer was swindled out of $700 a few days ago in a novel manner. One of a
party of gypsies told the agriculturalist that if he would place $25 in a
certain old stump, he would find it double in the morning. The farmer tried it
and the scheme worked. The next evening he placed $700 of his savings in the
stump, but has not seen the money since.
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ABILENE, Texas, March 29. The jury in the
case of the State vs. C. W. Boyett, for the murder of Ben Warren a year ago
while acting as special fence cutting detective for Governor Ireland at
Sweetwater, returned a verdict at a late hour last night and assessed the
punishment at life imprisonment in the State penitentiary.
WASHINGTON.
Army
Efficiency and the Edmunds Resolutions Discussed in the Senate.
Indian
Appropriations in the House.
Important
Evidence on Telegraph Monopoly.
Newspaper
Men Declare Western Union Methods a Grinding System of Coercion.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 24. The Chair laid before
the Senate yesterday morning a number of House bills, among them the bill
granting a suspension of $2,000 a year to the widow of General Hancock. On
motion of Mr. Blair, the bill was at once passed, Mr. Blair stating that it had
been that morning considered by the Pension Committee of the Senate.
Mr. Ingalls’ resolution of inquiry was then
agreed to, asking whether the Postmaster General had received the resolution
calling for information as to the number of fourth class postmasters removed under
the present examination.
Mr. Beck called up the resolution offered by
him December 18, 1885, relating to the payment of customs dues in coin. He said
the resolution had been amply discussed and he now moved its reference to the
Finance Committee, and it was agreed to.
The Chair then laid before the Senate Mr.
Logan’s bill to promote the efficiency of the army, and Mr. Manderson spoke in
favor of the section increasing the force to 30,000 men.
Mr. Beck thought an increase of the army was
unnecessary. It would be very bad policy for this administration to increase
the expenditures of the Government by this proposed increase, and thus make
reduction of taxation more difficult. He had seen enough volunteer soldiers on
Pennsylvania avenue, Washington, when President Cleveland was inaugurated to
carry on an Indian war of themselves, and a large standing army was not
necessary. There were many people in this country who would like a large
standing army: capitalists who were anxious to have it to suit their purposes
in their designs on the people.
Mr. Logan said he would not use the word
demagogism in respect to arguments made in the Senate, but he repelled any
insinuation that the increase proposed was for the purpose of using it against
the people—that was unworthy of the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Beck). Mr. Logan
had been recommending this increase for the past ten years and had introduced
the bill.
Upon motion of Mr. Van Wyck, the Senate took
up the bill to confirm entries heretofore made on the public lands in
accordance with the rulings of the Land Office in force at the time they were
made.
Mr. Plumb suggested that an amendment be made
declaring that the measure should not apply to script entries and Mr. Van Wyck
accepted the amendment and the bill then passed.
Mr. Logan introduced a bill repealing the
provision of the existing law which declares that when a vacancy occurs in the
office of General or Lieutenant General of the army, such office shall cease.
At two o’clock the Judiciary Committee
resolutions were placed before the Senate and Mr. Jackson resumed his speech in
opposition to the majority report.
Debate continued until adjournment.
HOUSE.
When the House met yesterday, Mr. Reagan, of
Texas, from the Committee on Commerce, reported back the Senate bill to
establish a Nation live stock highway and promote commerce in live stock
between the States. This went to the House calendar.
Mr. Davis, of Massachusetts, reported a bill
to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the United States and
to establish a bureau of public health.
In the morning hour Mr. Richardson, of
Tennessee, on behalf of the Committee on War Claims, called up and the House
passed the Fourth of July Claims bill. The amount involved in the bill is
$238,200.
The House then went into Committee of the
Whole on the Indian Appropriation bill.
A point of order was pending against the
clause appropriating $1,000 for the annual allowance to Captain R. H. Pratt,
while in charge of the Carlisle Indian school, and Mr. Perkins, of Kansas,
raised the point of order that points of order not having been reserved at the
time the bill was reported, they could not be raised.
The Chair submitted the decision of Mr.
Perkins’ point of order to the committee and the committee decided, 75 to 91, that
the point was not well taken.
The question then recurred on the original
point, the question being whether the clause was in order by reason of similar
clauses contained in previous appropriation bills, though not being authorized
by statute law. The point of order was sustained by the committee, 93 to 68,
and the name of Captain Pratt was struck out, though the remainder of the
clause was left in.
Immediately upon the announcement of the
result, Mr. Nelson, of Minnesota, raised a point of order against the remainder
of the clause which appropriates $1,000 for the annual allowance, while in
charge of the school. He remarked to gentlemen who endeavored to dissuade him
from making the point that, as Captain Pratt’s scalp had been taken, he
proposed to take other scalps. The Chair sustained the point of order and the
appropriation was ruled out.
Mr. Nelson pursued his announced intention by
raising a point of order against the appropriation for the Salem (Oregon)
Indian school, but pending a decision the committee arose.
Mr. Burnes, of Missouri, submitted the
conference report on the Urgent Deficiency bill, and it was agreed to.
While this was being done Mr. Wellborn, of
Texas, Mr. Perkins, of Kansas, and others surrounded Mr. Nelson and appealed to
him to depart from his policy in regard to the Indian bill, but he was
obdurate, and the House adjourned.
THE
TELEGRAPH MONOPOLY.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 24. The House Committee on
Post-offices and Post-roads, conducting the telegraph investigation, yesterday
began its inquiry concerning alleged attempts of the Western Union Telegraph
Company to coerce newspapers in the Western States into making exclusive
contracts, etc.
Mr. E. W. Ayres appeared in behalf of the Kansas
City Times and the Kansas City Journal and submitted a statement by
J. A. Mann, secretary and business manager of the Journal, together with
a letter from Morrison Munford, proprietor of the Times, and several
communications which had passed between the latter and the Western Union
managers relative to the news contracts of the Times.
COERCION
ALLEGED.
Mr. Mann’s statement was read to the
committee. Its principal parts are as follows.
Through a course of years the newspapers of
Kansas City have been at the mercy of the Western Union Telegraph Company. With
the consolidation of that company and the American Union and Mutual Union
companies, some five years since, the extreme measures characteristic of the
Western Union have increased. Their form of contract had contained a clause or
clauses binding the papers to the use of the Western Union lines and no others,
under penalty and provisions designed to bind the party of the second part
unalterably to the will of the Western Union. The press of Kansas City had
either to succumb for want of adequate news facilities or yield to the Western
Union. The acceptance of these contracts may be said to have been made under
duress in every instance. It is believed with good reason by the writer that
not a single rate agreement has been made by any paper with this company in
five years except under protest, and that in every one of the contracts the
publisher signed away his right to fair competition.
Mr. Ayres said that the purpose of the Kansas
City newspapers was simply to inform the committee of their existing relations
with the telegraph company and, if it thought the matter of sufficient
importance, the proprietors would come to Washington to verify these
statements. He requested that the papers be returned as they would be used in a
law suit to be instituted against the Western Union Company.
COERCION
DENIED.
W. B. Somerville, of New York, superintendent
of the press division of the Western Union Company, replied briefly to the
statement read by Mr. Ayres. He said the Western Union had two special rates,
one open to every newspaper and another—33 per cent, lower,—to papers that
signed agreements to send all their news over Western Union wires. Both of the
Kansas City papers had signed that agreement voluntarily and both had broken
it. The Western Union Company had simply notified them that the contracts would
be abrogated if they persisted in breaking the agreement by sending their news
over other lines. The papers had signed the agreement to get the advantage of
reduced rates. The Western Union did not collect news and was entirely distinct
from and disconnected with the Associated Press or the Western Associated
Press. It was simply a transmitter of news. In cases of unusual occurrence,
such as the death of the President, the company sent bulletins as a public
service without pay. In general elections the Western Union managers were
allowed to collect the returns in places where there was no regular press
agent.
MRS.
MOLLOY SICK.
The
Examination at Springfield, Mo., Postponed in Consequence.
False
Rumors of Attempted Suicide.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo., March 24. At the customary
hour yesterday morning the Justice and attorneys and usual crowd of spectators
assembled in the court room for the ninth day on the Molloy-Lee examination,
but a few minutes later a messenger arrived and announced that Mrs. Molloy had
been suddenly taken ill and would not be able to appear in the court room
during the day. After a few moments consideration among the justices and
attorneys, court adjourned. The news quickly spread all over the city and the
air was soon full of rumors, the conclusion being that Mrs. Molloy had sought
to get rid of her troubles by self-destruction. Since the return of the women
from Bolivar two weeks ago, they have been comfortably quartered in the custody
of Deputy Frank Williams at his residence in the southwest part of the city.
Yesterday morning Mrs. Molloy had finished her breakfast and was leaving the
dining room when she fell on the floor in a kind of convulsion, her hands
clinched together as if in the death grip, while the sufferer was apparently
unconscious of everything except her intense pain. All possible attention was
given the unfortunate woman, but she continued to suffer most all the day. Mrs.
Molloy’s sickness is similar to the attack she underwent at the time of her
arrest about four weeks ago, but at this time it is thought to be aggravated by
the knowledge that Graham’s last statement was given to the public last Sunday as
well as other unpleasant news about her remarkable case. Several days ago Mrs.
Molloy sent her sixteen-year-old son Frank a dispatch entreating him to come to
her rescue, but Frank, who is with his father and going to school at Laporte,
Indiana, has not yet intimated that he would come. Frank’s father, who is
divorced from Mrs. Molloy, it is said, recently wrote to the effect that his
son would not come now unless it was absolutely necessary, but would wait until
the final trial in the circuit court.
THE
ENGLISH GRAIN TRADE.
Immense
Increase of Imports From India.
A
Warning to American Speculators.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 24. The returns of the
British Board of Trade for last month show that during January and February the
importations of India wheat into the English market for the first time exceeded
those from the United States. The exact figures are: from India, 2,249,867
cwt.; from the United States, 1,312,154 cwt. Russia and Germany, it would also
appear, are increasing their shipments of the same commodity. Referring to this
unusual fact, a letter from New York says, “If the speculative cliques, who
have been by sheer manipulation, keeping up prices here and Chicago above the
European market level, will grasp the full meaning of these figures, possibly
they will realize the folly of their tactics and let the market take its
natural course. If there were no other sources of supply but our own country,
the artificial bolstering of prices would be intelligible. As it is, it is
simply killing off the export trade and preparing the way for further heavy
shipments of gold to settle our foreign balances.”
THOUGHT
THEY WERE SNUBBED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WILMINGTON, Del., March 24. A conference was to
have been held yesterday between the Knights of Labor and the morocco
manufacturers of this city for the purpose of adjusting wages, etc., for the
coming season. The Knights committee repaired to the place of meeting, but no
manufacturers appeared, and a general suspension of work in all the city shops
was ordered and promptly obeyed. The strike involves 1,500 to 2,000 persons. A
portion of those employed by Charles Mullin are authorized to return to work
and finish up the perishable stock. The manufacturers claim that they were
taken by surprise and there was no concert of action among them in staying away
from the conference.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The decision rendered by the United States
Supreme Court in the case of Mackin, convicted of election frauds in Chicago at
the last Presidential election, sets aside the two years’ sentence imposed by
Judge Blodgett, but does not affect the five years in the penitentiary, which
he is now serving under the State law for perjury.
FORTY
HORSES BURNED.
Neiswanger’s
Stables at Kansas City Burned.
An
Employee and Forty Horses Lose Their Lives.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 29. Neiswanger’s
livery stable, at Eighth and Walnut streets, was destroyed by fire at 3:30
yesterday morning. A hostler named Folman was smothered and all the horses in
the stable, about fifty in number, perished. The large stock of buggies,
sleighs, etc., carried by the firm was badly damaged, and the pecuniary loss
will amount to fully $25,000. The origin of the terrible fire is unknown. It
was twenty minutes past three when an employee of the stable named Chris
Eightenger discovered fire in a pile of straw in the northwest corner of the
basement. He gave the alarm and just had time to crawl out in his night
clothes. Three other employees were awakened in time to scramble out, and the
fire department was at once notified. The flames spread as if gunpowder had
been ignited, and it was impossible to even attempt a rescue of the horses. A
hostler called “Boston,” whose name was John Folman, was sleeping in the front
part of the stable, under the sidewalk. There was no way of getting at him, and
it was not till the fire was under control that his body was found. He was
twenty-eight years old, and came here from Boston a few months ago. The smoke
was so dense that it filled the streets for blocks away, and the firemen could
do nothing but stand on the outside and pour water in at openings cut by axes.
The struggles of the horses were terrible. They groaned and kicked in their
terror and suffering, but all efforts to aid them were futile, and every animal
perished in its stall. There were thirty-six horses which belonged to the firm
and in addition to these were a large number of boarders, including fine horses
owned by Judge Phillips, Mr. Alex Fraser, Mr. John Smith, and half a dozen
others. Most of the horses were valuable, some being worth as much as $2,000
apiece. It was about four o’clock before the fire was sufficiently under control
to enable the firemen to enter the building. “Boston” was found on his bed,
having apparently been smothered in his sleep. He was removed to Stine’s
undertaking room.
HANGED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
VICKSBURG, Miss., March 29, Fred Villarosa,
the Italian rapist, was taken from jail at one o’clock this morning by an armed
mob and hanged to a tree in front of the county jail. They battered the doors
down.
DISASTROUS
FIRE.
Many
Buildings, Together With Cattle and Other Property,
Destroyed
at Columbia, Missouri.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
COLUMBIA, Mo., March 29. At a little after
one o’clock yesterday morning a fire started in the Marsh & Stern sale
stables, a frame building in the center of the block between Ninth and Tenth
streets on Broadway, and it was not long until the following buildings were
consumed: Odon Guitar’s three story frame building occupied by Parker &
Dearing, furniture dealers and undertakers, and Gerling’s confectionery store
and residence; J. L. Stephens’ two story frame; Hopper & Son’s grocery; G.
W. Lukens’ two story metal roof brick, occupied by Booth & Hall, furniture
and undertakers; J. S. Dorsey, two story brick, occupied by Hatton’s paper
store, and E. Golding’s confectionery store, with Frank Thomas’ photograph
gallery above. J. S. Dorsey also lost his frame residence and one story brick
store occupied by Mrs. Longeay, millinery. Mrs. Neff lost a two story frame
store, occupied by Kellier, shoemaker, and Mrs. Richardson, milliner, with Tobias,
photographer, above. The Stern and Marsh stables and thirty head of stock were
a total loss as was also a brick residence on the southeast corner of the block
owned by Stewart & Crist. Mrs. Sallie R. Prewitt lost three dwelling houses
across the street west of the stables. The Statesman building, occupied
as a printing office upstairs and post office and news stand and hardware
store, on the first floor, is the only building—a two-story brick—that is left
standing on the square. The total loss on buildings, stocks, and goods, etc.,
will probably amount to $50,000; about half insured.
BUSINESS
KILLED.
The
Railroad Strikes Most Disastrous to Business in Kansas City.
A
Conference of Railroad Superintendents.
A
Train Ditched at Sedalia.
Grave
Fears at Chicago of the Strike Spreading.
A
Freight Train Gets Off at Denton.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
SEDALIA, Mo., March 24. At 2:30 o’clock
yesterday afternoon the railroad officials made another attempt to run out a
freight train and succeeded in getting about three miles from the city limits
when a wreck occurred which seriously injured four men and placed the track in
such a condition that it will be impossible to run any trains until workmen can
be had to repair it. The train was in charge of Superintendent Frey and
Trainmaster Lyons and started out of the city at the rate of from ten to
fifteen miles per hour. As it passed the stockyards three or four torpedoes
exploded on the track and several men jumped on the rapidly moving cars.
THE
TRAIN DITCHED.
When it got about two and one-half miles
further out the engine and the first four cars were ditched and the track torn
up for about 200 yards. When assistance arrived it was found that Officer Mason
had his arm broken at the wrist and Special Policeman Neil had one leg broken.
Superintendent Frye and Trainmaster Lyons were both bruised, but it is not
believed their injuries will be dangerous. A farmer by the name of J. M.
Garrett, who was plowing near the scene of the accident, says that train was
going at the rate of thirty miles an hour. He says he had been plowing near
there all day and had seen no one near the track. An examination of the track
shows that the fish plates had all been taken off and thrown upon the
embankment; the bolts which held them in place had been carefully taken out and
the nuts replaced.
Conductor Spangler, who was in the cupola of
the caboose, was thrown through the window and hurled violently to the ground.
He was not seriously injured. He said that his brakeman, a man named King, had
told him to look out after the train got past the crossing as something was
going to happen. He further stated that King was a Knight of Labor and that
King knew that the accident was going to happen.
DISOWNED
BY THE KNIGHTS.
The greatest excitement prevailed when the
news of the wreck reached the city. Hundreds of people gathered in little
crowds in the streets and discussed the situation. The Knights of Labor disown
any connection with the affair and say that they do not believe any member of
the order had anything to do with the crime. The engineers will hold a meeting
in the morning. They say that it is unsafe to venture on an engine under
existing circumstances. What action they will take remains to be seen. The
train was running at the rate of thirty miles an hour when the disaster
occurred. The tracks are in a horrible condition, as no repairs have been made
since the inauguration of the strike. Trainmaster Lyon said last night that
another attempt would be made to break the blockade today. Warrants were out
last night for the arrest of three men suspected of causing the wreck.
AT
KANSAS CITY.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 24. No change has
occurred in the switchmen’s strike. Several superintendents arrived in the city
yesterday and held an informal meeting, which resulted in nothing definite.
Vice President Smith, of the Santa Fe, and General Manager Callaway, of the
Union Pacific, will reach the city this morning, when a conference will be held
between the managers and President Hill, of the Switchmen’s Association, and
Grand Master Monaghan, who arrived on the scene yesterday. It is thought an
adjustment may be effected today. The only attempt to run trains was made by
the Union Pacific yesterday morning. When three miles out of the city, the
coupling pins were drawn and the train was backed into the yards. Nearly all of
the packing houses have shut down and several smaller manufactories have laid
off their men. A special in the Times from Atchison says that on Monday
night masked men captured the watchmen at the roundhouse and disabled all the
engines. The strikers yesterday afternoon took possession of a train and killed
the engine and disabled every locomotive in that city.
A
GOVERNMENT TRAIN KILLED.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan., March 24. The effect of
the strike is beginning to be felt in this city. Many of the manufacturing
industries are running on half time, and should the present state of affairs
continue a day or two longer, they will close entirely for a time. The Missouri
Valley Bridge Works has shut down temporarily. An attempt to get a freight
train out of here, consisting entirely of commissary stores, was made yesterday
but owing to the failure to get an engine had to be abandoned. The stores are
consigned for Forts Gibson and Sill and are provisions for troops. There are
four cars of this freight and each is labeled showing that they contain
Government property. In the morning Captain Campbell was informed that the
engine had left Hiawatha and would reach Fort Leavenworth at noon. When that
hour arrived the officer was informed that when the engine had reached South
Atchison, it was boarded by Knights of Labor and killed.
FEARS
OF THE STRIKE SPREADING.
CHICAGO, March 24. Hardly any freight for
Kansas City was accepted in Chicago yesterday on account of the switchmen’s
strike at that place, and but few contracts for other Missouri river points was
made, it being the general opinion that the strike would spread to those points
before evening. Great fears were expressed that the strike would not remain
confined to the territory west of the Mississippi but would reach Chicago and
other points east before long. For the first time since the strike, the
railways yesterday morning announced their inability to handle certain classes
of freight destined for Kansas City and points farther south and west. The
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy early in the day posted notices to the effect
that no perishable goods would be received and that all freight taken would be
subject to delay. The Chicago & Alton insisted on the same conditions. At
noon the Rock Island sent out word to the local offices to take no perishable
freights for Kansas City nor to points in California by way of Kansas City. The
Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific up to noon sent out no notice such as the other
lines posted and was taking all classes of freight to Kansas City except
shipments over the Missouri Pacific and the Iron Mountain and car-load lots to
points on the St. Louis & San Francisco road.
A
FREIGHT TRAIN GETS OUT.
Denison, Texas, March 24. At one o’clock
yesterday a switch engine was brought out of the Missouri Pacific roundhouse
for the purpose of switching freight cars to be unloaded. Several cars of beer,
ice, and oil were coupled and switched to the unloading tracks. Fully 1,000
strikers and citizens had assembled to see what would be done. The strikers
made a move to disable the engine, but as if by magic a force of deputy
sheriffs appeared armed with Winchester rifles. They ordered the strikers to
stand back and stood ready to fire at the first man that made a break. The
strikers made no further attempt to stop the work, but remained standing
around. Five of the leading Knights were arrested and taken to the jail.
Excitement runs very high and serious trouble is expected. The Knights swear no
freight trains shall move and it is evidently the intention of the officers to
take freight trains out. Business is almost at a standstill.
RIOT
AT ST. LOUIS.
ST. LOUIS, March 24. A freight train of
fifteen cars was made up this morning at the Union depot and started over the
Missouri Pacific tracks in the direction of Seventeenth street. Arriving at
that point the crowd called upon the engineer and fireman to leave their posts,
which they did. The mob here soon became so dense that it was deemed advisable
to close the yards, and the police were summoned. Soon a force of about one
hundred and fifty, commanded by the Chief of Police and all the captains,
arrived at the scene. The crowd was then ordered to disperse, and upon their
refusing to do so, the police made a charge upon them, hoping to drive them
away without using their clubs. The latter alternative, however, it became
necessary to resort to, the mob still resisting. During the struggle which
ensued several of the strikers were badly beaten by the police, some of whom
were in turn badly bruised from rocks thrown by the mob. After a brief fight
the crowd was dispersed and driven from the yards. Another engine was then
procured which, after being coupled to the abandoned freight train, drew it
from the scene of the riot under a guard of about fifty police, who accompanied
it as far as the city limits, no interference having been met with. How far
beyond this point the trains will be able to proceed cannot be conjectured, for
the strikers may at any time render its progress impossible.
STRIKE
AT ST. JOE.
ST. JOSEPH, March 24. All the switchmen quit
work at noon today.
TELEPHONE
SUIT BEGUN.
Commencement
of the Proceedings in the United States
Circuit
Court at Columbus, Ohio.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 24. United States
District Attorney Kumler at 3:30 o’clock yesterday afternoon filed in the
United States Circuit Court the bill in equity in the case of the United States
vs. the American Bell Telephone Company of Massachusetts, the Central Union
Telephone and Telegraph Company of Massachusetts, the Central District and
Printing Telegraph Company of Pennsylvania, the Cleveland Telephone Company,
the City and Suburban Telephone Company, the Miami Telephone Company, the
Buckeye Telephone Company, the latter four companies of Ohio, and Alexander
Graham Bell. The bill alleges that certain letters patent issued to Alexander
Graham Bell dated March 7, 1876, numbered 74,465, were illegally and improperly
procured to be issued by reason of certain facts thereafter set forth and that
this bill in equity is brought as a means of causing justice to be done. It
alleges that although up to the time of issuing the patent Bell had never in
fact been able to transmit articulate speech by the method or with the
apparatus described in his applications, he purposed by a fraudulent
application and by ambiguities and general terms to cover both antecedent and
future inventions, and to deceive and mislead the examiners of the Patent
Office. The publication did not set forth that his alleged inventions had any
relation to the art of transmitting articulate speech by means of electricity,
but, was entitled “an application for an improvement on telegraphy” and made
special reference to the recent application made by himself for a method of
multiple telegraphy, and treated the alleged new invention as another method
thereof and set forth the advantages which it had over the other, but did not
include or mention its capacity or claim for it any capacity to transmit
speech. Then follows a multitude of allegations in the same general direction
as the above, and others citing previous applications by other persons covering
the principles involved. The bill closes with a voluminous prayer for the
annulment of the patent. The attorneys representing the Government are John
Goode, Solicitor General and Acting Attorney General in this case, Phillip
Bates Kumler, District Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Allen G.
Thurman, Grosvenor P. Lowry, Heaton T. Chandler, Charles S. Williams, and D.
Humphries, special counsel.
THOUGHT
TO BE LOST.
Mysterious
Disappearance of the Steamer Rapidan, of New York.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
NEW YORK, March 24. All hope for the steamer
Rapidan, which left here February 2 for Costa Rica, has been given up. Here is
undoubtedly one of those mysterious cases where a staunch ship sails out of
harbor and is swallowed up by some unknown fate. There seems to be an utter and
complete annihilation of the ship and everybody and everything pertaining to
her. Since she left no human eye has seen her unless, indeed, she may have been
the steamer in distress reported some days ago by the Mallory steamer, and no
spar or timber of her has been seen by incoming or outgoing vessels. The
Rapidan sailed with a crew of twenty-two, one passenger, a quantity of
livestock, and some general cargo. She was the pioneer ship of a new line,
which F. P. Kennard, her owner, was to establish between ports on the Spanish main.
The livestock belonged to Senor Gonzales, a wealthy Costa Rican. All on board,
with the exception of Senor Gonzales, the passenger, and B. P. Leaman, the
purser, belonged to this city. The purser belonged to an excellent family in
Boston. Senor Gonzales had been in the country buying blooded stock, which he
proposed to place on his plantation in Costa Rica. The loss on the vessel and
cargo will be about $45,000.
THE
SENATE’S NEW MILLIONAIRE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 24. George Hearst, who has
been appointed Senator from California to fill the vacancy caused by the death
of Senator Miller, is a member of the firm of Higgin & Tevis, of San
Francisco, dealers and speculators in mines. Mr. Hearst went to California in 1850;
and worked as a miner. He was very successful in this business, in which he
accumulated a large fortune.
SCRIMMAGE
IN AN IRISH COURT HOUSE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
LIMERICK, March 27. Five men who had been
convicted of rioting and assaulting the police were brought up for sentence in
one of the criminal courts today, and the magistrate committed them to
imprisonment for terms ranging from three to six months. When the sentence had
been pronounced, the prisoners in concert, and while yet in the dock, made a
most savage attack on the police present on duty. A terrible struggle ensued,
causing such excitement that the magistrate was compelled to quit the bench.
The prisoners were finally overpowered and again secured, but not until they
had almost wrecked the court room and themselves been severely beaten.
MILITIA
TO BE USED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 27. Yesterday a
freight train which went south from Hope at the request of the citizens of Texarkana,
who said it would be protected, was boarded by strikers at Texarkana, who
disabled the engine. Sheriff Hamilton sent a telegraph to Governor Hughes that
there were about 400 lawless men in and about the yards of the Iron Mountain
railroad doing violence to the railroad property and resisting the sheriff’s
deputies and posse, and requested that Governor Hughes call on the local
militia at once to aid in preserving order and protecting property.
RAILROAD
ACCIDENT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 27. When rounding the
curve at Walruff’s Grove this morning, the Fort Scott train coming into the
city ran off the track, overturning the Rosedale coach containing about
seventy-five people. None of the occupants were seriously hurt, but most all
received bruises on their hands or faces. There happened to be no lady
occupants in the car. The engine now lies ditched in the southwestern part of
the city, near what is known as the Gillis crossing. The cause of the accident
is not known, the officials claiming not to have the least clue.
CABINET
COUNCIL.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 24. Yesterday’s session of
the Cabinet was devoted to the consideration of measures designed to secure a
more rigid enforcement of the Chinese restriction act, particularly with
reference to preventing the landing of Chinese laborers on fraudulent
certificates. It was represented that trouble constantly arises in cases where
immigrants claim to have lost or mislaid their certificates and bring witnesses
to prove that they were in this country at the time of the passage of the act
and were actually provided with the certificate prescribed by law which
entitled such persons to return to the United States after a visit to China.
Another question considered by the Cabinet was in relation to the affairs of
the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and the steps necessary to protect the
Government’s interests therein.
AFRAID
OF ORGANIZED LABOR.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
CHICAGO, March 24. The fact is published that
a movement is on foot and letters are being sent out quietly to arrange for a
National meeting of businessmen and manufacturers, to be held some time next
month, to take action toward devising some means of defense against the power
of organized labor. There is nothing definite yet arranged about the proposed
meeting, but the opinion of businessmen is being asked in confidential
circulars which speak of “outrageous demands” now being made by working men and
suggest action to meet these demands and put employers in a position to
withstand them.
A
WELL-KNOWN NEWSPAPER MAN DEAD.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 24. A private
telegram from New York, received this morning, announces the death of Mr. A. N.
Kellogg, the founder and President of the A. N. Kellogg Newspaper Company. Mr.
Kellogg had been an invalid for several years, and in consequence had
practically retired from all active management of the business bearing his name.
He was not quite fifty years of age, and resided in New York City. The main
office of the A. N. Kellogg Newspaper Company is in Chicago, with branches in
St. Louis, Memphis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Kansas City.
CRIME.
Two
Young Friends Have a Sudden Falling Out.—One Stabbed to Death.
An
Arkansas Postmaster Suspended for Delinquency.—Strange Poisoning Case.
Arsenic
in an Orange Given to a Prisoner.—Horse Thieving.
Mrs.
Molloy Continues Sick.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
BANDERA, Texas, March 25. A most singular
murder occurred yesterday on Verdo creek near here. Charley Maas, aged eighteen
years, and Samuel Davenport, aged sixteen, were the best of friends. The boys
had played together and were always associates from choice. Yesterday young
Davenport appeared at his father’s house covered with blood, and shaking as
with ague. When he entered the dwelling he stated with comparative coherency
that he had killed Charley Maas. It seems that he was herding sheep on the
ranch when young Maas approached. They began an amicable conversation when a
dispute arose and they came to blows. In a frenzy of passion young Davenport
drew a knife and stabbed his friend, he could not tell how many times, killing
him almost instantly. On examination the body showed three ghastly wounds in
one arm, one in the right side, and one in the heart.
CHECKED
UP.
EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark., March 25. This
community was surprised yesterday by rumors that R. F. Pullam, postmaster, had
been suspended. On inquiry the fact was developed that Inspector Maynard had
suddenly dropped in and asked for the keys, books, etc., and at once checked up
the books and found the cash short about $700. On demanding the cash, it was
not in the office and could not be produced. Mr. Pullam gave an explanation,
but his bondsmen were seen, and after some delay today the deficiency was
raised and paid over. Inspector Maynard suspended Mr. Pullam and put the office
in charge of W. A. Broad, one of his bondsmen. The administration of the office
has been satisfactory to the public and no complaints have been heard. Mr.
Pullam was only a short time since confirmed by the Senate and was recently
married and attended the postmasters’ convention in Chicago. He had many
friends in both parties and no one supposed that he had any criminal intent,
but was negligent and easy-going only; hence the ending of his official place.
STRANGE
POISONING CASE.
BERLIN, Wis., March 25. A sensational story
is current concerning an attempt to poison a prisoner charged with robbing a
Chinese laundry. After the examination on Saturday, two women approached the
jail and passed some oranges to the prisoner through one of the windows
together with a letter expressing sorrow at his dilemma and confidence in his
innocence. The prisoner ate three of the oranges and then became suspicious
from some reason and turned over the rest of the fruit to Officer Morris with
the remark that he would not touch another for $500. Morris took one of the
oranges, which seemed to have been punctured with a knife, to Dr. Willis, who
examined it and found a large quantity of arsenic in the pulp. The affair is
wrapped in mystery and no explanation of the strange event can be made. The
prisoner is in a very critical condition and will probably die.
HORSES
STOLEN.
VENICE, Ill., March 25. Two valuable horses
were stolen during last night from Henry Reineman, of the Cottage Hotel, near
Long Lake, one a Claybank with a dark mane and tail, 16 hands high, weighing
1,100 pounds, the other a dark chestnut sorrel. They were tracked down the west
side of Long Lake, beyond the farm of James Rapp, where the trail was lost. The
surrounding country and stables of St. Louis were searched today without any
further traces of the animals.
MRS.
MOLLOY.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo., March 25. Mrs. Molloy is
still too ill to appear in the court room, and it is not likely she will be
sufficiently recovered for the examination to be resumed until Saturday, if
then.
DEMAND
FOR ARBITRATION.
Astonishing
Success of Anderson, of Kansas, With His Arbitration Bill.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 25. Congressman Anderson,
of Kansas, achieved a success yesterday without parallel in the history of the
House, by which he obtained unanimous consent that the Committee on Labor
should have leave at any time to report and consider legislation proposed by
them providing for arbitration between railway companies and their employees,
the same not to interfere with the consideration of revenue and appropriation
bills. At least one-half of the members were disposed to object and many
gentlemen were on their feet ready to call for the regular order, but when Mr.
Anderson directed attention to the fact that no railroad wheel was now turning
west of St. Louis and Kansas City in the transportation of freight, and that
therefore immediate action had become necessary to avert an impending calamity,
the objectors were compelled to desist lest they might be held hereafter to a
responsibility they could not afford to meet. Even the railroad representatives
on the floor, who are always alert on such occasions, dared not lift their
voices to object. This order of the House makes it almost certain that speedy
action will be taken in some way to meet the present emergency by legislation
providing for arbitration, a consummation which under the rules of the House
could not have been accomplished. This matter is a theme for general
conversation in political circles, and it is evident from opinions freely
expressed by members that the labor question is now overshadowing in importance
the tariff, silver coinage, and all other National issues. So great has been
the demand for the Arbitration bill introduced by Congressman Anderson on
Monday afternoon and printed yesterday that not a single copy can be obtained
until another edition shall be printed.
MORE
FAVORABLE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 25. The strike outlook here
is decidedly more favorable, and all are more hopeful of a gradual resumption
of traffic by the Missouri Pacific.
A
FREIGHT TRAIN GETS OUT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 25, 11 a.m. Another freight
train started out this morning on the Missouri Pacific without any disturbance.
NEWS
NOTES.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
An alarming revolt took place recently at a
French prison at Chalons.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Gabriel Dumont is said to be fomenting
trouble among the Indians in Montana.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Queen Victoria attended a corner stone laying
at the College of Surgeons, on the Thames embankment, recently.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
An insane soldier scared Queen Victoria
recently by throwing a paper containing alleged grievances into her carriage.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Lieutenant Maus, in his last report, claims
that Captain Crawford was deliberately assassinated by the Mexicans.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Panama advices of March 19 report a family of
seven persons murdered by a band of miscreants, who were immediately arrested
and ordered to be tried by court martial.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A diver recently went down to the wreck of
the steamer Oregon, wrecked off Fire Island and New York, and brought to the
surface Mrs. Morgan’s hand-bag, containing $30,000 worth of diamonds.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The Milwaukee Daily Herald has issued
an order limiting the hours of labor hereafter to eight hours per day in all
departments and increasing the composition to 45 cents per 1,000 ems.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
An active boycott has been inaugurated by the
Knights of Labor against the businessmen of Denison, Texas, who signed the
petition against the strike and which was forwarded to Colonel Hoxie.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
An attempt was made recently at Houston,
Texas, to assassinate W. R. Baker, who was running as an independent candidate
for mayor. The bullets just grazed Baker’s head. The would-be assassin escaped.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
M. De Lesseps, during an address at a banquet
given him by the municipal authorities at St. Lazaire, France, recently, said
that the work on the Panama canal was making good progress, and declared that
the waterway would be completed in 1889.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
General Hazen appeared before the House
Committee on Expenditures of the War Department recently and defended himself
against Comptroller Maynard’s charges. He denied the charges in detail and
alleged that the whole thing was a conspiracy.
FREIGHT
MOVING.
Trains
Commence Moving on the Missouri Pacific at St. Louis.
Escorted
by Immense Numbers of Police.—Freight Moved at Sedalia.
Strike
of the Yardmen in the St. Louis Union Depot.
The
Strike in East St. Louis.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 27. Yesterday afternoon
acting on an order from the Knights of Labor executive committee, thirty men in
the Union Depot shops, consisting of hostlers, wipers, machinists, and
blacksmiths, threw down their tools and quit work. These men have no grievances
against their employers. Very little work was done in the railroad yards in
East St. Louis yesterday. In the Vandalia yards no switching was done except by
one engine. Agent Creveling and Yardmaster Frank acted as switchmen. The
former, who is a green hand, acquitted himself very creditably. An attempt to
make up a train was frustrated by the strikers, who uncoupled the cars. No
further attempt was made in this direction, it being decided to abandon trains
Nos. 28 and 32. During the day considerable switching was done by the one
engine with Creveling and Frank acting as switchmen. Creveling says that he
hopes to be able to place the freight now in the yards in position where it can
be conveniently taken away in trucks. In the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
yards, the yardmaster, agents, and members of the clerical force took the
places of the strikers and succeeded in making up a train without interference.
When everything was in readiness, the train was started out of the yards, and,
as nearly all the strikers had congregated around the relay depot, it was
unobserved until it was too late to stop it even if the men had been desirous
of doing so. The train consisted of twenty cars and caboose. In the Ohio &
Mississippi and Louisville & Nashville yards efforts were made to give the
yards an appearance of some animation by doing a little switching, but very
little was accomplished. In the Indianapolis & St. Louis yards no attempt
was made to make up a train for the reason that if one were started out, it
would have had to pass the relay depot, where 200 or 300 men were congregated,
and serious trouble might result. Last evening the Vandalia and Chicago, Burlington
& Quincy started out trains; but as they were pulling out of the yards, a
number of strikers stepped up to the engines and requested that the trains be
backed into the yards again, and the request was complied with. The outgoing
morning passenger trains were all delayed an hour or more, but went out without
any interference.
MOVING
FREIGHT IN ST. LOUIS.
ST. LOUIS, March 27. As early as nine o’clock
yesterday morning there were about 200 men at the crossing on Summit avenue
discussing the probable success of the contemplated effort of the Missouri
Pacific railroad to take out another train. At that hour ten patrolmen stood
along the tracks and kept the crossing clear. By and by another squad came
marching down four abreast and divided off on either side of the track. Later
another detachment arrived at the crossing and in a few minutes a fourth came
marching down the hill. The place was now literally covered with blue coats.
There were at least half a hundred officers under the direction of four sergeants.
Captain Truchte arrived with the last detachment. The entrance which led up the
tracks to the shops was carefully guarded by the regular and special officers,
and nobody was allowed within the space, although the shops were apparently
deserted. There seemed to be a prevailing opinion that some demonstration on
the part of the crowd in that direction was expected, and a few said that the
unusually heavy guard at the Ewing avenue crossing meant more than a mere
protection to the out-going freight as it passed the avenue, the guard on the
train itself being considered fully sufficient to protect it from forcible
interference. At 9:50 o’clock freight engine 830 steamed down the track from
the shops hitched on to three box cars that stood on the track and switched
them to the track where the others were and made up the train. A policeman sat
on the end of each car, two men watched each coupling pin. Chief Harrigan and
Vice President Blair appeared on the scene before the train began to move and
took a look at the situation. There was no crowd in the neighborhood of the
warehouse, not more than ten persons being on the spot who were not there for a
purpose. Captain Hercules and some of his officers were in the caboose which
followed the train out to Twelfth street, where it was coupled on behind, and
Sergeant E. Somers and ten men were on the engine. After leaving Twelfth street
the train moved faster than was the case with the trains sent out Thursday and
Wednesday. At Tayon avenue there was a crowd of perhaps 300 men, who did very
little shouting. Some gave an occasional shriek, and now and then there was a
cry of “scab” at the crew, which consisted of Conductor Dan Linen and Brakeman
James Route, G. M. Stonebraker, and “Cocky” Howard. The demonstration did not begin
to reach the pitch of the other demonstration made at this point. Following the
train was a switch engine carrying Chief Harrigan and Vice President Blair,
with about one dozen police. This engine kept behind the train until the
Missouri Pacific shops were reached, when it came to a halt, and the chief and
the vice president disembarked and returned to the Four Courts. Just before
reaching the Summit avenue crossing, the freight slacked up a little, and when
within 100 yards of the crossing the engine put on steam and the train shot
through the crowd, which was large but comparatively peaceful. There were forty
or fifty policemen at the crossing, who had an easy time preserving order as
the men did nothing but make a futile effort at shouting. At the machine shops
a large passenger engine with thirty of Furlong’s specials, each of whom
carried a double-barreled breach-loading shotgun, switched onto the main track
and followed the freight. Their purpose was to prevent a repetition of such
disturbances along the line as occurred Thursday at Pacific. A few minutes
after the train passed Summit avenue, two patrol wagons appeared there, loaded
down with policemen. These had been ordered out by Chief Harrigan, who sent
word from the Union Depot to have additional police at the crossing when the
train went by. They were not wanted when they reached the spot, and were sent
away.
MOVING
FREIGHT AT SEDALIA.
SEDALIA, Mo., March 27. At seven o’clock
yesterday morning the first freight train that has moved since the strike was
sent east by the company. It was accomplished without difficulty as the
strikers were unaware of the intention of the railroad officials and were not
on the ground. At two o’clock yesterday afternoon another freight was sent out
on the Lexington branch, the strikers offering no objections. It was understood
here last night that when the train arrived at Lexington, it was side tracked
and the engine killed by an unknown man. Two switch engines were taken
possession of yesterday by the strikers here and the fires knocked out. Ned
Page, Frank Sparn, George Fisher, and another striker are accused of disabling
the engines and warrants for their arrest on the charge of trespassing and
destroying property of the railroad company as well as on the charge of
violating the injunction issued by Judge Strother, restraining strikers from
venturing on the grounds of the railroad. It is said the men will be taken
before Judge Strother at Marshall, Missouri. They deny any complicity in the
affair whatever. The situation is growing more deplorable every day. Fuel,
coal, ore, sugar, etc., are becoming scarce, and the city is threatened with a
famine so far as those articles are concerned. A delegation of prominent
Knights of Labor departed for St. Louis last night to confer with Irons and the
district executive board. The members of the law and order league bitterly
condemn the strikers and call on them to return to work, but it is claimed by
the executive board that not one man has deserted the ranks since the strike
was inaugurated.
POWDERLY’S
WARNING.
The
Grand Master of the Knights Warns the Order Against Strikes and Boycotts.
He
is Ready to Resign.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 27. A long, secret circular
issued by Grand Master Workman Powderly and addressed to the order of the
Knights of Labor has just been made public here and is the most important
document that has yet been issued bearing upon the acts and condition of that
order.
Mr. Powderly opens by instructing the
secretary of each assembly to call a full meeting and read the circular before
it. The address then orders the assemblies to cease initiating new members till
the relations of capital and labor shall become less strained than at the
present time.
UNDISCIPLINED.
Mr. Powderly then says: “To attempt to win
concessions or gains with our present law, undisciplined membership would be
like hurling an unorganized mob against a well drilled army. It is not fair to
the older assemblies to bring in new members to pick up their quarrels as soon
as organized and have them expect pecuniary aid from those who helped build the
order up for a noble purpose.” After dwelling at some length upon the
inadvisability of taking in new members, the address continued: “We must not
fritter away our strength and miss an opportunity of present success in the
struggle against capital by rushing into useless strikes. To the cardinal
principles of the order, we must add another—patience. You have had patience
for years, and had not the Knights of Labor appeared upon the scene, you would
still be waiting. Your scale of prices must stand as they are for the present.
If you cannot raise them by any other process than a strike, you must submit to
injustice at the hands of the employer in patience for a while longer. Bide
well your time; find out how much you are justly entitled to, and the tribunal
of arbitration will settle the rest.”
A
CAUTION.
Mr. Powderly then cautions assemblies against
receiving employers into their ranks and warns them that politicians are
planning night and day how to catch the Knights of Labor for the advantage of
themselves and their parties, and adds that to use the name of the order in a
political contest is criminal and must not occur again. Referring to the
eight-hour movement, the circular says: “Knights of Labor must not strike for
the eight-hour system on May 1 under the impression they are obeying orders
from headquarters, for such an order was not and will not be given. Out of
60,000,000 people in the United States and Canada, our order has possibly
300,000. Can we mold the sentiments of the millions in favor of the short hour
plan before May 1? It is nonsense to think of it.”
HONEST
MEN WANTED.
After speaking of qualities which officers of
assemblies should possess, and expecting Knights of Labor to elect hones men of
even temperament, Mr. Powderly continues: “While I write, a dispatch is handed
to me in which I read these words: ‘They discharged our brother and we struck.
You know our motto is ‘an injury to one is the concern of all.’
“Yes, an injury to one is the concern of all,
but it is not wise to injure all for the sake of one. It would be far better to
continue at work and properly investigate the matter, bringing it before every
known tribunal, than to have struck.”
THE
CHURCH.
Speaking of the relations between the church
and the Knights of Labor, Mr. Powderly says: “I warn our members against hasty,
ill-considered action. The church will not interfere with us so long as we
maintain the law. If the law is wrong, it is our duty to change it. I am
ashamed to meet with clergymen and others to tell them that our order is
composed of law-abiding, intelligent men, while the next dispatch brings the
news of some petty boycott or strike. The daily papers have a column devoted to
strikes and boycotts every day, and some of the causes are ridiculous.”
WILLING
TO RESIGN.
“I write this circular to lay before the
order the exact condition of things. I am neither physically nor mentally
capable of performing the work required of me. I am willing to do my part, but
must not be asked to maintain a false position before the world any longer. One
of two things must take place: Either the local and district assemblies of the
order must obey its laws, or I must be permitted to resign from a position
which obliges me to play one part before the public and another to our members.
I say to the world that the Knights of Labor do not approve of or encourage
strikes, and in one day dispatches come to me to come to Troy, New York;
Manchester, New Hampshire; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; Lynchburg,
Virginia; Springfield, Ohio; and Montreal, Canada. It is impossible for human
nature to stand the strains any longer. I must have the assistance of the
order, or my most earnest efforts will fail. Will I have it? If so, strikes
must be avoided; boycotts must be avoided. Those who boast must be checked by
their assemblies. No move must be made until the court of last resort has been
appealed to. Threats of violence must not be made. Politicians must be hushed
up or driven out. Obedience to the laws of knighthood must have preference over
those of any other order. If these things are done, the next five years will
witness the complete emancipation of mankind from the curse of monopoly. In our
members we require secrecy, obedience, assistance, patience, and courage. If
with these aids you strengthen my hands, I will continue in the work. If you do
not desire to assist me in this way, then select a man better qualified to obey
your will and I will retire in his favor.”
STILL
STRIKING.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
HANNIBAL, Mo., March 27. This morning all the
Knights of Labor employed on the Missouri Pacific went out. These include forty
men who had been looking after passenger trains. The Hannibal & St. Joseph
and other roads must now handle their own cars.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ALBUQUERQUE, N. M., March 27. About two
o’clock yesterday afternoon a man named Groendyke, a cowboy in the employ of C.
H. Fitzpatrick, who owns a large cattle ranch about twenty miles from this
city, in Valencia County, came riding post haste into town with the news that a
band of Mexican herders had attacked Fitzpatrick’s cowboys, killing one named
Ira Meskinens, and had driven the rest into the house and were trying to effect
an entrance for the purpose of killing off the whole force of cowboys. The only
weapon the cowboys owned was a Winchester rifle, which was in the hands of Ira
Meskinens, killed; and consequently captured by the sheep men. So while they
were able to keep the attacking party at bay for awhile by barricading the
house, Groendyke says unless help was soon sent to them, they would all become
the victims of a bloody massacre. Groendyke himself had escaped by crawling on
his stomach along an arroya and through the underbrush until clear of the
attacking party and then riding for his life to this city. Sheriff Santiamo
Baco, of Bernalillo County, has telegraphed to the sheriff of Valencia County,
in whose jurisdiction the murder was committed, and Mr. Fitzpatrick, who
resides in this city, has organized a force of men who will at once proceed to
the scene of the conflict and after putting the Mexican herders under arrest,
will bring the body of the murdered cowboy to this city.
AN
ILL-TREATED FARMER.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
SLATER, Mo., March 27. At 2 a.m. yesterday
Harvey Bellow, a farmer at West Glasgow in Saline County, twelve miles east of
here, was taken from bed by masked men and dragged off to the woods, and had
not been heard from for twelve hours. Last evening a constable arrived with
five men, by the name of Merrell, Hughes, Greebery, Sypress, and Conduette. He
arrested them on suspicion of being the perpetrators of the deed. The officer
went to Bellow’s house and found the injured man in a critical condition. Mr.
Bellow said that the masked men first struck him on the head with a beer bottle
and then threw a rope around his neck and drew him a mile and a half into the
woods, and left one man to hold him while the others went off to consult what
to do with their victim. While they were away Bellow got loose from the guard
and hid until they left. He then crawled home. It seems that a neighbor by the
name of Sypress owed a man of Glasgow named Seigler $300, and was fixing to
sell off his belongings and leave the district. Bellow went to Glasgow, across
the river, and told Seigler that his neighbor, Sypress, was fixing to leave,
and furthermore Seigler had Sypress’ goods attached, and yesterday when the
constable was levying on them, Sypress’ wife remarked: “This is that man
Bellow’s work and he will get his just dues tonight.”
PERSUADED
BY A PISTOL.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
CAIRO, Ill., March 27. Last night about
twenty-five men went to the Iron Mountain switch engine and pointing a pistol
at the head of the fireman—the engineer being in the depot getting
orders—compelled him to leave the cab. They then raked out the fire and ran the
engine on the side track. No freight is now being handled over the Iron
Mountain. The yardmaster received orders from the Knights of Labor not to
deliver a train of cars to the transfer steamer, Morgan, and when the latter
arrived, he refused to let the cars go on the steamer.
DITCHING
AN ENGINE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
PALESTINE, Texas, March 27. An engine escaped
from the yards this morning and flew down the track of the Houston division. It
was waylaid and overtaken near the Howard oil mill by about two hundred
strikers who, with loud yells and whoops and the use of a crowbar and a lot of
wood, succeeded in ditching the engine. K. F. Marshall, white, and Hamp Derry,
colored, are still on trial for contempt of court in violating the Missouri
Pacific injunction. Four United States Deputy Marshals were sworn in by
Commissioner W. M. Lacy today. All of them are International and Great Northern
engineers.
STRIKERS
ARRESTED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
PACIFIC, Mo., March 27. Several strikers were
arrested today for participating in yesterday’s riot. There are warrants out
for others who have secreted themselves.
END
OF THE DEBATE.
All
Four of the Edmunds Resolutions Adopted by the Senate.
The
Attorney General Threatened With Arrest If He Refuses to Obey.
The
Orders of the Senate.
The
House Has But Little Business Before It.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 27. The Chair laid before
the Senate yesterday morning the President’s message transmitting the report of
the Civil Service Commission, and it was referred.
Among the bills introduced was one by Mr.
Hoar, providing for inquests under National authority. He said that the bill
was suggested by reports of the occurrences at Carrolton, Mississippi. It was
referred to the Judiciary Committee.
The Edmunds resolutions were then placed
before the Senate and Mr. Ingalls took the floor. He denied that the Senate had
asked for the President’s reasons for suspending anyone and that private papers
had been asked for. It had been said that the Senate had been inactive in
confirming appointments, but he denied this also, as the Senate since January
25, 1886, had confirmed 493 nominations. It had again been charged that the
Senate was trying to keep Republicans in office. The Republicans of Kansas were
neither afraid nor ashamed to be classed as Republicans. They were proud of the
achievements of their party. They believed that in all the great measures of
the last quarter of a century, they were right and their opponents wrong, and
were able to give reasons for the faith that was in them. The Republicans of
Kansas believed, and Mr. Ingalls also believed, that no Republican could hold
public office under a Democratic administration without either sacrificing his
convictions or forfeiting his self-respect. Accordingly, when the present
Administration was inaugurated, those who held office in that State began to
make excuses for retiring to private life. They did not stand on the order of
their going; they trampled on each other in a tumultuous and indecent haste to
get out of office. [Laughter.] There was no craving there for mercy; no
mercenary straggler went for shelter to the bomb-proof tenure of office act,
and no sutler crawled behind the fragile breastworks of civil service reform.
[Laughter.]
Debate branched off from the question at
issue, when Mr. Logan took the floor. He said the Senators had traveled far in
debate and discussed many topics disconnected with the question before the
Senate. The only question was whether the Attorney General should furnish the
papers relating to the conduct of the office of a District Attorney. This
Government was based on the will of the people and the people should have all
the information that they, through their representatives in Congress, should
call for. The President called these papers “private,” but the moment he placed
a paper on the files of the department, it became by his own act a public
paper. He asked whether the President could mean that tomorrow he could box
these papers up and send them to Buffalo or that he could at any time hereafter
take them away or leave them there for ten or fifteen years and their make a
demand on the Government for them as his private papers. If that was the
argument, it was one that it was impossible to support by any sort of logic or
fair dealing. Congress should call for papers that were necessary to show the
action of Government officers—papers showing that the officers of the
Government were guilty of crimes or malfeasance in office. Congress could not
be told that because the papers were addressed to the name of the individual at
the head of the department or to the President by his name, the papers were not
public papers but the private papers of the individual addressed. That position
was untenable.
Senator Edmunds, in closing the debate,
reviewed the whole question carefully, and contended that the two houses of
Congress had a right to see the papers affecting the business of the
Government.
“If,” said Senator Edmunds, “you took out of
this very presence at this moment the influence of executive patronage to be
given to Senators and their friends, there would not be five votes in this
chamber against any one or all of the resolutions proposed by the Judiciary
Committee. There is the ‘grip’ and the ‘ox’ that I believe, as the Scripture
says, ‘knows his master’s stall.’”
“Everybody here,” Senator Edmunds said, “who
had a henchman or friend who was not in office, or being in office was liable
to be turned out, who would vote against his party to say that there should be
revealed the things told today by the Senator from Indiana (Harrison), the
Senator from Illinois (Logan), and the Senator from Kansas (Ingalls), would
find that the lines of political preference would fall in other places than
theirs.”
“The Republican party,” he said, “is in favor
of preserving liberty, justice, equal rights, and fair play, and would go
steadily forward through thick and thin for the preservation of civil and
political liberty. They would go on to vindicate the political rights of every
American citizen—now overthrown, swamped, and suffocated in many states of the
Union, and when it had done that it would try, in spite of Democratic
opposition, to give to the labor of the people, which was the people’s capital,
its wealth, that protection, encouragement, and defense that was the right of
labor, which was the capital of every honest workingman in the United States.”
[Applause in the galleries.]
The question was then on Senator Van Wyck’s
amendment, providing that “in all such cases of removal the matter of
confirmations shall be considered in open session of the Senate.”
Senator Van Wyck made a strong speech in
advocacy of the amendment.
Senator Logan said that he would vote for the
amendment but for the fact that it was thought that it would encumber the
resolutions.
Senator Hoar raised the point that the
amendment was not in order inasmuch as it changed the rules of the Senate and
no notice had been given of it.
The President pro tempore sustained the point
of order, and an appeal taken by Senator Butler was laid upon the table—yeas,
31, nays, 28.
This was a strict party vote, except that
Senators Van Wyck and Riddleberger voted with the Democrats. The vote is not
considered a test of the strength of the proposition for open executive
sessions, since Republicans who favor the principle voted to table the appeals
and Democrats who opposed it voted against tabling it.
Senator Harris having demanded a separate
vote upon the Edmunds resolutions, the first resolution adopting the report of
the Committee on the Judiciary was adopted—yeas, 32; nays, 26.
The second resolution condemning the refusal
of the Attorney General to send copies of papers called for by the Senate, was
adopted—yeas, 32; nays, 25.
The question being on the third resolution,
declaring it to be the duty of the Senate to refuse his advice and consent to
proposed removals of officers, the documents in reference to the supposed
misconduct of whom are withheld, Senator Gray raised the point that it changed
a rule of the Senate, and was not in order.
The President pro tempore overruled the
point, and Senator Gray appealed from the decision.
Senator Morgan, inferring from the remarks of
Senator Edmunds that he held the Senate to have the right to imprison the
Attorney General for refusing to answer the demand on him in this resolution,
inquired of Senator Edmunds whether the inference was correct.
Senator Edmunds replied that he was bound to
say for the sake of constitutional liberty and law that any officer of the
United States except the President, about which he would go into no discussion
now, was lawfully bound to answer a demand of either House of Congress, and
that if he failed, he could be punished for contempt.
Senator Morgan: “The Senator has stated in
his resolution that the Attorney General is lawfully bound to obey this order.”
Senator Edmunds: “Most undoubtedly.”
Senator Morgan said that Senator Edmunds
meant to say that the Senate had a right to call him before it on this issue
and imprison him for contempt if he did not produce the papers. That was the
doctrine that the Senate now proposed to assert, though it had been carefully
concocted.
Senator Blackburn defended Senator Gray’s
point of order, and after stating the parliamentary force and property of the
point, he argued from the Senate rules and the principles of common justice and
fair dealing that the resolution should not be passed.
Senator Hoar did not think the resolution
open to the construction put upon it by Senator Blackburn. He (Hoar) understood
it to mean that when papers deemed necessary were refused the Senate would not
proceed to consider the nominations; but if the necessary information could be
had from other sources, the nominations could be considered if the Senate chose
to do so even under this resolution. Probably three-fourths of these cases of
suspension could be thus disposed of.
Senator Gray’s appeal was laid on the table.
Senator Brown moved to amend by striking out
the third resolution altogether; lost.
A vote being taken on the third resolution,
it was agreed to—yeas, 30; nays, 29. Senators Mitchell (Oregon), Riddleberger,
and Van Wyck voted with the Democrats.
The fourth resolution, condemning the
discharge of ex-Union soldiers and the putting in their places of men who had
rendered no military service for the Government, was then voted on and agreed
to—yeas, 56; nays, 1 (Senator Morgan).
Before that resolution came to a vote,
Senator Butler said that if he had time he could demonstrate that the
Republican party had violated the law relating to soldiers ten times where the
present Administration had departed from it once.
Senator Morgan offered a resolution declaring
that nothing in the resolutions already adopted was to be construed as
declaring that the conduct of the Attorney General rendered him liable to
impeachment, and that the Senate disclaimed the right or power to punish him by
imprisonment or otherwise other than by impeachment for offenses charged
against him in the resolutions.
On Senator Edmunds’ motion the resolutions
was laid on the table. Yeas, 26; nays, 26.
Senator Platt then attempted to make the bill
for the admission of Washington Territory the unfinished business for Monday,
but some filibustering motions were offered, and at nine p.m., the Senate
adjourned until Monday when Senator Platt will attempt to get up the bill
named.
HOUSE.
The Speaker laid before the House yesterday a
communication from Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Fairchild transmitting a
draft of a bill to amend the laws regulating emigration; referred.
Also a letter from Assistant Secretary
Fairchild, asking for an appropriation for the storage and transportation of
the silver dollar; referred.
The letter says: “In view of the fact that
the amount of standard silver dollars required to be coined under the existing
law is about $27,000,000 each year, and that the remaining space available in
the vaults of the sub treasury offices other than New Orleans is not sufficient
for the storage of the ensuing twelve months, it is deemed advisable and
prudent to ask that a suitable appropriation be made to enable the department
to erect vaults in some other of the sub-treasury offices, leaving the vault at
New Orleans free for the storage of the accumulation of the coinage created at
the mint in that city.”
On motion of Mr. Springer, of Illinois, the
vote by which the House, a few days since, defeating the Senate bill granting a
pension of $50 a month to the widow of General H. W. Benham, was reconsidered
and the bill was passed, yeas, 118; nays, 85.
The House then went into Committee of the
Whole (Mr. Hatch, of Missouri, in the chair) on the private calendar.
Without transacting any business of
importance, the committee rose and the House took a recess until 7:30, the
evening session to be for the consideration of pension bills.
A.
N. KELLOGG.
Death
of the Originator of the Auxiliary Publishing Business in the United States.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
CHICAGO, March 27. News has been received of
the death, at Thomasville, Georgia, of Mr. A. N. Kellogg, president of the A.
N. Kellogg Newspaper Company. The deceased had been an invalid for many years,
and of late was unable to devote his personal attention to the large business
enterprise which is mainly the outgrowth of his foresight, energy, and
excellent business talent. He was the pioneer in the auxiliary publishing
business, which has grown into such magnitude and importance within a little
over twenty years’ time. He was a public-spirited man, a man of sterling
integrity and uprightness of character, and was greatly endeared to all in any
way associated with him because of his kind and sympathetic nature and
unostentatious generosity. He was fifty-four years of age. He leaves a widow
and two daughters, who have their home in New York, to which city the remains
will be taken for burial.
Mr. Kellogg was born at Reading, Pa., March
20, 1832, and graduated with distinction at Columbia College, New York, in
1852. He was a son of Frederick Kellogg and the youngest of six children. He
married Annie E. Barnes at Baraboo, Wisconsin, August 31, 1859. In 1861, while
publishing the Baraboo (Wisconsin) Republic, a weekly newspaper, he
became short of help and conceived the idea of the patent inside, and had
copies printed by the Madison (Wisconsin) Daily Journal Company. He
continued to print a “patent-inside” paper until 1865, when he came to Chicago
and began printing “patent insides” for country papers. He built up the Kellogg
Newspaper Company, which now has offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland,
Kansas City, Memphis, New York, and Cincinnati.
BELGIUM.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
BRUSSELS, March 29. The damage done to
property by the striking miners at Chartois alone already amounts to
$2,000,000. The strikers threatened to destroy the gas works which supply the
city with light and strong reinforcements of troops have been sent for to
protect the property. Property of immense value has been destroyed by the
strikers in and around Charleroi, and country estates pillaged and burned. In
other parts of the kingdom a loss of $1,000,000 has been caused by the strikers
destroying the glass factories. At Roux, two miles from Charleroi, in a
conflict between troops and rioters, five of the latter were shot dead. The
strikers are armed with bludgeons and axes where they could not obtain
firearms.
FURTHER
INCENDIARISM.
The chateau Outremont at Presles has been
destroyed by fire by the strikers. The glassworks at Marchennes au Port, two
miles from Charleroi, were burned by rioters Saturday. The coal mine
proprietors at Herstel, three miles from Liege, have refused to accede to the
demand for a twenty-five per cent increase in the wages of their men, and the
miners will undoubtedly strike. The rolling mills at Monteceau have been sacked
by strikers. Gangs of strikers are everywhere in the mining counties, forcing
men to stop work, and are going about pillaging the factories. The local
authorities are absolutely powerless before the daily increasing strength of
the rioters. It will now require very large reinforcements of troops to quell
the riot. At Villette the danger from the riot became so great Saturday that a
detachment of troops with artillery was sent in response to an appeal for help,
and the soldiers reached the scene just in time to save from destruction the Lambert
works, which the rioters were about to burn. Many of the rioters were arrested.
REIGN
OF TERROR.
A reign of terror prevails in Charleroi. The
strikers, thousands in number, and armed with weapons of every description,
held possession of the streets all day. Many stores and dwellings have been
attacked and pillaged and in some cases burned. The military massed in force
from all the neighboring points were used with terrible effect to disperse the
strikers. The troops, as soon as they appeared, were met by the mob and
fiercely assailed. The order to fire was finally given, and seven volleys were
quickly poured into the ranks of the strikers. The result was twenty of the
rioters killed and hundreds of them wounded. The most intense excitement
prevails. The hope is that the terrible affair will carry with it its lessons.
Among the buildings burned by the mob is the convent of Soleitmont.
BRUSSELS
IN A TUMULT.
The city is in a state of the wildest
excitement, growing out of news of uprising and riots in many parts of Belgium.
Crowds of roughs paraded the streets Saturday, breaking windows and assaulting
citizens. The police made a most heroic exertion to disperse the mob, which was
composed of the worst elements of the population. Dispatches from Charleroi
state that 4,000 additional troops have arrived there and that the town is in a
state of siege. Troops are posted throughout the place and no one is permitted
to pass the sentries without authority. The inhabitants are urged by the town
officials to remain within doors. A body of strikers attacked the Couillet iron
works. They were repulsed by the troops, who fired upon them repeatedly. The
rioters threaten to return in force and renew their attack upon the works.
Later advices from Roux say that the fight there between the troops and the
strikers was of the most desperate character. Ten of the strikers were shot
dead and a large number were wounded. At Bardoux a troop of lancers endeavored
to disperse the mob. The rioters fought desperately, and succeeded in driving
the troops before them. A Lieutenant and several of the soldiers were wounded.
It is reported that the Marmont colliery has been set on fire by the mob, and
that the rioters have invested the Piremise and Mondrin glass works.
PROCLAIMED.
The
Governors of Kansas, Texas, and Arkansas Follow Governor Marmaduke
In
Proclamations Against the Continuance of the Strike on the Missouri Pacific.
The
Yardmen in East St. Louis Go Out On Strike.
A
Fight at Pacific, Missouri.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 26. The expectation which
grew into a serious apprehension about noon yesterday that the switchmen in the
yards of all the railroads centering in East St. Louis would go out crystalized
into the solid fact at three p.m., when all the engines in the yards set up a
shrill and prolonged whistling and all the men walked out. Between eleven a.m.
and one p.m. a committee of District Assembly 93, Knights of Labor, went
through the yard and served an order on all Knights to quit work at three p.m.
This order was coupled with a request addressed to switchmen who were not
Knights of Labor asking them to join their fellow workmen and also go out. How
well this order was obeyed and the request was complied with was shown when on
the sounding of the whistles at three p.m., all the yardmen in the place
quietly walked out and left the yards deserted.
No question of wages was involved in the
movement and it is freely stated, but not on the authority of any Knight of
Labor official, that the order sent to the men was simply an extension and
enlargement of the strike on the Gould system and the initiative of a general
strike on all roads east of the Mississippi river. So far about 125 men are
known to be out, but it is reported that all the shopmen of the Cairo Narrow
Gauge and perhaps one other road quit work, or will do so. This will swell the
number to nearly 400. The roads will attempt to move trains today and a good
deal of apprehension is felt for the result, as it is well known that aside from
the fact that the police of East St. Louis are small and therefore weak, there
is a strong sympathizing element in the place and it would be an easy thing to
resist either the city or county authorities.
MOVING
FREIGHT.
ST. LOUIS, March 26. A large crowd of men,
women, and children congregated yesterday to witness the expected attempt of
the railway officials to make up and start another freight train from the scene
of Wednesday’s excitement. They were disappointed, however, for the train was
made up at a place some distance from there and under a strong guard of police
proceeded on its way through the city. When it arrived at Twelfth street a
large crowd of men rushed for the train, but they were repulsed by the police.
Further on several attempts were made to uncouple the cars, but they all proved
unsuccessful and the train finally reached the city limits without further
trouble. Preparations have been made at the armory in this city by the militia
to protect the property of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company in anticipation
of their assistance being necessary to make possible the resumption of traffic
upon that road. A regular guard is kept on duty at the arsenal and the entire
force of city militia is under instructions to be ready for action at the call
of the Governor. Eastern roads will announce in the morning that they will move
trains as usual and that they will take all the freight offered. Reports which
have got abroad that Vice President Hoxie, General Superintendent Kerrigan, or
any other Missouri Pacific official has been killed, shot, or assaulted in any
way are utterly unfounded.
A
FIGHT.
The Globe-Democrat’s special from
Pacific, Missouri, forty miles west of here, says the track was obstructed with
a stick of timber about a quarter of a mile from the station there yesterday
afternoon, but the freight train, which left here in the morning, had no
difficulty in removing it. About half an hour later another freight train
passed through the town and when some rods beyond the station a number of
strikers attempted to board it. A shot was fired by the train guards and this
was followed by a volley. The strikers then responded and some forty shots were
fired and a great excitement was created, but nobody was injured. The company
property there is being guarded by the sheriff.
ANSWER
TO JAY GOULD.
The executive board of district assemblies
101, 17, and 93, Knights of Labor, have issued an address to the Knights of
Labor and trades unions throughout North America, intended as a reply to
statements made by Mr. Jay Gould last night in regard to the strike of the
railroad employees of the Southwest. After quoting from the statement of Mr.
Gould, the sentence saying that the employees on his roads have presented no
grievances to their management, the address says:
“We have wearied the press and worn the types
of the world in stating grievances and demanding an opportunity to present them
to Mr. Gould and his lieutenants. We have offered through the highest channels
that represent us in the Nation to meet him upon any field. We have sought, we
have plead, we have demanded that we be heard. To all this Mr. Gould has turned
a deaf ear.
“And now before the world we challenge him to
hear our complaints. Before the world we impeach his veracity, when he says we
have not presented them. Before the world let the trial go on.”
Referring to the decision of Mr. Gould to sue
the organization of Knights of Labor, the address says:
“Mr. Gould and his counsel well know that
such silly emanations are an insult to the intelligence of our schoolboys and a
challenge to the courage of our grandmothers.”
The address closes with an appeal to the
strikers to stand firm until their organization is recognized and their demands
granted.
GOVERNOR
MARTIN’S PROCLAMATION.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
To the Sheriffs, Attorneys, and other peace
officers of the State of Kansas.
STATE
OF KANSAS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
TOPEKA,
KANSAS.
March
25, 1886.
Kansas has no waterways within its borders;
its internal commerce is carried by its railways. The railways are common
carriers and the prosperity of the State and the interests and welfare of its
people, farmers, mechanics, merchants, manufacturers, laborers, and all others
are dependent upon the uninterrupted operation of the railway lines of the
State. The interruption of these great arteries of commerce is a disaster to
all, and hence is the concern of all. Their operation is vitally essential to
every commercial, industrial, and agricultural interest of the people and hence
not only the greatest good to the greatest number, but the greatest good to
each individual citizen is subserved by their uninterrupted operation.
We are now in the third week of the most
serious business disaster that has ever befallen our State. The forcible
stoppage of transportation along the lines of railroads touches the interests
of a third of the people of Kansas several hundred thousand in number. Supplies
of food and fuel are cut off in many localities. Farmers, mechanics, and
manufacturers are prevented from selling and shipping their stock and goods,
and from paying thousands of laborers hitherto in their employ. Thus the strike
of a few railroad men cripples and stops the business and industry of great
masses of our people.
The cause of the difficulty is not our
province to determine. We live in a law-abiding State and are the servants of
law. Corporations and the people must alike obey the law. As new grievances
arise new legislative remedies will be found and adopted, but we must act under
and obey and enforce the laws we have. Those who violate the laws should be
arrested and brought before the courts for trial and punishment.
The stopping of transportation and the
stagnation of business have endured long enough. The wheels of industry must be
put in motion. No one class of men have any right in law or equity, common
sense or justice, to paralyze the business of the country, to work disaster to
the tiller of the soil, to close the mills and factories of the State, and to
throw thousands of working men engaged in every department of human activity
out of employment. The rights of the many cannot be yielded to the claims of
the few. The men engaged in this “strike” may have just grievances; they may be
the victims of corporate greed and power, but this fact does not justify
lawlessness or turbulence or the destruction of property, or the forcible
stoppage of the transportation lines of the State and the resulting loss and
wrong to hundreds of thousands of people in nowise responsible for the controversy
between the railway company and its employees.
The people of Kansas acting through their
representatives can be relied on to see that the just grievances of any class
of citizens or any wrongs done by corporate power are redressed and prevented
by law. The laws of Kansas in so far as the interests of her workingmen are
involved, are more liberal than those of any other State in the Union. The
Legislature at its last session enacted a law the object of which was to settle
conflicts between employers and employees by peaceful and honorable
arbitration. Kansas has taken the lead on many great questions affecting the
rights or interests of her workingmen.
I therefore call upon all sheriffs, county
attorneys, and other peace officers to discharge their duties under the law, to
preserve the peace, to protect the property, to see that the commerce of the
State is not interrupted by violence or lawless acts, and to arrest and bring
before the courts for trial and punishment all who are guilty of any violation
of law. In the discharge of this duty you have power to call upon every citizen
to aid you, and I appeal to all law respecting citizens to support your
authority to the end that order may be restored, that commerce of the State may
be resumed, and that industry and prosperity may take the place of unseemly
feud, business stagnation, and industrial paralysis. All the lawful authority
of the State will be exerted to support local officers in the discharge of the
duties thus enjoined upon them, and all persons are hereby warned against
interposing any obstacles in the way of the officers of the law or obstructing
the lines of transportation on which the commerce of the State is carried.
In testimony whereof, I hereto set my hand
and cause to be affixed the great seal of the State of Kansas. Done at the City
of Topeka, this 25th day of March, A. D. 1886.
JOHN
A. MARTIN.
By the Governor; E. B. ALLEN, Secretary of
State.
GOVERNOR
IRELAND’S PROCLAMATION.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
AUSTIN, Texas, March 26. Governor Ireland
yesterday issued the following proclamation.
WHEREAS, It has been made known to me that
disturbances, irregularities, and violations of law are of frequent occurrence
on various lines of railroad in this State; that trains conveying freight and
passengers are interfered with by persons having no connection with said roads;
spikes have been withdrawn and trains derailed to the great detriment of
commerce and travel and the placing of life in great peril. It is said that
this condition of affairs has been brought about by the organization known as
the Knights of Labor, and that persons engaged in these lawless deeds are
members of that order. Whether this is true or not, it is hardly credible that
this order or the best elements in it can countenance the violations of law
mentioned. Employees have the unquestionable moral and legal right to quit the
service of their employers whenever their employment is not remunerative and
satisfactory, providing such action does not violate their contract; but, when
they quit and sever their relations, it is the duty of those quitting to get
out of the way and allow any others who may wish to take the service abandoned,
to do so. Intimidation or interference is a gross violation of the rights of
free men and cannot be tolerated in a free government.
Now, therefore, I, John Ireland, Governor of
Texas, do hereby issue this my proclamation, warning all persons whosoever they
may be, engaged in any of the said unlawful acts, that they are entailing on
themselves disaster and ruin, and that outraged justice may sooner or later
overtake and punish them unless they promptly cease their lawlessness. I do not
undertake to say who these lawless persons are, or who is right in the
controversy, but violence of the law and disregard for the rights of the people
cannot be justified or excused. I appeal to the law-abiding people throughout
the State to aid the civil officers in restoring order and in executing the
laws and in discountenancing in every way this abnormal condition. I appeal to
all civil officers, judges, sheriffs, constables, and city officials to make
use of all the means given them by the law to restore order with the assurance
that every power of the State, if lawfully invoked, will be used to enforce the
laws.
JOHN
IRELAND, Governor.
PROCLAIMED
BY GOVERNOR HUGHES.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 26. Governor Hughes
yesterday issued a proclamation expressing the regret of all good citizens at
the condition of affairs precipitated by the strike, which had caused the
suspension of freight traffic over the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern
railroad throughout Arkansas. He said the people had waited patiently two weeks
for an amicable settlement. They had an interest in the regular running of
trains and commerce, and the good order and peace of the country should not be
jeopardized by a longer suspension of business on the great public highways by
a common carrier whose duty it was to regularly operate trains for the convenience
and welfare of the country. Therefore, the railway was required to proceed at
once to regularly run trains over the road under the penalty of being proceeded
against at law for further failure to do so.
In order that the corporation might freely and
without hindrance discharge its duty to the public, all persons have been
notified to refrain from any interference with trains, tracks, motive power,
and appliances, under penalty of the law, and sheriffs in counties penetrated
by the railway have been charged specially with the execution of these
commands, and all good citizens are expected to preserve order and refrain from
acts calculated to lead to breaches of the peace and from all trespasses on or
interference with the railway or the operations thereof.
CONFIRMATIONS.
The
Senate Confirms Several Important Appointments.
A
Couple of Rejections.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 26. The following
confirmations have been made.
Registers of Land Offices: Thomas B. Davis, at
Lincoln, Nebraska; George W. Warner, at Tracey, Minnesota; William Smith, at
Crookston, Ralph W. Marble, at Duluth, Minnesota; John G. Higgins, at Grand
Island, Nebraska.
Receivers of Public Moneys: August Peterson,
at Worthington, Minnesota; Philip K. Wiser, at Tracey, Minnesota; Thomas W.
Tipton, at Bloomington, Nebraska.
John F. Gardiner, Surveyor General of
Nebraska, at Coma.
Charles H. Potter, Agent for the Indians of
the Omaha and Winnebago Agencies.
Rule Letcher, of Missouri, Consul of the
United States at Rio Grande de Sul.
Mrs. Marion A. Mulligan, Pension Agent at
Chicago.
Roswell Fish, of California, Assistant
Register of the Treasury.
Postmasters: Albert E. Mann, Pittsburg,
Kansas; E. V. Wharton, Yates Center, Kansas; Jonathan N. Wise, Plattsmouth,
Nebraska; Charles M. Wilson, Tecumseh, Nebraska; George A. Moss, Pawnee City,
Nebraska; Thomas Morton, Nebraska City, Nebraska; Samuel E. Rigg, Beatrice,
Nebraska; W. T. McGinnis, Minden, Nebraska.
Rejections: Second Lieutenant John F. McBlain
to be First Lieutenant; Second Lieutenant Richard H. Wilson to be First
Lieutenant.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
PARKERSBURG, W. Va., March 24. The “red men”
are again plying their devilish business in the interior, and unless something
is soon done to check their lawlessness, the reign of terror of two years ago
bids fair to be repeated. Only three weeks ago a man was taken from his home
and whipped till almost dead, and now we have news from Ritchie County that a
dwelling has been surrounded by a mob of fiends, the building fired over the
heads of the family, and the husband driven, wounded, to the woods with his
wife and children. The victim of this latest outrage is Robert Glover, who
resides near the village of Smithville. Sunday night his home was surrounded by
a mob of twenty-five masked men, who called on him to come out. Declining to do
so, his house was fired while rifles, revolvers, and shotguns were discharged
indiscriminately through the windows. Glover returned the fire and succeeded in
driving his assailants away for a few moments. But while he was extinguishing
the fire, they returned to the assault. Petroleum was thrown upon the fire and
a most determined effort made to charge into the house, which was repulsed by
Glover, who wounded two of the attacking party. Mrs. Glover and the children
started to run to the stable and were also fired at repeatedly. At last, being
wounded in two places and unable longer to stand the heat and smoke inside his
burning home, Glover escaped to the woods. All his property was destroyed
before the “red men” dispersed. The outrage has excited the utmost indignation.
SAVING
A WORTHLESS BRUTE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
LONG PINE, Nebraska, March 24. An unknown man
outraged the eight-year-old daughter of John Wilkins, of this place, about 1
p.m. yesterday. The whole town turned out and finally captured him about two
miles out in the country. His preliminary examination occurred today. The girl
positively identified him as her assailant. John Wilkins, the father, attempted
to shoot him in the court room crowded with 800 people. He was restrained by a
constable who had him in charge. The tramp was remanded for trial and a special
posse of thirty men sworn in to protect him during his transit to the county
jail. The exasperated crowd followed the officers to the depot, where a
passenger train was in waiting. Repeated attempts were made to secure the
prisoner and lynch him. On the depot platform lariats were thrown over the
heads of the deputies in the hopes of encircling the brutal ravisher and
choking him then and there. He was safely landed on the train when fifty men
jumped on board and were driven off at the points of the deputies’ revolvers.
After a hard fight the train steamed out and the prisoner was taken to the
county jail at Ainsworth.
KILLED
HIS MOTHER.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., March 24. Mrs. Sarah
MacKenzie of an old and prominent family was killed today by her son. The
family residence is near Waverly, fifteen miles southwest of Indianapolis. The
boy was shooting at a mark with a rifle and the mother was standing in the
vicinity. The ball struck the mark, glanced off, and buried itself in her
brain, producing instant death. Mrs. MacKenzie was the daughter of the late
Cyrus Whetzel, one of the pioneers of Central Indiana.
A
NEW LABOR ORGANIZATION.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
BOSTON, March 24. Rumor for some time had
been current in labor circles here that a new secret order resembling that of
the Knights of Labor and to be called the Knights of Industry was in course of
formation. Inquiry yesterday showed that the report was well founded. A number
of meetings have been held; correspondence opened with labor leaders, and a preamble
and declaration of principles provisionally adopted. The order will embrace
hand and train workers throughout the country and will work on the same general
lines as the Knights of Labor, but with more definiteness upon certain issues.
Strikes will be discouraged and arbitration advocated. The new order is not
intended to antagonize the Knights of Labor, but to supplement it, and it is
believed they will have the sympathy and assistance of the older organization.
CORA
LEE.
Continued
Sickness of Mrs. Molloy.
The
Examination Continued in Her Absence.
Belief
Expressed That Cora Lee Used a Pistol on the Murdered Mrs. Graham.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo., March 26. The usual number
of interested merchants and others were on hand yesterday morning at the Court
House to see if Cora Lee and Mrs. Molloy would be present, but the latter still
continues under the treatment of her physician. The expense of witnesses is
very great in the case, and the prosecution asked that Mrs. Molloy’s counsel
proceed with his case in her absence. This was finally agreed to, and the court
commenced taking the testimony. It seems to be an undisputed fact that Graham
had no revolver with him on the night of the murder, and if it can be shown by the
State that the wound in the right side was made with a pistol, it will be
sufficient to implicate at least Cora Lee in taking the life of Sarah Graham,
and this is the reason the counsel for the defense was willing to admit that
the body found was Sarah Graham, and that she was killed near the well by
George Graham, and the body afterward thrown into the well.
Charles Neiswanger was recalled and stated in
describing the abdominal wound, that it was made almost immediately after
death, if, in fact, death had ensued before it was made.
John Potter, who was postmaster at Brookline
at the time of the murder, said he remembered the incident of Charley Graham
signing the letter for Constable O’Neill; he couldn’t remember if Cora Lee came
to the post-office on the day of the murder in the morning.
A. J. McMurray stated he was present when the
body was found; heard Cora Lee make a statement in reference to that body. She
told the children not to go up to the well that day; she asked me, “If I was
sure they had discovered the body of the woman in the well.” I told her that I
was. She said she “didn’t see them taking anything out.” At that time they were
taking the clothing out.
Cross examined: “The conversation took place
at the lower pasture gate; several were present, but I don’t know their names.
Cora was standing up, but not leaning at the time; she was probably three or
four feet from me. I don’t remember of any of the exploring party being present
at that time. I don’t know how close anyone was, but several were standing
around. Two little girls, Etta Molloy and Emma Lee, and two little boys,
Charlie and Roy Graham, were present at the time. They were standing in a
group. I don’t remember the first thing said; I believe Cora Lee commenced the
conversation; she asked me, ‘if I was sure they had secured the body of a woman
in the well.’ I told her, ‘I was.’ She said she didn’t want the children to see
the things taken out. The body had not been taken out of the well at this time.
She didn’t tell me why she didn’t want the children to see. I don’t know how
many people were present, as several had come in; more than fourteen were
present. I took the names of the fourteen that went there; we all did not get
there at the same time. I was in the hindmost wagon. Cora was at home, I
suppose, when I arrived. I hadn’t been there a great while until Cora Lee came
down.”
Adjourned.
A
CURIOUS INCIDENT.
Judges
and Attorneys in Chicago
Dumbfounded
at Having Signed a Scamp’s Testimonial.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
CHICAGO, March 26. Argument is being heard
today before Judge Tuley on the application for a new trial in the case of
Michael Livingstone, a well known State street pawnbroker, who was convicted on
Tuesday of receiving stolen goods. The case is remarkable from the fact that
after the defense had opened a bombshell was sprung upon the court by the
production of a document dated within the past two months, in which the Judge
trying the case, four other Circuit Court Judges, the State’s Attorney engaged
in the prosecution, and his assistant, the Chief of Police, the Corporation
Counsel, and several other prominent officials, all testified over their
signatures to the good character of Livingstone, agreed that he had been a
“life-long, energetic, active Democrat” and had “worked for several years for
the success of the Democracy,” and urged his appointment to a position in the
postoffice. The guilt of the defendant had been so clearly proven prior to the
production of this document that there was a general scamper to get in out of
the wet, the State’s attorney taking the stand and occupying twenty minutes in
explaining that he signed the paper upon the request of a political
acquaintance and knew nothing of its contents in detail. It is not believed
that the appeal for a new trial will be successful.
EXECUTED.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
CHICAGO, March 26. Frank Mulkowsky, who, in
August last, was convicted of the murder of Mrs. Agnes Kledzieck, and sentenced
to hang upon January 15, and who was reprieved by Governor Oglesby until today,
was executed here this morning.
A
CITY IN FLAMES.
Twenty-seven
Buildings in Salida, Colorado, Destroyed by Fire.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
SALIDA, Colorado, March 26. At 12:30 o’clock
today, the guests of the Windsor Hotel in this city, who had just taken seats
for dinner, were startled by a tongue of flame darting downward from the second
story along the wall. The alarm was instantly given, but in ten minutes the
entire building was in flames. The wind was blowing toward the north and it was
soon seen that a large portion of the business center was doomed. The Salida
hose company did good work, many of the men falling in exhaustion. Citizens
reinforced the company and intelligently aided in saving the merchandise from
the flames. Much of the saving was however, lost, owing to the intense heat.
Twenty-seven buildings are completely wiped out, with not an average of
one-half their contents removed or saved. By most strenuous labor in which many
ladies assisted, the last side of F street was saved, but with much damaged
fronts. The post-office was in great danger, but was saved, although Postmaster
Moore had everything removed as did Harbattle & Co., the booksellers
occupying the building. This building being brick was saved as were also
several business houses to the south of it.
STRIKE
EXTENDING.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
ST. LOUIS, March 26. All the switchmen and
those engaged in making up trains on the west side went out this morning. The
feeling here is very uneasy.
POSTMASTERS
REMOVED.
Over
Eight Thousand Fourth-Class Postmasters Removed in One Year.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
WASHINGTON, March 26. In response to the
Senate resolution, the Postmaster General yesterday informed that body that the
total number of removal of fourth-class postmasters from March 3, 1885, to
March 3, 1886, was 8,645, divided among the several States and Territories as
follows: Alabama, 46; Arizona, 9; Arkansas, 66; California, 75; Colorado, 33;
Connecticut, 100; Dakota, 125; Delaware, 37; District of Columbia, 1; Florida,
26; Georgia, 61; Idaho, 16; Illinois, 613; Indiana, 499; Indian Territory, 6;
Iowa, 399; Kansas, 253; Kentucky, 149; Louisiana, 32; Maine, 292; Maryland,
137; Massachusetts, 127; Minnesota, 124; Michigan, 341; Mississippi, 60;
Missouri, 287; Montana, 19; Nebraska, 98; Nevada, 7; New Hampshire, 127; New
Jersey, 255; New Mexico, 12; New York, 1,053; North Carolina, 130; Ohio, 878;
Oregon, 34; Pennsylvania, 938; Rhode Island, 25; South Carolina, 47; Tennessee,
167; Texas, 74; Utah, 5; Vermont, 128; Virginia, 316; Washington Territory, 25;
West Virginia, 138; Wisconsin, 205; Wyoming, 4.
GRITTY
GREECE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
LONDON, March 26. The news from Athens this
morning is to the effect that war between Greece and Turkey is inevitable. The
belief here is that the campaign will be brief and very disastrous to Greece.
RESERVES
CALLED OUT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
VIENNA, March 26. Two more sections of the
Greek reserves have been called to arms and ordered to join the forces now
encamped on the northern frontier in Piera for an invasion of Thessaly.
BULLY
NEWS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
NEW YORK, March 26. The exciting war news
from Athens advanced the wheat market in New York one cent this morning.
WINFIELD
COURIER.
Frank
H. Greer, Local Editor.
ANOTHER
COWLEY CITY.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
S. P. Strong, J. M. Harcourt, and John B.
Holmes returned from Topeka, having incorporated and filed the charter of “The
Rock Town Company,” of Rock, Cowley County, Kansas. Term of charter, fifty
years. Directors: Alden Speare, of Boston; W. G. Dickinson, W. A. Coates,
Topeka; J. M. Harcourt and S. P. Strong, of Rock. Capital stock, $50,000. John
B. Holmes is a member of the company, which has just secured control of 160
acres, four forty acre tracts cornering right on the old site of Rock, on which
they will build their town. As will be noticed, three of the incorporators are
prominent Santa Fe officials, who will back the town and put it right forward.
The location of Rock is one of the best in the west for a splendid county town.
It is surrounded by the best agricultural district in Cowley and is in the center
of an enterprising, wealthy, and influential neighborhood. The Santa Fe company
takes a half interest in the town and the Town Company grant it two miles of
right of way, which is evidence that the Santa Fe means to make Rock a good
town. Dirt is now flying on the Santa Fe extension, just this side of Douglass,
where a half mile of right of way was purchased from James Thompson for $900.
That graded, a jump will be made to the secured right of way at Rock, and after
April 22nd, when the official condemnation begins, the grading and
track laying will be boosted through to Winfield with a rush. The Rock Town
Company organized with Alden Speare, president; S. P. Strong, vice-president;
W. A. Coates, secretary and treasurer.
A
ROARING COMEDY.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
You cannot afford to miss the great
entertainment at the Opera House Friday evening, April 2nd, by
Sisson & Cawthorn’s great company of New York vocal and comedy artists. The
Rochester (New York) Democrat says:
“Little Nugget is a three act comedy of
interest. It is brim full of wit and humor; it is full of funny situations and
laughable adventures. Miss Josie Sisson, as “Little Nugget,” is a clever little
actress and possesses a charming voice. Mrs. Simpkins, the talkative woman, is
really clever, and is a fine impersonator of the old Irish lady. Herbert S.
Cawthorn, as Barney O’Brady, the school teacher, made many laughable hits.
Oscar P. Sisson, as Billy Simpkins, took his part exceedingly well. He has a
good voice and his songs were encored again and again. He was very clever in
acting and is one of the best of the cast. There are a number of very pretty
scenes in the play, among them the finest being the old mill scene. The play is
full of merit and must be seen to be fully enjoyed.”
CITY
DOTS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Van Vleet & Sage, city weigh masters,
have complained to the city council that others were weighing for hire. A
strong prohibitive ordinance has been ordered.
City Clerk Buckman has been ordered by the
city rulers to draw an order in favor of Uhl & Giel for $584, 80 per cent
of the first estimate of the City Building.
An order was also made for an order in favor
of W. P. Hackney for $1,000, to be paid to him upon delivery of a warranty deed
to lots 17 and 18, block 168, the city building site.
The City Marshal was instructed to prosecute
at once all violators of the fire limit ordinance.
The $10,000 in city building bonds will be
issued this week and turned over to Jarvis, Conklin & Co., the purchasers,
on receipt of $10,200.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The Ponca road, between Arkansas City and the
State line, was recently changed by the county commissioners, resulting from a
controversy between Geo. W. Roberts and Joe Garris. It now runs square over,
Mr. Tomlin informs us, two human graves. So far the travelers have avoided the
graves as much as possible. The authorities, whoever is responsible, should
have these bodies removed in the interests of civilization and refined feeling.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mr. B. Y. Hunt, one of the first settlers of
Beaver, died Thursday, March 25th, at 6:30 p.m., of heart disease,
at the residence of his son-in-law, S. J. Hepler, in this city. The funeral
will be held at Mr. Hepler’s tomorrow morning (Saturday), the 27th,
at half past nine sharp, as the remains will be interred at Tannehill. He was
the father of Mrs. David Dix, east Eighth.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
B. F. Wood has sold his fine team of gray
horses to Col. McMullen for $280.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Bliss & Wood are putting in a corn meal
mill, with full roller process and 150 barrels daily capacity. This is what
they have long needed.
A
GOOD OPENING.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The right man can get two of the main corner
lots in a new and growing town for erecting thereon a hotel, after plans and
specification to be seen at this office. This is a rare opportunity and will
only remain open for a few days. ED. P. GREER.
MOTHER
GRUNDY’S NEWS-BUDGET.
Her
Chronicle of the Comings, Goings and Doings of Persons at Home and Abroad.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
S. D. Pryor got home Sunday from his rambles
in the western counties.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
F. B. Hutchison, of the Occidental, Arkansas
City, was in town Monday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. W. Cuthbert has put up a fine canvas
awning for Capt. Dressie at the post office.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Miss Hattie Stolp is in the Probate Judge’s
office during the illness of Miss Fulton.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Miss Edith Dennis, a charming young lady of
Grenola, is visiting Miss Clara Brooks.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. J. E. Platter and children returned
Monday from a short visit at Wichita.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
G. J. Madden, a brother of Will T., is here,
from Washington, Indiana, and will probably locate.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Capt. Huffman has been confined to his home
for several days with pneumonia, but is now out.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A. D. Hendricks returned from the “wild west”
Monday, and reports everything on a boom.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
E. H. Nixon is over from Greensburg. He came
in by surprise, last evening, in time for Mendelssohn.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
M. L. Yocum is back from several days visit
at McPherson. He says Winfield is the live city of the state.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Hon. S. L. Gilbert is down from Wichita. Sam
looks just the same as of old. Village life agrees with him.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. C. McGregor, of Wellington, mother of
Mrs. Powell and J. G. McGregor, is visiting her children.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. R. Wilkinson has bought E. Harter’s
interest in the Winfield House and will continue it as a boarding house.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Read Robinson and wife and Mrs. M. L.
Robinson and Mrs. H. Brown left Sunday even on the S. K. for Kansas City.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mrs. Joe Mooso, who is in Kansas City, is
much better and is up. Her many friends here will be glad to hear of this.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Wells, Willis & Kipp are getting right
along with Hackney & Asp’s office, on Ninth Avenue. It will be a neat,
tasty building.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The north Main exit from Winfield has a good
improvement—culvert and good grade in the hollow opposite the Frisco.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
District Court convenes next Tuesday, April 6th.
There are twenty criminal and two hundred and five civil cases on the docket.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Dr. Houx informs us that a big fire at
Columbus, Kansas, his old home, Saturday, destroyed the east side of a big
business square.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Berkey & McGregor have the contract of
furnishing the Vernon Center church and have just received a car load of chairs
for the same.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
John Woodell is progressing finely with the
bank building excavation, considering the weather. He expects to complete it
this week.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
R. E. Wallis is in from Richfield and reports
everything on a boom. He will go back just as soon as he can pack his goods and
close out his store.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A. H. Jennings is in from several days’ trip
in the “wild west.” He says things are booming out there and a man has to
invest if he gets out there once.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mart Robinson says he is going to build his
fine West Side residence so he can sit in an upstairs window and jerk the
festive fish from the crystal Walnut.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Spence Miner is down from Wichita, where he
makes his headquarters while perambulating as a tourist for an eastern house.
He will be here several days.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
B. W. Trout, formerly with H. G. Fuller &
Co., has bought the Dollar Store and will stock it up with everything to please
the fancy of the young and the old.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Messrs. H. D. Crowe and P. L. Berry, talented
young attorneys from Urbana, Ohio, who have been viewing our city for a week
past, will locate in Winfield, at once.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Harry Golding, the painter with Reed &
Oliver, is as happy as a clam in high water. It is a bran new boy of regulation
weight, who made his appearance Sunday.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
O. D. Wagner, after a visit with relatives
and friends here and at Arkansas City, left Tuesday eve for his home, Delaware,
Ohio. He will return and locate in Winfield.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Agent Branham has an attractive wall
adornment in his S. K. den: a large photographic view of the horseshoe bend,
down in Pennsylvania, a most beautiful scenic view.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Misses Emma and Cora Robbins, who have made
their home with Mr. and Mrs. N. W. Dressie, left Monday for Hutchinson, to
spend the summer with their brother.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Messrs. R. C. Maurer and I. M. Jackson were
over from Torrance on Tuesday and honored us with a call. They are prominent
representatives of the Great Grouse Valley.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Bob Farnsworth is fast completing his
restaurant room and will have it ready for business, he thinks, by the last of
the week. He will have a very neat room under Hudson Bros.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Mr. A. Gridley, Sr., father of Professor
Gridley, superintendent of the city schools, is here from Topeka for a short
visit, on his way to Richfield, where he looks to investments and possibly
location.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Miss Jessie Stretch has been quite ill since
Friday last, a threatened attack of brain fever. No school was held in her
department yesterday or today. She is improving and hopes to resume teaching
soon.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Brettun guests: L. H. Shellenberger, C. S.,
A. G. S., and J. S. Brubaker, Lane, Pennsylvania; W. C. Worrell, W. B. Drake,
Ed. E. Gibbs, St. Louis; Jno. T. Scott, Brooklyn, Iowa; A. J. Flynn, Kansas
City; H. A. Cone, Topeka; P. E. Berry, Urbana, Ohio.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
It was Geo. E. Fitch who sent the letter of inquiry,
published in THE DAILY last evening without signature, regarding the
whereabouts of J. W. Sanborn, who has just become an heir to a large estate in
Westboro, Massachusetts.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
J. T. Akers, who has been running a
restaurant below Baden’s and was arrested a few days since, charged with
selling intoxicating beverages, was arraigned this morning before Judge Turner,
and plead not guilty. The trial was set for tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
John B. McCullagh, of Independence, Deputy
Grand Commander of the Knights Templar of Kansas, visited the Winfield
Commandery Thursday, at their regular conclave. After the meeting the Knights
enjoyed hugely an oyster feast at Burnett & Clark’s.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Harry T. Hall, of Lockhaven, Pa., a young
friend of P. S. Hills, is here to locate. He is a bright attorney and a
thorough accountant. He will assist District Clerk Pate during the April term
of the District Court.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
At the St. James Thursday: F. McMaster and W.
F. Johnson, Kansas City; Jno. F. Burkley, Chicago; Mrs. W. H. Ballard, Medicine
Lodge; Miss Effie Hatter, Lancaster, Texas; B. F. Dunn, Mound Valley; G. F.
Lee, Cherryvale; C. H. Shatter, El Dorado; W. H. Clark, Atchison.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Judge Turner has at last found a flurry of
relief: three plain drunks, Theodore Eastman, W. A. Hybarger, and W. C. North,
who got too much mechanical purposes last night and ran into the chilly grip of
Marshals McFadden and McLain. They were assessed the usual price of a common
drunk, $12.25 each, and departed soberer and wiser. The party who dealt the
“stuff” will take the next whirl—at a considerable larger assessment.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The ducks must go. A party with blood in
their eyes, a taste of delicious duck in their mouths, and a general liking for
sport in their frames, lit out last evening for the South Bend duck paradise.
The party embraced James McLain, Bret Crapster, James Vance, and Eugene
Bogardus, the great rifle shot. They spent the night with Kyle McClung and
besieged the duck haunts at break of day this morning. They bagged a fine lot.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
H. C. Campbell, of the Smith Bridge Co., of
Toledo, was in the city yesterday on his way home from his second trip this
month to Winfield and other places in Southern Kansas where he secured a
contract for two large railroad bridges. The Smith Bridge Co. is one of the
oldest and most reliable companies in these parts, and we are glad to hear of
their deserved success. Mr. Campbell is delighted with Southern Kansas and says
it is good enough for him.
Lima, Ohio, Republican.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
All of the pastors of the churches of the
city met this morning in the study of Rev. B. Kelly and organized a Ministerial
Alliance, with Rev. J. H. Snyder, chairman, and Rev. J. M. Vawter, secretary. A
number of items of importance were adopted, among them the question of
organizing a young men’s reading association. A paper was adopted that will
appear in due time, calling for a meeting of our citizens looking to this
matter. This association will prove of decided value in harmonizing questions
of moral and social interest affecting the good name and prosperity of our
grand, young city.
HOW
WE BOOM!
The
Decks Cleared for Action.—Winfield to Astonish the Whole World this Year!
THE
CENTRAL EMPORIUM OF THE CONTINENT.
A
Chapter on Our Railroad Sureties and Certain Development.
GREAT
RAILROAD CENTER!
The
Varied Big Improvements That Christen This the Future Great City of Kansas.
INCREDULITY
LAID LOW.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
With every breeze that blows is wafted to us
the glorious news of additional prosperity for Winfield. Today the building of
the line of railway from Independence to this city is under contract as far as
Cedar Vale; the building of the Southern Kansas cut off from Chanute to Longton
is under contract; the building of the line from Girard to Fort Scott has been
ordered; the building of the line from new Kiowa to Albuquerque, by way of
Texas, is under way; the building of the line from Arkansas City to
Gainesville, Texas, has been ordered; the Santa Fe has purchased the line from
Galveston to Gainesville; work on the extension of what is to be the Ft. Smith
route, west from Mulvane, is in progress; the extension of the line from
Burlington to Hamilton has been put under contract; the building of a line from
a point on the Santa Fe, five miles east of Strong City, to El Dorado and from
Douglass here has been commenced; the bill is now pending, and recommended for
passage in both the Senate and House, providing for the building of a line from
Ft. Smith to some point on the Independence and Southwestern Railroad between
here and Elgin, in Chautauqua County.
We clip the following from the daily Capital
of the 25th, which hints at what has been an open secret in this
city for some time.
“It is asserted, says a St. Louis paper,
“that Mr. A. M. Billings, of Chicago, has secured the full and absolute control
of the affairs and property of the St. Louis, Kansas City & Colorado
railroad company, and that the road will be built to Kansas City with a branch
to Fort Scott. It is also stated that the financial power and railway influence
behind the Billings throne is none other than the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe company, although it has not yet appeared in any of the transactions nor has
anyone known to be openly identified with the scheme to get possession of the
St. Louis & Colorado property and franchise; but they have got it all the
same if what seems to be a well founded rumor has it right. Mr. George S.
Brown, the confidential agent of Mr. Billings, in this transaction, it is said,
secured all the stock and bond holdings of President Tiernan, except a few
shares of stock which that gentleman chose to retain, in order to legally
qualify him to continue in the presidency until the time comes for the real
owners to make themselves known. All the other members of the original
syndicate have also been scaled down in their holdings on a par with their
president in the matter of ownership. What Mr. Billings wanted with the project
was a mystery until yesterday, when an over-enthusiastic friend of the Atchison
company let the secret out.
“The gentleman said, ‘The line between St.
Louis and Kansas City would surely be constructed as fast as men, money, and
mules could push the work, and that within the next twelve or eighteen months
the eastern terminus of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe system would be St.
Louis, unless,’ he added, ‘the quo warranto suit now before the court should
add disastrously to the enterprise.’”
“‘That, however,’ he said, ‘would only scotch
the snake, for the Atchison company was bound to have a line to this city.’”
That this rumor is semi-official is evidenced
by those here who are in the inner circle, and what does this mean for
Winfield? First, in order to thoroughly understand the situation, let it be
remembered that the Santa Fe Railroad company now owns a line of railway from
Kansas City to Burlington, and two lines of railroad from Emporia to Kansas
City; a line of railway from Chanute to Girard; a line from Emporia to Howard
City; a line from Kansas City to San Francisco. First in order is the
construction of a line from New Kiowa to Albuquerque, which is to be finished
within eighteen months. This line will run southwest through Texas, and thus
avoid the snows of winter and the freshets of summer that have heretofore cost
the Santa Fe Railroad company millions of dollars as now constructed. This
building of the Southern Kansas to Albuquerque means that the Southern Kansas
is to be the great through transcontinental line of the Santa Fe system from Kansas
City and St. Louis as hereinafter mentioned, to San Francisco.
The purchase of the line from Galveston, and
the building of the line from the Santa Fe and Douglass above mentioned to
Winfield and from Arkansas City to Gainesville, Texas, means a great through
route from Kansas City to Galveston crossing the Southern Kansas through route
at this city. The line from Mulvane west in the next eighteen months will be
finished to Dodge City; that from Independence to Winfield, and from Fort Smith
to a point on this line, will be constructed in the next eighteen months, which
will make a through line from Denver, Colorado, to Memphis, Tennessee, there
connecting with the entire south and crossing the other two main lines in this
city.
The line from Howard City will extend to
Grenola, which with the extension of the line from Burlington to Hamilton, will
give us a short route from here to Kansas City over this line, and make five
lines from here to Kansas City over the Santa Fe system alone.
The building of the line from Chanute to
Longton, and from Girard to Fort Scott is explained when we read the above
clippings from the Daily Capital. Thus within eighteen months from this
time we may get on the through sleeper from San Francisco to St. Louis over the
Southern Kansas, by way of Longton, Chanute, Girard, and Fort Scott, or we may
take the Galveston sleeper and go to St. Louis by way of Kansas City. In other
words, within eighteen months from this date Winfield will have three great
transcontinental lines, crossing each other at this point, with a score of
passenger trains running in and out of our city to all the great markets in the
United States and Mexico each day, to say nothing of the immense freight
traffic that will meet at this point and be distributed thence in all
directions.
We regret that these facts are not palatable
to our neighbors, Wichita and Wellington, yet it is with pride that we
chronicle the facts that their committees come here to visit our capitalists
and ask for railroads. Our people are in the railroad business; we are getting
ready to manipulate financially and politically all Southern Kansas; we desire
to help our neighbors and be friendly with them; we have no war to make on any
of them; but our location, pluck, and financial sagacity have placed us on the
top round of the ladder of prosperity and we will continue to outstrip all
competitors. And we suggest to all outlying precincts, who like the frog, swell
themselves up in the presence of the great ox, that it would be far better for
them to accept their fate and get ready to be one of our suburbs than to be
making faces at the inevitable. Somewhere in Southern Kansas there must be one
great commercial center. These are made by railroads. Winfield’s location,
sagacity, energy, prudence, and foresight has contributed largely to bring
about that which is inevitable.
The Santa Fe has planted her lines, mapped
out the future program in this nation, and have secured the great through
transcontinental lines North, South, East, and West, and they cross each other
here. And we suggest to our people, as well as to those who may come hereafter,
that no place on the continent offers so many inducements to capital and
investment as does Winfield today.
Wichita, larger than we are, sitting upon her
prosperity and whistling, has omitted to avail herself of the opportunities
that were, and henceforth she must take the second place, which we freely
accord her, and while we hope that her prosperity may continue, it can in no
way interfere with us. Within three years from this date, her population will
probably be twenty thousand while ours will be thirty-five thousand. This is
not to her discredit, but to the glory to Winfield. She has no advantage that
Winfield does not possess, while we have all the advantages that she has and
all these others in addition thereto. Inside of three years the general offices
of the Santa Fe, outside of Topeka, will be in Winfield, and if Topeka
continues her course toward the Santa Fe Company, now mapped out by some of her
citizens, it is not improbable that everything at Topeka will be removed to
Winfield, where are her friends and where one set of officers can manage each
and all the roads owned by the Santa Fe company from this point, better than
can be done anywhere else on the Santa Fe line.
Values in Winfield will increase from now on.
Our people from any part of the country, can get on the cars at home and come
to Winfield, or can when the line southeast is finished.
We have not business houses enough to meet
our present demands and do not begin to have residences enough to meet the
demand. Others must be built and at once. The State Imbecile School is almost
finished. It will bring a great many families here whose children are located
there. The Methodist College will be finished by September 1st, and
opened for students. Already there are over one hundred and fifty enrolled for
the commencement term. This will bring at least three hundred more families to
this city this year.
The opening of these lines of railroads west
and south furnishes us a market for our stone, heretofore not enjoyed by us.
The building of the machine shops, repair shops, and roundhouses; the
establishment here of the general offices of the roads that we now have, and
those to come, will require thousands of mechanics and other consumers. The
ends of the divisions on all of these roads, and we have not mentioned the D.,
M. & A., will require thousands of additional hands to those we already
have working in our stone and otherwise; this will bring as many families. They
cannot be maintained within the limits of the present city. Houses must be
built for them, they must have cheaper lots, hence the city must spread in
every direction. It is an open secret that the D., M. & A. railroad is now
owned by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, and will be built at once from
Chetopa west to Denver, and Winfield will be te end of the division on this
through line, which will run from Denver by Winfield to Chetopa and then over
the Missouri Pacific to Galveston or St. Louis as the shipper or traveler may
desire. Thus will be given us competing lines from here to Denver, from here to
Kansas City, from here to St. Louis, and from here to Galveston.
Senator Long is working up another scheme,
which in another eighteen months will traverse Cowley County and thence to
Kansas City.
If any doubting Thomas thinks we are booming
now, just let him wait eighteen months and it will be necessary for him to put
ice on his head to keep him from going crazy. We know pretty well what we are
talking about, and assert here and now, that next to Kansas City, Winfield
will be in the near future the greatest commercial, educational, manufacturing,
financial, and religious center in the west.
WHOOPING
’EM UP.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
“Well, the walls of the Imbecile Asylum were
smoothed off yesterday, ready for the carpenters,” said J. A. Hurst, Mr.
Ashton’s rustling and experienced foreman, today. “Yesterday two thousand
dollars were distributed among the workmen. Today all hands went on to the
College walls and in a short time will have it up to the top of the first story
as far as the contract is now let.” A 500 barrel cistern will be put in the
basement of the Imbecile Asylum. Superintendent S. A. Cook will advertise for
bids for its construction, with trenches, outlets, and inlets. The Asylum well
is giving an abundance of water. And right here we will remark that David Dix,
who drilled this well, is in a bad dilemma. The original verbal contract with
the State Board of Charities was that seventy-five feet should be dug. At that
distance no water had been touch. State Architect Ropes came down, saw the
situation, and told Dave to go on till he struck water and he would see that
the wealth was forthcoming. To bore in that rock is expensive and Dave put $800
in cash in the hole besides his labor. His bill for the 200 feet was about
$1,000, which bill he sent in. A voucher for the amount of the first 75 feet
came back all right, but he refused to sign it—it was only a drop of his bill.
Then he was told that the contract was only
for 75 feet. But the well is there, in every way satisfactory, and Dave ought
to have his money and no doubt will after the next meeting of the Board. The
annoyance and delay is aggravating to a man who has honestly earned his money
and needs it. About all of Dave’s capital is hanging on the decision of the
Board. Carpenters and painters will soon be putting the finishing touches on
the Asylum.
A
FINE ENTERTAINMENT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Winfield is decidedly a musical city. No city
of its size, east or west, north or south, can show more culture in, or love of
music. The Mendelssohn Quintette Club, at the Opera House last night, was
greeted by the elite of refined and fashionable Winfield. And none were
disappointed, excepting, possibly, in Miss Edith Edwards, the soprano soloist.
Though having a magnificent voice under perfect control, her manner and persona
were less attractive than those of prima donnas who have formerly appeared
here. The instrumental renditions of the quintette were superb and elicited the
warmest appreciation of an audience fully capable, as the frequent encores well
attested. The clarionette solo of Thomas Ryan, the violin solo of Nathan
Franko, the solo violincello of Louis Blumenberg were charming productions. The
classic selections throughout reached a responsive chord and entertained finely
the large audience. Dr. Arnold receives just praise for having secured for
Winfield one of the most classic entertainments extant. And he certainly found
much satisfaction in that elegant audience of our best people.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Stolen or strayed away on the night of March
16th, one clay bank mare, 2 years old, with dim blaze in face; one 2
year mare, dark iron-gray, both medium size and very gentle. Anyone finding
them will be liberally rewarded. Mrs. Sarah C. Wilson, Rock P. O., Cowley
County, Kansas.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
A new Opera House for rent, completely
furnished. For particulars address D. M. Reid, Grenola, Kansas.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Making garden is the rage in this city at
present. The thrifty housewife with her pony hoe, monstrous sun-hat, and
pinafore apron, plunges into the mysterious concatenations of onion, pea, and
lettuce planting with a vim, second only to that exhibited in cultivation of
her beautiful bangs.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The court room walls have been painted
red—very appropriate to the coming term of court, with three murder cases,
filled with love, romance, and deep tragedy.
B.
B. VANDEVENTER DEAD.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
We are pained to report the death of Mr. B.
B. Vandeventer, which sad event occurred on Wednesday, the 17th, at
3 o’clock p.m., aged about 53 years. The funeral was preached at his late
residence on Friday, by Rev. A. H. Alkire, and he was buried at the Vandeventer
grave yard. Versailles (Indiana) Herald.
Mr. Vandeventer was an early-day acquaintance
of Winfield. Eight years or more ago he came here buying the Cliff Wood farm,
north of town, now Island Park Place, and later purchasing the A. D. Speed
tract, now Highland Park. Three years ago he returned to Indiana, to reside,
and in the last year disposed of all his property here.
CORRECT
EVERY TIME.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
When W. P. Hackney, the eminent legal light
of Winfield, don’t know what he is talking about, there’s no longer a prophet
in Israel. When he don’t come out on top, there’s no summit to the machine. A
few days ago he was at Sedan on business, and being in a crowd, someone of the
number stated in a loud tone that Cedarvale, Elgin, etc., would not get a
railroad in a year from that time, and offered to bet any sum to that effect.
Hackney instantly replied to this challenge by offering to bet $500 that
Cedarvale and Elgin would have I. & S. W. by January 1st, 1887.
Of course, he of the loud voice subside. W. P. is the last man in the world to
bluff, and in this case he knows whereof he speaks. Thanks, Senator, for so
boldly offering a wager in our behalf. Cedarvale Star.
PROBATE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Hannah Overly made second annual settlement
as administratrix of the estate of William Overly, deceased.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Wm. Hattery made 5th annual
settlement as guardian of Ansel J., O. H., W. H. C., and W. R. Barrett, minors.
HE
GETS BAIL!
A.
B. Elliott’s Examination for the Murder of Chastain.
Released
on $10,000.00 Bail, Elliott Returns Home ’Mid Happier Family and
Satisfied
Neighbors.
Love,
Romance, and Tragedy.
Sworn
History of the Latest Homicide in the Annals of Cowley!
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The preliminary examination, before Judge
Buckman, of Alfred B. Elliott for the murder of Wilborn M. Chastain, at Dexter,
on the 22nd, closed at five o’clock last evening. The defendant was
granted bail in the sum of $10,000, which was promptly given. The court room
was thronged with anxious listeners. The interest was intense and when the case
was declared bailable, signs of approbation were noticeable all around.
The examination of Alfred B. Elliott for the
murder of Wilborn M. Chastain was begun Tuesday at 10 o’clock at the courthouse
before Judge Buckman. The court room was crowded, Dexter being over en masse.
Next to the defendant sat his wife; near her was Mrs. Rev. Elliott, from
Missouri. Laura Elliott, of Torrance, a niece, and William Moses, a son-in-law,
included the relatives present. Mr. Elliott listened to the testimony
attentively and without the least nervous agitation visible. County Attorneys
Swarts & Webb conducted the prosecution and Judge McDonald, Henry E. Asp,
and James McDermott represented the defense. There was little cross
examination. The witnesses sworn were: Lee Richardson, G. M. Hawkins, J. D.
Ward, W. H. Culp, J. V. Hines, Joseph Church, G. P. Wagoner, H. L. Wells, L. C.
Pattison, Geo. W. Dunlap, Geo. Callison, Frank Ross, and J. B. Nicholson.
WM.
H. CULP
was the first witness called. He was several
hundred yards east of the bridge when he saw the smoke of a gun. A man
approaching the bridge whirled round to the west as the smoke arose, and
instantly fell from his horse. I went to the place at once. It was Dr. Chastain.
He was dead. His breast exhibited shot wounds and blood. This was about two
o’clock. The horse ran into town, riderless, soon after the body fell to the
ground. The body was taken, in a wagon, to G. W. Dunlap’s uptown. I saw nothing
of A. B. Elliott till nine o’clock next morning, when he was uptown with the
sheriff. Hadn’t seen Chastain and Elliott together for some time before the day
of this deed.
TULLY
G. HOYT.
Live at Joseph Ferhman’s, one mile north of
Dexter. Have known Elliott for six years. Was not personally acquainted with
Dr. Chastain, having first seen him last fall. Elliott lives about
three-fourths of a mile north of Dexter. The culvert is northeast of Elliott’s
house, about fifty yards. It is twelve feet wide and six feet high. The ravine
runs to the southwest, across the Dexter and Winfield road, and right across
Elliott’s farm. No trees are near the culvert or on the ravine till you get
nearly to the Grouse. It gets wider and deeper toward the river. I was plowing
on Ferhman’s farm on February 22nd, 137 steps from the culvert. I
saw two men, one with a white hat, pass along the road going north, about ten
o’clock. I had made but one round of my land, 80 rods long, after coming from
dinner. They turned the corner at Peabody’s. In half an hour the man with the
white hat came riding back. As he got to the bridge, I heard the report of a
gun. I thought he had shot a rabbit. He fell off. Then I thought he had shot
himself. I saw nobody else around. The man’s foot appeared to catch in the stirrup
and he was dragged fifteen feet over the bridge. A wagon was standing in front
of Elliott’s headed toward Dexter. A man and woman were in the wagon. Didn’t
know who it was. Afterwards heard it was Mr. Hayworth. The gun report was
sharp. I was about 90 rods from the wagon in the road. The horse the man with
the white hat was riding was kind of a sorrel. I heard not a word said. I
couldn’t leave the field. I had to hold my horses. Heard only one gun report.
After Chastain fell I sat on the plow and watched. I didn’t want to leave my
team. When I first saw Chastain he was about 100 rods from the culvert. I was
looking at him when I heard the report. He appeared to be guiding his horse
with his left hand. I saw a man covered with dust, lying with his head toward
the north and feet to the south. His left breast showed shot wounds. He wasn’t
bleeding much. His eyes were partially open. He was the same man who rode north
with the white hat on. I next saw the body laid out at Dunlap’s. I didn’t see
Elliott that day. Never saw Elliott and Chastain together. Saw a man taking
revolvers off body.
LEE
RICHARDSON.
Have lived at Dexter eight years and have
known Elliott five years. I had seen Chastain around Dexter for a year or more.
Saw Chastain that day. Met him a mile from Dexter riding west on a dark gray
horse. This was about 2 o’clock. He had on a dark suit and white hat. He had
just turned the corner at Peabody’s. Mr. Ross was with him. I next saw Chastain
lying in the road one-half mile north of Dexter three or four rods south of the
culvert, near Elliott’s. I didn’t see Elliott about there. Nobody else was
there when I reached the body. I saw Foster Hayworth and wife in a wagon in
front of Elliott’s going to Dexter. I was walking south to my work when I first
met Chastain. I passed over the culvert; saw nobody there. Soon after I passed
I heard a gun fire and saw smoke at the culvert. I heard Chastain hallow “Oh!”
as he leaned forward to the left. Mr. Hoyt was the only other person in sight,
eighty rods northeast. I was four rods from Mr. Hayworth in his wagon, and
after the shot they went into town. I went into town and got Riggs, telling him
Chastain was shot. He said, “I expected it—I saw his horse coming into town.”
Chastain’s face was inclined downward and to the left, when I heard the shot.
The smoke seemed to be two feet north of him. The horse moved away from the
smoke. I was in the middle of the road; can’t tell which side the smoke was on.
I was six or seven rods from the bridge. Didn’t see Elliott that day. Never
heard Elliott say anything about Chastain. I live a mile from Elliott’s. Never
saw Elliott with a gun at any time.
AFTERNOON.
G. M. HAWKINS.
I am acquainted with A. B. Elliott. I knew W.
M. Chastain since a year ago last June. I didn’t see the defendant till 8
o’clock on the 22nd. I saw Chastain that day, after he was shot,
about two o’clock. He was lying in the road. Maurer, Meredith, Hines, et al
were there also. I approached first. The body was in the middle of the road,
legs and arms extended, head to the north, left arm extended. His heart was
beating. I looked at his chest and saw where several shot had entered and where
the blood was oozing out. The shot were about No. 30. I heard no conversation
regarding the Elliott trouble that day or before, excepting a day or two
previous, Elliott was in my office when he said he had got his daughter home
from Arkansas and said, “I think we are done with Chastain.”
Cross examination. I looked at the wounds. I
saw one revolver lying on the ground very close to his head, a little to the
right, and the right hand was fifteen inches from the revolver. There were
three cartridges in the revolver. They said it was a 44-calibre bull-dog. I
didn’t notice the position of the hammer. I suggested to Hines that he go
through the pockets and take possession of property. Found a revolver in left
pocket; also one, very large, in the scabbard. There was a small revolver on
his person. It had one or two empty chambers. The large one was fully loaded. I
had seen him have revolvers at various times. Never heard Chastain mention
difficulty with Elliott.
Prosecution. Chastain’s head was 100 feet
from bridge.
Defense. Elliott got home Friday. Chastain
got back that evening. Elliott seemed relieved when he told me he thought he
was done with Chastain.
J.
D. WARD.
I have lived at Dexter two months. I knew
Elliott a year more or less. Knew Wilborn M. Chastain a year or more. I saw
Elliott the 22nd at 10 o’clock, going out of Riggs’ store. Chastain
came up where I was building soon after Elliott started home. Saw him after he
was shot, on the ground in the road, at just 2:30. A number were there when I
was. Made no examination of the body. Saw the revolver which had been taken off
body. Chastain was lying 15 steps from the bridge. I examined the ground with
Tom Micholson and George Callison, in that vicinity. Saw one track under the
bridge. Ground was soft and trashy. The track was rather large. We went down
the branch and found more tracks 40 rods from the bridge. Didn’t see defendant
there. Had no conversation when defendant was present about this matter.
Chastain had on seal brown pants and dark worsted coat, light gray wool hat.
Don’t know whether defendant has fire arms or not. Never was at his house but
once. Never heard Elliott say anything about Chastain. I examined afterwards
the revolvers. Two were not full and I think one load was out of the large one.
There were one or two empty cartridges in the small pistol. One was Chastain’s,
the Smith & Wesson was mine, and I don’t know who owned the big one.
Cross Examination. I came to Winfield with
him Friday, after he got back from Arkansas. He picked my revolver up that day
out of the buggy. “What do you carry this thing for?” said he. “I’ll take care
of this,” and stuck it in his left hip pocket. He talked a great deal at
different times, about Elliott. He said he would not be bulldozed. My pistol
wasn’t loaded in full when he got it. He came up the 22nd laughing,
as Elliott was going home, and said, “I’ll bet cigars I know where Elliott’s
going.” Sunday he walked up to church with my wife and I and asked if we
weren’t afraid his presence would bring stigma on our name. He had told me he
would have the girl or die.
Prosecution. The trouble between Elliott and
Chastain had existed two months. First met Chastain in February 1885. He always
carried a revolver. He had the bull-dog since leaving the South. I heard
Elliott had gone to Arkansas. I knew Chastain sold his property and left. I
told some he was gone for good and some that he wasn’t; said it was nobody’s
business where he was going. I knew nothing of a telegram sent to Arkansas. He
told me he was going to California. A letter to Dunlap was the first I knew
where he was. When he came back he said he had hired to his brother in Tennessee,
a wholesale liquor man, to sell in Kansas. He told me he had come back to
settle the trouble and get the girl. Said he was coming to Winfield. He asked
the opinion in Dexter regarding his marriage. I told him few thought it so.
Told him I didn’t know what to think myself. The day he got home he sent me a
letter and told me to meet him in Burden and to get three good men to go see
Elliott and try to fix the matter up. He told me he went to Arkansas and saw
Alma. She told him to take no stock in what she had said. She had to say it;
she would be true as death to him. Said when he got back from the south to
Benton, she had gone. We came by Elliott’s coming to Winfield Friday. Chastain
was armed with the bull-dog. He also went back by the house returning. He came
over with Hands’ rig; he went back in hack. Usually went past Elliott’s,
exercising my horses.
Prosecution. It was Friday before the deed we
came to Winfield when he got my revolver.
L.
C. PATTISON.
Knew Chastain in Cloverdale; saw him about noon
in my blacksmith shop. He stayed only a few minutes. He was dressed in a dark
suit and a light hat. I saw him next in the road dead at 2 o’clock. I saw two
revolvers, one in his belt. Hawkins had one in hand. Didn’t see which one was
on the ground. I saw Elliott for the first time that day a little west of his
house, about 9 o’clock. Church and McIntire were present. “Is that you, Joe?”
he asked. Joe went up to him and was holding him by the hand when he got up.
Elliott said, “Is Chastain dead? All right, you can take me and do what you
please with me, hang me if you want to.” In the house he handed his pistol to
Mrs. Elliott. It was a new pistol, a Smith & Wesson, No. 30. I saw no other
arms. He or the boys have some shot guns. His sons-in-law had shot at several
shooting matches. I was helping to hunt for Elliott and had a warrant. I first
saw him in plowed ground, saw no shotgun there. He stayed at home all night
with Church. I never saw Elliott and Chastain have any trouble. I got most of
the story of the trouble from Chastain. Elliott talked some before he went to
bed, after giving up to the officers. He said Chastain was 20 or 30 feet off
when he shot, that he stepped out and asked Chastain if he was going to carry
out his threat to kill him (Elliott). Elliott said the first barrel snapped and
the next one did the work. Elliott talked only as we asked questions.
Cross examination. I heard Chastain say
several times that Elliott was acting the fool and would get into trouble if he
didn’t watch. Chastain said on the Sunday before he would have the girl or die,
and Elliott had better not cut up too much. Chastain had a family at
Cloverdale; a woman reputed to be his wife. He was always armed at Dexter and
boasted a great deal about his wickedness with a pistol. He also bragged of his
power over women. I heard of threats against Elliott, that Chastain would kill
Elliott if he didn’t give up the girl. Chastain was a good shot. His pistol was
a short bull-dog. He always carried it. Mr. J. C. Phelps owned the big
revolver, a 44 Colt, 8 inches long. Chastain and others often practiced at
targets. He could strike the center well at 20 paces. He never missed far and
always beat his competitors. The marks were different sizes, big as your hand,
etc., usually set it against a building. The center target was the size of a
dollar. Some were relieved, I am satisfied, when he was killed. Target shooting
was whenever pleasure occasioned. A good many participated. Chastain was mostly
present; his pistol was mostly used. It was a general sport when Chastain
wasn’t there that we used shotguns. Trouble between Chastain and Elliott began
two months ago. He wasn’t in the habit of carrying more than one pistol; always
tried to leave the impression that he was bad with a pistol. He said nobody
could shoot him, even through the heart, without him being quick enough to get
a shot in return. I had heard of him killing men. He said he had cut a man up
in Georgia. He had quarrels at Dexter with H. E. Noble and W. E. Meredith, the
latter but a few weeks before this scrape. He attempted to shoot Noble.
G.
W. DUNLAP.
I knew Elliott and knew Chastain about 18
months. I was in Winfield the 22nd. Got back at sundown. Saw
Chastain at breakfast; he boarded at my house. I had frequent conversations
with Elliott regarding Chastain, nothing of much importance. I went down
several times to try to settle the trouble. Never heard Elliott say he would
shoot Chastain. Elliott was much aggravated. Sunday a week ago I had a long
talk with Elliott. Went down for Chastain, who sent word that he wanted to
shake hands with Elliott, make up, and get the girl. Elliott said he would
never consent and talked rough about Chastain. Said he was a scoundrel and
swore he never should have Alma. This conversation was near his home. He talked
three hours. Elliott said Chastain had another wife and was a mean man; the
other wife was the main objection. Chastain had affidavits from Georgia signed
by 140 citizens giving him good character and saying he was single. I read them
to Elliott after much persuasion. He said these papers would do no good; he
knew Chastain had lived with a woman at Cloverdale. Chastain told me Hines had
refused to take a deed without the signature of his wife. He said “I have no
wife, but the girl I lived with is on good terms with my folks and will sign
the deed.” He said this woman kept house for him at Cloverdale three years;
said only one of the children was his. He defied anybody to find a record in
the United States that he was ever married. He didn’t deny he had lived with
her. He never offered to go away if Elliott would let him alone. His only term
of settlement was possession of the girl.
J.
V. HINES.
I have lived in Dexter 13 years; known
Elliott six or seven years; Chastain two years. Didn’t see Elliott on the 22nd.
Saw Chastain in the morning and at noon when he came in my office. He cashed a
check for Meredith. Next time I saw him, after dinner, riding north with Frank
Ross. Chastain rode an iron gray pony. Saw him next after he was killed. Went
down in hack with R. C. Maurer, W. E. Meredith, and Dr. Hawkins. Body was on
the ground. Saw pistol on the ground. Got Smith and Wesson out of left pocket.
Didn’t go to bridge. Have had no conversation with the defendant since the
deed. Before this row heard Elliott talk about trouble with Chastain. Elliott
said he believed he would arrest Chastain. He afterward said Chastain had
shielded himself from the law. Chastain had no office. He boarded at Dunlap’s,
only a few steps from my office. Saturday morning Elliott met me in the post
office and said, “I don’t know what to do; it seems like I’ve got to do
something. I believe I had better take the start. I’ve got to kill him or be
killed, with likely some of my family. He won’t let my family alone. I wish
you’d let me have the key to your office so I can stay there at night.” I
wouldn’t do it. He said, “I don’t care. I’m going in there. You can have me
arrested if you want to.” He was excited. I thought about it and concluded to
arrest both and put them under bonds. I sent for Church, and he said he would
make a complaint. Chastain heard we were going to do this. Chastain called
Church out and said there was no use of any arrests; he wouldn’t shoot Elliott
unless attacked. Church saw Elliott and he said the same thing. Elliott never
said what he wanted to use my office at night for.
Defense. I hadn’t been very friendly with
Chastain. He was suspicious of me, as being Elliott’s friend. It was believed,
from what Chastain said, that he would kill Elliott if he didn’t get that girl.
Chastain made me two deeds signed by May E. Chastain. The last one went off for
signature of wife just before Chastain left for Arkansas. He said he wasn’t
coming back. When he did come back, he said he went to Georgia to get these
certificates of good character and thought he’d make another trial. He
protested that he wasn’t married, t hat he had told me he was married just
because it was easier for me to believe that than anything else. His reputation
was bad. He had separated Tom Blakely and his wife. I heard the Sunday before
the murder that Chastain had taken a walk with Littleton and said he was going
to get even with the fellow who had been lying about him, that there would be a
funeral Monday, that the trouble between he and Elliott had to be settled.
According to his own word, Chastain was bad with a revolver. When I saw body in
road, the revolver muzzle was pointed toward the head. I took charge of
revolvers and what was on the person. Doug. Ward said, “Give me my pistol.” I
gave it to him. Gave the one on the ground to Sam Nicholson, who said, “Two
balls had been shot out.” It was a self-actor—one Chastain had carried ever
since he’d been in town.
Cross examination. Heard no additional
threats after I said I would arrest them both.
DR.
G. P. WAGONER.
I know Elliott; knew Chastain. I was six
miles east of Dexter on the 22nd until 1 o’clock. Saw Chastain’s
body at Dunlap’s. The next day made a professional examination. Found
thirty-six shot in body: two in hand, three in abdomen, six in heart, and
balance in left chest. Wounds were made by a shotgun, from low range. Shot
ranged upward, penetrating heart and lungs, sufficient to produce instant
death. Chastain died from the effects of the shot. Any one of fifteen or twenty
shot might have caused death. We saved several shot (producing one, a turkey
shot). I know nothing of the shooting itself.
JOE
CHURCH.
Have known Elliott seven years; knew Chastain
two years. Was in Winfield on the 22nd. First saw Elliott that day
about 8 o’clock. McIntire and I went over, at word of the murder. We just left
Elliott’s house in search of him when I heard a noise and then, “Is that you
Joe?” It was Elliott. He was in the path leading to the house. Elliott said he
hadn’t run off, had nothing to run for. When he got into the house and learned
Chastain was dead, he said that he was glad of it, he would get some rest now.
Elliott said that he saw Chastain come along and took his (Elliott’s) shotgun
and hid under the bridge and when Chastain came back, Elliott said he stepped
out and asked Chastain if he meant to carry out his threat of murder. Chastain
said, “G d d n you!” Elliott said Chastain
pulled his pistol. “I then fired and ran down the ravine.” The bridge is a
small bridge or low culvert. It was five feet high on the east and six on the
west. It was a hundred and fifty yards from Elliott’s. Elliott said he had to
kill Chastain, that “one or the other had to die.”
I had talked to Chastain three times before
about the trouble. The first time before the girl was taken to Arkansas.
Chastain said it was as good a thing as he wanted. He would go down there and
if Elliott followed, he (Chastain) would kill him. I went and told Elliott that
Chastain was going down to Arkansas and that he had better not follow, but
telegraph and have the girl come back and let Chastain go there and not find
her. Again, afterward, Elliott said, “I don’t know what to do; I can’t get any
rest. I wonder what they would do with me if I took my gun and killed him.” I
said, “You would go the pen for life.” He answered, “My God, I don’t want to go
to the pen for such a scoundrel as he.” I told him to be careful; Chastain had
sworn he would kill him and for him to be on his guard. He didn’t like the idea
of the peace bond; said it was just giving Chastain a license to kill him.
Elliott had told me that when the girl was of age, Chastain could have her, if
she said so. He said, “I won’t do anything then. I will never, never give my
consent if she is forty. If the girl must go with him, though, I’d rather it
would be now. I have done everything I can.” This was just a day or so before
the row. I stayed all night at Elliott’s, the 22nd, guarding him.
Cross examination. I told Elliott, I think,
that Chastain had said he would kill Elliott if he bothered him in getting that
girl. On Sunday before the murder, Elliott intimated that perhaps they had
better give the girl up, as it was getting very serious.
Here the state rested and the defense
introduced
GEORGE
CALLISON,
who said he knew both parties in this matter.
I went with Chastain about 2 o’clock on the 22nd, down the road past
Elliott’s. I was in the hotel when he came along and said, “George, let’s take
a walk.” I said, “All right, I’ll go with you.” As we passed Elliott’s he said,
“Elliott has forbid my coming on his place. I’ll walk just as close as I can to
keep off.” We walked to Peabody’s. Chastain told me Elliott had threatened his
life. He said, “I’m going away in a week and I may be back in a month and I may
not be back in three years. If you hear of Elliott’s sudden death, don’t be
alarmed.” He walked next to Elliott’s coming back and held a pistol in his
right hand. When we got to Wagner’s stable, he read a piece he had written in
reply to a piece that had been published about him. Next I saw him and Ross
riding down the street. Chastain had told me before that he would have the girl
or die.
Cross examination. When he read this letter,
he said that he had money enough to board him in Dexter three years; and if
necessary, he would stay there that time to write for that paper.
FRANK
ROSS.
I rode out of town with Chastain on the 22nd.
I was going out to take some mail to my brothers. I was getting my horse.
Chastain said, “Where’re you going?” I told him. He said, “I’ll go along as far
as the creek.” He got Joe Church’s horse. Chastain rode next to Elliott’s. We
talked about the racing qualities of our horses. We parted right in the creek.
I said, “Come go long.” He replied, “No, I’ll go back.” I said, “Well, be good to
yourself and I’ll see you this evening.”
Cross examination. Chastain didn’t go along
by my invitation. Saw nobody at Elliott’s as we passed by. It is half a mile
from Elliott’s to where we parted in the creek. We didn’t say a word about
Elliott.
This was the last witness called. The Judge
said the evidence warranted the charge of murder in the first degree and the
prisoner would be held. “I believe the prisoner is entitled to bail and as he
is able to give sufficient bond, I will place his bond at $10,000.”
The crowded audience arose and the
preliminary was over. Mr. Elliott was warmly congratulated at his fortune in
getting bond. All over the audience and especially among the Dexterites, could
be seen a strong leaning in favor of Elliott. The attorneys for the defense
immediately prepared the bond. Plenty of men were on hand to sign the bond. The
bondsmen are: Alfred B. Elliott, Rowland C. Maurer, John B. Harden, S. G.
Elliott, John R. Smith, Azro O. Elliott, Isaac H. Penis, Tully G. Hoyt, George
M. Hawkins, John M. Reynolds, J. Wade McDonald, James McDermott, H. R. Branson,
and J. M. Jackson—fourteen names. The bond was approved. The bondsmen were not
required to qualify. The bond aggregates big wealth.
MINORS.
As the District Court meets next Tuesday, Elliott’s
bond only avails him a few weeks at home before the trial, which will be an
immense nervous strain on himself and family.
Alma Elliott, the central figure of the
tragedy, remained at home, to the disappointment of the many anxious to get a
glance at her.
Rev. and Mrs. S. G. Elliott, a brother, of
Aurora, Illinois, were here since Saturday, returning home this morning over
the Frisco. They are a nice looking, intelligent couple, quite aged.
Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Elliott returned home
today, much happier in the temporary release of the husband and father.
A. B. Elliott has every appearance of a
farmer with a fair competency. He dresses plainly but neatly. He is six feet
tall, rather stoop shouldered, with a keen dark eye and dark complexion. He was
apparently as cool during the trial as any spectator and listened very
attentively, smiling with the rest when there was anything to smile at. He is
fifty-five years old and the father of ten children.
Mrs. Elliott is a robust woman of great
activity, bright, dark eyes, dark hair, and sensible in converse and of
emotional nature. The beauty of younger days is plainly visible yet, though
traced by the furrows of years.
This was the first important case under the
new County Attorneys, Swarts & Webb. They conducted the examination
thoroughly. Nothing slipped by that would assist in establishing their case.
In twenty minutes after the examination, the
defendant’s attorneys, Judge McDonald, James McDermott, and Henry E. Asp had
the bond made, signed, and approved.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Farm for Sale. The se qr sec 34, Ninnescah
township, 120 acres improved; good story and a half house, good well and pump,
and other improvements. Inquire of H. Ives, 9 miles northwest of Winfield and three
miles from Seeley.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
For Sale. One or two shares of Cowley County
Fair and Driving Park Association. Will be sold cheap. Stafford & Hite.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
For Sale. Big Millet seed by Jesse L. King,
1˝ miles northeast of town.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Married, in the Leland Hotel, Arkansas City,
March 24, 1886, Edward W. Shiflett, of Bolton township, and Miss Minnie M.
McKinnon, of Winfield, Kansas. Elder J. M. Via, officiating.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Franklin’s coal office, on Ninth Avenue, is
being moved out and will be placed on the back of the lot. An office will be
built over the scales. E. C. Seward will build on the lot.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Wanted. 150 head of cattle to pasture. Price,
30 cents per head per month. Address, J. A. Smith, Silverdale, Kansas.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Stafford & Hite seem to make everything
boom they have taken hold of in the last month. Webb’s addition was sold out by
this firm. They bounced the South End addition yesterday and have already sold
a number of lots. The speed they are selling them at someone will have to add a
new addition to Winfield for them or they will sell themselves out of business.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Wanted. 500 head of cattle to eat grass! Will
pasture and salt for 20 cents per head per month. 1200 acres in two pastures;
one for steers, the other for cows. J. W. HIATT, Grand Summit, Kansas.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Public Sale. I will sell at public sale on
Wednesday, April 7, 1886, my stock and household goods as enumerated on bills.
M. L. MARTIN.
FAIRVIEW
ELECTION NOTICE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
The election in Fairview township will be
held at the Grand View schoolhouse, District 144. By order of trustee, R. B.
CORSON.
PATCHING
A SKULL.
A
Young Girl’s Treatment for Wounds Given Her by Her Stepmother.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
[New
York Special.]
A delicate surgical operation was performed
recently on Miss Katharine Ratzer. A portion of her skull was removed for the
purpose of preventing her loss of reason or fatal results. Her brain trouble
was caused by her being struck over the head three years ago with a chair-rung
by her stepmother. Three skillful surgeons performed the operation.
The patient, who is a very pretty girl of
nineteen, is the daughter of Felix Ratzer, a wealthy resident of Jersey City.
Her mother died when she was very young, and most of her childhood was spent
with her grandfather. On returning to her father’s house, her trouble began.
According to her story, in February, 1883, after some words with Mrs. Ratzer,
and while she was stooping to pick up a stool for her, the stepmother picked up
a chair and struck Katharine over the head. Running downstairs, Katharine
fainted in the arms of her grandfather. When she recovered the latter was asked
what the trouble was, and she said, “That woman has killed me.” Mrs. Ratzer is
reported as saying, “Yes, I have got my revenge on you.” The wound healed after
six weeks, but from the time of the blow, the girl suffered from acute
headache, and at the end of a year the wound burst. She was obliged to give up
work, and hunted up her uncle, Joseph Ratzer, in this city, with whom she has
since lived. Suit for ten thousand dollars damages was commenced against Mrs.
Ratzer, and under the law, her husband was made a defendant. The jury gave the
girl eight thousand dollars damages after the case had been on trial for three
days. The excitement of the trial increased Miss Ratzer’s nervousness until it
was feared that she might become insane. Her relatives consulted Dr. Edward
Spitzka, who recommended trepanning as the only preventive against death or
insanity.
Dr. Bolt performed two operations. The first
was on May 17. Then he found a cicatrix two inches long, and with the
assistance of Dr. Wright, after administering an anaesthetic and cutting open
the scalp, removed some old and hardened matter, which had become attached to
the bone. A second operation was performed June 7, and a second piece of
foreign matter removed. This furnished temporary relief, but acute neuralgia
followed and Miss Ratzer was seized with convulsions.
It was considered that a chronic injury to
the bone had resulted from the blow, and possibly an abscess had formed between
the interior of the skull and the brain membrane, which made experimenting
dangerous. A consultation was held recently at the residence of the young
woman, and it was decided that the hopeless condition of the patient justified
the experiment. Miss Ratzer was placed under the influence of ether, and was on
the operating table over two hours. A portion of the skull was removed, and the
seat of the disorder carefully examined and the diseased matter removed. The
opening was then covered with an antiseptic dressing.
JO-JO
AND KEE BOO.
The
Dog-Faced Boy is Smitten by the Charms of a Dog-Faced Girl.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
[New
York Morning Journal.]
An air of pleasurable excitement pervaded the
dime museum on the Bowery yesterday. The fat lady smiled so persistently that
her face was lost in wrinkles, the living-skeleton grinned and frightened a
girl from the country into a faint, and the young man in the full-dress suit
who sat at the ticket window occasionally went across the street to smile
himself. Freak society has not been so greatly agitated for a long tie, the
cause of the rejoicing being a wedding which is announced to take place soon.
The happy contracting parties are Mr. Joseph Joseph, who is familiarly known in
dime museum circles as Jo-Jo, and who claims the proud distinction of being the
only dog-faced young man on exhibition. Jo-Jo, if he can be believed, was found
running loose somewhere in Asia. He does not claim to be a first-prize,
blue-ribbon canine boy, and shows no inclination to trace his record back to
William the Conqueror. Disinterested visitors to the museum say that Jo-Jo
resembles a spitz dog. The recent hydrophobia scare prevented a too close
examination of him, however. His face and body is covered with silky hair about
three inches long. Jo-Jo speaks English and French in a barking tone, and can
also read the papers. The story of his courtship is a romantic one and dates
back several months.
Jo-Jo was then on exhibition in Boston, when
a new arrival suddenly made her appearance in the Hub. This was Miss Kee Boo,
known to her friends as the “dog-faced girl.” Miss Boo is a native of Michigan,
having been found by some lumbermen in the wilds of that State. She is sixteen
years old, and her face is cast a black-and-tan-terrier mold. It, as well as
her body, is covered with coarse red hair about two inches in length. This
renders sealskin sacques a superfluity to the young lady, and will enable the
couple to jump into matrimony with some hopes of pulling away from the breakers
of bankruptcy.
Kee Boo and Jo-Jo were placed on exhibition
in the same museum in Boston. Jo-Jo at first regarded the young lady as an interloper
and even went so far as to growl and show his teeth at her. Kee Boo, however,
soon disarmed his suspicions and fed Jo-Jo with raw meat from her own plate.
When she insisted upon giving him the sweetest bones on the fill of fare, the
heart of Jo-Jo was captured and he succumbed to the charms of his rival. The
pair became very affectionate, and when Kee Boo came to New York to fill an
engagement, Jo-Jo howled so plaintively that the other boarders insisted upon
having him kept in the wood-shed. After standing the absence of Kee Boo for a
week, Jo-Jo resolved to come to this city, and he arrived here Friday night.
The meeting of the sweethearts was most affectionate, and the crocodile in the
museum shed so many tears that the living skeleton was obliged to put on
rubbers.
THE
INGENIOUS YANKEE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
[Chicago
Inter Ocean.]
The Yankee is generally busy even though he
be imprisoned for seven days in a snow-drift. One of the recent illustrations
of this fact is a paper of modest proportions entitled the B-B-Blizzard, “published
once in a life-time by a stock company composed of passengers on snow-bound
trains at Kinsley, Kansas.” One of the trains had some two hundred Boston
excursionists, and the ubiquitous commercial traveler made it lively for the
brethren. The main advertisers in the paper are real estate men who extol the
virtues of their snow-concealed commodity. Notwithstanding the peril of the
situation, the “we” plants chestnuts in his editorial columns like this: “Ah,
there; stay there—till the snow melts. Don’t kick, it’s snow time.”
RAILROAD
NOTICE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
To all persons owning lands on the line of
the Geuda Springs, Caldwell and Western Railroad, as the same is now, or may be
located, through the county of Cowley, in the State of Kansas.
You and each of you are hereby notified that
the undersigned Board of County Commissioners of Cowley County, State of
Kansas, will, on
The
20th DAY OF APRIL, A. D. 1886,
at the point where the line of said Geuda
Springs, Caldwell and Western Railroad connects with the Kansas City and
Southwestern Railroad, on the southeast quarter of section No. 26, township 34,
south of range No. 3 east, in said county, at the hour of 10 o’clock a.m. of
said day, commence, and from day to day, Sundays excepted, proceed along the
line of said road through the township of Bolton, in said county of Cowley, to
the west line of said county, and lay off a route for said railroad and
appraise the value of land taken from each quarter section or other lot of
land, through and over which said line of railroad is now or may be located,
and assess and adjudge the damages to each quarter section or other lot of land
through which said railroad is now or may be located in said County. Such right
of way to be one hundred feet in width, unless it shall be necessary to take
more for the purpose of construction of and security of said road, for cuttings
and embankments, in which event a sufficient quantity for such purpose will be
taken.
S.
C. SMITH, J. A. IRWIN, J. D. GUTHRIE,
County
Commissioners of Cowley County, Kansas.
NOTICE
OF FINAL SETTLEMENT.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
In the Probate court of Cowley County,
Kansas.
In the matter of the estate of Daniel
Weaverling, deceased.
To the heirs at law, and all other persons
interested in the estate of Daniel Weaverling, deceased, you are hereby
notified that the undersigned, as the sole surviving executor of the last will
and testament of Daniel Weaverling, deceased, intends to make final settlement
of said estate, at the next term of the Probate Court of Cowley County, Kansas,
and he will, as the sole surviving executor of said estate, on the 12th
day of April, A. D. 1886, at the hour of 10 o’clock a.m., or as soon thereafter
as possible, make application to the Probate Court of Cowley County, Kansas at
the Court House in the city of Winfield therein for discharge as such executor,
the said estate having been fully administered; and will also present to the
Probate Court of said County, his account for compensation and expenses, for
himself and his co-executrix, Margaret J. Weaverling, now deceased, and all
persons must govern themselves accordingly.
WILLIAM
A. WEAVERLING,
Sole Surviving Executor of the Last Will and
Testament of Daniel Weaverling, deceased.
SHERIFF’S
SALE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Recap. Ellen Pollard, Plaintiff, vs. Laura J.
Gillaspee, Rachel Hines, J. V. Hines, Robert C. Hamill, and Elizabeth Hamill,
Defendants. Property to be sold by G. H. McIntire, Sheriff of Cowley County, on
Monday, April 26, 1886, at one o’clock p.m. Property to be sold: west half of
the southwest quarter of section number twenty-four in township number
thirty-two in Range number seven, east of the sixth principal meridian, in
Cowley County, Kansas.
NOTICE.
Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.
Recap. Lydia A. Krise, Plaintiff, vs. William
H. Krise, Defendant. Lydia A. Krise suing for a divorce due to abandonment.
Petition requests that she have custody of their minor children. Bars Defendant
from all interest in the real estate and other property of said plaintiff. J.
M. Alexander, Attorney for Plaintiff.