Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 11 January 1924 — Page 3

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1924.

THE MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT

PACTS THREB

SNAKES iiil TO POISON OASES

CHARGE OLD CROOK I HOUSING SITUATION MADE $20 BILLS BEING MET IN U. S.

Chemical Weed-Killer in Operation *1

Secret Service Agents Arrest Majority of City Folks Pro- ! £

Army Finds Phosgene, Chlorine and Tear Chemicals Have No Effect on Reptiles. San Antonio, Tex.—Poisonous gases do not prove so formidable against the Texas rattlesnake as they did against troops along the western front in the World war. The Texas rattlers seem to be equipped with natural gas masks. The first of a series of experiments by which it is hoped to develop a means of exterminating the deadly reptile while he is hibernating was performed in November by Maj. George M. Halioran, chemical warfare officer of the Eighth corps area, Fort Sam Houston. The experiment was conducted in a cave near San Marcos, in Hays county, 50 miles north of San Antonio. The region is known to be alive with big rattlers. Phosgene and chlorine were forced under air pressure into the recesses of a rocky cave, the molting quarters of a big den of diamond-backs. Soon after the fumes had filled the crevices the rattlers began stirring about and c®uld be seen crawling among the rocks near the main entrance of the cave. They were not sufficiently irritated, however, to come out to face the attacking party. Snake Enveloped in Gas. As one huge rattler squirmed along a rock ledge in full view, the nozzle of the phosgene tube was trained on him, and the monster was completely enveloped in clouds of the gas. He quickly changed his course and crawled behind some rocks. “That was enough to kill a regiment,” said a chemical warfare officer, in surprise, after the snake had failed to show signs of being seriously affected. The moat exciting moments of the experiment came when two large rattlers were roped. After one. had crawled upon a rock ledge a member of the party wearing a gas mask, approached perilously near the spot and, with a wire noose on the end of a pole succeeded in looping the reptile around the head. Pulled from its winter home, the snake hissed and struggled and, its dozen rattles droned with a fury characteristic only of a Texas rattler. A second snake about the size of the first was looped in the same manner by one of the enlisted men who helped with the experiment. The two snakes had been exposed to

Counterfeiter in N. Y. New York.—Philip Lieberman was arrested at 330 New York avenue, Jamaica, by Secret service agents, who say they have discovered the source of spurious $20 federal reserve notes which have been circulating through the East in the last year. He will be taken before Judge Gavin in Brooklyn to face a counterfeiting charge on which he was indicted in 1921. Tim secret service men say Lieberman is one of the most skillful of counterfeiters. A steel engraver and etcher, his product is said to have reached a standard seldom encountered by police. The spurious notes, which have been passed in many cities, are said to have been perfect on their face, but slightly blurred on the back. Federal agents say Lieberman manufactured his own plates, engraving, etching tools and paper. Has Long Record. Lieberman is fifty-two, and an American. According to the agents his record is as follows: “He was first arrested in England In 1901. William J. Flynn of the secret service was called abroad to testify against him. He was convicted on a charge of counterfeiting and served a term in an English prison. He is said to have made Bank of England notes s* freely and perfectly that a number of European financial institutions were all but wrecked. \ Returning t* the United States he immediately engaged in counterfeiting and was sentenced to a term in the Atlanta federal prison. On his release he started operations in Connecticut, where he was captured, following a chase which lasted more than

a year.

With Max and Aaron Silver of Brooklyn he was indicted in 1921, but since that time he has eluded apprehension. It is thought Lieberman fled the country after his indictment and returned recently. Confesses to Plot. The Silver brothers pleaded guilty and were sentenced to the Atlanta penitentiary. They confessed to a counterfeiting plot and named Lieberman as the engraver of the bills. In the custom house, where he was held, Lieberman is said to have admitted the plot and to have told the agents that he once wanted to become a famous etcher, but that drink had killed his ambition. Three secret service men raided the

rer Apartment Buildings.

Washington, D. C.—Homes for 379,348 families in the United States were provided by the national building program of 1922 in\cities and towns with

u population of 25,090 or more.

A detailed compilation ol all building in the country by the Department of ^abor has just been completed. It does not include farm dwellings and

those in small communities.

Unless American families are multiplying faster than census figures irldicate, however, the housing situation

in the country is being met. Prefer Apartment Buildings.

The department figures show an increasing tendency on the part of urban dwellers to concentrate in apartment houses and two-family dwellings. The figures cover 272 of the 28S cities with 2o,<X)0 or more of population. They show that more than half of the building construction, 51.6 per cent, was for residence purposes, and that residence buildings ran 64.6 per cent of the total cost of a building construction program which ran nearly $2,000,-

000,000.

Of the 235.991 residential buildings projected in 1922, 183,538, or 40 per cent, were one-family dwellings. Original estimates oj" cost of these dwellings made a total of $772,359,368, or less than a third of the total cost of new buildings. The average estimated cost per one family house was $4,208. The average estimated cost in 1921 was $3,967. Attention is called to the fact that costs are frequently underestimated. Permits issued during the year called for 183,538 one-family dwellings, 30.327 two-family dwellings, .5,011 dwellings with stores combined, 9,610 apartment houses, 1,128 apartment houses or flats with stores combined and several hundred hotels and lodg-

ing houses.

More Churches Than Theaters. Among non-resldential buildings the greatest number erected were private garages. There were 161,262 of them, or more than a third of the new dwellings, but their cost was only 3 per cent of the total cost of building operations in the cities. SQch garages are now rated in government fig-

ures as necessities.

The department report says: “In spite of the fact that the present has been denounced as a ‘jazz age,’ it will be noticed that In 1922 in cities having a population of 25,000 or over there were built more churches than amuse-

gram that was to be put through ^why didn’t he tell his political, friends about it and get ready to | meet the situation? If he didn’t [know what was coming off, then why didn’t he block the deal after Shroy-

er jumped his job? And lastly, Billy leaders rf the House not only are op

Williams would be accused of los- !

. J , £l '''' uacu posed to consideration of the soldiers’

mg his mind if he had allowed ,

Shroyer to cut loose without know-! b0nUS a ” M ' 1 ot tax Ie !l«atton, but ing exactly what was to take place ^ e ^ eve ^ -I’.v, i -e to commit House Reimmediately thereafter- The dread i P ubIicans to - enactment of a bonus . thought intrudes itself, despite the! bill at this r c ;ion of Congress.

Above is shown a chemical weed killer on wheels that has done away with many section gangs on the New York Central lines. Traveling at high speed, the sprayer, scattering a solution of arsenic and caustic soda, spreadsi death among the ugly plants that persist in rearing their tops among railroad; tracks.

GETTING THE IDEA

ffismm.m immi&r.am Washing-on, Jan. ri.—Republican

desire to ignore it, that the impeccable John and the cheerful boss have had a meeting of minds some

place along the road.

In order to see that nothing was overlooked, Billy caused his board to fire County Attorney Fred McClelland and appoint in his place Attorney Will White, who received an overdose, of Jack Collins last week and lost his job on the board of safe-

ty-

By this maneuver Billy accomplished a double purpose: He rewarded White for shooting paper wads at Mayor Quick and soaked McClelland in the neck for daring a few days ago to publicly offend the boss.

phosgene and chlorine fumes for fully an hour before they were captured. They were alive next morning. A heavy concentration of tear gas to which they were later subjected had no effect upon them. Test Made at Request of Farmers. Major Halioran intends to perform further experiments with the prisoners. putting them in glass boxes and trying other kinds of poison gases. Other caves in which rattlers are hibernating will be gassed and it is probable that mustard gas will be used in some of the subsequent experiments. The project of eradicating the rattlesnake during the winter grew out of a request from Hays county farmers and ranchers to the Department of Agriculture. The department appealed to the army, which in turn referred the matter to the chemical warfare service. The rocky hills around San Marcos have long been a haven for diamondhack rattlesnakes, and every spring they are a terror to farmers and ranchers. Texas residents, especially those in the southwestern part of the state, are watching with interest the •uteome of Major Halloran’s experiments, for If a means of exterminating the rattler can be worked out, an invaluable service will have been done. That the poison gas used in the first experiment sank into the most remote recesses of the cave is indicated hy the fact that several large rats were forced out. They were barely alive when they reached the fresh air, and It was the opinion of officers that large numbers of the rodents never lived to reach the top. The diamond-back rattlesnake is the most bulky of all venomous snakes, and the virulence of its poison makes it a dreaded enemy wherever it exists.

_^ome of Benjamin PadulsWUil^ ^ I ' obe iment buildings, but while there were

avenue, Jamaica, and confiscated a printing press, a 50-gallon still and several barrels of mash. Padulski

was taken to Manhattan for examination. Federal authorities suspect that he may know something about the recent counterfeiting operations charged to Lieberman and his companions.

more churches than amusement buildings built, over $ip.000 000 more was spent for the construction of amusement buildings than for churches.

Tulsa Pipes W*»ter From Mountain 60 Miles Away Tulsa, Okla.—A construction project designed t« carry mountain water to Tulsa from a source 60 miles away in the Spavinaw hills is nearing completion. A pipe line five feet in diameter will carry the fluid to a community of more than 100,000 people at the rate of 25.000,000 gallons a day. The building program, under way since January, 1923, constitutes one of the largest engineering projects in the United States. The new system, including a city storage reservoir for emergency supplies, will cost approxhhately $7,000,000, and is expected to be completed in the spring of 1924. It will give Tulsa its first hydrant drinking water. The water will be brought to a low spot within five miles of the city by gravity and from there pumped to a second reservoir on the highest of the hills surrounding Tulsa. The system will be one of the longest gravity pipe lines in the world.

River Channel Yields Up Carven Stone Fish Oregon City, Ore.—Deep in the original channel of the Willamette river here was found recently a “stone fish,” which has been added to a collection of relics of prehistoric life in the possession of O. A. Hollingsworth. The shape was uncovered when excavation was being made for an addition to a local paper mill. The stone, about 16 inches long and 7 Inches high, Is roughly carved In the shape of a fish, with mouth, eyes, gills and fins. Hollingsworth believes the stone, which shows signs of being worn by water, was carried along the river in floods of bygone years from the upper Willamette, possibly from the region otf the mound builders near the present site of Albany, Ore. In his opinion, some early day savage with an artistic bent saw the stone by chance and noting its general shape was that of a fish, took his rough instruments and carved in the eyes, gills and fins.

This attitv clc became known yester-

day as ho:!,.: foes and friends perfected their p!r:v.; for tomorrow night’s party confoc.ce on taxation and the bonus. A 5 they maneuvered for adnew vantage, the r venue question bobbed up in the Serate, half a dozen sena-

ators joining in the discussion. On the House side, members of the

Republican soldier bloc, who had had[

tomorrow night's conference called

with the avowed purpose of bring’ng about a show-down on the bonus, were undecided, in the face of opposition of organization leaders to their plans, as to what tactics they would employ.

May Drop Bonus Plan.

The group had intended to offer a resolution instructing the ways and means committee to report the McKensie (bonus bill ahead of the tax measure, now under committee consideration. Announcement by Repre-

Plenty of Fish.

When Williams presented his requisition for county infirmary supplies for the year 1924, Mr. McClel-

land looked it over and found on the j sentative Longworth, the Republican estimate eight thousand rolls of toil- : leader, that he would counter with a

Closer tellowshtp between bankers and farmers was urged and a resolution adopted affirming faith In the efficacy of the co-operative marketing idea at a meeting of the American Bankers Association Agricultural Commisejon.

—News Item.

SAVINGS MORE THAN DOUBLE IN DECADE

New York.—Reported savings deposits in banks and trust companies of the United States have more than doubled in amount during the past decade, and the number of accounts have Increased by about 141 per cent, figures compiled by the Savings Bank Division, American Bankers Associa^ tion, show. “If distributed equally among om entire population, the savings deposits In 1112 would have given $S9 to each

Want Old Building at Fort Niagara Restored Buffalo, N. Y.—Pioneer residents of

Japan’s Expenditures Reduced by $50,000,000 Tokyo.—The diet passed the recon-

struction estimates, as reduced In conformity with the demands of the Seiyukal, Its majority political party.

The reduction had previously been

approved by the cabinei, conditioned

adnlt and child in the country," the Division’s report says, “but In 1922 the portion of each would have been

ns less than $lf>8 ”

The officially reported savings de-

posits are as follows:

Deposits

1912 $8,425,275,000

1922 17,221,479,000 30,822,320 Incrsase .. 105.7% 140.9% "This remarkable growth is attributable to improvement in the services of the banks for savers and to the more consistent canvass for accounts through advertising and soliciting,"

the report says

et paper, twelve hundred sixtyfive barrels of fish and enough cough syrup to supply twelve bottles for each man, woman, child and every Employe at the Infirmary. Fred decided that was too much fish, too much toilet paper and far, far to much cough medicine. Billy was right there to show that while there would be about twentyone barrels of fish and one hundred and thirty rolls of toilet paper per inmate, the estimate was really under, Instead of over, the requirement, and as for the cough medicine, nobody but a county attorney with a heart of stone would deny these helpless* old people of their regular tcacupful of cough medicine before and

aftei meals-

“Besides,” asked the boss, “what in thunder do you know about run-

ning the county infirmary?"

“Take it from me," came Billy’s Anal shot nt* MbClollliiuI, 'Jiisf 'before he slammed the doof of the commissioners’ court room from' the outside,

“I’ve got your number.”

Noboby knew exactly what the Republican herd boss meant by these mysterious words until Monday when a new county attorney was installed in place of the one who thought Billy had juggled the figures of his infirmary requisition for the purpose of mystifying prospective bidders proposals might be dangerous to those of the Inner circle. Incidentally it might be stated that the requisition was not changed. The successful bidder received the contract on the basis of a demand for enough

Accounts toilet paper to go around the world,

a sufficient quantity of fish to feed Coxey’s army and enough cough medicine to stock a drug store.

proposal that the committee complete its consideration Of the tax bill and report it before taking up the bonus question and his confidence that he would have enough votes to approve this program w , as followed today by the statement by some members of the war veterans’ group that tliey might not carry out their original in-

tentions.

Representative Fish of New York, one of the leaders in the ex-service men’s bloc, is understool to be prepared to offer a motion at the conference that the Republicaa membershii* of the House record itself as ’'elieving passage of a bonus bill would not b» incompatible with tax reduction that : It favors enactment of both tax ! reduction and bonus legislation at this session.

Advertise in the Post-Democrat

HENRY WII,LIAMS 1219 E. FIRST ST. TELEPHONE 2695. I make new tables and make old tables over new. Repair and make over old furniture of all kinds. Floor Lamps, Pedestals, Buffets, Chair Repairing, and all kinds of Patterns.

BILLY WILLIAMS SCORES HEAVILY BY LANDING P. 0. JOB. PUCING SHROYER AND SLIDING SKIDS UNDER M'CLELLAND

Hats off to Billy Williams! Once more has Billy demo ustrated

the Niagara frontier have united in an upon the formal approval ’ of the dlet> | the fact th*t the repulican party in

Cuts Off Nose With Ax; • Has It Sewed on Again Hendrickson, Mo.—When his nose was cut off by an ax while he was chopping wood, Elliott Farrington was rushed to a hospital. Surgeons sewed the nose back in place and are confident that it will grow on Farrington’s face.

Crowns of Spanish Madonna in River Gijon, Spain.—Two diamondstudded crowns stolen from the heads of the Virgin and Child in Covadonga cathedral at Oviedo were recovered from the river here. Nihl Wollman, a German, who had been arrested, confessed to the police that he had taken the crowns and thrown them into the river, Intending later to fish them out. They were not damaged.

appeal to the War department for the preservation of “The Castle," an ancient building at Fort Niagara, erect-

ed by the French in 1725.

From a big front room on the first floor of “The Castle” Sir William Johnson Is said to have exercised his power over the Indians of the Iroquois country. The second floor is believed to have housed one of the first permanent Catholic chapels in the Ameri-

can wilderness.

Johnson captured the edifice from the French in 1759. It was formally surrendered to the United States by Great Britain In 1796.

already granted by that body as a com- Delaware county is a one-man band, mittee, and provided the reduction did " w '*th Billy playing all the instrunot prevent the work of restoration of ments from the corn stalk fiddle to

the regions damaged by the earth- the tuba horn.

quake from going forward. A11 w{thln a week - s time the In _ The reduction amounted to 100,000,- . , . .A , , ... 000 yen ($50,000,000). ' rmoible BllIj ' has kllocl * hl3 P 0111 ' Facing dissolution or the necessity of lcal enemies for a row of rambo resigning, the cabinet decided to ac- trees, and has scattered royal favors cept the curtailment of the reconstruc- right and left to the flock of courlon program. j tiers who sit day and night at his 1 l feet, awaiting the crumbs, hones and

cold potatoes with which the faithful are fed after the boss gets his.

County Chairman NextBilly’s next achievement will be the selection of Sheriff Harry Hoffman to succeed the boss as county chairman. Whenever it suits the royal will, Billy will shoot a wireless out of the postoffice and the thing

will be done.

Congressman Vestal hag made himself immensely popular around Selma by naming Billy postmaster, hut in all other sections of the county in I eluding the fifth and sixth wards of

happened. The commssioners met B ee< 3’s Station, there comes an inMonday morning. They locked every-1 cessant sound of grinding teeth and

Fire Department of Village Stolen Pullman, Mich.—Officials of this village have Issued an appeal that citizens return the fire department. Recently it was discovered that the fire apparatus had been borrowed by citizens for various purposes. An appeal was made that the ladders, hose, palls, and other apparatus be returned. “We may need It at your house tonight, when there will be no time to run around the town for it,” said the notice.

Figuring in Trillions Results in Illness Berlin.—“Zero stroke” or “cipher stroke” is the name created by German physicians for a prevalent nervous malady brought about by the present fantastic currency figures. Scores of cases of the “stroke” are reported among men and women of all classes, who have been prostrated by their efforts to figure in thousands of bil-

lions.

Many of these persons apparently are normal, except for a desire to write endless rows of ciphers and engage in computations more Involved than the most difficult problems in logarithms.

By a dispensation of Providence the postofflee job suddenly became vacant and Billy scored the first knockout by getting the appointment within twenty-four hours after the death of the incumbent.

Billy Scores Heavily.

His next triumph was his marvelous manipulation of the board of county commissioners. Things were all set, apparently, to slide the skids

under Commissioner Jackson, after led Jackson elect Truitt, a Williams which happy and auspeious event man, after Shroyer had resigned, and

body out and in about forty seconds Commissioner Shroyer had resigned and John Truitt, whose farm adjoins the county poor farm, was named in his place. Truitt, a henchman of Billy’s, was on hands to be sworn in, by some remarkable coincidence, and a few seconds later Shroyer, one of Williams’ most servile followers, was appointed to the county infirmary

job.

They Worked Too Fast-

What they did to McCreery the good Lord only knows. He says they worked so fast he couldn’t keep up By the time his head had quit whirling it was all over but the shouting. McCreery’s constituents are still proud of him and point with pride to the way John cusses Billy in cautious whispers when Billy isn’t around, but they fear mightily that they will have to get another man in his place next fall. They simply can’t understand why McCreery help-

the whetting of long-buried hatchets. Billy is a klucker of long standing, but not of the kind that swallows the goo that is ladled out hy the kleagle. Billy became a goblin, or whatever it Is you get to be when you join, because he saw that his entire organization was falling for the bunk, and thus held his prestige with his own machine and got the postoffice, from the kluxer congressman.

Commissioner McCreery and Auditor Dragoo were to get together and pick out a good actor who could be counted on to act with McCreery and put the Williams machine out of business.

when it would have been possible for him to have joined with Dragoo in the election of an anti-machine man. They wouldn’t» for the world accuse John of double crossing his political bedfellows, but they put it

The Boss Gets ’Em. Billy makes the boast that he rewards his freinds and licks his enemies. Looking over the stricken field with the ambulance corps busl- j ly engaged in carrying off the dead and dying and then gazing over In ! the orchard where Billy’s gang can be seen eating the big red apples,! who Is there with the hardihood to say him nay?

STAR

THEATRE

Muncie’s Home of Real

talnment

Enter-

Playing only and always the Best Musical Comedy, Vaudeville and Big Feature Moving Pictures. Entertainment for the entire family. Selected from the world’s best. Star “Pep” Orchestra. Popular Prices. SOME PLACE TO GO. ANOTHER PLACE TO GO COLUMBIA THEATRE The House of Class and Quality Delaware County’s Palatial Home of— PARAMOUNT PICTURES In the Biggest Productions 20-35c Plus Tax. Continuous. Magnificent Pipe Organ ANOTHER PLACE TO GO LYRIC THEATRE Big Pictures—Bargain Prices The world’s biggest productions and all the favorite stars can be seen here at lower prices than any theatre in America. Make it YOUR theatre. Children 10c; Adults 15c plus tax

Instead of this a terrible thing this way: If John knew of the pro-

COMPLIMENTS of A FRIEND AND WELL WISHER

'•’5f

c;.