Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 7, Number 215, Decatur, Adams County, 9 September 1909 — Page 1

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT.

Volume VII. Number 215.

CHILDREN . REMOVED Judge Could Take no Further Action Against Sprunger, But Wanted to HEARING CONCLUDED Ruby Sutliff of this County, Tells How She Was Beaten With Stick I The hearing of the investigation of at the Light and Hope or,'phange was concluded at Elyria, Ohio, jlast evening, and all that the court |could do was to release the children, for whom the action was brought. fThis he did and wished he could do more. From the evidence offered, and admitted by the conductors of the [place, it is not a fit home for any There are a number of Adams [■county children there and some action should be taken at once to remove .them. | Elyria. Sept. B.—Judge Hinman late . Wednesday granted the application ■of B. G. Glatz to remove his grandchildren from the Light and Hope orI manage on the ground that it was not .a fit place for them. Judge Hinman scored the institution from the bench, 'and said he regretted that the present action and the law governing it did

B#ot enable him to take further steps. ] He said especially that the incident , .where a teacher at the home strangled to death a litter of rabbits found 1 by a little girl showed a strain of ; inhumanity that demonstrated the in- 1 ability of the teachers properly to govern the children. Investigation < Into the condition at the orphanage ,was resumed before Judge Hinman i Wednesday, resulting in showing more i of the conditions in the home. Mrs. Sprunger, the first to take the stand, was self-possessed and smiling. Lawrence asked Mrs. Sprunger about i feeding the children eggs which had ' been several days in an incubator. H j»“We all ate them,’’ said she. < K "When did you have eggs last?” i (S “I don’t remember." “I have too much to do to remem- :

ber such things." she replied. Mary Smith, a sister who has done the cooking for the boys three and a half years, testified that, they had eggs twice in the last eight months. Mrs. Sprunger also testified that i calves' lungs had been cooked and, fed to the children. , She also admitted that corn was ( boiled in the laundry boiler, where! the soiled clothes of the 90 children were boiled, and acknowledged that there were vermin in the children s room?:. but explained that the chil~ dren had them when they came. - “Have you no detention place to put children in when they come or when they show signs of disease. asked Lawrence. “We have not." said Mrs. Sprunger. (Lawrence then asked about the qualifications teachers at the orphanage had to have. Mrs. Sprunger said one teacher some time ago had had y certificate, but that no others had. When asked about sanitary conditions in the girls' house she testified that four or five girls bathed in the same water. It is in this house that Dorothy Farnum, 18, is nearing blindness from four years suffering from trachoma, the disease that bars children from the United States. Marv Smith testified the bread got from Cleveland for use in the home was dry, and that the orphans had been fed the meat of a cow that died from eating damp clover. Several children testified that they had been whipped with sticks. | “When were you whipped last.Lawrence asked Ruby Sutliff, 12, foi merly from Adams county, Ind. “Three or four months ago, an swered the child. "I can't remember now what it was for. it was stick about three feet long and thic as my finger. “ Miss Keene did the whipping. She hit me over the back and s about six times.” The little girl said she had other children whipped. . Loula Israel, 18, said she had be . whipped herself with a stick but had K (Continue don page i ->

GENEVA MAN BADLY CRUSHED Caught in Gateway by Big Traction Engine. On last Monday morning occurrel a very serious accident’ to Charley Simons a young married man, who is a tenant on the S. H. Teeple farm Mr. Simons with his brother were hauling a traction engine, Intending to take it to Berne, and were pulling it with horses. Charley was walking alongside the engine while passing through a gate. His coat caught and he was held fast, and was badly crushed, the post being knocked entirely off. There were four ribs broken and he was severely bruised, it was at first thought that the engine wheel had passed over him, from the position they found him lying, but that is not at all probable for the engine weighed seven tons and his life would have been crushed out. The family and friends were greatly alarmed. A New Corydon physician was summoned. It is thought that he will recover. —Geneva Herald. AUTO TURNS OVER Monroeville Party in a Bad Wreck—Lester Lothamer Instantly Killed SIX IN MACHINE When it Turned Turtle— Was Speeding at Forty Miles an Hour at Time Monroeville, Ind., Sept. 9; —Lester

Lothamer, trustee of Jackson township, was killed and Miss Mamie Seidel, of Detroit, Mich., seriously injured near the little town of Zulu, two and a half miles west of here, at 7 o’clock last evening when an auto driven by Charles J. Smith, a local jumberman. turned turtle while speeding along the country road at the rate of forty miles an hour. Mr. Smith, his wife and two daughters. Laura and Erma and Miss Victoria Biesieda, a neighbor girl, were also in the machine at the time, but escaped without injury other than a few bruises. The auto >was badly damaged. When the accident occurred Mr. Smith was showing Lothamer the speed possibilities of his car. In some unknown manner he lost con-

trol of the steering gear and the machine, a big Buick, plunged into the ditch and turned upside down, Lothamer, Miss Seidel and Miss Beisada being pinioned under the car. [Trustee Lothamer met death almost instantaneously. Miss Seidel, who has been here from Detroit visiting [the Smith family, was internally injured, badly bruised about the shoulder and had a finger broken. While her injuries are serious, it is believed 'she will recover. Miss Biesada,while caught under the machine, was unhurt. Both girls were extricated from their perilous positions add Lothamer's body was taken from under the overturned car as soon as possible. Miss Seidel was removed to Monroeville, where Dr. Kauffman attended her injuries. Coroner A. J. Kesler was summoned from Fort Wayne to hold an inquest over the body of Lothamer. Coroner Kesler found that Lothamer met death as a result of a dislocation of the neck. Mr. Smith told the coroner that an exploding tire was responsible for the accident. When th? explosion came he turned to look backward, and the machine plunged into the ditch. He himself extricated the two living members of the partv caught under the automobile from their positions and also removed the body of Mr. Lothamer. The dead man was removed to hie home. He was thirtyfour years of age and left a wife and four children. O —-—— GREAT AVIATOR TO BE THERE Interest in the great Fort Wayne fair, which will be held September 14-18, has been greatly accentuated ■ by the fact that Charles Strobel the i great aviator, who won the interna- : tional airship races at St. Louis, is to be an attraction at the fair and . will give two flights daily at the ; grounds. Interest in aviation just now is at keen pitch all over the i world but comparatively few people l eV er saw an airship. Strobel will J make one flight over the city of Fort 1 Wayne and will make two flights I about the grounds every day.

A COMMITTEE CALL Democratic City Committee to Meet Saturday Evening PRIMARY ELECTION They Will Name a Date for the Nomination of Municipal Candidates T. M. Gallogly, chairman of theDemocratic city committee has called a meeting of the committee at his j office on Saturday evening, and at i' this meeting the time of the Democratic city primarv election will be 11 named. It is thought that ihe primary will be held on one of the last days of this month, thus giving nearly three weks for the primarv campaign. Much ipterest Is being centered in this election and it is expected that before the time limit expires that there will be several candidates in the race for the various offices to be filled at the city election this fall. The election comes on Tuesday, November 2, thus a month will be devoted to the campaign, and that <s thought to be long enough. Several vacancies on the committee will be filled at he meeUng Saturday evening. and several other matters win be attended to when thev meet. Committee Meeting.

There will be a meeting of the Democratic city committee at the office of Gallogly & Lower on Saturdav evening, Sept. 11, at 7:30 p. m., for the purpose of setting a date for the Democratic city primary election. T. M. GALLOGLY, Chairman. WILL DEDICATE Preparations Now Under Way for Big Mason Week in November THE NEW CATHEDRAL Between 300 and 500 Candidates Will Take ThirtySecond Degree Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, November 16, 17 and 18 have been selected by the Fort Wayne Grand lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite Masons, as the dates for the dedication of the new Scottish Rite cathedral, construction of which should be

completed by November 1. The remainder of the details of this big event, which will eclipse anything ever attempted by the Masons of the state of Indiana in the past, have been left to a committee and subcommittees, which will be chosen later by William Geake, commander-in-chief of the consistory. On the dates mentioned the supreme council will pay a visit to Fort Wayne and will dedicate the new cathedral with fitting service and ceremony. Second only to the dedication and possibly of even greater moment will be the giving of the work ! in the higher degrees for the first time in Fort Wayne. Between 300 and 500 candidates will be initiated in from the fourth to the thirty-sec-ond degrees. Beyond the eighteenth degree work, the initiations will be seen there for the first tiine and are only possible in the new cathedral. At this week’s meeting of the Grand Lodge of Perfection, twenty-five new petitions were received from candidates for the work on September 28, when a special class will be taken in by the organization. This maKes eighty-five candidates in the class already and will bring the membership of the Grand Lodge of Perfection to over 1,100. o— — Mrs. Mahlon Harmon returned yesterday from Fort Wayne, having made arrangements for moving to that place soon. Mr. E. G. Edge returned from Troy, Ohio, where he was in attendance at his brother’s funeral which was held 'on last Tuesday.

Decatur, Indiana, Thursday Evening, September 9, 1909.

EXTRA HARRIMAN DIED TODAY (Special to Daily Democrat.) New York, Sept. 9. At the offices of the Union Pacific the announcement was made that E. H. Harriman, the railway king and one of the world’s greatest financiers, died at 3:33 o’clock this afternoon No particulars were given out. O TIiESAMEOLDSONG ■ **

Gang of Gaily Bedecked Gypsies Working About this Territory TELL YOUR FORTUNE The Bigger the Piece of Money You Drop, the Better the Luck The gang of gypsies who have been driven from Muncie, Portland, and other towns in this locality, where they have been caught at stealing and other acts disagreeable to a law loving community, arrived yesterday afternoon. They are a tough looking lot and deserve to be hurried along to greener pastures. They camped last night north of town. It’s the same old song, about which, however, there seems to be acertain something that attracts: “You gona be more richer you been before; you have trouble in past —I see in your face; you gona have happy now. You gona get two letters — you unnerstan’ me? You gona travel. You got dark hair enemy. He do you dirt —you unnerstan’? He do you dirt.” The brown fingers, weighed with rings, release your outstretched palm . with friendly reluctance. "For twent’five cent I tell you ’nitials you enemy. Sure real. You got plent’ money. Fift' cent I make it you lucky —lucky business, love—all things what you do.”

Upon the deposit of another silver piece in the grapsing brown hand of the fortune teller, the veil of the future is entirely pushed aside. The characteristics of your enemy, down to his predilection for diamond studs, is disclosed, the years of your life are numbered, the number of your progeny is divulged, and by the mystic tracing on your palm of a battered brass charm, all the evil genii that would otherwise have darkened your future are guaranteed to slink away and hold their peace forevermore. Your grandmother, when she was a girl, listened, wide-eyed, to the toothless gypsy crone who told her the selfsame “fortune;” the nomad tribes from the banks of the Indus took into Europe the identical brand of prophecy way back in the fifteenth century. o THE SAME OLD UNCLE TOM Big Company Will App e ar at Bosse Tuesday. Uncle Tom’s Cabin will be given a magnificent production at Bosse opera house Tuesday, Sept. 14, by the Colerich Bros. This company carries 25 acting people, special scenery and mechanical effects. Also band and orchestra. They Introduce several startling scenic effects, including the ice scene on the Ohio piver. It is said that this is the most realistic . and weird scene ever before seen on the stage. Everywhere this company appears they play to crowded houses. In Richmond they played to the larg- . est audience in the history of the | theater.

THE SOCIAL CLUB Anderson Hotels Now Have Clubs Instead of Bars A TEST CASE John Jackson to Furnish a Test Case from That County Anderson, Ind., Sept. 9. —With the closing of sixteen of the twenty saloons in this city at 11 o’clock tonight the social club will, to a large extent, take the place the bar. Arrangements have been made at both the Columbia and Doxey Hotels to turn the liquor >rooms into social club rooms. Attorney Phil O’Neill has already filed w-ith the secretary of state articles of incorporation for the former. The South Side Social Club will take the room vacated by John Huncilman in the southern part of the city and the club will begin operations at once. John Jackson, who quit business tonight, will go before the county commissioners at their regular meeting tomorrow and make application for a license just as though there had been no local option election. Jackson said tonight that he would close his saloon pending a hearing before the commissioners. He said he had no doubt but that his application would be turned down, but that he would at once appeal to the circuit court and In case of a decision unfavorable to him would at once appeal to a higher court and make a test case of it. He is the first Madison county saloonist to take this step. Business rooms formerly occupied by saloons are rapidly filling up. There seems to be no business depression.

MOVE TO MONROE: c I John J .Mayer Will Start a J Five and Ten Cent Store ' * in That Place i / i MOVE NEXT MONTH ’ i i Their Many Friends Will $ Welcome Them Back to 5 Their First Love t i We are glad to announce that John [ J. Mayer and wife are coming back to t Adams county, their first love, after s an absence of two years spent in 1 Kendallville, where for most of that 1 time Fred Mayer was connected with the Kendallville Daily Sun. They ; will take up their residence In Mon- ; roe, moving there the first of the t coming month, and on October 15, Mr. i Mayer will open a five and ten cent t store in the Joe Hocker business room. Monroe has been coming to the front in great strides for the past 1 several years, but never more so than ; in the last year. A five and ten cent ] store there will complete the mer- < cantile affairs of that hustling little i town. They should do well, and ■ doubtless will. For twenty years ] they were residents of this city, and for practically all of that time John Mayer was a fixture in the office of ( the Democrat, and where he still holds the friendship of every one, and right now the fraternity are pulling hard for the new enterprise at Monroe. Their friends here will be glad to have them back and will wish them well in their new business and home in Monroe. o OPTION ELECTION IN KNOX Vincennes, Ind., Sept. 9. —County's local option election will take place Sept. 30. .The county Commissioners late this afternoon selected the date, which came as a surprise to both "wets” and “drys.” Judge Cobb this i morning ruled that the board must i give reasons by tomorrow why it does : not call an election. The matter has i been dragging in circuit court for ’ five months, the “drys” having taken . an appeal when the board declined ■ to order an election on the grounds > that the county council on two occasions had refused an appropriation, j

UPLANDS WIZARD OF FINANCE The Upland Bank in a Financially Bad Way. Upland, Ind., Sept. 9. —Developments which are following each other in rapid succession since the closing ot the Grant County State Bank, tend to show that Charles W. Cole, Upland's Napoleon of finance, spared neither friend nor relative in his dizzy financial operations. Sullivan T. White, an honest and unsuspecting farmer, he induced to accept the presidency of the bank in order, it is believed here, that he might use White’s good name and splendid reputation to bolster up the institution. The acts as developed, show that he also used his brother, George D. Cole, cashier of the bank, who, like all the members of the Cole family, regarded Charles as a veritable wizard of finance. George kept the books and ran the bank and responded to all of the demands of his remarkable brother. THE INSURANCE Thirty-Seven Thousand Dollars Insurance Placed Yesterday PUBLIC BUILDINGS This is the Sum Carried on the Court House and Jail Before adjournment last evening the commissioners took up the matter of insurance for the court house and jail, the five years policies expiring on the fifteenth of this month. The board agreed that insurance should be written in the sums of $25,000 on the court house, and $12,000 on the jail, distributing it among the following insurance agents: Hirschey & W*nteregg $3,000 on court house and $3,000 on the jail; Gallogly & Lower $3,000 on the court house and $3,000 on the jail; Andrew W-lfley $2,000 on jail; J. F. Fruchte $2,000 on jail; L. A. Graham $2,000 on court house; E. D. Kintz $2,000 on jail; the balance on the court heuse E. B. Lenhart $2,000, J. D. Stults $2,000. H Harruff $2,000, W. W Briggs $2,000, W. B. Hale $2,000, Sehug & Bentz $2,000, L. C. Helm $2,000. W. J. Myers $1,500, E. B. Adams $1,500.

The board went to Pleasant Mills today where they inspected the dam across the St. Marys river, which has ( been giving evidence of washing away and this inspection is for the purp se of taking time by the forelock and stopping any damage to the highway which traverses the bank of the rl/er for quite a distance. Threshing at the county farm began bright and early this morning, and will continue without interr iption until the job is conplde. The commissioners were there for a patt of the day. The board granted a petition filed by the citizens of Monroe township asking for a levy upon the taxable property of that township to pay the expenses of the election held there some time ago for the voting of a subsidy to the Bluffton. Berne & Celina Traction company.

The viewers and engineers reports on the William Adler macadam road, was approved, and the cause continued.

Dr. D. D. Clark was reappointed county physician for the county infirmary and jail, the salary being $l5O a year. Dr. Clark has held this place for a long number of years, and as a matter of fact has filled the place just right. Samuel Jaberg has been appointed as superintendent for the completion of the Henry Wafel macadam road. o Harry R. Moltz, who has been very sick for a week past with kidney colic, is slightly better today and was able to sit up a short time, .It is. believed he will be able to to business affairs within afew days.N 1 Fred Meyers of Preble, who wasp injured a few days ago by a sharp j 5 board running into his leg, is getting ? along fairly well, but is not able’to | J |go to school. [a

Price Two Cents

BUSY AGAIN TODAY Judge LaFollette Overruled Demurers in Decatur Lot Cases Here THREE NEW CASES The Faylor Injunction Case Will Not Be Heard at the Present Judge J. F. LaFollette of Portland, was here this morning to consider action on the cases of F. M. Schirmeyer vs. John W. Tyndall, Decatur Abstract & Loan Co., Henry Krick, John Schafer and Samuel Butler, suits on con-

tract. Defendants moved for order against plaintiff to make complaint more specific, overruled. Demurer filed and overruled. Judge LaFollette will be here again on Saturday, September 25, by which time answers will be filed and the cases set for trial. % Judge Merryman was notified by phone late last night that it had been decided by attorneys in the FaylorStudabaker controversy to allow the temporary injunction to stand until the civil action is disposed of in court and the judge therefore did ndt go to Bluffton today as planned. L. C. DeVoss filed a new case entitled Eli W. Steele vs. Isaac Robison, to foreclose chattel mortgage, demand S2OO. A final report was filed and the commissioners discharged in the matter of John F. Lawson vs. Catherine Miller et al, partition. * — William Pauch vs. George H« Gorman, atachment, continued. Criminal cases have ben set for trial as follows; State vs. John Harmon. keeping gaming room, Tuesday, Sept. 21; State vs. Warren Reed, receiving stolen property; State vs. Luther Lehman, forgery; State vs. Chas. Wolfe, assault and battery with intent to kill, for Monday, Sept. 20. State vs. Bert Webb, being a pimp, dismissed; State vs. Ray Booher and Mary Fravel, adultery, dismissed. State vs. Joseph Tonellier, selling liquor without license, left off docket.

Kit C. Cowan, newly appointed postmaster at Bobo, has filed his bond in the sum of SBOO. He has also been appointed a notary public. Attorney Bitlinger & Houck, of Fort Wayne, filed a new case entitled Aaron K. Mumma vs. Clem J. Keller, suit for cancellation of a note of $135, given for a horse. The complaint says the horse was represented as sound, but proved otherwise and the plaintiff wants his note rescinded. M. F. Rice has been appointed guardian for Newell B. Rice and filed bond for $2,500. James M. Archbold, administrator of the Mary J. Beglin estate, filed proof of notice to sell real estate. Consent to sell property filed by part of heirs. James W. Watkins, administrator of the estate of Jesse I. Watkins estate, final report filed and administrator discharged.

D. E. Smith filed a new case entitled Samuel Beeler vs. Mina Beeler, (for divorce. The parties were married (May 10, 1907, and lived together unj til June 24, 1907. Abandonment is (the cause. The same parties engaged in four or five law suits over their household furniture. Real estate transfers: J. W. Teple com., to Henry J. Teeple, tract in Washington tp.. $650: Jacob Spangler to J. E. Spangler, 55 acres in Preble tp., $2,880; B. W. Sholty et al to John Thomas, inlot 689 Decatur. $100; A. M. Fisher et al to Eli Meyer, 80 acres Blue Creek tp., $4,000; U. S. to Richard Hathaway. 80 acres Blue Creek tp. patent; P. G .Hooper, com., to Agenettie Aspy, 80 acres Wabash tp, $£00; D. E. Smith com., to J. H. Mumma, 140 acres Union tp., $1.00; J. C. Moran, com., to Jacob Drake et al, 80 acres Wabash tp., $5,000.