Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 24, Number 264, Decatur, Adams County, 8 November 1926 — Page 1

WEATHER Rain tonight probably changing to , now Tuesday- colder tonight in extreme west portion. Colder Tuesday.

THIRTEEN ESCAPE FROM OHIO PRISON

Kerosene Explodes; Young Mother Is Fatally Burned

■tragedy occurs I AT HOME OF JOE I GERHART SUNDAY ■ Mrs. Gephart Pours Kerosene On Fire In Kitchen Stove; Dies Today lIirSBANI) BURNED IN extinguishing fire Mrs. Joe Gephart. age 28, of ■nttir Wren, Ohio, died in the I v I jiiis County Memorial Hospital h<ye at 5 o'clock this morning, of burns sustained [carlv Sunday morning when k< nisi ne. which she poured on the lire in her kitchen stove, exploded and set fire to her clothing. Mrs. Gephart’s entire body was badly burned before the fire was extinguished by her husband. Four young children were left motherless by the tragedy. Mrs. Gephart was engager! in preparing breakfast about 5 o’clock Sunday morning. She had started a fire in the kitchen stove, but it was not burning properly and she took a two-gallon can of kerosene and j started to pour some of the oil on the fire. The kerosene exploded., hurling the blazing fluid over Mrs. Gephart’s drew. Husband Extinguishes Blaze Mr. Gepaartt was still in bed. but when' he heard the noise of the* explosion and his wife’s —semHM. he I ran to the kitchen. Mrs. Gephart was entirely enveloped in flames when Mr. Gephart reached the kitchen. U e grabbed Mrs. Gephart and laid her on a rug. which he ,wrapped about her body, extinguishing; the ' flames. Mr. Gephart’s right irm was j badly burned, also. < The house caught fire and considerable damage was done to the interior of the building before the blaze (iuntinved on page twu. BROWN 19 HE *0 SUE OF-SEfitS-W. Guy Brown Appointed County Chairman For Christmas Seal Sale Announcement has been made here of the appointment of W. Guy Brown, of Decatur, as chairman of the annual sale of Tuberculosis Christmas Seals and Health Bonds in Adams county, by the executives of the Adams County Tubg/iiilosis Association. f Bocal comnfittees of outstanding citizens in Adams county are being rapidly organized to assist the county association's officers and members in the 1926 sale of holiday emblems, from the proceeds of .which all antituberculosis work in this community "ill be financed during 1926, More than one-billion tuberculosis Christmas Seals are being distributed now throughout the United States by the National Tuberculosis Association in the continuing fight to eradicate the "White Piauge” from the nation. The purchase of these seals by citizens will mark the annual endorsement of the anti-disease tight in Indiana and the nation. The Indiana I überculosls Association, operating through 92 county organizations, simdar to the Adams county association, calls attention to the fact that during •he past score of years, wherein organized anti-tuberculosis work has been effectively carried on, the death Cite from the disease has steadily declined, until the half way mark has been reached* In 1905 the rate for the United States was 200, per 100,000 t Population, •» 1925 the death rate from tuberculosis had fal en to 90.6 ■>er 100, oqq population. Mr. Brown, the county chairman | here, said today that a much wider ( (Continued on Page 4) ’

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT

Vol. XXIV. Number 264.

Training School Classes To Meet As Usual Tonight The students of the Community I Bible Training school are urged not I Ito miss their regular class sessions J | tonight, as Dr. Halley will also speak at the Central school building immediately after the” class sessions. The chapel service will be held at the close of both sessions, instead of ’ i after the first class session. Dr. Halley will give the same reading at the school that he will give at the Ztion Reformed church. PUPILS TO GET TWO-DAY REST » I * , County Schools To Dismiss i November 25 And 26 For Thanksgiving J The pupils of the public schools of Adams county will get a two-day vacation at Thanksgiving time, ac- • cording to action taken by the township trustees in session here today. The schools will be dismissed on Wednesday evening and there will be no school on Thursday and Friday, November 25 and 26. All of the twelve trustees attended* the meeting, held in the office of the county superintendent, Clifton Striker, this morning. Several other i school matters were discussed and L. M. Busche was re-elected county agricultural agent for a two-year term. o Odd Fellows To Meet Tonight For Initiation The Odd Fellows will meet tonight at the hall. The Geneva team wi.l confer the second degree. Following the degree work, an oyster stew will be j served and the members are iir-itsd . j to attend. -1_ o Mrs. Charlotte Sargent Dies Sunday Morning Mrs. Charlotte Sargent, 77. sister of John Reed and Polly Reed, of Decatur, died at 9:35 o’clock Sunday morning, at her home in Fort Wayne. Death was due to a complication of diseases. Surviving are two brothI ers. Hicham Reed, of Portland. ■ O. Heed o' liecafurT" I two sisters, Polly iteeu, of D< caiur, i and Mrs. Tillie Showers, of Chicago; , two nieces, May Stewart, 'of' Cleveland, and Eva Roop, of Decatur; four nephews, Abraham Reed, of Cleveland; Cindy McClain, Johnny and Dannie Small, of Marion. Funeral services will be held at the home i Wednesday morning ai 10 o’clock and at 11 o'clock at the Methodist church at Poe. Rev. Adams officiating. Burial in the church cemetery. o Clarence Smith, Os Ossian, Still Missing Clarence Smith, the Ossian youth, who mysteriously disappeared from Ossian last Monday 'night, has not | been heard from, according to information from Ossian Saturday afternoon. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. James Smith, and they are considerably worried as to his whereabouts. COUNTY AGENT IS RE-ELECTED . I Township Trustees Re-elect • L. M. Busche To TwoYear Term Here By the unanimous, vote.of the ten township trustees present at a meet- ‘ Ing of the county board of education ’ this morning. I. M. Busche was re- 1 elected agricultural agent of Adams county. The beard elected Mr. Busche ' to a two-year term. Jfr. Busche has served six years as '•ot’nty agricultural agent here and 1 lias made, a fine record. He is a ‘ native of* Adams county and is a graduate of Purdue university.

ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ADAMS COUNTY

X — Celebrate Golden Wedding ' - * i ■ 1 7 1 —Courtesy, Los Angeles ’Evening Herald. MR. AND MRS. JACOB TESTER

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Tester, Decatur residents, celebrated their goldenj wedding anniversary at the home of their son, Floyd A. Tester, in Los‘Angeles, California. October 29. Mr. and Mrs. Tester moved from] Decatur 'to Los Angeles several months ago, and now reside at 832 West Seventy-sixth street. Los Ange-

SUGAR FACTORY : IS BUSY PLACE Sugar-Making Campaign At Local Plant Is At Its Height Now Indiana’s only beet sugar factory. 1 located in this city, is running full force and the sugarmaking campaign ! is at its height. Beets are piled ; "mountain high" on the yards, there ’ being approximately lit) car loads of I beets in the yards. The beets are in good shape, although the sugar content is a little below normal, it (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) MACHINEGUNS BARK AT HERRIN Fued Spirit Grips Williamson County, Illinois, Again; Two Men Dead | Herrin, 11., Nov. 8. —(United Press) —The sued ’>i • has gripped Williamson county-scene of many bitter fact:■ ;ual baitties—again and todav the '.oil from machine gun fire is two dead and one Injured. Mayor Jeff Stone of Colp, small mining village near here and his friend, John Ki'roy, both were hanked with a withering machine gun 1 file as ‘they . stood on the main street of the Village I Saturday night. John Keith, chief of Police, was wounded in the right arm. The machine gunners drove through the city in three motor cars, three; guns belching forth a deadly fire. It was said in Colp that shooting was the result of stone raving supported the democrats in thevelections last week. Stone. v>f h o l g (CONTINUED ON PAGE SIX) 1

Decatur, Indiana, Monday, November 8, 1926.

les. Among those present at the celebration were three of the couple’s five children, Mrs. H. C.’Burdg, Floyd A* and Lawrence N. Tester. An interesting account oi the cel? bration is contained in the following letter written by Lawrence N. TestICONIIM El) O\ PAGE I’Ol Hl

Florence Sprunger. Starr To Broadcast This Evening ,| Mrs. Florence Sprunger Sttarr. of Bluffton, former Decatur resident,] ■ w-sj.’.. .11'!" 1 ,!. -i.'.ii-'" : WOWO. it: Fort Wayi,. tl.i. ■ .•cning’. at 19:30 o'clock Mrs. Starr is ah accomplished soprano. o REV. MOELLER I CALLED TO OHIO Pastor Os St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Adams County, Resigns The Rev. Alfred Moeller and daughters left Saturday for Painsville, 0., | a thriving town thirty miles east of' Cleveland, where Rev. Moeller has j accepted a call. He has served as pastor of St. Peter's Lutheran church in the Fuelling settlement, north of Decatur, for five years and is belov--1 ed by the congregation who accepted . his resignation with regret, when it was offered two weeks ago. Rev. Froesch, of the Blakey church in Union township, has temporary chafge of the Fuelling church and it is expected a new pastot will be called within a week or two. o Barton Rees Pogue To Give Program Here Tonight Mr. Barton Rees Pogue, noted Indiana poet, will give a program at 8 j o'clock tills evening, in the auditor- ' ium of the 'Decatur high scliool building. Mr. Pogue, who is head of the [ department of expression at Taylor University, will appear here this evening under the auspices of the civic department of the Decatur Woman’s Club. ‘The public is cordially invited to hear Mr. Pogue. The program will consist ot an interesting talk intersperced with several of Mr. Pogue's own writings.

STATE PLAYS ITS (TRUMP GARD IN HALL-MILLS CASE Detective Proves To Be Star Witness In Sensational L Murder Trial SCENE OF MURDER DESCRIBED TO JURY Somerville, N. J., Nov. B.— | (United Press)—The shite played a trump card at the HallMills irntrder trial this afternoon when William Garvin, a detective, testified that Ralph V. Gorsline had admitted recogi nizing Henry Stevens, one of j the defendants, in De Russey's lane the night of the murder. Gorsline, a vestryman in the Rev. Hall's churfh, had denied on the witness stand that he recognized any one at the scene. Garvin, who was a Burns detective working on the murder, said Gorsline visited his office three weeks after the crime and told him he met Stevens there; that Stevens had fired three shots into the ground to Intimidate him and later had taken him to a lodge an<g,forced him to swear he would never tell what he had seen. / Courtroom. Somerville, N. J.. Nov. B.— (United Press) —Th° jury in 'the Hall-Mills case today was given a description of the scene in De Russey's lane the night of the murder and testimony that Mrs. Jane Gibson, the state’s star witness, had been seen-Jhere. Robert Erling, a young truck driver of New Brunswick, N. J., was the witness. . He told how he and a girl whom he named —after much pressure—as Jennie Lamport, hqd spent more , (CONTINUED ON PACE TWO) o NEW POSTMASTER TO BE APPOINTED j Stii’ceVsfiT To Hawy'-Frite*' i'ftger Os This City To Be Named Soon Since the election, interest has developed in the appointment of a postmaster of the Decatur postoffice and those who discuss politics are wondering who will be appointed andihow soon the appointment will be made. Postmaster Harry Fritzinger, who has made a splendid record the past year, will continue to serve- as post,master until the official appointment (CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO) BEETWORKER IS ARRESTED Pedro Cortez, Mexican, Attacks E. J. Fricke, At Sugar Factory Today Two charges were filed against Pedro Cortez, Mexican beet worker, here this afternoon as the result of a controversy with K J. Fricke, fieldman for the local sugar company. The laborer approached Mr. Fricke, near the weighing house at the plant this morning and, after an argument, he attacked Mr. Fricke. In the controversy, the laborer drew a gun and threatened to kill Mr. | (CONTINUED ON PAGE SIX) O Trial Is Postponed The trial of Clem Hecktnan, charged with driving an automobile while intoxicated, was postponed nntfl Tuesday morning, when it came tip in city I'ourt this morning. Th ■ delay was occasioned otl account of Mayor Krick being called out of the city.

j Representative Os State Tax Board In City Today James Showalter, representative of the state board of tax commissioners, was in the city today and held a bearing with several county taxpayers, relative to their assessinentr. Representatives of several corporations in the county were summoned before Mr. Showalter, but, as far as known, only a few changes were made. All other tax assessments In this county have been approved by the state board. OPENS SERIES OF BIBLE READINGS Dr. Halley Holds Large Audience Spellbound At Reformed Church Tlie Halley meetings, conducted by the Protestant churches of the city, began with a spirit of enthusiasm last night. The spacious, Zion Reformed church, where the meetings are being held, and which has a seating capacity for 700 people, was crowded to the doors. Dr. Halley held his audience spellbound and a season of silence reigned over the audience during his recital. In his introductory remarks, he said in part: “These meetings are to make you understand the Bible better and cause you to become more diligent readers of it. It shall help you to understand the churches of your community better and that you may be of more assistance to the several pastors is tbeir work. The Old Testament is the story of a nation. while the New Testament is fbe story of a man. and that man is Jesus Christ. He is the central thought of the whole Bible and these meetings are to help yon to understand Him better." Dr. Halley quoted from the historical books of the Old Testament, begiiffiing with Genesis, and. recited the story of the Creation, Fall of Man, the v Flood, the Dispersion, the Call of Abraham, and the Call of Moses. Tonight, he will again quote from the historical books, givii|g the main frame-work of the Old Testament. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, he will recite from the om.-.-... I I--.-"and Friday nights lie.will..quote from the Gospels presenting the life and crui. fl on of Christ. The speaker urged the importance of hearing the entire series, so as not to lose the connection. Those who cannot! possibly attend, every night Should, above all, attend the Thursday and Friday night services which are consedered the most important of all. The servioes during the week will begin at 7:30 o’clock. After the services tonight. Dr. Halley will also speak, at the Central school building. 'to the students of the Community school. o Fall Down Stairs is Fatal Gary, Ind., Nov. B.—(United Press) —A fall down stairs proved fatal to Felix Borella, Gary grocer, who died here from a fractured skull received in the tumble. o AIMEEFACES TWO MORE SUITS Two Additional Million Dollar Damage Suits Filed Against Evangelist Los Angeles, Cal., Nov. 8. — (United Press)—Aimee Semple McPhersrn faced two additional million dollar damage suits today, according to S. S. Hahn, attorney. Hahn announced he was filing the | actions in superior court here today, chaiging slander and defamation of character, result ng from evidence presented by the defense during the evangelist's recent preliminary hear(CONTINUUM UN PAGE TWO)

Price Two Cents.

TWO GUARDS A ND CONVICT INJURI. IN GUN BATTLE Fleeing Convicts Steal Auto And Kidnap Woman; Two Are Recaptured DESPERATE MEN AMONG FUGITIVES Columbus. O„ Nov. B.— (United Press)-Thirteen prisoners escaped from the Ohio prison here this afternoon, tiller a gun fight with guards, in which one convict and Iwo guards and the secretary to Warden Thomas were wounded. The captain of the prison guard and a switchboard operator were clubbed by the convicts in their desparate hreak. Shortly after the dash for liberty, two ot the prisoners were recaptured. but six others who kidnapped a woman when they seized an auto to make good their escape, were engag-, ed in a running gun battle with a heavy detail of pursuing police. The woman's screams as the convicts seized her auto, attracted police who gave chase. As the speeding auto dashed through the residence district, police and convicts • CONTINTED ON PAGE TWO) O Mrs. Mary Bears Dies At Home Near Geneva Mrs. Mary Bears. 83. died at the home of her daughter. Mrs. Ed Ferry, east of Geneva, Friday night. Mrs. Bears had not been confined to her bed. but had suffered from cancer of the breast for some time. Thursday night, she suffered a severe heomorrhage. Mrs. Bears had resided with )ter son-in law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Ferry, for many years. Funeral services were held at 1 o’clock Sunday afternoon at the Elm Grove church. Burial was made in the Bunker Hill cemetery. LOWELL SMITH HONORED AGAIN « „ Decatur Young Mar. Elected To Membership In Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity Lowell C. Smith, son of Di and Mrs. W. E. Smith, of this city, has won a new honor at Ohio State University, where he is studying medicine. Mr. Smith was one as three students elected to membership iff" the Phi Beta Kappa honorary arts scholastic fraternity last week. Only persons who are far above the average in scholastic standing are elected 1o membership. Mr? Smith received an A. B. degree from Ohio State last August, at the age of 20 years, having taken the four-year course in three years. During the three years, he was on the honor list the entire time. To be placed on the honor list, the student must make a grade ot “A" in at least half of his work and have an average of not less than ”B’’ in the remainder of His work. Out of approximately 3.00 Q stimlents enrolled in th’e liberal arts course during the last, semester of the 1925-26 school year, only 91 were placed on the honor list. s Mr. Smith is married and he and his wife reside in Columbus white he is taking his course in medicine. He Is a sophomore in the school of medicine this year. . O """• 1 Masons To Confer Third Degree Tuesday Evening The Masonic lodge will confer the third degree upon a class of candidates Tuesday evening. A business meeting will be held by the lodge at 7 o'clock, an-1 the initiation will Willow. Refreshments will be served followng (he initiation. All Masons are urged to attend the meeting.

The Daily Democrat Receives News of the World by the United Press Service