Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1895 — IN SCANT ATTIRE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IN SCANT ATTIRE.

Believes Clothing Detrimental to His( Physical Well Being. A tawny giant, who has been naked; for twenty years, is lord of the Oak-! land estuary, California. His ward-! robe is a belt and A pair of cotton! trunks. In his belt Ve wears a long dagger, and he carrieJin, Winchester inj his brawny arms. Ae dictates the movements of all tl» ferry boats,yachts, tugs, schooners and crafts of! every sort that pass Ms way. This naked colossus is backtlby the War; Department of the Unital States. On! the prow of his huge contrivance an-' chored in the channel he,stands erect; like a beonze status of Ajlx. He is tall and superbly BroportionedJ measuring six feet threw Inches and! weighing 200 pounds. Y-’or twenty years he has braved the cliViates of the world without a shirt or a boat to pro-j tect him. During the strike of the! American Railway Union this man, bade defiance to the Southern Pacific and compelled big boats like the Ala*

meda and Piedmont to stop, back watefl and take the course he indicated. Face-® tious people said that the Southern Pa-|l cific feared him as if he were the naked 1 truth. Who and what is this phenomenon? tie is Capt. Edward A. Von Schmidt, and except upon passing occasions, when he appeared in the streets of cities, he has gone almost stark naked for twenty years. He is now in charge of the Government dredging of the Oakland ship canal, working under the direction of the Federal War Department.

CAPTAIN VON SCHMIDT.