Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1915 — CHICAGO VERSION OF ROSELAWN AFFAIR [ARTICLE]

CHICAGO VERSION OF ROSELAWN AFFAIR

Tribune Illustrates Story That Was First Published in Republican Last Week. The Roselawn scandal, involving the wife of a railroad man, "Battle Ax” Gibbons, Constable Hatton, Squire Whitten and several others, has received a great amount of prominence. The Lake County Times, the Indianapolis Star and other papers made a great deal out Of it and Monday the Chicago Tribune illustrated it, showing the game of cards in progress and “BattleAx” Gibbons carrying Mrs. Peterson down the ladder as they escaped from the second story of the residence. The article in The Tribune bore a Roselawn date line and read as follows: .Frank Hatton, night director of public safety here, plays the fastest game of casino in town. Seven >up, cribbage, and “500” are other of his specialties, but above all other card contests of skill and endurance he prefers and excels at rhum. Constable Hatton—some call him that, although it is generally known he prefers the other title—was sitting in the parlors in Mrs. Ida Peterson’s home last night when Clyde Gilbobns remarked he was probably the best rhum player in Indiana. “Got a deck of cards?” suggested Constable Hatton quietly. “Let’s see how good you are.” ' While Gibbons was in search of

the cards Hatton called in a couple of neighbors. The neighbors with difficulty controlled their risabilities after a sharp voice from upstairs—Mrs. Peterson’s—had suggested that 9 o’clock .at night was a pretty hour for such cutting up. “If you’re going to catch that milk train you’d better be getting to bed, Frank Hatton,” she’cried. The constable was too busy shuffling to’answer. His mind was far from the milk train as he proceeded to puncture Gibbons’ puny claims to the rhummy championship. When the constable took the fifth game with a hit and a spread, Gibbons threw down his cards and went upstairs. For a few minutes the card players heard him tramping about. “He’s safe as if I had the darbies on him,” said Hatton, when he heard the second shoe drop on. the floor of the bedroom above. But a half hour later when Constable Hatton went up to report fresh victories to his earlier victim, Gibbons’ bedroom was empty. So was Mrs. Peterson’s. A ladder leaning against one of the upper windows gave a hint of the manner of their departure.

Hatton raised a posse and tried to get into the home of Gperge Haskell, an old soldier, who, it was believed, might be harboring the fugitives. Haskell stuck a musket through a front window and invited everylbody in. Then the posse quit work for the night. Gibbons and Mrs. Peterson, the wife of a railroad man who is home seldom, had been arrested on complaint of scandalized women neighbors of Mrs; Peterson’s. Lacking bonds they were to have been taken to the county jail on the milk train and Hatton, instead of lodging them in the calaboose, had transferred himself to‘ the more comfortable quarters which they had been jointly occupying when arrested.