Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1919 — STORIES of AMERICAN CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STORIES of AMERICAN CITIES

Colorado’s “Johnny Appleseed” Kin of Oil King CANON CITY, COLO.—Capt. B. F. Rockafellow, “the Johnny Appleseed” of the Arkansas valley, has a splendid cottonwood tree, the largest specimen of Its kind standing in Canon City, which he has seen grow from a tiny sprout

planted in his garden in 1872 to its present proportions of more than 15 feet in circumference. Not long ago government agents took photos and measurements of this tree for the records of the agricultural department, for it is rare that the exact age and conditions of growth of a tree are so accurately known as in this case. Although Captain, Rockafellow has lived to see many shade trees planted by himself grow into mag-

nificent specimens, he is better known as the “futher of the apple industry” In the Canon City district. Since planting the first apple orchard in Canon City in 1870, he hns put out thousands of apple and other fruit" trees in this section, and now, in spite of his four score and four years, he still gives his personal attention to his fiO-acre apple orchard, which bears some 25,000 or 30,000 boxes annually. It Is an Interesting fact that many trees in this orchard, although forty to fifty years old, are still &§"healthy and vigorous as at five years of age, aud are apparently good for another half century. Unlike “Johnny Appleseed,” that famous but eccentric character of the old Western Reserve of Ohio, who scattered promiscuously along the highways and water courses. Captain Rockafellow lias planted scientifically with order and system, selecting and developing those varieties best suited to the Colorado climate, „ . Reared In the beautiful Genesee valley In New York, a region famous for Its fine apples, he acquired a knowledge''**? horticulture that has been most useful to him in later years,. Although spelling his name slightly different from that of the oil king, their relationship is fairly close. A few years ago Captain Kockafellow was elected* president of the Rockefeller association of the United States.

Policeman Is Nursemaid to Mayor’s Pet Spaniel CHICAGO— A member of the fourth estate, trekking northward in the gloaming, encountered at Belmont avenue and Broadway a minion of the city law. arrayed in the customary habiliments of liis calling —blue uniform,.

star, revolver, night stick, etc. Policemen, of course, are not unusual at night, but this one was possessed of an adjunct not generally included l» their equipment. His right handi was attached to a leather leash at the nether end of whidh was a dog. “Ha,” soliloquized the fourth estater, “a mystery. There has been skullduggery afoot up here —maybe a hank robbery, maybe a murder^—and this conscientious copper is earning his pay by using a blOodhound.”

With which he engaged the policeman in conversation and' learned that his name was Jens Hansen of the Tow-n Hall station, He also learned that as a dog expert he was a zero. The canine which was leading Mr. Hansen about was a eockeirspnraeL And while it wag true that Mr. Hansen was on duty he was positively not on the trail of murderer, robber or other evildoer. He.was acting irr the capacity of nursemaid to the dog. Mayor William Hale Thompson is the ow ner of the dog, and' MV: Hansen, detailed" from Tow n Hall to guard the mayor’s home in the Chase apartments,. 3200 Sheridan read, performs as part of his duties those of wet nurse to “Cocker.” “Well,” queried the reporter, “how do you like the job?” “Oh, all right,” said Mr. Hansen. “Cocker’s not a bad 1 sort. A bit temperamental at times, but we get along: I*m taking him out for His nightly constitutional now.” Cocker now manifested a desire to continue his evening stroll and the two departed, tfhe fourth estater resumed his trek, cogitating the happy lot of at least one Chicago dog—a full-grown pfillceman at slls' a for a guardian. ‘ •

The Police Will Not Catch This Murderer Asleep I AKE FOREST, ILL. —About midnight Mrs. Cyrus H. Adams, Jr., fancied Li she heard burglars and called out the department, which responded in the person of Chief of Police James Gordon, ably assisted by Poficeman

William Hensell. Mr. Adams, by tbe way, is a chicken faneier, and on the night in question had 17 Rhode Island Reds o$ aristocratic lineage domiciled in the back-yard chicken coop. They were resting peacefully, so far as known, when suddenly their squawks rang out and completely rent the night air. It was then that Mrs. Adams sounded the alarm. Now when Chief Gordon received the summons be immediately notified

Policeman Hensel for the reason that Mr Hensel is peculiarly embittered -against ail members of the chicken-coop thief fraternity. Mr. Hensel, himself a chicken fancier, was recently guarding the residence and chicken coop of Mrs. Capt. William A. Moffett when some marauder invaded his own coop and cleaned it. Mr. Hensel has vowed venge& Well the two officers sped to Mr. Adams’ home in /an automobile and rushed out to the coop with revolvers drawn and eleetric flashlight gleaming. They entered the coop. The squawks by now had ceased. The reason was apparent. Each of the 17 Rhode Island Reds was dead. They had squawked the surrounding terrain and coop interior for finger prints or footmarks they discovered evidence that the assassin belonged to the ungulata and not the hominidae class of mammal. That Is to say, the murder was committed by a weasel. The police are st arching for him.

One of the Unusual Tragedies of the Great War 1 LTiENTOWN, PA. —When the wife of Private Miles C. Booth of the One A Hundred and Eighth machine gun battalion heard last summer that he had been killed in action during the fighting on the Marne, she mourned for him for a time and then married W li-

lam George Smith. Private Booth has now turned up at his home here alive and almost well., It appears -that the shell which killed four of his comrades on July 22 only wounded him. The situation is complicated by the fact that Smith, the second husband. was also a soldier in France. He entered .the service after his marriage to Mrs. Smith and reached the front shortly before the armistice was

stened. Both Booth and his wife view the mixup with a philosophical air of/ “mistakes will happen.” Booth says he Is going back to the hospital in New York, where arnly surgeons are still treating his wounds. “Why should I make trouble for her?” he says. “/Shg Is a mighty flp« girl. and. with me dead’ as reported, I don’t wonder that some other man was ** * ©cl t h ** 0 .. . ► “5* The wife, who Is now living with Booth’s two children as “Mrs. Smith,” at Fullerton, is just as philosophical. “I heard Miles had been killed and went In mourning for him, she said. “Nobody said anything when I later hegan to keep company with my second husband, who la also a good man.** *, * • i - •> ■ , -r f ....~— * ,■ * .»