Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1920 — INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES

Gossip Drives Family Away From a Missouri City ST. JOSEPH, MO.—From gossip, which for nearly four has hounded him, Oscar D. McDaniel has fled. With his wife and two children this man, the most talked-of in the city, has vanished utterly. Detectives now

report that he has been traced to a South American city. The McDaniel family were connected with an appalling series of crimes and catastrophes. McDaniel kept his nerve until he saw his children tortured by the gossip which their playmates freely repeated, but which no adult dared voice in McDaniel’s presence. It was in 1916 that the first Mrs. McDaniel was found murdered in her home. McDaniel, then prosecuting at-

torney for Buchanan county, was pitied by the entire community—until the gossip began. Gossip was ugly, and presently a warrant was Issued for McDaniel, and be was tried on the charge of killing his wife. Not once did he flinch, and his complete composure convinced-his little circle of loyal friends that he was guiltless. He was acquitted. As he was struggling to reinstate himself, gossip was given ammunition for another terrific assault on McDaniel. Gossip had associated his name for some time with that of Mrs. Dagmar Krucker. Her husband killed her, then turned the gun on himself and died. McDaniel withstood that storm of gossip, and started another when he married the daughter of O. A. Cook, who had been one of the principal witnesses for the defense In his trial. The bride and bridegroom, with two children by the former marriage, went to live in the McDaniel home where the first Mrs. McDaniel had been slain. One night the dwelling burned, and McDaniel lowered his wife and children from an upper window, saving their lives by a narrow margin. Gossip again! and superstition added Its whisper to the hissing torrent of bitter words. Then the McDaniel children became old enough to feel the cruelty of the boys and girls who taunted them in the schoolyard and the streets. They came home every day in tears. One day they were absent from school. Other days passed, and they did not appear. Questions were asked. Gossip gasped for breath, and resumed. Darwin Not in It With This Theory of Evolution BIEW YORK. —While a corps of reporters took voluminous notes and a squad Fl of photographers posed their subjects enthusiastically In a hundred assorted and curveful poses seven young women cavorted around the red room

In a big hotel in demonstration of Marlon Morgan’s theory of evolution, made articulate through the medium at Greek dancing. The young women were clad In abbreviated bathing trunks and sleeveless jerseys, and nothing else except occasional strips .of courtplaster applied to protect tender pink toes from bruising contact with a rude and inartistic world. Miss Morgan personally superintended the demonstration.

The occasion served to demonstrate not only Miss Morgan’s theory of evolution, which is superior to Da* win’s because It is more comprehensive (not to say more interesting to study), but also singular devotion to duty by the reporters. * Not a single newshound was late and not a photographer dodged his arduous task. Not a man left the room until he was shooed out by Miss Morgan with a remark that the demonstration had been over for some (ime. The theory, as explained by Miss Morgan, who was kind enough to spell the herd words. Is that since evolved from the cosmic atom, or the one cell omega, through the amphibian age to the simian and thence through the stone age to his present standing In the community, when he walks erect (unless afflicted'by round shoulders), it. is reasonable to suppose that there is further evolution ahead. Other poses were assumed to prove that a young woman can walk on her hands if she is wearing a bathing suit. Wife Gets a Divorce From a Too-Loving Husband SAN FRANCISCO. —Because her husband loved her too much, Mrs. Amy M. Stewart, was granted'divorce from Commander Leigh M. Stewart, U. S. N. “His love was overpowering,”

said Mrs. Stewart “It was all pervading, overwhelming. It suffocated me. From the moment he came into my presence he never took his eye off my face. He must hold my hand all of the time and gaze at me. And he must have a kiss every few minutes, tried to interest him in books and in games. Anything to take his mind off, his love for me, so that he * would give me a moment’s peace. It

was hopeless. “If played cards, every time I put out my hand for a card he would grab It and press jt to his lips. If I tried to read he murmured so much love In my ear that I could not keep track of the nice things the hero was saying to the heroine. “Romance is wonderful in books. Too much of it ha actual life is horrible." * “And if you repulsed him when you became wearied of his love what would he do?” queried the court “He would fly into a rage and insist that I loved someone else and then he would choke me until I permitted him to kiss me some more,” said Mrs. Stewart. Mrs. Stewart was awarded $l5O a month.

Not Ancient Mariner’s Albatross, but Black Cat 1 1..-.4.-. — y-. —■ CHICAGO.— A black cat played; the role of the Ancient Mariner’s Albatross V in the ill fortune of the United States transport Powhatan, members of the crew believe, according to Herbert S. Foreman of this city, who was

■many 271 passengers from off the Powhatan, who were landed at Hoboken the o*her day by the transport Northern Pacific. * Foreman, formerly a lieutenant In Battery C of the 149th Field Artillery, sailed on the Powhatan in charge of 75 men assigned to the work of returnlng American dead to this country. “The cat, with its mate, a large tabby,” he said, "kept everyone awake Friday nbrht with its howling. Sat-

rxJUaj 6 ttxu* v onlay night it was knocked to a watery grave with a belaying pin soon after it started its serenade. Sunday morning the engines stopped and our trouble/began. And the old sailors thought of the black cat’s death and shook their heads. It set a lot of the passengers to thinking, although all treated It as a joke once we were safe aboard the Northern Pacific.” Thursday evening the Northern Pacific lifeboats and three whale boats from the Powhatan succeeded in transferring the passengers lb three hours, while the searchlights of the destroyers lighted up the storm-swept sea. ■ i AH reports indicated the morale of those aboard the Powhatan was ah arfhmt the death of th* Mack cat • ~ '