Indianapolis Times, Volume 38, Number 325, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 April 1927 — Page 1

Home Edition "Watch for Dr. Will Durant’s articles on the Snyder murder trial in The Times.

VOLUME 37—NUMBER 325

MOTHER 10 KILLED GIRL HELD GUILTY Mrs. Christina Stoble, Slayer of Daughter, Gets 10Year Term. *\ CANNOT UNDERSTAND’ Only Comment as Sentence Is Passed. Bit United Press FREEHOLD, N. J., April 22. Ten years in prison is the punishment of Mrs. Christina Stoble for shooting to death her 16-year-old daughter Rosa, when she found rosa, unwed, had borne a child. A jury of eleven men and one

woman, all of them parents of families of their own, debated all night long without rest over the question of Mrs. of Mrs. Stoble’s guilt. Finally the jury ruled that Mrs. Stoble was acting under stress so great that her responsibility was much the same as perliaps the responsibility of an automobile driver when he un-

■J - ■KHk

Mrs. Stoble

avoidably hills a person on the street, and they convicted her of that degree of crime, the crime of manslaughter. Denounced by Court But the court, on the other hand, considered the crime atrocious, denounced the woman, and declared tire jury had been “misled.” “A crime of this kind is committed only by a fiend incarnate,” the court told Mrs. Stoble. “My regret is that the court cannot give you a more severe sentence.” The jury brought in its verdict fifteen minutes after it had asked instructions as to the various phases of the insanity plea, k The court gave the instructions told the Jurors that if no verdict were returned in fifteen minutes Judge Lloyd would leave for Trenton. In fifteen minutes the jury came into the room. Mrs. Stoble was called back from the county jail. Her heavy features were accentuated In their pallor by her garb of black. "The jury finds the defendant guilty of manslaughter,” announced the foreman. Judge Lloyd turned to the prosecutor. "What is the extreme penalty for manslaughter?" he asked. "Ten years,” said the State's attorney. Mrs. Stoble sat unmoved and stolid. “The defendant, Mrs. Christina Stoble. will come forward,” ordered the court. Slowly, without assistance, the woman walked to the bar. “I am about to sentence you, Mrs. Stoble,” said the court. “Have you anything to say?” “I cannot understand; I cannot understand,” she answered in a high pitched voice. J “Well, you have been found guilty of manslaughter and ,” began the court, but Mrs. Stobel interrupted: “I cannot understand, 1 ; she cried. Judge Angered “Yes. you can' understand,” fired hack the court. "You cannot mislead the court, although you have Miucceeded in misleading the Jury to Jbme extent.” “This killing of your child by you was one of the most atrocious things that ever came to my attention," went on Judge Lloyd, evidently much aroused. "In childbirth, a time when under other conditions you should have come to her help, you committed the most cruel crime Imaginable by shooting your own daughter. “Your insanity plea was so fictitious that it nearly fell of Its own weight. A crime of this kind Is committed only by a fiend incarnate. My regret is that the court cannot give you a more severe sentence.” But Mrs. Stoble did not change expression as the judge entered the formal order that she be confined to the New Jersey State Prison for ten years, the limit under the law. DRIVERS EXONERATED Two Whose Cars Killed School Children Are Held Blameless. Two auto drivers in fatal accidents to two school children were exonerated of involuntary manslaughter charges at the direction of Coroner Paul F. Robinson today. They had been at liberty on their own recognizance since the accidents two weeks ago. The drivers were Wallace Wood, 23, of R. R. 6, Box 214, whose auto struck and killled Mary Alee Ruarlf. J 4, of 2226 S. Delaware St., at 2173 Htadison Ave., and Phillip Bloom. 42, 1315 Union St., whose truck struck and fatally injured Robert Sellers. 14, of 2043 E. Washington St., at 1632 Washington St. You Will Have to Hurry to Have Your Ad included In the new directory. There is still time but don't delay. Forms close May 10. Call Main 9860. Indiana Bell Telephone Co.—Adv,

The Indianapolis Times COMPLETE REPORT OF WORLD-WIDE NEWSj| SERV ICE OF THE UNITED PRESS

Entered as Second-Class Matter at I’ostoffice, ludiaaipoiia

DID BECKY SHARP GIVE RUTH HEARTLESS IDEAS?

9 MEN SEATED FOR JURY DUTY IN SNYDER CASE | Rudolph Valentino’s Widow Appears in Court as Reporter. i By Paul YV. White United Press Staff Correspondent By Lnited Press LONG ISLAND CITY, N. Y.. April 22. —Spurred by a threat of being kept in continuous session until a Jury for the Snyder-Gray murder trial Is completed, attorneys took a spurt just before the noon recess today and two more jurors were selected in quick succession, making a total of nine. Previously, the morning had dragged interminably, forty-six talesmen having been examined before the eighth juror, Louis Ruchdaschal, was chosen. Then the next, Everett J. Vrankenwn was accepted and the box was three-fourths full. Mrs. Ruth Snyder, on trial with Henry Judd Gray for the murder of her husband, Albert Snyder, was led from the court at the noon recess without meeting her mother, Mrs. Josephine Brown, who had come to court. So familiar had the proceeding become to those in the courtroom that the spectators welcomed the diversion supplied by the appearance of Natacha Rambova, widow of Rudolph Valentino, who stared in undisguised curiosity at the blonde defendant, Mrs. Snyder. Miss Rambova, in court to report her impressions of the trial for a newspaper, said she thought Mrs. Snyder “plainer than her pictures.” When the attention of Mrs. Snyder was directed to the actress, she smiled perceptibly and made an inaudible comment to the jail matron beside her.

PHYSICIAN INNOCENT OF CHARGE De Hass Not Guilty of Attack on Roomer in Meridian St. Home. Dr. T. Warren De Hass. 70, of 2162 N. Meridian St., physician with offices in the Hume-Mansur Bldg., was found not guilty of assault and battery on Miss Bula R. Davis, a former roomer in the home, in municipal caurt this morning before Judge Pro Tern. .Earl Cox. The court's ruling was heard by crowd of 150 persons, including, bankers, physicians and dentists. No Testimony Judge Cox held that no testimony had been offered to show that Dr. De Haas had choked Miss Davis; that it was the doctor’s right, if he chose, to order Miss Davis from his home, and that evidence revealed that Dr. De Hass had been the one who was beaten in the fistic entanglement. Dr. De Hass, arrested after the row on March 29, testified that the argument followed his request to his wife, Alice De Hass, 49, to sign a paper that he wished to use in recovering a S4OO mortgage. Bitter words were exchanged at breakfast, with the result, De Hass testified, that Miss Davis picked up a chair and started after him. She discarded the chair, he said, but attacked him with her fists while his wife held him, beating and bruising his face. Bruises Treated The women left the house while Dr. De Haas went to his offices where Dr. Amos L. Wilson treated him, and took up residence at 2152 N. Meridian St. Miss Davis declared Dr. De Hass was the aggressor in the fight, and that he choked her. Mrs. De Hass said that she had pulled her husband away from Miss Davis.

FIRST PUNE TO ARRIVE JOEM Midwest Aircraft Company Plans Passenger Trips. Incorporation papers of the Midwest Aircraft Company have been filed and their first plane, a Stinson Special, will be delivered in Indianapolis Tuesday. Officers are Marmon Motor ear officials. The company will try out the speed possibilities of the planes between Indianapolis. Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. The plane is of super-safety design, built by Eddie Stinson, veteran pilot and president of the Stinson Aircraft Company, Detroit. Speedy passenger and freight service is to be developed by the local company, including a regular Indi-anapolis-Detroit run of two hours and forty minutes. Senator Reed Better Bn United Press DETROIT, April 22. Senator James A. Reed of Missouri passed a comfortable night at the Henry Ford Hospital and probably will leave here for his Kansas City home Sunday or Monday, Judge Richard J. Higgins of Kansas City informed the United Press today.

Murder Defendant Reads •Vanity Fair,’ Says Maurine Watkins. By Maurine Watkins Author of “Chicago” NEW YORK, April 22.—" Vanity Fair” is Ruth Snyder’s favorite novel. The heart skips a beat or two at that: Ruth Snyder, the win-dow-sash-weight murderess, and the gentle Thackeray. Does all reading go by opposites—our Presidents and philosophers find relaxation in detective tales and our slayers revel in the mid-Victorians? Then the mind quickens, for "Vanity Fair” traces the rise and fall of a brilliant and hard little adventuress. "Becky Sharp,” first and most lasting of unlovely heroines. The story, you recall, of a little governess who rises from nothing, by means of nothing—except her own shrewd wit, and not unpleasing body. At first she sets her cap for her employer, then passes him up as too old and marries his young relative. This achievement excited, elated and then bored her, for Becky was keyed to ambition, an appetite that grows with feeding. It is probable that Ruth Snyder was likewise happy for a time after her marriage, because it was decidedly an upward step for the (Turn to Page 4) DODGES RETURN; SMILE Reconciled Couple Lauds at San Francisco After Hawaiian Trip. Bit United Press SAN FRANCISCO, April 22. Smiling as they walked down the gangway of the liner President Madison, Horace Dodge Jr., multimillionaire, and his wife arrived here today from Honolulu. Dodge recently used trains, an airplane and a steamer in a dash for the Hawaiian island, successfully eluding newspaper reporters who sought to question him about a reported rift in his marital relations. The Dodges met in a cottage along Waikaiki beach in Honolulu, according to reports, and effected a reconciliation. PLAN BUTLER STADIUM Gymnasium and Field House Also to Be Erected. Plan, for a stadium and cornlined field house and gymnasium at Fairview Park, new suite of Butler University, were announced today by Arthur V. Brown, chairman of the school's athletic committee. The Butler school of physical education and athletics, anew corporation, will finance the $750,000 porject. YVork will start in June. The gymnasium and field house, with 15,000 seatss, will be completed in um, later to be increased to 60,000, will be ready for the 1928 football season. The stadium will be of concrete, the gymnasium of steel nd concrere construction. z The new Butler forty-acre athletic field and buildings will be available, for use by Indianapolis high schools and others when not being used by the university.

COLUMBIA CITY TRAIN WRECKER IS SENTENCED Discharged Brakeman Confesses to Derailing Freight, Gets Two to Fourteen-Year Term.

Bii United Press „„ COLUMBIA CITY. Ind.. April 22. —Wilbur Wilson, 39, today was sentenced to two to fourteen years imprisonment In the Indiana State prison for wrecking a freight train on the Pennsylvania railroad here on Feb. 18. Wilson, in a confession, said he caused the wreck by placing a piece of car coupling at a switch. Twenty seven cars of a fast freight train, loaded with perishable goods, were ditched, causing a loss of more than $300,000. For months he had brooded over

WHOLE BOOK MISSPELLED!

Pupils of the city’s grade schools have misspelled the spelling book. That’s the way the Spelling Bee Committee, in charge of the contests in eighty-one grammar schools, conducted under auspices of the Times in Indianapolis, sum up results of the grade spelling competition held this month. And it shows the need for better spelling and more contests in the public schools, teachers will tell you. Checking papers submitted by thousands of the 20,000 pupils of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, in grade contests, has revealed the general lack of ability to spell. While spelling is a di Hi cult thing for most adults as well as children, teachers hold that closer application to the spelling book is necessary to eliminate existing conditions. Study is essential in spelling as well In

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY. APRIL 22, 1927

YEGGS GET SB,OOO AT STATE BANK Robbers Loot Institution at Jolietville, Near Noblesville. BLAST WRECKS SAFE Fails to Awake Sleeping Citizens —One Clew. Bn Times Special NOBLESVILLE, Ind., April 22. — Bank bandits during the night looted the State bank at Jolietville, twfelve miles west of Noblesville. of cash and securities amounting to SB,OOO. The robbery was not discovered until early today when persons passing the bank found the front door open and notified W. F. Thomas, cashier. The explosion that wrecked the hank safe failed to awaken sleeping inhabitants and no one saw the yeggs at work. Telephone wires were cut, delaying the alarm. Thomas said that all the money and securities in the safe were taken, but that safety deposit boxes were not molested. The yeggs entered the bank by breaking the lock on the front door. An acetylene torch left behind furnished the only clew. Hamilton county officials and the protective division of the Indiana Bankers Association were notified. The bank is capitalized at $25,000. A'. W. L. Newcomer, president, said the loss was covered by insurance. MANAGER DATA SHOWS SUCCESS Local Campaign Committee Collects Information. Comparative figures to show how taxes have been reduced in cities with manager form of government are being compiled by the local city manager organization for use in the campaign here before the election. June 21. Officials of the manager form in other cities have provided figures showing remarkable reductions in taxe* and increased improvements. Claude H. Anderson, executive secretary, said. Anderson and Delbert O. Wilmeth, ex-city judge, debated the city manager plan at the Optimists Club luncheon at the Claypool today. “Only three cities have returned to the political form after having adopted the manager form by popular vote," Anderson said.

his discharge from the service of the railroad for drunkenness and finally decided to get revenge, Wilson’s confession said. He told of wedging the heavy piece of car coupling in the switch joint and going to the home of a friend and drinking beer while awaiting word of a wreck. Later he said he called the train dispatcher and was told that twenty-seven cars were in the ditch, the confession declared. The freight train which was wrecked was running nineteen minutes ahead of the Manhattan Flyer.

any other subject, and the Spelling Bees, sponsored in Indiana and Indianapolis by The Times, is revealing to school authorities the necessity for additional attention to It. There are those, and they were in the majority in the grade bees, who found the word “immediately” a stumbling block. This was the word most frequently misspelled, the papers showed. Other words, easy for some, were handicaps to others. And so much did spelling ability vary that practically every word used in the contest was misspelled. It is from this very lengthy list that the Spelling Bee Committee will select the words for the eight Zone Spelling Bees May 5, which follows rather closely the Building Bees next Wednesday morning. But those who enter the Zone Bees will have another opportunity to spell most of these

VAST REGION SUFFERS FROM FLOOD RAVAGES

CITY 1 \ .J-Tu'r- r LOWS OTTAWA J & j MO. UL> } M,' ; | eOSCEOLA < ] I /*, >) *R\Va^|ECOLUMBUS Au .j§[ M A ckman_f •vpv i • r) -jhbblfoot | j f LAKE ••V I ARK * *\ Tl< CM a X V* .FORT SMITH ~ I LITTLE J tOKI ‘ NTH j | ENQ LANILjfcIHKLKN’A jfe JT I gjp I GREENY ILL! ‘ f|j / I /

This map shows the vast area affertod by the Mississippi valley floods, the shaded areas indicate inundated regions.

NEGRO FLOCK GOES TO COURT WITH TROUBLES Ex-Communicated Members Seek Reinstatement Denied Them by Mt. Zion Baptist Church Pastor.

“The lion may lie clown with the lamb, but only one of them will get up.” Such a perverted parable may be apropos for the meeting to be held tonight at Mt. Zion Baptist Church (Negro), Twelfth and Fayette Sts., judging from the temper of the pastor, deacons, deaconesses and others who appeared in Superior Court Five today. Is Peace Move The meeting was brought about by attorneys as a last effort to effect peace in the congregation. It met with the approval of Judge Joseph M. Milner, who has been called upon by Robert A. Harris and thirteen excommunicated church members to reinstate them in the fold and restrain their pastor from ousting them again. The Rev. Sandy B. Buter, 515 W. Twenty-Eighth St., pastor, Is charged in the complaint with acting in “an unchristian and unmlnisterial manner.” It alleges that he refused to resign when requested and used church money to buy himself a “Studebaker Special Sedan.” A meeting of the congregation was called by Harris and others for the Asks Prosecution of Mellon’s Company Bu United Press WASHINGTON, April 22.—Senator Thomas J. Walsh (Dem.), Montana. has called on Attorney General Sargent to prosecute the Aluminum Company of America, controlled by Secretary of th© Treasury Mellon and his family, for alleged violation of the anti trust laws and the 1912 consent decree against the company. The Senator made public a letter stating his belief that the company had entered into contracts with makers of automobile bodies, giving It all scrap aluminum. Asa result, producers of “sand castings” were unable to get raw materials from usual sources and had to buy new aluminum, of which the Mellon company has a virtual monopoly In this country, according to Walsh.

words before the May 5 competition. For it Is quite likely that many of them will be used in the building contests next Wednesday. Words for future contests will be chosen from the pages devoted to fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The word list for building matches, however, will not be selected by the Spelling Bee Committee. Principals of each building will choose the words to be used in that building and will pronounce them to the grade champions in a written contest. Papers will be graded by a committee of teachers appointed by the principal. Ties will be spelled off orally, under direction es the principal. One winner from each building will enter the Zone Bees. Words selected by the Spelling Bee Committee for the Zone contests will be sealed and locked in vaults until distribution on May 5. Then they will be

Outside of Marlon County 12 Cent* Per Week. Single Copies

purpose of asking the pastor's resignation. “No New Members” Then what happened? VY'elll, when the folks got to the church, the reverend was in the chair and refused to budge. Wielding the powers of his chairmanship, he turned his opponents out of the church, the complaint continues. They asked to he reinstated and he pastor said. “We are not taking in any new members.” So the case was brought to court and unless it can be settled tonight it will be back in court again. Fortyfive witnesses were subpoenaed by the plaintiff. Seventy-five members of the congregation were on hand this morning.

AIR MAILMAN KILLED BY CRASH IN INDIANA Hoosier Woman Risks Life to Pull Dead Body From Burning Plane Wrecked Near Kendallville.

Itn United Press KENDALLVILLE. Ind.. April 22. —Postal officials today lauded the heroism of Mrs. Eletus Hooley, e farm woman, who risked death to rescue from a flaming plane the body of John Milatzo, 27r United States air mail pilot, killed near Topeka, Ind., near here, Thursday night when his ship crashed. Mrs. Hooley heard the plane fall, saw it burst into flames and ran to the scene, puling the lifeless body of the pilot from under the wreckage. Miltatzo met instant death, it is believed when the plane hit the ground. Milatzo, flying low in a severe sleet storm, was apparently banking his plane to make a turn and land when it crashed. The plane and eight sacks of mall were consumed by the fire, fanned by a high wind. Milatzo who had been in the Government air mail service for two years, had stopped at Goshen during the storm and resumed his flight

handed to the "visiting principal,” who will pronounce them to the building champions Pronouncers will represent another district, that there may be no cry of partiality. Assignment of pronouncers was made at a meeting of principals Thursday evening. They will not be announced, however, until just before the day of the zone matches. Judges to serve in each zone oral bee will be chosen from among the teachers of that particular zone. Miss Flora E. Drake, assistant superintendent of city schools, supervising the contest n Indianapolis for The Times, declares that plans for the building and zone bees have practically been completed and that Indianapolis is determined to win the State title and the trip to the National Spelling Bee ’at Washington, in June, at the expense of The Times. The National prize is SI,OOO cash.

THREE CENTS

ITER AND WIND DEATHS NEARING 200; HOMELESS MAY MOUNT T 0 100,000 Eight Thousand Square Miles Inundated as Swollen Mississippi Continues to Rise THIRTY FATALITIES IN 24 HOURS Many Missing—Cold Weather Adds to Distress of Refugees BULLETIN By United Press MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 22—Thc delta country of Mississippi is flooded today. Residents are fleeing in panic. Two breaks in the levee yesterday unleashed waters in the vicinity of Greenville, Miss.. Today large sections of Mississippi are inundated and the water is creeping steadily inland. Two train loads of flood refugees were reported lost today somewhere in eastern Arkansas. Officials of the Missouri Pacific railroad have had no word from the trains since they left Hughes, Ark., late Thursday. The trains were believed marooned by high water. An airplane has been sent to locate them. By Lnited Press I iie 1 aging torrent of (he Mississippi and its tributaries swept on today, driving other thousands from their homes iu territories which had escaped the floods.

Indianapolis Cash Needed for Relief Appeal for Indianapolis so open its purses so aid the Mississippi River flood sufferers was made today by the Indianapolis chapter, American Red Cross, “With President C'oolidgo appealing for aid in behalf of the flood sufferers, it is time for Indianapolis to do its share,” YYilliam Fortune, chapter chairman, said. Edmond K. McComb, son of E. H. Kemper McCoinb, Manual Training High School principal, left today for Y'ieksburg, Miss., to join Red Cross relief workers. In Florida at the time of the hurri cane, McComb was engaged in Bed Cross relief work there until a few weeks ago. Contributions for the relief fun should be sent to 777 N. Meridian St., payable to Frank D. Stalnaker, treasurer.

when it abated somewhat only to meet death a short time later. His body was sent to his home in Maywood, 111., today for burial. ARTILLERY HUS IN CHINESE WAR Northerners Shell Forces of Moderates. Bu United Press LONDON, April 22.—Artillery bombardment of moderate nationalists in the vicinity of Nanking by northern Chinese troops across the rive - at Pukow continued today, a communique issued by the admiralty said. Premises of the various consulates at Hankow, the communique said, had been vacated after Eugene Chen, foreign minister of the Hankow nationalist government, informed* the consuls' that his government could not guarantee their safety. The # 1,500 United States Marines now en route from San Diego, Cal., to China, on the S. S. Henderson probably will be sent directly to Hankow, a Shanghai dispatch to the Morning Post said today. The situation continued to grow more serious at the capital of the radical wing of the Nationalists, the dispatch said. Six American warships and thirty-three of -other powers now are stationed at Hankow. COMBATS MONEY CRISIS f&panese Government Establishes Twenty-One-Day Moratorium. Bu United Press TOKIO, April 22.—The Japanese fovernment today acted to meet the financial crisis which has forced some of the largest banks in the country to suspend. A twenty-one-day moratorium, effective today, was declared to give banks an opportunity to recover from heavy runs of the last few lays. The rice exchange was closed for three weeks. A special session of the Diet was Bailed ter U*r 4

Forecast Fair and colder tonight with heavy to killing frost; Saturday fair with rising temperature.

MARION COUNTY

TWO CENTS

Death stalked in the wake of the mad river. At least thirty drowned in the Mississippi flood area within the last twenty-four hours. Many others are missing. The additional deaths by drowning bring the total who have died from floods and accompanying tornadoes in various parts of the country since March 19 to approximately 200. Suffer From Cold Biting cold added to the tragedy. Thousands are in concentration camps with no shelter but canvas. Rise of the rivers lias affected water Hourly Temperatures ® a - m 32 10 a. m 38 7 a - m 32 11 a. m 39 8 a - m 36 12 (noon) .... 39 9 *• m 37 1 p. rn 41 supplies and sewers have backed up in many instances. Epidemics of typhoid, diphtheria and other diseases threaten. Break of a levee near Greenville, Miss., and drowning of eighteen persons on a launch near Knowlton, Ark., were major development* in the flood situation. More Levees Weaken There probably will be between ■ 5.000 and 100,000 homeless by tonight, and possibly more. Only a miracle can save threatened levees south of Memphis. Property damage cannot be estimated. Inundations exceed S,OOO square miles, relief officials estimated. The figure includes whole towns, valuable city and farm buildings and farm lane}. There Is no hope of Immediate relief, according to weather observers. “FATHER OF WATERS” RAGES Mississippi Four so Six Miles Wide at Some Point?. Bn United Press MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 22.—The majestic Mississippi River has become a death-dealing, property-de-stroying menace—which In places is four to six miles wide—as Hood waters from a number of overflowing streams pour into it. From a point north of St. Louis, Mo., the “father of waters” has left its regular course to sweep over mil(Turn to Page 15) Steal Tools Worth S4O A burglar, forcing entrance to a house at 404 N. West St., stole carpenter tools valued at S4O, owned by H. Grave, contractor, 1102 N. Senate Ave., Grave told police today.

FLAPPER FANNY SAYS:

liiifC ms * an. u. a. ear. orr. OISST SY ns* scnvict, INC

Husbands are men of few wordfc