Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1911 — A COSTLY EXPERIENCE [ARTICLE]

A COSTLY EXPERIENCE

Will Be Dyer Saloonkeeper’s In Automobile Speculation. John M. Knapp, who really located the big Halladay automobile for Charles Keilman, the Dyer saloon man, who had given Omar Tuttle $475 to purchase the machine, a second-hand one, for him, mention of which was made in Wednesday’s Democrat, went out to young Tuttle’s father’s, Arthur Tuttle’s, two miles north and one mile west of Gifford, Tuesday and towed the machine to his garage and is now fixing it up for Mr. Keilman.

The auto is about the most completely stripped car one ever saw. Young Tuttle, it seems, never turned it over to Keilman at all. but had told the latter that he was running a garage at Chicago Heights and knew where a big second-hand machine could be purchased for $475 that would make them both some money, and Keilman foolishly handed over the cash. Tuttle got hold of this machine some place, where or how is not known, and is said to have been seen driving it through Chicago Heights with several people in it. He also drove it through Dyer about June 24, but did not stop to turn it over to Keilman.

The latter offered $25 reward for Tuttle, and Mr. Knapp finally located him and the machine at his father’s near Gifford. All the tires are completely used up and one has evidently been run flat and at so great a speed it caught fire. All the tools are gone, the top torn off the transmission ruined, the prestolite tank gone, one fender lost, one wheel gone, the glass front broken off and the glass broken, the back of the rear seat burned, one of the tire rims bent and twisted out of all semblance, and the entire car is about the most forlorn looking object imaginable.

It will cost Mr. Keilman from S6OO to SI,OOO to put the car in first-class order again. Young Tuttle is a son of Arthur Tuttle, formerly of Remington, and seems to be about as responsible and creditable a speciman of -humanity as his illustrous sire.