Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 36, Number 362, 5 November 1911 — Page 1

"hi

dp ft THE RICHMOKB FAIXAJDIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. VOL. XXXVI. NO. 303. RICH3IOXD, IXD., SUNDAY 3IORNING. NOVEMBERS, 1911. SINGLE COPY 3 CENTS.

Organizes Housewives League CITY'S TREES ARE SORELY NEGLECTED THOMPSON SAYS Principals in the Chinese Revolt FANATICS STARVED AND TOOK POISON TO FULFILL PACT Y

ALLEGED POISONER ATTEMPTS SUICIDE BY EATING POISON IMrs. Vermilya, Suspected of Killing Nine People, Tries to Kill Herself in a Chicago Hospital.

I

POISON WAS HIDDEN IN A SALT CELLAR

She Sprinkled It Freely on Hard Boiled Eggs Which She Ordered for Her Supper Last Evening. (National Nws Axnoclatioti) CHICAGO, Nov. 4. Suicide and by the same poison with which the police suspect she has made away with half a score of relatives aad friends nearly closed the case of the state of Illinois against .Mrs. Louise .Vermilya tonight. The woman, watched day and night hy two detectives and a nurse, very nearly succeeded, despite their surveillance, in closing what the authorities now believe is the most remarkable series of poisonings since the days of John Hock, by accuinilativc doses of arsenic. Nearly a week ago when Policetnan Bissonette died at a local hospital after being removed from his room in Mrs. Vermilya's home, the woman was taken ill. She took to bed when the physician in attendance at Bissonette's death voiced his opinion that arsenic was the cause. When a chemist certified that Bisonette's viscera had disclosed a large quantity of the drug the woman was said to be alarmingly ill. Where She Kept Poison. This evening when Mrs. Vermilya "was asked what she wanted for supper by the hospital attendant, she called for hard boiled eggs. It was noticed that she plentifully sprinkled the eggs with the contents of salt and pepper cellers. ImmediateJy.after eating the eggs, Mrs. Vermilya became quite ill and a physician was called. Mrs. Vermilya had been treated for pneumonia and the acute stomach trouble could not be accounted for until the nurse suddenly remembered that the woman had been using the salt and pepper cellers very liberally before eating the eggs. The contents of the cellers were then examined and It was discovered they were filled : with rat poison. It is known now that j Mrs. Vermilya has been taking the poison ever since entering the hos-1 pital. She has been reading the news-1 papers and was familiar with all the j details of the case. Although Mrs. J Vermilya is seriously ill it is believed j ber attempt at suicide will not be sue-1 Cessful. j While relatives of her supposed vie-1 tims and the police are weaving about ; her a net of circumstantial evidence which may brand her as the most no- j table woman "bluebeard" of modern ; times, Mrs. Vermilya retains entire j composure. No question that the po-1 lice have put to her has in any man- i ner served to unnerve her. With stolIdness, she listened to the reading of the warrant for her arrest. In an even more cold blooded man- j Jier. she replied: ! "If they found poison in Arthur's body, I can't explain It." Following the report or the toxicologists that a large amount of arsenic had been found in Bissonette's viscera and the placing of a charge of murder against Mrs. Vermilya. developments came rapidly today in what the police believe is one of the greatest poisoning mysteries of the century. Coroner Peter Hoffman .ordered the exhumation of the body of Richard T. Bmith, an Illinois Central R. It. conductor, who lived with Mrs. Vermilya as her husband, and who died under peculiar circumstances a year ago at ber home. Smith's body is buried at North Henderson. 111. Dr. Ralph Vermilya. a veterinary aurgeon of St. Paul, Minnesota, ar- j rived here today and immediately took Steps to have exhumed the bodies of bis father, Charles Vermilya, Mrs. vrmilva's second husband, and his Bister, Lillian Vermilya. both of whom I died under circumstances similar to ! the death of B'.sonette. j Mrs. Hazel West Rehe, who was! believed to be in New York, was found In Chicago and she agreed to tell the police of a promise which she had made to her former husband. Frank Brlnkamp, Mrs. Vermilya's son, that should he die. she would have his death investigated carefully. This investlgation was not made because . when Brlnkamp died the woman had divorced him. Miss Lyda Rivard. daughter of a wealthy Marshall, Minn., farmer, came to Chicago today to aid Bissonette's relatives in prosecuting Mrs. Vermilya. The disappearance of many of the love letters received by Bissonette from Miss Rivard led Peter Bisonette, who swore to the warrant charging Mrs. Vermilya with his brother's murder, to declare that jealousy was the motive for the crime.

Mrs. Julian Heath, of New York City, who is oil- -. j. Housewives League for the protection of" the housewife against unscrupulous and unsanitary i-.torokeepers. Sixty-five thousand women and housewives, members of (ho Now York City Federation of Women's Clubs, are already committed (o the new movement, and one hundred thousand or more other women, not club members, are expected to join the ranks to boycott the unscrupulous grocer, baker and butcher.

LORIMER GAVE TO L BROWIfS DEFENSE Admitted by Minority Leader of 111. Legislature Denies Bribes. (National News Association) CHICAGO, Nov. 4 United States Senator Wm. Lorimer helped defray the legal expenses of Lee O'Neil Browne, former minority leader in the Illinois legislature, when Browne was indicted and tried In Cook county on the charge of sentatlve Chas. bribing former Repre- i A. White, a Democrat, ; to vote for Lorimer. j nrwn t,imoi, ji..j ,V1 j ' Browne himself admitted this today; on the witness chair in the senatorial investigation. - - Pressed by members of the senate committee Browne said: "Yes sir, Lorimer loaned me some money to aid my defense." It was the Erst time such admission had been made. "I told Senator Lorimer at the; time," Brown continued, "that I was ' forced to borrow money some where for my defense, as the expenses would i be monumental. j "After asking me how I was fixed, i he said he would be able and willing to loan me sonic monew i "I took It. I haven't repaid it yet, I but I expect to." I Browne, questioned further, questioned turther, said contributions to his defense fund did not include any liquor interests, personal liberty societies, lumber companies, the beef trust, any one large corporation or any stockholder of such corporation. The witness admitted that he knew Edward Hines. Aked by Chairman Dillingham whether he had ever known, in any way, of any money being paid for votes for Lorimer. Browne replied: "So help me God. I don't know of a dollar spent in that way." ACCEPT EX-CONVICT AS DRJYDE JOROR Asking Private Conference with Judge and Asks to Be Excused. (National News Association) KANSAS CITY, Nov. 4. Three days after he had been accepted as a juror in the trial of Dr. B. Clarke Hyde f or

the murder of Col. Thomas Swope, a ' to com Dack later. The judge is siti..rnr nn.teci tn ih s,,h that in a final sdjustment of another

was a former convict. He was tused from service. The selection of ! the Hyde jury is going slowly A new venire was in court today. The former convict-juror asked for a private conference with Judge Porterfield. He said: "Judge, there is a great burden on my mind and I fear I have committed perjury. Twenty-two years ago after serving a prison sentence, I was pardoned. When you told me the day I was examined that persons who had been convicted of a felony were exempt from jury sen ice, I did not have the strength to rise and confess my past before the crowded courtroom." j The man was sentenced for assault with intent to kill. He committed the act in an effort to avenge his sister, who had been mistreated. TWW nro ATHPP lrlCi WiliAlrllLK STATE AND LOCA Continued fair ! and not much change in tempera - ture.

TIMES MANAGER IS M'NAMARAJALESMAN Begs to Be Excused Claiming Bias Bordwell Withholds Decision.

(National News Association) LOS ANGELES. Cal.. Nov. 4. Harry Chandler, general manager of the Los Angeles Times, drawn on the fourth panel, of veniremen to serve as jurors in the case of James B. McNamara, charged with dynamiting the Times building appeared before Judge Bordwell today. He asked to be ex-;

cused on the ground that his position say3' no"'ever. that lt cavities in trees x .w . , ! were cleaned, then painted with coal at the Times was such that he was aL . ,,,,, , ' , . , ,

biased juror. Judge Bordwell refused J to keep water out. it would help trees to excuse him for this reaori? '"'fJTgreat "dealt - ' w?rr--

Chandler then pleaded that he had 1 arranged to go to Arizona for a three days trip, leaving this afternoon and ; Bordwell consented to excuse him un- ! til Wednesday morning. "Your honor," said Chandler, "it j won't be possible for me to serve on j the jury." i "That may be and is probably true, but the only reasons I can consider' this morning are business reascv.s and sickness and like reasons which 1 t would excuse a vicf in cra, man from jury ser"Well." said Chandler, "I am a verv busy man. That is about the only ' reason I have to offer. I want to go ' to Arizona this afternoon and be gone for three days." j Judge Bordwell considered for some ! time. Then he agreed to permit the j general manager of the Times to make I the trip. j "If you have any other business! reasons you may present them at that j time and we can consider them then," added the court. Chandler's name, though he is still a member of the venire will not be put in the box with the others until his return. The excuses offered by the other veniremen covered the usual field of business and similar sorts. Twenty men of the panel were finally secured j for service Th; is the highest total j of any drawn except the first, when 125 men were summoned. Chandler informed the judge that j he had been subpoenaed as a witness by the state but Bordwell told him he could not hear excuses bearing directly on the McNamara case. After examination of the veniremen was completed a committee of the talesmen made up of R. F. Bain. Wulter Frampton. Geo. W. McKee and F. D. Green called on Judge Bordwell. The judge was busy and told the men ' ! case. the iudee about the health of another juror. It is believed this man is Seaborn Manning, who has been in bad health since the beginning of the case and who has shown the effects of confinement markedly during the last few days. TEXAS FEVER ALARMS CATTLE RAISERS (National News Association) WASHINGTON. Nov. 4. Fourteen states in the south and southwest today were placed under quarantine by j Secretary Wilson. The prevalence of Texas fever is the cause. The states quarantined are California, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri. Arkansas. Louisiana, Mississippi. Tennessee. Alabama. Yirtgiria, North Carolina. South Carolina. Georgia and Florida. In these states j the removal of cattle is prohibited ex cent for immediate slauchtpr t.h the , only upon a certificate of the govern-j jment officials. i

City Forester Has Planned to Educate the Richmond Public in the Care of Its Shade Trees.

SAYS MAPLE TREES ARE NOT DESIRABLE Cannot Stand the Punishment Inflicted by the Cement Sidewalks Sycamore Trees Preferred. i The trees in this city have been sorely neglected. This was the statement made to President Homer Hammond, of the board of public works by Prof. John F. Thompson, head of the botany department of the local high school, and also city forester. Prof. Thompson, in a conference with Air. Hammond, Saturday afternoon, declared that the trees needed attention and needed it badly. Plans are being laid by the professor to educate the public mind in the proper care of trees. Ot course. Mr. Thompson will devote most of his time to shade trees. He says that most persons believe the maple to be the best shade tree, but he disagrees, saying that the maple cannot stand the punishment which is inflicted on trees by cement sidewalks. He suggests that in planting shade ! trees the sycamore be used and says that the plain sycamore is preferable. He says the tulip tree is also a good shade tree. These latter trees can stand severe punishment, he says. Mr. Hammond, who until recentlyfilled the position of city forester, and j Mr. Thompson concur in the belief that all trees should be on the "inside" of the sidewalk and that the i walk should extend to the curbing. Tree Surjjery Poor. Prof. Thompson says that tree surgery is not the best thing for trees. He Prof. Thompson is doing a great deal to educate school children in the i care of trees, by giving illustrated lactures to classes in forestry. He intends to issue manuscripts on this subject during the coming winter. Very littie will be done in the forester's department during the winter, but in the spring it is predicted there will be a great deal of tree trimming. Permits are issued for this work and ! Mr. Hammond and Mr. Thompson will j divide the work of looking after the trimming of city trees. In case of difficult work. Mr. Thompson will supervise it. Another question which has interested the cit" officials for some time and which was discussed yesterday is the trouble beinS experienced with line men rrom the various wire companies in butchering the entire tops from trees in order to stretch their wires from pole to pole. They have cut trees at will to accomplish their purposes. Prof. Thompson says that wires stretched through trees will not injure them unless the wires are not properly insulated. The butchering of the trees along the north side of the Earlham campus was discussed, but the city has nothing to do with this, due to the fact that the trees are just outside the city limits. The high tension wires of the traction company, it is said. have been ruininS trs along the campus. MASTERY OF MACHINE SAVES RODGERS' LIFE (National News Association) IMPERIAL JUNCT.. Cal., Nov. 4 Undaunted by what was perhaps the most thrilling successful fight for his life a man ever made in an aeroplane, 4.000 feet above the earth. Cal P. Rodgers planned to leave here today for Pasadena. Cal., on the last dash of his coast to coast flight. He expects to end his record breaking trip of more than four thousand miles and the first flight across the North American continent at Pasadena tomorrow afternoon. Mechanicians worked all night repairing the wrecked motor of Rodgers' biplane. They expected to have it ready for the aviator before noon. - When the cylinder head of Rodgers' motor blew out yesterday, metal flew all about him and the explosion almost blinded him Only the perfect mas-1 tery of his machine, which enabled him to volplane four thousand feet to earth, saved him from death. MAJ. BUTT PLAYED GOLF WITH TAFT (National News Association) HOT SPRINGS, Va.. Nov. 4. President Taft played a round of golf with Maj. Butt today. He has changed his plans so that he will leave for Cincin nati tomorrow niaht instead of Monregister in Cincinnati Monday and vote there Tuesday.

Dr. Sun Yat Sen, credited head and General Yuan Shi Kai. the Chi dynasty relies to crush the uprising. GOTSIDE POWERS MAY INTERFERE !n Turco-Italian War Owing to Slaughter of Women and Children. (National News Association) PARIS, Nov. 4 With a protest against the alleged slaughter of helpless women and children captives by the Italian soldiers in Tripoli lodged in the hands of all ttte powers by the Turkish government outside interference in the Turco-Italian war is believed in official circles here today to be more probable than at any other time since the outbreak of hostilities. Following the receipt of this latest appeal from the Otteman government based upon the massacres of noncombatant Arabs by Italians and scenes' of horror depicted iu dispatches and letters from Tripoli, opinion throughout Europe ia believed, to be growing strong as to comntand official noticj wmie no omciai assurances nave ben given by the French, Brit'sh or Ger man governments that intervention w;is even under contemplation by them, nevertheless the press and public generally are arraying themselves on the side of humanity and demanding ofRcial action in the interests of humanity. Official denials by Italian government officials that innocent natives in Tripoli ere being killed has been offset by dispatches and letters from the scene of war. Tales of shocking cruelty and slaughter also are being received daily at Malta from persons who declare they were eye-witnesses of the terrible deeds they depict. While the Italians deny premeditated slaughter in Tripoli, admission waa made in statements emanating today from Italian sources that Arab men and women had been killed. The women, it is said, were found guilty of carrying ammunition secreted in their clothing for the use of the Turkish soldiers, while the Arab men were mistaken for native soldiers in the confusion and shot down by mistake. Italy now claims that the Arabs are inflicting barbarous tortures upon Italian captives. Italian soldiers captured near the eastern oasis outside of Tripoli are reported to have been tortured by having their ears and noses cut off and then hanged and shot to death. The possibility of an uprising of mosleros in Egypt may force the hand of the British government. Reports from Cairo. Alexandria and other Egyptian cities today state that demonstration of the natives over reports of Turkish victories have in some instances exceeded over reports of Turkish victories have in some instances exceeded the control of the authorities and the snirit -f the moslem Donula- ' t r n nf V tr v rt t i c hprAm i n v mm-A threat ening daily. Danger of an outbreak of religious ! fanatics is causing keen anxiety to Lord Kitchener, the new British agent. NICARAGUANS ARE AGAIN IN REVOLT (National News Association) WASHINGTON. Nov. 4. Another revolution in Nicaragua is reported in official dispatches to the state department today. Telegrams from Managua Raid that Gen. Chamorro who fled-from Nicaragua several months ago is now back is the republic at the head of a movement which threatens the present administration. AIRSHIP FELL IN ATLANTIC OCEAN Ofational News Association) ATLANTIC CITY, Not. 4. The Vaniman air ship. Akron, fell into the ocean after a preliminary flight today and was damaged in the fall. Two vessels stood toward the airship where it was floating aimlessly about and made ready to tow it back to shore.

of the revolutionary forces in China. nese demagogue on whom the Manchu

BURNS AND SHOCK RESULTJ DEATH Mrs. Hobart Knight, of Beallview, Died at Hospital Last Evening. Mrs. Hobart Knight, a resident of Beallview died at the Reid Hospital at half past six last evening as a re suit of severe burns received Wednes day when leaning over the cook stove in her home. Mrs. Knight had been in a dangerous condition ever since her removal to the hospital Thursday morning, and gradually became worse until the attending physicians finally gave up hops of saving her, late yes terday afternoon. Mrs. Knight contracted a cold the early part cf this week, and was keep ing her chest and throat wrapped with a cloth saturated in turpentine. On Wednesday evening, she was bending over her stove, when turpentine iRjjjy&suddenly In an instant her clothes were ablaze." She ran to the home of a neighbor and after some difficulty had been encountered the flames were extinguished. As soon as a doctor could be summoned, the coat which had been wrapped around Mrs. Knight when she ran to her neighbor's, was removed, and large pieces of skin came off with it. The physician was worried over her chances for recovery, and Thursday morning advised that she be taken to the hospital for special treatment. Her burns, although not deep, covered her entire chest, right side, and limbs. It is thought that the shock of the accident was as much responsible for her death as were the burns. The funeral arrangements will not be announced until the arrival of relatives from Marion and Wabash some time today. SUBWAY THREATENED BY A BAD CAVE-IN (Xatlonal Npws Association) New York, Nov. 4. Part of the new Fourth Avenue subway structure at Fourth avenue and Thirty-eighth St.. South Brooklyn, was wrecked this morning and several big buildings in ;he neighborhood including a tenement house and a public school are threatened with destruction as the result of a quicksand cave-in in the subway. When the cave-in occurred, water which had seeped through a pocket of quicksand extending from New York bay began pouring into the subway and began an undermining of buildings as well, as threatening the Brooklyn rapid transit elevated structure in Thirty-eighth street. As soon as the trouble occurred the reserves from the Fourth avenue police station under Lieut. Ayes were hurried to the scene and the lieutenant ordered 20 families to vacate a row ot tenement houses extending from 272 to 292 Fourth avenue. They were cared for at the Fourth avenue police station. CHOLERA PREVENTS SAILORS LANDING CXatlonal News Association) WASHINGTON, Nov. 4. A dispatch ; to the navy department from the com- j ! mander of the American cruiser Chester. . at . Malta today said that cholera : Das broken out in that port and that j j the officers and men of the vessel i have been restricted to the ship. The ready occurred. SKULL FRACTURED IN FOOTBALL GAME (National Newa Association) PRINCETON, X. J.. Nov. 4. Huntington Frotbington of the- Harvard freshman football team, was seriously j injured in the game with the Princeton Freshmen which Harvard won by a score of 12 to , today. Frothingham's skull was fractured and his condition is critical. "

Strange Suicide Arrangement Unearthed by Chicago Police Finding the Bodies of Three Germans.

CHOKES AGED WOMAN TO GET HER WEALTH Father Coaxes Two Children from His Divorced Wife's Home and Shoots Both, Then Killing Himself. (National Newa Association) -CHICAGO. Nov. 4 Henry Letsch his wife and 12-year-old son Herman were found dead on th floor of the dining room of their home at 5027 Guneson ave, Jefferson Hark, today, under circumstances which indicated that they had died in the furtlment of a fanatical and strange religious suicide pact. A letter written In German, found in the home, gave the police' the idea that the three persons had died by slow starvation and by poison. Behind the terrible tragedy is said to be a story of a strange and horrible religious belief. REVEALED WEALTH. GRAND RAPIDS. Mich.. Nov. 4. Awakened by a masked man clutching her throat and pointing a revolver at her head, Mrs. Wm. R. Foster 72 years old, was forced to reveal to the robber where she kept $3,000 in Jewelry. She attempted a feeble resistance but was choked into submission. KILLS HIS CHILDREN. BOSTON, Nov. 4.-Ludwig B. Jaeger. 33 years old. shot and killed his two children. Oily, aged 5, and Anita, aged 4, on the beach at Winthrop. He turned the revolver upon himself and sent a bullet through his own brain, falling across the bodies of the two children. When a hospital ambulance arrived, the two girls were dead and Jaeger Is dying. He I the BOB of an nflWil at Uomhitr in.. 'many) ahd'eotnes bf a prominent ati4 wealthy family. Jaeger was divorced two yean ago by his wife who is now Mrs. Struburg and lives in WInthrop. Jaeger called at her house and got the two children without her knowledge. He coaxed them to the beach by giving them candy and then killed them. CAPTURED CONVICT. ATLANTA. Ga.. Nov. 4. Bill Minor, notorious yeggman and train robber, who escaped Georgia state prison several weeks ago, was captured by sheriff's posse in swamps of Burke county this morning and Tom Moore was killed. Moore was his companion in flight from prison. Southern express offered a big reward for Minor, who robbed a Southern train near Gainesville several months ago. HERO DROWNS. UTICA. N. Y.. Nov. 4. William McSweeney, aged 35, lost his life in the Erie canal here today in an effort to save from drowning Miss Lottie Smith, a young woman who accidentally fell into the canal. The woman was rescued by others as McSweeny perished. LUMBERMAN INJURED. SHELBYVILLE. Ind., Nov. 4. John L. Henry, 55, a prominent lumberman here, was probably fatally injured here at noon today when he was run down by a Big Four through freight. His right leg was cut off near the knee, his left leg was broken and his right arm mangled. Physicians called said there was practically no chance of saving his life. He was on bis way to dinner at the time the accident happened. TRUE TO DUTY. OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.. Nov. 4. With the pangs of excruciating grief tearing his heart and his mind still in the tumult of recent calamity, J. R. Reigner, editor of the Antlers NewsRecord la6t night sat down one hour after his wife had burned to death before hfs eyes and wrote this story and put it on the wire: "Under the weight of affliction and disaster that would have paralysed the ordinary mind so as to make it unfit for the banity of routine business life, sense of duty and the training and In stincts of the newspaper man, proved stronger than the apathy of sorrow." This Is the story Reigner wrote a few moments after his wife was dead: "Mrs. J. H. Reigner, wife of the editor of the Antlers News-Record, died tonight at 7:10 o'clock from burns which she received at about , one o'clock this afternoon when her dress caught on Are as she was standing near the open, fireplace. Her clothing was soon aflame and ber body was badly burned. Peter Lemaster heard her screams and ran over and her husband who was on his way home was the second, to arrive. They were both too late to render any assistance, as she had torn her clothing off. Doetors were summoned and gave opiates (Continued on Face Eight)

, 4