Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 37, Number 145, 23 April 1912 — Page 1

KICHMONB PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM tvOL. XXXVII. NO. 145, J RICHMOND, IXD., TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 23, 1912. SINGLE COPY 2 CENTS.

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500 DROWNED

BY FLOOD ON Reports Received at Memphis Show that at Least Three Hundred Towns and Hamlets Inundated. bELT COUNTRY IS SCENE OF TRAGEDY Heaviest Loss of Life Occurred in that District Where Hundreds Refused to Leave Residences. (National News Association) MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 23. Five (hundred persons have been drowned land three hundred towns and hamlets 'have been Inundated and partially destroyed by the flood now sweeping the 'Mississippi valley. These are the estimates made today from reports received at the orTice of the United States Army Engineers here, who are jln charge of the levees along the banks of the Mississippi. The heaviest loss of life occurred in rthe Mississippi Delta district. There 'hundreds of people refused to leave their homes when warned of the impending danger of floods. Many of them could not escape when the levees .gave way and the water, 10 to 15 feet 'deep, swept over the delta country. A large per cent of those drowned were negroes, but many whites were among those who perished. According to the government report fully 300 towns in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana have been practically wiped out by the flood. These towns ranged from villages of several hundred inhabitants down to plantation settlements where one or two stores an'd a small colony of the poor whites and negro help were centered for the convenience of the plantation owners. The reports of the loss of life in these towns la substantiated by reports ficm, people thoroughly familfar 'frt the situation. The . flood is still spreading and dan,ger cf more breaks in the levees, pending the water over vast sections tof plantation lands are feared. A force of 1,000 men today battled with the high water near the mouth of the Red river, where breaks in the dykes .are threatened in a dozen places. FAIRBANKS WOULD NOT BE DELEGATE (National Nwa Association) INDIANAPOLIS, April 23. Charles jWarren Fairbanks, former vice president, will not be a delegate-at-large to jthe Chicago Republican convention, although elected by the state convention Ihere. Fairbanks, according to his jfriends, holds that he cannot go as a 'Taft supporter with the other jlfoosjjers and vote against his former running mate, Mr. Roosevelt. He is isaid to have told Taft supporters bejfore the convention that he could not ;eerve if elected. Since then he has stated positively to friends that he jwould not attend the convention as a delegate. News Nuggets (National News Association) BROCTON, Mass., April 23. Rev. Albert Marion Hyde has compiled a series of ten reasons why every person should swear just as often and as hard as he pleases. NEW YORK, April 23. The skin of an egg was used by surgeons of the Babylon, L. I., hospital to fill up the- hole in the broken leg of Patrick Padlan, a patient. ZION CITY, 111., April 25. The appearance of -tobacco smokers among the followers of the late Elijah Dowie has the religious colony on the verge of rioting and deputies have been sworn In to keep order. SAYRESVILLE, N. J. April 23. Because the tailor had not completed his wedding clothes Emil Flagg was an hour late in reaching the German Presbyterian church where the wedding party and hysterical bride were waiting for him. NEW YORK, April 23. After being separated from her brother, William Crooley for 28 years, Mrs. James Gloster of Ireland, recognized him yesterday when he arrived here. ALBANY, N. Y., April 23. Twenty boarding house keepers of New York city have Incorporated for "intellectual improvement." TRENTON. N. J, April 23. Charging that her husband beat her Meyers, wife of a Methodist minisat regular lntervals,Mrs. George W. Meyers, -wife of a Methodist minister at Kearney, has sued for divorce.

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Boat deck of the sunken Titanic. This photograph was taken before the great vessel sailed from England on her journey of death, and illustrates the comparatively small space on the spacious deck that was utilized for the storage of life-boats. .

TENTS BEING SENT FOR THE HOMELESS Gov. Deneen Ready to Give Illinois Victims of Storm State Help. (National News Association) CHICAGO, April 23. Hundreds of tents ' were today sent to the storm swept portion of Illinois, while special reports on conditions were made to Gov. Deneen to aid the state in handling relief - measures. Rescue parties have been sent out throughout the entire storm-swept section seeking those who have been injured and caring for the hundreds made homeless with the virtual destruction of ten towns and villages and the demolition of hundreds of farm houses. W. E. Merrifield, division Supt. of the Sk Louis,, Iron Mountain, and Southern R. R., along whose line much of the damage was done, was one of the leaders in the rescue work. A party of railroad men at his orders searched wreckage towns along his line looking for injured and he offered assistaance to those sending supplies to the homeless. Seventy-five families are homeless near Bush, 111., through which the Iron Mountain runs. Although 'the reports from all sections of the zone are not complete, reports from twelve towns today show a total death list of seventy-seven while the property loss is estimated at more than $1,000,000. MILL OPERATIVES OUT ON A STRIKE (National News Association) WEBSTER, Mass., April 23. Eight hundred operatives of the Northvillage cotton mill of S. Slater & Sons, Inc., went on strike today, following a refusal of the trustees to grant a further increase In wages of five per cent. A month ago the operatives demanded a 10 per cent wage increase. They were granted five per cent. They now demand 5 per cent more. PARENTS FIND TWO OF CHILDREN DEAD (National News Association) OGDEXSBURGH, N. Y.. April 23. Returning home early today, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rivard of Sellwood, found two of their 6ix children burned to death from a lamp explosion. The oth ers had 'escaped. The victims were girls, aged 2 and4 years respectively. TO FIGHT THE CASE The trial of Louis May, charged with ignoring the quarantine law by not keeping his dog muzzled, will be heard Saturday, being continued from court this morning. May has secured an attorney and will fight the case. May lives on Southwest Second street

Once was Queen of the Seas

ALLEN GANG TODAY PLACED ON TRIAL Court House at Hillsville, Va. -Under Guard of Armed Officers. (National flews Association) HILLSVILLE, Va., April 23. With the court house under heavy guard, six members of the Allen outlaw gang were arraigned today, the prisoners ! being Floyd Allen, Friel Allen, Claude Allen, Victor Allen, Byrd, Marion and Sidna Edwards.

The opening tactics of the attorneys ! blieves she is the mother of the two for the defense indicated that the en- .... . . it . chirlren. The picture of the two little tire .responsibility .for the shooting up . a v of the court house would be placed on boy8 who are temPraril- 5 tody Wesley Edwards and Sidna Allen, theif MlS8 Margaret Hayes of west 48th two members of the cane who are still ! street, another Titanic survivor, was

at large. It will be ', claimed that Floyd Allen shot in self defense, and that the others fired to save themselves. A venire of twenty-four men, all friends and neighbors of the members of the gang, was ready for the work of selecting a jury. ALLIED RAILROAD MEN MADE DEMAND Threaten General Strike if Shopmen's Strike Is A Not Mediated (National News Association) KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 23. Threatening to call a general strike of 300,000 shopmen and car repairers on western lines, unless the strike on the Illinois Central and the Harriman lines, which has been going on for nearly six months is mediated, officers of the newly formed Federation of Railway Men's Unions have sent a telegram to President Taft advising him of their intention. Presidents of twelve unions signed the message. The new Federation has just been formed here and is an extension of the plan of system federation adopted on the Illinois Central and Harriman lines. Officers of the new federation point out that a general shopmena strike would mean eventually a tie-up of western lines and would result In great delay in handling freight, express, passenger traffic and the mails. Forty-seven railroads west of Chicago are involved. Unless a reply is received from the president Indicating a desire on the part of the government for mediation in the present strike plans for a general strike will be found at once, it was said here today.

TO SOLVE MYSTERY OF TITANIC WAIFS Two Unknown Baby Survivors of Tragedy May Be Restored to Family. (National News Association) NEW YORK, April 23 The mystery of the identity of two pretty little waifs of the sea, who were saved from

the Titanic when the liner plunged to the bottom of the ocean, may be solved by a photograph sent today to Mme. Nevratil, of Nice, France, who sent in answer to a cablegram from Nice. - According to cable advices received here, the correspondent of the Paris Journal at Nice unraveled that end of the mystery. He learned that Mme Ne vratil who is separated from her husband, has two children who disappeared with her husband a month . ago. From a description the woman identified the two little Titanic Waifs as her own children, Louis and Lola. She said the Hoffman with whom the children were sailing on the Titanic, was a friend of her husband. M. Nevratil who Is a tailor, left a month ago telling his friends he was going to America. Since the children have been in the Hayes household many persons, attracted by their childish beauty as revealed in newspaper pictures, have offered to adopt them. The children are so young that they cannot give an account of- themselves. That they are French is evident from their childish prattle. ITALIANS CAPTURE A TURKISH ISLAND (National News Association) ROME, April 23. A force of Italian troops has been landed on the Island of Stampalia, a Turkish possession in the Grecian Archipelago, it was announced by the war department today. Stampalia is a small island containing 50 square miles and has a population of 1.500. E. CAMPFIELD GETS WATER WORKS BOND E. M. Campfieia yesterday secured the bond which he filed with his original bid for a contract . and franchise for a water works plant and system in this city. The bond was signed by Lucien Tyng and company of New York. Campfield will not state whether his new bid will he bonded by the same company or whether another security company will go his bond.

MRS

BODKINS

TO CIRCUIT COURT Woman Is Charged with Hav ing Been a "Fence" for Local Robber. Basing his decision on the fact that Mrs. Reba Bodkins received and burn ed coal which she knew Herbert Eschenfelder had picked up in the P. C. C. & L. R. R. yards, as proving she had received stolen property, the mayor, after a long session of court this morning, bound Mrs. Bodkins over to the Wayne county circuit court in the sum of $300 to answer the charge of receiving stolen property. She was charged with receiving three brooms and a carpet sweeper, stolen by Eschenfelder from a Pennsylvania box car. The goods were found at her home, 445 North Twenty-first street, where they were stored away. Mrs. Bodkins, with her thirteen year old daughter, Ellen Davis, strenuously denied having Been or having knowl edge of any stolen property taken to her home by Eschenfelder. She said one broom, which had been used Esch- j enfelder told her he had found. She said she knew nothing also of a gallon bucket full of soap which was found sunk in the well at one side of the Bodkins home. Was Hotly Contested. The case was hotly contested by Attorney Henry U. Johnson, who represented Mrs. Bodkins. He dwelt at great length on the moral injustice which would be done in sending the woman to jail to await a hearing, when by her own statements, and the statements of her daughter she was innocent. The state showed the goods had been taken from a car by Eschenfelder, two boys being with him at the time. The boys were Russell Hawekotte and Robert Kirk. The goods were taken ot the Bodkin home and left there in plain view. The woman was not home at the time. The goods were found in the attic and behind a cupboard by Detective I. Burns. The woman at the time disclaimed all knowledge of the goods. Her daughter when placed on the witness stand also disclaimed all knowledge of the brooms and carpet sweeper. The Bodkins woman stated she was married but had been separated from her husband for some time. She said Eschenfelder was married but that he did not know where his wife was; that he boarded with her and paid her f 5 a week board, which with alimony she received from her first divorced husband, and money she made from washing, supported herself and daughter, A hatchet, stolen from A. Scott, was found In the woodshed and a pair of knucks, said to have been stolen from Scott, were also found in the drawer of a dresser. The woman disclaimed all knowledge of these articles. Young Boy Witness. Robert Kirk, one of the small boys who was almost constantly with Eschenfelder and who is implicated in Eschenfelder's confession, stated he saw his tutor In crime carry knacks when robbing cars and that he also carried a long hickory club. Throughout the entire case, when the testimony was being introduced, the two women, Mrs. Bodkins and her daughter, steadfastly and constantly denied every allegation made by the state's witnesses. The woman, however, admitted that Eschenfelder brought home coal which he said he had picked up along the railroad track," and that she had burned the coal. This statement, admitting she had received and used stolen property, judging the coal to be such, the mayor gave as his reason for binding the woman over to the circuit court for trial. He first fixed the bond at $500 but lowered it to $300. CHINESE TONG WAR STARTS IN GOTHAM (National News Association) NEW YORK, April 23. Louis Chow, 30 years old, of 13 Pall street, was shot by a rival Tong member, while he was working in bis laundry at 13 West 133rd street, early today, and is in a dying condition at Harlem hospital, ow Lee Sing, 21 years old, a ped dler, is under arrest charged with the shooting. Before Chow was taken to the hospi tal he made a statement to the police in which he accused Sing of the shoot ing. Sing, who the police say is a notorious Tong gunman, is alleged to have entered Chow's store in the guise of a peddler, with a revolver concealed in a basket of lettuce. It is charged that he fired five shots at Chow, only one of which missed. WIIJJAM DORR MAY MAKE ODD DEFENSE (National News Association) STOCKTON, CaL, April 23. Unless William Dorr, charged with the murder of George Marsh, the Lynn, Mass.. soap manufacturer, breaks down and makes a full confession, he probably will plead total lapse of memory from the time he left California for the east, until after his incarceration in a cell of the Stockton jail. fc Last night Dorr while being questioned threw himself to the floor of his cell, striking his head on the cement covering. When officers lifted him up he surveyed his surroundings with evident surprise. He asked why he had been arrested. Asked if he did not know that he had sold his business six weeks ago and just returned from Massachusetts where he is accused of committing a murder. Dorr declared the officer was trying to play a joke on him.

OFFICER PITTMAN ADMITTED HIS LIFEBOAT NOT FILLED

YINGLING'S ENEMY NOT ESCHENFELDER Young Robber Practically Proves He Did Not Attack the Officer. Herbert Eschenfelder. forger, thief and car robber, by his own confession, and who was suspected by the police of being implicated in the assault and battery on Officer Yingling which nearly coat that officer his life, seems to have proven a good alibi for himself in that case. The two boys. Ruseel Hawekotte and Robert Kirk, who he alleges wre his pupils in the school of crime he conducted, this morning were unable to identify the black felt hat, found at the scene of the assault made on Yingling, as be ing Eschenfelder's. They state they had never seen the hat or the burglar Implements also found. Eschenfelder when questioned as to his whereabouts on the night of the assault, stated he was at his home, 445 North Twenty-first street, where he boarded with the Bodkins woman. She testified also that he was home on this night. He admitted stealing I a pair of knucks and a blackjack from the smoke house of A. Scott, east of the city, and the knucks have been found. The blackjack was not found. This might have been the article with which Yingling was hit over the head, but Eschenfelder refuses to admit this. Yingling is positive Eschenfelder is not the man with whim he grappled when the fight took place back of the Hartzler grocery on North Twentyfirst. The man with whom he had the fight and who shot him through the hand, Yingling states, is a large man, about six feet two inches high and weighing about 220 pounds. Eschenfelder is small, being about 5 feet 7 inches tall and not weighing over 140 pounds. The man who slipped around the window and struck the officer over the head while the officer and his first assailant were on the ground, was a small man the officer states. Yingling did not get -a good look at his second assailant, only a glimpse as be saw the man come around the corner of the house In answer to his first foe's call for help, and this man might have been Eschenfelder, Yingling states. TAFT WILL ATTACK HIS FORMER CHIEF Massachusetts Speeches to Be Personal Assaults on Roosevelt. (National News Aaaoclatloe) WASHINGTON, April 23. President Taft today abandoned the cabinet meeting and denied himself to visitors while he worked on his Massachusetts speeches. It was reiterated today that these speeches, especially the one in Boston, will be a bitter personal attack on Colonel Roosevelt, and will remove the veil of secrecy from the disagreement which converted the former friendship of the two into bitter political enmity. It was stated at the White house today that the president will probably call a special meeting of the cabinet tomorrow to consider the charges to be made against Roosevelt. It was also said that Mr. Taft will make some charges against the former president regarding the latter's campaign funds, especially the alleged contributions of the harvester trust and George W. Perkins. A BOOM FOR BRYAN. CHICAGO, April 23. What is believed in local Democratic circles as the beginning of a possible presidential boom for William Jennings Bryan will come with the publication tomorrow of a letter headed. "If Roosevelt Why Not Bryan?" the letter written by Attorney Lee Masters, to be printed in the Democratic Bulletin. Masters is one of the closest personal friends Mr. Bryan has in Chicago. The most significant paragraph in the letter says there is no doubt Mr. Bryan will accept the nomination if the Democrats of the country want him to T. R. SEES VICTORY. NEW YORK. April 23. "We've got them lashed to the mast," declared CoL Roosevelt today upon his arrival from his southern and western trip. The Colonel came direct from Asbeville, N. C- "It was a fine trip. We have got them licked, said the former president as he swung off the train at the station. TO QUIET TITLE Suit to quiet title has been filed In the Wayne circuit court by Martha A. Robbins versus Olive Boyd, et al. Inventory of the estate of the late George W. Hoover has been filed and approved. The inventory shows the estate to be valued at $3,230.60.

ROOM FOR 40 MORE ABOARD HIS CRAFT HE TELLSPROBERSi Rescued Titanic Mate Says' Passengers Aboard Boatj Dissuaded Him From the' Work of Rescue.

SPECTATORS TODAY BARRED FROM ROOMi Disturbance They Created' Yesterday Caused the Order. More Bodies of Victims Identified. (National Nws Association) NEW YORK, April 23. Fifteen! more bodies of Titanic victims have been recovered by the cableahlp Mackay-Bennett, searching near the scene of the disaster, according to a wireless message received by the White Star line today. Among the identifications is that of William D. Douglas, Minneapolis, who saved his wife and then perished. Today's latest dispatch states that the total number of bodies recovered is seventy-seven. Of this number forty-one have been identified. The dispatch received today was addressed to Mr. Ismay, care of the White Star line, and contains information of the following Identifications: Mrs. McNamee, C. Vassllcos. W. Year, Mary Managan, William Fage. James Farrell, Henry Hansen, Jamea Kelly, Maureti, Reginald Hale, William B. Douglas. - The message states that the body of Mr. Douglas has been embalmed.Others reported Identified are J. R. Rice, assistant purser; George Hinckley; hospital attendant; William Budd. a member of the crew. Reginald Hale was booked as a second cabin passenger. A HALF-FILLED BOAT. WASHINGTON, April 23. Admitting that the life boat which be commanded could have accommodated twenty-five or thirty more persons than the forty-five who had been ordered into it from the doomed Titanic, Third Officer Herbert Pittman today told the senate investigating committee that he had held the boat off while the shrieks of struggling victims rang in his ears and was dissuaded by his passengers from going to their aid for fear they would swamp the boat. Even after the Titanic had gone to the bottom Pittman declared he wanted to return and try to pick op some of the struggling victims whose shrieks and moans were heart-rending, but his passengers, especially the male ones, dissuaded him from doing so, telling him that it would only mean that forty more persons would be drowned. Pittman declared that he ordered his men to pull towards the Titanic's position and they obeyed, but the passengers finally forced him to stop, declaring such action was madness. Pittman could not give the names of the passengers who urged him not to attempt to pick up people in the sea. Ordered Into Boat. Pittman was ordered to command the lifeboat by a superior officer and bis crew consisted of six sailors. There were six male passengers in the boat. Following the sensational story told by Fourth Officer Boxhall before the senate investigating committee yesterday afternoon, the Titanic's mate was so unnerved that he could not resume his narrative of the rescue of the survivors this morning. He had related in graphic terms how, just after the crash, both be and Captain Smith had sighted from the bridge of the Titanic the lights of some strange ship in the distance and that this ship, despite the rockets and other, signals of distress sent up from the .Titanic, had steamed away on her course, paying no heed to the disaster so near her. What this ship was has not bees) learned, though rescued passengers have told thrilling stories about rowing in the lifeboats towards lights of a ship that never came nearer. The great crush of spectators who thronged the great caucus room yesterday were so noisy that it was determined to remove the session today to the room of the committee on territories on the fourth floor of the senate office building. ATI spectators were excluded and only newspaper men, witnesses and persons especially interested were present. The change caused great disappointment (Continued on Page Ten.) THE WEATHER. STATE AND LOCAL Fair toolght and Wednesday; rising temperature. '

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