Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 40, Number 322, 24 December 1915 — Page 1

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VOL XL' NO Palladium and 8un-TUcram

RICHMOND, IND' FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 24;19:15.V

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6ITY PROMISED LOWEST FIBE BATES If INDIANA m INSURANCE BUREAU

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Aa aoon as the fixe, department Is motor! Bed under the plan proposed by Alfred Bavis, president of the board of worlU. the Sellers Rating Bureau will reduce the fire insurance rates In Richmond so that the city will be placed in Class 2. This Information waa received in a letter from K. M. Sellers, head of the bureau, by E. M. Haas, secretary of the Commercial club, this morning. A few other minor provisions will be demanded of the city and the Commercial club before the rate is decreased, but these are not significant. Mr. . Sellers believes that the plan of motorization of the fire department is

the logical solution of the fire hazard situation in this city and when the city is re-rated in Class 2, Richmond will have the lowest Insurance rates in the state. The bureau had planned to place Richmond in Class t and intended to survey the city the first ot the year. The letters from Mr. Sellers stated that the survey was to begin Jan. 2, but owing to the arrangement now pending, this survey will be delayed until the city officials take definite action on ' motorizing the fire department. By making these concessions to the (Continued on Page Two.)

GARS WITH EXPLOSIVES If PENNSY SMASH-UP

Dynamite, perhaps war munitions .for the Allies was the major part of . a consignment in box cars of Pennsylvania freight train," No. 70, east bound, from Indianapolis to Columbus, Ohio, which struck the rear end of a station-

.Weather Forecast

United States Report 4now north and enow or rain south portion thli efterneon and. ten I ght. tatu rd ay c lea rIna with colder south portion.

Noon

Temperature

34

43 31

, Yesterday Maximum '.... Minimum

Leoal Fnraaasl. flpow this afternoon turning to 'ram tonight. Saturday una ettlad with snow flurries. Colder SatNar. ' ii..;-' general. Conditions JLaka storm has passed the eastern states and a Rocky mountain storm has developed in size and Is . rapidly traveling eastward. bfttcSfti Show to all the central states. Rain : across the Ohio river. Colder weather will follow, the storm reachIns; here Saturday afternoon or night.

W. H.ioore, w earner rwecaster,

ary work train between the R. I. Tow

er and the Fifth street crossing at

6:05 o'clock Thursday night, result

ing in approximately $3,000 damage to equipment and merchandise and slight Injuries to Fireman C. F. Vermillion of the freight train. Vermillion jumped when be saw the tall lights of the cabin car ahead, hurting the toes of his foot and sus

taining other minor bruises. He walked to the Pennsylviana depot where the company's physician attended him. The engine of the freight train driven at the rate of about twenty-five miles an hour by Engineer R. C. Bawby was derailed with four loaded box cars. Four empty flat cars and the caboose, of the work train were demolished. Two hundred feet of track were torn up. Engineer Bawby, who stayed with his engine, escaping serious Injury only because the locomotive remained up

right, was overheard to tell members of the crew that he saw no warning signal. ,-" , .,; It happened bo quick that we hardly tao-' just how tbe-rcoWston ' did occur." he told a Palladium newspaperman, "the most 1 remember Is the jolt I got. The cause of the thing is a mystery to me." A rumor saying that one box car smashed in the collision contained exContinued on Page Two.

I Christmas Contrasts viinMiS! ? ' : - . o: v ; , ; - ,', ,," , ' V ' - - I

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Christ's nativity has seen greater discord and more bloodshed than the pwisrit prie.' Europe is a peat battlefield and a great hospital. .Thousands have -perished before the Oodf. War; other thousands are grovelling on their beds of pain., The United States has been. spared the horrors of war. Its citizens tomorrow can assemble around the Christmas tree and adore the Christ child without thinking of loved ones fighting in the trenches or buried beneath the blood soaked soil of a foreign country. Peace is with us; its tranquility sheds happiness and joy , .....

ELECTRICITY FOR GOGIM AT CUT-THROAT FIGURES, REPLY TO L.H. & P. PLEA

If the demands of the United Gas

and Electric company, the corporation

which owns the Richmond Light, Heat and Power company, for a 75 per cent Increase In local gas rates are not radically modified the city intends to inaugurate a war of extermination against the Richmond company of the gigantic New York public service corporation, in which quarter will neither be given nor asked. This ultimatum was issued today by President Bavts of the board of public works. Yesterday the Palladium published an exclusive announcement of the petition filed by the Light, Heat and Power company for a gas

rate Increase. Mr. Baris admitted that he was not greatly surprised over the action taken by the company. He said he had been anticipating it. Several months ago the Palladium forecasted the gas rate increase demand. Demand Is Outragee "This 75 per. cent Increase petition Is outrageous." Mr. Bavls said today. The action of the company in filing this petition immediately after the state utilities commission had established a purchase price for the electric plant of the Light. Heat and Continued On Pag Two.)

E1AS CHEER CODES TO CRIPPLED miWh LEFT $050 BEQOEST

There have not been many bright i

clouds to drive away the gloom from the drab life of Mrs. Christian Groff, a crippled woman, who resides in a small flat on Main street between Fourth and Fifth streets. From the time she married William Groff. over twenty years ago, she has suffered from his abuse, the pangs of poverty and neglect and then, as a climax to her unfortunate marital experience, nearly died from wounds she received from her husband, over a year ago. when he tried to kill her with a dirk. This crippled woman, however, courageously and successfully fought her battle for lire, for the sake of her four children. It was weeks sfter her husband had been sent to the penitentiary before she fully recovered from the effects of his murderous attack. - Once out of the hospital, ithout a plea for help, she began the grim right of providing a living for the younger children and one crippled son. The oldest Eon has ably assisted her. but even then the growl of the wolf at the door was heard at timea. But Mrs. Groff is finally going to

have the happiest Christmas she has ever known. Today Mrs. Groff received word that she and her son. Edward, have been named sole beneficiaries of the estate of her sister. Miss Augusta Beckert, who died recenUy In New York City. The estate Is a modest one. but, in the eyes of Mrs. Groff. it looms to the proportions of a swollen fortune. The public administrator has Informed her that she Is to receive $500 from an insurance policy carried for her by her sister. Edward Groff will also receive proceeds from a smaller policy carried for him by Miss Beckert. Also Mrs. Groff will receive $50 Miss Beckert had in a bank and her personal effects, valued at about $30O. The woman with whom Miss Beckert lived baa also written that Miss Beckert was to receive next month some money bequeathed to her- by a relative living in Germany. "It's a merry Christmas for Mrs. Groff. all right," said Frank Strayer. who has been looking sfter her interests, "and if there ever was a woman who deserved a merry Christmas It Is Mrs. Groff.'

"There is Born to You this Day a

SERMONETTE aVlOUl Rev. H. G. Harman

FOR unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Txt: St. Luke. Second Chapter and Eleventh is long, long ago since the Shepherds near Bethlehem beheld in the clear eastern sky the glory of the Lord, and heard the voice of the heavenly messenger proclaiming, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Centuries have rolled by, but the luster of that night has not passed away. The tones of that message have been caught and repeated by an increasing number of God-sent messengers. They swell in volume and majesty and power until now from all parts of the world the grand chorus resounds, filling the air with its message of joy arid hope and faith and love, "Joy to the World, the Lord has come." Christmas has become the festival of joy and peace and love and good-will. Why not? God so loved the world that he gave to mankind the greatest of all gifts, His only begotten Son. Ever since the Shepherds in the dim light of dawn fell on their knees and .worshiped the Babe of Bethlehem, childhood has been elevated to its proper place. Christmas is pre-eminently the festival of the child. At no time of the year are the happy, golden days of childhood happier or more radiant than when we celebrate the birthday of the Saviour, the Lord. In that little human frame lvinc in the mancrer was hidden the fullness.

of divine possibilities for the salvation of the race. rThe Babe of Bethlehem, the verv svmhol of frailtv.

of weakness, of poverty, is the embodiment of divine strength and boundless wealth. Were those wondering, awe-stricken shepherds, were the happy parents, able to form even a faint idea of the greatness and vastness of the forces that were bundled up in that little form? Can anybody forecast the influences that will emanate from the lives of the boys and girls that come to our homes, causing so much work and a great deal of worry, but bringing into our lives a wealth of glory and joy, and making us purer and richer and greater? Love and joy and happiness and the promise of power and great accomplishments they all rested in the Babe of Bethlehem and find expression in our Christmas joy and Christmas giving. The paradise of childhood, of happy, pure, sweet childhood, with all its unsolved mystery, its vague yearnings, its divinely understood promises, opens up before our longing gaze. Every returning Christmas takes us back over the chasm of years that are gone forever, and places us again in that lost paradise. But only for a short time. Then the candles of the Christmas tree are burned down, the routine of everyday life holds us again in its clutches; we realize perhaps more clearly than before that we are children no longer ; we carry life's burdens ; we do our , share of the world's work Life has become prosaic and stern ; the strain is intense, its demands are inexorable; its duties unrelenting, the pressure crushes out the poetry and cheer of childhood and makes us dull slaves, driven on by sheer necessity. Is Christmas only the children's festival, but after all a sort of self-delusion to the mature mind? Has our race passed its childhood, and has this message, "For unto you is born a Savior, Christ the

Lord," lost its real significance for. the mature men and women of the twentieth century ? Is Christ really the Saviour of mankind?1 Only about onethird of all the men, women and children upon whom the Christmas sun is shining have ever heard the name of Jesus. And how many of those who celebrate Christmas have ! really ' experienced his saving power? From the religious census of the world we learn that the religion of Jesus Christ numbers about five hundred million adherents. How many of them know him as a personal Saviour? How many of the eighty million inhabitants of Christian America acknowledge him as their Lord? How many of the thirty-two million church members in America are really saved from their sins by this Saviour and are loyal devoted subjects of Christ the Lord? When I say "saved from their sins" I do not mean that they have felt some njystic emotion, nor that they have some vague expectation of going to heaven when they die. To be saved means saved from self-centered, narrow life; saved from a life which is dominated by selfishness and perhaps low aspirations, ruled by petty, ignoble motives. It means a life placed in harmony with God, set in tune with the divine will; a life in which Jesus is enthroned as Lord and King; a life which is free and strong and great and Godfilled. ; i .1; ; Every recurring Christmas confronts us with the question, has Christianity really accomplished in the two-thousand years of its existence what it claimed to do? Has Jesus Christ made good, or is His religion, like all other historuTfaiths, a product of historical development fulfilling its mission for the time being, then waxing old and finally being discarded ? Has Christmas become a national hol

iday, a time of merry-making and frolic, of giving and receiving gifts? Nay, has it principally become a season when we have more cares and more work and more worry than at any other time? Do we deceive ourselves? Are we trying to deceive ourselves and our children when we celebrate the birth of Him whom we call Christ the Saviour and Lord? Nay, verily, nay. The Saviour has truly come into this world. See what he has done. Behold what he is doing today. He saves individuals. He saves whole nations. He saves the race. He saves all creation. But Christ takes his own time. We fleeting creatures of a day reckon with minutes and think in hours. The Eternal reckons with centuries and thinks in ages. Hope has wings and flies swiftly to the goal. Reality limps woefully behind. Christmas is not a time of self-deception. The message of Christmas is not dead. It is a growing, tremendously vigorous, God-given promise. The Saviour is in the world saving men. The Lord is here establishing his kingdom. And Christmas with all its joy and its blessing is a token of the lasting truth of Saint Paul's declaration "God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Yes, mankind has grown old, but Christmas keeps it ever young. For it brings every year the old. but ever new story of God's gift of love the old but ever powerful message in which the only hope of the race is embodied "For there is born to you this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.'