Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 22, 7 December 1917 — Page 1

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RICHMO VHT VT TTT NO 99 Palladium and faun V KJLi. Ai-ilU., .C Consolidated 1907 Palladium and Sun-Telegrram RICHMOND, IND., FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 7. 1917. SINGLE COPY, 2 CENTS DEATH OF FARMER REVEALS STRANGE PACT UNDER WHICH 4' 5

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POLICE OF STRICKEN CITY ESTIMATE NUMBER OF DEAD FROM BLAST TO BE 2,000 About Same Number Believed to Be Injured The Exact Total of Victims May Never Be Known Relatives and Friends Searching Morgues for Trace of Lost Kin Richmond Is Destroyed. HALIFAX, N. S., Dec. 7. Up to noon today there has been no change in the police estimate of 2,000 dead from yesterday's disaster. About the same number are injured, two-thirds of whom are suffering from cuts from flying glass. Smouldering ruins and piles of debris of demolished houses continued today to, give up their dead victims of the explosion aboard the French line munitions laden steamship Monte Blanc, following a collision in the narrows of Halifax harbor with the Belgian relief steamer Imo in such numbers as to surpass any disaster on this continent in recent years. Estimates of the number of dead at 2,000 or more appeared to be borne out by the rapidly filling morgues and increasing numbers of death reports from hospitals, private homes, churches and .schools where hundreds of injured are being cared for by their more fortunate townsmen and members of relief parties from nearby cities. May Never Know Total. The exact number of dead, it appeared certain today, might never be known on account of the many persons entire families in some instances of whom no trace ever will be found other than charred bones in the ruins of their homes. .

Dawn found the city still stagger ing, under the f rightfulness of its losses in human life and hundreds who' had stcod all night in lines formed at improvised morgues continued . their vigil wih' alternate expression of taar ' and'Jnope oV their "faces1 Others besieged, the f hospitals for news ; of the missing, ad meanwhile Tellef parties continued their work of succor among the Injured whom they found In the devastated Richmond and Dartmouth sections of the city. Aid from the outside in the form of tons of supplies gave early evidence today that fears of a food shortage were unfounded and left city and government officials free to direct the rescue work in which soldiers, sailors and police are being assisted by bluejackets from an American war3hip in the harbor. Over the flame-swept area of Richmond of approximately two and onehalf square miles, mary searchers confined their efforts today to make sure that all of the injured were removed to hospitals. Other organized parties sought out those bodies that might be identified and rushed them to the morgue. No Buildings Left In this section, extending from Pier 8 back to Gottlngen street, not a building was loft standing and here was the greatest Iobs of life. Buildings that withstood the force of the explosion were burned by the fire that swept the district and scores of the injured were taken fiom the ruins of the railway station, the refinery of the American Sugar Refining Company, the military gymnasium and th? arena rink, while few. if any. of the several hundred children attending the Richmond school are known to have escaped. Across the narrows in the town of Dartmouth the results of the vast damage done by the force of the explosian became more apparent today, while reports from towns and villages within a radius of 100 miles indicate that the Continued On Page Eleven. THE WEATHER For Indiana by United States Weather Bureau Snow late tonight and on Saturday not so cold in south portion. Today's Temperature. Noon 25 Yesterday. Maximum 28 Minimum 12 For Richmond and Wayne County by W. E. Moore Cloudy with snow Friday, night; Saturday snow and colder, with probably zero weather Saturday night' General Conditions Friday morning was the coldest of the winter, the temperature registering eight above zero. A storm of moderate size is movin'g rapidly eastward and will cause snow late tonight or Saturday, following by cold weather. Thirty'below zero on tho Canadian border.

j REMEMBER iMprD x&wm&

RECENT BIG EXPLOSIONS

February 1, 1911, railroad station in New York, cars containing 60 tons of dynamite; 25 killed, 125 injured. " . '"".March "7, " 1913,' British - freighter Alum Chine,. In Baltimore fearbor, carrying explosives; 4tt. klljedi 300 injured, $400,000 damage, j July 30, 1916, Black Toni island. New Jersey, train loaded with explosives; seven killed, $10,000,000 damage. January 13, 1917, munitions plant of the Canadian Car and Foundry Company, of Kingsland, N. J., 17 killed, $2,000,000 damage. January 21, 1917, munitions plant in London; 70 killed, 377 injured, damage 200,000.' April 12, 1917, Eddystone Ammunition Corporation, Eddystone, Penn.; 200 killed, $1,000,000 damage.

Baby Burned to Death With Watchers Powerless to Help

ST. JOHN'S, New Brunswick, Dec. 7. Eye witnesses of the Halifax explosion reaching here today told details of the horrors through which they passed. In the party were 14 young women students from Mount Vincent's academy. Esmond P. Barry, postal clerk, wa3 at Rishmond during the worst of the catastrophe. "It was terrible," he said, "people dying in our car like flies. Some of them came to the place with noses shot off, eyes put out, faces slashed with flying glass, limbs torn and distorted. On one occasion while we were working around a wrecked building we could see a little baby, 50 feet or more underneath a burning mass crying for aid. We could not get within 30 feet of the child and had to watch while it burnct to death. Men and women and cbiMren were lying in the street and hundreds must be buried under wreckage." J. C. Gillespie, a (rain conductor.

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IN AIR; RUSH TO START NEXT WEEK

Xgain the Christmas spirit is in the air, and Richmond people have begun making purchases for the annual Yuletide cheer. The rush, however, is not expected to begin until next week when the Richmond banks mail checks to approximately 4,000 persons, the results of Christmas savings clubs to make the annual purchases of "cheer." But just the same, the little folk of Richmond, Know that Christmas is just seventeen days off. As usual with little folks they are counting the days until the annual "toy day" comes. Christmas this year will probably

Two and Half Miles of Gauze Must Go in Surgical Dressings

Five thousand yards or two and a half miles of gauze must be made into bandages and surgical dressing by the Wayne County Chapter of the Red Cross by December 15. . The shipment must be made in time to reach France by the First of January. ' . Orders for shipment were received In Richmond from the Lakes division office at Cleveland. Five hundred pounds of absorbent cotton will be used for the pads included in the shipment. A partial shipment was made late Friday afternoon. SENATE PASSES WAR MEASURE: NO OPPOSITION WASHINGTON, Dec. 7. With less than an hour's debate the senate today passed the resolution declaring war on Austria-Hungary. The resolution was adopted by the senate unanimously 74 to 0. Senator Gronna, of North Dakota, Norris of Nebraska, and Vardaman, of Mississippi, who voted against the German war declaration supported the resolution. Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, left during the speech making and did not cast his vote. Meanwhile there was every indication that the resolution would pass , in the house with only one disenting vote Representa tive London, socialist. '. Members were so sure of it that they deserted the chamber In droves to escape the speech making and re turned teter,ior .the- vote,.,, i...-.. tipns will be reconciled of one substituted for the other. " y , Rumanian Soldiers Join In Armistice JASSY, Rumania, Thursday, Dec. 6. It has been decided that the Rumanian troops shall associate themselves with the Russians in the proposed armistice, though the Rumanians have rejected every attempt at fraternization, says an official announcement made here today. Hostilities were suspended today on the whole front. said that at Richmond fully fifty per cent, of the buildings collapsed. Babies were lying In the streets dead. Ernest Cameron, a Canadian Pacific telegraph operator, and all his family were killed. CONDITIONS WORSE THAN THEY APPEARED TO BE LAST NIGHT ABOARD MASSACHUSETTS RE LIEF TRAIN, via St. John, N. B., Dec. 7. Exact conditions in stricken Halifax are more appalling than was indicated by las night's reports. This is a message that was dispatched to Governor McCall this morning by the manager of the Massachusetts special relief train after a night spent in gathering bits of information from trainmen and others met as the train sped eastward. The dead are everywhere, aid these reports. There is immediate need of a great staff of surgeons and scores of nurses. During the brie! stop the manager got into communication with the Halifax authorities over the railroad telegraph wires. be observed more reverently than ever before. Hundreds of soldier sons of Richmond will not be home to partake of the festivities. But they won't be forgotten. Far from it. Christmas packages will be sent them by the "folks at home" and there will be many a prayer given for their safe return. It will be the first Christmas celebration since the United States plunged into the maelstrom of the international war. Just fourteen days more remain to make that purchase of "Christmas cheer", and merchants . are urgins everyone to purchase early and avoid tire rush. - j

FOE'S EFFORT TO PUNCTURE LINE FUTILE Italians Hold Fast, Though Yielding One Point Byng Falls Back.

. (By Associated Press) While the tremendous efforts the Austro-Hungariah army in the eastern Trentino is making to gain the passes into the Italian plains resulted yesterday in the pushing back of the Italian line at one point, the vital front remains unbroken. The advance was scored just to the east of the Asiago, where according to today's offical statement from Berlin the eminence of Monte Sisemol was stormed. The capture may have been one result of the recession in the Italian line just to the east the day previous after heavy ' fighting for two nearby heighths. Dispatches from Italian headquarters have reflected confidence "there that the new line in this sector was capable of holding the route to the passes. The number, of prisoners taken by the Austro-Hungarians in this offensive has been increased by 4,000 Berlin reports, bringing the total up to 15,000. -: U,y : ' Forced to Retire. German wedges driven into the salient before Cambrai have compelled the British to evacuate exposed points and they have given' Tip to the Germans several villages west of Cambrai as well a& the Bourlon wood. The retirement wa carried out so well that the Germans" continued to shell the empty positions for several hours, not knowing the British had left them: 8 I The Bri'mm. f aMdtvre'capable of strong de fense by -tto'TMiremenBri Berlin in its latest report claims the occupation of Marcoing."- about four miles southwest of Cambrai. Minor German attacks south of Bourlon wood and near LaVacquerie have been repulsed by the British: British Come Back While German airmen were attempting a raid on London, British aviators penetrated the enemy aerial defense on the western front and dropped many bombs on tofns and factories in Germany and airdomes in Belgium. In the raid over east England, the Germans lost two machines and the machines and the. bombs they dropped caused slight casualties; seven killed and 21 injured. Calais. France, was raided the same night but there were no casualties. Wbile the Russian soldiers on a great section of the eastern front have agreed to a ten day armistice with the Austro-Germans, there are indications that the Bolsheviki government in Petrograd fears opposition. Lenine, the Maximalist leader, has had the central executive committee of the workmen's and soldiers' delegates pass a measure calling for the recall of certain members of the constituent assembly, in which the Bolsheviki are not certain of a working majority. Trotzky, Lnine's associate, declares that if the opposition should have a majority, the people would forcibly dissolve the constituent assembly. . ZERO WEATHER IS PREDICTED Zero weather is predicted to strike Richmond Saturday, following a heavy snow Friday night and Saturday morning, according to Weather Forecaster Moore. Friday morning was the coldest morning of the year, the temperature hovering around the eight above zero mark. Snow will arrive Friday night again and it is expected that it will bt the heaviest snow storm of the year. More snow is predicted for Saturday to be followed by weather that will strike the temperature below zero. A "moderate" storm, according to the weather forecaster, which is now moving eastward, will cause the snow and cold weather here. London Gets First View of New Flyer LONDON, Dec. 7. London enjoyed today its first view of a giant British airthip; . which . made a' trial flight over the city shortly after the lunch hour. Large crowds assembled in the streets and squares and along the Thames to watch the airship, which received the greatest ovation from the crowd around the tank stationed in Trafalgar Square to assist in the campaign for the war loan subscriptions.

St. John s Mission Circle To Provide Gifts For Sammies

Richmond boys, who are fighting for Uncle Sam in the army and navy will be given Christmas cheer by members of the Missionary Sewing Circle of St. John's Lutheran church. Instead of serving luncheon at the meetings every two weeks the members will send well filled boxes to the Sammies. The society will also remember the Wernle Orphans with Christmas gifts. Muncie Man Knits Only Model Sweater MUNCIE, Ind.,' Dec. 7. The model sweater of all that have been made for American soldiers by Red Cross workers in Muncie is one knitted and turned in for shipment by Edward Pfeiffer, a city fireman. The garment has been placed on exhibition in a store window. As his name indicates, Pfeiffer is German in ancestry, "but that's all," he told the Red Cross workers. The firemen in all stations now are knitting and making trench candles. MRS. SHIRK TO DIRECT DRIVE Mrs. Elbert W. Shirk was made chairman of the membership committee of the Wayne County Chapter Qt the .Red Cross. Thwsday.: .;r;i' p The -committee will work out the decampaign. . . .' '"" ' ' -" The goal of the campaign Is 10,000 members by Christmas Eve. Plans for the campaign will be considered Saturday by the board at the luncheon hour at the Y. M. C. A. Members of the board are Miss Elizabeth Comstock, Mrs. Edgar F. Hiatt, Mrs. Olive Allison, Rev. J. J. Rae, Miss Margaret Starr, Miss Anna Lough, Mrs. Burton J. Carr, Dr. F. W. Krueger, Mrs. Demas Coe, Frederick S. Bates, Mrs. Jeanuette G. Leeds, Dr. L. F. Ross, Mrs. Paul Comstock, Superintendent Giles, George Seidel, Mrs. Elbert Shirk, Howard Dill, Rev. W. J. i Cronin, John H. Johnson, Mrs. Edgar j C. Denny, of Milton; Mrs. F. J. Scudj der, Cambridge City; Mrs. Eva Beeson, ! Dublin; Mrs. R. S. Peelle, Centerville; i Mrs. Albert Jessup, Economy; Mrs. A. j R. Jones, Hagerstown; Mrs. C. M. Whitmire. Boston; George Ranck, i Whitewater; Mrs. Joseph Thompson, Webster; Mrs. Ora Wise, Greensfork; Mrs. L. I. Cranor, Williamsburg, and Mrs. Charles J. Kauffman, Abington. DREAD PRICE IS REDUCED The retail price of bread is expected to fall in several days as the result of a decrease in the price made by bakers of the city. The wholesale price of sixteen-ounce loaves of bread has been decreased to i seven and one-nair cents rrom eignt cents a loaf of retai'. rs. No groceries, however, have reduced the retail price. No grocer in the city should now charge ten cents a loaf, since the bakers have reduced the wholesale price, George McKinley aid Friday. Action may be taken against grocers who do not reduce their prices below ten cents he said. CHRISTMAS SING EING PLANNED A Christmas sing to embrace all communities in Richmond will be held Sunday afternoon. December 23, at the Coliseum under the auspices' of the Teachers Federation. Miss Martha Whitacre, the president said Friday Christmas carols will be the feature of the program. Richmond soloists will sing Chrismas songs. The High school orchestra under the direction of Supervisor Sloane will play. " - Sloane said Friday, Sunday afternoon will not be observed in Richmond as Community Sing Day according to a request from Philander P. Claxtoji, United States education commissioner on account of the Christmas sing which is being arranged for by the federation. Other churches and schools in the. state will observe "Community Sing Sunday."

HOUSEKEEPER

Neighbors of Preble County

of Minnie De Camp, Who Always Hid When itors Came and Never Left the House Enterec

Mysterious Life When EATON, O., Dec. 7. Miss

Schmick, 73-year-old bachelor farmer, for sixteen years and no on

ever knew it !

For sixteen years the woman lived, a voluntary prisoner, 01

Schmick s farm, five miles north as her world.

She was never seen in sixteen years time by a single persoi

with the exception of Schmick. Fifty-Acre Farm Her World.

Sixteen years ago, when she entered into an agreement with

old, to live almost as a prisoner, with only the fifty-acre farm her world, Schmick as the only man in the "world."

Never, during this time, did

but Schmick. When visitors came to the little farm house sir

quickly hid herself, and no one . The American National Red Cross is making a Christmas drive for new members. It wants to have an enrollment of 15,000,000 members by Christmas. Its present membership is 5,000,000. j The war council of the Red . Cross has conceived that a great uationaf purpose wifl .beser.yed 'ay-- having" fUOCtaittli&f iMtr as universal' as Is -cltizen-suip. Let every American home beVa 'Red Ctiss home. 15,000,OOp members will mean this to be a fact, -The society wants the strength and support that will come from this army of, members. The Red Cross society has set Christmas as the time to attain this goal. This is a fitting date, as Red Cross and Christmas spring from the same spirit, both are symbols of mercy, sacrifice, love and cheer. On the first Christmas after our entrance into the war let us make the Red Cross symbol add the thought of serious purpose and sacrifice which through accomplishment it represents to the spirit of peace toward men of good will. Let us keep Christmas this year by keeping up the Red Cross. Put your dollars and your co-operation behind the boys at the front Success in this drive means driving home to Germany the fact that the American people are standing firmly behind the American government in the present situation. It means inspiration to our soldiers. It means practical aid on the battlefield. It means uniting the spirit of Christmas with the Red Cross. MARQUIS KNOCKED DOWN PARIS, Dec. 7. As the Marquis de Castellane, father of Count Boni De Castellane, was about to enter his home Tuesday evening he was knocked down by a wagon THE WAR IN

Editorial in Saturday Evening Post. Months of unchecked pacifist mouthines. not unlike those

hear today, paved the inevitable

which for days held New York city in the violent grip of bloo anarchy. Today the most dangerous of our enemies are the ha secret ones of our own household. They come' and go at w among us. Some spy out and report our military preparatior. others foment strikes, set class against class, preach pacifism a pessimism and poison the springs of public thought. Thousan of these traitors take the Kaiser's dirty dollar. Other thousan are merely half-baked perverts whose rewards are akin to the of the witless creature who sets fire to a tenement for the plej ure of hearing an alarm rung and witnessing the noisy conf usi of a fire. The menace from enemies at home is steadily increasing; t

scope of their activities is steadily broadening. The Departmc of J ustice can cope with those who commit certain overt acts, c it cannot lay by the heels the gum-shoe disloyalists who are sh;

tered by the very constitution of If you know your left hand

sianism from Americanism. When you find a disloyal neighc

whom you can t send to jail, send if he had smallpox. Keep out of

vours. Let him see that he stands discredited and diso-rnpd

that he is unfit company for loyal Americans. Let him be soci W interned, cut off from all SDeech and traffic with decent wV

and women. . : If every true American will home the result will go further would the annihilation of half a

WAS SECLUDEI

Man Ignorant of Existen She Was 21 Years Old. Minnie DeCamp lived with Jacol of Eaton, with the fifty-acre farri was 21 years old, and pretty, sh Schmick. who was then 57 year she talk to another living perso knew! ' - -3 - r-:,-But, last week, Miss DeCamp, no 37 years old, her youthful beauty di appearing, again revealed herself the world, forced by the death Schmick. She remained with Schmick, nurse and cared for him in his illness untj a week before he died. Then, fearin that their secret would beootne knov. to the outside world, she. lift.. A week later Schmick cf ed. - Foul Play Was Minted! At first it was believed'ihat he met with foul play. An lustigl was immediately started a.n&h wJ shown that he died of tuberculos: of the bowels. " J Now, - Miss DeCamp, free, center plates filing a claim against Schmick! estate, which is valued at aypros mately $10,000. Including bia fanf Bh-is Jn Eaton" and has obtaroed-tl "serriee'-jof - attorneys - to "preparer fis legal -Xisim against the estate. .- Mrs. Alice Fudge of Eaton has be appointed administratrix of the est and has furnished a bond for $3,6 which covers only the personal pro erty owned by Schmick.. No one in Eaton, where Schmii was widely known, or in the commu ity in which the couple lived, has bei found who ever saw Miss DeCac with Schmick or on his farm. Saw Her Going to Farm One woman, Mrs. John Wagner, U ing near the farm of Schmick, tc Prosecuting Attorney Savior, who cc ducted the investigation, that she sa Scnmlcfc and "some woman, she dq not know whether it was Mis3 Camp, going to Schmick's farm, abo eighteen years ago. it is Denevea tnat tne woman w Miss DeCamp, on her way. wi Schmick, to disappear from the ej of the world. The agreement wa3 made betwe Schmick and Miss DeCamp, who v untaniy enterea it. sne was nev to be seen by another person. The true facts were carefully cd ceaied rrom the eyes of visitors, t hours at a time Miss DeCamp ke herself in hiding in some part of t little house while Schmick entertain the visitors. How she obtained new clothes, or Ehe ever got any, is unknown. Schmick Never Married Schmick, who was 73 years old wh be died and so far as is known, w never married, became ill tome tia ago. The woman, with all the tend ness cf a mother, nursed the m many years her senior. Tenderly she administered to wants. No physician was called. Al then it became appaient that Schmf was at. death s door. He could Continued On Page Fourteen. YOUR TOWN way for the Draft Riots of 18 the nation they would destroy. from your right you can tell Prif him to Coventry. Shun him his house and keep him out . ' . . , sever all ties with the enemy toward winning the war th? doeen German army corps.