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About Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1904)
TOPICS OF THE TIMES. < A CHOICE SELECTION OF INTERESTING - ESTING ITEMS. ' Commeata and CrltlcUms Based Upoa the Happening of the Day Histori cal and Ne-w Notes. The latest new word Is "sklndlcate , 'Srat it Is not la the dictionary yet There Is yet every reason to hope Russia will pause In her mad and reckless Korea. A good laugh Is oft times better than / * hearty menL Cut ouc this joke and \Sive it to the next tramp that calls. The past year has seen 538 persons killed In the streets of New York It tla a wonder that any one had time to -count them. John Strange Winter says that 90 : per cent of London society women wear wigs , which , of course , keeps them out of the front row. A Nebraska man threw his wife in as "boot" In disposing of a horse. He explained It by sayiug it was a good -chance to get rid of two kickers. A New York doctor has found a jaste that will do the work of a razor. It will not be popular with barbers and -women who use their husbands' razors lor ripping seams. There is no better road to the asser tion of manly independence than that which leads the loyal citizen loyal to the chief duty of citizenship , to high principle and courage of it to the bal lot box. A Chicago fancier has produced a rfeatherless chicken. This leads us to 2iope that experiments may be contin ued along that line until the Inmates -of boarding houses can he served with hairless hash. A Chinese magistrate who had killed 5,000 persons has just been executed. Evidently he was not one of the fussy people who are afraid the world Is .going to be depopulated owing to a lack of babies. Bishop Boyd Vincent lately talked ; to business men , and thus counseled them : "To say nothing of your self- xespect , never forget what a good investment - vestment there Is , even in business , in that grand old name of gentleman. " The victims of mob fury are poor ignorant wretches who would be fittingly punished by the courts. The Tich and influential criminals who usually - -ally escape legal punishment are never - er lynched. The mob Is as illogical as It Is vicious. The Eastern press has much to say of a "spanking machine now in use at the State training school at Red Wing , Jlinn. " A spanking machine may do the business in a dull , mechanical way , lut for positive genius we recall with some emotion the brilliant work rloue lay mother in conjunction with the hair Tarush , in which we played a supportIng - Ing part The women of Germany are estab lishing commercial schools for girls , .at which are taught bookkeeping , cor respondence , physical geography , En glish , penmanship , commercial law , typewriting , arithmetic , German and Prench. By and by the men will have to tate water or break stone in the streets. The female Invasion is an as sured fact. The salaries of Congressmen can never be fairly aud equitably arranged. -Some members are well worth $5,000 a. year and others are not worth 5 -cents. Some look upon a seat in the House of Representatives and the sal ary as means of getting aud saving more money than they can make in their business at home , while others are willing to pay more for a nomina tion and election than their salary for two years amounts to. No means can "be devised of paying the statesmen "by the piece. " So it must rest with the "voters In each district to get the best they can for the money. Forty-five thousand homeless chil dren have been sent to Canada from < 5reat Britain and put in good homes during the past thirty-five years. Last year for every child that was sent there were five applications on file with the societies engaged in the work of rescuing the waifs. Consequently British philanthropists , who know how carefully the children are looked after In their new homes , think that the number sent from the overcrowded British cities to the spacious colonies could be increased with profit to the empire as well as to the children. It is a good way to save men and make a nation. Many of the words used by the Americans in Cuba and the Philippines have no Spanish equivalent. The people ple have , therefore , transferred them bodily Into their own language ; but \vhen they write them they use the let ters with the Spanish values. For in stance , only one fain.liar with Spanish would know that "diabun" was pro- fcounced "Jawbone. " It is easier to recognize "YanquI blof" and "ponkin pai ; " and it does not take much imag ination to discover "gcod-by" in the Cuban "gub-bai. " Thus does language grow , not elegantly nor in accordance with the strict rules of the purist , but . .with considerable plcluiesque vigor. The engineers In charge of the new fubway \ Boston recently objected to the passage of a procession through tone of the streets where they were pxcar ting for fear that the vibration of the earth caused by the rhythmic beat of lhe march might endanger the abutting buildings. The line of march was accordingly changed. It Is awell - known fact of physic that vibrations are as contagious as smallpox. One tuning-fork will communicate Its hum to another of the same pitch In the same room , and two clocks , one fast and the other slow , will soon tick syn chronously If put side by side on the same table. When soldiers march across Brooklyn bridge they break step lest the strain damage the structure. At the recent celebration of Lucy Stone's birthday almost every speaker who had known that gifted woman had something to say about the charm of her voice. So sweet was it that. In the words of Miss Anthony , 'men used to say that they couldn't help voting for woman suffrage If she asked them to do so. " Her name was always put last upon the program of a public meeting , "because she left such a pleasant impression upon an audi ence. " The current literature of Great Britain Is full of .slighting allusions to the voices of American women. Thu.\ are justified In a number of cases , alas , far too large. But an American worn an's voice need not be loud and shrill. Nothing in her constitution , nothing hi the climate , requires it so to be. It is true that weak utterance or a "crack ed" voice may proceed from ill health ; but the high , nasal tones that our foreign critics find so disagreeable are almost invariably due to sheer hced- lessness. Nobody needs to be told that noise and emphasis are dill'eveut things , but people forget and scream ; and every such outburst , whether of joy or of anger , coarsens the voice , es pecially If , as Is frequently the case , "the last breath In the lungs" is used In the effort. "Breathe deeply , speak slowly , and keep an even temper. ' is the advice a specialist gives the girls at a famous finishing school. Tlu- se cret of a pleasing voice could hardly be conveyed in fewer words , nor is the knowledge of any other secret more essential to a woman's charm. Thomas Day , 54 years of age , dis covered a lead mine in Idaho after years of prospecting. He had endured niauy privations , but persevered in the hope of striking something "worth while. " He has succeeded so well that John D. Rockefeller offered him ten million dollars for the propertj * , and Day declined to sell. His declination was not based on his belief that the mine was worth more than Rockefeller offered , but in his belief that he wouldn't know what to do with so much money. "I never had so much as ? 5,000 in my life before , " he is quoted as saying , "and if I had ten millions it would worry rne to death. People would be running after rue with all kinds of schemes , and it would take a force of secretaries to answer the let ters. The old lady and I are just plain people , and we enjoy life more by liv ing it out in the way we've been raised than if we'd try to mix with swells. " Thomas Day is a refreshing exception to the host of the "new rich. " Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish , who claims descent from Peter Stuyvesant , is disgusted with New York society for no other reason than that the newly rich insist upon clanging at the doors for admis sion. They are traveling the pace of the beggar on horseback to the amuse ment of persons with refinement and breeding. An eminent literary man the other day met one of the new rich who invariably finds occasion to tell that his income is $100,000 a year and his expenses $80,000. "I wouldn't pay that much to. live if I were you , " was the literary man's retort. "It really isn't worth It. " Thomas Day is wise in his day and generation. If he and the "old lady" shall live out their lives the way they have been reared , no one will have opportunity to laugh at them and they will have conscience ease. Catching Pish with Snares. The Hawaiians fish very often with a snare for the big eel-like morays and for crawfish. In snare fishing for morays - rays , or puhi , a long stick is employed , with a noose arranged at the end , the string working the noose reaching clear to the end of the pole. A bait made of almost any kind of pounded Ssh or crab is thrown into the water n favorable spots , especially around rocks , where the puhl live hi holes and jrevices. The noose Is slipped up close to one ) f these holes , and when the puhl sticks its head through it In order to each the bait , the line in the hand is mlled , which draws the noose tight to he end of the pole , pinning the puhi's lead there and choking It to c'Aith , ifter which It Is drawn to the surface. In fishing for crawfish a long pole to which dead bait has been tied abuut hree inches from the bottom ) Is put [ own in the water in front of a hole In he rocks. As the ula comes out of its lole to get the bait another pole , with . crotch or fork at the end , to both of vhich a noose Is fastened , Is slipped mder its till and suddenly Jerked , rhich tightens it and the animal la irought to the surface. THE RISKS OF BEING RICH. Begorra , if th' markit kapes on goua' lown oi'Il haf to sell ye me beautifule mto-go-Bllly. iHir * * * * * * * * * < * * * * ! NEBRASKA NOTES " --i'--I- - ' ' * * tlt The firemen's fair at the Auditor-j ' .urn at Beatrice has closed after a successful week. j The bank of Sermantown at Germantown - mantown has been purchased by Ed. Hall of Elkhorn. Nearly all the merchants of Neb raska City nave signed an agreement to close at 6 HO p. m. Marie Josephine Dletsch and Ban Rupert Fletcher of Omaha were mar ried at Plattsmouth. Seyer Seyerson and Miss Tracey Lang were married at tbe bride's borne near Calaway. Mrs. Emma Hill of Nebraska City , oldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Nickolson , is dead. E. W. Sh-iw , an old resident of Hastings , dropped dead of apoplexy whil repairing a sidewalk. Miller McClintock of Newman's Srove fell twenty feet from a' tele phone pole and broke buth arms. Milford Keene , a 15-year-old boy of Hastings has been sent to the re form school for stealing a pair of trousers. A mad dog bit several head of hogs for farmers two weeks ago. One hog exhibited symptonsor the rabies and was killed. Charles M. Anderson of Lincoln and Miss Daisy Freese of Nebraska City were married at the residence ot the latter's parents. A large number of implement deal ers are attending the meeting of the South Platte Implement Dealers as sociation at Lincoln. The funeral of David McWilliams of Nebi.tska City , who cauje to this state iu 1852 , was held at his home in Delaware precinct. Miss Stella Leigh , of Beatrice is in a precarious condition , suffering from a concussion of the brain caused by falling on the ice while skating. J. L. Wheeler has been appointed county commissioner at Peuder to lill out the unexpired term of Com missioner Heusley. Hezekiah liorney , aged 77 years , died at the residence of his son , M RI Homey , at Beatrice. A wife and a family of grown children survive him. Thievess entered the saloon of William Berner at Norfolk and secured $5 in nickels from the cash diawer. The Northwestern , depot was also looted of $1.95. Harry Mead Garrett of Beatrice was married to Miss Ethel Johnson , at the bride's home in Denver. Mr. and Mrs. Garreett will make their' ' home in Beatrice. Jack Ot is was taken to Kearney from Elm Creek , charged witn for gery. He got two pay checks for companions , endorsed their names and had them cashed. He confessed. David McWilliams , an old resident , died at his home near Dunbar at the age of 75 years. He had lived on his farm near Dunbar for thirty-eight years. H i leaves a family of twelve grown children. j James H. Burk , chief clerk uf the ! Burlingtoh freight office at Lincoln , has severed his connection with that department and is now local freight agent at Deadwoodj South Dakota. George Yascald , who has been missing from Fremont since July 3 , has heen locited at Carthage , S. D. He professes great surprise that any one should be alarmed at his disap pearance. Postmaster Phillips of Exeter has received word that Exeter has been ! included in th * towns of Nebraska' ' to receive the "emergency warnings" , f the weather bureau. The boarding house of Mis. Gor don at Fremont was considerably \ damaged by a fire which started from candles igniting tbe trimmings on a Christmas tree. Good News from Minnesota. Lakefield , Minn. , Jan. 4. Mr. Will iam E. Gentry of this place is one of the best known and most highly re spected men in Jackson County. For 45 years he has suffered with Kidney Trouble and now at 77 years of age he has found a complete cure and is well. His cure is remarkable because of the length of time he had been suffer ing. Cases of 40 years' standing might be considered incurable , but the reme dy that cured ilr. Gentry seems tc know no limit to its curative power. { Mr. Gentry says : 1 "I have suffered with misery in my back for about 45 years and had all the Iroublesome symptoms of Kidney and Urinary disease. I tried various kinds of remedies , but all to no effect until I tried Dodfl's Kidney Pills. Now I have no pain in my back and feel quite well in every way. "I am 77 years of age and I feel better than I have for the last 40 years. I attribute it all to Dodd's Kid ney Pills. " "Roy Mason of Long Pine was seri ously inj red by the accidental dis charge of a gun. He was on the inside cf the house when a gun in the hands of a companion outside the door was discharged and the .charge , together with a piece of the door , passed into the lad's knee. Martin Enright , the laborer wht [ fell under the Union Pacific train at ] Fremont , had both legs amputated pne was taken off at the knee and ithe other at the ankle. DREDS KILLED IN A THEATER PANIC Iroquois Playhouse Scene of Conflagration Disaster Almost Without Parallel- STARTS DURING A MATINEE' INTERIOR A ROARING FURNACE WITHIN TEN MINUTES. Sifnny Trampled to Death , Other * Suffocated , AVhll Scores P rl li In Flames Dead Piled In Great Heaps. * * CHICAGO , Dec. 31. Coroner * I * Traegcr leports by actual count ! "t seven hundred and thirty-bix .j. * dead. j It in declared by the police that 5 * " 3 MX hundred and thirty-seven Jt J $ bodies have been taken from the 4- 4. ( , rums. i J- CHICAGO , Dec. 31 Many hundred persons were killed in ten minutes yesterday afternoon d'uring a lire in the Iroquois theater , the newest , largest-and safest theater in Chicago. Most of the dead were killed by tramping and suffocation in the panic that followed the first burst of flame from the s'yage. The audience consisted mostly of women and children. Several persons were burned to death , some suffoca ted by gas , thrown in the auditorium by the explosions of a gas tank , but scores were trampled to death in the mad plung of the frightened women and children to escape the fiie. Many bodies were scorched after they were trampled to pieces. It will bo many hours before ihe number of dead is accurately known and many days before all of them will be identified. There were bodies lying by tbe dozens last night in un dertaking rooms , in police stations , and in hospitals , from which nearly everything that could reveal their identity has been torn cr burned away. Their clothing is torn to rags or burned to cinders and their faces have been tampled into an unrecogni sable pulp by the heels of the crowd that trampled them down as they fled for safety. The tire broke out duiing the second end act of "Mr. Bluebeard , " which was the first dramatic pnductioo produced in the theater after its opening. The theatrical company , \ hich was large , escaped , neatly all of them however , being compelled to flee into the snowy streets with oo clothing outstJge Costumes. A few members of the company sustain ed iniur'es , but none weie severely Lurt. The accounts of the origin of there -re are cDuflictlng and none of them Is certain , but one best reason given is that an electric wire near the low er part of a piece of drop scenery broke af d cuuspd a short circuit , setting fire to the scenery. The fire spread rapidly toward the front of the stage , the wings , screaming. Tbe fire in itself up to this time was not serious anu Tf ) > ssibly could have heen checked had not the asbestos curtain failtd to work. As soon as the lire was discovered , Eddie Fey , chief comedian of the company , shouted for the asbestos curiain to be lowered , and it was im mediately lowered about half way. 1'hen it stut k. The fire thus was given a flue through which a wstrong draft as formed , aided by the doors which ha J been thro-vn open in rront of the theater. The flames shot roaring , tongue-shaped , through the opening over the beads of the people on tbe Bis floor , almost licking tbe faces of those in the fiist balcony , smothered many where they sat. Immediately following this nsb of flames came an explosion , which lift ed the entire roof of the theater from the walls shattering the great sky light in o fragments. A hail of jlass , the tottering of the galleries , the quaking of the building and a iry of "tire" from several perso-is in ; he rear , started the panic. The en- Ohio River Gorged with Ice. CINCINNATI , Dec. 31. Since iwo steamers and many barges were mnk by moving ice in tbe Ohio river lere last Sunday causing a loss of > ver one hundred thousand dollirs in ; he Cincinnati haibnr. hundreds ot lien have been keeping vitzil nighi ind day protecting ruanv packets and wo boats and over one hundred load- id baruf-s that are here With the iver freezing belnw Cincinnati and Rawing anove this city , the situa- , ion has becQnje.alaruaing. tire audience rose as one person and made for the doors. As near as can ba ascertained , at the present time , about thirteen hundred persons were in the theater. Three hundred of these were on the first floor , the remainder being in the balconies and in the aisles back of them. The theater is modeled after the Opera Coinique in Paris and from the rear : .f each balcony there arc three doors leadin to the passage way toward the front of the theater. Two of these door-ways are at the end O : the balcony one being in the center. Must of the spectators in t rush for the outer airseem to have chosen to flee to the left enterauce and to attempt to make their way down the eastern stairway leading into thr lobby. Outside of the people burnc'l and suffocated by gas , it was in thesa two doorways on th first and second balconies that the greatest loss ot life occured. When tbe firemen en tered the building , the dead were found streatched in a pile reaching from the head of tbe stairway at least eight fe t from the door back to a point about five feet in rear ol the door. This mass of bodies in the center of tne doorway reached within twu feet of the top of the hall. All thu corpses at this point were women and children. Here a light for life took place that dismantled many persons in death. This is shown by the as pect of the bodies as they lay when found. Women on top of these masses o ( dead had b en overtaken by death as they crawled on hands and knees over the bodies of ttose who had died before. Others lay with arms stretched out in the direction to ward which lay life and safety , hold- in their hands fragments of garments not their own. They had evidently been torn from the bodies of others whom they had endeavered to pu 1 down and trample underfoot as they fought for life. As the police removed layer after layer of dead in these doorways , the sight became so sickening that police men and firemen , hardened as they are to horrible scenes , turned away in horror. The bodies were in such an inextricab e mass , and so tightly were they jammed between the sidrs of the d-jor and the walls that it was in-possible to lift them one by ore and carry them out. The only possi ble thing to do was to seize a leg or arm or a piece of clothing and pull with main strength , dragging several entwined bodies away together. Policemen and firemen worked at the task with tears running down theit cheeks and the sobs of other rescuers could be heard in the street. A number of men were compelled to abandon the work and seek the open air while others , whose nerves had not yet been shaken , pro ceeded with the untangling. As the bodies were dragged out of the water-soaked , blackened mass of corpses , rnoie horriying sights were disclosed. There were women whose clothing was torn completely from the bodies above the waist , whose breasts had been trampled into a bleeding pulp and whose faces had been marked be yond identification. In the auditorium there was no such number of dead in any one spot , but bodies lay in the first and se cond balconies in great numbers. In some places corpses were piled up in aisles three and four deep , where one had fallen and others tripped over the prostrate forms. These had died as they fell , evident ly suffocated by gas. Others were bent over backs of seats where they had been thrown by1 the rush of people for the doors , and' killed without a chance to escape from their seats. One man was found bent backwards nearly double , his spinal column having been f ract ur d by the crus . A woman was found cut nearly in two by the back r f a seat over which she had been forced face downward before she could enter the aisle. The members of the theatrical company , being on tbe first floor had1 little difficulty in reaching the street although their situation was for a moment critical because of the speed with which the flames swept through the mass of scenery in the flies and on the stage. Issue of Treasury Bonds. TOKIO , Japan. Dec. 30. An emergency ordinance , passed lately invests the government with prac- tical.y unlimited credit for the pur pose of milit-uy defense. Three oth- jr ordinances were issued relating tirst to the Seoul-Fusan railway , wnich is brought closer under fli.-ial control ; second , to the revision of Lhe organization of the imperial nilitary headquarters ; third , to the creation of a war council in wartime , .HiCAGO A CITY OF WOE : HICAGO AWAKENS TO REALIZA TION OF ITS CALAMITY. renzled Parents and Children for Lost Member * of Famllj Iroquois a Chamber of Horrors. CHICAGO , Jan. l.-Yesterdaj irought only the legacy of Wednes- ay's monumental calimity and tbe redlction that tbe list of fatalities ; n tbe Iroquois fire will run to ovcjj 0) ) when information is complete. | Tbe latest statement of dead at tbe urious hospitals and hotels to which he injured were removed that ol he 157 people who were injured , irobably one-third cannot live , Che missing oday were estimated at U4 , but it was expected tbab many if. these would be accounted for , pro- lably a large majority of them. ' Possibly nothing could better , typify the depths of She sympathy1 which is felt for those who suffered * directly by the calamity than the. iction of the striking livery drivers. ! liy a vote which was without a dis- < sen ting voice , it was decided to establish - < tablish a truce or ten days. , Among many of tbe theatrical men employed in the other Chicago thea ters the responsibility for the fire -vas ascribed to the careless placing Df electric light apparatus too close ; to one of tbe hanging borders of tnej icenery. The electrician of a leading ! Chicago theater expressed great snr-j prise on bearing that this was con sidered a possible cause of tbe fire. "There never would have been any fire. " he said , "if proper care had' heen exercised In handling the lights. The electric plant of tbe thuateri was installed , as I happen to knowl from peisonal observation , in accord ance with every modern requirement tor safety. Tbe plant was not to blame. If ttoe facts I have been given are correct the whole blame rests on the person who placed or was operating a light so closely to the curtain. " The failure of the expected fire protection is attributed by insurance men to trouble with the asbestos curtain. * Coroner Traeger examined the thea ter after the disaster and said : "If the asbestos curtain had been in working order , I believe that the fire might have been prevented from spreading into the audience chamber. An iron railing which separated * each row of seats from tbe adjoining tier prevented , I think , man ? f < om reaching places of safety. This cir cumstance , combined with the steep incline , made it difficult for so large an audience to escape without great delay , and this is a modern , fireprool theater , furnished with all the appli ances and equipment that are sup posed to prevent just such a catastro * phe as has occurred. "The plush on the seats of the first balcony was charred , but still visible. This does not look to me as though everybody would have pot out of tbe theater alive if there had been no panic when you take into account the speed with which the flames spread. My inspection showed tbaf the seats oa the main floor were onlj slightly burned. The balconies bac evidently shielded the seats in tbfc parquet. Tbe path of the flarces war evident. Tbe stage and tbe ceiling of the theater was blistered and blackened. There was almost na damage to tbe furniture on the Orsl floor. The boxes on the second ttei were destroyed by tire , while thos on the first flror were burned eel ] in spots , evidently by aburn infrag * ments from above. CHICAGO , Jan. 1. For the first time since Chicago has possesed belli t'i peal , whistles to shriek and norm to blow , the old year was allowed t * silently take its place in his'ory am the new year permitted to come will no evidence of joy at its birth. CHICAGO , Jan. 1. The Iroqnoi , theater disaster was vastly destructive to human life than other playhouse in tbe history of the world. The fire next to it in poin ? of lives lost occurred on December 5 1876 in Conway's Brooklyn theater ; Brooklyn , N. Y. where 295 person } perished. The day after Cbristmai in 1881. while the play , "Tbe Bleed ing Nun , " was playing in a theatrj at Richmond , Ya. , a fire burne * seventy-five persons to death. Th § old world supplies no instances o fires in theatres that may be classed with these three. In the greai Chicago tire of 1873 , the larpest con flauration of modern times , iu wbici 2 124 acres were devastated , only 20 lives were lost. France Wiring to Sell. PAEIS. Dec. 31 Owing ibc tbe r cent evects at Panama the annua meeting of the Panama Canal Com pany developed unusual interest anf ercitement. Prior to the opening ef forts were made to secure enougl proxies to overrule the existing roan attement of tbe company , which i favorable to the silef the com pal ny's pfoprrty to tbe United Statea H be meering took place in tbe ha ] [ of'agriculture. . ,
