TARIFFic Poetry

Rutherford B. Hayes

GEN. HAYES AND THE TARIFF.
General Hayes, the Radical candidate for Governor, is said to be a heavy stockholder in a New England woolen manufactory, and the fact seems to have inspired somebody with the following “poem,” which is “respectfully dedicated to the would-be Governor”:

NEW ENGLAND MANUFACTURERS TO THEIR WESTERN SUBJECTS.

Ho! all ye Western savages,
Who live on corn and pork,
Come up and buy our Yankee goods
And keep our mills at work.
Come up, we’ve got the fariff fixed–
You can’t buy any cheaper,
The “moral party” rules the land
And we’re its conscience-keeper.

The pesky South had always kicked
Against our just protection,
We’ve got her safe–there’s not a vote
From all that hated section.
And while they’re out it gives us all
A most convenient season,
To line our nests–and so we say
They’ve lost their votes by Treason.

Your Western corn, and pork, and rye,
Are first rate things to tax on,
And so we lay the duties high
Your bread and barley backs on;
You like it too-your Western men
In Congress–House and Senate,
Stand ready by to vote the tax
As fast as we can pen it.

We tax your coats, we tax your hats,
We tax your bread and butter;
We tax your boots, your socks, your shirts,
And don’t you dare to mutter.
And while we bind you round and round
With strong and tripple ties,
The “tax on wool” we deftly pull
Across your sleepy eyes.

The Ohio Democrat (New Philadelphia, Ohio) 13 Sep 1867

Read more about Rutherford B. Hayes, the General, The Governor, The President.

The Brown Family: When Vigilantism Turns to Outright Murder

Texas Vigilantes

George Brown, Sr., and his sons, George Jr.,  Andrew and Jesse, along with others, evidently started out as vigilantes in the wild west of Texas, but soon began to abuse the power of justice and went on a murdering rampage over several years before being convicted. George, Jr. and Andrew were eventually hung for their crimes, but not before 14  people were murdered.

MONTAGUE COUNTY.
The Gainesville Gazette contains the following shocking narrative: “Monday, Nov. 2d, three men went to the house of the Estes brothers — three bachelor brothers living together — at Post Oak Tavern, Montague county, and there took breakfast, after which the strangers took two of the Estes brothers out and murdered them about one-half a mile from the tavern, and left. The same night, while friends were sitting up with the corpses, the same party that murdered the two brothers returned and dragged the remaining brother out of the house, a distance of fifty yards, and there murdered him. The parties were unknown to the citizens of the country in which the murders were committed. The Estes brothers, report sayeth, bore an unenviable reputation.”

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 12 Nov 1874

MONTAGUE COUNTY.
The Denison News contains the following account of a terrible crime: “Wednesday night, the 15th of April, a party of eleven men surrounded the house of a widow woman named Mrs. Morrow, or Marrow, and commenced firing at the building, and through the windows and doors. It is estimated by those in the neighborhood that thirty-five or forty shots were fired, thirty of which it was found the next morning had struck the house. Mrs. Morrow was hit three times, one bullet taking effect in the right shoulder, one struck her in the leg, and the third hit her in the small of the back, penetrating the bowels, which last proved fatal. She lived an hour, or an hour and a half. A physician was summoned, but he could render no assistance. There are two suppositions given to account for the cowardly attack on Mrs. Morrow– one is based upon a rumor that she was cognizant of certain persons having been engaged in stealing horses, and had threatened to expose them; another that she is the only witness of the killing of her husband, which occurred about a year ago. A man who was also a witness was either put out of the way or induced to leave the country not long since. The murderers are still at large.”

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 07 May 1875

MONTAGUE COUNTY.
The North-West learns from Mr. Johns that developments have recently occurred in Montague county that implicate a family of Browns, consisting of George and George Brown Jr., Jesse and An?a Brown, living near Red River, as the murderers of Rat Morrow and wife, a man by the name of Bachelor and a Mr. McClain. Some of these murders were committed near two years ago, but no certain clue to the murders had been obtained. Recently some domestic difficulties occurred resulting in one of the Brown’s wives leaving her husband, and threatening to revenge herself for wrongs she has endured by informing the public who were the murderers. This determined the murdering party to protect themselves by putting her out of the way, and one of the number was ordered to kill her. He refusing to obey, became another dangerous element, and was sentenced to a like fate. He flew to the authorities for protection and the secret was out.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 04 Oct 1876

MONTAGUE COUNTY.
The Gainesville Gazette gives the following account of the wholesale assassinations which have prevailed for three years in Montague county: Three years ago R?t Marrow and the Brown family and several other parties living near Burlington, in Montague county, on the beef trail, got into a dispute about some cattle, and a short time afterward R?t Marrow was killed. Mrs. Marrow, the only witness to the murder of her husband, had the parties indicted. Threats against her life were made, and finally her house was burned and her body riddled with bullets. Some of the neighbors who took sides with the Marrows, shared similar fates–among whom were the three Easters brothers, who were killed in August, 1874,– Bachelor, whose headless body was found in Red River about a year ago, Kozier, whose body has never been found, but supposed to have been thrown into Red River, and a young man named McLain, killed last spring. Several parties who were witnesses to some of these bloody deeds have been intimidated and driven out of the country, and for this reason it has not been known until recently who were engaged in the murders. The citizens had a meeting a few weeks since, and from their movements a man by the name of Barris became uneasy and made some remarks that caused them to believe he was implicated. In the meantime, he had a falling-out with his comrades, and fearing that for knowing too much he would be put out of the way also, he went to some citizens and told them that if they would protect him he would tell who were the guilty parties, which they agreed to, and he gave the names of quite a number of individuals. Two of whom, Jesse Brown and Geo. Brown, Sen., have been arrested and put in jail; the others are still at large. Barris, who is a relative of the Browns, was also engaged in the murders, but says he was forced to it from threats. Great excitement prevails, and it is feared Barris will also be killed if not closely guarded.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 05 Oct 1876

The Ben Kribbs (Krebs) mentioned below will get his own post. It is quite a spectacular (and not in a good way)  story as well.

MONTAGUE COUNTY.
Ben Kribbs, the principal in the terrible murder of the England family in Montague county, has been tried and sentenced to death. The jury were out only five minutes. He appealed…..Geo. Brown, murderer of Robert S. Morrow, three years ago, has been sentenced to be hung, but also appealed.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 23 Nov 1876

MONTAGUE COUNTY.
The sheriff of Montague county, assisted by twelve rangers, brought down six Montague county prisoners to Gainesville last week, and lodged them in the Gainesville jail for safe keeping. The prisoners are all charged with murder, two of whom — Cribs and Brown — have been tried, and found guilty of murder in the first degree. They are waiting the decision of the Appellate Court.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 21 Dec 1876

COOKE COUNTY.
Gainsville Gazette: From Mr. J.D. Taylor we received the following list of prisoners now confined in our county jail: From Denton–T.E. Bailey, charged with theft; John Russell, arson; A.G. Hall, theft; D.B. Deason, forgery; C.F. Mack, theft; Wm. Lunsford, theft; Geo. McDonald, (col.) assault. Montague County — Geo. Brown, A.J. Brown, Jessee Brown, Jessee Brown Jr., L.P. Preston, B. Kribbs, murder. Cooke County — J.G. Swaggerty, assault to murder; J.W. Roberson, murder; B.A. Cameron, swindling; Joe Johnson, J.W. Hughes, J. Robertson, Charles Shole, theft; W.D. Brown, assault to murder; Frank Widener, aggravated assault; J.A. Carrol, arson; Frank Kidd, drunkeness. Clay County — John Reed, Charles Holder, (col.) murder.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 11 Jan 1877

DENTON.
Monitor The court of appeals having affirmed the decision of our district court in the George Brown and Andrew Brown cases, those murderers will be hanged in Denton. They were charged with committing several murders in Montague county, but got a change of venue to Denton county.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 04 Jun 1879

A final account(s) will follow this initial post, and will give lots of details about the various murders and the fates of the accused and convicted. The article is a long one, so I may break it up into more than one post.

Tragedy on the Texas Frontier

Comanche Men

Here is a news account of a family from Kansas, who had just arrived by covered wagon to start a new life on the Texas frontier, when a violent incident changed their lives forever.

Western Texas.
SAD STORY OF A MISSOURI FAMILY.
(From the Sedalia Bazoo.)
A family, consisting of a man and wife and three children, passed through this city this morning, slowly wending their way northward to their old home in Ralls county. They were in a covered wagon, and had a team which, some day, had been a good one; but its travel-worn appearance, together with the jaded look of the travelers, attracted the attention of a Bazoo reporter, who elicited the following particulars of their journey to the western portion of Texas — and how their number was now one less than when they started from their Ralls county home:

Mr. Ressler was a well-to-do farmer, who in an early day went to the State of California, and by hard work amassed what he considered a sufficiency for a good start in farming life. He returned home to Missouri, married and settled down to regular farming life.

This spring, when emigration commenced Texaswards, the old fever which had taken him to California in 1851 began to rage, and although he had a good home he grew restless, and concluded to try his fortune in Texas.

He was looking for cheap lands, and passed through Grayson county west into Cook and out into the western portion of Montague county. This country, though wild and subject to frequent incursions of the nomadic tribes of Indians that infest the western border, is rather rich and full of game. Mr. Ressler pitched his camp on a little stream, near a good spring, some four or five miles from any habitation, and little dreamed of danger.

On the fourth day of their stay there, the oldest daughter, a young lady of seventeen, went to the spring for a bucket of water, but, alas! she never came back.

One scream like that of the surprised panther was carried to the ear of the mother, who was at the camp, the father being out hunting. The mother rushed to the rescue of the first-born, only to hear the receding footsteps of the Comanche ponies. The mother was paralyzed with grief and fainted away as soon as she realized the fate of her daughter.

The father returned in a few hours and examined the locality of the spring, and found that about fifteen ponies had been hitched hard by, and the Indians had evidently crept up to the spring and were lying in wait for their victim. Mr. R. cared for his wife, and at once started for the next neighbor, and the alarm was given that a

YOUNG LADY HAD BEEN STOLEN.

The frontier Texan is ever ready to jump into his saddle at a moment’s notice, and a party of ten determined men were soon on the trail of the red fiends, which had taken a westerly direction. The superior horses of the Texans rapidly gained on the poor ponies of the Indians, and after traveling all night on a warm trail, came up with the Indians the next morning, just as they had come to a halt, and a fight ensued, in which the object of the chase

LOST HER LIFE,

And was scalped, all of the Indians getting away but three. One of the three killed had the gory scalp of the young girl attached to his belt. They had killed her just as soon as attacked. The father was almost distracted, and absolutely frenzied with grief, and when the chase was given up by the others he could hardly be kept back. The young lady

WAS BURIED WHERE KILLED

In the western wilds of Texas, and the family could no longer remain in the country that has caused them so much misery.
The [Bazoo] reporter asked what became of the scalp. The tear-dimmed eyes of the mother looked in the direction of a substantial chest in the wagon, and she said: “It is there.” We asked if they had any objection to showing it. They said no and the father unlocked the chest and produced a long lock of dark hair, cut from the crown of the head, with about an inch and a half in diameter of the scalp. When this was produced, the entire family gave way to loud sobs; and we wondered why so ghastly a memento was kept, that would ever keep fresh in their memory the tragic end of their beloved daughter and sister.

Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas) 15 Jul 1874

Amelia Bloomer, Dress Reform and Bloomers

A Story about Mrs. Bloomer

I ran across this article about Mrs. Bloomer and immediately remembered this cute book I had read to some students, who just loved the story. One thing led to another, and now I have a whole host of news clips, spanning over 10 years of time, covering various opinions regarding BLOOMERS and the women involved in the Reform Dress movement.

Amelia Bloomer in her Bloomers

Short Dresses. –Mrs. Bloomer, editor of the Lily, had adopted the “short dress and trowsers,” and say in her paper of this month, that many of the women in that place, (Seneca Falls,) oppose the change; others laugh; others still are in favor; “and many hade adopted the dress.” She closes the article upon the subject as follows:

“Those who think we look ‘queer,’ would do well to look back a few years, to the time when they wore ten or fifteen pounds of petticoat and bustle around the body, and balloons on their arms, and then imagine which cut the queerest figure, they or we. We care not for the frowns of over fastidious gentlemen; we have those of better taste and less questionable morals to sustain us. If men think they would be comfortable in long, heavy skirts, let them put them on–we have no objection. We are more comfortable without them, and so left them off. We do not say we shall wear this dress and no other, but we  shall wear it for a common dress; and we hope it may become so fashionable that we may wear it at all time, and in all places, without being thought singular. We have already become so attached to it that we dislike changing to a long one.”

The Adams Sentinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) 21 Apr 1851

Ladies’ Short Dresses.
The papers are full just now, discussing a new fashion of ladies’ dresses. Some correspondent from over the big water, wrote to the papers of this country that a dress of short skirts, reaching only to the knee, and trousers, large and full along the leg, but gathered close about the ankle, had been adopted by some of the unique fashionables. Mrs. Bloomer, editor of the Lily, thinking this style of dress would be convenient, induced a number of respectable ladies to join her in adopting it. They accordingly got their dresses made, and all came out at once. It created quite a sensation. A good deal was said about it, and a general notoriety given to the circumstance. This induced other ladies to try it. And now some are adopting it in almost every  city and town. The last notice we have says that the ladies of Kenosha are adopting it. The press everywhere speaks of it highly. The beauty, comfort, and economy of the new dress is much talked of. It certainly must be an improvement on the long, street mops now in vogue. There seems to be a general feeling that the present style of ladies’ dresses is any thing but what it should be. And from what we see, we should not be surprised if the new style quickly superceded the other entirely. Success be with the innovation say we.

Oshkosh Democrat (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 16 May 1851

Mrs. Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Susan B. Anthony Statues

The following clips were ALL printed in the same paper on the same day!

ADVANTAGE OF LONG DRESSES. –Mr. Paxton, the designer of the Crystal palace, remarked the other day, at dinner, that he had thought the palace would be a difficult place to keep clean, and that he therefore designed a machine to obviate that inconvenience, of a hundred horse power, and had put the commissioner to some expense in having these machines made; but they had not been called into requisition, for they were not needed, as the building had been kept clean by the rich silk dresses of the ladies! Here is a fact for Mrs. Bloomer.

A BRIDAL BLOOMER. — The Boston Commonwealth states that on Wednesday evening, one of the editorial fraternity of that city, took the hand of a fair lady in marriage, whose costume was an elegant white satin Bloomer. It was neatly made, fitting snug around the waist and close up in the neck, the spencer opening in front like a naval officer’s vest, and interlaced a la Swiss mountaineer, sleeves flowing, white kids, white satin slippers, hair done plain with a wreath of orange flowers over the brow, and a long bridal veil flowing from the crown of the head over the shoulders.

A BLOOMER DRESS appeared on our streets on Saturday afternoon. We had long ago made up our mind to like it, yet had we ever been so much prejudiced against it, the first glance would have completely converted us. We have never seen anything of the dress kind that looked half so neat, or half so sensible. There is not even an approximation towards immodesty about it. The fair lady who had the moral courage to make the first inroad upon the disgusting pave-sweeping fashion, deserves great credit, and to show that our citizens appreciated her, we will state that not the slightest insult was offered to her while she was on the street. In the evening she was serenaded by our excellent brass band. We hail with intense satisfaction the beginning of the most sensible reform which is now before the people, and earnestly hope that our ladies will conquer their prejudices in favor of an unhealthy and disgusting style, and generally adopt the Bloomer costume. —Independent Democrat.

THE FOURTH OF JULY IN LOWELL. — The whole town seems to have participated in the festival, with an evident determination to make it as vivacious as it is ordinarily noisy and dull. Besides the military and civic displays, there was a parade of a company, the “Antique and Horrible Artillery,” whose fun consisted in wearing all the quaint and old-fashioned garments that could be raked and scraped together in the country. Hats of enormous size and dickeys of enormous height and stiffness, alternated with knee breeches and hooped peticoats. The captain wore a coat which, on the 17th of June, 1775, covered Bancroft, of Pepperell, a Bunker Hill soldier. One of the soldiers wore a richly embroidered vest, which was once the property of General Sullivan. Ancient vehicles were put in use, as well as ancient costumes, and dilapidated chaises and carryalls were filled with the most venerable couples.

But in contrast with the older dresses came some five hundred young ladies from the factories, dressed in the new style which has taken the name of its projector, Mrs. Bloomer. Their appearance was generally admired, and in the course of the day they presented a beautiful banner to one of the fire companies.

Tioga Eagle (Wellsboro, Pennsylvania) 17 Jul 1851

Bloomer Society

The New Costume.
MR. DENSMORE: — In looking over “Arthur’s Home Gazette” of a recent date, I noticed a few remarks devoted to the New Costume, which I though worthy of notice.

The article commences, “Notwithstanding the noise that has been made about the new costume, it does not seem to take, to any extent, amoung respectable women.” and adds — “In our larger cities the majority of those wearing it have been women of bad repute.”

Without discussing the merits of the Dress Reform, I wish to correct the wrong impressions made by his untruthful statements.

That the dress reform does not “take” (using his own elegant expression,) with respectable women, is not so. It is with the respectable women in general that it does find favor, not only respectable, but the intelligent, and I may say with all intelligent women. Strange that the many able and talented articles that have appeared from the women of our larger cities, should have escaped his notice, as also the statements of some of our most highly respected women not only of their wearing the style, but of its being worn by other of the same class. But we need not wonder when we read another clause in his article, “That for our own part we
have yet to meet the woman who approves the short skirts and pants, or who does not speak of them and their wearers, in a manner that strongly savors of disgust.” Passing over his evident desire to make it manifest that he meets with only “respectable women” or more fashionably  “LADIES,” I would say that none can read his flat and insipid paper, or his stereotyped stories., and doubt that he associates only with “ladies” who look with disgust on any new or important reform. It may easily be seen how he happens to labor under the wrong impression that it does not “take” with respectable women. He probably was engaged twaddling with one of those “ladies” who would be shocked, and her modesty outraged, and who would look with “disgust” upon any one who should hint to her that her body was made of different material or was differently constituted from her milliner’s showblock, and while she was lisping her horror and “disgust” at the dress reform, she probably startles him with the new and original idea that it must be women of bad repute only that would wear the new costume, whereupon he tries to palm off such twaddling as facts upon his readers. That it will be read, we know, and fear by some believed, as it is a lamentable fact that such a milk and water paper as the Home Gazette finds a large circulation, for there are many who like to read his stories, as the world is filled with such sick sentimentalists as one I once heard say she “liked to read T.S. Arthur’s stories because the heroines always got married, or died of a broken heart, which was just as good.” The evil that is done by the circulation of his weak stories, which chiefly consist in going into raptures over the fortitude and noble conduct of some imaginative child of fortune in bearing its reverses, and applauding the moral heroism that caused them to refrain from cutting their own throats, in their despair, or in a sickly attempt to excite our sympathy for the suffering child of poverty which he always pictures in so beautiful and interesting situation, that the reader can hardly refrain from envying. But enough of such trash. The evil influence exerted by that sheet[?] is enough without his making false statements, to oppose that which is beyond his caliber to approve.

We find in the larger number of our city papers favorable accounty of the progress of the dress reform, and through them we learn that our most able and intelligent men and women are in favor of it. But when I speak of the “women of our land” I do not mean T.S. Arthur “ladies.” They belong to another species altogether.

Besides Mrs. Bloomer, editor of the “Lilly,” who first started this reform, we find Mrs. E.O. Stanton, wife of Senator Stanton of N.Y., Mrs. M.S. Gove Nichols, the celebrated Water Cure Obstetrician of New York, and Mrs. Gage, a popular and familiar writer, among the many known to fame, who have publicly spoken in favor of, and worn the new style. Peterson’s Magazine, a deservedly popular one, appears with November fashion plates of the Bloomer style, which it certainly would not do was it merely to delineate fashions for “women of bad repute!”

Oshkosh Democrat (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 14 Nov  1851

Amelia Bloomer

MRS. BLOOMER RECANTING — Mrs. Bloomer, the author of the new style of dress, has an article in the last number of her paper, “The Lily,” in which she says that, could she have foreseen the notoriety and ridicule which she has incurred, she would never have commenced the movement.

Tioga Eagle (Wellsboro, Pennsylvania) 18 Dec 1851

Children Playing

Mrs. Bloomer imagines that the reason women differ from men, is because they are schooled and educated differently. Nothing, however, could be more unfounded. Girls differ from boys, not incidently, but radically. The first thing a boy does after he is weaned, is to straddle the banister and ride down stairs. The first thing  a girl sets her heart on is a doll and a set of half fledged cups and saucers. Girls are given to neatness and hate soiled garments of all kinds; boys, on the contrary, set a high value on dirt, and are never so happy as when sailing a shingle ship, with a brown paper sail, in a mud puddle. Mrs. Bloomer may reason as she may, but she will find in the end that Nature is stronger than either philosophy or suspenders.

Daily Commercial Register (Sandusky, Ohio) 19 Mar 1853

Bloomers

Mrs. Bloomer has gone to Council Bluffs to reside; she permitted her husband to accompany her.

Wisconsin Free Democrat (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) 18 Apr 1855

Mrs. Bloomer is Mayor (or Mayoress) of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

New York Herald (New York, New York) 03 May 1869

Socializing in Bloomers

LETTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO.
San Francisco, June 2d, 1869. PUBLIC OPINION
“I don’t care what the world thinks or says,” is sometimes the bravado of a desperate knave — sometimes the weak boast of a fool. No one can, with impunity, set at naught the usages of society, much less its laws. The experiment has been frequently tried in this city, and has always resulted in the humiliation of the experimenters. Within the last ten years we have been preached and printed at by many social philosophers of both sexes, who desire to establish a new order of things, inconsistent with our preconceived ideas of religion, decency and propriety. They ????? against public opinion, and were unhorsed and brought to grief. They didn’t care for the world’s censure, not they; on the contrary, they pitied the ignorance and stupidity that failed to discern the superiority of their doctrines to those of the de??logue and the gospel, and determined to convince society against its will. But society is of “the same opinion still,” and its scorn has put the would-be innovators down. They have discovered that they have no levers long enough and strong enough to upset Christianized civilization; that they cannot change either its customs, its fashions, or its standards of equity. We hear but little now of the misguided ladies who aspired to be Amazons. Many of the spinsters among them have gone into the state of double blessedness, and (probably) changed their views. The followers of the eccentric Mrs. Bloomer, have, as a general thing, retired from the gaze of the critical public, and betaken themselves to crinoline; and the right of woman to do man’s work and wear his ungraceful apparel, seems to have been abandoned by our strong-minded sisters. And so time passes on, and bubbles which at first seem bright and pleasant, soar into the air of public opinion, are condemned by society, and gradually they disappear from the social horrizon and are lost forever with the things that were.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) 05 Jun 1869

DEAD FRUIT. — Mrs. Bloomer has abandoned her semi-masculine style of wardrobe. The bloom is off that rye, the blossom has ripened and the fruit found to be bitter and unwholesome.

New York Herald (New York, New York) 05 Jul 1869

Newspaper picture: Amelia Bloomer

Read more about Amelia Bloomer here.

Violence at the Old Watering Hole..times 2

Last Night to Liquor Up

CERAMIC CITY DRY AS TINDER

(By United Press)
EAST LIVERPOOL, O., July 23.– Residents of the city, one of the largest in Ohio to vote “dry,” are ????y provisioned for a thirst siege. Yesterday was the last day for two years in which liquor could be sold. So the saloonkeepers had bargain sales and men and women crowded in to get the stuff.

The saloon finish was also marked by a shooting a??ray in which Charles Hineman, a saloonkeeper, was fatally wounded. A.L. [or I] Mercer, a photographer, is alleged to have done the shooting and is held with a companion without charge pending the result of Hineman’s injuries. Hineman is said to have tried to stop a fight. Mercer and his companion escaped down the river on a ????ch [maybe launch] but were captured by detectives.

New Castle News (PA) 24 Jul 1907

On the upside, with the booze ban, he was gonna be out of work anyway, so Mr. Photographer may have done him a favor.

UPDATE: Here is an update (2 separate articles) on the saloon shooting, with some interesting information about the dead man’s wife in the second one:

MURDER MARKS DROUTH’S ADVENT
Free-for-All Fight Takes Place in East Liverpool Saloon
East Liverpool, O., July 23.–A shooting which is likely to result in a charge of murder, marked the closing tonight of the saloons for their long dry season under the result of the recent election. Clark Hineman, a saloonkeeper, is in the hospital with a bad bullet wound, and the surgeons say he cannot live until morning.

Azel Mercer and George Heckatholm are in Jail. Mercer to be charged with murder if  Hineman dies, and Heckatholm to be charged with being an accomplice.

The shooting occurred during a free fight in front of Hineman’s saloon just at closing hour. Hineman attempted to play peacemaker, whereupon, it is charged, Mercer drew his revolver and shot him through the abdomen. Mercer threw the gun away, and he and Heckatholm made for the river, where they boarded their steam launch. The landed between East Liverpool and Wellsville, and were at once arrested by Policeman Dawson and McDermott of this city.

The Elyria Chronicle (Elyria, Ohio) 23 Jul 1907

FORTUNE
Awaits the Slain Man’s Young Widow if She is Cured of Drug Habit.
East Liverpool, O., Aug. 3.–The bulk of $15,000 in cash in a Pittsburg bank and considerable real estate in this city and Chester, W. Va., are to become the property of Maude Smith, whose name before her marriage to Clark [D or L] Hineman of Moundsville, W. Va., was Marie Bertrand, of Wheeling W. Va., if she is cured of a drug habit she is alleged to possess.

The will of her late husband, which has just been filed for probate in the Columbiana county courts makes such provision for the young widow.

Hineman was fatally shot here the night of July 22. The fact that he was married did not become known until after he was taken to the
hospital.

The Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio) 03 Aug 1907

Saloon Shoot-Out

A Texas saloon shoot ‘em up story. I had ancestors  living in this area back in the 1890’s.

Held Up Seven Men

SHERMAN, Tex., Jan. 17,–At Bell’s, twelve miles east of here, George Smith, a farmer, entered a saloon Wednesday night and compelled seven men at the point of a revolver to hand over their money and valuables. As he was leaving the saloon Jim Sibet, the town marshal, fired, but missed him, and Smith returned the shot and the bullet entered Sibet’s head. He will die.  Smith was afterward captured, brought here and placed in jail in spite of the efforts of the mob to lynch him.

New Castle News (PA) 21 Jan 1891

Angry Guests Put Groom In Coalbin

Coal Train

I ran across this new item while searching and thought it was funny.

MIDLAND, La., April 28,–Walter Eaton, “best man,” and seven other “guests” today faced charges for disorderly conduct following a wedding “prank” last night. When all the guests were seated at the table, the bride’s mother announced that the wedding had occurred five months ago and that the couple had gone to the train for their belated honeymoon. The enraged guests overtook the couple at the depot. Clarence Weidner, the bridegroom, was imprisoned in a coalbin all night and his bride was ducked in a public trough.

New Castle News (PA) 28 Apr 1913

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Baker in His Dough Vat

On Strike

These people play rough!

Strike Sympathizers Make Raid on Non-Union Establishment.

New York, May 15.–Max Alheim, a baker of East New York, who did not close his bakery when the bakers recently went out on strike, was dragged from his bed by strike sympathizers and thrown into a vat of dough in the basement of his establishment.

He was so badly beaten that his removal to a hospital was necessary. The women raiders meanwhile attacked Mrs. Alheim and threw pailfuls of dough upon her. The police dispersed the raiders and arrested two of them.

The Indiana Evening Gazette (PA) 15 May 1909

1 Stone, 1 Snake 2 Stone, 2 Snake

Copperhead Caution

This fellow was mighty brave, but he also knew his luck could run out  on the turn of a stone.

Three Stone, Three Snake, Four Stone—But Man Lost His Nerve.

At a certain point where the Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburg railway are making an extension to their lines near Homer City, copperhead snakes are said to be unusually plentiful. The other day an Italian laborer was told to get some rocks out of the way and after securing a crowbar he went to work.

Under the first stone he found a copperhead, which he dispatched immediately; turning over the second stone he found another copperhead ready to bite him, and killed it; going to a third stone he turned it over and there lay another snake ready to dart at him. By this time the Italian was wrought up to a high nervous tension, but succeeded in killing this reptile; then he went up to the boss and said:

“Why you no let me work at some other place. The Devil him sure must have been here. One stone, one snake two stone, two snake, three stone, three snake, but I kill him all.  Now want nother place, for maybe four stone, four snake and him bite me.”

Indiana Evening Gazette (PA) 19 Jul 1913

Musical Interlude…And Science

Dancing Cow

A man ahead of his time, or was he just keeping an eye on the bottom line?

Lancaster Cows Like “Swing”

LANCASTER, Jan. 19–Fellow dairymen shook their heads when Park Miller installed a radio for his 31 cows about a year ago. Today he explained [what] his experiment disclosed. Cows like to hear dance orchestras.

They seem to prefer snappy tunes to the dreamy waltz numbers.

Classics are not so effective.

Symphonies and bits from the comedians and speeches never should be tuned in.

Miller explained he installed the radio because he figured music would help keep the cows contented. Poultrymen discovered some years ago that they got more eggs by putting electric lights in their hen houses. It works out the same, he said.

When he turns on the radio his 31 cows show immediate interest. If the orchestra swings into some catchy tune, they’ll listen in bovine contentment, seldom taking their eyes from the machine.If the music doesn’t have that certain swing, the cows appear bored.

Then there’s something else about putting a radio in your cow barn. Miller said he observed that his hired men went about their work with a lot more vim and vigor when a snappy tune was on the air.

Indiana Evening Gazette (PA)  19 Jan 1937

Now, about those chickens…

FARM CALENDAR
Timely Reminders From Pennsylvania State College.
Eggs and Electric Lights–If artificial lights have been turned on in the poultry plant, turn on an equal amount of common sense with them. Those who get an egg production much over fifty per cent for any length of time will pay dearly next spring by having their flocks go to pieces and molt.

Indiana Evening Gazette (PA) *unknown date

Little Orphan Annie

Orphan Man, Sitting With A Girl

And her father’s solution was to hand her over to the Children’s Aid Society. Nice!

HER STEP-MOTHER
Drove Little Annie Heasley Away From Home.

The little girl who was found wandering on the streets of Shelocta last week, and afterwards turned over to Human Agent Thompson, has been identified. Her name is not Jessie Anderson, as she told Mr. Thompson, but Annie Heasley, and her home is near South Bend rather than Five Points.

When taken before Sidney Marlin, J.P., she told quite a different story than on her first questioning. Her father who was informed of her whereabouts through the GAZETTE, was present when the child told her story and was much shocked as every detail of the plan to send her homeless into the world was revealed.

Annie’s story was like this: Her step-mother told her that she must never again use the name, Annie Heasley, but must always pass as Jessie Anderson; neither was she to tell anyone that her home was near South Bend. Quite a clever scheme was fixed up to conceal the identity of the child, and she was then driven from home, followed by threats of a severe whipping if she returned, or departed from the story which had been manufactured for her.

From South Bend she wandered to Shelocta where she was picked up and brought to Indiana. Her father when he found she was in town, thinking she had run away, had papers made out committing her to the Morganza reform school, but on hearing her story turned her over to the Children’s Aid Society, who have given her over to a family named Kauffman, near Homer City, to raise.

Indiana County Gazette (PA) 20 Jul 1892