News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

February 21, 1909

THIRTY YEARS FOR BLEDSOE.

Man Who Tried to Extort $7,000

From L. M. Jones Gets the

Maximum Sentence.

Assuring the court that he had no intention of harming anyone, Robert Bledsoe, aka C. H. Garnett, who tried to extort $7,000 from Lawrence M. Jones last Tuesday, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in the criminal court. Judge Ralph S. Latshaw sentenced him to thirty years in the penitentiary. The law makes the minimum sentence for this offense two years, but leaves the maximum to the discretion of the court. It means a life sentence for Bledsoe, who already is nearing middle age.

Only a few chairs held spectators when Mr. Jones stepped into the court room and took a seat. Judge Latshaw, after Bledsoe had pleaded guilty but before he had been sentenced, asked Mr. Jones to tell the story of the attempted robbery.

"I want to get at the degree of the guilt of this man," said the court.

Mr. Jones retold the morning's happenings, saying that he heard Bledsoe say he could not understand why the infernal machine had not exploded. "There must have been too much powder in it," said Mr. Jones.

Bledsoe told the court he had not meant to harm anyone. He said he had no confederates, but planned and executed the holdup alone. Questioning from the court brought out the fact that Bledsoe hailed from Dallas, Tex.; that he had seven years of schooling; that he had abandoned his wife six years ago, and that he had not heard from his mother in four years. He had gone to San Francisco to make a home for his family, he said, when he received a letter which induced him never to go home again.

At the sentencing, he had no reason to give why he should not be punished. Looking at Mr. Jones, who sat twenty-five feet distant, he obeyed the call of the deputy marshal who took him back to jail.

Labels: courtrooms, crime, criminal court, Jones Dry Goods, Judge Latshaw

February 17, 1909

EXTORTION PLOT FOILED

L. M. JONES CAPTURES VISITOR

WITH BOMB.

THREE HELD UP IN HOME

JONES, HIS WIFE AND SON

OVERAWED BY PISTOL.

Intruder Planned to Kidnap Mr.

Jones and Hold Him for

Ransom in Indepen-

dence.

A desperate man, armed with a pistol and a dynamite bomb, was overpowered by Lawrence M. Jones, president of the Jones Bros. Dry Goods Company, outside of his home after being held hostage with his wife and son at gunpoint in the library of his home yesterday morning. The man, who gave his name as C. H. Garrett, had demanded $7,000 and says he had intended to hold Mr. Jones for ransom.

Garnett, who is about 40 years old, appeared at the Jones home shortly before 8 o'clock and asked for Mr. Jones. Upon being told that Mr. Jones was eating his breakfast, the man, calling himself Mr. Jones, asked to wait in the hall. Five minutes later L. M. Jones appeared. Garnett introduced himself as Mr. Jones from Grand Island, Neb., and L. M. Jones shook hands with him and asked the man what he could do for him. Garnett said he wanted a private interview. Upon inquiring about the nature of the interview, Garnett informed Mr. Jones that he was in possession of a couple of letters that pertained to his son. Mr. Jones escorted the stranger to his library. Upon entering the library Mr. Jones was confronted by the intruder's pistol and ordered to be seated. The visitor then drew from under his overcoat a dynamite bomb, and explained that unless Mr. Jones gave him $7,000 he would immediately blow up the both of them.

In an endeavor to calm the man Mr. Jones talked with him over half an hour. Mrs. Jones, feeling apprehensive on account of her husband's long interview, entered the library at this point. The intruder ordered her to be seated and the conversation was resumed. Chester L. Jones, Secretary of the Jones Company, a son, followed his mother into the library and was ordered to be seated.

PLEADED WITH INTRUDER.

Mrs. Jones pleaded with the intruder, "Please put the pistol down." The intruder then opened the grip and showed the Joneses the contents, ten or twelve sticks of dynamite and a like number of dynamite caps along with ten feet of fuse and a pound of gun powder. Mrs. Jones became very excited after looking into the grip as did Mr. Jones, though he was not as demonstrative as his wife. There was a good deal of talking then, with Mr. and Mrs. Jones trying to reason with the intruder, insisting that they only had $500 in the house and offering to give the man the money without repercussions. Garnett refused to listen and repeatedly threatened to blow them all up.

Mr. Jones then suggested that as he did not have the necessary funds in the house the man should accompany him to the bank. This was agreed to. "And incidentally," Garnett said to Mrs. Jones, "I am going to take your husband with me for a day. In the morning you will get a letter from me telling where he is kept prisoner. You can go let him loose, then."

"If you take Mr. Jones you take me too. Get ready to take care of two instead of one."

"Well, I will take your son then."

"That will make no difference. I go with either."

"That will be all right, then, if you want to."

By that time it was 10:30, and Mr. Jones's automobile was ready to take the party to the Jones store for the money. The party was marched downstairs, Chester Jones leading, followed by Garnett. Mr. and Mrs. Jones brought up the rear.

QUICK WORK WINS.

The walks were very slippery, and Mr. Jones noted the fact. As Garnett poised himself on one foot, ready to step down the stone steps to the walk, Mr. Jones threw himself upon the bandit, pinioning his arms to his side.

Mrs. Jones called her son to help his father. The chauffeur jumped from the machine to help. But before either of them could reach the struggling men, Garnett had risen to his knees. His right hand grasped the revolver, which he slipped into his coat pocket, and he was wheeling it upon Mr. Jones. At that moment Chester Jones flung himself upon Garnett and placed his hand over the bandit's upon the revolver. The descending hammer fell upon Chester Jones's finger, tearing the glove. In such a manner Mr. Jones's life probably was saved.

Then Chester Jones slipped the cord from Garnett's wrist, and Mrs. Jones captured the valise and its contents. He was quickly overpowered and held until the police from No. 6 police station arrived. All that the prisoner would say at the Jones home after his capture, was that Mr. Jones had a "mighty plucky wife."

NO ALARM AT RESIDENCE.

During the two hours and a half that the bandit was in the Jones home, Abbie Jones, a 19-0year old daughter, with a friend, Mary Woods, were in a room just across the hall. They did not know that anything unusual was going on in the house. Servants also went about the house in total ignorance of the near-tragedy being enacted in the library.

Mr. Jones and his son went to work as soon as the bandit had been turned over to the police. Just what Mrs. Jones thinks of the affair is expressed in her exclamation:

"Did you ever hear of anything like that in a civilized country?"

CHAINS FOR HIS VICTIM.

About 6 o'clock last night J. H. Dyer and George Hicks, plain clothes policemen from No. 6 station, arrived from Independence, Mo., where they had gone to investigate the house where Garnett said he had reconstructed a clothes closet for the purpose of holding Mr. Jones upon his capture, at 313 West Linden avenue. The house is several hundred feet from any other residence and is rather sinister and dilapidated in appearance.

They brought with them four chains, each with a padlock, and four large wood screws. Two of the chains had been fastened by means of the screws to the floor, the other two to the wall of the closet four feet from the floor. A small seat had been fashioned out of one of the closet shelves, eighteen inches from the floor. The door leading into the closet could be closed until the tiny apartment, three feet wide and three feet nine inches long, would become airtight.

When Captain Casey displayed the chains to Garnett he looked taken aback but readily admitted they formed part of his device for extracting money from millionaires.

"Some of the neighbors to the house where these chains were in Independence claim that another man was seen about the place with you. I have three witnesses who can swear they saw you with another man. Was he your brother?"

"I have nothing to say," answered Garnett, but some of the witnesses to the scene thought he looked nonplused and hesitated in answering the question.

In Captain Casey's office of No. 6 police station Norman Woodson, assistant county prosecutor, "sweated" Garnett for five consecutive hours. Many of the statements he made to the assistant prosecutor, including his name, will not be relied upon by the police until something more defininte than his word concerning them is found.

Labels: crime, guns, Independence, Jones Dry Goods, No 6 police station

December 29, 1908

'GINGERBREAD MAN'

NEARLY DEAD MAN.

PROMPT SURGEON SAVED LIFE

OF WARREN BATES, ACTOR.

HAD QUARRELED WITH WIFE.

LOCKED UP UNTIL EFFECTS OF

DRUG WORE AWAY.

Wife, Who Is a Graduate of Swarth-

more College, Learned Gym-

nasatic Stunts in the Co-

Ed's Gymnasium.

But for the prompt arrival of Dr. R. A. Shiras from the Walnut street police station yesterday at noon the romance of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Bates, begun two years ago while plying in the musical comedy, "The Gingerbread Man," would have terminated fatally. The husband, dejected because the wife turned him away from her door on account of a domestic difference, had taken half an ounce of aconite in order to kill himself. Dr. Shiras gave him an antidote and the ambulance took the young man to Central police station, where he was locked up until he had fully recovered from the effects of the drug.

Bates, who is only 22 years old, handsome, athletic and well dressed, came from a good family in Philadelphia and graduated from a state normal school. While at college he learned to do tumbling stunts in the gymnasium and also devoted much time to amateur theatricals. When he left school he had an opportunity to join the company playing "The Gingerbread man," and seized upon it. With the same company was a pretty young actress who had also a gymnastic turn. Sometimes they used to work together. She was a graduate of Swarthmore college and had acquired her fondness for athletic stunts, while practicing in the co-ed's gym. Being persons from a similar station in life and both attractive, propinquity soon got in its work. They were married, and last year they started out on a vaudeville circuit in the South, doing a tumbling act. In the summer they returned to Philadelphia, where Bates became an agent for a horse and mule company.

"This year," said the young man, "we decided to give up the stage for good. After all the life of an actor must always be an unsatisfactory one and we thought we would settle down in Kansas City and raise a family."

They came here and Bates got a job with the Jones Dry Goods Company. They lived happily until differences began to arise about a month ago. Sunday night Bates went home and there was a lively quarrel, the husband finally leaving the house in anger. Yesterday morning he went back to see her, but she refused to open the door and would only speak to him through it. She told him to go away, that their paths must be thereafter separate. Bates went away and purchased and purchased some horse medicine from a druggist, including half an ounce of aconite. He then swallowed the drug.

"I am going to try to get my wife to make up with me," he said yesterday, "and then I'm going to take her back to Philadelphia, where our people live. Then I think we can be happy."

Labels: Central station, doctors, Jones Dry Goods, marriage, Suicide, theater, Walnut street police station

December 23, 1908

MONEY AND GIFTS

FOR MAYOR'S TREE.

EACH CHILD WILL GET A BIG

CHRISTMAS BAG.

And It Will Be a Big Bag, too, big

as a Sack of Flour -- Many

People Are Giving

Liberally.

Markings on the Sacks to Be Distributed

From the Mayor's Christmas Tree.

Three automobiles which left the city hall at 10:30 o'clock yesterday morning and were out only two hours collected $233 for the mayor's Christmas tree. The machines contained Mrs. J. F. Whiting, Mrs. L. H. Gaskell, Mrs. George F. Pelletier, Mrs. Mead W. Harrian, Mrs. Harry C. Wing, Mrs. A. L. Stocker, Mrs. Jule J. Levy, Mrs. Lee Lyon, Mrs. Albert S. Cahn, Mrs. Jules Davidson, Mrs. B. L. Sulzbacher, Mrs. Clarence D. Babb and Miss Lorena Whiting. A policeman went with each auto and one of them carried a one-legged newsboy and as a mascot.

"We did not have time to get over all the ground we wished," said A. E. Hutchins, chairman of the auto committee, "ans we did not realize what a sacrifice the women were making in giving their time to the project right at this time. The machines will be out again Wednesday, however, and the stock yards, the packing houses and those big office buildings which have not been covered will be visited. We will start earlier and stay longer next time."

The women, who were out yesterday, the policemen, the chauffeurs and the one-legged newsboy were given a luncheon at the Elks club at 1:30 p. m.

CALLING ON GROCERS.

Three big transfer wagons started out yesterday morning calling on the retail grocers. A policeman was with each wagon. In soliciting the first few loads the police failed to get a list of the donors of goods. The committee wants all those who gave and whose names were not taken to send their names and addresses to Steve Sedweek at Convention hall, that they may be enrolled with the others.

Louis F. Shouse yesterday turned Convention hall over to the committee, and from now on all donations will be received at the main entrance. The bags, just the size of a twenty-five pound flour sack, were delivered in the afternoon and the work of filling them with candies, nuts, fruits and appropriate presents will begin at once.

At a meeting of the Musicians' union yesterday it was decided to furnish two concerts for the children, afternoon and evening. A big orchestra will be under the direction of Professor W. E. Devinney. Besides this, Alexander Christman will have a big mechanical organ in the hall which will play while the orchestra is resting. Music all the time, is the idea.

LOOKING FOR 6,000 CHILDREN.

At a meeting of the committee yesterday it was decided to make preparations for 6,000 children at the hall Christmas day. If any more appear they will be cared for. A unique scheme has been decided upon to prevent repeating by those who would do such a thing. The committee will not divulge what the scheme is.

All of the gifts of groceries gathered by the wagons yesterday are being stowed away separate from the children's goods. This will be delivered to unfortunate families by wagons the day after Christmas. All letters received are now being carefully sorted and classified by districts for that purpose. No one is to be overlooked. Poor families who want anything of this kind can get it by writing to "Santa Clause, Care of Mayor Crittenden, Convention Hall," giving correct names and addresses.

5,000 TOYS IN A BUNCH.

Steve Sedweek, H. C. Manke, president of the eagles, and four firemen found plenty of work at Convention hall yesterday, real labor it was, too. One of the first loads to arrive was a box of 5,000 assorted tops, a gift from the employes of the Jones Dry Goods Company.

"We have toys for the children whom we expect at the hall on Christmas day," said Mr. Sedweek, "so these will be laid aside and put up in packages to be delivered to little ones who, through sickness or any other reason, cannot come to the hall.

"I have lots of Santa Claus letters here now and a package will be prepared for each child mentioned in them, and besides that the parents will get something substantial."

Among the articles gathered by the wagons yesterday canned goods led the list. Then there was flour, meal, potatoes, apples, oranges, bananas, jellies, bacon, ham, butter in bulk and otherwise, eggs, soap -- both toilet and laundry -- crackers, matches, breakfast foods of all kinds, in fact everything that may be found in a grocery store. Candies in buckets, baskets and boxes were donated along with dried fruits of all kinds on the map. There is plenty of salt and pepper, if it could be evenly divided, and a few cocoanuts, with all kinds of small nuts.

The candy, nuts and fruit will be used by the committee in filling the children's sacks, but the groceries will be delivered by wagon to the homes the day after Christmas.

KNIVES FOR THE BOYS.

One package received yesterday was found to contain a rat biscuit. One paper sack contained about three dozen boys' knives. Another package contained a half-dozen lamp chimneys. Then there are several boxes of decorations for the trees, along with an assorted lot of fancy vases with which to decorate a little home.

A little package wrapped in newspaper yesterday was found to contain a pair of gloves, two little mirrors and two leather purses. One package labeled "place on the tree" contained a beautiful baby hood, all white, soft and fluffy.

Among other things received yesterday was a lot of pretty pictures in frames, some of them in special boxes. A lot of clothing has also been donated and the committee wants more. Several tons of coal have been given and will be delivered on direction of the committee.

The committee says it wants nothing but the children at Convention hall on Christmas day. It will be too great a task to try and handle the adults then. They will be seen to later.

Arrangements have been made with a local photographer to have a big flashlight picture taken of the children as they mingle beneath the five big trees, with the five corpulent Santa Clauses.

Labels: automobiles, charity, children, Convention Hall, food, holidays, Jones Dry Goods, lodges, Mayor Crittenden, music, toys, women

October 25, 1908

THRIFTY COBBLER

FOULLY MURDERED.

SHOT DOWN IN HIS SHOP BY

TWO ASSASSINS.

MOTIVE IS YET A MYSTERY.

BUT IT IS BELIEVED ROBBERY

WAS CONTEMPLATED.

Father and Son Had Finished Count-

ing Up and Dividing Day's

Receipts When They

Were Attacked.

At 10 o'clock last night Elle Bassin, 60 years old, and his son, Nathan, 30 years old, were sitting in their little frame shoe shop mending shoes. Without warning the door of the little frame building was pushed open.

"Throw up your hands," commanded a voice.

At the same moment a hand clasping a revolver was thrust into the room. The young man arose from his seat and fell forward on the floor with a bullet through his heart. After firing the shot the assassin fled.

"There were two men," said the father of the murdered man. "I could see their faces for an instant, but not long enough to recognize them. They were young men, probably 20 to 25 years old."

Bassin said this in German. He is of German Jewish extraction. He cannot speak English. The father lives at 213 Circle avenue and the son, who is married, lived at 2111 Mercier avenue. He leaves a widow and two children, Ida, 5 years old, and Samuel, 2 years old. There are four brothers. The father and the murdered man conducted the business in partnership.

ROBBERY THE MOTIVE.

Robbery is thought to have been the motive of the crime. The Bassins' place of business is a little frame shack, 8x10 feet, at 1221 West Twenty-fourth street, with one door and a window about four feet wide in front. Every night they took the money received during the day out of the drawer in front of the window where it was kept, counted it, and the young man put it in the pockets of his trousers. This process had just been finished a few minutes before the fatal shot was fired last night. The money in the drawer usually amounted to $7 or $8.

The police say that a very tough gang of young fellows infest the neighborhood where Bassin's shop is located, and the old man himself complained that they had bothered him by throwing stones and refuse against his shop. It is thought that, seeing the young shoemaker count the money taken in by the day's work, two men who were passing by planned to step in, hold the shosemakers up with their revolvers and rob them of the money. When the young man rose as though to make resistance, the robbers, being amateurs and therefore nervous, fired.

WOMAN SAW THE MEN RUN.

Mrs. Enoch Dawson, who lives at 1208 West Twenty-fourth street, heard the shot and looked out in time to see two men running east on Twenty-fourth street. She saw one of them turn north in an alley between Mercier avenue and Holly street. Patrolman Maruice Scanlon, who walks the beat where the shooting occurred, heard the shot and came running toward the place. As he crossed Twenty-fourth street at Holly, under the electric light, he saw the man run across the street and disappear in the alley. The patrolman did not give chase but hastened to the scene of the shooting.

Dr. E. C. Rieger, 1105 West Twenty-fourth street, was called and pronounced the man dead. He had died almost instantly, saying no word. Coroner George P. Thompson was notified and the body was taken to Eylar Bros. undertaking rooms.

So far as can be ascertained, Bassin had no enemies. He was a quiet man and a steady worker. He had lived in the neighborhood three years, and before entering into partnership with his father had worked in the shoe repairing department of the Jones Dry Goods company. No arrests have been made.

Labels: Coroner Thompson, doctors, Holly street, immigrants, Jews, Jones Dry Goods, murder, police, Twenty-fourth street, undertakers

September 9, 1908

IMAGINARY TROUBLE MADE

TWO GIRLS TRY SUICIDE.

One Was Out of Work, the Other

Feared She'd Be Docked for

Being Late.

Valna Walker, 17 years old, and Sylvia Miles, 18 years old, inhaled chloroform at the home of the latter, 1507 Washington street, yesterday morning. Miss Walter lives at 10 Rosedale avenue, Rosedale, Kas., but had remained all night with Miss Miles. They were found about 10 o'clock yesterday morning by inmates of the house. Dr. W. L. Gist was called with an ambulance from the emergency hospital and revived them. They were left at 1507 Washington street.

As a reason for the attempt on her life, Valna Waller said that she had recently lost her job at the Metropolitan Cleaners and Dyers, 4637 Troost avenue. Both the girls were out late Monday night at a party and, as a consequence, slept late yesterday morning. Sylvia Miles, who works for the Jones Dry Goods Company, said she feared to be docked for being late, or that she might lose her job altogether, therefore, death was considered the only way to settle her "troubles" for all time to come. Dr. Gist gave the girls a good lecture and showed them how foolish their attempt had been.

"As we didn't succeed," one of them told the doctor, "we have concluded to have nothing published about it."

"Your cases will be placed on record with others," was all the consolation they got.

Labels: doctors, Jones Dry Goods, Rosedale, Suicide, Troost avenue, Washington avenue, women

August 23, 1908

LOST BOY'S BODY

IN PAUPER'S GRAVE.

GEORGE PICKLE HAS BEEN DEAD

SINCE JUNE.

Body Was Found in the River a Few

Days After His Disappearance.

Earl Hamilton Viewed It and

Made False Report.

On Saturday, June 20, George Pickle, 16 years old, went from his home, 1429 Summit street, in company with a friend, Earl Hamilton, 30 years old. They said that they were going to view the high water.

The day passed and the boy did not return. The next day Alexander Pickle, father of the lad, asked Hamilton what had become of his son. The latter replied that he had left him at 10 o'clock the morning before and that the boy had probably gone to the harvest fields, as he heard him asking for a ticket for Poe, Kas., at the Union depot ticket window. As George had promised his sister, Mrs. Alma E. Crowder, when she was in the city a few days before, that he would go out to her husband's farm at that place in a few days, this story seemed very probable. However, a few days later a body was discovered in the Missouri river near the mouth of the Blue and taken to the undertaking rooms of Blackburn & Carson in Sheffield for identification. The mother of the lost boy asked Earl Hamilton to go to Sheffield to view the body. He came back and reported that the body was that of a negro in an advanced stage of decomposition. The family did not pursue that clew any farther until last Friday.

Alonzo Ghent and Lum Wilson, city detectives, were assigned to the case. They discovered that Hamilton, a few days after the disappearance of the boy, deposited $120 in $20 bills in a bank, although the same week he had told his landlady that he had not enough money to pay her. George Pickle had a like sum when he disappeared. Hamilton had continued his friendly relations with the pickle family and frequently stopped to talk with the mother and to inquire if the boy had been found. On one of these visits he mentioned to Mrs. Pickle that he had served six months in the army once. She repeated this remark to the detectives, who investigated and found that Hamilton was a deserter from the army, having served a full term of three years and six months of another. They arrested him and sent word to Fort Leavenworth, and in the meanwhile they tried to connect him with the disappearance of the boy.

No charge, save investigation, was ever placed against Hamilton. He was turned over to the county marshal and held as his "guest" in the county jail a few days, then surrendered to the government authorities. A month later he escaped from the federal prison.

But it was not the trained minds of the detectives that determined the fate of the lad. Rather it was the mother's love which prompted her to go over the case again and again and to work up every clew. Her husband, who is a night watchman for the Jones Dry Goods Company, told her that no doubt the boy was safe, but she refused to believe it. Inquiries showed that he had not gone to Poe, Kas., nor was any word ever heard from him.

Last Friday, Mrs. Pickle, in thinking over the mystery, remembered that it was Hamilton that had reported the body at the undertaker's was a negro's. She determined to see if they had not been deceived, so she sent a friend, a Mr. Kinsey, to see the body. He found that the body was very probably that of the boy, and identified several articles as belonging to him. Yesterday the body was exhumed form the pauper's grave, where it had been buried, and positively identified by the father. A gash on the head told how he had come to his death. The police are looking for Hamilton now.

The body of George Pickle will be buried in Mount Washington cemetery today. Earl Hamilton is a cousin of Joseph Hamilton, 1511 Pennsylvania avenue, brother-in-law of the dead boy.

Labels: Blue river, detectives, Jones Dry Goods, Leavenworth, Missouri river, Mt. Washington, murder, Pennsylvania avenue, Summit street, undertakers

May 28, 1908

ORDERS POLICE

TO SHOW BOOKS.

BOARD DECIDES RECORDS ARE

OPEN TO PUBLIC .

ALD. O'HEARN'S ACTIVITY.

ACCUSED OF CAUSING REMOVAL

OF VIGILANT OFFICER.

Remarkable Case of Lisiecki Broth-

er's Saloon, Where a Politician

Is Said to Have Called

Off Besieging Police.

After twenty-four hours deliberation the board of police commissioner came to the conclusion yesterday that records of arrests at the different stations in the city should be declared public, so long as the information desired was of past transactions. May Thomas T. Crittenden, Jr. declared that information of past transactions should be given to any citizen asking it, and the other members of the board concurred, after some discussion.

The board was told that a reporter for The Journal had asked on Tuesday to see the records and had been refused by the captain of No. 4 station and Chief of Police Daniel Ahern.

"What do you want to see the books for?" Mayor Crittenden asked.

"It has been charged that every man since the first of the year who has been active in arresting women who infest the streets in that district has been taken out of plain clothes, and all but the two who are now detailed for that duty, put into uniform and removed from the precinct," the mayor was told. "It is said that the records at the station will show this state of affairs. It is also charged that the removal of the men came after threats from well dressed vagrants and a certain saloonkeeper-politician in that district."

No comment was made upon this statement. Chief Daniel Ahern, who was present, was simply ordered to let the books be examined "in the presence of the officer in charge of the station," and that was all. No hint at an investigation by this board was made.

SIX HAVE BEEN MOVED.

The records show that since January 1 eight men have been detailed in plain clothes in No. 4 district. Their principal duty is to keep the streets clean of undesirable women at night. Six of those men have been removed already, and the two now there have been told that they are to go. One of the men who is said to have threatened policemen who did their duty is Alderman Michael J. O'Hearn, known in a political way as "Mickey" O'Hearn.

The records will show that Frank N. Hoover was removed from No. 4 precinct on March 1. It is well known that this district harbors criminals of all classes and a horde of women who support well dressed vagrants in idleness. The records show that during Hoover's short stay in plain clothes his "cases" included the capture of land fraud sharks, a murderer, one woman who attempted murder, shoplifters working Jones Bros.' department store, clothing thieves, typewriter thieves, "hop" fiends, opium jointists, vagrants -- and a long list of "lavender ladies" who called to men from their windows, and others who walked the streets by night. Scores of these lawbreakers were fined from $5 to $150 in police court on Patrolman Hoover's testimony.

It is alleged that one night when Hoover had arrested a well known vagrant, who for years has lived off the wages of sinful women, he was accosted by O'Hearn, who demanded to know why Hoover was aresting his "friends." One who heard the conversaion said that Hoover told the saloonkeeper that he knew nothing about his "friends"; in fact, that he was doing police duty. O'Hearn, according to report, then told Hoover with a snap of the finger: "We'll see about you later." And he was "seen to" March 1, when he was put into uniform and transferred to a beat in No. 6 district.

Labels: Jones Dry Goods, Kansas City council, Mayor Crittenden, narcotics, No 4 police station, No 6 police station, police, Police Chief Ahern, saloon, The Journal

February 12, 1908

ADMITS THEY'RE SHOPLIFTERS.

Two Women Are Arrested in a Main

Street Store.

"Just a plain case of shoplifting," remarked City Detective Hoover as he and Detective McDonald led two fashionably dressed women up to the desk in the Walnut street police station yesterday afternoon. The women gave their names as Mattie Jones and Stella Morris, but when the truth of this statement was challenged they readily admitted that those were not their right names, refusing to tell officers who they were or where they lived.

Detectives Hoover and McDonald had been told of shoplifters in the large department stores, and were detailed to keep a lookout for them. They had followed these two women from Jones's dry goods store to another Main street concern. While standing at the lace counter in the latter store, Officer Hoover saw one of the women deftly slip a large piece of lace from the counter and place it in a small black bag which she carried.

The two officers then arrested the women. At the station they refused to talk further than to admit having taken the article which the officer had seen one of them place in the bag. They will be held for further investigation.

Labels: crime, detectives, Jones Dry Goods, Main street, Walnut street police station

February 9, 1908

JOHN D. PATRICK'S

"BRUTALITY" SHOWN

GREAT PARIS SALON PICTURE

ON VIEW SATURDAY.

Story of Local Man's Masterpiece,

Rescued by J. Logan Jones in

a Paris Dealer's Rooms,

and Brought Home.

Kansas City will have this week the first real opportunity it has ever had to pay an adequate tribute of appreciation to one of the gifted artists of the country who is living modestly and unobtrusively in this community. This man is John D. Patrick, whose great picture, "Brutality," which hung in the Paris salon of 1888 and was exhibited in the exposition the following year, will be on public view without charge in the Jones Dry Goods Company's art gallery on Wednesday and for a week or more.

Behind the announcement of this "exhibition" lies a story of intense human interest. The picture, a huge and graphic canvas, showing a brutal cart driver beating his horse, was the cause of the organization of the first French humane society. It was painted by Mr. Patrick in Paris twenty years ago, and has remained in that city ever since, practically in pledge for the materials with which it was painted. To the generosity of J. Logan Jones is due the opportunity of seeing this great work of art, which required six months of heartbreaking work in the mere painting, and which was praised by Meissonier. It has never been exhibited in this country, and Kansas City very fittingly has the first American view of it. It is not generally known that Mr. Patrick is the first Kansas Cityan to ever receive an art medal from the French government.

The canvas is a striking one. It is 10 x 12 feet in dimensions and it tells its story at a glance. With such marvelous atmosphere that the brutal cart driver and the magnificent Norman horse seem to be carved rather than painted, Mr. Patrick has set on unfading canvas his splendid sermon on humanity. Intense realism is the keynote of the work. The treatment is dramatic in the extreme. The great horse, of a breed that descended from the mighty Norman chargers of William of Normandy and far different from our street hacks of today, is rearing back upon his haunches in the pitiful effort to escape the rain of blows of his ruffianly master, who stands, cudgel in hand, his face blazing with cruel hatred. The picture was suggested by an actual occurrence.

This is the story of the Rosedale boy, now an instructor in the Fine Arts Institute art school, who, twenty years ago, while a struggling art student in Paris, pledged his future work to an art dealer, Fornier, for the price of his paints and painted a great masterpiece that set all Paris talking and won a medal at the 1889 exposition, where the painters of the world strove for honors and only fourteen Americans won that medal. Mr. Patrick was never able to redeem the picture and for twenty years he has mourned its absence as the loss of one dead -- this dead child of his genius which he thought he would never see again. But the resurrection was brought about by Mr. Jones, who paid the forfeiture, released the painting and sent it where it belongs -- home.

It was twenty-two years ago when Mr. Patrick, who had all but finished his course and was sadly out at elbows, was walking the streets of Paris one day and came upon the spectacle of a cart driver beating his horse, which was drawing a huge load of building rocks. Mr. Patrick's blood boiled, and to make a long story short, he gave the brutal driver a dose of his own medicine.

The young man went to his attic den and determined to show Paris what a brute it was, for horse beating was a common sight in that great, cruel city. But paints and materials cost money and Patrick had none. From dealer to dealer he went, almost begging materials and pledging his work for payment. He met with rebuff after rebuff, but finally Fornier gave him what he wanted. Then followed month after month of semi-starvation. All through the winter he froze and went hungry while he toiled and toiled, painting his heart into that great lesson of mercy.

"Olive Schreiner," in one of her beautiful "dreams," tells of a painter whose "reds" were so brilliant that they were the envy and despair of his fellows, until it was found that he opened his heart and painted with his own blood. That is what Patrick did -- he dipped the brush in his own heart. At last it was done and, too poor to hire men to take his canvas to the salon, he carried it there himself and submitted it to the judgment of the master, Meissonier, and Meissonier -- Meissonier himself -- praised it it and it was hung, despite the protests of those who feared that France would be held up to the scorn of the foreigner.

"If France deserves the scorn of the foreigner, then France must take it," was Meissonier's reply.

Patrick returned to America before he received the medal at the exposition and a series of misfortunes overtook him which brought him at last to the choice of going back to his art or staying with his mother. He stayed with his mother and the picture went back to the art dealer, who has kept it in pledge ever since, until Mr. Jones rescued it a few months ago.

None of this story comes from the lips of Mr. Patrick. Reluctant and modest verifications of facts learned elsewhere is all he will say. He was not talkative yesterday as he sat before his great work in the Jones gallery. He was thinking of the dead dream come back to life, of the long years of hunger, the weary, glorious months of ecstasy and starvation, of visions and cold and great hopes and cheerless streets when he dipped his brush into his heart and painted on and on.

Labels: arts, Jones Dry Goods

February 2, 1908

TRIPLET CARDS IN BIG DEMAND.

Supply at Jones's Soon Exhausted, but

More are Coming.

The postcards containing the picture of the Curry triplets which were placed on sale at the Jones dry goods store yesterday sold like hot cakes at a country fair. Only a small consignment of the cards were delivered at the store, owing to the inability of Miss Tillie Thornbrue, the young woman who conceived the idea of raising money for the curry family the sale of the cards, to print enough of the pictures to supply the demand. There was a constant call for the cards at the store all day and the limited supply furnished by Miss Thronbrue was quickly exhausted.

All those who made application yesterday for the cards and could not be accommodated were informed that an additional supply would be ready for sale Monday morning. Miss Thornbrue stated yesterday afternoon that she would be able to furnish at least 2,000 of the cards early tomorrow morning and that she had made arrangements to print them fast enough to keep the postcard counter at Jones's supplied in the future.

The proceeds from the sale of the postcards, with the exception of the cost of their production, is to be given to the support of the Curry family. The Jones Dry Goods company has consented to handle the sale without any compensation whatever.

The babies are still being cared for at the Curry home by Miss Bertha Curry, their 17-year-old sister, and a trained nurse. They appear to be in the best of health and are gaining in weight rapidly. They have been fed from bottles from the time of their birth, December 22. The mother, who died last Tuesday night, had only seen the triplets two or three times.

Mr. Curry and his eldest daughter, Bertha, who has the care of the babies, refuse to listen to any proposition to turn the triplets over to some charitable institution for care, but insist that they will see to their welfare at home. The people living in the vicinity of the Curry home are rendering all assistance possible.

Labels: charity, children, Jones Dry Goods, nurses

August 21, 1907

IT WAS A DREAM

SERVANT GIRL'S PLAN FOR A

BACHELOR GIRLS' CLUB.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS DUPED

VISIONS OF FAT FEES AROUSED

THEIR ENTHUSIASM.

Well Dressed, Demure Young Woman

Who Spoke Glibly of $400,000

to Spend Creates Sensation

Among Kansas City,

Kas., Offices.

A nurse girl for the two small children of D. B. Munger, Thirty-sixth and Harrison streets, of the wholesale dry goods firm, Burnham, Hanna and Munger, receiving as compense $5 a week yesterday created a furore among a half dozen prominent real estate firms of Kansas City, Kas. They thought she was a pampered child of luxury with money galore. She said she was Miss Rose Insley and alleged she was an agent for a bevy of fashionable girls forming a bachelors club, in Kansas City, Mo., seeking a favorable spot on the Kansas side on which to build a club house of great pretentions. She told the real estate merchants she was backed by four hundred thousand dollars.

When the young woman, who is of preposessing mien, entered Abstractor Thomson's office she wanted to know if there was anybody who held and was liable to sell at a good price as much as ninety acres of farm land. She was Miss Rose Insley, lived at Thirty-suixth street and Harrison avenue. She said she was just conversant with the country lying just north of Kansas City, Kas., where she insisted the land must be found. She was representing several aristocratic young women of Kansas City, Mo., and Leavenworth, she declared, and had plenty of money backing her deals.

A MERE BAGATELLE.

"How much?" Abstracter Thomson asked.

"About four hundred thousand dollars," answered Miss Insley, and looked the abstractor straight in the eye.

"That's a great deal of money, isn't it?"

"Quite a few dollars, come to sum the all up," Miss Insley replied demurely, looking down. "But you see, papa is rich, and so are the papas of the other girls in this deal. There are Miss Jones, whose papa is the senior partner of the Jones Dry Goods Company; Miss Armour; Miss Munger, who lives with me out on Harrison; Miss Keith, and oh, lots of others.

"Let me explain why we want so much ground. We have automobiles, we can't have just the time we would like to have just pent up in our homes. A long time ago we organized a bachelor girls' club composed of the most exclusive of the exclusive. A week ago we got together and decided to build a club house and build it way out in the country somewhere. We decided on Kansas City, Kas., as a feasible location.

"The next thing was to get our fathers interested, but the old dears fell into line right off without much argument. It was such a simple plan.

SHE PUT IT STRONG.

"We girls were to pick the grounds," went on Miss Insley, "and draw the plans, as near as we could, to what we wanted, and our papas were to pay all the bills. We were to have a club house of twenty-five rooms, a lake, a drive, tennis grounds, golf links and a big garage and stables. We thought that ninety acres would nicely cover it all."

When the young woman got this far in her description Abstractor Thomson became almost as enthusiastic as herself and offered to help her find the desired location.

Miss Insley expressed herself as very grateful for his kindness and, in return, offered to put the matter entirely in Abstractor Thomson's hands. Then she wrote her telephone number on the back of an envelope and went out.

Mis Insley went next to the real estate firm of Sheaf & Neudeck, at Sixth street and State avenue. There she repeated her plans to Irwin Neudeck, who also became interested in the project and offered to help her find the location but insisted Miss Isley give him the exclusive agency in the deal. This she promptly promised to do.

Miss Insley visited several other large real estate concerns in the city interesting all of them in her story and giving each a private "tip" about her needs and the promise to give the locating act into the hands of no other. It is reported her project has been listed in at least six leading real estate firms in Kansas City, Kas., and that all had scouts out looking for the location of the future bachelor girls' club house yesterday. All were astonished when they heard that the girl was merely a nurse girl in the Munger home at five dollars a week.

COULD HARDLY BELIEVE IT.

"Why, I can hardly believe it," said Irwin Neudeck when told of the identity of the girl last night.

"She was very well dressed and carried herself well like a young woman of considerable breeding and affluence. I was entirely deceived for the time, although after she left I was inclined to doubt her story."

D. B. Munger, in whose employ the girl has been for the past three weeks in the capacity of nurse for his two little children, said last night that Miss Insley had left his employ and that he would be glad to locate her in order to satisfy his wife that her intentions were honest.

"She acted very queerly at times," Mr. Munger said, "and had aroused my wife's suspicions."

Labels: con artist, Harrison street, Jones Dry Goods, Kansas City Kas, Leavenworth, real estate, Thirty-sixth street

May 29, 1907

BOUGHT BY JONES

TAKE OVER MAIL ORDER BUSINESS

OF KEMPER-PAXTON.

TWO BUSINESSES SEPARATE.

THE CAPITAL STOCK INCREASED

TO $300,000.

Plans Contemplate One of the Largest

Mail Order Concerns in Amer-

ica -- Establish Buying

Stations All Over

the World.

The Jones Dry Goods Company had purchased the mail order business of Kemper-Paxton Mercantile Company, increasing the capital stock of the former company form $150,000 to $300,000. W. T. Kemper retains part of the preferred stock in the company.

In the evolution of the commercial world within recent years the buying of goods by mail from catalogue houses by the people of all sections of the country has grown to such proportions, so states one of the Jones brothers, and has proved such a satisfactory way to trade that it must be recognized as an advanced step in the retail distribution of merchandise. In view of the fact that the people are buying largely from mail order houses, it was decided by the Jones company that it would be better to keep this trade in Kansas City than to have it go to the markets further east. Some of the fundamental principles on which the Jones Bros. will conduct the new branch of their business are stated as follows:

Their purpose shall be to get the goods from the maker to the user at the smallest expenditure of time and money. "The greatest good to the greatest number," is to be the motto of the new department. The present quarters of the Kemper-Paxton company, which will be occupied by the new firm, consist of a seven-story and basement building at Ninth and Liberty streets. As it becomes necessary these quarters will be enlarged.

The new business will be run distinctly separate from the business at Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Main and Walnut streets, but the two will operate in the closest harmony and out-of-town customers will be accommodated at either store.

The Jones Bros. are planning to make of the new business one of the greatest mail order concerns in the United States. Buying stations have already been established all over the world, and merchandise will be shipped direct to Kansas City from those places.

"Our trade territory for the present will be the great Southwest," said J. L. Jones, yesterday. "But as rapidly as is deemed expedient the whole United States will become our market. There is no reason why this catalogue business should not reach from Maine to California and from Winnepeg to Galveston in the course of a few years.

"It is believed that with the re-establishment of navigation on the Missouri river a certain and tremendous increase in the output of Kansas City factories will result, because of the outlet furnished by this distributing agency and others of its kind, and because of better freight rates resulting from river navigation."

Both of the Jones brothers have been country merchants in past years and have felt the country merchants' antagonism toward the mail order houses. They state, however, that so long as millions of people are buying goods from catalogue, there is no reason why Kansas City should not get in the fight and keep the business that rightfully belongs to her. For this reason the Kemper-Paxton Mercantile Company launched its mail order business in Kansas City and for the same reason the Jones Bros. have absorbed it with the determination to make it one of the greatest institutions of its kind in the United States.

Labels: Jones Dry Goods, Main street, Missouri river, Ninth street, retailers, Thirteenth street, Twelfth street, Walnut Street

April 29, 1907

IN MEMORY OF A SON.

Mrs. Henry E. Lantry Will Add a

Dormitory to St Anthony's Home.

Mrs. Henry E. Lantry, of 318 West Armour boulevard, has announced to the directors of the St. Anthony's Hospital and Infants' home that she intended to fit up a dormitory of twenty beds in the new building in memory of her son, Henry Jordan Lantry, who died about four months ago. The cost of establishing the memorial room will be about $500.

The women in charge of the home are planning to open the new building in memory of her son, Henry Jordan Lantry, who died about four months ago. The cost of establishing the memorial room will be about $500.

The women in charge of the home are planning to open the new building formally about May 15. Already enough rooms have been fitted through the generosity of friends of the institution to warrant the regular opening. John Long recently furnished an entire suite of eight rooms, and a ward large enough to accommodate fifteen beds. Duff and Repp Furniture Company and the Peck Dry Goods Company have each furnished a reception room in cozy fashion, and the Jones Dry Goods Company are donating the furnishings for a private bed room.

It is planned to make the opening an elaborate affair, in the form of a "pound party," and the management will be assisted by the Elks and the Knights of Columbus lodges. A musical programme will be arranged for the occasion.

St. Anthony's home is a maternal hospital, an infants' home and a day nursery. It is located on Twenty-third street between Walrond and College avenues. The building movement, of which the present commodious structure was the result, was launched several months ago at a meeting addressed by Archbishop Ireland. Donations of from 50 cents to hundreds of dollars were received by the committee in charge until enough money was raised to warrant the building.

Labels: Armour boulevard, College avenue, hospitals, Jones Dry Goods, lodges, retailers, St Anthonys Home, Twenty-third street, Walrond avenue, women

April 16, 1907

TO CONNECT THEIR STORES.

Tunnels and Viaducts Across the

Alley Between the Jones Buildings.

The council last night passed an ordinance giving permission to the Jones Dry Goods Company to erect viaducts over and tunnels beneath the alley to give access to their block of buildings bounded by Main, Walnut, Twelfth and Thirteenth streets. In the lower house Alderman Bulger wanted the ordinance sent to a committee, but Alderman Groves and Hartman, practiced builders, attested to the plans and specifications for the viaducts and tunnels and the house concurred in the estimates.

Labels: Alderman Bulger, Jones Dry Goods, Kansas City council, Main street, Thirteenth street, Twelfth street, Walnut Street

February 22, 1907

ENDS LIFE BEFORE MIRROR.

Girl Cashier Shoots Herself With

Her Father's Pistol.

Ada Veive Sieglar, with her 20th birthday this week, stood before her dresser mirror last night at her home, 4809 East Sixth street, with a revolver pressed to her temple, when her sister called upstairs to ask:

"Ada, are you getting ready?"

"Yes, getting ready," she replied, and then, the sister having closed a door, there followed the report of a pistol.

Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Holiday, boarders and long time friends of the family, were sitting in the living room just beneath the girls' chamber, Mrs. Holiday said:

"The gas globe has burst and must have struck Ada on the head," for they had heard the sound of her body falling.

In a moment Mr. Holiday had reached the girl's side. She was unconscious. A 32-caliber bullet had traversed her brain. She was lifted to the bed and died fifteen minutes later.

MISS ADA VEIVE SEIGLAR

No member of the household had the remotest idea when Ada left the dinner table a few minutes before, that she was even feeling despondent. On the contrary, she was cheerful and had joked pleasantly with Mr. Holiday about a long run which, in his business as an express messenger, had kept him from home for four days. Then she asked if the Coopers, friends of the family, were coming to spend the evening, and went upstairs, presumably to dress for the company.

That she left any message or note was denied by every member of the family present. At the Jones Dry Goods Company, where she was employed as cashier in the pattern department, she was known as a rather quiet girl who did not mingle much with other young people, though several months she has kept company with Robert E. Hamilton, a newspaper pressman. The death of the young woman's mother, which occurred last June, was suggested as having preyed upon her mind, but the family do not incline to the idea. Her father, J. T. Seiglar, had gone to call on a friend a few minutes before the tragedy. Two unmarried sisters, Ora and Grace, were in the kitchen at the time. The only other member of the family is Gus E. Seiglar, a brother, employed by an express company at the Union depot.

It was 10:45 o'clock and three hours after the shooting when the father came home to hear the first news of the tragedy. He is prominent in Masonic circles and the Eastern Star will assist in the funeral arrangements.

Coroner Thompson deputized D. W. Newcomer to view the body and remove it to his undertaking room.

Miss Seiglar had worked at the Jones dry goods store for about three months. The revolver that she shot herself with was her father's. She had taken it from a trunk in another room where the brother had kept it and another revolver of her own.

Labels: birthdays, Coroner Thompson, Jones Dry Goods, Sixth street, Suicide

February 16, 1907

AUTO HIGHWAYMEN FOILED.

Chester L. Jones Tried to Run Over

Them and They Fled.

As Chester L Jones, son of Lawrence M. Jones, merchant, 2613 Troost avenue, was speeding south on Prospect avenue at 11:30 o'clock last night in his automobile two men ran out from the alley just north of Eleventh. One carried a club. They stood in front of the automobile and called "Halt." Mr. Jones kept on and the men jumped for safety.

When he reached the arc light at Eleventh street Mr. Jones stopped and ostentatiously removed his revolver from his hip to an overcoat pocket. He waited for the men to pursue, but they did not come. A man who was standing on the corner stepped over to the machine and asked what the trouble was, but Mr. Jones was suspicious of him and kept his revolver in easy reach.

Seeing that the men did not follow, Mr. Jones continued homeward. He says it was so dark that he could not distinguish the men, further than to say that one was tall and one short and that one had a club.

It was a lucky thing for the men that they jumped aside, for Mr. Jones, who was alone, drove his 50 horse power red juggernaut which could make highwaymen look like pancakes.

Labels: automobiles, crime, Eleventh street, highway robbery, Jones Dry Goods, Prospect avenue