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

January 1, 1910

HILARIOUS DINERS

HAIL THE NEW YEAR.

Thousands at the Hotels and

Cafes Watch Passing

of 1909.

"It's 12 o'clock," said "Billy" Campbell, electrician at the Hotel Baltimore.

Frank J. Dean, manager of the hostelry, whose hand was on one of the big switch levers, gave it a pull, and in an instant the lights in the five dining rooms, the Pompeiian room, the grill room and the lobbies were extinguished. Bands in the dining rooms struck up "Auld Lang Syne," 1,200 diners blew souvenir horns, congratulated one another, and the new year was on.

Capacity crowds filled the dining rooms and cafes of the hotels and restaurants of Kansas City last night. At the hotels the lights were extinguished for a minute at midnight to indicate to the diners that the new year had been born. Special orchestras furnished the music and at most of the hotels the old Scotch refrain was sung.

The crowds this year were larger than last. The hotels began making reservations for last night over two weeks ago. A week ago practically all of the lists had been filled. Even at that, last night found hundreds at the big hotels, who waited in lobbies for an opportunity to get into the dining rooms before midnight.

A check system similar to that used in theaters, in which the tables were numbered and the diners held numbered checks, was inaugurated at the Hotel Baltimore this year. This avoided confusion. After dinner scores of men were put to work on the dining rooms. The tables were arranged for their guests and the decorations were put in place. The favors or souvenirs consisted of horns, in the base of which were bits of confections. The color scheme was red, roses and carnations being used in the decorations.

COFFEE AT MIDNIGHT.

The doors to the dining room were opened at 10:30, but dinner was not served until 11:30. The dinner was timed to last half an hour, with the service of coffee on the tables just at midnight. Orchestras were hidden behind banks of palms and ferns in the dining rooms.

The largest crowd was in the Pompeiian room. It was also apparently the jolliest. Long before midnight hundreds of would-be diners thronged the lobby and pleaded vainly for room in one of the dining rooms. As the midnight hour approached the doorways were crowded by those who would look in, even though they could not cross the portals. The balconies above the marble room and the main banquet hall were crowded early in the evening by those who could only watch the revelers.

SING "AULD LANG SYNE."

At the Savoy hotel the dining rooms were thrown together and the orchestra was placed in the hall so that the grill room, with its quota of stags, could be entertained. Dinner was served here at 11 o'clock. At 12 o'clock the lights were extinguished and the familiar Scotch melody was sung.

The Hotel Kupper dining room was crowded an hour before midnight and those who could not gain entrance filled the lobby and joined in the chorus of "Auld Lang Syne" when the lights were turned up after midnight.

At the Sexton hotel the crowds overflowed the dining rooms and were taken care of in the grill room in the basement.

The actors and actresses about the city had their celebration at the Century hotel. Immediately after the curtains were rung down at the various show houses a rush was made for street costumes and the members of the "profession" gathered at the Century hotel. The tables had all been reserved, and an orchestra greeted the crowd from each theater as they appeared.

The cafe of the Coates house held a capacity crowd. It was quieter than those at the other hotels.

At the Densmore, the tables in the dining room had been reserved for several weeks. Scores were turned away last night. Special music was the rule here also.

Labels: Coates house, food, holidays, hotels, Kupper hotel, New Years, Savoy

December 15, 1909

ONE WIFE AT HOME,

ANOTHER AT HOTEL?

WED NO. 1 27 YEARS AGO; NO. 2

DEC. 7, 1909, THE CHARGE.

Prosecutor and Police Say Benjamin

Franklin Hughes, Held for In-

vestigation, Admits It --

Wife No. 2's Story.

BENJAMIN F. HUGHES.
(From a sketch at police headquarters last night.)

That he married one woman, with whom he makes his home, twenty-seven years ago, and another, who, until Sunday lived as his wife at the Hotel Kupper, on December 7, 1909, is said by Captain Walter Whitsett of the police department and Norman Woodson, an assistant prosecuting attorney, to have been admitted by Benjamin Franklin Hughes, 124 North Hardesty avenue, in a statement secured from him in the matron's room at police headquarters last night.

Hughes was arrested yesterday on complaint of Valerie W. Wiler, who lives with her mother, Mrs. Cora Westover, and her sister, Clarice Wiler, at 1622 Madison street. To Lieutenant Robert Smith at police headquarters Miss Wiler represented that she had been married to Hughes, who has a wife and family at the Hardesty avenue address, by Probate Judge Van B. Prather in Kansas City, Kas. The ceremony, she said, was performed Tuesday, December 7.

Miss Wiler was under the impression that Hughes had left the city when she notified the police. It was later determined that he was home with Mrs. Hughes. Officer Oliver A. Linsay made the arrest. The man was held in the matron's room last night and will remain there until an investigation is made of the charges against him at 9 o'clock this morning.

HAS THREE CHILDREN.

Benjamin Hughes is 52 years old, and has lived in Kansas City two years, coming here, Mrs. Hughes said last night, from Glasgow, Mo. He is said to come of an excellent family and has dabbled in politics.

The details of Hughes's statement were not given out last night. It was announced by the prosecutor and Captain Whitsett, however, that he broke down and admitted marrying the Wiler woman in Kansas City, Kas., Tuesday a week ago, giving as his reason that pressure had been brought to bear upon him to unite with the girl.

According to the statement he was married to Mrs. Hughes in Osborn, Mo., April 16, 1882. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. James E. Hughes, pastor of the Baptist church there. Three children, two boys and a girl, were born to them. The oldest son, aged 20, is a clerk in the First National bank. The other son is 16 years old, the girl 11. Few clouds, he declared, darkened his married life until he met the Wiler woman last April. Mrs. Hughes had been congenial, a good, Christian woman whom all respected.

STORY OF NO. 2.

Valerie Wiler last night said she had first met Hughes when she was in the inmate of a home ofr girls at Chillicothe, Mo., under the care of Mrs. E. Carter. She believed the man was a state officer inspecting such public institutions. he seemed to like her at first sight, and came to see her often. Finally he induced her to become his wife.

Leaving Chillicothe, she stated, they went directly to Kansas City, Kas., where she gave her age as 17 years, while Hughes gave his as 45. She produced a certificate on which both names were signed together with that of Judge Van Prather who officiated at the wedding.

After the marriage, she said, the went to the Hotel Kupper where her supposed husband registered ans Frank Hughes and wife. They stayed at the Kupper several days.

"I discovered my mistake last Sunday morning when I was visiting my mother," said Miss Wiler. "She was aware of the attentions paid me by Mr. Hughes and told me that he had a wife and family on Hardesty avenue. I decided to find out if he had deceived me at once.

"Mother, my sister Clarice and I went to the Hughes home about 6 o'clock Sunday evening. We were allowed to enter unannounced, and found the man whom I had supposed to be my husband there surrounded by his family. He was very much frightened, got up quickly, and asked if he could see me alone for a few minutes. I would not listen. It did not take me very long to tell him that what I had to say was to be to his wife as well as to him.

BEGS NO. 1's FORGIVENESS.

"I said to Mrs. Hughes: 'Madame, I have married this man and have the certificate to prove it. We were married last Tuesday.' Then I threw myself at her feet and begged her forgiveness, telling her it was not my fault, that i knew nothing of any former marriage when I allowed him to lead me into matrimony. She forgave me then and told her husband that he was worse than I was. Later she seemed to take it all back, and when I went again to the ho use with my mother and sister tonight she treated me coldly. She even ordered me out of the house. I guess she is a perfect Christian woman. Anyway I loved her at first sight, and feel deeply sorry for her.

When Hughes was courting me he offered me many inducements to become his wife. He said he had been a member of the legislature and owned property in town and a farm near Cameron, Mo., worth in all about$75,000. He admitted that he had been married once, but added that his wife died eight years ago. 'I never loved her as I love you and we will be a very happy couple if you will have me,' he said once.

MRS. HUGHES DISCONSOLATE.

"Sunday night when we confronted him before his wife in his own home, he asked to speak with me aside. I refused, and he seemed very much annoyed. Finally he managed to get close enough to my ear to whisper, 'If you will make up with me, honey, we will get out of this town and go to Mexico.' I do not remember replying. The way he treated his wife did not suit me, although he was kindness itself to me from the first."

At the Hughes home last night Mrs. Hughes would not be interviewed about her husband. She was nearly distracted over his arrest, she said. Occasionally as she spoke she hesitated, wrung her ands and repeated passages from the Bible.

"This woman he married is a very wicked woman," she cried out once. "She drew my husband way to her through her evil ways. Lord have mercy on them both and me. My poor children."

Labels: bigamy, Captain Whitsett, Hardesty avenue, Judge Prather, Kupper hotel, Madison street, marriage, police headquarters

October 15, 1909

BUT FEW LANDMARKS LEFT.

A Resident of 20 Years Ago Only

Recognizes Union Depot.

"Kansas City has made wonderful progress since I left here twenty years ago," said C. W. Rogers of Santa Monica, Cal., who with his wife and daughter arrived at the Hotel Kupper yesterday for a visit in the city. "I failed to recognize any part of the city but the old Union depot. As soon as you build your new depot there will not be many landmarks of the Kansas City of a score of years ago.

"We believe that we have one of the most wonderful little cities in the world out on the Pacific coast," continued Mr. Rogers. "We recently completed a concrete pier, the first on the Pacific coast, at a cost of $100,000. The pier is 1,600 feet long and thirty-five feet wide. The floor of the pier is twenty feet above the tide, and we have twenty-five feet of water at the end of the pier. This pier serves two purposes, one for the shipping interests and the other to carry our sewage into the ocean. This sewage, when it is emptied into the sea, is as free from germs as the purest water."

Labels: California, Kupper hotel, Union depot, visitors

June 15, 1909

TRACING IMMIGRANTS' WORK.

Commissioner Redd Here to Get

Statistics for Government.

To gather data regarding the effect of immigration on American industries, S. M. Redd, an agent of the United States immigration commission at Washington, arrived in Kansas City yesterday and will remain her several days preparing reports for the various contractors.

"It is the in tention of the commission to ascertain as near as possible the number of men and women employed in this country by the different industries," said Mr. Redd at the Kupper hotel yesterday. "A question card which we ask all employers to have filed out for every individual working for him, shows the nativity of the person in question and the parents, place and date of birth, earning capacity, and in fact, all of the important facts."

Mr. Redd said that often he had trouble getting employers to understand what he wanted.

"One man thought I was an agent for an employment bureau," he declared, "and insisted that he did not want any men and didn't have any to recommend to me. Others get shy immediately when the proposition is laid before them, believing perhaps that it is for the purpose of getting information to be used against the employes or that it is a scheme to take the employes away."

Labels: employment, immigrants, Kupper hotel, visitors

April 27, 1909

POLL TAX ON DAUGHTERS.

New Zealander Obliged to Pay Upon

Arrival in San Francisco.

That taxation without representation is still enforced in the United States and ought to be suppressed, is the opinion of George Plummer, a wool manufacturer and merchant of Auckland, New Zealand, who, with his three daughters, is making a tour of the globe. Mr. Plummer declares he was obliged to pay a poll tax of $4 for each of his daughters and himself when they arrived in San Francisco from Australia several days ago.

"They said they would return it if we left the country within thirty days," said Mr. Plummer at the Hotel Kupper yesterday. "We have stopped in all of the larger cities in the West from San Francisco, but in my opinion Kansas City far excels any of them in point of industry, progressiveness and metropolitanism. A more beautiful park and boulevard system would be hard to imagine."

Labels: California, Kupper hotel, visitors

March 22, 1909

KERSEY COATES AS A WAITER.

An Incident of the Early Days in

Kansas City.

An incident of the good old days in Kansas City town was recalled last night at the Hotel Kupper by Belle Theodore, a member of the Kathryn Osterman company, playing at the Grand this week.

"I have been coming to Kansas City every season for many years," said Mrs. Theodore to a party of friends. "Several years ago on one of my visits I was stopping at the old Coates house. At dinner time one evening all of the waiters in the house went on a strike. The late Kersey Coates, who was then running the place, was in a dreadful stew, hardly knowing how to proceed. The hotel was full of guests and the dining room was rapidly filling. I followed the procession and sat down at a table, thinking that I would take a chance, if there were any, of getting my dinner.

"I had been seated a few minutes when I saw a waiter approaching. As he neared me I saw that it was Mr. Coates, the proprietor. He had donned a jacket and an apron and was handling a tray like a veteran. He worked throughout the dinner hour like a Trojan and made the best of an unpleasant and unforeseen situation."

Labels: Coates house, history, hotels, Kersey Coates, Kupper hotel, visitors

February 1, 1909

JEALOUS OF AN AMERICAN.

French Trying to Outdo Wilbur

Wright's Aeroplane.

"Wilbur Wright made all France jealous over the complete success of an American in mastering air navigation," W. S. Wittinghill of Enid, Ok., an attorney, who has just returned from a business trip in England and France, said last night at the Kupper hotel. Mr. Wittinghill is on the way home after an absence of several months.

"The Frenchmen are trying to outdo Mr. Wright, and all kinds of experiments are being made with air ships and aeroplanes of French manufacture," Mr. Wittinghill said. "But the proper recognition is given to Mr. Wright in Paris just the same. He is very much in demand and he has been entertained lavishly.

"A thing most admirable about him is that he has not forsaken his American manners and manner of doing things. His success has stimulated the efforts of those who want to fully develop their air navigation ideas. The only thing that humiliates an American when he is abroad is to see some ex-American heiress making a monkey of herself by hanging on the arm of some empty-headed nobleman."

Labels: airships, Kupper hotel, oklahoma, visitors

January 30, 1909

CAN'T TELL BY DIAMONDS.

Clothes No Index to the Room Guests

Will Take.

"You can't always tell the kind of a room a man wants by the number of diamonds that he wears or by his dress," George North, chief clerk at the Kupper hotel, said yesterday. "The fellows who wear the biggest diamonds and wear the swellest clothes often are the ones who ask for the $1 rooms. They spend all their money for diamonds and clothes, eat at a 15 cent restaurant and want the cheapest rooms.

"It is often the man who wears the plain, simple business clothes who want the best rooms. They usually want the best there is going and are able to pay for it."

Labels: clothing, jewelry, Kupper hotel

January 16, 1909

SAYS CUBA NEEDS WATCHING.

So Do South American Republics,

Thinks Havana Tobacco Raiser.

Besides Cuba, the United States has several spoiled children among the South American republics which always will give it more or less trouble, is the opinion of Martin Miller, a tobacco raiser and exporter who is at the Kupper hotel. Mr. Miller's home is in Havana, Cuba, but he has traveled extensively in South American countries and understands the manners and customs of the people there.

"Uncle Sam will get in the habit of being a good spanker before many years," Mr. Miller said yesterday. "Cuba is once more enjoying home rule, but the United States government will have to keep a close watch down there to maintain the proper condition of affairs. But Cuba is tame compared with some of the South American republics. It will not only be necessary for the United States to point a warning finger at Cuba to keep it straight, but it will have to get a hickory stick to go after some of the South American republics. The South American controversies always will be a vexing question to the United States.

Labels: Kupper hotel, tobacco, visitors

November 3, 1907

GIVE BOND OR GO TO JAIL.

SUNDAY LAW VIOLATORS WERE HUR-

RIED TO THE CRIMINAL COURT.

Judge Wallace Wouldn't Allow Them to

Wait Until Tomorrow -- "You're

Next," He Said to Barbers--

A Tight Lid To-day.

No cigars to-day. No shaves. No haircuts. Last Sunday these luxuries were available. But not to-day.

The cigar dealers indicted yesterday for selling on Sunday were counting on one more day of immunity. Then to-morrow they were to flock to the criminal court and give bond. It had all been arranged by their attorney, T. A. Mastin and Albert Heslip, county marshal. Then Judge Wallace heard and--

"What, allow them to keep open another Sunday in defiance of the law?" he exclaimed. "Not at all. These cigar dealers must learn that I mean business. They must be brought in immediately. They'll give bond to-day or go to jail."

THEN FOR THE WARRANTS.

The judge sent for the marshal. The marshal had gone to Independence. The judge then sent for Herman Weisflog, chief deputy. When that officer emerged from the judge's chambers he looked worried and he was mopping perspiration from his face. He seized a bunch of warrants and the first on the pile was one of thirteen indictments for Dan Lucas, a negro proprietor of a barber shop on Main street between Eighth and Ninth streets. He handed it to another deputy telling him to serve it.

"I thought you were going to wait until Monday," the second deputy said. "That was the agreement."

"You are not to think," was the reply. "The judge is doing the thinking."

Then the chief deputy began distributing cigar store indictments among the other deputies for service. He telephoned the news to the attorney for the cigar dealers and asked him to help.

BUT HE THOUGHT WRONG.

"I thought we were to come down Monday," the attorney protested.

"That doesn't go with the court," the deputy replied. "You will have to bring your clients here and give bond to-night. The judge says he will be here until mid-night if necessary.

Then the attorney telephoned the judge. No use. It was only a short time until those who had been indicted began arriving at the courtroom. Judge Wallace accepted bonds until 6:30 o'clock. Then he went to dinner to return at 8:30 o'clock. He took bonds until 9:30 o'clock last night. He required a bond of $600 for the first indictment and $200 bond for each succeeding one. Each bondsman was interrogated closely and none was accepted accept owners of real estate.

The first to appear was J. W. Hearsch, a dealer at 514 Grand avenue.

"I am an Orthodox Jew," he said. I close on Saturday and open Sunday."

"This isn't your trial," the judge said. "If what you say is true you will not suffer. Your bond is $600."

The next were Dan Lucas and his eight barbers. A deputy marshal had arrested them all. This resulted in closing the shop for a while. The deputy allowed the barbers to finish shaving customers in the chairs and then took them to the criminal court.

LUCAS TRIED TO ARGUE.

"There's nothing in this Sunday law against barbers working on Sunday," Lucas said. "I made a test case of it once and beat it in the supreme court."

"That was a special law against barbers alone and unconstitutional because it was class legislation," the judge said. "You were indicted here under the general law against working on Sunday, which applies to all classes of labor and has been upheld by the supreme court. All the other barber shops have closed. My advice to you is to do likewise."

The eight negro barbers sat in a row waiting for their employer to give bond.

"You're next," the judge said, indicating the second after the first had given bond. "You're next here like you are in a barber shop."

As each one gave bond the judge called "next" until all had qualified.

"Now, Lucas, I'll say this to you," Judge Wallace said as the negro barber prepared to to: "I don't wish to be severe with you if you show a disposition to comply with and not defy the law. If you close I will let you off easy, but if you defy the law you will have to take the consequences of a prosecution on all these indictments."

The negro barber said he would close on Sunday. He returned to his shop with his eight barbers and hung a Sunday closing placard in the window.

Miss Agnes Miller, owner of the cigar stands in the Kupper and Densmore hotels, was among those who appeared.

"There's a young woman; have her come up here first," the judge said.

Miss Miller advanced to the clerk's desk and acknowledged her bond; then she left the courtroom.

THEN A CAPITULATION.

Meanwhile the attorneys had learned that the marshal had orders to arrest "on view" any cigar dealers transacting business to-day.

"But," an attorney suggested, "we may not be able to get word to all the dealers of the agreement. Will they be arrested?"

"If the deputy marshals find any cigar dealer transacting business they will notify him to cease at once," the judge replied. "Should he comply he will not be molested. Otherwise he will be taken to jail, where he will be required to supply a bond or be locked up."

Then the judge began to make fine distinctions.

"The cigar stores," he continued, "may remain open to sell candy, news matter, soft drinks, fruits, nuts or any food that is cooked, so that it may be eaten on the spot.

"There's a distinction between food that may be eaten on the spot and food that must be cooked. One sort is a necessity, the other isn't.

THE NECESSITY OF CANDY.

"Now, why is candy a necessity, while cigars are not?" somebody asked.

"I have looked up the law carefully on this subject," the judge replied, "and I have determined that candy is a food necessity. Children must have it. That is my construction of the law.

The dealers who agreed to close to-day include the owners of practically all of the down town stores and of the hotel and drug store stands.

The theaters, however, under the protection of the federal court, will be open to-day as usual.

Labels: barbers, cigars, County Marshal Heslip, Eighth street, Grand avenue, Jews, Judge Wallace, Kupper hotel, Main street, Ninth street

April 28, 1907

BRIDE HOME AGAIN.

TEN DAYS OF MARRIED LIFE

ENOUGH FOR MRS. SMITH.

RAN AWAY FROM SCHOOL.

WEDDED AGAINST THE WISHES OF HER PARENTS

Father Gives Consent and She Returns to Home

Where She Was Marguerite Jackels--

Ready to Get a Divorce,

She Says.

Less than ten days of married life proved to Mr. and Mrs. Walter D. Smith, 20 and 19 years old, respectively, that the path of matrimony may e a thorny one. Mrs. Smith, formerly Miss Marguerite Jackles, the daughter of Charles F. Jackels, 3653 Harrison, left the roof of her mother-in-law, 1809 East Seventh street, last Thursday evening and returned to the home of her parents, where she declares she will remain.

The marriage of the two, which, in reality, was an elopement, a week ago last Wednesday afternoon, created considerable interest on account of aid given them by young Smith's father, in the face of strong objections made by the young woman's parents.

The young woman was a student of Miss Bigelow's private school, and on the date of her elopement attended the morning session. Walter Smith, who is the son of Sigel D. Smith, a cigar salesman, had left Central high school in January. The two had been sweethearts since childhood, but several months before their elopement the Jackels had forbade him coming to their home. On the day of their marriage the couple met and went to the court house, where the elder Smith was waiting. After procuring the license, a drive to the home of Rev. George H. Combs, pastor of the Independence Boulevard Christian church, was made, and in the presence of the father and mother of young Smith the knot was tied. Mr. Jackels, who is a traveling salesman, was away at the time, but when Mrs. Jackels heard of the marriage, three hours after it had taken place, she hurried to police headquarters to enlist the services of the police in helping her to locate the two. She heard that they were at the Kupper hotel, and there she rushed, to find that they had taken dinner there and gone. There was nothing for her to do then but to send a telegram to her husband. This was done, and the father of the girl hurried back to Kansas City. The couple had gone to the home of young Smith's parents to live, and word was sent by the father to his daughter that he would never consent to his son-in-law entering his home, but for her the latchstring would always hang on the outside.

For several days there was not a ruffle to mar the happiness of the two, but about the fourth day the young bride began to show discontent. The Smiths did all in their power to make surroundings pleasant for her, but to no avail. Last Monday she called up her parents by telephone, and asked her father if she might return home and bring her husband.

The reply was firmly in the negative, the father repeating his edict against young Smith ever entering his home. Wednesday she called her father up again and asked if she could return home, this time alone.

"I want to come home so badly, father," she pleaded. "I am sorry I did it. I wish I hadn't got married."

"Marguerite, I am sorry, too," replied the father, "but live with him a year, and then if you want to, come back you may."

Left alone Thursday morning by her husband, the girl brooded over her troubles, and, at last, declaring that she could no longer stand it, for the third time called up her father.

"Please let me come now," she said appealingly. "Let me get a divorce. I cannot stand this any longer."

The father finally gave in to his daughter's pleadings, and, accordingly to arrangements she met her father at the home of a girl friend, and the two returned home together.

"I am so happy to get back to my home," she declared. "It seems so good to have my mamma and papa, and be here right in my own home. I don't see whatever possessed me to do as I did. I will ever leave it again. I will never return to my husband under any circumstances."

Mr. Jackels said last night that so long as his daughter was happy he was satisfied with conditions.

"Of course, the marriage of my daughter was an unfortunate occurrence," he said. "it was a misstep on her part, but we are all ready to forgive her. Nothing has been decided as to what further will be done regarding obtaining a legal separation, but Marguerite will go back to school and complete her education. However, she will not go to school again in Kansas City. We had planned before to send her away to school next year and this former plan will be carried out."

Young Smith was out of the city last night. He went away Friday morning on business, according to his father, but will return within a few days.

"My son's wife received the best kind of treatment at our house," said Mr. Smith. "We treated her as if she were our own daughter and so far as her surroundings being made pleasant, everything possible was done by us to accomplish that end. Everything would have gone along nicely had not the influence of the girl's parents been brought so strongly to bear upon the young woman. Homesickness seized the girl."

Labels: cigars, Divorce, Harrison street, Kupper hotel, ministers, police headquarters, romance, salesmen, Seventh street, telegram

April 19, 1907

SUICIDE IN A HOTEL

LIQUOR SALESMAN OF CINCIN-

NATI DRINKS CARBOLIC ACID

STOCK MARKET LOSS BLAMED

SEALED LETTER TO WIFE AND

NOTE TO FRIEND HERE.

Walter Jacobs, to Whom It Was Ad-

dressed, Offers Only One Ex-

planation for Death of S. B.

Horwitz -- Kansas City

Not His Territory

Samuel B. Horwitz, a liquor salesman of Cincinnati, O., committed suicide at the Kupper hotel yesterday afternoon by drinking carbolic acid. The body was discovered at 7:45 o'clock. Two sealed letters were left, addressed one to his wife, Mrs. S. B. Horwitz, 727 South Crescent avenue, Avondale, Cincinnati, and the other to his father, B. T. Horwitz, Middleton, O. An open note on the writing table read:

Notify Walter Jacobs, care of May, Stern & Co.

Below on the same sheet he wrote:

Walter: Notify the folks in Cincinnati. My name is Sam B. Horwitz.

Walter Jacobs, who clerks at May-Sterns's local store, was found at the Alta Vista hotel, at Eleventh and Washington streets. He was unaware that Horwitz was in Kansas City. He said:

It has been a year and a half since I saw Sam and that was back East. He was
traveling for a liquor house, but I do not know the name of it. I know,
however, that Kansas City was not in his territory and I had no idea he ever came
here. He is a brother-in-law of my brother, A. Jacobs, in Cincinnati; also of
Manah Bower, one of Cincinnati's iron masters. I can conceive of no motive for
the suicide, unless Sam may have been losing money on the stock market. He
always speculated some. His family consisted of the wife and one child, 9 years
old."

Horwitz appeared at the Kupper hotel Wednesday forenoon about 11:30 o'clock. He carried no baggage. His manner was nervous, but did not excite the suspicions of the clerk, Sam Wilson. Later in the day, Wilson observed his nervousness as he would go through the lobby and remarked that he should have to put a man in a more remote room who has light baggage and took a room for only one day. Yesterday forenoon the clerk on duty, J. C. Boushell, needing the room, sent to see if it had been vacated. The door was open and a collar and tie were on the dresser. It was thought that the guest was in the bath or out of the house. When he left his key is not known, but two hours after noon he called for it and went upstairs. That was the last seen of him alive.

After 7 o'clock the clerk called his room on the phone to ask if he would stay over the night.

Receiving no answer, the key was twisted out of the lock. Horwitz was lying on the bed, dressed in a union suit. A bottle unlabeled, stood by a drinking glass, which contained acid. The man's suit of clothes hung in the closet. There was not a single coin in his pockets nor anything of value. His bunch of keys lay on the table. Aside from the notes left there was nothing in the room but a magazine and a Cincinnati newspaper.

Deputy Coroner O. H. Parker, who viewed the body, sent it to Freeman & Marshall's morgue and the family was notified by wire.

The absence of any baggage suggests that some misfortune may have been encountered in which his personal belongings were lost. The signature he put upon the hotel register was "S. Goldstein, Cincinnati." The bellboy who showed him to his room found the former occupant's baggage still there and was starting downstairs for a change of room, when Horowitz, noting that room 223 was unoccupied, said, "I think I should like this room." His request was granted by the clerk.

Mr. Horowitz was about 38 years old, and his appearance was that of a prosperous business man. Mr. Jacobs directed that the body be prepared for burial, and held until either the wife or some of his relatives are heard from. In case they do not come to Kansas City for the body, Mr. Jacobs will direct its removal to Cincinnati.

Labels: Deputy Coroner Parker, Eleventh street, Kupper hotel, salesmen, Suicide, undertakers, Washington street

January 24, 1907

WOUNDS A GROCERYMAN.

Hotel Storekeeper in Fight with Frank D. Whyte

C. B. Fox, storekeeper at the Hotel Kupper, was arrested late yesterday afternoon at the E. Whyte Grocery Company's store, 1123 Walnut street, after an altercation with Frank D. Whyte, a member of the firm. Whyte received a serious cut on the neck, and Dr. Charles Wilson, who treated him, said that it would be some time before Mr. Whyte would be able to be out.

Fox was booked for investigation. William Whyte, brother of the injured man, said he would appear to prosecute the case this morning. An effort was being made last night by J. F. Fox, 51 North First street, Kansas City, Kas., to get his son out on bond. When taken to police headquarters, Fox said that Whyte had assaulted him, and that he was compelled to defend himself.

Labels: crime, grocers, hotels, Kupper hotel, police headquarters, violence, Walnut Street