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

January 4, 1910

RABBI BECOMES A CITIZEN.

Final Papers for Father of "Sammie

the Office Boy."

Fifteen aliens whose names had been posted for ninety days after the final application for citizenship papers had been made, were given their naturalization papers by Judge John F. Philips of the United States court yesterday. There were no Italians in the lot, the fifteen being distributed as follows: Six from Sweden, four from Russia, two from Roumania, and one each from Scotland, Germany and Hungary.

Among those who became citizens of the United States was Rabbi Max Lieberman, for years in charge of the Kenneseth Israel temple, synagogue of the Orthodox Jews, near Fifteenth and Oak streets. Rabbi Lieberman came to this country in 1891. He is the father of Samuel Lieberman, better known as "Sammy, the office boy," who died early in November last, after a brief illness. Sammy was an employe of The Journal, and it was here where he gained the name of "Sammy, the office boy," stories of his travels being published just as he had written them.

Labels: federal court, immigrants, Jews, Judge Philips, Rabbi Lieberman, The Journal

November 5, 1909

SAMUEL LIEBERMAN AT REST.

Funeral Held From the Family

Home on Tracy Avenue.

With the casket in which his body reposed hidden by flowers the funeral of Samuel Lieberman, 15 year old son of Rabbi and Mrs. Max Lieberman, was held at the family home, 1423 Tracy avenue yesterday. The services were conducted by Rabbi Isadore Koplowitz. Scores of friends of the family and of the boy called at the home during the day and the house could not hold the throng that was present during the services. Burial was in the Tefares Israel cemetery at Sheffield.

Rabbi Lieberman has asked The Journal to express his family's thanks to their friends for many kindnesses during the illness and death of their son.

Labels: cemetery, children, Funeral, Jews, Rabbi Lieberman, sheffield, The Journal, Tracy avenue

November 4, 1909

SAMUEL LIEBERMAN DEAD.

The End Comes to The Journal's

"Sammie, the Office Boy."

Samuel Lieberman, 15 years old, son of Rabbi Max Lieberman, pastor of the Kenneseth Isreal congregation, died at 7 o'clock yesterday morning at the German hospital, after an illness of one day. The cause of his death was arterial sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries -- a disease that rarely attacks persons in their youth. The funeral will be at 2 o'clock this afternoon from the family home, 1423 Tracy avenue.

Samuel Lieberman was known to readers of The Journal as "Sammie the office boy." Small of body, quick of wit and cheerful to a degree rarely encountered even in hopeful youth, he became a favorite with editors and reporters, who encouraged him to write the small news stories he occasionally picked up on his daily rounds. At first the stories he wrote were given to the copy readers to be edited, but one night one of his stories was published just as he had written it, and credited to "Sammie, the Office Boy." Mr. Taft felt no greater elation when the wires conveyed to him the information that he had been elected president of the United States than did Sammie, the office boy, when he saw his first signed story in print. He became a frequent contributor to The Journal's columns and numerous inquiries were received at the office as to whether "Sammie, the Office Boy" really was an office boy or a reporter concealing his identity under the pseudonym.

Never strong in body, Sammie taxed his physical strength to the uttermost. He kept the same hours as the reporters, though it was not necessary for him to do so, and on election nights when the men were on the "long stunt," from noon to dawn, he stayed with them and it was useless to try to get him to go home. He liked the atmosphere of the local room. He said he hoped, one day, to become a great editor.

Once he ran away. He visited and worked in Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and other places. He was at home in the larger cities. He had early learned that the peregrinating reporter always gravitates to Central police station, where the "dog watch" men from the various papers hold out. Sammie could talk shop like a veteran who had worked "with Dana of the New York Sun." Whenever a group of reporters gathered in the local room Sammie could be found lurking on the outskirts. He learned the reporters' distinction between a "good story" and a "bad one" and on occasions aired his knowledge with the positiveness of a managing editor.

Not many months ago a veteran reporter, after hearing Sammie talk about newspapers and newspaper making, removed his pipe from between his teeth, pointed a long finger at the door through which the boy had just passed out and said:

"That boy isn't long for this world. He's going to die young. He's smart beyond his years -- too smart. Why, he's a man, almost, already. He thinks and reasons better than lots of men I know. And there's a peculiar brightness in his eyes that doesn't look good to me. Mark my words, that boy isn't long for this world, and it's a pity, too, for he would be heard from if he should live to manhood."

The random observation of the veteran soon came true. Sammie was at the office Sunday. "I don't feel very good," he told one of the boys, "but I'll be all right when I rest up a bit." There was a hopeful smile on his face Tuesday afternoon as he lay on a cot at the hospital. "I'll be back to the office soon. I hurt awful at times. I ain't going to stay here long."

Soon after dawn of the following day his final words were verified. "Sammie, the office boy," had heard the fateful "Thirty" that, in newspaper offices, signifies the end.

Labels: children, death, German hospital, Jews, Rabbi Lieberman, The Journal, Tracy avenue

September 25, 1909

JEWS OBSERVE YOM KIPPUR.

Period of Fasting and Prayer Began

at 6 O'clock Last Night.

The Jewish citizens of Kansas City have been fasting and praying since 6 o'clock last night. They are observing Yom Kippur, or the day of atonement, and their fast and prayers will continue until 6 o'clock tonight. Services appropriate to the event were held in all the Jewish churches last night.

The services at the church of Dr. Max Lieberman, 1415 Troost, were especially solemn and impressive and they will be resumed at 7 o'clock this morning and continue throughout the day. The male choir of twelve voices sang several selections at last night's services.

Labels: holidays, Jews, ministers, music, Rabbi Lieberman, Troost avenue

April 6, 1909

FEAST OF PASSOVER

OBSERVED BY JEWS.

ORTHODOX CHURCH WILL FAST

AND PRAY FOR SEVEN DAYS.

Local Celebration Is in Accordance

With Custom That Has Been Fol-

lowed for Thirty Centuries.

What It Means.

At sunset yesterday evening the orthodox Jews of Kansas City sat down to the tables in their respective homes to observe the anniversary of the "Feast of the Passover," a custom followed in Jewish homes for more than thirty centuries, conducted in accordance with the command as set forth in the twelfth chapter of Exodus and after the manner of the feast immortalized nineteen centuries ago when Christ and his disciples partook of the "Last Supper."

The Feast of Passover is a celebration in remembrance of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. It symbolizes their freedom form the oppression of those old days. The ceremony lasts seven days, beginning at sundown on the Monday preceding Easter Sunday and ending at sundown on Easter day.

The feast which begins at sundown is called the "seter" and is observed the first and second days of the Passover. At this time all of the good things in the Jewish culinary category are brought to the table. The supper is preceded, anteceded and interspersed with prayers which, according to custom, recall the slavery days in Egypt. The unleavened bread and wine of the Christian communion are a part of the ceremony of this feast.

According to the ancient Jewish calendar the days began and ended with the sinking of the sun and all rites and feasts commenced just as the sun disappeared below the horizon. During the entire seven days the Jews eat only unleavened bread.

At 10 o'clock this morning services will be held at Bnai Judah temple, Flora avenue and Linwood boulevard, when Rabbi Harry H. Mayer will preach the sermon, taking for his subject "The Festive Symbols."

The Festive Symbols, as explained by Rev. Mayer, are the egg, which symbolizes immortality and the rebirth of year or spring, according to the ancient Jewish folk lore; bitter herbs, the reminder of the servitude and oppression of the Jews in Egypt and the unleavened bread, symbolizing the hurried departure of the Jews from the hated country, they having had not time to put leavening in the bread for the feast. The first and last days of the Passover are holy days.

Services will begin at Keneseth Israel temple, 1425 Locust street, at 8:30 o'clock this morning and will continue until noon, Rabbi Max Lieberman presiding.

Labels: churches, Flora avenue, food, holidays, Jews, Linwood boulevard, Locust street, ministers, Rabbi Lieberman

March 28, 1909

FOIL MARITAL PLANS OF

AN AGED COUPLE.

RELATIVES RUTHLESSLY BREAK

UP WEDDING FEAST.

Now Jacob Rieger, Aged 75, Is

Speeding Away From His

Intended Bride of

60 Years.

Jacob Rieger, 75 years old, who lives with his son, Alexander Rieger, a wholesale liquor dealer at 4121 Warwick boulevard, believes that at that age he is eligible to the order of benedicts. But others of Mr. Rieger's household had different opinions and as a result a pretty wedding supper was interrupted last Thursday evening at the home of the prospective bride, Mrs. Rosa Peck, 60 years old, a milliner at Sixth and Main streets. Also there is an attachment on $1,100 which Mr. Rieger had in the National Bank of Commerce and a fast train is now hurrying him to New York, where he is to remain until he has outgrown his love for the woman.

Since his wife died a year ago, Mr. Rieger, the elder, has complained of lonesomeness, but could find no one among his near relatives who would even offer a suggestion of a cure.

"It is a pity," he is said to have often remarked, "that an old man like me must stay a widower."

No one, however, paid much attention to the yearnings of the old man. He took his evening walks the same as usual and made no allusion to any woman in particular as a fit subject for his affections, and as he has for several years been a partial invalid no developments were expected.

LOVED HIM AND LIKED HIM.

Up to last Wednesday things went as usual with the old man except it was noticed he had gradually been lengthening his outdoor walks, sometimes absenting himself for hours at a time. Then the word was brought to Alexander Rieger that his father and Mrs. Peck had been to Kansas City, Kas., and obtained a marriage license.

Alexander Rieger immediately went to the telephone and called up his lawyer, Samuel Eppstein of the law firm of Eppstein, Ulmann & Miller, with offices in the Kansas City Life building.

Mr. Eppstein went to see Mrs. Peck that same afternoon in hopes of talking her out of the notion of marrying the elder Mr. Rieger. He told her that her prospective groom, through his retirement from the liquor business, was not exactly in independent circumstances, and that in addition he was suffering from chronic stomach trouble.

Mr. Eppstein is eloquent and talked long and earnestly but by all his entreaties he received a decided "no."

"I love him and I like him," was the double-barreled manner in which Mrs. Peck, in broken German accents, expressed her regard for Mr. Rieger.

"You can't take him from me," she said. "You don't know the love we have for each other, and I wouldnt give him up for $25,000," and there the argument ended.

ATTACHED HIS MONEY.

The day following was stormy, but in spite of this fact the elder Mr. Rieger took a car for downtown early in the day. No one saw him go. It was hours before his absence was noticed and the alert lawyer again notified.

Mr. Eppstein at once hurried to the Sixth and Main street millinery store. He found Mrs. Peck had closed shop and was also missing.

Before starting out to forestall the wedding Mr. Eppstein arranged for a bill of attachment on all money Mr. Rieger had on deposit at the bank. Then he took a fast automobile ride to the home of Rabbi Max Lieberman at 1423 Tracy avenue, where he suspected the marriage ceremony would be performed.

As he expected, Mr. Rieger was there arranging for the nuptuals to be solmnized at 5:30 o'clock. After a good deal of argument Mr. Rieger consented to ride in the automobile back to the home of his son.

This was at 4 o'clock. About 5 o'clock he was again missing. This looked like buisness to Mr. Eppstein and the automobile was again brought into play and headed for the millinery store.

When the door of the living apartments at the rear of the store burst opeon to admit the excited lawyer it found a large table spread with a wedding feast and several guests, relatives of the propective bride assembled.

"This wedding can't go on!" shouted Mr. Eppstein. "I have arranged with the rabbi and he will not come."

LED THE BRIDEGROOM AWAY.

"Oh, yes it will," said the bride calmly. "We'll arange for another minister, won't we, Jacob?"

"No, there is nothing doing in the marriage line," replied the lawyer. "It's all off. You see, it isn't legal because you got the license in Kansas City, Kas. That's the law, you know."

Mr. Eppstein did not wait to hear any more, but took the bridegroom by the arm and led him away.

At midnight he was placed aboard a fast train for New York. Mrs. Alexander Rieger went along for company.

Alexander Rieger has maintained a mail order trade under the name of his father, Jacob Rieger, at Fifteenth and Genesse streets for many years, the father now having no interest in the business. Mrs. Peck has been a milliner in the North End over twenty years and is said to have laid by a snug sum of money. Her husband died many years ago, leaving the business exclusively to her.

Labels: attorney, Fifteenth street, Genessee street, Kansas City Kas, Main street, ministers, New York, North end, Rabbi Lieberman, Seniors, Sixth street, Tracy avenue, wedding

September 6, 1908

DIDN'T HE STRING

THOSE CANADIANS?

WELL, ASK SAM, THE WANDER-

ING OFFICE BOY.

He's Home Again, With the Story of

His Adventures All Written

Out, Just Like Mr. Roose-

velt -- Read It.

SAM LIEBERMAN,
The Wandering Office Boy.

Once there was an office boy, unlike the general run of office boys in that he sometimes had an original idea. He worked for The Journal, until he got one of the ideas. That was to the effect that he was destined to be a great explorer and write things like Frank Carpenter and Theodore Roosevelt -- or, at least, like Mr. Roosevelt's going to write.

So it was a traveling bug that bit Sam one sunny spring day. He said nothing, but pocketed his week's pay and hit the grit. He came back a few days ago with the story of his adventures all written out, just as Mr. Carpenter or Mr. Roosevelt would have done under similar conditions. Entering the local room, where a tardy reporter sat welting the daylights out of his typewriter, Sam said: "Well, the wandering Jew's back."

Sam is the son of Rabbi Max Lieberman of this city. He is 13 years old and small for his years but wise, far, oh, far indeed, beyond them. This is his story, just as he turned it it:

Just as soon as the weather got warm last spring, I got the fever that thousands of other boys get, and that was to "Run away." I had no reason on earth to go, but as I said, the fever was in me and I wanted to go. I wanted to get out and live on my own hook. About June 1st I picked up a magazine containing a story how a man beat it on a blind baggage (a small platform between the engine and baggage car), and I got the facts down pat, and by June the 3rd I was on the blind of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul bound for Chicago.

The engineer saw me get on but did not say anything. When the train would come up to a station I would duck down on the step on the opposite side of the station and as the steps were high and I was small I had no trouble at stopping places the ducking down business lasted until I got to Chillicothe, Mo. There was a bunch of young farm boys standing on the side I was ducking down and they saw me. When the train stopped they ran up to me and wanted to know where I was going and where I come from and ect. When the train was about to start the engineer asked them to hold me until the train started. The boys held me and when the train was going pretty fast they let go of me. The Idea of being stuck in a little town lent wings to my feet and I hiked. I never ran so fast in my life; as the train struck the upgrade it slowed up and I caught the second blind. At the next stopping place I got on the first blind. The engineer then turned a hose on me but I braced against the tender where 7,000 gallons or the capacity is printed and the water passed over me. Towards evening I was so hungry and thirsty that I thought I would die. After a while I was so thirsty that I thought I would ask the engineer for a drink. I thought the worst he could do was to put me off and I was desperate so I clumb over the tender into the cab. When the engineer saw me he said: "Kid I admire your nerve, but you will have to get out of the cab." I asked him for a drink and the fireman gave me one from a kerosene can; then I went back to the blind.

2 DOLLARS WASN'T MUCH.

About ten p.m. I arrived in Davenport where I got my first chance to get something to eat. As $2 wasn't much I knew I would need every cent of it before long. I laid down in a corner near the depot and waited for the South West Limited which arrives in Davenport about 3 a. m. I caught it and 8 o'clock I was in Chicago. I about froze to death but I didn't and that's one satisfaction. I got off at Western Ave and took a car to State street where I bought some papers and began hustling. I earned a dollar and fifty cents all day. It was hard earned money, too, since I had to lick a kid who claimed that I was on his corner. After I wiped him he got another feller and both jumped in and knocked daylight out of me. Gee! I never got a worst licking in my life.

That evening I took a boat for Milwaukee where I arrived next morning. I struck a job and worked a week. I would have worked longer but the factory inspector said I was too young to work. I got 5 dollars which went for board and some clothes.

I still had $3.50 left so I bought a ticket to Ludington, Michigan on the Pere Marquette Steamship Co. The ticket cost me half a dollar which left me three plunks. Next morning I was in Ludington and I was about dead broke before I struck a job. The job was to clean lanterns at 2 1/2 cents a piece. I made about a dollar and decided to quit the place for a bigger city. That night I was on a freight bound for Saginaw Mich, where I arrived 11 a. m. next morning cold and hungry.

MEETS ANN ARBOR GIRLS.

I got lunch and started out to hunt for a job. I met a kid who had two shine boxes and rented one and I went down to the depot and as I could lick every boot black around I run them all away and soon I had quite a bunch of shines and as shines are ten cents in Saginaw I made about $2.00 the first day. When I left Saginaw a couple of days after I had a ticket to Detroit and 5 dollars in real money. I arrived at Detroit around 3 A. M. and I ate breakfast in the depot and struck out for a job. After a while I decided to carry grips and just my luck a bunch of girls from Ann Harbour wanted somebody to guide them around so I got the job. I didn't know a thing about Detroit but when they were looking in windows I would ask the cop and he would tell me where to go. I piloted the girls around all morning and finally I took them back to the depot where I left them with six bits (75 cents) to the good. I got odd jobs such as carry grips and ect until evening then I went to Bell Isle park. The next day I carried grips and sold papers and made about $1.50. I bought a ticket for Buffalo which cost $1.75 by boat and next morning I was in Buffalo with about $4 in my pocket. I took a car for Niagara Falls but came back in an hour. I stayed in Buffalo about 2 days and then went to Crystal Beach, Ont., where I struck a job and held it all the while.

HE STRUNG THEM.

When the campers of Crystal Beach heard that I come from Kansas City they all wanted to talk to me and I soon became quite popular, with the girls especially. I told them all about the ranch and how the Mexicans rustle and how they hold up teams and everything I could pick up from some old Wild West stories. I told them all about things which happened about 25 years ago. Talk about stringing. Why I told them everything I could make up and they swallowed it all.

The 5th day I was there I received an invitation for an old fashioned Corn Roast, which consists of all the Kisses you want and corn on the cob as dessert. Some Kenucks (Canadians) say that it is all the corn you want and Kisses as a dessert. Gee, I got so many Kisses I thought opposite.

Talk about Canadian girls being timid.

Nix.

When a kid chooses a girl in a pillow game all the girls holler, "Don't forget me!" I like to see any K. C. girl be so anxious for a kiss.

Say how about fishing? Gee! Bass is so plentiful there that all you have to do is drop your line and play them. I caught a fish 2 feet long.

OPENING FOR JUDGE WALLACE.

Say Kansas Cityans you ought to rejoice. Talk about blue laws in Canada! Hully Gee! You can't breathe on Sunday without the cops looking at you as if they were going to pinch you for swiping $6,000. Judge Wallace ought to be there. I bet two bit to a cent that he would find the laws blue enough there to suit him. Gosh! If Kansas City had the same blue laws 95 per cent of the people would drown themselves in the Missouri while the rest except Judge Wallace in the Blue. Behold Judge Wallace you could then put your blue laws in effect as far as you want.

Say if Judge Wallace wants a job where he can put his blue laws in effect all he has to do is let me know. I know the head guy of Bertle township and I will use my influence and I might get him a job.

I revisited the falls again with a bunch of boys and took in the cave of the winds which is a dollar (the cost of rubber outfit) thrown to the bass by we suckers. All you do is walk down a spiral set of stairs about 170 feet then walk out on a little bridge about a foot and a half wide and view the falls. It certainly is a grand sight and then the bridge twists and turns and finally you walk under the falls where you try to look through the water, then you walk out on land and then comes the job. You are all soaked and the oil skins weigh a ton, then you got to walk up those stairs. Hully Gee! You are just ready to croak when you reach the top. That evening I took the train Home in a chair car with a real ticket, and if there is any difference between a box car and a chair car it's about 100,000,000,000 per cent.

Labels: Chicago, children, Jews, Judge Wallace, ministers, President Roosevelt, Rabbi Lieberman, railroad, The Journal

April 13, 1908

TEFARES ISRAEL

IN ITS NEW EDIFICE.

SACRED BIBLICAL SCROLLS CAR-

RIED IN PROCESSION.

Militant Parade to Commemorate

March of Children of Israel Out

of Egypt and Through

the Red Sea.

With all the wonted ceremonies and pomp the congregation of Tefares Israel synagogue took possession of its new house of worship, Admiral boulevard and Tracy avenue, yesterday afternoon. The congregation left the former church, Fifth and Main streets and marched down Admiral boulevard, the rabbi and trusted members of the church guarding the sacred biblical scrolls, eight in number.

These scrolls are all written in Hebrew, supposed to be an exact reproduction of the writing which was on the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments that were entrusted to Moses on Mount Sinai. They are the most precious belongings of the church and when not in use are kept under lock and key. Before they were taken from their accustomed place in the old synagogue prayers were offered and then they were removed during the chanting of hymn.

The militant procession through the streets upon the change of Jewish house of worship is to commemorate the march of the children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Red sea. At that time the high priests carried the sacred scrolls of the Jews with them and guarded them safely throughout the perilous march.

The congregation of Tefares Israel numbers about 250 persons. Rabbi M. Wolf is in charge of the synagogue. J. L. Gandal is president; S. Dimant, vice president; S. R. Alisky, trustee and M. Kasol is secretary.

Rabbi Max Lieberman, at the head of the Keneseth Israel synagogue, assisted in the dedication of the new church. The Tefares Israel congregation had occupied the building at Fifth and Main streets for fourteen years and was organized with a membership of ten persons.

Labels: Admiral boulevard, churches, Fifth street, Jews, Main street, ministers, parades, Rabbi Lieberman, Tracy avenue

August 26, 1907

CAME FROM AFAR TO WEDDING.

Morris Goldasky Journeys From

Africa to Sister's Marriage.

A. J. Bergman and Miss Alice Goldasky, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Soloman Goldasky, of Elmdale station, were married last night at the home of the bride's sister, Mrs. Bernard Millman, 220 East Fifth street. Rabbi Lieberman officiated. A brother of the bride, Morris Goldasky, a mining expert of South Africa, who had not been home in years, came in time to attend the ceremony. His homecoming was somewhat of a surprise, as he had expressed no intentions of doing so when he wrote to his sister last, and when he appeared on the scene of the wedding no one present suspected that he was any closer to Kansas City than Cape Town. Another brother, Herman Goldasky, of Denver, was also present. Mr. and Mrs. Bergman will be at home at 2113 Olive street after September 1.

Labels: Denver, Fifth street, ministers, Olive street, Rabbi Lieberman, wedding