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

February 10, 1910

GIRL ELOPES WITH SALESMAN.

Parents Informed of Wedding by

Telegram From Nebraska Town.

Having first removed all her clothing and personal property from the premises, Miss Carrie Ann Evans, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Evans, 2610 East Tenth street, yesterday forenoon told her mother she was going to a matinee. Instead, she eloped with Bert Snider, a traveling salesman. They were married at the court house.

The first intimation the parents had that their daughter had left their fireside for one more exclusively her own was a telegram from a small town in Nebraska. It said they were on their way to Omaha, where Mr. Snider is representative of a Cincinnati pump house.

The father of the bride is manager of Barklow Bros.' News Company. The mother said last night that the parents had no particular objection to Mr. Snider, but that he was scarcely known to them.

"Besides," Mrs. Evans continued, "my daughter is only 25 and I believe Mr. Snider is over 40, although he gives his age as 31. I do not, however, consider their runaway marriage in the light of an elopement. We did not actively object, only criticised it as rather hasty. Carrie told me as lately as day before yesterday that she was going to be married soon. I guess she thought she would just run away to do it in order to save father and I the pain of watching the ceremony be performed."

Mrs. Evans would not admit that she would readily forgive the couple, but evaded answering directly any question on the subject. "Oh, it will have to suit us now," was her invariable reply.

Labels: Omaha, salesmen, Tenth street, wedding

December 17, 1909

CHRISTMAS FEED FOR

CITY'S POOR HORSES.

NEGLECTED COBS AND FALLEN

THOROUGHBREDS INVITED.

Humane Society to Be Host at Con-

vention Hall Where Equine

Event Will Show Sufferings

to Local Philanthropists.

The poor horses of the city will be fed to satiety at least once this year. By arrangement with the directors of Convention hall yesterday, the Humane Society, in conjunction with Mrs. Emma W. Robinson, 3208 East Tenth street, and Mrs. E. D. Hornbrook, 3229 East Eleventh street, will give a feast of oats, bran and ground corn, with trimmings of real hay, to the neglected cobs and fallen thoroughbreds of all sections in the big Auditorium Christmas day.

"It will not be an equine quality event," Mrs. Hornbrook said yesterday, "but it will be on invitations, anyway. This is to prevent spongers from feeding a team at our expense. The money will be raised by subscription. We are asking the wholesale houses to donate enough feed for several hundred animals."

The invitations are being printed today. They read:

"Christmas dinner for the workhorse,
Given by the Humane Society,
Call at Convention hall Christmas day between 9 a. m. and 6 p. m .

The plan of giving one good meal to the horses is original with Mrs. Robinson. She always has been interested in the dumb animals, and is a member of long standing of the Humane Society. She said last night:

"Someone has got to take up the horse's end of this charity proposition. It is not right that people should go on year after year giving alms to the human derelicts and entirely ignoring man's best friend, his horse. The scheme to give old work horses at least one square meal has been carried out to perfection in Norway, and someone should try it here. I suppose it will be scoffed at by some, but that is because it is new. In a few years, when through such humble means the attention of the world is directed toward the old horse and his suffering, it will be looked upon in a different light."

Edwin R. Weeks, president of the Humane Society, is in favor of the "banquet."

"Not for itself," he said yesterday, "but merely as a means to bring the suffering of our four-footed friends before local philanthropists. The Chicago idea of tagging the horses that are misused or underfed is not a poor one, but this one will get emaciated subjects of charity together by the hundred, in one hall, and let people see them."

Labels: animals, charity, Convention Hall, Eleventh street, holidays, Humane Society, Tenth street, women

December 6, 1909

CHRISTMAS TREAT FOR

POOR CHILDREN PLANNED.

Large Tree Will Be Prepared in

Convention Hall -- Names Should

Be Addressed to the Mayor.

The Mayor's Christmas Tree association, which was suggested and carried out last year for the first time in the history of Kansas City, is preparing to give the deserving poor children of this city a great treat this Christmas. Elaborate plans are being worked out by the committee. Headquarters have been opened in the Reliance building at Tenth and McGee streets, where contributions will be received, and also the names of the poor. The city will be canvassed during the next three weeks for the names of the children to be placed on the list. Several large Christmas trees will be prepared in Convention hall where the big event is to take place on the night of December 24, and under the direction of the distribution committee the presents will be given to all children who are deemed entitled to receive them.

Names, or suggestions as to distribution of presents, should be addressed to the mayor, and all checks and remittances for the mayor's Christmas tree should be plainly marked and mailed to the city comptroller, Gus Pearson, treasurer of the association for this year.

The members of the executive committee are Thomas Watts, Louis W. Shouse, Jacob Billikopf, M. G. Harman, A. E. Hutchings, Dave McDonnell, Henry Manke, Rev. Charles W. Moore, Steve Sedweek, T. T. Crittenden, John F. Pelletier, Franklin D. Hudson, A. Judah, George F. Damon, Justin A. Runyan, Gus Pearson, H. E. Barker and George C. Hale.

Labels: A Judah, charity, Convention Hall, holidays, Jacob Billikopf, Mayor Crittenden, McGee street, ministers, Tenth street

November 30, 1909

JEW AND ITALIAN

DRIVE OUT NEGRO?

DOCTOR SAYS HIS RACE IS LOS-

ING NORTH END.

Suggests 10th to 31st, Troost to

Montgall as Desirable Location,

But Learns It Is

Too Late.

The park board was told yesterday by Dr. M. H. Key, a negro, that there are 35,000 negroes already in Kansas city, and that in a few more years they will number at least 100,000. He said that the proper housing of the race was becoming a serious problem. It is his opinion that the only district left for them to locate in is between Troost, Montgall, Tenth and Thirty-first.

"The negroes are being driven from the West bottoms by the invasion of railroads; from the North end by Jews and Italians, and from other districts by the progress of industry and improvement," said the doctor.

PASEO EXTENSION PROTEST.

The purpose of Dr. Key's explanation was to protest against the condemnation of land occupied by negroes in the vicinity of Twenty-sixth and Spring Valley park for the extension of the Paseo. He feared that their property would be practically confiscated, and that they would not be sufficiently recompensed to find abodes elsewhere.

The members of the board assured Dr. Key that the valuations of the negroes' property would be protected, and that he had come too late with his objections, as both the board and council had approved the proceedings.up to the north park district..

Labels: doctors, immigrants, Jews, North end, Paseo, race, Tenth street, Thirty-first street, West bottoms

November 30, 1909

HORSE OF MORE IMPORTANCE.

When Told Car Hit Employe,

Grocer Asks About the Rig.

At Tenth street and Troost avenue yesterday a man got in the way of a trolley car. He was saved by the motorman lowering the fender. The man fell into the basket. Although considerably shaken up he was not hurt seriously.

Joseph Collingwood, a canvasser for the election commissioners, aided the man to a drug store. There the man requested that his employers, grocers, be told of the accident.

Collingwood called up the firm over a 'phone.

"Your delivery clerk has been hurt by a trolley car," he explained.

"How about the horse? Was it damaged?" Collingwood was asked.

The employers were told that the horse and wagon were not in the wreck. The man at the other end said, "That's good."

Labels: accident, grocers, streetcar, Tenth street, Troost avenue

November 16, 1909

BOYS PICK UP LIVE WIRE.

Evidently Charged Through Damp

Pole -- Neither Hurt Seriously.

While Charles Lumble, 14 years old, of 2610 East Eleventh street, and Leo Kelley, 11 years old, were playing yesterday afternoon opposite 2508 Tenth street both boys were shocked by a telephone wire on the ground and which both seized at the same time. The wire accidentally had been charged by an electric light wire through a damp telephone pole.

The ambulance from police headquarters was called, but neither was found to be injured dangerously. Both went home without assistance.

Labels: accident, children, Eleventh street, Tenth street

November 10, 1909

LONG FLIGHT IS DELAYED.

Weather Permitting Carrier Pigeons

Will Be Loosed This Morning.

On account of the hazy atmosphere of yesterday afternoon, the carrier pigeons, which were to have been liberated form the top of the R. A. Long building, Tenth street and Grand avenue, were not turned loose. the pigeons will be set free for their long flight to Colorado at 10 o'clock this morning, if the weather conditions are favorable.

Labels: animals, Grand avenue, R A Long building, Tenth street, weather

October 29, 1909

NEGRO COP SHOOTS A NEGRO.

Victim, With Shattered Leg, Falls

at Wife's Feet in Kitchen.

His right leg shattered by a bullet from a negro policeman's pistol which struck him as he stood in his own kitchen door, Martin Young, also a negro, fell at the feet of his wife as she was eating supper last evening.

Young, who lives at 1126 Highland avenue, was playing poker earlier in the day near Tenth street and St. Louis avenue, it is claimed, and the game was raided, but he managed to escape. Patrolmen Gray, Tillman and Campbell, all negroes, in plain clothes, surrounded his home. Tillman went inside while Campbell guarded the front of the house and Gray the rear.

Wilson went out of the back door and seeing the officer standing behind a fence started back. Gray shouted at the ma but as he made no attempt to stop, immediately shot him down.

Labels: gambling, Highland avenue, police, race, St Louis avenue, Tenth street

October 23, 1909

Y. M. C. A. FORMALLY OPENED.

Moving Pictures Show Asso-

ciation's Work Around

The World.

In the chapel, festooned with flags, a small audience, composed mostly of chief contributors to the building fund, formally opened the new Y. M. C. A. building, Tenth and Oak streets, last night. the speeches, interspersed with songs, were led by Henry M. Beardsley, president of the association.

Beardsley said, in introduction, that the new building is a credit to the city it represents, he said, an expenditure of about $377,000. After next month there will be no indebtedness. The building committee at present is only $2,000 behind the appropriation and this amount will be raised at a carnival to be held one week beginning November 16. His remarks were cheered.

John Barrett, long connected with association work in foreign countries, spoke lightly of conversations he has had with diplomats, presidents or magnates. With the versatility of a moving picture machine, Barrett called up mental views of Japan, Africa, Asia Minor, Argentina and Mexico. He compared statements of a viceroy of Manchuria with that of the president of a Central American republic or of a may or of a little town in Iowa.

In ever country, Barrett said, the association is leading the vanguard of civilizing influences.

Labels: Mayor Beardsley, moving pictures, Oak street, real estate, Tenth street, YMCA

October 9, 1909

FREDERICK GEHRING DIES.

Editor of Staats Zeitung Passes

Away at 68 Years.

Frederick Gehring, editor of the Missouri Staats Zeitung, the offices of which are located at 304 West Tenth street, died at 7 o'clock yesterday morning at the German hospital. Mr. Gehring was 68 years old, having been born in Griessen, Germany, March 4, 1841. One relative, a son, Carl, employed by the Moore Transfer Company, survives.

The funeral services will be conducted from the home, 3152 Oak street, at 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon. Burial in Mount Washington cemetery.

Mr. Gehring was secretary of the German-American Citizens' Association and a member of the Turner society. In both of these organizations his long residence in the city, his position as editor of the only German weekly paper in the country and his evident honest and ability as a worker for the good of the community gave him prestige.

Coming from Germany when he was 12 years old, Mr. Gehring's parents took him to Lafayette, Ind., where he grew to manhood. When the civil war broke out he enlisted in the Fifteenth Indiana Volunteer infantry June 14, 1861. He was mustered out of the service in June, 1864, carrying a scar from a minie ball wound with him into private life.

After marrying Miss Catherine May of Indanapolis, immediately after the close of the war, Mr. Gehring moved to Springfield, Ill., where he started the German Free Press. He was twice elected to the city council in Springfield, and from 1876 to 1877 was a member of the legislature.

Mr. Gehring came to Kansas City twenty-five years ago and established the Staats Zeitung, or State News, in 1894. His wife died last December.

A special meeting of the Turner Society will be called at 8 o'clock this evening to arrange for the funeral.

Labels: Civil War, death, German hospital, immigrants, Mt. Washington, newspapers, Oak street, organizations, Tenth street

October 4, 1909

MADE THREE WILLS.

Changes Were Made When Interests

Outgrew Previous Will.

In a will made three years ago he provided for the disposal of his estate after his death. Several years ago he made his first will, but the interests evidently outgrew the scope of this instrument for later he made a new one and still later a third one.

Each was destroyed without the contents being known to anyone except the testators and his legal adviser. For several weeks before his death, he carried the will about with him, pinning the document in one of his coat pockets.

W. S. Spangler, 3604 East Tenth street, since 1903 Mr. Swope's business manager, stated last night that he did not know the exact terms of the capitalist's will. He believes, however, that the entire fortune is to be divided among the legal heirs.

Mr. Swope said recently that he had intended to leave each heir sufficient property to net the owner an annual income of $12,000, and that he hoped to arrange to give the remainder of the fortune, which is estimated to be about $1,000,000, to Kansas City charitable organizations.

A few days before his death, he is quoted as saying:

"If I am allowed to live just long enough to make this provision in my will, so that I may benefit the poor people of Kansas City in some way , I will be ready and willing to die."

He did not live to accomplish this purpose, however, and it is very improbable that any part of the fortune will be set aside for charity as its owner had planned that it should be.

Labels: charity, probate, Tenth street, Thomas Swope

October 1, 1909

OUT OF THE OLD BUILDING.

Y. M. C. A. Members Make the Move

Into Their New Building a

Memorable Occasion.

The Y. M. C. A. building at 810 Wyandotte street -- if a building may have a memory -- never will forget last night. It was the noisiest night the building had ever experienced in the thirteen years it has been occupied by the association. The organization deserted it last night and about 1,000 of the younger members celebrated the occasion by a parade to the new building of the association at Tenth and Oak streets.

Before they left, using bar bells, they tapped and rattled the floors and tables in the building and turned on and off the electric lights, romped up and down the stairs and did other stunts that occur to youthful cut-ups. Then they went out on Wyandotte street, fell into eight platoons, each of which represented one of the teams competing for the most new members, and marched thought the business streets giving a yell half-human and half-coyote that left none of the auditors along the streets in doubt as to the identity of the marchers or the fact that they were celebrating.

When the marchers reached the new building, they raced up unlighted stairs and produced noises that made the former sounds excruciatingly jealous, providing again that noises get jealous. Incidentally, the association members advertised the fact that it was looking for new members. Up to last night 610 new members had been secured. The competition to gain 1,500 new members ends tomorrow night. Those in charge say that they will have them.

Labels: Oak street, real estate, Tenth street, Wyandotte street, YMCA

August 24, 1909

WITH 5,000 NEGRO DELEGATES.

SUPREME LODGE WILL OPEN

THIS MORNING.

Every State in Union Wil Be Rep-

resented on Roll Call -- Recep-

tion at Second Bap-

tist Church.

With a delegation of 5,000 negro men and women from every state in the Union, the supreme lodge of negro Knights of Pythias opens this morning in Ivanhoe hall, Nineteenth street and Tracy avenue, and continues until Friday night. It is the largest gathering of its kind ever held in Kansas City. Among the delegates are doctors, lawyers, bankers, merchants, clerks, porters, barbers, teachers, editors, farmers and every other profession, trade and business followed by negroes.

A reception was held last night at the Second Baptist church, Tenth and Charlotte streets. Grand Chancellor A. W. Lloyd of St. Louis presided and music was furnished by the choir of the Second Baptist church.

Nelson C. Crews, chairman of the local committee, made an address of welcome.

A solo by Miss Ennis Collins followed.

Welcome to the state was extended by Professor W. W. Yates, who represented Governor Hadley. His address was short and cordial. A selection by the Calanthian choir then followed.

S. W. Green of New Orleans, supreme chancellor, responded to this address.

S. C. Woodson represented Mayor Crittenden in an address of welcome.

There was a solo by Wiliam J. Tompkins and a selection by the choir, "The Heavens Are Telling." Other addresses were made by Prof. J. R. Jefferson of West Virginia; Dr. J. E. Perry, E. D. Green, of Chicago; Dr. W. P. Curtiss, St. Louis; Dr. J. A. Ward, Indianapolis; Mrs. Janie C. Combs and A. J. Hazelwood.

The Supreme Court of Calanthe will be presided over by John W. Strauther of Greenville, Miss. The session will be held at the Hodcarrier's hall. In this meeting every phase of the negro's home life will be discussed. Strauther is one of the most noted men of his race in the country.

At 2 o'clock this afternoon a band concert will be given at Cap Carrouthers by the Bixton, Ia., band, and dress parade at 5:30 p. m. by the entire uniform ranks.

Rev. B. Hillman of Terra Haute, Ind., made the opening prayer last night.

Labels: Charlotte street, churches, conventions, Herbert Hadley, lodges, Mayor Crittenden, ministers, music, New Orleans, Nineteenth street, parades, race, St Louis, Tenth street, Tracy avenue, visitors

August 7, 1909

UNEARTHED MYSTERIOUS BOX.

Contained Skeleton of a Dog,

and Not a Bomb.

While excavating in the basement of the old Southern hotel at Tenth and Wyandotte streets yesterday afternoon, a workman unearthed a suspicious looking box. Fearing an infernal machine, police headquarters was notified and Detective Charles Lewis was sent to investigate the matter.

Lewis used a pick. One or two vigorous blows was sufficient to break the hinges, and the skeleton of a dog was disclosed.

Then someone recalled the fact that a woman who once lived at the hotel had owned two white house dogs and that on the death of the favorite, the animal was buried in the cellar with much ceremony.

Labels: detectives, hotels, Tenth street, Wyandotte street

July 20, 1909

DON'T TRY TO RUB OFF BLACK.

"Stick to Race Type," Major Wright

Tells Negroes.

"Let us stick to our race type; don't try to rub off the black," was the injunction of Major R. R. Wright of Savannah, Ga., to a congregation at the African Second Baptist church, Tenth and Charlotte streets, last night. Major Wright was one of the two negro army officers of his rank in the Spanish-American war. He is president of the Georgia State Industrial college for negroes, and a member of hte Amerian Historical Association.

"The negro as a race is as great as any that ever peopled the earth," continued Major Wright. "If you are ashamed of your color read history.

"At the time of the Gallic invasion hundreds of thousands of Romans went to Africa and there tried to found a new nation. Africa through its mighty chiefs repelled the invaders, and drove them back to Italy.

"When Columbus discovered America there were fifteen large negro kingdoms in Africa. One of them on the west coast was three times larger than Mexico. The king of this great monarchy was one of a dynasty 1,100 years old. Think of this line of kings and then of that which is represented by King Edward of England and then of America little more than a tenth as old. Such powerful kingdoms are not founded on sand."

Labels: Charlotte street, churches, race, Spanish-American War, Tenth street, veterans, visitors

July 12, 1909

JOE MARKS STOPPED FIGHT.

Ability as Linguist Helped Him to

Put and End to Quarrel.

The versatility of Joe Marks, a cigar salesman, prevented guests at the Coates house last night from witnessing what might have proved a battle royal, when he intervened between two men, neither of whom could speak English, who were about to "mix it up" in the street at Tenth street and Broadway. Joe speaks seven languages and he said last night it helped him a lot. He lives at the Coates house.

The men were quarreling with their wives. The women knew each other, but the men were not acquainted and neither could speak English intelligently. A misunderstanding occurred when they met and were introduced. One of the belligerents was an Italian and the other a Bohemian. In an aside to his wife the Italian said something the Bohemian believed derogatory. They tried to explain in English, but it was useless.

Just as the men were rolling up their sleeves Marks appeared on the scene. He acted as interpreter general and finally succeeded in quieting all parties. His thanks came in three languages.

Marks was returning from the Union depot to the hotel when he overheard the argument.

"If the flood had not tied up the trains I might have been on my way to Iowa," he said, "and in that case someone would surely h ave been hurt. The women were sure to have gotten into it if a fight had occurred."

Labels: Broadway, cigars, Coates house, immigrants, Tenth street

June 27, 1909

ORIENT INN INCREASES.

Breakfast and Evening Dinner Add-

ed to the Service.

So complete has been the response of the Kansas City public to the novel and very delightful service provided by the new Orient Inn at Tenth and Baltimore that the Kroger brothers have added morning and evening service. This will start tomorrow and will be conducted a la carte or in full restaurant style, as distinguished from self-service, which prevails at noon. The hours for breakfast will be 6 to 10 o'clock, the popular noon-day luncheon 11 to 3, and supper or evening dinner will be served in family style from 5 until 8.

The new Orient Inn is located in the Orient building at Tenth and Baltimore avenue. It is the largest eating establishment in Kansas City, in fact west of New York, and the deliciousness of its foods and novelty of its service have created a delightful impression among the business and society people of this community. In addition to the new features mentioned, a spacious smoking room, very elegantly equipped, will also be opened for the convenience of the gentlemen guests of the house.

Labels: Baltimore avenue, food, restaurants, Tenth street

June 6, 1909

NOVELTY IN NEW EAT-

ING ESTABLISHMENT.

ORIENT INN UNLIKE OTHER

KANSAS CITY RESTAURANTS.

Every Man His Own Waiter, but

There's Greater Variety and

Better Food Than Is

Had Elsewhere.

In the opening of the "Orient Inn," a new form of restaurant in the Orient building, Tenth and Baltimore avenue, a St. Louis man is giving actual demonstration in Kansas City of the reason for the much-talked-of "Drew question." The Orient Inn is an innovation. Incidentally it is the best of its kind to be found anywhere, and the business acumen which chose Kansas City as the site for an eating house planned on such magnificent proportions gives attestation of the spirit of progress which flourishes here.

Everyone who lunches at the Orient Inn becomes his or her own waiter. As you enter the door, you are given a silver tray and a coupon check. You take for yourself knife, fork and spoon, also a napkin, and then wander along at will, viewing the tempting displays of cold meats, salads, crisp pies, delicious jellies, fruits, vegetables. Everything is shown in glass cabinets or showcases. There is no spurring of jaded brain to choose from a bewildering bill-of-fare. You SEE the food. It looks delicious. the prices are low, and when you have taken what you want, the fair attendant who presides at that particular counter asks for your purchase slip and clips off a coupon.

The Orient Inn will seat comfortably 500 people, and one may elect to sit almost anywhere. There are fetching little stalls all along the side walls, divided one from another by green curtains and lighted by individual electrollers.

The new Orient Inn is the largest eating establishment in Kansas City -- in fact, in any city west of New York. Its two main dining rooms occupy the entire lower floors of the Orient railway building and the Shubert theater. In addition there is a spacious ante-chamber to be known as the "gentlemen's smoking room."

A special "rest room" has been provided for the ladies, containing easy chairs, desks and other conveniences.

The Orient Inn is owned and operated by the Orient Catering Company, with which the two brothers, John and George Kroger, are most actively connected. John Kroger, president and general manager, has been prominently identified with the restaurant business in Chicago, and for the past two years has operated the Pierce Lunch room and the Victoria Lunch of St. Louis. In coming to Kansas City, Mr. Kroger felt that he was bringing an establishment so radically different and far in advance of anything yet done here that it would meet with instant recognition and approval. That this is true is evidenced by the fact that Kansas City's most prominent business men are already regular patrons of "The Inn.," and professional people and women who find it necessary to lunch down town are enthusiastic in their description of it as "the most delightful place in Kansas City in which to eat."

Labels: Baltimore avenue, Chicago, restaurants, St Louis, Tenth street

June 3, 1909

5,000 SEE THE MEYER

MEMORIAL UNVEILING.

MANY TRIBUTES TO THE FIRST

PRESIDENT OF THE PARK BOARD.

Addresses by Leon Smith, Henry D.

Ashley and Mayor Crittenden.

Cord Releasing Flag Pulled

by Phillip Meyer.

At the unveiling yesterday afternoon of the bronze and marble memorial in honor of August R. Meyer, first president of the park board, at the Paseo and Tenth street, a drowed of 5,000 persons witnessed the ceremonies. Members of the Meyer statue comittee, Mayor Thomas T. Crittenden, Leon Smith, president of the Commercial Club, and business associates and friends of the man whose memory was to be honored, rode to the scene of the memorial services in carriages. Chief of Police Frank Snow headed the processoin with a detachment of mounted police, followed by Hiner's band and Company K, of the Third regiment, national guards. Colonel Cusil Lechtman, attended by the majors and captains of the regimennt, rode in advance of the guards.

Before the arrival of the parade the crowd had gathered in front of the statue and locked traffic on Tenth street. Many women and children were in the crowd, and when the mounted police turned west on Tenth street from the Paseo the pushing back of those in the middle of hte street crushed the smaller children, and women begged the police to help them out of the jam.

A raised platform had been erected on each side of the statue, which his located on the Paseo grounds just north of and facing Tenth street. The committee occupied the platform and Mrs. Meyer accompanied by her children and friends sat in an au tomobile in front of the statue. Following a selection by the band Leon Smith made an address in which he told of the services rendered by Mr. Meyer in whose honor the shaft was erected.

FATHER OF PARK SYSTEM.

The subject of the bronze portrait in relief which adorns the marble statue was the father of the park system in Kansas City. He was not only president of the first park board, but was also president of the Commercial Club, which was instrumental in securing the statue. A few days after the death of Mr. Meyer, December 1, 1905, the Commercial Club met and instituted a popular subscription for a monument to the memory of one of Kansas City's foremost men. The amount to be raised was placed at $25,000. Daniel Chester French, the great American sculptor of New York was selected to do the relief. It is the fist monument ever unveiled by this city.

Henry D. Ashley, an old friend of Mr. Meyer's, spoke for three-quarters of an hour in eulogy of the man, whom he declared had done more for the beauty of Kansas City than any other one man. He said that his friend was not only interested in beautifying Kansas City, but was prominent in every public enterprise and civic improvement. Following Mr. Ashley an address was made by Mayor Crittenden. He said, in part:

TRIBUTE BY MAYOR.

"The biting frost of death does not kill the fruit of patriotism. It bears on everlastingly. Thee handiwork of Washington is still our daily benefit, and the richest asset of Lincoln's life will pay dividends from generation to generation. While our distinguished townsman August R. Meyer, sleeps, grateful multitudes are daily reaping harvests of bloom and bower and flower and fountain, children of his busy brain. In life he gave abundantly the best he had -- his talents; in death we give him freely the best we have -- our gratitude.

"This great citizen, forerunning his time, saw wisely that the modern city must not confine itself merely to commerce, but must beautify as well; that it must not only have stores and banks and lawns, where the rich and the poor could enjoy the health giving sunlight and pure fresh air."

Labels: Commercial Club, Mayor Crittenden, military, music, parades, Park board, Paseo, Police Chief Snow, statues, Tenth street

May 17, 1909

SOUVENIR PICTURE OF TAFT.

Autographed Photo of President for

Fresh Air Fund.

Mrs. Edith Greene of 6009 East Tenth street, who is interested in raising money for the juvenile fresh air fund, wrote Mrs. William Howard Taft at the White House some time ago, asking for some souvenir to auction off in the good cause. Saturday she received a letter from Mrs. Taft, together with an autographed photograph of the president:

"Mrs Taft acknowledges the receipt of Mrs. Greene's letter, and as it is not possible for her to send a souvenir from the White House, she is sending an autograph picture of the president with best wishes for the fresh air fund. White House, May 11."

Labels: auction, charity, President Taft, Tenth street, women

May 10, 1909

GOT OFF CAR BACKWARDS.

T. J. Kennedy of Le Loup, Kas.,

Killed by Fall on the Asphalt.

Stepping from a moving car between Tenth and Eleventh street in Grand avenue, T. J. Kennedy, 55 years old, a farmer from Le Loup, Kas., fell with the back of his head on the asphalt yesterday afternoon about 5 o'clock and was killed. Kennedy had attempted to alight from the car with his back in the direction it was going.

The old man was on his way to surprise his only son, Rufus Kennedy, who lives at 109 East Sixteenth street, with a visit, the first one he had paid him since December 22, 1908. The son did not know of his intention, the first news of it coming with the announcement of his death.

Kennedy had lived in the vicinity of Le Loup for twenty-seven years, being the owner of a farm one and one-half miles east of that place. His wife is dead, but his daughter, Victoria, kept house for him. The son is a wagon driver for the City Ice Company.

Deputy Coroner Harry Czarlinsky was notified and ordered the body taken to Carroll-Davidson's undertaking rooms. A post-mortem examination will be held this morning.

Labels: accident, death, Dr Czarlinsky, Eleventh street, Grand avenue, ice, Sixteenth street, streetcar, Tenth street, undertakers, visitors

February 27, 1909

WELL, WELL, IT WAS

THE OLD TOWN WELL.

ACCIDENT TO WAGON REVEALS

LONG-HIDDEN LANDMARK.

Supplied Part of Kansas City With

Water 44 Years Ago, When

There Were No Meters

to Watch.

When a heavily-laden wagon broke through the asphalt paving at the corner of Tenth and McGee streets yesterday afternoon and the rear wheels sank into a hole to the hubs little damage resulted. There was a general outpouring of reminiscences, however, from old-timers who witnessed the accident that made the incident an interesting story, for the hole into which the wheels sank is what remains of a well from which the pioneers of Kansas City obtained their drinking water in the early '70s.

Of the history of the old well, J. F. Spalding, president of the Spalding Commercial college and a pioneer of Kansas City, said:

"That hole is the old well which was sunk by Thomas Smart forty-four years ago. Smart purchased the forty acres of Ninth and Fourteenth streets and laid out an addition to Kansas City. There was a lack of good drinking water on the hill and Colonel Smart dug the well at the corner of Tenth and McGee. It was eighty feet deep and contained the finest of water. The settlers of the new addition used the water from the well for years. Finally it was abandoned and partly filled. Later it was cut down when the hill was graded for the old Tenth street cable line. Still later it was covered with an old stone slab and the pavers went right over it. I had almost forgotten about it until I saw that wagon break through there and then I recalled it at once. It was one of the city's landmarks in her infant days."

The hole caused by the wagon disclosed the walls of the old well. The pavement covering it was not more than three-quarters of an inch thick and the wonder is that it did not give away under heavy traffic before.

Labels: accident, Fourteenth street, history, McGee street, Ninth street, pioneers, Spaldings college, Tenth street

February 18, 1909

HOMEOPATHS ARE BARRED.

Are Not Allowed Priveleges of Gen-

eral Hospital Clinics.

Denying recent published statements connecting homeopathic physicians and members of the faculty of the Hehnemann School of Medicine at Tenth street and Troost avenue with the general hospital investigation, Dr. William E. Cramer, dean of the college and chairman of the local association of homeopathic physicians, declared yesterday that they had no part in the general hospital controversy. Both the college and the local association deny positively any connection with the specific charges brought by members of the Modern Woodmen.

Dr. Cramer said yesterday: "We have nothing whatever to do with the charges brought from other sources against the general hospital staff or the individual physicians regularly employed there or connected with the institution.

Dr. Cramer declared that to Kansas City the courtesy of holding clinics in the public hospitals had been denied Homeopathists. He said:

"For twenty-one years we had the privileges of surgical clinics at the general hospital. Our students were permitted to witness these clinics, and paid the customary fee into the city treasury.

"However, since the new hospital and health board was appointed we have been denied these surgical clinics at the general hospital, although repeated attempts have been made to get them.
At the same time the courtesy is extended to the medical department of the University of Kansas at Rosedale. The Kansas students are allowed to come into Kansas City when we citizens and taxpayers are denied.

"There is not one Homeopathic interne or Homeopathic physician regularly employed int he institution."

Labels: board of health, doctors, general hospital, Rosedale, schools, Tenth street, Troost avenue

February 14, 1909

STREETS COVERED WITH ICE.

Pedestrians and Horses Had Perilous

Time of It Last Evening.

Slipping, sliding, skidding, gliding horses and wagons delayed traffic, blocked the street cars, frightened pedestrians and were generally in the way of each other and everybody else in the downtown district yesterday afternoon, when, after 4 o'clock, a drizzling rain froze on the pavements and sidewalks, covering everything with a thin coating of ice. Horses and men, as well as many women, fell on the streets.

On Main street, on the grade between Tenth and Eleventh streets, and on Eleventh street from Walnut to McGee it became necessary to station extra police to assist the regular crossing policemen in handling teams. Loaded wagons were not allowed to pass up or down on these grades, the experience of a year ago, when a large wagon, heavily loaded, skidded down Eleventh street, overturning in its slide damaged obstacles in its path, and broke a plate glass window at the corner of Eleventh and Walnut streets, being sufficient warning.

There were numerous minor accidents with street cars and several collisions with wagons. At Thirteenth street and Troost avenue, a wagon skidded into a Troost car, smashing the front end of the car and delaying traffic for a while.

Labels: animals, Eleventh street, streetcar, Tenth street, Thirteenth street, Troost avenue, Walnut Street, weather

February 2, 1909

ROTHSCHILD'S CORNER

DESTROYED BY FIRE.

DAMAGE TO STOCKS AND BUILD-

ING ESTIMATED $150,000.

Clothing Firm Carried Insurance of

$100,000 -- Plan Seven-Story

Steel Structure to Replace

Burned Building.

FIRE AT TENTH AND MAIN THAT DESTROYED

ROTHSCHILD & SON'S CLOTHING STORE.

ESTIMATED LOSS BY FIRE.

Rothschild & Sons.........$120,000
A. A. Pearson, building and stock.......$1,000
A. D. Mitchell, photographer....$100
Dr. He Ly Yuen......$50
Damage to building......#30,000

Total.......$151,000
Insurance, $131,000

Property valued at $150,000 was destroyed by a fire which started in the basement of the old three-story brick building at the southwest corner of Tenth and Main streets at 9 o'clock last night.

The entire stock of Rothschild & Sons, clothiers, valued at $120,000, was practically ruined; the building, owned jointly by J. S. Loose and the Soden estate, and valued at $30,000, was gutted, and its walls will have to be torn down; the Mitchell studio, on the third floor in the north wing of the building, was destroyed, and the outfit of Dr. Ho Ly Yeun, a Chinese physician, went with the flames.

A. A. Pearson's millinery stock at 1010 Main street was also slightly damaged by water.

It was one of the quickest and most ferocious fires that the Kansas City department has ever had to combat. The alarm came in from three sources at 9:05 o'clock. It was five minutes before the first fire engine arrived. The fire, first sighted on the third floor, near the elevator shaft, quickly ate its way to the lower floor, and before the firemen had started water on the building the inside of the clothing store was enwrapped in flames.

POOR WATER PRESSURE.

A general alarm was turned in, but the fire had gained such headway that the Chief Egner's men found that they could do nothing but confine the flames to the one building. That poor water pressure hampered the earlier efforts of the firemen is attested by persons who were on the ground when the flames were discovered. R. J. Quarles, a retired banker, who was at the scene, says that it was fully five minutes before a company arrived, and that it was another five minutes before water was thrown into the building, and then only a weak stream.

The only accident recorded was a minor one, Chief J. F. Pelletier of the insurance patrol running a sliver into his right hand while directing his men inside the Rothschild store.

WHEN THE ROOF FELL IN.

Members of hose companies Nos. 4, 5 and 6, were on the roof of the building when the structure began to creak, and Chief Egner ordered them to move to the next roof. His order was given none too soon, for a minute later the roof fell in.

Thousands gathered to witness the spectacle, and several hundred went home with clothing thoroughly drenched. A hose attached to an engine in front of the United cigar store, at the northwest corner of Tenth and Main streets, burst suddenly , and a score of persons standing in front of the cigar shop were soaked with water.

Twenty-one fire companies lent their efforts toward putting down the flames, but with this force it was long after midnight before the fire was completely under control.

CARRIED $100,000 INSURANCE.

Rothschild & Sons carried $100,000 insurance on their stock, and Frank Ferguson of the insurance firm of Ferguson & Taft, sitting in his office in the Dwight building, Tenth and Baltimore, saw the flames and was one of the men to turn in an alarm. U. B. Hart, a Pinkerton patrolman, turned in an alarm about the same time as did John W. Schroeder, bookkeeper for Rothschild's, who was in the store.

Louis P. Rothschild, resident member of the firm, says that they had only recently reduced their insurance policies now aggregating about $100,000. The Mitchell Studio was fully protected.

Rothschild & Sons had a ninety-nine year lease on the Soden property, and sublet to the other tenants. The clothing store occupied the three floors of what was known as the old building, 1000 and 1008 Main street, and the first floor of the corner building.

ROTHSCHILD'S TO REBUILD.

Originally the old building, fronting fifty-two feet on Main street, was two stories in height. This building was erected by J. S. Loose. The adjoining building at the corner had a frontage of twenty-three feet on Main street, and was erected by the late Peter Soden. The two buildings were remodeled into a sort of a combination structure and a third story added.

Louis P. Rothschild said his firm had contemplated razing the building at an early date, and erecting a steel structure in its place. This idea will now be carried out, the plans providing for a seven-story building, to cost $200,000.

The safe containing $3,000 in cash, as well as all the books and records of the Rothschild firm, was unharmed.

The firm of Rothschild & Sons was established in Fort Leavenworth fifty-five years ago, and last night's fire was the first in the history of the firm. They moved to Kansas City in 1901.

Labels: clothing, doctors, Fire, Leavenworth, Main street, retailers, Tenth street

February 1, 1909

HOBOES ARE A MENACE.

They Retard Economic Development

of Country, Says C. B. Hoffman.

At the First Universalist church at Tenth and Park streets yesterday morning, C. B. Hoffman, president of the Bankers' Trust Company of Kansas city, Kas., spoke of the hobo as retarding the economic develpment of the country and said that he must furnish the solution of the problem of his own existence.

"There are more unemployed men in this country than its population and industry warrant," continued Mr. Hoffman. "This comes from the unequal distribution of work. The unemployed but willing laborers must form unions of a progressive and peaceable sort if they are to better their condition."

Labels: banking, churches, hoboes, Park street, Tenth street

January 3, 1909

FIGHTS FOR PRICE OF DRINK.

Man Attacks Frank Irons and Sever-

ly Injures Him.

While walking in an alley from Grand avenue to McGee between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets last night about 8 o'clock, Frank Irons, who lives at 215 East Tenth street, was accosted by a man who asked for the price of a drink. Irons refused and the man struck him and clinched with him.

In the course of the struggle Irons received several cuts on the back of the head. The assailant ran, and the wounded wan was taken to the general hospital, where his cuts were dressed. He was very weak from loss of blood last night, but has a good chance for recovery.

Labels: Eighteenth street, general hospital, Nineteenth street, Tenth street, violence

December 16, 1908

PLANNING A NEW SKYSCRAPER.

Business Building May Be Erected

West of Shubert Theater.

On Baltimore avenue between Tenth and Eleventh streets, just south of the Dwight building, Leo N. Leslie and others will erect a ten-story fireproof building. Work will be started by the last of December. The building will be constructed at a cost of $150,000 and will be of cut stone for the first two floors and the remainder will be brick. It is contemplated to have completed the building by July 1, 1909.

It is the plan of the builders to so construct the building as to rent entire floors. The frontage will be thirty-seven, with a depth of 175 feet.

Nonresident capitalists are seeking to bargain with W. A. Rule on his own behalf and Mr. Leslie's for the erection of a large business building just west of the Shubert theater. Mr. Rule said yesterday that it was almost a certainty that the building would be erected, though as to exact nature he was not sure. It had been circulated among real estate and architectural circles that the building would be a hotel. This Mr. Rule positively denied. All of the capital, about $150,000, invested would be foreign and would bring in more revenue to Kansas City.

Martin Lehman stated yesterday that he had not settled upon any plans submitted for the new theater which the Orpheum Company will erect on the lot recently purchased at Eleventh and Central streets. It was given out that a theater to cost $350,000 would be erected there and work would be started upon it as soon as the plans were finally selected. At the present it is not the plan of the Orpheum to have any office space in the theater, but devote the whole building to the operation of the stage and seating of the audience.

"Taking it all in all," said Mr. Leslie yesterday afternoon, "it begins to look like the West Side is far from dead. Within the past three weeks movements have been started which tend to improve the site wonderfully. That district will remain important as long as Kansas City exists. It is just at the edge of the wholesale district and at the edge of the retail district. We consider it a very profitable holding and will do our best to keep its value up."

Labels: Baltimore avenue, business, Eleventh street, real estate, Tenth street, theater

December 13, 1908

ESTABLISHED 43 YEARS.

Spalding's Commercial College to

Celebrate Friday Night.

Founded in the year of the close of the war between the states, Spalding's Commercial college will observe its forty-third anniversary December 18, on the night of which the literary society of the institution will give an appropriate programme at the Spalding auditorium, Tenth and Oak streets. James F. Spalding, one of the pioneer commercial educators of Missouri, is still at the head of the institution, of which he is the founder.

The Spalding Commercial College Literary Society was organized a year after the beginning of the school, and the work which it has carried on has been of much benefit to its members, as that of the institution has been invaluable to its graduates.

Those who will take part in the anniversary programme are: Miss Adeline Nentwig, Miss Phoebe Brooks, Miss Clara Blakeslee, Miss Hazel Kirk, Mrs. Jennie Schultz, Miss Maude Edris Speer, Dale Hartmann, Professor J. M. Greenwood, Walter M. Eby, Harold Nagle and Everett Elliott.

Labels: Oak street, schools, Spaldings college, Superintendent Greenwood, Tenth street

November 4, 1908

STAYED UP NEARLY ALL

NIGHT TO READ RETURNS

Great Crowds in Front of Newspaper

Offices -- Returns at the

Clubs.

Republicans and Democrats alike, not to mention members of the lesser parties, stood cheek by jowl for hours last night -- not in beatific political harmony -- but in a common desire to rubber over the other fellow's shoulder and catch the flashes of election news that were thrown on canvass screens by the stereopticon in many parts of the city. Everybody jostled and laughed and gently roasted each other, and when the returns suited them yelled approval, but never was an ugly bit of temper put on unpleasant display.

Kansas City stayed up late enough to learn the approximate fate of its favorite candidate, and then went to bed with a fair assurance that it would awaken in the land of the free whether Taft, Bryan, or somebody else were elected. For once in the year at least, Papa Casey had a healthy excuse to present to Mamma Casey for staying out so late, but for the fact that in many cases that she was out with him and all the little Caseys.

HOW IT WAS DONE.

Most of the crowd didn't see the men behind the stereopticon, seated at tables and busily transcribing telegrams to the little glass slides in black drawing ink. They had to write minutely so as to get all of a telegram on one of the three by four panes of glass, but the phonographs and cartoons kept the people standing until another fresh slide was ready to put in.

The adding machine was in much demand and whole batteries of them did nocturnal duty in the various newspaper offices, with experts from the banks who knew how to punch the keys properly. Though serpentine in name, the adders produced some straight figures that won't miss the official returns very far, for the benefit of the multitude.

AT THE CLUBS.

In the lodge room of the Elk's Club the furniture was swathed in roughing-it covering and the members held forth for the night, as was true at the Commercial Club, where the attaches of the club and transportation bureau were enlisted in the work of handling the returns.

At the Y. M. C. A. a wire was cut in and between telegrams the waiters were entertained by a stereopticon lecture on California by Aldred Foster of New Zealand.

Members of the Railroad Club heard the returns at the club rooms in Walnut street and after the theaters closed Thespians came up to join them.

Federal officers and employes for the most part heard the returns in the federal court room on the third floor of the postoffice building, and in Convention hall and at the corners of Eighth and McGee, Tenth and McGee and Eleventh and Grand great crowds stood far into the night to get the returns as they came in.

Labels: California, Convention Hall, Eighth street, Eleventh street, Grand avenue, McGee street, organizations, politics, post office, stereopticons, telegram, Tenth street, Walnut Street, YMCA

October 30. 1908

TWO BIG ADVANCE SALES.

Long Lines for "Ben Hur" and War-

field Seats.

When the hour of 9 o'clock arrived yesterday morning and the ticket sellers at the Willis Wood and Shubert opened their windows for the "Ben Hur" and David Warfield engagements next week, a long line of eager theatergoers stretched away from the box office at each theater. At the Willis Wood the line reached from the box office to the corner of Eleventh and Baltimore and thence to the stage door on Eleventh street. All through the morning the line remained unbroken and the advance sale for "Ben Hur ranked well with any which had preceded it. When the fact that two attractions of such magnitude are coming the same week is taken into consideration, the double sale broke all records. Down at the Shubert there was a line of Warfield enthusiasts reaching from the box office to the corner of Tenth and Baltimore and thence to the alley on Baltimore.

Labels: Baltimore avenue, Eleventh street, Tenth street, theater

October 25, 1908

HEAL BY PSYCHOTHERAPY.

This Advice Given to Universalists'

Convention Delegates.

The delegates and visitors to the Thirty-seventh annual convention of Universalists in session at the First Universalist church, Park avenue and Tenth street, were addressed yesterday on "Psychotherapy" by Dr. J. W. Caldwell of Galesburg, Ill. He holds the chairs of psychology and sociology at Lombard university.

Dr. Caldwell declared that 80 per cent of all ills are traceable directly to the nervous system, and that the use of drugs in many instances is unnecessary. He earnestly urged upon his hearers the plan of spreading the Emmanuel movement throughout the length and breadth of the land. The Emanuel movement, which was originated in Boston with the Rev. Dr. Wooster, rector of the Emanuel Episcopal church, has to do with psychic healing conducted by a regular board of physicians. Unlike the Christian Scientists, the Universalists believe that medicine should be administered when necessary.

The morning session was Woman's day. The general theme, "Larger Work of Women," was discussed by Mrs. Wilbur S. Bell. Mrs. Clara Weeks spoke on the interesting subject, "The Work that Has Been Done, and May Be Done for Children."

Miss Gertrude Green, principal of the Irving school, delivered an address last night upon "The Ethical Care of Children." Miss Green said: "Children form good habits more readily than bad ones. The sense of personal responsibility is of utmost importance in the formation of a child's character. I am among those who believe that the world is growing better. Thirteen years of experience with children has taught me the inestimable value of careful training. Make the children realize that they are the future business men and women of the community, impress upon their minds the watchword of 'Good Citizenship,' and the result will be all that you can desire."

E. B. Hoffman, president of the Bankers' Trust Company, spoke upon "The Ethics of Banking."

The convention will close tonight.

Labels: Boston, children, churches, conventions, health, Park avenue, Tenth street, visitors

September 27, 1908

MAJOR JOHN COON DEAD.

Former Kansas City Man Held Of-

fice During Grant's Term.

Major John Coon who, until three years ago, resided in Kansas City, died at Lyons, Mich., Thursday, aged 86 years. He was a civil war veteran, having served as a paymaster during the war and afterwards was first assistant secretary fo the interior under President Grant.

The burial will be in Cleveland, O. The widow will return to Kansas City and reside with her daughter, Mrs. C. H. Abney, 3223 East Tenth street.

Labels: Civil War, death, Tenth street, veterans

September 15, 1908

SHOULD A SANDWICH BE BREAD.

No, Biscuit, Said the Cook, and

Slashed Off Waiter's Fingers.

Following a dispute as to whether a sandwich should be made out of biscuit or bread, John H. Koester, 24 years old, a waiter in a restaurant at Twelfth and Mulberry streets, was struck with a butcher knife by James Dalton, a cook, and lost the third and fourth fingers of his left hand last midnight. He was taken to the emergency hospital, where Dr. Ford B. Rogers dressed the wound and Dalton was locked up at the St. Louis avenue police station. Koester lives at 810 East Tenth street, but his home is in Chicago. The cook contended that biscuit was the proper planking for the sandwich; the waiter contended for bread.

Labels: Chicago, doctors, emergency hospital, food, Mulberry street, restaurants, Tenth street, Twelfth street

August 25, 1908

HE BEGGED TO BE ARRESTED.

Police Kindly Complied With Roy

Schultz's Request.

Roy Schultz, who formerly conducted a saloon at Tenth and Wyandotte streets, rushed into police headquarters last night, folowed by a pretty young woman, and requested to be locked up, saying that he had stabbed her. The woman, who gave the name of Anna Crisp and said she lived at Twenty-sixth street and Park avenue, declared that Schultz had not stabbed her.

When questioned she admitted that she had been stabbed in both hips in a quarrel while out buggy riding. The horse had started to run away and each held a line and it was to settle the question of which should hold both reins in the emergency that the stabbings occurred. Miss Crisp said that they had been quarreling because he had spent $3,000 on her in the last three years, and he had now only $50 to his name. The woman's injuries were trivial.

Both were locked in the holdover for a short time, and then released on $11 bond each, furnished by Schultz.

Schultz and Miss Crisp came into the lime light last New Year's night when she had trouble with H. R. Schultz, Roy's father, in the north lobby of the Midland hotel. Seeing her with Roy the father tried to induce the son to go home. Miss Crisp objeted and there was a regular hand-to-hand tussle for the possession of the youth. Finally the row reached the street and young Schultz tried to get Miss Crisp into a hack, but she was yanked back by the elder Schultz and then Miss Crisp alleged he struck her. At any rate she was arrested and later released on bond put up by J. H. Adams, a big-hearted real estate man from Texas, who had witnessed the affair.

Labels: buggy, domestic violence, hotels, Midland, New Years, Park avenue, police headquarters, romance, saloon, Tenth street, Texas, Twenty-sixth street, Wyandotte street

July 16, 1908

TO HAVE A RUBBERNECK ROOF.

Commerce Building Will Afford a

Unique View of the City.

Local citizens who delight in showing visitors the new Commerce building, the interior of which is one of the handsomest in the United States, will have an additional attraction to offer in the shape of a roof garden, which has been suggested by W. T. Kemper.

The bank building is fourteen stories high and the vantage point at Tenth and Walnut streetsfrom which to view the city. A portion of the roof will be comered with awnings and properly decorated so that visitors may look upon the business section and view one of the most rapidly growing cities in the West.

Labels: Commerce building, Tenth street, Walnut Street

July 14, 1908

PUBLIC LIKES THE

PAY-AS-YOU-ENTER

FIRST DAY'S TRIAL ON TROOST

LINE IS SATISFACTORY.

Cars Make Better Time and Much

Inconvenience to Passengers Is

Overcome -- Bad Layout

for the Deadbeats.

HOW YOU PAY IN THE PAY-AS-YOU-ENTER CAR.

Pay-as-you-enter cars began running in Kansas city yesterday, the new system being inaugurated on the Troost avenue division. At the end of the first day every report made to the general offices was approving. The public took to the new system at once. Those conductors who were questioned by the company inspectors all said they had not found anyone objecting to the new rule of requiring fares to be paid when passengers board the cars.

The rush hour test proved that the system delays the cars at the main points about 50 per cent longer than the old custom of collecting fares from the interior of the car, but ten blocks out, meaning as far as Troost avenue on the Troost avenue line, the time lost in taking on passengers was more than made up by the quick way in which conductors could dispatch their trains.

There was not a single accident reported during the day, even of the most trivial sort.

An hour's observation at Tenth and Main streets and at Tenth and Walnut, between 5:20 and 6:30 last evening, when travel is heaviest, showed, what the company had not promised, an even distribution of the load. As cars would fill so that it was necessary to allow passengers to ride on the rear platforms, the conductors would close their gates and go without allowing any more to crowd on their cars. To the man who was left standing on the street this looked discriminating, but a watch showed that in six instances where this occurred cars followed within half a minute, in two instances within a few seconds, as two Troosts were running together. Under the old rule the first of the delayed cars would have been packed to suffocation, to the great discomfort of the passengers, while the car immediately behind would have run either with empty seats or at least with its aisles empty.

IT'S A LITTLE SLOWER.

A watch showed that it took eight seconds to take nine passengers on one of the old style, wide platform cars, but twelve seconds to take nine on the Troost avenue cars. It required eighteen seconds to unload five and take on six passengers from and on a Jackson avenue car. No Troost avenue car unloaded more than three passengers at Tenth and Main during the rush hour, but at no time did it take longer than two seconds to take on and seat a passenger.

There was no confusion in the matter of making change. Not having to watch his rear step from the front of his car, the conductor was able to handle his fares with alacrity. Taking twenty-seven passengers on one car at Tenth and Main in thirty-two seconds, the last to board had paid her fair and entered the car before it crossed Main street.

TWO CONDUCTORS TO A CAR.

Two conductors were on all cars during the rush hours -- one to block the exit door from incoming passengers and to start the car, the other collecting fares. The extra men worked only in the downtown district.

"It will be a week, perhaps," said Assistant General Manager W. A. Satterlee, "before the public is familiar with the new system. Accordingly we are putting extra men on to show them. The main difficulty now is to keep passengers from getting in the wrong door. Nobody complains, as there is another within two inches, which is open to them . The front door is closed, so, of course, the public understands it cannot board at that end of the car. We have had several messages telephoned in complimenting us on the innovation."

Ordinarily there are twenty cars and eight trailers on the Troost avenue line during the morning rush hours, and twenty-seven cars with eight trailers at the evening rush time. Yesterday the evening service was augmented to thirty-three cars, making a difference of half a minute between cars. The extras were put on to guard against any delay which might arise through the delay required in making change, the rule being that the car shall not start till the last waiting passenger is taken on, and yet everybody past the conductor shall have paid fare.

NO MORE DEADBEATS.

One of the old conductors laughed as he pointed out two men whose fares he had got. "I have carried them for a year and do not think I got a nickel out of them in all that time," he said "They used to give me a stare that I dare not question, bluffing me out of their fare If I had asked them where they got on they would have said Eighth and Wyandotte, most likely. I suppose they n ever paid the other conductors. They paid me tonight, though. This is pretty tough on the deadbeat."

An inspector, whose attention was called to the small crowd at Tenth and Grand, had a curious explanation.

"The deadbeats are gone," he said. "We known them by name, almost. they go to points like this, where cars always arrive loaded, and then force themselves on the end which the conductor is not working. This class did two things -- they beat the company out of their fares and they crowded passengers The paying passengers suffered from them in the annoying way of having them clock up the aisles. They never wanted seats, preferring to stand, on the alert, ready to leave the car in a natural way the moment they would see the conductor getting close to them. I am certain we carried a front platform load of these deadbeats from Tenth and Grand every night. Their disappearance makes room for ten people to get out of the aisle into the front platform, which is something the other passengers will approve."

Labels: Eighth street, Main street, Metropolitan Street Railway Company, streetcar, Tenth street, Troost avenue, Walnut Street, Wyandotte street

June 28, 1908

NEGROES FEAR 'JIM CROW' LAW.

They're Going to Prepare to Fight

Any Such Proposal.

To prepare for the protection of the negroes' civil rights in Missouri the Negro Constitutional League has issued a general call to all the negroes in Kansas City to meet in the Allen chapel, Tenth and Charlotte streets, Monday evening. The call says that the activity in Kansas City of certain enemies to the negro race has been so great that the next session of the legislature will have to consider bills proposing Jim Crow laws, and the disfranchisement of the negroes.

The meeting will be for the purpose of selecting the strongest men locally to work for the defeat of such laws, and to arrange for the reception of the state league, which meets here July 9 and 10.

Labels: Charlotte street, organizations, race, Tenth street

June 25, 1908

FORMER MAYOR HUNT

DIES IN LEAVENWORTH.

HE WAS QUARTERMASTER OF

NATIONAL SOLDIERS' HOME.

In 1879 He Served This City as Mayor

and Began Many Improvements.

His Experiences Here in

the Early Days.

After two weeks' illness from uraemic poisoning, Lieutenant Colonel R. H. Hunt, a former mayor of Kansas City, died at the Soldiers' Home in Leavenworth yesterday morning. Colonel Hunt was 68 years old, and up until his last illness he had been a man of marked vitality.

About one year ago Colonel Hunt was appointed from private life to the post of Quartermaster at the Soldiers' Home, and he was serving in that capacity when he died. Colonel Hunt was a widower and is survived by two nieces. They are Mrs. John Stearns of Kansas City and Miss Mamie Hunt of St. Louis.

Funeral services will be held Friday morning in the chapel at the Soldiers' Home in Leavenworth. The burial in the national cemetery will be attended with regular military honors.

Special cars will be run to the Soldiers' Home tomorrow morning to carry friends to the funeral. The cars will start from Tenth and Main streets at 8 o'clock.

Robert H. Hunt was born in Shannon, Kerry County, Ireland, in 1839, and came to America at the age of 10 with his father. Kansas City was reached even in very early days, and the spirit of individuality which all his long life afterwards made him conspicuous, asserted itself in the father and son, for they left Kansas City for Western Kansas to get where they could not see slaves. The father soon went on about his business, leaving the boy to make a living for himself.

This he first did by carrying the water pail on a section for the construction of the railroad. Twenty years later, he was working 2,000 men himself, one of the big railroad contractors of the West. Between the time of his carrying the dipper and building part of the Rock Island, the Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific, young Hunt went to a college. He worked his passage through it, and got out in time to go into the war to serve with Rosecranz, Thomas and Grant; to join Ewing and to become chief of staff under General Samuel R. Curtis.

IN LOCAL BATTLES.

Most of his service with the colors was on the border between Missouri and Kansas. Hereabouts, with General Curtis, he directed the artillery movements of the fights of the Little Blue, Big Blue, Westport, Osage, Newtonia and Mine Creek. It was at this last battle that General "Pap" Price was crushed and General Marmaduke was captured.

Colonel Hunt enlisted in a Kansas regiment, but left it during the war and became a staff officer. Afterwards he got back into a Kansas regiment, the Fifteenth cavalry, of which he was Major. The regiment had two colonels, C. R. Jennison and afterwards Colonel Cloud, while George W. Hoyt, afterwards a brigadier, was the lieutenant colonel. Robert H. Hunt was the senior major of the command.

There is a book published on "The Battle of Westport" by Rev. Paul B. Jenkins, formerly of this city, in which no mention whatever, in the slightest word, is made of Colonel Hunt.

"But he was there," said Colonel Van Horn yesterday, "and directed the artillery. I was related by marriage to General Curtis, commanding the Union forces here. He appointed me to his staff and directed me to prepare fortifications for the city. In that way I located and had the rifles ready and the encroachments dug. I saw a handsome young officer riding in and about, coming frequently to general headquarters for orders or with supports, and, struck by his magnificent bearing, asked his name. I was told it was the chief of staff, Colonel Hunt. What began as an acquaintance has lasted until now. As there is no battle in which the artillery is not the objective point, and as Colonel Hunt was commanding the artillery at the Battle of Westport, as I know from my own observations then, I know that he was in the fight; yet Mr. Jenkins made no mention whatever of him in what he declared to be a record of the battle."

The obscuring of Colonel Hunt by the Jenkins book is not unique. Other leaders in the engagement were similarly treated by the local historian.

A PRIEST HIS TUTOR.

The end of the war saw Colonel Hunt located in Kansas City, to engage in contracting. When first young Hunt landed in this country the priest of the parish they settled in took him up and began training him for service on the alter.

The good priest in this way taught him Latin. To the last days of his life Colonel Hunt kept his Latin fresh and, by means of a dictionary he would read Latin books. He regarded it as an accomplishment and was proud of it. But he never boasted of it. Reading Latin, born a Catholic and Republican in politics though an Irishman. Colonel Hunt made the acquaintance of the Rev. William J. Dalton, native of St. Louis, child of Irish parents, a Latin scholar and a clergyman of the church of Rome. The two remained friends to the last.

Father Dalton is a Republican in politics. Father Dalton came to Kansas City just as Colonel Hunt was closing his term as mayor, "but I was here early enough," said Father Dalton yesterday, "to hear the whole town commending him for his tremendous strides. Energy had marked every week of his administration, and today we have substantial evidence of it. With but little to do anything at all with, Mayor Hunt did much. He was at the very forefront of everything, calculating on the future warranting all his energy."

HE STOPPED A HANGING.

"At the very forefront of everything," says Father Dalton, and so it would appear. There walks about town today a little old man with a scar on the back of his neck. He built the retaining wall which keeps Bluff street from sliding into the Missouri river. There was trouble one Saturday afternoon about the pay, and the men undertook to lynch the contractor. They actually got a rope around his neck and started with him to throw him over his own retaining wall.

The city hall then was where it is now, only in a one-story brick that might have been a country feed store. Mayor Hunt got word of the crisis, picked up a pamphlet he had in his scant library, jumped into a saddle that was not his own and soon was in the ob. He literally rode into it and from the back of his horse read the riot act. That constitutional performance made him a summary marshal and there was no lynching. If there had been there would have been a wholesale killing by the force of twelve marshals Kansas City then had, old "Tom" Speer their chief.

During Colonel Hunt's administration Kansas City was the head of the Fenian movement. "No. 1," a mysterious Irish patriot, and Captain "Tom" Phelan, well remembered here and today alive in a home somewhere, were to fight a duel with broadswords over the troubles of Ireland. Colonel John Moore and Colonel John Edwards, both newspapermen, were to act as seconds. The principals went into training in rooms in a store on West Twelfth street. The morning the duel was to have been fought Colonel Hunt personally smashed in the doors of the training rooms and arrested the belligerents. There was an encounter, but he mayor, being a peace officer and a fighter himself, won. There was no duel.

HIS RIOT ACT AGAIN.

The forum of Kansas City in those days was Turner hall, afterwards Kumpf's hall, standing as late as 1886 where Boley's clothing store now stands. A political row there sent Mayor Hunt to that place with his copy of the riot act. He would tolerate no mob law while he was mayor. He always asserted his authority to the utmost.

When the figures are all totaled up it will not be found that Colonel Hunt left much of an estate. He married a Miss Hoyne of Chicago. In the '70s Colonel Hunt was worth so much money that he was able to borrow $50,000 from the late Thomas Corrigan for a period of ten months. He was able to pay it back within two weeks. He might have been worth $200,000 or $500,000. Estimates made yesterday ran from one to the other of these figures. He built a mansion at Independence and Highland. The house is there now, a pastel in dull red of what it once was. The plot has been nibbled down to next to nothing.

BRILLIANCE OF HIS HOME.

Colonel Hunt's father had been a small farmer in Ireland. All of his days in this country had been spent in railroad camps or in the field with troops. When Colonel Hunt opened his mansion on Independence avenue he did so with the brilliance of an hereditary aristocrat. Handsome in person, he had handsome ways. There was a wine cellar where it ought to be, and the drawing room, and from one to the other of the Hunt mansion was complete. Kansas City has never seen brighter scenes than those witnessed while Colonel and Mrs. Hunt kept open house on Independence avenue.

Nobody knows where Colonel Hunt's fortune went. It went like the summer wind that sinks with the sun. There was no speculation, no wheat end to the story, no boom collapse, no expensive household bills. The fortune simply disappeared, though Colonel Hunt always, to his intimates, lately insisted that he held valuable securities which would in a few years put him on his feet. But he did not get on his feet.

Times did not prosper fast enough Colonel Hunt stood in need of a billet and Senator Warner gave it to him. He had him appointed quartermaster at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, near Leavenworth, a position he held for about a year. Within a year of three score and ten, Colonel Hunt walked like a youth. Almost six feet in height, no man in his forties and of similar physique walked straighter, faster nor further. His hair and long beard were merely turning gray. He could pass for a man of 55. He lived as he moved, energetically. He liked young people; old people with old stories troubled him. The young people would not take him up because they did not know about the things he knew most of, and the old ones -- his own years -- were too old to take anybody up. So Colonel Hunt was neither here nor there. That was why he had to ask an asylum at the hands of his old military, political, professional and personal friend, Senator Warner.

TOO SLOW FOR HIM.

"It killed him," said Father Dalton. "The life was too dull for him. He wanted to beat sixty times to the minute and he found himself in a clock which had a pendulum going twenty to the minute.

"Where he was accustomed to moving cannon, they set him buying buttons, and able to move troops all up and down the border with the celerity of Forest, they put him to watching veterans crawl across their parade ground. Mops and counting cases of blouses to the tune of a droning beat made Colonel Hunt settle back in a chair that most men look for at sixty, and conserve themselves till riper in years, and so he collapsed. I saw him on Monday, and then he showed he was going away.

"He entered the army at Leavenworth in his young life, left the Fort and the army in his middle age, and went back to Leavenworth and the army to die in his old age. May his soul rest in peace."

And so he is to be buried in Leavenworth, in the military grounds there. Only members of the home may be buried in the military cemetery, excepting by express permission, and that permission is granted sometimes in the instance of officers. Yesterday application was made to Senator Warner, one of the board of managers and it was promptly given. Internment is to be made on Friday, at ten o'clock. Those desiring to attend the funeral will have to leave Kansas City by the 8 o'clock trolley car. President C. F. Holmes has arranged to run a special car at 8:01 Friday for the accommodation of Senator Warner, Surveyor C. W. Clarke, General H. F. Devol, Brevet Brigadier General L. H. Waters and a number of other high officers of the civil war.

Labels: Bluff street, Chicago, Civil War, Colonel Van Horn, death, Father Dalton, Highland avenue, history, immigrants, Independence avenue, Leavenworth, Main street, ministers, railroad, Senator Warner, streetcar, Tenth street, Twelfth street, veterans