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September 27, 1908

SAW A BOY BUY COCAINE.

Then Bert Stregel, Druggist, Was

Arrested and Arraigned in Court.

Bert Stregel, a druggist at Fifth and Central streets, and his clerk, E. C. Ellis, were arraigned in police court yesterday charged with selling cocaine to Willie Smith, a 15-year-old messenger boy who was tried before the juvenile court Friday. Both asked for continuances, and they were granted until Tuesday.

The boy testified that he has been addicted to the cocaine habit for the last four months. He named three places where he bought the drug, Charles Gidinski's, Nineteenth and Grand, Dudley & Hunter's, 1303 Grand, and Bert Stregel's, Fifth and Central. Edgar Warden, a probation officer, went with him to Stregel's and watched the boy buy a box of cocaine.

Labels: Central street, children, druggists, Fifth street, Grand avenue, juvenile court, narcotics, Nineteenth street

August 31, 1908

IS IT A DRUGGISTS' SCHEME?

Alderman Gilman Believes Carbolic

Acid Ordinance Is a Bid for Profit.

The lower house last night referred to the sanitary and hospital committee the upper house ordinance making a physician's prescription necessary in buying carbolic acid at drug stores.

"It seems to me that ordinance originated in some druggist's profit factory," said Alderman C. J. Gilman, who is a practicing physician, "and I can't see how by compelling people to pay a druggist 600 or 700 per cent profit in the sale of carbolic acid we are going to restrain people from taking the poison for suicidal purposes. We all know carbolic acid is a common commodity found in every house for sanitary purposes. Druggists now sell an ounce of it for 5 cents if the customer has a bottle, but if the druggist furnishes the bottle the cost is 10 cents for the ounce. Make a prescription necessary and a druggist will charge 25 cents an ounce for the commodity, which is essential in every household for sanitary and antiseptic purposes. Physicians do not prescribe carbolic acid in the practice of medicine, and they don't want to be bothered writing a prescription every time one of their patients wants 5 cents worth of carbolic acid."

Alderman Joseph C. Wirthman, a druggist, introduced the ordinance in the upper house two weeks ago.

Labels: druggists, Kansas City council, poison, Suicide

August 25, 1908

FOUND A "COLOR"

IN HIS YARD.

Kansas City, Kas., Man Struck Some-

thing That Looked Like Gold.

For about the tenth time in so many years, gold, the real old yellow stuff, the so-called root of all evil, has again been found in the hills of Kansas City, Kas. This time the precious metal has been discovered in the rear of the home of John Martin, 70 South Forest street, and the new "diggins" threatens to put Cripple Creek and Dawson City on the bum. If future development furnishes no disappointments, Mr. Martin and the Forest street mine will make Scotty and his Death Valley mint look like 30 cents in Mexican silver.

The discovery of gold in Mr. Martin's yard was made several days ago while a well was being dug there. The matter was kept a secret in order that a national syndicate might be organized for the purpose of buying up all the land lying between the Kaw mouth and Grandview, it being the belief of some that the mother lode starts from the hill upon which stands the Grandview sanitarium, running in a southeasterly line to a point near where the main Riverview sewer empties into the Kaw river.

Thomas Wood, the druggist, who tested the ore sample from Mr. Martin's diggins, says there is no doubt that it contains some of the real stuff. Mr. Martin took some of the dirt to a Missouri assayer yesterday and was told that it contained traces of gold. However, the report received by him was not sufficiently encouraging to warrant him in expending any large sum in the development of the mine.

Traces of gold have been found in various parts of Wyandotte county, but that was all. So far, not even a scare has resulted from any of these discoveries.

Labels: druggists, Grandview, Kansas City Kas

August 15, 1908

TWO MORE WOMEN

IN SUICIDE LIST.

MORE CASES OF SELF-DESTRUCTION

MOLLIE LAWSON

TAKES ACID.

ALICE BUERSKENS FIRES BUL-

LET INTO HER BRAIN.

Mrs. Lawson Was Angered Because

Husband Stayed Out All Night.

Mrs. Buerskens Did Not Want

to Be a Burden to Hers.

"To a person suffering from melancholia or to one who is extremely jealous, the reading of so many suicides, especially by the same method, acts as a suggestion and they act --"

Dr. J. Park Neal of the emergency hospital had just given expression to the foregoing opinion last evening when the telephone rang. "Another carbolic acid case," he cried, as he leaped for his satchel. "A woman at 526 Independence avenue."

When the ambulance reached the home of John Davis, 526 Independence avenue, Dr. Neal found Mrs. Mollie Lawson, 27 years old, lying unconscious on a bed. She had drunk probably an ounce and a half of carbolic acid from a bottle only a few minutes before and was in a dying condition. After administering strong antidote at the house the woman was taken to the emergency hospital, where she died at 11 o'clock.

SHE BOUGHT THE ACID.

Mrs. Lawson and her husband, Jake Lawson, a bartender, lived at the home of Mrs. Oscar Downing, 601 Independence avenue. When Mrs. Lawson left her rooms about 6:30 o'clock she seemed cheerful. She went straight to the drug store of Morgan and Burton, northwest corner of Independence and Cherry, where she asked C. B. Burton for some carbolic acid, saying she wanted it for a bedbug mixture.

"When she told me that she was going to mix it with a pint of gasoline," said Mr. Burton, "I gave her three ounces, for which she paid 25 cents. I have seen the woman often, knew she was a neighbor, and, from her pleasant demeanor, thought nothing wrong. There have been so many suicides lately that had she been gloomy or appeared nervous, I would have been on my guard. She laughed as we talked, however."

When she left the drug store Mrs. Lawson saw Mrs. Davis in an upper window over the store. Waving her hand to her, Mrs. Lawson said, "I'm coming up, Minnie." When she entered the room Mrs. Davis was lying on a pallet by the bed. Seating herself, she said, "Go out and get me some chile, will you, John?"

DRANK UNTIL SHE CHOKED.

As Davis left the room Mrs. Lawson arose and walked to the center of the room. Turning up the three ounce bottle, she drank until she choked. Just at that juncture Mrs. Davis entered the room.

"When I asked her what she was doing," said Mrs. Davis, "she made no reply. then I saw the acid on her lips and smelled it. I grabbed for the bottle and she cast it from her and fell back on the bed.

Lawson, who was at the saloon of Joseph Woods, 700 Independence avenue, was quickly summoned. First they tried to get a doctor in the neighborhood, but one could not be found and the ambulance was summoned. They tried to administer whisky to her, but having no stomach tube failed to get it beyond her mouth.

When asked for a reason for his wife's act, Lawson said: "Well, I guess sit was because I stayed away from home all night last night. I was with some friends, and told her so this morning. She upbraided me for it this morning, but by evening I thought she was all right.

Lawson said that his wife was of a jealous disposition, and on Wednesday a week ago after a little quarrel, bought an ounce of carbolic acid. She returned to the house and attempted to drink it in his presence, but the bottle was knocked from her hands. Both of them were burned on the hands and arms at that time. He said his wife read of all the recent suicides and discussed them, especially the death of Anna May Williams on Tuesday.

Late last night oxygen was still being administered to Mrs. Lawson and artificial respiration used to keep her alive. There seems little hope of her pulling through.

Labels: doctors, druggists, Independence avenue, Suicide, telephone

August 14, 1908

POISON ENDS LIFE

OF GIRL OF TWELVE.

FRIEND OF ANNA MAY WIL-

LIAMS A SUICIDE.

BROODED OVER

CHUM'S END.

"ANNA WAS PERSECUTED," SAID

VIVIAN BURDEN.

Then She Went to a Drug Store and

Purchased 10 Cents Worth of

Carbolic Acid as the Wil-

liams Girl Had Done.

Did the fact that Anna May Williams committed suicide prey upon the mind of 12-year-old Vivian Burden until she yesterday took her own young life by the same method -- carbolic acid? No other reason but mental suggestion has been ascribed as a cause for the girl's death by her family and the coroner.

Little Vivian had gone to the Woodland school with Anna May Williams, the 15-year-old girl who killed herself Tuesday afternoon at her home, 816 Euclid avenue. A discussion of the number of suicides, especially with carbolic acid, took place at the breakfast table in the Burden home yesterday. The death of Ana May Williams, Vivian's acquaintance, was, of course, discussed more than the rest.

"The girl was persecuted," she said "That's the way with step-papas, anyhow."

The child seemed much wrought up over the matter, but as she cooled down afterwards, little was tought of it.

NO TROUBLE TO GET ACID.

Yesterday afternoon Vivian left her house at 800 Lydia avenue, and went to the drug store of E. D. Francisco, Eighth street and Tracy avenue.

"I want 10 cents worth of carbolic acid," she said. "My mamma wants it to make roach poison."

The child, for she was nothing more, sallied when she said this, and seemed restless, as children do, to get away. "Before she left, however, she bought an ice cream soda and ate it at the counter. With the deadly poison clenched in her childish hands she went to the Bazaar, a store at the corner of Independence and Tracy avenues. There she took some time in selecting a pretty doll for her 5-year-old sister, Helen.

All of this took up about an hour, so that Vivian arrived back home about 3 p. m. Calling her little sister she gave her the doll, for which she had paid 35 cents and seemed delighted in the little one's pleasure when the doll was placed in her hands and she was told it was all hers.

No one suspected there was anything wrong with Vivian when she went upstairs to her room. Louise, 17, and Myrtle, 19 years old sisters of Vivian, were busy in the kitchen when Vivian ran in and said: "Call a doctor quick; I've taken some of mamma's roach poison." The sisters at first thought she was joking, but when they saw the condition of her lips and smelled the deadly carbolic acid they were thrown into consternation.

DOCTOR'S EFFORTS WERE IN VAIN.

Dr. Oliver F. Faires, who has an office over Francisco's drug store, was then summoned, and though he worked over the child until 5 o'clock, she died, having been long unconscious before the end came. Coroner George B. Thompson was summoned and sent the body to Newcomer's undertaking rooms.

Vivian Burden was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Burden. The father, a butcher, was not at home, being employed in Bartlesville, Ok. He was notified of his child's rash act and left for home last night.

"What cause can you assign for your daughter, Vivian, taking carbolic acid?" was asked of Mrs. Burden last night.

"I cannot believe the girl committed suicide because of any trouble either at home or with her playmates," the mother replied. "She was of a very happy and bright disposition and was never moody." Vivian regularly scanned the newspapers each day and was particularly interested in stories about suicides. The sad girl named Anna May Williams may have inspired her," the mother said, "as she constantly talked about the girl and the poor girl's sad life."

Labels: butchers, children, Coroner Thompson, doctors, druggists, Eighth street, Independence avenue, retailers, Suicide, Tracy avenue

August 12, 1908

HEIRESS ENDS

LIFE WITH ACID.

ONCE WON PRIZE AS MOST BEAU-

TIFUL GIRL IN MISSOURI.

WEDDING WAS SET FOR TODAY.

DOCTOR PRONOUNCED HER DEAD

3 HOURS BEFORE SHE DIED.

Mother of May Williams Had Her

Committed to Reform School.

Girl Took Poison Rath-

er Than Go.

On the night before her wedding, and on the eve of being sent to the girl's reform school, pretty little May Williams committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid in the presence of her mother and Mrs. W. W. Smith, an officer of the juvenile court. Miss Williams was heiress to $15,000 and her life within the last three months had been a checkered one.

Two months ago, a few weeks after her mother had married Sol Mead, a railway conductor, Miss Williams was sent to the juvenile court, charged with being incorrigible. Mrs. Smith, the probation officer of the Detention home, thought the girl should be in a better place than the home. Consequently, according to Mrs. Alice Page, the matron of the Y. W. C. A. home at Eighth and Harrison streets, arrangements were made whereby the girl was taken to the Y. W. C. A. home. Mrs. Page found the girl to be anything but incorrigible.

A short while ago it became rumored that Miss Williams was to be married today. Shortly after the rumor became public, and the girl admitted that she intended to marry this morning, she was taken from the Y. W. C. A. home and hauled back to the Detention home. At her mother's request the reform school authorities decided to take the girl and to keep her for an indefinite length of time.

SOMEONE WAS NEGLIGENT.

The threat of the reform school had been made to the girl time and again by her mother, Mrs. Mead, and each time Miss Williams had replied that she would die before she went to the institution. Mrs. W. W. Smith accompanied her to her home, 816 Euclid avenue, in order that the girl might pack her trunk. On the way home the girl told Mrs. Smith that she was going to commit suicide. After the two had reached the Mead home, Miss Williams sat in the parlor and talked to her mother of the reformatory. Rising, she said:

"I will die first, and it will be before your eyes."

Whether any attention was paid to the girl's remarks has not been learned. At any rate, she was allowed to leave the presence of the court probationary officer and her mother, with the threat of suicide fresh upon her lips, and over fifteen minutes passed before she was missed. The court officer was present all of that time, and it is said she had heard the threat which the girl made.

In the meantime Miss Williams had gone to the Woodland pharmacy, three blocks away, convinced the druggist that her mother wanted three ounces of carbolic acid, and walked back home again. When she reached her home she walked up the back steps and raised the bottle of carbolic acid to her lips. She had heard footsteps approaching and desired to be successful in her attempt to end her life. At that moment Mrs. Smith caught sight of the girl and called to Mrs. Mead, the mother. With both women looking at her, standing as if rooted to the floor, the girl drank the contents of the bottle and then murmured:"Now, I suppose you are satisfied."

Instantly the probation officer ran to he 'phone and called a doctor and neighbors. Someone called the police ambulance and Dr. J. Park Neal.

DOCTOR THOUGHT HER DEAD.

Dr. A. H. Walls, who lived in the immediate neighborhood, was called. He replied that he could not get to the Mead home for twenty-five minutes. Ten of those twenty-five had elapsed when someone called the police ambulance. The ambulance made a rapid run and arrived at the home of the Williams girl shortly after Dr. Walls had arrived. As Dr. J. Park Neal, probably the most successful combater of carbolic acid suicides in Kansas City, jumped from his ambulance he was met by Mrs. Smith and Dr. Walls. They told him that the girl was dead an d that nothing could be done for her. Taking Dr. Walls's word for it, and knowing Mrs. Smith as a court officer, he did not attend the girl, but went back to the emergency hospital.

As the ambulance turned the corner of Eighth street an undertaker's wagon appeared around the corner of Ninth street. No one knows who called it. By that time Dr. E. R. Curry arrived and pronounced the girl alive. She had been alive all of the time and lived for three hours after she had taken the poison.

"Could she have been saved had you attended her when you were at the house?" was asked Dr. Neal.

"I believe she could," he said. "In fact, I know she could have been saved. But I took Mrs. Smith's and Dr. Wall's word for final. I had no reason to believe the girl was still alive."

Dr. Neal could not understand why he was turned away while there was hope that the girl might not be dead.

Long before the girl was really dead, another undertaker's ambulance had driven up to the front door, and the neighbors looked on and wondered. No one could be found who would admit calling the second undertaker's ambulance.

Mrs. Mead, the girl's mother, says she is heart broken and will see no one. A doctor was called to see her.

May Williams was a beautiful young girl of uncertain age. Her mother swore in court that May was but 15 years old, while May swore that she was 17. Had the girl been 15 years old three years would have expired before she attained her majority; 17 years of age meant only one year until she came into the $15,000 which her father had left her.

WON A BEAUTY PRIZE.

Last spring May Williams won the prize in St. Louis as being the most beautiful unmarried woman in Missouri. The prize was given by a local newspaper. Everywhere she went her beauty was remarked upon. In St. Louis, say those who knew her there, she was not considered incorrigible, nor even wayward.

Mrs. Mead was divorced from her first husband and May lived with him until his death. In his will he left May $15,000, and, it is said, cut off his divorced wife without one cent. At the time of the Williams divorce, which occurred in St. Louis, the whole family history was aired.

Mr. Mead, who is a conductor on the Chicago & Alton railroad, has not been notified of his step-daughter's death. He is expected in from his run this morning at 10 o'clock.

Labels: detention home, doctors, druggists, Eighth street, Euclid avenue, juvenile court, Ninth street, probate, St Louis, Suicide, undertakers, women, YWCA

July 30, 1908

TO MAKE CARBOLIC

ACID HARD TO BUY.

DRUGGISTS WANT A LAW REGU-

LATING SALE OF POISON.

Would Sell a Diluted, Harmless

Form to the General Trade, and

the Strong Drug on Pre-

scriptions Only.

It is going to be harder to commit suicide with carbolic acid in Kansas City in a little while.

The dictum has gone forth from the Kansas City Retail Druggists' Association. Alarmed by the number of deaths from this drug, the association, at a meeting last week, appointed a legislative committee to draft an ordinance for presentation to the council. This measure, which is to be patterned closely after the law in force in Chicago, will to a great extent do away with the drug as a means of self-destruction.

At the present time any child may buy the acid, which really is no acid at all, but a form of alcohol called phenol. Druggists say they dare not refuse to sell the drug for fear of losing much of their trade, as carbolic acid is extensively employed in cleansing. Much as they hate to serve this trade, they find they must do it in order to hold their customers for other lines in the drug trade.

The new ordinance, which is to be presented for introduction in the council as soon as it has been approved by the legislative committee and presented to the Jackson County Medical Association for its indorsement, hedges the sale of the drug about with rigid restrictions. By its terms, the ordinary carbolic acid to be sold over the counters will retain all its qualities as an antiseptic and for cleansing. It will be robbed, however, of its power to destroy human life, and in a very simple way.

DILUTE THE DRUG.

While carbolic acid is a form of alcohol, the best antidote for the poison, curiously enough, is alcohol. So the druggists propose to sell, or rather to compel themselves to sell, a mixture of 1-3 carbolic acid, 1-3 alcohol and 1-3 glycerin. If anybody tries to commit suicide with this mixture, he will have nothing but a bad taste in the mouth and perhaps a little nausea.

The real carbolic acid, under this ordinance, may be sold only on the prescription of a regularly licensed physician. Exceptions are the sale of more than one gallon to one person or the handling of the product in a commercial way by wholesale houses and the like.

All offenses against the ordinance are made, as in the case of Chicago, misdemeanors, punishable by fines of from $10 to $25 or by imprisonment of from thirty days to six months.

To do away with abuses of the prescription, the ordinance makes it unlawful to forge prescriptions or to put on them the wrong date or to misrepresent in any way. These offenses are also made misdemeanors and punishable by the same fine.

THAT'S NOT COMFORTABLE.

"Druggists have decided that they must have some protection in this matter," said D. V. Whitney, president of the druggists' association, who conducts a store at 3722 East Twelfth street. "It is no comfortable feeling to know, if you are a druggist, that you have sold carbolic acid which has resulted in a person's death. But druggists have no way to get out of such sales except by passing a law compelling themselves to do what they already want to.

"Accidents happen easily. For instance, a child may be sent to a store to buy carbolic acid. On the way home it may drop the bottle, and in picking up the fragments sustain severe burns. The modified drug will not burn. It is a case in which the druggists are trying to secure legislation to protect the general public. The stores themselves will make no more profit for the diluted carbolic acid costs for the druggists as much as the strong drug.

"Our ordinance provides that prescriptions must give the name and address of both patient and doctor. These prescriptions must be open at all times to the inspection of the coroner, the police and the city and county authorities."

Labels: Chicago, druggists, organizations, poison, Suicide, Twelfth street

June 15, 1908

SODA TRADE AFFECTED.

Cigar Men, Too, Say No One is Smok-

ing These Days.

Unless this weather clears up, soda fountain men will go into spasms.

"And the cigar man, too," said a druggist yesterday, in despair. "We are not making enough off the fountains, any of us, to pay for the help and the syrups. We are losing money on the investment. Nobody drinks soda in ordinary weather, at least not so that the druggist notices it. Cigar men tell me nobody is smoking."

A cigar dealer, who was asked regarding this, had an explanation. "It is too wet to get out to get cigars," he said. "Nobody is on the street, so nobody drops in for a cigar. We always feel trade drop off when it is too wet or too cold for men to get around. Hot weather lets them drop in for a smoke -- but not too hot. They quit smoking then. This rainy season is about the worst experience we have had. It is new, and the cigar dealers do not like it. Just put that down."

Labels: cigars, druggists, weather

June 1, 1908

SUICIDE FALLS AT

FEET OF HUSBAND.

MRS. HARRY SETTLE SWALLOWS

ACID AT HER HOTEL.

HAD JUST MADE UP

QUARREL.

COUPLE WAS HERE VISITING

MR. SETTLE'S PARENTS.

All Sunday Morning He Pleaded Out-

side Her Door and at Last

Believed She For-

gave Him.

As an outcome of several months of domestic troubles, Mrs. Mildred Settle, daughter of Richard L. Long, a prominent real estate dealer of Fort Worth, Tex., 18 years of age, committed suicide in her room at the Humbolt hotel at Twelfth and Locust streets yesterday afternoon by drinking carbolic acid. Mrs. Settle and her husband, Harry Settle, had been in Kansas City since Saturday at midnight, having come here to visit Mr Settle's parents, who live at 1308 Oak street. They went immediately to the Humbolt hotel, and nothing more was seen of them until late yesterday morning.

Settle appeared in the dining room of the hotel for breakfast at a late hour without his young wife. After his breakfast he went back to their room to see why she had not come down for breakfast. He found the door locked, and to his knocking he received no reply.

He called repeatedly, and she finally told him to leave her, as she wished nothing more from him. Surprised at this treatment, he began to plead with her, but the young wife would speak to him no more.

After urging a reconciliation for some time, he left the hotel and went to his mother's home. He enlisted her services, and together they went to the hotel, and stood outside of the door, first one pleading with the girl, and then the other. At last Mrs. Settle opened the door and let them in. Mrs. Settle then left the husband with his wife, and soon it appeared that all the trouble was over between them. They left the hotel together, and appeared in a happy frame of mind.

About noon they returned and went directly to their room. Mr. Settle left and went to his mother's home. As he passed out of sight his wife walked form the hotel to Hucke's drug store at Twelfth and Oak streets, where she purchased a vial of carbolic acid.

SHE RAN THROUGH STREETS.

Soon she was seen running through the halls, out of doors and into her father-in-law's home. In the room she found her husband talking with his father and mother. She ran directly up to him, gasping out an almost inarticulate cry: "Oh Harry, Harry," and then fell to the floor at his feet.

The family physician was called and tried to revive the fast falling girl by administering vinegar. His treatment was without beneficial effect and her husbans sent in a call for the police ambulance. At the Walnut street station, the nearest one, the doctor had gone out for lunch, but the ambulance was sent nevertheless.

When it arrived at the house where the unconscious girl lay, she was hastily carried into the carriage and orders were given for a record drive to the emergency hospital, fourteen blocks away.

The girl was almost beyond medical aid before they had reached the hospital and died a few moments after having been taken in charge by the police surgeon.

Just before Mrs. Settle left the hotel she had opened her door and called to Mrs. A. D. Buyas, wife of the proprietor, asking her the date of the month. Remembering this incident, Mrs. Buyas went into the dead girl's room, expecting to find an explanatory note of some kind. As she passed through the door she noticed a leaf of charred paper in the center of the floor with a half burnt match beside it. She stooped to see if she could make out what was written on the sheet and succeeded in deciphering the last word, which was "dead."

BURNED FAREWELL NOTE.

Apparently Mrs. Settle had written a note telling of her suicidal intentions and at the last moment decided to leave it all to the imagination. Mr. Settle says that he was not greatly surprised at his wife's actions, for on the occasion of their last years' visit to Kansas City his wife had bought a bottle of laudanum and announced her intention of committing suicide. He says that he was able to persuade her not to do so at that time, but the threat had been ever ready with her since.

Mr. and Mrs. Settle had lived for two years on a ranch near Amarillo, Tex. While on the ranch his wife had developed a strange fascination, according to him, of breaking broncos. At the beginning of her riding she was thrown violently to the ground, sustaining a serious injury about the head. Her husband thinks that this fall caused her to become despondent and in constant ill health, which made her very irritable at times. This fact he believes caused her to magnify the family troubles, which have frequently arisen.

Harry Settle was well known in college football circles, having been a tackle on the University Medical school football team for three years, 1899-1901. At that time he was reputed to be one of the best tackles in the West. He is a brother of Mrs. E. J. Gump of 105 Spring street in this city.

Labels: druggists, hotels, Locust street, Oak street, sports, Spring street, Suicide, Twelfth street, visitors

May 3, 1908

PASSED MONEY

THAT WAS BAD.

WOMAN CONFESSES PART IN

COUNTERFEITING PLOT .

WAS CAUGHT AT 511 LOCUST.

MAN ACCUSED OF MAKING THE

MONEY ALSO CAUGHT.

Plaster of Paris Molds, Melting Pots

and Other Paraphernalia for

Producing Bogus Coins Dis-

covered by Police.

In the arrest of a couple giving the name of George and Tillie Bullene at 511 Locust street last night, the police are certain they have a pair of genuine counterfeiters. Four plaster of paris molds, two of them still damp, two pots for melting metal, two batteries and a bad dollar were found in the room. All of the molds are of a dollar.

The woman confessed to Police Sergeant M. E. Ryan, the sergeant says, that for the past year she has been living with Bullene and has been passing the "queer" as fast as he made it. To reporters, however, she refused to make any statement.

Mrs. Bullene brought about the arrest herself. She entered Hudson's drug store at Fifth and Broadway early in the evening. She made a purchase which came to 15 cents, and pushed a dollar slowly along the counter.

T. H. Murphy, a drug clerk, was in the store visiting a friend. The woman's actions attracted his attention and aroused his suspicions. Taking the dollar in his hand he felt of it and said:

"This is a bum dollar. Where did you get it?"

"Well, I declare," said the woman, in apparent surprise, "Let me see who did give me that. Give it here. I think I know who gave it to me now."

With that she left the drug store. Murphy, still filled with suspicion, followed the woman at a safe distance. Many times she looked back, but he always managed to elude her vision. When she got to 511 Locust street she cast one more quick glance behind and darted hurriedly into the house.

Murphy felt that his suspicions were confirmed. He went at once to police headquarters and told his story to Sergeant M. E. Ryan, who detailed Sergeant Peter McCosgrove and Patrolman Joseph Enright on the case. They found both people at the house and placed them under arrest. In the woman's purse was found six "phony" dollars. No bad coin was found on the man.

Two of the molds show plainly that they have been recently used, and there are two which appear to have been made only a few hours, as the plaster had not set. In a match box with some small chips of copper was another "bad" dollar. It is well made, however, and has a ring almost like a good dollar. Ground glass is sometimes used to give counterfeit coins the proper ring. When Enright and Cosgrove brought the molds and metal pots to headquarters they mentioned casually that "there are two old batteries attached out there. We left them."

They were sent back to the room to bring in everything. The batteries are used to give counterfeit coins a thin coating of silver, it is said.

The woman's trunk was taken to Central station about midnight and searched. It was filled with small articles such as cheap soap, perfume, face lotions and other toilet articles which had not cost more than 5 or 10 cents each. She evidently had confined her operations largely to drug stores in passing the spurious coins.

The pair will be turned over to the federal authorities.

Labels: Central station, con artist, crime, druggists, Locust street, police headquarters

April 9, 1908

PAYS PECULIAR ELECTION BET.

Youth Trundles Winner Around Ar-

mourdale in Wheelbarrow.

From 8 o'clock until noon yesterday a thin young man with nose glasses and a wearied look of regret, trundled a wheelbarrow in which another young man was sitting about the streets and byways of Armourdale. Starting at the Red Cross pharmacy the pair went south to Shawnee, east to St. Paul, north to Kansas avenue and west to Packard. There the youth with the glasses tilted the barrow over on its nose, unbent his back and mopped his brow with a handkerchief.

All this time not a word had been spoken by either party and many people passing on the walks thought they were fakers and dropped in behind to see what they were selling.

In this they were disappointed, however. The lonely occupant of the wheelbarrow said he was M. A. Gillespie of the Red Cross pharmacy, and that his propeller was Frank Bryant, a salesman at the Clanville furniture store at Armourdale.

"Just an election bet I won," said Gillespie. "I've got another bet, if there's any takers. That is, that I got the worst of this transaction. I've had my knees tucked under my chin so long I can't get them straightened out."

Bryant had made a bet with Gillespie that Timothy Lyons would not be re-elected to the city council.

Labels: Armourdale, druggists, gambling, politics, salesmen

March 28, 1908

MOTORMAN KILLED IN WRECK.

Rex Hawkins Loses Control of His Car,

Which Strikes Another.

Rex Hawkins, the motorman on southbound Indiana car No. 643, was killed in a collision which occurred between Thirtieth and Thirty-first street on Indiana avenue at 11:15 o'clock last night. Hawkins lost control of his car as it was descending the hill toward the end of the line and the switchback at Thirty-first street. Indiana car No. 636, which was standing on the east track at the terminus, was telescoped and completely demolished by the southbound car when it jumped the track.

Hawkins was caught in the vestibule of his car, his left leg broken and his body crushed. He was extricated from the wreck and carried into McCann & Bartell's drug store at Thirty-first and Indiana. Dr. H. A. Breyfogle attended the injured motorman, who died a few minutes after being carried into the drug store. Hawkins lived at 2424 Tracy avenue. Isaac Pate and William Lamar, the trainmen on the car that was telescoped, were bruised and shaken up but sustained no dangerous injuries. E. J. Hanson, the conductor on the runaway car, was uninjured. Hawkins's body was taken to Eylar Brothers' undertaking rooms.

Labels: accident, doctors, druggists, Indiana avenue, streetcar, Thirtieth street, Thirty-first street, Tracy avenue, undertakers

January 30, 1908

MORE MEN ARE VACCINATED.

Health Officers Caught 157 in North

End Rooming Houses.

An impromptu vaccinating expedition was organized at the office of the board of health last night. Drs. H. A. Lane and George Dagg, Harry Heaton, a druggist; Victor Ringolsky, an inspector; and Charles H. Cook, chief clerk at the board of health, constituted the raiders.

The marauders paid their first visit to the Helping Hand annex at 308 Main street, where ninety-two men were cornered and successfully vaccinated. From there they made a rapid flank movement and succeeded in corralling sixty-five more "suspects" in 301 Main street. Patrolman Peter Campbell went along in blue and brass to represent the majesty of the law. One suspicious case was found at 308 Main street. The man is now isolated in the detention room at the emergency hospital until his case can be investigated.

Last Saturday night over 350 men were vaccinated in the North End rooming houses. It is the intention of Dr. Sanders to keep up this gait until every man in that section of the city has been rendered immune -- as far as possible. Few objected last night, and a poke in the ribs by Campbell helped them to make up their minds.

Labels: board of health, doctors, druggists, health, Helping Hand, Main street, North end, police, rooming house, smallpox

January 20, 1908

FIERCE ENCOUNTER WITH DOG.

Frank Warren, After Being Bitten,

Quited Beast With a Brick.

The neighborhood of bright new cottages and freshly cut streets surrounding the corner of Twenty-second street and Lister avenue was all agog for two hours last night because of an encounter between a watchdog and a carpenter.

Frank Warren, the carpenter, was walking south and nearing Twenty-second street on the new Lister avenue cement walk, when the dog leaped out at him and seized both coat tails in his mouth. Warren shook the beast loose only to find him around in front, snapping at his hands. The dog finally made a leap for Warren's throat and the latter seized him by the neck and tried to strangle him. A hand to tooth encounter ensued, which drew heads to every window in the block. It was only after Warren's hands had been scratched and torn, that he choked the venom out of the dog.

Then Warren carried the animal into a lot where a house was being buit and threw teh animal on the freshly turned clay and hammered his head with a new brick with sharp corners. He left the dog for dead and walked across Twenty-second street to the Luce-Weed drug store. The pharmacist boud up his bleeding hands, called a physician and sent Warren to his room at the corner of Fifteenth street and Lawn avenue in a carriage.

A mounted policeman from No. 6 station arrived shortly and, after looking the dog over, decided not to shoot it.

"He has had puunishment enough," said the policeman.

Two hours later, at 11:00, someone telephoned in from the corner that the dog had revived and crawled to a cottage, where he is alleged to regularly reside.

Labels: animals, druggists, Fifteenth street, Lawn avenue, Lister avenue, No 6 police station, Twenty-second street

January 6, 1908

CHARIVARI STOPS CARS.

Riot Call Follows Wedding at the

Progressive Club.

When Mrs. Lena Gladstone and Julius Varshavsky set last night as the date for their marriage, they thought that none of their friends knew anything about it. But somewhere and somehow the secret had leaked out and friends of both people were waiting for the time to come so that they might have a charivari party and, perchance, some refreshments. Mrs. Gladstone lived at 221 East Nineteenth street and most of the party of rice throwers thought that the wedding would surely take place at the home of the bride. Consequently at 7 o'clock last night Nineteenth street was crowded with more than 500 noise-making individuals. The cars on Nineteenth street were lined up for more than a block away because the mob in front of the McClure flats refused to get out of the streets.

The car crews sent in a riot call to the police in order that the crowd might be dispersed.

After the cars had passed the mob began to surge back into the street and to show signs of violence. They insisted that they get a treat of some sort. Charles Gidinsky, a druggist at Nineteenth street and Grand avenue, scattered twenty pounds of candy in their midst.

Meanwhile 150 friends of the couple had found out that the wedding was taking place in the Young Men's Progressive Club rooms at Seventeenth and Locust streets, and rushed to that building. The groom walked out upon the porch to make a speech. He was greeted by a storm of rice and old shoes and his voice was drowned by the noise of horns. He hastily ran back indoors and telephoned the police. This time the police were in earnest and soon broke up the charivary party.

Labels: druggists, Grand avenue, Locust street, Nineteenth street, police, Seventeenth street, streetcar, wedding

January 1, 1908

HE RAN COLISEUM

MANY YEARS AGO.

HENRY D. CLARK, THEATRICAL

MANAGER, IS DEAD.

Came Here a Penniless Song and

Dance Man With Eddie Foy,

and Made Half a Mil-

lion Dollars.

Henry D. Clark, famous as the creator of the old Coliseum which he conducted throughout Kansas City's frontier days, died last night at his residence, 3300 Broadway. He had been ill for three weeks and succumbed to acute gastritis and bronchial pneumonia following grip. The phenomenal will power of the man enabled him to rise from his bed against the advice of his physician and family as late as Sunday, when he shaved himself and went about as he wished.

Mr. Clark was one of the youngest soldiers in the civil war. He enlisted in the New York heavy artillery when only 13 years 6 months old, and served throughout the war. New York was his birthplace, but he went in childhood to Wisconsin. Starting in a theatrical career in Chicago after the war, he came to Kansas City to locate in 1877.

He was the most picturesque and amazingly progressive theater manager Kansas City ever had. He came here moneyless, "opened" in a cellar and amassed over a half million dollars. Then he retired. That was ten years ago, after he had discovered that the things he knew about running a frontier place of amusement did not suit the public when taken out of the original setting and sold to them at uptown prices in a regular theater.

But the most Kansas City ever knew of Clark was far back of his retirement. It was thirty years ago when he first appeared here. He was a young man then and had been doing a song and dance with Eddie Foy. His working partner called herself Zoe Clark. She was the more thrifty of the two and decided that Kansas City would be a good place to open a theater. Clark's father lived here then and drove a one-horse job wagon. The elder Clark was not up on theatricals, but he was willing to help his son get into business.

So the old gentleman rented a cellar in Fourth street for Henry and Zoe and bought them a keg of beer. Business was good in the cellar, and Clark built the Coliseum at the corner of Third and Walnut streets with the receipts. The only "legitimate" shows "making" Kansas City in those days played in a hall over the present site of Arnold's drug store at Fifth and Walnut streets.

The Coliseum was a money-making venture too, and Clark soon quit "doing a turn" himself. Zoe started a boarding house to take care of the actors and actresses who played the Coliseum. And then came to Kansas City the embryo of advanced vaudeville. The Coliseum attracted the best variety performers in the West and Eddie Foy. McIntyre and Heath, Murray and Mack and scores of others played long engagements there.

And the best of all these performers were then destined to be plunged into the legitimate sooner or later. Clark realized this and built the old Ninth street theater. It burned and he rebuilt it, but he could never make it a financial success and he leased the property and during the last ten years he called at the theater at 10 o'clock on the morning of the second day of each month, rain or shine, to get the rent. It was the only time he was ever seen about the place.

Surviving Mr. Clark are the widow and five children. They are: H. D. Clark, Jr., and Palmer Clark, druggist and dry goods merchant respectively at Genessee and Thirty-Ninth streets; Miss Hazel Clark, Willie Clark and Mrs. J. B. Shinn of Seattle, Wash.

Labels: Broadway, Chicago, Civil War, dancing, death, druggists, Fourth street, Genessee street, theater, Thirty-ninth street

December 31, 1907

DOCTOR DIES IN DRUG STORE.

R. J. Gibbons Is Overcome by Heart

Failure While Going Home.

Heart disease probably was the cause of the collapse last night on a Troost car of Dr. R. J. Gibbons, resulting in his death almost as soon as he was removed from the car to the Wirthman drug store, Eighteenth street and Troost avenue.

Dr. Gibbons had for years conducted a school for the cure of stammering in the Missouri building. Early last evening he left his home at 1010 East Eleventh street to meet some patients who were expected at the railway station. At 9:30 o'clock he boarded the Troost car at Tenth and Wyandotte streets.

The conductor noticed that he was very pale. Probably he became partly unconscious soon, for he did not ring for the car to stop when he was near home, and yet nothing wrong was noticed about him till at Sixteenth street he bent his head forward and leaned on the back of a seat. Conductor Wade was alarmed and two blocks farther on he and the motorman removed the then unconscious man to the drug store.

Dr. Gibbons was still alive when taken into the store, but he gasped only a few times and was dead before any physician could reach him.

Coroner G. B. Thompson came and viewed the body. He thought heart failure was probably the cause of death, but will hold an autopsy this morning at Freeman & Marshall's morgue.

Dr. Gibbons came to Kansas City sixteen years ago from Kentucky and was 54 years old. Only a wife survives him.

Dr. Gibbon's success in curing stammering was considered by many physicians to be phenomenal. Many high in the profession sent patients to him. Difficult cases, it is said, were cured by him often in one session.

No funeral arrangements had been made.

Labels: Coroner Thompson, death, doctors, druggists, Eighteenth street, streetcar, Troost avenue, undertakers

November 10, 1907

IT MAKES THEM SNEEZE.

This Is the Powder That's Causing All

the Trouble in Theaters.

"Cachou" is the name of the powder that pests have been scattering in the theaters and other public places recently to make people sneeze. One cigar store sold ten gross bottles of the "sneeze powder" in three days last week.

Cachou is put up in one-half ounce bottles. It is advertised as a secret preparation. A druggist siad that it is made form soap bark and a small amount of tobacco.

Labels: cigars, druggists, theater

November 2, 1907

W. B. SLOAN, DRUGGIST, IN JAIL.

With Forty Indictments Against Him He

Was a Fugitive.

William B. Sloan, a druggist at Ninth street and Brighton avenue, against whom the grand jury in the criminal court returned forty indictments three weeks ago, was arrested last night by Martin Roos, a deputy county marshal. After the indictments were returned against him for selling liquor on Sunday, Sloan went to the home of his father at 50 Clifton street, Kansas City, Kas. A fugitive warrant had been issued by the Kansas authorities and preparations had been made to extradite Sloan when he returned to Missouri and remained in hiding. He was taken to the county jail last night and will remain there until released on bond.

Sloan has been fined in police court several times for selling liquor illegally. Each case was appealed to the criminal court, where only one case has been tried. In that case a jury fined him $500 and it is now on appeal to the Kansas City court of appeals.

Labels: Brighton avenue, druggists, jail, Ninth street

September 29, 1907

ROBS A DRUG STORE.

Masked Robber Terrifies Occupants

and Gets $125 From Cash Register.

R. E. Slaughter, a clerk, and Miss Will Mowrey, cashier in the E. H. Dudley drug store, 5200 St. John avenue, were "held up" at the point of a revolver by a masked man last night at 10 o'clock and $125 was taken from the cash register. The robber escaped.

The man was driving a sorrel horse hitched to a buggy. He tied the horse in front of the drug store. He was wearing a white mask when he drove up. When he entered the store the clerk and the cashier were alone. He pointed the revolver at Slaughter and said:

"I want the money in the cash register and quick." He went behind the showcase and to the register, which he opened, while he kept Slaughter "covered" with the revolver. There was just $125 there. He took all of it. Then he backed out of the store pointing the revolver at Slaughter as he retreated. While he was untying the horse, Slaughter secured a revolver and stepped out onto the street, aimed at the robber and snapped the weapon several times. The cartridges failed to explode. The robber rode away unmolested. The police were notified immediately.

Labels: crime, druggists, St John avenue, St. John avenue

August 22, 1907

ONE WAY TO OBTAIN MORPHINE.

Headache Prescription That Contains

One-Seventh of a Grain.

A Troost avenue druggist was approached yesterday morning by a woman with a prescription for headache.

"I have had headache for many years, but not until I began taking these powders did I secure relief," the woman said. "O, they are just fine -- a dozen powders, please."

The clerk passed behind the prescription case with the slip of paper.

He read thereon among other ingredients a demand for one-seventh of a grain of morphine to each powder. His first impulse was to decline to fill the prescription, but then he happpened to think that she was an educated woman and could read as well as he.

"I am not surprised, madame, that your headaches are relieved by this remedy," almost tremulously rejoined the druggist as he handed the woman her package and took a coin.

"My husband sometimes takes them, too, but baby is scarcely old enough to have a headache. When she does, though, you bet she must take them like the rest of us," declared the woman.

"Poor baby," sighed the druggist.

Labels: druggists, narcotics, Troost avenue

August 21, 1907

GOT COCAINE AT STREIGLE'S.

So Reported the Police and a Drug-

gist's Arrest Followed.

On account of the testimony of a cocaine user in police court recently an order was made to see how easily cocaine could be bought from a drug store owned by Bert Streigle, at 125 West Fifth street. A policeman in plain clothes reported that he had bought some of the drug there and the following day in inspctor from the license inspector's office reported taht he, too, had no trouble in getting any quantity of "coke."

Judge Kyle yesterday ordered a warrant for Streigle's arrest and required a cash bond of $500. Streigle has been in police court before on similar charges, at one time receiving a fine of $500.

Labels: druggists, Fifth street, Judge Kyle, narcotics, police court

July 25, 1907

DRUGGISTS OPPOSE IT

SAY LAPP'S ORDINANCE IS TO

GIVE DOCTORS JOBS.

Import of the Measure Is to Require

Prescriptions for Sale of Opium,

Cocaine or Any of Its

Preparations.

"That ordinance is evidently intended to make business for young doctors who have but little practice under the guise of making it impossible for people to buy opium, cocaine or any of its preparations," declared a delegation of druggists that visited the city hall yesterday to protest against the passage of Dr. J. G. Lapp's ordinance regulating the sale of these drugs.

Alderman Lapp, the author of the ordinance, is a physician and in defense of his measure says it is the only way that the sale of opium and cocaine can be checked.

The ordinance provides that no druggist nor pharmacist or any other person shall offer for sale opium or any of its preparations, except upon the written prescription of a regularly licensed practicing physician.

"Should the ordinance become effective," declared a druggist, "it would be impossible for a person in an emergency to get a little laudanum for a sick person without first hunting up a doctor and paying him a dollar to write a prescription. If this isn't an imposition I do not know what else it can be termed. There are other preparations from opium that are a family medicinal necessity, and to ask its users to pay $1 to a doctor every time they want a prescription filled is an outrage."

The ordinance stipulates that no prescriptions for opium or any of its preparations, excepting Dover's powder or paregoric, shall be refilled.

The penalty for a violation of the ordinance is a fine of not less than $1 nor more than $500.

Alderman Lap says that he has been induced to present this ordinance on account of the many evils growing out of the unrestricted sale of opium and its preparations by druggists. He claims that it is not a shaft at the better class of pharmacists, but at those whose principal stock in trade is opium and cocaine, and who make a pretense of conducting drug stores. He feels, he says, that no legitimate druggist would be in any wise injured by the enforcement of the ordinance. The doctor may yet amend the ordinance so as not to prohibit the sale of laudanum in small quantities without a written prescription.

The druggists also call attention to the fact that there are many patent medicines that contain opium or the preparations thereof, and they represent that if the Lapp ordinance becomes a law they will be prevented from selling these medicines without a prescription.

Labels: doctors, druggists, health, narcotics

July 8, 1907

A DRUG CLERK ARRESTED.

Clarence Moreland, Alias Davidson,

Wanted for Jail-Breaking.

Clarance Moreland, known here as Clarence Davidson, was arrested last night by Deputy County Marshals Morgan and Siegfried, on a warrant from Tazewell, Ill., charging him with escaping from jail there July 13, 1905, and at the same time liberating three other prisoners.

Moreland is a registered pharmacist and has been employed in local drug stores for nearly a year, having come to this city directly after his escape. He was arrested in a drug store where he was empoyed, near Fifth street and Broadway. He is said to have led an exemplary life during his residence in Kansas City.

Labels: Broadway, druggists, Fifth street, jail

May 16, 1907

HAD VIOLATED HIS PROMISE.

Druggist Who Sold Cocaine Fined

$250 in Police Court

When the "Black Maria" was being loaded at police headquarters yesterday with its daily load of prisoners for the workhouse there was one figure among the rollicking, happy-go-lucky crowd that attracted more than usual attention. It was that of a tall and aged man, his hair as white as the snow. He used a cane to feel his way up the steps and his high power glasses signified bad eyesight. Attendants had to assist the man into the wagon.

The unusual figure was that of H. B. Sargent, 70 years old, druggist at 1901 Grand avenue. He had pleaded guilty in police court to selling cocaine to J. M. Watkins, a user of the drug, living at 2127 Terrace street, and had been fined $250. Watkins, who was fined $100 on a vagrancy charge and sent to the general hospital for treatment, testified against Sargent. Mr. Sargent has a wife living at 3021 Oak street. There are no children. He said he was not able to give a $500 appeal bond.

Not many months ago the same aged white-haired man stood in police court charged with the same offense -- selling cocaine. The case was a clear one, but the court was lenient on account of the man's age and the oath he took. Raising his right hand high above his head he said in a trembling voice:

"Judge, I swear as I hope for mercy from my God that I will sell no more cocaine so long as I may live. I will not even keep it in my store. If there is any found there on my return I will cast it in the street."

Mr. Sargent was asked of that oath yesterday before he was taken away. "I made such an oath," he said, "and it was my intention to keep it. But there are two ways of looking at this thing. Here come a man and or a woman into my store. The eyes are wild and sunken, the face wan, drawn, and dreadfully pale. The form trembles as a leaf in a storm. They are too weak almost to stand. Cocaine is the only thing that will relieve them. Death might follow if they did not get it. I never put them in that shape, I know I didn't, but what am I to do?"

On account of Sargent's age efforts will be made to secure his release from the workhouse.

Labels: druggists, Grand avenue, narcotics, police court, Seniors, Terrace street, vagrancy, workhouse