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

January 18, 1910

PROSPERITY BAD FOR NAVY.

Few Acceptable Men Enlist When

There Is Work Elsewhere.

Prosperity is bad for Uncle Sam's navy, in a way. Few healthy young men of good moral character want to ship when there's work to be had at good pay elsewhere. Just now times are mighty dull around the navy recruiting office in the federal building. Those who apply for enlistment are inferior, as a class, and few get by the rigid standard set by the regulations.

Since January 1 but thirteen men have been enlisted. Plenty apply, and a sorry looking lot they are, as a rule, bu the government has no place, in time of peace, for fellows who "ship" because there's nothing else to be done. Out of thirteen applicants yesterday but one man was accepted.

Labels: federal building, military

December 7, 1909

HIDDEN POUCH FOUND

IN OLD JAMES HOUSE.

FILLED WITH OPENED LETTERS

ADDRESSED TO A. F. GEORGE.

Sack Discovered by Plumber in

Sealed Closet at 1836 East Ninth

Not Like Those Used By Gov-

ernment in Bandit's Time.

UNLIKE PRESENT DAY POUCHES.

A rendezvous of Jesse James was recalled yesterday afternoon, when E. N. Watts, who runs a plumbing shop at 1836 East Ninth street, discovered in an old house at 1836 East Ninth street a mail pouch upon which human eyes probably had not gazed for years.

Watts was doing extensive remodeling work on the interior of the house preparatory to its occupancy as a pool hall, when he accidentally broke into a little closet which evidently had been sealed for years. In that aperture he found a mail pouch, filled with mail matter. He dragged the sack to the light and after examining it concluded that it must have been a part of the spoils of the James gang.

USED AS A RECEPTACLE.

Mr. Watts notified the postal authorities and a postoffice inspector was soon on the scene. He examined the pouch and its contents, finding the sack was filled with many letters, all of which had been opened and were addressed to "A. F. George, 609 East Fifteenth street, Kansas City, Mo." The inspector's conclusion was that the sack must have been used as a receptacle for the accumulated correspondence of Mr. George, whoever he might have been.

CLOSET WHERE THE POUCH WAS FOUND.

The inspector took the sack and contents to the federal building, where officials, who had been in the service as long as twenty years, examined it closely. They said that although the pouch resembled the official style, it lacked certain necessary features that would justify its identification as ever having been owned by the United states government. The officials were at a loss to know why anyone would try to duplicate the official one used years ago.

Labels: billiards, federal building, Fifteenth street, James Gang, Ninth street, postoffice

September 12, 1909

TREASURY INSPECTOR HERE.

J. A. Wetmore of Washington Will

Look Over Federal Building.

James A. Wetmore, chief of division in the supervisor's office in the treasury department at Washington, arrived in Kansas City last night and registered at the Hotel Baltimore. Mr. Wetmore will look over the Kansas City post office building and other federal property and make note of the improvements and changes necessary. "There will be no great amount of new work done here," said Mr. Wetmore. "The building here is in excellent condition and my work here will be more in the nature of a general inspection."

Labels: federal building, Hotel Baltimore, postoffice, visitors

April 13, 1909

NEW RULE FOR ENLISTMENT.

Navy Applicant Must Have Certi-

ficate of Age From Parents.

It will not be easy for young men under the required age to enlist in the navy from now on. Orders from the secretary of the navy were received yesterday by Lieutenant I. F. Landis of the recruiting station in the federal building, to demand from each applicant a certificate of age, with the names of parents or legal guardian attached.

The rule has been to accept the applicant's affidavit as to his age and the estimation of the examining physician that he is older than 18 years.

Labels: federal building, military

April 9, 1909

MEET AFTER TEN YEARS.

Navy Yeomen Were Former School-

mates in Minnesota Town.

Ten years ago John R. Rose and Leo A. Ketterer were classmates in the little town of Shakopee, Minn. Rose became afflicted with sea fever, so one day he enlisted in the United States navy. A year later Ketterer also joined the navy.

Yesterday the former schoolmates met in the navy recruiting office in the federal building for the first time since their enlistment. Rose had been chief yeoman at the station here since November, 1908. Ketterer, also chief yeoman, arrived to relieve him, as Rose has been ordered to duty on board the battleship New Jersey of the North Atlantic fleet.

"Hello, Johnny," said Ketterer, as he came into the office to begin work.

"Why, hello," said Rose. "I had almost forgotten you were in the navy. Where have you been the last ten years? I had lost track of you."

Both men have been around the world a time or two and crossed the equator several times. Ketterer has been in the Far East almost constantly since his first enlistment, and was on the Flagship Rainbow when it carried President Taft, then secretary of war, from Manila to Vladivostok.

Yeoman Rose left for the East at 11 o'clock last night.

Labels: federal building, military, President Taft

March 26, 1909

HAD BAD MONEY AND

COUNTERFEITING KIT.

MAN AND WOMAN ADMIT

MAKING THE "QUEER."

Secret Service Men and City Detect-

ives Discover and Break Up a

Local Plant and Arrest

the Operators.

ROOM AT 621 PENN STREET WHERE KING, THE COUNTERFEITER,
AND HIS WOMAN COMPANION WERE CAUGHT.

The operations of a gang of counterfeiters in Kansas City came to a sudden end yesterday with the arrest at Seventh and Penn streets by a United States secret service agent and city detectives of a man and woman giving their names as Charles King and Mary Cook., and the discovery of the apparatus used in making the spurious coin. Both admitted that bad dollars had been made for the past month.

For the past few weeks Charles A. Adams, United States secret service man in Kansas City, has received complaints of bad coins being circulated. He paid particular attention to the arrest of Daniel Kelly in Kansas City, Kas., March 19 for passing a bad dollar on William G. Smith, a grocer at 1700 North Third street. At the time of his arrest Kelly had three irregular coins in his possession. In police court Judge Sims fined Kelly $500 for vagrancy.

IN A BASEMENT ROOM.

Adams, who visited Kelly in prison, says Kelly confessed making the coins and said his assistants were living at 621 Penn street in Kansas City, Mo.

Adams gave the facts to the police department and Andy O'Hare and Samuel Lowe, detectives, found that the couple were living in the basement of the brick house at the number which Kelly gave. Though the detectives watched the place last Sunday, nothing worth mentioning was discovered. The coins which the couple passed were good ones and could not excite suspicion.

Adams himself watched the house yesterday morning. About 10 o'clock the woman came out and got on a Roanoke car and at Southwest boulevard changed to the Rosedale line. The secret service man, of course, was following her. In Rosedale the woman alighted and entered a grocery store and asked if the clerk could change a dollar.

MARY COOK.

The clerk looked at the coin critically and returned it.

"It's no good," he said, and the woman hurried out.

She walked a short distance when she met a little girl.

"Have you the change for $1?" she asked.

The child shook her head, and she passed on. When Mrs. Cook came to the baker of Mrs. Florence Catley, 1142 Kansas City avenue, she entered and again attempted to pass one of the dollars and was again refused. Out on the sidewalk, Adams stopped the woman.

"You are under arrest," he said.

SHE BLAMED KELLY.

"Why, I didn't know that it was a bad coin," she protested. "It certainly looks like one, doesn't it?"

But she accompanied Adams up town and as they were walking up the front walk to the rooming house, Detectives O'Hare and Lwe came out with King. She broke down and in the presence of King told the whole story.

CHARLES KING.

"It was all Kelly's fault," she sobbed. "We came here from Denver four weeks ago and there wasn't a job in sight that my husband could get. At last he fell in with Kelly, and then they began to make the bad dollars. But today is the first time that I tried to pass one of the coins. Last night we ate the last food in the house, and I had to do something. I went out and tried to pass one of the coins to keep from starving."

The man hung his head during the recital, and at her conclusion corroborated her statements. He said that they had heard of the arrest of Kelly in Kansas City, Kas., and destroyed the molds at once. In an old vault at 512 Broadway where several buildings have been torn down, he told the officers that they might find the broken pieces.

Following his instructions, the officers found five sets of plaster moulds, a quantity of tin and antimony, and a moulding pot. All the material was taken to the federal building and will be held as evidence. The prisoners were taken to police headquarters, where the woman was placed in the matron's room and the man in the holdover.

In the matron's room the Cook woman said that she had formerly lived in Kansas City. She said that she had purchased a home on the installment plan at 2044 Denver avenue, and had made six payments, until last December. She separated from her husband, Thomas Cook, about a year ago, she said, and went to Denver. There she met King, who was working for a gas company.

"We came back to Kansas City because times were hard," she said, as she wept, "but he couldn't get any work here, and he fell in with Kelly. I didn't know for some time that they were making the bad money. Today is the first time that I tried to pass one of the coins."

The couple will be turned over to the United States authorities today. None of the neighbors suspected anything wrong. The family of John Pulliam, who lived on the same floor in the basement, thought that the man and his wife were employed down town. Kelly and king, the woman said, generally made the coins at night. They were such poor imitations that it is doubtful if many were passed.

Labels: Broadway, counterfeiters, crime, Denver, Denver avenue, federal building, Kansas City Kas, Rosedale

March 18, 1909

MINISTER ATE CANNED FISH.

Ptomaine Poisoning Resulted, Which

Nearly Ended His Life.

Suffering ptomaine poisoning from eating canned fish, Rev. W. A. LaRue, 811 Lydia avenue, pastor of the Reorganized Central Latter Day Saints' church, was in a serious condition for several hours yesterday. Prompt medical assistance rendered by Dr. Sandez saved the minister's life.

Harvey Sandy, a steogrpher in the customs office in the fderal buiding, also as poisoned by eating the fish, but did not experience serious effects.

Labels: doctors, federal building, food, Lydia avenue, ministers, poison

February 28, 1909

SELL UNCLAIMED ARTICLES.

Strange Collection Disposed of at

Auction in Federal Building.

An auction sale of articles left during the past year or two in the federal building took place yesterday forenoon in the offices of W. S. Umphrey, assistant custodian of the building. It was a non-descript collection, and there was everything in it, from a Merry Widow hat, model 1907, to a pair of pink pajamas and a case of patent medicine.

A pair of shoes brought the highest price of the sale, at $2.10 Following them, an pair of new canvas golf shoes went for only 10 cents. The wide-brim woman's hat could not be sold at first, but after the other sales it was bid on by a negro at 25 cents. A coat, which had seen about five years' wear, sold for 5 cents.

Labels: auction, clothing, federal building

February 26, 1909

A "WASH" UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

Raw Recruit Tried to Bathe in Fed-

eral Building Sink.

"I don't know, I s'pose that feller meant what he said, but how can I get a good wash here unless I get right into it, and how am I going to get in even if he does want me to," ruminated C. L. Johnson, a raw recruit for the navy, in the public wash room in the federal building yesterday.

W. J. Vickery, chief clerk in the postoffice inspector's department, heard Johnson's soliloquy and called in Quartermaster Freese of the recruiting station. When Freese arrived on the scene Johnson was just removing the last articles of his apparel preparatory to the bath he was about to take.

"Now, how do you ever expect a feller to get into that?" exclaimed the recruit, while pointing at the porcelain sink used by the janitors of the building. "I simply can't do it, an' if you want me to take a good wash, I guess I'll have to do it a little at a time. If I did get into it, I could never get out."

By this time an interested group of spectators had gathered, and Johnson concluded to postpone his bath, and hurriedly donned his clothing. Quartermaster Freese explained the situation.

"I told him to go out and take a good wash, so that I could get a record of his finger prints, which we keep on file in our office for reference. I didn't mean for him to take a bath. He'll get all of that that's coming to him when he gets to Mare Island."

Johnson is 18 years old, and said he had parents, but did not know where they were. His physical examination showed far better than the majority of applicants. He was sent to San Francisco, where he will enter the apprentice schools at Mare Island. He said he lived at Anderson, Mo.

Labels: federal building, military, post office

January 4, 1908

TEACHERS FOR INDIANS.

Must Be Men, and Preference Will

Be Given Married Ones.

Civil service examinations to fill positions as teachers in Indian schools in New Mexico, Washington and the Dakotas will be held in the federal building, January 20. The positions pay about $720 a year. Men only will be allowed to take the examination, and maried ones will be preferred. On the same day examinations will be had to fill positions as goverment freight clerks at Chicago. These positions pay from $80 to $100 a month.

Labels: civil service, employment, federal building, Native Americans

April 29, 1908

CAN YOU PREPARE FOSSILS?

If So, the Government Needs Your

Services at $75 a Month.

There is an excellent chance for somebody to get a $75 a month government job by tking a civil service examination. Notices reached here yesteday calling for a "Preparator of fossils (male)."

Nobody around the government building knows whether the fossils to be preparated are to be exclusively those of male or what the notice means. Anyhow, the examination is to be held in the federal building on May 20.

Labels: civil service, employment, federal building

March 10, 1908

CAN'T CLEAN FEDERAL DOME.

Soot and Oil There to Stay, Says Wal-

ter Humphrey.

After scrubbing a hall on the top of one of the federal building flag staffs with seven kinds of cleaners, the decision has been reached that the gilded dome cannot be freshened up. The highly charged soot of the city, recently strengthened with a fine spray of oil from the furnaces burning oil, has discolored the dome for all time. Walter Humphrey, assistant custodian of the building, took advantage of the work of repainting the flag staffs to include in the specifications the work of washing the gold balls at their tops His intention was to subsequently wash the dome, if the ornaments on the flag staffs should show any improvement.

Labels: federal building

January 11, 1908

CHANCE FOR A CLOCK TENDER.

Federal Building Needs One for Its

Forty-Seven Time Pieces.

An official clock winder and tender can get a good job at the federal building. Yesterday afternoon Surveyor C. W. Clarke, custodian of the building, posted a notice that the government was in need of an official clock tender. There are forty-seven clocks in the building, telling the time for the 1,100 people housed there. They run all the way from "on the dot" to "on the bum" and there is a regular streak of repair bills going to Washington.

"That is what we want to get around," said the custodian, "and for that reason we are going to employ a man to take charge of the clocks. He will have to keep them going and that means he will have to wind them and keep them in repair."

Labels: employment, federal building