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July 21, 1908

UNION DEPOT IN DARKNESS.

Passengers Couldn't Find Their Way

Out and Trains Were Delayed.

The Union depot was in total darkness for five minutes, from 8:54 until 8:59, last night. Trouble at the power house shut off all the electricity just at the time the passengers were going to the Santa Fe, Chicago & Alton, M., K. & T., Missouri Pacific and Wabash 9 o'clock trains.

It was homeseekers' night and the depot was crowded when the lights went out. The depot employes did not start to procure lights for a moment, expecting the "juice" to come back immediately. Finally they lighted a few gas jets and procured candles. The telegraphy office looked as thought it were decorated for a Santa Claus reception, for each operator had a candle all his own.

The arc lights came back five minutes after they went out but the incandescents were out until 9:13. Many of the 9 o'clock trains went out several minutes late, waiting for the passengers who could not find their way through the dark depot.

Labels: railroad, telegraph, Union depot, Utilities

July 7, 1908

DOCTOR OUT OF FUNDS

APPLIES TO HELPING HAND.

Works for Food and Lodging for Him-

self and Dog Until Money

From Home Comes.

When he walked into the Helping Hand institute Saturday afternoon he was leading a bull dog. He was dressed in the latest fashion and his shoes were of patent leather. The clerk thought the visitor was there merely as a spectator and was somewhat astonished when he walked up to the desk, paid his 10 cents for a bed and asked: "Is there any place here that I may keep my dog?"

There was a place in the cellar and the dog was fed and put to bed at regulation time, 9 p. m. Sunday the well dressed man announced that he was "broke" and said he would have to work for what he got thereafter There was no work allowed there on Sunday, of course, but yesterday morning the man was up bright and early ready for manual labor. He was given a job washing windows on the second floor and he did his work well, they say. Twice he left his ladder suddenly and went down stairs. On his third trip interest caused E. T. Brigham, superintendent, to follow him. The man was at the telephone and Mr Brigham heard this:

"Hello, Baltimore hotel, well, has that telegram for Dr. Blank come yet?" Seven times the well dressed man visited the telephone and just at 3:15 p. m. he was rewarded. His telegram was there, he was informed. With a broad smile the man called up the New England National bank. When he finished talking he turned and said:

"Well, I guess I'll go back to the Baltimore now. I am on my way from Billings, Mont., to Galveston, Tex., and got broke here. Knowing no one here I could not ask for credit. I was glad to find a place where I could get my board and room. I'll be glad to pay you now for your trouble."

"You worked, and worked well, for what you got," he was told.

Leading the bull dog the man left the institution yesterday afternoon. The bank informed him that it was too late for him to get his money, but that he could have it this morning. The telegram gave him entree into the Baltimore again, however, and he remained there last night This morning the man, who is a Billings, Mon., dentist, will leave for Galveston.

Labels: animals, banking, dentists, Helping Hand, Hotel Baltimore, telegraph, visitors

June 1, 1908

MEMORIES OF CITY'S

FIRST TELEPHONE.

MAN WHO INSTALLED IT

WRITES OF EXPERIENCES.

Experimental Line Ran From Main

Street to West Bottoms -- Hard

Time to Find a

Battery.

The first telephone in Missouri was built with fence wire, with knobs from dresser drawers for insulators on the housetops over which the line ran, and that Kansas City's first telephone was of much the same construction, running from Main street to a coal office in the West bottoms, is told in the reminiscences of a pioneer, written for "Public Service," a telephone publication, by E. A. Woelk. Mr. Woelk operated the first line built in Kansas City, and aided in capitalizing a corporation to sell the stock of this half mile of wire. The company became the second Bell Telephone Company in the West, the first one of the name having been operated from St. Louis to the old fair grounds in the suburbs, and was the nucleus of the present great Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company.

Passing though St. Louis with his family on a trip to Europe, Mr. Woelk, then living in Springfield, Mo., heard of a new "fake" out at the fair grounds, and went out. He found men talking over a fence wire. That was in 1877. When he returned from Europe Mr. Woelk was still thinking of the "fake," and disposed of his other business, that he might become an agent in the West for the Eastern corporation, having "wagon tracks" for sale. The wagon tracks turned out to be of value, and Mr. Woelk built a line over the housetops from James Kirby's saloon to Jim Straughton's livery stable, in Springfield. They city council made him take down the line, because citizens heard vile language vibrating from the wire by night, and gossiping ladies believed they easily heard all the doings at Kirby's by listening to the "buzzing" of the wire above the housetops. Here is Mr. Woelk's story of how the first line was built in Kansas City:

About July 1, 1878, I received a telegram from Boston to go to Kansas City and take with me a half dozen telephones and some insulated wire and two magneto bells, to meet Mr. Madden for the purpose of demonstrating the new invention which was to elevate the telephone from a mere toy to an instrument of great commercial value.

I met Mr. Madden, who brought with him in his hand satchel two wooden boxes -- the Blake transmitter. While Mr. Madden was busying himself among bank directors and presidents and railroad magnates with the object of the organizing of a telephone company I set out to find a place to demonstrate the new telephone. A short time prior to this the Western Union Telegraph Company, the only wire-using company in Kansas City in those days, had started to build an exchange.

My difficulties here began when I found that this new instrument, the transmitter, required a battery. Nothing of that kind could be bought in Kansas City then. I went to the Western Union people to borrow two cells of crowfoot battery, but as soon as the telegraph operator discovered that it was to be used for a telephone -- the instrument which he thought would drive him out of business -- I was refused.

I set out to find a chinaware store, and bought two crocks and two flower pots to go inside of these; next I went to a drug store for the blue vitrol and some sulphate of zinc, and then to a tinshop for some zinc, and soon rigged up a battery. In the meantime Mr. Madden had secured the keys to a store, on one of the main streets, which was newly plastered and vacant. Remembering the M. M. Buck line in St. Louis, I found an old telegraph line running from near the store to a coal office in the bottoms, about one-half mile distant. I borrowed this line and equipped it with a magneto bell and telephones, including the transmitter, at the coal office, and at the store end with a call bell and about a half a dozen receivers, the transmitter being located in the rear of the store and the receivers about forty feet distant in front.

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the prospective shareholders assembled and Mr. Madden began to demonstrate. It was suggested that I go to the coal office and speak to Mr. Madden at the store. This, for some reason, the visitors did not approve of and sent one of their own men down to make the test. A call was made and Mr. Madden spoke to the coal office in an ordinary tone of voice and the reply came promptly while the visitors alternately listened with the receivers. The transmitter was then adjusted very sensitively and I would speak in a whisper which could not be heard at the front of the store but was promptly answered by the representative of the prospective investors.

It was then and there agreed to meet at the hotel after supper, and it was then and there that the second Bell Telephone Company was organized in the Middle West, St. Louis having the first. The capital was $10,000, and out of this organization grew the existing Missouri and Kansas Telephone Company.

Labels: St Louis, telegraph, telephone, West bottoms

May 17, 1908

DR. W. S. WOODS'S BROTHER DIES.

Funeral Was to Be Held Yesterday.

Dr. W. S. Woods, who arrived from his California trip Friday night, received telegraphic news enroute that his brother, James M. Woods of Rapid City, S. D., had died. Word was also waiting Dr. Woods here that the funeral was to be held yesterday.

Dr. Woods's brother had often associated in Kansas City enterprises. He was 74 years old.

Labels: death, Dr. W. S. Woods, Funeral, telegraph

April 7, 1908

ELECTION RETURNS TONIGHT.

Down-to-the-Minute Returns May

Be Seen at the Journal Building.

Beginning at 7 o'clock tonight, at which hour the polls will close, The Journal will bulletin the election returns at The Journal building, Eighth and McGee streets.

Arrangements have been made for the most complete returns possible and the telegraph and telephone will be used to keep the service right down to the minute. The returns will be bulletined without partisan bias or prejudice. They will be as nearly accurate as unofficial returns possibly can be.

Extra telephone operators will be at The Journal switchboards to accommodate the people who may not wish to stand in the street to read the bulletins. Call 4000 Main, either phone, for the latest on election night.

Labels: Eighth street, McGee street, politics, telegraph, telephone, The Journal

March 28, 1908

WAS THE OPERATOR'S FRIEND.

Mrs. Mary Jane Lambert, Honorary

Member of Union, Dies.

Mrs. Mary Jane Lambert, 63 years of age, died at her home, 818 East Fourteenth street, last night, after several months' illness. Mrs. Lambert was the widow of Benjamin Lambert, who, with Charles Dickens, invented linen paper. Shortly before their marriage, Mr. Lambert was the manager of the Ottoman bank of Constantinople, Turkey.

Mrs. Lambert was born in Liverpool, England, in 1845. At the age of 28 years she married Mr. Lambert, and, on account of the failure of the Overmann & Gurney bank in Liverpool, the couple immediately came to America. For twenty-three years Mrs. Lambert had been a resident of Kansas City.

Two of her sons, G. W. and H. Y. Lambert, were telegraph operators and held positions of influence in the Telegraphers' union. On this account Mrs. Lambert became greatly interested in the work of the union and because of her interest she was made an honorary member. At the time of the strike last summer, Mrs. Lambert went among the strikers, cheering them and offering encouragement to those who needed it. When the strike had reached the stage that many of the strikers were out of money and food, they always found a welcome in Mrs. Lambert's house.

Mrs. Lambert was the mother of twelve children, four of whom are still living. They are her two sons, Mrs. R. F. Ferguson and Mrs. A. C. Preston. The funeral services will be held from the home at 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon. Burial is to be in Elmwood Cemetery.

Labels: cemetery, death, Fourteenth street, immigrants, telegraph

January 31, 1908

TELEGRAPH GIRL READS SIGNS.

And Says There's Winter Weather

Coming -- How She Knows.

"I predict a long and severe winter," remarked the telegraph girl at the Savoy Hotel yesterday. "How do I know? Oh, by reading the weather signs.

"When I was a wee little girl and lived out on a farm I always could tell what the winter would be like by noting how thick the bark was on the new twigs and observing how large were the supplies of nuts the squirrels stowed away It took me a long while to find out the meaning of the signs in the city where there are no trees or squirrels. But I'm on now. What's the secret?

"Why, there have been three policemen standing in here for two days bundled up in their overcoats and leaning against the radiators."

Labels: police, telegraph, weather, women

December 26, 1907

GET UNION DEPOT "MASHER".

Police Arrest Man on a Charge of

Annoying a Topeka Girl.

Sergeant Harry Stege, while working in plain clothes at the Union depot yesterday noticed a man who appeared to be annoying a girl. The man sat down by her and began talking to her. The girl appeared to be trying to avoid him. When Stege asked the girl if she knew the man she said, "No, and I don't want to, either."

At police headquarters, where the man was booked on a technical charge of vagrancy as a "masher," he gave the name of Miller. He said he was a telegraph operator from Indiana. His case will come up in police court this morning. The girl whom he is said to have been annoying gave the name of Ada Torrence of Topeka, Kas.

Labels: police headquarters, telegraph, Topeka, Union depot, vagrancy

November 5, 1907

MESSENGER BOY OF 15 DRUNK.

A Policeman Found Him in an Alley

With Two Messages.

A boy in the messenger uniform of the Postal Telegraph company was taken to police headquarters drunk yesterday morning.

"I found him in the alley behind the R. A. Long building," John R. McCall, a patrolman said. "He had two messages. I don't know when he started with them but from the way he was progressing, they certainly wouldn't have reached their destination on time."

Several boys who came to the station said the messenger was about 15 years old and was called "Bosco." He was taken to the detention home.

Labels: alcohol, children, detention home, police, police headquarters, R A Long building, telegraph

October 12, 1907

CHILDERS IS STILL UNMATED.

Centropolis Station Agent Hasn't

Heard From Any Baltic Girls.

"One thousand of them! Just think, ten hundred beautiful young women to choose a wife from!"

W. R. Childers, station agent at Centropolis, who recently wrote to a friend in New York to have the best appearing and most amiable of the 1,000 marriageable young women who arrived from Ireland on the steamship Baltic picked out for him, made this exclamation yesterday. Childers says his friend, although a bachelor, is a connoisseur of feminine charms, and he has no fears of the result.

But in spite of his enthusiasm, Childers does not try to conceal that the fact he has not yet heard from his friend in regard to his bride-to-be looks a bit ominous. But surely, he says, there must have been at least one pretty, amiable, and also manageable, you Irish lassie among a cargo of 1,000.

Another cargo of Irish girls of about the same number is expected to land in New York within a day or so, and Childers believes that as soon as his friend has seen the young women from the "ould sod" in the coming ship, and has compared them with those who landed, he will be ready to communicate some interesting news. Choice of 2,004 Irish lassies would be even better, if possible, than choice of 1,002.

Every mail is carefully watched by Station Agent Childers for a letter from his New York friend John Alden, although he says that it really will not be time for a communication on the subject for a day or so at best. But in spite of this fact Childers carefully watches for every mail sack which is left at Centropolis, and obligingly helps the postmaster to sort out its contents. And every time he hears his call on the telegraph instrument in the station he jumps to answer even quicker than his duty demands, for it would be a relief to get a bit of news over the wire -- even if it were only the girl's name.

Labels: Centropolis, romance, telegraph

September 13, 1907

SHOT DEAD BY BOY

TRAGIC DEATH OF EDNA

CALLAWAY OF KANSAS CITY.

WAS VISITING IN DENVER.

WITTE ELLIS WAS "FOOLING

WITH THE PISTOL."

In a Spirit of Playfulness He

Pulled Trigger and Bullet Passed

Through Miss Callaway's Brain.

Mother Accompanying Body

Home for Burial.

MISS EDNA CALLAWAY, A KANAS CITY GIRL, WHO WAS ACCIDENT-
ALLY SHOT AND KILLED IN DENVER BY WITTE ELLIS, A FRIEND.

Death at the hands of a cousin of her fiance was the tragic ending of a summer vacation to Miss Edna Callaway, a young Kansas City society woman, at Denver, Col., Wednesday night. Witte Ellis, formerly of Kansas City, accidentally shot and killed her with an automatic pistol at the home of his mother in the presence of her sweetheart, W. Lysle Alderson, who with his mother and Miss Callaway were visiting at the Ellis home. The tragedy occurred on the evening Miss Callaway was to start upon her return trip to Kansas City.

The shooting occurred after the return of the party, composed of Mrs. J. M. Ellis, of Denver, the hostess; Mrs. D. P. Alderson, of Kansas City; W. Lysle Alderson, Miss Callaway, and young Ellis, from a dinner at the Shirley hotel.

MOTHERS PLAY PRANKS ON BOYS.

It seems that for a prank the two women had gone into their sons' bedrooms and concealed some of their night clothing. When the boys discovered the joke they decided upon a reprisal which would turn the laugh the other way. Accordingly young Alderson produced an automatic pistol with which it was proposed to scare Miss Callaway, whom they believed responsible for the original joke.

The pistol was arranged to be loaded by placing a "clip" full of cartridges in a place provided for the insertion so that the top shell would be in position for firing. Ellis took the pistol and removed the "clip" containing the bullets.

Then the two ran into a hallway, where their mothers were awaiting the outcome of the joke. Miss Callaway,, hearing the commotion and knowing some prank was on, peeped from her door and then came out. They flourished the pistol some moments, Ellis exclaiming,

"Where's the fellow who stole my clothes? I want my clothes!"

He turned from his mother to Mrs. Alderson and then back again to his mother. At that moment Miss Callaway came out, laughing, and asked what the trouble was. Ellis told her that someone had gone into his room and stolen his night-clothes.

"HANDS UP!" CRIED ELLIS.

Then he turned to the young woman, accused her of stealing his clothes and ordered her to put up her hands. She was standing beside Mrs. Alderson, at the time, and both women raised their hands in mock terror. Ellis pulled the trigger and sent a bullet crushing into the young girl's brain. One shell had caught when the clip was removed and remained in position for its work of destruction.

Miss Callaway sank back in the arms of her sweetheart's mother. Death was instantaneous. Mrs. Alderson eased the body gently to the floor and then fainted. Mrs. Ellis also fainted, while her son stood for a moment dumbfounded. When the realization of what he had done came to him, he became frantic, sobbing and crying that he would kill himself. He was prevented from this by friends who heard the noise of the gunshot and went into the house.

ALDERSON RAN TO SWEETHEART.

When his sweetheart fell, young Alderson ran to her, took her into his arms and placed her upon a bed. It was some moments before he realized the awful truth, but when he discovered Miss Callaway was dead, his grief was pitiful In a few moments he became hysterican and had to be led away from his fiance's bedside.

Added sorrow in the tragedy comes from the fact that young Ellis' father, former Judge J. M. Ellis, perished in a hotel fire in Goldfield, Nev., less than a year ago. Mrs. Ellis' health was undermined by that occurrence and she came to Kansas City several months ago for rest and a change of climate. The visit of the party of Kansas City people to her home at this time was in return for the one Mrs. Ellis had made in Kansas City. Witte Ellis accompanied his mother while she was here in this city.

FIRST REPORT BLAMED FIANCE.

Immediately after the shooting word of the unfortunate affair was sent to Kansas City by telegraph. The first reports were badly garbled, one account having it that the shooting had been done by W. Lysle Alderson, fiance of Miss Callaway. The news created a profound sensation in social circles where both the young woman and Mr. Alderson are well known.

The body of the unfortunate young woman will be brought to Kansas City this morning, accompanied by Mrs. Alderson and her son. Mrs Robert Stone, the girl's mother, who had been spending the summer at Excelsior Springs, returned to her home at the Elsmere hotel last night. She was completely prostrated at the news of her daughter's death.

The first report was that young Alderson himself held the revolver which ended Miss Callaway's life in such a tragic manner. This report almost completely prostrated D. P. Alderson, the father of the young man, a member of the firm of Bradley-Alderson Company, but a private dispatch from young Alderson later stated that the revolver was held by Witte Ellis, the son of Mrs. J. M. Ellis, whom Mrs. Alderson and her son and Miss Callaway were visiting at the time. The knowledge that his son was not responsible for the death of his fiancee was a great relief to Mr. Alderson, and mitigated to some extent the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate affair.

Mrs. F. P. Neal, of 318 Walrond avenue, is an aunt of Miss Callaway. Mr. Neal, vice president of the Union National bank, received several telegrams during the day, one of which was from young Alderson, stating that the body of Miss Callaway would be brought to Kansas City at once. The entire party will leave Denver this morning, arriving tomorrow morning.

Mrs. L. F. Rieger, of 426 Gladstone boulevard, is a distant cousin of Miss Callaway.

Miss Callaway was the daughter of Mrs. Robert Stone, who was, before her marriage to Mr. Stone, Mrs. R. P. Callaway. The girl was 19 years old and was a graduate of the Central high school two years ago. She lived at the Elsmere hotel with her mother and stepfather, who were in Excelsior Springs yesterday when the affair occurred. Miss Callaway went to Denver last summer to visit her aunt, Mrs. J. M. Ellis. Two weeks ago young Alderson, to whom she was engaged, went to Denver with his mother to spend his vacation with his fiancee. Young Alderson is also 19 years of age and a graduate of the Central high school in the class of 1905. The two have been sweethearts for years and had been engaged for some time, though no definite time for their marriage had been set.

A specially unfortunate feature of the affair was that it occurred on the eve of the departure of the Kansas City party for home. They were expected to start last night.

D. P. Alderson received a dispatch yesterday from his son which read:

Edna shot tonight; Witte held revolver; death immediate; come at once.

Mr. Alderson had intended to leave for Denver to be with his sone but it was later decided that this would be unnecessary and the arrangements were made to bring the body to Kansas City immediately.

ELLIS HELD BLAMELESS.

The coroner's inquest was held over the body of Miss Calloway in Denver yesterday. W. W. Ellis testified that he held the automatic revolver when it was discharged.

The jury decided that the killing was entirely accidental and did not recommend any disposition of young Ellis. The district attorney was present at the hearing, but gave no indication of any intention to hold Ellis for trial.

Labels: accident, banking, death, Denver, Excelsior Springs, Gladstone boulevard, hotels, pranks, schools, telegraph, Walrond avenue

August 9, 1907

SEND LETTERS BY WIRE.

AN INVENTION THAT PROMISES

REVOLUTION IN TELEGRAPHY.

Service Between Kansas City and St.

Louis to Begin Today -- Cost

of Messages to Be Great-

ly Reduced.

The first annual banquet of the stockholders of the new Dean Rapid Telegraph Company was held last night at the Coates house. About 150 men and women were present to hear the remarkable plans, which the officers of the concern have outlined for the future.

At the banquet it was announced that the company will begin today a new departure from the established systems of sending messages by electricity. What will be called the "rapid letter service" will be begun between Kansas City and St. Louis.

By the use of this service letters of any length may be sent to St. Louis at the rate of 1/2 cent per word, with a minimum charge of 15 cents. These letters will be delivered to the person addressed within from one to three hours after they are writtten.

"By Robert L. Dean's invention we are able at present to send over 400 words a minute on our wires," said General Manager S. A. Akins in explaining the new company's system. "It is because of this that we are enabled to send messages across the state of Missouri at one-seventh of the rate charged by the companies which use the Morse code."

Mr. Akins explained the Dean system as a method by which the positive and negative electrical poles are each made to operate a key which prints according to a special alphabet. Tests have already been made between Kansas City and St. Louis and Joplin, which show the system is practicable.

"I expect our system to revolutionize the business of telegraphing when it is put on a commercial basis, and we are now beginning to put it on such a footing," said Mr. Akins. "The idea of the 'rapid letter service' is new, but I think it should soon become a favorite for important correspondence. A man can now write an important letter to St. Louis, taking space fully to explain all the detaiils of his subject, and get an answer in six hours."

Other speakers were Judge E. E. Aleshire, Charles T. Taylor, H. L. White, Bert C. Haldeman, and Robert T. Herrick. Several thousand dollars of stock was subscribed for after the banquet.

Labels: St Louis, telegraph

July 30, 1907

OUSTED BY FOLK

POLICE COMMISSIONER F. F.
ROZZELLE DECAPITATED.

CHIEF HAYES IS NEXT TO GO

SHANNONISM WINS OVER CITY'S

BUSINESS INTERESTS.

Governor Building Political Machine

to Help Him in His Senatorial

Race -- Folk's Actions

Astonish Even His

Friends.

Joseph W. Folk, Missouri's "reform" governor, yesterday removed Police Commissioner Frank F. Rozzelle from office. In order to prevent Mr. Rozzelle and Mayor H. M. Beardsley from recommissioning John Hayes as chief of police it was necessary for the governor to telegraph the order ousting Mr. Rozzelle.

The first step toward "Shannonizing" the police department has been taken.

For several weeks Governor Folk has been trying to induce Mr. Rozzelle to vote with Police Commissioner Andrew E. Gallagher for Hayes' removal, in spite of the fact that every commercial organization in Kansas City had recommended the re-commissioning of Chioef Hayes. Every test between the business interests of Kansas City and the Shannon politicians has demonstrated that the business interests are secondary with Governor Folk. Folk is a candidate for United States senator, his presidential boom having exploded some time ago. His only hope of securing the Jackson County delegation is through an alliance with the Shannon forces. The Shannon gang was whipped out of the county court house and the city hall, and the machine so badly wrecked that the only hope of ever getting it in motion again was through connivance with the police.

FAVORED HONEST BALLOT.

As long as Chief Hayes was at the head of the police force elections were largely free from taint. Bill Adler was sent to prison and finally driven from town. Pinky Blitz shared a similar fate. Other sluggers were driven from the polls, padded election lists disappeared and every enfranchised individual was free to cast one ballot and have it counted as cast.

When Folk made the race for governorship he made many pledges along reform lines. One of these pledges was "home rule." He deplored that other governors had sought to control the police forces of St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph and without any reservation promised that he would give the people of these towns home rule in its truest sense. Governor Folk violated his solemn promise on the first occasion when put to the test. It was in the appointment of a police board for Kansas City. Joe Shannon had held several conferences iwth Folk and the business men became aroused to action. A petition, containing the names of fifty reputable citizens of Kansas City, from which list the governor was asked to name two police commissioners, was presented to Folk by a delegation representing practically every commercial and professional organization in Kansas City.

THEN SHANNON SAW FOLK.

Folk dealt out his usual homilies about selecting "good men" for the places and declared the business interests would be satisfied with the men he named. Shannon saw Folk the day before the commissioners were appointed and Gallagher and Rozzelle were named.

But Rozzelle did not "stand hitched." He developed ideas of his own. He refused to become a party to Governor Folk's machine-building plans and there was much chagrin in the Shannon camp. Rozzelle was summoned to Jefferson City by the governor, who tried to whip him into line for Hayes' removal. Rozzelle said he would resign before he would become a party to ousting a capable officer without cause. Folk gave him time to think it over and made two trips to Kansas City to confer with him, but Rozzelle stood by his original declaration. Last Thursday hie signified his willingness to vote to recommission Chief Hayes. Mayor Beardsley favored recommissioning Hayes, but Gallagher made such strenuous objection that the matter went over until yesterday. Then the Shannon crowd got busy and Folk's telegraphic order of dismissal to Rozzelle was the result.

Next in order will be a police commissioner along Shannon-Folk lines. Then Hayes weill be ousted and a Shannon-Folk police chief named. With a police chief receiving orders from Joe Shanon the Folk idea of "home rule" will probably be fulfilled.

Labels: Commissioner Rozzelle, Governor Folk, Jefferson City, Mayor Beardsley, police board, Police Chief Hayes, politics, telegraph

March 2, 1907

SUES HIS WIFE'S RELATIVES.

Mother-in-Law One of those
Blamed for Alienation

William T. Dunlap, a telegraph operator in the employ of the Postal Telegraph Company, yesterday filed suit in the district co urt, Kansas City, Kas., against his mother-in-law, Sarah A. Brown, and his sister-in-law, Mattie L. Brown, for $30,000. He charges that his sister-in-law and his mother-in-law together alienated the affecitons of his wife.

Dunlap says he married Jessie Brown in Piper, Kas, June 28, 1899. Since that time he and his wife have lived in various parts of the United States. Mrs. Dunlap insisted upon making frequent visits to her mother and sister. After each visit, Dunlap says he noticed a lessening in his wife's affections for him. The last visit made to the Browns, who live at Piper, Kas., was in July, 1906. But a orrespondence continued.

"I wish I had the money to buy him out and let him go," is one of the remarks which Dunlap says his mother-in-law used to disparge him in the eyes of his wife. Besides this, he alleges that both mother-in-law and sister-in-law told his wife that he was a fool, continually found fault with him to her, told her that he did not provide decent furniture for their home, and that he was not good enough for her, anyway.

Because of these uncomplimentary remarks, Dunlap says that his wife left him January 7, 1907. But in a day or two she came back to take most of the furniture, not even leaving him a bed. All she allowed him was a cook stove, a small stove, four chairs and a wire couch, but no bed clothes.

And so, as Dunlap says, "disgraced and rendered homeless," he filed suit for $30,000 against his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law, who live on a farm near Piper, Kas.

Labels: Divorce, Lawsuit, telegraph

February 16, 1907

DEATH HIS REFUGE.

JOHN R. M'KIM KILLS HIMSELF

IN THE CENTROPOLIS.

LETTER TO WIFE TELLS STORY.

BLAMES ILL HEALTH AND DEBTS FOR SUICIDE.

Milling Venture in Pittsburg, Kas., Did Not Prove Profitable, It Is Said--

Lived in Kansas City at 304 Maple Avenue With Family

Late yesterday afternoon, when a chambermaid could not get into a room on the third floor of the Centropolis hotel, she called the night clerk and the proprietor. The key was in the door on the inside and the door locked. With instruments the house electrician succeeded in pushing the key out and the door was opened with a pass key.

On the bed, face downward, lay the body of a man. He was dead and the odor in the room indicated that carbolic acid had been used. The register showed that he had registered late Thursday afternoon as "John R. McKim, South Omaha, Neb." On a dresser among a lot of paper and envelopes of the Cudahy Packing Company of South Omaha was found the following note:

To the authorities: Notify at once my brother-in-law, William Arthur
Miller, with Karnes, New & Krauthoff, Water Works building. Telegraph
my brother, James McKim, at Deloit, Crawford county, Ia., who will come and take
care of me and my affairs. Do not send word to my wife, who resides in
this city, but let Mr. Miller see to that. --Jno. R. McKim.

The hotel people said that McKim came in and went straight to his room. Dr. George B. Thompson, the coroner, was notified and sent the body to Freeman & Marshall's morgue.

On the washstand in the room was a glass which showed that it had contained carbolic acid. The mans face and lips were also badly burned and corroded with the drug. A two-ounce bottle of the acid, bought from George Eyssell, Union depot drug store, was nearly gone.

Letters to His Wife.

McKim must have poured out most all of the drug into the glass, drank it and then started for his bed. It acted so quickly that he fell on the bed. He had been dead probably twenty-four hours when found, the inference being that he killed himself early Thursday evening.

Letters were found addressed to Mrs. J. R. McKim and also to James McKim, Deloit, Ia. They were placed in large envelopes on which was printed "Cudahy Packing Co., South Omaha, Neb.," but that had been erased with a pencil. On the one addressed to "Mrs. J. R. McKim," with no town or street address, was written "Do not notify or send word to my wife. Send word to Arthur Miller of Karnes, New &Krauthoff." The letter was not stamped. The contents show that McKim, besides being in ill health, was carrying a burden of debt, which seems to have been sufficient to cause him to take his own life. It also shows that he went about the preparations coolly and deliberately. The letter follows:

Cudahy Packing Company -- South Omaha, Neb.; To My Darling Wife:
Do not allow the shock of the shock of my death, revolting as it may seem, to overcome you. It is the only way to prevent the worst catastrophe that must befall you and the dear family if I attempt to continue this fight against increasing ill health and impossible tasks before me. I am trying to do
the courageous thing of sacrificing my life, dear as it is to me, to save you from the greater disgrace and privation that must ensue when I can no longer bear up under it.
I have striven with all my power to pull out of debt that has fastened itself upon us, but today the situation is such that I know that I cannot work with the pressure that I must endure.
I have policies in the
Fraternal Aid...$3,000;
New York Life....$2,000 -- in $800;
Mutual Life of New York....$2,000 -- in $600;
Indiana State Life..5,000 -- in $500.
These will pay out your debts and leave you enough, with your judicious management, to take care of the family. I want Jim to administer my estate and he will come down to see that everything is taken care of.
Oh, my dear, and you deserve a better fate than this! but I cannot feel that it is disgrace when the circumstances that compel me to do this are considered. Those dear, loving children -- how I hoped to enjoy my late life with them and you. God knows best and I submit to His decree. I am aware of what I am doing and the great shock to you all is my greatest regret. Those who have been responsible for my downfall will be dealt with on God's own plan. Let this be a lesson to my dear boys to keep out of debt and I do pray that they will live to redeem in the eyes of the world this seeming disgrace of their devoted father. I cannot write much as my heart is too full -- may God bless you all and keep you as His own. My sweet daughters -- they are a crown of honor and will always be your solace.
I have nerved myself for this trial, knowing it must come unless some providence would avert it.
My honor is my life
Both grown in one,
Take honor from me
And my life is done.
A PRAYER
O, merciful God, spare my dear wife and children. As much as may be the disgrace and penalty of this, my sacrifice, I pray you like a publican to be merciful to my soul in all that I have sinned and to keep them with Thy great kind heart from future disaster. Amen.
Dear wife, be comforted and take care of our flock -- it is past my physical and mental endurance to longer withstand the strain. Your most loving husband, JNO. R. McKim

In still another envelope, also addressed to his wife, with no street or city address, was this short note:

Cudahy's advance money and their mileage are in another envelope for them.
I have a $25 check which you can use. My debts abstract the larger
obligations and will not press you. Jim will take care of the matter when
he comes. J. R. McK.

A check for $25, made payable to John R. McKim or order, had been slipped under the edge of the tongue of the envelope of the first long letter to his wife, it probably being intended as a second thought for this one.

John R. McKim was 48 years of age and resided with his wife and four children at 304 Maple avenue. He was formerly a traveling man for the Cudahy Packing Company and later for the K. C. Baking Powder Company, of Chicago. He was well-to-do and owned his home, which is a pretentious brick and stone structure in the center of spacious grounds.

Some time ago he purchased a 200-barrel flour mill at Pittsburg, Kas., and it was stated last night by friends of the family that this venture had not been a success and that McKim had become almost a nervous wreck over the failure of the institution to pay.

Donald G. McKim, 19 years of age, a son of the dead man, is employed by Hucke & Sexton, in the contracting department, while another son, Bruce, aged 17, is conducting the mill at Pittsburg, Kas. He also leaves two daughters, Elizabeth, 15, and Genevieve, aged 8.

Labels: Centropolis, Coroner Thompson, hotels, Maple avenue, Suicide, telegraph