Recover Pin Stolen in 1874

1920

Police Find Student's Jewel After Lapse of 46 Years.

ELKTON, Maryland. — A valuable stickpin, stolen from the late Wilber Eliason of Chestertown, forty-six years ago, was recovered by the police of Kansas City, Mo., when found on a prisoner. The pin bears Mr. Eliason's name. The chief of police of the Western city wrote to the Chestertown authorities in trying to get a record of the thief. Eliason was relieved of his valuables while a student at Yale College in 1874.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Woman Shoots Out Her Aching Tooth

1920

BALTIMORE, Md. — As remedy for a toothache Mrs. Teresa Kwedar, 50 years old, of Mount Winas, sought to shoot out the offending tooth with a .32 caliber revolver. Mrs. Kwedar was brought to St. Agnes Hospital here with a bullet wound near her right ear. Her husband said she had carried out her threat to shoot her tooth out if it did not get better. At the hospital Mrs. Kwedar said the wound was less painful than the toothache.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 4.

Returns From the Dead

1900

Baltimore, Jan. 6 — A special dispatch to The Sun from Williamsport, Pa., says that William Shook has returned to Williamsport alive and well after being mourned as dead for over 13 years.

Shook's wife of former days married again during his absence, believing that he was no longer alive. During the fall of 1886 Shook left his home unexpectedly and no trace of him could be found. Eight years after Shook's disappearance his wife wedded again, her choice being Joseph Johnson, a carpenter.

The first intelligence received by relatives in this city that Shook was alive was in a letter received during the past summer from the United States pension department. Shook had applied for a pension, and the authorities were inquiring as to his war record. Shook has spent the time in Virginia and Maryland.

No Wood in This Building

1905

Baltimore Architects Seem to Have Evolved Fireproof Structure

Two Baltimore architects have drawn plans for a building entirely without wood. It will be six stories and will have a frontage of 41.5 feet. The entire structure is to be of reinforced concrete and steel. Even the doors, trims, window sashes and door jambs are to be of metal.

The windows will be glazed with wire glass. The frame for the show windows will be of steel, into which the plate glass will be fitted. The side walls, columns and rear walls as well as the supporting columns of the front walls will be of concrete. The floors will also have a top dressing of cement one and a half inches thick. The stairs will be of concrete, with slate treads and wrought iron balustrades. The elevator shaft will be of concrete, as will also the enclosure around the stairway and the elevator hall. The cellar and roof are to be of cement.

In order to eliminate all wood, even the flagstaffs on top will be of steel. — Engineering Mining Journal.


Busts in Butter

Not long ago a dinner was given by a novelist in London, at which all the butter on the great table was in miniature busts of noted authors.

Girl Twice Bade Suitor 'Shoot' in Suicide Pact

1915

Town Gossip is Blamed for Maryland Tragedy

The town gossiped about them. The story spread and the morsel of scandal was rolled 'neath many tongues. So they made a pact. They went out into the woods, kissed each other good-by and then there were shots. So much for gossip.

CRISFIELD, Md., Dec. 16. — Dying as the result of two bullet wounds in her lung, Miss Hilda Sterling told painfully but graphically of the part she played in a suicide pact. Her partner in the tragedy, C. Clifford Reese, a druggist of this city, was buried the other day. His widow is in a critical condition as the result of shock.

The coroner's jury rendered a verdict of death as the result of a gunshot wound, self-inflicted, and made an ineffectual effort to suppress three letters, two of which Reese had written before his death. One was written to Reese by Miss Sterling, who had been in his employ. In it she said that because of gossip she no longer would come to the store, tho she could speak to him on the street and still be friendly.

The Suicide Pact

The other notes were written by Reese and professed true love for Miss Sterling. They announced the purpose of the pair to commit suicide on account of the town gossip.

Miss Sterling told of their decision to commit suicide. She said they secured a blanket and went to a woods in an isolated part of the county. After wrapping up in the blanket together each took six grains of morphine, which Reese had brought, and lay down to die together. They went to sleep, expecting never to awaken, but both recovered, chilled and dazed.

Reese then drew a pistol and asked the girl if he should shoot. Upon her replying in the affirmative, he pulled the trigger; but the pistol refused to work. He then declared he would go to Crisfield and get a pistol that would shoot.

Kiss Each Other Good-by

After he had gone she decided to leave the woods, but found she was too weak and dazed to move. Upon Reese's return they talked for a little while and then agreed to complete the pact.

After kissing each other good-by, Miss Sterling sat upon the ground. "Shoot, Clifford, shoot!" she begged. He fired three shots into her body, of which two pierced her lungs. He then shot himself in the chest and this not proving fatal, put the pistol into his mouth and fired.

The two lay there for several hours. Finally the girl recovered sufficient strength to crawl to his lifeless body. She wrapped the blanket about the corpse, brushed leaves up over the lower part of his body and placed her own coat upon it.

She fell across his body unconscious, but regaining a little strength, crawled to the side of the road where she was afterward found numbed with cold and dying.

Perpetual Motion Machine

1909

Runs Perfectly Without Any Aid, Declares Pennsylvania Inventor

UNIONTOWN, Pa., Oct. 6. — After labor of years Allen S. Snyder believes he has solved the problem of perpetual motion.

He has a model which he declares proves that his principle is right. It runs by force of gravity, and besides being able to put out perpetual motion toys at 50 cents each, he declares that a machine capable of giving 100 horse power is possible under his plans.

He has been working and studying for fifteen years, and has now given up his work here and retired to a farm at Mosley Junction, eighteen miles from Richmond, Va., where he can give more time to the work of building a larger model and overcoming the imperfections that are manifested in the one now completed. He expects to put his completed machine before the public within a year, but at this time he refuses to give out the details of his apparatus.

Snyder is 39 years of age and for many years was a successful school teacher in Dunbar Township, this county. In 1902 he took the mine foreman's examination and has since served as mine foreman and fire boss at various plants throughout the coke region, including the Fairchance plant of the H. C. Frick Coke Company, and the Revere plant of the W. J. Rainey Company.

Before leaving for Mosley Junction Mr. Snyder said: "I will throw my model before the public within a year and it will demonstrate the reality of perpetual motion. My model may admit of many improvements, and it will likely open a wide field for the inventive mind: The machine simply runs by force of gravity."


Kissing Ban Lifted

Baltimore announces that the ban on kissing in the city parks has been lifted. The suffragette movement should "go big" in Baltimore.

The Elopement Story

Printed Jan. 1896

The shooting of John T. Starner, on the premises of Mrs. James E. Dutterer, near Silver Run, Md., about a month ago, was further ventilated by the hearing in the case of Jerome Dutterer, charged with having committed the assault, before Justice William Moore, of Westminster. Some interesting and sensational facts were elicited, and Mr. Dutterer was held in $300 bail to answer the charge before the county court.

Miss Elizabeth Dutterer, whose proposed elopement was the cause of the shooting, was a witness at the hearing. She testified that she had become engaged to marry a man named Perry Rumler, a citizen of Myers district, and probably 75 years of age. Miss Dutterer is about 50 years old. She said that on account of the opposition of her friends to the marriage an elopement was planned, and, she employed Mrs. Starner, wife of the wounded man, to accompany her. Mrs. Starner was to come to her house on the night set, and it was agreed between them that if a light should be in her window she would be ready, but if not, Mrs. Starner was to retire.

She said that Rumler had informed her that he was in receipt of a pension of a thousand dollars a year and kept a carriage, but she had been making inquiries about it and believed he was deceiving her. The understanding with Mrs. Starner was that if the elopement took place they were to go together to a point where Mr. Rumler would be in waiting with a carriage and then drive to Westminster, where the marriage was to have taken place.

Starner testified that at his wife's request he went with her to the home of Miss Dutterer at the time appointed, and when they reached the yard gate discovered that the signal agreed upon was missing. They were about to retire when he discovered two men in the yard, and determined to make some inquiries of them in relation to the matter. He went through the gate and approached them without a suspicion of danger.

In reply to a request for information one of them said, "I'll show you," and immediately fired upon him with a shot gun. The charge took effect in his leg, making a painful and troublesome wound from which he is still suffering. A second shot was fired, but missed him. He said it was too dark to distinguish the features of the men, but he swore positively that the voice of the man who shot him was that of Jerome Dutterer. The accused is a relative of Miss Dutterer. The latter said to be worth about $10,000. The affair still excites great interest.