St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 11, 1909

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VOL. 61. NO. 203.

THEN HE'S READY TO GO 10 PRISON — Louis Delegate Awaits Marshal in Jeffer- son City Hotel.

WANTS IT OVER WITH “1'1] Be Out in Three and a Half Years,” He Says. WILL BE NUMBER 10,522 Pleased With Prospect That He Will Be Put to Work in Stables.

By a Stal Cerrespendent of the Pest- IJNFFERSON CITY, March 11.—Louis Decker, former member of the St. Louis Heuse of Delegates, ate lunch at the Central Hotel here today, then sat down in the hotel office to wait for Marshal Finks of the Supreme Court, who was -in Jefferson City, and said he would call in time to get the former delegate to prison by 2 p. m. “Tl be out in a little over th years end a half, ufider the three-fourths rule,” remarked Decker in the hotel office, where Henry Andrae, newly ap- pointed warden of the penitentiary, Rep- resentative Foristel, who is one of his lawyers, and Representative Austin Bigg@ were calling on. him. eee: mer be out in two,” suggested

It Over. Decker. “A good ready. ‘to take my medicine. I- was greatly surprised at the Supreme Court's action, but you never can tell what + court will do. Now all I want is to get to prison and have it over with as soon as I can.” Decker, who is a liveryman, will prob- ably be put to work in the penitentiary stable. He said today that this arrange- ment would be agreeable to, him. He said he wanted work whitey via give him exercise, without bei wo violent, and that the principal thing he feared in prison was tuberculosis, which has been very common in the institution lately. “Boy in Charge of Business. “My livery business in St. Louis is in good shape,” he commented. “I have “put my boy, who is 2 years old, in charge of the stable, and I hope he will get along all right. I am boarding 100 horses there, and have a big trade with the Washington avenue rricge meacpemth and salesmen. “This is pretty tough on a man 50 yegrs old, with six children. One of my lawyers, Hunter Wear of Spriag- field, was so sure this would never happen that he told me if the: Supreme Court upheld my conviction he wouldn’t charge me any fee. Four lawyers in 8.t Louis went over my bill of excep- tions, and told me theré were a hae dozen points on which the case ought to be reversed. “There's old Bill Stone,” Decker com- ‘mented, as Missouri's senior Senator passed through the hotel office and en- tered the cafe. “I wish I could enjoy a drink the way he’s going to. “I'll take soda for my last drink,’’ he sf, when he stood at, the bar a few minutes later. “Coming kere on the train this morn- ing I was reminded of the old days in the House of Delegates. You know we used to get railroad passes then. “One of our fellow passengers had a bunch of pasteboards, and he kept kick- ing all the time about the train service. I had to pay my way, and when I didn’t I never grumbled about the kinds of service the roads furnished.” _ Decker arrived here at 3 a. m. and went direct to the hotel. He slept until 9a. m., and after breakfast, James J. Fitzgerald, who had accompanied him from St. Louis, called up the ersten, _ Court Marshal. « Boi * convict Decker will be number

| MAN ACCUSED OF BIGAMY SAYS WOMAN IS WRONG: HIS WICKED TWIN BROTHER MARRIED HER Deserted Wife Laughs. at Story Which Does Not Impress the Judge Strongly. NEW YORK, March 11—A wicked twin brother was accused by a man who said his name was George Pilgram when he was arraigned in the Yorkville Po- lice Court today charged with bigamy. The warrant upon which he was arrest- ed was issued for the arrest of Thomas Pilgram, which is his proper name, ac cording to Mrs. Susan Norris Pilgram, 1164 Second avenue. But Pilgram said that Thomas is his wicked twin brother, and they can’t be told apart. He admitted having boarded with the woman who says she’is his first wife, but would not furnish an adequate explanation as to how his twin brother came to marry her. The magistrate held him in $500 bail for trial. ~ J Susan Norris testified that Pilgram married her in 1901 and deserted her a year and a half ago. She saw him on the street, followed him home and when his present wife, whom he married last July under the name of George Pilgram. showed her marriage certificate, tore it up and had jhe warrant issued. Susan Norris Pilgram laughed when the defendant told the twin-brother story and told the Court he had never had a brother. 23, EVERYTHING 23 WITH THIS CANDIDATE FOR MAYORALTY Newsboy Politician at Carmi, IIL, Succumbs to Long Series of That Numeral. Special to the Post-Dispatch. CARMI, Ill., March 11.—That there is something more than mere coincidence in the blending ef 23 is the belief ef

TRudolph 8. Bair, the newsbey candidate for Mayor of Carmi. Bair took out a petition on the 23d of January, got 23 voters te sign it that day, deposited $23 in a bank the sarhe day and sold 23 copies ef the Pest-Dispatch the same night. In the primary election held in this city Tuesday he was the recipient of 23 vetes, and when he paid his election bills the aggregate of the expenses was papers 23 years and was married when he was he lay dangerously ill and receiving a device by the same means Was the unusual experience of a Sailor © board the oll steamer Asuncion which

weight causts thus allowing

) was off this port yesterday afternoon. While the ship was near this port the el mond wireless station received a Message saying that one of the sailors had fallen from the rigging to the deck suffering injuries resulting in severe~ -in- of | ternal hemorrhages. Medical advice for | ote a So nana

$28. Incidentally, Bair has been selling 4 the incubator, ; | Scientific data and the officers to arrest TA aT IDERS | all. the: Republican

AMBASSADORS HIP OR GOL. KeheN a Friends Urge President to Send Defeated Senatorial Candi- date to Austria.

LONG SOUGHT OFFICE

oa His Liberal Donations to Re- publican Campaigns Have Gone Unrewarded. — Kerens, whose money- bags have bee: opened to Republican campaign committees in Missouri for over ‘) years, in which time»je has been inspired by the hope of being,.mad2 a United States Senator, which was never realized, may be recognized by President Taft with rn appointment az Ambassador to Austria, according tod rress dispatches from Washington. Col. Kerens declined to discuss his* ambassadorship Thursday, smilingly shaking his head in response to in- quiries as to whether he was a candi- date for the appointment, or whether his friends wére urging the President to name him as a consolation for his defeat in the senatorial contest and in recognition of his financial aid to the party. The post pays $17,500 and entails so- cial responsibilities that require the ex- penditure of three times that sum. It has been the life-long ambition of Col. “erens to become United States Senator. In those years when Mis- souri kept its Democratic majority close te the 50,000 mark, Col. Kerens was free with his money in aiding a hopeless Re- ne fight. mn Horrizon as Candidate. In time it did, and four years ago when the Republicans, to their surprise, found a Republican majority in the Legislature, Col. Kerens appeared on the horizon as a candidate for the United States senatorship. It mattered ‘not that the party caucus had pledged members of the Legi#iatiire to vote for Thomas K. Niedringhaus, chairman of the State Committee, who had led the party to victory. When the vote was taken on the sen- atorship, a few Republicans bolted and voted for Kerens. This prevented the election of Niedringhaus, but there were not enough votes to elect Kerens. Col. Richard C. Started Compaign Early. Immediately after that defeat, Col. Kerens began making plans to succeed S or Stone in 1909. He had some friends in nearly every county in Mis- souri and mo expense ./as spared in enabling’ them to build up a Kerens organization which would insure the nomination and election of a Kerens man to the Legislature in 1908. With the passage of the senatorial primary law in 1907, Kerens adopted a new line of fight. He appeared as an editor-candidate, purchasing a large in- terest in the German-American Press Association, which controlled one En- glish and several German papers. From time to time these papers published edi- torials urging Kerens for the Senate. The leading candidate against him was Lieutenant-Governor John C. McKinley, who easily won the contest over Ker- ens. : Kerens’ expense account, filed after the election, showed he had spent $59,000. This was itemized and showed that he had-contributed large sums to the com- mittees, and that he,had spent $2000 for a special train for Speaker “annon t9 tour Southern and Southwest Missouri. Col. Kerens accompanied Speaker Can- bon and conducted his own campaign from the train. One of the arguments used in «erens’ behalf during the campaign and during his bolt on Niedringhaus four years ago was that he had always contributed liberally to the Republican campaign committees and that the party owed him the honor of being Senator. Party Did Not Respond. The party did net respond, however, to this argument, and Kerens has been steadily refused an. official return for the money spent by him. The word which now comes from Washington in dispatches is that Kerens is to be rec- ognized by President Taft, and that the President is considering him for the post of Ambassador to Austria. The Presi- dent has been visited by men of prom- inence, according to the dispatches, who have urged that the post be given to Kerenys. Unrewarded ‘in his own the senatorship, which has been the height of his ambition, Col. Kerens is said to be willing to throw aside his personal wishes and take a _ position which will remove him from the activi- ties of politics in his nome State and will accord him honor by his party. The present Ambassador to Austria is Charles 8. Francis, who, according to dispatches, is expected to leave the diplomatic service within a few months, PYTHON SWALLOWS 48-LB. PIG the University of Chicago, curators of the Field Museum, policemen and of- ficers) of the Humane Society saw a snake swallow a 48-pound pig last night. It was the first meal the serpent. an Indian python, which weighs about 290 pounds, had eaten in two months. The naturalists were there to gather home with

the showman who owned the python if ft took the snake

ST. LOUIS, THURSDAY | EVENING, “MARCH il, "1909. hibit in

TEXAN WANTS TO GIVE SELF AWA OR 90 DAYS Asks Nothing but Shelter and Food to Pay Him for His Labor.

IS SON OF A JUDGE

Fruitless Search for Employ- ment Followed Trip Here With Cattle.

MAN-—To keep from starving or begging. educated, able-bodied man will give self to anyone for 3 months. Box W-163.P.-D.

William H. Pope Jr., 23 years old, son of Judge Pope of the Fifty-eighth Texas Judicial Circuit, at Beaumont, a high school graduate and for two years col- lege student, is trying to give himseif away. Unlike the men who offered them- selves for sale, their faces covered with masks, in Brooklyn, on. Lincoln's birth- day, Pope does not put any price on himself. If the necessaries of life are yrovided for him for three months, he says he will work eight or ten ur twelve hours a day, at any honest task for three months and call it square. He received Thursday two answers to. his remarkable .dvertisement, published* in Wednesday’s Post-Dispatch. One was # postal card asking him to call on B. Herrmann at 1536 Morgan street. The other was a letter stating that Mrs. Robards of 6 Rugby place might be able to help him. Tells Story of Adventures. “I left home last Christmas,’”’ Pope said. “I had been working in the oil fields, and had worked in the business office of a paper in New Orleans. My folks wanted me to stay nearer home, but I didn’t like the town. “I went to Houston and worked at odd jobs there, went. on to ‘Dallas and couldn’t gét work, then went to Yort Worth and got a job in the sporting department of the Daily Record. “T Tikea it theré,"and thought 1 would stay, but late in February I had troubie with one of the editors and quit. knew a stock raiser who was going to make a shipment to St. Leuis, and I got him to send me along in charge of the cattle. “I had over $20, and I thought that with my transportation free I could get along on the money until I got a job in St. Louis. “So I started out Tuesday night, March 2, sleeping in the freight ca- boose and getting up at every stop to punch up the cattle and keep them from lying down and getting tangled in each other’s legs. Money Taken Frem Him. “At Parsons, Kan., a division point on the M., K. & T., I was standing in the yards when a man in plain clothes asked what I was doing there, and when I didn’t answer him as he thought I ought to, he took me to the police station, There they searched me, found my letters and my railroad transporta- tion, and told me they would let mevgo and get on my train if I would give bond. For bond they took all the mon- ey I had but $1, and a few nickels that had slipped down in the Hning of my coat and they hadn’t found. “I got on the train and came._on to St. Louis. I got here Friday morn- ing, went over to the Bast Side with my cattle, then came back and started looking for work. I went along Wash- ington avenue, and at all the wholsesale houses all they told me was, ‘We can’t use anybody.’ I offered to show them what I could do typewriting and in cler- ical work, but it was no use. Line Waiting to Wash Dishes. “I got a 10-cent bed Friday night, and Saturday I began answering adver- tisements. I don’t know the city, and every place I went to follow up an advertisement, I found a lot of men ahead of me. Men would tell me I could get dishwashing jobs in restau- rants to tide me over, but at the res- taurants I would find men standing in line waiting for such jobs. “All I got Saturday was a meal and 10 cents for three hours’ work in a restaurant. I kept on looking around Sunday, but I couldn’t even get enough to eat. My money was almost all gone, and.the fellows I saw at the lodging houses began to tell me how I could get ‘handouts’ and money for a ‘flop,’ as they call a bed. But I wouldn’t beg, and when one of them offered me part of a loaf of bread he had begged. I wouldn’t eat it, though I was hungry. “Monday and Tuesday went the same way. I sold my watch, and used up the money in carfares hunting jobs that were always taken before I got to them. My last dime but one went for my Tuesday night's bed, and Wednesday, after walking eight or ten miles, I put my advertisement in the Post-Dis- patch.”’ Pope has retent letters from his fath- er, who was a State Senator before he became a Circuit Judge. The last of the letters were directed to him at Fort Worth. “Since I left there, I haven’t sent my folks any word.of where I was,” the young man said. “I didn't write’ to them as often as I ought when I was] getting along well, and I don’t want to appeal to them now. They wanted me to stay at home, but I thought dif- ware Fe : x

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HADLEY SENDS Ps TILITIES BILL TO LEGISLATURE

ih - a Staff Correspeudent of the Post-Dispatch. JEFFERSON -CITY, March 1L—Govy. Hadley’s proposition for a State Pub- lic Utilities Commission was submitted to the General Assembly today. The Commision is to consist of five members, not more than three of whom shall belong to any one political party, and the salary of each is fixed at $3500 a year. In drafting the proposed law, which is modeled after the New York plan regulating all public service corpora- tions, the Governor was assisted by Senator McDavid of Greene County and Representatives Lindsay of Henry, Wade of Greene and Johnson of Ver- non, As both Democratic and Republican leaders are committed to the bill, no serious attempt to defeat it is. autici- pated. The $20,000,000 Union Electric Light Co., the United Railways and all other St. Louis public corporations will be regulated by the public utilities act, both in respect to their financial affairs and the rates which they will be al- lowed to charge for service. The new law will repeal the existing utility law, which gave the St. Louis Municipal As- sembly the right to create a ufilities commission. Suggested by Post-Dispatch. One of the things. which its authors hope to accomplish is to reform stock jobbing operations in public corpora- tions and the squeezing of all watered stock, At the commencement of the legis- lative session, the Post-Dispatch sug- gested a State utilities commission as the proper solution for the correction of corporation abuses in this State. Gov. Hadley responded at once with the assurance that he would give the question careful consideration, The bill introduced today was pre- pared on the Governor's initiative, LIVE TOAD FOUND IN BOULDER Correspondent or History Repeat- ing in Kentucky. GLASGOW, Ky., March 11—While workmen were getting out rock on South Fork Creek, near town, they blasted out a round boulder and, on breaking it open, found a living toad in the rock. A similar occurrence happened in this county a few years ago, when men get- ting material for a new road near Pe- ters Creek blasted a live toad out of solid stone. From

Dickinson Goes to Washington. CHICAGO, March 11.—Jacob M. Dick- inson left dion nee 9 Pac on the Penn- r Washington to ‘ eee . : at # The 7 7 to as"

USTICE DELAYS A DECISION T0 AVERT WRANGL Aes , = To .“‘prevent .trouble .in the court room”. between women interested in a Suit over an undertaker’s bill, Justice O’Hallaron held up his decision Thursday in the suit of the Wagoner Undertaking Co. against Mrs. Anna Knapp until all the parties were gone. Then he told representatives of the press that he would enter judgment against Mrs. Knapp for $342. The’ funeral bill for which judgment was returned against Mrs. Knapp wus incurred when: Mrs. Knapp’s son, Ralph, died Nov. ‘20, 190%. He was a bride- groom of a‘ few weeks, his bride hav- ing been Miss Clara Ramlose. They were living at 5875 Maple avenue when the young husband died. : Mrs. Anna Knapp and her daughter- in-law are not on the best of terms. ‘heir feelings. were evidenced in the glances: they exchanged when Mrs Clara Ramilose Knapp, a handsome young woman, alighted from a carriage and entered the courtroom, accompanied by her mother, Mrs. Anna M. Ramilose, A widow. Frank Wagoner, head of the under- taking firm which brought the suit, testified that the © casket for Ralph Knapp was ordered by his mother. He said she ordered: a peculiar, copper-en- cased casket, which had” to be made to order. Mother Denies Ordering Casket. Mrs. Knapp, the mother, took. the stand and denied that she evér had seen Wagoner or given him any sort of an order about a casket or about the fu- neral. “T know nothing of the matter,” she said, emphatically. Mrs. Clara Ramilose Knapp, the daugh- ter-in-law and widow, said that her mother-in-law had had full charge of the funeral and had given all directions in regard to it. “She was so actively in charge of the matter,”’ said young Mrs. Knapp, ‘that I didn’t know whether [ would be per- mitted to invite any of my friends to the funeral.’’ The witness also said that her mother- in-law, after Ralph Knapp died, com- plained that her son had been very extravagant, and ‘had left her hardly enough money to pay the funera! biil. One Woman Faints. When that statement was made by the witness Miss Georgia Knapp, her sister-in-law, fainted and was carried by @ brother into Justice O’Hallaron’s private office, She was revived and later testified herself.. Justice O’Hallaron told newspaper re- porters that he. reserved his decision

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Mrs. evidently for robbery. as well as beaten. Childiess and for 22 years a widow, Mrs. Rehfeldt was regarded by her ten-. ants and neighbors an eccentric. She owned the flat at the North Thirteenth street address, and is known to hare deposited money frequently in the Na- tional Bank of Commerce. But she refitted all the flat except two rooms at the rear on the first floor, one of which kitchen. remainder of the flat. . Neighbors Heara sn epileptic subject, Mrs. Rehfeldt oftetwcried aloud, and her. tenants paid little -attention when they heard sereams from her room Wednesday night. But Mrs. Laura Burckhardt, one of them, ‘beeame suspicious . Thursday when, passing the rooms, she saw that a doorknob had been wrenched from its place. She pushed the door ajar and saw Mrs. Rehfeldt dead. neighborhood, and William H. Goeckel of 2210 North Thirteenth street tele- phoned to the police. Mrs. Rehfeldt’s head lay toward the stove in her kitchen, her feet toward the door. Her stockings had been pulled down, and the bosom of her blue calico dress was torn’‘open. She wore four skirts, and one of these contained sey- eral pockets. These pockets had been ripped open, apparently with a sharp knife. A cotton bag, which apparently had been used for a money bag, was found on the floor, slit open. The safety pin with which it had been fastened to Mrs. Rehfeldt’s waist was twisted.

was her bedroom and the other her, Three families my, MaRS the Screams, aaameruns ta vonet ena we Marie Rehfelit, an elderly. village Ae vex }in the rear of the house at 2114 North Fourteenth street, was known to have been wealthy, was found Thursday m Her nose was broken, her face a1 ders discolored |from bruises, apparently inflicted wa ae an upper tooth had been knocked ont; — ; ' On her neck were finger kyo, showing ss hed. she preferred’ the. ‘#0 room. o <p ate Her tenants rarely went to they heard her cries in atte lepsy, because she rallied | seemed to resent their fr that reason they, did not screams, uttered Ne 2 gh being slain. rs. Rehfeldt was the ¥ thers : Renee a tailor, wheel in his will the Thirteenth — pe t erty during herlife. At her to revert to a brother of Reh: tenants a aa auc they

THIS TIME THE PREDICTION IS FOR RAIN “OR” SNOW; NO CHANGE IN THE TEMPERATURE THE TEMPERATURES. Miduiant ee ee

“He dpesn't. seem em to like being a private citizen,” observed the P-A-Y-E con- ductor. “] hadn't heard that he com- plained,” said the smoker on the platform. “Yes, he's try- ing for another office now.” - “Are you talk- ing about Mr. Roosevelt?” “Oh, no; R. C.

degrees.”

= l rortheast and east winds; the minimum. |

temperature tonight will be about ) a aké ae iting A | % % : The river rose $ of a foot to 17.3] py, ‘ weit