Old Santa Claus Lives

The Columbia Herald., December 10, 1897

OLD SANTA CLAUS LIVES.

----

He Exists as Certainly as Love and Generosity and Devotion Exist.

     In this day of cynicism and frivolity, when little children are treated as young grown up people, and have never heard of Mother Goose and Uncle Remus, and have never been taught that sweetest faith is Santa Claus, it is like finding a sunbeam on a dark day to come accross [sic] this acticle [sic] in the New York Sun.  It should take the old married people back to their childhood and make them look more carefully into their nurseries and hear the children's chatter, whether they believe in Santa Claus:

     "We take great pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of the Sun:

     " 'Dear Editor:  I am 8 years old.  Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.  Papa says 'If you see it in the Sun it's so.'  Please tell me the truth;  is there a Santa Claus?

     "VIRGINIA O'HANLON.

     " '115 West Ninety-fifth street.' 

     "Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.  They do not believe except they see.  They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.  All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little.  In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect.  As compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

      "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to you life it's highest beauty and joy.  Alas!  how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.  It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.  There would be no childlike faith then, no romance, to make tolerable this existence.  We should have no enjoyment except in sense and sight.  The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

     Not believe in Santa Clause!  You might as well not believe in fairies!  You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Clause coming down what would that prove?  Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.  The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.  Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?  Of course not;  but that's not proof that they are not there.  Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in this world.

     "You may tear apart a baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.  Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside the curtain and view the picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.  Is it all real?  Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

     "No Santa Claus!  Thank God!  he lives, and he lives forever.  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of childhood."

 The Song

 If you'd rather not read it, here's a video of
Virginia herself reading the famous reply to her letter.

And lastly, you can see the original letter being appraised on Antiques Roadshow by clicking here.

What's Up With Daylight Saving Time?

George Hudson  Image from Wikipedia

     The idea was first thought up in 1895, by a New Zealander named George Hudson.  However, it wasn't introduced nationwide anywhere until April 30, 1916 in Germany and Austria-Hungary.  It was done in order to maximize the use of daylight for activities.  Some think that it saves energy because we don't have to turn on the lights as early, but that's never been proven.

       Basically, people who worked 9-5 jobs wanted to have more daylight when their work day was over.  You know, to do more work at home or enjoy the outdoors.  Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."  George Hudson liked to collect insects and wanted to have time to 'hunt' when he got off from work, and others wanted time to hunt for food.  Hudson actually wanted to shift the time by two hours, and he purposed it to the Wellington Philosophical Society twice - in 1895 and 1898.  Apparently it didn't take because most people credit William Willett with the concept.

William Willett  Image from Wikipedia

     He didn't steal the idea from Hudson, he just thought it up on his own in 1905.  He was apparently an early-bird and was astonished at how much of the summer day people spent sleeping.  He also enjoyed golf and was annoyed when he had to cut his game short because he could no longer see the ball.  Unlike George Hudson, William Willett got someone to take him seriously.  He had friends in high places, so to speak.  Robert Pearce was a member of parliament and introduced a bill to the House of Commons on February 12, 1908.  It didn't pass and neither did several more over the years.  Willett kept trying, but died in 1915 - before it came to pass. 
     On April 30, 1916 the German Empire decided to try it out.  It was wartime and they wanted to conserve as much coal as possible.  After that other countries in Europe decided it was a good idea and started doing it too.  Russia  joined in 1917, with the US finally giving it a go in 1918.  After the war it was mostly abandoned, until WWII.  Then it was again, abandoned. 

     The 1970's oil was harder to come by because of the Iranian Revolution and the Yom Kippur War, aka the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.  Basically it meant that oil prices were really high because less petroleum was being acquired and shipped out of the middle east.  Prices also went up dramatically because people were worried they'd run out altogether.  So, DST was again put to use in order to conserve time and energy.  This time the idea stuck for good and most countries still use some variation based on their needs. 

    

Patience Worth

December 11, 1915

     The ouija board is coming back into favor and has been taken up quite extensively by society woman in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis and various parts of the country.
     Perhaps the most remarkable recent experiences with it are those of Mrs. John Curran of St. Louis.  She has been in communication, she says, with the spirit of Patience Worth, a woman believed to have existed in the Colonial days and who not only has sent philosophical axioms that are characteristic of the Puritans but even has gone to the extent of sending outlines of plays and essays and has gone extensively into the dictation of poetry.  More than 300,000 words have been received from this supposed spirit in three years.

     Patience Worth talks in a strange English that is archaic and not found in the best authors and yet may have at one time been the tongue of inhabitants of this country.

     Long condemned by religious as the direct agency of satan and by skeptics as the toy of the superstitious, the ouija board is being restored to its own former popularity through the curiosity of society woman.

     In many parts of the country society women are devoting their time to "communicating" with spirits in the other world.

     Many strange results of such communications are reported and a society woman is unhappy indeed if she hasn't at least one good spirit in the world of mystery who is always ready to send a message at her control's pleasure.

     Even is staid St. Louis where society women are supposed to be very conservative, the ouija board has been restored to favor while in New York and in various cities of the east it is quite the "rage."

     In St. Louis Mrs. John H. Curran has gotten into touch with one Patience Worth of Spiritland and has transcribed more than 300,000 words through the ouija board, all of which will be published at some future date.

     Patience Worth is believed from her peculiar choice of words and phraseology to be a Colonial dame, who has been wandering about in space for a long time, burning to send her messages back to the mundane sphere yet finding no source of communication until Mrs. Curran bought a ouija board and commenced taking messages.

THROUGH

CURIOSITY.

      The board was purchased through curiosity.  There is something fascinating about the tales told of the board, whether they be true or false.  It is known that a number of people have asked the board to tell them in what land their dead relatives lingered and were shocked considerably when the naughty little board spelled out a word starting in H and ending with an L.  Many have thought that the words written by the board were the result of the mental influences of the person operating it while others have credited it with supernatural powers.

     In the use of the board at the Curran home, Mrs. Curran always is one of the two whose hands are on the board.  The latter is arranged on two wheels and has a pencil at the end.  As the vibration of the fingers of the holders develops the pencil moves over a sheet of paper and prints numerals or letters of the alphabet.

     While Mrs. Curran operated the board her husband transcribes the message as she reads it to him.

     The "Patience Worth" matter began to be transcribed in June, 1913.  Since that time Mrs.  Curran has made public as the products of Patience Worth a six-act play entitled "Red Wing," a novel called "Telka" and numerous verses, essays and bits of philosiphy. [sic]

     The quaint language of these writing has probably attracted more attention than their literary merit, the latter being a matter of some discussion.  They are in an antique language, not the English of Chaucer, Spenser or any other well-known classic English writer, but possibly more like the common speech of English people of an early day.

     It is known to travelers that an antique, almost archaic, form of English still is spoken in remote communities of England.  There are districts in England whose inhabitants have great difficulty in understanding or in making themselves understood by the coster-cockney class.

     Mrs. Curran, however, says she has no personal acquaintance with such speech and that she has not gone farther in her study of classic English than other well read persons.  The language used by Patience Worth, she explains, is as strange to her as it is to others.

     Mrs. Curran recently gave to the Papyrus Club of St. Louis some of her messages from Patience Worth, one of the, being a special message that Patience had sent the club.  It read:

PATIENCE WORTH'S 

MESSAGE.

     Good Dames and Sirrahs - At the board thou hast sat and eat of earth's grow.  Aye, and now do ye eat o' the grow thou knowest no the rooting place of.  Yea, thou shalt hark unto the word o' MEN, and yet they do to prate o' DAME.  Ayea, and methinks 'tis a word aspoke amany that be not the word that hid 'pon the tung, lest the Dame be offended!

     Aye, then come thou and sit 'bout the board, and thine ears shall hark unto the words o' me, and thou shalt see the cloth o' me the hands o' the loves o' me did to fashion out for me.  Ayea, I then shall sit me meek, and thread me up a bobbins full for the next o' put.

     Ayea, and 'tis frocked that I shall to be, and nay dame shall see!  Awoe!  Nay, this be a piddle-putting, good folk!

     Athin (within) thy heart shall set the me o' me at the go ahance.  And 'tis ahope I be 'tis a loving wampth 'twill find.  And so dost thou to smile, 'tis sweets and love I cast thee.  And doth thy heart to shut it up, lo, then shall I knock till thou dost leave me in.

     A night o' cheer.  A heart o' love!  A God's wish o' loving 'pon thy day.  Anight!  Anight!

HOW IT 

BEGAN.

     Mrs. Curran told her audience of her first experiences with the ouija board and of the puzzling messages received.  Later she used the board together with Mrs. Emily Grant Hutchings and bagan to receive sentences which formed maxims and philosphical paragraphs.  Then came the announcement:

     "Many moons ago I lived.  Patience Worth, my name.  If thou shalt live then so shall I.  I make my bread by thy hearth."

     The word "bread," Mrs. Curran later learned, referred to the literary products embodied in the messages.  Mrs.  Curran said she would not attempt to say whether Patience Worth was a spirit, but spoke of her as a beautiful personality, which had come to seem not a mystery but a fellowship.

     She said the messages came to her in daylight as well as at night and that there is no trance connected with them.

     "The words come in sort of a rhythm," Mrs. Curran explained, "and I record just what comes whether I understand it or not."  Patience has been tested by more than 200 persons and her messages have never varied.  A professor from the University of Indian visited Mrs. Curran to investigate her communication with Patience Worth.

     William Marion Reedy, editor of the Mirror, and Caspar Yost, editor of a St. Louis newspaper, became acquainted with Patience Worth and both declare her genuine.  Yost has described her as a "spinster of uncertain age; a writer, but a poet by preference.  While the average spirit stalks dismal and wailing lugubriously through the finite world, Patience comes with a laugh, Yost said.  She remarks, "I be no sorry singer," and proves it by many witticisms.

EDITOR

DESCRIBES HER.

     Reedy calls Patience's doctrines Panteistic.

     He describes her as follows:  "She is a little woman, dressed in gray;  with a little bonnet, ribbons coming down and tied under her chin.  There are lines in her face, not the rewritten wrinkles of smiles or her youth, but the results of experience.  Her eyes are brown like autumn leaves after a rain.  She is between 45 and 50 years old, sprightly, dainty, delicate.

     "She has stood beside the stockade helping a good man load a gun, while he defends the settlement against the savage horde of Indians."

     Reedy said the theory was advanced that she was killed in an Indian massacre and this question was asked of her.  She intimated that something of this sort had happened to her and she was asked if she had not been taken captive by the Indians.

     "Nay, something worse," was her reply.

     "She speaks an English almost pure and undefiled,"  Reedy said of her.  "There is an absence from it of all the derivatives of France and Rome, and she rarely uses a word of more than two syllables.  Her answers are direct and almost invariably in parables.  She has respect for her interlocutor's intelligence."

     Reedy said she is not another Sappho, or George Elliot, or Mrs. Humphrey ward nor a Sara Teasdale, but rather echoes of all of the poets.  He said there runs a consistent character through her works and in two years she has not gotten "out of character."  She never has used a modern word or expression and he illustrated the seeming significance of this by pointing out how difficult it would be for a man trained in Irish or negro dialect to make a 30-minute talk without breaking out of the character.

     "She has nothing to tell, in my opinion,"  Reedy said, "but she commands my admiration and reverence.  She tells nothing that we have not heard from the old masters and bards."

     "What of the divinity of Christ?"  Reedy at one time asked her through the ouija board.  She answered, "He bought thee of his loving."

     "What of love?" he asked.  "The love there is but the o'er drip of love here" came the response of the board.

     "Describe the place where you are?"  She was asked, "Think you there is a bottom or top;  this is a walless country."

     "Can you do anything you want  over there?"  The answer was:  "When you put the will you put the limit."

     "Put"  in Patience's vocabulary responds to the modern verb "to do."  

     "Patience may be a second personality of Mrs. Curran,"  Reedy said, "but she teaches a love that is greater than we can conceive and that death is the keeper of unknown redemption."

LITTLE COLONIAL

DAME.

     Mrs. Emily Hutchings, who was one of the first to receive with Mrs.  Curran the messages from Patience Worth, said the first glimmering of the quaint personality of the little Colonial dame came in the maxim:  "A busy saw gathered no rust."

     One of the sentiments expressed by Patience Worth is:  "A blighted bud may hold a sweeter message than the lovliest flower;  for God hath kissed her wounded heart and left a promise there."

     Of the seances, Mrs. Curran says:

     "I sit with a friend, our hands upon the board, which I have come to believe is nothing more than a concentrator.  There is no trance.  Everything is quiet with the exception of Patience Worth.  The only definite part is that while I put my thoughts awither, as Patience would say, and immediately the stories, poems, plays, parables, or whatever her work for the sitting may be, is shown to me in tiny pictures, beautiful and distinct as though my eyes saw them.

     "The characters move and speak and my hands fly over the letters much too fast for me to anticipate even one word.

     "I cannot account for the language.  The words seem to be spoken to me, though I cannot say I hear them in the sense that we hear the voice that speaks aloud to us.  The words come in sort of a rhythm.  I am not familiar with old English and yet even the conversations are in this archaic tongue."

     Psychologists recently have taken up a study of Mrs. Curran and the Mysterious Patience Worth.  Some believe that Patience Worth is Mrs. Curran's sub-conscious self.  Others have departed in doubt and without expressing an opinion.

     The ouija board has been condemned by various religious bodies, but society is taking it up besides the prohibitions.  The Catholic church has condemned it as a superstitious practice.

     Other religious bodies have declared that the devil is in the board and employs it to send his messages.

     Whatever the truth may be, society has gone into the mystery of the board, not so much with the object of definitely deciding if it really is the medium of communication with the other world but to gratify society's chief attribute - Curiosity.   

Visit patienceworth.org to read some of her poems and such, and smithsonianmag.com to read more about her.

Robbery is a Bloody Pain

The Lancaster Ledger., June 12, 1901

Jumped from a Window.
-----
A Burglar in Beaufort Snags
Himself on a Picket Fence.
----  

Special to The State.

     Beaufort, June 9. - A bold attempt at robbery was frustrated at the Sea Island hotel here last night.  Mr. G. Garret, a commercial traveler of Laurens, S.C., who is a guest at the hotel, retired at 10 o'clock p.m. to his room in the second story of the building and a few minutes later Alfred Folk, the night watchman, carried him a pitcher of ice water, and the guest remarked to Folk, "I believe that there is some one under my bed."  The watchman proceeded to investigate and found a negro crouching beneath the bed.  However, before the two men could capture the intruder, he leaped through an open window to the ground, a distance of fully 30 feet, striking on a picket fence as he fell.

     Mr. Garret and the watchman pursued the man with as little delay as possible, guided by a trail of blood, as far as a town well on Craven street, a block away.  The well was covered with blood, but the pursuers lost trace of their man there and returned to the hotel.

     A citizen residing on Craven street immediately in the rear of the hotel saw a groaning man run across the street and could have shot him had he known what had happened.  [Seems a bit harsh.]

     Another citizen who lives on Craven street opposite the town well upon which the blood was found was attracted by the groans of a man, and going upon the street just in time to see a dark figure rise from the well and make off.

     Today the police, upon the information of a citizen, searched three negro tenement houses in the back part of town, but up to this writing no trace of the fugitive has been found.  W.T.W.

 --------------------

  

     Wife Testified Against Husband

----
And Had Him Convicted of Burglary and Larceny. Was Anxious to Get Rid of Him.
----

Special to The State.

     Greenville, June 8. - The indictment of Pink Tollerson [Pink :)] upon the charge of burglary and larceny resulted in his conviction, and the court sentenced him to seven years in the penitentiary at hard labor.  Tollerson was concerned in the robbery of the company store at the Poe mill on Christmas eve, and the quantity of goods stolen showed he was not alone in making the raid, but the other fellows have not been captured, and Tollerson had to go it alone in the trial.  The notable feature in the case was the testimony of Madame Tollerson, whose evidence alone convicted the defendant and who proclaimed her anxiety to have him incarcerated indefinitely.  She was notified by the court that she was not compelled under the law to testify against her husband, but she promptly waived her rights in the premises and evidenced a readiness that is unusual to convict him.  Senator Dean asked her whether she was not desirous, for reasons unnecessary to mention then and there, to get rid of her husband and her answer was, "I shure am," and that she wanted him safely housed for an indefinate period.  Her testimony was to the effect that Tollerson came home drunk, and that he brought a large quantity of goods with him, which were described and identified as the goods stolen.  Tollerson made a confession in jail to Mr. J.H. Maxwell, manager of the company store.

-------------------

     There were also some pretty interesting advertisements on this particular day.

 See, they lure you in thinking it's a juicy story, only to end up being a cure-all pill advertisement.

 This one is hard to make out, but I think the pigeon milk injection part 

makes it post-worthy all by itself! 

 For those who don't know, "the piles" are what they used to call hemorrhoids.

 Seems a tad upbeat, don't you think?

 This one's actually kind of cool.  The first rubber tired buggies.

 

What Happened to Eveline Blewett?

Monday, April 8, 1901, Montana

 

Butte Daily Inter Mountain

     John Warne, the 72-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the death of 9-year-old Eveline Blewett at Walkerville on Saturday afternoon, was taken to Anaconda by Sheriff Furey an hour or two after his arrest and given temporary quarters in the county jail in that city.  In view of the fact that public feeling was running high against the old man at that time, especially among the citizens of Walkerville, the sheriff considered it the more necessary in order to prevent the prisoner from meeting a fate that might have been as horrible as that of his alleged victim.  The trip was made in a buggy, and as the old man was only thinly clad he was quite chilly when he reached the smelter city.  As soon as the lynching sentiment expressed Saturday evening gives way to more conservative consideration of the case Warne will be brought back to this city and retained until the court disposes of him.  When Warne was first taken into custody there was nothing of a positive nature to show that he made a criminal assault upon the child and then murdered her to obliterate all traces of the crime, but after an examination of the body of the dead girl had been made the case assumed a darker appearance against Warne and will yield n court a chain of circumstantial evidence as strong as has ever been forged in the fired of justice.  That the child entered Warne's cabin some time before the fire broke out is a known fact that her body was taken out after the fire was extinguished is equally well known, but just what transpired between the time she entered and the time the shack cought fire is not positively known.  There is a very strong belief, however, that Warne first committed a criminal assault upon the child then murdered her and set fire to the little house in order to destroy all evidence of his act.  It is asserted that if this surmise is correct Warne poured coal oil over the clothing of the child after killing her, for some portions of her body were burned worse than others, indicating that the oil had touched these portions.

     Yesterday Dr. C.V. Norcross made an examination of the charred body of the child and found a hole about as large as a silver half dollar in the skull behind one of the ears.  The wound looked as though it had bee nmade [sic] by a hammer.  How it was inflicted unless by Warne is a question which no one seems able to answer with that degree of satisfaction the public demands.

WARNE'S EXPLANATION.

     After being arrested Warne told a story of how the thing happened, and while it appeared plausible enough as far as it went it did not go far enough - it did not explain the means by which the child's skull was fractured.  As stated in the extra edition of Saturday's Inter Mountain, the old man was acting as watchman at the reservoir of the Butte Water company which stands on the hill in East Walkerville.  The reservoir is enclosed by a high board fence.  At the south side of the enclosure stood what was called the "valve" house which was built over a pit about 25 feet deep.  At the bottom of the pit are the valves used in letting the water out of the reservoirs.  To prevent the cold from reaching the valves the house was built double and the space between the boards filled with sawdust.  Warne made the house over the pit his headquarters and, it is said, made a business of inviting children into his place.  Among the children was little Eveline Blewett, one of two children belonging to Julia Blewett, a widow, who has had a hard struggle with the world singe the death of her husband several years ago.  Eveline is the child who lost her life in the valve house.  Warne is alleged to have said that on Friday Eveline paid him a visit and he told her that Saturday would be his payday and that if she would then call on him he would give her a nickel.  Shortly before 2 o'clock on Saturday the little girl had called and asked for the nickel and he held it back from her.  She had then attempted to take it out of his pocket and in so doing the gasoline stove was upset, its fiery contents being spread over the floor, setting ablaze the inflammable material within the room.  In an effort to subdue the conflagration he had picked up the stove and carried it outside, but could not get back into the place again because of the intense heat.

Eveline Blewett

       Warne did not attempt to explain why he had carried the stove to a place of safety and left the child to perish in the flames, which fact is considered a link in the chain of evidence against him, or how the child's skull came to be fractured.  If he is guilty of the crime with which he stands charged he evidently thought he could attribute his failure to save the child to the excitement of the moment, evidently believing that the fire would lick up all traces of the double crime of assault and subsequent murder.

SAYS HE IS INNOCENT.

     Sheriff Furey and Warne talked about the case on the way to Anaconda on Saturday evening.  Among other things Warne told the sheriff he was as innocent as a baby.  He said further that little girls in the neighborhood of the scene of the alleged crime, had been in the habit of asking him for nickels;  and on Saturday morning little Eveline had paid him a visit and asked him for a coin and he told her to call again in the afternoon after he had received his pay, and he would give her one.  She called as requested, he said, and he told her he had no money, whereupon she had commenced to search his pockets.  He had endeavored to get away from her and the coal oil stove had been upset.  This statement was followed by the allegation that instead of running to the outside the little girl had laid on the bed and burned to death.  The sheriff says the story sounded "fishy" to him, but in the absence of something to offset it he would have to consider it all right.  

WARNE'S ARREST

     Shortly after the fire was discovered the old man was placed under arrest by City Marshal William Kennedy of Walkerville, who placed him in charge of another man while he, Kennedy, loaned his assistance in the work of extinguishing the flames.  The feeling at the very outset was strong against Warne and was growing in intensity every minute.  It finally became so pronounced that Robert Thomas grabbed the prisoner and threw him over the embankment.  The city marshal then realized that unless he ushered the prisoner to a place of safety in short order the coroner instead of the sheriff might get him, and he at once escorted Warne to the county jail.  It is quite probable that had some stock not been taken in the old man's story the crowd that had assembled would have lynched him on the spot and tried him afterwards, justifying its actions on the proposition that any man who permitted or enticed little girls into his den should be hanged, no matter whether or not he committed an assault and then murder.  The crowd was mad, too, because Warne had failed to notify some one when the fire broke out that the child was in the flames.

EUGENE CARROLL ON WARNE.

     Eugene Carroll, general manager and receiver for the Butte Water company, says he believes that if he could see and talk with the prisoner a few minutes he could tell whether he was guilty.  Mr. Carroll and the old man were well acquainted with each other by reason of the latter's connection with the water company as an employe [sic], which had covered a period of ten years.  Warne always talked freely to Mr. Carroll, and the latter considered him to be in his dotage.  Warne told him he was 72 years old, but to Mr. Carroll he appeared to be 80 and very feeble.  Warne, he says, had very little knowledge of things in general, and appeared to be too old for intelligent action of any kind.  Warne, he also says, had spoken to him about his two daughters, who resided somewhere on the coast, and had also mentioned his grandchildren.  Warne had saved his money and kept it in one of the banks.  About four years ago Warne told him he had heard the water company needed money;  that he had $500 in bank, and would let the company have it if it desired to use it, adding to the offer that he knew the company would pay it back when times became more prosperous.  Warne had frequently uttered remarks that led Mr.  Carroll to believe he was short in sound judgement.

     Mr. Carroll says, further, that there were some cans of coal oil in the valve house;  that after Warne was locked up in the county jail he sent him a note asking him to call and see him, but when he called at the jail the sheriff had already started with Warne for Anaconda.  Warne was a Canadian by birth, he says, and took out his first papers last fall.  As to his character, he never knew anything about it, but had always heard him spoken of in a kindly way.

THE CORONER INVESTIGATES.

     After the body of the child had been taken from the burning house the coroner was notified.  He visited the scene and ordered the remains to be sent to the Richards undertaking rooms.  The mother of the child, however, begged Coroner Johnson to have the remains restored to her after they had been prepared for burial, and the wishes of the lady were complied with.  Yesterday afternoon Mr. Johnson took steps towards and official investigation.  With Dr. C.V. NorcRoss he isited the house about 2:30 o'clock and examined the body with a view to ascertaining whether the child had been assaulted and murdered before the fire completed what is thought to be the final chapter in the commission of a crime the equal of which has never been known in this county.  The examination disclosed the fact that the skull of the child had been fractured by some blunt instrument, presumably a hammer, the blow haviing [sic] been wielded with force enough to produce instant death.  This revelation convinced both the coroner and the physician that the blow had taken the life of the little one before the flames began to complete the work of destruction.  It was also found that the pelvic region was badly burned, leading the physician to believe that an extra attempt to destroy this part of the body by the use of coal oil had been made.

DR. NORCOSS' [sic] STATEMENT. 

     Dr. C.V. Norcross, who made a partial examination of the body yesterday and completed it today, says:  (This part gets pretty graphic.)

     "I found a hole in the skull about the size of a silver dollar, which looked as if it had been made with a hammer or other blunt instrument.  The bone had been driven into the brain and when the brain became heated the substance inside of the skull forced the broken pieces of skull out and they were burned away.  The brain was oozing through the hole in the skull.  The hole is located just above the back of the right ear.  The eyes dried in their sockets and the hands burned away.  The legs were burned away almost to the knees, but the knees where not badly burned.  The middle of the body was burned to a charcoal, but further up the marks of the flames were not so great.

     "Today, in the presence of Drs. Renick, Sheerin and O'Leary, I removed the heart and lungs, my object to determine whether the child had enhaled any fire after being struck the blow on the head.  I found that she had breathed after being struck, as the evidence of fire was in the lungs.  Nevertheless, this does not alter my opinion that the blow was struck before the fire was started and the child rendered unconscious by it.  I found something else that I had not noticed yesterday.  When I began to prepare the body for examination I found clothing rolled up under the arms, which would seem to dissipate the old man's allegation that the child had run and jumped on the bed after the fire started.  At the inquest, which will be commenced at 4 o'clock this afternoon, I shall state that it is my belief that the blow on the head was struck before the fire was started, and although death did not ensue before the fire the child was unconscious when flames started."

April 12, 1901., The Kalispell Bee

April 13, 1901., The Kalispell Bee

April 18, 1901., Butte Daily Inter Mountain

June 18, 1901., Butte Daily Inter Mountain

July 10, 1901., Butte Daily Inter Mountain

October 16, 1901., Butte Daily Inter Mountain

     Last evening a jury composed of citizens of Powell county declared by their verdict that John Warne was not guilty of the murder of little Eveline Blewett.  Residents of Silver Bow county have taken more than usual interest in this trial.  The circumstances surrounding the death of the little girl, the inflames condition of the public mind, and the caution of the public mind, and the caution exercised by Silver Bow county's sheriff in spiriting Warne by night out of reach of possible violence, all indicated plainly that residents of Butte were inclined to prejudge the case and charge the old man with a crime without waiting for the forms of law to be observed.

     

November 6, 1901., Kalispell Bee

 

What Happened in 1912 Villisca, Iowa?

     Before Ed Gein, Ronald DeFeo, and Charles Manson, there was Villisca.  The difference is  that, in one night, eight people were killed by an ax-murder, and the killer was never found.   An entire family of five and two young girls were killed, in 1912 that sort of thing just didn't happen.  This first article is quite repetitive, probably to take up lots of room and sell papers, but its informative.

Evening Times-Republican., June 10, 1912, Iowa

EIGHT PEOPLE SLAIN BY WIELDER OF AX

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Family of Herman Moore and Two Misses Spillinger Slain in Moore Home at Villisca, Iowa.

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MYSTERIOUS, DIABOLICAL CRIME

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VICTIMS KILLED WHILE THEY SLEPT AND HEADS ARE CRUSHED TO PULP - ENTIRE MOORE FAMILY OF FATHER, MOTHER AND FOUR CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED BY UNKNOWN FIEND - NO MOTIVE FOR CRIME BUT RELATIVE IS BEING SOUGHT - ENTIRE COUNTRYSIDE AND STATE MILITIA JOINS IN SEARCH - MOORE LEADING MERCHANT AND SPILLINGER GIRLS MEMBERS OF WEALTHY AND PROMINENT FAMILY.

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Special to Times-Republican.

     Villisca, June 10. - Joseph Moore, a prominent Villisca citizen and business man, his wife and four children and two women, supposed to be Mrs. Van Gilder and her daughter, relatives of the Moores, were found murdered this morning in the Moore home.  Their heads had been mashed to a pulp, and an axe covered with blood and human hair was found in the house and is supposed to have been the instrument with which the crime was committed.

Murdered in Beds.

     All were murdered in their beds.  There is no definite clue to the murderers altho search has been made, it is said, for one person suspected by the authorities.

    Owing to the terrible mutilation, the identity of the two women could not be absolutely established this morning, but the Van Gilders, who lived a few miles from Villisca, are known to have been visiting the Moores yesterday, and last night all attended an entertainment, so it is felt certain the victims are the women named.

No Motive Known.

     No robbery was committed, and it seems clear that only a desire for revenge could have prompted the murder, unless the work was done by a madman.

List of Victims

     JOSEPH MOORE and wife.

     HERMAN MOORE, 11 years old.

     CATHERINE MOORE, 9 years old.

     BOYD MOORE, 7 years old.

     PAUL MOORE, 6 years old.

     MISS EDITH SPILLINGER, 20 years old.

     MISS BLANCHE SPILLINGER, 18 years old.

     

     Owing to the terrible mutilation the identity of the two women could not at first be established.  They were believed to be Mrs. Von Gilder and her daughter, relatives of the Moores, but later they were positively identified as the Spillinger sisters, daughters of a wealthy farmer living a few miles from Villisca.

Horses' Neigh Gives Alarm.

     Horses neighing in the barns at the Moore home caused a woman neighbor to notice that no member of the family appeared to be up and about the house.  She investigated and after failing to make an entrance to the front door, called her husband, who also failed.  The city marshal was summoned and the doors forced.

     Moore and his wife were the first to be discovered.  They were lying in their bed ina front room.  Then came the finding of the bodies of the two guests and later those of the children in a third room.  The oldest of the children, a boy, was only 12 years old.

Most Diabolical Crime.

     The entire absence of a known motive for the crime makes it one of the most peculiar and diabolical ever committed in the state.  Showing the terrible execution wrought the person who committed the wholesale crime, early identification of the two young women was that they were Mrs. Von Gilder and her daughter, who were in Villisca last night and were understood to have remained at the Moore home all night.  Mrs. Von Gilder is a sister of Mrs. Moore.

Two Killed Upstairs

     The two Spillinger girls were daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Spillinger, wealthy people residing near town.  Mr. and Mrs. Moore and their four children, were found dead in their beds on the first floor of the house and the Spillinger girls murdered in their beds in an upper room.  All were clothed in their nightgowns and were undoubtedly slain in their sleep, and all had their heads crushed.

Moore Leading Merchant.

     Mr. Moore was one of the leading business men of the town and was engaged of the implement trade.  The family is one of the most prominent in that section of the state.

     Last night the Moores attended a church entertainment in which their children took part.  They were accompanied home part of the distance after the close of the program by neighbors.  The Spillinger girls had remained with them rather than return to their homes late at night.  There are several homes located close by the Moore home and great wonder is expressed that the murderer could  could have entered the place, killed the eight people and escaped without an outcry being heard.

Von Gilder is Sought.

     Mrs. Von Gilder is a divorced woman who resides with her father near town.  She and her husband have been separated about nine years and Von Gilder's place of residence has not been known publicly, at least, for many years.  It is now rumored that he was seen in town Saturday.

Whole Country Aroused. [Insert dirty joke here.]

     Company F of the National Guard, and hundreds of citizens, armed, are scouring the county in search of the assassin.  People from long distances are coming to town and at noon there were 5,000 here.

     The most intense excitement prevails here and people from all parts of Montgomery county are flocking to Villisca.  The victims of the tragedy were widely known in this section, and commanded the highest respect.  Not one of the victims is known to have had an enemy.

Leaves Finger Prints.

     The bodies of the eight, with one exception, one of the Spillinger girls, lay in their beds as tho asleep, with the bed clothes not even disarranged.  

     Blood spots on the front door near the knob shows how the murdered left the house, altho the door was locked and the keys missing.  The murderer left finger prints which are certain to identify him with the crime is [sic] he is ever apprehended.  These prints are being carefully guarded.

     The blinds in the house were all carefully drawn and a lighted lamp was found in the center of the room occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Moore.

Parents Prostrated.

     The parents of the Spillinger girls are prostrated and have not been able yet to leave their home to come into town to care for the bodies of their children, and the scenes at the Spillinger home have been most distressing.  None of the bodies has yet been removed from the house, pending the visit of the coroner's jury.        

     The next article is from the same paper, the next day.

TWO SOUGHT FOR VILLISCA MURDERS

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RELATIVES OF MOORE FAMILY SUSPECTED OF POSSIBLE CONNECTION WITH CRIME.

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BLOODHOUNDS LOSE TRAIL AT BANKS OF RIVER

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   Detective Who Worked on Ellsworth, Kan., Murder Finds Similarity in Crimes - Finger Prints to Be Compared - McClaughrey, Expert on Finger Prints, Summoned.

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      Villisca, June 11 - No positive clues are said to have been brought to light as the result of the work of the detectives in Sunday night's murder case, wherein Joseph Moore and family and two visitors met death at the hands of an assassin who murdered them with an ax as they slept.

     The theory upon which authorities are working now involve two men, relatives of the murdered family, both of whom are said to have held deep grudges against Moore and his wife as a result of domestic troubles.  One of these men, it is said, is known to have been in Villisca recently, and it is rumored that the other has been here also.

Bloodhounds Lose Trail.

     The bloodhounds which followed a trail from the Moore home to the river last night, losing it soon afterwards, were again used today.

     One of the detectives working on this case also helped in investigation of the mysterious murder at Ellsworth, Kan.  He knows several points of similarity in the two cases.  One of these is the use of a kerosene lamp.  In each case one was found burning in the room where the crime was committed.  The Ellsworth murderer's finger prints have been preserved and will be compared by experts with those of the Villisca assassin.

Funeral of Victims Held.

     It was planned to hold the funeral of the eight victims of the tragedy this afternoon.

     Mrs. Clifford Stillinger, mother of the two Moore girls, who were guests in the Moore home, is still in a serious condition, from the effects of the shock.

     The only thing found during the trial of bloodhounds this morning was a bloody handkerchief.  The officers do not regard the find as valuable in the work of unraveling the mystery.

     The county attorney has sent for William McClaughrey, a son of Warden McClaughrey of the federal prison of Leavenworth, Kan., who is a finger-print expert, and he is expected here today.

Two Suspects Seen.

     Word comes from New Market, about fifteen miles southeast of here, that two strange men who were there when the news of the tragedy reached that place hurriedly left in the direction of Clarinda.

     Orders for their arrest have been sent to the latter place but nothing further has been heard.

Bloodhounds Secured.

     Thousands of Montgomery county residents were in Villisca at 9:30 o'clock last nioght when two bloodhounds took up the possible trail of the murderer of the J.B. Moore family and the two daughters of Joseph Stillinger.  In less than five minutes after the dogs were taken to the scene of the crime they made a break for the door of the house.  Since that time they have been tugging on the chains of the men following them.  The trail led to the timber lands at the forks of the west and middle Nodaway rivers, of the town.

     When O.E. Jackson, sheriff of Montgomery county, arrived here at noon yesterday he ordered the Moore home closed to all persons.  Up to that time only a few persons had been permitted to view the bodies of the eight murdered persons, as the city marshal believed it best to keep the place clear of visitors.  A guard of citizens was stationed near the house and later militiamen were put on guard.

     The arrival of the bloodhounds from Beatrice, Neb., was anxiously awaited.  They came on the scheduled train.  Sheriff Jackson piloted the crowd to the house at once.  The dogs were taken in at the front door.  In a few minutes after they had been given a chance two smell the handle of an ax used by the murderer they came out the front door, turned around the porch and took a northerly direction to Second street.  The [sic] followed this path to First avenue, then they went south on First avenue to the John Green farm.  From this farm they advanced southwest to the Neilsson farm.  Then they took to the river and followed it to the forks of the two rivers.

Think Slayer a Maniac.

     That the slayer was a maniac, or an enemy of the Moores, who was seeking revenge are the most probable theories  entertained.  Efforts are being made to locate the four negroes, who were strangers here, and the conviction is growing that they may be the guilty ones.  No negroes are living in Villisca, and their unexplained presence here for several days and their sudden departure last night or early yesterday morning causes much speculation.     

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      According to wikipedia, the victims were:

Josiah B. Moore (43)

Sarah Moore (nee Montgomery, 39)

Herman Montgomery Moore (11)

Mary Katherine Moore (10)

Arthur Boyd Moore (7)

Paul Vernon Moore (5)

Ina Mae Stillinger (8)

Lena Gertrude Stillinger (12)    

A bit different from the newspaper reports, but not bad.  

     The police thought the killer hid in the attic until everyone was asleep, because of two cigarette butts they found in the attic.  Doctors said they were killed between 12am and 5am.  Lena was the only one who had defensive wounds, and is thought to be the only one to wake up and fight back.  It's also believed that she may have been sexually assaulted because she had no underwear on and her nightgown was pulled up.

     Several people were suspects, but only George Kelly was actually tried... twice.  

     Andrew Sawyer  was a transient who asked for a job the morning after/of the murders.  He was hired by Thomas Dyer, a bridge foreman for the Burlington Railroad, S.A., because he was short on men.  The rest of the crew thought he was strange - he slept with his clothes on, next to an ax - and he was a bit too interested in the murders.  One day, Dyer would later testify, Sawyer threatened, "I will cut your god damn heads off," and began hitting things with the ax.  J.R. Dyer (Thomas' son) testified that Sawyer showed him how the man who killed the Moore family got out of town... in great detail.  Dyer decided to turn Sawyer over to the sheriff, but the man had an alibi.  It turned out he had been arrested for vagrancy in another town at the time, and the sheriff there was putting him on a train.

     Reverend George Kelly was a traveling minister, and an accused peeper/pervert.  He was pretty obsessed with the murders, and wrote letters to practically everyone involved.  Police didn't think much of it at the time because he was thought to be a bit "nutty" after a mental breakdown when he was a kid, though.  Two years after the murders, he was in trouble for sending sexually harassing material by mail to a prospective secretary - after that he was sent to the looney bin.  In 1917 he was arrested for the murders, and confessed after many hours of interrogation.  He took back the confession, was tried twice anyway, and ended up being acquitted.

     Frank F. Jones was a State Senator, lived at and owned a store in Villisca.  Josiah Moore worked for him for a long time, but decided to leave and start his own store.  It's thought that Jones was upset because his business was being taken by Moores.  People also thought that Josiah was messing around with Franks daughter-in-law, but it was probably just a rumor.  

     William "Blackie" Mansfield was supposedly a hired gun for Frank Jones, specifically for the ax murders.  More than that, though, he was believed to be a serial killer.  Two years after Villisca, he murdered his wife, infant, and in-laws with an axe.  Many, nearly identical crimes were committed in the days, weeks and months around Villisca, and many thought Blackie was responsible.  He was arrested at one point, but he had a strong alibi and was never brought to trial.  His alibi may have looked good on paper, but a restaurant owner said he was sure that he saw Mansfield getting on a train.  

     Henry Lee Moore, wasn't related to the victims, but was a suspect in their murders.  He murdered his mom and grandma months after the Villisca killings - with an ax.  He is also suspected of the serial killings that Blackie is a suspect of committing.  

     Sam Moyer, Josiah's brother-in-law, threatened to kill him on numerous occasions.  He had an alibi, though.      

     This brutal crime is still unsolved, and the house where it occurred still stands.  You can visit the house and even spend the night there, I think.  Here's a link to their website: http://www.villiscaiowa.com/  Check it out, it's quite interesting.  Until next time, stay curious!