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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1910)
THE - MORXrNG OREGOXIAN. TlfTRSDAT, MAT 26, 1910. 11 'S BLOCKS PICTURES Wife of Convict Protests Against Former Friend's Display of Case. SONTAG CHASE RECALLED Wife of "Lifer" Says Kxhibitor Be trayed Her Husband and His Brother, When She Tells Story wf How She Overcame Shook. Cominjr to the. home city of the wife and children of the man who helped fight his battle and who is bearing the brunt of the penalty, to exhibit pictures that damage that friend's memory, George Sontag was yesterday forbidden by Con stable Lou Wagner to continue the pre sentation in this city of pictures pur porting to fihow scenes in the great battle bet-ween the Sontag robbers' gana and officers. The action of the constable is based upon a section of the Oregon statutes which forbids any representation of a crime in theaters. That George Sontag was wholly to blame for the trouble that led to the great chase which kept Central California in terror for nearly a year, and that he played a lamb's part in the trouble, when It came, is the declaration of Mrs. Chris Evans, whose hunband is serving a life sentence in Folsom prison for his share In the great fight. Sontag Imitation, Says Woman, Sontag was only an imitation bandit to begin with. 6ays Mrs. Evans. He slipped Into the Evans home as a guest, quietly etood by while his brother and Evans resisted the officers, then surrendered himself to the officers and remained safe In jail while the U-mor.thsf fight went on between his brother, John, and Evans, on one elde. end the whole populace on the other, and finally secured his freedom by implicating his defender falsely in train robberies occurring HXW miles away, says Mrs. Evans. She laughs bitterly at the ex-robber's "reform" lecture. "He's not a reformer but an informer,'" she said. Mrs. Evans lives with her children at 428 East Seventy-eighth street. She has four sons occupying positions of trust In the city, all of whom have ben brought to maturity through almost superhuman efforts on the part or the heart-broken -but dauntless mother, who, 17 years ago. saw her husband snatched away from a happy home and consigned to a living death. Chris Evans lies in Folsom prison with one eye and one hand shot away, half paralyzed and slowly dying, unable to write to his family; -but as often as cir cumstances permit, the prematurely-aged wife makes a pilgrimage to his prison and to Sacramento, where she importunes each incoming Governor for the pardon which she claims is her husband's due. i'amily Moved to Portland. Nearly ten years ago Mrs. Evans - brought her family to Portland, to be away from the harrowing memories and uiicliarities vof the scene of her life's tragedy. Living quietly and decently here, very few knew of the sad story until last week, when George Sontag floated into town, making bis living by spreading before the public the story of his crime. He carried a film of moving pictures, representing scenes from the fight, and accompanied it with a lecture, telling of his deeds. Upon learning of Sontag' s presence and mission, George W. Evans, a son of Chris Evans, went to him and asked him to desist from showing the pictures in this city. Sontag refused, saying that he had his living to make and as he had to wait over in Portland for a time, he was going to make what money he could while here. Then he began to abuse his former de ' fender, Chris Evans, says Mrs. Evans, and the law was invoked and brought an end to the exhibition. Deeply moved by the revival of bitter recollections, Mrs. Evans retold yesterday the story of the great sensation, warmly defending her husband, "than whom a better man never lived," she said, and throwing a new light upon many points of the affair which cost half a dozen lives, which lost two men their liberty and had most of the California, constabu lary scouring the brush for nearly a year. "John Sontag, the one who was killed at the end of the chase, had worked for my husband in his livery stable at Mo desto for years," said Mrs. Evans. "He wu a fine man. Then one day his brother George came to visit him. We had never seen him before, but welcomed him because we liked John. The day after he arrived the detectives came to the house after him, to arrest him' for a train robbery, committed in Minnesota. They came in and asked where he was and I told them he was upstairs. They went up and almost at once began shooting. There must have been 50 shots fired. My husband came running In and, seeing a lot of strange men shooting In his house, where his wife and children were, seized a gun and Joined in the fight. He killed one of the officers and it is for that that he Is now serving time. , Two Escaped to Brush. "Then John Sontag and my husband escaped to the brush, while George Son tag meekly surrendered. Only God knows what I suffered during the next 11 months. Then they overtook the fugitives, shot John Sontag to pieces and brought my husband in badly wounded. He was tried for the murder of the officer and sen tenced to life imprisonment, as was George Sontag. Sontag served about 15 years and was then pardoned because he gave evidence that he, his brother, John, and my husband, while living in Califor nia, made trips back to Minnesota and held up trains. That is absolutely false and It can be shown that my husband was attending to his business in Califor nia at the time when Sontag says he was in Minnesota. "I turned to the washtub and by that means raised my family and raised them to be decent men and women. When the oldest boy reached 14 he helped a lot and we did better. Then I came to live in Portland, and now this pretended re former follows here to revive the old sor row of which he was the sole cause, and which he escaped by lying down and turning informer." Mrs. Evans says that Sontag's true name Is. George Contant. He was only a step-brother of John Sontag. Never a word was breathed against her husband's character, she says, up to the day when he rushed Into the house to defend, as be thought, his family and their guest. The patient wife has never halted in her efforts to secure a pardon and still ex presses hope that her husband may end his days with his family. PERSOIIALMEIITION. H. E. Gordon, of Newberg, is at the Lenox. E. T. Furness, of Seattle, is at the Ramapo. John C. Olmsted, park and boulevard WOMAN ANGUISH expert, of Brookline, Mass.. is at the Portland. Dr. C. A. Eldridge, of Corvallis, is at the Cornelius. A. S. Reed, a. capitalist of Astoria, is at the Imperial. Walter S. Martin, of San Francisco, is at the Portland. G. ' W. Johnston, a merchant of Duf ur, is at the Cornelius. J. B. Wilikins, an attorney of Rainier," is at the Imperial. Mr. and Mrs. D. Brown, of Baker City, are at the Nortonia. "J. D. Kelty, a stock man of McCoy,' Is registered at the Lenox. Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Hunt, of Dulutb, Minn., are at the Seward.- Frank Gabel. a sheep man of The Dalles, Is at the Perkins. J. A. Cochran, a retired farmer of La Grande, is at the Imperial. J. T. Ross, a merchant of Astoria, Is stopping at the Cornelius. Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Collins, of Seattle, are registered at the Seward. William E. Russell and family, pf Spo kane, are guests at the Nortonia. Mrs. Georgia H. Hughes, of Forest Grove, is stopping at the Oregon. W. C. Fry, editor of the Senator, offi cial organ of Pythians. is at the Perkins. Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Wakefield and John Ross, of The Dalles, are at the Ramapo. Jerome J. Day, of Moscow, Idaho, is in the city for a few days. He is located at the Portland. John A. Carson, an attorney of Salem, who is in the city on legal business, is stopping at the Imperial. Captain T. E. Murphy, of the United States Army, and his family, have taken permanent quarters at the Perkins. Carrol B. Dotson, of Fargo, N. D., Is passing a few days in Portland on busi ness. He is registered at the Cornelius. F. A. Hart and Ross W. Smith, of Aberdeen: A. L. Paine and N. J. Blagen, of Hoquiam, are at the Oregon on their way to San Francisco to attend the lum bermen's convention. Montle B. Gwinn, considered the most extensive sheep owner in Southern Idaho, is in the city on business, and is staying at the Portland. Mr. Gwinn thinks Port land is not thoroughly awake to its com mercial opportunities in his part of the country. Eugene T. Wilson, National Bank Ex aminer for the district of Washington and Montana and chief of the Coast divi sion, left fof Seattle last night after spending more than three weeks in the city in connection with the trial of J. W. Scriber. Major Wlliam D. Hale, Postmaster at Minneapolis, Minn., arrived at the Hotel Portland yesterday en route to White Salmon, Wash., where the distinguished soldier of the Civil War, partner of Sen ator Washburn in the lumber business and politician of note, is interested in fruit lands. EXHIBIT WILL BE FREE ARCHITECTS TO ENCOURAGE GOOD TASTE IX BUILDING. Public to Be Admitted During Rose Festival Week to See League's Collection. . With the object of encouraging a more artistic standard of architecture, not only in private homes, but in all public build ings, and of arousing individual interest in a "municipal plan to beautify the city, free admission will be offered the public during the Rose Festival period. June 7-12, by the Portland Architectural- Club to its third annual exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Fifth and Yamhill streets. The exhibition will open - on June 3, and the fine drawings, paintings, blue prints and photographs which will make up the educational exhibition, will con tinue on view until June 19. but the public will be admitted free only during the festival week. Some of Portland's massive and artis tically simple skyscrapers will be repre sented in the collection and, if possible, a portion of the preliminary work on the "municipal plan" for Portland, now in the hands of Architect Bennet, of Chi cago, will be on view towards the close of the exhibition. This "plan," which is being worked out by the Chicago archi tect and municipal beautlfler, will not be complete for some time, but M. A. Vin son, manager of the local Architectural Club, hopes to secure some of the pre liminary drafts for the exhibit before it closes. The exhibition is being financed in a novel way, which adheres strictly to the simple and unostentatious methods that are in harmony with the principles urged by the club. The expenses are to be defrayed by the patronage of various local firms whose names will appear in the "Year Book." The book will be replete with fine half-tones, showing the artistic execution of modern architectural plans, covering a wide field, and for the indi vidual homebuilder or ambitious student of architecture, it will contain many help ful suggestions and plans. The coming exhibition will represent the entire offerings of the Pacific Architec tural League, although given under the auspices of the Portland Architectural Club. ADVICE SAVES FROM LOSS Y. M. C. A. Detects Fraudulent Schemes for Benefit of Inquirers. Thousands of dollars, about to be dropped in some "get-rich-quick" scheme, have been saved for their owners by a few timely words of advice during the past two weeks, according to Stanley 'Baker, secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association employment and advisory department. Mr. Baker says that several absolutely fraudulent schemes have been detected through the agency of the Y. M. C. A. in time to prevent young men who have gone there for advice from throwing away their savings.' "It is mainly strangers in the city who come to- us for advice." said Mr. Baker, "and frequently we find a man who has all but decided to put money into some proposition that on its face is a 'fake.' The Y. M. C. A. never gives these young men advice or suggestions as to how they- might invest their money, but ad vises them against expenditures that ap pear questionable. This work is .carried on solely for the benefit of young- men, as the association charges nothing what ever for "the advice. "Despite the fact that four people are now on the staff of our employment de partment, they cannot keep up with the work. On Tuesday we had to close our offce for the entire day to catch up with the work before us. Hundreds of new arrivals in the city come to us first thine. (The records of those we consider com- rtetent are thorouehlv ctitia 1ntn Hofr.,-.. we assist xne young men m their efforts to secure positions." A ReKnlar Tom Boy was Susie climbing trees and fences. Jumping ditches, whitllng, always get ting scratches, cuts, sprains, bruises, bumps, burns or scalds. But laws! Her mother just applied Bucklen's Arnica Salve and cured her quick. Heals every thing healable Boils. Ulcers, Eczema, Jd ,VJeB' Corns or Piles. Try it. 25o at all druggists. When the tide Is out the table is set at Pacific City- AIDS FETE Clubs Send Representative to Pledge Festival Support. SPECIAL TRAIN TO COME President Hoyt Tells R. A. Bernstein Portland AVill Be Glad to Have Sound City Represented in Week's Pageant. 1 Tacoma sent its formal greetings to the Portland Rose Festival managers yester day, and In a most neighborly manner wanted to know what it could do to help make the Portland celebration a greater success than ever. The ambas sador bringing these cheerful and wel come tidings was R. A. Bernstein, vice president of the Puget Sound Realty Company, and he came as the representa tive of the three big commercial and boosting agencies of the Sound city the Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Club and the Rotary Club. "The whole City of Tacoma. as repre sented by these organizations, stands ready to do your bidding," he announced to President Hoyt and other officials of the Festival at a meeting held at head quarters yesterday afternoon. "We have heard much about the magnificent cele bration that Portland Is going to .give, and I carry with me the fullest assur ance of Tacoma's hearty goodwill. What is more substantial, I have been au thorized to ask you what we can do to make the Rose Festival worthy, not only of Portlahd, where it is going to be held, but of Tacoma, your next-door neighbor, and of the entire Northwest, which is bound to derive much benefit from the great tide of Westward tourist travel which your celebration has set in motion. Tacoma Also to Benefit. served unmistakable signs of the intense advertising vaiue sucn a celebration as the Rose Festival carries with it, for through our publicity work in the East and Middle West we Iiava nniia i .-. . a great many of the prospective visitors num uiucicui. scuLiuuii ul Liie country say tViev am rnmlns-Tn th. TOna. T.- ., i 1 . - j D w j i-csuviu ttnu will stnn over in T rnmn i .. for that reason our people want to show tneir neignDoriy spirit in every way pos sible. You are not going to reap all tho Mnf-flt nf ttui Pnaa IT-...-. . . , . - - i even 11 it is held here, because the Easterners wui nave tneir tickets routed in such a way that thev will ha w in ca t and Seattle." President Hoyt suggested to Mr. Bern I AC MA jM? The very best reason in the jMr world for drinking the Best S. jMf , Beer that can be produced "TheF Ifc Appeals to the Masses! jfflr K Appeals to the Classes! It Appeals to All the People! jr All the Time! jM? Ngfcv Delivered at jfflr Your Home jmZt stein that he invite the horsemen, the horsewomen, the owners offancy vehicle turnouts, the automobilists and all other clubs or organizations that care to take part in the daylight or night parades to come over here for the Festival, and place will be given in the out-of-town sections of the respective pageants. Bands, marching bodies, or the uniform rank and drill corps of any of the fra ternal or social organizations will be re ceived heartily. Will Join in Parades. Mr. Bernstein returnedhome last night and said he would urge the Chamber of Commerce, the Commercial Club and the Rotary Club to arrange for a special ex cursion train and to round up as many entries as possible for the different Festival parades. He pledged himself to round up as many automobilists as possible and get them to join the big overland tour which will start with from 50 to 100 strong from Seattle and cover the trip to Portland by slow stages. "Nothing has pleased us more in many months than the show of fine feeling that both Seattle and Tacoma have displayed toward Portland and the Rose Festival," said President Hoyt last night. "Their interest and offers to pitch in and join us in this great celebration have been entirely unsolicited; the movement on the part of each of the cities was spontaneous and therefore doubly appreciated." JURY BELIEVES PAYNE PUCKETT'S ASSAIIjAXT FREED ON STORY OF SELF-DEFEXSE. Ex-Wife, Over Whom Trouble Oc curred, Says Husband Tried to Kill Her With Dagger. Charles Payne, accused of assault on T. O. Puckett with a revolver last Jan uary, was acquitted yesterday after the jury had been out two hours. Payne's own defense when he was placed on the witness stand yesterday morning was that when he accused Puckett of staying at the home of his ex-wife the night be fore the - encounter, Puckett angrily re piled that it was none of his business and apparently reached ; for a weapon. He said that he had heard Puckett had threatened to "get him," and that he acted on the impulse of the moment in drawing his revolver from a scabbard on his left side and firing. Mrs. Eva Puckett, the woman in the case,, attempted to wrench the revolver away to prevent further bloodshed, he said, while Puckett tried to strike him over Mrs. Puckett's shoulders. The re volver was discharged a second time in the scuffle. Mrs. Puckett was' called by the attor neys for the defense yesterday morning and questioned regarding a dagger her husband carried. She said she took poi son a few days after she separated from her husband, and before their divorce, and underwent an operation at the hos pital. Afterwards her husband visited her at the house, she said, told her that he couldn't live with her, and taking out the dagger, bared her breast and told her that he intended to stab her and then himself. A squeak in. an adjoining room aroused his suspicions that she had a spy nearby and he desisted. She said lie ouugni tne dagger while he was em- Short Summer Trips For a Day's Outing Up the Columbia Delightful Jaunts Easy to Get There O.R.& N. Train Service Just Right Rates Cheap All Kinds of Amusement and Recreation Scenery Can't Be Beat READ BETWEEN - PORTLAND AND Latourelle. .' Bridal Veil , Multnomah Falls ........ Bonneville. . ............. Cascade Locks Collins. . Hood River Mosler The Dalles Seuferts Celilo Down the Columbia theTmou?h ?f &.NCoieJU POnt- on North Beach, near good for returS any timS wiTh known that compares with a ployed by the streetcar company to pro tect himself against the rough element which rode on his cars at night. Pulp Duties Are Refunded. NEW YORK, May 25. The case which has been pending before the United THESE HOUSD-TRIP EXCURSION RATES. Golngr Saturday or Sunday, Sunday , Returning Sunday Only. or Monday. y 1.5 1.25 i.as 1.-5 l.r 1-25 l.SO 1.25 1.75 .... S.SO 2.00 S.OO 2.25 3..1U 3.00 ' ; 3.75 ,V .hrV."f v.. 1i,y trip "up the Columbia is a trip IJO WN Purchase tickets and Inquire carefully about boat mid train sched ule, at the City Ticket Office, Third and Wa.hinBton Street.. WM. McMURRAY GENERAL PASSE.VGER AGENT, PORTLAND, OREGON States Board of General Appraisers for,' several months to test the provisions of the tariff law governing the importations of pulp wood and wood pulp has been abandoned by the claimants, the Treas-i ury Department having agreed to refund the amount of excess duties collected, without trial. 1 Going; by Rati Returning by Boat Same Day. Good for . One Month. S1.40 1.SO l.SO S.OO 2.30 2.05 S.25 3.50 4.00 4.0O 4.00 00 eave Portland ?i next morning. Tickets THE tOtVMBIA.