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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1920)
6 THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, JUNE 13, 1920 r rss r V ) - That Has Made the Mystery of the Young Woman, Erroneously Identified and Buried Twenty Years Ago as Carrie Selvage, More Inscrutable Than Ever. , 1 iw lO terabft'f lift WW TZfre&Jc lj7stj7 Sj??s yybss J? W&fj 7j9 SArsSd?j77- r .1. ? E.- 'v 5 V 5 a, f j 4 r J I '? Uy- v- 7 sr?. s Vrrimi.iifiTrhfi.Viii iWmV ' BT JOHN SHELIXDN. TARLT or the morning: of Sunday, fi i March 11. 1900. Carrie T. Sel vagre, a pretty young: scnooi teacher, disappeared most myste riously from the Indianapolis Union States hospital at No. 1333 North Cap itol avenue. She was a hospital pa tient, under treatment for a severe nervous breakdown, the result of overwork. At the time of her disap pearance she was wearing a long flannelette wrapper and felt house elippers. Late that same night Eufus Can trell. head of a notorious gang of grrave robbers, all colored, known as the Marion county body-snatchers, sent several of his men to a nearby cemetery where they opened a new grave from which , they stole the corpse. Their object, of course, was to sell the body to a medical college for dissecting purposes. After robbing the grave and care fully replacing the earth to hide the traces of their crime, one of CantrelVs men went ahead of the others to the aide entrance to the cemetery to make cure that the coast was clear before they carried out the body, Creeping cautiously through the fcushes to the' cemetery gate which onens into a dark alley, the ghoul peeped around the-corner and then screamed in terror, for directly in front of him and stealthily advancing in the shadow of the wall was a young woman. She was hatless and her ais beveled hair hung around her shoul riers. She wore a long, loose gown btiH aoft-snled shoes. From confessions made wheni ttuf us Cantrell and some of the grave rob bers were caught later and sent to the penitentiary at Michigan City, it appeared evident that as soon as they had recovered from their first fright at the unexpected appearance of the woman at the gate, they had overpow ered her to prevent her from giving an alarm, and had taken her to the basement of a building on Indiana avenue, where three days later, she died. Her body, they confessed, was eold for J50 and eventually turned over to a west side medical clinic for dissection. Meanwhile police, private detectives and friends of the missing Carrie T. Selvage had been conducting a most systematic search for her. Every pos ible clue was traced to Its end. Ponds nd lakes. Fall creek and White river were dragged. Copies of her pho tographs together with descriptive personal details were sent broadcast without success. The young school teacher had vanished. Saved From the Dissecting Table. Then a strange thing happened. Medical students attending a clinic in a west side collegiate institution were assembled in the operating the ater for a practical demonstration in dissecting. On the operating table was the body of a woman, apparently young and well-formed, covered with a white sheet. When, the face of the dead woman was uncovered one of the medical stu dents casually remarked that it bore a somewhat vague resemblance to the published photographs of the missing Carrie Selvage. Other students agreed with him and during the discussion that foUftwed. one. student suggested calling tip a dentist friend of his who, he remembered, had done some dental work for Miss Selvage, and asking him to come at once to the college. It was thought that possibly he could decide whether or not It was Miss Selvage by an examination of her teeth, which showed evidence of care ful dentistry. The dentist arrived presently, but was undecided. He advised sending for Joseph Selvage, a well known real estate dealer, brother of the missing girl. When he reached the college Mr. Selvage agreed with the dentist that the body on the operating table might be that of his sister, making all due allowances for changes, In facial ap pearance due to her nervous break down .exposure and death. The clothes in which the body had been delivered to the medical authorities were not those which Miss Selvage had worn at the time of her disappearance from the hospital. The dentist recognized the gold filling in her teeth as being much similar to some which he had done for Miss Selvage several months previous. And there the Identification ceased. The body was removed from the op erating table and given decent burial ... ;: ' : jt h m : A k: ffe" : 2" iv under the belief that the mystery of the schoolteacher's disappearance had been, to a certain extent, solved. Investigation of the circumstances under which tbe body had been turned over to the medical college led to the arrest of Rufus Cantrell by several of the men that they had been impli cated in many thefts of newly-interred bodies from cemeteries in and around Indianapolis. Two of these gangs had operated, the Marion county ghouls under the leadership of Rufus Can trell. and the Hamilton county gang, which confined its depredations prin cipally to suburban cemeteries. The two gangs. It appeared, met one night by accident in the Ebe neier cemetery, both bent upon grave robbery. A fight followed, during which one man was killed. The vic tors sold his body to a middleman for the usual $50. And the go-between redisposed of it to a medical college for purposes of dissection. The col leges, it Is only fair to etate. were under the impression that the bodies obtained in this manner were those of unclaimed derelicts who had died in almshouses and other Institutions and which, otherwise, would have been burled In the potter's field at the ex pense of the county. In death thej were of more value than in life and the surgical clinics for which such bodies were always in demand, were made in the Interests of medical sci ence. Shortly after the disappearance of Miss Selvage from the Union States hospital the institution was closed. Since then the building, originally the Indianapolis orphan asylum, has been used as a rooming house, but a few weeks ago a contract was given out for a complete remodeling of the SARGENT AND PARRISH NOW . IN HOUSE PAINTING BUSINESS Old Masters Never Got the Huge Sums Taken in by Mechanics Who Labor on Dwellings in This Age. r BT JAMES J. MONTAGUE. T Is gratifying to know that the cost of things Is falling. All the newspapers tell about the tumble. Professor Irving Fisher of Tale ex plains the reasons. The subject Is discussed joyfully at the best clubs and in the smoking compartments of Pulman cars. It has temporarily superseded the Chicago convention as a topic of conversation.- There is. It is true, one tiny cloud on this golden sunrise, which, to leave off metaphor, is the fact that the people who sell things haven't heard about the drop yet. , We found that out the other day when a carpenter and builder in whom we have implicit confidence told us that If we didn't get the house painted this spring it would fall to pieces before another year had passed. Paint Holds Hook Together. We didn't understand how paint could hold a house together, but he explained. Paint, it seems, to a house is like the cuticle to a human being. It keep3 out germs that would other wise enter and cause decay. Also It would act as a protector of the nails from rust. Permitted to rust, the heads of the nails would fall off, and they would cease to function. Then the first gale that blew would re move the clapboards one by one and leave us exposed to the deadly chill of winter. We were'naturally averse to having the house fall down over our heads. It is the only house we have, and we would not know where to turn to get another. Besides, we planned and built It ourselves, and had all the neighbors In to help celebrate- when we paid off the mortgage. So we called in the local painters and asked them for estimates. They did a little measuring, asked us about color schemes and whether the job included the blinds and went away. The next week we got the estimates. I opened them, gave them a hasty glance and observed to the head of the family: "Do you know who those painters were?" "No," she said, being naturally Quick at repartaa "who wars they J" "John S. Sargent and Maxfield Par rlsh." "What makes you think eoT "Look at these estimates!" She looked, and agreed with us. Patntinx Pay These Day. Of course, we could readily under stand, after a glance at the figures why Messrs. Sargent and Parrlsh had j gone into the house painting business. Even In the days of J. P. Morgan and Henry Clay Fiek they never could have hoped tq get so much money for mere portraits and landscapes. But they were far beyond our means so we decided to do the job ourselves. The price of the paint, when the paint man apologized for it, staggered us, but he agreed to a partial pay ment plan and we had It sent up. Then we fell to work. The head of te family gets dizzy on a ladder, so she painted up as far as she could reach, and I undertook with the aid of the ladder to paint the rest of the way. The difficulty was the lack of day light. She painted merily away all afternoon, but I didn't get home till dark. Painting in the dark is trouble some. Tou paint yourself considerably more than you would otherwise. Fur thermore you are unable to distin guish the color labels. When I had painted all I could and quit along to ward two In the morning I retired happily. "Anyway," I thought, 'It will be cheaper than having thoso old masters do It for us." Color Scheme la TJnlqne- I changed my mind the next morn ing. I had used tbe gray trim paint on the body of the house, which should have been white. Furthermore I hadn't painted evenly. The effect was very much that of a poorly camou flaged battleship a battleship so camouflaged that it would attract the attention of all the enemy battleships at a range of 20 miles, no matter bow low the visibility. '' Of course I had to paint it all over the next day, absenting myself from business for the purpose. But paint ing white over gray must be done many, many times, if you are to get any shade but gray. We sold a little furniture and bought more paint. Then we sold the flivver and some other things and bought more. Ten coats did the trick, but we could have laid them on with our heart's blood with less strain on our finances. And no sooner had we got them on than along came a rain and striped them nicely, adding an effect which was bizarre enough to suit a futurist. but which the neighbors derided. The house Is painted now. If you live anywhere near us you know about it. The trolley companies run excursions to see it. And the crowds that patronize these excursions get the worth of their money. Some time we hope to be able to build a high fence around the house and charge admission. Then we will be able to make enough to hire Sar gent & Parrlsh to paint the house properly, which is what we should bave done in the first place. America's Future Forecast. New Tork Evening Mail. Vice-President Fletcher of the Fort Dearborn bank of Chicago reveals our national strength, and in so doing gives us a true forecast of our future. In these statistics of America's pos sessions: "Twenty-four per cent of the world's agricultural production achieved by 5 per cent of the world's population; 40 per cent of the world's mineral production; manufacturing 35 per cent of all the world's goods: a foreign trade balance of 15,000.000,000; half of all the world's gold is in the United States; our bank deposits are billions in excess of all banks in all the world. Americans own today a billion of American securities owned abroad before the war; our allies, as nation, owe us $10,000,000,000 and almost as much more In other ways." So one could go on calling the endless roll of America's resources, America's sound reason for optimism, America's vision of a Tuture in which peril is a bad second to pluck, in which Mr. Timidity is the only person likely to find the door of opportunity and achievement closed. Indian Campflre Jfever Quenched MIAMI, Okla. Another stomp dance has been held by the Cherokee Indians near the hamlet of Murphy, around the Indian campflre which has not been quenched for two-score years. This ic a watchfire of the Cherokees and is kept burning as a memorial to the "great eplrlt." Not even Chief Charlie Tee Hee knows how - many years ago the fire waa started. Bf. G Abernathy, a white man, says the fire was burning when he took up his FAXYTIAG AFTER DARK HAS CHARMS, 12 -Pound Gold Augget Found. LONDON. A lump of pure gold weighing just over 13 pounds, one of the largest nuggets ever found, has been discovered in the Kilo state mines in the northeastern district of the Belgian Congo, according to the African World. It is now in the pos session of the London branch of the Banquo du Congo Beige and will be sold on behalf of the Belgian gov- xnment. Irate Woman Scores Rail road Over Attack on Dog. Scathing Remarks Also Made About Stxe of Sandwiches on Diner. THE following letter was received by the claim agent of oae of thr big western railroads not long ago: "For some weeks past my dog has been in the habit of sicking himself onto the cars as they sped past my place, and he never harmed no one by so doing, nor never would, as I have known him from a child, very peace ful and fond of young children, and awful fond of the butcher's shop, be fore where he would sit up on his hind legs and beg with a voice of Joy for anything he requested. When he would run at the ca,rs. he would act savage, but still would never injure the train by word or deed if you had a hundred trains whizzing past by day or night. "But what does the fireman on the Stick In. the Mud Express do but entices my dog to close quarters and throw chunks of coal and squirts hot water upon him, which he tells me in a blithe and frlvlious tone is to take the bark off my dog. That is what makes me hait your railroad, and that is not all by a long sight, for yester day they misled my dog and got him in front of the engine, when they pulled her wide open and smashed my dog in a way that hurts your rode and causes it to be looked at askance by every thinking taxpayer and mother. I say fy on such a rode as yours, with its sanwiches that have a thin rim of ham around the edge, so when you lock your teeth with it you get left, and the rode has got your money in Dennis. Fy on the whole thing Is what I say." Hawaii Buying Xltrate. HONOLULU. T. H. Within ten days $1,000,060 worth of Chilean ni trate has been laid down in Honolulu by five ships, according to port fig urea. The nitrate is used in manufac turing fertilizer for the sugar planta tions. Further shipments of 6000 tons are expected within the next 60 days. Greece Buys Meats. EDMONTON". Alta. Direct business trading with Greece is being trans acted by local merchants. Last week an Investment company here con signed $10,000 worth of hams, bacon and other cured meats and will re ceive in return currants, figs, walnuts, otA. , . building, which is henceforth to be used as a garage. The brick front of the building was to be torn -out anl a girder set in place to carry the weight over the new garage doorway. This necessi tated the tearing down of some in terior walls and partitions, upstairs and down as well as in the attic. The contract also called for the removal of a tiny and almost inaccessible cupola which perched above the main attic. Dan Jones, a structural Iron worker. had charge of this part of the work. Probably he was the first man to enter that little cubby-hole above the attic since the day the building was completed over half a century ago. Nobody ever went In there because of its Inaccessibility. Viewed from the avenue it was simply an ornamental cupola placed there by an architect who was aiming for effect. As far as usefulness was concerned it might as well never have existed. Jones got into the cupola by en larging the opening between it and the attic. Inside he found himself face to face with a headless standing skeleton clothed In the remnants of a long, blue, flannelette wrapper and felt house slippers. The 6kull had fallen to the floor and rolled off to one side. The remainder of the skele ton was leaning against the wall. Joseph and Edward Selvage, bro thers of the school teacher who had disappeared 20 years previous. Identi fied the slippers as a pair which they had given to their sister a short time before she vanished. The wrapper, too, was hers. Dr. Paul E. Robinson, coroner, said the skeleton was that of a young woman. This time there was no question of the accuracy of the identification. The mystery of Miss Selvage's disappearance had been solved. Frozen to Death. Instead of leaving the hospital grounds on the morning she vanished so completely, Miss Selvage had crept upstairs Into the attic and from there through the tiny aperture Into the cupola, where, in her dazed condition, she must have stood helplessly wait ing until she died. The assumption Is that she froze to death, standing there in the dark corner of the attic. March 11. 1900, was a bitterly cold day In Indianapolis and with the tem perature below freezing point in the draughty attic the young woman, scantily clothed as she was, must have succumbed quickly. With the mystery of her disappear ance solved a new one had arisen. Who was the other young woman who died in the hands of the grave rob bers and whose body was saved from dissection simply through mistaken identification? Rufus Cantrell cannot offer any so lution. With callous apologies he has explained that so many bodies were handled by the gangs of grave rob bers that It would be impossible to remember each one.
