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About The Plaindealer. (Roseburg, Or.) 1870-190? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 1903)
uuu u.o out n,rt I oucjeiy PORTailD TWICE A WEEK ROSEBURG PLAINDEALER. Vol. XXXV ROSEBURG, DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 150, 1903. No. G3 SNYDER IS DEAD. THE PERDUE MYSTERY STILL UNSOLVED. ANOTHER DOUGLAS COUNTY TRAGEDY WHICH MAY NEVER BE EXPLAINED. On Tuesday morning a man by the name of Zeke Allen brought the story to Roseburg, that the body of Har mon Snyder had been found within a distance of two hundred yards of E. R. Bagshaw's cabin which is located six miles south of Perdue in town ship 31, range 3 west. The story told was that the body way partly buried under a fallen tree and earth thrown over it and the whole covered with brush. The citizens of Canyonville how ever, have not heard anything de finite about the find and up to Wed nesday, the time of the writing noth ing definite is known nor has the re port been confirmed. The Pladcdealer desires to give the citizens of Douglas County a brief history of the case and it will be re membered that in our issues of June 18 and 22 we stated that it was fear ed, that HarmotfSriya&Ead first been lost and afterwards died of exposure or hunger on the mountain range be tween Cow and Elk Creek and the jnatter rested with the report. Since that time, however, the Plakdealer has gathered the following stories which we will attempt to make dove tail. About June 8, E. R. Bagshaw asked Harmon Snyder, who was a slip-and-go-easy star boarder at the Senate Saloon to accompany him to his cabin to make some improvements. Bagshaw -was a timber cruiser and lo cator who had done business in Rose burg for the past year or more and the two men went to Bagshaw's claim which is about 50 miles south-east of Roseburg as the road is not very straight. The men had been there two days and had plenty of wet groceries on hand. On June 15 Bag shaw wrote a letter and mailed it from Galesville on that date to Tom Cannon, of the Senate Saloon, saying that Snyder had left the cabin June 10, and if he had not arrived in Rose burg that he had got lost in the mountains. Snyder did not show up in Roseburg and fears were express ed that he was actually lost. The letter written by Bagshaw was very brief and conveyed only that informa tion and no reason could be given why he had written about the matter to Cannon except that Bagshaw had a fear in his own mind that everything was not right with Snyder. On July 3, a party consisting of Dave Shambrook, county clerk; George Dimmick, county treasurer: Frank Kennedy and Charles Gilvin started to hunt for Snyder, and on July 4 reached Bagshaw's cabin and searched it but what evidence they found they have never revealed. Dave Shambrook wrote down in his note book all that they saw, but that book has never been shown to anybody nor it contents made known, nor will a single member of the party talk about the matter, but in some mysterious manner of clairvoyance, the secret has leaked out, and the Plaindealer knows that those gentlemen found unmistakable evidence of a struggle in the cabin, one bullet hole from a revolver had penetrated the wall and there were four bullet holes in the floor of the cabin and also the stains of what they be lieved to be blood on the floor; the pair of pants and also a necktie which Sny der wore when he left Roseburg were hanging on a nail in the cabin as well as certain other of the missing man's effects. Each of the investigators believed that Snyder had been killed in the cabin and the corpse afterwards removed or otherwise disposed of. While the investigators or searches for Snyder were in the cabin Bagshaw was in Roseburg, and strange to say when seen and talked to by Tom Can non he never mentioned the Snyder letter or disappearance. When the searches were looking for Snyder it rained continuously, and the undergrowth of grass and weeds was so great that little trace of the disturbance of the earth conld be found. It is the intention of part of the party to return to the cabin to find trace of the body and to at tempt to bring the murderer to justice. That Snyder is dead there can be no doubt. That there was conflict in the cabin is proof posi tive by the bullet holes. That Snyder did leave the cabin to return to Rose burg according to the statement writ ten by Bagshaw is false, for Snyders pants were found hanging on a nail in the cabin three weeks after Bagshaw wrote that Snyder had left and he feared he was lost in the mountains. There is no direct evidence that Snyder has been murdered for no part of his body has been found that could be identified; but there is all the cir cumstantial and culmulative evidence that Snyder has been most foully murdered and the body made way with. Bagshaw may jiot have been in the cabin, he may know nothing about the affair, but from all appearances the tragedy enacted at the. cabin on thp mnnnbun fort. mnt Lr wn ; as follows. Snyder and a man un-! known arrived at the cabin on the : night of June 9, Snyder having left Roseburg the night before. The men were tired out with their journey and after supper prepared for bed, Sny- der hanging his pants and necktie on a naiL There was plenty of whiskey in the cabin and the two men, whoever the second was, became intoxicated or partially so, A quarrel ensued when the unknown man shot Snyder who sank to the floor and in drunken mad- ness the unknown man continued to shoot into the prostrate Snyder until all the cartridges had been exploded, The murderer drank more whiskey and fell m a stupor from which he awoke the next morning and then realizing the position he was in cut the body into pieces and secreted it in the forest or cremated it in the fire-place. This is the most pos sibly solution to the mystery as no part of the body has been found. The men who hunted for Snyder's body do not believe that it will ever be found. There were five clear days from the time the murderer was supposed to have been committed until .Tnne In when Bagshaw wrote from the cabin and mailed the letter from Galesville off. President Roosevelt's eldest son on June 15, and in this time there was on board the Decatur at the time was plenty of time to burn up the of the accident, body in the fire place in the cabin. I The trans-continental railroads The evidence of a large fire being have taken a few feathers out of the made in the fireplace is clearly ap- eagle's tail. They had enough money parent but if there had been any resi-' to purchase every vote of the Colum due of the cremation all had been re-, Wan senate and that body refused to moved from the hearth. ratify the Panama ship canal. As we We do not care to say directly that stated two months ago Uncle Sam Bagshaw murdered Snyder but we will will have to swat that brat a little to say that grave suspicions point to the make the brat respect promises. conclusion that Snyder was mnnlered in Bagshaw's cabin. If Bagshaw is looked upon as a modern Cain he cannot complain as he has made no effort to remove the suspicion he is under. There has been no legal in vestigation into the matter nor is there likely to be but to get at the bottom of the business and for the public good the Plaixdealer makes I this statement. If Bacshaw did not 1 make away with Snyder he knows who I did. If Snyder was murdered he' knows who murdered him. Now. ifiSTRANfiE .QTATFMCNT.Q MAflP Bagshaw, who is in Roseburg quite frequently having been here in the past ten days and who is now known to be in the south part of the county, does not want to be accounted either the murderer or h5"ahielder of a murderer all he has to do is to bring a criminal libel suit against the Edi tor of this paper, and we will promise him that before he gets through with it, that he will either stand in the shadow of the gallows or be proclaim ed an innocent man. We think it high time for the citizens of Douglas j countv to awake and thormifrhlv in-1 vestigate the supposed murder cases. The late so-called suicide case in Rose burg for example, is believed to be a foul murder committed and the body conveyed to where it was found. The report that the body of Har mon Snyder had been found has not been confirmed. Letters received from Perdue yesterday and today do not mention anything about the sup- posed find and the report circulated or said to have been circulated bv Zeke Allen is believed tobe the work of imagination. If the theory ad- vanced by the Plaindealer is true the body has been reduced to ashes and the ashes scattered to the winds j of heaven. General News. Tacoma and Helena have withdrawn from the Pacific National Baseball League and it is feared that it will;. "Halt, or HI shoot to kill." The con- succumb. ' And now it is said that Root is to be the Republican nominee for Presi- dent in 1903. "There is many a slip between the cup and the lip" Even democratic-populistic Ne- i braska has gone back on Sweet William. Yesterday the republican state convention indorsed Roosevelt. Just at this time the Empress Dowager of China, is effort to kill off the progressive newi - paper men and the old harridan has snerpwifd in hnvinir several beaten to death ; The press telegraphs the hk&kz news that Mme. Calve is not able to appear on the streets. One f w :s m bnt which one the natural or the padded, the dis patch does not state. The rejection of the Panama canal treaty by Columbia if not reconsid ered will cause a revolution. Let the greasers scrap as that is heaven's own of clearin& the countl' "benevolent assimilation." for On Monday at Oyster Bay, N. 1 ., at Oyster Bay, N. the U. S. torpedo boat rammed the Decatur, a boat of the same class and the mock naval war was called j PRISON CRAFTERS. FOLSOM OFFICIALS RE- I SPONSIBLE FOR ESCAPE ABOUT THE MANAGEMENT OF FOLSOM PENITENTIARY. A Sacramento dispatch of yester day's date says: Among the wit neeses who will testify before the jury are a number of ex-guards. Among these are Joe Primmer and Dell Cann, who now work in the rail way shop3 in this city; and Prigmore, who acquired fame at the time of the attempted break of Sontag, the train- i robber. On that occasion Prigmore was ordered not to shoot, but he took the matter into his own hands and fired away, stopping the revolt at once, and soon afterward he got his dismissal. Cann is another man who proved himself beyond criticism in his work, yet it was determined that his services were no longer demanded. Another man who will likely give j his testimony is a guard who was met ! by the warden one day, it is said, and ' was asked to hand over his rifle for inspection. nue tne warden was looking at the gun,, a convict started to run and was making good his escape, while the warden acted like a man with "buck fever," forgetting that he had 3 weapon in his hands. "Give me the gun," cried the guard, with some forcible addenda, and, i grabbing the weapon, he fired one I shot ahead of the fugitive, saying: j ict halted and surrendered at once, .The guard apologized for hli forcible language, on the ground of the excite ment, but he was told in a short time that he could seek some other liveli hood, and was allowed to leave the service. The fact that 13 of the worst men in the prison could secure knives and j . i l l e razors for such a break is also one of the points that the jury will want to 1 know all about, as well as the fact that the dynamite which was used in the : a UI1UU1 I Will UUCUJUIL HIC UUUI i. L : UlUUrill Ll lire liliauil in a nucciuui- 7 i i mi ? ,1 row by a trusty. This wheelbarrow was left purposely, according to pre- vious arrangement, right by the office of Captain Murphy, and it was the role of the convict Roberts to secure the dynamite, which was concealed under leaves. This Roberts did while the melee was going on at the office. What the jury will want to know is where did that dynamite come from? If it was prison dynamite, why was it not discovered by a system of check ing against all of that article that was issued for use in the quarry? Another statement which has been made on the authority of a very prominent state official is that during the past year four convicts have made their escape from the prison without any knowledge of this fact getting to the public, though the board of directors must have known all about it. Woe to'the Missouri Mule' And now the British government; after purchasing over $5,000,000 worth of Missouri mules to help whip the Boers, has gone back on the Mis souri animal because they stampeded too often, and their rear action was more dangerous than their front ac tion. The army experts have found that the offspring of a mare by a zebra is a far better animal than the mule, and while the "Zebrula" has just as large ears as the mule and can kick much more viciously, that "it" can do more hard work under the tropical sun. It is also a large ani mal. If there is any money in raising zebrulas there are hundreds of stock men in this country who will go into the business. The only thing that would be lost in raising the new ani mal would be the melodious song of Jerusalem pony; and as for beauty marks while the Missouri mule has only one stripe on his back the zebeulas are all stripes and range in depth of of colors from brilliant black to pure white with shades of brown, fawn and cream colors. Because of the large size of the zebrula there would be a great demand for them in this country and under the present tariff arrange ment on imported animals for breeding purposes, zebras would be admitted free of duty. There will be much money made in the next twenty five years in the zebrula business. Bring in Samples. W. H. Wehrung, president of the State Board of Agricultural, was a visitor in Roseburg yesterday. Sena tor Wehrung i3 making a tour of the state in the interest of the State Fair which opens at Salem, Sept. 14. The county exhibits at the State Fair pro mises to bo the chief attractiaa both as an entertaining and an educational feature. Every county in the state is preparing to make a display of its products, and it is especially import ant to the citizens of Douglas that we have a showing of our products. There is not a farmer, orchardist or gsrdener in the county who cannot find on his place samples of grain, grass or fruit, that would make 3 cred itable showing at the fair. We there fore urge the importance of bringing these samples in. No one person is expected to be the whole show; but if each will contribute something it will make a fine display in the aggregate. : " , . , , , V . , , . 11UUC. will fcv bUUt v. , ' , , L . , . all samples and attend 10 ine saipraenu Now let us all contribute something and the result will be surprising. J The Subl,me porte, or in other , , , wonls the murderous Sultan of Tur- . , . . -n rr i key, has ordered o2,000, more troops ' ' , . , , , . """i3 to Macedonia. The whole of Eurone seem to be afraid of this red handed butcher, whom to kill as a common enemy of civilization would be a work of mercy. From all accounts of the progress of the various revolutions against Turkish rule it seems that Bulgaria will declare war in sympathy with Macedonia. The United States government has secured an "open door" to Manchuria. Two ports have been declared to be open. Mucdan is a good sized town but Tatung is a small affair, Alore Outrages. A dispatch received at Sopiaon Tues day from Uskub, Bays that 00O Bashi Ba zouks, under the command of Albanian chiefs who are notoriously cruel, havo pillaged and destroyed a number of Christian villages in the districts of Debreand Okrida. The Turkish author ities, it is added, connived at the out raeea and fnrmslml thn T?ns1ii 'TUmul- 'I. with old uniforms, In order that the? might appear to be. regular soldiers.