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About The Plaindealer. (Roseburg, Or.) 1870-190? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1903)
' nf y TWICE A WEEK ROSEBURG PLAINDEALER Vol. XXXV ROSEBURG, DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON, MONDAY, AUGUST iU, 1903. No. G4 PENITENTIARY BLOSSOMS THE EX-WARDEN MAKES A STATEMENT. WHO TIRED OF THE HONEYMOON THE CONVICT OR THE LADY HE KIDNAPPED. A news report from Eugene of last Friday's date purporting to be an in terview with the ex-warden of the state penitentiary says: "Interviewed last evening regard ing the whereabouts of his danghter, Mrs. Elliott Parkhurst, who, it is al leged, ran away with the ex-convict Riley a . week or so ago, Mr. Janes was free to express his opinions and reserved nothing of what he knew about the excapade excepting the present whereabouts of the woman. He advances a new theory, however, which differs from the published ac counts of the drama which was en acted on the streets of Portland, when Riley and Parkhurst met that evening. "Mrs. Parkhurst is not in Eugene or at my house," said the gentleman. "She has not been in Eugene to my knowledge. That is where the Port land detectives are mistaken. 1 re ceived a letter from her since she escaped from the hands of the villain, Riley. It is my absolute knowledge that she did not willingly leave her husband, and accompany the ex-convict in the carriage which he stopped. I believe she was threatened and com pelled to go with him on pain of death. "Further, I think there was no previous plan made to leave Park hurst. It is probable that both men were too drunk to know what they were doing. They both drank a great deal and in the fight the man thought he had killed Parkhurst and wanted to get out of the way. He took Mrs. Parkhurst because she had witnessed the deed. "She is probably now under his in fluence and is afraid to return to her husband. But she is in no immedi ate danger and it is best to keep quiet about it," added the ex-warden with an air of having a plenty of no toriety on account of the affair already. "Another thing I want to tell you," continued he, "the published state ment that I wrote to Parkhurst tell ing him that Riley's time was about to expire and for him to be good to him was manufactured out of whole cloth. I never wrote any such letter and I cannot conceive how the story got started. While I was warden some of the reporters of the city pa pers appeared to have grievances and wanted them satisfied. Perhaps it was some of them who manufactured it. At any rate it is not so." AN OLD PIONEER ON THE UMPQUA. Relates Interesting History of Early Road Building. James A. Sterling, an old pioneer, -writing the Drain Nonpareil from An lauf, says: "The" present generation do not realize what the pioneers of 1840 and 1850 did in road building etc. In those days of travel over the steepest ridge and deepest canyon think of Levi Kent, Asa and Ira Wells' families crossing and recrossing Elk creek to j Ft. Umpqua (now near Elkton) and the ! Hudson Bay Co. had a stockade around their building to protect them from the Indians. "They raised fine wheat and in their j old orchards a few trees are still growing. Their apples were fine. No codlin moth in those davs. "From the mouth of Elk creek they went down to the sea in canoes, ofttimes tipping over and losing their furs in the rapids now known as Hart and Sawyer rapids. "Old Mrs. Ira Wells came down Elk creek, carrying her children and wad ed many places in Elk creek as there was no other place to go, there being no road or trail. The men and other children carrying chickens, pigs etc. "Now we of the present time forget and don't seem to care, but we ought to remember that these pioneers made us a home, and a state that is a dia mond in the stars and stripes. Now this old lady stills lives at Elkton with her daughters, Mary and Flora, and son, Frank, on the old homestead. Darius, another son, lives nearby. "Rev. Hines in writing of a trip in 1864 said: 'From the mouth of Pass creek to Elk creek was a harder trip than across the Rocky mountains.' (see his history of Oregon.) Now daily stages wind over a good moun tain road, making in three hours the distance it required these" pioneers a three days' journey to accomplish, and in the near future the locomotive whistle will resound and we will go in one half hour. God speed the day and all hail to the fore-runners the grand old pioneers. "Uncle Jesse Applegate, Uncle Billy Wilson and others have gone to a "new country" never to return, and soon we too, will enter eternity, and may Jehovah be our friend always in that new land." The Plaixdealer has no more use for a so-called Republican grafter than it has for one of the democratic stripe. Director Campbell, of the Lick Ob servatory, announces that he has found the Brooks comet We did not know that it was lost. The strike of the Cumberland Coal Miners in British Columbia has re sulted in defeat. They go back to work on the operators terms. And now the Democrats are looking to Missouri to supply a candidate for the Presidency and they have com menced to giving the good old Miss ouri yell for Cockrell, forty acres and a mule. Cockrell is only 69 nears old but he will hardly be made presi dent of the United States for his Confederate war record precludes the possibility. On Thursday off Sandy Hook, the Reliance and Shamrock III had the first trial for the cup. Owing to there being little wind the race was declared off by the judges. The Reliance seems to have had the best of the race as far as it went. It will not do to place too much dependance on Reliance This is the superstitious 13th race and Shamrock III to contest against. For months past a presistent and unrelenting fight has been made on the Plaindealer by a Lane County republican political grafter through the menhe controls. We do not care about the political grafter; but we do ask that others stand from under until we get through with that official and we promise them that politically there will not be left of him so much as a corn, wart, whoppleconk or pair of suspenders; no nor yet even the place where he used to be. QUESTIONABLE METHODS. ROSEBURG LAND OFFICE BUNCOED. PARTICIPANTS JO BE PROSE CUTED IN THE FEDERAL COllRT. A special examiner into questiona ble methods has discovered that the government land is being stolen by means of fraudulent papers being made out and certified to. One case we have in mind is" as follows: The application for the land to be pur chased as timber land was made out in proper form and the principal and witnesses were required to give their evidence before a United States Com missioner. The papers were pre pared and questions answered on the "ready made hand me down" order and duly attested to by the commis sioner who forgot the fact that one of the witnesses to the transaction had not appeared before him and given testimony; and while it appears on the papers in the case- that the witness was present and gave testi mony, his name i3 not signed to the papers. The witness has sworn to the fact that he was not before the commissioner as stated and the affi davit was forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior for instructions and he has sent orders back to have the case placed before Judge Bellenger at Portland. We learn that the award in every case for the purchase of timber land where the patent has not been issued has been suspended on the cases taken before the commis sioner and that a thorough examina tion will be made into every applica tion. We could give the name of every party to the transaction but have been requested not to do so before there is a criminal judicial investiga tion held and papers issued, We can also say that the matter even if an investigtion is held will end in smoke, because grave charges were made to the Secretary of the Interior and when it appeared to him that there was sculduggery practiced and that it would involve a political pet he promptly fired the inspector who made a damaging report on the Receiver and hushed up the case. There may be looseness in land office affairs in Oregon but the stink ing, festering cesspool of corruption is in Washington. A White Captive. The news reports from the Southern states are full of outrageous conduct by the negroes. The following is from Ft. Sumpter, Ark., Aug. 21. Large posses of citizens are gathering at the river op posite Bruce'e Island, 10 miles west of here, where a band of negroes Monday killed John Roland, a white man, who, with a number of others, rescued a white girl held captive on the island. It is the purpose of the posses to lynch the eight negroes composing the band. Cruce's Island in the center of the Arkansas River, contains about 25 acres and Is densly covered with timber and thick underbrush. A few days ago two farmers living near Wilson's Rock landed on Bruce'a Island, in search of plums, and accident ally ran into the camp in which there were two negro men and a white girl about 12 years old. They made some inquiries about U10 white girl, and the negroes said she was the daughter of a w hite man who was traveling with them, and who had gone to Fort Smith for provisions. The negroes would not let the girl take part in the conversation, and this aroused suspicion. A watch was kept on the negroes for two days, but no white man appeared. Monday afternoon a party of farmers decided to investigate the case, and, as they neared the island, were fired upon by the negroes, and one of the party, Roland by name, was killed. A sharp fight was kept up for some time, during which the girl escaped from the negroes and ran to tne white men. She was so excited that she could not give any intel ligent account of herself. She said how ever, that her father was not traveling with the negroes, but that she had been stolen from her home near Fort Gibson, I. T. She has been taken to Muldrew. Elks' Excursion Train Wrecked. The excursion train on the Northern Pacific, consisting of engine and seven coaches enroute to the Elk's Clambake at Olympia, which left Portland Monday morning, was wrecked at 11 o'clock two miles south of Chehalis. Two people were killed and about thirty injured. The train left Portland at 7 :30 crowded with prominent Elks, their families and friends. The train was running at a good rate of speed when the rails spread throwing the engine down an embank ment forty feet. Three coaches piled on top of the engine, and to the horror of the scene, the boiler of the engine ex ploded throwing scalding water and steam for several yards around. Hie fourth, fifth and sixth coaches left the track, but only tne front end of the car went over the bank. The seventh coach did not leave the rails. Nearly everyone in the first coach was injured, most of them having fractured limbs. Those who escaped uninjured started to assist the injured and pull them from ' the wreck. Several doctors were on the train and within a short time were at work on the sufferers. A messenger was harried to Chehalis with the news and a train of fiat cars was sent to the J scene of the wreck to bear injured to I the hospitals. Every doctor in Cheha- lis and Centralla hurried to the wreck i and a special train was sent from Ta- coma with doctors and nurses. Most j of the injured being from Portland were j sent to Portland on a special hospital I train. S. P. Improvements In the Canyon. V. M. Moore in the R. E. J. says The long trestle work at each end of the bridge across Cow Creek, just talow Glendale, has been filled in by L. C. McCoy's Steam Shovel outsit, though it 'took quite a hill of dirt and some time to move it, yet the amount saved in keepinc up the trestle ill in no great length of time reimburse the outlay of filling in. Then, having the trestle filled will be a boon to the trackwalkers, as it was about a half mile in Ienght and on a curve, consequently they never knew whether they were safe on their speeders inciosfcing this bridge; but now the same being filled in, exevpt the span across the creek, make them secure against trains and light engines, which is quite a relief, yet very few, outside of the railwav fraternity and many of those in it, realize the situation of the trackwalker. The first steel water tank on tho line in this Eection of the country was recent ly erected at Salt Creek, about eight miles west of Riddle, in tho Cow Creek Canyon. It stands about 300 yards below where the old tank stood that was wrecked last year by an engine and a few cars in a freight train leaving tho track and knocking it down. The new tank is a youngreservoirin size, perhaps tho largest in this locality. It was put up by Jack Emmett's crew. W. P. Counts' extra gang (white) are putting in a long wood spur just above Glendale. Geo. P. McNameo's tunnel gang are still at Tunnel No. 0, just west of Leland, placing now timbers. This crew, formerly under Ed. Newell, went to Tunnel No. 9 a year or more ago, and perhaps will bo there as much longer if all the work in hand is done at this time. At Eugene Thursday a score of people were made very sick from drinking cider. Itwaa made from apples, tho trees having been Bprayed with Paris green. RELIANCE I SHAMROCK 0. AMERICAN BOAT BEATS THE CHALLENGER. THE BEST THREE IN FIVE RACES WILL DECIDE THE QUESTION. On Saturday off Sandy Hook in a splendid 12 to 15-knot breeze over a windward and leeward course of 30 miles, the gallant sloop Reliance beat Shamrock III b commanding style by exactly nine minutes actual time or seven minutes and three seconds after deducting one minute and 55 seconds handicap. It was a royal water fight for the ancient trophy which carries with it the yachtingsupremacy of the world, and by a strange coincidence victory today occurred on the fifty second anniversarv of the dav on which the old schooner America captured it in her famous race around the Isle of Wight Xantical sharps who had already made up their minds Thursday that the Reliance could take measure of the challenger in any kind of weather, regarded today's test as conclusive although they hardly anticipated so overwhelming a victory. The race even dampened the ardor of Sir Thomas who insisted after Thursday's fluke that his confidence in the beau tiful craft built by Fife was greater than ever. The single criticism he or his friends make of the race is that the only shift of wind that oc curred was to the advantage of the defender. As this shift of wind which occurred on the windward beat, even granting it accounted for Reli ance's lead at the turn, the time that defender gained on home run was more than ample to have given her the race. It must be conceded, how ever, the Shamrock showed herself a wonderful boat in beating to wind ward, perhaps the ablest craft in this respect ever sent across the western ocean on a cup hunting expedition. For 12 mile the great single stickers raced like a team of horses, and dur ing that portion of the duel patriots made no attempt to conceal their nervousness. A Good Advertisement for a Dead Town. There is no quieter and safer place on the globe to live tnan right hero in Springfield, if you only knew it. Your slumbers are never disturbed not even by the frogs since the water has dried up. And as for protection we don't need any. It is perfectly safe to lay a ten on your front door step and sleep all through the night without the least fear of it being removed ; and you can leave the windows and doors unlocked too, if you like. Springfield News. On Friday at Chicago, Hazel Avery, self-confessed kidnaper of 2-year-old Olive Furlong, was sentenced to three years in tho penitentiary. Tho baby was stolen June 23, and was not recov ered until Juno 30. Miss Avery said eho took tho child through compassion for it because, of its unkept and dirty appear ance In sentencing Miss Avery, Judgo McEwen declared ha did not believe the woman mentally responsible, but con sidered it necessary to make an example of her. The Judgo ought to bo senten ced to the lunatic asylum to cure Ida mental irresponsibility.