One hundred years ago, fewer than 18,000 people lived in the city of San Diego. Fewer than 40,000 lived in the county, which then was twice its current area. The San Diego Union was one of four daily papers reporting on the news from here and afar. During the month of January 1901, most issues of the Union were eight to ten pages. Illustrations (except for those in advertisements) were rare. A typical front page might contain between 16 and 20 stories. If you had combed through the paper that month, here are a few of the items that might have caught your eye….

• Tuesday, January 1, 1901
• Page Three

The Opening of a New Century — How Midnight Was Waited for by the People of San Diego

There were more eyes open last night when the old year gave way to the new and the twentieth century supplanted the nineteenth than had been closed in sleep… [T]he streets were almost as well filled with people at 12:30 this morning as they were at that hour yesterday afternoon. Street cars were held until nearly 1 o’clock at the corner of Fifth and D streets before starting on their final trip to the outer ends of their runs….

• Page Four
• To Eastern People [editorial]

The Los Angeles Times has just issued a special edition designed to show the resources and development of the county in which it is published. The work as a whole is commendable. Unfortunately the proprietor of that paper was unable to restrain his chronic hatred of San Diego. So in the map which he publishes showing the field of the Pacific commerce, San Diego is carefully eliminated, and Los Angeles, a city twenty miles in the interior, is moved down to the coast and made to appear a port of Southern California, the deception being heightened by various devices representing purely imaginary steamer lines from that fictitious entrepot of commerce.

This is a pretty small business, but it is not the Times’ first offense. It did the same trick a year ago, and then tried to crawl out by pleading “inadvertence” in the “art department.”…

The attempt of the Times to make Los Angeles pose as a seaport is simply an imprudent effort to deceive eastern people.

• Page Ten
• Small Police Force

The [San Diego] police force is thought to be the smallest in America for a city of [this] size…. There are only twelve men on the force, or one for nearly every 1,500 people. The officers serve on shifts of eight hours each, making only four men on duty at one time…. As the morals of San Diego are not bad and the city is comparatively free from crime, the small force experiences no difficulty in maintaining law and order….

• Page Twenty
• Vast Oil Fields in This County

Immense possibilities in the oil industry are believed to exist in San Diego county, and it is the general opinion that there will be an unprecedented development in this particular in the near future. It was the hope and the expectation that one of the half dozen companies boring for oil would strike a gusher before the end of the year, but it appears that the century won the race…. Boring is in progress in different sections of the county and preparations are being made for starting more drills, so encouraging are the indications…. It is believed that a new era is in store for San Diego and that the oil industry will make things hum here….

• Wednesday, January 2
• Page Four
• Two Crowded Houses

Twice packed to the doors in a single day is something of a new record for the Fisher theater, which was made yesterday by the “Way Down East” company with Beryl Hope playing the part of Annie Moore and Robert Fisher the part of the New England squire.

The play had been well advertised, and it was the opinion of most of the large audience…that it came up to the most flattering of the advance notices given, though some were found to declare that Miss Hope would make a better appearance on the stage if she permitted her head to rest naturally on her shoulders instead of crowding it forward in a manner which must be as uncomfortable to her as it seemed to be to the average member of the audience. There were others who thought the love-making of David a little too enthusiastic for real life….

[Untitled Editorial Note]

It will be a blessed relief for all to remember that the discussion of the question as to when a new century actually begins will not be revived during the lifetime of many people now living.

Page Five

Details of Double Crime

Additional details concerning the shooting and hanging at San Felipe the day after Christmas were received by the Union yesterday from its Mesa Grande correspondent. Ygnacio Segundo was the name of the Indian shot, his assailant being Cervantes Chipole, who afterward hung himself to an oak tree.

Ygnacio was assaulted about 2 o’clock in the afternoon while returning from the San Felipe Christmas fiesta…. He was followed by another Indian whose face he did not see, and was shot twice with a shotgun — once in the back and again in the side of the head and face. He fell senseless from his horse…. [As Chipole] considerately betook himself to the hunting grounds for bad Indians shortly after his target practice, full particulars and motives are wanting.

Ygnacio still lies in a very precarious condition [and] says that he had no quarrel with Cervantes at all, and on the contrary was on good terms with him and knows no cause for the shooting.

• Thursday, January 3
• Page Three
• Local Brevities

Ramon Romero pleaded guilty in police court yesterday to the charge of battering Clemente Perales, and was fined $5.

Of three people arrested on the first of the new century for being drunk, two forfeited bail to the amount of $6 each, and the other was discharged.

The Oceanside constable has arrested a man by the name of Smith, wanted at Redlands for stealing a bicycle. Sheriff Jennings and the police had been notified that the man was coming.

Clyde Gribble and Ernest Peffley, the two boys arrested for smoking cigarettes in violation of ordinance, have been released….

• Page Four
• The Dishonest “Times”

The Union recently made mention of a characteristic bit of dishonesty on the part of the Los Angeles Times in falsifying in its columns an official government map, issued by the treasury department at Washington and designed to show the ports of commerce of the Pacific coast and their relations to the trade of the orient. Los Angeles, being an interior town, did not appear on that map. San Diego was there, of course, as were San Francisco and Seattle — the three places on the Pacific coast which have deep-water harbors and are officially deemed commercial ports. All this of course was gall and wormwood to the Times. It was issuing a special edition designed to be circulated to a limited extent in the east. So with a deliberate purpose to deceive, the official map was doctored. Los Angeles was carried bodily to the coast and lines were run to indicate steamer routes from the city to the orient. San Diego was eliminated entirely by the Times’ map-maker.

The purpose of this article is not to expatiate upon the knavery of the Times — which needs no comment — but merely to call attention to the fact that that paper’s course was as thick-witted as it was knavish….

• Page Six
• At Coronado Golf Links — Yesterday Was a Social Day

Hotel del Coronado — Yesterday was social day at the Coronado Golf Club, and following the games a merry crowd gathered to talk over scores, old and new, and to talk golf in general. The splendid score made by Miss Helen Sturges on New Year’s day was freely commented upon. Miss Sturges made the nine holes in 56, and by so doing has established a ladies’ golf record for the season that is not likely to be lowered….

Killed While Hunting

While out hunting rabbits for his New Year’s dinner, Aaron Thompson, a 13-year-old boy whose home was east of El Cajon, accidentally shot and killed himself with his shotgun…. The accident was a particularly sad one from the fact that young Aaron had been the man of the family while his father, whose name is also Aaron, has been working at Surf, in Santa Barbara County. The family had expected the father to return on New Year’s day, and it was the intention to have a good dinner prepared for him….

The dead body was discovered in a crevice almost out of sight…. It was very evident that the boy had attempted to climb over the rocks while coming down the hill. He approached them from the upper side, and the accident happened while he was trying to climb down on the lower side. At his place the rocks were about six feet high, and the boy had undoubtedly slid the gun down first, so that his hands would be free for himself to climb down….

The mother was almost beside herself with grief when the sad news was broken to her. While Mr. Whitson was at the house, a telegram was received from Mr. Thompson stating that he would be home on Friday. He does not yet know of his son’s fate, and will probably not hear of it until he arrives in San Diego….

A Cool Reception

The new century has given the people of San Diego, as well as other northern and eastern sections, a cool reception. Yesterday morning the mercury dropped as low as 44 degrees above zero…. The lowest mark ever reached in this city was 32 degrees above zero, but that was several years ago, and anything below 50 is uncomfortable in this county…. Although several San Diegans imagined that they had their fingers or toes nearly frozen, not even the tenderest plant was damaged.

Page Seven

Death of Capt. Fitzallen

Capt. Charles Fitzallen, aged 71 years, died…yesterday. He had resided in this county for many years and more recently had made his home at San Miguel. He discovered the waters of life in the Jamacha country, which it was claimed would make hair grow on a bald head. The funeral arrangements have not been made.

• Friday, January 4
• Page One
• President Invited to Visit San Diego

Washington — Representative Heedham and secretary H.P. Wood of the San Diego chamber of commerce called on President McKinley today and invited him to visit San Diego during his stay in California.

The president cordially thanked the visitors, and replied that the trip would afford him great pleasure if the matter could be arranged….

• Page Four
• Local Brevities

There is an undelivered telegram at the Western Union office for Miss Dee Hartley.

Sarah Escadilla, aged 19 years, died on Wednesday at her home, 247 Seventh Street, of consumption.

• Page Five
• Clearing Ground

Quite a large force of men is at work on North Island preparing for the coming of the dog men to the field trials to be held there on Jan. 14…. The trials are to bring together the best dogs of the setter and pointer breeds to be found on the Pacific Coast….

An Insane Passenger

A man who was evidently insane boarded the southbound train from Los Angeles last evening at Encinitas and caused something of a commotion during the remainder of the trip. He was an elderly gray-haired man, wore a fur cap and was evidently from the Olivenhain colony. No one could understand the language he spoke, and he refused to pay his fare or get off the train. An effort was made to leave him at Del Mar, but he would not be left. Finally a passenger who talked Spanish had a brief conversation with him, but the old man was not very communicative. If he caught any one staring at him, he would yell and make things lively generally. He was turned over to the police upon the arrival of the train in this city.

Marriages and Divorces — Record of the Past Year

The business of…the marriage license bureau at the courthouse was better the past year than in 1899… 224 against 213 for the preceding twelve months. June marriages were the most popular, 29 being issued in that month…. During the first four months of last year, Cupid’s business was rather quiet, but during the remainder of the year, a good improvement was noted….

In this connection it is interesting to note the number of divorce cases filed…. There were 78, or about one for every three marriage licenses…. In March the number of divorces and marriages were equal.

The number of suits of all kinds filed in the superior court during the year was 313….

• Saturday, January 5
• Page Three
• A Narrow Escape

Santa Rosa, Cal. — Mrs. C.J. Milde, wife of the well known contractor carrying the mail between this place and Christine, Mendocino county, met with a thrilling experience this morning. For the past few weeks, Mrs. Milde has been alternating trips with her husband, owing to the bad condition of the road. Each left the opposite end of the route at the same time, meeting and passing at Yorkville. This morning Milde arrived at the meeting place and, while standing on the porch of a store in which the post office is located, heard a woman scream. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw his wife had just started to ford Rancherie creek, the bridge being washed away. The stream was greatly swollen. She had discovered when too late that she had made a mistake. The stage started to float down the stream. Calling for help, Milde made a dash for the edge of the stream, less than 100 yards away. A bystander picked up a coil of rope and joined him. He made desperate throw and Mrs. Milde caught it and tied it around her body. Then she threw herself boldly into the raging torrent and was hauled across to safety, though nearly drowned. The stage was carried away and the mail lost. The horses were both drowned.

Men Over 35 Years Old Don’t Need Exercise

Chicago — Dr. Albert H. Hoy, after years of patient research, says exercise is positively unhealthy for men past thirty-five years of age. Dr. Hoy has published a book on “Eating and Drinking” which is praised by the profession. He is a specialist in hygiene.

“I say that exercise for the business man or men past middle age is detrimental. I exclude the young and the laborer…. Suppose a man of business not only uses his brain during business hours, but also puts a strain on his muscles afterward. There is waste then to be carted off…the broken-down brain cells and those of the muscles likewise. Thus the kidneys are forced to do double duty, to eliminate poisons resulting from two sorts of action.

“A business man should get all the exercise he needs from the requirements of his business. A long walk only further calls upon his reserve. Violent golf or tennis only puts a greater strain upon his system…. Business men say, ‘But I need exercise. I do not feel well unless I have it.’ That means generally that they eat too much….”

• Page Five
• Decrease of Criminals — Past Year’s Jail Business

The records of the county jail for the last year show that the number of prisoners received there was considerably smaller than in 1899…533 [versus 671 in 1899], a gain of 138 for the side of law and morality during the past year….

Of the 306 city prisoners during the past year, 216 were arrested for drunkenness, and the majority of the remainder for vagrancy or for disturbing the peace…. During the past year only two men were arrested on the charge of murder — Harry Lynnell and R. Tayler. The former was acquitted, and the latter died in the county hospital.

Local Brevities

Effie A. Good took out the first building permit of the new century. She is to have built a cottage at a cost of $1,200 on Twenty-second street, between D and E streets….

Mrs. Sarah J. Cox died at her home in National City on Thursday night, aged 37 years. A husband and seven children survive her.

• Page Seven
• Hotel Del Coronado — Preparing for the Field Trials

These are the days that North Island is wreathed in a halo of blue smoke, and the odor of burning sage and manzanita brush fills the air, for forty to fifty Indians are busily engaged getting the island ready for the [dog] trials…clearing and burning the brush. The Indians have agreed to give an evening song and game exhibition on the beach near the hotel during the field trials event. The Indians, their squaws, and papooses are all to take part in the evening entertainment….

Ygnacio Was a Witch — Alleged Cause of the Tragedy

It has developed that witchcraft was the cause of the double tragedy near San Felipe last week in which Cervantes Chipole seriously wounded Ygnacio Segundo and then hung himself to an oak tree. That is the story told to Deputy Sheriff Fred Jennings….

Ygnacio boasted among the Indians that he was a witch and could yield much influence over them if he desired to do so, said Mr. Jennings. Many of the superstitious Indians believe that Ygnacio was possessed of supernatural power and were much in fear of him. Cervantes gained his ill will and upon him was pronounced the curse, “You shall wither up and die.” Cervantes scoffed at the witch, but secretly…began to brood upon the matter. As he continued to brood he imagined that his feet were beginning to shrivel, and this caused him further alarm, in fact so much that it is believed his mind became unbalanced.

[T]he day after Christmas…Ygnacio was returning from the San Felipe fiesta and met Cervantes on the road. The latter spoke, but was snubbed by the witch. This incensed Cervantes so much that after travelling a short distance he turned and followed Ygnacio and upon coming within shooting distance let fly one barrel of his shotgun. Ygnacio fell to the ground and Cervantes turned to an Indian boy named Teodoro, who was near, and announced that he must also die. But as he was about to murder the boy, the alleged witch started to get up. Seeing that he had not done his work well, Cervantes…took deliberate aim at [Ygnacio’s] head and discharged the second barrel. The shot went true to its mark and tumbled the witch over again.

Having no more ammunition, Cervantes mounted his horse [and] rode over to an oak tree…. Trembling with fear, the boy watched the proceeding. Cervantes made a noose in his rope, put it around his neck, stood up on his saddle and threw the other end of a rope over a limb of the tree. After fastening it securely, he gave the horse a kick and was soon suspended between heaven and earth. He evidently weakened after hanging awhile, for he caught the rope above his head with his hands and eased the strain on his neck. His hands soon became tired, however, and the neck had to carry the weight of the body again. When this became unbearable, the arms were brought into use again, and the Indian alternated this way for two hours.

During nearly all of this time, the boy kept on with work that he had in hand and watched the struggling of the dying Indian. Remembering the threat of Cervantes, the boy was afraid to call help….

• Sunday, January 6
• Page One
• The Iaqua Strikes on Duxbury Reef — The Big Steam Schooner Wrecked on Her Way to San Diego

San Francisco — The steam schooner Iaqua was driven ashore last night by the wind and tide on Duxbury reef, a few miles north of the Golden Gate, and has been left to the mercy of the waves and wind. She will be a total loss. Her one passenger and crew were safely brought to land today. The only fatality attending the wreck was the drowning of John Dahlstrom, a seaman, who, together with Chief Engineer Burrill and another sailor, started ashore in a small boat last night to give news of the vessel’s plight….

The Case of Cadet Booz

Bristol, Pa. — The congressional committee which is investigating the alleged hazing of Oscar Booz…will reconvene in Philadelphia Monday. Most of the testimony heard today related to Oscar Booz’s mental and physical condition and personal characteristics. Every witness called spoke of the high character of the young man. He was considered in good health before he went to West Point, and many persons testified as to his changed condition when he returned from the academy….

• Page Four
• Personal Mention

J.W. Leonard, formerly of Leonard & Wade, has returned recently from Honolulu, and says San Diego is good enough for him. He has fitted up a plumbing shop at 1243 Fifth street, between A and B.

M.F. Priosta, who was arrested upon the charge of stealing a buoy, was discharged yesterday after a trial. The evidence did not show any intention on the part of the defendant to appropriate the property to his own use.

• Page Five
• Harding Divorce Case — Troubles Aired in Many Courts

A supplemental answer has been filed by the defendant in the divorce case of George F. Harding against Adelaide M. Harding, a suit of more than passing interest on account of the wealth of the parties. Several years ago Mrs. Harding brought suit for maintenance in a Chicago court and was awarded the sum of $6,400 a year, which was later modified to $3,600 a year, or $300 a month…. Mrs. Harding is now in Europe and Mr. Harding is a resident of [San Diego].

The suit in the superior court of this county was filed on Aug. 31, 1897, by Mr. Harding, desertion being the ground alleged.

In her supplemental answer, to combat the charge of desertion, Mrs. Harding recites the proceedings…in the Illinois courts ordering her husband to pay her an annual sum for maintenance, which it is claimed she could not have recovered had she deserted him. She further says that Mr. Harding has acquiesced in the main suit in the circuit court of Cook county….

The records show that the suit has been a bitterly contested one. A final decree awarding Mrs. Harding $6,400 per year was entered in the circuit court of Cook county on July 26, 1897. Mr. Harding appealed to the appellate court in the first district of Illinois, and the judgment was there affirmed. He then appealed to the supreme court of Illinois. On June 19, 1899, the decree of the circuit court was modified by reducing the amount to be paid to Mrs. Harding from $6,400 to $3,600 per annum, to be paid in monthly installments of $300….

• Page Six
• In Social Circles

One of the pleasant social events of the week was the reception given last Thursday evening by Raymond Talbot, in honor of his twentieth birthday. The residence of his parents, corner of Eleventh and F streets, was gaily decorated and the merry party combined to make the affair an event long to be remembered. The chief amusement of the evening was progressive crokinole, but the gramophone and dainty refreshments also attracted their full share of attention….

• Monday, January 7
• Page One
• The Iaqua Floats Again

San Francisco — The steam schooner Iaqua which ran on Duxbury reef near the Golden Gate on Friday night, and which was supposed to be a total loss, was floated today and towed into this harbor. After being repaired she will go on her old run along the coast.

The vessel was saved through the efforts of the underwriters who had $50,000 at stake. When they learned that Capt. Bush had abandoned the Iaqua, they chartered the steamer Santa Ana to pull her off the rocks. While attempting to get near enough to put a hawser aboard, Capt. Strand ran his vessel into one of the pinnacles so common on Duxbury. For a while, it looked as though the Santa Ana was going to stay there, but a heavy swell lifted her off and in a few minutes she was in deep water again….

• Page Three
• Sensible Mrs. Lease

Wichita, Kan. — Mrs. Mary Lease has changed her mind about suing her husband, Chas. Lease, for divorce. The suit, which was prepared two months ago, was never filed, and never will be unless the Leases quarrel again. Mrs. Lease has instructed her attorney to proceed no further with the case. The conciliation was brought about by their children, all of whom are now of age and living in New York with their mother. Mrs. Lease will shortly return to Wichita, quit politics, and settle down to domestic life.

Bicycle Thief Sentenced

Los Angeles — Glenn Russell, 18 years of age, who pleaded guilty of stealing a bicycle, was sentenced by Judge Smith to five years in San Quentin today. An officer took him north on the noon train.

The Dishonest “Times” Again

The Los Angeles Times devotes a column of abuse to the Union and to San Diego, because this paper exposed the dishonesty of the Otis newspaper in publishing a bogus map for the purpose of deceiving eastern people. The exposure was as complete as could be wished. The Times chose a peculiarly inopportune time for attempting its little game of bunco, for it happened that the true commercial map of the Pacific coast — which the Times deliberately falsified — was published in the Union and in two San Francisco papers, with the result that the Otis journal…has been convicted all over the east of a pitifully puerile attempt to humbug. And incidentally it has incurred the disfavor of the decent, intelligent residents of Los Angeles, who do not believe that such “raw” and crooked work will benefit their city.

To this exposure by the Union, the Times replies with billingsgate, and not satisfied with vulgar abuse of this paper, it slurs this city, falsely declaring that it “has made little or no progress during the past decade….”

Bicyclist Run Down

J.M. Wotawa, a carriage trimmer, while riding a bicycle on Sixth street yesterday afternoon, was run down by a horse and buggy driven by Jack Roesner, and was quite badly injured, besides having his bicycle damaged almost beyond repair. Mr. Wotawa and several witnesses of the affair claim that Mr. Roesner was racing up Sixth street with another rig, and that he overtook Mr. Wotawa without giving warning. The latter had a narrow escape from death. He was thrown to the pavement and the rig ran over him. The feet of the horse became tangled in the wheels of the bicycle, causing him to jump around at a lively rate. Mr. Wotawa’s knee was badly injured, but to what extent could not be learned last evening.

• Page Seven
• Low Tides at La Jolla — Pleasure Seekers Delighted

The low tides of last week brought many tourist abalone-hunters to La Jolla. The majority of them came in their very best bib and tucker, at least, their best traveling clothes, evidently expecting to step upon the dry sand or rocks and to find the abalones coming gleefully to meet them. After walking about for an hour or so, one group of Thursday’s visitors, espying a party of successful abalone hunters, begged them to show them where they found the things…saying they “had not seen a sign of even one.” Down the Devil’s Slide they followed the leaders, and under the first rock turned over were found two of the long-sought creatures. “Oh, why, of course we couldn’t find them where we were,” exclaimed a pretty miss; “besides, we thought they grew on top of the rocks.” Gloves were discarded, knives borrowed, and the strangers set about hunting and “getting” abalones in the most approved style, so that when they returned to town, they carried sixty of the shells so treasured.

• Tuesday, January 8
• Page Two
• President Slightly Ill

Washington — President McKinley has a slight cold, and is denying himself to all callers. The cold is not serious, and will not interfere with the reception to the diplomatic corps to be given at the White House Wednesday night….

• Page Three
• To Exclude Chinese

Washington — Representative Kahn of California today introduced a bill continuing in force for twenty years after May 5, 1904, all laws prohibiting and regulating the coming of Chinese persons and persons of Chinese descent into the United States.

Coronado Notes and Personals

The last person to go through the turnstile at the ferry on the evening of the 31st of December registered 1,900, and, singularly enough, the first person through on New Year’s morning rang up 1,901.

Local Brevities

The public school of [San Diego] reopened yesterday morning after a three weeks’ vacation.

W.E. Thomas received a telegram yesterday from Wabash, Ind., stating that his brother-in-law, John Critz, was killed in a wreck on the Big Four road.

• Wednesday, January 9
• Page Three
• President Ill

Washington — The president is still suffering from his cold and on the advice of Dr. Rixey has decided to stay in his room for three or four days. There was no cabinet meeting today, and the invitations for the diplomatic reception tomorrow night have been recalled…. At 5 o’clock this evening Secretary Cortelyou said concerning the president’s illness: “The president’s cold has developed into a well-defined case of grippe.” The physician states that there are no complications, and that everything is progressing favorably. “The disease must run its regular course, and the president therefore is not likely to be out of his room for some days.”

• Page Four
• [Untitled editorial]

Alabama’s new governor has begun official life by taking what is termed a “firm stand” against lynching. He has called the attention of certain county judges to recent mob murders within their jurisdictions, and has asked them to have grand juries empanelled to indict the guilty. This action on the part of the new executive of Alabama would be more encouraging were it not for the fact that similar “firm stands” have been taken from time to time in the south, without apparent result….

• Page Five
• Object to the Account of Guardian of Mrs. Keyes

Mrs. Susan Hersey and other relatives of Mrs. S.C.W. Keyes, an incompetent person, yesterday filed in the superior court a contest and objection to the allowance of the account of the guardian, Emma E. Rose, on the ground that the items specified are exorbitant and improper charges against the estate…. The bill of Dr. Edward Grove for $218.50 is considered to be exorbitant and the court is asked to make the guardian have the claim itemized.

• Page Six
• Reported Strike at
• Victoria Oil Well

A persistent rumor was afloat on the street yesterday that the Victoria Oil company, which has been boring a well at Encinitas, has struck oil…. A San Diegan who went as far as Oceanside yesterday, returning last evening, said that President Woodward of the Victoria company boarded the northbound train at Encinitas and made the statement to passengers and others that oil had been found in the well. He said that considerable water was brought up with the oil but that…if the water were shut off or pumped out the well would yield about ten barrels of oil a day.

…As there is no telephone or telegraph communication with the camp or that vicinity, the report could not be verified in that way.

A Novel Shooting Event

A very interesting and novel event is to take place at North Island Thursday, at 2 p.m., when a rabbit (line) shoot will be held. This particular shoot is given for the purpose of accustoming the quail on the island to the sound of the guns so that the field trials of the 14th…may be held to better advantage….

All those taking part in the shoot are to form in line, about twenty-five yards from one another, the captain in the center. The captain’s orders will be passed down the line, and they must be strictly obeyed. An important feature will be the keeping of the line straight and the men a proper distance apart. No shooting will be allowable either back of or down the line, the rabbits in front being the only ones to shoot at.

There will be boys in the rear of the line to gather up the rabbits and place them in piles, to be brought in later by wagon….

• Thursday, January 10
• Page One
• Howling Mob at Yuma

Phoenix — All of last night and nearly the day a frenzied mob has besieged the county jail of Yuma, howling for the blood of three murderers, and it is likely that only the action of the acting governor prevented a triple lynching.

Three prisoners, tramps, were arrested last night for killing Undersheriff Sam Devore. Devore went to arrest the tramps for stealing a barrel of liquor and was shot and killed by them. The murderers were soon under arrest, and a threatening mob formed around the jail.

This afternoon Acting Governor Akers received a dispatch saying that the jail was inadequate for the protection of the prisoners. The governor directed that the prisoners be placed in the penitentiary. Excitement still runs high as Devore was a very popular man, and further trouble may be expected.

• Page Three
• Field Trials Next Week — Will Be Held on North Island

Dog owners are coming to town. Word was received yesterday from Henry Payne, the greatest authority on fine bred pointers and setters in the state, saying that he would be here on Saturday night, and would stay all of next week while the field trials are in progress. He was once the owner of the finest setter in the country, and none knew “Countess” but to delight in petting her. She has gone to her dog heaven, but there are others almost as good, who will be seen at Coronado, North Island, tomorrow….

Local Brevities

Mary Seward, charged with battering Nancy L. Darling, was found not guilty by a jury in Justice Murdocks’ court yesterday.

Last Wednesday morning was the coldest in the history of Escondido. The thermometer on the flat registered 13 degrees above zero, while in the orchards and hillsides it registered 22 degrees above zero.

Mrs. L.C. Fellows of La Mesa trapped a fine wildcat a few days ago. The cat had been stealing chickens for some time past and tipped the scales at 25 pounds. Frank Whittle shot the feline and has the skin as a trophy.

• Page Four
• Killing Coyotes

The Valley Center farmers are carrying on a war of extermination against coyotes. John Walsh has killed eleven, and Jack Breedlove five. Traps and poison did most of the work.

• Page Five
• Harding a Millionaire — Allegations of his Wife

Mrs. Adelaide M. Harding, who filed an answer in the superior court a few days ago to the divorce complaint of her husband, George F. Harding, yesterday gave notice that she, or rather her attorneys, Works & Works, will on Jan. 14 be making a motion for an order requiring Mr. Harding to pay her $1,000 as a fee for her attorneys and $500 to cover necessary costs and expenditures to be paid out by her in making a proper defense to the action. Mrs. Harding claims that her husband is a man of abundant means, reputed to be worth more than a million dollars and actually has property in more than that sum.

In an affidavit accompanying the motion, Mrs. Harding says that she was married to Mr. Harding in 1855 at Peoria, Ill. They lived together for thirty-four years, or until February, 1890, and had seven children born to them, four of whom now reside with the mother. Mrs. Harding says she was compelled to leave her husband on account of his cruel and inhuman treatment. On Feb. 3, 1890, she filed a bill for separate maintenance in the Illinois courts and in 1897 was awarded judgment in the sum of $6,400 a year.

It is further alleged by Mrs. Harding that her husband, ever since the institution of the action for separate maintenance, has done all in his power to worry, harass, and persecute her, and has caused her untold suffering and misery by his studied abuse. He has put her to expense which she could ill afford, causing to be served on her notice of the taking of depositions of witnesses in his behalf at Budapest, Hungary, and at Canawaga, Japan; and that, nawaga, Japan; and that, acting in accordance with the notices, she proceeded at once to Budapest, but upon her arrival at Liverpool, she was notified that the commission to take the depositions had been cancelled and withdrawn. Mrs. Harding says she believes the names of the persons were fictitious, and she is of the opinion that the action pending in the superior court of this county was brought to cause her further trouble and expense.

Burglar at Oceanside

The town of Oceanside was visited by a burglar early yesterday morning, the Miramar hotel and the residence of M.W. Spencer being entered and relieved of certain valuables. After entering these places, it is believed the burglar took the early morning freight train for this city and is now somewhere in San Diego.

The Miramar hotel was entered through a dining room window, and access was then easily had to the office. Fortunately for Landlord Piper, the money had been locked up in the safe the evening before, and only 6 cents was left in the till. This the thief pocketed, and he also took possession of a chisel and five ducks that lay behind the counter.

After ransacking the office, he went upstairs and started to go through the rooms of the guests. The first room he entered was empty, but the second was not. It was occupied by George Newham, an Englishman who is sojourning at Oceanside. Mr. Newham was unable to sleep, and when he heard his door creak and open, he was quite wide awake. At first he thought it was the wind, but when he saw a face appear at the opening, he sung out, “Hello, chappie, what do you want?” The burglar jumped back and started for the stairs. Mr. Newham inferred that something was wrong, jumped out of bed, grabbed a big Cuban machete he kept in his room and started in pursuit. There was a lively chase down the stairs and across the room, but the burglar reached the door first and quickly made his exit. He would probably have had a hard time of it if Mr. Newham had caught him with the machete.

[A]fter leaving the hotel, the burglar went to the house of Mr. Spencer…and effected an entrance there. He got in by way of a kitchen window, lighted a lamp, went through the dining room and into the bedroom of Mr. Spencer. He took the latter’s suit of clothes, containing between $7 and $10 in money and a gold watch valued at $50….

• Page Seven
• Today’s Rabbit Drive

The rabbit drive on North Island today at 1 o’clock will be a much more interesting affair than is generally supposed. The island for years has been preserved for game until the bushes are fairly alive with jack rabbits and cotton tails. As the owners of some of the dogs which are to take part in the field trials there next week are afraid that the younger dogs, not being acquainted with jack rabbits, will break cover, it has been decided to kill as many of the jack rabbits as possible…. Many of the Hotel del Coronado guests have signified their intention of following the drive in carriages…. Anyone in San Diego caring to join can do so….

No one will be allowed to shoot at quail. Any one doing so will be ruled off the island. The rabbits are to be shot, but there will be an exhibition of catching a jack rabbit by the thirty Indians now at work on North Island. A rabbit will be turned loose in a large field, and the Indians, unaided by dogs, will run it down and catch it…. It is not understood how it can be done, but the Indians have done it and will do it again tomorrow.

• Friday, January 11
• Page One
• Tragic Affair at San Jose

San Jose — Robert B. Stolle, a German laborer, aged 50 years, shot and killed his 17 year old daughter at his residence on the outskirts of the city, this morning. He then set fire to his house, and followed this by blowing out his own brains…. A note signed by Stolle was found pinned to an outbuilding….

In the note, it was stated that the dissolute life of Mrs. Stolle and a fear that his daughter was being led astray had driven him to the crime…. The house where the tragedy occurred is a one-story frame structure, located on the banks of the Coyote river. For some time past it has been a place of evil repute, and Mrs. Stolle was said to be a person of depraved character and unbalanced mind….

Mrs. Stolle came to the sheriff’s office about noon, and told her version of the affair. She claims that Stolle had offered to leave her and the girl provided she would give him $125. Day before yesterday she had consulted the district attorney, asking for a complaint charging Stolle with incest committed with the daughter.

• Page Three
• Indians at Coronado — Games Played on the Beach

The Indians from North Island gathered on the beach just opposite the hotel ball room last evening and gave a most interesting and weird sort of an exhibition.

“Peon,” the great Indian game, was indulged in by the men who gathered in a circle around the glowing embers of a bonfire…. The squaws, as Indian women are accustomed to do, occupied an obscure position back of the men, a good distance from the warmth-shedding fire, too. During the progress of the game the women, joined by the children and a few of the men, sang in a low tone that was far from harsh or disagreeable, a series of songs that only an Indian student could properly describe….

“Peon” is something after the style of hide the thimble, only the Indians use bits of sticks on heavy cords. Down on their knees, with a blanket held in front of them, by their teeth, the players hide the sticks or pass them to one another under cover of the blanket and the men on the other side attempt to locate holders of the various sticks. Scores are kept by pieces of straw, and the game grows very exciting and the singing more animated, as it progresses…. Comache Jim, chief of the Indians working at North Island, would give occasionally a few words of explanation, but not enough to really enlighten the observers….

Several of the squaws, wrapped in their blankets, held close within their arms their papooses, babies but a few months old, who, ten to one, have never had the croup or any of the hundred and one ills that beset the coddled infants of the white race.

There was food for thought in the picture formed by the motley group on the beach, with the firelight falling on their well-bronzed faces, and the Indians in turn probably carried away with them new thoughts after viewing the brilliantly lighted hotel with the faces of fair women and children outlined in the windows. As they gathered their blankets closer about them and started for the present abiding place, their thoughts, without doubt, would have been worth a pretty penny….

The Rabbit Drive

Yesterday’s rabbit drive at North Island was a novel and interesting event, attended by a large crowd of spectators, with between thirty and forty sportsmen taking an active part in the affair.

Hundreds of rabbits were shot, the Indians now working at the island beating the brush. Rabbit pot pie will probably be served in various Coronado and San Diego homes today….

Notes of the Court

Mary Grace Davenport, aged 9 years, was committed to the California home for the care and training of feeble-minded children.

P.J. Fukin, Mary O’Rourke, and Tussaint Marcel, charged with insanity, were discharged upon the advice of the examining physicians.

President Improving

Washington — The president’s improvement continued tonight. There are no complications, and his temperature is normal.

• Page Six
• Rich Gold Ledge

One of the gold mining camps in the county that is at present attracting some interest is a new one near Agua Caliente. Will Cook says the new camp is two and one-half miles northwest of the reservation, near the road from Temecula to Julian…. He has tested the ore in various places and finds that it will average $1,000 in gold to the ton, one test running $1,800….

• Saturday, January 12
• Page Two
• Tales Told by Cadets — Hazing That Was Brutal

The congressional committee resumed its inquiry into hazing today….

Cadet O.N. Taylor of Maryland testified he had been eagled 400 times for no offense at all, made to change from a stretcher, and made to do other things. He came near fainting…. Taylor [also] told of the hazing of Carpenter, one of his classmates, when Cadet Myer of the present first class interrupted the hazers and made them desist. Carpenter was put to bed, suffering from muscular convulsions. He was also hysterical and delirious….

• Page Four
• Oldest Woman Dead

Los Angeles — Mrs. Mary Smith, mother of Superior Judge B.N. Smith, died here this morning of old age. She was born Sept. 22, 1795, and at the time of her death was aged 105 years, 3 months, and 20 days. She was probably the oldest white woman in America.

• Page Five
• A Pound and a Half Each

The agricultural exhibit at the chamber of commerce was yesterday enlarged by the addition of two large tomatoes showing what can be done in San Diego soil. They would be prize-winners in Illinois. They weigh a pound and a half apiece, and were raised at the donor’s home, 1267 Union Street.

Another Oil Well

Another oil well is to be started near this city in a short time, the derrick and outfit being already in place. A local syndicate is behind the scheme. The location is about three-fourths of a mile northwest of the Monarch well, on mesa land near Pacific Beach….

Burglar at La Jolla

The cottage of Miss Ellen Scripps at La Jolla was burglarized early yesterday morning, $12 in cash and $1 in postage stamps being taken. Entrance was gained through a window, and the pantry was visited first, where the burglar satisfied his appetite, and then found his way into the parlor and took the money and stamps from Miss Scripps’ secretary. He went upstairs and, in striking a match, awoke Miss Scripps, who opened her bedroom door and frightened the culprit. She caught a glimpse of him, however, before he could get out of the house and believes that she could identify him. He is believed to be the same man who burglarized the Miramar hotel and Spencer residence at Oceanside.

• Page Nine
• Undertakers Cut Price

As the result of competition between undertakers over the contract for burying the county’s indigent dead, prices were slashed to a figure that has never been equaled before in this city and probably never will be again. W.W. Whitson & Co. put in a bid to the supervisors to do the work for $3.35 for each indigent from the city, and for $4.35 for each corpse from the county hospital. The contract was awarded to them. Last year the county paid from $13.50 to $16 for this work, and then it was considered low. The bid of $3.35 includes the coffin, the hauling of the body to the cemetery, and the digging of the graves, and if there is any profit in doing the work at this rate, it will certainly be very small.

Change in Water Service

After the 1st of February, the court house is to be furnished with water by the United Water Supply company, instead of the San Diego Water company, as heretofore. This action was taken by the supervisors yesterday…. Attorney L.R. Works and Mr. Mansir appeared before the board as the representatives of the San Diego Water company, and Joseph A. Flint was present in behalf of the United Supply company….

Several amusing tilts occurred during the hearing between Mr. Flint and the other two representatives. In endeavoring to prove that the San Diego Water company’s system was the best, Mr. Works asked Mr. Flint if he knew how high the Old Town standpipe was, inferring by his question that a good pressure was obtained from this source. Mr. Flint replied that he did, that he had put in the standpipe himself, but that it was now cut off from the system and was not used at all. Mr. Works then turned his attention to the reservoir, and Mr. Flint warned him not to press the matter, but when the former persisted, Mr. Flint replied that the reservoir had also been built under his supervision, and he knew it to be a fact that the decayed pipes of the San Diego Water company could not take the pressure from there without breaking in a hundred places. Mr. Flint said his water was a superior quality and that if the supervisors did not like the service and water after a month’s trial, they could cut off again. When it was asked who was to be the judge of the quality of the water, Mr. Flint replied that Mr. Works could not be as he very seldom used the article….

• Sunday, January 13
• Page Two
• Those Aerial Signals

New York — William A. Eddy of Bayonne, N.J. says that since 1892 he has drawn from his kite wire hundreds of electrical signals, both regular and irregular, which may have come from some planet, and the signals have been usually in groups of three, regularly timed like a Morse sounder.

Mr. Eddy is about to begin a careful series of measurements of these spark lengths. He…says that [the signals] may come from an outer planet because electricity travels at the rate of 190,000 miles a second, and is as tireless as light, which travels 188,300 miles a second, as measured by a rapidly revolving toothed wheel…. Mr. Eddy has been trying to decipher signals since 1892.

Sister’s Devotion Rewarded

Indianapolis — Governor Mount, who retires from office next Monday, today pardoned William W. Kennedy, who was sentenced to prison for life in 1885, for the murder of Dan Baker at Greensburg, Ind. Kennedy was paroled in 1897 and has for several months been attached to the sanitary service in Havana. The case attracted national attention because of the efforts of Kate Kennedy, his sister, to secure his pardon. Since his conviction, she has appealed to every Indiana governor but without avail until today. Miss Kennedy, in man’s garb, traveled over the country in order to locate the real murderer. She tramped her way, and never missed an opportunity to interview tramps and criminals with the view to ascertaining the whereabouts of the man for whose crime she claimed her brother was suffering.

President Improving

Washington — The president continues to improve. He passed a good night, and sat up for a while today.

• Page Four
• Amusements

If any one imagines that Southern California is dead theatrically, they want to read the following receipts for “Way Down East” week of Dec. 31: Riverside, $944.25; San Diego, matinee and night, $1,704.50; Santa Ana, $793.15; Pasadena, $1,032.25; Los Angeles, two nights and a matinee, $3,000.50.

• Page Five
• Dead Body Found

Peter Shultz, a German of 27 or 28 years, who made his home near Mount Hope cemetery, was found dead under the tongue of his wagon yesterday morning, and from the condition of the body it was evident that death came several days ago. Part of his face had been eaten away by cats. It is the supposition that Shultz was hitching up his team when he was stricken with heart disease….

• Page Six
• In Social Circles

The members of the San Diego Camera club were charming hosts to a hundred and fifty invited guests at their lantern slide exhibition Friday evening. The reception room decorations were in peppers and palms, with smilax and carnations on the chandeliers and mantels. Sets of slides furnished by the camera clubs in Sweden, San Francisco, Lancaster, Pa., and Grand Junction, Col. were thrown on the screen. The beauty of some of the landscapes and marines, as well as the charm of the figure studies brought forth storms of applause from the audience. The snow scenes from Pennsylvania were especially admired.

• Monday, January 14
• Page Four
• New Immigration Problem [editorial]

It is customary to see only commercial opportunities in the opening up of Asia to western civilization. The United States is as keenly interested as any European power in the coming change…. However…the prospective trade advantages are likely to be more than counterbalanced…by serious immigration evils. This is the view advanced by Prescott F. Hall in the current number of the Forum….

“A new factor of growing importance is immigration from Asia,” says Mr. Hall. “Last year Asian races sent us 18,044 immigrants, or nearly 4 1/4 per cent of the total, and half as many again as England, Scotland, and Wales combined. Most of these were Japanese and Syrians. There were also 3,773 Greeks, who might, from their characteristics, properly be classed with Asiatics from Asia Minor. The United Charities of New York report that these persons, accustomed to peddling and begging, are a great burden upon the hospitals and charitable societies to which they constantly appeal. Like many southeastern Europeans, they almost invariably practice fraud when obtaining relief….

“[I]t behooves us to get our immigration laws into proper shape before the stream wears a deep channel.”

Tod Sloan and His Trunks

Tod Sloan, the world-famed Tod Sloan, was a Sunday arrival at Hotel del Coronado. It is safe to remark that his presence created quite as much comment as that of anyone visiting Coronado in many a day. Many had some sort of a story to tell about the great American jockey. One murmured that “he ought to be comfortable, as his income had averaged between $80,000 and $100,000 per year during the past half dozen years or so”; some one else recounted how the bit of a fellow, for he is but a lad in appearance, traveled with ten trunks, a record not easily broken, even by society belles with gowns galore….

“J. Tod Sloan,” as he registers, certainly knows where the best climate in the United States is to be found, for each winter season finds him abandoning New York for this great state. He is particularly interested in the field trials, having some fine dogs that are to take part in the event….

• Page Five
• The Week at La Jolla — Last Week’s Burglary Is Still the Cause of Much Comment

Quiet, well ordered La Jolla had a sensation last week in the burglarizing of Mrs. Ellen Scripps’ place, South Molton Villa. Hereafter tramps will meet with a [cold] reception at this place if the consideration of Miss Scripps, who fed the men at 5 o’clock in the evening and was robbed by them that night, is what may be expected, and that seems to be the return probable.

• Page Eight
• Chula Vista’s Social Life

The Plantation Coon Jubilee Friday evening proved, as had been prophesied — a most enjoyable and delightfully original entertainment…. “Way Down Upon the Swanee River” and “Old Folks at Home” were led by Mrs. Tirrell, accompanied by stringed instruments…. After the eccentric coon song, “Enjoy Yourselves,” the floor was cleared for dancing. Chairs were carried to the platform, which was arranged to show a log cabin with the traditional coon skins stretched to dry upon it and horseshoe over the door, the yard fenced with the saw mill timber and palms or palmettoes, and canes growing within the enclosure. Music was furnished by Mr. Boeckh of San Diego, and soon those skilled in tripping the light fantastic were in the dizzy, dazzling whirl of the dance…. General good feeling prevailed and jollity reigned until 12 o’clock, when “Home Sweet Home” from the piano was heard by the reluctant ears. The coons, with blacked faces, remained…until the last guest departed….

• Tuesday, January 15
• Page Five
• Not Sent to Jail Now — Hobos Arrested and Let Go

The festive hobo who reaches Oceanside, Encinitas, and Del Mar, and a great many of them do, finds a true friend in the justices of the peace, and it might as truly be said that the justices find a fast friend in the festive hobo. They aid each other, as it were, to their mutual benefit. These hobos are not sent to jail any more — not a single arrival was reported from these three places during December on the vagrancy charge — yet the records show that several hundred arrests were made. Were the hobos sent to jail, they could be arrested only once, whereas if they are discharged, they can be run in again and again and can then be passed on down the line to Encinitas and Del Mar to be arrested at these places. The justice of the peace gets $3 for every hobo who appears before him until he has made $75, and the constable gets on an average of $1.30 for each arrest.

A movement is on foot in this city to have the legislature pass a law making the office of constable a salaried one….

• Page Six
• Heavily Encumbered Is Property of G.F. Harding

The divorce case of millionaire George F. Harding against his wife was up before Judge Conklin all day yesterday on a motion of defendant’s counsel for $1,000 attorney’s fees and $500 costs of suit, to be paid to Mrs. Harding. A son, Victor M. Harding, was present in behalf of his mother, who is in Florence, Italy, an invalid, and when questioned on the witness stand, he estimated his father’s wealth at from $1,000,000 to $2,500,000 or $3,000,000, and said that his gross income from this ought to be $120,000. On the other hand, the father, who is 70 years of age, testified that his property was encumbered for $800,000, and that if he were compelled to sell it at the present time, he would find himself still in debt for a quarter of a million….

Victor Harding, who is a Chicago lawyer…arrived here only Sunday night. Young Mr. Harding was examined in the morning as to the value of his mother’s property, and…said she had nothing save what Mr. Harding paid her monthly in accordance with a decree of an Illinois court — $300 — and that from this sum she had to provide for three daughters living with her….

Mr. Harding, Sr., was on the stand in the afternoon. He said he could truthfully say that his property was encumbered for $800,000, perhaps more, and that its salable value was a quarter of a million less than that. He estimated his wife’s wealth at about $30,000. Twelve years ago, he said, he gained access to a safe deposit box where she kept her securities, and he found therein stocks and bonds having a par value of $28,000. He thought she still had nearly all of it, although he had no means of knowing….

[Mrs. Harding’s attorney later] turned his attention to the improvements [to Mr. Harding’s property] that have been made since 1897, and Mr. Harding replied that practically none had been made. When specific instances were pointed out to him, he admitted that buildings had been erected, but that they were mostly small ones. When asked if a whole block of houses had not been put up, he replied that perhaps there had been, but if so, they were small ones….

Mr. [Victor] Harding is not assisted in a financial way by his father, but earns his own living as a lawyer in Chicago, having sided with his mother during the past ten years of litigation between his parents. He was formerly a newspaper man, and in 1896 graduated from a law school and hung out his shingle in the Illinois metropolis. He says that his father inherited a million and a quarter in 1874 and invested much of it judiciously in Chicago real estate….

Local Brevities

Maj. Levi Chase has donated a large banana tree to the chamber of commerce.

There are undelivered telegrams at the Western Union office for Linna Nobel and John D. Cornell.

The Socialists held their weekly meeting last evening in Lafayette hall, J.L. Dryden being the speaker.

• Wednesday, January 16
• Page One
• Burned at the Stake in Heart of a City

Leavenworth, Kansas — Fred Alexander, the negro who Saturday attempted to assault Miss Eva Roth, and who was supposed to have assaulted and killed Pearl Forbes in this city in November last, was this afternoon taken from the sheriff’s guard and burned at the stake…half a dozen blocks from the center of the city. Probably 8,000 people witnessed the burning.

The negro was taken from his cell at the state prison at 3 o’clock this afternoon and loaded into a hack and brought to town, fifty deputy marshals surrounding him…. There were fifty buggies and wagons in the procession…. When Fourth and Olive streets were reached, the police who were in the hack following the one in which Alexander was concealed, jumped out and chased several negroes. This created a diversion which attracted the attention of everyone, and in the excitement, the hack in which Alexander was concealed was frantically driven to the county jail…. All the doors of the jail were locked.

The crowd first attempted to gain admission by peaceful means. Sheriff Everhard refused to deliver the negro up. Then the crowd pushed its way to the side door, and…the door was forced from its hinges. In a moment, there was a yelling pack in the jailyard. The side door, which was made of heavy sheet iron, was the next object of attack. Several of the thoughtful ones of the mob had provided themselves with sledgehammers and cold-chisels, and it was the work of only a few moments before the hinges were cut from this….

More men pushed inside, and…in five minutes the heavy lock of [the negro’s cell] had been broken off. A fierce yell, the yell of a beast brought to bay, issued from the cell. Outside, the tension was so great that big strong men filled the room with hysterical laughter. Outside, the crowd was yelling like demons. The mob issued in a moment dragging the fiend by the coat collar. He had been struck over the head with a hammer, but was still conscious. Men fought to get at him. They struck savagely at him….

Outside the stockade…Alexander and his captors were surrounded by a solid wall of humanity…. “Confess before we burn you,” said they.

“I have nothing to confess,” cried Alexander. “I am innocent. I am dying for what another man did…. If I had been guilty, I would have said so at the penitentiary and would have stayed there for life. The warden told me. The policemen told me so. Would not I have told them, if I was guilty?”

“You lie!” they cried, and one big fellow, filled more with the lust for blood than with the feeling of a human being, struck him in the forehead with his fist three times….

At a quarter past five o’clock, Alexander was brought to the…exact spot where the murdered girl was found…. The noise ceased, and the negro was shoved out for the crowd to gaze at. The prisoner raised his hands and began to speak. Twice he started, and the crowd drowned his voice.

“You are going to kill me, whatever I say,” he said, “but you men are wrong. I want to tell you right now, you have got the wrong man. I did not do that, and some day you men here will run up against the man who did….”

The men standing beside him shoved him from the wagon, and the roar of the crowd drowned every other sound. He was quickly dragged down the embankment to the pile of wood with his hands shackled and was bound to the stake, which was of railroad iron planted upright in the mud. Around the stake, boards and wood were piled. The man was chained in a standing position to the rail with his hands still shackled. Coal oil was poured over him.

Before the match was applied, John Forbes, the father of the murdered girl, stepped up to Alexander and said: “Are you guilty of murdering my daughter?”

“I don’t know what you have me here for,” said the doomed man.

Forbes said: “For killing my girl on this very spot.”

“Mr. Forbes, if that’s your name, you have the wrong man.”

“Burn him! Burn him!” cried the crowd….

Coal oil was then applied for the second time, and while it was being done, Alexander called to his friends in the crowd and bade them good-bye…. The father of the murdered girl lighted the match…. As the flames leaped upon him, Alexander turned ghastly pale and then for the first time realized that his death was near. He clasped his hands together, and began to swing to and fro, while the crowd yelled.

In less than five minutes, he was hanging limp and lifeless by the chains that bound him to the rail…. When the fire had died down sufficiently to allow the crowd to approach what remained of Alexander, there was a wild scramble to obtain relics, bones and bits of the charred flesh, pieces of chain, scraps of wood — everything that could possibly serve as a souvenir was seized on with morbid avidity by the eager people….

• Page Three
• President Recovering

Washington — The president passed a good night. He is steadily gaining strength and everything points to speedy recovery. He is attending to more business than at any time since his illness, but he does not expect to go to his office for several days yet.

The Strenuous Hunter

Denver — Vice President-elect [Theodore] Roosevelt has been hunting from daylight to dark every day since he left Meeker, and he brought down a magnificent specimen of a wildcat and a lion in two days…. The country around which he is hunting is literally alive with game, and there is every indication that he will have a lion for every day he is in the country.

Mr. Harding Must Pay

After further hearing yesterday in the divorce suit of millionaire George F. Harding against his wife on the motion of the defendant for $1,000 attorney fees and $500 costs of suit, Judge Conklin granted the motion for $500 attorney fees and $75 costs of suit. The hearing took up the greater part of the day, both the father and son being called to the witness stand….

• Page Five
• The Ice Crop

The yearly harvesting of the season’s ice crop began Thursday, says the Record-Union, and fully 500 men are busily engaged in cutting and housing the new crop on the lakes and ponds between Truckee and Verdi. The outlook is excellent, and it is expected that fully 250,000 tons will be harvested….

The storage capacity of the various houses in that locality will not contain this amount, but…fully 500 carloads will be immediately hauled away to fill the ice houses of the Southern Pacific railroad system, and will be distributed from Oregon to Texas….

• Thursday, January 17
• Page One
• Kansas Will Not Punish

Topeka — Governor Stanley decided tonight that he would not issue an offer of reward for the arrest of the perpetrators of yesterday’s negro-burning in Leavenworth…. No arrests of the leaders of the mob have been made, notwithstanding the fact that dozens of the men who participated are known….

The Light from Mars

Cambridge, Mass. — Prof. Pickering of Harvard observatory says: “Early in December, we received from the Lowell observatory in Arizona a telegram that a shaft of light had been seen to project from Mars (the Lowell observatory makes a specialty of Mars), lasting seventy minutes. I wired these facts to Europe and sent out…copies through this country. The observer there is a careful, reliable man, and there is no reason to doubt that the light existed. It was given as from a well-known geographical point of Mars. That was all. Now the story has gone the world over. In Europe, it is stated that I have been in communication with Mars, and all sorts of exaggerations have sprung up. Whatever the light was, we have no means of knowing. Whether it had intelligence or not, no one can say. It is absolutely inexplicable.”

• Page Two
• Cadets Roasted without Mercy

West Point — The congressional committee put in a good day’s work at the West Point academy today…. [T]he chairman, Gen. Dick…questioned [three witnesses] in his quiet, suave manner, and led them on by easy stages to the point he desired. Then like a bolt from a clear sky he let loose his torrents of scathing sarcasm, each of which cut deeply and made each of the witnesses wince. Three of them left the stand in a breathless condition, and in a worse state of mind and body than if they had just been compelled to go through the entire curriculum of hazing, which, according to the evidence adduced at the investigation, consists of a half hundred different forms….

After a brief review of the Booz case, [one senator] declared that the first thing a fourth-class man meets there is brutal assault and humiliating indignity. “And these things,” shouted Mr. Allen, “take place within the knowledge of the officers of the institution. These new cadets are compelled to eat soap, they are compelled to get down on their knees and jump like a frog, and they are compelled to endure other indignities, which I would not dare in this presence to mention….”

• Page Eight
• The Divorce Trial Begins

The divorce trial of millionaire George F. Harding against Adelaide M. Harding was begun in department two of the superior court yesterday afternoon….

Upon the commencement of the divorce trial, Mr. Harding was called to the stand and questioned as to his residence. He testified that he had regarded San Diego as his home since 1895, although he had traveled extensively since then. When asked if he voted here, he replied in the negative, at the same time stating that he had voted at no other place. He said that he had retired from business twenty years ago and that at the present time he was not actively engaged in any enterprise nor had he any under consideration. At this juncture, the defense sprung a little surprise by offering in evidence an article published in a Chicago paper of Jan. 10 to the effect that Mr. Harding had made an offer to the mayor and common council to purchase the Chicago street car lines for $1,000,000….

The article was evidently a surprise to Mr. Harding, and when it was handed to him, he began to pick out mistakes in it. The paper called him a prominent Chicago real estate man, and he denied that was a correct appellation. In a few other particulars, he said the article was wrong, but in the main he admitted it to be correct, particularly as it contained his offer over his signature. He said, however, it was an offer which anyone might make….

The trial was continued until today.

• Friday, January 18
• Page One
• Boiled to Death

Oakland — Wendell Jordan, proprietor of the Livermore brewery, met a horrible death early this morning. In the brewery was a large vat of boiling water which was about to be used. Jordan was walking along the edge of the vat when he slipped and fell into the water. He was instantly boiled to death…. He is a pioneer of Livermore, quite wealthy and leaves a widow and daughter.

• Page Four
• Local Brevities

A pair of twins, a boy and a girl, arrived yesterday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Woodward, on National avenue.

• Page Five
• Nearly Froze to Death

After a terrible journey on foot through the snow and ice of Alaska, with the temperature at times down to 68 degrees below zero, ex-Police Officer J.E. Harris returned last evening from Dawson City, glad to get back to his home. Mr. Harris left the Alaskan city the day after Christmas and came direct through to San Diego in twenty-three days. For fourteen days he tramped through the snow all alone. The trip was rendered all the more difficult because practically no one is coming out at this time, and it was necessary for him to break his own trail.

One night Mr. Harris…had been plodding all day through the snow, the work being so difficult that even with the bitter cold he perspired under his heavy clothes. Late in the afternoon he came upon a sign which stated that a road house was two miles and a half further on. This was cheering news, as Mr. Harris was suffering from the cold and had been taken with a pain in one of his legs. He kept on and on, but no road house came in sight.

After several hours walking he knew that he had traveled more than the distance and realized that he had missed the house. There was no turning back so he continued to walk, little knowing what the result would be, but spurred on with the thought that a stop meant death. The temperature was 68 degrees below zero, and the air was biting cold….

When almost ready to give up in despair, about 11 o’clock he saw a light in the distance across the river. He turned his steps in that direction…and was overjoyed to find that it was a road house. He entered but was so cold that his hands were stiff and he was unable to remove his mittens. His clothes were frozen to his body. The landlady, realizing his predicament, ran out and brought in some snow, pulled off his mittens and began rubbing his hands….

The journey on foot was from Dawson to White Horse, a distance of 375 miles. From White Horse to Skaguay he traveled by train and then took the steamer for Seattle.

Mr. Harris was at Dawson four months and said he did very well during his stay. He worked altogether at the carpenter’s trade, making from $10 to $15 a day. His living expenses were about $2.25 a day, prices of food being very reasonable. He said last night that he had not lost anything by making the trip, unless it was some flesh. He weighs 175 pounds now against 235 when he left.

“There is much sickness at Dawson,” said Mr. Harris. “There are four or five deaths a day, and typhoid fever and pneumonia are very prevalent. This is largely caused by the poor water, which is pumped from the Klondike river and contains much of the filth from the camps on the tributaries above. My reason for coming out is that I had neuralgia of the stomach, but now that I am out I guess San Diego is good enough for me….”

• Saturday, January 19
• Page One
• Creek Indians on the Warpath

St. Louis — Deputy Marshal Grant Johnson has brought the news that the disaffected Creek Indians, known as the “Snake band,” are up in arms and are raiding the country, Winchesters in hand, whipping and maltreating peaceful Indians. Johnson ran across a band of fifty, headed by John Creek, yesterday, near Proctor….

These people, it is said on good authority, have killed one man…. The marshal says the country west of here is in an uproar, that several bands of disaffected Indians, numbering about 50 each, are out and are claiming to be the legally constituted authority in the nation. They have elected an independent chief council and other officers, and the peaceable people have applied to the United States authorities for protection.

These Indians are full blooded, ignorant and stubborn. They are the anti-treaty party and say they will make no treaty and will not allow any Creek council to ratify one. Soldiers may be necessary to put them down, and there is widespread alarm as to what they will do next.

• Page Six
• Story of Mrs. Harding Given at Divorce Trial

Considerable progress was made in the Harding divorce trial yesterday and the indications are that it will soon be completed….

The testimony of Beatrice Harding, a daughter…went to prove the date of Mrs. Harding’s departure from home, which was in February, 1890. The daughter was away from home on the day in question and when she returned at night she could not get into the house…. She said that while they did not live as luxuriantly as some people of their means, they had everything they wished. She stated that her mother had frequently spoken of the kind heartedness of Mr. Harding.

Mr. Harding next took the stand and declared that his wife had left home without proper reasons; that he did not know the cause of her action until he had read her bill for separate maintenance, published in the Chicago papers. He was astounded to see the publication, he said. He invited her to come back, but she refused to do so. For their own and for the sake of the children, he requested her to return, saying that he would provide for her liberally, but she would not. He denied that he had treated her cruelly…. The plaintiff rested about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and the defense began.

Attorney Works offered in evidence a certified copy of the record in the Illinois circuit court, showing…the testimony of Mrs. Harding as given in the Cook county circuit court.

They had lived together as husband and wife for thirty-four years, she testified, and she had always tried to do her duty. They lived extravagantly almost and moved in the best society of Chicago. Their home contained fifteen or seventeen rooms, and they had everything in the world that could be desired…. They kept five or six horses always, and Mrs. Harding had a carriage of her own, which cost $2,000. The observance of their silver wedding anniversary cost them $1,200. Every summer they went to the seashore or abroad, and Mr. Harding always went along.

During the summer of 1888 is when the trouble first began. While on the Massachusetts coast, Mrs. Harding learned that her husband was paying attentions to another woman named Madame Von Louie. The son Victor turned over a valise one day in the house and found three tickets for passage between Chicago and San Francisco. Mr. Harding left on this journey on Feb. 11 and came back March 25. He wrote only once, which was something very unusual for him. An examination of the hotel register at Wickett’s island showed that Mr. Harding had stopped there with Mrs. Von Louie and maid….

A short time after the return of Mrs. Harding to the Chicago home, her husband requested her to sign a mortgage on a valuable Illinois farm. She refused to do so because Mr. Harding’s father had requested that the farm be kept for the children. He thereupon refused her the use of the carriages, and asked her to sign any number of deeds and mortgages on property valued at between $700,000 and $900,000….

Because she refused…all the servants but the washerwoman were discharged in 1889…. When Mr. Harding was confronted with these evidences, he said all could be easily explained but he never explained. Mrs. Harding was compelled to do the cooking and even to serve the washerwoman, besides answering the door bell. She also had to carry coal into the house. While doing this, she caught cold and had lumbago…. According to Mrs. Harding…they never had a quarrel with each other up to October, 1888.

The trial will be resumed today.

• Page Seven
• Two-Thirds

The anti-cigarette ordinance recently adopted by the city council is apparently having the desired effect throughout the city. Tobacco dealers report that their sales of cigarettes have fallen off about two-thirds…by refusing to sell the cigarettes to minors…. Quite a number of boys invade [sic] the law, however, by making their own cigarettes from smoking tobacco.

• Sunday, January 20
• Page One
• Queen Victoria at Death’s Door

Cowes — The queen lies at death’s door. She was stricken with paralysis tonight…. Beyond the bulletins, nothing official is obtainable, but not a soul connected in any way with Osborne house seems to believe that her majesty can survive this attack….

Good for California

Chicago — Radical reductions in passenger rates between Chicago and California…will go into effect over the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific…the latter part of the month. The fares announced are the lowest ever…. The one way rate from Chicago to California during March and April will be $30. From St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans, the fare will be $27.50, and from all Missouri river points, it will be $25. The lowest second-class rate from Chicago to California now is $22.50 or $45 in the round-trip charge….

• Page Two
• Hazing Is Ended at West Point

West Point — The congressional investigation of the West Point military academy has borne fruit rather unexpectedly. Tonight when the congressmen were hurrying their inquiries to a termination, the cadets of all four classes held a meeting in Grant hall, and unanimously decided to abolish hazing of every form, as well as the practice of “calling out” fourth-class men. This is exactly what Gen. Dick and the other members of the committee have been trying to impress upon the cadets who have testified before them as the only course open to them if they desired to see the fair name of the United States military academy unsullied and above reproach.

• Page Eight
• Local Brevities

George Woodward of National avenue denies the report published a few days ago that twins had arrived at his home. Some unscrupulous person informed the newspapers of the alleged event and thought it a good joke.

A Discriminating Animal

One morning a few weeks ago, just as the stores in San Diego were being opened for business, a handsome brown mare, wearing only a head-stall with a trailing strap came trotting down Sixth street and, after hesitating before several stores, stopped in front of 919, Will C. Topping’s harness store.

Mr. J.K. Reynolds, a friend of Mr. Topping’s, noticing the incident, evolved the following verses to fit the occasion:

Even the Horses Know Him

• A stylish lady horse one day,
• When autumn leaves were dropping,
• Set out to find a horse-goods store
• And do a little shopping
• She crossed the mesa, bare and brown,
• Where there was scanty cropping,
• And trotted down and into town
• And never thought of stopping.
• She cantered down along Sixth street,
• Her mane and tail a-flopping,
• Her owner following in haste,
• His moistened brow a-mopping.
• She stopped in front of 919,
• Her owner came a-hopping;
• She turned on him with eager mien,
• Her eyeballs fairly popping.
• He leaned against the hitching-post,
• His form, which needed propping,
• And gasped, “Old girl, why did you run
• While I your feed was choppin?”
• Said she, “My harness is played out,
• It is not fit for swapping.
• Before I stir a step from here,
• I must — I Will C. Topping.”

Monday, January 21

Page Three

Baron Rothschild Pinks His Man — Sensational Paris Duel

Paris — The long-expected duel between the Count de Lubersac and Baron Robert de Rothschild was fought with swords…on Baron Edmund de Rothschild’s estate at Boulogne sur Seine. The carriages with the principals, seconds, doctors, and a few friends, arrived there from Paris shortly before 11 o’clock…. The duel…lasted ten minutes, when Count de Lubersac received a lunge perforating his arm at the elbow to the arm pit. The duel was then stopped.

Both the count and the baron fought most determinedly, neither flinched, and neither showed the slightest desire to spare the other. Sixteen engagements took place, all of a desperate character. The sleeves of [the combatant’s] shirts were literally torn to pieces by the points of their swords….

The [duel] had its origin in a boy’s quarrel, dating from the time when Count de Lubersac and Baron de Rothschild were at the same college. They quarreled one day in regard to a tennis court which was occupied by Rothschild and which Count de Lubersac wanted. During the quarrel, Lubersac called his adversary “un sale Juif” (dirty Jew)…. The count [later] wrote a letter in which he announced himself ready to meet the baron on the field of honor, although, as he expressed it, “you know how you and your people inspire me with disgust….”

Color Line in Schools

Nashville, Tenn. — The legislature is considering the educational phase of the negro problem, and a bill has passed the senate to prohibit the co-education of the races. A bill has been introduced in the senate to prohibit the employment of white teachers in the negro schools, colleges and universities.

• Page Six
• Look Out for Bad Pennies

It is somewhat surprising to read in the report of the treasurer of the United States that the coin of the realm that is most extensively counterfeited now-a-days is not the silver and nickel pieces, but the copper 1 cent pieces…. During the year there were detected and destroyed at the office of the treasury…121,652 1 cent pieces….

Sunday at the Big Hotel

Hotel del Coronado — Yesterday was like an eastern Sunday…only the rain that fell was not accompanied by a wind that made one shiver, and there was no sift of snow to make life a burden…. It was just a Sunday of showers — a good day to stay at home or in the hotel, to visit, write letters, get letters and papers from the “folks at home,” or simply rest and think of other days, days past and days to come — perhaps.

The afternoon concert was given in the balcony…and the guests…who chanced to “just drop in” for an hour or so enjoyed the music even more than usual. Cozy corners were occupied by groups of friends, books were read, while the orchestra played on. Gentlemen with the latest paper and a good cigar didn’t care if it was raining, not a bit. It is doubtful if a single person could have been found grumbling at the weather….

• Page Seven
• Missing Clothes Found

Josie Smith was arrested yesterday by Officer Cooley on the charge of having stolen clothing from the Keystone house. The theft occurred some time ago, and although Josie was suspected, she was not taken in until yesterday, when she appeared on the street, wearing the missing shirt…and skirt.

• Page Eight
• Rancher Shot by His Former Wife —

J.R. Lynch, the Tia Juana rancher, was shot at three times late Saturday night by his divorced wife, Mrs. Stella Lynch, and escaped with only a flesh wound in his left hand…. The affair took place at Mr. Lynch’s home near Tia Juana and was witnessed by none save the principals, each of whom has a different story to tell as to the cause of the shooting. Mr. Lynch says his former wife shot because he refused to write a message which would give her possession of their son, and Mrs. Lynch says she shot because Mr. Lynch struck her….

• Tuesday, January 22
• Page One
• Mrs. Nation Again Smashes Things

Wichita, Kansas — Mrs. Carrie Nation came back to Wichita today…and the net result of ten minutes of her work this afternoon are two wrecked saloons, the pieces of which are being sold tonight for souvenirs….

With hatchets concealed under their cloaks, [Mrs. Nation and three other women] entered the saloon of James Burns on Douglas avenue, and did not leave a complete piece of glass or a working slot machine in the place. All show cases, both for liquors and cigars, as well as the plate glass windows and doors were broken into smithereens.

With lightning speed, they then ran to John Herrig’s saloon and had everything in the front room, including the plate glass windows, broken when he appeared with a revolver, placed it at Mrs. Nation’s head, and said he would blow out her brains if she did not desist. She yielded before the pointed revolver and with her companions ran to the Carey hotel…. There three policemen met her, and she struck at Detective Sutter with a poker. The officers then overpowered Mrs. Nation and her friends and took them to the city prison. Chief of Police Cubbon discharged the prisoners after they reached the jail. They made him a promise not to wreck any more saloons before noon tomorrow….

• Page Two
• Last Days of Victoria

New York — [T]he first comprehensive and actual account of the queen’s illness…has been given out. The facts given place the illness of the queen in a startling and pathetic light. They show that her mind has been failing for months. Whenever it was officially announced that she had made felicitous responses to speeches at public functions, it is a matter of cold fact that the poor old queen was in such a daze that all she could say to her companions was, “Where am I?”

…The queen’s strong constitution manifested the first symptoms of serious decay during the stay of the court at Windsor in November and December of 1899, when evil tidings of the South African war, which began the previous October, began to arrive in rapid succession. The queen…expected nothing but a series of quick easy victories. Instead, disaster followed disaster every few days…. In consequence, the news of the many reverses came to her with added severity….

• Page Five
• Reading of Testimony

In the Harding divorce trial yesterday, the whole day was taken up with the reading of testimony given by witnesses at the trial in Chicago…. Adelaide Harding, the daughter…told about her father driving her away from home twice because she upheld her mother in her refusal to sign deeds. She also, as well as Susie, another daughter, testified with reference to their father’s treatment of the mother, saying that he called her a liar and a thief. When one of the daughters confronted the father with the charges that were being brought against him, he said the trouble was not all on his side, that Mrs. Harding was also bad, and that the daughter Madeline was not his child….

Local Brevities

Foxes are reported to be numerous around Alpine. It is nothing unusual to hear them prancing on porches at night.

A rock weighing over 300 pounds was recently placed on the track of the Escondido railroad, but was discovered in time to avoid an accident.

While riding a pet calf the other day, Ray Trussell’s little son fell off and broke an arm.

• Wednesday, January 23
• Page One
• All Terrorized by Mrs. Nation

Wichita — Mrs. Carrie Nation and her colleagues in yesterday’s saloon-smashing crusade, were arraigned in the city court today, and waived a preliminary hearing. Judge Kirk fixed their bonds at $1,000 each, which was promptly given, and the women were released….

When released, [Mrs. Nation] announced that she had a saloon-smashing programme arranged for tonight…. The saloon men are very uneasy, and the more expensive places have employed guards or “lookouts” to warn the keepers of the approach of the enemy….

At 10 o’clock tonight, Mrs. Nation terrorized the saloon men again. She made an address in the Salvation Army barracks, in which she advocated the organization of an army to wreck saloons. She provoked her hearers to a high pitch of excitement and then marched through the principal streets, a distance of five blocks, followed by 500 to 800 persons, some cheering and some jeering her. Word that she was in the streets went before her, and every saloon light was snuffed out, and every saloon door locked. Mrs. Nation started a hymn as she passed a saloon, and became demonstrative as she passed the ruins of the saloons she wrecked yesterday. She recognized several saloon men on the sidewalks, and as she did, she said: “You are safe tonight, Mr. keeper of a murder shop, but you will see me later.”

Imitating Mrs. Nation

Hartford City, Ind. — Because her husband had sold her chickens and bought whisky with the money, Mrs. William Towns today, after having horsewhipped Towns in a crowded street, endeavored to wreck a saloon. She declares she will begin a Carrie Nation crusade here.

Queen Victoria’s Life Peacefully Ended

Cowes — Queen Victoria is dead, and Edward VII reigns. The greatest event in the memory of this generation, the most stupendous change in existing conditions that could possibly be imagined, has taken place…. The end of this career, never equaled by any woman in the world’s history, came in a simply furnished room in Osborne House. This most respected of women, living or dead, lay in a great four-posted bed and made a shrunken atom, whose aged face and figure were a cruel mockery of the fair girl who in 1837 began to rule over England. Around her were gathered almost every descendent of her line….

• Page Two
• Creek Indians on the Warpath

Muscogee, Indian Territory — Washington authorities have been requested to send federal troops into the Creek country to quell the uprising of full bloods known as the Snake bands who are creating depredations west of Eufaula and threatening the lives of both the whites and the neutral Indians. The Indians threaten to finally enter the towns and burn and kill, and Chief Mekko has sent a message of defiance to President McKinley. The whites are arming, and serious bloodshed is feared….

• Page Five
• The Harding Trial

The Harding divorce case yesterday again occupied the attention of Judge Conklin all day…. The testimony related principally to the visits of Mr. Harding to the apartments of Mrs. Von Louie and of their travels. At 3 o’clock the son, Victor M. Harding, was put on the stand. He related occurrences in the family that took place after he returned from Harvard university and after the trouble between his father and mother had begun. He said he found them estranged and not on speaking terms. His mother confided her suspicions to him, namely, another woman, that several children had been born to her, and that he was supporting her in a luxurious manner; also that when he said he was traveling about on business and for his health, he was on pleasure trips with this Mrs. Von Louie. His mother said that was the reason she would not sign the deeds, as she feared that Mr. Harding would transfer most of the property to the other woman and leave his own family destitute.

• Thursday, January 24
• Page One
• Mrs. Nation Wrecks Another Saloon

Topeka — Mrs. Carrie Nation, the Wichita joint-smasher, began her crusade in Enterprise today by demolishing one joint and delivering a street lecture. She arrived on the early morning Santa Fe train from Wichita…. After perfecting plans, Mrs. Nation secured a hatchet and started for the business part of town….

The two joint proprietors padlocked their saloons and were in hiding. Mrs. Nation went to Schilling’s place and attacked the glass doors. She smashed the glass out of the frames and stepped into the deserted joint, leaving the others outside. She smashed the big mirror, chopped gashes in the bar, and broke all the glasses and bottles on the shelves. Then she went to the refrigerator and commenced bringing out cases of beer. She handled them easily, and lifting them high in the air, dropped them on the floor, deftly cracking each bottle left solid after the fall. The floor was soon covered with a mixture of drinkables.

She kept up the work until Marshal W.R. Benham entered, and, taking her by the sleeve, told her she must get out.

“What are you?” she demanded, “But a murderer and perjurer in protecting this unholy traffic. Either let me alone or take off your star.”

But she followed him out, and, calling her companions, proceeded to give the marshal a blistering arraignment in the presence of the crowd…. About 8:30 as Mrs. Nation was lecturing on the streets, Mrs. Schilling, the wife of the jointist whose place of business was demolished, came up to her. “I’ve got you now,” she said, and struck Mrs. Nation twice in the face. A slight gash was cut over the eye and it bled profusely….

• Page Three
• Choctaws Join the Rebel Creeks

Muskogee, Indian Territory — The warlike preparations of the Creeks continue unabated…. A runner…who reached Checotah today states that the members of the band are increasing in numbers and that the five tribes are well represented, there being members of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Seminole tribes, with the Creek band.

• Page Five
• Harding Divorce Trial

The Harding divorce trial occupied another day of Judge Conklin’s time…. Victor Harding was on the stand the greater part…Both sides are contesting almost every inch of the case.

In Memory of the Queen

Memorial services in honor of the late Queen Victoria are to be held in St. Paul’s Episcopal church of this city next Sunday evening. British born residents of San Diego and admirers of the noble and good queen are anxious to show their esteem of her life and their grief at her death….

• Page Six
• When ’Phones Are at Rest

What hour of the twenty-four is the quietest in San Diego? Three o’clock in the morning. At that hour…the city’s life is at almost complete cessation….

Once a month, the local telephone office makes a record of the number of calls for the day…. Each call must be kept track of by the operators and the record is compiled by the chief operator, Miss Randall, from whom the figures of the last record day were obtained yesterday. The number of calls during the day and night was 8,420.

Between the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock in the morning, the people are commencing to transact their day’s business. Central is called upon 409 times. Business transactions continue to grow, and between 8 and 9 o’clock the number of calls is 579. During the next hour, business is at the highest point of the day, and things are humming; the number of calls has reached 941. After that they begin to diminish up to 1 o’clock in the afternoon, when they begin to rise again…. Between 3 and 4 the highest point of the afternoon is reached, the number of calls being 779.

Between 4 and 5 there are 672 calls; between 5 and 6, 601. Stores are beginning to close now and the number rapidly diminishes. Between 6 and 7 the number is 356; between 7 and 8, 186; between 8 and 9, 172. People, tired with their day’s work, are going to bed. The calls jump down to 61 between 9 and 10 o’clock; between 10 and 11 there are only 25, and between 11 and the midnight hour there are 16….

Between 2 and 3 o’clock the low ebb point has been reached, there is scarcely a soul stirring; not a single call comes into the office….

During the busiest hours of the day, fourteen girls are busy at the switchboard, receiving and answering calls, while during the quiet night hours, there is only one.

• Friday, January 25
• Page One
• An Indian War Is Breaking Out

South McAlester, Indian Territory — The reports of a Choctaw uprising are fully confirmed. Scouts sent out from this city last night report that the disaffected Choctaws have a number of the Creek Snakes among them, and they have been quietly organizing and arming for some time. They call themselves the Choctaw Snakes…. It is now stated that the Snakes have planned to destroy all the railroads in their nation by burning bridges and section houses…. They have deposed Governor Duke and issued an order to all citizens to cease leasing or renting to whites. The first offense they will punish with fifty lashes, they say; ears will be cut off for the second offense, and death for the third….

Mrs. Nation Has a Lively Day

Kansas City, Mo. — A street fight between women led on one side by Mrs. Carrie Nation, the saloon wrecker, and on the other by Mrs. John Schilling, wife of the manager of the saloon wrecked yesterday, occurred here today. As a result Mrs. Nation swore out warrants against Mrs. Schilling and her husband…charging them with assault, and Mayor Hoffman swore out a warrant against Mrs. Nation, charging her with disturbing the peace. All were arrested….

At 10 o’clock this morning, Mrs. Nation, in company with Mrs. C.B. Hoffman and some of the W.C.T.U. leaders, entered a store two doors away from Wm. Shook’s saloon [and] sent for Shook. He came, but before many words were exchanged between them, she was assaulted by a crowd of women, partisans of the saloons, who had organized since last night and had been awaiting today’s threatened destruction of saloon property. A general fight between the women ensued during which a woman, heavily veiled, rained blow after blow upon Mrs. Nation with a horsewhip. Men drawn to the scene became interested spectators, but offered no aid to either side….

• Page Three
• Roosevelt’s Big Game

Meeker, Col. — News direct from the Keystone ranch, at which place the [Theodore] Roosevelt hunting party is stopping, shows that between the 12th and the 22d of January, twelve grown mountain lions, three kittens, and eight lynx cats were killed. On Saturday last, the party had quite an exciting adventure with one lion. The lion was fighting with the whole pack of hounds. The hunters were trying to get near enough to the animal to kill it with their knives, when it seized one of the dogs by the jaw. Governor Roosevelt shoved the breach of the gun into the lion’s mouth, holding the gun by one hand, with the other striking the lion a death blow with his knife. His gun shows the marks of the lion’s teeth. All the grown lions were killed with the knife. The governor has decided to stay for another two weeks.

• Page Five
• Children Testify in the Harding Trial

The testimony of three of the Harding children was read in court yesterday as rebuttal evidence for the plaintiff in his divorce case against his wife. Miss Beatrice Harding said she had heard her father say that he could not afford to keep the servants if mortgages were not renewed, and as Mrs. Harding refused to sign…any…papers, the servants had to go…. The first time in her life that Beatrice heard her father use unkind language toward Mrs. Harding was one evening at the supper table after he had seen what was in Mrs. Harding’s private safe. He began to storm upon coming into the dining room and accused his wife of…having deceived him all her life. He said that money which he had given to her for expenses, she was not in need of and put it away in her safe….

The son, George F. Harding, Jr., did not side with his mother, as was shown by several letters that he wrote to her. He said the reason he sided with his father was because Mrs. Harding attacked him without good cause, and he always believed in siding with the one attacked….

The reading of the testimony is nearly completed and none of those who are taking part in the case are at all sorry, for the reading has become very tiresome.

• Saturday, January 26
• Page Three
• Not So Serious

Omaha, Neb. — General Lee tonight received a telegraphic report from Lieut. Dixon, commanding the troops of cavalry sent to the scene of the Creek Indian troubles. He states that he has not yet made a full investigation, but has learned enough to warrant his saying that the reports of an uprising have been greatly exaggerated. Thus far he has encountered no Indians, and from civilians he learns that there has been no violence on the part of the Indians and he anticipates none….

• Page Four
• An Oregon Experiment [editorial]

The people of Oregon now have an opportunity to try Populism, or at least one of its pet principles. They already have the referendum, as have other states, and to this…they may add the initiative.

The legislature of the Webfoot state…has adopted a resolution submitting to the people a constitutional amendment…that will come to a vote at the general election next year….

From one point of view it is to be hoped that the amendment will be adopted. It would be useful to know just how this Populist principle would work in actual practice in this country….

It is reasonably plain, however, that if the people of Oregon should make a success of the initiative and referendum, they will show themselves quite different from their brethren in California. In this state…the referendum has proved a complete failure…. Generally the vote is too small to indicate the popular wish. There is no reason to suppose that…any less apathy would be displayed were the initiative allowed….

• Page Five
• Mrs. Harding Saved Money — But It Made Her Husband Mad

The Harding divorce case continues to drag along…. The greater part of yesterday was spent in listening to Mr. Harding’s testimony. He read it himself from the record of the Illinois court. He related in detail some of his differences with Mrs. Harding, especially the one brought about by his investigation of what Mrs. Harding kept in her private safe. He said she deceived him by keeping money that he gave her for other expenses and in making bills appear larger than they really were, thus getting additional money from him.

Upon one occasion he telegraphed her $1,000 to Vienna with the request that she and the children return home at once. They returned but did not use the money for their fares. They had this charged to Mr. Harding, and he had to pay it a second time. He asked her repeatedly to keep account of her expenditures, but she never would do so. He never refused to give her money when she asked him for it, but sometimes he would tell her not to be so extravagant. When he gained access to her safe, he found therein about $18,000; also detective papers and papers showing that she was having dealings with a Mr. McCoy, who was Mr. Harding’s most bitter enemy. The knowledge of this fact hurt Mr. Harding more than anything else.

He said when it became evident that his wife was endeavoring to become extravagant in her expenditures, he gave notice at some of the stores that she should not be given credit. The $50 a month he gave her was for her own personal expenses and pin money, and not for the expenses of the household. After she left him he invited and requested her to return to his home, but she refused to do so….

Mr. Harding said he had never made the statement that he would disinherit any of the children, but he did say that those who attacked him were not entitled to his favorable reward….

• Page Seven
• From the Desert

There seem to be many who have some sort of faith in the claims of the Carrisso Creek country to being an oil country. Filings have been so numerous in that section that it seems that the entire desert must have been taken up by this time. M.M. Ogden returned from the desert yesterday, having been sent there for the purpose of locating some 25,000 acres of land for a San Francisco syndicate of capitalists who are willing to be in when the strike is made, as it is confidently believed it will be made by the prospectors before many weeks….

• Sunday, January 27
• Page One
• Used a Broomstick on Mrs. Nation

Topeka, Kan. — Mrs. Nation caused a great flurry among the joint keepers of Topeka tonight and as a result knows what it is to be roughly treated by a mob. Mrs. Nation arrived in Topeka at 6:40 and at once hunted up a newspaper reporter with a request that she be shown some of the leading joints of the city. Two newspaper men volunteered to pilot her around. She said she did not wish to begin a smashing crusade but wanted to talk to the jointists. The keepers of the saloons had become apprised of her intentions, and when she arrived at Ed Myers’ joint, on Kansas avenue, she was confronted by the wife of that individual, who rained blows on her head with a broomstick….

Mrs. Nation said she was not hurt by the experience in the least. “What does a broomstick amount to,” she inquired, “To one who has been much used to rawhides, rocks, and rotten eggs….”

Missing Woman Found

San Francisco — Mrs. Henrietta R. Howell, the wife of a wealthy Chicago lumber dealer, who was reported to have been abducted from a private sanitarium on Tuesday, has been found at a private residence in the suburbs where she wandered during the night. Mrs. Howell came to San Francisco last December that she might be in closer touch with a mining property in which she is interested. Too close attention to her business is believed to have affected her mind….

• Page Five
• The Harding Case

The Harding divorce case was resumed in department two yesterday…. Mr. Harding…took the stand for a short time, and claimed that Mrs. Von Louie, to whom it was alleged he showed marked attention, was a relative, and that some of the meetings he had with her were accidental. He said that when he went to Massachusetts, where it was claimed that he stopped at the same hotel with her, he did not know she was there until he met her…. The case has now been on trial for two weeks.

• Page Six
• In Social Circles

An innovation in entertaining was instituted by Miss Ada Smith in dedication of her new cottage on Fifth and Maple. The new fad is termed the “chatter dance,” and was heartily enjoyed by those attending….

County Fair in March

The recently appointed directors of the San Diego County Agricultural association met at the chamber of commerce yesterday afternoon and decided to hold a county fair on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th of March. The details were not fully arranged, but it was decided to include in the exhibit as great a variety of products as can be had at this season of the year….

• Page Eight
• Crushed to Death by Elevator Cable

William C. Pennoyer, electrician in charge of the elevator in the Marston store, met a horrible death yesterday afternoon….

From all accounts it appears that the accident was due to Mr. Pennoyer’s own carelessness, or rather to his indiscretion. He was in the basement at the time oiling some of the elevator machinery. In the small room in which the tragic affair occurred is a large drum, five or six feet in diameter, upon which the cable winds when the elevator ascends and unwinds as it descends. Four or five feet above the drum is a small wheel which Mr. Pennoyer started to oil. He climbed up onto one of the side supports of the drum, put his knee on top of it, and then reached up with his oil can. It was an extremely dangerous position, and two boys who were watching him made several remarks to that effect.

Suddenly the elevator started to go up, and the big drum began to turn round. Mr. Pennoyer lost his balance, fell onto the drum and was caught by the cable and held tight as if in a vice, after being squeezed down between the cable and drum as far as he could go. He was caught in a very bad position. One of his legs was doubled up, and the cable lay across this and across the ankle of the other one in such a way that they were almost torn apart. One arm was also caught by the cable….

The elevator was quickly stopped, and several of the cooler men ran down the stairs to the cable room, where they were horrified to find Mr. Pennoyer in the position above described, bleeding profusely. He was crying piteously and asked that the elevator be started again so that he might be released, but when asked which way the elevator should go he said he did not know.

J.T. Wright, one of the first men on the scene, at once began chopping at the cable with a hatchet, realizing that the severing of the cable would be the safest way to release the young man. Pennoyer thereupon showed remarkable nerve and coolness by superintending the operations. He said that the cable could not be cut with a hatchet and directed that a saw be brought….

Between the chopping and the sawing Mr. Pennoyer was rescued in about ten minutes, but he had been crushed so terribly that he lived only ten minutes longer….

John Munier was in charge of the elevator at the time. He was perfectly blameless in the matter, as he had no knowledge that Mr. Pennoyer was leaning against the drum. It was during the busiest part of the afternoon and the elevator was in use very frequently carrying passengers to the different floors of the store….

The cries of Mr. Pennoyer when he was first caught were heard in every part of the store, and when the cause was learned a gloom settled over the building that could not be dispelled…. Some one was dispatched to break the news to Mrs. Pennoyer, who was at their home on Twentieth street, near L. She was prostrated by the terrible tidings, and at first could not be comforted. She is soon to become a mother….

Mr. Pennoyer was about 30 years of age and a native of Wisconsin. For the past fourteen years, he had resided in San Diego and had become well and favorably known during that time. When the cable car system was in operation he was a gripman on one of the cars, and later he was in the employ of the Diamond Carriage and Livery company. He had been at the Marston store about a year and appeared to be painstaking and conscientious about his work….

• Monday, January 28
• Page One
• The Snake Chief Continues Defiant

Guthrie — Reports received here at the United States marshal’s office say that the home of John Bartram, a ranchman living sixteen miles west of Bristow, was burned by belligerent Snake Indians last night. A band of thirty Indians, all drunk, made a demonstration. Bertram ordered the reds away, and Bertram, fearing violence, moved his family to Bristow. Later his home and all buildings on the premises were in flames. This report cannot be confirmed. If true, it is the first overt act committed by the Creeks….

• Page Six
• Horticultural Notes

Fowls fed on onions for eleven days will lay eggs that will almost make you hold your breath. It is only equaled by the cow that dissipates on wild leeks.

One of the great dangers that threaten this country is the disinclination of its people to till the ground. From the looks of things, there will be no farmers within fifty years. The farmer’s son is not content to be a farmer. He must be a professional man or, in any event, he must have some occupation in the city. The ranks of the farmers are recruited almost solely these days from the Scandinavian immigrants, and that source of supply will not exist forever. The American farmer is disappearing. Who is to raise food for this country half a century hence?

• Tuesday, January 29
• Page One
• Indians Threaten to Wreck Railroads

St. Louis — Considerable anxiety is felt by officials of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas road over the situation in the Indian Territory. General Attorney Clifford Jackson, of the road, who is on the ground, received definite information from a full-blood Choctaw Indian to the effect that a meeting of that nation had decided to destroy the property of all railroads in the territory, with the exception of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf, and Santa Fe Road….

• Page Two
• Her Tongue Worse Than Her Hatchet

Topeka — Mrs. Carrie Nation today invaded the office of Governor Stanley in his chambers in the capitol, and for a solid hour arraigned the chief executive of the state for his failure to close the saloons of Kansas…. [S]he was followed by a crowd of newspaper reporters and others. By turns she administered to Governor Stanley a tongue-lashing for his failure to uphold laws against liquor-selling or begged him for aid to carry on her crusade. She put her questions with fierceness and answered them herself without giving the governor time to utter a complete sentence in his own defense….

As Mrs. Nation proceeded, she became more vehement, and her voice quivered. She rose from her chair and looked full in the face of Governor Stanley and, pointing her finger at him, called him “law-breaker” and “perjurer,” without the least show of fear…. Finally, his temper gone, Governor Stanley arose from his seat and shouted back: “You cannot come here and talk that way to me…. You are a woman, but I won’t stand it. You will have to leave.”

“I am a mother; I am a grandmother, and I represent the mothers of the state.”

“You don’t! You don’t represented them!” almost shouted the governor….

The room was in an uproar. Then Mrs. Nation talked more calmly, pleading with the governor to aid her. Finally Gov. Stanley volunteered: “You get the prosecuting attorneys of the different counties to put the joint keepers in jail, and I’ll use my power as governor to keep them in. I’ll see that they are not pardoned out.”

This promise instantly transformed Mrs. Nation. She fairly beamed with joy….

Driving Out Negroes

Indianapolis — Cities and towns along the Ohio river have begun a crusade against the negroes. The trouble dates back to the lynchings of the negroes at Rockport and Booneville for the murder of the white barber Simmons at Rockport one night last month. The board of safety of this city has ordered the police to arrest all strange negroes and bring them before the city police judge. If they cannot give any reason for being here, they will be sent to the rock pile. The object of this is to rid the town of an obnoxious class of negroes…. In some towns, no negro is permitted to live….

• Wednesday, January 30
• Page Two
• Mrs. Nation Keeps Talking

Topeka — The Kansas State Temperance union, which is holding its annual convention here today, subscribed over $100 to purchase a gold medal for Mrs. Carrie E. Nation….

• Page Four
• Rural Free Delivery

The residents of the Escondido and San Pasqual valleys who will be along the route of the proposed rural free mail delivery were considerably pleased on reading the dispatch sent out from Washington that the route would be established on Feb. 1…. The route will be known as “Rural Free Delivery Route No. 1, Escondido, San Diego County, Cal….” The 1-cent “drop-letter” rate does not apply on rural free delivery routes. Two cents must be paid on all letters. This is the first rural free delivery route so far established in San Diego county….

• Page Five
• In Favor of Mr. Harding — Decree of Divorce Granted

George F. Harding was granted a divorce yesterday from his wife, Adelaide M. Harding, by Judge Conklin. The trial of the case was in progress in the superior court for more than two weeks, during which time a mass of evidence was introduced…. Judge Conklin…yesterday morning…gave the following opinion:

“It appears from the evidence that for thirty-two years the parties had lived in a state of marital happiness; had raised their children, given them every advantage for education, including the benefits of foreign travel, and in every respect all that money could do was done to bring happiness to the household.

“Unfortunately, in 1888, a small cloud appeared upon the horizon of their domestic sky, which in a short time grew into a tempest that wrecked the happiness of the family and nearly brought ruin to the fortune of the plaintiff. It is unnecessary to dwell upon or recount the unfortunate occurrences of the time between the year 1888 and February, 1890; sufficient to say that between those dates, the defendant had not only refused to assist the plaintiff in his efforts to preserve his estate but had consulted lawyers constantly in reference to her conduct toward her husband, had employed detectives to watch him, and finally, on the 1st of February, 1890, had left [their] home, and notwithstanding his repeated appeals to her to return…and once more reunite the family, she had continued to stay away.

“I can gather from the evidence no excuse for Mrs. Harding’s conduct — no justification for her leaving her home. It was not strange that the plaintiff should desire to remove from the scenes of his unhappiness, and with that end in view, in May, 1895, he came to San Diego to make his home….

“In view of all the facts, the findings of the court will be for the plaintiff as prayed for.”

This decision does not affect the decree for $300 a month separate maintenance which Mrs. Harding obtained in the Illinois courts….

• Page Six
• Tourist Travel

Every report which comes from the east tells of a large but belated travel to this coast during the coming months. George L. Baker, the very efficient excursion conductor of the Santa Fe railroad, brought out a big train load of people to this coast last week and reports that a large portion of them will come to San Diego before returning. Many of them came clear through and began their sight seeing of the coast from this end of the state….

Inquiry at the various hotels and lodging houses discloses the fact that they were fuller by two or three hundred per cent than they were three, and even two, weeks ago. Inquiries for rooms are frequent and a good many reservations are being made ahead of time of arrival.

• Thursday, January 31
• Page One
• Indians Quieting Down

Henrietta, Indian Territory — Peace among the warring Creeks has nearly been reached, and all that remains to be done is to give Chitto Harjo, the chief Snake, who has caused all the trouble, a preliminary hearing and send him to Muskogee for trial for treason. In the meantime a few more of the minor leaders will be arrested, and the troop of cavalry under Lieut. Dixon will probably remain here a few days longer until the last vestige of an uprising has disappeared….

• Page Two
• Kansas Women Again Smash

Anthony, Kan. — Mrs. Nation was outdone here today when a band of W.C.T.U. women, headed by Mrs. Sheriff of Danville, Kan., completely wrecked the fixtures of four “joints,” smashing plate glass windows and mirrors and turning gallon after gallon of liquor into the streets….

An Arizona Duel

Phoenix — News was received here today of a duel between Tom Childs and Miguel Lasado at Ajo mine southwest of Phoenix in which the latter was killed. Childs is a wealthy cattleman and Lasado a Mexican miner. Both were in love with a senorita over whom they exchanged shots with pistols. The killing was not called to the attention of the authorities, and the bones of the Mexican are bleaching on the desert without ever having been the subject of an inquest.

• Page Three
• A Peculiar Accident

Marysville, Cal. — By a peculiar accident James Doyle, Jr., a lineman, was killed at Smartsville today. Doyle had taken down a telephone receiver preparatory to talk to men employed along the line some miles distant, when he was stricken by an electric shock and instantly killed…. The shock was distinctly felt in Marysville 25 miles distant by different persons who were engaged in telephoning at the same time.

• Page Eight
• Monster Sea Bass — Caught by a New Yorker

Hotel del Coronado — It was predicted in this column yesterday that if G.P. Berckmans of New York city kept on, he’d catch a whale, so big were his fish catches growing. With his mind made up to break his previous record…Mr. Berckmans went out yesterday with Capt. Dunne to the fishing banks just off from the hotel, and, of course, captured a monster. Though not a whale, the deep-water sea bass tipped the beam at 410 pounds. When brought to the hotel and placed on exhibition, surrounded by sixty big sheepshead, it was a sight well worth seeing….