Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

PRESIDENT HIS CLOSE CALL! Trolley Car in Pittsfield, Mass., Crashes into Carriage in Which He Was Riding and Totally Demolishes the Vehicle twin nut m on Driver Pratt Suffered Bad Fracture of Skull. The President Escaped with Only a Slight Facial Bruise. While Secretary Cortciyou Was Badly Shaken Up. The president of the United States escaped a tragic death by only a few feet in a collision between his car riage and an electric street car in Pittsfield, Mass., Wednesday, while one of his most trusted guards, Secret Service Agent William Craig, was In stantly killed and David J. Pratt, of Dalton, who was guiding the horses attached to the vehicle, was seriously injured. President Roosevelt himself was badly shaken up, but received only a slight facial bruise. Secretary Cortelyou, who occupied a seat direct ly opposite the president in the lan- deau, sustained a minor wound in the back of the head, and Governor Crane, who sat beside the president, extricated himself from the wreck practically without a scratch. The carriage was demolished by the impact of the rapidlyrmovlng car and the wheel horse on the eido nearest the car was killed outright. The crew and passengers of the car escaped in jury. The 8tory In Detail. After a night passed at Governor Crane’s home In Dalton, Mass., the) president'and his party took carriages for the drive over the picturesque Berkshire hills to Lenox. The president made a brief speech at the opera house at Dalton on leav ing there Bhortly before 8 o'clock and going to Pittsfield, where he planned to stop tor a short time on the way to Lenox. He was constantly greeted by groups of cltlxens who were most enthusiastic in their greeting. An immense-crowd welcomed him in Pittsfield and he made a brief speech from a stand which had been erected in the public park. The president then returned to his carriage with Governor Crane and Sec retary Cortelyou and requested that he be driven to the home of former Sena tor N. L. Dawes. Mr. Dawes lives not far from the square and the president was quickly - taken there. He remained about five minutes going into the house of the former senator for a friendly chat. He was then driven tack to the park and the start for Lenox was made. Tragedy Stills Cheers. One or two of the carriages, Includ ing those In which the newspaper men were riding, had gone on ahead. As the president’s carriage and those con taining the others of his party made thflr way along South 'street, the crowds who lined the pavements cheered repeatedly and the ovation which had begun at Qatton and had hardly been interrupted since the start was made, was continued. Along the south street, which Is not a wide highway, runs the track of the Pittsfield and Lenox Street Railway company. Occasionally an electric car hummer by the carriages. At point about a quarter of a mile from the center of the city the street bends and. the car tracks run In a straight line across it from one side to tho other. V As the president's carriage appeared at this crossing an electric car was heard coming along at great speed, apparently trying to pass ahead of the procession. Secret Service Officer Craig ap preciated the danger and he arose be side the driver and turning arouno- signalled the motorman to hold back. The warning was disregarded and the next Instant, in view of hundreds of people, the electric car crashed di agonally against the carriage, causing the wheels to collapse splintering the side and running down the near horse of the wheel team, killing it Instantly. The occupants were thrown into the midst of the wreckage. Secret Service Agent Craig fell un der the car and hie head was crushed and the upper'part of his body was badly mutilated. The driver, Pratt, was also caught as he fell and was injured mainly about the head, a fractured skull being his wound. The . president, although partly bur ied by the splintered fragments of the carriage, extricated himself and was seen to have sustained only a cut on the cheek. Governor Crane was not Injured. Secretary Cortelyou was not so fort- unate, having sustained a blow on the back of the head, but soon recovered and with the president and Governor Crane, went to the house of A. D. Ste vens, which is near where the apcldenb occurred, and the house was thrown open for the reception of the Injured. The secret service agent was beyond help, having been instantly killed. The body was taken into the Stevens home. It was found that Driver Pratt was unconscious, but not dead. He also was taken to the house. A few minutes later an ambulance from the Pittsfield hospital arrived and he was removed to that institu tion. The crowd became greatly excited. It rushed into the street surround ing the wreckage and the car shout ing at the motorman and the conduct or and creating a great disturbance. Souvenir Hunters at Work. Almost immediately persons began snatching away the fragments of the carriage in which the president had ridden. Only by the utmost efforts did a force of police, which had been quickly summoned, prevent the entire demolition of the vehicle by souvenir hunters. Immediately after the accident, Mo torman Luke Madden and the conduct or, James Kelly, were placed under arrest and taken to police headquar ters, the chowd giving them a stormy reception as they passed along the street Having seen that the body of Craig was properly attended to and hearing the Clamor of the crowd outside, the president stepped to the door. The tumult indicated great .excitement among the people, seeing which, Pres ident Roosevelt urged the people not to cheer, as one of the party was dead. He assured the assembly that he was uninjured, but that the driver of his carriage, he feared, was fatally hurt. He said he would continue his journey, as it did not seem just right to disap point the large number of people who were expecting him. Then the president returned to the house and directions were given for another carriage to be brought up. Ride Is Resumed. It was soon ait the door and the ride to Lenox was resumed. As soon as the president had left the Stevens house the crowd began to disperse and within a few minutes the streets had resumed their usual appearance here,, save for a few groups who lin gered to discuss the accident. LEGISLATURE TIIK C1IKAPEST. 'Governor Anxious That Pennsljvanla Solons Tackle Strike Problem. "An extra session of the legislature would cost the state less money than it is costing to maintain the militia in the anthracite region to prevent and suppress riots.” In these words Governor W. A. Stone, of Pennsylvania, indicated to a few of his friends during a visit to Pittsburg Wednesday, his purpose to call an extra session of the legisla ture to try to end the anthracite strike. BILL ARP’S LETTER Bartow Man Writes of Che Beoent Negro Congress in Atlanta. DISCUSSES ‘INHARMONIOUS’ FEATURES Education in Morals, Manners and In dustry Taught by Former White Masters Better Than Book Knowledge of Today. AXXF.X.VTIOX OF HATH Is Tentatively Discussed by President and Advisers. The Washington Post says that the president has tentatively discussed with some, of bis close advisers the question of annexing the island of Haytl, with a view to action in case the Haytiens themselves tail to re store peace and order. The frequency of the revolution in Haytl necessitat ing the presence of American men of war to protect American and foreign interests, says The Post, have led to the informal discussion of the possl blc necessity of Interference. DIVORCE LEAD* TO FOItTUXE. Houghton Compiles With His Father’s Will and Gets Wealth. George R. Houghton, of Atlanta, 6a., is divorced from his wife in Chicago and by the transaction comes into possesion of an estate valued at nearly 8200,000. Geofge Houghton, a Milwaukee bank president, father of the Atlantlan, died five months ago and left a condition in his will that his son should not re ceive his share of the estate- until his wife died or he was divorced from her. Under the court’s decree, Houghton will have to pay his wife alimony to the amount of 121,'500. Of course I was very much interest ed in the great negro convention. So was every thougntful man north and south, but there were some features about it that did not harmonise, with tho views and memories of the old masters. The oft-repeated assertion that forty years ago the negro emerg ed from bondage and baibarism la a mistake. It is worse, for it is slander. One orator said that they had been in a savage state for one hundred years —another said two hundred and fifty years—and their progress since free dom came was wonderful. Some of our young people of this age and gen eration may carelessly believe that, for they have U3en taught it from tho north, where it Is universally believed. Booker Washington may believe it, for he is in his middle age. But even Eval Howell and 1 and all other veter ans, whether white or blask, know that it is not so. I don't want the old- time negroes slandered. , The orator might as well have said 2,250 yeaijp ago, for their ancestors were all in Africa then—none of the grown up ne groes who were set free had been in bondage more than fifty or sixty years and none were savages or barbarians. They compared well with the illiterate white people, and in fact felt above them and spoke of them as poor white trash. The clos£ association for two or three generations of these slaves with their white masters aid their families educated, most of them in good morals and manners and indus try, which is a better education than books, and the truth is they were when freedom came infinitely superior to tho race as it now is. The progress that Booker Washington and his associates boast of is an alarming retrograde and degeneracy. When freedom came there was not an outrage in all the southern land nor was there a convict or a chaingang nor a negro prison, but now there, are 4,400 convicts end tho number Increases faster than the pop ulation. No—there is no upward gra dation in their morals. The higher education thaA these negro colleges are giving to the few have no good effect upon the many) and, according to Mr. Washington’s own statement, he is alarmed because most of his graduates aspire to be leaders and teachers and bosses. They are a pam pered negro aristocracy and widely scattered es they are, they have not reformed the race in morals or In hon esty or an observance of tho marriage relations. I can assert with truth that at least one-third of the negro children In and around OnrtcrsvlUe are bastards. There are r'.ue within a stone’s throw of our house—and yet ‘.heir mothers are very good servants and make good cooks, chambermaids and washerwomen. They lose no caste or social position or church member ship by reason of their unchaste and unlawful cohabitation, and the chil dren of these women are growing up without moral training and are as no torious young thieves as the Arabs of the desert. The white people have got so accustomed to their petty thiev ing that they do no proseeute them. Mr. Washington made another mis take when he said that the number of convicts Increased because they were too poor to employ counsel. It Is well known to the bar and to those who at tend Lae courts that the judge always appoints competent counsel, and he leans to the negro and protects him as far as he can consistently with hit duty. I know that our judge does. ALout a year or more ago betrled three negroes for crime in a neighboring county. They were easily convicted, for they were guilty. He fined each of them $25 and the cost and sentenced them to one year’s sentence In the chaingang. but told them he would held up the sentence for n year, and If they could get any responsible white man to take them in charge and let cnem work out tneir'tmes and bring them back to the court at the next term and give a good account of them, he would not send them to the chain- gang at all. The negroes found good men without leaving the court house, and they did work out their fines and behaved well, and their employers made a good report of them and they were honorably discharged. How much better that was than the chaingang with all of Its bad associations and brutality. The southern people are uniformly kind to good negroes. Lost year my faithful servant. Tip, came to see me, for be was in tronble. He had laid up a few hundred dollars and had bought a snug Uttte farm near Rome for $300, wbi.Vh took all his mon ey. Tho man he bought from then suddenly disappeared and Tip found out there was a mortgage on the farm for |500. “Where did the man come from?” I asked. “He came from Ohio,” said Tip. “And then you did not ask any lawyer to look into the title?” "No, air,” said Tip. “He talk ed so fair and I had knowed him some ■time that 1 thought shorely he wouldn’t cheat me." And now Tip Is still working out that mortgage and the man cannot bo found. Reckon he Is drawing a pension and holding an office in Ohio. What we wish to see is some good practical results of those negro colleges. Before the war every man of wealth who owned slaves had among them masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, wagonmakers, shoemak ers, etc.; my man Tip was a paper- hanger and a good one, for my wife taught him, and he has made good money by it since the war. The ne groes are naturally mechanics and im prove rapidly in their trades, but I have not seen or heard of one from Tuskegee yet.. Washington says he is trying to teach them that ft is honor able to walk between the flow han dles. Why, we can’t get it white col lege boy to do that much less a col lege negro whoso education; has all come from charity, and these colleges keep begging for more and get it. But what frets us old masters Is all this tommyrot about the negroes hav ing just emerged from slavery and barbarism. I wish to declare to this generation that our old slaves had more common sense and' far better morals than those we have now, and they had wives and children and were not ashamed of them. It sweetens my memory to go back to tho good! old faithful stock like Tip and Sind a and Aunt Peggy and Virgil and big Jack and little Jack and Uncle Sam and Aunt Ann and hundreds of others who were happy and contented • and whose children have got Into the chalngangs through the malignant leg islation of our enemies. Harper’s Weekly seems to have repented' of late, but the cruel work Is done and cannot be undone. The mofrt hopeful sign In the proceedings and reports of that convention was that given by a mulatto Or cupper-colored negro from a negro town near the Mississippi, be tween Vicksburg and Memphis, where they owned a good body of farming land and worked it and made good crops and had a good town of 2,000 people and sixteen stores and good common schools and several churches and plenty of good mechanics and a mayor (ind Council, and there were no Idlers, and if a tramp came there they waited on him and shippd him off on the first train—and there wasn’t a white man in the town, nor did one live In five miles of it I am going to watch that' town. Maybe that win help to solve the race problem. P. S.—In answer to letters wanting Judge Clark's book, write to M. O. Sherrill, state librarian, Raleigh, N. C., and send him |5.—Bill Arp, in Atlanta Constitution, SURGICALJPERATIONS How Mrs. Brace, a Noted Open Singer, Escaped an Operation. Proof That Many Operations for Orarian Troubles are Un- ( necessary. “Dus Mbs. Pikkrax : —Travelling 1 for years on the road, with irregular meals and sleep and damp beds, broke down my health so completely two years ago that the physician advised a complete rest, and when X had gained »ns. G. BRUCE. sufficient vitality, am operation for ovarian troubles. Not-a very cheerful prospect, to be sure. r,. however, waa advised to try Lydia El Flnkham’b Vegetable Compound and Saw* atlre VTaali; I did so* fortunately for me. Before a month had passed S felt that my general health had im» proved ; in three months more I wa» eared, and I have been in perfects health since. I did not lose an engage* ment or miss a meal. “ Your Vegetable Compound is cer tainly wonderful, and well worthy the> S raise your admiring friends who have' een oured are ready to give you. I always speak highly of it, and yom wiU admit I hare good reason to- do* so.”—Mbs. G. Bruce, Lansing, Mich,. 96000 forfeit If abooe Uitlmonlal I$ not genuine.' The fullest counsel on this; ■abject can he secured without cost by writing to Mrs Plnkham*. Lynn, Mass. Tour letter will ba entirely confidential. OUR ADVERTISING RATES ARB EXTREMELY LOW. AND ARE A GREAT INDUCEMENT FOR BUSINESS MEN TQ PAT RONIZE OUR COLUMNS TRY US. SPORTING BREVITIES. The Abbot-Bornlmn 810,000 inn tell trotting race Is off. Cohl. mlny went her in Scotland tins spoiled grouse shooting. Don Patch paced n mile in 2.0014 nt tin. Iteodviile lMnss.1 truck. Major Dclnmr won the 815.000 Mas sachusetts trotting stake nt Rendvillc, Muss. Direct Hal. tlie. pacer, lowered his record to 2.0(5 at tho ItciulvIUe (Muss.) truck. Advance Guard won the- Saratoga Cup. one mile and six furlongs, nt Sar atoga. N. Y. , W. C. Whltnry Jins decided to sell liis thn-e-yenr-oid colts. King Ilunorcr, Pretorlus and Slipthrlft. C. K. G. Billings purchased The Monk, 2.05%. paying 8-15.000 to Fred. Gcrkcu for the cruel; trotter.. There are now four golf courses on Block Ishuid, where the game Is not only popular, but fashionable. A. J. Joyner lias been engaged to train n stable of Sydney Paget next season nt a salary Bald to lie 820,000. It*F. and U. L. Doherty won the tin- ttonnl lawn tenuis championship in doubles from Holcombe Ward and D. F. Davis, at Saratoga. Edna Cook, 2.12, L reported to have worked a mile recently in 2.03% for Ed. Geers. She Is ten years old, und made her record In 1S». The great brood mare Flaxy now has the distinction or being the dnm of two 2.05 performers. Royal it. Sheldon, 2.01% und Audubon Boy, 2.05. William J. Duffy, an old athlete, swam from Brooklyn Bridge to n point off the Couey Island iron pier in four hours. The distance Is almost thirteen iqtles.. Alfred Featbcrstonc will sell his rac ing stable during the Sheepsbead Day meeting. He has been on the tnrf a number of yean, beginning under the Urm uame of Bromley & Co. (ram Ubby'a f«moot Hyglenlo kitchen*, where purity prevail*. AU meat* u*d la LIBBY’S Natural Flavor Food Products ars 11. 3. Oororamott Inspected. Keep la tin bout tor tmerfecolea—tor •upper*, tor nadwtobw—for any Urea when yoo want aoaothlas rood and want It quick. Simply tura a key and tha can la open. Aa app*tiling lunch la ready la an batant, LIBBT, MelEILL A LIBBY, CHICA60. Writ* tor oar (no booklet, "How to Hake Good Thlnya to Eat" Osnalae stamped C C C. Fever sold In bulk. Beware of the dealer who tries to sell, “something just ss good." DROPSY 10 OATS’ TREATMENT FUEL in.n.E.omu-D Box U romom Atlanta, Ga. WANTED BOO Young Men At onca to quality tor good poalttona which. w» will tuarantco la wrlUng under a $5,000 dopoalt to promptly procure thorn. The Ga.-Ala. Bus. College, MACON, GEORGIA, ofcotootooisoKotoolaofcotoofeobofcofe ITTEADASHE, t S M FEVERISH CONDITIONS £ oil AND COLDS CURED BY o 5 “CAPUDINE 2 ar Sold by all Drnccna*. X RQRQIto>toHORo>to»to»toitotto»to»to A||| REPAIRS ■ _ M Rrefl saws, ribs, mA H U «N Brittle, Twin*. Hahl.lt, wffi ■ ■ WSa .forany wutkoorGIn ENGINES, BOILERS AND PRESSES (aUfe&£»&NSS&& tie i PFRDiV KtaKy made, at home, rCRllAI mailingcireal*ra. Nocan-1 retains. The Uoma Remedy Co., I Atiitell Building. ATLANTA.GA. I W-Olva the name of this paner when writing to advertisers-(At. 36. ’02)