Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09
Undertakers Are in.
Open War With
Each Other.
RATHER AGAINST ONE
They Will Return to Johns
town and Ignore Mr..
Devore.
MEETING HELD LAST NIGHT.

The Pittsburg end of what promises to be-
come very lively undertakers' fracas ex-
ploded and went off with loud report last
night. The Johnstown end of the affair
consisted, if the reports that came to the
city yesterday are true, in conflict of au-
thority between Mr.. W. h. Devore and Mr.
J. ]. Flannery, of Pittsburg. Mr.. Devore
claimed to be authorized by the State Board
to manage the work of the un-
dertakers and exhibited postal
card signed by the Chairman of
the board, requesting him to direct these
matters. Mr.. Flannery claimed to be au-
thorized by the Chamber of Commerce Com
mittee, and to have been elected by the
Pittsburg undertakers as the undertaker-in-
charge. There was a quarrel between the
two, the lie was given and, it is said.
knock-down fight narrowly prevented. Mr..
FlannerY came to Pittsburg Friday night,
bringing 80 or 40 undertakers with him.
Mr.. Devore stated to newspaper correspond
ents that the trouble arose over the men
under Flannery getting drunk, and referred
especially to an agent for an embalming
company.
The Fight in Pittsburg.
The undertakers' world in Pittsburg was
In furor yesterday. Mr.. Flannery was on
deck with the force that he had brought
back with him. Mr.. II. c. Tarr, agent for
the embalming company, whom Mr.. DeYore
IL -
ing his name, was also on hand, He had
worked hard among the Johnstown suf-
ferers, and the wrong that he had suffered
from Mr.. Devore in being pllloried in the
publie press as a drunkard was enlarged |
upon. 1t was stated by Mr.. FlannerY and |
othOS that Mr.. Devore had lived like a |
gentleman on Prospect Hill, while the |
other undertakers slept on the floor of the |
morgue, that Mr.. Devore had worked |
upon the State Board to get the credentials,
had worked upon the correspondents to get
tree advertising, had even used his position
among the Johnstown sufferers to get bust
ness, and had forwarded bodies TO his un-
dertaking rooms in Pittsburg, taking pay
for his work and the work of his assistants.
By noon excitement had been raised to
pretty nearly fever heat, and when the
evening papers came out with Mr.. Devore's
charges of drunkenness, it fairly knew no
bounds, it boiled over. ss7
Something had to be done. A meeting of
undertakes was called at Mr.. Flannery's
office.
Sitting With Closed Doors.
4 Thirty or more responded. They ad-
journed at once to somewhere else The re-
porters were told that they would be given
- .-orld he fbnurbf bart for thor,o
to print alter the meeting was over.
The clerk in Mr.. Flannery's Office
refused to tell even where the meet
ing was held. THE DISPATCH
reporter was unsatisfed with the
promise of post mortem information. He
went even to the camp of the enemy-the
Office of Mr.. W. H. Devore. By industrious
use of the telephone there he located the
indignation meeting, strange to say, at the
Office of Mr.. Devore's own son, Mr., E. L.
DeVore, on Sixth avenue. There be
betook himself and there he
was denied admission. He was told that
the meeting was simply to arrange for fur
ther work in Johnslown and to pass resolu-
tions, retuting the charges of drunkenness
made in the evening papers. They did pass
such resolutions and they did arrange for
further work in Johnstown, but the real in
terest of the meeting eentered in the storm
Va oAASt -AAs @-' ONfSAN- !
His Son Displeased With Him.
Mr.. E. L. DeEore did not wish to mention I
his fathers name in any resolutions of in .
dignation, but he did feel that if his father )
had said what the papers had represented
him as saying, he ought to be censured by /
the undertakers. On his part he was ready I
ta do what Mr. Flannery thought best. MIR. !
Flannery had done much sacrificed much
and ought not now to be set carelesslY one
side. ,
Accordingly Mr.. Flannery was made
Chairman of the meeting. As starter he ,
read the following call:
Mr.. J, J. Flannery, Chairman: S
As you have had charge of matters pertain I
ing 70 the undertaking, please confer through :
us with Mr.. J. B. Scott, and also use your own ;
discretion and see that the dead are properly /.
cared for. WILLIAM M. McCREERY,
Chairman. '
This was the authority for the call of the Q
meeting. 1t was to consider and act upon {
this that they were assembled. Having
thus established his position, Mr.. Flannery '
proceeded to show what the position of Mr.. !
W. H. Devore was He read in full extSacts I
from the evening papers in which Mr.. !
Devore had referred to his men as being
under the influence of liquor. He stated E
what Mr.. DeVere's conduct had been in his I
opinion in this Johnstown matter, describ- :
lug " SuDSAdAsldilg as dDONe ElNcu-01f. t.
c. Beinhauer, who by the way had been !
elected secretary of the evening, supported 2
Mr.. Flannery in emphatic terms. The po- I
sition of Mr.. Devore's own son was in itself I
8 power of strength to the Flannery faction.
Some, however, counseled moderation, and V
partly on this account and partly at the
wish OF Mr.. E. L. Devore, no names were U
used In the resolutions passed. n
Mr.. Fl. @. Tarr, the embalming agent, q
Mr.. Devere, had, it was supposed, referred
to in such uneomplimentary terms, stated II
how grossly he had been misrepresented,
and many who had been with him at Johns
town supported him in his statements as n
10 his sobriety and industry. He was really q
no incOnsiderable factor in the matter-one \
spoke and all agreed that the conduct Of h
Mr.. W. II. Deyore had been at least unpro- II
iessionRl. Out Of about "A undertakers in P
it was claimed that there were so q
It the meeting, and that the action of the a
meeting practically represented the action G,
1f PittsDurg undertakers outside of Mr.. De- II
Tore himself. I,
As the Chairman, Mr.. Flannery, put it, W
he action of the meeting was the action of O,
he Funeral Directors Relief Association
II Pittsbnrg, that this association comprised O
every trm Of undertakers in the city except ic
VI. W. II. Devore. As he represented it, a
VIZ. Deyore practically stood alone. al
Resolutions Of Censurr. ii
After very general and desultorv debate, r
. which condemnation of Mr.. w. II. De- 4
pre- seemed to be the leading feature, the =
-