The Western news., 1904-07-13

ficient and honest, which was implying
that they had been neither in the past.
During the last day of the inquest Cap
tain Van Schaick was the principal wit
ness, being brought in ON a stretcher
facts about the boats equipment and
lack of rigid inspection. Inspector
Lundberg said that it was not custom
AIRY to make actual tests of the life pre-
servers or fire hose. Prior to render
ing the verdict the jury inspected the
Slocum wreck, which had been raised.
and sailed over the course Of the burn
ing vessel. Following this verdict Sec
retary of Commerce and Labor Cor
telyou ordered reinspection of all
steamboats, at New York.
St. Louis Bribery Exposed.
Charles A. Gutke, charged with
bribery in connection with the city
lighting scandal at st. Louis, has made
Il voluntary confession to Circuit At
torney Folk, laying bare many boo
ding operations in the last two and 4
half years. Yielding to his wife's
wishes, he said. it was his desire to
atone for past sins against the public
and declared that the people of St.
Louis do not realize even now how per-
sistent!y they have been plundered BY
the men they elected to make laws. He
gives the actual figures of sums re-
ceived by the boodling combine for dif-
ferent blls-$3O 900 for the Suburban
loop. $4,000 for the Central Traction.
$4,000 for the lighting bill and so on.
| There We're innumerable others rang
ing from $4,000 down to few hun
dreds. The prices were fixed in regu
lar meetings of the combine, while an
agent to negotiate for and receive the
money would be chosen by ballot. MI
Gutke further said in his confession
that hardly a corporation in the city
had escaped being held up at one time
or another. He himself was an agent
of the combine in many cases. He
says that the Butler gang has millions
behind it. He did not realize that he
boodling prosecutions began.
Suit Against the Standard Oil.
INV VI Mai lStlO, W., uGS uC-
gun suit in the chancery court at Tren-
| ton, n. j., for the dissolution of the
Standard Oil company, as being in vio-
| latiOn of the antitrust law. Mr.. Rice.
who owns some of the original Stand
ard Oil stock, has been fighting the
trust for nearly thirty years. His pri
vate oil business had been ruined by
nri in IN oirrI, tnr II 1oin in,s.
that all the trust methods which were
declared unlawful in Ohio have been
continued. with merely verbal changes.
in the New Jersey corporation. He
asks for receiver to take over all the
property that came from the trust to
the New Jersey corporation or which
has since been acquired by the latter
and to divide the assets among the
stockholders.
Criminal Notes.
Santos-Dumont's airship No. Z at the
worlds fair, which was to have taken
part in the Fourth of July aerial con
tests, was found by its owner, June 2S,
in the aerodrome with twelve long
rents cut in it's gas bag. Mystery en-
shrouded the act of the yandals, and
Il large reward was offered by Presi-
dent Francis for their detection. The
detectives later reported that the bag
had been cut by Dumont himself or by
his orders as an excuse for not enter
ing the contest This he denies. = /"
After terrorizing the rural districts of
Jackson county, Wis, for over a week
Lon Smith who murdered Sheriff Har-
ris of st. Croix county and called him
self the new Tracy" was surrounded
in the woods by detail of militia. At
the point of the revolver he had made
his way across the country, demand
ing food and protection. The ban
dts who held up and robbed Paymas-
ter Longyear at Kingston, N. Y, last
week We're captured after several days
pursuit by an armed posse, and part Of
the money was recovered. Ster-
ling Dunham, the negro farm hand
who was accused of attacking four
: white girls near Europa, Miss, and
had been pursued for two weeks into
the western part of Alabama, was
: caught and lynched by mob in spite
of the opposition of the authorities.