davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Washington times., 1906-03-04


that would have cost
5000 lives, Two and
one-half cents a head
for every man, woman,
and child who, had the plans car
ried through without check, would
have been swept away when the
town of ST. Marys, in Aug!aize
county, Ohio, would have been
biotted from the map by the down
rushing waters of the Grand Res
ervOir.
What fends in human form could
devise a crime so Tremendous
where could they find men so hard
ened to ali things as TO carry out
so wanton a destruction of life
and property? And what could the
temptation have been which, stir
ring all the evil passions, led to its
attempted execution?
Who the men were who did at
tempt just this thing is told here.
Riley Cotton and Park Wright, the
former the leader in the enterprise,
ex-convict, poacher, and reservoir
man; the latter, all but the con-
vict. Both are men of about forty
years.
Cotton was the active figure in
the attempt to blow out, by the eX-
plosicn of 300 pounds of dynamite,
the dam which held back the wa
ters of the reservoir of Lake Mer-
Ger. as it is called by the people
of the nearby towns. Success would
have meant the turning loose in
this valley of the st. Marys river
of billions Of gallons OF water
Once Ioosed, these waters would
have engulfed st, Marys, with its
5000 inhabitants. even as Johns
town was enguIfed.
Cotton has confessed, and his
onfession-which viii be his tes-
timony in the trial which will be-
gin in February-names the men
who, as he says, planned the hor-
ror.
-Four of them, John T. Petrie
and the Shelley brothers, Isaac,
Lee. and John, are under indict-
ment by the Auglaize county grand
jury for the crime.
- Y
Hold Human Life in Contempt.
Greed for the fat acres which
would be annexed to their farms
If the waters fell is the only cause
given for the plotting of a deed
calculated, If successful, to pour
out from the largest artificial body
of water in the world the flood of
raging. seething waters which
would have caught up the town
of ST. Marys from its seat in the
river bed and whirled its people
from their siUmbeTings into that
sleep which Knows no awakening
The story shows a depth of law
Iessn sss, a contempt for human life
such as even the worst of the old
frontier towns did not develop. The
gold field. the cattle camps, the
pack trains developed men who
were a law unto themselves, bu1
it was a Jaw of a sort. They
ranged and rogued in the open
and, man to man, upheld theil
acts at risk of their own lives.
That isn't the way of the reser
voir gang. It takes degeneracy II
dynamite foI gain of land or paltrl
reward the dam which holds bacl
lake from a town. And there Il
degeneracy a-plenty in the reser'
The Washington times., 1906-03-04
1o-and-a-HaIf Cents a Head for Every
Man, Woman and Child in an Ohio
Town Is the Price Charged by Members
Of d Reservoir Gang for an Attempted
Dyndmitng That Was Only by Acct
dent Prevented from Becoming d Repet-
ton Of the JOhnStOwR Flood.

voir country. Refuse of the oil
fields, scum Of the canal workers.
refugees from the towns and cities
Of the middle West, those are some
of the people who go to make up
a shifting population which is at
its greatest in the spring and sum
mer, and which dwindles away as
the winter comes on.
Reservoir men they are called
by the decent people of the neigh
borhood, and the story as told by
Cotton is but an extreme OF the
things which Auglaize and Mercer
counties have come to look upon
without much comment.
So that this is really the story
of the reservoir men and Of how
two of them, for $3.50, paid, as Col
ton complains, lin dribs." agreed
to dynamite the st. Marys bulk
head and let loose that ravening
food of waters into the valley be
low where the people of st. Marys,
OsoUb III al, were aSIeep.
First, though, for reasons. Lake
Mercer, o. to give it its official
title, the Grand Reservoir, vas
built by the State of Ohio in 1S43
as a feeder for the Miami and Erie
canal. Roughly speaking, it is ten
miles long, from two to three miles
wide, and. in its deep places, has
forty feet of water.
Following the building, the State
conceived the brilliant plan where
by the land on the reservoir banks
was sold to the farmers in the
neighborhoOd. The deeds read, not
by specified bounds, but from Ger
tain bounds Ito the waters edge
containing one or more acres.
Now the reservoir, in the spring,
is at its lowest ebb. for it has had
the canal to maintain all through
the winter. This leaves, in the
shadows of the south shore, much
land uncovered; good black soil
in which corn ten and twelve feet
high car be and often is raised.
SOmetim e. in a dry year. a five
acre field expands to ten with the
falling of the waters. Every year
this uncovered soil is plowed and
planted. Sometimes it is harvest
ed; sometimes 1t isn't A special
condition commission has just au-
thorized the settling of flood
damage" claims presented by farm
ers living on the banks which ag-
gregates $4,000, and this for one
year only, 1904, when the lakes
level rose with q rush and reclaim
ed its own. Fine fat land, this.
under the water.
" x
Sleeping ToG0n Heard Explosion.
About 1 o'clock of the morning
of May 4, 1905, dwellers in St.
Marys were awakened from their
slumbers by the crash of an ex-
plosion at the bulkhead a mile up
the st, Marys river valley. Investi-
cation disclosed a huge hole In
|, the masonry on the south side, a
bulkhead gate splintered and all
the weight of the waters pressing
against the upper gate o. tha
lock
Hard work, hastened by tbs
knowledge that even allowing for
the spread of the valley, figures
, had shown that a broken dam
r meant a wall of water from six
, teen to twenty feet high sweeping
down that valley. made the remain.
The Washington times., 1906-03-04

NE hundred and fifty
dollars for a crime
that would have cost
5000 lives. Two and
one-half cents a head
for every man, woman,
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
OLD EGyPTs GOLD MINES

Prof. R. D. George of the University
of Colorado suggests that the ancient
Egyptians drew the larger part of their
gold from the old workings near Cop
tos, latitude 26 degrees north, and
from the mountains some distance to
the south. The mountains to the south
of Coptos are probably the mines for
which the kings of the twelfth dynasty
sacrificed the lives OF many thousand
men; for the rule of Egyptian kings
who wanted gold was to invade Nubia
and take possession of the mines, just
as when they wanted copper they
drove back the nomadic tribes of ST.
mai and built fortresses to protect their
miners The Nubian gold workings of
which Prof. George speaks are placed
in an almost inaccessible mountain
group surrounded on all sides by a
waterless desert. Here may be seen
tunnels and shafts penetrating the
mountains to almost unknown depths.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23

quired more muscular effort, for the
muscles extending from all the fingers
would then be called into use. Where
as ii the person drinking holds the
glass between the thumb and the first
two fingers he not only relieves the
tension on the muscles of the two
other fingers, but also in a way he
pivots the glass and makes it easier
to tip on that account Thus the sep
aration of the two fingers from the
glass is perfectly natural act.
This philosopher comedies that the
act may be exaggerated; that fingers
thus extended might even be seen
raised and extended more than was
really comfortable for the better dis
play of rings adjoining them, and he
comedies that sometimes when we see
our fingers thus raised as we lift our
glass, in clear view of all, we may
seek to crook the fingers in attitudes
of curves of greater grace and so he
comedies that in some cases the rails.
ing of the fingers in lifting the glass
may show affectation in some meas
ure, but his point is that in it's original
inception and in the practice by the
many the elevation of these two fin
gers is not an affectation but an act
quite unconscious and automatic.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
MANNER OF HOLDING CLASS

social philosopher has discovered
that an act very commonly regarded as
an effectation of gentility, as found in
the manl.er of holding drinking glass
when drinking from it, is not an af-
fectation at all, but really an uncon-
scious, automatic act
This supposed affectation consists in
extending the third and fourth fingers
of the hand clear of the glass when it
is lifted and tipped forward with it's
brim to the lips and while the glass
Is held there in the act of drinking
No doubt it would commonly be CON
sidered that people DO this for the
sake of greater elegance, or at least
from an instructive desire to give to
the hand such an appearance, which it
would not possess if they closed the
entire hand around the glass-if they
clutched it, so to speak. a manner of
holding that would seem to SAVIOR of
rudeness.
But this observer says that really
people hold those two fingers clear of
the glass in drinking because that is
the way that is most convenient. If,
he says, a person should grasp the
glass with the whole hand closed snug
ly around it he would find that the
act of tipping the glass so held re-
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
TOM REED WAS DECEIVED

The boy took the witness stand, and
testified that on the day of the theft
he and some other boys went to Cape
Elizabeth about / o'clock and did not
return until about 9 o'clock that night.
His testimony was corroborated by
the other boys and by his father.
Mr.. Reed said he had made many
arguments in court, but believed he
had never beaten the one he made
then, for he believed in the innocence
of the boy, and put his whole soul into
it. The prosecuting officer made no
argument, and the judge discharged
the boy, who at once left the room.
Mr. Reed soon went out, and the
boy met him and said: "You did well.
Tom, but l can't pay you until can
get up to Boston and sell them
watches, when l will see you"
In about a week." said Mr.. Reed,
"he came into my Office and laid a new,
crisp $50 bill on my desk. and went
out without saying a word"
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23

with lantern and asked what was
wanted. The colonel politely asked to
be directed to the straight road to
Barre.
At glance the farmer discovered
who the caller was, having attended
the meeting, and said: "Ain't you
the young Teller that was making the
address at Hubbardston this even.
ing?"
YES" said Col. Bryant, "and have
lost my way"
Well" said the farmer, "I'm a whie
and have found my way home, and.
by gosh, you can find yours. II you
can" and slammed the door In the
colonel's face.
The colonel finally found his way
home, AMI related the Incident to his
friends with great glee.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23

Three hundred stone huts shelter
800 mills used in pulverizing the ore;
immense cisterns once caught the
scanty water supply from the upper
slopes; and near them stand the slop-
ing tables on which pulverized ore was
washed. Records show that these
mines We're worked with little inter
ruption for twenty centuries by the
Egyptians, and there is no means of
knowing how long they were worked
by the Nubians before them
In the inscriptions of the New En-.
pire various kinds or grades of gold
are mentioned; and in one of the Tell
el-Amarna letters, written during the
eighteenth dynasty, the king of Baby.
Ion accuses Amenophis Ill. of Egypt OF
sending him a mass of base metal for
gold. He says: The twenty minas
of gold you sent me contained, when
melted down, only five minas of pure
gold" So that the gold brick" even
then was not unknown
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23

A number of years ago the Hon.
Thomas B. Reed told one of his early
law cases.
A neighbours boy was arrested for
stealing tray of gold watches, and in
court pleaded not guilty. The only
witness for the prosecution was the
jeweler who lost the watches. His
story was that on the afternoon on
which the watches we're stolen he was
fixing up his show window and had
removed from it the goods, the tray
of watches among them, to the coun-
ter near the door. While doing this
and busting out the window, he testi-
fed, the boy stood on the sidewalk
watching him through the window. AS
it was dusk, he went into rear room
for match, and when he came back
the boy and about dozen gold
watches were gone. He jumped
through the open door, but could see
no one on the street.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
WING had GOOD MEM0Ry

In the decade of 1S4O-5O Col. w. A.
Bryant was young attorney in Barre
Mass, and also editor of the Barre
Gazette and an ardent Democrat, the
leading parties in the country then
being Wings and Democrats.
In the campaign of the fall of 1S41
Col Bryant was to make an address
in Hubbardston and drove oyer dur
ing the afternoon, the distance being
about eight miles. In the course of
his TRADE against the Wings he said:
Their case is lost, and they will get
lost themselves If they stay out after
dark"
After rousing meeting he started
home. and as it was dark, with no
moon and the sky cloudy he got of
the road. Noticing g light in a farm
house, he stopped and knocked at the
door. Tho farmer came to the door
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
HAD HEART PAINS
a Critical Case of rheumatism Cured
BY Dr.Wiliams' Pink Pills,

While Mr.. w. S. Geisel, of No. 1875
East Coates street, Moberly, Mo, was
steadily working at his trade i'm a foun-
dry at that place, he became the victim
of an attack of rheumatism, and his ex.
perlence is that of thousands who are
compelled to work i'll similar surround.
ings. He describes his situation as fol.
lows:
81 had been at work for long time
in a foundry where | was exposed to
dampness First my feet began to hurt
tnd to swell, then my knees and my
shoulder joints began to be affected in
the same way. Finally could not walk
without great difficulty and suffering
and had to stop work altogether. MY
appetite was feeble and | grew very pale
and weak. l. began to have pains about
my heart and 1T fiuttered a great deal.
became greatly alarmed about my con.
dltlon. My mother knew about the vir.
tues OF DR.. Williams Pink Pills, as they
had given her back her health when she
was nearly wasting to death. and when
sle FOUND thut they were good for rheu.
matlsnl too, she began to give them to
me about Il mouth after I was attacked
Lnae WIS III the early part OF March,
1903, and by June they had driven away
the pains and swelling and had restored
my appetite and color. Then | felt
strong enough to take up life OF out
door work and now, in October, re.
gard myself as entirely we'll and ] am
about to go into a foundry again at ST.
Louis"
DR.. Williams Pink Pills also cnre
other diseases springing from inn
pure blood or 6isordered nerves, such
MS sciatica, locomotor ataxia, partial
paralysis and all forms of weakness in
male or female. They may be had a,
an druggists or directly from the Dr.
Williams Medicine Company, Schenec.
tady, N. Y.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
AVID THEN .scRIVNER THOUGHT

the other man making as much fuss as
he was For one brief, trying mo-
ment, Scrvner tried persuasion.
Say, old man" he said, I'm in an
awful rush. Won't YOU"
so am l." was the snappy reply.
Whose wire is thus, anyhow"
Its mine, you - tell you
it's mine. You've no right to"
20, shut up that trap, and get out, I"
sang out the voice. You talk too
much"
That was incendiary, and Scrivner
didn't think at all before he spoke.
IN give you a box of cigars!" he
shouted. "a good box of cigars if you'll
give me your name and address so
can come around and smash your fool
facet"
Sure" came the quick response, in
confident, almost eager tones. I'm
always glad to accommodate gentle
man. My names Kid Mccoy, and I
live at the Hotel Cumberland"
Silence fell in Scrivner's booth. He
dropped the receiver, leaned back in
his chair, and gasped for breath. He
sat full minute there in sort of
trance. then opened the door and
walked out, dazed and perspiring. A
page overlook him at the door of the
writing room.
Thirty cents, please" said the boy.
Scrivner paid and took to the street
to cool off. Up to yesterday Mr.. Nc
Gov was still smoking his own cigars,
New York Press.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23

Scrivner is man of great energy
and dispatch. whose hours are SO filled
with activities that he has formed a
habit of quick and a sometimes inju-
dlclous speed. not for many years
has he had time to think twice before
speaking. and however generous his
impulses and correct his life, he does
now and then fume and splurge into
veXatlous predicaments 1t was just
in this fashion and meaning no harm
at all that he encountered situation
last week that we'll nigh undid him for
a time.
Scrivner rushed into telephone
booth at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and
gave the number of a friends tele-
phone up town. 1t was a matter of
business as well as friendship, and
Scrivner had only ten minues before
he must rush away to an appointment
in Forty second street. The converse
ton at his end of the wire went like
this:
Hello, Bill That you?" he said in
his loud and tumbling speech. That's
good. You see, | told you-Hello. Hell
10, Bill! That you, Bill? Somebody cut
in on us. was saying that-Hello!
What the -? Who's this, anyhow?
No, I'm not Robert, and l don't want
YOU. Get off the wire, will you? Say,
operator."
Scrivner opened the door of the
booth, leaned out and called to the
girl to take that fellow off his wire.
Then he went at it again, but found
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
RIDING FOR INSOMNIA.
outinEs g. the Trolley Cars to Make
People Sleep

People Sleep
There Is great deal Of sound
sense in persons suffering from insom-
MIA taking rides on the trolley car to
make them sleep, as l know from con-
slant experience" said conductor on
an Overlook night car to the Phila-
delphia Times. Men who ride occa-
sionally after midnight. and get on the
car quite clipper, after Eighth street,
are sound asleep before they reach the
Schuylkill River. 1t is only men who
are accustomed to work after midnight
that can keep awake for long ride.
1t is a common thing for me to see
twenty men In late car, all asleep
II l know where they want to go I
wake them up, but they don't always
tell me.
1.-The other night a man who lives
near Fifty-second and Jefferson streets
boarded a down car after midnight,
saying that he could not sleep, and he
thought trolley ride would do him
good. He kept awake all right until
we got to the ferry, but on the up trip,
after o'clock. he fell asleep with the
rest of the men in the car I forgot
all about him when we reached his
street and carried him to Overlook.
Well. what's stranger, l forgot him
again on the down trip and he slept
all the way to the ferry. He made an
awful row. On the up trip no slept all
the way again, but it was daylight
when he got to Forty -second street.
The policeman on that corner was
waiting for the car The mans wife
had been out to look for him"
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
Share Fondness for FISHING.

Princess Yolande of Italy, although
only four years old, already enters into
the pleasures of her father and mother.
The queen has a passion for fishing,
which her little girl shares, so that
morning after morning this little group
of two is to be seen in the park at
Racconigi side by side, line in hand, in
profound silence
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
There ie no Rochelle oaIts, Alum.
Lime or Ammonia In food made with
Calumet
Baking
Powder
Complies with tho Pure Food Law,
Of all States.
Thoughtless Peary

Don't you think it time we heard
from Peary?"
why, man, he hasn't had time to
reach the pole yet
Il know, but | was thinking it was
about time we We're getting souvenir
postals from along the route"
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
Finniqan Filosofy.

TIL fact thot some min kin sa-ay
trut'fully thOt they never did anything
they wuz ashamed av is more av a
confession thot they how no sense av
sha-am than anything ilse.-Judge.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23

He-Yes. she is living under an as
sumed name. She-Horrible! What Is
It? He-The one she assumed imme-
diatsly after her husband married her
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
Important 70 Mothers.
Considerate Boy

Considerate Boy.
Mother-Now, Tommy, how often do
you want me to speak to you about
that horrid whistle of yours?
TOMMY amt particular, ma: suit
yourself.
The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-03-23
Do You Want to Know
What You Swallow?

There is a growing sentiment in this
country in favor Of MEDICINES OF KNOWN
COMPOSITION. 1t is but natural that one
should have some interest in the compo-
sition of that which he or she is expected
to swallow, whether it be food, drink or
medicine.
Recognizing this growing disposition
on the part OF the public, and satisfied
that the fullest publicity can only add to
the well-earned reputation of his medi-
cines, DR.. r.. V. Pierce, of Buffalo, N. Y,
has taken time by the forelock," as it
We're, and is publishing broadcast a list
OF all the ingredients entering into his
leading medicines, the Golden Medical
Discovery the popular liver invigorator.
stomach tonic, blood purifier and heart
regulator; also of his ''Favorite Prescrip-
ton" for weak, over-worked, broken
down, nervous and invalid women.
This bold and outspolen movement on
the part Of DR.. Pierce, has by showing
exactly what his well-known medicines
are composed of. completely disarmed all
harping critics who have heretofore I'M
justly attacked them. A little pamphlet
has been compiled, from the standard
medical authorities of all the several
schools of practice, showing the strongest
endorsements by leading medical writers
OF the several ingredients which enter into
pr Plerce's medicines. A copy of this
little book is mailed free to any one de-
string to learn more concerning the vau-
able native, medicinal plants which enter
into the composition of DIR: Pierce's med.
icines. Address Dr. Pierce as above
DR.. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets are tiny, sugar.
coated anti-bilious granules. They regulate
and invigorate Stomach, Liver and Bowels.
DO not beget tho pill habit" but cure
constipation. One or two each day for a
laxative and regulator three or four for an
active cathartic. Once tried always in favor
am nm OWEN AWAY, in copies Of
c1oS The Peoples Common Sense
Medical Adviser, book that sold to the ex. !
tent OF 100000 copies few
years ago, at $1.50 per copy.
Last year we gave away &H4sg
$50 600 worth OF these invalua. S1 Il
BILE books This year we shall EhofL1 q
give away $50. 900 worth of ~A Cd
them. Will you share in this vrdS<S kksgsass.lS
benefit If so, send only 81 NE1E6
one-cent stamps to cover, cost II
of mailing only for book in
stii paper covers, or 81 stamps -
TOR ciotii- bound. Address Dr. tx
&. v. Pierce, Buffalo, N. Y. 4
The Washington times., 1906-07-15

1anest, and although Tne piece was the
work of the skillful Papa Sardou, II
came out somewhat uninteresting ana
20 our insular thinking, not so pure as
puerile. HeIasi"