Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-01-14
STRANGE STORY
OF AN AGED
MURDERER
CAPTURED AFTER CHASE
OF THlRTY-0NE YEARS
Nebraska Congressman Does
Not Think Very Highly Of the
Abilities Of the Great Rail-
road Managers,
The Morning journal Bureau,
1929 Pennsylvania avenae. n. w.
washington. d. c., Jan. II,

Washington, D. c., Ian. II.
Accused Of committing murder
thirty-one years ago near Stanton.
Nebr, Charles w. Wells, alias yam
kee' Allen, was arrested a few days
ago in Nansemond county Virginia.
and was lodged in Jail at suffolk,
pending word from Nebraska author
tiles.
Wells was interviewed In his cell
and made a full confession Of the
killing, which he says was done in
se1f-defense. Now and then tears
would course over his furroWed
cheeks and trickle down the long
white beard of the old man as he
told of the tragedy and his subsequent
experiences.
Wells will be ~ years old in March.
His wife. who IS GA years of age and Il
native Of Switzerland, was in the cell
with her husband, and she suggested
some details which had been forgotten
by the aged prisoner.
The victim was Thomas Schuter. A
COW which had been bought from
Wells was the origin Of the trouble.
Failing to collect the price. Wells
went to get the COW. Schuter, after
some words, snapped his gun at Wells.
but it missed fire. Then Wells shot
Schuter dead. Owing TO the feeling
against Wells by the foreign element
in the then frontier town Wells He'd.
His attorney advised him to leave.
Wells walked and ran about -
miles TO Sioux City. Ia, in a single
night and day. Later he went to
Manitoba, and thence to Oswego, N.
Y. In WHICH city he lived several
years. He moved to Virginia twenty
seven years ago. and since that tim
has resided in Nansemond county nea
B%oxelder. where he has farmed and
acquired a competence. Wells says
that a relative who want his honey
wrote to the Nebraska authorities
concerning his Whereabouts.
1T seems to me-, said representa-
tive George Norris, Of Nebraska, that
the eminent abilities Of railroad man
ayers have been overrated. ! doubt
If they are greater thar other men.
Their business methods don't impress
me. | am assured, for instance, that
out in our country the most ordinary
rules Of business management are not
followed by the railroad managers.
They have busy seasons and then sea-
sons of slack business, They know
when the busy time Of the year may
be expected, and when the slack.
1T would Seem that in the time Of
fight business they would repair
their plants. fix uD the roadbed
where needed, have airs and engines
put In shape, and then when the busy
season opened be in shape TO move
freight at the lowest cost and in most
expeditions fashion. Well, they don't
do anything like that. They neglect
the maintenance and repair work
when II ought to be done. and then
Ntl,r I.txf,.Aap IS ..4aarty0 shave flI
trouble and inability to care for it.
All that strikes me as wrong.
1T takes a car load of lumber from
the Pacific coast three months. on the
average. to get to Nebraska destina-
ton. Don't believe it? Well, It's
trne. nevertheless. Why, at Clay CEN
ter. in my district, there is a big con-
Germ THAI manufactures incubators-
makes more of them than any other
establishment in the country. A big
Chicago lumbeTman told me of an
experience sending this concern lum-
Der. IT ordered "A car load as a SAM
pie and he had 1t forwarded. 1t o
three months for the delivery to ne
made and when the sample got there
the season was passed n the manu-
facturers told him they couldn't take
any more and refused to place further
orders. That meant hat an industry
was shut out of its opportunity To 40
business. Lumbermen assured me
that it was not an exceptional case
1t was just an average one,
The men who actuallN u the
railroads. proceeded Mr.. Norris,
don't have any real authority. They
can't do anything. Up at the top there
is somewhere a man who exercises an
the real authority, and he is fully rs
much interested in the operation OF
the stock market as in the manage
ment of his freight service. SO the
freight rains get overlooked in the
busy season. and we have a ear ram
inc on our hands Down at the DOT
tom / am convinced there is as much
acknowledgement as anything else in
it,"