Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-14

RippIes on the Current Of Life in the
Metropolis.

agreeable to the victims than any counter
felt operation seen on the stage. The rooms
of two Sheridan sisters in the Bronx was
raided two weeks ago. Last Saturday the
unwelcome looter returned with two saw
ings bank books which had been part Of the
loot on the occasion of the first visit. He
accompanied the bank books with a neatly
written note, in which he said: 81 could
not use these and l return them with
thanks"
Five hundred dollars worth of clothing,
500 in cash and two bank books had been
stolen. The young women were at dinner
tonight when the bell at the front door
was rung. Miss Margaret Sheridan when to
the door. There was nobody there but on
the threshold lay the two missing bank
books. With them was the note.
Pathos was the dominant note in a scene
enacted last week in the supreme court,
where a mother appeared In habeas corpus
proceedings to claim as her daughter a
f~ifteen-year-old girl whom she had not seen
since she handled her in arms as a yesr-old
infant. Mrs. Flora Avery, of Spearfish, S.
D., was the claimant, and she had come
thousands of miles to prove her right to
the custody of the girl, who in the writ
| was hdiilCu myIllG bbIDtIs tut tic idsN
two years this seemingly motherless child
had been an inmate OF a Catholic protectory
and the luminous on the officials Of that
institution had commanded them to bring
her into court in order that 1t might be
decided whether Mrs. Avery was her
mother. The dramatic episode of today
was a sequence of the arrest in this city
of Charles Barber, father of the girl and
former husband of Mrs. Avery. Barber
told his lawyer that he had a daughter in
an institution here and revealed his former
wife's address in South Dakota. This law
yer notified Mrs. Avery whose named had
been changed by marriage after her d.
vorce from Barber. The case was ad-
journed until Friday to give Mrs. Avery
an opportunity to prove her relationship.
st. Stephens Catholic church of Brook
Ign will lose $500 unless Rev. John G..
Fitzgerald, pastor of st. Stephens, can
learn the present residence of four former
parishioners, or show by indisputable evil
dence that they are dead. For four years
the priest has searched diligently for some
clue to their movements during that time,
but his efforts have not met with success.
Seventeen years ago the four men now
being sought, we're selected, with six others,
as subjects for life insurance policies in
which St. Stephens church was to be
named as the beneficiary. They were NJ.
s. Troy, J. NJ. White. s.. p. Gibbons and
c. G. Brown. All were young men, in the
best of health, and the insurance company
was glad to accept them at a low rate of
insurance. Policies on the 2O-year plan
were taken out on the young men. The pol
icy holders were not expected to pay any
- - A. NN - -
to leave the parish without informing the
pastor of the church and the insurance
company of any change of residence. When
Messrs. Troy, White, Gibbons and Brown
first moved out of the parish they gave
to Father Kilahy, who was pastor of st.
Stephens at the time the policies were is
sued, their new addresses. For a time the
records of the church showed where they
could be found, but for the last seven years
all trace Of them has been lost.
The son of a New York clergyman, whc
is in considerable demand as a camplgr
speaker for one. of the great parties, is
employed at the national headquarters OF
the party. Recently, when it was an
~nounced that a system of keeping tab
on the speakers was to be instituted, and
that those who proved ineffective were tc
be dropped. the boy wrote to his mother:
"Tell father he'd better not try to warn
over his old political speeches this year, "a
he does his sermons. He's got to give the
audience good, fresh talk, or Wen both b,
likely to lose our jobs"
Alostair Wilkie of Scotland, now %soiourn
ing in New York City. who has a growth o
whiskers over ten feet long. is being wooeC
by mail and personal visitation by severa
American girls, who would fain becom,
mistress of his great manor near Perth
Scotland. Through an error it was stated
that Mr., Wilkie was unmarried, and h
has been beseiged by letters from romanti
women.
But Mr.. wilkie laughs and will not b,
wooed or won, for, as he sagely put /
last night:
I'm a married mon and ken weel tina
nae mon can raise hope in the heart o.
lassie when he has wife and wee ones a
hame."
Mi. Wilkie is taking the letters as a grea
joke. He is in this city on a pleasure tri
after a tour of Canada. He will remain ii
town for a week or more.
! His beard is easily the longest in tn
world. He won the international prize 10
the longest growth of beard in q LondoI
competition recently. The hirsute growt'
is so elongated that he wears It tucke
5 away beneath his waistcoat. To ordinar
observers only the ordinary growth O
beard is apparent, but when he appears i
Highland costume he wears his bear
wound either around his neck or drape
artisticaliy about his body. Among his Scot
i fish acquaintance and friends in PERTH
c shire he is known as the modern Aaron.
Mrs, Alice Damp, aged Sc, mother c
, twenty-three living children. arrived /
= New York from the Isle of Wight, England
= and passed through the gates at the batter
= from Ellis island with eleven of them. sh
j was accompanied by five grandchildren, he
daughter, Mrs. George Warren and MI
Warren.
At the gate to meet her mother and sis
ter was Kathleen Warner, who had com
from New Haven and Mrs. Damp's sol
Arthur. % years old, who brought I'll
, greetings of his father, Alfred Damp /
Pittsburg, Pa.
: Another daughter of Mrs. Damp is II,
ing in New Haven and three more SOL
y are with the father in Pittsburg, while III
II remaining children are comfortably Marie