Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1909-08-28
All Roads Picketed by Guards and All Tele-
phone Wires, but One Private, Cut
RUMoR OF OPERATION TO BE PERFORMED
Upon the Worlds Greatest Railroad Collapsble
Cot and Two Tanks of Oxygen Taken to the Premises
Three Strangers in Special Train Rushed to the
Hartman House Late Friday Afternoon

discourteous but l deem it best to
keep silent"
Ford, the superintendent, deprecated
the significance of the arrival of the
tanks supposed to contain oxygen.
There was an ice plant on the place,
bility that the contents of the tanks
was carbonic acid gas used in the
manufa cture of ice. He was not sure
OF this. however. The cot, he said,
might have been taken to camp
near the house where some workmen
are living. But of this he was not sure,
either. On the whole, the impression
grows that an operation of some char
acter is to be performed on Mr.. Harri-
man, but further details as well nigh
impossible to obtain.
Correspondents in Three Groups.
The correspondents on the scene are
guard day and night, and squeezing
dry every available source. of news.
One camp has been established here
at Arden, another at Turner, the rail-
road station, and another at the base
of the incline railway. No one enters
or leaves the estate without being
subject to inquiry.
Vain Attempt to Reach the House.
In vain attempt to reach the house
itself, a carriage was procured this af-
ternoon and driven past the guards up
the winding road to the summit of the
Ramapo mountains, where the mag
nificent Hartman home nestles in the
woods. Within q stones throw of the
house the vigilant superintendent stop
ped the vehicle and said positively that
no one was allowed to enter the
grounds Immediately surrounding the
mansion. Then he politely but firmly
requested the party to turn back.
which was done.
A glimpse of the grounds, however,
failed to reveal any unusual prepara-
tions or a spirit of unrest among the
members of the Hartman family. Mrs.
Gerry and the two, unmarried Harri-
man girls, accompanied by Mr.. Gerry,
with A. Hartman, the oldest Harri-
man boy, and Roland Harriman's tu-
tor, were seen with tennis racouets
going down back of the house to the
courts.
All Dark at Nine O'clock.
II Mr.. Hartman did spend part of
the day outdoors he had a pleasant
outing, SO far as the weather was con-
cerned, for the day was almost ideal
and from his porch he can command a
magnificent view of the surrounding
country. But tonight the great stone
house doomed darkly on the crest of
the hills against a brilliant moonlit
sky. What was transpiring there no
one outside the estate knew. Early in
the evening the big electric light in
the front vestibule could be seem clear
ly from the valley below, but about 9
o'clock this was extinguished.
No word came from the house and
no one descended either to Turner or
to Arden. II the two men who as
cended the mountain to the house dur
ing the day were physicians, none but
the family knows, for neither weuld
tell who they were.
Three Strangers Rushed In on Special
Train.
About o'clock a special train con-
sisting Of an engine with a combina-
ton baggage and smoker and one pas
senger coach, rushed through Turner.
and. 1t was afterward learned stopped
at Goshen, fifteen miles west of here.
About the same time Mr.. Gerry came
down the mountain in his automobile
and was last seen headed toward
Goshen. In about an hour ne returned
with three men in the car. The ma
chine ascended the steep winding road
to the residence without stopping and
the identity Of Mr.. Gerry's passengers
could not be learned.
These three strangers In addition to
the two who arrived earlier in the day
makes five who were brought to the
Hartman house with every evidence
OF haste. Whether or not they were
surgeons or nurses could not be ascer
famed, but everything points to the
1act that the worlds greatest railroad
man is about to undergo an operation.