The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-06
Gives Throttle Limit and Tears Through Masked and Armed Men, Who Open Fire Engine Stalls, and One Occupant of, Gar Is Killed In Road Battle.
Heroine Notifies Authorities of Tragedy and Starts Hunt for Murderers- Then Hurries Other Wounded to Nearest Re- lief -$4, 900 the Prize.

lief $4,OoO the Prize. l Burlington, N. J. Oct. 6-Ordered I to stop or die by twelve masked high ly country road at Astion, near here, l yesterday afternoon, Mrs Elsie R. l Smathers of Hammonton, who was | driving a touring car containing her ! father, her uncle and her chauffeur, I stepped on the gas throttle and slam | med straight through them.
 | At the same instant the twelve men 1 cut loose with. their guns at point I blank range. Shot three times, Mrs. l Smathers sat- straight at the wheel
 and kept giving the motor all it would | take, while the chauffeur, J. M Rig Hey, reached for a; revolver under the front seat.
 ] Seven Bullets Into Chauffeur !, He got 1t at just about the moment l the engine stalled and the auto stop | ped after leaving the outlaws 200 feet
 behind. While Mrs, Smathers coolly
 set about starting the engine again.
 the twelve. yelling ran down the road. I Then Rigley stood up in the car and I dropped his revolver on them While
 they hesitated he began to shoot. The
 bnndits parsed only moment and
 then concentrated their Aims on him, l d-opping him with seven bullets in I various parts of his body 1 Whether or not it was at this time
 Mrs. Smathers uncle. Henry D. Rider.
 of Wisconsin, who was visiting her
 father. died witt, a bullet through his
 brain. is not known. It might have
 been at the first volley. @' | Mrs. Smathers' father, A. D. Rider of Hammonton, President of the New
 Jersey Cranberry Growers Associa-
 ton, known as the Cranberry King was shot twice through the checks.
 MT. Rider is sixty. He and his broth CT who was killed, sat in the tonnean Mps. Smathers, however, did not know anyone except the chauffeur | and herself had been hit at this tIme.' Despite her hurts. after she had nurs- ed the engine back to life. amid the shower of singing bullets. she gave it a stream Of gas again.
 Woman Stuck to Mans Task The car with the body of the dead man slumping in the excitement UT no- ticed in the back seat, leaped ahead just as the pursuit, with revolvers cracking and voices screaming curses, was tearing down upon it. As soon as pluckyF Mrsa smathers got under way this time she kept to 1t, took turn on two wheels and tore over the road a couple of miles before she stopped. Turning then. for the first time she
 saw the limp body of her uncle in the tonneau andt her father reclining. weak from the loss Of blood from the ragged punctures in his cheeks. against the cushions.
 The 'Cranberry King still was clutching a bag that held the s4,ooo1
 In small currency-for the fortnight- lS payroll of his 800 pickers. After she had learned of her un- cle's death and assured herself that her father was not fnortally hurt and the chauffeur was still alive, Mrs. Smathers, apparently unmindful of
 the three bullets still in fieshy parts of
 her body, hurried to a nearby farm
 house.
 [ There ~she telephoned first to a
 doctor and then to Sherin Stecher, De-
 tective Parker and Prosecutor J. H.
 Kelsey. While she returned to the
 bullet-riddled auto an alarm was sent
 out by the officials for bandit hunt.
 Up to late last night that was boot less.
 Never Feared Wild West Hold Up. s The body of Henry D. Rider was left at the point where Mrs. SmathersJ stopped the auto and was not to have | been removed until the necessary au- thority had been granted Mrs. sSmathers her father, and Rigley, the | chauffeur, whose wounds were, serious, were taken to their homes in Ham, monton. ' The Cranberry King always went to the bank alternate Thursdays to get the s4.0o0 payroll. Usually he made the trip accompanied only by his chauffeur, who carried the revolver he used yesterday, more as mat ter of form than anything else, as the days of wild west holdups, even in the wild west. were we'll over
 It was mere chance that caused | MT. Rider to take his brother with | him, and the same sort of char 3e that caused Mrs. Smathers to go as chauffeuse.
 As 1t turned out, Mrs. Smathers was the only member of the party who was able to give the county prosecu- tor and the police any sort of clear idea of the tragic adventure.
 She said they had made the trip across the uninhabited country. to the bank without seing anything sus- picious and until their reached a par ticularly lonely spot at Atsion, which is one of the widest sections here abouts, their return trip had been upeventful.
 They were running along the country road there, taking things easy, talking and laughing. much as most motor parties do when on a pleasure jaunt on bracing fall day, when, from the concealment of un- derbrush. the 12 masked men, with | threatening revolvers, suddenly pop ped into view, like figures from the pages of dime novel /
 The men, roughly clc1, their masks fmprovised from handkerchiefs and black bits of cloth, had laid in am- bush, half on one side of the road and half on the other. They entirely surrounded the car when they shout ed roughly: