New-York tribune., 1920-01-02
Heavy New Year Toll of
Victims Feared in N. Y.
and Surrounding Towns
ails s to Materialize
5 More Reported Stricken
Woman's Life Is Saved at
Baltimore by Injection
of Bicarbonate of Soda

Warnings of sudden blindness. fol-
lowed by death, resulting from strange
''quor made up largely Of wood alcohol
seem to have taken effect and the ex-
pected toll of deaths of New Years
reVelers did not materialize. Five
new cases, however. Of alcoholic poison
ing, some of the victims being near
oeatn, were reported in Jersey Citv
and Brooklyn.
Following the reports of these new
cases the authorities are seeking the
many additional arrests are exnected I
United States District Attorney LEROY
". Ross, Of Brooklyn, announced YES
cerday that he has asked for a greatly
increased force of Investigators and
predicted many new arrests of traffick
ers in poison whisky. Some Of the
crews IN possession Of his office, he
SAID, were in connection with the still
which was discovered in the ga
rage rags at ~ Woodruff Street, Brooklyn.
united States Marshal Power will also
De asked to swear in additional dep
utles, it was said, who will comb Lonr
Island and Brooklyn for illicit liquor
stills where whisky" is manufactured.
Flood of "Tips' Received.
Many anonymous Communications
District Attorney Ross and by other
officials regarding whisky rings" and
the information contained in these let
ters will be investigated.
Six patients in the General and St.
Mary's hospitals, Passaic, suffering
from wood alcohol poisoning, were re-
ported yesterday to be doing we'll.
Chief of Police Gustave Schmidt said
that agents of the Department Of Jus
tlce will not take up the cases O.; sa-
loonkeepers and other persons held by
the Passac authorities in connection
with the sale of wood alcohol until
after. the local authorities have dis
posed of the cases. The police believe
that their quick action has resulted in
the stopping Of the traffic in wood alco-
hol. Whisky taken in raids is being
held at Passaic Police Headquarters
and quantities of it will be analyzed.
Hyman Morris, of 1877 Passaic Street,
who is alleged to have bought the
whisky" and distributed it, and who
is one of those under arrest, is said to
have destroyed all the liquid he bought
soon after the first death from wood
alcohol poisoning was reported. The
authorities, however, confscated twenty
gallons of the liquor in Garfield
Former Newark Dealer Held
After six new cases of wood alcohol
poisoning had been discovered in New
ark, the police of that city searched a
building formerly occupied as saloon
at 24S Orange Street, and seized eighteen
empty fve-gallon tins found there Ju-
'us Amsterdam, former proprietor of
the saloon. was arrested, charged with
selling adulterated liquor. Julius Pit
scher: proprietor of q saloon at 466
Broad Street, who said that he had
bought $4,000 worth of liquor from
Amsterdam recently, also was arrested
Michael Griffith, one of the wood alec
hol patients, told the police he got his
drinks from Pitscher.
Clarence Jordan, nineteen years old,
OF 386 Bergen Avenue, Jersey City, was
taken to the City Hospital early yes
terday, suffering from wood alcohol
poisoning. He was found in an uncon-
scious condition by Patrolman Wolf.
An effort is being made to learn where
he obtained the liquor. Martin Fla
herty, thirty-four years old, who had
been celebrating the passing Of the
year 1919, was brought to the hospital
in serious condition from excessive
Indulgence.
The police of Brooklyn were called
Hicks Street. During the afternoon
he was removed from his home TO the
Long Island College Hospital. So seri-
Gus was his condition that the police
were unable to learn from him where
he had obtained the poisonous drink.
Other victims reported by the New
York City authorities wero James
Gregory, nineteen years old, of 55l
Nostfand Avenue, Brooklyn, found un-
ues, near st. Johns Hospital to which
place he was evidently trying to make
his way. DR.. Mcdonald diagnosed the
case as wood alcohol poisoning. Charles
Smith, living in Fourth Street, Staten
island, was found unconscious at High
and Washington streets, Brooklyn, and
taken to the Long Island College Hos
pital, where DR.. Adams pronounced It
case of poisoning from drinking wood
alcohol.
An announcement by Dr. Carlisle
Lentz, Of the Johns Hopkins Hospital
staff, Baltimore, gave hope of check
ng the fatalities from wood alcohol
poisoning. BY the simple expcdient
of injecting into vein OF the arm a
solution Of bicarbonate of soda, he
said, he had effected the cure Of a
patient dying from wood alcohol poi
3onlng. Further announcement of
other ingredients of the solution was
awaited by New York surgeons. The
patient was said to be Mrs. Catherine
Bristol, Of Baltimore.
Lee Nuell, forty-two, a broker Of
145 West Forty-ninth Street, was held
in $500 bail for examination on