The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-09-29
DRINKS LIQUOR
TOFORGET HIS
POVERTY; DIES
Machine Age Drives Expert
TeIegrapher to Want
and Grave.
LEAVES TEN CHILDREN
Police Investigate to Find If
Booze Was Poison;
JobIeSS 18 Months.

Multiplexes, those automatic te-
legraphers, clicked their song of
city bustling in activity today.
But in city morgue lay vic
tim OF their song, while in a brick
cottage at 407S RooKwood avenue
we're ten children made fatherless
by it.
They, the mechanical bearers of
news and market ups and downs,
with the help OF prohibition booze,
had written thirty" for Scott F.
Dickerson, as, one of the best tele-
graph operators in the middle west.
Dickerson was found dead in his
bed al his home at 2:11 a. m. to-
day by his wife, Mrs. Emma Dick
erson. A quart bottle of alcohol,
liquor that is being tested for poison
by city chemists, was near his bed
side.
Couldn't Face Want
"He lust couldn't face the winter
without job declares the Oldest
son, Neville, "a, caddy at High
land Country CLUB.
That, one and one-half years of
tramping from place to place to get
some kind of work and then three
weeks of heavy drinking when a
second winter faced him with eleven
mouths to feed, is the story of
Dickerson.
A telegraph operator since 16
years of age, Dickerson was known
as one of the fastest men working
with or without bug"
He had twenty-three years serv-
ice with one company. But one and
one-half years ago. as the depres-
sion sent stock prices to low levels
and things became panicky, the au-
tomato telegrapher took his place.
Loses Job, Home
Any schoolboy could run one and
so Dickerson lost his job.
His home went with the job. His
savings we're gone.
He fought back He took off his
white collar" He worked with
soft hands on the city's made
work gangs to get baskets OF
groceries.
That was last winter and only
mild winter. and the few dimes that
his two sons, Neville and woodrow,
earned on the city's golf courses,
kept the family of ten together.
Then the chill of autumn warned
Dickerson of new winter and three
weeks ago he began drinking.
Son Aids Search
1--WE don't know where he got it.
But I think 1 can find out" de-
clared Neville, as he pledged to
help the police locate the speak
easy where the possible poison
liquor might have been purchased.
He was all right nearly all day
Wednesday. Then in the evening
he began drinking. He didn't drink
more than a couple of ounces before
he became wild eyed. We put him
to bed. Mother heard him Snor-
ing and then 1t seemed like the
shores were louder. She didn't know
Ill WAS tic OCdlil AcbNACs A'SNAAASt
the oldest son, said.
Physicians said Dickerson had
been dead two or three hours when
his body was found.
Police began the hunt for the
seller OF the alcohol.
Climax of Bad Luck
Mrs. Dickerson was Frustrated by
the tragedy.
It was the climax of series of
tough breaks for the Dickersons.
Two months ago Edward Dicker-
son, Z. lost an eye when he was
struck by the heel of a shoe thrown
by another boy.
A $500 insurance policy of Dick
erson's was kept paid by the family
BY dropping the insurance on his
children.
Rent is owing on the home in
which they live.
Daughters Leave School
The daughters, Marea and Anna
belle. II and is, quit Shortridge high
school because of lack of funds.
Other children surviving are Vel
don, %; Woodrow, 10; German, 10;
Lamar, 10; Edward, Z; Jessie Jean,
S, and Jimmy, 3.
And as the automatic telegraph
ers sing their song of the Morse
code today relatives of their victim
plan funeral arrangements and po-