Evening star., 1946-02-10
Fifty Years Ago
The Scientific American was o,o,

III Inc star OF January 81, 1896, as
saying: IN. Roger. the
The Origin Of inventor and manufac-
Ioxicobs turer of automobile car
riages. has made appli-
cation to the police authorities of Paris
for permit to run a number of horse
less carriages on the street, for hire at
the regular rate of 80 cents a drive or
40 cents an hour when hired on the
street. That horseless carriages
can be run cheaply enough to compete
with the regular fiacres is thus shown"
M. Roger, it seems. really was starting
something taxicab industry, no
less.
A personal advertisement in The
Star for February /, 1896, announced
that: Five dollars will be
Mystery paid and no questions asked
Hinted for letter dropped on
Ninth. H or North Capitol
streets on the morning of January 25."
Who wrote the lost missive? To whom
was it addressed? How did it happen to.
be dropped? An Agatha Christie Of
half century ago might have based a
best-selling who dunnit" on these ques-
tions. The advertiser was q detective
agency, and five dollars in those days
was quite a lot of money.
y + =
In The Star Of February 8, 1896, there
appeared notice telling how: Virginia
S. Wash
Immediate Descendants" lngton n d
OfFirst President M ary l..
Of Portsmouth, Ohio, representing them
selves as immediate descendants of
George Washington, have written to the
Secretary of the Interior, offering to sell
to the Government a number of relics"
of the Father of His Country. Among
these Is snuff box presented to Jeffer-
son by Washington and later returned
to the latter's heirs" who, allegedly,
about 1870. had presented a sword and
cane to Congress but had mislaid "the
letter Of thanks" received from the Ma
tional Legislature. Since Washington
had no children Of his own. the i'm
mediate descendants" must have been.
at best. collateral, but Virginia S. and
Mary l.. may have thought differently
quite honestly.
Miss Corinne Parker of the city," ex-
planned The Star for February 4, 1896,
"is with Miss Olga
LocoI Actress Nethersole at the Hotel
Safe Metropole, Phil adel-
phia. She, among
others, assisted in saving Miss Neither
sole's valuables at the dreadful fire Sun
day morning at the La Fayette Hotel,
Philadelphia" The 'valuables" includ-
ed "the collie dog Barrie, who is greatly
priced by Miss Nethersole and who was
greatly frightened" by the blaze. Miss
Corinne, seemingly. came through the
excitement undisturbed and was ready
for further achievement behind the
footlights.
"A sensation has been caused at Knox
vile, Tenn, by the deathbed confession
of Lizzie Hickman,
Wrong Mon who says that Ike
Mob's Victim Wright was the mur-
derer. of Edward
Manis who was robbed there of $1,100
and killed 10 years ago" Thus opened
in The Star for February S. 1896, re-
consideration of an ancient crime which
continued: "At the time Lee Sellers was
arrested for the murder. A mob took
him to the county bridge and swung
him up. Sellers got loose from the moose
and tried to escape by running along
the top of the bridge. His body was
riddled with bullets and he fell rs feet
into the Tennessee River, dead. Wright,
who turns out to be the real murderer,
is at large and an effort will be made
to arrest him.
tk NJ
On the front page of The Star Of
February s, 1896, there was displayed an
article alleging:
Russidn Advances News has been re-
In Kored ceived here from
Korea that indi-
Gates that serious trouble may be ex-
pected early in the approaching spring.
through the advances of Russia into the
country" The cabinet Of Korea, it was
suggested. now claim to have reliable
information to show that the murder
of the Korean Queen was long pre-
meditated and that Count Muira was
sent to Korea for the express purpose
Of making away with her. Notwith-
standing this knoWleficH three irnorant