Brownsville herald. [volume], June 23, 1929, SOCIETY, Page TWO, Image 16

About Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current

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CO-ED’S LIFE IS
BARED IN DEATH
Theora Hix Was Thought
Unromantic; Snook De
voted Husband
BY BONITA WITT
COLUMBUS, O., June 22 —“Still
waters run deep. ’
The wisdom of this ancient adage
impresses itself upon the minds of
the friends of Miss Theora Hix, 25,
Ohio State medical student, whose
brutally battered body was found on
a loneiy rifle range, near here, as
they seek to pierce the mystery of
her double life.
To her friends she appeared a seri
ous-minded. studious girl who neith
er invited nor imparted confidences
and who indulged in a few social
activities. Her dress was modest and
she seemed to shun attention. Her
•‘dates'’ were far from numerous
except for a brief time when she ac
cepted the attentions of Marion T.
Myers, university extension horti
culturist.
Refused Marriage Offer
Theora confessed to her room
mates. Alice and Beatrice Bustin.
with whom she lived in an attrac
tive apartment across from the cam
pus that Meyers had asked her to
marry him. but added. "I refused to
marry him because I don t want to
get married now.*'
Closelv following vord of her
death at the hands of a fiend who
mutilated her body beyond recogni
tion, her friends were astounded to
learn tha* she had been intimate
with Dr. James H. Snook, veterinary
professor at the school for the past
three years. According to his state
ment to police Theora had been liv
ing with him at a drab rooming
house a few blocks from the school,
from time to time, since February.
Girl of filch Ideals
Her roommates, the Bustin sisters:
declare they never heard her men
tion Dr. Snook's name. Alice Bustin
Theora’s classmate, says, “Theora
wtus, to all appearances, a girl of the
highest Ideals. She was an excel
lent student, a deep thinker Peo
ple meeting her for the first time
were apt to think her queer, but
♦hat was only her reticence. She
used to go to dinner about 5:20
o’clock when I was on my way to
work at the hospital and when I
returned about nine she usually was
In our room. I thought she went
to the movies or the library in the
Intervening hours—I never knew of
her intimacy with Dr. Snook The
night she was killed was the only
night she ever stayed out all night.”
BORDER TOWN
(Continued from page 1.)
Who looked marveled and many
•Wept in unison.
On this manifestation of grief the
■people went wild and there was a
rush for the spring with the peon
and his image in the lead. Arrived
there, the peon chanted a hymn,
fell upon his knees before the
•spring and thrusting his arm into
the aperture, left, it there for a sec
ond and when hp removed It, won
der of wonders, the waters hurst
forth and the spring regime^ its
functions and. 1t is said, the peon,
with his waxen image and his poek
*ets filled with gold which had been
hoarded for many, many years,
went his way rejoicing.
I first heard this story related In
1918 by an old man who has lived
all of his life at Agrta Leguas. He
believes to this day as do many of
the good people of Agun Leguas.
that this was a blessing sent to
them in their hour of need by their
patron saint, and I. out of respert
for every man's faith, agreed with
him that such a miracle might hap
pen, that it happened at tha wed
ding feast when Christ turned wa
ter Into wine; that a similar dem
onstration occurred on the lonely
hills of Mexico when Juan Diceo
saw the vision of the Angel of
Guadalupe there are many in
stances on record in the history of
the church of heavenly visitations
In time of great stress, art then I
promptly forgot the story.
Three months ago I was visiting;
a verv dear old lady at Rio Grande
Citv. the daughter of a physician
who came out from Georgia in 1RS4
and settled in Mier. Mexico, and
where this old lady was reared. We
were discussing Mexico and its past
and during the conversation the
- town of Agua Lecuas was mention
ed She was familiar with its his-;
tory. her father having been cabled
there on numerous occasions pro
fessionally and she accompanying,
him I was about to relate to her
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:
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Start an 8r; tom- ASSOCIATION
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\ * Kj tr : 'irV T*
• WMPW^BMaWWWa^MBMOTMIII ■ ~ ~ ~ " I
5. Top. left. Throra Hix, sla‘n ro-ed; right. Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Hix. parents of the murdered girl; below,
left, Matio T. Meyers, without hat, O. S. l\ faculty mrnibrr, shown leaving county Jail at Columbus,
after questioning; renter. Mrs. James II. Snook, and. ri-ht. James II. Snook, who admitted intimacies
with ihc ..Iain girl.
LIASON STUNS
CLASS MATES
# _____
She Had Been Known As
Conscientious, Quiet
Devoted Student
faculty of the university since his
admission of the lcve affair.
The Deepest Mystery
What could have changed the
quiet, self-sufficient girl Into a
woman of experience In whom the
passions blazed so fiercely that she
permitted herself to be drawn Into
a liason. w’hlch. If discovered, would
have meant her dismissal fron:
school and the death of her life-lon
ambtlion?
That Is the question Theora'r
parents ask us, almost prostrated by
their grief, memotles of the child
hood of the eirl for .whom they sac
rificed that she might have a good
education, rise to add still further to
their sorrow. They seek some ex
planation of their daughter’s de
votion to a man of whose very ex
istence they were ignorant. Meyers
she mentioned in her letters, buf
never Dr. Snook. It seems incredible
to them that the girl who had
scorned the attention of male ad
mirers and once boasted that rre
could take care of any man.*’
should have had secret love affairs
Still wa*ers which ran deep led to
the trade end of the young student
nnd baffled police when they at
tempted to solve the mystery of her
murder.
As her parents prepare to take the
body back to the family burial
ground at Binghampton. N. Y., stu
dents who knew' her as n conscien
tious. unromantic associate gather
In hurhed grouos to ponder over the
Ufe which disclosed itself to the
world only in death.
-aw-.
j * ___
i
Dur.ng the past six years Thcora »
was separated from her parents save
for brief intervals in the summer,
since they lived in Bradentown. Fla. I
They knew nothing of the details of ,
the tragedy until they reached Co
lumbus after the murder. Her fath
er. an educator, sobs ns he says, ‘ She
was by herself meet of the time.
She never went out with men and
seemingly had no use for them >
long as we ran remember.”
Led Quiet ‘‘Married" Life
Persons who lived nt tlie “love
nest" which Dr. Snook maintained i
1 the story of the weeping Image ^
when she interrupted me with a
laugh and then she told me the real
facts regarding the incident.
In Camargo. Mexico, at that time
there was one of the finest gold and
silversmiths in all of Mexico. Ho,
was. she said, far superior to any
artisan she had ever heard of. not
excepting a certain Hiram Abiff of
Biblical fame. He was also as un
scrupulous as he was gifted and
during the drouth of the 1900’s con
ceived a rlever scheme to defraud
the people of Agua Lcguas. He took
into the plot with him another
schemer. Together the two succeed
ed in putting over the hoax of th”
weeping image, said image being a
wax doll m whose flowing and wav-,
inc blonde hair a bag of salt was
hidden, from which two tiny pipes
ran down to the eyes. When the
fingers were moistened and rubbed
into the salt, the mineral would melt
and the fluid would run down
through the pipes to the eyes and
the image could be made to weep
at the will of the clever operator
It was her belief, she told me. that
the man who acted the part of the
peon and carried the image, slipped
into A«ua Leeuas or the night be
fore his public appearance and
plugged flic hole from which the
soring gushed and or returning
there very cleverly removed the1
plug end let the waters rush out
agnln. n t-ick that nrght havp[•
caused most cf ns to stand in awe-!
struck wonderment.
There lived a priest at Camargo
about this tioip. Ho Vizard the story
of the miraculous visitation and in
vestigated He. it is said, traced
the story to its ’air. found the doll
and its maker left town He has
never returned, so far as is known
and the father who unraveled the
mystery, rather than wound th°
hearts of the faithful souls of Aeua
Lesruas, kept the secret from them
and only related it to very intimate
friends, one ot whom was the old
ladv who told It to me
Thus ends the story of the Ween
ing Santita of Our t r.r .- < ? ,v:ue
Lcguas. The snring has never .since
for Miss Hix seldom saw her and re
called her as a plain, rather un
communicative girl who supposedly
hcliwd her “husband" in his work as
a 'salt demonstrator." Even the
landlady. Mrs. M. M. Smalley, who
rented them the little room with its
white iron bed. dresser, one rorker.
and pink ruffled curtains, declares,
T never had any reason to suspect
they were not man and wife. They
were quiet and never drank ”
At the university Theora enjoyed
the respect of both students and
faculty. She worked at campus Jobs
gone dry. It Is still the panacea for;
all of Nuevo Lccn and the eastern
half of Tamaulipas. To dip the
hands in the waters of Acua Lcguas
Is to heal them of all sores. If the
hair ia falling out. a ducking in the
waters will stop it. If your body
aches with rheumatism, a balh in
the blessed spring will case it. What
the waters contain in the way of
medicinal minerals I am in no po
sition to state, but I am of the
opinion that, like many hundreds
nf ether springs along the Rio
Grande in the section extending i
extending from Guerrero opposite
Zapata. Texas, to Mier. Mexico op
posite Roma, Texas, the waters arc
strongly surcharged with a com
bination of salt, iron and sulphur :
three minerals with curative quali
ties too well known to no~d mention
here. Salt, we know .is Rood for
sores, iron Is wonderful as a tonic
for the blood, and sulohur is both a
purgative and a heating medicine
therefore it is readily understood
why the Soring of Guadalupe is be
lieved to be of miraculous origin*
Edinburg Fruit
Growers Plan To
Organize Tonight
'Special to The TImr.ld*
EDINBURG, dun" 22. -Officials1
of the Edinburg Fruit Growers As-j
sociation have announced a meeting i
[or 8 p. m Saturday at the Klossner 1
build n«r here, at which a. committee J
report will be made r.s to the steps!
taken in effecting a complete and •
permanent organisation for the as
reeiation. which is vet *n the early
stages of its development.
\ report aho will be heard in re
card to the work done by the com
mittee irn'estigating the various
pruit marketing organisations of the
Galley.
More than too members are ex
arcted. to at'^nd th" meeting.
-I
and lately had been employed in the !
office of the dean of the graduate
school. At various times she had
worked for both Meyers and Dr
Sncok. Meyers declared he threat - <
ened to discharge her if she did not
cease receiving the attentions of
Snook.
Although Snook freely admitted !
his intimacy with Miss Hix when
taken into custody after the murder,
his wife, who is the mother of his
small daughter, has declared she
never heard of Th«ora Hlx.
Snook has been removed from the
.
(Continued from Page One.)
Haus’ hobby is accompanying offi
cers in running down criminals.
They were awakened by an ap
proaching horseman, and decided
to investigate him Just for the
pastime of it. A search revealed
a hundred rounds of ammunition,
a shot pun. a rifle, toilet articles
and other contraband obviously
headed for the Mexican border.
Taken to San Benito
He was taken to San Benito,
lodged in jail there and with that
performance. Jim Collins could
have called it a day. for he had
turned his catch o\er to county
authorities, but he wasn't through.
He worked all day with other offi
cers and they were rewarded with
the finding of cached goods at va
rious places from San Benito to
Los India?. Si:: men subsequently
were arrested and from these offi
cers learned their occupation; the
band stoic articles, smuggled them
across the Rio Grande, traded tin
loot for liquor, brought it back and ;
sold it to bootleggers and legged
it themselves.
And that night Jim Collins climb
ed into his saddle again and rode
away towards the Rio Grande on
another mission for his government.
Perhaps he would be gone one or
two or three days. And as he rode
away, he strongly suggested one of
those stalwarts of former days now
pictured only in books.
SUrT FOR DAMAGES
WON BY DEFENDANT
(Special to The Herald'
EDINBURG. June 22—A $54 000
damage suit brought by C. \V. Dawes
against the Donna Irrigation Dis
trict resulted in a decision for the
defendant here Fridav. The plain
tiff alleged that injuries including a
broken leg and a partially severed
WTlst were suffered by him when his
car overturned m Teakar* water
from a broken siphon, which had
3vemm the road.
The defense maintained It was
possible to see the leakage water for
'one distance
Attorneys were H R Galbraith
for the plaintiff and Walter Weaver
for the defense. OalbrRith said he
will fil® motion for a new trial.
KHARKOFF. (,/pi — The * gav
payou.” or secret politiral police
recently broke up a band here
which specialised in forgerl trader
union membership tirVets The
cards sold for from 75 rents to
51 earh end entitled holder' to
obtain brrad, avoid certain tnx"s
and to* vote.
__
115*1 TO HAVE TWO Rrnd
PARIR - Alan Fairsham. e Scot 7
f'et tall, had to b® provided with
fvn hedr. before he could s|®ep in a
local hotel.
HOT CHECKS
Every merchant receives his stare
of hot checks. Some get their monev
out of them . . . others do not. As
collect Ion specialists we are capable
of obtaining the money from any '
hot checks you may havj on hand.
We are rendering this service to
clients in all sections of the Valley.
Our charges are not high. Let ua
go Into the matter with you. Na
tional Collection Agency. Harlingen j
Texas. Over the First National
one 631. W. & Read.
I
There’s a Home
for You
In
LOS: IANOS
(The Ebonies)
.... and it’s the kind of a home
you've dreamed of—In a cool, beau
tiful residential section of desirable
people—Within easy walking dis
tance of the Brownsville school sys
tem and various churches. Only a
four-minute drive to downtown
Brownsville.
Drive out Falm Boulevard today—
it leads direct to the beautiful Los
Ebanos entrance. Judge for yourself ,
the desirability of owning a home of j
your own in this smart, sensibly re
stricted residential adidtlon.
%
ft
James-Dickinson Co.
OWNERS & DEVELOPERS
Realtors Brownsville
18 Years in the Lower Rio Grande Valiev
%
LONDON, fjflpi—Carrying out the
Idea that Piccadilly Circus is “the
center of the world." a clock that
will tell lime in any part of the
globe has been installed in the new
subway station at that locality. It
shows a narrow band of light
traveling across a map of the world
I on Mercator s projection.
DROWNS IN BEER KEG
SHEFFIELD. Eng—Four-year-old
i Esther Parson fell Into a beer keg
'and drowned.
PRAGUE. (AV-The historic Stra
hov monastery, founded m 1140. t»
to be purchased by the city and
| added to the public park on 1
Hill of Petrlr. The gardens of
old cloister are especially beauti
ful
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