Holbrook argus., September 27, 1902, Image 7

About Holbrook argus. (Holbrook, Ariz.) 1900-1913

Image provided by: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

                
THE STAMPEDE Of DEATH
SEVENTY EIGHT NEGROES KILIFD
AND MANY INJURED
Hung Between Life and Death Board of Foreign
Missions Awarded Honey to Pay Damages
A River Steamboat Sunk Sacramento Murderer
Recaptured.
Suspended only by his hands, Mo
Naughtou Wright, a prominent mem
ber of the Chicago Board of Trade,
hung between life and death for twenty
minutes at tho top of a grain chute
in the Rock Island elevator. Making
a misstep, he had fallen into the chute,
but succeeded in clutching the edge.
The officers of the American Board
of Foreign Missions have announced
the receipt of $57,033, through the
State Department at Washington. The
amount is 25 per cent of the award
made to the board by the commission
now in session in China for losses on
mission money, in the Boxer outrages
of 1900.
The Stampede of Death
In an awful crush of humanity,
caused by a stampede in the Shiloh
negro Baptist church at Avenue Gaud
Eighteenth street last Friday night,
between sixty-five and seventy per
sons were killed and as many more
seriously injured. The catastrophe
occurred at 9 o'clock, just as Booker
T. Washington had concluded his
address to the national convention of
Baptists, and foi three hours the scenes
around the church were indescribable.
Dead bodies were strewu.in every direc
tion and the ambulance service of the
city was utterlv unable to move them
until after 1 o'clock. Dozens of dead
bodies were arranged in rows on the
ground outside of the house of worship
awaiting removal to the various under
taking establishments, while more than
a score lay on the benches inside.
The church is the largest one for
negroes in Birmingham and the pastor
says there were at least 2000 persons
in the edifice when the stampede be
gan. Instructions had been issued to
allow no more to enter, but the negroes
forced their way inside the building
and were standing in every aisle. Even
the entrance to the church was literal
ly packed.
Just as Booker T. Washington con
cluded his address, Judge Billou, a
negro leader from Baltimore, engaged
in an altercation with the choir leader
concerning an unoccupied seat,. and, it
is said, a blow was struck. Some one
in the choir cried, "They'refighting!"
Mistaking the word "righting" for
"fire," the congregation rose en masse
and started for the door. One of the
ministerslquickly mounted the rostrum
and admonished the people to keep
quiet. Ho repeated the word "quiet"
several times and motioned to his
hearers to be seated.
Again the excited congregation mis
took the word;"quiet" for "fire," and
renewed the struggle to reach the door.
Men and women crawled over benches
and fought their way into the aisles,
and those who had fallen were trampl
ed upon like cattle. The ministers
tried again and again to stop the stam
pede, but no power on earth could stay
the ' struggling, fighting mass of
humanity. The screams of women
and children added to the horror of the
scene, and through mere fright many
persons fainted and as they fell to the
. floor were crushed to death.
The level of the floor is about fifteen
feet from the ground and long steeps
led to the sidewalk from the lobby just
outside the main auditorium. Brick
walls extend on each side' of these
steps for six or seven feet and these
proved a veritable death trap. Negroes
who had reached the top of the steps
were pushed violently forward, and
many fell. Before they could move
others fell upon ttem and in fifteen
minutes persons were piled upon each
other to a height of ten feet. This
wall of struggling humanity blocked
the entrance and the weight of 1500
persons was pushed 'ragainst it. More
than twenty persons lying on the steps
underneath the heap of bodies died
from suffocation.
A Murderer Recaptured
Ira Jackson, the Sacramento mur
derer, who escaped from Officer Joy,
in Sau Francisco, on Saturday night,
was caught Sunday afternoon by the
authorities at San Jose as he got off
the San Francisco train at that point.
He will be sent to Sacramento.
Killed by a Street Car
William Godfrey was killed by a
street car at Sacramento, Sunday night.
It is thought he was drunk and lay
down on the track in a dark block and
the motorman did not see fiim until
the car was within twenty feet of him.
A River Steamboat Sunk
The river steamboat Lurline, struck
a rock near Waterford landing on the
Columbia river Sunday, and sank.
Her hold is full of water, but tho
steamboat men say she can easily be
raised. There was no casualties.
IT LOOKS LIKE BUSINESS NOW
Rear Admiral Coghlan to Take the
Command
The London Daily Mail says the gov
ernment has decided that the new
South African colonies are to be requir
ed to pay $500,000,000 towaid the cost
of the South African war. The colon
ies are , however, to be allowed ample
time in which to make this payment
It will not be collected until the ex
tension of trade and expansion of rev
enue permit. Consequently the loan
will not be floated for two or three
3'ears. Mining profits will probably be
taxed 10 per cent more than they were
before the war, and money will also be
obtained by granting all kinds of con
cessions and mineral rights.
CALIFORNIA LANDS
Speculators Grab at Least 250,000
Acres
State Mineralogist Aubury makes
the astonishing statement that during
the last few months at least 250,000
acres of public land in the mineralized
sections of California, and largely
mineral in nature, have been cabbed
by eastern speculators through the em
ployment of dummy locators. In the
tacts thus secured are included many
actual mineral claims, on which Cali
fornia miners have located and have
prepared to do the assessment work
necessay to perfect title under the
United States mining law.
The speculators, Aubury says, are
not even timber men. Thev have seen
that there is a great future for mining,
and that the surface of California,
having hardly been scratched over for
gold and other metals, there are un
told millions of dollars awaiting the
owners of these lands in the future.
The Mineralogist therefore advocates
having the public domain all withheld
from timber entry in this state until
there can be an inspection to deter
mine how the lands should be properly
classified, whether as timber, mineral
or agricultural, and he will move in
that direction.
Complaints have been received in
the office of the State Mineralogist
from miners in the counties of Siski
you, Shasta, Sierra, Plumas, Stanis-
j laus, Tuolumne, El Dorado and Cala
J veras concerning the operations of the
land grabbers in these counties. Hard-
ship has been inflicted upon miners
who are poor and to whom the filing
of a protest in a land office of the
United States means a journey of
scores of miles and the expenditure
of many dollars.
Auburry said that his first move
would be to put in the field in the
counties where the timber-claim specu
lators are operating all the field depu
ties the State Mining Bureau will per
mit. Skilled men will be sent out
with instructions to inquire carefully,
and thoroughly in order that the facts
relating to the several mining coun
ties may be put in his possession as
promptly and as accurately as possi
ble. This mass of data will iurnish
the basis of the representations to be
made to the Ueneral .Land Onice at
Washington.
SOUTH AFRICA MUST PAY
The Colonies Must Help Out With
$50,000,000.
Boston Rear Admiral Joseph B.
Coghlan has raised his flag on the
Olympia and awaits orders to proceed
to theIsthmus of Panama to assume
charge of affairs in that vicinity and
to command the fleet'of American war
ships assembling there. .
Kingston The British steamer La
Plata arrived here Sunday from Colon
bringing a large number of refugees
from the isthmus. It is reported that
owing to the fear ' of ' rebel attacks a
great many people are leaving Colon
and Panama. .The Colombian govern
ment is still sending reinforcements to
the isthmus and the Plata carried 1000
government troops from Savanilla to
Colon. The Colombian revolutionists
are said to be massing in the neighbor
hood of the railroad in the isthmus.
The refugees declare the situation at
Panama and Colon to be extremely
critical. The officers of the Plata say
they were informed while at Colon
that several liberal sympathizers have
been imprisoned at Panama because
they violated the order recently issued
by the government and appeared on
the streets of that city. Business at
Colon is entirely suspended.
The plan of the revolutionists would
seem to be to attack the government
forces without interfering with rail
road traffic over the isthmus.
Washnigton Secretary Moody said
that not a word of news had been re
ceived at the navy department, con
cerning affairs on the Isthmus ot Pana
ma. It was expected that the Panther,
with a battallion of marines, would
have reached Colon by Sunday, but
Mr. Moody said he had not heard of
the ship.
The Farmer's Bird Friends
Connecticut farmers found their
farms overrun with insect pests after
the birds had been practically destroy
ed and they finally secured the passage
of,laws to prevent their wanton de
struction. Furthermore, they saw that
the laws were enforced, Some of the
farmers even set out cherry and mul
berry trees, .'expecting that the fruit
ould attract to their fields birds which
would eat the bugs and worms that
injured their crops. This spring the
result of the past few years' care were
apparent, and flock? of a hundred
robins were not uncommon. As the
season advanced other birds appeared
in large numbers and were welcomed
It is an old error to suppose that
birds are the farmer's worst enemies
No doubt sometimes they injure
the crops ; but usually they attack the
insect pests.' Thirty robins will keep
five acres of potatoes free from ' b ugs,
The meadow lark, instead of hurting a
clover field, eats grasshoppers in clovei
time. The. bluebird, phoebe brown
thrasher, kingbird, house-wreri and
catbird are insect enters, and by their
services in the field they more than
pay for the small amount of fruit
they take to vary their diet.
Co-operators Aroused
According to the Pacific Fruit World,
which cannot be suspected of bias, as
an ally of the growers against com
mission men, "the war between the
Sacramento River Co-operating Fruit
Growers and the local commission men
is growing in bitterness. It is re
ported that the commission men noti
fied the growers last week that thev
would permit them to continue in
business if there was an absolute dis
solution of their association."
Commenting upon the brazen assur
ance thus displayed by the commission
men, the Fruit World adds that "this
ultimatum resulted in a meeting of
the Sacramento river growers Saturday
afternoon, when resolutions were
unanimously adopted stating that the
farmers would stand by their associa
tion' to the last extremity. It was
declared that rather than be bulldozed
as they expressed it, they would not
send a single crate of fruit or vege
tables to San Francisco. The growers
say that the reason of the present war
is that tho commission men foimed a
close ring to monopolize the fruit of
the city to the exclusion of all others,
with the result that they have dictated
terms to producers and retailers alike,
arbitrarily regulating prices and mak
ing the former stand the losses."
Well done for the co-operators! Of
course the commission men want "an
absolute dissolution of the association
o co-operators. ' '
Medicinal Qualities of Vegetables
,A physician in Florida Farmer
writes of the medicinal qualities of
vegetables which George P. Hall sum
marizes for Fruit World, as follows:
Parsnips are nutritious if used in
the right season ; after they begin to
sprout in the spring, if left in the
ground, both are somewhat poisonous.
Both sweet and white potatoes are
allied to severaljforceful narcotc plants
and are jsleep-producers. Squash has
great food value, similar to the sweet
potato. Carrots are moderately nutri
tious, but are quite as good for poul
tices to allay inflamation, as for food,
whose chief use is by its acids to aid
digestion ; use of carrots brings bril
liant eyeB, glossy hair and clear com
plexion. Cucumbers and muskmelons
possess remedial qualities for rheu
matism; their juices are emollient and
soothing in lotions, cold cream or
pomade. Asparagus is 'at the head of
the list as a clearing agent for the
kidneys.
All varieties of the cabbage family
contain good supplies of nitrogenous
compounds, are a mental and physical
tonic, but unless eaten fresh, are diffi
cult to digest and have a decided ten
dency to produce flatulency. The com
mon bean has decidedly the same ten
dency, but is more nutritious than
wheat, but rather coarse food and diffi
cult to digest. Peas are equally
nutritious and few appreciate the value
of dry peas in a "puree." Watercress
is a pungent, anti-corbutic properties. '
Radishes stimulate, tone and cleanse
the system. Lettuce is healthful
because easily digested, possessing laxa
tive and sleep-producing properties and
valuable for nervous people.
Okra has a soothing effect on the
system. Parsley is a laxative. Spinach
exerts a strong influence over the
lungs and liver, and its seeds are
used in the Orient to relieve in
flamation and difficult breathing. The
onion is a purgative and should be used
frequently to cleanse the system ; it
especially promotes discharge from the
mucous membrane, of the lungs and
throat. Horse radish is a good local
stimulant, a mental . and physical
tonic, and is beneficial in dropsy and
rheumatism. r Rhubarb is the most
effective stomachic, strengthening the
stomach, inciting it to healthy action
and is a beneficial laxative.