Admiral Evans’ Squadron Gets Royal Welcome at Brazilian Port. A THIRD OF VOYAGE COVERED Rio Janeiro, Jan. 13.—The American fleet of sixteen battleships entered the port of Rio Janeiro, after a 'passage from Port of Spain, Trinidad, more than 3000 miles, unmarred by serious ac- cident, replete with interesting inci- dents and ending with a royal welcome from the thousands that had gathered to greet the visitors. All of the battleships are here, but the supply ships Culgoa and Glacier are still at sea, not having been able to keep along with the others. The fleet has now covered about 4,600 miles, about a third the distance of the voy- age to San Francisco. Early in the morning the crowds began to gather in the streets of Rio Janeiro, and long before the signal flags were hoisted announcing the ap- proach of the American ships of war thousands of curious spectators had taken up the points of vantage on pub- tic buildings and the elevated quays. ‘When the fleet steamed inté harbor, under the splendid mountains that framed the bay, beautiful in the tropi- cal sun, it was a spectacle incompar- able to the eye. Word that the fleet had passed Cape Frio, about forty-five miles out, was received at 8:30 o'clock, and immedi- ately scores of tugs and other small craft, crowded with spectators, set out to meet the visitors, and accompanied them to the anchorage. Outlined against the horizon the great battle- ships, stretched out in one long line, came slowly through the passage into the bay. The Connecticut, Rear. Ad- miral Evans’ flagship, was in the lead, with the Brazillan cruisers, dressed in gala attire, on either side. Passing the fortresses, the Connecticut fired a salute of twenty-one guns, which was responded to by the Brazilian war-| ships, the German cruiser Bremen and | the shore guns. The yards and fight- ing tops were manned and cheers upon cheers were given for the splen- did passage of the flagship and her sister ships. As soon as the anrhorage was made, the Brazilian minister of marine, Ad- miral Alencar, the captain of the port, the American consul, G. E. Anderson, the commandants of naval divisions and the civic authorities went on board the Connecticut and extended a hearty welcome to Rear Admiral Evans, his officers and men, Hundreds of launches, tugs and small boats circled about the battleships until long after the sun had gone down. Not less than 15,000 to 20.000 persons were aboard these boats and more than 50,000 others were gathered on shore to celebrate the coming of the fleet. The city is beau- tifully illuminated and a gala occasion has been made in honor of the visitors. All the way down from Port of Spain the vovage was an enjoyable one and all on board the ships were well and seemingly happy. Aged Couple Died Together. Providence. R. I, Jan. 13. — After having passed the greater par of their lives quietly and uneventfully in an old farmhouse here, Jonathan King and his wife Abby died together. The wife passed away at 8.40 o'clock Sun: day night and a few minutes later the husband died. In both cases death was «ue to old age. Mr. King was eighty: four years old and his wife eighty «ight years old. - Excited By Play, Tries to Choke Star. Lynn, Mass., Jan. 11.—Wrought up to a frenzy by the realism of the scene, a spectator at the performance «of a melodrama at Lynn theatre sprang on the stage and tried to choke the star, Leander De Cordova. He fought with such viciousness that the «combined strength of half a dozen of the actors and several policemen with clubs were necessary to subdue him. Boy Kills Burglar In Father's Home. «Greensburg, Pa., Jan. 11. — Paul ‘Bowers, fourteen years old, shot and killed a negro burglar who broke into the home of his father at Alverton, mear here. The boy was awakened by the noise made by the negro, and day in wait with a double-barreled shotgun. As the burglar ascended the stairs the boy fired, striking him in the abdomen. Gagged With Lemon. . “Wilmington, Del. Jan. 14. — As 3 joke, Mrs. Wesley Gable, of wind town, N. J., tried to bite her initials i an overgrown lemon handed to her bw her sister, Miss Lillian Richardson, of this city. The lemon became wedged in the woman's mouth and seriously dislocated her jaw. It was finally ex tricated and the dislocation reduced. Left to Freeze to Death. ‘Huntingdon, Pa., Jan. 11.—L. D. Liv- ingston, a track foreman on the Penn: sylvania railroad, was found frozen to death. He and a companion left this place to attend a dance at Ardenheim, and on the way Livingston fell out of the sleigh. His companion drove on, apparently unaware of Livingston's plight. Headache Powders Fatal. Newark, N. J, Jan. 14. — Charles Doliman died in the Newark City hos. pital from an overdose of headache powders. He was found unconscious in hed. In the room were two papers that had contained headache powders. ~baker. . not recovered. Another policeman ar- Defense Promises New Testimony in Famous Trial PROSECUTION RESTS ITS CASE New York, Jan. 14.—The Thaw trial moved with a rush. After the state had presented its direct case and Assist ant District Attorney Garvan had characterized the killing of Stanford White as “a premeditated, deliberate and cowardly murder,” Martin W. Lit- tleton, for the defense, made the open- ing plea for the prisoner. His promise of new evidence was sensational and held the supreme attention of all in the courtroom. District Attorney Je- rome, seemingly taken by surprise, seated himself in the witness chair the better to hear the outline of the new defense. Mr. Littleton promised to forge a chain of circumstances and to produce a line of testimony which will prove Harry K. Thaw undeniably insane at the time of the homicide. Evidence of hereditary insanity and of strange, unusual acts of Thaw not even hinted at during the first trial was told of by Mr. Littleton, who said that physicians and nurses who had attended Thaw were hurrying here from Europe; that teachers of the de- fendant in childhood would be on hand to give their impressions of “the wide- eyed, distant boy.” In conclusion, Mr. Littleton challenged the district at- torney to produce a single reputable physician who would say that Thaw was not insane at the time he killed the noted architect. Mr. Littleton’s speech fairly bristled with surprises. He startled the court- room by declaring that after Evelyn Nesbit had told him her story in Paris in 1903, Thaw “drenched himself with a poison,” and would have died but for the heroic work of three physicians who labored over him all of one night. Mr. Jerome had his surprise to offer, too. and when Mr. Littleton started to launch into the relations of Stanford White with the girl whom Thaw mar- ried, the district attorney was on his feet with an objection. Justice Dow- ling sustained him, and the name of the architect was not linked again with that of the defendant's wife, Mr. Littleton told of a trip abroad | taken by Thaw in 1899, when he was | iil and insane at Rome, Monte Carlo | and London, being under the care of physicians and nurses at each place, |’ and declared he would produce these | physicians and nurses as far as pos- | sible to tell their stories. Teachers | who kept diaries about the strange | child who sat in their classes also will come, he said, to tell the jury about the early life and tendencies of | the defendant. Describing the killing of White, Mr. Littleton said: “Thaw’s madness, born and bred in him. had been set on fire by the stor- fes he had heard. He had gone to the district attorney with them and to Mr. Comstock. They ran in his head until. staggering amc®g the chairs cf Madison Square Garden — yet not drunk-——his eyes burning like two great coals of fire, unable intelligently to answer questions put to him. ma- niacal In the last degree, lost—lost as he was in Rome. in Monte Carlo and in London—the blind confusion of in sanity overcame him and he fired. The result was not a murder, but the act of a madman, who afterwards, wild-eyed and irrational. cried out in his cell that he heard the voices of little children calling and proclaimed that he had but acted as an agent of providence. The outline of the defense was geu- erally considered as reflecting a de- termination on the part of Thaw's at- torneys to prove him Insane in 1906, regardless of all consequences. Assistant District Attorney Garvan made the address for the prosecution, and the calling of witnesses followed. First in order came an architect who had drawn a diagram of Madison Square Roof Garden, where the trag- edy occurred, and then cape James Clinch Smith, White's brother-in-law. who was on the roof garden on the night of the shooting, and who talked with Thaw just before the killing. Nothing new was developed. The jury is as follows: Charles F. Gremmels, ship broker, foreman. Arthur R. Naething, employing George W. Cary, dry goods. George C. Rupprecht, salesman. John H. Holbert, mineral waters. David E. Arrowsmith, manager. William F. Doolittle, auditor's clerk. William H. McHugh, clerk. Frank J. Howell, manufacturer. William Burck, assistant secretary YMC A Francis Dovale, real estate. James A. Hooper, meats and provi- sions. Knocked From Brooklyn Bridge. New York, Jan, 11.—While endeav- oring to prevent a man, who gave his name as Edward Walker, of Chicago, from leaping from the Brooklyn bridge, Patrolman Robert Fitzgerald was knocked from the overhead iron- work by the pole of a passing trolley car into the East river. His body was rested the would-be suicide as he was shout to jump over the railing. Boy Meets Horrible Death. New York, Jan. 14.—Harry DeFreis, a fifteen-year-old boy, suffered a Btrange and horrible death in an ele vator shaft of the Commercial Cable building on Broad street. In soma manner the boy fell down the deep elevator shaft from one of the ‘op stories of the skyscraper. Difficulty in starting the elevator led to the dis covery of the body of the boy, who had been crushed to death between the top of a big counterbalance weight and the side of the elevator shaft at the sixth floor. | lamps used at the footlights. Boyertown, Pa., Opera House Destroyed by Fire. MANY BODIES CREMATED Explosion Started the Fire, and Scores of Women and Children Were Trampled In Wild Panic—Many In- Jjured By Jumping From Windows. Entire Families Among the Dead. Seventy-five Injured, Twenty Fatally. Boyertown, Pa. Jan. 14,—A catas- trophe horrifying in its details and sickening in its results swept nearly one hundred souls of this borough into eternity in aimost the twinkling of an eye, and injured over three-score, many of them fatally. A majority of the killed were members of the lead- ing families of the town. While the Scottish Reformation was being produced in the Rhoads Opera House by Mrs. Monroe, of Washing- ton. a tank used in a moving picture scene exploded. Immediately there was a wild rush for the exits of the building. Men of mature years endeav- ored to still the panic, but their voices could not be heard above the shrieks and screams of the terrified women and children, who composed the greater part of the audience. The scenes cannot be portrayed fitly by the most imaginative. The Dblood- curdling cries for help of those who were penned within the walls of the blazing structure could be heard above the roaring, seething flames. It seemed as though nearly the entire audience made a mad rush for the exits the moment the explosion occurred. In their attempts to quiet the great au- dience those persons who were on the stage accidentally upset the coal oil The burning oil scattered in all directions, and the lamps which were used to light the opera house exploded, throw- ing the blazing oil over the terror- stricken people, who were fighting frantically to gain the exits. In the mad rush a section of the floor gave way, precipitating scores of persons to the basement. As the floor col- lapsed the shrieks of the helpless per- sons who were carried down were heard for blocks. It was scarcely five minutes from the time of the explo- sion of the tank until the entire heart of the structure seemed a roaring fur- nace. There was a mad scramble for the stairway leading from the balcony, and scores of women and children were knocked down and trampled on, many of them doubtless being crushed to death. At least fifty persons, real- {zing that exit by the stairway meant almost certain death, risked their lives by jumping from the windows. Limbs were broken and skulls were crushed by this daring method of es- cape. Burned to Death In Doorway. In the meantime a relief corps was at work at the entrance to the theatre endeavoring to release those who were wedged in the doorway and un- able to extricate themselves. Many persons who otherwise might have made good their escape from the fur- nace of flame were held in check by the awful jam at the doors. As the flames eat their way toward the front of the building, women could be seen to clasp their hands and fall back into the flames. Once the doorways were cleared the rescuers dragged many of the women and children from the stairways learing to the balcony. Some of them were so badly injured that they died before reaching a tem- porary hospital. Skills were crushed and the faces of some of the victims were so horribly mutilated that they were barely recognizable. . To add to the terrible disaster, the fire apparatus became disabled and the structure was left entirely to the mercy of the seething flames. It is al- most certain that not a vestige of the bodies of the unfortunates who were overcome by the smoke and perished will ever be found. Assistance was asked from Pottstown, but before the fire apparatus from that city reached this place the entire centre of the structure was a roaring furnace. Had the women and children heeded the warning of the cooler heads in the audience the horrible loss of life might have been avoided, but there was the usual panic and stampede which in- variably follows at such a catastrophe. The flames spread rapidly and com- municated to. the other parts of the theatre. Men, women and children rushed for the many exits, and the weaker sex and the children were trampled and maimed in the mad rush to gain the street. Assistance was at once asked of both Reading and Pottstown, and spe- cial trains carrying nurses and doc- tors were rushed to the scene of the disaster. Every home within a radius of half » dozen blocks of the cpera house was made a temporary hospital, where the wounded were rushed by carriages and other means of conveyance. Many persons who had children in the opera house paced to and fro all pight, almost maddened by the awful sight. Grief of Mothers Pitiful. The night was one of wailing and an- ‘guish. The shrieks of mothers who had rushed to the scene as soon as they learned of the fire was pitiful. As the night wore on the crowds surround- ing the building grew to such propor- tions that it was almost impossible for the police force, which had been aug- mented by a score of men from Potts- town and Reading, to keep the people back. One woman who said she had lost her entire family in the theatre was with difficulty restrained from throwing herself flames, A special train from Reading, bear- ing physicians and nurses, reached here, but there was little for them to do, as the injured who had dashed themselves to the pavement had been cared for by the physicians, assisted by the Pottstown relief corps. A few minutes after midnight the rear wall of the theatre collapsed. The flames broke out anew and those who had vainly hoped to be able to find the remains of some of their loved one turned in despair from the scene of the awful catastrophe. It is estimated that at least 75 per- sons were injured by being trampled upon, either on the stairway or by jumping from the windows of the burn- ing structure. Of this number at least a score were fatally injured, and many succumbed to their injuries after be- ing hurried to one of the temporary hospitals. Three children ranging in ages from eight to twelve years and one woman, who were dragged from the building by persons who had rushed to the res- cue, had been trampled almost to a pulp, the skull of one of the unfortu- nate children had been crushed as though an egg shell. It is extremely doubtful if the remains of the victims can be distinguished from the debris, as many persons in the audience were covered with burning ofl as the lamps exploded. Boyertown is a borough with a pop- ulation of about 2500, and is located about midway between Pottstown and Reading. into the roaring NAMES RAILROAD COMMISSION Governor Stuart Appoints Pennsylva- nia State Board. ’. Harrisburg, Pa., Jan. 14.—Governor Btuart appointed the following mem- bers of the state railroad commission, created by an act passed by the last legislature and which became oper- ative one week ago: Nathaniel Ewing, of Uniontown, fudge of the United States district rourt, Western Pennsylvania, Pitts- burg, chairman, to serve for five years. Charles N. Mann, of Philadelphia, deputy prothonotary of the courts of Philadelphia county, to serve far four years. John Y. Boyd, of Harrisburg, retired, a member of the firm which formerly acted as general sales agents for the anthracite coal companies controlled by the Pennsylvania railroad, to serve for three years. The commission has the authority to inquire into the business of com- mon carriers; to examine books and papers; to be heard in matters affect- ing freight and passenger rates; the distribution of cars; the providing of sidings; the location of stations; the regulation of grade crossings and all other things bearing upon the relation of the companies to the people. “GRAFT” IS NOT A CRIME Conviction of Former Mayor Schmitz, of San Francisco, Set Aside. San Francisco, Jan. 10.—The district court of appeals handed down a deci- sion setting aside the judgement in the case of former Mayor Eugene E, Schmitz, convicted of extortion in the French restaurant case. Abe Ruef also benefits by the ruling of the upper court, for, according to its decision, he pleaded guilty to an act that was no offense against the laws of the state. According to the appellate judges, the compelling of French restaurants to pay “fees” to Abe Ruef was not a crime, even though Ruef divided the “fees” with the mayor. District Attorney Langdon said Schmitz and Ruef wil! be prosecuted on other indictments that are public offenses. PANTHER DEVOURS WOMAN Beast Kills and Eats the Wife of a Farmer In Louisiana, Columbia, La., Jan. 13.—While on her way to visit a neighbor in a wild region ten miles west of here Mrs. Annie Val- entine, wife of a farmer, was killed and devoured by a panther. Her husband, alarmed at his wife's prolonged ab- sence, instituted a search, and found his wife's head and her skeleton, pick- ed bare of flesh, in a clump of bushes, Bits of the woman's clothing were scattered over a distance of two miles, showing that the panther had dragged its victim to a convenient spot to make a feast. A posse of men, with a pack of hounds, are pursuing the beast. RAPS THE ADMINISTRATION Officials Charged With Being Over Zealous to Punish Land Frauds. Washington, Jan. 13.—In a personal letter which he has addressed to the president and vice president, Speaker Cannon and all members of congress the justices of the supreme court, members of the president's cabinet and the Washington newspaper cor: respondents, Hon. George W. Cook, Republican congressman-at-large from Colorado, severely arraigns the ad- ministration for its course in prose cuting alleged infractions of the pub- lic land laws in Colorado. Congress man Cook insists that great injustice has been done to a number of Colo- rado’s most honorable, upright and law-abiding business men in that they have unnecessarily been branded as criminals through over-zealousness of the government in ordering indictments without furnishing proper evidence. He citeg the recent decisions of Fed: eral Judge Robert BE. Lewis, at Den. ver, in which he quashed indictments against some thirty citizens, to show that government prosecutors were overactive in their efforts to punish land fravds. Warm Shoes for cold feet. We have them in all kinds. A full and complete line of Good Warm Slippers. Felt Sole Slippers make a present that will be appreciated. We have anything in the Shoe line that you may need. PRICES RIGHT. Come and see. Yeager & Davis BELLEFONTE, PA. Lyon &. Company. Wait for our Great WHITE SALE. A i SIN Clearance Sale of all WINTER GOODS Still Going On LYON & COMPANY, 12 Allegheny St., Bellefonte, Pa.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers