Republican News Item B. M. VANDYKE, Editor- PUBLISHED FRIDAYS By The Sullivan Publishing Co A.t the County Seat of Sullivan County. LAPOHTE, PA. Entered at the Post Office at Laporte, rb second-class mail matter. iV.IV i r.IFRESO'iTED FOR FOREIGN A3VtRTI3!i'iG BY TnE J . ... !A : i GENERAL OFFICES NEW YORK AND CHICAGO BRANCHES IN ALL THE PRINCIPAL CITILS POLITICAL ANNOUNCEMENTS. 1 hereby announce my»elf as candidate lor tlie nomination for the otllce of Slier ill of Sullivan County, subject to the Re publican rules. W. If. BIDDLE, Feb. 24, 1911. Elkland Township. I hereby announce myself as candi date for the nomination for the office of Sherill of Sullivan County, subject to the Rules of the Republican Party. FRED W. SCHANBACIIEK, March, 1, 1911. Forksville, Pa. I hereby announce myself as candidate for the nomination for the otlice of Com missioner of Sullivan County subject to the rules of the Republican Party. FRANK STRICKLAND, March, 17, 1911. llillsgrove, Pa. 1 hereby announce myself as a candi date lor the nomination for the office of Commissioner of Sullivan County, subject to the rules ol the Republican Party. A. A. I.U I >Y. Mar. 24. 1911. llillsgrove Pa. High School Commencement. One of the prettiest, most inter esting and instructive commence ments ever held in Sullivan County took place in the school auditorium Tuesday evening when a class of six graduated from the Laporte Iligli School. They were: Grant Carpenter, Frank Drake, Oliver Rose, Harry Hunter, Helen Car penter and Tresken Buschhausen. After opening music by Killgorc's Orchestra, an address of welcome was made by Oliver Rose, followed by the address of the class presi dent, Grand Carpenter, who also gave a fine oration on ''Reciproc ity.'' This was followed by an essay, "Koine Was Not Built in a Day," by Tresken Buschhausen, who compared tbe building of that ancient city with the building up of child life. After more music Helen Carpenter gave an essay on, "The Swing of the Pendulum," which was an interesting summary of the development of the world in scientific and intellectual lines. The class prophecy was then given by Harry Hunter, who has the sunny road to success well laid out for the members of the class. Frank Drake gave a very able essay on"The Post Office; lis Facts and Possiblities," describing the progress of the postal service from the beginning to the parcels post and giving an incite into the possibilities of the future. After music by the orchestra Ex-Supt. F. W. Meylert delivered an address to the graduates and under graduates. # IIe named sev eral characteristics necessary to success in school work, one of which was that regularity in attend ance is absolutely essential to the proper school training. The valedictory address was made by Helen Carpenter and contained both humor and pathos. Upon presenting the diplomas to the class Supt. Killgore gave a short but very interesting talk to parents and students. Ho said that education is not preparation for a life without work but the process of qualifying for a life of service to one's country and Creator. The program ended with music. The room was tastefully decorated with the colors of the class, old gold and silver, and in the center of the stage was displayed the motto "Thus Endeth Our First Lesson." Two weeks from next Tuesday will be Memorial Day, May 30. It is time to l>egin preparing for a fitting celebration. —roylU! STANDARD TYPEWRITER The Simplest, Strongest and Most Practical Typewriter Made PRICE, $65.00 ROYAL TYPEWRITER CO. Royal Typewriter Building, New York, N. Y. 904 Walnut St, Philadelphia, Pa STORY OF THE MURDER OF JOHN VEITENGRUBER (Continued from last week.) A Dramatic Denouncement. On the afternoon of the fourth day of the trial the little son of Mrs. Veitengruber was placed on the wit ness stand to identify a suit of cloth ing presumed to have belonged to his father. It was an ol<l suit of i homespun. The boy declared that the clothing was his father's and he added that it was the only suit that his father owned. Then was enacted a scene so dra matic that jury and spectators were nonplused. Before the boy had finished speaking Mrs. Veitengruber sprang to her feet and pointing her finger at Kanim a few feet away, shrieked in the German Language: "He didit!" With that she became a raving maniac. Instantly upon her accusation, and with an action impelled almost un consciously, Kamm shook his finger at the woman and whispered: "Hist, Anna Hist!" This sudden and startling episode caused the court to adjourn forth with. Mrs. Veitengruber never again appeared in court. Her mind was irreparably gone. A few months later when, one night she escaped from the jail, lit tle ettort was made to find her. So her fate is unknown, though there is a well founded belief that the man nerof her death, the place of it and the place in which she was buried are known to some. On the night of the day on which Mrs. Veitengruber tore the veil of secrecy from the crime Kamm, in his cell in the jail, to his counsel made a confession that he had killed the old man, but declared that he had done it in self defense. Kamm said he was at work in the woods when Veitengruber approach ed him with a knife and attempted to strike him; he defended himself and hit the old man in the top of the head, killing him. He carried the body to the foot of the big hemlock near tfie shore of Elk Lake, and it lay buried there three' weeks before the storm during which the windfall occurred and the tree was over turned. He said he had been to the tree the evening when the McCarty brothers came their cows, and from a hiding place nearby he heard them talking about the fresh digging and their suspicions. It was then that he determined to get rid of the corpse. That night he took a bed tick and digging up the body, wrapped it in the tick and weighted it with stones; then he walked into the lake until the water was up to his armpits and let it sink to the bottom. He told his Lawyers ex actly where he had entered the lake, and designated by the location of a certain f-tump where the body could be found. The winter was so intensly cold that Elk Lake was frozen to the bottom. An effort was made to verify the story told by Kamm, but I it was a failure-because of the thick ness of the ice. Court adjourned for several weeks, pending the return of weather condition that would per mit a search of the lake to be made. The ice hid melted early in March, and the body of Veitengrub er was found, wrapped iu the tick and weighted down with stones, pre cisely as described by Kamm iu his statement to his counsel. A coronor's inquest, under the di rection of district attorney, was held, and the fact was determined that the gash in the head <ould not have been made with an ax while Veiten gruber was on his feet, as stated by Kamm in his story of self-defense. According to the evidence of several surgeons who were sworn in the case, the man must have been lying down on his side when the blow was adminstered. This fact cor roborated the theory that Kamm had killed the old man as he lay asleep in his home, and that Kamm and Mrs. Veitengruber had a hand in the sewing of the corpse in the bed-tick and its concealment in the waters of Elk lake, half a mile away. On the afternoon of March 5, after three days of trial, during which the chain of circumstantial guilt was woven about Kamm and his history of self defense shattered the fate of the prisoner was decided by a jury composed of John D. Bobbins, Joseph Yotikin, Jscob Hoffa, David McNamin, Jeremiah Ilunsinger, Benjamin Vaughn, Vennevillo Wentzell, Fraacis S. Baumgardncr, Daniel Vaughn, Joseph Daddow, Gottlieb hartsch and Peter C. Little. It was 5 o'clock on the evening of March 5 that the Jury retired, and at 8:80 the little bell oil the courthouse was rung as a signal to the judge and the court officers to come and receive verdict. The prisoner was led into the court room and heard the jury pronounce him guilty of murder in the first degree. A motion for a new trial was made. It was argued before judge Wilmot on May 27, 1836. The petition was refused, and the following sentence imposed, the big woodsman stand ing tike a shaking aspen to receive it: " The court seutences you, John Michael Kamm, that you be taken hence to the place whence you were taken, within the jail of the county of Sullivan, and thence to the place of execution within the yard of said jail when the warrent of the execu tive shall direct it, and that you be there hanged by the neck until you are dead; and may Uod have mercy on your soul." Kamm was hanged in the month of July following. The demand to see the execution was so great that, instead of arranging the scaffold in side the jail, it was built just outside the courthouse wall, in full view of the crowd of men women and child ren gathered from forty miles around to witness the execution. Sheriff Wilbur tried hard to avoid hanging the condemned murderer. He was a tender-hearted man, and during the time Kamm was in jail the two became fast friends. Kamm made a confident of Wilber, and aft er the sentence of death he had even asked the sheriff to direct his mind for the end. Wilber, for all his repungance, could find nobody who would man age the execution, so that a unique plan was finally carried out. The scaffold was arranged so that the prisoner would be jerked up from the ground instead of shot down through a trap. A weight twice as heavy as Kamm, was hung in a loop, attached to a rope the cutting of which would release it and let it jerk the noose rope, pulling the man upward for five feet. This release rope was managed from inside the courthouse, out of sight of the people and the condemn ed prisoner. The only man inside the room wis Sheriff Wilber, who was to await the signal from his as sistant. A. clip of the ax on the re lease rope would effect the execu tion without anybody seeing who performed the grewsome task. The mechanics of the plan proved per fect, and at no time did Sheriff Wil bur see Kamm after he had left his cell on the death march. It was expected that Kamm would confess the part he and Mrs. Veiten gruber took in the planning of the crime. Hut he went to his death without making any statement ex cept that he had no hard feelings against anybody, that he felt his soul was accepted of its Maker and that all his sins had been forgiven. After the hanging of Kamm, at tention was turned to Mrs. Veiten gruber who was then still in jail, though in a state of mind bordering on acute mania. Public opinion consented to the theory that the wo man knew nothing of the killing it self and that her guilt consisted only in helping to conceal the crime. Her mental condition prevented trial at that time. Before the next term of court came around Mrs. Veitengruber had made her escape and nobody ever tried to capture the poor creature. For months afterward fisherman and others who frequented the deep woods of Sullivan county reported seeing the tracks of a woman in out of-the-way places, and several times it was said a woman had been seen running away through the woods. If the unknown was Mrs. Veiten gruber, her hiding place was never found, and there is no record against her in the court hou-e at Laporte. Kamm's body was buried in a lonely spot in the woods near La porte on the road to Lake Mokoma, and his grave, which is marked by a large rock, is viewed with awe by the visitors to the town. There en circled by a mass of weeds and un dergrowth were deposited the re mains which have no doubt long since vanished into dust, of the only man ever sentenced in the county of Sullvan to "swing by the neck un til dead." The end. Playing Varsity Ball. Harry E. Campbell, son of A. E. Campbell of Shunk, this county, a freshman at Bucknell University, lias been given a permanent position playing left field on the varsity base ball team. He has played every game scheduled and is the making of a major league player, lie was captain of the Bucknell Academy ball team last year. He played with the Towanda high school team four years ago. EXECUTOR'S NOTICE Notice is hereby given that let ters testamentary on the estate of T. J. Ingham, late of the Borough of Laporte, ,Sullivan County, l'a., <h - ceased, have been granted to F. 11. Ingham, resident of said Borough, I' to whom all persons indebted to ' said estate are requested to make ( payment and those having claims or demands will make known the J same without delay. P. 11. INGIIAM, Executor. Trial List, May Term, KJII. Return Day, May 15, 1011. I.—<i. VV. vs. John Manuel. No. -I',) May Term, l'JOfi. I''rained Issue. l'lea, —''Noil - Assumpsit" etc. Scouton Mullen 2. Ira H. Yonkin, Adminstra'.or ol •loliii Yonkin, Deceased. vs. George J l.it/leman. No. 34 September Term. 1909. Scire Facias sur Judgment, l'lea. —Payment. Cronin. Scouton 3. Thomas I). Rouse vs. I'lie Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. 40 Pccem her Term, 1909. Trespass, l'lea, —"N'oi < Inilty." Scouton. Thomson. 4.—Patrick Connor vs. Margaret Con nor. Administratrix of John Connor, De ceased. No. 38 May Term, 1910. AH mnipsit. Plea, —"Non Assumsit." Thayer. Walsh. •s.—Sillick J.Steinhack vs. li. (J Trexj ler and 11. C. Trexler, trailing as the Trexlerand Turrell Lumber Company. No. C>7 September Term, 1910. Tres pass. Plea, —"Not Guilty." Scouton. Mullen. 6.—John 11. Crinimitis vs. W. I". Randall. N'o. 94 September Term, 1910. Assumpsit. Plea, —"Non -Assumpsit,'' payment, set oil', and the Statute ol l.itni tat ions, with leave to give special mat ter in evidence. Mullen J. C. Ingham, 7. —Caroline llrink vs. Curtis St roup. No. I December Term, 1910. Defend ant's Appeal. Plea, —"Not Guilty." Scouton. Mullen. Prothonotary's OHicc, Laporte, I'enna., April 3, 1911. A LBEKT V. 1 1 Ii ESS, Prol'y. Subscribe for the News Item. You enn get warm meals at all hours at Smith Bondman's hotel, Sonestown, l'a. adv. Jury List For May Court. The following names were drawn from tlie proper Jury-wheel to serve as Jurors for May term 1011, commencing May 15. GRAND JURORS. Name Occupation Residence Adams George Laborer Lopez Bussler L. R. Painter Laporte Boro O'Brien Daniel Mechanic Onshore Barton J. Fdwiu Laborer Cherry Cole J Dean Justice Jamison City Farrell Raymond Bottler Dushore Prey John W. Farmer Fox Gilligan Michael Laborer Berniee Finan James Lalx>rer Lopez Dunn Ed wan 1 Farmer Forks Jaeoby Herman Farmer Cherry Kier X. j. Laborer Dushore Landbaek George Farmer Colley Lawrenson Walter Farmer Sonestown Litzelmau Gabriel Retired Dushore McDermott Joseph Farmer Lopez Post K. L. Laborer Berniee I'ardoe Ira J. Farmer Klkland Rohe John A. Farmer Cherry Shovelin John M. Foreman Berniee ' Small Andrew Farmer Davidson Snell Samuel Farmer Hillsgrove Sick NV end all Farmer Cherry Starr C. A. Merchant Sonestown 1 TRAVERSE AN'I) PETIT JURORS. I Allen William Barber Berniee ltosley Harry Hotel keeper Sonestown Burk Eil. C. Farmer Laporte Twp. " Ilarnes Allison M. Farmei Klkland • Brcnchley George Farmer Fox L Berry William Farmer Cherry ' Brown John 8. Farmer Elk land Corcoran Frank Farmer Forks L Cook Herman Bee man Dushore Crawley George W. Farmer Mt. Vernon Cole Harry Clerk Dushore Collins William Miner Berniee Devanney Mike Hotel k'p'r Jamison City Deegan John Agent Dushore Fullmer Ernest Farmer Davidson Foust Fred Farmer Sonestown QUmore William P. Teacher Cherry (•avitt Morgan Farmer Laporte Twp. Hope I'. C. Merchant Berniee Hunsinger Henry Farmer cherry | Holla W. B. Retired Berniee llileman John Jr. Merchant Dushore F Hymen B. B. Confectioner Berniee . Lucas Edward Laborer lllllsgrove Miller Alvin Farmer Mt. Vernon Miller Charles Farmer Colley Molyneux Robert Teacher Hillsgrove Manuel John Farmer Ringdalc Martin Luther Farmer Sonestown More William T. Fanner Klkland Mover Lincoln Farmer Kagles Mi re MeCarroll Nelson Fanner Colley MeMahon Frank Teamster Dushore Mcl'liutock T. S. Farmer Davidson Mcßride S. A. LaUirer Hillsgrove Orlonsky Frank Miner Berniee Plotts John G. Farmer Klkland Phillips Griffeth Farmer Sonestown Rose Andrew Laliorer Lajiorte Boro Rogers C. S. Farmer Klkland Shatter William Farmer Cherry Taylor D. M. Retired Muncy Valley Taylor Milton Farmer Muney Valley Thrasher Jacob Farmer Cherry Thrasher John Farmer Cherry Upmann George Carpenter Laporte Boro Walson Charles B Miner Berniee M. BRINK'S PRICES For This Week. * toil 100 lb Corn Meal 24.00 1.20 Cracked Corn 24.00 1.20 Corn 24.00 1.20 9 Sacks each Ge with privilege of returning without expense to me. Schumacher Chop 24.00 1,25 Wheat liran 28.50 1,50 Fancy White Mnlds. 30.00 1.(50 Oil Meal 30.00 I.'JO (Jluten 20.00 1.35 Alfalfa Meal 25.0 ) 1.30 Oyster Shells 10.00 00 Choice Cottonseed Meal 31.00 1.00 Beef Scrap 3.00 Oats per bn. .45 Charcoal 50 lb sack .('»() Oyster Shells " 140 lb bag Salt coarse or line .50 50 lb bag Salt 25 Buckwheat Flour 2.20 Slhumacher Flour sack 1.50 Muncy '■ " 115 " " per bbl. 4.40 Spring Wheat " " 1.00 Potatoes per bu .50 Yeal Calves wanted on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Live fowls and chickens on Wednesday. Jl, BIIINK, New Albany, l'a. e' 7 The Best place to buy goods Is olten asked by the pru pent housewife. Money saving advantages are always being searched for Lose no time in making a thorough examination of the New Line of Merchandise Now on jgSlioNj ?????? ? ? ? STEP IN AND ASK ABOUT THEM. AH answered at Vernon Hull's Large Store. HILLSGROVE, PA. J QUALITY j • When'people it 2 2 is not llu> quantity for the { 2 money, so much as the quality 2 x that counts, then they will x ¥ patronize the store which does # ♦ business in good pure goods. ♦ * Cut prices often mean cut * 2 tpialities. Our prices are as 2 | J low as good goods wil allow. J ♦ Our not of the cheap * I • mail-order variety. When • ' • comparing prices do not for- ♦ • get to compare qualities. If 2 2 you find the prices lower than 2 2 ours, then you will find the J J qualities inferior—generally j J "bargain house" job lots. ♦ 2 Ask us to show you why 2 2 our stock is superior. 2 2 Ljttschhausen's. 2 it 112 Chippewa Xime IRtlns* Lime furnished m car load lots, delivered a* Right Prices. Your orders solicited. Kilns near Hughesvill* ! Penn'a. I I M. E. Reeder, MUNCY, PA. WANTED At once. Men to represent us either locally or traveling. Now is ! the time to start. Money in the | work for the right men. Apply at j once and secure territory. ALLEN Nl/RSEBY CO., Rochester, N. Y. A Classified Ad will sell it.
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