The Conshohocken Recorder, August 28, 1914

              ®l)e €0nsl)0l)acRen Recorder
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4731 THE COXSHOHOCKEX RECORDER, FRIDAY. AUGUST 28.1914 $1 PER YEAR
POWDER CAN BLOWS
UP; INJURES WOMAN
MRS. PHOEBE MORRIS, OF MT.
PLEASANT, PAINFULLY BURN-ED
BY EXPLODING POWDER
CAN WHICH HAD BEEN
THROWN ON BONFIRE.—LIFE
SAVED BY JAS. MULLEN, WHO
PREVENTED CLOTHES FROM
IGNITING.
GAS TANKS EXPLODE
Two Large Tanks Holding Oxygen
Gas Wrecked by an Explosion.—
Three Slightly Injured
As the result of a supposed empty
powder can being thrown on a bon-fire,
Mrs. Phoebe Morris, a well-known
resident of Mt. Pleasant, Ches-ter
County, would In all probability
have been burned to death at her
home on Tuesday but for the prompt
action on the part of .lames Mullen,
a landscape gardener at the Pennsyl-vania
Hospital in Philadelphia, who
was visiting at the .Morris residence.
As it was t he woman was painfully
burned about the lower portion of her
arms and face, and is conliued to her
home under the care of a physician.
The members are badly swollen and a
quantity'of the skin has come off.
Her condition is not considered se-rious.
The accident occurred in a field not
far distant from the house. James
Mullen, who at one time had resided
with tiie Morris family and who is
a one-armed man, is spending his va-cation
there. On Tuesday Mrs. Mor-,|
ris and Mullen started to remove the
debris from a workhouse, which had
previously been used by the late Wil-liam
Morris. A bonfire wan started
and different tilings had been thrown
on it.
Mrs. Morris came across an old
powder can which she thought was
empty, but which contained a small
amount of the explosive, as when she
threw it on the fire there was an ex-plosion,
and burning fragments of
different kinds were scattered in all
directions. Some of them were
thrown on the clothing of the woman
and aglflnst her arms and face.
Hearing the noise Mullen, who was
not near the bonfire at the time, hur-ried
to the sceue, and with heroic ef-forts
prevented Mrs. Morris' clothing
from igniting, and averted what
would undoubtedly have been a
shocking accident.
Buffering from burns she had sus-tained
about her hands and face and
badly unnerved, the woman was as-sisted
to the house and a physician
was summoned. The physician de- -j
clares that her eyesight will not be
Impaired. Mrs. Morris lias the sym-pathy
of the community.
It is the opinion of the woman that
the powder In (lie can had been used
by the late William Morris, her broth-er-
in-law. in blowing tree stumps.
Three men were slightly injured
when two large tanks containing oxy-gen
gas, at the plant of the John
Wood Manufacturing Company, at
the loot of Fayette street, exploded,
Tuesday afternoon, with a roar that
was heard all over town.
Frank Fisher, Hugh Sweeney and
John Mini;, afl of this borough, were
Injured, but not seriously.
The tanks, each twelve feet in dia-meter,
were located in the jwrtion of
the plant between the canal and riv-er.
The tanks were hung one over
the other, one being In the building
near the roof, the other outside. The
tanks hold the supply of oxygen gas
for the gas welding furnaces. The
cause of the accident Is not definitely
known but it is believed the water
pressure, in the feeding system, got
low and permitted the air to get in-to
the tanks. The tank In the build-ing
exploded first, hurling pieces of
metal and debris all about the shop.
There were few men in the shop at
the time and the three injured were
struck by flying pieces of material.
The other tank was exploded from
the shock of the first and pieces cf
metal were hurled across the river
and onto the bridge.
The explosion caused the great
tanks to collapse and necessitated
the shutting down of that part of the
plant until a temporary gas feeding
system was connected.
The Injured men are rapi.'y recov-ering
and will be able to again be «.t
work withn a few days.
TO GET RID OF VICIOUS DOGS
The crusade against vicious and
stray dogs is being carried actively
on by Burgess Bloomhall and yester-day,
he ordered six dogs which have
been annoying residents on Kast Kim
street and West Fourth avenue kill-ed.
All dogs running at large on the
streets, unmuzzled, will be done away
with by the authorities.
The Burgess, this morning, issued
the following warning:
VICIOUS DOGS
BULL ATTACKS FARMER
Farmer was Attacked in Field and
Painfully Injured by being Rolled
Charles Wells, colored, employed
as a farmer on the estate of Richard
O. Wood, l-ower Merlon, was painful-ly
Injured by being attacked by a
short horned bull, while working in a
field on the farm. Wells Is now in
Charity hospital, N'orrlstown, being
treated for his injuries.
Wells was working in a field pick-ing
weed3 close to a fence. He was
in a stooping posture with his back
towards the field. To other farmers
at the time had driven the bull into
the field, having no fear that Wells
would be attacked as the animal was
a very <iuiet one. When the bull saw
the stooping man, it .chargde him and
before Wells knew of his danger, he
was pawed and rolled over the
ground. The skin was torn from one
of his hands where the animal had
tramped upon him and there was a
cut on one of his shoulders which at
first was believed to he a wound caus
ed by the bull's horn .but a close ex-amination
by a iphysician showed tin-man
had not been gored.
The other farmers saw the attack
and quickly drove the bull away.
Wells was placed in an automobile
and brought to the office of a local
physician where his Injuries were
dressed and he was later removed to
the hospital. His injuries are pain-ful
but not considered dangerous.
RELIANCE TEAM TO
MEET ON SUNDAY
A meeting of the Reliance foot ball
team will be held In the lower room
of the George Clay hose house on
Sunday morning, at 10 o'clock for the
purpose of receiving the re|K>rt of the
icommlttee appointed at the meeting
last week relative to solicilng sub-scriptions
to defray the expenses of
securing a playing coach for the team
during the coming season. The pub-lic
in general is Invited to the meet-ing
and especially all those interest-ed
in the success of the team.
—— —* H—
Advertise In "THE RECORDER"
No man has a right to keep a vic-ious
dog and allow it run at large, and
my advice to our citizens that in case
any one is bitten, ascertain the name
of the owner, notify him to do away
witll the dog. It' lie refuses, bring civ-il
suit against him. If he has prop-erty
you can collect damages from
him, if not, you can have him sent to
jail for three months.
As Burgess, I have no authorin to
send an officer into a man's house to
take a dog against his wishes. If the
dog can be caught on the streets,
that Is a different proposition and we
have the authority to dispose of it.
Make a few of those people who
keep a lot of mongrel dogs pay dam-ages
or go to jail and we will soon
get rid of a lot of useless dogs on our
streets.
F. J. BLOOM HALL, Burgess.
TO TELL OF THE FAR EAST
A Missionary Teacher Will Lecture
on Hindustan and the Himilayas.
Conshohocken Is not often visited
by world travelers from the Far East.
Christian missions help make the
world one in interest and in mutual
knowledge. An instructive and very
entertaining illustrated missionary
lecture will be given In the Presbyter-ian
church on Sunday evening by Mr.
Stanley A. Hunter, who spent two
years as a missionary teacher in a
Christian college in Allahabad, India.
As assistant pastor of the Bryn
Mawr Presbyterian church this sum-mer
he has given several lectures In
the open air and in the picture shows
i ii eel to large audiences. Iliaving
leisure he comes to "Conshohocken in
this service. He should be greeted
by a church tilled with Interested lis-teners.
REAL ESTATE CHANGES.
The following .properties have been
sold by Real Estate broker C. A.
Ueslmone: dwelling house, III 5 East
Ninth avenue and fifteen lots of
ground adjoining, the proi>erty of
Mrs. Mazzie A. Williams to William
II. Ci08how, of Philadelphia. Also a
three story cement block dwelling
located in Keys street, near Cedar
lane, Plymouth township, the proper-ty
of Harry A. Darrah to Katharine
M. Foley.
A full line of Baseball Supplies at
KEHOE'S—•-•»•.
PLAYGROUNDS TO
HOLD AN EXHIBITION
THE GROUNDS WILL CLOSE TO-MORROW
FOR THE SEASON
WITH AN EXHIBITION OF THE
WORK DONE DURING THE SUM-MER.—
ASSOCIATION IS ANX-IOU
THAT THE PARENTS VIEW
THIS WORK.
To-morrow will be the last day the
playgrounds will be open this season
as schools open Monday. September
7th and several days will be needed to
remove the playground apparatus and
prepare the yards for school use. The
Hosing day yiwill be made an exhibit-ion
day. Prom two until live o'clock
there uill be an exhibition ol the
work done by the children during the
srnimer and the advantages the play
grounds offer.
Those active in the work are anx-ious
that the people, especially par-ents,
attend the exhibition, so that
they may have a first hand knowledge
oi he objectB of the work.
The first season lias been a very
profitable one as the absence of chil-dren
from the streets has been very
noticeable all summer. The children
have been amused and instructed;
they have been taught how to play
to rae tlieu healthier and stronger,
and they have been taught useful oc-cupations
that will stand them In
good stead in their homes.
The playgrounds were made possi-ble
by the action of the school board
In permitting the use of the school
yard, and public spirited citizens do-nating
the funds for the purchase of
apparatus and the payment for in-structors.
The success of the association this
year lias been such tl at It will be
continued next year. The attendance
has been beyond expc-ciations and a
wider interest among the people has
been aroused.
COUNTY.DEMOCRATS ORGANIZE
The "Old Guard" Democrats, the
friends of Michael J. Ryan, who help-ed
him roll up a majority in -Mont-gomery
county at the primaries, and
who helped to nominate Harry E.
Qrim ior Representative for congress
over Robert E. Difenderfer, won a-gain
yesterday in the reorganization
of the county Democratic standing
committee, The majority was two, or
just two less than the margin which
Qrim had over Difenderfer.
The successful officers were: Har-vey
Christman, of Lintield, chairman;
Frank J. Clark, of Norristown, vice
chairman and Dr. James J. Kane and
Charles ll. O'Neill, of Norristown,
secretaries. They were nominated and
elected by the wing of the party, led
by Charles D. McAvoy.
First blood was drawn at the start
man did not want him to act as tern-man
did no' want him to act yus tem-porary
chairman. His friends did, be-cause
it Was customary for the retir-ing
chairman so to act and the Christ-man
hackers won. 53 to 17.
Then John It. Evans, of Pottstown
former Assistant District Attorney,
and Palmer-.Me 'orniick follower want
ed the party rules requiring a secret
ballot of committeemen voting for
officers to be changed so the voting
might be verbal. Attorney McAvoy
peaded for adherence to the rules and
Evans' motion was declared out of or-der.
After the election had been con-ducted
in the usual way and the re-sult
announced the factions buried
their differences and decided to work
with might and main for the success
of the county and State tickets. Ad-dresses
were made by Congress Can-didate
Grim and others. Orlm made
an excellent impression and was
pledged the support of every member
of the committee.
JAMES HENRY HOOD
lames Henry Hood, formerly of
Spring Mill, died suddenly, Wednes-day
night, at the home of his son, Ar-thur
11. Hood, IPti (iorgas street,
.Mount Airy, in his 77tli "year.
Mr. Hood was an eminent civil en-gineer
and had a very active career.
He helped lay out all important rail-road
In Cost Rica, Central America,
when that country knew nothing of
sanitation and the tropical climate
claimed all the members of the en-gineer
corps except Mr. Hood.
Mr. Hood was also engaged at De-troit,
Mich., which has been designa-ted
the most beautiful city In the
United States, In the city's early days.
He also studied and wrote much on
the subject of the Panamal canal, in
which great engineering fete he was
deeply interested.
'.Mrs. Hood died at Spring Mill, May
1911, of a lingering illness during
which she was constantly cared for
by her husband and family. Percy
Del^ap Hood, a son, died on the Fifth
of this month at l-ouisvllle, Ky., of
typhoid fever.
The funeral will be held from the
residence of his son 109 Gorgas street
Mount Airy, to-morrow morning at 11
o'clock. Rev. J. F. Sheppard, pastor of
the local Presbyterian church, will
conduct the services. The interment
will be at Westminster cemetery.
PLYMOUTH SCHOOL
CASE BEFORE COURT
TESTIMONY IS TAKEN IN THE
ACTION OF THE J. FRANK BOY-ER
PLUMBING AND HEATING
COMPANY AGAINST THE BOARD
FOR THE AWARDING OF THE
PLUMBING CONTRACTS FOR
THE NEW SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
The equity action of the J. Frank
Buyer Plumbing and Heating (' -
pany, of Norristown, against the Ply-mouth
Township School Hoard to re-strain
it from awarding and executing
a contract for plumbing to Ira liick-harl,
ot ConshohOOXen, was heard be-fore
Judge Aaron S. Swartz and Judge
William C. Ityan, on Tuesday.
Tlie plalruiff company claims that
Its bid of $710 for plumbing lor two
new school buildings in Plymouth—a
one-room structure at Ivy Rock and a
high school on the Conshohocken pike
near Plymouth Meeting—was the low-est
of the proposals submitted to the
school board. Bkkhart's was higher
by $1."), and W. II. Zimmerman, of
I-m.-.lale. bid $71."..
The defndants in their answer deny
that the contract was awarded to
Uickhart by reason of any predjudice
against the plaintiff company or by
reason of any special preference or
favoritism for Bickhart, but that, inas-much
as the school code provides that
such contracts shall be awarded to
the "lowest and best bidder," the
board believed the best Interests of
the people of the township would be
conserved by giving the contract to
Bickhart, and furthermore, that the
Boyer company's bid was Irregular in
that they asked $635 for the work at
the one-room building and only $75
for the work on the $20,000 high
school buldng.
Elmer E. Beldemen, secretary ot
the Boyer company, testified along
the lines set forth in the bill of com
plaint, lie told of the extent of the
work done by the company and of the
fact that it has large contracts for
plumbing for several schools in Nor-ristown.
He stated that all work of
the company Is siqiervlsed by a com-lietent
engineer. Witness declared
that the Boyer company Is equipped
and competent to do the highest grade
of work in the most desirable manner,
and would have given Plymouth lull
satisfaction In the work required In
the contract.
Mr. Beldemen said the alleged irr-egularity
in the bid, whereby the high
figure was the smaller building, was
a clerical error.
Joseph A. Cuiren, treasurer ol the
company gave testimony similar to
Mr. Beidemen. ile said that he had
an interview with Mr. Brecht and Mr.
Shoemaker and that the latter had ad-mitted
to him that the contract had
been awarded to the highest bidder.
1. Harold Shoemaker, secretary of
school board, read extracts from the
minute book of the board to show that
the contract had been awarded unan-imously.
In response to a question
he said that the contract had been
signed after the board had known
that a bill In equity had been tiled
a:;ainst It.
J.. Frank Boyer, president of the
Boyer company, stated that he had
been thirty years In the business and
that his firm made a specialty of
school and other public building
plumbing. The company employed a
high-class plumbing and heating en-gineer,
who, in connection wltii a fore-man,
looked after every job, no matter
how small. In answer to a question
by .Mr. Brecht witness stated that
thirteen years ago he had installed a
heating plant In the Hickorytown
school, a building of one room, divid-ed
by a sliding partition. Complaint
had been made to him that the school
would not heat. He personally inves-tigated
and found that the school
teacher was also janitor; that she liv-ed
in Norristown and did not get to
the school until S o'clock In the morn-ing.
It Is Impossible for any heating
apparatus that is banked at four
o'clock in the afternoon to heat up a
room of that size by 8.30 the next
morning, when the furnace was not
started until after S o'clock. Mr. Boy-er
had given a demonstration of what
could be done by firing up at an ear-lier
hour and the board made arrange-ments
to have It done In that way.
The bill was later paid and he heard
no further complaint.
Members of school board testified
that the award to Bickhart had been
made in good faith beca—4 he was
well known to all the directors as a
conscientious workman, one who not
only gave personal attention to the
work but did a great deal of It him-self.
In answers to questions by Mr.
Knipe witnesses admitted that the al-leged
unsatisfactory work by the Boy-er
Company discussed by the board
was for steam heating, and that the
board had not known of or discussed
any unsatisfactory plumbing work
done by the complainants. The bids
in dispute were for plumbing.
Attorney Brecht had admitted in
evidence the minutes of the school
board showing the records in the pay-ment
for the heating plant installed
in the North Star school. The attor-ney
contended the unsatisfactory
service of the plant was not due to
the janitor but that the specifications
had not been lived up to and payment
Of the balance due on the contract
was held up until the changes were
made to conform to the specifications.
The school board also contended the
bids of the Boyer Company for the
plumbing work in the consolidated
school read $75 and attorney Brecht
asked the company's witness if the
company would have stood by the bid
had it been awarded the contract. Af-ter
some hesitation, the witnessed
said they might have to.
After the hearing, J. Frank Boyer,
head of the heating and plumbing
company greeted the members of the
school board and said the object of
his company In bringing the action
was to secure an interpretation of the
school laws on the subject of award-ing
contracts. His company does a
large business and the settlement of
the question Is a matter of great bus-iness
importance.
SLIDING STEEL SHEARS
OFF BRAKEMAN'S FOOT
EXTRA BRAKEMAN ON LOCAL
SHIFTER, MET WITH SERIOU8
ACCIDENT ON HIS FIRST DAY
HERE.—WAS IN END OF CAR
WHILE LOAD OF PLATE STEEL
SHIFTED AND CAUGHT HIM.—
LOUISA MAY.
Wife of Prominent Hotelman Dies Af-ter
a Lingering Illness.
]>ouisa Claus May wife of Mayall
May, of the St. Clair House, Elm and
Harry streets, died shortly after
three o'clock, Tuesday afternoon.
The cause of death being a complica-tion
of diseases.
-Mrs. May had been ill for the past
two years. ^Her illness began with an
affection of the foot. She was under
medical treatment and continued her
duties of directing the house end of
the hotel. Her illness progressed
and for the past four months she had
been confined to her bed. I Hiring her
illness site suffered much but her
thoughts were always for her family
and directed the affairs of the house-hold
from her bed.
Mrs. May was born in New York
58 years ago and came to this bor-ough
27 years ago. She was married
to Charles Stark and from this union
there were three children, who sur-vive
their mother: Charles, who re-sides
at the family home; Minnie,
wife of James -Crawford, of Spring
Mill and I .aura, wife of Aaron Tyson,
Norristown.
Mrs. Stark obtained a divorce and
25 years ago married Mayall May.
In 1901 they purchased the St. Clair
House. Mrs. May directed the hotel
and her house management attracted
many guests. She was a motherly
woman and took great pains to make
comfortable all who visited her house.
She had a large circle of friends and
was an active member in several
women societies of the borough.
During her Illness, she recognized
that she could not recover and direct-ed
the arrangements for her funeral.
To this union two children were
born, Lillian, wife of Lester <limber,
and Bessie, who -both reside with
their parents.
The funeral was held this afternoon
from her late residence. Services
were conducted at the house by Rev.
Thomas A. Armour, pastor of the
Methodist church. The interment
was at Riverside cemetery.
A HEAP BIG WIND-UP!
Red Men's Carnival will Close To-
Morrow Night
The Carnival that has been running
for the last two weeks at Second ave-nue
and Forrest street by Washlta
Tribe, will come to a close this Satur-day
evening, at which time several
new amusement features will be In-troduced.
The committee has spared no pains
to make this a very enjoyable even-
The Carnival has been the most
successful ever held and the Tribe
wishes to thank the public for their
patronage.
An accident which railroad men ex-perienced
in handling traffic from
Iron and steel mills always guard
against, happened yesterday, at noon,
in the upper yards of the Reading
Railway Company, in this borough.
Shifting crew with engine 1180
were shifting cars, some of which
were loaded with plate Iron from the
Ivy Rock steel mills, in the yards a-bove
Maple street, and William H.
Miller, an extra brakeman who was
working on the local shifter for the
tir.-; time, was riding in a gondola
car, which was loaded with plate
steel. While a shift was being made
the load of steel began to slide and
before Miller could jump out of the
way, his left leg, just above the ankle
was caught by the sliding mass and
the foot was almost sheared from the
ankle. Fellow railroaders quickly re-moved
the steel and removed the un-fortunate
man from the car. The
hones of the foot were crushed and
the foot was being held only by frag-ments
of flesh.
The railroaders gave Miller first
aid treatment and hurried him to the
passenger station and sent him to
Charity hospital, Norristown, on the
12.47 train which was then due.
This is the first serious accident
which has occurred from this in the
local yards for years. The danger
from sliding plates of iron or steel Is
well known to the experienced men
and a new man Is Invariably warned
when he rides on a car loaded with
plates. The plates are loaded uneven
ly, one on top of another and when
the car receives a heavy jolt, the top
plates are likely to slide. There is
always space left in each end or" the
car that workmen may have room la
unloading the plates and it was while
standing In the car that Miller was
caught.
TWENTYSEVENTH YEAR
On Monday, August ISlst. the Schis-sler
College of Business begins its
twenty-seventh year, with an enroll-ment
of more than double the number
in attendance any previous year in
tlie history of this well-known and
popular institution, which certainly
must be gratifying to the manage-ment,
and also speaks well for the
people of Conshohocken and sur-rounding
towns.
The work in all departments is in-dividual,
and the teachers are ail
specialists. It maintains three separ-ate
employment offices, located in
Norristown, Philadelphia and New
York City, for the sole purpose of se-curing
positions for its graduates and
keeping ihem ever after employed.
In the securing of a commercial
training, it is evident that the selec-tion
of a school is made with discrim-ination.
Honors for David Rust
David Rust has received an appoint
ment from Governor Tener, to repre-sent
this State at the Farmers' Na-tional
Congress to be held at Fort
Worth, Texas, October 14th to 16th,
1914. Mr. Rust Is Secretary of the
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society,
and represents the County of Phila-delphia
on the State Board of Agri-culture,
hence this appointment.
SAVE YOUR OLD
STRAW HAT!
WE'LL GIVE YOC 50 CTS. FOR
YOUR ODD STRAW HAT, ALLOW-ING
IT TO YOU ON THE COST OP
THE NEW FELT HAT WHICH YOU
BUT HERB. TOUR CHOUGH OF
HUNDREDS OF THIS SEASON'S
NEWEST AMI SMARTEST SHAPES
—THE BEST VALUES IN TOWN,
INCLUDING IN THIS WONDER-FUL
OFFER I AM PLACING ON
SALE MY ENTIRE STOCK OF SUM-MER
SHIRTS, UNDERWEAR, HOS-IERY
AND NECKWEAR AT GREAT-LY
REDUCED PRICKS.
MEN'S AND YOUTH'S $12.50 SUITS
AT |6.50
$15.00 BLUE SERGE SUIT AT $7.50
$18 KIRSCHBAUM Guaranteed Suit,
At .-. ¥ $11.25
$20 KIRSCHBAUM Guaranteed Suit,
At $12.75
BOYS' NORFOLK BLOOMER SUITS
AT HAUF PRICE*
BEAR IN MIND YOU GET 50 Cts.
FOR YOUR ODD STRAW HAT.
WILLIAM KATZ,
(Guarantee Shop)
53 Fayette St., Conshohocken
(We give Trading Stamps)
/