Evening Star Newspaper, December 24, 1922, Page 11

Hoax by Wife Charged as Five - THE 8U TAHITANS’ DOORMAT BEARS NO ‘WELCOME’ “Children” Seek Inheritance|r0 DERELICT WHITES Death of Wealthy Forty-Niner Gives Rise to Battle for Share in His Special Dispatch to The Star. SAN FRANCISCO, December 23.— ‘Was Thomas Bell, multi-millionaire forty-niner, business associate of sev- eral early California notables, includ- ing Senator James G. Falr, and two generations ago an outstanding fig- ure in the financial world both here and in the east, the victim of a monumental hoax—veritably the hoax of a dead century—at the hands of his_wife’ Did Mrs, Teresa Bell, the wife whom he married from San Fran- cisco's famous “joyous way" of a halt century ago, in order to win $50,000 promised to her for each child she bore the multi-millionaire, secure five new-born waifs from as many un- known sources and foigt them upon Bell as their own? These two questions are expected 1o be answered in .a suit now in progress here to break the will of Mrs. Bell—a will in which she de- -lared that the supposed Bell chil- dren, all now grown to almost mid- dle-aged manhood and womanhood, are neither his nor hers—and in which she left more than a million dollars to state and charitable in- stitutions. Will Is Conmtested. ‘The will, in which they were cut off with $5 each, is being contested by four of five children whom she re- pudiated as not her own and by the helrs of a fifth, now dead. Stalking through the case are grim specters of the past—echoes of the notorfous Barbary Coast and the gay night life of San Francisco of the nost-bellum gold days; the story of tiful Ciroce ght with a rich man’s dollars—grinning family skele- that come out to rattle and shake musty bones after long years of a silent hiding. As a stage setting for the case also is the “House of Mystery,” the pala- tial home built by Bell for his comely “bride of the Magdalens,” and where he fell te his death over the stairway banister thirty years ago, the victim of a mysterious murder plot, it was widely whispered at the time. In her will, written shortly before her death six months ago. Mrs. Bell for the first time bared her alleged duplicity toward her husband. 1In order to claim the $50,000, which the rich forty-niner paid her as a re- ward for each child born. so the document sets forth, and with the ald of “Mammy” Pleasant. an aged and mysterious negress, credited with strange mystic powers, the five foundlings were foisted upon her hus- band as their own. Deception Revealed. ‘The deception was accomplished. so the will further recites, by Mrs. Bell first convincing her husband that she NABSIOIOGENS AMADST TRONES Broadway Robbers Saunter Up, Smash Jeweler’s Window, Take 71.Rings and Flee. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, December 23.—De- scending from an automobile into the midst of the throng of holiday shop- pers on upper Broadway, three men tonight smashed the window of a jewelry store with a brick wrapped in towels and escaped with seventy- one diamond rings, which they snatched from trays in the display window. The rings were valued at $10.000. The robbery was carried out with the utmost daring. Parking their ex- pensive-looking car in the line of au- tomobiles which stood at the curb, two of the bandits, fashionably at- tired, strolled nonchalantly toward the jeweler’s display window, leaving a third companion at the wheel. A dozen persons were inspecting the jewels behind the glass, when one of the new arrivals quietly drew from under his arm what appeared to be a parcel—the brick wrapped in towels. Before any of the pedestrians realized what was happening the parce]l was Rurled at the window. shattering the thick plate glass, and making the gems readily accessible through the jagged aperture. Gathering up two trays containing the seventy-one valuable rings, the bandit pair quletly withdrew to the curb, climbed into their car and dis- appeared into the streams of traffic along the brilliantly lighted thor- oughfare. Two customers and eight clerks were in the store when the robbery occurred. Too late, however, to frus- trate the robbers or enable the po- lice to prevent their escape, the clerks gave the alarm. DRY LAW BEST ENFORCED IN D. C., OFFICIALS SAY Police Working in Udison With U. S. Agents Makes Regulation Easy. Is Reason Assigned. Bpecial Dispatch to The Star. BALTIMORE, December 23.—Wash- jugton is the best regulated city in the United States as far as prohibi- tion enforcement is concerned, ac- cording to enforcement officers from the National Capital operating here. The imputation that Washington is rather a “wet" town, which followed on the heels of a speech by Repre- ventative U; of Georgia, has brought on & discussion in Baltimore. “One reason for the excellent Wash- ington situation.” one agent said, “is that the police force there works in unison with the government agents in enforcing the Volstead Jaw, which co-operation is lacking in Baltimore. Five hundred bootleggers in Wash- ington? Why, you count the boot- leggers there on your fingers. The condition of the prohibition law In Baltimore is what should be kicked. WOMAN HELD FOR DEATH OF MOONSHINE VICTIM NEW YORK, December 23.—De- tectives tonight arrested Mrs. Bessie Kurswell of Brooklyn on & cl of homicide, alleging she made and -soid moonshine whisky, which, to police surgeons, caused the last night of Mrs. Florence B‘lvrl. James Donathey, also of Brook! was taken In custody as a ‘mate: witness. He reported findl the ‘body’ of Mrs. Stevens in a bed at his boln-,- after a drinking party. After a visit with the Donatheys according to the police, Mrs. Stevens went out to Mrs. Kurswell's and re- with s.quart of whi ‘which the .tfe; ! . When.. oy nd ~ wife awgke this mornin e way found (o have ey auring the night. turn Estate. | was to become a mother and then by | having the “birth” of his est off- | spring occur while Bell was away on a visit to his mines or in the east. The foundlings used in the quintet of avers the will, were secured by old Mammy Pleasant from sources which Mrs, Bell herself never knew, and If her confession Is true the strange negress who absolutely ruled the Bell house- !hola for a score of years carrled the secret of their parentage to the grave with her. And it is to old Mammy | Pleasant that much of the limelight in | the present trial is being given. Said | to have been a voodoo priestess among {her own people and to have been the secret proprietress of one of San Fran- | cisco’s best known underworil resorts | before she entered the Bell household, | her word was law with even Bell him- self for years before he died. The negress is credited with having dissi- pated a million dollars by gifts to others of her own race and by lavish expenditures. It already has been brought out during the will contest that the mar- riage of Thomas Bell in the late ‘508 was an event that was celebrated with more champagne and kindred | beverages than with more decorous ceremony and strict social eclat. Like | many other notables of early Cali- ! fornia historr. he believed in en- tjoying life to its fullest. 1* Shortly before his mysterious death ihe quarreled with Mamy Pleasant and she is said to have put & “spell” upon {him. At least one other death and { several “accidents” are credited to “spells” which she cast over those who Incurred her displeasure. “Children” Seek Wealth. In their attack upon Mrs. Bell's will and the disclosures which she makes in it her repudiated children allege that she was of unsound mind during the latter years of her life; that she often claimed the ability to float through space when she willed it and to possess power to see into the fu- ture. They also have produced a half dozen witnesses who clalm to have been present when Mrs. Bell gave birth to three of her children. ‘ombating efforts by the udt- ated “children” to prove that Mrs. Rell was insane for several years be- fore her death and that her weird story of the hoax practiced upon her multi-millionaire husband is a fig- { ment of a disordered brain is a for- { midable battery of attorneys repre- | senting _persons and_institutions to | whom she left her wealth. A half | dozen of the foremost lawyers on the | Pacific coast are battling for the Bell | “children.” _And as the legal batteries on each i side strive to prove their case color- | ful tales are being heard of “old” San | Francisco—San Francisco of the hec- | tic days when red liquor and Pacific | street” were something more than i faint memories. (Copyright, 1922.) i Visit to Barber Spoils Holiday Of 700 on Ship | By the Associated Press. HOBOKE J., December 23.— A busy valet and a passenger who stopped at the ship's barber shop for a last-riinute grooming today unwittingly spoiled the plans of { 700 fmmigrants to spend Christmas | day in the homes of Amerfcan | friends. The Immigrantsarrived on the George Washington. They will spend the holiday aboard ship, where special dinners will be served them. The George Washington had raced to reach port before noon, the closing hour on Saturdays at Ellis Island, and was successful. But the count of passengers proved to be short by two. Qf the 1,583 recorded, only 1,581 were found. A second count also failed to re- veal them. Meanwhile the minutes till noon ticked off. Not until the third count were the passengers found, one a valet, who with preparation of his luggage and the other a man who had stopped at the barber shop and was overlooked in the check- offs. | _ They were discovered shortly after noon, but the authorities ] then were unable to lapd the ship- ! load of immigrants. | 1 TWO STOLEN MINT ] | BILS ARE FOUND) |Both, of Five-Dollar Denomi- nation, Passed in Nebraska Towns, Sheriff Announces. By the Associated Press. t LINCOLN, Neb. December 23. State Sheriff Gus Hyers announced t night- he had received information that two $5 bills, corresponding in serial number with those stolen in the robbery at the door of the Denver mint, were expended Friday—one at Hastings. Neb.: the other at Aurora, Neb. In each instance, he said, the cur- rency was used in payment for mer: chandise. Discovery of the bills wgs ! not made until late Friday. | The merchants could not. according to the report. fix the time of the pur- NOT STOLEN BILL. ixeport From Baltimore Proves Mis- take When Investigated. BALTIMORE, Md.,, December 23.— lThe discovery of a $5 bill thought to have been ‘une of the $200,000 In $5 notes stolen from a federal reserve bank truck at Denver last Monday led federal secret service operatives and police on an intensive man hunt here today which continued for hours before the mistake was rned. ‘While the note bore th. rial num- ber of one of bills en in the Denver holdup, it was found that it differed in other essential respects from the stolen notes. After the authorities had satisfled themselves that a mistake had been made the case was dropped. The bill was tendered in payment of a meal at a local restaurant yester- day and turned over to the police. ‘“Yestérday afternoon You Ihsulted a friend of mine.” “Why, mum—" ““When Mr. Greening called for me deor in -his_face.” ““Golf clubs, mum? hy. T thought he was an umbrella | | ! i best, murh,” | | By the Associated Press. 0 PAPEETE, Tahiti, December 23. —The welcome sign is not found on the doormat of this island for the white man who has insufi- - clent income to support himself, notwithstanding certain represen- tations to the contrary in meveral narratives emanating from this island. The natives cannot and will not support a derelict white- man merely for the pleasure of his company. During the last two or three Years a nurgber of white men have arrived here, believing the natives would support them. Recently there were many wandering along the beach, destitute, in the hope that some passing ship would al- low them to work their way home or to some other clime. The aver- age white man cannot make a liv- ing from a small patch of ground because he is unable to endure labor under the tropical sun. There is no avallable employment on the island for white men and the economic conditions in tke ~island are at a low ebb. NDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, s S s *fi- CITY NEWS IN BRIEF. ‘The Centrul High School Alumni re- union will be held at the school Tues- day, 8 pm. A play will be presented by Thomas Chapman, ‘09; a dance from 9 to 12 and music by an or- chestra. Columbia Chapter, Order of Easters Star, will meet tomorrow evening to install officers and to have & program ! of Christmas festivities. The Parent-’ r Assaclation of the Welghtman School - served a luncheon to the teachers of the school Thursday in the kindergarten room. In the afternoon the commu- nity program was {n charge of the association, and at the close of the program a 'foot ball was presented to ‘the boys and a basket ball to the girls of the achool by the president, Mrs. Carl H. Wisewell. Home, about the head when he was run down by an automobile yesterday afternoon in a traffic jam at 7th and D streets. He refused hospital treat- ment. The automoblle, according to the police, was operated by Bertha Dawson, 3205 K street northwest. Hill Dunn, twenty years old, 2001 16th street, was cut on the left hand |and face when an automobile he was driving_collided on 16th street be- tween L and M streets with a ma- | chine operated by John Fentriss, 1406 5th street, yesterday. Both machines were badly damaged. Dunn was FivePi very good value at this England bed finished in white ivory; three-foot size. good value at this price. i ay ATVLERINA Mo Y DTN “lllinl'lllll Mghogafiy_‘ Top; Birchwood Base. Top, %6x48 Inches. ece Wal A beautiful suite, consisting of Twin Beds (Bow-End), Semi-Vanity, Chifforette and Dresser. Bed and Spring A much wanted combination; Really a handsome suite of er. enamel or A very Exceptional Value. Strongly made; with par it DECEMBER treated at the office of Dr. 1135 16th street, '~ A coroner's jury yesterday after- noon huld that Roger D. Dennett, & ‘Washington Terminal ‘Compsny em- ploye. whose mangled body was found at the Union station early yes- | terday, came to his death from’de- capitation caused by an accident. It is belleved Beunel k by tt was struc) s, moving train without the knowledge of the crew. X e ORGANIZATION: ACTIVITIES. i TODAY, : The Girl Scouts'Glee Club will sing at the Children's Hospital at 3 o’clock and again at 4 o'clock at Pierce Mill ‘Tea House. Members of the council for the Girl Scouts will act as host- esses at the mill. 'Public invited. Wanderlusters wiil make. a hike from Chain bridge to _the vicinity of Cherrydale, leaving af 2:30 o’clock. Miss Maye Kerley will lead. Edward H. Young will lecture, by request, on “Abdul Baha and the Suc~ cesslon” before the Secular League at 3 o'clock, 1101 E street. The Community Christian Endeavor ‘of Georgetown will hold Christmas exercises at Early Rose Park, 5 o'clock. All invited. The Red Triangle Outing Club will meet at Hyattsville at 3:15 o'clock. Hyattsville cars leave on G street. Mr. Jenkins, leader. AR nlit Bedfoom Suite $33975 furniture—and 'a Kitchen Table nickeloid top wrasten.| DOLLAR BUYS 57 1922—PART- 1. MILLION RUBLES ON RUSS BOURSE | xaskea Bandits Buccesd in Getting' By the Assoclated Press. MOSCOW, December 23.—The de- mand for foreign currency has been so great during the last few days that for a time the dollar on the black bourse brought 57,000,009 rubles. The market clos- ed at 45,000,000 An announcement that the com- missariat of finance was consider- ing a decree to prohibit individuals retaining possession of the czar gold rubles had much to do with the tumble of the soviet ruble, ac- cording to financial circles. The project under consideration would compel all persons having gold rubles to exchange them for guar- ,lntrd state bank notes just is- sue . Beyond Pardon. From the Los Angeles Times. Kenneth had a baby sister, and he had to watch her frequently when his mother was busy. One day when he wanted to play foot ball he had .z long session nursemaid. The baby amiled and cooed, but Kenneth was too cross to pay any attention. Finally, he sald, “Quit your smiling, you can't vamp me.” 9x12-ft ... The Julius Lansburgh Furniture Co. Places on Sale Tuesday Morning a Wonderful Variety of High Quality Furniture, at Prices That Can Be No Indication of Its We’re Closing Another Year of VALUE DEALING in This Manner, and Tuesday Morning Early We’'ll Be Ready to Serve the VALUE Seeking People by Showing Them a Remarkable Display of Valuein Furniture at LowPrices. i Tapestry Rugs 9x12 ............. §24.75 Wilton Rugs, 9x12. Congoleum Gold Seal Art Rugs it $10.10 9x10.6-ft . c1s opreie $14.15 Mohair Overstuffed Suite Like the picture, consisting of big Seftee, Arm Rocker and Chair, covered all over with excellent grade of mohair; outside backs covered with same matefial; loose cushions. A wonderful value..........oooeuiaiiiianns this city today. De carried th Harrisor oad, PAYMASTER SHOT DOWN: AND $20,000 IS STOLEN | Christmas Pay Roll of Mine | Near Pittsburgh. i PITTSBURGH, December 23.—Ross Dennls, paymaster for the Pittsburgh Coal Company, was mortally wounded and $20,000 stolen by masked bandits on a lonely road ten miles south of city . The robbers escapsd. Dennis died while being taken to'a hnlplull.. % nnis was ng on a motor cycle in front of an automobile, which e Christmas pay roll for the n mine at Beadling, and was :nl.l'dafl by company clerks. As they rove through a hollow in the hills two masked men ped into the] r and without warning emptied their shotguns at Dennis, who was knocked off his machine. They were quickly joined by four other masked men, who opened fire on the automo- bile, damaging the steering gear. They drove the clerks from the car, and while one seised the money others were busy wrecking the mech- anism of the pay car and the motor At that moment one of tham eed- cyele. noticed that Dennis, who was % |ing from a dozen buckshot wounds, was trying to draw hig pistol. The bandit ran to him, rolled him over m& stopping, picked up the bl.nfl!ll| Almost immediately a big auto- ‘CHICKEN SHAKES’ NOT THEIR FAULT, DANCE HALLS SAY By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, December 23.—Ball- room proprietors today disclaimed r«, l:flnllblllly for the “chicken shakes. the “Chicago.” the “camel” and other exaggerated dances enjoyed in public halls after ti had adopted resolu- tions decrying the prevailing terpsi chorean vogue. The resolution, it was said, was adopted as a result of a crusade ainst modern dances in public places recently announced by Mrx. Gecrge W. Loft, deputy police com ml‘;.l‘:oner. 5 = “The tendency of young coup! to indulge in the exaggerated step and body movement of the modern dances that are not only unbecoming but indecent,” the dance place prr prietors declared. ‘“These dancesalso are ungraceful and injurious to t morals of young people.” They disclaimed responsibility for either the steps or the music to which *. they are danced. 2 mobile came tearing down the road and stopping, picked up the bandites and the money and drove rapidly ay. The sheriffs of Allegheny and Washington counties sent posses to the scene of the robbery, while Pitts- burgh policemen were stationed on all roads leading into the city. vflv e 9x12 ... o ofebers o o e $16.20 7.6x9-ft 6x9-ft Drawer. Mahogany Dining Room Suite - A beautiful suite, in the very attractive old mahogany finish. It com- : prises a very distinctive inclosed Server and large Buffet, Oblong Exten- sion Table, an unusual China Closet, Armchair and five Side Chairs, with Axminster Rugs Library Table Mahogany finish; with well made. . $36.75 .$69.75 to $179.75 . $8.10 o efeseieie s Attractive and $33975