The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 17, 1903, Page 1

P L § to be taken from f the Library.++« | FRE S IRV I . VOLUME XCIV-—NO. 17. SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1903. * PRICE FIVE CENTS. ARMED CITIZENS GUARD THE RUINS OF HEPPNER WHILE DIC RSSASSING H0LD REINS DVER NG Peter 1 Will Wield No Power in Servia. i New Ruler to Be No Divorce Suit on Eve of More Than a Royal Captive. 3 Government Is Entirely in the Hands of Military Regicides. GENEVA, June 16.— The Czar has telegraphed to King Peter as follows: | “Learning that the Senate and Skupshtina have formally preclaimed you King of Servia, | I wventure to express to your | Majesty my sincere wishes for | the prosperity of your country | and the hope that God may come to your assistance in the enter- prise you have undertaken for he happiness of your people. “NICHOLAS.” | 1 i he position of X be little more ve. The real ry will be a mil- | e leaders of | Maschin and Col- without any | ling spirits 1 Just as | his pred- aims. y is under | prefects | been an army wherever | almost 2d the rul s believed, WO they did se their re- guments were Radical of Gov- case of Ju- Belgrade argu- to a rday WARNING. him HEEDS A BLUNT the 4 his ess to = were materially hastened | k f one of the leaders of " { nel Mitschlitch. The the proceedings, . s was ant er members coept choice. Premier Avakumovich jeputies that it was useless to reput as neither nor | . Russia rmit it. He fu posed new const g Peter ved by the President of the far less power e semi-official statements g that the delegation of | the Natic ma! Assembly elected to mit the crown to the newly chosen King had glready started & etill here. The Gov- ernment declares that the number of its members, twenty-four, would entail too great cost on c ry in the way of ses t the real reason ts departure is that the Government found some of its members | to be averse to King Peter, POPULACE IS PASSIVE. These members sought the opportunity » become reconciled to him &t the ex- of the country. Now that the pense has cut off their traveling ex- | .ses their desire to make the Journe)" be greatly diminished and the dele- probably will consist of a dozen ! bers at the most. the people, especially those | side the capital, know lttle| tle about the trend of national | s One of the features in all the| shop windows now is the display of large | 1 sres of King Peter, freshly printed, | e having been brought from | Two peasants were heard dis- ng one of the prints to-dav. The first asked who It was. ] The new King, Karageorgevitch” re. | plied the gecond Why ‘did they kill the last King?" # don’t know. I think he had some with the army.” “Suppose this one has trouble with the uts arm “They will kill him, too, concerr »d response. It is believed that the army will try to make secret terms with the new King, by which it will retain the supremacy Continued on Page 8, Column 2. came the un. | ried | States Government official at WIFE SENDS -~ BICH SPOUSE 10 PRISON Edwin D. Mooers in Custody in New York. His Sailing for Europe. Woes Multiply for Million- aire Well Known in San Francisco. Special Dispatch to The Call NEW YORK, June 16.—Edwin D. Mooers, reputed to be the possessor of several llion dollars, spent to-night in a cell he Ludlow-street jail. He is booked to sail for Europe to-morrow, his name of his mother appearing on that and the York. Unless 310,00 is deposited as a bond for his appearance to answer to a petition: for divorce and alimony filed by his young wife, will not sail N Mooers' affidavit and others upon which Judge J. P. Clarke issued the order t Friday are brimming over names of co-respondents and with s and places of alleged misconduct this city, neighboring coast resorts and California of arrest in Mocers is a son of a wealthy western mine owner, now dead. In his own right he has a large fortune. He is a well known figure in the life of New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Mrs. Mooers describes herself as with- out property -or intome. She says that she appealed to her husband. last month for a contribution to Ner maintenance and that he refused it and told her he was going abroad for a long time to “get rid of the whole thing.” They were married at El Paso, Texas, by Rev. Dr. Clements in 1900, Mrs. Mooers asserts in her petition, and she has lived apart from her husband since October, 1%2, when, she says, she dis- covered that he had been gullty of mis- conduct EBhe appealed for an order of arrest for her band because he spends most of = in the West and has no busi- or property in New York, and is to the United States to evade her action for divorce and alimony. him, Mrs. Mooers says husband has not contributed at all bort. She specifies as part of sband's estate 5000 shares of Yellow irg and Milling Company’s left to him by his father. Mooers swears that her huspand leave Since she left L, last January; Angeles in January, 1902 Mooers is not yet thirty years old. He declined ar his case to-night. —_——— LIGHTNING STRIKES TUG'S FOREMAST YARD Wire Rigging Saves the Lorne From Perhaps Serious Accident Off Cape Flattery. VICTORIA. B. C., June 16.—While pro- ceeding to Victoria this morning from Cape Flattery, after towing the schooner Balboa to sea, the tug Lorne was struck by lightning and her foremast top car- away. At 11:45 a. m., when the Lorne was off Neah Bay steaming toward Victoria, there was a loud clap of thunder and simultaneously a flash of lightning lit up the tug. The foremast yard had been struck by lightning and with a heavy shock it broke and three or four feet of the spar came toppling down on the deck. The blinding flash, with the loud thunderclap and the crash, caused for a time a panic on board the tug. Captain Cutler, master of the tug, is of the opinion that had the wire rigging not conducted the flash of electricity to the water, the lightning would have wrecked the deck house and perhaps have caused a serious accident. CABLE COMPANY ASKED TO ENFORCE THE LAW | Commander Rodman Requests Super- intendent to Carry Out Regula- tions at Midway Islands. WASHINGTON, June 16.—Secretary Moody has received a message from Com- mander Rodman, commanding the naval station at Honolulu, saying that in the absence of any regularly appointed United Midway Islands he had requested the superin- tendent of the Commercial Cable Com- pany there to see that all Jaws and regu- lations relating to the islands are carried out, and to report to the commandant in Honolulu in case anything serious oc- curred. ¢ The cable superintendent was also re- quested not to allow any birds at Mid- way 1o be killed or disturbed, except for the purpose of food. e ——— Delano to Be Court-Martialed. WASHINGTON, June 16.—Secretary Moody to-day ordered the court-martial list of the American liner New | Dorothy B. Mooers, he | 1 Ity of misconduct in South Pasa- | and in Los TIMS ARE TAKEN FROM THE WRECKAGE s [ ENICD DEPOSITS TOTAL AMOUNT 0F PIUS, FUND AWARD Money Will Be Remitted to Archbishop Riordan. | | | < Special Dispatch to The Call WASHINGTON, June 16.—Embassador Clayton has cabled the State Department that the Mexican Government yesterday deposited to his credit $1,420,682 on ac- count of the Plous fund award. This ac- tion on the part of the Government of Mexico in meeting its obligations has broken all records in arbitration. The money will be remitted to 'Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco, the titular claimant, as there have been no assign- ments to attorneys in interest. —————— KILLS ONE HIGHWAYMAN AND WOUNDS ANOTHER Rancher Returns Fire of Assailants and Drives Them Off, but Will Die of Injuries. MISSOULA, Jéne 16.—Pat Donovan, a well-known rancher and politician at Clin- ton, west of here, was shot fatally by three highwaymen just before dawn this morning. As he lay dying upon the ground, Donovan returned the fire, kill- ing one robber and . severely wounding another. . The highwaymen rode up to Donovan in the darkness just outside the limits of Clinton and opened fire without a word. Donovan sprang behind the porch of a house near by and returned the fire. Neighbors hurried to the scene. The living highwayman lifted the dead one to his saddle and leading the horse of the third mman, who was in the saddle, galloped off. A posse has thus far failed of Lieutenant Delano, charged with em-{to come up with the marauders, bezzlement of $§1800. Donovan cannot live over night. (IS INLLENGE N CHINA DAMAGING T0 UNITED STATES Russia Will Dictate the -Commercial Treaties. Spectal Dispatch to The Call WABHINGTON, June 16 —Advices re- ceived at the State Department to-day from Minister Conger at Peking indicate that Ruselan influence is to be exerted in drawing up the commercial treaties now belng negotlated between China and the United States and other countries and | that this Russian influence will .be su- preme. This is the most startling information Eecretary Hay has recently received con- cerning China. It seems that Russia is preparing to take off the mask and come out openly in her dictation of Chinese af- fairs. Beyond that, it will prove that the Czar intends to do as he will with Man- churla and that this Government has been relying on the false friendship of high Chinese officials. Conger had previously cabled that Wu Ting Fang and’ Viceroy Sheng, who are negotiating the new commercial treaty with the United States, have been ordered to transfer the negotiations from Shang- hat to Peking. The real purpose of the change, Conger says, is that they may be more closely watched by Cheng Chih Tung, head of the Chinese Foreign Office, and prevented making too many conces- sions to this country. Cheng Chih Tung 1s strongly opposed to all foreigners. The State Department is awaiting fur- ther advices from Minister Conger before consenting to the transfer from Shanghai to Peking of the negotiations for a com- mercial treaty. ———————— MRS. HUGH TEVIS VISITS THE COUNTESS FESTETICS NEW YORK, June 17.—The Journal says: Beautiful Mrs. Hugh Tevis, widow of the California millionaire and formerly ‘Miss Cornelia Baxter of Denver, is in town stopping with her cousin, Countess Festetics, at the home of her father, Louls T. Haggin, 41 Madison avenue. ‘New York society is interested in the ru- mor that Mrs. Tevis is here to be mar- ried, but her friends are positive in their denials. : ROM the ruins of Heppner, the thriving little Oregon town has not yet been forbidden under beyond belief. which was almost deMroyed by a cloudburst last Sunday even- ing, the bodies of the dead are still being taken. Thousands of per- sons are on the scene of the appalling disaster, and every possible effort is being made to ameliorate the distressing condition of those who escaped death in the flood. The number of victims accurately fixed, but it will certainly reach beyond 300 and may not fall far short of half a thousand. The wreckage of the totwn is being guarded by armed citizens, and looting is penalty of instant death. The stories of the sur- vivors contain descriptions of scenes of horror which are almost D -+ E Horrible Scenes . in a City of the Dead in Oregon. Special Dispatch to The Call. g o R ORI VIEWS AT.-THE SEAT OF MORROW COUNTY IN OREGON, OF WILLOW -CREEK ROSE SUDDENLY WITH THE FLOOD FROM A CLOUDBURST AND RUSHED THROUGH THE TOWN BEFORE THE PEOPLE COULD LEAVE THEIR HOMES. WHICH SUFFERED TERRIBLY WHEN THE WATERS | the number of lives lost by the flood could sent out heretofore have been too high. . o s been so great here that no accurate estimate of | be made. and it is believed that To-night 130 bodies have been recovered, and it all estimates is believed that the total number of dead will not exceed 200. | e N e P ——— j EPPNER, Ore., June 16.—Confusion ha: EPPNER, Or., June 16.—Placid as a woodland brook, Willow Creek flows through this desolate town ana | gives not a token of the terrible fury with which it destroyed homes and hundreds of lives only two days ago. Awful tales of destruction to life and property are en- graven on its banks. - Perhaps 200 people of Heppner have perished. The number may reach 250. Nearly 125 bodies have been recovered and more than 100 have been buried. About $500,000 worth of proprty is erased from the wealth of Mor- row County in Heppner and along Willow. Creek. The scenes here are indescribiable in their grewsomeness, their awful desolation. No pen can exaggerate the horrors they present. Every heap of debris may contain a human form. Many do reveal such spectacles when uncovered, and meantime Willow Creek, as if to mock the dead, has returned to a purring brooklet and the courthouse clock at every hour peals forth its dolorous note into the ears of the bereaved. ARMED CITIZENS PRESERVE ORDER. A grim-visaged aspect has Heppner. No loafers may tarry in its precincts. A rigld emergency government impressed able-bodied men into the work of saving the town from plague- breeding disease. The dead are dead, but the living must live, and in the extremity the community is ruled by a strong hand akin to martial law. Several thousand persons have arrived. They may not indulge, however, in lazy curiosity. Government in extremity is force and when Marshals and deputy Sheriffs pass up and down with butt ends of pistols protruding from their pockets, government has its true ex- emplification. An army of men and horses is sifting great wastes of debris. An army of women take charge of the bodies " as they are borne out of the wreckage. An arm, a leg, a toe, a finger, a lock of hair, a tuft of clothing—these are har- bingers of horror beneath the mud. Babies and little chil- dren lie there buried with many a gash or bruise on thelr tender bodles. Forms of women frequently come to light pereft of all clothing. The ciothing of men is less frequently torn away. The bodies are borne to Roberts Hall to be washed and dressed by women, to be shrouded in coarse white cloth and to-be laid in rough wooden boxes. There i{s no time for ceremony. Women who would faint at scenes one-thousandth part as awful obey the mandate of necessity without a flinch. The floor swims with the half diluted mud that drips’ from the victims, but the living patter through it or sweep it out when it gets too deep. The rough boxes go to the cemeteries, not singly in hearses, but many at a time, piled high in wagons. > BULLETS ARE AWAITING LOOTERS. Social lines were erased by the disaster. The aristoc- racy of the town delves in the mud with the lowly. All eat the same enervating food. Politics is forgotten entirely. The city officals are supreme authority. One of them ordered a man to work yesterday at the point of a pistol. son detected in looting must be shot on the spot. Medicines are not needed here, nor physicians nor nurses. The town must be cleaned up if it would escape pestilence. It must have more men to help clean up and provisions to feed the men would be right welcome. Families are entirely destitute. All" their worldly possessions have been carried away. In many a family only a father or’a mother or an orphan is lett. Help would tend to lighten the gloom of all such as these. Houses crushed and telescoped beyond recog- nition, bulldings twisted from their foundations, deposited in Any per- | streets or on alien property a mile away, household goods strewn in every direction in reeking mud, trees two feet in | éiameter uprooted and woven in impeded drift into all kinds | of awful fantastic shapes, of men and horses and | cattle and pigs all cast in indiscriminate ruin—such is Hepp- ner of to-di All persons say that the crest of the flood was upon the town within three or four minutes after the danger was per- bodies ceived. Most of the people were their houses. The day teing Sunday, the hour being dinner time and a heavy rain falling, all caused them to pen themselves within doors. Most of the dwellings were near the bank of the stream. The people were therefore caught like rats in a trap., and so sud- den was the warning that comparatively few could reach places of safety. The whole row of houses next the creek was swept away. HOUSES TOSS IN F URIOUS FLOOD. Spectators of the calamity describe the structures as fall- ing lke card houses. The dwellings were tossed about like bobbins and most of them fell completely to pieces. The town had perhaps over 250 houses, nearly 200 of which wers demolished. The whole business part of town would have been swept away had not the Palace Hotel, a heavy brick structure, diverted the current. Houses on brick founda- tions fared better than others because the flood could not £0 easily wash under them. Identification of the dead has been easy, as most of the bodies show the effects of drowning rather than of vital injuries, though all of them are more or less bruised. Only a few of those who escaped the flood were severely injured. A. Abrahamsick, who was rescued, died to-day. The bodies of Dr. Vaughn, postmaster, and his wife were found to-day locked in each other's embrace. A foot of each body was all that first came to light.. Mrs. Vaughn's dress was in- tact and she stlil wore her jewelry. At the rafiroad depot a live two-year-old baby was found yesterday in a grain sack in a pile of drift. The mother was rescued a short distance farther down stream. George Conser’s experience was probably 2s extraordinary as any. Conser was sitting in his house with his wife, Dr. McSword and John Ayers, when the flood picked up the house and the floor of the front hall bulged upward, letting in torrents of water. Conser and his wife fled upstairs. They do not know what became of McSword and Ayers and be- lieve that the two men must have tried to escape by the door. While the husband and wife were upstairs a par- tition fell in on them and held them down to their necks in water. They thought their last moment had ¢ome and Kissed each other good-by, but a friendly current took the house shoreward. There the structure was all but demol- ished. When the waters abated Conser kicked out a window and with his wife escaped. EMERGENCY COMMITTEE AT WORK. “We had given up the fight”” sald he, “when we were saved. We lost all our household effects and these clothes are all T own in the world.” Conser, in the absence of Mayor Gilliam, who returned from Portland last night, was made president of the emer- gency organization of citizens Sunday night after the flood had wrought its ruin. He has been indefatigable in his present duties and is nearly worn out with fatigue. The body of Dr. McSword was found yesterday, thirty- three miles down stream. C. E. Redfleld returned in the early darkness of the morning to find his home, his wife Continued on Page 2, Column 2.