The Seattle Star Newspaper, May 24, 1913, Page 1

2 rAIR TONIGHT AND SUNDAY: LIGHT WESTERLY WINDS The Seattle Star THE ONLY PAPER IN SEATTLE THAT DARES TO PRINT THE NEWS WASH., SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1913 mith, ONE CENT . Oiwa wranpn se CONVICTS, IS BREEDING Convict No. 2146, in his letter to The Star, charges that the manner in which the McNeil federal penitentiary is managed js causing the spread of a loathsome disease among the men and boys. : He charges that he was infected with this disease in the prison and declares that the doctor’s examination made at the time he was imprisoned shows that he was a clean man then. He charges that Warden Halligan places young men and boys in cells with old and hardened criminals who are suffering with this disease. He charges that convicts suffering with this disease are made to work in the prisoners’ kitchen. Robert Bacon, who delivered the letter to The Star, is suffering from the same dangerous disease. He claims he went to the island penitentiary a healthy and clean man, and he comes out ruined and doomed to die of the black plague. _ AND BACON MUST LIVE! HE IS IN SEATTLE. HE IS MINGLING WITH PEOPLE. HE MAY BE THE INNOCENT CAUSE OF INFECTING A SCORE OF PERSONS WITH THE SAME AWFUL MALADY. Bacon went with a Star man and told his story to U. S. Judge Cushman. Judge Cushman saw the marks of the disease and heard the awful details of the life of men and boys who are sent to the island. These men ask only for an opportunity to prove their charges. Bacon is out and has nothing to gain for himself. motive in bringing the conditions at the prison to public attention is for the benefit of the unfortunates there. No. 2146, by his act, is only bringing upon himself the danger of prison punishment. His motive is plain. totake the risk. These men say they can prove everything they charge and more. JUDGE CUSHMAN, AFTER HEARING BACON’S STORY, SAID: “YOU OUGHT TO TELL THESE THINGS TO A et. ten, PEISON peg it GIVE HIM THE OPPORTUNITY OF TELLING IT TO A GRAND JURY? r NG OUT ON THE PUBLIC MEN INFECTED WITH TH HIGH TIME TO FIND OUT ABOUT IT. :ymlaaapabintii MEET UNCLE JACK? No? Why, Uncle Jack is the man who conducts The Star Cxcle on the editorial Hundreds of iitde boys and girls ‘ and love him. If you have no mem- i) in The Star Circle, you ought to write bi right now and get one Then are the contests every week, in which hance to draW a prize, DOWN WITH THE HATPIN! “Guilty or not guilty, madam?” “Guilty, your honor!” “Five and costs. Next case.” Looks as though this is what may hap- pen to ladies who wear the lengthy, stab- bing variety of hatpins. Women’s Federa- tion has put it up to council. VOLUME 15 NO, 74 HOME EDITION member has a ¢ any - SEATTLE, His He is willing Convict No. 2146 of McNeil’s Island prison has written a r kable let: | ter to The Star. It took him days and weeks to write it and i: senuied ah usual ingenuity to smuggle the letter out and insure its delivery to this Paper. Convict No. 2146 has five months more to serve on the island. His action [PARTS OF STRANGE LETTER FROM CONVICT| 01d, (OLB —. eStart, Asatte, lath. $i; Mikerig ial gece # helene itl tielee- sivwcthad Shane brugy Lhe ghee Don inndales ale q? ogy nerd 32 eee Veiaiz srr aap ere ss ORL EG. CRT RET ACTER EE ir, A tattinz21¢ - - eee iw et Ss Rise Loi aasitasn a - gietisizisin ie 23 P This Teproduction shows parts of the letter written to The Star by convict No. 2146. It was written with invisible ink made of alum and water on Margins of an old Christian Science Journal. Robert Bacon, a discharged prisoner, brought the book to The Star, where, with a hot flatiron, he drought out the invisible writing 49 KILLED AT LONG BEACH | : CALGARY, May 24.—A terrific blow over the heart, dealt SEATTLE 4 Arthur Pelky, today ended the life of Luther McCarty of —— — | | white heavyweight champion of the world. The tragic fading of what was to have been a 20-round bout for the World's championship came shortly after the first round Opened. LONG BEACH, May 24.—Hundreds of persons were seriously hurt and at least 32 people killed when the second floor of the auditorlum building collapsed here, at noon carrying many people down upon the heads of others on the floor below. The bodies of 23 unidentified women have been taken out of the ruins. At 12:25 p. m. 25 bodies were laid out on the sand. leg ert opened the round carefully, apparently intending The place was crowded with people celebrating Out his man. After a few seconds of sparring, Pelky|” Queen Victoria Day , through McCarty’s guard with a terrific blow over the| ¢ It is reported that between 200 and 300 fell. All | McC . } A and helg » 9| the doctors and policemen in town are on the scene, Carty’s mouth opened, his knees sagged, 8 z : 1" 3 Every physician and nurse in the city is on duty and automobiles, topped inconscious. ‘ furniture vans, etc., are being utilized in the removal of the injured to Kansan was carried to his corner, where his seconds| | Mttempted his revival Physicians were finally called. They | cannor Ra Men, cm/s mame vane on em fl GET THIS SAFETY RAZOR OUTFIT Do you shave yourself? How often have you had trouble with that old fashioned razor that you could not seem to get sharp? Well, here’s an opportunity for you to secure a com- plete shaving outfit free. Subscribe for The dell Wally; Con-| hospitals. onnick Following is a partial list of the seriously injured: George W. Reed, Long Beach, hip badly injured Frank A. Little, 483 Centennial av, Los Angeles, hip injured and badly cut; Mrs. Saran Childs, Long Beach, cut on face and badly bruised; Mrs. Mary Corwin, Long| Beach, badly bruised; Mrs. G.| Coots, 620 Charter Oak av., Pasa-| dena, badly bruised and may be in jured Internally; Mrs. Sanderson, 165 E! Molino av. Pasadena, ankle broken; Mra, M. J. Edwards, Long Beach, very badly bruised. “The acenes that ensued when the floors of the bullding collapsed | form a picture in my mind that will| not be erased until my death,” said Miles Elliott, of Long Beach was standing on the top floor. At first the floor seemed gradually to rid McCarney, McCarty’s manager, broke down com I'm through with the fight game for all time,” he said fore than 7,000 persons saw the tragedy. The Kansan Pan’ the ring at exactly 12:45 and was given an ovation i colowed almost at once. The champion was a 10 to 7 the te, with little Pelky money in sight. The referee sent oo en away at 1:05 p.m. The round opened with McCarty the offensive. He swung wildly. Pelky clinched, but broke at the referee's order, Pelky sent a punishing to the jaw. MeCarty landed a light left to the ear Gn hr tried for an uppercut, but missed. Pelky caught Mc 'Y Coy cc ae in with the fatal blow Seattle Star for one year in advance at its reg- ular price of $3.25 and we will send you the Burham Shaving Outfit without any cost what- It is simply a little present to you with 7 4 er. PMANCE OVER, SO SHE a year's subscription to The Star. I consita Win ‘i aaa fa safety razor, seven guaranteed blades, timbers as the mass of timbers L- BECOME A NURSE |] 20's stcty razor ‘even uaranted, blades, Uoieg ie nyo ass ———_—_————— } leatherette case and will be forwarded to you | in writing this letter to The Star will mean punishment. H into = black hole and put on bread and water. Or the BP nl Re greater. _ _ No. 2146 knows this. He knows the risk he took when h t in hi night after night, penning with invisible ink his drastic Realtones re warden and the prison management. stand,” bearer of the letter was Robert Bacon, just discharged from the | “Look at me,” said Robert Bacon. “I’ve just fini ‘jolt.’ wi jin a man, clean and strong. phe ww — ‘ con is a physical wreck. His cheek is —e —> = rad he contracted in prison. ‘I was broke,” the ex-convict went on. “I was hungry. A i wanted whisky. I sold him some for two-bits. I’d have pers All i thea wanted it. } “Now, I've finished my ‘jolt’ and come straight here. I promised N 2146 that this was the first thing | Id do. I i ag 5 iter te Elf cae Ph Shiga lo promised him I would deliver a acon took from a pocket a thumbed and Christi Science Journal,” of the date of February, 1913. cat aanaacatiog... ge “That’s it,” said Bacon, a weary grin cracking his shriveled and pallid pierced by a hole eaten by a face. | Some one riffled the pages of the old magazine. There was no writing on |the covers or on the margins. | “Better come back, old man, when you're sober.” But Bacon said: “I’m not drunk. No. 2146 wrote that letter, and it took him weeks to do it. Bring me a flatiron.” The office boy fetched one from a neighboring store. It was heated over a gas flame in the stereotyping room. Bacon passed the iron over the mar- rae of page after page, and the paper smoked and turned brown under the eat. AND, UNDER EVERY STROKE OF THE IRON, THERE APPEARED ON THE WHITE OF THE MARGINS WRITTEN WORDS, TH EACH MARGIN. ae “Alum and water,” Bacon explained. “No. 2146 played off sick, and got the alum from the doctor. He mixed it with water and so made the ink which is invisible until subjected to great heat. He wrote in his cell at night with a pointed stick. You'll notice that he started once, and then quit in the middle and started again. That was because he couldn’t remember, one night, where he had left off the night before. You see, the point of the stick left nothing but a trail of moisture that looked like water and that dried almost instantly. He couldn’t refer back to see what he had written. He had to carry it all in his head. No. 2146 is the only man in the prison who could have done it. “He thought—we all thought—that if The Star could know the damnable truth about the island, maybe it would do something to improve conditions. We knew if it wouldn’t, no other newspaper would or could. “So 2146 tried every way he could think of to smuggle his message out to The Star. He even tried writing in the regular way, though he knew that was useless, for no letter containing a kick is ever mailed from the prison. Finally he tried to get messages out by Brooke, the deputy warden, in the manner he describes in his letter, but Brooke was double-crossing him all the time. “Then he hit on the invisible ink idea. A long time ago he asked me if 1 would deliver the letter, and I promised. When I went out I had the maga- zine. They looked at it, and I held my breath. But what objection could they have to my carrying a religious magazine three months old? I guess maybe they thought I'd turned religious.” The writer of the letter asks that his name be withheld, as his mother in the East does not know he is in trouble. He is a young man of good education, and was convicted in Portland of using the mails to defraud. THE STAR WILL PRINT NO. 2146'S LETTER IN FULL ON MONDAY. WOMEN ASK JAIL FOR HATPIN JABBERS The women, themselves, are now after hat-pin reform In the t Hesketh of the council of tl 's clubs, which prese id the ere e drafted by mem hand ex h of hat pins to a t beyond theelimit are to be subjected to a um penalty of $100 fine and 30 days iy the city bastile ° The Star, however, has his name. -