The Wichita Beacon from Wichita, Kansas • Page 9

JANUARY 2, 1911. so THE WICHITA many hie are In BEACON ax- TO THE PUBLIC: The shortage of gas today is due to the very severe cold weather and to the breaking of one of the force pumps near Caney, Kansas; All large consumers have been cut off and repairs are being made at the pumping station and it is expected that conditions will be improved very soon. Kansas Gas Electric Co. pressure was very low. Mayor Davidson called the telephone central and asked to notify every one to turn off their water faucets and use as littl ewater as possible.

Mayor Davidson said: firemen had worked hard. They deserve great credit for the work, they, have hard been one to doing. fight The and the fire fire boys could not make much headway against it. The building was as dry as tinder and went like powder when it got started. The firemen have been working under great difficulties.

The cold weather has hindered them greatly in the progress of their work. They are to be praised for the way they have stayed by their work." SOME OF THEM PUT OFF MOVING TOO LONG Richard Bird Was Fortunate as He Moved Into His New Quarters Saturday. Several of the tenants of the Bitting building recently rented rooms in The Beacon building, but had put off moving. One of the fortunate ones was Richard Bird, lawyer, who occupied rooms in the Bitting building about ten years. He moved Saturday.

About the most serious loss among those who had leased rooms in the Beacon building and who had not moved, is the Farmers and Bankers Life Insurance company, which to have moved tomorrow. This company has leased the west end of the seventh floor of the Beacon building and will open its office there within a day or two. The loss to this company will be principally in the delay and the necessity of restoring certain records and documents. The extent of this damage cannot be ascertained until access to its safe can be had. In the desk of E.

B. Jewett, the company's secretary, were some valuable papers and numerous proxies received for use at the annual meeting to be held January 18. These, however, can all be replaced by a little correspondence. NOTES OF THE FIRE The fire plug in front of the State Savings bank proved to be a dangerous spot. Pedestrians walked along looking up at the fire in the Bitting block and didn't notice the miniature lake that had formed around the plug.

There was an accident on average of about one to the minute, but the only damage that resulted was to the pride of the victims! Everyone remarked about the similarity Al Brownewell, assistant chief of the fire department, showed to Santa Claus. His face WAN covered with ice whiskers and his moustache was a series of icicles. His eyebrows were of the same white substance. He was asked to thaw out but he said he did not have the time. There was some trouble in getting Sam Hess out of the store when it was first discovered Sat the basement was on fire.

He said that it was only a little smoke and that it could soon be put out. He did not leave his store until clerks went in and told him that he had to come out. He was almost suffocated. The rear end of the block, with the fire escapes and stairways coated with ice resembled the main deck of a North Pole vessel. The water froze in a few minutes after it had been thrown on the building.

The people who came In oft the interurbans today could hardly wait until the car had slowed down They said that the smoke looked like all of came in the country to Fen the Wichita From, burning. Many people fire, C. W. Bitting, owner of the building. spent most of the time in the alley where the firemen were working.

He was very sollcitious of the condition of the firemen and saw that everyone was thawed out who was near freezing. The water pressure was weak this The firemen said that more morning. pressure would have saved the buildBoth engines were used, ing. The policemen who guarded the building looked the part of North Pole discoverers. The long -tailed coats which usually are dressy were sheets of lee.

The usual rope cordon WAS put up when it was thought that the walls would fall but people crawled under and insisted on getting in the danger zone. A report of live wires on North Market street helped to clean out the crowd which had congested the street 80 that passage was impossible. The Chamber of was the official viewing place yard of It In on the tenth floor PAGE NINE SOME HOPE FOR BURNERS OF GAS BETTER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED LATE TONIGHT. A Broken Force and the Extreme Cold Weather Have Brought. About Pressure.

the Low "Say, what's the matter with the gas?" "Hello, our gas pressure is off. Can you tell how long it will be till it comes on again?" "What's the matter with your old gas company anyway?" These and a hundred similar calls and complaints kept the telephone girls at the office of the Kansas Gas Electric company busy from 7:30 o'clock this morning till everybody learned that it did no good to conplain. There was practically no gas pressure after 6:30 this morning, and in some parts of town it was entirely gone and residents were compelled to other make-shifts in keep resort to coal fires, and ordertove warm. A great many persons ate cold lunches. cause assigned by the gas compiThe is the extreme cold and that a break occurred in one of the relay stations in the gas field during the night, and it was said this morning that it would likely take a good share of the day to repair it.

Little of better conditions was offered before this evening. late, gas company notified most of the factories and other heavy gas consumers last night that they would have to cease using gas, and this morning an imperative order was issued, but it did not seem to leave enough gas for domestic use, even then. At noon the company issued the following statement: "Many complaints have been heard on account low pressure of the gas, which is due largely to the severe cold weather. A force pump near Caney, Kansas, was also broken Saturday and this, coupled with the cold weather has brought about the low pressure. The gas company is doing everything and" its power to correct the trouble Monday morning cut off all large consumers in order that the pressure might be strengthened where the use is allowed in homes of the city.

The company expects to have conditions improved in a short time." The gas failure, coupled with the weather has resulted in a heavy demand for coal and oil stoves. and every delivery wagon in the town has been kept busy hauling stoves and coal since quite early in the day. One wagon was seen starting out with five coal heaters, and it was not an uncommon sight to see two or three stoves at a time in a wagon which was being hurried to some locality where the demand for heat was im- perative. DATES BIRTH OF MAN FROM ICE AGE A Hanelter for Sleeping Convenient Campers valid Jottings. Professor Boyd Dawkins, one of the great authorities on the mammals of the Pleistocene or Ice Age, says The London Mail, in his Huxley memorial lecture at the theater of the Civil Service Commission, Burlington Gardens, marshaled evidence which points to the fact that man first appeared in that epoch.

The view of the higher antiquity of man based on discovery of chipped flints in earlier ages has been rendered untenable, as it can be proved that these forms can be and indeed have been, produced by natural agencies. The skull and thighbone found by M. Dubois in a Pleistocene river deposit Trinil. in Java, in 1894, Professor Dawkins regarded as belonging to a real precursor of man, not only appearing at 8 point in the geological history where it was to be expected, but in a tropical region taken by Lord Avebury and others to have been the birthplace of the human race. In Europe, continued the professor, there is ample evidence of the existence of the river-drift man and of the eave-dweller in the caverns and in the river valley of the Glacial Age over the whole region between the Mediterranean and the Baltic.

Europe in the Ice Age was invaded dry -shod by the earliest men from the South by way of Gibraltar and Sicily. The elimate was then continental in character, with cold winters and hot summers. The Ice Age was undoubtedly of vast duration and the antiquity of man is correspondingly great; but. concluded the professor, "the more minutely I examine the events that have taken place since man appeared in Europe the more profoundly am I impressed with vastness of his antiquity and with the futility of any attempt to com pute it in terms of years." CHECKER TOURNAMENT WILL BEGIN TONIGHT The Kansas State Association Will Meet in the Y. M.

C. A. for the Fifth Annual Tourney, The fifth annual tournament of the Kansas State Checker association will open at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning at the Y. M. C.

A. building. The tournament will continue through Tuesday and Wednesday and will close Thursday with the playing of the finalit. It was originally intended to hold the tourney at the rooms of the Side Commercial league, 1005 West Douglas avenue, The cold weather caused the officets of the association to change the place to the C. A.

About 40 players are expected to participate in the tournament. They will come from all parts of the state. Several Wellington players have announced that they will be here white three or four will come from the northeastern part of the state. The Marshall brothers of Haverhill will ho among the first players on the battle field. business meeting will ho held at the Y.

M. C. A. tonight to elect officers for the coming year and to arrange details of the playing. President Frank Farmer of this city will preside at this meeting.

"We are expecting one of the best tourneys in the history of the as4ociation." said President Farmer this morning. "Checker players ale over the state have taken more interest this year and tre will have several new players to compete against. of course, this weather will hurt us a littie but I look for 30 to 40 players to at the tables at 9, o'clock tomorrow morning." BITTING BLOCK IS DESTROYED BY FIRE (Continued From Page One.) then carried across Douglas avenue to the law offices of Stanley, Vermilion Evans, Douglas avenue. Persons standing on Douglas avenue at Market street were constantly showered with sleet. When the water from the nozzles broke against the walls of the building, much of it was frozen.

Douglas avenue for half a block east of Market street was coated with this sleet, which made footing precarious. Money Left in Drawer. Until noon it was hoped that the lower front part of the building could be saved, and no effort was made to remove any of the clothing stock on the first floor. By that time the smoke was so dense in the store that it was impossible to save anything, even the cash drawer and contents being left to the flames. It is probable that a new building will soon be erected on the site of the Bitting block, as it is one of the most valuable sites in the city, valued at fully $50,000.

1055 OF BUILDING AN EARLY PREDICTION At 10:30 O'clock It Was Known That the Building Was Doomed to Destruction. "The building is was the remark made by Al Brownewell, assistant fire marshal, at 10:30 o'clock. "The tire has gained such headway that the department will be unable to get it under control." Chief Brownewell was on the scene in the thickest of the danger all the time and kept his men working heroically. Roy A. Buckley, assistant city attorney, was one of the first to arrive at the fire and start work.

He took the first steamer to the scene and fired it up. He then took charge of A nozzle on top of the Colonial theater and worked there until after 12 o'clock. The Cudahy fire company, consisting of five men, volunteered a8- sistance and was on the scene of the fire at 12 o'clock and worked with the city department. The cold weather caused many of the firemen trouble. They would stand in one place playing a nozzle on the fire until their clothing would be frozen stiff.

Fireman Bessy fell in front of the building exhausted from cold. He was immediately taken into the store of Greenfield Brothers where he soon revived. It was necessary for the street car company to stop traffic over its Douglas avenue and Market street lines. The trolley wires Were all cut. The telephone wires, electile light wires and other wires strung through the alley back of the building became so heavily laden with ice that they broke and fell.

Two patrolmen were kept stationed at each end of the building to to the firemen in case the walls showed signs of falling. The clock in the top of the building kept going until 11:30 o'clock then it stopped. The walls had been burned from around it and it stood alone. CUDAHY GO. BOOSTED THE WATER PRESSURE Four Pumps Were Hooked On and the Pressure Was Raised 100 Pounds.

The Cudaby Packing company gave valuable assistance to the fire fighters by hitching their four large pumps to the city mains. For several hours the pressure in the city mains was onNly thirty-five pounds. About 10:30 o'clock the Cudaby pumps were honked oh and the pressure was boosted to 136 pounds. The Cudaby company was able to give this assistance as the plant was not in operation today. All the power in the big engine room was turned to the pumps, The company Uses oil fires under its boilers and was not handicapped by the shortage of Some idea of the assistance given by the Cudahy company may be gained from the fact that its huge reservoir was emptied within three hours.

This reservoir is 110 feet long by sixty feet wide and twenty-two feet deep. It was full. holding 11,000,000 gationa. The water company had been pumpbeing da much water all night last night. as ordinarily in the summer time, I When the fire broke out the water GOLD WAVE CAME; 3 DEGREES BELOW IT CAUGHT WICHITA PEOPLE UNAWARES YESTERDAY.

Forecaster Sullivan Says There Is Little Probability for Warmer Weather Until Tomorrow and Change Will Be Slight. Cold weather, the coldest in two years, caught the people of Wichita unawares yesterday, and coupled with the low gas pressure has resulted in no little discomfort to many. During the night the instrument at the weather observatory registered 3 below zero, which is two degrees colder than it was at any time last winter. Early yesterday morning the wind was in the south and the sun shone brightly, reminding one of spring, but by 9 o'clock the wind had changed to the north and it grew steadily colder all day. Water pipes in many houses froze by 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon.

and no end of trouble has resulted from this cause. The coldest weather last winter was on January 6, when a mark of one degree below zero was reached. The sudden drop in temperature yesterday last night was not surprising to Richard H. Sullivan, the weather forecaster here, who last Saturday morning ventured the prediction above that zero. it would Now be Mr.

below 10 Sullivan clares that there is little probability that it will be any warmer before tomorrow and even then the change will likely be slight. While it has been cold here, it may be some satisfaction to know that it was colder elsewhere. For instance, at Edmonton. North Alberta, it witS 40 below, and at Havre, it was 38. Even at Ft.

Worth, it WItS only 10 above this morning, with every indication that it would be as cold there by tomorrow as it is here today. building. Many people retold the history of the Bitting block and how at otte time it had been considered the skyscraper of Southern Kansas. Mayor C. L.

Davidson was among the firemen helping them. Street car traffic was blocked for several hours. No one minded it. Walking was warmer than riding on the street cars. Coffee was distributed among the firemen at noon.

No cups were handy and the fire fighters drank the coffee from a half gallon bucket. The firemen were not the only men who fought the fire. Citizens were busy distributing gloves and caps to the men. A pair of canvas gloves would last about three minutes after they were wet. Richard E.

Bird, who had offices in the Bitting block until Saturday, spent the morning congratulating himself on his timely removal to suite 501 Beacon building. Mr. Bird expressed the keenest sympathy for the tenants of the burned building with whom had sociated daily for many years, MA. NOBLE MOVES Had the Good Fortune to Save in Beacon Building. Dr.

S. S. Noble, who has been in the Bitting building for so years, has moved his offices to 627-628 Beacon bullding. Dr. Noble had the good fortune 1 to save most of his furniture and dental Inc and he will be able to resume his equipment from the fire which broke out in the Bitting building this morn- practice at once in the new quarters, br.

Noble's new offices the east end of the sixth story are beautifully situated. DALE AND AMIDON Will Be on the Sixth Floor of Beacon Building. Founds Dale Amidon, who lost their law library and furniture will reopen at once at suite number 623 in the Beacon building. This is the northeast corner suite 011 the sixth floor and consists of three private offices and a large library room. OLIVER T.

WILDER DEAD. Oliver T. Wilder, one of Wichita's oldest citizens, 77 years of age, passed away at 11:30 o'clock last night at his home. 1001 South Lawrence avenue. He is survived by his wife, Sarah M.

Wilder. The funeral will be held from the residence tomorrow morning at 10:30 o'clock. Interment will be in Maple Grove cemetery. The services will be conducted by Rev. G.

A. King, pastor of First Universalist church, assisted by Wichita lodge, 99, A. F. and A. M.

WILLIAM MORRIS DEAD. William Henry Morris died yesterday at the St. Francis hospital from inJuries received several weeks ago in fall at his home in Lorena, Kan. He was 76 years old. His leg was broken by the fall and he was injured internally.

Funeral services will be held at Indianola tomorrow and interment will be made in the cemetery at that place. He WitS an old soldier. MYSTERY IS DEEP AS EVER Some Think the Chewing Gum Found in the Man's Mouth Had Been Poisoned. Cumberland, Jan. mystery of the death of Miss Elosser of this city and Charles E.

Twigg of Kyser, W. her fiance, appears 88 deep today as it did shortly after the FROZEN WARREN, the Plumber Phone, Market, 1920 214 N. Market bodies of the couple were found in the Elosser residence Saturday, Twigg and Arisen Elosser were to have been married night. The result of the examination of candy and chewing gum found in the Elosser home is awaited with intense interest. The theory that the poisoned chewing gum may have been the cause the deaths finds many supporters.

A piece of chewing gum was found in Twigg's mouth but no explanation is offered as to how the confection became poisoned or as to how it was administered to Miss Elosser. Budding genius doesn't always bear fruit. Miss Lillian Whiting of Wellesley Col- I will sell at auction, for cash, off the 5th day of January, 1911, at o'clock a. the stock and fixtures of Joe M. Miller, bankrupt, at 716 East Douglas avenue, Wichita, Kansas.

S. M. TUCKER, Trustee. 64-2t we shall continue to eat, walk, talk and ride in automobiles. A marked increase has taken place in.

freight traffic of this country, for whereas the number of tons of freight carried one mile in 1898 was over 114 billions last year it was over 122 billions. No young man believes he shall ever Hazlitt. Roston oston DE Store Store January Clearance of January Clearance of Boys' Books Men's Underwear Three Hundred of the favorite Books for Men's "Vellastic" Ribbed Shirts and Drawboys, "Alger's" "Henty's" and "Oliver the Main Aisle ers, fleece lined; regular 50c a garment. Optics" on table. In this Clearance January Clearance Price, January 12.

now 39c at Men's "Cooper Ribbed" and Inter -lock -Extra- Knit Shirts and Drawers, fleece lined, regular $1.00 undergarments, About two hundred pairs regular at 79c $1.00 and $1.25 Kid Gloves, tans, blacks, grays and whites. Size January Clearance of lines are partly broken. Priced for Warm Blankets this week Fifty Pieces Extra Large 11-4 quick clearance 73c Cotton Blankets, natural gray with blue and Golf and pink borders. Wool nap finish: regularWool Gloves for women misses, 50e ly sold at $2.00 a pair. In the baseblack and colors: worth 11 pair.

A ment store this week sweeping clearance at 33c pair $1.59 pair January Clearance of January Clearance of Men's Shirts Long Kimonos A sweeping 800800 end clearance of all Five Dozen Full Length Kimonos, all Dollar Shirts. Plain and org and patterns in soft warm flanneletpleated; attached cuffs: cont styles; tes and fleeced Kimono Cloths: values neat effects in black and white and ranging from $2.75 up to $3.50. In this colors. All sizes and sleeve lengths. Clearance Sale Our January Clearance 79c on second floor $1.98 at Noted Cluett Shirts of finest Madras in January Clearance of neat figures and stripes, Plain and pleated.

The best $1.50 Shirt values Silk Ribbons In Wichita offered in this January at Color Ribbons: values up to 19e a yard. Clearance Sale $1.15 One Lot of Short Length All Silk Plain January Clearance of vard Clearance Price, Fifty Pleces Plain Color Taffeta Ribbons, Wool Shirts 4 to 5 inches wide; worth 20c and 25c Men's $1.50 Flanned Shirts, all wool; gray a Clearance yard. Price 15c and navy blue; all sizes in this January Clearing Sale One Lot of All Silk Plaid Ribbons, worth at 98c 26e Clearance and 30c a Price yard. 19c Men's Wool Shirts--In navy blue, gray and brown: I all sizes; regular $2.50, Clearance Sale Price January Clearance of each $1.75 Men's Wool Shirts -Blest quality all wool Fancy Neckwear Flannels. Regular $3.00.

In this Jannary Clearing Sale One Lot Lace Stock Collars, worth 690, 75e at $2.25 and January 98e. Sale Fresh Price. and clean. 49c Men's Warm Comfortable One Lot Oriental Lace Coat Collars, worth Outing Gowns 69e: Clearance very Sale pretty. Price.

39c There's many a cold winter night ahead Two lots of dainty White Neck Ruches, when wilt be these the real Outing thing. Gowns or Pajama Suits 4c assorted and styles; collar lengths at 7c Men's $1.00 Outing Gowns, at 85c. 200 White Linen and Pique Stock Collars, Men's $1.50 Outing Gowns, at $1.19. some with colored scarfs; regular 35e Men's $1.00 Outing Pajamas at 85c. and 39e kinds.

Men's $1.50 Outing Pajamas, at $1.19, Price to 18c.