The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 12, 1906

Collect Unique Stamps

People Throughout Country Ready to Purchase Rare Stamps – Frisco Letters Marked “Earthquake.”

Since the disaster at San Francisco enthusiastic stamp collectors have been adding to their unique collections. Every available piece of writing maing (sic) material was used during the dreadful week folowing (sic) the earthquake for friends and relatives were gladdened by the receipt of a bit of old card board or a tiny scrap of paper.

The post offices all over the country delivered missives from the stricken city, free of charge to the sender. The writer would substitute the word “earthquake,” “no stamps to be had” or collect at destination,” in place of stamps. sometimes a substitute, either an out of date stamp or old revenue stamp was used, but regardless of the method of attempting to provide substitutes the postoffices have cancelled the corners, making the relic of “philatelic” value.

The redemption division of the post office department has been busily engaged in redeeming thousands of ruined stamps and stamped envelopes which have been sent back east from the postoffices of San Francisco. The postmasters were credited with the full amount and received new stamps and envelopes.

Stamp collecting has become one of the fads of this country. The enthusiastic collector will work overtime, nights and Sundays to secure a rare specimen, an error or a freak. The recent earthquake has been the means by which several unique relics will be secured for future reference when their value is assured.

Tags: 1905, San Francisco earthquake

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 11, 1903

Bees Starve in Their Hives

Cold and Wet Weather is Likely to Be Responsible for Failure of Honey Crop.

Bees are Unable to Be Busy.

Ernest Bernschein, of This City, Has Lost Over 140 Colonies Valued at $700, As Rsult of the Inclement Weather.

Ernest Bernchein (sic), Fort Dodge’s apiarist reports that the conituned (sic) rain and cold weather of the past month is ruining the Iowa honey crop and killing off hundreds of swarms of bees. Mr. Bernschein himself has lost over 140 colonies valued at 4700. He predicts that if the wet weather continues the Iowa honey crop will be a failure this year.

During the cold damp weather the bees are unable to extract the nectar from the blossoms. For this reason when many of the hives are opened, the busy little inhabitants are found upon the verge of starvation; the bees having obtained little nourishment since last July.

The bees are now supposed to be taking advantage of the sweet clover which abounds in the vicinity of Fort Dodge and laying up many pounds of honey but for once they are doing nothing as the clover is too wet to extract much of the honey. In order to keep the remaining colonies alive Mr. Bernschein is resorting to an expensive method of feeding them sweetened water. In less than two hours Wednesday afternoon six gallons of this was drunk by Mr. Bernschein’s honey giving insects. This was the first year that Mr. Bernschein has resorted to this method of keeping his bees alive.

Mr. Bernschein has one hundred colonies left and if a favorable change occurs in the weather seventy-five pound of honey may be averaged from these swarms making all 60,000 pounds of honey, but this would be a very short crop. Honey will probably sell for twenty-five cents a pound this year. Last year with a favorable crop it brought twenty cents. It is expected that the inclement weather will boom the price skyward.

(Editor’s note: This inflation calculator says that 25 cents in 1903 is equivalent to $5.99 in 2010 dollars.)

Tags: 1903, bees, Bernschein

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 10, 1904

Recovers a Horse Lost a Year Ago

Disappearance and Unusual Recovery of Broncho (sic) Belonging to Mr. Tuller.

Webster City Man Must Explain

Horse Leaves This City and is Later Traded at Webster City and Come Here.

One evening just a year ago a bronco belonging to Marion Tuller, becoming restless in the confines of the barn escaped from its stall and sought the freedom of the fields east of the city. its owner followed it, but night fell before he was successful in capturing hte runaway and he returned to town empty handed. The lost horse was advertised in the newspapers, but nothing came of the efforts to locate it.

This morning a horse trading outfit drove into town, coming from the east. Behind one of the two wagons composing the outfit was a broncho (sic) with a horseshoe brand on his shoulder. The outfit drove down town and tied up in the alley between Central avenue and First avenue south and Seventh and Eighth street.

Mr. Tuller happened to pass the place where the outfit was stationed. There was little in the outfit to attract his attention until his eyes rested on the bronco with the horsehoe brands on his shoulder. Tuller sees more in a horse than the usual run of men and a single glance only was necessary for him to recognize his horse. The bronco, which had taken French leave from his barn a year before, was there in the alley tied behind the dingy wagon that was the horse trader’s home.

Tuller visited the outfit in a short time accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Clark Woolsey who was armed with a writ of replevin. W.A. Jackson the man in charge of the outfit, made no attempt to hold the horse when the circumstances were explained to him. He had secured the horse, he said, a short time ago from one Bill Greenwood, a well known horse trader living in Webster City. Greenwood was communicated with, but could only say that he bought the horse from (a) herd.

Jackson left for Webster City this afternoon and will demand a settlement of Greenwood.

Tags: 1904, Greenwood, horse, Jackson, Tuller, Woolsey

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 9, 1903

Bird Feathers Will be Tabooed

Edict Against Practice Handed Down By the Millinery Jobber Association.

Fort Dodge women will no longer adorn their queenly heads with the feathers and wings of the birdling, for the milliners will no longer carry in stock the bird as an article of wearing apparel. The edict has gone forth from the Millinery Jobbers’ association which convened in Milwaukee on May 21 and the Audubon society was so notified. Fort Dodge milliners have received notification of the new move and will have to stand by the agreement that no song birds will be sold from their establishments for the decoration of the headgear of the fair feminine creature with the spirit of humaneness in her heart.

It is estimated that there has been at least 100,000 song birds distributed about the markets of the south and west every year for that adornment and the evolution will cause a complete change in the adornment of the hat. The resolution adopted at the jobbers’ association at Milwaukee is as follows:

“Resolved, That the Milliner Jobbers’ association, assembled in convention at Milwaukee, does hereby concur in the agreement entered into between the Milliners Merchants’ Protective association of New York, the Audubon society, and the American Ornithologists’ union, regarding the buying and selling of birds and bird plumage, known as fancy feathers.”

By the agreement entered into some birds will be permitted on women’s hat. Among these are the white, natural and colored pigeons, white and colored doves, parrots, parquets, merles, impayens, nocobars, Japan and China pheasants, golden pheasants, marrabruts, gouras, the argus, peacock, swans and domestic fowls.

Tags: 1903, millinery

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 8, 1903

Juvenile Band is Coming to the Front

Has Received Invitation to Play at Waverly on Occasion of Woodmen’s Picnic Next Tuesday.

Graham Brothers’ Juvenile Band has been invited to participate in the band concert to be given at Waverly on next Tuesday at the Woodmen’s picnic. It was decided this morning that the band will go. The band is  under the direction of Mrs. Sultzbaugh and Mrs. Chiquet who have organized the band t his winter. That the band which has only been organized for a few months and is composed entirely of beginners has been requested to play at this contest is considered an excellent testimonial to the leaders and players. The management wish it understood that the boys will not be allowed to participate in any of the pernicious amusements which usually are a feature of gala days.

The band is composed of the following boys:

Cornets –
Verne Chiquet
Harry Sultzbaugh
Frank Isaacson

Slide Trombone – Fred Chiquet

Valve Trombone – Frank Bostwick

Tenor – William McDaniels

Basses –
Clifford Vonstein
Lester McGuire

Altos –
Will Todd
Melvin Roscoe
Clyde Boyden

Drums –
Gilbert Chiquet
Allen Brown

Tags: 1903, Bostwick, Boyden, Brown, Chiquet, Graham, Isaacson, McDaniels, McGuire, Roscoe, Sultzbaugh, Todd, Vonstein

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 8, 1903

Has a Feathered Qadruped (sic)

Four Legged Chicken Adorns a Fort Dodge Poultry Yard.

New Style Chicken is Now Six Days Old and Runs Like a Race Horse.

Fort Dodge has another claim to distinction in the shape of a four-legged chicken which saw the light of day six days ago, in the hen coop of Mrs. James Kearney. The motherly biddy which hatched out the prodigy, was at first somewhat dismayed by her extraordinary offspring, but has finally decided (it is) entitled to a mother’s care and is looking after it with the rest of her brood.

The four legged youngster seems to be holding its own in the race for life, and in fact is a little better fitted to come out in the race which is governed by the survival of the fittest, as being blessed with more than the usual number of legs it is able to get over the ground faster than its less fortunate brethren.

When the feathered quadruped gets after an unusually juicy and succulent worm it is said to look for all the world like a pacing horse swinging into the quarter stretch at full speed.

Mrs. Kearney is looking for a visit from a dime museum man almost any day.

Tags: 1903, chicken, Kearney

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 7, 1904

Fell From Bridge Into Des Moines

Unexpected Accident that Befel (sic) an Ardent Sunday Night Swain.

Fell From Railing Into Water

Young Lady Pushed Him Over Although Not Intending To.

Chivalry is not dead in Fort Dodge. At the behest of a young lady Sunday night a west side swain leaped backward from the lower river bridge and unharmed swam the raging torrents to the shore, where he was met by the young lady with open arms.

The couple in question had spent the afternoon together and as a fitting climax were standing on the bridge which spans the river between the main part of the city and West Fort Dodge. They had reached the most dramatic part of the situation, when the young man sitting on the railing was telling in soul stirring tones how he could “die” for his lady fair, when the young lady in question, overcome by his agitation, it is supposed, made a sudden move which caused her swain to lose his balance and with a graceful back somersault he dropped thru space into the river below.

The young woman was frantic at so sudden a parting and her terrific and disappointed screams rent the atmosphere for a few minutes, but on seeing her companion come to the top, sputter a moment and strike for shore she calmed herself and met him at the bank when he came out. The young lady’s dress became very wet in the interview which followed and it is to be inferred that while the young gentleman had changed his mind about dying for her, he has decided to live for her, and it is hoped they will be happy ever after.

Tags: 1904

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 6, 1904

Briney Tears and a 30 Cent Diamond

The Bait Bitten by Worldly Wise Hotel Clerk and Bit Cost Him $10.

Woman’s Tears His Failing

Unable to Withstand Female Anguish He Proves an Easy Victim.

A certain hotel clerk in this city is mourning the loss of a “tenner” as the result of a soft heart and too much “confidence.” Now this young man is not one who will bite readily at any ordinary gold brick scheme. He is considered very capable of taking care of his own interests when dealing with men, but when a woman, a young and lovely lady approaches him in dire distress with great tears stealing from under long lashes slowly down thru a pink and cream complexion over a delicately rounded cheek, it is then his heart breaks in sympathy and he is sadly in need of a guardian. Under such circumstances he is as gullible as “the boy from Podunk.” and the merest novice could beat the poor fellow out of his eyes and convince him his grandfather’s goat was a bird of paradise. This tenderness for the fair sex is a natural failing with the young man, and he is deserving of real sympathy.

But the story:

It happened a month or more ago, and has only recently come to light and becomes public property now for the first time.

The clerk on this particular morning was voiciferating (sic) his “all  out for the north,” when the office door opened and a young lady stepped in. She was exceptionally pretty, she ordered her room and registered with such sweet grace and womanly modesty that the young man was at once very much struck with her appearance, and during the few days of her stay she was showered with all sorts of small favors. A dreamy look entered the eyes of the clerk. He forgot to call trains at the proper time and was missed from the bowling alley by his friends for two nights at a stretch. “Say,” said he to a companion,” Know how she looks to me? Well, you’ve seen a peck of green apples. You put a pretty, big ripe, rosy-cheeked one right in the center of that peck of green ones. She looks like that to me.”

On the morning of the third day of her stay she called him to her room and with a look of terrible anguish and a throb of pain in her voice told him her tale of woe that would melt the heart of a Klondike snow man.

She had stopped in the city with the expectation of receiving a check from home. The check for some unexplainable reason, failed to arrive for another reason, also inexplainable (sic), she could stay in the city no longer. Then with two great tears coursing down her rounded cheeks she told the now thoroughly distressed young man she had spent almost her last cent.

However, she had a diamond broach, an heirloom in the family placed in her hands a few months previously by a dying mother. This priceless piece of jewelry she would leave with him, knowing him to be an honorable young man, as security if he would stand good for her accommodations at the hotel and lend her the price of a ticket to Sioux City. Oh, the embarrassment and shame she felt at being thus forced to call upon an almost total stranger was terrible to bear. But his face looked so good and kind, she felt as though she could put the same trust in him she would in a brother, had she been fortunate to have had one.

With trembling fingers and a fresh shower of tears which dropped with pathetic little spats on the carpet, she unfastened the pin from her fair throat and thrust it in the hands of the clerk. The seance lasted for some minutes and at its close, the young man, himself almost dissolved in a flood of briny eyewater, shelled out the shekels asked for. He also dropped several plunks into the money drawer and put a “Pd.” after her name in the daybook. In an hour the fair Princess Distress had departed, showering blessings on his head. She would be back thru the city in two weeks and would see him again, but would return the borrowed money by mail the next day. The brooch rested in safety on the lef tinside lining of the clerk’s vest.

It was the start for as pretty a romance as ever adorned the pages of a novel, bu cruel fate! The days passed bringing no tidings of the borrowed shekels. The dreamy light gradually faded from the innocent eyes of the clerk and an expression of pained distrust o’erspread his features.

Finally the young man extracted the brooch from its hiding place next his heart and took it to a jeweler to learn its real value. “Well,” said the man, squinting at it thru a guttapercha tube. “The setting is a pretty fair quality of brass, but the stones themselves are a might poor imitation. I should think when new the thing ought to have retailed for at least 30 cents.”

Tags: 1904

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 5, 1893

Strange Sights and Sounds Be These

Grim Ghosts are Haunting the Rock Island Bridge Over the North Lizzard.

There may not be any ghosts holding high carnival nights on the Rock Island bridge over the North Lizzard, but there are a number of railway employes (sic) and people in that vicinity who cannot be convinced of that fact. Conductor Joe Donald, of the Rock Island, is one of these. His brother is another. The operator at Tara has seen a few things that he cannot explain, and Section Foreman Chelgren has also had  his hair raised by strange sights and sounds. Any number of curious Tara people can also be produced as witnesses to prove that the bridge is “haunted.”

The bridge in question is a small wooden pile bridge over the North Lizzard, three-quarters of a mile north of Tara. It was on this bridge that William Roberts, a young man working with a pile driving crew, lost his life a couple of years ago, being killed by a (paragraph ends here and is continued later) flying pile. Since then the railway men have been more or less afraid of the bridge, but until recently saw nothing on which to base their suspicions.

Section Foreman Chelgren “saw” the operator’s story and went  him several better a few evenings later. He was returning after nightfall with his section men, pumping away cheerfully on a hand car and figuring on getting to their belated supper just as soon as possible. As they neared the North Lizzard bridge all the men noticed the light of a locomotive apparently moving on the bridge. they stopped the hand car with a jerk and hustled the car off the track to let the train pass. The light came no nearer and after waiting a while they put the car back on the rails and slowly pumped up to the bridge. As they approached it the light grew dimmer and dimmer and finally disappeared. There was no sight or sound of a train. A superstitious fear came over the crowd of men and they did not have the courage to cross the bridge.

They waited talking to each other in awe stricken whispers. Suddenly strange sounds floated out on the night air with startling distinctness. The listeners heard the clanking and rattling of machinery and then a dull thud like the falling hammer of a pile driver. Then again came silence. The men were badly rattled and were afraid to cross the bridge. Finally they took the hand car down the track and giving it a good start sent it rattling over the bridge, without any occupants. It crossed in safety and they followed on foot with fear and trembling.

Since then a number of skeptical Tara citizens have seen the strange sights and heard the ghostly pile driving and the town is in a ferment of excitement over the affair. Ghost hunting partied are organized every evening but no one has as yet captured his ghostship.

The station agent at Tara was the first to discover the “harnt.” One evening he had just closed up the office and was going home for the night when he glanced up the track and saw the head light of a locomotive apparently on the bridge. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that a special train was coming and that the train dispatcher at Des Moines had failed to notify him. He rushed back to his instrument and ticked off a message to Des Moines, asking about the “special” that  had stopped on the bridge near Tara. He got a reply informing him that a Roman chariot race was probably occurring in his head. The operator was mystified and walked out to the bridge to investigate. When he got to the trestle there was no light and no sign of any train. He lost no time in getting back to Tara.

Tags: 1893, Chelgren, Donald, Roberts, Rock Island Railroad