The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 17, 1903

Cardiff Giant in Barn

Fort Dodge’s Famous Product Now in Retirement

Huge Fake of History Has Rested For the Last Twenty-Seven Years.

The Cardiff Giant is shown in this Library of Congress photo.

Boston June 17 – How are the mighty fallen! This applies exactly and accurately to the very prosaic Cardiff giant, a monstrosity of once debatable origin, which had a career of excitement, interest and doubt that fooled all of the American public for a short time, and which had its unique career cut short, but not till a great deal of money had been made out of the fraud.

After years of triumphal progress about the country, being exhibited to thousands of wondering people, after causing a division in the scientific world as to the authenticity of the claims of the monster’s antecedents, the cause of all this trouble is now calming (sic) reposing in a very unromantic packing case, protected from the chilling frosts of winter by a loose garb of coarse sawdust in the barn of a well known citizen of Fitchburg. Indeed, he has been here the greater part of the last twenty years or more, or soon after the Boston Herald put an end to his “meteoric” career by an editorial which pronounced him a fake.

But here at Fitchburg his giantship is, and few people have known anything about it. In addition to his suit of sawdust there is some quasi litigation about that prevents his public participancy in the events of the early years of the new century, when a generation is coming to the fore which will some day want to see him out of curiosity, if not for the gratification of scientific research, which was in his early days a ruling motive about him.

When the business of exhibiting the giant failed, S.S. Lawrence, a local contractor, was engaged to build a shed or addition to the hotel in which the giant could be stored. He did so. Soon afterward Mr. Lawrence took the giant to his own barn and stored it there, and there it has been ever since. There was an agreement as to payment for this storage, but nothing has been done about it, so Mr. Lawrence holds on to his stone charge, which he has had nearly twenty-seven years.

Tags: 1903, Cardiff Giant

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 16, 1903

Webster City Meets Heavy Loss

Northwestern Felt Show Company’s Plant Burned to the Ground Monday Night.

The City’s Leading Industry.

Company Was Capitalized at $100,000 and Employed 105 People – Insurance was Only $36,000, Making Loss Reach Fully $56,000.

Webster City, June 16 – The plant and stock of of the Northwestern Felt Shoe company burned here on Monday night about midnight. The fire started int eh basement and spread before effective work could be done by the fire department. This morning nothing but the smoking ruins remain of what was a prosperous industry employing one hundred thousand dollars of capital, using the labor of 105 persons in the plant, aside from several hundred who worked on the products of the factory in their homes. There was $36,000 ($862,181 in 2010 dollars) of insurance only, and the net loss will be about $56,000 ($1,341,170).

It was a most unfortunate blow to the leading industry of Webster City. The institution was getting on a splendid foundation and looked forward to a steadily growing business. It is too early yet to know what the policy of the stockholders will be in the matter of rebuilding the plant.

The company was working into a large and increasing business and had every prospect for a successful season. It had only recently raised its capital stock to $100,000 ($2,394,94) of which $75,000 ($1,796,211) was paid up. As a result of the fire, George (last name unreadable), who came from New York and invested his capital in the plant, is left practically without a dollar, and the loss is almost equally heavy upon other stock holders.

The loss is divided as follows:

The cause of the fire is a mystery. When discovered by the night watchman it had secured a good start in the basement. The building is situated across the river on the east side, and has no city water protection. The volunteer department did its best, but could not check the flames. The machinery fell thru from the third story to the basement, and the building was left an utter wreck. Only the books and a few minor articles could be saved. The company has $20,000 ($478,989) of shoes stored at other places about town, all of which are contracted to be delivered by September 1.

The loss which the fire will occasion to Webster City is evidenced by the fact that the weekly pay roll amounted to $700 ($16,764).

(Editor’s note: The inflation calculator converts the following amounts from 1903 dollars to 2010 dollars: $700 to $16,764;$12,000 to $287,393; $20,000 to $478,989; $36,000 to $862,181;$56,000 to $1,341,170; $68,000 to $1,628,564;$75,000 to $1,796,211; $92,000 to $2,203,352; $100,000 to $2,394,948. I have also put these amounts in the text in italics for easy reference.)

Tags: 1903

The Fort Dodge  Messenger: June 15, 1903

Sunday’s Chapter of Accidents

Heroism of Sister Saves Two Year Old Daughter of Mrs. Anna Svaleson from Death.

Child’s Clothing Was on Fire.

Katie Hanson Falls Eight Inches and Breaks Her Collar Bone – Sylvester Worley Has Hand Pierced by Blow From Pick.

A painful accident which came very near resulting in the death of a child, occurred on Sunday morning. The little two-year old daughter of Mrs. Anna Svaleson while playing alone in an upstairs room of her home on Eleventh avenue south, in some way lit some matches which set the child’s dress on fire. In a moment the little girl’s garments were ablaze and her pitiful screams could be heard for blocks away. The little one’s sister, who was down stairs came to the rescue and smothered the flames which would soon have caused the child’s death and probably set the house on fire.

The little girl was badly burned about the abdomen and thighs but will recover within two weeks.

■ ■ ■

Katie Hanson, the thirteen year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nels Hanson, living at 1026 Eleventh avenue south, fell a distance of not over eight inches from a hammock on Sunday, and broke her collar bone. The child was lying in the hammock which was almost touching the ground when the rope broke, letting her fall. She struck on her shoulder, in such a manner as to break the bone.

The injury was given prompt medical attention, and is not regarded as serious.

■ ■ ■

While attempting to move a dummy coal car in the Illinois Central coal shed, Sylvester D. Worley had his hand pierced thru by a pickax which was being wielded on some coal by Isaac Hedgecock at four o’clock Sunday afternoon. The pick went clear thru Mr. Worley’s hand, causing the wound to bleed copiously and giving Mr. Worley intense pain. Medical attendance was immediately summoned but the wound was not dressed without considerable loss of blood. The injury was purely accidental.  Mr. Worley will recover without permanent inconvenience.

Tags: 1903, Hanson, Hedgecock, Svaleson, Worley

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 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 2, 1903

President Roosevelt Visits Fort Dodge

Nation’s Chief Spend an Hour in the City and is Greeted by Thousands of enthusiastic People Who Had Come for Miles to Meet Him

Passing thru thousands of cheering people, who lined every foot of the route which he traveled, President Roosevelt made his long expected visit to Fort Dodge this morning. No man was ever given a more enthusiastic greeting than was tendered by Fort Dodge people to the nation’s president. It was “Roosevelt Day” in very truth. Stores and places of business were closed. Busy machinery all over the city was at rest, and the employes (sic) of all local business enterprises were set free to greet the president and to hear his address.

President Roosevelt and party spent just one hour in Fort Dodge, but it was a busy hour. The president was kept constantly on the move to fill the program which had been arrange for him, but the route was covered successfully. The president reached Fort Dodge at 11:25. At 12:25 he waived his hat in farewell from the rear platform of his outgoing train.

The arrangements for the day were perfect, and too much credit cannot be given to the committee which had the exercises in charge. There was no hitch at any point, and even the weather, altho not all that could be desired, was acceptable. Even if it had rained, the program would have been carried out as outlined, but it was a source of gratification to all loyal Fort Dodgers that even tho the skies were gray, the president was able to carry out his visit without the down pour of rain which had been so greatly feared.

Hundreds of people crowded every point of vantage about the Illinois Central station, when the president special drawn by a great engine, decked with hundreds of flags, with Engineer James Wheeler at the throttle pulled in from Denison, where the last stop had been made. The president was greeted by the members of the reception committee, who were on the platform and went at once to his carriage. The procession started as soon as the guests had taken their places in their carriages, marhing (sic) directly thru the depot to the park, and on over the route out lined. Everywhere it passed thru dense crowds of people, who crowded against the ropes which marked off the streets included in the line of march. The president was continully (sic) doffing his silk hat in answer to the cheers for “Teddy,” which rose all along the line.

All along Central Avenue the windows were crowded, and porches and every point which would command a view of the procession all thru the residence districts helds (sic) its throng of eager sight seers.

The president was driven first to the Lincoln school grounds, where the school children of the city were gathered by the hundreds to see him. The stop there was brief. In answer to the cries of welcome which arose to greet him, the president rose in his carriage, “I am very glad to have seen you,” he said, “and as I have six children of my own, I take particular interest in all that pertains to you.”

The president made his drive thru the residence districts of the city, unattended save by  his body guard, dressed in khaki uniforms, and composed of W.T. Chantland, B.J. Price, Dan Rhodes and Frederic Larrabee.

On his return to the business portion of the city, he joined the remainder of the procession, which proceeded down Central avenue to the park where the speakers stand had been erected. President Roosevelt, and the distinguished visitors who had accompanied him, with the members of the reception committee took their seats on the platform. as the president mounted the steps he stopped for a kindly handshake and word with a veteran of the civil war, who was sitting there.

Without any delay, Senator J.P. Dolliver advanced to the edge of the platform and looking over the crowded thousands who filled the park said “My fellow citizens: it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the President of the United States.”

President Roosevelt came forward, and was again forced to doff his hat in response to the enthusiastic cheers which greeted his appearance. His address was punctuated with ringing applause, as he touched upon some theme which brought an instant response from his thousands of eager listeners.

The president’s address, in full, was as follows:

“Senator Dolliver and you, my fellow Americans, men and women of Iowa:

“It is a great pleasure to have the chance of saying a word of greeting to you this morning. I have come from a trip to and fro across the continent, and I want to say that of all things the thing that has struck me most in that trip is the essential unity of our people. A good American is a good American anywhere in this land. (Applause.) And, gentleman, I don’t think that until one has traveled a little one get a real idea of how purely relative a matter the east and west is. I recollect in the old days when I lived in the cow country. (Applause and laughter) I had a cattle ranch myself and it was out west of here on the Little Missouri in North dakota, and at the end of one summer, one of the cow-hands came to me and said: ‘Boss, I’d like my time. I’m going to spend the winter in the far east.’ I said, ‘That’s all right. Whjat (sic) do you mean by far east, Norway or Nubia?’ and he answered, ‘Duluth.’ I found that I had gotten into the country where Duluth represented the eastermost (sic) verge of the horizon. (Laughter.)

“But now, seriously, I cannot say what a pleasure it has been to me to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific and find everywhere men and women to whom I could appeal in the name of the same ideals and who were responsive ever to that appeal, and we owe that especially to the men who in ’61, when Abraham Lincoln called, answered the call, and in greeting all our people I greet with the greatest pleasure those to whom we owe it that we now have a common country, that we now have a country thru which a president can travel to meet his countrymen. And these men, the men of ’61 fought not only by what they did, not only established the union, not only left us a heritage of honor forever, the deeds they did, but they left us the memory of how these deeds were done, the memory of the spirit in which they were done. They taught us for all time the two good lessons: The lesson of appreciating what is really important in life and the lesson of brotherhood. The lesson of appreciating what is really important in life – It is not important to have an easy time, it is, however, unimportant to try to lead a life of mere pleasure. It is vitally important to see what is worth doing and then to try to do it at any cost. (Applause.) And here today, as everywhere thruout this union, as in every meeting of Americans, you, the men of the Civil War are given the place of honor, forever and always, and your deeds shall live to be told by our children’s children on and on thru generation after generation as long as there shall be a country to have a recorded history on this continent. They shall be told. Why? Because in ’61 and the years following, you chose not the easy places, but the places that led across the stony slopes of greatness to the goal of triumph for the age and the nation. When Lincoln called, the easy thing was not to answer the call. You did not choose the life, you did not choose the life of comfort, you did not choose the life which was easy, you did not walk silently in earth’s soft places, you did not pay heed to your own material well being, on the contrary, the men of the Civil War abandoned for the time that they were in battle the hope of all material gain. The faces suffering by cold in winter nights, suffering by heat in summer days of the march, the knowledge, the practical experience of great fatigue, of hunger and thirst and the ever present chance of death in battle, death on the fever cots of the hospital, and they did all that gladly because they had in them the lofty things which go with generous souls; because they had in them the spirit that bade them distinguish between the things that are essential in life. It is unessential to have an easy time. It is vitally essential to do well your duty, to do well all things worth doing. That is the essential thing and these men had in them to see what was essential and to do the essential thing. That is one lesson they taught. The other one, the lesson of brotherhood. Brotherhood – the recognition of each man as a man, of seeing what is important in his character and disregarding the individual. To each one of you as you moved forward into the battle it made a good deal of difference whether the man on your right hand or on your left had the right stuff in him. That was the essential thing. You wanted to know that when he moved he would move the right way. That is what you wanted to know. It was absolutely of no consequence what the creed was in accordance with which he worshipped, his social position  or his birth-place. You cared nothing whether he were a capitalist, or wage-earner merchant, farmer, lawyer, business man, what you wanted to know was whether when the crisis came he would stay put. (Laughter and applause.) That is what you wanted to know exactly.

“It is just so in civil life. (I wish there were more of me and I would turn all around.) I have just got one moment more now.

“I believe this country is going forward to rise to a pitch, not merely of power, but of high and true greatness, such as no other country has ever shown, because I believe that our average citizen now in peace has profited and will profit by the lessons taught in the Civil War by the men of ’61, and thatwe shall apply practically the two lessons of which I have spoken. That we show show as a nation that what we seek is not mere ease, not mere comfort, not mere material well being – important tho that well being is – but that we shall try to do in our lives individually and collectively as a nation the things worth doing and to do them well and finally that we shall retlize (sic – should be realize) so far as in human power it can be realized, the brotherhood in fact as well as in name and shall continue to treat this government as it was meant to be treated by those who founded it and by those who preserved it: as a government not of license, but of liberty and by and through the law of liberty, the liberty of good government both social and govermental (sic), as a system under which, so far as finite human ability to reach us, to reach that knowledge and system, under which each man is treated, not with regard to his wealth or his possessions or occupation, or his social position, but with reference to his fundamental qualities as a man among his fellows.

“Now, I thank you all for having listened to me. I thank you men of the Grand Army: I thank my comrades of the lesser war and the men of the National Guard, for let us remember that exactly as we pay honor to the men of hte greater war, so the man Regular or Volunteer Regular or National Guardsman, who wears the uniform under the fltg (sic – should be flag), has a peculiar claim upon all Americans.

“Good-bye and Good Luck.”

Tags: 1903, Allison, Billeas, Chantland, Degnan, Dolliver, Fairburn, Fecht, Fisher, Larrabee, McCoy, Merry, Price, Rhodes, Theodore Roosevelt, Wallace, Wheeler

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 28, 1903

Fear Scarlet Fever Epidemic

Physicians of City Say That There is Considerable Danger

Many Have Been Exposed.

Two Cases of the Disease Are Found in the City and Are Under Quarantine.

The physicians of this city greatly fear that an epidemic of scarlet fever is about to break out among the children of the city.

Two cases of this dreaded child malady are already reported. They are the little daughter of Mrs. Minnie Slinkerd and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Silver.

Scarlet fever is one of the most contagious diseases known and it is stated that several hundred children have been exposed. The case of Miss Slinkerd was so mild that a physician was not called and it was not known until Wednesday afternoon that she was just recovering from scarlet fever, this being the stage at which the disease is most contagious, as the scars are dropping off and the disease germ is most easily distributed.

While the case of Miss Slinkerd is very mild, medical men say that the most serious cases may be contracted from persons who are mildly affected. Prominent physicians when interviewed this morning said that they considered an epidemic almost inevitable as scarlet fever is the most contagious disease known.

Scarlet fever is one of the severe diseases of childhood and has the  highest mortality in the early spring and late fall when houses are usually inadequately heated, and the children’s vitality is low. Physicians says (sic) that if an epidemic is to occur is it fortunate that is should happen in the summer when children are well and able to be in the sunshine and are not confined to school. It is urged that the parents see that their children have plenty of exercise and take special care in regard to cleanliness and proper food. There is absolutely no way of warding off the malady by confining them. The only preventative is to keep children in the best of health when there is less danger of contagion.

Tags: 1903, scarlet fever, Silver, Slinkerd