Carl Sandburg visits Virginia

The interspersed poetic excerpts are from the great Carl Sandburg who visited Virginia to give a lecture/reading in 1928. Enjoy!

--Jason Scorich

The silent litany of the workmen goes on—
Speed, speed, we are the makers of speed.
We make the flying, crying motors,
Clutches, brakes, and axles,
Gears, ignitions, accelerators,
Spokes and springs and shock absorbers.
The silent litany of the workmen goes on—
Speed, speed, we are the makers of speed;
Axles, clutches, levers, shovels,
We make the signals and lay the way—
                                                              Speed, speed.
                                                                                            (excerpt from “Good Morning America,” 1928)

HIBBING GIRL IS VICTIM OF WRECK

Grand Rapids, Minn.—A Hibbing girl met sudden death, her boy companion was seriously injured and another couple narrowly escaped death last night when the car they were driving plunged through the rails of a bridge south of here and dove to the ice of Pokegama lake, 300 [sic?] feet below.

Miss Beulah Bussey, 19, of Pool location north of Hibbing was the victim of the crash. The driver of the car George Suonen of Nashwauk was seriously injured and is in a Grand Rapids hospital. He is reported to be badly bruised and at first it was believed his back was broken. Internal injuries may be discovered upon a further examination physicians believe.

The crash victim died in less than two hours after the accident. It was found that she suffered a fractured skull and was badly cut and bruised. The girl was in the front seat with the driver.

Al Vodomonic, Nashwauk, and Miss Ivey Anderson, Pool location, were in the back seat of the car. Although bruised and badly shaken, the two were released from the hospital and the girl returned to her home today by bus.

According to the two, the party was enroute for Minneapolis, the two men attending a merchant’s convention there and the two girls to spend several days visiting with Miss Bussey’s sister who lies in Minneapolis. Virginia Daily Enterprise—Fri., Jan. 28, 1928

 

GOVERNESS IS ROBBED, SLAIN

Body Found After Serving As Human Torch 

Morristown, N. J.—Robbery was believed by police today to have been the motive for the burning to death Monday night of a woman whom they identified as Miss Margaret Brown, 40 years old, employed until that morning as a governess in a home on fashionable Park Avenue, New York.

Fred Roff, lieutenant of detectives of Morris county, said that when Miss Brown left the home of her employer, James P. Gillespie, she had with her $8,000 in bonds and $1,000 in cash. No bonds or cash was found in the woman’s clothing.

Roff said identification had been made by Miss Mary Brown, a sister, of Fort Lee, N. J., from descriptions of the dead woman’s clothing, watch, and a scar on the body.

The detective advanced the theory that the woman had been attacked and robbed in New York and brought to New Jersey in an automobile. The woman, her clothing soaked in gasoline and ablaze, was found by a motorist on the road between Bernardsville and Morristown. She died at a hospital early yesterday.

When Miss Brown left the Gillespie home she said she was going west to reside.

Mrs. Gillespie said Miss Brown had some money with her when she left, but she had no idea it was as large an amount as the police reported.

Miss Brown had been in Mrs. Gillespie’s employ for about ten months. Nothing was known of her personal affairs, but Mrs. Gillespie said she had proved trustworthy and had performed her duties satisfactorily. She had told Mrs. Gillespie she had been employed as a governess for about 15 years before going to the Gillespie home.

Police investigation was being concentrated today in a search for a sedan automobile which was seen near the patch of woods where the woman was found. This fact was held by the police to strengthen their theory that the woman had been brought to the spot in an automobile. Daily Enterprise—Fri., Jan. 20, 1928

 

TRAPPER BRAVES SEAS FOR FRIEND 

Duluth, Jan. 20—Battling the raging seas of Lake Superior in an open rowboat equipped with an outboard motor from Wednesday night, January 11 until 4:30 p.m. Friday, January 13 to bring his friend to the mainland to receive medical attention is the story retold today by Arthur Anderson, Isle Royal trapper who is visiting here.

Ralph Anderson, no relation, another Isle Royal trapper, is the man whose life Arthur Anderson is believed to have saved. Ralph had been ill since fall but not sick enough to give up his trapping until a week ago, when he became seriously ill.

Hearing of Ralph’s plight through another trapper, Arthur took his small boat, picked up the sick man and set out for the mainland.

The lake was “choppy” as Anderson puts it after running for about 15 miles at half speed through the ice cakes he put in at Chippewa Harbor, where they laid over for the night to await more favorable weather.

Undaunted and spurred on by the sick man’s sufferings, Anderson wrapped his ill companion warmly and set out into the open lake to battle the high seas, floating ice cakes and the snow storm. He managed to reach Hay Bay, about 20 miles further on before being forced to seek shelter from the storm.

Friday morning they again started and reached Washington Harbor for shelter, warmth and something to eat at a trapper’s cabin there. About 2 p.m. the wind shifted to the northeast so they set out for Grand Portage Harbor on the mainland. With the driving wind at their backs aiding the small motor they were able to make Grand Portage about 4:30 p.m. The total trip covered 78 miles. An automobile was enlisted and the two men taken to Hinera Center where medical aid was secured.

Virginia Daily Enterprise— Friday, January 20, 1928

Iron
Guns,
Long, steel guns,
Pointed from the war ships
In the name of the war god.
Straight, shining, polished guns,
Clambered over with jackies in white blouses,
Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth,
Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses,
Sitting on the guns singing war songs, war chanties.

Shovels,
Broad, iron shovels,
Scooping out oblong vaults,
Loosening turf and leveling sod.

I ask you
To witness—
The shovel is brother to the gun.
                                                           (1916)

 

Coal Gas May Have Caused Explosion in School

HIRAM REED DENIES CHARGES HE DYNAMITED THE BUILDING

Ottawa, Ill.—Hiram Reed did not dynamite the Pleasant Valley school house, he testified at his trial here today.

The young farmer was perfectly calm as he got into the witness stand after a chemical expert had testified the explosion in the school house stove might have been caused by coal gas.

Iola Bradford, the young man’s sweetheart, who taught at the school, was seriously injured in the explosion.

“The night of Nov. 30 and the morning of Dec. 1, did you place any dynamite in the school stove?” asked defense attorney George Sprenger.

“No sir, I did not” answered young Reed clearly and without hesitation.

“Did you go to the school house and enter that night or that morning?” the attorney asked.

“No, sir” was the prompt reply.

Ottawa, Ill.—An overnight collection of coal gas might have caused the explosion last December in the stove of the Pleasant Valley school house, according to testimony at the trial of Hiram Reed today. The explosion wrecked the building and nearly killed the teacher, Miss Iola Bradford.

Defense attorneys placed William T. Tydeman, Ottawa high school chemistry instructor on the stand in an attempt to prove Reed innocent of a charge of placing dynamite in the stove. In his confession, entered as an exhibit, the young farmer admitted planting dynamite at the school and also being the father of Miss Bradford’s unborn child. He said he hoped by that means to avoid wedding her.

“Would it be possible for an explosion of sufficient force to blow out windows, drive pieces of iron three or four inches into the wall and blow one piece 80 feet into the yard, if caused by any other agent than dynamite?” asked the defense attorney, George Sprenger.

“Such an explosion might have been caused by the collection of coal gas incited by lighting a fire,” answered the instructor.

State’s Attorney Russel O. Hanson began a protracted fight to show that coal gas could not have collected in quantity suffi cient to cause so much damage.

“Would coal gas collect in the upper part of such a stove with the damper closed and cause a collection of soot in the stove part, sufficient to knock a person down an cause the damage previously described?” asked the state’s attorney.

“It would,” replied the witness.

State’s witnesses had testified that three bushels of soot were taken from the building after the explosion. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Friday, February 22, 1928

 

Kills Her Son 

While visiting a mine school where her 7 year-old son Lawrence was a student, Mrs. Jack McCall, 30, of Mercer, Pa., suddenly drew a knife and slashed the boy’s throat. He died within a few minutes. Mrs. McCall is believed to have become suddenly insane. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Friday, February 22, 1928

 

DOCTOR HUFF IS MURDER SUSPECT

Friend Of Dead Governess Tells of Probable Slayer; Hunt Now Extended

Bernardsville, N. J.—The man who killed Miss Margaret Brown by drenching her in gasoline and setting her afire, is a middle-aged New Yorker so socially prominent that authorities hesitate to arrest him until every detail of the case is complete, Capt. Lamb of the state police said today.

Dr. Anderson Lawton, who was present at the autopsy, today told of evidences that Miss Brown had been knocked unconscious before she was set afire. An anonymous letter mailed to police yesterday said her assailant had struck Miss Brown on the head.

Dr. Lawton said that a pivot tooth in Miss Brown’s lower jaw had been broken and that a blood clot extended from the lower lip across the mouth. He believed the blow would have caused unconsciousness. He also said that the pupils of the victim’s eyes were not dilated, indicating that she was unconscious when set on fire.

County Prosecutor Bergen intimated that the full content of the confession letter had not been made public.

Police were informed today that a man driving an automobile bearing stolen license plates had visited the scene of the crime last night and they were investigating the possibility that the slayer had returned there through morbid curiosity.

Bernardsville, Feb. 24—“Doctor Huff ” or “Hoff ” was being sought by police today as the slayer of Miss Margaret Brown, 40 year-old governess, who was burned to death near here Monday night.

Search for the slayer was intensifi ed by receipt of an anonymous letter in which the writer confessed to the slaying and returned $2,500 in bond and cash he had taken from the victim.

A friend of Miss Brown’s said the murdered woman had been meeting a man named either “Hoff ” or “Huf ” and who called himself a “doctor” in Central Park. He was known to be the owner of an automobile similar to that seen near the scene of the murder. The letter said the writer had told Miss Brown he was a medical student.

In a letter, mailed from Newark on Wednesday, the writer said he struck the woman when she resisted his advances, and believing her dead he had soaked her clothes in gasoline and ignited them.

The authenticity of the confession was established by the police when their investigation showed that one of the two $1,000 bonds enclosed had been issued to Miss Brown.

The slayer was believed by the police to be a man Miss Brown has been in the habit of meeting in Central Park, New York, and whom she had described to her employers as James Gillespie, of Park Avenue, New York, and a “fine gentleman with a car.”

The slayer in his confession said he had met Miss Brown in New York and they had driven to a lonely road, in this section known as “Lover’s Lane.” He said he had asked her to marry him, but she had always told him she would not marry a poor man.

The confession said the slayer had a good car and that he was starting out “God knows where—to Hell I suppose, and by the time you get this letter I will have a good start on you.”

Believing the man to be a drug addict, police were watching all sources of that nature in New Jersey and attempting to trace former connection of the “doctor” whom they believe to be the slayer of Miss Brown. Virginia Daily Enterprise— Friday, February 22, 1928

Useless Words

So long as we speak the same language and never understand each other,

So long as the spirals of our words snarl and interlock

And clutch each other with the irreckonable gutturals,

Well . . .                                                                                        (1928)