ISPw THE CHATHAM RECORD H. A. London EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR Terms of Subscription $1.50 PER YEAR Strictly in Advance THE CHATHAM RECORD Rates of Advertising One Square, one insertion - - $1.00 One Square, two insertions - $1.50 One Square, one month - - $2.50 For Larger Advertisements Liberal Contracts will be made. I VOL. xxxix. PITTSBORO, CHATHAM COUNTY, N. C, SEPTEMBER 6, 1916. NO. 5. J (Cpaittitttt MERCY WORKERS IN WAR DOING GREAT SERVICES All Countries Striving to Improve Conditions Surrounding Wounded. WORK OF AMERICANS LAUDED Motor Ambulance Service Does Inval uable Work in Transporting Wound ed Soldiers French People Touched by Volunteer Work of Americans. London. To no one race in this war belongs exclusively the work of mercy. France, Russia, England, Germany and Austria have each striven hard to improve the conditions surrounding the wounded in their armies. In the Ottoman Red Crescent, a Ma homraedan equivalent of the Red Cross, even the Turks have a corps of mercy workers, to render aid to those injured in battle. But not only the belligerent nations are occupied in the field of mercy toward fallen fighters. America, with all the cheerful optim ism which characterizes her people, has worked vigorously to alleviate the sufferings of the wounded soldiers in France. Distant Abyssinia, too, was one of the first neutral countries to establish a place of succor for the Injured near the firing line. Indeed, the Anglo Ethiopian hospital at Frevent, pro vided with funds supplied by the Abys slan crown prince, did great service early in the war. Japan, representing the far East, also sent a wonderfully equipped ambulance corps which has since occupied the Hotel Astoria, Paris. Dainty women and intellectu al men have given their time and their services eagerly In the cause of hu manity. The ladies of the Russian court, self-sacrificing in the extreme, have been trained for hospital work In the field. They have performed duties at which men might shudder and they have performed them well. So It Is In France and England and In the other countries, both in and out of the war. That the majority of the workers have been volunteers is to the credit of civ ilization. Mercy, so often beaten un der in the actual conflict of the bellig erents, has survived gloriously among those whose function has been to re lieve, where possible, the victims of shot and shell. Automobile Great Help. Like the aeroplane, the automobile is a new departure, a very important one, in warfare. Since August, 1914, it has played many parts. Armored cars, transport lorries and other vehi cles directly and Indirectly contribut ing to the success of the different arm ies in the field, have established a fresh reputation for the motor indus try. But it is largely owing to the motor ambulance that the noble work of mercy has been possible. So far as Great Britain is concerned, the motor ambulance service owes its existence and its triumph to Lord Derby's brother, Hon. Arthur Stanley, M. P., chairman of the British Red Cross society, and also to the Royal Automobile club. Soon after the out break of war, in September, 1914, Mr. Stanley, quick to see the possibilities of the motor ambulance, was given a permit to send one or two out to the front by the late Lord Kitchener. "The actual permit," said Mr. Stan ley, "was in Lord Kitchener's own handwriting on half a sheet of note paper. It is now one of the most treasured possessions if not the most treasured, in the archives of the Red Cross society. "One of the first things I did on re ceiving the necessary permission," continued Mr. Stanley-"was to get to gether half a dozen volunteer motor ists, all members of the Royal Auto mobile club, to drive the ambulance cars which we were sending to France. Our position was curious. The motor ambulance was then practically an un known quantity so far as actual war fare went, and the military authori ties stipulated that our drivers were not to wear uniform, nor, under any circumstances, to go near the firing line. There was to be no Red Cross on the cars. Truly, the mission of the motor ambulance was to be extremely limited. They were simply to go about far behind the firing line and pick up wounded men who could not be car ried to the field hospitals; men, for example, who had crawled for safety into abandoned cottages and barns. Proves Its Worth. "With the possible exception of the American ambulance cars at Neuilly, ours were the first motor ambulances used in France. But the value of a rapid service for the transport of wounded soldiers was quickly recog nized, and now, of course, wherever there is fighting there are motor am bulances." Here is a typical Instance, as told by Mr. Stanley, how the motor ambu lance proved Its worth In the early days of the war : "Late one evening one of our ambu lances crept up close to the firing line. They met an officer, who turned them back 'because,' as he said, 'it is so dark, it is no use going further.' "They went back to a farmhouse and to bed. In the middle of the night they were awakened by the same offi- PRISONERS BACK OF E Rrt jBI bIpk German prisoners taken in the first days ot the battle of the Somuie and held back of the English lines. The photograph shows the British trenches and dugouts. cer, who told them that a wounded soldier, shot through both legs, was lying almost In the German lines. It was so dangerous a mission that the officer wouldn't order the ambulance to go! He just told them where the man was, and left them to decide. They went. They crawled, without lights, along an unknown road in the darkness ; got almost within the Ger man lines, where they found the man and brought him back to safety. That wounded soldier had lain there for days and would most certainly have died had he not been rescued that night. "In this modest and voluntary way the motor ambulance came Into Its own without one penny of cost to the government ! "Today," went on Mr. Stanley, "there are about 1,600 motor ambulances and cars at the French front alone. An other 1,000 are scattered about with the troops in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Sa lonlki, Malta, East Africa, etc. We have three ambulance convoys each one consisting of some sixty cars and a radiographing convoy working in Italy. We have a number of cars in Petrograd and on the western Russian front, while we recently sent a small convoy as a present to Grand Duke Nicholas In the Caucasus." These motors and ambulances have been provided, and their upkeep main tained, entirely by volunteer subscrip tions. "Up to the present," said Mr. Stan ley, "we have collected over $20,000,000 for the Red Cross and St. John's Am bulance society. The money comes In at the rate of about $5,000,000 every six months. This shows the public appreciation of the work. Our support comes from all sections of society." "As an instance of the diversity of our work, it may be interesting to note that we arranged the other day to send motor boats to Mesopotamia and 'Charlie Chaplin films to Malta, this latter for the amusement of the con valescent soldiers ! "One of the outstanding features of our organization has been the splendid work done by the women." Mr. Stanley mentioned, by the way. the excellent artificial limbs for maimed soldiers produced by Ameri man manufacturers, both in the Unit ed States and especially at a factory established near London, where many disabled men are themselves employed. While the women of all nations at war have been working courageously in aid of their men, American women also have come out brilliantly in the labor of mercy. At the commencement of the war a group of American wom en, nearly all married to Englishmen, met together to consider how they might best render assistance to the soldiers of the king. The result was the birth of the American Woman's War Relief fund, of which Lady Paget became president, with Mrs. John As tor as vice-president, the duchess of Marlborough as chairman and Lady Lowther and Mrs. Harcourt as honor ary secretary. Other women closely identified with the work were Lady Randolph Churchill, Mrs. WThitelaw Reld and Hon. Mrs. John Ward. Work of American Women. The American Women's War Relief fund began by sending a motor ambu lance out to the front. "Friends in Boston" subscribed for another it was actually the seventh which was duly presented to the war office in London. Down in Devonshire, at Paighton, near Torquay, there is an American woman's war hospital, where thousands of wounded soldiers have been nursed back to health. Not con tented with these activities the Amer ican women in question have opened workrooms in various parts of the British capital to enable girls thrown out of work to learn other trades, and so to become self-supporting, in spite of the war. Americans are busy helping in France as well as in England, and the American Relief Clearing house, in Paris, is also an Institution of very considerable value and importance. It represents the American Red Cross, and Its distributing committee has al ready apportioned more than 4,000,000 parcels, from bales of cotton, clothes for men, women and children shoes, hospital accessories, surgical instru ments and countless other useful things. No less than 2,000 hospitals in France have been fitted from the American Relief Clearing house, which has Joseph H. Choate for its presi dent. Modeled somewhat on the lines of the organization over which Mr. Stan ley presides, Is the American Volun THE ENGLISH LINES teer Motor Ambulance corps, yet an other body of mercy-workers. In Sep tember, 1914, Prof. Richard Norton of Harvard university saw for himself the plight of the wounded French sol diers, who suffered additionally through inadequate means of trans portation. Consequently, with the co operation of some of his friends, he started the American Volunteer Am bulance corps, which quickly widened its field from two cars to seventy-five. Originally composed of American and British members, the corps has, while always working in conjunction with the French army, been placed under the British Red Cross; owing to ques tions of American neutrality. The volunteers of the American Mo tor Ambulance corps have given their time and their services uncomplaining ly to the attainment of an excellent object. Under the chairmanship of the late Henry James, the novelist, who directed matters from London, many young college graduates freely entered the corps to work strenuously, without pay or preferment. Professor Norton. Rldgely Carter, Sir John Wolfe Berry, Jordan L. Nott. John Dixon Morrison and many other well-known men are members of the London coun cil. Mr. Norton and several of the men have been awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Croix d'Arraee, the for- mer ranking high in the honors of war ring and republican France. Work ing close up to the firing line, the American Motor Ambulance men have brought relief to many thousands of wounded and sick soldiers. Some times dashing about in country ex posed to German artillery fire, the cars have not Infrequently come through a hall of bursting shells, but, so far, without the loss of a single life. The only member of the corps to die is A. D. Loney who, while returning from a brief visit to America, was drowned in the sinking of the Lusltanla. The American Motor Ambulance corps has been "mentioned" for Its discipline as well as for the high stand ard of its members generally. Lieut, Col. Leonard Robinson, in the follow ing words narrates in a report to Mr. Stanley, some experiences he has had with the American volunteers: "Im mediately after our return from Lizy-sur-Ourcq," states the colonel, "we called from the Service de Sante for an ambulance to proceed to Coulomiers to bring back General Snow, who had been seriously Injured. Starting with an ambulance and a pilot car, and ac companied by Dr. du Bouchet and Sur geon Major Langle of the French army, we left Paris at about 5 p. m., reach ing Coulomiers toward 8 p. m. The town had been but recently evacuated by the enemy, and, as the general was not in a condition to be moved, we spent the night there. The following morning an early start was made and General Snow was brought safely to Neuilly, where he remained for sev eral weeks. "With the trip to Coulomiers the pe riod during which the service made expeditions to the front for the pur pose of bringing wounded back to the entrenched camp Paris came to a close and a new phase of duty was en tered upon. "While the ambulance was absent at Lizy-sur-Ourcq, a call came from the British authorities, asking that ambu lances be sent to their clearing station at Villeneuve-Triage to bring wound ed, taken from their sanitary trains, to Paris. No ambulance being avail able at the time, an emergency column of touring cars, headed by Doctor Dav enport, was sent out, bringing in a number of cases and inaugurating a service which occupied all our time for several weeks. "The American Volunteer Motor Am bulance corps has certainly done Im mense service in creating a very fa vorable Impression on the people of France, people, beyond all others, capable of appreciating kindness and sympathy. But It has not been alone In this respect. The American Ambu lance at Neuilly, known before the war as the American hospital, has also ac quired the reputation of performing miracles for the wounded." "I have visited most of the war hos pitals in France," said a society wom an who has gone through the war as a brancardiere of the French Red Cross, "and I have never seen such wonderful work many of the cases are simply terrible, worse than any where else as that performed at the American Ambulance, Neuilly. There they treat daily the most critical surgi cal cases. Some of the wounded men poor fellows seem almost blown away, so little remains for treatment" WILSON NOTIFIED OFJOMIHATION Receives Senator James and Committee at Shadow Lawn. ACCEPTS WITH GRATITUDE President Sets Forth "Failures" of Re publicans and Achievements of Democrats Defends His For eign and Mexican Policies. Long Branch, .N. J., Sept. 2. Presi dent Wilson received today at Shadow Lawn, the summer White House, the formal notification of his renomination by the Democratic party from the noti fication committee headed by Senator Ollie James. In response Mr. Wilson spoke in part as follows: Senator James, Gentlemen of the Notification Committee, Fellow Citi zens: I cannot accept the leadership and responsibility which the National Democratic convention has again, In such generous fashion, asked me to accept without first expressing my profound gratitude to the party for the trust It reposes In me after four years of fiery trial In the midst of af fairs of unprecedented difficulty, and the keen sense .of added responsibility with which this honor fills (I had al most said burdens) me as I think of the great Issues of national life and policy Involved in the present and im mediate future conduct of our govern ment. I shall seek, as I have always sought, to justify the extraordinary confidence thus reposed In me by striv ing to purge my heart and purpose of every personal and of every mislead ing party motive and devoting every energy I have to the service of the na tion as a whole, praying that I may continue to have the counsel and sup port of all forward-looking men at ev ery turn of the difficult business. For I do not doubt that the people of the United States will wish the Democratic party to continue in con trol of the government. TJiey are not In the habit of rejecting those who have actually served them for those who are making doubtful and conjec tural promises of service. Least of all are they likely Jo substitute those who promised to render them particu lar services and proved false to that promise for those who have actually rendered those very services. Republican "Failures" Cited. The Republican party was put out of power because of failure, practical failure and moral failure; because It had served special interests and not the country at large ; because, under the leadership of its preferred and es tablished guides, of those who still make its choices, it had lost touch with the thoughts and the needs of the nation and was living in a past age and under a fixed illusion, the illusion of greatness. It had framed tariff laws based upon a fear of foreign trade, a fundamental doubt as to American skill, enterprise, and capa city, and a very tender regard for the profitable privileges of those who had gained control of domestic markets and domestic credits ; and yet had en acted antitrust laws which hampered the very things they meant to foster, which were stiff and Inelastic, and in part unintelligible. It had permitted the country throughout the long period of its control to stagger from one financial crisis to another under the operation of a national banking law of Its own framing which made strin gency and panic certain and the con trol of the larger business operations of the country by the bankers of a few reserve centers Inevitable; had made as If It meant to reform the law but had faint-heartedly failed In the attempt, because it could not bring It self to do the one thing necessary to make the reform genuine and effec tual, namely, break up the control of small groups of bankers. It had been oblivious, or indifferent, to the fact that the farmers, upon whom the coun try depends for its food and in the last analysis for its prosperity, were without standing in the matter of commercial credit, without the protec tion of standards in their market transactions, and without systematic knowledge of the markets themselves ; that the laborers of the country, the great army of men who man the in dustries it was professing to father and promote, carried their labor as a mere commodity to market, were sub ject to restraint by novel and drastic process in the courts, were without as surance of compensation for industrial accidents, without federal assistance in accommodating labor disputes, and without national aid or advice In find ing the places and the Industries In which their labor was most needed. The country had no national system of road construction and development. Little intelligent attention was paid to the army, and not enough to the navy. The other republics of America distrusted us, because they found that we thought first of the profits of American investors and only as an af terthought of impartial justice and helpful friendship. Its policy was pro vincial in all things ; its purposes were out of harmony with the temper and purpose of the people and the timely development of the nation's interests. So things stood when the Democrat ic party came into power. How do they stand now? Alike in the domes tic field and In the wide field of the commerce of the world, American busi ness and life and industry have been set free to move as they never moved before. What Democrats Have Done. The tariff has been revised, not on the principle of repelling foreign trade, but upon the principle of en couraging it upon something like a footing of equality with our own in respect of the terms of competition, and a tariff board has been created whose function it will be to keep the relations of American with foreign business and industry under constant observation, for the guidance of our business men and of our congress. American energies are now directed towards the markets of the world. The laws against trusts have been clarified by definition, with a view to making it plain that they were not directed against big business but only against unfair business and the pre tense of competition where there was none; , and a trade commission has been created with powers of guidance and accommodation which have re lieved business men of unfounded fetirs and sat them upon the road of hopeful and confident enterprise. By the federal reserve act the sup ply of currency at the disposal of ac tive business has been rendered elas tic, taking its volume, not from a fixed body of Investment securities, but from the liquid assets of daily trade. Effective measures have been taken for the re-creation of an American merchant marine and the revival of the American carrying trade. The interstate commerce commis sion has been reorganized to enable It to perform its great and important f unctions more promptly and more ef ficiently. We have created, extended and improved the service of the par cels post. For the farmers of the country we have virtually created commercial credit, by means of the federal reserve act and the rural credits act. They now have the standing of other busi ness men in the money market. We have successfully regulated specula tion in "futures" and established standards In the marketing of grains. By an intelligent warehouse act we have assisted to make the standard crops available as never before both for systematic marketing and as a security for loans from the banks. For Labor and Children. The worklngmen of America have been given, a veritable emancipation, by the legal recognition of a man's labor as part of his life, and not a mere marketable commodity ; by ex empting labor organizations from proc esses of the courts which treated their members like fractional parts of mobs and not like accessible and responsi ble individuals ; by releasing our sea men from Involuntary servitude; by making adequate provision for com pensation for industrial accidents; by providing suitable machinery for me diation and conciliation in industrial disputes; and by putting the federal department of Labor at the disposal of the workingman when in search of work. We have effected the emancipation of the children of the country by re leasing them from hurtful labor. We have Instituted a system of national aid in the building of highroads such as the country has been feeling after for a century. We have sought to equalize taxation by means of an equitable income tax. We have taken the steps that ought to have been taken at the outset to open up the re sources of Alaska. We have pro vided for national defense upon a scale never before seriously proposed upon the responsibility of an entire political party. We have driven the tariff lobby from cover and obliged It to substitute solid argument for pri vate influence. Foreign Policy Stated. In foreign affairs we have been guided by principles clearly con ceived and consistently lived up to. Perhaps they have not been fully com prehended because they have hitherto governed international affairs only in theory, not in practice. They are sim ple, obvious, easily stated, and funda mental to American Ideals. We have been neutral not only be cause it was the fixed and traditional policy of the United States to stand aloof from the politics of Europe and because we had no part either of ac tion or of policy in the influences which brought on the present war, but also because it was manifestly our duty to prevent, if it were possible, the indefi nite extension of the fires of hate and desolatioa kindled by that terrible con flict and seek to serve mankind by re serving cur strength and our resources for the anxious and difficult days of restoration and healing which must follow, when peace will have to build its house anew. The rights of our own citizens of course became involved ; that was in evitable. Where they did this was our guiding principle : that property rights can be vindicated by claims for dam ages when the war is over, and no mod ern nation can decline to arbitrate such claims ; but the fundamental rights of humanity cannot be. The loss of life Is irreparable. Neither can di rect violations of a nation's sovereign ty await vindication in suits for dam ages. As to Mexico. While Europe was at war our own continent, one of our own neighbors, was shaken by revolution. In that matter, too, principle was plain and it was imperative that we should live up to it if we were to deserve the trust of any real partisan of the right as free men see It. We have professed to be lieve, and we do believe, that the peo ple of small and weak states have the right to expect to be dealt with exact ly as the people of big and powerful states would be. We have acted upon that principle In dealing with the peo ple of Mexico. Our recent pursuit of bandits intt Mexican territory was no violation of that principle. We ventured to enter Mexican territory only because there were no military forces in Mexico that could protect our border from hostile attack and our own people from vio lence, and we have committed there no single act of hostility or interfer ence even with the sovereign authority of the republic of Mexico herself. Many serious wrongs against the property, many irreparable wrongs against the persons, of Americans have been committed within the territory of Mexico herself during this confused revolution, wrongs which could not be effectually checked so long as there was no constituted power in Mexico which was in a position to check them. We could not act directly in that mat ter ourselves without denying Mexi cans the right to any revolution at all which disturbed us and making the emancipation of her own people await our own interest and. convenience. Problems of Near Future. The future, the immediate future, will bring us squarely face to face with many great and exacting problems which will search us through and through whether we be able and ready to play the part in the world that we mean to play. There must be a just and settled peace, and we here in America must contribute the full force of our en thusiasm and of our authority as a nation to the organization of that peace upon world-wide foundations that cannot easily be shaken. No na tion should be forced to take sides in any quarrel in which its own honor and Integrity and the fortunes of Its own people are not involved; but no nation can any longer remain neutral as against any willful disturbance of the peace of the world. One of the contributions we must make to the world's peace is this: We must see to it that the people in our insular possessions are treated in their own lands as we would treat them here, and make the rule of the United States mean the same thing everywhere the same Justice, the same consideration for the essential rights of men. Besides contributing our ungrudg ing moral and practical support to the establishment of peace throughout the world we must actively and intelli gently prepare ourselves to do our full service In the trade and Industry which are to sustain and develop the life of the nations in the days to come. We have already been provident in this great matter and supplied our selves with the Instrumentalities of prompt adjustment. We have created. In the federal trade commission, a means of Inquiry and of accommoda tion in the field of commerce which ought both to co-ordinate the enter prises of our traders and manufac turers and to remove the barriers of misunderstanding and of a too tech nical interpretation of the law. In the new tariff commission we have added another instrumentality of ob servation and adjustment which prom ises to be Immediately serviceable. We have already formulated and agreed upon a policy of law which will explicitly remove the ban now supposed to rest upon co-operation amongst our exporters In seeking and securing their proper place In the markets of the world. The field will be free, the instrumentalities at hand. At home also we must see to it that the men who plan and develop and di rect our business enterprises shall en joy definite and settled conditions of law, a policy accommodated to the freest progress. We have set the just and necessary limits. We have put all kinds of unfair competition under the ban and penalty of the law. We have barred monopoly, These fatal and ugly things being excluded, we must now quicken action and facili tate enterprise by every just means within our choice. There will be peace in the business world, and, with peace; revived confidence and life. We ought both to husband and to develop our natural resources, our mines, our forests, our water power. I wish we could have made more prog ress than we have made in this vital matter. We must hearten and quicken the spirit and efficiency of labor through out our whole industrial system by everywhere and in all occupations do ing justice to the laborer, not only by paying a living wage, but also by making all the conditions that sur round labor what they ought to be. We must co-ordinate the railway systems of the country for national use, and must facilitate and promote their development with a view to that co-ordination and to their better adaptation as a whole to the life and trade and defense of the nation. The life and industry of the country can be free and unhampered only If these arteries are open, efficient, and com plete. Thus shall we stand ready to meet the future as circumstance and Inter national policy effect their unfolding, whether the changes come slowly or nntnp fnst find without nreface. Not for Her. "I have here," said the gentlemanly agent, "a washing machine which la so simple that a child can operate it. With It you an do your own wash ing and thus save the money which you now pay a laundress. I am sell ing this machine at the extremely low price of" "Never mind the price," Interrupted the comnruter's wife. "I wouldn't take the machine as a gift. It's so lone some out here that I don't see a soul from one week's end to another ex cept the woman who comes every Mon day to do my washing, and now you want to deprive me of her society. Go away before I set the dog on you T WEDS FRENCHMAN ON HER DEATHBED Pretty Peggie Gillespie Keeps Her Promise to Marry Wealthy Admirer. WAS NOTABLE FIGURE ramou8 Beauty, Born in Little Penn sylvania City, Set Fashions for World and Shone Among Elite of Europe. Paris. In Paris a few days ago ;here died at the age of thirty-four one tt the most romantic characters of France an American girl, Peggie Gil lespie by name, who began life in the little Pennsylvania city of Punxsutaw ney. Even her end was spectacular, or on her deathbed she married Hen ry Letellier, one of the wealthiest of Frenchmen. Peggy Gillespie spent most of her early life in Pittsburgh, where she was married to George McClelland. But several years ago she went to France and immediately became a prominent figure in society and on the race courses. For a long time she was the model of fashion and did much to set the styles of women's dress In Europe and America. Because of her extrava gance and daring eccentricities she was described by a French writer as rank ing with the reckless beauties of the Second empire. But as long ago as 1909 a cloud be gan to shadow her life. When a con sultation of physicians was called to consider her health, it was found that she was a victim of tuberculosis. She was ordered to the south of France, and at Hyeres she lived for a time in a tent with a special kitchen, two motor cars and a train of servants. But she did not stay long away from Paris. A Star In the World of Fashion. For years little Peggie Gillespie, by her wit and charm and the dash with which she dressed, set a pace which the other glittering women of the French capital found difficult to fol low. Wherever there was a gathering of beauty and fashion, Peggy Gillespie was there, outshining the others like a star. Her entertainments in her sump tuous apartments in the Avenue Henri Martin were famous, and she numbered Set Styles for Women's Dress. among her acquaintances many of the highest title and distinction in Europe. When the war broke out she plunged into charity and relief work. Shortly after she had consented to marry Letellier she began ft yield to the fatal disease she had fought for so long. When the doctors announced that death was near she tried to break the engagement, but Letellier finally persuaded her to become his wife be fore she died. TOT VICTIM OF FAMILY ROW Unwittingly Shot and Killed by Mother Emptying Revolver Under Table. Curtisville, Pa. Following a violent quarrel, Joseph Kunkle, aged thirty three, a miner, rushed upstairs, seized a revolver and returned to the dining room, threw the weapon on the table and told his wife to use It on him or he would on her. The six-year-old daughter, Leila, un nerved, hid under the table. The wife, fearing he would shoot, grabbed the revolver and fired five shots under the table. The husband then knocked his wife to the floor, and as he did so he dis covered the girl there, shot. He took the dying child to a nearby physician, but she immediately expired as he en tered the office door. Skirt Prevents Suicide. New York. Mrs. Alice Walker's wide skirt prevented her from com mitting suicide when she jumped into the East river. The skir spread out like a balloon and kept her afloat until boatmen reached her.