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Advocate Archives
In this week’s look back in to the Advocate archives we venture to 1933 when fancy travel trailer caught fire and burned; to 1943 when members of the Highland Fish and Game club groused about having to charge for suppers and to 1956 when a Provincetown summer artist was savagely slain on a trip to Mexico.
Oct. 12, 1933
Trailer Destroyed By Fire
The first large fire which Provincetown has had for some time called out the local Fire Department this morning at Robert’s Gasoline Station on the highway to Truro, at 7:45 o’clock.
The trailer owned by Mr. and Mrs. Julius Kotic of New York, who are on a year’s vacation trip, caught afire while the owners were cooking their breakfast on a gasoline stove. It is thought the stove exploded, setting fire to the handsome car. Every possession except bathrobes were lost in the fire.
As the trailer was attached to the Cadillac roadster, Edgar Edwards, proprietor of the Provincetown Laundry, next to the gasoline station, and Amos E. Kubic, manager of Robert’s station, pulled the car out of danger. The loading stand, near the blazing trailer, also caught fire but the fire department soon extinguished the blaze before damage was done.
The blaze was seen for some distance and excited those who witnessed it, as the two tanks containing gasoline were near the scene of the fire. Had these caught afire the danger would have been alarming, for the gasoline would have exploded and caused serious damage.
Oct. 14, 1943
Hunters Ponder Future Suppers
About 40 members of the Highland Fish and Game Club attended the first meeting of the season in Odd Fellows Hall last night, despite the absence of the usual supper, and devoted their attention chiefly to a program and policy for future meetings.
One decision which the members found difficulty in arriving at was the charge that should be made for the suppers which have proven so popular as well as instrumental in increasing club membership and meeting attendance. Heretofore it has been the practice to “pass the cup” at the conclusion of each supper and each member could contribute as his means and conscience dictated. As a result, it was forcibly brought out, the suppers had been put on with considerable deficits being made up out of club funds.
The upshot of the discussion was the appointment of a supper committee consisting of Bert Perry, Alton E. Ramey and William Mayo, which will take over all arrangements for next month’s supper.
Oct. 11, 1956
Cape End Artist Slain By Indians,
Killing Linked To Old Mayan Ritual
Apparently in the belief that he was the legendary “white devil” who had come to cast a spell over the entire countryside and kill crops and cattle, an artist well known to many Cape End people and visitors, and who spent many seasons painting in the Provincetown area, has been slain by savage Mexican Indians. He was Arthur Silz of 232 East Ninth Street, New York, who went alone on a tour to visit new discoveries of the ancient Mayan civilization and who is believed to have fallen into the hands of the Chamulas who are noted for their savagery.
A searching party found the partly burned rucksack of the artist and his bludgeoned body in an Indian grave.
A letter from Randolph and Annabelle Jones of Back Bay, Boston, revealed the identity of the victim of the jungle tragedy as being Arthur Silz, for many years a Provincetown Summer painter. They wrote, “Because of the many friends he had in Provincetown who would want to know, we are enclosing this clipping of the tragic death of Arthur Silz. We first met Arthur when he walked briskly towards our shack on the dunes in September about 1947. A stranger with blond fluffy hair, a knapsack on his back and a friendly “hello.” He had just ended his summer painting classes in town and was roaming the dunes which he did often with much enjoyment in the following years before returning to his Winter studio in New York.”
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Oct 11th, 2007