'We live in what may pre-eminently be called the age of the press, in which everybody can put his ideas in print, why should we not then use this powerful weapon for good...'
-Fr. William Rigge, Chapter 14
The Observatory ~ 'Shadow' World-Herald Article
"Group Whose Picture Freed a Man Poses Again at Same Time, But Shadow's Missing" -World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska
The sun was hot and bright at 3:21 1/2 p.m. May 22, just the way it was at exactly the same time - to the second - 27 years ago.
It was a good day for shadows, but the only shadows at the southeast corner of Twenty-eight and Parker streets were the shadows of 10 men standing bareheaded in the sun. The shadows of nine of them were there 27 years ago, but one important shadow that was there on May 22, 1912, was not there Monday. It was the shadow of the cornice of St. Paul's Lutheran church, a shadow that freed a man from prison. The church was destroyed by the 1913 tornado, only the concrete abutments remaining. The occasion Monday was a reunion of men who were photographed at 3:21 1/2 p.m., May 22, 1912, with the late Rev. William F. Rigge of Creighton university when, as was told in The World-Herald magazine section Sunday, he proved by comparison of the shadows that another picture, taken at the same site in 1910, was taken at exactly the same moment. As a result, it proved that perons in the original picture, who claimed they saw Frank Erdman carrying a suitcase near the home of Tom Dennison, political leader, where a suitcase full of dynamite was planted, must have been mistaken. The experiment brought release of Erdman from prison.
A tornado dispelled the shadow...John P. Moore, Leo E. Ryan, J. Francis McDermott, Jeremiah Murphy, Ed K. McDermott, Dr. Earl A. Connolly, the Very Rev. Joseph P. Zuercher, S.J., Romeo J. Laporte, Capt. Charles T. McEniry, Dr. Harry T. Sullivan.
Nine of the men who gathered at Twenty-eighth and Parker streets Monday were students in Father Rigge's astronomy class. All are Omahans except Jeremiah Murphy, who came from Souix Falls, S.D., for the reunion. The tenth was Rev. Joseph P. Zuercher, S.J., president of Creighton.
Two other members of Father Rigge's class, Paul A. Burke and Francis L. Bushman, with several others, played hookey back in 1912, disregarding Father Rigge's request to be at the church.
The group plans to meet on May 22 "at least every five years," members said, and pose for a photograph at the southeast corner of Twenty-eigth and Parker streets at 3:21 1/2 p.m.