Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 5, Number 189, Decatur, Adams County, 6 August 1907 — Page 1

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT.

Volume V. Number 189

GETTING READY The Great and Only Fair This Month all buildings being repaired The Race Track Will be Fast as Will Everything Else With this Year's Exhibit. A large force of men under the supervision of Secretary C. D. Kunkle, of the Great Northern Indiana Fair, started in this morning in getting Steele’s Park in shape for the big coming event to be held August 27, 28, 29 and 30. The work these men are doing is in the way of repairing stock pens, stables, sheds and getting the exhibit halls in perfect condition so that everything that is displayed at the fair may be shown to the public to an advantage and so that every exhibitor may have an equal chance at the fair. The grounds are being given a thorough cleaning, the weeds being cut and a number of low places surrounding various exhibit halls are being filled up and the ground will present an attractive appearance when the fair opens. The track is also being put into shape and bids fair to be faster than ever this season and horsemen will have no kick coming in this particular. The track has always been considered fast, and this year the association is making an extraordinary effort to make it even faster than in former years and from all appearances, if work is any criterion the association will succeed. With the best fair grounds in the state, the best track and the best stables and exhibit halls and with the premiums the association Is offering for the various events, the Great Northern Indiana Fair this year gives promise of being the banner one. havT new home Knights to Dedicate New Pythian Home UNIFORM RANK IN CHARGE Huntington Has Largest Uniformed Rank in the WoHd —A Great Event in K. of P. Life. Beginning on the twelfth day of this month the uniform rank of K. P.'s, of Indiana, will dedicate the new Indiana Pythian building at Indianapolis in a royal manner. Uniform ranks from the different orders of the state will be on hand to make their prize drills, military reviews and other exercises characteristic to the order. At this dedication Huntington, Indiana .will send the largest uniform rank of the K. of P.’s that exists in the world, it having been formed especially for this occasion. The encampment will be held at Riverside park, and this part of the affair will be prominent among the features of the event. Cash prizes aggregating $5,000 in all will be given for the largest company present, best drilled company, the most attractively uniformed company and for several other exercises that will be indulged in. The Indiana Pythian building is among the finest structures in the state, and in all probability will be taxed to its capacity between the twelfth and seventeenth days of this month, when the dedication ensues. Although Decatur will not be represented by their uniform rank at this affair, many members of the. local order are planning to be present and enjoy the good time that is in store for all members of the lodge. ~ o — Cartooned as kissing Carrie Nation, Judge Samuel R. Artman of Lebanon, declared in an address in the Grand Avenue Methodist church at Milwaukee that he had been put to the double expense of having his wife travel with him wherever he went to disprove the slander. The judge filled the church with an audience eager to hear his arguments on “The Unconstitutionality of the Liquor License.’

A FREIGHT TRAIN DERAILED. An Erie West Bound Passenger several Hours Late. The west bound Erie passenger train that is due in this city at 7:03 o’clock did not arrive until five minutes until twelve "o’clock last night, on the account of a freight train being derailed at Marion. Ohio, which blockaded the track. The passenger train instead of being held at Marion, until the track was cleared, was taken over the Big Four railroad by the way of Bellefontaine, Ohio, to Kenton, Ohio, where it got on the Erie railroad and proceeded on its journey. By taking that route the train travels sixty miles out of its way, and that is responsible for the five hour delay that was experienced. As far as we can ascertain, no one was injured in the mishap of the freight. o SOCIAL PROGRESS Another Chapter on Adams County History OUR CITIZENS ARE ENERGETIC Social Conditions Finds us Leaders — Interesting Paper by Ladies’ Historical Club. The brief sketches which the members of the Historical Reading Club have gathered and prepared for publication, have now covered a period of about ninety years of Adams county history. The smiling landscape of Adams county, with her thrifty looking and well-tilled farms, her flourishing villages, fine farm buildings and growing county seat, give but little hint of the almost unbroken forests, the swales and marches and the occasional log cabin of seventy years ago, when Decatur had but three or four log cabins and two unfinished frame houses with thirty inhabitants all told. The citizens of this county have ever been of the energetic and plucky sort. Year after year they have waged war with unfavorable conditions. Muddy roads, swamp, low-lying lands, primitive bridges and over-flowing streams, but at last they are coming “out on top.” The growth of this county has not been of the mushroom variety, springing up in a night, but is the result of years of toil, and intelligent planning for future generations. The growth has been slow, but her progress is now assured. Adams county now has miles and miles of macadam roads, and is still making more. Miles and miles of ditches are draining her lowlands, and her citizens are petitioning for more. Railroads traverse the county from east and west, north and south. A trolley line connects us with the county seat of Allen on the north and will shortly reach the county seat of Jay on the south. The long forced journeys to mill or market through the deep black mud of the early roads are now but a dream. The old log cabin is but a memory. Year after year the forests have melted away, until now the question is, how to preserve what is left. The little old inconvenient school houses built after 1853-4 have given place to brick buildings nearly all over the county. The old time church buildings are all gone, or nearly so. Bridges of stone and steel have replaced the first flimsy structures over our streams and waterways. In Decatur and the surrounding towns the buildings now going up are of the best. The half finished frame house of the store box pattern has been replaced by the modern house, with Decatur’s school children now wend their way to four substantial and handsome brick buildings situated in different wards of the city, and equipped with all the necessary appliances for successful instruction. Our church going people now’ find a home every Sabbath in nine good modern church buildings, five of which are brick. A visit to our court house will show that our county officers are well provided with suitable rooms and every facility necessary for doing the business of the county. Our citizens now walk over brick and cement sidewalks and traffic is carried on through streets paved with brick or filled with crushed stone from the quarries just a. little north of the city. The Carnegie library overlooking the court house square, under its efficient board of managers, bids fair to rival that of (Continued on page 2)

Decatur, Indiana, Tuesday Evening, August 6, 1907.

CONTINUE TO FIGHT Government to Make Standard Pay Fine AFTER N. JERSEY CORPORATION Case on Appeal Will Likely be Pushed to Hearing at an Early Date. Washington, August 5. —Government officials in Washington express the opinion, John D. Rockefeller to the contrary notwithstanding, that the Standard Oil company of New Jersey will eventually be compelled to pay the fine of $29,240,000 Imposed by Judge Landis, of Chicago, Saturday, on the Standard Oil company of Indiana .which was convicted on more than 1,400 counts of violating the provisions of the Elkins anti-rebate act. It is the purpose of the government, if possible, to fix the responsibility for the payment of the fine imposed upon the Standard of Indiana on the Standard of New Jrsey. It will be alleged that the Standard of Indiana is a subsidiary concern and that the Standard of New Jersey is the responsible party. The contention that the fine is excessive when applied to the parent corporation, it is believed here, will not be sustained by the court. During the trial of the rebate cases the court showed plainly that it regarded the Standard Oil company of New Jersey as the real defendant, and especially so when it summoned as witnesses Mr. Rockefeller and other officers of th? eastern corporation. Th same question is at issue in the St. Louis cases, where the Standard has been indicted in the federal courts under the terms of the Sherman antitrust act. The government intends to continue the fight against the Standard Oil company with great determination. The circuit court of appeals will meet in October and the Standard rebate cases will doubtless be set for an early hearing. 0 WAGONS TO BURN Hoffman & Sons’ Busy Fourteen Wagons / - USED ON MACADAM ROAD WORK A Large Traction Engine Will Furnish Power to Move this Wagon Precession. Fourteen large dump wagons that were made at Troy, Ohio, have been delivered to contractor Fred Hoffman and sons, of this city, and they will be used for hauling gravel on the pike roads that Mr. Hoffman has contracted to build in this and Randolph counties. The wagons are heavily and conveniently constructed for the express purpose of being used in this kind of work and by their use the roads can be built more rapidly than with the ordinary wagon, as the driver can dump the load without moving from his seat. Mr. Hoffman has a large twenty-two horse power double cylinder traction engine, with which he will draw the wagons back and forth as they are loaded and unloaded, and with this outfit he is able to handle large contracts as easily as small ones. Eleven pike roads are contracted to be built by this firm, four of which will be constructed in this county and the remainder seven in Randolph. —o The postmaster-general has issued an order or notice that all rural mail carriers have the right of way on all the country roads, and that all other carriages or conveyances must surrender that right of way to the rural carriers. That was the rule when the mails wee carried in fourhorse stage coaches, and every one had to get out of the way when the mail coach came along. It is a very serious matter for any one to obstruct the rapid transportation of the United States mails. Get out of the road when the rural free delivery carrier comes along with Uncle Sam's mail. Mrs. Bader S. Hunt, of Winchester, arrived in the city yesterday and for several days will be a guest of Mrs. L. G. Ellingham.

FINED FOR PLAIN DRUNK. Joe Smith Picked up and Fin«d in Mayor’s Court. Joe Smith, the drunk who was picked up yesterday at noon on Fourth street by Marshal Green, was arraigned this morning before Mayor Coffee when he plead guilty and was given the usual old dose. Smith plead hard for his liberty, saying that he was employed as a tailor at Geneva, and that he had work there that demanded his immediate attention. The mayor however, thought different and informed Smith that he should have thoughtof his future welfare before accumulating his jag and ordered the marshal to take him back to jail, where he will spend ten days. Smith frightened several ladies along Fourth street by his actions, and in other ways madshis presence felt. His sentence was no doubt a just one. o—. 0 —. WAS WELL KNOWN Alonzo Greene Smith of Indianapolis Is Dead PROMINENT INDIANA DEMOCRAT His Health Has Been Declining for Several Years—The Funeral Occurs Wednesday. Alonzo Greene Smith, one of the best known members of the Indianapolis bar, died at 1 o’clock Monday morning at his home, 1606 north Pennsylvania street. His death was due to the hardening of the arteries of the heart. He had suffered from asthma and heart disease. He left a widow and two children, Turple Smith and Mrs. William Mitchell, who made their home with him. He was born September 6, 1848, on a farm in Meigs county, Ohio, and came to Indiana when nineteen years old, settling at North Vernon, Jennings county, where, in 1869, he was admitted to the bar. His education was obtained in the common schools of Ohio, supplmented with a partial course at Franklin College, Ohio. He entered actively into the practice of law and also into politics, soon coming to be recognized as a leader of the Democracy of his county. In 1884 he was elected to the Indiana state senate from the counties of Jackson and Jennings and served in the sessions of 1885 and 1887, acting as president in the latter session. At the session of 1889 he was elected secretary of the senate. In 1890 he was elected At-torney-General of Indiana and served from November 22 of that year to November 21, 1892, and in 1892 was re-elected for another term of two years. When first elected to the office of attorney-general he removed to Indianapolis, which, since that time, has continuously been his homee. As attorney- general, Mr. Smith was largely instrumental in the passage of the tax law which put a just taxation upon railroads, telegraph and telephone companies and other corporations that had before that time not borne their due share of taxation. The contest Mr. Smith through all the courts, including the supreme court of the United States, and was sustained. As a result of this law Indiana is now paying off its state debt. One of the most exciting episodes in his career occurred in 1887, when, by the resignation of Mahlon D. Manson, lieutenant-governor, he became president of the senate. It was at this session that David Turpie, caucus nominee of the Democratic members. pitted against Benjamin Harrison, was elected to the United States senate, a result made possible in large measure by the coolness and dogged obstinacity of Mr. Smith, whose doorejected from the senate the late Colonel Robertson, who had been elected lieutenant-governor in the off year of 1886, and who vainly attempted to preside over the destinies of the senate. The funeral will occur Wednesday. o Rochester numbers among her citizens an old gentleman who has harvetsed wheat in five different ways, that is, has lived long enough to see the invention of five different methods of harvesting. He first used the sickle, then learned to cradle. Next drove a self-rake and a self-binder and now he sees the improved harvester at work. The gentleman is uncle George Goss, and he thinks that there are but few men in the country who can equal this record.—Rochester Sentinel.

THEIR SECOND DAY The Commissioners Are Still on Duty MACADAM ROADS CONTINUED Ditch Ordered Constructed —Corporate Property Assessment—Filing Estimates. Henry Scherry was granted a license to retail intoxicating liquor at his place of business near the G. R. & I. on Monroe street. The reviewers on the Mattie E. Young petition for location and vacation of a highway, were given time until the next session to make th<kr report. The French township extension four macadam road was continued, as were also Tonnler’s extension one, Decatur and Bluffton number 7, Geneva, Ceylon and Wabash towship four, Monroe township six. The engineer’s report on the Fred L. Hudler ditch petition, including assessment • sheet, was approved and the ditch ordered constructed. The assessment of railroads and all corporate property has been received from the auditor of state. The railroads will pay on an assessment of sl,048,730, and the Fort Wayne and Springfield on a valuation of $42,460. The Citizens’ Telephone company is assessed ninety dollars a mile on over 300 miles of service lines. Thd officers are filing their estimate of office expenses for the year, and before the board adjourns they, too, will engage in making out their bundle of calandered expense. o COURTHOUSE NEWS Insanity Inquest Held at Geneva COUNTY INSTITUTE PROGRAM Superintendent Oplig e r Getting Ready for Institute Work, Beginning August 19. Drs. Graham and Mattox and Esq. Veley, of Geneva, held an insanity inquest and declared James O’Neal, of Hartford township of unsound mind. Application for his admission to the asylum at Richmond has been made. James E. Linton, George B. Mann and George W. Fravel, of Geneva, have been gratned a resident hunters’ license, and now have the legal right to kill game during the open season. County Superintendent Opliger has about completed his program for county institute, which opens in this city on Monday, August 19. The list of instructors include Prof. Latus D. Coffman, of Charleston, Illinois, Prof. W. Otto Miessner, of Connorsville, Indiana: Florence C. Fox, of Chicago; Dr. Robert A. Armstrong, of Morgantown, West Virginia; Miss Carrie Thomas of this city, and Prof. Withaus of Berne. The program will be one of the best ever given in Adams county, and the teachers are already anxiously awaiting the benefits of institute work. It will begin at the Methodist church at ten o'clock on Monday and will end on Friday evening following. o The Randall case, which w r as recently purchased by the Misses Mary. Margaret and Elizabeth Sullivan, will hereafter be operated upon an entirely changed plan. Not only will the case be open all night, but, in addition to serving short orders, special attention will be paid to serving 25-cent dinners and suppers every day. Arrangements have also been made for serving banquets and other private parties. Every effort will be made by the new proprietors to give the quickest, best and most satisfactory service in the city.—Journal-Gazette.

Manager France is highly incensed over the treatment accorded Van Wert team in the series of games at Richmond. It has been the policy of the locals to play clean, gentlemanly ball and this fact has become known to all the rowdies in the league, with the result that Van Wert has suffered the loss of many runs because the opposition kept the umpire intimidated. The order has been glvn to the Van Wert players that hereafter they are to meet the opposition with the kind of ball they desire to play. Van Wert prefers to win its games on merit alone, but it does not propose to be brazenly robbed in the future without at least putting up a little more opposition than might be expected of a dead horse. —Van Wert Bulletin. o Prof. H. F. Hart, of Indianapolis, formerly of Ft. Wayne, is in Decatur again for a few days. o IS TALKING LOUD Government Wants Payment on Loan Made AFTER JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION Banking Business is Expanding—Many Indiana People in Washington, Washington, August .—lt begins to look as if the Jamestown Exposition company will flunk in its payments to the government. Congress voted $1,000,000 to the Jamestown Exposition company and it was to be paid back in installment. The first payment was fixed at SIOO,OOO, due August 1. Up to the time of sending this dispatch not a cent of this money had shown up at the treasury and no arrangements had been made by the exposition compay as to when it would be paid This is the same loose style of doing business as has characterized the entire business proceedings of this exposition from the very beginning. Washington, August 6,—The banking business of the country is still expanding. During July forty more banking associations, with agrregate capital of $1,540,000, were chartered. A number of these were in Indiana. At the close of business July 31, there were inexistence 6,550 national banking association, with authorized capital stock of $902,405,775; circulation outstanding secured by bonds, $555,023,290; circulation secured by deposits of lawful money, $48,372,596, making the total amount outstanding $603,395,886. In the state of Indiana there have been organized 126 national banks since March 14, 1900, with a total capitalization of $7,700,000. Indiana had a total of 219 national banks in operation on May 20, 1907, with $23,150,000 capital paid in. Washington, August 6.—Elam H. Neal, collector of internal revenue at Indianapolis, and J. Wood Wilson, a manufacturer and banker, of Marion, were here. They have traveled over 2,000 miles in an auto in the last three weeks and are going to Jamestown and on South from here. They were accompanied by Crawford Fairbanks, of Terre Haute, as far as Allenhurst, N. Y. o_ HE WAS SERIOUSLY OFFENDED Harvey Smith Not Altogether at Fault —Paid Fine. After hearing Harvey Smith’s side of the controversyreported Saturday,in which a Syrian peddler offended him, he is not so much to blame for exercising his mighty right. He felt called upon to resent an offense, and he did the job completely and well, as Harve usually does. He paid the fine and costs assessed in Esq. Stone’s court, and had moneye left. o A part of the contents of the trunk owned bft- Mr's. Al Oppenheim, which was broken into and ransacked at the Clover Leaf station last Wednesday night, Bas been found in the Fetters hoop mill yards. Two skirts and a waist were found. Neither are soiled. Neither article was very valuable, and it is presumed that the thief 'or thieves who broke into the trunk, after making a survey of the loot, decided that the three articles found in the Fetters mill were not wanted. No trace has been found of any of the remainder of the contents of the trunk, and the theft remains a complete mystery.—Bluffton. News.

Price Two Cents

BANK ELECTION Old Board and Officers Again Chosen OLD ADAMS CO. BANK ELECTION Reports Show that Prosperity Reigns at this Well Known Banking House. There Was not much excitement around the polls at the Old Adams County Bank election, and when the polls closed at two o’clock it was a cinch that no opposition was made to the old board of directrs. It so proved to be true. They were unanimously chosen to conduct for another year, the business of this bank. The old board as re-elected are W. J. Vesey, John Niblick, E. X. Ehinger, C. S. Niblick, Henry Hite, M. Kirsch and J. S. Bowers. Soon after .the election of directors was concluded. the board went into executive session and elected the same officers as last year, C. S. Niblick, president; M. Kirsch, first vice-president; John Niblick, second vice-president; E. X. Ehinger, cashier and Frank Wemhoff assistant cashier. Every officer is a solid substantial business man, and recognized as such by every one 12* Decatur and many miles around Decatur as well. The reports made for this annual meeting show that the past year has been the most prosperous of the bank’s history. The usual dividend, together with reserve funds, were declared, and every one who holds a piece of the stock are apparently pleased with everything connected with the affairs of the Old Adams County Bank. o— John Smith, of Des Moines, lowa, is in the city visiting with his nephew Samuel Doak. Mr. Smith was captain of company F, 25th regiment, from that place and had three years service in the army. GOES TO LAGRANGE James 0. Ball to Engage in Business There WILL OPEN A RACKET STORE He Has Lived Here Many Years, Being Engaged in Furniture and Undertaking. Mr. James O. Ball, who quite recently disposed of his interest in the furniture store then belonging to the firm of Ball, Meyer and Presdorf, to Carl Moses, has completed arrangements prepartory to opening a racket store at Lagrange, Indiana. Mr. Ball has been in this city for many years, and was a charter member of the firm that borne into existence the furniture and undertaking establishment that he has just retired from, he being the only one of the initial proprietors of this concern that has been interested in it until the time of his retirement. Mr. Ball is an undertaker of ability, and is possessed of business qualifications that will undoubtedly bring success to him in this business venture. The store that will be conducted by him at Lagrange will be the only store of its kind in that city, and this fact alone assures abundant success for the proprietor. Everything will be in readiness to open the store by the first of next month and the many Decatur friends of Mr. Ball wish for him much success in this undertaking. o— A slight error was made in MonJay's issue in stating that Enos Lord who suffered the loss by fire Saturday night carried insurance; this not being the case, as he carried no insurance whatever. Mr. Lord asked us to correct this statemnt as several people have already extended him some courtesies and he does not want them to think that he is accepting any assistance under false pretences. Mr. Lord has moved into the house just north of the Murray hotel, where he will stay until he can secure other quarters. o Mose Krohn made a business trip to Portland this morning.