Daily Democrat, Volume 1, Number 62, Decatur, Adams County, 23 March 1903 — Page 1

VOLUME 1

AN EXPLOSION. Six Men Killed in Mine at /Athens. Mrs. Florence Maybrick Convicted of Murder of Iter Husband to be Released. Springflfleld, 111.. March 23.—A terrific gas explosion in a coal mine at Athens, Merrard county, occurred this morning. Six miners were killed, John Rogers, Frank Tuspe, S. Goodereff, James Patrick, August Noel and David Myers. London England. March 23.—Mrs. Florence Maybrick, an American woman who was convicted in Liverpi xd in 1889 on a charge of killing her husband, James Maybrick, with arsenic and whose sentence of death was cummnted to servitude for life, will be releasfs'd in IMO 4 This nn nouncement came from the Btritish home office. NO MILITIA. Possibilities for a Company in This City Are Cut Down. That a company ot militia will te* prgnaized in this city cannot !>■ placed on a certain Ixisis. John Lenhart is in receipt of a letter from Adjutant General McKee, which Kates that it is very improlmble that a Fourth regiment could >»■ "riraniz hl in Indiana. If such is the ease. Decatur could not lx* taken into the state national guard, as it could not get in any other regiment, and it would be of no use to get a eonijxiny together, which could easily lie Jone, as almost a sufficient ntiml>r had already signed t ie m.-mlx r ship papers. Yet as unpropitoils a s conditions may lie, at the present tune, it is possible for other cities in this distrct to organize and a Mmpany and a fourth regimen: th;.be made up. EXCURSION SEASON. The Time Aoproaches for Sundav Trips. The railroads are already making ■•reparations for a big excursion ■msiness this eominng summer The ■lrie wijl continue their I’ilmiibiis. ■ •bio. and Chicago excnr«i"ns. the 9B'l<>ver Leaf expects to carry thou Munds of people to Toledound return. Mud the Grand Rapids A- Indiana c\ ■xis- an unpreeedentel business those pleasun* Ix'iit, forth ■ Mlome City and northern Michigan Mi-sorts offer very alluring attrac ■ions. Thus the would lx* Decatur Mxcursionists are confronted with places where he can spend ■ day, either in an outing orin sight Meeing. The advantages thus offer Md are many and there are many Meople who a pt these advantageMud the excursions are very popular M<>r they are cheap. SURPRISED. Mrs George Houser of North Filth ■re,.(. was pleasantly surprised >at f lay evening by a nunilx r of her Blends. The occasion was planned her daughter, Mrs Lyman, who prearranged the happy and event in celebration ot her birthday anniversary A course of refreshments nerved and the affair "*as pas off with agayity of pleasure and B>y*

The Daily Democrat.

POSTPONED. School Comedy lo be Given Later. The well known comedy, "Mr. Bob," which was to have been given at the opera house April Ist, has been postixmed and will occur some time the latter part of April instead of April Ist. The play is an exceptionally good one and will be an interesting event. The exactdate will be announce d within a few days and as soon as definitely decided upon. ANTI-SALOON Meetings Held by the League Yesterday. State Officers Speak to Lart>e Audiences in Various Churches. Mr. Or bison, attorney for the anti-saloon league of the state of Indiana, and Mr. Tuft, field secretary of the same organization, were in this city Sunday and spoke before several different audiences during the day. Mr. Orbison addressed the Evanhgelical , Presbyterian and Baptist congregations at the Baptist church in the morning and spike at the Evangelical church in the evening. Mr. Tufts presided at the morning assembly at the Methodist church to the membersof the Metho- . dist. United Brethren and Christian churches and addressed a number of pi-ople during the evening services at theU. B. church Both gentlemen talked at a general meeting which was held at the M. E. house of worship in the afternoon, and i convinceil their hearers as being men of ability who were earnestly working for the cause which they seek to advocate. COURT AFFAIRS. Business Transacted This Morning. Routine of court business was taken ,up this mornng. Judge Erwin and Judge Branyan taking their turn at transacting business. As shown i < in the docket entries were as follows: State of Indiana vs Mabel Evans, motion for new trial argued. Samantha E. Young vs. Gabriel Steinlierger et al, change of venue granted to Jay county. Lemuel B. Stevens vs Archie P. Hardison etal separate demurrers tiled by each defendant. Robert M Hunt vs. Walter A. and Amanda Hunt, answer fill'd by Amanda Hunt and sustained. Margaret Scherry vs. Rosa Werling et al, sale reported and confirmed, plaintiff’s attorney allowed >25 and commssioner allowed I? 10. In proliate court Grace M. Libey, admnistratrix ot the Llijjah A. Lllx*y estate filed final report which was approved. Jefferson Dunliar, administrator of estate of Lucian Dunliar, tihal final report and was discharged. James O. Ball, administrator of estate of John A. Fetzer, filial report of sale of personal protierty and same was approved. OFF FOR THE SOUTH. Dave Andrews is in rceceipt of information from Lima, Ohio, to the effect that Tom Railing has left for Texas, where he will play Ixise tall in the Southern league during the .aiming season Tom was signal for the Dallas. Texas, team last fall, and will certainly be a winner for the management of that team. Os course his connection with that p*ntn lias not been hoop bound, but it is almost positive tliat the southerners will place the proper value on his ability as a fast twirler and all around bm* ball player and secure him withh a big. fat salary.

DECATUR, INDIANA, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 23, 1903

IS IT MURDER? Young Man Killed at Bluffton. Lifeless and Manned Body of Lou Godfrey Found on L. E. & W. Tracks. Lou Godfrey, a well known citizen of Bluffton, was killed Saturday night and the death is surrounded by a mystery in fact the supposition is that a foul murder was committed. The b<xly was found lying on the Lake Erie & Western tracks early Sunday morning by a man named was walking from Ossian to Bluffton. When about a mile and a half from town he stumbled over something “and strikinga match his jteyes beheld a ghastly sight,. horribly mangled, both legs being cut off the head nearly severed and the face crushed almost beyond recognition. The Ixxly was taken to Bluffton and an investigation began 'at once. The peculiar part of the ! affair is that a pool of blood was found a half square from the spot where the body was lying and a trail seemed to indicate that Godfrey hml been murdered and then thrown on the track. He was struck by the passenger train which runs through Bluffton at 9:30. Godfrey and his brother drove to Murray Saturday and Lou became intoxicated and quarreled with his brother, finally refusing to ride with him. He started to walk home and his death resulted. He was about thirtyfive years old. A NEW ORDER. Porters Will Lose Their Jobs if They Take Tips. The executive officials of the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, it is reported, will adopt measures to diminish the tip-giving nuisance jon their lines. It was announced I yesterday that train porters will no I longer be allowed to perform such acts as the turning of seats and like services for the passengers in order to receive tips in return. The porters who have seat keys have been notified to return them and the yardmasters notified not to give keys to porters or to other employes except brakemen. The officials of !the lines say that the tip giving and tip-receiving practice is a nuis a nee, and a growing nuisance at that. Many of the ocffiials are in favor of making a rule to discharge any employe who receives a tip while in the service. JUDGE SELECTED. Harry Berneather will Hear the Morgan Case. Judge Branyan of Huntington, was a visitor in court here today and informed a Dennx*rat reporter thu* the contempt case which luis made their court famous during the past month, lias not been set but will probacy come up within a month. The case is one to disbar Attorney Morgan, a young man whom it is alleged made false affidavits against Judge Branyan in an effort toman date him to rule on ti certain ease. Judges Paulis, Adair and Monks were asked to try tile ease but refused, the jpb lx*ing finally accepted by Judge Hurry Berneather of Rochester. Judge Branyan says he has been greatly misused by a few members of the Huntington county btr.

IN THE RACE. Senator Kittinger Wants to be Congressman From the Eighth District. Senator W. A. Kittinger of Anderson, says it is unfair to him in the race he proposes to make for the reI publican nomination for congress in the eighth district to say he is a candidate in the interests of Conngressman Cromer. Senator “ Kittinger declared he is a candidate in earnest and that he has no intentino of acting to help out any candidate. “I can not understand how the story that lam working in the interests of Cromer started,” he explained. “I have never given any one au- | thority to say such a thing and I I cannot see how ny actions should i have given any one this impression. I believe I tried a lawsuit once with I Cromer, but this is all the connection I have ever had with him exI cept th" ordinary life. lam in this race for myself and no i one else and I do not like to have it said that I am being’Jused £as the i tool of another. I would have been a candidate for the nomination last I year but they started this story on me and I did not think it right to give any one the right to believe ! such stuff, and so I stayed out of j the fight. T intend to he a candidate j this time in earnest, however, and I I believe I will’liave the undivided i support of Madison county. I be- | lieve, and looking at the situation now I believel will have a gixxl show of sucaess before the coming con- . vention. JOINS CIRCUS. Will Barkley Will Soon Be a Warrior Bold. Will Barkley is at home for a few . days visit before leaving for an all I summer’s tour of the United States with the big Walter L. Main’s circus which aggregation he will join at Geneva, Ohio, April 6th. He has closed a contract with this company • as a member of the ex-Boer soldiers : brigade. They will give a fancy i cavalry drill in the parade and will also feature in the big show. The turn is under the management of a j gentleman with whom Will and Ralph Knoff went to Africa at the I time they enlisted. Ralph has also ; received an offer to join the show : but has not yet given his answer. PHYTHIANISM BOOMING The Order Throughout the State Having a Phenominal Boom. Charels A. Tindall, Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, i says: "I believe that no two months . in the history of the order in Indiana have ever had as large an increase in membership as has lx*en experienced during the post sixty days. Almost every lodge that I liuiu heard reports from a large class of applicants, the number generally ranging from five to six to thirty, and several of the lodges have reporteed a larger numtier than that —the lodge at Jamestown has reports! an increase since the first of January of thirty-seven members; the one at Loogootee, fifty; the one at Goshen, more than one hundred. The ones at Elwtxxl, Warren, Decatur, Frankfort, Shelbyville, and others Ido not recall to memory, about thirty each, and quite a numlier of others almost as many. 1 have no rejxirt from a very large majority of the lodges, hut if those that have not reported show anything like the increase of those who have reported, the increase for this term will Ixi something phenom inal." In addition to the increase of memlx‘rs added to the order the increase in members of the Uniform Rank and the Endowment Rank is equally gratifying.

ROBBED. Douglass Dudgeon and Pat Bums Touched. Claim to Have Been Relieved of Their Cash By Young Men in This City. Douglass Dudgeon has been in town since Saturday and has been causing a little disturbance in police circles. He lias lx*en drinking heavily and Saturday evening hunted up Marshal Cordua and insisted that he had Ixien roblx*d. He accused Curt Johnson, the balloonist, of having touched him of his roll of thirty-five dollars and Curt was soon taken in custody by the officers. He denied any knowedge of the affair and a thorough search of his person failed to disclose any proof as he had only a small amount of change. He was given his liberty without further ceremony. Douglass still insists he was robbed though the general belief seems to be that, he spent his money or lost it. Pat Burns an old ex-soldier and ' well known character alxiut here, is at Marion and worried considerable. For a year he has been an inmate !at the county infirmary and has I been saving his pension money to I take him to the soldier’s home at ; Marion. He had by giving his cash to Mrs. Graber, managed to accumulate about twenty dollars. He secured the necessary papers and these i with his money and a few other : valuables were placed in a grip and he left here Friday evening. When he got to Marion the grip, papers, money and all his worldly pissessions were gone. He had been roblx*d and the investigation has since lieen going on, and it is hinted that i a well known young man of this city ! may be charged with the crime. FACTS ABOUT PINS. — Great Advance in This Industry Recently. Pins cost a trifle now. while once they were very ’expensive. In 1900 the people of the United States used sixty-six million gross of common < pins, which is equal to nine billion live hundred million pins, or an average of alxiut one hundred and twenty-siz pins to every man, woman and child in the country. This is the highest average reached anywhere in the use of pins. Ten years ago we used only about seven-ty-two pins each. The total numlier of pins manufactured in the Unibxl I States during 1900, the census year, was sixty -eight million eight hundred and eighty-nine thousand two hundnxl and sixty gro.ss., There are forty-three factories in all, with two thousand three hundred and fifty-three employes. The business has grown rapidly during the last twenty years, for although there were forty factories in isso, they produced only half as the capital and only one thousand and seventyseven hands. A MISTAKE. Telegram Saturday Evening Was Misleading. A telegram was received in this city Saturday evening, asking that Fred Miller be sent home nt once as his little daughter was dead. It. was at first believed to be Gixirgia the eight year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fnxl Miller, who are now living at Montjx’lier, but an invest! gation provixl that the message had ooine from Huntington and was meant for a Fnxl Miller who works along the Chicago A: Erie railway.

NUMBER 62

OIL NEWS. The Greatest Year Ever Known Approaching. A special from Portland says: As soon as the weather is such that out-of-door work can lie carried on i and vthe road are again out of the impossible state there will le wonderful activity in the Indiana oil field. During the winter months fully 120,000 acres were leased in Adams and Jay countiies alone, and the same is true of nearly every other county where oil has been discovered. While some of the leases are in the hands'of brokers, many others are held by operators who ard active. New capital is constantly coming in. and the total investment in Indiana will reach : figures which would amaze ordinary individuals, equipment, value of ; leases, pumping stations, pipe lines, ; telegraph and telephone lines and ' all things being considered. The Crescent Oil company is preparing :to put its investment of a million dollars to good use in the Montpelier field, and in the vicinity of Warren an extension of the field is not at all unexjiected. The wells recently drilled in Wabash township, this county, are considered by many i practical menus being the forerunner of a connecting link lx*tween the great oil fields of Indiana and Ohio. i Should this prove true, it will mean i a field running from the lianks of Lake Erie in Ohio, to Bird’s Eye in Indiana, a distance of fully 300 niilies. That there is plenty of gas is evident by the recent strikes of "shale." Both east and west of here wells with an enormous pressure for a few days have been found .and between Bryant and New Corydon a flow of shale gas was struck Iso powerful us to force the easing forty fiH*t above the top of the derrick. The workmen got away ; from the scene as fast as they could, ; fearful for their lives and several ’ days elapsed before work could lx* , resumed again. Some heavy shots have been made in Wells in tinnorth part of the county within the last few days, and nearly all of them came in for fair producers. The I Ohio Oil company, with two wells, I the Colonel Drake Oil company, the I Shepherd Oil company, the Shepherd Oil company and the Fulton Oil company are all pushing developments actively. NO BOSSES. Ohio Democratic Editors Propose to Follow No False Bosses. The < )hio Democratic Editorial association met at Columbus Saturday to outline plans for conducting a newspaper campaign in the interests of demix-racy. For a time the i real puiqxise of the meeting were overlixiked liecausc of the desire of many of the members to take advantage of the opportunity to"s]x*ak out in meeting.” The question of “ bosses and lx issism” was very thoroughly tint slu d out, and it was the ) unanimous opinion of the editors I that the party would have to sidestepjthe men who were using it as a tool lor ]x*rsonal aggrandizement. CONGRESSIONAFKiRn Congressman Robinson to Join W. R. Hearst on a Territorial Trip. Congressman Robison has lx*en invited by W. R. Hearst.’, of the Chicago American, to uccompuny a ]uirt,y of twenty-fl ve congressmen on a special train making a tour of the territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma in April for the purpose of giving the m<*mlx*rs an op. portunity to see for themselves whether the territories should lx* given stutehixxl, The train will leave Chicago April 9.