Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1883 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

A terrible tragedy was enacted at Dwight, 111 Andrew White, a wealthy and well-known farmer, butchered in coU| blood his wife and two children, and then blew his own brains out A number of years ago Andrew White was one of the most prominent property-holders of Chicago, and made for himself an immense fortune, with which he retired to a stock-farm near Dwight, where he has lived most of the time since. His steady attention to business and the consequent mental c train affected his mind to such an extent that he bad to be carefully watched by his family. He grew steadily wcjbe and worse, until his s'range freaks were sb unbearable that he had to be rent, tea private asylum. Here he acquired the strange and fatal hallucination that Ms; imprisonment was due to a dbsird dnthe part of his wife and children to get hold of his fortune and spend it? Recently, he managed to secure his release, through the carelessness of his custodians, and speedily, made his way home. Beaching the house in' the middle of the night, he watched till morning, when he advanced to the front stoop and called out to his wife to come down and welccme hm. The family, consisting of the wife and two children, aged 10 and 18 years, rushed at once towards the porch, rejoiced to hear the familiar voice, and supposing that the husband and father had been released from the asylum in the possession of his faculties, He allowed each member of the family to caress him, and a moment after, without the least agitation, drew from his pocket the revolver, and, looking his wife in the face, said: “You want my money, my fortune, damn you. Take that!” and he sent a bullet crashing through her brain, and she fell dead on the porch, as he turned and buried bullets in the brains of his boy and girl When he had done this he laid down the revolver and gazed upon the fearful deed he had perpetrate J. For a moment the horror of the act seemed to restore his reasoru and with a desperate cry he fell upon the corpse of his wife, kissing It and weeping over it His hallucination returning however, he dragged the bpdies-of the dead into the dining-room and laid them out oh the table, the wife first, the boy next, and the girl last He then fired a shot into his own brain. Four men were killed and several injured by the fall of a large derrick, near Lemont, 111. A stone weighing three tons was being placed on a canal boat, and one of the guy-ropes gave way. The machine fell to one side. No noise attended the breaking of the rope, and nothing was known to be wrong. In consequence of this the men were unable to make their escape. John Cash, Andrew Hanson, John Coleman and Thomas Ward were crushed under the heavy timbers, and when taken out were dead. John Duffy and LE. Ward were fatally wounded. Several others were thrown to the ground and stunned, but were not seriously hurt. The new building of the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, was struck by lightning and consumed by fire. The loss is estimated at 9200,000.