Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1883 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

The mother of Senator Sabin, of Minnesota, died of heart disease at Stillwater. At a farm-house near Independence, Mo., Henry G. McGee killed his wife and daughter with a shotgun, and then destx-oyed himself by a dose of morphine. The preliminary examination of Orrin A. Carpenter, fog the murder of Zora Burns, has been drawing its slow length along during the past week at Lincoln, 111., before Judge Lacey. Little has been added to what was developed at the Coroner's inquest, the testimony elicited being about the same as that given before the Coroner. While Mrs. Dukes was givjng her testimony, the father of the murdered girl was observed standing beside the prisoner, and trembling violently. The Sheriff searched him, but found no weapons, and the old man declared that he had no thoughts of assassination. A brother of the murdered girt appeared on the scene, and swore that he had received a letter from Zora announcing that the object of her visit to Lincoln on the 14th of October was to have an operation performed on her throat. The defense summoned witnesses to impeach the character and veracity of Mrs. Rebecca J. Carpenter (no relation of the accused) the woman who testified that she took Zora’s letters from her trunk and read them, and detailed the contents of one to Carpenter at Lincoln, in which Zora urged him to come over to Decatur and have some fun. A number of the Carpenter woman’s neighbors testified they would not believe her on bath. The prosecution offset this swearing by the testimony of an equal number of the woman’s neighbors that her reputation for veracity was good. There was some talk of lynching Carpenter during the progress of the investigation, but they were only the utterances of hot-headed and irresponsible parties. Dr. A N; Miller, of Lincoln, went to St. Elmo, and, accompanied by a Justice of the Peace, exhumed the body of Zora Burns. The brains, liver, kidneys and intestines were removed and hermetically sealed in cans. They were taken to Chicago, where the parts will be examined by a chemist at Rush Medical college. It is the Doctor’s opinion that O. A. Carpenter is guilty of tfie murder, and he thlnkß the coming examination will substantiate the theory of abortion. Mr. Dion Boucicault, the greatest of Irish comedians, has been delighting large audiences at McVioker’s theater, Chicago, this week, in his familiar role of Conn, the Shanghraun. The local press is profuse in its praise of the work of the great artist. The Inter Ocean , says: “Mr. Boucicault is not only an effective actor, but he is a most conscientious artist, and the delineation of character with him means a perfect revelation, the silent effects of illustration being as scrupulously looked after as the more vital incidents of action in association with speech. The occasion that restores to our consideration such acting is one to be most interestingly regarded.” This week “The Colleen Bawn” will be presented. The roads running to the Pacific coast have abandoned the idea of making common rates and have substituted a division of territory, whereby Oregon business is assigned to the Northern Pacific and San Francisco to the Central Pacific, thus securing to each road exclusive rights in its own section, and enabling it to absolutely control lines of transportation between the Pacific and Atlantic. In a Chicago court, the other day, it was shown that an investor had gone into the show business, and that his partner, the actor, had used the capital of the enterprise to get himself a divorce. The second act in the Zora Burns tragedy at Lincoln, 111., was ended lasi week, and resulted in the third, material victory for the defendant in the case—the first being Prof. Wheeier’s report of the examination of the lines and whip, the second the verdict of the Coroner’s jury that did not hold him, and the third the decision of Judge Lacy that he be admitted to bail, the amount of which was fixed at SIO,OOO and was promptly furnished. The decision gives general satisfaction, and in a measure appeases the want of numerous individuals thirsty for vengeance In the conviction of some one, though it is conceded there is by no means a strong case, or one that should receive the attention of the grand jury in the absence of further proof. Judge Lacey, says a Lincoln dispatch, has given the greatest satisfaction to prosecution, defense and the people for his conduct on the bench and rulings In the case, giving the widest latitude to the evidence submitted for the discovering of the guilty party. At the conclusion of the argument and amid almost breathless silence the court read from manuscript his decision in the case and at the conclusion of which the friends of Carpenter crowded around him to congratulate him upon the very favorable answer to the charge, against him. The father of the murdered girl made an attemt to do violence to the accused, but was seized by officers. The prisoner was immediately drivpn to his home, and the meeting with his family after his three weeks’ confinement is said to have been a most affecting scene. Efforts are now being made to trace out the abortionist at whose hands Zora Burns met her death. A dispatch from Madison, Wis., says the men wounded by the State-house disaster are progressing favorably, and that no more deaths are likely to result. Five lives were lost by the accident, and the Coroner has been investigating the matter with a view of ascertaining who is to blame. The Building Commissioners

secured the services of AC. Nash, a prominent Cincinnati architect, and Godfrey Ludwig, Superintendent of Public Buildings of Cincinnati. They went to Madison, and last Monday began an expert examination of the ruins. Other experts were also summoned to testify. The testimony goes to show many serious defects in construction. At Grand Forks, Dakota, C. S. Uline and eleven other men were held in SIO,OOO bail on an ipdictment for the murder of Charles and Frederick Ward, of Chicago, last April. Assignments have made by Joseph Bursinger, a brewerof Watertown, Wis., with liabilities of $75,000 or more; by Adolph Hoeber, a liquor dealer of St. Louis, who owes $23,000; by Frank A. Fletoher, dealer in furnishing goofis, Chicago, with liabilities of $68,698; by Newton Jackson, builder and lumber dealer at South Bend, Ind., with assets of SIOO,OOO, and liabilities amounting to $90,000; by Kellogg, Sanger & Co., lumber dealers, of Kalamazoo, Mich., whose debts aggregate $150,000; and by S. P. Swartz, lumber dealer, Grand Rapids, Mich,, with $45,000 liabilities. A frightful smash-up occurred on the Panhandle road near Newark, Ohio. A Panhandle freight had taken the siding, and the brakeman left the switch standing open. The Baltttnore and Ohio passenger ran into the freight, making a fearful wreck. The engineer and fireman of the passenger train were instantly killed, and two others received injuries from which they will die. Arthur Williams, editor and proprietor of the Logansport (Ind.) Advertiser, was shot on the streets of that city by George West, whom he had accused of being too intimate with Mrs. Williams. Later accounts of the cyclone at Springfield, Mo., say four more persons have died from the effects of their injuries—Mrs. Pennington, Jeff Edmonson, William Ilger and the infant son of John Cliampieux. This makes eleven deaths in all, and two others are not expected to live. During the year 875,000 barrels of malt liquors were made in Cincinnati, Covington and Newport. This would be 555 glasses per annum for every person in the three cities. For violation of the statute against public sparring, Sullivan and Slade were arrested in St. Louis, although Gov. Crittenden was a spectator. Aggie Hill, Senator Sharon’s alleged wife, produced her marriage contract in court at San Francisco, and when it was shown to Sharon he grew so violent In denouncing it as a forgery that he was ordered out of court. The new wing of the Capitol at Madison, Wis., suddenly gave way the other day, the iron columns being broken like glass. Of forty men at work in the building, four were killed and twenty-one injured, four of them beyond the hope of recovery. The structure was 80x100 feet. The side walls, built of cut stone, are still standing. It is evident that the inner walls, constructed of brick, were not strong enough to support the roof.