Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

The recent flood in Southern Illinois and Central and Southern Indiana was a notable one. Great tracts of country were inundated, fences and other farm property were destroyed or seriously damaged, numerous coal mines were flooded, many miles of railway track and numberless ' bridges were swept away and a good deal of live stock drowned. The rainfall was unprecedented, amounting to from four to six inches in thirtyStx houA. The loss will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. A horrible quadruple murder was perpetrated in a farm house seven miles from Jackson, Mich. JacobD. Crouch, his daughter, son-in-law, and a stranger from Pennsylvania named Polley, were murdered in their beds while asleep. They were all shot by a revolver of the same caliber, in precisely the same manner, each bullet entering the victim just behind the ear. They had evidently been chloroformed before receiving the fatal shots. Tracks showed that the house had been guarded outside while the deadly work was going on inside. Two servants who slept up-stairs heard the robbers, but were afraid to make a noise. Polley, the stranger, had shown considerable money before going to Crouch’s house, and stated that he was going to purchase fine cattle. Crouch is said to have had over $50,000 in currency in the house, all of which was secured by the murderers. Crouch was one of the wealthiest farmers in Michigan. The alleged Sibley murder, at Marshall, Mich., which created quite a sensation, turns out to have been a case of suicide. Independence (Mo.) telegram: “Frank James is reported to be dying of consumption. A visit to him disclosed the fact that he is losing flesh rapidly. He says that he will die before the courts reach a settlement of the case. He is also penniless, and his cell is no longer richly furnished and upholstered, as it was a year ago.” Ellen Beardsley Reed, wife of Chas. H. Reed, who was the attorney of the assassin Guiteau, has filed a petition for divorce in the Superior court at Chicago. Horace Allen, his brother, and a servant were bound and gagged in their residence, at Newton Falls, Ohio, by masked burglars, who carried away $70,000 worth of property. Zora Burns’ father went to Lincoln, 111., last week, because a so-called clairvoyant had sent him word that she could disclose the secret place of the dead girl’s valise and hat. The seeress, Mme. de Silver, utterly failed to get up even a plausible yarn. Walter S. Haines, a Chicago chemist, reports himself unable to discover traces of narcotic drugs in the liver of the murdered Zora Burns. A dispatch from Lincoln, 111., says: “Since Carpenter was released; on bail expectation has been directed to the report of the Chicago chemist making an analysis of the internal organs of the late Zora Burns, The hope of discoveries from that quarter has proved delusive. Had the report been to the effect that narcotics were used, much of the suspicion would have been directed in another channel. But, asthe case now stands, public opinion holds that Carpenter is under a still darker cloud. Since his release from jail he has said that he is as innocent as a babe unborn, but his refusal to p*ove this by testimony or even a statement,. creates sentiment against him.” Sarah Althea Hill, the alleged Mrs. Sharon, has been indicted for conspiracy and forgery by a San Francisco grand jury. William Neilson, her attorney, has been indicted as a co-conspirator for the same offenses. Lorenzo Woods, son of Judge Woods, renomination for that office.. The first object to be attained by this scheme is the securing

of the Dixon, (I1L), Judicial district, committed suicide at Albuquerque, by cutting his throat. He formerly traveled for the hardware house of Duncan, Wyeth ft Co., Kansas City, and Hibbard, Spencer ft Co., Chicago. An easi-bound train on the Southern Pacific was ditched thirteen miles east of Doming, N. M., by five masked men. The engineer, T. C. Webster, was killed, and the express messenger was robbed of from S6OO to SI,OOO. The passengers, with the exception of a man who interfered with the robbers, were not molested.