Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1883 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

An affray between Jacob Block and Eli Frank, rival clothing merchants of Rushville, Ind., resulted in the death of Frank and the mortal wounding of Blcok. The Citizens’Association of Chicago—a self-constituted organization of leading citizens, that exercises a fatherly guardianship overt he city and looks after the welfare of the inhabitants —is again prodding up the theatrical managers cf that city, with a view of lessening the danger to audiences in case of fire. With one exception all the theatei g in Chicago are pronounced faulty in onerhspect or another, and some of them are veritable fire-traps. McVicker’s theater, which is built upon a plan that ought to be forced by law upan all builders of houses of amusement —that is, with a -wide alley upon both sides — has tome fifteen separate exits, and is so admirab’e in construction that the committee pla?es it at the head of all as the best buildng in the city to afford facilities for the safe dispersion of an audience. No light has, up to this writing, been thrown on the massacre at Jackson, Mich., which bids fair to pass into history as one or the great criminal mysteries of the age. It is pretty well settled that the robbers got nosuch sum of money ($50,000 or thereabouts) as was at first reported, as Crouch had very little cash in the house. It is probable that the only plunder they secured was the few hundred dollars which Polley, the bloviating visitor, exhibited in saloons and among low company, previous to stopping at Crouch’s, and which piece of foolishness brought about his own death as well as that of his host and the entire family. An examination Of the private papers and accounts of the murdered millionaire farmer reveals the fact that some title deeds and other important documents are missing, and there is a lively fight in prospect between the heirs of the dead man. A passenger on a Cincinnati street car, at a late hour of the night, got into an altercation with the conductor and driver, and shot them both. The driver is dead, but the conductor may recover. There were no witnesses of the tragedy. The passenger claims that he acted in self-defense. Prof. J. H. Tice, the weather prophet, died suddenly at his home in St. Louis. The wife of E. T. Johnson, a Special Pension Examiner for the district of East Tennessee, killed herself with a revolver in Indianapolis because her husband remained out all night. She was a woman of rare beauty and high culture, but is known to have been Insane. Four burglars refused to surrender to Marshal Suiter at Shelby, Ohio, and fired at him, wounding him severely. He shot one of the robbers dead, however. Then the other three started off, pursued by almost all the male citizens of the place. One fugitive turned and shot a pursuer dead, but the murderer was later captured and taken to Shelby. Another member Of the gang, after forcing people to give up their rigs, and making a desperate attempt to escape, met with a collision on the road, was thrown under a wqgon, and was riddled with the bullets of his pursuers before he could arise. The fourth robber was captured at Plymouth. The Atlantic and Pacific road has completed arrangements with English, capitalists for the sale of two tracts of land, each containing 1,000,000 acres, for $1,500,000 cash.