Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1884 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

No less than 1,102 persons met with an untimely end in Berlin during the past year, 414 of whom committed suicide. Of this last-named figure 182 died by hanging, 45 by shooting, 105 by drowning and 82 by poisoning themselves. ? A new journal, called the Honeymoon, has appeared at Brussels. The editor announces that he has secured the co-operation of a doctor of law and of an experienced genealogist. The business of this last functionary will be to find illustrious ancestors for those who thiiik their prospects of marriage will be thereby improved. fe By the tearing down of an old house in Charlotte, N. C., a letter written twenty-five years ago, and describing the tender emotions of a citizen of Charlotte on the eve of his wedding, has been found. The old man had quite forgotten the letter, and now wonders how he could ever have been guilty of such sublime nonsense.

Col. Preston Johnston, a son of den. Albert Sidney Johnston, is reported by the Rev. Dr. Henry M. Field as saying of the battle of Shiloh: ■“When my father was shot, and fell from his horse, he had gained a great victory; and if he had not been killed at that critical moment, in two hours more he would have captured Gen. -Grant and his whole army. It has just been discovered, so it ®eems, that there are no earthworms in the soil of Manitoba. This must be a course of profound satisfaction to Manitoba birds, as they will not have to get up so early in the morning in order to prevent the other bird from getting the worm. But then it is doubtful if a bird loves to lie in bed in the morning as much as mankind do. Thus are the most joyful discoveries tempered by mature reflection.

Olive Logan writes that Mrs. Victoria Woodhull is married to John Randolph Martin, a rich London banker, “and any fine day you can see the pleased amiable face of the now Mrs. Martin side by side with that of her faithful sister, Tennie C. Claflin, as they sit together in their comfortablo ■carriage and roll toward their splendid residence in Courtfield Gardens over ■the smooth avenues of lovely Hyde Park.” William King, a wealthy London merchant, struck a new kink in the matter of will-making which is calculated to work the opposite effect of ordinary will's, and at the same time give great encouragement to the study of a profession that never knows too much. He willed SI,OOO to his physician, with •the proviso that the sum should be doubled every year that the testator -should be kept alive. He lived ten years. The paradise of wheelmen, as the users of bicycles and tricycles call •themselves, is Washington, the streets of no other city affording such favoral)le conditions for the wheel. Ladies ®re beginning to use the tricycle, and a lady on one of these vehicles accompanied by a gentleman on a bicycle, promises to be a common sight. The number of bicycles in the United States is estimated at 40,000, and there are two or three associations of wheelmen.

Woman suffrage is being agitated in •Great Britain. The ladies have now "raised the war-cry, “No taxation without representation,” and have boldly •declared ’that they would steadily refuse to pay any taxes until their sex is •enfranchised, and are organizing societies of female taxpayers to resist, by •every device known to the law, the collection of taxes by foitfeiture and sale. The leader of the agitation in the Commons is Mr. William Woodall, member tor Stoke-on-Trent.

Mb. Emeby Storrs, of Chicago, was •dining in London, at Minister Lowell’s, «nd near him sat the Duke of Argyll, who during the conversation expressed surprise that Chicago should have treated Oscar Wilde—“a man whom we think nothing of, if we think of him at 4111” —so well. “ It’s all a mistake, j-our Grace,” replied Mr. Storrs; “we had nothing to do with Wilde in Chi•cago.” “But I certainly read in the New York and Boston papers long accounts of his reception in your city.” “True, your Grace,” answered the Chi•cago lawyer, “but the recent growth of Ghicago has made it the metropolis of the United States, and all the seaboard ■cities are jealous of her, and say spiteful things about her.”

One of Mexico’s crudities is its postoffice. . Having entered the Postal Union, letters pass between it and •other countries in the Union for 5 •cents a half-ounce; but between towns within its own border the rates are a <reat deal higher. It is the custom

along the Rio Grande, therefore, for Mexicans to cross the river and use the American post, thus saving money in corresponding with their own countrymen.

“I wish,’ says Lawrence Toole, the English comedian, “that the editors would kindly leave my nose alone. I have no desire to thrust my nose into the newspapers. Indeed, I entirely concur with my old and valued friend, Mr. Herbert Spencer, when he says: * Evolution, devoid of antithesis, is but a weak substitute for the correlation of forces. The outcome of moral energy must succeed, not anticipate, natural effort.’ These admirable words express exactly my views on this subject.”

FbedHartman, a 17-year-old prisoner at the Schenectady (N. Y.) Jail, where he was-awaiting trial on the charge of theft, managed to escape, and, after leading the Sheriff a lively chase, crawled under a building only twenty inches from the ground. The Sheriff, suspecting his presence there, and, not having a w.eapon, drew a meerschaum case from his pocket, and, pointing it where he supposed his bird was, threatened to shoot if he did not come out. Thinking the black article a veritable revolver, the prisoner surrendered and was taken back to jail.

A Philadelphia oysterman has a pet clam that he calls “Puss.” It is a big fellow; if that expression can be used about a clam that answers to the name of “Puss.” ’ He caught her at Narragansett Pier last summer, and she cost him so much digging that he decided to keep her. One night there was a terrible squealing down cellar where Puss had her sleeping apartments. The oysterman went down and found a rat with his feet fast between the bivalve shells. Since then the oysterman declares Puss has caught 112 rats. This is not a fish stery, but it is as near as one can come to it when talking about clams.

A ■ spider’s web is as capable of teaching a lesson now as in the days of Robert Bruce. When a detective was sent for to find out who had robbed the private safe of Mr. Judd, of Stratford, Conn., that observing individual noted the fact that while a window near the safe had been left open, apparently by the escaping thief, a cobweb stretched across the aperture had not a thread broken. The sagacious detective argued from this that the robber had had other means of entrance and exit, and thereupon hied himself to the law office of Mr. Judd’s son, and accused him of having stolen the money. The young lawyer, who stood too high in the estimation of the public to have been suspected by any one, indignantly denied the charge; but when informed that there Was proof that the window was opened from the inside, he “weakened,” and confessed the theft. He handed over the money to the detective, and that worthy transferred it to the proper owner with explanations. It may be hardly necessary to remark that no prosecution of the thief has followed.

New York Sun: “It was as good as a circus,” said Sergeant Mulholland. “I was walking along Broadway this morning when I saw a black-and s tan cab coming furiously up Murray street. The driver seemed to be doing his best to stop the animal, but it was unmanageable. A tall, well-built man, who did not see the runaway, was crossing the street. Everybody cried out to him, but the horse was close upon him before he saw it. Quick as thought he put out his right hand, seized the horse by the nostrils, gave a sudden twist, and the runaway was lying flat on his side on the crossing. The cab driver was too much astonished to say a word, and the stranger picked Up his hat and walked off as coolly as though nothing had happened. I learned that he was Mr. Lemuel R. Sturges, the owner of a cattle ranch in Texas. He knew a trick that the cowboys have of throwing a steer by giving its head a little twist. He practiced it on Broadway, and that runaway horse got a lesson that he wont forget if he has any sense.”

There is an annual battle between American martins and English sparrows at Midvale, N. J., for the possession oi a box upon a fixed pole, wherein the martins have nested for many years. This box is coveted by the sparrows, and every spring before the martins return from their autumnal migi ations, they build their nests and set up housekeeping in it. This year they went through the performance, and when the martins came they found their home in the possession of strangers. After flying about the box for some time the whole flock of martins betook themselves to a neighboring tree and there kept up a chattering, which had all the appearance of an indignation meeting. Then they made an attack on the box, and for some time there was a lively scrimmage among the feathers. -The American birus succeeded in ousting the pugilistic foreigners after a hard fight, and then began a housecleaning. The nests of the sparrows were ruthlessly dragged to the opening of the box, from which they were thrown to the ground. Every bit of straw or other material composing sparrows’ nests was thrown out, and the disconsolate sparrows had to seek a new home.

—Christian Hartman, a Fort Wayne blacksmith, committed suicide by hanging himself in his barn. —The residence of Dennis Murphy, of Jeffersonville, was robbed one night recently. The thieves got away with a $125 gold watch and some small change. —The town of Logansport is all broke up over the advent of a baby camel bom on a farm near there. The mother was left there a few weeks ago by Sells' circus. Mrs. Mahala Tyler, of Georgetown, came to Floyd County in 1811, passing over the site of New Albany when it was a dense wilderness, and but one house — a log cabin—stood upon it. —A young man named John Corbett attempted to board the special train from Cincinnati to Chicago, at Lafayette, and was thrown under the cars and instantly killed.

—George W. Walker, of Scottsburg, while fishing in the Muscatine River, was seriously homed by a large cat-fish while trying to take it from the water. He is in a critical condition.

—Clara Vrooman, a young lady attending the Holy Angels’ Academy, at Logansport, swallowed a piece of chewing-gum a few days ago, and has nearly died through consequent inflammation of the stomach. —Near Indianapolis. John Bridges and wife assailed James Barnett and wife, the two latter being fatally injured. Bridges escaped, but his wife was arrested. There had been a long-standing feud between the parties. —The fruit crop will not be an entire failure in Harrison County, although it will not be half as large as last year. There will be no peaches and but a small crop of cherries and other small fruits. Indications are that there will be an average crop of apples. —Three Indiana highwaymen, fearing that the boy whom they had robbed might reach a neighboring village to report the crime before they could get to a safe distance in the other direction, deliberately shot a bullet through each of his legs in order to lame him.

—Mr. Dan Nail, a respectable and well-to-do farmer, attempted to cross the Big Four tracks in front of an advancing ex-press-train, at Fairland, and was caught, receiving fatal injuries. The horse he was driving was cut to pieces and the buggy was tom to splinters.

—About nine years ago the home ofyW. L. Miller, of Greensburg, was supposed to have been entered by burglars and ignite a quantity of valuables taken, among them a gold watch. One day last week Mrs. Miller discovered some valuables hidden away in a flue-hole in a room where there had been no fire for nine years; among these was the watch.

—At Terre Haute, Hiram Bryant went to the residence of his mother-in-law, and, effecting an entrance through a window, went to the bedside of his wife, from whom he was separated some time ago, and cut her throat with a pocket-knife. The wound is not considered dangerous, Bryant was arrested on the charge of assault and battery with intent to kill. —For a number of years Ettie Harpole, a young girl aged about 14 years, has made her home with her grandfather, John E. Harpole, a respectable citizen of Booneville. The other night she disappeared, and it has just come to light that she took away with her about one {hundred and fifty dollars which belonged to her grandparent, and which he had kept in a drawer known to the girl. It was learned that she took the train going west, and it is supposed that she started for Springfield, 111., where she had an aunt living.

—The following resolution was adopted by the National Board of Trade at its annual meeting at Indianapolis: “Thatthe Executive Committee of the National Board of Trade respectfully memorializes the Banking and Currency Committee of the United States House of Representatives to carefully consider the propriety of so revising or amending the national-bank act as to make more effective on the limit therein expressed of loaning money not in excess of one-tenth of the capital of the bank to any one corporation dr individual, as well as the punitive features of the law.

—Near New Burlington, seven miles from Muncie, men were at work near one side of the pits when the bank caved in and a large number of bones rolled in before them. A casual examination of them was made, and they were found to be the remains of human beings. The greater part of the bones were entirely decayed, having returned to dust, but some of them were perfectly preserved. The best of them were picked up and given to Dr. W. E. Driscoll, who critically examined them. He says they are undoubtedly the remains of three Indians, representing three generations of this race, the aged, the middle-aged, and the youth. With these were found the bones of some animal, perhaps the favorite dog which had been buried with the warrior. Besides these were, a stone implement, some trinkets, and a large amount of charcoal, the latter substance being an evidence to the minds of some that this party of three were victims of the stake. That part of the county was the favorite hunting ground of the Delaware Indians, for whom the county was named.

—Over twenty-seven years ago Mr. D. C. Hayes, of Columbus, buried a little 2-year-old daughter. Resterday the body was exhumed and the casket opened, when it was found that the remains were in a perfect state of preservation. The only change was an apparent growth of the hair and eyelashes. Those who saw the child before burial said that they could easily have recognized her now, so natural did she appear. —Mrs. Mary Sullivan was struck by a train near Scottsburg and badly injured.