Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1885 — WARTNER. [ARTICLE]

WARTNER.

Our neighbor exultingly exclaims: “Miss Ada Sweet still holds the fort in the Pension office in Chicago,” etc. Yes, we believe General Black designated June Ist, next, as the date for her retirement. Swett, Ada, we think sho’d and will go. ■— - For the information of Bro. Spottswood, of the Kentland Democrat we will state that the blanket on our cylinder had slipped, a few impressions were taken on a faulty part of it with the result referred to, and S. received one of them, at which we rejoice, as it affords us an opportunity to explain to him the difference between impressions made on a defect in a blanket, and those made by “unwashed” forms. Bro. S. is not as well posted in cause and effect as he presumed.

The republican press is making much ado over tke shortage of but two cents in the amount said to be in the United States Treasury.— This does not refute the charge that they have stolen many millions of dollars. It does not refute the charge that unearned millions —the same as a -teal—were paid the Star-Route gang. It does not refute the fact that the Whiskey Ring intercepted and gobb ed many millions of dollars while in transit to the Treasury. Howgate and others made way with millions more. The fact is that, had the Government been economically administered, and no steals, sufficient to have paid the public debt had been collected from the people.— We say again that the amount claimed to be in the Treasury, and verified by the count, has nothing to do with the stealings charged and proven again st the Repul. lican thieves. “Turn he rascals out.”

Some very enthusiastic, admirer of John A. Logan asks our neighbor: “Where is J. Chesterfield Mackin?” charged, we believe, with rifling *nd stuffing ballot-box-es. We will answer—“he’s out on bail.” If guilty, we trust he may not escape punishment. Now let us propound a few queries: Where are Kenner, Casenave, Wells and Anderson, of the Louisiana returning board, charged and prove* guilty of a similar offense, ’Lize Pinkston, Agnes Jenks, and the eight members of the Electoral ( ommission who stole the Presidency for Fraud Hayes? All rewarded by the republican administration with offices of trust and big pay!

Just now our radical friends are seemingly perplexed over the meaning of “offensive partisanism.”— They pretenc’ to believe that it was meant to include zealous partisans in all parties. We believe it was intended to mean those “offensive” to the Democracy. In the event of Republican success that party would quickly recognize and adopt that construction in the removal of Democrats and filling their places with republican editors and party workers.—ln fact we believe a party, with its record, would disregard the civil service rules from the start. Supnose a republican official, by virtue of his commission holfiing over under a Democratic adminstration, should afford accommodations to partizan pets, which, to political opponents he would refuse on the plea that the rules and regulations governing his department forbid, should he not be be removed on the ground of ‘of tensive partisanism?” We might enumerate other modes of “offense” but have not the space to devote to it to-day. Let them kick.

Correspo denee of the Indianapolis Sentinel.

Something About the Man Who Was to Have Been Hung on Friday. New Trial Granted—The Gallows Already Prepared—The Crime —lntrvcw With the Murderer. Rensselaer, Ind., May 15.—A scaffold painted black, a gibbet, a trap-door, an ominous spring, the clicking of which is suggestive of darkness and a life gone out, are what ycur correspondent saw’ today. But Weibreo Wartner breathes easier, because of a respite granted by the Supreme Court of the State, which set aside the sentence of death passed upon him for the murder of John Dreger last October. The circumstances of the crime are yet fresh in mind, and the atrocity or the murder, the artfu'ness of the man in decoying his victim to the river, and then, the moment his back was turned, slay him as coolly as a person would have killed a dog, are matters too terrible to be forgotten by an outraged community. Wartner plead guilty, on the supposition that the judge was opposed to capital punishment, but after hearing the evidence, he was still found guilty, and sentenced to death. Now the point is, can a Judge sentence to the death penalty, without a trial by jury? It seems taat the prosecution claim that in this case there was no trial, and the sentence was passed on the admission of guilt by the defendant, and that the unmittigating circumstaaces of the murder rendered no other decision adequate. The case will probably go over to the October term of court, as it is not likely that an application for a rehearing in the Supreme Court will have been filed b -fore tie expiration of sixty days, owing to the absence and illaess of the prosecutor. Samuel E. Yeoman, the Sheriff, had completed the preparations for the execution. The gibbet post is seventeen and a half feet high, the arm from which the rope is suspended is five feet long; the scaffold is nine feet high, the* floor twelve feet square and the trap four feet square. The trap itself and the opening are different from the usual method, and were planned by Sheriff Yeoman and mad - by John Chamberlain. Instead of dropping the trap f rom one side it is made with an opening in the middle, and by the action of a lever, joint and iron arms, each half of the door is thrown down and back against the floor beneath, which is held securely by steel springs.— Th* handle to the apparatus for springing the trap is three feet long, and is concealed within a box at the side of the scaffold. The iro lever running from the handle parallel with the floor toward the trap, or center, is two feet long and is secured to a joint or spring, from which an arm of iron extends to each corner parallel with the end of the lever, of two feet and two inches in length, where they are fastened by a swxvel joint to a strip of iron running the length of the trap.— These are securely fastened to the floor by a half-inch iron bolt six inches beyond the center, thus leaving sumcient room for the arms to work. The advantage of this trap is that it sends the body perpendicularly through the apperture, and occasions no swaying, as the usual form of door often does. The appliance has been tested repeatedly **ith bags of sand weighing 180 pounds and found to work perfectly. The gallows are surrounded by an eighteen-foot enclosure large enough to accommodate 200 persons.

The man who came so nearly being hanged to-day is, upon first sight, of a mild and inoffensive appearance; forty years old, five feet and nine inches in height, weight 160 pounds, erect in carriage, of medium brown h»dr, egg shell blue eyes, and fair complexion, with a weak, nervous mouth, one would not select him as the perpetrator of sir h a cold-blooded affair. “Why did you do such a thing as this, for which you are suffering?” ve asked him. “To keep my wpman and children from suffering.” “Couldyou get no work?” “No,” with a shake of the head. “But he was your best friend.” “I’m sorry I did it —I’m sorry;” he returned.

The prisoner told your correspondent that he came from Holland two years ago; that he was married sixteen years ago to-day—-the day he was to have been executed —to Ange Jane Hutszenga, and had five children, who are all at the County Poor Farm. He was incarcerated on November 4. His cell is bare of everything save a comfortable hammock, cot and blankets. On the table in the corridor into which his cell opens, were newspapers and a few pictures. He watches each one furtively with an expression of inquisitive interest. He has been indolent in the extreme since living in the county, and] cup.dity was the sole motive of the crime. The victim had provided his family with food and at the time of his murder had accompanied Wartner for the sole purpose of getting fish for his, Wartner’s family. Your correspondent saw the bundle of clothes Wartner buried belonging to his vict:m, the iron pumps which h . took with him with which to sink the body, am the shot-gun he struck him with and broke in two, then using a sharp splintered point to finish the fiendish work by jabbing it inti the neck of the. dying man. Rumois are rife in the county that if human life, outraged justice and violated law can not be vindicated legally, there is another tribunal more potent. It is to be hoped that law and order may be observed in the continuance of the case. Buy the best of Fruit Trees, and in doing so leave your orders with “Turkey Joe”. Satisfaction guaranteed'