Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1885 — GRAVE AND GAY. [ARTICLE]

GRAVE AND GAY.

An Interesting Batch of Accidents and Incidents, Tragedies and Comedies; And Exhibiting the Light, the Dark, the Frivolous, and the Sober Sides of Life. I.yncl,«‘<l by a Mob. [Girard (Kan.) dispatch.] At Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, a girl fourteen years old, was waylaid, ravished, and terribly maltreated. John Lawrence, colored, seventeen years old, was arrested for the crime and brought here and lodged in jail. When the train from Baxter Springs reached here about twenty men got off near the station and scattered through the town. Half an hour later a number of armed men made a dash for the jail, broke down the iron door, took the prisoner out, marched him up one of the main streets, armed men surrounding and keeping citizens from interfering. They took him two blocks from the jail, and hanged him to the rafters of an unfinished house. Then one of them, said to be the father of the girl, emptied his revolver into the body. Members of the mob then walked out of town and returned to their homes. A Mysterious Disappearance Cleared Up. v [Cincinnati telegram.] Fifteen months ago Mr. John Van, aged forty-eight, half-brother of Marie Van, the vocalist, drew eight thousand dollars from the bank, carried it about his person several days, and then was suddenly missing. Detectives were employed, but finding no trace the family mourned him as foully murdered. He was a prominent Mason. Last Saturday an excursion of Mason visited High bridge, over the Kentucky River, and going to the Shaker village saw Mr. John there, a member of the community, which he had joined alter leaving Cincinnati, turning his eight tliousmd dollars into the village funds. There was cordial handshaking all around. Air. Van has always been peculiar. He ran away from home when ten years old and went (o sea. where he remained ten years, and then suddenly, at the age of twenty, returned to his home. He is a confirmed Shaker now. Thu Utah Insult. [Salt Lake telegram.] The indignation over the Mormon act of placing the flag at half-mast continues unabated. Excited groups of Gentiles discusse i the affair all day. An old veteran stood in front of the City Hall looking aj; the trailing flag, while tears streamed from his eyes. Shaking his fist at the Mormon policeman guarding to see the flag was not raised, he exc aimed: “How long, 0 Lord, how long!” and declared he would leave the nest of treason within forty-eight hours. Horace El dredge. President of the Deseret National Bank, the United. States depository here, says half-mast was the proper place for the flag, as “we have not more than half our rights. ” The Deseret News, the church fully justifies the halfmasting of the flag in a five-coumn editorial, conclusively showing it was under church authority, and claiming it was right to do it because liberty was dead in Utah.

Terrific Explosion. [McConnellsburg (Pa.) dispatch.] A dynamite blast at the east end of Siding Hill Tunnel, on the South Pennsylvania Railway, caused the death of John O’Brien, heading boss; Christ McCormick, and John White, colored. Four others were seriously injured, two of whom, au Italian and a negro, will probably die. Jnme3 McManus escaped miraculously, receiving. apparently, the whole force of the blast. He was covered from head to foot with painful wounds, but, notwithstanding his condition, went into the tunnel and located the position of the men at the time of the accident. Wm. Hunter was also badly wounded. A gang of twenty-five men had just retired, otherwise the whole party would have probably been killed. O’Brien, it is said, caused the premature discharge by pounding down the explosive before the arrival of the man that usually did the firing. Tragic Death of Miss Bessie Hincks. [BostOH dispatch.] While Miss Bessie Hincks, daughter of Gen. E. W. Hincks, was walking with a friend on Brattle street, her dress caught fire, it is supposed, from a smoldering firecracker. Two gentlemen living near by rushed to Miss Hincks’'assistance and managed to extinguish the flames, but not until she was so burned that she died within a few hours. Miss Hincks was 20 years old and had just completed her first year’s studies at Harvard annex. She was the only daughter of Gen. E. W. Hincks, former commandant of the National Soldiers’ Home at Milwaukee, and was known and highly esteemed by a large circle of friends in that city. She graduated from the Milwaukee Female College with high honors in 1883.

Bodies Taken from the Water. [Parsons (Kan.) dispatch.] Reports from all points make the damage by flood very great. The Neosho River is five feet higher than was ever known before. Many farmers who had their wheat cut and in the shock report almost a total loss, while others have lost hogs, sheep, and cattle, and in many instances houses and homes have been swept away, the families barely escaping with their" lives. The loss of life has been greater than usual. Three bodies at Parsons, three at Chanute, and three at Neosho have already been found, and others are missing. No attempt has been made by the railroads to cross the Neosho since the Ist inst The Cotton Crop. [New Orleans special.] The monthly report of the National Cotton Exchange says, concerning the growing cotton crop: There have been no very wide variations from the normal rainfall and temperature over the cotton belt during the month of June, and the condition of the crop, which was 91 at tho close of May, is now advanced to 92, against 84 and 85 for the corresponding months of last year. The plant has progressed well, and has gained some in point of growth and healthfulness.

More Fraud and Maladministration. The frauds practiced in the New York Custom House under Republicanism,as revealed under recent official reports and sworn testimony, are infamous. A Treasury officer of many years’ service, a strong Republican, speaking from a full experience, said to a correspondent of the New York Herald: “This administration has done more in three months to reform abuses in the customs service than has been done in fifteen years before.” The largest frauds were secured through undervalued invoices or wrongful damage allowances. In regard to an undervaluation of merchandise it required the co-operation of some rascality on the other side of the water where the goods came from, but as there is an abundance of that commodity the world over, it was not lacking in these cases. One of the worst effects of this rascally undervaluation is upon our protected industries. The Herald, referring to this, says: “A manufacturer establishes his business with the belief that his foreign competitor has a 60 per cent, duty to pay. The custom-house lets the foreigner in 20 per cent, lowei’. The American manufacturer, who does not know this, may easily be ruined without guessing the cause. He would be better off if a 20 per cent, lower rate of duty were fully collected, for he would" then build on a surer basis.” The evidence goes to show that the New Y r ork Custom House, under Republican management, was honeycombed with corruption to an extraordinary extent. Perhaps millions of dojlars have been lost to the public treasury through actual stealage or criminal maladministration of the officials under Republican administrations. And yet the Bourbon organs of Republicanism squeak out every few days, “Why don't you open the books?” They are not squeaking so much in that direction as they were before the Democrats had an opportunity to open them. The New York Herald in referring to the rascalities and abuses recently discovered in the Custom House of that city, says: “Some of the examples of customhouse management certainly show an extraordinary degree of systematized maladministration; and the public will stand by the President in whatever he may find it necessary to do to reform these gross abuses. It will gratify good men everywhere to know that these custom-house abuses, which have been allowed to go unchecked for years, have been taken hold of with a very vigorous hand by the administration. Fraud or maladministration in the collection of the revenue not only robs the Treasury, but it cripples honest merchants, who are driven out of business by unfair competition. An importer who can pay on an undervalued invoice, or who can secure a wrongful damage allowance, or who is allowed to pay a lower scale of duties than another in the same business, can undersell his more scrupulous competitor and undermine him.” Gradually the public service is being purified and improved in every direction. The books are being opened, the rascals are being turned out, and the Republican party is going. —lndianapolis Sentinel.

Keep Quiet, Boys. What did the people of the United States mean by turning out a Republican administration long in power and putting a Democratic administration in its place? What was the meaning of the popular verdict of 1884? Was it simply intended as a personal rebuke to Mr. Blaine or as a personal compliment to Mr. Cleveland? The same, and, indeed, stronger, reasons and considerations of public necessity that commanded Mr. Arthur and his Cabinet to step down and Mr. Cleveland and his Cabinet to step up, demand that every Republican office-holder in the land should be required to vacate at once; and, if they have not got the manliness to tender their resignations, they should be unceremoniously kicked out. That is what the people who elected Mr. Cleveland meant and expected should be done. Mr. Cleveland accepted very readily the change that put him at the head of a new administration. The people could go no further in the great work of reformation. They expect the President to do the rest. We do not believe, however, that he will disappoint the hopes of the Democratic party and of a majority of the American people who elected him. On the contrary, we believe that all of the “rascals” will go, and that but few of them will remain in office within a year from this time. President Cleveland is a Democrat, and proposes to give the country a clean, dignified, honest, and thoroughly Democratic administration, and, for one, we propose to give him ample time to find out who the rascals are before applying the toe of his boot to their exteriors. He will find them all out in a short time, and, swinging the door wide open, will say: “Depart hence, ” and will call in Democrats to fill their places. Keep quiet, boys; the world was not made in a d«jv. Stand back, and give the President a little time to look over the field before you complain that he is not moving fast enough. —Shelby ville ( Ind .) Democrat. This is an unfortunate season for Republican organs. Just as the Chicago concern had produced an editorial informing its readers that the Democrats, notwithstanding all their loud charges and boasts, had not yet discovered any Republican frauds, comes the news of the detection in the Laud Department of frauds in the surveying contracts that have been going on for ? r ears at the rate of half a million dolars a year.— Chicago Time*.