Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1885 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—St. Joseph County pays a bounty for groundhog scalps. —The Northern Penitentiary has 706 convicts. The general health is practically good. —The old De Pauw House, at New Albany, is to be reopened under the name of Occidental. —A convict in the Jeffersonville prison, too lazy to work, deliberately took a bar of iron and crushed his hand. —Two hundred convicts in the Southern Prison are engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes for a St Louis firm. —The story is told of a Greencastle young man that he invited a young lady to go riding with him and left her to pay the livery bill. —A spring has been found near Attica the waters of which possess remarkable curative powers, and the place has become quite a resort. —An Indiana man who found his sweetheart so well guarded at the paternal mansion us to make an elopement impossible, married another girl just to turn away suspicion from himself and in a week deserted her and ran away with (he girl of his choice.— Exchange. —Some of the State papers are publishing the statement that Gov. Gray is preparing for a European tour. There is not the slightest foundation in truth for this rumor. The Governor says that he has his hands full of official business which needs constant and close attention.—lndianapolis Sentinel. —The old cemetery in Wabash is so thickly filled with graves that the authorities will, in all probability, prohibit further interments in the inclosure. It is alleged that in digging new graves it is no uncommon thing to exhume portions of Skeletons long since buried, and frequently fragments of skeletons are encountered on the surface of the ground by persons strolling through the yard. —A boiler in the Peru Brewery, owned by J. O. Cole, exploded, killing Marcellus Burtch, a visitor at the place, and demolishing the engine-house. boiler was blown through the roof of the building. Burtch was hit by a brick and his skull crushed in. The concussion was such that fences Across the road were blown down and bricks scattered over a great distance. No cause is known for the accident. —A. D. Vanosdel, of Madisqn, has been appointed Inspector General in the National Staff of the Grand Army of the Republic at the Portland Encampment. Hon. Samuel S. Burdett, of Washington, was cordially supported in his candidacy for Commander-in-chief by the Indiana delegation, and, as he * was elected largely through Indiana’s support, he has recognized this State in the above appointment. —-The Land Department of the State Auditor's office has received information from the State’s agent at Washington that the Secretary of the Interior has given his formal written consent to the adjustment of swamp land claims of Indiana on the basis of the plats of survey, and filed notes without recourse to examination and testimony of witnesses. The adjustment will now be pushed rapidly, and the State Department anticipates an early settlement of the claims. —Prof. Campbell, of Crawfordsville, and his assistant, Prof. Coulter, who have charge of the geodetic survey in this State, have built a tower near Charlestown. The geodetic survey is authorized by the General Government, and the idea is to make allowance for the curvature of the earth’s surface. Prof. Campbell has charge of the survey through Indiana. He commenced with the blind asylum, on the Kentucky side of the river, at Louisville, and will run through to the lake. —The work of examining the PanHandle employes on color-blindness is interesting to an observer. The men are marched into the armory one at a time, and are first examined on the strength of the eyesight by reading letters and figures. This is quite difficult. The matter of telling colors is tested by showing the candidate a skein of yarn either red, green, or pink, and then after he has told which it is, he is told to pick a number of skeins from a bundle of various colors which will at all resemble the color first named. To pick out all the shades that may be found in the bunch is no small task, and very few of the candidates pick them all out. There are no very glaring mistakes made by the boys. The hearing is tested as well as the sight.— Logansport Pharos. —John Campbell, a life convict at the Northern Prison, sent from Crawfordsville several years ago, has, by means of a penknife and scraps of wood, cut out and mounted an entire menagerie and circus. The wild beasts, horses, p?rformers, and even the ringmaster, are in their places, all of them being connected with simple mechanical contrivances controlled by a crank. Give this a turn and the circus commences, continuing with astonishing regularity and precision for several moments. In connection with the circus is a complete “Unclo Tom’s Cabin" outfit, the entire representation in old plantation style. This drama shows Topsy, Marks, donkeys, and hounds, who, when the crank turns, perform their parts in such a manner as to put to shame half the alleged combinations on the road.

democratic dentine. FRIDAY JULY 31 1885.