Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1885 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—Will Clar’.c stabbed and killed Jacob B. Yaris at Yiucennes in a quarrel about a woman. George Johnson, colored, 111 years old, resides in Posey County Poor House, and Doily Fagan, also colored, r.gnl 107, lives four miles west.of Evansville. —At Blooming on, James Small, an old and influential citizen, was found dead, sitting against a tree in the University grouuds. Death is supposed to have been caused by heart disease. —The Indianapolis Journal, in answer to a coirespondent, says: “There is no salary attached to the office of Sheriff o' Marion County, his , recompense com ; ng in fees. These will amount to an annual income of not less than $25,C0 J. ” —Mrs. Louisa Zeigman 105 years of age, stopped in North Vernon recently for a few hours, on her way to visit her daughter in Vevay. She remembers well whom there was nothing but a small fort at Louisville and Cincinnati, and she says that her uncle, James Grimes, dug the first well in Cincinnati. She is the mother of ten children, all 1 ving, and has 110 grandchildren. —Charles George, of Lafayette, has commenced suit in the Circuit Court of Tippecanoe County for the sum of SIO,OOO against the Big Four Railroad Company. In July last plaintiff boarded a train of the company’s road for the purpose of stealing a ride. He was' ordered off, but refused to go, when an employe drew a revolver and shot him in the (high. The ball has never been extracted, and he is rendered a cripple for life. —A family named Lambert, consisting of man, wife, and a daughter about 13 years old, moved to Laurel about a month since, and by their outrageous conduct so enraged the citizens that about forty of the latter quietly organized, and, proceeding to the house Lambert lived in, 'quickly rendered it uninhabitable, and gave this family, as well as another of like reputation, twenty-four hours to leave town.— Indianapolis Keics. Gov. Gray is said to have indicated to the officers of the State militia daring the La Porte encampment that he would recommend tbe next General Assembly to make an appropriation for the mi ilia service, and he will also recommend that the companies be, as far as possible, more equally distributed over the State. He favors a consolidation of companies, and a. large allowance for the older and more.efficient organizations. —The financial statement of tbe Jeffersonville Penitentiary for July shows tho earnings of the institution for the month were $701,505; disbursements, $832,275. The Warden says that the prison is not self-sustaining because Jeffersonville and vicinity afford a poor market for the prison labor. He favors a removal to some other locality on that account. The prison now contains SGB inmates, only 85 per cent, of whom are profitably employed. The health of the inmates is good. The good-time law continues to work excellent results, and it has largely reduced the necessity for physical punishment. The use of the “cat” has been entirely abolished. Punishment is now by confinement and by the deprivation of privileges. A special from Lafayette says: “Through the instrumentality of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union a most infamous crime has just been unearthed in this community, that for fiendishness and brutality is almost without a parallel. A Constablehas been detected in serving bogus warrants on females, charging them with the commission of some petty offense, arresting them, and theD, on pretense of taking them before a magistrate, has conveyed them to his own private room, where they havo been compelled to submit to the basest indignities. The arrests are alwaysmade after dark, aud the victims have sometimes been detained for twenty-four hours in this vile den to which other men than the proprietor have access. Tlie fellow was confronted yesterday and charged with the crime, when he owned up and gloried in his villainy. The Indies of the W. C. T. U. are after the offender, and wilt, see meted out to him the fullest extent of the law." , —A convict while at work in the Indiana State Prison was injured through a defect iu one of his tools. He sued the State, and the Attorney General gave an opinion which is of general interest. He maintains that the State is not liable to an action in its courts for the recovery of damages. It may sue; but cannot be sued. He discusses the question at issue at some length, and makes numerous citations. The fact that the State cannot bo sued and coerced by action in its courts doe 3 not necessarily settle that a party has no claim against the State. It is proper to suppose the State will satisfy, by proper legislative action, any just claim agiiust it. The doctrine of respondent superio does not apply to the State, aud, if it did, a convict does not come within the rule of respondent superio,- because he is not a voluntary servant for hire and reward, nor is the State his master in any ordinary sense. The Attorney General also maintains the following propositions: Laches are never imputable to government. “The State is not affected by the misfeasance, willfulness, laches of or unauthorized exercise of power by its Officers ”