Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1885 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

John W. Coffee was hanged at Crawl'ordsville, Ind., for the murder of a man named McMullen and his wife in January last, the house being' burned afterward to hide the crime. He made three confessions during his imprisonment, implicating at various times several other parties in the perpetration of the deed. Coffee was utterly prostrated, and had to be carried to the scaffold, before the drop fell he made a short speech. The rope broke twice, but was finally adjusted satisfactorily, and in twolvo minutes life was extinct. The farm-house of Peter Hingin, near Waterloo, Neb., was the scene of a double murder and suicide, the perpetrator being the younger brother of Hingin, who set Are to the building as he lay dying. Lead ore in vast quantities has been discovered at Montfort, Wls. Eighteen lumber mills at Menomonee, Wls., are reported to have shut down tor the second time this season on account of the conduct of the men employed there. It is understood that if they remain closed the remainder of the season, which is probable, the fact will lessen the shipments of lumber by some sixty million feet, and parties in the trade say that such a diminution of the supply would probably cause an advance of SI to $2 per thousand in the price of lumber in the Chicago market. The most horrible murder that ever disgraced Woodbury County, lowa, occurred in West Fork Township. Says a Sioux City dispatch: James and John Johnson, brothers, lived together on a farm. John was married, and James is a single man about 28 years old. They had a houseraising, after which a keg of beer was tapped, Tbe two brothers quarreled, and James was ordered from the house. He went out on the prairie and remained until about 11 o'clock. He then returned to the house and found his brother John asleep in bed. Taking an old army rifle, he loaded it, placed the muzzle to Jonn’s head, and blew his brains out. Not satisfied with his fiendish work, be loaded his gun again and fired another charge into his brother’s head, scattering the brains and blood over the bed and walls of the room. The wife of the murdered man stood by and saw the crime, agreeing that it was the proper thing to do. She has not been arrested.

Near Ozawkie, Kan., a farmer and his family were driving homeward with a package of ten pounds of powder in the wagon. His wife attempted to light a pipe, and dropped a spark. The explosion which followed killed the woman and fatally In jured the other three persons. The sum of $150,000 has been subscribed by citizens of Minneapolis for the establishment of an annual exposition. Dingham’s planing-mili, at Detroit, was burned, loss $25,000; also Mitchell & Son’s feed-mills, loss $150,000. The bridge across the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona, was burned; loss $200,000, and cause unknown. A prairie fire In Dakota destroyed 350 head of sheep for one farmer. , The United States Grand Jury, at Blackfoot Falls, Idaho, indicted twenty-nine Mormons for unlawful cohabitation. Frederick Greiner was hanged at Franklin, Ohio, for the murder of his sweetheart He grew impatient at waiting and sent for the Sheriff, and when the titne came

stepped on the scaffold with a smile and smoking a cigar. He looked as If he had prepared for an evening party. The Chicago exposition, which closed last week, had an average paying attendance of eight thousand persons daily, and the receipts were SIO,OOO more than those of any former year.