Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1886 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—Mr. Minus Turner, the first settler of Muncie, died recently of dropsy. —Jesse Billings, a prominent and prosperous farmer living near Washington, has been convicted of forgery. —A son of Jack Stevens, of Greencastle, was killed near Fillmore, by jumping from a passenger train of the Vandalia Railroad. —Robert Talbot, an engineer at Denver, committed suicide by hanging himself with a towel suspended from a large hook in the engine-room. —Wm. Welch, sentenced for life at Bloomington for murder, obtained a new trial, got a change of venue to Lawrence County and was acquitted. —Sarah Hassett and Joseph Hoftner, of Logansport, were horribly burned the other day. The woman was filling a tank on a stove with gasoline, when it ignited and exploded. —A sensation has been created at Gosport by the arrest of three men charged with stealing cigars. All three of the men are school-teachers who have always stood high in their profession. « A stock company is being organized in Muncie for the purpose of boring for gas or oil. The fever originated from a visit to Findlay, Ohio, where some of their citizens went recently to inspect a gas-well.

—The Sheriff has arrested eight of the North Manchester “Regulators” who raided the house of Reuben Swonk, dragged him out of bed, tied him up, and almost whipped him to death the other night. —Will Sharp, living near Dora, was slugged, robbed, and poisoned the other day. It was the third serious attempt upon his life, all prompted, it is alleged, by jealousy of his attentions to the daughter of his employer.

—The strike at the works of the Indianapolis Chair Company has been settled. President Helwig said if he could obtain an advance on the products of 5 per cent, he would advance his employes’ wages 10 per cent; if a 10 per cent., wages would be advanced 20 per cent.

—Charley Sutton, of Thorntown, 12 years of age, while experimenting on the beauties of suspension, swung oft “just to see what the sensations would be.” He became unconscious, and was nearly exhausted when his mother went to the woodshed and found him. She cut him down and sent for a physician, who resuscitated him. —Monroe Lodge, No. 2, I. O. O. F., celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, at Madison, the other night. Although No. 2is in reality the first lodge in Indiana, having applied for a charter over six months before the New Albany Lodge, No. 1, in some unaccountable way it did not receive (t charter until after the lodge in New Albany had theirs. —Mat James, who has been incarcerated at Bloomfield since last fall for robbing Rankin & Huff, has had a change of venue to Bedford, Lawrence County. He is a cousin of the notorious Jesse James, and in all probability will soon have a name equal to his cousin’s, for besides this case he is connected with a murder and train robbery now being tried at Bloomington. —ln vanous parts of Indiana experiments are in progress to determine whether or not natural gas exists under the surface, and, if so, whether or not in paying quantities. The indications in several places have been such as to lead to the organization of natural-gas lighting and heating companies, notably at North Vernon and Richmond. Prof. John Collett, ex-State Geologist, states that he does not believe there is any natural gas in that part of the State. t

—A remarkable contribution to con-science-fund literature has been made at Wabash. A farmer drove into town and inquired for Mrs. Still, relict of Archibald Still, who was Treasurer of the county in 1855. He informed the lady that during her husband’s term of office the latter had given the stranger a receipt for taxes on which the amount was made $lO too low. The amount of the shortage, by adding interest, was s‘2s, which sum the stranger paid Mrs. Still and drove home happy.— Sentinel. —At the regular monthly meeting of the Delaware County Horticultural Society, Mr. Granville Cowing, one of the leading small fruit growers in Indiana, briefly stated the condition of fruits and flowers as follows. “The wood and buds of large and small plants are generally in good condition. Last autumn was a very favorable one for maturing vegetable growth. Grapes, raspberries and blackberries of hardy kinds seem uninjured. Mulched strawberries are rarely injured until uncovered, and large patches, generally, in this region aje still covered with straw. Cherries have suffered more than any other hardy frait. Perhaps 20 per cent, of early Richmond buds are killed. Peaches we no longer attempt to grow. Apples may be expected to produce a full crop, should not late spring frosts kill flowers. Hybrid perpetual, and even some of the Bourbon roses, are only slightly injured. The Prairie Queen rose and different varieties of the clematis are in good condition. The general outlook indicates a full crop of our principal fruits. We can never expect to raise large apple crops until our fruit trees are in some degree replaced. Our orchards are fast dying out.”