Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1886 — Page 3

CHICAGO SHAKEN.

One Hundred Thousand Pounds of Powder and Dynamite Struck by Lightning. All the Houses in the Vicinity Demolished by the Explosion Which Resulted. One Girl Instantly Killed and Four Persons Injured So They Will Die. Five Others Badly Hurt—Effects of the Explosion Felt at a Distance of Seven Miles. [From the Chicago Daily News.] As James Duhnitock was beating his way ■through the rain on Archer road Sunday morning a lightning bolt shot out of the black northern sky, having seemingly selected him for the target of its wrath. The blinding sensation was instantly followed by a withering crash, and before he could breathe the prayer which rose insensibly to his lips he fell to the ground stunned. At the Brighton Park drug-store, a mile away, the tall clock careened to the floor, and smashed into fragments among the debris from the shelves. Its battered hands marked the time, 9:20. Two hundred yards west of where Dubna took lay a community of houses was in ruins of splinters and flames, entombing dead and dying, while ten miles distant, in the heart of Chicago, French glass windows were strewn over the sidewalks in pulverized pieces. Mystified men, women, and children ran hither and thither, wondering if this was a new Pompeii without a Vesuvius, and wildly speculating on the causes and results of the earthquake shock that had swept along the lake shore. Not until two hours later was it learned that the dynamite magazine of Laflin & Hand had been exploded, causing great havoc and desolation. The destructive forces of 1.5J0 pounds of dynamite and 3,000 pounds of black powder were discharged by the electric fuse. Houses, trees, and fences went down before the mighty blast like grass before the scythe, and pe jple for miles around were stricken insensible with wounds or speechless from terror. The dead and injured are : Dead —Carrie Earns worth, 14 years old. Fatally Injured—John Kann, 3’> jears old; farmer, of Auburn Station. John Gugl. 40 vears old ; driver for the Laflin & Rand Powder Company. Mrs John Gugl, 24 years old; wife of the former. Mrs. Eliza Devine, 03 years old; widow. Peter Ham, 28 years old, gardener; has wife and one child. James Shannon, 16 years old; parents reside on Joseph street and Pearson avenue Seriously Hurt—Two Kelly brothers, 14 and 16 years old respectively; parents residing on Western avenue, near Thirty-sixth street. Madden, a small boy, whose parents reside on Thirty-eighth street, near Pearson avenue. Philip Bbwler, cabinet-maker, 722 South Union street; arm crushed by flying stone, and amputated. John Lorden, Jr., 17 years old, of 165 Canalport avenue; leg badly crushed. Lesser Casualties—John Jung, 52 years old, gardener; resides south of Archer road. Mrs. Jung, 46 years old; wife of the former. Miss Kennedy, 18 years old; parents reside on Johnson street, a quarter of a jnile from the scene. At Brighton Park Archer avenue takes the character of the regulation country road, tolerably well graded, but muddy in rainy weather, and proviued with deep ditches on either side. The road cuts through a portion of the Town of Lake, and in the triangular piece of tho town which adjoins the Town of Cicero stands, or rather stood, Justice Tearney’s residence, once a handsome frame structure. To either side of the road, within several hundred yards of the Tearney homestead, extends level prarie for miles. A few small market gardeners t.ll little patches of cultivated soil; otherwise the country around wears a rather desolate aspect. Besides the few human habitations scattered on the prairie, nine queer-looking structures attracted the eye of the passer-by. They do so in a greater degree now, because with the exception of one they are wrecks. Built solidly of brick, about 50 by 30 feet in dimensions, and of two-storied height, they would look like so many small jails were it not for the fact that there are no windows to admit light. A huge and massive iron door is the only means of egress and ingress. They all have a sort of sinister appearance; one that makes the observer look twice as he passes by and wonder what they contain. What there is stored of blasting powder, dynamite, nitro-glycerine, and other terrible explosives for the Chicago trade is in these houses. One of the nine belonged to the Laflin & Rand Powder Company. STIIUCK BY THE LIGHTNING. Many passers-by, perhaps, have time and again imagined the havoc that must follow snould one of these magazines of destruction belch forth its contents. It happened yesterday. A thunderstorm had been raging at intervals during the early morning hours. It subsided somewhat toward 8 o'clock, but an hour later the elements broke loose with renewed fury. The rain fell in torrents, and vivid flashes of lightning cleft the dark skies, followed by roars of thunder. About that time John Kann, a young farmer from Auburn Station, stopped at McLarney Brothers’ grocery and saioon to avoid the drenheing rain. He had two stout horses attached to his heavy farm wagon and was nound for hoine. When the heaviest gust of rain abated, seemingly subsiding into ’ a regulation aJI-day .drizzle, the farmer wrapped himself up in a Ihorse blanket and started his team off on a jog down the road. He had to keep a sharp eye on 'his bays, because the lightning came in flashes which succeeded each other rapidly, as if all the electricity of the sultry and oppressive atmosphere had been concentrated upon the spot where the immense stores of explosives were scattered along the roai near by. In the short intervals between the lightning the lurid sky overhung everything with almost absolute darkness. Suddenly , one of the electric flashes was followed by a terrific crash, as if the earth had been cleft asunder by some unknown gigantic force. It was the death knell of the lone traveler on Archer road. Rocks were hurled through the air, trees rent to the roots, fences blown down for miles, houses unroofed and reduced to splinters, and torrents of mud showered around for hundreds of yards. The terrific force of the explosion made the thunder of heaven appear insignificant. The powder magazine of Laflin & Rand had been struck by lightning and 1,500 pounds of dynamite and 3,000 pounds of powder went up, creating a havoc as it old Vulcan had split the earth from within his subterranean abode. The ground seemed to rock and sway under the terrific force of the concussion, and the country for blocks around was wrapped in clouds of stifling smoke. Mr. Kann was hurled through the air for a distance of over a hundred feet, his mangled body being found half an hour later. The base of the unfortunate man’s skull was blown off, and the brains were oozing out upon the muddy field. Pieces of wood and iron had penetrated his back and caused horrible gashes all over his bo ly, from which tho blood was flowing, gathering in pools. All of the clo'hes of the man, except those covering the lower extremities, wire as if cut off from his back, only a few shreds hanging loosely around the lacera ed form. He was suffering untold agonies at the County Hospital last night. His death is almost a certainty. Of the wagon, only a few scattered pieces gave witness that the vehicle bad been paint, a a bright re 1. Both horses were stripped of the harness, not a vestige of leather remaining on them. The one < n tho side of the exploded magazine was killed instantly, the carcass being hurled into the’ ditch on the south side of the road; the other horse escaped unharmed, scampered off into tho field, and was later on caught and stabled. FREAKS OF THE DISASTER. The force of the explosion was terrific. It toio down or wrecked every house within a quarter of a mile of the magazine. The surrounding magazines were unroofed, and several of those nearest had their walls demolished. Hous; s which withstood the shock of the concussion were a second after treated to a perfect

shower of stones and huge bowlders. The magazine wa« built over a bed of tough blue clay. The dynamite, as usual with this terrible explosive, went downward. It tore out a hole twenty feet deep and thirty feet in diameter, shaped much like the bott> m of a huge punch-bowl. Into this • natural mortar the brick walls and huge foundation stones were tumbled, only to be hurled out the next instant. The principle was exactly the same and the force of the monster missiles as great as if the huge hole of clay had been a mortar of chilled steel and loaded with all the giant powder'it would hold. Huge stones, weighing fully 100 pounds, were sent sailing through the air like solid round shot, while a perfect cloud of broken bricks and splinters of stone swept over the surrounding country like a volley of canister and grapeshot. Fences were obliterated and sidewalks uprooted for half a mile around. POTATOES THROWN OUT OF THE GROUND. Just east of the exploded magazine there was a field of potatoes. The concussion caused by the shock jerked every potato out onto the surface. It saved the man who owned them a lot of trouble, and yesterday they lay on the damp earth already to be taken up in bags and carried to market. The big field in which the mangled body of Farmer Kann was found looked like a Vermont hillside, so thick was it strewn with rocks and pieces of brick. A stone weighing not less than a hundred pounds was shot across the field at just such a height that it left a narrow black furrow in the short grass. Away to the other side of the field, almost two blocks away, directly in the course of this huge stone, stood a small tree. The tree was cut off six inches from the ground, and through the picket fence close by a big, round hole showed where the stone had glanced off on its course. A trail of tom and uprooted cabbages led to the spot wnere the terrible missile had at last stopped. It was almost buried in the loose soil of .he cabbage field, a quarter of a mile from its starting point. FEEAKS OF THE EXPLOSION. The freaks of the explosion were as wonderful as they were unexplainable. John Gugl’s house was tom to pieces and set on fire, while only 100 feet away the house occupied by Justice Tearney had one side cleared off as neatly as though carpenters had worked at it a week. A horse in Justice Tearney’s bam, a little way back of the house, was tom and cut by a shower of stones, which came through the board siding as though it had been card-board. Another horse, close beside the wounded animal, did not receive a scratch. John Jung, a Hollander, lived in a little one-story-and-attic cottage, nearly opposite from Tearney’s, on the other side of Archer road. He was sitting near a window, looking out at the rain, when he suddenly heard a crash and a whole pane of glass was driven into his feet. His wife was knocked down, and his two sons and a daughter tossed to the other side of the room. Almost a quarter of a minute after the affrighted family heard a terrible crash over their heads, followed by another still louder, which shook the little cottage from top to bottom. Jung and his family threw themselves to the floor and gave themselves up for lost. As no more shocks came, the grown-up son arose and helped his father to a chair. Then he climbed up a ladder leading to the attic and found two holes in the roof big enough to let a man’s body through. There were also two immense stones in the attic. They had been a part of the foundation of the powder magazine five minutes before, and had been shot out of the big clay mortar with such force that they cut through the roof as clean as a cannon-ball could have done. DAMAGES AT A DISTANCE. The shock was very severe at the bridewell, and a panic among the prisoners was narrowly averted. The windows on the south side of the building were badly demolished, and glass and pieces of the sashes were hurled fifteen or twenty feet into the rooms and broken on the opposite walls. The door casings on the lower story were splintered into kindling wood and the locks broken. The plastering on the ceiling of the main hall was all loosened, aud a large crack extends from one end of the hall to the other, a distance of 200 feet. An iron door in the attic, which weighed 200 pounds, was broken from its hinges and hurled half way across the room. A large joist four inches thick was broken squarely in two. In the laundry and kitchen much damage was done. The carpenter shop and many of the outhouses were badly shaken up. The damages to the building and grounds are fully $2,000. Col. Felton was lying on the sofa in front of a window when the shock occurred. The window was broken by the concussion and the Colonel was completely buried beneath a pile of broken glass and kindling wood. He escaped injury, but was badly stunned by the shock. Mrs. Armour, the matron, was prostrated, and for a time was considered in a critical condition. She revived later in the day, and last night was considered out of danger. The prisoners were greatly frightc ned. The ignorant among them imagined tnat the end of the world had come, while the more intel-1 gent ones thought they were about to be swallowed bylan earthquake. They were soon quieted, with the exception of a few of the most guilty wretches, who -will probably continue to shake for days to come. SIMULTANEOUS SHOCKS THROUGHOUT THE CITY, The southwest portion of the city seems to have received the brunt of the shock, although damage is reported as far north as Evanston. The windows on the west side of McCormick's reaper factory were nearly all broken. The same is true of those on the south side of W. W. Kimball’s piano factory and the building occupied by the Chicago Malleable Iron Works, both of which are situated in that neighborhood The water in the river near McCormick’s factory was greatly agitated by the disturbance, and lashed over the banks for many feet on either sides. A water pipe burst in front of the Malleable Iron Works and flooded the street before it could be repaired. Many builings in the vicinity of the Twelfth street police police station were damaged. At the Jesuit Church, at the corner of Blue Island avenue and Twelfth street, a regular panic occurred. Over two thousand people, mostly women, were crowded in the basement at the time. Some one yelled fire at the moment of the explosion, and instantly there was a rush for the door. The weak were knocked down and ruthlessly tramp’ed upon, while many of the stronger ones jumped through the windows and escaped. An alarm was turned in and the fire department responded to the call. No one was seriously injured. PEOPLE SCARED OUT OF THEIR WITS. The business portion of the city did not escape . The shock put out the gas in the Grand Pacific Hotel, and caused a lively scene among the guests. Many of them rushed down-stairs minus shoes and stockings, while others, clad in scant raiment, huddled in the halls and corridors. No serious injury was done to the building. Two windows in the east corner of the Board of Trade were demolished. Three windows on the north and east side of the Government building were also broken, and a large plate-glass in Spiegel’s furniture at the coiner of State and Jackson streets was destroyed. On the West Side considerable damage was done to dwelling houses. In many places on Ashland avenue and Washington boulevard chandeliers were knocked down and dishes were smashed in the closets. Tn one -h6use on Morgan street not a chandelier was left hanging. 811 L’AUD BALLS HURLED FROM THE TABLE. A rather amusing, incident occurred at the Union House. A number of young men were enjoying a game of billiards. One young fellow had succeeded in placing the balls to suit him and was leaning over the table preparing to shoot, when the shock came and every ball was hurled from the table, much to the chagrin of the player and the amusement of the lookers-on. A block of stone of about one hundred and fifty pounds went through the wall of the Grand Trunk Roundhouse, about a mile north, and another dropped through the roof, smashing in the cab of an engine. FATAL CONVULSIONS. A negro woman living at the corner of Leavitt and Hinman streets wuh so badly frightened that she went into convulsions and is not expected to recover. A driver on the Blue Island avenue line was standing in the front door of the car bams. When the shock came he was thrown backward onto the floor aud stunned. When he came to he was suffering from convulsions. He was reported better last night, Joseph' Fester of 119 Brown street, was walking along Blue Island avenue, near Twelfth street. He was in front of Apollo Hall when the explosion occurred, five miles to the southwest of where he stood. The concussion shivered a pane of plate-glass in a window in the second story of the building. A falling piece cut a gash over his left temple. Four stitches united his severed scalp, and ho went home to wonder how it happened. “The shock was so great,” said Warden McGnrigle of the County Hospital, “that the windows on both sides of the main building were broken. The whole immense structure shook from cellar to garret in such a maune: that dishes on the tables rattle.

REPLYING TO THE CHARGES.

Civil- Service Commissioner Oberly Puts Forward Some Facts of General Interest. A Document Which Will Be Read with Interest by the General Public. Civil-Service Commissioner Oberly has published a long letter in reply to charges made against the commission by Republican Senators. The principal charge which was made against the commission was contained in the following remarks made by Senator Plumb during a debate in the Senate; “The Senator from Connecticut says the commission is doing its duty, and I am not disposed to dispute it; but if the commission is doing its duty, the law is utterly failing in doing its duty, and is entirely different from what it was supposed to be when it was enacted. The Commissioner of Pensions was before a committee-of the Senate some weeks ago, and had something to say about the operations of the law. In his bureau he said he had got seventy-six or seventy-seven clerks through the medium of the civil-service commission, and of these seventy-one or seventytwo were Democrats that he knew of, and he was not positive of the politics of the other five.” Then the Senator adds: “Either he was a very good guesser, or the commission made a very good guess, or perhaps they both guessed well in regard to the politics of these men, or the law is somewhere at fault.” Senator Ingalls then took the floor, and the charges made by the distinguished Senator from Kansas are summed up as follows by Mr. Oberly: “The civil-service commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, has, by using its Democratic clerks and examiners, ascertained the politics of applicants for the position of special examiners in the pension office, and after obtaining this information has refused to permit Republicans to pass the examinations, but has passed Democrats, and in this way has packed with Democrats the register of persons eligible for appointment as special examiners, thus giving to the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions an opportunity to select and appoint Democrats only. “It has also been charged that, with the intention of making easy the work of obtaining Democrats for the grade of special pension examiner, the civil-service commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, has made an older that in response to every requisition for eligibles of this grade the whole list of eligibles shall be certified to the Democratic appointing officer. It has been stated in this connection that the civil-service commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, certified to the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions at one time the names of 405 persons who had been examined for special pension examiners who had been examined and graded by the commission and its Democratic examiners and clerks.” The Commissioner then says: “No Democratic Senator contradicted the charges thus made against the Civil-Service Commission as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, and no Republican Senator better informed than Senators Plumb aud Ingalls took issue with those gentlemen. In view of these facts the silence of the CivilService Commission concerning the charges made against it on the floor or the Senate, and now being repeated by the public press, has been, it appears, construed into an admission by the commission or the truthfulness of those charges. Therefore a statement of the facts of this matter is submitted in this paper.” Mr. Oberly then states that tho appointments made by Commissioner Dudley during the year 1884, which were made under the civil-service rules as then administered by a Republican commission, all or nearly all were Republicans, and that they numbered 150. “Were these Republicans special examiners unfairly obtained?” “How could they have been? At that time the civil-service commiss on was Republican in its majority, and honest—of course. The Secretary of the Interior, to whom the commi sion certified the whole eligible list for the uses of the Commissioner of Pensions, was a Republican, and honest—of course. The Commissioner of Pensions, who selected the names from the list, was a Republican, and honest—of course. The civil-service examiners who conducted the examinations, and graded all the applicants, were Republicans, and honest—of course. Therefore, is not the conclusion irresistible that by the processes of the civil-service act nearly, if not an entire force, of Republican special pension examiners was obtained?” At the close of his letter, Mr. Oberly sums up his statements as follows: “Now, let me ask what has been shown in this paper. Clearly that eighty-nine of the 150 special pension examiners obtained by the machinery of the civil-service act in 1884 were obtained from certifications of the whole list of eligibles made by a civilservice commission Republican in its majority; that these eligibles were procured by examinations conducted by Republican civil-service examiners, and that the great mass, if not all of the 150 special examiners selected in that year by the Republican Commissioners of Pensions were Republicans. What else has been shown? Clearly that of the 159 special pension examiners selected by the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions in 1885, about seventyfive of the 150 appointed were Republicans, that seventy-two were Democrats, and five of unknown politics. It has also been shown that of the special pension examiners obtained by*the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions fifty-one were obtained from lists prepared by the Civil-Service Commission while it was Republican in its majority and by Republican civil-service examiners and clerks. “The other Democratic special pension examiners obtained by the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions were obtained, it is true, alter the Civil-Service Commission had become Democratic in its majority, but not one of the Democratic pension examiners was ever obtained who had not been examined by Republican civ 1service examiners, and whose name had not been put upon an eligible register made by Republican clerks under the jealous eye of a careful and competent Republican chief examiner. •‘ln th? it may be stated that

the Civil-Service Commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, is not responsible for the practice of certifying the whole list of eligibles to the appointins officer. That practice was commenced bg the Civil-Service Commission when it way Republican in its majority. The CivilService Commission was not Democratic in its majority until after Gen. Black, as Commissioner of Pensions, had selected 123 of his special pension examiners, and the remaining twenty-seven special examiners were appointed from eligible registers supfilied by examinations conducted by Repubican civil-service examiners. “And more than this: The Civil-service Commission, since it became Democratic in its majority, has discontinued the practice of certifying unconditionally the whole list of eligibles, and has declared that only four names, taken from those graded highest on the eligible register of pension examiners, shall be certified for the purpose of filling a vacancy in that grade; that certifications shall be made for the purpose of tilling vacancies in the grade of special pension examiner in the same way that certifications are made to till vacancies in any other class or grade. “Thus it is made manifest that Senators Plumb and Ingalls have made false charges against the Civil-service Commission as now constituted with a Democratic majority; that the.y have shot venomous arrows at Democratic officials and have hit their own friends. “In concluding this paper I desire to say that the Democratic Civil-service Commission will not permit anxiety for the success of their party to induce them to wander into any of the by-paths that lead away from the broad highway of the civil-service reform movement.”

CLEVELAND’S VETOES.

The Recklessness with Which Congress Votes Money Out of the Treasury. [From the New York Evening Post.) The President has given another evidenae of the painstaking care which he bestows upon the smaller as well as the weightier matters of his office, by filing with the State Department memoranda of his reasons for not approving nearly a dozen acts and resolutions which reached him during the last days of the session, and had not been acted upon at adjournment. The strongest impression made upon one by the perusal of these memoranda is that of the recklessness with which Congress passes bills. Bor example, one bill provided for the payment of $633.50 to William H. Wheeler for quartermaster’s stores furnished the army in 1862, but data furnished the President by the Quartermaster General seem to leave no doubt that the claim has already once been paid. Not a shadow of doubt is left in regard to the similar bill for the relief of J. A. Henry and others, which appropriates various sums to these persons for rent of quarters occupied during the war to' the Quartermaster Department of the army, including ssl to L. F. Green. This account has been paid once, a special act directing such payment having been approved Feb. 12, 1885; aud the President remarks that “the fact of this payment, and important information bearing upon the validity of some of the other claims mentioned in the bill, could have been ea-iiv obtained by application to the Third Auditor.” In another case an act had been passed, doubtless without attracting any attention, which granted a pension to Margaret D. Merchand, although the President hal already vetoed a similar bill upon the giound that she was not entitled to it, as the death of her husband did not appear to Le in any way related to any incident of his military service. 'The easy-going spirit in which Congressmen vote away other people’s money is also illustrated in the President’s com-, ments. One of the bills proposed to give S2OO to Francis W. Holdeman, an Ohio man, “as qwppensation for services performed and money expended for the benefit of the United States army,” upon the ground that in the fall of 1863, when le was a lad twelve years of age, he purchased a uniform, armed himself, attached himself to various Ohio regiments, and performed various duties connected with army seiw.ee until the end of the year 1864. The boy never enlisted, and never was regularly attached to any regiment, and, as Mr. Cleveland says, it is quite evident that his military services could not have amounted to much more than the indulgence of a boy.sh freak, and his being made a pit of the soldiers with whom he was associated. The President's comment upon the matter is that which would be made by any unprejudiced person: “There is a pleasant sentiment connected with this display of patriotism and childish military ardor, and it is not a matter of surprise that he should, ns stated by the committee, have ‘received honorable mention byname in the history of his regiment;’ but when it is proposed, twenty-two years after his one year’s experience with troops, to pay him a sum nearly, if not quite, equal to the pay of a soldier who fought and suffered all the dangers and privations of a soldier’s life, I am bound to dissent.” Another act allowed two men who were employed by the doorkeeper of the Fortyeighth Congress as laborers, at $720 a year, the difference between that rate of pay and the $1,200 allowed messengers, on the ground that they performed the duties of both laborers and messengers. Mr. Cleveland points out that the men accepted the position of laborers, that they owed their time and services to the Government, that while they were performing the duties of messengers they escaped the harder tasks which might have been required of them as laborers, and that if they actually performed the duties of both places, their ability to do so is evidence that the labor of either place was li ht. He concludes that “claims for extra compensation such as these should be firmly disejuu enanced. A more important measure which met the same fate was the bill providing ;or the erection of a public building at Annapolis, Md. '1 he two Federal offices there are now accommodated at a total rental of but $075 a yea . and the only plausible plea for constructing a Government building was the sac; that most if not all tl e other capitals of States have such buildings. The average taxpayer will agree with the Pr s dent that this is altogether too flimsy an argument to justify the waste of $100,00(1 or more. The Democratic p irty has been in power a year and a half, and it has done more to create a navy than tho Republicans did in nineteen years. The end of the civil war found us in possession of the first navy in the world. The end of Republican mle left us with the worst.— lndianapolis Sentinel.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—The citizens of Rochester held a meeting recently, and organized a fish protection society. It is the intention of the new society to see that the existing laws are strictly enforced throughout Fulton County, and every violator severely punished. For some time past Lake Manitou has suffered from seining and dynamite, and it is thought if the slaughter is not stopped the lake will lose one of its most desirable charms. Action was also taken looking to the building of a fish-ladder over the dam in the Tippecanoe River at that place. —A farmer living five miles northwest of Wabash was engaged in shooting ruts in a wood-shed on his farm, recently, using a seven-shooter revolver. The first ball fired passed through the side of the structure and struck his wife, who happened to be outside, in the right shoulder and penetrated her lungs. The full extent of her injuries is not known. .The husband is nearly crazed with grief because of his carelessness in the handling of firearms. —The Flatrock Baptist Association, comprising twenty churches, held its sixtyfourlh annual session at Shelbyville. The records of the churches show 343 baptized during the year. The membership of the association is 2,365. The amount of $215.73 has been given to tho State missions; $40.85 to home missions; $85.36 to foreign missions; $24.87 to the publication society, and $114.35 to women’s missions. —A 14-year-old boy of Rushville met with quite a painful accident recently. Some dynamite caps were found in an old tenant-house on his father’s farm, and the boy concluded to try to tiro a few of them. Gne exploded in his left hand and badly mangled his thumb and finger. The thumb was amputated, and it is thought by the physicians that the finger will have to be taken off. —A farmer living six miles south of Elkhart, some time ago unearthed several huge bones of a mastodon. Since that time he has continued his researches in the hopes of finding tho whole skeleton. His habors have been rewarded by finding a foreleg, which has the enormous length of fourteen feet. He has hopes that he will eventually find tho remaining portions. —A strange disease has made its appearance among the sheep in Redding Township, Jackson County. As soon as attacked they are thrown into hard spasms, and death follows often in less than thirty minutes. A man lost fifteen fine Southdowns. The disease seems to baffle the skill of all. Some thinks it results from a kind of fly that stings the sheep in the nose. —The largest yield of flaxseed ever known was thrashed from twelve acres of ground on a farm five miles west of Decatur. The total yield was 300 bushels, or twenty-five bushels to the acre. The remarkable yield astonishes the farmers in that part of the State. It was raised on thoroughly-ditched and tilled prairie. —The southern part of Grant County is being devastated by hog cholera. One farmer states that, in bis immediate neighborhood, not less than a thousand have perished. There are not less than a hundred farmers in the county who have lost from thirty to sixty head, and hundreds of others have lost smaller numbers. —Membeis of the Salvation Army who were arrested nt LaPorte a few weeks ago for parading the streets have filed suit against the County Sheriff, City Marshal, and the Mayor, for false imprisonment. The claim is for SI,OOO damages in each case, and two charges are made against each of the three officers. —A fanner living near Roann, having more dynamite than he needed, thought to secure safety for himself and family by throwing it into a burning brush-heap. Before he could get away the dynamite exploded tearing away one of his hands and slightly injuring him in other parts of the body. A farmer of Redding Township, Jackson County, received $381.10 for the nutmeg melons raised on three and a half acres of land, and his net profits from the sales were $153.72. This is $45.35 per acre—enough in one year’s products to pay for the land. —The Sheriff of Jeffersonville, has a horse affected with hydrophobia. Some time ago it was bitten by a rabid dog, and since then snaps viciously at everything within reach, kicks down the door of the stable, and does all manner of wicked things. —Grandmother Boggs, of Milton, 103 years o’.d, was one of the attractions at the old settlers’ meeting at Centerville. Wayne County. She had with her the little pewter dish she ate mush and milk out of when a child. —The Mayor of Jeffersonville, and a number of other leading citizens are arranging to organize a stock company, with a capital of SIOO,OOO, for the purpose of erecting and running cotton mills in that city. —A curious specimen in the shape of a double apple is exhibited at Huntington. It has two distinct stems and two blossom ends, though it is grown firmly together as one apple. —Bonds and notes, amounting to $20,000, stolen last March by blowing a safe open at Canaan, Jefferson County have been found in a briar patch in the neighborhood. —Horse thieves are operating in the northern part of Wabash County, and farmers in that section have organized, and promise to make it warm for the rascals. —A Clark County peach-grower, reports no peaches in his immense orchards this season. He has set out 10,000 young trees, and will in 1888 set out 30,000 more.