Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1887 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—At Wubash, Pat McCoy, a laborer in the trenches of the water company, was fatally injured by the discharge of a heavy blast of Hercules powder. The charge had failed to ignite, and McCoy was instructed to wet it and swab it out. Instead of obeying he began drilling it with an iron bar, and it suddenly let go. McCoy was almost blown out of the trench; his face, neck, and breast were horribly lacerated; his right arm was shattered, and the fingers of both hands were torn off. His breast and neck are literally filled with fragments of limestone. The physicians say he cannot live. McCoy is a married man and resides at Peru. —Patents have been issued for Indianinns as follows; James W. Cole, Greencastle, multiple subsidary ground terminal for lightning rods: Joshua J. Collins, assignor to himself, J. 8. Collins, and W. D. 8. Rogers, Knox, clothes wringer; Andrew J. and G. W. Forsythe, Kokomo, wirefence machine; Charles Gibson, Mount Vernon, fence; Samuel M. Jackson, Logansport, machine for bundling wall paper; Jesse B. and O. B. Johnson, Indianapolis, baling press; Jacob V. Rowlett, Richmond, roller skate; Francis M. Fribbey, New Albany, combined table and cot; Peter Wahl, North Vernon, razor. —Some five weeks ago W. W. Costancer was put off of a Vandalia freight train by the conductor because ho did not have a ticket. Costancer claimed that he could not buy a ticket, because there was no person in the ticket office, and the conductor refused the money he offered as fare to Darlington. Suit was brought at Darlington, and judgment for $20(1 was obtained by default. It is understood that the railway company will appeal the case, while on the other side they declare that a locomotive will be chained to the track if necessary to secure the judgment. —Prof. E. T. Cox, formerly State Geologist, and now of New York, furnishes some interesting information relative to the geological formation of Indiana, and the probable sources of natural gas. Ho does not accept the porous-rock theory. As oil and gas are both found in Trenton rock, which is not porous, he holds that it must exist in large cavities or systems of fissures, furnishing a much greater capacity for storage than the pores of any rock could. It would follow from this, then, that to find gas in any large quantity one of these cavities must be tapped. —Mr. and Mrs. William Kissing, living a few miles from Elkhart, have begun proceedings against some of their neighbors, whom they charge with endeavoring to blow up their house with dynamite. Some one exploded a dynamite bomb so close to the Kissing house that the building was badly wrecked, the window-panes shattered, Mr. and Mrs. Kissing thrown from their bed, and a young daughter frightened so that she was attacked by convulsions.

—B. Wilson Smith, of Tippecanoe County; John W. Study, of Rush; John R. Cravens, of Jefferson, and Daniel McDonald, of Marshall, have been appointed by the Governor as honorary Commissioners from Indiana at the Centennial celebration of the settlement of the Northwestern Territory at Marietta. 0. W. W. Woollen, of Indianapolis, and R. M. Lockhart will serve as Commissioners to the exposition to be held nt Columbus, 0., next year. —Elmer Betts, of Portland, while returning from church one night recently, began firing at a scare-crow in a fence corner. Three shots were fired, the last striking Willie Sassar, a companion of Betts, and killing him. Young Betts surrendered to the Sheriff. Coroner Kinsey and Prosecutor Adair held an inquest. After examining witnesses the Coroner was satisfied the shooting was accidental, and rendered a verdict to that effect.

The State Board of Printing has declined to allow a requisition of the State Agricultural Board which includes the report of the Horticultural Society. The •tatute provides that the Horticultural Society shall have 500 copies printed. In this case the State Board of Agriculture’s report contains 5,000 reports of the Horticultural Society, which does not comport with the law. —The Secretary of State has received from the contractor for State printing the first installment of printed copies of the laws passed by the Legislature. They will be sent out to the proper officers immediately. The book has but seventy-seven pages, including the eleven used for an index. —Mrs. Thos. Bramlett, living near Little Flatrock, south of Rushville, was feeling badly, and went to Milroy to consult Dr. Riley. She was taken with spasms soon after her arrival, and died in a very short time. The case is a very peculiar one. —The 4-year-old daughter of Charles Hncklemeyer, of Fort Wayne, stumbled and fell head foremost into a tub of hot water. She was rescued in an unconscious condition. She suffered the most intense agony; until death came to her relief. —Washington Township, Pike County, has voted $10,500 in aid of the Vincennes and Ohio Railroad. This township, after a lengthy litigation, has just paid the last of a like appropriation voted to the Evansville and Indianapolis road. —A large force of men have been set at work in building the New Albany and Eastern Railroad westward from Watson. One of the bridges on this line, with its approaching trestles, will be 1,080 feet in length. ( —Mrs. Thomas Maloney, at Burr Oak, a few miles east of Elkhart, committed suicide by throwing herself in front of a passenger train during a spell of temporary aberration. Her head and one arm were severed.