Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1887 — THE WESTERN STATES. [ARTICLE]

THE WESTERN STATES.

An Albuquerque (N. M.) dispatch says that Pablo Crispire’s saw mill, thirty miles east of that city, was the scene of a terrible explosion, resulting in the destruction of the property and instantly killing six men, one of them the son of the proprietor, and seriously injuring the head sawyer, Thomas Vataw. Copious rains all over the peninsula have extinguished the forest fires, says a Marquette (Mich.) special The relief fund for the Lake Linden sufferers, including the $20,000 appropriated by the Legislature, now amounts to about $40,000. Marquette sends $1,500 and a large amount of bedding, clothing, eta; Negaunee and Ishpeming about $3,000; Hancock, Houghton, and Calumet, $7,000; Detroit about SIO,OOO. The condition of the wheat crop in the Northwest has been greatly improved by the recent rains, and the prospects are now highly encouraging. The Interior Department has approved the right of way of the St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company through that portion of the Blackfoot Indian reservation lying within the jurisdiction of the Fort Peck Indian agency in Montana. The distance is 177 miles, and the number of acres required 3,508, the appraised value of which is 50 cents per acre. The perils of journalism in the far West are illustrated by a tragedy that occurred at Loup City, Neb., where 0. B. Willard, editor of the Times, was shot and killed by B. F. Richardson, who runs the opposition paper, the Northwestern. The affair grew out of a bitter personal controversy that the two men had been conducting in their respective prints. Richardson was arrested, and threats of mob violence were made by friends of his victim. The winter wheat prospects have been greatly improved in Indiana and Ohio in the recent rains. In other Western States the outlook is still impaired by dry weather. Latesown grain in Southern Minnesota is backward, owing to the drought. The yield of spring wheat in lowa promises to be large. In Northern and Central California wheat has been injured by hot winds. Heavy rains are reported in the Santa Fe Valley, in New Mexico, to the great advantage of the stock and agricultural interests.