Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1887 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—A Logansport special says: Recent developments have brought to the surface a new scheme to defraud and rob the farmers. The first move made by the sharper is to write his victim a letter stating that a distant relative in New York or Philadelphia has just died, leaving him a large sum of ready cash. The amount is usually placed at about $3,000. The farmer is urged to keep the matter strictly to himself, or at least divulge it to his intimate friends only, and he is urged to come to the city at the earliest possible moment, with as much as s*2so to pay legal expenses. If he does not become suspicious he follows the instructions and meets the agent who so graciously informs him of his good fortune at a hotel. The $3,000 in crisp, new bills is counted out to him and done up in a neat package. He pays the “legal expenses." and is given a package, the exact counterpart of the one containing the bills, which he is advised to send home by express. When he reaches home and anxiously tears open his package, to his surprise he finds a brick, waste paper, and saw-dust Several complaints have been made to the authorities by persons victimized in this way, but thus far no arrests have been made. —Alfred W. Scott has sent his resignation as Representative of Morgan County to the Governor. Mr. Scott proposes to make his home in Lincoln, Neb. If an extra session of the Legislature should be called two Senators and four Representatives would have to be elected to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations of Senators Sellers and Bailey, and Representatives Barnes, Gordon, Patton, and Scott. —One of the largest people’s mass meetings ever held in Fort Wayne took place at the Court-house recently to organize a stock company, composed of citizens, to pipe natural gas to the city from Hartford City, a distance of forty miles. It requires a capital of $400,000. One hundred thousand dollars were raised at once, and the entire sum will be subscribed. It is expected that pipe-laying will commence at once. —The Executive Committee of the Ninth District Veteran’s Association, whose reunion will be held at Crawfordsville, September 10 to 22, has chosen Capt. J. E. Southard, of Frankfort, us Commander of Camp H. S. Lane. His aids are: Adjutant, J. W. Aughe; Quartermaster, J. Q. W. Wilhite; Chief of Ordinance, H. H. Talbot; Commissary, J. H. Wasson; Surgeon, Dr. S. L. Ensminger. —A most strange thing has occurred on the farm of E. D. Higley, near Tocsin, on the Chicago and Atlantic Railway. A well had nearly gone dry—had only a few inches of water on the bottom. When Mr. Higley went as usual to draw water the other morning he found that the bottom had. dropped out of the well. There is now a deep black hole there, which has not yet been fathomed.

—By the fall of a portion of a heavy derrick at the bridge being erected over Silver Creek near New Albany, for the O. & M. Railroad extension to New Albany, Harry Connelly was struck over the heart by a piece of timber and died in an hour. Thomas Stanger was very badly injured, but will recover. Both men were employed by the contractor for the bridge piers. —Rushville is infested by a gang of small boys who, for the past few weeks, have set fire to seven barns in different parts of the town, all of which have burned to the ground. The last to burn was owned by M. C. Kerr. The authorities are making strong efforts to break up the gang, and it is believed the infamous practice will soon be stopped. —Jack Vanbibber, a young man residing near Evansville, attempted to jump on a log-wagon, but lost his hold and fell to the ground between the wheels. One of the hind wheels passed over him, inflicting internal injuries, crushing his skull, and breaking his right thigh. He died a few hours later, after suffering intense agony. —Henry Pletcher, a young man 23 years of age, of Elkhart, was blown to fractions by the explosion of fifty pounds of dynamite cartridges while blasting stumps on the farm of John Hill, near La Porte. Parts of his body were found eighty rods distant, hanging in the limbs of trees forty feet from the ground. —Two men named Darrow were overcome by damps while digging a well on the farm of Mr. McNamee, five miles east of Wabash. Before help arrived both men perished. The dead men were aged 30 and 40, respectively, and were brothers. Both resided in the vicinity and were well known. —The Sixth, Twenty, second, and Eighty-third Regiments, Indiana Volunteers, will hold their annual reunion at Columbus, Oct. C, 7, and 8. Several other regiments are expected to participate. AU old soldiers are cordially invited. —Sylvester Kirk, of Mount Vernon, a painter, fell from a scaffold recently, receiving what is believed to be fatal injuries. He fell a distance of over fifty feet. He leaves a large family, who were entirely dependent upon him for support. —Rev. Alexander Blackburn, for nine years pastor of the Baptist Church, at Lafayette, has received and accepted a call at Lowell, Mass. He will leave on November 1. His present salary is $1,800; his prospective salary, $2,500. —The remains of a mastodon were discovered on the Godfrey farm, four miles east of Montpelier, at a depth of five feet. This makes two mastodons and one mammoth (hairy elephant) found in that locality during the past four years. —E. W. Benjamin, a pioneer of Wabash County, and an old Mason, died recently in LaGro Township, aged 77.