Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1888 — INDIANA NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA NEWS.

—New Harmony, eighteen miles from Evansville, was the scene of a distressing accident recently. Mr. John W. Miller, a wealthy merchant, was cleaning out a breech-loading gun, when a cartridge fastened in it suddenly exploded, literally blowing off the head of the unfortunate man. His wife rushed into the apartment, only to find the entire room spattered with the blood and brains of her husband. The shock was so sudden and unexpected that she fell into a dead faint, and did not revive for on hour. The gun containing the cartridge had not been used for some time, and when the barrel was taken from the stock the cup no doubt came in contact with the floor as it was set down. Mr. Miller was one of the representative men of Posy County, well known in business throughout that section. —Miss Emma C. White, of Crawfordsville, has already prepared her last resting place at Oak Hill Cemetery. She has long been a sufferer from consumption, and knowing that her days on earth were numbered, she decided to make her own arrangements for her grave. She accordingly purchased a lot in the above cemetery, and, having money of her own, tad a tomb or vault lorse enough to hold a coffin, built above the ground out of white rough-hewed limestone. It is to be covered with a large stone cap, which will have to be put in place with a derrick erected for the purpose. Miss White visited the cemetery after the vault was completed, expressed herself as pleased with the job and paid for the same. She then returned home to await the approach of death, which is not far distant. —More ground has been bought by the State Board of Agriculture, and extensive improvements will be made before the next fair. A splendid new amphitheater, four hundred feet long, by forty feet wide and two stories, will be built, costing $lO,QOO. It will be as good as anything of the kind in the country, and the board says it will not stand back in expense to make it modern and first-class in every particular. A new race track will be built at once, under the immediated direction of Superintendent Lockhart, who was given the contract and who is pronounced by horsemen to be an expert in the business. The track will be completed by the first of June and the amphitheater by July I—so that Marion County horsemen will have a chance to try ft during the summer. —Patents have been granted Indiana inventors as follows: George Ford, New Harmony, gate; Enoch Harris, Evansville, saw tooth; Nicholas Henizer, Randolph, assignor of one-half to H. Reitenour, Union City, end-gate; Samuel E. Johns, assignor of one-third to A. R. Monroe. Indianapolis, machine for gathering and collating book signatures; Samuel A. Payne, assignor of two-thirds to J. L. Fisher, and J. M. Stout, Scottsburg, hand planter; James J. Turner, assignor to himself and J. F. Miller, Richmond, switch and signal interlocking; Frank D. Walden, Jeffersonville, shoe-upper turning machine.

—Dumont Post, No. 18, G. A. R., Shelbyville, through James B. Wilson, a member, 1188 brought a novel proceeding in the Circuit Court in the shape of petitions to have guardians appointed for Thomas Thompson, John Berry, Solomon Swan go, William Spencer, Charles Marietta, Gideon Palmer, Sam Fike, and Henry Phillips, members of the post The petitions allege that they are habitual drunkards, and squander the pension money they receive each quarter from the Government, instead of devoting it to the support of their families.

—An explosion of natural-gas occurred at the pulp-works, at Muncie. The gas had escaped between two walls, and was accidently ignited. The force of the explosion tore down the two walls and fatally injured one of the workmen. . The man had one side of his head crushed and was badly bruised. —The infant child of Joseph Hunter, a farmer living near Green Oak, Fulton County, was fatally scalded by falling into a tub of hot water. The screams of the child were heard by its mother, who res. cued the little one from the deadly t>ath, but too late.

—Charles Butler, who was hung for the murder of his wife at Columbia City some years ago, left an only child named Harry, A recent dispatch from Coronado, Kan., says -that Harry has fallen heir to $40,000, left by his grandmother. —Eastern oil men are flocking to Portland, and will open up the oil field there at once. One local company has been offered $7,000 for their leases in Jay County.* The Indiana oil field is now definitely located in that county. —William Fewell was crushed by a large block of wood falling on him at Schroeder’s saddle-tree factory, Madison. One leg was broken and he suffered internal injuries. He will not live. He has a wife, but no children. —Many farmers in Cass County, and also observing men who have been over that section of the State, report that they never saw the wheat looking worse than it does now. The late rains may bring some of it out —The State Normal School building at Terre Haute, was totally destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated at $240,000, and no insurance. Eight hundred pupils escaped from the burning building without injury. —A 2 per cent, tax has been voted in Ripley Township, Montgomery County, aa a donation to the Atlantic and Mississippi Railway. The proposition was carried by 110 majority. —Phillip Krackman, a prominent citizen of Corydon, was caught in the ma* ehinery of a xftill find killed. j