Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1890 — AFFAIRS IN INDIANA. [ARTICLE]

AFFAIRS IN INDIANA.

INTERESTING ITEMS GATHERED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES.

What Our Neighbors Are Doing—Matters of General ami Local Interest—Marrlages ami Deaths—Accidents and Crimes —Personal Pointers. Killed to .Save Himself. The Governor h«s pardoned John Nixon, a life man in the Northern Penitentiary, from Boone County, who has served ten years, on the recommendation of the presiding jndge at the trial, the prosecutor, and the jury. The latter stated in itß recommendation that in the jury-room when the members agreed upon a verdict, it was also agreed to recommend his pardon after he had Berved seven years. Nixon was sent up for killing a man named Mulligan, who enticed him to a secluded spot and attempted to murder him, and in defending himself Nixon plunged a knife into Mulligan’s body. At the trial the Court told him if he would plead guilty he would give him ten years, but Nixon refused, saving he had committed the deed only to save bis own life, and when the jury returned a verdict with a life sentence Judge Terhune set it aside and ordered a new trial, over which Judge Sait presided, and which resulted in a similar veidict with the result as above related. During his imprisonment Nixon lost his right arm in the machinery of the institution, and now starts life anew at a disadvantage. Ground to Death. Albert G. Hoffman, switchman in tho yards of the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad at Huntington, was killed by cars. He was employed at night, and went to the coal dock to run down two cars that had been unloaded there. The track was very much inclined leading from the dock, and it requires that the brakes be set very tight. When tho cors started down the track Hoffman ran from the rear end to tho front of tho head car to set the brake, but in doing so stubbed his toe and fell from the car to the middle of the track beneath. The cur was running lapidly, and no sooner did he strike the track than a brake beam of the car struck his right legnearthe hip, fracturing the bones and bruising it otherwise. That threw him over, and the flange of a wheel struck the lower part of his back, tearing the flesh all off clear to his backbone, exposing it to sight. It wnsa sickening looking wound, nnd ho lived but n short time. Minor Stale Item*. A six-foot vein of coal wns struck at Scottsburg, at a depth of 300 feet, while boring for gas. —The grip is paying a second visit among the residents of Mill Creek Township, Putnam County. —Colored people of Henry County held an indignation meeting over the acquittal of Lake on the charge of murdering Eli Ladd. —Prof. John C. Barrett, engaged durthe past year in post-graduate work at Earlham, has been elected principal of the Munoio High school. —James Strawbridge was drowned in a pond south of Logansport while bathing. He was taken with cramps and went to the bottom before assistance arrived.

The engine of a special train going from Seymour to Jeffersonville, on the J., M. & 1., struck a cow at Austin and was derailed. None of the cars left the track, and nobody was hurt. —While swimming in the Wabasb, near the western city limits of Wabasb, Maurice, the eleven-year-old son of Conrad Bagnn, was drowned. The body was recovered three rods from where it sank. —A farmer living near Coatesville bad nine valuable sheep killed by dogs one night recently, and on the following night the herd of another was attacked, but it was saved by timely action. —ln digging a well at Springport, at a depth of thirty-seven feet a strong vein of water was struck, flowing eight nnd one-half feet above the surface of the ground. The water is clear as crystal and cold as ice. —The following, except the name, is a verbatim copy of a note sent by a very prominent citizen recently to a certain physician of Crawford County: “Doc, John Jones is very bad and if you think it worth while I believe be will die.” —Two women, Doan Nichols and Mrs. Shetterly, were arrested nt Muncie on the charge of abducting Meda Waters, aged 17, to Indianapolis for immoral purposes. Miss Waters’ father brought her back, bat filled with remorse, the young girl took strychnine and died. Mr. Waters is determined to pnnish the women. —The community living aronnd Sim Coy’s Road House, east of Indianapolis, objecting to Sunday base-ball, are preparing to file twenty-five cases against Coy in the Criminal Court, on information, for failure to take out a city retail liquor license under the law which gives the city jurisdiction over liquor establishments within two miles of its corporate limits. At the same time information will be lodged against the street car company, of which Mr. Shaffer, President of the Y. M. C. A., is the controlling force, in an equal number of cases, for alleged overloading of cars in conveying passengers to and fro between the city and Coy’s Park.

—Willis Cook, of Jeffersonville, vu fatally crushed beneath a falling grindstone.

—Miss Agnes Hasfader, a handsome young lady of Colnmbus, alarmed her friends by taking a dose of morphino with 6nicid»l intent. She has been keeping company with a yonng man named Bebrm&n, to whom she was engaged to be married. From some cause the lover has grown lukewarm in his love-making, nnd tho girl grew very despondent and attempted to end her sufferings with poison. Prompt action by two or three physicians saved her life.' The girl bears a good reputation. —The leading farmers of Allen,Noble, Whitley, Elkhart* Kosciusko, Lagrange, nnd Hentington counties were in session iu Fort Wayne, to orgnnize a new Farmers’ Alliance. They were addressed by Newton V. Ashley of lowa, National Organizer, on the near relation and common interests of the agricultural classes and the Knights of Labor. A constitution and by-laws were adopted, together with a number of resolutions expressive of the sentiment of the meeting on public issues. Officers were also elected: J. C. Lawrence, of Whitley County, Secretary; nnd W. A. Kelsey, of Allen County, Secretnryjand Thomas L. McKee, of Allen County, Treasurer. The meeting was an enthusiastic one. —A sad case of drowning occurred near Franklin, iu which n young man lost his life while Bavingthat of a boy. On the farm of William Smith is a large fish pond, in which n boy by the name of Gaylor was bathing. While in deep water he wns seized with cramps,and was apparently in a drowning condition, when his cries brought to his assistance a son of Mr. Smith, a yonng man of about twenty-two years of age, who immediately jumped into the pond and succeeded in bringing Gaylor to tha bank, where he was assisted out by others attracted to the scene. Smith, either from cramps or exhaustion, fell bnck into deep water and sank from sight. In risking his lifo for another he had lost his own. —Miss Lulu O’Keofo, of the College of Liberal Arts, Greencnstle, had a remarkable experience with a needle, which she ran in her foot nine years ago. The young lady had endured no little pain in walking, the point of the needle having lodged against the periosteum, near the sole of the foot; but she could not summon courage enough to have it removed until tho other day, ‘ when the operation was performed by Dr. G. C. Smythe in less time than it takes to tell it. Tho needle was threefourths of an inch in length. It having lodged, against the bone, was prevented from working its way through and out of the foot. The patient, when she recovered from the effects of the chloroform, was rejoiced beyond expression, nor did she experience the slightest pain. —Elizabeth Coward, of Marti* County, and Kate Young, of Vigo, both serving terms in the Female Reformatory for grand larceny, mado a daring escape form the institution the other morning, and are still at large. They worked in the laundry department, and secured two sheets each, which they wrapped about their persons, and thus concealed themselves from the Superintendent. They also secured a couple of case knives, and with these sawed out two of the iron bars that form apart of the grating nt the windows. They then let themselves down with the sheets, and succeeded in scaling the wall which surrounds the prison. They are armed with the knives, and it is not believed that they can be retaken without a struggle. - The case of Hosea against the White Caps has ended. April 11, 1890, David Hosea was taken out of his bouse in Burr Township. Daviess County, by eight masked men and flogged with hickory switches. April 7, John McGath was arrested for attempting to buy the vote of David Hosea, jr., and on tho night of April 10, William (Seals’ barn was burned. Now, when the White Caps took Mr. Hosea from his bed, they charged him with burning the bam and also threatened to whip the old man because his son had McGrath arrested. In the face of these facts Mr. Hosea believed William Seals, John McGrath, Patrick McGrath, Samuel Brewer, and Charles Gough to be his persecutors aud accordingly tiled an affidavit against them. At the trial, held recently, each defendant proved an alibi, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. —The establishment of Swift & Co., Chicago, of a local depot in Fort Wayne, for the sale of Chicago dressed meatr* has well nigh ruined the business of local butchering establishments and made the raising of beef cattle by farmers profitless. Nearly all beef now supplied to retailers is sold by Swift & Co. As an offset to this monopoly, a movement is now on foot and will be carried out to form a stock company among the locgl batchers for the establishment of stock yards at a point east of the city, at which all kinds of live meat will have a ready market at current prices and where they will be slaughtered by the newest and most approved methods and sold to local dealers as dressed meats without thergoßt of railroad transportation and with the advantage of home inspection and the freshness that will come by the saving of extra handling and long railroad transportation. The names of the incorporators of this enterprise will soon be made public.