Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 April 1885 — Page 2

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INDIANA AND ILLINOIS NEWS The Daily Chronicle of Happenings of All Kinds in the Two States. Destructive Fire at Bristol, Elkhart County— The Loucks-Louthain Suit—A SomnaLihulist’s Narrow Escape. INDIANA. Bristol, Flkhart County, Again Visited by a Destructive Fire. sp#ci*l to the Indianaoolis Journal. Elktiart, April 17.—Last night, Bristol was visited by a most disastrous fire, destroying nearly all the business portion of the town which mu left after the fire of a few months ago. Sixteen buildings were burned, involving a loss of over $40,000. But few of the buildings are insured, there being only a little over $13,000 insurance on the whole. The Loncks-Louthain Slander Suit. Special to tbo Indianapolis Journal. Logansport, April 17.—A1l persons Interested in the Loucks-Louthain slander suit, now on trisl at Delphi, returned to this city this evening. The examination in chief of witnesses for the plaintiff was concluded this afternoon, when Judge Davidson adjourned court until next Wednesday. Mollie MeHale, the domestic upon whose statement the defense rest their case, arrived from Peoria, 111., to day. and will take the witness stand on Wednesday, when the real interest in the case will commence. Minor Notes. Wiilinm Myers, a prominent citizen and millowner, at Napoleon, died on Thursday. John Wilhelm has been nominated for mayor by the Vincennes Democrats over the present mayor, Shouse. Snipe-hunting is reported to be unusually fned this season in the neighborhood of Vineennos, and there are even more snipo than hunters Sol Meredith Post, G. A It., of Richmond, has appointed a committee on preliminaries for Decoration Day. A special effort will be made this year to enlist all Wayne county in the observance in that city. Jsptlm Turner, who enjoyed the local distinction o' being the first white male child born in Wayne county—which was settled in 1804 and organized in isiti, tho same year that Indiana was admitted to the CJniou —died yesterday afternoon, on a farm in Boston township, adjacent to the spot where he first-saw tho light. The Democrats of Greensburg have nominated Wm. Fortner for mayor, 8. F. Rogers for treasurer, Herman Robinson for clerk, and Nat. Robbins for marshal. The nominees for councilmen are: First ward. Jacob Haas; Second. Robert Shannon: Third, Frank E. Gavin; Fourth, Dr. S. B. Hitt. The owners of an automatic corn-planter have aereed to manufacture their implements in Marion for a bonus of $25,000; or if a stock com--sny can be formed with a capital of SBO,OOO. ' this sum $40,000 shall be paid stock, half of which shall go to the owners of the patent and the other half for the working capital. Othniel T. B. Biggs, of Greensburg, has sued William Bnedaker for slander, demanding $3,000 damages. The' alleged slander consists of the charge that Biggs testified falsely in a recent law suit The plaintiff is a well-known local attorney of the eastern part of Decatur county, and the defendant is a farmer of that vicinity. A notable wedding took place at Greensburg mu Thursday evening. The bride, Olive I. Robbins, is the daughter of John E. Robbins, the largest land-owner in Decatur county, and president of the First National Bank of Greensburg. while the groom is Robert McCoy, of a well known and reputable family, long residents of that county. The Spencer schools have closed. The graduating exercises were held at the opera house Thursday night The following names constitute the graduating class: Misses Hattie Elliott and Alta Figg, Messrs. William Mullinuix, George Wampler and Renos Richards. The addresses were all of a high order. The exercises were interspersed with vocal and instrumental music. Miss Lillie Hornaday, pianist assisted by Prof. Will Scott, violinist, rendered some fine •elections. Prof. Harwood and his excellent corps of assistants can be justly proud of the past year's school work. On Thursday, at 0 a. m.. near Coal City, on the Terre Haute & Railway, as Dr. Irwin, a dentist of that place, and Conductor Ogden were sitting sido by side in the caboose, • trunk in tho car, without apparent cause, blew up. Dr. Irwin, who sat nearest it, was badly, •nd, it is feared, seriously hurt about tbo head and arms. The trunk contained a pair of pants, a gun. and had evidently held powder. On the return trip at Clay City, it was learned that the trunk belonged to a lady who had got off there. The theory of the trainmen is that the trunk contained what is known as dittmar, or wood gunpowder, which is easily ignited, and that the astonishing explosion ’was’from this cause. The ady came from Vincennes, and in rechecking at she r nion Depot, at Terre Haute, the tag giving he station number was omitted, ao the brakeman did not know where to put it off. ILLINOIS. A Sleeping Man Walks Off a Flying Train and Narrowly Escapes Death. Special to tho Indiana poll* Journal. Marshall, April 17.—Harry K. Brown, of this city, had a narrow escapo from a horrible death last night He was coming home from St Louis in a Vandalia sleeper, and at Hagerstown got up, while asleep, went out and deliberately walked off the steps while the train was going at the rate of forty-five miles an hour. He landed in the soft mud at the side of the road. His forehead was badly bruised, and he was terribly shaken up. Had he fallen a moment sooner or later his brains would have been dashed out against a pile of ties. He was brought home this morning. _ One Hundred Votes for Logan. Springfield, April 17.—1n the Joint Assembly one hundred votes were cast on the first ballot for John A. Logun. The Democrats did not vote. On the second ballot the vote was the same. Adjourned. During the Joint Assembly Mr. Sittig occupied the deceased Mr. Shaw's seat on the Democratic Bide of the housa Brief Mention. Rev. J. W. Crane, Methodist minister at Moawequa, has lost his voice through hard work at a revival five weeks ago. Two sons of Henry Ileienzman, living three miles east of Duquoiu, were playing with a gun, when it was accidentally discharged, instantly killing the younger boy, aged seven years. August Elder has been arrested at Danville for burning the barn of Henry Volker, six miles south of that place. Eldar confesses the act, giving as the cause a grudge against Volker. At Centralia, a little school girl named Maggie Davis, while crossing a swollen stream on her way home, was washed off the bridge and drowped. Four companions wih her narrowly escaped the same fate. In a row at Quincy (following a game of cards in which the mayor of the city, Mr. Jarrett, had taken a hand) Thomas Reardon was shot in the buck of the head with a load of buckshot by James Neal, and will probably die. Solomon Senneff, charged with incendiarism, is on trial at Mt. Carroll. He, in partnership with George 8. Melendy, was the owner of a creamery which was insured for its full value in several companies. On tho 22d of April, 1884, the building was burned, and suspicion pointed so strongly toward Senneff that he vras indicted by the grand jury for setting tire to his own property. Richard Kearney, who killed Anton Berato, an Italian miner, at Braidwood, on March 25, has been captured at Des Moines, la. The two men quarreled while drinking in a saloon, and Kearney, seizing a beer glass, struck Berato on

the head, crushing in his skull. The murderer was arrested, but, aided from the outside, escaped the same night The State offered S2OO reward for his capture. Frank M. Roberts, of the Jerseyville Republic-an-Banner, was married on Wednesday to Miss Clara Buffington, music teacher in Jerseyville. Major Roberts was last year an appointee in the government printing office at Washington. D. C., and previously superintendent of the New Mexican Publishing and Printing Company, Santa Fe, N. M. Sixteen years ago he planted the Republican newspaper, and returning this spring he became its senior proprietor and editor. The bride and groom were betrothed sixteen years ago, but, owing to opposition by the lady’s parents, the nuptials were not celebrated, and, separating, she knew nothing of his whereabouts for thirteen years. In 1872 he married another lady in Humboldt, Kan. In 1882 she died in Sigourney, la, exacting from her husband a promise that if he married again it should be to his first love, if possible. Subsequently, writing from Mexico, he found his present wife unmarried, and the sequel indicates her fidelity. TOE REVOLT OF THE HALF-BREEDS. flints that Middleton Has Capitulated —Government Troops Working at a Disadvantage. Winnipeg, April 17. —It was hinted to-day that private messages pointed to a capitulation between Middleton and the rebel ringleaders, but the story is discredited. Many fear that the rebels have made a detour and attacked Middleton from the rear, in order to cut him off from communication and supplies. Tho absence of dispatches would indicate tho destruction of the telegraph wire, which it is essential to keep intact, in' order that Middleton may communicate with the government. Middleton is understood to have formed a plan for eluding the rebels by making a forced march at night from Clarke's Crossing toward Prince Albert, through the territory occupied by the Indians. He is anxious to form a junction with Irvine, and relieve Prince Albert before giving battle to the rebels, as he fears that Riel, even if defeated, would retreat from Prince Albert, sack the town and murder tho inhabitants. A special to tho Sun from Qu Appelle says: “Xordert Welsh, a wealthy half-breed in the Qu’Appelle valley, has arrived from the rebel camp, claiming to have deserted. He asserts that Middleton is running into powerful bands, and Riel, by evading him, will come down to Touchwood, seize the supplies there, and then go on to Fort Qu'Appelle with two field pieces which he has. Welsh says Middleton's scouts are not worth anything. They never sight the enemy, whereas the half-breed scouts are constantly within range of the government scouts. Riel has e.very hope of starving the troops out by cutting off supplies. The fact of the rebels crossing to the east sido of the South Branch in force, according to other reports, together with Welsh’s opinion of our situation, gives his account the appearance of being reliable. According to Welsh, Riel says he will rule or perish—will be king or die. Welsh says Riel also claims to have the promise of aid from Fenians and Irish Nationalists, and says he is acting under divine directions. BUSINESS DIFFICULTIES. Failures in the United States and Canada for the Past Week. New York, April 17. — The business failures occurring during tho last seven days throughout the country, as reported to R. G. Dun & Cos. to-day, number for the United States 204, and for Canada 18, or a total of 222, as against 212 last week, and 231 the week previous to the last. The distribution of the failures is about the same ns in recent weeks, and there is nothing important to note in regard to them. The assignments in New York city are few and light. Failure of Maddux Bros. Cincinnati, April 17.—Maddux Bros., wholesale grocers and dealers in tobacco and cigars, made an assignment to Thornton M. Hinkle. Their assets are estimated nominally at SIBO,OOO and their liabilities at $130,000. The firm is composed of Lewis Maddux, of New York; Thomas Maddux, Darwin F. Davis and Charles L. Looker, of this city. Preferred claims have been secured by mortgages as follows: Mrs. Ann Maddux, $9,509: Tho Maddux Company, of New York, $55,776; L. O. Maddux, $2,270; Maddux, Hobart & Cos., $3,530; tho Bishop Flour Company, $419. The failure is attributed to losses made by tho New York management. TELEGRAPHIC BREVITIES. The will of the late Gen. Anson Stager was admitted to probate yesterday. The estate is valued at $850,000, and is left to his three surviving daughters in equal proportions. The attorney for the Gould system lias obtained from Governor Ireland, of Texas, formal papers asking the United States government to demand the extradition from the Canadian government of Baum, the Dallas cottou swindler, on charges of forgery and arson. About 5 o’clock yesterday morning, while a Flint & Pere Marquette freight train was crossing the Detroit, Lansing & Northern track, at Plymouth, Mich., a freight on that road ran into it, just back of the engine. Both trains carried live stock, a large number of which were killed. The roads were blocked until nearly noon. Tho loss is heavy. The Prospects of Wheat. Minneapolis Tribune. We are safe enough in estimating next summer’s wheat crop in the United States at not more than 400,000,000 bushels, or 100.000,000 short of the last crop. The acreage in Europe shows an even greater reaction, and the crop prospects are hardly more reassuring. Coincident with this sharp decline in the supply, there f romisea to be a sharp increase in the demand, n the first place, there are more people to feed. Our own population is increasing at the rate of more than a million a year, and Europe’s population is growing enormously—alarmingly, the pessimists would say. Reviving industry will have a marked effect upon the demand for breadstuffa. If there should be a great war in Europe—and it seems almost inevitable —there would be an abnormal quickening of industrial life and a corresponding demand for provisions and the cereal Suicide of a Cincinnati Lawyer. , Cincinnati, April 17.—Benjamin M. Piatt, aged fifty two. a' member of the law firm of Hounshell, Piatt & Helm, was found dead in his office, this forenoon, having shot himself through the head. His home is in Covington, where he leaves a widow and six children. Two letters were left by him, addressed to his wife, showing that the act was premeditated. They have not yet been opened. Financial trouble is supposed to be the cause of his suicide. An Ex-Congressman's Crime. Cincinnati. April 17.—1n the United States Court here,-to day. Hon. John F. McKinney, of PiquA. 0., was convicted of having received excessive fees for collecting pensions. It was proven that he received $l3O for obtaining a pension of $1,700. He was a member of the Forty-second Congress, and for many years was chairman of the Ohio State Democratic central committee. Sentence was deferred until tomorrow. Tobacco Barn and Contents Burned. Lancaster, Pa, April 17.—The large barn, two tobacco sheds, carriage house and all the farm buildings, covering half an acre on the farm of Israel L. Landis, near Petersburg, this county, were burned last night, with their contents. including 100,000 pounds of cased tobacco, and twenty acres of last year's crop. The loss is $20,000; partially insured. Don’t make the mistake of doctoring liver and kidneys to cure consumption. If you will lay all other remedies aside, and put your trust in Dr. VVla tar’s Balsam of Wild Cherry, it will surely benefit you. Try it for coughs and colds, and see what ru excellent remedy it is.

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 1885-TWELVE PAGES#

A TERRIBLE CRIME EXPIATED. Hanging of Thomas Samon, at Laconia, N. H.—A History of His Crime. Laconia, April 17.—Thomas Samon was hung at 11:30. Tho particulars of the crime for which Thomas Samon was hanged to-day, are as follows: Thomas Samon was the perpetrator of one of the most fiendish crimes ever committed in New Hampshire, his victims being Mrs. Jane Ford, aged about sixty years; John Ruddy, aged forty-five, and his little boy, Frank, thirteen months, who lost their lives November 24 and 25, 1883. Samon, then a married man, had boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Ford, having, it is alleged, been on terms of intimacy with the iatter for several months preceding the tragedy. Both were more or less addicted to drink. Samon was well acquainted with the Ruddy family, havingbeen quite a constant visitor at their house. On the afternoon of Saturday, March 24. he came there, having with him a wheelbarrow, upon which was a large trunk. Mr. Ruddy was not at home, but his wife gave Samon permission to remove the trunk, which seemed very heavy when lifted into the house, and also told him he might remain there that night if her husband did not object when he returned from work. Mr. Ruddy readily assented to this when he came home, and all retirea about 9 o’clock. Samon arose about 4 o’clock Sunday morning, and in passing through the apartment occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Ruddy, awoke them, and they saw him look out into the street. They both got up, and Mr. Ruddy followed him on into the kitchen. Soon afterwards Mrs. Ruddy heard something fall, and going to the door leading to the kitchen, she saw her husband .hanging over a chair, arms down. No sooner had she appeared than Simon rushed upon her, struck her on the head with a hatchet and felled her to the floor. Meanwhile the little child had been awakened by the disturbance in the kitchen, and began to cry. As soon as Samon had knocked Mrs. Ruddy down, he went into the front room, and, going to the bed where the baby lay, be killed it, nearly severing the head from the body with the hatchet. He then returned to the kitchen and dealt Mrs. Ruddy, who had arisen with hope of making her escape from tho house before he came from the front room, another blow on tho head with the axe, again prostrating her on the floor. Having, as he supposed, killed all the members of the family, he dragged the bodies of Mr. Ruddy and the baby to where the wife and mother lay. made a pile of them, and took a feather and straw bed and placed them on the bodies. He saturated the bed with kerosene oil, and after setting them on fire escaped from the house. No sooner had he gone than Mrs. Ruddy, who, although suffering terribly from the effects of her injuries, was able to realize what was taking place, dragged herself to the front window. and after a desperate effort succeeded in rousing some of her neighbors. Fortunately help arrived before serious harm was done by the fire, either to the bodies of Mr. Ruddy and the baby or to the house. In the chamber opening off from the kitchen was the large trank brought to the house by Samor, and in which was discovered tho body of Mrs. Ford. An effort bad been made to destroy the trunk and contents by igniting a lot of bedding which had been placed upon and about the trunk, and then sprinkled with kerosene oil. When Mrs. Ford's remains were removed from their receptacle, it was discovered that the legs had been chopped off near the knees, and that the limbs had been bent up and tied down to the body with a piece of clothes-line. The murderer had found it necessary to mutilate the body in this shocking manner to get it into the trunk. Mrs. Ruddy bad thirteen wounds on her person. One hand wa3 nearly severed at the wrist, two fingers were cut off, and there were also several ugly cuts on her bands and face. Samon was captured near Portsmouth, and confessed bis crime. He was an Irishman, and about forty years old. RUSSIA’S BROKEN PROMISE. [Concluded from First Page.] reckoning, such considerations may overrule the inclinations of an army burning to meet tho enemy. Afghanistan. New York Graphic. The changes made during a generation in the Asiatic attitudes of Russia and Great Britain may be illustrated by a few facts. In 1833 the frontier posts of the two great countries, so far as the Afghanistan situation was concerned, were 1,500 miles apart At the present time there are not over 500 miles between the armies, and hardly 700 between the stated posts. The Russians in 1833 were at Orenburg, and the advanced British post was Ferozepoor, 300 miles beyond tho Indus. The advanced station of the British is Quetta, which commands the Indus Valley railroad and the road to Kurrachee, a port of Beloochistan, on the Arabian sea, and the nearest commercial point for that region. There are now four living Ameers of Afg hanistun—the one on the throne, who is a nephew of Dost Mohammed’s son, Shere Ali. The first named was removed by the British in 1839, and this act was the cause of the massacre of Uabul in 1842, when Lord Elplunstone and 15,000 British troops were slain. Shere Ali is now a fugitive in Central Asia, Yakoob Ali, his son, is a pensioner, residing in British India, and Ayoub Khan is in prison in Persia. If the Russians make good their footing at Herat they can easily set up one of their puppets. The English have the shortest road for their troops, but Russia has gained the first and most advantageous position. England has the advantage, however, of being able to mass her troops more readily, provided the Afghans hold in check the Russian advance. The Ameer of Afghanistan. Ameer Abdurrahman Khan was born in 1830. He is the eldest son of Afzul Khan, and is thus a grandson of Dost Mahammed, who ruled Afghanistan till his death in 1863, and nephew to the late Shere Ali, who was deposed and expelled by the British invasion of 1879, and who died soon afterwards in exile. When Shere Ali was recog nized by tho English, Abdurrahman, who haci married a daughter of the Turkish Ameer of Bokhara, took refuge in those countries north of Afghanistan beyond the Oxus, which had then not yet been subjected to Russian control. He was pursued, however, by the persecuting spite of Shere Ali and Yakoob. who had seized his mother, wife and sister, and detained them mauy years prisoners at Candahar, and who compelled the Ameer of Bokhara to deny him an abode in that state. Abdurrahman was fain to put himself under the protection of the Russians, then gradually advancing their conquests in Turkestan, and was received by General Kaufmann, who procured him, in his poverty, a Russian pension of 25,000 roubles a year, aud afterwards permitted him to reside at Samarcand. After innumeral intrigues ana internal dlssesions, tho throne was again vacated, and the present Ameer was chosen in 1880, and has beeu very substantially supported by the British goverumens of India, under Loid Kipon, receiving from it a regular subsidy of £160,000 a year, with large gifts of artillery, rifles and ammunition to improve his military force. FOREIGN MISCELLANY. * The Hague Banking Company Fails, and the Sub-Manager Commits Suicide. Thk Hachik, April 17.— The Hague Banking Company has failed, under circumstances indicating a criminal misuse of its funds. Meinheer Polack, the manager, is in South America. Meinheer Wolfin, the sub-manager, when it became impossible to conceal the company’s condition, confessed and committed suicide. The liabilities have not been ascertained, Fears for the Safety of a Steamer. London, April 17. —It is feared that the government steamer Vorsetzen, Captain Lutgens, which sailed from Portland Feb. 11, for Hamburg, has foundered, as she has not reached her destinaiiou. Prospect for a Renewal of Trouble. Paris, April 17.—H is feared that fresh trouble will arise between the French and Chinese governments In consequence of exI’remier Ferry having tardily instructed Admiral

Courbet not to evacuate the island of Formosa. Several of the French journals express the opinion that France should temporarily-annex the Pocadores islands as a recompense for tho evacuation of Formosa. Cable Notes. At a large meeting of Americans in Paris, yesterday, a company of twelve was appointed to make arrangements for a complimentary banquet to Mr. Morton, the retiring United States minister. The governments of France, Holland, Portugal and Turkey have declared quarantine against all vessels arriving from Spanish ports, on account of the cholera epidemic ou tho eastern coasts of Spain. A RACE WITH FIRE. The Story of a Fearful Railroad Ride Related by a Dying Engineer. Dunkirk (N. YJ Special. “I don't expect to live much longer, and after I am dead I want you to put in the papers the story of that ride I tad from Prospect to Brocton in 1869.” The speaker was Duff Brown, an old locomotive engineer, who was lying at his home in Portland, this country, dying with consumption. This was several months ago. On the 7th inst. he died. He was nearly sixty years old, and one of the oldest engineers in the United States. His history of the awful ride is this: “In 1869 1 was running a train on the Buffalo, Corry & Erie Railroad. The track from Prospect or Mayville Summit, to Brocton Junction is so crooked that, while the distance is actually only ten miles, the curves make it by rail fourteen. The grade for the whole distance is over seventy feet to tho mile. About 9 o’clock on the night of Aug. 17, 1869, we reached the summit with a train of two passenger-cars, six Oil-cars, and a box-car. The latter contained two valuable trotting-horses and their keepers with them,, on their way, I believe, to Chicago. There wer ; j fifty or sixty pasengers in the two cars. I got the signal from the conductor to start and pulltd out. We had got under considerable headway, when, looking back, I saw an oil-car in the middle of the train was on fire. I reversed the engine and whistled for brakes. The conductor and brakemen jumped off. They uncoupled the pas-senger-cars aud set the brakes on them and brought them to a stop. Supposing that the brakes on the burning oil-cars would also be put on, I called to a brakeman on the box-car to draw the coupling-pin between that car and the head oil-tank, backing so that he could do it, intending to run far enough to save the box-car and th 6 locomotive. As I ran down the hill after the pin had been drawn, what was my horror to see that the burning cars were following me at a speed that was rapidly increasing. The men had not succeeded in putting on the brakes. I saw that the only thing that could be done was to run for it to Brocton, and the chances were that we would never reach there at the speed which we would be obliged to make around tnose sharp, reverse curves where we had never run over twenty miles an hour. When I saw the flaming cars—for the whole six were on fire by this time —plunging after me, and only a few feet away, I pulled the throttle open. The oilcars caught me, though, before I got away. They came with full force against the rear of the box-car, smashing in one end and knocking the horses and their keepers flat on the floor. The heat was almost unendurable, ahd to do my best I couldn’t put more than thirty feet between the pursuing fire and ourselves. By the light from the furnace, as the fireman opened the door to pile in the coal, I caught sight of tho face of one of the horsemen, lie having crawled up to the grated opening in the end. It was as pale as death, and he begged me for God’s sake to give her more steam. I was giving her then all the steam she could carry, and the grade itself was sufficient to carry us down at the rate of fifty miles an hour. We went so fast that the engine refused to pump. Every time we struck one of those curves the old girl would run on almosj; one sot of wheels, and why in the world she did not topple over is something I never could understand. She seemed to know that it was a race of life or death, and worked as if she were alive. The night was dark, and the road ran through woods, deep rock cuts, and along high embankments. We were thundering along at lightning speed, and only a few paces behind us that fiery demon in full pursuit. There were fifty thousand gallons of oil in those tanks, at least, and it was all in flames, making a flying avalanche of 500 feet long. The flames leaped into the air nearly 100 feet The roar was like that of some great cataract. Now and then a tank would explode with a noise like a cannon, when a volume of flame and pitchy smoke Wbuld rise high above the body of flame and showers of burning oil would be scattered about in the woods. The whole country was lighted up for miles around. Well, it wasn’t long, going at the rate we made, before the lights of Brocton came in sight down the valley. The relief I felt when these came in view was short lived, for I remembered that train No. 8 on the Lako Shore would be at the junction about the same time we would reach it. No. 8 was the Cincinnati express. Our only hope all along the race had been that the switchman at the junction would think far enough to open the switch there connecting the cross-cut track with the Lako Shore track, and let us run in on the latter, where the grade would be against us, if anything, and where we would soon get out of the way of the oil cars. The switch would bo closed now for the express, and our last hope was gone unless the express was late or someone had sense enough to flag the express. While we were thinking of this we saw the train tearing along toward the junction. Could we reach the junction, get the switch, and the switch be set back for the express before the latter got there? If not, there would be an inevitable crash, in which not only wo, but scores of others, would be crushed to death. Ail this conjecturing did not occupy two seconds, but in these two seconds I lived years. ‘Good God!’ I said to ray fireman, what are we to do?’ The fireman promptly replied—and he was a brave little fellow—that I should whistle for the switch and take the chances. I did so. That whistlo was one prolonged yell of agony. It was a shriek that seemed to tell us that our brave old engine knew our danger and had its fears. Neither the fireman nor myself spoke another word. Thanks be to God, the engineer on the express train, seeing us tearing down that mountain with an eighth of a mile of fire in close pursuit of us, knew in a moment that only one thing could save us. He whistled for brakes, and got his train on a standstill not more than ten feet from the switch. The switchman now answered our signal, and we shot on the Shore track and whizzed on by the depot and through the place like a rocket The burning cars followed us, of course, but their race was run. They had no propelling power now, and in three hours there was nothing left of them but smoking ruins. “My fireman and I were so weak when we brought our locomotive to a stop that we could not get out of our cab. The two horsemen were unconscious in the box-car. The horses were ruined. And how long do you think we were making that sixteen miles? ’We ran two miles up the Lake Shore track. Just twelva minutes from the summit to the spot where we stopped. A plump eighty miles an hour, not counting the time lost gettiner under headway and stopping beyond Brocton.”

Darling Billy Sugar. The following epitaph is copied verbatim from a tombstone in Marion, Ala.: ♦ * • OUR DARLING BILLY SUGAR. : TO THE : I MKMORV OF ; : WILLIAM KING MODAWELL, • SON OF * • WM. B. AND MARY A. MODAWELL, ! born .Inly 3d. 1804, ; ; died November ‘2Bth, 1870, ; ; aged 0 years, 4 months and ‘25 days. ; ! TO OUB DARLING BILLY. J ; In out thoughts, love, we seek thee ever, ; In our dreams thy bright form we see, ; Nor can time thy absence e’er sever 1 ; That fond memory that binds us to thee. : Papa, ; Mamma, ; : binion, : : Tattie, : : Sis, : : Lon. : J Papa's Gentleman. ; J Bless Mamma's Man. ; ; “Go, ’Lijah, and carry the news, 1 ; Another soul is gone home." ; • • • • ; He beat his little drum in harmony with the : ; music of Heaven; ; : And runs his little train through the streets ! ; of New Jerusalem. ; s • • • * Theodore Parker. The earnestness of life is (he only passport to the satisfaction of life.

LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE. Indiana's Universities. To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal: It is but a trite saying that Indiana is proud of her common schools; and it should be an equally trite saying that she is equally proud of her higher institutions of learning. It requires but a short visit to any one of them to discover that they merit the most hearty support and patronage of the people of the State for the earnest effort they are making to advance the interests of higher education. In a recent flying trip to two of them, I vras much pleased with the spirit and enterprise manifested. At DePauw, the external evidences of growth were first seen in the many new buildings recently erected for the accommodation their growing numbers; while a run through their laboratories, discovered, at once, that modern educational methods in science were appreciated. In Professor DeMott’s department of physics, may be seen a great deal of fine illustrative apparatus, from the best home and foreign manufacturers, molecular physics, sound and electricity being especially well provided for. In the chemical department Prof. Phil Baker was reveling in the perfume of hydrogen, sulphide and such like odoriferous compounds. Although there is no glitter about this department, it requires but a look through it to show that everything here means work; and, notwithstanding it was a holiday, many of the students we*> engaged in various kinds of analytical work. The new observatory, being built under the direction of Professor John, was the thing, however, that most attracted our attention. The building, though very plain, is subtantially built and carefully arranged, and evidently intended for use. When completed, it will be furnished with a ten-inch equatorial refractor, a five-inch transit instrument, mean time and sidereal clocks, electric chronograph, and all the necessary equipments of a working observatory. The optical parts of the equatorial are by the famous Clark & Sons, of Cambridge, Mass.—a sufficient guaranty of excellence —while the mounting is by a firm in Cleveland, O. The dome by the latter firm is a model of mechanical excellence. Though of iron, and over sixteen feet in diameter, it is readily revolved to any position by the pressure of a finger. Taulli &Cos., of Washington, D. C., furnish the transit instrument After a brief but pleasant stay here, the State University at BloomiDgton was next visited, and it is here that the chief interest centers. Asa small fraction of tho Commonwealth of Indiana, I could feel that in this institution I possessed in some small degree personal interest and proprietorship. Because of the fire in 1883, that at once swept away physical and chemical laboratories, museum and library, the State institution has been sadly crippled. -But it is gratifying to see it rising again, phoenix-like, from its ashes to new and brighter prospects. Two new buildings, to supply the place of the one burned, are already almost ready for use, and the most critical observations will only show that in this case at least, “the people’s money" has been judiciously and economically expended. Learning a, lesson from past experience, the buildings are fire-proof; and, while not excessively ornate, handsome and substantial, and, incidentally we might add, stand upon the finest campus in the country. The smaller of these build ings will be given to the biological work and museum of President Jordan; in the other wilPbe placed the chemical and physical laboratories. The new administration of the university will be found to be keenly alive to its best interests, and determined to make it a success. With the impetus given by the late appropriation, and the grand possibilities before it, is there any reason why the sympathy and patronage of the State, regardless of sectional interest or party, should not be given to make this, our home institution, a thing of creditable reality? Certainly, if Michigan, Ohio and sister States find it to their interest to support such institutions of the highest excellence, different interests cannot obtain in Indiana. Men of confessed ability are not wanting to make this institution the peer, at least, of auy. The reputation of President Jordan in biological work is already more than national, and students of ichthyology, especially, must in future come here to pursue their study under acknowledged authority. The profound papers of Professor Kirkwood in mathematical astronomy are already regarded as classic in the universities of Europe. Professor Van Nuys, with a German university education, could not be other than a disciple of the great apostle of laboratory chemical instruction, Liebig, I found him busy with plans and lists of apparatus and material for the new work. With the experience obtained in forming the old laboratory few mistakes will be found in the arrangement of the now one. Professor Wylie, though struggling with the burden of years, will be found alive to the interests of modern physical laboratory methods, something, unfortunately, that is not usual with our older teachers of physics. The single statement of Professor Swain, that the abstruse analytical methods of Sir William Hamilton, as developed in his quaternious, were already elected and studied in the university, is sufficient evidence of the work done in mathematics. In short, the whole bent and tendency is toward a high class of work, and those who are abundantly able to direct, and make a Success of such work, are there. So that, with due fostering care on the part of the State, our universities may rank with any in the country; and, like our system of common school, become the pride of the people. A Word from New Orleans. To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal: My purpose in writing a short letter to the Journal is not to describe the exposition, of which there is nothing now left to say, but to say that it is not yet too Jate to come South. The only fault I have had to find with the weather so far is, that the mornings and evenings are a little too cool for comfort True, the sun is hot for a few hours iu the middle of* the day, but one does not need to expose himself at that time, and it is always comfortable in the shade. Vegetation has not yet reached its maximum of luxuriance. The live oak and other late trees have not yet put out their leaves. The orange trees are in blossom, and the magnolia buds are not yet opened. One of the objects in visiting New Orleans is to see the place and the South, and these are not yet at their best. Aside from a few early flowering plants, such as the peach, cherry and red bud, which first made their appearance in Tennessee, there were no signs of spring until we were far down in Alabama. This is a good time to come here, but to see the country a month later will be much better, and the temperature will not be objectionable. Good entertainment can be secured at reasonable rates. The high prices of New Orleans have been greatly exaggerated. The exposition is well worth seeing. W. A. Bell. New Orleans, April 15. FASHIONS IN WAISTS. What History Has to Say of Corsets—Tortures of the (Jueens. May Magazine of Art. Catharine de Medicis is credited with introducing the corset into France, but tight lacing existed long before her appearance in Fontainebleau. As early as the fifteenth century we read of “a pair of bodies,” the evident origin of tho word “bodice." But it was during the latter part of the sixteenth century that it assumed the ugly forms depicted. No doubt it was at this period that it became, as Bulwer has it, a whalebone prison, its busks of ivory and wood turning it into a sort of cuirass. Gosson thus describes it: “These privie coats, by art made strong With bones, with past, with such-like ware, Whereby their backe and sides grow long, And now they harnest gallants :t; Were they for use againt the foe, Our dames for Amazones rnignt goo. “But seeing they doe only stay The course that nature doth intend, And mothers often by them slay Their daughters young, and worke their end, What are they els but armours stout, Wherein like gyants Jovs they flout?” It is instructive to study the faces of the unhappy women who formed “the flying gqua<lrou” of Catherine de Medicis. The history of the times still more unfolds itself if we study their costume. Catherine de Medicis, shut in her “whalebone prison," the folds of her skirts hanging stiffly and diagramicaUy, her sleeves like two long black wings, her little black cap. stiff stuff collar and whito ruff, appears like

some great beetle. In the costume of Mary Stuart, as given in Lacroix, we have the same hard tetle-like form; more beautiful, indeed. as the finest specimen of the Carabus tribe in to the sacred Ateuchu*. The slashes in her black dress show the white robe underneath; her waist, her anna, and her throat are bound round with bands of precious stones; while from her waist, which, by the way, is by no means a slender one. is suspended a golden tassel garnished with pearls and precious stones. But consider the crowd of poor women whom these two rival queens led down the Dance of Death. A painted butterfly, with none of the insect’s grace, is poor Eleanor of Austria, aa depicted in Lacroix. Her body is prisoned in • horney cuirass, and her ruff is backed by two additional fans of lawn: her sleeves are diapered like a chess board; and from under her arms descend two pieces of stuff broidered with gold and shaped to look like an enormous pair of heavy double crutches. Her rival, Marie Touchet, wears no such frightful costume; she is, nevertheless, one of the same tribe, a less hard and ugly specimen than Catherine de Medici*, lea hard but not so beautiful as Mary Stuart. But for forms completely insectile, nothing perhaps ever went beyond these seen in the court of Henri 111 of France. America and a European War. Springfield Republican. We are glad to observe that there is hardly a journal whoso views upon economic subject* have any weight which does not discourage the expectations of any great increase of business for us from an Anglo-Russian w,#. The tremendous European contest of lFd 71 did not prevent the American reverse of 1873-9. The European depression which followed in fact probably aggravated somewhat our own. Fire in an Oil-Cloth Factory. Maspeth, L. 1., April 17.—The printing department of the Sampson Oil-cloth Manufacturing Company was burned this afternoon. Loss. $30,000; partly insured.

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