Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1899 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. Figure the Cash Value of a Roy’s Life —lmportant Damage Suit Decide! at La Porte-Gas Companies Absorbed by a Syndicate. After staying out fifty-three hours the jury in the SIO,OOO damage action brought by Solomon Addison against the city ol Elwood for the death of his young son returned a verdict for $509. The verdict was reached under unusual procedure. Addison’s 8-y ear-old boy was drowned in a ditch at Elwood. The father sued for damages. The jury had to figure out what a boy was worth from 8 years to 21, It placed his earnings between 8 and 10 years* at 45 cents a week, keeping 85 cents;, from 10 to 12, earnings 75 cents, keeping $1.25; from 12 to 15, earnings $4, keeping $2; from 15 to 18, earnings $5, keeping $2.25; from 18 to 21, earnings $6, keeping $4. Goes Against Icc Company, The SIO,OOO damage suit of William Zahart against the John Hilt Ice Company was concluded at Laporte, when the jury gave the plaintiff danuiges in the sum of $450. The suit grew out of the refusal of the company to compensate Zahart for the privilege of taking ice from Pine lake, the water of which abuts the latter’s land. This case holds a unique position in the annals of the legal history of Indiana, as it is entirely without precedent. The Hilt Company will appeal to the State Supreme Court, and should that court sustain the lower conrt it is understood the case will be carried to the United States Supreme Court. Control Natural-Gas Field. Almost all of the natural gas supply companies furnishing gas grom the field to towns and cities and also the company supplying the thirty-two Ohio towns and cities have been absorbed by a New .York syndicate, headed by Murdock & Deterich. Over 2,000 miles of mains have been absorbed and fully 200 towns,'including most of those even in the gas belt, are dependent upon the will of the trust now for their natural gas supply. The capitalization of the new trust is $00,000,000. $50,000 to Franklin College. John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil man. who has contributed so freely to Baptist institutions, has made a provisional gift to Franklin College, the Baptists’ Indiana institution. He offers $50,000 cash if the Baptists of the State will raise a similar amount. Parry, the buggy manufacturer, the Shirks of Peru and other millionaire Baptists in the State have already covered his proposition and guaranteed the required sum.

Within Our Borders. A company to manufacture beet sugar is being formed at Marion. . Stephen Todd of Toledo, Ohio, has taken a long lease ou the New Lindell Hotel, Kokomo. Robert Roark of Harrisburg. 111., and Miss Lottie Knowlton of Fort Wayne met at Terre Haute-and were married. Frankton, which suffered from a disastrous fire recently, has decided to put in water works and have a paid tire department. The grip is almost epidemic in Rockville. Many business men are down with the disease. There has been no fatal cases. Ollie, the 17-year-old son of H. P. Richards, living in Marion, was instantly killed while engaged with his father in felling timber. At Vincennes, Henry Wagner, while doing carpenter work, fell into a cellar, breaking his neck, killing him instantly. He was 22 years old. At Anderson, Henri Goudon was unable to tell the county clerk the last name of his bride-to-be and the wedding had to be postponed for a day. A sycamore tree is standing on the Matchett farm, near Pierceton, which measures twenty feet in circumference near the base and is.sixty feet to the first limb. Lucy Van, a valuable pacing mare belonging to Van Buskirk Brothers of Anderson, died nt Pendleton of catarrhal fever. Lucy Van had a record of was five years old and was valued at sl,100. An explosion of natural gas wrecked the home of Charles Null at Kokomo and three women were frightfully burned. Mrs. Null's clothng was burned off. Marion Smith and Alza Burns were burned on the hands and face. A lighted lamp in the cellar caused the explosion, gas having accumulated there from a leaking pipe. At Logansport, the jury in the case of the State against William Fitzgerald, charged with murder, returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty_of murder in the first degree and fixing punishment at imprisonment for life. Fitzgerald’s crime was the killing of Quincy Beebe, the 14-yeur-old son of Samuel Beebe, a resident of Bunker Hill, on Oct. 5 last. An Indianapolis paper notes that much criticism has been aroused among patrons because of the nude statuary gracing the halls of the new Jefferson school building nt Muncie, and some patents have withdrawn their children from the school. The statuary meets the approval of Prof. W. R. Snyder and the Si hool Board, and is not condemned by many club women and teachers.

The striking of the big oil well in Washington township is creating intense excitement axiong the oil fraternity. Neter within the history of the Indiana field has such u tremendous gusher been drilled in tha*: section. Oil leasers are flocking in ami snapping up all the available territory, and it begins to look as if Blackford Comity is to furnish a new Eldorado In tae Indiana field. The well is estimated by conservative men at 1,000 per day. Emory Jones, aged 40, residing near Binkley, and for many years a prominent teacher in the schools of Randolph County, died of lockjaw, the result, probably, of a gunshot wound in the left arm which he received Dec. 31.

The fate of W. T. Sullivan, n railway employe at Evansville, offers an instance of a warning conveyed in a dream. He dreamed that he had been killed by the cars. The next day bo was caught under a moving train, but saved himself by clinging, to a rod. A few hours later he was caught by a switch engine and cut to pieces. <