Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1903 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTB OF THE PAS* WEEK. Kokomo Man Lons Blind Now Ha? Hla Vision—Shoots at Man Who Took His Wife to Town—Attempted Mar dor of Family Charged. After living in total darkness for six months Henry H. Downey, an old resident of Kokomo, the other day suddenly I regained his eyesight. His blindness was caused by paralysis of the optic nerve, which completely baffled all of t'lie physicians. The man was taken to specialists at Indianapolis and Chicago and ail gave as their opinion that his sight could never be restored. One night Downey j went to bed a blind man and the fol- ■ towing morning awoke with eyes tlhtt ' could see. At first he could not believe that before him there were objects and daylight. Everything was unfamiliar. He screamed that he could see, and hla family rushed into his bedroom nnd found his statement to be true. Downey was examined by several physicians, and all of them were unable to account for the restoration of his sight. Their only explanation is that life has been restored to the optic nerve by some natural moans. Shoot* at Wife's Kacort. R. H. Layton, aged 63, of Battleground, met William Downs of the same town in Lafayette with Mrs. Layton and fired two shots at close quarters at <hls wife’s escort, both going wide of the mark. Mrs. Layton and Downs came to Lafayette and went to the law office of George L>. Parks, where the woman said she had an appointment with the attorney, who was to file her application for divorce. On finding the door locked they turned to go down the stairs and were confronted by Layton, who drew a revolver from his pocket and fired. Layton was arrestd and lodged in jail. Both men are prominent in Battleground, where tile news of the encounter has caused a sensatiou. Woman Charged with Murder. Mrs. ■’Tillman Fountains of Wabash w:*s arrested the other day on a charge of chloroforming the family of Chris liarnish, near Lincolnville. The crime was committed on a recent night nnd one or two members of the liarnish family narrowly escaped death. It was charged that the woman administered the anaesthetic through motives of jealousy. She had a Iwarder, B. E. Turner, who had been attentive to one of the Misses liarnish. After the chloroforming Turner says the Fountaine woman confessed 1 to him. Miamated in Marriage. Being niismated in marriage, a woman of 40 years nnd a boy of 18, led Mrs. Ollio Gibbs of Rising Sun to take her life. It is stated that on the night before Ehe was looking far her husband with a loaded revolver, but he could not be found. She said that she would be deal before morning. Returning to her bonce, she locked herself in and took “rough-on-rats.” She was not found until next day, when people, who heard unusual noises about the home, broke into the hou.ee and found her just before Eh* died. State Items of Interest. Jeffersonville will abolish mule cam. Hail damaged the Floyd County tobacco crop. Cold weather is having a serious effect on the corn crop. Glass factories in Terre Haute have opened for the winter. Thieves stole all the fish from a pond in the M uncle cemetery. Rural free delivery made a start in FioyiT County on Sept. 1. Indiana employes of the Wabash Railroad have received a raise in pay. Enos Neal of Richmond bus a pickle that has been preserved for 37 years. Anderson is considering a proposition to filter all the water used by the city. Kaolin, used in the manufacture of porcelain, has been discovered near Salem. A Chautauqua association is being organized for New Albany and Jeffersonville. A new electric line is projected from Montpelier to Marion, through the oil fields. Delivery boys in Tipton have formed a unton and are going to strike for higher woge*. Mr. and Mrs. John Chopsou of Huntington County have been married for fifty years. An unknown man was killed by a train at Elkhart. The mark “J. Fleming, Chicago,” was on his shirt. Sixteen passengers were injured, none of them fatally, in a collision between a passenger car and an express car loaded with race horses on the Indiana Union Traction Lme between Anderson and Indianapolis. Tbe Indiana Northern Traction and the Marion Light and Heating Company interests have been merged. Tbe light and heating company’s plant in Marion ia to be enlarged and to furnish power for the interurban lines. William Bolk was tried in Terre Haute pqtice court for shooting and slightly wounding August Matheny, a fellow workman, at a brewery. Boik aaya the gitn wae discharged accidentally. Both agree that Bolk had complained to Math eny that he was working overtime in violation of the rules of the union: John McCriaty, 72 years of age, and Omer Taylor, aged 33, quarreled in Marion about $1 alleged to be due McCristy for rent. McCristy is alleged to have attacked Taylor with a knife. Taylor struck him with a club, breaking his jaw and crushing his skulL McCristy m said to be fatally injured. Taylor is in jalL India Shutterly. 15. ran away from h«r home in Michigan to see the world. She was arrested in South Bend for vagrancy. At Shoals Clay Wagoner, the 12-year old son of George M. Wagoner, was kicked in the stomach by a horse and lived but few minutes. i A tank holding 30,000 barrels of crude petroleum belonging to the Manhattan Oil Company waa struck by lightning ad Montpelier and the oil set afire. A can- > non was brought from Lima, Ohio, and a I s large hale was shot into the tank to let eat the oil. Tbe loss is $35,000.