Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1908 — MADE A FATAL 'BLUFF' [ARTICLE]

MADE A FATAL 'BLUFF'

Jealous Husband Threatens His Rival’s Life and Doesn’t \ Carry a Gun. ' jj HOMICIDE OCCURS RIGHT AWAY • J Husband Gets a Bullet in His Heart —Fire in the Timber LandCharge ot Graft.

Indianapolis, Oct. 23. Edward Miers. of Peru. Ind., formerly an Indianapolis man, was shot and instantly killed by William Pugh, at a boardinghouse at 24!) East South street. Miers accused I’ugii of alienating the affections of his wife, who left Miers in Peru and came to Indianapolis. In th • parlance of the police Mlera made a “bluff” and it was “called" by Pugh. “Either he will kill me or I’T kill him,” was what Miers was alleged to have said when he went to the boardinghouse. There was little doubt in the minds <>i the pdli<-e that the threat was S “bluff,” as Mlera did not have a revolver or other weapon about Mm. ‘‘Motion” is Pugh’s Justification. He sat on the veranda of the house after making the alleged threat and finally Pugh walked out w’lth his revolver. Pugh said Miers made a motion as if to draw something 'from his hip pocket, and I’ugii leveled his revolver and fired. The bullet went through Mier's heart and he fell.face down on the floor of the veranda. Pugh coolly walked into the house and w'aited for the arrival of the police. Thought His Life in Danger. -

Pugh was duly arrested, in fact he told the officers who arrived after the shooting that he was the man they wanted, but declared that he acted in Self-defense. “I knew be was waiting for me outside,” Pugh explained. "I had to leave and go to my work. When I walked out on the veranda Miers put his hand to his hip pocket and I thought I would Lave to shoot or be killed. ’ Mrs. Miers is an old acquaintance of Prgh. He knew her before site was married, and as he goes to Peru accasionally ha went to the Miers home to call on her. This made Mien* jealous. Wife Resents a Question. Mrs. Miers is suing her husband for divorce at Peru, and has packed up her belongings and come to Indianapolis, leaving her husband, whom she charges with cruelty. She says he has no reason to/ie jealous of Pugh. But when she came here, she took rooms in the same boarding house at which Pugh boards. When asked how she happened to take rooms at the same -house where Pugh lived she said angrily: “I’m not in a courtroom and’ I refuse to answer any more impertinent questions.”

GRAFT AT THE COAL PIT Charge That Mine Bosses Are Making a Little Money "On tbe Side ’’ As it Were. Brazil? I nd..’ Oct. 23.—Prsident Van Horn, of the bituminous district, has been here investigating charges filed with the district officers to the effect that certain mine bosses in this section of the mining districts of Indiana have been selling work to the miners. Work in the bituminous field has been so alack that only about two-thirds of the available men havq been able to get work. The accusation is made that mine bosses have been charging the miners a certain percentage of their earnings for the jobs they are giving. The operators owning the mines under suspicion say tiiat if the miners prove that the mine bosses are guilty they -will be promptly discharged and it Is probable that they will be unable to get employment in any other mine in the state.

Somebody Guilty of Murder. Evansville. Ind., Oct. 23.—Ethel Logsdon, seventeen years old, jumped from a third-story window at the Weiington hotel, and will probably die from injuries received. The girl wai employed as a waitress. One of the aidn boarding at the hotel attempted to enter her room at night about 10 o'clock, and when the girl saw the door breaking she jumped from the window. The intruder has escaped. ♦

Indiana Timber Burned. i Cohimbtis. Ind.. Oct. 23.—Reports from Brown county state that 51000 acres of timber land have beetT b|nidd over by a forest fire that Hben burning slue? last Sunday. Theifire started <>n Mountain Tea htll.*seven miles, northeast of Nashvilletqand residents of Brown county Iftvjptbe •moke was so thick in people could hardly Reward for a n. Indianapolis, Oct. !s.—Miss Heleta Stapp, forewoman ,at; .Jhftiyb .factory of Rathbun &_Co., this city, has been awarded a sirrelanedaif aanfft>l.ooo by the Carnegie Baffiorttafr, oqqiantatfon for her bra*tiy tttWridgXhe lives of two employes in the factory.