Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1910 — Page 1

Jasper County Democrat

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SAYLER TRIAL NOW ON.

The trial of Dr. W. R k Miller, Mrs. J. B. Sayler and the latter’s father, John Grunden, for the murder of Mrs. Sayler’s husband at Crescent City, 111., on July 10 last, in the Iroquois county court at Watseka. The murdered banker was a relative of the Sayler’s of Jasper county.

MOROCCO HAS ANOTHER FIRE.

Morocco suffered another small fire one night last week, in which three old frame business buildings were burned. The buildings burned were occupied by a box-ball alley, carpentershop, Purdy’s meat market, Gors man’s pool room and Sallie’s shoe shop. The contents of the box-ball alley and pool room wiere totally destroyed, but everything was saved U from the meat market except the big refrigerator. The origin of the fire is unkonwn.

JUDGMENT FOR $3,100

In Lawler vs. C. & E. I. Ry. r for Fire Damage. The jury in the Lawler damage case vs. the C. & E. I. Railroad Company, were taken up Saturday morning to look over the land burned over south of Fair Oaks by sparks from a locomotive on defendant’s road, going up on the milk train and returning on the two o’clock train in the afternoon. The rest of the afternoon was put in with the argument of attorneys, and the case given to the jury about six o’clock that evening. At 11 p. m„ a verdict was reached, giving the plaintiff judgment for $3,100. He had sued for SB,OOO.

EARLY CLOSING.

Business Men Fail to Agree and All Stores Now Open. The early closing movement in Rensselaer is at an end, by reason of failure of the business men to reach an agreement for its continuation. As a result the stores will all be open evenings from now on until further notice, but perhaps an agreement may be reached next fall again for early closing during the winter months. The plan has been tried here only two months, and while in the main it has been quite satisfactory, a few who entered into the agreement have chafed under the restriction, and welcomed a change to go back to old conditions.

DEATH OF FORMER RESIDENTS.

The Goodland Herald of Saturday told of the death of three former residents of Jasper county or who were well known to many Jasper county people. They were: Percy Taylor, a former race horse man and hay buyer, who died at his home near Elgin, 111., a few days ago; Mrs. John W. Sapp, of Mecosta, Mich., and Mrs. Ephriam Messersmith. The latter used to reside in southwest Carpenter. M|rs. Sapp and husband formerly resided near Foresman, later moving to Goodland, where they lived for many years Before; moving to Nebraska and later to Michigan. Her remains were brought back to Goodland and buried there Saturday afternoon.

“PROHIS” NOMINATE

Place Entire County Ticket In Field Down to Commissioners. The Prohibition county convention last Friday nominated a complete county ticket except county councilmen. The candidates named are all good clean men, and are a§ follows: Clerk—J. W. Norman, Barkley township. Auditor**—Frank Rensselaer. Treasurer —Albert Brand, Rensselaer. Sheriff —E. Heath, Carpenter. Surveyor Miles, Mllroy. Assessor Sherman Thornton Newton. ' Coroner —W. W. ReeVe, Rensselaer. Commissioner Ist District—J.*M. Bfelmlck, Wheatfleld. 2nd District, Ezra Wolf, Barkley. »

Read The Democrat'for news, quantity desired.

BRIDGE GRAFTER STILL AT LIBERTY

Influential Friends Appeal Tn Governor For Parole. EXECUTIVE WILL INVESTIGATE And If Facts Warrant Interference Will Parole Prisoner Pending His Appeal to the Supreme Court—Bader Now Out On Bond Given to Sheriff. C. L. Bader, superintendent Winamac Bridge Co., who was recently convicted of filing a false claim against Jasper county in connection with the payment for the bridge erected by his company across the Howe ditch in Milroy township, and who was fined $lO, the minimum for such offence, and given an indeterminate sentence of from two to fourteen years in the state’s prison at Michigan City, is still breathing the air of liberty. Sheriff Shirer started with the prisoner last Thursday for the penitentiary, stopping off at Winamac to allow him to see his family and arrange some business matters. Arriving at Winamac influential friends of Bader at once took up the matter of securing a parole from the governnor to keep the convicted man out of prison for awhile, pending his appeal to the supreme court, and so successful were they in their efforts that they kept Mr. Shirer there until Sunday, when he received the following letter from Governor Marshall:

March 12, 1910. Dear Sir—• Pending an Investigation upon my part as to my duty to parole Clinton L. Bader to give him an opportunity to appeal his cause to the Supreme Court of Indiana and show his innocence, you will not remove him to the State Prison. I will notify you inside of four or five days of my decision in the case. Very truly yours, THOS. R. MARSHALL, Governor. L. P. Shirer, Sheriff. Winamac, Indiana Sunday afternoon Mr. Bader, accompanied by two of his daughters, brought the sheriff back home in an automobile and he is now at liberty under bond given to the sheriff, pending further notification from Governor Marshall. . In view of the fact that the court, after the verdict of the jury and before sentence was passed, thoroughly investigated the matter of other bridges erected by Bader’s company in the county, and found practically the same scaling down from specifications in all of them that was found in the Milroy bridge, and the evidence was so clear and convincing, The Democrat believes the matter has been misrepresented to Governor Marshall or he would not interfere with the court’s action. If he invetigates the matter thoroughly before issuing a parole, he can do nothing, it would seem, but let the law take its course, hard as ’this may appear to some.

Eliminate, if you will, all other facts in the case and take up only the matte* of the “backing” to this Milroy bridge, and the guilt of Mr. Bader is clearly shown, it would seem. His company drew the plans and ■specifications from which the contract was let; the blue-print plans showed 5 feet of backing, while the written specifications called for 12 feet—a tricky set of specifications surely. -The commissioners ordered him to double the heigtit of the backing, as shown on blue-print*, to* 10 feet, which was done. He charged and was paid $25 extra for this 5 feet of backing on the final adjudication of the claim in September, when the balance of S3OO on said bridge was allowed at S2OO and $25 allowed for extra backing.

the twice-a-week

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY. INDIANA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1910,

When he put in the 5 feet extra over the blue-print plans, be was still 2 feet short of what he must have known as his own written specifications called for in the contract that he took, yet he charged and was paid $25 extra for not putting in as much backing as his contract specifications called for! If this one item does not show an intent to cheat and defraud the county —eliminating the 13,885 pounds the bridge was short in weight, if you will—then we confess we are a mighty poor judge of what such actions mean. In the event of appeal to the supreme court,* the latter can only review the evidence and possibly find some technical error to reverse the case, after a year or two. Its action in the matter is problematical, but no man ever had a fairer trial than Mr. Bader, and no one ever indicted for a crime ever made so feeble a defense, in fact he had no defense at all. With all due regard for the friends of the convicted man, his family and associates, Governor Marshall will be making a grave error if he interferes with the law’s course in this matter, and gross mis-represen-tations must have been made to him to cause him to interfere even temporarilly.

A PERTINENT QUESTION.

Fred Longwell was over to Rensselaer, Monday, to be present at the motion for a rehearing in the case. However, he won his point and Bader will have to go to the penitentiary unless the judge sees sufficient mitigating circumstances in tike 'tsase to give him a suspended sentence, which the people of his home town are working hard to secure. Most of the people seem to think that Bader was only technically guilty and no worse than a few others' connected with the case, in fact he claims that the commissioners! authorized him to make the change in bridge specifications.—Brook Reporter.

Well, if the commissioners authorized the change in specifications in the Milroy tp., bridge, as Bader alleges, did they also also authorize the like scaling down in practically all the other bridges erected by the Winamac Bridge >Co., in Jasper county? This is a question the people would like to find out, and it is evident that there is some unfinished work for a grand jury here in looking into these other bridge contracts.

BOYS LAND IN COURT.

Frolicsome Lads Steal Refreshments and Are Hauled Before “His Honor.” As a result of long-continued aping the ways of college hoodlums by pupils of the Rensselaer schools for many years, a crowd of boys of the present generation have gotten themselves into trouble with the courts. Last Thursday night there was some sort of class doings at the library and refrehments had been secured to serve there. Harry Wood, the janitor, was employed to guard the edibles —something that has become necessary at every social gathering in Rensselaer for several years because of such hoodlum actions—and while Harry was “watching one quarter of the boys broke out a pane of glass in one of the back windows, entered and stole the refreshments, and ate them up or destroyed them. The identity of the lads was learned and warrants sworn out for the arrest of five of them. Three were arrested and hauled before Squire Irwin, where they entered a plea of not guilty and, on account of Prosecutor Longwell being busy with the grand jury in Newton county this week, their cases were continued to March 23, they being held in bonds of SIOO each. Two others were arraigned in the circuit court and their bbnds fixed at SIOO each, but they were allowed to go on their own recognizance, and their cases will come up at the next term of court. The charge in all the cases is malicious trespass.

Fancy northern grown sand pqtatoes, for table or seed, in 2V4 bushels sacks, at $1.25 a Sack, at John Eger’s.

HE GOT RESULTS.

James E. Lamson of Jordan tp., advertised in The Democrat’s want ad column Saturday for a farm hand, and Tuesday morning he ’phoned in and told us to shut it off, he didn’t want any more of it. He got a half dozen replies Saturday, more Monday, and they are still coming. It was the first time he ever advertised in our want column, and the results were so big that he’s almost afraid to try it again.

YES, IT OUGHT TO BE SO.

1 he democrats of Jasper county are feeling jubilaht over the prospects for the success of at least a part of the county ticket this fall and it is said that they need only to nominate good men to elect the county commissioners at the fall election. The recent developments in bridge grafting in that county have roused the people and the feeling prevails that a pretty rotten condition prevails if the facts were known. At this time the majority are ripe for a change and if they do not change their minds the prospects are that the democrats will have a chance to demonstrate their ability in the management of public affairs in our sister county. —Benton Review.

CAUGHT IN SNOWSLIDE.

Dr. Merrill’s Family Have Narrow Escape From Death On G. N. R. R. Dr. W. W. Merril returned Monday from spending a short time with his wife and daughter in Chicago. The latter had just arrived in Chicago from southern California where they had been spending the winter. They returned by way of Spokane, Wash., and started for Chicago on the Great Northern Railroad, and were held up by one of the numerous avalanches which has made so much trouble in the past few weeks for that railroad. They were carried back to Spokane by another train, having only gotten about thirty miles west of there, and started for the east on another roacj. This train was carried from the track by another great snowslide and all but the last three care were burned. They lost nearly all of their baggage, but finally reached Chicago, many hours late.

SOUVENIR ENVELOPES.

Boom Rensselaer By Using the Handsome Envelopes For Sale By The Democrat. The Democrat has just got in a case of 40,000 souvenir envelopes of Rensselaer. The front contains a group half-tone of St. Joseph’s College, the court house, school buildings, and library, while the back contains a write-up of the business and social advantages of Rensselaer, and a view of Washington street from the west side of the river bridge, and also a view looking southeast from the court house. These envelopes are endorsed by the Commercial Club, and should be used by every business firm an<d individual in the city. They will be sold in lots of ten or more without printed card in corner or in lots of 250 or more with printed card, as desired. They come but a trifle higher in price than the ordinary blank envelopes, and after seeing them you will want some. Their use will greatly advertise your home city, and if you are patriotic you will want to use them anyway.

Easter is drawing nearer and your boy or husband may want a new suit and now is the time to buy, as I have the best line in the city.—C. Earl Duvtdl. See the new 9 by 12 rugs, new carpets, lace curtains, new shoes, men’s shirts and overalls, all at wholesale prices, to help sell the other goods.—Chicago Bargain Store. * I have now on display a true blue serge, a $25 suit, that I am selling for $lB, and I can back up what I say. Now is your time to get next.—C. Earl 1 'OuVrll.

THE COURT HOUSE

Items Picked Up About the County Capitol. Judge Darroch was over from Kentland yesterday attending a meeting before refereee in Bankruptcy Bowers in regard to the Nichols-Hollingsworth matter of settlement of the county funds deposited in the Parker bank at Remington on the eve of its failure, two and one-half years ago.

We are told that the Winamac Bridge Co., has had practically all the bridge contracts in Pulaski county for several years, and that lots of bridges have been constructed there. It might not be a bad idea for the taxpayers of Pulaski to investigate their bridges and see if they have got what they have paid for. No. 7587. Benjamin J. Gifford, vs. T. F. Terry, et al; action to quiet title. No. 7588. Silas H. Mtaore vs. W. E. Moore; suit for mqdical attendance, 329 visits from May 12, 1908, to August 17, 1909, $411.25. The parties are brothers, both quite aged, and reside in Rensselaer.

No. 7589. D. R. Miller vs. William Schultz; action on an attachment in the municipal court of Cook county, 111., wherein plaintiff claims SSOO. No. 7X?O. Lafayette Loan & Trust Co., vs. The American Lubric & Refining Co., et al; action to foreclose mortgage Demand $20,000. O— ■" Misfortunes never come singly. The C. & E. I. railroad not only got stuck for a $3,100 judgment here Saturday, but the sudden stoppage of one of its mixed trains on the cowpath at Fair Oaks the same day quite badly injured J. R. Hazen of Goodland and a gentleman frqm Petersburg, passengers on the train, who had been up to Jake’s farm near Kniman. Both were quite badly bruised and a claim for damages will be presented to the company for settlement.

Marriage licenses issued: Mch. 12, William Ross Porter, son of W. V. Porter, of Rensselaer, aged 20, occupation farmer, to Pauline Ames, daughter of Edward Ames, of Jordan tp., aged 18, occupation housekeeper. First marriage for each. March 14, Grover Ritchey, son of O. K. Ritchey, of Marion township, occupation farmer, to Della Irene Smith, daughter of James W. Smith of Union townships aged 22, occupation housekeeper. First marriage for each. The Democrat has taken the position all the way through in this bridge graft matter that if the charges of Mr. Marshall of the Lafayette Bridge Co., were true the taxpayers of this county ought to know it; if untrue, it was but justice to Mr. Bader and the Winamac Co., that they be fully exonerated; that such charges were a serious thing to to that company, and no one ought to court an investigation if they were untrue—more than the company against whom they were made. The writer heard practically all the evidence in the case, and a more one-sid-ed case we never heard. No juror who had any respect for the oath he took could do otherwise than return the verdict this jury did, and ludge Hanley, hearing the evidence and making after investigation of other bridges put up here by that company could not do otherwise than pass senteftce as he did. 1 lie criticism of the jury, <ourt and state’s principal witness that has been made in certain quarters is undeserved, anti is either made by those who heard little or none of the evidence or who have good reason to want nothing done about such cases.

A rare opportunity to buy your Easter outfit at the great closing out sale.—Chicagd Bargain Store.

A LIVELY RUNAWAY.

Clyde Randle’s sorrel team being left—for a moment unattended on the street Monday afternoon, took it into their heads to take a hike, and they ran north on Van Rensselaer street with the top buggy to which they were hitched hitting only the high places. At the corner by John Eger’s residence they attempted to turn west, but were going too fast to make the turn, and ran up on the cement walk, jumped the iron fence, leaving the buggy on its side lying on the walk, and ran through John’s yard back of Joe Larsh’s . residence, where the fence stopped them. The team was unhurt and the buggy not badly damaged.

INVESTS IN NO. DAKOTA.

Harvey Davisson and Fred Callahan returned Monday morning from a few days prospecting trip to Hamilton, No. Dak. Hamilton is located in Pembina county, the northeastern county of the state, and is pretty well settled up. Mr. Davisson was very much pleased with the country there and says it is the finest section of North Dakota that he has ever seen. Harvey traded his stock in the Central Bridge Co., of Indianapolis, and his Elwood property for a half-section of land five miles from Hamilton, partly improved, and thinks he made a good deal. He was offered S6BO cash rental for one quarter for this year, which speaks well for its productiveness.. t The trade was made through N. Littlefield s real estate agency. While in that vicinity Mr. Davisson went over the line to Grenetta, Canada, and says all that section of country is as fine a farming country as he ever saw, and people who contemplate investing in Dakota land will do well to investigate that section before buying. There was no snow on the ground and one did not need an overcoat in driving about the country.

THE CITY COUNCIL.

Meet Monday Evening and Transact Routine Business. The common council met in regular session Monday evening with all members present except the mayor, who was out of town. It was voted to extend water mains in east part of town to Mel Griffin and Mrs. Seelman, at cost of $43 to latter and s4l to former, who are to pay said cost and be credited for such amounts on their water rentals. The city attorney was instructed to investigate matter of extension of Melville street sewer and report at next meeting. Ihe city treasurer’s report showed the following balances in the various funds: Corporation fund $ 299 80 LigM fund 3,446.17 Road fund............. 1,199.72

The following claims were allowed: LIGHT FUND. C. S. Chamberlain, salary.. | 50.00 Mel Abbott, same. ....... 30.00 Dave Haste, same 30.00 Tull Malone, wiring 4.75 Gen. El. Co., supplies 31.88 Western El. Co., same 19 72 F-. Bissell Co., same 20.96 R. D. Thompson, freight paid 312.79 Sunflower Coal Co., c0a1... 69.87 Shoal Creek Coal Co., same. 111.57 Ehrmann Coal Co., same. . 59 84 Shirley Hill Coal Co., same. 45.74 Hoover-Watson Ptg Co. reeds 15.00 CORPORATION FUND. J. K. Davis, marshal salary 30.00 E. M. Thomas, nlghtwateh. . 25.00 Rensselaer Garage, wk on h 1.00 Rensselaer Lumb Co., coal. 775 Maines & Hamilton, coal. . 6.40 ROAD FUND. Bert Campbell, salary 25.00 Andrew Wheeler, labor. ... 640 Rensselaer Lumb. Co., lumb 22.89 Maines & H., feed for team 27.63 WATER FUND. Ed Hopkins, salary 30 00 John Hordeman, wk. maines.. G H McClain, insurance. . . 6.80 Hoover-Watson Co, reoords 16.50 bor this week only our large package of oat meal, without a china dish, only 17c.; our regular 25c package, with a china dish, 20c.—John Eger.

Isew goods at cost, old goods. at h* l * retail P rice » to close-out. - Chicago bargain Store.

Vol. XII. No. 90.