Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1910 — Page 1

Jasper County Democrat.

91.50 Per Tear.

POSTOFFICE RAISED TO SECOND CLASS.

The receipts of the Rensselaer postoffice having passed the SB,000 mark for the last year, the office will now be raised from the third to the second class, with a straight salary of $2,000 and clerk and deputy hire extr«». This is an advance of SIOO in the postmaster’s salary direct, and also an extra allowance for deputy and'clerk hire-

PILOT CHANGES HANDS,

Leslie Miller Leases Mt. Ayr Paper to F. H. Robertson. Bro. Lesley Miller, who has so successfully conducted the Mt. Ayr Pilot for the past few years, has, we understand, leased his plant to F. H. Robertson, who several years ago run a paper at Wheatfield, in this county, and will enter the employ of the Newton County Enterprise. Mr. Miller bade his readers adieu in his last issue, and the new publisher took up the work with that issue. To both the retiring and the new editor we extend best wishes.

CONGRESSIONAL LINE-UP.

John B. Peterson of Crown Point Likely to Be Nominated . To-day. John B. Peterson of Crown Point, who has been urged for some time to say that he would accept the democratic nomination for congress, has at last consented, it is said, and the three north counties are reported to be solid for him. This, if true, gives him the nomination with one vote to spare, and it is not likely any other name will be presented to the convention, as Mr. Peterson is acceptable to the democrats of all parts of the district and neither Mr. Honan nor any of the others whose names have been mentioned in connection with the nomination cared to make any fight for it. — ——- -- Concerning Mr. Peterson, the Crown Point Star, republican organ of Lake county, says: “Judging by newspaper ports our townsman, J. B. Peterson,' * will be * put on the Democratic ticket for Congress whether it is his wish or not. He is no doubt the strongest man in the 10th District for the party, and if any Democrat can win, John B. can mate it. He has “never dabbled” in politics and has a clear record. He and Ed Crumpacker will make a race that will call out a great audience-”

A BIG DAY AT PARR.

Barbecue Saturday Was a Huge Success Notwithstanding the Unfavorable Weather. The prediction that Parr would have a big crowd Saturday at her celebration of the opening of her new creamery was fully realized, and perhaps the crowd was the largest ever entertained* by that hospitable little town, it being variously estimated all the way between 1,500 and 2,000, Rensselaer sent up a large contingent, and on returning all reported a fine time and a crowd. In the ball game the Rensselaer M. -W. A. team lost to the Parr team by a score of 11 to 10, while the kid team from Rensselaei beat the Parr kids by a score of 7 to 5. Charlie Reed of Barkley won the $1 cash prize for haying brought in the most cream on that day, 256 pounds, and Frank J. Babcock of Carpenter a like prize for having brought cream the greatest distance. .The baby prizes were awarded to Mr. and Mrs. Ocie Nicholson and Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Chupp, for the prettiest boy and girl baby, respectively. The day’s receipts of butter fat were given at about 1,300 pounds. / The big roast oy Jc reported to have been cooked to a turp and was handed out with sandwiches freely to all who came, for dinner, but so many more came than'- was expected that it was scarcely enough to go around, and not a whit was left for supper. •" , ■■ ;7

Millet and Hungarian seed at Eger Bros.

“DAN” DAY IS PAROLED

After Serving Two Years For Murder of Daisy Phillips. RETURNED HOME SATURDAY. v ' i Was Sent Up From Jasper County In May, 19Q8, for From Two to Twenty-One Years, After Conviction for Manslaughter. Minimum Term Having Expired He Is Turned By Prison Parole Board.

Jasper county is certainly having considerable experience witn Indiana’s parole policy, arid we believe we voice the sentiment of 99. per cent of the people when we say that its experience has not been of a character to popularize the law or policy in this county. The parole of Robert Parker, the failed Remington banker, a few weeks ago after his having served only two years for embezzling some $300,000 did not strike a popular chord, and especially so in Remington and vicinity where the major part of the victims of the failure reside. And Saturday afternoon, when “Dan” Day stepped off the Louisville train with a parole in his pocket from the parole board of the Jeffersonville reformatory, after having served but two years for the cold-blooded murder of a' young girl in Rensselaer, the people here were given a shock that is not calculated to increase respect for the law in general and the Indiana parole law in particular. If a thief is caught in one’s

chicken house he would have to serve as long art imprisonment, if convicted, as was meted out in both of these instances, and the opinion of many is that our statutes need revising so that the penalty more nearly fits the crime. Surely, he who robs his fellowmen of $300,000 oi who deliberately pulls a revolver from his pocket and shoots down without the slightest provocation a fair young girl in the first blush of young womanhood, should be punished more than he who steals one measly chicken to perhaps furnish broth for a family that perhaps is unused to chicken luxuries.

On Friday morning, April 3, 1908, the peaceful city >pf Rensselaer was thrown into a furor of excitement by learning that “Dan” Day, a crippled and partly irresponsible young man only 21 years of age, had the night before shot down and killed Daisy Phillips, the 17-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Phillips of Rensselaer, and that he had been caught and was then confined in jail. “Dan" had been drinking that fatal night, it developed, and was in love with the girl, who, owing to his unfortunate condition, could not return his love and, so far as known, had given him no encouragement. He had been going to the Phillips home for some three years, he and «. crippled brother of the girl being quite chummy. On the night of the murder he started to leave the house about midnight and as he reached the door, turned and shot the girl dead, then rushed to the home of his brother where he Was later apprehended after a struggle and landed in jail, two revolvers being taken from him when arrested.

His trial was held at the term of court then ifi session and a verdict of manslaughter returned, the jury' feeling that the young man- was hardly responsible for / his actions, and Judge Hanley sentenced him to the reformatory for the term previously stated, and he was taken to Jeffersonville by Joe O’Connor, deputy sheriff. May 11, 1908. Under our prison parole law, each prison has a parole board independent of the state parole board, and by the provisions of our indeterminate sentence law a prisoner automatically presents

THE TWICE-A-WEEK

RBNSSEIiAER, JASPER COUNTY. INDIANA. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 1910.

himself befofe the parole board of the prison in which he is incarcerated, at the expiration ot his minimum sentence. If there is nothing against him in his prison behavior he is paroled and turned loose, but must report to the board at intervals until granted a permanent parole. The governor nor the state parole board have nothing whatever to do with it. It is presumed “Dan” has f been a model prisoner to have secured his freedom at the expiration of his minimum sentence, and it is hoped that his future conduct will be above reproach. The local authorities should see to it that he carries no more firearms, and if anyone is found selling or giving him liquor they should be summarily dealt with.

THE WAY IT’S WORKED.

Benton Review Tells How Swindle Is Worked On Railroad Road Tax. Concerning the indictment of C. G. Mauzy, late chairman of the Benton county republican central committee the Benton Review, among" other things says: - Far a number of years Mr. Mauzy has been engaged in contracting this wcrk and it has been a rethis work and it has been remunerative source of income. For the benefit of those who do nor understand how these things are dope we will sketch the situation briefly. The contractor enters into an agreement with the railroad officials to work out the road tax of the company in various townships, he to receive, say seven v y cents on the dollar for the work. He then proceeds to sublet to other individuals, getting the work done as cheaply as he can, and the difference in the two prices is his profit for looking after the details. When the work is completed the road supervisor gives the original contractor a receipt in full for the amount of railroad tax in his district, the contractor turns this receipt over to the railroad company and gets his money and the railroad people then turn In the receipts to the county treasurer in payment of their taxes. That is the way it works when honestly conducted. On the other hand it would be an easy thing <for the dishonest contractor and the dishonest supervisor tfe get together and split the money received from the railroad. Mr. Supervisor can receipt th£ contractor for the full amount, the contractor will get his money from the railroad company and the little incident of doing the road work may be omitted altogether. Under such circumstances it is highly profitable graft.

Nor is this the first time that Mr. Mauzy has had a grand jury after him on the gravel road question. The December, 1902 grand jury was furnished with evidence by James Hawkins that while Mauzy had drawn S4OO as gravel road superintendent of the Hawkins gravel road as did his “deputy” for 200 days’ the road itself was constructed in 76 or 78 days and the bill was allowed Mr. Mauzy the day before the 1902 election. In the heated controversy that followed the discovery the Commissioners set up the plea that they did not pretend to use their judgment as to whether a man filing a bill before them had performed the work or not, but if he swore that he did, filed a bill for the amount and no citizen discovered the fact that the treasury was about to be raided and protested befoic they got him paid, they had done their duty to the taxpayers who had elected them as their business agents. This argument was the ultimate cause of the downfall of the republican party in this county, and ever since the people have kept 9 set of democrat commissioners in charge of their affairs, and vast sums have so far been spent by them on the building of gravet roads, without even the breath of scandal attaching. Indicating that this was good judgment. The Review cannot let pass this opportunity ,of “pointing with pride” to tire fact that Fred Longwell is a Benton county boy who is making a record that cannot fail to put him up among the big men of the state. His prosecution of the bridge grafters in Jasper county is the first time that bunch of grafters has ever been caught red handed and' started for prison. While their work was as well known that r legislature after legislature passed lawl trying to protect the people, the _bridge trusts continued to get around them. On top of that he has stirred the animals up again in this ca§e, which is no doubt a typical one of the railroads trying to hire a “fixer” to load the taxa--1 tion they ought to pay onto the poorer people. ; "

WEATHER STILL COLD.

The cold April weather still continues, and except for grass, oats and wheat, nothing is doing much good. Hundreds of far--mer§ have had to plant over their corn, and that which came up a fairly good “stand” is not growing. The weather is more like cool April weather than June, and so far as this section of the state is concerned the corn crop this year can not possibly be as good'as that pf last year. In fact so far we have had no “corn weather” at all.

OLD SOLDIER DIES IN MILROY.

James Billiard of Milroy tp., an old soldier some 70 years of age, died Friday morning from a stroke of paralysis. He was in Wolcott the day before and on returning home ate a hearty supper. On getting up from the table he threw up his hands and fell to the floor. A doctor was summoned as soon as possible and he lingered until about 3 a. m., Friday, when he passed away without having regained consciousness. He leaves a wife but no children. He had resided on his 80-acre farm near Center school house for some five years, coming to Milroy from Chicago where he also owned property. The burial took place Sunday at'Lafayette.

BAD WRECK AT LOWELL.

George Gallagher, Monon Brakeman, Killed.—Two Others Injured. In a railroad wreck at Lowell Sunday rhorning at about 6 a. m., George Gallagher of Logansport, a brakeman on a through freight north bound, was killed, while the engineer and fireman on passenger train No. 4 suffered injuries and bruises about the face, arms and back. None of the passengers were injured. It is said that freight train No. 90 became stalled on the grade south of Lowell and the engineer of the unfortunate freight helped them over the hill. When he got back to his train he could not' move it. He tried to get half of it cars at a time in on the siding, and just as the last half was : being pulled in, - No. 4 came j around the sharp curve, the enJ gineer on the passenger train | not seeing the freight until he I was within four car lengths of | the caboose, and did not have j time enough to even set the ' brakes, or to jump from the ! swiftly moving train. It seems that while the j freights were trying to get in 1 the clear, Gallagher had been sent to the rear of the freight to flag the passenger train, bui for some unaccountable reason had entered the caboose and fell asleep. He was about 30 years of age, and his home was in Logansport. The engine of the passenger | train was thrown completely from the track, the tank fell directly across tjie rails, and the baggage and mail cars were also derailed. The day coaches and sleepers all remained on the track. The caboose on the freight train was completely demolished, and several other cars near the rear were oadly wrecked. About six lengths of rails were torn up in the impact. The passenger train was severI al minutes late when it left MoI non, but yvas running on time I when it reached Roselawn, thus it can be seen at about what rate of speed the passenger was going. The track was .cleared after about six hours work, and aside from holding up train No. 33 due here at 1:58 p. m., abount ; an hour,-the passenger trains returned running over this section !in the afternoon. 1 The damage wrought aggregated several thousand dollars. The advance of from 15c to 25c on- the wholesale price of pineapples this week over last, makes the Home Grocery’s big pineapple sale look extra good and shows that their judgment was right.

PINEAPPLE SALE. Save money on your pineapples. Wait for our Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sale; $1.90 to $2.10 a crate for fancy canning fruit.— John Eger.

THE COURT HOUSE

Items Picked Up About the County Capitol. Attorney Guy was over from Remington yesterday doing sorin. abstract work and looking af-ter-some-matters in commissioners’ court. Fred Longwell was up to Chicago the first of the week gathering evidence in one of the numerous graft prosecutions he has now under way in this and Jasper county. —Brook Reporter. —o New suits filed: No. 7612. Petition of John I. Kinzie of Hebron for the adoption of Samuel C. H s oshaw of Rensselaer, who will be six yeairs old Sept. 9, 1910, and whose mother is dead. Wilbur A. Hoshaw father of above named Samuel C. Hoshaw, consents to the adoption. J. H. O’Neall of Indianapolis, spent a part of last week with his wife Mrs. Bertha Parcels O’Neall, and daughter here a few days last week. Mr. O’neall is ah expert accountant, and for several years has been engaged in this work. He now holds a position under the state accounting board.

Squire Spriggs was in from Walker tp., Monday with Trustee Karch, and filed a strong petition with the commissioners asking that the voting place of Walker be changed from Kniman to Walker Center school house. As it is the voters from the east side have to travel clear over to the west side of the township to cast their ballots, and numerous efforts have been made to better this condition, but all have heretofore failed. John O’Connor worked on thu proposition several times, his idea being that if the voters all turned out at one election enough votes would be cast to entitle the township to another precinct, snd one could then be located over on the east side. This failed, however, and now the proposition is to move the one precinct over east to nearer the center of the townsip.

According to the Hammond Times Henry P. Sartorious and Miss Hazel E. Webb, a Hammond couple who were granted a marriage license here last Tuesday and were married by Squire Irwin in the Clerk’s office vigorously denounced the published announcement of the granting*of the license and marriage by the Rensselaer papers as a blank lie, and said if “Judge” Irwin .had said he married them he stated an untruth. The irate “Miss Webb” even stated to the Times reporter that she was coming down to Rensselaer Saturday to run the “lie” down, but she did not come, so far as learned. What reasons they had for wishing to keep the marriage secret is unknown, but unless someone swore falsely in giving their naiyies to the cl’erk and signing up the applications for license, two parties by this name with parents of the same name as those given by the Times, wete actually married in Rensselaer last Tuesday, and there -is t no excuse for them to denounce everyone as liars who so states. The county commissioners met in regular session Monday, but the day was taken up for the most part with the allowance of claims. Following is a report of all else of record for that day, and a complete report of the proceedings will be given in Saturday’s Democrat:

The various county epositories reported interest on county funds for the month of May, and tne Bank of Wheatfield also for April, its report for that month not getting in time for action last month, as follows: Bank of Wheatfield. . .$20.56 Same, April . .... 11.24 State Sank, Trust & Savings 8ank...... 67.67 First Nat. Bank;.*.... 137.67 The proceedings in the Lewis Dunker, et ai. ditch in Gillam tp., were dismissed, owing to an error of the drainage commissioners m computing, the number of cubic

yards to be excavated, the report showing but 4,083 yards, when in reality there is 11,000 yards, and the estimated costs at SBO2 when it will cost $1,500 or more. The petition to dismiss was filed by W. P. Osborne, supt. of construction, the petitioners joining in the petition. A new petition was filed at once for the proposed ditch, The graft in working out railroad taxes in this section of the state, which has been revealed by the probing of Prosecutor Longwell in Newton county, resulting in grand jury indictments there, calls to mind the fact that Marion township, Jasper county, had a little experience along this line a few years ago, but through the stand taken by Trustee Stackhouse the township got all that was coming to it in that instance at least. The stoi., told us is as follows: The railroad tax in a certain road district here was $l2B, and a fainter of that vicinity had $55 of private tax to work out. The work was done in gravel hauling, and when the farmer saw that the township got no more for the $l2B than he was putting on for $55, he made a kick to the trustee, who found that the supervisor had issued a receipt for the railroad tax to the contractor. Mr. Stackhouse acted promptly. The gravel that each had hauled was measured and it was found that for the $l2B two more loads of gravel had been hauled than for the $55, The trustee telegraphed at his own expense to the railroad officials at Chicago and got the superintendent of the Monon down here and put the facts before him, and told him that the work would not be accepted. The superintendent informed the trustee that it had not yet paid the contractor and would not do so until he did the required amount of work, which was later done and the matter dropped without any publicity of the courts. Albert Bonk another democratic trustee, of Walkc. tp~ also had a little experience in this line, and he, too, made the contractor or supervisor come to time, by bringing suit in the circuit court of Jasper county.

A DISAPOINTED CROWD.

Perhaps 100 to 150 people were gathered at the Monon station Sunday to take the excursion train to Chicago, but the wreck near Lowell caused the excursion train to run around via the Michigan City branch. It would seem that the railroad people should have sent up an engine and coach from Monon to have taken the passengers to Monon to catch'-- the excursion train there, or could have run the excursion this way and let the passengers transfer around the wreck, rather than disappoint so many who had'made all preparations to take the train here. The milk train north was sent around via Snyder, from Shelby, thence over the Indiana Harbor road.

Oxford Sale at Murray’s Shoe Store. A big ling of good style lasts. Men’s Oxfords sale price $4.00 Men’s $4.00 Oxfords, sale price $3.00 Men’s $3.50 Oxfords, sale price $2.50 Men’s $2.50 Oxfbrds, sale price $1.50 Ladles’ $2.50 and $3.00 Oxfords, sale price $2.00 Millet and Hungarian seed at Eger. Bros. Get good oxfords cheap while they last. The Cash Store.—G B. Porter. / Read ad the last closing out sale from now to July Ist.-—B. Forsythe. The hig sale at the 99c Racket store is proving a winner and for real bargains you must read the big. ad in the Saturday Democrat. v What a mistake you make by not getting J. W. Ward, the old reliable well driller of Jasper county, to drill your well. See him before contracting with anyone else. ft for a crate of pineapples when you can buy fancy fruit at $1.90 to $2.10, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 42 to the crate, $1.90; 36 to the crate, $2.00; 30 to the crate, $2.10. —John Eger.

viol. xm. No. is.