People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

INDIANA’S TAXABLE PROPERTY. Interesting Figures From Abstract of the State Auditor. Indianapolis, Ind., April 29.—Auditor of State Henderson has completed the abstract of taxable property in Indiana. The value of lands is $449,544,057; improvements, $81,553,811. Value of lots <141,133,709; improvements, $136,635,393. The personal property assessed amounts to $295,914,156. The telegraph property is rated at $1,686,831, and the railroad at $160,387,420. The total value of state taxables is $1,966,855,377. The number of polls assessed for taxes is 385,619. The taxes raised from this valuation are distributed as follows: State tax, $1,704,806.44; benevolent institutions, $758,551.53; state schools, $2,216,387.87; permanent endowment, $63,196.42. These funds are settled with by the auditor of state. The total taxes levied for the year 1892 amounts to $18,037,759.51, an increase of $1,000,000 over 1891. The delinquents for 1891 and previous years amounts to $3,001,906.69. A terrific tornado swept portions of northern and northwestern Indiana the other nfght. At Wabash the tornado was the severest ever known, many buildings were wrecked, and trees and fences leveled. The Friends’ church was blown against a brick schoolhouse, and both buildings were reduced to debris. The Underwood factory and woodworking factory at the Treaty Creek Stone and Lime Co. were unroofed. The Lawton foundry was also made bald and otherwise damaged. At Gas City the new fine brick county asylum was unroofed and several inmates were hurt. Five miles north of Mitchell, near White river, the other morning, Samuel Umstead was killed by lightning. Uinstead was a young married man and resided at Columbus. Eddie, the 4-year-old son of Mrs. Mary Dugan, was burned to death at Indianapolis. The child’s clothing caught fire from a burning heap of rubbish, and the child was dead almost before the fire was extinguished. Robert Frees, a 2-year-old boy at Logansport, was playing with a trunk when the lid fell on his neck breaking it and causing instant death. Timothy Madden, pioneer, died a few days ago at Muncie, aged 75 years. Hon. John C. Orr, one of the most prominent attorneys of southern Indiana, died suddenly at his home in Columbus from heart disease. August Kerwien, at Clay City, has a freak in the shape of a seven-legged kitten. The little animal has two bodies, united at the shoulders. There are four legs on one body and three on the other. The body of Everett Hammons, aged 10, was found in a cornfield three miles from home, near Martinsville, greatly decomposed. The boy disappeared December 7. Until a month ago the body had been covered by snow. During a heavy storm at Martinsville, Milton Rushell was struck by lightning. He was knocked senseless for quite a while. He is in a precarious condition. Rushell's w r atch .chain was melted by the current and a hole burned in his watch, but the movement did not stop running. Representatives of a New York syndicate contracted with the Shelbyville Electric Street Railway Co. to put in a complete line and have the same in operation by August 1. The company reorganized, with Judge Hord president, Ed Major secretary and Scott Ray treasurer.

Hagerstown is determined to have natural gas if possible. Two well# have been drilled there at an expense of $2,500, and work will soon begin on a third one in an effort to find natural gas. An expert has declared that the gas is there, and the citizens are bound to find out. The state officers and other occupants of the state house have nearly made up their minds to appeal to the authorities for protection against State Geologist Sylvester S. Gorby. The state geologist is afflicted with insane attacks, which lately have grown in frequency and violence. The other day he was the victim of the most serious attack which his friends have had knowledge of. He came on in the train from Southport, and went direct to the state house, where his dementia broke out in violence and grotesque manifestations. Under the dome of the capitol he executed a skirt dance, with all the gyration of a premier kicker in a variety show. The state house attaches gathered to witness the performance, and Gorby suddenly flopped from burlesque to tragedy, chasing the spectators out of the building, and threatening them with death. Gorby then went to his room on the second floor, saturated thecarpet with a can of gasoline and went through his pockets for a match, but fortunately was unable to find one. He broke 'one of the windows and was about to jump out when the state house authorities came in and overpowered him. He was given ten grains of morphine, which quieted his nerves, but failed to put him to sleep. John O. Blue, freight conductor on the P. F. W. & C. railway, met instant death in a horrible manner at Warsaw. He in some manner fell between the cars while the train was running at the rate of thirty miles an hour, ana the twenty-four cars passed over him. Miss Alva Beeson suicided with laudanum at Terre Haute, after she had quarreled with her lover. Elmer Leachman, farmer from Southport, fell from a load of hay at Indianapolis and was dead when assistance reached him. Heart failure. Big Four Engineer Wesley Allison’s body was recovered from the river at Terre Haute, a few days ago, where it had lain since October 28 last, when the brave engineer went down with his engine to the bottom of the river. Barnes, Jay & Neeley’s well No. 3, In the Geneva field, near Portland, is completed add is doing 200 barrels daily. A number of other wells in the game vicinity are nearing the oil sand, •nd in • few days will drill in.