Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1903 — INDIANA NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA NEWS.

Items of interest Gathered From All Parts of the State. While a Valparaiso young man was seated at an Epworth league meeting in the M. E. church, Sunday evening, a revolver that he had in his pocket was discharged. The bullet bored a few holes in his clothes but did no damage. Thad E. Riley, of Boston, has a bone toothpick that was used by his grandmother’s uncle in Scotland. It has been handed down from generation to generation until Thad thinks it is worth $75. This is the price he quoted to the collector of curios, in Washington. While a woman of Brazil was cleaning carpet, the carpet exploded and blew out a side of the house, but she was not injured. It is supposed that the coal dust which had collected in the carpet was ignited by the friction from the broom, which the woman was wielding with force. A little girl of Albion is said to be afflicted with irresistible kleptomania to such an extent that she steals and destroys anything she can carry away from the school room. She has made away with hats, bonnets, books, shoe rubbers, wraps, etc. It is alleged that the little one has been barred from school. During the past few months several thousands of acres of coal lands have been secured by options in Pike county. The prices have ranged sls to 30c per acre. These options have been secured by home and foreign companies, and no doubt in the near future several large coal mines will be opened up should the two proposed railways cross the country. Dr. W. S. Jackson, a liveryman and veterinary surgeon, of Lawrenceburg, is lying at death’s door from the effects of a horse bite received more than a year ago. He was bitten in the left hand, the bite healing in a short time and giving him no trouble until recently, when he was attacked by severe cramping pains in the hand and arm. These extended to every muscle in his body, and every symptom of hydrophobia has been developed.

John J. Tucker, a farmer living near Shelbyville, met with a peculiar mishap while driving a wagon under a shed on his farm. He stood on the singletree of the wagon, which was loaded with corn. A rafter of the shed struck him and threw him backward on the corn. The horses went on and the rafter caught the farmer’s body and held it while the wagon passed under him. The flesh was scraped from portions of his body and he was severely hurt in the back.

If Alexander Anderson had not had his overcoat unbuttoned while he was standing near machinery in a flouring mill near Albany he might have lost his life. Anderson is a farmer and while talking to a companion in the mill backed so close to the fly wheel that the wheel caught the skirt of his overcoat. When Anderson felt the jerk he was thoughtful enough to raise his head and the wheel peeled off his coat, leaving him unharmed. The coat was torn to pieces and the machinery was damaged. Edwin W. Wagner, alias John B. Newton, the forger, is now wearing stripes in the State prison. He pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery and was sentenced from two to fourteen years and fined SSOO. When Judge Tuthill asked him if he had anything to say, Wagner replied: “Yes, I have a wife and six children who are penniless and if you fine me I can not pay it. My children should be educated and given a chance to avoid the life I have been leading.’* In the little town of Ridgeville, inhabited largely by families of farmers, dancing of all kinds has been placed under the official ban and a tax that is practically prohibitive has been placed upon it. It costs $5 for a permit to dance until midnight and 'Un additional $5 if the dancing is prolonged after that hour. In case the dance becomes noisy at kny time the license may be revoked, the dancers to forfeit their license fees. The young people of the town are up in arms against the members of the town council, who imposed the tax and the people who encouraged the lawmakers. Some nights ago, the story runs, a largely attended dance was held in Ridgeville that lasted far into the morning. This dance, it is said, kept the entire village, except a

deaf and dumb man and the town marshal, awake nearly all night. Peals of laughter rang out and wheezy old fiddles sawed and squeaked. The next day after the disturbing dance there were conferences of citizens, who agreed that the midnight frolic of the young people was little short of disgraceful, and all averred that a pace like that was too fast for Ridgeville, which had religiously kept itself remote from the dissipation of the large cities. The town council was found to be in sympathy with the citizens and an inventive brain among the oouncilmon put forward the idea of a. prohibitive tax. The act of the city fathers caused a wave of Indignation to spread among the young people of the community and they have pledged themselves to attempt a revocation of the anti-dance ordinance.