Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1885 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—-A street railway is to be irailt between Month Bend and Mishawaka. ' I —Lafayette has a church social run by indies who tip the scales at 170 pounds and over, meh. -Mrs. Catharina Leslie, of New Albany, whose late husband was in the gun-boat service, has secured pension and back pay * to the amount of $4,C00. —Ex-Gov. Conrad Baker died last week at his residence in Indianapolis. The cause of bis death was paralysis of the puemogaatric nerve. Gov. Baker was Jborn in Franklin County, Pa., Feb. 12, 1819. He was educated at Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg. His preceptor in the study of law was the late Thaddeus Ktevens. He was admitted to practice in 1839, and he moved to Evansville in 1811. He resided there until the office of Governor devolved upon him by the election of Gov. Morton to the United States Senate in January, 1887, since which time he had lived in Indianapolis. In 1845 he was elected Representative from Vanderburgh County, serving one term. In 1852 he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, serving eighteen months and then Lieutenant Governor by the Republican party on the ticket with Gov. Morton, and in 1864 he was again placed on the ticket with Gov. Morton, and this time elected. In 1868 he was dominated against T. A. Hendricks for Governor, and defeated him by. 961 votes. Retiring' from the office in 1872, he was succeeded by Mr. Hendricks, whose place he took in the law firm of Baker, Hord A Hendricks, where he had since remained. Gov. Baker served during the war as Colonel of the Ist cavalry and Provost Marshal General of the State of Indiana, being mastered out of service in August, 1864. Gov. Baker leaves a family, a wife and three children, fully grown. —The last of the callers were about leaving the White House Wednesday afternoon, a Washington correspondent writer, when a man who gave his name as Capt. James MT Herrington, of Jeffersonville, Ind., stepped up to the door with a request that ho would like to see the President, adding that Vice President Hendricks had sent him. Qn being questioned ay to his business, he said he desired to read to the President an allegorical essay, p ose and poetry, on “The Irrepressible Conflict of Public Sentiment.” He thereupon produced from his overcoat pocket a package of about forty pages of foolscap paper. The doorkeeper offered to take it, saying that Col. Lamont read all the poetry that came before it was sent to the President, but the Captain declined the offer, for the reason, he said, that the chirography waa poor and so much interlined that any one except himself would have difficulty in reading it The doorkeeper, under the circumstances. refused admission, and be went away grumbling. As he was leaving, the Captain said he had been for years a river pilot at St. Louis, and he thought he had a better idea of the cause of war than any other man living; that he had penned his thoughts in leisure moments, and that he thought the President would be better off if he had heard his essay. He said be had had a talk with Vice President Hendricks during the early part of the day, but that Mr. Hendricks had no kind of appreciation of poetry or prose unless there was some red-hot politics in it He said Mr. Hendricks tired of it after hearing but seven -pages, and suggested that he let the President hear the remainder. Reason Called Back. (From the Boston Her ild.l A notable personage among those to be met along the avenue and in the hotel lobbies of Washington during the past few days has been an ex-soldier, the circumstances of whose career since the war have vested him with a peculiar interest. Early in 1862 he, then a young mao, enlisted at his home in Southern Indiana, and was assigned to a regiment that was actively engaged during the whole war. The young soldier made himself useful, was always in the thickest of the fray, and was promoted to be an officer, in one of the last battles fought before the final surrender, while’leading a charge, the young Captain . was struck in the head, and feO. His soldiers, with whom he was a great favorite, carried him to the rear. where he had every attention. Then he was conveyed to Washington and placed in one of the hospitals, and, after a long period of snfferieg, his wound healed, but his reason had fled. He was officially declared insane, and placed in an asylum near Washington, wh-re hs remained twenty years in this co dition. A few months ago his reason returned, and he is to-day as sane a man as lives. He says the past is a blank. He can scircely comprehend that be is not the same young man that he waa twenty years ago. He has found some of his comrades here, and these have treated him with great kindness. He can describe scenes and incidents of the war with as much cleirneie as if they had taken place but a few months ago. Among the friends he has recently made is ex-Secretary Lincoln, who became interested in his ease, and has hid his application for a pension male special by the Commissioner of Pensions, who also took an interest in the matter, and within a few days he will receive $16,000 of back pension money, with which he intends going into business. —James Ferrel, an old settier of Sparta, aged 70 years, died in intense agony the other night. Twenty years ago he was bitton by a mad dog. and the members of hie family declare that the cause of his death wee hydrophobia. —Near Rising Sun the remarkable coincidence is reported of two brothers named Thurmer becoming violent y insane about the same time. The cause is unknown. —_ ' p —Twenty-five indictments have bodn CcßUfed jufrppyiy si l fWtswiL