Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1885 — THE WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE WEST.

In Brooklyn, N. Y., the wall of one of a series of connected buildings used as manufactories collapsed, having been screwed unevenly by jacks, overturning soap boilers on the second floor and crashing in frame residences adjoining, the embers from tho cook staves causing a general conflagration. The disaster was rendered complete by the explosion of four boilers. In the structures a number of men and gitls were employed, some of whom threw' themselves from the windows, but a number were buried in the debris. A score or more were injured, some of them fatally:.. .Mrs. Gilchrist, of Newark, N. J., became insane from drinla, and chopped off the head of her babe with an ax. The Coroner’s jury at Lemont, 111. signed a paper expressing the opinion that Sheriff Hanchett, of Chicago, was hasty in sending troops to the place without the assistance of the town authorities to disperse the people; and that, as the crowd hod mainly gathered from curiosity, the military officers should have used more discretion before firing. The “burglar-proof” residence of Mr. Charles Kay, at Milwaukee, was entered by a solitary masked robbber, who first cut the telegraph, telephone, and burglar-alarm wireß. The cracksman visited the servants' room and persuaded them to call Mrs. Kay, using a revolver to point his arguments. When Mrs. Kay appeared he compelled her to summon her husband, and the latter, under penalty of death, was enforced to deliver np money and jewelry valued at a large amount, the women meanwhile being kept standing in a row, and warned that they •would be shot if they made a disturbance. The robber made Mr. Kay escort him to the front door, and escaped In Indianapolis, the wife of Congressman Bynnm was aroused by a burglar demanding money. After giving him $5 and exchanging words, she screamed for aid and ran into the street. She was refused admission to the. nearest house, but received shelter at the second place.... The mercury fell several degrees below freezing-point in Illinois, Wisconsin, lowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, on the Bth inst. Ice formed in many places from half an inch to one and one-half inches thick, and Bnow and cold winds prevailed at many points. Small fruits and garden vegetables were hurt in most places. YVith favorable weather until harvest, it is estimated that the wheat crop of Michigan will exceed 24,743,00 ft bushels.... As a hand-car carrying four persons approached the open draw-bridge of the Canada Southern Road, six miles below Detroit, a man and a woman saved their lives by leaping, but their companions were drowned. In Chicago, soon after noon of Friday, the Bth inst, flames broke out in the yard of the Chicago Lumber Company, along the river in the vicinity of West Thirtyfifth and Iron streets. Nearly every engine in the city hurried to the scene, and six hours were required to bring the conflagration under control. Four squares were burned oyer, the sufferers being the Chicago Lumber Company, Bigelow Brothers, Adams, Hastings <fc Co., and J. W. Hinckley &' Co. The losses aggregate $696,000, on which there is insurance to the amount of $483,500, widely distributed. Missouri officials are advancing serious objections against the quarantine declared by Illinois against their cattle. They say that the actual quarantine established against Callaway County by the National Bureau of Animal Industry, and the great precaution of adjacent counties, strictly precluded the travel of cattle by cars out of the State and from the county by the public highways through other counties, and after strict . search they think it quite safe to say there is not to-day an acute case of the disease in the State.... The gronnds and buifdings of the University of Chicago were sold at auction by a master in chancery, under a mortgage held by an insurance company of Maine. Notice was previously given that the heirs of Stephen A Douglas had begun proceedings to recover toe land conditionally donated. John A. Dewitt, for the mortgagees, bid $275,000 for the property, and it was sold at that figure... .The Federal Court in Salt Lake convicted Angus Cannon, Mil- • ton Museer and J. C.Watson of unlawful cohabitation, and sentenced each of them to six months’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of S3OO. They refused to make any pledge os to their future conduct.... A Philadelphia syndicate haa purchased a controlling interest in the St Louis Gas Company, paying S4OO a share for the stock, the price aggregating $1,890,315. Tho oompany bolds judgments against the eity to the amount <rf $1,146,000. .. .An express ”i. A•: ' . •

package received at Morris, Ijyd., supposed: to contain SI,OOO, was “found to be m deup of waste paper.. Way man Crow,‘one oi the oldest most prominent, and best-known merchants of St Louis, died last week, aged 77. William ]Wrioht, who served in the regular army and has been a cowboy iin Texas, has been arrested for tlic recent train robbery near Harrodsburg, Ind. His photograph was promptly identified by Peter Weber, the baggage - master whom ho so nearly mui'dered. Wright was captured at Terre Haute.