Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1885 — THE WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE WEST.

In a cellar in Chinatown, San Francisco, the Coroner found a mass of human skulls and bones, partly covered with flesh, in the last stages of putrefaction: and in adjoining rooms a number of Chinese were discovered boiling bones and scraping and packing them in boxes for shipment to China. The cellar contained, it is believed, the remains of 300 bodies, which had been stolen from cemeteries throughout the State. The bones and strips of skin were so packed and labeled that the remains could be easily claimed by relatives in China. While being taken to the morgue some of the boxes fell to the street, exposing their ghastly contents, and causing intense excitement among the people, who trod the bones under foot in their indignation.... An application of the Atlantic, and Pacific Railroad Company for an indemnity grant to odd sections of land along a line recency purchased from the Southern Pacific Company has been denied, on the ground that the road was not completed within the prescribed time.., .Will A. Kearney, a prominent young attorney of Logansport, Ind., is in jail at that city on a charge of horse stealing. The sons of several wealthy citizens of Celina, 0., have been arrested for burglaries recently committed in that town.... Reports from fifty-nine towns in Wisconsin regarding the result of the license election show that fifty-two towns adopted the SSOO license, thirty-six voted for S2OO, and one town adopted the $350 rate... .Hugh McHenry and Howard Pearce have been indicted at Independence, Mo., ‘ for the recent train robbery on the Chicago and Alton Railroad.... Suit has been begun at Des Moines, lowa, contesting the .will of the late Father Brazil, a popular Catholic pastor, who left $250,000 worth of real estate to the church. The relatives allege that at the time of making the will the Rev. Mr. Brazil was insane. A decision by United States Judge Brewer, that 27,000 acres of land held by the Kansas Southern Railroad are legally a part of the public domain, has caused wild excitement in Southern Kansas. Farmers are flocking to Woodson and Greenwood Ccunties and are staking off claims, and some are building shanties and breaking the sod. In many instances even land entered by college script has been taken pos--session 0f... .Mines at Ishpeming, Mich., which have been idle six months, are about to resume operations, with a force of two hundred men.

The Government Directors of tbe Union Pacific, after investigation, report that the condition of affairs at Rock Springs, Wy. T.j the scene of the recent massacre of Chinese, is such as to jeopardize the Government s interests, and suggests prompt , interference by the military. Gen. McCook is on the ground, under orders to give strict protection to the Chinese Consuls, who are making investigations. The Consuls claim that twenty-five Chinamen had been killed, and that not a single American-born citizen participated in the rioting.... A Bismarck (Dak.) dispatch says: “The prairie fires now raging in this region are the most disastrous ever experienced. The flames have swept across the country-over one hundred miles east, and the damage is beyond estimate. In many cases the dwellings and bams of farmers have been destroyed, and grain and stacks are all ablaze. Passengers on incoming trains state that the prairies for miles present a scene of destruction. A woman living near Steele, sixty miles east of this city, was fatally injured by inhaling the flames while endeavoring to escape. Prairie fires have also been raging west of thfl Missouri River, and much damage is reported.from that section.”..,. .A boat containing Louis Bleyer, of Milwaukee, and Win. Rittmueller, of Philadelphia, capsized in Lake Muskegon, Rittmueiler being drowned... .John ISh&rp, a Bishop of the Mormon Church and a Director of the Union Pacific Railroad, was fined S3OO at Salt Lake City for illegal cohabitation... Hostile Indians have committed five murders in the Mogollon Mountains, New Mexico, daring the past yjreek. The Illinois State Fair was one of the most successful exhibitions of the kind ever held in Chicago. The gross receipts are estimated at $30,000, which will fully cover the expenses. Over 125,000 people attended the fair. ' , Senator Mandebson, of Nebraska, a

member of the Committee on Territories, has just returned from Utah. He thinks that the Mormons hate the National Government. and chafaat the restrictions of the country’s laws and the presence of Federal officials as an unholy interference and a barbaric invasion. The spirit of sedition, he £ays, is so deep-6eated that no one can contemplate the situation without wondering that it has not long since broken out in open rebellion. He believes that there must be legislation enacted of a most heroic and vigorous character to crush out the “hydra-headed monster.”.... Tbe story comes from TQledo, ‘Ohio, that letters have been received by people in Monclava Township from a man named Thomas Hubbell, buried thirteen years ago. The theory is 'that the body was exhumed by medical students, *.who found Hubbell to be alive, and it is explained that he lost his mind and was placed in an asylum. An investigation of the strange case is in progress... .Proceedings in the United States £)'ourt inKansasagainst some ninety Oklahoma boomel's have been abandoned in consequence of obedience by the settlers to the President’s orders..,. St Paul and Minneapolis have been raised to the first grade in the free-delivery system of the postoffice department, the effect of which is to raise the pay of the letterearners. .. .Minneapolis mills, for the year just closed, produced 5,450,163 barrels of flour, an increase of 652,823 barrels over the previous season... .Rich veins of natural gas, which are believed to indicate the presence of coal, have been struck near Fargo, Dak., at depths Of sixty to 140 feet. ....The family of William Talmedge, of Des Moines, lowa, have fallen heirs to an English estate valued at $1,500,000.