Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1885 — THE WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE WEST.

Frederick Bryton, a talented and rising young actor, appears this week nt McVicker’s Theater, Chicago, in a new play from the pen of Mr. Clay Greene, entitled “Jack o’ Diamonds." The supporting company is said to be an excellent one. An explosion in the Cherry Valley Furnace, near Leetonia, Ohio, dashed several tons of molten metal over four men, one of "whom was burnt beyond recognition. The others will probably recover. It is estimated that in the heart of the business district of Chicago there have already been laid two thousand miles of underground electric wires, and the work goes steadily forward... .At the annual meeting of the stockholders of Pullman’s Palace Car Company six leading Chicagoans were re-elected as Directors. The revenue for the year is given as $5,613,628 and the disbursements as $4,365,604. In reporting assets, the city of Pullman is valued at $6,584,523....Mr5. Barbara Biehler was accidentally burned to death at Crestline, Ohio. Her clothing had become saturated with kerosene, and the lighting of a match set her aflame. Her husband lay drunk in the house and was unable to render any assistance. 4 ' John W.Coffee, the murderer of an aged couple, was hanged at Crawfordsville, Ind., after the rope had broken twice. He gave a written confession to his spiritual adviser. Coffee was held up while he was bound, the rope adjusted, and the trap sprung. The body struck tire ground with a dull sound, the rope having broken. He was at once carried uron the scaffold in a semiunconscious state, though groaning in great agony. A new rope was adjusted and Coffee was dropped again with the same result as at first, the rope breaking the second time. At this there was a great stir among the audience and some men became very wild. The sight was too sickening to look at He was then raised up and his head put through a new noose, and ho was permitted to'swing until dead, while the blood was flowiiig from his mouth and nose... .A Lincoln (Neb.) dispatch says: “The house and cattle-barn belonging to Peter Hengen, living near Ithaca, twenty-five mi.es north of here, was burned last night. Hengen was away from home, but the remains of his wife end daughter were found in the ruins, the body of his brother being found in the barn. There are wild rumors afloat ns to the cause of the horror, but there is no real clew. The prevailing opinion is that young Hengen murdered the woman and child, fired the premises, and suicided.".... In West Fork Township, Woodbury County, lowa. James Johnson shot his brother John while he lay sleeping, scattering his brains about the room. The fratricide remarked, on seeing his brother’s coffin, that they would meet m hell. The wife of the murdered man appears to think the crime Was justifiable.... Fires at Owosso and Maple Rapids, Mich., destroyed property valued at $160,000. At Maple Rapids an entire block was consumed, and at Owosso, five stores, a residence, and a furniture factory were laid in asbee. Near Osawkie, Kan., a farmer and his family were driving homeward with a package of ton pounds of powder in the wagon. His wife attempted to light a pipe, and dropped a spark. The explosion which followed killed the woman and fatally injured the other three persons. Tw* hangman at Columbus, Ohio, swung off Frederick Greiner, the murderer of Margaret Seeling. The doomed man went on the scaffold with a cigar between his

teeth. The fall failed to break his neck, but he strangled in eleven minutes.'., .The new railroad bridge across the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona, which cost $200.000, has been totally destroyed by fire. Gov, Oglesby nas issued a proclamation of quarantine scheduling the following-named sections, and prohibiting the shipment of cattle therefrom into Illinois: the counties of New York, Richmond, King, and Queen, in New York: the counties of Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Union, Hunterdon, Camden, Burlington, Hudson, and Middlesex, in New Jersey; the counties of Baltimore and Prince George, in Maryland: the counties of Fairfax and Loudoun, in Virginia; the con nties of Harrison and Pendleton, in Kentucky; county of New Castle, in Di laware; the county of Jefferson, in West Virginia, and thaDistrict of Columbia, pleuro-pneumonia being prevalent in the counties named.