Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1886 — INDIANA MATTERS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA MATTERS.

A Dccloon on the Term of ».•TowaUUp Trustee— No w Swindling -Scheme In Boone County—A Decision on the Last of the Telephone Casos-Minor State State, Auditor Rice submitted to' Attorney General Hord for an official opinion the question,“Suppose a Township Trustee dies and the vacancy is filled by appointment, and the appointee bolds by virtne of •such appointment for the period of five months, ami lie is elected Trustee at lhe 8110060(1108 April election and bolds for the term of two years. Is he again eligible to the same office?" In answer to tho question the Attorney General says: “The statute provides hereafter no person shall be eli jible to tho office of Township Trustee more than four yenrein any period of six years.’ If the statuto was susae]>tible of the construction that a Trustee cannot under any circumstances hold the office for more than four years in any period of six years, and that the time during which tho officer held under appointment should be estimated da a part of such time, yet the fact of tho officer holding the office for five months under appointment and two years by election would not render him eligible t> a second election as .Trustee, but his time as such officer woulct terminate when the four years of continuous office would expire. But this statute must be construed in connection with the Constitution es Indiana, which provides, Tn all cases in which it la provided that an office shall riot bo filled by the same person more than a certaifi nurnlier of years continuously, an appointment pro tempore shall not be reckoned a part of that term.’ Tho statute must bend to the Constitution, aud Dpt. tiip Constitution to the statute. It is my opinion that the time of five months held under an appointment iftnot to be recta as any part of the fouryean during which a Trustee may hold hi* office, but that he is eligible to the office for two terms by election, and that he can hold by virtue of such elections f< r four years, and the time held under an Appt intmeat pro tempore is not to be counted as any part of stub four years.” —A well-dressed, smooth tongued swindler has been defrauding, the unsuspecting farmers in Boone and adjoining counties. This time it is the paint trick. The First National Bank of Lebanon is in receipt of several notes on farmers, who claim that they weje misled into signing the notes under the impression that they were receipts for paint, to be used by them in painting the roofs of their buildings. A couple of nice-appearing strangers, during the month of December last, went to the houses of farmers and represented that they were agents for roof-paint, and proposed to give ten dollars’ worth of the article to the honest tiller of the soil, and he was to recommend it to his neighbors. It looked very nice, and they took in the bait; some gave receipts, and others notes, which would never be collected, but were to show to others of the neighborhood, jnst for the influence it would have. —The Supreme Court of Indiana has decided the last of the telephone cases. The decision was given by Chief Justice Niblack. It covers the constitutionality of the two laws passed by the last Legislature for the regulation of telephone affairs, the points involved in the law reducing rentals having previously been decided in the cases of Hockett against the State, and in this the Court reaffirmed its former opinion by simply calling attention to it. Regarding the non-discrimination act, the Court holds at length that the telephone company is a common carrier, and as such is subject to all the regulations which the law imposes upon common carriers.- It cannot, therefore, refuse service to any person who demands it and fulfills the legal requirements. —The children of Frank Klee, a farmer living in the vicinity of Huntingburg, went fishing, and on their return brought home several small fish, "which they carelessly laid down. One of the smaller children, aged 2 years, picked up one of the fish and attempted to put it in its mouth. As the fish was still alive it flounced out of the child's hand and got fast in its throat. The father, in attempting to pull the fish out, pulled the tail off, aud the child was choked to death in a few minutes. —Some time ago a New Albany photographer received a copy of a picture from the Sheriff of Orange County, being that of three- toughs sitting on the same seat in a spring wagon, one driving, one flourishing a revolver, and the other holding a bottle of whisky. He was instructed to make 500 photographs of the man sitting in the middle, which was the notorious Archer. As soon-as the Sheriff of Fountain. County received a photograph he at once went and put his hand on the man. —An attempt was made to poison the family of Henry Sanders, of Stone's Crossing. A quantity of “Rofigh on Bats” was placed in the coffee the family had for breakfast. Four members of the family were made violently sick, but by prompt treatment are recovering. A son-in-lgiyjftL. named Champfinwasarrested on suspicion and lodged in jail under $20,000 bond. He protests his innocence. —Someof the best corn lands in Indiana are the bottoms of ponds which have been drained, but in certain of these the working of the soil on warm days causes an intolerable itching, followed by burning pain in the skin for some days. The cause of this is found to be the minute spicules of sponges Which once grew in tjje pond and remain in enormous abundance in the dust. —A few days since, two patent deeds were recorded in the Recorder's office, at Goshen, one, dated 1836 and signed by President Andrew Jackson, for forty acres in Jefferson Township, to Ede Davison, and the other dated 1837, for 160 acres in - same Township, signed by Martin Van Buren, to John S. Wilson. —lsrael Noal, the oldest resident of Logansport, is dead. Mr. Noal came to Cass Coun'y sixty-five years ago, when there were but a dozen log cabins in the county. —Christian Failor. agedAfl years, at ona time a prosperous merchant of Centerville, tried to blowout his brainsl by shootin himself through the right temple. He cannot reoover. Disease and financial troubles are the causes that led to the rash act. —The ninth annual meeting of the Southern Indiana Teachers’ Association was held at Vincennes recently. The attendance was unusually large, aud great interest was manifest. —Cyrus Dockard’s Office safe at Canaan was blown” open by burglars, and sl2f/in cash and $25,000 in notes and bonds stolen.