Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1887 — THE WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE WEST.

Indictments agaiast the St. Louis and San Francisco Express robbers—Wittrock, Haight, and Weaver—were handed in by the Grand Jury at St. Louis on the afternoon of Jan. 4. The prisoners were immediately arraigned, pleaded guilty, aud were sentenced in short order—Wittrock and Haight to seven years, and Weaver to five years in the penitentiary. They have been imprisoned at Jefferson City. Allen Folliver, who imagined himself to be Jesus Christ, was adjudged insane at Decatur, 111. Upon leaving the court room he jumped to the stone floor below, falling upon a prisoner, whom he tried to kill. He next grasped the steamcoil, burning his hands to the bone before his hold could be loosened... .At San Francisco a dynamite cartridge,was placed in a slot on the Sutter street cable road. A lady saw a man lift the trap and lower a lighted package. The /.explosion shattered the masonry and broke the pulleys. The iron plates on the man-holes were blown two hundred feet;.. .At a prayer-meeting near Eldorado Springs, Mo., a man named Oakes, who created a disturbance, was rebuked by a fanner by the name of Clark. Oakes then drew a knife and cut Clark s throat from ear to ear. ....A leak in a natural gas-main at Youngstown, Ohio, caused an explosion in the new Andrews block, on South Market street. Flames burst forth at once, and the entire building and the first Baptist Church were destroyed. The total loss is SIOO,OOO. .. .There were fourteen pouches of letter mail and about a truckload of paper mail burned in the railroad wreck.at 0hi0... .In a railway accident jj/ Russell, Kas.. H. C. Tinges, of Kansas City, aud F. T. Alexander, supposed so live at Ottawa, Kansas, were killed... Thomas Johnson closed a thirtyday quail feat at Springfield, 111., by eating three. Isaac W. Sprague, the “living skeleton,” has just died in Chicago. Five years ago he sold his body to the Harvard Medical College. for SI,OOO, and it has been taken to that institution. His weight, at the time of his death was forty-five pounds. Sprague was bom in Massachusetts, in IS4I. At birth he weighed twelve and a half pounds, and was thought to be perfectly healthy. Before he was a year old he began to charge. His flesh d.sappeared, and in eight weeks he was nothing but bones. When 4 years old he recovered his robust form end grew rapidly, and at 12 years his weight was 100 pounds. Suddenly his flesh left him. and. although pronounced healthy, he still decreased in weight. When 25 years of age the disease attacked his muscles, and he became a subject for the medical colleges as an extreme case of progressive muscular atrophy. It was then he placed himself on exhibition as the living skeleton. In ISTc’he was married, and a large strong boy. how 18 years old, was the result of the union. A SaN Francisco paper is in receipt of * papier stating that the recent dynamite explosion in that city was planned by a powerful society, organized in Chicago immediately after the Haymarket riot, and that other explosions will follow, if the demands of the street-railway employes are not granted....A ease on trial in. the Federal court at St. Paul will force a decision as to whether an Indian can.'bring a legd action to determine his property rights or is simply a ward of the Interior Department... .1 he criminal court at St. Louis reduced the bail of Fotheringham, the unfortunate exi press messenger, to SBOO. He was indicted for grand larceny and receiving stolen property....l he shops of the North rn Pacific Hoad at Fargo, D. T., were destroyed by tire. The Joss is about $260,000. . ...R. Rothschild’s Sons, manufacturers and dealers in furniture and earpels at Cincinnati, have made an assignment.. . .At Aitkin, Minn., the thermometer is reported to have gone down to GO degrets below Eero. Mr. M. B. Curtis, the well-known comedian, who achieved fame and made himself rich in the Hebrew character of , “Sam'l of Foaen,” seems to have struck another rich vein in his new play, “Caught in a Corner.” The leading role, Ikey Greenwald, as interpreted bv him, is a fine bit of comedy acting, and promises to ■ achieve a great run. Mr. Curtis continues another week at ' McVicker’s Theater/ Chicago. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad depot at Kewanee, 111., was burned, and also the Ohio Southern Railroad machine and car shops at Springfield. Loss SI t 0 ,000.... .John Rand, aged 74 years, was married at Osakis, Minn., to a Boston woman who answered bis advertisement. He procured a divorce from his fifth wife about a- month ag0...-.. Wi lliam Boehm was accidentally shot and killed at Joliet,

IH., while cleaning a pistol A fire at Lawrence. Kan., destroyed property to the value of $150,00(1. (