Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1887 — THE WEST. [ARTICLE]

THE WEST.

At Galena, 111., the proprietor of the De Soto House ordered from the diningroom a colored man who had accompanied the National Guard Company of Freeport to Galena, and who was breakfasting with the men. The military guests left the hotel in a body and went to another hostelry. Gas was struck at Shelbyville, 111., at the depth of 916 feet and 51 feet in white Trenton rock....A jury at Morris, 111., pronounced Schwartz and Watt guilty of the Rock Island train robbery and the murder of Messenger Nichols, and sentenced them to imprisonment for life.... Another partial cure of consumption bv the Bergeron method is reported lrom Teire Haute, Ind., the patient being Richard Jay, a nailer, whose death was momentarily expected. He is reported to be rapidly improving. Leading citizens of St. Paul are organizing to bring about a centennial celebration of the passage of the Congressional ordinance organizing the Northwest Territory. .. Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, accompanied by Mrs. Blaine, Miss Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), Miss Hattie Blaine, and R. C. Kerens, of the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railroad, arrived in Chicago April *2O. The party came from Fort Gibson by the way of St. Louis. Only one or two newspaper reporters and Mr. Blaine’s two sons, Walker and Emmons, were on hand to welcome the distinguished visitors. Mr. Blaine was looking extremely well, and seemed to have grown much stouter than he was when last in Chicago. Details of the destruction wrought by the recent cyclones in the West and Southwest indicate that the loss of life was much greater than first reported. The storm ravaged a strip of teiritory about 500 miles long and from half' a mile to a mile wide. A tornado in the vieiuity of Mount Carmel, 111., caused $50,000 damage to property. John H. Wirth and Lewis Kerstein were killed, and Harvey Riggs, two sons of a Mr. Hutchins, Miss Maggie Wirth, and Mrs. John Keller were seriously hurt" James H. Knott and Scott” Selby were killed by a cyclone which passed near Hazelton, Ind. Great damage was done to property. The small village of West Bnena Vista, Ind., was seriously wrecked, only two houses remaining uuinjured. An .Evansville dispatch says that a small black dond suddenly appeared in the west, moved east, and when directly over the farmhouse of Lemuel Stansberry it exploded with a terrific force, and what appeared to be a ball of wind attacked the bouse with terrific fury, blowing off the roof, tearing out one section of the house, and 'playing havoc generally. Leaving the house, it tore down the eastern fence and then died away. There was no rainfall or lightning with the cloud-burst. The Mann Boudoir Car Company has shed the Pullman Palace Car Company for $250,000 damages for infringement of patents in the new Pullman "vestibule” train. ... .Elder Baker, of Utah, arrived in Chicago, with his three wives and eight children, and registered at the National Hotel. It was too mnch for the hotel man, who subsequently had the Mormon arrested for bigamy.. A terrible accident oenrred oil the Cascade Division of the Northern Pacific, four miles beyone Chelum, Washington Territory. A west-bound train, pushing a flat-car loaded with laborers, was going round a curve leading to a trestle at a good rate of speed, when it ran into a hog-engine which was going east, tender first. The flat-car passed half way through the tender, and crushed up against tbe pilot of the westbound train, on which were two men. The unfortunates were crushed to a pulp, only a foot and one hand being left by which to identify them. The hog-engine was knocked eighty feet. Five men were killed outright, and one has since died. The injured number eighteen. • The scene of the accident, as described by those present, is horrible. Blood wap scattered in every direction, and neighboring rocks bore evidence of the fearful carnage. The accident was ihe fault of one of the train’s crew neglecting to flag according to orders. -