Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1887 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Grant county has eleven gas wells. Oil lb incouraging quantities has been found in Crawford county. Riley Homan, of Corydon, is under arrest for attempted outrage on a Miss Jennie Paytop. Riley Michaels and Beltie Thompson, an adulterous pair of Jackson county, were tied to a tree, Thursday night, and unmercifully whipped. Geo. W. Byers, of Greensbuig, found a polecat in his kitchen, Saturday morning. After vain effort! to cause it to vacate, he shot it. , result: All that part of town in which Mr. Byers, lives immediately started on a vacation. Bayard S. Gray, postmaster of Portland, and bon of Governor Gray, was arrested Saturday morning on an affidavit charging him with assault an 1 battery on the person of Miss Nora D. Rogers, on the evening of Auzust 14, while out driving. The remains of a mastodon were discovered on Wednesday on the Godfrey farm, four miles east of Montpelier, at a depth of five feet. This makes two mastodons and one mammoth (hairy elephant) found in that locality during the past four years. The prosecuting attorney of LaPorte county is making it lively for the saloonkeepers at Laporte and at Michigan City who have procured license for the sale of beer and wine only. A large number of them have been detected in selling stronger liquors, and the violators of the law have been heavily fined. It is estimated that the costs and fines will aggregate $2,000.

Mr. Zeller,-city editor of the Huntington Daily Herald, is made defendant in a suit brought Friday by Alla U. Star, of Andrews, for $5,000 damages for alleged injuries sustained in attempted rape at Lake Maxinkuckee on the 18th. Zeller is married and highly connected and the filing of the case has created a great sensation. It is reported shat he has gone to Canada. A very strange thing has occurred on the farm of E. D. Higley,near Tocsin, on the Chicago & Atlantic railway. A well had nearly gone dry—had only a few inches of water on the bottom. W’hen Mr. Higley went as usual to draw water the other morning he found that the bottom had dropped out of the well. There is now a deep, black hole there, which has not as yet been fathomed.- " 7- ■■■■'■ ■ A case filed in the Supreme Court of Indiana will not, if it takes the ordinary course, come to trial for eighteen months. There are now 1,050 cases on the docket. At least a hundred more cases are filed in the course of a year than are disposed of by the court. Since the adjournment of the court, June 26, ninety cases have been filed and sixty or seventy more will be filed before the court re-assembles in September; —■:; ' — 2 ——” Attorney-General Michenen Friday instituted suit against the Central Union telephone company for $40,000 for failing to report- its earnings and for not paying a tax of 25 cents on each SIOO of its gross receipts. The company has made no report and has paid no taxes since 1882. The Attorney-General has an agent looking into the aflairs of the Chicago company which operates in northern Indiana. It is reported to be liable in the same way.

At an early hour Saturday morning a strange negro who had been lodged in the city jail at Seymour the day before, was forcibly taken out by a mob by Wrenching down the outer door, and taken to the noted gum tree in the city park, stripped and whipped, and so terrible were the licks that he jumped clear off the ground at every stroke of the lash. His black hide was literally cut to nieces. His crime consisted in having stolen a violin at Mitchell. The following members of the Legislature have resigned since the session closed: Senators’parley and Sellers,and Representatives Gordon, Patten, and Barnes, Democsats, and Scott, Republican. Tnese vacancies will have to be filled, in case the Governor should call an extra session of the Legislature.- He was asked Monday whether there was any probability of his calling such a session. He said that he had not as yet thought it necessary. The probabilities are that there will be none until the winter of 1888. Not less than $2,000,000 of New Albany capital is invested in St. Paul, Minn. The DePauw estate has a very large amount invested in lands and in bank stock in Indianapolis, Louisville and other cities, and railway stock in Kansas City, St. Louis and Omaha, and mines in Colorado and Mexico. Wichita hap many thousands of New Albany capital, and a very large amount is invested in mining properties in Dakota, Montana and Colorado. The total will probably aggregate not less than $4,000,000 or nearly one-half the total valuation of the city for taxation. Clay Davidson, who Committed an outrage on the person of Annie Flannagan several months ago, was arrested Wednesday near Rockport by Detective Hugh Hales. About three months ago Clay Davidson left a stave camp, near Owensboro, saying he was going to marry a young woman in Perry county. Upon arriving in.the neighborhood he found that only a younger sister and a brother of the object of his visit were in the house. He let down the fence and <1 rove the cat tie into the field in order to get the boy out of the bouse,

and while he was out Davidson took the girl to a strip of woods and outraged her in a horrible manner. The prisoner’s brother, who was entirely innocent, was captured and lynched, and it is thought Clay Davidson will suffer the same fate. At 11 o’clock Friday morning a little son of Ancjrew Ruff, of. Union City,aged about five years, was at his grandfather’s farm, one mile east of town, playing on the track of the Bee-line railroad, which runs close to the house. A passenger train coming along, he attempted td get out of the way and fell in a cattleguard. His sister, aged seventeen, ran to his assistance, and both were struck by the train. The train was stopped, when it was found the little boy’s legs were mashed and his sister had received severe internal injuries. The train brought them back home, and it is thought that they will both die. Capt. James B. Patten, warden of the State Prison South, was arrested at Jeffersonville Wednesday afternoon oy City Marshal Cole for permitting S. S. Hol lings Worth,, the defaulting treasurer of Knox county, who is a convict at the prison, to come within the city limits unaccompanied by an officer, contrary to an ordinance enacted by the Jeffersonville City Council. A few hours prior to the arrest of Patten Hollingsworth was arrested on the streets of the city by Dick Hillyard, who was a guard at the prison during Howard’s administration, as an escaped convict, and placed in the city jail. He furnished bonds and was released. The arrests have created considerable excitement. Hollingsworth was treasurer of Knox county, and defaulted for the sum of SBO,OOO. Ever since he was received at the prison he has been allowed the privilege to remain in and about the offices, and has spent none of his time, unless it was during the night, inside the walls. He was never compelled to wear the stripes and was often seen in the city as late as 8 and 9 o’clock at night. Hillyard will claim SSO reward for making the arrest, but as there is no money in the State treasury bis claim is likely to go begging. Warden Patten apppeared before Mayor Warder, Thursday, and was fined $15.50. Hollingsworth’s case was dismissed.