Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1887 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

A seven-foot vein of lead was struck at Royal Center, Casa county, Tuesday afternoon, at a depth of 160 feet. John Owen Bnvder, the man who has been walking for the past two years, died Sunday at 10 o’clock, at Blackford connty. General Manson, collector of internal revenue for the Terre Haute district,has removed Peer Ofroerer, gauger under him, because Gfroerer is an anarchist. A farmer named Irby Tuesday shot and killed two colored men who attacked him on his farm, in Marlboro county, while he was endeavoring to drive them off his posted lands. * The four-year old son of Dr. Meek, of Jonesboro, had accumulated a quarterpound of chewing gum in his stomach, and the trouble caused thereby came near proving fatal, the physicians failing to discover the cause of the disturbance. Nature relieved the little sufferer, who is now in a fair way to recover. The Commissioners of (cott county have Ijeen arrested for employing Chas L. Jewett to foreclose school fund mortgages and paying him $450 for his services. The statute requires the prosecuting attorney to do this, and makes it unlawful for the board of commissioners to employ any person to perform a duty required of an officer. The Paines ville, 0., Shearer company has co ltiacted with the Marion Board of Trade for certain stipulations to es tablish their factory at Marion. It is the largest factory of the kind in the world, and makes about 65 per cent, of all the shearers that are used throughout the entire country. Employment will be given to about seventy men. A curious suit for divorce has been filed in the Clark circuit court. In September, 1886, John Garner, sixty-four years Old, widower and well connected, married Jennie Phillips, aged seventeen. It appears that he induced the child to marry him by promising her a new silk dress and parasol and to allow her to go to the matinee every Saturday. Her wishes failed of fulfillment and Bhe prays for a release. An exploeion of natural gas occurred at Farmland, Friday, totally destroying a $20,000 building, and seriously if not latatly injuring two men. The men had entered the building, which was vacant, for the purpose of preparing it for occupancy, and one of them struck a match, when the explosion occurred. The building was being piped for the purpose of burning the gas, and defective plumbing allowed the gas to escape. Edward Akers, pf Indianapolis, who joined with the infamous Meikel in criminally assaulting the step-daughter of the latter, who is only aged eight years, was anainged Friday on a plea of guilty, and sentenced to sixteen years to the prison, north, the same punishment which had previously been administered to Meikel. The defendent received the sentence without showing that he was affected, but on return to jail he told the deputy that he was rightly punished for having trained with such a crowd, and that he would endeavor to serve out his time and yet make a man out of himself.

At Cutler, at an early hour. Sunday morning, a tremendous explosion occurred in Stevenson brothers’ saloon. Giant powder in oys'er cans had been placed under the building and over the eans were piled heavy stones. Great pieces of granite were sent crashing through the building, tearing window frames from the walls. The saloon floor was completely uplifted. The sides of t' e building were forced out four feet at the bottom and sleepers two by ten were twisted and torn t»> splinters like pin- shingles. The large stove was forced through the ceiling/and not a bottle on the show bar was left unsmastie . Baint Meinrad is to be rebuilt. The monks of t he Order of St. Benedict, with characteristic energy, are already making preparations on a large scale for rebuilding the cloister recently burned. The abbey will be moved about threequarters of a mile, and rebuilt upon the top of Mount Nebo, a much higher elevation than the other site. Teams and men are now busy grading a road to the top of the hill, which is naturally bo steep an ascent that without grading a team could not get up it, and large quantities of materials are baing got in readiness for work early next spring. It will be a grander building than the burned one. Among the estimates of the Secretary of the Treasury for appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30,1889, and sent to Congress Tuesday, are the followng for Indiana: For Jeffersonville military depot, purchase of land opposite the depot for building officers’ quarters thereon, $15,000; for improving the Obi river at the Indiana chute of the falls, $30,000; for improving the Wabash river in Indiana and Illinois, and continuing the improvement above Vincennes, $10,000; below Vincennes, $100,000; improving White river In Indiana, completing the improvement, $17,500; improving the Calumet river, in Illinois and Indiana, $100,000; custom-house employes at Evansville, $3,120. The annual report of the Board of Trustees of the Indiana Reform School was made to the Governor, Thursday, ft was largely devoted to a discussion of The work of the institution and the condition of its inmates. The report commends the new law, which prevents boys from being sent there, unless on

account of the com mission ofeomecrime, or absolute incorrigibility. The practice of commuting sentences of boys from the ages of Bixteen to twenty-five from the State Prison to the Reformatory is also commended. There have been twenty-nine puch commutations and only two of the prisoners have shown themselves to be unworthy of the clemency. The Boat'd expresses the belief that the institution could not very well be run on civil service principles, as the teachers and officers must be fitted by nature for their work. The theory of reformation, held by them, is that the appearance of prison life should be avoided aei much as possible, and that the boys should be educated into a higher state of existence. The annual cost for k -eping each boy, the report says, is $l2O, one-half of which is paid by his county. During the past year 215 boj s have been received in the institution, and 267 released on tickets-of-leave. There are at present 430 inmates, and the cost of maintenance to the Srate has beeD $60,000 for the year. Superintendent Chariton in his report says that the institution is greatly in need of two hundred more acres of land for farming purposes, as this kind of work has been found to be the best for the boys. A detailed account of the occupations and amusements of the boys is given, and the report of the physician shows that there has been only one death during the year.