Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1889 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Alto is boring for gas. Markle will incorporate. I' - Fort Wayne claims 40,000. Laporte sighs for base ball. Terre Haute will bore for’oil. Fish pond socials are a late wrinkle. South Bend has eighty-two saloons. Kleptomania is a Hungtington disease. Jeffersonville wants free mail delivery. ‘ Salmon are being caught in the Tippecanoe. “Darkey parties” are a craze at Valparaiso. Mrs. Magdalene Boggs, of Milton, is aged 105. Winchester is abundantly supplied with gas.

George Linsey—New Castle —drunktrain—leg. Fort Wayne improved its streets s7o,* 000 worth last year. A petrified , hickory tree has been found at West Baden. The Muncie Catholic Fair realized ,SI,OOO for the church fund. Washington claims to be the liveliest place in Southern Indiana. “Jack the ripper” threatens Plymouth’s unsavory people. A carp weighing 34 pounds was caught in a Ligonier lake. Connetsyille church ladies have formed a Union Benevolent Society. The wheat in some parts of the State is suffering for want of snow. Fire in the Wabash school furniture factory caused a loss of $2,000. Indianapolis police made 3,597 arrests in 1888 J as against 3,641 in 1887. New Albany is retrenching by cutting, down its police and fire departments.

J. A. Magee, of Big Springs, claims to possess a madstone of marvelous qualities. Counterfeit coupons of bonds issued by Ft. Wayne in 1868 have been discovered. The Governrhent inspector does not recommend free mail delivery for Laporte. , Gen. Reub Williams has been editor of the Warsaw Indianian for thirtythree years. Greensburg has had a checker tournament. Thomas Shellcutt seems to be the champion. There are 245 saloons in Allen county, and a war has been inaugurated against the unlicensed.

A “skunkery” at Huntington, where skunks are raised for hides and oil, is a financial success. Louis Walker, aged 15, of New Albany, carried a pistol. The wound is regarded as fatal. John Pugh, a juvenile of Winona, while plaving with a revolver accidentally killed himself. There are “White Caps” in Madison county, styling themselves the “Elm Switch Committee.” /.’ - The White Cap trials in Crawford county were called on the 26th. There are many defendents. Marshal Ensminger, of Crawfordsville, has begun a crusade against gamblers and Sunday liquor law violators. Thomas Shelcutt carried off first honors in the Greensburg checker tournament, and John Thurman second. _ ‘Mrs. Nicholas Keffer, of Fort Wayne, committed suicide Friday to avoid arrest on the charge of immoral conduct. A four foot vein of genuine peacock coal has been opened at Hosmer. Such is not found elsewhere in the State. John Frame and Nicholas Hammond, of( Hammond, were drowned, by the breaking of the ice on the Calumet river. Several Jackson county farmers, who a few years ago removed to Kansas, have returned much dissatisfied with the Western country.

The farmers near Chalmers have organized a Farmers’ Protective Union, to handle their own grain, lumber, etc. Capital stock, $5, WO. Five hundred people donned the blue ribbon at the opening service of the Murphy meetings in Connersville. Hon. James N. Huston presided. E. P. Edwards, of Boston,Mass., has contracted for the labor of 130 convicts in the Prison North for the manufacture of boots and shoes at fifty-three cents per day. Maple Grove people are circulating a petition, calling upon the Legislature to pass a law prohibiting the sale of tobacco in any form to minors under sixteen years of age. • So many engage in the business of cultivating onions in St. Joe county that the bottom' has dropped out of the market, and the prices did not warrant harvesting the crop.

There are thirty-four voters and twenty-three families by the name of Booher in Darlingtori. The original family settled in Montgomery county when Crawfordsville was a wilderness. Mrs. Thomas Patram, of Columbus, some weeks ago run a splinter in her finger, which she attempted to remove with a needle. Black erysipelas followed, and her death occurred Friday night. About ’ 200 members of the State Teachers’ Association attended the thir-ty-fifth annual session of that tion at Indianapolis. Various'topics of interest especially to teachers were discussed. - | . The Recorder of Madison county is arranging for a convention of all' the requires and ex-’Squires in the county to exchange ideas in drawing deeds and other legal documents and passing upon abstracts.

There is general complaint of high taxes in Sulliy^ncounty, and it is alleged that the Commissioners are violating the bridge building law and engaging in other enterprises of questionable necessity. The leading society young ladies of Pera will entertain their gentlemen friends with a g<and ball and banquet on the flight of the 31st inst.. and they fiave labeled the event f‘The Last Chance.” Miss Cora Lee, the heroine of the Graham-Molloy tragedy is visiting friends in Fort Wayne under an assumed name. The Fort Wayne Sentinel says, “Her entangling charms are as fair as ever.” James Dick, Sr., of Knox county, a few days ago was accidently thrown

from his wagon, blood poisoning followed the injury received. He died this -week. Mr. Dick was a pioneer, and widely respected. V John Pohzklqmstowskdbotzki, of Laporte county, is defendant in a suit brought by Joseph Ghzrowsbiliwskrominslehky, and but one man could be found in the county able to serve the subpeona. Ndzo Wdggondghzert. While Blue Mountain Joe, at Vincennes, was holding a potato as a mark or Deadwood Dick, the “celebrated shot,” at an entertainment, the bullet missed its aim and carried away one or more fingers for Blue Mountain Joe. An incendiary set fire to a large frame building in the center Judson, and it was with great difficulty that the village was saved. Several buildings w'ere on fire at various times, and a number of residents were badly scorched while valiently fighting the flames. A bitter row has been precipitated among the Republicans in Grant county over the appontment of Alfred McFeeley to succeed the murdered Sheriff Jones. The window demanded the appointment of Deputv Sheriff Eyestone, that her interests might be protected. Miles Jobson, of Princeton, a widower, was re-married on Christmas, and he committed Suicide by hanging night before last, leaving a note m which he said that he had promised his first wife not to remarry, and he could not endure the reproaches of his conscience. Several months ago J. H. Styles, of Willinar, Minn., advertised for a wife, and this was answered by Miss Ida Workman, daughter of Rev. T. C. Workman, of Lebanon. The marriage followed last week in Logansport, the father of the bride officiating at the ceremony.

Elijah Hasket, of Straughn’s Station, Friday night, shot and killed Miss Delliah Allison, and then shot himself, dying in two hours. Mies Allison was a domestic in the employ of E. R. Colburn, and the murder and suicide was the result of her refusal to marry him. Both parties stood well in tbe community. A number of Odd Fellows were precipitated over a steep embaukment while driving from Jeffersonville to visit the lodge at Prather. Peter Leclare and George Nixon sustained fractured ribs; ex-Mayor Preefer was badly cut about the face: Captain W. H. Northcut received internal injuries, and Fred. Bamber was badly hurt about the head. The “White Cap” trials in Crawford county have been postponed until March 26, the defendants demanding a change of venue from Judge William D. Zener. All were represented in the demand for a change of Judge, save William Gregory, who is home with four bullets in him, and Rube Robinson and Fioyd Morgan, who are fugitives from justice.

A very dangerous counterfeit five dollar bill of the new department series of 1886, is in circulation in Elkhart county. It can be detected by noticing in the engraving of General Grant, that the right lapel of his coat is rough, the studs are missing from his shirt bosom and there is a distinct but very small white mark in thejright hand corner of his mouth that does not belong there. Peru has been the headquarters of the Salvation Army, but trouble came in the attentions which William Vorhis insisted upon paying the Captain, Miss Edna Brownelh The other privates thrashed Vorhis, and warrants were issued, which led to the flight of the Captain and nearly the entire army. William Carter, William Bailey, Albert Lee and John Marshall were arrested and fined. Patents were granted the following residents of Indiana Wednesday James D. Clemmons, Hanover, slate cleaner; Michael Clune, Indianapolis, bedlounge; John B. Deeds, Terre Haute, anti-friction compound, also metallic packing ring: Levi H. Roberts, and C. E. Sanford, Indianapolis, buck saw-frame Christopher C. Sharp, Indianapolis, pessary; Silas T. Yount, Lafayette, speculum.

The biggest job of drainage ever undertaken in Indiana is now practically completed. For the past three years the work of draining the Swamp prairie land lying between Huntington and Fort Wayne, along the line of the Wabash railway has been progressing. The prairie is of immense size, and next season several thousand acres of hitherto worthless land will be plowed up and put in grain. A party of twenty-two men and boys were out hunting, Friday, in the vicinity of Elmdale. Claud " Biddle cocked both triggers of his double barreled shot gun and killed a rabbit with one, but as he threw the gun over his arm the other barrel went off, hitting Charles Earhart in the temple. He died at 11 o’clock Friday night, in great agony. He was thirty-one years old and leaves a wife and one child.

Rt. Rev. Bishop Dwenger, of Fort Wayne, has published a card, denying that his recent visit to Rome had the remotest connection with the rumored attempt to curtail influence of the German clergy in America, or the suppression of the German language in the Catholic schools. He also denies that the question was considered at the Baltimore Council, or on the occasion of Father Sorin’s jubilee. County school superintendents indulged in a 'meeting at Indianapolis and suggested various changes in the school laws of the State. They declared in favor of free text books, the township trustees to purchase them, the lengthening of the county superintendent’s term to four years, ana making the holding of a State license the test of eligibility to the office, and, finally, compulsory attendance upon schools. State Superintendent LaFollette says he understands a bill is to be introduced in the next Legislature which will place the office of County Superintendent on the same footing as the other county officers, the incumbent td be elected by the people. He regards such a thing as certainly destructive of the usefulness of the office, aa.it would make it partisan and lead to the election of politicians and place a premium upon dishonesty in the function,©! the position. Conductor Deitz, a J., M, & I. freight conductor, Saturday night discovered the seals of a freight car broken shortly after leaving Indianapolis, and that thieves had taken possession and were plundering boxes filled with merchandised He thereupon fastened the door and detained .them as prisoners until Columbus was reached, when they were turned over to the authorities. They were recognized as Indianapolis talent, but remained unidentified as to name. « The Standard Oil Company, by their

agents, recently secured a lease for oil and gas explorations on forty acres of the farm of Albert Pence, ne <r Xenia. Mr. Pence notified tbe agents that he desired to change his lease so as to cover the entire farm. The agent appeared, drew out the old lease and prepared to write another, when Mrs. Pence seized the document, threw the paper into the fire and told the agent to clear out. He obeyed promptly. Mr. and Mrs. Pence found that the lease was an incumbrance on theiisjand, and took this method of ridding themselves of it. The farmers south of Wabash who have been leasing their land to foreign and home corporations for natural gas explorations, are greatly excited over the discovery that these leases are a cloud on the title to their property. In many cases they are so.wordea and constructed that they are susceptible of almost any meaning save one favorable to the owner of the land, and leave the impression that they expire in ten years, whereas they may be made perpetual, at the option of the holder. A number of heavy property owners, whose land is leased to the extent of nearly 1,000 acres, have employed attorneys to institute suits to quiet title. The fact that many of the leases have not been recorded is a point in favor of the plaintiffs. The litigation will be long and expensive, with the odds in favor of the holders of the leases. If the gas men are finally compelled to release their claims on the land, and abandon their wells they will be placed in a very emoarrassing position. The result of this litigation will be anxiously awaited by natural gas com panies everywhere. ’

The Indiana Science Association held its annual session at Indianapolis on the 26th and 27th and heard various papers on various scientific subjects. One paper by Prof. Wiley on the status of the sorghum sugar industry in the United States was of especial interest. At a Government experiment station in Kansas over a hundred varieties of sorghum were tested last year. Some of it was found useless for sugar manufacture, while one variety was found to contain as large a per cent, of sugar as the regular sugar cane. It has been found, also, that no plant is more susceptible to improvement than sorghum, and Professor Wiley is confident that the making of sugar from it is soon to become one the great industries of the country and take the place of the immense importation “now so necessary and expensive. A famous variety of sorghum had its origin in an odd way. In an Indiana sorghum field a farmer found a single stalk entirely different from any of the rest. It was finer and better and ripened much the earlier of any. He cared for its seed, and from it sprang the famous “Early Amber” sorghum, which now promises the richest returns of a sugar pioducing plant. The officers elected are as follows: Dr. John C. Cranner, President; Dr. T. C. Mendenhall, Professor O. P. Hay, and Professor J. L. Campbell,Vice Presidents; Amos W. Butler, Secretary, and Professor; O. P. Jenkins, Treasurer.