Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1889 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Oil has been struck at Jonesboro. Muncie is having a building boom. South Bend will have a bicvcle toryWayne county will have a new court house. Rushville is successfully electric lighted. Vincennes has organized a enmnany of State militia. Shelby county has a hairless calf and a two-legged colt. ■Sycamore trees are dying by scores in Bartholomew county. Patrick Horn, a wealthy pioneer of Allen county, is dead. A water spout near Riehv.’Je carried away a barn Cuesday, There are 63 miles of gravel r?a<l in Montgomery county. C. R. Higgins has been appointed postmaster at Fort Wayne. Elijah Newland, of Connersville, has teen granted $5,467 back pension. Indianapolis and Richmond have joined the $250 liquor license cities. Charifs H. Cordrz. of Seymour, was badly injured by a vicious dog, Sunday. John Roush, a resident of Cass county for thirty-five years, died at Logansport. Friday. Mr. and Mrs? A, R. Slawson, of Vincennes, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary this week. They have eight children living. Broad Ripple has determined to enforce the Snnoay law against Indianapolis loughs and toughs. Evansville is laboring to secure car works and has half the capital subscribed that is necessary. Hundreds of acres of corn was damaged and part of it destroyed by recent overflows near Hortonville. The Prosecuting Attorney at Madison has instituted proceedings at Anderson for not posting the time of arrival of be fated trains as required by law. Mr 3. Barbara Wertlebamer, of New Albany, committed suicide Monday. She was in destitute circumstances and unwilling to accept charity. William Q. and L. Craig have been arrested at Laporte, charged with attempting to swindle Wm. Eaton, a farmer, in a lightning rod transaction. Frank Doty* was fatally injured at the ceraline works at Columbus, Saturday. His left leg was caught in a «og_ wheel and pulled off below the knee. George Ruggles, an engineer, was caught iu the belting of Desber’s grist mill at Plymouth, Saturday, and terribly mangled. He was dead when found. Part of the leg bone of a mammoth, measuring four feet one inch in length, and thirty inches in circumference, was feuna in Honey Creek, Vigo county. Warden Patton holds that a parole permanently releases a convict, unless he is arrested and convicted on another charge, and that the Governor has no authority to order his recommits]. Benjamin Duley, of Huntington. after thirty-seven years spent in experimenting, claims to have discovered perpetual motion. However, he permits no one to see the machine which he has kivented. An attempt was made to-blow up a d»ug store at Elizabethtown, Saturday r ight, because liquor was being unlawfully sold. An adjoining building was badly damaged, the drug store escaping serious injury. Eight hundred excursionists from Niles. Mich., and intermediate points visited the great gas wells at Marion Friday, and were amazed with what was shown them. A display ot the best wells was made in their honor. Walter Sheldon, of Terre Haute serving a sentence for attempted burglary, has fallen heir to a large fortune by the death of an uncle. The estate can not be settled until his release. After Sheldon’s conviction his wife secured a divorce and remarriea. Charles and Teddy Bean, of Crawford County, have been warned by White Caps to leave the country, or they will be treated as Deavin and Tennyson, who were lynched by a mob. t eddy accepted the warning and fled, but the other is braving it out. The sale of shorthorn cattle, under the auspit.es of the Bartholomew County Shorthorn Association, was largely attended. The stock ail brought good prices, the aggregate amount paid for thirtj-six head being nearly $2,000. A few of the cattle brought as high as $l3O. A tornado swept over what is known as the “Godfrey Reserve,” near Hartford City, Friday, destroying several barns, one of which was the largest in the county, ruining a number of orchards and breaking down SIO,OOO worth oi timber, A heavy rain followed the wind storm, filling the streams to overflowing. Matt Hurley, of Evansville, convicted of larceny, while a “trusty” in the Prison South,and having but one month to serve, escaped and was recaptured in Illinois. Meanwhile an indictment has been found by the Clark county grand jury, it being a felony to escape from prison, the minimum punishment of which is two years. W. A. Olds, of Martinsville, previous to committing suicide, sent a letter to his betrothed, telling ner that his physician had concluded he was hopelessly ill with consumption, and therefore he was net willing to burden her. nor his family nor friends, and preferred to die by his own hands. Last summer, while attending a picnic, he fell and injured hie spine. William Bolden, of Bridgeport, Knox county, found upon his doorstep a a bundle of switches, with a note signed by “Sons of White Cape,” m which he was threatened if he failed to give his girls liberty to work out. This’.frightened him into moving bis family to Vincennes, where he suceeded in having warrants issued against George Carnes and other parties under suspicion. W. H. Toney, of English, who last summer shot and wounded a man named Riy, an alleged “White Cap,” has been sentenced to a short term in the Prison South. Toney was a saidon keeper, and some of his friends having been maltreated by “White Caps,” he vowed to kill the first one he met. For saying this one night he was dragged out of his saloon, tied to a tree and severely whipped. Some weeks later Bay entered Toney’s saloon, was

identified as a “White Cap,” and was assaulted by Toney, both men using their revolvers, ’ and Bay being wounded. v The following patents were issued to Indianians Tuesday: Cnarlee G. Conn, Elxhart, musical wind instrument, Isaac Conrad a-'d A. W. Ponder, Elkhart, mason's float; John H. pull, Red Key, water-heater; William Mac Namar. Indianapolis, coin-operating receptacle; John H. Malton, Francisville, thermostat; Jas. M. McCord, Montgomery, child’s carriage; Arsion Me Quistien, Fort Wayne, polishing machine; Thomas B. Rose, Evansville, sashfastener. C. H. Ford, one of the largest land owners in Blackford county, attempted to lease gas lands in Grant county, and secured several holdings, despite the general opposition of the farmers. John Wilcoxen, also of Blackford county, was interested with him, and both attended an indignation meeting gotten up by the farmers at New Cumberland, where they were compelled to silently listen while gas leases and gas leasers were bitterly excoriated. Finally resolutions were introduced to tar and feather both gentlemen, and they backed out with their revolvers in ready grasp, and took to fight, followed by a volley of bricks, stones and decayed eggs. The ill-feeling is due to opposition to gas leases. Reports from all points in Grant county show the appearance, during the past two days, of a parasite that threatens the entire crop of wheat, oats and rye. This pest is in the shape of a bug, smaller than the head of a pin. It is the same color as the wheat, and is difficult to detect at first glance, but, about the base of the grains, on close inspection, the head is found to be literally alive with these lise. It is thought that the wheat that is pretty well advanced may escape serious injury, but the backward portion of the crop is being destroyed, and the utter wiping oat of oats and rye is feared. In this part of the State, where agriculture is largely devoted to raising wheat, the appearance of this bug has created great consternation among farmers. A Broad Ripple dispatch says: The new wheat peat provesto be the “green midge,” and it is the first visitation of this insect since the summer of 1865, when the crop was almost entirely destroyed. There is scarcely a wheat head in Washington township but what is covered with these insects, and there will be a partial destruction of the crop, if it is not entirely ruined. The “red minde,” which appeared about twelve years ago, but which is not so destruc-, tive as the “green midge,” is an insect which works its way to the inside of the chaff, and draws the 7 sap directlv from the grain, wnile the “green midge 1 ’ locates itself upon the outer surface, draws from the small stem supporting the grain. This causes the grain to shrivel and prevents maturity. The older residents, who suffered from the visitation in 1865, now expect but a small yield from what promised an enormous wheat crop one week ago. Samples of wheat heads infested by the insect which is threatening to injure the coming crop have been sent to theredilbFor the Millstone, says the Indianapolis News, from several counties in the State, and the bugs were forwarded to Professor F. M. Webster, entomologist of Purdue University, for inspection. Professor Webster has submitted an extended report in return, and he is not inclined to think that their presence will result in any great damage to the crop, particularly after the recent widespread rains. The insect is of foreign origin, and in a report published by Fish in 1861, he states that he had observed the species repeatedly, but only in limited numbe rs and scattered about in a manner to cause him to regard their appearance as of little consequence. Within the last twenty years the insects have occasionally been quite numerous, hut have rarely caused any widespread destruction. The present season has been favorable to their development because of the drought which preceded the recent rains, but it is not believed there will be any further increase in numbers and depredations.