Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1890 — INDIANA STATE NEWS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

? Cgrydon is muzzling its dogs. 1 Marion wants a Union depot. ( Hontington delights in taffy-pullings, r Wabash College will erect a Library building. Laporte Presbyterians are having chicken pie socials. A Fort Wayne plumber sneezed so hard that he broke a rib. The endowment fund of Wabash College !is»ow over $300,000. Madison county farmers consider the .wheat crop a failure. A man at Anderson was mean enough to knock down his blind mother. ; Thewomenof Atchison, Kansas, have renominated a full school board ticket. i Goosetown*is a flourishing village in Lawrence county, but it draws its teachers tfrom Crabtown. ! Silver ore has been found at Velpen and iother points in Pike county, which will 'assay $25 to the ton, , Henry G. Gooding, of Evansville, was, lon the 13th, appointed Chief Justice of the (Supreme Court of Arizona. Eighty veterans have found a home at the National Soldiers’ Home at Marion, and others are reporting daily. Albert Stolter, of Hunington, aged itwelve, while stealing a ride en a train, Hellunder the wheels and was beheaded. A horse show will be held at Crawfordsville, on April 4 and 5, under the auspices »f the Business Men’s Association of that (place. . - Huntingdon has a haodlun element- which 4s wreaking its savagery en -the Salvation ■Army, stoning the barracks and disturbing the services.

The Gibson county Democracy has en■dorsed the service pension bill and also, recommends loweringsalaries of State and county-officers. A large rolling mill df-Chicago will re move to Marion. The plant will cover five acres, the entire investment to be nearly a half a million dollars. Winfield S. Baird, agent of the Prudential Life Insurance-Company at Muncie, is accused of collecting funds not his own ““7 T. C. Fisher’s grain cradle and scythe; snathe, factory at Anderson burned, Satur-i day. Loss, $30,000; insurance, $15,000. Mr. Fisher suffered a similar loss - two years ago. On the 4th inst., - the five-year-old son of Alonzo Reliable, of Columbus, drew into his windpipe a grain of cornu He suffered great agony until the 10th when it was - cut ont, only to be followed by his death. ——Vandals brokeduto a school house near Connersville en Sunday, destroying -the blackboards and books, overturning the stove ana breaking the windows, and in other ways making the building uninhabitable. John Merryman and John Cain, colored, of Evansville, became involved in a Quarrelwhich led ,to blows, and during the fight Merryman used his revolver, shooting Cain through, .the heart, killing him instantly. For .the time being Merryman escaped arrest.

The first suit.for damages on account of the Carmel accident, was filed against the Mononrailway on the 12th by Kern & Bailey, of Indianapolis. The plaintiff is Charles G. Wirt, who demands SIO,OOO for personal injuries. He charges bad management and rotten ties. An examination of the books of the late Herman Hansheer, ex-City Treasurer of Laporte, shows ..a shortage of $3,000. Hansheer has been dead for some time, but his estate is .still unsettled, and the amount will be made good if the shortage is found to be other than a clerical error. Johnson Brand, of Van Buren township, Morgan county, ..aged seventy years, is dead, of dropsy. Shortly before his death he weighed 400 pounds, measuring .nine feet at the girth, and the coffin was so large that it could not pass through tho door-way and so the body was removed outside .and placed therin.

John Warren has been granted a license to retail liquors at .Charlestown, by the Ciarke County Commissioners, against the almost universal protest of the community. 'Threats are made of personal violence in .case Warren persists in opening the saloon. There has been no dram shop in Charlestown for several years. Edmund Curtis, of St. Joseph county, -has brought suit against ,tho Northern In-: .diana and Southern Michigan Fair Association, claiming $5,000 damages for the death of his daughter. During the fair of 1888 the young lady attempted to step over alow hanging line shaft, when her clothing caught and she was fatally injured. An organization known as the People’s Natural Gas Company, in which several 'lndianapolis people are interested, has been formed to supply Crawfordsville with natural gas. The capital stock of the company is $500,000, and the directors are Wm. ‘P. Herron, A. F. Ramsey, General M. D. Manson, A. W. Hatch and Wm. J. Craig. A stranger stopped at the City Hotel, of Elkhart, and first distinguished himself by standing in front of the bar and swallowing nine drinks of whisky without getting drunk. Afterward,he plundered one of the rooms of the hotel of SOS, with which he fled. There is an impression that if he ihad taken nine more drinks he might have carried off the hotel.

Dr. Franklin Grennell was badly disflg ured, and probably hla eyesight destroyed, Saturday night, at Huntertown. Dr. Grennell was the villain in' an amateu'fc play, tin the denoument the hero shoots the vili lain dead. In this Case the hero became i excited and held the pistol too close to the • villain’s face, the paper and powder lacer- ' ating and injuring as above stated. The village of North Grove, with a popu. dation of 300, is undergoing a temperance revival, and it will result in entirely wiping out the liquor traffic in that place. The ladies of the Murphy movement have the matter in hand, and have succeeded in all tho saloons aave two, and oncor the remaining dealers has asked twelve days’ grace in which to wind up his affairs. State Treasurer Lemcke is much interested in the progress of the bill before ■ Congress to refund to the States the direct • tax received during the war. Three re- ; ports have been presented for the bill by the judiciary committee. The majority report recommends its pawagt”; the minor-.

ity object to the measure en the ground of unconstitutionality. Judge Culbertson, of Texas, submits the third report, in which he objects to the bill because it does not go further and reopen the Court of Claims to the owners of captured and abandoned property. If the bill is passed, Indiana will get $769,144. The bill has already passed the Senate, and is believed to have a fair prospect of passing the House. Thomas Robinson, of Battle Ground, borrowed two dollars of his fiance, Miss Laura Herron, with which to secure a license to marry another girl, and, her suspicions being aroused, she pursued in time tn intercept the couple at the depot. Mr Robinson was then compelled to adhere to the former contract, and the money was expended for the purposes for which it wasloaned*

The huge water and gas well, near Marion, which was set on fire through the carelessness of a workman in lighting his pipe, Was controlled on the 12th, in a simple manner; a smoke-stack first being placed over the burning gas, which com polled the flame to escape at the top, and it was then thrown to the ground, carrying the flame with it. The gas and the water was afterward easily controlled. Frank Mingus, of La Grange, murdered his mother-in-law on the Bth, and on the lltii confessed ,the crime. Mingus was divorced jfrom his wife, and 'Tils child was under-the care of his wife’s parents. He went to the house to see his child, but refused admittance by his mother-in-law. He could hear his child calling him from another room, and became so enraged at the woman for standing in his way, that he drew a pen knife and plunged it into her jugular vein. Charles A. Richards, aged over eighty years, is an active compositor, and "holds cases on the Hunington Herald. Fifty-four years ago he came to Indiana from Pennsylvania, and began -type-setting on the Democrat at Indianapolis, since which time he has been identified with the craft, either as publisher or as type-setter. Several papers in this State and Illinois were established by him, and are to-day flouring properties.

Patents- -J. .A. E. Enderson, Lcbanonfence; A. Bruner, Indianapolis, under, ground electric conduits; J. Chambers, Columbus, gate; H. Farmer, Richmond, pawland ratchet mechanism; M. Gleason, Liberty, fence-making machine; J. M. Kelly, Kingston, fence-wire tightener.; ,E.~ W. McGuire,Richmond,ratchet mechanism.: H. D. Robinson, Chester, twisting wheel for fence machines; W. F. Wilcox, Tipton, adjustable reflector and holder. George J. Stagier, Sr., a hardware dealer, was instantly killed on the IGth, by falling down a stairway. He was alone at home, awaiting the arrival of his family from church, and fell asleep in his ehair while.reading. His wife, upon Zreachingl home, rang the door-bell. He sprang up before thoroughly awake, opened a door which leads to the basement, and . pitched headwayalown the stairway, fracturnig his skull. He died three hours afterward. Mr. Staiger was fifty-four years old, and was one of the most prominent and highly respected citizens of Michigan City. J.S. Harriman, the pedestrian, returned to Wabash from Chicago, where he completed, arrangements for his great walk of 3,000 miles to the Pacific coast, on a wager of $3,000. The final deposit of SSOO was made in New York, by Harriman!® backers. He will start from Wabash on .April 10, accompanied by two guards on horseback. They are Peter Gebhardt, of Wabash, and Fred. Drummond, of Troy, N. Y. Drummond will protect the interest of J. L.McDonald, the New York sporting man who has made the wager with Harriman. The latter will be obliged to average forty-five miles.a day to win.

SERVICE PENSIONS. The fifth annual meeting of the State Service Pension Association was held at Indianapolis on the 10th and 11th. Gil R. Stormont, of Princetan, presided. Service resolutions were adopted, the firstof which reads: Resolved, By the veteran soldiers and sailors of Indiana, that we heartily indorse the appeal of our comrade, Governor Alvin P. Hovey, demanding of Congress the passage of a service pension law. Many of the comrades remain broken in health, suffering of wounds, ruined in fortune, ana occupants of the alms house. We declare that this disgrace of inforeed pauperism upon the Union soldiers must be at once removed and this measure be passed, that the whole corpse of thirty thousand veterans now in the poor houses may come forth in full enjoyment of all rights of citizenship. Our treasury is overflowing, and by the passage of a service pension law not only oould justice be given the surviving soldiers of the war, but relief could be given the present commercial and agricultural depression throughout the country. The other resolutions deprecate any measure requiring a veteran to prove himself a pauper before aid is rendered, demanding the immediate passage by Congress of two bills named, declaring that there is no excuse for further delay. That excuses for postponing this measure of justice, based upon the pretended inability of the government to provide the means for such measure, we believe to be puerile and false, and will no longer de ceive the soldiers and their friends, the great masses of the people engaged in agricultural and other industrial pursuits. This is no time to weigh the soldier’s claims with the apothecary’s scales, and we demand of this administration and the party now in control, and responsible for legislation, a fulfillment of the promises in the last campaign and election of General Harrison and a Republican Congress, implied in the declaration of the President before his elections.” After the adoption of the resolutions C. A Power, of Terre Haute, secretary of the association, spoke at some length. He denounced the statements of some that the government had not the means to provide service pensions for the old soldiers, and aid the distribution of money through •that system would prove a great blessing in freeing homes from qiortgage xlebts throughout the West, especially in Kansas. “What is most needed by the people,” he said, “is the distribution of more money and less tariff tinkering. This measure would afford the means of general commercialrelief for the whole people " Mr. Power continued in 'advocacy of paying service pensions with the income of the internal revenue taxes or the free coinage by the government of gold and silver, to

taken up with treasury notes ior uio .payment of the soldiers. He concluded his speech with an arraignment of the Republican party for its alleged failure to redeem its pledges to the soldier, and criticised President Harrison because of the resigna tioh of Commissioner Tanner. General Thomas W. Bennett, of Rich, mond, was next called upon, and spoke. ( He reviewed the history and growth of the service pension movement, declaring that the soldiers were united in its favor. The greater part of his were directed against the Republican party and President Harrison, he claiming that both had violated their pledges to the soldiers. The following officers were elected: President, Gill R Stormont, Princeton: Vice President, James Grimsley, Gosport Secretary, C A Power, Terre Haute; Treasurer, M C Rankin, Terre Haute. Executive Committee—State-at-Large, Governor Alvin P Hcvey; Colonel C A Zollinger, Huntington. First district, S N Holcomb, Fort Branch; Second district, Thomas A Dawson, Vincennes; Third dis trict, Andrew Fite, New Albany; Fourth district, S B Tuthill, Lawrenceburgh. Fifth district, J B Mulkey, Bloomington Sixth dixth district, Thomas M Bennett Richmond; Seventh district, William ( Tarkington, Indianapolis; Eighth distric J W Haley, Terre Haute; Ninth dis trie H L Bynum, Lebanon; Tenth district, N. L DeMotte, Valparaiso: Eleventh district. George E Gardner, Bluffton; Twelfti district, J B White, Fort Wayne; Thi > teenth district, ~ Jaspar E Lewis, Souti .Bend, - - ~ e ' ■ -

THU SCHOOL nook LAW SOUND. The Supreme Court handed down on th 13th, aa opinion holding the school-bou. law 'constitutional. The opinion of the court was written by Judge Elliott, and if fully concurred in by Judges Mitchell un<: Coffey . Judge Olds corfeursin the conclu. ■siou, but does not concur in some of the reasoning. Judge Berkshire disseuts and files a dissenting opinion covering eighty pages of legal cap. ■Judge Elliott, in considering the objec tion that the act is invalid because it violates the principle of local self-govem-ment, says: “The act assailed does not, in any way, impinge upon the principle of Id cal self-government. The wight of local self-governmont is an adherent and not n ■ derivative one. Individualized, it is tb< right which a man possesses in virtue O; his character as a freeman.” He also say - upon the same question, that, ‘iessentiMi,and intrinsically, the schools -in which an educated and trained the children who an to become the rulers of the common weal t.i are matters of State and note! local jm-i.-diction. In such a matter the State is unit, and the Legislature the source o. power.” He further quotes section -1, ai tide B'of the Constitution, to show that the matter is <of State am not olocal concern, and further, saysIt is impossible to conceive of the exist ence of a uniform system of public school.without power lodged somewhere to make it uniform, even in the absence of express constitutional provisions.; that power must necessarily reside in the Legislature, and if it does reside there, then that body must have, as an incident of-the principal power, the authority to prescribe the course ol study and the system of instruction which shall be adopted as wellas the books which shall be used.—._ —. In disposing of the point that the ar-’ makes Trustees perform duties for thbenefit of private persons, at was said: ‘The objectof the act is not to make public officers perform duties for the benefit oj private individuals, but to make them render sendees for the benefit of th< public, and that that benefit results v private persons is an unavoidable incident, not a designed or express purpose of the statute. It may be true that the book dealers are incidentally benefited by the services of the officers, but if that be a sufficientreason for condemning the act, then, all statues providing for the award of comtracts-by public officers, the certifi cation of accounts, or the making of re ports where individuals are concerned, must be condemned, since, in every instance, there is an incidental benefit to the dealer or contractor. The truth is, that ii. no event can a public officer award a con tract, or certify estimates, accounts, or thlike, without rendering a beneficial servie. to the person with whom he deals on b. half of the State.” ■ On the subject of monopolies it is said “There is no exclusion of bidders, no limitation of the right to furnish school books to the people of the State to any class: on the contrary, all who are prepared to supply such books as the law makes the standard are invited to compete for the contract.” Itis further said: “If school books can be

bought by local boards or by a State organization some one publisher must, of necessity, be favored in every instance where a uniform system is adopted. This result can by no possibility be avoided.” It is further said in the opinion that the act does not forbid the sale of books to a com munity, but that it simply provides that persons who desire to enter the schools founded and fostered by the State must procure such books as the law directs and in the mode prescribed.

The decision sustains that of Judge Frazier and Judge Waugh as to the constitutionality of the law, but reverses their decisions upon the question as to the mandatory character of the statute. Judge Berkshire, in his dissenting opinion, seeks to establish that the law is un constitutional because it proposes to put the publication of the school books into the hands of one corporation. The opinion embraces about all the objections to the law that have been raised from time to time.

WOMAN’S RELIEF CORPS. The Woman’s Relief Corps met at Y. M. C. A hall on the 11th, Mrs. Meyerhoff presiding. The reports show that the order now has 130 corps in Indiana and a numwitnessed an increase of 997 members and of 28 corps. At the convention 89 corp, were represented. The total amount of relief expended by the department during the year 'was $5,430,17 and was given to 1,742 soldiersand fandliee of soldiers. The corps of tbe State gave Christmas presents worth to Quin mates of the Knightstown Home so Soldiera’ - ——