Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1895 — EASTERN. [ARTICLE]

EASTERN.

Forest fires are blazing fiercely in various parts of Pennsylvania, chiefly in the neighborhood of Oswayo, Bradford, Sharon Center and Watson Farm. At l’rebbledale, in Forest County, the woods are one mass of flames. The loss will be very be&vy. ■ —" Near Simpson, Pa., the forest fires are dangerously near the wells of Urquhart & Lavens, and that it will be difficult to save the property from destruction. Wednesday a force of 150 men bad a hard fight with the flames near Lafayette Corners. Netfrly 2,000,000 feet of lumber at W. D. Johnson's mill was destroyed, entailing a loss of $15,000. The lumber was partially insured. The mill was saved. Another fire near Taintor’s destroyed a large quantity of wood for Hamlin & Knowles. Fires are reported from various other parts. A" bad freight wreck occurred at 1 o'clock Tuesday morning three miles east of Kane, Pa. A heavily loaded eastbound freight train, on the Philadelpbia and Erie, while running at a good fate of speed, was ditched and nineteen cars piled up. A car of oil was in' the wreck and took fire immediately. The fluid spread to the wreckage and nineteen cars are ablaze. Oue man was killed, supposed to be a boiler maker from Erie, who was beating his way,- It is thought that there are others in the wreck. The loss to the company will be heavy. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, of Philadelphia, who married Miss Cordelia It. Bradley, of Pittsburg, Pa., presented to his bride as wedding gifts, besides jewels of great value and a check for $90,000, tontine insurance policies on his life written in her favor to the amount of $500,000. Mr. Biddle takes this means of providing for his wife’s future, as only in certain contingencies can she ever possess any of the principal of her husband’s fortune, which was inherited from the Philadelphia banker, Anthony J. Drexel. It is suggested as ini advantage of this method that should marital bliss prove a will-o’-the-wisp Mr. Drexel can let the policies lapse and save the premium, which amounts to nearly $12,000 a year. Four persons were killed and half a score were injured by the explosion of a new boHer in the Langley harness shop at Fall River, Mass., Friday morning, while the building was completely wrecked. The boiler was in the basement of the building, which is a four-story structure. The entire end of the building was blown out, allowing the upper floors to settle into a mass of ruins. There were about sixteen persons at work in the shop when the catastrophe occurred. The flames communicated with the ruins soon after the explosion, and they began to burn briskly. The firemen made heroic efforts to rescue the imprisoned work people. Shrieks from the girls in the ruins were mingled with the agonized cries friends, who had hurried to the scene when the first news of the horror spread. Ambulance, calls, were sent out hurriedly, and every physician who could be reached was sent at once to the scene. The offices and the houses in the vicinity were turned into temporary hospitals.