Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 June 1895 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

Fire Thursday morning at Seattle, Wash., destroyed $200,000 worth of property of the Consolidated Street Railway Compnny.^r= The arrest and criminal prosecution of those former Chicago city employes held responsible for the payroll frauds have been ordered. Ex-Congressman W. A. Harris, of Kansas, has been sued by Barney Murray, a Topeka hotel keeper, for $20,000 damages for alienating the affections of the latter’s wife, who secured a divorce and married the ex-Congressman. At Victoria, Colo., Christian Pells, son of the manager of the famous Maxwell land grant, shot and killed himself in the Victor mine. He had forged the name of his brother and the superintendent of the mine and wound up a spree by suicide. A number of Stockton, Cal., people are on the qui vivo over the reported find of of over $1,000,000 of treasure on the Island of Cocoa, near Veragua, Colombia. There are some thirty citizens who think they have an interest in the millions of Spanish doubloons supposed to have been hidden on the island. At Denver, F. T. Atkins, ex-president of the Colorado Savings Bank, and Charles D. Atkins, ex-cashier of the same institution, have been arrested under indictments charging them with receiving deposits in a bnnk that was insolvent and had closed its doors to regular business, which is contrary to law. Lieut. Milton F. Davis, uqw stationed at the rresidio, has brought tjuit to obtain a divorce from his wife, Blanche Bates, the actress. The wedding, which took place a year ago, was a great event in San Francisco society, but, after living with her husband three months, Miss Bates deserted him to return to the stage. Prosecution of the men suspected of complicity in the attempt to cheat the city of Chicago by means of fraudulent payrolls in the street cleaning and pipe extension departments was begun by the arrest of four foremen and two timekeepers on warrants charging them with conspiracy to obtain mouey by false pretenses.

O. Dunbar, editor of the Phoenix, A. T., has been found guilty of criminal libel. The plaintiffs were Gov. Hughes, C. M. Bruce, secretary of Arizona; Francis J. Honey, ex-Attorney General of the territory, and United States Marshal W. J. Meade. The suit was based upon an editorial printed two years ago which severely scored the plaintiffs. The Creek Supreme Court has decided that the recent South McAlester, I. T., session of the council, being caljed for the specific purpose of adjusting the rolls, had no power to pass an act suspending the chief, treasurer and auditor, and that these officers are still in office. The decision of the Supreme Court being that payment can be no longer tied up. Treasurer Grayson expects to begin payment at once. There will be about 13,500 enrolled citizens, and the per capita will bo about sl4. For muuy months new Chinese arrivals at Cincinnati have been swindled out of all their money by their own countrymen. The scheme of the sharpers is to strike up an acquaintance with the new arrival and tell him any kind of a story to get his money. So nuuicrouz have been complaints at the legation at Washington that Dr. J. C. Thoms went to make an investigation. It is claimed that as much as (4<MJOO has been secured by two or three Chinamen of the city fu-m their un-

suspecting countrymen within the last two years. » At South Bend, Ind., Jonathan CrCed, an old citizen and one of the most prominent attorneys, was shot several times Friday morning by Daniel L. Mease, proprietor of a cider mill. The wounds are not believed to be serious. The men had business relations, and were about to discuss matters, when Mease covered Creed and began firing from a distance of a few feet. After the revolver was emptied Creed ran. Mease then picked up a bar of iron and would probably have murdered Creed had not the latter been more fleet of foot. Mease will be arrested as soon as found. Henry Bolin, city treasurer of Omaha; Neb'., is said to be short in his accounts many of dollars. He was apprehended "Tuesday ,aftera day’6&b&ehee T when it was thought he had committed suicide. His bondsmen, when they started to investigate his books, found a letter dated May 7, written by Bolin, where he stated he preferred death to dishonor, and if any -trouble came he would seek refuge in a suicide's grave. He directed that his life insurance, amounting to $37,000, be paid to his family. He added a postscript Tuesday morning.—Below .the former lines. was written: “The hour has come.” He appears to be crazy. . For a time Thursday night it looked as though n lynching would be had in St. Louis. “Lynch him!” “Brain the villain!” “String him up to a lamppost!” and other equally threatening shouts arose from all sides of a crowd gathered around a Salvation army detachment. An ieeman named Kerns tried to drive his wagon over the Salvationists while they were on their knees in prayer, and his conduct was resented by the crowd. Kerns was arrested. Just before the iceman hove in sight the steward of the Nicholson. House had ordered the porter to turn the hose on the men and women and drive them away. Developments of a most sensational character in the investigation of the fraudulent Chicago payrolls may be expected within a short time. Former city employes are falling over one another in their eagerness to tell what they know of the peculiar methods used in manipulating the payrolls. —Ar~J. tendent of the water pipe extension bureau, has made a statement to Commisof Police Badlenoch, telling how the payrolls were loaded with the names of ward heelers sent to him by his superior officers. His testimony, for such in effect his statement is, indicates that men who stood very high knew that men who never did a day’s work for the city were on the payrolls as laborers and drew pay as such, while their time was taken up in political work. The fact that Kowalski has told, all he knows is most carefully concealed by the officials making the investigation, but it is a fact, nevertheless. A smart young man who plays practical jokes with little regard for the safety of human life was abroad in the alleys near the Paris laundry, Chicago, early Wednesday morning, and with a white mask over his face, his form enshrouded in a white sheet, he assumed a ghost-like walk and delighted in frightening the young women employed on the night shift of tho laundry. So realistically supernatural were his antics tha.t three girls were thrown into hysterics and became unconscious. Falling like logs on the floor, the girls first screamed with terror, then writhed in paroxysms of hysteria, and finally when exhausted, succumbed to uneonseiettaaess. P.hysicians vvJiO were summoned by a policeman who discovered the serious work of the stalking sheeted youth worked three hours to restore consciousness. It was not until some time after the frightened girls had been removed to their homes that they recovered their faculties and nervous equilibrium.