Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1897 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. French Lick Report Owner* Alarmed by Failnre of Water—Gold Found Near Jeffersonville— Pedagogue with a Pistol—General State News. May Rnin Springs. French Lick is threatened with serious loss because of the failure of its celebrated springs. Dr. William Ritter not long ago completed a well some distance away and soon thereafter the spring known as Pluto began failing, followed by one known as Prosperine also giving out. Whether the failure is due to the boring of the Ritter well or to defective casing is a matter of conjecture. Property valued nt $1,000,000 is vitally interested, as the failure of the springs means a loss of health seekers. Teacher Uses a Gun. Prof. Harrison L. Staley, principal of the Westphalia school, is in jail at Vincennes charged with an attempt to murder Mrs. Maude Wilcox, wife of William M. Wilcox, of Sonborn. Staley visited the Wilcox home, he says, by invitation of Mrs. Wilcox. Mr. Wilcox was at home and Staley was ordered to leave the premises. He became enraged, drew a revolver on Mrs. Wilcox and it is charged attempted to shoot her. Justice Jones bound Staley over to court and on his failing to give bond he was placed in jail. Staley was assistant principal of the Sanborn schools last year. Mrs. Wilcox is a great church worker, a musician and a society favorite. Gold Nnggcta in Hoosierdom. Richard Mackison, an old prospector, exhibited at Henryville a gold nugget the size of a walnut, which he said he found on "the Knobs.” Several nuggets have recently been found, and some excitement is being created. All Over the State. Negroes residing in Elwood have been warned to leave. Paul Griffin, aged 9, was drowned while bathing in the Ohio at New Albany. The Ringgold Band is arranging for a band tournament to be held at Terre Haute. The butter-dish factory owned by S. C. Goshorn & Son, of Muncie, was destroyed by fire. St. John’s parochial schools at La Porte are closed, owing to the diphtheria epidemic. All the Universalist churches in the State were represented at the convention in Indianapolis to discuss the proposed changes in the confession of faith. The Stae University Glee Club has returned from its vacation trip. The club had one week’s engagement at Mount •Lake Park, Chautauqua, Maryland. A report was received that Maj. T. 11. Leeds, once a resident of Kokomo, but who has been missing for twenty years, had died a mysterious death in Texas. The annual reunion of the Thornburg family was held in the fair grounds at Hagerstown, with nearly 200 members and a great number of friends present. State Auditor Daily received a messagefrom Bank Examiner Millikin stating that Frederick McConnell, cashier of the State Bank at Ambia, has disappeared with the cash. The suit of the Baltimore and Southwestern against Seymour to prevent the latter from putting, down brick .streets along the property of the railway company was- settled by agreement without trial.

Mrs. Elizabeth Harness, who has been, mysteriously assaulted three different times at her home near Middlefork, remains in a serious condition. The hunt for the miscreant whose deeds have thrown the people of three counties into a fever of excitement has been practically abandoned. While the people have returned to thir homes, the excitement has- by no means died out. The mystery remains as inexplicable as ever and grows in interest. A tragic suicide occurred at Waynetown. The victim was John White, aged 21 years, the village baker. He was to have been married the same night to Miss Nettie Whitaker, a most estimable young lady. He went to the barn and drained a vial of carbolic acid. His body was found half an hour later, and but an hour before the time appointed for the ceremony. The bride was partially dressed and the guests were beginning to arrive when the news of the expectant groom’s fate was announced. No cause is assigned for thedeed. At Washington, B. F. Strasser of theCubed Coal Company, J. J. Glendening, bookkeeper, and. Andrew Kerker, mineboss, started to No. 9 mine with a forceof ten men to go to work taking out coal. Just before reaching the mine a crow’d of’ fifty strikers arose from hiding and surrounded the men. Frank Salters, a striker,, stepped up to Strasser and struck him twice over the head with- a club, felling him tc the ground. Another striker hit John Kermode, a non-unionist, in the, back of the bead and cut a deep wound. A third striker bit Joe Small in the face and knocked him down. Strasser got to his. feet and the party made a hasty retreat, leaving the strikers bolding the ground. A terrific windstorm swept over Indianapolis. The cloud came from the west, and for fifteen minutes the velocity of the wind was sixty-five miles an hour. Many buildings were unroofed, and several private residences were overturned. A panic occurred at the ball park, where 3,O(M> people had assembled to witness two games between Indianapolis and Milwaukee. It seemed for a time that the grand stand would give way, and the 500 or GOO women, becoming panic-stricken, rushed out into the diamond in the midst of th* storm. Some of them were picked up by the wind and carried a considerable distance. All over the city windows were blown in and hundreds of shade trees were uprooted. Masked men whiteeapped and whipped Bass Sherwood and his daughter Lilly, aged 20, ia an unmerciful maimer near Nashville. Thpr claim to have recognized in the mob several of their neighbors, and have sworn ont warrants for their arrest, Gov. Mount has determined to make examples of the white caps of Monroe county, and has written to the local prosecutor asking for full particulars of the outrages that have recently taken place there. He proposes to get rid of this class of citizens and will send a company of militia into the county to aid the local

What a scorched, burning, blazing desert, xvhat an abomination of desolation our big court house square would lie these days without the shade of the trees that grow therein. And yet there are people, who, for the sake pf showing off a little better our beautiful new court house, would cut down all the trees in the square! It would be- an act of inexcusable folly and vandalism. The trees should be thinned out a little and trimmed off considerable but the great bulk of those now in Xthe square should be left there. As for the looks of the court house, well, like a beautiful dwelling, it looks better embowered in trees _than it wouhi in a big. naked yard. A few - trees could be cut out in front, but sparing the big walnut, and all of the cotton-woods could also be removed. Otherwise there aye none too many trees, except some places where to cut out a few would giye„those that were left a better chance to grow and spread and become shapelier and healthier trees.

From January 1, 186(5. to November, 1885, there was a paragraph every month in the daily papers which read ‘•interest bearing debt paid last month" and then followed tile payments, showing the amount paid each month. This ceased in 1886, while Cleveland was serving his first term. It commenced again April, 1889, after Harrison was inaugurated and continued until Providence, for some unknown crime committed by the government, permitted Cleveland te be inaugurated for a second time, the last reduction being made in 1892. In 1893, sale after sale was made of bonds to enable the government to pay its current expenses, and before Cleveland left office the interest bearing debt was increased $262,300,900. In a few months, with returning prosperity, with large increases in the government receipts, both from the custom house and the internal revenue, the pleasing old paragraph which became so familiar under Republican presidents, will reappear and once more the debt will begin to be reduced. ••