Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 December 1897 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

The St. Louis Pedagogic Society has presented a gold medal to Dr. Nansen. At Mexico, Mo., B. L. Beshears accidentally shot and killed himself while he was handling a shotgun. At lone, Cal., Louis Cassells, a bartender, shot and killed Fred Grover, whom he mistook for a robber. A passenger train on the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern road was derailed at Pierceville, O. No one was hurt. Kansas produced this year in crop value a grand total of $233,410,143. This Is more than 21 per' cent increase over last year. Receiver Jump of Russell Harrison’s street railway and electric light company, at Terre Haute, has filed a report showing the total indebtedness to be $1,338,517. Charles M. Loring, the “father of the park system” and a prominent miller of Minneapolis, who was forced to make an assignment two years ago, has settled his accounts. A fire at Temerkat, a suburb of Oakland, Cal., completely destroyed the church and school of the Sacred Heart and the clergy house. Father Serga had a narrow escape from death. Frank Novak, convicted at Vinton. la., of murder in the second degree, may get a new trial. One of the jurymen, it is reported, said before being called that the prisoner would not get a light sentence. At Vinton, lowa, the Novak jury returned a verdict of murder in the second degree. Accompanying this was a recommendation that punishment be placed at ten years in the penitentiary at hard labor. R. H. Willetts, the missing cashier of the English, Ind., bank, which was closed several days ago, has notified friends that he will return and settle up the affuirs of the bank, provided no criminal prosecution is instituted. “Dan” Baldwin, an officer of the Omaha bicycle patrol, and famed throughout the West as a circus strong man, has disappeared. He handed his star and keys to an officer, saying that he would have uo further use for them.

Edmonds, the alleged Youngstown, 0., murderer, has admitted to the physicians that he killed Conductor Haley. Edmonds at times says God told him to shoot Haley and again he says the devil commanded him. Insanity is the defense. . The coal bunkers of in the United States battle ship Oregon caught fire from spontaneous combustion, and for over eight hours the c-rew worked to smother what looked like a costly blaze. The war ship will be drydocked at San Francisco. At St. Louis, Mo., four gypsies tried to kidnap Willie and Henry Wilman, aged 10 and 8 years. Henry escaped and told John, an older brother, who procured a revolver and went after the gypsies, who were carrying off Willie. John forced the nomads to release the boy. Two footpads stopped Mrs. Richard A. House, wife of a Chicago and Alton engineer, at an outlying point near Kansas City and robbed her of SSO. Mrs. House made a show of resistance, when one of’ the men poured the contents of a bottle of sulphuric acid on her hands. The men escaped unidentified. The steamer Telegraph, one of the largest and best boats plying the Ohio river, snnk at Fern Grove, a short distance from Louisville. The crew and passengers had a narrow escape from drowning. The cause of the accident could not be definitely learned. The Telegraph will be a total loss. She was worth SIO,OOO. Got. Adams, of Colorado, has appointed Attorney D. C. Beaman of Denver, C. E. Noble of Colorado Springs and Judge Joshua WaJbridge of Steamboat Springs as a commission to investigate the recent Indian disturbances in Routt and Rio Blanco Counties, his purpose being

I to determine whether any blame attaches | to the game wardens for killing Indian ! hunters. No news has been received at the headquarters of the department of Colorado, United States army, or at the statehouse regarding the reported departure from the Utes reservation in Utah -f a party of Indians *pr the purpose of taking revenge for the killing of their comrades. Settlers are prepared for any move that may be mode. Chesterfield, Lnd.. wasßilmost wiped off the map by the explosion of eight}' quarts of nitro-glycerine, which had been brought overland from Montpelier and placed in an open field, a hnlf mile from the town. Marion Manse.v and Sam Maguire were working at a gas well near by when the explosion occurred. Mansey was thrown -fifty-feet;--but not-fatally- injured. Maguire was also thrown 100 feet in the air and badly lacerated, but will recover. The little town of Chesterfield is a mass of ruins. At Dalesville, two miles away, and at Yorktown, five miles distant, the damage was almost as great. The jar of the explosion was felt for fifteen miles in all directions. The explosion \\as spontaneous. Though many were hurt, no person was killed.