Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1897 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. How Much Money Is Saved to the Stata by Its Natural Gas-Children Burned to Death—Wonderful Escape at An-derson-Medicine Factory Burned. Natural Gaa Figures. Dr. William Soman of Anderson has completed a statement showing heat unit of natural gas consumption. The present flow of gas from the 2,250 wells now in operation In the gas field is 4,400,000,000 cubic feet per day. Reduced to heat units this, according to Dr. Snman’s figures. - represents the consumption of 195,400 tons of coal per day. The wells which are attracting so much attention are twenty-two in nnmber and are located near Alexandria. They are wasting 44,000,000 cubic feet per day. This reduced to heat units is equal to 1,950 tons of anthracite coal, valued at $7,656. This la waste only. The oil taken from these wells amounts to 530 barrels per day, or $275, leaving a net loss of $7,380 in allowing the gas to escape. This is for one day and for twenty-two wells. The amount of gas drawn from Indiana wells annnnlly is 1,610,000,000,000 cubic feet, equivalent to 53,496,000 tons of anthracite • coal, valued at $213,984,000. He Escaped Alive. At Anderson, Volney Moore, a workman nt the American Wire Nail Works, while working around the machinery, waa caught on a line shaft that was revolving at the rate of sixty revolutions per second. He was whizzing around at a terrible rate, when fellow workmen ran to his rescue and stopped the wheel. It is feared that he received internal injuries. -. t ■ Medicine Factory Burned. The immense building of the Sterling Remedy Company of Attica was completely gutted by fire. It was the largest business concern in Attica and employed 150 people. The loss is estimated at $50,000, with but $5,000 insurance. Children Fatally Burned. Two orphan children ot George Copeland were left alone at Sullivan in the house of their grandmother, Mrs. Copeland. They played with fire in a grate and were fatally burned. Mrs. Copeland was burned in her efforts to save the little ones. She will recover.

Within Our Borders. Glanders of a most malignant type was found among horses on a farm north of Elwood. Frank C. Whittington was run over and instantly killed by a gravel train near Walesboro. » At LaGrange, Alvin Hart took a large dose of morphine, attended to his duties nil day and died at night. Butler College, at Irvington, will be represented in the State oratorical contest next month by a colored man, Ezra C. Roberts of Kokomo. Fire at Newmarket destroyed the sawmill, tile factory and slat fence factory of Armantrout & Childers; loss, $30,000, with little insuranee. Daniel Delhngen of Green’s Fork, a day luborer, has received word that he is heir to SBO,OOO left by a relative who recently died at Cincinnati. George S. Wilson, superintendent of the the' schools of Greenfield, was elected superintendent of the State institute for the education of the blind. At Jeffersonville, Fred Keber, aged 30 years, committed suicide because he had been rejected by his aweetbart, Miss Minnie Schafer of St. Joseph. Twenty young women were received into the ordcT of the Sisters of Providence at St. Mary’s of the W'oods, the mother home, at Terre Haute. Henry Grander, who returned to Washington from the Evansville insane asylum as cured, was again attacked by mania upon seeing his old sweetheart. The wholesale grocery and commission house of J. B. Randall & Son at Sbelbyville, unable to meet a judgment of $7,477, is in the hands of the sheriff. In Anderson, .the Madison Glass Company was placed into the hands of J. J. Netterville, receiver, on failure to liquidate labor claims. He has taken charge of the Alexandria plant. Rev. L. J. Keith of Vincennes has written a letter to the commissioner of pensions at Washington absolutely refusing a pension from the Government, and has made full restitution of 411 the money received by him, amounting to $495.86. Near the village of Leesburg, Gates Long. 20 years old, was held up by three men with revolvers. He made no resistance and was robbed of his pocketbook, containing $25, and was stripped of all his clothing except socks and pantaloons. His foot were badly frozen before he reached shelter.

A test just made of sugar beets grown by a number of fanners near Elwood shows that beets can be raised profitably on any farm in Madison and Tipton counties. The test was made at the experimental station at Purdue University and showed the beets to contain 15.3 sugar in juice, purity .87. Hundreds of farmers are preparing to raise beets next season and a corporation company-is organizing to build a factory at Elwood. Beet culture will take the place of corn raising. A decision of far-reaching importance was handed down in the appellate court at Indianapolis, having direct bearing on (he pollution of running streams by strawboard and paper mill companies. In the case of the Wabash Paper Company the court held that the company, as well as its individual employes, could be indicted in any county under the nuisance act for throwing refuse into a running stream, and that indictments could be returned in any county through which the refuse floats. Mrs. Westerfield, aged 70 years, widow of Dr. Westerfield, and known among all spiritua lists as “Mother Westerfield,” has been declared of unsound mind at Ander- ' eon. A Meson engine and four freight can were demolished in a wreck near FrankTort. Brakeman E. L. Moore of Monon and Fireman Crowley of IndiauapoH* were seriously injured. While Virgil Stratton waa-pamting on the roof of Miessenbelder’s mill at Sullivan. he lost his balance and fell forty feet to the pavement. *iis injuries are very serious.