Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1898 — FORCED TO EAT DOGS [ARTICLE]

FORCED TO EAT DOGS

AN AGED COUPLE DRIVEN TO FRIGHTFUL EXTREMITIES. Horrible State of Affaire at a- Small Hamlet in New York Etate—Half a Million Dollars in Gold Dual from the Klondike. In Want and Squalor. Hidden in the woods on the outskirts of Pelhamville, N. Y., is a wretched cabin made of a few boards. Inside the hut the air is foul and moist, and vegetation clings lo the walls. This miserable den is the home of Henry Hess, who is 75 years old. He lies on a bunk, wrapped in old rags, and dying of starvation, consumption and malarial fever. His wife, almost as old as himself and nearly helpless from weakness and illness, nurses him, and tries to earn for him a few comforts to brighten liis last days. A beer bottler named Effel, ■who lives near, took a reporter to the hut last night, first providing himself with a lantern apd with a big horse whip to drive away a troop of fierce, half-starved watch dogs which hang about the hut, guarding against trespassers. There were fifteen of these dogs a few months ago. Now there are only six. The neighbors say that the poor old couple, rendered halfwitted and childish by old age and lack of nourishment, have eaten the other dogs, and that one by one the rest will go, if the cold weather does not kill off the old folks first?-Tho residents of Pelhnmville do little for the unfortunate couple. They criticise the authorities and say it is disgraceful that none of them goes' to the assistance of the Hesses. It seems to be no one’s business to relieve them. QUEER WAY TO WOO DEATH. Prominent Kentucky doctor Drives Buggy Into Ten-Foot Pond. Dr. T. C. Collins committed suicide by driving his buggy into a ten-foot pond on his farm in Bourbon County, Ky. He was the father o's May L. Collins, the freethinker, who died in Boston winter before last in company of Samuel Putnam, also a freethinker, both being suffocated by gas. Dr. Collins mourned the loss of his daughter and early last year he took a large dose of chloral with suicidal intent. Heroic remedies saved him, but the soles of his feet were cooked off by the hot water in which his feet were bathed, and it was seven months before he could walk. Two months ago his remaining daughter, Julia, but -W years old, eloped with a young man, whom she did not marry, and did not return home for several days. This new blow nearly prostrated the doctor and he moved to his farm in Bourbon County, where he had some trouble with a tenant. He was 55 years old. STILL BRINGING GOLD. Faatnet Arrives at Vancouver with Half a Million. The steamer Fastnet has arrived at "Vancouver. B. C., from Skaguay with half a million in dust and with news that a million more was on the wharf when the Fastnet left. There will be but one more boat out from Dawson, the Columbia, which will bring.down a large amount of Treasure. The principal owners of the gold on the Fastnet are H. M. Kersey, general manager of the Yukon Steamship Company, $50,000 in nuggets, for exhibition purposes; J. B. Rhodes of Portland, $60,000 in dust: W. Caldwell of Portland, SBO,OOO in dust; Edouard Laeson, SIOO,000 in dust; J. Sinclair of Vancouver, $25,000 in dust, and there was some $50,600 divided among passengers. Fire Consumes Big Blocks. The explosion of a car of i«>wder at the Denver and Rio Grande freight depot at Colorado Springs caused a conflagration that will aggregate $1,000,000 loss. The fire fed on old frame buildings, feed stores, lumber yards and warehouses till two squares were destroyed. It then crossed Huerfano street, burning two more squares on the north side. The Antlers’ Hotel caught fire and in two hours was destroyed. Part of i 1 was blown tip to stay the flames.

Attempts to Kill His Wife. William Eagan, a noted baseball player who has at different periods in the last several years been a member of the St. Ixrnis, Syracuse, Pittsburg and other professional clubs, tried to kill his wife and luid also planned to kill himself at Camden, N. J. While intoxicated he tired three shots at his wife, none of which took effect, and tried to shoot himself, but was prevented by a policeman. Chaplain Took His Own Life. The latest advices from Japan bring news of the death of Rev. Thaddeus S. K. Freeman, chaplain of the United States steamship Baltimore, at Nagasaki. From all accounts Freeman committed suicide while in a condition of mental depression consequent upon his failing health. Be jumped overboard from the Zcalandia and was drowned before any assistance could he rendered him. standing of the Clubs. Following is the standing of the clubs in the National Baseball League: W. L. W. L Boston !)(> >45 Philadelphia. 119 (18 Baltimore ...91 4!)Pittsburg ... ,(W 70 Cincinnati ..90 58 Louisville ...114 78 Cleveland ...77 <ll Brooklyn ....51 84 Chicago 80 (>4 Washington. 4!) 93 New Y0rk...73 (588 t. Lottis 3(11(4 Chinese Ruler Kills Himself. A late dispatch from Shanghai says h Is uemi-offichilly announced there that the Emperor of China committed suicide on Kept. 21. Tornado in Georgia. For eighteen hours Savannah. Ga.. was In the grasp of a West India tornado. The damage in the city was slight, but the rhe growers of the vicinity suffered heavily. Their loss will undoubtedly reach <200,000. Fail, for *1,000,000. A special from Dover, N. IL, says: N. A. & J. Sawyer, woolen manufacturers Its vc assigned. Liabilities are estimated at $1,000,000. Ex-Governor Charles H. Sawyer is President of the corporation.

FRUIT IS GOING TO WASTE. Crop la So Heavy in Northern Ohic That It Cannot AH Be Handled. Help cannot be secured to handle fruii in the Ottawa belt of Ohio, and thousands of bushels are wasting daily. The ship ments from Gypsum alone one week reached from twenty-five to twenty-eight cars a day. Marblehead Junction shipments, including what is sent on the Lakeside and- Marblehead road, amount to fully two-thirds as much. Catawba Island is sending by boat from Ottawa City about 12,000 bushels daily. La Carne is shipping large quantities. Put-in-Bay and the other islands are sending by the large boats to Cleveland, Detroit and Toledo. Port Clinton is also shipping several thousand bushels daily by boat and rail. The recent windstorm caused some loss, but the rains improved the size and appearance of much of the fruit on the trees, and ■went far toward making up for the loss by the storm. ROBBERS FRIGHTENED AWAY. Passengers Prevent a Train Hold-Up in Colorado. A train on the Denver and Rio Grande was held up by two'men between Colorado Springs and Palmer Lake about 9 o’clock the other night. The robbers fired several shots and attempted to explode dynamite on top of the express car. The firing attracted the attention of the passengers, some of whom came out and frightened the robbers, who disappeared in the darkness. No damage was done except the shooting of a hole in the express car. Passengers on the train say that at least thirty shots were fired. The men wqre evidently green at the business. They secured nothing. BOLD ST. LOUIS ROBBERY. Politician Help Up and Assaulted in Front of a Clubhouse. Edward Pfeister, a well-known politician of Poseyville, Ind., was sandbagged and robbed in front of the Fifth Ward Republican Club headquarters in St. Louis. Pfeister was about to enter the club headquarters when he was accosted by two well-dressed young men. Suddenly they seized him. Pfeister threw his assailants off, when three other men ran across the street, one of whom struck him with a sandbag. He sank unconscious, and the highwaymen rifled his pockets and fled. A gold watch and SSO were taken. WRECK KILLS FIVE. An Excursion Train Collides with a Working Train in Nova Scotia. A special excursion train on the way to the Halifax exhibition from Pictou, N. S., crashed into a working train near Stellerton. James Sproull, engineer; M. O’Brien, engineer; W. G. Henderson, fireman; John R. McKenzie, fireman, and William Cameron of Scotch Hill, Pictou County, a passenger, were killed. John McMillan, of Pictou, a passenger, was injured.

Secured $12,000 Booty. One. of the most daring bank robberies ever perpetrated in the State occurred at Flora, Ind. In their attempt to escape the gang of robbers shot and it is feared fatally wounded W. H. Lenon, the proprietor of the bank. They fled under a volley from the revolver of the banker and escaped unharmed, their booty neing between SIO,OOO and $12,000, all in cash. The bank owned by Lenon is in a two-story brick building, now wrecked by the clumsy handling of the powerful explosives used by the robbers. The safe doors were forced with dynamite and the bank’s interior strewn with the fragments of the wreck. Lenon, who lives half a square north of the bank, was awakened by a minor explosion. He stepped to the upper front porch and saw a group of men standing in front of Livingstone & \ orst’s store in the shadow of the building watching the bank. Securing a revolver, he went to the front door and asked the men what was wanted. They answered: "Go inside and mind your business.’’ He then fired a shot into the group without apparently wounding any one, and one of the men replied with the two barrels, of a shotgun taken from Lenon's bank. The first charge struck one corner of Lenon’s house, the second entered Lenon’s breast and face. He will probably lose the sight of both eyes, even should he recover. Simultaneously with the first report of the revolver came the explosion that threw open the doors of the treasure box. A minute later two men emerged from the bank and joined the four who had been standing in front of the store across the street from the bank. They all ran to the Vandalia tracks, a square away, where a handear was waiting for them.

Explosion Causes Several Deaths. An explosion of powder in the rear of the four-story building at 410 North Fourth street, St. Louis, occupied by C. it W. McClain, fishing tackle and sporting goods, set the store on tire and caused its destruction, nnd resulted in the injury of a number of people, several of whom will die. The first explosion occurred in the basement of the McClain building, where a quantity of powder and shells had been stored. It set fire to the building and shattered the glass In store fronts for some distance along Fourth street. On the third floor of the McClain building four young women were at work. Maggie Dinkel, one of the women, escaped by walking along the narrow ledge in front of the,next building south. Kate W-'ldon, Kate Gaull and Florence Higbie were unable to do this. They nn?iously waited for the tiremen to put up ladders and take them away from their position, which became more perilous every moent from the spreading tlames. The firemen took out oue of the women, but by some mischance they dropped her to the pavement. The other two, cut by glass and burned by the tlames that were nearly consuming them, jumped to the pavement and were taken to the hospital in a critical condition. A second explosion sent bricks and glass Hying among the firemen, injuring five of them. Two, it is reported, cannot live. This explosion frightened a team hitched to a reel, ami the horses ran away, injuring one fireman and a eltluen. Less than an hour after the Ore started the walls of the McClain building fell. Vote, to Bar Liquor, By popular vote the Dominion of Canada has declared for prohibition. Quebec is the only province enrolled on the side of liquor. She has given an estimated majority of 35,000 against the proposal law. Prohibition received a net majority ranging between 12.000 and 18,000. Pattison Decline, to Run. Ex-Gov. Rala*rt E. Pattison. ii’ho was nominated for Congress a few days ago by the Democrats of the Sixth Pennsylvania district, has formally declined the nomination.