Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1898 — FRAUD ON INDIANS. [ARTICLE]

FRAUD ON INDIANS.

TIMBER DEPREDATIONS ON THE CHIPPEWA RESERVATION. Green Trees Cut as Dead and Down Timber—Exorbitant Prices in Stores —Remarkably Rich Gold Strike at Rat Portage, Ont. Report from Agent Jenkins. Special Indian-Agent Jenkins, in a report to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Jones on the investigation of the timber operations on the Chippewa reservation in Minnesota, makes some statements radically differing from those in other reports. He says the trouble was in the management of the camps and in the system itself. Owing to the inability of many of the camps to pay out, and, as, under the rules, the laborers’ claims were the last to be paid, scores of Indians working there did not receive the wages they expected, and hence serious complaint arose. Of fifty-three camps in operation the last fiscal year many employes] less than 16 per cent. Indian labor, and very few had over 50 per cent., the Indian labor average being from 15 to 20 per cent. The system of stores maintained by the camps, with their exorbitant prices and credit to reckless Indian buyers, is stated to have caused great dissatisfaction. The chief source of all the Indian complaints was that the green timber of the reservation was being ruthlessly cut down and destroyed under pretense of being dead and down timber. BOY GIANT DIES. James S. Mclndoo, 19 Years Old and Seven Feet Two Inches Tall. James S. Mclndoo, the “Minnesota giant,” died at Madelia, Minn., of hemorrhage of the brain. Mclndoo was an Illinoisan by birth, coming into the world at Crescent. Iroquois County, July 5, 1880. At the time of bis death he had not attained full growth, but was already 7 feet 2 inches tall, 2 feet 3 inches around the head, 4 feet 8 inches around the shoulders, 4 feet 6 inches around the chest, 4 feet 1 inch around the waist, and weigher! 368 pounds. He wore No. 24 shoes and a No. 9 hat. Mclndoo was of Scotch-Irish parentage. His size was normal at birth and remained so up to his seventh year. Since then he had developed with startling rapidity. He recently concluded a trip with the Forepaugh circus. ORE OF MARVELOUS VALUE. Remarkable Vein Is Ftruck in Rat Portage, Ont., Gold Mine. Hat Portage, Ont., is wild with excitement over a marvelous strike made in the Mikado gold mine. The ore fills a slope forty feet high and two and onethird feet wide, and the richest ore is worth on a conservative estimate from $25,000 to $35,000 a ton in free-milling gold. The ore is being put in barrels and sacks and men are guarding the treasure. The mine is owned in England. At a low estimate there is now S2SO,(MM) in sight. The latest advices from miners coming in say the vein is now eleven feet wide, with no decrease in value. The length and depth of the ore body is not yet determined.

Fatal Fire at Terre Haute. The worst fire in the history of the city of Terre Houte occurred the other night. The blaze started in the big show windows of the Havens & Geddes company, dealers in dry goods and notions. The cause is not definitely known. A conservative estimate of the damage is sl,1100.000. Several employes were injured by jumping from windows, two of them fatally. Dr. Borcek Shot in Hia Bed. Dr. Frank T. A. Borcek of Fayette County, Texas, was murdered while asleep in his bed by some one who entered the house and shot him through the dead, without awakening, so they say. any of the occupants of the house. J. B. Comins. a farmer and lumberman, was shot dead in his house at the village of Garrison by an assassin, who fired through a window. Fire Low of Baldwinsville. N. Y., was visited by a disastrous tire. The fire started in the plant of the Kenyon Paper Company and spread rapidly to n building occupied by the New Process Rawhide Company, the stone mill of 1 totaling & Co. and the building of Clark. Mercer & Co. The loss, estimated at $1 16,000, is nearly covered by insurance. Grain Trade Badly Crippled. The ear famine became so serious that the entire grain trade of St. Louis was crippled, and ex|M>rters found it almost impossible to obtain cars to carry their grain to the seaboard. Every railroad running into the city suffers from the shortage of equipment. At one time the roada were IJMM) cars behind on orders. Theatrical Manager Shoots Himself. Lem B. Schloss. 28 years old, a theatrical manager and the husband of Lottie Gilson, the actress, shot himself in his room in the Hotel Vendome, New York. He fired four shots from a revolver, but only one *o( them hit him, inflicting a ■light scalp wound. Schloss declared the shooting was accidental. Boys Guilty of Manslaughter. At Chillicothe, Ohio, two boys, Elmer and George Butler, aged, respectively, 20 an<l 13, were found guilty of manslaughter and will serve a term in the penitentiary for the killing of Daisy Browser. In the trial it wns proved that the girl had been shot down from ambush for no cause whatever. Massacred by Chinese Rebels. According to a dispatch from Shanghai the rebels have seized the town of Chung Yang, fifty miles southwest of ichang. province of Hoo Pe, on the north bank of the Yang-tae-Kiaug. 200 miles above Chin Kiang Foo. They have massacred a French priest and I<M) converts. No Verdict Against Kenney. At Wilmington, Del., the jury which held the fate of United States Senator Kenney in its hands was discharged by Judge Bradford without reaching a verdict.

RAVAGES OF CHINESE REBELS. Outlaw Yumantie Butchers Christians and Destroys Property. The steamer Empress of India brings news of the butchering of Catholic and native Christians by the rebels of SzeChuen province. China, under the notorious outlaw Yumantse. This rebel and his followers have rendered 20,000 native Christians homeless in Central China and taken over sixty lives, including those of several European missionaries. Six thousand Catholie refugees have gathered in the city of Chun-King from the surrounding country. Property already destroyed by the rebels is reckoned at 5,000,000 taels. France is making a claim for this amount in reparation of destroyed prop'erty belonging to French missionaries. KILLS HIS BROTHER. Red Cross Nurse Claims to Have Acted in Self-Defense. John D. Hayes, who served as a Red Cross nurse with the Second United States infantry under Gen. Shafter at Santiago, shot and killed his brother, Edward S. Hayes, proprietor of a hotel at Ble.ecker and McDougal streets. New York. According to the story told by John Hayes, his brother accused him of appropriating a portion of the proceeds of the evening business for his own use. They ha<Tseveral quarrels over this. and. according to the murderer, who is under arrest. Edward attacked him with a club and ice pick. After having had his cheek laid open. John Hayes drew a revolver and shot his brother through the head. FAVOR AMERICAN MACHINERY. United States Rapidly Gainins on England in Trade with GermanyIn a report to the State Department Commercial Agent Stern, at Bamberg, predicts that the United States will soon surpass England in the value of exports of machinery to Germany. The present year shows even a falling off in tbe case of England'while the imports of American machines show an increase of 75 per cent over last year's figures. In 1895 the imports of, the United States of these goods into Germany did not amount to the sixth part of the amount of the English imports,while to-day they are equal to 60 per cent of the latter. Village Absorbed by Its Rival. The town of St. Lawrence, two miles east of Miller. S. D„ will soon be a memory. For long it has fought for supremacy with Miller and has at last yielded. It is now being moved, incredible as this may seem, to the latter city. Dwellings and barns, hotels and buildings that once made up St. Lawrence are being uprooted and transferred to sites within the corporate limits of Miller. St. Lawrence was founded in 1882 by Chicago capital, and at first had great ambitions. It wanted to be the county seat, and it yearned after some of the State institutions, but it could get none. Then it sunk an artesian ■well, but the pipes would not work, and Lawrentians claimed that Millerians had stuffed the rents up with iron bars. Pretty soon the site of the once proud city will be as barren and desolate as that of Persepolis, Troy or ancient Carthage. Diphtheria at a University. Princeton. N. J., is threatened with an epidemic of diphtheria. The first case reported was that of F. C. Goldsborough, '99, a student at the university. He was immediately transferred to the infirmary and all the members of the club were quarantined. They spent one night in the clubhouse and were bundled out of town by the faculty, three men being held as suspects.

Democrats Win in Boston. The Democrats won most of the places in the Boston municipal election. They elected their two board of apportionment candidates, the street commissioner, six cd the nine members of the school board, six of the twelve aidermen. and forty-four cf the seventy-three councilmen. The city gave a majority for license of 9,87(5, against one last year of 17,500. Cook nt Bay in the Diner. John Smith, third cook of the Northern Pacific coast train, ran amuck, assaulting Conductor McLennan and terrorizing the waiters and passengers. Smith barricaded himself in the diner, where, armed with a long meat knife, he defied arrest. Officers met the train at Fargo. N. D.. and after an hour's delay Smith was finally overpowered. Killed by Avalanche. The steamer Danube, from Lynn Canal, reports a succession of fatal accidents during the construction of the White Pass Railway, caused by an avalanche. First Officer Lawrence of the Danube, while at Skaguay, was told of six of these accidents occurring within a week, in which fifteen or twenty men had lost their lives. Soldier One of Six Killed. A passenger train on the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was wrecked near Madison. Fla., by a collision with cattle on the track, although the engineer made every effort to stop the train. Six persons were killed. John T. Sullivan, an army attache. Engineer Chandler and four colored men. Slain by Alaska Indiana, Capt. James Nelson of the halibut sloop Carolina and Barney Phale, a fisherman, incut ashore on Kupriauoff Island, in Portage bay, Alaska, to hunt for doer. Phale never came back, and the captain tells that he was deliberately shot by Indians. Deadly Smelter Fumes. A special from Butte, Mont., snys: "Five deaths occurred in Butte which are claimed to have been caused by the dreadful sulphur and arsenic fumes from the smelters. Many people who can do so arc leaving the city to get out of the smoke." Railway Wreck in Colorado. A passenger train on the Gulf road was ditched by n broken rail about three miles south of Barleu. Col., making a bad wreck and injuring several persons. The entire train, except the locomotive, left the rails; Big Consolidation in Gas, Unless n hitch occurs all the electricity and manufactured gas for illuminating gas and heating will soon be supplied to Pittsburg and Allegheny by one concern. Firemen Fatally Crushed. Two firemen were killed and eight others injured, four of them fatally, by the collapse of n wall of a burning building In Chicago. England Muy Hold Crete. The I,ondon Daily Mail says: “We understand that the British occupation of the Island of Crete is to become permanent."