Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1899 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. Figure the Cash Value of a Boy** Life —lmportant Damage Suit Decided at La Porte—Ga* Companies Absorbed by a Syndicate. After staying out fifty-three hours the jury in the SIO,OOO damage action brought by Solomon Addisbn against the city of Elwood for the death of his young son returned a verdict for $599. The verdict was reached under unusaal procedure. Addison's 8-year-old boy was drowned in a ditch at Elwood. The father sued for damages. The jury had to figure out what a boy was worth from 8 years to 21. It placed his earnings between 8 and 10 years at 45 cents a week, keeping 85 cents; from 10 to 12, earnings 75 cents, keeping $1.25; from 12 to 15, earnings $4, keeping $2; from 15 to 18, earnings $5, keeping $2.25; from 18 to 21, earnings $6, keeping $4. Goes Afralnst Ice Company. The SIO,OOO damage suit of William Zahart against the John Hilt Ice Company was concluded at Laporte, when the jury gave the plaintiff damages in th* sum of $450. The suit grew out of the refusal of the company to compensate Zahart for the privilege of taking ice from Pine lake, the water of which abuts the latter’s land. This case holds a unique position in the annals of the legal history of Indiana, as it is entirely without precedent. The Hilt Company will appeal to the State Supremo Court, and should that court Sustain the lower court it is understood the case wilbbe carried to the United States Supreme Court. Control Natnral-Ga* Field. Almost all of the natural gas supply companies furnishing gas grom the field to towns and cities and also the company supplying the thirty-two Ohio towns and cities have been absorbed by a New York syndicate, headed by Murdock & Deterich. Over 2,000 miles, of mains have been absorbed and fully 200 towns, including most of those even in the gas belt, are dependent upon the will of the trust now for their natural gas supply. The capitalization of the new trust is $60,000,000. $50,000 to Franklin Collect. John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil man, who has contributed so freely to Baptist institutions, has made a provisional gift to Franklin College, the Baptists’ Indiana institution. He offers $50,000 cash if the Baptists of the State will raise a similar amount. Parry, the buggy manufacturer, the Shirks of Peru and other millionaire Baptists in the State have already covered his proposition and guaranteed the required sum.

Within Our Borders* Kokomo now has a curfew law. A water works plant will be built at Frankton. At Goshen, George P. Rowell, aged 86, died of croup. At Waterloo, Douglas Kelly was almost instantly killed by a falling tree. An electric light plant to cost $75,000 will be built by the city of Evansville. An electric railway will be built from Orland to Fort Wayne, via Waterloo. William Rybolt and his two sons of Marion are the victims of poisoned canned meat. Contractor William Klink, aged 48, was thrown from a broken ladder and killed at Elkhart. Edward C. Beardsley, vice-president of the Miles Medical Company, died at Elkhart of heart disease. The Kokomo Council has passed a curfew law, placing the age limit at 18 years and the hour 8 o’clock. Three 13-year-old girls who ran away from the Children’s Home at Madison were found at Vevay and taken back. Mrs. Nora Piper, wife of a farmer south of Terre Haute, attempted suicide with morphine because of the death of her child. The large plate glass factory in Elwood, after a shut-down of three weeks, has resumed operations. This plant gives employment to about 2,000 hands. The Terre Haute wheelmen are incensed over the passage of an ordinance by the Council fixing the amount of the license for wheels the same as for one-horse vehicles, *l. Rev. F. F. Dobson, who has been pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Cambridge City and Hagerstown for the past year, has accepted a call from the congregation at College Corner, Ohio, and will take immediate charge. Vigo County bonds, calling for $75,000, drawing 3% per cent interest, have been sold to Farson, Leach & Co. of Chicago at a premium of $450. The same firm recently purchased $29,000 gravel road bonds in that county, paying $595 premium. Five prisoners broke jail at Jeffersonville. They were George Green, charged with murdering his wife; William Cate, charged with bigamy; William Gardner, charged with larceny, and John Brown and Charles Riley, who were serving short sentences for trivial offenses. George Johnson, aged 30, an employe of the Vandalia shops at Terre Hante, attempted suicide by cutting his throat with a pocket knife. He was despondent because he thought he would not recover from “walking typhoid” fever, with which he had been afflicted for several weeks. Etta Fisher was granted a divorce in the Circuit Court of Madison County at 5:10 the other evening and proceeded to immediately establish a new lightning marriage record for Indiana. The decree was handed to her at 5:15. She immediately left the room. Four minutes later she had secured a license and at 5:25 she and W. H., Knapp were husband and wife. Rev. James Coleman, professor in the preparatory department of Notre Dame University, is dead. Father Coleman was 33 years of age. A gray eagle measuring three feet from head to tail and seven feet one inch from tip to tip of its wings was shot by Lee Hall at Greencastle. The United Brethren publishing house, now located at Mount "Morris, 111., haa sent investigating committees to Elkhart, South Bend and Goshen, with a view to removing the brethren headquarters from the Illinois town to the city offering the best inducements for location.