Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1901 — FROM THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE EARTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE EARTH

ATTEMPT TO BLOW UP RICH MAN. Infernal Machine Sent to Peter W. Itouss, but Fails to Explode. Peter W. Rouss, the son of Charles Broadway Rouss,’ the dry goods merchant, brought to police headquarters in Brooklyn, N. Y„ an infernal machine which he said had been delivered at his house by a letter carrier. It was addressed to Mr. Rouss and was a box about four inches long and three inches wide with a cover that screwed on. The coachman unscrewed the cover and found that the box contained about a quarter of a pound of coarse powder, with a piece of sandpaper and matches so nrranged that the unscrewing of the lid would be likely to cause an explosion. Mr. Rouss was not at home when the mail was delivered, and Mrs. Rouss received the package and gave it to the coachman to open. The machine had become disarranged, however, the matches having fallen into the powder, and did not ignite. Mr. Rouss was asked if he had any suspicions, and, after some hesitation, said: “Well, no, I can’t think of any one who would do such a mean thing as that.”

BANDITS FIGHT FOR LIFE.

Desperadoes Who Robbed Ohio Post- ( slice Battle with Officers. Delaware, Ohio, officers discovered the five men who robbed the Ceuterburg postoffice and two railway stations near the Delaware county fair grounds and gave chase. The men ran east along the Big Four Railroad. An engine was secured by the officers, but the burglars took refuge in a dense woods. At 5 o’clock in the evening one of the searching parties of twenty-five men discovered two of the burglars hiding behind a log. When the posse approached within 100 yards they began to run. The officers opened fire and one burglar immediately threw up his hands and fell. The other :*:an continued to run, and as it was gro\V7ng dark rapidly he managed to escape. The captured man gives his name as George Morris of Columbus.

HUSBAND JEALOUS OF WOMAN. Threatens to Seek Divorce and Mail Carrier Reveals Sex. For four years “Willie” Wallace, a beardless youth of about 22 years of age, as everyone supposed, carried the mails between Harrisburg and Kimball, Neb. At the home of James Baker he was a frequent visitor. Baker warned him away, but he did not heed. The result was Baker separated from his wife and sued her for a divorce, charging her with unfaithfulness and naming Wallace as corespondent. The ease was to have come to trial this week, hut it has been dismissed, the wife bringing forward proof 'that Wallace was in reality a woman masquerading in male attire. Ft. Louis Charter Is Amended. The charter amendments were carried in St. Louis by an overwhelming majority. Practically no opposition developed and a new and beautified St. Louis with exC-elletu seiforage, Improved and fleafl streets, beautiful parks and pure water will welcome the tiiousauds who visit the world’s fair in 1903. It is estimated that $10,000,000 will be expended in putting the city in order for the exposition. Armonr Plant Is Wrecked. ' A fire, which started in the fertilizing building of the Armour Packing Company’s plant at South Omaha did $50,000 of damage, equally divided between building and stock. The fire is thought to have originated from a spark from the fertilizing mill. The building, which was 80 by 100 feet and two stories high, is a total wreck. Loss by Philadelphia Fire $223,030. The fire which started in Congressman Robert 11. Foerder’s morocco factory at Frankford, near Philadelphia, shortly before midnight, was not under eoutrol before early in the morning. All three buildings were destroyed. The loss on the buildings and stocks is estimated at $225,000, partly covered by insurance. Mrs. W’itwer Bound Over. The trial of Mrs. Mary Belle Witwer, charged with the murder of her sister, Mrs. Anna C. Pugh, was concluded in police court at Dayton, Ohio. Mrs. Witwer was held over for trial by the common pleas court. The judge gave her a severe scoring and refused to allow her to give bail. Ohio Postofflce Is Robbed. r A gang of safeblowers visited Centerburg, Ohio, cracked the postoffice safe and took S2OO in money and S7OO in postage stamps. The men then blew the safe in the Toledo and Ohio Central station, hut nothing of value was secured. The Cleveland, Akron and Columbus depot also was visited. Nab Stamp Thieve*. The Chicago police have received word of the arrest of three men at Corning. N. Y., who are beijeved to be the gang who robbed the Chicago postofflcc. A satchel full of postage stamps of large denomination was in their possession. Five Killed in Explosion. A terrific explosion of gas occurred in the Buttonwood mine of the Parrish Coal Company at Wilkesbarre, Pa., which caused the death of five men and the Injury of nine others. McKeesport Chnrcl| Burned. St. Nicholas’ Greek Catholic Church at McKeesport, Pa., was destroyed by fire. Father Julius Metrowsky, the priest in charge, with his family narrowly escaped cremation. Loss $30,000. Fine Automobile* Destroyed. Fire in Woods Motor Vehicle Company’s plant in Chicago caused a log* of SIOO,OOO. Twenty-two automobiles from Honolulu for repairs were destroyed. Calve Salks and Oran Pays. Mme. Calve refused to appear in-*‘Car-men” at Nashville because she had not received encores. Manager Grau had to forfeit $2,000.

1 ROYVNS SON A Nil HERSELF. Bodies of Sirs. Cephas Putties and Her Boy Found In Milwaukee River. The dead bodies of Mrs. Cephas Buttles and her 5-year-old son, who lived at 121 Thirty-first street, in Milwaukee, were found in the Milwaukee river several miles north of the city. The woman was an invalid and had wandered from home before, but always was found easily. Accompanied by a nurse, Mrs. Buttles and her little boy Avent on a shopping tour. While in. one of the stores the nurse missed her wards, and since then nothing had been seen of them. The theory of the police is that while in a fat of insanity Mrs. Buttles murdered her son and committed suicide. Cephas Buttles, husband of the dead woman, is president of the Michigan Home Colony Company. 810 BLAZE IN ST. LOUIS. Cupples \Varehon«e Damaged to Extent of $253,003 on Friday. The great Cupples building, occupying the square bounded by Seventh and Eighth and Spruce and Walnut streets, St. Louis t was damaged to t!;>* extent of SIOO,OOO by a fire which started shortly after 7 o’clock Friday morning. The principal loser is the Samupel Cupples Woodenware Company. Other firms occupying space in the great warehouse sustained slight losses. For a time it appeared the entire building was doomed, but after two hours of hard fighting the firemen got the flames under control.

Troopers Murder Sheriff. Cavalry troopers stationed near Holbrook, Ariz., engaged in a drunken riot in that town, winding up with an attack upon the house of John Blevins, deputy sheriff. Blevins was fatally and Eke Perlcins painfully wounded. The soldiers also shot at the wife and children of Blevins. The shooting was deliberate and unprovoked. Plot to Kill Miah Keveale 1. A plot to kill the Shah of Persia has been discovered. In the conspiracy were two brothers of the Shah and his son-in-law, besides the Grand Vizier, all of whom had gone over to the revolutionary party. The conspirators will be either beheaded or imprisoned for life. Minneapolis Strikers Return to Work. A strike in the building trades brought about by the controversy between the jourheymen plumbers and two master plumbers came to an end at Minneapolis, the men returning to work. It has been agreed to submit the questions at issue to arbitration. Mi*s Kastwick Pleah Guilty. Marie Josephine Eastwick, the young Philadelphia woman who was committed Oct. 1 in the Guild Hall police court, London, for trial at the Old Bailey on the charge of having forged a railroad certificate of the value of £IOO,OOO, was arraigned and pleaded guilty. Gold Rush in Colorado. Roads to Beulah, Colo., are lively with pilgrims on the way to the new gold field. Ore brought in is said to assay $1,200 a ton. The locality is not farther than five miles from Beulah, a well-known summer resort, and the newly opened gold veins have been in plain sight for years. Blow to Cigarettes. Prof. Banta and the faculty of the Binghamton, N. Y., High School are determined to eliminate the cigarette smoking habit among the boy students. Any hoy caught smoking will not be eligible for the athletic teams. No More Foldier* for Philippine*. President Roosevelt, after conference with Secretary Root, decided to send no more troops to the Philippines. Instead, the force there will be reduced 7,000 men by next March. Conditions in the archipelago are said to be satisfactory.

SUPPOSED DEAD MAN RETURNS. Rush Webster Is Remarried to His Divorced Wife. Rush B. Webster, a trainman of Fairview, Pa., secured in Toledo, Ohio, the other day a license to wed Ida V. Webster, a well-known musician of Omaha, Neb. He was at first loath to tell tha’t the woman was his divorced wife, but when he found that the law required it he-told his story. He answered the call of his country at the beginning of the war with Spain and left for the front with Uncle Sam's soldiers, leaving a wife at home. The wife scanned the papers for news from the front, and word came that her husband had been killed. Thinking her husband was dead, she secured a divorce in order to clear up several legal questions, because positive proof of death could not be secured. She went to Omaha to live. Her husband returned and after a diligent search found his wife in her western home still true to her first love. The joy of the meeting was cemented with the bonds of matrimony, and the Rev. Dr. Lefflngwell made them husband and wife again after a lapse of several years. Both are 28 years old.

LARGE STOCK OF PRUNES.

Much of Last Year’s Stock on Hand and Good Harvest This Season. San Jose, Cal., packers estimate the amount of prunes of the crop of 1900 still on hand at 1,000 car loads. The estimated crop of Santa Clara County prunes this year is 40,000,000 pounds, which, together with the estimated 20,000,000 pounds of the Italian variety produced by Oregon, Washington and Idaho, constitutes the stock to be sold. So far this season neither the commercial packers nor the California Cured Fruit Association has made any special effort to dispose of this season’s crop. All feel inclined to get last year’s crop out of the way first. The growers are showing signs of uneasiness. Trices remain the same, with few buyers.

THIEF TRIES TO LURN WOMAN. Puts Plaster Over Month and Oil on Clothes and Applies Match. A highway robber attacked Mrs. S. B. Hillman, of Jenkintown, Pa. Mrs. Hillman was within fifty yards of her home when a man attacked her in a dark part of the road and after placing a plaster over her mouth stole her purse. Then, while she lay in the road, he pouced coal 'oil over her clothing, set fare to it and fled. Mrs. Hillman, almost frantic with terror, struggled to her feat. She tried to shriek for help, but the plaster prevented utterance. She loosened her skirt, let the blazing garment drop to the ground and ran home. KILLED IN TRAIN WRECK. Fatal Accident on Great Northern in North Dakota. Passenger train No. 4, the east-bound flyer on the Great Northern, was run into by a helper engine. The fireman on the helper engine was killed and a brakeman lost both legs. The sleeping car porter was seriously injured. The accident occurred two and a half miles east of Petersburg, N. D. None of the passengers was injured. Fay Horse Holds His Own. The horse is holding his own against the automobile, according to reports made by President F. B. Judkins to the National Carriage Builders’ Association. The last bulletin of the census department, he said, gave 124,12 S horses in New York City alone, and there are still 2,777,497 horses in this country, not including those kept on pastures and ranches. May Enrich Mrs. McKinley. Mrs. William McKinley w ? as probably left a larger estate than is mentioned in the will of her husband. News is received from Ely, Nev., where the McKinley mine is located, that outcroppings show a lead of ore that will assay SIOO to the ton.

Bt. Paul Man Drop* Dead. Frederick D. Sargent, proprietor of restaurants in St. Paul, Milwaukefe and Omaha, nud interested largely in gold mining in northern Minnesota, dropped dead in the Grand Opera House in St. Paul, of heart disease. Degrees for Prominent Men. The bi-centennial of Yale University closed Avith the awarding of a long fist of honorary degrees upon prominent lenders in all parts of the world. Conferring of the degree of LL. D. upon President Roosevelt aroused great applause. Butler Is Degraded. Gen. Sir Redvers Buffer, who directed Sir George White to surrender Ladysmith, has been deprived of the command of the First Army Cprps -at Aldershot and reduced to half-pay, which, in effect, is a degradation. Davis’ Boly in Arlington. The body of Senator Cushman K. Davis,’who died at St. Paul on Nov. 29 last, reached Washington at noon Tuesday. The body was taken directly to Arling■ton, where interment was mnde In lot 302 In the officers’ section. New York Outlet for Gould Fy«tem. The Wabash Railroad Is perfecting an outlet for the Gould system at New York, which will make serious inroads on hitherto exclusive business of the Pennsylvania and other lines. Nineteen rcraon* Burn to Death. Nineteen persons were killed, over twenty injured and property worth $500,000 was destroyed in the burning of Hunt, Wilkinson & Co.’s furniture store, Philadelphia. Estimate of Future Population. Director of Census Merrinni estimates the population of the United .States, including the new possessions, will ha 100,000,000 in 1910.