Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1901 — CORPSE AS A WITNESS [ARTICLE]

CORPSE AS A WITNESS

MUTILATED BODY MAY DECIDE LITIGATION. Jwidow in Detroit Claims to Be Heiress, > with Her Children, to Rich Iron Lauds in Minneaota—A Guilty Sea Captain Drowns Himself. • A badly mutilated body lies carefully guarded in a vault at Mount Eliot cemc|tery, Detroit, Mich,, and the identification of these remains la the vital point lof contention in a large litigation now •(pending. The fight is between Mrs. Catherine Mueller, a German woman of Detroit, and Rev. F. R. Kosmeri, a Polish priest of Duluth, and the subject of the litigation is the estate of Johann (Mueller, who died in Superior, VS is., in December, 1898. Mrs. Mueller claims to jbe the widow and with her six children peir to an estate valued at $1,000,000. (Mueller owned 100 acres of what was (considered to be worthless land in Bt. 'Louis County, Minnesota, which now turns out to be the richest iron ore land In the State. Mueller became involved in money difficulties and the land was ■mortgaged, finally falling into the hands lof Father Kosmeri. Mrs. Mueller has Bet about establishing her claim. She <was given possession of the body, but .when the remains were exhumed they [were found mutilated. An arm was cut off and missing and a leg was gone. The ■face was also cut to pieces. The mutilation evidently had for its object the prevention of identification.

REMORSE PROMPTS A SUICIDE. Captain Pinnares Into Sea Because He Had Killed His Steward. Captain Morris of the British bark Birnan Wood committed suicide at Motile, Ala., in a fit of remorse over the killing of a man. When the boat anchored at Mobile quarantine station Mate (Poe, in charge, reported that on Nov. 18 Captain Morris killed the steward. The body was buried at sea. The captain remained in his cabin, pacing up and down. When informed that Sand Island light was sighted he gave the mate the course, then picked up a sea lead, jumped overboard and was drowned. Buys San Juan Bnttlefisld. During his recent visit_ in Santiago, Cubs, Gen. Wood bought for the government the principal portion of the San Juan battlefield, including San Juan hill, the site of the blockhouse and Bloody bend. The tract comprises 200 acres and cost $15,000. It will be considered a (United States reservation, on which the government intends to lay out a beautiful f»ark. Railroat Advances Wage,. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, without notice, has advanced the wages of all the shopmen in Louisville who formerly drew $1.75 a day or over. This includes carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, machinists and car builders generally, and about 1,000 men will be benefited. The advance amounts to 10 per cent. Pan-American Buildinc Sold. The Pan-American Exposition buildings ab Buffalo have been sold to the Chicago House Wrecking Company for $92,000. The buildings are to be removed and the grounds restored to their former condition by the company. Th# steel ■ln the electrical tower alone is valued at $25,000. Severe Gate on Const. Severe northeast gale swept the eoast lor many miles about New York, imperiling many lives and causing much damage to shipping and property along the shore. Thirty-one seamen were rescued at Long Branch after thrilling experience.

Dies at the Age of 120 Years. Abraham Ephraim Elmer, believed to have been the oldest man in the United (States, died at his home in Utica, N. Y. His relatives say he was nearly 120 years Mr. Elmer was born in the town of Warren, N. Y., on Jan. 26, 1782. Eight Mine Officials Die. The dead bodies of the lost party of eight well-known mining men who entered West mine of the Pocahontas Collieries Company at Pocahontas, W. Va., have been recovered. Test of Submarine Boat. New submarine boat Fulton remained under water fifteen hours. Men who epent the night at the bottom of Peconic Bay enjoyed the experience. Test is considered highly satisfactory. Chicano Train Is Wrecked. The Buffalo and Chicago limited train on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Kailroad and a local train collided at [Morris Plains, N. J. Five persons were Injured. Strikers’ Camp ‘Broken Up. Kentucky troops raided the camp of •triking miners near Nortonville. Twentytone strikers were taken prisoners and the oafnp abolished. >Lovt with Two Hundred Passen-ers. The local steamer Alerta, with 200 passengers, including some discharged American soldiers from Olongapo, Subig Bay, to Manila, is believed to have been lost. Stork Visits Vanderbilt. j, Alfred G. Vanderbilt, head of the fam Tjly of millionaires, has a son and heir. Put ♦25,030,000 in Cars. i The expenditures to be made by the •Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1902 for rolling stock will aggregate '(>00, a sum unprecedented in railroad history. Of this amount about $19,000,000 ■will be expended for cars and the other $6,000,000 for locomotives. Acted In Self Wefense. Mrs. Anne Allen, indicted for the murder of her husband, James Allen, was acquitted at Youngstown, Ohio. Mrs. Alden admitted she shot her husband, but she acted in self-defense.

POSTMASTERS THE VICTIMS. Green Goods Game With Stamps Worked on Many of Them. According to reports current the best men in the United States secret? service and the cleverest inspectors in the Postoffice Department are trying to ascertain the details of a new green goods scheme, worked until very recently from Manhattan, and at present operated from Jersey City and Chicago. The victims are second, third and fourth-class postmasters, who do not dare complain to the authorities. It is said that since July 1 more than a thousand postmasters have been swindled out of sums ranging from $250 to SI,OOO. The principle of the swindle is the same as that of the old-fashioned green goods game, but only postmasters are invited, and they are urged to purchase instead of money postage stamps from “the undestroyed plates of the government”—plates and stamps which, of course, are not in existence. The postmasters are lured to New York City by samples sent by mail. These samples are genuine stamps and not counterfeits. When the victim reaches the city all the old-fashioned tricks of substitution are practiced. WOMEN MEET AND FIGHT DI; EL. Mrs. De Reamer and Mrs. Hisrcins Settle Question by Encounter. A quarrel growing out of jealousy, which probably ended in a duel, is the explanation offered of a mysterious shooting between the wives of two of the best known farmers in Lansing township, early on a recent morning at a lonely spot on Cayuga Lake, N. Y. Mrs. Chas. De Reamer was found bleeding from a wound in her hand and Mrs. Arthur Higgiqs was standing nearby with a pistol. women refused to say anything about the affair. A second pistol lay on the sand. Mrs. Arthur Higgins is 25 years old and pretty. She lives with her husband near the Ludlowville station, on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. De Reamer live in South Lansing. Mr. De Reamer often visited at the Higgins home. Mrs. De Reamer drove to the Higgins home and the two women drove away as if by appointment. Twenty minutes later the shot was heard. Constable Van Auken found the two women glaring at each other and both uncommunicative. The constable took both women home to their husbands.

QUEER ERROR CLOSES A BANK. Suit Against Defunct Institution on Similar Name Causes Run. The Metropolitan Bask of Tacoma, Wash., failed to open for business the other day, after withstanding a run of two days, caused by a misapprehension concerning a suit filed asking a receiver for the Metropolitan Savings Bank, wfflch went into liquidation in 1898. The similarity of name caused many depositors to suspect that the case involved the Metropolitan Bank. The institution has capital of $50,000, and assets of nearly half a million. The liquidation of the Metropolitan Savings Bank was caused by the withdrawal by George Vanderbilt of his investments in that city. He was largely interested in the bank. STRIKE VICTIM GETS DAMAGES. Man Injured During Duluth Street Car Troubles Awarded $10,383. F. J. Fewings, an employe of the Duluth, Messabe and Northern road, has been given a verdict of $10,383 against the Duluth Street Car Company in a suit against the company for $25,000 damages. Three years ago, during the street railway strike there, Fewings was a passenger on one of the company’s cars. A stone was thrown at the car, crashed through a window and struck Fewings in the head. The case has been tried a number of times, the jury in the third trial a year ago returning a verdict of $4,400. This was appealed. Slain in Labor War. Andrew Burkhauser, a non-union machinist in the employ of the Allis-Chal-mers Company in Chicago, shot and killed George Trapp, supposed to be a member of the union which has been on a strike for months. The shot was fired by Burkhauser, according to the evidence gathered by the police, in order to protect himself from an assault at the hands of Trapp and a companion. Ohio Vote Counted. The official tabulation of the vote cast at the late election in Ohio has been partly completed. The total vote cast was 840,147, of which Nash, Rep., received 436,092; Kilbourne, Dem., 368,525; Thompson, Soc., 7,359; Juergens, Soc. Lab., 2,994; Richardson Union Reform. 2,718; Penney, Pro., 9,878; Nash’s plurality 67,467.

Gave Out Infected Rerum. The St. Louis health department is held responsible for negligence in the preparation of antitoxin, thereby causing the deaths of seven children. The serum was administered to the children to break up diphtheria, but resulted iu tetanus, or lockjaw. ’ Finds Death by Leap Into Furnace. An unknown man threw himself headlong into one of the furnaces nt Schoenberger's mills in Pittsburg. Almost Ids entire body was roasted beyond identification. his left foot being the only part not disfigured. Strikes at Divorce Habit. In a session of the Methodist Episcopal conference of Virginia a memorial providing against admission to the church of those divorced on any but scriptural grounds was unanimously approved. Four Killed, leven Injure 1. Four trainmen were killed and seven injured in a head-end collision between two Louisville and Nashville freight trains at Hughes’ Siding, seven miles from Birmingham, Ala. Murder Suapect Arrested. Wilbur S. Sherwell, a policeman at Evansville, Ind., has been arrested on the charge of murdering Lena Renner, the girl found choked to death by the roadside. T. Henry Martin Dead. T. Henry Martin, publisher and editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, died of hydrostatic pneumonia, following a surgical operation. Mr. Martin was 38 years old. Bia Fire at Charlotte, N. C. At Charlotte, N. C., fire destroyed property valued at $100,006. Among the establishments burned out were the Piedmont Cotton Company, Aglesby Brothers, dry goods, and Bryan & Co., grocers.