Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1902 — FROM THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE EARTH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM THE FOUR QUARTERS OF THE EARTH

COULDN’T BEAR DEFEAT. William H. Hoflfmeister Kills Himself in a St. Louis Hotel. •William H. Hoffmeister of St. Louis, ex-supreme recorder of the Legion of Honor, committed suicide at the Planters’ Hotel in that city, by shooting himself with a revolver. The only witness to the suicide was George M. Ackley of Kansas City. Mr. Hoffmeister was defeated for re-election as supreme recorder of the Legion of Honor by C. B. T. White, and an entirely new supreme council was elected after a sensational contest. One feature of the struggle was the arrest of Otto A. Overbeck, candidate for supreme chancellor, the highest officer iu the order, leader of the oppm, sition to the administration. Mr. Overbeck was arrested by a detective as he was entering the Holland building on his way to the meeting where the election was to be held. At the Four Courts a complaint was lodged against Mr. Overbeck for carrying a concealed weapon. Frieuds of the Overbeck ticket, however, procured Mr. Overbeek's release on bond and hurried with him to the meeting hall, where they arrived in time to vote, his one vote being necessary to win. KILLED IN BATHHOUSE. St. Louis M ill lona ire'MtTrde red -After Being Robbed. ~X.' Dean Cooper, the millionaire treasurer of the Graham Paper Company, died in St. Louis as the result of an assault, in which his skull was fractured while lie was in the cooling room of the Vista Turkish bathhouse. William Strother, the negro attendant at the bathhouse, who was on duty and who informed Mr. Cooper’s family of the assault, is held as a prisoner at the Dayton street police Station, A diamond ring valued at sl,500 and a diamond pin worn by Mr. Cooper when he entered the batli were found in the basement of the bathhouse. They had been concealed under the flooring in a crevice above the top of a joist. A sledge hammer bearing fresh blood stains was found in the basement soon after the police had boon summoned. The negro declares his innocence.

INDIANS TO QUIT TERRITORY. Creeks, Disgusted with Dawes Commission, Will Leave Oklahoma. There is a movement on foot among the full-blood and half-breed Creek Indians to sell all their, lands and leave Oklahoma. They say they are tired of the long-drawn-hut methods of the Dawes commission and the Interior Department and that they see only starvation for the future. Their game is all gone. The law preventing the Indians froth leasing their land for more than a year leaves them penniless. They are now -preparing -a petition to Congress as a last resort. On account of the drouth the crops were a failure and many of them must depend on charity. % DETECTIVES GUARD THE SHOPS. Imported Men Refuse to Work for the B.& O. Company iu IndianaFifty men were imported by the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railway Company to take the places of strikers who went out at Washington, Ind. The men were secured through a St. Louis employment agency and were hired at $1.50 a day. When the new men arrived and learned that a strike was on about twenty-five of them refused to go to work in the machine shops. Detectives are guarding the shops and yards. Suicide Does Not Void Policy. In Kansas City the Court of Appeals decided in the ca§c of Fannie Brassfield vs. The Knights of the Maccabees that fraternal insurance orders must operate under the laws of Missouri. The State law provides that it shall he no defense that the insured committed suicide. Brassfield committed suicide and the Muccubevs refused to pay the policy. Admits Theft of $25,000. , In a statement made to the selectmen of Wellesley, Mass., former Town Treasurer Albert Jennings, who was arrested on a charge of forging a note for $5,000, admits that he is guilty both of forgery f.nd embezzlement aud that the amount involved is $25,000. / Chinese Kill Missionaries. Bishop Berman of. the Western Mongolian Mission has written that Fathers Van Merhaeghe and Bougaerts were massacred at Pingle, Province of Kansu, by a hand of soldiers and Mohammedans, who escaped across the Yel|ow river to the Ordos country. Stop Swearing In Saloons. The saloonkeepers of Toledo, Ohio, held a meeting recently, at which a resolution was unanimously adopted requesting proprietors and bartenders not to use profane language in their saloons and to post notices forbidding patrous to swear on the premises.

New llentl for North wcatern. After an extensive search of the academic field the board of trustees of Northwestern University at Evanston. 111., have 4 elecfod Prof. ' Edmund J. James, now of the University of Chicago, to the presidency of the institution. High ty Year-Old Woman Itnrned. Mrs. Dorothy Hoffman, 80 years of age. was burned to death at her home in Ironton. Ohio. She walked near an open grate firo and her dress ignited. Being alone and unaided, she was fatally burned, living but a short time. Change in Chinese Attitude. The Emperor'WChin a granted an audience to the minister* of foreign powers, nn j. for the first time in history, received them as represetitatlves' of monarch* equal in rauk to himself. Marriea His Btcpmother. A few months ago Frederick Handers, middle aged, of Bremen, Ind., Married the young daughter of a neighbor., Han

ders’ handsome Bon fell in love with his pretty stepmother, the latter reciprocating. The husband and father learned the secret of the young people and procured a divorce. Later he accompanied his son and former wife to the county clerk's office, where the young couple w r ere wedded. TRIES TWO WAYS OF SUICIDE. Pennsylvania Farmer Badly Hurt by Explosion Hangs Himself. Determined to die, Lawrence Moridz, a farmer; aged 37, residing near Erie, Pa., showed woqderful courage in his method of committing suicide. After sending his family to the city and bidding them an affectionate farewell he took a package of blasting powder out into a field to a rock pile. He placed the explosive under a pile of stones and, sitting down on top, he touched a match to the powder. The explosion blew off his left hand and injured him otherwise, but the injuries were not fatal. With blood streaming from a dozen wounds he ran to the barn and crawled up into the haymow. Here he fastened a rope about his neck and to a beam and jumped off. The fall broke his neck. LIVE HIGH ON “QUEER” MONEY. Californian and Handsome Young Wife Accused of Counterfeiting. After two years of high living at. their fine residence in Fruitvale, San Francisco, Ulysses G. Bair and his pretty young wife have been placed in jail on the charge of counterfeiting. At their house was found a complete counterfeiting outfit and spurious coin of the face value of S7O, said to be the best imitation of genuine coin ever seen there. It is charged that Bair and his wife have put in circulation thousands of counterfeit dollars in the last two years. Bair frequented the race tracks and admits having won thousands- of good dollars through the medium of his bad ones. LYNCHED FOR HORSE STEALING. Sioux Indian, Fresh from Jail, for Swapping Animals. John Yellow Wolf, a Sioux Indian who was released from the Deadwood, S. D., jail recently, was lynched for horse stealing while oh the way to his home on the Ilosebud reservation. When Yellow Wolf started for .the agency he Wps given a worthless old horse and saddle. Below Rapid City he turned the old horse loose and caught a young horse out of a pasture on which to complete the, journey, lie was overtaken by a number of men, and was later found dangling to a cottonwood tree near White River. Yellow Wolf had served several terms in the Deadw r ood jail for various offenses.

Accident to Steamer. Captain Jones of the White Star tine steamer Bovie, which arrived in New York Liverpool, reports that he passed the Anchor Liner Astoria, in latitude 44:47 degrees north, longitude 53:47 degrees west, displaying the signal “Met with accident, floating obstruction.” # The Astoria made other signals, which were not seen until too late to decipher. Flames Cause Havoc in Columbus. A four-story briek building at Spring and Capital streets, Columbus, Ohio, occupied by Samuel Stevens, wholesale grocer; E. B. Robins & Co., and Zinn, Judkins & Co., wholesale hatters, and John Ilayes & Co.,'jobbers in leather, was gut 4 ted by fire, entailing a loss estimated at about $200,000, practically covered by insurance. Big Crcnniery Trust Formed. Charles 11. I’atison and John A. Parks of the Kansas creamery trust have swung the deal they have been workin'g on for the organization of a gigantic trust to take in all the large creameries of the country. The new corporation is to be known as the National Creamery Company and will have a capital of $18,01)0,000. Drop Dayton Poison Charges. The grand jury at Dayton, Ohio, because of lack of evidence, ignored the case of Mrs. Mary Witwer, who was charged with poisoning her sister, Mrs. Pugh. The case attracted considerable attention last fall because of the allegation that the deaths of a number of persons were caused by Mrs. Witwer. Three Shot Dead in Feud. Three men are dead and four wounded, one fatally, as the result of a gathering of hostile clans to attend a murder trial at Belleville, Texas. The man fatally wounded is the one who was to bo arraigned for taking human life, while two of the killed were relatives of his first victim. Two Farmer* Killed in Fight. In a fight near Taylorsville, Ky., Tkos. Jewell shot and killed Nathan Bruner nnd his son John, and slightly wounded David Bruner, another son. Jewell says the Bruners, with a man named Price attacked him and be was forced to shoot' in self-defense. Gigantic Steamship Trust. Evidence is accumulating to show the formation of a gigantic transatlantic steamship pool, taking in thirty lines, all British or American. German, French, Holland and Scandinavian bonts are not included in the proposed combine. Battle in Panama Harbor. Columbian insurgents surprised thn government forces in the harbor of Panama, burned and stink the Lautaro, killed Gen. Allen apd many of his followers and scattered the survivors. Colored Official Is Killed. John E. Bush, colored, receiver of the United States land office at Littlo Rock, Ark., was'assassinatcd at his home. The assassin escaped. * Lorn for Jtlchmond Grocers. Gates & Brown, wholesale grocers at Richmond, Vs., were burned out. Loss SBO,OOO, covered bj insurance.

NEWSBOYS IN A RIOT. Union and Nonunion Forces Argue with Fists and Brickbats. A riot occurred at Fifteenth and F'arnam streets, Omaha, between union and non-union venders of newspapers, in which sixty newsboys were engaged. The fight was being desperately waged and many small combatants showed cuts and bruises when the patrol wagon arrived. All who could not escape were taken to the station. The fray was brought on by a placard on which a newsboy had daubed in shoe blacking a request that certain papers be boycotted. The union's displeasure was directed toward a St. Louis and a Chicago paper, which had raised the newsboys’ price from to 4 cents a copy. The small standard bearer excited the ire of F. C. Smith, 23 years old, captain of the non-union clan, and the row stanted. “Mogy” Bernstein, known as the “king of the newsboys," appeared just as his unionist followers were being overcome by their opponents with the bulky Smith at their head. Mogy soon turned the tide of battle, and each union lad was sitting astride of his foe when the police arrived. MOTHER AND SON WHIPPED. Alleged Mistreatment of aYonng Wife Arouses Missouri Town. G. Xi. Huckleberry, _a...photographer of Odessa, Mo., and his mother, Mrs. WTBT Huckleberry, were whipped with rawhides the other night by about seventyfive of the leading men and women of the town. Huckleberry is about 22 years of age and was married recently to a young woman connected with one of the best known familiesof Johnston County, Mo. lie is reported to have abused his wife, and his mother, it is charged, has several times taken part in the rows. Finally Huckleberry threatened his wife’s life, which caused one of the neighbors to swear out a warrant for his arrest. Two policemen were taking Huckleberry before a justice of the peace, his father and mother accompanying them, when the officers were overpowered by -the mob. The'young man was stripped to his shirt, and the lash was laid on his back about fifty times. His mother was punished with similar chastisement. ROBBERS ESCAPE WITH SIB,OOO. Jonas McCune of Columbus, Ohio, Despoiled of Government Bonds. The police department of Columbus, Ohio, has been notified that SIB,OOO in government bonds had been stolen from the residence of James McCune. Mr. McCune lives in the extreme eastern part of the residential district of the city, which, because of the imperfect manger in whidh it is lighted, has become a fruitful field for thieves. No trace of the burglars has been found. Mr. McCuue said that he is not worried much over the loss of the bonds. He is very anxious, however, to recover the other papers, including his will, which are very valuable to him, but to. no one else. Great Landslide at Juneau. An enormous landslide occurred in the basin above Juneau, Alaska. It is stated the slide was 1,700 feet in width. Thousands of tons of rock and dirt tumbled from the mountain above the Last Chance Mining Company's flume and completely demolished it for a long distance. Fortunately no people were injured. Runaway Train Kills Four. Four men were instantly killed on the log railroad of the Lackawanna Lumber Company at Cross Fork, Fa. The men were loading logs cfn a car when a runaway train came down the incline road and crashed into the car upon which the men were. Kansas Commander Ousted. The executive committee of the Kansas G. A. H. ordered Martin Norton, the department commander, to vacate his office at once. The committee had been investigating charges preferred against Norton and sustained them in every particular. Body Found in a Reservoir. The body of W. C. Johnson was found in the city water works reservoir at Douglas, Wyo. Johnson disappeared several days ago, nud it is believed that he committed suicide while temporarily insane. Riot on a Steamer. News has been received that a riot broke out on the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Columbia at Panama, and that several members of the crew were perhaps fatally, or at least dangerously, wounded. Armenians Fight Tnrks. Two armed Armenian bands have appeared at Sandjak, in the Mush district of Asiatic Turkey. In an encounter between the Armenians and a detachment of Turkish troops the latter lost an officer and two men killed. British Force Missing. Wessels’ command Of Boers cut np a patrol of fifty men belonging to the local town guard of Cradock, Cape Colony, on the Tarkastnd road. A few stragglers have returned. The remainder of the party are miaaing. • - Upholds Free Hchool Books. In Cleveland the Circuit Court dismissed the appeal of M. Vr Mooney, representing th# parochial school* of the Oath olic Church ki that city, who sought t</ restrain the distribution of free books to public school pupils. ' Denmark Wants to Bell. Denmark has signified her willingness to accept the offer of the Umted States for the three West Indian Islands, the price being between $3,000,000 and $4.000,000. To Crown Alfonso on May 17. Alfonso XIII. will be crowned King of Spain at Madrid on May 17, on his sixteenth birthdav.