Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1902 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Evangelist and Brazil Citizens Do Not Agree—Bogus Bankers Swindle Many “■Young Man Shoots His Sweethear—t Soldiers Di-s Unaccountably. The Rev. Mr. Barrptt, an evangelist who has been conducting meetings in Brazil, has been ordered to leave the town under threats of being tarred and feathered,- but defies the people and expresses his determination to remain and see it out. Mr. Barrett has made some sensational charges against the wives and daughters of some of the members of the church, and these have led to the threats against him. Oue night the steps of the church in which he is preaching were covered with tar and feathers sprinkled over them, and notices left at the church warning the minister that he would be similarly treated if he continued to' preach in the town.

Shoots His Sweetheart. Ros.r Lightcap, 24, was shot nnd fatally injured at Charleston by William Beckett, her sweetheart, but it is alleged that the bullet was intended for the young woman’s brother, who denied Beckett entry into the house. Beckett had been paying court to Miss Lightcap for some time, Init his attentions were not approved by/ the rest of the family. The other evening, when he knocked at the door, it was opened by her brother, who ordered him to leave. Beckett whipped out a revolver and fired one shot, which missed the brother and struck Miss Lightcap, who stood behind him. Beckett fled and is still at large. Swindled by Bogus Bankers. “I am holding down the situation here, such as it is,” said Rev. T. M. McCluug of Milton, as he sat at a desk iu the office of G. H. Thomas & Co., “bankers,” at Indianapolis, and ’’the situation’ ’is about all that Mr. McClung has. He put up SSOO to secure his position and has a questionable mortgage to show for it. Thomas & Co., after opening their hank •with expensive furniture and swindling many, left for parts unknown. Seven Veterans Found Dead. The sudden death of seven old soldiers, members of the National Soldiers’ Home in Marion, has aroused the veterans’ suspicion that all is not right. Within two weeks seven men have been found dead in their beds after a night of drinking at near-by saloons. Believing that drugs have been placed in the liquor, a petition is now being circulated among the 2.500 members of the home to refrain from drinking for ninety days. Big Growth of Oil Field. The record has been broken in the Indiana oil field during October, 445 wells having been completed, with G,470 barrels new daily production. The net increase in new work is 54 wells. There are now 381 wells drilling and 192 rigs building. All Over the State, Miss Bessie Williams died at Richmond as a result of burns caused by the explosion of a gasoline stove. Frank Wiley of Poseyville has on exhibition a stalk of corn fifteen feet high and nine feet to the first ear. Patrick Gardner, aged 61, was run down by a Big Four train at Brazil nnd ground to pieces under the wheels. Ira Larue and William Davis, employed at the Elwood tin plate works, fell into a flywheel pit and were fatally injured. Ora Copenhaver, eonvieted of the murder of his wife at Indianapolis, was sentenced to be hanged in the Michigan City prison Feb. 12. By the breaking of a cable in a freight elevator, three employes of the Hammond Packing Company were injured and two of them may die-

Frank Steelier;' a Chicago attorney, was convicted of embezzlement at Marion and sentenced to from two to fourteen years in the penitentiary. ■While squirrel hunting Jake Miller, a young farmer who lived near Panama, fell over a log, discharging both barrels of his gun, and died of his injuries. Robert Simpson was instantly killed and his son Charles, aged 18. was fatally injured by a heavy fall of slate in Zeller McClellan's Company’s mine near Brazil. John Weis, son of a wealthy farmer near Hammond, was found dead in a barnyard with a bullet hole in his head. It is not known whether it was a case of murder or suicide.

Stanley Buford and Don Neal ware killed and Ernest Roush badly injured by a Big Four engine at Lafayette. The boys, who had run away from Watseka, 111., had laid down on the track to sleep. David Hutts, county councilman, and Al Smith were killed by a west-bound Clover Leaf passenger train at a crossing near Covington. The two men were on their way home 'from Silver Grove in a light buggy. Henry Watkins, aged 74 years, -of South Bend, is missing, and nothing has been heard of him for several days. Watkins was married Oct. 12 and five days later, disappeared. When he left his wife, who is about 65 years old, he said he was going to his farm, ten miles south on the Turkey Creek road, to get some furniture. He had about $125 in his pockets when he left the house. His wife fears that he has been rollbed and murdered. Aroused by the stories of ghouls' wholesale depredations in Indiana, J. E. Hodgin, a well-known barrister of Noblesville, has devised a plan to prevent tjie would-be body snatchers from carrying out their plans. Mr. Hodgin’s wife died recently and was buried in Summit Lawn cemetery, near Westfield. A device has been so arranged that in event of the grave being opened a quantity of nitr - glycerine will be exploded in such a manner as to deal death to the despoilers of the tomb. . . The Lafayette Telephone Company has mortgaged its plant nnd franchises for $150,000 for the purpose of installing a common battery multiple system. The Lafayette Loan and Trust Company is trustee for the bondholders. By a settlement made in the Federal Court at Indianapolis the Beattyville bondholders accept the decree of foreclosure of the Monon Railroad, and their intervening petition attacking the fontclosure sale on the ground of fraud and conspiracy is dismissed. The case has been one of years’ standing, and has leea *o the United State- Supreme Court. .a. a . J & k