Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1903 — Items Here and There. [ARTICLE]

Items Here and There.

Fifty-two persons were paid bounties for groundhog scalps in Kosciusko county the other day, the highest amount being paid to one person being $16.80, The price was 10 cents per scalp. The navy that rides the waters of Lake Maxinkuokee is to be increased. The secretary of the navy has consented to allow Culver Military Academy two more man-of-war cutters. This will make four of these cutters for the use of the academy. Representative Hemenway, of Indiana, has introduced a bill to pension all soldiers and sailors who served at least ninety days in the civil war, at the rate of sl2 per month, and all widows of such soldiers and sailors who were married prior to June 27, 1890. The Chicago papers of last Sunday announced that P. H. O’Donnell claims to have been swindled out of $30,000 by a young lawyer in his office whom be had befriended. The attorney has been indicted by the grand jury. Mr. O’Donnell Eays he mortgaged his big farm in Carroll county to help cover the deficit.

The decision by the court of appeals at Boston affirming the decision of the lower court —which w r as in favor of the independent telephone companies—was very warmly received by the independent telephone people throughout this state, where the investments in independent property are very large. There are now 75,000 independent telephones in Indiana and the number is growing at an amazing'pace. Mrs, Marina Blake, wife of Isaac Blake, died Sunday Feb. Ist at their home in the east end of Jordan Tp., at the age of nearly 72 years. She and her husband, who survives, her have been residents of Jasper county upwards of 50 years. The funeral was held Tuesday at the M. E. church at Remington, She left 8 children 19, grandchildren, and 3 greatgrandchildren.

The townships of Jefferson and Washington, in Newton county, will have a railroad election on March sth, and Beaver township on March 7th to vote on the proposition of aidiug the new north and south coal road. If Kentland gets that road it will have about as good railroad connections with the rest of the county as Goodland. And in that case will be more than ever anxious to hang to the county seat. Indianapolis News: A Williamsport pastor, last fall arranged with his congregation that all eggs laid by their hens on Sunday betwee n September 15 and January 15, should be given to the church, to be sold for its benefit. Actual returns are not yet available, but the report indicates that the hens lent themselves enthusiastically to the task without any caiping questions as to why a minister should be favoring and profited by Sunday work.

Judge Harris, at Sullivan, has declared unconstitutional the fool freak law which provides that the sheriff of a county where a lynching occurs, is thereby put out of office. The case came up on account of the lynching of Dilliard in Sullivan county, and the attempt of the county coroner to force Sheriff Dudley out that he might step in; and Governor Durbin had tried to put Dudley out and failed. Judge Harris gives very logical reasons for declairing the law# unconstitutional and we believe the Supreme Court to which an appeal has been granted, will decide the same way. Most people have beard of boarders leaving a landlord and

generally leaving a goodly sized unpaid board bill behind them at the same time, It remainßr~for~ Misbawaka to furnish a reversal of this statement and send out news to the world of a landlord and his wife who went away between two days end left so«ue thirty-five or forty boarders to wake in the morning in cold rooms and with no prospects of breakfast, for as soon as the employes found the employers were gone they also left. The hotel people left behind them some S3OO or S4OO of unpaid grocery bills and other unpaid accounts as a legacy. The Backman triplets are still doing well, but a great danger confronting them is the fact that whooping cough is now in the family and the babies can probably not escape it, and in case they have it, there would be but little chance for all of them to live, for it is a very dangerous disease in obildren under two years old. The mother is not yet doing as well as | was hoped for and the physician suggests that people who contemplate going there to see the babies, as many seem anxious to do, that they should defer their visits until Mrs. Bachman is better. The house is a very small one, and it is impossible for visitors to call and not disturb her considerably.