Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1903 — OUR OWN INDIANA. [ARTICLE]

OUR OWN INDIANA.

Bich in Natural Resource*, Industries and Transportation Facilities. It Is a fashion wkft Indianians to •peak with pride of Jbfir State, and in ■peaking thus they only express their true feelings; but there is reason to suspect that, after all, comparatively few fully realize or appreciate all the advantages they enjoy through their residence within the borders of this commonwealth. The majority, accustomed to the conditions which surround them, accept them as a matter of course, and without reflecting that people of other States do not all enjoy equal privileges. It is the men whose business takes them about the country who best appreciate these conditions anA who are able to contrast them with those of other States. Traveling men whose homes are in Indiana, but who are thoroughly familiar with the country generally and the resources and special advantages of different section?, arc, as a Class, the most enthusiastic concerning their own State. “Why,” said one recently returned from ■ western trip, “we have everything here. So far as agriculture is concerned, the greater part of Indiana ranks as the best farming country in the world; we are not confined to one or two main crops, but raise everything not strictly tropical that grows out of the ground. Corn and w'heat are stnples, but where tljey are not at their best, fruit is. We have fine cattle, and horses to beat Kentucky. We have the richest natural resources—coal, gas, stone—everything for manufactures at the very doors; we have transportation facilities beyond those to be found in any other whieh meant easy access to markets east, north, south and west. We have industries in profitable operation all over the State, and in this very town that would surprise a lot of people living right here, by their extent, number and variety. Oh, we don’t half of us know what a good thing we have.”

This man does not exaggerate; more might be said with truth. Other States are especially adapted to certain things and* must, perforce, put all their eggs into one basket, so to speak, and take risks accordingly. Kansas, for instance, raises corn and wheat, but a hot wind comes out of the south and scorches them one year and a tremendous flood from uncontrollable rivers washes them out of the ground in another. Other States have certain nhtural riches without the geographical situation or transportation facilities to make them available—and so they go. If Indiana were, say, a European principality with all these natural and acquired advantages, her fame would be world-wide, and from every direction men and capital would clamor at her doors for opportunity to share in the prosperity. So it is the State has no reason to complain. Her light is by no means hidden under a bushel, but it is worth while for those who accept their blessings in a phlegmatic or indifferent way to come to a realizing sense of benefits that surround them and thoroughly to comprehend that it would be difficult to say anything in praise of Indiana not entirely justified by facts.—lndianapolis Journal.

Among Onr Neighbors. Masons of Mishawaka may build $50,000 temple. Snails have made their appearance in Richmond by the / million. Survivors of the battle of Peach Tree creek hold a reunion at Sullivan. Herd of entitle belonging to AI Bancroft, Chestertown, ate dynamite. Dead. Thomas Beckley, aged farmer, fell under a mower, near Royal Center, and was badly injured. Orange County licensed saloonkeepers have started a war on the “blind tigers,” or unlicensed saloons. The Knights of Pythias and Red Men jointly raised $2,500 for industrial purposes at Bloomington. Peter Surprise, Crown Point, said to be 110 years of age, has not left his son’s farm in thirty year?. Bed of the Kankakee river along the line of the Place ditch is dry and in many places li-as been plowed up. Grandpa Hill, Elwood, is in possession of two old land grants signed by President Jack «>n and issued in 1835. An unknown woman left a babq and a bottle of paregoric at the door or Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Staklut, Fort Wayne. Lee A. Crowl, recently appointed a member of, the Fort Wayne police department, is six feet four inches tail. Mice chewed matches in a freight cal on the Rig Four near Muncie and caused a fire which resulted in $5,000 damages. John H. McGee, city of Mexico, is in Anderson to purchase a 40,000 daily capacity pressed brick plant to be taken south. Irwin Cook, a young Alien County farmer, was overcome by heat while working in the field and is now violently insane. W. F. Ohipman, Vincennes, perhaps holds the record for wheat raising this year. A 100-acre field yielded 2,200 bushels. Before the temperance people of Cayuga began fighting the saloons there were seven in the town. Now only three remain. * A flock of homing pigeons made the flight from Marion, Tenn., to Misawaka, Ind., in four hours, tlie distance being 400 miles. Abe Miller," Logansport, claims the record for threshing. In four days he and hie helpers threshed 4,400 bushels of .wheat. Elmer Norman, Bedford, placed the lines around his neck and started to plow. The hor.X‘s ran away und Norman’s skull was fractured. Jacob Melton, captain of a zouave company, got up in his sleep at Clear Lake, and began to give orders ft> himself. “Forward, march,” said he, and before he could give the order to halt, he walked into the lake. A club of ladles has been organized in Logansport to study conditions in Germany. Members of the club will go to the fatherland in October. . Fight between circqyes for advertising space in Vincennes has reached that point where billposters erect swinging scaffolds and attach posters to the highest pinnacle?. “Blind” Jim Hubbell, Jamestow'ri, drove bis team into a stream to swell the tires of bin vehicle. One of the horses, being thick-winded, wore a silver tabs. Water ran into tlie tube and killed the koras.