Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1903 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Distillery Fire Causes Heavy Loss— Shortest Kail way in World Is Finished —Snnb for Island Park Chautauqua Association. A fire which started in the elevator of the whisky trust’s Majestic distillery in Terre Haute caused a loss of SIOO,OOO on the building, grain elevator and machinery. The spirits house adjoining, in which there were 100,000 barrels of spirits in large copper tanks, was saved by the work of the firemen and a change in the wind. The loss is fully covered by insurance. There were 1,200 cattle in the pens and the distillery was grindihg 3,200 bushels of corn daily. J. E. Beggs, until July 1 manager of the trust, is building a new and larger independent house for Cincinnati and Louisville wholesalers and blenders, and, it is said, the trust may not rebuild. Finish Shortest Hallway. The shortest railway system in the world has just been completed twelve years after its construction was commenced. The line, 2.000 feet in length, is known as the Mooney Lateral Railway, and was incorporated in this form at the time of .its organization. It connects the Mooney tannery at Columbus with the Big Four Railroad. When the Big Four tried to lay a switch into the tannery in 1801 the Pennsylvania company refused a crossing. In to condemn a way the company was organized with a full corps of officers and directors. The construction was begun, but court proceedings were instituted and the tracks hare just been completed. Fabbatarians Are Snubbed. The Island Park assembly, a Methodist organization, posted a notice at Rome City, bordering Sylvan lake, asking several hundred cottagers along its shores to refrain from boating, fishing and bathing on Sunday. The cottagers posted a most indignant reply. They pointed out that the assembly officers themselves rented boats on Sunday, that one of the leading officers keeps store open on Sunday in order to selr ice cream and soda fountain drinks, while they keep Island Park open on Sunday in order to get the 25 cents which is charged for admission to Island Park on Sunday. 1 Hail Cuts Down the Crops. Reports of almost total destruction of crops by the heavy hailstorm come from points in the southern part of Kosciusko County. In many places hailstones as large as walnuts fell, cutting entire fields and shattering thousands of window panes. The damage is estimated at SIOO,OOO. Electric Shock Proves Fatal. Beyard Quick, ant superintendent of the Brookville Electric Light and Power plant, was instantly killed while trimming an arc light. Owing to an accident lie received a heavy shock of electricity. Quick was a member of a well-known family. Woman Hangs Herself, Mrs. West, wife of Captain James West, a prominent citizen of, Frankfort, went to an upstairs roonim her home and hanged herself. She had been in poor health for some time. Brief State Happenings, Smallpox has given Washington physicians all they can do vaccinating citizens. Henry Seward of ferre Haute was bound over to the grand jury at a preliminary hearing on the charge of wife murder. The recent award of a contract for a $24,000 bridge- f to span White river at Anderson calls to mind that Anderson has nine bridges. While in bathing at Miller Station a stranger, who is thought to be from Chicago, cried for help. Before aid could reach him he was drowned. Steven Shanks, 70 years old, a former county treasurer, committed suicide at Frankfort, by throwing himself in front of a Clover Leaf passenger train. JohiL W. Sipes, an old soldier, aged 72 years, was walking on the Southern Indiana track at Calc, and failed to hear the qdiistle. lie was killed instantly. \ |.. A jury at Valparaiso has returned a verdict for tho heirs of John W. Swygart of South Bend, holding that deceased was not of sound mind when he executed his will.

A petrified log has been found 45 feet below the surface of the earth near Sullivan. The log is about 12 feet in length and two feet in diameter," nnd the outlines of its bark make it look like a fluted stoue column. The log was found .by workmen who were sinking a coal shaft. The old bridge across Wildcat creek, near Kokomo, is being torn down, which recalls die .hanging by a mob of a man named Long, in 1882. Long was accused of assaulting a little girl, but physicians who examined the child exonerated him. He confessed to stealing a lior.e, however, and the mob banged him anyway. Robert Meyers of Terre Haute says his bride of two weeks, whom he married through the agency of a matrimonial bureau, is a failure as n housekeeper. Therefore he has sent her back to Clintonville, Wis. He was a widower with eight and she the Widow Penn with two children, when the couple W££p married. An unknown colored manTlttemptcd to assault Mrs. Joseph Watt*, wife of a - prominent fanner near Ijogan.vport. Thrashers on the farm heard her screams and started after him, chasing him several miles and firing a nnmber of shots at him. He escaped into the swamp country and is believed to be badly wounded. John Collins, n wealthy farmer living west of Richmond, was accidentally shot by his 8-year-old son and the wound may prove final. Collins was tireparing to go hunting and the boy wa* playing wK’h his rifle, which was accidentally discharged. . - . A wreck on the Union Traction Company Railroad in the suburbs of Anderron caused the death of one person and serious injuries to seventeen passengers. The car was going at full speed when U struck a short curve. The brakes failed to work and the car'shot from the track and turned over. j