Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1903 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTB OF THE PABT WEEK. ,s, Mystery in La Porte Fire—Cattle Bnyer Held Upand Bobbed— Soldier's Dream Is Realized Accident at a Mine Switch. .. . . . )»- The mysterious disappearance of F. C. Huff, whose residence was burned to the ground, is now being investigated by the police. Huff was young and a prominent business man of Laporte. He lived alone, and at *lO o’clock one night neighbors noticed that he was at home, evidently preparing to retire. At 4 o’clock the next morning the house was enveloped in flames, and before the fire could be extinguished the building and contents were so completely burned that it is impossible to tell if the ruins contain the body of Huff or not. There ia no known reason why he should have set fire to the house and disappear. The origin of the fire is as much of a mystery as is the whereabouts of the occupant of the house.

Veteran’s Dream Come* True. Valentine Marx, a farmer living near Elkhart, and a veteran of the Civil War, who carries in his left lung a bullet received at Stone River, lost his voice suddenly four years ago, only being able to speak in a low whisper and with the greatest difficulty, Two Aveeks ago he dreamed he was bled at the wrist and when the hemorrhage was stopped he cotild speak as well as ever. Convinced that it was worth trying, he had Dr. John Greene of 'Mishawaka bleed him, and all the details of his dream were fulfilled. A few days later •he visited his friends in Elkhart and talked in a normal manner, with almost perfeot control of his voice. Knocked Down and Robbed. .•Frederick Lorenz, a cattle bpyer, was beaten into insensibility and ro6f>4d of a large sum of money and his jewelry between Highland and Ross. He was out driving when two fashionably dressed men came out of the bushes at the roadside and asked him for a ride. He gave them permission, and the bigger man clambered into the carriage and ordered Lorenz to throw up his hands. The other man jumped at the horse’s head and stopped the rig. Just as Lorenz shouted for help the robber by his side beat him over the head with a club. When Lorenz recovered consciousness he was at the roadside stripped of money and valuables. One Dead | Fourteen Injured. As a Chicago and Eastern Illinois train was rounding a curve on a switch running to the Miami mine, just went of Brazil, the engine jumped the track, turning completely ovefr, and a car containing a large number of section men was telescoped. J. H. Sullivan, a brakeman, 80 years old, was instantly killed. The engineer and fireman escaped by jumping. Fourteen of the occupants of the car were more or less severely injured. Three Killed by Lightning. During an electrical storm Miss Mary Eagan of Vincennes was killed by lightning just as she reached home from church. Her mother was so badly shocked by the same bolt that she is unconscious and may die. Near Corydon Benjamin Gordon and George Ems, living several miles apart, were instantly killed by lightning while sitting with their families viewing the storm. Terror Restores Speech. When lightning struck Samuel Swinehart’s house at Elkhart the flash brought a shriek of terror from Mrs. Swinehart’s lip?. This was the first sound above a whisper the woman had made for two weeks, but she now speaks normally. Sciatic rheumatism is said to have caused the failure of her voice. State Items of Interest. Bartel Winters and Creil Winters of Chicago were drugged at Muncie and robbed of more than SIOO. Mrs. Frank Baustian of South Bend, Ind., whipped her 12-year-oid son to compel him to attend church. The boy immediately went to the river and drowned himself. Lightning played a peculiar trick on the farm of Thomas Burkirk near Pleasant Grove. Mrs. Buskirk was in the barnyard milking when a bolt of lightning killed the cow. The woman was uninjured. As n result of recent rioting in Evans-, vilie tihe wife of Robert Lee, the negro who shot and killed Isolds Massey, police officer, lost her mind and was killed by a train while crossing the railroad bridge near Madisonville, Ivy. While attending a funeral Mrs. George Swartzman of Vincennes Jet her 5monthS'old baby fall out of a buggy. The wheels pas.ed over its head, producing concussion of the brain. The nwMier fainted and fell out of the, buggy and also was seriously hurt. The child will die. Under the supervision of the secretary of the board of health countless numbers of fish, weighing between twelve and fourteen thousand pounds, were taken from White river and burned at Anderson. The fish were of many varieties. One carp was taken out of the lot which weighed twenty-two pounds. The fish were killed by the, refuse from strawboard factories getting into the river. The State authorities will take up the matter. A pitched battle occurred at Waldron between the saloonkeepers and the temperance folks, in which clubs and guns were used. Blanket remonstrances had ousted A 1 Peake, ('harles Riser and George Arnold, and for two days Peake lias kept, the village in constant dread of his gun. One day the citizens and Constable George McCally attempted Peake’s arrest, and n battle ensued. Several shots were fired by Peake. McCally received a scalp wound, l’eake' was felled by 9. club and landed in jail. Garry Barker, while sleeping on the Wabash track* at Lafayette, was run over and instantly killed by a passenger train. H« was working nights at the Lafayette Hominy milla and spent his midnight hour out of doors. He vat down an the tracks ami fell asleep. The Western Rawhide and Belting Company of Hammond has instituted damage proceedings * against Henry Schrage of Whiting in the Lake County Superior Court for $125,000. His plant was destroyed by tire, the complaiut althrough Schrage permitting a furnace to bf erected against tbe building.