Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1904 — Bad Easiness at Thayer. [ARTICLE]

Bad Easiness at Thayer.

A Young Man’s Skull Crashed With a Neck Yoke. Will Probably Die, Thero was a bad affair Sunday at Thayer, the first town on the Monon on this side of the Kankakee river and as a result, a young mania pr bably fatally injured. Allie Blood, 22 years old and John

Van Meer ten, 19 had been across to 81 el by setting up awitoh lights, Blood being a section man. They 1 came back to Thayer on the milk •rain, and walked past DeWolf’s saloon. A table of some kind ’•tood on the side walk and Van Meerten pushed it off the walk and broke it. The people in the saloon came out, among them two men from Lake one of whom was a stranger. The other Henry Foss, a well known resident and owner of 240 acres of land. De Wolf’s boy followed Van Meerten and Blood and asked them to come hack and pay for the broken table. They came back and Van.Meerten said be was the one that pushed the table, and if he broke it be would pay for it. The parties quarrelled some, and then Foss came around the oorn«-r of the building with a neck-yoke in bis hand, and made at Blood. Van Meerten told Foss not to strike Blood as he Van Meerten, was the one that pushed the table. Bat Foss paid no attention but went up to Blood and struck him a terrible blow with tue neck-yoke, Blood’s skull is ornshed for a distance of several inches. He has been unconscious most of the time ever since and his death is expected at any time. As soon as •’’ots struck the blow he ran inside the nouse and looked the door, and he is a big raw-boned man weighing over 200 pounds. While young, 1 Blood lay on the ground, the si range man with Foss ran up aud gave him a terrible kick in the sida.

There was no fighting nor shooting, aside from this one blow aud kick; but ibtn are reports of some occnretos earlier in the morning, according t»which a wo • nan is said to have been insulted. But there seems t) ho little or □(.thing in this report, nor does young Blood seem to have been concerned in whatever there was if that kind.

Blood aud Vai had noth been drinking some, and state they bought the liquor at a Thayer saloon that morning. Foss, who lived between Lowell aud Crown Point was arrested at his home Tuesday night, on a justice’s warrant. The other man, who liv ed near him, but was a new comer has skipped out. Ross will probably not be admitted to bail uutil the result of Bloods injuries are known, and if he dies, Ross will be held on charge of murder. He is therefore likely to find quarters in our jail here, at an early date. Thayer being in Newton county which sends most of its prisoners here.