Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1904 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Ex-Sheriff and Stepson Fight Duel in House—Girl Driven from Homs Attempts Suicide—Little Gifts Killed by Cloudburst—Fire in Princeton.

Lancaster D. Baldwin, president of the Baldwin Oil and Gas Company, san exsheriff, had a desperate duel with his stepson, Burt- Ritter, at the Baldwin home in Marion. Baldwin used a re-, volver, while Ritter used a shotgun. Neither man was severely hurt, though several shots were fired. The duel took place in tlie library. ’ Baldwin is said to have fired the first shot, tlie bullet missing the head of Ritter only an inch. Ritter seized a shotgun and fired at Baldwin, the charge of shot tearing, a' threeinch ■ hole through a door within two inches of Baldwin's neck, some of the "shot rebounding and taking effect in Baldwin’s head. Baldwin shot .again, tlie bullet missing Ritter, and then rushed from the bouse. As he passed, out Bitter shot again. ,|>uß Baldwin slipped on tlie ice and fell ami the shot passed

Driven from lifer Home. ■ Della Muncie, 18 years, old, residing near Asherville, walked to Brazil, a distance of ten'miles, itnd was nearly frozen. She said her father quarreled with her and drove her from home into tlie snow, when tlie thermometer was hovering aromid zero.- Sin- went to the home of her uncle, Jacob Lance. in 'Brazil, where she took morphine with suicidal intent. ' When the physician was summoned,- she knocked tlie medicine from his hand. She was controlled by force and remedies were applied. Too Many" Rural Mail Routes. The citizens of Chesterville. Sparta, Crozier and Wilmington are aroused over an effort to abolish their postoilices and have rural route No. 4. from Aurora, substituted. A remonstrance is being prepared against the change. The remonstrators say that their present star route system is efficient. Farmers along the line admit that the rural routes are in most cases a good tiling, but they add that they are being overdone. Cloudburst Kills Two Girls, In a'cloudburst at Wheeling the cabin of Daniel Barrett, a farmer, was" wrecked. Barrett, carrying his baby in his arms, left the cabin followedl by lilswife, two daughters and one ..son. The two daughters, .aged 4 and 7 years,, became separated-from the parents and the next morning their bodies were found hanging on a barbed wire fence. The son, aged 9 years, was found on a stump unconscious. Loss tn Princeton Fire. Fire at Princeton completely destroyed the general store of Agar Brothers & Co., with .contents, and badly, damaged the Baber Hotel adjoining. The loss was $15,000, with SB,OOO insurance. All books and papers of the Hoosier Oil Company were destroyed. Low water pressure is -given as one cause for the progress .of the fire.

Drinks Laudanum and Dies. Thomas B. Scelyc, a farmer near Goodland, committed suicide in the Royal Hotel in Chicago, according to the police, by drinking laudanum. Financial reverses are said to be responsible. That he intended ending his life was made known in a letter sent to George Fox, a neighbor. State Items of Interest. Alta Stoddard is the new postmaster at TJutterville. Potatoes are selling for $2 a bushel in some parts of the State. Cass County schools will not make an exhibit at the world's fair. John J. Lowrey has been appointed postmaster at Montezuma. Columbus has had more of the beautiful this winter than in fifty years before.

Fire destroyed Tilden Stewart’s barn and several horses, near Brookston. J,os', $7,000. Ilerrod Bradfotf-1, 72, fell dead nt Columbus, while returning home from the funeral of a friend. The Panhandle is operating between Indianapolis and Columbus two of the Vandalia’s large Atlantic type locomotives. The engines are new and the Panhandle is testing the power. ‘ Julius Conitz, a Laporte banker who failed three years ago. for SIOO,OOO, is dead of hemorrhage at Blue Grass, N. I). His assets netted 50 per cent and he since paid nearly all his remaining indebtedness.

The recent storm caused sad dernngeinent of schedules on Indiana railroads. Buried in the deep drifts of snow, trains on nearly every road were objects of search. Armies of section men, accompanied by powerful snowplows, went to the aid of many h/ld prisoner. In several instances the trains had been held fast for several hours before assistance came, and there was much suffering among the passengers. Not for pmny yenrs had the traffic of the State been more completely at a standstill. With the theomometer registering four degrees below zero, passengers on a Lake Erie and Western train spent nine hours in a great drift near Miami. A blinding storm prevented any attempt to seek aid, and it was not until a patrol of section mc.n came on the scene that the presence of the snowbound train was known. Fifty section men and four engines released the train. Three passenger trains on the Vandalia ran into a deep drift near Cut ler. Five engines were sent to the rescue. but they could make no impression on the drift. After several hours a small army of section men succeeded in releasing the trains. Grover Eichner of Colorado, heavily interested in copper industries, off the Wabash limited train in Hammond while on route to N’eW York and win badly injured. William Young. GO years old. Nashville. hunter and trapper, accidentally wot.nded a few days ngo, having shot hili self in tlq; nukle wliik ofc one of his expeditions, is dead of his wound. Z.u inventor nt South Bern, snys he wilt sei»l President Rookcvelt a bulletpro«vf Vent, nnd the President any* ho nerar ordered such an appliance, does bo* want it and will not wear it If seui.