Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1905 — INDIANA INCIDENTS. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. State Labor Commissioner Says Public Never Approved of Boycott Farmer Who Was His Own Banker Loses Money—Minor State News. Tn the introduction to h'is biennial report State Labor Commissioner McCormick deplores the fact that the weekly wage law of 1898-99 was declared unconstitutional. Speaking of the boycott, Mr. McCormick says: “It is gradually losing its effectiveness, owing to the fact that sentiment has largely crystallized against it.” He says that public opinion never approved of it as a method of warfare and that it is gradually passing into welcome decadence. “Blacklisting, on the other hand, seems to be growing in favor in some industries,” the report continues. “The railroads themselves which originated tho present form of blacklisting, have largely given it up, but other employers have begun to use it as a weapon of industrial warfare.” Concluding, Mr. McCormick says: “While the effectiveness of the method has not been wholly harmful to labor, the animus it has excited has been disconcerting to those who are striving for better relations between industrial force.” Hurt in Boiler Explosion. An explosion of a 300-horse power boiler in Brower & Love Brothers’ cotton mills in Indianapolis scalded W. A. Watts, Curtis Boyd and John Perkins, stokers. Two batteries of nine boilers were wrecked and tho walls of the boiler house and also of the adjoining building used as storage room were blown down. Hundreds of windows-were broken in the neighborhood of the factory. Five hundred persons arc thrown out of employment temporarily by the partial destruction of the large plant, which makes bagging for the flour mills of the Northwest. Work in Convict Schools. Prof. George B. Asbury, the new superintendent of instruction at the Jeffersonville reformatory, is reorganizing and extending the scope of the schools. More than one hundred convicts now attend the (Schools and it is expected the number will be increased 50 per cent when the contract labor system is abolished. Seventy convicts attend tho day school and about thirty are in school at night. Nearly all the convicts in the schools are able to read and write, but few of them have any idea of the study of arithmetic or of language. Forty Years Between Marriages. Henry Moore, 65 years old, and Mrs. Mary Pittman, 73, met by appointment in Columbus and were married. It was the first meeting of the principals. Both live in Brown county, ami their acquaintance, culminating in marriage, began through correspondence. Before the ceremony Mr. Moore remarked that it had been forty years since either had assumed marital vows. Wheels of City Stopped. At Muncie in obedience to an official proclamation of Mayor Charles, W. Sherritt, every factory in the city and every business house ceased business for ten minutes, out of respect to the memory of the late John C. Johnson, president of the Delaware County National Bank, and a capitalist of prominence who had done much to upbuild the city. * Joy Over Slaver's Release. Abraham Mullen, who shot and killed Charles Haines of Stark County, has been released from jail, Justice Rogers at La Porte holding that the shooting was justifiable homicide. The decision caused an unusual scene, Mullen being tendered an ovation which continued until its partic’>V”nts were exhausted. Want *.'feT Water Rates. In order to force the Muncie Water Works Company to drill wells and lower the rates for city use, the Muncie City Council presented a petition to the Citnpany officials threatening to accept ihe terms of a Chicago firm and erect a nfl plant in ease the matter was not givfl favorable consideration. fl Farmer His Own Banker. BB John 11. Asher was arrested, with stealing over $1,900 from Pixley, a Lagrange county farmer whom AsliFr had worked. Since the son bank failure Pixley has kept money at home and Asher slept itBB spare room white it was hid. He tests innocence. Dies from Diptheria. Quarantined in her hi.me nt Jeffersfl ville because her grandson find Mrs. Charles E. Thomas died of ria. Absent members of the family not allowed to visit the house, and fl body was taken to the cemetery by undertaker and placed in a vault. fl Within Onr Borders. Shelbyville high school has an orchestra. fl Thomas W. Chambers of township owns an ox yoke used by fl grandfather a hundred years ago. fl Ninety-nine years ago Vincennes qfl versify was founded and the anniversifl was observed with elaborate cxercisesfl At Marion burglars entered the pfl senger station of the C., C. & L. way and robbed the cash drawer of sfl Mrs. Charles Brizius. wife of a wfl known miller of Newburg, died frfl eating impure cheese at a neighborhefl social. fl George Kelley. 50. a well-known isl korno grocer, shot his wife in the h<fl and then turned his revolver on himsfl His wife may live. fl Lee Adams, formerly nn actor, arresfl nt Richmond for petit larceny, witfl twenty-four hours had been commitfl under the indeterminate sentence act. fl By a premature blast explosion nfl Versailles. John Russ was killed afl Charles Francis and John Alley wfl fatally injured. H Fire at Oolitic burned over almost fl entire business district of that town fl 1,509 jieople, and caused a property isl of $30,000. The fire started in a clofl ing store, the cause being the exploafl of a hanging gasoline tank used fl supplying the lamps which provided tfl building with light. The burning flifl was thrown over the entire contents ■ • the storeroom, and in less than two mil I utgs the entire building was in flames. B