Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1905 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Nitroglycerin Explosion Shakes Town Fifty Miles Away—No Indictments Against Murder Suspects—Frenzied Convert Attempts Suicide.

By the explosion of 2.250 quarts of nitroglycerin in one of the magazines of the American Glycerin Cotupuuy. three miles north of Montpelier, two men were seriously injured and the concussion was felt for nearly fifty miles. John JaCfltt, foreman of the Corey Oil Company, and Fred Bain, a pumper, were at work 300 feet from the magazine when it exploded. They were hurled sonic distance and badly bruised. Both will recover. A -hole thirty feet deep was torn in the ground. Several farm houses within a radius of two miles were slightly damaged. Trees 500 feet away were uprooted and stripped. The explosion was heard distinctly at Ohio City, fifty miles away. Several windows were broken at Geneva, twentytwo miles away. On the Albert Spaulding farm, near Upland, twenty miles from the magazine, all -the windows on one side of the house were shattered. The explosion was caused by the increased pressure in a burning gas jet. Murder Suspects Freed. The discharge of the grand jury in L* Porte, with the failure to return indictments against William and Mary Davis and Frank and George Montague, who were arrested because of the belief that they were implicated in the murder of Jacob Harmon Effertz of Chicago, has given the four suspects their, liberty and has brought to a close the State’s investigation of the sensational killing of the young man. The State failed to uncover evidence warranting the voting indictments. The body of Effertz was found the morning of Oct. 4 in the Machler ditch near an old dugout, which was occupied by Davis and his wife. There was a bullet hole in the back of the head. The coroner’s verdict disproved the theory of suicide. The suspects disappeared soon after the tragedy. Miss Mahoney of Lemont, 111., will arrive to-morrow. She was the fiancee of Efferts and will seek to prevail on the county commissioners to offer a reward of SSOO, to which she will add SSOO, for the apprehension of her lover’s slayers. Prays, Then Tries Suicide. ' “I anr a doomed man and cannot be saved,” shouted Edward Johnson during a service at the holiness church in Marion, and at tiie same time he drew a knife and attempted suicide by cutting his throat. Johnson was frenzied with religion- - He had- cons essed ivis sins and prayers were being offered for him when he suddenly jumped up from his kneeling position at the altar and tried to kill himself. The worshipers were panicstricken by the tragic scene. Woman’s Slayer la Freed. The Terre Haute jury which considered Edward’ Cooper’s story that when Ethel Kelley tickled him as he was putting iiis revolver in his pocket he spasmodically threw his arm around and accidentally discharged the weapon, killing her instantly, after nineteen hours' deliberation acquitted him because the State had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Minor State Matter*. Rev. Jacob Beck, the oldest active minister, in Indiana, was killed by a railway train. Airs. Cephas Gauger, wife of a farmer, bung herself in a barn at her home near Miilersburg because of ill health. A. B. Howland of Titusville, l’a., a millionaire oil producer, became suddenly demented at a hotel in Hartford C : fv, Stephen Clinton, a furniture dealer r I Wheatland, blew out his brains beer X of financial troubles. lie was 50 y old. i— — One man was killed and two wer badly burned that they cannot live 1 gas-tank explosion at the American 1 factory, four miles south of Hamm <

The Christian church, which was e ed in Brazil three years ago at a co; $20,000, caught fire from the fur and was destroyed, together with a pipe organ. Airs. Charm Thomas, a pretty y< married woman, who was kissed Grant Gordon, a traveling picture de caused liis arrest apd lie was fine' the police court in Newcastle. Edward Williams is dying from 1 wounds and liis father, George Will is suffering from serious iujuries in

<*d with n soldering iron in the hand, his son during a fight in Huntsville. Carrot Holloway and Harry Bush nan were entombed by a cavern at the shale pit at tlie Sheridan brick plant at Brazil. After an hour workmen reached them, but Holloway was dead and Bushman badly hurt. Gertie Beck, 18, and Martha Musselman, 17, were struck by an Erie passenger train at Athens while on their way to church. Miss Beck has her shoulder broken, while Miss Musselmnu's ‘skull is crushed, and she will die. Thomas L. Tomey was divorced from 1 his wife in Washington and a few minutes later Mrs. Madison Purcell was granted a divorce from her husband. The same afternoon Tomey and Mrs. Purcell were united in marriage.

Attorneys who have been consulted by the Indiana syndicate controlling thousands of acres of land bordering on Lake Michigan between New Buffalo and the Illinois State line say that the claim of Samuel Biddison of New York to tlie"' title of the land is without legal basis. The Indiana owners of lake front land have retained attorneys to contest any claim which Biddison may try to establish in the courts. Fire destroyed the packing room of tlie United Box Board aud I’aper factory at Marion, causing a loss of $50,000, covered by insurance. Berkley Smith of Indianapolis has been received at .the prison north at Michigan City to be confined until lie is hanged on the uight of May lit. Smith killed his wife. Following the argument in tlie case of Clay Dusang of Chesterfield, indicted for the murder of Hiram Staley, which occurred in May last, the jury retired, returned n verdict of guilty of manslaughter.