Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1907 — Indiana State News [ARTICLE]

Indiana State News

REVERSES STEED’S SHOES. But Village “Sherlock*” Trail and ■' Capture the Alleged Incendiary. Fire recently destroyed the barn of Joseph May, near Rushvillc, and a man said to have strongly resembled Jonas Mercer, whom he had opposed as a son-in-law. was seen driving at a gallop from the scene of the blaze shortly before it was discovered. Investigation showed, however, that the tracks of the flying tsteed led in the direction of the tire and not from it. The local constabulary was mystified until a local disciple of “Sher--lock Holmes” deduced that the tracks were those of a horse \vearing reversed shoes. The shrewd ones immediately followed the tracks toward their apparent beginning, which proved to be Mercer’s barn. Within they found a horse, the tides of which recently had been removed. The nail holes in the hoofs of the animal indicated that the shoes last attached had been reversed. Mercer was placed under arrest. In default of bail he is held in jail.

PREACHER DIES WRITING. Sudden Death of Rev. William >J> Russell at Frankfort. Rev. William J. Russell, 48, pastor •of the First Christian church of Frankfort. died suddenly of apoplexy while seated at a typewriter in his home writing a letter to the Rev. Mr. Abberley of Cincinnati. Rev. Russell was apparently in good health. Tw r o years ago Rev. Russell was called from a charge at Pittsburg, Pa. For five years prior to that he was pastor of the Christian church at Rushville. He had also held charges at Columbus, Ohio, aud Grand Rapids, Mich. He was the author of several books, the best known being "What Is Tour Life?” His widow and two children survive. 'GIRL ELECTROCUTED BY WIRE. Touches Live Coil Lying In Street and Drops Dead. Da isle Adams, aged 21, assistant mattoii of the Gordon Orphan Home in Shelbyville, was electrocuted by a broken electric light wire. With Edith McGuire she was walking along the street when she dropped her eyeglasses and stooped to pick them up. She touched the electric wire, which was lying in the street, and dropped (lead. Miss McGuire’s foot struck the wire and she fell, but was revived. Restored to Father. The three children of W. D. Neff of “Goshen, whose wife took them with her when sire went to live with IKK: Manny it is sftid, have been returned to their father by order of the court, and Mann was arrested for illegally living with Mrs. ■ Neff. for Misstep of Blind Horse. In Wabash Josiah Alger has brought •suit for $3,000 damages because the city had no fence along the side of a street, his blind horse to walk over an •embankment, throwing him, his itfagon and horse a distance of thirty feet and permanently injuring him. Shipping Indiana Horses East. • # Charles N. Perry, a Shelbyville horse buyer, has shipped a carload of twenty-, two horses to Quakertown, I*a. The horses were valued at $3,030, or $lO5 a head. Perry has shipped sixty-six head to the eastern market this month. ’“*■ "Warren County Courthouse Burns. The Warren county court house was ■destroyed by fire in Williamsport and ■only the Jieavy brick outer walls are Standing. The cost of the building wns SBO,OOO, and the loss, estimated at $50,<KX), is covered by $25,000 insurance. Chlengo Slayer I* Guilty. Frank Caresto of Chicago, charged with the murder of Guy Hinkle, was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury in Valparaiso. His punishment was fixed at from two to twenty-one years in the Michigan City prison. Noyes for State Chemist. News has reached Terre Haute that Th\ W. A. Noyes, formerly connected with Rose Polytechnic Institute there and latterly with the government at ■Washington, has been selected as State chemist of Illinois. Collide at Indiana Itnrbor. By a collision between freight trains ■on the Indinna Harbor railroad two trainmen were fatally hurt. They are J. W. Stevens of Indiann Harbor and W. I. Davison of Rochester. Died While at Brother’s Funeral. Paul Potter, uonr Wawaka. was called to Bolding, Mich., to attend the burial of his brother* and later a telegram was received notifying his family that he was also doacb —; Twelve Injured In Wreck. By the wreck of a suburban train on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad at Hammond twelve persons were injured, none fatally. Commits Suicide in Jail. Edward Townsend lmngod himself in the city jail in Richmond. He made a noose out of his suspenders. Brief State Happenings. Miss Agnes Saulrnnn, an Evansville telephone operator, uged 18, by mistake took a dose of corrosive sublimate and died in a few minutes. While she was starting a fire tlie-cloth-ing of Mrs. Christian Grim of,Evansville caught fire and she was burned to death. A jury in Terre Haute acquitted Neal Pearcm a negro accused of attacking Mrs. 81. John, aged (JO. The defense was that the woman labored under an hallucination. Worry over a SO,OOO inheritance, which dwindled to SOOO, is held responsible for the insanity of Betsy Platt, committed to Long Cliff hospital, Loganoport. Sha thought relatives were trying to get her share and stood guard over her home with a gun. ,