Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1907 — A Remarkable Musical Prodigy. [ARTICLE]

A Remarkable Musical Prodigy.

John Mitch the Cedar Lake saloon keeper, *ho shot himself with suicidal intent, is now at a hospital in Hammond, with do very good chances for recovery He is pretty well known to a considerable number yf Rensselaer people, who always found him a jolly, good feeling fellow. Presumably. h(A( ver. be was t<ro~goed ■ a customer of his own counter. Attorney Jerome, a week or so ago, was swearing hired experts in the Thaw trial, ju “blocks of five" as floaters used to be voted in Indiana, that Harry Thaw was sane. Now be has turned square around and ik swearing a similar crowd of alleged experts, that he is" Insane. His experts are a,lot ot fakers, but none of them half as big fakers as Jerome is himself, .. L a w Harmon's public sale of his livery horses and outfit, last Saturday afternoon, was as Bueceß*ftrl in iWWy as the many farm sales have been this season. It was held in the street in front of the Hemphill livery barn, on Cullen street, and had a large attendance, inclading livery men from Remington, Morocco, and other place*.Everything was sold, slick and clear, including horses baggies, carriages, cutters, harness etc., and all at good prices. The sale aggregated 12.035, which was oonsi lerably more than Mr. Harmon's most sanguine expecta tions. Yeppe Hansen returned Thurs day evening from Gibson City, 11l , where he attended the funeral of hia niece, Mrs. Cairie Underwood. She will be remembered by some as Miss Hansen, having made two’ or three extended visits with her uncle west of town. The cause of her death was appendicitis. She had several attacks and the attending physician informed her an operation was necessary or the next attack would be fatal but she look ed upon the advice with indifference, and after an illness of a few hours, suffering excruciatingly and being unconscious all the time, the end she herself had predicted came. —Francesville Tribune. Mr. Hausen is a resident of Gillam tp., this county. The big dredge attracted quite a number of visitors from town Sunday, tho nothing like the number it did the Siu day before when it was passing thru the railroad bridge. It is now several hundred yards below the bridge, and has cut loose from the river aud is making a short cut on this side, and will not hit the channel again until nearly down to the Gangloff bridge. The dredge runs day and night, with three men to each shift, and makes fine progress when thing go well. It will get down to the Gangloff bridge, on the Pleasant Ridge road, in about three weeks, and will then be very convenient for observation for towns people.

Probably the only person in this I part of the United States’with that! wonderful musical sense known as absolute pitch was recently discovered by Prof. C. E. Condon, of Kokomo. The prodigy is.- Miss Irene Nefl, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a well known Logansport attorney. What the seise of absolute pitch is will be readily ■■aaderstood ’by musicians_ and s* udents of music. Si nplifyi ng, it means that one possessing it has practically a perfect sense of distinction bet veen the different tones and combinations of tones capable of being produced upon a musical instrument. When Prof. Condo at first suspected Miss NefFs remarkable gift he gave her a thorough try out, using the most complete combiua tions in an eflort to trap her, but she was able to give him the name of each note struck in any register aud the name of each combination of the notes struck The possession of sense of absolutepitch does not necessarily mean that one lias extra rdinary talent, as but few of the great com posers were possessed of Jt. It is, ho wever, an exceptionally rare gift. Francesville Tribune: “John Kupke, living west of town, received word last week informing him of the death of bis son, Fred, who died at Tacoma, Wash., from quick consumption. The young man left Francesville three years ago for the west and was employed with a surveying party when he caught a severe cold which settled on his lungs with fatal effect. He had been in a hospital since December and a letter from his sister who was with him, for some unknown reason failed to reach here for several weeks after it was written, and thus the news of his illness and death came about the same time. The young man was about 26 years of age and his remains were buried at Tacoma.” He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Kupke, of Gillam tp., this county, and who were in town to lay. ' - ~ •