Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1879-09-06
MISSOURI STATE NEWS.

n
County, District No. l., vice John Stafford,
resigned; also appointed Caspar Fcttcrs as
Judge and President of the Knox County
Court, vice Benjamin Bolts, resigned. The
two appointces serve till next general
election and until their successors are quail
fed.
John +. Newton, living about mile from
KnoX's famous cave, Green County, in dig
ging well has come across vast quantity
of bones of the elk and other animals.
About so feet in the ground the air
rushed i'm through the side of the well
so that if fire is placed at the bottom
the smoke ascends with rapidity. The
discovery gives rise to considerable specu
latiOn.
According to the August crop reports re-
ceived by the Department of Agriculture at
Washington, Missouri leads all of the trans
Mississippi States in an extraordinary growth
of corn.
John Prince Ross, brakeman on freight
Train No. 8, north-bound, was instantly
killed ut Clinton on the 23d. He was un-
coupling at the street-crossing, when
his shoe-heel caught between the rail and
timbers, throwing him under the trucks,
which badly mutiated his body and caused
instant death. Deceased was 20 years of
ago, a native of Fairview, Logan County,
KY, where his step-father, DR.. T.S. Lacey,
now resides.
Hon. George II. Shields, law partner of
Gen. John B. Henderson, lives at No. 3030
Sarsfeld Avenue, Compton Hill, st. Louis,
and has very pretty grounds around his
dwelling, among the attractions of which is
n rockery. A few evenings ago Mr.. Shields
was out in the garden with his little son
George and George Ittner, the son of a
neighbor. The two boys in scouting around
the rockery saw a snake, and with the i'm
petuOsity of youth, seized sticks and killed
it. 1t proved to be of the variety known as
the garter snake, and was from two and a
half to three feet long and very thick for its
length. 'One of the boys insisted
that just before they began to chase the
snake, he saw something run down its throat,
and he was so persistent in that statement
that it was resolved to cut the snake open
and see about it. Thereupon George Shields
took out his pockct-knife, and, opening
I" the sharp blade" ;" made a longitudinal in
cision, laying open the snake nearly its
whole length. Then a very curious fact was
discovered. in the bringing to light no less
than % little snakes of about five inches in
length, ~ of which were alive. four having
been killed in cutting open the parent.
The boys quickly caught the little ones
which showed no disposition to leave their
dear mothcr-and put them in box. After
keeping them few days to show to their
young companions they killed them.
James Karr, the proprietor of saloon,
was arrested on the 9th at Houstonia, Pet
It's County, upon the charge of bigamy.
Karr was sent to the penitentiary in 1867 for
throwing three monte, and his wife
left him while he was in prison, taking his
three children with her. Karr claims to have
spent 5 go looking for her, and got satis-
factory evidence of her death. lie returned
to Missouri and married a Mrs. McCuy at
Warrensburg last April. His father-in-law
number two swore out Il warrant, and claims
that Karr's first wife is alive and that Karr
knows it.
There was bond-burning Mt Warrens-
burg on the 21th ult., when 81 old Normal
School bonds of five hundred dollars each
were committed to the flames and consumed.
1t was the result of compromise by which
new bonds bearing six per cent. interest
were issued to the holders in place of the
old ones. The Normal School debt of the
arrangement the town saves ten thousand
dollars on the principal, and proportionate
amount on the interest.
The Old Settlers of Clarke County held
their annual reunion at Waterloo on the
10Th ult. Between 100 and 800 persons were
present. Speeches suited to the occasion
were made in the afternoon by "Uncle"
Jerry Wayland, Rev. Bush, who has been
Joi, i,iS * Il
Givens, ex-Representative, and others. A
nice Bible was given to Mrs. Sarah Martin,
aged "a, the oldest lady settler present. VIM.
Hayward, another old settler, has lived in
the county 81 years and has only slept four
nights outside of it since he landed at Yellow
Banks.
A little boy named Michael Fink amused
himself on the 9th ult. by undermining the
banks that inclose sand pit at the corner of
Seventh and st. Denis Streets, South St.
Louis. A great section of bank cayed in,
and the boy got safely out of the way, but
did not notice his little brother Charlie, aged
years, and another lad named Lewis Wit
helm, aged o years, who were caught and
buried by the sand. He played in the pit a
while and then his mother came and asked
him about the little ones. The fresh sand
reused suspicious, and wire used rs a
probe proved these suspicious TO be correct.
An agonized man, the father of Wilhelm,
and two frantic women, mothersof the chill
dren, prosecuted the work of eXhumatiOn,
the women using their hands to scratch away
the sand. The scene was intensely dramatic,
and the climax was reached when the moth
ers clasped to their hearts two lifeless little
forms.
On the night of the Goth ult., in Howard
County, about five miles north of Boonville,
in Cooper, n number of unknown men took
out of his cabin n negro by the name of Por-
ter Cason, a rough character, and riddled
him with bullets, instantly killing him. 1t
seems that Cason had made some terrible
threats against his neighbors and kept
gambling den, making himself generally dis
agreeable TO both whites and blacks. There
is no clew to the perpetrators of the deed.
The Coroner's jury gave verdict that the
deceased came to his death ut the hands of
parties unknown to the jury. Cason went to
the house of neighbor during his absence
few days ago, and insulted and slapped his
wife and otherwise abused her, which so
much cnraged the community rs to cause the
above mentioned deed.
MIR. j. b. Olcott quotes sold chop
pers and men well acquainted with the
ins and outs of timber rs saying, with
II bunch of facts and experience to prove
it, that an aX-helve put into service
green will be tougher and wear longer,
for the reason that the laminated fiber
becomes used to bending while soft.
Simpson College, at Indianola,
Iowa, is about to close, and probably
one or more of the other colleges under