The Indianapolis journal., 1883-04-10
Scenes in the Court Room, During the
Progress of the LOng-Drawn-Out
GOuSar-Mandler Suit.
Destruction of the Quaker City Mills
at Richmond.
Stolen Horses Recovered, but the Thieves
Escape-HOtel Burned at Murphys-
bOrO, In.-Indian Relics Found.
INDIANA.
The Schools of the Star City and Its Public
Library-The Great Slander Trial.


Library-The Great Slander Trial.
Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal
LAFAYETTE, April 9-The board of school
trustees have established a free public Ii
brary and reading rooms under the statute
which authorizes a SO cent tax on the
800 of taxable property. The library has
been built up within the last two years, and
mainly by the enterprise OF Mr.. J. J. Perrin.
There are 10000 volumes in the alcoves at
present The reading-room is supplied with
the current newspapers and periodicals.
There is a complete catalogue OF the books
on sale for twenty-five cents. The building
is an elegant one, remodeled from an old
seminary building. Four hundred framed
pictures, mainly first-class engravings and
etchings, as we'll as photograumes, have been
purchased and are to adorn the halls, read
ing-room and corridors. The prints have
been selected by committee of citizens, and
are from Kepple, of New York. The scheme
is an excellent one stimulating the aesthetic
tastes Of the citizens, many of whom took
advantage of the exhibition to make private
| purchases.
The rules and regulations of the library
are patterned after those of indianapolis.
The library is well managed, is free to all
citizens, is open daily, and is much appre-
ciated source of education and enjoyment to
the citizens. The art feature of it is in ad-
vance of most Western Libraries, and should
be introduced into public libraries gener-
ally.
The public schools are in a aourishing
condition. There were 5000 pupils enrolled
last year and 1,70O in average attendance.
The cost of tuition based on average attend
ance, including all expenses, was $21 per
! year of 100 days for each pupil The total
| amount paid teachers was $26, 900. John R.
Coffroth is president; J. ]. Perrin, treasurer,
and R. Rreckinridge, secretary of the board
of school trustees. Mr.. James o. Wright
the city engineer of Lafayette and we'll
known to citizens of indianapolis as the
teacher of mathematics and surveying in the
city high school, is a substantial addition to
the list of city officers. Mr.. Wright is a first
class engineer, and is full of work, due in
large part to the washing away of county
bridges and roadways.
Professor L. S. Thompson. of Purdue Uni
versity, Lafayette, Ind, is organizing a sum-
mer school for art study in Europe, Thoy
and return Sept. 8, They will visit the gal
leries of London, Paris. Venice, Rome,
Florence, Dresden, Antwerp and The Hague,
devoting each alternate halliday to sight
seeing as party, the intervening time being
at each ones disposal. The managers will
hold discourses or conversations on the diff
ferent schools of art as represented in the
above cities. The round-trip ticket for the
three months is 5000, including access to gal
leries and all accessories. European trips,
under managers and in parties, are becoming
quite popular among college students for
- how
should be recognized in the college course of
study and due credit given them, as voyage
to Europe. with three months in the great
centers. is certainly great educator and
liberalizer.
THE GREAT sLANDER SUIT.
The Cougar Mandler trial will to-day en-
ter upon its sixty-frst day of actual all-day
court work. Mr. Wilson had the ears of the
jury all of Friday, putting in the last work
for the plaintiff Mr.. Coffroth is to make his
argument for Mandler to-day, and the case
will probably go to the jury by Tuesday, un-
less the charge to the jury is longer than at
torney's speeches.
This disgraceful scandal suit has cost the
city OF Lafayette and county of Tippecanoe
thousands in money and millions in reputa-
ton. The crowd is the same from day to
day; gray-headed and solemn-looking old
buffers Qong ago the victims of early piety),
chewing tobacco and hanging to their canes;
a few women, mainly friends of Mrs. Cougar.
There are no young men in attendance;
probably they were long since tired out and
are seeking fresher pastures than worn-out
scandal affords. The mill of justice
grinds on; Wilson's voice is heard
three blocks away, and the solid farmer runs
up to take view of the great moral show (of
womans pluck and lawyers persistence1
while his wife takes view OF the spring dry
goods.
The jury will average fifty years; half of
them are over that, and none less than forty.
None are citizens of Lafayette, and most are
shaggy bearded farmers. A gentleman who
said he had relatives on the jury was sure
Coffroth's great effort-after the jurors have
had Saturday and Sunday to forget Wilson's
polntS-would make some one on the Jury
hang, even if they have no more solid induce
ment Lawyers not on the case are exas-
perated they can get no business done, and
can get no fees. The judge is pale. sick and
solemn, and apparently anxious to go to his
native Delphi. The jurors want to get
through and plant the spring crops One of
the old graybeards remarked, as he went
down the well-worn stairs at the foot of
which the courtroom wood was being sawed
that "a pile of wood had been carried up
there this winter" to which his former COM
rade remarked he would rather saw it all
than sit through such trial again" That
Jury have heard some awful swearing and
lying. They are case-hardened. Counsel
make desperate attempt to rouse their SYM
pathies and start the fountain of their tears,
appealing in the names of love- mercy, JUS
tice truth, the home society, politics, "ths
people" Lafayette buffers and idlers who
make most of the crowd) etcetera, one mo-
ment, and the next get off some irrelevant
story or remark, and then trot off into the
corner for drink OF water or to blow their
legal nose When the counsel for plaintiff
pokes his nose under that Of the $75-a-month
sef-constituted detective, and of whom the
words as "sneak," Spy" coward" etc. (all
in the smooth course of his speech, of coursel
the scene is for a moment lively. The So
a-month chief OF police bushes to the roots