Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-01
One Of the buildings of the Fowler

company, wholesale RrOcerS, at wat
erloo, was badly scorched by fire at an
early hour in the morning. The
building contained stock valued at
$4,000 which is believed to be total
loss. The damage to the building is
estimated at $4,000. Insurance on
building, 81 800; on stock, $4,000.
A fire started in the engine house
at Belmond a few days ago and burn
ed up all the water works hose so that
it was hard to handle the flames. A
livery barn belonging to Ii. j. Klemme
was burned also. The engine house
with all its contents were burned.
The contents of the livery barn were
saved. Loss, SO. 900. A tramp in the
engine house was burned badly, but
may live. The fire is supposed to.have
caught from hot stove.
A coal shaft belonging TO the Con-
solidation Coal company of Muchakin-
ock, a mining town near Oskaloosa,
took fire and the company sustained
loss of about $4,000. NJ. c. White,
the fireman at the shaft, was the only
man at the scene. He was inside of
the boiler cleaning it when he first
discovered the fire. In making his cs-
cape he was obliged to crawl out
through the flames, and he was liter
ally burned to crisp from head to
foot. He died few hours later.
A $1,000 SANDER suit will come up in
the next session of the Appanoose
county court as a result of the cleo
ton. X. F. Rinker, has sued a neigh
Dor, Elvin Owens, for this amount, al
leging that Owens made remarks de-
rogatory to his character by stating
that "Rinker intended TO vote for
Bryan, but he got S25 for voting and
working for Mckinley" The case ex-
cites much interest. The plaintiffs
friends are much wrought up over the
matter. The defendants friends
claim that the use of corruption funds
IN the campaign will be shown in prov
ing what Owens said is true.
The jury in the Krekel murder case,
on trial at Burlington, has been
secured. County Attorney Tracy
addressed them, and stated that the
prosecution would endeavor to prove
that Henry Teuscher was guilty of the
murder of Louis Krekel, some time in
the month of November, 1895; that ON
two different occasions he had ad-
mitted his guilt at private conference
before Chief Grenier and also before
Judge Wohlwend; that testimony
would be introduced to prove these
facts. Attorney Smythe, for the
defense, claimed Teuscher was an
imbecile, and could not be charged
with murder.
The case of the II. C. Clock e. Son
VS.. the Hartford Fire Insurance COM
pany of Hartford, Conn, which was to
come up IN the next term of .the dist
riot court of Franklin county has just
been settled. The case grew out of
failure of the company TO adjust loss
on two policies, amounting to $1,000,
covering stock of goods and store
building. One of the peculiar features
of the case was the fact that III. c.
Clock, the senior member of 1.-THE firm,
was agent for the company and this
was the first loss during period of Is
years. The loss was nearly twice the
amount of the insurance but the com"
pany claimed the insurance on both
stock and building was excessive.
The insurance company did not pay
the full amount of the policies.
The First National Bank of Sioux
City has closed its doors. The cause
of the failure was an overload of real
estate. The officers of the bank say
that the bank is perfectly solvent and
that dollar for dollar will be paid
creditors. The crash was caused by
recent,he withdrawals and diff
Guilty in realizing on assets. Many bad
investments have also been made with
in the past few years and much of the
concerns money is in unproductive
property. The publication of the re-
ported weakness of Sioux City bank.
to which, however, no direct reference
was mads, Is also said to have precip-
itated matters. The failure Of tina,
First National caused run on the
Sioux City Savings Bank, L. j. Stone
being president of both institutions
+. Il. Ross was appointed receiver.
Several weeks ago man named
Hogan began canvassing among the
farmers near Central City. He claimed
that house in Cedar Rapids had
failed with large number of safes
belonging to the Alpine Safe company.
Rather than ship them back he said he
had been ordered to sell them among
the farmers at greatly reduced prices.
He disposed of about $3.50 worth.
taking notes of farmers. The notes |
were immediately sold at Coggcn. The
safes were delivered, and on investi-
CATION it was found they were sheet
iron. filed with clay, and worthless.
Several of the farmers went to Central
City to demand the return of their
notes. While waiting for an officer,
Hogan secured a livery rig and escaped.
Officers and farmers followed. and
1, hui Loo 81 81,