Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-08-31

Ut ScNeTdl weeks UHerc nave Deeu
almost nightly burglaries in Boone,
the robbers not securing much booty.
A few nights since the residence of
Patrick Judge was broken into and
$500 in cash taken. Whether the rob-
bers were the same local talent or
were followers of Ringling's circus,
which was in the city on the previous
day, is not known.
Thos. Paul, an 1s-year-old brother
of Jim Paul, the principal in the SEN
sational trial held in Webster City
several months ago, in which he was
charged with poisoning his wife and
his mother-in-law, was fatally injured
few days ago in pony race at HON.
er. He was unconscious for thirty six
hours and physicians in attendance
say that he is injured internally and
cannot live. He was riding a pony
which belongs to him in matched
race with a horse owned by William
Cunningham. His pony flew the
track and entering the high grass and
weeds by the side of the road, STUN
bled and fell. Paul was thrown a DIS
tance of nearly fifteen feet and struck
on his head with the above result.
Hon. John c. Bills, one of the fore
most and best known lawyers of the
state, committed suicide at his home
in Davenport few days ago by shoot
ing himself in the head with a revolver,
the bullet entering the brain and
death being instantaneous. His tragic
end was due TO an attack of melan-
cholia brought on by heat prostration
some weeks ago. He had been in
depressed condition for some time and
lost hope of recovering, which preyed
upon his mind and brought on the
attack of melancholia which prompted
the act. John C. Bills was born in
New York state in 1888 and came west
after being admitted to the bar in
1856. He took up his residence at
Davenport at once, where he has
remained. He was three times elected
mayor of that city, and served a term
OF four years as state senator.
Quite "a serious fire at the American
Glncose company's plant in Davenport
was caused by an explosion of dust in
the elevator shaft, which knocked out
two of the walls of the elevator and
set fire to the building. VIM. Wolf, a
farmer, his 11-year-old daughter and
Frank Stephens were caught by the
| falling walls. Wolf and hls daughter
were killed and Stephens hurt. John
Rapp and John Rem were in the GU
pola on the roof at the time and drop
ped sixty feet TO the ground. They
were badly injured and died within a
few hours. The loss is $4,000 or $15,-
600, fully insured. The building was
burned to the ground. This was only
one wing of the main structure. Tenn
porary arrangements will be made for
hosting grain, and the works contin
| ued in operation. The works were
formerly leased to the American Pre-
serving company and were just recent
ly turned over to the American Gu
cose company.
The Boone Valley Coal & Railway
Co., at Fraser, and the Boone Coal &
Mining Co., at Milford, have just
closed a contract with Geo. d. Whit
comb, of Chicago, for mining
machine plant at each place, and M.
}. Finnigan, of Chicago, is on hand to
superintend the work of putting in
the plant. The plants will cost at
least $4,000 each and will be COM
pleted and ready for operation the
18th of September. The use of the
mining machines will dispense with
the use of skilled miners, as all the
work is done with ordinary labor. 1t
will also reduce the number of men
employed at least one-half and will
probably cause a considerable reduc-
ton in the size of the town of Fraser.
The capitalists who own the two COM
panies mentioned above are practically
the same as those owning a mine at
Lehigh, where machines have been in
successful operation Tor two years.
An important suit for injunction has
been filed in the federal court at
Dubuque. 1t is that Of Callahan s.
Co. VS.. Chancellor McClain, of the State
University. The bill filed asks the
court to restrain McClaiD from serving
as annotator of the new Iowa code,
plaintiff claiming 1t has a contract
with the defendant which forbids him
entering the employment of any other
person to annotate any additional code
OF Iowa. The plaintiff is a firm of
law book sellers in Chicago. They set
forth the contract in which defendant
agrees to do nothing to impair the
sale of codes already annotated by
him for plaintiff. The latter claims
that the defendants deal with the
state of Iowa to annotate the new
code is a violation of his contract.
The bill also sets up all correspondence
between the plaintiff and defendant
relative to the matter, and in one
letter to the plaintiff defendant adj
mits that it is not right for him to do
the work for the state, but pleads
financial straits in defense He is
to receive ST. 500 from the state for his