Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, January 16, 1897, Page 1

This space belongs to the Itasca Mercantile Company. Did it ever strike you, that there is a vas | cifferance in‘the quality of the goods of fered for sale by the various deale! Strange if you haven’t learned it to your sorrow ere this. We want to say one thing about our line of Hardware, Stoyes, | Tinware, Lumbermen’s Supplies, Doors, Windows, Paints, Owls, Glass, Farming} Tools, Sporting Goods, Etc. We don’t make a specialty of cheap trash, but} i | Every Article we Sell ts GOOD —as can be bought within the bounds of; “fancy” prices. We don’t beheve it} pays, in the end, to seli a customer: an} article and then have him stand around kicking himself for being such a, sucker. No, if you want a good article. come here and get it, and get sat!sfaction with 1t; but if you don’t get your money back. That’s fair. W. J. & H. D. POWERS. VCCEBETCVVVSSVUVSVSETSEVSVSITTVOF & HARD TIMES Are not the best times in which to sell jewelry, but then you do ot kuow how cheap we are selling our large stock of * é A: SDCCiniNy, Watches, Clocks, Diamonds, and in. facts Made of all everything el’e kept in a first class Kinds of jewelry store. If youcomtempl: a mak. airing. ing -a purchase of anything jn our line— Bhd 2 usefull or ornamental—don’t fail to call “ and get our prices. . Engraving Done Free on all Goods Bought of Me. . WILL NISBETT, Expert Watchmaker and Engraver. OO000020060O8 ‘ } and we suppose you must, yau should aiways try to get the best goods in the % market at the lowest possible price. To aman do this, you should buy your Fresh and Salt Meats, Fish, Game, Etc., _ at the well-known meat market of — Cable & Libby. This firm bas always on hand the very best things the season vg affords, at the very lowest prices. Fresh Butter and Egos Received Daily’ Z : From the Country, ence ; CABLE & LIBBY, - GRAND RAPIDS, MINN. { i ' FIVE YEARS IN PRISON Peter McKenna Talked Too Much and Goes Up. ARSON IN THE THIRD DEGREE After Two Indictments and Two: Dis- charges From Custody a Jury Finds McKenna Guilty of Burn- ing the Russell Ranch. If Peter McKennea had not: talked too much, admitting his guilt of mur- der to several persons, and detailing |how the awful crime of murder and arson had been committed, he might be a free mantoday. But, relying up- on the.statutes which guards against a man’s life being placed in jeopardy a second time for the same offense, Mc- Kenna felt secure and under the in- fluence of liquor he gave himself away. Having twice been discharged from“ custody following indictments by the grand jury, he felt secure froin further prosecution and unburdenéd his mind to Frank ~Smsth, San@y Owens, Tom Currans and James Dolan. ‘These men all testified ‘to substantially the same stories. While | drinking, Pete seemed impelled to talk about the case. It was on his mid, and if he didn’t tell, the truth he at ‘jleast' spun a very realistic romance which compared wonderfully well with the theories advanced -by the state. ‘The crime as related by Pete, to those who testified for the state, 1s about as follows: McKenna fired “| three shots at Bacon, the first striking hinsin the leg, the second: missed entirely and the third hitting“ him «in the back. The victim tell dead outside the shanty near the hen house and the lifeless form was dragged by McKenna into the building where he covered it with brush, ponred kerosene over the corps and set fire to the Luiiding. McKenna said his hands. became covered with blood while handling the body of his victim and he wiped away the guilty stains on alog near by. McKenna denied having told any such story, and added, in his tesumony, that if he did relate any such tale it was while he was drunk and done for the pur- pose of making “monkeys” of those to whom he was talking. Attorney Frank F. Price conducted tue defence, assisted hy T. M. Brady, in a very able manner, while ex-County At-{ torney Pratt prosecuted, The jury was out about four hours and brought in a verdict of guilty ofarson in the third degree. Judge Holland sentenced McKenna to imprisonment at Still- | water for a term of five years Shenff Toole will take the prisoner to the penitentiary Monday. © Following isa brief history of the crime: {range 24, John Bacon, who had been «WHERE THE TROUBLE IS a4 | streams.” On Aug. 27, 1895, Napoleon Russell’s house was burned, in township 60, left in cbarge of the house, d peared at that time, and what was believed to have been the charred bones of Bacon were discovered by the neighbors on the day following among the smoldering embers. Sus- picion pointed to Pete McKenna, known as “One Eye Pete,” who lived about a mile from the Russell house, aud bore the reputation of being a petty thief, as one whe may have killed Bacon and then burned the house to hide the greater crime. He was brought to Grand Rapids asa wit- ess before the coroner’s jury, which returned a verdict that. Bacon died at the hands of some person uaknown to the jury. McKenna was arrested, indicted and tried on a charge of murder.. His attorney, C. C. McCarthy, secured a dismissal of tbat case, just as it was going 40 the jury, on the gronnd that the body of the case (the corpus delicti) had not beer proven. At the following term of court an- other indictment for murder was found against McKenna, a jury. was empanneled and the case about’ to proceed when Attorney McCarthy secured the discharge of the prisoner on the ground that he had once be- fore been placed in jeopardy on the same charge.gHe was immediately re- arrested on a new complaint charging arson. WILL JOIN THE SOLONS. Hon. D. M. Gunn Will Leave for St. Paul on Monday Morning. If Mr. Gunn continues to improve in health he will start for St. Paul on Monday to take his seat in the state legislature. During the past few days he has been able to leave his room and is rapidly regaining strength, Notwithstanding. Mr. Gunn’s ab- sence from St, Paul he was not over- looked by Speaker Jones in the mak- up of the house committees. His name appears on five important com- mitteesand he ischairman of the com- mittee on logs and lumber. He is also assigned to a place on “towns and counties,” “railroads” “public lands,” “roads, bridges and navigable ‘These are all important committes, in which the people of the northern portion of the state are particularly interested. The com mittee on towns and counties. will have charge of the reapportionment of the state legislative districts, and the people of Itasca county feel that their interests will be well looked after by their representative, while every county in the district will re- ceive just consideration at his hands. Mr. Gunn’s past experience will be ot material aid to him in the important legislation which will come up for consideration during the present session. Shot for a Deer. Yesterday after noon about eight miles from town on the Dimond mine road J. W. ‘Left mistook William Smith for a deer and shot him through the plura cavity, the ball_pas- ing completely through the body. The unfortunate man was brought .to town and taken to the Ehle & Rus- sell hospital, where he is resting to- day as well as might be expected. Dr. Russell says the ball did not touch the lung, and,that Smith stands a good chance to recover. Our County’s Financial Difficulties and the Remedy. INCOME AND NOT OUTLAY Has Caused ihe Large Floating Indebtedness to Increase With Alarming Rapidity--More Busi- ness and Less Bombast. It is not surprising that the prop- erty owners of Itasca county, and more especially those engaged in ve- tail trade'and farming. are becoming alarmed at the rapidity with which the county is increasing its floating indebtedness, It costs--money to create debts. The county, no more than the corporation, can borrow withotit paying the penalty. Shy- lock is as active and exacting today as ever. He demands the pound of flesh and his past experience .has taught him to insert a clause in the contract providing against liability for any loss of blood. Under existing conditions, with county orders at a discount of 20 per cent, and an uncer- ‘ain market at that, everyman in the comunity who furnishes supplies, or material, or labor, or serves the county in any manner, adds a per- centage to his bills sufficientiy large to cover the anticipated discount. It is impossible for the commis- sioners to guard against this. And so it becomes—if we may be per- mitted to use the language of the street—“‘a graft from start to finish.” There must come a day of reckoning. These bills must all be settled. and settled to the last farthing, with the full legal rate of interest. Out of the pockets of the property owners this increasing indebtedness will be ex- acted through burdensome taxation in the years tocome. There is some- thing radically wroug, and itdemands a radical remedy. The very men who today . protest must persistently against the necessary expenditures in county. affairs, are the very men who made the present deplorable con- dition possible. The real trouble in Itasca county lies in the amount re- ceived—not in the expenditures. Years ago, before the county was or- ganized the only property owners were the pine land men. There be- iug no county expenses, only a nomi- nal tax was levied. Any intimation to place an equitable valuation upon the vast pine land property of the county has been resisted, not only by the pine land owners, but by the local businessmen as well. These latter seemed to imagine that ‘any opposi- tion to what the loggers consider their interests might result in a with- drawal of patronage, and finally a cessation of operations entirely. This absurd and destructive policy is still adherred to. No man in Itasca county has more to say concernin, extravigance by§ the: connty board than he who is first oppose any advance in valuation. No pine land owner has-ever applied for an abate- ment ora reduction of taxation during the past two years that the same has not been recommended and u upon the’ board from «a local official source as a jest claim and one that \ should be be recommended to the state auditer as requested. ‘The lead- ing spirits in the late grand jury have been with him hand in glove. While these men are themselves _ payin. an enormous rate of taxation, the Herald-Review will venture to assert, without fear of contradiction, that they would secret- ly lend their aid to defeat any move that might be calculated to place a just taxation upon our standing pine and the cut-over lands. . Entirely overlooking: the fact that the receipts oft this. county are only about one- quarter the amount they should be— instead of a tax valuation of two and a half million dollars it should at least be ten millions~-some of these would-be reformers ‘are attributing the difficulty to alleged extravigant expenditures. They pick up and rant and rave over the public work that has been done—unhesitatingly charge fraud and corruption without know- ing whereof they speak. In a gen- eral way they seem to understand that something is wrong in the ma- chinery of the county, and conclude, without consideration, that the county board must be responsible for italt. The Herald-Review will not undertake to say that others wight not possibly have managed more economically than the present board —improvement is always possible. But at the same time, when the urg- ent needs of the county are taken into consideration, and when it is remembered that the entire tax re- ceipts are only sufficient to de- fray the legitimate expenses of the county officials, then we can begin to understand bow utterly im- possible it-is for the country to keep out of debt. It does not require much of a business head to figure out that under these circumstances the taxpayers of the future—the farmers, who will supercede the loggers and pine land barons to create the real and permanent wealth of this great connty—must pay the penalty of our selftsh leniency of today. Every man who eS taxes in the village-of Grand Rapids already feels the: ton- sequences of the fool policy that’ has so long been followed, and every year wili bring increased hardships upon those who remain after the billions of feet of pine have been driven down the Mississippi river to the Minneapolis mills. ‘As te the county work that has been dcne the past two years under the present board of commissiouers there is little reom for complaint, ifany. No man wno is interested in the welfare of Itasca county will say that the highways that have-ben built. were not absolutely demanded by the public. All efforts to bring about settlement and ag- ricultural development will fail until such time>as farmers will be able to deliver the fruits of their toil to market. The man who is williag to plant bimself in the forest with no means of ingress or egress, is of very little value to any community. Competent investigation would doubtless disclose the fact that the roads built during the past two years were put in their present passible condition at as smal! cost as some of our narrow-minded reformers could have done. When pis pele of this county wake up to real cause of the existing poeioncy and con- sequent increasing debt, the p: remedy will be applied, and oe ae fore. In the meantime nv good will come of groundless charges of public plunder. It is a waste of energy aba will not bring back one lost jollar. Asa McClusky nearly cut two toes off his right foot . with a proad ax at Churchill's: Deer River camp this week. He ig, at the Eble & Russell hospital undergoing repairs, mene ACM