a Deworeaic Walch BY P. GRAY MEEK. Ink Slings. —The fact that a tariffis a tax is be- ginning to be grasped by the agricultural understanding. —For a woman whose family are the perennial objects of public charity Vic- ToRIA holds a very high head. —TANNER with a brilliant coat of whitewash will be one of the most beau- tiful and interesting objects connected with the Harrison administration. —The bitter experience of the tariffed housekeeper is not in the least sweetened by the fact that sugar furnishes the medi- um of one of his heaviest tax burdens. —Chicago has a very large foot, but we doubt whether she can put it down with sufficient force to compel the Co- lumbus centennial to be held within her borders. —An increased majority rolled up by the Democrats of Kentucky on Mon- day is sufficient evidence that the ¢Star- eyed Goddess’ can’t be caught napping in the blue grass region. —The empty stomachsof the working men who are out of employment require more substantial filling than that which is supplied by the tariff resolutions of a Republican State Convention. — Wages are being whittled down to so fine a point under the Harrison ad- ministration thatthe laborer is beginning to require a microscope to bring them within his ocular comprehensicn. —There can be no question that the New Yorkers have the best claim to the Columbus centennial exposition, but their right to ask other people to bear the heft of the expense isn’t quite so clear. —Quay’s absence from the Conven- tion on Wednesday was conspicuous. But what would hehavebeen there for ? ‘Weren't the boys told what he wanted them to do, and don’t they always obey his orders ? —By the time Harrison gets through his administration ‘the grand old party” will be badly in need of a dose of Dr. HammoxnD's elixir of life. But we be- lieve that the Doctor doesn’t claim that it can effect a resurrection. —Spectacles of double magnifying power aren't strong enough to enable the wage-earner to see the benefits that were to result from a Republican tariff victory. Lick’s big California telescope would fail to make them visible. —The Republican State Convention last Wednesday put Boss QUAY’s collar on with its accustomed docility, but it is not too much to believe that it can’t be put around the neck of the State next November without some lively kicking. —“Strong platform,” says a neigbor- ing Republican paper, speaking of the one issued by the State Convention on Wednesday. Very strong, indeed! That part indorsing QUAY and TANNER is a little too strong for fastidious olfactories. -~The New York Sun gave it as its opinion that Carlisle’s and ‘Watterson’s “free trade’ foolery justified the Repub- licans in hoping to carry Kentucky. A Democratic majority of about 30,000 sadly interferes with a very wise “I told you so” from the sapient Sun. —The papers are commenting upen the fact that the author of “Home, Sweet Home” hadn’t a home that he could call his own; but his charming song would not have been a bit more charm- ing if he had been the cwner of a Queen Anne villa with all the modern im- provements. —President HARRISON is to be thank- ed for appointing as Commissioner of Education Professor W. T. HARRIS who as an earnest tariff reformer showed his faith in the doctrine by voting for CLEVELAND last year. Tariff reform is 2 matter depending upon education and Professor HARRIS is the right man in the right place. _ —When the honest farmer and the sturdy mechanic see the inroad that the Sugar Trust, the Salt monopoly and other thievish combines are making upon the contents of their pocket-books, it is a good time for them to give CLEVE- LAND'S tariff reform message another reading. Itis a document that affords very instructive information at this pe- riod. —Just think of it! Sixty thousand coke workers out ofemploymentin Penn- sylvania, to say nothing about other classes of idle laborers, while the plat- form of the Republican State Conven- tion rattles away as glibly about the good which the tariff’ is doing the work- ing people as if they were getting the twodollars a day and roast beef that were promised them at the last election. —A speaking of the Tanner investigating | committee, gives vent to the following remarkable expression : crate and Mugwamps who cackled about the investigation a few days ago, | are now holding their breath in death- | like stillness.”—There is some truth in this. The obvious intention to white- wash Tax~NER is enough to make the whole country hold its breath. Republican contemporary, | “The Demo- i. i ! t likely to pass the balance of the season | Demacralic VOL. 34. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA., AUGUST 9, 1889. NO. 31. Backing Out ot Their Position. The Republican organs are showing uneasiness concerning the failure of the tariff to furnish the protection that was promised in the last campaign. - Last year it was held by them that the maintenance of what they called pro- tion would insure to the laboring peo- ple steady employment and good wa- ges. They insisted that the prosperi- ty of the wage earners depended upon the tariff. The present depression does not tally with their representations of a year ago. The continuance of the tariff was se- cured by Harrison's election, and yet there are more working people out of employment than there has been for years, and wages are being cut on every nand. This is an awkward situation for the tariff shriekers, and they attempt to get out of it by saying that wages are a matter regulated by the law of supply and demand. But this is not what they told their deluded followers when they were after their votes last year. The tariff was then represented as being the thing that would secure good wages, The Democrats insisted that a tariff had nothing to do with it, but that wag- es depended entirely upon the de- mand for labor. So it isseen that the Republicans are now trying to shield themselves behind the Democratic po- sition on this question. We observe that one of our Republi- the tariff promises of a year ago have not materalized, putsit upon the limited demand for labor, saying that “when the demand is large and the supply small the prices are high, and when the demand is small and the supply large the prices are low.” This is good Democratic doctrine, but is it not a nice commentary on the effects of this boasted tariff that after its long supremacy the demand for la- bor has sd diminished that wages have been reduced to the starvation point. Cause and effect in this case are entire- ly natural. The tariff restrictions have so limited the tharket for the produc- tions of American industry that it has been overstocked and labor suffers in consequence. Supply and demand cer- tainly govern wages,and, thanks to the operation of the tariff, the labor supply is such that the working people are at the mercy of the employes. A Farmers’ Convention. That the farmers are learning very rapidly on the tariff question is be- coming apparent from various indica- tions. In New York State they are go- ing to make still further advances in knowledge on this subject, as they pro- pose holding a State Farmers’ Union at Syracuse on the 6th of next month, at which the subject of the taxes to which they are subjected will be considered, the principal one of which is the tariff tax. In their address calling the meet- ing they say : The farming lands of the state have actually decreased in value m the last ten years more than 25 per cent. largely in consequence of in- creased and unjust taxation. Personal proper- ty has actually increased faster during that time than in any other period of our history, and to-day far exceeds in value real estate. At least one third of the farms and homes of the working people are mortgaged for half their value. Real estate in cities has increased in value, and pays an unjust proportion of the taxes, but the capitalists who own it recoup their taxes in increased rents, so that substan- tially farmers and laborers pay all the taxes. When the farmers get together in this way the discussion that will ensue will open their eyes to the manner in which they are being robbed under the plea that it is for the benefit of the indus- tries of the country. President Benjamin Harrison will this week go on a visit to James Gr. Brave at Bar Harbor, It is scarce- ly half a year since his inauguration, but he has already been away from his post of duty longer than CLEVELAND was during his entire administration. Frequent pleasure trips have been | made, at the government expense, down | the Potomac; Cape May has been visit- | | 1 | led; Deer Park has for the past six divided the President’s time i with Washington, and now the head of the government will bob up serenely on the rocky shores of Maine, and will be | weeks there. Weare not among those who think that a President should have no recreation, but we allude to Mr. HaRrRI- soN's disposition to be away from his work as a notable contrast to the stur- dy manner in which Grover CLuve- LAND stuck to his post of duty. can neighbors in trying to explain why The “Press” in a Humorous Mood. By its frequent allusions to the bene- fits conferred on the working people by a protective tariff, and its disposi- tion to apply the term free trade to tariff reform, the Philadelphia Press has established quite a reputation as a joker. Such humorous efforts have afforded much diversion to that class of its readers who appreciate a joke. The subjoined extract from our jocular contemporary, in which the appoint- ments made by Mr. HarrisoN are made thesubject of its amusing remarks, must be considered the best thipg that the Press has ever gotten.off in the funny vein : Look at the record. A good share of the im- portant offices have been filled, and yet the se- lections to which even the’ Freée-trade Demo- crats have been able to find exception can be counted on the fingers of one hand. There have been no thieves and no gamblers, no bal- lot-box stuffers and no jail-birds put in office. The country has not been shocked, as it was four years ago, by reading every "mornin of men of the most objectionable record nomina- ted to responsible positions. The government has moved steadily forward, the mistakes of the last administration have been corrected and the people shown that there is a steady, experienced hand at the helm. The cream of the above jokegrises to the surface in the humorous invitation to “look at the record.” The record, so far, isn’t a very long one, extend: ing over only abont five months, but, short as it is, it justifies the comic treat- ment ofthe Press. “A good share of the important offices have been filled,” it says. That's so, and prominent among them is the office of Postmas- ter General, bestowed upon its incum- bent for no other reason than that he furnished the bulk of the money with- out which the predetermined scheme of effecting Mr. Harrison's election by purchase could not have been carried out. The humor of the Press's allusion to the high character of the Harrison appointments is especially provocative of merriment when applied to WANAMAKER'S case. It has almost an equally rib-tickling effect in its ap- plication to the appointment of Crark- soN. That worthy was Quav’s part- ner in putting the campaign boodle where it would produce the most votes, and he did Mr. HArrisoN’s cause an eminent service in helping to steal the mailing lists of the Prohibition organ. And then there's TanNer. The Press must have had TANNER 11 its eye when it gave vent to its comical lauda- tion of the Harrison appointments, It couldn’t have selected a more jocose subject for the diversion of its readers. Although the administration is scarcely six months old the Commissioner of Pensions has already brought such a scandal upon it that a special commit. tee has been appointed to give his con- duct a coat of whitewash. TANNER, as a specimen of excellent official selec- tion, is as funny as a character in a comic almanac. But is he a funnier specimen than GeorGE P. Fisuer, whom Mr. Harrr- soN has appointed First Auditor of the Treasury? IiIsHER, as District Attor- ney at Washington, in Boss SHEPARD'S time, was so evidently in collusion with the Star Route thieves that the New York 77ribune denounced him as “the bulwark of the Ring,” and “a dis- grace to the whole nation,” and Presi- dent GraNT demanded his resignation. Unquestionably Fisuer’s case helped to stimulate the flow of the Press's humor- ous remarks concerning the high character of Mr. Harrison's official preferences. In this connection it wouldn't do to overlook Cnarres IHEepers—and we trust that our jocular contemporary didn’t overlook him—whom Mr. Har- rIsoN has appionted chiet of a divi- sion in the Sixth Auditors office. On account of disreputable conduct he was dismissed with disgrace from the ser- vice of the Associated Press last spring. And what a neat joke our Philadel phia contemporary gets off in the re- mark that “no thieves and no gamblers, no ballot-box stuffers and no jail-birds” have been put in office since Mr. Hag- RISON took the reins. This will be en- Jjoyed as something peculiarly facetious by those who are acquainted with the fact that Assistant Post Master General CrarksoN has already given appoint- ments to a burglar, a convicted keeper of a disorderly house and a man who { has been punished for sending obscene { literature through the mails, with the | returns from the criminal calendar far { from being all in yet. | The old Philadelphia organ can make itself very entertaining as a joker when itapplies itself to that way of amusing its political readers. An Indictment Against the Sparrows. The injury which the European spar- rows are inflicting upon this country is attracting increased attention as the magnitude of the evil is becoming more obviots, The Department of Agricul- ture, in giving .attention to this matter, makes out a bill of indictment against these feathered invaders that contains a number of very serious counts. They are charged with doing injury to grain, fruit and garden’ produce, and in addi- tion to this they are held responsible for driving away the native song birds. The Philadelphia Record thinks At strange that the sparrows should affect the American songsters in this way while in the eastern continent, where they originated, the song birds, such as the linnet, the goldfinch, the bullfinch; the lark, the nightingale, &c., are not disturbed by them. This may be ac- counted for by the circumstance that in the evolution of nature the song birds and the noisy sparrows of Europe were developed together and became accustomed to each other. The ap- pearance of the noisy and pugnacious intruders in American bird society has taken the natives completely by sur- prise and disturbed their equanimity. It is doubtful whether the wide berth that is being given to the interlopers by our songsters is because the latter are forcibly driven away. The blue- bird, which appears to be most affected by the sparrows, is a very courageous bird. In several encounters we have observed, individuals of that family have been more than a match for the combined attack of a number of spar- rows. But it would seem that the American song birds are withdrawing from contact with the sparrows in sheer disgust with their noisy chattering and general ruffianly conduct. A Flagrant Case. Among the office-holders at Wash- tngton turned out by the Harrison ad- ministration is E. W. Oysrter,a Repub- lican who was permitted to hold on under CLEVELAND. It would have been the correct thing if he had been dis- charged four years ago, according to a long recognized political rule, but he was retained notwithstanding his poli- tics, as hundreds of other Republicans were retained, and proved himselfto be as efficient an officer under a Demo- cratic administration as he had been under several previous Republican ad- ministrations. There was no question as to his fitness. But the pressure for places was so great when Harrison came in that this Republican, in whose case a Democratic administration could overlook his politics for the advantage of the service, was turned neck and heels out of his position. This was bad enough for a party whose candi- date and platform had given pledges in favor of civil service reform, but the flagrancy of the case was increased by the Harrison people trumping up a charge that Oyster had opposed the election of Harrison and therefore de- served to be turned out. There could not be a more direct admission that they regard the offices as something to be given as a reward for party ser- vice. The Department of Justice (?) at Work. The country has not forgotten the Star Route rascality which disgraced the administration of the postoffice de- partment during GRANT'S term. Bra- py, Dorsey & Co., who were promi- nent in Republican politics at that time, and have resumed their prominence since the “grand old party’ hasreturn- ed to power under HARRISON, were in- dicted for robbing the government in the Star Route transactions. Justice failed to inflict proper punishment upon them, although indictments have been hanging over their heads since that time. But as it wouldn't do to have their usefulness to the party hampered by such obstructions as indictments the department of justice has secured in open court a nolle prosequi that relieves from prosecution the Brapys, the Dorsevs and the entire gang whose looting of the postoftice department in the years gone by brought them within the shadow of the State's prison. The Harrison administration needs their ser- vices and hastens to put the depart ment of justice to work to shield them from the justice that demanded their punishment years ago. Philadelphia Waking Up. It is high time for Philadelphia to make an effort to recover the place she has lost among the commercial cities of the United States. In the first quar- ter of this century she was in the lead, but now she can be considered hardly a rival to any one of a half dozen cities thav have slipped past her in the race. Some of her business men appear to be waking up to thi?funpleasant and hu- miliating fact, and are taking steps to regain the superior prominence which their city has been allowed to lose. The entertainment that was given to western merchants invited to visit the city by the mercantile firm of Hoon, Boxsricut & Co., the other day, was a movement for the establishment of closer relations between the wholesale trade of Philadelphia and the retail dealers of the West. The field which such movements as this is intended to reclaim, is one from which Philadel- phia for some years past, ‘through the supineness of her business people and the superior activity of her rivals, has not reaped a proper share of advantage. In other respects the city has allow- ed herself to fall behind. She has suf: fered from railroad discriminatiomwith- cut making an earnest effort to pre- vent it. It has been a pitiful sight to see trade diverted from Philadelphia by railroads in which her people had invested their money. She has negligent ly lost her grip on the great natural re- sources of the State of which she is the metropolis, until the coal, the iron and the petroleum of Pennsylvania have contributed more to the prosperity of rivals outside of the State than to her own. Her shipping has been lost through a want of enterprise in main- taining a position which at one time was the first, and her later distinction of being the leading manufacturing city is no longer hers in consequence of the more energetic rivalry of bota« New York and Chicago. It is gratifying to Pennsylvanians, who feel a pride in their metropolis, to observe that her business men are at last awaking from their lethargy and adopting measures that may again place Philadelphia in a leading posi- tion among commercial cities. Not a Serious Dispute. The Canadians are not pleased with the way one of their sealing ships was overhauled by the United States reve- nue cutter in Behring Sex,and threaten the vengeance of the English govern- ment for such treatment of a ship car- rying the English flag. An Ottawa paper says that the American govern- ment will have to apologize for the act, and that if this is not done the Yankee navy will be swept from the sea by the superior naval power of England. It is not in the least probable that so dreadful a thing as this will happen. The British authorities do not appear to be giving themselves much concern about the difficulty into which the Ca- nadian sealer got itself, and if any no- tice is taken of it we may expect to see it come in the shape of a proposition to negotiate a settlement of the points in dispute concerning the ownership of Behring sea, without any bluster about wiping out the Yankee navy. Nor are the Americans attaching much interest to the case, as it is generally understood by them that the revenue cutter is do- ing police duty in Behring sea for the benefit of the Alaska Fur Seal monopo- ly. The great JoaN L. SULLIVAN is now an inmate of a Mississippi jail. By Governor Lowry's persistence in hunting down the prize-fichters who violated the law of his State, he has succeeded in corraling the most noted of the bruisers, who no doubt will be subjected to the pains and penalties | provided by Mississippi law for such an offense as prize-fighting. What- ever opinion of Joux L. may be entertained by decent people, it must be admitted that there was a cer- tain degree of manliness in the man- aer in which he submitted to the de- mands of the law. Ie made no espe- cial efforts to evade it, there was no appearance of shirking in his conduct, and when he found himselt in the toils there was no such ruffianly and trucu- lent resistance as might have been ex- pected of a man of his vocation and ! habits, The most peaceable citizen | could not have bowed more submis- | sively to the requirements of the law.’ Spawls from the Keystone. —Rowdies took possession of a Pottstown cemetery on Sunday last and turned it into a beer garden. —The Easton Express reports. that the. rains have penetrated “seventeen feet into the bow= els of the earth.” W —A warrant has been issued bya Norris. town Justice fora man charged with blas- phemy. He is a fugitive. —A son of Abram Herr, of Strasburg, Lancas. ter county, was gored by a bull on Wednesday, and was dangerously hurt. —Some of the Scranton barbers operate on Sundays, but with the blinds down, “in defers ence to public sentiment.” —Abraham Kindig, of Harleysville, uses a hatchet that is over a hundred years old. It belonged to his grandfather. —The Lancaster School Board has passed resolutions asking the teachers to use every effort to prevent hazing in any form. . —Simon Collins, of Marietta, who is stone. blind, has a patent on a brush handle. He de- signs boats and works the typewriter. —Lancaster prison officials are unanimous in the belief that James H. Jacobs, the cons demned murderes, is feigning insanity. —George Calder’s cotton-mill, at Lancaster, was sold by the Sherift last week for $16,000s subject to two mortgages of $30,000 each. —John Kutz, President, and William H. Heffner, Secretary of the Keystone Agricult- ural Society, both died at Kutztown last weelk, —A Bridgeport boy of 4 years was found walking in his sleep through the town at mid. night. He told the policeman he was going to pick blackberries. —Burgess of Newton has directed the High Constable to arrest all persons seen drunk, obstructing the side walks or heard swearing on the public streets. —A “terra cotta lumber company” has been organized by Pittsburg financiers. The lum- ber is made of sawdust and clay, and is expects ed to supersede lath and plaster. —W. R. Hughes, a contractor of Harrisburg, * has brought suit against the clergyman and Trustees of Corpus-Christi Catholic congregas tion for $362 for building supplies. —William Sweitzer, a Steelton lad, seeing an old box passing down the canal pulled it as- hore, and found in it forty-seven fine cat fish, which he disposed of at a profitable figure. —MTrs. Elizabeth Miller, of Host, Berks coun. ty, was stricken with paralysis while returning from a neighbor's on Wednesday, and falling by the roadside died in the arms of a tramp who happened along. —The Allentown Democrat of this week says; “The practice in this section of feasting at funerals is of long standing, but its propriety is to be doubted, and we think it is about time that it be abandoned.” —At Washington, Pa., the other night a lady lost a pocketbook containing $3000 during a ride upon the merry-go-round. Aftera scara that made her dizzy the pocketbook was found being kicked around the floor. —James Huston, New London township, has in his possession the reaping implements of four generations, beginning with his great grandfather, who reaped the very ficlds that his great-grandson now cultivates. —Some time in May last Jesse Shallcross, who has an ice-making plant in Coatesville, froze sixteen shad in cakes of ice as an experi. ment. A few days ago the cakes were cracked open and the shad cooked. They “ate beauti- —Mrs. Andrew Guldaman, well known in Reading as the ‘“‘water-cress woman,” while hunting the plant a day or two since, fell into a deep fish-pond, but saved herself from drowning by grasping an overhanging branch of a tree. —Mrs. Annie Edwards, in order tostir the sympathies of a Pittsburg Squire before whom she had been tried for misdemeanor, cut her gums and tried to make it appear a case of hemorrhage. The trick was detected and did not avail. —Miss Dinnie Ker!, of Wilkesbarre, who was buried a couple of days since, was the twelfth member of the family who has died within a few years. Her aged parents, who have but one child remaining, cried bitterly during the services. —When the fastest train on the Nypano Road thundered intc Meadville a couple of days since two of the dirtiest, grimiest boys on earth got off the break-beam and crawled from under the train. That they escaped death in such aride is miraculous. —Some of the soldier element of West Ches- ter find fault with the attitude of the soldier figure on the monument at the Park. His hand rests over the top of the mulzle of the gun, which is said to be in bad taste from 3 strict military point of view. —The pay envelopes in a Pottstown mill bes came mixed several days ago, and a lad entite led to $1.54 received $11.54. Suit was brought and judgment given for the firm, but the sum cannot be collected until the boy becomes of age, which is five years hence. —Mrs. Steelem, of Pittsburg, feeling nerys ous two nights ago, looked under her bed be- fore retiring, and found a man hiding there whom she pulled out impulsively and flung him down the stairs before she could collect herself sufficiently to rouse the neighbors. —Robert Carney, of Minersville, has two thoroughbred silver-haired skye terriers that were born on the day of the flood, and were in a box with their mother. The box floated till it hit against a tree. The mother jumped out on the debris, caught the side of the box with her teeth and held on till all were saved. —A Pottstown paper prints the following, but no affidavitis appended: “On the farm of D. 8. Livengood, near Fegleysville, Montgome ery county, one day last week one of his cows gave hirth to a pair of twin calves in the morns’ ing and another pair in the evening. The one pair was an Alderney and the other a Dure ham.” —E. Y. Gilbert and Peter Seasholtz were sit. ting under an awning with their feet againsf the iron posts at the Merchants’ Hotel in Potts. town, when one was suddenly doubled up in his chair and the other flung to the pavement, Lightning had struck an electric wire some distance off, and the current had communicates ed to the awning post. —William McClellan, the champion oats eradler or South Whitehall, forged ahead of the other cradlers several days since, and on reaching the end of the field he rested on his cradle in waiting for them, meanwhile imitate ing a harpist on his inplement, and in so do- ing he gave himselfsuch an ugly cut on one of his hands that a doctor had to fix it. —A citizen of Chambe rohare reaching home late at night, when all the lights were out, heard a strange noise in the parlor. He advance | ed to the door and ordered the burglar to come out and surrender. No response, but the noise continued. Then a pistol-shot rang out—the all lodging in the parlor ceiling—and the citi. zen’s dog, which had been tearing stuffing | from the sofa, came out with a guilty whine, and was kicked out of a side door for the night.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers