st” . approaching the eight hour system. emocealic Waid Ink Slings. —Will there be any ice this winter? is a nice question. —The crocusses may have occasion to prosecute January for breach of promise. —As the administration flounders deeper into its political difficulties glimpses of Prince RussELL of Montana and Baby McKzk are less frequent. —Senator CALL’s resolution would seem to indicate that Germany is run- ning Cuba. If this is so, has Mr. Bramng’s foreign policy lost its back- bone ? —Should the people take a firm hold on the principles of ballot, tariff and civil service reform, it would be a kind of grip that would do the country grat good. —CHARLES A. DANA of the New York Sun is employing the remnant of his editorial ability in abusing Grover CreveranDp. The greit Democratic leader prospers by it. —When the President in taking aim with his shot gun mistakes a hog for a coon, it is not a matter of surpriss that he shoots so wide of the mark in aim- ing at civil service reform. —Mr. PARNELL’S favorite diversion is said to consist in running a seroll-saw. This is better than fooling with political buzz-saws which sometimes get Ameri- can statesmen into trouble. —The Republican Ways and Means committee is now engaged in affording interested parties an opportunity to ad- vance plausible reasons for giving the tariff screw another twist. —In enacting that eleven hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor it must be the intention of the Georgia legislature to adopt the movement of the crab in —As the British lion is wagging its tail aggressively at Portugal, Mr. BLAINE might do a friendly turn for the Portuguese by performing in their behalf his great act of twisting the tail of that ferocious beast. —The slight snow squall on Wednes- day evening was a rather feeble ef- fort of winter to assert its sway. Old Boreas, like Dom PEDRo, is a de- throned monarch, but with a better chance of regaining his dominion. —DAvip BENNETT HILL may truth- fully say “I am a Democrat” after he shall have fully evinced his loyalty to the great Democratic measure of ballot reform. In this is presented the salient opportunity of his political life. —The roads of Pennsylvania were never known to be as muddy as they are this year. Possibly this is a preparation for the approaching gubernatorial cam- paign in which mud is likely to be largly used for projectile purposes. —A big job involving $7,000,000 has been developed in the Philadelphia city eouncils to furnish an additional water supply, but notwithstanding the size of the figures it is only to be Schuylkill water, with all the dirt that it implies. —The absence of Mrs. BLAINE from the Presidential dinners and receptions, is evidence that the snub she gave Mrs. HARRISON before the latter was mistress of the White House, throws its shadow across the social relations of the admin- istration. : ; ---“The Angelus” is to be exhibited in Chicago. As that city is the great emporium of the agricultural produc- tions of the West, MILLET’S great pic- ture may be appreciated there on ac- count of its being a potato-digging scene. —In these days of boodle there was something refreshing in the renomina- tion of Senator BLACKBURN by the Democratic Legislature of Kentucky. It didn’t require 2 pecuniary considera- tion to continue BLACKBURN’s senato- rial honors. —The hundred millions of dollars which English capitalists have invested in American enterprises during the past year is pretty good proof that, asa money making scheme, free trade as practiced in anti-tariff England is something that 13n’t to be despised. —~Secretary 'WiNDoM was among those at Washington who have suffered from the grippe. The Doctors brought him through all right, but what is most | needed at the capital is a Doctor who! can keep the boodlers from getting a grip on the treasury. | —After a year in which Jupiter Pluvius has almost drowned us out, ! 15n’t the New York State Forestry Com- mission perpetrating a joke in deploring the destruction of the forests on account ot its having diminished the rainfall ? If this is the fact, what would have be- | come of us if all the trees were standing. —Miss WANAMAKER is said to have the daintiest clothes of all the fashiona- ble young ladies in Washington. Why shouldn't she lead her rivals in this re- spect when she has the largest dry-goods store in the world to draw on at first cost? There 1s an advantage in a belle having a family connection with a haberdashery. STITT STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 85. “The Grip” that Holds Congress and : the President. Congress re-assembled on Monday after its holiday vacation, the number of honorable gentlemen in attendance i being considerably reduced by many of its members being down with “the grip.” It may by expected that Con- gress through this entire session will be affected by “the grip,” but it will be the grip ot the monopolists who will control the tariff legislation that will be under consideration. The Ways and Means Committee of the lower house has begun the work of tariff’ re- vision promised in the Republican platform, and, in the way peculiar to the tariff’ revisers of that party, is giv- ing the principal audience to those who can show reasons for continuing, if not increasing, the present high tariff rates. It is repeating the course of the committee that under the Arthur ad- ministration attempted to reform the tariff. President ArTHUR in one of his messages recommended such a re- form as something that was greatly needed. A special commission was appointed to act upon this recommen- dation, which after investigating the subject declared the tariff to be un- equal and oppressive in its exactions. Thereupon a Ways and Means com- mittee, just as the present one is doing, set about getting up a bill to revise the tariff. The committee room was al- lowed to be thronged with interested parties to testify that the industries of the country would be ruined if their special interests were interfered with by a reduction of the tariff rates, the con- sequence being that a bill was framed and passed which, with a few immater- ial exceptions, left the sacred tariff about as it was, if not a little higher. This was not the way the Morrison and Mills committees went at this busi- ness. They did not consider it neces- sary to have'a host of interested wit- nesses give testimony as tothe effects of a system the injury of which was known and feltby the great majority of our people. And who are the class that intrude their testimony upon such a committee? Are there to be found among them the laborers, the mechanics and the farmers who feel the oppression of this monopolistic tar- iff system in the increased price of the necessaries of life? Such people are not among the clamorous witnesses in a Republican tariff committee room who almost exclusively consist of par- ties who demand an increase of the tariff for their own personal benefit, even including such wretches as the two who appeared before the present committee and asked that the fever stricken sufferers of the country might be subjected to renewed robbery by the restoration of the tariff on quinine. Both the Morrison and Mills commit- tees acted upon the general sentiment, conviction and experience of the peo- ple that a tariff as high as the present one is inexpedient, oppressive and in- jurious, and they were moved by an honest intention to reduce it. Whether the reduction they proposed was -horizontal, perpendicular, or in any other direction, it was well intend- ed and would have been of good effect as a measure of tariff reform. It is useless to expect that the present Congress will do anything in affording relief from our oppressive tariff laws. The initial {movements show that the monopolistic interests are going to overslaugh every other consideration. The monopolies and favored moneyed class to which this administration and congress are indebted for pecuniary as- sistance at the last election, have “the grip” on both the President and Con- gress and will hold them fast until the end of their terms. Mark One for Hastings. The Hastings gubernatorial for- ces have received an important recruit in the person of WeNpELL P. BowMaN, of Philadelphia, Colonel of the First ' Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard, who has come out strong for the young Centre county aspirant for the governorship and has announced him- self as a candidate for delegate to the the State convention in Hastings’ in- terest. He supported BEAVER in the last Republican State convention and is able to exert considerable influence. He advises the friends of the Adjutant Gieneral to organize and make asystem- atic fight. School Savings Banks. - The idea of savings banks connected with the common schools js a good one. They will teach the children thrifty habits and impart to their young minds practical conceptions of business. There is much connected with com- mon school education, as now conduct- ed, that will rather interfere with than promote the scholar’s future capacity to grapple with the realities of life. Tt is becoming entirely too ornamental and consequently too superficial. There is encouragement, therefore, in the movements to make the knowledge im- parted in our common schools more practical in its character. Manual training is a step in that direction. The thrift inculcated by ~ savings banks would be a good supplement to such training. : The idea of these banks originated in 1885 with Mr. J. J. Tuiry, princi- pal of the schools of Long Island City. The school children of that place are said to have $17,000 to their credit on deposit in their school savings bank. The way the system is operated is sim- ple and effective. The deposits are on- ly received at the opening session on Monday. The teacher keeps an+ac- count of the deposit of each pupil, .and at the end of every month sends to the Superintendent slips showing the total amount deposited by each pupil. When any pupil has deposited $1 or more, a bank book is furnished him withont charge. $3 or more, interest will be paid to the pupil having that sum. The Superin- tendent holds the bank books, and no money can be drawn unless the order | bears both the Superintendent's signa- ture and thename of one of the parents. This system from its practical nature, together with the introduction of man- ual training, would be somewhat ot a set-off to the useless ologies with which the common school system has been diverted from its legitimate purpose, and ‘o the ornaments] branches which are attenuating the useful results of popular educ ation. ‘ Matrimon ial Folly. When the deposit amounts to" It.is now announced that Miss CaLD- | WELL, the rich young American woman | who was going to marry a worthless Frenchman known as Prince Mura, has finally backed out of her risky in- tention. She may be congratulated on cancelling her purpose of gaining a ti- tle by marrying a broken-down roue whose grandfather, with whom the no- bility of his family originated, was the son af a French tapster. Miss CaLp- WELL is more fortunate in escaping such a foreign alliance than was Miss EmiLy ScmaumBERG, of Philadelphia, who, in sorrow and humiliation, is now mourning the folly of having mar- ried a good-for-nothing Englishman of the upper class named Huenrs-HAL- LETT, who after having spent much of her fortune and given her a world of trouble, is now trying to injure her reputation. Probably such is merited punishment for the fool American wo- men of wealth we think they will elevate themselves sociallf by marry- ing into the families of European no- bility and gentry. A Contrast. The Altoona Tribune, with the ob- ject of making a contrast, remarks : “Only twenty-nine years ago, when the Democratic administration of James BucHANAN was drawing to a close, the national treasury was bank- rupt and the credit of the country was 80 poor that the government was un- able to negotiate a beggarly loan to meet current expenses.’’ Admitting this to be true, what of it? Did that Democratic administra- tion have the advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars drained from the pockets of the people by unnecessary taxation to enable it to meet expenses? After taxing the citizen upou every article needed in his living, in addition to the Pactolian stream supplied to the treasury from the prolific sources of interral revenue, can a Republican administration arrogate to itself any special credit for being able to pay its way? It is really better government to be short of revenue than to resort to excessive taxation for the repletion of a treasury that is subjected to a hundred forms of public plunder. ——TIt would be a shame if this win- ter should make the bull frogs the vic- time of misplaced confidence. on a grand inspection of the Posts, | tocrat, in his own palace car, starting BELLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 10, 1890. Only Half Right. “The bills of Senators SHERMAN and CHANDLER to put the elections under Federal control, and the bills of Sena- tors Moreax, Burner and (issox to provide for the deportation of the Southern negroes, ought to be burnt iu the same heap.” We cannot whol- ly agree with this remark of a contem- porary. The proposition to put elections under a central control is entirely and radically wrong, for it would effect that centralization of political power which would antagonize the principle upon which otr federal union and pop- ular government were establish. It would hand the reins over to the party that would have the first grab at them after such & system should be inaugu- tated, to be perpetuated in its hands. But if there could be a gradual depor- tation of tlie Southern negroes, even no more than to keep down the natural in- crease of a very prolific race, it would assist in solving one of the most dan- gerous problems that confronts the safety of our country. Whether in the condition of slaves or freedmen,: the colored population of the South have been and will continue to be. a source of trouble and danger to the country. In view of this fact, if de- portation were feasible would it in any way be objectionable? CL SAS, A Monstrous “Intrusion Into the Field of Politics. It is announced by Republican pa- pers with considerable complacency, that General ArLgEr, of Michigan, the millionaire Republican aspirant for the Presidency, is about to make the first public movement toward the object of his ambition. Having by means of his money become the Com- mander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, he will soon start out with the view of working the Preto. rian influence for all it is worth. Ie will travel, as becomes so great a plu- in Maine and going westward; through the States, spending a day or two at each encampment in his progress. Arger i3 not known to possess a single qualification that would fit him for the high office he seeks, and with- out his money would not be thought of ia that connection, but with his mil- lions and with the backing of the polit- ico-military organization which is fully alive to the advantage of having a President from its own membership and identified with its pecuniary in- terests, he has a good chance of secur- ing the Republican nomination. Were it not for the public demoral- ization produced by the corrupt meth- ods which Republican practices have introduced into our politics, such a monstrosity as this intruding itself in- to the political arena would be an im- possibility. But no one need be sur- prised to see it presented as a promi- nent feature of the next Presidential election, involving a danger which can be best met and averted by ballot re- form as the most reliable means of counteracting the agencies that would be employed to promote the success of such a candidate. ——They are having an exciting time in St. Petersburg where many arrests have recently been made of parties charged with having designs upon the life of the Emperor of Russia. The arrest® have included members of the imperial household and officers of the army. The attempts to get rid of his imperial majesty, which hereto- fore have been by meaus of dynamite, are being diversified by the employ- ment of poison. It can’t be said that the emperor is enviably situated. ——Ex Senator Eckrey B. Coxg, on account of his influence and high character,is a Democrat worth listening to. He declares strongly for the three cardinal reforms—tariff, ballot and civ- il service—and says that with these three important living issues boldly and clearly inscribed upon all their standards, the Democrats should at once commence the campaign of 1892 with Grover CLEVELAND as their leader. ——Last Wednesday, the 8th inst., was a day on which the thoughts of | all good Democrats reverted to the | days of ANDREW JAcksoN when the | pure principles of Democracy controll- ed the government and political cor- ruption had not fouled the sources of governmental authority. Those were the days of Democratic honesty which the people must restore if they want their free institutions to be perpetuated. ND, 2. A Needed Reproof to a Mistaken Leader. A desire for a reform of the ballot methods that generally exist in this country has taken possession of the Democratic heart. The party is com- mitted to it, the general conviction of its members and the best of its leaders being that the very existence of our free institutions depends upon such a reform. Its opponents consist of those who profit and expect to con- tinue to profit by the corruption of the suffrage and the intimidation of the suffragists which are enabled and fa- cilitated by the present method of con- ducting eur elections. While the Democracy furnishes con- spicuous champions of ballot reform so essentially necessary to the preserva- tion of a free form of government, there are unfortunately a few leaders in the party who seem to forget that true democracy means free government and that an honest ballot is its very life blood. Senator GorMAN, of Mary- land, is represented to have advised against ballot reform and counseled Democratic opposition to it in the Maryland legislature before which it will be brought at its next session. The Baltimore Sun, the leading Demo- cratic journel of the State, indirectly pays its respects to the Senx >r on this subject in the following strain : Mr. Cleveland represents a large and in- creasing class of public men and private eiti- zens who, while thoroughly devoted to the party to which they belong, are patriots rather than partisans, and put the eternal prineiples of right and justice above considerations of personal success or political expediency. They are reformers, not because they love to pose in arole in which many adventurers have won success, but because they realize that there are many things which earnestly demand re- form and which must be reformed if our po- litical system is to be freed from many present evils and relieved of the dangers that threaten our future. \ There is a trinity of these reforms with which Mr. Cleveland’s name and public life are connected. There are civil service reform, tariff reform and ballot reform, and of each of these Mr. Cleveland has been for years the un- compromising advocate and champion, Im- portant as is each of these, ballot reform, in Maryland at least, is one of the most pressing urgency, not only because of its inherit gray- ity, but because if the present Legislature ad- journs without dealing with the subject satis factorily it must wait for another two years be- fore it can secure attention. And it weuld be well for practical politicians to understand at the very outset of this session of the General Assembly that they can neither shuffle with the reform nor laugh it out of court. Reform was once the romance of politics, but it is no longer merely the motto of political dudes or of sentimental sucklings. It is now a practical business issue, and is the war ery of strong men. There are both backbone and brains behind it, and behind the backbone and brains of the leaders are the backbone and brains of the people. It is absolutely astound- ing that any man of intelligence or experience in public life should fight against the popular will, so clearly and unmistakably expressed as it has been in all parts of the country with regard to reform in election machinery, There cannot be the shadow of a doubt that the people of Maryland want ballot reform based on the Australian election law. It is ab- surd and insulting to tell them that that is not what they want and that they really need something else. Legislators are the servants of the people, nottheir dictators. The people of Maryland have been promised something modeled upon this particular law, and they will be satisfied with nothing else. There was a time when doubts were expressed as to the suitability of this law for the conditions which attend elections in this country. It seems that some of our statesmen—those who do not read perhaps— persist in doubting.” This is a true expression on this subject. The Democratic people want a reform of the ballot system that "will secure fair and honest elections, and any leader who opposes it will most surely lose their favor. A Long Case Drawing to a Close. Last Saturday the arguments of counsel in the Lycoming county con- tested judicial election case closed, and only the decision of the commission, composed of three learned judges from adjoining counties, is required to bring the proceedings to a finality. The case is a remarkable one. As we under stand it, Judge MErzear’s right to sit on the bench is not denied for the reason that he had not a majority of the votes cast for judge, but because of technical defects in the manner of cast- ing some of the votes. It wasan unwor- thy ground of objection and has cost the county much time, trouble and expense. The commission, which is composed of Judges MAYER, BucHER and RockEFEL- LER, respectively of the counties of Clinton, Union and Northumberland, will meet on the 17th inst. to render their final decision of the case, after it has lasted more than a year and cost the county many thousands of dollars, Spawls from the Keystone. —Four Pottstown physicians have been suf- lerers from “Grip.” —Grasshoppers were hopping near Manheim on Christmas day. —Lancaster is developing into a prize fight- ing centre. —Five hundred volumes in a Lancaster pub- lic school were destroyed by vandals. —A violent fit of conghing caused the death of John (. Shaffer at Reading. —Nine Reading bachelors, being interview- ed, agreed that bachelorhoood is a failure. —Influenza loves a shining mark. It has attacked all the newspaper men of Easton. —Reading Knights of Labor want city em. ployers to give preference to city workmen. —A Harrisburg man swore off for eight moths, or unti! the Firemen’s Convention at York. : —Itisa ted that Master Workman Pow. derly is again a candidate for Mayor of Scran- ton. —A “dive” of the lowest order was operated at Meadville under the guise of an ice cream saloon —The deposits on the first day of Norris, town’s school savings system amounted to $247.4. . —The Catholic Church at Pottstown real- ized £800 by the fair that closed on Saturday night. —An incubator at Doylestown caught fire a tew days age, and a lot of spring chickens were roasted. —Most Chester county farmers have finish- ed the repairing that is not usually done un- til the spring —Within five minutes a birth and a death took place in the house of Joseph Young, near Culpsville, recently. —A 15-year-old lad ot Williamsport is soft on a 35-year-old chick that was playing in an opera company there. —Select Councilman Page, of Williamsport,g is so heavy that a “nickle-in-the-slot” ma- chine will not weigh him. —Says the Allentown Chronicle: Mark the date and fact—December 31,1889 ; Hamilton street annoyingly dusty. —While gathering a nosegay in the fields on Christmas day a Williamsport man captur- ea athree-inch butterfly. —The Amelia 8. Given Free Library of 1000 volumes was dedicated at Mount Holly, Cum- berland county, on New Year. —The stray bullet from a careless sports- man’s gun penetrated a barn door at New Lon- don ana entered a horse's flesh. —The Conshohoken Record says . “Even the influenza avoids Conshohoken, What have we done to deserve this?” —The death of John Loban, the gardener of the Capitol grounds in Harrisburg, took place just as the new year was being rung in. —R. M. Gaylor, a barberof Wilkesbarre, was found dead in his shop some days ago, having committed suicide by turning on the gas. —An Erie county farmer, with his ears tied up in a muffler, could not hear the train ap- proaching as he walked along the track, and he was killed. —A fox started a few days ago near the Falls of French Creek led the hunters a chase of 60 miles and then came back nearly to the starting place. —Some of the patients of York county alms- house refuse to take the medicines of the new physician in charge, and are attended by out- side doctors. —The following will was probated on Monday at Pittsburg and accepted : Pittsburg, Sept. 2, 1889—If I die I want my wife to have what I got. Reed Myers. —A milkman in Williamsport tried to col- lect a bill from a woman by kvoocking her down and taking her pocket-book. He has been held for trial. —Edward Boyer is mysteriously absent from his place as manager of a creamery at Centra Square, Montgomery county. He is accused of being largely in debt. —Rev. M. H. Mill has resigned as pastor of St. Peter’s Reformed Church, South Easton because of dissensions that also caused his predecessor to resign. —N. U. Davis, ticket agent at the Pennsyl- vania Schuylkill Valley Railroad station at Per, kiomen, writes to the Record to deny the, statement that he is missing. —Suit for damages has been entered by a Pittsburg clerk against the Pullman Palace Car Company. He was unable to get a berth, although he held a ticket for one. —One of the most famous hunters in Berks county is Isaac Hoffman, of Caernarvon town- ship, whose legs are useless. He crawls over the ground for miles and can climb a tree. —Manager Wilt, of the Pittsburg Grand Opera House, presented his employes with a white unitorm to wear on duty, but the men. refuse to wear it and will strike if he insists —A new order has just been issued by which all employes wearing uniforms on the Reading Road are required to keep their coats buttoned, so that they preserve their shape. —The report of the auditors! ofthe York County Agricultural Association shows that the profits of the joint county and State fair held last fall were more than double the usual figures. —The only son of ex-Deputy Coroner Ham- mer, of Quakertown, was killed while ecross- ing the railroad at that place on Tuesday night. Both legs were cut off and the body badly mangled. —Jacob While, of Mont Alto, was about to killa turkey the day before New Year's day, when he found that she had just laid an egg. On account of this unusual occurrence he spared her life. . —Rev. George W Cumberland, an exhorter of the Church of God, and living near Dawson, has been placed under bail for criminal as- sault on the 13-year-old child ofa man whose hospitality he was enjoying. —Some of the jurymen who convicted John W. Rudy, sentenced to be hanged at Lancaster on February 20 for the murder of his father, will ask the Board of Pardons to commute his sentence to life imprisonment. —The blockade of freight on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has reached Allentown, and along the Perkiomen and East Penn Roads hundreds of cars of freigut have been side- tracked until the blockade is removed —Having suddenly lost her reason, a young lady of Chambersburg purchased a big bill of goods from nearly every store in the town. Most of the orders were filled and delivered before her irresponsibility was discovered. —In a letter to a neighbor at Pottstown, An- nie Chromo, accused of complicity in the mur- der of her husband, writes from the Norris- town jail that the ghost of her dead husband visits her every night and prevents her from sleeping.