Denrortatic]
BY PP. GRAY MEEK. :
Ink Slings.
—The Kniffin case is one which is
likely to knock out even such a hard
hitter as Jersey justice.
—The grip is called schaffkrankheit
in Germany, and yet the disease does not
seem to be more fatal in that country
than in any other.
—The Vassar girls have the grip,
but they don’t fancy it as much as they
would if it emanated from a coat sleeve
with a masculine arm in it.
-—Speaker REED reverses the Cleve-
land maxim that public office is a public
trust. He acts as if he believed that it
is exclusively a Republican trust.
—ZEven if thisseason were character-
ized by atmospheric serenity, which it
is not, the base-ballists would manage to
make it stormy by their unseasonable
contention.
—The Methodist preacher who died
some days ago in Virginia from the ef-
tects of a Masonic initiation must have
been put astraddle of an unusually re-
fractory goat.
—As an especial compliment General
Hastings was invited to participate in
a fox chase 1n Delaware county. But
isn’t QUAY the fox that the General has
most reason to keep his eye onj?
—TIt will be a great relief to the mem-
bers of “the grand old party’ in Penn-
sylvania when QUAY shall terminate
their suspense by telling them who their
next candidate for Governor shall be.
—The monopolists who are asking
for a restoration of the tariff on quinine
deserve to be afilicted with the worst
form of bone-break fever and be denied
the relief which quinine pills afford.
—The President is charged with hav-
ing violated Virginia's game laws in
shooting old man Woorox’s hog. But
his case wasn’t the first instance of Re-
publican violation of state sovereignty.
—The prophets are all at sea about
the weather of this winter, but wait till
the ground hog puts in his appearance
on the 2nd of next month, and then we
shall have something definite on the
subject.
—Tt is stated in the papers that “two
tons of adulterated cheese were seized at
Duluth.” 1Ifit was Limberger, the na-
tural strength of the article must have
necessitated the employment of a very
strong force to scize it.
—After having filled the Senate with
millionaires, the Republicans are howl-
ing at the Democrats of the Ohio legis-
lature for giving the senatorial nomina-
tion to CALVIN S. Brice who is sup-
posed to be worth some money.
—It is amusing to see what an inter-
est the opponents of a reformed ballot
system take in the rights of the illiterate.
But sifted down, isn’t it more of an in-
terest in the opportunity of the party
heeler to get in his work on election
day ?
—It is proposed to require medical
students to study longer than they
now do before they can be ai-
mitted to practice. This may not make
the doctors any smarter, but the danger
to the public might be thereby diminish-
ed by making them less numerous.
—The French government has just
constructed and tested a vessel which
can be kept under water for four hours
at a time. That is nothing extraordi-
nary for French vessels. Some of them
that fought the English in NELsoN’s
time have been under water ever since.
—The Germans are buying up all the
camphor they can find in the market.
It isn’t to be supposed that their pur-
pose is to put it in whisky and keep it
on the top-shelf of the cupboard.
They haven’t any old-womanish inten-
tion of this kind, but want to use it in
making smokeless powder with which
to kill Frenchmen.
—The Queen Regent of Spain offers a
prize of some $10,000 for the two best
essays on the life of CHRISTOPHER
CoLumMBUS, a sum almost equal to the
amount which the Queen Regent's pre-
decessor ISABELLA, tour hundred years
ago, grudgingly gave for the fitting out
of the expedition that made CHrisTO-
PHER’S life worth writing about.
—Judge KELLY having died, mana-
ger Quay is already kindly offering to
furnish the districtof the dead Congress-
man with a candidate for his vacant
place. 1f the Boss has the right to con-
trol the State, why shouldn’t his power
include its component districts? This
is a question which the kickers in the
late Mr. KELLY’s bailiwick should se-
riously ponder.
—MARY, the mother of WASHINGTON,
should by all means have a monument,
as is proposed, in return for having pro-
duced such a son. But if the fact were
generally known that the old lady had
a decidedly Tory leaning during the Rev-
olution and but slightly, if at all, sym-
pathized with GEORGE in the cause in
which ke was risking his neck, it might
dampen the patriotic ardor that is de-
manding a memorial for her.
| ada
VOL. 35.
NO. 3.
Ben Bntler on Ballot Reform.
General Bex ButLer has declared
against ballot reform. At the annua
dinner of the Butler club in Boston, on
the 8th inst.. the Jacksonian anniver-
sary, the redoubtable General made a
fiery speech in which he denounced the
new-fangled Australian ballot system.
The funny part of it was that he did
it in the interest of the Democratic
party. It isso entirely natural that
the man who set himself up as a
rival candidate to the Democratic presi-
dential nominee in 1884, and who did
what he could to defeat the same nomi-
nee four years later, should be solici-
tous that nothing should be done that
wenld injure the Democratic party.
CuarLes A. Dana, who pursued the
same course that Burrer did in op-
posing Democratic nominees,is affected
by a similar fear that ballot reform
will injure the Democracy.
The General was particularly indig-
nant over the wrong that the new bal
lot system will do the Irish voter,
who he seemed to think will not have
sufficient intelligence to master the
supposed intricacies of the Australian
method. This was au insult to the
Irish capacity to exercise the right of
suffrage. Benjamin evidently doesn’t
know the Irish. There is yet to be
found the Irishman who when voting
is going on can be deterred byanything
from doing his full share of it. Appre-
hension that the improved ballot sys-
tem will keep illiterate people from
voting is a mere sham. The new
method expressly provides for as
sisting such persons and will enable
them to vote more intelligently and
more in accordance with their inten-
tion than when their callots are man-
aged by the party heelers who have
taken the job by contract.
The fact that the reformed ballot
system originated in the obscure Eng-
1 lish colony of Australia was the sub-
ject of the General's bitterest sarcasm.
We suppose that if Bex had lived a
hundred years ago he would have
ridiculed the Declaration of Indepen-
dence and the popular institutions
springing from it because they origi-
nated in the obscure English colonies
of North America.
This Anomalous Winter.
In looking over Mouday’s papers
we were treated to a weather record
which was unprecedented for this sea-
son of the year. The recollection of
the oldest inhabitant has nothing that
can furnish a parallel with it. In Phila-
delphia on Sunday a temperature of
72 degrees was reached and the at-
mospheric condition was more like
June than January. At Harrisburg
trees were budding and dandelions and
johnny-jump-ups were in bloom. Japo-
nicas were in full flower in the open
air at Pittshurg, and the fruit trees and
lawn tennis parties were showing very
pronounced signs of life. Reports
from the peach districts of Delaware
and Maryland represented the orchards
to be budding and in some instances in
blossom, a circumstance which will
enable the peach pessimists to foretell a
complete failure of the crop next sum-
mer. Near Wilkesbarre a cherry tree
was reported to be just ready to bloom
last Sunday, and the owner expected a
crop of cherries sometime in March if
the temperature should continue in the
state it then was, At Glassboro, New
Jersey, the thermometer marked 80
degrees and the people were gathering
their first spring greens in the shape
of dandelions growing in the fields,
No previous January within the re-
collection of the present generation
could show such arecord. A number of
reasons are assigned for this condition
of the weather by those who want to
be considered scientific. The Gulf
Stream explanation has been abandoned
since it has been announced by naval
experts that there has been no change
in the course of that ocean current. It
is hard to assing a reason for this anom-
alous thermometrical situation, but it
gives the weather cranks a glorious
opportunity to ventilate their theories.
——————
——Among the prom‘nent, victims
of the grip is to be numbered WALKER
Braing, eldest son of Hon. James G.
Brave and assistant of his father in
the State Department, who a few days
ago was taken with the prevailing
disease which ran into pneumonia and
terminated fatally on Weduesday even-
ing. The country will sympathize
with the distinguished father and his
family in their sad bereavement.
Judicious Liberality.
The residents of Centre county to
whom Hastines' methods are familiar,
will not be surprises to hear how he
made a point over his chief opponent,
DELAMATER, in ingratiatinz himself
with the colored Republicans of West
Chester. Both these gubernatorial as-
pirants were invited some days ago to
parade themselves before the Republi-
can club of that town. Previous to
making his bow to the club the Gener
al visited one of the leading barber
shops of the place, and after his hand-
some countenance had been subjected
to tonsorial manipulation he slipped a
bright silver dollar into the hand of
the colored operator and declined to
take the proffered change. After the
shave, which had been followed by
such a liberal tip, his shoes were shin-
ed in the same shop by another colored
artist who received 35 cents for his
service. It is needless to say that such
judicious liberality made the General
solid with the colored population of
West Chester.
How often has the same gentleman
by a similar appliance swayed the po-
litical sentiments of the colored voters
of Belletonte ! On the eve of an elec-
tion a dollar judicionsly applied here,
there and elsewhere among that class
of our citizens, las enabled him to
bring them into solid line in support of
the Republican ticket. Experience has
tanght the General that this 1s the
most effective way of assisting a color-
ed voter to see into the merits of a po-
litical question.
A Delicate Subject of Tariff Taxation.
The Ways and Means committee,
which is hopelessly entangling itself
with the tariff question, is roping in
all sorts of experts to give their views
on the subject. Last week two New
York grangers, who live near
the Canada line, appeared before the
committee and earnestly called its at-
tention to the desirability of putting a
duty of 50 cents a bushel on beans as
a protective measure. If these men are
interested inthe raising of this windy
leguminous product we can’t see
why they shouldn’t have as good a
right to ask tariff protection for it
as the iron kings and coal barons have
to demand a similar advantage for
their business. That is a question,
however, that will have to be answered |
by the committee in its general solution
of the knotty problems of tariffrevision
on the Republican plan.
But the proposition of the bean pro-
tectionists is likely to meet with a storm
of oppositioa from Boston where the
popular feeling is easiest and soonest
touched through the medium of the
sacred bean pot. No other section has
produced stronger tariff supporters
than Massachusetts, but it may not be
too much to believe that they would
rather see the whole protective system
collapse than to have their baked beans
subjected to tariff taxation.
It Isn’t Anything New.
It may be some satisfaction to “grippe”
patients to know that they are not sut-
fering from a disease that is entirely
new, but that their ancestors shivered
and sneezed under the infliction of a
similar ailment a hundred years ago.
Dr. BexyamiNn Rusu, a Philadelphia
physician of revolutionary memory,
who signed the Declaration of Inde-
pendence and was the fashionable doc-
tor for the worthies who founded this
great republic, gives an account in one
of his books of a disease which visited
Philadelphia in 1789 and 1790, the
symptoms of which were precisely the
same as those of the present pre-
vailing ailment. His work says that
the disease was universal in its preva-
lence, and caused a cessation of busi-
ness for more than a week. In the
churches the sneezing and coughing
were so loud and prolonged that the
services had to be discontinued. Old
men and children were the heaviest
prey to the disease, and people having
indoor employment did not suffer near-
ly so much as those who were constant-
ly exposed. Indians suffered from it
intensely, and they ascribed their af-
fliction to witchcraft.
This goes to confirm the truth of
the assertion that there is nothing new
ut.der the sun. Our present affliction
from “la grippe’’ is but a repetition of
of what our forefathers suffered from
the same cause, only they didn't give
it a French name.
A Level-Headed Granger.
A veteran granger of Virginia, nam-
ed ALexaxpEr S. WEDDERBURN, who
is evidently the possessor of solid horse
sense, made his appearance before the
Ways and Means committee to give
his views on the tariff re-
spect to its effect upon the agricultural
interest.
in
not protect the farmer “to the value of |
arow of pins,” adding that if the pur-
pose of Congress is to afford protection
to those engaged in farming it must
either provide them with treasury
bounties or reduce the tariff on what
they consume.
Farmers who are gifted with practi-
cal sense know the injury that results
from public subsidies,and consequently
do not want to have their business
bolstered by treasury bounties. They
would prefer to have a fair field for
their exertions which would be best af-
forded them by such a tariff reduction
as would enable them to procure the
necessaries at cheaperrates. Increase
of tariff duties on wheat, corn, pota-
toes, beef, pork and other agricultural
productions in which no other country
can compete with the United States,
would be a perfect farce as a measure
of protection to American farmers.
Quay Should Declare His Choice.
The Pottsville Miners’ Journal asks
Senator QUAY to make a declaration of
his choice for Governor. Ie certainly
ought to do this and relieve the Repub-
licans of the State of the embarrassment
of making their own selection, The old
party has got out of the habit of choos-
ing ite candidates for Governor and oth-
er State officers, the CaMcroxs, and
more recently Quav,taking the trouble
of performing that duty off its hands.
A number of candidates for Governor
are exciting themselves and th: party
by their opposing claims for the
nomination, the general conviction
among them being that in the wind up
itaill all depend upon what Quay says.
If he should say it now it,would termi-
nate the contention that is going on
among a number of ambitious gentle-
men who are aspiring to be the succes-
sor of JAMES A. Braver through the
dictum of the Boss. We agree with
our Pottsville contemporary. Quay
ought to say whom he wants to hav®
on the ticket as the candidate for
Governor. The party expects it and
will cheerfully yield to his choice.
Inauguration of Ohio’s Democratic
Governor.
The inauguration of Governor Cap- |
BELL at Columbus on Mouday was a
great demonstration. Fully 30,000
strangers were in the city. About
seventy-five political organizations were
represented by delegations of various
numbers, and twenty companies of
militia took part in the parade.
In his inaugural address the Gover-
nor recommended the immediate repeal
of the law enacted during the adminis-
tration of his predecessor, putting tbe
government of a number of municipali-
ties in the hands of the governor. This
he denounced as contrary to the spirit
of our institutions and opposed to home
rule. He recommended the appoint-
ment of a school book commission to
the end that cheaper books may be
furnished to the school children of the
State. The office of state commissioner
of railroads, he said, “is more orna-
mental than useful,” and he recom-
mended that it be abolished, and that
a railroad commissioner with fuller
powers be created to do the work this
official has been supposed to do. He
warmly commended the Australian bal-
lot system, giving a brief history of its
operation where tried, and pronouncing
it the most thorough and practical re-
form of the ballot system that has ever
been proposed.
———The ill health of the little king
of Spain, who is still not much more
than a baby, is sufficient to excite great
political uneasiness in that mori
bund old kingdom. There is sufficient
cause for this, as the death of the lit-
tle fellow would be likely to set going
the claims of conflicting dynastic fac-
tions among which the Don Carlos
gang would be the most demonstrative.
Spain's monarchical establishment is
ot not much value to her, and yet
probably it is better than the kind of
republic that her politically demoral-
ized people would be capable of estab- |
lishing.
He said that the tariff does |
|
Death of Congressman Kelly.
Hon. WiLLiay D. KELLY, of Phi'a-
delphia, the oldest member of Congress,
whose extreme illness we mentioned
last week, died on the 9th inst., at his
residence in Washington. The popular
branch of the federal legislature has
thus lost a highly respected and in
some ways useful member, and his dis-
trict,which is strongly Republican, will
find it difficult to get a representative
who will more strictly and ably support
the principies of the majority of its
voters. Mr. Kenny was continuously
in Congress, representing the same dis-
trict, since 1860, and during that long
time he was an uncompromising advo-
cate and supporter of a tariff system
which has built up vast monopolies
and reduced the average wealth of
the common mass of citizens. He
lived to see his pet system operate
as one of the canses in producing a
class of millionaires, a very limited
number of whom possess the bulk of
the wealth of the country. The work-
ing people would not have reason to
lament if Mr. KeLLy's death should be
followed by the gradual decline and
final extinction of fiscal methods which
he so long and zealously supported.
rm ————
The Question of the World’s Fair in
Congress.
Since the re-assembling of Congress
after the holiday vacation, it may be
expected that the question ot the loca-
tion of the World's Fair, which will
depend very much upon the congres-
sional appropriation, will be taken up
in earnest. Four cities are contending
for the favor ot Congress in this matter.
A gentleman who has carefully can-
vassed the preference of the members
on the question of location, says that
71 are for Chicago, 70 for St. Louis, 64
for New York and 34 for Washington,
If this is a correct estimate it would
seem that the commercial metropolis
is decidedly in the minority. But New
York has the advantage of being the
second choice of all the others. Both"
St. Louis and Washington would soon-
er go to New York than to Chicago,
and will do so when the final test is
between the eastern and western metrop-
olis, which shape the contestis pretty
sure to take before itis definitely set-
tled. Chicago, under any circumstan-
ces, would prefer New York to St.
Louis. The danger is that the con-
troversy will be kept up so long that
there will not be time enough to make
the necessary preparations for the
great fair.
Playing a Fine Game.
Some people think they see a come-
dy in the great attention which Quay
last week paid Hastings at Washing-
ton. The Adjutant General was the
special guest of the junior Pennsylva-
nia Senator, who entertained him and
Mrs. Hasrines at the Quay mension,
brought them in touch with the lead-
ing notables, introduced them to the
President, the Postmaster General and
other members of the cabinet, and took
them to a round of teas, parties and
receptions.
The superficial observer might take
this as an indication that the Boss in-
tends to give Hastings the nomination
for Governor. But there are others
who believe that Pennsylvania's auto-
crat is merely tickling the young Cen-
tre county statesman so that he may
be in a good humor and not be dispos-
ed to kick when he islet down. There
can be no question that the Boss is
playing a fine game and that his re-
cent effusive attentions to the Adjutant
General are intended to cover some ul-
terior design.
He Ought to Be Satisfactory.
The Democrats of the Ohio Legisla-
ture have nominated and elected Car-
viN S. Brice United States Senator in
place of Senator PAYNE whose term is
about to expire. There was consider-
able opposition to Mr. Brick, and some
talk about bolting his nomination was
indulged in, but the influence of Judge
TrUrRMAN was exerted to produce har
mony by advising against any such
hostile movemen.,. A Democrat
of more public experience than Mr.
Brice might have been selected, but
when his abilities and fidelity to Demo-
cratic principles are satiefactory to
Judge THURMAN his election ought to
satisfy the party at large.
[atcha
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 17, 1890.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—In five years the business of the. Pittsburg”
Post Office has been more than doubled.
—On account of a dispute between some re-
ligious bodies Sellersville is without a Sunday
school.
—Steve Edkins, of Williamsport, placed an
old horse ina barn and left it there to die of
starvation.
—The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of
Chester county will hereafter insure against
wind-storms.
—Alexander’s hat factory at Reading has
been closed on account of the ravages of the
grip among the employes.
—On the farm of Jacob Clemens, near Spring
City, there was born a calf without eyes, but
otherwise perfectly formed.
—Jeremiah Horn, 11 years old, of Pottsville,
stole a ride on a coal train, and in attempting
toalight had a leg cut off,
—Darius H. Price, aged 63 years, dropped
dead in a blashsmith shop on Monday at
Wilkesbarre, while talking to his son. :
—A Hungarian woman at Scranton beat with
a soup ladle the policeman who was
her husband and hurt him badly.
—Mr. Walker, of Easton, ex-Superintendent
of the public schools of Northampton county,
was taken to the poorhouse several days ago.
arresting
—Some miscreant at Scranton threw a stone
through: the electric clock of Lewis Rhiehart
Which he has been many years construet..
ing.
—One of the girl inmates of the Morganza
Reformatory set fire to the place in order that
she might be sent to jail to join her sister who
-| is there.
~—A Bullet accidentally shot from a pistol
being cleaned by John Drake, of Homestead,
entered his mother's head last Thursday and:
killed her.
—The Williamsport Local Flood Commission
has an unexpended balance of over $13,000, .
and will soon decide on the disposition to be
made of it.
—The fact that a lawsuit was brought against
her husband so preyed upon the mind ofa
Latrobe woman that she made two attempts to
take her life.
—Applieants for liquor licenses at Pitts -
burg are applying for both wholesale and!’
retail licenses, in the hope that they will get
one or the other.
—Jonn G. Whittier, the poet, has written
Mrs. 8] L. Oberholtzer, of Norristown, as-
suring her that he still remembers and loves
his old friends.
—The firm of Carnegie, Phipps: & Co. has
been censurad by the Coroner of Beaver Falls
for gross negligence, which caused the death
of a workman.
—The Dickson Manufacturning Company
of Scranton received an order from the On
tario and Western Railroad to build twenty
five locomotives.
—While cleaning out the vault in the cellar
of his restaurant, G. T. Burridge found two
snapping turtles that had been thrown there-
three years ago and forgotten.
—A son and two daughters ot Harvey Skean,
of Pottstown, have died with in the past two
weeks of diphtheria, and another child is
seriously ill with the same disease.
—C. J. Mellvaine, a well-known contractor
and builder at Alleghany, who had done much
work for the city, was unjiistly arrested as a
, suspicious character a few days ago.
—Enoch Kitterer, of Pittsburg, aged 78 years
was married on Thursday to Mrs. Julia Kromer.
who is a few years younger. All the children of
the contracting parties are married.
—Ata wedding at the residence of Charles
Miller, near New Bethlehem,. two sons. and’ a
daughter entered the married state, and the
ceremony was performed by another son.
—Threatened with arrest for the nonpay
ing of his [board bill, W. E. Morris, aboarder
at the Madison House, in Pottstown, sough
revenge by attempting suicide in his room.
—Ricbard R. Quay, son ef the junior Sena’
tor, has begun a suit against the proprietor of’
an oil establishment which adjoins his father’s
home at Beaver, on the ground that it isa
public nuisance.
—The electrical shocks that killed two horses
and stunned a lineman in Pitisburg seem to
have shocked the whole community, and Chief:
‘ Bigelow has promised that all wires will be
buried within a year.
—The railroad authorities refused to ship,
the body of Mrs. Oscar Miller, of Hamburg
who died of scarlet fever, and it was found
necessary to drive the funeral cortege thirty
miles to the cemetery.
—Joseph Kridy, a Hungarian, who kept ar
boarding-house at South Bethlehem, clubbeda
son of one of his boarders because the child
had been taken ill with scerlet fever and caus-~
ed the house to be quarantined.
—Mounted on the back of a restless mus-
tang, Henry Kurtz, an aged resident of Kurtz
House, rode into the bar-room of the hotel’ at
that place and took a drink. The man who
lost the bet paid for the drink.
—Having no money to pay for the hire of
the carriage in which he had taken a lady
friend driving, Arthur Matthews, bf Pittsburg,
sent the team: back to the stable in the girl’s
care. She was arrested and held.
—A constable armed with a warrant for a
Reading boy sat in the parlor, being enter-
tained by the father, waiting for the boy to
come down stairs, but the youth escaped out of
a window and over neighboring roofs.
—The residence and grocery store of A. A
Stevens and the general store of Jacob Krugh
& Co., at Orbisonia, Huntingdon county, were
destroyed by an incendiary fire Friday morn
ing. Total loss, $12,000; partly insured.
—Mrs. Gilroy, a maliciovs old woman living
on the outskirts of Pottstown, has successfully
resisted all efforts of constables to arrest her
Ina few days anumber of officers will adopt
military tactics and proceed against her house
in a body.
—Patrick Gallagher,aged 56 years, a resident
of Plymouth township, Montgomerv county,
while driving to Conshohocken on Friday af-
ternoon stopped at a toll-gate near that place,
and while in the act of paying toll fell over and
expired trom heart disease.
—At South Side, Pittsburg, a big black New-
foundland dog holds possession of a highway.
His companion, an animal which is the exact
counterpart of the dog, died in the middle o
the road, and the living animal refuses to
leave the body or allow any one to come near it
—Philip Harman, blind and penniless, and
his wife, who have been living in filth and
squalor in an old hut in the out-skirts of Lan-
caster, and who have resisted all efforts of
charitably-disposed persons to remove them,
were taken by force to the county almshouse
a few days ago by Grand Army comrades of
the blind man, :