Ink Slings.
—The blizzards are interfering with
the banana’s being a sure crop in Da-
kota.
—It would appear that MATTHEW
STANLEY QUAY was the victim of a
wicked partner.
--QuAy'’s vindication is very interest-
ing reading, but it does not convince a
discerning public that MAT is a martyr.
—Would it be less offensive to Sir
JouN McDoNALD's bumptiousness if the
United States were annexed to Can-
ada ?
— Whisky and dynamite are a deadly
combination that couldn’t have been de-
vised by any one but the agent of a
whisky trust.
——February has not fulfilled the pre-
dictions of the weather prophets. It has
even compromised the wisdom of the
ground hog.
--The weather we had this week was
calculated to fool the crocus out of the
ground and to inveigle the blue bird into
premature song.
—The little fellows in the Republican
party who are denouncing Dox CAME-
RON will want to get under his wing in
the next campaign.
—Itis hoped that GORMAN is not
fated to become a favorite of the New
York Sun. He is too good a man to be
sacrificed in that way.
—The belief that CLEVELAND has
committed suicide by writing his silver
letter has set DANA to dancing with glee
that is more than ghoulish.
Mrs. CLEVELAND, it is said, is learn-
ing to play the violin. Probably she
intends to furnish the music when the
Republicans are waltzed out of office in
1893.
—A New York lawyer, of the name
Parsons, gota fee of $400,000 for or-
ganizing the Sugar Trust. The people
help to pay for this when they sweeten
their coffee.
—By buying his own tombstone be-
fore he died General SHERMAN may
have prevented his memory from being
unpleasantly associated with a monu-
ment scandal.
—-The colored troops have an advantage
over their white fellow soldiers in an In-
dian war, in that the redskinned enemy
consider it ‘bad medicine” to take a
scalp that is covered with wool.
—The bill to provide every congress-
man with a clerk failed to pass the House
not because the members didn’t like the
measure, but because they were afraid
their constituents wouldn’t like it.
--The nation that believes that En-
gland’s navy isan cffete establishment
would be likely to get itself into trauble
if, acting upon that impression,it should
trifle with the old mistress of the sea.
—If it wasn’t customary for the rain
to fall equally on the unjust and the
just we would think that the Democrats
of Belletonte received such a Waterloo
on Tuesday because it was such a wet
day.
—An English socialist says that the
trouble in this country is that there is
not enough discontent. Ie evidently
doesn’t know anything about the feel-
ings of the politicians who are out of
office.
—1It js to be hoped that Mr. CLEVE-
LAND may not be placed in the pre-
dicament in which Mr. BLAINE found
himself when he was forced to make a
frantic appeal for the incineration of his
letters.
—If editor WATTERSON hal consult-
ed the Star Eyed Geddess she would
have advised him not to write the letter
which was sure to cause a coolness be-
tween two such distinguished Democrat.
as himself and Governer HILL.
—A manager who has a new rendi-
tion of Pinafore on the stage in New
York insists upon the female singers ap-
pearing in tights, but it may be asked
An what way is a display of legs essen-
tial to the success of a musical perform-
ance ?
—1t is reported that Emperor WIL-
LIAM is strongly disposed to banish Bis-
MARCK from Germany for talking too
‘much. Wouldn't it be the irony of fate
if the ex-chancellor should be ignomin-
iously hustled out of the empire which
he may besaid to have created ?
—A Kansas genius claims to have
invented a process that will produce
eggs by artificial means and intends to
get a patent fcr it. In view of a com-
petition so ruinous to their industry the
hens have reason to cackle their dissent
as loudly as the protectionists did in the
last Presidential campaign.
—The Press in a recent issue publi sh-
- ed a picture showing how the wicked
Democrats have gercvmandered Ala-
bama. The politicians of that State
have made some unshapely looking dis-
tricts, but we will leave it to our esteem-
ed contemporary whether their expert-
ness as gerrymanderers surpasses that of
the Republicans who in every state
- where they have had the chance have
done a job of that kind.
VV ON
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 36.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FEBRUARY 20,
1891. NO 7.
Common Sense on the Silver Question.
The very fact that this country pro-
duces large quantities of silver natur-
ally leads the people to desire a liberal
monetary ase of it. It is difficult to
make them believe that what nature
has so abundantly supplied will be in-
jurious if plentifully used as a circulat-
ing medium. Hence the popularity
of the proposition of free silver coinage.
Subject to certain modifications there
seems to be good reason for the de-
mand that silver should be used to the
full extent of its production,the same as
any other production of the country.
That modification should consist in pre-
venting the silver producer from get
ting more for his product than it is real-
ly worth in the market. When a farmer
produces a bushel ot wheat, the value
of which is eighty cents in the market,
he gets but eighty cents for it. There
is no law, and there shouldn’t be any,
to compel purchasers to pay for it twen-
ty cents more than the market price.
The same rule should obtain in the
case of thesilver producer. Themarket
price of so much of his production as
will make a dollar is somewhere about
eighty cents. Why should he get a
dollar for it? This is giving him an
advantage over the farmer or any oth-
er producer that is not right.
Eliminate this feature from the free
coinage proposition and its object
in our opinion is rendered unobjection-
able. The silver producer has his
commodity for use; the country wants
the use of it. Let him take it to the
government mints as the farmer takes
his grain to the mill. As the farmer
doesn’t get from the miller more than
eighty cents for eighty cents’ worth of
grain, the silver man should be treated
at the mint on the same basis of value.
He shouldu’t be authorized by law to
get more for his product than it is
worth in the market. But when the
government puts the stamp of a dollar
on his silver, eighty cents worth of it
becomes practically worth one hundred
cents. Why should he be allowed this
20 per cent bonus? If this unfair ad-
vantage should be removed there doesn’t
seem to be any valid reason why those
who produce a precious metal which
in all time has been used as money,
shouidn’t take it to the mints, pay the
expense of converting a dollar's worth
of it into a dollar's worth of coin, and
put it in circulation, either as metalic
currency or its representative certifi-
cates, for the benefit of the public.
This appears to be a common seuse
solution of the silver coinage question.
Of course there are financial experts
who see disaster in this plain method
of putting silver to its legitimate use.
They resort to their finely spun mono-
metallic and bimetallic distinctions,and
see a natural antagonism between gold
and silver that 1n their opinion is sure
to knock one or the other out. Bat it
may be well to remember that when
an enlarged silver coinage was propos-
ed some years ago there were financial
alarmists who were sure that it would
knock all the gold out of the country ;
yet, irstead of having that effect, after
$450,000,000 of silver has been coined
there is more gold in the country than
there was when the Bland bill was
passed.
——Nothing else was looked for
than that the Republicans would carry
the municipal election in Philadel phia
on Tuesday. A good deal was said
ahout having a new Philadelphia, but
it was too much to expect that any
other thansthe old way of getting it
would be tried. EpwiN L. Stuarr,
the Republican candidate for Mayor,
beat Lapxer, the Democratic candi-
date, by a majority of about 40,000.
Most of the Republican councilmen
were elected. The Committee of Fifty,
operating for reform, made very little
impression upon the result, the coun:
cilmanic fight going largely against
that organization. There was a heavy
falling off in the Democratic vote.
The Press doesn't think very
highly ot Senator Quay’s de’e:se. It
fears that it “has been delayed too
long to do much good,” and that what
he has now done ‘should have been
done at least ten months ago.” The
leading party organ of the State has
discarded the servility to Quay and
CaMeroN which has so long held the
Republican press of Pennsylvania in
thrall.
Mr. Cleveland and the Silver Question.
The letter of ex-President CLEVELAND
to the anti-silver mass meeting in New
Yorl last week, expressing his opposi-
tion to the free-coinage of silver, has
created something of an excitement in
political circles and drawn out a varie-
ty of views in regard to it. It should
not, however, occasion surprise, for it
was merely a reiteration of sentiments
in regard to silver which Mr. CLevE-
LAND had previously expressed.
Some of his friends appear to believe
that he made a mistake in taking the
position he has on this question. They
fear that it will interfere with his re-
nomination for President, even going
80 far as to say that it pues him entire-
ly out of the question as a candidate,
as there is such a determination, par-
ticularly in the West and South, for
more silver that his expressed opposi-
tion to it places him in antagonism
to a powerful and growing public
sentiment.
Probably the ex-President
have acted more prudently for his own
good as a Presidential candidate if he
hadn’t been so candid in giving his
silver views, but whether the expres.
sion he has made will have an inju-
rious effect upon his candidacy will de-
pend very much upon whether the tar-
iff or the silver question shall be the
predominant one in 1892. It the
Democratic party a year hence shall
coatinue to consider the reform of ua-
just and oppressive tariff laws as of
paramount importance—if they shall
determine to reap the advantage of the
economic education which the peonle
have been receiving since 1888—a dif:
would
ference in regard to silver coinage may
not prevent Mr. CLEVELAND from be-
Besides, a year's
time and the pressing political exigen-
ices of a Presidential campaign may
subordinant silver to questions of more
inz the nominee,
urgent importance.
Bat fortunately the fortune of the
Democratic party is not dependent
upon the availability of any particular
candidate. Its principles are broad
and there are a namber of leaders
from whom may be selected a suitable
representative of those principles in
the coming Presidential contest.
Impertinent.
The Americus Club, a political or-
ganization of Piutsburg has been guilty
of the foolishness of calling upon Sena-
tor CAMERON to resign because of “his
support of the free coinage of silver
notwithstanding that the people whom
he represents are opposed to it.”’ By
what means has this Americus Club
ascertained that a majority of Senator
CAMERON'S constituents are opposed
to the free coinage of silver? That
measure may not be approved by a
majority of the people of Pennsylva-
nia, but they have given no expression
on the subject that could serve as a
guide or warrant to their representa-
tives.
This silver question has been too
recently and indefinitely interjected in-
to politics to be made a test of the po-
litical standing aud party fidelity of
public men. A Republican ora Demo-
crat can be for free coinage or against
it without being subject to the charge
of being uuture to his party, and we
doubt not that, taking this view of the
matter, Senator Cameron will regard
the action of the Americus Club in call-
ing upon him to resign on account of
his vote on the coinage question, as a
piec: of impertinent intermeddling.
Doesn’t Want It Investigated.
There is good reason for believing
that the census of New York was in-
correctly taken, the defects being caus
el either by careless work or by de-
liberate design. Whatever may have
been the fault, a wrong was done the
State, particularly as the evident defi-
ciency in the report cf the population,
to the extent of several hundred thous-
and, deprives it of the representation
in congress that it is entitled to. Under
the circumstances the New York Leg
islature was justified in appointing a
special committee to inquire into the
methods employed in taking the ‘cen-
sue and the manner in which the work
was done. It was to be an inquiry in-
to a matter of great importance to the
State. But Superintendent Porter in-
structs his subordinates that they need
not answer any questions concerning
the census, or give any information
about the way they did their work.
What other inference can be drawn
from this than that the work was
done in a way that won't bear investi-
gation ? The Superintendent says that
he doesn’t object to an examination of
the books if it be nrade “through the
properly constituted authorities,” but
if the Legislature of a State, inquiring
into a matter of great importance to
that State, isn’t authority worthy of
being considered properly constituted,
we should like to know what authority
would be considered as being up to the
required mark? But the fact is that
Porter doesn’t want any authority,
whether properly constituted or other-
wise, to investigate the methods of the
New York census by which’ the pop-
ulation of the State was cut down some
200,000 for a shameful partisan pur-
pose,
A ————
Baby Business.
It was a singular position the Re-
publican State Senators took last week
in condemning Governor Parrisox for
vetoing the concurrent resolution cen-
suring Senator CamMERoN for his action
on the Force Bill question. What
would they have wanted the Governor
to do It the matter? By their own
act they forced him into an expression
of his sentiments on the subject, for the
passage of such a resolution constitu-
tionally required that he should ap-
prove or disapprove it. Could they
expect that it would meet his approv-
al? As an opponent of the Force Bill,
had he any other recourse than to dis-
approve a resolution which censured
Senator CaMeRroN for being also an op-
ponent of the Force Bill ?
It was baby business that the Repub-
lican Senators engaged in when they
condemned the Governor for ‘doing
what they gave him the chance to do
and what was entirely in line with with
his constitutional power and duty.
Nothing couldhave been sillier than
to charge bim with trying to promote
a Presidential boom by the perform-
ance of a functional act that was clear-
ly within his official province. There
18 reason to believe that in the case
‘in question he did what he thought
was right without any ulterior purpose.
—
Something About Our Currency.
At this time when the question of
making more dollars for the use of the
people is under consideration; some-
thing about the different kinds of mon
ey that constitute the circulating me-
dium in this country may be of interest.
A writer on this subject gives some
facts which when condensed amount
to the following :
The gold dollar is 23.22 grains of
pure gold, worth intrinsically every-
where 100 cents. It is said to cost that
to get it out of the ground and purify it.
The silver dollar is 371} grains of pure
silver, worth now intrinsically 83 cents.
The gold dollar is represented in our
circulating medium by the gold certifi-
cate, the silver dollar by the silver cer-
tificate. The gold and silver to redeem
these certificates are in the treasury at
Washington. The greenback is a mere
promise to pay. It has behind it the
credit of the United States and $100,-
000,000 of gold kept to redeem it. The
uational bank notes represent the assets
of the stockholders of such banks, and
are further secured by government
bonds and thecredit of the United
States. The new silver treasury notes
have behind them the bullion held by
the governmument and the credit of
the government. In round numbers the
currency and coin in circulation
amount to $1,500,000,000. This sum
is made up as follows: Gold, $386,
939,723 ; silver dollars, $62,142,454 ;
subsidiary silver and fractional cur-
rency, $56,311,846 ; gold certificates,
$158,104,739 ; silver certificates, $309,.
321,207 ; United States notes, $340,-
905,726 ; national bank notes, $177,-
250,514, In 1870 the circulation per
capita was $19.97 ; in 1880, $20,37 ; it
is now $23.28.
M. S. Quay displayed astonish-
of Bake WALTERS's connection with
the speculation in which the State
money was used, he said: “I had
every assurance that my associate was
able to carry his share of the losses.”
No one knew better than Quay that
poor WALTERS wasn’t worth a .dollar
without taking it from the treasury.
ing disingenuousness when in speaking |
Mr. Quay’s Remarkable Defense.
The public are interested as well as
amused by the defense which Senator
Quay made in the Senate on Monday
against the charges that have assailed
his personal and official reputation. It
had been rumored for some months
that the Senator would make this de-
fense, but at different times reasons
were given for its delay. He has now
done what is evidently the best he
could do in replying to the bill of in-
dictment upon which he was tried by
the people of Pennsylvania last fall
and condemned,
It will strike the average reader that
the Senator did not select the proper
time for making his defense. Ie
should have made it last year when
the charges were fresh and flying
through the country, and the place to
make it should have been in the courts,
where, if he was innocent, he could
have haa the evidence to prove that
his enemies were libelously and falsely
assailing him. That would have been
satisfactory to the public, and
should have been more satisfacto-
ry to himself, than an unsubstantiated
denial in the Senate.
A sample of this ipse dizit sort ot de-
fense appears in what he saysin refu-
tation of one of the leading charges
against him, as follows:
The first assertion concerning my official
acts is that at some time or continuously be-
tween the years of 1879 and 1852 I alone, or act,
ing with another or others, used the monies of
the state of Pennsylvania for speculative or
private purposes. I denounce this statement
as absolutely false. In 1877 the Democratic
party of Pennsylvania elected a State treasur-
er and an auditor general and the financial of-
ficer of the commonwealth. A year or two
later pending their termsof office I became en-
gaged in stock operations. In some transac-
tions I was associated and jointly interested
with the gentleman who was at that time
cashier of the state treasury. These transac
tions proved seriously disastrous and I was
compelled to pay a portion of his losses as well
as my own. In doingthis it became necessa-
ry to supply an alleged deficiency he had caus-
ed in the treasury as a portion of the fund.
For this purpose I borrowed $100,000 from the
gentleman who is at present my colleague in
the Senate. I gave him a judgment note there.
for, the amount of which note I paid to
him dollar for dollar years sgo. Not until the
beginning of the settlement of our losses was
I aware that a deficiency existed, and I had
every assurance that my associate was able to
carry his snare of the losses. My connection
thereafter was simply with the aid of friends
to raise the necessary funds to supply the de-
ficiency.
This is far from being a satisfactory
denial of the charge that he had used
for a speculative purpose money be-
longing to the Sate treasury. It
would appear from the Senator's state-
ment that the $100,000 he admits
having borrowed from Senator CAMERON
was obtained for the purpose of help-
ing Bake WALTERS out of the difficuls
ty he got into through “the alleged de-
ficiency he had caused in the treasury”
by losing the money in an unsuccess-
ful speculation. Is it probable that
Mr. Quay acted out of sheer sympathy
for Warrers and hada’t any difficulty
of his own in connection with the
transaction from which it was necessa-
ry to extricate himself ?
The Sendtor could have made his in-
understanding of the people if he had
vindicated himself in a court of justice.
Mr. Wayne McVeagr and Senator
Cameron would have been effective
witnesses to prove that their assistance
was not secured to relieve Mr. Quay
from a treasury deficiency, if the
charge to that effect was not true.
The Senator takes up, in succession,
the other charges that were made
against him, and denies them in detail,
butsuch denial under the circumstances
attending his case, unsupported by any-
thing like evidence, carries no more
weight with 1t than does the ordinary
plea of “not guilty” in the courts. That
he was 1n a deal with the cashier ofthe
State treasury in which the State moa-
ey was used, without his being cog-
nizant of the criminality of the trans-
action, hasn’t even a shade of plausi-
bility.
It was a refreshing sight to see
a Pennsylvania Republican cpngress-
man administer a good carrying to a
member of Mr. HarrisoN's cabinet, as
Mr.DarzerL did to Secretary Tracey for
wrongfully censuring Commander Re1-
' Ter. The congressman showed that he
had a better understanding of the func-
| tions of the American flag and of the
| requirements of national honor than is
and had no money to put into the deal | possessed by one of the most prominent | No. slope, oppos
and responsible of the cabinet officers.
nocence more evident to the common and $5000 cash tempt J. H. Sternbergh to
Spawls from the Keystone,
—Allegheny has 1600 liquor license applica-
tions.
—A Carbondale Justice has not tried a cas
for over a year.
—During last year 2, 533,84 barrels of beer
were made in this State.
—Mrs. Fisher, of Hummelstown, died while
praying at her bedside.
—A Lock Haven oyster opener found a $40
pearl in a bivalve recently.
—Allentown’s seventh shoe factory is pro-
jected to employ fifty hands.
—Two young men at Sharpsburg fought a
duel with coaching whips.
—Tax Collector J. 0. Ssnnberg, of Bradford,
is charged with a $2000 shortage.
—The English syndicate won't buy the
Crane iron works at Catasauqua.
—Albert Gerhart’s 1-year old baby ate a mor-
phia pill at Wernersville and died.
—The Laurel Fire Company, of York, has
celebrated its 10lst anniversary.
—The fifth convention of Sanitarians will be
held at Altoona on May 15 and 16.
—Four law firms in Delaware county have
dissolved since the first of the year.
—A fall from a Lancaster hay-loft and a
broken back killed William Simmons.
—William L. Scott, of Erie, intends to erect
a $200,000 residence and a $100,000 hotel.
—A severe hail-storm swept through the
southern end of Lancaster county last week.
- Rev. George Cooper, of Wilkesbarre,was ar-
rested on the eve of his wedding for forgery.
—Carnegie, Phipps & Co., are about to take a
contract for naval armor involving $3,500,000.
—The Farmers’ Institute at Kennett Square -
drew about as many farmers’ wives as farmers.
—Tramp labor on the highways has been
unprofitable in Cumberland county and aban-
doned.
—Legislators are looking into Norristown’s
claims for State aid for her asylum and hos-
pital.
—At the Union Depot in Pittsburg 56,000
pieces of baggage were handled during Jan-
uary. ;
—'I'ke 10 per cent. reduction still keeps the
miners, cokers and operators apartin the coke
region.
—Judge Harry White, of Indiana county, is -
in the field for the United States District
Judgeship.
—The Economites landed in this country
eighty-six years ago, and have property valued
at $15,000,000.
—A flock of 114 crows which had been
caught for trap-shooting at Berkley escaped a
few days ago.
—James Statton, of Sharpsburg, a 70-year-old
storekeeper, attacked and beat a bully who en-
tered his store a few days ago.
—Widow Muskovitch is insane as a result of
the Jeanesville mining horror. Five boarders
perished with her husband.
—Rich Oliver H. P. Stern’s will at Hoken-
dauqua orders an autopsy upon the decedent
within two days after death.
David Fox survived last year's Notingham
mine explosion to be killed by a blast near
Wilkesbarre on Thursday.
—While in Scranton a few days ago John L.
Sullivan made a generous donation for the
families of the miners killed reeently.
—During a fight ina Reading saloon a man
and a chair, to which he was holding, were
thrown together through a $75 plate-glass.
—The three miners rescued alive from. the
Nanticoke mine will join a museum and. exhi.
bit themselves for a term of six months.
—A peculiar disease is raging among horses
in the vicinity of Monongehela City. Many
persons report having lost valuable animals.
—Whooping cough and pneumonia have re-
moved two of Michael A. Foley’s children at
Reading within a week, and a third maydie.
—Mrs. Sarah Elmer, of Columbia, Lancaster
county, wes fata 1 barned by her dress taking
fire while she was getting supper on Tuesday.
—Coffins are ordered and graves dug for all
the seventeen entombed miners al Jeanes.
ville, whose bodies may be reached: by Mon~
' day.
—Robert Wallace, of West New: Castle, fell
and broke his leg and was compslled to. erawl
to hi: home, half a mile away, over: the rough
road.
—Lehigh County Auditors have met annual.
ly tor twenty-five years in a bank, The law
stipulates the Court House, and there is a row
over it.
—Peter McManus, a boy 12 years old, broke
thr ough the ice at Wilkesbarre on Saturday,
‘and was drowned. He is the son.of a promin-
ent man.
—A stray bullet went through a knot of hair
at the back of the head of Mrs. Curtin S. Bare,
of Pittsburg, while she sat at a window in-
Huntingdon.
—Free site, free water, no taxes for ten years
erect his nut and bolt works in a city that
. rivals Reading.
—Two masked men broke into the house of.
I. B. Kinter, of Derry, and for their pains re-
esived a terrible beating at the hands of Mr.
Kinter and his son.
—A pin got stuck in young Harry Rittle’s
throat at Bethel on Christmas. It has just
worked out through his. larynx. He couldn’t
swallow, and was half starved.
—Fifteen persons at Freeport have been
held for maliciously painting the jail at
that place. The color was changed from a
sombre rod to a dazzling white.
—Joseph Fisher, of Allentown, has been
showered with misfortune. Thieves broke in
and stole $700 recently, and the next day the
Sheriff took charge of his place.
—Congressman Brunner tells Reading
American mechanies that he “will favor any
reasonable bill to restrict immigration that
may be presented in the House.”
—Three of the sixteen Cherryville Cemetery
desacrators at Easton were convicted and
fined $15 and costs each! The other thirteen
pleaded guilty and got similar sentences.
—A Hungarian looking for his brether, a
victim of the Jeanesville mine disaster, was
with difficulty restrained in his desperation
from jumping down the shaft of the mine.
—The condition of William West, the con-
demned murderer at Washington, has assum-
ed sich a serious aspect that itis feared he will
not live until the time set for his execution.
—Edward Workheiser and his team dropped
through the earth into an abandoned mine
sixty feet deep in Williams township, North.
ampton county. Workmen are digging for
them
—Ninety million gallons of water had failed,
as late as Monday, to extinguish the fire in
ite Nanticoke though it is ex-
| pected to die out before the 100,000,000 gallon
mark is reached.