BY P. GRAY MEEK.
=
Ink Slings.
—The lightning rod sharper will soon
be on his rounds.
—Gas-ADDICKS has given Delaware to
QUAY. Birds of a feather like to roost on
the same perch.
—The sweet old refrain : ‘Maryland, my
Maryland,”’ is now heard about the Mc-
KINLEY house in Massillon.
—1It isn’t possible that the size of their
feet has anything to do with the backward-
ness of Bellefonte’s fair cyclists to don
bloomers.
Mai who have succeeded in whittling
their moral sensibilities down to the fine
point of nothing should begin to broaden
‘their minds, lest they fall into fanaticism.
—QUAY does not seem to be saying much
of late. He must be sawing wood to make
it hot for MCKINLEY at St. Louis, while
his right bower, Tod PLATT, does the blow-
ing.
—~Goodness alive, they are talking about
another gold bond issue already. There
is no telling what our present irredeemable
always reissuable demand note system will
lead to.
—Mrs. PRETZELL, the wife of a Greens-
burg baker, walked out of her husband’s
shop the other day anc has not been heard
of since. There is no telling what might
have gobbled her up, since pretzels are very
palatable eating.
—About forty-five per cent of the sailors
and marines in Uncle SAM’S navy are of
foreign birth. That makes little difference
so long as they continue to be respected by
foreign powers. The guns on the boats
they man are home-made, however.
—With fifty-nine candidates for political
office in the county it is little wonder that
the predictions are for a failure of the
wheat crop. So many office seekers would
tramp down more grain than all the hus-
bandmen in Centre county could set up.
—The wonderful speed attained by the
new cruiser Brooklyn, on her recent trials,
ought to have a quickening effect on the
poky ambulations of the people of the
city whose name she bears. It would not
hurt the average Brooklynite to move with
a little of the speed generated hy the new
boat.
—If Bellefonters would get as agitated
over the salvation of their souls as they ap-
pear to be over the location of evangelist
WEAVER’S gospel tabernacle there would
be no need for a tabernacle and we are sure
Mr. WEAVER would. be happy in the
thought that his services would not be
needed either.
—DAVE MARTIN is getting braver and
braver. He now predicts that the entire
Pennsylvania. delegation to St. Louis will
vote for MCKINLEY on the first ballot.
DAVE should charge for such prognostica-
tions like Rev. Hicks, the weather prophet,
does. Their work is about on a par as to
real value.
—If there is really anything in the talk
of necessity of another bond sale to main-
tain the gold reserve, we would advise Sec-
retary CARLISLE to follow the French ex-
ample of redeeming demand notes with a
percentage of silver. That would stop the
drain on the treasury and be in conformity
with an exact interpretation of the law.
—MCKINLEY seems to have the longest
pole for the persimmon kn\cking contest
that will come off, in St. \Louis, next
month. If that were all he Wight have
grounds for being a very happy wan, but
as there has never been one with a Mc in
hisname who has been elected President
BILL is not likely to break the precedent.
—The great arm of the Methodist church
gave the race barrier a terrific battering, at
Cleveland, on Monday, when the general
conference, there assembled, resolved that
the election of a colored bishop would not
be class legislation and endorsed the action
of Cleveland hotel keepers for admitting
white and black guests on the same plane.
—Should Spain carry out her sentence of
death to the five Americans, captured on
board the filibustering steamer Competitor,
which was recently captured within the
three mile limit, off Cuba, she will have
sounded the knell of her own death as far
as any spark of toleration might yet be
flickering in the United States for her
course of tyranny over the pearl of the
Antilles.
—Captain General WEYLER is trying to |
play the spider and fly dodge on the Cuban
patriots. Having lately extended the time
during which the patriots can return and
be forgiven he sits in his parlor, Mora
castle, with a butcher knife up his sleeve,
waiting. But, we trust, in vain. Cuba is
getting nearer freedom every day and
what a happy thing it would be if the dia-
mond anniversary, just a little delayed, of
Spain’s losing her possessions in America
would commemorate the freedom of down-
trodden Cuba.
—If those who are so anxious ‘to make
changes in the prescribed rules of the Dem-
ocratic party would acquaint themselves
with the rules they would realize the
danger of their actions. The WATCHMAN
predicted that the ‘‘ORVIS system’’ wonld
prove unsatisfactory and urged against its
adoption, but now that it is a rule of the
party it insists on observingit. Unsatis-
factory as the *‘System’’ may seem disin-
tegration and disorganization will fall upon
the party if it is attempted to be gotten rid-
of by any other than regular methods.
\
»-
VOL. 41
McKinley “Prosperity.”
The remarkable movement that has run
McKINLEY ahead of all presidential com-
petitors in the Republican party, is entirely
due to the impression that prevails among
the ignorant members of that party that
the tariff which bore his name was the
cause of prosperity tothe American peo-
ple.
The circumstance that a collapse in busi-
ness followed after the repeal of that tariff
helps to confirm this. impression in minds
that are not intelligent enough to compre-
hend how the MCKINLEY measure helped
to produce the conditions that brought on
that collapse.
It could hardly be expected that the un-
intelligent and unthinking class that are
clamoring for a return of MCKINLEY
‘‘prosperity’’ should understand the proc-
ess by which McKINLEYISM deranged
and prostrated industrial conditions pre-
paratory to the business revulsion of 1893,
but they should at least have mind enough
to remember the actual state of affairs dur-
ing the time when MCKINLEY’S tariff was
in operation. r
That period was a prolonged contention
between employers and workmen on the
subject of wages. -
Immediately after the passage of the Mc-
KINLEY act, in 1890, wages began to steadily
decline until in the latter part of 1892, the
discontent of the worlling people broke out
into actual insurrectibn.
It was in June of 1892, at the time when
the wealthy tariff beneficiaries were reap-
ing the highest bengfits of MCKINLEY pro-
tection, that the/iron league discharged
1,500 men becaust they belonged to a labor
organization that demanded a maintenance
of the previous rate of wages.
It was in the same year that the highly
protected earthen-ware manufacturers of
Trenton gave their workmen the alter-
native of a lockout or an acceptance of the
third cut in wages that had been made
after the passage of the MCKINLEY bill.
In July of that year 3,000 workmen at
Homestead were driven to a strike by the
reduction of their wages, and the blood and
disorder that followed are a matter of his-
tory. The National Guard of Pennsyl-
vania took a hand in the disturbance and
helped to illustrate the ‘‘prosperity’’ which
the wage-earners were having under the
McKINLEY tariff.
On the 11th of July, of the same year, the
union miners at Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho,
broke out in resistance to the non-union
miners who had been employed to reduce
their wages, and a number of men were
killed, furnishing another bloody illustra-
tion of MCKINLEY ‘‘prosperity.’’
On the 22nd of July the iron-workers of
Duquesne struck, and on the 30th troops
were hurried to that point to enforce with
the bayonet the kind of prosperity of which
McKINLEY is represented to be the ‘‘ad-
vance agent.”’
On the 1st of August, the same year, the
worknlen in the building trades in New
York struck and all building in that city
stopped, but ‘MCKINLEY prosperity’’ had
so reduced their means that they were soon
starved into returning to work at reduced
wages, and their strike failed.
On the 13th of August the miners in east
Tennessee rebelled against the employment
of convict labor by which their tariff pro-
tected employers proposed to keep down
their wages.
On the 14th of August began the great
Buffalo railroad strike for better wages,
which commenced on the Lehigh Valley
railroad and extended to the Hudson river
and New York Central, involving thous-
ands of wage-earners and requiring troops
to be again called out and the bayonet to
be used as an instrument of MCKINLEY
‘‘prosperity.’’
On the 19th and 20th of the same month,
one thousand Tennessee miners became so
dissatisfied with the ‘‘prosperous’ situ-
ation in which McKINLEYISM had placed
them that they attacked the militia at Coal
Creek, who were trying to enforce MCKIN-
LEY wages, and defeated them. ‘
On the 23rd the switchmen on the Dela-
ware, Lackawanna and Western, and also
on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg
railroads, struck, but they failed to secure
their share of the ‘‘prosperity.’’
During the remaining days of August all
the employes of Carnegie & Co., and of
Schomburger, Speer & Co., of Pittsburg,
struck, but they also failed.
On the 12th of October the yardmen of
the Big Four railway struck, and on No-
vember 5th a general strike against a reduc-
tion of wages was ordered by the amalga-
mated council of New Orleans. It also fail-
ing in its object ; but in the meanwhile the
‘‘prosperous’’ condition was brought to
such a pitch ‘at Homestead, through the
agency of the military and PINKERTON’S de-
tectives, that 1,500 men applied for rein-
statement and were taken back on the
company’s-own terms, and upon signing an
agreement not to belong to a labor organ-
ization.
This was the condition of the labor in-
terest and of laboring men after the Mc-
KINLEY tariff had been in operation two
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., MAY 1
years and before it was interfered with by
a Democratic administration, and so fully
were the working people of the country
assured of the cause of this situation that
they turned down McKINLEYISM by one
of the greatest majorities ever polled at an
American election. :
As a most natural result a tariff system
that produced such an effect upon the in-
terest of labor, had much to do with dis-
ordering the general business of the coun-
try, and helped the bad financial system
and vicious currency legislation of the Re-
publican party to bring on the panic that
was ready to precipitate itself upon the
country at the close of the HARRISON ad-
ministration.
The rascally old party that has been
bunkoing the American people for the last
quarter of a century, is now trying to take
advantage of the business troubles that were
caused by its own measures, and is pushing
forward as the ‘‘advance agent of pros-
perity’’ the narrow-gauge politician whose
tariff bill was almest solely responsible for
the business prostration from which the
country is now slowly recovering.
Why McKinley Should Talk.
A Republican contemperary missed its
object of making a smart remark when it
said : “Our Democratic friends, who are
trying to induce ex-Governor MCKINLEY
to talk, should direct their efforts to per-
suading president CLEVELAND to tell what
he thinks of a third term.”
All that is heard about a third term
springs from a gratuitous assumption that
Mr. CLEVELAND is desirous of another re-
election. But he is not called upon to dis-
claim such a desire when no act or expres-
sion on his part has indicated that he ever
entertained it. The third term babble has
no other foundation than the encourage-
ment that is given political gossips by Mr.
CLEVELAND'S good taste in not making a
public declination of something that has
not been offered to him.
But the occasion for speaking out is quite
different in MCKINLEY’S case. He is an
active and aggressive candidate for the
Presidency. He is asking the people for
their votes, and they ought to have some
assurance as to how he stands on so mo-
mentous a question as that of the currency.
They ought to know whether he is for free
silver or the gold standard, or whether they
should accept him as a straddler of that
important issue.
Foolishly Reckless.
The Philadelphia Press is reckless enough
to make the following assertion :
*“The currency has always been protected under
Republican rule. No man ever felt under Repub-
lican administration that there was any danger of
public dishonor or financial shipwreck.”
The Press relies upon the ignorance or
party prejudice of its readers for the ac-
ceptance of this assertion. Under the Re-
publican financial laws that require the,
government to keep a stock of gold on hand,
liable to depletion, but which must be
maintained to redeem half a dozen different
kinds of government demand notes that
won’t stay redeemed, but are re-issued and
must be paid over and over again—under
such a system of Republican currency there
has not been a day, within the last twenty
years, that there was not danger of dishonor
to the public credit and financial ship-
wreck. :
It has only been through the heroic exer-
tions of President CLEVELAND and Secre-
tary CARLISLE, for which they are roundly
abused by the Republican press, that finan-
cial dishonor and shipwreck, as the natural
consequence of this Republican currency
system, have been staved off in spite of the
opposition of a Republican Congress, which
has refused to doa single act for the relief
of the financial situation.
Too Much of a Protectionist.
abilities as a public man, and is quite open
in giving some very good reasons why he
would be an unsafe candidate for the Re-
publicans to nominate and an unsafe man
for the country to have as its President.
In PLATT’S opinion MCKINLEY is ‘‘no bus-
iness man, no statesman, no sagacious poli-
tician, even.” ;
It may sound strange to Republicans
whose chief political faith consists in devo-
tion toa high tariff, to hear the New York
boss object to MCKINLEY because he rep-
resents too much protection. There is
_great truth in his remark that ‘‘the Ameri-
ican people have shown that they don’t
want a radical tariff in any direction,’’ and
yet the Ohio tariff champion stands for
nothing else than a tariff of the most radi-
cal character. His election would mean a
reopening of the tariff question. It would
be an invitation to all the trusts, monopo-
lies and expectant benéficiaries to besiege
Congress for a renewal of tariff robbery, and
the business of the country would be again
disturbed and disordered by agitation on
that subject. .
This 18 one of the reasons why Tom
PLATT says MCKINLEY should not be
nominated, and this is the chief reason
why, if he is nominated, the people will
say he shall not be elected.
The Republican Dilemma.
It is hard to tell which isin the more
awkward dilemma, the Republican party
or major Y. The former finds
itself with the almost positive certainty of
having for its presidential candidate a man
about whose standing on the most impor-
tant issue of the campaign it is entirely
ignorant, and he refuses to enlighten it
tipon that subject.
The ignorant element of the party, which
is by far the larger, has rushed the tariff
major ahead of all his competitors under
the crazy delusion that the restoration of
the MCKINLEY tariff will bless the country
with good times. This lunacy will make
him the presidential candidate, and the
sober-minded and substantial business men
of the party are becoming alarmed at the
prospect of having at the head of their
ticket a candidate who, if he should be
elected President, would be sure to be a mis-
chievous tariff agitator, but about whom
they are uncertain whether he would favor
an unlimited coinage of silver or would
want to restrict the currency to the gold
standard.
Very few sensible Republicans want a re-
opening of tariff agitation, yet they know
that the principal effect of the election of
McKINLEY would be to throw the busi-
ness of the country into turmoil and con-
fusion on that subject. Most sensible Re-
publicans want a settled and certain con-
dition of the currency, yet they have the
prospect of having a candidate who wont
say how he stands on the silver question,
which is really the point upon which the
question of the currency hinges.
When the tariff major remains mum on
that most important issue it is no wonder
that the sound money Republicans become
alarmed at their prospective candidate’s
silence on the silver question, and are de-
manding that he should speak out and let
the country know what standard he is in
favor of. Their anxiety is increased by the
report that the silver party has a private
letter from him pledging that he would not
veto any silver bill that might be passed.
McKINLEY’S silence gives color to such
a report, and indicates his leaning in re-
gard to the currency. Even if he should
be forted to make a public declaration,
and it should be in favor of the gold
standard, the Republicans of the East could
have no confidence in him.
Enough Money for the Convention.
It was amusing to see how some Repub-
lican organs dried to derive satisfaction
from the report that the money could not
be raised to pay the expenses of the Demo-
cratic national convention at Chicago. They
claimed to know that the local guarantee
fund was short and that the means of sup-
plying the deficiency were not at hand.
It is true that the Democratic party has
not the advantage of the inexhaustible sup-
ply of “fat” that enables the Republicans
to pay so easily all sorts of expenses, legiti-
mate and illegitimate, whether it be the
expense of holding national conventions,
or buying up delegates, or corrupting pres-
idential elections ; yet the Democracy can
always raise enough money to pay its
honest way in great political issues, and
the cash will be forth-coming to meet the
expenses at Chicago. Chairman HARRITY
says that there is full assurance of the
whole amount needed.
That convention is going to be one of the
most important ones held by the Democracy
of the United States. It will be a gather-
ing of earnest men, called together to
enunciate the principles of a great party,
and to place upon an honest, straight-
forward platform a candidate who will be
worthy of the support of the people. There
is every reason to believe that it will be a
harmonious convention, and one that will
be careful not to make any mistakes.
After the polls shall have closed in No-
vember it is not at all unlikely that the
cock-sure and boastful Republicans will
discover that the convention which they
thought would be short of means to pay its
expenses, was the convention that named
the successful candidate for President.
Signs of a Turning Current.
Political attention has been so absorbed
recently by the contention that is going on
among the Republican candidates and
bosses over the presidential nomination,
that the local victories which the Demo-
crats have been gaining in various States
have not been sufficiently noticed.
We have called attention to the great
Democratic gains in the local elections,
particularly in New York and New Jersey,
where they have amounted to a revolution,
and it wouldn’t do to overlook the sweep
which the Democrats made last week in
Indiana, by which towns and districts,
which were carried away by the recent Re-
publican tidal waves, were brought back to
their old moorings by increased Democrat-
ic majorities.
These are the straws which show how
the current has turned, and give assurance
that the Democratic strength remains in-
tact. While the Republicans are fooling
themselyes with the most exaggerated as-
surance of victory,the Democrats are get-
ting their forces in line to sweep the field
in November.
Smee
5, 1806.
__NO. 20.
Two Bosses.
From Harper's Weekly.
The Republican party in Pennsylvania
has declared itself in favor of the nomina-
tion of Senator Quay for President. A few
Years ago the New York World published
a detailed narrative which showed that this
man had been an embezzler of public
funds. The charge was not answered by
Mr. Quay, nor did he see fit to meet the
challenge of the newspaper in which the
charge was published, and which offered to
send a responsible person to Pennsylvania
if Mr. Quay would agree to serve him with
papers and a libel suit. Mr. Quay still
rests under the odium of those charges, and
neither the Republican party nor the vot-
ers of Pennsylvania can whitewash him by
naming him for President, or by electing
him and his creatures to public places. In
doing these things they merely cover the
party and the State with the disgrace
which Quay has earned, and which all who
approve of him must share.
In the State of New York the Republi-
can party is under the control of an abso-
lute master. As the party is, in its turn,
in control of both branches of the state
Legislature, and of the governorship as
well, it follows that the master of the party
is the master of the State. New York is
therefore governed by an irresponsible au-
tocrat. This autocrat has not been chosen
to exercise political power. He has no
commission from the people. He is aunto-
crat because those who do hold commis-
sions from the people have wrongfully
transferred their trust to him. They have
done this because their political life de-
pends upon the willingness of the autocrat
to spend in their behalf the campaign funds
which he controls. So laws are made and
executed inn New York in accordance with
the will omas C. Platt, and not neces-
sarily in accordance with the will of the
people. Under the rule of the Republican
party the government of New York is Re-
publican only in form ; for the time being
it is an absolute ruler that governs, and he
holds his office without warrant of law, or
birth, or character.
No matter what the Democratic party
may do, no matter to what depths it may
descend, it cannot do worse than the Re-
publican party has done, nor siiik deeper
than it has fallen in the two most populous
States of the Union.
Casus Belli.
From the Philadelphia Times
Orna Milton, a citizen of Kansas City,
Missouri, was one of the five prisoners cap-
tured by the Spaniards on board the schoon-
er Competitor, and he, along with his as-
sociates, has been summarily tried by a
drum-head court-martial and condemned to
be executed.
This is a case for the promptest and most
heroic action on the part of our govern-
ment. Mr. Milton is undeniably an Amer-
ican citizen, and he was not taken in arms
against the Spanish government. He was,
therefore, clearly entitled toa civil trial
and the attempt to take his life by drum-
head court-martial should be halted by our
government; regardless of consequences.
It is high time that the fiendish butch-
eries of Captain General Weyler should be
halted in Cuba, and our government now
has the opportunity presented to intervene
and go even beyond the safety of Orna
Milton. He is entitled to the fullest pro-
tection and every doubt should be resolved
in his favor in deciding the duty of the
government to intervene in his behalf. If
Spain shall choose to make it an act of war,
let the responsibility be upon Spain.
How About the Use of “Learn,” Brother
Layman %
From the Port Allegany Reporter.
The Era is kicking about the use of th
editorial ‘‘we’’ and in the same issue writes
of ‘“‘our dispatches. When a city (?) editor
starts in to learn the ‘‘country editors’
something new he must keep a weather eye
out or he gets thrown.
Right You Are.
From the Lincoln, Kan., Sentinel,
The fact that McKinley seems so sure of
being nominated for President at St. Louis
next month, will not insure a fellow
against losing all the money he bets on his
election in November.
G. A. R. Department of Pennsylvania.
Annual Encampment at Chambersburg, Pa—Re-
duced Rates via. Pennsylvania Railroad.
For the annual encampment G. A. R.,
department of Pennsylvania, to be held at
Chambersburg, Pa., June 1st to 6th, the
Pennsylvania railroad company will sell
from May 30th to June 6th, inclusive, ex-
cursion tickets from all stations on its sys-
tem in Pennsylvania to Chambersburg and
return, good for return passage until June
8th, at a single fare for the round trip. Ex-
cursion tickets, good to return by the way
of Gettysburg, will also be sold on same
days at one and one-half cents per mile, dis-
tance traveled.
Pension Infamy.
‘We have alluded to the PICKLER pension
bill, the latest outrage attempted to be
committed by a Republican Congress under
the guise of being friendly to the old sol-
diers. Ours is a Democratic opinion of that
proposed pension fraud, which is held out
as a bid for votes. The following is the
opinion of it expressed by the Chicago
Record, a dyed-in-the-wool Republican
journal :
What is to be thought of a political party
that will resort to such measures to gain
votes ? We leave this question to be an-
swered oy honest citizens and honorable
soldiers.
A Natural Conclusion.
From the Wilkesbarre Sun.
While the two sections of the Salvation
Army are cuffing each other and pulling
hair, old Satan is dancing a sulphurous
clog dance, and as he lashes his sides with
his tail he gleefully chuckles, “I’ll
get’em both ; see if I don’t.
Evangelist WEAVER'S tabernacle is de-
signed to bankrupt the business of the
backslider’s toboggan. ~ oo
Spawls from the Keystone.
—Reading has 63 churches.
—Birdsboro is to have a new $20,000 school
building.
—An Erie paper says they now eat the wa-
ter in that town.
—The State Teachers’ Association will
meet at Bloomsburg July 15.
—The Pittsburg Press says 1000_tons of
soot settle monthly on that town.
—Out of 180 almshouse inmates in Mont-
gomery county, only 33 are women. -
—Gettysburg battlefield is visited nearly
every Sunday by hundreds of bicyclers.
—The daughter of an Allegheny county
millionaire will become a kindergarten
teacher.
—Very few poor peopleat Pittsburg applied
for alot on which to plant potatoes on ‘the
Pingree plan. - : :
—The Pennsylvania librarians’ club met
Monday at Pittsburg, many Philadelphians
participating.
—Mrs. Pretzell, the wife of a Greensburg .
baker, walked out of the shop a week ago ®
and has not yet returned.
—Since she was stricken with paralysis five
years ago, Mrs. William Rader, of Cedar-
ville, has not spoken a word.
—There are 900 inmates at the state insane
asylum at Warren, although the institution.
was built to accommodate only 600.
—The biggest refrigerator ever built was
constructed at Waynesboro for a Kansas City
beef packer and was shipped west on 15 cars.
—An Allegheny city officer went to Phila-
delphia on Monday to take back Walter H.
Keyes, who is accused of being a bogus medi-
cine man. °
—C. W. Sausser, of Tyrone, was injured by
the terrific gasoline explosion in Cincinnati
on Monday, wherein many lives were lost, a
large number of persons injured and a large
building wrecked. : €
—The Bell, Lewis & Yates coal company
has sold its plant worth about $2,000,000 to a
syndicate of New York capitalists and some
stockholders of the Buffalo, Rochester and
Pittsburg railroad. The sale includes all the
mines in the Reynoldsville region.
—Edgar McGraw, a traveling salesman,
whose home is in Carlisle, recently drove a
horse from Newport to New Bloomfield in
twenty-five minutes. The distance is six
miles, He was arrested on a charge of cruel-
ty and paid fine and costs amounting to $12.-
60 in all.
—A few days ago Ralph, aged 4 years, a
son of John B. Kochenderfer, of Falling
Springs, Perry county, got a cigar box con-
taining two pounds of rock powder, together
with some matches. He ignited one of the
matches, setting the powder off and was fa-
tally burned.
—Adjutant General Stewart has issued an
order placing the thirteenth regiment at the
head of the National Guard of the State. Its
general average and figure of efficiency is
94.06. Company A ranks the highest in the
State, with an average of 96.49, and company
D second with an average of 95.77.
—Dr. A. H. Harriman, of Hughesville,
who was serving a fifteen months’ term of
imprisonment in the eastern penitentiary for
malpractice in causing the death of Alma
Trainer, of Lycoming county, died in that
institution a few days ago of catarrh of the
stomach and his remains reached ‘his home in
Hughesville Sunday, where his funeral took
place this afternoon. His term of impris-
onment would have expired in a short time.
—A forthcoming bulletin of the State Ex-
periment Station gives the results of a num-
ber of experiments made with various grades
of fertilizers on a farm in Bucks county. The
results show how a fertilizer that is entirely
adapted to the soil’s needs will yield an in-
creased profit per acre of anywhere from $40
to $50, while one that is not adapted has
been used at a loss of $7 per acre, and inno
test yielded an increase of over $4 to $5 per
acre.
—A slick, well-dressed stranger, represent-
ing himself as the advance agent of Hanni-
bal A. Williams, of New York, the celebrated
Shakespearean reader, has been victimizing
the people of Reading. He announced that
Mr. Williams would give a recital of ‘‘Ham-
let”’ in Reading the latter part of last month,
and in this way disposed of many $5 tickets
to former patrons of the Shakespearean read-
er. The victims of the sharper are reticent
in regard to the matter and his sharp trick is
only now becoming known. He is described
as being an intelligent-looking fellow, 26
years of age, of medium height, with smooth
face.
—Captain ‘‘Ned” Bradford, who was the
last but one of the four most famous life sav-
ers in the world, died Wednesday night at
Mercy hospital, Pittsburg. His death was
directly due to rheumatism, caused by expos-
ure at Atlantic. City. The four Bradford
brothers are rightly credited with having
saved 400 lives at thatesort. Captain ‘‘Ned”
was probably the most noted one of the quar-
tette. His daring feats at the New Jersey re-
sort have made him famous all over the
world. He leaves many medals and other
testimonials received as grateful rewards
from those whom he rescued- He was 45
years of age, and died comparatively a poor
man,
—The path of Theodore Laurence, who
was arrested at Pittsburg on Saturday for
masquerading as a woman, isa very stony
one to travel. He has been in custody be-
fore for masquerading as a man, and now,
when he dons female attire, he again comes
in the clutches of the law. Laurence says he
is 22 years of age and has been masquerading
for eight years. He is the youngest of seven-
teen children and was born at Nova Scotia.
He wore boys’ clothes until he was I4 years
of age, but then changed to female attire be-
cause the boys called him ‘‘Sissy.”” He went
to school at Halifax, first as a boy, but as he
was shunned on account of his feminine ap-
pearance, went back the next year asa girl—
in fact, as the sister of *himself. After he
left school he was arrested in Boston for mas-
querading as a man, but upon investigation,
of course, was released. The inspector there
advised him to wear woman’s attire, as he
would be less liable to arrest. Laurence says
he has had a number of peculiar experiences
in his lifetime, having been engaged to sev-
eral men and being compelled to run away to
get rid of them. In appearance Laurence is
wonderfully like a woman. He was sent to
jail at Pittsburg for five days.
pm——