il}
Demoraticcd ull
"
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
p—
Ink Slings.
—FElk county has owned up to having
propagated Mrs. MARY ELLEN LEASE.
—L1 HUNG CHANG has run everything
in China for the past fifty years—excepting
the Japs.
—All the wise (?) men of this country are
in Indianapolis now. What a brainy gath-
ering it must be.
—O0, JEFFERSON ! O, JEFFERSON ! Thou
wise and mighty sage, dids’t thou think
that fools would smirch thy name, in this
enlightened age ?
—If you want to see all the candidates
go to Hecla next Wednesday. They will
all be there wearing their bonnets, with
their loudest buzzers in them.
—The famous yellow jacket worn by LI
Hu~NG CHANG isa sign of pretty hot stuff
in China. The yellow-jacket in America
is pretty hot stuff too; for that matter.
—The free silver craze, as the goldites
are pleased to call it, is not dying out. It
is simply resting because it sees no need
for worrying itself over a situation that is
so favorable to it already.
—HECKMAN and MEYER, our nominees
for commissioners, are men who are grow-
ing in popularity every day. The people
know them to be good, honest men and
will vote for them for that reason.
— Democratic members should be elected
to the Legislature this fall. We wanta
free silver United States Senator and the
only way to get one is to get control of the
Legislature. Vote for SCHOFIELD and
Foster.
—‘ WILLIE ’’ BRECKENRIDGE is a dead
duck, morally and politically in Kentucky,
yet the boltocrats at Indianapolis cheered
him when he entered their hall, on Wed-
nesday, as though he was some grand
sachem of unquestionéd virtue.
—HARRISON KLINE is on the go from
morning ’till night, but he is about a thous-
ands votes behind the WEAVER boom that
will not stop before November 3rd. Free
potatoes are all right, but we don’t want
to make money out of them just yet
—The Democratic party made ex-Gov-
ernor FLOWER a prominent man'in New
York. He is now parading that promi-
nence before the country as one of the rea-
sons why Democrats should follow his ex-
ample in doing the doggy trick of biting
the hand that fed him.
—They say that BILLY SWOOPE, of
Clearfield, has become such a fine speech-
maker that ‘had he been at Chicago the
Democrats would have nominated him, in-
stead of BRYAN.” What a God-send to
"the country that BILLY wasn’t there, be-
cause the Chicago nominee will surely be
the next President. .
—The appointment of ex-Gov. FRANCIS,
of Missouri, to the cabinet position of sec-
retary of the interior, assures the President
of another member to his official family
who is entire sympathy with his financial
views. There was a difference of opinion
between the President and HOKE SMITH,
the latter resigned. ¢
—The Pittsburg Times tries to hide its
gold plated ticket behind the cry of the ex-
travagance of the Democratic national com-
mittee in using headquarters that cost
$1,500 a month. The Times says ‘‘the
plain people are invited to step for-
ward and pay the bill.”? Who has paid
the bill to get MCKINLEY out of bondage ?
—Those Green mountain boys didn’t do
a thing to us, did they? Just think of it,
the Democratic cause being snowed under
by majority of forty thousand in Vermont.
Ugh! That might frighten some of the
weak-kneed, but thank the Lord there will
be more than enough of the other kind to
elect BRYAN and SEWALL when the time
comes. ~
—In 1873 wheat was selling at $1\05 a
bushel in Bellefonte. To-day it goes "beg-
ging for 65 cts a bushel. What is the mat-
ter ? The farmer pays just as much for his
insurance, just as much railroad fare, just
as much for physicians’ services, and just as
much for a hundred other things as he did
in the days when he received three times
as much for his wheat as he does now.
—The KISTLER tannery, at Lock Haven,
will be run on half time until after the
election. It is reported that the manager
says the plant might be stopped for good.
Such bug-a-boo’s are not going to inter-
fere with the success of free silver. The
BRYAN hosts are marching on, and noth-
ing can with-stand, the silver waves that
sweep along to make a prosp’rous land.
—A very strong CRONISTER sentiment
has taken hold of the people in all parts of
the county. Wherever the Democratic
nominee for sheriff is known he makes
friends who are not backward in declaring
for him. Besides being eminently fitted for
the office from a scholastic point of view his
personal appearance makes him particularly
suitable for the office of sheriff. The
CRONISTER sentiment is growing. If you
want a good officer for the county help
spread it.
—According to the resolutions adopted
at the congressional conference, at Ridg-
way, last Tuesday, Col. J. L. SPANGLER,
the Democratic nominee, is pledged, in the
case of his own election and that of BRYAN
and SEWALL, to support ‘the President’s
policy on the money question and to sup-
port any measure introduced in Congress
for free coinage of silver as redemption
money and with full legal tender capacity
in payment of public and private debts at
a ratio fixed by Congress.
A emocratic
=i
TRO
oa
5,
STATE RIGHTS AN
D FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 41
“BELLEFONTE, PA., SEPT. 4, 1896.
NO. 385.
The Experience With the Gold Standard.
When we hear the assertion of the gold-
ites that the honesty and stability of the
currency, and the prosperity of business in-
terests, depend upon the maintenance of
the gold standard, it will be well to call
their attention to the fact that we have
been having an exclusively gold basis for
the last twenty-three years, and there is
nothing either in the present monetary con-
dition, or in the business situation, that
would indicate its beneficial effect.
Between the time when the crime of
1873 was committed and the present date,
there has been a gradual decline in the gen-
eral prosperity of the people. A dry rot has
been in progress thai has been variously ex-
plained by political doctors, but has yield-
ed to none of the remedies recommended
and applied. Workingmen have been grad-
ually finding themselves more limited in
their employment and more stinted in their
pay. While prices have generally fallen,
there has been more than a proportionate:
decline of wages, thus reversing the condi-
tion most favorable to the prosperity of the
mass of the people, when high prices of
commodities are attended with an abund-
ance of money for their purchase.
During the period we have mentioned,
in which the gold standard has been ex-
clusively in force, that large portion of our
population included in the farming class
have suffered a gradual impairment of their
condition. A calling which should place
them in comfortable and independent cir-
cumstances is found no longer profitable on
account of a decline in the price if their
products, and debt has cvershadowed home-
steads whose occupants would have been
protected from such embarrassment if their
daily toil with the plow and in the harvest
field had met with better remuneration.
The gold standard has not kept the mort-
gages from off their farms, but by contract-
ing the currency it has led to the general
embarrassment of the agricultural popula-
tion. The farmers have had as fellow suf-
ferers the wage-earners and the general class
of mechanical workers, whose prosperity is
always promoted by that business activity
which attends high prices paid for the la-
bor of the workman, as well as for the pro-
duce of the farmer.
These are the twin conditions of general
‘prosperity, high wages for labor and good
prices for the products of the farm. They
go hand in hand, but have heen gradually
declining, within the past twenty-three
years. The laboring man and the farmer
are suffering from the same stroke of paral-
ysis.
But a class, quite different in character,
numerically small, but large in their claims
and insolent in their pretentions, have be-
come extremely prosperous since silver was
demonetized in 1873. In that compara-
tively brief space of time most of the colos-
sal fortunes that are furnishing this coun-
try with an overbearing money aristocracy
have been accumulated, and most of this
one-sided wealth is attributable to the pow-
er which the gold standard enables a limit-
ed class to exert in controlling a contract-
ed currency.
This is the condition after twenty-three
years’ experience with gold asthe exclu-
sive basis of our monetary system. Could
it have been worse if silver had been allow-
ed to retain its old standing? Would it
not be reasonable to helieve that the situa-
tion would be much better if the crime of
1873 had not been committed? And with
that as a fair presumption, is it not to the in-
terest of the wage-earners, the general class
of artisans, and the farmers to restore sil-
ver to its place in our monetary system to
which the constitution assigned it, and
which was so beneficial to the great majori-
ty of our people?
McKinley’s Acceptance.
For all that McKINLEY’s letter of ac-
ceptance contains that is of interest to the
general mass of the people, it could have
just as well been published immediately af-
ter his nomination. His withholding it for
six weeks did not enable him to include
any new points that are of the least advan-
tage to them, - or are calculated to induce
them to take a more favorable view of the
course in which MARK HANNA, the tariff
beneficiaries and the gold bugs have enlist-
ed him.
When, in this letter, the Major accepts the
gold monometallism of the Republican par-
ty, and pledges himself to the policy of a
contracted currency, it will be remember-
ed how he kicked against being put ona
gold standard platform, and how it was
only through the pressure brought to bear
on the St. Louis convention by the eastern
gold influence that he was compelled to
renounce his free silver convictions and
consent to be the nominated tool of Wall
street interests.
Political history furnishes no parallel
case to that of MCKINLEY’S conversion to
the gold doctrine. In all his public acts
and utterances during the past fifteen years
he testified to the benefits of a bimetallic
system of currency, and gave his support to
the co-ordinate use of silver. He voted for
the STANLEY-MATTHEWS resolution that di-
rected the government bonds to be paid in
silver. He voted for the BLAND-ALLISON
act that authorized the coinage of millions
of silver dollars. He voted for JOHN SHER-
MAN'S silver purchasing act, and in all his
public positions in regard to the currency,
and in his expressions before the people, he
left no doubt of his conviction that silver
should perform an equal function with gold
in furnishing a circulating medium for the
people. :
When, therefore, after six weeks deliber-
ation, this same MCKINLEY accepts a nom-
ination that places him on a platform di-
rectly opposite toc all he had ever said or
done in regard to silver, such stultification
and abasement become the more groveling
from its being evidently required by the
plutocratic interest that rules the Republi-
can party and looks to the gold standard
for the maintenance of its power and the
increase of its gains. The Major abandons
his free silver convictions to become the
mortgaged minion of the Wall street gold
barons.
Judas and the Silver Question.
Even JupAs ISscARIOT shouldn’t be
misrepresented, which he certainly is by
the statement of editor SINGERLY that he
‘went wrong on a silverissue.” It is true
that silver was connected with his case, it
being of such value as to tempt him to
commit a great wrong. The editor of the
Record will not pretend that the coins that
were used to lead JUDAS estray were worth
but 53 cents to the dollar. Those pieces of
silver were nodoubt on a parity with the
gold of that period ; but silver was not the
issue in that case. It was merely the means
of tempting the traitor todo a bad act,
which he would have done just as readily
if gold had been offered him. In the BEN-
EDICT ARNOLD affair the temptation took
the form of British gold.
The issue in the ISCARIOT case was an
issue between fidelity and treachery. He
had given his allegiance to a great Master,
who was working particularly in behalf of
the common people, showing an especial
interest in ti.0se who were being taken ad-
vantage of by the money changers. Such
was the aversion of the Master to the gold-
bugs who had introduced Wall street prac-
tices into the Jewjsh temple, that he went
among them and scourged the PIERPONT'
MoragANS and PERRY BELMONTS who were
handling the gold loans and cornering the
money market of that perio.
When JUDAS betrayed such a Master it
was the correct thing for him to go and
hang himself, the turpitude of his conduct
being in no way increased or diminished by
the kind of money paid him for his base
act. But in these days acts of treachery are
also committed, not, of course, to be com-
pared to that of JUDAS, but when the cause
of the people is betrayed, whether on the
tariff or the money question, and long ad-
vocated principles are discarded in the in-
terest of the money power, the parties guil-
ty of such bad faith may not have reason to
go so far as to imi tate ISCARIOT’S example
of self-suspension, but at least, have ample
cause to ask somebody to kick them.
‘Honest Money Orators.’”
BENJAMIN HARRISON and BOURKE
CocHRAN made a nice team to open the
campaign for ‘‘honest money” in New
York, the head quarters of the American
money changers and the favorite resort of
the gold bugs. With BOURKE it was entire-
ly a matter of business, and he experienced
nodifficulty in laying aside his Tammany
Democracy in consideration of the big mon-
ey which MARK HANNA is paying to ora-
tors who are willing to prostitute their elo-
quence in support of the money power.
With BENJAMIN it was a labor of love, for
he delights in making his voice heard in
support of monopolistic measures, and in
defense of plutocratic interests. There is
only one other man in the United States
who, by his nature, is more of a servant of
the money power, and that individual is
JOHN SHERMAN.
As an advocate of the Republican mone-
tary system and fiscal policy BENJAMIN
HARRISON is not calculated to make afa-
vorable impression at this juncture. The
recollection of his administration is too re-
cent for the people to have already divest-
ed themselves of their disapproval of its
measures. The country is still suffering
from the extravagance of its expenditures
and the injurious effects of its financial and
tariff policies. When it is remembered that
he left the treasury empty after it had been
handed over to him with a surplus of a
hundred million dollars ; that he contrib-
uted his share towards the financial abuses
that brought on the business depression
from which the country has not yet recov-
ered and that there was not a Republican
measure favoring the plutocratic class that
did not receive his official approval—when
all this is remembered by the people as
matters of but recent occurrence, his ap-
pearance on the platform, as an advocate
of MCKINLEY’S election and a champion of
the gold standard, is not likely to gain
many votes for that cause.
McKinley’s Idea of Duty.
In his letter of acceptance MCKINLEY
says that ‘‘until international agreement is
bad it is the plain duty of the United States
to maintain the gold standard.”
This duty is not plain unless it can be
shown that it is the duty of the United
States to adopt such a system of currency
as the money power of Europe may allow
her to have.
Suppose it should become evident to our
people that the free coinage of silver would
be beneficial to them ; suppose they should
become convinced that the gold standard is
doing them an injury, does Me. MCKIN-
LEY maintain that they should not reject
the gold standard and adopt the free silver
policy unless they are allowed to do so by
the money interests of Europe ? Is it be-
coming to a candidate for the Presidency of
this free republic to proclaim the doctrine
of vassalage to the European money power?
Even McKINLEY’S party acknowledges
that bimetallism is a good thing. They ad-
mit, in their platform, that it is desirable to
have gold and silver as equal factors in per-
forming the monetary function, but they
hesitate to accept the benefit without the
permission of Europe. But when European
nations, particularly England, the great
creditor nation of the world, finds an ad-
vantage in adhering to the gold policy, to
the disadvantage of a debtor nation like the
United States, what probability is there that
they will give the consent which McKIN-
LEY thinks is abolutely necessary before
the United States can adopt a policy, the
beneficial character of which is admitted
by his own platform ?
The Democratic party entertains quite a
different idea of what is the duty of this
country in such a situation. It believes
that the American people can control their
own financial situation, and that by taking
the initiative they can force an internation-
al agreement by which the monetary use of
silver, discontinued to promote a special
interest, will be restored to its old standing
as an equal part of the world’s circulating
medium.
Singerly’s New Music.
Editor SINGERLY thinks there could not
| be a sadder sight than ‘‘the grimacing and
posturing of some of our esteemed Demo-
cratic contemporaries who feel themselves
called upen to sing old songs to new popu-
listic tunes to which they are unaccustom-
ed.” :
Let us assure brother SINGERLY that
if it hadn’t so comical an appearance
it would be a far sadder sight to see an old
tariff reformer like him playing into the
hands of trusts, monopolists, and other ex-
pectant beneficiaries of a robber tariff, by
his efforts to elect MCKINLEY, while labor-
ing under the delusion that honest money
is the stake in the game.
When we think of how he denounced
McKINLEYISM as the source of most of the
evils with which the country is afflicted ;
how he justly represented it as robbing the
general class of consumers by its exactions
on the necessaries of life, and by its unfair
discriminations built up a bloated class of
plutocrats, of which that gold-plated ruf-
fian, MARK HANNA, is a thorough repre-
sentative—when we remember all this, and
now see him acting as one of HANNA'S
lieutenants in working for the election of
McKINLEY and the restoration of tariff
robbery, the picture he presents, in his new
line of political activity, would be a sad
sight, indeed, if it were not for this comi-
cality of his ‘‘grimacing and posturing’’ in
trying to make his old tariff-reform and
anti-monopoly songs fit the MCKINLEY
tunes he is now singing. His case would
be a subject of pity if it didn’t giveso much
occasion for derisive laughter.
Harrison’s ‘Dirty Dattar
President HARRISON didn’t ‘ake use of
a very apt or fitting expression when, in his
CARNEGIE hall speech, he remarked that
“the first dirty errand that a dirty dollar
does is to cheat the poor workingman.”’
It will be remembered that on a former
occasion BENJAMIN made a bad break in
saying that ‘‘a cheap cent made a cheap
man,”’ and it appears that he has the same
aristocratic contempt for the ‘‘dirty dol-
lar’ that was so long the favorite coin of
the common people, as he has for the poor
man’s cheap cent.
The ex-President makes an unwarranted
assertion when he charges the dollar with
being dirty, and he slanders it when he
says that its errand is to cheat the poor
workingman. With a silver dollar the
workingman has always been able to buy
as much as he could with a dollar made of
gold. Its purchasing power is fully up to
the valuation stamped upen its face, and it
will always be so, notwithstanding the
clamor of the goldites that the free coinage
of silver would reduce its value to 53
cents.
In telling the working p.ople that the
kind of money that has always served them
so well is unclean, and that they are cheat-
ed by a coin which their every day pur-
chases prove to be worth every cent of its
face value, MR. HARRISON insults their in-
telligence, and makes himself as offensive
as he did when he virtually declared that
the worth of the man depended upon the
price of his cent.
sey, Pennsylvania, Delaware
Coin Notes and Silver,
From the New York Journal.
A correspondent asks a contemporary
what would happen if the secretary of the
treasury at any time should redeem coin
notes in silver instead of in gold, and the
editor answers :
“If ever he should doso silver dollars
would become at once the measure of val-
ues in this country at their bullion worth.
Gold would go instantly out of use as mon-
ey. We should be upon an exclusively
silver basis as completely as Mexico.’
There is some ground for a reasonable
difference of opinion about the effects of an
unlimited coinage of silver, but there is no
excuse for such a palpable misstatement as
this about a thing which is not a matter of
opinion, but of easily ascertainable fact. In
the case submitted the coin notes would be
treated us silver certificates, except that the
Treasury would have the option of redeem-
ing them in gold, while it always and nec-
essarily redeems silver certificates in silver.
Therefore they could not possibly be worth
less than the silver certificates, which are
now practically at par with all other forms
of money.
The redemption of coin notes in silver
dollars would not increase the number of
those dollars in existence, ahd hence could
not reduce their value. It would be a nov-
elty in political economy if a coin could be
depreciated by giving it an additional use,
without increasing the supply.
If the Treasury should exercise its option
of paying coin notes in silver it would
merely be doing what the bank of France
does now, without disastrous results. That
bank has fifty per cent. more coin notes
outstanding than the United States gov-
ernment has, and it never hesitates to re-
deem them, whenever it finds it convenient,
in silver coins worth as bullion three cents
on the dollar less than ours. It furnishes
aold at such times when requested, but
charges a small premium for it. And yet
the French bank notes have never depre-
ciated, nor do the French 15} to 1 coins
show any symptoms of falling to their bul-
lion value, as our contem asserts
that our heavier ones would as soon as we
adopted the French policy.
Where the Fighting Ground is.
From the Pittsburg Post.
Where the fighting ground is is discussed
by the New York World, gold bug, in
a paragraph in which it states that there are
17 States when together have enough elec-
toral votes to decide this year’s contest.
‘‘These,’”” says the World are the six
New England States, New York, New Jer-
d Mary-
land on the Atlantic coast; Ohio, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinoisand Iowa,
contiguous States in the central west.
These States have 229 electoral votes... On-
ly 224 are necessary to a choice. If either
candidate can carry all of them his election
is secure. Even should he lose Delaware,
or Rhode Island, or Vermont, or New Hamp-
shire, he would still be safe. Here, then,
is the fighting ground.” As we look at
this group of States there is a great deal of
Republican doubt. Ohio, Michigan, Wis-
consin, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa are in
the balance. No one claims any of these
States as a certainty. We believe Bryan
will carry every one of them.
Hastings to Succeed Cameron.
A recent dispatch from Harrisburg to
the New York Sun gives further credence
to the story that Governor Hastings is to
succeed Cameron in the United States Sen-
ate. It sums the situation up as follows :
Gov. Hastings will probably succeed Sena-
r Cameron as the colleague of Senator Quay
in the Senate of the United States. That is
the logic of the situation to-day as the result
of the reconciliation between Senator Quay
and the Philadelphia leader, David Martin.
The Governor is the choice of Senator Quay
for United States Senator, and those who are
in the confidence of the Beaver statesman are
confident that he will do all in his power to
make the Governor his colleague. Nobody
was happier than the Governor when he
heard of Senator Quay’s apology to Martin,
and that he regards the burial of the hatchet
between the leaders as a great step toward
the accomplishment of his ambition was
lainly evident in what happened yesterday
fore he returned to Bellefonte. He hurried
through the routine business of the week and
then summoned to the executive department
the recognized political leaders of the admin-
istration. Those who attended the confer-
ence were attorney-general McCormick, sec-
retary of the commonwealth Reeder, state
treasurer Haywood, auditor-general Mylin,
and major I. B. Brown, the deputy secretary
of internal affairs. Others who talked with
the Governor during the day were Capt. J.
C. Delaney and Capt. J. M. Clark, chief of
the bureau of industrial statistics, who are
all loyal Quay men.
At this conference the whole matter of the
Governor's campaign for United States Sena-
tor. was gone over and disc in all its
phases. Secretary Reeder has been placed in
charge of the Governor's campaign and he
will make known to the friends of Senator
Quay the real wishes of the Beaver man. One
of the men who talked with the Governor
yesterday frankly told him, when he was
asked to take off his coat in the interest of
the Governor's senatorial boom, that he
would have to say what he said to Senntor
Penrose :
“I shall be for you if Senator Quay is for
ou.”
7 The Governor assured him that Senator
Quay was for him and asked the doubtful
visitor whether he would be satisfied if sec-
retary Reeder confirmed what he had told
him. The man said he would, and Gen.
Reeder, being summoned, declared that Gov.
Hastings was the choice of Senator Quay for
United States Senator, and that-his friends
throughout the State would all receive as-
surance of this fact before many days.
Ex-postmaster-general Wanamaker would
have been a formidable candidate with Mar-
tin and Magee back of him, say the politi-
cians here, but with Martin and Quay once
more hand in glove, the opinion prevails
here that Martin and his friends will sup-
port the Governor. The real power back of
the Hastings boom is said to be a Pennsyl-
vania railroad official. They say that the
people back of Mr. Wanamaker cannot hold
the Philadelphia delegation for him, and
that Mr. Martin under the harmony agree-
ment can line the:members of the Legislature
up for Hastings easily. J
Lieut. Gov. Lyon is in entire accord with
the plan to make Gov. Hastings the successor
of Senator Cameron, and when he takes the
Governor's place, as he expects to do, the
understanding is that the present administra-
tion organization shall not be disturbed.
.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—A man who could not be identified wy
killed by a train at Stroudsburg. \
Valley railroad killed John Dempsey,
—Wages of Schuylkill miners. Jor the cur-
rent month are 4 per cent. above the $2.50
basis. a
—When Melchoir Diebold ssaw a sheriff's
sale notice posted upon hig€house at Pitts-
burg he shot himself dead. * ’
—Burglars entered the home of postiffaster
Killeen, of Luzerne borough, and stole $250
in cash and a gold watch.
—The Lutheran Synod of Western Penn-
sylvania, which- adjourned Monday at Al-
toona, embraces 141 ministers.
—The Pennsylvania street railway asso-
ciation met Wednesday at Altoona, where
B. F. Myers, of Harrisburg, made an ad-
dress.
—A few nights ago a thief stole from Mrs.
John Snyder, residing in the east end of
Nittany valley, between forty and fifty
young chickens. :
—All the school teachers of Lycoming
county have signed yearly contracts, which
prevents them being dismissed at the end of
any month with or without cause.
—The steam saw mill and cider mill of
Lewis Wood, near Grampian, Clearfield coun-
ty was destroyed by fire Sunday night. The
loss will be about $2,000.
—The Lincoln University murder case, in
which James Tobin, William Jones and the
two Allen boys, of Philadelphia, are defen-
dants, has been continued until the October
court of Chester county.
—=8t. Clair, the young man who murdered
G. W. Catherman at Milton last Thursday,
went to his uncle’s house in Northum-
berland county, on. Tuesday and gave him-
self up. His uncle drove him to Sunbury
and he was lodged in jail.
—A fine public school building in Wells-
boro took fire at noon on Saturday and was
totally destroyed. The loss is between $15,-
000 and $20,000 and'it is insured for $8,000.
The cause of the fire was spontaneous com-
bustion, painters having oiled the floor the
day before. :
—Miss Rebecca Bower died at High Spire,
Dauphin county at the home of her brother.
Deceased was born at Buffalo Run, this coun-
ty, and was a daughter of John Bower who
planted the trees which now stand in the
Court House yard. She was a niece of Mrs.
William Jones of this place and was a mem-
ber of the Reformed church.
—A disease called acne, has broken out on
the faces of a number of Huntingdon’s young
men, which is baffling the skill of their doc-
tors to cure. It comes in large red blotches
over the face and neck and is unsightly and
painful. The numbers of the afflicted are in-
creasing and the young men not afflicted are
quaking with fear lest they may be the next
victims.
—It is not generally know that Mrs. Mary
Ellen Lease, the distinguished lady orator
and Populist, is a native of Elk county and
was born in Ridgway forty-three years ago
in a house that was located where the B., R.
& R. railroad depot now stands. Her father
was Joe Kline, who came to Elk county with
the late Judge Dickinson. After leaving
Ridgway the family moved to Startwell, Mc-
Kean county.
—A new law in this State provides that all
typewriting, heretofore executed and all that
may hereafter be done, for any purpose what-
ever, shall have the same legal force and ef-
fect as ordinary writing, and that the
word ‘‘writing’’ occurring in the laws of the
State halls be held to include typewriting.
This is the first State that has thus legalized
the work of the typewriter.
—The Blair county agricultural association
have arranged the following program of horse
races for the coming fair, Thursday, Sep-
tember 17th : First event for four-year-olds
and under eligible to the 2.50 class, trot or
pace, purse $100 ; second event 2.30 class,
trot or pace, $150 ; Friday, September 18th,
first event, 2.40 class, trot or pace, $125 ; sec-
ond event, 2.20 class, trot or pace, purse 3150.
In addition to the above a series of bicycles
races will be scheduled and will be an-
nounced later.
—David Kieth, a colored convict who re-
cently finished a two-year term in the west-
ern penitentiary, returned to his home in
Huntingdon last Friday with a curious tale.
He avowed to a number of reputable persons
of Huntingdon that while serving his time ;
a prisoner who was thrown in daily associa-
tion with him, confessed to him secretly one
day that he had murdered and robbed an old
Dutch miser in Altoona during April, 1895.
The convict told the story in strict confidence
and had no desire to have it known. Kieth,
however, on coming home, thought best to
tell it. .
—While workmen were erecting the lower
Millport bridge in Nippenose valley, Lycom-
ing county, Saturday last, Albert Sweier,
who was looking up the side of the moun-
tain, saw a black snake drop from a tree and
shoot down the mountain like a streak, chased
by a grey squirrel, which was ferociously
jumping on and clawing and biting at the
long black body. The snake ran to the
bridge where the men killed it. It measured
after some hesitation, turned and ran leisure-
ly up the mountain. The workmen believe
that the squirrel had caught the snake in the
act of robbing its nest.
—Enos Bloom, of New Millport, went to
Clearfield, recently and had Drs. Murray
and Burchfield remove a ball from his leg
which he had received during the rebellion.
Mr. Bloom was a member of Company “K,”
of the famous ‘‘Bucktail Regiment,”’ and en-
listed April 26th, 1861, serving three years.
He was twice wounded, once with a rifle ball
and once with a shell. He received the
wound which caused him so much trouble
and pain at the battle of,the Wilderness, May
14th, 1864, when a shell exploded on the
ground near him and he was hurled several
rods and left on the field for dead. Ever
since that time the wound has troubled him
more or less and lately caused him so much
pain that he could stand it no longer and he
accordingly came down and had the “pesky”
thing removed. The cause of the trouble
was an iron ball, weighing almost an ounce.
The operation was a painful one, but Mr.
Bloom stood it manfully and felt greatly re-
lieved after it was all over. ,The ball was
quite a curiosity and was viewed by a num-
ber of people.
five feet and three inches. The squirrel ap-
proached within a few feet of the men and,
—A train at Barry Junction on the Lehigl ¢
2)