Bemoralic: Waldman
BY P. GRAY MEER.
Ink Slings.
—There is only one way to have friends.
Be a friend yourself.
—Cabinet making is not one of the easi-
est trades to learn and Mr. MCKINLEY is
finding it out about as fast as it is possible
for him to do so.
—Judging from the court records of
York county the BuzzARDs must be al-
most as plentiful and pestiferious in that
locality as they are in the southern States.
—If this Legislature re-apportions the
State it will simply be a scheme to gerry-
mander a few more seats for Republican
Assemblymen and Senators.
—MARK HANNA is ill. Poor MARK.
He survived the pre-election troubles that
“Cousin OSBORNE’’ brought about, but the
office seekers and protection seekers now
are more than his puny (?) constitution
can stand.
—Two tramps attempted suicide by
throwing themselves in front of an express
train, on Long Island, the other day. It
is presumed that they were hunting warm
winter quarters, but their attempt failed, as
the train would not kill them.
- —MCcKINLEY was formally elected Pres-
ident, on Tuesday, when the electors of the
various States assembled for the purpose of
voting the instructions given them last
November. Now that the last formality
has been gone through with what is there
to stay his promised properity ?
—If succession in control means any-
thing young SEELEY, the New York swell,
must be a descendant of PHAROAH. The
latter had -Egypt, all together, long cen-
turies ago, while SEELEY had ‘‘Little
_Fgypt”’ in the ‘‘altogether,’”’ at a banquet,
in New York, recently.
—Side” by side, in the columns of the
Altoona papers the other morning, were ac-
counts of a woman starving to death in
that city and of the amount that had been
subscribed to the quick charity fund. They
had better make their charity a little
quicker up there or give it another name.
—The New York swells who are just now
having their depraved minds ventilated in
the police courts of that city ought to be
"shunned by society every where, but it is
a sad commentary on American women
that they will be rather ‘‘the fad” than
dispised, after having been shown up as
vulgar libidinists.
—The currency contractors met in Indi-
anapolis, on Wednesday, to continue their
plans of making the dollars scarcer and
harder to get. This over-weening desire
for “‘honest’’ money will end up by mak-
ing a dishonest people. All must live-and
if there is not some way of obtaining an
honest livelihood other means will be taken.
—A new arbitration treaty has been
signed whereby all matters of difference
between the United States and Gt. Britain
are to be submitted toa board of judges
employed for the purpose of sitting as
arbiters. If all nations would adopt such
a method of settling disputes there would
be no need of navies and standing armies.
—It was a matter to be wondered at
when it was first announced that the Buck-
nell glee club would give a concert, at
State College, next Friday night, but since
it has been discovered that the club is com-
posed entirely of young ladies a different
phase is put on the announcement. In
State’s eyes Bucknell men are not of much
use, but her girls——Well, that’s different,
you know.
—Senator HILL’S resolution to fix the
term of fourth class post-masters at four
years is a good one and should be passed.
It would be fair to both parties and
would put an end to much trouble and
injustice. The idea is to appoint all fourth
class postmasters toa four year’s term, ex-
cept in case of appointments to fill va-
cancies. In such cases the limit will be
the unexpired term.
—The sailor who recently set out for
the island of Juan Fernandez and, getting
drunk en route, was unable to find the place
and returned with the startling story that
the island of ‘‘Robison Crusoe’’ had been
swallowed up by the sea, must have been
feeling very much like the fellow who goes
home drunk at night and, standing in the
middle of the floor to wait until his bed
gets around to him, jumps, to find it gone
out from under him.
—The Princess de Chimay, who eloped,
last summer, with a Hungarian gypsy
musician, has grown tired of her lover and
now wantsa divorce. After she gets it she
is to receive $750 a night for being a living
picture ina Berlin winter garden. Talk
about workmanship enhancing the“value
of raw material ; here the Berliners are
willing to put up $750 a nigi.. to see what
that musically inclined Dago saw every
day, for months, for nothing.
—It was one of the favorite Republican
cries, last fall, to compare Mr. MCKINLEY’S
actions, during the sixties, with Mr. BRry-
AN’S. Mr. McKINLEY was a very good
soldier, while his opponent was too young
to go to war. It was a great Republican
stroke to blaze away on this story, but if
the Major has so much of the soldier
blood in him why is it that so many of his
shrewdest party party men decline to enter
his cabinet for service? They know what
the next four years will bring forth and do
not care to be in the grave that Republi-
canism must now dig for itself, since it is
pledged to a single standard of currency.
Demat
VOL. 42 -
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JAN. 15, 1897.
A Question of Currency Reform.
It has been seldom in years that we have
been able to agree with the views of the
New York Sun, yet we can, toa certain
extent, coincide with it when it says:
“the talk about the need of reforming our
currency has no basis of fact or reason on
which to rest.” The kind of currency re-
form talk to which the Sun alludes, is that
which is heard in goldite circles about the
necessity of ‘‘the government going out of
the b: king business,’’ and the expediency
of i the greenbacks, in order to re-
lieve it of the banking function, and to
place the currency more thoroughly upon
the gold basis.
Much is said about the great harm re-
sulting from the government having half a
dozen or more different kinds of money
afloat, and the urgency there is for the re-
formation of such a diversified system by
calling in all the government paper money
and simplifyif'g the currency by confining
the paper circulation to the issues of the
bank, the whole business to be regulated
by the gold standard.
The Sun is right in saying that this kind
of talk is bosh. It might have gone fur-
ther and said that those who talk this way
are interested in producing a contraction
that will bring the currency more com-
pletely under the control of a money trust
that has its head quarters in Wall street.
There is no harm or danger in the gov-
ernment’s diversified system of paper
money. consisting of the greenback legal
tender, treasury notes, silver certificates,
and three or four other kinds, (although
this system could be simplified) if they are
let alone to perform their function as a cir-
culating medium, based upon the credit of
the government, without attempting to
give them the unnecessary value of gold by
the assumption of ultimate redemption in
that kind of coin. If this varied paper cir-
culation has been troublesome and -injur-
ious it has only been in consequence of the
futile attempt to maintain a stock of gold
in the treasury sufficient to keep it ona
par with that metal. The assumption of
such a performance is a deception, a regu-
lar financial fake, for the reason that there
is not enough gold available for such a pur-
pose without continual loans that subject
the government to the expensive extortion
of the money lenders. But if the treasury
authorities were to use the option giv-
en them by law to employ either kind of
the lawful coinage of the country, silver as
well as gold, for the redemption of its pa-
per money, the trouble and injury alleged
to be connected with the existing system of
currency, and clearly due to the require-
ment of gold redemption, would be entire-
ly removed,
But to such a proposition the goldites
put in the horrifying protest that if the
greenbacks and other government notes
were to be redeemed in silver it would cut
the value of everything in two and hope-
lessly ruin the country. The people, who
by this time should have recovered from
the effect of the 53-cent dollar hoax which
the goldites so adroitly employed in the
recent campaign, should not be in a
mood to be frightened by the humbug rep-
resentation that the redemption of the gov-
ernment paper money in silver would di-
minish its purchasing value.
We believe that neither the majority of
the people nor a majority of Congress are
favorable to the kind of ‘‘currency reform?’
which the gold contractionists want to
effect by putting the legal tender ‘notes,
more familiarly known as greenbacks, out
of circulation. What is needed to restore
the prosperity of the country is rather an
extension than a contraction of the circula-
ting medium. There is no legitimate call
for ‘‘the government to go out of the bank-
ing business’’ in the sense implied by the
demand of the contractionists, and there
is no public interest that demands that the
function of issuing paper money should be
limited to the banks.
The business welfare of the country will
be promoted by keeping afloat every dollar
of paper money which the government has
in circulation, with an untrammeled exer-
cise of its option to redeem its notes either
with gold or silver, to suit existing exigen-
cies, as authorized by law and additionally
sanctioned by the MATTHEWS resolution.
——The suspension of labor at many of
the penal institutions in the country is
playing sad havoc with a number of the in-
mates. Legislatures have prohibited pris-
on labor with the hope of protecting hon-
est labor, but in doing so they have taken
away from convicts a means of passing
away time, while incarcerated, that is like-
ly to have its ill effects on the minds of
many. Itis a question whether a greater
good is not done humanity by permitting
convict labor, if for no other reason than
that it inculcates good habits in long term
men, than by legislating against it for the
benefit of outside industry.
——Talk about the inhuman methods of
punishing crime in olden times. The rack,
the screw, the iron woman, and stock were
as nothing compared to the way bigamists
are punished in Hungary. Awful, awful!
They are made to live in the same house
with all of their wives at the same time.
Walcott’s Mission.
Senator WALCOTT is off on his mission to
Europe, the purpose of which is to secure
the co-operation of the bimetallists of the
old country in bringing about an inter-
national agreement by which silver shall
be restored to its former monetary stand-
ing relatively to gold. His movement is
based on a resolution passed in the Senate,
upon which a committee was appointed to
determine what may be done towards
carrying out the pledge in the St. Louis
platform committing the Republican party
to bimetallism by international agree-
ment. WALCOTT has gone abroad to see
how foreign governments may be disposed
to join in a movement to which the Re-
Jublicans pledged themselves for political
reasons connected with a presidential cam-
paign, but which can hardly be considered
binding upon European gold-bugs.
Since his arrival on the other side of the
Atlantic he is meeting with no encourage-
ment in that quarter. The leaders of the
English money market give him no coun-
tenance, whatever, and there is but little
prospect of his getting a hetter reception in
other European countries from those in-
terests which are reaping an advantage
from the exclusive gold policy. The money
changers and bond dealers have as much
the upper hand in Europeas they have in
this country, and it is too much for Senator
WALCOTT to expect that he can persuade
them to join in a movement that would
diminish their profits.
The Republicans can’t be given credit
with meaning anything serious when they
declared for international bimetallism in
their platform. It was putin for a cam-
paign purpose, and it is not to be expected
that they will make very strenuous exer-
tions to induce the European nations to go
into a conference with the United States
for the restoration of the monetary equality
of silver.
That the double standard of value will
in time be restored scarcely admits of a
doubt. A few more years of the con-
tracting and depressing effects of the con-
strictive gold policy will compel the Amer-
ican people to put silver back in its old
place in the currency, and they will do it
without waiting to see what Europe will
have to say about it. BRYAN advocated
the right policy when he declared that
this country is able to go it alone in re-
establishing the silver standard, and when
the people of the United States shall make
up their minds to carry out this policy
the nations of Europe will not be long in
seeing the commercial advantage it will
give this nation and will be compelled to
adopt it in defence of their own interests.
Anti-Trust Legislation.
The success of the anti-trust law passed
by the Legislature of Georgia, which is
driving the trusts out of that State, has
encouraged the introduction of a bill in
the Indiana Legislature, framed on similar
lines, with the object of producing the
same effect in suppressing those trade con-
spiracies in Indiana.
The trusts have been able to maintain
their monopolies simply because there has
been no earnest legislation for their sup-
pression. They have been able to exert
such influence upon legislation that when
attempts were made to pass anti-trust laws
it was always managed to make them so
defective that they were found to be in-
operative. The courts have also been too
much inclined to interpret such enactments
in favor of the monopolies. Some state
Legislatures, among which that of Penn-
sylvania has been conspicuous in its fa-
voritism to monopolistic extortion, have
persistently refrained from doing anything
for the defence of the people against this
form of robbery, but, on the other hand,
have displayed a readiness to protect mo-
nopoly by favorable legislation. In this
State both the Legislature and the Execu-
tive have shown this reprehensible dis-
position in their concessions to the interest
of the Standard oil company, the most
gigantic trust'and typical monopoly of the
age. :
That the Georgia anti-trust law has
proved successful is because it was framed
with an earnest intention to effect its ob-
ject. The bill introduced in the Indiana
Legislature, on the same subject, appears to
be similarly in earnest, and, if passed, will
no doubt be equally successful in produc-
ing its intended results.
But while these remedial measures are
being taken by state Legislatures to pro-
tect the people from the extortion of the
trusts, it is discouraging to see the national
Legislature preparing for the increase of
tariff duties which furnish these monopolis-
tic combinations the encouragement and
protection under which they are enabled
to practice their robbery. There is but
faint hope of relief from the trust evil when
MCKINLEYISM, restored to power, invites
the various monopolies to appear before
the Ways and Means committee and name
the rate of tariff duties under which they
will be best able to continue their spolia-
tions.
The Expense of the Greenback Circu-
lation.
A Philadelphia contemporary that has
been conspicuous in its support of the gold
standard, and severe in its denunciation of
tends its reproof to those who are opposed
to the retirement of the greenbacks. It
scouts the claim that the government legal
tender notes are a cheap and reliable kind
of currency, and that inasmuch as they
bear no interest and are acceptable in all
business transactions, it is desirable on
that account to rather enlarge than reduce
the volume of their circulation. Instead
of this being true it declares that the facts
are directly opposite ; that the greenbacks
are an expensive form of currency, having
cost the government, and consequently the
people, many millions of dollars to keep
them in circulation, and that therefore
their retirement would be a public benefit.
To support this charge it gives the fig-
ures to show what it has cost to maintain
the gold reserve for greenback redemption,
and succeeds in demonstrating that since
1877 the cost and liability incurred by re-
deeming the greenbacks in gold amounted
to the enormous sum of $1,081,881,562.
Certainly this is an expense too great to
be incurred for the purpose of keeping a
paper currency afloat, but was there any
necessity “Por incurring that expense? Is
there not some other way of backing up the
greenback circulation than by piling up a
great heap of gold in the treasury, the
maintenance of which is so advantageous
to the gold speculators and so expensive to
the government ? Such an expense would
be inexcusable even if it were required by
law; but it is incurred without legal sanc-
tion, for there is no law that requires the
payment of the greenbacks in gold. The
provision of the law that such obligations
of the government are redeemable in ‘‘law-
ful coin’ of the United States has been
perverted to the advantage of the gold deal-
ers who make a profit out of loans made to
maintain the reserve, and this perversion
is perpetrated in defiance of a resolution of
Congress which declared that silver was
as lawful a coin as gold in redeeming the
government’s paper obligations.
It is true that the circulation of the gov-
ernment’s legal tenders has been very ex-
pensive, but this expense has been incurred
in catering to the gold interest. It is a se-
quence of the crime of demonetization. If
silver had been allowed to retain its posi-
tion in our monetary system and had been
used co-ordinately with gold, as the option
of the government, in redeeming the green-
backs, the millions that have gone to the
gold sharks on profits in loans would have
been saved.
Rain-bow Promises.
The Republicans are building high on
the prospect that the Senate will fail to
confirm a large umber of appointees,
named by President CLEVELAND, prior to
the meeting of Congress, and thus leave
many positions to be filled by President
McKINLEY that fairly belonged to his
successor and his supporters. This hope,
of the hungry brigade, is based upon the
fact that Senator WALCOTT, who is chair-
man of the committee on post-offices and
post roads, is absent in Europe and will
not return, before the 4th of March, to call
a meeting of his committee and without a
meeting of and a favorable report from the
committee, the names of Mr. CLEVELAND'S
appointees will not be presented to the
Senate for confirmation. Should there be
anything in this reasoning of the Republi-
can’s it would leave President MCKINLEY
to name, at once, post-masters for the fol-
lowing points in Pennsylvania, the salaries
of which range from $6,000 to $1,000:
Mount Jewett, Darby, Bryn Mawr, Mil-
ford, Bridgeport, Newtown, Jermyn, Col-
umbus, Sunbury, Williamstown Mount
Jay, Minersville, Montoursville, Philips-
burg, Evans City, Union City, Saltsburg,
Slippery Rock, Galeton, Wilmington, Dun-
bar, Etna, Peckville, Derry Station, New
Bloomfield, Lykens and Lititz.
It is hardly probable that the present oc-
cupants of these offices will be foolish
enough to loose sleep over the visionary
hopes of Republican aspirants, that a Senate
committee will fail to meet during an
entire session of Congress because of the
absence of its chairman. To do so would
indicate that they know about as much of
parliamentary proceedings, and of the neces-
sity of committee work, as the gold stand-
ard advocates did of the conditions neces-
sary to the prosperity of the country.
We like to see people hopeful and happy
and for this reason would advise the fel-
lows who expect to get these places, in
consequence of the failure of the Senate
committee to meet, to spit on their hands
and tighten their grip on the hopes they
have. It’s a very slippery, doubtful one
and is about as likely to be realized as the
one that lures children to seek the golden
treasure at the rain-bow’s eg.
——In selecting JOHN SHERMAN as the
head of his official family President-elect
McKINLEY has left no room for doubt as
to the Republicanism of it.
the free silver ‘‘repudiationists,’” now ex-’
Kind Words for the Watchman from
"Many Journalists.
Our readers have all seen and apprecia-
ted, we trust, the recent Christmas num-
ber of this paper. When it was decided to
issue it in the form that proved so highly
satisfactory to all,'no splurge was intended,
nor no effort made to parade it for public
attention. It was simply one of the many
departures that the WATCHMAN is continu-
ally making for the benefit of its patrons.
Many congratulatory expressions have
been received concerning the issue, but we
appreciate, more than all, the kind words
that our fellow journalists have said, alto-
gether without solicitation. They are in a
position to pass upon the merit: of a paper
better than any other class of readers, hence
we publish extracts from a few of the ones
we have received :
It Improves With Age.
From the Lock Haven Democrat.
The Bellefonte WATCHMAN, that
staunch Democratic weekly, has completed
the forty first year of its existence, and it
celebrated its anniversary by appearing in
an enlarged form of sixteen pages, with
brilliantly illuminated Christmas covers.
The WATCHMAN improves with age in the
vigorous tone and independent spirit of its
editorials and in the freshness of its lo-
cals. The WATCHMAN is an old standby
in Centre county, and we can only wish it
a never ending continuance of its pros-
perity and popularity.
One of the Handsomest.
From the Williamsport Sun.
A number of newspapers of the State is-
sued special Christmas editions, and that
of the Bellefonte WATCHMAN, in its var-
ious colors, is one of the handsomest that
reached the Sun office.
It Did Take in This State.
From the Lancaster Intelligencer.
Eugene Field observed that ‘‘any color,
so long as its red, is the color that goes out
West,’” and the remark might as well be
applied to many parts of the East, for it is
very certain that the lurid scarlet cover of
the Bellefonte DEMOCRATIC WATCHMAN’S
Christmas number would go like a house
afire anywhere in Pennsylvania.
A Beautiful Specimen of the Printing
Art.
From the Huntingdon News.
The Bellefonte WATCHMAN did itself
proud in getting out a Christmas number
with illuminated cover, and 13 pages of
jeading and advertising: mai. It is a
beautiful specimen of the printing art, and
takes the shine off special numbers that
have been issued from more pretentious
city offices.
A Rich Treat.
From the Greensburg Democrat.
A rich treat was given its readers by that
sterling journal, The DEMOCRATIC WATCH-
MAN, of Bellefonte, Pa., in its Christmas
issue. It was very neat in appearance and
admirable in contents.
An Ideal Country Paper.
From the Philipsburg Ledger.
The DEMOCRATIC WATCHMAN, which is
always easily in the lead in good looks,
outshone itself in the Christmas number.
It was gorgeous in a brilliant ‘‘poster’’
cover and contained sixteen pages of choice
reading matter. Barring its polities the
WATCHMAN is an ideal country paper, and
its thriving condition is the result of brains
and grit, which ‘deserve all the prosperity
there is going.
One of the Best in the State.
From the Jersey Shore Herald.
Last week’s edition of the Bellefonte
WATCHMAN was beautiful in art as well
as mechanical workmanship. It made up
16 pages with handsome colored covers,
and reflects great credit upon the enterprise
and taste of the proprietor, Hon. P. Gray
Meek, and his assistants. The WATCHMAN,
is one of the best newspapers published in
the State.
A Vision of Bright Color.
From the Connellsville Courier.
The holiday issue of the Bellefonte
DEMOCRATIC WATCHMAN is a 16 page pa-
per and is a vision of bright color and new
type. The cover is in three colors and is
one of the finest seen this year.
Its Rank is Foremost.
From the Altoona News.
We congratulate the Bellefonte WATCH-
MAN for successfully rounding out the for-
ty-first year of existence. As a bright, in-
teresting weekly journal it ranks among
the foremost in the Keystone Common-
wealth.
And the Scribes Are Not too Good to
be Angels.
From the Bellefonte Keystone Gazette.
This week the WATCHMAN reached its
readers in what they term a Christmas edi-
tion. It contains a large amount of extra
local advertisements and reading matter es-
pecially adapted for the festivities of the
holidays. The red and highly decorated
cover is what takes the eye of the people in
general and makes the edition very con-
spicuous. It is neat and tidy, well edited
and is praise-worthy of those who had it in
charge. On the front cover is an angel
reaching for something—but not by any
means for the gentlemen scribes of the pa-
per.
A Splendid Specimen of the Printer’s
Art.
From the Bellefonte Daily News.
Last week the staunch old DEMOCRATIC
WATCHMAN celebrated the happy Christ-
mas time and its forty-first anniversary by
appearing in an enlarged form. There
| were sixteen pages of interesting reading
and advertising matter with beautifully il-
luminated Christmas covers. It is a splen-
did specimen of the printers art, and we
congratulate Brother Meek on his effort.
|
Spawls from the Keystone.
—The Supreme court began its sessions in
Scranton Monday.
—W. J. Clark was appointed fourth-class
postmaster at Leech’s Corner on Monday.
—Bella Trexell, an Allentown saleswoman,
died of blood poisoning caused by a pin
scratch.
—York has reached the bonded debt limit
created by councils, and any increase must be
voted by the people.
—Three turret plates for the battleship
Towa were shipped from the Bethlehem iron
works to Cramps on Monday.
—Schrader, the “healer,” has opened a
room inthe Rise block, Lebanon, and ex-
pects to remain there a week.
—By a fall of coal at Monitor colliery,
near Ashland, Michael Travinski, a miner,
was instantly killed Monday.
—Larry ‘McCullune, of the Union water
works, Lebanon, was probably fatally gored
by a maddened bull on Saturday.
—Nathan Dresher, of Allentown, has had
one family as tenants on his farm at Long-
swamp continuously for 65 years.
—The Lehigh zinc works has abondoned
the jigging department at its Bethlehem
plant, the work being transferred to New
Jersey.
—J. Ross Decker, son of ex-Assemblyman
James D. Decker, of Pond Eddy, was killed
Monday by a dynamite explosion in his stone
quarry.
—Application fora new trial has been made
at Pittsburg in case of professor C. D. Bogart,
convicted of assaulting 13-year-old Clara
Vates.
—Three valuable horses, belonging to Coxe
Bros. & Co., of Drifton, broke loose Tuesday
day morning and were killed by a train on
the Lehigh Valley Railroad,
—Harry W. Seigrist, has been chosen treas-
urer of the Cornwall & Lebanon railroad, to
succeed Allen D. Hoffer, who resigned be-
cause of his brother's stealing.
—The 16-year-old son of John W. Yeager,
of Steelton, was instantly killed by being
struck by a Pennsylvania railroad freight
train, which was making a “flying switch.”
While painting the cupola of the Warwick
furnace, Pottstown, Edward Strough was
overcome by furnace gas and narrowly es-
caped falling to the ground 60 feet below.
—Councilman J. H. Deiffenderfer, of Mil-
ton, fell dead on the street in that place Fri-
day. He was standing near a window and
when he fell he struck the pane of glass,
breaking it. He wasa prominent Odd Fel-
low. His age was 44 years.
—At Sunbury several doctors removed
from the upper part of the back of O. P.
Renn, bridge carpenter in the employ of the
Pennsylvania railroad, a tumor as large as a
child’s head. Thc operation wasa success
and the patient is getting along nicely.
—A large number of cross ties are being
delivered at different points along the Beech
Creek railroad. They are consigned to
Graham and Porte, who, it is said, have con-
tracted to furnish the Beech Creek company
with 10,000 ties for use the present year.
—Arrangements are being perfected to
have the new Odd Fellows’ Orphans’ Home,
at Sunbury, completed by April 1. J. L.
Miller, of Sunbury, has been elected superin-
tendent of the Home, at asalary of $600, and
his wife has been elected matron, at a salary
of $200 a year.
—A good bit has been said and printed
about the state of Pennsylvania paying or
not paying the transportation for the Na-
tional Guard to Washington on the inaugural
occasion. The truth is the state never did
pay the transportation of its Guard to Wash-
ington to take part in the 4th of March pro-
ceeding. Neither did it ever pay the men
of the Guard for their time or even bear
their expenses.
—The depositors of the defunct bank of
Gardner, Morrow & Co., will receive 17
cents on the dollar out of the bank assets.
The depositors have petitioned te court to
impound a casket belonging to the late Judge
James Gardner, senior member of the firm,
which is believed to contain $100,000 in Unit-
ed States bonds. The casket is to be opened
by Judge Bailey in the presence of the in-
terested parties.
—In payment of an election bet, Walter
Shooter, proprietor of the City hotel, Wil-
liamsport, ate a roasted crow Monday nights,
in the presence of a number of friends.
Prior to the November election Mr. Shooter
and H. Jules Mailloux, in speaking of the
contest for sheriff between Crow and Ash-
bridge in Philadelphia, became so warm in
the support of their favorites that each wag-
ered with the other that the one whose fav-
Site lost the fight, would eat a dish of crow.
-—Through Congressman Hicks the people
of Altoona are pushing hard for the public
building which has been on the string of
hope for several years. A bill is now pending
in the lower house of congress, presented by
Hicks on the 6th of last month, which pro-
vides for an appropriation of $125,000 for the
purpose. Postmaster Wilson of the moun-
tain city, is now preparing a statement in
answer to certain questions concerning the
present postoffice facilities, ete., which indi-
cate that the matter is being seriously con-
sidered in Washington.
—The coal mines at Robertsdale and
Woodvale shaft employ about 500 men. The
“drivers” at Robertsdale slope struck on
Tuesday because one of their number was
given a different mule to drive, and the slope
has been closed since that time. On Satur-
day morning the Woodvale shaft ‘‘drivers”
refused to work through sympathy and now
all the mines are closed. The mines had
been only working two days a week and the
“drivers” struck just as they began working
on a large order which would have kept
them steadily employed.
—Frank N. Moore. special agent of the de-
partment of agriculture, while going the
rounds of the candy trade, discovered in the
analysis on candy that a large per centage
contained rum and brandy. This candy sells
for 40 and 50 cents a pound, and the dealefs
say it is largely sought after by boys and
girls between the ages of ten and sixteen.
Mr. Moore also had a sample of rock and rye
drops which got its name from the fact that
no rock and rye was found in its ingredients,
but instead contained a liberal quantity of
tartaric acid.