BY P. GRAY MEEK. Ink Slings. i want to reach the Kiondyie, To dig gold-dust from the ground, I want tobe a boomer, Far north of Puget Sound, I like to see the yellow stuff, For ’tis a joyous sight, But I'd quickly drop one lump of it For sixteen lumps of white. —Being in QUAY’s Legislatures certain- ly ought not to be more ignominious than being in REED’s Congress, for QUAY never choked men off without leaving them have their say. —After the work the paragrapher of the Altoona News did on the Saturday edition of that paper it was not much of a surprise when the publication suspended on Monday. —Oh, MARY ELLEN LEASE, you must pack your big valise, and scoot away toa foreign clime ; for your socialistic notions, are inflammatory lotions, that put sweet bells of liberty out of chime. —The SyiTH family is to hold a reunion near Altoona soon. It can certainly not be feared that there will not be many there, as the SyiTHS show no signs of becoming extinct in these United States. — While speaker REED’S back-bone is an abominable nuisance at Washington a few vertebra from it might be a glorious thing for Pennsylvania if they were only dropped down the chimney of the executive mansion some of these nights. —QUuAY must have changed his mind about that European trip he was supposed to be starting on, only ashort time ago, and it is very likely that the hinges on the ice box at his Indian river place will be al- lowed to rust, ere he finds time to lay down the “fiery cross” and scoot South. —Let us annex Hawaii, Cuba, Canada, spike the jingo guns, give our pocket-hooks to the trusts, let the DINGLEY bill dangle from every flag-staff and then weep salty tears to sprinkle on the tail of the Repub- lican elephant that it might keep fresh until the prosperity show catches up to its advance agent. —The Maryland girl who sat so near a stove that a celluloid comb that was in her hair took fire and burned up has given a painful, though valuable, illustration of the danger in ‘wearing celluloid articles of ap- parel. For instance, no one can tell what horrible fatality might be the out come of some red-headed girl making a pillow of her lover’s celluloid shirt front. —The much talked of alliance between Japan and Spain, as against the United States, is not causing uncle SAM any extra sleeplessness these hot nights. The Mikado might just as well tie a mill-stone about his neck and jump into the Japan sea as tie his national fortunes to the tail of the flapped-out old Spanish kite that is only being kept in the air by such monumental wind-bags as WEYLER. —The unpleasant notoriety that was given the lavish expenditure of state funds for useless improvements at the executive mansion is probably a partial reason for the Governor's desire to have all the bills of officials about Harrisburg itemized be- fore he will approve them. Misery loves company and certainly there could be no more miserable spectacle than DANIEL has been of late. —Notwithstanding MARK HANNA'S brutal treatment of colored leaders, who spent their entire fortunes to help Mc- KINLEY along in his campaign and now visit Washington hopeful of the reward they have every right to claim, the colored vote only awaits the beck and call of its Republican savior (?) to rally to the sup- port of anyone. It seems that the more Republicanism cuffs the voters who make it dominant the more servile they become. —At one time TERRENCE V. POWDER- LY was the accepted, honored, followed leader of labor in the United States. He proved a traitor to the cause and to-day is commissioner of immigration, at New York, a creature of an administration that is forging great chains with which to shackle the masses who were keen enough to discern the treacherous politician through PowWDERLY’S leader coat, but too dull to discover the deception in a single standard, tariff tax campaign. —The say so of the opposition doesn’t necessarily sound the death knell of the free silver cause. Before the last election, because it was a new campaign issue, fool- ish ones were either scared or made believe that it was only a ‘‘craze,”’ but the result of the election showed that there were six and one-half million voters affected with it and recent political movements show the same ‘‘craze’’ to be hangingon. In Washington county, Maryland, on Wednes- day, all the gold pressure that could be brought to bear could not stifle the silver sentiment and it triumphed. —The Washington Post is of the opinion that President MCKINLEY would be very happy if a certain per cent. of the office seekers would be seized with the gold fever. Perhaps he would, but the Presi- dent knows by this time that the gold fever will never make people as delirious as it did the ones who voted for him. It was a violent form of gold fever that put him where he is and he knows, only too well, that unless something is done very quick to relieve the terrible business stag- nation of the country his next attack will be chills, and silver doctors will be called to relieve uncle Sam. ( EN Temacralic RO VOL. 42 STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. __BELLEFONTE, PA., JULY 23, 1897. The Curse of Big Majorities. We have often spoken of the curse which Pennsylvania has entailed upon herself by her big Republican majorities. The bad government with which she is aflicted, the maladministration that pre- rails in every department of her public service, and especially the low character and general worthlessness of her Legisla- tures, are the result of the unvaryingly large majorities which the dominant party has been able to count upon. There is no inducement for those en- trusted with the state government to be- have properly when they are sure that ceive an overwhelming popular endorse- ment. Take our Legislature for example. It lost all fear and shame in its assurance that no wrong it might commit, no abuse it might practice, would reduce the party majority that invested it with the power to pervert the legislative function by squandering the public money and robbing the State. For some years past its worthlessness has increased in proportion to the trust, which the people have reposed in it. Every renewal of power has heen followed by greater outrages upon the public con- fidence. The Legislature that preceded the one that recently relieved Harrisburg of its disgraceful presence, displayed every vice that a legislative body could be guilty of. Its session was a carnival of reckless and vicious legislation. Its chief business was to serve the monied corporations and waste the money of the people. The additions it made to the expenses of the state govern- ment, by creating new offices and increas- ing salaries, helped to bring on the condi- tion of bankruptcy which the state treas- ury is now found to be in. It was natural to expect that such con- duct would excite indignant reproof on the part of the people. But, instead of being reproved, it received at the next election the endorsement of an increased Republi- can majority. The people seemed to be so well pleased with this legislative profligacy that they made-the succeeding Legislature almost unanimously Republican. Out of a total membership of 254 in the two houses, there were elected but 39 of the opposite party, a circumstance which made the Republicans shameless and fearless in their misconduct. The curse of a big majority was never more impressively exemplified than in the last session of our Legislature. The ab- sence of popular rebuke for previous wrong- doing encouraged the shameful proceedings at Harrisburg which during the recent ses- sion of nearly six months made the ILegis- lature of Pennsylvania a disgrace to the State and a stench in the nostrils of the people who had too long allowed their con- fidence to be abused. A Mistaken Estimate. What a miscalculation the esteemed Philadelphia 7imes makes in its estimate of the condition of the Democratic party. It believes that the old party is undergoing disintegration by the defection of those who have followed Mr. CLEVELAND into the camp of the goldbugs, but apparently takes no account of the strength and solid- ity of the organization that remains true to the principles of Democracy, as enunciated by the last national platform. There is not a State in which the party is not intact, with no evidence of disorgani- zation resulting from the defection of the small number who are more wedded to the money power than to the popular princi- ples inherited from the founders of the party. It is safe to believe that the number of those who are called gold Democrats is far from being as large as it was at last year’s election. Many of them have recovered from the delusion that the country would be ruined by freesilver, while many others regret having allowed themselves to be used for the advantage of a party that had no other object in carrying the election than to serve the trusts, as it is now doing by the passage of its infamous tariff bill. If a count were made of those who still adhere to the platform on which PALMER and BUCKNER were the candidates of the so-called gold Democrats, the number, small as it was last year, would now be found to be much smaller. Such a disinte- gration is of no account in comparison with the accession of the thousands of Republi- cans to the Democratic ranks on account of the broken promises of their party and its outrageous truckling to the wealth which has it under mortgage. The Democratic party was never in bet- ter trim than it is at this time, and its condition will go on improving as time de- velops the kind of prosperity that the Re- publicans are going to give the country. . ——ANDREE and his companions are flying toward the pole, but they will find it much harder to find it than falling out of a balloon. whatever may be their conduct it will re- Sugar in Congress. When it is announced that in the con- tention between the House conferees and those of the Senate on the sugar schedule the Senate was forced to abandon the high- er duty it had provided for the sugar trust, it must not be supposed that it was a re- sult that involved a great defeat for the trust, It meant nothing more than thatthe Senate failed in securing for the sugar mo- nopoly a bigger grab than had been al- lowed it in the original House hill. The differential duty with which the bill, as drawn by the DINGLEY committee, favored the trust, was higher than that which was forced into the WirLsox tariff by the sugar Senators of that period. The lat- ter was recognized as an improper conces- sion to the trusts, but it was deliberately increased by the DINGLEY committee from an eighth of a cent per pound to three eights. This increase was additionally ad- vanced by the Senate to three fifths of a cent per pound. These fractions look small, but even a slight increase in them means millions to the trust, in view of the immense amount of sugar consumed. The increase made by the House bill on the duty allowed in the WILsoN law repre- sented swag for the trust to the amount of some eight millions of dollars. The addi- tional increase made by the Senate meant as much more plunder for the monopoly as three fifths are more than three eights. Therefore, when the Senate was forced to recede from the increase it had made on the differential duty allowed by the House, it is not to be understood that the trust was deprived of its plunder, but that the steal was not quite as great as the sug- ar Senators had proposed to make it. Nothing connected with the tariff legisla- tion of this special session has been more scandalous than the sugar schedule. Both houses gave themselves over to the control of the trust. The bill, as originally’ drawn, gave the trust a larger bonus than that which a few corrupt Senators secured for it in the WILSON tariff, yet when it came to the Senate this advantage to the monopoly was made still larger, and it was done in a manner that indicated a cor- rupt influence brought to bear upon mem- bers of that body. While the bill was pending there was more than a suspicion that the Senators were gambling in sugar trust stock. Through the entire proceed- ings corruption was plainly discernible. In characters clearly legible the Senate’s disgrace was written between the lines of the sugar schedule. In the wind up the difference in confer- ence between the two houses was merely as to the amount of spoils that should be allowed the trust. It Holds on to Its Plunder. When the agreement of the House and Senate conference on the tariff bill was an- nounced, on Saturday, it was given out that it had resulted in depriving the sugar trust of the plunder that had been conceded to it by the Senate. This did not prove to be the case. Not only has that monopoly been allowed the increased duty given it in the original House bill, but the augmented spoils grant- ed it by the Senate amendment were main- tained in the conference. It turns out that the trust has secured substantially everything that the Senate had allowed it. There has been a com- plete surrender to HAVEMEYER, SPRECK- ELS and the other millionaires composing the sugar combine, whose thievish gains will be increased $15,000,000, annually taken from the pockets of consumers by this scandalous legislation. This in itself was bad enough, but, as an additional outrage, this shameful trans- action was utilized for the purpose of speculation by the stock gamblers in whose operations rascally Senators and Represen- tatives no doubt took a hand. When it was reported, on Saturday, that the confer- ence between the two houses had come to an agreement a false report as to what had been agreed upon was sent out to the pub- lice. It was reported that the Senate had backed down and the trust had sus- tained a reverse. The object of this report, sent out from the conference committee room, was to depress sugar trust stock. But when the truth came out, on Monday, that all the amendments framed in the in- terest of the trust had been sustained in conference, its stock took a boom by which millions were realized by the gamblers, and it is not difficult to imagine the profits of dishonest Senators and other congres- sional supporters of the sugar monopoly who took a hand in the game. The worst feature of this disgraceful business appears in the fact that while the Congress of the United States is voting to the sugar trust a bonus of many millions, which must be paid by the people, and a congressional conference is engaged in bucket-shop transactions for the benefit of stock gamblers, among whom are Senators and Representatives, the bituminous coal miners, reduced almost to starvation, are striking for an increase of wages which a monopoly tariff will never secure for them or any other class of working people. A Queer Proceeding. Evidently judge SIMONTON has some doubt as to the manner in which his re- cent decision, refusing a new trial to Rev. S. C. SwaALLow, will be taken by the pub- lic. He has gone to the trouble and ex- pense of having his ruling on both the mo- tion for a new trial and in arrest of judg- ment printed in pamphlet form and dis- tributed over the State ; a very unusual ac- tion on the part of a judge, and one that seems to us designed to show the plaintifi’s and the court’s side of these cases, rather than to inform the public as to the real facts underlying them, and in which the tax payers of the State have so much interest. As these libel cases were brought in con- sequence of statements made, not from any political motive, or from any personal mal- ice, or to attain any other end or object than an honest administration of public affairs, the technical rulings of the court, that confined the evidence to the very narrowest limits that the narrowest libel law disgracing the statutes of any State prescribes, will need considerably more ex- planation than even the printed opinion of his honor, judge SIMONTON, to convince the public that in the trial of these cases either public morals, honest government or the fleeced tax-payers were given a fair chance. If Judge SIMONTON’S respect for the in- tent and meaning of the law in force at the time of writing his opinion, refusing a new trial, had been as overwhelming as it was for the technicalities of the now obso- lete law under which the trial was con- ducted, his decision would have been en- tirely different, and would have needed no printed defense. The Dissolution of Populism. Hon. THoMAS E. WATSON, of Georgia, familiarly known as Tom WATSON, an- nounces the demise of the Populist party. This once aspiring, but now discouraged public character will be remembered as the candidate for vice President last year who failed to secure recognition. He has ever since been displeased with the political situation, and recognizing the hopeless future of Populism, he declares that the party is being ‘‘resolved into its original elements. Those who were once Demo- crats will be Democrats again, and those who were Republicans will be Republicans again.” Such a dissolution of Populism merely means that the opposition to Republican abuses is assuming a more concentrated form. Last year it was brought together by fusion. the Populists and silver Repub- licans fusing on the presidential ticket nominated by the Democrats. The great object that animated all of these elements can be better attained by one party into which the Populists and free silver Republicans are being resolved, and that party is the one bearing the old Democratic name, and maintaining the old Democratic principles. The dissolution of the Populist party, of which Mr. WATsoN speaks, is a process that is strengthening the Democratic or- ganization. Not only will those Populists who were Democrats return to the Demo- cratic fold, but they will bring with them the Republican Populists. Every shade of political opinion opposed to the party of trusts and bank syndicates will be united in one force for the rescue of the government from the corrupting and demoralizing domination of Republicanism. An Offensive Appointment. It is not surprising that the labor element of the country is displeased with the ap- pointment of TERRENCE V. POWDERLY as commissioner of immigration. His selec- tion for that office is so evidently a reward for his betrayal of the labor interest that it is an offense to every workingman in the country. POowDERLY receives his reward for playing JUDAS ISCARIOT in the last presi- dential campaign. No leader stood higher in the ranks of labor than he did. He was intrusted with the highest office in the leading labor organization. The place he occupied not only expressed the confidence that was reposed in him, but was also one that secured him profitable emolu- ments. At the time when he should have been most faithful to his trust he was tempted to act the part of a trading politician. Or- ganized labor discovered his true character, when he tried to sell it out to the dealers who were in the market buying votes for the Republican presidential candidate ; but the Knights of Labor wouldn’t be sold, and POWDERLY couldn’t deliver the goods according to contract with MARK HAN- NA. When there can be no doubt bat that the faithless and discarded chief of the Knights of Labor is given this official ap- pointment as a reward for an act of treach- ery, the labor organization, which he en- deavored to betray, has reason to resent so palpable an affront. It will, however, avail them but little to endeavor to defeat PowDERLY’S confirmation by the Senate. for they can have but little influence with a body that is so organized as to be subject to the pull of the trusts. NO. 28. The Governor's Great Vaudeville Act. From the Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch. There appears to be six interests in the Hastings-Penrose controversy. First, the great hero, Governor Hastings, as Governor Hastings thinks he is; and Senator Penrose, as Senator Penrose thinks he is. Second, the heroic soldier, Governor Hastings, as Senator Penrose thinks he is; and Senator Penrose, as Governor Hastings thinks he is, and finally there are Governor Hastings and Senator Penrose, as they really are. Governor Hastings was discredited hy the people in August, 1595, and Senator Penrose indorsed hy the people in January, 1897, and after you compute these ele- ments the distinctive balance is easily ob- tainable. The Governor appears to be puddling in “‘ground-hog politics,’’ and appears to be unable to throw off the ‘‘habits’’ he ac- quired in his association with the hog com- bine of "95. The latest exhibition of ‘vaudeville statesmanship’”” by the Governor of the Commonwealth has been furnished in a communication to the clerks of the Senate and House, and the chairmen and members of the various senate investigating commit- tees. His request that he be furnished with itemized accounts of expenditures made by the parties interested is laudable. In addition he has also requested that an itemized statement of all expenditures of the state normal schools be submitted to him, together with a detailed estimate of the probable operating expenses of such in- stitutions during the next two years. While Governor Hastings has been ex- plicit in his demand for details from chief clerk Smiley, of the Senate, and house clerk Rex, and the chairman of committees to in- vestigate abuses in the penitentiary, opera- tions of the oleomargerine law, the condi- tion of the miner in the bituminous and anthracite coal regions ; to investigate the state treasury, the insurance investigation, and committee to investigate the capitol fire, he appears to have neglected to re- quest of himself, and superintendent De- laney and others, known as the public grounds commission, a detailed statement and reasons why the State was compelled to pay 200 per cent. more for desks than the same identical desks manufactnred hy the same manufacturing corporation are sold for in the city of Philadelphia. Also reason why the State was not al- lowed in its purchase of galvanized sheet iron the same discount allowed by the manufacturers to firms purchasing the same quantity that was purchased in fitting up temporary quarters for the Legislature. A request should be made from qualified persons to furnish him with figures show- ing the legitimate cost of painting Grace church. 3 The Governor then should furnish the people of the Commonwealth with good reasons—‘‘and this is easy for him’’—why, at this time, he signed the Forestry com- mission bill. This bill reached his excel- lency on May 22nd, was signed on May 25th, and provides for the purchase of 120,- 000 or more acres of ground to be used as a ‘‘Forestry preserve,”’ or water shed, with no limit as to cost’”” and empowers the parties interested to take from the state treasury any amount of money they de- sire.”” Well informed parties state that this measure alone will cost the State not less than $1,000,000. Powerful political, financial and social friends of Governor Hastings prevented the repeal of this job. It is alleged that the parties back of the Forestry bill hold options on sixty thousand acres of stumpage, costing about one dollar an acre, along the north and the west branch of the Susquehanna river, that they intend to unload at high prices through the working of this Forestry hill, and part of the money so raised is to be used as a campaign fund to advance the interests of a certain gubernatorial candidate. Will the charities and other institutions have their appropriations ‘‘reduced or held up’’ in order to allow sufficient funds to be- come available for the uses and purposes of the Forestry bill promoters ? Quay’s Dotage. From the Huntingdon Journal, Rep. Senator Quay shows unmistakable signs of enervation. As evidence of this, is his announced determination one day to re- tire from public life, and the next day to continue in his pursuit of office hunting. These sudden changes of mind need occa- sion no surprise. Conscious, as he must be at times, of his failure to fulfill his pledges of reform. It is no wonder he is filled with misgivings of his ability to further fool the people. Is it not most natural that he should long for a retreat to private life rather than to trust to the mercy of an outraged and wickedly abused people? It requires the presence and flatteries of old friends and office-seekers to stimulate his courage sufficiently to enable him to de- clare his purpose to ask a re-election to the U. S. Senate. Left alone to himself his judgment is not so faulty as time will prove. This his closest friends will realize when his Waterloo, to which he is first ap- proaching, is reached. Charity and credulity have covered a multitude of his political short-comings, but it is not to be expected that. they will always do so ; and the ‘‘old man’’ doubt- less realizes this, and in the distance sees ‘‘the wood of Birnam before him.”’ The Bicyele Craze Affecting the Furni- ture. From the Chester County Democrat. The furniture manuafacturers at Grand Rapids, Mich., have made the rather sur- prising discovery that the bicycle craze has seriously affected the furniture trade. They explain this on the theory that money which husbands and wives formerly spent on household adornment is now ex- pended for bicycles. There can be no doubt but that the bicycle trade has inter- fered seriously with many lines of business, clothing dealers being among the heaviest losers, although merchants in all lines of trade have suffered in a greater or less de- gree. It is estimated that at least $25,000 has been expended by the people of this place for bicycles within the past two years that would otherwise have gone into the general channels of trade instead of to a few dealers. Spawls from the Keystone. —Port Carbon’s Cathelic church celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. —Schuylkill county’s bar association wants more stringent naturalization rules. —A movement has been started by Eas- ton’s councilmen for a public park for the city. —Fourth of July burns caused the death of seven-year-old George Kline at Easton, Sunday. —Berks county's central Luther League will hold its second rally at Reading August 20th. —Judge Albright naturalized twenty alien tax law evading foreigners at Allentown Monday. —Judge Purdy will hear reasons for a new trial in the Schultz murder case to-day at Milford. —Herbert Smith's residence at East Mauch Chunk was struck by lightning and badly damaged. —W. A, Selts, of Jersey Shore, has been granted letters patent on a fastener for envelopes. —Twelve-year-old Leonard Morris had a fatal fall of 30 feet from the steps of a breaker at Scranton. without a tax collector, those appointed re- fusing to serve. —Fourteen-year-old John Wetzel had his right eye blown out by a cannon fire-cracker near Greencastle. —In his effort to board a Philadelphia & Reading freight train at Shamokin William Wagner lost a leg. —*Kid”’ Bennett, claiming Chicago as his home, is in jail at Scranton charged with selling bogus diamonds. —In a trolley crash at Pittsburg motorman Neill, Christian Bustler and William Graff were seriously hurt. —Max Reese's wife has applied for a lunacy commission at Pottsville to inquire into his mental condition. —James Smith, a well known resident of Waynesboro, was found dead in bed at the Globe hotel, Gettysburg. —Governor Hastings refused to respite ‘Terrible Pete,” who was hanged, at Wilkes- barre, Thursday for murder. —In trying to ford a swollen creek in Allegheny county Mr. and Mrs. Irwin Boyd, an aged couple, were drowned. —In a quarrel over a game of cards John Patrolsky was probably fatally stabbed by George Grabolski at Shenandoah. —Burglars chloroformed Reuben Martin, a Mt. Carmel butcher, and stole a purse con- taining $300 from under his pillow. —The Daily News, a morning Republican newspaper, the organ of Congressman J. D, Hicks, suspended Monday at Altoona. —A twelve-light chandelier fell from the ceiling of the Bushkill church, near Strouds- burg, creating a panic in the congregation. —Caught between a load of hay and a barn door at Goodville, Lancaster county, Michael Snader, a farm hand, was fatally injured. —Bees attacked Mrs. A. B. Landis at Myerstown, stinging her so badly that her arms were swollen to twice their natural size. —1It is claimed that a change in plans for the new county hospital, at Schuylkill Haven, will net the contractor several thou- sand dollars. —Rev. Herman F. Kroh, of Chambers- burg, has resigned to become pastor of St. John’s Lutheran church, at Pine Grove, Schuylkill county. —The trackage of the street railway lines directly connected with Boston is almost 1,000 miles, operated by a power equal to that of 50,000 horses. —Twenty-five firemen and thirty-six brakemen were suspended on the Penn- sylvania and New York division of the Lehigh Valley railroad. —The flint glass workers’ convention de- cided to throw open all non-union factories to workers except those at Zanesville, O., and Hofftown, Westmoreland county. —Referee Charles IL. Hawley told the Lackawanna county court that James R. Dainty tried to bribe him in an assumpsit action in which Dainty was the plaintiff. —Thirty-one towns are trying to secure the mammoth Star shoe factory at New Ringgold, which must remove from that place on account of the scarcity of adult labor. —More shingles have been utilized for roofing in Tyrone during the past month than ever before in a similar period in the history of the town. The recent hailstorm made many new roofs necessary. —A Huntingdon bridegroom, whose trunk was decorated with old shoes, returned the compliment by expressing the shoes back to his intimate friends whom he knew per- petrated the joke, and obliged them to pay express on them. —Engineer Harry Campbell and fireman Milford Hostrander, who were scalded Thursday by the crown sheet of an engine on the Black Forest railroadfblowing out, died at the Williamsport hospital Friday. The men expired about three hours apart. —Word comes from the Cumberland’ val- ley that the peach crop will be the largest harvested for many years. After the April freeze many orchards could have been bought for a very small sum, while in the same orchards now the fruit is being thinned out and the trees propped up to prevent their breaking down. —(entre county can boast of a strong military force that could be placed in the field at short notice, the county military rolls showing 5,695, persons subject to military duty, besides one uniformed mili- tary company belonging to the National Guard. “Let loose the dogs of war.”” Belle- fonte borough contains 503 persons fit for military duty, Boggs township 326, and Snow Shoe township, 313. —Mrs. William Cox, Sr., of Knox township (Clearfield county, who strayed away from her home Saturday evening a week ago was found on Friday morning at 2:30 near D. Meas’ mill on Morgan Run, Woodward town- ship, in a famished condition. Since leaving home large numbers have been constantly on the look out for her. She is the mother of W. J. Cox who is lumbering for Dimeling & Co., at Viaduct.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers