Demooig Walcpan
BY P. GRAY MEK.
Ink Slings.
—The Klondyke would be a good stamp-
ing ground for BILLY GIVEN and his gold-
Democrats. After the frost they got last
fall fifty or sixty degrees below zero
wouldn’t be a circumstance.
—The DINGLEY bill became a law last
Saturday and the only sign of prosperity
that heralded its enactment was the strenu-
ous efforts of four tugs to drag a steamer
with a cargo of sugar into port at Philadel-.
phia before the new duty was put on.
—A London millionaire is in this coun-
try looking fora good, sensible, natural
American girl for a wife. We were just
going to say that we have them so plenty
here that they can be picked up on the
streets, but second thought warns us that
they are not ‘‘pick-ups.”’
—It might be well for some of our de-
spairing Republicans, who have looked so
long in vain for something to point to as
McKINLEY prosperity, to remember that
it would be sacrilege to try to make the
credulous believe that it was McKINLEY,
not God, who sent the bounteous crops
this season. :
— Because secretary GAGE went to Bos-
ton and said that prosperity is in sight is
no reason for your believing that it is. A
few years ago Lieut. TOTTEN went down
from Yale and told Boston people that the
end of the world was in sight. A few fool-
ish ones believed him, but the most of
them have lived to conclude that the
lieutenant was looking through a long dis-
tance glass.
—The colored voters of the United States
gave MCKINLEY a million and a half
votes. MCKINLEY has given his colored
backers four minor offices and caused the
impression to he sent abroad that no others
need apply. This is gratitude, sure
enough, but not the kind that will lead
the black Republicans of the country to
see where they come in.
—~Chairman DINGLEY was so happy over
the passage of that tariff bill of his that he
had a nice little mother of pearl handled
gold pen with which he asked the President
to sign the document. MCKINLEY used
it, of course, but the people will feel like
stabbing old DINGLEY with his little gold-
ed pen when they realize what a poor
revenue raiser his law will be.
—The MCKINLEY law was the greatest
hippodrome ever perpetrated on a prosper-
ous country, yet it was sufficient to make
its foster-father President of the people it
it humbugged. People have already learn-
ed that lesson, so if Mr. DINGLEY is cock-
ing his eye toward the white house he
might just as well be told now, as later,
that he can never work that old scheme to
slide in on.
—The pressure of the office seeking horde
is gradually having its effect on the Presi-
dent. He has rescinded a number of the
civil service classifications established by
Mr. CLEVELAND and will likely remove
other classes of federal employees from the
protection of civil service rules. No other
motive for such action can be discovered
than to make holes in which to place the
pegs that have become so pestiferous about
Washington.
—Who said the DINGLEY bill wouldn’t
do it? It has been in operation exactly
six days now and already thousands of men
are hustling towards the Klondyke, regular
armies of strikers are circling about the
coal mines in Ohio and Pennsylvania,
copious showers have been falling in all
parts of the land, flies are multiplying fas-
ter than statisticians can estimate their in-
crease, all sorts of pills are doing a rushing
business and everything seems on the move,
except the wheels of industry.
—A. D. WILSON, the leper who is con-
fined in the Municipal hospital in Pitts-
burg, is getting an enormous appetite and
is said to eat as much as three laboring
men. In view of the fact that few labor-
ing men get as much as they would like to
eat out of this ‘‘prosperity’’ shuffle it is a
question whether WILSON is not happier
asa leper with a full stomach than the
laborer who has to subsist on the scanty
fare he can eke out under the benign (?)
prosperity that MCKINLEY has brought.
JOHN BULL is heading for the Klondyke
a kitin. He has just discovered that
Americans are carrying off his gold and
such an unheard of proceeding will have
to be stopped instanter. It is all right for
JOHN’s petered out dukes and lords to
carry off our great heiresses, he thinks
nothing of stealing all our seals and deems
it a part of his heritage to squeeze the last
ounce out of his creditors in this country,
but such a thing as American miners dig-
ging in his earth. Whew ! how it makes
him fly.
—It is unfortunate that every time our
citizen soldiery is taken from home some
foolish members indulge in what they con-
sider smart pranks, apparently unmindful
of the general discredit their actions cast
over the entire Guard. On the way home
from camp GRAY, last week, some guards-
men of the Fifth went through a little
shop owned by Mrs. P. R. MANGOLD, at
Butler, and she has put in a claim for $20
for things that were stolen. The articles
were mere trifles and the men who took
them doubtless threw them away or broke
them up shortly after taking them, but
the action was enough to show that the
same old disorderly spirit that disgraced
our soldiers at Washington, in 1885, exists
in the ranks. Such pranks are bad enough
for civic organizations, but unfortunately
they are heard of less from that quarter
than from our militia.
Jenacralic
RO
vo
“<
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
"BELLEFONTE, PA
Wo
» JULY 30, 1897.
NO. 29.
The Dingley Bill Becomes a Law.
The final scenes in making the DINGLEY
tariff bill a law of the land were enacted
in Washington, last Saturday afternoon,
when President McKINLEY signed the
measure in the presence of a few tariff en-
thusiasts who had gathered in the cabinet
room, in the white house, to witness the
signature.
The bill passed the Senate finally at 3:08
p- m. and was immediately taken to the
House for perfunctory action after which
it was sent to the President and received
his approval at exactly 4:04.
Though it took months of the most des-
perate fighting and concealment to get the
measure passed by Congress its effect upon
the country will be wholly problematical.
As long as the law remains operative it
will be a constant reminder of the disgrace
of a Senate that manipulated its schedules
for the personal enrichment of members of
that body. Never in the history of the
revenue legislation of the United States
has there heen such a drastic and grasp-
ing measure put upon the statute books
and that it was done without the
slightest deference to the minority repre-
sentation in Congress is evidence of its ex-
treme partisan nature.
The long dragged out contention over
the various schedules of the bill has given
the public an opportunity of studying its
invidious character and of witnessing the
dictates of the syndicates and trusts that
practically shaped it so as to insure their
return for their substantial support of Mc-
KiINLEYism last fall.
With such measures there is no other
guide than past experience by which to di-
rect a forecast of its effect upon industrial
conditions. The DINGLEY bill carries even
higher rates than its preceding Republican
panacea (?) that was fostered by President
McKINLEY, while he was in Congress, and
basing an estimate of the effect of the new
law upon that of the old an outlook any-
thing but encouraging is before us. The
period of operation of the MCKINLEY
measure was one of unprecedented strikes,
wage reductions and industrial enervation.
What more can be expected from a law
that carries the same high schedules to
even greater excess ?
Aside from such an unpleasant, though
logical, view of the situation the new law
will have a tendency to increase the price
of all products of home manufacture that
are not made in quantities to supply the
home demand, while it will have no effect
on the home price of articles that are manu-
factured in excess of this demand. Thus
it will be seen that the public is in no
wise the gainer, while it must pay an addi-
tional honus to the capitalists who have
worked the Republican law making func-
tion for personal enrichment.
Those who are anxious to reform the
currency through the agency of a commis-
sion and by goldbug methods had bet-
ter let the people’s money alone. It would
not be improved by the tinkering it would
get from Wall street reformers.
‘Taking the government out of the
banking business’’ is one of the proposed
reforms, which means that the right of
issuing paper money shall be taken from
the government and handed over to the
banks.
The experience of more than thirty years
has taught the people that they have lost
nothing by allowing the government to
issue circulating notes, but rather that by
so doing they have secured the best and
safest currency that was ever circulated in
this country. :
On the other hand their recollection of
the losses they sustained when the banks
issued all the paper money convinces them
that it is best for their interest that the
government should remain in the banking
business, orin other words should continue
to furnish the safe and convenient paper
currency known as the greenbacks. With
that kind of money in their pockets the
people never lost a dollar from deprecia-
tion.
The retirement of the greenbacks is in-
tended chiefly for the benefit of banking
institutions. Such a reform would cost
the people from $10,000,000 to $15,000,000
a year in interest on the bonds required to
sustain the bank circulation, with no profit
except to the banks. Thevefore it is
best for the people that the government
should continue in the banking business,
if the issuing of paper money constitutes
such business, and the public interest will
be promoted by the currency tinkers keep-
ing their hands off the people’s money.
——The fact of President McKINLEY’S
having issued a commission to TERRENCE
V. PowDERLY, immediately after the ad-
journment of Congress and when it was
an open secret that most of the Senators
would have voted against corfirming the
appointment, will leave a very unpleasant
odium hanging over the administration.
While such might not be the case it looks
very much as if this appointment was the
price for which POWDERLY betrayed labor
and that the President is anxious to get
the mean job off his hands by giving a
recess commission.
The New Eldorado Under the Arctic.
The stories that are being told of the
vast richness of the Alaskan gold fields are
having their effect upon the impressionable
and already there is an exodus, for the
bleak country under the arctic circle, that
promises to surpass the feverish scramble
for California in 1849.
The fact that gold exists in Alaska is not
new, for mining operations have been
carried on there for many years, but the
prolific out-put of gold that is just now
being reported from that territory has di-
rected attention to a region unknown to
white men prior to 1890.
The Klondyke gold fields, taking their
name from the Klondyke river, are located
in a narrow basin about six hundred and
fifty miles directly north of Sitka. They
are on British land, in what is known as
the northwest territory, and wkile the
Klondyke, proper, is applied to one particu-
lar “‘strike’” yet the name is being given to
the whole territory along the Klondyke
river and its tributaries, as well as to the
operations along other streams, emptying
into the Yukon river.
Only a careful study of a good atlas will
give an idea of the vastness of the region
to which a steady stream of fortune hunt-
ters has already been directed by the daz-
zling stories of riches that out-rival the
fabulous treasures - of King Solomon’s
mines. And humanitarians are already
becoming alarmed for the safety of the
thousands who have started thence, ap-
parently without having carefully consid-
ered the dangers of their undertaking.
When the rich gcld fields of California
allured thousands from the East, some to
fortune, others to broken health and fi-
nances, the trip across the continent was
considered extremely hazardous because of
the attacks of wild Indians and the danger
of contracting Sharger’s fever that felled so
many of the adventurers who struggled to
cross the Isthmus. But with the hard-
ships of the journey over a habitable
and fertile continent surmounted a glori-
ous land, where the climate and the
ground was most conducive to subsistence,
awaited those who reached it.
With this newly advertised Alaskan
field there is an inestimable difference.
Only those who have been there know of the
frightful extremities to which the human
body is subjected and the stories of those
who have returned with lucky ‘‘strikes’’
are greedily read and are already having
their effect upon those who would probably
be more considerate could an accurate reg-
ister of the thousands of graves there are in
that ice-bound North be had.
It is probable, however, that nothing
will stem the tide that has already set in
and out of the many who seek few will
find. The business depression of the States
for the last few years and the haunting
memory of men who have become wealthy
in a day by developing gold, silver, coal,
oil, iron, lumber or other fields of natural
resources are having as much to do with
the spread of this new fever as anything
else. The time for picking fortunes from
the ground in the United States in a few
hours appears to be over, but the vast
wealth left by those have done it has still
the power to excite the cupidity of men
and they hastily rush to this new Eldorado,
where Alladin like caverns are said to ex-
ist in the bed of every stream and all that
remains to be done is to scratch the ice and
the golden genii will appear.
It is little wonder that there is such ex-
citement when it is known that far more
gold has been taken out of this field, with-
in the past year, than the sum paid to Rus-
sia for the whole of Alaska. Men who
went there a few months ago with nothing
have returned with dust valued at hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars. But they
are men hardened to the rigorous climate
of the North and even they conjecture at
the fate of their fellows who are leaving
shops, farms, professions and comfortable
homes to live a life they know nothing of
and, when equipped with the best, are poor-
ly suited to withstand. None but the
most robust, none but those whose physical
conditions are such that they can maintain
strength and activity on the plainest, the
scantiest and coarsest food should under-
take such a journey.
There is gold there but it is the old case
of the success and survival of the fittest.
If the man be able to withstand the hard-
ships of a life such as he has never before
endured there is exactly the same chance
for one as for another. And aside from the
simple business of mining there will be
hundreds of other fields for money getting.
The rapid population of such a district, as
in the case of every new region, will send
prices for everything to the top notch so
that speculation in all trades will undoubt-
edly prove profitable, but large capital will
be required.
After a careful study of the topography
and physical conditions of the country it
would appear best for an easterner, who in-
tends going into the region, to start with
not less than two-thousand dollars. It
would probably be best to go to some point
in Alaska this fall, say Sitka, Junea, Dyea,
St. Michael’s or Circle city, in any of which
places there are comfortable settlements,
there to remain and become acclimated
until spring, when an advance could he
made to the Klondyke with the opening of
the season. In no caseshould anyone start
into the fields without clothing and food
to last at least eighteen months. The ad-
vantage of this plan lies in being able to
form an accurate knowledge of the needs of
prospectors, getting acquainted with the
customs of the country and, lastly, in being
able to get back to the States should it be
found that you are unable to live in a cli-
mate where sixty degrees below zero and
semi-darkness prevails for nine months
in the year.
Hows They Love the Soldier (2)
The respect the Republican leaders and
their followers in this county have for the
old soldier and the devotion they show to
his interests and welfare, are plainly ex-
emplified in their treatment of postmaster
JOHN MARTIN, at Mileshurg.
There is no place in this section of the
State that, in proportion to its population,
is more unanimously or persistently Repub-
lican than Milesburg and vicinity. There
is no place, anywhere, that the people sit
around their loafing places more continuous-
ly and boast more incessantly of their love
for the old soldier and of the interest they
take in all that will benefit his condition
or make life easy and pleasant for him
than they do down there. There is no
spot in all the country in which the flag is
kept waving as constantly and the war
fought over as frequently, nor is there a
spot north of MASON and DIXON'S line in
which the veteran and his services to the
country are kept to the front and traded
on and appealed to as persistently and ef-
fectually, during a political campaign, as
in our neighboring town.
JOHN MARTIN is one of the Centre
county veterans who served long and faith-
fully at the front during the war. His
record as a soldier is unimpeachable and
his physical condition, in consequence of
wounds received in battle and broken health
from hardships experienced at the front,
has long incapacitated him from earning a
living by manual labor. Through the kind-
ness of his Democratic neighbors and the
Democratic organization of the county he
was made post master at Milesburg during
President CLEVELAND'S first administra-
tion. So satisfactorally to the public and
so acceptably to the department did he fill
the place, that when Mr. CLEVELAND was
elected for the second term, and a vacancy
occurred by reason of the expiration of the
term for which his successor had been
appeinted no trouble was experienced
in securing a re-appointment for Mr.
MARTIN, although the practice of the
post office department was not favorable to
re-appointing those who had held office
under the former Democratic administra-
tion.
During his second term as post master
Mr. MARTIN has been just as careful, as
conscientions and as obliging as ‘he was
during his first. And yet in the face of
the fact that he is an old soldier, broken
down by disease, incapacitated by wounds,
and has made a faithful and an efficient of-
ficial, he is singled out as the one Demo-
cratic post master in Centre county, who
is not allowed to serve out his term of of-
fice which should have lasted a month and a
half longer. Instead of such patriotic con-
sideration for him on next Monday his
position and the little emoluments belong-
ing to it will be taken from him and given
to a strapping-big, abled bodied citizen who
never was any nearer the army than the
Bald Eagle hills are to the Potomac and
whose chief recommendation is that he has
always been on hand, and willing to do
the bidding of the ring that runs the Re-
publican party of Centre county.
And from all the Republican mouths
that prate so long and loudly about the
rights of the soldiers, not a single one has
been opened to protest against this partisan
wrong to an old soldierand a faithful and
obliging official.
——College presidents and professors were
applauded when they ran over the country,
last fall, dropping words of advice from
their superior knowledge, that gold ‘‘was
the only safe and commercially stable basis
upon which to found the currency of any
government.’’ Not so with president AN-
DREWS, of Brown University, who re-
signed, last Friday, because of the firm
conviction that silver should hold a place
with gold in the formation of such a basis.
Because he dared to express such an opin-
ion, the same as held by six and one-half
million other American citizens, the corpo-
ration controlling that institution hounded
him into resigning.
Philadelphia and Boston are trying
to formulate eviquette for street car con-
ductors. In the former city the petticoat-
ed passengers are addressed as madam,
lady or miss, when they are addressed at
all. In Boston a rule has just gone into
effect among conductors that they must all
be addressed as madam. New York hasn’t
joined the procession, as yet, but she will
imagine herself so much swifter than either
one of the other places that when she does
adopt a form it will more than likely be
birdie.
‘aroused and patriotic people.
It Knocks the Klondyke all Silly,
From the Baltimore Sun.
Just now the whole country is ringing
with the results which have rewarded the
toil and exposure of some 2,000 hardy
miners who have been prospecting in the
half frozen gold fields of Klondyke. The
amount of gold taken out by them during
the past year is variously estimated at from
$3,000,000 to $4,500,000. Between Satur-
day and Monday the increase in the value
of the shares of the sugar trust consequent
upon the wonderful ‘‘victory” won by
speaker Reed and the house conferrees
over the Senate in the adjustment of duties
upon imported sugars was not less, at the
lowest calculation, than $4,500,000. Truly,
there are great differences between the
ways in which money may be made, and
Washington isa richer field hy far, and
yields more startling and instantaneous
results, than the auriferous gravel pits of
the Yukon.
The Survival of the Bloomers.
From the Cambria Herald.
Is there anything new under the sun?
Yang Ya, late Chinese minister at Washing-
ton, says that bicycles were in common use
in the Flowery Kingdom 2000 years ago, but
as women rode them to the neglect of their
families the Emperor stopped the manu-
facture. The bloomers, however, sur-
vived, and now that bicycles have come
back even in China, there would seem to
be nothing in the way of the almond-eyed
damsels resuming their interrupted pastime.
The Price of Conviction.
From the Fulton, Mo., Telegraph.
The Kansas City Zimes is now the only
Missouri Metropolitan daily that advocates
the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1, and is
worthy the support of all Missourians.
The Post-Dispatch ‘‘flew the track’’ several
weeks since by keeping ‘“‘mum’’ on the
political questions, in the hope of regain-
ing the patronage of some gold-bug firms
in St. Louis who hoy-cotted that paper
last fall. :
A Dearth of Name-sakes.
From the Clearfield Republican.
All those boys who were named after
Daniel Hartman Hastings about the time
he discovered the Johnstown flood and be-
came a candidate for Governor have either
strayed or been stolen. Diligent search
fails to find one in this part of the State
and advices from other counties reveal the
same state of affairs.
Only Preaching, Not Practicing.
From the Westmoreland Democrat. wa
In the Kentucky gold-bug convention,
last week, Col. W. C. P. Breckenridge
made a speech on finances. He did not
exhibit a receipt, however, for the $15,000
due Madeline Pollard. That part of the
financial problem still remains unsolved.
Gorman Still Their Leader.
Senator Shows His Control Among Maryland Demo-
crats at the State Convention.—Declared for Bi-
metallism.—Dingley’s Bill and the Republicans’
Dilatoriness Denounced.
BALTIMORE, July 28.—Harmony of the
old-fashioned kind prevailed at the Demo-
cratic state convention to-day, and it was
clearly demonstrated that United States
Senator Gorman still has his hand on the
lever that controls the movements of the
organization. The candidates nominated
were selected by him, and the resolutions
adopted were of his inspiration.
At his request, both gold and silver men
waived their convictions for the nonce and
voted to adopt a platform that declares for
bimetallism, but is silent as to the ques-
tion of ‘‘ratio.”’
The following state ticket was nominat-
ed : For comptroller, Thomas A. Smith, of
Caroline county. For clerk of the court of
appeals, J. Frank Ford, St. Mary’s county.
The resolutions declare that the funda-
mental principles of Democracy remain un-
changed ; that the Democracy of Maryland
believe now and always have believed in
honest money, the gold and silver money
of the constitution and the coinage of both
metals without discrimination of either in-
to standard dollars of final payment and
redemption,’”’ and asserts that the recent
action of President McKinley, in asking
for a currency commission, is the result of
the demand of more than six and one-half
millions of Democratic voters expressed at
the polls in the last national election.
The Dingley tariff law is termed a more
odious measure than the McKinley act of
1890, and it is asserted that it will be more
signally condemned in 1898 than was the
McKinley act in 1892. A demand is made
that the United States government take
such action as will ameliorate the atroci-
ties now being committed in Cuba.
Continuing, they say : ‘‘The sufferings
of the masses, the honest toilers, the bone
and sinew, the brain and courage and man-
hood of the land, have met with the sym-
pathy of the Democracy, and the protest of
our great party, so eloquently voiced in
last year’s elections, has forced the Repub-
lican party, despite its arrogance and reck-
lessness, to recognize the needs of an
And while
many Democrats have not approved all the
expressions of their party in national con-
vention, bimetallism will surely come, and
the prosperity and happiness that follow in
its train will be due to the courage, the un-
daunted fidelity and the intelligent pa-
triotism of the Democracy.
“The Republican party, trinmphing
upon an issue of financial reform, was
bound by every obligation of good faith to
redeem its promises to the country. Yet,
President McKinley convened the Congress
in extra session within the fort-night fol-
lowing his inauguration, and now, after
more than four months of deliberation, the
Congress has adjourned without giving
the people the smallest measure of financial
relief, and with the sole result of imposing
upon them a tariff law more oppressive
and iniquitous than has ever disgraced our
statute books.”’
——Subscribe for the WATCHMAN.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—The police force of Wilmington, Del.,
had an excursion to Reading Monday.
—Despondent Elizabeth Evans, aged 61,
hanged herself and died at Hyde Park.
—By a fall of coal Charles Keilins, aged 35,
was instantly killed at Ellengowan colliery.
—During a quarrel as to a girl's favors Otto
Shrank was dangerously stabbed at
Weatherly,
—Rabbit shooters in Berks county are be-
ing vigorously prosecuted as violators of the
game law.
—A fatal fall from a swing at Glen Onoko
was suffered by Ulysses Krause, a Slatington
lad.
—The Peerless glass company, of Ellwood
City, after a shutdown of four weeks, re-
sumed on Monday.
—Jumping from a moving car at Catasau-
qua, Robert App, 2 well known coal dealer
broke his leg.
—Reduced wages will take effect on Aug.
Sth, in the Central and Paxton rolling mills,
near Harrisburg.
—Mrs. Charles Lessig and Mrs. A. J.
Zuntz were seriously hurt in a runaway ac-
cident at Reading.
—-John Sobol, who murdered Andrew
Krutsie, in Elk county, on July 4th, was ar-
rested at Limestone, N. Y.
—Charles Reighard, aged 25, a farm labor-
er, was killed by a train while walking on
the track at Hollidaysburg.
—At Lattimer. William Lindeman, a lad of
15, was caught in a coal conveyor and
crushed to a shapeless mass.
—Falling forty feet from a Reading rail-
road bridge, near Fisher’s, carpenter John
Jackson was instantly killed.
—In a fight among tramps at Port Griffith,
John Clark, of St. Louis, Mo., was shot be-
low the heart. He can’t recover.
—David R. Williams was run over by an
engine on the Delaware and Hudson rail-
road, near Wilkesbarre, and killed.
—August Kiriehoff, aged 70 died Sunday,
at Lancaster, from being struck by a train a
week ago while walking on the tracks.
—The Bethlehem iron company shipped a
lot of gun tubes, hoops and other ordinance
supplies to Washington D. C., on Monday.
—Crossing the Philadelphia & Reading
tracks at Newberry, Samuel J. Barto was
crushed to death between two freight cars.
—ZEleven empty cars crashed down a grade
into a shifting locomotive near Altoona
and badly injured fireman Thomas Giey.
—Miss Jones, visiting farmer George W.
Sander’s family, in Franklin county, was
found dead in her room. Arsenic was on the
bureau.
Monday the Chambersburg street railway
company will file the necessary bond and
work will be commenced upon the line with-
in a few weeks.
—An old cannon exploded at Brownsville
during the passage of the new steamer Flor-
ence Bell up the Monongahela, and wrecked
a barge close by.
—At Beaver Falls the contract has been let
for the construction of a new electric railway
to be two miles in length and to be com-
pleted in 45 days.
-—John Moran, of Minersville, who had
his back broken at the Phenix Park col-
liery last week, has just died at the Miners’
hospital, near Pottsville.
—*“Drowned at Marietta on account of my
girl not marrying me” was written on an
anonymous note found in the river at Wash-
ington, Lancaster county.
—Robert Depue, Jr., and George Ransbury,
having started from Stroudsburg for the
Alaska gold fields, have given many of their
townsmen the Klondyke fever.
—The Mt. Carbon and Pottsville borough
councils have revived the ordinances giving
the right of way to the Pottsville & Reading
electric railway on the streets.
—By the overturning of a skiff in the Mo-
nongahela river, near Brad ford, Monday, by
the swells of a steamer, Richard Clair and
James Schoonover were drowned.
—The corner-stone of Salem Reformed
church, at Campbellstown, was laid Monday.
The ceremonies were conducted by Rev. J.
E. Hiester and Rev. A. J. Bachman.
— Assessor George Harris was dangerously
stabbed by eighteen-year-old Logan Miller
during a quarrel over beer after a game of
baseball at Coal Run, near Shamokin. Mil-
ler escaped.
—The will of John E. Davidson, third vice
president of the Pennsylvania system west of
Pittsburg, who died July 11th, leaves his on-
ly son and executor, John A. Davidson, his
estate valued at $75,000, and gives his sisters,
Elizabeth and Jane M. Davidson, $10,000
each.
—While Russell Oakes, a Beech Creek con-
ductor of Jersey Shore, and Thomas Hayes
were picking huckleberries on Gordon’s run
Sunday they killed a rattlesnake that had
showed fight. The reptile was taken to Jer-
sey Shore and measured four feet. Its body
was as thick as a man’s arm.
—John Rupp, Sr., of Hanover, Pa., has in
his possession a large family Bible, printed
in the German language in 1532, which was
brought by his ancestors to this country
when they emigrated here, some 150 years
ago. During the reformation and thirty
years’ war, this Bible was several times
buried in the ground to preserve it from de-
struction at the hands of the soldiery, and
notwithstanding its great age itis yet in a
remarkable state of preservation, only a few
pages being mutilated or missing. This is in
all probablility one of the very oldest Bibles
in existence in this country.
—A Johnstown butcher, James Hudack,
had a narrow escape from freezing to death
in his own refrigerator the other evening.
He went to his ice box after closing his shop
to get a piece of meat. While he was inside
the door closed and the automatic lock se-
curely imprisoned him in his frigid cell.
Realizing his peril, Hudack howled for help,
but the thick wall of the ice box deadened
the noise. Being clad in only light summer
clothing he found himself slowly freezing in
a short time. A neighbor finally heard the
noise and aroused Hudack’s family. The
ice box was the last portion of the shop ex-
amined and there the butcher was found un-
conscious on the floor. Vigorous rubbing
and a hot whiskey punch brought him
around in a short time.