Demoreaic Wate a
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings.
—Now would be a good time for our
Bellefonte enthusiasts to have another ex-
cursion to Canton.
—Free trade would be a more hopeful
incentive to unloading the over-burdened
ware-rooms of eastern manufacturers than
is the free-ride sort of inducement to get
country merchants to buy.
——With the price of wheat going up
and the wages of labor going down the
kind of prosperity that is sweeping over
the country is likely to make strangers of
the poor man’s stomach and the bread
plate.
—The depth of the affections of GILLES:
PIE, the star witness for the prosecution in
the CORNELLY arson trial, were measured
in an extremely original manner when he
spoke of the Coleville girls as ‘‘females”
and those of Axe Mann as ‘‘ladies.”’
—The American window glass associa-
tion is the latest trust that has sprung in-
to existence under these beneficent Repub-
lican tariff ideas. The new association
will control fifteen-sixteenths of the glass
pots in this country. Its only object, so
far as is known, is to give the public high-
er priced panes.
—The only trace of the recent reunion of
the mighty SMITH family at Lakemont,
near Altoona, is a set of false teeth that
were picked up on the grounds. Inas-
much as none of the SMITHS could be
found who would claim the artificial chew-
ers it is reasonable to suppose that that
family is not as ancient as the world be-
lieves it to be.
—The number of young girls who have
been crowding the court room since the
trial of JAMES CORNELLY was called seems
to indicate that he will be quite the fad in
town in the event of his acquittal. There
is no disputing JIM’s versatility, but we
fancy he would flounder as a leader of a
swell german, all bedecked with the cute
favors of his fair admirers.
—The rise that has taken place in the
wheat market is one that will profit the
farmer more than any advance in the price
of any of his products has done in years.
This time the price has gone up before it
has been sold, so he will benefit. As yet
only 72,000,000 of our 500,000,000 bushels
crop has been sold and the farmer will get
the advanced price, this time, instead of
the speculator.
—AL HANKINS, a noted Chicago sport,
sat down on his folding bed, Wednesday
evening, and he never knew that his neck
was broken. The treacherous thing closed
up and AL is a corpse now. This simply
goes to show what uncertainties there are
in life. Here the very article that was to
give him rest and recuperation snuffed his
light out with all the dispatch of a modern
hanging machine.
—The assassination of great public char-
acters seems to be growing in popularity.
No sooner has the Spanish prime minister’s
murder been dropped by the newspapers
than the story of the shooting of the Presi-
dent of Uruguay is reported over the world.
While such crimes fortunately occur at
rare intervals yet they are always followed
by a feeling of uneasiness in all countries
lest their commission might lead fanatics
to similar ones.
--There were forty-five thousand vet-
erans in line at the great encampment
parade, at Buffalo, on Wednesday. Presi-
dent McKINLEY was at their head. When
LINCOLN was the commander of those
soldiers, thirty-two years ago, they made
the United States the greatest nation of
earth by proving that though torn almost
assunder by the most disastrous internal
warfare known to history there was yet re-
cuperative strength for a firmer union than
ever. A Union that should recognize all
men as free and equal. How do you sup-
pose this later day commander must have
felt, knowing that the equality, the strug-
gle for which had caused so many of the
sleeveless coats and crippled bodies that
trudged bravely behind him, has now come
to be little more than a farce. Through
the political policy, he sat there the em-
bodiment of, the black slavery of before
’61 has been changed to the white slavery
of 97, when labor is trampled upon by
pampered trusts and the blighting powers
of centralized wealth.
—It seems strange that the Democratic
party of Pennsylvania is never ready to
take advantage of opportunities that are
thrown in its way. Never in the history
of political situations in this State has
there been a more hopeful out-look for
Democracy than there is just now. With
the people all cognizant of the most fla-
grant and costly administration of state
affairs, burdened by the debts of two
notoriously corrupt Legislatures, conscious
of the plundering of state funds to make
jobs for political heelers ; with all the
damning evidence of malicious leadership
that was uncovered by the Republican
state chairmanship fight in 1895 and know-
ing that the State cannot pay its appro-
priations for public schools, though the
taxes for that purpose were eollected long
ago, everything conspires to the success of
Democracy. When our party should be
preparing to take advantage of such oppor-
tunites we find it on the verge of disrup- |
tion. Why fight now ? Let there be
harmony and if there is harmony there
will be success. Let the convention at
Reading settle the dirputes amicably and
halt this business of running over the
State fomenting discord before any cause
for it has arisen.
En RRL
Demacralic
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IIE
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The Only Prosperity in Sight.
The managers of the Republican party are
congratulating themselves on their luck in
being relieved by a boom in wheat which
may verify their promise of prosperity.
Just after the enactment of their tariff bill,
luckily for them, an unprecedented failure
of the crop has occurred in every wheat
raising country of the world, except in the
United States, which is favored with an
unusually abundant yield of that cereal.
Here is presented a conjunction of cir-
cumstances than which there could be
nothing more conducive to an improvement
of business conditions in this country.
The European markets are found to be bare
of wheat, while the foreign crop has proved
to be almost an absolute failure. There is
scarcely an exception to this misfortune in
any European country, and what increases
the shortage abroad is that the countries
from which Europe makes up the defi-
ciency -in her own wheat production have
also been overtaken by a failure of their
crops. India, Australia and Argentina
can send no wheat to Europe, which must
look to the United States alone for this in-
dispensable cereal, and here the supply is
unusually abundant.
No combination of circumstances could
have been more favorable to the agricul-
tural interest of this country, insuring a
great profit, and it comes just at a time
when the Republican promise of prosperity
became due.
But how much of this prosperity can be
credited to Republican measures? What
part of it has been brought about by
the DINGLEY tariff? The prosperity of
which Major MCKINLEY was to he the
advance agent was to come through the
effect of higher tariff duties and as the
result of protection to the manufactur-
ers, but the only relief from the gen-
erally prostrated business condition is
seen coming from a line of production
and a class of producers that owe nothing
to the Republican protective policy. The
farmers, whose product is bringing the
only prosperity in sight, are not indebted to
DINGLEY for as much as the value of a
bushel of wheat.
Let us suppose that the situation in re-
gard to the crops was of the usual charac-
ter at this timeg,.ovith Europe producing
her accustomed harv vest, and Russia, India,
Australia and Argentina in condition to
compete with the United States in supply-
ing the normal deficiency in the European
market, what chance would there be for
dollar wheat and what sort of prosperity
would be striking the country at this time ?
Unless the Republicans can show that
they were instrumental in blasting the
crops in Europe and other wheat growing
regions, and influenced Providence to fa-
vor this country with an unusual harvest
this year, we can’t see how they will make
it appear that they are entitled to credit
for the prosperity which will be solely due
to our big wheat crop. But we shall not
be surprised if they claim the exclusive
credit for it.
Who Will Pay for he Free Rides.
The country dealers who are being lured
to the eastern cities to buy goods by ‘‘mer-
chant’s associations,’’ and ‘‘trades leagues’’
standing the expense of their railroad fare,
should not delude themselves with the
idea that the cost will not be footed in the
end by other parties than the city mer-
chants.
We do not begrudge the rural trader the
enjoyment he derives from the excursion
which he is thus enabled to indulge in
without paying the customary charges of
the railroad companies. If he takes his
wife along, and even his mother-in-law
and other female relatives, so much the
hetter, as it enlarges the diversion furnish-
ed by the generous city merchants who
pay the fare. It will do the country ex-
cursionists good to have an outing at this
season of the year. There is exhileration
in the breezes that blow from the ocean
at Atlantic City, while a bath in salt water
is conducive to health and promotive of
pleasure ; and in addition to such enjoy-
ment on the Jersey coast they will receive
the most polite attention in the city from
the mercantile gentlemen at whose invita-
tion and expense they come eastward to
purchase goods.
We would in no way diminish the pleas-
ure of these country dealers, but nothing
could be a greater delusion than for them
to imagine that the expense of the railroad
fare, exemption from which is the induce-
ment for them to make the trip, will be
paid out of the pockets of the enterprising
but wily city merchants. It will all be
made up in the charges for the goods.
The rural trader will find an advance in
the prices of all the articles he purchased.
Of course the new tariff will occasion an
increase in the cost of goods, but an addi-
tion to meet tite expense of the free ex-
| cursions will go into the bill along with
the tariff gouge. In the natural order of
trade the country merchant will make his
customers pay for this increase in the cost
of his invoice, and so in the end the farm-
ers, mechanics and other dealers at the
country stores will have to shoulder the
expense of the ‘‘free rides.”’
|
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., AUG. 27. 1897.
What the Bankers Want.
The meeting of the bankers’ convention,
which was in session, in Buffalo, during the
past week, was an occurrence that should
interest the American people. The public
are interested in it not from any benefit
that may be expected to result from this
convention, but rather for the reason that
its deliberations related to a matter that
closely affects the public welfare, and
which, if misdirected, will be attended with
injurious consequences to the people.
A tremendous influence is exerted by
the parties who assembled at Buffalo to de-
liberate upon questions affecting the money
interests, and particularly such as are con-
nected with the banking business. They
represented banking capital amounting to
over $680,000,000, and individual deposits
closely approaching two billions. They
constituted a power that can exert a vast
influence upon the country, and if that
power is improperly directed the injury it
might do would be proportionately great.
The direction in which that power will
he exercised appears to be sufficiently in-
dicated. It was shown, last year, when
everyone of these institutions contributed
its share of the means by which a national
election was carried, and evinced by the
tendency to the centralization of wealth
for the attainment of political as well as
commercial predominance.
The sentiment of the bankers is unani-
mous for the limitation of the currency to
the narrow basis of the gold standard.
The more contracted the basis the better
for their interest. They want no paper
circulation except that which they issue,
based on gold bonds. For this reason they
want all the government notes ret.red and
the greenbacks made a mere recollection of
the past. They want, in short, an entire
monopoly of the currency of the country,
and after securing this profitable privilege
they will not think it too much to ask to
be exempted from taxation and to be allow-
ed to issue notes up to the full par value of
the bonds they deposit as security for their
circulation.
This is a synopsis of what the bankers
proposed at their convention, and what
they will attain if it can be accomplished
by influencing the governmental authori-
ties, towards which they made a big step
at the last election. Our readers may
judge for themselves whether the interest
of the people or of the plutocrats would be
better served by the accomplishment of
such designs.
- Hanna’s Surplus of Boodle.
There is certainly something suspicious
in the circumstance that the checks which
HANNA’S paymaster, Major DICK, handed
around among the Populists of Ohio at
their state convention to induce them to
nominate a straight ticket, with CoXEY at
the head of it, and thus prevent a fusion
with the Democrats, were drawn on the
bank at Washington where HANNA keeps
the balance of the boodle fund that was
left over from the McKINLEY campaign.
There was no attempt made to conceal
these checks. They were passed around
and handled as if they were being used in
a legitimate business transaction. It was
known that HANNA had the money with
which to turn the middle-of-the-road party
away from the Democrats, and COXEY and
his crowd were on hand to receive their
pay from HANNA’S agent. The parties
that were bought were a contemptible set,
but their purchase was as corrupt a trans-
action as if the goods that were delivered
had been of a higher quality.
The large balance which HANNA has
on hand for the purpose of political cor-
ruption this year shows how lavishly the
contributing trusts, hankers and moneyed
corporations poured their money into the
campaign fund last year. It was estimated
that sixteen millions of dollars were raised
by the corruptionists to secure MCKIN-
LEY’S election ; nor is this an extravagant
estimate considering that the sugar trust
will make more than that amount, alone,
from one year’s profits from the differential
duty on sugar in the DINGLEY bill.
The contributions for last year’s cam-
paign from the various interests that ex-
pected’a share of the tariff plunder was so
profuse that HANNA actually couldn’t
spend it all and has about $2,000,000 for
this year’s Ohio campaign. It is to be
seen whether the American people will
become reconciled to his method of deter-
mining the result of elections by the
boodle process.
——The Democrats of Clinton county
held their convention, on Tuesday, and |
nominated H. T. JARRETT, for register and
recorder. W. H. BRIDGENS was nomina-
ted for jury commissioner and W. L. AL-
LEN, H. G. HANNA and P. KANE were
made delegates to the state convention.
Strong resolutions endorsing the Chicago
platform were adopted. They included
the following significant clause : ‘Resolved,
that it is impolitic to elect or retain as
leaders of the Democratic party men not in
sympathy with the principles enunciated
in the Chicago platform.”
Demoralized by Bad Association.
Ex-Gov. ROSWELL P. FLOWER, of New
York, furnishes an example of the demor-
alization to which Democrats were exposed
by allowing themselves to stray off into the
camp of the goldbugs.
The ex-Governor stood high in the coun-
cils of the Democratic party. He had the
confidence of Democrats to such an extent
that he was elected by them to the high
office of Governor of New York. But he
yielded, last year, to the blandishments of
Wall street. He bowed in worship before
the golden calf, and such debasing idolatry
has had the effect of bringing him still low-
er, as he now poses as the defender of the
trusts. If he had remained true to the
principles of the Democratic party, as de-
clared in the Chicago platform, he would
not now be found in the disgraceful posi-
tion of an advocate of the Standard oil
company, the sugar trust.and other preda-
tory combinations.
Who would have expected ever to see
Gov. FLOWER stand before an audience
and defend these organized robberies, yet
that was what he was recently seen to do
when in an address to the farmers of the
New York state grange he declared that
“to inveigh against trusts is to cry out
against combinations of human effort and
possession in every field of activity—to set
one’s self against the laws of progress and
in favor of retrogression and anarchy.”
There could not have heen a more bare-
faced attempt to represent as legitimate
“human effort,” in the way of business ac-
tivity, these conspiracies to break down
competition and restrict trade in order to
secure the ends of monopoly, and nothing
could be more impudent than to stigma-
tise as ‘‘anarchy’’ the natural opposition of
those who suffer from such asystem of spo-
liation.
That ex-Gov. FLOWER should have spe-
cially selected the sugar trust as an object
of defence shows how debased his senti-
ments have become since he abandoned the
principles upon which the Democratic
party contended last year against indus-
trial, as well as monetary monopoly. Upon
his assumption that the trust has reduced
the price of sugar, he can see ‘‘no public
injury”’ in a combination that has not only
sé&ured absolute and arbitrary control of
an indispensable and vastly valuable com-
modity, but has also succeeded in exercis-
ing control over the Senate of the United
States.
In addition to his abandonment of
Democratic principles, it may be that ex-
Gov. FLOWER’s large interest in the Chica-
go gas trust has had its effect in arraying
him among the defenders of those rapa-
cious monopolies that are robbing the
American people. Even Mr. CLEVE-
LAND’S Democracy was not proof against
the effect of his Wall street associations.
Produced by Exceptional Causes.
The prophet who predicts that the pres-
ent rise in the price of wheat is going to be
a permanent condition shows that he has
not learned anything from past experience.
Such a situation as that which causes a
great demand for our grain, and conse-
quently high prices, comes but periodical-
ly. There is no cause that can make such
prices permanent and regular. They must
necessarily be uncertain, as they depend
upon the contingencies of failure of foreign
harvests and favorable crops in this coun-
try.
The New York Evening Post, in remark-
ing that the exceptional advantage of the
present great demand for our wheat cannot
be continuous, says : ‘‘The high markets
of 1879 set all the world to raising wheat
and building railways to carry it to mar-
ket ; in 1882 the world’s harvest was 200,-
000,000 bushels larger than the heaviest
crop ever produced before the shortage of
1879. The series of short crops in 1889, in
1890 and in 1891 had exactly similar re-
sults, and by 1894 all the markets were
discontentedly talking ‘‘overproduction.’”
There is no reason to suppose that the next
three or four years will tell any different
story.”’
An occasional profitable crop of wheat,
with conditions that send the price up in
the neighborhood of a dollar, does not dis-
prove the fact that the value of agricultu-
ral products have steadily fallen since the
demonetization of silver. There may be a
spurt now and then, produced by some
particular cause, as at the present time,
but after it is over a falling back to low
prices can be surely looked for.
The Republicans are making all the polit-
ical capital possible out of the wheat crop.
The improvement in business which it may
cause will be credited to the DINGLEY tar-
iff, but this claim will be as absurd as the
assumption that an occasional rise in the
price of wheat from exceptional causes
proves that agricultural values have not
been depreciated by the demonetization of
silver.
—One of the anouaties of the present
business condition of the country is the
fact that the more bread goes up the less of
it will go down.
"NO. 38.
The Cause of Dollar Wheat.
From the Venango Spectator.
A great ado is being made by all the Re-
publican journals over the advanced price
of wheat, they all giving the credit of the
advanced prices to their party. The truth
about the matter, as every intelligent man
knows, is that the wheat crops in foreign
coutries have been short, while India has
an actual famine and starvation. The best
authorities, taking the latest figures, put
the European wheat crop this year at 1,-
294,000,000 bushels as against 1,518, 000-
000 a decrease this year of 224,000,000
bushels. This shortage of wheat i in foreign
countries is what is causing the advanced
prices. European countries are short
of bread materials and the United States is
the only country on the globe that has
more than enough for its own uses and
plenty to sell to those who are short. We
are glad to see wheat go up and up, but
when we know that the advanced prices
we get are from our starving fellowman
that brings up a question we would rath-
er not discuss. We know that one
man’s loss is another man’s gain ;
that is the way of the world, but we
doubt if it will always be so. The truth
about the advanced price of wheat to-day
is that our fellowman in some cases is
short and in other cases starving, and if
money was more plentiful—if the mints of
India had never been closed to the coinage
of silver, wheat would be higher still, and
while there might be a famine there would
be no actual starving, as the Indian would
have money to buy all the food products
he wanted from the country that had them
to sell. If anything on God’s earth ever
makes England open the India mints to
the coinage of silver this famine will. Al-
ready many of her statesmen see that India
could have passed through this famine
without starvation had she the money to
buy food products, and that she would
have had the money had her mints to the
coinage of silver been left open, It was a
fearful crime against that unfortunate
country and one thatwill have to be an-
swered for some ed.
A Badly Botched Ballot Law.
From the Phila., Public Ledger.
The new ballot bill, known as the Beck-
er bill, appears to be fatally defective in
one clause, that which declares that upon
the ballots to be voted at any election the
name of any candidate shall not appear
more than once by certificate of nomina-
tion, or more than once by nomination pa-
pers. This is a restriction upon the right
to make nominations, which is not only
impolitic, but we believe, beyond the
power of the legislature to impose. The
names of our judges frequently appear up-
on all the tickets ; the tickets would be in-
complete without them ; and the legisla-
ture has no authority to say that a political
party shall not nominate a particular man
or shall go before the people with a ticket
‘“‘half made up.’” It would be desirable to
prevent duplications, but the only way to
do that fairly is to change the character of
the Pennsylvania ballot, and instead of
printing party tickets put the names of
candidates for a particular office under the
office, with designation of the party or par-
ties making the nominations. That is the
best form of ballot, but was rejected by the
politicians of the state, who keep their
hold upon public affairs by getting the ma-
jority of citizens to vote party tickets
blindly. To amend a ballot law providing
for the printing of a succession of party
tickets so as to prevent the duplication of
names is to deprive one or more parties of
freedom in making nominations. That
this is understood to be the effect of the
law is shown by the statement from Har-
risburg, that if Dr. Swallow should be
nominated by the prohibitionists his name
could not appear in the Democratic col-
umn. Itis doubtful whether this clause
of the Becker bill would be sustained hy
the courts, Nothing is more certain than
that in the interests of public policy it
shall not be sustained.”’
The Geology of the Klondyke.
From the Pittsburg Post.
Under eternal snow and ice the geo-
logical formations of northern and western
Alaska lie hidden, and the scientists who
have visited that wonderland have given
us little definite information concerning
the nature of the strata. It is true that
most of the rocks exposed near the gold
diggings and in the famous Chilkoot pass
are of igneous origin, being composed of
impure granite or syenite, and the moraines
of living glaciers are made up of the same
kind of materials, which might be taken as
an indication that the hed rock of Alaska
is all granite.
But there are other facts which show
that the formations are varied, and that
the territory is not devoid of rocks of a
more recent geological age. Away up
along the western coast great cliffs of car-
boniferous limestone have been discovered,
and at the same place there are fossil
glaciers supposed to be the remains of the
great glacier of prehistoric time, which
came down as far south as Pennsylvania.
There is a good field for the geologist in
Alaska at present, and he is needed there
to point out the trend of the strata, tell
the world the nature of the formations and
explain whether the placer gold of the
Yukon originated from the grinding up of
indigenous rocks, or was scooped up out of
the Arctic ocean by the great glaciers of
some prehistoric age.
France and Import Duties on Wheat.
PARIS, Aug. 22.—The Eclair and other
papers say that official circles regard it as
useless to suppress the import duty on
wheat, and assert that M. Meline, the
premier, has made no special declaration
on the subject.
© The Temps says he has given the matter
close study, but at the ministry of agricul-
ture, which does not appear to share the
excitement of the spapers, there is no
disposition either to suppress or to lower
the duties or cereals.
The Repubiique Francaise says that it
learns that the government has resolved
not to accede to the demands for the aboli-
tion of the duties.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—The peach harvest has fairly commenced
in Cumberland valley.
—Mrs. Jacob Mawry, of Tamaqua, fed a
tramp who awarded her kindness by steal-
ing 340.
—The new United Evangelical church at
White Deer, Union county, was dedicated
Sunday.
—Mystery surrounds the disappearance of
Thomas Johnson, who left his home at
Mauch Chunk last Thursday.
—A Lehigh Valley train killed George
Mustro near his home at hickory Swamp,
Northumberland county,
—Ermentrout Grove camp-meeting, near
Stroudsburg, Monroe county, has closed after
a successful 10 days’ session.
—The 3000 Union Coal Company employes
in Northumberland county will work an ad-
ditional day each week until further notice.
—On the charge of stealing Valentine
Stump’s horse at Avon, Lebanon county,
Harvey Wise was held in $1000 bail for court.
—Farmer Owen Artz was found dead in
the road near Mohrsville, Berks county
having been thrown from his wagon and
killed.
—It is estimated that the advance in wheat
will make Berks county farmers $180,000
richer than their expectations one month
ago.
—\Walking in her sleep, Mrs. Earnest Ul-
rich, of Cranberry, Luzerne county, stepped
into a mine hole and almost perished before
help came.
—TFive thousand men are expected to take
part in a parade of the Demonstration As-
sociation of Central Pennsylvania, at Leigh-
ton, on Labor day.
—Fire damaged the chemical factory of
Henry K. Wampole & Co., manufacturing
druggists, of Philadelphia to the extent of
$50,000, on Saturday last.
—Lockjaw caused the death of Robert
Luther, who in a fight at Altoona a couple
of weeks ago, was struck on the head with «
stone, alleged to have been thrown by Geo.
Peight.
—Samuel Gelwix was elected borough
superintendent of the Chambersburg schools,
and J. H. Kriechbaum, of Millersville, was
made principal of the high school, the posi-
tion heretofore held by Gelwix.
—One hundred applicants for naturaliza-
tion, half of the number that came up before
Judge Savidge, at Sunbury, Monday, were
refused papers because they could not proper-
ly cast ballots in a booth set up in the court
room.
—Harrison Gehris, better known as ‘Pete’
is without doubt the champion bark peeler of
Potter county. Mr. Gehris is 30 years of age
and weighs 165 pounds, and the past season
he peeled 236% cords of bark by himself.
Some days he peeled as high as eleven cords.
—At Salladasburg Wednesday, Mrs. Mary
Whitcomb went to Dr. C. B. Bastian to have
several teeth extracted. The dentist at first
refused to administer ether, owing to the
week condition of the lady’s heart. The
woman was suffering intense pain from tooth-
ache and insisted that the anesthetic be
given her. The dentist finally yielded to
her importunities and gave her the ether.
Mrs. Whitcomb did not gain consciousness
and died in the chair. Her husband and two
small children survive. The dentist was
exhonerated from all blame.
—The prospectors who are searching for
minerals on the Bald Eagle mountains are
still at work, but as yet have found nothing
of value more than the outcroppings of ore
of several kinds. From the Jersey Shore
Spirit it is learned the company now have
leased about 4000 acres of mountain lands in
Clinton county, on the mountain just south
of Aughenbaugh’s Gap, and extending from
the Clinton county line almost up to Pine
station. Several tracts they have purchased
outright. They expect to keep prospecting
on their claim until they have thoroughly
investigated the entire space.
—The changes made by the present state hol-
iday law are as follows : February 12th, Lin-
coln’s birthday, is made a legal holiday for
the first time. The third Tuesday of Febru-
ary, election day, ismade a full holiday in-
stead of a half holiday, as was provided by
the act of assembly on May 23rd, 1893.
Whenever May 30th (Memorial day) shall
occur on Sunday, the following day, Mon-
day, is to be observed as the legal holiday,
instead of the preceeding day, Saturday, as
has been the case heretofore. The first Mon-
day of September is designated as Labor day,
instead of the first Saturday in September,
as was the case under the act of assembly of
May 31st, 1893.
—Warren W. Dickson, post office inspector
at Pittsburg, on Saturday received a letter
from Miss Maggie D. Ake, post-mistress at
Portage, Cambria county, in which she states
after reading the account of the robbery of
the Barnesboro post office by James Lewis and
William Moore, the men now in jail at Hol-
lidaysburg, she believes that they also robbed
the Portage office, for both jobs bear the same
finger marks. As at Barnesboro they
fastened the doors of the sleeping rooms of
those who lived over the post office and kept
them prisoners while they blew the safe open
and got the money in it. In blowing open
the Portage safe they did just as was done in
Barnesboro. A hole was drilled in the top
and a charge of blasting powder put in. They
got $165.56
—The two men arrested on suspicion of
robbing the Barnesboro post office, had a hear-
ing before United States commissioner Mc-
Leod, of Altoona. Postmaster Huber, of
Barnesboro, indentified the money, stamps
and registered packages found upon the pris-
oners when arrested at Lewistown, showing
in his register book where he had noted the
receipt of one of the packages. Other citizens
of Barneshoro testified of having seen one of
the prisoners in the town the day before the
post office was robbed. When the govern-
ment rested its case one of the prisoners
made a statement. He said his name is Wil-
liam Moore, and that he alone robbed the
post office. The other prisoner was only a
chance acquaintance whom he met for the
first time at Barnesboro the day before the
robbery, and whom he met afterwards and
traveled with until arrested. The other
prisoner, who said his name is James Lewis,
repeated this statement. In default of $2,-
000 bail for Moore and $1,500 for Lewis,
they were both remanded for trial at the
United States court to be held at William-
| sport.