Demonic BY P. GRAY MEEK. li ada Ink Sling. —The blind chaplain of Congress seemed | to be able to see enough to get his foot in- | to his mouth. —NERo fiddled while Rome was burn- ing. Might it be possible that he played: “¢“There’s a hot time in the old town to- on night ? —We notice no rise in the list price of life preservers, yet there are those who say a mighty wave of prosperity is rolling upon us. —If starvation does stare the Klondyk- ers in the face it will be the first instance in which piles of gold and want of food have gone hand in hand. —The tag end of the old Pennsylvania Democracy is on top now. Let us see that the majorities get down to the forty thou- sand mark they prated so much about when under-dogs in the political mix-up. ——Man grows happy at the fleeting days of the ice cream sign, but his happiness is short lived for that summer night-mare is invariably chased off the track by a tempt- ing offer to dispense oysters to your best girl. —The quintessence of laziness developed itself yesterday morning, on west High street, when one of Bellefonte’s young business men found a fine excuse for not going to work in the fact that his brother had taken his ‘‘ambrella and it looked as if it might rain.”’ —The gold-Democrats met in Philadel- phia yesterday, but no one is very deeply concerned as to what they did. JOHN M. BLANCHARD represented the notorious ninety-three of Centre county and we sup- pose looked as wise as the rest of the nood- les who met at the Walton. — When a youngster we often used to slide down the hills ‘‘belly-bumpers’’ on our sled, but, for the life of us, we never saw the trick introduced into any other sport until Republican county chairman GRAY undertook to play ball by the same manceuvring on Tuesday. —The St. Paul man who contemplates sending a cargo of ‘‘nice eighteen or twen- ty year old girls’ to the Klondyke to be auctioned off as wives for the miners has a great head for business but very little prac- ticability. He ought to know that no girl gets to be more than sixteen years old. —If the ruffians who went to Reading, under the guise of Democrats, to fight and disgrace the party had been arrested before they left their homes the convention would not have been disturbed and the Democrat- ic party would not now be smarting under a disgrace it will never be able to live down. —The citizen’s Union of greater New York has nominated SETH Low, president of Columbia college and twice mayor of Brooklyn, for the office of mayor of the great municipality. There is no doubting Mr. Low’s fitness for the office but TAM- MANY will elect the next mayor of New York. —In referring to the possible retention of United States attorney HARRY ALVAN HALL in office because he supported Mc- KINLEY last fall, our esteemed contempo- rary, the Pittsburg Post, says ‘‘virtue has its own reward.” Whence cometh the virtue in such a case? Surely it must be of the ‘‘stampeded’’ sort. —If the Democratic convention at Read- ing had left the question of the representa- tive on the national committee to that committee for adjudication, instead of fighting: over it itself, there would have been no trouble to disorganize the party on the very eve of an important campaign. It is a very easy matter to make a fight, but a much more diffi- cult one to end it. —A piece of the famous blarney stone from Blarney Castle, Ireland, that had been on exhibition at Atlantic City, N. J., has been stolen and the whole of the New Jersey coast is in an uproar about it. It is fortunate for MARK HANNA that he hasn’t been there lately, else the public might have had their suspicions as to its being taken for use in the coming Ohio campaign. —When Republicans and gold Demo- crats have nothing else to carp at they manufacture some lie about Mr. BRYAN. The latest is to the effect that he refused to speak at a great Democratic camp-meeting at Springfield, Ohio, without being paid $1,500. The Minneapolis Times went to the trouble of asking him as to the truth- fulness of the charge and, of course, learn- ed that it was a lie. — When our ‘‘fatherly looking old gen- tleman’’ friend with ‘‘gray whisk:rs,”” the redoubtable Col. SHORTLIDGE, tried to “honswaggle’’ the Republican convention into endorsing the HASTINGS' administra- tion for its veto of all grab bills he dis- played a simplicity that was amazing in one who has cut the caper in Bellefonte councilmanic fights that he has. The Col- onel is in training for the Legislature, you know, and that probably explains the dou- ble somersault feature of his resolutions that were never heard of after they were referred to the committee. They condemn- ed everyone but the Colonel, himself, for riding on railroad passes and patted HAST- INGS on the back for his ‘‘economic’’ ad- ministration, but did not include an in- quiry as to what has become of the $6,000,- 000, surplus PATTISON left in the state | treasury for him. STATE RIGHTS AN D FEDERAL unto, BELLEFONTE, PA., SEPT. 3, 1897. ‘NO. 34. The Democracy at Reading. There was never a Pennsylvania Demo- cratic state convention in which the Demo- cratic spirit was more manfully displayed and Democratic principles more fully vin- dicated than in the convention that met in Reading last Tuesday. If it had been a Republican convention, there would have been that quiet submis- sion to the control of the machine which grows out of long continued machine man- agement. No dissent from the orders of the boss would have raised a disturb- ance. The proceedings would have been attended with the harmony that pre- vails when a party accepts without quest- ion the candidates slated by its managers and there would have been that lack of in- dependent spirit, which becomes extinct when political manhood has been de- stroyed by the dry-rot of corrupt bossism. Fortunately the Democratic party is not in that condition. If there was disturb- ance at Reading it was but the manifesta- tion of that Democratic spirit which al- ways insists that the will of the majority shall govern, and will fight for it if that cardinal principle of Democracy can be maintained in no other way. The turbu- lence which for a while prevailed in the convention sprang from a Democratic de- termination that the faith of the party should not be betrayed nor its principles misrepresented. Better for such turbu- lence for such an object than the slavish harmony of a boss-ridden convention, rep- resenting a corrupted and emasculated party. The representatives of Pennsylvania’s Democracy who assembled at Reading were not in a mood to accept the proposition that they should renounce the principles for which they honestly and intelligently contended in last year’s presidential cam- paign, under the gallant leadership of BRYAN, and on account of which they were subjected to the vilest vituperation. Having been stigmatized as anarchists, re- pudiators and enemies of the nation’s hon- or for supporting a monetary system that had its origin in the constitution, could it be expected that they would admit the vile charges of their traducers by discard- ing the monetary principles of the Chicago platform which they believe to be the only basis of an honest and equitable currency ? The Democracy of Pennsylvania re-affirm and ve-iterate the doctrines of that platform again setting it forth as the most thor- oughly Democratic document that ever emanated from the party. In addition to that basis of their political action in this campaign they present an arraignment of the corrupt and profligate Republican state government. While it proposes to maintain every inch of ground it has assumed in the money question, and to uphold the principles of Democracy as enunciated at Chicago, it will not be the fault of the Democratic party of this State if the long suffering peo- ple of other parties will not, for their own interest, unite with it in overthrowing the terribly corrupt Bn domination. Dollar Wheat Wensciuve, A goldbug contemporary attempts to be sarcastic in remarking that ‘‘when wheat passes the dollar mark itis time for Mr. BRYAN to move to Mexico.” The accidental rise of the price of wheat to a dollar is responsible for a great deal of nonsense in the columns of the goldite press. Why should Mr. BRYAN go to Mexico because wheat has reached that price in consequence of the failure of the crops in foreign countries? What has Mexico got to do with the matter, and if he should go there on that account how long would he stay before wheat would drop again to its old price under the gold standard and allow him to return ? Mr. BRYAN has no occasion to go to Mexico for any reason connected with the price of wheat, but if he should visit that country he would find the Mexicans get- ting on quite comfortably with their silver currency. They are making satisfactory progress in industrial and commercial de- velopment, and considering the low plane from which the Mexican laboring popula- tion have been compelled to work up, they have in the last ten years made a compara- tively greater advance in the improvement of their condition than has heen made in the same time by the working people of this country, whose monetary system is based on gold. One of the dispatches from Mexico this week is to the effect that ‘‘general business is active, but importations are generally greatly checked.” Isn’t it the purpose of the Republicans to produce this very effect by means of their tariffs? The Mexicans, however, have effected it without resorting to tariff taxation. The silver standard in their case has acted like a protective tariff under which their manufactures are devel- oping without a system of protection that encourages monopoly, and they can sell their agricultural exportations at a better advantage than if they sold them at gold prices. Mr. BRYAN has no occasion to go to Mexico unless to congratulate the people down there on their good sense in retaining the advantage of a bimetallic currency. The Republican State. Convention. The Republican convention met in Har- risburg last week and made its nomina- tions and passed its resolutions in strict conformity with the directions it had re- ceived from the authority that controls the party in the State. Independent action is a right that no longer belongs to Pennsyl- vania Republicans. The eandidates nomi- nated were on QUAY's slate months before the convention met to ratify the selection | If the two persons nomina- | he had made. ted for state treasurer and auditor general shall be elected, the interest of the boss and the machine will be attended to in preference to the interest of the State. Nothing could have more shamefully ex- hibited the depths to which Pennsylvania Republicanism has sunk than the endorse- ment which the recent disreputable Legis- lature received from this convention. It actually commended the corrupt legisla- tive gang, most of whose actions were so vicious that even a Republican Governor was forced to veto them. The proceedings of the session were chiefly designed to steal money from the state treasury, a thievish purpose that displayed itseli in the trumped-up charges of sham investigating committees, yet the party convention was s0 lost to the sense of shame and so disre- gardful of decent public sentiment as to make such legislative conduct the subject of commendation. It might have been thought that shame- lessness could go no farther than this, but it went still farther, in charging that the Democratic minority in the Legislature, numbering less than fifty in all, and out- numbered more than five to one in both Houses by the Republicans, were responsi- ble for the failure of the reforms which the lying bosses had promised. No wonder that members of this conven- tion were forced to laugh when they heard the resolutions commending the general action of that profligate Legislature. Nothing could be more plainly shown by such resolutions than that their authors en- tertain a contempt for the intelligence of the people, and confidently believe that the public demoralization is such that the corruptions and abuses of Republican rule in this State will be sustained by the usual majority. The honor of the State, as well as its in- terest forbid that this shameful expectation should be realized this year after it has been so repeatedly shown that Republican administration is thoroughly corrupt and incapable of reform. What Caused the Delay, There has been trouble in the selection of the design for the new structure that is to take the place of the old capitol building that went up in smoke last winter, leaving nothing behind but historic memories and some ugly suspicions. A number of plans for the new edifice have been submitted, and pictures of what it will look like have been published, but there has been hesi- tation and delay in making a choice that will suit interests that have to be con- sidered. The building must he kept within the limitation of the appropriation, which has been made too small to meet the specula- tive designs of parties who would construct a public building as they would work a gold mine. The Philadelphia city hall il- lustrates the possibilities of wealth that are in such a job. With the limitation of expenditure fixed at balf a million the difficulty that present- ed itself to the capitol commission was how to devise a way by which a much larger amount would be required for the subsequent enlargement and embellish- ment of the building. The architect whose plan would be best adapted to such a requirement was most likely to secure a preference for his design. It is not at all improbable that this was the problem that caused the delay in select- ing the plan for the new Capitol. There are parties to whom it has been a great dis- appointment that but half a million dol- lars are to be spent on a structure which with expert management and a more lib- eral appropriation could be made to furn- ish a profit of some millions to those fa- vored with the job. If there is to be no more made out of it than appears at pres- ent, it was hardly worth while to burn down the old building. ——Former county commissioner HEN- RY C. CAMPBELL, of Ferguson township, struck the nail on the head when he said : ‘We are not indebted to the DINGLEY tar- iff or any other human invention for the advance in the price of our cereals, but owe it alone to an over-ruling Providence, who cut short the supply of other nations.’ Mr. CAMPBELL was prominent in Republi- can councils before he espoused the silver cause, but he saw that tariff humbuggery was a hindrance, rather than a benefit, to the farmer and struck out for a system that would be to his advantage as an agricul- turist. ——Subseribe for the WATCHMAN. A Mistaken Goldite. We fail to see the logic of a goldbug con- temporary which remarks that “Mr. BrRY- AN ought to realize, by this time, that he pushed his so-called logic too far. The condition now is different from what it was a year ago. Yet we have the same finan- {cial system. It is fair to say that the farmer can prosper in the future, as he is now prospering and as he was prospering in the past, under the gold standard.” The present condition and that which existed a yearago are different only in con- sequence of the accidental circumstance that the wheat crop has failed in every part of the world except in the United States, where it has been abundant. It is only because of this accident, which can at most be but temporary in its effect, that an unusual demand for American wheat has raised its price above what it was a year ago, and during most of the time since the gold standard prevailed. Can any sensible person see in this cir- cumstance a failure of Mr. BRYAN’s logic ? Granted that we have now the same finan- cial system that we had a year ago; but was not the price of agricultural products seen to decline to its lowest figure under that system, gradually sinking after the adoption of gold monometallism, and does the present sudden advance in the price of wheat, owing entirely to phenomenal con- ditions, disprove the logic of Mr. BRYAN'S assumption that the low price of farm products was in consequence of the demon- etization of silver ? In their exultation over the probability that a high price for wheat will produce, to some extent, the prosperity promised by McKINLEY, the Republican goldites lose sight of the fact that if it had not been for the failure of the harvests everywhere but in this country our farmers would to-day be getting the beggarly price for their wheat which they had been getting for the last ten years under the gold standard, and they ignore the certainty of wheat again sinking to that low figure after the extraor- dinary demand has been supplied, an eventuation that will be sure to transpire as an inseparable consequence of the depre- | ciating effect of gold monometallism upon tthe value of farm products. Time to Call a Halt on It. Concerning the reported retirement of JOHN SHERMAN from the state department a Washington dispatch says ‘it is evident that the change in the secretaryship of state will not take place until after Mr. HANNA is elected to the Senate.’ What is most notable in this announce- ment is that it regards HANNA’S election as a sure thing ; showing how confidently money is relied on as a means of carrying elections. HANNA can have no other strength in a political election than the corrupt means he can bring to bear upon it, and the size of his boodle fund being known to be the largest that was ever put into a state election with the object of cor- rupting it, doubt as to his effecting his purpose is not admissible. Does not this present American politics in a most deplorable light ? The inference that HANNA is going to succeed in de- bauching Ohio is to be drawn from his success last year in electing MCKINLEY by the same means he is now employing to secure his own election to the Senate. The Republican party has familiarized the American people with such practices. The public sensibility has been blunted by being made accustomed to political cor- ruption, and what would have shocked the people but a few years ago as an assault upon popular institutions and a menace to the republic, has become familiar to them through the employment of vast campaign funds by the corrupt use of which Repub- lican Presidents have been elected. But it may turn out this year that the people of Ohio may not be willing to be bought by MARK HANNA’S money. It can scarcely be possible that the American people are incapable of seeing what this political debauching must eventually end in, and it may be hoped that when it is being done with such openness and in so shameless a manner as MARK HANNA dis- plays in his practices, their honesty, good sense and patriotism will call a halt on it. Every patriotic citizen should devoutly pray that this will happen in Ohio this year. ——The everlasting greed for gain seems to be the dominant characteristic in human nature nowadays. Even the agencies of christian worship have been converted into money making enterprises. One of the most glaring evidences of this growing ten- dency to traffic in such ways has come to our attention from the Bilger campmeeting. It is located in Clearfield county and last Sunday two boys were arrested for selling fruit, cigars, ete., on the grounds. They were not arrested, as you might suppose, for desecrating the Sabbath day, but be- cause they did not have a permit from the management, siowing that they had paid | a fee for the privilege of such desecration. | col. McClure’s Views of the Reading Convention. From the Philadelphia Times, The regular Republican state convention, held at Harrishurg recently, did little to enlarge respect for Republican rule in the State, and did much to prejudice it in the minds of intelligent citizens. The so-call- ed Democratic convention at Reading yes- terday did almost everything within the range of political effort to hinder Demo- cratic unity and to make Democratic suc- cess beyond the pale of possibility. In short, the Reading convention could not have been a more effective annex to Re- publican leadership had Senator Quay ap- pointed its leaders, conceived its policy, shaped its methods and directed its actions and deliverances. Never before in the history of modern politics was there such a grotesque exhibi- tion of political suicide as was given at Reading. When the freesilver fanaticism is fading out even in free silver countries, and dollar wheat and eight cent cotton are reaching farmers that the free silver craze is wholly the conception of either knave or fool, a lot of awkward political apprentices who have been whirled to the surface by the political convulsions of the last year, seem to have resolved that there shall be no Democratic party in the future that can assure self respect to its own people or com- mand the respect of others. The state committee, under the pictur- esquely idiotic leadership of chairman Gar- man, went out of its way to force an issue that is unknown and unfelt in the present contest, to glut factional revenge against the Democratic leader whose political record is inseparably interwoven with every Dem- ocratic victory of modern times in city or State. By a vote of two to one the com- mittee declared that freedom of conviction and integrity of purpose shall have no part in Democratic policy. Had the state com- mittee received instructions from the Re- publican leaders as to how best to decimate the Democratic party, they could not have devised more effective methods to bring Democracy into public contempt and ex- pose it to irretrievable defeat. The Republican state convention made many thousands of votes for Dr. Swallow, the pyrotechnic Prohibition candidate for state treasurer and the so-called Democrat- ic state convention at Reading has made other thousands of votes for the same can- didate. While it is not probable, it is cer- tainly even possible that the Democratic candidate for state treasurer will not com- mand a larger vote than Dr. Swallow, who happens to be in a position to receive the votes of both Democrats and Republicans who want to make emphatic protest against distrusted political mastery in, their own organizations. The = Reading ‘convention did a great work for the Republicans of Pennsylvania, and it did mere to thin the ranks of the Democracy of the State than has ever yet been done by any leadership of the past. Those who sow the wind must reap the whirlwind. Figuring for Effect. From the Pittsburg Post. One of the administration’s wind instru- ments, assistant Secretary of Agriculture Bingman, declares that the farmers will gain $500,000,000 this year over last year “‘on wheat alone.’”’ The average of wheat last year was 55 cents. If this year it should average 80 cents to the bushel there would be a gain of 25 cents on the bushel, which in a crop of 500,000,000 bushels would amount to $125,000,000, or only $375,000,000 less than this arithmetician figures out. But this does not take into account that the American working men, whose wages are and have been on the down grade, are paying at this time 50 per cent more for their flour than they were paying a few months ago, before scant crops abroad started prices upward in this country. An Inconsiderate Practice. From Rev. H. L. Jacobs’ Tyrone Report. It is no longer a ‘‘mark of respect’’ for the people to adjourn at the close of the funeral services to the outside of the house or church and gaze at the mourners mutil the last carriage is filled. Dr. Swallow Makes a Call. HARRISBURG, August 30.—Dr. S. C. Swallow, the prohibition candidate for state treasurer, to-day called at the state treasury and requested State Treasur Hay- wood to permit him to see the alleged in- demnity bond, which, it is said, was given Mr. Haywood to indemnify him for any money paid out to alleged legislative em- ployes who were carried on the rolls without being elected or appointed. Mr. Haywood said that he would not say weth- er or not such a bond was in existence and that when he retired from the office there would be no bonds, notes or bills left against him, and his balance sheet would be clean. He intimated that the request came from political factions. Dr. Swallow con- structed this to mean that the state trea- surer refused to show him the bond and said he supposed. he would have to wait until the expiration of Haywood’s term to see the bond. The meeting was cordial in every respect. Want Bryan in 1900. Northumberiand Democrats Like Him and Mr. Swallow. SUNBURY, Pa., Aug. 30.—The Demo- cratic county convention was held here to-day and was largely attended. Samuel D. Artman, of Milton, was nominated for recorder, and Charles O'Conner, of Trevor- ton, for jury commissioner. Resolutions were adopted declaring for free silver; indorsing William J. Bryan for president in 1900; denouncing “the State and National administration, and commending Rev. Dr. Swallow for his ex- position of alleged misdoings by the State officials. Spawls from the Keystone. —The new double track culvert on the P. & E. railroad at Sugar Run, above Lock Haven, is completed. —Surveyors are laying out a bicycle path between Scranton and Honesdale, a distance of 18 miles. —William C. Lawson, of Milton, the oldest member of the Northumberland county bar, and a trustee of Lafayette college, is lying at the point of death. —At the laying of the cornerstone for a United Evangelical church, at Lebanon, ser- vices were conducted by Rev. C. Newton Dubs and Rev. E. H. Romig. —Fully 7000 people attended the anni- versary celebration yesterday of the Beth- any Orphans’ house of the Reformed church, at Womelsdorf, Berks county. —The Allentown hardware works failed Wednesday afternoon on an execution in fav- or of the Lehigh Trust and Safe Deposit cam- pany for $16,000, and A. Reninger, trustee, for $13,000. —Empty pocket-books, one containing broken rings, were dropped in W. G. Foehl's cafe, at Lancaster, by a stranger whose de- scription tallies with that of a well-known pickpocket. —A deep well is being drilled in Wil- liamsport with the hope of striking a flowing stream. It is expected that a flow with sev- eral hundred pounds pressure will be struck before many days. —Jumping from a Pennsylvania railroad train, near Lancaster, John Patterson, a track hand, dropped through a bridge and was paralyzed in the lower part of his body by injuries to his spine. —Three masked men attacked Daniel Kennedy, of Sandy Run, Luzerne county, as he was walking along a road near his home, but he put up such a good flight that they took to their heels. —At Hummelstown, Dauphin county, David Baker was driving across the Reading railroad tracks, when his carriage was struck by a locomotive. He was hurled 30 feet inte an adjoining field, but miraculously escaped with only a few bruises. —Clinton Houck, aged 21, a young farmer, of Ruscomb Manor township, Berks county, was found dying Wednesday afternoon. He had been terribly injured by a bull in the same field and died soon after. He had gone out to look after the cows. + —One day last week Daniel, the 8-year-old son of B. M. Stewart, of Clearfield, had his right leg broken in two places above the knee. He was riding on the Karthaus stage and in attempting to get off got his leg caught in the wheel with the above result. The boy is very badly injured and may be crip- pled for life. —The Shaver’s Creek and Juniata tele- phone company has its line about completed from Petersburg to McAlevys Fort. There have been ‘phones placed at Petersburg, Porter’s Mills, Cottage, Neft’s Mills, Moores- ville, Manor Hill, Saulsburg, Ennisville and McAlevy’s Fort, and they are in complete working order. —Albert Houck, a young man employed at Morris’ saw mill, Curwensville, was killed the first day he worked there. He and a fellow workman were taking logs from the log pile when a log lying crossways on the pile shot down, struck Houck and knocked him twenty feet into the water. The other man hastened to the rescue but the poor fel- low was brought to life only long enough to speak a few words before breathing his last. —Potter county enjoys a distinction that is probably not granted to any other county in the United States, in that its surface is in three of the great slopes. The Allegheny rising in the central part, winds its ways westward to the gulf system : the (Genessee river has its source in the northeast part of the county, from which its waters are dis- charged into the St. Lawrence basin, while the numerous branches of the Susquehanna river afford an outlet into the Atlantic slope. —All of the injunction cases against the Montoursville passenger railway company have been settled, and nothing now remains to prevent the completion of the road and running of trolley cars between Williamsport and Montoursville. The road is, in fact, practically completed with the exception of a space of about 150 feet. It is expected to have cars running between Williamsport and Loyalsock creek within two weeks. The bridge crossing the creek will hardly be completed before October 1st. —The Dauphin county Democrats met in convention in the court house Wednesday afternoon and adopted resolutions endorsing the Reading ticket and platform. The party recently returned to the delegate system af- ter having used the Crawford county system. This was the first convention of a decade and was well attended. The following ticket was nominated : Jury commissioner, James M. Zeigler, Steelton ; prothonotary, Captain A. C. Landis, Harrisburg ; coroner, John John Keller, Harrisburg ; director of the poor, G. W. Benders, Fisherville. — Albert Conway, of near Gallagher town- ship, Clinton county, is suffering from a very painful accident. One day last week he was engaged in skidding logs. While running along with the horses he stumbled and fell. The hook attached to the chain that was be- ing dragged by the horses, caught the pros- trate man on the leg underneath the knee, and as the horses could not be stopped, the flesh was torn clear to the bone. The hook itself went through the bone at the knee. Dr. Carson, of Charlton, dressed the injury. He thinks that the leg will not need to be amputated, but he is afraid that it will be stiffened for life. —Charles Kayser, of Sunbury, a brake- man on the Linden branch of the Pennsyl- vania railroad, went into a corn field below Nisbet Sunday night about 9o’clock. While in the act of helping himself to ears of corn he was shot by E. O’Lander, the owner of the field. Kayser came to this city where his wounds were dressed. Three No. 2 shot were taken from his scalp. One shot went through the lobe of the ear and another pierced his wrist. Kayser left for his home in Sunbury on the late train last night. It seems that the crew that Kayser was with had received orders to return to Renovo. Having exhausted his food supply Kayser went into the field for the Purpose of pro- curing corn.