Bemorralig Wada
GRAY MEEK.
8Y P.
- Ink Slings.
—If reports have any reliance CERVERA
is badly ‘‘stuck on’’ Santiago.
—Spain now has reason to regret that
her Columbus ever discovered America.
—If our navy hasn’t got much work in
as yet, it has at least kept itself fairly busy
fishing for cables.
—Our navy has shown to the world that
it is not always the boss tenor who is
greatest on the high C.
—1It has every appearance now of becom-
ing universal. Even the Peace society of
Philadelphia is at war.
—Nexi Tuesday the ticket will be named
that the people of the county will elect on
the 8th day of November.
—And now it is believed that the first
effort of the QUAY forces will be to chloro-
form the WANAMAKER issue.
—Although there is a constant fall in
iron about the West Indies, it don’t seem
to make the price come down.
—Possibly the reason most of our war
bulletins come by water is the fact that
they have no ground to stand upon.
—Evidently with all hisscouts and grap-
ling Mr. QUAY has failed to find and cut
Mr. WANAMAKER’S principle cable.
—If New Jersey has been slow in getting
her troops to the front it is hardly the prop-
er thing to charge it to a lack of sand in
that State.
—What Mr. QUAY now needs is a censor
* who can succeed in blue penciling the po-
litical war news transmitted via the WAN-
AMAKER wires.
—To the casual observer it is beginning to
look as if this administration is made up of
men who believe ‘‘that everything comes
to him who waits.”’
—The philosopher who concluded that
“truth is mighty and will prevail,” had
no knowledge of a time when war would
be waged with the cables cut.
—The Republican State platform declares
for about everything under the sun, except
the one thing the people are contending
for—reform in state affairs.
—What is wanted now is to raise a flag
in Cuba pretty quick, ora bit of hell among
the fellows who have been delegated to
manage this undertaking.
—The Philadelphia Inquirer plaintively
appeals to its readers to ‘‘keep politics off
the bench.’”” What funeral processions for
Republican judges it must be wanting to
witness ?
—If this war has done nothing else it
has at least given rest to the poor old tail
of the British lion. Twisting it has ceased
to be a pastime for our people, since hos-
tilities began.
—As a demonstration of the truth that
the ‘‘pen is mightier than the sword,’’ the
present war has proven a howling success.
‘Where the sword has found one victim the
pen has made thousands.
—1It is said that the mules for the war
have already cost the government over
$1,000,000. An estimate of what the asses
at the heads of the departments have cost,
has not yet been furnished.
—No matter what some men think the
money question can not be kept out of
the campaign. This fall it will be ‘‘what
becomes of the tax-payer’s money that goes
into the state treasury ?”’
—ARNOLD wants to get back to Congress
the same old way, via the 28th route.
There are some might-have-heen-postmas-
ters in Centre county who will have a lit-
tle say in this matter.
—After all the 16 to 1 issue will be the
prominent question in the state campaign
this fall. It will be, however, the sixteen
dollars that are collected from the tax-
payers for every one that is needed for
expenses.
—With the Pittsburg distilleries closed
down and the Republican convention de-
manding ‘‘improved water-ways’’ brother
SWALLOW can feel that his bombardment
has badly wrecked the fortifications of the
enemy.
—Sinking a Spanish fleet is easy. Our
war news sinks one on an average every
day. Candor, however, compels us to ad-
mit that our success at sinking them for
good has not yet been demonstrated to any
perceivable extent.
—The Democrats who neglect to go to
the primaries to-morrow and assist in se-
lecting representative and responsible men
for delegates, will fail to perform one of
the most important duties devolving upon
a Democratic citizen.
—To-morrow is the day to make your
choice between Democrats who are candi-
dates for office. Go out and do it in a
manly way and don’t be kicking afterwards
because the man you were too lazy or care-
less to vote for was not successful.
—When we come to think of the numer-
ous victories(?) we have already had, of the
any more we are promising ourselves and
that each, through all time will have to be
becomingly celebrated it looks very much
as if heaven wasn’t very far ahead of the
lazy man.
—If you have a preference among the
aspirants for county office to-morrow is
the day to express it. Go out like men
and work for the fellow you want nomi-
nated, and if you don’t happen to succeed
be manly enough and fair enough to sub-
mit gracefully to the will of the majority.
in
A enacralic
\
HO
a
115
-9
VOL. 43
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JUNE 10, 1898.
Dangerous Aspirations.
There is danger that the minds of our
people will be filled with imperial notions
as a consequence of the war. Although
we have not as yet permanently conquered
any territory, yet we hear much talk of
the extension of our territorial limits by
conquest. There is a demand that the
Philippine Islands must be retained and
converted into a great East Indian de-
pendency of the Republic. The possession
of those islands will require that we should
have Hawaii also, as we shall need a half-
way point in the ocean passage to our
domain in the East Indies. Porto Rico
will be necessary as a coaling station and
must be retained as one of the prizes of the
war, and it may turn out that the libera-
tion of Cuba, which was claimed to be the
chief object of hostilities with Spain, will
stand in danger of being lost sight of in the
prevailing desire for territorial extension.
These are the aspirations that appear to
be shaping themselves in the public mind
in connection with the war. Of course
these territorial acquisitions at remote dis-
tances from our shores will require a mighty
navy to keep them safe under the wing of
the American eagle. For this purpose
there is a demand for a large addition of
battleships, monitors, cruisers and torpedo
boats. A bill was introduced in the House
last week for the building of forty-five of
these warlike vessels in one batch, and one
of our contemporaries declares that we
should have a navy larger than that of
Great Britair, which we can easily secure
by the trifling expenditure of a billion
dollars.
This intoxication that has taken hold of
the minds of some of our people appears to
have been brought on by the smell of gun-
powder, but we hope it will subside after
the close of the war. We trust that after
their common sense is given a chance to
consider the matter they will see that in
case of our conquest of the Philippines it
would be better to sell them at a good
price than to retain possession of what
would likely be a trouble and expense to
us. As to the leprous Hawaiian Islands
they would not only be an incumbrance but
an actual nuisance in our possession. It
might be advisable to retain Porto Rico,
as it could be made useful as a coaling sta-
tion, and as regards Cuba, it should be
remembered that we are pledged to the
liberation and not to the annexation of
that island. We certainly do need a
stronger navy than that which we now
have as the result of many years of Repub-
lican neglect, but it would be absurd to
attempt to rival the great navies of Europe.
It will be for the benefit of our country,
if these notions of conquest and territorial
extension, and the desire for a great navy
and army, shall be dispelled from the
minds of our people after the war fever
shall have subsided. It should not be for-
gotten that the American nation isa Re-
public and not an empire, and that our
aspirations should not be of an imperial
kind.
Strategy of the State Campaign.
The Democrats will have until the close
of the present month to arrange for their
contest with the Republican contingent
that will support QUAY’s machine ticket,
and whether the strategy adopted at their
state convention shall be judicious and ef-
fective will depend upon the wisdom of
those who will draw the plan of operations
in the platform.
The Republicans are ahead of the Demo-
crats in opening their campaign, and it isa
matter of great interest to observe the
movements of that large element in the
party that has made up their minds not to
obey the orders of the boss, nor submit to
the control of the machine. In no former
convention were QUAY’S arrogance and de-
termination to rule or ruin more offensively
displayed, while the protests of the large
minority that have grown tired of machine
methods and the one man power were
treated with more than the usual amount
of contempt and defiance, no scruples were
shown as to the means by which the nomi-
nation of the machine ticket was jammed
through. The entire proceeding showed
that the political dictator who claims the
right to rnle the party organization has
lost none of his desire to own the Govern-
ors of the State.
After these offensive proceedings the
movement of the outraged and indignant
Republicans who propose to put an end
to the corruption of the machine as well as
the tyranny of the boss will be next in or-
der. .
There can not help being an affinity be-
tween the action of the Republican enemies
of Quayism and that of the Democrats who
will do their part in the redemption of the
State from its present debased political
condition. While the anti-machine Repub-
licans are developing their plan of oper-
ations the Democrats should get together
at their state convention with an earnest
desire to allay factional differences, and a
determination to make state reform the
only issue of the State campaign. The con-
gressional district should he left to take
care of general issues.
The Paramount Issue.
The people of Pennsylvania never had so
momentous a duty entrusted to them as
that which is presented for their perform-
ance in the pending state election. The
issue which they are to determine is wheth-
er the State shall cease to have a popular
government and be permanently handed
over to the rule of an oligarchy of corrupt
politicians headed by a party boss, or
whether the control of the people shall be
restored and a truly republican govern-
ment be re-established--in this old Com-
monwealth. This is really the issue forced
upon the people of the State by the usur-
pation of a political manager who has se-
cured supreme control through the instru-
mentality of a corrupt party machine.
It is unnecessary to go into details in re-
counting the methods and processes by
which a government of the people was dis-
placed in this State by the rule of the Re-
publican boss and his assistant henchmen.
A party that for years has wielded the
power of a great majority has been made
the medium through which the State has
lost its popular government. By a base
betrayal of its honest membership the Re-
publican organization has been used as the
weapon by which Republican institutions
have been nearly annihilated in Pennsyl-
vania.
The rule of the boss and the machine
that has sprung from this source has in-
flicted every form of political abuse and
bad government upon the State. Its con-
trol has been so supreme and vicious that
it has converted the politics of the State
into a skillfully organized system of public
plunder. The executive power is required
to be subordinate to the will of the chief
oligarch, and the Legislature is filled with
servile tools who in every act of legislation
are governed by his supreme direction.
This is the condition to which the rule
of the boss and his machine has brought
the government of our State. It isas com-
plete an usurpation of supreme power as
could be evolved from debased and per-
verted politics. The long obedience of the
Republican majority has nurtured this
despotism, allowing it to assume such au-
thority that it imperiously forces its re-
tainers upon a reluctant party as the can-
didates which it is required to elect to the
state offices.
Such arrogant assumption of power by
an upstart political leader insults his own
party and challenges the resistance of every
independent voter in the State. It makes
the state election hinge upon the question
whether the will of a corrupt professional
politician shall be supreme, or whether a
government of the people shall be restored
to Pennsylvania.
What the Boss Relies On.
QUAY’S political reign was never beset
by so strong an opposition as it will have
to contend against this year. With a for-
midable revolt in his own party, and the
probability of the Democratic organization
being thoroughly united, he was never be-
fore apparently in such danger of complete
and disastrous overthrow. But if his cal-
culations were known it would in all
probability be found that his chief reliance
for a safe delivery from this danger is based
on the assistance he expects to get from the
SwALLOW candidacy. The vote polled by
the reverend candidate last year prevented
the machine state ticket from being defeat-
ed at that time, and if he can poll as large a
vote this year for Governor he will effect
such a division of the reform vote as will
give the machine a plurality and continue
to keep the control of the state government
in the hands of the corruptionists who
have so long fattened on its spoils.
Doctor SWALLOW professes to be inspired
by a desire for state reform. He has done
some service in exposing corruptions that
require and demand correction, and yet he
is putting himself in a position to be the
chief obstacle to reform by dividing the
vote which must be united if reform is to
be brought about. He surely can not have
been so puffed up by his last year’s aceci-
dental and abnormal vote as to believe that
his Governor’s candidacy can amount to
anything more than a division of the op-
position to the machine, and a continued
lease of power for the corruptionists.
Testimony from a Republican Source.
Republicans who honestly desire to do
their duty in ridding their State of the
injury and disgrace of machine rule will
not be at a loss for information as to the
manner in which its abuses have been
practiced. They have been abundantly
supplied with all the disgraceful details
by JOHN WANAMAKER. His' remarkable
canvass has thrown light for them upon
the legislative and administrative iniquities
that have for years past made the govern-
ment of this State a most astounding ex-
ample of public corruption. When such
charges have come from a Democratic
source party prejudice may have been a
reason for Republicans to disbelieve or dis-
regard them ; but the WANAMAKER im-
peachment of the rascals who run the gov-
ernmental machinery of the State comes
_ NO. 28.
from a source which should command the
confidence and secure the belief of every
intelligent Republican.
When a man of his standing in his party,
foremdstein'its councils and liberal in its
support, assumes a position of hostility to
the leaders of the state organization, the
revelations he makes proceed from his
knowledge of their corrupt and debasing
methods. He acts from a conviction of
the injury which not only the State, but
his own party also, is sustaining as a con-
sequence of abuses practiced in every de-
partment of the state government.
In the 67 speeches made by Mr. WANA-
MAKER to members of his party he pre-
sented an arraignment of the machine cor-
ruptionists that left not a single one of
their public iniquities uncovered, detailing
them with such precision and completeness
that no honest Republican can excuse him-
self for continuing to support a party domi-
nation whose corrupt and licentious rule
has been so clearly exposed and justly ar-
raigned from a reputable and reliable Re-
publican source.
Quay Nominates his Ticket.
The machine ticket was jammed through
the state convention but not by so large a
majority as to assure the boss and his
henchmen that there is no trouble ahead
for them later on in the campaign when
the bolters will have their innings. The
majority for the QUAY candidate was of
rather small dimensions and it would have
been smaller, and probably wiped out en-
tirely, if every known machine device, in-
cluding the intimidation and bribery of
delegates had not been employed to secure
the nomination for the man whom QuAy
had selected for Governor.
The managers of the convention evident-
ly thought that it would not require much
of a platform for a campaign that had no
other purpose than to carry out the designs
of the machine that maintains QUAY’s auto-
cratic power. All that they considered
necessary were a few platitudes commending
McKINLEY’S administration, a few patri-
otic flourishes about the war with Spain,
the usual rot commending a Republican
monopoly tariff, and other stuff in no way
relating to real state interests. There was
not, Jowever, a repetition of tke promises
of reform with which the last two state
conventions humbugged the people of the
State. Cheeky as the machine rascals
usually are, they hadn’t gall enough to
revert to a subject on which they had
faked the voters in recent campaigns.
The machine enters this state contest
evidently under a cloud. There are indi-
cations of a lack of confidence in the ef-
ficacy of its usual methods. The gang who
compose the Ieadership depend for the suc-
cess of their ticket more on the division of
their opponents than on the strength of the
Republican ‘ vote. The diversion that
SWALLOW is making may he of such ma-
terial assistance to the QUAY ticket that
the boss would be willing to contribute
most of the funds necessary to keep it going.
But the enemies of the vicious QUAY domi-
nation will be wise if they unite upon the
question of state reform and defeat the cor-
ruptionists by pinning them down to that
issue.
Robbing the Government.
The nation has a more dangerous enemy
in this war than the Spaniards, and the
enemy consists of the corrupt and sordid
characters who are using the war as an op-
portunity for the practice of the most
scandalous public robberies. The plunder-
ing of the treasury will be limited only
by the opportunity for stealing, and every
fellow who has a pull on the administra-
tion will be given his chance. MARK
HANNA is making his big profits in fur-
nishing coal for the navy, in addition to
being permitted to work off on the govern-
ment for $100,000 a yacht that could not
have cost him half that amount.
It is in furnishing ships for the alleged
use of the navy that Uncle SAM’s despoilers
are making their biggest steal. An as-
tounding instance of this form of public
swindling has heen exposed in the case of
the steamer Merrimac that was sunk at the
entrance of Santiago harbor some days ago.
This ship was an old Norwegian tramp
steamer, called the Solveig, which a year
since was bought for $48,000. Repairs
were put on her that brought her cost up to
$192,000, and when the Spanish war broke
out and all sorts of crafts were being bought
for the navy, she was offered among others,
but was rejected as unsuitable. This, how-
ever, didn’t keep her from being bought by
the government. A politician who had a
“pull” was given an interest in her, and
he worked her off on the navy department
for $342,000, the government being
swindled out of $150,000 in the transac-
tion.
This same ship, re-christened the Merri-
mae, was sent down to Admiral SAMPSON
was found so worthless that the best use
they could put her to was to sink her in
the channel at Santiago to prevent the
Spanish fleet from coming ont. In this
performance the gallant HoBsoN risked his
life for his country, furnishing a striking
contrast to the rascals who in the sale of
the ship made their country the victim of a
villainous swindle.
It is Mr. McKinley’s Way.
From an Unknown Exchange.
There is an old saying that an army of
stags led by a lion are more formidable
than any army of lions led by a stag.
President McKinley is doing all that is in
his power to place us in the latter position
by appointing as military and naval officers
party hacks who ‘‘never set a squadron in
the field,” and who have no other merit
than that they are sons of their father—John
Jacob Astor, Jr., James G. Blaine, Jr.,
Wm. B. Allison, Jr., Ulysses S. Grant, Jr.,
Russel Harrison, G. C. Webb, of New
York, a scion of the Vanderbilts, John A.
Logan, Jr., son of Senator Logan, deceased,
G. H. Hopkins, C. E. McMichael, Joseph
Benson Foraker, Jr., son of Senator
Foraker, Bradley Strong, and a whole
array of young sports who, with the
exception of young Grant, have never
given any evidence of fitness for their com-
mands. Blaine has none of his father’s
brains, and his reputation is not of the
cleanest, being mixed up with half a dozen
woman, while Russel Harrison was the
bete noir, the blacksheep of his father’s
administration. It is a diagrace to our
nation that men of known qualifications,
experience and valor, men of the regular
army, too, are thrust aside to give place to
these carpet knights who are never ex-
pected to draw a sword or anything else
except their salary.
It Will be a Fight for Reform.
From the York Gazette.
The Democratic party in common with
all parties, except the Republican, purposes
to make this year a vigorous fight for re-
form.
While the Chicago platform may be,
probably will be, endorsed, the national
issues raised in that document will have no
bearing on the state campaign. The issue
in Pennsylvania this year is honest govern-
ment. National issues are not involved in
any way.
. The people and papers who were advo-
cating reform last week will, if they are
honest, be advocating reform next week,
thereafter until the polls are closed next
November. With the honest reformer the
only matter for debate or hesitancy seems
to be which of the reform parties he should
support. If he chooses wisely he will vote
the Democratic ticket.
All for the Corporations.
From the Clarion Democrat.
Last Saturday the first decisive vote was
taken on the war revenue measure and re-
sulted in tabling that part of it proposed
by the Democrats which provided a tax of
one-fourth of one per cent. upon the gross
receipts of all corporations.
that the corvorations and combinations of
capital are in power and don’t propose to
be taxed to help carry on the war if they
can help it, and it seems that they can.
But, having escaped taxation, they will
now use all their influence to force an issue
of bonds to compel the people to pay for
the war, and they will also endeavor to
make the bonds payable in gold in order to
make it so much harder for those who pay
the taxes. Count this first decisive vote as
aging the people and in favor of a select
class.
A Great Opportunity Offered.
From the Williamsport Sun.
The Democrats of the State should ap-
preciate the fact that they havea golden
opportunity of winning this fall. The
ticket nominated at Harrisburg yesterday
is a weak one, and the chances of a Demo-
cratic victory in the gubernatorial fight are
most excellent and encouraging. With
more than a possibility of electing the Gov-
ernor the Democrats should be induced to
make wise and popular nominations for the
Legislature. The taxpayers who have
been robbed by recent Legislatures are
ready to put a stop to corruption by voting
for good men for the Legislature, and the
Democrats should place in nomination the
best men that can be found in the several
districts of the State. There should be a
clean sweep all along the line this fall.
Don’t Want to March in that Procession.
From the Philadelphia Ledger, (Rep.)
The ticket would not be a strong one if
it did not in its chief parts represent noth-
ing so much as the sinister spirit and the
purposes of Quayism. He made it; it is
his, not the Republican party’s ticket. The
election of W. A. Stone for Governor would
simply mean the continuance of Quay in-
fluences in the government of the State, an
influence that has corrupted our politics,
and fostered grave abuses in the adminis-
tration of the treasury department. For
that reason W. A. Stone will be opposed at
the polls by independent Republicans, who
demand a business-like administration of
state affairs, and perhaps successfully op-
posed if time should bring forth a candi-
date about whom all the anti-Quay forces
can rally. ;
A Bitter Dose for Republicans.
From the Philadelphia Press, (Rep.)
With almost any other candidate that
could be named success was assured. Only
one man could make the issue doubtful,
and he was chosen. We profoundly regret
this action of the convention. It has
forced upon the party. a candidate who is
distasteful to thousands of Republicans and
cannot command their votes. It has dis-
regarded and over-ridden public sentiment
to an extent that will not easily be for-
given.
The Old Man is Still de Boss.
From the York Gazette.
The Republican ticket is, from a Repub-
lican view point, not a good bne, but the
way in which it was named clearly demon-
strates that Senator QUAY is just as much
of a power in Pennsylvania politics as ever.
He is the man who must be watched be-
tween this and November. He cannot re-
turn to the Senate unless he controls the
Legislature, and the people know what
This indicates,
Spawls from the Keystone.
—Norristown’s Board of Health will rig-
idly enforce an ordinance préibiting the
throwing of garbage in the streets.
—There is general disgust at Camp Hast-
ings over the repeated delays in furnishing
supplies and indorsing recruiting officers.
—The coal diggers in the third Mononga-
hela pool have decided to strike for the 66-
cent rate adopted at the Chicago convention.
—From valvular disease of the heart, in-
duced by excessive smoking, Robert W. Stad-
den, a Williamsport printer, on Monday, fell
dead.
—While out hunting Morris J. Thomas, of
Warrior Run, Luzerne county, accidentally
shot himself in the shoulder and bled to
death.
—Attorney J. H. McCreery, of the Alle-
gheny county bar, is sentenced for 18 months
to the workhouse for embezzlement and false
pretense.
—DMahlon Powers, of East Vincent, Chester
county, picked up a land tortoise, with the
following inscription cut on the shell: “H.
xX. 7M CF”
—The coffin manufactory of E. E. Tuberck,
at Dushore, Sullivan county, was destroyed
by fire last night. Over eight hundred cof-
fins were consumed.
—Representative C. W. Stone, of Warren,
the defeated candidate for the Republican
gubernatorial nomination, announces he will
make an open fight on Senator Quay from
this time on. :
—The Chambersburg engineering company
has received an order for the largest riveting
machine ever made. It will weigh 80,000
pounds and will stand 16 feet high. "It is for
the Pittsburg locomotive works.
—DMichael Grant died in the miners’ hospi-
tal at Ashland on Sunday from the
effects of being struck on the head with a
stone in the hands of Michal Dormer at Cen-
tralia. The men had quarreled. :
—TFrank Tevec, aged 26 years, of McKees-
port, was instantly killed in the Buhl steel
mill, at that place Saturday night by being
struck on the side of the head with a piece of
steel. His skull was crushed in.
—The time for opening bids for the publi-
cation of the Legislative Record has been post-
poned from Monday next to July 6th, in or-
der that some of the bidders may make a
change in the form of their proposals.
—Samuel Bernhardt, a brakeman on the
Philadelphia and Reading railway, while in
the act of making a coupling at Tamaqua yes-
terday, was caught between the bumpers of
the cars and so badly crushed about the hips
that he died a short time after the accident
happened.
—While a farmer was plowing on Milton
Sultzbach’s land, in Hellam township, York
county, his two horses suddenly sank almost
out ofs ight. Itis believed there isa large
cave under the farm. The horses were
finally hauled out of the cavern, which is
about twenty feet deep.
—Frank C. McCaulley, of Bellwood, was
drowned at Big Run, four miles from Wins-
low, Jefferson county, on Monday. He was
working at a log camp and went to the creek
to wash. Somehow he got in where the
water was sixteen feet deep and was unable
to get out.
—The united mine workers’ union repre-
senting 10,000 anthracite miners, on Monday
at Hazleton adopted resolutions declaring
that distress exists in the region owing to
dullness of trade, and appealing to Congress
for an appropriation to relieve the people,
and asking that the government use anthra-
cite coal wherever practicable.
—Samuel Henderson, of Philadelphia, the
15-year-old boy murderer, has been sen-
tenced to twenty years’ imprisonment from
April 2nd, by Judge Audenreid. Young
Henderson caused the death of Percy Lock-
yer, aged 5 years by stabbing him and con-
cealing the body in the creek and placing
heavy stones on it, to keep it from view.
—Nearly all of the Pittsburg distilleries
have closed down for this season. Usually
they do not suspend operations until Julyor
August, but the increase in government tax,
and the over production in 1893 have brought
about a business depression which has re-
sulted in the early closing. Business will
not be resumed until about September 1st.
—The three troops of cavalry stationed at
Mount Gretna, comprising the Sheridan
Troop of Tyrone, Governor’s Troop of Har-
risburg, and City Troop of Philadelphia,
have been ordered to Dunn Loring, Virginia.
This will bring them into the neighborhood
of Falls Church, the location of Camp Alger,
which is in Fairfox county, only a few miles
from Washington.
—Clark Bedell, of the Walter Main circus,
had a narrow escape from death by a fero-
cious tiger making an attack on him while
parading through the streets at Scranton
on Tuesday. As he was about to leave the
cage the tiger caught him and tore the flesh
from the thigh to the knee on the right leg,
exposing the bone. Bedell was taken to the
Lackawanna hospital.
—A terrific explosion, causing the ground
to tremble and the houses to shake for miles
around, occurred on Saturday at Colebrook
furnace No. 1, West Lebanon, operated by
the Lackawanna iron and steel company, of
Scranton. The explosion resulted from mol-
ten iron eating its way through the furnace
bottom into the canal of water encircling it.
Several men were injured, but no lives were
lost.
—Reading’s sesqui-centennial opened on
Sunday afternoon with three concerts—on
Penn Square, Penn Common, and Mineral
Springs park. The features of Monday, were
a reception of visiting city officials at the
Court house and a parade of civil societies
and visiting associations. Over 8,000 persons
were in line. In the evening its principal
street was illumined with 4,300 incandescant
electric lights and a discharge of fireworks
costing over $2,000.
—Paul and Edward Bottger, brothers, aged
8 and 10 years, of Williamsport, were ar-
rested for attempting to wreck trains on the
Linden branch of the Philadelphia and Erie
railroad. For several weeks the lads have
been breaking the locks, turning switches
and piling obstructions on the tracks. A
strict watch resulted in the detection of the
young offenders, who are now inmates of the
city almshouse. The reason given for com-
mitting the offense is that they wanted “a
that means.
little fun.”