Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, August 12, 1898, Image 1

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    Sy
Dewoeaiic: Waddpan
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings.
—With all our victories in the Philip-
pines we're still on Luzon grounds.
—Dr. SwaLLow’s stock of discretion
seems to be running dangerously low.
—Col. REEDER’s surrender, like the
death of the distinguished citizen, was both
‘sudden and unexpected.’
—The surrender of one or the other of
the opposing Republican forces of the coun-
ty is booked for next Tuesday.
—Peace in the Republican party of the
county may come, but it will be too late
to save it anything but the pieces.
—Peace may come to the country but a
looted treasury and the ashes of a burnt
capitol will still be found at Harrisburg.
—To many persons Col. REEDER’S dis-
appearance from the ring looks like an ad-
mission of a licking before the fight began.
—TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S advertisements
seem to have a grip on ‘‘top of column or
among reading’’ positions in a great num-
ber of papers.
—Gov. HASTING'S friends have the con-
solation of the knowing that if ARNOLD
succeeds on Tuesday next they will have
lots of help to lick him in November.
—Reports say that Gen. SHAFTER is
thirty pounds lighter than when he went
to Santiago. No shrinkage is reported,
however, in the egotism that envelopes
him.
—The enthusiasm with which the Span-
ish soldiers in Porto Rico surrender creates
the suspicion that they have full knowl-
edge of our treatment of CERVERA and his
men.
—Gen. MILES’ telegram that he needs
no additional troops in Porto Rico, is calcu-
lated to bring Secretary ALGER’S army
picnic arrangements to a premature and
disastrous ending.
—If Governor HASTINGS only knew
what the other fellows were going to do
he would know so much better what to do
to prevent his being done. As itis, such an
ado about undoing a man was never before
witnessed hereabouts.
—It may be smokeless powder that the
HASTINGS and anti-HASTINGS forces of the
county are using in their internecine war,
but there is no trouble in locating the lines
of either side. Any one can find them by
the political stink they are raising.
—The cessation of hostilities in Cuba
seems to have sprung a surprise on Mr.
STONE’S plan of battle in Pennsylvania.
His forces have already fallen back, while
a flag of truce is being frantically waved
towards the camp of the WANAMAKER in-
surgents.
—Its a question if the Republican forces
right here at home are not having a hotter
time than the boys who have gone to the
front. And then to think of it, no pension
list to provide for the disabled. Verily the
ways of the crooked lead to defeat and dis-
appointments !
—Only a fair division of the ‘‘Swag,”’
will prevent the people knowing all about
the multitudinous steals connected with
the present war. Indications of slopping
over on the part of some of the rascals who
are being left in the divide, are apparent on
all sides. The country should pray that
the great work of revelation may proceed.
—Mr. MARK HANNA predicts that the
next presidential campaign will be made
‘‘on the issues and records of the war.’’ Pos-
sibly it will. And part of those records
will consist of this same Mr. HANNA'S as-
sertion that those who favored war and
those who would fight it, were but
‘‘worthless citizens and the scruff of so-
ciety.”’
—Clearfield county has one hundred and
fifteen patients in the different asylums of
the State and fifteen in the home for feeble
minded in Polk county. The statistician
does not give the causes for such a large
percentage of insanity in Clearfield county,
but we suppose that a portion of it comes
from the track of the speech making tours
of the ‘‘Boy Orator of the Susquehanna.”
—Mr. SToNE’s flags may be all right,
but notwithstanding the brillianey of their
coloring and the constancy with which he
waves them, the people of Pennsylvania
will get an occasional glimpse of a looted
treasury and the charred foundations of a
burnt capitol. It is these plague spots
that hides the ghost of Republican adminis-
trations and that candidate STONE would
hide from the people. *
—Congressman HICKS has succeeded in
securing the appointment, as postmaster at
Tyrone, of the candidate who was charged
with paying him $2,500 for the position.
Decent Republicans up that way will re-
lieve their over-strained feelings by going
out behind the barn and swearing and then
going back and voting an other time for
Hicks and the party. Its their way of
doing things—their idea of strengthening
reform and encouraging honesty.
—We are not the possessor of an official
copy as a verification, but “well authenti-
cated reports’’ assure us that the articles of
capitulation, between Col. REEDER and
the Republican insurgents under would-he-
chieftain WoMELSDORF, provide for the
evacuation of all the territory within the
county east of the Alleghenies, by the
latter and their future submission in local,
district, and state affairs to the dictation of
Col. REEDER’S commauder-in-chief, famil-
iarly known as ‘our DAN.” In short, or
long, just as you please to make it, Col.
REEDER has lost the senate nomination,
and chieftain WoMELSDORF his independ-
ence.
J emtocral
4
a!
(®
1
"VOL.4a8
Alger’s Army Abuses.
American feeling never sustained so great
an outrage as that which has been inflicted
upon it by the abuses practiced in the war
department during the present war. That
ALGER’S management amounts to a crime
against the nation is shown by evidence from
every division of the military service where
his methods have had a chance to operate
since this war began. The harm he has
done is not merely the result of blundering
incapacity, but the consequences of a de-
liberate perversion of the functions of his
office, for private advantage and the sub-
serving of political ends, are apparent in
all his measures pertaining to the manage-
ment of the army.
Particularly does his official dereliction
assume the character of a crime in those
abuses under his authority that have pros-
trated the army with disease and subjected
the soldiers to a deplorable condition of de-
bility in consequence of a scarcity of pro-
visions and a lack of medical supplies. It
was bad enough that there was disgraceful
mismanagement in the embarkation of the
army from Tampa, and in the landing of
the forces at Santiago, in which operation
it was evident that the most deficient and
inadequate preparations had been made.
There was equal disgrace in the bungling
management of the attack on Santiago,
which would have made it a bloody and
disastrous failure if it had nor been for the
unconquerable valor of the soldiers in the
ranks. But these derelictions, serious as
they were, and threatening to defeat the oh-
ject of the expedition at the very start, are
far surpassed in censurable character by the
shocking conditions of the troops at San-
tiago since the fighting has been finished,
as seen and described by Rev. Doctor Me-
Cook, who found the bravest soldiers in
the world short of provisions and suffering
from the want of proper food, medicine,
bedding and other necessaries for the sick
and wounded, his statement being con-
firmed by Rev. Doctor KRAUSKAUF, who
describes the hospitals as crowded with
sick soldiers lying on the floor, most of
them half naked, and some of them en-
tirely so.
With the overflowing means which the
patriotism of the American people have
lavished upon the administration for the
carrying on of this war, can there be any
excuse for such conditions? Can there be
any other reason for them than gross mis-
management as well as corrupt intention
on the part of ALGER’S personal favorites
and political retainers, who have been giv-
en contracts for furnishing supplies in
which they have swindled the government
and defrauded the soldiers? Doctor Mec-
Cook, who was on the spot and saw the
shameful situation of things in Gen. SHAF-
TER’S army, is free in expressing his opin-
ion that one of the causes of the diseases
that have converted half of that army into
invalids is ‘‘the shoddy canvas uniforms?’
that were palmed off as clothing for soldiers
who most of the time since they landed in
Cuba have been drenched to the skin by
tropical rains.
But such conditions at Santiago cannot
be ascribed to causes peculiar to that lo-
cality, for wherever our soldiers have been
encamped this summer the same bad man-
agement, neglect and ill treatment have
prevailed. Whether at Chickamauga,
Camp Alger, Tampa or Fernandina, there
has been the same deficiency of food, cloth-
ing, medical supplies, and all the essen-
tials for the health and well being of the
soldiers. On frequent occasions the men
have been compelled to go out foraging for
subsistence, and such were the insufficient
provisions for its sanitary condition that
Camp ALGER had to be abandoned last
week as if it were a pest-house.
" For abuses that prevail everywhere in
connection with the army there must be a
general cause, and there is no difficulty in
tracing it to the man at the head of the
war department who has made his office
the means of serving his personal and po-
litical ends. In this he has been encouraged
and supported by President McKINLEY,
who let the country know what it was to
expect when positions of the greatest re-
sponsibility, as affecting the sustenance and
sanitary condition of the soldiers. were al-
loted to incompetent persons on account of
their social and political connections.
ALGER, who in public life was never any-
thing more than a third-rate trading poli-
tician, has used the war department as a
political instrumentality, with conse-
quences highly injurious to the army, for
which the President, who should be able
to control him, is more responsible than
his subordinate.
——What in the world is to hecome of
the Republican campaign haranguer whose
stock in trade has heen villification of ‘‘free
trade England.” No political gathering of
the future, no matter how bigoted it may
be, will tolerate the old line of talk against
the people who have so manfully stood up
beside us and the effect of whose friendship
has possibly been to preserve us from be-
coming embroiled with France, Germany
or Russia.
STATE RIGHTS AN
D FEDERAL UNION.
SELLEFONTE, PA., AU
Col. “Teddy” and his Sacrifice.
Col. “TEDDY’’ ROOSEVELT evidently has
as little care for the wrath of the war depart-
ment as he had for the Spanish bullets that
vainly tried to check the fearless advance
of his intrepid Rough Riders at El Caney.
Ever since he appeared in the field of pub-
lic characters he has had a fashion of ‘‘talk-
in’ right out in meetin’,”” no matter who
he hits, and, judging from his latest utter-
ances, this habit, gained in politics, has
clung to him as a soldier.
Last week he wrote a most pointed letter
to Secretary ALGER in which he made no
bones of calling the war department to
task for the lamentable incapacity that was
permitting such an army of noble men to
remain in Santiago to die of the fever,
without sufficient food, medicines or at-
tention. Col. “TEDDY” was the first officer
of the army who had the courage to stand
up and arraign the war department, as it
should have been arraigned long ago. And
what has been the effect? Already some
of SHAFTER’S brave hoys have been
brought out of the miasmatic land where
the flag of that awful scourge, yellow Jack,
was just beginning to wave o’er the camp.
Before “TEDDY’S’ letter to Secretary
ALGER it was: ‘Yes, transports are’ on
the way with supplies’” and “They will be
brought home at once.” Always ‘‘on the
way’’ and never getting there. Always be-
ing ‘‘hrought home at once’ and never com-
ing, but the moment the condemnatory let-
ler appears in print to verify what the
newspaper correspondents have been vainly
trying to make the people believe for
weeks there is such a shaking up at Wash-
ington as had been thought impossible up
to that time.
Of course Col. “TEDDY will have to
suffer for such a presumption as calling the
attention of the war department to the
dereliction at Washington that was daily
being settled for at Santiago with good
American lives. He will be punished in
some way, but no matter what vengeance,
incapacity that has been exposed to the
world, may wreak upon him he will still
be credited by the American people for
the courage that prompted him to speak
out for the lives of the noble fellows who
were being left to die of fever by the gov-
ernment whose flag they had just made
victorious.
Col. “TEDDY’’ made another sacrifice in
that letter in addition to that of his good
standing as a soldier. Possibly not in-
tentionally, but he laid down his chances
of becoming the Republican candidate for
Governor of New York when he told
Secretary ALGER that one thousand of his
Rough Riders were as good as any regu-
lars and four times as good as the volunteer
organizations. He may not have intended
| making an invidious comparison of his
men with the state troops, but merely
to enforce upon the attention of the
Secretary of War that the Rough Riders
were equipped with the very latest
appliances for warfare and had smoke-
less powder, while many of the state
troops are equipped with obsolete guns
and the black powder that proved so fatal
to them before Santiago. These were
doubtless Col. “TEDDY'S” reasons for say-
ing that his men were four-fold more ef-
ficient than the volunteers. In his mind
it was probably not a question of bravery
at all. It was merely equipment and the
superior advantages thereof, but that com-
parison has ended his chances to be Gover-
nor of New York.
There is not a militiaman in the Empire
State who would not resent it as a personal
reflection upon his mettle and malitiamen
will be too popular for some time to come
to make it possible for any seeker after
political favors to brook their displeasure.
Col. “TEDDY” has been courageous, but
be has lost a Governorship.
——Some men are born honorable, others
have honors thrust upon them and there
are some who cast honors to the dogs. Now
Mr. THOMAS J. BALDRIGE, of Hollidays-
burg, has just declined the Prohibition
nomination for Legislature up in Blair
county. Not that Mr. BALDRIGE has an
aversion to going to Harrisburg ; he is a
Republican and all Republicans like to go
there, but because he knows that the Blair
county Prohibition special runs only on
trolleys and there doesn’t happen to be a
trolley line from Lakemont to the capitol.
——IFf this war can only be concluded
without calling Congress into session again
the millions of American people will feel
greatly relieved. We don’t fear a foreign
foe, because we have the men and means to
combat it, but Congress is what makes us
pale around the gills ; especially the kind
of Congresses that spend a billion dollars in
three months. It doesn’t consume one-
tenth of that amount to carry on war for
the same length of time.
ere —
——The greatness and magnanimity of
American character can best be impressed
upon the nations of the earth by making a
demand—not unreasonable in any respect
—and then never wavering one inch until
it is acceded to.
UST 12, 1898.
Swallow’s Assistance to the Machine.
Reverend SwaLLow’s campaign for Gov-
ernor would involve a great misfortune *if
it should produce the effect of continuing
the rule of the machine corruptionists by
helping them to secure a plurality, as his
candidacy did last year.
That the doctor has a clear understand-
ing of what is involved in this state cam-
paign was sufficiently indicated by his as-
sertion in a speech he made toa Buck’s
county meeting some weeks ago, that ‘‘the
qusstion at issue is neither war, nor tariff,
nor sound money, but rather, shall a gang
of thieves be permitted to handle and mis-
appropriate the hard earnings of Pennsyl-
vania taxpayers.’’
The issue in this state contest could not
be more truthfully and pointedly put than
it is in this presentation of it by doctor
SWALLOW, and yet, with so correct a view
of it, there is something indeed lamentable
in his resorting to the deception of includ-
ing GEORGE A. JENKS among the objects
of his censure by representing that the
QUAY influence had something to do with
his nomination.
It is really discreditable to doctor SWAL-
LOW that he should adopt one of the in-
ventions of the very thieves whom he de-
nounces, who, fully understanding the
stigma which a connection with QUAY at-
taches to any candidate, have resorted to
the trick of representing that the nomina-
tions of the Democratic state convention
were influenced by the disreputable Re-
publican boss.
It is, moreover, extremely disingenious,
to say the least of it, as it might rather be
called dishonest, for this clerical candidate
to say that ‘‘the attempt of Mr. GUFFEY,
and his candidate Mr. JENKS, to discourse
the question of territorial expansion is
simply an attempt on their part to turn
public attention from the part that the
Democratic Legislators took in misappro-
priating the funds in the last Legislature.”
This rather looks like an attempt on the
part of duetor SWALLOW to turn the peo-
ple off the scent of the real thieves whom
he professes to antagonize, and it is posi-
tively inexcusable in view of the fact that
no one knows better than he what the can-
didacy of GEORGE A. JENKs stands for.
He cannot entertain the slightest belief
that QUAY had anything to do with Mr.
JENKS’ nomination. He is fully aware of
the excellent qualities of the Democratic
nominee for Governor. He knows full
well that the predominant object of
GEORGE A. JENKS’ nomination was to se-
cure better government for the State, and
that his election would secure it.
When there is so much in this election
affecting the public interest, and good citi-
zens are looking for a redemption from ma-
chine misrule, and when doctor SWALLOW
should have sense enough to know that the
candidate who will be elected Governor
will be either the Democratic nominee or
the machine candidate, he presents himself
ip a very questionable light by acts and
words which are calculated to be helpful to
‘‘the gang of thieves” for whose expulsion
from power he professes to be running his
campaign.
——The manner in which the health of
the men who have faced death for their
country, and those who are lying in the
great rendezvous camps ready and eager to
follow in their footsteps, has been disregard-
ed by the war department is the most
deplorable evidence of incompetency some-
where. It seems that it takes a pile of
coffins as high as the Washington monu-
ment to attract the attention of the au-
thorities to the necessity of getting healthier
camping places for the soldiers.
A Campaign of Silence and Evasion.
While candidate STONE declares that the
last state Legislature, with its disgraceful
records, is ‘‘dead and gone,”’ and therefore
the people of the State have no occasion to
bother themselves about it, the Philadel-
phia Press learns that ‘‘chairman ELKINS
has advised Republican members of the
last Legislature, who are candidates for
nomination, or who have already been
nominated, to ignore all attacks upon their
records at their last session,’”’ no matter by
whom made.
It would appear from this that though
STONE claims that the last Legislature is
dead and gone, a number of the Republican
‘“‘roosters’’ that composed it are up again
for election, in the service of the boss of
course ; but their records being so bad that
they can’t be defended, they are advised
by QUAY’S state chairman not to try to do
it, but to put an impudent face on the
matter and ignore all charges.
Detected and self-confessed official ras-
cality never went so shamelessly before the
people and asked for their votes. This
plan of silence and evasion is to be the pro-
gram of the campaign. The QUAY candi-
dates for the Legislature, when confronted
by their rotten records, are to be mum, and
the state nominees will evade state issues
by raising a clatter about the tariff, the
currency, and the war with Spain.
Wasting Their Efforts.
From the Pittsburg Post,
The last Legislature was of such disgrace
and dishonor to Pennsylvania in its meth-
ods and so extravagant and corrupt in its
legislation that it should be an easy matter
to overthrow the gang that controlled it
and replace the roosters, pinchers and job-
bers by honest and fairly capable men.
The difficulties in the way are that the Re-
publican party has assumed responsibility
for the Legislature, and its candidate for
Governor whitewashes and palliates its
misdeeds. It was the embodiment of
Quayism. Some of its worst specimens
have been renominated, and others will be.
Elkin, the Republican state chairman, who
was dismissed from high office by the
state administration for partnership in leg-
islative corruption, audaciously counsels
Republican candidates for the Legislature
to ignore all charges relating to legislative
rascality and brazen the thing out by a
policy of silence. Colonel Stone sets the
example by refusing to discuss state issues,
and by his declaration that support of Mec-
Kinley in his war policy is the supreme
question on which the election should
turn. He simply desires us to make it so.
There is enough in this to anger the intel-
ligence and integrity of the State to
thorough union to banish the plunderers
and jobbers from the state capital ; but the
anti-Quay Republicans seem intent on a
course that will defeat such righteous pur-
pose and will maintain and advance the
power of the Quayites.
The Governorship is the key to the legisla-
tive situation. Elect Mr. Jenks and even
a third of the Assembly and his veto will
be supreme. That means everything.
But the Wanamaker leaders indicate a
purpose to support Stone, and while doing
so fancy they can manage a legislative
fusion with ‘‘the Prohibitionists, the Hon-
est Government party and the Business
Men’s League’’ that will give the control
of the Legislature to the opponents of Sen-
ator Quay. This is chasing the will of the
wisp with a vengeance. It is the most
absurd piece of amateur politics we have
seen for many a day, and the climax of
foolishness is reached in the support of Dr.
Swallow for Governor by those who find
Colonel Stone too bitter a dose.
There is but one road for the accom-
plishment of any practical result in the di-
rection of reform this year in Pennsylvania
politics and the stamping out of the Quay
machine. This is by the support of George
A. Jenks for Governor and an agreement,
feasible in every close or doubtful legisla-
tive district, will secure union on legisla-
tive candidates—no matter whether they
are Democrats, Independents or Republi-
cans—with a resulting defeat of the Quay
machine and the re-election of the Senator.
This will mean the franchisement and re-
demption of Pennsylvania. :
Sees Danger Ahead.
From the Bedford Gazette.
Senator Matthew Stanley Quay is an
astute politician. He isa political prophet
not without honor in his own country.
The Beaver statesman seems to read aright
the signs of the times, for he has openly
warned the Republican state committee of
Pennsylvania that it is imperative that it
shall take into its consideration the danger
that threatens Republican success from the
disaffected Republican element in the State.
The sturdy manhood and marked ability
of the Democratic nominee for Governor
and the auspicious circumstances under
which the Democrats entered the political
arena were awe-inspiring to the czar of the
Keystone State and caused him to sound
the alarm.
Abundant Qualifications.
From the New York Journal.
There does not seem to be any reason to
doubt the truth of the report that Colonel
Edward Morrell, of Philadelphia, is to be
appointed second assistant secretary of war.
From a personal paragraph devoted to Col.
Morrell’s many claims to martial ad vance-
ment it is learned that he possesses these
undeniable qualifications for an executive
post in the war department :
A wife who inherited $5,000,000.
A stepfather who is counsel for the sugar
trust.
Is himself a noted whip and clab man.
Rah, for Col. Morrell. With him in the
war department and the army officered by
the Sons of Somebody Spain may well
tremble.
A Decided Difference.
From the Williamsport Sun.
The difference between Jenks and Stone
is that Jenks is the candidate of his party
and Stone is the candidate of boss Quay.
The people who have had experience with
Quay’s candidates know that they could
not expect Stone, if he were to be elected,
to do anything except at the dictation of
Quay. And when Quay dictates the peo-
ple get the worst of it, every time. Hence
the people should support Jenks, because
he will govern in the interest of the whole
people, and not in the interest of one man.
Room For Explanation.
From the Venango Spectator.
Once more silver and wheat have come
close together, resuming the position of
parity they have held for so many years.
In the far West farmers get 60 cents a
bushel for wheat. and miners receive : 60
cents an ounce for bar silver. Our Repub-
lican wiseacres are now invited to explain
about the fifty cent silver dollar and the
gold dollar wheat. Not long ago, when
famine abroad and Chicago gamblers at
home were hoisting wheat prices, they
claimed the credit for the gold standard
and the McKinley administration. Who
and what brought wheat back to its old
parity with silver?
We Need Them All.
From the Lebanon Star,
Instead of being shelved as his enemies
thought he would be, Senator Gorman is
to-day a greater power in Maryland poli-
tics than he ever was. This is as it should
be. The Democratic party hasn’t so many
men with Gorman’s capacity for leading
and managing that it can afford to shelve
any of them.
Santiago.
Spawls from the Keystone.
| —Peter Solleder, a leather dealer and
highly respected citizen of Bloomsburg, died
| at his home in that place, on Tuesday, aged
45 years.
—Mrs. B. F. Bailey, of DuBois, despondent
over ill health, swallowed a large dose of
corrosive sublimate Saturday with suicidal
intent. She is horribly burned inside. She
may recover.
—District attorney Hiram J. Kaufman, of
Berks county, convicted of embezzling near-
ly $1,000, belonging to a ward, was sentenced
to nine months in jail. Appeal was then
taken to the superior court. Kaufman was
released on hail in the meantime.
—In Penn township, Lycoming county,
recently, Howard Weaver, aged 19, while
assisting in threshing grain, drank freely of
ice water while in a heated condition. A
few hours afterward he became ill with in-
flammation of the bowels and died.
—Sigmund Simon, of Lock ITaven, received
a telegram giving him the intelligence that
his nephew, J. B. Weil, was among the brave
boys who were killed in the recent battle of
Mr. Weil was a member of the
Thirteenth New York infantry and was a
native of Plymouth, Pa.
—Fredericks, Munro & Co., are making
preparations for re-building the fire brick
works at Farrandsville, which were destroy-
ed by fire recently. Lumber and other ma-
terials are being delivered on the grounds
and the work of erecting a new building will
be pushed as fast as possible.
—The supreme court has confirmed the
decision of Judge Biddle, of Cumberland
county, in a case that is of general interest
throughout the State. He allowed constables
10 cents on each and every. mile they travel
in performance of their official duty. Many
constables were allowed five cents, and pro-
ceedings will be instituted for back fees in
many counties where they were withheld.
—A strange malady has made its appear-
ance among some of the cattle in this State.
It attacks the eyes, causing them first to get
bloodshot, then white, which makes them
blind. The disease is said to have been in-
troduced by western cattle, and in some
cases one steer hasinfected a whole herd. In
some cases the cattle recover their sight and
in others they remain totally blind.
—At Sykes, Clearfield county, Mon day,
Mrs. John Clayton was going down stairs
when her foot slipped. Mrs. Clayton threw
out her hand to steady herself when a ring
on one of her fingers caught on a hook in the
wall. The lady’s weight swung on the hand
and the finger was pulled from its socket and
hung suspended on the hook. Mrs. Clayton
suffered intensely from the accident.
—A few days ago eighteen men, after eat-
ing a dinner of boiled cabbage at the Thomp-
son house, North Bend, became seriously ill,
their sickness showing symptoms of poison-
ing, Dr. Rosser was summoned. A few hours
after, all were out of danger. The cabbage
had been taken from near a row of potatoes
along which Paris green had been scattered.
It is supposed that the poison flew over the
cabbage, thus causing the illness after the
vegetable was eaten.
—Frank Berry started out to dynamite
fish in the creek near his home at South
Annville the other day. He held a can of
the stuff’ in his hand resting on his knee
while he lighted the fuse intending to throw
the can into the water to explode. He
missed his calculation and the can exploded
in his hand. His right hand was torn off and
his leg crushed from hip to knee. He
lingered for two hours and died, leaving a
wife and one child.
—A young man 18 years of age has been
sentenced to imprisonment in Doylestown
jail for 50 days for destroying birds’ nests.
When arrested he had about 30 young birds
in his possession and about two dozen eggs.
The law under which he was convicted was
passed by the bad Legislature of last winter,
and we suppose some reformers will not ap-
prove of it on that account; but the law isa
good one. The destruction of birds’ nests is
one of the evils that demands a remedy.
—Eugene Lentz. who manages the Eagle
hotel at Ralston, Lycoming county, was
made the victim of a revengeful woman’s
wrath a few days ago. Mis. Tiny Welsh,
about 24 years old, and who has not been
living with her husband for some time,
walked into the bar room and threw a cupful
of carbolic acid in Lentz’s face. The onc eye
was completely destroyed and it is feared
that the sight of the other one is gone. Mrs.
Welsh was arrested and is now in jail at Wil-
liamsport. She states that she threw the
poison in Lentz’s face for the reason, as she
alleges, that he had slandered her.
—In the Centre county court a decision
has been handed down in the case of the
overseers of Walker township. This wa$ a
caze where a person by the name of Frank
Toner, who had resided in Lamar township
for a long time, had removed into Walker
township to get work. Some of the citizens
of that township had an order of removal
taken out, and when the overseers of the
poor visited Toner, they found that he was
not in need of any assistance from the poor
board and that he was earning a good living
for himself and family. The court sustained
the appeal and quashed the order of removal
and put the costs on Walker township.
—John Brown, probably the largest man
in the state of Pennsylvania, died at his
home at Larimer Wednesday last, of exhaus-
tion, caused by theintense heat. He was the
heaviest man in the western part of the
State, tipping the scales at 442 pounds. He
had numerous offers to travel with circuses,
but he declined them all. Owing to his
great weight, Mr. Brown has not been able
for years to sleep in a bed, as it was hard for
him to breathe when he reclined. For this
reason he has been sleeping in a chair. The
funeral took place at the family residence on
Thursday afternoon. The casket was the
largest ever seen in Irwin. It was 6 feet, 9
inches in length, 31 inches wide, and 22
inches in depth. It was too large to take in-
doors and undertaker L. H. Taylor found it
necessary to coffin the body out of doors.
As the body lay on the cooling board it meas-
ured 54 inches around the waist, 44 inches
around the shoulders, 15 inches around the
neck, and 21 inches around the bicepts of the
arm. There were. twelve pall bearers, and
straps were used, the massive brass handles
of the coffin not being trusted to stand the
strain on them. A heavy road wagon was
used instead of a hearse.