Democrat: Wan BY P. GRAY MEEK. Ink Slings. —The linseed oil trust is the latest com- bination of monopolists that has been formed to prey on the people of the coun- try. -——Governor HASTINGS' retirement from office has left the 574,801 men who voted for him November 6th, 1894, much wiser than they were the day they recorded their ballots for him. —Oh, MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY, do you think that you can stay, or has your senatorial cake turned into dough; you’ve been a dandy in your day; but that plam tree was the wrong lay, and it begins to look as if you would have to go. —1If reports can be relied upon it is be- ginning to look very much as if Secretary ALGER is the man who wanted to assail Mires. His reported efforts to have the President dismiss the case with an official reprimand point to such a conclusion. —Governor-elect STONE does well to assert his friendship for Senator QUAY. The latter made STONE Governor and it is a question whether the people of Pennsyl- vania wouldn’t rather see their chief execu- tive man enough t0 stand up under a bad load than a base ingrate. —The out-put of beer in the United States during 1898 was in amount equal to about one half a barrel for every man, wo- man and child. It is a great pity this in- formation could not have been given out a year ago, for there are lots of fellows who will be kicking now because they -didn’t drink their share. —The Hon. GEORGE A. JENKS has just announced that he believes it to be his duty to the State and the country to throw his strength to any candidate who can de- feat QUAY—in the event that there is no possibility of being elected himself. It is like the honorable old gentleman to think of the people’s interests before personal as- pirations. —The Philadelphia Democrats still ap- pear to be in a condition of discouraging decrepitude. How they can expect the country Democracy to have any respect for them is more than the average mind can comprehend. If our party could only be made right in the Quaker city it would not be so hopelessly weak as a factor in state results. —CHARLES P. EAGEN, more than any other man living to-day, has reason to ap- preciate the truthfulness of WILL CARLE- TON’S words: ‘‘Boys flying kites pull in their white winged birds. We can’t do so when weare flying words.”” His apology to the war investigating committee and his , revision of his report will never efface the malicious, undignified and scurrilous at- tack he made on Gen. MILES." —Crawford county lays claim to having the oldest goose in the country. The an- tique specimen of the genus anser is in the possession of ABRAM GUISS and is 60 years old. Last spring she laid four eggs and hatched out so many goslings. We have a lot of old geese here in Centre county, but they don’t lay eggs. They borrow other people’s newspapers, then cackle away because the editor doesn’t run it to suit them. —The concentrated efforts of Republican- ism prevented the return of Hon. WILLIAM L. WiLsoN to Congress, after he had been recognized as the Democratic leader in that body and had framed a tariff bill that net- ted the government more revenue than the DINGLEY measure is doing. But brains surmount the paltry practices of politi- cians and Mr. WILSON is now president of Washington and Lee university and it is reported that he will soon be called to the presidency of Yale. —The latest diplomatic reports from China bear the interesting information that the Emperor of the celestials is devoting his time to training goats and monkeys and Lt HUNG CHANG is suffering with swelled legs. Probably the Chinese are better off with conditions as they are. Certainly it must be happier for them to have the grand pea-cock bedecked yellow jacketed pooh-bah of the Empire suffering with swelled legs than being lorded over because of a swelled head. —The Houtzdale Journal is not very much pleased wish the action of Representa- tive FRANK G. HARRIS, of Clearfield county, in having gone into the QUAY caucus when a majority of his constituents are against ‘‘the old man.” The Journal says that ‘‘consistency and HARRIS are total strangers and always have been.” Since the recalcitrant Representative was instructed to vote for Col. E. A. IRVIN by the convention that nominated him and he has so soon forgotten the instructions it is quite likely that he and the Colonel are strangers also. --After former Governor HASTINGS gets settled in New York for the month’s stay he expects to make in that city before re- turning to his home in this place he will probably realize to the fullest extent the significance of WHITTIER’S words : ‘‘Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, it might have been.”” Had the Gov- ernor displayed the same stamina during the early part of his administration that characterized the latter part of it there might have been but one ballot for United States Senator by the Pennsylvania Legis- lature and that ballot might have resulted in sending him to represent his State in the upper house of Congress. Opportunity is all the right man needs, but it is often wasted by the wrong one. | _— Tm ~<Lo From a Business Stand Point. There may be reasons why expansion would be a good thing for this country but, if there are, those who are attempting to fasten such a policy upon us have certainly failed, so far, to set them forth. Outside of the great moral idea of christianizing the heathen and enlightening and bettering the condition of the ignorant and depressed masses that constitute the bulk of the population of the Philippines, we have not seen a single reason advanced, for their retention, that would convince any think- ing person that their annexation would be heneficial, or that our control of them would prove advantageous in any respect. If our object in retaining these islands, eight thousand miles from one nearest point and which fell into our possession more by accident than effort, was to civilize, christ- ianize and elevate the naked, nut-eaters that inhabit them, there might be a reason for those who are always looking away from home for subjects of christian charity and care, to demand their retention. But it is not. The heathen hunter is not the fellow who is yawping about the ‘‘flag” and the glory that is to follow expansion. It is a citizen of another character and with another purpose, and one who cares neither for the ‘spread of the gospel’’ nor the good of his fellow man, if there isan opportunity to secure a little glory and a good salary for himself. We can understand why individuals expecting positions under the government, or looking for contracts in army supplies, or hoping for speculative situations that would come with our assumption of the control of those islands would be anxious for the adoption of a policy that would open up such opportunities to them; but why any right-thinking, conservative be- liever in the right of self government should favor or acquiesce in the effort to make ourselves responsible for their well-doing and governmental success is beyond our imagination. If our own country was over-grown or over-developed the situation would be dif- ferent. New territory then, if reasonably well located, would he needed for the over- flow of our population, as well as for the opportunities it would offer for investments and the development of new business. But no such condition of affairs exists. This country, when compared with others, is new and practically just at the beginning of its fullest and best development. We have room yet for millions upon millions of population and opportunities for creating wealth that have scarcely been touched. Good sense and substantial business judg- ment should induce us to profit by the advantages offered at home; to perfect, strengthen and make better our govern- ment, before starting out to evangelize and improve others, and to take the unknown and unending risks that must come with our attempts to govern and control people who do not understand our tongue, our tastes or our intentions. From a business point of view the ac- quisition of the Philippine islands can prove nothing more or less than a disappointing failure. The great distance they are from this country will prohibit us even from competing for the little trade the wants of their inhabitants make. Other countries, lying thousands of miles nearer, will sup- ply the few needs of the people who need or use that. which’ we may have to sell, while we will be left with the expensive duty of preserving order and trying to govern a people who do not know or can- not appreciate what government is, as our share of the benefit. Even if we were to secure all the trade of the Philippines what would it amount to? Of the millions of people who inhabit those islands not one in a hundred knows what money is, cares anything for it or will ever have it to spend. To them, as to the darkey of the South or the poor of Mexico, money or that which money brings amounts to nothing. They are a do-less, shiftless, worthless class that live from hand to mouth, without desire for comforts and with few demands for the necessaries of life and the people, firms or business con- cern that would expect to make money trading with a people that would require so little of that which we might have for sale, would awaken ina few years to realize the mistake they had made and the efforts wasted in that direction. A somewhat similar, yet far better popu- lation than that inhabiting the Philippine islands, is to be found in every State in the Republic of Mexico. Some of these States touch our own borders, and all are within a few days travel from the markets of this country and yet what demand do they make for our cereals, or our manufactured products? Simply none at all. They do not care for our bread, or if they do they have not the money tobuy it. They wear no clothes, because there is neither cold, nor modesty nor frost to require them; they have no need of implements or manufactured products, because they have no use for them. And so it is with the Filipinos; only worse. With hut few exceptions they live on fruit, and nuts, and raw corn; they STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. cloth themselves with sandals and breech- clouts; they live in huts and sleep on skins; they till no fields; they plant no seeds; they gather no harvests; their country is without houses or furniture or rail-roads or factories. Money and the comforts of life are unknown to them. : And this is the kind of a population out of which we must get whatever return is to be had for the cost and trouble and danger of expansion. What kind of a business proposition is it that proposes paying $20,000,000 and ex- pending yearly $200,000,000 more for the glory of governing, and the profits of trad- ing with such a people? Surely such an idea is idiocy run mad. Little Hope of Better Results. That the people who had hoped for much in the way of legislative reform from the present Legislature are to be disappointed in their expectations is growing more ap- parent every day. It is now the third week of the session, and while the conditions surrounding the opening of legislative proceedings were of such a character that much could not be expected until after the inauguration of the new Governor, still there was hope that in the organization of the House and the formation of its commit- tees, efforts would be made to insure those reforms that have been promised and ex- pected for so long a time. Even the little hope that a House organized in opposition to the interest and intents of the ring, and committees formed to resist the demands of legislative hosses, would give, have vanished and the public is settling down to the opinion that although much was ex- pected little will be realized. The refusal of the pretended Republican reformers to accept the speakership of the House, with the aid of Democratic votes, indicated a desire to shirk the responsibili- ty of a contest with the ringsters and roos- ters that presaged anything but a determin- ed purpose to have a change in legislative methods and results. Their acquiescence in the selection of a speaker, who was known to be notoriously weak and wavering, con- firmed the impression that little could be hoped for in the way of reform; and now that the committees have been named and named in the interests, and at the dicta- tion of the very rings that have long dis- graced the State with their vicious legisla- tion and legal debauchery, it is easy to un- derstand what folly it would be to hope for better things, than usually comes from a Pennsylvania Legislature. If, with the Senate openly and over- whelmingly in favor of just such legisla- tive jobbery as the people had hoped to see an end of, and a House organized and in the power of committees controlled by the same influences that dominates the Senate, it will be neither strange nor surprising if the same extravagant appropriations, junk- eting bills, padded-pay rolls and other leg- islative thieving that so disgusted the peo- ple and disgraced and defeated the roosters of 1897, are again re-enacted and resorted to by the law-makers of 1899. We may be mistaken. It is to be hoped we are; hut every movement made so far and every indication yet given, promises nothing to the people, from the present ses- sion, but a repetition of the extravagance, debauchery and thieving that has charac- terized the Legislators of Pennsylvania | ever since they became the creatures of the state ring and the roosters who control it. ——The great hue and cry that is being raised in protest because the war investi- gating committee is exposing to the world the bad meat that was furnished our sol- diers in the field is entirely without war- rant. The objectors assert that such pub- licity will injure the foreign market for American beef. Every market ought to be closed to such beef as was furnished our soldiers. Ought we to keep quiet about such outrages so that the huxtering *‘em- halmed beef’’ criminals of our country can go on with their nefarious business? No, pure American beef can be sold everywhere, but such truck as the investigating com- mittee has shown was delivered to our army camps should be incinerated with its sellers in the hottest fires of the infernal regions. ——The Water committee of council might render the people of the town a serv- ice that would be greatly appreciated if they would investigate and try to discover some means of preventing the continual pounding of service pipes caused by the engines pumping directly into the mains. The pulsations of the pipes, corresponding with each stroke of the pump at the water works, are strong enough to be very hard on plumbing and quite a nuisance, on ac- count of the noise. ——An exchange from a near by town compliments the local undertaker because he does his work at funerals so dexterously, which seems to indicate that the proper thing to do there is to get the dead under the ground as speedily as possible. They do funny things in Tyrone. that it was not Te—— The Retirement of Governor Daniel H. Hastings. To-day DANIEL H. HASTINGS is a pri- vate citizen. On Tuesday he relinquished the highest office within the gift of the people of this Commonwealth to WILLIAM A. STONE and retired. What this retire- ment will be the future, alone, will de- velop, but viewed in the light of the past four years there are few who will believe it to be anything else than political ob- livion. A sequence of fortune’s favors, not war- ranted by eminent ability, exalted DANIEL HASTINGS to a character almost idealized by the people of Pennsylvania. It is little to be wondered at then that his failure to successfully grasp the opportunities that were his proved the iconoclast that shat- tered their idol and turned the people from him in disappointment. He made mistakes. Every man makes mistakes, but those of the former Governor were such inexcusable blunders that he will hardly be able to regain the position of popular favor he once enjoyed. The course which Governor HASTINGS should have pursued was so clearly defined by every circumstance leading up to his choice as chief executive of this Commonwealth that his failure to take it only emphasizes the over-estimated man. His defeat for the nomination by GEo. W. DELAMATER was effected by QUAY, but the masses were 80 opposed to the methods of the latter that they not only defeated his candidate for Governor, but four years later chose and elected Mr. HASTINGS by the largest vote ever given any man in this State. If that was not proof conclusive to the simplest mind that Pennsylvania rebuked QuAyism and expected her Governor to tear out the last root of its cankerous growth from the departments at Harrisburg then it meant nothing. The way was clear as the voice of the people could make it, but the man was blind to its course. Nearly two years of his administration slipped away before it dawned upon him that he was merely the political shuttle-cork that bounded and re- bounded from QUAY’S battle-door in the game of politics he was playing in Penn- sylvania. Then the Governor, either piqued to vindication by the weak specta- cle that had been made of him, or prompt- ed by a more manly spirit that had awak- ened in him, became an executive whom the State could respect. The marrow in the back-bone of the administration, attor- ney general McCORMICK, began to receive consideration and an entirely new aspect was presented. The pity is, however, that such a straight-forward, determined pur- pose to conserve the best interests of the State, as that displayed by the Governor during the last two years of his term, should be clouded even by a suspicion genuine, but rather prompted by a spirit of vindictiveness to- ward Quay and his followers. However that may he Governor HAST- ings does merit the esteem of the people of the State for the endeavor towards right that he displayed at the last. His friends regret that he did not choose the course from the beginning, for had such been the case his retirement would not be as effect- ual as it is, so far as public service is con- cerned. Caucus Meetings. The Democrats of Centre county will hold their caucuses for the nomination of candidates for borough, ward, township and precinct officers on the 28th day of January, 1899. The committeemen of the several precincts and wards will take no- tice hereof and fix the hour or time for the holding of these caucuses. Instructions and blanks will be received by committee- men in due time. ——Of the twenty-six bibles used in ad- ministering the oath of office to the Legis- lators of Pennsylvania at the opening of the session, only two have turned up. All the others have disappeared. Now will any one pretend to say that there are not a few QUAY men still in that body. ——The Williamsport Sun tried to help the New York police out of dark alleys on Friday by announcing that a mysterious acting, red whiskered stranger had been in that city and that he was probably the man who sent CORNISH that poisoned bromo- seltzer. ——A Genoese journal has figured out that it cost Spain just $7,500 for the dis- covery of America. That expenditure wasn’t a circumstance to what it cost her recently to find out that America is still here. ——EAGEN’S report ought to be stuffed down his vile throat with the butt end of a krag-jorgensen. : ——When royalty gets it it is called in- fluenza, but when the common people are affected the common name of grip suffices. BELLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 20, 1899. __NO. 3. Some Interesting Statistics. From the West Chester Democrat. The statistics of the year 1898 are almost wholly of an encouraging nature. Leaving the unprecedented trade statistics of the year for separate treatment, the figures re- garding the year’s crimes, casualties, and charities form a group scarcely less inter- esting. The eriminal records show an un- varying improvement over the preceding year, which would seem to confirm the theory that better time and wider thoughts bring better morals. Fires and storms have not shown the same encouraging tendency toward amelioration, but this is rather less curious than the marked falling off in the sum total of donations made dur- ing the year. One is almost forced to the conclusion that capitalists have found more use for their money in reviving enterprises and less need for it in philanthropic lines on account of the business improvement. There were 2920 suicides in the United States during 1898, a decrease of 680 as compared with 1897. There were 7840 murders, a decrease of 680—exactly the same as in the suicides—as compared with the preceding year. The hangings were 109, as compared with 128 in the previous year, leaving the proportion of executions practically the same. OF these hangings 72 were in the South and 37 in the North. A similar decrease in the number of lynch- ings appears in the year’s statistics on that subject. There were 127 lynchings, as compared with 166 in 1897, being the small- est number in any year since 1885, except in 1890, when the number was exactly the same. The proportion between North and South speaks for itself: South, 118: North, 9. Thus, while the legalized hangings in the South were double those in the North, the illegal executions were thirteen times as many in the South as in the North. Nevertheless the marked decrease, even in southern lynchings, is one of the encourag- ing features of the year’s criminal statistics. Political Prognostications. From the New York Herald. William McKinley is the overwhelming choice of the Republican party for the next Presidential nomination. William J. Bryan is almost without a rival among silver leaders as the Democratic candidate for the presidency. The Republicans will make issue upon the financial questions, the tarnff, and the questions arising out of the war with Spain. The Democrats will force the free coin- age of silver to the front as the paramount issue. The members of the Silver Republican party will co-operate with the Democrats in securing the nomination of William J. Bryan. hel The gold Democrats, or members of the national Democracy, are inactive and give little indication of an aggressive stand. The Populists will not give their entire support to their nominees, Barker and Donnelly. The Prohibitionists will make the fight on the prohibition of the sale of liquor. Dr. Silas C. Swallow, of Pennsylvania, is frequently spoken of in connection with the presidential nomination. : Opinions differ as to the benefit a mili- tary reputation will be to a possible presi- dential candidate. Chicago is the favored city for the hold- ing of the national conventions. The Aftermath of Imperialism. Extract from a Speech by Samuel Gompers, Presi- dent of the American Federation of Labor. ‘A New York paper today sets out to preach to the entire labor element of the country and brands us as cowards because we object to taking in the Chinese and Ma- lays as American citizens. Let me tell that paper and others of the same kind that American labor does not fear the competition of the savages of the Philippines nor the competition of the un- educated, poorly fed classes in Cuba and Porto Rico. What the American workingman does fear is that his taxes will be increased; that the standing army will be increased, and the cost of living mereased, without a proportionable increase in the value of his toil. After thousands and thousands of our poor boys reel under the equatorial suns of these new possessions; After the taxes eat up the wages of the workingman and make him no better than the serfs of Europe; After the people of these new countries are given rights under the free laws here without being fitted for civilization and help make other laws that will enthrall the body of labor; Perhaps those who are now shouting for ‘expansion’ will not think that imperial- ism is such a desirable thing at all.”’ The Wise (2) Men from Wayne County are Talking. From the Honesdale Citizen. The bunco dollar seems rapidly rolling down hill. In the west, the Democratic State committees of Iowa and Kansas have given it up, and in the east Boss Croker last week declared it dead. Asan issue, 16 to 1 has proved unprofitable to the Democracy, and it is evident that when the next Democratic National Convention meets it will be found stale and flat. ‘‘Anti-Imperialism’’ is not yet fairly on its feet, and receives a cold shoulder from a large section of the Democracy. It really appears doubtful if any issue can be pre- sented with a fighting chance of success for the Democracy. A Powerful Persuasive. From the Renovo Record. We are told that some Democrats will vote for Quay if he needs them. This re- calls the election of William A Wallace for United States senater. At that time a few Democrats were expected to vote for a Re- publican, but when it was given out that some determined Democrats were prepared to put a hullet through any man who should thus betray the trust of the people, they decided it to be healthy to vote for the Democratic candidate. However, we don’t believe that any Democrat in the legisla- ture will vote for Quay. Spawls from the Keystone. —Charles Cleary, who was pardoned out of the penitentiary last week, arrived at Ren- ovo Saturday night in company with his father. Many of his acquaintances were at the station to meet him. —In God We Trust” first appeared on the copper two cent issue of 1864, and is the first use of the word God in any government act. This sentence was introduced by James Pol- lock, ex-governor of Pennsylvania and direc- tor of the mint, with approval of the treas- ury. —According to the record kept at the pro- thonotary’s office, there were 722 births in Elk county in 1898 and 184 deaths. The year previous there were 621 births and 199 deaths. There were 184 marriage licenses granted in 1898, or three more than the year previous. -—Sunday morning Mr. and Mrs. David Hill, of Jersey Shore, found their 9 months old son dead in bed. The child had been ill with pneumonia, but it had partially recov- ered. During the night it was soothed to sleep after a crying spell. In the morning the parents found the child dead. —The heavy wind on Saturday blew down about thirty feet of the big iron stack at the Tyrone rolling mill. The stack was about 165 feet in height and 5 feet in diame- ter. The 135 feet remaining furnishes suf- ficient draft to keep the fires going, but a new stack has been ordered and will in a short time be put in place. —Two horses belonging to the Lyon Lum- ber company, of Williamsport, were killed last week. While being used at the com- pany’s slide near Nordmont, a log jumped from the slide and struck both animals, caus- ing their death. The driver saw the log coming and he jumped to one side, thus avoiding injury to himself. —DMiss Nellie McCormick, daughter of At- torney General McCormick, by the endless chain letter plan has procured for the Home of the Friendless, Williamsport, a helpful do- nation. The young lady started the chain of letters on September 1st, 1898, and it ran un- til December 1st, 1898. The contributions ranged from twenty-five cents to ten dollars, and in the three months she secured a total of $314.50. —At the annual election of the Susque- hanna Boom company the following directors were chosen: Hon. J. Henry Cochran, E. R. Payne, Hon. R. J. C. Walker, Henry W. White and J. Roman Way. The officers elected were: President, J. Henry Cochran; treasurer, E. R. Payne; solicitor, Henry C. McCormick; secretary, Edward P. Almy; superintendent, James A. Dinehart. —Sunday afternoon Mrs. May Zimmer- man, wife of David Zimmerman, who resides about twelve miles east of Loganton, was at the door watching the departure of several friends who had been visiting her. Sudden- ly she reeled and fell to the floor dead. Mrs. Zimmerman had not heen feeling well for several days. She was 72 years old. She is survived by her husband and several chil- dren. —Well known as a Clearfield county rafts- man when he was young, William MecCart- ney Thompson, at the age of 72 years died last week. He figured in a number of coun- terfeit cases and was known as a complete tough all along the Susquehanna river. He often figured in barn burnings and other amusements of a similar character. He served a term in the penitentiary and fre- quently took up his abode behind the bars of the Clearfield and Indiana county jails. —The horse occupies a unique position in the status of Pennsylvania. If itis stolen the county commissioners must pay a reward of $20 for the arrest of the thief. No other personal property is protected in this way. No reward is provided by law for the arrest of a cow thief, or a chicken thief, or a bank robber, or any sort of a thief. No special in- ducement is even offered for the arrest of a murderer, unless the commissioners see fit to do so. But they have no choice in the cap- ture of a horse thief. —Thomas J. Edge, state secretary of agri- culture, in reply to a question in reference to line fences in this State, says: The act of March 11th, 1842, is very clear in its provis- ions as to maintaining line fences. In all cases where the land is or has been ‘‘im- proved” they must be erected at the joint ex- pense of the adjacent land owners. If one owns improved land adjoining the woodland of a neighbor then that neighbor cannot be compelled to maintain any share of the fence becanse the land (woodland) ,is not “‘im- proved” land within the meaning of the act. —School directors throughout the State should be interested in the outcome of the trial of a board of directors in Luzerne county. Charges made against them by tax- payers are that they did not enforce the act requiring entrances to the boys and girls’ outhouses to be divided by fences; did not enter the annual financial statement entered on the minutes ner have it properly printed, and did not visit the schools as required by law. It is probable that few school boards in the State have complied with all these re- quirements. —They are laughing at a constable in Brad- ford, McKean county. The constable had arrested Frank Fitch, an alleged whiskey seller, and placed him in the lockup. When he prepared to remove Fitch for a hearing, he unlocked the cell door and then began to struggle into his overcoat. Fitch seized the opportunity and the constable at this unfort- unate moment and thrust him helpless into the cell, turned the key, and left for parts unknown. The constable yelled lustily for a long time, and at last convinced passers by that he was not a legally incarcerated inebriate. He was then released mad and revengeful. He has not, however, recaptured Fitch. —At Pine siding on the Pine Creek divis- ion of the Fall Brook railroad, between Blackwells and Tiadaghton, on Saturday af- ternoon about 3:30 o’clock, passenger train No. 6, which leaves Williamsport at 1:30 o’clock, while running at the rate of 30 miles an hour, was struck by a big tree, which came tumbling down the mountain side, and two passenger coaches were hurled down an embankment between fifteen and twenty feet high into the icy waters of ‘Pine creek. There were sixteen passengers on the train at the time and that all of them, together with the train crew, were not instantly killed seems almost miraculous. wl
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers