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