By P. Ink Slings. GRAY MEEK. — Where are the reports from the Dela- ware peach crop? “The White Maun’s Burden’’ just now is the plumbing and coal bills. —We have had everything Klondiky but the gold during the past week. — The head of the NAPOLEON family is dead, but AGUINALDO still lives. — The Philippine question is fast resolv- ing itself into a necessity to exterminate the Filipinos entirely, or give up the Archi- pelago. It is altogether likely that if QUAY hadn’t tried to get so much fruit off the plum tree there wouldn’t have been such a yield of pairs at Harrisburg this winter. —College boys are all right in ordinary amateur theatricals, but when it comes to delineating gossiping old women nothing but the real thing will come near filling the role. — The next balloonist who wants to start in search of the north pole needn’t take a balloon at all. He can come by rail to Bellefonte. We located the pole here early last Friday morning. —The expansionists who have been cackling away about coaling stations in all parts of the globe have been silent as clams lately. They saw the need of coaling sta- tions at home and were securing them. — Nature was bound that she shouldn’t be outdone in the white-washing business by any such a medium as a war investiga- ting board. The latter did its best to make things white at Washington, but the storm king did the business all over the country. —Governor STONE'S state reception, Tuesday night, came pretty near being snow bound, but the Governor decided not to postpone it. He appears to have a wholesome dislike for postponements. Witness, the prompt exit of the former Governor’s attachees from official places in Harrisburg. —The New York society for prevention of cruelty to animals has assumed to put a stop to bull and cock fighting in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Would it not be in far better taste for this society to devote some of its attention to the Crea- tor’s highest animal life and endeavor to break up the bromo-seltzer givers in that city. —The bloodless battle of Iloilo inspires the hope that an end of the loss of Ameri- can lives in the Philippines is soon to come. That is, an end for the present. It cannot be expected that there will ever be a complete cessation of hostilities be- tween the semi-civilized natives of those islands and the soldiers who will be neces- sary to garrison them, as the former will always look upon the latter as usurpers. —The President has announced that the army reorganization bill must be passed by Congress or he will call an extra session to do it. He has got to have an army to guard the territory that he has acquired and the people must furnish the men and pay them. The whole thing reminds us of the Florida merchant who attached a circus elephant for a bill. He got the elephant, but couldn’t findj enough hay in all of Florida to keep it alive. —The general order promulgated by the navy department, on February 3rd, where by “‘the sale or issue of malt or other alco- holic liquors on board ships of the navy or within the limits of naval stations’’ is pro- hibited is one that every good citizen of the land will commend. While Jack Tar will doubtless miss his grog for awhile, at least, it always appeared as a travesty on a christian nation that liquor should be issued as part of the rations of her serv- ants. —The Nicaragua canal bill is having rough sledding in Congress. It is little wonder, too, for the Republicans must be credited with having enough sense to see that the $92,500,000 out-lay that it pro- vides for its going to strike deep into a treasury that the DINGLEY bill is so sig- nally failing to keep full. The war tax can’t be kept on always and when it is once rescinded there will be such a scarcity of funds as will necessitate frequent hond issues to keep up the running expenses of the government. — AGONCILLO, the representative of the Filipino junta who came to this country to represent AGUINALDO, says that the story to the effect that he cabled the Filipinos to attack Manila is a lie. Mr. AGONCILLO can say whatever he likes to say, but it would be quite natural for him to deny having cabled such advise, especially since his countrymen suffered such frightful losses in acting upon it. With the capital of the socalled government he represents in our hands AGoNcILLO finds himself in the predicament a few Pennsylvanians are in to-day. He is a statesman without a State. —Mr. BRYAN says that until the people express themselves he will be more will- ing to believe that they intend to adhere to the policy of a century than to assume that they will go back to the creed of kings and the gospel of force. Mr. BRYAN is epi- grammatical at all times and the beauty of his epigrams lies in their truth. The peo- ple of these United States will never be willing that we should dominate the Phil- ippines. In the first place they do not pro- pose to pay war taxes for the military gov- ernment of a land that is of no value to them. In the second, they love liberty too dearly themselves to deny it to others who have every right under Heaven to enjoy it. Sn _VOL. 44 STATE RiGu7Ts AND FEDERAL UNION. _ BELLEFONTE, PA.. FEBRUARY 17 _NO.7 . 1899. The President’s Danger. The President is probably unconsciously but nevertheless certainly making Gen. MILES a formidable rival in political and official life. The American people are in- herently for fair play and the surest and shortest way to their favor is martyrdom. Ever since the beginning of the prepara- tions for the invasion of Cuba it has been apparent to all who cared to look into the matter that the administration has ‘‘had it in’? for the commanding general, and since his return from the campaign in Porto Rico the fact has been so plain that it could es- cape the attention of no one. Just now it looks as if an open hreach between them in the near future is inevitable and if it comes no great perspicacity is needed to discern that the President will gec the “worst of it.”’ In justice to the President it ought to he stated that the impending quarrel between himself and General MILES is not his fight. It is an affair of the Secretary of War, aud a prudent executive would have left them to settle it among themselves, exacting from each only an assurance that it should not be made a public scandal. But whether for the reason that ALGER had a mortgage created during the campaign of 1896 or on the occasion of previous distress, or for some other reason, that course was not adopted. Instead, ALGER was allowed to have his way in the disposition of army affairs, and his own favorites were ad- vanced to the detriment of those whom the commanding general would have preferred to honor. The consequence is an impend- ing explosion. Nor is Gen. MILES likely to suffer in the event that the worst comes to the worst. A New England Yankee, he has not been neglectful of his own interests, and whether the result of accident or de- sign he has altogether the best of the situa- tion now. In the contention he has spok- en for the private soldier, and his oppo- nents have championed the cause of the meat trust, which unloaded upon the gov- ernment a vast quantity of embalmed beef to the prejudice of the health and peril of the lives of the troops. The verdict of the EAGAN court martial expressed in unmis- takable terms the opinion of the army as to the merits of the gontroversy, and the com- mutation of the sentence to what is prac- tically a nominal punishment by the Presi- dent will be interpreted as voicing the ALGER notion. Between the two the peo- ple will sympathize with MILES and if the matter goes further, as itis likely to do, the result may be that they will become rivals for the future favors of the party to which “hey both belong. Hardly Worth the Candle. The news which comes from Manila is not of a character to give comfort to thoughtful citizens. The insurgents were badly routed in their recent encounter with the United States troops it is true, and to that extent it is gratifying. But this result was not achieved without con- siderable loss in life and treasure and it is neither the end nor the worst that may be expected. That is to say the battle of the other day may be regarded as only the be- ginning of a war which will be perennial and, if the islands are retained, it may be added perpetual. ‘What is there in the enjoyment of sover- eignty over those tropical islands and their semi-barbarous inhabitants to compensate us for so severe a tax on the lives and prop- erty of the people continuously ? It is said that ‘trade follows the flag,”’ and it is ex- pected probably that tke business of cloth- ing the ten or a dozen million natives of the Philippines will reimburse us for the expense of first conquering and thereafter keeping them in subjection. But the ac- curacy of that estimate may be doubted. In the first place a man who can make an ordinary dish-rag serve the purpose of a full suit of clothes for an indefinite period of time is not a very eligible customer, either to the manufacturer of fabrics or the mak- er of garments and it would take a vast number of that kind of purchasers to create a volume of profit equal to the expense of maintaining an army of occupation adequate to maintain order. The truth is that this Asiatic acquisition of ours is very much in the nature of a bogus gold brick. The capture of Manila was a doubtful military necessity, and the attempt to hold and govern the Philippines is little less than a crime. As we are in for them now, however, there ought to be some more expedient method of dis- posing of them than that which is cer- tain to entail so great an expense as an nexation and sovereignty. It is not only a violation of all the cherished traditions of the country but a menace to the institutions of the country. At this distance from the scene it looks as if the President’s ambition to distinguish his administration above all others in the matter of acquiring territory is going to cost the country more than it will come to. ——The CARNEGIE library bill for State College passed second reading in the Sen- ate on Wednesday. It Don’t Change the People’s Belief. The commission appointed by President McKINLEY to white-wash the incom- petency and rottenness of Mr. ALGER’S management of the war department, and of which our townsman, ex-Governor BEAVER was a member and acted as chief examiner, has made its report, to the entire satisfac- tion of the power appointing it, as well as to those whose official misdoings and incompetency it was designed to cover up. The report is long*—very long, in words and explanations, evasions and excuses. Boiled down to what it actually means and wanted to say it could be written in few lines, and they would be about as follows: With the exception of General MILES, In- spector General BRECKENRIDGE and Chief Surgeon of United States Volunteers, Dr. W. H. DAILY, (the three witnesses who exposed the inefficient management of the war department, all connected with that department and responsible for the fur- nishing, delivery or distribution of cloth- ing, medicine, food or supplies to the men at the front and in camp, understood their duties thoroughly and performed them honestly. The soldiers who wrote home that they did not have adequate or good food, fresh medicines, or sufficient sup- plies, did not know what they were writ- ing about, or deliberately and maliciously falsified. This is the gist of the report, boiled down to its real, only and purposed conclusion. It makes a liar of every soldier who wrote home about their short rations, bad beef, musty bacon, poorly located camps or scant supplies. But it is the conclusion that the commission was selected to find, and it found it. Had Governor BEAVER called some of own townsmen to the witness stand he might have heard some facts that would have cast considerable doubt upon the truthfulness and honesty of the finding of himself and his confreres. From Dr. HAYES, Lieut. and Assitant Surgeon attached to the 3rd hospital corps at Chickamauga, he might have learned, as we did, that hospital arrangements and supplies were entirely inadequate and that pills furnished for the sick men were so old and dry that they could scarcely be broken with a hammer; that it was seldom that proper food could be secured for those in the hospitals, and that much of the sickness resulted from the bad quality of the food furnished the men in camp. Had he asked any of the one hundred and six men from this county who served their country, at Chickamauga, he might have ascertained were that frequently for breakfast they furnished nothing but a ration of oatmeal, and that without either salt or butter, sugar or milk. Had he looked in the face, of his emaciated, fever-stricken, fellow townsmen upon their return home, he would have known how completely and effectually their appearance and condition disproved the conclusions his committee has ar- rived at. Or, if he had inquired of FRANK ATHER- TON, son of President ATHERTON, of State College, who passed days in the trenches before Santiago without a morsel of food, and then when furnished it was but the scantiest supply of nauseating meat and in- digestible bread, he might have discovered how delicacies and remembrances, shipped by friends at home to dear ones at the front, were sold at exorbitant rates to these same soldiers, from shop counters es- tablished by authority of some person within the city of Santiago immediately after the fall. There are many other facts in this same line that he might have discovered ' right here at home, had discovery of such wrongs and abuses of power been the ob- ject of the commission, but is was not. It was after conclusions, and it has promul- gated that which it hopes will accomplish the purpose of its creation. The people and the soldiers who suffered and know why they suffered, arrived at conclusions long ago, and they are not changed a whit by this white-washing report. ——Rosy Posy, the little soiled dove who once flitted about the streets of Bellefonte, has been taken in charge by kind hands and, last week, was sent to the home of the Good Shepherd, in Allegheny. We sin- cerely trust that the new path on which the unfortunate little creature has been started will prove her life's one and that a time will never come when she keeps the Good Shepherd guessing like she did Belle- fonte. ——Of all the prisoners who were re- ceived in the western penitentiary during the year 1897 not one editor, reporter, printer or any man connected with the craft was to be found. Seventy-five avoca- tions were represented among the three hundred and sixty-seven convicts received. Such a showing was certainly a creditable one to the profession, but their good de- ‘portment was marred by three fellows who were sent there in 1898. Why Pass Such an Ordinance. The ordinance which is now before coun- cil that is designed to prevent the run- ning at large of horses, mules. bulls, steers, oxen, cows, heifers, calves, pigs or shoats in the borough of Bellefonte will prove as inoperative and useless when passed as the one that has been in intermittent opera- tion in this place for several years. What- ever of force there might be in the other sections of the ordinance is counteracted by a clause in the second one, where the words “without the permission of the party in the possession thereof’’ are used. The clause refers to the impounding of animals found running on the vacant lots in town and you will readily see that it vests in owners of unfenced property the right to decide whether another’s animal can be impounded or not. Should the proposed instrument be en- acted into an ordinance it would open up an avenue of private speculation in this way: JOHN JONES owns considerable vacant, unfenced property in Bellefonte. The high constable finds WM. SMITH’S cow roaming on JONES’ lots. The pound fee that SMITH must pay under the law is $2.50, but he sees a way to save some, so goes to JONES and offers to give him $1 if he (JONES) will say to the high constable that SMITHS cow has permission to run on the lot. Thus, you see, the constable is cheated out of his fee, hecomes disgusted with the kind of an ordinance he is expected to enforce and pays no more attention to his duties. If council intends passing a new cow ordinance let it be an instrument that will be efficient. Surely the borough solicitor should be able to draft one that is not as leaky as his old one was or as useless as the proposed one will surely prove to be. ——1If the postponement of the McCAR- RELL bill, until March 21st, is not calculat- ed to aid the acquittal of Senator QUAY, it will at least save his friends the payment of the sum promised the roosters of the Leg- islature for its passage in time to be of use in his trial. In this fact there ought to be some consolation. Dangerously Close Together. The difference between the dignity and importance of a United States Senator and that of a Member of the Pennsylvania Leg- islature may be very great, as is generally believed. The difference in the motives that influence the action of some of the members of both of these bodies is not ap- parent, however. In the cases of Senators McENERY, Ma- soN and McLAUREN, all of whom were pledged, and whose constituents demanded their votes against the ratification of the peace treaty, their support for that meas- ure, it is alleged, was secured by the prom- ise of the control of the federal patronage of their respective States. In the case of buffoon SPATZ, now misrepresenting the honest Democracy of Berks county at Har- risburg, who was elected against QUAY and QUAYISM, but is now openly and boastful- ly supporting every motion that tends to aid the discredited boss, his support, it is generally believed, was secured by the plac- ing of his eight year old kid on the pay-roll of the page boys of the House. After all, there is not such a wide differ- ence between Senators whose motives are to secure federal patronage for hungry heelers, and Members of the Legislature, whose actions are influenced by a paltry two dollars a day paid to a baby boy. The Duty of Good Citizenship. The regular spring elections will be held all over Pennsylvania on next Tuesday. While the offices to be filled are of com- parative insignificance, when contrasted with those voted for at the November con- tests, there can be no doubt that they are of far more personal interest to the tax payers. A man’s home government is the one that affects him every day, that he comes in intimate contact with and is the one that he knows more of than any other; therefore what more sacred duty could he have to perform than participation in it. Active, wholesome, elevating participation in the matter of making nominees and electing them to the offices they aspire to. No man is a good citizen unless he ex- ercises every function of his citizenship for the good of the government that confers it and affords him an asylum. And, un- fortunately, many of those whom we re- gard as our most reputable men, morally, socially and intellectually, are the very ones who are the derelicts in this all im- portant duty. Is it not time that we reform such mat- ters, especially here in Centre county, and turn out, every one, to the spring elections, with even greater enthusiasm than is dis- played in the fall. Don’t stay at home un- til after it is done and then abuse ‘‘the politician and the heeler’’ for having done it according to their desires. Take a hand in your own government, or forever hold your peace concerning those you permit to carry it on for you. ——Subscribe for the WATCHMAN. The prompt response of the Belle- fonte fire department to the alarm that was rang in from the North ward, last Friday night, reflects great credit upon our volun- teer organizations. With the streets al- most blockaded with snow and the ther- mometer registering fifteen degrees below zero, both companies were on the scene sur- prisingly quick. It seemed as if they were quickened by a full appreciation of what suffering and loss a fire might cause on such a night. Itis on occasions of that sort that the citizens of Bellefonte have opportunity of measuring the value of our volunteer firemen and none who saw their prompt work under such extremely unfavorably circumstances have failed to express the proper meed of praise. -——When the ignorant people who know nothing of that great New York society get to berating TAMMANY just remind them of the fact that on Tuesday its members vol- untarily chipped in $20,000 to give to one of the aid societies in New Youmk for the re- lief of the poor. There may not be much of grand and lofty sentiment in TAMMANY but the heart is there all right. —The war court made salted beef out of EAGEN and another such session may make roasted beef out of Gen. MILES, but neither case will controvert the charge that some one made money out of embaimed beef. An Incriminating Sequence. From the Pittsburg Post. Certain facts now well known to the pub- lic but not pleasant to comment on when the soldier boys are in the field in far off Luzon are vigorously stated, under the heading ‘‘The House That Jack Built,” in the New York Journal. The beef trust contributed $665,000 to the election of President McKinley. General Russell A. Alger contributed to sie fund and made speeches to the same end. President McKinley appointed General Alger Secretary of War. Secretary Alger had Lieutenant Colonel Eagan made Commissary General. General Eagan gives the beef trust war contracts by which they cleared two mil- lion dollars. General Eagan is court-martialed and sentenced to dismissal from the army for calling General Miles many kinds of a liar, with fetid qualifications, for telling that the beef trust furnished embalmed beef and canned refuse on its contracts. President McKinley modified General Eagan’s sentence to six years’ vacation on full pay President McKinley appoints a new court to investigate General Miles’ charges which were the occasion of General Eagan’s diatribe, which was delivered to the war investigation committee, which is said to have reported to the President that the beef was all right. The Duty of Every Citizen. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. Complaint is made in many Pennsyl- vania towns of a lack of public interest in the coming spring elections, and the local newspapers are calling upon voters to awaken to the importance of the ballot. Here again the state press leads the people in guarding popular interests. The spring elections were separated from state and national elections in order that voters might elect men to office independ- ently of state and national influences. It is sometimes difficult to get up much ex- citement over the election of town and township officials, but the duty to go to the polls is none the less imperative. Do those officials not control town and town- ship affairs? The Mauch Chunk Zimes pertinently says that the reason that town is no longer as it once was is because of the petty party rule which dominates its affairs. Probing for the Truth. From the Doylestown Democrat. The Miles court of inquiry, ordered by the President, will, we hope, settle the ‘‘embalmed’’ beef scandal. From the com- position of the court we do not believe it will use the whitewash brush to shield anyone, but give the facts as proven. The country has the right to know the truth of the matter in controversy, and if one-half what is said be true, it is bad enough, and disgraceful to the country. We are informed by a soldier who went out from this county, that the ship he was aboard of was supplied with this beef, and six tons were condemned and thrown over- board. General Miles feels confident the mass of evidence he has collected will prove the truth of his charge. A Voice From the South. From the Fulton, Mo., Telegraph. Dr. W. S. Scott. ex-President of the Ohio State University, in a lecture on the ethics of war with Spain declared that the keeping of the Philippine islands would justify human slavery. It is safe to say that Dr. Scott is not alone in his belief; and if this government pursues a policy that prevents the people of those islands from enjoying the same liberty that we hold so dear, it will practically reverse the teachings of the founders of the party which claims to have abolished the institu- tion of slavery in the United States. They Never Had any Brains. From the Delaware County Republican. The gold organs that are so gleeful over every new discovery of gold, thus admit, without seeming to ; now it, that their joy is clear proof that an iucrease in the volume of standard money is desirable. A few months ago they were declaring that. there was money enough in the country to trans- act the people’ s business, yet they still exult, hysterically, whenever the supply is increased! Spawls from the Keystone. —Two new buildings to cost $7,000, will be erected on the Allentown fair grounds. —Representative Hicks has introduced a bill to appropriate $100,000 for a public build- ing at Johnstown. —In the western penitentiary, Allegheny, there is a day school, with 112 inmates en- rolled, who receive four hours tuition each day. —Before justice Seard, of Unityville, Cleaver Rodgers was placed under $1,300 bail for an attempt to kill John McClintock, whom he stabbed with a knife. —Donald G. Keyser, of Wrightston, Bucks county, has received the appointment of ca- det at West Point, made vacant by the resig- nation of Oscar L. Booz, of Bristol. —Wilkesbarre people are taking a deep in- terest in the movements of General Otis at Manila, as his wife, who was the widow of General McAllister, comes from their city. —A railroader, whose name could not be learned, was taken off a freight train at Ty- rone Friday with his arm frozen. The man was hanging by the brake wheel when found. —On Saturday President McKinley sent in the name of Howard E. Butz to the Senate for the position of postmaster at Hunting- don. Mr. Butz is the editor of the Hunting- don Globe. —The taxpayers’ association, of Schuylkill county, will oppose the appearance next Wednesday for a pardon for Nero Dietrich, a former poor director, imprisoned for accept- ing bribes. —The firebrick works at Grampian, which were destroyed by fire about two weeks ago, are rapidly being rebuilt and will, it is ex- pected, be ready to resume operations in about two months. —Operations were resumed Monday in the Philadelphia & Reading coal and iron com- pany’s collieries in the Schuylkill region, which were closed down last week on account of the severe cold. —The funeral of Dr. Robert Stewart, who was asphyxiated at Shippensburg took place Monday morning from the home of his sister, Mrs. McLean. The members of the Cumber- land county medical society attended in a body. —A force of men were put to work at the Lock Haven furniture factory, clearing the debris from the burned site and putting the dry kilns in shape. While not definitely settled, the prospects for the factory being rebuilt are very bright. —The bill appropriating $60,000 for a pub- lic building in Shamokin has been favorably reported in the House at Washington, with a great many others. There is a big scramble for buildings all over the country, and there is a likelihood of many of them being tied up. —It is said that Potter county has the queerest public school in the State. Only four pupils attend; they are all members of the same family and the mother is the teacher. School is held in a township school house in the regular way and the teacher is paid by the school district, —Strangest in the crime annals of Fayette county, is the case of Charles Norcross. Dazed from the effects of morphine, eaten with suicidal intent, he paces a jail cell mn Uniontown accused of plotting to poison his younger brother Allen,7 years old, and there- by acquire his inheritance. —John Shriner, of Piatt township, Lycom- ing county, was hauling wood last Friday. The wood began to roll and Mr. Shriner fell to the ground and was pinned there by the wood falling on top of him. He was found unconscious some time afterwards. He was so badly frozen that he died later in the day. —The residence of Mrs. Martha Brother- lin, at Holidaysburg, was the scene of an ex- plosion on a recent morning. The expansion boiler of the heating apparatus froze and the water could not circulate and, in conse- quence, a section of the boiler exploded. The only damage was to the apparatus, but mention of the matter may put people on their guard and prevent a more serious ex- plosion from the same cause. —An exceptional Sunday scene was ecnact- ed at Clearfield Sunday afternoon, when the jury in the case of Michael Hart rendered a verdict of guilty of murder in the second de- gree. The prisoner had been on trial since Thursday for the killing of Victor Coretti, at DuBois, on April 25th, 1896. He was jointly indicted with Jos. Carey, who is now in the penitentiary serving sentence under a plea of guilty of murder in the second de- gree. The jury had been out eighteen hours. —Accepting reports, the cold seemed to vary in severity over the State during the late blizzard. At Chambersburg the mercury registered 16 degrees below zero; Lock Hav- en, 28; Wilkes-Barre, 10; Water Gap, 12; Bellefonte, 26; Williamsport, 18; Eagle's Mere, 30; Johnstown, 35; Lancaster, 10; York, 18: Easton, 16; Lebanon, 16; Clear- field, 28; Ridgway, 24; Gettysburg, 22; Read- ing, 13; Hazleton, 23; Doylestown, 12, and Scranton, 20 below zero. —A few nights ago Philip Young left his home to go to Barbours Mills, Lycoming county, for » physician for his wife. The mercury was thirty degrees below zero. When he returned home with the doctor Mr. Young found his daughter lying on the door- steps frozen to death and his wife so nearly perished. that she was unconscious. - She was afterwards restored and will get well. The daughter during the night had gone to the wood: pile to replenish the fire. She was clad in her stockings and. night dress and was overcome by the cold before she could enter the house. —Williamsport has had a mysterious pris- oner in jail for several days. The officers refused to reveal the identity of the man or the crime for which he was wanted until Fri- day, when sheriff Colton, of Lake county, Mich., arrived in that city with requisition papers for Andrew M. White. White is wanted for grave robbery, and a reward of $1,500 was paid for his apprehension. In last August he opened the grave of Alex. McLain at Baldwin, Mich., and stole the body. He dressed the corpse in his own clothes, and then, with the aid of his father, H. V. B. White, of Chenango county, New York, at- tempted to defraud an insurance company of $2,000. The attempt failed and White fled. He was located in a lumber camp near Wil - hamsport and arrested. The sheriff paid the $1,500 to sheriff Gamble of Lycoming county .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers