Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, September 15, 1899, Image 1

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    a
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
e—
Ink Slings.
sm
—Has any one heard the Republican
nominee for sheriff state whether he is with
the HAsTINGS faction in earnest. You
know he always was supposed to be with
the QUAY end of it in Centre county.
—The Scranton school board has about
decided to taboo the bicycle skirts worn by
the teachers in the public schools of that
city. They are too short, it is said, and
the minds of the scholars are inclined more
to pedalgoggling than pedagogics.
—With Honesdale as a shining example
of what an active Village Improvement so-
ciety can do in the way of cleaning up and
beautifying a town, would it not be a good
plan to let the women organize a State Im-
provement society and go to work cleaning
up on Capitol Hill ?
—The President has telegraphed the New
York reception committee that he can’t
participate in the naval parade and recep-
tion or the military parade and review in
honor of DEWEY’S home coming. Can it
be that the President can’t bear to see an-
other man who will arouse more enthusiasm
than he will himself ?
—ZLizzie KiNG, the St. Louis girl who
refused to let HERMAN CRIGE take his for-
feit after he had caught her in a kissing
game, deserves to suffer with blood poison-
ing as a result of HERMAN’S having bitten
her cheek in his desperate effort to steal the
kiss he had earned. Had she taken her
medicine then she would not be compelled
to take so much now.
—ANDY CARNEGIE declines to run for a
seat in the British Parliament and while
making such a declination he has announc-
ed that his naturalization papers as a citi-
zen of the United States are locked up
among his most valuable papers at his home
in New York. ANDY isn’t the snob that
some might think him to be. In other
words, he isn’t a WILLIE WALDIE ASTOR.
—The sudden death of CORNELIUS VAN-
DERBILT, head of the millionaire family of
New York, simply goes to prove the oft re-
peated phrase that riches can’t buy all
things. Though surrounded with every
luxury and attention that fabulous wealth
can command he was only mortal and when
that one disrespecter of persons, death,
comes no sum of money or proud manner
can buy it off.
—The Shamokin doctor, who tried to
hypnotize a four foot rattle snake on Tues-
day night and was bitten so badly that he
only escaped dying through the concerted
efforts of all the other doctors in the town,
couldn’t have heen as meek as his name
would indicate. When it comes to hypno-
tizing rattle snakes a man must be either a
fool or drunk before he would undertake
such a dangerous job, but since this Shamo-
kin doctor’s name is MEEK we certainly
must cast about for another reason for bis
mishap.
—Up in Boston, where culture is so
much prated about and the moral atmos-
phere isso pure that a statue of a Bac-
chante sends it into mortified, shocking
waves, it requires three hundred and forty
more police to maintain order than it does
out in St. Louis, where they are not travel-
ing on their correct English all the time.
St. Louis has 150,000 more people than
Boston and is 20 square miles larger in
area, but she doesn’t need so much of the
majesty of the Jaw in evidence to keep her
in order.
—Senator FLINN’S announcement that
he will support the stalwart Republican
ticket this fall is only what might have
been expected. Any one who knows any-
thing at all about the kind of a reformer
Senator FLINN really is knows that, so far
as he is concerned, it is only a sham and a
delusion. He played to the galleries dar-
ing the last session of the Legislature and
some might have been fooled, but FLINN is
FLINN, all the iime, and whenever you get
him mixed up with any honest effort for re-
form you have another guess comin’.
—The peculiar part of the reform move-
ment in Pennsylvania is the number of
sources from which it emanates and its in-
variable failure to reform. The Democrats,
Independent Republicans, - Prohibitionists,
People’s party and Socialist Labor voters
are all striking for reform and if they would
combine on the same road against the Re-
publicans they could win easily. But in-
stead of doing this each party declares for
exactly the same thing, then strikes off on
a separate road to attain it. The result is
that in such detached hands the old out-
laws can beat them at every turn, but if
they were only sincere enough in their ef-
forts for reform to join forces Pennsylvania
would be purged of her rotten governmen-
tal system and there would be an end of
this eternal declaring for reform and doing
nothing sensible toward securing it.
—The Philadelphia Press asserts that
there can be no doubt of ANDREW CARNE-
GIE being a foreigner, because that gentle-
man has made attacks on President Mec-
KINLEY. But the Pressisn’t to be held
accountable for what it says. Only a few
years ago it was holding up the great iron
master as a brilliant example of what
American protective tariff laws had done
for American grit and industry. Now the
tune is changed and the Press would ex-
patriate CARNEGIE because he dares to as-
sail the President for a war policy that is,
at least, questionable. We might just as
reasonably challenge the editor of the Press’
right to citizenship in Pennsylvania, be-
cause that organ censured the Governor
of the State for his attitude on the public
school funds and the constitutional amend-
ment proposition,
VOL. 44
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., SEPT. 15, 1899.
A Disgrace and a Wrong.
It is a pitiable condition of affairs, in a
great and productive Commonwealth like
this, that teachers in the public schools of
some of its districts receive less pay by the
year than the average cost of keeping its
criminals in certain of its institutions, or
the paupers in many of its almshouses,
amounts to. Yet this is a fact, or the last
annual report of the Superintendent of
Public Instruction is wrong. The figures
he gives show this to be the case and the
showing is the more shameful because the
wrong that makes this condition of affairs
could be so easily righted, if the people but
willed that it should be so.
In Massachusetts the average pay of
teachers per diem for the whole year is
$1.56; in New Jersey it is $1.54; in Con-
necticut it is $1.20, while in Pennsylvania
it does not come quite up to $1.00. This,
in some instances, may be due to parsimony,
but in very many districts is chargeable
alone to the inability of the taxpayers to
meet the demands made upon them for
other local purposes and the additional
amount necessary to pay their teachers
living wages :
Such are the tax laws in this State that a
larger proportion of its wealth escapes local
taxation entirely. Corporations owning
property running into millions of dollars
and enjoying franchises denied the in-
dividual taxpayer and from which unlimit-
ed profits are realized, pay neither to road,
school, poor nor municipal expenses. The
entire burden of these, along with a full
share of state, taxes fall upon the un-
renumerative acres of the farmers, the homes
of the laborer and mechanic, and the oc-
cupation of her citizens. To equalize, to
some extent, this unjust system of taxation
corporations were made to pay a small
proportion of the school expenses, through
a system of state appropriations from state
funds, a part of which was collected as
corporate taxes. It was the only way cor-
porations could be made pay school taxes.
Last winter it was discovered that the
state taxes levied were insufficient to meet
state ,expenditures under the profligate
management of the Republican state ring.
Either the taxes had to be increased, or the
expenditures reduced. To increase the
taxes was to make corporations pay-a
proportionate share of that increase. To
reduce expenditures was to cut down the
emoluments of useless officials who are
paid fat salaries for their services to the
ring. Neither of these propositions would
suit the necessities of the state machine,
and the happy thought was originated that
a million of dollars could be taken from
the school fund of the State, and thus save
both the corporations and the fat salaries
paid their official henchmen. It was done,
and the public school system, that com-
pels districts in the State, in consequence
of the poverty of its individual taxpayers,
to pay to its teachers less than the cost of
keeping state criminals and paupers, is
further crippled to the extent that either
the disgracefully small wages now paid
their teachers must be reduced or the
school term, now short enough, lessened.
These are the inevitable results in dis-
tricts in which taxation for school purposes
is up to the law’s limit. In others it means
either of these or increased taxation for our
already over taxed people.
And for this condition of affairs—for the
disgrace of a State that places a less valua-
tion upon the service of its school teachers,
then it pays as a charity for its criminals
and paupers, as well as for the wrong of
robbing the individual taxpayer, that cor-
porations should escape their share of pub-
lic burdens, the people themselves are
responsible.
It is they who give power to the ring.
It is the ring that is responsible for this
disgrace and wrong.
Shall it continue to rule? That is the
question that has now to be determined by
the very people who must tax themselves
additional to make up the million of dol-
lars that was taken from their school fund,
or still further reduce the wages of their
teachers or the length of their school term.
Have they the spirit or determination to
assert their manhood and stand for their
own interests ?
November’s election will tell.
—-It turns out that Cap’t. COGHLAN’S
notorious drinking song, ‘Me und Gott,’
in which the German Emperor is treated
as’ a rather egotistical and sacriligious
character, was not without its foundation
in fact. A few days ago, in a speech at
Strasburgh, that potentate concluded a
speech to a number of church dignitaries
with these words : ‘‘For in these agitated
times, when the spirit of unbelief is ram-
pant, the church’s only hold isthe imperial
hand.’”” Goodness gracious, what an arro-
gant assumption. The christian world has
always held that the church’s only hold is
on God and here this young Dutchman sets
it all by the ears by proclaiming a new doc-
trine with himself as the inspiration. Ac-
cording to his notion COGHLAN’S song
didn’t go far enough. Instead of being
“Me und Gott’ it ought to have heen
“Me.”
Which Will You Endorse 3
The Republicans of the county are placed
in a very peculiar position this fall. Their
county ticket was placed upon a platform
that unqualifiedly endorses and unstinted-
ly praises every official and partisan act of
ex-Governor HASTINGS. At thesame time
it openly condemns the Republican state
administration and utterly ignores both
Senators QUAY and PENROSE.
On the other hand the Republican state
ticket is placed upon a platform that strong-
ly approves all that the state administra-
tion has done, endorses hoth QUAY and
PENROSE, and shows its disgust with Gov-
ernor HASTINGS by failing to refer to him
or his conduct while acting as chief execu-
tive.
To vote for the Republicanc ounty ticket,
and the platform it stands upon, is a vote
to commend and endorse ex-Governor
HASTINGS, and will be so construed.
To vote for the Republican state ticket,
and the platform it stands upon, is a vote to
endorse Governor STONE and all that he
has done, as well as to commend hoth
Senators QUAY and PENROSE and the ring
rule they represent :
We give below the resolutions referred
to and Republican voters must choose for
themselves which of these leaders they will
cast their ballot for :
ARE YOU FOR HASTINGS ?
A vote forthe Repub-
lican county ticket is
a vote fog the follow-
ing:
We view with gratifi-
cation the administra-
tion of our distinguished
Sellow citizen, Governor
Daniel H. Hastings. We
approve his fearless and
unceasing efforts to pro-
tect the State Treasury
against political raiders
and machine jobbers.
We applaud his exposure
of the padded pay rolls
and indemnity bond,
and his wise use of the
veto power at all times in
the interest of the people.
We commend his observ-
ance of, and strict regard
Jor, constitutional man-
date and statute law re-
gardless of partisan de-
mand, aswel! as his con-
cern for the varied in-
stitutions of the Com-
monwealth, educational,
charitable and penal.
His devotion to the inter-
ests of the volunteer sol-
diers of our State, whose
every movement was un-
der his watchful eye, was
Sully exemplified in his
organization of state
hospital trains for the
relief of the fever-strick-
en in the camps in the
South, and we are deeply
grateful with our fellow
citizens of the State at
large, who shared with
us these humane and un-
selfish ministrations.
ARE YOU FOR QUAY ?
A vote for the state
Republican ticket is a
vote for the following:
We commend the good
Judgment of the Repub-
licans of Pennsylvania
in their selection of rep-
resentatives in both
* branches of the national
Congress. They fitly and
properly represent the
great commercial, indus-
trial and business inter-
ests of our Common-
wealth. The Republican
party owes a debt of
gratitude to her senior
Senator, Matthew Stan-
ley Quay, who for more
than a quarter of a cen-
tury has stood in the
forefront of the battle
Jor Republican suprem-
acy. Our State 1s en-
titled to full representa-
tion in the United States
Senate, and we endorse
. the action of the Gover-
nor in making his ap-
pointment to fill a va-
cancy caused by the fail-
ure of the last Legisla-
ture to elect.
Taking Care of Themselves.
Evidently the bankers consider the peo-
ple a blind lot, generally, or they don’t care
a bobee as to what public opinion is about
their own selfishness. Last week they
held their annual convention at Cleveland,
Ohio. As the usual business of their meet-
ings is to attend to the money matters of
the country, but more particularly to at-
tend to them in such a way as will best
serve their individual and corporate in-
terests, they proceeded to do so by mapping
out a financial policy for the administra-
tion, and in a series of resolutions instruct-
ing Congress what to do on the money
question. In their estimation the next
session of Congress, ‘‘should move firmly
and unpequivocably establish the gold
standard by the enactment of laws making
all obligations of the government and all
paper money including the circulating
notes of national banks redeemable in
gold.” They don’t say a word about
corporate or individual obligations. They
have not a suggestion as to their own obli-
gations to the public.
Their indebtedness to depositors conld
be paid by them in such money as they
saw proper to hand out over the couuter,
but when they have their depos.ts with the
government cashed, it must he handed
them in gold. Considerate bankers! Un-
selfish citizens ! How their liberality bub-
bles up and their pockets expand when
they are considering matters that pertain
to their own welfare ?
They paid the government for the bonds
they now hold in greenbacks, silver and in
just such money as they could get hold of.
Why should their demand for gold for that
for which they gave other kinds of money
be heeded ! Are they better than others,
that laws should be special in their case and
that those owing them should be rgquired
to pay in gold, while those they owe could
be put off with any kind of money ?
In short the bankers position is—*‘gold
for us and let the people take what they
can get.”’ And its the position of a large
majority of single standard advocates.
——While the farmer is getting 63cts.
for his wheat, 30cts. for his corn and 25cts.
for his oats is the time for him to look
around and find out where the prosperity
is striking him. He is paying more for his
clothing, more for his plows, forks, mow-
ers, rakes, and everything else that he
uses, while he is getting less for all of his
products than he did a year ago. This is
the McKINLEY prosperity, but it is not
calculated for the farmers.
Reform Day at Grange Park.
The principal day at Grange park next
week will be the one on which the great
rally for reform and honest government
will be made,
Hon. W. T. CREASY, the farmer candi-
date for State Treasurer who is pledged to
reform the management of the public funds
and straighten out the crooked ways of the
State Treasurer’s office, will be there as
will also Hon. GEo. R. Dixox, of Elk
county, who was Mr. CREAsY’S main stay
in the last Legislature when the great fight
for honest government was made.
CREASY and DIXON were the two recog-
nized lezlers of the reform movement and
their coming to talk to the farmers of Cen-
tre county should attract a great crowd to
Centre Hall on Wednesday. While it
might appear that their visit is purely polit-
ical such is not the case. Mr. CREASY is
a Granger himself and will attend the pic-
nic as one of the order who is unselfishly
giving his time to heading a fight that it is
hoped will some day end in an economical
state government and an equalization of
taxes. Candidate CREASY was a reformer
before there was a possibility of his getting
into office through it. He was a reformer
because he is a poor man and a farmer and
feels the burden so hard that he can bear it
no longer. He struck for reform at Harris-
burg last winter. Then the effort was
without avail because the plunderers were
in control. Now he is going before the peo-
ple seeking them to clean out this politic-
al mare’s nest at Harrisburg and make a
government that will be a credit to our
great State.
Go to hear CREASY and Dixon. Lend
your presence at least to their laudable
crusade against vice and corporation pam-
pering.
A —————————
—ZEvangelist MoopY has spoken in
those tender, solicitous words that he al-
ways employs when it is his heart that is
talking. He has spoken of the inhumanity
and shamcfulness of the DREYFUS con-
viction. But while sympathy is sweet
solace to the sorrowing all that can be felt
for the persecuted Frenchman will not
militate against the harshness with which
his superiors in the army will treat him.
A Crippled Issue.
Its wonderful how quiet Republicans are
on some of their former issues. Last year
the principal stock in trade of the state
ring was the ‘‘Little;Red School House.”” It
was in all of their papers, their speeches,
their songs, their pictures and their
thoughts. It was the child of their crea-
tion and a blessing that they had built up,
protected and handed down to us. There
was no going back on the public schools, or
the record of the Republican party as their
advocate and defender. All the intelli-
gence and good and glory that had come
from education and enlightenment was due
to it and they were its daddy. How differ-
ent now? Do you ever hear one speak of
what his party has done for the public
schools, or how it fosters and cares for
them? Not much. They did that once,
boastfully and effectually. It was only
last fall that the air was full of it, and the
State reverberated from end to end with
their hurrahs for the ‘‘Little Red School
House,” and the glory it had achieved.
But it is all over now. A condition arose
that forced them to choose between the
corporations and the schools. To save the
former they attempted to strike down the
latter, and, as a campaign issue, the public
schools, their progress, usefulness, future
welfare or benefits are now as useless and
obroxious to them as are the ten com-
mandments to those proselyting for the
devil.
How suddenly some people must change.
How plainly the hypocrisy of some is ex-
posed. That million of dollars stolen from
the schools seems to have played thunder
with their public school issues.
Moving on the Enemy.
A most important meeting of Democratic
editors and those in charge of the Demo-
cratic organization of the State was held in
Pittsburg on Tuesday last. The situation
in the State was thoroughly gone over and
a line of action adopted, which if earnestly
carried out, both by the organization and
editors, is sure to give the state ring more
trouble, than it has yet anticipated in its
efforts to continue its corrupt rule and de-
bauching influences. At the instance of
the editors steps were taken to organize a
movement that, if successful, will minimize
the frauds perpetrated at the polls in Phila-
delphia and will secure as far as it is possi-
ble, under our inadequate election laws,
fair elections in that machine manipulated,
and repeater-ruled city. Efforts to thor-
oughly organize and arouse the Democratic
vote of the State are to be made in every
school district and with a full Democratic
vote at the polls, reasonably fair elections
in Philadelphia and such help as the In-
dependent Republicans may give, there is
no reason under the sun, why the end of
QUAYism, ring-rule and its rottenness and
robberies should not be in sight.
WRITTEN FOR THE WATCHMAN,
THE STARS OF MEMORY.
The brave, the free, the wise the good,
Whose names about the world are blown,
And other souls whose angelhood
Has been revealed to me alone—
Like stars they shine in memory’s sky
With faithful and unwavering light,
And I may well cn them rely
For guidance through the frequent night.
Oh ye benighted souls for whom
The sun of righteousness has set,
Thrice fortunate that through your gloom
Those stars of God are shining yet!
When on the shore of life’ s sad sea
My bark untenanted shall lie,
May love behold and welcome me
Among the stars in memory’s sky.
Aug. 26th, 1899, C. C. Zeigler.
This Country is Large Enough.
From the Lancaster Intelligencer.
The Philadelphia Record thinks that the
Democratic party will not be a unit
against the Philippine policy of this ad-
ministration. It says that the party has
always been in favor of expansion, and that
it will not unanimously recoil from the
imperialism with which this administra-
tion has undertaken to possess and govern
the Philippines. The Record has long ceas-
ed to be an enlightened interpreter of
Democracy, but that it should be so blind
as to fail tosee that every Democratic heart
rebels wholly against the conduct of this
government toward its Philippine posses-
sions is really surprising.
There is no particle of doubt about the
Democratic sentiment in the matter, or
about the attitude which it will take in
convention assembled. Never anywhere
will there be found an utterance that is
not denunciatory of President McKinley’s
undertaking to subdue the Filipinos to his
will and argue with them afterward; which
is, and has heen, his enunciated policy,
dictated and approved by Mark Hanna
and the crop-eared style of statesmen. The
war which these men are carrying on. to
conquer the Filipinos being without the
direction of our Congress, they will have
to reckon to it, as well as to the people. :
There is no chance to question the Demo-
cratic unity of attitude upon the adminis-
tration’s Philippine policy. The question
is only as to the Republican policy. Pre-
sumably it will sustain the President ; but
there will be many notable exceptions
among the statesmen of the party, and
many in number among its rank and file.
Everyone knows that Reed stands against
it, and for this cause retired from the speak-
ership. The latest announcement is that
Senator Foraker will lead the opposition to
it in Congress. And the suspicioc is war-
ranted that before Congress is long in ses-
sion the anti-imperialist feeling will have
so developed as to make it a question
whether the party even has not toabandon
its President.
The Republlean party certainly has an
uneasy seat ; between the popular outcry
against trusts and imperialism it is not
easy to see that it can escape a violent
overthrow. The general business prosperi-
ty, which it has relied upon for its salva-
tiod, will not sustain it under its support
of the schemes to lead the fruits of this
prosperity into the pockets of the few.
Otis a Second Weyler.
From the Springfield, Mass., Republican.
A terrific indictment of the censorship
maintained at Manila is contained in the
letter of the Associated Press correspond-
ent, printed in another column. That the
censorship is a political machine to deceive
the American people is what the indict-
ment amounts to. Experienced correspond-
ents who have worked in war times in
Japan, Turkey, Russia and even under
Weyler in Cuba, say it surpasses all others
in rigor. Mr. Collins distinctly charges,
furthermore, that there has heen a *‘per-
fect orgie of looting and wanten destruc-
tion of property’’ by the Americans, of
which the people at home have never heard.
We should judge from all this testimony
that General Otis was more a petty despot
than a statesman, and that the quicker the
President unloads him the better. Revela-
tions of this sort are very serious; they
strike deeply into the marrow of the great
issue now before the people. Is it ‘‘expan-
sion,’’ or is it imperialism ?
The French Army Still Needs a Scape
Goat.
From the Philadelphia Record.
There has been no unwonted excitement
among the French people over the outcome
of the Dreyfus court-martial, since it was
taken for granted on all sides that the con-
firmation of the verdict of 1894 was prac-
tically a necessity of the case. The nature
of the conflicting ‘‘evidence’’ offered as
alternatives only the conviction of the ac-
cused Captain of Artillery or the breaking
down of the existing staff system in the
French army. It was easier and less dan-
gerous to victimize Dreyfus than to impugn
the honor and overthrow the authority of
half a score of the chiefs of the idolized
army. France has dishonorably elected to
keep its scape goat still temporarily a scape
goat; but there will be no fresh degradation
of the victim, no brutality in his treatment
as a prisoner, no banishment of hope for
his future rehabilitation. The sentence
has been pronounced; but the full penalty
will scarcely be exacted.
wo
Now Is the Time to Do It.
From the Port Allegheny Reporter.
If the voters of this State who earnestly
desire the overthrow of Quayism fail to ac-
cept the opportunity offered this fall of
turning the office of State Treasurer over to
Democratic investigation and control, they
will have aided the enemy in no small de-
gree towards tightening his grasp on the
reins of leadership and re-establishing him-
self in the United States Senate. Another
year when the presidential campaign is on
and party loyalty is called upon to sustain
the administration, re-elect a Republican
Congress and return a Republican Assem-
bly to Harrisburg, the chances of rebuking
Spawls from the Keystone. -
—The Chesapeake nail works, of Harris~
burg, is shipping nails to Hawaii.
—During the first week of the term 424
pupils attended the Bedford public schools.
—Herman Posterriley fell down a shaft at
Tamaqua Tuesday and was crushed to a
pulp.
—The employes of the American tannery
at Lewistown have had their wages increased
10 per cent.
—During the month of August there were
sixty-four deaths and seventy-five births in
Johnstown.
—DMajor W. F. Barber, of Lewisburg, was
clected lieutenant colonel of the Twelfth
regiment, N. G. P.
—The Pennsylvania steel company, of
Steelton, will soon make a second shipment
of bridge iron to Burmah.
-—After a quarrel with his wife, Lester
FoxPa barber, attempted to blow out his
brains at Reading. Ile is still alive.
—On the arrival of Dewey at New York
the Harrisburg arsenal will fire a salute of
seventeen guns, by order of Governor Stone.
—Susan Breneman, of Lancaster, who cut
her throat four weeks ago and then attempt-
ed to burn herself to death, died Mon-
day. :
—~Clearfield county is enjoying what to it
is an innovation. The number of - criminal
cases returned to the court is so large. as to
cause a two weeks’ session.
—On August 19th the big tannery and fin-
ishing shop at Curwensville were destroyed
by fire. They are now to be rebuilt on a
more extensive scale and will employ over
300 men.
—Frank McFair, a Baltimore & Ohio
brakeman, was struck by an engine on Sa t-
urday night at Rockwood, Somerset county,
and instantly killed. He leaves a wife who
resides at Hyndman, Bedford county.
—Three children of George Steinbacher, of
South Williamsport, were taken suddenly ill
after eating breakfast Monday morning and
exhibited symptoms of poisoning. The
youngest boy is in a serious condition.
—William H. Young and Geo. W. Rice,
two miners, employed by the Conemaugh
coal company, and residing in Franklin
borough, near Johnstown, were killed while
at work in the mine about a mile above
Franklin Saturday morning.
—The Listic coal company, of Somerset
county, is at the present time shipping any-
where from twenty-five to thirty carloads of
coal daily. Miners are given steady em-
ployment, and many of them are making
from $60 to $120 per month. The next pay
will be a large one.
—One of the shortest wills ever recorded
in Franklin county was that written by the
late Dorothy Pittenger, of Antrim township,
which was recorded last week by recorder
Kennedy. It reads: ‘‘Abraham Pittinger is
to have everything after I am dead.” The
signature follows in English and German.
—James F. Dovey, a prominent citizen of
Blairsville, disappeared from his home some
weeks ago, and all search failed to reveal his
whereabouts. A few days ago a letter was
received from his mother, who lives at Meri-
den, Conn., stating he had arrived there in
an exhausted condition and partially in-
sane.
—Mack Eicholtz, of Bedford township,
Bedford county, with a number of other lads,
visited the new reservoir near Bedford one
day last week. They found a dynamite cap,
which they exploded. One of the pieces
struck young Eicholtz in the right thigh,
causing an ugly looking but not serious
wound.
—A prominent official has given out the
following figures concerning the number of
people who arrived in Philadelphia over the
Pennsylvania railroad during the G. A. R.
encampment; Saturday, 66,000; Sunday, 65,-
000; Monday, 80,000; total, 202,000. The
number of people carried Tuesday is estimat-
ed at 55,000.
—Rosa Gottschall, while walking near Jer-
sey Shore Sunday, was bitten on the ankle
by a copper head snake. She hastened back
to the house where she was stopping. Her
ankle began swelling rapidly. Remedies
were applied, which did not seem tq, have
the desired effect. Later in the day she was
taken to her home at McElhatten. Her
condition was considered serious.
—Stewart Love, of Oregon Hill, was ex-
hibiting a new revolver in the home of his
brother-in-law, William Griggs, at Laurel-
ton, Tioga county, Sunday night, when it
was accidentally discharged. The bullet
struck Mrs. Griggs in the hip and passing
around lodged in the back. Dr. Gentry, of
Hoytville, was summoned and extracted the
ball. Mrs. Griggs is getting along nicely.
—The Prohibition party of Bedford county
filed nomination papers in the county com-
missioners’ office Monday. The nominees are
James Buchanan, prothonotary; Harry
Snider, sheriff; C. C. Irwin, register and re-
corder; Jacob A. Davis, treasurer; Samuel
Carpenter, director of the poor; John Coplin
and David Mann, auditors. There are no
candidates for commissioners or district at-
torney.
—Blatt Hodges, of Millers station, in Blair
county, returned to his home on Saturday
after 37 years’ absence. In 1863 he left his
wife and family and went west to seek his
fortune. For a time he wrote letters home,
but these suddenly ceased. His wife be-
lieving him dead, married again. Her second
husband died two months ago. Hodges had
been mining in Mexico. His wife received
him with open arms and the couple are hap-
pily united again.
—The old adage that ‘‘lightning never
strikes twice in the same place,” is not
strictly correct, as Mr. James Graham, of
Bradford township, Clearfield county, can
testify. The barn on the farm on which he
lives has twice been struck by lightning and
burned down, and just lately the electric
current came close to repeating the same per-
formance, but deviated from: its intended
course far enough to strike the granary,
tearing it to pieces and killing nine hogs,
which had taken shelter there from the
storm. Tradition hath it that a tree stand-
ing on that spot before ever a barn was built
there, was struck and torn to pieces by light-
ning. It must be that some lightning con-
ducting metalic deposits make that particular
bossism will be less favorable than now.
spot a target for the bolts of Jupiter.