BY P. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings.
—We wonder whether they will be sing-
ing ‘On the Banks of the Wabash’’ at the
big exposition on the banks of the Seine
next summer.
—The Berks county goose-bone prophet
who predicted a mild winter some time
ago is probably getting his throat cleared
out to shout I told you so.
—How can Philadelphia expect to have
a symphony orchestra when there is such
discord among front fiddlers like MAR-
TIN, ASHBRIDGE, WANAMAKER, ef al.
— From the number of sweet-scented
things the editors of the papers say about
each other over there the Clearfield hills
must be fairly effervescent with perfumery
——of the skunk cabbage and pole-cat va-
riety.
—If Mrs. MOLINEAUX was the kind of a
woman the testimony in Monday's trial of
the celebrated case in New York made her
out to have been hefore MOLINEAUX mar-
ried her, she was scarcely worth the poison
her husband is accased of having used to
put her other lover out of the road with.
—JouN WANAMAKER ought to hire Dr.
SWALLOW to edit his Philadelphia North
American. The Doctor’s ideas would fit in
very nicely with the policy of the North
American and he and JOHN ought to be
able to mix up church and politics about
as well as any pair we know of in Pennsyl-
vania.
—The French must certainly be chaffing
under the handicap that Paris exposition of
theirs places on them. With every states-
man and gendarme fairly spoiling to get in-
to the great international mixup that is
threatened they have to keep their impetu-
ous natures cooled, lest they offend some
who might be contemplating a trip to their
show.
—The Canadian Indians are said to be
in a very restless state as a consequence of
the English-Boer war. It is feared that
they might rise at any moment and cause
trouble, now that so many of the mounted
police have been removed from their reser-
vations. If restlessness is all that troubles
them JoHN BULL need only pump a few
capsules loaded with Paine’s celery com-
pound into them from a maxim gun and
the trouble will be settled before it is be-
gun.
—What a glorious thing if it were only a
disease that made HARRY BEATTY, of
Panxsutawney, get up in his sleep and
work like a Turk for about five hours.
Unfortunately it was only a somnambulistic
prank. Had it been disease that caused it
we would certainly have set some scientist
to hunting for the bacilli that made him
act that way so that a few lazy duffers
around Bellefonte could be inoculated and
made to work in their sleep if they won’t
do it at any other time.
—The English board of admiralty has
decided that American mules must be vac-
cinated before being enlisted for service in
South Africa. The English are getting a
little wary of the American long eared
tribe. They seem to be undeniably in
sympathy with the Boers. The first thing
they did when they got into battle was to
stampede and run away; leaving the Eng-
lish cannon to be captured by the Boers.
Now they promptly take the glanders when
they arrive down there and die rather than
aid the effort to rob those honest farmers of
their freedom.
—The Hon. W. C. ARNOLD, of DuBois,
has already had his picture among the
Philadelphia Inquirer’s gallery of nota-
bles (?) and the Clearfield Raftsman’s Jour-
nal has devoted a column to setting forth
his virtues——strange that it could be done
in such small space so he is all ready
now to be made the Republican nominee
for Congressmaii-at-Large, by the state con-
vention that will convene in April. Of
course the fact of his being ready in no
wise carries the certainty of nomination, for
he was ready once before and both Grow
and DAVENPORT walked in ahead of him.
—The Boer war has quite over-shadowed
cur own troubles in the Philippines to all
those except the ones who have friends in
those far off islands fighting for this mad
expansion policy. The death rate is keep-
ing on, however. It is not lessened one
bit by England’s fruitless attempts to wrest
the liberty from the Boers that Mr. Mc-
KINLEY insists we purchased from the
Filipinos when we paid Spain $20,000,000
for the islands. Since August, 1898, we
have lost 1,391 men from wounds in battle
or disease, there have been 1,919 men
wounded and there are between four and
five thousand in the hospitals. Still the
war goes on and is likely to go on as long
as there is a single Filipino left to hurl a
bolo.
—1It is plain to be seen that the Republi-
can press of the country intends throwing
dust in the public eye to keep it from see-
ing the real issues of the coming campaign.
In order to hide the fact that President Me-
KINLEY is bound to turn the circulating
medium of the country over to the bankers
to juggle as they please, that he is irrevoca-
bly committed to the protection of trusts
and would give MARK HANNA'S ship build-
ing friends nine hundred million dollars of
the people’s money, they keep up the howl
that everybody who is not with them is a
friend of AGUINALDO and should be treat-
ed as a traitor. It is all political balder-
dash and the misguided Republican press
will waken up some day to find that the
reasonable people are not to be befogged by
this later day trick of crying wolf.
Vy
An Issue that Will not Down.
Mr. MARK HANNA is to the front again.
This time it is to inform the public that
the next presidential contest is to be
waged on but two questions :—The one,
the prosperity of the workingman; the oth-
er, the retention and control of the Philip-
pines. For this information Mr. HANNA
deserves and will doubtless receive the
thanks of some people. These are the few
who are interested in trusts. They will
sleep better, and eat heartier, and be hap-
pier, when they know that their well laid
plans to fleece the public are not to be
called into question. They will rest easier
when they are assured that the temporarily
filled belly of the workingman is to be
used to attract his attention from the ex-
orhitant prices he pays for that which he
must have, and their dreams will be less
disturbed when they known that the Amer-
ican people are to take greater interest in
the welfare of the Filipinos than their
own.
It would be a God-send to the trusts, and
the monopolies if Mr. HANNA could only
make his word good. There is no ques-
tion about how gladly he would do so.
There is no question as to how his proteges
and backers—the great trusts of the coun-
try—would enjoy sucha condition of polit-
ical affairs, nor as to the liberality with
which they would ‘shell out’’ to secure it.
But there isa question whether Mr. HANNA,
and they combined, can accomplish such
an end.
The people may be foolish at times but
they are scarcely idiots enough to allow
the needs of the unwashed and unclothed
denizens of far distant islands to make
them forget their own interests and wel-
fare. They may be easily gulled, but full
stomachs are not going to blot out from
them a recollection of the little that Mr.
McKINLEY’S prosperity has added to what
they have to sell, whether it is labor or the
products of the farm—and the much it has
increased the price of the necessities that
the trusts have placed their grip upon. It
will take more than Mr. HANNA’S com-
mand to insure this. . And the trusts which
he represents and the politicians whom he
speaks for may as well make up their
mind to this fact now as later.
There will ‘be more issues in the coming
campaign than those he presents. There
will be issues that affect the welfare of
every citizen of this broad country, no
matter what he may labor at or what his
calling may be, so that it is honest and
honorable, and one of them will be as to
the power of Mr. HANNA, and the party
back of him, to build up trusts to crush
individual enterprise, destroy private busi-
ness, tax the people and oppress labor.
From this one issue Mr. HANNA and his
party cannot get away, no matter what
comes of the shirtless and shiftless residents
of the Philippine islands, or what degree
of prosperity they may allege the -work-
ingmen of to-day are enjoying.
Mr. HANNA may as well mark this
down.
——The Democratic state committee
meets in Harrisburg on Wednesday of next
week, to fix the time and place for holding
the next state convention. Hon. W. J.
BRYAN is expected to be in Harrisburg on
that day and the Democrats of the city are
making preparations for one of the greatest
political demonstrations ever witnessed at
the state capitol. It is to be hoped that
it will prove a wise and auspicious begin-
ning of the campaign work for 1900.
Industries it Has Not Saved.
Mr. McKINLEY’S prosperity may be a
great thing for some people and for some
interests, but for some others it don’t seem
to be so overwhelmingly advantageous.
Dunn’s Review, which, by those styling
themselves business men, is one of the rec-
ognized authorities on the business condi-
tions of the country, furnishes, in its issue
of January 13th, a table showing the fail-
ures in different classes of business for
the past five years.
From the figures it gives, and comparing
the failures of 1895 with those of 1899 —the
two years closing the administrations of
Mr. CLEVELAND and Mr. McKINLEY,—we
don’t see that for certain industries, the
latter’s business boom is much better than
was the former’s. In 1895 the failure
among manufactures of machinery and tools
was 83, as against 129 in 1899. Of manu-
factures of lumber, carpenters and coopers,
298 were closed out by the sheriff in 1895,
while 342 went through the same procesg
in 1899. Of printers and engravers but 113
failed in 1895, while 145 were closed out in
1899.
Surely there is nothing to boast of in the
prosperity thatseems to have struck men
doing business in these lines. And as it is
with these so it is with many others, parti-
cularly the farmer. When the returns from
these come in-—when the complete work of
high prices made by trusts and the special
favorites of the present administration get
in their work, as against the low prices the
farmer is allowed for that which he pro-
duces, the gathering of Mr. McKINLEY’S
harvest will be anything but a happy or
hopeful one for them. .
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
Not Only Rob but Discriminate Against
Us.
The injustice the people suffer through
the protection given to and the manipula-
tions of trusts is exemplified in the prices
charged the public for the products of
such combinations at home and abroad.
The American people foster and protect the
trusts by submitting to tariff laws that
prevent the importation of articles manu-
factured by them. They are thus given
absolute control of the markets in this
country for the different products they
furnish, and the return they make to the
people for their protection, and for the
privileges they enjoy, is shown by the
prices they charge them and others.
These corporations that Mr, HANNA and
the Republican party have built up and
propose continuing have sole control of
the barbed wire, and the nail traffic of
the country. They have combined the
mills that manufactured these articles and
fix the output as well as dictate the prices
they are to be sold at. Five years ago wire
nails were selling at 95 cents a keg ; one
year ago they could be purchased at $1.95
and to-day the price is $3.53. These same
nails, that the American people are com-
pelled to pay $3.53 a keg for, and with all
the cost of freights by land and transporta-
tion by water, loading and unloading
paid, are delivered to European merchants
at $2.14 a keg.
Barbed wire that has become a staple
product of this country and in the price of
which every farmer is interested now costs
the American purchaser $4.13 a hundred
pounds and Europeans hut $2.20 for the
same quantity.
Possibly this kind of discrimination
against ourselves and against our own in-
terests may suit the Republican leaders,
who have undertaken the task of defending
the trusts and the legislation that is main-
taining their grip upon the country, but it
is hardly probable that the people who are
fleeced by these combinations, and are com-
pelled to pay a higher price for the prod-
ucts of American manufactories, than Eu-
ropeans are, will admit that it suits them.
This is one of the questions that Mr.
HANNA and his candidate McKINLEY
will avoid in the next presidential con-
test.
. ——1It is not strange that General Lord
METHEUN and the titled warriors that Eng-
land has sent to South Africa have so far
been unprepared to meet their Dutch op-
ponents. The many and various photo-
graphs they have been sending home shows
that they have been kept entirely too busy
posing for pictures to bother with the de-
tails or the less agreeable work of trying to
lick the Boers. The world might get
along without a British victory, but what
wouldn’t it do if our daily papers didn’t
have a different picture of its lordly gener-
als every day in the week ?
Should Be Shortened.
In summing up the good deeds that were
done during the past year some one under-
takes to itemize the liberality of ANDREW
CARNEGIE Esq., in bequests of institutions
of various characters, in which the total
amount is made to figure up $5,155,000.
This is a pretty good showing for a rich
man to make in one year. It is a showing
that but few can make and those who can
deserve double credit for doing so—credit,
not only for the money that is given, but
for the spirit that prompts it and the un-
selfishness that turns private wealth to
public good.
Whether the other benevolences given in
the list of Mr. CARNEGIE’S contributions
are correct we do not know, but as to one
item—that of $100,000 as credited to the
State College—we are certain that no such
sum was given, nor, in fact, was that in-
stitution the recipient of any sum what-
ever from him. During the early part of
last year, and while the Legislature was in
session, Mr. CARNEGIE offered to erect a
library building for the College at a cost of
$100,000 provided the State would appro-
priate $10,000 annually to equip and main-
tain it. The Legislature refused to accept
the offer and that was the end of it.
It is right enough that Mr. CARNEGIE
should have full credit for every charitable
act done and for every liberal proposition
extended. He is entitled to this, more he
does not need, nor would he have. But it
is not right that an institution like the
State College should be charged with re-
ceiving bequests that were never made, or
with being the recipient of money that
was never given it. Justice to both Mr.
CABNEGIE and to the State College require
that this one contribution, at least, be
stricken from the list of his last year’s
benevolences.
—It seems strange that a wise man like
the superintendent of the water department
should marvel at the consumption of 237,-
000 gallons of water in five hours on Sun-
day evening, in Bellefonte. Don’t you
know, SAMUEL, that the bars are closed
Sunday and a large percentage of the popu-
lation is thereby compelled to make a week-
ly change to water.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JAN. 19. 1900.
A Glori’us *Casion.
Philadelphia boasts that it is a great city
and believes it has abundant reason for feel-
ing more than usually proad. It is to have
the Republican National Convention, and
great are the preparations that are being
made for that event. It pays $200,000 for
the show, and expects to have a big time
and lots of fun before it is all over.
And why shouldn't it?
“It pays its money and it takes its
choice.”
To be sure Philadelphia has water that is
neither fit to drink nor clean enough to
wash in. Its gas is rotten and without
enough of light to make a shadow. Its
wharves are but rotten bulk-heads and its
piers decaying man traps. Its hospitals
and asylums are kept open only by the
charity of the State. It has not enough of
school houses to accommodate the children
within it. It has no money to dredge and
and cleanse its only highway to the sea.
But it has $200,000 to contribute to a
convention that will nominate McKINLEY,
and declare in favor of trusts.
It has also 100,000 Republican majority
when its repeators, ballot-box stuffers and
false counters are duly recognized.
Great is Philadelphia, and great is the
glory that envelops it? Why shouldn’t its
people feel proud ?
—They bave had a little more shooting
in Kentucky. Former Republican Con-
gressman DAVID G. GOLSON pulled a gun
in a Frankfort hotel, Tuesday night, and
before he got done shooting off three men
were dead and two others mortally wound-
ed. He gave himself up then and after be-
ing placed in a front room of the dwelling
portion of the county jail over two hun-
dred telegrams of sympathy were wired in
to him. Kentucky must be fairly boiling
over with sympathy for when the poor vic-
tims got beyond its reach it had to spend
itself on their slayers.
Wild Cattle on the Nittany Mountains
The practice of summer pasturing cat-
tle on the mountain lands in Centre
county has become so popular that now
many extensive tracts of wild land are en-
closed and men are engaged to herd, dur-
ig the season, great droves of young cattle
at rates of from one to two dollars per
head. All that is required of the herder is
that he keep the cattle salted, free from
epidemics and rounds them up in the fall
when the owners appear to take them
home.
The practice of mountain pasturing has
been the natural result of an inclination on
the part of farm owners to reduce the
number of head of stock a tenant may pas-
ture on the farm. A certain number of
milk cows and their increase are usually
permissible, but young cattle are not, so if
the tenant farmer wants to raise a beef for
himself or for the market he must find
pasture for it elsewhere, and usually sends
it to the mountains. Lots of farmers send
their young cattle out to pasture also, so
that during the summer months there are
thousands of head roaming over the Alle-
ghenies, Muncy,” Tussey and Nittany
mountains. They are branded with a
slit or a punch or some other mark in the
ear and turned loose. That is the last that
is seen of them until fall, when the owners
gather at the herder’s shanty for the round-
up or, if the cattle have had no herder, a
number of farmers join together to round-
up their own.
Sometimes several are missed. One
farmer might pick all of his out of the
round-up, while another would be short a
heifer or a steer or several head. It is not
often that such losses are permanent, for
the estrays are usually found on later and
more careful search, but laurel poisecn, an-
thrax and even a bullet might drop a few
in a herd, so that they are never found.
The Nittany valley farmers have been
having trouble of another kind with their
cattle. Heretofore they have found it a
comparatively easy task getting them
rounded up and separated, but last season
the very old Nick seems to have gotten in-
to them and they were like deer when the
time for the fall round-up came. They
would snort and dart away whenever ap-
proached by a human being ; clearing logs
and low brush with the ease of an antelope.
The result was that a number of them had
to be left in the mountains and are there
at this writing ; growing wilder every day.
Last week several owners decided to try
running them down with hounds. By this
plan four were caught, but they had to be
bound with ropes before they could be
dragged out of the mountains. Every
scheme imaginable has been tried, but to
little purpose. It had been thought that
by hauling feed out to them they would
grow tamer, but this failed.
It is the general impression that the
heavy thunder storms of last August so
terrified the animals as to make them
wild.
—1If you want fine job printing of
every description the WATCHMAN office is
the place to have it done. °
The Ending We Could All Pray For.
From the Philadelphia North Ameriean.
The attempted moral justification for a
war of criminal aggression which shocks
the moral sense of mankind is that civiliza-
tion would be the gainer by the substifu-
tion of British for Boer rule in the Trans-
vaal. This is called the ‘‘higher morality’
but in reality it is only the old lie, as
wicked as it is oid, that evil may rightful-
ly be done in order that good may come.
_ The civilization is benefited by the con-
tinued existence of a great power which
flings rigkteousnes aside when selfish in-
terest bids, is to be more than doubted by
any one who can take long views. But if
we are to consider results alone, the argun-
ment advanced for England can be employ-
ed by the Boers on their own behalf with
immensely augumented force. The crush-
ing of the African Republics would mean
merely a slight extension of the British
empire, whereas should victory for the
Boers cause that empire—bereft of prestige
and with its weakness exposed to all eyes
—t0 go to pieces, what then ?
Republics would spring up among its
ruins. All South Africa would be free and
at liberty to begin its career as an inde-:
pendent, self-governing nation. Canada
would be compelled to set up for herself or
come into the American Union. In either
case the Canadians would step to a higher
plane, for the blight on colonial dependence,
the belitteling jealousy and hatred of the
United States, would be removed. A
splendid Republic would rise in Australasia,
giving the world another Federal Union
destined, perhaps, to be as rich and power-
ful as our own. The British islands of the
West Indies would come to us, and wher-
ever English rule survived it would grow
milder at the price of its continuance.
England herself probably would begin a
new era of progress as a Republic, with
Ireland as a sister State, or a neighboring
independent Commonwealth.
If republicanism is better than monar-
chy, government of the people by them-
selves preferable to their government by
Kings, then humanity should pray for the
triumph of the Boers, and through that
triumph for the collapse of the British Em-
pire, by whose downfall the monarchical
idea would receive such a blow as has 110t
been delivered since France arose and
avenged the wrongs of a thousand years of
rule by divine right.
No medizval robber baron who dashed
down from his castle upon the passing
merchant and made prize of his wares had
ever less warrant in right for his enter-
prise than the British Empire in its war
upon Republicanism in Africa. It would
be a just retribution should the outcome
be a world-wide revolt of the republican
spirit against imperialism.
History has witnessed more unlikely
manifestations of common sense.:
The Situation in South Africa om Mon=-
day.
From the Pittsburg Post.
The censorship on news from South Africa
is so close that we are without direct in-
formation, and any speculation of value
must be on the fact that Gen. Buller has
advanced a column east of Colenso, and is
threatening the flank of the Boers in that
direction. Added to this threatening
movement on the right flank of the Boer
army is the statement that it is also threat-
ened from the west of Colenso, and that the
movement in this direction has the co-
operation of Gen. Warren’s corps of 10,000
men advancing from the south and east.
The Boer line of intrenchments covers a
distance of twenty miles fronting and sur-
rounding Ladysmith. The British force
proposing to attack the Boer lines is not
less than 30,000 with 10,000 in Ladysmith.
The Boers have the advantage that their
troops are more easily moved from point to
point than the British and that they are
operating on interior lines. This flanking
movement indicates a purpose by the Bri-
tish to abandon their face-to-face aiiacks
on the Boer fortifications, in which they
have uniformly been unsuccessful, and rely
on higher military art by forcing strategic
methods by the flanking process. The be-
lief is general in London, on the probabili-
ties and not on direct information, that
three battles are now in progress on the
Tugela—one on the west, another on the
east and the third in front of Colenso,
which should also have the co-operation of
the Ladysmith garrison. The probabilities
are that on this extended line the British
will be successful on some points and de-
feated on others. From Warren on the
east of Colenso to Buller on the west is
forty miles.
The Trusts Make You Pay Their Toll.
From the York Gazette.
Some time ago the sales agents of the
wholesale houses of Columbus, Ohio, met
and drew up resolutions condemning
trusts, and the Republican party as the
mother of them. In their resolutions they
incorporated a table of prices showing the
increase under trust influence in one year.
This table is an interesting study. It
teaches a valuable lesson which he who
runs may read:
1898. 1899.
Articles. Price. Price.
Clothes baskets, dozen............§6 10 9 00
172 2 85
One gallon galv:
0Z8Dueseenses 135 185
Canned peas 90 145
Sardines, Case.. 2 50 4 00
Salmon, dozen........ 1356 1 80
Canned beans, dozen. $05 135
Canned corn, dozen... 80 105
Canned peas, dozen... 75 1 00
Canned kraut, dozen. 70 100
Carpet tacks, gross. 1 50 27
Cheese, pound... 09 13%,
Wire clotheslines d 00 1%
Rolled oats, bar 5 4 60
Matches, case.. 7 50
Galvanized bue 2 20
Lead pencils, gro 75 135
Pickles, barrel........ 25 6 00
Pocket knives, dozen 85 125
Salt, barrel..........coieee. 75 110
Laundry soap, box. 235 2 85
Starch, pound..... 0234 0434
Syrup, gallon... 17 26
Tapioca, pound... 03 07
Stogies, thousanc 7 50 10 50
Tubs, dozen. 4 50 G75
Washboards, 1 40 2 25
Spices, pound..... 12 18
Canned beef, dozen.... 1 40 245
-——Sucribe for the WATCHMAN,
Spawls from the Keystone.
—Damages paid in Fulton county for sheep
killed and injured during the past year will
amount to about $300.
—The journeyman plumbers, gas and steam
fitters of Reading will organize a school to
better the sanitary condition of Reading.
—Free mail delivery will be instituted at
Lewistown on May 1st. There will be one
clerk, three carriers and one substitute. The
carriers will receive $600 each.
—Mrs. Kate Thrush, of Leesburg, several
miles east of Shippenshurg, is the oldest
person in that section. If she lives until
February she will be 98 years of age.
—Two hundred and forty-five miners dis-
charged from the Philadelphia and Reading
colleries at Shamokin for attending the fu-
neral of a miner killed in Bear Valley have
been restored to their places.
—A few days ago George L. Norris was
thrown from a load of hay which he was
driving through Clearfield. One of his ankles
was fractured and he was otherwise bruised.
Norris is a resident of Ansonville.
—Ralph, the 5-year-old son of Roland
Knoble, of Paxinos, fell into a kettle of boil-
ing fat Tuesday while the family was butcher-
ing. The child was quickly pulled out. He
was parboiled and died shortly after.
—Four robbers entered the postoffice at
Ganister, ten miles south of Altoona, and
secured $82 in stamps, and the Pittsburg
Limestone Co’s store, where goods worth
$700 were taken away on a hand car.
—The double frame dwelling house on
Boyd avenue,Johnstown, occupied by Abram
Brenneman and James Sullivan, was de-
stroyed by fire Sunday night. The total loss
is about $3,000, partially covered by in-
surance.
—The Everett furnace has been under-
going extensive repairs lately. It was blown
out, and a new bell, weighing over five tons,
has been placed in proper position, and it
will be only a few days until they will be
making iron once again.
—Bears are rare in the mountains along
the Cumberland Valley, but last week a large
one was chased by the Swartz brothers, near
Three Square Hollow, in Cumberland coun-
ty. With their dogs they followed the trail
to the Big Knob, near Concord, Franklin
county, but the men were worn out and had
to give up the chase.
—During the year there were rafted out of
the boom at Williamsport, 746,301 logs, or
93,232,091 feet. This is a decrease over pre-
ceeding years owing to the fact that the river
was not high enough to float all the logs to
the boom. It is estimated that over 15,-
000,000 feet of logs are banked at different
points along the stream.
—At Williamsport Saturday T. C. Mitman,
of East Third street, fell from the tower of
the old engine house No. 4, to which point
he had climbed to take down the flag, to the
ground. He dropped thirty-five feet and
alighted on his feet. He was unconscious
when taken to the hospital. Both ankles
were fractured, the bones being telescoped.
—Charles, Thomas and Allen Scott, sons
of William Scott, were cremated in their
home at Coal Run, Somerset county, on last
Saturday a week. They were aged 19, 16
and 14 years. They came home from their
work early in the morning and retired, leav-
ing the lamp burning in their rooms. It ex-
ploded, set fire to the building and they were
burned to death.
—The work of tearing down St. Michael’s
church at Loretto was begun last week, in
order to get ready for the erection of a new
edifice, which will occupy the same grounds.
The old building was in bad shape, and was
in fact, really dangerous. Mr. Charles M.
Schwab, of Braddock, will bear the expense
of erecting the new church, which will be one
of the finest in the country.
—John MecKierman, of Latrobe, on Tues-
day of last week, fell on an icy pavement
and cut a deep gash on hishead. The wound
was dressed but he has since become delirious
and wandered away from his home. Parties
are searching for him. McKierman is 38
years old, weighs 145 pounds and his hair is
streaked with gray. At the time of his dis-
appearance he wore a black striped shirt.
—H. G. Rush, a Lancaster mathematician,
has offered to give $1,000 to Franklin and
Marshall College and the Young Men’s Ch ris-
tian Association if he fails to satisfactorily
demonstrate that the theory of elliptical
orbits of heavenly bodies emunerated by
Kepler and Newton is not erroneous. He
claims that they move in eccentric orbits and
science has been wrong for centuries.
—The strike of employes of the kindling-
wood mill at St. Mary's has extended to
similar establishments at Portland Mills,
Austin and Bradford. The kindling wood
Workers’ Union is affiliated with the federa-
tion of lohor and the men say they will not
return to work until the increase asked for
is given them. The boys and girls employed
in the factories do not belong to the union,
but are in sympathy with the demand made
and have effected a temporary organization.
—Cumberland county was founded on the
97th of January, 1750, and some of the citi-
zens think a public movement should be
made to celebrate its sesqui-centennial. In
the matter of age. Cumberland stands sixth
among the counties of Pennsylvania. Phila-
delphia, Bucks and Chester were formed in
1682. Lancaster in 1729, York in 1749 and
yamberland in 1750. The county is rich in
historic associations. A number of the old
churches and school houses are still in exist-
ence, notably the Lutheran church near
Shiremanstown, built in 1765, while the
Presbyterian church at Silver Spring was
erected in 1783. Dickinson College was erect-
ed in 1782.
—The school report contains these sta-
tistics of the schools of the States : Number
of school directors, 2,493; number of schools,
27,968; number of graded schools, 16,905;
number of superintendents, 140; number of
male teachers, 9,360; number of female teach-
ers, 19,466; average salaries of male teachers
per month, $44.27; average salaries of female
teachers per month, $37.84; whole number of
pupils, 1,152,452; average number of pupils
in daily attendance, 858,177; cost of school
houses—purchasing, building, renting, ete.,
$3,569,820.94; teachers’ wages, $10,749,713.38;
cost of school text books, $782,235.50; cost of
school supplies other than text books, $408, -
146.30; fuel, contingencies, fees of collectors
and other expenses, $4,798,852.82; total ex-
penditures, $20,308,768.95; estimated value
of school property, $49,491.585.