RTT
GRAY MEEK.
c=
Ink Slings.
8Y.P.
—Highwaymen on Bellefonte streets !
Now don’t that make some of you timid
girls think of sleeping with a light in your
bedroom.
— A Bellefonte wag remarked, on Tues-
day, that Centre county’s Representative,
Mr. THOMPSON, is probably well of his
lumbago on one side, but whether it is the
QUAY or Insurgent side he can’t tell.
—WILLIE WAY-OUT ASTOR, the man
without a country, is trying to buy a place
in London society again. He has given
$25,000 to the Princess of Wales fund for
the families of soldiers in the South Afri-
kan war.
—TUnele SAM has decided to try to stop
the war in the Philippines by deporting
the Filipinos to the island of Guam.
Wouldn’t it be better to let the Filipinos
where they are and deport our soldiers to
the United States of America ?
—Representative WELTY, of Franklin
county, says he agreed to vote for QUAY
because he lost his head. It is probable
that if his constituents had known that he
was to lose it so soon they would have
spared themselves the ignominy of being
misrepresented by such a man and given
him the ax, themselves, at the election,
— Bishop POTTER, of New York, was
over to Philadelphia on Wednesday night
inaugurating a crusade against vice. He
was enthusiastically received by the Phila-
delphians, probably because it was a tacit
acknowledgement, on the part of an emi-
nent New Yorker, that the Quaker city
does have enough get up in’ her to be ‘bad.
—Queen WILHELMINA, of Holland, has
at last secured consent of her people to get
married, Mrs. ASTOR has giv en her ball in
New York and increased ‘‘ the Four Hun-
dred’ to five, and sister MARY ELLEN
LEASE has decided to give up the stump
and go home to mind her children. It is
well that the twentieth century is deliver-
ed of three such momentous events thus
arly in her life.
——HoBsON achieved greatness by his
bravery in the harbor of Santiago ; then
Tost it hy the silly practice of kissing freak-
ish girls. DEWEY became the public idol
by his clever strategy in Manila bay ; and
fell shattered to the ground ‘when he gave
that house to his wife. JOHN THOMPSON
became popular in Centre county because
he'was a good fellow ; things are different
now hecause he got an attack of lumbago.
——This Congress has at least done some-
thing that will make it a traly memorable
one. On Wednesday the Senate concurred
in the Honse hill to abolish the canteen in
‘our armies and that ‘vicious and vile sys-
tem” that has heen a canker in the flesh of
a pure government will have to go. Presi-
dent MoKINLEY’s War Secretary, Mr.
Root, was for retaining the canteen ‘and
making bar keepers out of boys 'who' had
enlisted to fight for their country, but the
Senate and Congress were above the per-
suasions of the brewers and distillers and
honor has won for once.
—— “The people of. York county,’’ says
the. York Gazette, ‘‘are entirely satisfied
with the action of their Representatives in
the Legislature.” Possibly they are, but
we doubt it. We have, howey er, known
persons who have lived in such surround-
ings and amid stenchs’ so long that they
‘could neither appreciate nor distinguish
the odor of a rose bed from that of a phos-
phate factory. Possibly the people of
that county who are satisfied with the ac-
tion of their Representatives are in such
a condition. :
EL Tt looks very much as if the burr
‘under the tail of the Republican filly in
Pennsylvania is not to be removed. There
are but three votes needed to keep it just
whete it is, and cash’ can get these needed
three. What a kicking and cavorting we
may expect to see, if the animal is able to
hold out,and the burr keeps strictly to busi-
ness’! In fact there ig no telling what fan
there is ahead for the people. At least for
those who don’t care what comes of Mr.
QUAY or the party that would: bie g0 de-
lighted to get rid of him.
While Prine D. ARMOUR, the mil-
lionaite Chicago pork packer was ‘‘a little
short on church ‘daties,’” as ‘he’ himself
said shortly before his death, the millions
he left ito charities ought to be a passporh
that St. PETER could honor, avithout
soruple. Probably Mr ARMOUR'S personal
efforts conld not have accomplished one
millionth part of the. good the, funds
he has left for that purpose will ‘do. ‘He
was. not a bad man in any sense and who
can say that he will not reap an eternal
harvest from the seed sown in his will giv-
ing so much to charities.
~The. character of the present adminis-
tration finds no. worse commentary ‘than
is to be seen in several orders recently is-
sued ‘in the army. Former President
HARRISON has heen by no means hack-
ward in asserting that the constitution
must follow the flag. If sach is held to be
the case then President MOKINLEY will be
adjudged guilty of violating the constitu-
tion in his regulations concerning the ac-
quisition of Porto Rico and the Philip-
pines. The question is soon to be decided
the Supreme court. Only afew days
ago Russenr HARRISON, a son of the former
President, was relieved from duty i in the
Philippines and at’ the same time two sons
of two associate justices of the Supreme {
court were ordered to the Orient for serv-
ioe in fat army offices. A bed post could |
almost see rR ‘this move.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 46
BELLEFONTE, PA., JAN. 11, 1901.
Amendments That Don’t Improve.
That the adoption of the Australian vot-
ing system, as is now being urged by the
so called Ballot Reform Association, would
remedy the wrongs committed at local and
general elections in this State, we have se-
rious doubts. That system, as we under-
stand it, and as it is proposed to be enacted
into law, differs from our present method
only in the make up, or form in which the
ticket is printed. It groups the candi-
dates for any one office all under the head
of that office, in place of separating them
into columns according to their political
affiliations, thus requiring the voter to se-
lect from the whole number of candidates
for the position, the name or names of
those he desires to vote for, and to place a
mark opposite each one.
This is the one material change that is
suggested, and. in what manner it would
prevent the rottenness and wrongs that are
so prevalent at electious,and which it is io-
tended to cure, we are frank. to admit is a
mystery to us.
Its adoption would not do away with the
outrages upon the rights of the people that
arise from the arbitrary ruling of partisan
courts as to the names entitled to be print-
ed upon a ticket. :
It. would not prevent the opportunities
for bribery now given by allowing the voter
‘assistance in the booth.’
It wonld not prevent the substitution
of marked unofficial ballots, for the un-
‘marked -official one handed the voter: by
the election hoard.
Tt would not insure an honest conut and
a correct return of the votes cast.
And if it prevents none of these wrongs,
whereiii does’ it reform our present fraud-
breeding and disgraceful system.
As'we read the suggested amendments
they continue the same power in the hands
of the courts that they now possess—to
practically select the candidate for all par-
ties in cases that are brought before them,
and to prohibit the printing of tickets for
others than these whom. they designate as
the proper nominees, If the courts are to be
continued as the final
‘people shall have 0
Heir ticket, or'How
uniform rules for making nominations and
name. the time at which, nominating con-
ventions should meet; and the power of the
courts should be confined to questions
growing out of the violations of these rules.
At present party usuages, alleged customs,
unpublished rules, and techuicalites of all
sorts are used as a basis for judicial inter
ferences and furnish abundant excuses for
decisions that are asked for and granted
solely for partisan purposes.
To group- the ticket, as is proposed,
simply means, that every, voter must remem-
ber the names of every candidate upon the
ticket for whom he desires to vote, have
intelligence enough to select those names
from among many more and place his mark
opposite’ to each one..
"We venture the assertion “that in years
in which there may be State, district and
county tickets to be elected, not one voter
in ten can recall every name upon the
ticket that he desires to vote for.
If in ‘the midst of the excitement around
him, the cramped condition be is generally
placed in ‘and the dread of making mistakes
that cling to most persons. while in the
booth, he must wade through forty or fifty
names to find those he expects to support,
how many are there who can do it without
error, or who will ‘bother about others,
than a few of the most hotly ‘contested
positions ?. Under our present system it
takes any ordinary voter from three to five
minutes to mark ‘a single cross at the top
of his ticket. With this additional duty
of bunting. out the. name of each candidate
he intends voting for from among the many
on ‘the ticket, ‘the time now occupied “in
voting ‘will he quadrupled, and five times ||
the booths and double. the. number. of elec- |
tion districts, at present needed, will be re-
quired to poll the vote. In addition to
these objections such’ a grouping “of ‘candi-
dates will only serve to mystify voters and
furnish additional excuses for demanding
assistance, a matter which loose election
boards and political workers will be only
00 Eh to take advantage of.
teres.
Then to lessen the opportunities for
booth affords, the proposed amendments
who ave physically disabled. Is there a
dividual who would accept a bribe would
not swear falsely ? Wherein then will the
administration of an oath keep the briber
from the booth to mark the ticket of the
poor wretch his money has purchased ?
Does not this provision simply offer a
prize for perjury while it in no way pre-
vents the individual who Tas paid a price
fora vote from knowing that it was cast as
promised. The way to amend this section
of the present law, to finke it affective,
itors of who the |
it shall be made, then. the - law should. fix
bribery, that permitting .assistance in the
limits assistance to those who. will swear |
they cannot read the ticket and to those |
man in the State who believes that an in-
would be to prevent any assistance to any
one except those physically unable to mark
a ballot. This might practically disfran-
chise some, but it would be their own
fault. Their ignorance would be to blame
for it.
As to other amendments suggested the
WATCHMAN may have more to say in the
future. It is free to express the opinion,
however, that if we cannot get something
better than the proposed changes it would
be wise to wait until the adoption of the
pending constitutional amendments which
will permit of voting by machinery and
adopt that method.
— Mr. QUAY is not elected yet, but his
friends are boasting of his strength and
popularity, . as if he was the idol that all
men worship. It 1s possible that he may
succeed, but with his party in the majority
in the State almost 300,000, abd controlling
over three-fourths of the members of. the
Legislature, we don’t see where the popu-
and skin through with a barely snfficient
vote to elect. : A candidate ‘who can com-
mand the support of but 127 out of 193 of
his own partisan workers is not entitled to
much of a chromo for his personal popular-
ity, mor ig there mueh to ‘blow about of
political strength.
Working For Its Own Defeat.
It is but eighteen years ago that Presi-
dent ARTHUR attempted to stay the tide of
congressional extravagance and save the
Republican party a deserved defeat by ve-
toing a wasteful River and Harbor appro-
priation bill. That year a Republican
Congress proposed expending but $19,000,-
000 in this way, It was a largely Repub-
lican Congress and it passed its measure
over the veto of the President. The an-
gwer of the people to this act of Republi-
ean extravagance, less than one year there-
after, was the election of a Democratic
President and a Democratic House and
such changes in State Legislatures as gave
the Senate to the Democrats ‘a ley years
‘later.
And this was but eighteen years ago.
: The present Congress is Republican by a
less majority than was the 47th. There is
no greater demand, in a “public
improvements to our rivers and harbors,
than there was then. In: fact, the demand
is less, for improvements have been going
on every year since, and they are now in
very different condition from what they
were in 1883.
But Republican Representatives now
propose expending $59,000,000 the coming
year in the same way—forty millions more
than the 47th Congress squandered for this
purpose and brought around the deserved
defeat of the party it represented. .
Tt looks as if the 56th Congress was de-
termined to do that which the 47th ac-
complished so easily—arouse the people to
the enormity of the extravagance and
‘profligacy of the party in power, and fur-
nish reasons for a political revolution that
will leave nothing of Republicanism but a
memory of its wrongs, and the burdens of
taxation that its reckless use of public mon-
eys placed upon the shoulders. of the peo-
ple.
© In this it is doing good work for the
Democracy. May it succeed in insuring its
own defeat.
—Dr. Gro. W. ATHERTON, president
of The Pennsylvania State College, has
just published a neat brochure on the leg-
islative career of the late JUSTIN J. MOR-
RILL. ‘The author takes up the life of the
eminent statesman from the time of his
birth at Strafford, Vermont, April 14th,
1810, and follows it to the close of what he
considers ‘‘one of the most fruitful legisla-
tive careers thus far recorded in our con-
gressional history.’’ The principal object of
the sketch is to show the effect that JusTIN
'MORRILL'S forty-four years of continuous
service in both branches of Congress had
upon free institutions: of learning ‘in’ ‘the
United States. Sprang ‘from ‘an humble
origin, with’ very meagre means, of satisfy-
ing his craving for knowledge it seems but
a natural sequence that Mr. MORRILL
‘should have been the father of the Land
Grant Act of 1862, which might aptly be
called the corner stone laying of a great
system of public educational institutions
the future usefulness of ‘which no mind
can estimate. The Pennsylvania State
College is one of the institutions founded
by the MOREILL Act.
~— Congress has passed a bill fixing the
number of members of that body at 386 in
place of 357 as now constituted. If the
_measure becomes a law Pennsylvania will
‘have 32 Congressmen, hereafter, an increase
of two. That this will better its condition
‘no one will pretend. It will make a place | a
for politicians to squabble over—a fat posi-
tion for two more men and add to the pub-
lic expenditures the amounts they will
draw in salaries, mileage, stationary, eto.,
but where te benefit to the people or the
Commonwenlth will come in is not observe.
able.
larity comes in that must win by bribery, |B
and support for himself,an aspirant for the
distinguish it.
way, | tor |
A Hypocritieal Pretense:
It is not much that need be said about
the efforts of northern Republicans to create
race bitterness throughout the South on
account of laws that limit the ballot, in a
number of those States, to those who can
read and write. The object and the hypoc-
risy of the movers in this work are both
apparent.
Here in Pennsylvania, where the negro
vote is showing signs of dissatisfaction
with Republican treatment, they are ex-
pected to be lined up solidly again for
whatever that party demands, by the cry
that their race is to be disfranchised
throughout the South, where Democracy is
in the control. The individual who comes
to the front in Congress, in this effort, is
the Representative from the Dauphin dis-
double purpose in view. The one is to
keep the colored vote of the State solid for
the party that it has so long clung to and
from which it has received so little recog-
nition. ' The other is to insure its sympathy
Republican nomination for Governor.
‘move Mr. OLMSTEAD. ' They are as‘appar-
ent as the sun on a cloudless day. ‘If he
perpetrated by stultifying the power of
the ballot he would find plenty to do right
here at home in correcting those wrongs.
The difference between the wrong done to
the man who is prevented from voting by
reason of the lack of qualification and
| that committed against the citizen who is
qualified and casts a ballot that is mis
counted, thrown-out, or made nugatory by
reason of fraudulent votes that are allowed
to be cast against it, is so small that we
doubt if even these Republican bellowers,
for universal suffrage in the South, could
sylvania, through the aid of imported re-
peaters; intimidation, = false counting—
methods by which the Republican ma-
chine profits, there are more white men
practically disfranchised every election,
than there are negroes prevented from vot-
ing in a all the States of, the South put to-
‘franchise ignorance in the South, through
constitutional amendments, what would
you call the sneaking, law defying disfran-
chisement of the tens of thousands of intel-
‘ligent white men of Pennsylvania, who are
nullified every election through the frau-
dulent practices that are endorsed and
gloried in by the Republican party ?
It is in their methods at home and their
pretenses of demanding fair play for those
whom they wonld make believe are wronged
by other States, that the Pennsylvania Re-
publicans demonstrate their hypocrisy.
Stretching it Too Far.
A movement is on foot in Chester county
to test the right of the members of the Leg-
islature, from that county,to act assuch on
the ground that they secured their nomina-
tion and ‘election by reason of a pledge or
‘promise given to support Mr. QUAY for
election to the United States Senate. A
nice case is cooked up in this instance on the
presumption that it is a violation of law for
candidates to make «ny pledge or promise
for the purpose of securing votes. A deeis-
ion to this effect, wa believe, was rendered
by a Berks county judge, ina Lebanon
county contest, last fall.
If such is the case and the Chester county
Independents can prevent the men, elected
to the Legislature last fall from that coun-
have given a pledge of the kind, we have
fallen upon queer times indeed.
The law to which reference is made was
intended to prevent. bribery—to prevent
the securing of votes for nomination or
election’ through promises of positions or
something else of value. It was not
enacted for the, ‘purpose of preventing, a
constituency knowing exactly where those
seeking nominations stood on public ques-
tions. If we are to consider that a pledge
to do that which the people of the county
desire is a crime, then how in the name of
common sense is any body of voters to know
what is to be expected of those they choose
as Representatives ? -
In this business of challenging the Tight
of candidates to avow their preferences, and
pledge their actions, we fear the Chester
county Independents are “biting off more
than they can chew.” It is a dangerous
position to take, and one which; if sustain-
ed by the courts, would allow every rap-
scallion who could manage to be elected,
to hetray the people who voted for him
without violating a pledge or breaking a
promise. It would be forcing the public
to elect Representatives as they would buy
a “pig in a poke,” without knowing what
they were getting, or what they might ex-
pect.
No law’ was ever piss with such a crazy
intent as this, and if the laws we have can
be constructed to sustain, any such a belief
the sooner they are wiped from the statute
books the better:
trict, M. E. OLMSTEAD, and he has a|
These are the actuating motives that :
were opposed ‘to the disfranchisement of |
any eitizen, or objected to wrongs that are |
‘to that time.
And right here in Pevn- |
tit isa crime e Sopenly and frankly dis-
end is in sight: now.
ty. acting as Representatives, because they |
‘future.
A Song of Assimilation.
8. Francis Ingersole in Pittsburg Post.
Sigg a song of war time;
ard-tack tough and dry:
Four-apd-twenty aged cows
Ground up into “*pi.”
Before the can was opened
The smell began to * Sing,
Wasn't that a dainty dish
For Uncle Sam to bring?
The King was in the capitol,
Counting o’er his money.
The generals were in their tents,
Eating bread and hoaey.
The soldier boys in storm and sun,
No shelter but the sk
By hunger torn, and ured thirst,
In scores lie down to die.
Sing a a song of battle;
here neither shot nor shell,
Nor deadly Mauser bullet; = °
Though aimed by fiends of hell;
E’er waged such deadly warfare
As foes, unseen and gaunt,
Lurking in swamp an thicket
Grim Pestilence and Want.
Sing a song of heroes,
ho lie beneath the waves;
Who, far from home and kindred,
floenl in their Southern graves.
Who, for a cause unrighteous,
Starved, suffered, bled and died;
Pleading in vain for succor
So heartlessly denied.
Sing a song of triumphs;
Nay !. .*Tis no vietory gained,
vie a Nation’s honor
dastard greed is stained.
where our country’s vod
5, I bartered, not for right, ie
But cruel, rank oppression,
And wrong tiphe d by might.
. ‘And when, in rong or story.
Brave deeds shall live again,
To stir a Nation’s pulse beat,
/And thrill the hearts of men;
In shame, and deep contrition,
people, bow your head,
And ‘weave undying chaplets'
For teed our martyred dead
Hoisting the e Danger Sigal.
From thé N, Y. Sun. !
The River and Harbor bill’ whith Presi-
dent ARTHUR vetoed, which the Forty-
seventh Congress passed over his veto, and
which at “the election’ oconring a few
months later swept the’ ‘Republicans out ‘of
power in ‘the House of Representatives,
was the most extravagant ever enacted ap
Yet it appropriated Tess
than $19,000,000.
The River and "Harbor bill just reported
to the House by the committee of ‘which
Mr. BurTox of Ohio is the chairman is'a
sixty-million-dollar measure.” * Tt appropri-
ates directly for the next fiscal’ year not
less than $22,792,711. It. gives authority
for incurring obligations under the contin-
uing contract system, for work to be done
after June 30th, 1902, amounting to $37,-
142,704. The total actually. arried by
this bill is $59,935:415.
"The country should dude hat x
“the propos
ition is, and wvhither the river
and harbor business is tending. * Some of
‘the proposed’ improvements are legitimate |
and absolutely ‘necessary. Others, judg-
ing by all precedent and “by the unvarying
habits of human nature in Congress when- |
ever the pork barrel is opened and the logs |.
set a-rolling, are of the Cheesequake order.
The aggregate is stupendous.
It exceeds the total ‘expenditures of the
Federal Government for ‘all purposes, in-
cluding interest on the public 'debt, in any
year of the nation’s existence up to 1856,
less than half a century ago.
"This River and Harbor appropriation of
1901, direct and ‘obligatory for the future,
is about twelve times as great as the total
expenditures of the United States Govern-
ment, exclusive of interest, in the corves-
ponding year of thé last century.
It exceeds by more than $5,000,000 the |
entire expenditures of ‘the United States
Government for all purposes in 1847, the
year of the war with Mexico.
It is only the beginning. An endless
prospect of swiftly increasing annual de- |
mands of the same sort is indicated by’ the |
committee’s report that ‘the total amount
required for river and harbor work already
planned by the engineers and already defi-
‘nitely ‘estimated as to cost by the War De-
partment now approximates three hundred
million dollars. And when that $300,000, -
000 has been spent. if spent it is, there will
be creeks and 'bayous and inlets enough
left ‘on the map. and local hunger enough
for a Government appropriation: for | the
benefit of the respectives localities; to cou-
sume twice and ‘thrice $300,000,000. No
No end will he in
sight a huudred years hence. |
Let Congress think before it votes.
recall again to the attention of the Republi-
can majority the warning: dgainst extrava-
gant appropriations with which President
McKINLEY concluded his recent: official
disconsses upow: the state of the loounteyes i
A Weak Advocate of a Righteous Prop-
: : : _osition.
i Fr rom the Hi vishirg Star-Tndependent::
It would probably be impossible‘to im-
agine anything of less importance than the |
‘opinion of Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts,
on any subject. If any. other Senator in
Congress had expressed. the idea’ that the
government of the United States is under |
moral obligatiogs to withdraw from the
Philippines and leave the natives to their
own resources, it would be sufficient. But
such a sentiment coming from the Senator
from Massachusetts is not worth noticing.
Everybody knows that his complete slavery
to party will force him to reverse himself
whenever the exigencies. of politics require
it, and what he says or thinks is of no con-
‘sequence now or hereafter. .
‘But there is a good deal of reason in|
the suggestion, ‘nevertheless, and. “though
Mr. Hoar will vote against his own motion
at the first crack of the party whip, the
snbstance of his amendment to the army
reorganization bill is certain to attract
widespread popular attention in ‘the near |
‘His proposition is that no part of |
the increased army be used in the Philip-
pines and that only such force be. main-
tained there as is necessary ‘‘to keep order
in places now under the peaceable control
of the United States,'’ and it is rapidly in-
‘creasing in. favor among the people. But
it will not he adopted as long as Senator
Hoar is its champion, unless, of course, it
should hecoute the party policy. «oie
i Lipo
! ese Subtrihe for: the WATCHMAS. oh
We £
nis hagad |
Spawls from the Keystone.
‘ —The new bank and trust company’s
building at Greensburg was damaged to the
| extent of $1,000 by fire which started at the
foot of the elevator Mouday morning.
—Capitalists are buying up the coal islands
along the line of the West Branch Valley
railroad between Clearfield and Karthaus
railroad. There will be three bridges on the
new road, one at Wolf Run one at Lick Run
and the other at Shawsville.
—Robert Gearhart, who is 84 years old,
recently walked from his: home in Brush
Creek township to McConnellsburg, and
back, making a round trip of fifty-two miles.
He is the father of twenty-eight children
and has never been ill in his life. .. #
—John Moist, Samuel Stroup'afid ’ John I.
Kaufman were arrested oii tl e charge of
hunting deer with dogs on Anksgiving
day. At the hearing Saturday night Justice
R. W. Patton, of Lewistown, fined the sports-:
men $100 each and the payment of the costs,
—On last Wednesday morning the tannery
at Rainsburg, Bedford county, owned by
Homer Cessna, was totally destroyed by fire,
as were'also the stables of George Strickey,
William Smith and Harry Amos. The total
loss will approximate $3,000, partly covered
by insurance.
—The Presbyterian Sunday school at
Lewistown on Sunday celebrated its 80th
anniversary, and D. W. Woods entered upon
‘his forty-sixth year as its superintendent.
The school contributed $500 the past year for
missions in addition to supporting a mis-
sionary in Japan.
—Rev. David T. Neely, pastor of the Pres.
byterian church at Milroy, Mifflin county,
recently declined a call from the Presby-
terian church at Punxsutawney and ac-
cepted a call to a Presbyterian church in
Baltimore. His resignation was read to the
Milroy charge to take effect the last Sunday
of January.
“John J. Saddler, alias “Pegleg,” will be
hanged in the jail at Greensburg next Thurs.
day afternoon at 2:30 o’clock, unless grant-
ed another, respite by the Governor. Sad-
‘dler maintains be is innocent of the crime of
murder in ‘the eyes of the law, having shot
‘in self-defense; and says he will not given up
hope until the last.
James. ‘McLaughlin, a street car con-
ductor in Lock ‘Haven, was badly hurt at
the. power house Sunday evening. A car
was being transferred to another track, and
the current being on, ainknown to him, when
he ‘stepped between ‘the cars and put’ the
‘trolley on the wire the cars came’ togethér.
McLaughlin’ s right leg was caught at the
thigh and squeezed # hard that the flesh
| was broken.
—William Hinkley, the iwallcknowri pas-
senger ‘éonductor, found a purse containing
$4,800 on the seat of a coach near North-
umberland a few days ago. He turned it
into t the office at Harrisburg, when he learn-
ed. that ‘the owner. had already began tele-
graphing for it, The owner was on his way
.to Watsontown, where he intended purchas-
{ing property. He'did not discover his loss
until after’ leaving’ ‘the ‘train.
—State Senator Charles A, Muehlbronner
will introduce a billat the coming session of
‘the Legislature to provide military training
.in the public schools. He: says such: train-
‘ing will improve ‘the physique of ‘children
and give them some idea of military 'life.
The bill will’ provide that in every public
school district there ‘shall’ be military in-
‘struction under the direction of a commis-
sioned officer of the National guard. The
law may leave the matter of such education
optional with the directors of each district.
The latest stroke of the Pennsylvania
railroad company, in the coal and lumber
fields of Somerset county, revives ‘the Mid-
land railroad project,, partly carried to com-
pletion in Bedford and Blajr counties, a few
years ago.» Pennsylvania’ will extend its
lines to Central City; near the Somerset and
Bedford line, and to this end, it is rumored,
an immense force of men and teams has been
sent into the territory, and work is expected
to begin at once, It is said ‘that fully 200
horses were, landed at Windber last week,
destined for work on the extension. | (7
—George TI. ‘Reynolds, a young man of
Bolivar, i is reported to have had a thrilling
experience a and remar Kable escape, from. death
last Friday. The youth was going up ‘to the
top of an inclined plane in an empty car,
when the down-bound loaded car: became
unmanageable by ‘reason of ‘the disarrange-
ment of the brakes, and the one’ in which
Reynolds was riding plunged into the small
building at the top of the plane. The young
man was thrown about twenty feet in the
air and. landed on another car. Both. arms
were crushed and the youth's face and shew!
ders badly bruised. i
—Matthew Grier, brother of ‘the. ei 1. G.
Grier, died at his home at. Mountain Semi-
nary, Birmingham, Sunday morning, aged
78 years. (He had been a. resident of that
‘place, and was connected with the Seminary
about forty years,since his brother had taken
charge of it." Surviving him are two ‘broth-
ers, Dr. J. Grier, Pasadena, ‘California, and
Dr. Philip Grier, of New Jersey; and one
sister, Mrs. Vantress, of Raritan, N. J. The
funeral services were conducted by Rev. H.
H. Henry, nt the. home: of A. R: Grier at
Birmingham, at 7 o'clock Monday evening.
Burial ‘was made at ‘the seraetery at’ Doyls-
‘town Tuesday ‘morning. et
—A dynamite explosion at, hil son’;
Somerset county, Sunday morning, resulted
‘in the instant death of Michael Ferrick and
‘a colored man. ' The men were ‘employed by
BO. O'Connor, a contractor who is excavat-
ing for an extra track on the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad at Philson's. A foreman on
‘Saturday had, put a cap in a stick of dyna-
mite and then put it ina bucket. Sunday
Ferrick and the negro put the bucket ona
stove to thaw the dynamite, not knowing it
contained the cap. The explosion which re-
‘sulted was terrific. wrecking the building be-
sides killing the two workmen.
—While standing on the, running board of
an engine that was going at the rate of 18
miles an hour, J. C. Giles, a brakeman in the
employ of the New York Central railroad
and residing at Jersey Shore, formerly of
Phil burg ‘was thrown headfore-most to
pve Ne rry Junction Satur-
ie a. He ry “fair on his face,
‘sustaining painfal injuries. A gash was cut
alongside of] his nose, both cheeks were lacer-
,ated and. od and body more or.]
be able to resume.
braised.
Rr tloer itis Sir be ina day or two,