Dewar ata BY P. GRAY MEEK. Ink Slings. —Ithought I was her Valentine, *Til yesterday rolled aroun’ And a chump with fine new horse and sleigh, Caused her to throw me down. — A Harrisburg telegram in a Philadel phia newspaper states that Judge LOVE spent a pleasant half hour with Governor STONE in Harrisburg last Thursday. Our honorable court probably went down to get patted on the back. —The great blanket steel trust that is about forming, with a capital of $947,000, is another unmistakable finger board on the road to the ultimate control of all of pature’s products and resources in this country by a very few men. —_Absent mindedness is now said to be a sign of superior intelligence and that prob- ably accounts for the fact that so many good men go wrong. It isso natural, don’t you know, just to pick up another man’s wife or his money in a fit of absent mind- edness. —The sparrow shoot the Sportsmen’s League is to hold here on Feb. 22nd will be an interesting event because the local gun- ners have never tried to shoot anything so small. Sparrows are the next thing to chippies, but they are a good deal harder to hit. —The Republican gave Mr. W. E. GRAYS senatorial aspirations a sort of a set back yesterday morning. While the official or- gan of Republicanism in Centre county didn’t say it quite in such words, yet its meaning : —No QUAY people need apply— was quite apparent. —1It must have been a great surprise to McKINLEY, when the electoral vote was officially counted on Wednesday and it was found that he was really elected Presi- dent. Everybody else was under the im- pression that it had been HANNA who was elected. —The kids will all stand on their heads, And race wildly up and down, When, with fierce (?) bloodhound and donkey, A Tom show comes to town. —Tt was only natural to start the rumor that JoHN L. POWERS, who is under in- dictment for participating in the murder of Governor GOEBEL, of Kentucky, is in hid- ing in one of the Departments at the Penn- sylvania capitol. A more notorious gang of rogues never had a rendezvous anywhere than is the one at Harrisburg now and a murderer or so would not heighten the color of the crowd very much either. —The present Legislature has already rushed through jobs adding $500,000 a year to the burden of the taxpayers of Pennsyl- vania and $6,000,000 is to be appropriated so that the thieves can have opportunity of filling their pockets under the guise of completing the new capitol; that was sup- posed to have been completed” with the $500,000 originally appropriated for that purpose. —If Minister Wu, the Chinese represen- tative at Washington, had simply said, when he declined the invitation to the banquet in New York, in honor of General Otis, that he didn’t like OTIS, there would have been thousands of others, not China- men, who would have added, ““Them’s my sentiments too.”” But Mr. WU has gotten into diplomatic trouble for saying the same thing in- other words and the endorsement of the people won’t help him out of his dif- ficulty. —Mr. HAGE, chairman of the lower house of the Danish Parliament, is of the opinion that the Danish West Indies ought to be sold. He very frankly says that they are a source of constant loss to his govern- ‘ment and he believes they should be sold to the United States. Goodness, we must be getting a reputation abroad for being ‘‘easy’’ when the Danes come right out, open and above board, and say that they will get rid of their losing ventures by sell- ing them to ns. And Mr. McKINLEY will very probably turn the old motto : “*A fool and his money are soon parted,” to the wall while he makes the purchase. —1It has been demonstrated that if the recent sun-flashes, that were believed to be signals from inhabitants of Mars, were really sun-flashes they must have required mirrors covering a surface of one hundred square miles for accomplishment. This ‘announcement is made with a view to dis- crediting the belief, but what does a hun- ‘dred square miles of mirror amount to to Martian scientists. If the people on that planet have reached the advanced stage of _enlightenment some give them credit with having, why it wouldn’t cut jany more ‘figure in their calculations than does the glass ceiling in PADDY HOOLIGAN’S saloon in ours. — The proposed establishment of camps in the state forest reservations, where persons suffering with pulmonary troubles may go and live an out-of-door lite, will probably be realized early in the spring. State Forestry Commissioner ROTHROCK has already given public utter- ance to his plans for such camps and in an interview, a few days ago, said that the first one would quite probably be made on the Clinton connty reservation, where there is an altitude of two thousand feet above sea level and the State owns forty-five thousand acres of ground. These camps are to be set up by the State. A large A tent, on a permanent foundation, with dry wooden floor is to open onto a covered walk. The tents are to be pitched about fifteen feet apart and are to be maintained by the State; free of charge, for the use of consumptives. The latter will have to Provide their own cooking utensils and ood. ‘BELLEFONTE, PA., FEB. 15. 1901 STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. The Pittsburg Charter. It is confidently expected that the so- called ‘“‘ripper’’ bill will be railroaded through the Senate this week, and unless Senators FLINN and MAGEE, of Pittsburg, bow their necks to the yoke of the machine it will probably pass the House within a fortnight. The ‘‘ripper’’ bill is really a bill for the government of Pittsburg. It gets its name from the fact that if it passes in its present form it will ‘‘rip the present government of that city up the back,” and tear it out by the roots. That isa most commendable consummation. The gov- ernment of Pittsburg is the most atrocious combination of legalized plunderers that was ever organized on earth, with the probable exception of the government of Philadelphia. If there was nothing to consider, therefore, except the ripping up and tearing out, every good citizen might view the process with perfect complacency. But the trouble is that that will only be half of the harvest of the crusade of spite and the carnival of malice which is in- volved in the pending legislation. The object of the QUAY heelers who have under- taken this work is not to reform the gov- ernment of Pittsburg. The aim of the machine adherents is not to put practiced plunderers out and install honest and fair- minded men in their places. On the con- trary the palpable purpose is to put men equally corrupt and just as obnoxious in power in order that part of the proceeds of their predatory operation may be put in- to the corruption fund with which to de- bauch the elections and corrupt the local governments in other parts of the State. Not only that but it proposes to rip up the constitution of the State and tear out by the roots the precedents of all time in the achievement of the purpose. It is an un- inviting feast which both factions set out. Singularly enough the vast majority of the people of Pittsburg favor the passage of the ‘‘ripper,’’ with all its objections and enormity. HAMLET said the troubles of present life ‘‘make us bear the ills we have rather than fly to others that we know not of.”” But these people have suf- fered so much that admonition is lost on them. They know that Governor STONE will give them a vicious government in ex- change for the corrupt one they have. But the reason that STONE'S plunderers will be fect their machine the people will have a chance to assert themselves. They are probably right in that estimate but there ia great danger and infinite risk in the undertaking. When the constitution is violated there is no telling what evil will follow and it is always better to be on the safe side. But things can hardly be made worse then they are at present. -——The congressional apportionment bill passed the Senate finally on Tuesday. Senator HEINLE spoke and voted against the measure. An Odious Bill. The confidence of the machine in its ability to run things in its own way dur- ing the present session of the Legislature is revealed in the bill introduced the other day by Mr. BEacom, of Westmoreland county, creating the offices of Excise Com- missioners. Ten years ago no man would have dared introduce such a measure, any more than he would have dared to intro- duce a bill providing for the protection of brothels or one paying a bounty to gamb- ling dens. It is not alone that the moral sentiment of the State is outraged by so manifest a purpose to subvert the restrictive features of the Brook's license law, but the purpose of making the liquor trade an element in the political capital of the ma- chine is clearly disclosed. The bill provides for three Excise Com- missioners in each county in whom is in- vested the power of granting or refusing to grant licenses to sell liquor. Can anybody imagine the result of such an innovation in this State. In the first place it is safe to conjecture that nine out of ten of the Com- missioners would be liquor dealers them- selves,or men under the control of the deal- ers. That would be the end of restraints on the liquor traffic. Whiskey would then be- come literally as free as water, and the only condition that could possibly be im- posed on the applicant for license would be that he would render faithful and unques- tioned service to the machine thereafter. Mr. BEACcOM, the sponser of this odious bill in the Legislature,is the ex-State Treas- urer and a leader of the QUAY forces on the floor of the House. There is no shrinking now from responsibility for bad legislation or attempts to pervert the laws of the State. The man who can do most for the machine is the one that gets closest in to the affec- tions of the boss, and a little splotch of im- morality is no draw-back to his advance- ment. It didn’t use to be that way. There was a time that the leaders were obliged to keep up the pretense of decency. But that sort of thing is no help now. In fact,it ex- cites a doubt of the sincerity of the friend- ship professed. ‘‘Birds of a feather flock together.’’ novices in the aft and before they can per: Carnival of Profligacy. No session of the Legislature in the his- tory of the State has ever made such raids on the Treasury as the present one is likely to do. Aside from the capital construc- tion bill, which will carry an appropriation of $6,000,000, other bills have been in- troduced involving appropriations of three or four millions, and the Legislature has only been in actual session eighteen days. After the spring elections are over the loot- ing will begin in real earnest and the bosses will indulge in a carnival of spoils. The money will flow from the treasury in a golden flood-tide and the rate of taxation will be multiplied in proportion. Thus far bills have been introduced creat- ing new offices the salaries of which will aggregate nearly half a million dollars. The new court bill in Philadelphia pro- vides for three judges, two clerks, five tip- staffs and half a dozen criers and other hangers on. The bill providing for com- missions to issue licenses creates five or six new offices in every county of the State and from ten to two dozen in some of them. The bill to create a bureau of building and loan associations in the Banking De- partment makes room for half a dozen new and high salaried officers, and other bills add to the number of new places. How are the people to escape from the burdens of this omnivorous Legislature? It is said that ‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad,’” and the wild plunges into the pool of profligacy which have been and will be made by the Legislature indicates that the QUAY ma- chine is in a paroxysm of rabies. Butthe people will have to pay the bills they con- tract. For the next dozen years the burdens will be heavy to bear. The people brought the burdens upon themselves, however, and have themselves to blame if they are heavy. There was warning enough to admonish them, but they wanted QUAYism it ap- pears. — Representative Fox, of Dauphin county, has introduced a measure in the Legislature that is designed for the protec- tion of the raccoon. The raccoon is becom- ing a scarce mammal in Pennsylvania, but it is like everything else. It is being run out by that bad eld Republican coon that dominates the State so effectually. Don’t Extend the Season. The Grange, which is usually reasonable and just in its demands for legislation,is not going to meet with much sympathy io its plan to have the game season kept open until Dec. 31st. The only plea that is put forth for this extension is that under the present limit the farmer’s hoy does not have time to get out to hunt before the season closes, which contention is not founded on fact, so far as Centre county is concerned. We venture the assertion that in this locality quite as much game, if not more, is captured by the farmer’s boy as the town ‘‘game hog,’’ as the Patron is pleased to call him, gets. The open season is not made to suit the convenience of any class of hunters and should not. It is regulated by the habits of the birds and animals classed under the law as game, and should not he extended for the convenience of the farmer’s boy, any more than it should be made to suit that of clerks, mechanics or any other class of men who can occasionally get a day off to go bunting. When the latter do it they have to lose their day’s time and go when they can. While we have no desire to detract from the pleasure of the country boy’s life we are opposed to this extension of the game season for sev- eral reasons. In the first place the benefit of recent legislation, shortening the seasons, is just beginning to be apparent in the increased ‘amount of game in the forests, fields and streams of the State. The present season is fair to all hunters or sportsmen, since they are put on an equal footing. And there doesn’t seem to | be any reasonable demand for extending is. There are just a3 many true sportsmen among the farmer boys as there are in the towns and we feel confident that the ma- jority of them will not be in favor of lengthening the season, for it is apparent that while it might give them a few days more after their fall work is done, and they have nothing in particular to do, it also ex- tends the time during which the ‘‘game hog,” of which the Pafron complains, can kill. Legislating a game season to suit the con- venience of one class of hunters would be about as reasonable as a request on our part to have no picnics or big demonstra- tions anywhere on Thursday, because it is our busy day and we can’t get away handily. ~ ——The first duty of a citizen is to vote for the men who make and enforce the laws under which he must live in abeyance. The ones with which he comes most di- rectly in contact are the ones enacted for townships and borough guidance. On next Tuesday township and borough officials are to be elected. See to it that you go to the polls that day. Sham Battle in Congress. There has heen a good deal of curious sparring in the House at Washington dur- ing the past several days, and the cause and consequence of which are equally sub- jects of conjecture. The matter over which these surprising incidents have taken place is the revenue reduction bill. A disagree- ment between the House and Senate over the question has led to such parliamentary complications on oue hand and spirited antagonisms on the other that the passage of the bill is at present a matter of doubt. In fact it will require the hardest kind of compromise work to reconcile the differ- ences. The ostensible cause of complaint on the part of the House is that the Senate trans- cended its right and violated the coustitu- tion by not amending the House bill but substituting a measure of its own creation. There is something in this complaint and there was a time when it would have been pressed vigorously and earnestly. But there is nobody in the House now who cares anything for the constitution and few who have any regard for the dignity of the body they serve in. There are a good many, however, and they are not on the black list at the White House, who would be glad to find some excuse for defeating the revenue reduction bill, and are quite as willing to accept one excuse as another for their action. The truth of the matter is that there is grave peril in revenue reduction at this time and the problem is how to get away from the pledge. Appropriations have been running wild in both Houses and revenue reduction, however small the amount, is perilous, for it may involve a deficit and there is no telling what the re- sult of that would be on the next election for Congressmen. With a revenue reduc- tion of from forty to fifty millions a deficit is inevitable. The Secretary of the Treasury estimated a falling off in revenues for this year, as compared with last, of from thirty to forty millions. The surplus of last year was about svventy millions and the esti- mate for this year about fifty.. But the appropriations this year bave exceeded those of last by nearly three hundred mil- lions and if the revenues are decreased fifty to seventy there will be such disaster as no | living mian has ever witnessed. "Fhis is probably the real reason for the sham battle now in progress between the Senate and the House of Representatives on the revenue reduction bill. The admin- istration doesn’t want any reduction, and hopes to put the onus of failure on Con- gress. Some of the members of both branches are willing to shoulder the respon- sibility and offer themselves as vicarious sacrifices to party duty. But others are not ready for the self-abnegation aud are voting with the Democrats to force the issue. Altogether it is a rather pretty fight and the average citizen doesn’t care much which side wins. The Libel Repeal Bill. The ‘order’ in the House of Represen- tatives in Harrisburg this week is the GRADY bill for the repeal of the libel law of 1897. Senator QUAY has given the measure the favor of his approval, and the machine feels confident that it will be passed. Practically all the QUAY adher- ents on the floor will vote for it, and it is expected that most of the Democrats who supported the Philadelphia court bill will again come to the front in the interest of boss rule and bad government. Colonel THOMAS V. COOPER, of Delaware county, has broken out of the pasture, how- ever, and the friends of a free and un- trammeled press hope much from his in- fluence and example. Mr. COOPER is a man of ability, eloquence and courage, and he declares that he will exhaust all his re- sources in a fight to defeat the bill. He may succeed and in the effort will have the moral support of the best element of the people in all parts of the State. But candor compels the admission that moral support doesn’t cut much figure in a QUAY Legis- lature. : If the people of the State had had time to crystallize public sentiment, the GRADY bill wouldn’t have had much in either branch of the Legislature. Bat the mat- ter wasn’t taken seriously at first and when the facts were revealed it had gone too far to stop it in the Senate. It is not certain thas it can be stopped in the House for the oppositicn is not organized yet. But with 80 resourceful a man as THoMAS V. COOPER: to direct the battle there is always a chance of victory. We sincerely hope his expectations will not be disappointed. The passage of such a measure at this time would be a severe, if not a serious blow, to civil liberty for it would stifle the freedom of the press. — There are 14,379,078 children in the public schools of the United States and it costs, on an average, $18.92 a year for each one of them, but no government can regret money spent on the education of its people. ——Suboribe for the WATCHMAN. The Wanderer. Written for the Waroumany by With TRUCKEN- MILLER. Where the Allegheny mountains Rise toward the realms of snow, And the Susquehanna river Murmurs in the vale below, There I left my gentle darling, In the long, long time ago. Many weary years I wandered, In strange countries far away, But my heart for home was longing, While my feet went far astray. Drawn by my homesick yearning— I returned again to-day. When I asked my sweet old mother, While I stroked her silvered head, “Where is Nora 2 fast the tear drops Down her cheeks ran, as she said : “Of a broken heart your darling Lies up in the church-yard, dead. On the morrow I shall wander From my old home once again, With the memory of my darling Bringing only grief and pain. Oh ! that T at rest were lying Where my loved one long has lain. Foreign Smarties are Attractive. From the Pittsburg Dispatch. The explanation of the countess Fran- fanelli-:Cebo, that American girls marry titled foreigners on account of the supe- rior culture of the latter, naturally raises a fluster among the American masculinity, The fact that the Countess makes this in- vidions comparison, after a view of the Chicago men, may be regarded in some quarters as explanatory ; but somehow it fails to appease Chicago. At all events, the information is inter- esting. Culture is defined as ‘‘the systematic = improvement and refine- ment of the mind,’’ or its result in ‘‘learn- ing and taste.” We are therefore inform- ed by the lady of exotic title that the two Dukes of Marlborough. and Duke of Man- chester, Count Boni de Hatzfeldt and one or two others devoted their adolescent years to learning and mental cultivation so as to surpass the collegiate lights, the lit- erary men and the scientific experts. of our country. Otherwise the bheiresses must bave married the professors and literary men—that is, if the lattter would consent, which there is strong reason to believe they would. Certainly the Duke of Manchester’s taste in bull pups and one or two of those Continentals whose wives have come home, out of objections to personal castigation, indicate a strenuousness of culture abroad to which this country has never arisen. To Cure the Disease Remove the Cause. From the Pittsburg Post. The National bank cashiers of Massa- chusetts have been eating a big dinner at “Boston, and between the sherry and cham- pagne resolved that the federal taxes on bank capital and surplus and also the stamp tax on checks should be repealed. On which the Springfield Republican asks : “Would it not be a little more reasonable to resolve first against the war which makes the taxes necessary ? If these par- ticular taxes are repealed some other taxes, equally burdensome or unjust, must be re- tained or newly imposed. Let the grumb- lers over the war taxes begin with the war, and thus show that they possess a lit- tle knowledge and sense of things.” Expecting Bouquets From Cuba. From the Bloomfield, Indiana, Democrat. As a pretext to hold on to Cuba against our solemn promise, to withdraw as soon as a constitutional government was estab- lished, the administration people are now complaining that Cuba entirely ignores the United States in her new constitution and is ungrateful. Why should Cuba mention the United States in her constitution any more than the United States would be un- der obligations to consider Cuba if she was forming a new constitution? Sueh talk as that is only a pretext to get out of doing what we solemnly agreed to do and more ; it is rank nonsense. New Judiciary District. Centre County Embraced Within the New Limits. The House of Congress at Washington has passed Representative Connell’s hill for the creation of a new federal judiciary district in Pennsylvania. It now remains for the Senate to pass the measure before it becomes operative. The hill as passed by the House, places in the new judicial district Lackawanna, Wyoming, Bradford, Monroe, Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna, Car- bon, Tioga, Potter, Cameron, Clinton, Ly- coming, Centre, Union, Snyder, Mifflin, Juniata, Northumberland, Montour, Co- lumbia, Sullivan, Luzerne, Dauphin, Leb- anon, Perry, Huntingdon, Fulton, Frank- lin, Adams, York and Cumberland counties. The district is to bea part of the Third judicial circuit, and court will be held therein as follows: At Scranton on the first Monday of March and October each year; at Williamsport, second Monday of January and June; at Harrisburg the first Monday of May and second Monday of November in each year. The sessions will continue for such periods as the judges shall determine. ‘i! The bill creates in addition to a new judgeship a new district attorneyship, marshalship and court clerkship. It is also provided that the organization and first session of the courts of the Middle district shall be held at Harrisburg on the first Monday of March next, 1901. The Electoral Vote Counted. WASHINGTON, February 13.—The cere- mony of counting the electoral vote for President and Vice President, cast at the election last fall, took place in the hall of the House of Representatives to-day at a joint session of the Senate and House. At the conclusion of the count, President pro tem Frye, of the Senate, declared Wil- liam McKinley electe | President and Theo- dore Roosevelt Vice President of the Unit- ed States, and dissolved the joint session. The total electoral vote recorded was 447. Of this McKinley received 292 and Bryan 155. : Spawls from the Keystone. —It is stated that the tunnels of the new railroad between Clearfield and Karthause will require six hundred car loads of cemett and at least that much powder. —Two brothers, William ofeorg® Me- Mullen, each lost a finger within n ‘hour a few days ago. William cut,a fing: off his right hand with a circular saw feorge cut a finger off his left hand w’' . a hatchet. Both men reside at Shade Gr —The State forestry co; :nission recently purchased a tract of land..»f about 4,000 acres trom Dr. P. F. Hyatt. he tract is situated in Hartley township, Union county, Armag township, Mifflin county ; and Haines town ship, Centre county; The land is denuded timber land. —The improvements on the middle divis- ion of the Pennsylvania railroad between Juniata bridge and Aqueduct, Mt. Union and at Lewistown narrows and Spruce Creek will cost the company upwards of a million of dollars. Hundreds of men will be given em- ployment for from six months to a year. —The Lock Haven street railway has passed into the hands of a new company, composed of Judge C. A. Mayer and Jacob Scott, of Lock Haven ; W. B. Given, of Col- umbia, and Senator J. Henry Cochran, of Williamsport. It is said the road will be ex- tended to Williamsport in the near future. —A Jersey Shore woman saw a neighbor coming in last week for a call and left and told the hired girl to tell the visitor that she was not at home. She made her exit into the bed room. The neighbor said she was in no hurry and sat down to wait. She kept that woman in the bedroom four hours and the room was cold. —According to the DuBois Courier a new Y. M. C. A. building is to be erected in that place at a cost of $18,000. The building will be 110 feet long and 40 feet wide, three stories above the street level. The plans are now being prepared and work on the new build- ing will be commenced as soon as the weather permits. —Herman P. Transue, the Clinton coun. ty young man who had his back broken by a tree falling on him ten weeks ago, is still liv- ing and is reported to be gaining some strength, but is still paralyzed from the seat of the injury down. The accident occurred ten weeks ago while the young man was at work for Knecht brothers. Arrangements are being made to take him to the German hospital in Philadelphia. —Dislodgment of a toothfilling in its con- tact with a hard substance has netted Mrs. George Netherton, of Wyoming,near Wilkes- barre, the sum of $300. While dining with a neighbor a few days ago her teeth struck one large and six smaller pearls as she was eating a small raw oyster. Mrs. Netherton was surprised to learn from a Philadelphia expert that the largest pearl was worth $125, and the others a proportionate amount. —On a wager of $1,000 that he can walk from Newton Highlands, Mass., to San Fran- cisco, Cal., in a year, Arthur Stanley Met- calf arrived in Carlisle Sunday evening. He left Newton Highlands on January 1st, and has since covered the six hundred miles. He started from there Sunday morning for Wheeling, W. Va. While in Carlisle he had a local magistrate sign a list which he carries to authenticate his visits to the various towns. —Two towns in Somerset county—Somer- set and Berlin —have women on their official ballots for school directors, and they will be voted for at the spring election. Mrs. Emma Hay, Mrs. Minerva Ruppel, Mrs. Ella Walk- er audMnd, A: C. Floto have the distinction of being the first women ever nominated up- on a political ticket in that county. The first two named are on the Somerset Demo- cratic ticket and the other two candidates are on the Prohibition ticket for Berlin. —Mrs. John B. Phillips, a well known lady of Clarion, was one of a sleighing party that drove to Sligo Saturday for dinner. On the return trip the sled was upset in a snow drift. Mrs. Phillips was thrown down and three or four others fell on her. She was one of the first to extricate herself, and de- clared she was not hurt, but in less than five minutes after the time of the accident she fell over dead. An examination disclosed the fact that her neck had been broken. —The James Wilson who died in the Alle- gheny penitentiary last week, turns out to be John Stafford, of Lawrence township, Clear- field county. Stafford was 55 year old. He left home many years ago, fell into evil ways, and was sent to the penitentiary in 1876 for burglary. Desiring to conceal his crime he corresponded with his parents under the name of Wilson. The first his parents knew of their son’s disgrace was when the warden wrote them notifying them of his illness and death. : —An odd sleighing accident occurred on North Penn street, Hollidaysburg, Saturday night, William Shade, of Altoona, accompa- nied by a young lady, was driving up the ‘Presbyterian church hill at the same time a Logan iValley car was approaching at the brow of the hill. The glare of the car's headlight frightened the horse, and despite the efforts of Mr. Shade to back it out of danger it would not budge from the track. The sleigh was struck by the car and carried a distance of seventy-five feet, the sleigh be- ing reduced to kindling wood in the collision. The lady occupant of the sleigh was thrown out but beyond a severe fright suffered no mishap. The horse was rescued from the fender, none the worse for its trip as an in- voluntary passenger down the hill. —A letter from corporal John C. Davison, Philippine Island, to his father, R. G. Davis- on, of Tyrone, written in December, speaks of a natural fort about eighteen miles from the camp of Company G, Forty-third U.S. Volunteers. Recently the Insurgents were driven from it. “In the fort were found about twenty wooden cannon and ‘blind’ rapid firing gun, the latter being about six feet long and two feet wide, with three cog wheels inside with bam- boo rachet which when put in motion by means of a crank attachment makes a great noise. The cannon are made of mahogany logs about two feet long and eight inches thick, having a two inch bore, which is lined with brass. The breech is mortised and in this is attached an old gun lock with iron wedge, a maul being used to put the gun off. If the Philippine soldiers were armed as we are they would wipe the force in these islands out of existence. They know how to fight but have nothing but bolos and diggers to fight with, except a few guns that Dewey gave them. It has not been hot here for about a week. The nights are cool and nice, and we can sleep good.” .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers