PRIA
Bellefonte, Pa., January 3, 1902
ss
THE COUNTRY PAPER
Amid the pile of papers,
That swamp my desk each day
And drives me weak with clipping
And filing stuff away,
‘Comes once a week—on Thursday—
The quaint old four page sheet
That’s printed vp in Pelham,
A drowsy county seat.
You see, ‘twas up in Pelham
That first I saw the light,
And—well, my heart grows softer
And I feel my eyes shine bright;
Right reverent my touch is,
It spreads the columns wide,
The local’s what I'm seeking—
The patented inside.
Ah, here it is: “The County,”
And “Jottings,” “Local News'—
You learn who's traded horses
And who have rented pews;
It tells about the schoolhouse
Where we used so sit and dream,
A-watching dust specks dancing
Insunlight’s shifty beam.
The sturdy names of boyhood
Come tumbling through our thought,
«Of Tom and Brick and Patsey—
How weloved and how we fought !
The friends when years grew graver,
Called now beyond our ken,
In the type-lines of the paper
They live.and speak again.
Oh, toilers in life's workshops,
Are not those dream-mists sweet,
Which memory casts about us
When past and present meet ?
And so, I love that paper
From the village in the hills
For the old life that wakens,
For the weariness it stills,
—Nathaniel S. Olds, in Rochester Post.
HARPER'S NEW YEAR RESOLVE.
Harper Benedict had a pleasant home;
indeed, as far back as he could remember
he had always had a pleasant home. Like
a great many other boys—and girls, too, as
well as ehildren of older growth—he ac-
cepted his home as a matter of course, and
never thought of putting himself in the
place of someone else less fortunate. Hewas
a boy of good principles, carefully brought
up by a loving mother. His father had
died when he was too young to remember
him. Harper was a fine, manly lad, a de-
voted son, to his lovely mother, an apt
scholar, and a general favorite. He was
an aetive member of the Epworth League,
of Raymond Street Church, and often led
the meetings. He led the meeting one
night when his Unele Paul, his mother’s
brother, was present, and at the close of the
meeting the latter,nodding in the direction
of a pale-faced lad, said :
‘‘Who is that bov 2?
“I don’t know ”” Harper answered with-
out any interest.
“Don’t know !’’ repeated Uncle Paul 3
‘‘well beg your pardon, you ought to
know.”
Harper's eyes opened wide in astonish-
ment. ‘You don’t suppose I know every-
one, do you ?”’ he said laughing.
“You ought to make it a business to
know every one who attends these meetings,
you or some of the other leading mem-
bers.”
“Well, there is a committee to attend to
such matters,’’ said Harper, “I hope they
do their duty.”’
Bat the ‘“‘committee,’’ when questioned,
admitted that no one had spoken to the
pale-faced lad. ‘‘There isso much to at-
tend to,” was their excuse.
On the way home that night, Harper and
Uncle Paul overtook the ‘‘stranger.’”” Har-
per bowed and tipped his hat courteously,
and was about to pass on; but Uncle Paul
extended his hands, and took the boy’s in
a friendly grasp.
“Glad to see you at the League meet-
ing,” hesaid genially, ‘I hope you’ll be
there often.’’
A little flush crept into the pale face.
“I wasn’t going again,” he said.
*“Wasn’t going again,’ exclaimed Uncle
Paul.
‘No,’’ his voice a little shaky with feel-
ing, “I’ve been there three times, and—
and—no one has spoken to me.’’
“Well I'm sorry for that, my boy,”’
Uncle Paul said kindly, ‘hut you’ll over-
look it this time, and come again. The
young folks would be glad to see you, I'm
sure.’,
“Indeed, we will,” added Harper in his
cheery way; ‘‘promise me youn’ll come’
“I'll try to be there—good night !"?
They had reached Mrs Grimes’—a cheap
boarding-house; the ‘‘stranger’’ disappear-
ed within the door.
‘Poor little chap!’ said Uncle Paul,
‘‘it looks as if he didn’t have any home, if
he’s staying at Mrs. Grimes’.”’
Harper had a strange dream that night.
He dreamed that he was an orphan living
at Mrs. Grimes’. No one cared for him
there; in fact, no one cared for him any-
where. He went to the League of the Ray-
mond Street Church one night, but no one
spoke to him. He worked hard. He had
poor fare and a miserable little tucked-up
room. But worse than all else was his lone-
liness. He wished he could die; he would
rather die than live like that, with no
‘mother, no home, no friends. Oh, it was
hard ! He awoke with a groan, and found
‘that his head ached. It was some time be-
fore he was aroused sufficiently to realize
that he was not that poor, homesick, lone-
ly orphan of his dream. He crept out of
bed, and falling upon his knees, he thank-
ed God that he was Harper Benedict.
The next evening he had rung Mrs.
Grimes’ door-bell before it occurred to him
that be did not know the name of the one
he had come to see. A frowsy-headed Irish
gizl opened the door.
‘I want to see a boy
pale-faced boy
said; is he in.”
‘Oh, you mean Arthur Stone. Yes, he
is in; walk in, sir,’’ she said respectfully,
wondering what a handsome, well-dressed
boy wanted of ‘‘that shabby, lean boy.”
She led him up two pair of dirty stairs,
and throogh a long, narrow ball.
**There,” she said, pointing to the door
of a hall bedroom, “that’s his room.’
He rapped on the door, and presently, af-
ter some confusion within, the door open-
ed aud Arthur Stone with suspiciously red
eyes stood revealed. His face lighted up at
the sight of Harper. :
“Come in,’” he said, throwing the doo
wide open, “‘there isn’t much room, hut
you’re welcome,’
He gave his guest the only cbaic in the
room, he sitting down on the small bed.
The room was so small that one could hard-
ly turn around withons hitting the wall.
They talked together as boys talk, and
before long Harper knew that Arthur work-
ed in the box-factory, earning fairly good
wages. He was wondering why the poor
who lodges here, a
who limps slightly,” he
fellow did not have a better room, when
the latter said =
“I’d like more room. I feel sometimes
as if I were laid out here, but I can’t af-
ford it—not now anyway, while Dorothy is
seo sick.”
‘“Who is Dorothy 2’?
“My little sister; she’s all I’ve got in
the world.”
“Where is she ?’’ with much interest.
“‘She’s at Carmen, three miles out, youn
know, she’s boarding in such a pretty little
cottage. All summer long the flowers
bloomed and the birds sang in the garden
there,and Dorothy was so happy. Butsince
winter came she isn’t so contented,and I’m
all the time trying to think of something
to make her happy.”
Harper did not speak, there was some-
thing in his throat that would not let him.
‘I wish you could see Dorothy,”’ Arthur
continued, his pale face lighting up; ‘‘she’s
| the prettiest little girl I ever saw.”
Harper found his voice.
‘I'd like to see her,’” he said heartily.
“Why couldn’t I go sometime when you
do?” :
“Would you go?’ in surprise.
Wouldn’t I? Just try me, and see.”’
“Well, I go every Saturday night, and
stay until Monday morning,’”’ his eyes
shining; ““I’ll be glad to have you go with
me any time.’
‘“Who takes care of Dorothy ?’’
‘Oh, I didn’t tell you, did I? It’s Miss
Bwift; she takes in sewing, and she does
everything she can for my little sister. I
pay her, of course. Miss Swift is poor—
only rents the cottage, you know,but she’s
as good as gold. She has her own chick-
‘ens, and Dorethy has such deliciously fresh
eggs. I have them too, when I’m there.
I pay Miss Swift so much for each meal I
have, and it seems so good to be there Sun-
«days with Dorothy, and to have such good
things te eat.’
‘“You don’t have them here, do you 2’
“‘“What good things to eat? No never.’
Before Harper went away he had arrang-
ed to call for Arthur on Tuesday even-
ing on his way to the League meeting.
Tuesday was New Year’s eve. Harper
made a resolve before he went out, name-
ly: “I will, the Lord helping me, make a
Christian endeavor in behalf of Arthur
Stone. I will do for him what I'd like to
have him do for me if I were in his place
and he in mine.”
He had seen the officers of the League
and the prominent members before Wed-
nesday night, and the warm greeting ex-
tended to Arthur so surprised him that he
came near breaking down; but he was hap-
py.
The visit to Dorothy gave Harper ajdeep-
er look into Arthur’s character. The slight,
pale-faced lad seemed suddenly to grow
strong when he met the little golden-bair-
ed girl who elung to him and cried out,
“Oh, Artie, dear :” And how pretty the
little invalid was, with her fair face and
big loving brown eyes shaded with dark
lashes !
Miss Swift told Harper, confidentially,
that ‘‘there never was another brother like
Arthar Stone, never; but that he’d never
be sorry for what he’d done and was doing
bless him 1”?
When Harper returned to the city, he
wasted no time in calling upon Mrs Brown
a widow, living on a pleasant street. Mrs,
Brown, before her marriage was housekeep-
er in Harper’s home, and he was very fond
of her. He told her his story about Ar-
thur and the little tucked-up bedroom,
and the poor feod at Mrs. Grimes’. He
told ber, too, of the beautiful little Doro-
thy, whom Miss Swift was afraid would
“soon find Ler wings.”
“Now, Mrs. Brown,’ he said in coneclu-
sion, ‘‘you’ll take Arthur in, won’t you ?
—and give him a nice room and his meals;
and you are such a fine cook that he'll
think he’s in clover.”
Mrs. Brown laughed.
‘‘None of your blarney, Harper,” she
said.
“But you will I’ he persisted.
say vou will.”’
‘Let me see, thoughtfully, “I'd like to
please you and him, poor child! But how
can the boy pay me any more than he pays
Mrs. Grimes.”
*He can’t, Mrs. Brown, and that’s what
I want to explain. It’s a secret between
you and mamma and me. What’s your
price ?”’
‘Six dollars I’d take him for, and he
can have the pretty front room over the
parlor.”’
“Then six itis, and when he comes
around here, Mrs.. Brown. and asks you
the price, you must say, ‘Pay me four dol-
lars, and the room is yours. I will pay
the rest out of my allowance.’ :
Mrs. Brown got the room ready for her
new lodger and ! oarder. It was a *‘pretty
room,”’ as she had said, with pictures on
the wall and a nice rug on the floor. It
was large, too, and nicely furnished. Har-
per sent up a small hookcase, well filled
with books which he had read and reread.
“It will keep Arthur from being lonely
evenings,” he said.
It was pathetic to see the hey when he
called at Mrs. Brown’s and was shown his
room. How beautiful it was! And how
bright ! And the books! Ob, the books !
And the greeting which was almost moth-
erly from kind Mrs. Brown ! Aud the sup-
per! Oh, the supper served on the clean
white linen, and so well cooked and appe-
tizing !
‘I feel as if I were in another world,’
he thought gratefully. And he was in an-
other world, a world of affection, bronght
about by a Christian endeavor for Christ’s
sake. — Selected.
‘‘Please
Aged Lady Bound and Gagged.
A few days ago two strangers entered
the house of Simon Miller in Northum-
berland county, and upon learning that
Mr. Miller was absent, bound and gagged
Mrs. Miller and took $350 from the cup-
board. The robbers escaped. Mr. Miller,
when he returned home several hours later,
found his wife in a stupefied condition.
Engine’s Boller Exploded.
When the engine which went down with
the bridge spanning Lycoming creek was
raised Saturday and laid along the shore,
it was found an explosion had blown out
the rear end of the boiler. As no trace of
the bodies of the engineer and firemen were
found, it is believed by some thas they
wete blown to pieces by the explosion.
Big Fire at Pottstown.
The new east wing of the Hill prepara-
tory school at Pottstown was destroyed by
fire early Sunday morning, entailing a loss
of $40,000. The wing contained the swim-
ming pool, manual training room, class
rooms and dormitory. Most of the con-
tents of the rooms were saved.
Best Way Oat.
Yeast—Did you send anything to the
donation party ? L
Crimsonheak—Yes; sent my regrets. —
Yonkers Statesman.
The Whisky Insurrection
How it Began and How it Ended—An Important
Episode in the History of Pe:nsyloania.
In 1794 southwestern Pennsylvania was
the theater of stirring events. The **Whis-
ky Insurrection,’’ which the state anthor-
ities had been trying to quell grew so for-
midable and aggressive that it was deemed
necessary to invoke the military aid of the
federal government. The commotion was
neither sudden nor unexpected. It was
the development of a pernicious germ that
had been planted many years before, while
the provincial government was still in ex-
istence. It forced itself to the surface as
early as 1738, when an act, passed that year,
imposing an excise on rum, brandy, wine
and other spirits, met with so much disfa-
vor as to cause its repeal a few months af-
ter its adoption. Another act of the same
import, passed in the year 1744, shared a
similar fate. Oneapproved in 1772, lay-
ing an excise tax on both domestic and
foreign spirits, could not be enforced, so
far as it related to home-distilled spirits,
until some time after the commencement
of the Revolutionary struggle, when the
collection of part of the revenue was ren-
dered feasible, but toward the close of the
war the law again became practically a
dead letter and was repealed.
The next legislation on this subject was
the memorable act of Congress, passed
March 3rd, 1791, which imposed a duty on
spirits distilled within the United States.
This measure produced much excitement
both in and out of Congress. It was as-
sailed by the country at large as being nec
essary and tyrannical, ‘‘attended with
infringements on liberty, partial in its op-
erations, and liable to much ahuse.”’ South-
ern and western members of Congress start-
ed a movement looking to its early repeal.
The legislatures of Pennsylvania, Mayry-
land, Virginia and North Carolina con-
demned the law in such emphatic terms as
tended to increase aud intensify the nop-
ular clamor and discontent, and the last
named State assumed a position which fell
little short of nullification. But the region
in which the ferment was greatest was in
the Pennsylvania counties of Allegheny,
Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland, a
locality in which were many advocates of
an ultramontane empire, and from which
had come the strongest opposition to the
ratification of the constitution, so far at
least as this State was concerned.
The importation of foreign spirits having
ceased altogether during the war of the
Revolution, the farmers in the grain-grow-
ing districts turned their attention to the
manufacture of whisky and rum. This
business, expanded rapidly, for not only
was there a large home demand to be suap-
plied, but spirits were also exported to Can-
ada, and the trade asa consequence proved
quite profitable. The ‘Western Country?’
as it was then called, was soon dotted over
with distilleries, and so great was the cou-
sumption of grain that ‘a famine of bread
stuffs was at one time imminent. With a
view of averting such a calamity, the use
of all kinds of cereals for distilling purpos-
es was prohibited by legislative action, but
the restriction concerning rye and barley
being afterwards repealed, the business was
carried on as extensively as ever, and
“whisky and rum were not only articles of
commerce and consumption, but from the
natural deficiency of specie in a wild coun-
try, they were also used universally as car-
rency. Payments were made in them, and
they were received in satisfaction of debts.
At the time the act of 1791 was to go in-
to effect, efforts were made in several of the
States to derive some benefit from the al-
lowance which Congress in 1780 had propos-
ed for men whoserved in the Revolutionary
war, as a compensation for losses sustained
through the depreciation of the currency
with which they bad been paid. In Penn-
sylvania all previous attempts to create a
“depreciation fund’’ had for some reason or
other proven failures, but when the law of
1791 was enacted, a portion of the revenue
arising from it was set apart for this pur-
pose,and those directly interested urged its
speedy collection. If the prospects for re-
alizing something on this occasion were en-
couraging at the start, they were dispelled
by the rapid growth of the opposition to the
excise, and the measures adopted for a
prompt enforcement of the law’s provisions
only assisted in stimulating the feeling of
hostility which prevailed in all parts of
the country where distilleries were in oper-
ation.
In order to correctly understand the
situation of affairs, it is necessary to take
into consideration the kind and character
of the population that dwelt in the coun-
ties west of the mountains. Many of the
inhabitants were the descendauts of sturdy
Scotch-Irish stock, and inherited in no
small degree the antipathies and prejudices
of their progenitors. In their opinion, an
exciseman was a person to be detested and
shunved. The summary arrests, heartless
treatment, and severe punishments which
their forefathers had experienced through
this class of officers in the old country, were
kept green in the memories of these peo-
ple, and it was only natural for them to
hold in disesteem any excise law that might
be enacted here. They probably did not
at first think of resorting to open resistance,
but eventually were led to it by hot-head-
ed leaders who argued that, as the eastern
coionists by resisting the stamp act and
emptying the tea in Boston barbor had
compelled the king of England to annul
his odious laws, so the most expeditions
and effective way of forcing Congress to re-
peal the act of 1791, was to evade or pre-
vent the collection of the duties levied un-
der it. The fact that the enforcement of a
similar law had been successfully resisted
by a powerful combination in the adjoin-
ing state of New Jersey, possibly influenced
them considerably in pursuing the course
suggested by their bad advisers.
Inasmuch as some of the states manu-
factured a comparatively small quantity of
spirits, and others none at all, the barden
of the excise rested most heavily on Penn-.
sylvania, Maryland and Virginia; and it
could therefore scarcely be expected that
their citizens, especially those of western
Pennsylvania, where distilling was carried
on most extensively, would permit a statute
which so materially affected their interests
to pass quietly into operation. The pre-
vailing discontent manifested itself fitst in
the circulation of opinions unfavorable to
the law. The next point aimed at was to.
dissuade persons from accepting office un-
der it. This was followed by pretended
suspensions of distilling operations. Final-
ly secret societies were organized, and the
members pledged to abstain from comply-
ing with the requirements of the law. This
negative mode of opposition, although
seemingly ineffectual, was persistently con-
tinued and could not fail sooner or later to
produce serious trouble.
In June, 1791, the law was to be put in
operation. The offices were in most in-
stances accepted, and the excise was paid
by some of the well-disposed distillers. In
proportion as this was the case, and the
disaffected realized that determined
efforts would be made to enforce
the law, the disposition to resistance be-
came more turbulent, revenue officers were
subjected to marks of contempt and insult,
and after some time the threats made
against them ripened into acts of ill-treat-
ment and outrage. These acts of violence
were, however, preceded by public meet-
ings which adopted resolutions much more
likely to ‘‘confirm, inflame and systematize
the spirit of oppesition,’’ than to convince
congress that it would be just and proper
to repeal the objectionable statute. The
first of these assemblages was held at
Redstone Old Fort, now Brownsville, on
the 17th of July, 1791, and a committee
was appointed to correspond with citizens
of other parts of the country, with a view
of getting them to join in a petition setting
forth their grievances and stating their
demands. On the 23nd of August follow-
ing, one of these committees met in Wash-
ington county, and in their resolutions de-
nounced all persons who accepted excise
offices as being inimical to the country,
aud recommended that they be treated
with the outmost contempt, that every
kind of intercourse with them be absolute-
ly refused, and that ‘‘all aid, comfort and
support,’ be withheld from them. Dele-
gates from the counties of Allegheny,
Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland
held another meeting in Pittsburg, on the
7th of September, of the same year, and
passed resolutions attacking the excise
law, the national bank, the salaries of pub-
lic officers, the public debt, and the ad-
ministration itself.
On the 6th of September, 1791, the day
preceding the last mentioned meeting, the
first act of open violence occurred. Robert
Johnson, a collector of revenue for the
counties of Allegheny and Washington,
was seized at Pigeon creek by a body of
armed men, who cut off his hair, stripped,
tarred and feathered him, and withholding
his horse, compelled him to travel on foot
a considerable distance in that humiliating
condition. Johuson made complaint tothe
United States district court at Pittsburg,
which issued a process against John Hamil-
ton, John Roberts and Thomas McComb,
three of the persons engaged in the ont-
rage, but the deputy marshal who was to
serve the warrant, was threatened with
personal violence and met with such oppo-
sition as prevented him from performing his
duty. A private messenger, with whom
the process was afterwards sent, but who
was ignorant of the contents of the papers
he had been requested to deliver, was seiz-
ed, tarred and feathered, and after having
his horse and watch taken, was tied, blind-
folded, to a tree, where he remained sever-
al hours before being released. Another
officer of the government, My, Wells, the
collector for Westmoreland and Fayette
counties, was ill-treated at both Greensburg
and Uniontown, shortly after the outrage
upon Mr. Johuson. In the month of Oet.
1791, a feeble minded man named Wilson,
who fancied himself a collector of revenue
or invested with some office connected
therewith, was taken out of his bed, con-
veyed about live miles to a smith’s shop,
there inhumanly burued with hot irons,
and after being tarred and feathered, was
held until daylight, when he was started
home ‘‘naked, wounded and suffering.”
The inhuman and fiendish treatment to
which this victim of an imaginary duty
was subjected, completely unsettied his
reason—niade a maniac of him—and the af-
fair is the more extraordinary from the fact
that men of weight and consideration were
understood to have taken part in the cruel
outrage.
The act of 1791, having been found de-
fective in some respects, was brought up
for revision in the congress which assembled
in the ensuing month of October, but no
decisive action seems to have been taken on
it before the 8th of May, 1792, when the
duties were reduced so as to obviate any
complaint on that score, and some other
changes favorable to the distillers were also
made. The passage of this measure was
well received hy some of the interested par-
ties, but as it contained a provision requir-
ing an office for collection in every county,
the discontented, in their delusive zeal,
concluded tbat if the establishing of these
offices could be prevented, a great advan-
tage would be gained by them. In order
to deter persons from allowing their build-
ings to be used for that purpose, threats of
violence and destruction of property were
freely indulged in, and in a short time it
was almost impossible to obtain suitable
places for the revenue offices. After
much difficulty, General John Neville
in the month of August, 1792, procured
the house of William Faulkner, a eaptain
in the army, for an office of inspection in
Washington county. Assoon as this be-
came known, a large number of persons
called on Captain Faulkuer, and with a
knife at his throat. threatened to scalp, tar
and feather him, and to burn his property,
if he did not at once annul his agreements
with Gen. Neville. As resistance under
the circumstances was out of the question,
he agreed to comply with their demands
and was thereupon set at liberty.
While revenue officers and good citizens
were being subjected to this kind of in- |
timidation, another means of resistance,
previously resorted to, was again put in
operation. Agreeable to notice given, ‘‘a
meeting of sundry inhabitants of the west-
ern counties of Peunsylvania,”’ coniened
at Pittsburg on the 21st of August, 1792,
and on the following day a committee in
their report declared ‘‘that a tax upon
liquors, which are the common drink of
the uation, operates in proportion to the
number and not the wealth of the people,
and of course is unjust in itself and op-
pressive to the poor;”’ that internal taxes
upon consumption must in the end destroy
the liberties in every country in which
they are introduced; that the late excise
law, owing to the want of market for grain
and the scarcity of a circulating medium
would bring immediate distress and ruin
on the western country; and that they
thought it their duty to persist in 1emon-
strating congress. and ‘‘in every other le-
gal measure that may obstruct the oper-
ation of the law,’’ until its total repeal
was obtained. David Bradford, James
Marshal, Albert Gallatin, Peter Lisle and
David Philips were authorized to draw up
a memorial to congress, stating their ob-
jeotions to the law, and praying for its re-
peal. A committee of twenty-one was
likewise appointed to correspond with com-
mittees in other parts of the United States
to call either general meetings of the peo-
ple or conferences of the several commit-
tees. The report of the committee ended
in the declaration that in the future they
would consider persons who accepted offices
of collection ns unworthy of their friendship;
that they would have no intercourse or
dealings with them; that they would with-
draw every assistance and withhold all the
comforts of life which fellow citizens owe
to each other; that upon all occasions they
would treat them with the contempt they
deserved; and recommended the people at
large to follow the same line of conduct
towards them.
In the opinion of Secretary Hamilton, it
was nos difficult to perceive that the a-
nathema pronounced against the officers of
the revenue placed the participants in this
meeting ‘‘in a state of outlawry, and op-
erated as a signal to all those who were
hold enough to encounter the guilt and the
danger to both their lives and their prop-
erties,” and he therefore reported the pro-
ceedings, as soon as known to President
Washington. The latter, under date of
Sept. 15th, 1792, issued a proclamation ad-
monishing all persons to refrain from un-
lawful combinations and proceedings tend-
ing to obstruct the operations of the law,
giving notice that all means would he used
to bring infractors of the law to justice,
and enjoining all persons to aid and assist
in preserving the peace. Indictments were
presented against those supposed to have
been engaged in the Faulkner riot, but as
some mistake was made as to the persons
accused, the prosecutions were dropped.
This result, instead of deterring, only en-
couraged the lawless to renew their out-
rages and redouble their efforts to prevent
the establishment of collections offices,
“and the officers were left to struggle
against the stream of resistance, without
the example of punishment to favor them
in the discharge of their perplexing duties.’
In April, 1793, a party of disguised men
went to the house of Collector Wells, in
Fayette county, but finding him from
home that night, they contented them-
selves with forcing their way into the
dwelling, and threatening, terrifying and
abusing his family. Warrants were issued
for the arrest of some of the rioters, but
the sheriff refused to serve them, for which
be was afterwards indicted, and so the
matter also fell to the ground. On the 22d
November, of the same year, another party
of men, disguised and armed, again attack-
ed and broke into Mr. Wells’ house’ and
with a pistol at his head, forced him to
surrender his commission and official papers
and made him promise to publish his
resignation within two weeks, time.
June being the month for receiving the
annual entries of stills, endeavors were
made to open offices in Washington and
Westmoreland counties where this had
theretofore been found impracticable. Re-
peated attacks were soon made in the night
hy armed men on the one in Westmoreland
hut it was so courageously defended by Mr.
Wells, who had previously heen driven out
of his house in Fayette county, and by
Reagan, the owner of the property, that it
was retained during the remainder of the
month. The one in Washington did not
fare so well. At midnight, on the 6th of
June, a number of men, armed and paint-
ed black, forced their way into the house
of John Lynn, where the office was kept,
seized the owner, carried him to the woods,
cut off his hair. applied tar and feathers,
and after making him swear that he would
not permit his house to he used again for
an office, and that he would neither again
accept an agency in the excise nor disclose
him naked to a tree, from which he did not
extricate himself until morning. Not con-
tent with maltreating him in this manner,
the rioters pulled down his house,aud sub-
sequently compelled him to become an ex-
ile from his own home.
In January, 1794, William Richmond,
who had given information against some of
the fiendish rioters in the Wilson affair,
and Robert Shawhan, a complying distil-
ler who had spoken favorably of the law.
had each a barn, with all the grain and hay
they contained, destroyed by fire; while in
the ensuing May, James Kiddoe and Wil-
liam Conghran, who had entered their stills,
were made to suffer in another way, Kiddoe
having parts of his grist mill carried away
and thus rendered useless and Coughran
having his distillery and mills damaged so
greatly that heavy expense was incurred
in getting them repaired.
On the 5th of Juue, 1794, congress
passed another act amendatory of the ex-
cise law, one section of which gave state
courts jurisdiction over offenses against the
revenue laws in certain cases; but as the
discontented wanted absolute repeal and
not amendments, they became only the
more reckless and violent, until the gov-
ernment found itself compelled to meet
their opposition in a more decisive and ef-
fectnal manner than it had previously dis-
played. It accordingly issued processes
against nonconplying distillers and others,
among them Robert Smilie aud Jno. Me-
Calloch, two of the most notorious and
prominent participants in the attack on
Collector Wells in Fayette county. The
friends of these men, having determined to
prevent the serving of the prucesses, sent
out a party, headed by a Capt. Pearsol, to
intercept Marshal Lenox, but the latter
managed to elude them and executed his
trust without interruption. On the 15th
of July, the marshal, in company with In-
spector Neville, baving served his last
writ on a distiller named Miller, near
Peter’s creek, was returning home when
he was met by a party of forty men who
fired upon them but without doing any
injury.
Gen. Neville had meanwhile received
warnings that an attack on his house was
contemplated. He, therefore, made prep-
arations for resistance, filling up the win-
dows with thick plank and supplying his
negroes plentifully with arms. These prep-
arations bad been made none too soon for
at daybreak on the 16th of June, a party of
at least 500 men from Mingo creek, many
of them wellarmed, and headed by John
Holeroft, who hore the sobriquet of *“Tom
the Tinker,”” assembled in front of the
house and demanded the surrender of his
commission and official papers. This being
refused, the firing began and was kept up
for some time by both assailants and as-
sailed, that of the former being under the
direction of Major Jas. Macfarlane, who
bad been chosen to command the attacking
force. Whilst the fight was in progress a
horn was sounded in the house, and as this
was probably a pre-arranged signal, it was
followed by a discharge of firearms from
the negro quarters, which stood apart from
the mansion house. By this unexpected
volley, six of the insurgents were wounded
and one was killed. The members of the
inspectoi’s house received no injury.
The assanlt thus far had been successful-
ly resisted, but General Neville was well
persuaded that a renewed and more dan-
gerous attack would again bemade. Leav-
ing his house unperceived by the rioters, he
applied to the civil authorities for protec-
tion, bat they informed him that they
were powerless to furnish him the needed
aid. A detachment of eleven regulars, un-
der command of Major Kirkpatrick, a rela-
tive of Gen. Neville, was, however, started
out from Fort Pitt for the defence of the
house and its inmates, and succeed-
ed in gaining admittance to the
dwelling during the night. On the
morning of the 17th the attacking party
again made their appearance, and sent
David Hamilton with a flag of trace to de-
mand from the inspector his resignation
and official papers, accompanied by the
threat that it not promptly delivered they
would be taken by force. Being informed
that Gen. Neville was absent and that their
demand could not be complied with, time
was given by the insurgents for the wom-
en and children to take their departure,
when the attack was renewed in a most
spirited and determined manner. After
the fight bad continued for perhaps a quar-
ter of an hour, the firing from the house
ceased, and a call that was heard coming
from it was mistaken by the assailants as a
the names of his assailants, they bound |
request for a parley. Their leader, Major
James McFarlane, evidently thinking so,
stepped from behind a tree which served as
a protection and was ordering his men to
cease firing when a musket ball hit and
instantly killed him. This incensed his
followers, who recommenced firing, and
while some were talking about storming
the house others set fire to the barn and
outbuildings, and soon the intensity of the
heat was so great as to threaten a speedy
destruction of the housealso. In this ec-
tremity Major Kirkpatrick and his men,
three of whom had been wounded, felt them-
selves constrained to surrender. The ma-
jor was forcibly disarmed and detained as a
prisoner, but the privates were permitted
to depart, after which the mansion house
was set on fire, and while the flames were
consuming it the rioters broke into the cel-
lar, drank up the wine, and carried away
many articles of value. Among other things
two certificates of the three per cent. fund-
ed debt of the United States, aggregating
$4,611, were either stolen or burned, of
which Gen. Neville afterwards gave public
notice and cautioned persons against pur-
chasing or taking assignments of the same.
Whilst the fight was in progress, United
States Marshal Lenox, Colonel Presley
Neville, son of General Neville, and sever-
al others, were intercepted on their way to
the house, but all avoided capture except
the two first named. In the course of his
detention the marshal suffered severe and
humiliating treatment, and was several
times in imminent danger of losing his life.
Nor could he obtain safety or liberty until
he promised under threats of immediate
death, that he would not in the future
serve any process west of the mountains.
He and Colonel Neville were then permit-
ted to go, but they were unfortunate
enough to fall in with another party, most
of whom were intoxicated, when they
were subjected to additional insults and
perils, but succeeded about 2 o’clock in
the morning in making a final escape.—&S.
B. Row.
(Continued next week.)
Embaiming Fluid Poisons Mourners.
Powerful Acid was spilled on Candy, of Which
Many Persons Ate. Four Women May Die.
Word has just been received from Blue
Knob, Freedom township, in Blair county,
an isolated country village, that four wom-
en there are at the point of death,as a result
of having eaten poisoned candy. The
women are Mrs. George F. Noffsker, her
grand-daughter, Mis. John Allison, and
two sisters of the latter, Rose and Viola
Ickes.
On Christmas Day the infant twins of
Mrs. Allisons died, and a country under-
taker was called to embalm their bodies. -
A highly poisonous filnid was improvised.
The bottle was half emptied, when the un-
dertaker’s assistant accidentally dropped it
and its contents were spilled into a wooden
sink, the lower portion of which was used
as a cupboard. In this cupboard was a
box of soft candy that had been bought for
the twins, but was unused, on account of
their sudden and fatal illness. The poison
leaked through a crack in the boards and
saturated the candy.
The funeral occurred Friday. When
the mourners returned home the candy was
passed around. Quite a namber of the
party ate of it. Simultaneously, all shriek-
ed with pain. The aged Mrs. Noffsker, her
granddaughter, and the Ickes sisters were
rendered unconscious by pain. all having
swallowed some of the poison. Their
tongues and tonsils were eaten out by the
acid.
Physicians were unable to relieve their
sufferings, except by the administration of
powerful narcotics.
At last accounts all four of the women
were still unconscious, their lives despaired
of. Others who ate of the candy are suf-
fering from burned months.
Her Gift is a Huge Fortune.
Thirty Million Dollars in Real and Personal Property
Mrs. Stanford's Offering to University.
Mrs. Jane L. Stanford, widow of the
late Senator Leland Stanford, has trans-
ferred to the Stanford University by deed,
bonds, stocks and real estate valued at
$30,000,000, the largest single gift ever be-
stowed on any institution of learning, Of
this amount half consists of gilt-edged
bonds and stocks paying a large revenue.
The real estate deeded to the University
comprises much of the property originally
given by Senator Stanford, but the deeds
of which were found to be illegal. The
bonds include many securities that have
doubled in value within a few years, and
the accumulation of these and other stocks
since the death of her husband. The real es-
state property deeded includes no less than
900,000 acres in about twelve counties of
California, and comprises the great Vina
ranch of 52,000 acres.
GIVES LIER HOME TO THE UNIVERSITY
A third deed conveys to the University
Mrs. Stanford’s home, on the summit of
Nob Hill; one of the most finely decorated
houses in San Francisco, which, with the
big lot, is worth $400,000. This will event-
ually be converted into an art gallery and
museum. Despite these big gifts, Mrs.
Stanford has retained property worth sev-
eral millions, so that she will be able to
provide for many charities.
This gift places Stanford University in
the first financial rank among the great
universities of the world, and will enable
it to carry out many projected improve-
ments.
Sampson to Be Taken South.
A Washington Dispatch states that Rear-
Admiral Sampson will be taken to Florida
or some other warm climate as soon as he
is well enough to travel. His condition is
not dangerous, if is said, but his physicians
‘want him to be where he can have more
absolute rest. The Rear-Admiral ate din-
ner with his family on Christmas and the
doctors say he is holding his own. He
gives no heed to current events at Wash-
ington.
Mr. and Mrs. W. 1. Adams.
Mr. and Mrs. W. I. Adams, an aged
Windber couple, died within seven hours
of each other Christmas afternoon, the
former at 12:30 o’clock and the latter at
6:50 o'clock, in ignorance that she was a
widow. Stomach trouble was the cause of
Mr. Adams’ death and pneumonia that of
his wife’s. Mr. Adams was sixty-three
years old and Mrs. Adams was in her sixty-
sixth year.
Gave Life by Helping Smailpox Vic-
tims.
Councilman Fred Payne, of Plymouth,
Luzerne county, has sacrificed his life in
his efforts to make comfortable the small-
pox victims in the pest house there. He
wasa member of the small-pox committee,
and took such risks in providing for the
victims that he took the disease and died
on Tuesday.