i Demorraiic atc Bellefonte, Pa., December 19, 1902. JUST FORE CHRISTMAS, Father calls me William ; sister calls me Will; Mother 2alls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill ! Mighty glad I ain’t a girl —ruther be a boy, Without them sashes, curls an’ things that's worn by Fauntleroy ! Love to chawnk green apples an’ go swimmin’ mn the lake— Hate to take the castor ile they give me for bellyache ! Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain’t no flies on me; But jes’ fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be ! Got a yeller dog named Sport, sick Lim on the cat; First thing she knows she doesn’t know where she is at! Got a clipper sled, an’ when us kids goes out to slide, Long comes a grocery cart, an’ we all hook a ride. But sometimes when the grocery man is wor- ried an’ cross, He reaches at us with his whip, an’ larrups up the hoss; An’ then I laff and holler, ‘Oh, ye never teched me.” But jes for Christmas I'm as good asI kin be. Gran‘ma says she hopes that when I get to be a man, I'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother Dan; As was et up by the cannibals that live in Cey- lon’s Isle, Where every prospeck pleases, an’ only man is vile ! But gran’ma she has never been to a Wild West show, Nor read the life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she’d know That Buft’'lo Bill an’ cowboys is good enough for me! Excep’ jest ’fore Christmas, when I'm as good as 1 can be! An’ then old Sport he hangs around, so solemn like an’ still, His eyes they seem a sayin’ : “What's the mat- ter little Bill?” The old cat sneaks down off her perch, an’ won- ders what's become Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum! But [ am so perlite an’ tend so earnestly to biz, That mother says to father; “How improved our Willie is!” But tather havin’ been a boy hisself suspicions ~ me, When jest *fore Chrisimas I'm as good as I kin be! For Christmas with its lots an’ lots of candies, cakes an’ toys, Was made, they say, for proper kids, an’ not for naughty boys; So, wash yer face, an’ brush yer hair, an’ mind yer p’s an’ q's, And don’t bust out yer pantaloons an’ don’t wear out yer shoes; Say ‘Yessum’ to the ladies, an’ ‘Yessur’' to the men, An’ when they’s compary, don’t pass yer plate for pie again; But thinkin’ of the things yer’d like to see upon that tree, Jest ’fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be. — Eugene Field. HOW BRAXTON PLAYED SANTA CLAUS. ‘‘No one but Mrs. Whitney would have dared make a transfer van out of me.’ Thus soliloguized Mr. Robert Braxton, the famous publisher and editor. Then he smiled as the humor of the situation forced itself upon him. *' Here was he, Robert Braxton, who prid- ed himself on being the most unapproacha- ble man in Boston, whose very look struck terror to the editors, associate editors and all the ramifications of the craft under him; here was this intellectual giant amoung men ‘laden down with a Christmas hamper filled with bulky parcels. Some of the parcels were absurdly gay and undignified with bows of scarlet ribbon and holly, and worst of all were two idiotic articles, a doll buggy and a hobby horse that would not go into the hamper, thus obliging him to carry them under his aims. He had the sheep- ish feeling that all his fellow passengers suspected him of being the father of a large family. He thanked his stars that none of his employes were there to see him ; it would destroy the discipline of the office, he speculated. He could not understand how it bappen- ed, yet there he sat in the smoker of the little local train which was carrying him up into the monntains; and there piled on the seat facing him was all the gay Christ- mas paraphernalia—the bamper, the doll buggy and the hobby horse. He impatient- ly turned to watch the heavily driving snow outside the window, and his mind reverted to the scenes of the past twenty four hours. Mrs. Whitney stood before him as she stood last evening in Judge Graham’s con- gervatory, whither they two had wandered from the rest of the party that the Judge was entertaining at dinner. She wore a gown of the palest grey, soft, shiny, and as translucent as a mountain brook. On the left side of her corsage was an immense bunch of violets—he should say there were a thousand of them—and their fragrance filled the conservatory. Braxton did not . pretend to know much about colors and flowers. That knowledge, he considered, was a part of woman’s education, not a busi ness man’s. He knew grey, however, for "it was the color of the things he loved best —the mist, the fog, the ocean in a storm, the moonlight, the shadows that blot out the world at dusk, the little house where his boyhood days were spent—all these were grey. He knew violets, too. They were the flowers of spring and innocence, and best of all were the same color as that which lurked in the depths of Mrs. Whit- ney’s merry eyes. He bad always cared for Norma Whitney, though for many years he had been balf blind to the fact. She was the only one who ever dared to laogh at him, and to imitate his stern manner to his very face. She had laughed and danced across his boy- hood path and he had dubbed her a “silly goose,” and bad stalked on ahead while other lads clamored for the privilege of car- rying her school books. As a youth he had watched her from a distance, still laughing, flirting and break- ing hearts, as he concluded. e still con- sidered her absurd and heartless and while he gravely lectured her on the error of her madcap ways, thanked his stars that be had not been caught in her net. Then hesaw her walk down the aisle one bright June morning with Raymond Whit- ney. and smiling at her old friends on eith- er side. It all came over Braxton then, as be watched her go out into the sunlight, clad in her bridal robes of white and with a long veil covering her like a mist. In vain he called Ins pride to his aid,and tried to stifle the agony he felt. It would not down. His whole soul called out to Norma the flitting spirit of his boyhood dreams. He followed the crowd from the church but did not stop at the carriage to add his good wishes to the many the happy bride and groom were receiving. Instead he walked straight ahead. miles and miles into the open beyond the town ; on and on until midnight found him worn out in body and crushed in spirit. By the time Norma came back, he was established in Boston, where she also lived. Through the years of her married life he saw her hut seldom though unconsciously he kept in touch with her. Then came Raymond Whitney’s death, and Norma went into retirement, going back to the lit- tle village where a host of brothers and sis- ters populated the valley, 1n company with as many aunts, uncles and cousins. When after five years she returned once more to her Boston home, Braxton was a staid, set- tled, stern man of influence and power; while she—well, she was Norma, a little broader as to lines,a very little more digni- fied as became a wealthy widow, yet with the same merry laugh and with the same absolute disregard of his dignity and seri- ousness. Braxton, somehow, did not take himself quite so seriously in her presence now-a- days. He was afraid to. She was still Norma and he loved her as he had always loved her, even when, hoy- like, be had refused to admit the fact even to himself. He wanted her sunshine and angelic presence for his lonely life. There were other things in life besides publishing books and awing «ne’s fellow men. Last night as she stood before him in the conservatory, he quite surprised himself by the eloquence of his plea. In his mind he had heen proposing to her for years, and it seemed to him the words which came from his lips were his thousands of proposals all rolled into one. He told her what a mis- erable fraud he had been, standing aloof and lecturing her, when his heart had in reality been at her feet all of those years. Norma must have heen touched by his earnestness; but it was not in her power to refrain from teasing even then. No definite answer would she give. She must have time to think it over, she told him. Per- haps when he came home from Pine Ridge where he was going to spend Christmas,she would know her own mind better. He wanted tolecture her then and there on the general disorganization of the feminine mind, but restrained himself. He had learned much in ten years. This morning his telephone rang and a voice informed him that Mrs. Whitney would esteem it a great favor if he would consent to take a small package to her Pine Ridge friends, for her. She was at the station, a picture of joy and health, in her black broadcloth and furs. She was langhing as he came up,and behind her stood her coachman with his arms full of packages. ‘*Oh, Mr. Braxton,’’ she said, ‘I know you will despise my weakness, but I put off shopping for the nephews and nieces un- til the last moment—quite too late to get their presents to them by express, so I am forced to ask you to come to the rescue and play Sauta Clause for me."’ As the train pulled out she waved her muff gaily and said : ‘‘Your own present is at the bottom of the hamper, Santa.’’ The whole scene was a pleasant recollect- ion, for it gave him her image as the last picture his eyes had rested on. Dear, sweet Norma—- Just here in his ruminations the train seemed to give a dying groan—and stopped. He was the only passenger left now and they were high up in the hills. The brakeman came to him and grinned : ‘‘A nice Christmas eve,’’ he said, ‘‘we’ve foundered in a snowslide and the engine’s got a blowed out cylinder head.’’ ‘‘How long do we stop ?"’ ‘Till we can get word hack down the line tosend an engine tous. The wires are down so one of us will have to walk back to the junction or get a sleigh and drive. A few hours or so, I guess, for they’ll have to telegraph for an engine from the junction.” The brakeman was aggravat- ingly matter-of-fact. Braxton arose and shook off his lassitude and determined to walk until’he found a place for supper, if possible. He was too much of a traveler not to accept the situa- tion philosophically. Besides, away from Norma, what else mattered ? Farther back he had noticed, as they passed, a small brown cottage, almost snowed under. He wade for it floundering in snow almost to his shoulders after he had left the track. By the time the cottage door was reached he was as white as the snow about him—a walking snowdrift, in fact. The cottage was just a dot of a house somewhat shelter- ed by the big hill hehind it. He had no time, however, to determine its style of architecture, for suddenly the door flew open and a chorus of childish voicesscream- ed: “Santa Claus ! Santa Claus! Come in, Santa Claus !”’ Then a little woman in black came run- ning from the kitchen and laid a restrain- ing band on the shoulders of the larger boy and girl. ‘Oh, sir,”’ she began,—hut Braxton rais- ed his hand and there flashed a look of deep meaning between the mother eyes and his own. “Hullo, little folks!’ he said in the gruff voice that he supposed belonged to the children’s patron saint. 4 Evidently they bad never even seen picture of Santa Claue for a tall man in a loose Oxford coat and a dark soft felt bat did not in the least resemble the jolly rotund Santa with scarlet and ermine, white beard and reindeer. They dragged him to the tiny stove in which a single piece of coal burned slowly. It was alittle room; minus carpet, pictures. How woefully poor they must be, Braxton considered. ‘I knowed yon’d get our letter and come Santa Claus,’’ said Phil, the eight-year-old. ‘‘Mamma said you’d be tov busy this year to visit us, but me and Mabel told ber you loved all little children.” ‘‘Yeth,”’ lisped Bonnie, the four-year-old with her arm clasped assuringly around Braxton’s trouser leg. ‘‘Yeth, I thaid you’d come when we writed. Did youn bwing the dollie 2’ ‘And the sled ?”’ ‘And the work basket and the picture book 2”? shyly asked Mabel the six-year- old. ‘‘Where is your pack ?’’ asked Phil. This was a poser, and Santa felt he must equivocate : “My how you little folks do chatter,’’ he said, drawing a chair to the stove and trying to look stern. It made him feel queer to have the children gather so closely around him. Children were an unknown quantity to him for he lived in a big stern- looking flat building with much wrought iron and marble, just the sort of place where the sign ‘No children or dogs allowed,’’ seemed to fit in the surroundings. “I can’t get my pack, yon know, until I ask you a lot of questions. good children, you know.” This silenced the little group. Uncon- sciously the children straightened them- selves into a stiff little row with arms rigid at sides and a look of anxiety in each pair of eyes. Finally Mabel said in a shy little voice : “I mind the baby and wipe the dishes.” “I baul in wood and sweep the snow,’’ said Phil. “I don’t cry for ’lasses on my bwead any more,’’ asserted Bonnie, with the air of one who has gained a triumph. This brought a hearty laugh from Santa Claus and the children thawed visibly. “Well, you're a pretty fine lot,” he said. “Now il your mamma will give me a bit of supper for I came clear from Bos——ahem ! I mean the North Pole and left my rein- deer clear tired out behind the big hill across the railroad track, why tonight while you’re snug and safe in bed I'll open my pack.” Just where he was to get his pack he did not know, but he hadn’t the moral courage to disappoint the babies. He shared the simple supper and found out that the fath- er was a section hand and was killed in a wreck the previous summer. The railroad company gave the widow the tiny cottage; and she cared for her little family by wash- ing and mending for the men at the big boarding house at the junction beyond. It was a hard trip for her and in the winter she was forced to give it up, depending on the men on the passing trains to throw the bundles off to her. The men were kind in thought but careless in pay, and many a Saturday night’s spree after pay day took all the money owed her, so she waited the month out. All the time she was telling this in a soft pitiful sort of a voice, Braxton was looking at the three little faces raised so expectant- ly to his. He pictured the disappointed little group Christmas morning over the empty stockings; and he racked his brains to find a means of keeping his promise. Outside the wind was whistling and howl- ing and the little room inside was none too warm. Supper over he arose to go and a wave of disappointment surged over the children until he said : “Don’t be afraid, little folks! I will come back after you are all asleep.” “I will rob the train boy’s basket and bring them some fruit and candy if noth- ing else,”” he whispered to the mother. Her reply was lost in the wind which howl- ed around his ears as he made his way back to the track. The train boy’s basket with oranges, apples, figs, dates, chewing gum, pop corn and candy done np in gay boxes had come to him like an inspiration. He would buy the whole outfit and the shil- dren would be happy for one day. Way up the track he saw the lights on the rear end of the stalled train and at last pufling and blowing he came to it and climbed up the steps exhausted. He went through to the baggage car where the brakeman sat guarding the mail and express packages. “Where is the train boy ?"’ he asked. “The train boy ? Why, he got off at the junction and took the through train back. He doesn’t come this far.”’ Down fell all Braxton’s hopes of being a true Santa Claus; and as he went hack through the train he felt this was a crisis in his career in which he must keep his word or be forever arraigned in those child- ish minds as a villian and a promise break- er. Nay, worse than that, the reputation of Santa Claus himself was at stake. Nev- er again would they believe in the good old saint, that was the worst of it. As a hoy Braxton had worshipped Santa Claus and even at this late day he felt jealous of Santa’s reputation. Be the dim light of the smoky lantern something gay seemed to wave at him from his seat. It was the Christinas hamper which he was taking to Pine Ridge for Mrs. Whitney. *‘You must come to the rescue and play Santa Claus for me.”’ It was Mrs. Whitney herself who bad said it. What would the dearest woman in the world say if he took herat her word and played Santa Claus to these poor little chil- dren of the section hand? Would it be stealing to appropriate the gay hamper? What if she resented it, and had him ar- rested for larceny? That thought made him smile and also fixed his determination to take the magic hamper and risk the con- sequences. He could still hear Bonnie's *‘Did you bwing the dollie?”’ These few toys would mean so much to those poor children. Why, it would be the jolliest Christmas of their lives—a visit from a real live Santa Claus and such toys as they had probably never dreamed of. Mrs. Whit- ney’s nepbews and nieces, he knew, had storerooms full of discarded toys and would not miss these. Oh, what a load was lifted off his heart when he finally decided to play the double role of Santa Claus and highwayman! He tried to run in the teeth of the wind and snow with his precious hamper and thedoll buggy and hobby horse, towards the red lantern which the little mother had hung in the window to guide him back to the cot- tage. How her soft brown eyes sparkled when she saw the gay hamper and the independ- eutly impertinent doll buggy and hobby- horse! Together they opened Mrs. Whit- ney’s Christmas hamper and selected the gifts and placed them in the stockings and about the floor. The little mother bestow- ed a kiss on the hair of the pretty doll as she sat up in the buggy, and arranged the doll house with its complete furniture, dishes and kitchen utensils. It was like being young again to see such toys. Having stolen the hamper Braxton com- mitted the additional sin of lying, and told the mother the gifts were some he was tak- ing to his nephews and nieces up in Ver- mont. His—ahem !—wife had tied the reels up so nicely. His wife! He liked she thought and grew eloquent on the sub- ject presently, when the little woman ask- ed a few womanly questionsabout bie good “‘wife.”” He only appropriated the toys, putting the smaller boxes and packages which he felt must contain jewelry and ar- ticles of greater value in his coat pockets. I only visit At last it was all finished. There was the | P hobby horse and the train of cars, the ball bat and ball for Phil, the doll in all her glory for Bonnie, and the work basket all fitted ous in the cunningest utensils, books and games for Mabel. The tiny room look- ed like a toy shop. The little mother de- clared she could never wait until morning; and kept stealing excitedly to the kitchen where the three little heads were in a row op the pillow of the bed made on the floor near the cook stove to keep her children warm. Braxton took a peep, too, and some- thing made him turn away quickly and wipe his eyes, a thing he bad not done since he lost his favorite riding horse three years before. A warning whistle sounded from the train and Santa disappeared as rapidly as he came, pursued ty a running fire of ‘‘God bless you’s !”” from the little mother into Thome band he pressed a twenty dollar bill. As he ran he kept his hand on the small gquare package he found addressed to him- self in the bottom of the hamper. It was his own present. By the dim light in the coach he opened it to find a beautiful mini- ature of herself on ivory, with a written card : ‘Please take me as your Christmas gift. Norma.” At the junction he waited for the mid- night train back to Boston. . * * * Mrs. Whitney was eating her Christmas breakfastamong a fascinating array of gifts, scarlet ribbons, scented paper, carnations, violets and all the gay trappings that Christmastide claims for its own. Antoinette, the maid, opened the door, but before she could speak, Braxton follow- ed her into the room. ‘‘Robert !”’ cried Mrs. Whitney, growing pale. ‘What has happened ?”’ *‘Norma, dear,”’ he said, ‘I have your precious present; but there is something I must tell yon. When you know what I have done with your trust, you may take back your gift.”’ He told her. When he finished, to his amazement he found Norma's fair hiead on his shoulder, and Norma, she the light- hearted, sobbing in his arms. ‘Oh, you blessed man,’’ she said. ‘‘Oh, the poor children. ' Oh, how thankful I am vou had the toys.’ That same afternoon Braxton boarded the train for Pine Ridge with another hamper and a very pretty woman beside him. As they passed the little cottage Mrs. Whit- ney went ous on the back platform and waved her handkerchief and shouted, ‘‘Merry Christmas ! Merry Christmas !’’ but who had time in that little happy cottage ringing with childish shouts to pay any at- tention to what went on outside ?—By Jaun A. Smith in The Pilgrim for Decem- er. Woman on Trial For Murder. Mrs. Lightner Testifies That She Stabbed Miss Wheeler in Self-Defense. Mis. Dora Lightner told on the stand at Toledo, Ohio on Wednesday in her trial for murder how she killed Lucy Wheeler on June 13th last. After telling of numer- ous threats that Miss Wheeler had made, Mrs. Lightner testified she told a Mr. Whalen, who runs a shoe shop nearby, and Mr. Whalen gave her a knife to protect herself with. *‘T took the knife,’’ she said, ‘‘put it in my pocket and went to my rooms. I ask- ed Whalen where Frankie—that’s my child —was., as I wanted to put him to bed. I went ont to look for him. I passed down the gangway between the buildings call- ing Frankie.”’ “Just as I reached the sidewalk Lucy came running up and struck me a blow in the face. This staggered me and I fell against the building. Lucy came right up and grabbed me around the neck and be- gan to choke me with both arms. I could not get away and was so scared that I thought she was going to carry out her threats, so I pulled my knife and stabbed her. I had to do it. She would have killed me if I hadn’t protected myself. She was much bigger than I was and I could not get away from her at all.”’ The knife was a table knife ground down to a point. S—————————— Snakes Swallow Their Young. A Much-Discussed Question Settled on Good Au- thority. Many naturalists claim that some snakes swallow their young to protect them from threatening danger, and other naturalists say they do nothing of the sort—that the idea is absurd. Charles Frederick Holder, whose dictum on such matters will be re- ceived with unquestioning belief, says that, while he has never seen a snake swallow its young, he knows that it does, and quotes in proof a statement made to him by Col- onel Nicholas Pike, who was at one time United States Consul at Mauritius. Colonel Pike says that he once saw a good-sized garter snake with a brood of young ones near her. As he approached her she put her head flat on the ground and opened her mouth, making a peculiar noise as she did so. ‘This the little ones evident- ly understood, for they all crawled hastily into her mouth. He picked her up by the neck and put her into a bag, and when he got home he had twenty snakes instead of one. At another time he saw a male and female striped snake, with their young ones crawling all about them. Both of the old snakes turned toward him as he came near, and then, putting their heads flat on the ground, they opened their mouths and made a faint noise when the young ones all ran in. He caught both snakes,.and put them in separate bags, and afterward found that the mother snake had swallow- ed ten young and the father snake five. Hawkins Monument Design. Jury Selects Model Offered by New York Sculptor. William Couper, a New York sculptor, has heen decided the winner of the open competition for designing and erecting a $20,000 monument in Pittshurg to the memory of Col. Alexander L. Hawkins, of the Tenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Regi- ment. Circulars were sent out last August to all the prominent sculptors of the country, inviting them to submit sketches and mod- els for the monument on December 1st. The jury, consisting of John W. Beatty, art director of Carnegie Institute, Pitts- burg, and Daniel C. French and Thomas Shields Clark, of New York, sculptors, considered the twenty-three models sub- mitted and chose that of William Couper. William J. Diehl, of Pittsburg, Chairman of the Col. Hawkins Memorial Association committee, was also present. : Mr. Conper’s model consists of a curved balustrade, with seats, in the centre of whieh, before a large slab, stands the figure of Col. Hawkins on a small pedestal. The figure will be of heroic size, probably of bronze. On either sides are®four tablets, to bear the names of men of the regiment who met death during the Philippine cam- aign. The $20,000 for the monument was appropriated by the State of Pennsylvania. Must Not Engage in Other Business. The Pennsylvania railroad bas issued an order that its employes must not be en- gaged in any other business while work- ing for the company. A number of con- ductors were interested in restaurants along the line of the road, some of them operated coal yards, others had groceries; one on an eastern division was the silent partner in a saloon. In fact, there was bardly any hranch of business but some one working for the Pennsylvania, in the train service particularly, had an interest in it. The position of the railroad com- pany. is that the time of the employes all belongs to the railroad, and in the train service especially, if trainmen bave outside business cares on their minds, they are apt to neglect the affairs of the company. A Widow’s Story of Woe. 8he and Her Two Sons Worked for Thirteen Years to Pay Back Rent for Their House. Mrs. Kate Barns, of Jeddo, recently, told a story of how she and her two sons worked thirteen years to pay off an accumu- lated house rent and coal bill due to the Markle company, the narration of which greatly interested the arbitration commis- sioners. She was examined hy Lawyer Darrow, and in answer to his question she said her husband was an engineer inside the Markle mines. The husband was kill- ed underground, leaving her with four children , the oldest of which was a boy of 8 years. The company never offered her a penny, but the employes gave her about $180 to defray the funeral expenses. After her husband had been killed, she moved from her four room house into one contain- ing only two, one room above the other, and for the next six years she struggled as best she could to get along. She took in washing, scrubbed for the neighbors and once in » while she was given work clean- ing the offices of the Markle company. Daur- ing these six years she said she kept her children at school. As soon as the oldest child was fourteen she sent ‘him to the mines to help earn the daily bread. At the end of the first month the lad hrought home his wage statement, showing that the mother owed $396 for back rent. HER BOY'S WAGES WITHHELD. The boy’s wages for the month had heen taken off the bill, and he came home empty handed. She submitted to this, and in the course of time her next hoy was old enough to help earn a living, and he, too, was sent to the colliery. Like the oldest brother, the second boy received no pay, his earnings being deducted for rent. The mother on the witness stand was by this time welling up, and when she added that the money she earned for cleaning the Mar- kle office was never given her, but kept by the company for rent, the commissioners looked at one another in surprise. She said it took the three of them thirteen years to make up the debt, the mother’s earnings from neighbors being the principal contri- bution toward the maintepance of the family. The debt was cleared last August. Dung the six years from the time her hus- band was killed until the time when the first hoy went to work, the company never asked her for rent. James McGonigle, a miner, formerly em- ployed by Markle & Co., said the breast he was working in was so dangerous that he complained to the company officials that he might be killed. He was told if he work- ed any other breast he would not be given any cars. He went on a strike, and after the suspension he was refused work and evicted from his house. B. D. Gallagher, another Markle miner, testified that the company charges him 35 cents a gallon on oil that sells in Hazleton, a few miles away, for 18 cents, and 32 cents a quire for blasting paper that can be had for 15 cents. Chairman Gray asked what the outside market price for powder was. Some of the independent operators said $1.25 a keg, and the attorneys for the miners said 90 to 95 cents a keg. The companies are selling it to miners at $1.50 a keg. Andrew Hannick, a Hungariap, told how the Markles envicted him. Two more witnesses told of how they were refused work by the Markle company, and then J. B. Gallagher, National board mem- ber of the United Mine Workers for the Hazleton district, took the stand and told of conditions as he found them at the mines of the Markle company. Theair in some of the gangways, he said, was so bad that miners’ lamps would not burn. If he bad a drill hole started and the lamp went out he would continue to work in the dark until his condition became so weakened by the air that he had to get out. Sofarashe could remember, not one man who was on any of the Markle grievance committee is now working for the company. Gallagher also explained the troubles at the Markle mines after the recent strike was over, when the men refused to go to work, because John Markle imposed oer- tain conditions. At the afternoon session Gallagher ex- plained the powder question as best he could, concluding this part of the testi- mony by saying the miners employed by the Markle company do not get the 10 per cent. increase, because of the peculiar way the company has of figuring the increase in wages agreed upon at the end of the 1900 strike. The witness presented several of his own wage statements, which showed that something had been deducted for a priest. When asked what this meaut he said he did not know. It was taken off his earnings every since he went into the mines, and he simply dismissed it, because he did not object to the assessments. An 18-year-old Hungarian slate picker employed by the Markle company said that before the strike be received 85 cents’ now be receives 75 cents a day. The company never notified him of the reduction, and he still does the same work. He said the breaker hoss, who stands over the pickers, often clubbed him, kicked him and swore at him for not picking slate faster. When the miners’ case against the Mar- kles bad been concluded, Mr. Darrow read and had placed upon the records to the commission John Markle's statement to President Roosevelt at the time of the now tamous conference in the temporary White House. The attorneys for the miners then took up the remainder of the afternoon session by presenting ten witnesses who had been eniployed by either the Delaware & Hud- son company, the Temple Coal and Iron company or the Erie company, who testifi- ed that after the strike they were unable to get back their old employment. This was done to show that the companies were breaking a part of the agreement hy which the strike was ended and the commission appointed. On cross-examination it was shown they had not been re-employed because they bad refused to do other work. A carpen- ter refused to do a laborer’s work during the strike; a fire boss declined to be sworn as a coal and iron policeman; another fire boss refused to perform the duties of a fireman, and others refused to do certain kinds of other work. One fire boss applied to several other companies; but they also refused him employment. He did not know why the companies would not give him work, unless it was becanse he refused to hecome a coal and iron policeman dur- ing the 1900 strike Attorneys for the miners told the com- mission that the witness was placed on the stand to show that a blacklist exists. Counsel for the operators tried to show that he was too old to go back to the mines. One of the ten witnesses who was em- ployed by the Delaware & Hudson com- pany, admitted that there was too many men at work at the colliery where he asked for reinstatement, but thought the com- pany should have given him work because he bad been in their employ for fifteen years and always did anything asked of him. He also said he found no complaint with the rate of wages paid by the com- pany. Married on the Back of a Huge Ele- phant. A Wobbly Benediction. Maiden Disclaimed Any Fear, But @rew Seasick Toward the End. Pretty Rhoda Hurd, of Pensocola, Fla., transcencended the limit in unique wed- dings, when she married Daniel Spence, recently, on the broad back of a huge sway- ing elephant. Eight thousand gaping people witnessed the ceremony and cheered the bride as the final words of the ceremony were pronounced. aie Miss Hurd avd Mr. Spence have been engaged for some time. They came to Pensacola to be married. A fall festival is in progress, one of the features of which 18 a huge elephant in the trained animal show. One of the festival managers held a consultation with the prospective bride- groom, who in turn consulted his fiancee. The elephant was driven to a prominent place on the main street of the town. A ladder procured, and by means of this the stalwart groom assisted his bride to their lofty and decidedly unique altar. After them ascended County Clerk A. M. Me- Millan, with a book containing the cere- monial interrogations. Once his foot slip- ped, and the crowd cheered him when he caught the groom’s foot and swung back to safety. Then all three parfies stood up on the elephant’s hack. The huge beast, evident- ly assuming that he bad a sufficient load, started off with them, but his keeper haul- ed him back with a hook, while the bride screamed a wee bit and grabbed the groom to keep from falling. After that, during the entire ceremony, the elephant remain- ed quiet, merely contenting himself with the proverbial swaying to and fro habitual to all peaceably disposed elephants. The bridal party answered all the neces- sary questions in audible tones, the bride’s answers being particularly clear and con- vincing. The clerk pronounced the bene- diction upon them in a tone somewhat fraught with fear, it seemed, and he ap- peared thankful when the ladder was again run up for them to descend. After the wedding the bridal couple held receptionsin the various tented shows, after which they enjoyed a big oyster sup- per at a bazaar held for a church benefit. “I shought once I was getting seasick from the rocking of the elephant,” the bride confided to one who asked her how it felt to be married on an elephant’s back. Freedom for Marsh. Wrecker of the Keystone Bank of Philadelphia to be Released on December 24. Gideon W. Marsh, who was president of the ill-fated Keystone National bank, of Philadelphia, when the sensational col- lapse of the institution startled the finan- cial world in 1891, will spend his Chriss- mas day as a free man. It has been announced in Washington that President Roosevelt has commuted his term of imprisonment to make it expire on Decem- ber 24. It was in December, 1898, that Marsh was convicted of violation of the national banking laws and received three sentences, aggregating twelve years and three months’ imprisonment in the Eastern penitentiary. He had pleaded guilty in three indictments that had been consolidated into one, and fully expected to received but one, sen- tence. In recommending that the sentence of the convicted banker be commuted the United States attorney general said : “Taking into consideration all the facts of this case as they appear in the reports and other papers on file, and paticularly the seven years of punishment borne by the petitioner while he was a fugitive from justice, and his voluntary return and sur- render, I believe it is a case in which the usual punishment of five years’ imprison- ment would be sufficient. The prisoner has now served almost the equivalent of a five-years sentence, and I advise that his sentence be commuted to a term of impris- onment to expire December 24, 1902.” Demands Court of Inquiry. Col. Barrett, of Tenth Regiment, Angry at Public Reprimand. Ex-State-Treasurer James E. Barnett, colonel of the Tenth Regiment, N. G. P., has a peculiar case on hand. During the strike and when peace was declared be- tween the miners and operators and the miners. prepared to celebrate ‘‘Mitchell Day?’ the Colonel took proper precautions to preserve good order. At the request of the leading citizens of Shamokin, he moved his regiment into town and the regiment Jed the parade and was loudly cheered all along the line. The assistant adjutant-general a day or two after called Col. Barnett to the telephone and administered a stinging reprimand for allowing the men to participate in the pa- rade. Col. Barnett demands a court of inguiry, as he contends that this was a public reprimand administered by an officer who bad neither authority nor right. The Highest Priced Land. The highest priced land in the world is that hounded by Wall and Broad streets and Broadway, in lower New ‘York City. A square foot of ground on a corner of Broadway and Well street cannot be had for less than $450. The most expensive land in London sells for $300 a square foot. The average price of land in New York City’s financial district is abont $175. Next in the scale comes the woman’s shopping district from Fourteenth to Twenty-third street, on Sixth avenue, and from Thirty- fourth street to Forty-second street, on Broadway. Here land ranges all the way from $60 to $350 a square foot. On the northwest corner of Broadway and Thirty- fourth street the latter price was obtained. The real estate man whocan tell the future movements of population on Manhattan is in a position to realize a fortune. The growth of Brooklyn and Jersey City has checked the movement of the population north, and it is said the most valuable land on Manhattan Island will always remain south of Central Park. The lower half of the island will soon have nothing on it ex- cept office buildings, factories, and tene- ment houses. Norsemen Home for Xmas. 787 Scandinavians Sailed Last Week for an Old- Country Festival. Aboard the Scandinavian-American steamship Oscar II., which sailed last week from New York for Denmark, were 787 Scandinavians, who were going to celebrate Christmas in their vative land. About 150 of them are cahin passengers, and the most prosperous, Karl Petersen of Iowa, had sewed in an inside pocket $7,000 in Amer- jean money. which he exchanged for crowns before he sailed. Most of the party will return before April. The Scandinavian Christmas holi- day lasts from Dec. 23 to Jan. 13." The ex’ carsionists carried away an unusually large number of boxes and packs ‘besides their trunks, containing presents for friends and relatives on the other side.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers