Dewi adnan
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
C—O Sa,
Ink Slings.
—1If our muzzle is not on straight please
tell us.
—Col. REEDER fell off his dignity with
a very undignified flop, under a very small
dose of langhing gas on Tuesday.
—What do you suppose Judge LOVE
meant by that rather extraordinary quota-
tion he made in the Republican convention
on Tuesday ?
--While the thermometer is bobbing
aronnd 90° in the shade here it is sort of
refreshing to read of the great snow storm
that is raging in Montana. :
—Poor old Col. CoBURN. Alter five
vears of silence. it was not to be wondered
at that he should express ‘‘surprise at
being called upon to speak.’
—Western people are astonished at the
wind storms they have been experiencing
since the opening of spring. But they for-
get they have had ROOSEVELT among them
most of that time.
—The New York woman who laughed
herself to death over the funny things she
saw in a paper one day couldn’t possibly
have been reading Puck or Judge. It must
have been the Sun.
—Come to think of it it is right that the
Liberty bell should take a trip. Kept in
the atm osphere of the ‘‘muzzler’’ natural-
ly necessitates days of recreation for any
thing with liberty about it.
—When you remember what led up to it
and consider the purpose of the muzzler
there will be no question in your mind
about Governor PENNYPACKER’S thorough
undertanding of what Mr. QUAY put him
there for.
—1If it doesn’t rain pretty soon there
will be no field corn in Centre county to
speak of next fall. The new high heeled,
pointed toed shoes whick women are affect-
ing, however, will make up for this short-
age with a large crop of the other kind.
—And if Governor PENNYPACKER ‘‘had
lived in England one hundred years ago’’
he would have had about as much chance
of being Governor of anything as he has
now of climbing out of the dishonorable
oblivion into which he has plunged him-
self. ;
—Governor PENOYER, ‘‘Bloody Bridles’
WAITE, CARRIE NATION and even poor
MARY ELLEN LEASE will have to take a
back seat now among the political mon-
strosities, while cousin SAM blunders about
trying to find something to put his press
muzzle on. :
—It has been intimated for some time
that there is something wrong with
CHARLES M. SCHWAB'S think tank, but
as long as the trouble runs iv the direction
of his action at Williamsburg on Tuesday
the public will have to admit tbat if there
is anything wrong it is really all right.
— Brother REEDER threatens to ‘show
the Democrats of the county something
next fall.”’ As he does not say what, we
take it that it will beabout 1000 Democrat-
ic majority, as that’s about the size of the
showing he bas made when acting as bell
wether for those who are willing to follow
him. ;
—The chestnutty old story about the
elephant and the drunken man that the
brains (?) of the Republican party in Cen-
tre county told on Tuesday would have
been far more to the point had he likened
himself to the elephant and said that the
drun ken man didn’t know which end was
the nether.
—Don’t make up your minds too hastily
about the ‘‘manliness’”’ and the ‘‘indepen-
dence’’of all the Republican editors who are
now so volubly writing down the press muz-
zler. In less than two weeks there are those
of them who will be whooping it np just as
vigorously for the gang that needed and the
creatures that made the muzzler. Do you
wonder that a yellow dog feels proud at
times—he always knows enough to know
when he is kicked. There are some editors
who don’t.
——1It is less than a week from to-day
until the editor of the Gazette, who has
been denouncing the press muzzler and its
authors for the past four weeks, will be in
Harrisburg voting to place one of the mak-
ers of that muzzler at the head of the Re-
publican state ticket. Who was it that
wrote about the ‘pup returning to ite
vomit’’ and could he have had in mind
cases of this kind ?
—Of all the attempts to insult the in-
telligence and broad mindedness of the
members of Gregg post we have ever heard
of that to refuse to allow an essay on
ROBERT E. LEE to be read at the Belle
fonte High school commencement exer-
cises is the worst. Whence the agitation
arose no one seems to know, but that is
probably because the source of it is so nar-
row, and warped and dark that it is not
discernible to more enlightened people.
The essay in question had won the J. C.
MEYER prize and was written unassisted,
by a little girl, four of whose uncles had
been among the most valiant fighters for
the Union. According to all precedent she
should read it at commencement, but some
who prefer to live in the dark days of ’63
and who seem to be too ungenerous to for-
give and too narrow to forges tried to pre-
vent it, giving for their excuse that it
might offend Gregg post. Why, bless you,
there isn't a man wearing the blue to-day
who wonld have ever heard the rattle of
musketry and stood his ground mid the
scenes of that terrible carnage had he been
endowed with such a puny spirit as would
take offense at the opinion of a little north-
ern girl of a brilliant southern General.
Wee
VOL. 48
The Odious Press Muzzler.
Widely conflicting opinions have been
expressed of the iniquitous ‘press muzzler’’
and the readers of the daily press have
been given a vast range of thought from
which to estimate its' character and effects.
There are hysterical, defiant and placid,
commentators. in plenty and out of them
ail she fact may be drawn that Governor
PENNYPACKER has made a monumental
blunder. Whether he will be able to re-
cover from it during the period of his offi-
eial, or reconcile the people to it during his
natural life, remains to be seen. But the
present indications are that he will go ou
of the office under a burden of popular ex-
ecration that has not been equaled in re-
cent history.
So far as we are concerned it can truth-
fully be said that we have not been disap-
pointed in the action of Governor PENNY-
PACKER. We have not been carried away
by the expressions of independent thought
in which the Governor has indulged in
vetoing a few unimportant measures which
be has thus disposed of. We have noticed
that in every essential he has been a more
obedient and subservient slave of QUAY
than any Governor who has ever occupied
the office. QUAY bad no interest in the
season of killing bears and the] Governor
was permitted to freely indulge his pen-
chant for humor in killing it. He was
equally indifferent with respect to the
other measures vetoed and His Excellency
was generously indulged. But the ‘‘press
muzzler’”’ was QUAY’S pet measure and it
has been approved, notwithstanding its an-
constitutionality must have been obvious
to every intelligent school boy who has
taken the trouble to read it.
We have not been deceived in the result
of the approval measure, either. It hag
never been possible to enforce legislation
which is manifestly obnoxious to public
sentiment and the enactment of such leg-
islation invariably provokes excesses in the
direction which it is intended to restrain.
Since the signing of the bill, therefore, it
is not surprising that the newspapers
which had previously offended the Gov-
ernor and his exacting master, Senator
Quay, have gone to greater extremes than
ever in holding him up to popular ridicule
and public execration. In revealing his
sore spots he has simply given those dis-
posed to annoy him a target for their
sharpened shafts. That they have taken
advantage of the better facilities of attack
is only natural and the helplessness of
their victim who is unable to reply owing
to the weakness of his weapon gives zest to
their work.
It is safe to say that the measure is per-
fectly harmless for the reason that the firsé
prosecution under it will result in the
judicial declaration of its invalidity. But
the intention of its framers was malicious
beyond question. In other words Senator
QUAY, Senator PENROSE and the Governor,
himself, hoped to muzzle the pressin order
to facilitate their schemes to loot the State
and they are only prevented from fulfilling
their plans because in their zeal they over-
stepped the mark and lost their quarry.
Whatever execration would have attended
the success of their scheme is therefore
properly due them notwithstanding the
evident and certain failure of their pur-
pose.
On the Anxious Seat.
It was five years, on Tuesday last, so we
have been informed, since Judge LOVE ap-
peared in a Republican county convention,
as a participant in its proceedings, a sympa-
thizer in its actions or an encourager of its
work, There were reasons for this. His
betrayal of and his bitter fight upon ex-
Governor HAsTINGS had so incensed the
members of his party that his room in a
Republican gathering was vastly preferable
to his person, and he judiciously kept to
his back office and contented himself with
encouraging his few followers to make what
trouble they could for ‘those in charge of
and responsible for the organization within
the county.
It is somewhat different now. It is
within one year of the time when his hon-
or will be seeking a re-nomination. The
distinguished head of his party, whom he
avoided as a neighbor, maligned as a citi-
zen and official, and labored to defeat as a
worker for the betterment of his party, is
dead. "He wants a re-election and to se-
cure it he must have the good will of those
who were true to Governor HASTINGS.
This is the why of his crawling back into
his party convention—a convention con-
trolled and under the influence of those
who were proud to be known as friends of
the dead Governor—and whiningly ask that
the ‘‘dead past be allowed to bury its
dead;”’ that the ingratitude, the bitterness
and the wrongs that had been perpetrated
against him who now. lies silent and help-
less in the cemetery, be forgotten and for-
given.
Under the circumstances it may be an
easy matter for Judge LOVE to come to the
front bearing an olive branch is his hand
and pleading for the ‘‘dead past to be al-
lowed to bury its dead,” now that he
needs and must have friends.
Will it be as easy a matter for those who
respect the memory of the man he traduved,
labored to humiliate and defeas to forgive
and forget ?
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
Quay’s Gravest Crime.
In his marvelously made apology for
signing the atrocious ‘‘press muzzler’’ Gov-
ernor PENNYPACKER asserts a monstrous
proposition with respect to the relations
of the Executive to the legislative branch
of the government. Whatever the Legis-
lature does in violation of the constitution
of the State and the rules of the Houses,
the Governor has no right to interfere or
even criticise, he declares substantially.
He might as well have declared that per-
sonabing members, counting absent mem-
bers and perverting the records in every
way has the sanction of the Governor and
is guaranteed immunity from punishment.
It is susceptible of proof that one aiter-
noon during the last session of the Legis-
lature, when there was no unusal excite-
ment in the chamber, one Philadelphia
Representative voted eighteen times on one
bill, fifteen times on another. and twelve
times on still another and those fraudulent
votes made the majority by which each
bill was passed. The constitution requires
that every measure in order to become a
law must ‘‘be read three times on three
separate days,’’ but the ‘‘press muzzler”’
was only read in the House of Representa-
tives once and then as an amendment.
Nevertheless Governor PENNYPACKER, who
confesses a knowledge of the facts, declined
to make that a reason for vetoing the bill,
though he is under the obligation of a
solemn oath ‘‘to support, cbey and defend’’
the constitution.
The Governor is a part of the law mak-
ing power of the Commonwealth hecause
his assent is necessary, except under certain
unusual conditions, to give force and effect
to the work of the Legislature and his dis-
approval, except under circumstances which
rarely occur, is fatal to a bill. But he re-
fuses to take cognizance of a violation of
the fundamental law of the State and in
doing so practically invites future frauds
to the complete satiety of the crooks and
thugs of Philadelphia.
Such immorality was never hefore reveal-
ed in the official life of the State.
In forcing PENNYPACKER into the office
of Governor QUAY committed his greatest
crime against Pennsylvania.
——Yes, very queer traits crop out in
some families. It was a PENNYPACKER!
who attempted to ‘‘ muzzle’’ the efforts o
the tattered and starving followers of
Washington at Valley Forge, by selling
them flour mixed with lime and plaster,
and it is a Governor of the same name who,
a century and a quarter later, attempts to
“‘muzzle’’ the press in its efforts to expose
the looting of the treasury and the de-
banching of the State.
Quay’s Little Game.
Senator QUAY will personally conduct
the Republican state convention in Harris-
burg next week, we learn from the Phila-
delphia papers. During recent years the
Senator hasn’t given such attention to un-
important conventions. He attended that
of last year because he was somewhat un-
certain of the result and ELKIN kept up a
claim of victory to the moment the roll
call began. His determination to be pres-
ent this year, and to spend three days on
the ground, indicates that he is not quite
certain on some point. The concensus of
opinion is that he is apprehensive that a
resolution censuring the Governor for sign-
ing the muzzler will be introduced and
pressed to passage.
We are of the opinion that QUAY is
‘“‘taking council from his fears” on that
point. In other words, we have no idea
that any delegate in the convention will
have the temerity to offer such a resolu-
tion, though everybody knows it ought to
be offered and adopted. It may be added
that if nobody except the Governor was
concerned it would be passed. Butas a
matter of fact the press muzzler is QuaY’s
measure. The newspapers had interfered
with his looting operations during the two
previous sessions of the Legislature. In
1901 he tried to get a bill of the same char-
acter through but failed because Governor
STONE took no interest in it.’ This year
he prevailed on PENNYPACKER to become
sponser for it and it passed.
At present QUAY professes to be satisfied
with silence on the muzzler. But it may
be said that he will ask for more when the
convention meets. The endorsement of
PENNYPACKER'S administration would be
very gratifying to him and the chances are
that he will demand it. No mention will
be made of the muzzler in the resolutions,
but subsequently it will be claimed that
the endorsement of the administration in-
cludes everything. The nomination of
SNYDER who voted for the muzzler and
the endorsement of PENNYPACKER who
sigoed it will and must be taken to mean
an approval of the measure itself and after
that opposition to the Legislators who vot-
ed for it will be laughed out of court. That
is QUAY’S little game.
——Under the appropriation of the last
Legislature the Cottage hospital at Philips-
burg was given $22,600 bus on Friday the
Governor clipped $5,000 off that amount
and signed the bill.
test.
BELLEFONTE, PA., MAY 22, 1903.
The Postal Scandals.
rnin
The full text of Mr. TULLOCH’S charges
of frauds in the Postoffice Department put
a vastly different face on that affair. TUL-
LOCH was once cashier of the Washington
postoffice and when his rather indefinite
statement of irregularities was first made
public there was a good deal of inclination
to dismiss them as the ravings of a disap-
pointed man. The light and airy way
with which the Postmaster General brush-
ed them aside strengthened this impression,
for his demand for particulars was reason-
able bus disregarded. Now that the par-
ticulars have heen given, however, they
carry with them a force which commands
at least decent consideration.
The frauds of which Mr. TULLOCH com-
plains began almost simultaneously with
the induction of PERRY S. HEATH into
the office of First Assistant Postmaster
General. The first break was the presen-
tation of a warrant for a considerable sum
of money for traveling expenses for Mr.
HEATH. The cashier protested that the
precedents were against the allowence of
such charges and Mr. HEATH'S reply was
that ‘‘this is a new administration and a
new crowd and we will make our own prec-
edepts.’”’ Under the circumstances the
warrant was paid and soon afterward the
protesting cashier was discharged. = Mean-
time, however, extravagant furniture and
other bills were presented and paid.
Postmaster General PAYNE continues to
treat the charges as of no consequence, but
he will find the public of a vastly different
mind on the subject. No man ocould in-
vent charges and support them with so
perfect a chain of evidence. HEATH was a
protege of Senator HANNA and introduced
into the service RATHBONE and NEELY
who were subsequently convicted of postal
crimes in Cuba. HEATH, himself, was
obliged to resign later on and though the
reasons were never revealed it may be pre-
sumed that he was forced out in order to
prevent the exposure of his corrupt opera-
tions.
Under the circumstances if the Post-
master General is wise he will make an in-
vestigation and quit back talk.
“=~ At the laying of the corner stone for
a new paper mill in’ Williamsburg on Tues-
day it was announced that Chas. M.
Schwab had subscribed for $100,000 worth
of the stock, had bought new instruments
and uniforms for the Williamsburg band,
had set aside $10,000 for the benefit of
widows and orphans left through a dyna-
mite explosion in the town on April 30th
and agreed to take all the stock in the mill
nob subscribed for by others.
The Time to Begin.
The Republican state convention will
meet at Harrisburg next Wednesday and
unless present plans are changed or mis-
carry, Senator WILLIAM P. SNYDER, of
Chester county, will be nominated for the
important office of Auditor General of the
State, with practical unanimity. Senator
SNYDER not only voted for all the iniguis-
ous legislation which was enacted during
the session of 1901, including the rippers
and the franchise grab, but he supported
the ‘‘cnlminating atrocity’’ of the recent
session, the GRADY-SALUS ‘press muz-
zler.”” There was no time during the con-
sideration of that measure in the Senate
that he couldn’t have stopped it by a pro-
But he voted for it at every stage.
Republican papers in Schuylkill, Me-
Kean, Fayette and other counties throngh-
out the State have declared that they will
not support for re election to the Legisla-
ture any Senator or Representative who
voted for the ‘‘press muzzler.”” But why
do they wait a year to administer just pun-
ishment to men who have proved recreant
to the American principle of free speech and
liberty of the press? In other words the
time to begin that work is this year when
the offense is fresh in the public mind and
a just punishment will appear reasonable.
It Senator SNYDER is allowed to escape the
penalty of voting for the muzzler there
will be no justice in inflicting it on others
who have sinned less.
The independence and grit of the Repub-
lican newspapers of the State will be de-
termined by their action in the impending
campaign. If they yield to the commands
of the machine this time there is no hope
for them in the future. In fact, some in-
telligent observers are of the opinion that
they lost in their effort to get the muzzler
vetoed more because of the half heartedness
of the protest than for any other reason.
The meeting the night before the hearing
of their protest was managed by the emissa-
ries of QUAY with the view of shielding his
feelings and PENNYPACKER naturally in-
ferred that so considerate a lot wouldn’t be
hard to placate even if they did take of-
fense at his action.
Sp———
——During January 1903 the State De-
partment of Agriculture found 15 cases of
impure butter and 18 of impure foods and
brought 33 suits under the laws pertaining
to such infractions.
——Subscribe for the WATCHMAN.
on SHON
NO. 21.
How the Press Outside of Pennsylvania
Looks at Our Muzzler. :
TO MAKE ITS SHAME PERPETUAL,
From the Norfolk Virginia Pilot.
The Pennsylvania of to-day is the prob-
lem of the future—the greatest problem the
country has to face. Its shame is the shame
of a State government by a compact be-
tween organized wealth, purchased brains
and branded - criminals. And that this
shame may be made perpetual, the right of
appeal to public inteiligence and the civic
conscience has been taken away, if the
Courts sustain the infamous law passed for
that purpose. By
ABOUT THE SIZE OF IT.
From the Boston Herald. ‘
And so Governor Pennypacker has sign
ed the Pennsylvania press muzzling bill.
He thinks he finds warrant for his action in
‘the way the newspapers have treated Mr.
Quay and other Pennsylvania statesmen of
his like. Perhaps the best description of
this bill, which has now become a law, was
given by the Philadelphia Press, thus:
‘An act to promote barratry, to encourage
blackmail, to breed legal harpies, to shackle
the printing of news, to shield offenders
against public morals and rights, and to in-
timidate and terrorize the newspapers.”
That’s about the size of it.
A VILE PIECE OF MUSCOVITE-LIKE DESPOT-
ISM.
From the Mobile Register,
The Pennsylvania law is an infringement
of the libersy of the press. It is intended
to protect rascals from deserved criticism.
It is so drawn that if a man’s feelings are
hurt, or he thinks they are, he can sue for
damages. The editor must go ahead and
run the risk of violating such a law a hun-
dred times every day, or cease to express
opinions on subjects of public concern, It
is a vile piece of Muscovite-like despotism,
even if it is performed in the name of the
people of the free Commonwealth of Penn-
sylvania.
A BLOW AT CIVIL LIBERTY.
From the Chicago Daily News.
Among all the great states of the nnion
Pennsylvania is the one where the fearless,
honest and impartial criticism of a free press
is most needed. Its Legislature is respon-
sible for some of the most infamous ‘‘rip-
per’’ bills and other specimens of corrupt
legislation ever enacted. Its larger muni-
cipalities are in the clutches of political
rings which have betrayed the people's in-
terests repeatedly. That the Legislature
of this boss ridden and execrably - misgov-
erned commonwealth should have passed a
libel bill especially aimed to throttle free
criticism is therefore entirely natu
it logically follows from the wish to enact
and enforce legislation which will not bear
public scrutiny. = The bosses whose aim it
is to exploit the public and profit by cor-
ruption naturally object to anything which
interferes with their iniquitous operations.
The bill is one of the most dangerous and
outrageous attacks on free speech and free
discussion ever madein this country. Uu-
der the law newspapers may be punished if
any citizen of the State can establish that
the matter published ‘‘injures his feelings.’
Boodlers, bosses and corrupt politicians
generally, to say nothing of members of the
avowedly criminal class, could thus hold
over the heads of the Pennsylvania editors
the threat of constant persecutions and
blackmailing suits.
A BLESSING IF IT OPENS PEOPLE'S EYES.
From the Trenton True American.
If the gag law shall be the turning point
of Pennsylvania's history ; if it show to
what extremes political rascality must go
in order to fortify itself against exposure
and defeat; if it open the eyes of the peo-
ple of Pennsylvania to the depths of the
degradation into which they have been
plunged, by silent support of those who
have perverted every element of honest
government—then it will be a blessing.
A PITIABLE SPECTACLE.
From the Atlanta Constitution.
Even the members of the disreputable
Republican gang in whose interest he has
acted must feel sorry for the pitiable spec-
tacle which Governor Pennypacker, of
Pennsylvania, has made of himself in his
attempt to justify approval of the libel bill
which he inspired and which was railioad-
ed through the Legislature at its session
recently ended.
A CONFESSION OF THE POLITICIANS.
From the Kansas City Star.
That the Governor of Pennsylvania and
its Legislature have sanctioned a scheme to
estop criticism and discussion in the news-
papers of acts and policies that are of the
greatest importance to the people is the
fullest confession that has yet been made of
the odious political immorality that per-
vades the Keystone State. :
FOR THE PROTECTION OF POLITICIANS.
From the New Orleans Times Democrat. :
In she fight against this law the press of
Pennsylvania will have the sympathy. of
the whole country. The new statute was
framed by the politicians for their own
protection against the truth. Nowherein
the Union are the politicians more corrupt,
nowhere is it more difficult to oust from
power the political gang in charge of the
great cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburg.
That mighty task is almost impossible with-
out the assistance of the press. The only
hope of rescue lies in shaking off the gag
and chains that the Libel law is seeking to
place on the newspapers. If they should
‘weaken,’’ if they should abandon the
fight for good and honest government, the
ring will have nothing to fear and will
remain forever in control of the govern-
ment, with full power to rob and despoil
the people. :
A TRIBUTE TO THE NEWSPAPERS.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.
Probably the newspapers of the country
were never paid a higher tribute than that
paid them by the enemies whom they have
made, the grafters and epoilsmen who have
exercised their autocratic power over the
Pennsylvania Legislature and Governor to
secure the enactment of a law to punish a
free press for exposing political crime.
‘since
Spawis from the Keystone,
—York’s preachers and many of their
parishioners favor a city curfew ordinance.
—Farmer C. O. Hohe, of Lanark, Lehigh
county, has a tuneful piano that was made
in London in 1797. ;
—Lycoming ‘county commissioners hav
awarded a contract for $35,950 for building
an addition to the court house. ite
—Helen Dawson, of Pittsburg, aged 22,
wanted to go to the circus and because her
lover refused to take her she swallowed four
poisonous antiseptic tablets. She is at the
Allegheny General hospital, with little
chance for recovery.
—Cupid has been playing havoc among the
force of Scranton City school teachers, and
the announcement was made Monday that
no less than 10 would enter the bonds of
matrimony. School directors are besieged
for promises of appointment in the fall.
—The St. Luke’s Reformed congregation of
Lock Haven, has received word that the
large pipe organ recently ordered was ship-
ped on the 14th inst., in a specially chartered. .
car which will come right through to that
city. The organ fills an entire car and
weighs 8,000 pounds. i >
—Making a misstep as he was boarding his
train, at Pottsville, Daniel C. Kline, of Mt.
Carbon, brakeman, fell to his death on Mon-
‘| day. Kline dropped clear of the wheels, but
the tail of his coat caught in one of the
journals and he was dragged in and crushed.
—Langdon Williamson, of Jersey Shore, a
N.Y. C. trainmen, slipped and fell under
his train, while coupling cars at Keating, but
by a quick movement he threw his body
from between the wheels and almost miracu-
lously escaped death. His back was severely
sprained. 2.8
—Saturday night burglars entered the of-
fice of the Empire Steel and Iron company,
at Catasauqua, and stole $1,000 worth of
platinum from the safe. The same night
$300 worth of like metal was taken from the .
office of the Thomas Iron company, at Ho-
kendauqua. :
—In the damage suit instiuted by Mr. and
Mrs. Charles Coolbroth, of Curwensville,
against the Pennsylvania railroad company
for alleged injuries sustained by Mrs. Cool-
broth while’ walking along the track some
months ago, the jury at Clearfield on Wed-
nesday returned a verdict in favor of the
"plaintiff of $3,000.
—C. L. Grimm, a commercial traveler, had
the little finger of his left hand cut off by a
door suddenly closing on it, while standing
on the platform of a Pennsylvania passenger
coach at Williamsport Wednesday. Mr.
Grimm has placed the matter in the hands of
a Williamsport attorney who will institute
proceedings for $10,000.
—A deed was entered for record in the
Register’s office at Lewistown on Monday
conveying 4612 acres and 119 perches of land
to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by
the William Whitmer & Sons Co. for $13,-
838.23. Itis all mountain land, situated in
Armagh township, and will be added to the
forest preserves.
—From all sections of Eastern Pennsyl-
vania come reports of failure of crops from
the drought, the last rain in that section hav.
ing fallen on May 3rd, when there was a
slight shower. The preceding heavy rain
‘was on April 15th. Oats are beginning to
shrivel, and unless rain comes soon they are
likely to die. Other grain is turning yel-
low, and corn has not yet sprouted.
—DBert Smith, Irvin Smith, Ward Smith
and Monroe Houseknecht, Penn township,
Lycoming county, were arrested Sunday on
a charge of wilfully and maliciously kindling
a forest fire. The prosecutor, constable Bull,
charges the defendants with refusing to
assist in extinguishing a forest fire and for
taking fire brands from the fire the constable
was fighting and setting fire to the forest in
fresh places.
—In order to see a frog that they had
captured make a flying leap, Wayne Mahus
and Haul Carpenter, of Lewisburg, boys of
12, placed the frog on a handful of gun-
powder and lighted the powder. Mahus was
burned from head to foot, and lay down in a
creek to extinguish his clothing. Young
Carpenter was painfully burned about the
face and hands. The boys were unable to
tell how far the frog leaped. ’
—Out of the thousands paid at Shenandoah
on Saturday two men, Daniel and James
Richards, missed their pay in an odd and
amusing way. After they had received their
six checks for different work they placed
them in a jacket pocket and hung iton a
post and went up their breast for their din-
ner pails. They returned shortly afterward,
just in time to witness a large black mule
devour the last remnant of the jacket,checks
and all, to their amazement and disgust.
—What is believed to be the oldest build-
ing in this section of the state, the log house
on the farm of John Knepley, near Jersey
Shore, was torn down this week to make
room for a modern residence. The house
was built 140 years ago. The interior was
finished with split lath, which were put to-
gether with nails hammered by a blacksmith.
The bricks in the chimney, itis’ supposed,
were products of England. The house has
never undergone repairs and was in a good
state of preservation.
—Hereafter the ballots which we use for
voting will not be so large. Instead of hay-
ing a separate column for each party, the
names of all the candidates for any office will
be put under the head of that office. For
instance, all candidates for Governor will be
put under the head, “Governor” and all
candidates for Congress will be put under the
head “Congress,” and so with all other of-
fices to be filled. Instead of a circle at the
head of the column there will be a square
after the name of each political party which
heads each group of party candidates.
—Battery A, of Philadelphia has by an
order issued from the adjutant general's of-
fice at Harrisburg, been transformed into a
troop of cavalry, according to a dispatch con-
tained in the morning papers. It has been
known for some time that at least two of the
three batteries in the National Guard of
Pennsylvania would at an early date be con -
verted into cavalry troops. The other one
is Battery B, of Pittsburg. The third bat-
tery is C of Pheonixville, which it is said
will be retained as an artillery company and
be supplied entirely with Tepeatig small cali-
bre guns. The changing of the two artillery
organizations to cavalry will give the first
brigade three troops, the second brigade two,
leaving the third brigade with but one.