8Y PRP. GRAY MEEK.
ES ———
- Ink Slings.
—The little green apple hangs up on the tree
The bad little boy chuckles with glee
He eats one or two, then jumps his trollee
And away he is hauled to the cem-e-ter-ee.
—The country is safe. Mr. MORGAN.
has returned from Europe.
_ ~The weather hasn’t even gotten warm
enough to give the mad dog his day.
~—T¢ is quite possible that with the leaks
in the Postoffice Department stopped up
one cent postage rates might be ‘secured to
the public.
—A little rain-fall now and then, is
relished by all sorts of men, but when it
starts and can not stop, we wish we'd never
seen a drop.
—It is a question now as to which i is the
mosé enjoyable in Delaware. ADDICKISM'
or mob rule. - It might be that the former
engendered the latser.
—Sir Thomas and his Shamrocks have
arrived, May their stay be as fall of joy for
them as it can be under such circumstances
as defeat always brings.
—By making a splendid ticket the
Democrats of Clearfield county have. taken
a long lead in the race for offices that will
have its finals in November.
—The higher they lift the lid from the
post-office scandals in Washington the more
apparent it becomes that Republican spell-
binders next fall will bave to devote all
their time to mixing white-wash.
. —The moon changed early yesterday
morning and the weather-wise looked for a
change of weather, but from the appear-
ance. of the sky the ground will be soaked
worse than ever by the time the moon gets
tall.
- —Stories wafted up from the seashore on
the first breezes caused by the rush of sum-
mer guests show that the foolish bathers
were not 'all drowned last summer. There
was a few of them left to make trouble for
the guards.
" —The Pennsylvania building at the
World’s fair at St. Louis may be without
character, as the Philadelphia papers
allege, bui certain it is that if the average
Philadelphia public’ character had much
prominence in the building there would
be no building at all.
—The way Judge LovE and Col. ED-
WARD CHAMBERS speak to one another as
they pass by would turn a pail of boiling
water into a solid block of ice. Youjknow
the Colonel thinks he could lift the judi-
cial ermine of Centre county out of the
mire it bas been trailed in these past ten
years.
—After changing the tariff forty-eight
tithes in forty-two years the: Republicans
can hardly claim to have practice back of
their already begun campaign preaching
against “tariff tinkering.”” Forty-eight
times in forty-two years is pretty high,
so it is little wonder they arrogate to them-
selves superior knowledge as tinkers.
—Out at Livingston, Montana, the farm-
ers are organizing to stampede ‘the grass-
hoppers. The pestiferous little insects are
eating up all the grass. In this part of
the country grasshoppers or anything else
that would venture into a grass field with-
out a life preserver and a bathing suit
would be taking their life in their own
hands.
—The promotion of the traitors who be-
strayed King ALEXANDER, of Servia, and
his Queen, to positions of rank in the ad-
ministration of the new King isa fitting
end to a chapter of the most dastardly
crimes that has ever blighted the history
of civilization. Words illy express the
horrors that were perpetrated at Bel-
grade and had they been committed in the
semi-civilized Philippines or wilds of
Africa all the powers of the earth would
have rushed in to henevolently assimilate
the barbarians. :
—The work of a Delaware mob in bat-
tering down the work house doors at Wil-
mington and burning at the stake, the
negro, GEORGE WHITE, who was accused of
assaulting Miss HELEN BIsHOP, sounded
so much like the South that the partisan
Republican papers of the North should be
excused if they get a little twisted in their
geography just now and locate it down in
Georgia. Such spectacles would not startle
the public as frequently as they do if courts
of justice served the people more and the
sharp practice of lawyers less.
—The Democrats of Iowa have brought
forth an “idea.” Not to be out-done by
their Republican brethren they have de-
cided that the 1900 platform should not be
reaffirmed and ‘acted accordingly at their
state convention on. . Wednesday. ‘While
the WATCHMAN is of the opinion that the
silver question should be eliminated from
the campaign of 1904 it does not repudiate
it as having been a tenable one in. 1900 or
1896. Exigencies of the times make the
issues and no one can tell now what the
country will need a year and. a-half hence,
~The thrilling round up of a band of
robbers in the Seven mountains, in this
county, came just in time to keep us in the
fore-ground of public curiosity. Our crop
of statesmen is getting low, big ‘weddings
are scarce, and old grandma BARGER,
whose one hundred and seven years were
always good for a column or so in the city
papers, has gone to her ‘grave; ‘leaving us
high and dry as a pews centre. But if
last Saturday’s performance can only be
duplicated occasionally Col. Judge CHAM-
BERS will ultimately come to the rescue of
the space writers as a thing of joy and in.
terest for all,
VOL. 48
No Occasion for Worry.
The esteemed Philadelphia Press betrays
an unwonted measure of anxiety on the
subject of an issue upon which the Demo-
cratic party may conduct its campaign in
the coming presidential contest. The par-
ty is absolutely without an issue, our es-
teemed contemporary confidently asserts.
The silver question is dead, it adds, and
the people are so well satisfied with the
DINGLEY tariff law that it would be rank
madness to predict a battle on the issue of
revenue reform. There is nothing left, it
continues tearfully, and the party which
has lived for more than a'century is threat-
ened with dissolution because it has noth-
ing to contend for.
It is with infinite pleasure, therefore,
and no small measure of satisfaction, that
we assure our esteemed contemporary that
there are plenty of issues and not the least
available of them is the record of Mr.
CHARLES EMORY SMITH, editor of the
Press, in his capacity as Postmaster General
daring the administration of President Mc-
KINLEY. In an interview given to the
press in Pittsburg, the other day, for ex-
ample, Mr. SEYMOUR W. TULLOCH, former-
ly cashier of the Washington postoffice
said : ‘If my warning had been heeded by
Mr. SMITH,” he remarked, referring to the
editor of our contemporary, ‘‘the Cuban
postoffice scandals which so distressed the
country and the present condition of things
would never have happened.”
Does Mr. SMITH imagine thas a more rel.
evant or interesting issue could: be diseov-
ered than these same scandals of the Post-
office Department under his own adminis-
tration ? We can think of nothing which
more directly concerns the public than the
expensive abuses in the postal service in
Cuba and those which have been revealed
contemporary and since. Mr. SMITH was
prompt to come to the defense of the pres-
ent Postmaster General and it would be in-
teresting to show that his action was sim-
ply in the nature of a precautionary move-
ment to protect his own reputation and
those of others who were close to him in
the administration of bis office. ‘We assure
Mr. SMITH that there is no occasion to wor-
ry on account of the absence of issues.
They are plenty and loud smelling.
A —————————— “hy TR
Venality in Public Life.
The investigation of charges of corruption
in Scranton councils now in progress bas
already revealed some startling facts. It
bas been shown that almost the entire
membership of the munecipal Legislature of
that city is venal, for two witnesses have
sworn posit ively that one member of the
body solicited a sum amounting to $400
each for eleven members, including him-
self, and that two others had attempted to
make separate bargains, one ‘‘for all that
is going,”’ and the other ‘‘at market rates,’
whatever that means.
That is a most lamentable state of affairs
but who will dare say that it is singular to
Scranton? As a matter of fact there are
réasons to believe that all or nearly all
the cities in the Commonwealth are sim-
ilarly cursed. It is generally known that
the councils of Philadelphia and Pitteburg
are notoriously corrupt and itis commonly
believed that those of Harrisburg, Wilkes-
barre, Altoona and rie are no better. In
the large towns of Schuylkill county there
bave been all sorts of scandals * including
charges of bribing and blackmailing school
teachers and in a number of other boroughs
there are signs of lax official morality in all
directions.
These things are attributable to the im-
moralities of men higher up in the public
life of the Commonwealth. Wheu the Gov-
ernor pays no respect to the constitution
and the laws, what can be expected of
councilmen. When Senators and Repre-
sentatives in the Legislature of the State
give and take bribes as freely as they draw
their salaries, why shouldn’t members of
municipal Legislatures do the same thing.
As a matter of fact the trend of public life
is bad anc decadence is perceptible in every
direction. Unless there is improvement in
the near future there will be acarehy in
Shee end. !
Can’t be Suppressed.
It has heen officially announced that
neither Senator SNYDER nor his colleague
on the Republican ticket, Mr. MATTHUES,
will utter a word ‘during the impending
campaign or attend any public meetings of
any kind at which the opportunity to in
terrogate them would be presented. If it
is necessary to make an active campaign,
it is added, foreign speakers will be
brought into the service and national is-
sues will be discussed. The purpose of
this plau is to keep down the discussion of
the press muzzler and “prevent the ex-
ploitation of Senator SNYDER’S connection
with that iniquitous piece of machine leg-
islation. :
This. announcement is. characteristic of
the QUAY machine. The stupids who are
directing its operations during the absence
of QUAY and DURHAM imagine that the
people of Pennsylvania are so ill equipped
intellectually that they may be fooled into
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
any absurd notion. But they are mistaken
in that. The selection of speaker WALTON |
to preside over the convention, the nomi-
nation of Senator SNYDER for Auditor Gen-
eral and the appointment of Senator PEN-
ROSE as chairman of the state convention
makes the press muzzler the issue as plain-
ly as if it were emblazoned on illuminated
‘banners and ‘posted at “the” doorway of
every Rebublican committee room or club
house in the State. ;
The inception of the press muzzler may
bave been in the mind of QUAY and the
exposure of his unlawful use of the state
funds the cause of it, but the party
adopted it and it no longer belongs to an
individual or to a faction: Therefore
whatever odium attaches to it must rest on
the party and whatever injury it inflicts
on the State must be repaired by the party
or recompensed for. That being the case
the intelligent public will discuss it and
Senator SNYDER’S share in the perpetra-
tion of the crime against the liberties of
the people and the freedom of the press
will be fully and freely disclosed.
What Changed His Mind.
The postoffice scandals continue to dis-
tract the official life of Washington and
shock the country. When the President
returned from his absurd hippodrome tour
of the West, a few weeks ago, he ostenta-
tiously anoounced that he would give his
personal attention to the trouble and clear
it up before he left the capital for his sum-
mer vacation at Oyster Bay. Now it is
announced that he is very much distressed
because he can’t finish up the investigation
before he leaves for his summer home
which he intends to do in a week or ten
days but the inquiry will be continued in
a quiet bus thorough way, however, he as-
sures us until the Department is cleaned
up. There has been too much publicity,
it is alleged.
This is what might be called a reaction-
ary movement. That is to say itisa re-
cession from the bold and courageous stand
taken on his return from the West. What
could have changed his policy and purpose
in the premises? He bas certainly not
been influenced by the notion that public
morals will he eonseryed hy Star ebambor
proceedings in conducting the investiga-
tion. He must know that such methods
are abhorrent to the American mind which
favors the open in everything. The con-
stitution guarantees to every citizen ac-
cused an open trial and the right to face
his accusers. The President indicated at
the outset a purpose to fulfil that guaran-
tee. What could have changed his mind?
Probably the scent was getting too close
to some of the President’s intimate friends.
He has tried to create the impression that
he is of the Spartan type which is swerved
from the path of duty by no consideration.
But his present course doesn’t sustain
such a pretense. It indicates that some-
thing has interposed not only to alter his
plane with respect to publicity but to check
the velocity of his movement toward a
complete revelation of the 1niquities
charged. In this course the President is
hardly just to himself. He is not main-
taining that standard of political morality
and moral courage which he pretends to
exemplify ia his life. Won’t be give the
public a reason for the ehange.
A Word to the Farmers.
Heretofore the announcements have
always been madetoolate to make them of
much use to you, 50 this year we are tak-
ing time by the forelock to call your at-
tention to the great Centre county fair.
Now while the corn and oats and wheat
and barley and everything else you grow is
in the ground and still shooting Heaven-
ward it is time for you to pick out the big
stalks to bring to the fair in October. Then
when the grain is barvested remember the
fair also and if you have some specially
nice seed save it for the fair. Do the same
with everything you grow.
There are many reasons why the farmers
of Centre county should take an active in-
terest in the fair. It was revived largely
for their pleasure. The gentlemen at the
head of it have spent nearly fitty thousand
dollars ip the enterprise and have no hope
of getting their money back, or even inter-
est on it. What they do want, however,
is to bring the farmers of the county into
kindly and pleasant intercourse with the
townsman. The fair should prove the
best agency for such a purpose, for it comes
October 13-14-15-16- at a time when all the
farm work is about completed. It isa
clean, moral, wholesome entertainment.
The managers conld make it pay immense-
ly if they would license gambling devices
and games of graft, as they do at county
fairs elsewhere, but they have preferred to
keep its moral tone up. to ‘the. highest
standard and in doiug this they shonld be
supported.
ere the farmers, of Centre county to
take a real, active interest in the fair this
fall; making the exhibits of grain, fruit
and stock what they can be the result
would be ‘a revelation to all. Centre
county would have a monster fair, so full
of interest, so keen with friendly rivalry,
that it would quicken the entire county
into a greater activity at home and abroad.
‘the college.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JUNE 26, 1903.
Hoy of Clarion Denounced.
It may be assumed that Representative
Joux A. F. Hoy, of Clarion county, will
be retired from politics at the expiration of
his present term and that in some measure
compensates for other disappointments and
disagreeable incidents in recent political
history. As least the censure of Mr. Hoy,
by ‘the Denioorats of the county which four
times elected him to the Legislature, in
convention the other day, justifies the hope
that he will not be elected again. In re-
ferring tothe press muzazler as legislation
“‘aiming to protect public plunderers and
professional blackmailers,’’ the resolutions
unanimously adopted by the convention
vehemently denounced every member of
the Legislature who voted for it.
JorN A. F. Hoy was commonly believed
to be in the service of the QUAY machine
during the session of 1899, yet he was re-
elected for the succeeding session. He
voted for the McCARRELL jary bill which
had for its parpose the acquittal of QUAY
on the charge of misusing the funds of the
State, notwithstanding the overwhelming
evidence against him. . In the saturnalia of
crime which rau through the session of 1901
he was popularly believed to be conspicuous
among the ring leaders, yet he was return-
ed to the session of the present year, to
again betray his constituents by again serv-
ing the QUAY machine in every species of
legislative jobhery which was presented.
The public bad begun to think that the
people of Clarion county were no better
than he.
Now we may be permitted to believe
that such an estimate was unjust to the
people and that Hoy will be retired per-
manently. After condemning him as they
did in the recent convention they can’t re-
elect him to any office without stultifying
themselves and it may be interpreted as in-
dicating that his character was not ander-
stood and his practices not known. We
would be glad to take that charitable
view of the subject, It is a harsh jndg-
ment of a community to assume that it
deliberately chooses men of doubtful char-
acter to represent it. Yet that of the peo-
ple of Clarion county was forced by the
Tepeated re- seleetions of HoY until now that
hops wothing |
— whl be Fy hin in the public
life of the State.
Wililam Foster.
Mr. William Foster, whose death, as
already aunonnced, occurred at his home
Jouve 17th, was horn in Buffalo Valley,
March 22nd, 1819, where he lived until
1848, when he came to Centre county,
locating near. Centre Furnace. In 1856
he purchased the farm near State Col-
lege which he has occupied ever since
and bas been prominently identified with
the life of that community for almost balf
a century. These forty-seven years of Mr.
Foster’s residence spanned the history of
Pennsylvania State College. He saw the
old stone building erected and the institu-
tion, in its checkered career, grow from a
poor struggling Farmer’s High School to its
present prosperity, marked by many hand-
some buildings and a beautiful campns at
the foot of which a village has sprung ' up
and spread until it now reaches almost to
the Foster home. The sucoess of the Col-
lege was a source of much pleasure to Mr.
Foster, almost as much as his life was to it
and its students, for until within the last
few years, when declining years impaired
his vigor be was a personal acquaintance
and factor with almost every ‘student there
and his cheery presence and hospitable
home will be indissolubly associated wish
many an old student’s happy memory of
The present student loses
much who has missed those pleasant gath-
erings in the old post office where Mr. Fos-
ter and Mr. Joseph Mitchell used to be the
chief attraction and when their interest in
a “fellow” made life a lot happier for
him.
Mr. Foster was a Presbyterian in faith,
and a Democrat in politics, hoth of ‘which
he inherited along with his genial, ‘gen-
erous, upright charactor from his Scoteh-
Irish ancestors who emigrated to America
about 1733 and figured conspicuously in
the early history of this nation and State.
In 1847, he married Miss Maria Corl, of
Union Co., whose death occurred several
years ago. Their children were Elizabeth,
who married William Everbart and died
on ber wedding tour; Charles, United
States mail agent between New York and
Pittsburg; James, a graduate’ of State
College in '89, and who died three years
ago in Alabama ; Mary, and John, a State
College graduate of '92 and now a chemist
at Cumberland Furnace, Tenn.
It is with regret that we record this
passing of another of the pioneers, of this
county, as their going means the gradual
disappearance of that simple, good, peace-
ful life which has heen of incalculable good
tous as a people and the best counter:
irritant to the selfish, hurried present day
existence when one has little time or
inclination to think of his neighbor’s good.
~—Subseribe for the WATCHMAN.
BL
NO. 26.
Russia vs. _Penmaylvania.
From the Wall Street Journal.
The expulsion of the Londan Times’ cor-
respondent from St. Petersburg is a net
suggestive incident. This was an
despotism, and an act which places
in u class by itself among the asss Rugela
of the world. er
Bast let us not go too fast in condemning
Russia while ourselves. Are we
altogether bl 8? Did not, “the last
Pennsylvania Li ture a bill a
was almost as odious as. cent
the Russian government? Has nos thot
Governor of Pennsylvania signed that bill
and justified his signature by a Satoment
that, if anything, aggravated the offensi
action of the Legislature? The act was on
tended to restriot the liberty of the press ress by
Dieveativg, among other things, the pub
cation of cartoons, one of the most effective
and powerful instroments for influencing
ublio opinion within = the domain of
ournalism.
Nothing that has aed place. in
country in years has been so flagrant ae
defiance of enlightened public o inion, on
the part of political bosses, as this..
But there is at least this difference. The
Russian government was able to enforce its
decree. . But the law of - the Pennsylvania
government is probably unenforcible. A
law that is not supported by pub! ge senti-
ment is in this country a dead let ;
The words of Daniel Wehner, tha great
defender of human liberty and the consti-
tution, are, of course, withont influence in
Russia but they still ought toring true and
powerfully in Pennsylvania. It was Daniel
Webster who said : *‘All is not lost while.
we have a single newspaper that is free.
Given a free press, and we may defy opin-
ion or insidious enemies of liberty. It in-
structs the public mind and animates the
spirit of patriotism. Its loud voice sup-
presses everything which would raise itself
agaiust the public liberty, and its Dae
reboke causes. incipient despotism to peris
in the bund.’
Followed the Example of Thetr Re:
: Publican: | Bosses, ‘
From the Johnstown Democrat. :
When that $50,000,000 emergency wat
taud was being spent without’ check by
she President in 1898 ; when ships which
had been sent to the junk heab, were being
bought at fabulons figures; when contracts
for clothing were being made under pri-
vate persons acting as go-betweens were
able to profit enormously; when Uncle Sam
was buying. explesive beef for feedin
soldiers and n a great Secretary
Treasury with executive grin
trafficking with, J. oipont Morg
tellows should follow the example of those
above? Can we be surprised that bureau
chiefs and clerks and underlings of all de- |
grees should also seek a graft and work it
to the limit? The country was drunk
with the spirit of war. Duty and destiny
were spurring it into patriotic paroxysms
of benevolent assimilation. The old flag |
was big enongh to cover any deviltry from
the purchase of rotten beef to the betrayal
of an ally. It was treason for any one
$0 question either men or meth-
ods. And so grafting in high stations and
in low began to flourish. It was a time of
glory and of greed and greed kept a lap
ahead of glory in the mad race. And now
Postmaster General Payne weeps when he
faces the appalling mess of corruption by
which he is surrounded. The country is
amazed by the revelations already made.
It is in dread of those which are yet to
come. And while the President professes
a determination to let no guilty man es-
cape. ' Yet he permits Mr. Payne to sneer
and to scoff at and discredit every effort to
uncover the frauds and expose the thieves
and scoundrels who infest the postal serv-
ice.”
Only See The Small Wrongs.
From the Oshkosh Northwestern.
It seems a little singular that when a
colored female postmaster in the south is
disturbed in her work the whole power of
the Postoffice Department is instantly en-
listened in her behalf, and yet a gang of
thieves can loot the building where the
Postmaster General sits and. he does not
hear of it. A single mail carrier on a rural
delivery route in Alabama bas stones
thrown at him, and forthwith the Post-
master General reads the riot act to every
southern constituency; yet when a repu-
table citizen of Washington makes affidavit
that the department officials are in
‘‘eahoots’’ with a business house to swindle
the government, Mr. Payne refuses to be-
lieve and takes no steps to put a stop to
it.
The Northwestern believes that Repub-
lican frauds are not a whit better than
those of Democratic origin, and that a Re-
publican thief deserves punishment just as
much as a Democratic thief. There is
ample reason to believe that there iy rot-
tenness in the Postoffice Department and
thas it is the duty of the Postmaster Gener-
al and the President to stop the frauds and
punish the delinquents.
. Prices Ahead | of the Dollar,
From the Rochester Herald, | ’ iy
The purchasil ower of the dollar is
about three laps be ind in the race with
prices,
Petes Rewarding the Conspirators.
BELGRADE, June 21. 91.—The promotions
are announced of various members of the
military. de tation to King Peter, at
Geneva. Colonel Popovics, of the late
King iesanders palace guard, is created
a a general and first aide de camp to King
Peter, tain Kostio, who opened the
palace gates for the assassins of the late
King and Queen, is promoted to be a ma-
jor and Lient. Cronica, who was on guard
outside the palace on the night of the
assassinations, and who was a confidant of
the conspirators, is made a captain. >
——-Last Friday was the sixth anniver-
sary of the terrible hail storm that caused
such devastation to Tyrone and vicinity.
3 Fe
Spawls from the Keystone.
conn
—Captain William H. § H. Stranb, Company C,
i ‘| Milton, the senior captain of the Twelfth
‘regiment, has been at his own request placed
upon the retired list. ~ :
—The Dost office at Vintondale, Cambria >
county, was robbed early Monday morning; 2
‘over $500 worth of stamps were taken and
the unknown robbers made their escape and
so far as known have eluded capture.
—The widow of Robert B. Wilson, of Cur-
wensville, who was killed in the railroad ac.
cident at Slate Cut recently, will receive $1,-
|| 000 insurance from the P.R.R. association
and $750 from the Brotherhood of Locomotive
| Engineers.
—The saw mill of G. E. Whitemore, locat_
ed about two and one half miles from Trout.
ville, Clearfield county, was totally destroy-
ed by fire one day recently, together with
about 100,000 feet of hard wood timber. Loss
f | $3,000 with no insurance.
—R. A. Brainard, postmaster of Curwens-
ville and editor of the Semi-Weekly Review,
suffered a very serious injury to ome of his
arms Thursday evening by the explosion of a
gasolene engine in an ice cream factory in
that place. Hs may lose the arm. :
—The quarantine ‘has been removed from
the town of Cross Forks. This is certainly
good news to people of that much affected
town. This week finishes the fumigation of
lumber camps and infected houses in the vil-
lage where the disease existed and there are
none now ill with it.
—Riston Bennett. the negro who accident”
ally shot himself at Gallitzin Sunday and was
| admitted to the hospital, at Altoona, died at
that institution Monday evening from the
effects of the wound. The bullet had pierced
the liver and punctured the intestines.
Bennett was aged about 35 years.
—According to the home newspapers, com-
mittee on invitations, etc. Lock Haven will
this year knock the spots off the bigges
Fourth of July celebration that has ever oc-
curred in Central Pennsylvania. But Hunt-
ingdon and Philipsburg: are both in the ring
yet, and Johnstown is feeding on gun powde:
and bunting for the fray. = *
‘ —Charles Weest, fireman, whose home is i
at Washington, Pa, fell off his engine, haul-
ing Chicago and, St. Louis express, early Sun-
day morning at Latrobe, and was instantly
killed.” The engineer of the train did not no-
tice Weest’s disappearance until the steam
began ‘to get low. The train was stopped
near Latrobe station and in a short time the
body was found. He was 26 years old-and a
member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Firemen.
_—Charles M. Schwab is arranging to treat
rs the people of Loretto to a display of fine fire
works on the glorious Fourth. During the
evening: ‘the pyrotechnics will be of the usual
fiery kind, but in the afternoon there will be
a display of paper, which, when thrown into
the'air, ‘expands into shapes’ of pigs, horses,
policemen, etc. The evening exhibition will
last over two hours and will be in charge of
two experts sent from the factory. Loretto
8 | is strictly fortunate in having sucha thought.
ful adopted son:
'—Tuesday the constitutiondlity ‘of the
h tha Bp
g Nor nydae whic hridoa across
pidge at Towishnrs isto be constincred,
was argued before the Dauphin county court.
The law was declared unconstitutional by,
Attorney General Carson, and to test it a
mandamus was served on the state officials to
show cause why the bridge should not be *
built. Under the provisions of the act the
State will pay half the cost of construction,
and the balance to be divided between Union
and Northumberland counties.
—D. B. Kyper, of Huntingdon, in fifteen
hours had fifty four sheep deprived of their
coats by his shearing alone. He was timed in
clipping one large sheep and , accomplished
the work in just nine minutes, Mr. Kyper
had gone to Williamsburg to be present at
the paper mill dedication. While there he
met his former employer, Hon. J. D. Hicks,
of Altoona, who informed him he had fifty-
four sheep to shear on one of his farms, and
he would give him $10 for the job. Mr. Ky-
per asked for some old clothes and went to
work, with the result statcd above. Can this
record be beaten ?
One day last week while Lewis McCarty,
‘| eldest son of Al. McCarty, of Catawissa town-
ship, Northumberland county, was out in the
field watching the cows, he had a hair rais-
ing experience. He was sitting on a big
stone reading a book, and feeling something
moving about his feet he looked down and
was horrified to see an immense black snake.
As he jumped to his feet the snake wrapped
itself about his legs; he reached into his pock-
et and got his knife and cut through the coils
of the snake, which dropped twisting and
squirming to the ground. After recovering
from the fright the boy gathered up the
pieces of the snake and took them to the
house, where they have been on exhibition
for several days. Plucky boy.
—Mus. Mary Ettinger, aged about 40 years,
of Burnham, Mifflin county, made her third
attempt at self destruction Saturday night,
when she tried to leap from the county
bridge into the Juniata river. H.C. Welsh
noted her peculiar actions while passing his
store near the bridge and followed her out
on the structure. He was just in time to
catch her as she prepared to leap. Mrs. Ete
tinger made an attempt to take poison on the
street Wednesday of last week, and was Tock-
ed in the county jail until her 'usband could
be notified and take her in charge. ‘While
there she told the sheriff’s wife that she had
eaten a half a saucer of carpet’ tacks on Mon.
day. Her story was ‘corroborated by her 7-
year-old daughter, who says she saw her
mother swallow the tacks. i x
‘~The most remarkable ‘run-in the history
"| of railroading by a freight train of seventy-
eight loaded cars was made on Wednesday of
last week over the Middle division from Al-
toona to ‘Harrisburg, the 132 miles being cov-
ered in six hours and thirty minutes. This
is unprecedented time for a train of the size
and weight, though better time than this has
been made’ ‘over the same division by trains
of hot more than thirty cars. The engine
hauling the train was in charge of engineer
George K. Funk and firemen Tilden Stress
ley, both of Harrisburg. The train left Al-
toona at 2:30 p. m. and rolled into the Har-
risburg yards at 9 o'clock. Once between the
starting point and Harrisburg the train was
brought to a stop to refill the engine's tanks
with water and renew the coal supply—then
off again on its dash towards its destination.