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BY P. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings.
—Some people court trouble so long
that they come to think they are married
to it.
— Every time Judge LovE looks at those
figures from Clearfield, the question comes
to him: ‘‘Am I to be the next?"
— After all there is some consolation in
not being ANDREW CARNEGIE. No one
pokes at us a tax-bill of $141,367.
—The queer thing about itis that the
President has recognized the government
of Panama before it has been able to recog-
nize itself. /
—Monday wae the day fixed for Hon.
“Jor” CANNON to go off, but so far we
have not heard of any damage heing done
by the report.
—Whatever else we may say or think
about ourselvesas Pennsylvanians the elec-
tion returns furnish the evidence that most
of us would rather be rotten than right.
—Tammany may be tough, as our Re-
publican friends charge, but even with all
its toughness it don’t propose that New
York shall be Low during the next two
years like it has been the past two. _
—Science has discovered, by radiometer
e xperiments, that the heat from Saturn
:e quals that of a tallow dip ten miles away.
“Saturn must be about as blisteringly hot as
the ordinary Philadelphia reform move-
ment.
— After considering carefully the com-
plete returns from Pennsylvania, we are
forced to the conclusion that General
APATHY accomplished more than all the
others leaders combined. Here are our
congrats’ to General A!
—Somehow or other the Stock market
don’t seem to waken up to the fact that the
party of ‘‘progress and prosperity’ won
such a ‘glorious victory’’ on the 3rd inst.
A nd the Stock market is usually as quick
to see a point as any one else.
—Senator HANNA threatens to throw the
next individual who mentions the Presi-
dency to him out of the ‘‘sixth-story win-
dow,’’” which leads us to conclude that the
connection of his name with this office, is
influencing the old cock to roost rather
high.
--The Democrats who insist that there
ought to be a better Democratic organiza-
tion within the State than there is, is right
ti—solearly right. And the way to get it is
ei For each one of these fellows to begin the
_M*pettering’’ process right in his own dis-
trict.
—While it might not be rapturously
consoling it should at least keep Judge
BELL, of Blair county, from swelling up
_ with.egotism:to occasionally remember that
the voters of his district, by a majority of
1713, declared their preference for another
kind of a Judge.
—I¢ is truly wonderfal how many im-
p ure food dealers that press-bureau, of Dr.
WARREN, has heen able to discover, and
how infinitely few the courts bave any
knowledge of. Really it is beginning to
look as if that press-bureau is the only thing
at work in the Department of Agriculture.
—SAM PARKS, the walking delegate, whe
is ‘*‘doing’’ time in Sing-Sing for robbing
labor organizations and black-mailing em-
ployers. may mourn his fate, but he still
has the consolation of knowing there are
others just as deserving of it as he. SAMUEL
is not the only black sheep in that flock.
—The Clearfield elections evidently has
put a little life into the supposedly extinct
judicial boom of Col. EDWARD CHAMBERS.
The wriggle in the tail of it since the GOR-
DON turn-down, shows that it is not as
dead as those who thought they had it
scotched imagined. Tt may not be dan-
gerous but still it lives. :
—One might imagine from the amount
of straw hail that has heen put up in Phil-
a delphia that that city was as prolific in
its agricultural products as in its election
day repeaters and its dealers in white
slaves. Bunt then for recognized greatness
in any crooked business Philadelphia has
never yet failed to ‘‘take the cake.”’
—JOHN BRISBANE WALKER, of the
Cosmopolitan, should shake off the shivers
that come over him when contemplating
how Russia may swipe us off the map when
it gets its borde of Chinese trained as fight-
ers. Mr. BRISBANE evidently don’t know
that we have a Major General CHARLES
MILLER, in this country,or he wonldn’t be
scared.
—Since the slump in the value of po-
litical Judges, as shown by the Clearfield
elections, his Honor, Judge LOVE, has been
busy re-margining his stock and praying
for some power that will aid him in ‘‘bull-
ing’’ the market for the next twelve
months. Really it looks as if stock in a
political judgeship is little, if ‘any, better
than in Lake Superior or Steel common,
and the fellow who is loaded with all of
these has a hopeless out-look indeed.
—Verily onr faith in the efforts and
efficacy of the pulpit has received a dis-
couraging back set. The Shamokin goat
that breakfasted, last Sunday morning, on
Rev. JouN DOHENY’S sermon, is said to be
just as ‘‘wicked and wayard’’ as ever.
Now if a belly-full of sermons wont faze the
devilishness of a billy-goat, how can we
expect the little the public gets of them to
prove of lasting benefit to the equally stub-
born, even if more intelligent, creatures
who listen to them.
VOL. 48
. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
Don’t Get Gay.
The esteemed Philadelphia Press imagines
that it 1s having all kinds of fun with the
editor of the WATCHMAN on account of
his analysis of the vote of the several States,
and of this State,at the recent election pub-
lished last week. The Press, which ap-
pears to have sacrificed its manliness as
well as independence and become the most
subservient QUAY organ in the State, is
unable to see how any Democrat can ex-
tract any comfort out of the returns though
just before the election it assured its read-
ers that Maryland would go overwhelm-
ingly Republican, that Kentucky was a
doubtful State that Tammany and the
Democracy of New York would be snowed
under, and that its party would hold its
own everywhere else.
As a matter of fact later returns confirm-
ed our estimate, hastily made last week, that
there are abundant reasons for Democratic
exultation over the result of the election.
Not a fissure has been made inthe Demo-
cratic entrenchments in , the South. In
Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut
Democratic gains were made which, if sus-
tained, on a full vote next year will put all
those States in the Democratic column.
Then New York has been made certain for
the Democratic presidential candidate next
year and Delaware, and West Virginia are
as certain to be in that classification -as
Texas or Alabama.
In this State we have only to add to our
presentation of the situation that an esteem-
ed Harrisburg contemporary reminds us
that we overlooked Dauphin county in our
estimate. In the second district of that coun-
ty, with three Representatives in the Legis-
lature,the Republican machine was defeat-
ed by nearly five hundred majority and the
organization of Democrats and Indepen’
dent Republicans which achieved that re-
sult is to be continued so that next year
there is certain to be a loss to the machine
of three Assemblymen there.
Altogether we have nofhing to retract
from our former estimate. = Admitting
the claim of the Press that the Repub-
licans won back the Bucks, and Wayne—
Susquehanna senatorial districts, and
adding the Dauphin and Cumberland
Democratic gains, which were overlooked,
to our list of Representative districts, it
still leaves a net gain for the Democracy of
One Judicial district, ~~ 14
Two Congressional disbricts,
Two Senatorial districts,
And twelve Representative districts.
This certainly should be sufficient to at
least admonish our Philadelphia contem-
porary that it is not exactly a condition
which would justify it in getting to gay.
——Col. NED CHAMBERS, gives every
appearance of believing that if he could
only get a chance to run for Judge that he
could show himself to be in the Lou Dil-
lon class. But then there is often a great
difference between what some fellows think
aud what they can do.
reer
Bane of Organized Labor.
On his way to Sing Sing penitentiary the
other day, SAM PARKS, the New York
walking delegate who has been levying tri-
bute upon the workingmen of that city and
blackmail on their emplogers for several
years, halted the melancholy procession long
enough to utter a word of admonition to.
his victims. ~ Don’t do as I'have done, he
faid,or you will all come to where I am go-
ing. In other words he cautioned them
against the vice of avarice because, as he
stated it, that will not only bring them into
trouble as individuals but it will ultimate-
ly work the destruction of labor organiza-
tions. No truer word bas ever heen spoken
and though it came from a bad souice it is
none the less worthy of attention.
The bane of labor organizations at pres-
ent is the walking delegate, the legislative
agent, the lobbyist or to sum them all up
in ‘one general characterization, ‘ the man
who draws a salary. Probably, as PARKS
said himself, when those men are first
put in position they are honest, earnest,
sincere. But before they are long in the
place they learn to think that the para-
mount use of a labor organization is to
maintain themselves in luxurious idleness
and they forget the interests of their asso-
ciates in the anxiety to better their own
condition. From/'that time on they simply
manipulate labor conditions for their own
personal advautage and reap the harvest for
themselves out of the sorrows of their fel-
lows. ° g
We baveseen it in this State dozens of
times. TERRENCE V. POWDERLY grew
opulent in purse land powerful in politics
by farming the Knights of Labor and JOHN
JARRETT, as president of the Amalgamated.
Association of Iron and Tin workers, made
himself rich as his fellow workmen grew
poor. GARLAND, who succeeded JARRETT,
worked himself into the office of Surveyor
of the Port at Pittsburg and SHAFFER, the
present incumbent of the station, has been
paving the way for a similar soft snap for
himself. And so it goes and has gone from
the beginning. If the labor organizations
want to continue they will cut off the pen-
sioners at once.
An Extraordinary Action.
The extraordinary action of President
ROOSEVELT in declaring a protectorate over
the mushroom Republic of Panama will
promptly and properly be made a subject
of congressional investigation. It is sus-
pected that in his zeal to consummate the
negotiations for the Panama canal, the
President had something to do with pro-
jeoting the so-called revolution and the
haste with which he declared the protecto-
rate justifies the suspicion. It is to be
hoped, however, that the investigation will
disprove the accusation. Such a thing
would bea grave violation of the principles
of international law and though it may
not involve us in serious war, it would cer-
tainly provoke the contempt of the civiliz-
ed world.
It is a well established rule among the
nations, which recognize the principles of
civilization, that it is the duty of every
country to discourage revolutions and other
forms of disturbance of peace and tranquili-
ty. This rule is essential to the preserva-
tion of order and authority. In its ab-
sence there would be constant conspiracies
among nations influenced by covetnousness.
and sordid passions, to provoke revolu-
tions in order that the stronger might ac-
quire the weaker by conquest growing out
of services in defence or attack. That the
United States should be the first in many
years to violate this manifestly just rule of
conduct would be a subject of humiliation
to all the people of the country.
But that is no reason to doubt the Presi-
dent’s culpability in the matter in mind.
He has already proved in a hundred ways
an utter indifference to the obligations of
his office. Even before he became Presi-
dent, and while yet serving as Governor of
New York, he refused so obey the constitu-
tional mandate which requires the Gover-
nor of one State to surrender to the au-
thorities of another a man accused of crime
and a fugitive from justice. Since his ac-
cidental and calamitous elevation to the
Presidency he has frequently shown an
utter disregard of his moral and official
duties and if he bas, in order to serve a
selfish purpose or feed his inordinate vani-
ty, violated his oath of office and his obli-
gations to the world, he ought to be brought
to account for the grave offense at the
earliest moment possible.
oR
——Hon. JoEN SHARP WILLIAMS, has
been chosen as the minority leader in Con-
gress, from which it is but natural to infer
that there will be some cutting work done
by the Democrats. :
Snyder’s Full Vote.
Senator WILLIAM P. SNYDER, the Re-
publican candidate for Auditor General,
fell 13,357 behind his associates on the
ticket—hardly enough to ‘‘make it worthy
of mention.”” There are hundreds of rea-
sons in his devious course in the Legisla-
ture why he should have been opposed by
even the strictest partisans. His constant
obedience to the commands of corporate in-
terests, his utter indifference to his obliga-
tions of office and citizenship, and his abso-
late servility to the machine should have
produced that result, but it didn’t.
Finally it was confidently believed that
his active support of the press muzzler
would influence a considerable number of |
‘votes against him. Ymmediately after the’
passage of that measute the Republican
editors of the State were unanimous in
their denunciation of it asa culminating
atrocity. They urged the organization of
newspaper men into a body for the purpose
of manifesting their reprobation of any
man who supported the iniquity, and they
fairly frothed with indignation whenever
the subject was brought into notice. Later
in the campaign they showed the servility
of the Republican press by accepting SNY-
DER as a proper candidate and gave to him
the same support they gave the other can-
didates on that ticket.
The inference is that raucerous party
bigotry has taken so complete a hold on
the average Republican, whether news-
paper publisher or not, that nothing will
turn him from his party ticket. Senator
SNYDER has shown his unfitness for the
office of Auditor General by his zealous
service of corporations in the Legislature
and every Republican editor in the State
was aware of the fact. Bub they sacrificed
their own convictions, the material inter-
ests of their neighbors and every oconsid-
eration which should govern them in order
to preserve that party fetish called regu-
larity. The result is they have SNYDER
and the press muzzler both and no hope of
getting rid of either of them.
——Even after the returns from his own
town showed a falling off of almost 200
Republican votes, chairman REEDER had
the gall to wire the newspapers,on election
night, that Centre ‘county would give the
Machine ticket 500 majority. On the
average vote the majority was 17 the other
way. All of which goes to show how little
Mr. REEDER knows of the politics of the
county, or how little respect he has for the
trath.
BELLEFONTE, PA., NOVEMBER 13, 1903.
Wage Reduction Set In,
Following in the wake of the election
comes information of decreases of wages in
all sections of the country. On Friday
and Saturday of last week a number of
mills about Philadelphia and at Columbia,
Lancaster county, this State, gave notice of
reductions in wage rates of on an average
of ten per cent. and on Monday the Read-
ing Tube and iron company posted notices
of a reduction in the wages of puddlers
from $4.50 to $4 a ton. At Harrisburg
similar reductions were made in some mills
while others shut down altogether, the
reason being, presumably, to make it easier
to force the men to consent to the reduc-
tions. x
Manifestly the notices of these reductions
were withheld until after the elections for
political reasons. The men were allowed
to continue under the false notion that
prosperity is unimpaired until they bad
cast their votes for the party which pre-
tends to act as Providence for the indus-
trial element of the country, and having
conveyed an extension of power for another
year at least, the truth is presented to them
in the cruel and forbidding form of a notice
of a decrease in wages. It is poor com-
pensation for their services and servitude.
But it is about what might be expected
from the pampered tariff pensioners who
are fitly represented in the public life of
the country by MARK HANNA.
There has been no diminution of the cost
of living to salve the bruise on the hearts
of the deceived workingmen which the de-
crease in wages will involve. The sober,
industrious and honest mechanic who hoped
to increase the comforts of his family out of
the fruits of an uninterrupted prosperity
will be obliged to smother that delightful
expectation and do the hest he can with
diminished revenues and unaltered neces-
sities. Meantime the public profligacy
will go on unimpeded and HANNA and
the hoarde of hungry beef-eaters who
cluster about him will enjoy their plenty
while idle workmen suffer from want.
The Place to Begin.
The Williamsport Sun is showing great
perturbation of soul in consequence of the
shert vote polled by the Democrats at the
recent election, and demands that ‘‘there
should be some house ‘cleaning by the
_Demifratic party” of Pennsylvania.” We |
agree with the Sun that there is something
‘seriously wrong,”” but when we come to
look at the returns we find that there are
just as ‘“‘serionus wrongs’ in Lycoming as
in any other county of the State, if the total
vote polled is to be considered as the re-
sult of these wrongs. In no section of the
State, even taking the demoralized and dis-
‘honored condition of the party in Phila-
delphia into consideration, do the returns
show worse for the party than in the Sun’s
own county. And then when we take into
consideration the fact that within that
county there is more wealth among the
Democrats, and possibly more influential
and prominent men who are members of
the party, than in any other county of the
State outside of Allegheny and Philadel-
phia, the wonder comes, ‘‘what is wrong
in Lycoming ?”’
Verily if there is to be a Democratic
house cleaning it might be well for us all
to begin at home.
Co}. McClure’s Appointinent.
If there were no other reasons for a feel-
ing of satisfaction over the appointment of
Colonel A. K. MCCLURE to the office of
Prothonotary of the Supreme conrt for the
Eastern district, the fact that it shuts
Speaker HENRY F. WALTON, of Phila-
delphia, out of that important position
would be sufficient to make all decent
citizens rejoice. During the last session of
the Legislature Speaker WALTON sramped
‘took au oath to ‘support, obey and .de-
fend,” violated the rules which he was
sworm to enforce and protect, and sacri-
ficed every principle of decency in order to
serve the machine.
His reward for this unjust and criminal
service was to be the appointment to the
office in question. “It is altogether the
most valuable political prize which has
been accessible for many years. The
emoluments amount to nearly $15,000 a
year and the term of office is during life.
There is practically little to do and it
brings the incumbent into intimate asso-
ciation with the Supreme court judges, the
leading lawyers and most delightful people
in the State. It would have been a great
pity if such a place had gone to ove of the
depraved moral fibre which must make up
a man who has no respect for his oath.
But there are other reasons for satisfac-
tion in the appointment of Colonel Mec-
CLURE to that office. He just fits it and
it fits him. A man of splendid intellect:
ual equipment, profound learning in the
law, striot integrity and in every conceiv-
able respect well qualified for the place, bis
appointment is creditable to 'those respon-
sible for it, honorable to himself and a
guarantee to the people of the State of ex-
cellent service while he lives and we hope
that will be long. We congratulate Col.
McCLURE on his good fortune. It gunaran-
tees him an easy and contented evening of
i 1ife and he deserves that.
By ——————
on the constitution of the State, which he |
NO. 45.
Our Heroic (3) President,
From the Johnstown Democrat.
It is certainly an off day ‘when President
Roosevelt fails to deliver himself’ of a
homily. He keeps himself constantly. at
the centre of the stage and in the full glare
of the lime light. And if we were to take
him on his own valuation we should be
constrained to rank him with the a
and saints in virtue and with the martyrs
in moral courage. ;
To a magazine he has just contributed a
‘letter which describes the writer as a man
ahove the petty weaknesses of his kind.
It paints him as a hero and calls the atten-
tion of an admiring world to his sturdy in-
difference to the ordinary considerations of
party and friendship when the call is made
upon him for the rigid discharge of duty.
‘‘Any one who is guilty,” he declares,
evidently thinking of the McKinley men
who are now under fire and who in due
course are to be supplanted by Roesevelt
men, ‘‘is to be prosecuted with the utmost
rigor of the law. I care nota rap for the
political or social influence of any human
being when the question is one of his guilt
or innocence in such a matter as corruption
in the government service. If anyone is to
be alienated from me by the fact that I
directed the prosecution of gross wrongdo-
ing, why, all I can say is let him be alien-
ated.” :
That is indeed brave. That is indeed
worthy of the hero of San Juan hill. That
is indeed like the man who has made Dr.
Leonard Wood famous and who let Gen.
Miles leave the army after 42 years’ service
without a ocvurageous word. But how
about the Hon. Perry S. Heath, secretary
of the Republican national committee, pro-
tege of Mark Hanna, late first assistant
postmaster general and recent beneficiary
of the statue of limitations? What has
Mr. Roosevelt done in the matter of bring-
ing this thrifty statesman to hook for the
corruptions in government which Mr.
Bristow lays at his door.
Mr. {Roosevelt's words and deeds do not
travel well together. They constitute an
unruly team. They are always at sixes
and sevens. Yet the president is a vir-
tuous man and a moral hero. We know
it because he himself hath said it.
Kansas Prosperity.
From the Meadville Democrat.
Kansas has had a trial of a chan,
a Democratic-Populist administration to
a Republican administration, which bas
given the people some costly experience.
The Republican legislature increased taza-
tion on real estate 35 per cent withont
making any improvement in the public
service. The eight thousand seven hun-
dred miles of railroad in the state is taxed
at a rate of 15-10 mills on the valuation
while farm property is taxed at a rate of 10
mills on thedollar of valuation. . +; »
To compensate the farmers for this gress
from
inequality the Republicans eclaiin to'bave |
given to the farmers the splendid crops of
corn and wheat that they have just har-
vested.
This claim of the local state government
of Kansas must be considered a political
heresy, as the prerogative of sending good
crops to the farmers of this country must
be ascribed to Roosevelt, Quay, Platt and
Mark Hanna, who must. be recognized as
the sole dispensors of national prosperity.
The disastrous flood that destroyed
millions of property in Kansas must be
blamed on Bryan and the Democrats.
Republican prosperity, to farmers comes
through an invisible tariff tax of fifty per
cent. added to the real value of everything
that they need in the economy of their
homes. This prosperity tax is needed in
the incubation of millionaires, who pay
Republican campaign expenses.
Machine Egotism.
From the Meadeville Democrat.
Is would appear that the climax of audac-
ity has heen reached by the Republican
hosses of Pennsylvania, in their representa-
tion of the political condition of the State
and the trend of public opinion in regard to
the record of machine-rule.
Senator Penrose is given as authority for
the statement that ‘‘the people of Penn-
sylvania are satisfied with their national
and state governments and they are deter-
mined to ‘‘let well enough alone.’”’ *‘They
do not want a change in either the methods
or the policies of the national or state gov-
ernment.”’” That is to say, ‘‘He that is
filthy, let him be filthy still.” Let bri-
bery, political lust and usurpation of pow-
‘er hold high carnival in the State and
without restraint. :
Whether such conclusions are correct or
not it is the determination of the machine
bosses, with their characteristic audacity,
to force that construction of the public's
anlahes down the throats of the ‘peo-
ple. i
If the egotistic boasting of the Penrose
declarations have any semblance of truth,
God save the Commonwealth and the rights
and liberties of the people. . i
For Show and Blow.
From the La Cygne (Kas.) Standard.
What's happened to President Roose-
velt’s trust-busting crusade? The silence
regarding his proposed shackling of cun-
ning trusts is almost painful as the time
for renomination approaches, His pro-
found quietude upon the subject tends to
create a suspicion that hie instructions to
the attorney general about prosecuting
trusts and his strenuous talks in public in
condemnation of them are like the lady's
two handkerchiefs—*‘one for show and the
other for blow.”
How the New Plan Will Work,
From the Grand Island (Neb.) Democrat.
Under the new Republican financial
scheme, the people will be compelled to
bear an even larger burden of taxation
that will pile up an enormous surplus in
the treasury that may be loaned at a low
rate of interest so that the banks may loan
it to the people at a high rate of interest.
By this meaus the people will get money
to pay more taxes to create another treasury
surplus. : HE
tles |
more ways than one.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—Vaccination physicians scratched 1229
arms in four days in Allegheny.
—The State Sabbath School Convention wily
be held at Harrisburg on November 16th and
7th, and the Pennsylvania National Reform
Convention at the same place November 18th
and 19th.
—Forest fires are raging in many parts of
Schuylkill county and Pottsville is practical-
ly surrounded by conflagration. In the sub-
urbs ‘brush’ gangs are fighting to save their
homes.
—Seventy five churches in Schuylkill and
neighboring counties, on Sunday, lifted a
special offering for the benefit of the Potts-
ville Hospital. It amounted to several thou-
sand dollars.
—Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, of Pittsburg, who
is dead in London, and whose $50,000,000 in
lands draws enormous ground rents, and
who gave Schenley park to the city years
ago, willed nothing to charity. .
—Thomas J. Whittaker, who has just been
elected sheriff of Schuylkill county, is but 30
years old, and when he goes into office on
January 1st, he will be the youngest sheriff
who ever held office in the county.
—Burglars failed in an attempt to crack
the safe in the post office at Osceola Mills
Wednesday night. They fired several shots
at a passing citizen who escaped unhurt. A
policeman fired a few shots at the fleeing
burglars, but without any result. ;
—S8. C. Harrison, 55 years old, who lived
in Buffalo township, near Forest Hill, Union
county, Saturday afternoon was struck bya
Reading train while driving across the tracks
at Lewisburg and instantly killed, as was al-
go his horse. Mr. Harrison is survived by
his wife. : BA
—With simple and unostentatious ceremo-
nies ‘William L. Elkins’ body was placed in
the handsome: family maussoleum in Laurel
Hill cemetery on Tuesday. In accordance
‘with 'the request of the late financier, his
funeral was’ a quiet one, and only members
of the family followed the remains to their
last resting place. i. 4H
¥ % ’ eu ¥
—Turkey buyers from all over the country
are scouring Lehigh county looking for tur-
keys for the Thanksgiving trade. They are
scouring in vain, though. Itis many years
since this bird has been so scarce as at pres-
ent, and where farmers used to have flocks
of 50 and 100 turkeys each at this time of the
year, they are now lucky to have half a
dozen. HERS
~ —Dr. F. E. Weddigen has brought suit
against the Lycoming county commissioners
for holding two autopsies on the bodies of
Pietro Crasho and James McElwee, which
were ordered by Coroner Trainer. The com-
| missioners: claim the post mortem examina-
tions were unnecessary, but are willing to
compromise on $150, which the physician de-
clines to accept. SiR
—Mrs. Jobn S. Barner, of Susquehanna
township, sister-in-law of Absalom Barner,
tried and acquitted on the charge of mi
ing Adam Goodling, in Juniata cour
and a half years ago. was shot and Ki
some unidentified person in ambush
home on Friday. The tragedy’ 8
while. Mrs. Barner was aiding her h
in some work about the barn. She
most at her husband’s feet.
—Ex-Mayor W. G. Elliott, of Williams-
port, sold his home at the corner of West
Fourth and Elmira streets to the newly or--
ganized Congregational church for $29,000.
It is the intention of the Congregationalists
to convert the mansion into a house of wor-
ship, as soon as they get possession on March
15th, 1904. The house was built by ex-Con-
gressman W. H, Armstrong from 1863 to 1866
and cost Mr. Armstrong $40,000.
— Railroad officials at Harrisburg “are still
talking about the collision Friday night of
the Chicago Limited with the rear end of a
Cumberland Valley freight in the yard of
the Pennsylvania Railroad 'in that city, in
which the passenger engine leaped into the
air and alighted on a gondola loaded with
ore. The engine made the julp as graceful-
ly as if it had been lifted to its lofty position
by the aid of a steam derrick. It weighed
134,000 pounds and was found’ to be damaged
but little. . 1 ¥
—The question has been raised as to what
Judge Bell's salary in Blair Co.,will be after
Jan. 1st, 1904. The act of assembly of ‘April
14th, 1903, fixing the salaries of the judges of
the various courts of Pennsylvania, gives $5,-
000a year to the judge of a county having a
population of less than 90,000 and $7,000 where
the county has only one judge and a popula-
tion of between 90,000 and 500,000. Although
Blair connty has undoubtedly over 90,000,
the last official census only gives it 85,099,
and Judge Bell’s salary will depend upon
whether or not the law recognizes only the
census figures.
—The Meyersdale Republican tells a fish
story that is, to say the least, remarkable in
It avers that a man
got a box of apples together with a six pound
bass from Paw Paw, Va., and that the bass
was alive and flopping when the box was
opened at Meyersdale. Making no allow-
ance for transportation delays, and assuming
that the box came through as quickly asa
2 4 LE
| train could haul it, the fish would have been
out of water five or six hours. If it was alive
at the end of that time, it was a pretty tough
fish; but we incline to the view that it is the
story that is tough, not the fish.
—The most mysterious cases of starvation
among cattle with good appetites, that are
well fed. which the State Veterinarians have
ever encountered, have been reported by
farmer M. O. Reagle, of Bangor, Pa. He
has lost 36 cows in that way, and neighbor-
ing farmers have suffered similar but not
such extensive losses. The first of Reagle’s
cows to die of the mysterious ailment baffled
veterinary surgeons several years ago, and
since then the malady has repeatedly mani-
fested itself, always with fatal results, to his.
herds and those of his neighbors. Last week
two experts from the University of Pennsyl-
vania visited Mr, Reagle’s farm and made a
post mortem examination of one of the ani-
mals, but were unable to discover what had
caused the sickness, for they found all the
vitals of the cow in a perfectly healthy con-
dition. Now one of his cows will be treated
at the University veterinary hospital, as a
case of vital interest to all Pennsylvania live
stock owners,