Demorralic iat
GRAY MEEK.
BY P.
Ink Slings.
— Local politicians are beginning to look
forward to the spring elections.
—1If there were no ills in Pennsylvania
w orthy of mention what has the Governor
called an extra session of the Legislature
for?
—Mayor McCLELLAN declares he didn’t
spend a cent to secure his election as May-
or of New York. Possibly that is oneof
the reasons HEARST thinks he isn’t elected.
—When the devil was sick the devil a
monk would be. When the devil was well
the devil a monk was he. How many
gick devils there are now trying to get
under the cloaks of the purists in the Re-
publican party.
—If some’of the lady school teachers of
Centre county were as progressive in their
school work as they appear to be in the art
of millinery and dress making Centre
¢ ounty would soon be furnishing a horde
of mental prodigies to the worid
—Governor ODELL,of New York, may have
made the plunderers return his $75,000,
but the trouble with so many other people
who have been robbed is that they are not
in the possession of the same kind of a
sandbag that the Governor ueed.
—Really, to square things off just right,
the people of Pennsylvania ought to give
us Democrats license to have a little fun
with the State Treasury. Just think of
the many years tife rascals on the other
side bad it all their own way now all we
get out of it is reform.
—What has become of the PRUNER or-
phanage? Nothing has been heard of it
for some time and now the rumor comes
down from Tryone that the income of the
estate bas not accrued sufficiently to even
settle for the collateral inheritance tax. Is
this true, Mr. Waring?
—=Sir THOMAS LYPTON has two great re-
grets in his life. One is that he has not
been able to lift the America’s cup; the
ether, that he has never been married. The
Jatter he might be able to remedy,but even
then he would find there are as many slips
twixt the cup and the lip as there have
b een twixt his ship and the cup.
—State Treasurer-elect BERRY could
have made no wiser selection of a special
eounsel than that of Mr. HOMER L. CAs-
TLE. Aside from its bring a recognition of
the signal service Mr. CASTLE rendered to
the recent reform contest in Pennsylvania
it secures the services of an able, fearless
and aggressive agent of right in whom the
public has learned to bave confidence.
—1It is positively unkind for the Chester
county delegation in she Legislature to
refuse to take pay for their services dur-
ing the extra session because they believe
it would be wrong for them to take pay for
undoing what they had improperly done.
Such a precedent will ‘prove unpopular
among the grafters, while the few honest
men of the last session need not feel it a
duty to follow it.
—No matter how innocent of intention
to do physical harm those Ohio college boys
who thought to frighten a fraternity in-
itiate by tying him on the railroad tracks,
where he was ground to pieces by an un-
expected train, ought to be punished to the
full extent of the law. No manner of ex-
cnse will make amends for the life they
took or explain away the foolhardiness of
their act. College mien who have no better
sense are a menace to society and should
be put where they can perpetrate no more
such fiendish tricks. *
——A reapportionment of the legislative
districts of Pennsylvania at this time might
result in giving Centre county but one
Representative and then, should the Hon.
PHIL WOMELSDORF decide to drop his
senatorial aspirations and stand for a re-
turn to the Legislature, where would
Mr. JouN KNISELY come in? Such an
eventuality would naturally line Mr.
KNISELY up: for Mr. WOMELSDORF for
the Senate, bat they say Mr. QUIGLEY
bas aspirations to represent this district in
the upper branch of the Legislature, so
there you are. Right up against a prob-
lem that somebody else will have to
solve.
— The drift of public sentiment seems to
be toward the breaking down of party lines
in all contests except those affecting na-
tional issues and: party principle. This
would mean the gradual elimination of
parties in all elective contests except those
for Legislators, Congressmen and Presi-
dent. It would also mean a laxity in party
erganizations that might make them less
e ficient in the national campaigns. How-
ever the result of such an eventuality it
would cany its measure of good because
it would make it’ necessary for all par-
ties to consider most carefully the
personal character and fitness of the
men they name for office.
—If the Governor had included in his
proclamation for a special session of the
Legislature a clause calling for the repeal
of the QUAY monument construction he
wo uld have gone farther toward making
the public helieve his intentions good.
It'is probably true that if QUAY bad lived
the revolution of last week would not have
occurred, yet it was none the less the fruit
of QUAY methods and Quay corruption.
Had QUAY never lived possibly such a
revolution in Pennsylvania would never
have been necessary and the only reason
that it occurred when it did was because
he left no lieutenants as oralty and deep
in the science of political plundering as he
8
VOL. 50
The Greatest Need of Reform.
The action of the Governor in calling an
extra session of the Legislature and refer-
ring to it the consideration of a personal
regis tration law opens up the whole sub-
ject of ballot reform. The will of the peo-
ple has been made so plain of late that even
the most callous supporters of the present
laws, the most corrupt of those who have
profited by them, feel the uselessness of re-
sistance. It may be assumed that the
Legislature will enact a personal registra-
tion law. But the people of this Common-
wealth have awakened to a consciousness
of their power. Like the subjects of the
Czar they have been educated to a realiza-
tion of their opportunities. What would
have seemed to them, a short time ago, to
be freedom itself, appears now but its sha-
dow. They demand its very substance.
The time has passed when they will be
satisfied with a personal registration law
alone. They insist upon farther measures
to protect the sanctity of the ballot upon
which the whole structure of our civiliza-
tion, our boasted liberty, depends.
If we understand the meaning of the
vote in the recent election the citizens of
this Commonwealth have determined that
crimes against the ballot shall cease. Chief
amongst these crimes has been the purchase
and sale of votes. The present law allows
any voter to take in with him into the
booth any person whom he names to
‘‘assist’’ him in preparing his ballot. This
feature of the law enables the man who
buys a vote to see that it is delivered: It
is due to this provision that money has
wielded so great an influence in elections.
The repeal of this section is as important as
the enactment of a personal registration
law. If the purchaser of a vote is prevented
from making sure of the delivery of his
purchase he will lose his eagerness to buy.
Even one who is so blind to his country’s
welfare as to be willing to buy votes will
readily see that he cannot trust the honor
of one who is so dishonorable as to be will-
ing to sell. The inducement to commit
the crime will be gone as soon as the ‘‘as-
sistance?’ is prohibited.
There are other features of the election
laws which need amendment, but this seems
to us the most importans.
We are confident that. what we bave
said but voices ére. deep-seated and wide-
spread opinion and ‘will of the voters of our
State. We have scarcely the faith to believe
that this Legialature will heed, but if it
should it will be the most patent evidence
of its earnestness in the endeavor to reform.
*
Plan of a Fool or Knave,
Governor PENNYPACKER'S remedy for
the treasury ills is characteristic and ab-
surd. He would increase the interest rate
and drive all the conservative and sub-
stantial banks out of the competition for
the’service. He would make. the wildcat
institutions which practice the frenzied
methods the State depositories and while
they would possibly pay three or four per
cent. interest, they would be practically
certain to default when demand was made
for the principal. It is the remedy of an
ass or an kpave. Mr. PENNYPACKER'S.
friends have a right to indicate which class
he belongs in. Meantime we have our own
well settled opinion on that question.
Any public official with reasonable in-
telligence and average integrity would
have suggested a vastly different process
for dealing with existing fiscal problems.
There are filteen to eighteen millions, in-
cluding the sinking fund, to excite the
cupidity of the fiscal officials of the State.
This money ought to be wisely expended
in public improvements and the. taxes re-
duced so that there would be no future re-
dundancy of revenmnes.
A balance of half a million in the treasury
is ample and a surplus of over a million
criminal. :
Money taken from the people in excess
of the amount actually needed for main-
tenance of the government is simply rob-
bery. ;
In disbursing the vast surplus care
should be taken to accomplish the result
at the smallest expense in evil conse-
quences.
The presence of the surplus is a menace
to public morais:
It invites graft. and breeds greed.
But the evil may be multiplied in get-
ting rid of it. Im other words the unwise
appropriation of #he money to useless or
evil purposes wili work great harm. Pro-
moting education and building highways
are the safest methods but it should be
understood that there will be no future oc-
oasion for such distribution of State boun-
ties. The Governor’s plan is the worst of
all because it only aggravates the evil.
——The weather this week has been
plenty cold enough for anybody and if it
continues this way until next April there
will be no canse for complaint as to the
shortness of the winter.
was himself.
~——8Subscribe tor the WATCHMAN,
Ce
Car
STATE RIGHTS AN
BELLEFONTE, PA., NOV. 17, 1905.
The Extra Session.
Governor PENNYPACKER’S belated re-
pentance, as expressed in’ his call of the
Legislature into extra session, will deceive
nobody who is not mentally blind. It is
simply a subterfuge intended to divert the
public mind from reform purposes. In his
marvzlous vanity he imagines that every-
body takes him seriously and that his pro-
fessions of reform will be accepted as
evidences of a change of heart. Bat
in this he is gravely mistaken. No
sane man will be fooled by such transpar-
ent hypocrisy. PENNYPACKER is simply
trying to help the machine out of the hole.
He has no interest in the people and
doesn’t care whether they are plundered or
not.
Daring the recent session of the Penn-
sylvania Legislature mest of the sub-
jects to which he refers in his proclama-
tion were brougbt before that body. The
question of the consolidation of the cities
of Pittsburg and Allegheny is purely local
and absolutely unimportant. That of in-
cr easing the interest on treasury balances
is absurd. What the people want with re-
spect to that matter is security rather than
interest and an intelligent man would
suggest an adjustment of the revenues so
as to balance with the expenditures rather
than offer an inducement to wild-cat hank-
ers to apply the methods of frenzied fi-
nance to the funds of the Commonwealth.
The proposition to designate the amount
to be expended each year in the building
of bridges is equaily nonsensical. It wonld
be gnite as wise to prohibit by law floods
and winds. The matter of abolishing fees
in the office of the Secretary of the Com-
monwealth and the Insurance Commission-
er might have been left to the regular ses-
sion because such an act if passed during
the special session can’t go into effect until
the expiration of the terms of the present
officials which will be some time after the
next regular session opens.
In view of these facts it may justly be
assumed that the only important matters
to be considered in the special session of
the Legislature are those designated as
Third, Fourth and Fifth in the Governor's
proclamation, namely to reapportion the
State into senatorial and representative
districts, to provide for personal registra-
tion and to repeal the Philadelphia ripper
bill. These are certainly needed reforms
but there was no use in putting the State
to an expense of nearly half a million dol-
lars to expedite them. The present Leg-
islature, the most shameless and corrupt
in the history of the State, is not likely to
enact snch laws on those subjects as the
people want, anyway, and consequently,
the suspicion is aroused that the purpose
of the Governor is not to effect reforms but
to confuse the subject by ambiguous legis-
lation so as to make it difficult for a fu-
ture Legislature to achieve the desired re-
sult. Possible good can come out of Naz-
areth but it is. wiser to look for it from
other sources. The present Legislature is
hopelessly bad and itis foolish to expect
genuine reform from it.
PENNYPACKER is an arrant humbug.
Posing as an innocent and guileless ohild
of nature he is, asa matter of fact, little
less than a vile old hypocrite. = When the
people were striving to dethrone the ma-
chine he offered himself to make an apology
for its iniquities and deliberately lied in an
attempt to discredit the Democratic party.
That is to say, he declared that the Demo-
cratic party had involved the State in debt
without reason whereas he knew that the
debt was the result of the construction of
public works such as canals and highways
and that it was not a partisan matter at
all.
Thank heaven there are only two years
more of PENNYPACKER.
‘Satan Rebuking Sin, So to Speak.
Out in Toledo, Ohio, according to pab-
lished reports, a fanatic with more money
than brains bas recently erected a monu-
ment to His Majesty, Satan. The structure
is of granite with an effigy of Bellzebub,
as tradition pictures him, adorning the top.
The monument is located on the property
of the idiot who conceived and exeonted
the enterprise, but it has nevertheless ex-
cited wide-spread and deep-seated popular
indignation. It is regarded as an insult to
the christian spirit of the community and
an outrage upon the civilization of the
period. There is a disposition among the
people, the papers say, to destroy it.
‘We are compelled to sympathize with
the public sentiment which resents this
rather ostentatious tribute to the Prince of
Evil. There is a good deal of substance in
the claim that in this land of liberty a man
has the right to make all the kinds of a
fool of himself that he has ever heard of or
‘| can imagine, and the contention already
asserted by this partioular idiot that one
may do what he likes with his own prop-
erty challenges some measure of approval.
There is no law that we know of against
worshipping images or erecting monuments
to express any idea, however heretical. Bus
nobody has a legal right to outrage com-
mon decency and we are inclined to be-
lieve that erecting a monument to Satan in
D FEDERAL UNION.
a christian community compasses that re-
sult.
Bot how much worse is this evil enter-
prise of the Ohio fanatic than the legalized
scheme to erect a monument in the Capitol
park at Harrisburg to the memory and in
the honor of the late MATTHEW STANLEY
QUAY. We are now in the throes of a re-
form movement. The Legislature has been
called to meet in extraordinary session to
enact some good laws which were not pass-
ed daring the regular session and repeal
some bad ones that were enacted. Yet
there is a law on the statute books author-
izing the erection of a monument in honor
of & man whose whole life was a long con-
tinued carnival of political crime. While
endorsing that enterprise we haven’t much
right to condemn the Ohio fool.
Wanted, a Leader or Something Else,
Our friends the enemy are likely to have
-an interesting scrimmage on their hands
in the near future upon the question of
the leadership of their scattered and de-
mor alized forces. All sorts of conjectures
are current respecting the matter and some
of the gossip is characterized more by ascer-
bity than amiability. Former Governor
STONE, for example, remarked concerning
the extra session that it ‘‘looks to me as if
inspired by the leaders of the late State
organization, who entertain the vain be-
lief that by it they can regain the confi-
dence of the Republican people of this
State.”” Chairman LESLIE, of the Alle-
gheny county committee, has uitered a ory
for Senator KNOX to assume the leader-
ERON, Representative OLMSTEAD and 80 on
through a long list.
The credulity of these politicians as re-
vealed in these expressions of hope and
fear is most surprising. They appear to
imagine, if they are sincere in what they
say, that all that is necessary to restore
the party to harmony and power is for one
of the former leaders to blow a blast on a
bugle and march forward at the head of a
triumphal column. By common consent
PENROSE and his man ANDREWS are
eliminated from* the equation and it is
assumed that they will accept the expatria-
tion in the most cheerful manner. PENNY-
PACKER and DURHAM and all the legatees
of QUAY’s political estate are expected to
be equally submissive to the orders of the
new and as yet unnamed boss. But these
cheerful and convenient expectations are
likely to be disappointed. And it is not
certain that the new boss will be able to
command a following at that.
Whether Governor STONE is correct in
his estimate that the call for an extra ses-
sion was inspired by PENROSE and DUR-
HAM or not, it is certain tbat Governor
PENNYPACKER doesn’t intend to relin-
quish his claims to apnsideration in the
reorganization of the forces. In fact there
are reasons to believe that the purpose of
the Governor was not to rehabilitate the
PENROSE machine but to organize a ma-
chine of bis own with himself as the cen-
tral figure and Attorney General CARSON
and Secretary of the Commonwealth Mc-
AFEE as the satalites. Governor STONE
is yearning for a return to power and
wants to use Justice ELKIN as a ‘jimmy?’
to pry open the door, and while it
would be characteristic of his family for
Dox CAMERON to return to the arena
nobody need expect that the public is ery-
ing for him. ;
There is an important element, moreover,
which all of these calculators appear to
have overlooked. That is that political
success isn’t always dependent upon the
leader. There must be a following as well
as a leadership to win victory and at the
present time the Republican party is about
the most demoralized force that “‘ever came
down the pike.”’ No leader that has been
named could command the fidelity of a
tenth of the rank and file and moss of them
would simply organize an internecine war
that would guarantee defeat. STONE is
ready to plunge a butoher-knife into
PENNYPACKER and PENNYPACKER would
promptly caress CAMERON with a battle
ax, whileeach of the others is anxious to
use a club in all directions. In fact it’s
something else than a leader the Republi.
can party wants.
Sm ———————
Pennypacker Disappointed.
During a speech delivered in Philadel-
phia the other evening Governor PENNY-
PACKER stated that while he was being
urged to become a candidate for Governor
he was assured that he would be able to
make while in office half a million dollars.
He didn’t indicate how far that assurance
influen ced him to become the candidate bus
from the tenor of his speech it may be as-
sumed that it was the potent force. Hall
a million dollars is a large sum and goes a
long way toward feeding even an aggravat-
his disappointment. : ;
Noboby knows better than SAMUE Ww
PENNYPACKER knew when the a
to run for Governor was presented’ to him
ol
#4
19%
has
ship while others are calling for DoN CAM- |
ed case of onpidity and when the Governor |
whined that he is poorer now than when
he entered the office, he plainly revealed
Pdi 0.
NO 45.
that the salary of the office is $10,000 a
year and that there are no perquisites.
Four years at $10,000 a year aggregate $40,-
000 which is less than one-twelfth of half a
million. To make up the balf a million,
th erefore, it would be necessary to ‘‘graft’’
enormously, aud the fact that he became
the candidate justifies the presumption
that he intended to make the most out of
i. If his expectations have not been ful-
filled, it may be presumed that the oppor-
t nities for ‘‘graft’’ were less abundant
than he hoped they would be. ;
That PENNYPACKER is nob poorer now
than when he became Governor may be as-
sumed. According to the best information
attainable he has lived a very frugal life in
Harrisburg and his vacations have been
spent on his Montgomery county farm. The
State pays for mos# of his servants and all
r epaiis as well as the lighting and heating
of the Executive mansion are paid out of
the contingent fund of the board ofjpublic
grounds and buildings. Therefore his liv-
ing expenses while in office mayibe esti.
mated as well within half his salary’and
though the ‘‘graft’’ may nos have material-
i zed, it is safe to say that the Governor has
done fairly well. :
For the Warcumax,
SVOBODA;
Tuxe—*“WaRrsaw.”
Echoing the victors’ cheer
The vanquished shout, Hurrah!
Instead of Banzai, hear
The cry of Svoboda!
For Liberty, through clouds of war,
Has made another avatar.
Farewell, Siberian night!
Farewell, the inhuman knout!
The messengers of light
Could not be driven out.
And on oppression’s sombre past
The day of freedom dawns at last.
The dawning—but with storms:
The torch and bloody strife
Ere established are the forms
Of freedom’s peaceful life,
Ere tyranny’s old ikons fall
And all shall operate for all.
C. C. Ziegler.
The Obvious Remedy.
Philadelphia Record. :
State Treasurer Mathues admits the jus-
tice of public opinion as to the financial
system of the Commonyealth in his lively
description of the greed of rival bank presi-
dents, cashiers and directors to obtain de-
posits of the public money. As a remedy
for this system he proposes that the State
should set up a fiscal agency of its own in-
stead of farming out the surplus to favorite
banks.
It'is remarkable that amid the sugges-
tions on this subject, extra session and oth-
er, the potential cause of the financial evil
is not recognized in the enormous Treasury
surplus, now. swollen (with the sinking
fund) to nearly $15,000,000. Let the
Treasury surplus be brought into proper
relations with reasonable State expendi-
tures by the careful excision of unnecessary
taxes, and the financial scandal will disap-
pear with what it feeds on. In other
words, leave in the pockets of the taxpay-
ers the enormous surplus in excess of pub-
lic expenditures that has been gathered
from them to he farmed by favorite banks
at their great expense in more ways than
one. ;
It was against this nefarious system that
the voice of the people arose in thunderous
protest in the late election. The remedy
is so obvious that arguments to enforce it
should hardly be deemed necessary for
convinoing the conscience-smitten machine
pdjority in the extra session of the Legis-
atnre.
Something to Work For.
From Collier's Weekly.
Ballo$ forms win elections. Most of them
are constructed to win eleotions for the ig-
norant, and their leaders, the politicans.
Some are so arranged that the man who
can read, who knows what he desires, and
is-master of himself, has the advantage,but
ballots such as those are few. You can
count the states with right ballot laws on
your fingers, even if you have lost one arm.
Here is something that all organizations
for improving our politics can turn in and
work for with some hope of immediate pro-
gress. They ought to be able to kill the |
blanket ballot by a short, decisive effort;
the ballot that turns a man’s brains over to
his party organization and puts a premium
on subserviency and dullness. The wave of
independency now rising throughout Amer-
ica is impeded by ballot laws and forms
created in the days when machine govern-
ment was more absolute than it is to-day.
Sometime we shall vote by actual machin-
ery, in such a way that oheating in the
count is impossible; but an even more im-
portant and pressing reform is that we
shall vote on a hallo which gives indepen-
‘dence and an even chance. We want a
ballot designed to faciliate the people's
will not one designed to keep them in sla-
very to the professional politicians whose
autooratio rule we are restive to shake off.
Our Transformed Australian Ballot.
From the Baltimore News. ix A
The Australian ballot bas undergone a
great transformation in'being applied to
American political conditions. In the coun-
try of its origin it is short and simple, only
two candidates, asa rule, appearing on it,
‘and rarely more than three. The explana:
{tion is'that popular election is confined to
0 islative representation, and all admin-
istrative posts are filled by appointment.
Another principle that represses frivolous
loandidacy is that candidates must pay the
‘cost of printing the ballots. Our practice
!| of putting the cost upon the public encour-
ages the use of the ballot as a means of po-
litieal propaganda.
Spawls from the Keysione.
—A movement is under way to organize a
branch of the Young Men’s Christian Associ-
ation in Mt. Union. :
—There have been seventy deaths in the
borough of Clearfield since January 1, 1905,
not including hospital deaths. :
—D. G. Alter, Esq., caught a bass in the
river at Port Royal recently that measured
19} inches and weighed 51 pounds.
—P. J. Kelley, of Lilly, has purchased the
City hotel at Tyrone, the consideration being
$35,000 and taken possession of the same.
—The Demorest manufacturing company
one day last week made a shipment of two
hundred and eighty-eight sewing machines
to South America.
—The Jersey Shore Herald says that in
that town building operations have been very
active the past year, and the amount expen-
ded in new structures will reach $200;000.
—There were twenty-nine marriages,nine-
ty-two births and fifty-one deaths in Johns-
town during October, according to the re
turns made to the board of health in that
city.
—At Barnesboro, on: Sunday, Frank Far-
rell, a desperate character shot two men, one
of whom was chief of police Samuel Taylor,
tried to kill several others then made his es
cape. 2
—The Galeton Democrat says that the B. &
S. railroad people are preparing to bore a
tunnel through Hog Back mountain some
two miles long and that the work will cost
$1,000,000.
—The new Cresson theatre, which has just
been completed at a cost of $10,000, will be
epened for the first time Thanksgiving even-
ing, when a home talent production, ‘The
Old Hickory Farm,” will be presented.
—John Dietrick, of Ferney, paid a fine of
$25 for killing a bear on Sunday in violation
of the game laws of the state. - The hide of
bruin has also heen confiscated by the author-
ites and will be sent to the head of the State
game commission for disposition.
—The Williamsport board of trade, with
its $462,000 guarantee fund, is preparing te
boom the city during the coming year. Pres-
ident Ansbach of the Milton board of trade is
to engage in the same business enterprise.
—Along with the building of the 125 new
c¢ oke ovens at Tyler, the building of which
has been commenced, comes the announce-
ment that the coal company will erect fifty
new houses to be used by the men who find
employment about the works of the com-
pany.
—Burglars entered the general store of
John Shonto at Cresson at an early hour
Friday morning and carried off shoes, arctics
and clothing to the amount of probably one
hundred dollars. Entrance was gained
through a rear door with the aid of a skele-
ton key. ;
—The improvement work on the P. and E.
division of the Pennsylvania railroad below
Lock Haven is progressing nicely and about
two hundred men are now employed on the
job between Pine and Aughenbaugh’s. Two
steam shovels are in use and the grading
work is being rapidly carried on. : :
—A plunge of forty-five feet at the cok
ovens inthe Franklin plant of the Cambria
Steel company, at Johnstown, Wednesday
afternoon, caused the death of Jonathan
S mith, aged 55 years. In falling the unfor-
tunate man struck the ground on his head
and sustained a horrible fracture of the skull
which resulted in instant death. Ea
—Tt is reported from Altoona that Charles
M. Schwab contemplates leaving Loretto and
making his sammer home at Williamsport.
The people of Loretto report that he will
sell his magnificent country home at that
place and erect a mansion at Williamsport
that will eclipse any residence in that sec-
tion of the State. '
—The Pennsylvania Steel company is ne-
gotiating for more than three whole blocks
of Steelton real estate, including 50 houses.
The property is wanted, it is said, for the es-
tahlishment of a big addition to the compa-
ny’s plant, including six or more open hearth
steel furnaces,a new one beam mill and a bar
mill. Thecompany now operates 12 open-
hearth furnaces.
—Mrs. Anna Madden, a widow, died at her
home in Arden, Pa., Friday, of a broken
heart. Her three sens, her only children,
were not at the deathbead, for each: of , them
occupied a cell inthe Washington county
jail. Grief and disgrace over the imprison-
ment of her sons caused the death of the
mother. The three boys were convicted of
aggravated assault. 5 aa
—A dispatch from Oakland, Cal., states
‘that Arthur 8. Miller, of Williamsport, was
‘murdered in a hotel at that place by his wife
‘who was violently insane. Mrs. Miller hid
behind the door of their room in the hotel
and shot him in the region of the heart when
he came in the door. The shooting was wit-
nessed by their young son, who says that the
shooting was entirely unprovoked. The wife.
is now a raving maniac in an insane hospital’
—The attorneys in the case of New Castle
against the bondsmen of the late city treas:
urer, John Blevins, whose death in 1899, has
never been cleared and who was short in his
‘accounts, reached an amicable understand-
ing, The city agreed to accept $11,500. The
shortage amounted to about $25,000,but there
'was a question in law as to whether the city
could collect this amount. The settlement
effected will put an end to considerable liti-
gation. ; )
—President Patrick Gilday, of District No.
2 United Mine Workers of America, scouts
the idea of a strike next April, at which time
the coal operators and miners meet at Al:
toona to adopt their wage scale... He says
there is a spirit of general satisfaction among
the working men throughout the bituminous
field and he expects it to continue. And
there hasbeen an advance in the price of
coal and the operators are apparently as well
satisfied with the conditions, ;
—A young man supposed to be William
Smith, of Williamsport, committed suicide
near Wellsboro, on Sunday, by hanging. His
body was found suspended from a tree by a
farmer who was searching for a lost cow. He
had used a piece of rawhide strap to end his
life. On his person was found a valuable
watch and an insurance policy made payable
to his sister, Ella Smith, of Newberry. The
coroner of Tioga county is trying to locate
the young man’s relatives.
getting his $50,000 guarantee fund in shape -