Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, February 22, 1907, Image 1

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    By P. GRAY MEEK.
ink Slings.
—Have you made auy sacrifices {or Lent.
—Do yon believe that story about
GEORGE and tbe cherry tree?
—The election is over and it is altogether
probable that the men who got the most
votes were elected.
—All that many men save by making
lenten sacrifices is squandered on the Easter
bonnets worn by their wives,
—OQOar Republican friends are wondering
why they picked so many lemons in a gar-
den where so many political peaches grow.
—Philadelphia still remains corrupt and
contented. Her political revivals are more
noted for the back sliders they produce
than anything else.
——After the TuAWw trial is ended the
THAW lawyers will have plenty of time to
settle their differences and we hope they
will use axes in the operation.
~The two-cent car fare law in Pennsyl-
vania, if it ever becomes operative, will
probably result in giving the public less
laxurions coaches and slower trains.
—A Chicago minbister asserts that davc-
ing makes the feet grow large and upon
the same proposition we might add that
preaching makes the tongue grow long.
—A few blue birds seen on the hills a
few days ago reminds us that epring house-
cleaning time marches on with sprightly
step while our physical energies cower.
—The harrowing experience of the N. Y.
C. R. R. with high speed electric trains
makes us feel that the old steam engine at
a forty-mile per hour gait 18 fast enough for
us.
—The way the Bellefonte Methodists
give money for missions bas lead many to
suspect that there is a mint in the base-
ment of that big gospel factory up on the
corner.
—The Legislature has been in session six
weeks and two bills have gone to the Gov-
ernor. At this rate Pennsylvania laws cost
almost as much as ‘‘solid Mahogany farni-
ture.”
—Congress is to saddle all responsibility
for the Panawa canal on President Roose-
VELT notwithstanding that ROOSEVELT
will be gone long before the canal is com-
pleted.
—Just what the reformers in Philadel-
phia are going to do abot it is a question
that Mr. BLANKENBURG and Sunny Jiu
will have to argne out. Their battle of
ballots is over.
~—ADALINE PATTI, the gieat singer was
sixty-four years old on Tuesday. II this
be true she must bave started her ‘‘fare-
well tours’ of America when she was
about sixteen.
—Senator SMooT is to remain in the
upper House of Congress. Thus has the
Republican party carried out its compact
with the Mormons and thus is polygamy
flaunted in the face of the public.
—CARUSO demands three thousand dol-
lars a night forsinging in grand opera in
this country next season. The demand is
not known to carry with it any special
liberties in the monkey houses of America.
—The best evidence that the people of
Bellefonte appreciate the work of an eco-
nomical and carefal official is presented in
the overwhelming majority Mr. HowLEY,
a Demoorat, received for over-seer of the
poor in this largely Republican borough.
—The new olocks that were bought for
the various departments in the capitol are
being refused because they are too large and
unwieldly. They cost over one hundred
dollars each and it is reasonably oertain
that the State didn’t get them on ‘‘tick.”’
— Baltimore's first attempt at an open all
night bank has turned out unsuccessful.
The reason, of course, is that the people of
Baltimore sleep at night. In this they are
80 near akin to Philadelphians that we pre-
sume they will he asking Jim MeNicron
over there to help boss them while awake.
—The captain of the ill-fated Larchmont
evidently stood strictly upon the proposi-
tion ‘‘that seil preservation is the first law
of nature.” However cowardly his act in
being first to leave his sinking boat he
probably consoles himsel! with the thought
that *‘it is better to be a live dog than a
dead lion.”
—With twenty-two patients crowded into
a building designed for twelve it is past
the point where thinking about the needs
of the Bellefonte hospital counts for any-
thing. Doing is the thing now and it is
up to the Legislature ol Pennsylvania
Bellefonte and some parts of Centre coun-
ty have done well and do not propose to
falter in well doing, bus il millions of the
State's money can be spent elsewhere why
can’t this over-crowded institution receive
a few thousand.
—The election in the connty on Tnesday
discloses, in a remarkable way, the abso-
lute non-partisanship that has gradually
been growing in the spring contests. Aside
from Bellefonte borough, where for yeas
there has heen a disposition to vote for men
aud not parties for the local offices, we find
a Republican judge of election and several
other officers elected in rock-ribbed Demo-
oratio Walker township. While in Patton,
just as staunchly Republican, there were a
number of Democrats chosen. All over
the connty the returns bear proof of the
effacement of party lines and the lesson
this carries is that if party organizations
are to remain intact there must be none
but the very best men named for office and
their nominations be free of taint of manip-
ulation or double dealing.
VOL. 52
= "
Senator Knox and Reed Smoot.
Senator KxoX, of this State,made a very
able argument, the other day, against the
unseating or expulsion of REED SymooT, of
Utah, who represents the Mormon church
and the polygamist propaganda in the
United States Seoate. The Senator held,
first, that it ia legally impossible to unseat
the Mormon Apostle and the only way to
get rid of him is by expulsion, which re-
quires a two-thirds vote. Unseating him
by a simple majority vote, Sepator KNOX
continued, would be a most dangerous in-
fraction of the constitution, and ‘“‘the be-
ginning of the end’’ of the Republic. The
thought of it made his beart bleed copi-
ously.
We confess to having been deeply touch-
ed by the force of Senator KNoX's argu-
ments avd the logic of his reasoning. Pre-
cisely the same points have been asserted in
these colamns time and again. When
Representative ROBERTS, of Utah, was be-
ing thrown ous of the House of Represen-
tatives ‘‘crotch and crupper,”’ afew years
ago, we protested, not against the expul-
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FEBRUARY 22, 1907.
Pennypacker and His Administration.
It was once said of a public man who
talked volubly but without reason, that
“whenever he opened his mouth he put
his foot in it.” It may be as justly said of
Governor PEXNYPACKER that whenever he
takes bis pen in his hand he makes an egre=
gions ass of himself. In an aiticlecover-
ing an entire page of the esteemed Phila-
delphia Public Legdger of last Sunday bis
ex-excellency exemplifies this fact most
strikingly. After a prolonged and entirely
irrelevant preliminary he refers to the sac-
rifices he made in accepting the office and
declares that he was ‘‘elected by the larg.
est majority ever given in the Statetoa
Governor save one occasion.” Asa mat-
ter of fact his majority as returned was ex-
actly 91,036 and there were 80,000 frandu-
lent votes counted for him in Philadelphia,
40,000 in Allegheny county and 30,000 in |,
other cities and populous districts, making
a total of 150,000 bogus votes in his favor,
so that he wasn’t elected at all.
With a full understanding of these facts
| Judge PENNYPACKER accepted the work
sion of a Mormon, but against so grave a | of the ballot box stuffers and has been
violation of the constitution. But RoBeRTs | their grateful friend ever since. The elec:
pretended to bea Demooras and among all
tion law which made such a perversion of
the Pharisees in both chambers there wasn’t | the vote possible has likewise been fondly
oue to remonstrate. He wasn’t an Apostle
| cherished and insidiously defended by him
in the Mormon church or a polygamist in | during the years which have elasped and
practice. But he was a Mormon and a
Democrat, the Republicans needed the vote
in the House and he was unseated and the
constitution was flouted.
We are glad to learn, however, that there
is now a Republican in Congress who has
sufficient respects for the constitution to
plead for its maintecance. That it is a
recent development detracts nothing from
its merit. A year ago when the President
was violating the constitution by usurping
powers not delegated to him, KNoX went
along, reluctantly, but he went along.
More recently when FORAKER and others
painted out infractions of the constitution
in the matter of the dismissal of the negro
troops at Brownsville, Texas, KNOX guash-
ed his teeth but acquiesced in the outrage.
He had to do it. There was a strenuous
man at the other end of the avenve, show-
ing his teeth and swinging a big stick, and
our lady-like Senator bad vo alternative.
Gratifying as this revelation’of improve-
ment is, we would be very much more de-
lighted if we could imagine that it were the
result of a sincere respect for the funda-
mental law of the land. But unbappily
we can’t bring ourselves to this amiable
frame of mind. We are forced by the in-
exorable logic of events to the belief that
Senator KNOX is moved by allegiance to
the memory of Senator HANNA rather than
by fidelity to the constitution of the coun-
try. SM007's presence in the Senate is the
result of HANNA'S partnership with the
Mormon church and KNOX's presence in
the capital at Washington is ascribable to
the same source.
——The bureau of commerce presents to
"the public the interesting information that
there is a marked decline in the amount of
champagne imported. We wouldn't rec-
ommend any friends of ours to bet on the
election of the Prohibition candidate for
President on that acconnt, however.
Work of the Legislature.
The emissaries of the contractors’ com-
biue in the Legislature imitated the ostrich,
which plunges its head in the sand to con-
ceal its body, again, the other day. That
is to say, they rushed through the House an
inadequate two cent a mile rate bill for the
purpose of fooling the public into the belief
that a measure of that character is really
contemplated. The bill as passed is abso-
lutely worthless. It provides for two cent
a mile rates,but as Representative BLAKES-
LEE, of Carbon county, pointed out, re-
quires no fit servioe for the price. In fact
it leaves a door open for extras which will
practically nullify the reform.
Bat even at that there is no intention to
pass the bill. It was believed that the pre-
tense would help the machine in the spring
elections in Philadelphia and the bill was
rushed through. But itis hardly a secret
now that the intention is to defeat it in
the Senate or cripple it with some absurdly
unconstitutional provision which will nul-
lify it the moment it is brought to a judi-
oial review. It is quite possible that the
Railroad Commission bill will pass in prac-
tically its present form for the reason that
it is confidently believed that Section II of
Article XVII of the constitution will serve
to invalidate it. .
The truth is that all present indications
point to a session of unusmal venality.
Nearly two months have elapsed and only
two bills have been sent to the Governor.
Of course the epring elections have been
the cause of the delay. The majority
didn’t want to show its purpose until after
the vote for municipal offices throughout
the Commonwealth. Bat there is no longer
any reason for concealment and the flood-
gates will be raised immediately after the
resumption of the session next Monday
evening. MoNrcHorn will crack the whip
aud the procession will move forward to-
ward its destination of graft.
no reasoning or inducement could prevail
on him to include ballot reform among the
subjects of legislation, when such inclusion
| would have guaranteed success during the
special session of 1906. That agency of
crime was the vehicle that carried him into
the office he coveted and in bis gratitude
for the service he prolonged its existence
as long as he could. He was as guilty as
any of the Salters or other denizens of the
sloms and votaries of vice who cast the
fraudulent votes or procured the casting of
them. The receiver of stolen goods is no
better, morally, than the thief who has the
courage to commit the burglary.
Bat let that pass. It isa stain upon the
honor of Pennsylvania which can never be
obliterated and probably it is as well that
it ehall remain to remind posterity of the
greatest crime against the Commonwealth
which QUAY ever perpetrated, though his
life was a long continued period of ini-
quity. It ougbt, however, to
PENNYPACKER from insulting the con-
science of the people by boasting of misfeas-
ances as he does in the article in question.
He compares the ‘‘Palace of Graft,” to
‘“‘what the Parthenon meant in Athens,”
and vilifies those who refase to condone the
crimes committed during its construction
in the most vituperative anathema. In
view of such things it is difficult to indulge
the amiable opinion that PENNYPACKER
was honest but misguided during the time
that he was associated with these affairs,
It is more reasonable to take the practical
view that be understood aud participated
in the grafting operations.
Beware of Gift Bearers.
Mr. Jou~ D. ROCKERFELLER bas some-
what cstentationsly announced a contribu-
tion of a trifle of $32,000,000, for educa-
tional purposes. This sum, not in money
bat in stocks or bonds of some corporation
in which Mr. ROCKERFELLER is interested,
is to be given to the National Board of
Education, an institution oreated at the
suggestion of Mr. ANDREW CARNEGIE
some years ago. A difference of half a cent
a gallon in the price of oil would reimburse
Mr. ROCKERFELLER in less than a year,
and singularly enough the price of oil was
increased that much the day after the gilt
was announced. The transfer of the prop-
erty will hardly be completed in a year.
We don’t think much of these maunifi-
cent contributions to educational or
charitable institutions by every rich man.
They are usually made at a time that the
donor is menaced by retributive justice
and the purpose is to placate pablic opin-
ion and turn public indigoation into popu-
lar approbation. They are rarely paid in
cash, moreover. Cash payments won't
serve the purpose nearly as well. The
contribution of stocks or bonds creates a
sort of partnership between the philan-
thropic gentlemen conducting the
institution benefited and the prac-
tical gentleman who makes the donation.
After it is accomplished the philanthrop-
ists are pained when they hear that the
benevolent person is threatened because
they imagine that his injury might impair
the value of the property.
Some years ago Mr. ANDREW CARNEGIE
tried to get into partnership with the gov-
ernment at Washington hy endowing »
National University with bonds of the
Steel trust. He justly reasoned that if he
could consummate such a scheme the Steel
trust would he seoure against inimical
legislation for all time and the effect wonld
bean increate in the value of the bonds
which he retained safficient to make the
amount of his donation. There were some
men in authority at the time, however,
who bad perspicacity enough to see
through ANDY'S little enterprise and they
prevented it. ROCKERFELLER may bave
some similar purpose in mind. Anyway
“beware of the gifs-bearing G 2
restrain |
Prize Whitewashing Operation,
The directors of the Pennsylvauia rail-
road have given to the public a specimen
of whitewashing which is entitled to the
prize. During the Interstate Commerce
commission inquiry last summer it was de-
veloped that vast numbers of the officers
and employees of the corporation bad ac-
quired shares in various coal companies and
that such companies were immensely favor-
ed in shipping facilities. It was universal-
ly agreed that the conditions were inimical
$0 public policy and that where such shares
had been acquired withouns the payment of
mouey it was criminal. The principal of-
ficers of the company promptly concurred
in this view, declared that they would in-
vestigate and what they would do to those
involved would be plenty, after the facts
had been ascertained.
The investigation was at once begun and
though conducted secretly, uvobody doubt-
ed that it would be searching and thor-
ough. Weeks and weeks were spent in
the examination of witnesses and doeu-
ments and people who understand such
thing= began to look anxiously for an exo-
dus from the Broad Street station building.
They were surprised, therefore, when the
committee of the Board of Directors who
conducted the affair reported the other day
that only eleven employees and none of the
officers of the company had violated the
moral obligation which forbids such traffic
in valuable property. The eleven black
sheep have been culled out of the flock, we
are glad to know, and from now on the
whole force is ready to join a Palm siog-
ing society on the slightest provocation.
As a matter of fact scores if not hundreds
of the officers and employees of the Penn-
sylvania railroad company have been guilty
of the offense charged againat them by the
Interstate Commerce commission. In or-
der to give legal form and the semblance of
regularity to the operation most of them
gave notes to the amount of the market
value of the shares but with a specific or
implied understanding that the obligation
wonld vever be presented for payment.
Like all other legal fictions, this wasa
false pretense but not a crime that ie ac-
tionable in the courts of justice. But the
grit is quite as palpable as if the
Latsfer bad been in the form of a gift and
the whitewashing directors have fooled no-
body with their transparent subterfuge.
~——=Congressman DERMER, of Williams-
port, has already annonnced his intention
to run again in 1908. His defeat last fall
wonld have admonished most any other
man that he waen’s “‘hankered after,”” bat
probably DEEMER wants hints conveyed to
him with a clab. .
The Japanese Incident.
We have information from Washington
that the school authorities of San Francisco
have yielded to the importunities and
menaces of the President and agreed to
permit the moral and physical Asiatic
lepers to mingle freely with the white ohil-
dren of the city in the public schools. The
consideration for this great danger to the
community is the promise that Japanese
coolies will no longer be permitted to come
to this country. It is always easy to get
such a treaty with a government which has
military tendencies. The men are wanted
at home for compulsory military service
and the implied charge that they are loath-
some is not resented for that resson. Pat
the San Franciscans are paying a high price
for the imaginary advantage they secure.
It is rather creditable to the Japanese
coolies that they are anxious for the educa-
tional facilities which the pnblic schools of
San Francisco afford. In their own country,
though they are willing to make any sacri-
fices for it, they are deprived of schools,
not because of poverty bus for the reason
that illiterates are more tractable in slav-
ery. So they wan: to come here and having
come want to learn, and though over school
age in years and vice, they want to go to
the schools where they can associate with
the handsome and winsome young girls of
white people who may thus be drawn
down to their own moral level. And the
authorities of San Francisco have consented
to this becanse RoosEVELT who has no rel-
atives there to be polluted, wants to ex-
ploit his imperialistic notions at this vest
expense.
Japanese coolies have proved strong com-
petitors in the labor markets of the Pacific
coast and it is small wonder that there is
considerable feeling against them in indus-
rial centres, The hope of getting rid of
them was, of coarse, the eaticing reasoa
which inflaenced the San Francisco school
aothorities to accept the President's
scheme. Bat some other influence must
have worked on the minds of the Senators
in Congress who have consented to this
atrocious arrangement. There was no dan.
ger thas Japanese coolies would take their
jobs and yet they bave put thousands of
girls in San Francisco in peril of an evil
greater than death to gratify the impulse
of ROOSEVELT to role everything. Can it
be thas patronage is stronger than con-
science in the Senate?
‘local mackets,
——8ecretary RooT replied toa resoln-
tion of the House of Representatives for in-
formation with respect to a tariff agreement
with Germany, the other day, that soch in-
formation will nos he made public during
this session. In other words the Secretary
of State reminds Congress that it can *
bang,” if it wants to, or to sheol if it
fers that destination.
An Argument for Good Roads.
From the Philadel phis Record,
The Department of Agriculture has been
gathering statistios to show the cost of haul
paid by farmers in getting their ¢ to
shipping points. Investigation has
made in 1900 counties, covering practically
the whole farming area of the country,
with the following stated results:
The average cost to the farmer of baul-
ing wheat from farms to shipping pointe is
given as 9 cents per 100 pounds, the aver-
age distance baunied is 9.4 miles, and the
average wagon load of wheat weighs 3323
prands, thus containing abont 55 bushels.
'or cotton, the average load is 1702 pounds,
distance from shipping point 11.8 miles,
and cost of hauling 16 cents per 100 pounds.
Reduced to terms of cost per ton mile, the
rate for wheat is 19 cents, and for cotton
27 cents.
The highest cost of haul is for wool,
which is carried on an average 39.8 miles
from farm or ranch to shipping pointata
rate of 44 cents per 100 pounds for the en-
tire distance. The lowest cost for any one
product is for hemp, which is hauled from
farms to shipping points at an average cost
of 6 cents per 100 pounds, the average dis-
tance hauled being 5.2 miles and the av-
erage load of hemp weighing 3393 pounds.
For the entire distance from farm to
shipping point, corn, oats and barley are
each hauled at an average cost of 7 cents
per 100 pounds; bay, flaxseed, rye and
timothy seed, 8 cents; wheat, potatoes and
beans, 9 cente; tobacco and live hogs, 10
cents; rice, hops and buckwheat, 11 cents;
apples and peanuts, 12 cents; vegetables
(other than potatees) and cotton seed, 15
cents; cotton and fruis (other than apples),
16 cents, and wool, 44 cents.
Except in the case of wool, practically
all costs represent the expense incurred by
farmers in haunling their own produce.
Wool is hauled inthe Rocky mountains
largely by regular freight wagons, and the
wool growers pay for the hauling at vary-
ing rates per 100 pounds.
The total tonnage of farm prodnets haui-
ed on country roads in the United States is
pot known, bat of twelve leading products
it is estimated that nearly 50,000,000 tons
were hauled from farms during the crop
year 1905 6, at a cost of about $85,000,000,
or more than 5 i oor at
Of this trafic, 40,000,000
tons represent the weight of corn, wheat
and cotton, and the cost of hauling these
three products was §70.000,000.
A stronger argument for the building of
good roads, or for the extension of trolley
roads with the freight-carrying privilege,
could hardly be presented.
————————
Old Gang is tn the Saddle.
From the Altoona Times.
The voting in Philadelphia on Tuesday
proves heyond the shadow of a doubt that
the old gang, which was temporarily in
eclipse, is again in the saddle. Congress.
man Reyburn has been elected mayor by a
majority of over 40,000 which is almost as
Jarpe as that given for Governor Stuart last
all.
Mr. Reyburn was generally regarded as
the organization candidate, and was op-
posed by a fasion of the City party and the
Democrats. All the arguments used in
the previous reform campaigns were hurled
against Reyburn, but it was a difficult
matter to arouse the voters to the pitch of
enthusiasm that culminated in the tempor-
ary overthow of the gang a year ago.
Although the Darbams, the MceNichols
and other members of the gang are again
rehabilitated, the lesson learned will not
likely be soon forgotten. The hundreds of
thousands of votes cast for Potter, the fa-
sion candidate for mayor, constitute a for-
midable opposition that will act as p deter.
rent and prevent a repetition of the shame-
less debauchery and perversion of govern.
ment that caused Philadelphia to be con-
temptuonsly referred to as ‘‘corrupt and
contented.”’
There may be contract grafting and the
utilization of governmental functions for
the aggrandizement of individuals, bat it
will be a long time until they are practiced
as brazenly as they were before the up-
heaval came. The gangsters will be timor-
ous of again invoking asconrge of the
public wrath.
A continuation of the City party is the
hest insurance against rotten government.
The Democracy in Philadelphia is atroph-
ized and bus a little less rotten than the old
Republican gang, eo little can be hoped for
from this sonrce. The gangsters, however,
will be held in check by the virile, alert
independent organization that bas doneso
much for the regeneration of the city of
Philadelphia.
Where the Moncy Belonged.
From the Pittsburg Post.
Judge Kunkel, of the Dauphin county
court, bas decided that the State has no
claim to the enormous fees collected by ex-
Insurance Commissioner Israel W. Dar-
ham, who is believed to have secured
$141.223 from 1899 to 1904. The same
ruling applies to ex-Commissioner George
B. Lauper, who received $15,883, and ex-
Commissioner James H. Lambert, who got
$28,182. Io addition to these fees these
men were paid salaries. Their claim that
they had a legal right to the fees bas thus
far been vindicated. Bat even if it is fival-
ly sustained hy the highest court, there
can he nc donbt that these fees should
never have been directed by law to be paid
to the commissioners as individuals, ey
should have gone into the State treasury.
That they did not Jo so was because the
machine leaders planved otherwise and
bad the legislation drawn accordingly.
This $200,000, it may be remarked, is but
# hundredth part of the public money di-
verted into the pooket of followers of the
machine and which should have gone into
the State treasury.
Spawls from the Keystone,
—Altoona’s $500,000 High School will be
dedicated by State Superintendent of In-
struction Schaeffer, March 22.
~—Fellow workmen saved William Bodine
from drowning in Catawissa creek, at Blooms.
burg, when he fell in while cutting idk.
—Fear that her husband would be s
prison for alleged violation of the fish lows
drove Mrs. Samuel Schwenk, of Glendale,
insane, :
—In three suicessive oysters that Hugh
Garren opened in a Bethlehem restaurant
he found three good-sized pearls, which a
gem broker valued at $300.
—A boil under his left arm caused the
death of William Balsinger, of Altoona, aged
47 years, a Pennsylvania raildrod moulder.
It superinduced blood poisoning.
~The Sullivan county jail at Laporte has
but one prisoner—and that a man accused of
murder. And that man is there because of a
drinking orgie in a lumber camp.
~Three thousand eggs in a year for
twenty bens is the record which Samuel
Parkhill, of Lindsey, Jefferson county,
claims for his bevy of feathered beauties.
—One hundred trolley poles erected west
of the city by the Altoona. Hollidaysburg &
Bedford Springs Railway company, which is
to connect Bedford and Altoona, were chop-
ped down by a vandal.
—There are nine applications for license
in Huntingdon county at license court
which will be held March 4, 1907. Six
are from Huntingdon, two from Smithfield
township and one from Orbisonia.
—J. Calvin Earnest, of Bedford, recently
secured a patent on a harness fastener.
Patent attorneys have offered to have it
patented in foreign countries for a commis:
sion, and have advised Mr. Earnest not to
sell his right for less than $8,000 or $10,000.
—A number of counterfeit dimes arein
circulation in Altoona at the present time.
They made their appearance a few days ago,
but where they came from is a mystery.
They are fuirly well executed, and on ac
count of the small denomination are rather
easily passed.
—Aroused by the scarcity and high prices
of farm preducts, the Wo-man's Club of
Montgomery county is planning for an
“Agricultural Day” on February 28, to be
devoted to a discussion of scientific agricul-
ture. The advantages of State college will
also be discussed.
The finding of the bead and a portion of
the body of a man, late Sunday afternoon,
created excitement among Landsdowne res-
idents living in the vicinity of what is
known as the “Damp,” a section of land
used to deposit ashes and other refuse
gathering in North-west Philadelphia.
—Charges have been addressed to Presi-
dent Roosevelt by nearly 1,000 citizens of
Carlisle, asking for the appointment of a
commission to take testimony on charges
against Caleb C. Brynton, postmaster at that
place, alleging that ‘‘he has not devoted
the proper time to the business of the office
and that he has been politically active in
violation of the civil service rules.”
-
—Two drunken boys made an attempt at
the round house of the Maryland
and Peuusylvania railroad at York
on Tuesday night, to steal a locomotive.
The wate man beard a noise and going to
investigate found one of the boys up on the
seat in the engine cab with his hand on the
throttle side. They said they were news
boys and intended to take a ride to Delta,
—Indiana will have but two licensed
houses next year. Judge Telford's decisions
on twenty-eight of the thirty-three applica-
tions have been filed. The Moore and the
National hotels are the only two granted
licenses at the county seat. Three other
applicants were refused. Licenses have also
been granted at Creekside, Chambersville,
Rossiter, Wehrum, Heilwood, Cherry Tree,
Arcadia, Lovejoy and Glen Campbell.
—Martin McConnell, a car repairman em-
ployed at the Avis yard, Lycoming county,
had his left foot so badly mangled Wednesday
morning that it had to be amputated. Mec-
Connell was walking on the the tracks and
did not notice the approach of a train back
of him until it was nearly on his. He made
an effort to get out of the way but his foot
caught on a rail and he fell. The
train passed over his foot, nearly severing
it.
—Mrs. Zeller, the wife of John Zeller, of
Annville, was instantly killed by an explo-
sion of dynamite at her home on Friday aid
their two children, Lydia, aged 13 years, and
Mary, aged 5 years, were so badly burned
and lacerated that there is little hope of
their recovery. The house was wrecked.
Zeller placed three sticks of dynamite in
the stove to thaw and went to work neglect
ing to tell his wife that the dynamite was in
the oven.
—At the annual meeting of Group 6 Penn-
sylvania State Bankers’ association, compris.
ing the counties of Blair, Bedford, Cambria,
Centre, Clearfield and Huntingdon, held at
the First National bank building at Tyrone
officers were re-elected for another year.
They are: F. K. Lukenbach, of the Blair °
County National bank, president, and
Mr. Blandy, of Osceola, as secretary. A
number of prominent banking men of va:
rious parts of the country were present and
addressed the bankers.
—The old Packer House, one of the largest
hostelries in Sunbury,and the Seebold baild-
ing, adjoining the hotel, were practically
destroyed by fire Monday, entailing a loss
estimated at $50,000. The Seabold building
is an apartment house and guests in both
buildings were compelled to flee. While the
fire was in progress thieves were found rif-
ling the rooms in the hotel and one man was
arrested. The burned buildings were locat-
ed along the tracks of the Pennsylvania rail
road and trafic was delayed several hours.
—The convention of District No. 2, of the
United Mine Workers, which is to be held at
DuBois, beginning Tuesday, March 12th,
will bo a meeting of unusual size and impor.
tance. The customary place of meeting has
been Altoona, a city nearer the centro of the
the district which extends on the south to
the Maryland boundary line. Iiis certain
that Cengressman Wilson, the national
secretary, will be present and very likely
President Mitchell, having no scales to
negotiate at other points, will also attend.