Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, May 31, 1907, Image 1

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By P. GRAY MEEK.
ink Slings.
—D e aud a are the dead letters in our
alphabetical post-office.
—Divine right BAER, of the Reading, is
regarded now as being dead wrong.
—The advance in the price of Havana
cigars won't worry the smokers of ‘‘Cre-
mo’’ and “Bill Watsons.”
—The usual graft of the local heating
company for May steam has certainly been
suspended by the weather man.
—Six hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars for furnishings in the basement of
the capitol looks like the basest kind of
graft.
—It is not a case of ‘‘exaggerated ego’’
with the swect girl graduate. Now is the
time when she is “IT” and wo exaggera-
tion about it.
— Jack Frost is getting almost as much
notoriety in the papers these day: as Han-
RY THAW did two months ago and both
due to the business of killing.
—That dream of a gown worn by the
sweet girl graduate is already banging in
the wardrobe and a big gingham apron
confronts her for the rest of her life. The
dreams of youth are sweet, but evanescent.
—After all are the commuters justified
in making such a kick over the establish-
ment of a flat two cent rate by the rail-
roads. Were they not among the very
fellows who pressed hardest on the Legis-
lature to pass the bill.
~There are so many Methodists in the
world that it they all joined hands they
could girdle the earth. Wouldn't it bea
sight for sore eyes to see some of our old
Methodist brothers holding hands with
some of the good sisters,
—San Francisco is still in the throes of
the earthquake. Rebuilding a city, while
thousands of her socialistic inhabitants are
trying to tear it down, may prove too
much of a task for even the indomitable
spirit of the Golden Gate.
—The Missouri State University has
lately established a chair of poultry, but
the name of the rooster who will hold it
down bas not been made public. Cholera,
the gaps and doable-yelked eggs are sug-
gested as part of the course.
—Chief chemist Wiley, of the United
States Department of Agricalture, says it is
‘“‘a rank disgrace for any man to die ex-
cept from old age, "’which means, of course,
that he must not own an auto or ride on
the limited trains of our trunk line rail-
Ways.
~The clock in the public building in
Philadelphia is the second largest in the
world. It will do time there for years of
ocurse, while SAM SALTER and a lot of
others down there who ought to be “‘doing
time’’ look on with that feeling of security
that entrenched gang rule assures,
—*‘Father Jones," a new writer in the
local journalistic field, has been attracting
considerable attention from readers of the
Daily News. He had been saying sore
pretty nifty things up to Tuesday evening
when be produced a pome that puts him
right up in a class with the poet laureate
of the West ward.
— Persistence and patience on the part of
several fishermen is gradually being re-
warded by the takiog of the last trout from
that section of Spring creek between the
falls and the Central R. R. station. Itisa
question whether the satisfaction of eating
the few fish left is adequate compensation
for their loss in a place where they have
been a daily source of pleasure to passing
pedestrians.
—The scholars of the Oakmont High
school, near Pittshurg, have gone on a
strike and the seniors refuse to graduate
because the only negro in their class won
the valedictorian’s honor. It is a pretty
commentary on the work the white scool-
ars have done and the more they fuss the
more public will their I amiliation he. It
the one negro scholar, laboring under dis-
advantages that certainly must have at-
tended his entire course, did better work
and received higher grades than his white
classmates the fault was all their own and
they deserve the predicament they find
themselves in. If the white race is to arro-
gate to itself the superior position of the
two it must maintain that position in every
one of its God-given endowments.
— Representatives of many of the Grand
Army Posts of the State mes in Harris-
burg on Wednesday to plead with the Gov-
ernor to sign the COCHRAN pension bill
passed by the last Legislature. Aside from
the fact that it is the federal and not she
State governments’ duty to support the
pension system we are glad to note thas
some of the Posts in the State have taken
a stand against the bill on the ground thas
its becoming a law would probably neces-
sitate a cut in the appropriations to the
hospitals and asylums of the State. The
greatest danger we see in the bill ie nos
the amount of money it proposes to dis-
burse among the old soldiers. It is an en-
tering wedge to fasten upon the State a
large and expensive Pension Bareau. Is
will grow to gigantic proportions and be
extended gradually as long as department
offices are needed for political workers,
We do not believe Senator COCHRAN con-
sidered this possibility else he would have
hesitated not over the question of giving two
million annually to the old soldiers bat of
opening a way for a new department in the
State's service that will come day cost
many millions to maintain.
A
VOL. 52
M—————
“STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., MAY 31, 1907.
The Siate Convention. | cerity and FISHER bas lost the job. Itis
The WATCHMAN does not wonder at the
interest Republican correspondents are
manifesting in the time that will be fixed
for the meeting of the Democratic State
convention, or at their efforts to secure the
holding of that convention at as late a date
as possible.
publican fricads now have of recapturing
the State Treasury this fall is in the mie-
takes the Democrats may be ioduced to
About the only hope our Re- |
sad, no doubt, and disappoints both ELKIN
and FisHER. Bat it inflicts little joss on
either of them for the Republican candi-
date for Treasurer is certain to he defeated
anyway and a political corpse can't do
! much for an aspiring friend.
Preparing to Fool the Pablic.
We are assured on the highest authority
| that the Republican State convention
| which meets in Harrishurg next Thursday
| President Baer's Bad Blander.
1 Cm—
Mr. GEORGE F. BAER, president of the
Philadelphia & Reading railroad, is a pro-
found scholar, a distinguished lawyer and
| an excellent citizen. Bat be underesti-
mates the intelligence and misconceives
the spirit of the public when he raises the
| rates for the service of his railroad in re-
| sentment of legislative action. The Legis-
lature has been lenient to the faults of the
| corporation of which Mr. BAER is the head.
make, and of these, failing to Dold heir | will enthusiastically endorse thé adminis. | It has been generous in lavors and forbear-
convention until the latter part of August, ' bot ROOSEVELT. ‘Penn | ance. The exercise of a constitutional right
as suggested hy the North American, the In-
quirer, Press and other Republican papers,
would be decidedly the greatest.
It the Democrats could be hood winked
into waiting until so late a date to place
their candidate in she field, the Repabli-
cans would have three months the start of
them, and in those three months they
would bave their now broken ranks unit.
ed, their organization lined up, their peo-
ple stuffed with promises of reform and
their voters geverally convinced that every
fellow connected with the State capitol
graft was to he convicted and punished.
They would have their campaign weil in|
Land aod their organization ready for any
work necessary to do to win, before the
Democrats were ready to begin prepara-
tions for the fight.
To make an August nomination would
be placing the Democrats at the disadvan-
tage of beginning their fight within nine or
ten weeks of an election with ao un.
perfected organization ; the rank and
file of the party apathetic and listless ; the
issues of the campaign anticipated and the
Republican par: of the public mind fully
impressed with the belief that the wrongs
of which the State has to complain and
fear, wiil be righted by the party that per-
mitted, and will again permit their com-
mittal. It would be handicapped for time
to see to the preliminary work of the cam-
paign and woald go into the contest when
the conntry vote, from which it derives its
greatest strength, is busiest with its bar.
vesting and seeding and when the farmers
could not give the time necessary to per-
fect the organization or do the work neces-
sary to be Jone, il we are to hope for sue-
cess,
To begin the preliminary work of a cam-
paigu, a line of policy must be first fixed.
It is useless to attempt this until a plas.
form is adopted and a candidate named.
This should be done as shortly as possible
alter the 6th of June—the day the Repub-
licans make their nomination. It would
be starting the battle with a broken, de.
moralized and dispirited enemy to face.
Te wait until the latter part of July or
August wonld simply be to sit down
and wait until our opponents could heal
up their divisions,—nnite and perfect
their, at present, disrupted organization,
circulate their literature, entrench them-
selves, and be ready for any charges or
conditions that may arise.
It is the WATCHMAN'S earnest hope that
the Democrats of the State will be wise
enough to take advantage of the sitnation
as il now exists, and not wait until every
opportunity to make an aggressive and
hopeful fight is passed, as was done last
year.
The McClain Machine Squabble.
Justice ELKIN may entertain the hope of
succeeding Senator PENROSE but he doesn’t
propese to allow another to lay the lines of
his campaign. At least he has sat down
very hard on Speaker McCLAIN'S plan. The
Speaker wanted to make the Justice the
candidate of a syndicate of electrical ex-
ploiters aud drew the line against PEN-
ROSE'S friends in the Senate for the reason
that some legislation desired by the syndi-
caters, was defeated in the Senate. Justice
ELKIN failed to respond to the call, how-
ever, and McCLAIN has been lefs in alurch,
Meantime the PENROSE crowd are holding
ELKIN responsible for McCLAIN'S action
aud are resenting it in the most practical
way.
Senator FisHER, of Indiana county, a
friend and neighbor of Justice ELKIN, had
been practically agreed upou as the candi-
date for State Treasurer. Neither FISHER'S
merit nor his fitness bad anything to do
with the selection. Primarily he was
‘‘adopted’’ becanse he is chairman of the
Legislative Commission investigating the
capitol building scandals but really with
the view of enlisting ELKIN in the cause of
PENROSE. The McCLAIN break admonished
PENROSE'S friends shat their expectation
in that respect was on a precarious footing
and they decided to throw FISHER over-
board. This action will cut one of the
most potent influences out from under
ELKIN'S ambition.
With Senator FISHER in the office of
State Treasurer ELKIN could have entered
the campaign against PENROSE most aus-
piciously, if he had been so disposed. But
the only way FisgER could possibly ges
into the office was through an understand.
iog that both ELKIN and FISHER would
support PENROSE for re-election. That
agreement had practically been made but
the action of MeCLAIN revealed its insin-
| sylvania’s delegation in Congress,’’ writes
| one of the inspired newspaper correspoud-
| ents, “‘will he commended for the cordial
| support given the President at all times,”’
and the endorsement of Senator KNOX for
| the Presidential nomination, he adds,
| “will be pointed to as a guarantee to the
country that his election will insure a con-
| tinuance of the ROOSEVELT ‘square deal’
| policy in favor of all the people.” The
| convention will also commend the Legisla-
| ture *‘for the carrying out of every pledge
| made by the party in the last State cam-
paign.”’ Nothing could be more interest-
ing.
While President ROOSEVELT was ‘‘sweat-
ing blood,’ so to speak, in an effort to re-
| cure legislation to regulate railroads during
| the last session of the Fifty-ninth Congress,
Senator KNOX was striving with equal en-
ergy and assiduity, in association with
Senators FORAKER, of Obio, ALDRICH, of
Rhode Island, SPOONER, of Wisconsin, and
others, to defeat his policies. The Presi-
dent became so incensed at their intrigues
that he denounced them publicly as *‘rail-
road lawyers,”’ and through former Senator
W. E. CHANDLER, of New Hampshire,
opened negotiations with Senators TILL-
MAN, of South Carolina, aod BAILEY, of
Texas, to circumvent their purposes. There.
fore the endorsement of Senator KNOX for
the Presidency by the Republican State
convention will imply antagonism rather
than endorsement of the ROOSEVELT pol-
icies,
In other words, the avowed purpose of
the Republican State convention next week
i# to impose on the credulity of the people
of the State. The machine which domi.
nates the party and will control the con-
vention is opposed to the President and his
policies aud if it commends the Legislature
it will be because it failed to carry ont the
pledges of the platform and candidates wade
during the last campaign. It is possible
that the voters of that party will be de-
ceived by these false pretenses this year as
they have in previous years. They rather
like to be fooled if the operation isskillfally
conducted. But PENROSE, MCNICHOL and
DAVE MARTIN posing as reformers is too
great a tax on credulity. Even fools
wonld not be deceived by such a trick.
Rough Rider on the Rampage.
President ROOSEVELT'S intimate and val-
ued personal friend, General SHERMAN M.
BELL, of Colorado, is on the rampage, so to
speak. He is the ruflian, who, as Adju-
tant General of Colorado at the time of the
labor disturbances at Cripple Creek, in-
vaded the courts and coerced judges at the
point of the bayonet, to subvert every prin-
ciple of justice and civil law, hy makiug
unjust decisions. Because he was the friend
and favorite of the President there was
neither reconrse nor redress. His ruffian-
ism was interpreted in Washington as a
splendid manifestation of strenuous admin-
istration. For the moment he was a greater
favorite in the White House than ‘‘Bat”
1 MASTERSON, the bully, blackleg and mur.
derer.
When reason resumed sway and law and
order were restored in Colorado, General
BELL was properly and promptly dismissed
from the public service. But as might
have been expected he left the force which
had been under his control in a demoral-
ized condition and the financial records of
the department in a state worse thau con-
fusion. In his annual report General
BELL'S successor, General WELLS, exposed
these facts. This has incensed the ruffian
and be declares that ‘‘if WELLS made those
statements be will have to answer to me.”
That means an apology or a shooting scrap
with the chances against WELLS, for BLL
being a coward will approach the work
sneakingly.
No doubt he presumes on the President’s
Iriendship for immunity from punishment
for his contemplated crime and it is not
certain that be is ‘‘reckoning without his
host.”” He served in the Rough Riders.
It was because of his connection with the
persecution of MOYER and other prisoners
now under arraigoment at Bois, Idaho, that
ROOSEVELT tried to prejudice the®publio
against them. Bat we bardly think thas
he will be able to falfill his purpose in the
matter in question. The people of Colorado
have not abdicated all their rights or relin-
quished every claim to manhood and if the
President's drunken and ruffianly friend
carries out his plans he will be justly pun.
ished.
ES ————
~The next big time will be the Un-
dines picnic on the Fourth of July.
| should not, therefore, be interpreted as an
offence which justifies reprisals on the pub-
| lie. In taking thas step Mr. BAER bas
| made a mistake.
The seventeenth article of the constitu.
tion of the Commonwealth forbids a lot of
thivgs which the Reading railroad has been
doing. Section 5 of that article which
reads “No incorporated company doing the
business of a common carrier shall, direct-
ly or indirectly, prosecute or engage in
mining and manufacturing articles for
transportation over its works; nor shall
such company, directly or indirectly, en-
gage in any other business than that of
common carriers, or hold or acquire lands,
freehold or leasehold, directly, or indireot-
ly, except such as shall be necessary for
carrying on its business; but any miniug
or manufacturing company may carry the
products of mines and manufacteries on its
railroad or canal not exceeding fifty wiles
in lengsh,” if enforced would put the
Reading railroad out of business in a week.
The obvions fiction that the Temple Iron
company is a separate corporation wealdn’s
stand a minute.
It the provisions of the constitution were
enforced, therefore, Mr. BAER would be di-
vested of the power to raise, lower or make
rates for the Reading railroad. In purea-
ing the course he has adopted, under
such conditions, he is inviting the resent.
ment of the publioand pent up wrath is
likely to explode at any time. Mr. BAER
is one of the cherished friends of the editor
of this paper. His splendid achievement
in constructing and maintaining success in
railroad management has been a perennial
source of satisfaction and pleasure to us.
That being true we can claim the privilege
of friendship to say to Mr. BAER that he
is making a blunder which will probably
cost more than it will come to.
———@Governor STUART is doing the best
he cau with the bills left to him at the ad-
journment of the Legislature and probably
as well as ought to be expected. But he
hasn't tackled the problem of cutting the
appropriations to the limit of the reve-
nues as yet and that is what will try bis
soul and tax his resonrces.
Aunnnius Club Increasing.
The Ananias Club has a new recruit.
The new accession has not been formally
announced, as yet, but it will be, unless
conditions have changed, within a few
days. The new recruit is not in the Han-
RIMAN class financially nor in the CHAN-
DLER class politically. But he is not with-
out the essential qualifications of member-
ship. That is, he has attained some dis-
tinction in his profession and has enjoyed
the confidence and respect of his neighbors.
*‘Death loves a shining mark,” according
to the pioverb, and President ROOSEVELT
has the «ame preference. He doesn’t care
to waste his anathemas on obscure individ-
uals. :
The new member of the ANANIAS Club
is the Rev. Dr. W. J. LoxG, of Stamford,
Connecticut. Dr. LONG is the author of a
number of hooks on nature, some of which
bave heen adopted by the schools. Some
time ago he criticised the President's
methods of taking game and said that he
slaughtered promiscuously. In resent-
ment of this liberty President ROOSEVELT
criticised one of Dr. LONG'S books and des-
igoated the author as a “Nature Fakir.”
By way of replying to this unfriendly orit-
icism Dr. LoNG in an interview declares
that the President is himself a fakir and
somewhat of a coward and produces sub-
stantial evidence in support of his original
proposition that he ‘‘slaughters game pro-
miscuously.””
All in all, Dr. LoNG'S arraignment of
the President is most complete and con-
vincing. He declares inferentially that on
one occasion the President, securely hid-
den behind a tree, ‘‘kills three bull elks in
succession, leaving their carcasses to rot in
the woods.”” What better proof of the ac-
cuosation sould be produced, and even if
the only reward for the public service of
exposing an arrant humbug and false pre-
tender is membership in the ANNANIAS
Club, it is a great distinction. Sooner or
later, it way be assumed, the public will
learn to know what a reckless villifier and
prevaricator ROOSEVELT is and those who
bave been instrumengal in the exposure
will be honored of all men.
—With the weather like it is there will
be no winter underwear to hide away in
moth balls when the sun gets warm enough
to chase it into seclusion.
a
Dalzell and the President.
We have heard with more than ordinary
regret that Congressman JOHN DALZELL, of
Pittshbarg, is no longer entirely enamored
of President RoosEVELT. For many years
the country has listened with keen interest
to Mr. DALZELL'S fulsome and more or
less eloquent panegyrics on TEDDY. In
fact most people bad come to believe that
outside of the tariff no other snbject could
move him to speech. The tariff ie, of course,
and always has been, the subject of his
profound anxiety. Even the shadow of a
thought of disturbing it gave him the most
excruciating pain. The suggestion of a
change in the punctuation, it is said, moves
him to tears. And he has been scarcely
less loyal to ROOSEVELT.
But he was quoted the other day as say-
ing that the President’'ssuppoit of TAFT lor
the Republican nomination for President
would impair rather than promote the
chances of that ponderous figure in the
contest. In others words, he inferentially
declared that President ROOSEVELT'S sup-
port of a candidate would be inimical to
his chances of success. Some years ago a
supporter of another candidate for that of-
fice, of another political faith, said he
“loved him for the enemies he had made.”
The only interpretation of which Mr. DAL-
ZELL'S statement is susceptible, is that he
bates TAFT because of one friend he has ac-
quired. It would bardly be possible to
imagine a more unfriendly expression.
We are not able to coincide with Mr.
DALZELL in his opinion on this particalar
point, however. It has been intimated
somewhat frequently, of late, that Judge
TAFT does not share the tariff views of Mr.
DALzeLL and that because of his opposite
opinion the President favors him. That, of
course, would explain the changed attitude
of Mr. DALZELL toward the President bat
it wouldn’t, inthe least, corroborate his
statement that the President's friendship
for TAFT would isjore rather than help
him to the realization of his political ambi-
tion. There bas been a very decided change
in pablic sentiment with respect to the
tariff and possibly TAFT may be the
stronger because of DALZELL'S enmity.
A Satisfactory Agreement.
From the Pittsburg Post.
Some of the tariff standpatters and their
orgaus are bitterly denouncing the new
agreement made between our Government
and that of Germany, whereby a commer-
cial war between the two countries has for
the time been averted, They are venting
their wrath npon Secretary Root for enter-
ing into the agreement, but why they
should ignore his chief President Roosevelt,
without whose sanction he could not bave
acted, is not clear.
There is, however, nothing in the new
agreement which will be objectionable to
the majority of our citizens. It simply
provides for a method of valuing German
goods imported into the United States
somewhat different from that which has
heretofore been in vogue. The German
manufacturers and others sending goods to
the United States complained that our cus-
toms officials were unfair in their valuation
of the goods, upon which as a result the
duties were unduly enhanced. The new
agreement provides a method of valuation
acceptable to the German exporters, and at
the same time safeguards are provided
against undervaluations.
The tronble with the standpatters is that
they want to shat out all the foreign goods
they can by fair means or foul. Not con-
tent with having oatrageously high duties
imposed upon such goods, they object to
any method of costoms administration.
however fair, which will have the effect of
reducing the amount of duties paid below
the sums heretofore collected. Their indig-
nation is increased by the fact that it is not
necessary to have the agreement with Ger-
many prssed upon by the Senate, like an
ordinary treaty, as it only deals with mat-
ters of executive or administrative concern.
As the agreement promises to promote
more cordial commercial relations with
Germany and at the same time to reduce
the price to American consumers of numer-
ous articles, the people of this country will
generally be content with it.
Wages Delusion.
From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
“‘It looks a little queer to see arguments
for protection made on the ground that it
gives our laborers $304 57 a year. There
are 313 working days in a year, barring
holidays with pay, so that the wage 1s less
than un dollar a day. Now a farm laborer
at $20 a month and board gets $240 in
money, and the board would, even at a low
rate, bring the total up as high as that of
the cotton-mill operator. It is well known
that the farm laborer has no protection,
and it is hard to see how the cotton-mill
operator gets any benefit from it. Labor-
ers in many uo employments get
more than a dollar a day. Moreover, the
gavaess 9A cotton ills br ve
from countries. e ve
tarifl makes prices of commodities high—
and we know it does—why is there not a
tariff on imported lahor ? t is the logic
of protection to labor by a tariff, if itis to
be done at all, but the fact of it is thas it is
not intended to make labor high. The
men who make this argument in order to
labor support are the same men who
mport foreign labor to keep down the
rices they must pay to laborers at home.
y are the men who sell to customers in
America steel rails for $28 a ton, and sell
them abroad at $20 or $22, making a big
profit on an article which confessedly costs
about $16. The argument that protection
makes high wages is a ridiculous fallacy.
They have always been higher in America
than in Europe. But in Ea the highest
wages are pad in free-trade land, and
the countries where they are lowest have
the most rigid systems of protection.”
i Spawls from the Keystone.
| —Philip Kereh, of Bethlehem, while open-
ing oysters, found a large and perfectly
formed pearl, which is valued at $200.
| =—=Many Greene county farmers have been
| obliged to limit their farm work owing to the
| scarcity of help. Workmen demand $2 per
| day and board, and fixed hours for labor.
| —Thbe Josephine Furnace company has is-
| sued orders that the ground is to be prepared
for the erection of another blast furnace at
Josephine. It will be a duplicate of the one
now in operation there.
—The site of the South Fork dam is to be
covered, if all reports are to be credited, with
a mining town in the near future. This is
to be made possible by the operations to be
installed by the Maryland Coal company.
—Returning from the cemetery where she
had just directed a force of men who were
erecting a monument over the grave of her
husband, Mrs. Tilghman Blose of Slatington
was thrown from her carriage and instantly
killed at 7 o'clock Thursday evening.
—William Stock claims to be the champion
fox hunter of York county. Within the past
few weeks he killed twenty foxes and Satur~
day he was paid a bounty of 340 by the coun-
ty commissioners under the new law, which
provides fora bounty of $2 on each fox
killed in the State.
—Men representing themselves as agents
of the state dairy and food commission called
on many Monroe county farmers, saying
they had been sent to dehorn their cattle,
charging $1 for each animal. After it was
found out that they were imposters they
hastily fled from the county.
~The sixth annual meeting of the Penn-
tylvania State asscciation of Post Office
Clerks will be held in Willismsport next
Monday, June 3. Itis expected that about
one hundred delegates will be in attendance
when the roll is called at the opening session.
The headquarters will be at the Park hotel.
—Three of the natural gas wells at Carroll-
town have been connected with the piping
and as the fourth is soon to be attached itis
expected that the residents of that vicinity
will soon be enjoying the advantages of
natural gas. Thus far the quantity of gas
found has been small, butit issaid to be
growing stronger constantly.
—The shipment of strawberries over the
lines of the Pennsylvania railroad this year
promises to be very heavy. Approximately
250,000 quarts of strawberries were shipped
into Pittsburg district in one day last week.
It took 14 cars to hold these berries. A car
load is from 500 to 800 cases and each case
contains from 24 to 32 quarts.
—Elmer E. Wheeler, of Lewistown, track
walker on the main line of the Penusyivania
railroad at Lewistown Junction, was set
upon by thugs in a lonely spot in the local
freight yards at an early hour Saturday,
beaten, robbed and tied to the brake shaft of
a coal car on an east bound freight train and
left to liberate himself as best be could.
—Charles Philips, the press representative
of Walter L. Main’s show, is authority for
the statement that the wolf recently shot in
Scotch Valley, was one of the animals which
escaped at the time of the wreck of his ag-
gregation near Tyrone ten or twelve years
ago. Mr. Philips claims that he examined
the wolf and identified it by marks upon the
hide.
—David Merritt, of Johnstown, was elec
trocuted at Alexandria shortly before noon
on Sunday while assisting in the construction
of an electric power line from that place to
the plant of the Hydro-Eleetric plant, just
cast of there. Several others of a force of
linemen narrowly escaped a similar fate by
dropping the line of wires on which they
were working.
—~Mrs. Emma Edwards, of Shamokin,
while returning from a theatre on Thursday
night, was walking on the railroad track
when a locomotive came along unnoticed by
ber until it was to late to get out of the way.
She jumped towards the pilot and her feet
lodged firmly. She clung to the pilot until
the locomotive stopped, when she walked
away uninjured.
~On Saturday Lewis E. Starks and Mary
E. Starks, each 62 years old, made applica-
tion to the clerk of courts of Erie county for
a marriage license and the clerk’s necessary
inquiries disclosed the fact that the two had
been married early in life aud were divorced
April 25, 1883. After twenty-four years
estrangement they have concluded to try
married life again.
—Frank Dopely, a well to do cooper of
Braddock, has just received the startling
news that the woman whom he thought was
his wife is not his wife; that she is the wife
of his best friend, John Duncan. The wom-
an has confessed that such 1s the case, she
having been married to Duncan when but a
girl in short skirts, afterwards deserting him
but never securing a divorce.
—A. L. Burns, of Orbisonia, and John
Meddling, of McKendre, are the champion
fishermen in that locality. They caughta
74 pound carp in the Forge dam on Monday,
Tuesday an 8} pound carp, and on Wednes-
day a carp that weighed twenty pounds. It
measured two feet ten inches in length and
twenty-two inches around the girth, and it
bad a tail ten inches broad. This monster
carp contained four pounds and ten ounces of
eggs.
—George Boehmer, an eccentric German,
disappeared from his bome at DuBois last
October. Diligent search was made for him
at the time, but no traces could be found of
the missing man. On Thursday a man named
Wallace, who was passing through the woods
at what is known as Iselin Heights, near Du-
Bois, was attracted by his dog barking.
Going to where the animal was he discovered
what proved later to be the body of the mis.
sing German lying in a depression made by
the uprooting of a tree.
—J. L. Curtis, engineer at the Juniata Hy-
dro-Electric plant at Warriors Ridge, near
Huntingdon, made a narrow escape from
death the other day at the dam which forms
part of the plant. He had crossed the river
in a boat and was in theact of landing on
the south side, when instead of stepping
upon firm ground, he stepped upon a bed of
quicksand. He sank into this almost to his
waist and was unable to extricate himself.
Fortunately some people passing saw the
plight he was in and came to his rescue and
got him out,
a