BY P. GRAY M
EEK.
Ink Slings,
jsn’t it. When a man is ron
down by a train it is all up with him.
—These are the kind of days that make
the plumber and the coa! man begin tosit
up and sake notice.
—Everybody and everything has been
knocking on the straw hat the past few
days. Even the equinox.
—Over three million pens being used
daily in she world there is little wonder
that the pen is mightier than the sword.
—What’s the use of worrying about the
weather. The Maker of it knows better
what is good for us than we do ourselves.
—Oune of Oklahoma's new Senators io
Congress is blind. It is just as well. He
will be spared the embarrassment of seeing
many ao unseemly
—It was ever thus. Just as the price of
meat goes soaring skyward another fool
doctor has to come along with the scare
that vegetarianism produces tuberculosis
and cancer.
—Otf course it doesn’t matter so much
about the corn, but it would be awfal if
real cold weather should set in before the
Athletios and Detroit get that base ball
race of theiis finished.
—Lebanon bas a new board of trade with
an ambition to increase she city’s popula-
tion ten thousand in the next three years.
The amount it has raised to settle with the
stork has not yet been announced.
—In theory Governor STUART is very
pretty but in practice we fear bis fellow
Republicans would never stand for the ex-
pulsion of all dishonest men from their
party. The residue would be too small.
—The man who always made a flourish
about tipping bis Palman porter has had
all the glory taken out of it. A new rule
of the State Health Department forbids
tke porters brushing the clothes of passen -
gers in the aisle of their car.
—SHEATZ has not accepted HARMAN'S
challenge to discuss the issues of the cam-
paigon from the same platform. He will
not do it either. SHEATZ is not capable of
it in the first place and he is afraid to de-
fend his side in the second.
—There ie just a dollar’s difference be-
tween right and wrong so far as constable
CHARLEY ECKENROTH sees it now. A
few days ago he got his official clatobes on
the wrong lady and she made him pay her
adollar before she would set him righs.
—Governor SWANSON, of Virginia, told
the bankers association at Atlantic City a
few truths on Wednesday that might not
have counded very plessant but they were
traths none the less. And down io their
hearts his auditors probably acknowledged
their truthfuliness,
—Certainly Philadelpbia should bave
boulevards for her wealthy residents to show
splendid equippages on. Her children
don’t need education. They might get
smart enough to know that people are get-
ting rich ir that city through means that
they might question.
—LupwiG CzszZYGIEL, a Polish priest,
was recently convicted of murder iu the
second degree for shooting two of his fellow
countrymen in a bar room brawl in Pitts.
burg ; but a man who has to go through
the world hearing the name of CZsZYGIEL
is hardly to blame for anythiog he may do.
~The Bethlehem servant girl who com-
mitted suicide on Wednesday because she
10st her job wouldn’t have bad such a sad
end had she lived in Bellefonte. Here she
would have found half a hundred eager
housekeepers waiting with open arms to
take ber in, give her the use of the best
rooms in the house, every afternoon and
evening cut and beaux every night in the
week.
—Some months ago state economic zoolo-
gist SURFACE was telling the gullible peo-
ple of the State that he could eat cabbage
worms without offending his gastronomical
propensities. Now hesays ‘‘when you bear
stories that people bave swallowed lizards
just put them down as moonshine.’’ Inas-
much as science has record of many lizards
bavingbeen removed from the human stom-
ach the public will be disposed to put Prof.
SURFACE down as ‘‘moonshine.”” And if it
does, it won’t need another guess.
—The Gazette evades the question we
put to it last week and tries to bolster up
ite weak attack on District Attorney RUN-
KLE by misconstruing our assertions. We
said then, and we say it again, that the
District Attorney is not a police officer and
it is not his duty to make arrests
or hunt criminals, If that is what
Col. CHAMBERS is after let him apply for a
job on the Unionville police force. That
being the most peaceful town in the county
he could probably make good there. Mean-
while the voters will re-elect District At-
torney RUNKLE because they want a law-
yer, not a blatherskite, in the office.
—People of Centre county who are just
now trying to get their taxes ‘paid realize
what an expensive luxury indifferent offi-
cials are. The last Board of County Com-
missioners having squandered all of she
surplus their Demooratio predecessors left
inthe treasury and plunged she county
head over heels in debt, it now becomes
the duty of another Democratic Board to
pay the bills and the only way that can be
done is by increased saxation. In other
words, every dollar of extra tax you are
paying nOW yOu can charge up to she ex-
periment of having elecied a Republican
Board of Commissioners five years ago,
Yo. 52
Still Playing the Farce.
Itis now announced that the capitol
grafters will be tried at a special session of
the Dauphin county court to be beld in
December. They are to be indicted at a
special session of the Grand Jury next
week, the story goes, and railroaded to the
penitentiary. This looks like business to
the very oredulous. Any man who can he
persuaded that the moon is made out of
green cheese would swallow this fiction at
agulp. Busto reasoning minds it will
appear different. Men endowed with that
sort of mental equipment are apt to think
that the petty cases on the court calendar
might have been set aside or dismissed in
order that such important cases conid be
disposed of promptly.
After a long period of delay warrants
were issaed against these ‘‘malefactors of
great wealth,” ten days ago. The fall
term of the Danphin county criminal court
began on Monday last. If there was suffi-
cient evidence to lodge the complaints on
September 17th, there ought have been
ample testimony to go to the Grand Jury a
week later. But if the oases bad been
presented to the Grand Jury on, say Sep-
tember 25th, there would have been no ex-
cuse for delaying the trial until after the
election. And there's she rab. The exi-
gencies of the machine require that the
trials of she culprits be held off until after
the election. Similarly the exigencies of
the machine require that criminal proceed-
ings be began before'the election. It is
necessary so make the public believe that a
trial and conviction is really contemplated.
The trath is that this whole affair}is an
absurd farce. There is no intention to try
or punish the treasury looters at all. The
machine can’t afford to prosecute and the
informations, arrests, indiotments and fix-
ing a special session for trial after the
election are equally fraudulens. If the
aathorities wanted to try the cases there is
ample time before the election. Suppose,
for example, that the Grand Jury begins
consideration of the oases next Tuesday,
October 1st, and makes its report on Satar-
day October 5th. A special session of
court heginning Monday October 17th,
would have ample time to try one or two
of the cases before election and bring out
the evidence inculpating those higher ap.
The voters could thus have been informed
in time that it is the system rather than
the individual that is responsible for the
corruption.
Bat that is precisely what that machine
doesn’t want. It hopes to make the public
believe that Mr. SHEATZ is personally hon
est and that necessarily, in the evens of his
election, being a man of integrity, he will
prevent looting and compel honesty in the
administration of the governments. Bat
admitting all that is claimed for SHEATZ
by his most partial friends, he is no more
honest than Auditor General WILLIAM P.
SNYDER who has been arrested for tolera-
ting the graft and GovernorS. W. PENNY-
PACKER, who ought to have been sent to
the penitentiary long ago. SHEATZ can’t
stop the graft any more than SNYDER or
PENNYPACKER could have done. Minority
representation in the boards ie the only
oure.
Roosevelt and Oklahoma.
The public is waiting with anusual in-
terest the President’s action in the matter
of the Oklahoma Statehood. Under the
constitution and the law be has no alger-
native other than to issue a proclamation
declaring the State a member of the United
States of America. The people have com-
plied with every requirement. They have
adopted a constitution, elected a Legisla-
ture and Governor and completed every
arrangement for assuming the dignity of
Statehood. There are apprehensions in the
public mind, however, that ROOSEVELT
will asarp the right to withhold his proc-
lamation. In other words it is feared that
the President will punish the people for
not doing what he wanted.
ROOSEVELT wanted the people of Okla-
homa to elect a Republican Governor, a
Republican Legislature which would choose
two Republican United States Senators and
five Republican Congressmen. Daring the
campaigo for the first election he sent Seo-
retary of War TAFT out there to threaten
that the territory would not be admitted to
Statehood unless it did those things. That
was a orime, of course, but ROOSEVELT
doesn’t mind that. But the people of
Oklahoma do and they resented the out-
rage by electing a Democratic Governor, a
Democratic Legislatare which will choose
two Democratic Senators to Congress and
four Democratic Congressmen out of the
five.
The constitution of Oklahoma is said to
be a model document. The population of
the pew State is greater than that of a
dozen older States, and the people are in-
telligent, progressive and patriotic. To
deny them the privilege of Statehood now
would be a most dastardly iniquity. But
ROOSEVELT is capable of perpetrating such
a thing. He pays no respect to law. Dis-
appointing him is a species of treason in
his estimation and he is so intense and un-
BELLEFONTE. TA:
reasoning a partisan that the Democratic
victory is likely to lead bim to that ex- |
tremity. Meantime the public waits with
what patience it can summon. Bat if the
crime is committed there will be a reckon.
ing in the fature.
The threatened disruption of the corrupt
Republican machine of Philadelphia bas
been averted for the present, according to
the newspapers of thas city, ‘‘for business
reasons.” Ever since she revolt of 1905
there has been trouble between DURHAM
and his friends oo one side and MeNICHOL
and his followers on the other. Each blam-
ed the other for the blunders which led to
the exposures and the trouble aud resented
the injury it caused. Recently the quarrel
has been threatening to take ona more
active form. In the settlement of the part-
nership business, it is claimed, MeNICHOL, |
who was the active partner and bad the
books, robbed DURHAM of a large sam of |
money. This incident occurred just be-
fore DURHAM went to Earope and it was
expected that upon his resarn there would
be something doing. i
DURHAM got back last week but no
hostilities have occurred. On the contrary |
it is reported that a peace has ‘‘been patab-
ed np.” The late partners have not re- |
newed the confidential relations which ex-
isted during the haloyon period of machine |
serenity. The affection which at one time |
bound them as hrothers is absent. But
the cohesive force of public plunder brings |
them together in what might be character-
ized as a temporary alliance, A certain
banker, according to an esteemed Philadel-
phia contemporary, has pointed out to
DuraAM and MeNICHOL ‘‘the great possi-
bility of making money and promoting
business interests if harmonions relations
shall be maintained,” and both the lions
are turped into lambs. Politics makes
strange bedfellows and cupidity leads to
curioas partnerships.
When the late Senator QuAy was in
power as the principal boss the DURHAMS
and MoNIicHOLS were content with the
spoils of the municipal government and
the graft from the state aditinistration
went to him. Now that QUAY is dead,
however, the Philadelphia looters covet the
state graft as well as that of the city. That
fact accounts for the nomination of SHEATZ
for State Treasurer and the ‘‘armistice’’ |
between the factions is as much to promote
the election of SHEATZ as to open up the
way for municipal contracts. Banker WoL¥
wants to get a grip on the treasury surpius
and the “‘farming’’ of the state deposits is
a large part of the ‘‘business interests’ to
whiob he referred. If the people are wise,
however, the expeotations of these ocon-
spirators will be disappointed by the eleo-
tion of JOHN G. HARMAN.
Owen Wister on Graft.
In the current number of Everybody's
Magazine OWEN WISTER, of Philadelphia
discusses the capitol graft scandal
with great force and frankness. Mr.
WISTER, a native of Pennsylvania, a
distinguished anthor and accomplished
diplomatist, qualified himself to write
on the eubject by attending nearly
all the sessions of the Investigating Com-
mission and listening attentively and in-
telligently to the testimony. He is not
given to what President ROOSEVELT ohar-
acterizes as muck-raking and there isa
tone of sadness in his parrative. But he
spares neither the system nor those who
practice it as he holds them up mercilessly
to popular execration.
Mr. WisTER reveals the rottenness in its
most repulsive form and lets a good deal
of light into the discussion. He digests
the evidence sufficiently to make a concise
but clear summary of the outrages per-
petrated and the amount of the graft drawn
from each particular fraud. Having
achieved that he proceeds to expose the
canse of the evils and in that he is as ao-
curate as he is scathing. ‘‘Pennsylvania
is to-day,” he declares, ‘‘a governmens of
knaves at the expense of fools,” and in ex-
plaining the complacency with which the
fools submit he adds ‘‘Pennsylvanians are
not self-respecting.’’ He goes farther than
LINCOLN STEFFENS who was content with
avathematizing Philadelphia as ‘‘corrups
and contented.”
Of course all this is traceable to the de-
moralizing influence of the tariff. Im.
mensely rich men get unearned bounties
and exploit their ill-got wealth to the envy
of others less favored. To continue their
graft they put dishonest men in office
who in turn loot the public wherever itis
possible. They, too, must put on a profli-
gate front and when salaries fail to meet
the expense they overcharge or prostitute
the fuavotions of their offices to make up
thie deficits. Mr. WISTER ascribes part of
the fanls to racial causes, for he declares
that men ‘‘could not be brought so low
unless they wanted to be low.”’ Bat itis
not a question of race. It is a matter of
habit.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. 2
SEPTEMBER 27,1007,
| tired by the people.
~—Subscribe for the WATCHMAN.
Pennsylvania Politics in the Lime-
light.
The resignation of W. E. CHANDLER, of
New Hampshire, from the chairmanship of
the Spanish Claims commission brings
onder the lime-light anotber of the QUAY | Plans
servitors in this State and the insincerity
of politics and politicians, generally speak-
ing. CHANDLER is one of those peculiar
men who bold old-fashioned notiovs of
official ethics. He has been in office for a
long time and enjoyed all kinde of oppor-
tunities. But he never got anything out
of the offices he has held except the sal-
aries and he is poor to-day. Helis inde-
pendent, just the same, and a couple of
years ago took his official life in his bands
by proving ROOSEVELT a liar.
Recently a vacancy occurred on the com-
mission of which he is the head and the
| machine politicians of Pennsylvania urged
she appointment of HARRY K. DAUGHER-
TY, of Mercer county. They owe something
$0 DAUGHERTY and probably wanted to
square accounts, When QUAY bad his hig
fight on for re-election DAUGHERTY was a
Representative in the Legislature. His
constituents were against QUAY but be
voted for the ‘‘old man’’ and all his meas-
ures. The result was that notwithstand-
ing his ability and cleverness he was re-
PENNYPACKER tried
to make him counsel for the Agricultural
Department but he was ineligible at the
time and ROOSEVELT made him counsel for
the government in the Spanish war claims
cases,
When it was proposed to appoint him
to a seat on the commision, Mr. CHANDLER
protested that it would be scandalous. He
bad been concerned as counsel in most of
the cases to be decided within a year, any-
way, aod the president of the hody thought
it would be improper to make him the
judge of thecases in which he was inter-
ested as lawyer. But ROOSEVELT took a
different view of the matter. He wanted
to help QUAY'S friend DAUGHERTY and
oblige DAUGHERTY'S friend PENROSE, and
what is propriety ‘‘among friends ?'"’ The
incident serves another purpose, however.
It shows that PENROSE is not against
VELT'S candidate for President
whether it be ROOSEVELT or TAFT.
Democratic Activity and Confidence.
The confidence and activity of the Dem-
ocratic leaders is revealed in the fact that
campaign headquariers have been opened
at the hotel Walton, Philadelphia, and
will be kept open until election day.
Chairman DIMELING and his capable and
energetio stafl of assistants will direct the
campaign from that point hereafter.
The outlook is most auspicious. Re-
ports from the various seotions of the State
are encouraging beyond expectations.
Demoorats who bave been indifferent here-
tofore are earnest and active now. ‘I'he
revelations of fraud in the construction
and furnishing of the State capitol has
awakened both the conscience and civio
pride of the people and they will assert
their resentment as the polls.
We sincerely hope that the Democrats of
Centre county will not he lethargio when
there is 80 much aotivity in every other
county in the State. Let us deserves
share in the honor of finally exterminating
the machine which has so long and merci-
lessly plondered the people. The election
of Hon. Jory G. HARMAN will achieve
that result.
“The Letter that Never Came.”
Machine Republican candidate SHEATZ
has not yet answered Mr. HARMAN’s ohal-
lenge to discuss the issues of the campaign
in joint debate. The challenge was issued
more than two weeks ago and the receipt
of it was acknowledged by telegraph two
weeks ago yesterday. Bat the promised
formal reply has not materialized as yet.
Probably State Chairman ANDREWS has
forbidden the fulfillment of the promise by
candidate SHEATZ. Declining such an
obviously fair proposition would be bad
and accepting it infinitely worse for PEN-
ROSE and ANDREWS’ interest isall in PEN-
ROSE. The defeat of PENROSE would put
ANDREWS out of a job and the gam shoe
statesman ‘‘needs the money.” |
Mr. HARMAN needn’s dispair, however.
Thie is not the only ‘letter that never
came.” Besides the people will answer
his proposition affirmatively and by a large
majority on election day. Minority rep-
resentation exposed the frauds in the capi-
tol construction and the people want it
continued.
ARE ey f
~—Col. Emanuel Noll attended a re-
union of the 131s¢ regiment Pennsylvania
volunteer infantry at Lewisburg last Fri.
day, at which over eighty old comrades
were present. Though they have lived so
close together as Bellefonte and Tyrone
Col. Noll, of this place, and Abraham Gun-
ter, of Tyrone, bad not mes since they laid
aside their arms at the close of the war
until at the reanion last Friday, and of
course, it was a warm greeting they had
for each other.
I —————
RRA
NO. 38.
Entangling Alliances,
From the Pittsburg Post.
Judge Parker's speech at Jamestown on
the new federalism is ao able analysis of
the causes of the present unrest,
aod a just arraignment of Roosevelt
for its relie! and cure. He shows
what is nuoguestionably true, that through
dealings with leaders aod bosses,
corporations bave enjoyed ors and im-
munity from law and administration. We
do not need a new constitution and new
IW bethe pd, gh ie fi
r n rst
offered to finance the war chest, or
whether the party leaders themselves in-
Aug uiaied Bog genteel an ot political fat
rying as expense of protected trusts
and indulged law-breaking corporations, is
at eee
to ve corrupt, de! on-
ship. Certain it is that many business in-
terests against which there ie now much
public hostility and suspicion. That we
have law enough for the lawless now is
shown ip the fact that the powers the
Federal Government is belatedly and with
good effect exercising have long been in its
band uvused.
Not until we have faithfully exhausted
every resource, not until we have tried to
secure that co-operation of Nation with
States that the constitution provides, not
until our politics has itself abjured and
broken off from the secret relations of
litical blackmail which it yet maintains
with tariff and trust oted monopoly
should this Roosevelt plea for new federal.
ism be given even a hearing hy us. [tis
the poor workman who finds fault with his
tools, and it is the shallow executive who
is always wanting more law to make up
for bis own limitations,
Pennaylvania ts in Ernest.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
There is good news from Harrisburg.
The long-delayed action against the men
accused of the big statehonse grafs has he-
gun. Governor Stuart has made good thos
far, and the Attorney General has appa:
ently not only got his nerve up to the
sticking poins, but has collected the neces-
sary evidence for the prosecution. Now
that the warrants have been issued for the
arrest of the alleged boodlers, there can be
no tarning back. Even Pennsylvania
may eventually be purged of its corruption,
and the regime of Quay and his parasitic
friends may be looked back to with horror,
through an atmosphere of clean politics,
The rol! of dishonor which now becomes
a part of the State’s criminal records is
such as to give satisfaction to. most
rabid political purist, Some that
wear public halos have escaped the lighs-
ning, but the list of the stricken is nota-
e. ... .
These ate the men who are held account-
able for the theft of at least $5,000,000 out
of the $9,000,000 spentin furnishing the
capitol, and a graft relatively uoimport-
ant in the erection of the building itself.
Such arrests bave been long expected. The
people of Pennsylvania and of the entire
country will eagerly await the trial. Every
honest American cannot but feel a deep
interest in the punishment of whatever
men are guilty of such crimes. The per-
patation of the most colossal graft in the
istory of the United States leaves no loop-
hole for sentiment. If these men are guilty
they are enemies of the Republic. The
Drincipley involved intimately touch every
tate and every community. The adequate
anishment of the guilty parties will lift a
urden from the conscience of the nation.
Lending Dignity to the Campaign,
From the Philadelphia Record.
Candidate John Oscar Sheatz is to be
heartily congratulated upon the acquisition
of an advocate whose logical treatment of
the issues involved in the State Treasurer-
ship fight, coupled with an incomparable
dignity of expression, will distinotly elevate
the tone of the campaign. ‘The Record’
refers, of course, to General Ss. Clair
Mulholland, who on Saturday night so eue-
cessfuliy refuted the charge that Mr.
Sheatz anything to do with the defeat
of the Cochran pension bill in the late
Legislatare. The sufficient answer of
General Mulholland to the anthors of this
allegation-—whoever they may be—is that
‘‘shey are guilty of an antrath, and I bave
no hesitation in saying that they are falsi-
fiers and damned liars.”
This sort of argument is invincible. It
will pramote the candidancy of Mr. Sheatz
as surely as will the equally temperate at-
tack of the speaker u the Democratic
Senator Cochran, who introduced the Pen-
sion bill in the Legislatare. It will de-
tract nothing from the strength of General
Mulholland ‘s dispassionate denunciation of
the ‘‘damned liars’ that he was not always
an Organization man—that he was, if mem-
ory serve us right, a Democrat under a
Democratic Federal Administration, and
became a Republican at about the time the
Republicans came into power, thereby re.
taining bis position as Pension Officer. It
suffices that he is a regular now ; that he
knows a falsifier and a ‘‘damned liar”
when he sees one, and that he isn’t afraid
to speak out, civil service rules to the con-
trary notwithstanding, when his mensured
utterances seem likely to be helpful ‘to the
axty from which he derives bis bread and
utter.
~The fall meeting of the Presbytery
of Huntingdon will be held in the church
at Spruce Creek next Tuesday and Wed-
nesday, the first session to be held at 11
o'clock Tuesday morning. At that meet.
ing commissioners will be chosen to repre-
sent the Preshytery in the Synod of Penn.
sylvania which will meet in Philadelphia
on October 17th.
——J. H. Robb, Hugh Crider and Louis
Daggett were a trio of Bellefonte gallants
who spent Wednesday night in Snow Shoe ;
attracted there by a party given by the
Misses Buddinger. Davoing, bridge and
splendid refreshments were the features of
the evening's entertainments.
the Mifflinburg Times, died at his home in
—George W. Foote, editor and publisher of
that place Wednesday night between 11 and
12 o'clock of paralysis, in the 67th year of
his age.
—I.C. Smutz, & wealthy business man of
New Haven, Fayette county, has been sued
for $50,000 damages for alleged breach of
yromise to marry, by Miss Mercedes Glad
den, davghter of a clergyman, of Youngs.
town, Ohio.
—Frank Adams, aged 19 years, who “e~
clares that three weeks ago he was forceé to
join the Biack Hand society at Watson, a
mining town near Punxsutawney, was cap-
tured ou Saturday night while attempting to
dynamite a bouse.
—While N. M. Zimmerman was drilling a
well on Isaac Weaver's farm, near Terre
Hill, Lancaster county, a few days ago, he
struck a vein of coal at a depth of forty feet.
It is believed the vein is too small to be of
any value, but an investigation will be
made.
—During the past year the Lancaster trol-
ley, telegraph, telephone and electric ligh
companies have been robbed of many hun-
dreds of pounds of copper wire. On Satur-
day John Reese and George Brenner, believ-
ed to have been leaders in the thefts, were
arrested. ‘
—Bequests of $1,500 to each of three Read-
ing hospitals, $500 to two churches and $500
to two charitable institutions, made by Mrs.
Kate Hawley, widow eof Jesse G. Hawley,
the millionaire publisher of the Reading
Eagle, are void because the testator had not
subscribing witnesses to the will.
—Four hundred workmen are now engag-
ed al Lancaster on the erection of the largest
linoleum plant in the world. When com -
pleted there will be twenty-two buildings,
from one to seven stories high, all built of
brick and having a roofage of six acres. The
cost of the plant will be $2,000,000.
—Just after shaving himself on Thursday,
Thomas White, of Jersey Shore, aged 70
years, shot himself in his room at the home
of bis son, Fred White, a New York Central
conductor. The ball entered his nostrils and
when found he was lying on the floor bleed.
ing profusely, with the pistol in his hand.
—Young Burns, of Clearfield, who was on
trial last week at Indiana for murder, was
acquitted by the jury late Wednesday night.
The commonwealth did not have a very
strong case, and it was proven that the frac.
ture of the skull that killed the man was
caused when he fell on the rail of the rail-
road.
~A sensation was created at Kittanning
on Friday night by the arrest of John Wick
Jr., on two charges of forgery, on complaint
of J. G. Valluer, of the Colonial Trust com-
pany, Pittsburg. The alleged forgeries are
notes amounting to $34,664.02 executed by
John Wick Jr., as president of the Ford Chi-
na company.
—While Irwin Bennett, an employee of C.
8S. Russell, of Clearfield, was chopping wood
last Wednesday, he accidentally almost en-
tirely cut off one of his flugers, as it was
only hanging on by the flesh. Believing the
finger would be of no further use to him, he
took the hatchet and cut it oft entirely, then
went to a physician to have it dressed.
~—Harry Enders, a farmer of Conewago
township, York county, who lives half a
mile from the public road, has rigged his
mail hox to an endless chain which carries
the box by gravity from the house to the
road. Whenever the rural carrier deposits
any mail in the box he gives a signal when
the box is pulled in, thus saving a long
tramp.
~The commissioners of Northumberland,
county are making a bond issue of $220,000 to
cover current expenses, floating indebtedness
and to pay forold bonds which are now due.
The reason for the issue is that on its stand.
ing debts the county is now paying 5to6
per cent, interest which is 1 to 2 per cent.
more than it would have to pay if the debts
were in bond form,
~—After forty years of separation as lovers,
Charles Noble and Mrs. Sallie Engle were
married at Pottsville on Sunday. They were
refused permission to marry in their youth
because their parents said they were too
young. Noble then went west and hearing
afterwards that his sweetheart was dead,
only to discover when he came back recent.
ly, that he had been misinformed, as she had
been married and was a widow,
—Superintendent of Public Instruction
Schaeffer has fixed Friday, October 18th, ss
autumn arbor day, and requests that all
schools observe the occasion by planting
trees in their yards, and by exercises de:
signed to impress upon young minds the val.
ue of trees, the importance of tree-planting,
and the best way to foster the growth of
trees and to protect them from noxious in-
sects and other enemies. This request should
appeax! especially to rural schools which are
not in session during either of the Arbor
days in the spring of the year,
—One of the biggest coal deals that has
been transacted in Somerset county since
the fields were opened was concluded last
week when D. B. Zimmerman, of Somerset
and some eastern capitalisis leased from the
Kennerly Coal company the latter's coal
tracts in Jenner and Conemaugh townships.
According to the terms of the lease the lands
will be operated on the royalty basis and the
purchasers aie given the right to buy the
property outright at the end of three or four
years for a figure in the neighborhood of
$780,000. There are about 3,000 acres in all,
~—Westmoreland county's $1,500,000 court
house is almost completed, but the date of
its occupancy is still a matter of doubt. The
huge pile of granite is without a heating ap-
paratus, and it is possible that it will stand
untenanted through the winter, When the
original plans were submitted to the court
for approval, they provided for a heating
plant in the sub-basement. The plans were
afterward changed, with the intention of
erecting a separate building for the heating
apparatus, but there is no ground owned by
the county on which to build the proposed
building and there is opposition to adding
more expense to the county to buy expen.
sive ground. The boilers are ready to be
placed but cannot be put in the basement
now without tearing out part of the wall, so
that the authorities are in quite a dilemma,
SRE