8Y PP. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings,
~The sun shines nowadays almost as if
be were ashamed to show his face.
—Up to thie time the Queen of the May
basn’t had a chance to wear anything but
a bathing suit.
~—Let us bope that there will he sun-
shine for the dedication of the new athletic
field at State today.
—How about those flannels ? Youn must
be sticking to them because they certainly
haven’s stuck to you yet.
—Whatever may be the condition of
other industries the rain-makers bave cer-
tainly been losing little time of late.
—Mayor MAGEE, of Pittsburg, evidently
thinks so much of himself that be thinks
very little of she men who elected him.
~The pompadour style of bair dressing
is said to be coming in again for men. How
nice for them that have any hair to pomp.
~While the fishermen are necessarily
discomfited by the excessive rains and high
water the fish have just that much longer
reprieve from she frying pan.
~There were no CARNEGIE medals or
oash prizes for the heroes of the tariff tink-
ering tribe. The donor told them where to
get off when be was in Washington.
—That no one has a drag with the stork
was demonstrated in Holland where they
were all praying that he would bring a boy
for the Queen, but he brought a girl.
—Mr. CasTRO, Mr. ABDUL HAMID and
a certain Mr. ASTOR, once heard of, mighs
buy No-Man’s Land and there find a con-
genial asylam for their peculiar needs.
~—Unless there comes a very marked
change soon all this talk of a corner in ice
during the summer won’t freeze the public
fast to much of that American Ice Securi-
ties stock.
—Strange that the anti-vivisectionists
have never gotten onto the fact that it takes
the skins of one hundred thousand animals
to cover the Oxford bibles that are publish-
ed every year.
—Anyway the fellow who was operated
on and doesn’t know yet whether his was
a genuine case of appendicitis or profes.
sional curiosity knows how much it cost
him to find out what he doesn’s know.
~The extremes of May weather have
certainly been attained in record time. On
Sanday the mountain tops in Centre coun-
ty were covered with snow. Yesterday
thermometers registered 86° in the shade.
—The farmers who have their oats in the
ground wish they bad it in the bags and
those who have it in the bags wish they
bad it in the ground ; so there ie the old
and eternal question of dissatisfaction
again,
—A Portugese ncbleman was out in the
wrist in a duel with swords on Monday.
The other nobleman’s honor was satisfied
just as well as if he bad actually slapped
him or kisked him on the ankle. Ob,
fudge.
—Former secretary of Commerce and
Labor OscAR 8. STRAUSE, has been ap-
pointed Ambassador to Tarkey. In view
of the doings in the Sultan’s realm of late
Mr. STRAUSE might be forgiven for fearing
that this commission is his passport to
Heaven,
—Governor STUART has eigned the new
game law the most important feature of
which relates to the rights of a fisherman.
Henoeforth a fish warden cac~ot drag the
weary pisoatorialist from the .anks of his
favorite stream merely on suspicion that he
has fractured the law. The warden ntust
be a witness of an illegal catch before he
oan make an arrest.
—1It is a mooted question as to whether
inoreased postoffice receipts is an indica.
tion of reviving prosperity. Scch an in-
crease could very easily be caused by the
extra number of duns it is necessary to send
out now in order to collect bills, or by the
strenuous efforts some of the mail order
honses are putting forth to inveigle the
public into buying their wares.
—The continued efforts of our very amia-
ble President to attach a portion of the Solid
South to the Republican! band wagon
wouldn’t be quite so exasperating to we
Democrats who bave to look to the ‘Solid
South?’ as about the only real comfort we
know, if he would only devote some of his
blandishments to Senator ALDRICH and
charm that gentleman into thinking that
the Chicagolplattorm really meant it when
it pledged a revision of the tariff down-
ward.
—In one hundred letters written to Dr.
VAUGHN, pastor of the Iastitutional
oharoh, Chicago, by bachelors of his con-
gregation, every one of them said they pre-
ferred ‘‘an old fashioned girl” for a wile ;
“not a College graduate, nor a club woman
nor a reformer.” While this may be re-
garded as a straw ahowing which way the
wind blows it can hardly be deemed ground
for prophesying that there will be a falling
off in the enrollment at women’s colleges
next September.
—There was a time when the Koreans
skinned the Japs and used their hides for
drum heads ; then they probably beat
the —I out of them. The Japs who escaped
amused themselves by cutting off Korean
ears and carrying them home to be buried
beside their shrines. They were horrible
times to be sare, but how much worse were
they than that practice of the deposed Sal-
Joey Thun Sua who put boiling hot ag Sa.
arm pits of those he wished to torture
kept them there until the viotim lost
reason.
“EF
a 51
The Sugar Trust Restitution.
The Sugar trust has made restitation to
the government iv some measure. That is
to say it has paid into the treasury a sum a
trifle in excess of $2,000,000, being the
amount of which it defrauded the govern-
ment in uandervaluation of goods imported.
It resinted the payment ae long as possible.
It held out until every penny of the
amount claimed was proved. The govern-
ment was cheated of ten times that amount.
The practice had been going on for years
and was reduced to a system. The officials
of the trust had paid liberally to the mis-
creants who perpetrated the crime. Bat in
the legal proceedings for recovery they in-
voked every legal trick and technical de-
vioe to obsoure the facts and cloud the is-
sue. Bat frauds to the amount of the sum
paid were revealed.
These criminal operations were as de-
liberate as those of any burglar, traiu rob-
ber or pirate. They bad been carefully
planned and nicely executed. Soales had
been altered to suit the purpose. Men had
been employed to perform the work. Noth-
ing could be farther removed from acci-
dent or error. The scheme carefully thought
out, was to put money in the treasury of
the trust that it might be divided among,
not the stockholders but the officials. It
wasn’t ap expedient to satiate hunger or
relieve distress, It was simply aod es-
sentially a fraud to make money as a bank
burglary is an adventure to loot the vaults.
The transaction was instinot with tarpi-
tade. There isn’t a redeeming feature in
the whole affair. Is was simply and solely
atrocious oriminality.
After the exposure had been made com-
plete, when the evidence had olearly
shown tbat so much property bad been
smuggled in to the country by underweight,
the officers of the Sagar trust offered to re-
imburse the government for the exaot
amount, There is a tradition that when
Davy CROCKET got his gun sighted on a
‘coon it came down. His aim was so ac-
oarate that pulling the trigger meant inev-
itable death and the animal instivot in.
fluenced the quarry to surrender. The
same impulee of self-preservation moved
the officers of the Sugar truss to offer res-
titution and it was accepted. But il the
criminals had been poor no such thing
would have happened. In that event the
foroes of the oriminal courte would have
been brought to bear on them and terms in
prison would bavelbeen the penalty.
—
The School Code.
If the text of the School code were the
only thing to consider there could be no
doubt as to the duty of the Governor to
approve it. The measure is fanity beyond
question and as it was introduced was
iniquitous, It would have taken all
control of the echools ont of the
hand of the local authorities and
lodged it in a machine at Harrisburg
as infamoans as it would have been insati-
ate. Bat a good many of these evils were
eliminated from the measure during its
consideration in the General Assembly, and
in its present form it is a great improve-
ment over the existing laws on the subject,
which are conflicting and confusing.
But even if the measure were perfect it
ought not to receive the sanction of the
Governor. No measure ever ought to be
allowed to go into the statutes of the State
with such a record as the School code has
acquired. In the zeal of the machine to
pass it every vital principle expressed in
the organic law of the State was violated.
The laws were perverted and the rales of
both House and Senate prostituted in
order to get that measure through the Leg-
islature. The approval of the bill would
imply the sanction by the Governor of this
unspeakable iniquity and the Governor is
under. the chligation of an oath to ‘‘sap-
port, obey and defend’ the constitution.
It law and order are to endure in this
country these infamous practices must
cease. It isn’t the EMMA GOLDMANS or
the other foul-mouthed advocates of vice
and crime that are spreading anarchy in
this country. Their preachments and
pestilential practices might go on among
themselves for ever and the morals of the
public would not be affected. But when
men chosen to make the laws violate every
principle of morality in order to subserve
some sinister interest, the germ of anarchy
is being spread in a soil that is ready and
rich for its propagation. The assassination
of a President of the United States is not
balf as great a orime against the govern-
ment as passing a law in the way that the
School code was jammed through the Leg-
islatare,
——Governor Stuart last Saturday signed
the bill introduced in the Legislature by
Representative J. C. Meyer, of this place,
and which was subsequently passed, ex-
tending the time for the payment of taxes
in order to get the five per cent. off one
month, or to the firsts of November instead
of the first of Ootober as under the present
law. The law, however, does not go into
effect until January 1st, 1910.
——Subsoribe for the WaAToHMAN.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., MAY 7, 1909.
Senator Stober for Sate Treasurer.
Upon reasonably authentic information
a statement has been published that Sena-
tor PENROSE has slated former State Sena-
tor J. A. STOBER, ol Lancaster, for the of-
fice of State Treasurer. This seems to us
incredible. It is not characteristic of PEN-
ROSE. Since the late Senator QUAY turn-
ed down Justice ELKIN, who aspired to be
the Republican candidate for Governor, for
the reason that no majority is big enough
to carry such a record throagh a campaign,
it has been the policy of the Republican
machine managers to nominate candidates
who could make some claim to political
morality and personal qualifications. The
only departare from this tnle occurred in
1905 with disastrous results to the party.
PENROSE has adhered to the policy more
closely than QUAY.
The nomination of J. A. SToBER would
simply be casting cantion to the dogs and
inviting an irrepressible coufliot with every
element of decency. STOBER is the per-
sonification of political servility. He serv-
ed two terms in the House of Representa-
tives at Harrisburg and two io the State
Senate and during all that time he showed
no eign of independent action or giving a
thought to the interests of the people. As
a matter ol fact it may be doubted if he
ever formulated a thought on any subject.
He voted for every measure of legiclation
initiated by the machine and against every
proposition which bad the support or sym-
pathy of the better element of his own
party or the assistance of the Democrats,
Senator PENROSE'S policies in political
management were expressed in the nomi-
nation of EDWIN 8. STUART, in 1906, for
Governor, and in the selection of JoHX O.
SHEATZ for State Treasurer a year later.
If a man of the J. Leg PLUMMER type had
been taken in either case the party would
have been overwhelmingly defeated. Thor-
oughly understanding this PENROSE se-
leoted candidates in whose behall an ap-
peal could be made to the conscience of the
public and at the same time could be de-
pended upon by him. Ib both cases the
aconracy of his estimate has been proved.
STUART has served him as well as Mo-
NicHOL or DURHAM could and his nomi.
pation saved tbe party. It is not likely
that he will depart from this wise course
by the nomination of A. J. STOBER for
State Treasarer.
Roosevelt Again Rebuked.
The Sapreme court decision, banded
down on Monday, affirming the constita-
tionality of the ‘Commodity Clause’ of
the HEPBURN law and declaring its inade-
quacy for the purpose for which it was en-
aoted, is simply a rebuke from the high-
est authority to the hysteria of ROOSEVELT
administration. ROOSEVELT pretended to
aim at a regulation of the trusts but was
playing to the galleries as other dema-
gogues do, while he was studiously pro-
moting the interests of the Repnblican ma-
chine. He could have had legislation on
the subject efficient and effective, but he
undertook to fool the people and serve the
machine at the same time. 3
No public office has ever heen maladmin-
istered as ROOSEVELT betrayed the office
of President of the United States, within
the history of the conntry. Selfish, absurd
and opinionated, be undertook to subvert
the constitution and pervert the high office
which he attained through the act of an
assassin. Appealing to passion rather than
reason he forced legislation that was ill-
conceived, ill-considered and mischievous.
Under the false pretense of fighting the
trusts he conserved the interests of the
trusts by compelling Congress to enact
laws which were invalid. In this, as in
everything else with which he bad to do,
he was insincere and hypocritical.
RoosevELT made abundant work for the
courts but achieved nothing that was of
advantage to the people. The opinion of
the Supreme court in the case in point is
the final settlement, adversely, of his claim
to personal and official integrity. If he bad
kept his meddling fingers out of the affair
legislation would have been enacted that
might have checked the abuses of corpora-
tions. Senator BAILEY and Senator TILL-
MAN had practically compelled such legis-
lation. But ROOSEVELT intervened and
by commerce, corrupt or otherwise, with
the men he was dencuncing as criminals,
he secured the passage of the imbecile and
invalid HEPBURN law and saved the trusts
all trouble.
~——Notwithstanding the bard times
stocks continue to soar higher and higher
with apparently no top. Wheat, also, bas
taken another jump since its decline of ten
days ago and is almost up to its high mark.
What influence is behind the market's un-
usual strength is a mystery to the average
dealer, and a bugbear to the ‘‘shorts.””
~—Trout fishermen have not been much
in evidence the past week on account of
the high and muddy water which rendered
angling for the speckled beauties more of
a farce than an enjoyable sport. But all
fishermen are simply waiting for better
weather and olearer water when they will
again be out in full force.
Auntomobilists to Organize.
A call bas been issued for a meeting of
the automobilists of Bellefonte, in the
arbitration room in the cours house tomor-
row (Saturday) evening at 8 o'clock for
the purpose of organizing an automobile
association in this place.
While to the average antomobilist the
object of such organizat.on may appear in-
significant, is is, in fact, one of great im-
portance, especially as this time. While
primarily the purpose is for protection in
their rights as automobile owners and driv-
ers and in using their inflaence in pushing
along the good roads caase, there is in-
finitely more than that in it at the present
time, if the proper energy is put forth, and
this should be a reason for every man who
owns a machine to take an active part in
the organization.
The last Legislature passed the Phila-
delphia to Pittsburg state highway bill and
appropriated five million dollars to cover
the expenses of work upon it during the
next two years. As this was the pet meas-
ure of Governor Stuart there is no doubt
but that be will sign the bill, it he bas not
already done so. The bill provides that
the road must run through Harrisburg and
its western route from the State capital to
Pittsburg is still undetermined aud will
very likely depend largely on the influence
that can be brought to bear upon the com-
mission appointed to have charge of the
huildivg of the road by local orgavizations
along the most plansible routes.
From Harrisburg the most natural ronte
would be up the Juniata valley as far as
Lewistown and from there the road oconld
be diverted three different ways, the short:
est of whioh would be across the Seven
mountains into Centre county and, if nos to
Bellefonte, by way of State College and
through the Barrens and Warriorsmark val.
ley to Tyrone and theuce to Altoona and
on west, This would place Bellefonte
within practical close proximity, an ad-
vantage that can readily be appreciated.
But to get the road this way will re.
quire considerable hard work as well as
strong influence and it is here where a good
automobile association can do a tremendous
amount of good if they go abont it in the
right way. But there must be no half-
heartedness in the matter, and that is the
big reason why all the antomobilists in
Centre county should join the organization
and pash the work along.
Stuart's Veto Message.
Governor STUART is using the veto ax
with a good deal of freedom anda consider:
able measure of intelligence. Since the
adjournment of the Legislature he bae
vetoed several bills that were passed dar-
ing the closing hours of the vesgion withous
reason or consideration. Possibly there
was an agreement to dispose of them in
that way for STUART bas more courage shan
discretion. In any event it is well that
they are vetoed for most of them are vi.
cions. It is gratilying, moreover, that
good reasons are given for the action. The
‘Governor's messages are well written, force-
‘| fal and satisfying.
For example in stating bis objections to
the act ‘‘?0 protect forestry preserves,’’ the
Governor says, ‘‘by this act it is attempted
to deprive a defendant of his constitutional
right to appeal npon cause shown.” That
indicates a deference to the fundamental
law of the State which bas been absent in
recent years. Governor PENNYPACKER
paid no attention to the constitution. His
absurd caprices were the fundamental laws
in his administration. I: is refreshing,
therefore, and encouraging to find a Gov-
ernor seriously referring to the constitution.
It indicates a return to legitimate methods
in administration.
His other vetoes are equally well sup-
ported. But they relate to bills involving
legal problems and the hand of the Astor-
ney General is plainly seen in them. Of
course the political machine has little, if
any, interests in such legislation and Gen-
eral Topp is more a lawyer than politician.
Still if the Governor gets into the veto
habit he may enlarge the scope of his
aotivities in that direction and kill some of
the vicious political bills. At least we
shall hope thas it is true until the contrary
is shown if it isrevealed at all. The ma.
chine is confident, however.
~The storm of last week must have
had the effect of driving birds out of sheir
favorite haunts. Last Friday and Saturday
quite a number of wild ducks were seen in
certain portions of Centre county and a few
settled down on Spring oreek right within
the borough limits of Bellefonte. Down at
the fair grounds a large loon was captured
on Friday and on Saturday a big bald eagle
was shot near Spring Mills. On Tuesday
’Squire H. Laird Curtin caught a bird down
near Curtin and up to this time there has
not been a single person who saw it orni-
thologist enough to tell what it is. At
present it is on exhibition in a cage in
Kuisely’s cigar store.
~The continued wet weather of the
past week bas had a dampening and re-
tarding effect on all farm work.
O10;
An Untaifilied Threat,
From the Johastown Democrat,
The isthmian canal commission bas jast
awarded cotracts for supplies ting
$1,000,000. These sn include arti-
oles of steel, iron, brass, bronze and copper.
Apparently the old threat of buying these
in the open market was not renewed. It
will be remembered shat Mr. Roosevels
and Mr. Taft two or three years ago were
in open rebellion against trust extortion
aud it was given out flat that uolees
American Crs modified their bold-up
Uncle Sam would canal supplies
wherever shey conld be had the
This in itself was a dead give-away of oar
blessed tariff system and it gave a distinos
shook to the stand
way they fixed is ap with President Roose-
velt and his war secretary. Little of any
material was purchased except in the
Dingley cornered American market. Yet
the government authorities had declared in
an official statement that purchases could
be made abroad at prices ranging from 20
to 40 per cent. lower than those demanded
by tbe home producers.
Millions are being poured into the Pana-
ma canal project. Evormous itares
are required for supplies avd all of these
could be bought abroad on far better terms
than are offered in this closed market. Of
oourse it may be that the ment bas
some und ing with the
American manufacturers. It is possible
that they have agreed to sell to Uncle Sam
in Panama on the same basis they would
sell to John Bull or Don Quixote or Johnny
Crepaud. Bat if this is she case it is a se.
cret between Uncle Sam and the manafao-
turers. Neither party to the deal has
taken she people into ita confidence. As
far as generally known Uncle Bam is pay-
ing fall trust Prices for all he bays, nos-
withstanding his threat to save from a
quarter to half on his requirements by par-
chasing in a free market.
Poor Independents!
From the Pittsburg Post.
If it were not for the fact that the Sen-
ate finance committee has heretofore taken
seriously such demands, the plead! Penn-
sylvania tobacco producers for a tariff on
the Philippine product would be cause onl
for derision. The absurdity of seeking bei
concesrions and supporting the appeal with
statistics proving the unassailable position
of the tobacco and cigar industry in this
State borders on the ludicrous.
The Payve bill proposed to admit free of
doty from the Philippines 3,000,000 pounds
of filler tobacco, 300,000 pounds of wrap
tobacco and 150,000,000 cigars I
Senator Aldrich obligingly out the first
named figure in ball. And now ‘eome the
entrenched tobacconists placidly, BOT.
rowlally, asserting that such competition
would ruin their business, and b
their lachrymose pleadings with the state-
ment thas in Lancaster county, this State,
alone, 800,000,000 cigars were manufactur
ed in 1906, and that 2,000,000,000 are made
every year within the limits of the Key-
stone State. Could anything be more
inane ?
‘We must be protected from the trust,’
these unfortuanates exclaim. ‘‘Save us ;
oh, save us !"”” From what? Why, impor-
taticns that wonld not be a flea-bite on the
total tobacco production of a single State.
It is the same old cry. Independent oil
producers must be saved from the trust
which would import a comparatively few
gallous of oil from Mexico. Independent
steel manufacturers will fail it yon dimin-
ish the duties even by a smali fraction. Is
is the same all down the line. And it is
very, very sad.
A Critical Week for the Aldrich Bill.
From the New York Evening Post.
This week’s debate and voting in the
Senate may easily be critical. The game
of the high-tariff intriguers is to secure
enough votes to Dass their bill very much as
it is, on the plea that the measure will be
altered for the beter in conference between
the two Houses. It is even said that the
President bas been urged to say nothing at
present about the bad features of the Sen-
ate bill, in the hope that the conference
will insist upon a really honest revision of
the tariff. Bat we hope that neither he
nor any tariff-reform Senator is oredulouns
enough to be taken in by this. If Aldrich
can get his bill through, on whatever pre-
tenses, without serious opposition, he will
lead the Senate couferees to an unyielding
battle with those from the House. The
time to attack and check him is before the
bill gets out of the Senate. Hence we wel-
come the statement that a dozen or so of
revisionist Republican Senators from the
West are to take the floor to expose and
denounce the kind of tricky revision which
Aldrich has devised. Only by meeting
him openly and resolutely, and by refusing
to vote for those exorbitant duties which
he would levy in defiance of party pledges
and of all decency, can the 3 of the
Ways and Means Committee of the House
be held up, aod the way made ready for
the emerging from conference of a tariff
bill such as the country was promised, and
strongly desires.
Stober or Berry.
From the Lancaster Intelligencer.
The quoted declaration of ex-Speaker
McClain that ex-Senator Jobn A. Stober
will have the united support of Lancaster
county Republicans for the Republican
nomination for State Treasurer means, of
course, that Mr. Stober will have the sup-
port of the well oiled and powerful Lanoas-
ter machine, but what else does it mean ?
It should mean an immediate,
whole-souled demand from all good citi.
zens for the re-election of ex-State Treas-
urer Berry.
It is explained that Mr. Stober is now to
be thrust forward to placate Lancaster
county, bus the better part of Lancaster
county should decline to be placated in
just that way. A man who has just ‘‘gone
along” with the machine will bardly ap-
1 to the local pride of even the average
L county Republican.
. As for the Democrats, Shey could hardly
seleot an opponent who would offer better
raed So ram oe i
But in some
Spawis from the Keystone.
—With liabilities of nearly $200,000 and
assets of probably half that amount, the
Breon Lumber company, of Williamsport,
has been thrown iuto bankruptcy and John
Coleman appointed receiver. Mr. Coleman
will at once assume charge.
— At least a hundred homeopathic physi.
cians, including some of the most prominent
medical men in the country, are expected to
attend the annual convention of the Inter-
national Hahnemanuian society, which will
be held in Pittsburg June 16, 17 and 18,
~The Bellevue Methodist Episcopal
church, Pittsburg, celebrated the centennial
of its organization last Sunday by raising
$600 a minute for thirty minutes, or $18,000
at the morning service, to pay its debt. Am
additional $2,000 was raised in the evening.
—Representative McClain, of Lancaster,
has asked Governor Stuart to appoint Dr.
Fmma Purnall, of Lancaster, to member-
ship in the State Osteopathic Examining
Board on the ground that a majority of the
practicing osteopaths of the State are wom-
en.
—Abandoning the dairy feature of his
farm, Adam Smale, living near Pottstown,
last fall purchased twenty-six steers, averag-
ing 491 pounds, and by good feeding he has
brought them up to an average of 1,500
pounds and will dispose of them at a good
profit.
—The Isbor unions of Pennsylvania are
after the official scalp of John C. Delaney.
chief factory inspector. They are flooding
Governor Stuart with letters requesting him
to apvoint some one closer to the working
people of Pennsylvania tban the present in-
cumbent.
~The State police have been called from
Panxsutawney to Centreville, Elk county,
to enforce the quarantine against scarlet fe-
ver and measles, which are epidemic among
the pupils of the public schools. Over 100
cases have been reported to the State health
department.
—The Williams Grove Fire Brick Co.,
practically owned by David Atherton and
Joseph Barnes, of Philipsburg, bas been
awarded the contract for furnishing one half
of the brick to be used this summer in pav-
ing streets at Conemaugh. Their share will
probably be about 450,000 brick.
~The three Italians who were arrested
and placed in the Clearfield jail in connec-
tion with the stabbing of Conductor Orin
Maguire during a disturbance on a C. & C.
Street Railway car at Hawk Run on the
night of April 12th have been liberated by
Judge Smith on $300 bail each on a habeas
corpus hearing.
—Perry Myers, a clerk in the Lebanon
postoffice, has been arrested by the postal
anthorities on the charge of purloining mail.
Meyers is reported to have formed the habits
of stealing the lunch of a fellow employee.
A close watch was put on him and he was
detected taking a package of second class
mail containing several pairs of stockings.
—John G. 8. Walker, of Alexandria, Hunt-
ingdon county, was on Monday presented
with a Carnegie bronze hero medal and $1,-
000, the money to be used in restoring his
health. Walker saved the life of Miss Claire
McCauley, of Philadelphia, who had fallen
ng | into the forebay containing three turbines at
the Nilson electric plant, at Alexandria, on
September 27th, 1908,
—At a meeting of the Altoona Methodist
Episcopal ministers held Tuesday afternoon
in the parlors of the Eighth Avenue church,
July 20th was was selected as the date for
the next ieunion to be held at Lakemont
Park. The committee on program, composed
of District Superintendent B. C. Conner and
the officers of the meeting, was given plen-
ary powers in the selection of speakers and
the other features of the exercises,
~The dairy and food division collected
$3,243.92 in fines and license fees during
April. The new law prohibiting the water.
ing of milk contributed $261.34, eleven deal-
ers having been caught serving diluted milk
to their customers. One milk dealer was
convicted of using preservatives in milk and
was fined $50. Oleo licenses contributed
$568,71, four cases of adulterated vinegar
$200 and twenty-one oleo fines $2,165 87.
—~Two hundred miners were thrown into a
panic, seven of them being seriously injured,
by a blinding flash and a deafening roar, fol-
lowing an explosion of powder, 2,000 feet
under ground, in the Arona mine of the
Keystone Coal Co., at Arona, Westmoreland
county, Tuesday morning. Two hours later
the injured were in the Westmoreland hos.
pital at Greensburg. Black powder it is
said, was being smuggled into the mine to be
used instead of fulminate, and it is believed
the explosion was caused by an electric
spark from the trolley falling into the can of
powder.
—Great excitement was cauzed at Punxsu*
tawney on Sunday by the announcement
that drillers who are sinking a well on the
Brown Brothers’ farm, about a quarter of a
mile northeast of Big Run, had struck a 100-
barrel oil well. That there is something big
in the report is something big in the report
is evident from the number and calibre of
practical oil men who drifted into Big Run
Monday forenoon and from the further fact
that notices have been posted up all about
the derrick warning people to keep off the
premises. The land is leased by a company
of Big Run and New Bethlehem men, in.
cluding G. E. Davis, I. Davis and D. L.
Smyers, of Big Run, and Knight & Co., of
New Bethlehem. The company has leased
about 8.000 acres.
~The mine fire which broke out in the
lowest level at North Mahanoy colliery four
weeks ago was declared Sunday by the offi.
cials to be under control. Robbed of air and
flooded with millions of gallous of water, the
fire is dying out. Sanday, for the first time,
workingmen were able to penetrate breast
No. 18 from adjoining chambers. The dam-
age wrought by the flames is terrific. Solid
pillars of coal, 30 fect thick, were easy prey
and are crumbling together with much of
the top. These workings are now under
water, which has risen to a height of 110
feet, and will be continued until it reaches
200 feet. A former official of the Reading,
familiar with mine fires, said Monday that
the blaze will cost the company $150,000.
The colliery will not work for a month, but
adjoining operations will resume in a few