He's shot a mighty Rhino
Aud a dainty, sleek gazelle
The way our Teddy's shootin’ things
Certainly does heat—-bein’ President.
~The first time that Senator ALDRICH
has been brought So realize that be is liv-
ing in a glass house while building bis
tariff bill was on Tuesday when Senator
Root began to throw stones.
—~WaLTER WELLMAN bas sailed for
Norway to prepare for another air ship at-
temps to reach the North pole. The pics
thing about these north pole expeditions
is that we always have the pole left.
—It “Bwana Twomho" ROOSEVELT and
KERMIT bave killed balf the wild animale
the newspapers have given them oredit
with is merely confirms the WATCHMAN'S
ofttime declaration of his bloodshirsti-
ness.
—The white frost of Wednesday morn-
ing probably didn’s do much damage to
vegetation hus it certainly must bave
been consoling to the gardener who hes
been late in setting out his tomato
plants.
—Such a tiokes for the State Demooracy
as VANCE McCormick, C. LARUE MuN-
sox and J. C. MEYER, would make up,
would pot only be beauntifal to look upon
but very honorable and eminently fitted to
vote for.
—The Hon. Vasce McCormick, of
Harrisbarg, would make a splendid nomi-
nee for Auditor Gemeral. His selection
would be a moss bappy ove; not only be-
cause of his peculiar fitness bat as well be
cause of his eminent integrity.
—Philadelphia is baying another spasm
of righteous indigoation agaioet machine
methods in thas city. No cause for alarm,
however, the malady will be over before
November, in time for everyone to vote
right on all machine measures.
—Governor STUART has swung the veto
ax again to good effect and six proposed
pew judgeships have died a bornin. As
long as Governor STUART shows a disposi-
tion to kill new offices he will be rendering
a great service to the Commonwealth.
—The BoyLes will come to she conclu-
sion that possible they could have earned
ten thousand dollars had they let the kid-
napping business alove and spent the bal-
ance of their lives in honest pursuit in-
stead of being behind the penitentiary
bars.
~Mr. Boye will spend his life in the
penitentiary ; at the least Mrs. BoyLe will
put in fifteen years in the same place.
Thus is the proper notice served on cthers
who would steal children shat their time
might be better ocoupied in more legiti-
mate lines.
—The suggestion that Mr. ROOSEVELT
bea candidate for Mayor of New York
might ultimately lead to an invitation to
Mr. BRYaN toattend a TAMMANY ban-
quet. It TEDDY should go alter New
York city TAMMANY would need a band
of “‘spielers’’ sure enough.
—A purely amateur baseball league with
Bellefonte, Lock Haven, Jersey Shore and
Renovo in it would be fine. Let there be
no salaries for anyone and the players con-
fined to the towns represented and there
wili be olean baseball, an abundance of
sport and enthusiasm, win or lose.
—Governor STUART last week signed
the bill increasing the marriage license fee
from fifty cents to one dollar and now the
girls who failed to land a man at the old
price will have to put up a pretty stiff
bluff to make the right man believe itis
wortli three times thirty cents an then some
for the privilege of marrying them.
—The name of Hon J. C. MEYER bas
been under consideration as a possible
nominee of his party for State Treasurer.
Such an honor would be very worthily be-
stowed by the party and, who can tell, Mr.
MEYER might be elected, should the Re-
publican machine insist on its present
policy of cramming a most objectionable
sioket down the throats of the party in this
State.
—After the apple season the town of
Zoar, Ohio, is to bave free cider for every-
one. The town cistern is to be filled with
it and all any passerby will need todo is
work she pump handle and slake his thirst.
Zoar is in a local option county and while
it may seem a long time to wait to the
boozologiste of that place, we'll bet the an-
neaogement of the plan bad some relresh-
ing effect on them.
—It seems to ue that the reading of such
acts of charity as characterized she life of
Myre. CHRISTOPHER MAGEE, sinoe the death
of her husband, would make some people
——not a million miles away from this
town——{eel like wakening up to realize
that unless they provide some sortof a
memorial for themselves soon the coming
generation won't even recognize the name
when they cbance to see it varved ona
marble slab up in the Union cemetery.
—Dr. Victor C. VAUGHN, of Ann Arbor,
Michigan, in an address before the asso-
ciation of American physicians at Washing-
ton, on Tuesday, said the ‘‘mind cure is a
dogma without scientific su "” and
that its application to the treatment of
diseases ‘‘has led $0 conscious or unocon-
scious charlatanism.’” He used a lot of
other big words and what he says might be
convincing even to the mind ocarists if is
were not for the fact that they promptly
make up their mind that Dr. Vavanw,
doesn’t know what he is talking about so
there is no argument to is.
VOL. 54
cation.
The United States, the most advanced
government in the world is probably the
most backward in the matter of public
highways. For centuries Eoglish, French
aod Italian roads have been so fine that if
we were $0 have the most ordinary one of
them here we would regard it as some
splendid boulevard. Even in India the
roads are maintained at such a standard of
perfection that one main highway travers
ing a distance of over twelve hundred
miles is forty to sixty feet in width aod so
constantly looked after that never a stone
nor particle of litter is to be seen on it by
a traveler.
While such perfection is neither neces-
sary nor possible in this country we can
have roads approaching those of Eugland
and France and there is uo reason why we
should not have them. But before we can
hope to ges them the American public must
be educated. The idea of being satisfied
with what we bave must be dissipated and
our system of road building must be
chaoged.
While the WATCRMAN ie not prepared at
this time to make suggestions as to a better
system than we have now it is our hope to
set people thinking on this matter. Be-
cause we have confidence enough in Amer-
ican brains and determination to believe
that once aroused they csv outstrip the
world in road making as readily as they
have in every other great movement.
Strange to say moss of the opposition or
indifference to good roads is to be found in
the rural distriots, the very places where
one would suppose the condition to be the
reverse. Some of it is engendered by the
old fogy notions that road making must be
done juss the same as it was filty years ago,
some by pare ignorance, some by fear that
good roads will require more taxes and
some by petty jealcusies over the sucoess-
ful work of a supervisor. And another
unwarranted notion we bave heard ad-
vanced is thas the people in ‘‘the rural dis-
sriots are nos building fine roads for auto.
mobiles.”” While it is true that aantomo-
biles afford much more pleasure on good
roads it is equally true that an satomobile
oan be run over roads, and make good time,
that a farm team can scarcely ges through ;
#0 thas good roads are not absolutely es-
sential to automobiles.
Good roads are essential to economy.
They save time for the travelers, they save
repairs on vehioles, they save horse-aboe-
ing, they save horses and they save taxes.
There is no denying the fact that a good road
once bail is cheaper to maintain than the
temporary kind we are accustomed to
throwing up in the springland baving
washed away in the fall. The day was
when the farmer with plenty of sone or
other belp could take a few days off and
work out his road taxes without missing it.
Bat in these days of higher education the
sons are not lingering on the farms like
they once did and other help ean scarcely
be bad at any price; so thas the average
farmer who makes a study of the matter
will find that the actual time he bas spent
working out his road tax bas cost him
more in sacrifice of farm work than it
would bave done had he paid bis tax in
cash.
We know that few of them will coincide
with this view of it, yet we are certain
that only a few years more will bring most
of them to understand its truth. And here
is where the campaign of edueation must
begin.
We venture that enough work—if its
equivalent in cash bad been expended in
proper and permanent road improvement—
has been wasted in every township in Ceu-
tre county to bave built such roads ae
would be dorable for an hundred years to
come. And we venture that had euch
roads been built originally the road taxes
of today would not be more than one quas-
ter of what they are.
If a spoke breaks in a wagon wheel, if a
spring ora tire breaks, you don’s wait
until the wagon collapses before baving it
fixed. No, you have the repairs made at
once; knowing that it is cheaper than bauy-
ing a new wagon. Therefor why isn’s the
same polioy applicable as to keeping up the
roads. A very few dollars a year will keep
many miles of country roads in splendid
repair yet it requires many hundreds of
dollars to build a very few miles of new
road.
The whole question is an interesting one
and we trust that the public will become
aroused to the alarming rate at which they
throw away money for something that they
do not take care ol.
There Should be a Campaign of Edu- | Senator Crow
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA, MAY 14, 1909.
and the Auditor General~
ship.
If it is trae, as indicated in the political
gossip of the leading newspapers, that
State Senator WiLLiaym E. Crow, of Fay-
ete county, is disinclined to accept the Re-
publican nomination for Auditor General,
tor whiob be bas been slated by Sevator
PENROSE, it is not for the reason that be
sbjures himself for the benefis of his neigh,
bor, she rioh and liberal Mr. THOMPSON-
No doubt Senator Crow is exceedingly
friendly toward Mr. THOMPSON. It is very
certain Mr. THOMPSON is kindly disposed
toward Senator CROW or else the Senator
would be in she enjoyment of the pleasures
of private life at this blessed moment. No-
body gets office in Fayette county without
the consent and co-operation of Mr. THOMP-
SON. Besides owning most of the coal land
in she sounty he has a controlling influence
with the baoks and if he doesn’t like any
candidate for any office he simply buys
votes enough to elect the other fellow.
Besides the story that Mr. CROW is in-
olined to decline the tender of Senator
PEXROSE'S favor in order to promote the
sucoess of Mr. THOMPSON'S awbition to be
Governor, is absurd. The election of CROW
or any other friend and servitor of THOMP-
SON'S this year wouldn’s impair THOMP-
SON'S chances for the nomination and elec
sion next year. On the contrary it would
be the greatest help to Mr. THOMPSON.
The importance of the office of Auditor
General is not fully appreciated by the
average citizen. The incombent of is is
invested with vast power. He practically
assevses the taxes on all the corporations of
the State and if so inclined can make a
difference of half a million or so on the
taxes of each of half a dozen corporations.
With Mr. Crow in the office, therefore,
and invested with that power, it is easy to
see how be might enliss influences in bebalf
of the nomination of Mr. THoMPSON for
Governor that simply couldn’s be ignor-
ed.
It Senator CROW declines the favor which
Senator PENROSE is inclined to bestow
opou him, therefore, it is not with the pur-
pose of leaving the field open for Mr.
THOMPSON next year, as the gossip indi-
cates. There is a vastly more personal
and pertinent reason for the coyness whioh
Senator CROW is manifesting in relation to
the master. Political conditions in this
State, this year, are very much like they
were in 1905, when an attempt to present
the Philadelphia gas works to some ma-
chive favorites developed a political revolu-
tion. The machine has just succeeded in
selling the people of she city to the electrio
railway organization and il doesn’t bring
on another political revolution which will
defeat the Republican State ticket, the
signs are misleading. You don’t have to
tamble a brick house on Senator CROW to
ges him to take a hint and if he declines
the nomination it will be on bis own ao-
count and not in the interest of THOMP-
SON.
Governor Stuart's Wise Veto.
It would be clearly unjust to Governor
STUART to withhold from him a fall meas-
ure of praise for his veto of all bills passed
by the Legislature during its recent session,
creating new courts and inreasing the num-
ber of Judges in the State. There were
several bills of that sors. It isa favorite
method of the machine for rewarding sinis-
ter service and a few imagined that the
Governor would assume the responsibility
of disappointing the bosses. Bat he did
#0 most effectively. He struck down every
one of them and there will be weeping and
wailing among the expectants of the com-
missions.
We can imagine nothing less needed
than additional judges in Pennsylvania.
There are already so many of them that
balf the number are threatened with dry
rot because they have insufficient work so
keep their brains actively employed. But
bills were passed creating a new court with
three judges in Allegheny county, provid-
ing for an additioval judge in Cambria
county and another in Erie county. The
only exouse for another judge in Cambria
county is that the sitting judge is a Demo-
orat. The excuse in Erie county was that
there is a political favorite there who needs
employment and money.
It is to be hoped thas this will put an
end to the strife on the part of the machine
for new judges. There are already ome
hundred common pleas judges and sixteen
judges of Orphans’ courts. Half this num-
ber could perform the judicial service bet-
ter than the whole because the lesser num-
ber wonid feel that they ought to work.
But the machine imagined that it could im-
pose this additional burden upon the pub-
lioand increase the political patronage.
But Governor STUART has disappointed
them. He vetoed every bill of the kind
that was lefs to him and the public ought
to show its appreciatian-of the service.
eee]
—The fact that the distinguished hunter
in Africa is reported as baving captured a
“What is-it’’ should not be regarded as
~The warm weather, rain and sun-
shine of the past week bave bronght ont
the foliage on the trees until the woods are
quite green, while the grain and grass are
both looking remarkably thrifty. So far
the gardens have not gotten the right kind
of a start, owing no doubt to the weather
staying cool so long, but with a continued
warm spell it will not be long until those
who are fortunate enough to have a gar-
den will be eating their own onions and
such like. meaning that be hae shot himself.
What Roosevelt Would Have Done.
The difference between the recent and
present administrations of the government
at Washington is shown in she special mes-
sage of President Tarr to Congress on
Monday last. The subject of the message
was Porto Rico. There bas been a dispute
between the legislative and the executive
departments of the government of that “in.
sular possession,” il we may use that
phrase. The execntive department under-
took, after the fashion recently in vogue in
this country, to coerce the legislative
branch, whereupon the legislative branch
adjourned without having first made ap-
prooriations for the maintenance of the ex-
ecutive bravch. The President of the
United States wants Congress, under an-
thority conveyed by the FORAKER aot, to
make provision for the expenses of the gov-
ernment of Porto Rico out of the public
treasury.
The difference hetween President Tarr
and Colonel RoosEvELT iu the treatment
of such a condition is that TAFT asks Con-
gress to give him authority to act while
RoosgvELT would have proceeded to aot
without authority. As President Tarr
states in his special message, the govern-
ment of the island must bave money to
keep its machinery in motion. If the fuve-
tions of government are not fulfilled, an-
archy becomes inevitable. In other words
the government of the mob is the necessary
consequence of the failuie of government
by authority. Bat government by author-
ity muss have the eancsiou of law. There
is no advantage in government by authori
ty if it isnot according to law, Usarped
aathority is only a bad {orm of lawlessness
aod is absolutely certain to develop into
anarchy. If RooseveELT bad bad another
term of office anarchy would have followed
certainly.
President TAFT is faondamentally wrong,
however, in bis statement that the people
of Porto Rico were given their liberty too
soon. No individaal and no nation comes
into their beritage of liberty too early.
The idea thas men are unfis for self-govern-
ment at certain stages i
towdrd higher oivilization is absolutely.ab-
surd. Even in the darkest periods of bar-
barism there were governments which
maintained order and preserved some meas-
ure of discipline. The tribal governments
of the Indians of this country were reason
ably just and not far from efficient. Bat
ROOSEVELT would bave taken precisely
the same view of the subject adopted by
TAPT and he would bave dispatched war-
ships loaded with marines and soldiers to
compel obedience, not to the law, bat to
the foolish caprices of the man with a big
stiok and a heart for slaughter.
That New State Highway.
The WATCHMAN devotes considerable
space this week to automobile news and it
bas been done cheerfully because we be-
lieve the automobile probably more than
any other thing has been a leading factor
in the prevailing and ever growing senti-
ment in favor of good roade. And we also
firmly believe that the day will come, and
before many years, when every well regu-
lated farm will have as its pleasure vehicle
au automobile instead of the prevailing
horses and carriage. Aud therefore far-
mers and others throughout the country
should feel just as great an interest in the
good roads movement as present owners of
automobiles.
For this reason a united effort should be
made to bring all the influence poseible to
bave the route of the proposed state high-
way from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, pro-
vision for which was made in a bill passed
by the last Legislature, laid out through
Centre county. This is an object the Belle-
fonte motor club should seek to attain.
Bat to do it will mean an active organiza-
tion aud a lot of hard work. You cannot
merely organize and then hold perfunctory
meetings every month or so. You will
have to barmonize all your forces to one
end, the securing of the state highway
through Centre county.
While the route suggested by Governor
STUART runs through the southern sier of
counties, it is hardly likely it will be se
lected as is would not be of any benefit to
three-fourths of the State i! so located.
The only logical route is one that will ran
as near through the central section of the
State as possible. This would mean west
through either the Snsquebanna or Juni-
have to come through Centre county ; if
the latter it ought to come by way of the
Seven mountaine and through the south-
wes portion of the county on the way to
Tyrone and the western section. These
are facts that cavnot be geaineaid by any
who have taken the trouble to stady
the matter. And upon this basis every
man in Centre county who wants the state
highway to pass through these parts should
do everything possible to attain that end.
———An interesting track and field meet
will be held at State College tomorrow
when the strong Swarthmore team will be
ata valleys. If the former route it would |
Robbilag the Poor.
From the San Francisco Star.
By puttiog a high teriff on foreign stock-
ings, she American manufacturers have
been given she power to
a fair price for their
*“infaos industry’ has
come ouve of the big family
tected trusts. Bus the
ty workers bave heen cut
regardless of the
workers are among the poorest
ow
than
ask for still more on, whi
enable them to obarge still higher prices to
the American onnsnmers. .
Under the Di law the meanunfactar-
ers’ license to loos he poriets of the con-
samer ia hroad and wide enough in all con-
science ; hat they demand more, Yet see
how careful the stooking manufacturers
are not to offend the wealthy, how carelal
they are to place the heaviest burden on
the poor, who are least able to bear any
burden at all. Stockings that cost seventy
cents a dozen abroad muss pay under the
Payne bill 115 per cent. tariff tax.
is on $10 worth of
the tariff tax would
oreign
Payne bill
present Ding
that is,
g
bill only $5.50, or 50 cents less tha
as m as the Payne
worth of stocki worn by
olass ! And that is the rule of pu
lican tariff laws—the tax is always higher
on the articles worn by the poor.
The matter with the home made, or
American, protected stocking is thas the
tariff tax enables the manufacturer to hold
up the consumer. The matter with the
protective tariff system is that is enables
the manufacturer to ous down the wages of
the employees on one hand, while contrib-
uting campaign fands for the election to
of such agents of loot as Sereno
Payoe and Joe Cannon.
Peolttical Cowardice.
From the Piutsburg Post.
Everything now points to the probahi li
thas President Tats lntends to or
with his . party leaders in the master of
tariff revision. Even the more progressiv
members of bis party in the Seuate,
poudents now quote 88 enterta
the belief that shey will have to be satisfi
with the very sli :
Republican leaders apparently make
bones of the fact that they do not intend
to redeem party pledges. There is not
even to he a transparens effort to salve the
people who last fall put a Republican ad-
ministration in office with the understand-
ing that the consumer's burdens wonld be
lightened. The depth of the ential
promise bas been sounded, and it is in-
creasingly apparent that it was not need-
fal to probe far before the bottom was
reached.
It is this which has made the Aldrich
crowd so brazenly defiant and a t,
ani which bas led them to cast expediency
to the four winde. They seem to sense the
fact that the President is behind them, no
matter what infamous thev may
resort to in the name of the G. 0. P. The
President is making a poor stars. One
term will be his limit if be pursues this
blind partisan policy.
—————————
Governor Stuart Scotches a Snake.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Among the jobs quietly sneaked through
the Legislature at its late session was a bill
roviding for the annual inspection of all
lers generating steam to the pressare of
ten pounds or more, outside of cities of she
first and 200A Slants by a casualty com-
y “‘or bya competent person approved
by toe Chief Factory Inspeotor.”’ As the
Harrishurg Patriot points ous, the object
of this beautiful scheme was to provide
for some bappy nachinist not responsible
to the State a berth worth a kings ransom.
On steam locomotives alone, of which there
are upward of 15,000 in the State the fees
at a minimum of $5 per inspection would
bave amounted to over $75,000 a year—
and there was no limitation set upon the
fee that the ‘‘competens person’ selected
by Factory Delaney might
have charged !
Governor Stuart has won the gratitude of
the intended victims of this enterprise of
plunder by pointing out the iniquity of the
bill and killing it with his veto. Penpsyl-
vania’s eyes were open to the gross abuses
of the fee system at the time nf the expos
ure of the insurance scandal under the Dur-
bam administration of the Insurance Com-
missionership. This boiler inspeotion
would bave ount-Darhamed Durbam.
will not be without hope that an
eontive who bas such a keen eye for
legislative snakes will nos relax his .
lance until the obooxious Sohool Code bill
shall have been properly disposed of.
Poor Old Philadelphia,
From the Scramento Bee.
The Philadelphia Rapid Transit com-
pany, which en a virtual movopoly of
street oar traffic in that city, is to discon.
tinue the sale of six tickets for 25 cents,
and to make all fares uniformly 5
cents. It also weans to disccntinue or
limit present transfer privileges.
Spawls from the Keystone.
—Oune of the features of a recent Lancaster
dinner, served to a number of the intimate
friends of Hon. W. U. Hensel, was a gigantic
rock fish that weighed seventy-two pounds.
—Eggs don't teem to be particularly scarce
in the eastern counties. One huckster near
Philadelphia collécted 1,400 dozen during
one trip,a single farmer selling him seventy-
two dozen.
—~For the first time in its history the Na.
tional Tube company plant, at McKeesport,
was closed last Sunday and the 1,200 em-
ployes were permitted to enjoy the Sabbath
with their families.
—A uang of postoffice robbers is operating
ia Clarion county. The postoffices at Sligo
and Rimmersburg were looted. Three hun-
dred dollars were secured at the Sligo post.
office and a small amount at Rimmersburg.
—Samuel Slusser, wife and five children,
left Mouut Holly Springs, Cumberland coun-
ty, Wednesday morning for the State of
Colorado. They bave a pusheart and army
tent and will travel the entire distance om
foot.
—Houn. George M. Dimeling, of Clearfield,
sud Hon. J. C. Meyer, of Bellefonte, are
among the number recommended to Dr.
Nathan Shaffer, as State trustees of the Lock
Haven State Normal school. Dr. Schaffer
will select three of the six gentleman named.
—Harry Spritzer, of Windber, the other
day paid $600 for four earrings which he
supposed were genuine diamonds but which
proved to be paste. The men who worked
the scheme on him were arrested but were
given their liberty on refunding the money
and paying the costs.
—From twenty-four acres put to cofn last
year by Levi Gann, of near Antes Fort, was
harvested 4,000 bushels of ears. Three of the
acres of especially fertile soil produced 636
bushels. Mr. Gann intends to put out twen-
ty acres this year and is aiming to produce
250 bushels to the acre,
—Ned Galoney, of near Sand Beach, Dau-
phin county, is the owner of a cow that beats
the record as a calf producer. The animal is
only 5 years old, and in that time has given
birth to eight calves. Four consecutive times
she has given birth to twin calves, a circum-
stance very rare in the annals of calfology.
~The people of New Castle are again
mildly excited over the possibility that the
mystery of the murder of Treasurer Blavins,
in 1899, is on the eve of solution. Daniel
Wilder, now an inmate of the western peni-
tentiary, is accused by one Barnes, who isin
the Venango county jail, of having been the
principal in the crime.
—While engaged in preparing for a sale of
his household furniture after bis wife's
death, st Windsor, York county, Henry
Emenbeiser suddenly discovered himself the
nails, fourteen carpet tacke, several pins,
three pieces of glass, a lot of oate, several
graing of corn and tome clover seed.
—Dairy and Food Commissioner James
Foust on Monday directed that fifty-eight
prosecutions be entered against violators of
the new law prohibiting the sale of adulterat~
ed soft drinks in Beaver, Fayette, Washing-
ton and Westmoreland counties ; also four-
teen watered milk prosecutions in Blair,
Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Huntingdon
and Mifflin counties ; seven misbranded lard
cases in Allegheny county, snd nine cider
vinegar cases in Fayette county. This made
a total of eighty eight prosecutions ordered
that day.
~The new filter plant of the Pottstown
Water company is now ready for operation:
It has been tested and found to be in work-
ing order, and the plant will be iu regular
operation next week. There are six filter
beds containing gravel and sand, and their
capacity is 4,000,000 gallons per day. Fach
of two new Worthington pumps installed at
the water works hes a capacity of 5,000,000
gallons per day. Only one of these pumps
will be operated at a time, the other being
held as reserve. There isa reservoir in the
south end of the filter building structare
with a capacity of 1,000,000 gallons.
—Imprisoned by a fall of top rock for
thirty-six hours, Thomas Buseavage and John
Master, winers, employed at the Morea
colliery, were rescued uninjured late Sanday
night by the big force of workmen who had
been engaged in the dangerous task of saving
them. The men wire imprisoned for ten
hours before their condition became known,
and shortly after the work of digging them
out was commenced tapping was heard from
the inside, indicating that at least one of the
men was alive. They saved themselves from
being crushed to death by improvised props
made out of their picks and shovels.
—A forest fire which started last Thurs,
day afternoon on the farm of Dr. H. G.
Longdorf, near Centreville, Cumberland
county, is beyond control. The burned
area mow comprises six square miles, and
damage estimated at $500,000 has already
been dome. The forse of fire fighters num-
bers 125 and this will be increased. Timber
on 5000 acres has been consumed, and even
the roots killed by the heat. The fire is the
most extensive and costliest in the Cumber~
land valley since 1872. It is reported that
the fire was started by men out of work who
are anxious to collect the 20 cents per hour
allowed fire fighters.
—John Fossman, a Lycoming rural mail
carrier, narrowly escaped drowning last Sat-
urday morning. The bridge over White Deer
creek was covered with water when he
reached it but after examining it Mr, Foss.
been
And yet this ion bas in
the past obtain corrupt oity
government, free of charge, franchises
worth millions of dollars. It will be re-
membered that some years ago when a
very valuable franchise was about to be
ven away by the local law-making body,
ohn Wanamaker cffered to pay a large
sum for it, and deposited a certi
for the amount in evidence of his good
faith. But the city government ignored
his offer, aod brazenly ed to do-
nate the franchise to the corporation -
ing it. The inference was plaia that brib.
man decided it was safe to cross the swollen
stream. When about in the middle of the
bridge one of the horses lost its footing, fell
and dragged his mate down. The swift cur-
rent floated the team and wagon down the
stream while their driver who had jumped
onto the bridge was safe. About 150 feet
down the creek the wagon caught against a
stump and held the nearly drowning horses
there. The good offices ‘of the telephone
were called upon and pretty soon nearby
farmers had come to the rescue and succeded
in saving the wagon and team, but most of
there to contest with the State athletes.
of the desired privilege. the mail was lost.
ery had been found cheaper than open
purchase