Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, July 23, 1909, Image 1

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    Dewooralit Waldo
_—
8Y PP. GRAY MEEK,
Ink Slings.
—Be a booster today and belp tbe ball
olab to victory.
—The President bas probably given AL.
DEICH and CANNON a PAYNE.
—The Democrats heat the Republicans
in a base ball game in Washington, so who
cares whether we ever beat them at the
election,
.—Mr. ROOSEVELT has stopped shooting
long enough to write a bock. It remains to
be seen whether be will prove hie pen
mightier than his gun.
—The lady who jumped into the ses at
Atlantic City becanse she thought she had
lost her God was manilestly going in the
wrong direction to find him.
—Everyone will agree that we bave a
very good ball team, but it isn’t quite good
enough to win games consistently. Possi-
bly it has only delayed striking a winning
gait.
—Au income tax always was and always
will be popular. Maiuly because it would
pot hit she fellows who are accustomed to
howling loudest about governmental af-
fairs.
—From the repartee in Congress on Mon.
day one can scarcely tell whether she Hon.
Jiuyuy BURKE, of Pittsbarg, shinke Penn.
gylvania to he ‘‘a great and pure State’ or
whether he does nos.
—The general deficiency bill carries an
appropriation of twenty-five thousand dol-
lars for the President's traveling expenses.
TAFT must he plaoniog another raid on
the southern pantries.
—The Atlanta Constitution remarks that
“‘trousers for women should not create such
a sensation.”” Sure, they shonldn’s. But
since so many of the people profess to be
from Miesou:i now-a days, Ah! There is
the rab.
—What if yoo area Repnblican? The
WATCHMAN'S politics won’s do you any
barm while its local news will give youn
more satisfaction and pleasure than that of
auy other paper in the county. Why don’t
yon subscribe for the WATCHMAN ?
—President TAFT bas a roof garden on
the White House now and the first fano-
tion there wasa dinner to the tariff ftinker-
ers. It was fitting that it should have|been
up in the air for there is where all official
Washington seems to he over the schedules
just now.
—The death of Lieut. Jaymes N. Sur.
TON, which occurred at Annapolis nearly
§wo years ago, is again being investigated
by a military hoard of inquiry. O! what
use is it? Army and Navy boards are a
good bit like they say doctors are : “‘They
bary their mistakes.”
—It cost the people $2,519,524,867 to
ran the government under the CLEVELAND
administration while the cost under the
ROOSEVELT regime was $4,627,355,383. It
is not probable that auy one will say that
ROOSEVELT gave the country twice as good
service as did CLEVELAND.
—The meeting of the Democratic State
Central committee in Harrishurg, on Wed-
nesday, was a very harmonious one and re-
salted in she re eleotion of Senator ARTHUR
G. DEWALT as state chairman, Harrisburg
was selected as the place for holding the
next state convention and August 4th the
date.
—Incidentally, the town’s daily paper
being a thing of the past tell your friends
Shat if they want a really good newspaper
the WATCHMAN is it. It always bas and
always will be a good, live newspaper and
is usually just about a week ahead of all
the rest with the things you wans to know
most.
—Whea it comes down toa variety of
weather the past two weeks bave done bet-
ter than anything we have in memory.
When the meroury falls from 94° to 40° in
less than three days the maa with the
mosquito netting underwear and skeleton
clothing has reason to think that he has
landed on an iceberg.
—S0 the new North ward school house
is to cost $35,601.13, the heating $8,850,
the foundations $11,000 and the demolition
of the old building $600, making a grand
total of $56,051.13. This is probably the
reason that the public was told as first that
the whole thing would cost $32,000, and
was nct taken into the confidence of the
Board until it found that it could not get
any more money to spend unless the pub.
lio voted is.
—EDWARD WESTON, the veteran pedes-
trian, started to walk from New York to
Ban Francisco in one hundred days ; an
average of thirty-seven milesa day. Un-
forseen obstacles prevented the fulfillment
of his contract as to time, but when it is
considered that he is seventy-one years old
and was caly five days late on arrival his
performance is a wonderful commentary on
the stioktoitiveness of the fellows who start
for chureb Sunday morning and give up
when they are ouly a few squares from
home. :
—Mr. FRANCIS J. HENEY, special coun.
sel for the Department of Justice, received
twenty-three thousand dollars from the
government last year for whioh he perform.
ed no service. His department cost sixty-
nine thousand dollars ; the balance having
been paid to other lawyers for conducting
the graft cases that HENEY draws a salary
to conduct. Either one of two conclusions
is inevitable. HENEY is incapable of do-
ing the Government's work or he is too
lazy. In either oase it looks like there
ought to be a job open for another man.
Misinte nreting a Statement.
grave a matter, to see how seriously some
of our contemporaries, and, according so
the Washington correspondents, some of
the statesmen take an incident which hap-
pened at the White House the other day.
It seems that some ultra tariff mongers in
Congress who want to secure the passage of
the ALDRICH bill called on the President
with she view of getting him to lend his
moral and official influence to their par.
pose. The Presidents took the matter asa
joke, obviously, and obaffed the gentle-
men, more or less, about their selfishness
and finally declared that the party pledges
require a revision of the tariff downward
and inasmuch as be is the titular bead of
the party, at least, he muet see that the
platlorm pledges are fulfilled. This decla-
ration, according to the correspondents,
created the greatest consternation among
the stand patsers and the most unlimited
enthusiasm among others.
There is nothing to fear on one side and
listle to rejoice over on the other, on ac-
count ol this incident. It doesn’t mean
that President TAFT will veto a bill revis-
ing the tariff upward, no matter bow rad-
ical is may he or whether ten or ninety
per cent. of the people favor or oppose it,
and equally certain it doesn’s meau thas
Senator ALDRICH will recede from his
high tariff position because the President is
on the other side of the subject. As a mat-
ter of fact it means simply that she Presi.
dent, who is nothing if not a poli
tician, proposes to please the so called pro-
greesives of his own party by professing to
be in accord with their views and gladden
the heart of the reactionaries by so acting
89 to guarantee the snccess of their plans.
In other words he hopes to ‘‘work both
ends against the middle,” and make him-
eell solid with his party whether one fao-
tion of the party or the other wins the bat.
tle.
It can be set down as a certainty, io any
event, that President TAFT will not veto
the ALDRICH bill whether concessions are
made to him or not. The cunning cbair-
man of the Senate committee on Finance
has got the President into the toils and in-
tends to keep bim there until the end.
He may coosens to a trifling decrease in
the tariff on iton ore, sorap iron and coal.
Sach a chauge in the schedule would
amount to absolutely nothing and it will
enable tae President to ‘save his face’ by
claiming shat there was at least a trifling
revision downward. But on all the im-
portant schedules, that is to say on all sub.
jects in whioh the trusts and predatory
monopolies are concerned, the tax will be
placed at the highest notoh and kept there.
The Steel trast, for example, doesn’s care
whether the tariff tax on iron ore is forty.
five cents a ton. Either levy is prohibi-
tive and that is all the stand. patters wan.
The Governor's Error.
While the question of anlawlally cutting
the appropriation bills was worrying the
Governor, a few weeks ago, the WATCH.
MAN freely and frankly advised against the
outrage and admonished the Governor that
there was no necessity for violating the
constitution and his oath of office by ocut-
ting appropriations other than such as the
fandamental law anshorized the veto. The
revenues, we poiuted out, supplemented
by the treasury surplus, would be amply
sufficient to meet all the appropriations
with the exception of a few whioh never
ought to have been enacted. There was
Do more occasion for violating the consti.
tution than there was for erippling the
charities.
That we were not mistaken in this con.
jeoture is proved by the statement issned
from the office of the Auditor General the
other day. ‘‘With total receipts of State
revenues for the seven and a-balf months of
the fiscal year whioh began December 1,
last, amounting to $15,968,141.71, credited
to the department at the close of business
for the week just ended, Auditor General
RoBERT K. YOUNG shows an excess in
total receipts over the same day in 1908 of
$2,537,306.75,” writes the correspondent
of one of our metropolitan contemporaries.
That ratio, which is more likely to be in-
creased than diminished, would raise the
total for the year to upwards of $25 000.-
000.00.
The Governor was frightened or beguil-
ed into cutting the “appropriations for
charities by the statement that unless he
did so there would be a revenue deficit and
treasury default before the year end. The
purpose of those who thus deceived him
waa to continue a vast treasury surplus
for the mse of political speculators and
bankers of easy conscience and well devel-
oped capidity. In cutting the appropria-
tions the Governor hae served this parpose
aud the only apparent recompense to him
will he the remorse of conscience which
must come to those who deliberately vio-
late their oaths of office and the laws they
are sworn to ‘support, obey and defend.”
— You miss a good thiog if you don’t
take the WarcaEMAN.
It wonld be amusing if it were not 00
| The State Capltel Grafiers,
On March 15th, 1908, three State officials,
! Dr. WiLLiam P. SNYDER, WiLuiam L.
MATHUES and JaMEs M. SHUMAKER, and
a contractor for furoishings for the State
capitol, were convicted, iu the Dauphin
coanty court, of conspiracy to defraud the
State. Just a year aud four months from
| the date of conviction the verdiot of the
trial cours was affirmed by she Saperior
court,and thas the conspirators are brought
within she shadow of the penitentiary. Bus
they are not behind the bars by any means,
as yet. They have the Supreme court, into
which according to the late Senator Quay,
judges bave been catapulted at intervals, to
| appeal to. That body may give them the
| immunity which the inferior courte have
!jostly and wisely denied. There is no
telling what a machine made tribunal
will do.
Bat it is difficult to see how the reason
ing of Judge PORTER, who banded down
the opinions for the court, can be evaded
or refuted. The strong point upon which
the defendans contractor depended was the
regularity of the measurements under
which he billed the eapplies to the State.
| Judge PORTER holds that the ‘‘per foot’
measurement was not ouly irregular and
unusual but adde that it is noteven ‘a
familiar term in the trade’ and bas not
heen recognized by law. His answer to
the main contention of the official defend-
ante is equally convincing and conclusive.
They held that inasmuch as the State had
employed av expert to pass upon the ques-
tion of values and decide upon the quality
of the supplies they were absolved of their
official obligations to examine the property
supplied while the court protests that it
only made the obligation more binding.
Of course there will be an appeal to the
Supreme court on bebalf of the surviving
conspirators, it being the opinion of emi-
nent lawyers that there can he no appeal
on behalf! of SANDERSON and MATHUES
who bave died since their conviotion. It
that be true there may be some hope of
restitution, in part, at leass, of the loot.
Bat it is not likely that either of those con-
vioted will be sent to prison. Even if the
Sapreme court should concur in the views
expressed by she courts below, there is the
pardon board to intervene. Is WHI be
remembered that in the case of WiLnram
H. KEMBLE, convicted of hribing Legisla-
tors in relation to the Pittsbarg rio claims,
the board of pardons recommended and the
Governor acted upon the recommeadation,
while the convict eat smoking a fragrant
Havana in the corrider of the Harrisburg
jail. The authorities are not likely to be
less leniens in the present instance.
Au Obvioms Conspiracy.
Oune of the most interesting develop-
ments in relation to the tariff question was
broaght ous the other day by a New York
contemporary. It appears that about the
time President TAFT was pledging his par-
ty to tariff revision downward, the wool
growers of the West and the manufactar-
ers of woolens in the East were in confer.
ence or conspiracy to prevent any change
in the tariff schedules relating to wool and
woolens. After reaching this determina-
tion the conspirators secured a ratification
agreement from the Republican Congress.
ional committee and joined in a generous
subsoription to the Republican campaign
fund.
It is worthy of notice that in both the
PAYNE and ALDRICH bills thers is practic-
al agreement upon the schedules on wool
and woolens. In other words, both Houses
of Congress have keps faith with she Re-
publican Congressional comittee and both
bave atterly and absolutely disregarded
the pledges of the presidential candidate.
Bat this fact bas had no influesce on the
presidential miod in the matter of tariff re-
vision downward. Wool is essentially a
raw material and the President bas taken
pains to assure the conference committee
that he is not absolutely committed so the
priveipal of free raw materials. The plain
inference ie that in his recent address to
the galleries he left that loop hole of es-
cape for the stand-patters and the Repabli-
can machine,
That the agreement was a conspiracy ad-
mits of no doubt. That it was a wlurpa-
tion of the powers of Congress is egnally
certain. Of conrse the Republican lead-
ers in Congress are culpable in the matter,
for no such scheme could be consummated
in the absence of their acquiescence. Bat
it clearly involves a sacrifice of the people
tothe capidity of the wool growers and
woolen manufacturers and that with the
advice aud consent of the managers of the
Republican party. It reveals, moreover,
the absolute servility of the Republican
party to the combinations and trusts which
are despoiling the country.
—=The wheat crop in Centre county bas
about all been out and housed, while a few
farmers have had some of their grain thresh.
ed. The bay crop has also been gathered in
and the next thing in line will be the oats
barvest. But it will bea week or more
before the oats will be ready to cunt, as the
season has heen late for them.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JULY 23, 1909.
The Democratic Siate Committee.
i
Trading on the Free List.
No Democratio State committee meeting From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
in recent years has revealed as mach hope
aod shown as full a measure of confidence
in tke political fatare as that which as-
sembled in Harrisburg on Wednesday. Nos
only was there a full astendance but every
man in the meeting seemed to be inspired
with a feeling that party sacoess is certain
at she ensuing election. There was a well
defined sentiment with respect to candi-
dates, woreover. Irrespective of local
environment and notwithstanding she pro-
verbial preference for ‘‘favorite sons’ the
members of the committee expressed a
preference for the nomination of C. LARUE
Musson, of Williamsport, tor Jastice of the
Supreme cours.
The committee wisely determined to
bold the convention in Harrisharg. Po-
litical conventions like other departments
of government, for ours is a government of
parties, ought to bave a home and babita-
tion. Other cities than Harrisburg may
offer greater inducement for the couven-
tion but the question of convenience and
expense to the delegates is of greater im-
portance and in selecting Harrisburg as the
seat of the convention the expense in mile-
age is reduced to a minimum. The obarge
for traneporation from Harrisburg to Alien-
town, for example, would be an additional
burden to at least eeven-tenths of the mem- | |
bers of the convention. At present cost of
living that is an object worth considering,
and the committee gave it the weight it
deserved.
Iu selecting officers the committee was
equally wise. Senator DEWALT, of Lehigh
county, who has been eleoted chairman,
isa gentleman of splendid ability aud
large experience. The new treasurer
of the committee, SAMUEL KUNKEL, of
Harrisburg, is a Democrat of the unselfish
type, There is probably no office he
would acoeps avd there is no sacrifice he
would not make, within the limits of rea-
son, to promote the suocess of the party.
Taking it all io all, therefore, it may sale
ly be said that the work of the committee
was admirably performed and the future
of the party is all that could be desired.
The Republican party ie distracted and
disgusted aud the Democrats are ocon-
fidedt and fall of energy.
The School Appropriations.
A year ago we heard all sorts of felivita-
sions of the State Treasurer becanse of his
promptuess in paying the school appropria-
tions. The reform whioh was expressed in
the punctuality was not initiated by our
friend Treasarer SAEATZ. His Demooratio
predecessor ia office, Hon. Wirrray H.
BERRY, had sev the wholesome example
and though he bad a good deal of trouble
in getting the sohool boards to send in
their reports, for the reason thas they were
Dot used to prompt payments, he neverthe-
less broke all recent records in discharging
that sacred obligation of the State in the
interest of edunoational progress.
Treasurer SHEATZ found a different con-
dition when he entered upon the duties of
the office, however. The school hoards
baviog discovered that is was possible to
get money ous of the State Treasury when
due, sent in their reports promptly and is th
is only just to say that payments followed
with equal promptoess. Bat this year, ao-
cording to credible information, there has
been a ohange in the recent practice of the
office. In other words, though the warrants
were due on the first of Juve not a single
payment bas been made. Probably there
is some good reason for the apparent retarn
to the old methods. Bat is is not that
there is a lack of funds in the Treasury.
On the contrary the surplus is growing
dangerously large.
We are not disposed to unjustly criticise
State Treasurer SHEATZ lor bis failure to
carry out the wholesome practice inavgu-
rated by Mr. BERRY and followed by him-
sell Inst year. Possibly the fault lies in
the Department of Public Instruction.
The school district reports are made to that
department and are certified to the State
Treasurer. But Treasurer SHEATZ and his
friends were so boastful of his achievements
last year that his delinquenoy, if it is asorib-
able to his neglect or design, challenges
public comment.
should be paid promptly is a self-evident
proposition and if this obligation is not ful.
filled the public bas a right to know why.
i ————————
——A scourge of small brown moths is
sweeping over the State according to re.
ports from various places and Bellefonte
suffered a visitation of the inseots on Tues-
day night when millions of them swooped
down upon the town. They floated like a
cloud around every electric light and Wed-
nesday morning the streets and pavements
were etrewn with thousands of dead ones.
So far as can be discerned they did no dam-
age to any kind of vegetation. In fact
they made their appearance after nightfall
and the only ones to be seen the next day
were the dead ones.
——A slight fire at the Morrison home ©fleller, but
on east Lamb street yesterday morning
caused the sounding of the fire alarm.
That the school funds | lata
A diverting game of polities is being
played at Washington in she conference for
the revision of the tanfl. The tariff has
grown so extremely complex that no ha-
man being can tell, beyond his own ope.
cialty, whether the revision has been “‘ap-
ward’ or ‘‘dowoward,” except by certain
couspionons additions to or removals
from the ‘‘free list.”
The House made no sweeping distarb-
ance of the Diogley many of
them were cantionsly modified while nem
were advanced ; bus the House made some
spectacular concessions of ‘‘free raw ma.
terials,” with an ohvious reference to
ature com alin. These items ved
great value for trading purposes in the
Senate, where the revision is commonly
SoAcTHbed--Shvugh withous precise ex-
position—to have been generally more ap-
ward. And the Senate, as was expected,
restored most of the duties on raw ma-
terials,
It is in the conference that the free list
becomes important. The President is
understood to be for revision downward,
bat few persons could tell, from the tariff
iteell, which way the conference had left it.
Attention is accordingly concentrated upon
hides, lumber, oil, coal and iron ore, which
everybody is supposed to know about.
These are to be ‘‘adjusted.” The Senate is
to bave its way on lumber, which is the
most important, aud the duty on hides is
to te compromised. There is to be a com.
promise also on coal, hut the Hounse will
prevail on iron ore. Oil, which ohvionsly
jleedls D0 protection, is to be on the free
t
This is not a very great viotory for the
downward revisionists, but it is ex
to satisfy the President, and thus tod
bim favarably to the completed hill. The
party will thas be assured of barmony, and
will point with pride to ite promises ful-
filled. Whether the revision bas been up-
ward or downward, or has left the rates
about the same, the country will find out
later, after the new tariff is at work.
———
————
The Capitol Grafiers.
From the Harrisburg Patriot.
One year and four months to a day elapsed
between the conviction of the capitol grafs-
ers and the affirmation yesterday of the
judgments of the trial conrs by the saperior
court. Seven months less four , have
passed since the convicts were sentenced to
two years in the penitentiary. Since then
two of them have died, but not one of
them bas been locked up.
Their right of appeal is now exhansted,
unless the able lawyers who defended them
areable to find that some constitutional
question ie involved, bus probabl “Do or»
will be mach surprised to bear that some
justice of the supreme cours has granted
an allocatar thas will take the case before
the supreme court, involving auother de-
lay of several months at least.
We do vot imagine that any disinterest.
ed man, lawyer or layman, who read
Judge Kunkel’s exhaustive and lucid re.
view of the case denying the convicts a new
trial, believes that they bave any real
groonds for appeal. But men in suoh posi-
tion as Snyder and Shumaker now are,
always fight for delay in the hope thas
something may bappen to their advantage.
It is one of the great wrongs of our admin-
istration of the law, that men with money
and influence can secure almost intermin-
able delays after conviotion and sentence.
The encouragement they receive from ap-
llate courts is one of the chief canses of a
amentable loss of confidence by the peo:
pleis the impartial administration of jus.
'
With the cases of the capitol grafters
fresh in mind are the voters of Pennsyl-
vania going to elect to the supreme court a
man selected by the boss of the machine
which made the capitol grafting easy; the
machine that protected and defended the
ievee as long as protection and defense
were possible?
The Amendment's Chances,
From the Pittsburg Post,
Conditions for the adoption of the income
tax amendment are about as unfavorable
as cau well be imagined. Most of the State
Legislatures hold biennial sessions, and in
the odd years, and hence the conclusion of
$e master cannot come until well along in
A few States, like Georgia, Massachusetts,
New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and
South Carolina, hold annual sessions, while
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mis-
sissippi, Vermont and Virginia hold biennial
sessions, bat on the even years, and hence
will settle the amendment question, so far
as they are concerned, in 1910. Of these
States more than half will probably vote
gaiuat We amendmen } possibly ie pre
portion w even r, consider
the kind of Senators Fos gi) them Ts
have at Washington.
Thus the campaign for the amendment
in 1911 will open under a heavy handicap,
unless the people ehounid $01 prise th
paliiaiate Wi Bare fumed up Bi dead.
y electing a different sype of Legis-
re on this very issue. Then we would
see, rejoicingly, from some of these States
a different sort of United States Senator,
too. Had the amendment rs been
acting in good faith, they could have pro-
vided for a special constitutional conven.
tion in the several States and have settled
the matter within a few months, at the
latest.
—
Hard on the Sunday School.
From the Sacramento (Cal.) Bee.
That boary old frand and hypocrite,
Jobn D. Rockerfeller, said at a Sund
school of the Euclid Aveuae Baptist cb
ic Cleveland the other day:
I want to say that joining the Sunday
school was the best thing I ever did. It
boughs me more happiness than anything
else I ever did. Stay in the Savcday school,
all your lives, as I bave done.
Joining the Sunday school may have
brought much bappiaess to John D. Rook-
it most certainly conferred no
the Sunday school.
A I————
———Subsoribe for the WATCHMAN.
credit upon
— —— _—- ——————————
spawis from the Keystone.
—Poseytown nexr West Browuaville, has
au epidemic of diphtheria and searlet fever.
Six chiidren died with these dread diseases
during the last week.
—Northampton county bad such a number
of tramps who sought lodging in the juil last
year that it cost the taxpayers $2.973 49 to
feed these worthless nuisances.
—Cambrin Steel officials have been looking
up land in Rosedale, Johnstown, duriug the
last couple of weeks, with a view, it is
thought, of enlarging the plants.
—All the washeries iu the hard coal mines
at Pottsvilic started to work yesterday,
There will be 5.000 men re-employed, there
beinga demand for the steam size of hard
coal.
—To thorten the distance between Pitts.
burg and DuBois twenty-seven miles the
Penusyivania railroad is going to build a
short line between Kittauning and DaBois,
according to rumors.
~William Fallmer, of Williamsport,
through bis attorneys, has brought suit for
damages sgainst the Pennsylvania Railroad
company, for the death of his daughter,
Edna Fullmer, who was accidently killed by
being run over by a train on May 11, 1909,
~The Electric Steel company, with heads
quarters at Cleveland, has purchased 300
acres of land ten miles north of Butler. and
on the site will erect a $50,000 plant for the
manufacture of steel and machinery. The
vew works will give employment to about
500 men.
—A movement ison in DuBois to secure
more industries for the town. At the present
time the community must depend on coal
mining for its existence and the present
troubles between the miners and the opera.
tors shows how unceitain coal mining isasa
means of liveliheod.
—J. H. Holtzinger, of Tyrone, is president
of un organization of the heirs of the deceas-
ed Baron vou Sitler, which held a meeting
in York to send a representative to Germany
to lay claim to a fortune of $183,000,000. The
baron, it is said, left a fortune of $12,000,000,
which, after being on interest 100 Fears, was
to be divided among his heirs.
~Jasper Reeder, of Flemington, died at
the Lock Haven hospital as the result of
being run over by a heavily loaded wagon.
The boy was playing with a number of com.
panions when they all climbed on the wagon
to take a ride. Reeder lost his balance and
feel to the ground and the hind wheel passed
over his chest.
~When the citizens of Clearfield conduet~
ed an investigation to find out why the pav-
ing of Turnpike aveaue and Daisy street was
not commenced they found that the state
highway commission had no funds to spend
for roads in Clearfield county because during
the past four years that county has only
once paid its share in the cost of its roads
built by the State.
—Some person, jocularly inclined, in a»
rather lopsided way, tied one of the guy
ropes of a balloon which was to ascend in
Lua park, Johnstown, to a telegraph pole,
and when the vessel rose the pole broke off
and was dangling in the air above the heads
of the crowd, endangering many lives, The
great weight would not allow the balloon to
rise very high, making matters worse. The
aeronaut, Johnuy Mack, had several haire
bradth escapes.
—Notices are being seut out by Secretary
Kalbfus, of the Game Commission, calling
the attention of the wardens to the fact thas,
while the new law denying foreign bora
residents the right to own firearms went into
effect May 1st, the commission desires to be
fair in the matter and no prosecutions are to
be brought against the foreigners until a
reasonable time after the notices telling them
of the law shall have been posted. These
notices were delayed in printing and are
only now being sent to all parts of the State.
~FEx-Mayor Cupper, of Lock Haven, who
was io some trouble about postoffice affairs
but against whom the suit has been with-
drawn, wasat thetime indictments were
brought against him furnishing aluwminem
paint to paint the mail boxes and was pay-
ing for this from his ews pocket, expecting
to be'reimbursed by the goverument. When
charges were brought against him he did not
get $7,000 back and being unable to get it by
peaceable means has decided to take the
thing into court. He will sue for the priuei-
pal and interest,
—At noose con Friday the whistle on the
big saw mill of Beown, Clark & Howe at
Williamsport gave its last blast and operas
tions on that plant, which was erected in
1865, ceased forever. Since the mill and ma-
chinery are to be sold it is observed tbat the
last log has been sawed there. An interest.
ing circumstance in connection with the mill
is that in the 45 years since it was erected it
wae never destroyed by fire, although there
there have been several narrow escapes from
the fiery element. Among the trusty em-
ployes were several who have been in con-
tinnous service for over 30 years aud all
regret that the plant had to close.
~Itis said that A. G. McCloskey, J. N.
Farwell and 8S. 8. Mummah, land owners on
the south side of the Susquehanna river, op.
posite the village of Hyner, have closed a
contract for the drilling of a number of test
© | oil wells on their properties during the next
three months. These properties contain the
natural gas wells sunk a fow years ago by
the now defunct Susquehanna Gas company,
of Renovo and Williamsport. The gas struck
then is in use at the present time in several
residences in that ueighborbood and isa
genuine article still flowing in great abun
dance. The test oil wells will be put down
to a greater depth than the gas wells.
—The meu in northern Cambria county
will probably not accept the reduced rate for
coal wining which the companies say is nec-
essary for them to meet competition with
the Somerset and West Virginia fields. The
men say that these two last fields are worked
by nov.union labor and even if the united
Cambria workers should submit to s cut in
wages 50 as to bring their scaleon a level
with the non.union workers, the operators
of the non-union men would immediately
reduce their rate of wages even lower, so
that the Cambria operators would not be
benefitted afterall. The real reason why
Cambria mines are not working is said to be
scarcity of orders, something a cut in wages
could hardly help.