Demorralic atc,
BY P. GRAY MEEK
INK SLINGS.
—Christianity isn’t what you pro-
fess. It is what you do.
—Next week we will celebrate the
anniversary of the birth of another
great American.
If the beef trust would cut out
the lobby the price of meat could be
lowered without impairing profits.
—OId Bellefonte never fails when
she starts something. The “Watch-
man” knew she would put the “Y”
drive over.
—If you are lucky enough to be in
that class, you will have to file your
income tax report not later than
March 15th.
—It seems as though everybody is
to have an eight hour day except the
poor drudge who has the job of fur-
nishing the pay.
—If March turns out as fine weath-
er as January and February have giv-
en us public sales in the county will
have record breaking attendance.
—Certain prognostications forecast
a very “wet” spring to be followed
about June 30th with a drouth the like
of which the country has never ex-
perienced before.
—DMore power to the government in
its work of deporting such undesira-
bles as the I. W. W. and their Bolshe-
vik abettors who aim to destroy all
organized society.
—There is hope for the Sproul ad-
ministration because it starts off with
the purpose of governing Pennsylva-
nia more than the hope of president-
ing the United States.
—Try to put yourself in the other
fellows position before you begin to
pass judgment on what he has or has
not done. There are lots of things
that he knows about himself and his
affairs that you don’t.
—The gist of the Hon. Giff Pin-
chot’s letters is nothing more than the
demand for a Republican presidential
candidate in 1920 whom he and his
crowd can control, as against one
whom Penrose and his followers might
control.
—Eggs are down to forty cents a
dozen and we acclaim the decline in
price as though it were something
worth while. We forget that only a
few years ago we regarded them as
almost prohibitive at twenty-five
cents the dozen.
—Curb that disposition to criti-
cise. Curb it for awhile, at least. The
times are too troublesome already to
add any more fuel to the fire. Often
the tiniest spark starts the most dis-
astrous conflagration and this is the
time when all should be fearful of
starting something that can’t be stop-
ped. idea
—Herbert Hoover says it is the far-
mer and not the packer who is respon-
sible for the high price of pork and
we are inclined to believe that he is
right. Because the law of supply and
demand regulates the prices and as
the farmer is not raising enough hogs
to meet the demand prices are bound
to stay up.
—The new President of Germany,
Frederich W. Ebert, is to get a sala-
ry three times as large as the one we
pay President Wilson. However great
the disparity may appear at first
thought it must be remembered that
our Chief Executive will find real
mazuma in his pay envelope while
Ebert’s will be filled with stage mon-
ey for years to come.
—Talking about putting things
over Bellefonte has gotten so accus-
tomed to doing it that it is second na-
ture. Many people laughed the laugh
of incredulity when the drive for
$15,000.00 for the local “Y” was pro-
posed, but then they were of the kind
who don’t know their own town and
don’t know that it usually accomplish-
es what it undertakes.
—Japan is not spilling any oil on
the troubled waters of the world. In-
stead, she seems to be striving to
drive a hard bargain already made
with China a bit harder and keep her
eye open to the main chance while sit-
ting at the peace table. World security
will never be secured while selfish-
ness thrives in the hearts of those who
are assembled to plan it.
—Let us record our belief right here
and now that if Centre county is to
erect a memorial to the brave boys
who have brought glory to us through
their participation in the world war,
it should be a living thing and not an
inanimate, cold expression in marble
or iron. Let it be a public building,
a park, a community house where life
and uplift breathe the spirit for which
the boys fought.
—Fish Commissioner N. R. Buller
has been re-appointed by Governor
Sproul, but as was the case when
Governor Brumbaugh named him four
years ago, the Senate has held up con-
firmation of the appointment. While
Mr. Buller has proved most capable
in his department his actions have not
quite suited some of the politicians of
his party and we surmise that the ac-
tion of the Senate in his case is more
in the nature of discipline than any-
thing else.
—The President will leave France
next Sunday for his return voyage
home. He expects to remain here on-
ly long enough to let the country know
what is really going on in Paris and
to sign or veto such bills as may come
to him in the closing days of Con-
gress; then he will return to Paris for
more work at the Peace Conference.
It is certain that his counsel is needed
there else there would be no thought
of his returning and if he is needed
he should return by all means.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
£
=
VOL. 64.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FEBRUARY 14, 191 9.
NO. 7.
Bossism Run Mad.
We learn through the daily news-
| Harmful Attack on the President.
Governor Sproul has done so many
{
i
Senator Frelinghuysen Outraged.
President Wilson continues to be
ars that ecial meeting of the | commendable things during the brief | the leading figure in the Peace Con-
De na he Ee a period that has elapsed since his in- ference in Paris. His voice is heard
tee was held in the Bellevue-Stratford
hotel on Monday evening at which a
candidate for Congress was nominat-
ed to fill a vacancy
composed of Butler and Westmore-
land counties and Senatorial candi-
dates were named to fill vacancies in
Delaware and Dauphin counties. The
Democratic State Executive commit-
tee is composed of Charles P. Donnel-
ly, Philadelphia; J. L. Sherwood, Wy-
oming county; J. J. Brennan, Carbon
county; L. H. Rupp, Lehigh county;
Jacob Weaver, York county; F. R.
Zimmerman, Northumberland county;
C. H. Uhl, Somerset county; John F.
Short, Clearfield county; W. W. Hind-
man, Clarion county; Joseph F. Guf-
fey, Allegheny county, and Warren
VanDyke, Secretary of the State com-
mittee.
Home Rule is one of the fundamen-
tal principles of the Democratic par-
ty. Under Home Rule the right of
the people of each district to name
their own candidates is inherent and
indefeasible. Under that Democratic
principle no man or power had any
voice in the selection of a Democrat-
ic candidate for Congress in the But-
ler-Westmoreland county district ex-
cept the Democratic voters living
within those counties. Nobody other
than the Democratic voters of Dau-
phin and Delaware counties had a
right to a vote in the selection of can-
didates of the Democratic party for
Senator in those counties. But in
pursuance of the arbitrary methods
of the patronage trading machine, the
State Executive committee usurped
the right to select candidates and the
Democratic people of the districts
concerned must submit or bolt like
Palmer and McCormick did last fall.
We have no fault to find with the
candidates chosen to fill the vacancies
in question. The nominee for Con-
gress in the Twenty-second district,
General Richard Coulter, is superb. He
fulfills every requirement and has
every qualification. The nominee for
Senator in the Dauphin county dis-
trict, Mr. L. Vernon Fritz, is equally
deserving of praise and the nominee
in Delaware county is probably up to
the same high standard. But what
right have the members of the State
Executive committee to a voice in the
selection of candidates for Congress
and Senate in districts in which they
have no vote? It is subversive of
Democracy, abhorrent to every prin-
ciple expressed by Jefferson and de-
structive of self-government. But it
is a device of the office brokers to
maintain their control of the party
organization.
——President Wilson will be home !
in a short time and when he arrives
it will be interesting to see his critics
“running to cover.”
Servility of the Legislators.
No Governor in recent years has so
completely dominated the Legislature
as Governor Sproul appears to. This
fact is revealed in the votes in the
House of Representatives on the rati-
fication of the Prohibition amendment
and the bill creating two new judges
in Allegheny county. Precisely the
same policies were involved. The ad-
ditional judges in Pittsburgh are de-
manded by the wets. The ratification
was the last word of the drys. On
one question Governor Sproul was
with the drys and on the other with
the wets and in both instancas he won.
By the same test it would seem that
the Governor is not too strongly at-
tached to either side of the issue.
Of course it is that species of grat-
itude which shows appreciation of fa-
vors expected that makes the Gov-
ernor’s influence with the Legislature
so great. At the assembling of the
first Legislature under Governor
Brumbaugh a very considerable meas-
ure of servility was shown. It looked
then as if the Governor could have had
anything he wanted and it will be re-
membered that he wanted almost
everything from the presidential nom-
ination down. But the line was not
so distinctly drawn in his case as it
has been in that of Sproul. That is
the reversal was not so clearly defin-
ed. But in Brumbaugh’s case the in-
fluence didn’t last long. After the
spoils were divided the fealty dimin-
ished.
It is not creditable to the Legisla-
ture that the membership is so ser-
vile to the dispenser of spoils. Sen-
ators and Representatives in the Gen-
eral Assembly are chosen for more
important work than trading in of-
fices and men who will reverse them-
selves on so important a question as
prohibition are scarcely fit to perform
the more important duties that de-
volve upon them. The defeat of che
bill increasing the number of judges
in Allegheny county would have been
creditable for such legislation is
clearly subversive of public morals.
But the failure of the Governor to
hold out the restraining hand gave
loose rein to the wild passion for
spoils and carried the measure
through.
in the district !
! duction into the great office he occu-
! pies and has said so many wise and
| appropriate things, that his thinly
veiled thrust at President Wilson in
his speech eulogizing the late Colonel
Roosevelt, in Philadelphia, last Sun-
day, seems like a discordant note.
Speaking of Roosevelt he said “he’
' called about him in the affairs of gov-
ernment the strongest men he could |
. find, and did not soar into the midst
| of the unattainable. He was intensely
| practical in every thing he did, prac-
| tical so as to get results. He walked
| with Kings and yet he never lost the
! common touch. His passing in a time
of lack of purpose is a national ca-
| lamity.”
| With the Governor’s opinions of
| Mr. Roosevelt the public has no quar-
| rel and probably little interest. But
i when the Governor of the Common-
| wealth of Pennsylvania lends himself
{to a propaganda which has for its
sinister purpose the traducing of the
| President of the United States, the
| bublic is interested directly and in-
| tensely. Every attack on the Presi-
i dent while he is representing the gov-
| ernment of the United States in an
! international Congress is an attempt
' to diminish the influence of the gov-
~ernment in the Congress. There is
no question of individuality in the
matter. Woodrow Wilson is absorb-
ed in the Ambassadorial character he
. has assumed which have commended
| themselves to him and which the peo-
' ple appear to approve.
| We understand that our government
i is partisan and that the Governor of
Pennsylvania has the legal and moral
| right to make his administration par-
| tisan. But he has neither legal nor
moral right to asperse the President
of the United States even by innuen=
do, when such aspersion impairs the
influence of the United States in an
international convention of the grav-
est importance. In doing that he is
doing harm to the country. It may
be that he is discrediting Woodrow
Wilson but he is doing so at the ex-
. pense of the interests of the people.
Every citizen of the country is bene- |
fitted by an enlargement of the influ-
ence of the country in the affairs of
the world. In belittling the President
i the influence of the country in world
: affairs is diminished.
——DMr. Taft may not be able to re-
| cover the position in public favor he
{ held before he joined the Lodge gang
' just previous to the last election but
| he is doing his best in that direction.
Present and Pressing Menace.
The labor troubles throughout this
| country and Europe are a present and
| pressing menace. The high cost of
living makes high wages essential to
prosperity. Men who work must be
paid enough to provide their families
with such necessaries and comforts
as health requires. Unsanitary condi-
tions are no longer tolerable either
for the wage earner or the employer.
Proper housing and ample clothing
are community problems that must be
solved by the co-operation of capital
and labor. That “the laborer is wor-
thy of his hire” is more a truth than
ever. The health of the neighborhood
as well as the working capacity of the
individual are elements in the equa-
tion.
The high cost of living is ascriba-
ble in part and possibly in large part
to the cupidity of men who have tak-
en advantage of opportunities to over-
charge. In the cities and industrial
centers rents have been raised beyond
reason and food and clothing increas-
ed in price to a degree without excuse.
We all agree that those responsible
for this are despicable and “profiteer”
has become justly the most opprobri-
ous epithet. But there isn’t a vast
difference between the profiteering
landlord and the profiteering mechan-
ic or laborer. They are alike exact-
ing unearned tribute from the victims
of their rapacity. They are equally
amenable to censure because they are
alike selfish.
In any event this is no time for la-
bor strikes if they can be avoided.
The readjustment of conditions fol-
lowing a great war is a difficult prob-
lem in any circumstance. The aim of
all should be to improve rather than
impair the path over which we must
pass. There will be plenty of work
if conditions are favorable to enter-
prise. But if the excessive cost of ma-
terials is supplemented by unreason-
able demands of labor, industrial par-
alysis is more likely to ensue. Labor
organization is more perfect now than
ever before but its vast power should
be used to construct instead of de-
stroy prosperity. Good wages instead
of extortion should be the rule.
——It may have been noticed that
Von Bernstorff’s suggestions concern-
ing the peace terms made little or no
impression on the conferees.
——The next one will be called a
“Victory Loan” but it will be in the
interest of liberty just the same.
on every important question and his
opinions are respected by his col-
leagues in the Congress from every
country concerned. But the nagging
continues in Washington in full force.
Lodge, and Sherman and Hale, like
“Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart” keep
on barking. Borah, of Idaho, and
Smoot, of Utah, probably please their
Mormon constituents by joining in
the cry as frequently as possible.
But the depth of imbecility was
sounded the other day when Freling-
huysen, of New Jersey, cast his hat
into the ring. All other criticisms
faded before his masterful array of
complaints.
“It is all very well for the President
to break the precedent of a century
and a third,” shrieked this pigeon-
brained pretender to statesmanship,
“that he may head triumphant proces-
sions in foreign capitols, sleep in the
chambers of royalty and dine off gold
plates in the palaces of the modern
Ceasars, and have his photograph
taken standing in line with Kings,
Queens and Princesses.” Those are
certainly grave offences and it is
small wonder that Frelinghuysen’s
blood boiled when he heard of them.
But it is hardly just to blame Wilson.
Being an American gentleman he
slept in chambers to which he was as-
signed by his hosts and ate off the
plates set before him. Probably he
ought to have thrown the royal bed
out of the window and kicked over the
royal table.
But as a matter of fact he just act-
ed as any other well bred American
citizen would have acted in the ecir-
cumstances. Through him the Kings
and Queens of England and Italy,
neither of whom act like the ancient
Caesar, and the President of France
bestowed upon the government and
people of the United States the high-
est honors at their command, through
their accredited representative, Presi-
dent Woodrow Wilson, and he, in the
name of the people of the United
States received them fittingly. Prob-
ably Senator Frelinghuysen would
have dra the sapr~ if he had had op-
br bunivy wiv knew, but in any
event it is safe to say that his pur-
pose in criticising was to harm the
man rather than object to the things.
———The final vote on ‘the revenue
‘bill indicates how Republican Senators
will act on the peace treaty when it
is finished. They talked strongly
against the tax bill but nearly all of
them voted for it. On the peace
treaty the vote will be unanimous.
Supervisors Should Get Busy.
The road supervisors association of
Centre county will hold its annual
meeting in Bellefonte next Tuesday,
February 18th. While an interesting
program has been arranged for the
meeting there are other reasons why
every supervisor in the county should
attend this meeting.
Every indication points to the fact
that the year 1919 will witness the
greatest road improvement in Penn-
sylvania ever made in one year. Al-
ready plans are being mapped out for
the building and improving of state
highways, but the state highway men
can be depended upon to look after
Centre county’s interest along this
line. Considerable money, however,
will be available for the improvement
of dirt township roads and it is in
this direction that the road supervis-
ors must put forth their best efforts.
Centre county is literally spider-
webbed with a system of township
roads that must be kept up. They are
as much of a necessity as the main
highways, and no opportunity should
be allowed to pass whereby the super-
visors can secure aid, even if it is not
as much as they would like to have,
to improve such roads. And this is
one big reason why every supervisor
should attend the convention next
Tuesday. Representatives of the
State Highway Department will be
present to give any and all informa-
tion desired by the men who are re-
sponsible for the upkeep of the town-
ship roads, and they ought to be there
to hear it.
——Now that the Y. M. C. A. drive
is out of the way everybody will have
time to get themselves in shape for
the Victory loan drive which will start
on April 21st.
——Probably the Republican Sena-
tors don’t know that the war is over
and ‘still imagine that they are help-
ing the Kaiser by fighting the Presi-
dent.
——Fortunately the peace confer-
ence will have had time to complete
its work before the opening of the ball
season crowds it off the first page.
——The Kaiser may be growing a
beard as the reports indicate but
whiskers will never conceal his char-
acter.
——For high class Job Work come
to the “Watchman” Office.
i
i annexation by Germany.
What Saved the Small Nations.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Kurt Eisner’s revelation of King
Ludwig’s opinion that Germany must
annex Belgium and a part of Holland
is interesting, but it is news. The
significant thing is that this sort of
talk was not confined te Kings and
Kaiser and Generals; it was the com-
mon talk in Germany; it was uttered
in every possible form of print; it was
demanded by commercial associations;
3 was the popular reading of the na-
ion.
Nearly ten years before the war
Belgian and Dutch publicists were dis-
cussing the means of resisting armed
Sometimes
the demand was for Holland rather
than Belgium; often it was for both.
Switzerland was threatened, not with
open annexation, but with enforced
incorporation into the German zoll-
verein.
No small nation was safe. The in-
vasion of Belgium was not incidental;
it was not the only or the shortest
road into France. It was the least de-
fended, but the Germans knew that
they had artillery that would destroy
the four French fortresses as easily
as it destroyed the Belgian fortifica-
tions. All that saved Verdun was the
quickness of General Sarrail in learn-
ing the lesson which Germany taught
at Liege. Recognizing the vulnera-
bility of any permanent fortifications,
Sarrail immediately removed the guns
from the forts of Verdun and put
them in concealed positions, with
earth defenses, a few miles outside of
the fortress.
The Germans could have blasted
their way into France as easily as
they blasted their way through Bel-
gium, but they took the Belgian route
because they wanted Belgium; they
wanted Antwerp and the manufactur-
ing districts. One of the principal
motives of Germany in springing the
war on the world was to annex Bel-
gium.
All that saved the independence of
the small nations around Germany
was the resistance of the Entente
powers. In view of this fact it was
not unreasonable to hope for some
help from the small nations. They
might have been expected to do some-
thing for the preservation of their
own independence. Germany had not
taken Belgium and Holland and Den-
mark and Switzerland because it was
not ready to fight all Europe. But if
it had crushed the Allies it would have
appropriated all these nations, afd
the Dutch, Belgians, Swiss and Dates
knew it. These small neutrals depend-
ed for their independence absolutely
upon the defeat of Germany, but they
left the Allies and America to fight
their battles for them and, except Bel-
gium, they cared only to avoid giving
offense to Berlin, and to make as much
money as they could.
. Holland was particularly in a posi-
tion to render immense aid to the Al-
lies, but it and the other small nations
knew they were safe from the Allies,
and fear of Germany was far more
influential with them than gratitude
to the Allies.
Westward the Star of Empire Takes
Its Way.
From the Curb News.
Time—whimsical, inexorable—pass-
es swiftly. The little town of Sur, on
the Syrian coast, is all that remains of
Tyre. The shifting sands have filled
the great harbor. The crown of Tyre
was worn successively during the cen-
turies of the westward march of prog-
ress by the Phoenician step-child,
Carthage; then by Italy; next by
Hamburg and the leagued German
cities of the Baltac; fourth by Portu-
gal; fifth by Spain, the discoverer of
the New World; sixth by Holland and
seventh, until 1914, by Great Britain!
Previous to 1914 we owed England,
then the richest nation on the globe,
S0 much money that the annual inter-
est was three million dollars. New
England’s debt to us requires her to
pay us a hundred and fifty millions a
year interest. Before the war we ow-
ed about four billion dollars abroad.
Today the situation is more than re-
versed—the net indebtedness of Eu-
rope to the United States government
and private investors in this country
is ten billion dollars. The annual .in-
terest payments which will pour into
this country on such a debt will
amount to at least five hundred mil-
lion dollars! We possess one-third or
more of the total wealth of the earth.
The United States is now the richest
nation and the financial center of the
world. Before the war England was
the greatest ship-owning country.
Our ship-building schedule when car-
ried through 1920 will give us twice
as many ships as England! The
world’s cry today is for raw materials
—raw materials—raw materials! In
this connection, and now at the dawn
of the greatest era in our history,
every citizen of the United States
should get these Big Facts indelibly
in mind:
We represent but 6 per cent. of the
world’s population and own but 7 per,
cent. of the world’s land. But we pro-
duce 70 per cent. of the world’s cop-
per, 66 per cent. of the oil, 756 per
cent. of the corn, 60 per cent. of the
cotton, 83 per cent. of the silver, 52
per cent. of the coal, 40 per cent. of
the iron and steel, 20 per cent. of the
gold, 85 per cent. of the automobiles,
25 per cent. of the wheat, and we op-
erate 40 per cent. of the world’s rail-
roads.
Thus for three thousand years the
Lamp of Leadership has been seized
by nation after nation, until now,
wearied and outstripped, Europe
hands it willingly but unasked to the
young, strong, free land of the West!
—to this, the most wonderfully en-
dowed nation of all history!
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—When a gust of air fanned the flames
of a gas heater against her clothing, 3-
year-old Marion Obenoir, of Altoona, was
burned to death.
—Hoping to escape in the excitement,
Vincent Scummel set fire to the bed cloth-
ing of his cellmate in jail at Sunbury, and
was nearly suffocated.
—The family of William Oberdick, of
York, found in a half pound of ponhaus,
or scrapple, which was purchased in one
of the town markets, three teeth, a rib
and a 22-caliber bullet. The Oberdicks
were about to eat the scrapple at break-
fast when they came upon the unusual
combination.
—Williamsport is already making prep-
arations to entertain the Pennsylvania
Odd Fellows’ Association in April, which
will bring at least 10,000 visitors to the
city for one day. The celebration, which
has been curtailed for several years be-~
cause of the war, will be more elaborate
than usual on that account.
—The Hazleton Red Cross Chapter has
received $3645.78 from Alvan Markle, this
sum being the total commission he receiy-
ed as tax collector for county and State
levies in Hazleton for 1917. Mr. Markle,
who is chairman of the Committee of Pub-
lic Safety, took the position with the un-
derstanding that all profits would go to
the Red Cross.
—Convicted of robbing the Hellam State
Bank of $5400, Edward Smith, of Red Li-
on, Columbia county, has been sentenced
to four to five years in the penitentiary.
Twenty-nine hundred dollars of the Stol-
en money was found by Detective Charles
S. White in a hog pen, where Smith had
hidden it. The prisoner refuses to tell
where he put the remainder of the money.
—Harry M. Bretz, attorney and school
director of Harrisburg, whose embezzle-
ments were the cause of something akin
to a sensation, on Monday was sentenced
to serve seven months in the county pris-
on and to pay a fine of $200. Bretz, who
was widely known in many activities, bus-
iness, church and politics, apparently was
a broken man when he appeared for sen-
tence.
—Some of the Lycoming county farmers
who sold horses and mules to the govern-
ment last year when the War Department
was making an insistent demand upon the
farmer for his surplus stock are now buy-
ing the animals back. Several down-
county farmers last week attended the
horse sale at Camp Meade, at which a
number of excellently kept head of horses
were disposed of at auction.
—The Superior court of Pennsylvania
has handed down a decision in the famous
Jefferson county case involving litigation
over some land in Sykesville, owned by
the Henry Shaffer heirs. The land in
question is a strip 100 feet wide and al-
most three-quarters of a mile long. The
Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Rail-
way company was a contestant and the
case was decided against the railway
company.
—Perhaps no man in Pennsylvania has
more jobs than has Frederick C. Gundy,
of Sunbury. He is a borough policeman,
a Northumberland county courthouse jan-
itor, has charge of six heating plants in
business buildings and raises game chick-
ens for the market. Besides that he owns
a restaurant, at which he takes turn in
serving the thirsty; drives his own auto-
{ mobile and is thinking of seeking the nom-
tpation for county commissioner,
—Because his bride of two months ate
too much in proportion to his wages as a
miner, John Slesko, of Mount Carmel, took
her before a Justice of the Peace where
they mutually agreed to a legal separation,
the husband agreeing to pay her $40 for
the housework she had done while living
with him. A monthly payment of $20 is
to be made by Slesko to his wife. He de-
clares that the woman eats more each meal
than four or five ordinary persons.
—The State Forestry Commission has in
session, authorized the purchase of 20,500
acres of woodland in Cinton, Lycoming
and Union counties as forestry reserve.
The Commissioners went over the budget
and decided to ask the Legislature for
an appropriation of $1,800,000, a million
dollars more than the appropriation last
session. The additional money is needed
for the purchase of forest lands and the
inauguration of a system of district super-
vision.
—Burglars entered the Hanover post-
office early one morning last week, dyna-
mited the safe and got away with $15,000
in stamps and registered packages. A
large package of money, the exact value of
which Postmaster E. K. Eichelberger re-
fuses to make known, was overlooked.
Three charges of nitro-glycerine, it is said,
were used and the safe was blown to
pieces. No clue as to the identity of the
burglars has been obtained. The Post-
office Department at Washington has been
notified.
—Edward R. du Mee, of Line Lexington,
Bucks county, owner of a large dairy farm,
says that some enemy has caused the death
of two of his cows by mixing small wire
nails with their feed, and that a third cow
is about to die from eating wire nails. He
also says the miscreant battered one of his
horses about the head, causing blood poi-
soning. ‘He has notified the State police
at Lansdale. Mr. du Mee suspects a farm-
hand whom he discharged. He says wire
nails were found in the feed troughs in
one of the cow stables. An autopsy show-
ed the nails in the stomachs of the cows
which died.
—It will cost the chemical, paper and
leather manufacturers in Elk and adjoin-
ing counties an enormous amount of mon-
ey as the result of little snow this winter.
With less than two months left in which
they can hope for sledding to haul their
forest products cut during the past sum-
mer, the outlook is gloomy. Thousands
and thousands of cords of hemlock bark,
chemical and pulpwood is piled in the
forests where it is impossible to haul it
without the use of sleds. The manufac-
turers are hauling what little they can
with the use of wagons which is far more
costly than hauling by sleds.
—To those who think there is no profit
in trapping fur-bearing animals these
days, listen to this record of a few More-.
land township farmers who have been
spending the short winter days in tending
traps. Frank Hill, of Opp, has secured
$162 for the hides of skunks he has killed
near his home this winter, while he and
his father, Smith Hill, have divided the
price of twenty-seven coon hides and one
gray fox. The two men killed that num-
ber of coons on a half-dozen hunting ex-
peditions on moonlight nights. Since
Christmas Raymond Smith has collected
$25 for fifteen muskrat skins, $125 for fif-
ty-four skunk hides and $2 for two wea~
sels.