Bonin
INK SLINGS.
—The bill to help the railroads of
the country went down before the Re-
publican filibustering gang.
—See to it that your boy keeps up
his insurance in the army. Even if
he has been mustered out it is the
cheapest and best insurance he will
ever be able to get.
—The daylight saving law was not
repealed by Congress. It would have
been had not a Republican filibuster
prevented its passage. Thus, if the
farmers of the country are inconven-
ienced they know who caused it.
Senator Vare is now vehement-
ly demanding legislation to divorce
the Philadelphia police from politics.
“When the devil was sick the devil a
saint would be” and Senator Vare is
on the brink of a dangerous political
malady.
—The new moon is lying far
enough to the north to admonish a lot
of over-eager gardeners that March is
likely to bring disaster to those beds
of lettuce and spinach and onions that
have been made in Bellefonte and else-
where this week.
—The President is on his way to
France again. He was home just long
enough to show a few Republican
Congressmen and Senators that if
they want to destroy the country for
partisan purposes they and their par-
ty will have to answer to the people
of this country.
—On the morning of the one hun-
dred and thirteenth day from this, at
twelve-one sharp, the grand old tank
corps of the United States will mobil-
ize units in every city and hamlet
where they will carol plaintively the
old, old song with a few new words:
We'll wait for the wagon
The old water wagon,
We'll wait for the wagon
And we'll all take a ride.
—Since Congress failed to furnish
the funds with which to properly
finance the railroads the government
finds itself very much in the same po-
sition as was the Florida sheriff who
attached an elephant owned by a luck-
less circus man. No one wanted to
buy the elephant and as the sheriff
couldn’t find enough hay in all of
Florida to keep it from starving he
had to give it back to the circus man
and tell him to “Git.”
—Encourage your boy when he
comes home from the army to keep
up all of the habits of personal hy-
giene that he learned there. Let his
new ideas be a model for you and in-
stead of permitting him to slip back
into an environment that has never
known such essentials of vigorous
manhood try to raise the home up to
the standard that has made him look
more the clean, alert, intelligent man
than you ever dreamed of his looking.
—It looks like we might be going
to have a regular campaign for coun-
ty offices next fall. Candidates are
throwing their hats into the ring
like they mean business and as we
have all gotten so into the habit of
excitement and parades we might be
moving on to a return of the good old
days of torch-light processions and
—we were going to say fights at every
intersecting street—but we'll have to
cut that out for there’ll be no booze
when we go cheering for our favorites
next fall.
—When Senator Sherman planted
himself on the floor of the Senate and
talked about nothing for four and one-
half hours he willfully held up busi-
ness affecting the welfare of more
than one hundred million people. He
held the floor on a parliamentary tech-
nicality and because he would not
yield many essential bills failed of
passing in the closing hours. His ob-
stinate partisanship has caused you
and me to pay an extra tax on cloth-
ing, jewelry, tobacco, theatre tickets
and many other things we buy because
he wouldn’t relinquish the floor long
enough to permit the repeal of these
taxes, which was scheduled for pas-
sage, to be voted on.
—Long ago the President asked
Congress to think about and discuss
plans concerning the best methods for
the future operation of the railroads
of the country. To the moment of its
adjournment Congress did nothing in
the way of constructive suggestion.
It devoted days to fault-finding and
not a moment to help. The same
might be said of its attitude to the
League of Nations. We have no cen-
sure for the President who goes ahead
in the course he thinks right when
the Congress behind him can’t rise
above the sordid game of politics even
when the world is aflame. The people
are with the President and they will
settle with a lot of Congressmen and
Senators at the very first opportunity.
—What but contempt can a fair
minded person have for Republican
Congressmen and Senators who spent
most of the time while they were in
Washington criticising and embar-
rassing the government and jockey-
ing legislation to partisan purposes.
It was despicable beyond expression
and a stab to the heart of every par-
ent who has a boy on the other side.
For while these hypocrites were trying
to foment trouble by declaring, both
in and out of Congress, that the boys
are not being brought home fast
enough they were obstructing every
piece of legislation designed to adjust
business here so that it will be ready
to employ them when they do come
home and would even have filibuster-
ed and prevented the passage of the
new Loan bill, which is to furnish the
money with which to bring them
home, had not a fearless President
stood by his guns and told them they
would have to take the consequences
of such dastardly action.
VOL. 64.
President Wilson’s Triumph.
If President Wilson had appeared
on the stage of the Metropolitan op-
era house, New York, on Tuesday
night alone he would have carried his
point. Supported by the presence and
voice of former President Taft, he
overwhelmed his enemies. The ex-
President exposed the futility of the
contention against the League of Na-
tions. The President proved the ne-
cessity of such an organization for
the preservation of the principles of
christian civilization. Before their
united efforts and arguments the
creature of straw which Lodge and
his fellow conspirators have set was
scattered to the four winds of heaven.
The complaint has been that the
President has not taken the Senators
into his confidence. The leading Re-
publican Senators have shown that he |
was wise in withholding confidence
which would have been betrayed. But |
in his New York speech and other ut-
terances since his return from France
indicate that he has taken the people
into his confidence and the response
proves the confidence well placed.
The people of the United States are
in accord with the President in his de-
sire for enduring peace and with sin-
gular unanimity they endorse his pro-
cesses of achieving the desired result.
He has gone to resume his work in
France and he has the good wishes of
the people with him.
Republicans are not all traitors and
the presence of former President Taft
at the New York meeting on Tuesday
night shows that they are not cowards
either. The conspirators will con-
demn Mr. Taft as a party renegade
and will denounce him with all the bit-
terness they can command. But a
considerable number, and we firmly
believe a majority of the intelligent
voters of that party, will support him
and sustain the President. Therefore
it may safely be said that the conspir-
acy has failed and that the constitu-
tion of the League of Nations will be
adopted by the Peace Conference and
ratified by the American Senate.
Republican Congressmen who
have been abroad during the winter
continue to lament over the suffering
of the soldiers. This is really fortu-
nate. Otherwise the’ seldiers might
never have found. out that they have
been treated so badly.
Trying to Coerce the President.
The purpose of the conspiracy to
hold up important legislation during
the closing days of Congress is so
palpable that “he who runs may read.”
It was to coerce the President to call
an extra session of the new Congress
in order that the Republican majority
might pass resolutions condemnatory
of the League of Nations. Mr. Hays,
chairman of the Republican National
committee, said in New York the oth-
er day, that the President must be
forced to call an extra session. The
constitution lodges no power in Con-
gress to force the President to call
Congress into extra session. No law,
organic or statutory, vests such au-
thority in any individual. The at-
tempt to do so is an usurpation.
The perfidious Republican leaders
of the country are determined to
wreck the government. No act per-
petrated by the Southern fire-eaters
in 1861 was more glaringly treasona-
ble than this. Jefferson Davis was
never guilty of a more open act of
aggresion against the government of
the United States. Yet most of the
Republican Senators and a considera-
ble number of Republican Represen-
tatives in Congress are involved in
this treacherous enterprise. In pur-
suance of it LaFollette, who has just
escaped expulsion for treason, organ-
ized a fillibuster on Saturday and
Sherman, of Illinois, whose proper
place is certainly not in the Senate of
the United States, did all he could in
furtherance of the dastardly crime.
Nearly a million American soldiers
are still in France and anxious to get
home to their families and friends.
Poverty stricken and helpless France
is unable to provide them with food
and comforts that are essential to
their health. Their own government
is striving to the full measure of its
capacity to care for them. But the
Republicans in Congress are trying
to defeat the purpose by holding up
legislation in the expectation that
they may thus compel an extra ses-
sion of Congress which is unfriendly
to the President and ready for any
form of treason. The people of the
United States will pass upon their
conduct. The soldiers will return to
render the verdict.
If there is any reliance to be
placed in the old saw as to the last
Friday in the month governing the
weather of the ensuing month, March
ought to be pretty nice all through.
And further, it ought to go out like a
lamb because it certainly came in like
a roaring lion.
The income tax hits some of
our friends pretty hard, no doubt, but
if Germany had won the blow would
have been much harder.
— Subscribe for the “Watchman.”
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
Senator Knox's Sophistries.
Easily the strongest argument thus |
far presented against the constitution |
of the League of Nations is the speech
of Senator Knox, of Pennsylvania, de-
livered on Saturday. Compared with
it the speeches of Borah, Lodge,
Poindexter and Reed were “leather
and prunella.”” And at that it was
simply a labored plea in confession
and avoidance. At the outset Senator
Knox makes an elaborate apology for
his attitude on the subject and reveals |
his insincerity. “I may in the first
place observe,”” he says, “that I am
and always have been against war and
all its attendant woe, misery, horrors
and crime.” His record had already
shown that for he passively opposed
every measure in support of the war.
But pacifism was not his real rea-
' son for opposing the League of Na-
| tions, The purpose of that organiza-
tion is to prevent war in the future
! and in setting that up as a reason for
opposing the League he convicts him-
self of hypocrisy. If he were honest-
ly in favor of peace he would support
this plan created by the greatest
statesmen of all the civilized natiens
of the world and laid on the altar of
peace by the master minds from which
it was evolved. As a matter of fact
he was influenced to his attitude on
the question by a sinister hope that
he might thus aid a criminal conspira-
cy to impair the influence of Presi-
dent Wilson at home and abroad. Pos-
sibly an absurd ambition had some-
thing to do with it.
As a corporation lawyer Senator
Knox has acquired a considerable ca-
pacity in using language to conceal
purposes and in his speech on Satur-
day he exercised his full power in the
direction. After all, however, he only
confused words to assert falsehoods
and consume time to prevent legisla-
tion essential to the demobilization
of the army and restore our troops to
their homes. He with others expect-
ed that time thus uselessly employed
would prevent the passage of the Vie-
tory loan bill and leave the treasury
destitute of funds needed to transport |
our soldiers abroad to their homes.
But the expectation has been disap-
pointed. The conspirators hadn't
courage 'to cast their votes as they
“shot their mouths. eae Ly
Po
#74
—>Some of those statesmen who
are going into conniption fits because
of imaginary dangers to the consti-
tution have themselves violated the
constitution in ewery conceivable way.
Mr. Palmer’s Appointment.
It is not easy to imagine what sin-
ister influence prevailed upon Presi-
dent Wilson to nominate A. Mitchell
Palmer, of Stroudsburg, to the office
of Attorney General. Mr. Palmer is
not a great law yer or a distinguished
statesman, His practice at the bar of
Monroe county has hardly qualified
him for the highest legal service in
the country and except as a lobbyist
in Washington and Harrisburg, he
has had little if any practice outside
of that provincial court. It was cer-
tainly not for the purpose of promot-
ing the interests of the Democratic
party and finally it is not likely that
he was chosen on moral grounds.
Since his accession to the political
office of member of the Democratic
National committee, Mr. Palmer has
twice perfidiously opposed the elec-
tion of two capable and faithful Dem-
ocratic candidates for Congress, Rep-
resentatives Dewalt, of Allentown,
and Steele, of Saston, and one Demo-
cratic nominee for Governor, Judge
Bonniwell. Outside of these activi-
ties he has not been conspicuous in
political work. But he has demoral-
ized the party and reduced the
strength of Democracy in Pennsylva-
nia to a mere shadow by his arrogance
and selfishness. It may be said that
he is a successful patronage broker
his usefulness.
President Wilson has been singu-
larly unwise in dispensing the patron-
age of his administration in Pennsyl-
vania, Hardly a man who has render-
ed service to the party in the past
has been favored and no appointment
made thus far has added to the
strength of the party. In everything
else he has been superb. Even in the
selection of officials ‘in other States
he has promoted party solidarity and
success, His failure in this State
must be ascribed, therefore, to the
malign influence of the late chairman
of the National committee, who seems
to have hypnotized him. In another
year, however, the party will be re-
organized,
—The Monroe Doctrine must
have been in hard lines if it had to de-
pend on such champions as are now
shedding crocodile tears over its
troubles,
—There is probably no real rea-
son to worry over the ambitions of the
Kaiser to resume his throne. He
couldn't even make himself look like
a King,
—They are all good enough, but
and that is the sum and substance of |
| France.
the “Watchman®® is always the best.
BELLEFONTE. PA., MARCH 7, 1919.
. Centre County’s Business in Good
Hands.
The statement of the auditors of
Centre county, which appears in sup-
plement form in this issue, reveals
the gratifying fact that the public
business was well managed during the
year 1918. While the balance in the
county treasury on January 1st, 1919,
was only $379.59 greater than it was
on January 1st, 1918, the fact that it
was increased at all is the more re-
markable. For it means that during
a period of the highest prices for sup-
plies the County Commissioners have
been able to conduct the public busi-
ness without eating into a surplus ac-
cumulated when costs were lower.
The total indebtedness of the coun-
ty now appears to be $107,583.97,
which includes the bond issue of $100,-
000.00 that was floated at the time
the court house was remodeled. To
offset this there are assets of $89,-
447.43; leaving a net indebtedness of
only $18,136.54.
In these times of high taxes and in-
creased public expenditures with their
future burden of still higher taxes in
State and Nation, Centre county ap-
pears as a bright spot indeed and our
citizens will feel a peculiar sense of
gratitude to Messrs. Grove, Noll and
Miller for the signal service they have
rendered. In this exceptional show-
ing we trust there will be 2 reminder
to the men of the county as to the im-
portance of the office of County Com-
sioner. It is the managerial and ac-
counting department of a business
that annually handles more than one
hundred thousand dollars and should
not be entrusted to inefficient or inca-
pable men.
Men of intelligence, business exper-
ience and highest probity should fill
that office. We hope that neither par-
ty in the coming primary, will nomi-
nate a man for the office who does not
measure up to such requirements.
For it is certain that men with un-
trained business minds will be inca-
pable of managing our business eco-
nomically and we will have to pay the
penalty of their unfitness, should they
be elected, in higher taxation.
Senator Sherman threatened to
al
‘nis‘eolleagues would join in a filibus-
ter. What an opportunity to abate a
nuisance? .
Machinery of Government Stopped.
The Sixty-fifth Congress passed in-
to history at noon on Tuesday after a
closing session which left a stain on
the escutcheon of the country for all
time. The most important supply
bills failed to pass and unless an ex-
tra session is called before the expi-
ration of the fiscal year the machinery
of government will cease to function.
This situation is the result of a con-
spiracy. During the closing days of
the session Republican Senators de-
liberately hampered the proceedings
of the chamber so that the army ap-
propriation bill, the navy appropria-
tion bill and the bill appropriating
funds to operate the railroads were
left unfinished at the close of the ses-
sion.
The enactment of this legislation
was essential to the progress and
prosperity of the country. Without
it it will be impossible to carry out
the projects for the improvement of
the navy and provide for the mainte-
nance of the army. Under existing
conditions it may become impossible,
within a brief period to operate the
railroads and transport the returning
troops to their homes. But the Re-
publican leaders in the Senate were
willing to create such a condition in
the hope that it might inure to their
party advantage. It will hardly work
that result, however. An intelligent
public mind will discern the sinister
motive and rebuke it.
The President was under moral ob-
ligation to return to his important du-
ties at the Peace Conference table in
He is the recognized cham-
pion of the people in that greatest of
all tribunals and he could not fail to
meet his obligations. He may be able
to complete his work there and return
in time to remedy the evil which mad
party passions have created. But if
the country suffers the blame is upon
the heads of those who brought the
existing conditions about. The Dem-
ocrats in Congress tried to do their
duty. But the force against them was
too great. The spirit of rebellion was
too strong. For the first time mad
passion has run its course.
Heard On ‘the Street.
The other night it is said a thirsty
individual sauntered up to the Brock-
erhoff bar room just as the door clos-
ed for the night. Stepping back on
the pavement and bringing his right
hand to salute he sang this ditty:
“Good-bye little barroom
Don’t you cry;
You'll be a postoffice
By and by.”
big figure but when measured in com-
parison with the pigmies who are
fighting the League of Nations his di-
mensions expand immensely.
bagdon his seat in the Senate unless
NO. 10.
Sectionalism in Polities.
From the Lancaster Intelligencer.
One of the potent reasons for the
defeat of the Democrats in the last
congressional election was the cry of
sectionalism. It was charged with
good effect by the Republicans that
the South was in the saddle, yet, hav-
ing won on the issue of sectionalism,
the Republicans move in even closer
sectional lines than the Democrats
ever attempted.
In selecting Gillett for Speaker at
a time when Senator Lodge is to be
Senate leader and Penrose chairman
of the all-powerful Finance commit-
tee, the directing of legislation is
vested in a section radiating not over
forty-five minutes from Broadway
(Wall Street).
The whole west and central west,
which swung the tide both in the
Presidential election and in the Con-
gressional elections last fall are com-
pletely ignored. Young Mr. Hayes
probably believes that he can lead the
wild and wooly westerners by the nose
wherever he will, but students of poli-
tics know that the people of the west
do not lead so easily as the people in
the shadow of Broadway and Wall
street. They are more likely to kick
over, and when they do, the jig is up.
Democrats will be tickled to see the
move toward the Old Guard in the
Republican ranks for it is not to be
supposed that the liberal-minded wvot-
ers of the West will blindly follow the
same crowd, for which they wrecked
a party.
The action of the House members
in naming Gillett from the only State
which backslid from Republicanism
in 1918, is the first ray of hope the
Democrats have had since the current
of men’s minds began to run in violent
waves on account of the war and war
conditions, which the Democratic lead-
ers have had to face and deal with.
A Speaker from the West, not nec-
essarily Mr. Mann (he was not the
man), might have meant a continu-
ance of a winter of discontent for the
Democrats. Now the sun shines again
on the party of Jefferson, Jackson,
Cleveland and Wilson.
Peanut Politics in Washington.
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
The Republican members of the
Senate, while they have been prudent
enough to permit the Victory Loan
bill to go to the President for his sig-
nature, have not placed themselves or
their party in a very credi i
‘tion before the country. The :
ate insincerity of the caucus decision
against a filibuster was made plain,
'by the subsequent course of individ-
ual Republican Senators on the floor
of the Senate Monday. If on the eve
of the close of the Congress and at
the threshold of the new Congress in
which the Republicans are to have
control of the party can offer the
country no better progkam than one
of childish construction, the outlook
for constructive statesmanship on its
part in the near future is not very
promising. While the present majori-
ty must bear a large part of the
blame for the congestion on the calen-
dar and for the failure of so many of
the urgent measures of legislation,
the country will not be disposed to
overlook the fact that the Republican
minority, soon to be. a majority, has
been playing a pretty small and un-
patriotic game of peanut politics.
America Not Russia-
From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
If it is true, as reported, that fifty-
four of the I. W. W. anarchists are be-
ing taken to the Atlantic coast for the
purpose of deporting them from this
country, it is a timely indication that
the authorities are awakening to their
responsibilities in dealing with these
vicious conspirators against our in-
stitutions and our national existence
itself.
We have laws against the admission
of such enemies to our shores. Some
of these are thus barred out, but. oth-
ers slip through. They are here do-
ing their utmost to incite in the Unit-
ed States the same infernal conditions
they have incited in Russia. The fact
that America is not Russia and that
the seeds they sow do not readily take
root in our soil should not influence
us in any way to relax our vigilance
to protect our people against their
crazy machinations. ‘The least that
we should do is to expel them from
the country they are trying to destroy.
Bar out those that are already out.
Put out those that are in.
Honor | for General Kuhn.
From the Williamsport Sun.
When Joseph E. Kuhn was elevat-
ed to the rank of Major General and
placed in command of the Seventy-
ninth army division in training at
Camp Meade, his friends and acquain-
tances predicted that he had been
granted an opportunity in which he
would establish a shining record. The
story of the Seventy-ninth division,
composed of valorous Pennsylvania
and Maryland fighters, on the blood-
soaked fields of France is no less a
tribute to the bravery of the soldiers
in the ranks than to the courage of
their commanding general. General
Kuhn’s further promotion to be com-
mander of an army corps is only de-
served honor, but it is doubtful
whether this man, than whom there is
no more highly respected military
leaders in France, will consider his
personal advancement a greater honor
than the achievements his men have
brought to him.
——The first essential to the set-
tlement of the Irish question is an
agreement among the Irish upon some
| SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Governor W. C. Sproul has received
{ the resignation of General Willis J. Hul-
{ ings, of Oil City, as a member of the
| state armory board.
—Postmaster John Barclay has resign-
ed his office in the borough of Clearfield,
| and the man who is not a candidate for
i the place is the exception. The office pays
$2800. The “civil service examination is
scheduled for March 18.
—Lewis Emery, Jr., of Bradford, has
presented to the First Presbyterian church
{ of that oil metropolis a large pipe organ,
which is being installed as a memorial to
his recently deceased wife, Elizabeth Em-
ery.
—*“We have been married thirty years
and in that time he has been drunk twen-
ty-seven years and only partly sober the
other three years,” was the accusation
made at police court by Mrs. John Stah-
ler, of Allentown, against her husband.
Acting Mayor Strauss fined Stahler $15.
—Finding a watch in a barrel of sauer
kraut in the Leroy hotel cellar at Altoo-
na, led to the discovery of the theft of
several bottles of whiskey. The thief
stood on the barrel to reach the whiskey.
When Ralph Greenlee, a negro, asked per-
mission to enter the cellar to look for his
watch, he was arrested for larceny.
—A verdict for $332 was awarded Friday
in Snyder county court at Middleburg, to
Dr. C. W. Roush, of Beaver Springs,
against his brother-in-law, William
Dreese, of the same place, in the only civ-
il case brought to trial at the February
term of court. Dr. Roush rendered a bill
for $955 for professional services, and pay-
ment was refused on the grounds of the
charge as being exorbitant.
—An old lawsuit was instituted in the
Blair county court last week by Joseph
Stine to recover $5000 damages for person-
al injuries sustained while being tossed
by a vicious bull belonging to the William
H. Herr estate. The bidders and specta-
tors attending the public sale on the Herr
farm were attacked by the bull, and sever-
al were injured before the animal was sub-
dued. It is alleged that the owners were
negligent in permitting the bull to roam
at large.
—'Squire Frank Conley, of Westover,
Clearfield county, was a visitor at the
county seat the other day and called up-
on his old time friend, Matt Savage, editor
of the Clearfield Daily Spirit. ’Squire Con-
ley has been night watchman at the tan-
nery at Westover for nineteen years.
Every night he walks a distance of twelve
miles through the yards and buildings of
the tannery. He has been watching 330
nights a year and during that time he fig-
ures that he has walked a distance of 75,-
240 miles, equal to three trips around the
world and a good start on the fourth trip.
—Miss Jane Goodman, of Atglen, Dela-
ware county, filed a suit for breach of
promise recently against Constable Joseph
D. Pickle, of the same place, and Pickle is
in a pickle. She asks for $5,000 heart
balm. Miss Goodman says in her com-
plaint the constable had asked the privi-
lege of becoming her lord and master on
many occasions. She has been his house-
keeper for some time and recently renounc-
ed an estate in order to marry him, the
same having been left her should she re-
main a single weman. She also says re-
cently Pickle ordered her from his home
and struck her.
—Revelation of a plot to rob the Lehigh
‘Valley Railroad of funds exceeding $150,-
|
/'000 was made recently ini the habeas cor-
pus: proceedings at Towanda against four
Lehigh Valley detectives. A large number
of employees, headed by Charles Simpson,
had arranged to rob the messenger boy
carrying the semi-monthly pay for more
than 2000 Sayer and Towanda and Athens
employees in the Sayre yards and shops.
Simpson turned state's evidence against
his comrades in an effort to escape penal-
ty. As a result of the roundup of the men
the Lehigh Valley is now making the pay-
ments for its employees by check.
—Sentences aggregating fifteen years
were imposed at Reading on Saturday, on
four of the five bandits in the gang that
robbed E. H. Morningstar and A. Q. Veit,
Philadelphia motorists, on the Reading-
Allentown highway two weeks ago. Three
of them were given a second sentence for
the robbery of James K. Saul’s house in
Perry, in which Saul was shot twice in the
head. Herbert R. Schaeffer got five to
eight years; Wert Brown and Raymond
Epling, four to eight years each, and Paul
Keller, who was in the auto hold-up only
two to four years. Roy Snyder, who was
in the gang the night of the motor hold-
up, but refused to take part, was released
on probation. They pleaded guilty.
—Frank Hauk, fifty-three, an employee
on the night shift at the New York and
Pennsylvania Paper company mill at Lock
Haven, fell into a vat of acid while at
work Monday morning and received inju-
ries which resulted in his death early
Tuesday morning. Hauk was engaged in
stirring the contents of the large vat, in
which splintered wood is reduced to pulp,
when he lost his balance and plunged head
first into the vat. He was rescued by fel-
low workmen and rushed to the Lock Ha-
ven hospital after being given first aid at
the emergency hospital connected with the
plant. His entire body was burned and
his sight had been destroyed. The acci-
dent occurred a few minutes before Hauk
would have quit work.
—The Westmoreland county commission-
ers are gratified by the fact that gas has
been struck on one of the farms owned by
the county, near George station. The
county has been paid recently at the rate
of $200 a month for a lease by the Peoples
Natural Gas company. However, the coun-
ty owns two adjoining farms that are not
under lease, and is figured that if signs
are good enough development would give
the county a bountiful supply for its pub-
lic buildings. These farms were purchased
by a prior board of county commissioners
about twelve years ago for an indigent in-
sane asylum, but subsequent boards have
never viewed the site with favor since that
time and nothing was done toward the
erection of such an institution.
—Some devil incarnate recently attempt-
ed to wreck the Banta Refrigerator works
at Clearfield. Had his plans carried
through he would not only have wrecked
the plant but killed a number of people.
He entered the plant and closed all the
valves on the big boiler, which would have
caused an explosion great enough to wreek
the works. He split the driving belt so
that it would break after a few revolu-
tions; removed the nut from the gover-
nor on the engine so that the gvernor
would fly apart and cause the big engine
to run away and wreck the engine room,
and disconnected the fuses of the dynamo
so that the plant would be in darkness.
Fortunately, the work was discovered be-
fore an attempt was made to start the
engine. A diligent search is being made
point in dispute.
for the guilty persons.