Deora Wadden
INK SLINGS.
——If Henry Ford’s libel suit has
accomplished nothing else it has
proved that a man doesn’t have to be
a college graduate to become a mil-
lionaire.
—Every day we get more visible
evidence that the new borough mana-
ger stands in danger of wearing out
a perfectly good set of legs before he
has completed one year on the job.
—The League of Nations may not
be all that it is hoped to be but it is
the only plan presented that has any
hope in it for those who are thinking
of saving their sons for other needs
than cannon fodder.
—By a vote of 107 to 3 the House
refused to place a ban on having
liquor in the home. It is quite possi-
ble that the three Congressmen who
voted for the proposal had missed the
chance to stock their own cellars.
—The Bull Moose party is to hold
a conference in Harrisburg next Tues-
day to consider the advisability of
electing delegates to the next Repub-
lican national convention who will de-
mand a candidate pledged to perpet-
uate the principles stood for by the
late Theodore Roosevelt, and among
the list of Pennsylvania Moose sched-
uled to be present we failed to notice
the names of any of the big bulls who
were braying so ferociously in Belle-
fonte a few years ago.
—The unusually large registration
of voters in Centre county might be
ascribed to an early interest in the
coming fall election, but we are in-
clined to think it due to the activities
of the assessors themselves. There is
quite a material gain in the voters of
each party over the vote cast for
President in 1916 and while the Re-
publicans have shown an increase of
nearly a thousand in their registra-
tion our gain has not been so great
yet sufficient to indicate a healthy and
normal growth.
—“Red Fox,” the Indian chiefain
who is in the east trying to obtain
better treatment of his people, said in
an address, the other day: “I have
always wanted to see as far as I could
across the unbroken space * * * when
I went up into the mountain top at
sunrise I felt that I saw God, and met
him, face to face.” What beautiful
thoughts and how little sordidness
there would be in the world if we all
tried to see as far as we can across
unbroken space and go more often to
the mountain tops at sunrise.
—If the grain hasn’t moulded or
grown in the shock because of the in-
termittent showers and heat that have
prevailed since it was cut it has been
more because of providential preser-
vation of the bread supply than nat-
ural consequences. Probably half of
the wheat in Centre county is still in
the field where it has been exposed to
rain during every one of the past ten
days, with intense heat and humidity
in the interval between storms. For
the most part the weather and not la-
bor shortage prevented a prompt hous-
ing of the crops. Hay making and the
grain harvest having come so close
together farmers with their normal
supply of help were unable to get both
crops into the barn before the rains
came to delay the work.
—Township supervisors should be
encouraged to more careful work by
the new road bill to which Governor
Sproul has just affixed his signature.
It provides that the State Highway
Department shall pay a reward of
thirty-three and a third per cent. of the
cost of any piece of road, not less than
half a mile in length, which the town-
ship authorities have graded and
drained and covered with gravel, cin-
der or macadam according to speci-
fications. The road can be any width
over twelve feet. This law should
prove of immense help to the town-
ships; for the specifications are such
as to insure a durable and economic
construction and even if there were
no bonus for following them it would
be to the interest of the tax payers if
all road work was done upon advice
of experts rather than according to
the notion of the fellow who happens
to get elected supervisor without ve-
gard to his qualifications.
—Local political gossips are having
a busy time getting their heads to-
gether to swap stories as to what they
hear is to happen to a lot of those Re-
publican gentlemen who are now la-
boring under the delusion that they
have a chance to get a place on .the
ticket. If it were not so apparent that
they should be able to see it them-
selves we would pity them. The slate
is all made up and has been for weeks.
Quietly the word is percolating
through to the leaders and when the
time to strike comes the rank and file
will be told what the organization
wants and it will be done. For treas-
urer, for instance, Ad Hartswick is to
be shelved again because they know
he will stand for it and come around
as he has done twice before. Frank
Mayes is slated for the treasurer’s
nomination. So many hard working
Republicans are spending time and
money trying to get the nomination
for Commissioner that it seems a
shame that seven of them are not told
to quit and go home, for they have no
chance for that thousand dollar job.
Gossips tell us that it is so plain that
even Tom Harter has slipped out the
back door of his office and gone fish-
ing to avoid being asked to sign the
petition of one of the aspirants and
has assured the two favorites that it
is all over but the publication of their
pictures as the newly elected Board.
Verily these are sad days for a group
of men who have a right to expect a
fair field and a squaregdeal, if noth-
ing more.
ACTER
a—
”
i tc
STATE RIGHTS AND FE
DERAL UNION.
VOL. 64.
Macing Public Officials. |
|
A letter recently sent out from the |
Democratic State headquarters in
Harrisburg and addressed to the Fed- |
eral office holders in Pennsylvania,
has excited considerable adverse crit- |
icism by the newspapers of both par- |
ties. The Philadelphia Ledger says
the committee is trying to “mace”
federal employees and the Philadel-
phia Record remarks that the “Dem-
ocratic State committee is engaged in
a contemptible enterprise which is no
whit more respectable because Repub-
lican organizations, State and city,
have been practicing it since time im-
memorial.” Judge Bonniwell, the last
Democratic nominee for Governor of
the State, who was shamelessly be-
trayed by the committee, denounces
it as “an impudent violation of law.”
The esteemed Philadelphia Record
correctly estimates the enterprise but
is faulty in its comparison. The Re-
publican organizations, city and
State, have been extorting funds
from office holders since time out of
mind, but they have been using all the
funds thus acquired for the benefit of
the whole party in campaigns for the
election of candidates. On the other
hand the Democratic State committee
maces its victims for funds to be used,
not against Republican candidates,
but against Democrats who aspire to
nomination in the party or for party
offices such as State, county and city
committeemen who are not willing to
yield the basest servility to the party
bosses, Palmer and McCormick.
Their present purpose is to create a
fund, by unlawful means if necessary,
to use in a worse way to elect dele-
gates to the next National convention
who may be used as trading capital
by the bosses for their own aggrand-
izement.
Last year the Democratic State
committee deliberately betrayed the
party nominee for Governor and used
the funds drawn by the process now
proposed to multiply the Republican
majority in the State. That was a
measure of perfidy unparallelled in the
history of Pennsylvania politics. If
they succeed in putting under way the |
“program that will need considerable
financial assistance,” the nominee of
the party will be: defeated every time
the candidate refuses. to obey the
mandates of Mr. Palmer. In these
circumstances the Philadelphia Rec-
ord is right in advising the recipients
of the letters “to retain them as evi-
dence in the event of further develop-
ments, but otherwise to pay no atten-
tion to them.”
The increasing activities in air
navigation has naturally suggested to
aspiring minds the need of a new
member of the Cabinet to be known
as the “Air Secretary.” It is sur-:
prising how readily the aspiring mind
runs to new offices.
Bad Mixture in Business.
The failure of the North Penn
bank of Philadelphia the other day,
calls to mind a financial episode of a
like character which occurred in that
city some thirty years ago. At that
time a sort of “scrambling” of bank-
ing and politics convulsed the whole
city and considerably disturbed the
State. John Bardsley was city treas- |
urer at the time and got into the hab- |
it of making deposits of public funds
a condition for personal loans to him- !
self and friends. One of the banks
which had entered into this recipro- |
cal relation with him failed with a
large amount of city and State funds
in its vaults, or at least that ought to
have been in its vaults, and exposure
and scandal followed.
It appears that the North Penn
bank has been following the same
sort of banking policy. At the time
of the closing of its doors by State
officials there was a considerable
amount of State funds on deposit and
that at least two former Statc offi-
cials, responsible for the fact, were
borrowers from the bank, in consider-
able amounts. Former Insurance
Commissioner Ambler had placed
some $400,000 of State insurance mon-
ey in the bank and has borrowed $60,-
000 while former Banking Commis-
sioner Lafean, who had a good deal
to do with the reputation of banks,
had been accommodated for a less,
but quite substantial sum. Both
these officials were in service under
the previous administration.
It seems that the institution has
been under suspicion for some time
and immediately atter the inaugura-
tion of Governor Sproul Insurance
Commissioner Ambler was removed
because of his connection with the af-
fair and his successor in office began
at once the gradual reduction of the
State deposit so that at present it is
only about $225,000. Mr. Lafean was
removed from office at about the same
time but it is not claimed that his re-
lations with this bank had anything
to do with it. Nevertheless the com-
ment of the Governor that it “seems
to be a regrettable instance of the
mixture of public funds and private
enterprise,” is fully justified.
v
——1It looks as if the Republican
politicians would Be glad if General
Pershing never came back.
. giving the people of Bellefonte up-to-
“date programs of high-class vaude-
Treaty Will be Ratified.
That the peace treaty, including
the covenant of the League of Na-
tions will be ratified by the Senate, no
longer admits of doubt. The opposi-
tion continues to weaken. For exam-
ple it has been practically reduced
down to a set of reservations which
in view of the facts seem puerile.
First they insist on a declaration
“that Article 10 shall not be con-
strued to obligate the United States
to enter war without a declaration of
war by Congress.” This is clearly
implied in the text. Next “that noth-
ing in the covenant shall in any way
impair the Monroe Doctrine.” That
is plainly expressed in the text. And
“it shall be understood that in ac-
cepting the covenant the United
States does not subtract from its
sovereign right to determine purely
domestic problems.”
It may be assumed that the main
point in these proposed reservations
is contained in the last. The domes-
tic problems which are to be protect-
ed are “immigration and the tariff.”
It might even be conjectured that the
immigration question is not a matter
of supreme importance. But the tar-
iff is paramount. The representatives
of special privilege in the Senate can-
not reconcile themselves to any prop-
osition that might curtail their right
to legislate the earnings of labor in-
to the pockets of corporate capital.
This is the source of the campaign
corruption funds and must be guard-
ed zealously. Every precaution must
be taken to preserve the opportuni-
ties for graft and the chief of these
is the tariff. But the covenant doesn’t
affect that.
It is of record that all the leaders
of the Republican party within a
quarter of a century were in favor of
such an organization as the League
of Nations. McKinley favored it
when President and Roosevelt was an
enthusiast on the subject. Senator
Lodge supported it in the best speech
he ever made and Mr. Taft, Mr. Root,
Justice Hughes and former Attorney
General Wickersham are supporting
the principle now. But the fact that
a Democratic administration was
largely responsible for the develop-
ment of the plan has turned the few
scurvy politicians now in control of |
the Republican machine against it |
and any old objection satisfies them. |
They will not defeat the treaty, how-
ever. No Senator can face his con-
stituents after voting that way.
——Senator Lodge has hardly done
himself full justice in inventing rea-
sons for opposing the League of Na-
tions. He might have accused Presi-
dent Wilson with striking Billy Pat-
terson. :
“Detective” Hunting Harry L. Davis,
“Theatrical” Man.
Last week the “Watchman” pub-
lished an article relative to the visit
to Bellefonte of one Harry L. Davis,
who took an option on a lease of the
Garman opera house for a term of six
years with the alleged intention of
ville and motion pictures. In the ar-
ticle it was stated that the man was
Harry L. Davis, the big theatrical
man of Pittsburgh.
On Tuesday evening of this week
another stranger appeared in Belle-
fonte looking for the Mr. Davis above
mentioned. He represented himself
as a member of the Burns detective
agency and while he stated that he
had grave charges against Mr. Davis
he failed to make them public. The
alleged detective investigated Mr. Da-
vis’ movements and actions while in
Bellefonte and left on Wednesday evi-
dently to pursue his efforts to locate
him elsewhere.
Thus the situation is rather com-
plicated. So far as can now be learn-
ed, when Mr. Davis was in Bellefonte
and took an option for the lease of the
Garman theatre, making a deposit in
one of the Bellefonte banks to cover
the same, he did not assert that he
was the Harry L. Davis, of Pittsburgh
theatrical fame, but that was the im-
pression the public in Bellefonte gain- |
ed and no effort was made to disprove
it. So far as can be learned Mr. Da-
vis’ dealings in Bellefonte were all
within the bounds of the law.
Just what he is wanted for by the |
alleged detective cannot be learned, |
so that it is impossible to even say
whether he has been mixed up in any-
thing illegal or not. The “Watch-
man” is making no charges against
the man, nor. attempting anything in
his defence. We are merely stating
facts as far as they have developed
before the public and must wait for |
further details until such time as the
case is cleared up one way or the
other. -
——1It is said the Crown Prince is
preparing to become a moving picture
hero. No wonder wise people are de-
manding a more rigid censorship of
moving pictures.
. ——We object to Java as a suitable
place to imprison the late Kaiser. He
ism’t entitled to that kind ef coffee.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JULY 23, 1919.
Hot Time in Harrisburg.
The cali to the Bull Moose issued
by Mr. Gifford Pinchot the other day
must have sounded ominously in the
ears of the Republicans throughout
the country. The Bull Moose has al-
ready worked havoc in the ranks of
the party. In 1912 it first obtruded
its horns into the political arena and
though much effort has since been
made to force it back into the forest
of forgetfulness, it refuses to disap-
pear. Mr. Pinchot’s voice is neither
loud nor impressive in his adopted
home State, but it has potency in
more important sections, politically
speaking, of the country and his call
of the followers of Roosevelt to the
colors of the beast may cause great
disturbance.
Mz. Pinchot asks the followers of
Roosevelt in Pennsylvania to assem-
ble in Harrisburg on Tuesday next
“with the avowed purpose of opening
a campaign for the election of dele-
gates to the next Republican Nation-
al convention who will favor a candi-
date embodying the policies and ideals
of Theodore Roosevelt,” and the call
is signed by such formidable poli-
ticians as William Flinn, Lex Mitch-
ell, I. B. Brown and others. The sim-
ilar call issued eight years ago was
laughed down the wind by Senator
Penrose and his faithful followers.
But it created havoc with the party
and though it failed of its main pur-
pose, which was to force the nomina-
tion of Roosevelt, it elected a Demo-
cratic President.
It will probably be difficult for Mr.
Pinchot to find a candidate “embody-
ing the policies and ideals of Theo-
dore Roosevelt,” for during the last
period of his life Mr. Roosevelt alter-
ed his policies and ideals so frequent-
ly that it might be hard to catch on.
But Mr. Pinchot is willing to take a
chance with Senator Poindexter and
it is quite likely that Mr. Flinn, of
Pittsburgh, will be satisfied with any-
body who is opposed to Penrose. The
logical candidate of the conference to
be held in Harrisburg next Tuesday,
however, is Hi Johnson, of Califor-
nia, who has no policies or principles
beyond an abnormal desire to defeat
President Wilson. Still there will be
fun ix Harrisburg on Tuesday.
——Governor Sproul is not going
to let a little thing like the provisions
of a law limit his powers. The law
creating the Board of Registration
for Philadelphia declares that not
more than three of the five members
shall be of the same political party
and Governor Sproul proceeded to ap-
point four Republicans.
Passengers on the evening
train on the Bald Eagle Valley rail-
road have recently noticed electric
light signals flashing on and off as
the train speeds down the valley, and
the other evening the peculiar action
of the lights attracted the attention
of a lady passenger and she decided
to find out the cause. When the
brakeman passed through the train
on his next trip she asked him and he
informed her that they were electric
brake signals. He further explained
that the Westinghouse company has
perfected an electric automatic brake
for railroad trains to use instead of
the air-brake and that the Pennsyl-
vania railroad company is now engag-
ed in testing them out on two trains.
One is the train on the Bald Eagle
Valley and the other is a through
train from Pittsburgh to Philadel-
phia, and these are tne only two
trains in the United States equipped
at the present time with electric
brakes.- Just what the test will devel-
op remains for the future to disclose
but so far they have been deemed
very satisfactory and superior in some
ways to the air brake. ;
—The falling of that monster diri-
gible in Chicago with the resultant
death of eight employees in the bank
the roof of which it crashed through,
reminds us that sitting on the lid of
a powder keg isn’t any more danger-
ous than moving about under a sky
filled with aeronautic experiments.
——Congressman Evan Jones has
| introduced a bill in Congress provid-
ing for the purchase of a site and the
erection of a public building in Belle-
fonte at a cost not to exceed $125,000.
But don’t get excited as it takes quite
a while to get the building even if the
| bill passes.
——Maybe the coal dealers, having
failed to entice some of us into early
purchases, are now trying to scare
us by their talk of higher prices in
the near future.
It looks as if those “good fel-
lows” in Congress who have vast
quantities of the “hard stuff” stored
away in their cellars will escape the
search.
”»
Just one year ago-.the Centre
county boys with the Twenty-eighth
division were in the thick of the fight
against the@Huns above the Marne in
France. :
Al S. Garman has been re-ap-
pointed postmaster at Tyrone.
NO. 29.
Japan’s Confession.
From the Altoona Tribune.
i The report on the Korean situation
| given out by the commission on rela-
I tions with the orient of the Federal
| Council of the Churches of Christ in
i America adds a little in the way of
| facts to what has generally been ac-
cepted as the truth about Japan’s
method of putting down liberal dem-
i onstrations in Korea. It does, how-
{ ever, add to the weight of authority
! necessary to convince a great many
| persons that Japan’s -conduct was
| deplorably Prussian. The Japanese
| confession of guilt, made by the pre-
| mier to the commission and printed
in the report, is especially significant,
even though its sincerity may be
doubted.
As has been repeatedly proved, ad-
mission of guilt is not always a vir-
tuous expression of contrition. Some-
times it is profitably used by unre-
pentant felons. But on the other hand
it may be accepted as the herald of
a change of heart. If so, Japan's pro-
gram is made. Having admitted her
mistake, she can now do the just and
honorable thing and rectify it in as
far as military outrages can be rec-
tified. Failing in this, she can com-
promise upon a new policy of non-
interference, allowing her mistake to
stand as a painful but irreparable re-
minder of bad days.
The report also quotes Viscount
Uchida, the Japanese foreign minis-
ter, as thanking the United States for
its “sane and moderate attitude” to-
ward the Korean trouble, The peo-
ple of the United States will doubt-
less join in a hearty “You're wel-
come!” When pressed, they are
quite equal to the demands of obse-
quious diplomatic repartee. Never-
theless, Japan’s lost prestige in the
United States is not to be regained
by a confession of guilt unaccom-
panied by a prompt and acceptable
form of penance. What, for instance,
is the present Japanese policy be-
hind the Shantung peninsula award?
A Reminder of Quayism.
From the Philadelphia Record.
The revelation that $312,000 of
State funds are locked up in an ob-
| seure Philadelphia bank which has
just been forced to close its doors will
come as a painful surprise to all those
who had hoped and believed that the
once close connection between the
State Treasury and devious Republi-
can politics had been closed forever.
There is a distinct reminiscence. of
Quayism in this deposit of the Com-
monwealth’s money in a small, out-of-
the-way State bank supposed to do
only a neighborhood business, and the
matter is one that calls for investiga-
tion. Fortunately for Governor
Sproul’s administration, the financial
dealings between State officials and
the North Penn bank date back to his
predecessor’s regime, which was not
over-nice in such matters. It was al-
ways playing politics, and its meth-
ods were not marked by a scrupulous
deference to the proprieties. The
Governor and his Banking Commis-
sioner can, therefore, probe into the
affairs of this institution without car-
ing who is hurt by the discoveries
made.
For a long time the favoritism dis-
played in depositing State funds in
privileged banks, generally with Re-
publican leanings, played a great and
corrupting part in Pennsylvania poli-
tics. It was the cause of unending
scandals, and contributed to the un-
doing of more than one financial in-
stitution. The fact that the Common-
wealth did not lose heavily by this
vicious system is no palliation of it.
It brought ruin and disgrace to more
than one politician and banker, and
was universally condemned by the
public so far as it knew of these tricky
methods. Pennsylvania wants no re-
turn to those disreputable tactics of
Quayism.
Brutality of Military Police.
Irom the Pittsburgh Post.
The one redeeming feature of the
story laid before a congressional
committee of the brutal treatment of
soldiers by the American military po-
lice at Paris appears in the evidence
that it was not a case of officers be-
ing banded together to oppress en-
listed men. The rank of those in-
volved apparently had little to do
with the outrages, for while the wit-
nesses who appeared before the com-
mittee were men of subordinate
grades they did not accuse officers
only of cruelty but mentioned enlisted
men of the police force whom they
charged with beating prisoners; one
testified to seeing a lieutenant colo-
nel in the prison doing menial work
in the kitchen; and they admitted that
a military police lieutenant whose
treatment of prisoners was particu-
larly harsh was tried before a court
composed of other officers convicted
and sentenced to several years of hard
labor.
Officers no less than privates are
bitter against the methods which
were followed by the military police
at the French capital. On arriving
at Paris officers were required to
register and were given a printed
slip of regulations of humiliating
character by which they were direct-
ed to govern their conduct. Treated
as men who if not watched would
disgrace themselves and the army,
they considered that they were being
insulted.
Among soldiers of all ranks of the
American expeditionary forces, there-
fore, the inquiry into the actions of
the military police will be watched
with interest. There will be eager-
ness to learn what justification will
be offered for the high-handed meth-
ods employed.
| SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE
—Exploding chemicals used to open a
clogged waste pipe burned the eyes of
Joseph McAleer, a plumber, former coun-
cilman, of Altoona, on Monday.
—A dozen forest tracts, ranging from
5000 to 10,000, have been offered to the
| State Game Commission for State game
preserves under the new act of Assembly
authorizing the commission to purchase
lands for game preserves.
—The biggest real estate deal involving
farm land reported for many years in
Berks county was closed when William XK.
Schmick, of Hamburg, sold his fruit farm
and orchards near there for $115,000. It
was bought by an agent of the American
Orchard company, of Pittsburgh.
—A total of 120 visits were paid to Al-
toona during the month of June by Dr.
Stork, and the city’s population was in-
creased that number of times by his leav-
ing little babies to make happier homes.
These figures are shown by the June re-
port of Mrs. E. B. Raffensparger, deputy
registrar of vital statistics.
—Three hundred fine Holstein and Dur-
ham-bred cows and heifers were washed
and combed at Lancaster one day last
week preparatory to their inspectiol® by
members of the French High Commission,
for whom they have been purchased to re-
plenish the herds of France. The cattle
represent the finest in Lancaster and ad-
jacent counties.
—Plans for putting into effect the new
township road reward law, which allows
paym~-nt by the State of one-third of the
cost of road improvements are being made
by the State Highway Department. "Phe
new law, carrying an appropriation of
$1,000.000, gives the Bureau of Township
Highways authority to receive and act on
petitions for rewards.
—Three thousand miles of travel in day
coaches proved too much for the endur-
ance of Joseph Jadrovick, aged 28 years,
an Austrian going from Sacramento, Cal-
ifornia, to his native land, and he leaped
from a Pennsy car window Sunday night
near Tyrone, and is now in the Altoona
hospital. Jadrovick had a ticket from
Sacramento to Hoboken, N. J.
—Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel Spahr, aged 83
years, near Emig’s Mill, Dauphin county,
harvested three acres of wheat in the old-
fashioned way. Together they cradled,
raked and bound the three acres of wheat
unassisted. This feat of harvesting an
acre of wheat a day was accomplished by
the remarkeble couple during the hottest
spell of the present summer.
—Dr. C. M. Stine and E. H. Holly, who
were fishing along Roaring Run in the
Lewistown Narrows, testify to the fish-
catching propensities of the water snake.
They were whipping one of the deepest
pools, when a commotion occurred in the
water, and a snake with a nine-inch trout
in its mouth came to the surface. Depriv-
ed of its prey, the snake showed fight. It
was killed by the fishermen.
—Three million dollars’ damage to Lan-
caster county’s enormous wheat crop was
estimated at the Farm Bureau, following
an investigation which disclosed that a
second brood of Hessian flies, heretofore
unknown in that county, had dealt a ser-
ious blow to the fields. The few farmers
who have started to thresh report their
crops from five to seven bushels an acré
less than the anticipated yield.
—Money and bonds amounting to $750
were removed from the safe at the Lang
clothing store in Altoona some time be-
tween the closing hour on Saturday even-
ing and the opening Monday morning,
when the loss was discovered. The theft
consisted of $600 in coins and bills and
three fifty dollar Liberty loan bonds.
After taking the money the robber had
gone to the trouble of re-locking the safe.
—The T. W. Phillips Gas and Oil com-
pany struck a good gas well on the Bert
Good farm, near Marion Center, Indiana
county, the flow coming so suddenly that
the gas was ignited from a forge nearby
and the fire destroyed the rigging. The
pocket of the gas was struck at a depth
of a little more than 1200 feet and came
with considerable force. It is estimated
that the well will produce about a million
feet a day.
—When he heard that the farmers were
short of help in their harvesting, the Rev.
I. E. Runk, pastor of the United Brethren
church, of Scottdale, joined the members
of his flock in the fields, working early and
late. On his first trip to the harvest field
the clergyman found that he could oper-
ate a tractor, and this he did. He told the
members of his church that what knowl-
edge he had he gained at a tractor demon-
stration. The Rev. Runk declares that he
will continue to assist in the harvest as
long as his services are needed.
—Joseph R. Royer, pioneer candy manu-
facturer of Lancaster, and originator of
ice cream soda, died Friday at the age of
85 years, following a short illness. Mr.
Royer, it is said, inspired John Wanamak-
er to take up the ice cream soda proposi-
tion, after he had made a hit with it in
1868. As a lad Mr. Royer learned his
trade with Hershey, of chocolate fame. Mr.
Royer was a veteran of the Civil war and
served a term in Libby prison. Joseph C.
Royer, an actor, and Clarence Devaux
Royer, a nationally known musician, are
sons.
—Two cars, weighing four tons each,
loaded with ganister rock, leaped 600 feet .
into space Saturday when the cable broke
on the incline of the Haws Refractories at
Hawstone. The cars dropped 300 feet to
the tipple where they disregarded all safe-
ty devices and took another leap of 300
feet through the moulding room and lime
bins, doing damage to the extent of $1,000.
George Yocum, the only man working in
that section of the plant said, “I heard a
roar and before I could look up there was
a shower of rock about me. One of the
smaller ones hit me on the head and put
me out of commission and when I came to
myself it was all over.” -
—George A. Heller, of Lewistown, who
has just returned from overseas service in
the railroad contingent had an experience
with the numeral “13” that precludes all
possibility of his ever being suspicious of
this number again. George left for over-
seas July 13th, with engine No. 13 and 13
cars in the train to a point of embark-
ment. There were 13 boats in the convoy,
13 days going across after which they
were assigned to barracks No. 13. He
started his railroad career in the 13th
Grand Division, engine No. 13 switches
their train of 13 box cars and dropped it
into the depot on track No. 13 at Verdun
and while there the 13th regular officer
was assigned to the organization. They
set sail for return to the States April 15th,
were 13 days on the way over, electrical
engine No. 13 pulled the train from the
point of delivery and on leaving Philadel-
phia en route home they boarded train
No. 13 on track No. 13 with 13 cars in the
train and George was just 13 months in
the service without accident or mishap.