over and
Demoreaiic, Watdent
INK SLINGS.
—Let us all help swat the tuber-
cular bug.
—Coal is getting scarcer as the
weather grows colder. .
——Mr. Palmer insists that the cost
of living is decreasing but strangely
enough the prices of things we live
on continue to increase.
—Surprising as it may seem not a
single one of our readers has taken
advantage of the unprecedented (?)
offer made in this column last week.
—Surely the President shouldn’t be
regarded as a very sick man since he
has recommended a simplification of
the income tax and excess profits sys-
tem.
—If you happen to spend a time at
Rockview be careful to stay in your
own bed if you are sure none of your
fellow lodgers has a grudge against
you. a
——Reduced te the last analysis
there isn’t as much difference between
collective and individual bargaining
as there is between going to work and
staying hungry.
——There are a good many reasons
for the industrial troubles now pre-
vailing in various sections of the
country and among them is the idle-
ness of the agitators.
——If those Mexican bandits want
to earn the gratitude of the world and
cash in on a handsome ransom at the
same time, let them kidnap either
Carranza or Villa and make the re-
turn “dead.”
—Senator Lodge admits that he is
fighting the President and in that ad-
mission probably lies all of his oppo-
sition to the peace treaty. What a
little man Massachusetts has selected
to fill a big chair in Washington.
—Germany has refused to sign the
peace protocol, because she thinks the
United States is no longer interested
in whether she is good or not. She
has become quite arrogant since we
failed to ratify the peace treaty and,
we presume, Lodge, Reed & Co., are
correspondingly happy.
—General Leonard Wood will not
be the Republican nominee for Presi-
dent if Henry Cabot Lodge, Boies
Penrose and a few others who have
a habit of puncturing the booms of
“favorite sons,” can prevent it. They
don’t want him, for the same reason
that they didn’t want Roosevelt.
—During this. month. of December
. we expect every subscriber to the
“Watchman” whose paper is not paid
at. least six months in. advance to
write us a letter or call personally
and show reasons .why. he or she
should not forthwith relinquish, set
assign to our use forever
ons. O0e dollar and fifty cents.
a
—The success that hunting parties:
have been having during the past
two years can be ‘ascribed to the leg-
islation that preserves the does. Deer
have multiplied wonderfully since
that act was passed and the most con-
clusive proof of the statement is
found in the fact that now many par-
ties slay more bucks alone in a sea-
son than they formerly did bucks and
does combined.
—Those who think “we ought to
do something about Mexico” had bet-
ter go and do it and stop croaking
around about the government’s failure
to send some other persons’ boy down
there to fight greasers. Mexico is a
thorn in our flesh, we'll admit that,
but when it comes to picking it out’
with bayonets the people who supply
the men behind the bayonets should
do the talking.
—Why should Congress worry
about whether the President or some
-one else wrote his last message? It
hasn’t paid much attention to his pre-.
vious communications and the prob-
ability is strong that it will pay less
to this one. There is enough work
cut out to keep it busy and if it were
to look after that rather than spend
its time nosing into the sick room of
the first citizen of the land it would
command greater respect at home and
abroad.
—The “Watchman” this week de-
votes much of its space: to the anti-
tuberculosis campaign: ‘in ! Pennsylva-
nia which is now being strengthened
by a call for public interest, and con-
tributions through: the = purchase of
Red Cross Christmas seals. We think
too little of these things. We are too
prone to smile indulgently at the pa-
tient, persistent efforts of those who
have been working for years to ef-
face the white plague, under the im-
pression that it is only a hobby that
gets nowhere Don’t be deceived.
The result of this beneficent work is
almost incredible. Fresh air, sanita-
tion, prompt treatment of incipients
have worked wonders, because some
one has been harping on them all the
while most of us have been unconcern-
ed. Time was when we seldom went
onto the streets without meeting one
of the stricken victims of this dread
malady. Scarcely a public gathering
of years ago failed to produce that
hacking, awful cough from some
quarter of a room. It is the excep-
tion now. And why? Simply be-
cause the public is being taught that
it can be conquered, stamped out en-
tirely and the good samaritans who
have been teaching all these years
are calling on you to help a little.
This is the season when colds and
coughs, unnoticed, run into tubercu-
losis. This is the season for you to be
alert. Help fight it by taking care of
yourself and your children, even if
you can’t contribute to the fund by
buying a few seals for your Christ-
mas letters.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION
Ee ny
VOL. 64.
BELLEFONTE. PA., DECEMBER 5, 1919.
NO. 48.
Profits of Coal Mine Owners.
The dispute between coal operat- .
ors and miners will not be settled un-
til the statement recently made by
former Secretary of the Treasury
William G. McAdoo has been investi-
gated and affirmed or refuted. Mr.
McAdoo states that the profits of coal
operators are “shocking and indefen-
sible,” and have in some instances
reached the larcenous proportions of
two thousand per cent. The only
answer to the charge thus far made,
so far as current information goes, is
that Mr. McAdoo has been revealing
secrets of the government. That is a
mighty disappointing response to an
exceedingly grave charge. It seems
to the average mind like a confession
of the truth of the accusation.
Mr. McAdoo’s source of informa-
tion is the statistics of the govern-
ment with respect to incomes. Such
records are certainly not “govern-
ment secrets.” The records of the
United States’ Treasury are public
and should be available to any one
who has interest in or curiosity about
the subject. If they show that the
owners of coal mines have been over-
charging the consumers of coal to the
extent of taking down profits of 2000
per cent. the public has a right to
know all about it. The burglar, how-
ever successful, has committed no
greater crime against the victims of
his predatory operations ‘than this
and those guilty of it should be held
up to popular scorn everywhere.
The demand of the coal miners for
a sixty per cent. increase in wages
and a six hour day is raw indeed when |
it is known that they are now being
paid, and have been for two years, on
a scale entirely out of proportion to
what other skilled labor, in the com-
munities: in which. the mines are lo-
cated, has received. And the miners’
claim that they are really permitted
to work .no more than six hours a day:
is wholly without foundation. There
are only two things that deter them
from working longer: Their own re-
fusal and an occasional shortage of
cars at the mines.
Mr. McAdoo’s statement is prede-
cated on the profits made'in 1917
when coal reached a price of seven
and eight dollars a ton, but that was
only for a Short period and even that
inured little: to a lot of operators who
had ‘contracts ‘for almost their entire
production at far lower prices: and
were honorable enough to fulfill them.
It will be recalled that within a very
short time after prices began to soar.
the government stepped in and fixed
the price of coal so that profits in
1918 and 1919 have not been so shock-
ing as the public may be led to believe
by Mr. McAdoo’s half a truth.
He should promptly qualify his re-
cent statement, for as long as it
stands the miners will believe that all
of the operators are profiteering as a
few. of them did in 1917 and will e-
main unreasonable in their demands.
——Of course every man has a
right to quit work if he wants to but
by the same token the fellow who
wants to work has some right to self-
determination, too.
Why You Should Support the
Cross Seal Sale.
The Christmas Red Cross seal sale,
which formally began on Monday,
December 1st, should have the cordial
support of this community as it is a
practical means: of helping not only
the fight against tuberculosis but
against other contagious diseases.
Tuberculosis causes one-seventh of
all the deaths in the world and $100,-
000,000 represents the outlay of pub-
Red
lic ‘and. private . funds now necessary
in caring ‘for tuberculous patients. In
Pennsylvania, 10,000 die annually
from this disease and the comparative :
cost to this State for one year as'com-
pared with the annual value of certain
agricultural products was:
Tuberculosis COStE. oS 035,000.000
Value of hay and forage (over). 35,000,000
Dairy products ... 000
09, 5
Corn (over) 20.000,
Wheat (over)
Oats (over)
Orchard products ...
Potatoes (nearly)
Tobacco (nearly)
Seventy-eight per cent. of the mon-
ey derived from the sale of Christ-
mas seals will be spent in our own
community to improve the public
health by health education, by modern
health crusade work, by care of the
tuberculous and such other measures
as shall be considered most efficacious
by the local committee, co-operating
with the state society for prevention
of tuberculosis. The modern health
crusade work in the public schools is
known to our readers through the
several reports published in the
“Watchman” and has been financed
from former seal sales. If you invest
in these Christmas seals it means that
you are putting money into public
health work here at home and no bet-
ter investment for your money could
be found. A cent will buy one seal,
$5, $10, $25, will buy health bonds.
Clearfield and Huntingdon counties
have ordered 800,000 seals,
means $3,000 for these counties.
Don’t let them beat Centre county!
Promise of a Pretty Fight.
There is promise of a lovely fight :
between the Republican factions of
Pennsylvania in the near future, if
statements recently published in the
leading newspapers are dependable.
It appears that Mr. Joe Grundy, who
is the leading spirit in the Manufac-
turers’ club of Philadelphia, has some
real or imaginary grievance against
the Hon. William E. Crow, chairman
of the Republican State committee,
president pro tem of the State Senate
and pussy-footer extraordinary for
all the factions of the party in the
State. Why Grundy should have a
quarrel with Crow is inexplicable for
Crow quarrels with nobody and works
over time and all the time toting ol- |
“ive branches around to compose the
differences of others.
But there is a fight on between
these distinguished leaders of the Re- |
publican machine, and, according to!
the press reports, it is not only to the !
knife but to the last ditch, and, if we
may be pardoned for the solecism,
“then some.” Grundy being the most
liberal contributor to the party slush
fund imagines that he ought to have
his own way in everything and Crow,
being a diplomat as well as a states-
man, took issue with him during the
last session of the General Assembly
on certain measures relating to labor
legislation. But Crow manifested a
rather strong friendship for Vare in
his recent reverses which sort of
alienated Penrose and left him expos-
ed to the merciless vengeance of
Grundy.
As Sir Roger O’Triger would say
“it is a pretty fight” and if it contin-
ues may result in‘ vast improvement
in political morals. There is a time
honored adage that “when rogues fall
out honest men come by their own,”
and in an alliance between Grundy
and Penrose on one side and Vare and
Crow on the other, there is presented
the prospect of battle that will: make
Thermopala look like a Sunday school
pienic tennis contest. It is hard to |
imagine a break between Crow and
Penrose, for Crow has been the Pen-
rose cat’s paw for many years. But
Grundy has been the revenue produc-
er for an equally .long period and
there you ‘are. “Home without. a
mother” is a paradise compared with
a political machine . without a pay-
master. ir ah
-——The King of Italy is talking of
making a visit to this country and
however he comes he will receive a
royal welcome. But he would better
come soon or he may come as a pri-
vate citizen. Crowns are sitting un-
easily on royal heads these days. = |!
Indictment of Senator Newberry.
The indictment of United States
Senator, Truman H. Newberry, in the !
Federal court at Grand Rapids, Mich- |
igan, seems like a tardy act of jus- |
tce. Newberry was elected Senator |
in Congress over Henry Ford, the!
Demccratic nominee, by a small ma-
President Wilson’s Message.
President Wilson’s annual message,
prepared in an invalid’s chair, shows
the mental vigor of a master mind.
He appeals to Congress with the force
of an earnest purpose to remedy the
evils present and those impending
and points the way in plainly laid
lines. He asks for the establishment
of a budget system for financing the
government, an improvement in the
tax system, the readjustment of the |
tariff system, relief for veterans of
the recent war, fostering of the infant
dye-stuff industry, improvement of
conditions for farmers and the adop-
tion of measures which “will remove !
the causes of political and industrial
restlessness in our body politic.”
In most of these things he repeats |
recommendations made at the open-
ing of the special session of Congress
more than six months ago which have
been ignored for partisan reasons.
For example in reference to the 're-
lief of veterans he says “I can do no
better than quote from my last mes-
sage.” Referring to tariff legislation
he declares “I beg to call your atten-
tion to the statements contained in
my last message.” In the matter of
food control he says “I renew and
strongly urge the necessity of the ex-
tension of the present food control
act as to the time in which it shall re-
main in operation.” Referring to
cold storage he writes, “I also renew
my recommendations that the Con-
gress pass a law regulating cold stor-
age,” and so on.
All these recommendations have
been ignored by Congress during sev-
en months of a do-nothing session be-
cause the leaders of the Republican
majority in both branches imagined
that political advantage would accrue
to their party by the continuance of
the evils they were intended to abate
and the country is suffering because
of this perverse policy and criminal
neglect of official duty. The President
in each instance pointed out the pro-
cess of correction and in his present
admirable message lays down the
lines which will lead not only to
speedy but permanent relief and en-
during restoration of prosperity. He
refers to the peace treaty only casu-
‘but promises a full ‘discussion of
that later.
— Senator. Lodge seems eager. to
renew his fight on the covenant of the
League of Nations and he is welcome
to all the enjoyment he gets out of it.
But he should remember that “pride
goeth before a fall.”
Senator Lodge’s Reasons.
Senator Lodge acknowledges that
enmity against President Wilson in-
fluenced him to oppose the peace
treaty. “I am fighting President Wil-
son,” he said to a Washington corres-
pondent the other day, adding, “that
much I am willing to admit.” Why
he is fighting the President is left to
conjecture. It is certainly not be-
cause the President has been discour-
Friday, December Fifth, Designated
by Governor Sproul as Tuberecu-
losis Day in the Schools.
“This is everybody’s fight,” writes
Dr. Thomas E. Finegan, State Com-
| Inissjoner of Education, in appealing
! to 44,000 school teachers in Pennsyl-
| vania to bring the tuberculosis fight
land the attendant Christmas seal sale
: to the attention of their pupils on Red
| Cross Seal day in the schools today,
i December 5th.
The fight particularly concerns the
{ school of today because its success or
failure is of first importance to the
community of tomorrow,” declares
: Dr. Finegan. 5
. . The commissioner also urges exam-
"ination of children and proper treat-
| ment for youthful victims of the white
! plague.
| Dr. Finegan’s letter to all school
| superintendents follows:
| “Honorable William G. Sproul, Gov-
'ernor of the Commonwealth, has des-
ignated Friday, December 5th, 1919,
; to be observed as Tuberculosis day in
i the schools of the State. The Gover-
i nor suggests in the statement made
i by him that the schools give special
| instruction in regard to the white
| plague menace and that the teachers
should explain how the public can aid
in preventing the spread of this dis-
ease and in ultimately stamping ‘it
i out altogether. The Governor says:
{ “Only when the public is fully in-
{ formed concerning its part in the fight
"against tuberculosis will it be possi-
ble to cause the reduction in the an-
nual tuberculosis death rate that
| those now engaged in the tuberculosis
! work confidently hope for.
|" “No State in the union has been
i more aggressive than Pennsylvania in
the fight it has made against tubercu-
losis. The fact that a nation-wide ob-
servance of Tuberculosis day is possi-
i ble, is, in a considerable measure, due
| to the influence of the tuberculosis
program in our Commonwealth.
“It would be entirely proper to
: make a powerful appeal to the per-
« sonal interest and public duty of chil-
dren in the school and to bring home
| to every individual some pertinent
questions, for example: i
| of the ten
“Are you going to be one
thousand Pennsylvanians who die in
a year of tuberculosis? Are you will-
ing to be one of the seventy-five
thousand sufferers from this white
| plague? Or are you going to be one
| of the eight million Pennsylvanian;
i help stamp out this menace tu
! happiness in the next‘ten years? /*
i “This is everybody's fight. XT:
person who is so negligent orgso iin-
‘fortunate as to contract the disease
does not suffer alone. . He threatens
the life and happiness of his family
and his friends. He is a menace to
the public on the streets, in. public
conveyances, in school and church,
and at the movie or other places of
amusement. The fight, then, partic-
ularly concerns the school of" today
because its success or failure is of
first importance to the community of
tomorrow. y
“This is a proper time to have an
examination of every child who has
any of the usual symptoms of this
disease. The medical inspector of
voir district should be requested to
make an examination of each child
who shows any of the symptoms of
such disease. Provision should be
to.
apy wignway from Wrightsville to the Adams.
jority, but at great expense to him-
made for supplying each of these.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE,
—Mr. and Mrs. Philip Heimer celebrated
their golden wedding anniversary Satur
day at their home in Beech Creek townm-
ship, Clinton county.
—Ellis McCracken, a hotelkeeper im
Clearfield county was arrested Tuesday om
a charge of violation of the wartime pro-
hibition act. He furnished $2000 bail for
his appearance at federal court at Pitts
burgh, at the next session. His hotel is
located at Madera, Clearfield county.
‘—For the first time in many years Mif-
flin county criminal court did not have &
jury trial at its regular session two weeks
ago, all the jurors being sent home; their
services not being required. The county
jail is empty and there has not been a
prisoner in the city lockup for five months.
—The Brumbaugh distillery in Bedford
county, was robbed some time late Sun-
day night or Monday morning, the thieves
making away with three barrels of bond~
ed whiskey. The value of the whiskey is
placed at between $500 and $600. This is
the third time that the distillery has been
robbed recently.
—The valuable papers and magazines
donated to Juniata College by Mrs. B. F.
Africa, of Harrisburg, in memory of the
late Hon. J. Simpson Africa, were receiv~
ed a few days ago and are now in the Col-
lege library, where local historians und
others will have the privilege of looking
them cver for data and information.
-—Scores of old horses that have passed
their days in usefulness have been killed
in, Indiana county this fall, by their own-
ers, who skin the animals and sell the
hides, at from $10 to $15. Too high cost
of feed and the possibility of the weather
becoming colder most any time as well ag
the good market for hides is said to be
responsible for this move.
—Three officials of the Pittsburgh Su-
gar company, accused of charging unrea-
sonable wholesale prices for sugar have
been held for the May term of the federal
district court by United States Commis~
sioner Knox. The bill of complaint alleg-
es sugar was sold wholesale at 13 cents &
pound. The men are George L. Dowd,
Benjamin Block and E. F. Adams.
—The Rev. George W. Lutz, of Penns-
burg, preacher, editor and orator of ‘the
Perkiomen valley, lost his watch. A pig
ate it. He was leaning over the fence of
a pigpen at a neighboring farm and was
commenting on the points of: the stock
within when his timepiece fell from hig
vest and into the sty. He discovered the
loss just as a healthy porker was taking
a final gulp.
—The lobby of the Hotel Weber, of
Lancaster, the gathering place for hun-
dreds of farmers and traveling men, was
adorned on Monday with signs reading
“For Guests Only. Others Pay 10 Cents.”
Samuel R. Weber, proprietor of the hotel,
said that since prohibition became a guest
at his house “the gang” had moved from
the bar to the lobby, and that hereafter
chairs in his lobby will be rented for a
dime.
—In memory of fallen soldiers and sail-
ors from York city and county in the
world war, trees are being planted along
the Lincoln highway by the Woman's club
of York. The first tree was placed at the
residence of Mrs. Ralph S. Cannon. It is
planned to plant about 2,500 of these trees
and permission has already been granted
by property holders along the Lincoln
"county line.
| “Lore than a million dollars will be
| distributed this month to the school dis-
“tricts of the State, mainly to the smaller
and rural districts. Payments of the war-
j rants has been progressing at the State
. Treasury, although not many of the cities
s have received their funds. State boards
| will meet this week to complete the in-
vestment of state funds in the state's own
road bonds.
{ With the rise in prices of furs of all
| kinds, a number of Lancaster countians .
| have started skunk farms. There have
| been several small skunk farms in that
| county for a number of years, but, with
prices in New York going as high as $9
per skin, some farmers have come to the
conclusion that the profit outweighs the
. risks. They claim that after a short time
the skunks become as tame as tabbies,
and that they can be fondled without dan-
ger. : A
—The State Supreme court on Monday *
which
* spelling.
self or his friends.
vits of campaign expenditures showed
a total of nearly $200,000 expended in
his behalf. As the law limits the ex-
penditures to less than one-twentieth
of that amount, corruption was pal-
pable. But a Senatorial committee
instructed to investigate the matter
was unable to fasten culpability upon
the Senator. The committee sat in
New York and the witnesses in Mich-
igan refused to obey summonses.
Because of this obvious miscarriage
of justice the Department of Justice
in Washington instituted an investi-
gation.
at Grand Rapids, on Saturday, of Sen-
‘ator Newberry and 133 of. his friends
and supporters, for conspiracy to de-
fraud and other offenses. Among the
accused is Senator Newberry’s broth-
er, who admits that he contributed
$99,000.00 to the corruption fund.
Others are accused of contributing
more than the law allowed, with the
knowledge that the money was to be
used for illegal purposes and still
others are charged with using the
money to bribe voters and in other
ways debauch the ballot box. It is
said the evidence against them is
overwhelming. .
Last year the Republican leaders
set out to carry the Congressional
elections then and the Presidential
election next year by bribery and
fraud. The Newberry orgie was sim-
ply an example of their methods. Not
only he, but several other Senators
and Representatives in Congress were
elected by the use of flood-tides of
money. It is now asserted that a fund
of $100,000,000 has been subscribed
by special interests in the industrial
and corporate systems of the country.
This is a greater evil than any other
menacing. It is an assault upon the
foundations of the government. The
arrest and prosecution of Senator
Newberry may afford the remedy. In
that hope the prosecution should be
earnest and energetic.
———The only difference between
Socialism and . Bolshevism is in the
The sworn affida- |
The result is the indictment,
teous to him for the contrary may
‘easily be proved. It can hardly be
for the reason that the President has
; discriminated against Mr. Lodge’s
party in choosing men for war activi-
: ties for more than half those selected
weré formerly Republicans. As a
‘matter of fact the reasons for Sena-
| tor Lodge’s enmity are purely per-
sonal. :
i But the effect of Senator Lodge’s
| enmity against the President was not
personal. It was general, national
and world-wide. As~-Senator Lodge
in malicious pride stated on the day
the special session adjourned, it “kill-
ed the treaty” for a time, and possi:
bly placed the United States in the at-
titude of an “outlaw nation” for a
considerable period. It prevented the
fulfillment of the hope of the world
for permanent peace and the lifting
from civilization the burdens of arm-
ament and the fears of the horrors of
war. It defeated the purposes for
which the country engaged in the wax
and sacrificed thousands of precious
lives. It increased popular discontent
and prolonged industrial paralysis.
But it served the sinister purpose
of feeding the vanity of a contempti-
ble malignant obsessed with the im-
portance of his ancestors and unable
to realize the degeneracy of their pro-
geny. It filled the senile mind of a
mischievous egotist with a false im-
pression of achievement and an ab-
surd notion of power. That was
probably sufficient recompense for
him. Noxious growths require little
nourishment and Lodge can subsist
during the remaining years of his
worthless life on the crumbs that may
come to him from profiteers of war
materials and munition makers. They
had a more substantial reason for de-
feating the peace treaty than he and
they owe him for whatever comes to
them through it.
——Governor Coolidge, of Massa-
chusetts, made a great hit in his cour-
| ageous treatment of the policemen’s
stnke in Boston. But it won't get
_hita much favor among the leaders of
"his own party.
all cases where the home may not be
able to provide such treatment the
nurses and school visitors should fol-
| low up such cases.”
“Fighting President Wilson.”
From the New York World.
“I am fighting President Wilson,”
says Senator Lodge in an interview
printed a few days ago. “That I am
: willing to acknowledge.” :
| This is frank and truthful. Sena-
tor Lodge is fighting President Wil-
son, and he has lost sight of every-
thing else.
mated at $338,000,000,000 and the
number of dead at approximately 10,-
000,000, and responsible statesmen
are everywhere agreed that if civili-
zation does not prevent war, war will
destroy civilization; but all this has
only an academic
Cabot Lodge. What he is concerned
about is fighting the President of the
United States. :
In order to fight the President it is
necessary to fight the treaty of peace;
it is necessary to add to the political
turmoil and confusion of Europe; it is
necessary to keep the United States
and the rest of the belligerents in a
state of war indefinitely and delay
every measure of reconstruction. To
Senator Lodge this is merely inciden-
tal to the duty of fighting President
Wilson.
What Will the Government Do?
From the Philadelphia Record.
What the government will do if
Mexico still refuses to surrender Jen-
kins we do not know, and do not
choose to guess. But it is not likely
that the government sent the last two
notes without a perfectly definite plan
of action, for Carranza is stubborn as
well as stupid, and the refusal of
Mexico had to be reckoned with, Of
course, the Jenkins case is only one
of a long series; if it were alone we!
would take the word of Mexico, but it
is not alone,
es even when it wishes to do right.
—Christmas is less than three
weeks off. Are you ready for it? =
children with proper treatment and in !
The total cost of the war:
_ directly and indirectly has been esti-
interest to Henry
and we have had too |
much experience with Mexico’s words
to trust its good faith or its resourc- !
dismissed the petition of Daniel S. Brum-
baugh, recently defeated for mayor of Al-
| toona on the face of the returns, asking
for a certiorari and an immediate hearing
in the election case. The court also dis-
missed a petition by Brumbaugh asking
for a mandamus on Judge Baldridge, of
| Blair county, directing him to order a re-
count of the returns of the election. The
certificate of election will now be issued te
Charles E. Rhodes.
| —While Harvey Varner was crossing the
| mountain at Blacklog, Juniata county, he -
I saw an animal that resembled a fox go in-
i to a hole among some rocks. Getting a
* stick ‘he poked into the hele and a wildcat
came out with a blood-curdling yell and
struck at his face. Varner thought his
time had come. Fortunately the animal #
missed him and went down the mountain
side at a mile-a-minute gait. Varner says
he is done hunting wild animals with only
a stick as a weapon.
—Children may attend school from hous-
es placarded for whooping cough only
when they have had the disease. That is
‘to say such children may attend school
when the records of their health authori-
ties show that they had whooping cough
during some previous school term or when
they present to the teacher or principal a
certificate from their attending physician,
endorsed by the county medical director or
the physician of the board of health of
the borough in which they propose to at-
tend school stating that they have had
whooping cough during the present school
year and are fully recovered.
—-The trouble was they didn’t catch the
difference between square feet and feet
square, and Pittsburghers who bought
land from a suave Texan recently—there
are said to have been about 200—would
like to see him again. The Texan explain-
ed he had bought twenty acres of land at
a low price, and it had become immensely
valuable through development of the Ran-
ger oil field. He was selling parcels of
400 square feet, not more than that to any
one person. The twenty acres were sold
in two weeks, buyers paying from $250 to
$500. The purchasers were chiefly wash-
| women, chauffeurs and laborers. Each
thought he was getting 400 feet square.
The Texan gave them that impression,
and each expected to become independent-
ly wealthy. Now it turns out that each
got 400 square feet, and that each parcel
is so narrow that an oil derrick couldn't
. be built on it. agi