~
4
Lada
es
“Chairman and name two District dele-
Ts
I
INK SLINGS.
_Is Bellefonte heading into a real
real estate boom or is all this talk
about people scrambling to buy prop-
erty only talk.
—Three weeks ago we tried kid-
ding ourselves into the belief that the
groundhog had nothing to do with the
weather. After thawing our frozen
water pipes nearly every day since he
saw his shadow and shoveling nearly
three tons of coal into a furnace in a
vain effort to keep warm we have
come to the conclusion that this
ground hog dope’s no trifflin’ matter.
—Some of the merchants using the
columns of the “Watchman” as a medi-
um of public communication have this
week donated the space they would
otherwise have occupied to the strong
appeal for Near East Relief that ap-
pears on page seven of this issue.
Read it and then read the letter from
Brig. Gen. Frank McCoy, whom
many of you know, published on page
four, and you will hardly have the
heart to refrain from giving some
small sum to this wholly humanitar-
* ian work.
—The death of William T. “Far-
mer” Creasy, at his home in Catawis-
sa, was learned with much regret by
the older men who have played hands
in Pennsylvania’s political games.
Mr. Creasy was a reformer and had
splendid ideas of government but
made the mistake, that so many men
of his kind do, of refusing to compro-
mise with opposition on any subject.
He would not play the game on the
give and take basis, so that most of
his efforts for the public welfare died
a bornin. During his long service in
the Legislature of Pennsylvania, he
was able to prevent much destructive
legislation and for that very reason
was unable to put through any of his
own constructive measures.
—On page two of this issue is pub-
. lished the Auditors’ statement of the
receipts and expenditures in the con-
duct of the public business of Centre
county for the year 1919. Every tax
payer should examine it carefully for
two reasons. First, because while it
is public business the individual pays
for it through taxation and he should
know why he pays the taxes he does.
Second, it is the report of the last
year of the administration of Demo-
cratic officials and as such should be
-- studied carefully and kept in mind as
a comparative means of measuring
the capabilities of their Republican
successors. The “Watchman” hopes
-to find time to prepare a careful anal-
- ysis of the report for its next issue.
—1It is only about three months un-
til the spring primaries. Our party
must nominate a. man for. county.
gates to the national convention of.
our party. Possibly the pins are al-
ready set up for the places, but if
they are that is not Democracy. If
they are not, Democrats should talk
the matter over sc that the men who
are really meritorious in the party’s
service in the county can be encourag-
ed to announce themselves as aspir-
ants and the positions are not given
by default to some one who may be
neither fitted nor really entitled to
them. The “Watchman” has no can-
didates for either place. Some time
ago it suggested the propriety of giv-
ing the county’s endorsement for del-
egate-at-large to Dr. F. K. White, of
Philipsburg. The suggestion met
with considerable favor in some quar-
ters, but it has gotten no further
since, we understand, that Dr. White
would accept such an honor only if it
were accorded without a fight. As to
the matter of a county chairman
every one will agree that what we
need most is a live-wire. A man who
knows the county, knows politics and
will put enough pep into an organiza-
tion to make it a dynamic and not a
static force.
—1It would be impossible for any
one to have deeper regret at the man-
ner of dismissal of Secretary Lansing
from President Wilson’s cabinet than
does the “Watchman.” While there
is no question of the President’s right
to dismiss a member of his official
family when he chooses, there is a
question of propriety in his manner
of doing it and the people of the Unit-
ed States expects the man who holds
the highest honor they have to be-
stow to be above resort to subterfuge.
President Wilson and Secretary Lan-
sing have been at variance in matters
of state diplomacy for more than a
year. The world knows that and be-
cause of that difference, and incidents
thereto, Mr. Lansing was dismissed.
Why did the President not then can-
didly give the real reason, rather than
resort to a claim that the Secretary
had usurped prerogatives of the Chief
Executive. What if he did call cabi-
net meetings. Surely no sane person
could have expected the heads of the
great departments of our government
to work entirely on “their own” dur-
ing the months that the President was
inaccessible to them. If eight minds
are not better than one why a cabinet
at all? To our mind the President
has made the second serious blunder
of his administration. The first was
made when he wrote the letter, two
years ago, insisting that the country
elect a Congress of his choice. It
must not be inferred from this that
the “Watchman” has lost any of its
great faith in the man in the White
House, for it has not and it may be
just possible that his wonderful ad-
ministration has exalted him in our
mind out of the realm of human agen-
cies where error is never to be
thought of. :
YOoL. up
President Wilson’s One Weakness.
The regrettable confusion of thought
throughout the country in relation to
the dismissal of Secretary of State
Lansing from the President’s cabinet
Woodrow Wilson. He appears to be
a poor judge of men. To this fact
may be attributed most of his troubles
as President. He never ought to have
appointed Mr. Bryan as Secretary of
come to the belief that he has no
when he entered upon his duties as
Secretary of State, he felt that he was
the head of the administration instead
of a subordinate. When the Presi-
dent revealed to him the contrary
fact he resigned and was surprised
that the administration continued to
function. ;
When Mr. Bryan resigned Mr. Lan-
sing ought not to have been called to
fill the vacancy. Mr. Lansing had al-
ways been a Republican, his habits of
thought had been schooled into chan-
nels of Republican policies. He is an
able and earnest man and his brief
contact with the great mind of Presi-
dent Wilson may have misled him in-
to the belief that he could adapt him-
self to the situation. But in the su-
preme emergency he failed. Admiral
Sims never ought to have been as-
signed to service as head of the na-
val forces of the United States in Eu-
rope. He is a fine officer, a capable
seaman and a splendid man. But he
is temperamentally unfit for the work
to which he was assigned. His ac-
tions since the close of the war make
this fact so plain that no proof is nec-
essary.
Henry P. Fletcher never ought to
have been appointed Ambassador to
Mexico. Mr. Fletcher was born and
bred a Republican and had been
for many years in the diplomatic
service under Republican tutelage. At
the time of his appeintment Mexican
troubles had been for some time the
subject of bitter dispute between the
two political parties in and out of
Congress. Fletcher may have imag-
ined that his party predilections could
be suppressed. But like Lansing he
was mistaken. On the verge of a
| great, party battle, most likely involy-.
ing thé life of the party with which
‘he had always been affiliated, he yield-
ed to the importunities of his former
party associates and resigned at a
time and under circumstances which
reflected upon the wisdom if not the
patriotism of the administration.
Other cases might be cited to prove
that President Wilson has one weak
spot which = works infinite harm to
himself. But it is only necessary to
make one more citation. There is
something the matter with a
mind that will estimate Mitchell
Palmer and Vance. McCormick as
party leaders. Neither of them
has ever shown even a symptom
of leadership. Following the in-
auguration of President Wilson they
set up a political trading post in
Washington with a branch office in
Harrisburg and doled out the party
out cabbages and turnips at his mar-
ket stall. The result has been such a
diminution of the party strength in
Pennsylvania that the party is hardly
able to cast a shadow and yet with
President Wilson’s consent, or else in
the absence of his knowledge, they
continue to operate.
Why the President hasn’t seen it is
the one amazing thing in the minds
of thousands of real Democrats in
Pennsylvania. Ten years ago Palmer
and McCormick started in to reorgan-
vania. Then, as Vance McCormick
personally told the writer, every one
of the old so-called bi-partisan twin-
yond the opportunity to deal politic-
ally with any one. The man he and
Palmer most condemned then was
Charles P. Donnelly, leader of the
Philadelphia Democracy, and their
denunciation “for the good of the
party” even went so far as to throw
him out of a seat in the last state con-
vention of the party held in Pennsyl-
vania. At that time Charles D. Mc-
Avoy, who has just been named Unit-
ed States Attorney for the eastern
so, was a man under the McCormick
and Palmér ban. Today Charley Don-
nelly, no better or no worse than he
was ten years ago, is Palmer’s right-
McAvoy gets the place which Francis
Fisher Kane never had a right to
have.
So we see how sincere these polit-
ical hucksters have been, how com-
pletely they must have the President
deceived and how little there was in
their constant mouthings about the
corruption in the party ten years ago.
All they really wanted was gratifica-
duced the party to a pitiable state
and are now trying to complete the
wreck by taking in the men they once
defamed in the hope of carrying a
delegation
ion to’ San Frarcisco that will
be their ‘personal asset. ERE
calls to mind the one weakness of:
State. Mr. Bryan had long before
equal in statesmanship on earth and !
favors precisely as a huckster hands |
ize the Democratic party in Pennsyl- |
machine Democrats were to be put be- |
district, was with Mr. Donnelly and |
fought against his unseating. He al- :
hand man in Philadelphia and Mr.’
tion of their vanity. They secured
that through deception that has re- |
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FEBRUARY 20, 1920.
Senator Newberry’s Trial.
The trial of Senator Newberry, of
Michigan, and a lot of his friends on
| a charge of conspiracy to defraud, is
| dragging its slow length through the
| fifth week, at Grand Rapids. It was
admitted in Mr. Newberry’s expense
account that nearly two hundred
thousand dollars were spent in his be-
"half, while an Act of Congress limits
the expenditures to seven thousand.
The evidence indicates that nearly a
‘ million was spent, however, and that
every crooked scheme known to polit-
ical chicane was employed in com-
passing his election. He was a cog in
the machine with which the Republi-
can bosses set out to crush President
Wilson and probably investigation
would prove that a number of other
Republican Senators were elected by
the same nefarious methods.
The trial is tedious according to
newspaper reports of the proceedings,
so much so that the principal defend-
ant went to sleep in the court room,
while listening to the evidence, the
other day. But it is not without val-
ue, nevertheless. It has revealed an
orgie of corruption without parallel
in the history of the country. Money
flowed in every direction and anybody
from a tramp to a millionaire could
get whatever he wanted to shout for
Newberry. While shameful and hu-
miliating it is somewhat amusing to
learn that a good deal of it was wast-
ed paying crooks who were working
on the other side under the belief that
they were faithful adherents of the
modern Croesus who with more mon-
ey than brains was handing dollars
as freely as a hurricane spreads air.
© When demagogy was in flower and
Populism ran wild in Democratic
councils the election of United States
Senators by the people was presented
as a panacea for all the evils of the
day and generation. The election of
Senators by the Legislature as rep-
resentatives, not of the people but of
the State, was the last lingering token
of the fundamental Democratic prin-
ciple of State sovereignty. But at
Populist behest it was rooted out and
cast into the scrap pile. We were as-
sured that the change would guarantee
the .election of pure men by honest
methods. |The testimony in. the New-
berry trial at Grand Rapids, Michi-
gan, is the correct and only answer.
Probably the corruption fund is more
widely diffused but if so that is the
only difference.
—The Cleveland man who sued his
wife for divorce and claimed seventy-
it has established a precedent that
will be a boon to the fellows who give
their wives a wash-tub and rubber as
a wedding present and then sit down
to figure that their meal tickets are in
sight for the rest of their lives.
Vice President Marshall’s Platform.
Real Democrats throughout the
country will learn with satisfaction
that Vice President Thomas R. Mar-
shall is a candidate for Delegate-at-
Large to the coming San Francisco
| National convention on “an old-time
Democratic platform.” In announc-
ing his candidacy Mr. Marshall says:
«I have watched in other countries the
effects of so-called unbridled Democ-
racy and I have seen its menace in
this country until I am quite convinc-
ed that the peace prosperity and per-
petuity of the American Republic
must rest finally upon a few efficient
and time-honored Democratic princi-
ples.” :
Mr. Marshall has frequently inti-
mated his dissent from some of the
heresies which have been passing cur-
rent as Democratic principles. He is
not in opposition to any of the war
| measures adopted and operated dur-
ing the war against ‘militarism and
! autocracy. But the war is over and
| the time has come to return to the
| principles and policies which SO many
| years produced prosperity for the peo-
{ ple of the United States. There are
| only two classes of citizens, he says,
| “the law-abiding and the law-break-
ing,” and the Democratic party should
stand for the former as it always has,
in order that the individual = citizen
{ who is honest may succeed by honest
- methods.
“This is still a federation of
States,” continues Mr. Marshall in
his address to the Democratic voters
of Indiana, and he would have the
States “discharge the duties of local
| self-government, resisting the usurpa-
tion of the general government and
removing corrupt and biased judges.”
He would have legislation for the peo-
‘ple and all measures carrying unnec-
essary and ill-advised appropriations
and legislation for the benefit of a few
people vetoed. This is what he calls
old-time Democratic doctrine and we
are sure that all genuine Democrats
of this time will cordially endorse his
platform and hope for his election.
Mr. Bryan is wise in getting
his platform suggestions in early. It
looks as if wishes in that direction
| will get scant attention at the conven-
| tion when the platform is being fram-
five dollars a month alimony and got
President Wilson in the Right.
i President Wilson may have been a
I trifle unfortunate in ascribing the
| cause of his quarrel with Mr. Lansing
i
‘ the President’s critical illness. There
"was nothing culpable in that. The
same thing had been done before and
may possibly be done again. The
functions of government must pro-
ceed in sickness and in death and
when the President is too ill to attend
to the business some one else must do
so. Being the head of the cabinet Mr.
Lansing felt that the duty of assem-
bling the cabinet devolved upon him
and apparently his colleagues concur-
red in that view. At least Secretary
Lane and Secretary Redfield have so
declared.
| But the President had the moral
and legal right to ask Secretary Lan-
sing to resign and to remove him in
the event of his failure to comply. It
is equally certain that he had ample
reason for exercising his authority in
the matter. The correspondence be-
tween them shows that material dif-
ferences of opinion have existed for a
considerable period of time and com-
plete harmony of thought is essential
between the President and his princi-
pal Secretary. Mr. Lansing recog-
nized the incongruity of his position,
his letters indicate, and his resigna-
tion was deferred only on account of
the President’s illness. But the sen-
_timent which held him in an uncon-
genial environment for several
months, ought to have influenced him
to loyalty during the period he was so
- bound.
It is. more than evident that Mr.
Lansing has not been loyal to his chief
for some time. There are substantial
reasons to believe, in fact, that he has
been in sympathy, if net inf active par-
ticipation, with his enemies during a
considerable part of it. He seems to
have shared the opinion of Senator
Knox on some -questions, those of
Senator Lodge on others and of the
irreconcilables on still others. These
facts unfitted him for the office he
held and if the President had frank-
ly told him so, in asking for his resig-
to usurpation of authority in calling |
| cabinet sessions during the period of
The Resignation of Lansing.
From the Williamsport Sun. :
The retirement of those Secretaries
who have left the President’s cabinet
in the last year has been a personal
matter with each man. resigna-
‘tion was actuated by purely personal
reasons and for that fact resignations
came with little comment other than
that inspired by the man himself.
There is a matter of considerably
more importance than this involved
in the retirement of Secretary Lan-
sing who although on the point sev-
eral times of offering his resignation
to the President has at last left the
cabinet’ at a very sharp request of his
chief. -
While apparently Secretary Lan-
sing retires with the best of personal
| feeling toward the President, their
' open break over policies which is re-
vealed by the correspondence. between
the two gentlemen and a history of
{ their relations running over a year, is
lan unfortunate occurrence. Public
opinion will largely be with the retir-
ing Secretary for several reasons. It
will feel thatthe President has used a
very thin excuse to get rid of his Sec-
retary of State. Infacta considerable
portion of public opinion will be sol-
idly back of the Secretary in his treat-
ment of a very difficult and delicate
situation developed by the President’s
illness. Then it will also be sympa-
thetic toward Mr. Lansing because of
his first consideration of the duty he
owed to the President and to the office
he occupied during the very trying
days of the peace treaty formulation
and since then.
The Secretary deferred his resigna-
tion from month to month during the
sitting of the peace commission sim-
ply by reason of his consideration of
the effect upon the {
as well as the world, of 4 breach in,
the American delegation to Paris.
Then came the esident’s illness
which chained the Secretary more,
tightly to his duties an ve him the
opportunity to conduct his office and:
discharge his responsibilities as he in-
terpreted them in a manner which
aroused the further displeasure of the
President, [ge eel
Just what bearing the retirement of
crucial Sime i he rogues ot the
peace treaty fig or th son
which it is quite evident to all was.
not his charged usurpation of pres
is dif-
dential prerogatives, will have,
nation, public sentiment would have fieult 3 ate > will .
“had a better o “to judge be- | strength
tween them. As it is the public feels
that the President was quite within
his constitutional right, but it views
his resort to so trifling an excuse in
explanation of it as evidence that his
illness has somewhat shattered his
poise.
A South Carolina’ contempora-
ry asks the Literary Digest to show
how to print newspapers without pa-
per. That is palpably impossible but
the supply of paper might be increas-
ed by suspending the publication of
some papers that are of no use.
Another Strike Averted.
The unselfish patriotism of the
great body of railroad wage earners
has again been revealed in the com-
pliance with the President’s request
to refrain from striking to enforce
the demand of the maintenance of
way workers for increased wages.
This division of the vast army of
railroad employees has been patient-
ly waiting for more than a year for a
promised increase of compensation
commensurate with the increased
cost of living. Finally a strike was
ordered to go into effect next Monday.
Such a strike would be disastrous to
the industrial and commercial life of
the country. To avert it the brother-
hoods appealed to director general
Hines, who failed to solve the prob-
lem.
At this stage of the proceedings
the brotherhood officials appealed to
President Wilson, who invited a com-
mittee to visit him for an intimate
consideration of the question. It was
an inauspicious time for such a con-
troversy. The control of the railroads
is to pass into the hands of the actual
owners on the first of March and it
would be manifestly unfair to put
them under obligations which they
might not be able to meet. But the
President assured the committee that
he would see that justice is done as
between employers and employees
and faith in him is so strong that the
brotherhood chiefs have called off the
strike and thus averted a danger to
the country the consequences of
which can hardly be measured.
The cost of living has increased
since the beginning of the world war
almost one hundred per cent. In
most industries and in some branches
of the railroad service, wages have
advanced almost if not altogether in
proportion. But the maintenance of
way workers on railroads have not
shared in this advantage. Their
wages have been somewhat increased
but the advance is scarcely percepti-
ble and in view of the rapid rise in
products is not appreciable. But the
guarantee of President Wilson may be
relied upon. He will see that men up-
on whom so much depends will get
justice at the hands of their employ-
ers, either through a decline in prices
or an increase in wages.
we do not fora -minu be i vel bo
Secretary guilty of any such motive.’
Ratify!
From the New York Evening Post. fa
When Senator Hitchcock declares
that the latest Republican substitute
for the Lodge reservation to Article
X means not compromise, but surren-
der, meaning thereby Democratic sur-
render, the country can only reply
that it is not interested in who surren-
ders to whom, provided the treaty 1s
ratified. Let party prestige surren-
der, let personal pride of authorship
surrender, if only the United States
does not surrender its duty in the face
of its own and the world’s necessity;
and that duty is summed up in one
word: Ratify!
This does not mean that Senator
Hitchcock and his followers must ab-
negate their right to obtain the best
terms possible; but they must set a
time limit to the battle. The wording
of the proposed substitute reservation
is far from happy. The injection of
the phrase “or by any other means”
has no logical connection with the
subsequent assertion of the rights of
Congress to take action in any partic-
ular case. Congress has the sole right
to declare war, and Congress may
claim the right to proclaim an eco-
nomic blockade. But it is hard to see
how these powers of Congress would
come in if, in case of threatened . war
in Europe, the President should think
ca’s possible displeasure to any nation
afflicted with a rush of belligerency
to the head.
High Republican Achievement.
From the Oregon J ournal.
_Of the Republican Congress called
into extraordinary session to enact
post-war reconstruction legislation,
Floor Leader Mondell, a Republican,
said that it filled up its time with
everlasting debate, and with unending
quarrels about the peace treaty. He
summed up its entire accomplish-
ments as confined to the following:
Building a bridge over the Minneso-
ta river. ‘
Granting citizenship to Indians who
had fought in the late war. .
Requiring that undelivered mail
matter be returned to the senders.
Granting the cancellation stamp
privilege to the Roosevelt Memorial
Association.
‘And authorizing the Protestant
Episcopal church of the, Diocese of
Washington to give the same rights
to women to vote and hold office as 1s
now enjoyed by men.
"Pocket Piece.
From the Knoxville Journal and Tribune.
Who wants the government to coi
| a two-and-a-half-cent piece? Can
| anybody think of anything that could
| be bought with such a coin as that?
Sting of Work.
From the Columbus Dispatch.
Bricklayers getting $11
Work, where is thy sting?
per day.
|. ——They are all good enough, but |
the “Watchman” is always the best.
American people, | °
Mr. Lansing from the cabinet at this
it fit to address a reminder of Ameri-
| SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Philipsburg barbers now charge fifty
cents for a hair cut. . .
—Escaping gas exploded when Mrs.
{ Thomas Burke, aged 27 years, opened the
' door of her apartments in Altoona last
Thursday night, blew her down stairs to
the second, floor and ignited her clothing.
She was seriously burned before neighbors
extinguished the fire.
+ —Forty central stations for operation
of ‘motorcycle members of the Pennsylva-
| nia state police will be establishel along
state main highways by the State Police
Department this. spring primarily to cap-
ture automobile bandits and violators of
state automebile regulations.
—Pennsylvanja has more than 4000 med-
als for National Guardsmen who were on
duty at El Paso and vicinity in 1916 and
the early part of 1917. Since the demobil-
jzation of the army the Adjutant Gener-
al’s office has been making every effort to
locate the men entitled to the medals, and
families - of soldiers have been asked to
help.
—Objections have been made before the
Public Service Commission by the Penn-
sylvania railroad to the application of the
Susquehanna Traction company for per-
mission to run one-man trolley cars over
a grade crossing at Lock Haven. The
rules of the commission require a traction
company to have a car flagged before it
crosses a grade.
—Fire at an early hour last Thursday
morning caused a loss of more than $50,-
000 in the Simon block, one of the finest
buildings in the business section of Lock
Haven. The block was occupied by A. Si-
Simon’s Sons, wholesale and retail grocers,
who were the heaviest losers. Several oth-
er tenants also suffered heavy losses. The
origin is undetermined.
— Instructors in the Sharon public
schools have formed a union for the pri-
mary purpose, it was announced on Mon-
day, of pressing their demand upon the
board of education for an increase in pay
of $50 a month, to date from January 1st
last. The organization will act independ-
ently of any other; but, it was said, steps
may be taken to affiliate it with the Amer-
ican Federation of Labor.
Miss Carrie Johnson, of Oxford, has a
day book that was kept by her ancestor,
William Johnson, who lived in Lower Ox-
ford a century ago. A customer was
‘therein charged $1.25 for a barrel of cider,
‘50 cents for a cord of wood, $1.50 for a
bushel of wheat, 75 cents for 100 herring,
50 cents for six quarts of apple brandy,
10 cents for one quart of whiskey, $15 for
rent for the year 1822 and cow’s pasture
and garden.
CDI: David W. Thomas, who has been
elected chief surgeon of the Lock Hayen
hospital to fill the vacancy created by the
death of Dr. F. P. Ball, was assistant to
Dr. Ball for a year. He was born in St.
Mary’s and graduated. from the Central
State Normal school,” Lock Haven, 1n 1906.
He tauglit school at Flemington and then
entered the medical school of the Univer-
sity of Philadelphia, from where he was
graduated: in 1912, Dr.:S. J. McGhee has
been elected chief of the hospital's medic-
al staff,
According to a report of Provost Mar-
shal General Crowder, just made public,
more than 31,000 men called in draft sum-
¢xamination before the
beards, and are virtually eTHss
serfers. At least two-thirds of them are
believed to'live in eastern Pennsylvania.
An investigation has been started to de-
‘termine why they failed to appear. New
York State leads the country in the num-
ber of men who failed to answer the draft
summons and also in the number of men
registered. ’
~ —The champion cheese eater of Bucks
! county has issued a challenge to any one.
| He is William Lewis, better known as
y “Moonlight” Lewis, of Wycombe, near
Doylestown. Recently he astonished the
folks at the Kaunty store, down Wycombe
way, by eating five pounds of cheese and
| twenty-two baker's pies. Thursday an of-
| fer was made to him to eat one pound and
!a half of cheese in two minutes, without a
| liquid to wash it down. He did, and heis
| walking around this week as a living tes-
timonial of the fact, and an open challenge
; to any one.
At the same hour last Friday that his
daughter, Mrs. Harry Buckman, was be-
| ing buried at a local cemetery in Doyles-
town, Daniel G. Gross, of Danboro, receiv-
i ed a telegram that his daughter's oldest
| child, Betty Buckman, had died of influ-
| enza, in California, and would be buried
| at the same hour of the day following the
| difference in time, as her mother. Mrs.
| Buckman was taken ill with influenza in
Philadelphia last week and could not ac-
company her husband and daughter to
California. She died several days later
and it was stated that Mr. Buckman, hus-
band of the wife buried on Friday, is now
bed-fast with influenza in California.
|
1
—A half century ago a porier at a Troy,
Pa., hotel was noted for his thrift. ‘When
he died, twenty years ago, it was found
that he had amassed $6000, half of which
he bequeathed to his sister, Sophia Taylor.
Like her brother, Sophia was thrifty also.
| What she did with this little fortune was
a mystery. That she did not spend it on
herself was certain. There was no change
in her frugal manner of living. She never
opened a bank account. In public she al-
. ways carried a well-worn satchel among
whose contents was a revolver, Sophia
lived alone with her satchel and kept her
own counsel. On January 3lst, last, she
went to the county poor house seriously
ill, but still carrying her hand satchel. A
few days later she died and under her pil-
low was found currency approximating in
the aggregate the sum of her inheritance
from her brother, including a $1000 bill.
The Mann Edge Tool company, of
Lewistown, sustained a loss of possibly
$100,000 Monday morning, when its large
plant, located on Water street, between
Brown and Dorcas streets, was visited by
a disastrous fire. While the greater part
of the plant was damaged, the company
will be able to continue the operation of
making axes for which it is internation-
{ ally famous. The fire originated during
the morning as the result of an attempt
made by one of the workmen to thaw out
! a spigot of a terpentine tank with a torch.
An explosion occurred, and the bunring
fluid was scattered over the floor and
spread rapidly. The flames communicated
to the plant department, where the paints
and oils took fire and with the stiff breeze
blowing the flames swept the entire de-
partment. The plant was built in 1892,
was burned in 1803, was again partly
damaged in 1010 and then rebuilt. The of-
ficials-estimate that the loss will be $100,
000. The plant employs seventy-five men,
It also operates a plant at Mill Hall.
mons in Pennsylvania, failed to appear for
various draft
i
8 de- x