INK SLINGS.
—Just to show you that we are
right on the old job let us remind you
that it is just ninety-two days until
Christmas. .
——With wages at the top notch it
will be hard to make intelligent earn-
ers believe that additional tariff taxes
would benefit labor.
—Millheim entertained the great
Commoner Wednesday night, that is,
all of him but his heart which, you
will recall, has been in the grave ever
since the San Francisco convention.
—So the sleeping traffic ordinance
in Bellefonte is to be wakened up and
started after the speed-demons and
other violators. More power to those
who are being looked to to enforce it.
- As a matter of fact Professor
Taft appears to have degenerated in-
to a political mendicant who hopes to
secure an office by stultifying himself
on the subject of the League of Na-
tions.
—If the Altoona Times-Tribune re-
ally means what it said on Wednes-
day: “No man who believes the
American Presidency can be bought
is fit for the place” it should put up
the Cox banner at once.
—The wise ones tell us that coal
may be a trifle lower about December
1st than it is right now, but inasmuch
as we have to be kept warm up to De-
cember 1st there is nothing left to do
but buy coal at the present market.
—Well, Well, has it come to the
point where there is danger ofthaving
to close the doors of the Democratic
National campaign committee for
want of fnuds to keep them open?
Could it be possible that Will Hays
got all the money ?
—Henry never did succeed in get-
ting the boys out of the trenches be-
fore Christmas of a few years ago,
but he is marking down his flivvers to
a point where it is reasonably sure he
will get a lot of them out in the dust
before next Christmas.
—The blight is gradually killing all
of the chestnut trees in this county.
Science has been utterly unable to
check its ravages and while we will
miss the raw, the boiled and the roast-
ed chestnut we surely hope that the
nice big, fat, juicy white worm that
so often oozed between our teeth when
eating chestnuts in the dark will
somehow be preserved. We fear
some very finished expletives will be-
come extinct if it goes into the Dodo
class.
—Mzr. Naginey’s candidacy .for the
Assembly is creating considerable in-
terest for an “off year” in the county
elections. There being no question
as to his fitness as a Representative
eople are viewing him with favor be-
with all parts of the county and their
needs. He is a positive man with the
tenacity to get things done or know
the reason.why and it is such an one
as he that would be very useful to
Centre county in Harrisburg.
—No matter which way the cat
jumps we are bound to have a news-
paper man in the White House after
next March 4th. Let us get in line by
sending a newspaper man to Congress
from this District. James D. Connelly
is editor of the Clearfield Progress
and some say he is the man who put
the Progress in that paper. Be that
as it may, we are all ready to admit
that this District needs some more
forceful character in Washington than
the ‘Hon. Jones and we are taking no
chances in that respect on Mr. Con-
nelly.
—Ever since we saw the announce-
ment that the annual convention of
the Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union of Centre county is to be held
at Boalsburg next week we have been
wondering. Wondering whether there
is any particular significance in it.
-Boalsburg has become rather a large
splotch on the map of Centre county
in recent years and many pilgrims
trek thither, but when the Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union hot-
foots it there so soon after the officers
of the 28th Division have gone we
confess a mild curiosity as to the pur-
port of it all.
—~Col. House’s most recent inter-
view given the Public Ledger surely
must set those who have had doubts
as to the workings of the League of
Nations to thinking. He has just re-
turned from a three month’s trip
abroad and announces that the League
is functioning perfectly and also tells
us that if we want a League of our
own make there will be no one else to
go into it but Soviet Russia and revo-
lutionary Mexico, as all of the other
nations of the world are already in
the big League and are getting daily
proofs of its advantages. Col. House
is no longer on the same friendly
terms with the President that he once
was so that his statement is all the
more significant.
—If the women really wanted the
vote in order to help clean up the po-
litical life of the country those of
Pennsylvania will probably have their
greatest opportunity when they go in-
to the polls for the first time next
November. Senator Penrose is a
candidate for re-election. All of his
long life in politics he has opposed
practically every measure that women
have been and are specially interested
in. He opposed giving them the fran-
chise very likely through fear that
their votes would be a menace to the
kind of governmental action he stands
for. Viewed from any but a purely
partisan standpoint no woman of
Pennsylvania can vote for his re-elec-
tion to the Senate.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
_VOL. 65.
BELLEFONT
Why Penrose Abused the President.
Obviously Senator Penrose’s recent
vicious attack upon President Wilson
was merely an expedient to divert
public attention from his own moral
delinquencies. There was no occasion
for him to open his mouth, as he
did the other day, and belch out
rade of vituperation. But he realizes
that party passions must be aroused
to save himself from a humiliating de-
feat at the polls. The enfranchise-
ment of the: women may make a vast
difference in the result of the election
in Pennsylvania. Presumably most of
these newly enfranchised voters will
stand for a higher order of public
morality and a fuller obedience to the
requirements of civic righteousness.
Shortly before Boies Penrose was
first elected to the Senate he aspired
to the office of Mayor of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Mayors of the past gen-
eration have not been exemplars of
Penrose in that office so aroused the
religious element of the city that the
ministerial association in public meet-
ing vehemently protested and even
the Republican machine was forced to
event were brought before the public
view at this time only the most in-
tense party passion would blind the
mental optics of the average woman
to his unfitness to represent the great
State of Pennsylvania in the highest
parliamentary body in the world.
Six years ago, when Mr. Penrose
was last soliciting the support of the
voters of Pennsylvania, the late Theo-
dore Roosevelt denounced him as “a
moral monster.” Mr. Gifford Pinchot,
now an influential member of Gover-
nor Sproul’s cabinet, was equally se-
vere and vehement in denunciation of
Penrose’s moral deficiencies and Mr.
Dimmock, of Scranton, and Mr. Ai-
ney, president of the Public Service
Commission, were little less severe in
their condemnation of him. A rehear-
sal of these records of protest, all
from Republican sources, would al-
most surely turn any good woman
against Penrose, unless she were so
obsessed with partisan passion as to
be incapable of exercising her power
of reason in the matter.
= Drab
ably Senator Penrose imagined
that he might so arouse the partisan
passions and prejudices of the women
of Pennsylvania that they would over-
tacking the President. But we believe
he has reckoned without his host. A
good many of them are bitter parti-
sans and some of them may have slov-
enly notions of public morality. But
the vast majority are gifted with a
tion of moral and civic obligations and
will resent the temerity of Boies Pen-
rose in asking for their support in the
face of the many and pressing reasons
why they should vote against him.
We have faith alike in the intelligence
and integrity of Pennsylvania women.
——Borough council has finally de-
cided to enforce the traffic ordinance
regulating the operation of all kinds
of vehicles within the limits of Belle-
fonte. This ordinance has been a dead
letter in Bellefonte ever since it was
passed, and among the most flagrant
offenders have been residents of the
town. That so few accidents have oc-
curred is little short of miraculous,
‘and now that council has decided that
the ordinance must be enforced the
out regard to who or what the offend-
er is.
—lh lL
——The County Commissioners of-
otherwise duly entitled to vote who,
through neglect of the assessor has
the tax collector, even though her
name does not appear on the sixty
women if reported to the commission-
er’s office on, or before October 2nd,
1920, will be. placed on the voters
check lists for the coming election to
be held November 2nd, 1920.
been heard from as yet, but it is a
safe bet that before the New York
mystery is cleared up some Republi-
can newspapers will point the finger
of suspicion against Postmaster Gen-
eral Burleson because anarchistic lit-
erature was found in mail boxes.
——Of course the Republican news-
papers are villifying President Wil-
son shamefully, but he may comfort
himself in the fact that Washington
and Lincoln were traduced with equal
venom and impotence.
——The text of the covenant of the
League of Nations has not been pub-
lished in the Republican campaign
book. The Republican managers want
the voters to see only false statements
of that instrument.
ein
——1If you want all the news you
can get it in the “Watchman.”
public morality but the menace of
turn him down. If the history of that
look his delinquencies, by brutally at-
keen intelligence and a just concep-
only thing to do is to enforce it, with- :
ficially announce that any woman |
not been assessed, can pay her tax to
day lists now in the hands of the tax
collectors; and the names of such
——The back townships have not
Harding Only Fooling Himself.
| With the German vote securely
“wrapped up” and safely stored away
|in the promise of Sylvester Viereck,
! Senator Harding has issued a solemn
| warning against the hyphen. In his
i front porch speech on Saturday, ad-
dressed to a group of foreign born
against the President a noisome ti- | voters paraded before him by Senator | are of the
McCormick, of Chicago, he said “let
us pray that America shall never be-
come divided into classes and shall
never feel the menace of hyphenated
citizenship.” But the boys who are
getting the money to buy his election
are constantly striving to create
classes, and those who are fighting
the League of Nations keep always in
mind the hope of solidifying the Ger-
man-American vote for Harding.
| Before the war the so-called hy-
phenated vote was divided among the
various parties on lines formed by en-
vironment. ‘Among the Germans thera
may have been a majority of Demo-
crats, taking the country over, though
"in communities like Milwaukee the
| Republicans had a decided preponder-
| ance. But the attitude of the Repub-
| lican leaders during the war allured
| practically all voters of that national-
ity into affiliation with the Republican
‘party. In the open or masked oppo-
sition to the policies of President Wil-
son, German sympathizers imagined
there was a chance for ultimate Ger-
man victory over the allies. The
vague promise of a separate peace
with Germany in the event of Repub-
lican success this fall has finally and
firmly bound him to service in that
| party. :
| Senator Harding is deceiving no
intelligent voters by his false pretense
; of patriotism and altruism in his cam-
paign for President. Every well-in-
formed voter in the country under-
stands: that the predatory corpora-
tions and selfish interests are contrib-
uting vast sums of money to buy his
election for their use in spoliative en-
terprises, and that in pursuance of
that purpose they are creating class.
es and organizing foreign-born and
foreign-sympathizing voters to sup-
port him. His platitudes of patriot-
ism and professions of virtue are
wasted. The public schools have dif-
fused intelligence too well and wide-
ly for ‘such ‘demagogy to work -
cessfully, and though the hyphenated
vote may be won it will be impotent.
The Philadelphia commercial
travelers who go to Marion today pay
ninety dollars a piece for car fare,
which suggests that even the cost of
politics is increasing.
Absurd Statement of Justice Hughes.
In a speech at the New Jersey Re-
publican State convention last Satur-
day, former Justice Hughes said: “It
is, indeed, an amazing thing that it
should have been necessary to demand
an amendment (to the covenant of
the League of Nations) in order that
the Monroe Doctrine should be safe-
guarded.” It is, indeed, infinitely
more amazing that a man who has oc-
cupied a seat on the bench of the Su-
preme court of the United States, and
once enjoyed hopeful aspirations to
become President of this Republic,
should utter such an absurd thing.
There is not even an inferential men-
ace to the Monroe Doctrine in the cov-
enant of the League of Nations. It
simply expanded that instrument so
as to cover the world.
But that is not the greatest absurd-
ity uttered by Justice Hughes, now
| fortunately an “ex,” in his Trenton
speech. Referring to Article X of the
covenant he says: “In case of future
! conflict, whatever our opinion of the
merits, and however removed it may
be from any interest of ours, we are
i bound to go to war, if necessary, in
‘order to preserve as against external
| aggression the territorial possessions
of a member of the League.” The
' language of that Article plainly re-
: futes every assertion contained in that
statement. It says: “In case of any
‘such aggression or in case of any
‘threat or danger of such aggression,
, the council shall advise upon the
i means by which this obligation shall
be fulfilled.” ;
In the first place the action of the
j council must be unanimous, and as
‘| this country would have a seat at the
council table no agreement could be
i reached without our assent. .Then
there are various methods of proced-
ure before resort to arms is possible.
The offending government is first ad-
monished. Next, trade and commer-
cial relations of all members of the
League are withdrawn and finally a
boycott against it is declared. If all
these corrective methods fail and the
council unanimously agrees to declare
war the question is put up to the sev-
eral governments, and as in this coun-
try Congress alone can declare war,
Congress would decide the matter and
the utterly preposterous statement of
Justice Hughes goes glimmering.
——The only resemblance between
Harding and McKinley is the front
porch. And Harding is about to aban-
"don that.
E. PA., SEPTEMBER 24, 1920.
NO. 38.
Three of Kind Oppose Wilson.
“The Democratic candidate is im-
possible. He
Woodrow Wilson and the League of
Damnations,” writes Sylvester Vier-
i eck in a magazine article. The late
+ German Kaiser and his recent asso-
i ciates in the government of Germany
same mind. Mr. von
| Bernstorff protests that it does great
i injustice to Germany. Senator La-
: Follette, who would have been ex-
i pelled from the United States Senate
for treason if his vote had not been
needed to control the body for the Re-
publicans, is bitterly opposed to the
League because President Wilson had
an important part in the construction
of it. Senator Lodge favored a
League of Nations until President
Wilson framed one and then changed
his mind.
What has President Wilson done
that such an opposition should have
been raised against him? He has com-
mitted no crime against the govern-
ment and people of the United States.
He has not proved faithless to an ob-
ligation as President. He has betray-
ed no interest of the people. He has
worked as no man in public life since
. Lincoln for the good of the country
and the prosperity of commerce and
industry. He broke down his health
and almost sacrificed his life in the
performance of what he conceived to
be his duty. But the Germans in Ger-
many and the German sympathizers
here hate him and Senator Lodge de-
tests him because he has kept the Re-
publican party out of power and Re-
publican grafters. out of opportunity
for eight years. ih.
The League of Nations is the prom-
ise to the world of a future of peace
and prosperity. It is the only hope of
that result. It will avert the cost to
the world of vast armies and navies
and lighten the burdens of govern-
ment in every civilized land. It will
stop the needless waste of material
and the cruel sacrifice of life which
war necessarily entails forever. But
if the United States should ratify the
treaty of Versailles and become a
member of the League of Nations it
creates, Woodrow Wilson would get
dice ». of this fact ‘Sylvester. Vi
: William © Hohenzollern and Henry
: Cabot Lodge join in opposition to it.
The result of the election in
Maine and of the Republican primary
in New Hampshire casts doubt upon
the hope that women voters will be
guided by conscience rather than
prejudice.
Senator Vare Defies the Law.
State Senator Vare, of Philadelphia,
has finally determined to put the
question of his ownership of the
courts of that city and the appellate
courts of the State to the test. Re-
cently a vacancy in the office of city
councilman was created by the death
of one of his agents in that body.
Senator Vare, having selected a suc-
i cessor, called his personally control-
| led city committee together to make
the nomination. Some of the voters
protested that under the law a pri-
mary election is necessary to make a
| nomination and demanded the submis-
sion of the question to popular vote.
But the Senator brushed all objections
away and ordered the committee to
act, which it did promptly.
Section 1, of the Act of Assembly
approved May 18th, 1917, provides
“that hereafter all candidates of po-
litical parties as herein defined, for
the office of United States Senator,
for the office of. Representative in
Congress, for all elective State, coun-
ty, city, ward, borough, township,
school district, and election division or
district offices, and for all other elec-
tive public offices except that of Pres-
idential elector, shall be nominated.
and delegates and alternate delegates
to national party conventions and
State committeemen shall be elected,
at primaries held in accordance with
the provisions of this act, and in no
other manner.” To any mind not ob-
sessed with a sense of ownership that
would be sufficient.
But Senator Vare appears to be af-
flicted with that obsession. The rules
of the Republican party of Philadel-
phia provide that a vacancy on the
party ticket, which happens between
the dates of the primary and the elec-
tion, may be filled by the city com-
mittee, and Senator Vare interpreted
the vacancy in the city council to be a
vacancy on the ticket. He was ad-
monished of his error in construing
the statute but paid no attention to
the protest. Feeling that he controls
the courts as completely as he controls
the committee he proceeded to make a
nomination and will take chances on
being vindicated in the courts. This
is a surprising attitude for a party
leader to assume but Senator Vare is
always surprising.
——Corn cutting is now well under
way in Centre county and with anoth-
er week or ten days of nice weather
most of the crop will be on shock.
is the candidate of |
Patriotism in the Discard.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Two years ago every patriotic
American was proud of the position
of the United States in the world. All
; nations ‘looked to us for inspiration
and guidance,
i onel House,
, widely printed in Republican papers,
| says:
How is it now? Col-
whose views are now
“Europe has stopped puzzling
over us, and they on the other side
are beginning to be careless about
what we think and what we do. They
are becoming more indifferent as to
our opinions and probable action on
the League of Nations and on other
matters in which the world has a com-
mon interest.”
. What is the occasion of this? Why
is it that at Paris “we were stronger
and had much more influence than
now ?” It is the work of the Repub-
lican oligarchy which did its utmost
during the peace conference to dis-
credit the President and weaken him
in his tremendous struggle against
predatory influences in EE roi His-
torians of the peace conference have
told us in several volumes that the
Republican success in the Congres-
sional election and Republican attacks
upon the President were used con-
stantly to weaken the President and
defeat his efforts to have the treaty
embody the high and enlightened
Fourteen Points. It is the Republi-
can oligarchy that has brought the
United States into disrepute.
Colonel House says of Senator
Harding’s vague and evasive proposal
to kill the covenant and substitute
“something just as good:”
Our assumption that we will plan some
new international organization, based
largely upon - the discredited Hague Tri-
bunal, occasions surprise. When planned
it is wondered what we will do with it,
As we would frame it, it is not probable
that it would suit either soviet Russia or
Mexico—the only two other countries not
now in the League which would be open
to eur invitation.
Soviet Russia, Mexico and the Unit-
ed States! Is any American proud of
the company to which the Senatorial
oligarchy consigns us?
Director Miller, of the Republican
Spellbinders’ Bureau, directs all the
stump speakers to call it “Wilson’s
League.” It is hoped to discredit it
with Republican voters by fastening
the name of the President to it. The
part taken by him in shaping this
credit for the greatest achievement in | League will be recognized by the next
statesmanship of modern times. Be- | generation as conferring immortal
int
group of the world’s greatest
statesmen and benefactors. But it is
not “Wilson’s League.” It was adopt-
ed by the peace conference, in spite of
very strong and persistent opposition.
The United States is the only one of
the nations allied against the Central
Powers which has not signed the
treaty. Those participating actively
in the war which have not signed are
the United States, Austria-Hungary,
Bulgaria .and Turkey. It is a noble
company that the Senatorial oligar-
chy have doomed the United States
to!
Thirty-nine nations have joined the
League. If the covenant would im-
pair our sovereignty, what does it do
to the sovereignty of 39 nations? Do
they care nothing about their inde-
pendence and their national rights?
The United States, soviet Russia and
Mexico are on the outside, and if Sen-
ator Harding shall be elected we shall
remain in that noble triumvirate. Is
it likely that the American people will
remain in such a position?
The Index of Trade
From the New York Evening Sun.
A clear indication of the business
activity of the nation is seen in the
announcement of Comptroller John
Skelton Williams that deposits in the
national banks have increased nearly
eight per cent. during the twelve
months ending June 30. A year ago
they were $15,924,865,000; today they
are $17,155,421,000, a gain of $1,230,-
556,000. This marked advance occur-
red during a period when inflation
and wildcat methods were not con-
spicuously on the increase. During
the years from 1914 to 1919 deposits
in the national banks increased from
$6,268,692,000 to $15,924,865,000, but
this was an indication of little save
the declining value of money and the
skyrocketing of prices. In the past
twelve months, however, there has
been no pronounced change in the
price level, the increase in certain
commodities being largely offset by
decrase in others.
Solomon Had Some Car.
¥rom the South Charleston Sentinel.
Another advantage Solomon had
over the other young fellows of his
day was wealth. When he built that
chariot he “made the pillars of silver,
the bottom was of gold, the covering
of purple, and paved with love for the
daughters of Jerusalem.” That would
catch most any girl for a Sunday
evening ride.
An Alarmed Candidate.
From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Wise men change their minds, but
the manner in which Mr. Harding
flops on the League proves thut some-
body’s been trying to put him wise to
his error and that neither his adviser
nor Mr. Harding has the wisdom to
get an alarmed candidate out of a
deep hole.
ie pi
——After the election of Cox it will
be interesting to watch the investors
in the Republican slush fund trying to
“cash in.”
| identity has not been determined,
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE
—In one day at Top Hill mine, Hast
Riverside, Sam Whittenberger mined 2#
cars of coal, earning $28.85, or at the rate
of $173.10 a week.
—At Uniontown, Mrs. John Maver,
weighing 115 pounds, was convicted eof
beating Mrs. George Dazer, weighing over
200, so badly that her leg was broken.
—More than $21,000 has been raised foe
the purchdse of a home for the American
Legion post at York, Pa. The York Haven
Water and Power company contributed
$500 to the fund.
—L. P. Stannert, a Lewistown restau-
rant man, holds the record fer bagging
raccoons during the present season, he
having taken fourteen to date and the sea-
son is young as yet. Stannert has made
five trips, on each of the four initial trips
‘he brought back three ‘“‘ringtails,” and the
last trip two fell to his faithful hounds.
—Shelley brothers have located a saw-
mill in the Scheyer grove, near Mifflintown,
and it will be denuded of everything that
will make a match stick or tooth pick.
This traet of timber has always been a fa-
vorite resort of Sunday school picnics and&
bush meetings in years gone by, and was
one of the few tracts of virgin timber im
that section.
—The call of the commercial life and
business field, and the attraction of higher
salaries in other educational institutions
has, during the last six months, cost The
Pennsylvania State College the loss of for-
ty-five faculty members. The resulting
vacancies and growth of the college evem
in the space of one year has necessitated
a total of 107 new faculty appointments
just approved by the college board eof
trustees.
—There appears to be an outstanding
reason why a number of residents of
Swedesburg object to having that place
merged with the borough of Bridgeport,
Montgomery county. It has been learmed
that should the consolidation be effected
no swine will be allowed to be kept in
Swedesburg, and at present it is said,
about 40 per cent. of families in the place
have a pig sty in their yard. From four
to eight pigs are kept in each sty.
—J. B. Kepler, of Shintown, a suburb of
Renovo, Pa., has growing in his garden a
rare plant, probably the first to be grown
in Pennsylvania. This is the New Guinea
butter bean. These beans do not grow im
pods, but singly, and some of the beans
‘grow to be 34 inches
long and weigh
12 pounds. They are prepared for eating
in the same manner as an eggplant, or can
be cut into small pieces and used the same
as any bean. There are four beans on the
plant in Mr. Kepler's garden. The largest
weighs 12 pounds and the smallest sevem
pounds,
—~Carmelo Ripepi, of Willlamsport, was
foung guilty by a jury of highway rob-
bery on Friday of last week and was sen-
tenced by Judge Harvey W. Whitehead to
two years in the eastern penitentiary.
Ripepi, who was a garage attache, wax
hired by Frank Updegraff, of W.ycoming
county, a farmer, to teach him how to op-
erate an automobile. Ripepi drove to an
unfrequented spot near Sulphur Springs,
where he robbed the farmer of $100 and
then forced him out of the automobile, im
which Ripepi escaped to the city, where
he was later arrested.
—Park Patton, 23 years old, of near
«Gap, Lancaster county, was shot and prob- -
ably fatally injured by an auteist whose
early
Sunday evening. Patton and several com-
panions were fooling autoists along the
Lincoln highway with an auto tire te
which they had a rope attached. As the
victims of their joke would stop to pick
up the tire, the jokers would pull it out of
their reach. The man who fired the shot
became outraged when he became a victim
to the trick and fired at the youth. He
then fled in his automobile.
—Working on the smokestack at the
plant of the American Swedo Iron compa-
ny at Danville, John Delanty had a nar-
row escape from death. The damper at
the top of the stack had rusted and when
he pulled the damper chain the damper
fell, striking him on the right leg with
such force that the leg was broken near
the knee. Delanty clung to his post until
other workmen saw his plight and aided
him to the ground. The damper, which
weighs 300 pounds, crashed thmough the
roof near where other workmen were
standing. Delanty is in the Geisinger
hospital.
—As they huddled around a big crap
game in Pittsburgh last Friday afternoon,
eight men, in a down-town garage heard
a sudden order to hold up their hands.
Turning, the players and bystanders saw
two masked men with revolvers approach
from the froat entrance. Ordering John
E. Colvin, of Beechview, to stand aside,
one of the bandits reached inside his coat
pocket and took out a wallet containing
$2000 in $10 notes. After counting the
booty, the two hold-up men backed out of
the garage without molesting the other
seven men. Colvin reported the hold-up
to the police. One man was arrested, but
was released on proving an alibi. Colvin
admitted he had ‘flashed the roll” in sev-
eral places before the game began.
—Experienced gas men say the greatly
boomed McKeesport gas field or pool is
passing. It is said that the field, into
which millions have been poured, is giving
no more than 7,000,000 feet of gas daily.
One well alone at the beginning of the
boom was producing more than seven
times that amount. It is admitted, how-
ever, that some of the companies are not
taking all the gas that could be taken
from the producing wells, and that a num-
ber of wells have been closed for the win-
ter months. Small wells are being struck
daily, but most of them are being ‘“plug-
ged.” In a number of instances drilling
has ceased before reaching the Speechley
sand, promoters agreeing that it was use-
less to drill that deep. Despite the slump
in gas production nearly 200 wells are un-
der way.
—@Grafton Mahoney, 21 years old, an in-
mate three months in the Pennsylvania In-
dustrial Reformatory, at Huntingdon, sen-
tenced from Pittsburgh, escaped last
Thursday night. His means of escape is
indicated by the theft of clothing from
deputy superintendent Joe Lang's wife.
Mahanoy was house boy for Mrs. Lang,
and was a well-behaved fellow, whose
chief attribute was slowness. Thursday
night he donned Mrs. Lang's dress, hat,
silk stockings and veil and, with Mrs.
Lang’s powder box and puff, walked out
of the reformatory unsuspected At the
Pennsylvania station he flirted with a
young Huntingdon man, who accompanied
him as far as Tyrone, where they separat-
ed. Mahanoy continued on the train for
Pittsburgh, but it is believed he will not
show himself soon in that city, for he is
known there.