© INK SLINGS.
—1In nine days spring will be here.
— Wonderfully mild weather for the |
spring farm sales.
Wanted. A private bootlegger.
Report for duty all day, the 15th of
April.
Too many people lose sight of the
fact that while there are a thouand
ways to spend money there is only one
way to make it.
— Centre county is supposed to
have 13,179 dairy cows, valued at an
average of $68.50 per head and with a
total value of $902,761.50.
—The early gardeners just can’t
wait. If you see one on the street
with a little yellow poke in his arms
bet him a cigar it’s onion sets. You'll
win.
— Things have come to a pretty pass
in Italy when she is forced by neces-
sity to import American spaghetti. It
must be nearly as much of a calam-
ity as would befall Boston were she to
have to send to Iceland for her baked
beans. |
__The President has announced that
he will not commit the United States |
to any future action. Cheer up, boys!
This doesn’t apply ot federal offices.
He'll fire all the Democrats in order
to make room for you just as soon as
he conveniently can.
— Children, don’t be rebellious be-
cause your spend-thrift or shiftless
dad went to his reward without leav-
ing a million ox so for you to fritter
away. Accept it as an object lesson
and get busy, so his grandchildren
won't think the same of his son as you
do of him.
—1Is Rash Irwin or G. Washington
Rees to be the next postmaster of
Bellefonte? Rash has the pull and
Wash has the petition and there you
are. We know you can pull a plum
from a tree but we never heard of one
just dropping off because you petition-
ed it to do so.
—The new revolution in Russia is
said to be the awakening of the mass-
es of that benighted country to the
consciocsness of the fallacy of Bolshe-
vism. Whatever it may be let us pray
that it succeeds in the dethronement
of Lenine and Trotzky and realize its
ambition to establish a really Demo-
cratic form of government there. |
"The Altoona Tribune hands out
this bit of questionable advice: “Let!
every citizen do his own thinking and
obey the dictates of his own judg- |
ment.” Would it then have the old'
tank who thinks he is dry judge that!
‘he ought to be refreshed and start |
right in gathering up enough copper
_ pipe -and rye to start a little home,
still?
—The fact that Gen. Wood is to be!
made provost of the University of |
Pennsylvania is partial evidence, at |
least, that President Harding had |
nothing to offer that would gratify the |
desires of the General. The tentative :
proposal rather upsets the dope of |
some of our local military enthusiasts
to the effect that Gen. Wood would be |
placed at the head of the army.
—On Monday a fakir displayed a |
stock of mechanical mice and dancing
zulus on the High street bridge and
in less than a jiffy eighteen able bod- |
ied men were laughing over the gro- |
tesque gyrations of the toys. Two !
hours later we needed a man to tote a
few boxes of metal and if we had
fired a big Bertha loaded with bird
shot up High street we wouldn’t have
hit one of them.
—_Herbert Hoover's slogan for his |
administration of the Department of |
Commerce and Industry is “Work and
More Work.” If it is to be applicable
only unto himself no one will find
fault, but we fear if he expects oth-
ers who have been going on the theo-
ry of pay, and more pay, for work,
and less work, to become inoculated
with this new virus of productivity he
will be a sadly disappointed gentle-
man. |
__Beer is a medicine, so one of the
last official rulings of Attorney Gen-
eral Palmer holds. It may be pre-
scribed by physicians just as whiskey
and wine are permissible under the
Volstead act. There is little hope,
however, for the fellow who used te
Ibe in anticipation of war.
| with whom and about what?
guzzle tub after tub of it. Medical
science has yet to discover a disease
that extract of malt in small doses
will not care for as well as schooners
of beer.
—
VOL. 56.
Is Japan Preparing to Fight?
The feverish rush of Japan to com-
plete a formidable air armada has
been the occasion of considerable gos-
sip in all parts of the civilized world.
Just why the Japs should be working
to surpass all other powers in strength
of aerial attack, when those others are
at least tentatively following the re-
verse policy is a matter of conjecture.
One guess is probably as good as
another.
It may be that Japan is only en-
deavoring to catch up with the rest of
the world in what the recent war dem-
onstrated to be the most versatile and
effective offensive and defensive arm
of service. It may be but the natural
development of the Japanese love for
acrobatics requiring the highest meas-
ure of nerve, and equilibrism. It may
But war
No nation goes to war just for the
love of fighting and were this not so
Japan is far too badly off to burden
her people with further debt merely
for the satisfaction of having a sea-
son of carnage. The island Empire is
densely overpopulated and withal in-
ordinately ambitious so that if the stu-
pendous air program she has under-
taken means anything at all it is prep-
aration for a move of expansion that
will provide breathing space and a
place in the sun for her rapidly in-
creasing population.
Ethnologically and geographically
the Japs are orientals. The wildest
distortion of the mongol mind could
not visualize the western hemisphere
as either logical or salubrious envi-
ronment of their race, so that if they
are to expand the natural prospect
would be better and the physical haz-
zard less if that expansion were made
in the Orient. And there it will be, if
anywhere.
England might interfere with Ja-
pan’s plans, but England is her ally
and, being so, would oppose any con-
flict with us, for in the last analysis
England, more than any other power,
has an interest in keeping Japan in
her place. As we view the situation
England would align herself with us,
the alliance with Japan to the contrary
notwithstanding, should the Jap strike,
for England has less to fear from us
in the Asiatic region than she would
have from a conquering Japan.
France has nothing in the far
east that Japan might covet.
Russia and China have and the
United States might have if the
Mikado views the Philippines as
the pot of gold at the end of
any rainbows he might be seeing in
his dreams. But some pretext must
be had for waging a war in which the
Philippines would be at stake. Pre-
texts, however, are very readily found
when needed so that we need not
waste time discussing the justice of
the California legislation that denies
land owning to the Japs or their re-'
fusal to relinquish any feature of the
mandate over Yap and its cable con-
trolling facilities.
If Japan wants to fight she’ll fight
and that is all there is to it and cer-
tainly no serious minded person will
believe that in her present impover-
ished condition she is spending mil-
lions for airplanes merely for the fun
of the thing.
Very recent opinions of English air
experts are to the effect that she ex-
pects war within three years and they
do not hesitate to name us as the
probable adversary. Many of the
English fliers have been in Japan as
| instructors in their new aerial schools
so that their opinions are not without
possible first-hand information.
Such an unhappy eventuality is cer-
tainly to be deplored and would have
been wholly in the realm of fancy had
we joined the League of Nations, but
we didn’t and for that reason Japan
! might delude herself into thinking she
could come through a conflict at arms
| with us as fortunately as she did with
! Russia.
We can scarcely conceive of
—The Pennsylvania Legislature is | such a fool-hardy undertaking, for the
to fight out the daylight saving act
next Monday night. It has been
unanimously reported out of commit-
tee and will be up for action next
week. Farmers, everywhere, are op-
posed to it based on their experience
during the war, but if it should pass
they will probably find its observation
less inimical to their interests now
than it was then, for the reason that
in all probability farm help will be
more plentiful and at a lower wage.
—The armies of the Allies are
marching further into Germany. Ger-
many says she can’t pay the repara-
tions demanded and thereby forfeits
her right to peaceful adjudication un-
der the Versailles treaty. England
thinks she can’t pay. France thinks
she is bluffing and England has agreed
to further occupation of German ter-
ritory in order to convince France
that the terms will have to be modi-
fied. Whatever the truth of the situ-
ation it will do no harm to give Ger-
many a slight taste of what the iron
heel of military occupation means. At
least she will more fully appreciate
something of what she did to Belgium
well informed of Japan know that
the sleepy Russian bear was in no
sense comparable with the wide-awake
Yankee and knowing that we still be-
lieve that if Japan really is preparing
for war it is nothing more than a
threat, so far as we are concerned.
The Advance Into Germany.
The English, French and Belgian ar-
i mies have crossed the Rhine and are
penetrating further into Germany, as
a result of the failure of the German
high commissioners to accede to the
demands of the Allies for reparation
for the war.
The Germans plead inability to pay.
Some of the Allies are inclined to ac-
cept their statements at their face
value, while others, notably France,
interpret inability as meaning merely
unwillingness. France is unable to
take the same view of the situation as
the others, for the very natural rea-
son that her mind runs readily back
to a time when the situation was re-
versed and Germany’s mailed fist
wrung the last franc from her in set-
tlement for a war that was not of her
and northern France.
own precipitation. The time of retal-
wr
mara
BELLEF
i
3
©
2
—
iation is at hand and who can say that
| it is not a human trait to even up the
' score when the opportunity presents.
The occupation of three more Gei-
! man cities has been entirely peaceful
thus far. The German residents have
accepted the invasion with stolid in-
difference, which leads us to the con-
clusion that the undertaking will not
meet with the desired results.
The Allied occupation of the left
bank of the Rhine has, in a large
measure given comfort to the resi-
dents of that era and the psychology
of it has been to rob the Germans of
any sense of terror through contact
with an armed foe. In other words,
they have no conception of what Bel-
gium suffered when her cities were
occupied by the Kaiser's armies and
her citizens compelled to disgorge
their treasure or be backed up against
a wall. They know little of that kind
of military occupation and while the
Allies never could do what Germany
did it would probably bring the ans-
wer far quicker if some of the milder
forms of German coercion were put
into practice at once. That would re-
veal whether they are so impoverish-
ed as they profess to be. That would
show France that Lloyd George is
right in thinking they are.
“Treat ’em rough” for a period and
they would be given a wholesome ob-
ject lesson as well as to understand
that the Allies are not there merely
to add to the coffers of local trades-
men.
eee leer
The Reign of Law.
Prof. John Hamilton, formerly pro-
fessor of agriculture in The Pennsyl-
vania State College, later Secretary
of Agriculture of Pennsylvania and
United States farmer’s institute spe-
cialist, has just issued a pamphlet car-
rying some mature suggestions as to
a possible corrective of strikes and
other disorganizing and uneconomic
actions arising out of the differences
between capital and labor.
Prof. Hamilton’s thoughts are worth
more than casual consideration, for
they are predicated on a long and var-
ied experience during the many years
of his very active life and tempered
by his position of retirement from
which he looks out on the situation
with a mind wholly free from preju-
dice.
He finds that “Labor and capital,’
that should be closest mutual friends
are now hostile and there seems no
end to the war that has begun. Some
of its worst results are seen in the
Bolsheviki of Russia and the I. W. W,
of this and other lands. Our Legis-
lators stand helpless, some afraid to
act and others not knowing the reme-
dy to prescribe.”
“There are just two ways of settling
disputes among men. Through the
medium of justice by the courts and
arbitration, or through violence or
war. The one is peaceable and regu-
lar and the other is mob rule result-
ing in anarchy.”
Wisely does he conclude that since
the State is responsible for the cor-
poration, the State is, therefore, un-
der obligation to protect its citizens
in their individual right, against im-
proper action of its corporate crea-
tures, and since there seems to have
been discovered no other means of ad-
judicating differences that have and
will continue to arise he proposes leg-
islation aimed to secure equal justice
to both corporate employers and indi-
vidiual employee mutually engaged
in industrial effort.
While the method suggested “is in
harmony with the traditional and or-
dinary procedure in this country in
the just settlement of disputes” we
are inclined to believe that Prof. Ham- |
ilton has greater confidence in the ac-
ceptability of judicial mediation than
the masses would have.
Evidence evolved during the past
three years has been almost conclu-
sive that neither side to disputes that
have been carried to courts of last ap-
peal have been willing to accept the
verdict as rendered. Cases have been
under unusual stress, but even under
normal conditions we fear that the
much to be deplored inclination to dis-
respect the mandates of our courts
would act against the method suggest-
ed as a panacea for corporate and in-
dividual justice.
This, of course, would not be so
were all of our courts well above the |
suspicion of corporate control and
partisan creation. If the day should
dawn when they are there will be no
disputes to be settled for then we will
have Utopia.
——We notice that after April Tth
the barbers of Bellefonte are going to
take a weekly half-holiday. We are
not nearly as much interested in that
however, as we would be in one to the
effect that they are going to take half
price for cutting less than half a crop
of hair.
——The fellow who though it would
be lovely to be in the class that had
so much of an income as to have to
pay an inccome tax doesn’t often think
it so lovely after he gets there.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
ONTE, PA.. MARCH 11, 1
More Tariff Bunk.
In face of the fact that our exports
are four time as great as our imports |
Republican statesmen in the saddle at
Washington insist that tariff must be
the first thing considered by the new
Congress. What for, pray? What
we need is a world market. There is
move grain stored in the United States ;
today than there ever has been, yet
millions are starving in foreign lands
for want of bread. Everybody here
has all they want and we can’t con-!
sume the surplus even if the price of
wheat were to be dropped a half as a
bait. There is no foreign wheat, corn |
or oats coming into this country and:
the announcement of Senator Penrose
that an emergency tariff can be pre-
pared that will help western farmers
is all bunk. It is as foolish as trying
to lift ourselves out of industrial stag-
nation by our own boot straps.
What is really needed is the exten-
sion of gigantic American credits to
foreign governments and individuals.
We need go no further than Bellefonte
to show the wisdom of such a course.
The stores of Bellefonte today are en-
tirely out of certain lines of dishes
and glassware. New York and Phila-
delphia have not had them since short-
ly after the beginning of the war. We
refer to certain lines made only in
' Austria and never in competition with
American products for we produced
none like them. Today Austria needs
tons upon tons of the grain and man-
ufactures that our store houses are
bulging with and we need those dishes
and glassware. How in the world is a
tariff going to solve such a problem.
Senator Penrose would probably
stick a tariff on wheat to fool the far-
mers and then slip one on dishes and
glassware to please the eastern pot-
tery plutocrats and they would be
taking down the unearned increment
while the farmer would be getting
nothing for there is no wheat in com-
petition with his in the market.
What we need first is peace. An
honorable peace that will work no in-
jury to our former allies, then stabili-
zation of the rate of exchange so that
a dav’s labor in Austria will buy food
for ine’ day in'America and then the
balance sheets will become real in-
stead of fictitious, the law of supply
and demand will start working again
and trade relations function to the ad-
vantage of all.
An act of Congress isn’t going to
bring prosperity to this country. It
isn’t to keep things out that Penrose
should be working. His brains would
serve a much more beneficent end
“were they concentrated on a method to
keep things from staying in.
Such eminent financiers and cap-
tains of industry as Judge Gary, of
the United States Steel corporation;
Charles M. Schwab, of the Bethelhem
Steel Co., and Samuel B. Vauclain, of
"the Baldwin locomotive works, see the
light. They understand that Europe
can’t buy from us unless she pays the
(bill with her products and right now
‘they are personally arranging to ex-
| tend enormous credits to foreign buy-
ers, who are ready to buy because they
‘need raw and fabricated steel and lo-
comotives, which they will be privi-
ileged to redeem with products to be
sent to this country and sold when the
irate of exchange brings’ their return
' some where near their real value.
{ Tariff legislation would hinder rath-
.er than help the situation. We are a
‘producing country and must have
i world markets. If our farmers or any
| other class are to be fed on such tar-
|iff flap-doodle as Senator Penrose is
"handing out to them more is the pity.
| — The Business Men’s association
| of Bellefonte has gone on record as
favoring the exemption of taxes for a
| period of three years on all persons
| who build, or start to build, homes in
| Bellefonte during the present year.
| That is, if a man owns a lot, and will
| build a home thereon their proposition
|is that no taxes be collected on the
improved property for the period
| above mentioned, though the owner
| should naturally continue to pay tax
ion the lot, same as he had been pay-
| ing previous to building. The matter
‘has been presented to borough council
| for its consideration, and of course the
| borough solicitor will have to look in-
'to the legality of the proposition.
| Whether it will be legal or not, or as
to being the right thing to do, are
questions the “Watchman” cannot as-
sume to answer, but there is one thing
certain, the housing situation in Belle-
fonte at present is woefully short of
the demand. Of course the high price
of everything that entered into build-
ing operations in recent years kept
men from building houses who other-
wise might have erected their own
homes, but there already has been a
decided decline in such materials and
everything should now be done to en-
courage a building boom in Bellefonte.
—1In the vicinity of Hecla Park
last Sunday great flocks of robins
were flying everywhere. They were
! so numerous, in fact, as to remind one
of the black-birds assembling in the
| fall for flight to the south.
O21.
NO. 10.
The Fordney Tariff.
From the Philadelphia Record.
| iff. That is a foregone conclusion.
| The Republicans could not settle their
: obligations to the interests that put up
$8,000,000 for their campaign expens-
_ es—besides what was spent before the
conventions—without raising duties.
But there are two evidences that
the tariff is not the trump card it used
| to be. One is the brief and casual ref-
| erence to protection in the Republican
| tariff, which gave much pain to Re-
publican newspapers long accustomed
to ringing all the changes on “home
industry” and foreign “pauper labor.”
They felt that something had happen-
ed; their world had undergone a
change. The other is the Republican
opposition—more or less disguised,
but there—to the Fordney tariff bill.
The word “protection” does not pos-
sess the magic it once had.
Certain as the Republicans are to
pass a high tariff bill sooner or later,
| it was well worth while for Mr. Wilson
to point out the absurdity of reviving
the War Finance Corporation to push
our export business and at the same
time raise duties to obstruct imports.
The foreign trade is now about as one-
sided as it can be. We cannot sell
goods abroad unless we buy a little
abroad. That is the lesson William
McKinley learned after he ceased to
be chairman of the Ways and Means
committee and became President. That
is the lesson he tried repeatedly, and
especially in the last speech he made,
to impress upon his countrymen. We
cannot have a foreign commerce that
shall be all exports.
Mr. Harding makes the usual Re-
publican reference to the need of pro-
tecting our own workmen from for-
eign competition. But in 1920 our ex-
ports of manufactured goods ready
for consumption were $3,204,382,199,
and our imports of manufactured
goods ready for consumption amount-
ed to $877,128,247. Our exports of
manufactured goods were more than
three and a half times as great as our
imports, and the present abnormal
rates of exchange are an obstruction
to our exports and a premium on im-
portation. It is folly to talk of the
need of protection for American work-
men when we are exporting more than
three and a half times as much of
manufactured goods as we are im-
porting, with exchange rates against
us. ot Thy
Food prices were advanced because
the Fordney emergency tariff was
pending. That bill having been ve-
toed, there can be no high tariff law
for some time, and food prices fell as
soon as the veto was announced. Raw
wool, the most essential element in
our clothing, advanced slightly under
the influence of the Fordney tariff,
and became weaker on Mr. Wilson's
veto. The public cannot be entirely
insensible to these things. The house-
keepers must notice how their bills
rose under the Fordney influence and
have declined under the Wilson influ-
ence. Every man who buys clothes
this season would have had to pay for
the Fordney bill had it passed, and he
will save a little money because Mr.
Wilson vetoed that bill.
remem lg ie
New Masts Being Erected at Wireless
Station.
Two years ago when everybody in
Bellefonte was anxiously watching for
the day to come when the airplane
mail route would be established be-
tween New York and Chicago via
Bellefonte the airplane, of course, was
a novelty in this part of the country
and everybody was skygazing. But
the novelty has now worn off to a
great extent and we all look upon
everything connected with the serv-
ice as a matter of course.
While the aviation field still ap-
peals to quite a number as an inter-
esting place to while away a little
time, one of the most interesting fea-
tures in connection with it is the wire-
less station, standing way back at the
rear of the field, and not visited by
one out of a hundred people who stop
at the field. And we venture the as-
sertion that very few people in Belle-
fonte know that it is a link in the
wireless service between the Pacific
and the Atlantic, as practically all the
wireless news is relayed at the Belle-
fonte station. And now the govern-
ment, evidently realizing the import-
ance of the station here has started to
improve its efficiency by the erection
of two new masts. The present masts
are forty feet in height while the new
masts will be one hundred feet. And
instead of being constructed of steel
they will be wooden masts, which the
operators claim will be better than
steel.
Two operators are now in service
at the station which is in service con-
tinuously from early in the morning
until ten o’clock at night.
——We are wondering how soon
the stampede of public service corpor-
ations will start towards Harrisburg
to petition the Public service Commis-
sioner’s permission to reduce rates
that were raised because of the twelve
dollar coal. Coal is only six now but
we're all paying just the same as if it
were twelve.
ee ded te stant
——Monday night’s rain took what
little frost there was in the ground
out and pounded it down so hard as to
decrease the mud considerably.
Of course we shall have a high tar-
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—(@. V. Craighead, postoffice inspector at
Pittsburgh states that the bandit who re-
cently robbed a mail car at the Pennsylva-
nia railroad station in that city, escaped
with registered letters valued at $20,000.
The bandit killed J. L. McCnllough, a vet-
eran railroad employee, wio wes in the
i car at the time of the robbezy. §
— Torn from the side of his bride of a
few hours, Private Frederick Reinhold,
United States army, was locked up at Sun-
bury last Thursday on a charge of being
a deserter from the nation’s military serv-
jce.” With him was his wife, a former
York girl. Both the young soldier and his
bride are 19 years old, they said.
—The Huntingdon county commission-
ers have offered a reward of $500 for ar-
1est and conviction of the person or per-
sons who struck Charles Stelker, the
Huntingdon blacksmith, on the head with
a deadly weapon February 21. Stelker
was in his shop when attacked, and the
blow crushed his skull, causing death.
—Mrs. Annie Dittbrenner, of Lewistown,
and Edward Miller, of Yeagertown, are in
jail at Lewistown charged with trying to
make human targets of each other in a
game of William Tell. Mrs. Dittbrenner
says that after Miller had threatened her
with a revolver she procured her own and
opened fire, the bullets passing through
the door near the target's body. Sheriff
M. A. Davis is in a pair of good six-shoot-
ers.
— With part of her face shot away by an
unidentified man whom she refused to give
a ride in the buggy she occupied, Mrs. Wil-
lis Patton of near Sharon, bride of a year,
is not expected to recover. Mrs. Patton
had just taken her husband to his place of
employment and was returning home. At
a lonely spot on the West Middlesex road,
a stranger asked her for a ride, when she
whipped up the horse he drew a pistol and
shot her.
— Walter Miller, a Chambersburg milk-
man, was held up at the point of a revol-
ver at 4:30 o'clock Thursday morning near
Chambersburg by two masked bandits, one
of whom pressed a revolver against his
forehead while the other rifled his pockets
of 87. When Miller alighted from the wag-
on on orders of the bandits the horse con-
tinued to walk towards Chambersburg,
drawing the wagon in which was $48.50,
which the highwaymen did not get.
—“Thank God, I'm a stutterer,” declared
a man who gave his name as James Smith,
of Boston, when arrested at Pottsville on
Saturday and accused of being the bandit
who has been committing daring robberies
on taxicabs at Pottsville. The suspect
answered the description of the bandit ex-
actly, until he tried to speak. Then he
was found to be a hopeless stutterer, while
the real bandit ordered “hold up your
hands” in glib language. After making
sure the man was genuinely affected in his
speech, he was allowed his liberty.
—Unheard from for twenty years, James
‘Bannon, formerly of Clearfield, has writ-
ten to his brother, Thomas Bannon, of
Clearfield, from Alaska. The former Clear-
field man has been hunting, trapping and
guiding tourists in Alaska for 15 years.
Bannon's letter tells of a strenuous exper-
ience he and two others had in a 100-mile
trip. They were caught in a blizzard and
were snowbound for three days. All but
“6né of the sledge dogs perished, and Ban-
non lost part of one hand and the big toe
from one of his feet as the result of their
freezing.
— Stock certificates and deeds represent-
ing the value of thousands of dollars, and
a life insurance policy for $9000, stolen by
burglars from George Geiple & Son, of
Glen Rock, York county, two years ago,
were recovered Saturday, being found by
Nevin Seitz, a Boy Scout, son of R. F.
Seitz, in Gemmill’s woods, near Glen Rock.
The securities were in a tin box. As they
were all in their original envelopes, it is
believed that the burglars on opening the
box and finding no money in it, threw it
away in fear that they might be connected
with the burglary.
—Motor patrolman Calvin Bell, of Al-
toona, was given a warrant charging an
attempt to defraud an out-of-town under-
taker out of a bill for service in burying a
child and went to the home of the defend-
ant to serve it. He found the man out
looking for work, while the wife and three
children were in their bare feet. The wife
explained that part of the bill had been
paid with insurance money received after
the death of the child. “I'm not serving
warrants of that kind on folks in destitute
circumstances,” said Bell when he return-
ed to City Hall.
—Appointment of Colonel John P. Wood,
of Wayne, commander of the First cavalry
regiment of the Pennsylvania National
Guard, as brigadier general of cavalry,
was announced by Adjutant General Frank
D. Beary last week by direction of the
Governor. General Wood will be assigned
to command the new cavalry brigade,
whieh will be attached to the Third army
corps and be composed of the present First
cavaly and the Second cavalry, which is to
be formed out of the Eighth infantry. Col-
onel Wood is one of the veteran officers of
the cavalry arm of the National Guard and
served on the Mexican border and in the
world war.
—Ben Marchienkei, of Butler, who was
held up in McKeesport and Allegheny re-
cently, was the victim of another rohber
at Oil City on Saturday, shortly after he
arrived in the city. While waiting for a
train for Kane, his handbag was taken
from the station waiting room. The bag
contained clothing and a $400 certificate in
a building and loan assocuation. The po-
lice arrested Walter Hallowell, of DuBois,
and found the stolen articles in his room.
He was arraigned before alderman Daniel
McCready, pleaded guilty and was sentenc-
ed to sixty days in the county jail. In the
other two hold-ups Marchienkei was just
as fortunate.
After fracturing his wife's skull with
a blow from a poker, and almost killing
his 17 year old son, James Mausteller, 40
years of age, a Pine township, Columbia
county farmer, Friday morning hanged
himself to a rafter in the barn. Maustel-
ler, drunk on hard cider, which he had
stored since autumn, attacked his son
Thursday night and clubbed him into in-
sensibility. When his wife interfered, he
grabbed a poker from the stove and struck
her over the head. Another son fled from
the house and cafled neighbors, who sub-
dued Mausteller and took his wife away
from the house. Physicians found her con-
dition critical, and Mausteller was arrest-
ed, but freed on bail. His sons awakened
him Friday morning, and when they pre-
pared breakfast, he went to the barn. He
failed to answer their calls, and they made
a search and found his body dangling
from a rope. Coroner Davis decided no in-
quest was necessary.