INK SLINGS.
- It is beginning to look as if there
will be a lot of new saxophone artists
climbing onto the Vare band wagon
ere long.
—With the advent of a Presbyter-
jan dominie as prohibition enforce-
ment officer for Pennsylvania boot-
leggers will probably be affecting blue
stockings with the hope of a “stand-
in”
—Of course Congress must investi-
gate the awful tragedy of the Knick-
erbocker theatre in Washington.
That's where the present Congress
shines: Nosin’ ’round the stable
after the horse is gone.
—What does it matter whether the
ground-hog saw his shadow or not.
Spring will be here soon enough, sum-
mer will be over and next fall and
winter staring the busy person in the
face almost before he is aware of it.
—A Democratic get-together ban-
quet is to be one of the novelties
which a reviving Democracy in Cen-
tre county is planning. As evidence
that there are still a few of us left
already the applications for seats
have over-taxed the capacity of any
caterer in Bellefonte.
—— That big drive for the Y. M.
C. A. will start this morning and if
you want to drive right into the hearts
of the young men and women of the
town now will be the time to do it. If
you shirk your duty now don’t come
around later and whine if the Asso-
ciation fails in support.
— President Harding has spiked one
of the guns of the agricultural “bloc”
in the Senate. By the appointment of
Senator Kenyon, of Iowa, to the
Eighth district Circuit court bench he |
has put one of the most powerful op-
ponents to some of his policies where
he can obstruct no further.
— Those threshermen and farmers
who gathered in Harrisburg last week
and resolved to rid the State of the
extravagant crew that is running
things at Harrisburg by putting an
independent ticket in the field next
fall may be all right as threshermen
and farmers but they’re mere punk as
politicians.
— Senator Crow having sent out
the word from Mercy hospital that he
will be a candidate at the spring pri-
maries to succeed himself that much
has been done toward clearing the Re-
publican atmosphere. All they need
to do now is to name the man for
Governor, explain the bankrupt con-
dition of the State and get ready for
the real lickin’ we're going to give
them in November.
—Judging from the crack it took at
him last week we opine that the Ga-
zette is not friendly to the senatorial
aspirations of the Hon. Harry Scott.
Paraphrasing its own comment of a
few years ago about the “Watchman”
“the Gazette don’t count for much
in its party councils these days” so
the Hon Harry should worry, he'll
be nominated if he wants to be. The
Gazette will support him and we'll do
our best to lick him.
—One of the mines in the Snow
Shoe region has resumed operation,
offering a dollar a ton to miners and
five dollars to day men. The wage
offered is below the scale but the min-
ers are earning from six to eight dol-
lars a day and the day men are get-
ting five, which must look good to a
community in which there has been
real destitution. To skilled mechan-
jes and common labor on this side of
the mountain it looks like it is better
to be a miner at one dollar a ton than
a carpenter or plumber at seventy-
five cents an hour.
—The Union miners are to ask for
a substantial increase in wages when
their present scale terminates on
March 31st, so says president John
Lewis, of the Union. Being familiar
with the situation in the Snow Shoe
and Clearfield regions only our judg-
ment is rather circumscribed, but if
conditions elsewhere are anything like
those we know the miners might ask
anything and have it granted without
bettering their condition or injuring
that of the operators, for little coal is
being mined now and most of that is
being produced by miners who have
sensibly agreed to work at a scale
that will permit the operator to break
even at least.
—The Port Allegheny Reporter
thinks that Liberty bonds have gone
up about ten dollars during the past
year because the public has gained
confidence through the restoration of
the Republican party to power. Occa-
sional perusal of the Reporter con-
vinces us that it often thinks foolish
thoughts. Liberty bonds have gone
up principally because there is no in-
dustry in which the public has enough
confidence at the present time to in-
vest its funds and the “Watchman” is
broad enough to state that neither the
Republican nor the Democratic par-
ties have had anything to do with the
present depression. It is a natural
consequence of the unnatural econom-
ic conditions of the past seven years.
The Reporter assured all its readers
a year ago last fall that the minute
‘the front porch apostle of Marion got
his feet under the desk in the White
House offices wheat would go back to
three-sixty and labor would get ten
dollars a day again, but if the Repor-
ter didn’t know better it should have.
Confidence, not polities, is what makes
prosperity and it is because capital
has no confidence in the ‘ shifting,
drifting, non-constructive policies of
the party in power that it is buying
Liberty bonds in preference to invest-
ments in industry.
I
VOL. 67.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FEBRUARY
3, 1922.
NO. 5.
Just Complaint But Wrong Remedy. :
There is considerable ground for:
hope in the future of Pennsylvania in
the attitude of agriculturists as ex-'
pressed in a series of resolutions
adopted by the Threshermen’s and
Farmer's Protective association as-
sembled in convention in Harrisburg
last week. “Resolved,” these sub-
stantial and wealth producing gentle-
men declared, “that we go on record .
in protest against the continuance in |
power at Capitol Hill of those persons :
and interests responsible for these
outrages against the public welfare.”
The outrages referred to are “extrav-
agant and wasteful use of the funds
of the Commonwealth, the increase of
salaries of public officials and profli-
gacy in road building and the public!
school administration.” |
The farmers of Pennsylvania are
amply able to make their protest ef- |
fective whenever and wherever they |
desire to do so. For years they have
not only consented to but actually en-
couraged these outrages by voting for |
the men responsible, influenced by the |
false pretense set forth by Governor
Sproul in addressing their convention
that “they are exempt from taxation
because the corporations pay the tax-
es.” No more palpable falsehood was
ever uttered. The farmers and wage
earners pay the taxes, for every dol-
lar paid by the corporations is taken
from the farmers and wage earners
in indirect but none the less burden-
some taxation. Uttering such a claim
was an insult to the intelligence of
the farmers.
But we are unable to agree with
the farmers in their proposed remedy
for the evils. They would “unite the
honest voters of the State both men
and women, under effective leadership
in the May primaries to select an in-
dependent or fusion ticket made up of
candidates for the high offices to be
fiilled in the fall election who are of
known integrity and ability, and who
are beyond the influence of those in-
terests that are responsible for the
present gross misrule in Pennsylva-
nia.” Such action is precisely what
the managers of the Republican ma-
chine want. It is the only thing that
will renew the franchise of the ma-
chine to‘loot. It has saved the ma-.
chine in many a desperate battle.
— Assuming” that the best re-
sults will be achieved by the Wash-
ington conference, and that is a long
stride in. the direction of optimism,
the big stick is not the most likely
instrument of conciliation. And the
big stick is about the best promise of
the conference.
Governor Cox Speaks the Word.
When Mr. James M. Cox declared
that the present leaders of the Repub-
lican party “have profaned Republi-
can history and ignored every thought
of an honored inheritance by forsak-
ing the soul of Abraham Lincoln for
the spleen of Henry Cabot Lodge,” he
accurately analyzed the present con-
dition of the party. If the lofty pa-
triotism of Lincoln had guided the
councils of the party during the per-
jod since the world war ended, pros-
perity would haye been restored long
ago and not only the people of the
United States but those of all civilized
countries would now be pressing for-
ward on the highway to achievement.
But the spleen of Lodge, the narrow
bigotry of a disappointed pretender, |
was followed.
Governor Cox spoke at a Jackson
day banquet in Dayton, Ohio, and not
only expressed the exact attitude of
the Republican party but the true po-
sition of the Democracy. “Our faith
in the official pronouncemeat of 1920
is unaffected by the result of the elec-
tion of that year,” he said. “We stand
in our very tracks, just where we were
when the votes were counted. We
have not retreated a step. The flag
still flies and we are ready for the
next fight.” But our antagonists are
not in so fortunate a position. The
rumblings of discontent coming from
every direction and increasing in vol-
ume like a tide before a hurricane are
sweeping them off their feet and
spreading dismay among them.
Governor Cox fulfilled the proprie-
ties in holding the “unspoken word
until time has brought the .un-
mistakable evidence of payment or
default by those in power, on cam-
paign pledges.” The agricultural in-
dustry, the manufacturing interests,
the commercial and industrial life of
the country are suffering not because
of the war but for the reason that the
party in control of the government
has refused to adopt measures that
would restore the losses of the war
and correct the evils incident to it.
But the suffering will not be for long.
The people are becoming wise to the
facts and in the elections of this year
a reversal quite as radical as that of
1920 will be registered.
There are a good many com-
plaints about the new peace dollars
and we hasten to give public assur-
ance that we have no share in the
prejudice.
The Newberry Case Again.
The Newberry case “will not down.”
Every now and then, usually when the
perpetrators of that crime hope it is
being forgotten, some fellow springs
it again. The other day,
example, Senator Reed, of Mis-
souri, rose in his place and utter-
ed a philippic against the resolution
which caused great excitement on the
floor. “The adoption of that resolu-
tion,” he said, “was the most stupid
piece of business that has ever dis-
graced any body of men, whether pi-
rates sailing the seas under the black
flag or statesmen here seated in this
body. The tongue is paralyzed in an
effort to describe a thing like that,”
he added.
The resolution declared in substance
that in buying the Senate seat New-
berry had committed a crime that is
infamous, that imperils the safety of
the government and covers the cham-
ber with iniquity. But it ratifies the
crime by confirming Newberry’s title
to the seat. “You say,” declares Sen-
ator Reed, “this thing that crawls and
| has a forked tongue and crooked teeth
is a poisoned serpent. Therefore we
will admit it to the family circle and
allow it to wind its folds about the
arms of our children. You say,” he
continued, “this is a dog with the
rabies. Every time he sinks his fangs
into the flesh they carry with them
deadly disease and therefore we will
turn the dog loose on the communi-
ty.
Senator Reed said many other bit-
ter truths and there was no one to de-
ny or challenge the statements. It is
“black with infamy; a deadly lepro-
sy; a thing crimson in its crime.” And
the responsibility for this great wrong
upon the Senate and the country is
upon the President of the United
States. Senator Willis, who succeed-
ed Harding in the Senate, was oppos-
ed to the confirmation of the crooked
deal but Harding persuaded or dra-
gooned him into consenting. He
wrote the resolution at the request of
the President and voted for it under
the same pressure. Thus the odium
is upon the White House as well as
the Senate, and it is the first time
such a taint has been put upon the
White House. Hy
; ead
——We are not over confident of
the new Prohibition Director for
Pennsylvania. He is a preacher but
he is also a politician, and sometimes
this combination produces unexpected
results.
Mrs. Warburton’s Gentle Kick.
Some of our esteemed Republican
contemporaries seem to be unduly
perturbed over a statement recently
issued by Mrs. Barclay H. Warbur-
ton, vice chairman of the Republican
State committee. “The control of the
Republican women’s vote in tke
State,” Mrs. Warburton protests, “can
only be obtained through the knowl-
edge that the vice chairman actually
participates in all councils arranged
to consider State political affairs and
that no slate is made up without her
co-operation and her share of respon-
sibility.” This is interpreted by some
very timid and credulous partisans of
Mrs. Warburton’s faith as a danger
signal, a sort of admonition of im-
pending revolt.
But it’s nothing of the kind. Mrs.
Warburton is one of those charming
women who are fond of the lime-light.
Last year she made a mild protest
against the way the machine treated
the newly enfranchised voters where-
upon W. Harry Baker and Senator
Vare handed her a thinly coated but
wonderfully enticing gold brick that
filled her with ecstacy and she prompt-
ly told all the other Republican wom-
en of the State how to show their ap-
preciation of the honor bestowed upon
her. Now that the gilding is worn off
and the shallowness of the favor is
revealed Mrs. Warburton is simply
serving notice that her “place in the
sun” in the future must be a trifle
more secure and substantial.
But the machine managers won’t
worry much about Mrs. Warburton’s
rather disingenuous appeal for great-
er consideration. They know that so
long as Mr. Barclay H. Warburton is
in the enjoyment of a comfortable of-
fice at a handsome salary Mrs. Bar-
clay H. Warburton will be “on the
job” serving the machine with all the
enthusiasm of her nature, regardless
of the character of the candidates, the
issues of the campaign or the effect
upon the political interests of the
other women voters of the State. She
has become a professional politician
and her concern is much less for the
women than for the party. She has
already done much to disillusionize
advocates of woman suffrage.
rr ——— A ——————————
——In urging the government de-
partments to employ more men Pres-
ident Harding is promoting ‘employ-
ment but not economy.
emer ——— A eee.
— Whiskey thieves are a despica-
ble lot but the dastard who broke in-
to Elihu Root’s cellar was the most
depraved of the lot.
for
Startling Disclosures of State Fi. |
nances.
In an address delivered before the
League of Women Voters, in Pitts-
‘burgh on Saturday, Auditor General
Lewis made some startling disclos-
ures regarding the fiscal operations of
the State of Pennsylvania during the
past four years. He declared that
since 1917 the appropriations made
‘by the Legislature have exceeded the
‘ revenues of the State by the enormous
‘total of $22,500,000, and that the ses-
sion of 1921 had increased this vast
deficit in the face of full information
as to the facts by several millions of
dollars. The full effect of this profli-
gacy in appropriations has been con-
' cealed by the juggling of funds and
the postponement of payments. For
' example, the school payments are
over $5,000,000 in arrears.
i In other words, according to the
public official who has charge of the
| fiscal affairs of the Commonwealth, :
Pennsylvania is hopelessly bankrupt. |
This humiliating and probably disas-
trous condition has been brought
about by the reckless appropriation of
!funds to promote party advantages
and conserve personal interests. A
| favorite of the machine needs an ap-
propriation to help him out of a diffi-
cult situation and the machine man-
agers dragoon members of the Gen-
eral Assembly into enacting the leg-
islation. In order to supply funds to
meet this special need appropriations
for legitimate purposes are held up
and thus the obligations of the State
are piled up to proportions beyond
hope of settlement.
Mr. Lewis weakens his complaint to
some extent by offering an apology
for the Governor’s share in the deplor-
able affair. As a Senator in the Gen-
eral Assembly previous to his elec-
tion as Governor Mr. Sproul had
much to do with the deficits of 1917
to 1919, and since that he has been
mainly responsible. His declared am-
bition to make his administration one
of “magnificent achievement” led to
the extravagance of the Legislatures
of 1919 and 1921. He imagined that
the people of Pennsylvania don’t care
so long as appearances are kept up
and ‘the promise of better schools and
the best roads in the country was
used to close the public eyes to the in-
iquities being practiced everywhere.
e————ese——————
ground-hog seeing his shadow yester-
day, but what is a hog or two among
friends? The weather yesterday
morning was like a breath of spring
and a gentle reminder of other days
that are fast approaching. So far as
the ground-hog is concerned he has no
more to do with the making of the
weather than the writer has with rul-
ing the universe, and we make no
claims to any such pretensions. It is
just possible we may have six more
weeks of wintry weather, but that is
what we most naturally should ex-
pect. In fact only half of the winter
season has passed away, according to
the calendar, but every day Old Sol
is creeping a little higher in the heav-
ens and joyous springtime is fast ap-
proaching. So let the old ground-hog
sleep another six weeks if he wants
to, as it will make little difference
with either the sunshine or cold
weather.
——Wilmer A. Albright, of Roar-
ing Springs, Blair county, won his dis-
charge from the western penitentiary
on Monday and no one appeared
against him before the Supreme court
to protest his release. Albright, as
stated in the “Watchman” two weeks
ago, had been sentenced to from four
to five years in the penitentiary on
three counts by Judge Baldridge, and
the prisoner’s contention was that the
court in passing sentence specified
that they were to be concurrent. The
commitment, however, must have been
made out “consecutive.” The Supreme
court set Monday as the day for ar-
gument against the rule why Albright
should not be discharged and no one
appearing against him his discharge
was ordered.
Leal
—1In order to avert panic on the
subject we take this opportunity to
assure the public that the Postoffice
Department will function after Will
Hays goes to the movies.
——1It is easy to see that Harding
enjoys international conferences. He
appears to be trying to make “contin-
uous performance” a rule of them
the same as the movies.
——The Salvation Army lassies in
Chicago are to wear longer skirts,
but unhappily they don’t have much
influence in fixing the fashions of the
world.
——The farmers of Centre county
have taken advantage of the good
sledding of the past several weeks to
market ’ their crops of grain and hay.
——————— A ——————
——Lloyd George is simply show-
ing Germany how promptly agree-
ment may be fulfilled if the heart is
in the right place.
— There is no question about the
A Clergyman’s Oath. :
. From the Philadelphia Record.
What does an oath amount to if to
regard it seriously stands in the way
of a public office with a good salary
attached, as well as other possibili-
ties ?
Under the Constitution of Pennsyl-
vania State Senators are elected for
four years and members of the House
of Representatives for two years.
Also, under the Constitution Senators
and Representatives are prohibited
from holding any appointive civil of-
fice under this Commonwealth during
the time for which they shall have
been elected. It is also provided un-
der the same Constitution that no such
Senator or Representative can hold
membership in either house while
holding an office under the United
States or under the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
When Mr. McConnell, of Shamokin,
was appointed Prohibition Enforce-
ment Director for the State of Penn-
sylvania his term as State Senator
ad two years to run. It was report-
ed that he had, in an effort to hold the
prohibition job, resigned his seat in
| the State Senate; but now that he has
resigned the prohibition job, it is as-
serted that his resignation as a Sen-
ator was never effective, because it
had not been accepted by the Senate,
and that he will claim his right to act
as a State Senator during the next
two years.
The vacancy caused by the resigna-
tion of McConnell as Prohibition Di-
rector for Pennsylvania is to be filled,
we are informed, by the appointment
of Rev. John T. Davis, of Blairsville,
who is a member of the House of Rep-
resentatives from Indiana county, and
whose term of two years does not ex-
pire for some months.
Clearly it was the intention of the
people when they framed the Consti-
tution to make it impossible for the
Senators and Representatives to hold
any appointive public office in the
State or nation during the term for
which they were elected. But regard-
less of this fact, we should think that
Rev. John T. Davis, being a minister
of the Gospel, and one -who advocates
in the pulpit the sanctity of the oath,
would not jump into the prohibition
job before he is convinced he can
free himself of the obligations of the
oath taken when he assumed his place
as a member of the Pennsylvania Leg-
islature. :
Senator was not effective use thé
Senate was not in session and did not
accept it, how can Mr. Davis be sure,
even if he should write a letter of res-
ignation as a member of the House,
that he is not still a member of that
body, remaining such until the House
should care to release him from his
obligations ?
A Way to Public Service.
From the Villager.
You will surely agree to this, that
when any good American gives up a
$12,000 a year post in order to take a
$150,000 a year post, no other good
American needs to be told why he did
it. The Postmaster General should
give himself no anxiety that his mo-
tives will be mistaken by any of his
countrymen. Had Mr. Hays refused
the moving picture merchants’ offer to
head their gigantic organization—or
more plainly, to become their ‘“re-
spectability”’—the public gossip might
not do his refusal entire justice.
rejection of such an advantage would
not have been understood, but an ac-
ceptance cannot be misunderstood. In
the circumstances, it is too bad that
President Harding felt constrained to
say, on approving Mr. Hays’ resigna-
tion, that there was here “an oppor-
tunity for a helpful public service”
greater than should be refused. There
was once a preacher who announced
to his congregation that he was leav-
ing them. “According to the conven-
tions,” he told them, “I ought to say
to you that I have had a call to larger
opportunities. But I want to be frank
with you. I have a large family to
support. In my salad days I learned
—well—a certain diversion, of which,
of course, I repent, but it at least
taught me the difference between a
call and a raise.”
High Cost of Government.
From the Pacli, Kansas, Spirit.
Fate seems to have made the year
of 1921 extravagant in its trials,
sieges, besetments, demands, com-
mands, taxation, robberies, bankrupt-
cies, thefts, diphtheria, smallpox, etc.
The average home has been overrun
with solicitors, beggars, government
officers, state officials, inquisitors,
promoters, peddlers, and busybodies.
A special car of the State Health
Board, in charge of a richly gowned
and jeweled young woman came to
town not long ago, and mothers were
commanded to hurry to the depot and
take instructions as to how to raise
their babies; then came a government
nurse, another unmarried lady, weigh-
ing the babies and instructing the
mothers as to the sort of infants they
must give birth to hereafter or quit
the business; and now farmers are no-
tified that they must pay a specialist
from one of our higher institutions of
Jedtning to tell them how to feed the
0gs.
—— i ——————
New View of Preparedness.
From the Boston Transcript.
National preparedness on a reason-
able scale will cost infinitely less in
the long run than wars thrust upon us
unprepared.
If Mr. McConnell’s ‘resignation as a
i
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Notices posted at the locomotive and
car shops at the Buffalo, Rochester and
Pittsburgh Railway company at DuBois,
provide for laying off 200 men effective
March 1st. No cause for the suspension is
given.
— Robert L. Krause, who has taken many
prizes in State and county firemen’s pa-
rades as the heaviest fireman in Pennsyl-
vania, died at Bethlehem last week from
a complication of diseases. He weighed
more than 310 pounds.
— The Inter-State window glass plant at
Hazelhurst, near Kane, was destroyed by
fire of unknown origin last Friday, with
an estimatel loss of $125,000. The plant
had been idle for a year and was being
prepared for operation within a few weeks,
officials said.
—One-half hour after he had reported
‘for work last Thursday, Joseph Costello,
33 years old, of Shamokin, a brakeman in
the employe of the Philadelphia and Read-
ing Railway company, was struck by a
freight train and instantly killed. A wid-
ow and two children survive.
—Lloyd Heimbach, head dairyman at
the State hospital for the insane at Dan-
ville, has developed anthrax, it was said
at the hospital on Monday. The origin of
the disease is unknown. Heimbach has
been quarantined and careful watch is be-’
ing kept to prevent any further outbreak.
—The Rev. Dr. David B. Floyd, aged 75
years, dropped dead from heart disease
while teaching at Susquehanna Universi-
ty on Monday. He was a native of Mid-
dletown, Md. At one time he was a lead-
ing minister in the Lutheran Synod. He
had been a professor at Susquehanna since
1906.
—Paul Egan, aged 7 years, while skat-
ing on the Shenango river at New Castle,
on Friday, saved a companion, Thomas
Feed, aged 12 years, from drowning when
the latter broke through the ice. The
Egan lad, lying flat on the ice, held his
companion’s head above water until help
arrived a few minutes later.
— Climbing a chair from which he was
enabled to reach the top of the chiffonier
in his mother’s bedroom, Bernard J. Cole,
2 years old, baby son of Mr. and Mrs. Har-
ry 8. Cole, of Juniata Gap, last Thursday
afternoon secured a quantity of pills, of
which he ate a number, dying an hour
afterward in great agony. The pills con-
tained strychnine, which caused the child’s
death.
—The Logan Iron & Steel company at
Burnham began operations Monday morn-
ing with the eighteen inch and puddle
mills in full operation and put the twelve
inch mill in operation on Tuesday morn-
ing. The period of operation is uncertain,
however, but the company has shown a’
marked tendency to give the men all the
work possible during the period of indus-.
trial depression.
—Although a small fortune in an inher
itance lay in a Danville bank for more
than nineteen years, Miss Minnie Johnson,
now Mrs. Harry Dark, has been living at’
Kapp’s Heights, a suburb near that place,
for many years. A newspaper announce-
ment brought the matter to her attention
last week, just three weeks before it would
have been escheated to the State. The
money was left to her by a relative.
—Alex I. Donnan, a New Castle printer,
experienced the unusual sensation of hav-
ing his heart stop beating for nearly five
minutes, on Saturday, and still is in .ner-
mal health today. He had taken chloro-
form for the purpose of having some teeth
extracted, when the experience occurred.
Doctor and dentist worked with him fran-
tically to start respiration and heart ac-
tion during the period, and he finally re-
sponded. When he came out from under
the influence of the chloroform he seemed
to be normal.
— Mrs. Mary Toth, a widow with four
children, of Beaver Falls, and who is de-
pendent on charity because she can get no
work, was fleeced out of four dollars, all
she had, one day last week, by what has
been described as the meanest man known.
The man purported to be representing the
county commissioners to inquire if she
had sufficient coal. He offered to buy’
more at a low price with the money she
had on hand, and to see that her wants
were met in other lines. Trustfully she
placed the money in his hands. He skip-
ped.
United States Commissioner James H.
O’Laughlin, of Clearfield, as attorney for
Frank Wasick, of Osceola, has instituted
proceedings against the sheriff of Clear-
field county to recover one still, one three-
gallon jug and two quarts of whiskey tak-
en by Sheriff Gorman during a raid on a
house occupied by John Shultz, at Osceo-.
la, on December 17th. Wasick claims to be
the owner of the articles in question, and
in his petition to the court for the return
of same he alleges that the sheriff made
the search and seizure without proper war-
rant.
—Two hundred and eighty dollars,
which had been raised by the family and
friends of Gilbert McCloskey, who is un-
der sentence of death in the Blair county
jail for the murder of William Nichaus, in
Altoona, August 3rd last, for a new trial,
is said to have been stolen by Eddie Long,
a former chum of McCloskey’s in the Ohio
State reformatory. Long, hearing of his
former pal’'s plight, went to Altoona two
weeks ago to try to help him, and stayed
at the McCloskey home. He left suddenly
and the money is said to have disappeared
at the same time.
— Fire of unknown origin early Saturday
morning caused damage estimated at $50,-
000 in the Mill street section of Danville,
the second serious blaze last month within
two blocks. The buildings, owned by W.
W. Welliver, the Lyon estate and the Lau-
bach estate, housing the stores of Cliff
Pursel, W. Welliver, Opal Oberdorf and
the restaurant of Ray Quick were damag-
ed. Most of the loss sustained was in the
‘Welliver hardware store, where the fire
originated. The Bell telephone company’s
exchange is on the second floor of the
building that was damaged, and the op-
erators remained at the switchboard while
the firemen fought the blaze for three
hours.
—One million tons of kisses and an ad-
ditional “standpipe full of kisses” thrown
in for good measure are worth just $1000
according to a Dauphin county jury, which
ordered constable Christian Yingst, of
Middletown, to pay that amount for alien-
ating the affections of Mrs. Levi D. Rife,
of Gettysburg. The myriads of Kisses
were contained in letters alleged to have
been written by Yingst to Mrs. Rife. And
one letter to which his signature was said
to be attached read: “The roses are red
and the violets are blue and I have a kiss
for you.” Yingst denied authorship of the
letters, which caused outbursts of laugh~
ter in the courtroom, and said he only had
written once to Mrs. Rife.