Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, November 24, 1922, Image 1

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    Denar fade
INK SLINGS.
—Mr. Pinchot has recuperated
enough strength to tell the horde of
hatchet and saw carpenters that they
are not cabinet makers.
—My, what a sigh of relief must
have gone up from the hold-over sen-
atorial and congressional chests when
Newberry actually tendered his resig-
nation.
—Lewistown publishers are consid-
ering starting a live daily paper in
Bellefonte. From a weekly standpoint
we think we know the field. From
that of a daily we have only the ex-
perience that others have had to sug-
gest the thought that the big thing is
not starting a live daily here, but
keeping it alive. Bellefonte is too
small for a big daily and too big for
a little one.
— Next Wednesday is being adver-
tised as “Dollar Day” in Bellefonte.
To us a dollar looks like a lot of mon-
ey, and if we had one we think we'd
be nosing ‘round on “Dollar Day” be-
cause we believe we could make it do
about one hundred and fifty cents
worth of business then. We know the
merchants who are advertising in the
“Watchman” are not ‘“spoofing.”
They'll do exactly what they promise.
—Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson says
Clemenceau “is a darling to cook for”
and then the reporters elaborate on
the interview they had with her by
saying that the Tiger “had vegetable
soup for breakfast.” Being from a
country where some folks sometimes
serve pie for breakfast we are not sur-
prised that vegetable soup should be
on the matutinal menu in Gotha.
We own, however, to never having
heard of soup before luncheon or din-
ner unless it was a case of nothing
else “sticking” but a bit of clam broth
on the morning after the night before
Mr. Volstead began doing things.
—We didn’t hear it, but one who
did has told us that Dr. Beeler, of
Chicago, who was one of the institute
lecturers here last week, advocated in-
termarriage of the races as the great-
est factor in getting the American
melting pot working to one hundred
per cent. efficiency. It didn’t listen
good to the gentleman who told us of
it and we admit shuddering a bit when
we heard what this Beeler man is sup-
posed to have said. Then we thought
of the Hon. Bill Kepler. He it was,
when he was the Member for Centre
in the Legislature, who presented the
miscegenation bill and got a lot of
newspaper publicity, but not enough
votes to pass it.
"—We notice that council was almost
full last Monday night. Eight of the
nine members were present. We don’t
know how many of them were for it,
but that doesn’t matter, they decided
to pay five dollars an analysis to have
the water from the Big Spring an-
alyzed and the result sent to Harris-
burg every once in a while. Council
is not to blame for this bit of useless
expenditure. There was nothing left
for it to do but comply with the de-
mand from Harrisburg where a lot of
clerks are waiting for jobs stowing
these reports away in filing cabinets
where they will never be looked at
again. We are wondering, a bit, how-
ever, as to whether there is any real
law compelling council to bother with
this water analysis? What if it didn’t
do it. What would happen then?
—Speculation is rife as to who will
be the dispenser of patronage, the
grand exhausted rooster of the com-
ing administration at Harrisburg, in
this district. We have heard that a
certain distinguished gentleman from
Centre with his brother, the newly
elected Senator from the Elk-Clinton
district, have already been seen mo-
toring in Pike county and following
the finger-boards that point Milford-
way. We know that Tom Harter was
the original Pinchot Republican and
hopes for something nice because of
his originality and we know that Har-
ry Keller, who had the last say during
the Brumbaugh regime, spent a lot of
time electioneering for Pinchot that
ought to be paid for in recognition
and we know a lot of other things that
we're not going to tell just yet. But
what we did start out to tell was that
we believe that a certain gentleman
who lives on a hill at the south side of
east Presqueisle street, Philipsburg,
has not been as completely unhorsed
as a lot of those who would like to
climb into the saddle think he is.
— Next Sunday Dr. Evans is going
to preach on “the grateful lion” and
Dr. Schmidt will dissertate on “St.
Paul’s estimate of athletics,” while
Rev. McKelvey is going to talk about
“the man who doesn’t need to go to
church.” We don’t know what lion
Dr. Evans has in mind, but if it is
that Nittany lion up at State he'll
have a hard time putting it in the
grateful class after what happened at
Philadelphia last Saturday. Maybe,
he has the lion that Nero threw the
Christians to away back in 64 A. D,,
in mind. As for brother McKelvey’s
subject: We don’t think he has one
at all, for there ain’t no such man as
one who doesn’t need to go to church.
Of course a man of the cloth most al-
ways gets something out of a text that
even a man with a news nose doesn’t
sniff, but this time we think we're
going to beat Dr. Schmidt to it. You
read Acts 20:9 and you'll have his
text. He's going to preach on the re-
action Paul had to the grand and lofty
tumbling that BEutychus did when he
fell out of the third loft after Paul
had preached him to sleep over there
in Macedonia.
i
|
VOL. 67.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., NOVEMBER 24. 1922.
NO. 46.
Clemencean’s Mission in America.
Georges Clemenceau, “France’s
wartime Premier,” arrived in New
York on Saturday and was cordially
and becomingly welcomed officially
and socially. The wartime Premier is
no longer an official in France. He is
a private citizen and private citizens
rarely go from one country to another
with 2 mission. Other Frenchmen
have come and gone since the war and
were enthusiastically received. But
they had ambassadorial or other au-
thority to speak for their government.
Clemenceau comes without such au-
thority, yet in his first address de-
livered upon his arrival he said he has
a missicn. He is to speak in several
cities, including Washington, where he
will be officially received.
After President Grant’s retirement
from official life he made a tour of
the old world and was enthusiastically
acclaimed in every capital of Europe.
But he had no mission and offered no
suggestions or advice to the govern-
ments which thus honored him. Pres-
ident Roosevelt made a similar trip
after the expiration of his term of of-
fice and just naturally told all the gov-
ernments what they ought to do on
all subjects. Clemenceau will proba-
bly be equally loquacious during his
stay in this country, but in view of his
mission, will give no offense. He will
not dilate on our faults but will try
to reconcile any differences in the pub-
lic opinion in France and the United
States.
In reply to the address of welcome
by the Mayor of New York Clemen-
ceau said he had been frequently in-
vited to come to America but declin-
ed for one reason or another. But one
day in an English newspaper he saw
that a man “of very high standing”
had called America “bad names.”
From that moment he determined to
come and in the face of the people of
America refute the slander. He
probably referred to Ambassador
George Harvey, who not only malign-
ed the American soldiers in the great
war but traduced the American peo-
ple as a whole. That is the Tiger’s
mission in his visit and speaking from
his own observation on the firing line
and in the trenches it may be pre-
dicted that he will do his work well.
——New York doctors think they
know more about the use of medicines
than Representative Volstead, but
they forget that Volstead’s patient is
a very sick party.
Pepper and Hughes Pitiable Figures.
Mr. Truman H. Newberry, of Mich-
igan, is out of the official life of the
country and the manner of his retire-
ment has cast a shadow over his life
which will endure forever. But at that
he is not the most pitiable figure in
this tragedy of politics. Ambition and
inexperience made him an easy vic-
tim of designing political marplois
who for selfish purposes enticed him
into a campaign for Senator in Con-
gress. Being in he naturally wanted
to win, and with abundance of money
and little understanding of the conse-
quences, he grossly violated the law.
For this he was tried and convicted in
a court of justice. On a technicality
he escaped the penalty but the stain
remained.
Within forty-eight hours from the
time he was sworn in as a Senator
George Wharton Pepper, of Pennsyl-
vania, voted in favor of legalizing
Mr. Newberry’s title to the seat. Mr.
Pepper was learned in the law and
familiar with the rules and relevancy
of evidence, He said that he had read
the testimony in the case and the evi-
dence of Newberry showed that more
than $200,000 had been expended by
himself and his family to secure his
election. He knew that the Act of
Congress and the laws of Michigan
were violated by such profligate ex-
penditure of money. Yet he voted
for the resolution to seat Newberry
though it condemned the violation of
the law involved.
Charles Evans Hughes, who served
a term as Governor of New York, sat
for a number of years on the bench of
the Supreme court of the United
States and at the time Secretary of
State of the United States, prostituted
himself and the dignity of his great
office to the base purpose of support-
ing Newberry’s crime against the pub-
lic. These men were not victims of
ambition or inexperience. They were
influenced purely by a malignant par-
tisan prejudice and the equally des-
picable purpose of destroying a man
who had sacrificed health for what he
believed to be the honor and glory of
his country and theirs. George Whai-
ton Pepper and Charles E. Hughes are
the pitiable creatures in this matter.
me ——— lp —
— Now if Henry Cabot would
follow the example of Truman H.,
“we might be happy yet, you bet.”
——Reversing the remark of Gro-
ver Cleveland Congress again has a
President on its hands.
Eclipse of Senator Newberry.
Senator Truman H. Newberry has
solved the most perplexing political
problem of the Sixty-eighth Congress
by resigning the seat which cost his
family so vast an amount of money.
He has profited by the experience of
Lorimer. If he had not resigned he
would have been expelled. The court
of last resort had handed down its
opinion and there is no escape from
the penalty it pronounces. Party ne-
cessity and personal ambition were
alike impotent in a conflict with an
aroused public conscience and he has
yielded to the inevitable. By this dis-
cretion he has averted a personal pun-
ishment but he has not saved his par-
ty from responsibility. Having con-
doned the offense his party will pay
the penalty.
There will be no public discussion
of the Newberry case in the next
Congress, or in the extra session now
in progress or the regular session to
begin in ten days, of the present Con-
gress. If there had been no protest
against Newberryism he would have
continued in his seat and the scandal
might have gone on indefinitely. He
enjoyed the intimate personal friend-
ship of the President and the social
prestige of great wealth and high of-
ficial position. He had the selfish sat-
isfaction of a temporary triumph over
his political foes, and as he himself
phrases it, “the eternal satisfaction of
having by my vote aided in keeping
the United States out of the League
of Nations.”
The fact that keeping the United
States out of the League of Nations
has resulted in the butchery of hun-
dreds of thousands of christians in Ar-
menia, the prolongation of industrial
paralysis in Europe and America, the
war between Turkey and Greece and
the restoration of “the unspeakable
Turk” to full power to menace the
peace of the world, may have added
to his appreciation of his purchased
power, but he modestly refrains from
mentioning the fact. In any event he
is now by exercising “the better part
of valor” free to enjoy, during the re-
mainder of his life, a well earned ob-
livion without any part ef the cost
which his brief term in the Senate en-
tailed.
— If the Pennsylvania system of
paying official salaries is adopted in
Washington Mrs. Felton, the Georgia
“Senator for a day,” will be paid the
salary of a full session.
Harding Pleads for Ship Subsidy.
The text of the President’s address
to Congress on Tuesday shows that
the sole and only purpose of the ex-
tra session is to force the enactment
of ship subsidy legislation. No other
subject is mentioned and every sen-
tence reveals the anxiety of Mr.
Harding to discharge his debt to the
ship owners as he fulfilled his obliga-
tions to the tariff mongers through
the Fordney tariff bill. In the begin-
ning he casts a brick at his predeces-
sor in office. “Let us omit particulars
about the frenzied war time building,”
he says, and adds, “possibly we did
full as well as it could have been done
in the anxious circumstances.”
Certainly we did better in all war
preparing activities than was done by
the administration that conducted the
skirmish with Spain tweny years ear-
lier. But the President has the party
habit of forgetting and we will let
that pass. But his statement that
failure to pass the subsidy, which he
prefers to call a “government aid,”
measure, will entail the entire loss of
the fleet created during “the frenzied
war time building,” may well be ques-
tioned. So long as the authorities
hold out the promise of a vast subsidy
investors will hold off from the pur-
chase or operation of the ships. But
when they learn definitely that there
will be no such largess, the vessels
will be grabbed up at the bargain
prices at which they may be offered.
The ship subsidy method of graft-
ing has long been a cherished hope.
More than half a century ago the
scheme of looting the treasury by that
means was conceived and the neces-
sary legislation was attempted at
every session of Congress since the
Civil war, except during the periods
in which Grover Cleveland and Wood-
row Wilson occupied the White House.
It appears to have been the first
thought that entered the mind of War-
ren G. Harding after his inauguration,
for he recommended it in his first mes-
sage. Possibly he may force it
through this time and thus cut anoth-
er nail for the coffin of his party. But
if it fails in this Congress it will never
succeed.
——After all Senator Pepper’s vote
to seat Newberry may have been his
way of “spitting in the eye of a bull
dog.”
———— A ————————
If the soldiers were ship own-
ers President Harding might be able
to dig up money to pay them bonuses.
Pinchot Has Emerged.
Governor-elect Gifford Pinchot has
at last emerged from the seclusion in-
to which he retired for rest after the
election. He had rather a hard cam-
paign and probably needed the recu-
perative power which solitude affords.
And, according to current rumors, he
will need all the strength he can sum-
mon during the next few weeks. He
didn’t campaign with the energy ex-
pended by McSparran. If he had he
would have been dead before election
day. But he worked hard enough to
make a long rest not only desirable
but necessary. Besides it is custom-
ary for Republican leaders to take
rests after a campaign and Mr. Pin-
chot is now a full-fledged Republican
leader.
Now that he is back on the firing
line he will have plenty to do between
this time and the date of his inaugu-
ration. His first problem will be the
organization of the Legislature on a
plane which will give him at least the
shadow of a hope that he may fulfill
his promises. That will be an her-
culean job. The old machine will not
yield without a struggle. It has too
much concern for its future to sur-
render absolutely. Joseph R. Grundy
will not willingly relinquish his con-
trol over the Legislature. His person-
al and pecuniary interests are too im-
portant to be neglected. The “wets”
will not cheerfully consent to the dom-
inance of the “drys” and Mr. Pinchot
is more or less bound to all these in-
terests.
Of course these questions will have
to be threshed out in the organization
of the Legislature and much will de-
pend upon the selection of the Speak-
er. There are seven or eight candi-
dates for this important office and Mr.
Pinchot will be importuned by each
and all of them. He will try to pre-
serve a neutral position but any of his
predecessors will tell him that such a
thing is impossible. The aspirants
for office outside the Legislature will
be equally importunate and quite as in-
considerate of his feelings, so that we
predict for the Governor-elect a fu-
ture of much turmoil and severe la-
Wo: If the campaign tired him out |
the immediate future will reduce him
to a frazzle.
— The coal operators and miners
unite in opposition to standardizing
wages and agree on the proposition to
close down high cost mines.
Has Read the “Watchman” All Her
Life.
In renewing her subscription to this
paper an esteemed lady reader living
in the western part of the State says:
“Do you know I've never had even
a week in my life without the “Watch-
man.” Father was a subscriber, then
mother and now I get it, and shall as,
long as I live. As a good Methodist
you may say amen. I tell my friends
I was raised on the Bible and Belle-
fonte “Watchman,” so the consequence
is I'm a Methodist and a hide-bound
Democrat. What else could I be?
And thank goodness, my good judg-
ment held in selecting a life-partner,
as my husband is the same.”
— Mrs. W. H. Felton took the oath
of office as a Senator in Congress for
the State of Georgia on Tuesday. She
is eighty-seven years old and was ap-
pointed to serve in the late Senator
Watson’s place until his successor
could be elected. Walter F. George
was elected on November 7th and suc-
ceeded Mrs. Felton after her exper-
ience of being the first woman United
States Senator, though she held office
only for a day. The dear old lady.
She’s some Democrat, for the thing
that concerned her most during the
preliminaries to the unusual honor ac-
corded her, was fear that her wraps
might be hung up in the Republican
cloak room.
——————————p—————————
—Upsetting the dope seems to be
the outstanding achievement of the
football season. State has twice con-
tributed to the unexpected, but at the
wrong end of the string. On the as-
sumption that the third will be the
charm we are picking her to beat Pitt
on Thanksgiving day.
er reer
— The extra session of Congress
now functioning will be brief, but un-
less appearances are misleading it
will be very lively.
———————————————————
— Senator LaFollette imagines
that he has a contract to sink the
ship subsidy enterprise within the
three mile limit.
cam—————— eres m—
— Representative Fordney says
the tariff bill is his monument. It
may also serve as the tombstone of his
party.
nr ———— i ————————
— Secretary of the Treasury Mel-
lon is dead set against extravagance.
Andy always was a trifle “close.”
Administration and Near East.
From the Philadelphia Record.
The inspired statement of the atti-
tude of the Harding Administration
toward the Near East—the christian
victims of the Turks—sounds very
much like an excuse for inaction. The
proposal that the government send an
army of 100,000 to Turkey is deserib-
ed as absurd, ridiculous and impossi-
ble. All of which may be true, but it
does not justify the indifference with
which the Administration has contem-
plated what has been going on in Tur-
key for some time.
Of course, the Administration can-
not send 100,000 soldiers to Turkey
under existing circumstances. But all
diplomacy has force back of it, or else
it is mere chatter at a pink tea. The
inspirer of the statement of the Ad-
ministration’s attitude talks about
“swashbuckling” and “rattling the sa-
bre,” but nobody said that sort of
thing when President Roosevelt made
his demand upon the Sultan of Moroc-
co for “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli
dead.”
Perdicaris was produced, but does
anybody suppose that if he had not
been, Mr. Roosevelt would have let the
matter go with an expression of re-
ge that there was nothing he could
President McKinley did send an ar-
my to China because the Boxers had
besieged the Embassies in Pekin. Cu-
ba was in 1898 just as much foreign
territory as Turkey is now, but Presi-
dent McKinley recognized that Ameri-
cans were interested in its decent gov-
ernment. He told Spain what it must
do, and when it failed he ordered it to
leave the island. President Roose-
velt ordered the Colombian govern-
ment within 50 miles of Panama, al-
though an Insurrection was in prog-
ress. President Cleveland threatened
war with England over the Venezue-
lan boundary. The Monroe Doctrine
reaches Cuba and Venezuala, but it
does not reach China nor Morocco.
In the case of Spain’s relations with
Cuba, however, it would be a very
forced interpretation of the Monroe
Doctrine that would reach the case.
Mr. McKinley acted on the ground of
American interests, and more Ameri-
cans are interested financially and
sentimentally in the colleges and other
glucasiona) and religious institutions
ey than were in i -
gar Plamtations in tel By
. But. America as a nation ‘has somé
interests in the Near East. He Jams
the public is aware, the Administra-
tion has never called upon the Allies
to keep their promise made to the
President on January 10th, 1917, to
emancipate the populations “subject
to the bloody tyranny of the Turk.”
The Allies referred to the President
of the United States the boundaries
of an autonomous Armenia, and he
Pade > decision, and Fhe United States
ver insisted tha i
fort to that decision. t Boy. give or
ecretary Hughes has insisted tha
Pe have a right to be consulted ho
the mandate for Mesopotamia, in
which there is petroleum, and the
Wandate for Yap, where there is a ca-
e crossing. Why has he not protest-
ed against France's abandonment of
I Dando % Cilicia, to the great
ent o meri i i
Adana 7 Comer can interests in
e inspired statement sa ¢
our representatives in ene thet
not be mere messenger boys to bring
us news of what goes on there, but
will be active in the conference on
various subjects in which the Admin-
istration recognizes American inter-
ests, excluding political and territor-
ial matters. But if our representa-
tives are going to do more than chat-
ter pleasantly around a tea table they
must represent the armed forces of
the United States which will be used
with those of other nations in the con.
ference to give effect to its decisions.
Thus the Administration is either
humbugging Europe as well as Amer-
ica by mere words, or it is prepared
to use force in supporting the coneclu-
sions reached, and that is as likely to
result in the dispatch of an army of
100,000 men as any action that the
friends of the Near East have urged.
The inspired statement is not calcu.
lated to command very much respect.
Mr. Hughes as a Moral Asset.
From the New York World.
Mr. Hughes put his moral influ-
ence behind a defense of Newberry.
The Newberry candidate in Michigan
was the first Republican candidate for
Senator from Michigan who has been
defeated in 70 years.
Mr. Hughes went to New Jersey
and put his moral influence behind
Frelinghuysen. The Senator was de-
cisively beaten.
Mr. Hughes went to Massachusetts
and put his moral influence behind
Lodge. The Senator ran 40,000 behind
his ticket and may have to face the
humiliation of a recount.
Mr. Hughes came to New York and
put his moral influence behind Gover-
nor Miller and Senator Calder. Miller
was beaten by 400,000 and Calder by
a quarter of a million.
Mr. Hughes did not go to Wiscon-
sin to put his moral influence behind
LaFollette. And LaFollette won by a
great majority. He did not go to
Towa to put his moral influence behind
Brookhart. And Brookhart won easi-
Only Beveridge of the more promi-
‘nent Republicans lost without Mr.
Hughes’ assistance.
mt —{ fy a————————
— Subscribe for the “Watchman.”
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Francis M. Stewart, of Sunbury, caught
in the Danville insane asylum, where he
sought refuge as a nurse, was sentenced by
Judge Potter in the Snyder county court,
last Thursday, to serve a year in the pen-
itentiary. He admitted complicity in a
store robbery at Shamokin Dam more than
a year ago.
—Trainmen on the Lehigh Valley rail-
road reported the gates at the Aineyville
crossing not working, and watchman
Joseph Boskowski was found dead in the
shanty. Death was due to apoplexy. In
his clothes were found several hundred
dollars in cash and a deposit book showing
a credit of $5000.
—Seventy-five kegs of black powder ex-
nloded at the Oliver's Mills plant of the
DuPont company in Luzerne county, last
Thursday. A one-story building used for
pressing and drying was wrecked, but no
one was injured. Thomas Snee, a mill op-
erator, was in the building at the time,
but his life was saved by a bomb proof
compartment.
—1In four days of actual hunting in the
“Big Woods,” in Maine, Howard Eyster,
of York, and W. R. Stallsmith, of Gettys-
burg, shot four deer, one bear and ten par-
tridges. Mr. Stallsmith shot the limit in
deer and partridges, as did Mr. Eyster.
The bear was shot by Mr. Eyster. The
trip took seventeen days. The two men
traveled by machine. The stopping-off
point in Maine was the town of Kingman.
—Nine years in the federal prison at At-
lanta, Ga., was the sentence imposed by
Judge W. H. S. Thompson, in Pittsburgh
on Monday, on Robert Willoughby, alias
Robert C. Billings, self-confessed postoffice
robber. Postoffice inspectors who investi-
gated the case said that Willoughby at-
tributed his life of crime to the fact that
his parents separated when he was a boy
and he was forced to shift for himself.
He was indicted for robbing postoffices at
Racine, Wexford and Cabot, Pa.
—A party of coon hunters early last
Thursday found the lifeless body of Da-
vid Hook, 60 years of age, lying in front
of the charred debris of a hunting cabin
on Black Log mountain, not far from Lew-
istown. Death was due to a 32-caliber re-
volver bullet in his brain. W. A. Barr,
coroner of Mifflin county, who went to the
scene, is of the opinion the man was dead
several hours when found, and advances
the theory that he either shot himself or
was the victim of a stray bullet fired by
some hunter.
— Fitch Culver, of Berwick, declares he
will never again try to play the Good Sa-
maritan. He started for New York last
Thursday and got as far as Scranton. Ile
walked about the city while waiting for a
train, and when two men asked him to help
push a new car to get it started, he com-
plied. Two other men ran from a store
and accused him of attempting to steal
the car. He was arrested, missed his train
to New York and as the patrol wagon ar-
rived found a bystander who had heard
the two men, who got away, ask his as-
sistance. Then he was freed and returned
home,
—Indictments against three former post-
masters were returned to federal court in
Pittsburgh, last week. David J. Shaffer,
former postmaster at Davidsville, Somer-
set county, was charged with a shortage
of $4,801.60 in his accounts, William Whip-
Toy; postmaster at Casselman, was -indiet-
ed in connection with the disappearance of
$1,600 from his office. Hardy Sellers, for-
mer acting postmaster at Darvosburg, was
charged with failing to turn over postal
funds. Other indictments included that
returned against Grant Dean, of Somer-
set, charged with counterfeiting a third
Liberty loan bond.
—James Beckenbaugh, 63 years old, was
buried at Newton Hamilton, on Monday,
the victim of a peculiar accident. Deceas-
ed was a carpenter working on the Laugh-
lin houses three weeks ago, when it be-
came necessary to raise a heavy piece of
frame timber and hold the end above his
head while a fellow workman mortised the
other end into the frame work. Becoming
tired of holding his arms above his head
Beckenbaugh rested the flat surface of the
stick on top of his head when his fellow
workman, not knowing that he had done
so, hit the top of the stick to settle it firm-
er in the hole, resulting in a clot of blood
forming on the brain, from which he died
last Thursday night.
—Harry Robinson, youthful son of Mr.
and Mrs. Hayes Robinson, of McConnells-
burg, met death at his own hands in an
unusual hunting accident. He was afield
on the McFarlan farm near his home, when
he was approached by David Keyser, ten-
ant farmer, and ordered off the tract,
which had been posted against trespassers.
Robinson obeyed, but resented the man-
date. When he had crawled over a fence
and stood on another farm, he reached
across the fence and struck Keyser with
the butt of his gun. He held the firearm
by the barrel in making the swing. The
force of the blow on Keyser’'s body dis-
charged a shell in the gun, wounding
Robinson so seriously he died a few mo-
ments later. 0
—The church and rectory of the Polish
Catholic congregation at Hooversville,
Somerset county, were destroyed by fire
Monday morning, with a total loss of
about $10,000. The tragic part of the af-
fair was the death by heart failure of the
pastor, the Rev. Father Ladislaus Vadker-
ti, during the burning of the structure.
The pastor had been assisting in carrying
out some books and other articles from the
burning building when he was stricken
with the attack. Medical aid was imme-
diately summoned but without . vail. Fath-
er Vadkerti was but 38 years of age and
had been in charge of the church for about
one year, and had fixed himself in the
hearts of his flock, by his loving kindness
toward them. His death has cast a deep
shadow over the people both of the church
and of the town.
—AIll controversy as to the rightful
claimant of the $1000 reward offered for
the arrest of persons connected with the
death of Paul Newcomer, of Fayette coun-
ty, was settled when a check for that
amount was tourned over to alderman John
Darby, of Uniontown. Alderman Darby
made an investigation of the case when
the body of Newcomer was found along
a road near Smock and named George
Stewart as the slayer. Later Stewart
walked into the district attorney’s office to
resume his duties as a “booze spotter” and
was arrested. He confessed, implicated
John Randolph and made an effort to
shield his wife, but Randolph and Mrs.
Stewart were convicted of second-degree
murder and sentenced to long prison terms,
while Stewart was convicted of murder in
the first degree and electrocuted.