ee ——————————————————————
INK SLINGS.
—The stars and stripes no longer
float on the Rhine breezes.
—We are inclined to the belief that
the Senate is only irritating Secretary
Hughes so that he can’t sneak into the
League of Nations without public no-
tice.
Citizens of France and Belgium
are not admitted to hotels in Berlin
but seem to go anywhere they like in
Essen and other points in the Ruhr
valley.
—Talking about prestidigitators,
Governor Pinchot waived his magic
wand over “Capitol Hill,” and instant-
ly an army of official snails were
transformed into centipedes.
—In cold weather every front door
ought to be equipped with a sliding
board for the guests who insist on
saying good-night all over again after
they have exited to that point.
—The outstanding difference be-
tween this Mr. Boyden and Col. House
as “observers” seems to be that Boy-
den has eyes, ears and a mouth and
Col. House has only eyes and ears.
—There are likely to be lots of as-
irants for county office next fall. Al-
ready there are so many ears to the
ground that the wily political leader
has to watch his step mighty well lest
he tread on one unawares.
—The Norristown man who was
granted a divorce because his wife
neglected him to go swimming prob-
ably thought she counted him a poor-
er fish than those she dabbled with in
her favorite swimming hole.
—At¢t least the signs indicate that
‘Governor Pinchot is starting off as
well as we could have hoped for Mr.
McSparran to have done. Let us hope
that as an old broom he will be sweep-
ing just as clean as he is trying to do
as a new one.
—Nature is doing her best to stiffen
up the weak backs in this community.
A short handled shovel and fifty feet
of side-walk covered with snow beats
Walter Camp’s “daily dozen” all to
pieces as stimulation for that part of
the anatomy.
—Why is it that so many of those
who are so fortunate themselves that
they don’t have to do such things in-
variably drop in for a call with the
woman who does, just about the time
she is due to start preparation of the
family meal ?
—PFrance has just announced the
sixty miles and our army experts have
perfected a rifle that has a range of
eight miles. Of course both are tech-
nical and manufacturing triumphs, but
what of the recent spasm for disarm-
ament?- ma Cre CL
—Philadelphia housewives declare
they can’t use bituminous coal be-
cause some one told them it requires
specially constructed stoves in which
to burn it. Many a stove in Bellefonte
that never saw anything but anthra-
cite until last fall has been getting on
very nicely since then on bituminous.
In nine cases out of ten it isn’t the
stove, it’s the manipulator that can’t
burn soft coal.
—The overwheiming victory of
George Sprowls, Democrat, for Sena-
tor, at the special election in the
Washington-Greene counties district,
looks as though the Democratic swell
of last November is still swelling. In
the fall elections he and Col. James
E. Barnett, Republican, were tied for
‘election so a special election was call-
ed and Sprowls came through with a
majority of over two thousand.
—Just naturally Charles Evans
Hughes is irritated because the Sen-
ate wants to know what his big idea
is with regard to our foreign rela-
tions problem. Waiving discussion of
the possibility of Secretary Hughes’
having a big idea on the question we
get to the point where we want to say
that his predicament affords us great
glee. He is one of the gentlemen who
thought the Senate ought to know
and do everything while Mr. Wilson
was President and now that he finds
himself impaled on another horn of
the same dilemma he becomes irri-
tated.
—Dr. Ellen Potter may prove to be
a very capable and understanding
head of the Department of Public Wel-
fare and might dispense the State’s
aid to hospitals equitably, but would
it be wise to put such a club over the
charitable institutions in the hands of
any one person. Dr. Potter will not
occupy her present position always,
but the precedent established in her
tenure would follow through to the
years when others, possibly less fair,
might find themselves in the position
of compelling every hospital in Penn-
sylvania to stand and deliver to some
political machine.
—To our mind the most interesting
and at the same time significant fea-
ture of the Governor’s budget is the
inclusion of the University of Penn-
sylvania and the Universtiy of Pitts-
burgh in the list of the educational in-
stitutions the State is obligated to
support. The allowance to Pitt is cut
only $115,000 under that granted two
vears ago, that to Penn is cut $155,
000, while the amount suggested for
State, the real ward of the Common-
wealth, is $521,000 less than the Leg-
islature of 1921 granted. It was pol-
itics, pure and simple, that drove the
entering wedge into State bounty for
both Pitt and Penn and it looks
mighty like politics that is now
attempting to permanently link them
up with the one institution that the
State is lawfully chiigated to support.
VOL. 68. :
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 26. 1923.
Confession of Senator Pepper.
Senator George Wharton Pepper
was among the most virulent oppo- | resentatives in the General Assembly
nents of the League of Nations. While | are running true and compelling at-
the question of ratification of the cov- | tention. We referred last week to
enant of the League was pending in a triumph in the House of Represen-
Good Report from Harrisburg. |
The Deomcratic Senators and Rep-
the Senate he was a private citizen
but he availed himself of every oppor-
tunity to poison the public mind con-
cerning it. His object was, of course,
to ingratiate himself in the favor of
that group of party bigots who open-
, tatives ascribable to the unity and
. courage in preventing snap action in
changing the rules. Last Monday
evening they forced an adjournment
;of the session because the resident
| clerk had treated them unfairly in the
ly declared war against Woodrow | seating arrangement. He arbitrarily
Wilson. Foremost among these in scattered them all over the chamber
Pennsylvania were the late Senators thus making it impossible to consult
Penrose and Knox, and William C. in emergencies. Before the recess
Sproul. Senator Pepper probably be- the minority members entered a pro-
lieved that iterating their venomous test which was ignored by the stupid
expressions on the subject might lead clerk who had perpetrated the trick.
to the fulfillment of his ambition to On reassembling on Monday night a
become Senator. | “roar” brought promise of correction.
In a speech delivered before the This was fine but not the best thing
New York bar association, the other that occurred in Harrisburg on Mon-
evening, Senator Pepper admitied that day evening. The Democratice Sena-
if the League of Nations had acquired : tors and Representatives held a cau-
the full force which its projectors con- | cus and openly declared their purpose
templated it would have averted the to stand united in a movement for the
impending conflict between France i repeal of the anthracite coal tax law
and Germany which is more than like- | and abolish the offices of fish and
ly to culminate in another world war | game wardens. Fish and game war-
more cruel and atrocious than the one | dens might do a lot of good if their
recently ended. “Had the League fol- | activities were limited to the service
lowed the strict provisions of its cov- | for which the offices were created.
enant,” he declared, “it would now be | But as a matteer of fact they have
engaged in steps preliminary to a been used as partisan agents to con-
concentration of actual force to com- | trol elections almost exclusively, and
pel France and Germany to settle | have become not only a nuisance but
their quarrel amicably.” He might ( a menace in the communities in which
have added that the failure of the . they serve. If the Democratic minor-
United States to join the League is ity succeeds in abolishing them it will
the reason it has not “followed the be good work.
strict provisions of the covenant.” The minority Senator and Represen-
The sublime purpose of the League | tatives have set themselves to achieve-
of Nations was to guarantee the world | ment of other important reforms in
against future wars and compel the | the affairs of the State. They will
amicable adjustment of petty or grave | solidly demand legislation authoriz-
difference among nations. Henry 'ing and requiring the Auditor General
Cabot Lodge didn’t want such a con- | of the State to audit the accounts of
dition for the reason that the muni- 'a]] the departments of the State gov-
tion makers and manufacturers of war | ernment. For some years several of
| materials in New England would be the departments have been employing
perfection of a big gun that will shoot
deprived of a source of profit in such | large forces of “traveling” and other
' of Washington.
circumstances. = The Pennsylvania
they wanted to disappoint and humil-
iate Woodrow Wilson, and George
Wharton Pepper joined them for self-
ish personalyreasons. Now that he
has secured the favor he coveted he
acknowledges that the League of Na-
tions would have achieved the splen-
i did results expected of it.
A government bulletin recently
issued tells folks “how to keep the
cellar dry,” but the greatest anxiety
among the largest number of people
is “how to keep the cellar wet.”
One Fond Hope Disappointed.
claim that he has not been a resident
of Pennsylvania long enough to be-
come familiar with the fundamental
law of the State. Put such a state-
ment on the stationery of the Execu-
tive Department wouldn’t look well,
and besides it wouldn’t be true. He
has been a nominal resident of Penn-
sylvania since 1914, when he ran for
Senator in Congress, and nine years
is ample time for an adult of average
intelligence to master so plain a code
of principles as is expressed in the
constitution of Pennsylvania. It
must be assumed, therefore, that he
understands the provisions of the
constitution but doesn’t care much
whether he obeys them or not.
Soon after the returns revealed his
election in November Mr. Pinchot be-
gan functioning as the Governor of
the State. Even before the election
he appointed commissioners to do cer-
tain things and assigned them to
service. He had no authority to do
such things but nobody complained
and really no harm was done. But
since his inauguration he has been
cutting up capers that have caused
some alarm. For example, he has
been threatening to usurp certain
functions of another elective depart-
ment in order to justify a demand to
be made on the Legislature to create
political obligation incurred before he
was nominated, but probably essential
| to his success.
The office of Secretary of Internal
Affairs was created by the constitu-
tion of the State and under the same
‘high authority certain duties were
committed to the Secretary. Gover-
nor Pinchot, on assuming the office of
Governor, discovered that he had
al and proposed to bore another hole
in which to place a particularly in-
sistent peg. To accomplish the pur-
marplots opposed the League because |
Governor Pinchot might set up the '
an office with which he may pay off a |
auditors to audit their accounts. This
process costs a lot of money because
big salaries are paid to the party
pets thus employed and are a source
| of fraud besides. The elimination of
| this horde will go a | Te
| the “cleaning up the mess,”
| Democratic Legislators are right.
In apologizing for the contin-
ued bachelorhood of the Prince of
| Wales the dean of Windsor says “the
' day is past when Princes were called
{upon to marry girls selected for them
i by statesmen.” In other words he is
{ of the opinion that Princes have de-
i veloped into “regular fellows.”
|
|
i
|
Taking Joy Out of Official Life.
| Governor Pinchot appears to be de-
termined to not only drive all the sa-
loons out of the State but to take most
of the joy out of official life in Har-
risburg. A list which he has had com-
piled shows that the State owns 350
| passenger automobiles, 727 trucks
rand 74 motorcycles. Most of the pas-
i senger cars are high-powered and
+ high-priced machines and have been
used by public officials for joy riding
and other personal purposes at the ex-
pense of the State. The Governor has
‘issued an order that all these cars be
| painted and marked so that everybody
will know that they belong to the
State, and that unless they ave in offi-
cial use those operating them are loot-
ing the treasury.
i It has also been revealed by investi-
gations made by Governor Pinchot
that some forty-three telephones in-
stalled in residences of employees of
the State have been operated at the
expense of the public treasury. The
cost of telephones in Harrisburg run
from $2.50 to $4.50 each month for lo-
cal service alone. One of the users of
a State-provided ’phone is said to
have run up a bill of $96.00 within a
very short period of time for tolls on
long distance service and all of them
ernor has ordered the Board of Pub-
lic Grounds and Buildings to cut out
‘all these ’phones, so that hereafter
' prived of this luxury of official life.
Of course this is precisely the righ
i thing to do. These favors to certain
' officials are part of “the mess at Har-
‘risburg” which Governor Pinchot
| promised to
|
i
run long on the toll board. The Gov-
i the swivel-chair favorites will be de- P hiladelphia.
Republican Machine Rebuked.
At the recent general election in the
Forty-sixth Senatorial district of this
State the Democratic voters supported
George E. Sprowls and the Republican
nominee was Colonel James E. Bar-
nett. Both candidates were popular,
Mr. Sprowls having served the public
in local offices and Colonel Barnett
served with some distinction in the
Spanish war and a term as State
Treasurer. The official count of the
vote revealed the fact that Mr.
Sprowls was elected by one majority.
“Jim” Barnett being a pet of the ma-
chine a contest was entered in his be-
half and by throwing out the vote of
one of the precincts the court declared
the result a tie and a special election
was ordered.
The special election was held last
Thursday. Both parties had renomi-
nated the candidates supported at the
previous election and the contest was
intensive. The district had always
been strongly Republican. The big
vote polled by Sprowls in November
was a tribute to his personal worth
and popularity. But it served also to
indicate a drift of public sentiment in
favor of the Democratic party in that
section of Pennsylvania as well as in
other sections. On the vote at the
special election last week this trend
was greatly accentuated. The official
returns show for him a majority of
nearly 2500, he having carried both
counties in the district by large ma-
jorities.
The reason given for declaring the
November vote a tie was that one of
the precincts in the borough of Me-
Donald is in Allegheny county instead
For years the vote
of that precinct has been counted in
the Washington county returns and if
Barnett had been elected it would |
have continued to be so counted, in ali
probability, for years to come. But
the covetous political machine of the
Republican party couldn’t consent to
a Democratic Senator for that district.
In the gerrymander which served the
purpose of apportioning the State in-
to Senatorial districts two years ago
the Forty-sixth was considered safe
for the Republicans. But “there is
——How many people who read of
the death in London, last week, of La-
dy Francis Cook, formerly “Tenny”
Claflin, the pioneer suffragette, know
that she was born at Beech Creek,
Clinton county? Her father “Buck”
Claflin, came to central Pennsylvania
from the New England States with
the influx of Yankee woodsmen and
log floaters before the Civil war and
located at Beech Creek. For a num-
ber of years he kept a store there on
the site now occupied by the store of
W. F. Hess & Son. It was while liv-
ing there that “Tenny” and Mrs. Bid-
dulph Martin were born. “Tenny” as
a girl wore her hair bobbed, being the
first and only girl in this part of the
State to wear abbreviated tresses.
was probably this same independence
of spirit that induced. her in later life
to take up suffragism and become a
pronounced Suffragette.
——From our Pleasant Gap corres-
pondent we learn that members of the
sportsmen’s association at that place
are feeding the wild turkeys and other
birds on Nittany mountain and intend
keeping up the good work as long as
the ground is so thickly covered with
snow. The sport-loving fraternity in
that place are to be commended on
their thoughtfulness and if hunters
everywhere would only do likewise
more birds would live for nesting next
spring.
tr ——— eter tesa
——Ambassador Harvey has gone
back to his post in London after leav-
ing a train of trouble in Washington.
President Harding had to be put to
bed and Secretary Hughes threaten-
ed to resign as the result of his visit.
——We take no stock in the claim
of the Oneida Indians to property in
Political pirates have
controlled everything in that city for
¢ So long a period that “the memory of
man runneth not to the contrary.”
——Senater Borah, of Idaho, is rea!
“clean up” and it is grati- indignant over the French invasion of
| fying to know that he is trying to ful- the Ruhr region but Marshal Foch
fill that promise.
There are other 18 more than likely to go on with his
“more pegs than holes” at his dispos- | and even bigger abuses in the admin- Plans just as if Borah were in com-
| istration of the State government Plete agreement with him.
| which will demand attention and no
|
| doubt will receive it in good time. The |
—If France has fooled Washington
pose he concluded to take from the | Governor is starting right and we he needn’t feel overly cocky about
Secretary of Internal Affairs duties ‘ hope he will have the courage and te- | it?
The present administration is
imposed upon him by the constitution ' nacity of purpose to finish the job likely to gulp any kind of flapdoodle
and hand them over to the official peg
placed in the newly created hole. But
jected to being thus denuded of power
and patronage and the scheme has
been halted.
How would it be to try the “gi-
lant tvenimont” on. the Fall Aine
le case?
well.
We feel certain that the Demo- | in order to dope itself into “normal-
| crats in the Legislature and good citi- vy.”
i body will give him hearty support.
{ But it will be hard on the machine.
————— i sna
Nobody knows who put the
pinch in Pinchot but Secretary of In-
ty 1 Yrs Woodvard is the guy
ho took il out.
PARR
the Secretary of Internal Affairs ob- | zens of all parties in or out of that |
|
-——The official joy rider will look
rather cheap when the accusing finger
is pointed at him as he passes the
crowd in a high-priced car.
—- you want all the news read
the “Watchman.”
: re bya slip *twixt the cup. and the
and the !1P." :
It
“Day by day in every way,”
My cold seems nothing better,
I think I might in such a plight
Write Coue now a letter.
He might—forsooth, inspect my “roof,”
To tell me what I Auto:
! What nerve to pull, to open full
! My breathing apparato;
| Or else, perchance, to throw in trance
| My sneezing abligato;
: There seems a ban on every plan
I've tried for my digestion—
I pray that he will give me soon
A merciful—“Suggestion.”
Last Stand of Job-Mongers.
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
Secretary of Internal Affairs, James
F. Woodward is one of the first, per-
, haps the only one, of the politicians at
| the State capitol who has openly ar-
| rayed himself against the Governor's
' program to introduce order and a bus-
i iness system in the government of
| Pennsylvania. He has announced his
i intention to oppose—in the courts if
-necessary—the transfer of any of the
i duties of his office to the Department
| of Commerce when created.
i The explanation is not far to seek.
| The office of Secretary of Internal Af-
| fairs is a totally unnecessary encum-
| brance on the State’s system of ad-
| ministration. A strong movement
, Some years ago for its abolition, in
| the interest of economy and greater
| efficiency, was blocked by the politi-
cians, who saw in the office jobs and
opportunities for patronage more im-
portant to them than the welfare of
, the people.
Governor Pinchot’s program has
, commended itself to the judgment of
i the business men of the State. The
office of Secretary of Internal Affairs
is an anarchronism, and the resistance
of the incumbent to any change will
‘not deceive any one as to its motives.
If he should carry out his present
threat, it will be not because he is de-
‘fending a needed agency of adminis-
tration, but as the representative of
a vicious system, the spokesman for
that type of job-holding, job-manipu-
lating politicians who have worked
; the State for all it is worth solely for
selfish ends and who see in the new
1 regime dawning at Harrisburg the end
‘of sinecures, the elimination of ex-
travagance and waste and a new spir-
it of loyal service to the public offices
of the State. Re a
Sabotage on a Grand Scale.
From the New York World. .
On Wednesday 2500 iron miners in
Newfoundland were thrown out of
work because of the seizure of the
Ruhr. Soon, no doubt, Swedish iron
miners will be thrown out of work for
the same reason. It will not be long
before Italian factories will have to
curtail production because they are
not getting German coal. With the
‘mark at 24,000 to the dollar, Germa-
ny’s ability to buy American cotton,
copper and wheat is much worse than
Austria’s ability a year ago.
The blow which Poincare has struck
to the Ruhr will be felt throughout
the world. It is an example of eco-
‘nomic sabotage more deliberately vio-
lent and destructive than any ever un-
dertaken by a civilized nation in time
of peace. To be sure, the French have
not destroyed any physical property,
but they are destroying in the most
reckless fashion the industrial skill
and organization which alone gives
property an economic value. They
{ are tearing apart the industrial organ-
ization of the Ruhr. They are tearing
the Ruhr away from its natural maxr-
‘ket in Germany. They are tearing
: Germany out of the world market by
smashing credit.
The notion that this can produce
| reparations is moonshine. It can pro-
duce political convulsions, starvation,
. death, hatred and disgrace. But it
| will not rebuild a shattered French
, village, or pay a war veteran’s pen-
{ sion, or save the credit of France, or
! make France secure. France indeed
i will be lucky if she escapes from the
| muddle into which Poincare has led
her without a catastrophe.
Governing in the Open.
! From the New York Tribune.
Governor Pinchot has started gov-
| erning at Harrisburg with the lack of
i privacy which a humorist has noted
in the environment of a goldfish. A
. big sign on the door of his workroom
| reads: “Governor's Office—Walk
‘Right In.” There are no formalities.
' Visitors have simply to wait their
turn while the Governor, in full view,
receives all comers, answers the tele-
phone and dispatches business as it
piles up at his desk.
No hardened prevaricator is em-
ployed to ward off citizens at the out-
er portal with the formula, “The Gov-
ernor is in conference.” The caller
can see for himself what occupies the
| Governor. There has never been, we
| judge, a freer opportunity to watch a
pilot steering his ship of State. Mr.
Pinchot is getting as close to the peo-
ple as he can. He is not an isolation-
ist.
-It is profitable for a Governor lo
cut as much red tape as he can in his
daily contacts, especially if he has a
| personality so pleasing as Mr. Pin-
chot’s. We have had, though not re-
cently icebergs at Albany, and they
froze affection. Governor Smith's
nickname and his wonderful gift as a
mixer are his invaluable assets, Who
can doubt that Mr. Pinchot is as sin- | which afford an opportunity for outside”
coerely democratic as our Al, though
: . . 1g fi a
taey do not call him “GiT"—yet?
| SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
1
. —Wayne Miller, convicted of second-de-
| Bree murder, at Lancaster, was sentenced
| to twenty years in the eastern Penitentiary
| for killing his wife.
: —Alfred H. Coon, of Wilkes-Barre, has
i been appointed a captain of artillery and
| assigned as adjutant of the First Battalion
| of the 109th Artillery.
i
—Mrs. Clifton A. Verner, president of
i the Pittsburgh Women’s Voters’ League,
| Sustained a fractured leg when knocked
down by an automobile.
—Twenty-seven eases of typhoid fever at
Cherry Tree has caused the state health of-
ficials to dispatch two state nurses to that
town to take charge of the situation.
—Edmund Murphy, Earl Moyer and
Joseph Flynn, of Mahanoy Plane, were ser-
iously injured at Lawrence colliery, when
a rope broke, allowing heavy iron plates to
fail on them,
—Burglars Thursday night broke into
the First Presbyterian church of New Cas-
tle and blew open the safe in the secre-
tary’s office, but got nothing. The bur-
glars overlooked $22 which the pastor had
placed in his Bible the night before, in-
tending to put it in the safe later.
—Measles are epidemic in many sections
of Lancaster county. In Columbia hun-
dreds of houses are under quarantine,
while just as many are not quarantined, as
the victims are being treated with old-
time remedies by mothers. The epidemic
has made great inroads on the attendance
of pupils in the lowest grades of the
schools,
: —Falling asleep at a table at his board-
ing house in Northampton, Sunday
night, Sebastian Mesha had a dream. In
his wild gesticulatinns he swung his arms
so freely that he upset an oil lamp and sc
the house on fire, In fighting the flamos
Mesha's clothing caught fire, and he was
seriously burned before help came, The
house was badly damaged
—For ma=ching with the Robert Patton
club in Harrisburg during the inaugural of
Governor Pinchot, Louis Hansbury, of
Philadelphia, was dismissed on Saturday
by Sheriff Lamberton. The sheriff had
warned employees a few weeks ‘ago not to
take any part in the exercises at Harris-
burg, and said that disobedience of hig or-
der would result in dismissal. Another
employee who was absent on inaugural day
was excused by the sheriff when it was
learned he was ill on that day.
—At the annual meeting of the Colum-
bia County Fair Asseciation, held at
Bloomsburg last week, the officers were
directed to proceed with plans for the
erection of a modern grandstand that will
seat at least 6000 persons, but so that the
Space under the stand can be used for ex-
hibition purposes to relieve crowded con-
ditions in the building. All of the officers
of the association were re-elected, and re-
ports showed that a profit of nearly $20,-
000 was realized through the 1922 fair,
—Weighing thirty pounds less than his
170 pound wife, Edward Stickel, of Dun-
lap, Fayette county, obtained a divorce
when he proved to the master in the di-
vorce suit that he was cruelly and barbar-
ously treated by Myrtle Stickle. He testi-
fied that she threw a skillet at him, got a
butcher knife and threatened to kill him,
and many times said she would poison
him. On account of the difference in their
sizes he was unable to protect himself in a
manner that “insured his" Safety. The
Stickles were married July 17, 1919, in
Pittsburgh.
—The Clinton Natural Gas and Oil com-
pany, in which a number of capitalists are
financially interested, has struck enough
gas already to supply Lock Haven. Several
months ago a well was brought in with
2,000,000 cubic feet flow and recently one
with 1,500,000 feet flow was tapped. Prev-
iously to this a number of paying wells
were capped, waiting until a sufficient vol-
ume could be found to warrant piping.
The company has two rigs drilling contin-
ually, and it is probable that the gas will
be piped to Lock Haven the coming sum-
mer or next fall.
—Fayette county's jail population in-
creased about 30 per cent. last year, ac-
cording to the official report of warden
Hugh A. Gorley, just made public. During
1922 exactly 3524 persons were committed
to the county jail, as compared with 2296
the previous year. The report shows that
1309 persons were unable to read or write,
having never attended school. The pres-
ence of the state police in Fayette and the
crusade conducted against violators of the
Woner act and the automobile law are re-
sponsible for a large percentage of the per-
sons committed to the county jail.
—Locked in an interior room in the
house by their mother who had gene to
visit a neighbor, two children, aged two
and one-half and five and one-half years,
daughters of Mrs. Chester Holmes, near
Judith Mine, Bedford county, were burn-
ed to death late Sunday night. An. hour
after Mrs. Holmes, the wife of the miner,
who was at work at the time, had left the
house, the story and a half tenement was
seen to be enveloped in flames. Despite
the heroic efforts of neighbors, attempts to
rescue the imprisoned little children were
unavailing. The origin of the fire is un-
known,
—Charles Brown, yard boss at the new
Luzerne plant of the Heilman Coal and
Coke company at Maxwell, Fayette county,
was shot dead last Saturday morning by a
negro laborer who had been discharged by
Brown on Tuesday. Brown, who lived in
Masentown, took charge of the coal yard
on Friday, and discharged a negro for
failure to obey orders. As he sat at the
breakfast table on Saturday morning in
the company boarding heuse the man on-
tered and ordered Brown to throw up his
hands. Brown refused and was shot twice
with a pistol. He was one of the best
known men in the region and formerly
conducted a business of his own in Ma-
sontown, where he was prominent in ama-
teur athletics. \
—Four correctional institutions to be
known as the Pennsylvania state farms
are authorized in a bill presented in the
House of Representatives at Harrisburg,
on Monday night, by Mr. Edmonds, of
Philadelphia. These would eventually take
the place of county prisons and if possible
accommodate also the inmates of the pen-
itentiaries and of the Huntingdon reform-
atory. The bill, according to its sponsor,
was introduced at the request of the pres-
ident judge of the Common Pleas court of
Philadelphia. It has the approval of the
Pennsylvania State Bar association and
was offered as the first step in prison re-
form. Institutions are to be provided
work. Of conrse the bill may never be-
come a law,