Demon acon
INK SLINGS.
—Everything seems to indicate that
“Normalcy” has flew the front porch
at Marion and has landed somewhere
near Versailles.
—If you don’t have a mess of trout
for breakfast next Tuesday morning
don’t lay your disappointment at our
door. The fish are in the streams. All
you have to do is catch ‘em.
—To make a long story short Sen-
ator Pepper is admitting now that he
didn’t know what he was talking about
when he was condemning the League
of Nations and urging us to stay out
of it.
—It is mighty fitting that George
Harvey is to be brought home from
England to lead the Republican at-
tempt to kidnap Wilson’s League of
Nations. Harvey double-crossed Wil-
son once before and will have no com-
punctions in doing it again.
—This is one newspaper that will
carry, free of charge, any advertising
necessary for that proposed amend-
ment to bond the State for enough
money to complete the necessary
building program for The Pennsylva-
nia State College. Are there others?
—The suggestion that Governor
Pinchot be the running mate of War-
ren Gamaliel on the next Presidential
ticket is the unkindest cut of all
There is only one sure way to shelve
budding political ambition and that is
to run it for the office of Vice Presi-
dent.
—The Altoona Mirror thinks Gover-
nor Pinchot too good a bet to waste
on a vice-Presidential nomination next
year. It wants him for head of the
ticket in 1928, all of which is a very
present sop to the Guv. and a long
chance for the Mirror to change its
mind.
—Senator Betts’ bill authorizing a
constitutional amendment that would
provide for the issuance of bonds to
the amount of eight million dollars,
the proceeds to be used for new build-
ings at State College, passed the Sen-
ate finally Monday night. To many
friends of State this news might read
better than it really is. Unfortunate-
ly the Senate passes lots of bills just
for the purpose of passing the buck
to the House. Let us hope, however,
that the House will act on this one as
it should.
—Always we have looked on Mill-
heim with admiration; yea, almost
reverence, as the Mecca toward which
any discouraged Democrat might jour-
ney with hope of revival of his flag-
ging faith, but Millheim is moving on
to greater fame than she has gained |
as the Gibraltar of Centre county De-
mocracy. She has given the world a
pianist whose performances are al-
ready attracting state-wide attention
in musical circles. Today Miss Kess-
ler is probably the most favorably and
widely known resident of the capital
of Penn township.
—Sure, Governor Pinchot is the boss
little money saver. Long before he
even thought of being our chief ex-
ecutive work was begun on additions
to the capitol building. They were
for the purpose of furnishing office
room for departments that had had to
seek quarters in privately owned
buildings in the city of Harrisburg.
The additions began years ago are
about ready for occupancy and the
Governor’s press bureau announces to
a gullible public that the wizard of
Pike county is about to save the State
twenty thousand dollars a year in of-
fice rentals. What can’t Gif. do?
—There aie a lot of government
garden seeds at this office for free
distribution. Congressman Jones sent
them with his compliments. We've
tried our dangdest to get rid of them
but not more than half of the lot are
gone. Daily importuning of the pub-
lic having failed we have decided on a
new scheme to get the embryo garden
makers moving. During next week
only we'll give three packages of seed
to every fisherman who brings a four-
teen inch trout to this office. Remem-
ber; this offer is good for next week
only and bear in mind, also, that this
will be the last year of free govern-
ment seeds.
—If Governor Pinchot’s new code is
passed in its present form the trus-
tees of the Bellefonte hospital will be
able to select a superintendent only on
approval of the choice by the head of
the Department of Public Welfare at
Harrisburg. How lovely for the Re-
publican machine when it gathers its
routed forces and comes back into
power—as it surely will—to kick Dr.
Ellen Potter out and put some “regu-
lar” fellow in her job! Paternalism
of this sort is bad enough when a
good mater is wearing pater’s pants
but the Lord have mercy on the state
aid institutions when a real machine
pap shakes her out of them and pulls
them on himself.
—The recent decision of the Su-
preme court to the effect that wages
cannot be fixed by law looks to us as
if reason and common sense are be-
ginning to come out of the fog. A
minimum or maximum wage cannot
be equitably fixed for any worker. A
man or woman is worth exactly what
he or she produces for the employer.
The individual has the inalienable
right to sell his service in the highest
market or give it in the lowest. No
law is sound, either economically or in
justice, that would compel an em-
ployer to pay one employee more than
he appraises his services to be worth
or restrain him from paying another
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 68.
BELLEFON
Oppsition to “Pinchot’s Pet.”
The “Old Guard,” which is the pop-
ular name for the late Republican ma-
chine, is now pretending to organize
an opposition to the so-called “Pinchot
Code.” The purpose of the “code” is
to reorganize the State government
upon a basis of business principles
which promise material improvement
and some saving in expense. The
complaint of the “Old Guard” is that
the “code” would vest in the Governor
dangerous powers. “It contains,” the
old machine managers declare, “pro-
visions that would have a tendency to
set up a sort of oligarchy within the
State, with the Governor as supreme
dictator and lesser officials appointed
by the executive clothed with author-
ity never before dreamed of in Penn-
sylvania.”
In the arraigment of the “code” the
“Old Guard” alleges that it “places
the State constabulary under the ab-
solute control of the Attorney Gener-
al; that it vests in the same official
complete power over the legislative
reference bureau; that it robs the Au-
ditor General and Secretary of Inter-
nal Affairs of functions reposed in
them by the constitution and lodges
them in the Secretary of State, an
appointee of the Governor; that it
transfers from the Department of
Mines to the Department of Public
Instruction duties properly belonging
to the Department of Mines; that it
creates an unnecessary Department of
Commerce and delegates sweeping and
excessive authority to the Department
of Public Welfare.”
These are the grave objections to
the measure. The State police has been
comparatively free from politics and
reasonably efficient in the fulfillment
of the purpose for which it was cre-
ated. The Attorney General, being
the political manager of the adminis-
tration, might easily impair its use-
fulness by employing it in party con-
tests. The Secretary of the Common-
wealth has never had any fiscal au-
thority and might easily abuse such
power if given to him. Both these of-
ficials are appointed by the Governor
and are responsible to him exclusive-
‘ly, so that the suthority bestowed up-
on them is really given into the hands
of the Governor. An executive “with
a single track mind” thus endowed
might do great harm.
Clearly, therefore, the “Old Guard” :
has good reason for its objection to
the “Pinchot code.” But we have rea-
sons to doubt the sincerity of the op-
position. It looks too much like an of- :
fer to “deal” for spoils. The “Old
Guard” is as destitute of principles as |
it is deficient in morals, and Pinchot
is an expert huckster in patronage.
The day before the vote on the en-
forcement bill the Governor was beat-
en by a dozen votes. On the roll call
he won by two. The change was ef-
fected over night. It was the result
of skillful and liberal use of promises.
A similar victory will be achieved if
the “code” comes to a vote. The only
chance on earth to defeat the measure
is in preventing it from reaching a
vote on final passage.
i Si nan
—The ruling of the Public Service
Commission in the appeal of the Em- |
erick Motor Bus Co. vs. taxi drivers
of State College, published in detail
elsewhere in this issue, should inter-
est every resident of Bellefonte as
well as those of every other incor-
porated community in Pennsylvania.
It should be interesting because it
shows how far commission forms of
government are going in centralizing
control over local affairs. We know
nothing of the merits of the case de-
cided, but it is our thought that when
it comes to the point of saying whether
taxis from State College or any other
place may, or may not, park on the
streets of Bellefonte and solicit pa-
tronage our town council should be
the court of last resort.
—What’s in a name? Do you think
for a minute that Jennie Hinkenlooper,
of Huston, Texas, could ever have at-
tained such eminence in the musical
world as bas Madame Olga Zamar-
off? They are one and the same per-
son, of course, but Jennie took her
step-father’s family name and at once
“the prophet not without honor save
in her own country” became famous.
—President Harding could easily
get over his perturbation lest the pub-
lic thinks he is trying to sneak into
the League of Nations through the
back door. He could stand right up
and walk in at the front without mak-
ing apology to any one, if he had the
courage to do it and everybody would
acclaim the entry except Lodge and
La Follette.
—Liam Lynch is dead and De Vale-
ra and the Countess Marciewicz
are about all who survive to in-
terfere with Ireland’s progress to- |
ward peace. We never could under-
stand how a name like that of the
more than any maximum wage that | Countess could command a following
law might fix.
in Ireland.
Wise Course of Democrats.
It is gratifying to learn, as we do
through the medium of current gossip
in Harrisburg, that the Democratic
Senators and Representatives in the
General Assembly are not likely to
mix up in the Republican mess over
revenue legislation. At a dinner giv-
jen by State chairman McCullough on
! Monday evening, all the Democratic
. Legislators present, it was agreed
| “that the best course for the Demo-
crats to pursue would be to sit tight
and watch the Republicans hang them-
selves,” according to the correspond-
ent of the Philadelphia Record, who
adds, “with the exception of one or
two members the delegation is united
in the conviction that they should vote
solidly against increasing tax rates or
| imposing new levies.”
{ As Governor Pinchot has sharply
reminded the Republican majority in
: the Legislature “additional taxation is
! made necessary only because of defi-
' ciencies handed down from previous
administrations.” The previous ad-
‘ ministrations which have left such a
, burdensome legacy were Republican
administrations and the greatest of-
fender was the Sproul administration,
' of which Gifford Pinchot was not only
"a conspicuous but an influential part.
That being the case there is no reason
i why the Democrats in the present
‘Legislature should help either of the
Republican factions in what seems like
“an “irrepressible conflict” for suprem-
acy and spoils, and incidentally strew
flowers on the pathway to Pinchot’s
hopes.
i The mess in Harrisburg has increas-
i . . . .
ced in proportions and confusion since
| the inauguration of Governor Pinchot
; but it is a matter for which no respon-
| sibility rests on the Democratic party.
. If the factional quarrel, increasing in
| bitterness every day, results in a com-
| plete failure of the governing agen-
| cies to function, Democratic citizens
| will suffer from the evil effects quite
jas much as Republicans. But they
will be free from blame and that is
something to be proud of. A Demeo-
cratic administration at any time
“Within the past twelve years would
have prevented the mess and the elec:
tion of John A. McSparran last fall
would have cleaned it up by the sim-
plest and safest processes.
——The Texas girl who danced fif-
ty consecutive hours “broke the rec-
ord” unquestionably, but established
no real claim on humanity.
! New Source of Trouble.
A new source of trouble seems to be
looming up in connection with the en-
forcement of the Volstead law. Ever
‘ since the approval of that act of Con-
gress ship loads of booze of one kind
and another have been coming from
various countries, more frequently
from Central and South American
ports. The ships containing the con-
traband cargoes hover around the
three mile line and when opportunity
is found discharge whole or parts of
| their cargoes to “rum running” boats
sent out from shore to receive the
goods. The legal authorities at
Washington as well as international
lawyers everywhere have hitherto rec-
ognized the principle of “freedom of
the seas” outside the three mile line
' and pursuit of rum ships ended there.
Recently this interpretation of the
“freedom of the seas” has been ques-
tioned and according to news dispatch-
es a rum laden ship was raced and
captured eighteen miles out at sea be-
yond the three mile line. Professor
| Ellery C. Stowell, of the faculty of
the American University of Washing-
ton, has expressed the opinion that
any ship of any nation putting out
from the West Indies laden with liquor
“without any genuine port of destina-
tion, hovering or intending to hover
off our coasts with the view of land-
1 ing contraband liquor, in evasion or
' violation of our law,” might be sunk
or confiscated wherever caught on the
high seas. It is said that other noted
international lawyers concur in this
view. This opens up a wide field for
dry agents to work.
Possibly Professor Stowell is right
but action on his suggestion might
lead to grave consequences. Interna-
tional law is an uncertain quantity
and subject to various interpretations.
| The ship referred to as captured eigh-
teen miles out was an American ves-
sel and any litigation that might grow
out of the incident would be disposed
of in domestic courts. But tackling
an English, French or Japanese ship
in that way could not be disposed of so
easily for the act would assume the
nature of piracy and might be re-
sented by the government offended
, by a declaration of war. The hover-
‘ing of rum ships on the line may be
humiliating to the dry agents and tan-
talizing to rum drinkers, but maybe
it were better to let them alone.
i ———— i
——The women of the country are
taking the measure of Herbert Hoov- |
er with the price of sugar as the
standard. :
TE, PA., APRIL 13. 1923.
| Senator Pepper a Bogus Convert.
Senator Pepper is a close observer
of the weather cock. When the pub-
lic mind was tainted by ignorance and
prejudiced against the League of Na-
tions George Wharton Pepper was the
most vehement and persistent of the
blatherskites engaged in the work of
defaming the project and those re-
sponsible for it. Such denunciation
was popular in Philadelphia and Penn-
sylvania where political pirates regu-
lated the frame of mind of the voters.
It was also agreeable to the managers
of the party which hoped to gain pow-
er by organizing the ignorance and
bigotry of traitors, aliens and infidels
against the administration in power.
Lusting for office Pepper freely gave
service in opposition to the League.
Now that the weather vane indi-
cates that public sentiment is running
strong in the opposite direction he is
among the first to reverse himself on
the question. In an interview pblish-
ed in the Philadelphia papers, on Sun-
day, he declares that he “is in favor
of the United States entering the
League of Nations if the League will
rewrite the covenant, eliminating the
objectionable features covered in the
old reservations put forth by this
country.” But when the question of
ratifying the League was pending in
the Senate, and the Democratic Sena-
tors had expressed a willingness to
accept all the reservations put forth by
the Republicans, Pepper continued
blatantly protesting against the
League on any terms.
George Wharton Pepper broke into
official life by pandering to the basest
impulses of a corrupt party machine
leadership. He is now trying to en-
trench himself by stultification equal-
ly contemptible. Such party leaders
as the late Quay and Penrose are de-
testable enough but a man quite as
perfidious who attempts to put over
the same tricks while pretending to
live a life of righteousness according
to the tenets of a Christian church is
simply intolerable. Mr. Pepper will
not fool many people by his false pre-
tense of conversion to the great pur-
pose he assassinated three years ago.
because he believes the people of the
country are for it and opposition will
be fatal.
——1If the tariff is not responsible
for the high price of sugar it’s a safe
bet that Senator Smoot is disappoint-
ed with the result of his achievement
in getting the high tax levy on sugar.
Be
Price of and Tax on Sugar.
Upon his return te )’ashington
dent Harding expressed surprise at
the high price of sugar. When he
went away the price was only five or
six cents a pound and nobody com-
plained. But on his return it was sell-
ing everywhere at ten cents a pound
and those familiar with the trade op-
erations were predicting that it would
go much higher. Thus far this proph-
ecy has not been fulfilled but the can-
ning season of midsummer and fall is
likely to see very high if not record
prices. Of course the President ex-
pressed anxiety as to the cause of the
soaring, but has not yet been inform-
ed. He has been assured, however, that
the tariff had nothing to do with it.
While the Fordney-McCumber tariff
bill was pending in the Senate Senator
Smoot, of Utah, who is largely inter-
ested in the beet sugar industry, had
an official of the State Department at
pose of persuading the sugar planters
of that Island to restrict their opera-
tions so as to create a scarcity of su-
gar both in this country and there.
According to the best information ob-
tainable this enterprise failed and the
Mormon statesman addressed himself
to increasing the tariff tax on sugar.
Presumably the purpose in this was to
accomplish the result in another way.
That is, he would make the price of
Cuban sugar so high by the addition
of a heavy tariff tax that the domes-
tic product could be sold at an im-
mense profit.
The sugar market since the appro-
val of the Fordney tariff bill is the
scheme. Almost the same day the bill
was approved the price of sugar be-
gan climbing upward. It was a slow
but steady rise, the idea being to pre-
vent a two vigorous protest. But the
protest came about the time the price
reached ten cents a pound and it has
been held there since for the reasons,
probably, that buying diminished to
some extent and the rate of increase
had been too rapid. The time to rob
the public in the price of sugar is
when the canning industry is active.
Probably the peak price will be reach-
ed then unless the tariff rate is re-
duced by the tariff commission.
——Governor Pinchot thinks all the
highways of the State ought to be pa-
trolled and it is not improbable that
his desire for patronage is father to
‘ the thought.
now
after a vacation of five weeks Presi- |
Washington sent to Cuba for the pur-
best evidence of the success of this!
NO. 15.
cme end
nn
Daugherty Went Too Far.
From the Philadelphia Record.
If Attorney General Daugherty had
contented himself with announcing
that the President would accept a re-
nomination, and would be very much
surprised if he didn’t get it, the Pres-
ident would not have felt obliged to
disparage his statement and regret its
untimeliness. :
Of course, it is not at all too early
to notify the country, and especially
all other aspirants for the nomination,
that Mr. Harding expects his party
to do the usual thing. It is eminently
proper to warn all trespassers off the
White House grass. The choosing of
delegates will begin in less than a
year, and it is highly important that
the delegates should know what is
going to happen. They might floun-
der around in a state of uncertainty
and make the serious mistake of vot-
ing for the wrong man. Daugherty
was perfectly timely in his announce-
ment of the Republican party’s next
candidate.
But he did not stop here. He went
on to talk about the platform and tell
what some of its leading planks will
be. Here he dropped into prophecy,
and that is very dangerous. It is more
dangerous in politics than in anything
else. How can Mr. Daugherty tell
what the platform will be? The Pres-
ident himself doesn’t know. It is per-
fectly safe to assume that he will
write it, or he will edit it with a large
blue pencil. But 15 months before
the convention the President cannot
tell what to put into that document.
He may put in his own suggestion
for participation’ in the Permanent
Court of International Justice, but he
can’t tell until he has seen how some
of the Senators act about it. He may
put ex-Governor Allen’s plank assert-
ing a larger part by the United States
in world affairs, but he can tell better
about that after the next Congress
shall have been in session for a little
while. Reports that he will have an
open shop plank put into the platform
will require a good deal of confirma-
tion. A great many voters are oppos-
ed to the open shop, and while the
President talked open shop last sum-
mer it is not likely that he would care
to have anything on the subject put
into the platform. : ue
Republicans are said to be anxious
that the Democrats should put a “wet”
plank’ in their platform, but is is
quite premature; they may wan
plank themselves. The politicians d
not know where such a thing would
i cut, and therefore they do not know
i whether to have a dry plank or a wet
one. The safer course for both par-
! ties seems to be to declare for law en-
| forcement. It may have been observ-
‘ed that Mr. Harding has never gone
any further. He has never expressed
i his admiration for prohibition. Neither
, party will commit itself on the merits
| of the question if it can possibly avoid
iit. The Eighteenth amendment got
into the Constitution without having
been in either of the party platforms.
Mr. Harding’s only dissatisfaction
with the Attorney General’s proclama-
tion is that it is too early to know
what can be safely put into the plat-
form. Mr. Daugherty’s selection of a
{ candidate meets with the President’s
‘hearty approval.
Laying the Germs to Adam.
From the New York World.
“In Adam’s fall we sinned all,” runs
the good old couplet of original in-
{quity. If we abide by William Jen-
‘nings Bryan’s denial of natural evo-
‘lution it comes far from making out
the whole case for the woes of the
(first man. If Mr. Bryan is right and
! creation represented completion at the
| first week-end, Adam must stand not
‘only as the fountainhead of original
| sin but, as Dr. Charles W. Stiles has
pointed out to the Washington Biolog-
lical society, as the primeval carrier of
all the germs that afflict the sons of
{humanity and the beasts of field and
wood. If germs were not created in
the first of living bodies, they were de-
veloped, and development spells evo-
I lution.
| Dr. Stiles’ argument is a criticism
of Mr. Bryan’s logic rather than a
fling at any theological article of be-
(lief. In the modern pulpit it is not
| regarded as an offense to consider that
| man has bettered himself by growth
. since his appearance in Eden. If Mr.
Bryan is himself conscious of no
| broadening, no deepening and no con-
| viction of error in his full maturity,
| the doctor might ask, is the fact of his
!individual lack of evolutionary ripen-
‘ing an excuse for questioning the pro-
gress of humanity in the large?
Along with the germs of disease
Adam must have had about his person
the earliest seeds of mischievous eco
nomics. He must have been the orig-
inal advocate of free silver, the pio-
neer propogandist of Bolshevism, the
precedent promoter of prohibition; he
must have set up the very mold of mil-
itarism and been the standard-bearer
of panhandlers, profiteers and jazz-
age janglers. To say these things is
to expand the idea of original sin, and
to do that ‘is it not to flaunt in Mr,
Bryan’s face a form of mental evolu-
tion? Anyway, we see in the piling
of fresh horrors of responsibility up-
on the first man added reasons for the
weeping of Mark Twain, the jester, at
the grave of Adam.
——Hiram Johnsen and Bob La-
Follette have not yet assented to At-
torney General Daugherty’s proposi-
tion that the nomination. of Harding
next year be made unanimous.
‘that | nips, Josephine Best, a young widow, shot |
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—For the alleged kidnapping of Lloyd
Dutcher, 15 years old, from his home in
Versailles, near McKeesport, John Win-
ters, who entered a plea of guilty to the
charge, was sentenced at Uniontown, on
Monday, to serve from four to six years in
the western penitentiary.
—The biggest business deal of the year
was consummated at Lancaster, on Satur-
day, when the Armstrong Cork company
purchased the plant of the Lancaster
Structural and Foundry company. The
property consists of a number of build-
ings and eight acres of land.
—Missing from home more than forty
years, Moses Brumbach, of Sinking Spring,
near Reading, has been declared legally
dead by the Berks county orphans’ court.
He had realty worth $13,000 coming to him
from relatives’ estates. Lillie Becker and
William G. Brumbach, first cousins, are
the principal heirs to the $13,000.
—With a report heard for miles, a big
Lehigh Valley pusher locomotive blew up
on Friday in the cut-off at Duryea, seven
miles south of Scranton, killing Samuel
Martin, engineman, of Pittston, and James .
Boyden, fireman, of West Pittston. The
locomotive was returning light from Moun-
tain Top to Caxton yard when the explo-
sion occurred. The locomotive is a total.
wreck.
—Investigating a light that shone at the
Philadelphia and Reading crossing along
the state highway near Mahanoy City
Thursday night, Earl Light, a chauffeur
found an automobile turned over on the
tracks and five men pinned under it. All
were unconscious, Light flagged a fast
freight just in time to save the men's lives.
The men were taken later to their homes
in St. Clair. All have severe injuries.
—Russell Weisgarber, 26 years old, an
invalid, committed suicide at his home, at
Luthersburg, when he placed the butt-end
of a rifle upon an organ, leaned his fore-
head against the muzzle and pulled the
trigger. He had been confined to his bed
several months, but managed to get shells
for a gun kept near his bed. His father,
also an invalid, was the only other mem-
ber of the family in the house at the time
of the suicide.
—A piece of hard clay from a new build-
ing excavation was hurled by a blast 100
feet across the principal street of Hazle- .
ton, last Thursday, and crashed through
the leaded glass at the top of the Hazel
Drug company’s show window. It knocked
a pencil from the hair of the cashier, Miss
Gertrude Stern, missed the hat of a woman
enjoying an ice cream sundae and landed
in the milk shake that her escort was
about to drink.
—County detective G. E. Whited, of Eb-
ensburg, acting under instructions from
district attorney D. P. Weimer, lodged a
charge of involuntary manslaughter
against the superintendent and mine fore-
man of Reilly mine number 2, at Spangler,
where an explosion on November 6 caus-
ed the death of seventy-seven men. Wil-
liam Young is superintendent and Owen J.
Flanigan is mine foreman. It was charged
that these men, as executives, were per-
mitting practices contrary to the demands
of safety and thus were responsible for
the disaster.
—Entering the Dufford furniture store
Ney: Castle; on Thursday afternoon,
and seriously wounded Carl H. Dufford,
secretary and treasurer of the company.
She then calmly waited for the police after
the revolver had been snatched from her
hand by Berne Dufford, the man’s brother.
Questioned regarding the shooting, Mrs.
Best, who formerly was employed as ste-
nographer for the company, declared, po-
lice say, that she shot Dufford when he at-
tempted to end their relations. Dufford
died on Saturday.
—Hareld F. Vandermark, of Nanticoke,
Pa., a Senior at Bucknell University, was
drowned, and Charles P. Williamson, of
West Chester, and David L. Miller, of Ju-
niata, narrowly escaped the same fate on
Saturday when the canoe in which they
had spent several hours on the Susque-
hanna river at Lewisburg, capsized. The
students had taken advantage of a clear
afternoon to spend several hours on the
river when toward sunset they were ecar-
ried into the main channel on a high wave
raised by a stiff breeze. About forty yards
from shore the canoe tipped, filled and
sank.
—Mrs. E. S. Smith and her daughter,
Mrs. Jennie Anyul, both of whom were ill
in bed, were forced to dress hurriedly ear-
ly Monday morning and flee for their lives
when a huge mine cave swallowed up part
of the yard surrounding their home in
Parsons, Luzerne county. The hole, which
was seventy-five feet long and thirty-five
feet wide, measured twenty--five feet deep
in places. A porch and rear chimney were
pulled away from the house proper by the
subsidence. The cave is over the work-
ings of the Pine Ridge mine of the Dela-
ware and Hudson company. Later the
same day workmen were assigned to the
task of filling in the hole and repairing
what damage was done.
—An alleged fifth ace in a game of po-
ker in the rooms of the Italian Sociale, at
West Chester, on Saturday night, resulted
in a murder. The dead man was Frances-
co Iizzi, 35 years old. Tabir Inchinella, 25
years old, is in prison charged with mur-
der. The trouble started about 2:30 Sat-
urday morning. Iizzi is said to have ex-
hibited four aces when ‘“called” by In-
chinella, who had as many queens. It is
said a fifth ace was found on the floor.
Inchinella drew a revolver and began fir-
ing. Two shots hit the ceiling, but a
third bullet penetrated Iizzi's heart. After
the shooting the acused slayer fled, but
was captured two hours later. Iizzi leaves
a widow and six children and was natur-
alized. The other man is single and un-
naturalized.
—Luther Gerth, aged 40 years, railway
mail clerk, of York. died almost instantly
at the Pennsylvania station at Sunbury,
near midnight Thursday night, after hav-
ing been accidentally shot by a bullet from
a revolver carried by Albert Snyder, a
mail clerk whose home is at Kane. When
Snyder's revolver slipped from its holster
and fell to the floor of the mail car, it was
discharged. The bullet entered Gerth's
body near the left kidney. Taking an up-
ward course, it came out through his
shoulder. Dr. H. F. Evans, deputy coro-
ner, pronounced the man’s death acciden-
tal. The body was taken to York by Har-
ry F Moore, a fellow mail clerk, who had
been a friend of Gerth’s for years. Gerth
is survived by his widow and one child,
born a month ago. His run was between
Harrisburg and Buffalo on trains 5756 and
574.