INK SLINGS.
—Work isn’t half as hard as get-
ting started to do it.
—Yesterday was’ one of the kind
that will give us all spring fever a
few months later.
—OQur idea of being rich is to have
a turkey on Thanksgiving and enough
hard coal to roast it with.
—Instead of being sent to jail the
fellow who stole the hogs from the
penitentiary ought to be given a
medal.
—The winner in the race for suc-
cess is always the person who keeps
on going after his competitors have
stopped.
——The friends of Senator Pepper
are waiting with more or less impa-
tience to see him flop over to Pinchot
for President.
——1In some sections of Pennsylva-
nia it is a grave question whether
more homes are equipped with radio
sets than stills.
—The peace of Europe has been
“hanging in the balance” for so long
that it probably wouldn’t feel com-
fortable in any other position.
—If Hi Johnson should get the Re-
publican nomination and Henry Ford
the Democratic where would the real
Republicans and Democrats go.
—Now, supposing Harvard beats
Yale and Penn beats Cornell and Pitt
beats State, what are the compara-
tive score dopesters going to say
about it?
—Dr. Ellen Potter has decreed that
the county jail must go. We have a
notion, however, that Nellie will be in
the discard long before any of the
jails have went.
—We'll need a lot of money before
January 1st, 1924, and we're not going
to have it unless every subscriber to
the “Watchman” gets paid up into
1924 within thirty-eight days.
—A stein of beer costs a billion
marks in Germany. Here, one costs
several hours pussy-footin’ through
alleys and cellars and then enough
regular money to buy several billion
German marks.
—1It is probable that every good
woman who voted against the Amend-
ment that would have given preachers
a reduced fare on the railroads, gives
her pastor all the white meat of the
chicken when he deigns to take a meal
at her house.
One of the Pittsburgh newspa-
pers boasts that twenty million dol-
lars a year are spent for the public
schools of that city. But a large pro-
portion of the money comes from the
State Treasury, as no personal school
tax is levied against Pittsburgh peo-
ple.
—Governor Pinchot is out in Ne-
braska talking to the farmers. Ne-
braska has been in a bad way for
some one to talk to it since Bryan
moved to Florida and, maybe, Gif.
will be able to show them that, next
to W. J., he would be the best runner-
up who ever entered a Presidential
race.
—Governor Walton, of Oklahoma,
has been impeached by the unanimous
action of the Senate of that State.
Since all of the Senators were against
him he must have been wrong. Very
wrong. Seldom, if ever, does one
hear of a public official who is in so
bad that there is not a person to stand
up for him.
—Talking about delegates to the
National convention from this district
we thank the several gentlemen and
one woman who have written urging
us to enter the contest—if there is to
be one—but withhold our decision to
act on their suggestion at least until
we learn where the convention will be
held and what the car-fare will be.
—We notice that M. Ward Fleming
Esq., of Philipsburg, is offering a
house at Munson for sale. Of course
it is not an unusual thing for a per-
son to offer a house for sale. That is
done every day, but the advertisement
says this house has “a good cellar”
and that’s so unusual that almost we
feel like writing for details as to the
cellar.
—Dr. Cook, the gentleman who
some years ago tried to make the
world believe he had discovered the
North Pole and couldn’t get away
with it, has just been caught again in
the act of trying to make a lot of
suckers believed he had rich oil fields
in Texas and Wyoming. His fake
pole story brought only public ridi-
cule, but his fake oil tales have drawn
fourteen years in a federal prison and
twelve thousand dollars fine.
—The Elmira, N. Y., Advertiser, of
Friday classes Supt. J. K. Johnston,
of Tyrone, as a “powerful” talker.
Mr. Johnston spoke to the Chamber of
Commerce of that city on “Govern-
ment in Business and Business in
Government.” In fact the gentleman
has for some time been much in de-
mand in the public forums that are
being conducted everywhere for the
purpose of engendering a better un-
derstanding of the economic relation-
ship between the railroads and the
public. Mr. Johnston is a thorough
railroad man. We have known that
for many years. Few there are with
such intelligent and comprehensive
understanding of the carrier problems
and few endowed with more pleasing
personalities, so that it should be easy
for him to hold the attention of an au-
dience and command its respect for
what he says. We haven’t heard him
on the platform, but we are ready to
accept the Advertiser's word for it
that he has developed into a “power-
ful” talker.
lif}
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 68.
Law Enforcement and the Pinchots.
Mrs. Cordelia Brice Pinchot, widely
believed to be the “power behind the
throne” in Harrisburg, has uncovered
some of the political plans of the ad-
ministration for the next primary
campaign. In a speech delivered be-
fore the Republican women of Penn-
sylvania, in Philadelphia, on Monday
evening, she declared that all candi-
dates for the Legislature next spring
“will be put on the rack and question-
ed with regard to their stand on pro-
hibition in particular and law enforce-
ment in general.” The Governor,
having traded a couple of prohibition
measures for his more favored code,
Mrs. Cordelia joins him in censure of
the Legislature for failing to pass
them and proposes to make sure of :
them next session.
Mrs. Pinchot appears to be very
earnest on the subject of law enforce-
ment. In her speech of Monday
evening she declared that “law en-
forcement is the most important issue
before us to day. It is no longer a
question of the right or wrong of pro-
hibition; it is simply a question of
law enforcement.” But she doesn’t
mean that at all. Enforcement of the
prohibition laws is what she has in
mind. If anybody would come to her
with a proposition and certain plan
to enforce the laws against fraudu-
lent voting and false counting of the
ballots she would run like a rabbit.
Vast slush funds would be no use in
campaigns if the laws forbidding elec-
toral frauds were enforced with half
the zeal the prohibition legislation has
been enforced since her husband be-
came Governor.
No man or woman outside of an in-
sane asylum believes that any can-
didate for any State office in Penn-
sylvania can spend a quarter of a
million dollars in a primary campaign
without violating the Corrupt Prac-
tices law. Violating that law is an
infinitely greater crime than selling
a glass of beer. One of the judges of
one of the prominent Pennsylvania
courts declared from the bench, the
other day, that it “is a blow at the
very foundation of the government.”
Yet when Governor Pinchot was urg-
ed during the last session of the Leg-
islature to take steps to prevent such
crimes he refused. In the face of this
record neither Gifford nor Cordelia
has license to talk much of law en-
forcement.
——Governor Walton, of Oklaho-
ma, has been impeached all right but
he is not deprived of his right to fight
the Ku Klux Klan and his inclination
in that direction is probably not even
impaired.
Small Chance for Bonus.
Secretary Mellon has made it rea-
sonably certain that the army veter-
ans will get no bonus from the next
Congress unless they have friends
enough in the Senate and House of
Representatives to pass a law provid-
ing the funds over the veto of the
President. The Secretary has set his
head to the reduction of taxes and
reasons that there can be no decrease
in taxes if there is a soldiers’ bounty.
Party exigencies are more important
than individual comfort, and party ex-
igencies require an immediate and
substantial tax reduction. The big
contributors to the slush fund in 1920
depended upon promise of reward in
the shape of tax reduction and dis-
appointment will cut off supplies in
1924.
The promise of a soldiers’ bonus
was as clearly expressed in the plat-
form of 1920 as was that of tax re-
duction. But a promise to those who
furnish “the sinews of war” to the
campaign committee is of infinitely
greater importance than one to men
who can produce only votes in small
lots. Mr. Mellon is not only a heavy
tax payer but a shrewd financier and
he understands the necessity of keep-
ing contributors in a liberal frame of
mind. The only hope of Republican
success next year lies in a big war
chest, well filled, and the way to se-
cure that is to reduce income taxes on
surplus profits and large incomes. The
beneficiaries of such a policy are cer-
tain to manifest gratitude in the usu-
al way.
There is a chance to secure the bo-
nus but it is precarious. The small
Republican majority in the Senate is
the hope. It is reasonably certain
that the measure will pass the House,
“the objection of the President to the
contrary, notwithstanding.” But the
Senate is not likely to show such a
measure of independence. It requires
a two-ihird vote of the body to ac-
complish the result and there is a
chance that with the full force of the
Democrats and an equally unanimous
support of the so-called agricultural
bloc and the LaFollette, Johnson
group of the radicals, the bill might
be put over. The coming session will
be a purely political affair and will
require careful handling.
——The Canadian squirrel which
stored sixty-eight golf balls for nuts
ought to be shot.
BELLEFONTE, PA.
Pinchot and Coal Prices.
ernor Pinchot and little inclination to
defend him against his enemies in his
own party. But candor compels the
acknowledgement that he did a good
work in his arraignment of the coal
producers and coal carrying corpora-
tions in his speech before the Ameri-
can Academy of Political and Social
Science, in Philadelphia, last Friday
evening. The subject under discus-
sion was the price of anthracite coal
and the responsibility for the exces-
sive charge to consumers. The speak-
ers were, besides the Governor, Mr.
Samuel D. Warriner, president of the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation compa-
ny, and Mr. J. J. Walsh, secretary of
the State Department of Mines.
Governor Pinchot’s purpose was to
justify his assumption in the settle-
ment of the coal strike that the in-
creased cost of production would be
absorbed by the producers and car-
riers and in order to accomplish that
he declared that one coal company in
the last three years has paid dividends
to its shareholders of “70, 205 and
190 per cent.,” and another paid “59,
137 and 168” during the same period,
which, he added, “amounted to from
$1.03 to $4.10 a ton,” on the produc-
tion of the mine. Of course these fig-
ures, if they are accurate, clearly es-
tablish the fact that excessive profits
have been charged and that the coal
consumers have been consistently and
continuously victimized.
But notwithstanding these figures
Governor Pinchot had no legal or
moral reason to claim the right to
either take from or add to the profits
of coal mine operations, without the
consent of those concerned. If an in-
dividual or a corporation is profiteer-
ing he or it may justly be held up to
popular reprobation, but that is as
far as any man or official may go.
Nor had the Governor any legal right
to tell the producers who they may
or may not sell to. If coal production
is a public service any man with the
price to pay is entitled to the product,
and the Governor's proposition that
dealers who profiteer be refused coal
showed woeful want of information
or arrogant assumption of power.
CR 4 a
——Secretary Mellon’s anxiety to
cut down the income tax of multi-
millionaires is the most touching in-
cident of recent official life.
ay
Pinchot Crawling Out of a Hole.
Governor Pinchot is now centering
i his energies on an effort to crawl out
| of the hole into which he fell when he
| “settled” the anthracite coal strike on
terms that made a considerable in-
crease in the price of coal inevitable.
He was inveigled into that disaster by
President Coolidge and Andy Mellon
for the obvious purpose of removing
him from the field of candidates for
President. He tried to “get even”
with Mellon, subsequently, by fasten-
ing upon him the odium of the failure
to enforce the prohibition laws and
failed because Wayne Wheeler joined
forces with Mellon. Now the Gover-
nor is undertaking to compel the coal
producers to cut prices to the level of
that prevailing before the settlement.
Of course that would turn the tide
of public opinion in favor of Pinchot,
for it would make good his absurd
promise that the producers would ab-
i sorb the ten per cent. increase in the
wages of miners which he allowed in
the terms of settlement. He called
the producers into conference with
him at Harrisburg and after a two-
day’s session they advised him to
“chase himself,” so to speak. Then he
issued a threat. He ordered the Sec-
retary of Mines to make a survey of
the products of the ' pits with the
view of ascertaining what proportion
of the coal sent-to market is slate or
stone, thus conveying the inference
that unless they agree to his demand
as to price he will enforce the law
against impurity.
Naturally that has caused some
alarm among the coal producers. It
is a fairly well established fact that
ever since the coal famine during the
war at least one-third of the coal sent
to market comes from abandoned
slate and refuse banks, and that a
considerable part of the freshly mined
coal is slate and rock. If the law
against dilution were enforced the
coal supply would be greatly dimin-
ished and the profits of producing
vastly reduced. But the consumers
are driven to wonder why the law is
not enforced in any event. The Gov-
ernor is under sworn obligations to
enforce that law as well as the pro-
hibition laws, and he offers to violate
his oath if the producers help him out
of the hole.
————————— et —————
In spite of all efforts at repres-
sion every roar from Germany turns
the mind back to events following the
Franco-Prussian war.
It is intimated that Pinchot
may use Hiram Johnson as a club to
compel the organization to accept him
as “a favorite son,”
We have no brief to speak for Gov-
|
{
- Wise Mr. Mellon is Mistaken.
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon
struck a popular note in his determin-
ation to force Congress to reduce tax-
es. His party platform of 1920 prom-
ised this relief and the campaign con-
tributors expect it. A similar pledge
was made to the service men of the
world war, but in the opinion of the
Secretary both cannot be fulfilled.
Therefore the tax reduction promise
will be kept and the other flouted.
From a political angle this is a wise
choice. Secretary Mellon is not only
a master of finance but a shrewd pol-
itician. His estimate of policies for
NOVEMBER 23. 1923.
vote getting is as accurate as his ap-
praisement of the value of securities.
Tax reduction will “bring home the
bacon.”
There are a good many service men
and they need the bounty. The dis-
appointment will be a hardship to
many of them and to some extent may
be resented. But they are not “mo-
bilized” for political work and they
are more or less credulous. Multi-
millionaires and profiteers are differ-
ent in this respect. They are thor-
oughly organized and can not only
cast their own votes in solid blocks
but they can contribute with sufficient
liberality to make the purchase of the
floating vote a certainty, and the float-
ing vote has been the principal asset of
the Republican machine in recent
years. The reduction of taxes on big
incomes will save enough to the prof-
iteers to buy an ordinary election.
As a matter of fact, however, the
Secretary is mistaken in his notion
that it is impossible to reduce taxes
and pay the bonus next year. If the tax
reduction is properly placed it will be
as “easy as rolling off a log.” But
the reduction must be on tariff taxes
instead of big incomes. The tariff
revenues yield less than half a billion
dollars but cost the people more than
two and a half billions. The consum-
ers pay that as they pay every other
tax and a fifty per cent. cut in the
schedules would save the people of
the county enough to pay the sol-
diers’ bonus and decrease the tax on
small incomes by half. Those who
enjoy excessive taxes can afford to
pay, and the weak rather than the
Strong should be taken care of.
——We are revealing no secret in
stating that the movement for a
“woman delegate-at-large to the Re-
publican National convention” is sim-
ply a gesture to secure that honor
for Mrs. Pinchot.
Senator Johnson a Candidate.
Whatever else in the political life
of the country is in doubt Senator Hi-
ram W. Johnson’s attitude on the
question of the Presidency is reveal-
ed. In a statement given to the pub-
lic, a few days ago, the California
“fire-brand” submits “himself and his
political tenets to the decision of his
fellow-citizens.” Of course his pur-
pose is not self-aggrandizement. He
is out to save the Republican party,
“threatened with disintegration.” Pos-
sibly Mr. Johnson believes it is worth
saving, and there may be others of
the same opinion. But the number is
diminishing rapidly. Recent exper-
ience has caused marvelous changes
in public opinion on that subject.
In this connection Mr. Johnson
says: “Reaction and progress must
fight it out again in the Republican
party in the coming Presidential pri-
maries. I question not men now, but
their philosophy in government. That
which obtains in Washington does not
fit present day needs.” That is liter-
ally true. But it is doubtful if the
Johnson type will serve any better.
The fault in Washington is that the
high ideals which made our govern-
ment the leader in progress have been
abandoned and the advantages gain-
ed during the administration of Wood-
row Wilson are almost hopelessly
lost. The substitution of the Johnson
philosophy for that of the present ad-
ministration will hardly serve the
purpose of a remedy.
It must be admitted, however, that
Senator Johnson “has a kick coming.”
He was viciously treated in the Re-
publican National convention four
years ago. If he had been given the
votes in that body to which he was
entitled he might still have failed of
the nomination, but his defeat would
have been fair and honorable. But he
was not allowed the votes that were
present and instructed for him and if
he had resented the outrage as Roose-
velt resented a’ similar treatment
eight years before he could now come
to the people with clean hands and de-
mand justice. He failed to do that
and not only condoned the crime
against himself but forfeited his right
of appeal.
——The frequent visits of Senator
Lodge to the White House are omin-
ous. The Johnsons of the Senate will
never be reconciled to such an asso-
ciation.
———— fp —————
——Colonel Forbes was emphatic
' way.”
enough in his denials but not convine- |
ing.
NO. 46.
Poincaire and Ollivier.
From the Philadelphia Record. ss
Ollivier may have denied it late in
life, but he has gone into history as
saying, on the eve of France's start
for Berlin, which was interrupted at
Sedan, that he assumed the responsi-
bility for war “with a light heart.”
It is in the same spirit of levity that
Poincaire announces his intention of
further invading Germany, though the
nations that rescued France from ob-
literation in 1914 are opposed to this
course, and if Poincaire’s course should
lead to its legitimate results he would
appeal to the nations he has treated
with marked discourtesy to save
France again. They will not do it.
To the Chamber of Deputies Poin-
caire said on Friday: “We shall con-
tinue to negotiate in the friendliest
way possible, but France cannot give
What, then, is there to nego-
tiate? France is going to pursue its
present course no matter what its as-
sociates in the world war think or do;
any negotiation when the result is
pre-determined is a farce or a fraud,
and Poincaire’s frankness forestalls
the charge of fraud.
The immediate question now is not
whether France or Great Britain is
correct in its construction of the peace
treaty, but whether France owes a de-
cent respect to the opinions of the na-
tions that saved its life. Italy does
not sanction any further invasion of
Germany, or any attempt to destroy
Germany. Great Britain has opposed
the invasion of the Ruhr from the
first, and it has of late been pressing
for a competent economic investiga-
tion of Germany’s capacity to pay the
132 billion gold marks. The United
States, which saved France from col-
lapse in 1917, supported this proposal,
and would take no part in an investi-
gation limited as Poincaire insisted. Is
this decent treatment by France of
the countries to which it owes its life?
Poincaire said to the Chamber: “We
have never ceased to support union
among the Allies, and it is never from
our side that the Entente is broken.”
And yet since Poincaire became Prime
Minister France has yielded nothing.
It has persisted in a course in which
Italy would not join it, and which
Great Britain strongly opposed.
France betrayed the treaty of Sevres
and betrayed England in the Near
East. It was checked momentarily by
the warning of Bonar Law that if
France did not support England on
the Dardanelles England
would not
| support France on Ge Rhine Ta ogy
The invasion of the Ruhr was done
without the approval of Italy and in
the face of the protests of Great Brit-
ain. America, Great Britain, Italy
and Belgium united in support of an
unrestricted investigation of German
resources,
budge an inch. The Allies have no
legal right to extradite Frederick
William. England and Italy object to
any coercive measures to obtain that,
and France insists on a deeper inva-
sion of Germany to punish it for har-
boring the former Crown Prince and
to re-establish the Allied Military
control, and will do it alone. And
Poincaire has the effrontery to say
that if the Entente is endangered it is
not from the side of France.
For levity in trifling with incalecu-
lable interests we know of nothing
since Emile Ollivier comparable with
Raymond Poincaire.
A “Hard-Boiled” Combine,
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
Governor Pinchot pressed home,
with relentless severity, his indict-
ment of the anthracite monopoly at
last week’s session of the American
Academy of Political and Social Sei-
ence. It is only by such perseverance
that the public can ever hope to curb
what the Governor aptly termed, in
the slang of the day, “a hard-boiled
monopoly,” enjoying and distributing
enormous dividends from the praduc-
tion, transportation and sale of its
product, dead to any sense of fair
dealing with the public and deaf to
every warning that it must reform
itself or be reformed.
It is no answer to the array of un-
disputed facts relating to coal-compa-
ny dividends, the ever-widening mar-
gins between cost of production and
sale prices and the almost invariable
rule of unanimity that prevails in
price lists for the spokesman of the
coal operators to talk about turning
the “hose of common sense” on the
fires of controversy. What is wanted,
and what the public will continue to
demand, is less ruthless exploitation
of the public by the coal monopoly and
less arrogant indifference to a grow-
ing popular indignation that threat-
ens to take control out of the hands
of that monopoly.
Bootlegging in Wheat.
From Farm Life,
The proposal to increase the tariff
on wheat if it should be adopted, may
open up a new business in contraband
along the Canadian border. Even
now, wheat in the United States is
worth more than wheat in Canada.
Like other commodities, grain looks
for the highest market, and some-
times this brings it across the border
without the payment of customs du-
ty. Since the international boundary
line is hundreds of miles long in our
grain-growing sections of the north,
it is naturally hard to guard that line
against smugglers. There have been
suggestions from Washington that
the government may find it worth
while to establish a whea# patrol to
break up this form of bootlegging.
——————————————————
——When you see it in the “Watch-
man” you know it’s true.
and France would not
5
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—A forgotten umbrella led to the dis-
covery that a safe had been blown in the
office of a department store in Harrisburg.
on Saturday night. The thieves obtained
between $2,000 and $3,000 but in making
their escape dropped two envelopes con-
taining $800.
—Fire on Sunday destroyed the Citizens’
Bank building at Albion, Erie county, and
for several hours threatened the entire
business district. The loss was estimated
at $150,000. The Citizens’ bank was closed
early in October by a State bank exam-
iner when a shortage of $67,000 was dis-
covered.
—Forcing an entrance through a side
window burglars early last Friday enter-
ed the county treasurer's office in the
court house, at Huntingdon, blew open the
outer doors of the vault, but before gain-
ing entrance to the inner safe, were pre-
sumably frightened in their work, and es-
caped without booty.
—One man died and five other persons
became violently ill on Saturday night
after eating home-made drop cakes at the
home of Mrs. Stella Jones, in Philadelphia.
The cakes were served during dinner. A
few minutes later every one who had eat-
en them became ill. William Moore, grand-
father of Mrs. Jones, died shortly after-
ward.
—As a result of an argument that start-
ed over a gambling game, William Thomp-
son, aged 20 years, of Steelton, is a patient
at the Harrisburg hospital with a bullet
wound in the right arm, while George
White, colored, also of Steelton, is under
arrest charged with the shooting. The
shooting took place Saturday night, and
White was arrested in Harrisburg on
Sunday.
—A robber who kept only enough of his
loot to buy a new suit of clothes was re-
ported to the police in Pittsburgh last
Friday. The robber stole $80 from an East
Side barber shop last Wednesday. On
Friday the owner of the shop found a note
under the door. In the note the robber
explained that he was returning $65 of
the stolen money ,as he needed only $15
for a suit.
—F. G. Morrison, employe of a news-
paper at Rimersburg, in Clarion county,
has been missing from his home there
since the first day of the hunting season,
when he donned his hunting clothes, kiss-
ed his wife good bye, got into an automo-
bile and drove away for a day in the
woods. Not a word has been heard from
him since. He is reported to have had on
his person a large sum of money.
—Attacked by an enraged bull, John R.
Hartman, Civil war veteran and promi-
nent resident of Mummasburg, Adams
county, suffered injuries early Monday
morning of which he died four hours later.
Mr. Hartman was trying to drive the bull
into the barn with a pitchfork. The ani-
mal suddenly turned on him, knocked him
‘down and gored him, crushing his chest.
Mr. Hartman was 78 years old. He leaves
a daughter, Mrs. H. E. Berkey, wife of
the Rev. Mr. Berkey, Lutheran pastor in
Arendtville.
—Dr. T. C. Harter, representative from
Columbia county in the State Legislature,
was arrested last Friday on a charge of
criminal libel brought by district attor-
ney Warren 8. Sharpless, of Columbia
county. Dr. Harter waived a hearing and
was held in $3,000 bail for court. The ac-
tion, it is understood, grew out of a let-
‘ter alleged ‘to have been written by Dr.
Harter during the recent political cam-
paign to the Rev. Edwin Radcliffe, a
Bloomsburg clergyman, regarding prohi-
bition enforcement.
—Accidental death was the verdict re-
turned by the coroner’s jury that investi-
gated the cause of the death of Clyde I.
Hull, of Ridgway, whose dead body was
found in the kitchen of his home wi
bullet hole through the heart. Mrs. 1
was attracted to the kitchen of her home
when she heard a shot, and hurrying there
discovered her husband dead. About ten
feet away was a rifle. It is believed that
the weapon was accidentally discharged
while he was cleaning it preparatory to
starting on a hunting trip.
—Two prisoners at the Pennsylvania ‘In-
dustrial Reformatory at Huntingdon at-
tacked E. A. Fritchey, a guard, last Wed-
nesday while he was sitting at his desk in
the automobile tag department, ripped
open his cheek with a knife, from the tem-
ple to the mouth and knocked him uncon-
scious by beating him over the head. The
pair slipped up on Fritchey from behind
to make the assault. Officials at the insti-
tution declined to say what would be done
with the prisoners, nor could it be learned
what their intention was in making the
attack.
—It cost Albert Mattern, of Sunbury,
$7.40 to blacken his landlord’s eye. This
amount was the fine and costs imposed on
Mattern by Justice of the Peace John H.
Vincent when M. L. Snyder, the landlord,
sought damages for the assault. Mattern
testified Snyder had been hounding him
for months, declaring he owed him back
rent. Receipts to date were produced by
the tenant, however. Not to be outdone,
the landlord raised the rent. Heated
words followed and Mattern charged. His
arrest was the result, but at the close of
the hearing he addressed the justice thus:
“Can I blacken the other one for $7.40 ex-
tra?’
—Mrs. Mabel V. Gray, of Williamsport,
the first woman to be appointed sheriff in
the State of Pennsylvania, says ‘there are
some jobs that only a man can fill and the
job of being sheriff is one of them.” Mrs.
Gray was appointed to the office several
days after the death of her husband, Sher-
iff Thomas Gray, several months ago. “I
will be very glad when my successor comes
to relieve me on January 7th,” Mrs. Gray
said. “I believe that a woman isn't cut
out for taking charge of a jail. It isn’t
natural. The job has been a strain on my
nerves, While I believe that women are
as capable as men for some offices, they
certainly can’t take the place of a man as
the head of a jail.”
—Mrs. Bertha R. Ickes and her daugh-
ter and son, Miss Josephine Ickes and Ll.
Chester Ickes, were indicted by the fed-
eral grand jury at Pittsburgh, on Mon-
day, upon charges of fraudulent issuance
of money orders at the Reynoldsville post-
office, Bedford county, when Mrs. Ickes
was postmistress and her daughter the
assistant. Separate indictments were re-
turned against each. Ickes, according to
postoffice inspectors, told his mother and
sister that he owned a valuable automo-
bile patent and obtained $3,958 in money
orders for the purposé of promoting a
campaign to sell the patent. He was said
to have written his mother from Kansas
City announcing the sale of the patent,
but no money was enclosed, according to
the inspectors. Ickes was taken into cusg«
tody upon his return from the west.