* physical wreck,
A
Brora fd
SS SSS,
INK SLINGS.
Probably Pinchot imagines he
can force Secretary Mellon into the
bootleggers’ union.
—1If the weather and the water con-
tinue unpropitious much longer we
fear we are in for what might be call-
ed ‘a fishless fishing season.
—One mysterious thing about
President Coolidge is cleared up. He
took his family to a circus on Tues-
day, so now we know that he is hu-
man.
—Count Salm got the Rogers girl,
but he didn’t get any of pop’s dough
and it looks as though this wonderful
international love match is off al-
ready.
—When the Methodists—North and
South—finally get together the hard-
est pull that has ever been made at
hauling the bloody shirt down from
the masthead of Republican campaign
bunk will have been made.
—The late Tammany leader, Charles
¥. Murphy, couldn’t have been so bad
as his enemies were wont to paint
him, else he would certainly have left
more than an estate valued at four
hundred and fifty thousand.
— Those farmers who have their
oats in the ground are worried with
fear that it will rot and those who
were not forward enough to get their’s
sowed before the wet weather set in
are worried lest they won’t get it in
at all.
—If settling a police strike in Bos-
ton and beating Hi Johnson in Cali-
fornia are super-achievements then
we'll have to admit that President
Coolidge has two planks on which to
stand while asking the country to elect
him President.
—Judge Quigley is holding court in
Pittsburgh this week. Among the
cases before him are the murder trials
growing out of the recent riot in the
western penitentiary and the jury
panel having been exhausted the
Judge sent officers into the streets to
catch the makin’s of jurors without
regard to whether it suited them or
not.
—The Bursum omnibus pension
bill, which was vetoed by the Presi-
dent came within one vote of being
dragged out from under the Presiden-
tial ax. Certainly the actions of this
Congress are the most inexplicable of
any of record. The legislative and
executive branches of the government
seem to be as far apart as the poles.
Nothing the President urges will
‘Congress pass and nothing that Con-
gress passes will the President ap-
prove.
on his way to
—Billy Sunday, the evangelist, is |"
because, as he says.
he “has been driving the old machine
hard for thirty years and some of the
bearings are hot.” The country is full
of those who will pray that the May-
os may be able to grind his valves,
tune up his ignition and put the old
machine in condition for a lot more of
the wonderful work it has been doing
for the Master ever since it ran off a
baseball diamond and stuck in a pul-
pit.
—Last week the fate of Maj. Fred-
erick L. Martin, commander of Amer-
ica’s around the world air-flight
squadron, seemed hopeless. He had
not been heard of for nine days after
his hop-off from Chignik, Alaska, and
the world was all set to lament the
tragedy of another life laid on the al-
tar of pioneering. Out of the frozen
North has come word, however, that
Martin and his mechanician are both
safe after hitting a mountain top be-
cause of low visibility, and keen to
continue their flight. Of such grit
are Americans made and because of it
the future will ever point to the past
with profound admiration.
—Who read Levi A. Miller’s “Sea-
shore Philosophy” published in the
“Watchman” last week? Those who
did must have appreciated greatly the
manner in which the sage of Pleas-
ant Gap treated the subject, and
those who didn’t missed some-
thing. Before we fell for that myth
that two can live as cheap as one we
made frequent excursions to the sea-
shore; always because we imagined
that we were all run down and noth-
ing but briny air would recharge the
batteries. We recall being able to do
work enough for a week ahead before
going and we never recall returning
with energy enough to do anything
but grunt for the week after. So we
agree with Levi that so far as we
country folks are concerned “going to
the seashore” is mainly “beneficial to
railroad companies and resort hotels.”
—Political gossip has it that Vance
McCormick, seeing no hope of electing
Bruce Sterling national committee-
man for Pennsylvania, has cast the
eye of favor on Harrison Nesbit, pres-
ident of the Bank of Pittsburgh. Joe
Guffey, once so useful to Vance, has
fallen from grace and Judge Bonni-
well, the original reorganizer, is in
just as bad so that while there is no
love lost between them they will prob-
ably combine their forces at the State
committee meeting next week if by so
doing they can defeat Sterling. The
injection of Mr. Nesbit looks as though
the possibility of the combined Guf-
fey and Bonniwell forces presents a
threat that makes Sterling a weak
prop for McCormick to build on.
Strange as it may seem to some the
“Watchman” would regard Mr. Nes-
bit’s election as a very salutary thing
for the Democratic party in Pennsyl-
vania, for he is a real Democrat and
too big a man to be controlled by
Sither McCormick, Guffey or Bonni-
we. .
o
vv
Ad
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 69.
BELLEFONTE, PA.. MAY 16
Dastardly Conspiracy Exposed.
The Senate committee which has
been investigating the matter of the
indictment of Senator Wheeler, of
Montana, has about finished its work.
A majority of the members of the
committee are Republicans and Sena-
tor Borah, of Idaho, is its chairman.
Upon a charge that Mr. Wheeler had
accepted fees for practicing law be-
fore the departments of the govern-
ment at Washington, which is forbid-
den by statute, he was indicted in a
Federal court, of which the district
Harding, upon the recommendation of
Attorney General Daugherty. The
evidence upon which the indictment
was obtained was gathered by an
agent of the Republican National com-
mittee and secret service employees
of the Department of Justice and the
Postoffice Department.
The Republican National committee
and the Attorney General had strong
reasons for desiring the arrest, con-
viction and punishment of Senator
Wheeler. The chairman of the Na-
tional committee and the Attorney
General would have been satisfied
with the indictment of Senator Wheel-
er without conviction and punishment
if it had accomplished the purpose
they hoped for. Their aim was to
discredit him in public estimation and
thus rob his senatorial activities of
their force. He was engaged in the
laudable work of exposing corruption
in the administration of the Depart-
ment of Justice and his persecutors
expected that his indictment would de-
stroy his influence on the public mind,
or force him to curtail his activities
as the price of immunity from pun-
ishment.
What has been the result of this
criminal conspiracy to destroy a use-
ful, capable and conscientious public
official ?
agent in the nefarious work, admitted
under oath the object of the transac-
tion was to intimidate Senator Wheel-
er. The federal district attorney who
procured the indictment practically
confessed that he was forced by
Daugherty to prefer the charges
i
EA
“Dau Aaa seicui ;
and theeatened to use it agains
him. Other witnesses acknowledged
participation in the conspiracy and
the evidence of all the rest clearly
exculpated Senator Wheeler. No
greater crime has ever been perpe-
trated by a civilized government
against a citizen and the miscreant
responsible will sit in the Republican
National convention as a delegate-at-
large.
——The friends of Governor Pin-
chot would like to make a howl about
Strassburger’s sixty thousand dollar
expense bill, but the Pinchot profliga-
cy in 1922 is a too recent occurrence.
mmm —— lp ————
Mellon Tax Bill Defeated.
The revenue bill which passed the
Senate a week ago differs in some un-
important particulars from that which
had previously been passed in the
House of Representatives. But it
differs widely and in every essential
feature from the measure prepared
by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon,
cordially endorsed by corporations
and “big business” and strenuously
urged by President Coolidge. By
these interested elements among the
tax payers of the country it is de-
nounced as unscientific. It places the
burden of expense of the government
upon those able to bear it. In so far
as it was possible it relieves the earn-
ers of small incomes of burdens which
were growing increasingly hard to
carry. :
The Mellon bill fixed the tax on
very big incomes at twenty-five per
cent. and on corporate incomes at
twelve and a half per cent. The Sen-
ate bill fixes the rate on the big in-
comes at forty-four per cent. and pro-
vides for a graduated tax on corpora-
tion incomes so that the small corpor-
ation earning a few thousand dollars
a year will not have to pay the same
rate as the giant concern which earns
millions. Of course this is unscien-
tific as the multi-millionaires inter-
pret the term but to the unprejudiced
observer it looks fair. The Mellon
bill provided a means for tax dodg-
ing by corporations by accumulating
dividends or paying ‘them in stocks
free from taxation. The Senate bill
provides for taxing stock dividends.
In the estimation of the Secretary
of the Treasury and the President no
tax is scientific unless it puts the bur-
den of government on the poor. They
imagine that the science of govern-
ment is to afford opportunities for the
rich to grow richer and force the poor
into greater depths of poverty. That
has been the policy of the Republican
party for half a century. Both the
tax bills now in conference are in con-
flict with this policy. It is to be hop-
ed that out of the two Congress
will be able to frame one which will
be fair and just if not scientific. It
is not certain, however, that this will
be achieved. The wreckers who fa-
vored the Mellon bill will try to pre-
vent an agreement.
attorney was appointed by President
Mr. Doan, the most active !
be-
Moving Forward to Sacrifice.
The evidence that the Republican
machine is setting Calvin Coolidge up
for sacrifice continues to accumulate.
The machine managers are merrily
moving on with the election of dele-
gates to the Cleveland convention,
either instructed or pledged to vote
for his nomination and the machine
managers in Congress are proceeding,
with equal enjoyment, to stab him in
the back. Every delegation to the
convention controlled by the dominant
politicians of the party is committed
to him and every measure of legisla-
tion recommended and urged by him
has been defeated in Congress, in
which his party is in the majority in
both branches. Here is an incongrui-
' ty for which there is but one expla-
nation.
Calvin Coolidge was never a popu-
| lar figure in his party or out of it.
, Selfish but persistent he forced him-
self into small offices from the begin-
| ning of his political career and ad-
{ vanced by force of personal plugging
until he reached the office of Governor
i of Massachusetts. During his prog-
ress from solicitor in a small town to
the attainment of the title of Gover-
nor he never did a thing to commend
| him to public favor except keeping
‘his mouth shut and performing his
| official duties. While he was Gover-
| nor the police force of the largest
city within his jurisdiction “went on
la strike.” He took issue with the
! strikers which met with the favor of
"big business. He was nominated for
Vice President by a western delegate
in the 1920 Republican convention,
who had never seen him, but had a
prejudice against the slated candi-
date.
If President Harding had lived Mr.
Coolidge would have served his term
and retired to obscurity, “unhonored
and unsung.” He had opportunities
given to none of his predecessors in
the office. He sat in the cabinet ses-
sions and was familiar with all the
operations of the administration of
which he was a part, including the in-
iquities which are now bein Kp
ed. But he never offer
value to he country.
| When Harding died, however, Mr.
: Coolidge suddenly became a super-
man. The machine managers adopt-
felt that it gave opportunity to pro-
tect the crooks.
One of the mayors who attend-
ed Pinchot’s prohibition conference
declares it was a joke. Maybe that
is true, for most of the enforcement
activities of the Republican party
have been of that type.
Pinchot Paying Party Debts.
Governor Pinchot may be buried
under a vast adverse majority but he
is not silenced. He may not attend
the Cleveland convention as a dele-
gate but he is having his fun. The
machine politicians have had their
season of rejoicing over his defeat
but after all “he laughs best who
laughs last,” and Gif is easily having
the time of his life now throwing gaffs
into the tender spots of his enemies.
Every day presents fresh evidences of
his activity. One day it is a friend of
Vare and another it is a follower of
Beidleman or chairman Baker that is
cut off the pay roll. But the result is
the same. The process of diminish-
ing the meal ticket goes merrily on
and the Giff haw-haw is heard in the
land.
There are among those who con-
tributed ' to the punishment of the
Governor a few persons who are in-
different to, or independent of, the
well known pie counter. But they
are not immune from punishment at
the hands or tongue of the illustrious
dead duck. Among these is Secretary
of the Treasury, Andy Mellon. Andy
doesn’t care much whether a clerk in
the Highway Department from his
neighborhood is discharged or pro-
moted. But he does care, and it is
said he actually squirms. when some
of his selfish schemes are exposed and
in a speech delivered in Springfield,
Massachusetts, the other evening, Mr.
Pinchot rubbed salt into the sorest
spot on the Mellon anatomy. He act-
ually accused Andy of criminal mal-
feasance.
The Governor was addressing the
general Methodist Episcopal confer-
ence, his subject was prohibition en-
forcement, and he charged Mr. Mellon
with direct responsibility for the fail-
ure which is apparent to every one
with eyes to see and mind to under-
stand. He gave Senator Watson one
vicious punch and plastered a coat of
black paint on President Coolidge.
But he focussed his fire mainly on
Secretary Mellon and his language
was as vitriolic as it was possible to
make it. Of course Mellon will pre-
tend he doesn’t care and Coolidge will
pretend he never heard of the matter.
But Mellon does care, and if half the
charges made against him are true
the new Attorney General has some
important work cut out for him.
| the .
Lodge Unanimously Condemned.
Senator Lodge’s world court propo-
sition has properly received almost
universal popular contempt. It wasn’t
even a sincere expression of the pur-
poses of the malignant mind of its au-
thor. It was presented as an expe-
dient to divert the public mind from
a popular demand to consider the
world court proposition made by the
late President Harding and endorsed
by President Coolidge. That was in
itself a subterfuge of little merit.
But it may be assumed that it was of-
fered in good faith and gave some
promise of ultimate association with
the League of Nations. Coming as it
did from a Republican President to a
Republican Congress it was entitled to |
consideration. Senator Lodge denied
it even that courtesy.
The Harding plan contemplated en-
trance into a tribunal created by the
covenant of the Leage of Nations with
certain reservations of doubtful value.
The court was already in existence
and efficiently functioning. There
could have been no objection to the
proposition other than that it gave
qualified recognition to the League of
Nations. But that was enough to in-
cite Lodge’s opposition. The League
of Nations was to a great extent cre-
ated by Woodrow Wilson and the ma-
lignant Lodge is still “fighting Wil-
son,” though Wilson lies in a mar-
tyr’s grave. The Lodge proposition
is an artifice to avert popular con-
demnation for his refusal to treat the
Harding suggestion with common
fairness.
Naturally President Coolidge repu-
diates responsibility for this prepos-
terous enterprise. No man of ration-
tl mind influenced by desire to pro-
mote the public good could give it ap-
proval. It will die in the committee
of the Senate to which it was refer-
red. But it may serve the vicious
purpose of its author. That is, it
will probably prevent for another
year, at least, the consideration of
the Harding measure. But the tri-
umph of malice will be brief. After
inaugy of a Democratic
ed him as the only man fit to carry |
out the party policies. Probably they .
tue of that membership become a part
| of the great court created by it.
——During one of last Friday's
hard rain storms a young man, fairly
well dressed and of rather good ap-
pearance, rang the bell of a house on
Bishop street and asked permission to
stand on the porch until it quit rain-
ing. A young lady at the house in-
vited him inside and the young man
rather hesitatingly confessed that he
hadn’t had a bite to eat in twenty-
four hours. He also stated that he
had no money and was walking to
Williamsport where he had an aunt.
| The lady of the house gave him some-
thing to eat and then very generously
gave him enough money to pay his
fare to the Lumber city. When it
stopped raining she directed him how
to go to reach the railroad station but
on leaving the house he started up
Bishop street. Calling to him his ben-
efactress told him he was going the
wrong way so he turned around, came
down the street and ducked into an
alley and disappeared. This aroused
the lady’s suspicions and she tele-
phoned chief of police Dukeman, who
went to the place designated but was
unable to find the young man and no
trace of him has since been discover-
ed. Just two or three days previous
a young man escaped from the Dan-
ville asylum and it is just possible it
may have been him.
——— pp ————
—Monday will be circus day and
lots of folks who think they can’t stay
away from their business long enough
for two hours of enjoyment under the
big top will think nothing of staying
away from church to see the show un-
load Sunday morning.
——It appears that Governor Pin-
chot carried fifty-one of the sixty-sev-
en counties of the State for delegate-
at-large to the Cincinnati convention,
but he didn’t carry them strong
enough to win.
——Secretary Mellon’s wealth may
be ascribed in some measure to his
thrift, as his friends like to claim, but
he owes something to his shrewd and
acquisitive father’s parsimony.
——Poincare will resign because of
his defeat in the recent election thus
setting a wholesome example for
Coolidge and Mellon.
Coolidge beat Hi Johnson to a
frazzle in the California primaries
but Hi got even on the vote in the
Senate on the Mellon tax bill.
i ——————— A ———
——An investigation into the po-
litical contributions of the “Big Five”
packers will probably give Senator
Watson another bad spell.
———— p asen————
—After trying = prohibition for
eight years the Province of Alberta,
Canada, has voted to authorize gov-
ernment sale of liquor.
. 1924.
NO. 20.
The Path of Peace.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Europe expects us to put up the
$200,000,000 that is to be loaned to
Germany as the first step in putting
the Dawes plan into operation. It is
notorious that we have the money,
and Europe probably has not. It says
it has not, and it is well known to have
incurred very heavy losses in the last
decade. Besides this, we furnished
General Dawes, and the European
idea is that we can do no less than to
aysume financial responsibility for
im.
Mr. J.P. Morgan is by hereditary
right the person authorized to speak
for us—that is, for our bankers—on
this point, and the Reparations Com-
mission has consulted him. His reply
was not made to the public, but it is
reported to be that the loan could be
disposed of in this country if there
were assurance of peace. General
Dawes’ idea is that there will be cha-
os in Germany if his plan does not go
into operation. The Dawes plan, then,
raust be adopted and set in operation,
or American capitalists will net in-
vest in German securities. With the
prospects for peace good, however,
the German bonds, amounting to less
than $4 per capita, ought to be per-
fectly safe if made a first lien on the
resources of the German government.
France wants the Dawes plan in ad-
dition to whatever it has now. It has
the Ruhr and the great industries
thereof. It does not wish to let go.
But French abandonment of the Ger-
man industries is a part of the Dawes
plan; nothing can be done until that is
done. Germany insists on more; on
the withdrawal of French troops from
the Ruhr. The prospect of that is not
good, and without it there will not be
peace, and Americans will not advance
the $200,000,000 to set the Dawes plan’
into operation and enable Germany to
make a payment on indemnity account
the first year.
Mr. Ramsey MacDonald wants Ger-
many satisfied in regard to the Ruhr,
and he also desires as much as Lloyd
George and Bonar Law and Stanley
Baldwin did to keep on amicable
terms with France. They did not suc-
ceed, because the only way of main-
taining amicable terms with France
was to do just what France wanted.
Presid next year the | If land held back from that, it
Upited States will take a proper place | was endangering the . Entente, in
in the League of Nations and by vir- | French opinion. Mr. ‘MacDonald finds
it not so easy to represent his own
country and gratify France. He has
proposed as a compromise that the
evacuation of the Ruhr be deferred
until every arrangement is made for
putting the Dawes plan into operation.
Then on one day the French will re-
tire from the Ruhr and on the day
after the Dawes plan will go into ef-
fect. But France has protested that
it will not leave the Ruhr without its
money. Germany says it can’t and
won’t pay till France gets out.
France has a better chance of get-
ting money than it has ever had; a
far better chance than it can have so
long as it keeps its troops in the Ruhr.
It couldn’t make anything out of cha-
os in Germany unless it could annex
whatever portions of that country
it takes a fancy to and it is quite cer-
tain that the rest of Europe will not
allow France to do this. And so long
as France remains in occupation of
the Ruhr there will be no peace, there
will be no payments, and there will be
a constant danger of war between
France and a country with more than
50 per cent. greater population and no
certainty at all, and not much proba-
Mili, that France would get any Al-
ies.
How Canada Helps Its Farmers.
From the Kansas City Star.
The Canadian government proposes
to do for its farmers one thing the
United States long since should have
done for the farmers of this country.
The Parliament of Ottawa has been
asked to cut in half the tariff on all
implements and materials used in ag-
riculture, dairying, mining and lum-
bering. Whatever may be the need
or justice of thus helping the mining
and lumbering interests of Canada, it
is certain the proposed relief for the
farmers is about as urgently needed
as similar relief is needed in the Unit-
ed States.
Canada recognizes the importance
of giving its agricultural business
every consistent help that may be giv-
en. It recognizes the fundamental
nature of farming—its underlying re-
lation to the stability and prosperity
of the whole country.
What has the government at Wash-
ington done? It has proceeded on the
assumption that the farmers can be
satisfied so long as they are given a
protective tariff on what they sell.
That kind of protection has done much
more harm than good, for, on the one
hand the tariff does not affect the
price of any American product, wheth-
er agricultural or not, that depends
on foreign markets to absorb a large
surplus. The price of wheat, for ex-
ample, is fixed in Liverpool, and by
the world market.
But to cut the tariff on what the
farmer has to buy means direct and
substantial relief. It would cut the
cost of all kinds of farm machinery
and farm implements, trucks, har-
ness, paint, lumber, shingles, fencing,
fertilizers, and so on. It would, in
fact, take some of the protection from
the interests that really have been
protected and give it to the farmer,
who has not been protected at all.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE
—James 8. Plummer, crier of the Blair
county courts, is 83 years old, and has
been crier twenty-eight years. He for-
merly served two terms as register and
recorder of Blair county.
—An auto party of four entered the
store of Ben Stelzer, at Berwick, on Sat-
urday evening and after an argument over
some change, struck Mrs. Stelzer over the
head, threw a fish bowl at a daughter and
then assaulted Mr. Stelzer, who came run-
ning into the store.
—A coroner's jury last Friday returned
a verdict of accidental death in the case of
Mrs. Rose Dedrick, of Oil City, a teacher
in the Langeloth public school, near Bur-
gettstown. Mrs. Dedrick’s clothing caught
fire as she was passing a gas stove, the
woman suffering burns which caused her
death in a hospital in Pittsburgh.
—Charles Donnelly, a victim of perni-
cious anemia, underwent his forty-ninth
blood transfusion Monday in Jefferson hos
pital, Philadelphia. Donnelly, a former coal
miner of Locust Gap, submitted to the
first operation in September, 1922, and
since then he has had a fresh supply of
blood transfused into his veins at inter-
vals of two weeks.
—Returning to his home in Scranton
after an absence of several weeks, due to a
quarrel with his wife, Jerry Walsh, 32
years old, walked into bis wife's bedroom
and handed her a money bag containing
$176, saying that it was all that he had in
the world. He then bade her goodbye and,
going to the dining room of the home, end-
ed his life with a bullet.
—After they had ransacked the home of
Patrick Lynch, of Coatesville, last Friday
night and stolen articles of bedding,
clothing and a small amount of cash, pur-
glars opened the gas jets on the kitchen
range and departed. Fortunately, for the
family, an old style quarter meter was in
use and the gas was soon exhausted. Two
members of the family were slightly af-
fected by the fumes.
—Mrs. Donald Charles and her fourteen
months old baby were badly burned at
Berwick, Monday, when sparks from a
passing locomotive set fire to the robes in
which the infant was wrapped in his car-
riage. The baby buggy was parked out-
side a store near the railroad tracks and
the sparks ignited the blanket. The moth-
er rushed out in time to save the child,
but was badly burned. The infant was
only slightly injured.
—With the arrest of Walter Smith and
Mrs. Eva Long, a 20 year old blond, both
formerly of Williamsport, Pa., now living
in Philadelphia, following complaint by
two customers in a Market street store
that their handbags had been opened and
$32 taken, it was brought out that Smith
had left a wife and a 2 day old infant in
Williamsport in January, when he induced
Mrs. Long to leave there with him. The
prisoners were held in $1000 bail each for
court. The police notified the Williams-
port authorities of the arrest of the pair.
—R. C. Edelstine, a lawyer, residing in
Carbon county, was robbed on Tuesday
night by two bandits to whom he had
kindly consented to give a ‘lift’ on the
highway above Pottsville, When the
strangers departed, Edelstine started his
auto, but the car was wrecked in turning
a curve and Edelstine was buried beneath
it. It was impossible to get his full story
after he was taken to the Pottsville hos-
pital, but he alleges that a $750 diamond
ring, $150 in cash and his watch ard chain
were taken from him by the bandits.
State police are working on the case.
—William Decker, a prominent manu-
facturer of Montgomery, was killed Thurs-
day night when he was caught between the
gate of a freight elevator and the top of
the doorway in the Montgomery Table and
Desk factory. His neck was broken. In
addition to his manufacturing interests,
he was president of the Montgomery Na-
tional bank, chairman of the executive
committee of Susquehanna University and
a director of Dickinson Seminary, of the
World Sunday School association and of
the State Sabbath School association. He
was quite well known in Centre county.
—The $17,000 Houston National Bank
robbery in Washington county in 1916 was
recalled last week when Mrs. Julia Dillon,
wife of James F. Dillon, one of the rob-
bers, filed suit for a divorce, charging de-
sertion. Dillon was known as a prosper-
ous Chartiers farmer until his arrest in
connection with the robbery. Later it
was shown that he had escaped from the
Colorado penitentiary, while serving a life
term. He is now in prison there. Mrs.
Dillon, in her suit, claimed she married
Dillon in 1915, believing him to be a re-
spectable farmer. He deserted her, she
charged, a few days before the bank rob-
bery. :
—Two masked men, who apparently had
hidden in the Penn Traffic Company store
at Johnstown, before it closed Saturday
night, at four o'clock Sunday morning at-
tacked watchman James A. Skelly, alone
at the time, because the other watchman
was sick, beat him with the butt end of a
revolver, handcuffed and gagged him and
placed him in a vault and then proceeded
to drill open the money safe on the fourth
floor and the jewelry safe on the first
floor, securing loot estimated at $30,000 in
cash, checks and jewelry, making their es-
cape without being seen by anybody. The
greater part of the loss is covered by bur-
glar insurance.
—Arrest of Clarence Welsh, 22 years old,
for larceny and highway robbery in Johns-
town last Friday may clear up the hold-
up of paymaster F. E. Pratt, of Sylvan
Hills, Altoona, on October 26, Welsh was
picked up following a visit to his home in
Ashville, Cambria county, which place he
left shortly after the hold-up, and is now
in the Cambria county jail. Mr. and Mrs.
Pratt were driving to Dexcar mines, near
Ashville, on the afternoon of October 26,
when two men leaped on the running
board of their automobile along a lonely
stretch of road, ordered the couple to
leave the car, then drove off with $6200 in
currency, which made up the payroll
—Al Kline, former Clearfield county
treasurer, sustained a double fracture of
the jaw in a peculiar accident one day last
week. He was walking toward his home
in Clearfield and was about to cross a
street as a bicycle upon which two boys
were riding approached.. Seeing its wab-
bly course, he stepped back upon the curb
to permit the machine to pass when it
swerved, and the head of a boy who was
riding the handlebars clipped him fairly
upon the chin, knocking him to his knees.
The boys upon the bicycle were knocked
sprawling, but recovered themselves and
their vehicle and scampered away. Mean-
while, Mr. Kline was assisted to his home,
where it was found necessary to take X«
ray pictures of his jaws that showed frac-
——Subseribe for the “Watchman.” | tures near the joints on both sides.