Demorrahi; atc
INK SLINGS.
——In any event the jokesmiths
can’t have fun with the name of our
candidate for President.
— This was a bad year for college
graduates. The political conventions
absorbed too much public attention.
—We await with considerable curi-
osity the announcement of who is to
direct the La Follette-Wheeler cam-
paign in this county.
—1It costs nothing and every one
can give it. It affects every sphere of
life, so why not, always, when some
one asks you a question, give a civil
ANSWET.
—Bellefonte officers are enforcing
the traffic regulations and already a
number of violators have been haled
before the Burgess. What the effect
will be remains to be seen.
—It seems to us that there was
enough of tragedy in the end of poor
old William Musser, without adding to
it the unchristian quibble over a
place in which his body could rest.
—It’s queer reasoning that con-
cludes that the loss of one United
States Senator is more blasting to
Democratic hopes than the defection
of a half dozen or more Senators is to
the Republican cause.
—Having sewed up the Olympic
games championship for 1924 the
American athletes will proceed to
break training and load up with a lot
of stuff more liquid than laurels.
They can get laurels at home.
—Just now, when things are a lit-
tle dull about Harrisburg, Governor
Pinchot might stir the animals up a
bit if he were to tell us whether it is
still his intention to seek Senator Pep-
per’s seat in the United States Sen-
ate.
—There isn’t a State that is nor-
mally Democratic that Senator Wheel-
er can take from Davis. There are
six States that LaFollette and Wheel-
er, combined, might take from Cool-
idge. We should worry about the par-
ty that put the wheels under Wheel-
€r.
—Three weeks ago when every one
was discouraged and thought the hay
and grain crops were destined to rot
in the fields, the promise that “seed
time and harvest will come,” seems to
have been forgotten. Better weather
for hay making and the grain harvest
than we have had during the past ten
days has rarely been known.
—Headquarters for the work the
Democratic women of the State are
expected to do in the coming cam-
paign have been opened in Williams-
port. Inasmuch as Mrs. R. Fleming
is the vice-chairman in charge,
arouse both.
—Council is acting like it intends
to do something for Spring street.
Not having the slightest thought that
the agitation the “Watchman” start-
ed in this prospective improvement
some time ago had anything to do
with the consideration that august
body has given the matter we rise—
not to pat ourself on the back, but to
thank council for its evident intention
to do something for a hard worked
thoroughfare neglected too long.
—We don’t always agree with what
the gentleman who writes the adver-
tisements for the First National
bank of this place, that appear in oth-
er columns of the “Watchman,” has to
say. Very rarely do we refer to such
matters in this column, but we want
you to turn to page six, of this issue,
and read in four inches, more good,
sound “horse sense” than the average
writer can “get over” in. six columns.
Besides being a very exceptional bank-
er Corp. McCurdy occasionally quali-
fies as a very exceptional writer.
—Of course Persia regrets the kill-
ing of the Vice Consul of the United
States at Teheran. To make amends
Persia is perfectly willing to execute
every one Uncle Sam wants to bump
off in the public square. Aside from
the fact that a public execution of one
of their number is as much of a de-
light to the average Persian as a Har-
old Lloyd film is to the average Amer-
ican kid and that Persia’s war re-
sources are as a child’s toy pistol to
Uncle Sam’s “Big Bertha,” the situa-
tion is without serious diplomatic con-
sequences. The little matter of the
life of Maj. Robert Imbrie, its value
to his family and posterity doesn’t
seem to have entered the equation at
all.
—Mr. Clinton W. Gilbert, the gen-
tleman who makes a double column
mirror, about six inches long, reflect
Washington in the Philadelphia Ledg-
er every day, has a little of the silver
scraped off the back of his glass. We
see clear through his efforts to make
it appear that Coolidge is more pro-
gressive than his party. Coolidge
isn’t anything; either conservative,
reactionary or radical. He is merely
“Silent Cal,” an accidental note in the
elephants’ trumpeting for votes. Set-
tling the police strike in Boston got
him a Vice Presidential nomination
and some knowing citizens of Massa-
chusetts say he was away from his
desk when that settlement was effect-
ed—the untimely end of Warren G.
Harding made him President and the
failure of a Republican Congress to
function in such a manner as would
give any hope of election to any of the
really able men in his party made him
its nominee for a full term. The “Si-
lent” prefix to Cal. was invented to
give the impression that “still water
runs deep,” but everybody knows that
Je of still water is very, very shal-
ow.
®» Ss
Democratic
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 69.
John W. Davis, Progressive.
Senator Wheeler seems to have been
influenced by impulse rather than rea-
son when he wrote his letter accept-
ing the nomination of the LaFollette
party for Vice President. Otherwise
he couldn’t have said that the Demo-
crats in convention selected as the
standard bearer of their party “an at-
torney who represents these (Wall
Street) interests, who lives and asso-
ciates with them and who typifies all
that big business stands for, just as
much and just as truly as does the
Republican nominee.”
anything it casts an aspersion upon
the legal profession. Mr. Wheeler
testified before a Congressional com- |
If that means |
|
New Democratic Organization.
The selection of Clem L. Shaver, of
Fairmount, West Virginia, as chair-
man of the Democratic National com-
mittee, will be cordially endorsed by
the Democratic men and women of
the country. He is a lawyer of abili-
ty and a political manager of exper-
ience. He was selected by Mr. Davis
and is a life-long friend of the candi-
date. The executive committee of the
party is composed of men equally well
qualified for the service. Cordell Hull,
of Tennessee; George White, of Ohio;
Vance C. McCormick, of Pennsylvania,
and Homer Cummins, of Connecticut,
| each having served as chairman of the
| committee, and Daniel C. Roper, of
mittee that he had become counsel for | New York, will guarantee an energet-
an oil speculator of doubtful reputa- ic as well as an efficient campaign.
tion in Montana.
Is it to be inferred |
Probably the least known of this
that he was in sympathy with all the group of earnest working Democrats
enterprises of his client?
| is Mr. Shaver, the new chairman. But
John W. Davis began the practice | "he is intimately known to and thor-
of law in West Virginia about 1895, | | oughly trusted by John W. Davis, and :
and soon afterward became an assist-
ant professor in the law school of the
University of Virginia. A few years
later he was elected to the House of |
Delegates of West Virginia and serv-
ed one term, having declined a re-elec-
tion. Resuming the general practice
of law at Clarksburg, he remained
there ten years. In 1906 he was elect-
ed president of the State Bar asso-
ciation and assigned te the committee
on uniform State laws. In 1909 he
was elected to Congress in a district
overwhelmingly Republican and be-
came a member of the Judiciary com-
mittee, serving two terms. Then
President Wilson appointed him so-
licitor general, in which position he
defended all the progressive legisla-
tion enacted during Wilson's first
term, including the eight hour law.
He argued the case against the
Harvester trust, the Steel trust, the
anthracite coal cases involving the
constitutionality of the income tax,
the railway mail pay, the pipe line is-
sue involving the validity of the In- |
|
terstate Commerce Commission, and |
Chief Justice White appraised him as
the ablest lawyer who had occupied | publican party has prostituted a gov-
5 service on the bench.
to Washington was leading counsel
for the coal miners in their frequent |
and until his official duties called him | rights of the people.
| Cordell Hull said of him “I am greatly
| pleased to know that my successor as
! chairman of the committee is an ex-
ceptionally able man with much suc-
cessful political experience. The
management of the campaign could
not be placed in abler or safer hands.”
Mr. Shaver was chairman of the West
Virginia State committee while Mr.
Hull officiated as head of the National
committee and their joint efforts gave
Republican West Virginia a Democrat-
ic United States Senator. It may be
expected that the same co-ordination
this year will yield a Democratic
President.
No national campaign ever opened
more auspiciously. With a ticket
that commands the admiration of
every fair minded man and woman in
the country, who has given the sub-
ject thought, and an organization en-
tirely capable, absolutely honest and
sincere, and thoroughly in earnest,
the Democratic party, standing as it
does for “a government of the people,
for the people and by the people,”
ought to win and will win. Within a
period of less than four years the Re-
that office in all the long period of i ernment of high ideals into a gang of
i In his | pirates who have looted the treasury,
ein West Virginia he. defended ; dissipated the resources of the coun-
; and “sacred tion’ as exemplified under Wilson or
b————— pp ——————
——The memory of voters is pro- |
controversies with the mine owners. yerbially short but the oil scandals
Upon the death of Ambassador Page will not be forgotten before election
President Wilson appointed him Am- day, as Republican chairman Butler
bassador to London from which serv- | hopes.
ice he returned in mid-summer of |
1921 and located in New York. Ir!
that record has made a corporation |
monster it got quick action.
Senator Wheeler’s Candidacy.
While it may be widely regretted |
! that Senator Burton K. Wheeler, of
——It was hardly necessary for Montana, has accepted the nomina-
those Chicago fiends to
Everybody knew they were guilty.
Factional War Resumed.
Governor Pinchot, having returned
to Harrisburg after his summer vaca-
tion, signs of the resumption of fac-
tional war in the Republican party of
Pennsylvania are appearing. Last
week the Game Commission threw a
harpoon into the gubernatorial anato-
my by naming one of the State Game
preserves after John M. Phillips, of
Pittsburgh. Mr. Phillips had been
president of the Commission for many
years, but the Governor refused to re-
appoint him for one reason or another,
presumably because he was not in full
sympathy with some absurd condi-
tions established by Mr. Pinchot in.
relation to the activities of the Com-
mission. The honor conferred upon
Mr. Phillips is interpreted as a rebuke
to the Governor.
Other evidences of a renewal of the
quarrel between the Governor and the
machine leaders are present. In the
planning of the campaign for Presi-
dent the Governor has been entirely
ignored. Chairman Baker, Senators
Pepper and Reed, Congressman Vare
and others have held conferences with
the President in Washington and
among themselves in Philadelphia and
at the seashore, but Governor Pinchot
has not been invited nor even consult-
ed. He may be permitted to contrib-
ute to the campaign fund later on but
that is likely to be the limit of courte-
sies extended to him.
Governor is quietly moving in his own
way to build up a machine for use
when his successor is to be elected.
That the Governor will not relin-
quish control of the State government
to the old machine is certain. He in-
tends to name his successor in office,
if possible, and has already picked out
the man for the place. The present
Secretary of the Commonwealth is
his favorite and unless his expecta-
tions are disappointed will be named
as the Republican candidate for Gov-
ernor in 1926. The appointment of
Robert L. Patton, to the office of Cor-
oner of Philadelphia, was made with
this object in view and within a short
time other appoiritments will be made
which will shock the machine leaders.
The present row over the tenure of
office of General Butler, director of
Meantime the !
confess. | tion of the LaFollette party for Vice
President it has caused no surprise.
Senator Wheeler has been in sympa-
thy with the ultra-conservatives for
some years, and though he owed his
elevation to the Senate to the Demo-
crats of Montana he was more the
candidate of a fusion party than of
the Democratic organization. Mon-
tana had fallen under the domination
of a group of foreign corporations
that controlled the Republican party
and Wheeler, who had been appointed
United States district attorney by
President Wilson, was agreed upon as
the candidate of the opposition and
elected.
In justice to Mr. Wheeler it must
be said that he is a man of considera-
ble ability as well as of unquestioned
integrity. In his conduct of the inves-
tigation of Attorney General Daugh-
erty he revealed a high order of le-
gal ability, and because of the at-
tempt of the administration to “frame
up” charges against him acquired an
unusual measure of distinction. Pos-
sibly this fact implanted in his mind
an ambition that was disappointed.
At least it was whispered among the
delegates at the Madison Square Gar-
den convention that he had aspira-
tions for the Democratic nemination
for Vice President. He attended that
convention as an enthusiastic suppor-
ter of William G. McAdoo.
Senator Wheeler is entirely within
his rights in accepting the nomina-
tion and tendering his support to the
LaFollette party as Senator Brook-
hart, of Iowa; Norris, of Nebraska;
Ladd, of North Dakota; Sterling, of
South Dakota, and LaFollette, of Wis-
consin, Republicans, are in their ef-
forts for that ticket. Unlike the Re-
publicans pursuing that course, how-
ever, Senator Wheeler will do his for-
mer party little or no harm. The only
States the LaFollette party can hope
to carry are such as would have given
their electoral vote to the Republican
ticket if there had been no other third
ticket in the field. In common with
other Democrats we regret Wheeler’s
diversion but feel that good may come
of it.
——New York wants a Republican
National convention likely for purpos-
cs of comparison.
——The Brazilian revolution is
public safety in Philadelphia, is part, having a hard time to keep itself on
{ of the program.
. the front page.
BELLEFONTE, PA.. JULY 25. 1924.
NO. 29.
| Paramount Issues of the Campaign.
The Democratic platform adopted
by the New York convention not only
invites but urges a comparison of the
record of eight years of “unsullied
Democratic administration with that
of the Republican administration
which succeeded.” The Republican
Congress which assembled in Decem-
ber, 1919, instituted fifty-one inves-
tigations in the expectation of reveal-
ing some sort of fraud in the conduct
of the war. These “smelling commit-
tees” covered all Europe and Ameri-
ca and spent millions of dollars in fu-
tile search. But not a single fraud
was discovered and finally the pres-
ent Republican candidate for Vice
President drove them out of existence
with his ‘“Hell-an’-Maria” denuncia-
tion of the policy.
During the last session of Congress
several investigations were begun and
{ conducted by committees dominated
by Republican majorities. “These in-
vestigations,” the Democratic plat-
form declares, “sent the former Sec-
retary of the Navy to Three Rivers in
disgrace and dishonor. These inves-
tigations revealed the incapacity and
indifference to public obligations of
the Secretary of the Navy, compelling
him by force of public opinion to quit
the Cabinet. These investigations
confirmed the general impression as
to the unfitness of the Attorney Gen-
eral by exposing an official situation
and personal contacts which shocked
the conscience of the nation and com-
pelled his dismissal from the Cabi-
net.”
These investigations accomplished
other results which should be kept in
the public mind. The shameful abus-
es in the conduct of the Veterans’ Bu-
reau, “with its fraud upon the gov-
ernment and cruel neglect of the sick
and disabled soldiers of the world
war,” the fraudulent oil leases and
various other iniquities perpetrated
under the eyes, if not with the sanc-
tion of the Republicaan party man-
: agers, combine to form campaign is-
sues which ought to not only defeat
the party but force it out of exist-
ence. This is the real issue now be-
fore the people. It is a question of
honesty and efficiency in administra-
fraud and corruption as revealed by
: the Republican administration.
—A party of Pennsylvania railroad
pose of looking up present business
conditions and the outlook for the fu-
ture, were in Bellefonte last Thursday
and interviewed the heads of the var-
ious limestone industries in this sec-
tion. They also made inquiries re-
garding the Bellefonte Central rail-
road but were uncommunicative as to
the company’s attitude regarding the
recent announcement of Bellefonte
Central officials that they will be
compelled to cease operations unless
the Pennsylvania can in some way ar-
range to absorb a portion of the
switching charge from the various
limestone operations along the line.
In the meantime officials of the Belle-
fonte Central have taken no further
action toward the abandonment of
their road, but the switching rates
now charged are probably one reason
for the curtailment of operations at
the limestone quarries up the branch,
as hey have reached almost a stand-
still.
——Secretary of the State Hughes
imagines he can fool the British law-
vers by his story that the administra-
tion at Washington has no authority
to act with other nations in the inter-
est of permanent peace.
——-Some esteemed Republican con-
temporaries are asking for reasons
for the nomination of Governor Bry-
an. One of them will be made clear
when the election returns of Nebras-
ka come in.
——1It is said that one of Clem
Shaver’s hobbies is “breeding hounds.”
Maybe his kennel will produce an ani-
mal that will run the rogues out of
Washington.
——Mayor Kendrick, of Philadel-
phia, is between the good citizenship
and the crooks very much as another
was between “the devil and the deep
sea.
——When de Valera was released
he resumed delivery of the speech
that was interrupted by his arrest a
year or more ago.
A ———— fe —————————
——The Cleveland convention threw
La Follette out of the party and it
looks as if he is taking most of the
party with him.
Sr ———— ff ——————
——Jack Dempsey’s right arm was
injured in an automobile accident the
other day but the strength of his jaws
is unimpaired. -
——There were nearly as many bal-
lots at the Democratic convention as
there were blunders at the Republican
convention.
HOME MAIL A HAPPY EVENT.
Interesting Incidents in the Life of
Mr. and Mrs. North in China.
Chengtu, China,
January 27, 1924.
Dear Home Folks:
Tonight has been a riotously happy
time for me. Foreign mail just came
in (the first good foreign mail in
about three weeks) and I received
fourteen pieces of mail from the Unit-
ed States; two letters from you, one
from Daddy, written at Elimsport,
one from Berenice, a Christmas card
from the Whitings, and the rest of
the mail was from friends to whom 1
had sent Christmas cards. Most of
them wrote me nice long letters, so I
have spent most of the evening read-
ing my mail. Now I want to get a
letter off to you, for I am ashamed to
say I have not written a letter for
about three weeks. I don’t know where
te time goes, but it certainly does
y.
Of course, five days in the week we
spend in Language school, and by the
time we reach home at about 4:30,
the best part of the day is gone and
we don’t feel much like writing let-
ters. Then, we’re always being invit-
ed out somewhere in the evenings and
by the time we reach home it is bed-
time. The social life here is very
strenuous. It is not so in most mis-
sion centers, but there is an unusual-
ly large foreign population here, most-
ly missionary, so that there is always
something going on. I get very tired
of it sometimes, but we have come so
recently that we feel we must accept
invitations or run the chance of not
being invited in the future. Bill is
always very anxious to go and, of
course, I have to go along with him.
Last week-end we spent out in the
country, or what we call country. It
is really just that region outside the
city gates where the University is lo-
cated and where many of the foreign-
ers live. We went out Saturday
afternoon, had dinner with the Brace
family (Canadian Methodists) and
spent the night and Sunday with Mr.
and Mrs. Larkin, a young couple of
our mission. I did something last
Sunday afternoon which, you e-aldn’t
have hired me to do at home—sang a
solo in church. We have foreign
church here every other Sunday, one
Sunday in the city, and the next time
in the country. Last week it was held
officials touring the State for the pur- | kd
in the country and almost the whole
community (foreign) was present. I
had to sing to an organ accompani-
ment and it was pretty hard, but they
tell me I did very well. I don’t want
to do it again soon, though, for it is
too hard on my nerves. I had a cold
to begin with, and was afraid my voice
would break on a high note, but noth-
ing like that happened. Bill also sang,
in a men’s quartette. So you see our
family was well represented.
I enjoy going out to the country. It
is lovely out there and you hardly
know you are in China, but every time
you go out there for an evening’s fun!
you have to spend the night, and I
don’t like that. I hate to sleep in any
but my own nice bed. I guess I'm
getting to be an old woman. But here
in China all places are not as nice as
we think we have things here in our
home. For instance, out at Larkin’s
we had to dress in a cold room, no fire
at all in their guest room, and we had
to wait for the servant to bring warm
water in the morning. ‘Here in our
own bed-room we have a little stove
which is always lighted by the serv-
ant about a half hour before we get
up so that we have a warm room to
dress in and we keep a teakettle full
of water on the stove all the time, so
that when we have fire, we always
have good hot water. To be sure, our
teakettle is made out of an oil can
buy it answers the purpose beautiful-
y.
What do you think we have to eat
out here in the wilds of China? Ice
cream! ! ! ! Honest to goodness—ice
cream! Think of it. And they told
us we would never have it. We've
had it twice this winter, all we could
eat of it. There are several ice cream
freezers among the foreigners here in
Chengtu, and every once in a while a
group of people go together and send
a coolie to the mountain (about a four
day’s trip) for ice. He brings back
enough to make about three big freez-
ers of ice cream. We have been for-
tunate enough to be invited to two
different places to eat it. It certain-
ly was delicious aud the only fault I
could find was that I couldn’t eat
more. We also have had another big
treat recently. Dr. Freeman, who
lives in our compound, just returned
this month from a trip to Shanghai,
and brought with him a box of Oregon
apples and some lemons. He gave
each member of the mission an apple
and gave us a lemon. We had a deli-
cious lemon pie. They do not grow
lemons here at all and the apples that
you get in the summer time are about
as big as green apples at home. You
can make very good sauce from them
and can it, but they are not good eat-
ing apples. Bill and Miss Aster and
I shared our apples with our servants.
{Continued on page 4, Col. 2.)
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONR
—The life-time savings of the family of
George W. Main, of Gettysburg, stolen last
October, were returned with interest when
a package containing $325.90 was found
lying on a bench in the shed at the rear
of their home.
—A crow shooting contest will be held
this fall under the auspices of the Clinton
County Fish and Game association. Two
prizes of high-grade 22 caliber rifles will
be offered to the individuals who shoot the
largest number of crows. The dates for
the contest have not been decided.
—The plant of the Elk Window Glass
company, at Punxsutawney, which has
ben shut down for some time, has secured
sufficient capital from stockholders to en-
able it to resume operations as soon as
minor repairs are made. About seventy-
five persons will be employed at the start.
—The Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal
and Iron company, owner of the blast fur-
nace at Punxsutawney, operated by the
Punxsutawney Furnace company, will
spend about $400,000 for repairs and mod-
ernizing the plant. The plant will not be
enlarged, but will be equipped to turn out
a larger amount of work.
—Falling a distance of sixty feet into
the sand screen of the Belmar Sand and
Gravel company, at Belmar, Franklin
county, on Sunday, Clem Boyer, of Knox,
received injuries from which he died in
the Franklin hospital later. Boyer was
leaning on the guard when it broke and
fell with the railing into the screen.
—Attempting to adjust the motor of an
electric washing machine at his home in
Marion Hill, Beaver county, John Billic,
28 years old, was electrocuted. He and his
wife felt a shock as they stood on the
damp floor of the basement not far from
the washing machine, and he moved to ad-
just the motor. He placed his hand on it,
then straightened up, walked about ten
feet and toppled over dead.
—A three-inch scarf pin was removed
from the stomach of Jeanne Schneider, 2
years old, of Erie, by surgeons at Hamon
hospital last week, and the child is ex-
pected to recover. The child managed to
reach on to a dresser in the home of her
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Schneider,"
and obtained the pin. Her mother discov-
ered her with the pin in her mouth just
too late to prevent it being swallowed. An
X-ray revealed the scarf pin lodged in the
stomach.
—Joseph Jago, of Mt. Carmel, a member
of troop A, Pennsylvania State constabu-
lary, under instruction at Hershey, is suf-
fering from a severe fracture of the right
leg between the ankle and the knee which
was the result of his lying with his feet
out of the window of passenger train No.
906 while it was passing a freaght train
just east of Dauphin early Monday morn-
ing. He was taken to the Harrisburg hos-
pital where it was found that his injury
is of a serious nature.
—Probably the largest oil storage tank
in northern Pennsylvania is being cton-
structed at Rixford, McKean county. The
tank when completed will hold 55,000 bar-
rels of crude oil. Its size may be judged
when it is recalled that large tanks with
which most persons in the oil fields are
familiar in that section are of 25,000 to
30,000 barrel capacity. The mammoth
tank is 150 feet in diameter and 40 feet in
height. Its cost is $60,000. The tank will
be finished August 1st.
—Harry Close, pilot, and Ray Dorr, of
Smith Mills, were killed late Sunday after-
noon when the airplane owned by Mrs.
Ella J. Mountz, of that place, took fire in
midair and crashed to the ground. Close
was burned to death and Dorr died as he
was enroute to the Philipsburg hospital.
The big plane was recently purchased by
Mrs. Mountz, and after instructing Close
how to run the machine the pilot departed.
On Sunday Close and Dorr, a nephew of
Mrs. Mountz, had the plane out for prac-
tice.
—Purchase of a number of tracts for the
establishment of more State game refuges
was authorized by the Board of Game Com-
missioners at the recent meeting. Many
tracts of land have been offered for aux-
iliary game refuges not only by large
landowners of the State, but also by a
number of individuals clubbing together
and offering their lands in a block for ref
uges and public hunting grounds. The
creation of a number of these refuges has
been authorized and will be announced as
rapidly as completed.
—While P. F. Malone, of Pittsburgh,
was splashing in his Sunday bath, he felt
a sudden blast of heat and heard an om-
inous crackling. Turning he discovered
that a small gas stove had set fire to wood-
work and that the flames already were
leaping threateningly. Malone had no
time to dress and dashed dripping to the
street, where he created a sensation as he
yelled “Fire!” Malone then dodged into a
sheltering alley, where police later res-
cued him by skillful draping of their coats.
In the meantime firemen had extinguished
the blaze.
—Fear of the consequences of an auto-
mobile accident for which he regarded
himself responsible is believed to have
been responsible for the suicide of Stephen
Commence, of Woodland, Clearfield coun-
ty, whose lifeless body, with a bullet
wound in the head, was found in the
woods near his home, Saturday. Com-
mence, aged 19 years, figured in an auto-
mobile collision Thursday evening in
which Harry Goss, of Spring Valley, suf-
fered injury to his meck which required
twenty-four stitches to close. Commence
disappeared soon after the accident.
-—A modern Rip Van Winkie came to life
at Wilkes-Barre, last Tuesday, when Joe
Birstan, of Hilldale, appeared before the
police of that town and asked for assist-
ance in locating his wife, three children,
the greater part of his house furnishings
and $4,000 in cash, which he had saved.
Joe, at the suggestion of his good wife,
took a much-needed rest that day. He
went to the second floor of his home in
the morning and went to sleep. When he
awoke later in the day he found that his
entire family had deserted him and had
taken with them the furniture and all his
savings.
—That an unsatisfied mortgage for 1250
English pounds, that is 132 years old,
holds up the purchase of a plat of land on
the west side of the Susquehanna river
near Sunbury for a $5,000,000 Pennsylva-«
nia power and light company power de-
velopment was indicated by title searchers
last Wednesday. The property is the
James H, Hummell estate and Wade H.
Kruse, Allentown, has the option. Plans
call for the super-power generators to
take current to Harrisburg, Reading and
Philadelphia. Sunbury was selected be-«
cause water necessary for rolling the big
generators 1s at all times available im the
Susquehanna at this point.