~
INK SLINGS.
. —Red Cross week begins today.
Enroll if you would help the greatest
and most unselfish humanitarian
movement the world knows of.
—The swivel chair department of
the army seems to be having more
trouble lickin’ Col. Bill Mitchell than
the rookies had in putting the boche
to flight.
—The favorite pastime down in
Texas seems to be charging some
member of Governor “Ma” Ferguson’s
family with taking a little more than
the law allows.
—Gen. Groener’s idea of “a beauti-
ful death” for the Kaiser evidently
didn’t look so beautiful to Bill. He
much preferred being a live coward
to a dead hero.
—Italy wants satisfaction from Ju-
goslavia for the attack on her consu-
late at Belgrade last Sunday. What
foreign country is there that doesn’t
want everything it can get?
—Things are breaking nicely for the
Kellers. On the heels of the father’s
elevation to the bench comes the an-
nouncement that a son has been made
head of an important department at
The Pennsylvania State College.
—We look upon the approach of
Christmas unmoved. The peak of the
day’s pleasure for us was the sight of
the great brown turkey waiting to be
wrecked. The prospect of a baked
ham or a roast chicken as a substitute
doesn’t lure us into pleas for the fes-
tal day to hasten.
—At last the world has found out
why the Kaiser fled to Holland. Gen.
Groener, who became Ludendorf’s suc-
cessor when German arms were wa-
vering, sent word that the only hope
of reviving the morale of the army
was in getting Wilhelm into the
trenches. Confronted with making a
little cannon fodder out of himself
Bill preferred sawing wood at Doorn.
—If the railroads only stick to it
the time will come when those who
value their lives will realize that it is
safer to sit in a railroad car than it is
to undertake to keep out of the way
of fool and drunken motorists on the
highways we are building. Already
the motorist who values his life is be-
ginning to inquire as to the unimprov-
ed roads, where traffic is less, that will
carry him to his destination.
—PFrancis Carney is in jail at
Greensburg charged with having cut
down and hauled away timber that be-
longed to others. Ordinarily this
would be just a bit of police news and
have no place in this column, but Car-
ney’s physical condition lifts the item
into the realm of “he unusual. So un-
usual that probably some of you read-
ars will say: What a lie, when we tell
you that Carney has no arms.
—More power to the Governor and
the committee he has invited to help
devise ways and means of purifying
elections in Pennsylvania. The coun-
try counties are honest. In Centre,
for instance, everybody knows every-
body else and an attempt to'register
and vote dead men, dogs, cats, etc.
would be futile. It is in the big cities
and the counties of large foreign pop-
ulation that manipulation is easy and
the majorities that sweep gang favor-
ites into office are piled up.
—Neither cannibals nor Bolsheviks
ould have been as brutal as Congress-
man Vare was in Philadelphia at the
recent election. Think of the depths
that man Shoyer has plumbed if he
nas any conscience at all, by allowing
ais name to be stuck on a ballot in or-
ier to get in to a dead man’s shoes be-
fore rigor mortis had even set in. If
Republicans of Pennsylvania are
proud of such leaders God save the
Commonwealth. If they are not, God
make them men and women big
anough to see that such things are not
part of their imagined divine right to
rule.
—Just by way of confirming our be-
jef that the “Watchman” usually
looks pretty straight and sees pretty
straight let us remind the creditors of
the Centre County bank that we ad-
vised them, months ago, to “reorgan-
ze their own institution or somebody
slse would slip in and start a third
sank in Bellefonte.” The effort is now
oeing made. Feelers are on the
streets and they are not actuated by
che same motives that the “Watch-
man” was when it suggested the idea
;0 the creditors. They are hoping to
‘cash in” on the good will and loyal-
;y that was always a great asset of
the old Centre County.
—The coming of Billy Sunday to
Bellefonte awakens memories of “the
Brewers Big Horses Can’t Run Over
Me,” “Brighten up the Corner” and
‘the sawdust trail.” Fifteen years
ago there was scarcely a person in the
United States who didn’t know of Bil-
y, his two outstanding songs and the
rail over which thousands upon
-housands went to repentance. Wed-
1esday a fairly well informed lad of
ifteen asked us: “Who is Billy Sun-
jay?” It all comes to this. The
1ewspapers make men as well as
werything else. Billy hasn’t been in
he papers much during the last dec-
Ade and the coming generation
loesn’t know there ever was an ex-
all player who swayed the inasses
nore than even Bryan or Roosevelt
sould. By the way, who remembers
who Francis Murphy was and what he
vas doing in Bellcfornie and how Hen-
v Ward Beecher happe ed to be here
it one time and what jingle Will
Jarleton started his lectur:z in the
sourt house with?
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 70.
Prohibition Enforcement the Issue.
Governor Pinchot’s answer to Sena-
tor Pepper's appeal for support is
characteristic. In his preliminary
speech Senator Pepper said: “If you
send a man to the Senate who is op-
posed to the President and hostile to
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, it
will make tax reform difficult; it will
obstruct every administration policy
and it will waste the great victory
won at the polls last year.” The Gov-
ernor’s reaction, expressed in a speech
in Chicago on Sunday evening, was
“the present era of disraspect for the
law can be laid at the door of the con-
spicuous political leaders at Washing-
ton who set the example. The 18th
amendment was betrayed in the house
of its friends. They “sowed the wind
and the nation is reaping the whirl- |
wind!”
Thus the issue is drawn between the
two candidates for Senator in Con-
gress. Pepper pronounces himself
the servile follower of Coolidge and
Mellon and Pinchot declared that
“Pittsburgh, the home of Secretary
Mellon, whose good citizens have ap-
pealed to him over and over again to
put an end to open and notorious vio-
lations of the law, is the one excep-
tion. It is so because the controlling °
in Pitisburgh have
succeeded in nullifying every effort of :
political forces
the State administration to reduce
bootlegging and make the town dry.”
All other cities in Pennsylvania, he
states, have shown improvement, but
Pittsburgh continues in its evil course
because Secretary Mellon is the domi-
nant figure in the political life of that
city and he is not in sympathy with
the cause.
These diametrically opposite decla-
rations of the candidates make it cer-
tain that the dominant issue of the
campaign will be prohibition enforce-
ment. The Senator may try to dis-
guise the facts by professing fidelity
to the President and deep interest in
tax reform. But the Governor will
not allow such deception to be imposed
upon the vast force of voters in the
State who believe in prohibition with
almost religious zeal. Coolidge and
Mellon pretend to favor enforcement
and at intervals give out statements
of a purposé to enforce the Volstead
law. But actions speak plainer if not
louder than words and the prosperity
of the bootlegging industry in and
about Pittsburgh seems to corrobo-
rate the statements of the Governor
on the subject.
-
—Red Cross, with its wonderful
work of succor is on the scene of every
disaster, no matter where it may oc-
cur. You will be represented there if
you enroll in the drive for members
which starts today.
Borah Likely to Make Trouble.
Those who expected, or hoped, that
his elevation to the chairmanship of
the Senate committee on foreign rela-
tions would moderate the sentiments of
Senator Borah with respect to the out-
side world are likely to be disappoint-
ed. The Idaho statesman has been rath-
er intolerant in his talk and action to-
ward foreign governments, more es-
pecially those known as allies in the
world war. His uncompromising op-
position to the League of Nations and
the World Court has been based large-
ly upon an aversion to “foreign com-
plications.” Because of his attitude
on such subjects there was considera-
ble opposition to giving him the chair-
manship to which he was entitled up-
on the death of Senator Lodge.
Responsibility has considerable in-
fluence on temperament and the lead-
ers of the administration element in
the Senate felt that as chairman of
the committee Senator Borah would
be more amenable to reason than he
had been as a member, and his seign-
iorage rights were reluctantly recog-
nized. But he has held firmly to the
policy of exacting all that is coming
from our recent allies in the matter of
repayment of monies loaned or ad-
vanced during the war. In discussing
the failure of the French debt com-
mission to agree on terms of settle-
ment with our government, he is par-
ticularly caustic. He declares that
France is fully able and ought to be
equally willing to settle in full and
with interest.
In his expressed views on this sub-
ject there is likely to be a general !
concurrence. In a letter to a Chicago
correspondent he says that France
has maintained since the close of the
war an army of from 700,000 to 1,-
000,000 men and “has loaned large
sums to other countries to maintain
military establishments, and therefore
he does not feel that it is any part of
our duty to put the load of the pres-
ent imperialistic war and France's
military establishment upon the tax-
payers of the United States.” It will
be hard for the administration and
Wall Street bankers to refute this
i line of argument. It is about what a
large majority of the people think and
many of them say openly and above
board.
Governor Pinchot’s Committee.
rn ees.
The “committee of seventy-six” as
the Governor sentimentally styled the
body of men and women he had pre-
viously appointed to devise a way to
| prevent election frauds in the future,
held its first meeting in Harrisburg on
Friday. Nearly every member of the
{ committee was present and an atmos-
| phere of determined purpose pervaded
i the meeting. In opening the delibera-
i tions Governor Pinchot said: “I have
i asked you to come to Harrisburg for
! the purpose of considering and assist-
ing in solving a problem which goes
i straight to the root of free govern-
! ment. Election thieves are rampant
in parts of Pennsylvania. It is no-
torious that the stealing of votes has |
i Senators boasted that the Republican
After a buffet luncheon spread by |
become a habit.”
i Mrs. Cornelia Pinchot at the execu-
tive mansion and the statement of the
purpose of the meeting by the Gover-
‘nor some time was spent in discussing
the primary election frauds in Phila-
delphia and in offering suggestions as
to preventives. Judge Renshaw,
the victim of the Philadelphia frauds,
' suggested the enactment of a law
which would facilitate rather than
prevent the opening of ballot boxes
where fraud has been perpetrated, and
Democratic State chairman John H.
Bigelow proposed a return to the con-
vention system of making nominations.
“I do not know,” he said, “whether it
i was worse to debauch a Legislature in
the election of a United States Sena-
' tor, as was done in Illinois in the Lor-
imer case, or to debauch a whole State
as was done in Michigan, in the New-
berry case.”
Certain Republican members of the
committee were plainly disturbed by
the drift of the discussion and Judge
Butler, of Chester county, protested
that the committee should get down
to work. Thereupon a sub-committee
was appointed to frame such legisla-
tion as may be expected to accomplish
the desired result. The discussion was
then resumed and in addition to de-
scriptions of the frauds in Philadel-
phia on primary election day full de-
tails of the effort to dispose of former
Judge Patterson as the Republican
candidate for district attorney by the
process of stickers were given. Judge
Fox, formerly of the Supreme court,
told of the atrocity of this enterprise
and with it in mind the committee ad-
journed.
—So Gen. Smed Butler is to leave
Philadelphia. The crooks have at last
succeeded in prying him out of his po-
sition as head of the police force in
that city. Philadelphia has been bad
enough, even with “the fighting ma-
rine” struggling to clean up the city,
but can you imagine what it will be
after he is gone.
recente eens ener
Party But Not Revenue Gain.
A careful examination of the pro-
posed tax bill now under consideration
in the committee on Ways and Means
of the House of Representatives, in
Washington, leads to the opinion that
President Coolidge is shrewd if not
actually wise in urging a decrease in
the income tax rates on big incomes
and leaving undisturbed the burden-
some tariff taxes on the necessaries of
life. The measure is not intended to
produce revenue. Its palpable pur-
pose is to create propaganda for the
Republican party in the impending
congressional campaign. Neither the
President nor the leaders of his par-
ty are concerned about revenue for the
government. The government might
function without revenue for a few
years.
But the Republican party can’t en-
dure for that length of time under an
adverse majority in Congress. Such
a contingency would cut off all the
special privileges upon which the par-
ty machine has lived and thrived in
the past. Such favors judiciously dis-
tributed are the source of campaign
contributions, which in the last Presi-
dential campaign mounted up to an
aggregate of nearly twenty million
dollars and without which President
Coolidge wouldn’t have been able to
carry a dozen States. The object of
those now engaged in the formation
of a tax bill is to secure a Republican
majority in the next Congress and a
continuation of the special privileges
as an asset for future use in the same
way.
With this object in mind the Presi-
| dent is now urging a tax decrease of
half a billion of dollars instead of the
lesser amount he had previously rec-
ommended. By strenuous efforts of
his “one-track” mind he has figured
! out the larger cut may be made by
| omitting provision for payment on the
; public debt and the average tax payer
iis always delighted with a smaller tax
(bill. The tax payer is not likely to in-
| vestigate the cause of tax reduction
{ and the Presidernt’s pretense of econo-
{ my in administration will'look like a
| great achievement. But it is nothing
! more or less than a huge humbug in-
| vented to fool the people. The bill
ought to be so entitled and the respon-
sibility for the fraud clearly fixed.
|
|
1
BELLEFONTE, PA. NOVEMBER 13. 1925.
Important and Gracious Service.
Nearly all the men and women in-
vited by Governor Pinchot to sit in a
committee to devise ways and means
to prevent electoral frauds have aec-
cepted the service and it may be as-
sumed that within a brief period of
time the work will be begun. It is an
important public service. The elector-
al frauds in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
and other populous communities have
impressed a stigma upon the good
name of the Commonwealth annually
for more than a quarter of a century.
More than that, they have been in-
strumental in defeating the will of the
people in more than one instance.
After the gubernatorial election of
1910 one of the Philadelphia State
candidate had been elected by fraudu-
lent votes and claimed for his city the
credit.
In the movement now about to be
undertaken, moreover, it is a gracious
publie service. The ladies and gentle-
men invited by the Governor to per-
form the difficult and arduous work
are promised no recompense for the
time and labor which their acceptance
will involve. The only reward they
can expect is an approval of their own
consciénces and an appreciation of
their sacrifices by the decent citizens
of the State, and that is not certain.
The difficulties they will necessarily
encounter will be multiplied, too, by
the politicians who have profited by
the frauds in the past and hope to
gain by them in the future. These ad-
vantages will not be relinquished free-
ly and the unselfish men and women
may as well realize first as last that
they have a “hard row to hoe.”
Ballot reform legislation is not a
new conception in this State. It has
been fried at various times and in sun-
dry ways in the past by well meaning
men of both parties who have been
shamed by the spectacle of corrupt
government and more or less discour-
aged by the failures of their efforts at
improvement. One reform law after
another has been misused by election
officers: or mutilated by political
judges with the result that they have
aggravated instead of abated the
evils, But the impending effort may
achieve the result. The personnel of
the commission created by the Gov-
ernor justifies this hope, at least. It
is unfortunate that it wasn’t begun
sooner. The inevitable impression
that it is placed in a setting of self-
ishness will almost necessarily mili-
tate against the progress if it does
not defeat its purpose.
—“Boot-leg” coal is the newest
thing. The striking miners are doing
it up in the anthracite fields. Out in
Kansas they “boot-leg” cigarettes,
everywhere they “boot-leg” hooch, but
“boot-leg” coal: Well, that’s some-
thing else again.
Philadelphia Election Frauds.
Since the primary election in Sep-
tember much evidence of fraud com-
mitted in Philadelphia has been re-
vealed. Absolute proof has been ob-
tained that in nearly every voting dis-
trict false returns were made for the
purpose of building up great majori-
ties for the organization candidates.
The processes of gathering the evi-
dence were hampered at every stage
so that it was impossible to complete
the work before the frauds were rati-
fied by the general election. No
doubt those engaged in the work were
earnest in their purpose to correct a
great evil. It may also be assumed
that they were diligent in their efforts.
But the intricacies and tardiness of
the law defeated their purposes.
Almost annually, “since time out of
mind,” the same thing has occurred.
Fraudulent votes and false returns in
Philadelphia have reversed the result
of the vote in State-wide elections fre-
quently, and the outrages thus perpe-
trated are indignantly denounced by
good citizens in and out of the city.
Frequent attempts have been made
to punish the perpetrators of these
crimes but after a brief period of time
they have been abandoned, either be-
cause they were too expensive or too
difficult to pursue to the end. Gen-
erally speaking the criminals respon-
sible for the frauds have been reward-
ed by generous party favors rather
than punished for the most dangerous
crimes in the catalogue.
In the present instance considerable
progress has been made in the sincere
effort to punish the perpetrators of
the frauds. A considerable number
of election officers have been arrested
and a vast amount of evidence of their
guilt accumulated. But no good will
come of this unless the movement is
continued with unabated energy to its
logical conclusion. In other words, if
electoral reforms are to be obtained
from the recent exposures of fraud it
is essential that the prosecutions he
pressed until just punishment is met-
ed out to the criminals. It will be a
hard task and heavy burden for those
who have undertaken it, but it will be
worth the effort and cheap at the cost.
‘to go on unchecked, would have been
NO. 45.
The World’s Wheat.
From the Philadelphia Record.
A Russian agricultural authority,
Professor Ossinsky, of the Agricultur-
al Academy at Moscow, has given
some more detailed information about
the wheat of his country than has been
previously stated. He says the nor-
mal pre-war production of wheat was
759,000,000 bushels, and that the pro-
duction this year was 660,000,000
bushels, besides a large yield of rye
and oats. And rye is more used in
Russia than wheat, so that a good deal
of this wheat production should be ex-
portable, and shipments to France and
Germany have been reported several
times. The wheat harvest this year is
more than three times what it was in
1921. The professor is making a tour
of the United States and has been giy-
ing special attention to ranch econom-
ics and cotton production.
Secretary Jardine has been warning
the farmers against increasing their
wheat production because so much is
being produced abroad. Before the
war Russia was our chief competitor
in the world’s wheat markets, but
when Turkey entered the war Russi
could export nothing, and until this
year it has cut no figure in the world’s
supply. If it fed itself it was regard-
ed as doing very well. Wheat has had
to be shipped to Russia to relieve fam-
ine sufferers. This year the harvest
is nearly up to the pre-war average,
and hereafter Russian competition
must be reckoned on.
. The area sown to wheat in Argen-
tina is slightly more than last year,
and the temperature and rainfall have
been very favorable. The Australian
area sown to wheat is slightly less
than last year and climatic conditions
have been unfavorable, and it is un-
likely that the harvest will be nearly
as good as the last one. The wheat
production the past season in 29
countries, producing 98 per cent. of
the Northern Hemisphere wheat out-
side of Russia and China, was 8 per
cent. above the crop of last year, put
not equal to the crop of 1923.
. The American farmer may look for
something more remunerative Jan
wheat, but he need not get into a
panic because Russia is back in the ex-
porting class and other countries are
doing better than they have done in
some recent years. It will be a good
while before the domestic consump-
tion absorbs all of the domestie pro-
duction. Many countries ¢
wheat every year, ~~ 7 7A
The Test.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The League of Nations has done
one of the major things it was created
to do. By prompt and vigorous action
it has stopped a war.
It could not prevent the beginning
of a war. Nations may at any mo-
ment begin to fight if they are so
minded. The League offers means
for the settlement of disputes without
recourse to arms, but it is not gifted
with prescience and cannot forestall
a fight which it cannot foresee. In
the Greco-Bulgarian conflict it has
done the next best thing. It has stop-
ped a war by issuing an ultimatum.
Defiance of this ultimatum would
have been ruinous in either Greece or
Bulgaria. Compliance with the de-
mands of the Council of the League
means that both nations will receive
fair play. A majority of the Council
is composed of representatives of the
Great Powers, and there is no doubt
that these Powers would have taken
any coercive steps prescribed by the
Council.
This is the greatest test yet faced
by the League of Nations. Had war bee
been permitted to blaze unchecked in
the Balkans the opponents of the
League would indeed have had cause
for jubilation. With something concret
crete to stand as a record the boubt-
ers will find small basis for argument.
Fact is stronger than theory.
Of course it is to the interest of
peaceful nations to do their utmost to
prevent war, but in the present in-
stance there has been a minimum of
selfish concern. There is little doubt
that the conflict, had it been permitted
strictly localized. Greece and Bul-
garia alone would have been the suf-
ferers, as neither the Balkan nor the
extra-Balkan States would have been
dragged into participation. The
promptness of the Council’s action is,
therefore, doubly commendable, and is
admirably justified by its instant ef-
fectiveness.
rr amin
Election Problems.
From the Wilkes-Barre Record.
We believe the voting machine af-
fords the best solution of the problem.
It has the approval of a great many
people who have had experieence with
it and already there is considerable
sentiment for its adoption in Pennsyl-
vania. The election reform commis-
sion appointed by the Governor is
competent to make an honest inves-
tigation of the results elsewhere and
it can throw considerable light upon
the subject.
oe
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE
—Recently discharged from the Harris-
burg hospital where his right leg was am-
putated following the development of am
infection, John Hoops returned to the hos-
pital on Monday with a fracture of the left
leg. Hoops sustained the fracture when
he fell down stairs at his home in Linden
street. rv \ . £F
—Mrs. Florence Thompson, 63 years old,
of Clearfield county, is dead as the result
of an explosion of a gallon can of kero-
sene. She attempted to fill 1 lamp
while it was burning and the explosion
which followed ignited her clothes, and her
burns were so serious that she died shortly
afterward. a
—Merle Hennaman, 11, son of George
Henneman, of Mapleton Depot, is critie-
ally ill in the J. C. Blair Meemorial hos-
pital at Huntingdon, as the result of a fall
Monday afternoon from the top of a sand
quarry at Penn Glass Sand company,
alighting 48 feet below on a railway track.
He suffered internal injuries, including
collapse of the left lung and broken ribs.
—A short time after she had witnessed
an automobile accident at McElhattan, last
Friday, Mrs. Nancy Chubb suffered a heart
attack and died at her home. Mrs. Chubb
had been in good health prior to the al-
tack and it is believed that excitement
caused by the accident brought on the fa-
tal attack. Lawrence Messerly, the station
agent at McElhattan, whose car was struck
by a Pennsylvania passenger train, escap-
ed with only slight injuries.
—The Rev. John W. Long, for the last
five years president of Dickinson Semi-
nary, Williamsport, has refused to allow
his name to be considered for the presi-
dency of West Virginia Wesleyan Univer-
sity at Buckhannon, W. Va. Annocunce-
ment of his decision was made at the fall
meeting of the board of directors of the
school last week. Before going to Wil«
liamsport Rev. Long was pastor of the
Methodist church at State College.
—Merchzndise valued at $5,000 stolen
from the freight station of the Baltimore
and Ohio railroad, in Pittsburgh, has been
recovered, following the arrest of six men
Saturday in connection with disappear-
ance of freight from the station over a
period of two years. Confessions made by
those arrested resulted in the recovery of
the merchandise, detectives said. A total
value of $25,000 was placed by police on
freight reported missing from the station
during the last two years.
‘ —Because of his failure to satisfy a ver-
dict of $1,500 returned by a jury in a civil
suit’ brought against him by John M.
Sides, of Harrisburg, for alienation of the
‘affections of Mrs. Sides, Nick Demas was
returned to the Dauphin county jail on a
‘¢apias. “Unless he settles the account he
“must remain in prison at least fifty-five
‘days, according to Harrisburg attorneys.
He had been held previously for five days
for failure to pay the damages allowed, but
| was ‘discharged upon petition to court.
—Frank Cesaro, 48 years old, of Phila-
delphia, was arrested Sunday night charg-
ed with killing his wife by striking her on
the head with a heavy shoe. The woman
was found unconscious in her home during
the day by neighbors who had heard a
commotion in the house. She died from a
‘fractured skull. Cesaro told the police that
he had not meant to kill his wife. He said
they bad been tossing the shoe back and
| forth to each other in play and that he had
thrown it with too much speed, the shoe
striking her on the head, as she tried to
dodge it.
—A conscience stricken thief performed
good work up in Lehigh county on Satur-
day night. During Friday night somebody
robbed the Hersch hardware store at Cat-
asauqua of $500 worth of goods. On Sun-
day when the manager, Harry Aubrey,
gave the store the usual looking over, he
was indignant at signs of a further dis-
turbance. He thought there had been
another thief, but investigation showed
that all the stolen goods but a revolver had
been returned. The thief had employed
even more skill to return his loot than
originally to steal it.
—Judge J. M. Barnett, of the Juniata
county courts at Mifflintown, on Saturday
sentenced Howard Hartman to serve three
to six years in the western penitentiary,
pay the costs and $1,000 fine after being
convicted of stealing $1,600 from John
Shearer, an aged man who is mentally un-
balanced. Hartman committed the offense
two years ago and made his get away, but
Bradford Brown, a local undertaker, while
hunting in Tuscarora valley a few days
ago, saw and recognized Hartman. Brown
marched him at the muzzle of his gun to
the nearest justice of the peace where he
was held in lieu of $2,000 bail.
“—The will of David A. Howe, a promi-
nent business man of Williamsport prior
to his recent death, was filed for probate
last Thursday. It contains a bequest of
$50,000 to the Brown library to be used as
a building fund for the erection of an ad-
dition to the present library, of which he
had been president of the board of trus-
tees for seventeen years. Other bequests
of a public nature were $2,000 to the Cove-
nant Central Presbyterian church, and
$1,000 to the Wildwood cemetery company.
It also directs that the bequests shall not
be reduced by taxation, but that the es
tate shall pay the inheritance tax.
—The fire which started twenty-three
years ago in the old Black Diamond mines
is still burning in the neighborhood of
Mount Carmel, The fire started during the
big strike of 1902 and was the result of
dumping hot ashes from the boiler house
in an open mine hole. In the twenty-three
years that the fire has been raging it
burned up close to a million tons of coal
and put the Lehigh Valley company to an
expense estimated at over a million dol-
lars. Many of the mine chambers adjoin-
ing and being a part of the Sioux No. 3,
were dammed and walled off to stop the
fire communicating to these workings.
—Confessing nearly one hundred robber-
ies of dwellings in Mt. Carmel and its vi-
cinity, three young girls Monday lay bare
a brief but sensational criminal career,
when ararigned before Judge Strauss, at
Sunbury. Not only did they enter dwell-
ings and stores in order to steal garments
of silk and satin, they admitted, but in a
coal shed near the home of one of their
—Col. George Nox McCain remarks,
in a recent reminiscent article recall-
ing the Quay Senatorial fight of twen- |
ty-six years ago, that all of the then
leading Republicans are dead, while a |
number of the Democratic leaders of |
that = period: still survive.” Nothing
strange about that. Having their
front feet in the trough all the time
the Republicans eat too many plums
and die of pclitical indigestion.
number they arrayed themselves in the
stolen raiment. Thus attired, they waited
until the manager of a road house came
along in an automobile and took them out
of town, where they participated in the
gay life of the resort until the early morn-
ing hours. Then, returning to the coal
shed, they changed back to their shabby
everyday clothes and slipped into their
homes. Two of the girls were sent to a
State reform school and the other held
for a court trial.