INK SLINGS.
If Santa doesn’t come to some little one’s
home,
And you know he won't be there,
Why don’t you double for the merry old
man
And out of your substance share
With the tots in the house by the side
of the road
Where plenty is rarely known
Where little hearts thrill as visions ap-
pear
Of a toy for their very own.
The one-cent postage stamp
may be restored, and that inspires
hope for a good five-cent cigar soon-
er or later.
—The shortest day of the calendar
year is past, but the further we pro-
gress on the way of life each day
seems to be the shortest for us.
—We fear that Gen. Andrews’ in-
sistence that dry agents must be dry
is going to leave him more short hand-
ed in a few years than he claims to be
now.
—Here’s hoping that the New Year
will be the brightest and happiest one
you have ever known. Take it from
us: It will be so if you but do your
share in making it so.
—When Senator-elect Frank L.
Smith, of Illinois, raps at the door of
the Senate for admission he is going
to start something. They are always
starting something in the Senate or
the House to keep their minds off the
business we send Senators and Con-
gressmen to Washington to transact.
—Brig. Gen. Henry J. Reilly takes a
rather gloomy view of conditions in
our army. He says its a demoralized
group of under-fed and unhappy men
trooping dejectedly across the mili-
tary scene. The General ought to
know. He’s in a position to do so, but
we're inclined to believe that he’s see-
ing things.
—And now the muck-rakers are
trying to connect the name of Ray-
mond Tyrub Cobb, one of the most
brilliant performers in base-ball his-
tory, with the scandal that expelled
eight of the Chicago club’s players in
1919. It takes many years to build
up an idol, but only a few moments
to tear it down again.
—Tomorrow will be Christmas. It
is the day apart from all others be-
cause it is the natal day of the Christ.
All of our homes can be the little town
of Bethlehem if we but welcome the
babe who will be there, with the lamp
of hope in His hand, waiting for us
to touch it into fullest light with the
match of faith. Make your heart the
manger that cradled a King and joy
will be yours, as the beautiful sing.
—The current installment of Dr.
Colfelt’s very interesting antobiog-
raphy, on page three of thisissue, re-
veals that the citizens of Canonsburg
presented him with a gold-headed cane
when he was only seventeen years of
age. Since the eminent divine is
spending his golden age in Wolfes-
burg, Bedford county, we warn him
against any such flights of oratory
there as we can believe was that when
he voiced his protest of the sale of
old Jefferson college. Wolfesburg
might out do Canonsburg and present
him with a “scooter.”
—The Governor's “Committee of
Seventy-six” has made a rather vol-
uminous report of its recommenda-
tions for legislation designed to reduce
the possibility of fraud in elections to
a minimum. Taken as a whole, if
enacted, they would have a remedial
effect, but separately No. 9, which
«calls for “an act prescribing jail sen-
tences for election offenses,” is the
most valuable. It has teeth in it, but
they could have been made sharper
had the committee added: and jail
sentences for judges who are lenient
with convicted election crooks and for
-all others who may attempt to aid
them in escape from just punishment.
—The Atlantic City High school has
«dropped its debating society. What
for? We presume it was done in
order that the studes could give more
time to basket-ball and other winter
sports. Statesmen were once made in
the debating societies of the public
schools, but since we now pay base-
ball players, prize fighters and tennis
pros ten times as much as we ever
paid statesmen it is just as well that
the statesmen factories be closed.
What's the use in wasting money on
school taxes to make them when cities
like Philadelphia can put a plug hat
and a frock coat on a garbage con-
tractor, vote a lot of tombstones and
—in twenty-four hours produce a
statesmen ?
—We can’t endorse the esteemed
Philadelphia Record’s approval of
Senator Johnson’s support of the pri-
mary law. The Senator and the Rec-
ord apparently think “the people of
the United States will do the just, fair
and honest thing in a primary, when
a rotten and crooked boss of a con-
vention will not do that thing.” They
are wrong. The people don’t know
what they are doing in a primary elec-
tion. Mostly, they vote for the can-
didate whom the “rotten and crooked
boss”—if there be such a one—has
sent into it with the organization
stamp on him and just there lies the
failure of the primary. In the old
days the “rotten and crooked boss”
wouldn’t have dared to ask his party’s
convention to endorse an unfit candi-
date. Because men always sat in
those conventions who knew and had
the courage to expose attempts to
thrust unworthy candidates on their
party.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION,
Kitchen Cabinet in Action.
What may be characterized as the
“Kitchen Cabinet” of the incoming
State administration held a prolonged
session in Philadelphia last Friday.
The group consisted of State Chair-
man W. L. Mellon, Governor-elect,
John 8S. Fisher, Joseph R. Grundy,
Colonel Eric Fisher Wood and Sena-
tor-elect Vare. The sessions were
held in the Bellevue-Stratford and the
Union League. Everything of press-
ing importance with respect to ad-
ministration purposes and policies
was considered and some of the things
determined. It was agreed that Mr.
Vare shall continue in control of the
legislative machinery by re-electing
Speaker Bluett and president pro tem
Salus. It was also agreed that that
is all Philadelphia gets.
In the Pinchot administration there
are six Philadelphians in the cabinet.
These are Attorney General Woodruff,
Secretary of the Commonwealth Con-
orroe, Superintendent of Public In-
struction Hass, Commissioner of
Highways Connell, Secretary of Wel-
fare Ellen C. Potter and Insurance
Commissioner Barfod. But Mr. Vare
seems content to relinquish this ad-
vantage to his local organization. His
“Kitchen Cabinet” and control of the
legislative machinery appears to satis-
fy him. Of course he will have to
come to an agreement with Mr. Grun-
dy on labor measures but that will be
an easy matter. Each takes a purely
selfish view of every subject and
neither conscience nor principle will
enter into the equation.
But we have searched the reports
of these much advertised conferences
in vain for an expression of the pur-
poses of the new administration on
the subject of ballot reform. The
statement that Vare shall continue
in control of the legislative machinery
invests the subject in a sinister aspect.
Mr. Vare is not in favor of ballot re-
form legislation and if there is to be
such legislation during the adminis-
tration of Governor Fisher it must be
enacted during the coming session.
The experience of Governor Pinchot
is ample evidence on that subject. If
he had takeg.the matter up during the
session of 1928 we might have model
electoral ‘laws now, ‘and Pinchot in-
stead of Vare might be Senator-elect.
——With the coming of the new
year we will appreciate it very much
if all our valued correspondents will
mail their letters to us a day earlier
than usual. As it is they reach this
office just when we are loaded up with
a rush of other matter and our space
is already crowded so that we can’t do
justice to both.
Ballot Reform Legislation.
The executive committee of the
non-partisan committee of Seventy-
six, created more than a year ago by
Governor Pinchot for the purpose of
devising plans to improve our elec-
toral system, has submitted to the
Governor its final report. A previous
report made a year ago recommended
the adoption by the Legislature, then
about to assemble in special session,
twelve measures, all except one of
which were defeated and that one so
emasculated as to be worthless. The
report now under consideration re-
news the recommendation with respect
to legislation and presents the out-
line of a bill to limit primary election
expenditures to what is considered a
nominal sum, namely ten cents to each
voter in the district.
The proposed bill which is offered
as a substitute for the present inade-
quate Corrupt Practices Act besides
limiting payments as stated, requires
each candidate to appoint an agent to
whom all contributions must be made
and all charges paid, and requires full
and complete accounting, under oath,
of all monies received and paid.
Anonymous contributions are forbid-
den and the violation of the law in
any particular disqualifies the candi-
date from service in the office, even
if nominated and elected, in addition
to a penalty of fine and imprisonment.
Moreover payments by contributors to
the agent or by the agent on expense
account must be made by check, if
over five dollars.
The purposes for which expendi-
tures may be made are the same as
{under the present Corrupt Practices
i Act, with the rental of radio facili-
(ties added. But paying for the dis-
' semination of information, the em-
ployment, of watchers and for the
transportation of voters to the polls
are prohibited. These payments are
justly condemned by the committee
as methods of bribing voters. In the
recent Republican primary there were
in some voting districts nearly as
many “watchers,” “disseminators of
information” and “transporters of vot-
ers” as there were actual voters. All
in all the proposed bill has much mer-
it. To give it in full would reqiure
“more space than is available but every
voter should read it carefully.
personal elevation to a seat in the |
Dawes Wrong as Usual.
If Vice President Dawes ever gets on
| the right side of any important pub-
lic question he will be lonesome. His
| last venture into the solution of public
i problems was made at the dinner of
the Pennsylvania Society of New
| York, when he adopted the absurd
| notions of Senator Dave Reed, of
| Pittsburgh, that State-wide primary
! elections are bad because they are ex-
| pensive. In fact he employed the ex-
tact language of Senator Reed who,
| immediately following the May pri-
‘mary in this State, said “only mil-
-lionaires or men who have friends
{ willing to spend millions in their be-
i half are eligible for nomination to of-
| fice under the existing primary elec-
‘ tion law.”
The least complaint that can be of-
, fered against the State-wide primary
election law is that it is expensive. It
i costs lucky and prosperous “misfits”
like Vare and Reed and Dawes more
money to bribe a majority of the
voters than might be required to bribe
a majority of a convention. But if
that sort of aspirants for office have
the money let them spend it until such
time as legislation can be enacted as
will prevent successful investments in
that sort of speculative enterprises,
If Governor-elect Fisher measures up
to the expectations of his real friends
that will not be long. If he will de-
mand ballot reform legislation at the
coming sessions of the General As-
sembly he will get it.
There are many reasons in favor of
the convention system of making
State-wide nominations but the ques-
tion of cost is not among them. It
is true that the cost of nominating
candidates under the practice estab-
lished by special interests to control
legislation by that means exclude
public service. But under the conven-
tion system of nominating the same
result would be obtained so that there
is nothing gained or lost. The conven-
tion system introduces new blood and
new men into political activity and
possibly gives capability an advantage
over stupidity in the contention for
Fit.
—Wishing you a very; very Merry
| Christmas the “Watchman” force will
take a rest next week and the paper
will not greet you until it comes with
greetings for the New Year on Jan-
uary 7.
Opposition to Bluett May Vanish.
{ House of Representatives in Harris-
burg are still “kidding” themselves
with a notion that they will be able
to prevent the election of Vare’s man,
Thomas Bluett, to the office of Speak-
er. Soon after the election one of the
leaders of the country bloc entered a
protest against the election of Bluett
on the ground that it would give Vare
complete control of the legislative
machinery for the first session under
the Fisher administration, and it
aroused considerable popular support.
But the leaders of the party interven-
ed with the suggestion that the mat-
ter be deferred until the Governor's
opinion was obtained. The Governor
seems to have taken the side of Bluett.
an overwhelming majority in both
branches of the General Assembly
when it meets next week, and the lust
for patronage will be equally strong.
Vare will have thirty-nine members of
the House, nearly one-fifth, and eight
Senators, nearly one-sixth. He is not
a modest man in his demand for fa-
vors and it is said is willing to re-
linquish all claims to important State
offices in consideration of assured con-
trol of the legislative machinery. He
is probably not enthusiastically in fa-
vor of ballot reform and it is suspect-
ed that he has considerable interest in
legislation on prohibition enforcement,
and control of the machinery will be
quite an advantage to him.
But the rural members will be al-
together helpless in their purpose to
prevent the election of Mr. Bluett un-
less they enlist the Governor-elect in
their enterprise. In fact it is quite
possible that they will withdraw their
opposition to his election after they
have had a “heart-to-heart” talk with
the Governor-elect. Public patronage
on the mind of the average Legisia-
tor, rural or urban, and when the dip-
lomatic Fisher and the persuasive
party interests will be conserved by
the re-election of Mr. Bluett, their op-
position may fade away “like the base-
do happen in political life.
——~Canada is falling into the pro-
tective tariff habit and threatens to
inaugurate a system of curtailment of
our markets at the expense of her own
people’s pocket books.
from competition the fittest men for
favor. But the imperative thing now
is to amend the law rather than repeal
Some of the “rural” members of the !
The Republican machine will have |
has a wonderfully fetching influence |
Mellon show them that important !
less fabric of a vision.” Strange things |
VOL. 71. BELLEFONTE, PA.. DECEMBER 24. 1926.
Declared Innocent but Proved Guilty.
As predicted in this column last
week, the jury which heard the evi-
dence in the conspiracy charge
against former Secretary of the In-
Doheny, rendered the Scotch verdict.
It was not couched in the classic lan-
guage of the original, which was
“guilty but not proven.” It was plain-
ly stated “not guilty,” but obviously
with the mental reservation which
conveyed the impression that every
man in the jury box believed not only
that the accused were guilty but that
the guilt was completely proven. If
this were the unanimous or even the
majority opinion of the jurors it was
most cordially concurred in by the
practically unanimous voice of the
American people who followed the evi-
dence.
Senator Heflin, of Alabama, ex-
i pressed his indignation at the mis-
| carriage of justice in vehement lan-
| guage. “It is my belief,” he said,
“that former Interior Secretary Fall
would not have gone to trial unless
there had been an arrangement be-
forehand for either an acquittal or
jistrial.” He believed, also, that
férmer Attorney General Daugherty,
recently tried for conspiracy in New
York, “would not have gone into court
unless he knew somebody on the jury
would hang there until doomsday, or
acquit him or make a mistrial.” Sen-
ator Walsh, of Montana, who devel-
oped the conspiracy through the Sen-
ate investigation of the oil leases, ds-
fended the sitting judge against the
aspersions of the Alabama Senator.
It may be assumed that the case
against these defendants is closed, and
they are decorated with certificates of
moral health. But it will be a long
time before a reasoning public will be
persuaded that honest transactions be-
tween friends are conducted as the
Doheny help was given to Secretary
Fall. THe business method of trans-
ferring funds in large blocks is by
chegk. The carrying of a check from
California to New York and convert-
ing it into currency and delivering
the! currency. in a. black satehel “in
Washington “invests the entire trans-
action in a cloud of suspicion which
will remain as long as memory of the
matter endures. Fall and Doheny are
pronounced innocent but proved guil-
ty.
—— A n MAT n lS.
—1In selecting Mr. A. Boyd Ham-
ilton, of Harrisburg, for the import-
ant, intimate and confidential office
of private secretary, Governor-elect
Fisher made a particularly happy
choice. Mr. Hamilton is an experi-
fenced newspaper man and during a
{long period of service as a legisla-
i tive correspondent and political writer
{ has acquired an unsurpassed acquaint-
anceship with the public life and pub-
lic men of Pennsylvania. This famil-
iarity with the affairs with which he
will come in contact in the fulfillment
of his official duties will make him a
valuable asset to the new administra-
tion, while his high character, per-
sonal integrity and fidelity to friend-
ship will guarantee to his chief the
best service of which he is capable.
We congratulate the Governor as well
as the recipient of his generous per-
sonal favor.
Following close upon Williams-
port’s contention, last week, that the
aviation field should be moved from
; Bellefonte to that city, DuBois came
out with a claim that it be moved
there. Next we will probably hear
from Tyrone and Altoona. For the
benefit of all of them we want to add
| that the Watchman has it on good
authority that the government is not
even considering the question of mov-
ing the field from Bellefonte. And
the government will be in charge until
July 1st, 1927, at least, and the com-
panies who are figuring on bidding
for the contract for carrying the mail
have had representatives over the
route and they have signified their
intention of using the present fields.
——Ex-Congressman Langley, of
Kentucky, having been released from
the penitentiary on Presidential pa-
role, will now be able to resume his
place as a Republican leader.
——Senator Hefflin, of Alabama, is
bound to get the surplus spleen out
of his system, but reviving the Jess
| Smith scandal is a waste of physical
as well as mental energy.
——The President’s prompt conces-
sion to Congressman Butler's ship-
building program indicates that he is
not married to the economy idea.
——The jury commissioners are
| now at work filling the jury wheel for
11927. Between six and seven hundred
names will be put in.
————
——The Watchman publishes new
when it is news. Read it. :
terior Albert B. Fall and Edward L.
' prior to the recent European flurry.
——
NO. 51.
The Fali-Doheny Aecquittal.
From the Pittsburgh Post. %
It can be said that while a jury has
acquitted Fall and Doheny in the first
of the criminal trials growing out of
the oil lease scandal the public is as
firmly convinced as ever that there
was at least something radically
wrong and reprehensible in the case
from the standpoint of propriety. Ad-
mission of the defendants that Do-
heny, the oil man, made a loan of
$100,000 to Fall, then Secretary of the
interior, at about the time the former
obtained through the latter a most val-
uable lease of Government oil reserve
lands, brings up that when the story
first came up Fall was represented as
having secured the money from an-
other source. All directly concerned
in that $100,000 transaction between
Fall and Doheny so close to that other
transaction in which Fall, as Secre-
tary of the Interior, was cheifly in-
strumental in the granting of the oil
lease to the individual he says loaned
him the $100,000, realized that it did
not look well. Even though the jury
was unable to find a taint of conspir-
acy in the oil lease affair, nothing, as
emphasized, can ever relieve the de-
fendants of the public impression that
they committed at least a most grave
impropriety and that they realized
this fully at that time. Otherwise
there would not have been so many
conflicting stories at first of where
Fall got the money. At the same
time it must be said that their story
in the trial that they were actuated
in the oil transaction by patriotic mo-
tives through fear of a war threat
from Japan impressed the public much
as it did the prosecutors, who pro-
nounced it “the bunk.” Nobody out-
side their little group recalls gay sign
of trouble from Japan at that time.
The report that the jury itself was
at first equally divided, six for a ver-
dict of guilty and six for acquittal,
and the further consideration that it
took nineteen hours of deliberation to
change the view of thosé who saw
guilt, testify that the Government
made out a pretty strong case, No
one wants to persecute the defendants,
against whom there remains an in-
dictment on a charge of bribery for
trial, with Fall also facing trials in
connection = with the : Teapot Dome
scandal, but the seriousness of a Cab-
acts of a" nature to arouse s on
cannot be minimized. The prosecu-
tion should go to the end, threshing
out every charge thoroughly,
Good Form in Banditry.
From *hYe Philadelphia Record.
Tha young bandit who is the lat-
est fen.inine sensation from Texas has
aroused interest and something of re-
sentment along newspaper row. Her
methods were original, to say the
least, and ingenious as well. Sle
gained entrance to the bank’s confi-
dential regions by pretending to be a
newspaper woman with a story to
write, and might she please use one of
the bank’s typewriters for a little
while? The few employees who were
on duty during the noon hour ac-
quiesced with gentlemanly accommo-
dation. They must have been indig-
nant as well as amazed when she pull-
ed a gun on them, locked them in the
vault and casually walked out with a
thousand dollars in currency.
Where could the girl have got such
a scheme, unless at some time in a
young but promising career she had
served as a reporter and knew just
how plausible the story would be? No
chivalrous bank gentleman could be
expected to find a hidden burglarious
motive in so natural a request. That’s
where the Buda bandit departed from
what is known as sporting conduct.
That also is where the fourth es-
taters righteously crash in with a
ringing denunciation, and no one can
do it better. If the girl had posed as
a social worker, an applicant for a po-
sition, or a paid investigator of any
sort, there would be less of injury and
surprise in one’s reactions. But a re-
porter, poor devil, who must get his
story with unfailing persistence, is
often compelled to make use of just
such an expedient. Particularly if he
is dispatched to some outlying small
town and must get his stuff on the
wire early, it becomes necessary to
corral a typewriter with all speed; and
a bank is the one place likely to have
a machine that will work.
Out upon the young woman, there-
fore, who by her unsportsmanlike
duplicity casts suspicion upon all
newspaper persons in their quest for
typewriters! Until this Texas tale is
forgotten not one of the fraternity
will dare to approach a bank, where
the nice shiny machines rest luxuri-
ously behind the bars. One and all,
beginner and feature writer alike,
they will have to depend on the town
business merchants, many of whom
bought a typewriter in 1892 and are
using it yet.
ribose oeaetie on
——Owing to the fact that the Dr.
Colfelt autobiography was omitted
from the Watchman last week because
of a press of holiday advertising two
installments are published this week.
In order to get the continuity of the
doctor’s life story read the install-
ment on page three first.
iim ei ates
——Many of the coal operators in
Pennsylvania have gone back to the
1917 scale, but so far the price of coal
has not gone down to. where it was
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—William H. Buckries diéd at Altoona
from injuries received when buried by coal
after being thrown into the hopper of a
car he was unloading.
—DuBois is to abandon its trolley serv-
ice this evening, December 24. Street car
service was established there 35 years ago,
but the motor car has made the business
unprofitable in recent years.
—~Calling back more than 50 skilled
workingmen and expecting to employ be-
tween 200 and 300 expert steelworkers be-
fore spring, the Charleroi Steel and Foun-
dries company, special steel manufacturers,
has resumed operations after a long idle-
ness.
—J. Brad Keene and his sen John are
claiming the trapping championship of
Crawford county. To date the Keenes have
captured 475 muskrats, 9 minks, 2 ’coons,
20 skunks and 25 other kinds of furbear-
ing animals. The value of such a catch is
over $1,000 at present prices.
—=8ince the completion of a new and
modern silk mill by the Susquehanna com-
pany, the residents of Milton have been
handed a $70,000 Christmas gift in the
form of a large building formerly used
as a silk plant, but which will now be
made suitable for educational purposes.
—Thirty-one State College students con-
tinued home for the Christmas vacation
early on Saturday after a delay of several
hours at Bloomsburg when the bus tak-
ing them to Scranton crashed broadside
into an embankment. Miss Frances Gager,
of Scranton, and two young men needed
medical attention for lacerations.
—Arrested and held for trial on the
charge of driving an automobile while in-
toxicated, Howard Williams, of Altoona,
sought to escape the penalty by joining the
Army and going off to Panama. When he
returned home recently he was arrested on
the old bail-piece and on Monday Judge
Baldridge sentenced him to pay $100 fine
and costs and to serve 90 days in jail.
—Harlan Smeltzer, 21, of Ford City, was
smothered to death last Friday while at
work in a sand bin at Lock No. 5, on the
Allegheny river near Freeport. Smeltzer
had signalled to workers on a railroad
trestle over head to release a car load of
sand in the pit. This was done. Later
his disappearance was noted and a search
disclosed his body under several feet of
sand.
—John Kirby, of Lock Haven; Robert
Allen, of Lockport, and Ernest Jacobs, of
Spring Mills, enlisted in the United States
army at the Lock Haven recruiting station
on Friday and left immediately for train-
ing camp. Kirby and Allen went to camp
Meade, Md., to train for service in the
tank corps, and Jacobs went to Fort Meyer,
Va., to fit himself for the cavalry branch
of the army.
—Thomas Dailey, aged 28, night clerk at
‘the Brant hotel in Altoona, is unconscious
in the Altoona hospital after he was at-
tacked with a club or blackjack in the
basement of the hotel early Monday morn-
ing. Two negroes, former hotel employees,
were arrested on suspicion. Dailey has
not talked since the attack and the motive
of the assault and the identity of the as-
sailants is still unsolved.
. —Missing since Saturday Bch ng the
bodies of. Albert . Barlush, aged. (33, and >
Paul, aged 9, ‘of Wilkes-Barre, were found
in the Susquehanna river Sunday after-
noon by pelice. The bays left home to go
‘coasting. Later they ventured out on ice
that formed in an eddy at the foot eof
Saxon street, South Wilkes-Barre, No one
sAW the aceldent but police believe thelf
sled broke thfotigh the soft spot.
—Falling upoti the incline leading to the
Pennsylvania allroad crossitig at Third
and Market streets, Sunbiiry, on Saturday,
Steve Yerkes, lay with his head against
the rail of the westbound track with a pas-
senger train bearing down upon him. A
friend of Yerkes rushed to his aid but as
he reached Yerkes’ side, the man regained
his senses sufficiently to withdraw his
head, only an instant before the train
passed the spot.
—The large home of the late W. F.
Lowry, for many years district manager
of the American Car & Foundry company,
at Berwick, has been presented by his
children to the Presbyterian church. The
trustees have accepted the gift with thanks.
The home is estimated to be worth abbut
$20,000. In addition to the gift, the chil-
dren have paid $6000 as a subscription
made to the new church by Mr. Lowry be-
fore his death.
—John Mock, a farmer residing between
Salix and St. Michael, Cambria county,
was instantly killed last Thursday night
when a carbide lighting system plant of
his exploded when he was making repairs.
He was badly disfigured by the force of
the explosion, his chest and head being
badly crushed. It is thought that a ecar-
bide lamp which he was carrying came in
contact with the contents of a carbide
tank causing a terrific explosion.
—After writing a note telling his daugh-
ters that he had planned many times to
leap from a high building, P. A. Kilz, of
Erie, on Sunday entered a hotel, took an
elevator to the eighth floor and walked
out of a window. He landed on the roof
of a small building five stories below and
was so badly injured that he died on the
way to a hospital. An hour before em-
ployees of a downtown office building dis-
covered Kilz preparing to jump from an
eighth story window. They drew him back
and he promised to go home. :
—Recommended to the extreme mercy
of the court when he was convicted of
manslaughter in connection with the death
of James Caparosi, a school boy, Clarence
Patterson, of Hopwood, Fayette county,
was ordered to pay the $600 funeral expen-
ses of his victim, a fine of $400 to the coun-
ty and undergo a special parole for two
years. Patterson was riding Caparosi on
the handlebars of his motorcycle when the
machine, being driven at between 50 and
60 miles an hour crashed into a stationary
truck, parked along the road near Hop-
wood.
—Ruth Gaston, aged 7, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Luther Gaston of Rochester Mills,
five miles south of Punxsutawney, died on
Monday morning in the Adrian hospital
from burns on the legs, hips, abdomen,
back and arms. The girl was in the store
of her cousin, Claude Gaston, near her
home, Saturday afternoon, ‘when a com-
panion threw gasoline from a can into an
open fire. As the companion ran toward
the open door to throw the can out the
clothing of the Gaston girl was ignited.
Mrs. Gaston, the girl's mother, had both
hands badly burned in attempting to
quench the blaze.