INK SLINGS.
-—The Quakers at Jordans, Eng-
land, are not willing to trust the re-
mains of William Penn to Pittsburgh.
—The “Single-Taxers” deserve
praise for optimism and persever-
:ance, even if they have no other vir-
tues.
—The Philadelphia court clerk dis-
missed for grafting has been prompt-
ly “taken care of” by another as-
signment.
—Colonel Lindberg is still flying
higher in the affections of the people
and correcting the diplomatic blun-
ders of the administration.
—Samuel Insull, of Chicago, has
tried to square himself with the
Senate but it remains to be seen what
Big Tom Cunningham will do.
—There are a good many political
“new brooms” at work in the State
and it is to be hoped they will keep
the records clean in the future.
—No matter how people feel about
Governor Smith’s political aspirations
everybody hopes his wife will survive
the ordeal through which she has just
passed.
—Colonel Lindberg doesn’t seem to
care about altitude, long distance or
other records. He is content with
diffusing good will among men of the
world.
—Champion Gene Tunney threat-
ens rebellion against the control of
Tex Rickard. But it is a safe guess
that he will temper his temerity be-
fore long.
—Wouldbe Senator Smith, of Ill-
inois, has had the satisfaction of tell-
ing the Senate where to get off as
his consolation for having been told
to get out.
—Anyway, youll have to give it
to Governor Al. Smith, of New York,
for having had the back-bone to
stand out against the mawkish senti-
ment that was trying to save Ruth
Snyder from the law’s penalty for a
horrible crime.
—If Washington is so keen to fight
some one why doesn’t it leave Nica-
ragua alone and come up here and
join council or the local Red Cross
chapter. In Bellefonte all anybody
who wants to get into a scrap needs
do is join something.
—Mother Nature is being very kind
to Bellefonte this winter. She knows
we are head over heels in debt and
is probably withholding snow for fear
we'll get excited and ask council to
rescind its rescinding of its resolu-
tion to buy a snow-plow.
—Mr. Mussolini must certainly be
the Captain General in Italy. Re-
cently King Victor Emanuel, in
thanking TI Duce for having picked
up his handkerchief, is said to have
remarked: “This is one of the few
things in which I may still stick my
nose.”
—Let us see. Wasn’t it back in
1917 or 1918 that the public wasn’t
sure just what party Herbert Hoover
belonged to and, perhaps we have
him mixed up with someone else,
but wasn’t he very non-committal as
to whether he was a Democrat or a
Republican ?
—Just to prove that we ought to
be a continuity writer for a ‘movie
corporation we want to announce that
only ninety-two days must elapse ere
the trout fishing season will open.
You know, we opined, early in Decem-
ber, that we would be emitting such
information about the second week
in January.
—Really, we don’t like to refer to
it so often but we do wish that cam-
era men making news reels of the
President would carry atomizers
loaded and spray his surroundings
with some good perfumery before be-
ginnine their close-ups. We would
like to see him once when he didn’t
look as though he were sniffing some-
thing malodorous.
—If you haven’t paid up your sub-
scription yet we want to tip you off
to the fact that our mailing list is
going to be changed next week and
we'd like to see the figures opposite
your name looking like 1928. We got
enough to put a new ceiling on our
composing room in consequence of
that December lamentation. We are
doubtful, however, as to whether this
one will bring enough to provide a
new seat for the editorial trousers.
—The office to which former Pro-
thonotary Wilkinson has fallen heir
is not just plain county detective like
Joe Ritenour was. It is detective ex-
traordinary and he is to get twenty-
five hundred a year and such expens-
es as may be incurred in the line of
duty. We can see a possible cost to
the county of five thousand, or more,
annually because when it comes to
the line of duty Roy can be counted
on to step high, wide and handsome.
Inasmuch as he is to be accountable
only to the Court and the District
Attorney all the County Commission-
ers will have to do is pay the bills.
—A1l]l last year we steadfastly
stuck to our opinion that there are
too many laws. In the light of hap-
penings since the dawn of 1928 we
have come to the conclusion that we
were in error. Now we are almost
persuaded to go to the Legislature
and have one of our very own making
passed. We think that there ought
to be a law requiring every politician
to make a job for any lieutenant who
wants one. The taxpayers would
holler their heads off, of course, but
that’s all they’d do. Most of them
would step right up to the ballot box
at the next election, hold their noses
and vote the same old way.
Sy
Demacrat
7B
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 73.
BELLEFONTE, PA.. JANUARY 13. 1928.
NO. 2.
Did Council Act Wisely?
Since Council has decided that a
borough manager has not been profit-
able to Bellefonte it might be illum-
inating if some one were to dig into
the records and make a comparison
of the cost of maintaining the var-
ious departments of the borough for
the nine years prior to 1919, when
the office was created, with the nine
years we have operated under it.
Of course, we know that everything
is more costly now than it was prior
to 1919 and the fair person would
take that into consideration when
viewing such comparative exhibits.
But the outstanding thing in the
mind of every taxpayer, it seems to
us, would be the condition of the two
departments with which Mr. Seibert
had most to do during his tenure of
office. There is no town in the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania that has
better streets than Bellefonte. Think
of them as they were in 1919 and
look at them today.
Of course the various street com-
mittees of council should be given
credit for originating the work, but
the borough manager executed it.
In 1919 the water duplicate in
Bellefonte was $11,000.00. Today it
is nearing $21,000.00, and the rate
hasn’t been icreased one cent. Ex-
tensions of service account for some
of this, not so much, however, as you
might think. The major portion of
the increase has been due to the con-
scientious and intelligent co-operation
of the Water committee of Council
and the borough manager in check-
ing up so that every property pays
strictly in accordance with the possi-
bilities it has of drawing water. An-
other contributory cause to this grat-
ifying showing has been the fact that
the borough manager has been given
the work of collecting the water rents
and gets them.
Few people understand that water
isn’t a tax in Bellefonte. It is a
rent. If it were a tax no more could
be charged for it than would be nec-
essary to keep up the water depart-
ment alone. As a matter of fact
it is the only money making depart-
ment we have and its earnings make
‘up the ‘deficité in the other depart-
ments, for none of them actually get
through on the levy that is made to
maintain them.
Without regard to our conviction
that Mr. Seibert has been a most con-
scientious public official and our be-
lief that he saved for the borough
every year far more than the meagre
cil has made a very serious mistake
in abandoning the office.
A councilman is supposed to be
chosen only because of the superior
judgment he is believed to be able to
give in the conduct of a borough’s
business. He is supposed to have no
axes to grind. He should not be ex-
pected to give his time to running
hither and Jyon on the call of a
grouchy public that fails to realize
that he gets nothing for serving it.
The office of borough manager
furnished the ideal buffer. It was a
decidedly disagreeable one for its oc-
cupant, but a wonderful comfort to
members of Council.
Knowing this to be the fact we
should think that Council, if it
thought the office wasn’t paying the
borough would have considered the
matter of getting a new borough
manager before it went to the ex-
treme of rescinding its ordinance
creating the office. No business cor-
poration would approach a problem
in that way.
The whole affair has a very “fishy”
look, to say the least.
—The gentleman who answers
questions in “Everybodys’ Column”
in the Philadelphia Inquirer should
brush up on his geography a bit. In
telling a reader where State College
is located he said, “It is 34 miles
northwest of Altoona.” What if the
reader doesn’t know where Altoona
is? He should have said 12 miles
southwest of Bellefonte because ev-
erybody knows where Bellefonte is.
rn ————p esi
—Up to yesterday morning county
agent R. C. Blaney had furnished or-
ders for reduced transportation to
eighteen farmers of the county who
expect to attend the State farm show,
in Harrisburg, next week. It is be-
lieved, however, that this number will
be considerably augmented by the be-
ginning of the week. The boys’ lamb
club of the county will be represented
by seven pens of lambs.
—Judge Fleming, on Monday, ap-
pointed as a board of road and bridge
viewers Edward J. Thompson and
Philip E. Womelsdorf, of Philips-
burg; Thompson Henry, of Martha;
John W. Eby, of Zion, and Irvin Yar-
nell, of Hecla. The Messrs. Thomp-
son and Womelsdorf are new ap-
pointments, while the others are re-
appointments.
—Subscribe for the Watchman.
Governor Fisher Violates His Pledge.
Isn’t it about time for focusing the |
new science of psychiatry on Govern-
or Fisher? A few weeks ago, address-
ing the Election Law Commission, he
expressed much anxiety for honest
elections and declared his purpose to
exhaust all the resources of his office
to secure legislation which would
Investigation Must Come.
Recent developments in Nicaragua
make a searching investigation by
Congress inevitable. No sane man
or woman will question the duty of
the administration at Washington to
protect every citizen of the United
! States in person and property or to
: support any legitimate claim he may
guarantee to every citizen of the have in Nicaragua or anywhere else.
Commonwealth that his vote would!
But the administration has no right
be honestly counted and correctly re-|to declare war, either by proclama-
turned. Lest week the newspapers | tion or invasion of territory by armed
contained the information that “Gov- | forces, and that seems to be what
- ernor Fisher yesterday acceded to the has occurred in Nicaragua.
Under
| wishes of Senator Vare and Mayor the constitution Congress alone has
| Harry A. Mackey, of Philadelphia, by ‘that power.
It has been claimed
i appointing Louis Hamberg, a Vare that the marines are in Nicaragua to
| leader in the Twelfth ward of Phila- | “preserve the peace and protect the
i delphia, as police magistrate, suc- lives of the nationals of other coun-
ceeding John F. Dugan.”
A judicial investigation recently
begun disclosed the fact that nearly, |
if not all, the police magistrates in |
tries.”
Even if that were true, which is
absurd, the government at Washing-
ton has no legal right to exercise
Philadelphia have been systematically | police power outside of its own juris-
grafting for many years and violat-
ing the laws in various ways. Most
of these magistrates have been chos-
en by Mr. Vare and they have be-
come an important, if not an essen-
tial, part of his machine. At the last
election he selected the nominees of
both parties for the office of magis-
trate thus strengthening his strangle
hold on this branch of the judicial
system in the city and making it
practically impossible to begin pros-
ecutions against criminals except
when a common pleas judge is will-
ing to sit as committing magistrate,
an unusual proceeding.
The control of these minor courts
is important to Mr. Vare for the rea-
son that it enables him to protect
perpetrators of ballot frauds from
punishment and affords a prolific
source from which to collect party
slush funds out of the graft they ex-
tort from their victims. If Govern-
or Fisher sincerely desired honest
elections in Philadelphia he would
have filled the magisterial vacancy by
appointing a man selected by others
than Mr. Vare and Mr. Mackey. But
his anxiety to serve the interest of
the Mellons in their effort to re-elect
Senator Reed to the Senate was prob-
ably the -controlling- influence in the
case. He is simply “selling” his con-
science to Mr. Vare.
—Whenever the League of Nations
gets a boost the administration at
Washington trembles. The selection
of the president of the world court
: to preside over the Pan-American
salary he received, we feel that Coun- |
conference has almost caused a pan-
ie.
Mayor Mackey’s Big Job.
-—
Mayor Mackey, of Philadelphia,
has undertaken a great adventure if
his purposes are accurately expressed
in an interview published in the Sun-
day paper political gossip. He pur-
poses to reform the political machine
of that city by compelling every mu-
nicipal official to be scrupulously
honest. To achieve this desirable re-
sult he has called into the service a
group of practical politicians edu-
cated in the Vare school and proved
by long experience. He will first
appeal to their conscience in a kindly
way and if that amiable method fails
he will resort to force. That is to
say, he serves notice that any infrac-
tions of his rules of conduct will be
promptly punished by dismissal from
office.
That sounds like an expression of
the spirit of a crusader. But Mr.
Mackey has not heretofore been a
crusader in the cause of civic right-
eousness. He has never been charged
with sharing in the graft, which he
freely admits has been common
among the public officials. But he
has for years been enjoying the ad-
vantages that have come out of the
graft. As head of the compensation
fund of the Commonwealth and sub-
sequently treasurer of the city, he
has had what practical politicians
call a “soft snap,” which has come
to him in the form of recompense for
eloquent and impressive silence while
the grafting operations were in high
tide of prosperity and full flower.
He revealed no concern.
Possibly the responsibility of
power has made a change in Mr.
Mackey’s consciousness within a brief
period of time. Maybe he has be-
come apprehensively honest and mili-
tantly righteous. But it will be hard
to eradicate from the mind of the
Philadelphia machine politician that
perquisites are vested rights in pub-
lic life and that graft is not a legiti-
mate feature in balancing the books
between the boss and the servitor. It
is barely possible that Mr. Mackey
may entice or force his subordinates
in office to abandon the graft, and it
is even probable that he may com-
pel an economical administration, but
he makes no promise of reform in
elections and that is quite import-
ant.
—
—Irene Castle’s heart goes out to
the dog, whether under or on top, if
he is in distress.
diction in repressing domestic dis-
turbances or “protecting the lives of
nationals of other countries.” The
Monroe Doctrine involves this coun-
try in such obligations it has been
alleged by apologists of the Presi-
dent. Its purpose was and is to pro-
tect people and governments on this
hemisphere from invasions or ag-
gression from European or govern-
ments on other hemispheres. Sending
an army of several thousand marines
to repress riots or control elections
in any other country is an act of war
and reprehensible in the highest de-
gree. It can be interpreted in no oth-
er way.
Suppose there should be a local dis-
turbance in either of the cities of
Canada, would the administration at
Washington send a force of marines
to suppress it or restore order? Cer-
tainly not. The government of Great
Britain would promptly resent such
an interference with its prerogatives.
Suppose there should be suck a dis-
turbance in any of the colonies of
t France, would the government of the
United States interfere? Certainly
not. But Nicaragua is a “weak sis-
ter,” as governments go, and some
capitalists of this country, influenced
gpe. by. cupidivy: than justice, have
ertaken to exploit it and the ad-
ministration engages in war with
their victims in order to enforce their
claims,
—Various theories for disposing of
used razor blades have been suggest-
ed but throwing them away will con-
tinue to be the popular method.
Republican Propaganda at Work.
The prosperity propaganda for the
Presidential campaign of 1928 has
been set in motion with much vigor.
President Coolidge has supplemented
his statement on the subject made in
his annual message to Congress with
a new and glowing promise for the
immediate future.
Mr. Grace, of the Bethlehem Steel
company, have contributed their per-
iodical assurances of prosperity and
Herbert Hoover, Andrew W. Mellon,
J. Pierpont Morgan, W. W. Atter-
bury, Agnew T. Dice and a number
of other earners of six figure incomes
have expressed in writing or other-
wise their sublime faith in the in-'
dustrial and commercial prosperity
of the country.
Usually the guarantee of prosper-
ity by a group of captains of indus-
try and napoleons of finance is suffi- |
cient to fool the public “until after
the election.” Of course, the name of
Judge Gary, who invariably headed
the list on previous occasions, had
vast power of persuasion, but he is
no longer available and other influ-
ences had to be invoked. President!
Coolidge, who probably never earned
a dollar except in the form of salary
for official service, was drafted into
the service but failed to inspire con-
fidence. A group of professional prop-
agandists was finally organized to
prepare statistics and draw inferenc-
es and their figures sent to all news-
papers which would publish them.
It costs money to employ profes-
sional propagandists but the Repub-
lican National committee has suffi-
cient to meet any expense and for at
least a week the papers have been
filled with optimistic predictions dia-
gramed and otherwise elucidated to
prove that the land “is flowing with
milk and honey,” and that nothing is
needed to make this condition perpet-
nal except the renewal of the lease
of the Republican party to control the
government for “four years more.”
Those of us who are less favored in
earning capacity may not be able to
see the prosperity. But it must be
here because records show that more
diamonds have been bought in this
country than anywhere else during
the last year.
—Mayor Mackey, of Philadelphia,
is profuse in promises and even prof-
ligate in verbiage in stating them.
ng A AS
—There are 228 men in the United
States enjoying incomes of more than
a million dollars.
lA
Mr. Schwab and
The Railroads and Their Motor Bus
Competition.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Both the Pennsylvania and Reading
: railroad companies are about to apply
for exclusive franchises to operate
motor coaches on highways parallel-
ing their routes between Camden and
: Atlantic City. The action will bring
to decision a controversy which pro-
foundly affects corporate rights and
the public interest; for this territory
furnishes perhaps the most conspic-
uous example in the country of rival-
ry between the two forms of twans-
portation.
The railroads’ case has been force-
fully stated this week by Charles H.
Ewing, vice president of the Reading,
and Louis K. Marr, superintendent of
the Pennsylvania’s West Jersey and
Seashore line. During the last five
years, by reason of motor bus com-
petition, railroad passenger traffic has
decreased in the East 22 per cent., in
the South 42 per cent., and in the
West 48 per cent. Bus lines in the
United States now have an aggregate
mileage substantially equal to that
of the railroads. But they operate
under extraordinary advantages, be-
cause the most costly parts of their
facilities—the highways—are furn-
ished to them at public expense,
whereas the railroads must provide
their own.
In the last 10 years, for example,
the Reading has spent $10,000,000 in
improving its seashore lines. In con-
sequence its New Jersey taxes have
increased from $147,000 to $469,000
a year; and this money has helped to
pay for expensive highways, which
are used by motor busses, without
cost except for ordinary license fees,
in taking business away from the
railroads. “If that isn’t unfair com-
petition,” it is asked, “what is?”
The conditions here set forth, which
prevail in varying degrees in all
thickly populated sections of the
‘country, have been repeatedly dis-
cussed in “The Record.” That auto-
mobile transportation has brought
vast public benefits is beyond ques-
tion; not since the discovery of steam
has there been so far-reaching an im-
provement in communications. The
motor truck and the motor bus have
become indispensable. They give
service to scattered communities, im-
prove living conditions by developing
suburban and rural residential, areas,
and. provide . multiplied traye!: faeili-
ties. . In these respects Ty pe i
tions are essential, and should be en-
couraged. It is manifest, however,
that their competition with the rail-
: roads should be put upon an equitable
basis. It is not only unjust, it is eco-
nomically unsound, to pay them an
indirect subsidy by furnishing free to
them facilities which the steam sys-
tems have to provide at their own
cost.
Railroads and trolley companies
may be soulless corporations, but they
have certain rights and equities which
demand recognition. Not only have
they invested vast sums in the crea-
tion and maintenance of their prop-
erties—rights-of-way, trackage, roll-
ing stock, power plants and so on—
but they are required to render ade-
quate service, whether profitable or
not, and their charges are regulated
and their earnings limited by public
authority.
Yet in many parts of the country,
notably in New Jersey, they find their
routes paralleled by bus lines which
operate over roadbeds paid for by the
public—in part, indeed, by the rail-
roads themselves. The latter contend
that this is unfair and confiscatory
competition. They neither expect nor
demand suppression of motor traffic;
but they urge that in specific in-
| stances they should be allowed to de-
velop the new system as a subsidiary
i to their established lines.
| There are involved, of course, the
rights of the public, not only to ad-
equate service, but to protection
against monoply; but this issue is
covered by the strict regulation un-
der which the railroads operate. Fur-
thermore, experience has shown that
unrestricted motor competition often
works public injury, for full railroad
service cannot be maintained where
a substantial part of the traffic is
diverted to rival systems enjoying ad-
vantageous terms. It is a fact that
thousands of miles of branch rail
lines have been abandoned for this
reason, so that actually added facili-
ties have led to impaired service. .
tor these reasons the public in-
terest, which is the paramount con-
sideration, gives merit to the rail-
roads’ demand for motor bus rights
complying with the principles of reg-
ulation.
meer
Congress On its Hind Legs.
From the Clearfield Republican.
Congress is on its hind legs again
with President Coolidge the target.
His Nicaraguan policy has aroused
the patriots and statesmen who think
they know more about what should
be done than the higher-up officials
who have such matters in hand. Any-
way, a number of marines who should
never have been sent to Central
America, have been killed and many
more injured. The cost to the people
will run up in the millions, and mill-
ions spent sending warships and ma-
rines to the rescue. And all the while
we hear, read and see so much about
“Coolidge ecenomy” and kindred tom-
myrot.
—United States marines are still
making peace in Nicaragua with ma-
chine guns.
| SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—While working at a receiving tank of
the Pennsylvania Glass Sand works at
Mapleton, last Thursday, Robert Brum-
baugh, 50, of Mapleton, fell into the sand
current and was suffocated before res-
cuers could reach him.
—An explosion and fire at the home of
William Young, of Asbury, Columbia
county, resulted in the death of his wife
and two children, June and Zane, aged 2
and 3 years, respectively. The blast oc-
curred, it was said, when Mrs. Young at-
tempted to hasten a fire by pouring on a
mixture of gasoline and kerosene. Young
was working in the barn, and did not hear
the blast.
—Frank J. Hope, 34, a hot-air furnace
salesman, was sentenced to two years in
jail, at Pittsburgh, on Saturday after be-
ing found guilty on charges of false
pretense and fraudulent conversion in-
volving $5,800 and a $2,000 diamond ring
which Mrs. Minnie Reese, 45, said he ob-
tained from her. Mrs. Reese also charged
Hope wrongfully posed ss a single man,
proposed marriage and was accepted.
—The wages of York’s greatest sin has
been cut by Mayor Jacob E. Weaver. He
has slashed the price of liberty for
“plain drunks” 50 per cent, under the
prevailing quotations of former Mayor
E. S. Hugentugler’s court. A five dollar
bill will serve to deliver the ‘ordinary’
drunken prisoner from the usual 10-day
jail sentence, whereas the former chief
executive scorned anything less than a
10-shot.
—The State Welfare Department has ap-
proved plans for the new eastern peni-
tentiary, which will be erected on an un-
even plot in Gratesford, Montgomery
county. Specifications and architects’
dawings are being placed on blue prints.
The first block of buildings to be built
will include eight structures, placed sev-
enty-five feet apart and surrounded by a
high wall with sentry boxes on the wall
at intervals.
—With a phonograph record, “I'm
Bound for the Promised Land,” in his
automobile, Edward Karachner, aged 32,
of Berwick, met instant death early Sat-
urday morning, when the car rammed in-
to a telephone pole near Bloomsburg. E.
Foster McNeal, of Nescopeck, and Paul
Strunk, of Reading, were seriously in-
jured and are in a hospital. The auto-
mobile was reduced to junk but the rec-
ord was not broken.
—The explosion of a dynamite cap at
Hammersly's Fork, about 30 miles from
Lock Haven, at 2 o'clock Sunday, com-
pletely demolished the west wall of the
Gospel tabernacle while twenty women
and children were attending Sunday
school. The explosion occurred when the
janitor started to light the fire in the
stove, the cap having evidently been
placed in the chimney flue. Bricks were
thrown a distance of 200 feet but no ome
was injured.
—R. Clyde Segner, former clerk in the
office of the county controller at Wash-
ington, Pa., was pardoned from the coun-
ty jail, by Governor John §. Fisher on
Saturday morning. Segner was serving
two and one-half years for theft of $27,-
000 in public funds, through manipulation
of coupons. He had perviously refused a
conditional parole, so that he might go
home te be with members of his fam-
ly who wete sick, Begner was sent up
in January, 1926.
—The State treasury is the only office in
the Capitol, at Harrisburg, which has
clear glass in its doors, giving passersby
a view into the offices. In the other de-
partments the doors leading into the cor-
ridors all have frosted glass. As a re-
sult, scores of persons daily stop to gaze
at the huge vault which eontains millions
of dollars in securities and which is
guarded not only by armed men but is
fitted with the newest appliances for mak-
ing it burglar-proof.
—Mrs. I. E. Miller, of Phoenixville, had
occasion Saturday morning to use two
diamond rings valued at $1250 and went
to a closet in her bedroom where she had
fastened them to the sleeve of a coat for
safe keeping. The coat was missing. Then
she remembered that on December 24 she
had given the garment to Mrs. George
Dobson, of Port Providence, whose home
and clothing had been destroyed by fire
that morning. She hurried to the Dobson
home, explained her mission to Mrs. Dob-
son, and they went to a bedroom, where
the coat was found at the bottom of a
pile of clothing which had been donated.
The rings were fastened to the coat.
—Because of an alleged discrepancy of
between $12,000 and $13,000 in her ac-
counts, as secretary of the Lawrence
township, Clearfield county, school .dis-
trict, a warrant was issued by the board
of directors for the arrest of Mrs. Bessie
Olson, former secretary of the board. Mrs.
Olson was arrested at her home and tak-
en to the office of John E. Dale, justice
of the peace, Curwensville, where she was
held in $5,000 bail for her appearance at
February term of court. Bail was furn-
ished by the woman's husband. About
a month ago, a teller in a local bank dis-
covered what he thought to be a forgery
on a teacher's order for wages. Investi-
gation disclosed many similar cases.
—Robert Seibert, 55 years old, of Le-
highton, committed suicide by placing a
stick of dynamite under his body near
the Mahoney Valley trail, two miles from
Lehighton. Seibert was employed as a
fireman in the Packerton shops of the
Lehigh Valley railroad. He is said to
have asked a friend, William Klinger, a
miner, to give him a stick of dynamite.
This Klinger refused to do although he
did not know the purpose of the request.
A brush fire drew several persons to the
spot where Seibert killed himself. They
found his torn body lying beneath a
tree. Near the dead man were his coat
and sweater neatly folded with a note
which read: “Friend Klinger, cannot wait
any longer, had to get dynamite else-
where. Bob.”
—John T. Booth, Philipsburg, was ar-
rested at Blairsville, on Monday, charged
with having assisted in the robbery of the
Blairsville Grocery company wholesale
store that morning. Cigarettes valued at
more than $600 were recovered in a Pitts-
burgh tailor shop immediately after the
arrest. Booth, is believed to have had an
accomplice in the job. After success-
fully making the haul, Booth loaded the
cigarettes in his car and started for Pitts-
burgh. Near Alexandria he smashed into
a car driven by a Blairsville man. The
Blairsville resident returned to his home,
got another car and took Booth and cig-
arettes into Pittsburgh. Booth returned
to Blairsville to inspect his car, and at
the garage was dickering to trade it for
a mew one, when he was recognized and
arrested.