Dewar ato
AAR OTRAS SIR,
“INK SLINGS.
. —Baseball teams are leaving their
southern training camps for the trip
north. Spring must be here.
—The news that an enduring peace
may be made in the Balkan states is
almost “too good to be true.”
—From the way stocks are being
TUn up we are inclined to believe that
‘Wall street is getting ready to flood
‘the market with spring lamb.
—The wild geese came north last
wreek. The others who went to Flor-
dda to get rich will be along just as
soon as they can raise the car fare.
—Times are supposed to be getting
‘hard and just because they are sup-
posed to be everybody is tightenin’
up for fear of getting stuck. Every-
thing but the onion and it knows it’s
going to be stuck in a very few days.
—Mr. Ford is to be called in to help
solve the Pennsylvania bituminous
coal problem. The automobile manu-
‘facturer says he pays eight dollars a
day in his mines and keeps them go-
ding profitable. Possibly he does, but
it is also possible that he consumes
all of his own coal and therefore has
‘no marketing problem.
—We are informed that the ladies
of the hospital auxiliary declined the
‘honor of sponsoring the new drive for
funds for the igsfitution. The gen-
tlemen of th 'd had the bullets
all ready, La 2 1adies are said to be
taking the ground that if they are
expected to do all the shooting they’ll
make their own bullets.
—The New York boxing commis-
sion is about to suspend Gene Tunney
because he won’t defend his title as
New York says he must. Mr. Tunney
is the champion heavy-weight of the
world. Inasmuch as the world com-
prehends a few square miles of ter-
ritory outside the confines of the Em-
pire State the champ would be a mo-
ron were he to let the tail wag the
dog.
—Really, we must go out more. At.
a banquet, a few nights ago, we no-
ticed that the erudite are drinking
soup from the cup. As we have in-
“timated we had been off such func-
tions so long that we just naturally
‘went on teasing ours into the far
side of the spoon and struggling to
get it out of the near side without a
gurgle or the suggestion to those at
our elbow that we were trying to
inhale it.
—The ministerial gentleman from
Benton, Pa., who remitted and wrote
that he did so “so that hereafter
when you say anything I don’t like
I can call you for it with a clear con-
science,” is entirely too considerate.
Readers don’t usually stop to figure
out whether they owe the paper any-
thing when they have the urge to
“call” the editor. In fact “calling”
the editor is the favorite pastime of
a lot of folks who we hope get as
much “kick” out of it as we do.
—Ear] Carroll, the New York im-
pressario of “bath-tub” fame, is out of
‘the federal penitentiary and his term
of parole has ended. He says: “My
‘lesson was a bitter one. The govern-
ment need have no fear of my future
conduct. It has changed my whole
life and things I once considered im-
portant are no longer of the slightest
importance.” Carroll probably now
intends turning his wonderful creative
talents to lifting the stage out of the
depths of debauchery into which he
helped plunge it. If that is what he
means to do he will soon discover that
“his imprisonment was really a bless-
ing in disguise.
—Inasmuch as we havent said
‘much about it this spring we know
you will indulge us long enough to
remark that the edge will be off the
fishing season in sixteen days. No
‘matter what others may think, our
idea of the trout fishing is just an-
other of those things in which antici-
pation carries a thousand more thrills
“than the realization. From the thirty-
first of July until the fifteenth of
April our mind is one of hopeful an-
ticipation. From the fifteenth of Ap-
ril until the thirty-first of July it is
“harried with disappointment. The
days we can get out on the stream
it’s too windy, the water’s muddy or
the fish are not feeding. The days
when business keeps us in the office
the other fellow comes in with the
limit.
—Marion, Virginia, is said to have
a marvelous band for a town of its
‘size. Marion is smaller than Belle-
fonte, but it has a musical organiza-
tion worthy of a large city. We have
often referred to the band that we once
heard in McCook, Nebraska, another
little town. That organization played
‘up beside the big concert bands of the
country and suffered little by compar-
ison. In McCook the band was the
town hobby. Nature didn’t give Mec-
‘Cook a Big Spring or big trout to
point to with pride so the people
there rallied to the support of a band
so good that it would make the town
famous and it did. Down in Marion,
Virginia, Sherwood Anderson. novel-
ist and short story writer, goaded Ki-
wanis into supporting a musical or-
ganization worthwhile. The result has
been syndicated stories that tell of
the Marion band and are published in
thousands of papers all over the
United States. Many individuals have
tried it. The Undines tried it. The
Odd Fellows have tried it. All with
indifferent success. Maybe Kiwanis
could give Bellefonte a really good
‘band. Certainly nothing the organi-
zation could do would contribute more
to the pleasure of all.
VOL. 73.
Another Borah Futility.
Senator Borah expresses his ap-
proval of Secretary Kellogg’s “mul-
enthusiasm that the impression that
the Idaho Senator rather than the
Minnesota diplomatist, is the real au-
thor of the plan is forced. Its pur-
pose is to bind France, Great Britain,
Italy, Germany, Japan and the Unit-
ed States into an agreement “ not
to resort to war with one another,”
and Mr. Borah is persuaded that it
“would inaugurate a new epoch in in-
ternational relations.” Such a treaty
certainly ought to have that effect.
No such combination of forces against
war has ever been formed in the past
and unless it were regarded as a
“mere scrap of paper” it would give
that hideous monster, war, a rough
road to travel in the future.
In giving his endorsement to the
enterprise Senator Borah says, “noth-
ing could be more important for man-
kind than a frontal attack on the in-
stitution of war by six great powers.
If these governments would lay the
axe at the root of the tree, refuse
any longer to recognize war as legiti-
mate and declare nations criminals
who engage in this super-crime, the
effects upon the people of the entire
world would be stupendous. Their
pent-up hopes and aspirations for
peace would be released and they
would demand that every conceivable
kind of international dispute be set-
tled without resort to violence. “Hard-
ly any person will dispute the accur-
acy of this appraisement, though
most of us might express our views
in less ponderous form.
But the trouble is that the multi-
lateral treaty proposed by Secretary
Kellogg and endorsed by Senator Bor-
ah is expressed in language that makes
its adoption practically impossible,
precisely as the reservations incorpor-
ated in the ratifications of the World
court kept us out of that peace-mak-
ing process. It proposes to make the
obligation on all the other signatory
powers absolute, but gives the United
States license to acquiesce or refuse
according to pleasure, prejudice or
whim. Naturally the other powers
will be unwilling to sign away sov-
ereign rights if the United States as-
sumes this attitude and the multi
lateral treaty becomes as futile as
Mr. Borah’s absurd scheme to “lift an
obligation of shame” by presenting
Harry Sinclair a donation.
—At the present rate of progress
Senator Borah may raise the Sin-
clair reimbursement fund within a
period of one hundred years.
Cunningham Slated for Jail.
At last hope dawns that Tom Cun-
ningham, arrogant, impudent and odi-
ous Philadelphia bosslet, will be
brought to just punishment. The oth-
er day Senator King, of Utah, intro-
duced a resolution directing the ser-
geant-at-arms of the Senate to take
him into custody on a charge of “con-
tempt of the Senate,” an offense pun-
ishable by imprisonment in the jail
of the District of Columbia. The oi-
fense was committed more than a
year ago but for some reason nothing
has been done about it since. Now
that the court of the District has con-
victed Harry Sinclair and held Colonel
Stewart, of the Indiana Standard Oil
company, for trial, the Senate feels
certain that even an alleged Philadel-
phia crook is amenable to the law.
In February last year Mr. Cunning-
ham testified before the Senate Slush
Fund committee that he had contrib-
uted $50,000 to Bill Vare’s primary
campaign fund. He was a clerk of
the quarter sessions court of Phila-
delphia on a salary of $8000 a year,
and the generosity of his contribution
aroused suspicion as to its source. An
attempt tc get an explanation met
with great difficulty. He dodged the
subpoena server for several weeks, to
the infinite enjoyment of the Philadel-
phia machine, and when he finally
yielded to the inevitable flatly refused
to tell where he got the $50,000. The
suspicion is that it was collected from
the bootleggers, gamblers, thieves and
prostitutes of Philadelphia.
Money obtained from such sources
is not much cleaner than bonds con-
tributed by Harry Sinclair out of the
profits of the Teapot Dome oil lease,
and with his perverted notion of mor-
ality Cunningham preferred to take
chances of punishment rather than
completely wreck Vare’s ambition to
be the Senator. He probably reasoned
that in any event the party leaders
would protect him as far as possible,
and that a nominal. fine could easily
be financed from the source the big
contribution came. He has since been
promoted to the more lucrative office
of sheriff, but it is doubtful if his ex-
pectation will be fulfilled. Decent
people everywhere will hope that he
“gets all that’s coming to him.”
—Governor Al Smith may never be
President but he has certainly stirred
up some of the Senators.
BELLEFO
tilateral treaty” proposal with such |
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
NTE, PA.. MARCH 30. 1928.
NO. 13.
Former Secretary Fall Has Promised Couzens, Republican, Demands Mel- After All, a Storm Does Clear the Air.
Facts.
The public will wait more or less
patiently for the statement former
Secretary of the Interior Albert B.
Fall, has promised, concerning the
lease of the Teapot Dome oil reserve
to Harry F. Sinclair. “Mr. Fall is
willing to testify whenever his health
will permit,” according to a state-
ment made by his wife at El Paso,
Texas, the other day. “If he isn’t
able to go to Washington for the trial
scheduled April 22, and his testimony
is desired, he is willing that it be tak-
en here.” To this pledge Mr. Fall is
said to have assented with a declara-
tion that he is “not only willing but
anxious to testify. I am not afraid
of the facts,” he added, “they will
bear out my acts.”
The expectation thus expressed that
his evidence will justify his part in a |
conspiracy to betray public interests
will arouse suspicion in many minds |
that he has devised a plausible alibi
which will deceive the public. He had |
two opportunities to “tell the truth!
and the whole truth,” but declined on
the ground that “his evidence might
incriminate him.” Increasing age and
multiplying infirmities may have led
him to the opinion that concealment
is no longer worthwhile, but his lan-
guage doesn’t indicate such a frame
of mind. He is apparently still hope-
ful of vindication, and as he is an
able, experienced and resourceful law-
yer nobody can tell “what he has up
his sleeve.”
Still it might have been advisable
for the committee which is conducting
the investigation to go to New Mex-
ico and take his statement. Many
surprising features of this great
crime against the country have been
exposed by skillful grilling of unwill-
ing witnesses, and if Mr. Fall is a
willing witness the whole fruth might
have been brought out. It is cer-
tain that he knows all about the mat-
ter in mind. He had a leading part
in the conspiracy from the beginning
and got a large share of the loot.
Like Secretary Mellon and chairman
Butler, he has remained silent a long
time and his silence as well as theirs
has retarded the progress of the in-
quiry.
mind.
—Mr. Schwab thinks the wages of
labor ought to be determined by the
law of supply and demand. But he
continues to advocate the theory that
the price of commodities ought to be
regulated by tariff legislation.
ara eee eee
Source of the Burden of Shame.
Nearly a month has elapsed since
Senator Borah undertook to “lift a
burden of shame” from the Republ-
can party by presenting Harry Sin-
clair $160,000, easy money, and he has
only raised about five per cent of the
amount. Possibly when Mr. Black-
mar and Mr. O’Neil return from Eu-
rope they will “chip-in” sufficiently to
equalize Sinclair’s contribution. If
each of them would give $50,000 and
Borah raise say $10,000 for reim-
bursement purposes, Sinclair ‘would
only be out $50,000 and the Teapot
Dome oil lease would have been worth
a hundred times that amount to him
if his conspiracy with Secretary of
the Interior Fall had not been inter-
fered with by. meddling Senators.
Assuming that the “burden of
shame” was imposed on Senator Bor-
ah’s party by a conspiracy in which
Sinclair, Blackmar, O’Neil and Stew-
art participated, it is only fair that
those who got the bacon should pay
the expense. Mr. Stewart solemnly
swears that he got no profit out of
the Cor inental bond transaction but
it has been pretty clearly shown that
Sinclair, Blackmar and O’Neil each
got approximately $750,000 out of it.
Out of Sinclair's share some $250,000
were paid to Fall and $160,000 to the
Republican slush fund, making a total
of $410,000, cutting his net profit to
' $340,000 But he expected vast prof-
its out of the Teapot Dome lease. In
| that the possibilities were unlimited.
| It is a principle of law that an ac-
cessory to a crime is as culpable as
| the perpetrator. In the disposal of
(the Liberty bonds acquired by Sin-
clair from the Continental Trading
company Will Hays, the “fence,” took
into his confidence Secretary of the
Treasury Mellon, Secretary of War
Weeks, chairman of the National
committee Butler and other Republi-
can leaders. The “burden of shame”
to which Senator Borah refers is this
transaction. The only way to lift it
is to repudiate those concerned in it,
directly or indirectly. Mellon, Butler
and all the others still living are as
active in the leadership of the party
now as they were then. Senator Bor-
ah is aiming at the wrong target.
—The Racing Commission of Mary-
land, having barred Harry Sinclair
from all race tracks in that State,
the Presbyterian ‘General Assembly
might properly do something to Elder
Will Hays.
But he may have changed his |
lon’s Scalp.
It may have been inspired by an
old grudge but in any event the reso-
lution introduced by Senator Couzens,
of Michigan, practically demanding
the resignation of Secretary of the
Treasury Andrew W. Mellon, as es-
sential to the restoration of the Re-
publican party to public confidence, is
likely to make the party leaders “sit
up and take notice.”
is only a gesture which both the Pres-
ident and Mr. Mellon may ignore. A
similar resolution directed to Secre-
tary of the Navy Denby was offered
in, and adopted by, the Senate fol-
lowing the exposure of the Teapot
Dome oil lease four or five years ago.
But President Coolidge paid no at-
' tention and Denby continued his stu-
pid service.
But the conditions were somewhat
different then. The oil lease scandal
aroused a good deal of popular indig-
' nation, even at that early period of
its development, but the blame was
limited to a few conspirators and the
Secretary of the Navy was generally
regarded as a victim, rather than a
participant in, the transaction. But
Secretary Mellen is not as stupid and
his explanation of his concealment of
the whereabouts of the tainted Liber-
ty bonds contributed by Harry F. Sin-
clair to the Republican National com-
mittee failed signally to persuade pub-
lic sentiment that he was blameless in
the matter.
ject clearly made him “accessory after
the fact” to Hays’ crime.
It is freely admitted bv Senator
Borah, Senator Capper and other
prominent leaders of the Republican
party that the Sinclair-Hays affair
has enveloped the party in “an obliga-
tion of shame” which must be re-
moved before the coming Presidential
election. It is equally certain that
that result cannot be achieved if An-
drew W. Mellon continues as the
dominant figure and the controlling
force in the councils of the organi-
zation. It is an open secret that his
influence will determine which of the
several aspirants will be nominated at
the Kansas City convention unless
some of the feathers are plucked out
of his “head gear,” and his prompt re-
moval from office is the onlv remedy.
—From all indications the hearing
to be held in the court house, at 9:30
o'clock on Wednesday morning of next
week, before representatives of the
i Public Service Commission and the
| Interstate Commerce Commission, in
| connection with the application of the
i Bellefonte Central Railroad company
for permission to build six miles of
road from State College to Fairbrook,
! will be an interesting proceeding and
attract a large crowd of interested
persons. State College people will es-
pecially be heard from, as the hear-
ing will probably settle the question
of better railroad facilities for that
town. A decision in favor of the
Bellefonte Central will mean the
building of the connecting link be-
tween that road and the Fairbrook
branch, thus giving State College a
direct line to Tyrone and all points
east and west.
i pp pr mi
—Since there is so much opposition
to capital punishment what would be
the matter with sentencing the mur-
derers to do the pioneering in such
scientific research as trans-oceanic
flying and pilgrimages to Mars. To
soften the sentence a bit it might be
stipulated that if they should reach
their destination they should never
attempt to get back.
—Without authority to speak on
the subject it is a safe: guess that
Secretary Mellon will not resign.
Controlling the vast resources of the
Treasury is an enticing job, and the
Mellons never relinquish good things.
—Liberality is its own recompense
as well as “virtue is its own reward.”
In 1923 Secretary Mellon gave $50,-
000 to the Republican slush fund and
in 1925 a Republican Congress re-
duced his income tax $300,000.
m———— pes ———
—Charlie Schwab told the Senate
coal committee the other day that he
“had never received any money” for
his work. Probably he got stocks and
bonds in big bundles.
—1It would be impossible to con-
vince some people that the First
amendment to the Federal constitu-
tion is quite as binding as the Eigh-
teenth.
—The continued boom in stocks on
the New York exchange has made
brokers and their clerks tired and
most other people weary.
em ———————— pr ————————
—Myr. Hoover still holds the lead
in straw votes but nominations for
President are not made by that pro-
cess.
—Subsecribe for the “Watchman.”
Of course, it.
His silence on the sub-'
From the Philadelphia Record.
Some of our Republican contempor-
aries are in a state of painful agita-
tion over certain excesses in the pur-
suit of facts, near-facts and fictions
concerning the oil scandal. Deeply
afflicted are they, and bitter their out-
cries, by reason of “malicious gossip,”
“wanton slanders,” “character assas-
sination” and other tendencies which
suggest to them a revival of the
witch-burning delusions of old.
That there is some cause for these
complaints it would be idle to deny.
Perhaps because the chase so long
was fruitless the achieving of results
has led some of the huntsmen into
highly speculative bypaths, which
they have been beating with more en-
thusiasm than judgment. Thus we
have had ardent demands for the dis-
‘patch of a subcommittee to Canada;
innuendoes that Governor Smith was
"a beneficiary of oil contributions; the
edict that the hoofs of Sinclair’s hors-
es shall not sully the race tracks of
| Maryland; rhetorical demands for the
! resignation of Secretary Mellon, and
‘indeed, of President Coolidge and his
entire Cabinet; charges that the Dem-
ocratic campaign treasury exudes the
odors of tainted wealth; a solemn in-
quisition to determine whether a’dead
President shared in the gains of an
illicit transaction; even official notice
{of an exciting fable that a Judge had
received a package of oil bonds—a
consignment which turned out to be
Christmas cards.
Yet there are one or two circum-
stances which mitigate the heinous-
ness of these extravagances. In the
first place, the ingenuity and the har-
dihood of the real offenders and their
accomplices have presented so af-
fronting a challenge to the Govern-
ment, the Courts and public opinion
that they have awakened an implac-~
able determination to enforce decency,
and have created a profound distrust
even of innocent appearances. In the
second place, there have been as many
Democratic as Republican victims of
unjust aspersions, and with infinitely
less warrant; in recklessness and ven-
om, perhaps, the spokesmen for the
party of Fall have won supremacy.
And finally, deplorable as some of the
manifestations have been, they have
arisen from instincts that have a
wholesome aspect.
If charges have been loosely made,
if reputations have been heedlessly
attacked, it is because the public and
its honest -representativeschaye been
sickened and infuriated beyond endur-
ance, not only by official and political
corruption, but by a conspiracy of si-
lence among those who should have
been the first to condemn the outrag-
es. It is regrettable, indeed, that the
inquiry has exceeded the bounds of
legitimacy and that the discussion has
| bespattered upright men. But those
survive, and meanwhile some who
would have escaped less wrathful pur-
suit have suffered the discredit they
richly deserve. ;
of indignation may be at times a sign
of moral vigor. Though here and
there it may scorch a sensitive and in-
nocent skin, it is a healthier symptom
than public indifference or cynicism,
eration towards criminality which has
been exhibited by some of those re-
sponsible for safeguarding the na-
tion’s welfare and honor.
Commission’s Task.
From the Wilkes-Barre Record.
In the latest session of the Elec-
tion Law Commission held in Phila-
delphia numerous suggestions were
made in addition to the many made
in previous sessions. The Commis-
sion has been so bombarded with so
many points of view on how to im-
prove the election system that it is
going to have a difficult task in sep-
arating the wheat from the chaff.
There is a lot of chaff in what has
of the recommendations express views
long held by eminent persons who are
not inclined to go off into the impos-
sible or the impracticable, others go
to the verge of silliness. y
The Commission must not only de-
cide what is reasonable and sensible:
it must also bear in mind what it is
possible to secure from a Legislature
that is not anxious to grant much in
the way of real election reform. The
attitude of past Legislatures has been
more of hostility than of whole-heart-
ed cooperation in the attempt to ov-
ercome fraud.
In the Philadelphia meeting the
chairman of the Committee of Seven-
ty urged that the September primary
be abolished, that the personal regis-
tration system be amended so that
one registration will suffice for every
year thereafter unless the voter
moves into another district, that the
voting machine method be legalized.
These are only a few among the
scores of suggestions put up to the
Commission.
There is no doubt about there being
room for improvement. There is no
doubt that the Commission will make
recommendations that will not go too
far into questionable experiment.
There is doubt whether the Legisla-
ture will heed even the minimum of
what could be made into law. After
the Commission’s report has been
compiled it will be the duty of the in-
fluential people in every community
to back it up in a way that will bring
the strongest kind of pressure to bear
upon the Legislature.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Because he fears he would be as lone-
some and useless as a stray cat were he
to lose his job, George J. Higgins, worth
$1,500,000, continues at 63 years of age to
stick to his post at Reading as station
agent for the Philadelphia and Reading
railroad. He has refused numerous pro-
motions because he doesn’t care to leave
Shamokin.
—Anthony Wakara, 44, leaped to his
death in a vat of molten steel at the
Homestead steel works last Saturday
night. Only a few particles of his bones
were recovered from the liquid metal. A
son said Wakara had been despondent
rince his wife’s death. He left home for
work Saturday night saying that “this is
the last night I'll work,” the boy said.
—“Come on, Mom, give me your bless-
ing for I'm going to go,” Victor Anonia,
aged 25, told his aged mother as he arose
from the breakfast table at their home, in
Shamokin, last Saturday. Without await-
ing a reply, Anonia shot himself through
the head and fell dead at the feet of his
mother, A sister and brother-in-law also
witnessed the act. Anonia’s wife, from
whom he was separated, recently brought
suit for divorce and the case was to have
been tried in Sunbury, Monday.
—Two of four major contracts for the
erection of the $300,000 high school, at
Lock Haven, were awarded Harrisburg
firms, last Thursday night at a special
meeting of the school directors. The con-
tracts go to: Frank P. Case and Son,
Troy, Pa., construction, $199,977; E. Keef-
er, Williamsport, heating and ventilation,
$29,243; Herre Bros. Harrisburg, plumb-
ing, $13,909; C. M. Davis and Sons, Harris-
burg, electrie wiring, 70; Lawrie and
Green, Harrisburg architects, are being
engaged.
—His bed struck by a hot-water boiler,
which was skyrocketed through three stor-
ies and the roof of his home by an ex-
plosion resulting from overheating, at
12.15 Sunday morning, George Elbert, aged
54, of Reading, miraculously escaped
death. He was found helplessly entangled
in the bedding by firemen, who prevented
the wrecked house from burning. Elbert's
only injury was a long cut on the palm
of his right hand. His wife, sleeping in
an adjoining room, was thrown from her
bed by the force of the explosion but was
not injured.
—Twenty-two railroad cars valued at
$1,500,000 are being prepared by the Amer-
ican Car and Foundry company, at Ber-
wick, for shipment to Brazil, where they
will be used by the Paulista railroad. The
lot, which will be shipped as a solid train,
will include dining cars, first and second
class passnger cars as well as combination
passenger and baggage coaches. Special
air brakes with which the cars were
equipped so as to meet the requirements
of the Interstate Commerce Commission
will be removed at Wilmington, Del,
where the coaches will be loaded on ship
for Brazil. : ,
—After being a cripple for 18 months,
the result of infantile paralysis, John
Dunham, 4-year-old son of Dr. Dunham,
of Mount Carmel, is able to walk again,
Until stricken two years ago he never had
been ill nor taken medicine. Then he lost
the use of his legs and had to get about
by crawling on his hands and knees. un
December 9 he was taken to the Shriners’
Home for Crippled Children, in Philadel-
phia. - Two months later he was on crutch-
es and on Sunday he tossed away the
crutches and walked. John Veza, of Kulp-
mont, and Ellen Rogers and Ralph Heck-
ler, of Mount Carmel, are paralysis pa-
And, finally, an indiscriminate blast '
and far more attractive than the at-:
titude of evasion and silence and tol- | __gis desire for steak for ‘Sunday din-
been brought forward. While some
tients -in the Shriners’ home.
—Tramping all day Saturday through
the woods of Greene township, (Clinton
county, along the old Sugar Valley pike,
near the Florida Farms, prohibition officer
: 8 ! Louis A. Gundrun, of Williamsport, came
who have been unfairly attacked will '
upon a 2000-gallon still in full operation,
one of the largest to be uncovered in Clin-
ton county in the past four years. The
still was dismantled and 200 gallons of
liquor, fifty gallons of alcohol and 500
gallons of mash were destroyed, but the
officor was unable to find anyone on the
premises. J. W. Welshans, reported own-
er of the land, has been ordered to appear
before United States Commissioner Marsh,
at Lewisburg, to explain the presence of
the still on his property.
ner directly caused the death of John
Wagsteck, 65, a roomer in a Philadelphia
house. Saturday night Wagsteck bought
the steak and Sunday before noon he re-
tired to his room, put the cut over a
small gas flame, then sat down in a
chair to doze while it cooked. Just be-
fore 1 o'clock, -James Ralston, owner of
the rooming house, ran upstairs, certain
from the smell of smoke that his estab-
lishment was on fire. He threw open the
door of Wagsteck's room, went through
a cloud of black smoke which filled the
place, and dragged a still form from its
chair into the hallway. Later, at the
Episcopal hospital, physicians pronounced
Wagsteck dead. He had been suffocated,
—Because it was his misfortune to wed
a kissless bride, who detested the idea of
caresses so much that she deserted him in
one day, Fred H. Springer, of Allentown,
on Saturday began suit for divorce.
Springer is a postal employee, 44 years
old and was married July 3, 1926. In
preparation for housekeeping he estab-
lished a home at No. 1509 Broadway, West
Bethlehem. He says his wife instantly
and vehemently protested against being
kissed, saying osculation was repugnant
to persons of refinement and left their
new home the very next day, returning to
ner former home in Norristown. Although
Springer has kept up his residence and the
latch string is out, he declares in the di-
vorce libel that she has spurned all his
appeals and refuses to join him.
—A six-acre box huckleberry patch,
claimed to be the first discovered in the
world and one of the few in existence to-
day, becomes the property of the State
through the gift of C. C. Hoverter and
Howard Scholl, Millerstown lumbermen.
The patch, situated in the Soule woods
near New Bloomfield, was discovered in
1846 by a professor at Dickinson College,
who reported his finding to Asa Gray,
noted American botanist. The plant, ex-
tremely rare, has been a source of inter-
est for botanists for some time. A pe-
culiar feature is that, although it blooms
freely and bears fruit, there are no seed-
lings. Scientists are at a loss to explain
its origin, and some believe it to be a
remnant of the preglacial period. Hover-
ter and Scholl recently sold the surround-
ing territory but kept the patch, which,
in order to preserve they donated to the
State. It will be known as the Box Huck-
leberry State Forest Reservation and will
be under the jurisdiction of the Depart-
ment of Forests and Waters.