INK SLINGS.
—Iowa has gone for Al Smith and
many other States in which the New
York Governor was believed to have
no chance are leaning encouragingly
in his direction. Can it be possible
‘that they are acting on the advice we
‘gave the country several months ago.
—After all there is a lot of senti-
ment in the human race. Madam
‘Schumann-Heink has just deeded her
“two hundred and thirty thousand dol-
lar villa in southern California to the
disabled World war veterans of Min-
meapolis because they honored her
dead son, who was a German soldier.
—As we sit here, confined to the
house and, after seventy-two hours,
‘only partially recuperated from the
effects of a week-end vacation, we are
in such a discouraged state of mind
“that we have no zest for argument.
Therefor we are going to string along
“with Dr. Appel and agree with his
current weekly health advice to the
effect that everyone should strive to
“take @ real vacation instead of
permitting the vacation to take you.”
—It leaked out in the Senate, on
Tuesday, that Ford collects twenty-
five million a year more in freight
bills than he actually pays. . A few
more little by-products of this sort
“would detract somewhat from the ef-
fect of Mr. Ford’s supposed superior
"business methods. In other words,
could he pay the wages he does and
sell cars at his present prices if he
did not have such questionable mar-
.gins of safety as are revealed in this
fictitious freight charge.
—Statistics compiled by the State
Department of Welfare for 1927 re-
veal that there was an unusual in-
crease in the population of the county
prisons and penitentiaries of the
‘State. Of course the answer to that
‘would seem to be that liquor was the
cause. Such was not the case, how-
ever. As a matter of fact there was
‘a decrease of incarcerations for
drunkenness, liquor violations and as-
sociated crimes. The increase was in-
fractions such as robbery, larceny,
~carrying concealed deadly weapons,
: assault and battery, etc.
—Reading the startling revelations
‘coming out of the trial of leaders of
the K. K. K. at Pittsburgh we are
wondering if the many eminently hon-
~est and respectable persons in Centre
~county who joined the hooded order
‘when it was in the heights of its
frenzy, several years ago, are not
‘now a bit chagrined at the manner ia
which they have been exploited. Al!
the testimony being brought out at the
trial indicates that the leaders of the
order found the credulity of the mass-
es a veritable gold mine and stopped
at nothing to keep it producing.
—“Dapper Don” Collins, the notor-
‘ious confidence man, narrowly missed
‘going to prison for life in New York.
Had it not been that a couple of wit-
nesses who were probably handsomely
remunerated for doing so changed
their minds about certain facts they
were expected to testify to Den would
have gone up the river to locate per-
manently. A fourth conviction in
New York State means imprisonment
for life. In many ways it’s a good
law. Law is supposed to be correc-
tive in its effect and if it can’t stop
the criminal in four trials it ought to
give up further attempt, meanwhile
‘being careful to place the object of
its fruitless administration some -
where where he will no longer need
be worried with.
—Mayor Mackey, of Philadelphia,
is just a politician. Nine times out
of ten a clever politician knows more
about government, good or bad, and
how to have either, than a whole
round-table of men and women in-
comparably their superiors intellectu-
ally. At an address before the Wom-
.en’s club of Philadelphia, on Monday,
Mayor Mackey told the ladies that
respect for law could not be expected
«of the younger folks when their eld-
ers discussed the superiority of their
respective bootleggers on all occa-
sions. Of course, the mayor was only
hinting, but he was really plumbing
‘the depths of prohibition enforce-
ment. The failure of prohibtion is
certain unless each and every individ-
ual who has voted for it resolves to
be honest enough to expect it to reg-
ulate his or her habits as rigidly .and
fearlessly as they urge it to regulate
the habits of others.
—We note that on and after July
one, next, Columbia University is go-
“ing to pay its teaching and executive
staff rather adequate compensation
for services rendered. We express it
poorly but we mean that because col-
lege professors are supposed to be so
inadequately paid Columbia’s new sal-
ary roll will be viewed by the less
fortunate as a mark to be striven for
by all institutions of higher learning.
While we're for everybody's getting
all they can when and where the get-
ting’s softest our imagination fails us
utterly when we attempt picturing
what the average college professor
would do with any more than he gets.
He might improve himself a bit sar-
torially, he might take an occasional
trip, if he were to locate enough spots
on the map which nobody else would
get any kick out of visiting, but the
chances are great that he would do
neither. He’s been inured to genteel
poverty so long that if someone were
to present him with a thousand shares
of Radio he’d probably put them in a
leather trunk in the attic and forget
- all about the trunk when the house
caught afire.
ci
[man
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 73.
Recreant Democratic Leaders.
A southern editor writing to the
Nation, New York, rather sharply
though apparently justly, criticizes
the Democratic leaders in Congress
for their failure to force tariff reform
into their legislative programme.
“Leaders in Congress,” he writes,
“have much to say about making the
tariff the issue in the next Presiden-
tial campaign, but they carefully re-
frain from any definition of the par-
ty programme in precise terms. Sen-
ator Walsh insists with the utmost em-
phasis that he would write a plank
into the next Democratic platform de-
manding tariff reduction in the inter-
est of the farmer. Senator Reed urg-
es tariff revision downward as the
best means of relieving agricultural
distress. Other Democratic Congress-
men call for an old-fashioned tariff
campaign in 1928. But none of the
would-be tariff reformers has ven-
tured to sponsor a specific proposal
for translating tariff principles into
law.
Tariff for revenue only has been a
fundamental principle of the Demo-
cratic party for a hundred years. Sec-
tion 8 of the Constitution authorizes
Congress “to lay and collect taxes,
duties, imposts and excises to pay the
debts and provide for the common de-
fense and general welfare of the Unit-
ed States.” In times of war such a
levy might be justified “for common
defense,” and in the early period of
our history a nominal tariff tax might
have found sanction for “general wel-
fare” in nurturing infant industries.
But there is no license, either in the
organic law or in reason, for levying
a tax “for protection” that exacts
from one element of the people in or-
der to pay unearned bounties to an-
other. The industrial life of the
United States is amply able to take
care of itself in competition with that
of any other country in the world.
The records of exports completely
prove this.
The present tariff law yields to the
public treasury approximately five
hundred million dollars a year. But
it costs the people of the United
States approximately five billion dol-
lars a: year. The difference ‘between
these sums of money, amounting to
four and a half billion dollars, is paid
into the treasuries of industrial cor-
porations and individuals engaged in
the manfacture of products essential
to life. Every man who buys a suit
of clothes pays at least a third of the
price because of the tariff tax, and
every woman pays a tariff tax in the
same ratio for her garments and oul-
er things. If the money thus unjust-
ly taken from the people were collect-
ed at the custom houses and transmit-
ted to the treasury it might be tol-
erated. But the fact that it goes to
feed the avarice of favorites gives it
the form of legalized larceny. And
Democratic leaders are faithless be-
cause of failure to check it.
—John H. Leete, who resigned his
position on the faculty of the Penn-
sylvania State College, some years
ago, to go to Carnegie Institute, in
Pittsburgh, has just been succeeded as
librarian of Carnegie library by Ralph
Munn, of Flint, Mich. We are uot
informed as to whether Dr. Leete re-
signed the $6,000 job or whether he
was the victim of local political fights
in which mayor Kline, the councilmen
and members of the board of trustees
of the library are involved.
—“Big Bill” Thompson, mayor of
Chicago, might ascribe his defeat at
the recent primaries in Illinois to the
minions of the King of England, but
the real cause was probably Bill’s
failure to maintain order in his own
bailiwick.
—The German who succeeded in
beating a sea lion swimming is an-
other one of them things. A lot of
satisfaction he’ll get out of gloating
over a sea lion.
—Governor Fuller, of Massachu-
setts, declines to run for Vice Presi-
dent. Obviously he has no faith in
the maxim that “history repeats +
self.”
—There are so many “favorite
sons” this year that the term has be-
come “an abomination in the sight”
of political managers.
—Nobody hereabouts knows much
about the new Ohio Senator, but it’s
a safe bet that he is entirely fit and
a good Deniocrat.
—Senator Borah has about given
up the idea of “lifting an obligation
of shame” by donating money to Har-
ry Sinclair. .
A ———— A ————————.
—The Easter temperature indicated
that winter still indulges in that dis-
agreeable lingering habit.
BELLEFONT
E. PA.. APRIL 13
Real Obligation of Shame.
| The shady transaction between
Harry F. Sinclair, lessee of the Tea-
pot Dome oil reserve, and Will Hays,
formerly chairman of the Republican
National committee and member of
the Harding cabinet, is not the great-
est “obligation of shame” resting on
‘the Republican party. One Republi-
can Governor of Indiana has just com-
pleted a sentence in the penitentiary:
and another escaped a similar punish-
ment by pleading the statute of limi-
tations. A Republican mayor of In-
dianapolis is now “in durance vile”
for crimes committed while in office,
and the Supreme court only a few
days ago refused an appeal of Thom-
as W. Miller, Harding’s custodian of
alien property so that he will have to
go to prison.
Len Small, Republican Governor of
Illinois, was recently compelled to dis-
gorge more than $600,000 which he
had stolen while serving as State
Treasurer and the Republican Gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania as well as
the Republican organization of the
State have exhausted every available
resource to help William S. Vare to
retain the seat in the Senate which
he stole in 1926. Secretary of the
Treasury Andrew W. Mellon and the
present chairman of the Republican
National committee have made them-
selves accessories after the fact to
the conspiracy of Fall and Sinclair to
rob the government of its oil reserve.
Yet all these malefactors are contin-
ued as leaders of the Republican par-
ty and directors of its policies.
One of the Republican Senators in
a speech, the other day, aspersing
certain prominent Democrats of the
country, said, “birds of a feather
flock together.” This grouping of
crooks in the Republican organiza- |
tion and recognition of them as lead-
ers of the party is an infinitely great-
er “obligation of shame” than accept-
ing tainted money to discharge un-
lawful debts, bad as that is admitted
to be. If Senator Borah wants to re-
lieve the Republican party from “an
obligation of shame” let him denounce
the present leadership and serve no-
tice that if the Kansas City convention
: Big Tom Heading for Jail.
For many years Big Tom Cunning- |
ham, of Philadelphia, like other gang-
sters, has led a life of leisure “tread-
ing the primrose path of dalliance,”
undisturbed by care or conscience.
During the latter period of the life
of the late Senator Penrose, and since
the death of that “easy boss,” he has
reveled in the luxuries of lucrative
office, unrestrained by law and indif-
ferent to public opinion. Having by
long immunity come to the belief that
he is above the law and amenable to
no power other than his own caprices,
be has grown defiant. He refused te
answer relevant questions put to him
by the Senate Slush Fund committee
relative to the source of his generous
contribution to the Vare campaign
for Senator.
In the United States District court,
in Philadelphia the other day, Mr.
Cunningham proposed to enter into
an agreement with the Senate.
is, he expressed a willingness, or rath-
er made an offer, to answer the ques-
tions asked if the Senate would agree
to admit Mr. Vare to membership of
that body. To Mr. Cunningham this
didn’t seem like an unusual proposi-
tion. It appeared to his mind as a
genuine reciprocity, an ordinary quid
pro quo. By precisely such bargains
the political affairs of the Republican
party are conducted and the power of
the political machine maintained. It
is the method which has kept him in
office continuously for nearly a quar-
ter of a century, and others like him
for an equal period of time.
But Big Tom will find things dif-
ferent in the present instance. He
will not have a perverted public sen-
timent and debauched magistracy to
shield him from punishment. The
Senate will not stultify itself and the
government by trafficking with him
on his own preposterous terms or any
other. It may not be possible to ob-
tain from him the information de-
sired. If he should “tell the truth”
it might result in both himseif and
his candidate going to jail. But the
District of Columbia court can, and
probably will, fitly and fully punish -
him for his contumacy, and there will
is controlled by them he will organ--%&.me corrupt political machine capa-
ize and lead a crusade, the purpose of
which will be the defeat of the candi-
dates they nominate.
—The public has been informed as
to who persuaded Mr. Fall to lie about
Doheney’s $100,000 donation, but is
obliged to guess as to who induced
him to swear that the Sinclair dona-
tion was a business transaction.
Secretary Mellon Changes His Mind.
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon
has revised his estimate of the
amount of the tax cut which may be
made with safety, and as usual he has
the cordial support of the President.
Soon after the assembling of Con-
gress Mr. Mellon conveyed an opinion
that a tax cut in excess of $225,000,-
000 would be destructive and Mr.
Coolidge agreed with him. Last week
Mr. Mellon notified Congress that a
cut of more than $200,000,000 would
be disastrous and the President
again concurs. But neither Mr.
Mellon nor Mr. Coolidge advances any
substantial reason for their change of
mind. The treasury receipts have
not diminished and there are no signs
of an unexpected increase in expendi-
tures.
| At the time that Secretary Mellon .
proposed a tax cut of $225,000,000 the
President, presumably with Mr. Mel-
lon’s approval, was urging Congress
to adopt a navy construction program
involving an expenditure of $75,000,-
000 at the start and a billion or more
in the end. Congress properly ignored
! this recommendation and made pro-
visions for navy construction of less
than $400,000,000. This ought to have
made available a tax cut of the dif-
ference.
wanted to saddle about $200,000,000
lof the flood relief cost upon the seec-
tion of the country which suffered,
but even if that policy had been
adopted there would have remained
$200,000,000 to add to the surplus.
Nobody has ever been able to find
{out what Mr. Mellon means by his
constant and continued resistance to
tax reduction. Six years ago he pro-
tested that any cut above $300,000,-
1 000 would be dangerous and Congress
{made a cut of nearly $500,000,000.
' But the surplus increased rather than
diminished. Each Congress since, at
the insistence of the Democratic mem-
bers, has made a cut in excess of the
| recommendation of Mr. Mellon and
the surplus remains at a perilously
high level. The present Congress con-
templates a cut of between three and
four hundred million dollars, and as
‘usual the recommendations of the
‘President and the Secretary will be
ignored and the tax payers benefit-
ted.
| —Hoover has enlisted “Jim” Good,
It is true that the President
“ble of rescuing him. Big Tom is head-
ing for a term in jail and “the pun
ishment will fit the crime.”
—At this distance from the Kansas
City convention it doesn’t seem to
matter much which candidate gets the
delegates. The candidate who gets
the support of Mellon and Butler
“will knock the persimmon.”
|
Three Plans to Prevent Fraud.
The Pennsylvania elections associa-
tions, composed of a body of patriotic
men and women who favor honest, .
elections, has made a tentative report
which contains three recommenda- |
tions upon the evil of excessive ex-
penditures by or in behalf of candi- .
The first, and pre- |
dates for office.
sumably the one most favored, would
limit expenditures in primary cam-
paigns “equal to ten cents for each
vote polled by the largest vote-getter
of the party in the preceding elec-
tion.” This plan holds out small hope
for candidates of much merit but little
wealth. Taking the vote of Governor
Fisher as a basis it would allow State-
wide candidates for nomination in
Bas party to spend upward of $100,-
00.
The second proposition is to “place
no limit on the amount of money used
but very clearly defining the purposes
for which campaign funds may
used, wko may contribute and who
may disburse the money.” To invest
this plan with value it would be neces-
sary to audit the account and bestow
upon the auditing court “power to
bar any candidate who has used mon-
ey illegally.” The third suggestion is
the adoption of “the Oregon system,”
which provides for the “publication
by civil divisions of official pam-
phlets in which candidates or commit-
tees, upon payment of moderate fees,
shall have the privilege of presenting
statements and arguments for and
against candidates.”
It is an involved problem the elec-
tions association has undertaken to
solve, and whatever method is adopted
will leave loop-holes for evasion and
fraud. For example, the experiences
with Tom Cunningham, after the Sen-
atorial election of 1926, casts a doubt
upon the effectiveness of plan number
two. He has refused to reveal the
source of the money contributed by
him and openly and impudently de-
fies the Senate in the matter. Plan
number one practically eliminates all
except rich men from aspiration for
office in the Republican party, and
plan number three is an experiment
which is yet to be tested in commun-
ities in which ballot corruption has
been reduced to a science.
—It is suspected that former Presi-
dent Poincare, of France, is trying to
—Secretary Falls’ confession does of Iowa, but the chances are that make the United States pay all the
not seem to have convinced anybody.
Lowden will annex the delegates.
debts of the late war.
RS
. 1928.
That
NO. 15.
GOOD MORNING!
Now that winter's over,
If we could have our wish,
We'd dig a can of angleworms
And catch a mess of fish,
i British Traits in American Business
Men.
{ From the Philadelphia Record.
{ Some of the traits we get from the
| British are precious and valuable.
| They have been kept alive by the un-
doubted Anglo-Saxon impress upon
, our civilization, for which we have ev-
ery reason to devoutly thank God.
The greatest of these traits is a sense
of honor. It would be idle to pretend
that sharp practices are lacking in
. American business, and that v.e are
wholly free from trickery, and even
partially free from ruthlessness. But
_ all the same there is a code—and most
‘men are honest men, and stick to it
instinctively. They would lose their
self-respect if they didn’t, and they
prize their self-respect too highly. It
is our code to “play cricket” in every
dealing with our fellow-men. The
proper sort of stolidity also is an as-
set we get from our English forbears.
We do not easily fly off the handle
or become panic-stricken; and we do
not allow either love or hate to ob-
scure our business judgment.
On the other hand, other British |
traits which persist in cropping forth
in American business men are deplor-
able. Can we not be stolid without
being unimaginative and stupid? Can
we not be honest without being indif-
ferent or lacking in enterprise?
A recent news dispatch from Brus-
sels should give us furiously to think. |
The Belgians suffered at the hands of
the Germans a decade ago, and the
Americans fed them. But now it
seems that business is increasing with
the Germans more rapidly than with
the Americans.
Americans, we are. told, are regard-
ed by Belgian experts as showing an
amazing indifference to increasing
their business by adapting themselves
to the market. John Bull-like, they
write letters in English instead of
French, stick to f. o. b. New York
quotations in dellars, offer goods by
our antiquated system of weights and
measures which Euroveans do not un-
derstand, and refuse to extend credits.
But the Germans! They give long-
term credits, as they did before the
war; they igure out freight rates and
customs, and guete prices tofthe Bel-
gian buyers in their home town in
Belgian francs; thev carrv on all their
businsss in excellent French; and
whatever merchandise they offer is
adapted to the market as a result of
careful study of its needs. :
When will we come to this? When
will we come to compete on equal
terms in world markets when we have
competitive lines of goods to offer?
We shall not do it by keeping on our
present system. The first steps are
the adoption of the metric system in
ithe export trade and a knowledge of
i foreign languages. After that we can
study the local conditions of the mar-
kets all over the world. And we can
quote prices that are intelligible to
the prospective customer. =
Let us keep the good we get from
‘the British and abandon the bad tha:
has come with it.
i
Senate Changes."
i From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
The appointment of Cyrus Locher,
- Democrat, of Ohio, to succeed the late
Senator Willis marks the third change
in Senate alignments during this ses-
sion.
cans had a nominal majority of one;
but the deadlock over Frank L. Smith,
of Illinois, and William S. Vare, of
{ Pennsylvania, transferred that mar-
| gin, in actual voting strength, to the
| Democrats. This was somewhat off-
set by the gradual conversion of Mr.
Shipstead, Farmer-Laborite, who is
expected to seek re-election this fall
,as a Republican.
{The session was only a few days
lold, however, when the margin was
{ shifted back by the death of Sen-
ator Jones, Democrat, of New Mex-
{ico, who was succeeded by Mr. Cut-
iting, Republican. The Republicans
| gained another vote when Senator
{ Ferris, Democrat, of Michigan, died
and Mr. Vandenberg, Republican, was
appointed as his successor, only to
have the margin of one restored by
the Ohio change.
The lack of any appreciable differ-
ence in strength of the two parties
explains much of the ungovernable
tendencies of the Senate. So does the
fact that thirty-two Senators are fac-
ing re-election. Of these, twenty are
Democrats and eleven Republicans,
not counting Mr. Shipstead.
Lewis and the State Cash.
From the Harrisburg Telegraph.
There isn’t much wonder that envi-
ous muck-rakers point the finger of
scorn at Pennsylvania State Treasur-
er Lewis as of April 1—no Fool's
Day so far as the Siate’s finances are
concerned—reports the high record of
$68,613,435.84 as the monthly bal-
ance and no outstanding obligations.
For March the total receipts were
$14,669,097.04, and total payments,
$11,880,687.20. Some going ° concern
we submit and why not tell it in Cap-
itol guide books, tourist booklets and
ali manner of publicity. Governor
Fisher's speech before the Pensylva-
nia Society of New York last Decem-
ber is the kind of joyful tidings that
should have wide and constant distri-
bution.
When it opened the Republi-
|SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
.—Somerset county sugar maple grove
owners are counting on a splendid season
for maple molasses and sugar. The first
day of tapping showed an unusually heavy
flow of sap, as seventy-five barrels of sug-
ar water were collected from one grove of
1000 trees.
—Michael Dendas, 21, charged with an
attempt to extort $15,000 from Mrs. Sarah
Kulp, wealthy widow of the late Monroe
Kulp, Congressman, of Shamokin, is oc-
cupying a cell in the Northumberland
county jail, while his counsel, attorney
Daniel W. Kearney is seeking his release
on $500 bail.
—Frank Hoak, a Glen Rock blacksmith,
Fas been declared the champion apple
dumpling eater of York county. Mrs. O.
H. Cramer recently baked fifty-nine dump-
lings so that seven men could stage an
eating contest. Hoak easily won first
place by eating thirteen. Henry Rohr-
baugh made a poor second, eating only
six.
—Traced to Lycoming county through a
stolen automobile, two convicts, Hdgar
Danner and Wilfred Krell, who escaped
from the Northampton county jail Maren
27, were captured in a hunting lodge near
Cammal. Danner attempted to flee from
the officer and was shot in the arm. He
iis in a serious condition at the Williams-
port hospital.
—Thieves knocked the combination off
two safes in the jewelry store of Robert
J. Snyder, at Norristown, on Monday
night, and escaped with uncut gems and
watches valued at $20,000 leaving behind
them a new set of burglar tools. The rob-
bery was discovered by Snyder. He found
{ two padlocks broken off an iron door in
i the rear of the store and the door wide
open.
—R. C. Gleason, justice of the peace at
Smethport, 25 miles east of Kane, was
offered a Turkish bath ticket, good for
use in Olean, N. Y., as a marriage fee
Friday. The Squire married a couple from
outside the State and the groom informed
him that he had no money, but that the
justice was welcome to the ticket if he
could use it. Squire Gleason refused the
; ticket and gave the couple his blessing.
| —“Don’t holler, Dad, and we will not
hurt you,” said one of five bandits who
{pressed a revolver against the face of
' Jonas Harr, night watchman at the Rich-
land silk throwing plant, at Quakertown,
{ Pa., early Sunday morning, then made a
safe getaway with raw silk valued at from
| $8000 to $10,000. Harr had just returned
{to the office of the mill from the boiler
‘room as the bandits had entered through
a window.
i —Leaving a note that they be buried in
a rough box without flowers and that
| money which otherwise might be spent
for their obsequies be used for a better
! purpose, Earl R. Peters, 19, and his wife,
Miriam, 23, ended their lives by asphyx-
iation in their home, at Lancaster, on Mon-
day. Three years ago the couple eloped
to Elkton, Md., and were married. Finan-
cial difficulties were believed to have led
to the suicide pact.
[ * —Claude Hersberger, of Reading, in tak-
ing a walk along the Schuylkill river, on
Monday, found the left leg and hip of a
{man probably six feet tall, in the mud
near the city sewage disposal plant. The
foot was covered by a brown stocking and
‘brown brogan. The leg ‘seemed to have -
| been torn instead of cut from the torso,
‘which ¢ould not be found. Police are
checking up missing people lists and hos-
pital records in other towns.
—Mrs. Mary Edith Hutchinson, 59, died
at Williamsport, last Thursday, in a fire
that destroyed a chicken house at the
rear of her home, 310 west Central avenue,
South Williamsport. Not until affer the
structure was burned down were firemen
aware that the woman was inside. When
the woman went into the chicken house,
jit is believed, she was overcome by the
intense heat and collapsed, knocking down
and causing an‘ explosion of-a lamp in a
brooder... Three streams of water were
[Pinel on the blazing structure.
—DMiss Susie Krebs, who lives on the
Sizerville Road, five miles from Emporium,
is the champion rattlesnake killer of Cam-
eron county—perhaps of the State of
Pennsylvania—perhaps of the United
States—perhaps she is even champion of
the world. She has killed over {wo hun-
, dred rattlesnakes—covering a period of
about thirty years. Her highest record
in one day was twenty-two. This was
two female snakes each with a brood of
little rattlers. At another time she killea
twelve. This also was a mother reptile.
She frequently killed them in pairs. They
ranged in length from five inches to over
five feet.
{ —Trapped in a small hut built among
the branches of a tree twelve feet from
. the ground, 17-year-old Lloyd Scheidler,
of Woodside, Dauphin county, was burned
to death, on Sunday, while his father
looked on helpless to save him. The boy
| bad gone up to the hut to sleep the night
before. His parent, George Scheidler, re-
‘turned from work Sunday morning, and
. saw the tiny building in flames. Using
‘a long pole he poked in the bottom of the
i hut and the body of his son, badly burned,
- fell at his feet on the ground. A stove
! was found in the hut later and it is sup-
| posed the boy started a fire in it to warm
: himself while he slept.
—Elmira Brown, 16; Verna Burchett, 16,
and Amelia Bleecher, 17, escaped from the
Shelter Home for Girls, at Lancaster, Sun-
day: morning, when left alone in the kitch-
ea and have succeeded in eluding authori-
ties. They jumped five feet from a window.
The girls were washing dishes when Mrs.
Maude Nauman, the matron, left the kitch-
en for a few moments. When she re-
turned, they were missing, an open win-
dow revealing their method of escape. The
Burchett and Bleecher girls were runaways.
The Brown girl was arrested two months
ago in Reading on a charge of larceny
and was held at the home prior to being
sent to an institution at Muncy, Pa.
—Improvements costing $350,000, in ad-
dition to those already begun, have been
authorized by Charles M. Schwab at the
Danville Structural Steel company plant,
of which he is the owner. He motored
there from Bethlehem last Friday and
spent the day inspecting the work under
way. When he purtfased the plant about
three months ago he ordered the rebulid-
ing of part of it. This work has been
started, and an addition to the tube mil
200 by 660 feet will be begun as soon as
the work now under way has been com-
pleted. This is expected to be completed
by August, and them work will be start-
ed on an addition to the brakebeam plant
200 by 250 feet in size.