Semen:
|
|
}
—
}
INK SLINGS.
—Indian summer is due anytime
ow. It comes in late October some '
imes. More frequently in Novem-
yer and often it forgets to come at
a1 !
s i
—Gosh, how we would love to see
hat occurred in Philipsburg fifty
rears ago last Saturday. My, what
hrills we had before Mr. Volstead
‘ave old ing Alcohol that soporific |
unch. |
—Mr. Harold Cowher has hitched
is yellow Packard to the stars. He
7ants to be burgess of Bellefonte. |
hat's a laudable ambition. Every |
oy has a chance to be President of |
he United States. Harold is evi-
ently taking his. : i
I
—We know that hosts and hosts of |
riends will, with genuine sincerity, |
sin in our prayer that John Holt, of
fnionville, one of God's noblemen,
1ay recover from the effects of the
troke that so seriously threatened
is life last Saturday.
—At the Edison golden jubilee cel-
oration at Dearborn, Michigan, last
londay night, the President became
uite facetious. While he wasn’t quite
3 funny as the two black crows or
mos and Andy he reached heights as
humorist that we know his prede-
sssor’ couldn’t scale in a thousand
ars.
—The Montana cowboy who hop-
»d off from Harbor Grace, N. F., on
uesday, for a solo flight to England
isn’t been heard of since. The way
en persist in attempting something
at means almost certain death
ads us to sympathize with the moth
at flies into the flame. It knows
) better.
—Frank Zueger fell from the top
the Bank of Manhattan building,
Wall street, New York, on Sun-
y night. The death plunge was sev-
. hundred and twenty-five feet. In-
much as che metropolitan news dis-
nsers knew nothing else to say of
e hapless victim of the accident
ey promptly made front page stuff
t of it by giving him the record for
1g distance falls. Tha*’s one, how-
er, that others are not likely to
art out to beat.
—1It might be because the State
ntrolled roads are so good that
me of the township roads seem so
or, but certainly such comparative
ects can’t account for the condition
the back road from Zion to Pleas-
t Gap. It is simply terrible. There
> probably few living who have
d the experience of riding over the
-duroy roads of pioneer days, but
ers can get a fair idea of what
se jolting highways were by mak-
+ a trip from Zion to the Gap.
~William ‘H: Freenieyer, of Clear.
d, having been recommended for
pointment as supervisor of census
the Third Pennsylvania district,
venture the suggestion that Mr.
semeyer could save himself much
or by watchful waiting. If he just
3 at home long enough most of
' Republican population of his dis-
it will be after him for jobs as
imerators. And then going out to
it up the few Democrats there ap-
ir to be left won't be much of a
—Members of one of our local
irches are having a rather uncom-
table time of it this week. Two
drives are on for denominational
rities and there’s a concert to be
ronized tonight. Fortunately they
take the whole family to it for
lollar, if the solicitors for the
res left them that much. It re-
ids us of an experience we had in
ada last July. We had remarked
1 casual acquaintance that a very
ghtfully located and imposing
ting building that we were ap-
ising at the time looked good to
Over the arched entrance way
, an artistic sign reading: “Enter
> for a change and rest.” He
ed at the sign and replied, “Yes,
‘bell hops get the change and the
orietor. takes the rest.”
We are entirely without knowl-
2 as to what might be in the
ds of the voters of Spring town-
. concerning the person they will
se to collect their taxes. We
w only one of the men who have
red to do the job for them. He
). A. (“Sandy”) McDowell. Be-
je of the grit with which he has
ied on under an affliction that
ld have made many another an
tic, crabbing person we have ad-
yd “Sandy” very much indeed.
has sympathy for a fellow be-
from whom nature has withheld
physique necessary in the strug-
for existence, but it is not sym-
y that prompts this paragraph in
cacy of Mr. McDowell's candi-
, It is admiration, pure and
jle. Any man who can do what
as done, handicapped as he is,
nes the rest of us into self ex-
ation. What would we be if we
“Sandy” McDowells? If you
v him, answer that question to
self. Spring township has never
a better tax collector. Spring
ship will probably never have a
sr one. On November 5th the
rs of that district will have an
rtunity to go on record as to
her they are for or against a
who is cheerfully carrying a
; few of them would stand up
r. We think Mr. McDowell
|d be elected unanimously. His
'd warrants it and when there is
ublic office that can be capably
' by one who is incapacitated for
i any other kind of endeavor why
/dn’t he have it?
ust one more of those glorious nights
| facts.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION,
VOL. 74.
BELLEFONTE, PA..
OCTOBER 25. 1929.
Cost
and Consumers.
Senator Caraway’s lobby investi-
gation is disclosing some interesting
Mr. S. A. Austin, secretary-
treasurer of the United States Beet
Sugar association testified, the other
day, that within the last seven years
that organization of tariff-pampered
patriots has spent $500,000 in main-
taining a lobby in Washington.
There are several other groups or
organizations equally interested in
tariff taxing sugar but Mr. Austin
protested that he doesn’t know any-
thing about their activities and ex-
penditures. Presumably, however,
each paid a proportionate share of
the cost of legally robbing the con-
sumers of the country of hundreds
of millions of dollars within that
period of time.
Mr. Austin has persuaded him-
self and is trying to convince the
Senators that there is no harm in
the Washington work of his associa-
tion for the reason that those who
contribute the funds are interested
in keeping the price of sugar at the
highest level possible. Lobbyists who
work for wages and have no other
interest in the object they are ad-
vancing are anathema, he admits,
but those who simply strive to
mulct the suffering public for their
own selfish benefit are blameless.
It is the philosophy of graft. In the
case in point there were two ends,
the Beet Sugar association and the
Cuban producers and they both
worked against the middle, the sug-
ar consumers in the United States.
What amount the Cuban organi-
zation has spent in its effort to keep
the tariff rate at the figure in the
Fordney-McCumber law has not
been revealed but it may be assum-
ed that it was considerable. In any
event it is safe to estimate that
more than a billion dollars have been
disbursed through the agency of the
lobby within the last seven years
for the benefit of a few thousand
sugar producers and refiners at an
expense of ten or fifteen billions to
the 120 million consumers of the
the country. But that is the real
purpose of tariff taxation. It be-
stows unearned bounties on the few
at the expense of the many and
provides slush funds to maintain the
Republican party in power.
—Senator Dave Reed would never
have agreed to accept an assignment
on the naval parley to be held in
London, in January, if he hadn’t be-
lieved that both the Vare claim fora
seat in the Senate and the tariff bill
would be disposed of before his de-
parture. In the light of his accept-
ance of the commission we believe
that Vare will be denied a seat in
the Senate and the tariff bill will be
passed as the Democrats and Insur-
gent Republicans frame it.
Welcome “Promise to the Ear.”
In a public declaration that “no
longer shall public office be regard-
ed as political patronage but it shall
be regarded as public service,” Pres-
ident Hoover has made a welcome
“promise to the ear.” It was made
in response to a complaint of a Flor-
ida politician that an appointment of
a federal district attorney in that
State was not satisfactory to the or-
ganization. The President said that
while he welcomed advice from the
party organization “his primary re-
sponsibility was to select men for
public office who will execute the
laws of the United States with integ-
rity and without fear, favor or polit-
ical collusion.”
This statement expresses a whole-
some symptom in the public life,
especially in the South where pub-
lic office has not only been regarded
as political patronage but a subject
of corrupt commerce. Under pre-
ceding Republican administrations
the office of federal district attorney
was a valuable asset in the stock in
trade of a group of political pirates
trading under the fictitious title of
the Republican organization. There
were whites and blacks in these
groups, equally corrupt and covetous,
and the official life of the Southern
States in the federal service was a
perrenial scandal.
If President Hoover has determin-
ed to alter conditions, as his state- |
ment implies, he will only render a
valuable service to the people of
that section but will pay a distinct
tribute to public and official decency.
But his promise may be “broken to
the hope.” In dispensing the patron-
age of his office thus far he has not
shown that fine discrimination in
favor of merit which his language in
this case implies. The selection of a
district attorney for our own district
is a case in point. It seems to have
been determined on purely political
considerations and not of a high
standard at that.
——Rum cases have increased in
the court of middle Pennsylvania,
but. there are no signs of decrease in
rum consumption.
of Sugar Tariff to Producers Death Knell of the
* California.
as reasonable as that he hus made
Hawley-Smoot
Bill.
The death-knell of the Hawley-
Smoot tariff bill, so far as the pres-
ent session of Congress is concerned,
was struck during a session of the
insurgent Republican Senators in
Washington, the other day. The
meeting was held in the office of
Senator Borah. There were thirteen
Senators present and they formeda
unit which the administration Repub-
licans and the few recreant Democrats
who care more for plunder than prin-
ciple, can not overcome. There will
be no trading, no jockeying, no
log-rolling to save the face of the
President or serve the purposes of
those Senators who have promised
to invest him with a power to con-
trol the tax levy greater than that
of any king or potentate.
The plan of the administration
was to get the bill into conference
before the expiration of the present
session. This could only be accom-
plished by the favor of consent to
vote by the opponents of the mea-
sure and at the sacrifice of proper
consideration. The insurgents have
served notice that they will engage
in no such traffic. Senator Norris
declares that there will be no fili-
bustering but that there will be
full and fair discussion, and in that
he assumes an impregnable position
as well as a just conclusion. Sena-
tor LaFollette added, “we believe
there is no proper ground for limit-
ing debate and we will not agree to
such a. programme or ‘any unani-
mous consent arrangement.”
President Hoover has his head
set on the flexible provision and the
servile Senators are anxious to grati-
fy even so dangerous an ambition.
But the earnest Democrats and the
equally sincere and patriotic insur-
gents will not permit such a perver-
sion of power. The President has no
more right to fix the tariff rates
‘than he has to make the levy on in-
comes. If he should demand author-
ity to add fifty per cent to the in-
come tax of Mellon, Henry Ford,
Rockefeller and Pierpont Morgan
there would be howling from Maine to
But it would be quite
‘with respect to the tariff schedules.
The insurgent Senators are right in
their opposition.
—Of course Henry Ford is entitled
to all the glory of the imposing cel-
ebration of the golden jubilee of Ed-
ison’s invention of the incandescent
electric lamp. Others have the mil-
lions to spend that Henry must have
laid out to bring the transcendent af-
fair to such a successful climax, but
they know that it takes something
more than dollars to make men
great.
One Hundred Per Cent. Nutmegs.
i ee
As a son of the soil of wooden nut-
megs Senator Hiram Bingham, of
Connecticut, runs “true to form.”
He has a strong, selfish interest in
high tariff taxation and has no scru-
ple as to the method of building the
walls strong and high. The consider-
ation of the Hawley-Smoot tariff bill
gave him an opportunity to do some-
thing for his constituents and he
availed himself of it in a manner
that has provoked reproach and may
lead to more serious consequences.
Among Senators and others there is
talk of criminal proceedings and in
any event the shadow of elimination
is enveloping his person.
{| At the opening of the session of
Congress the Manufacturers associa-
, tion of Connecticut, like similar or-
| ganizations in other States, sent a
i lobbyist to the capitol to boost rates
on the objects in which they were
. particularly interested. When the
‘Republican members of the Senate
‘committee on Finance decided to
hold secret sessions, Senator Bing-
“ham commissioned the Connecticut
lobbyist as his secretary, which gave
him access to the secret meetings and
enabled him to keep both Bingham
and the Connecticut association fully
“informed as to the secret proceed-
ings.. As a result o: this Connecticut
industries had gn advantage over all
- others ‘and tariff rates on their pro-
i ducts were increased so as to afford
| increased profits of $76,000,000.
The name of the Connecticut lob-
‘byist is C. L. Eyanson, assistant to
| the president of the Manufacturers’
association, whose salary is $10,000
‘a year and expenses. The salary of
a Senator’s secretary is approximate-
‘ly $200 a month, without an expense
allowance; so that if lar. Eyanson
had been stricken from. the associa-
tion pay roll when he became Bing-
'ham’s secretary he might have claim-
led the virtue of making a sacrifice
for public interest. But he contin-
ed to draw the $10,000 salary as a lob-
byist so’ that his interest was in serv-
ling the Connecticut tariff barons
rather than those of the country.
——The Republican leaders are se-
| cretly fighting the voting machine in
| every city in the State.
1 id 4 PE a Rs
Borah May be Weakening.
i ‘There is a suspicion floating
around in Washington that Senator
Borah is weakening in his opposi-
tion to the Hawley-Smoot tariff bill.
A short time ago he declared, with
considerable emphasis, that unless
the measure is made to conform
with campaign pledges with respect
to agriculture he would never con-
sent to its passage in the Senate.
The other day President Hoover
called him into conference, with
Senator Watson, floor leader of the
Republicans, and Senator Robinson,
floor leader of the Democrats, and
upon emergence from that meeting
he publicly predicted that “a bill
could be passed by late November
which would meet the approval of
the President.”
It may be presumed that Presi-
dent Hoover will approve any tariff
bill that has passed both branches
of Congress. So far as we are able
to discover no tariff bill has ever |
been vetoed. President Cleveland al-
lowed the Gorman bill to become a
law without his approval but Mr.
Hoover is not likely to follow that
example. Grover Cleveland was a
man of great mind and heart and
courage and Herbert Hoover is not
of that type. He will accept what
the party hands him and try to look
pleasant. Therefore the prediction
of Mr. Borah clearly implies an ex-
pectation that Moses and Bingham
and Reed and all the other tariff
mongers of the Senate and House
will consent to relinquish their de-
mand for increased tariff taxation
on manufactured products.
If Senator Borah bases his opinion
on that hypothesis he ‘is riding for
a fall.” The contributors to the ten
million dollar campaign fund which
purchased the party majority last
year will not stand for such a dis-
appointment and nobody knows that
better than President Hoover. If the
flexible provision had remained in
the -bill, that is if he had authority
to increase rates at will, he might
have reconciled the Grundies of the
party to a postponement of their
claims for reimbursement. But as
the bill now stands there is no hope
rach-a result. and-quite as little
for future contributions. Mr. Hoov-
er knows that it costs money to car-
ry elections as well as to build!
bridges.
Thomas Edison got the first
serious bump in his life at Smith's
Creek station, Michigan,
years ago. He was ejected from a
train for experimenting. He proba-
bly got the greatest thrill of his life
at the same place the other day.
Cowher, for Burgess, will be Put On
Ticket.
Through the insistence of Arthur
i Kerns, of Snow Shoe, independent
! candidate for township auditor on a
non-partisan ticket, and Lot. H.
Neff, of Boggs township, independ-
'ent candidate for school director,
i that their names be placed on the
regular ballot for the November
, election, three other candidates will
i also benefit by getting their names
on the ballot, among the number
being Harold D. Cowher, independ.
i ent candidate for burgess of Belle-
fonte. .
{ Following the primaries of Sep-
tember 17th, some fifteen more aspi-
‘rants for office in Centre county had
: papers executed to get their names
{on the ballot as independent candi-
dates. Out of the total number five
were refused by the county com-
| missioners on the ground that their
| papers had not been properly certi-
fied by the prothonotary. The five
| were Mr. Kerns and Mr. Neff, above
{ referred to; Robert Malone, also a
| candidate for school director in
' Boggs township; H. H. Curtin, can-
| didate for tax collector in Boggs
township, and Harold Cowher, can-
didate for burgess in Bellefonte. As
the decesion of tue county com-
missioners was based on legal ad-
vice the majority of the above con-
cluded they had no redress.
Kerns and Neff, however, had
their attorney, John G. Love, insti-
tute mandamus proceedings against
the commissioners to compel them
to place their names on the ballot.
The case was argued before Judge
Fleming, on Saturday morning, and
at the conclusion of the argument
the court decided in favor of the
contestants and announced that he
would issue an order to the com-
missioners requiring them to place
the names of Kerns and Neff on the
ballot.
Because of this decision of the
court the commissioners, at their
meeting “on Tuesday, decided to
place the names of all the candi-
dates on the ballot whose petitions
had previously been refused.
——Harry Thaw has been cutting
up again in New York. That old
sport is simply incorrigible and
somebody ' ‘ought to do something
about it.
seventy |
NO. 42.
Senator Bingham’s Deception.
From the Philadelphia Record.
“Probably I made a mistake,”
said Senator Bingham, of Connecti-
cut, when the Senate Committee
investigating lobbying had bared
the underground means by which he
gained $72,000,000 annually for the
industries of his State.
“Mistake” is a feeble description of
the wrong he did to the people of
this country.
In the beginning his motives were
defensible. He wanted expert ad-
vice on the tariff, so he looked
about for someone who could guide
him through the mazes of the com-
plicated schedules.
| And he bethought himself of his
friend, the president of the Connecti-
, cut Manufacturers’ Association. He
' applied to him.
And he accepted the service of
the assistant to the president of
his association, who was in Wash-
l ington for the avowed purposes of
| lobbying for higher rates. There
! he strayed far from his original pur-
| pose.
Then came deception. This lobbyist
was put on the Senate payroll by
the Senator who defends his action
by stating that it was in order to
“pring him under the discipline of
the Senate.” A slim defense indeed,
and one that falls utterly when the
Senator admits that he failed to re-
veal the identity of the lobbyist's
real employers.
The lobbyist was planted in that
position for the sole purpose of de-
ception. Masquerading as a loyal
and faithful servant of the public,
he was in’ reality the highly-paid
employee of special interest.
He was engaged in order that he
might keep in immediate touch with
every development - of interest to
his real employers and give to them
the information that supposedly was
guarded so closely.
He was successful. Of 52 of the
leading industries of Connecticut
the rates on the products of 44 were
increased, which, as Senator Walsh
pointed out, means that the people
of this country will have to pay $72,-
000,000 annually to protect the
manufactures of that State.
Lobbying is not essentially evil.
Every citizen who writes to his
Congressman or Scnator urging him
to vote for or against some meas-
ure is, technically, a lobbyist.
necessarily evil. If they work in
| the open, if their facts are accurate,
if they present them fairly, if they
do not bring financial, political or
social pressure to bear in order to
influence votes, such lobbies can de
much good.
But such lobbies are few and far
between. Far too many are unscru-
pulous, and none has been quite so
offensive in inspiration and proce-
dure as that organized by Senator
Bingham.
tp pn se
Value of Newspaper Advertising
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
In two important conventions of
business men two prominent Phila-
delphians have proclaimed news-
paper advertising to be the best
possible way of reaching the public
in the distribution of any product.
Both statements were unqualified
and emphatic and they were given
as thé result of long experience.
They confirm a belief that is be-
coming universal and they have
value because they come from prac-
tical men who know precisely what
they are talking about.
The first statement was from
Philip N. Arnold, president of the
Philadelphia Real Estate board, in
an address before the Pennsylvania
Real Estate association at its gath-
ering in Pittsburgh. He took an
optimistic view of the realty market
and while conceding that it has
been very slow, insisted that busi-
ness was to be had by those who
would utilize the proper ways of
going after it. He named some of
the means as energy, creative abili-
ty, thorough konwledge of the prop-
erty to be sold or leased, keeping
the idle property in good condition,
giving it the proper price and news-
paper advertising. ‘There is,” he
declared, “no better way of placing
goods before people than the medi-
um of newspaper advertising. When
you speak through an advertisement
the population of your city, State,
and even the nation, is your mar-
ket.”
The second declaration came from
James M. Bennett before the con-
vention of the American Gas asso-
ciation. He was intrusted with the
publicity and advertising section of
the organization and in accepting
the appointment said he was in fav-
or of more and better newspaper
advertising. “The newspapers,” he
said. “have carried our messages
to our customers for many years.
They have been a factor in the ad-
vance of all sicence and business
and equally in this great advancing
industry of gas.”
The day has passed when it is
necessary to convince intelligent
men of the value of properly placed
newspaper advertising. It has be-
come universal and it is. not con-
fined to any particular industry or
business. Even the cities are ad-
vertising their advantages. It is a
lesson to private business enter-
prise.
——Now that one person has spok-
en frankly on the subject the well-
known ‘D. A. R. are likely to get
what is coming to it.
|. Even organized lobbies are’ not
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONR
—A cow owned by Williaim Young, of
Mahaffey, Clearfield county, produced a
record amount of milk during the month
of September. The cow, a registered Hol-
stein, produced 2421 pounds of milk and
108.9 pounds of butter fat.
—When Charles Kadle, a farmer at Sev=
en Points, Northumberland county, ree
turned from a visit Monday he found that
600 bushels of wheat, his summer's crop
stored in his home, had been stolen. State
police are investigating the loss which
is more than $1000.
—A bomb thrown against the front door
of Joe Simone’s' poolroom at McKees
Rocks early Tuesday, struck the door
frame and exploded on the sidewalk. A
number of windows were broken, but Si-
mone, his wife and three children, asleep
on the second floor, were unhurt.
—Plans for the construction of new
hospital units at the State Sanatoria will
be ready about January 1, officials of the
State Health Department have announced.
The proposed construction includes two
forty-bed units at Mont Alto, three for-
ty-bed units at Hamburg and one 120-bed
unit at Cresson.
—With 20 cases
of scarlet fever in
Irvona borough. Clearfield county, the
district health authorities have closed
the schools and motion picture theatres
to check the epidemic. So far there have
been no fatalities. State authorities, it
is said, advised against the closing, re-
garding it unnecessary.
—S. H. Gohn, contractor of Dillsburg,
York county, has a force of men engaged
in rolling the two and a-half story dwell-
ing house of Ray Gerber back 66 feet ov-
er a new concrete wall, where a cellar was
dug out recently. The structure is being
moved to permit construction of a road
over the. former site of the house.
—C. A. Miller, in charge of propagation
for the State Game Commission, is author-
ity for the statement that 15,000 Mexican
bobwhite quail have been ordered. Ship-
ments will be made as soon as weather
permits in the spring. Thirty-one rac-
coons have also been ordered and these
will be stocked sometime after the close
of the present season. ;
—Benjamin F. Yeager, 79, lifelong resi-
dent of Clinton county, committed suicide
by shooting himself through the head in
the garage at the rear of the Hotel Clin-
ton at Mill Hall. He was a retired car
inspector on the New York Central rail-
road and had just returned from a visit
to his son, Harry Yeager, of Templeton.
I11 health is given as the cause.
—After a long fought legal
lasting almost twenty months, Joseph
H. Gardner, 35, of Lock Haven, has
been committed to the Clinton county
jail to begin serving a sentence of
six months for violation of the liquor law
imposed upon him by Judge Miles I.
Potter, at a court session held in Middle-
burg on February 12, 1928. A fine of
$500 went with Gardner's sentence.
—The $500,000 building program at
the State institution for the feeble mind-
ed at Polk, is nearing completion. A
boy's dormitory, providing for 400 boys
and costing approximately $400,000 has
been erected. Work has been started
on an 80-bed hospital building to be
used in treatment of contagious and in-
fectious diseases. The improvements will
allow entrance of 200 additional patients.
~The ‘stream survey corps of the sani-
tary watter board has completed the sur- 4
vey of Kettle Creek, a tributary to the
west branch of the Susquehanna river.
This marks the completion of the survey
of.all tributaries on the north side of the
river between Loyalsock and Kettle
creek. Sheffield, Warren county, has
been selected as a new base of operation,
and the survey of Tionesta creek is now
under way from headquarters.
—Tucking his mail bag under his
arm, Harry Sievers, pilot of the Pitts-
burgh-Cleveland air mail route, leaped in
his parachute 100 feet to safety as his
plane crashed in a fleld near Beaver
Falls, early on Monday. Sievers was
flying from Bettis Field to Cleveland,
when his motors stopped. Seizing the
lone bag of mail, he leaped. The plane
was demolished. Sievers took the mail
to the post office in Beaver Falls and
arrangements were made to transfer it
to another plane.
—Stanley Pensinger, 18 years old, is in
a critical condition at the Chambersburg
hospital with injuries to the chest re-
ceived late Friday, on a farm near
Mercersburg, when a tractor ' fell on
him. Pensinger, a laborer on the farm
of Walter Fields, was driving the tract-
or, Raymond Divelbiss, another work-
man, was steering the plow to which the
tractor was attached. The plow struck
a deeply imbedded rock and pulled the
tractor over backward, pinning Pensin-
ger to the ground.
—August Hess, 50, local business man
and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Anna Skelly,
70, were crushed to death at Portage,
on Fridey, when a gondola car loaded
with coal ran away on Martin's branch
of the Pennsylvania railroad and crashed
into the rear of the Waldorf hotel build-
ing. The two, who were in the kitchen
eating breakfast, were buried beneath
the wreckage and badly mangled. The
car broke away when a chain parted, as
it was being dropped from a mine tipple,
and ran one and a half miles before it
jumped the track and crashed into the
building.
—The body of Russell Bratton was
found in the woodlands of Clearfield
county, Friday, after a four-day search,
which was started after he had disap-
peared from a hunting cabin. Bratton
had gone to the camp in the mountains
to recuperate from illness. Tuesday
morning, he started on a walk through
the woods, and that is the last that was
heard from him until his body was found
by the searchers. The deceased was
aged 28 years and was a son of Milford
Bratton, register anud recorder of Clear-
field county. He was married two years
ago to Miss Grace Rhone, who survives,
in addition to his parents.
—The Palmer House, the town’s leading
hotel, and one of the landmarks of Pat-
ton, was damaged by fire, on Monday, en-
tailing a loss estimated at $75,000. Ori-
gin of the blaze was believed to have been
caused by crossed wires. The fire broke
out on the top floor of the four-story
brick structure and gained considerable
headway before discovered. For a time
the fire threatened to spread to other
nearby business establishments and the
Carrolltown and Spangler fire companies
were called to help the Patton firemen
fight the blaze. A man sleeping on the
third floor was awakened by the smell of
smoke and fled down the fire escape.
Other occupants of the hotel also escap-
ed unhurt. The hotel is owned by Sam-
uel Weakland and his son, John Weak-'
battle,
land.