THE CENTRE REPORTER FRED KURTZ, - - EDITOR The fellow who said this was going to be a cold winter should have no Christ. mas gift for lying. ——————————— Another prize fight is likely to end in death, which is the way all that kiad of work should end in nntil prize fighters are all dead, The fight alluded to came offnear Plymouth, Pa., the other day. ————————— This issne closes Vol. 62 of the CENTRE Reporter. Our next issue, January 9th, 1890, begins Vol. 63. A good but as spry as a brook tront yet, and as the Reporter keeps up with the times it will always be young, and ontspoken up- ripe age, on topics of public interest. A merry Christmas and happy Year to all. New LASS There is only one member of the Fifty first Congress without an assign. ment to committee duty, That man is Mr. Cheadle of Indiana. He is a Repub- lican, and his punishment comes in this way: He refused to vote for the caucus candidate for speaker, and supported the “blind preacher,” declaring politics had vothiog to do with congressional prayers, INI Mr. Andrew Carpegie says that steel rails can be produced in this country as cheaply as in Eogland. Why, then, cannot iron beams, rafters, joists, col- nmps snd all other formus of structural iron, be produced as cheaply in tnis country in England? And why should Mr. Carnégie be protected by a boanty of 828 ¢ ton on these wanufac- tures? Mr. Carnegie, if not too modest, might answer these questions in his next lecture, as Strangely rotable events of the past few days: The disappearance of Mr. Dittwuap, of the Qaaker Oily bank, Philadelphia, who disappeared although seen a very short time before he was missed, yet no trace of him has been found. “The death of the famous lawyer and railroad man, Franklin B. Gowan,—was he murdered, hid he shoot himself acci- dentally, or did he commit suicide, in his room in the Metropolitan hotel in Washington, Williamsgrove picnic a black eye. He says it is pot rua by the Grange, but it a private speculation, and that imposiv tions are practiced in the management Other prominent Grangers are of the same mind as Deoming The Grange seems to be misled by a few corn cobs who care only to prostitute this noble ofder to getting office and private gain. The Grange was organized for better purposes and many of its members are getting to see the nefarious aims of a few in the order. The low prices of farm products at this time have hardly ever been paral leled, The Decembis return of pricés to the department of agriculture hows that the lowest average estimated value of corn in former years was 31 8 cents in 1878, and since that date 328 in 1885. The present average is 20.1 cents. The average of wheat estimates is 70.0 cents. This is not the lowest, na the average in December, 1884, was 64.5, in 1888, 68.1; in 1886 687 cenis. The average price of oats is lower than ever before reports ed. In 1878 it was 24 6 cents per bushel; at the present it is 23 cents. Prices of barley, rye and buckwheat are also very low, The average value of the potato crop 18 42.1 cents. The lowest averages reported were 40 cents in 1384 and 40.4 The Boston Herald says the hoftest region on tho earth ig on the southwest ern const of Persia, where Persia borders the gulf of same name. For forty cons secutive days in the months of Jaly an d August the thermometer has been known not to fall lower than 100°, night or day, and to often run up as. high, as 126° in the afternoon. At Bahrin, in the centre of the torrid part of the torrid bels, as thouch it were nature's intention to make the region as unbear. able 78 possible, no water can be oblains ed from digging wells 100, 200, or even 500 feét deep, yot a comparatively num erous population contrive to. live there thanks to copious springs, which break forth from the bottom of the gulf, more than sa mile from shore, The water from these springs is ob- tained by divers, who dive to the bot- tom and fill goatskin bags with the cools ing liquid and s-ll it tor a living. The source of these submarine fountains is thought to be in the green hill of Os. man, some 600 or 600 miles away, . Christmas, As the scholars are not agreed, within five or six years, as to the year in which Christ was born, it is hardly to be ex- pected that the precise month and day of the Nativity should be aocurately as- certained. It isgenerally acknowledged that the received chronology, which is in fact that of Dionysius Exiguaus, in the gixth century, and which places the event ia the year of Rome 754, and ie about four years too laste; yet the world will go on counting from that year, in spite of Bibleal scholarship. And so, whatever uncertainties there be about [ the season ot the year, it will suffice for {most of us that the Christian world, for at least fifteen centuries, has ob- served the 25th day of December as the day of the Nativity. If it ba not the day, it is at least harl to dispute it, It was vot, however, without a good deal of dis- pute that this day was fixed. It would seem reasonable that the anniversaries of the later events of the Gospel should be remembered by the disciples who witnessed them, bat the Nativity was al- together obscure, and in the earliest per- ohservance of this day we find a great discrepancy. communities of Christians celebrated the festival on the 1st or the 6th of January, others at the time of the Passover, and others at the feast of Tabernacles, Long before the reign of Constantine, however, the sea son of New Year had been adopted for the celebration of the Nativity, though a difference existed between the customs of the Eastern and Western churches, the former observing the 6th of Januory, as the Armenians to do this day, and the latter the 25th of December. The custom of the Western church at last prevailed. According to St. Crysotom, Julius I, who was Bishop of Rome in the middle of the fourth century, on the solicitation of St. Oyril, of Jerusalem, caused diligent inquiry to be made, and following what appeared to be the best authenticated traditions, settled authoritatively the 25th of December as the anniversary of Christ's birth, the “Festorum omniam metropolis.” Some . —— — The laws of the Western States and Territories everywhere recognize and protect the rights of the first or “prior appropriator ” of water. Ifthe first set tler on the banks of a stream draws off, in his ditch, one-half or the whole of the customary flow to irrigate his farm, he has the right to take bis one-half or the v hole flow forever, to the entire exclo- sion of any subsequent settler. But the same rule applies fo rivers of large size As the quick-witted Westerner stands by the side of one of the great rivers and looks over thousands of acres of desert land along its banks, he sees a fortune in the situation. Only get capital enough together, organize 8 great company, dig an immense cana! which will “appropri- ate” all the water in the river, and you command the whole valley. It isthe po- sition of the Western railroads repeated. Instead of waiting for settlers to come and dig little ditches as they need them an immense capital digs one huge canal watering thousands of farms, and then draws settlers by advertisement and boom. 8o all over the West, throughout Colorado, in centre and southern Calis fornia, in Montana and Idaho, on the Salt and Gila Rivers in southern Arizona, there are great compani 8, with capitals running into the millions, putting this idea into effect, The canals they dig are twenty, thirty, or even fifty miles long, The largest are a hundred feet wide and ten feet deep, very rivers in themselves. They follow the contour of the country, running back farthe and farther from the river as the latter falls away. The main canal gives off lateral branches at fre que tiotervals, and by an ingenious sys tem of gates, crossings. and ditches sends watel to every foot of arable ground bes tween it and the river. The land belongs to the Government, and is taken up by individual settlers at merely nominal prices under the the “Desert Land Act” Bat the water belongs to the canal com« pany, and it is this water that the settler really pays for. From “Water Storage in the West,” by Walter Gillette Bates, in January Scribner, esas I MN Granger Deming, of Dauphin, in ex- posing, in the State Grange, the private speculation in the Williamagro¥e pionic, and the impositions practioed at it, fore got to mention that this was the pienic for which a lonatic member of the legis. lature from Centre county originated the ridiculously unconstitutional propos sition to appropriate $5,000 out of the people's money to fix up the ground. This was a fanny piece of corn cob legis. lation at which even the Patrons lsugh~ ed, as they knew that the public trees. ury was wisely shut against fool schemes and to the credit of the order they nt their foot in it, of such original Political Arithmetic, The way the Republicans managed to organize the Montaua senate is probably about as great burlesque in representa- tive government as this country has ever seen, That body is composed of 16 members, but an absentee of each party reduces the number to 14, seven Demo- crats and seven Republicans, On Thurs- day a Republican member moved the senate proceed to the election of officers, A Democrat the aves noes, The governor ruled this unnecessary, and refosed to have the roll called, although his waa directed to the fact that the consti tution of the State gives to two mem- bers of the senate the right to demand He held the consti- tution did not apply until the senate was organized The Republican candidates for senate offices were then elected by called for Republican attention the ayes and noes ballot the chair again refusing the ayes and nays, they receiving seven voles ont of 19. The refusal to have the ayes and noes called was to prevent the fact of no quornom appearing on the record. It was a double villainy, A well known decision of Speaker Blaine in for the chair’s information, in which Mr. Blaine “held that there was no power in the chair to compel mem- quoted the house could conduct business; that house made no difference so long as a majority did not answer to the roll-call,, The chair replied that his decision had been made and be changed, If this organization stands the Repab- licans boast they will elect States senators. The constitution of would not two United the United States defines a quornm as follows: “A ma~ jority house shall eosnstitule a guoram business, but a smaller number may ajdourn from day to day.” Of course these proceedings of Montana senate are revolutionary, and justify any form of resistance is defined by our highest thority, and cepted, as a majority of the legislative body. Therefore the Montana Repub. licans rest their case on the assertion 7 is a majority of 16, and a refasal to allow of each to do the A guorum litical aa has been universally ace political arithmetic may not the journal.- Post, ADDOAr Pittabargh - a Poverty and pauperism again prevail to an alarming extent among the miners in certain portions of Northumber land county, and tt affairs about Treverton, Shamokin, and Mount Carmel, and in Coal township is causing uneasiness among the zoos of those places. Eaforced idleness bas created distrust and bred dis content everywhere. Treverion, a pros. perous village of 3,000 inhabitants only two months ago, has hardly 2000 souls within its borders now. Actual hunger bas forced the people to quit the place, leaving unpaid bills and house rents, At Mount Carmel thousands of men and boys are idle, and the alarming state affairs exists at Shamokin and township. The numberotidie men at each of these places is augmented daily, The foreign element composes most of this army of idle men, and the men are in many cases becoming sullen and angry. Through sheer fear the call for bread was at first heeded, as the men, women and children begged from door to door, Some of the idle men had sav- ed from their earning, but this was soon consumed in baying “Polinski,” a favor. ite alcoholic beverage, But since food has been denied them, threats of vio- lence and murder are heard. Hungar- ians and Italians by the hundreds have left these places, Many have gone to New York, Philadelphia and Boston, as their friends have sent them money. Others cross the Atlantic to the home of their childhood, muttering words of diss content and cursing the “Land of the Free” The present dullpess in the coal re- gions and the depopulation of the towns is attributed to the open winter of 1886, and the same condition of weather just now, eT | Loves § ie conagition of substantial citi~ hina of in “oal sensi IOS MAS SAB The street railways of Philadelphia with their low fares, carried last year 150,000,000 passengers, and the average dividends on the actual paid up capital is 17 per cent. That is certainly a good investment. The receipts of the 10 aes tive companies were $7,168,177 and the expenses $4,412,710. The reduction of fares his iccraased the receipts withouf! a corresponding increase of expenses. the average cost of carrying a passenger having never been so low as this year— loss than 3 cents, wo Milwaukee at the present time is the Eastern terminus of a flour blockade that extends as far West ss Minneapolis aad bide fair to last for several weeks. Can’t Handle the Freight. Although this is not the banner month in receipts and shipments. the Chicago roads have never been so pressed for cars as thug far daring December. The facilities for ocean transportation seem utterly inadequate to take care of the vast amount of traffic, especially grain, with which trunk lines are gorging the seaboard cities. Especially is this the case in Baltimore, where millions of means of shipment which do not come. The Baltimore elevators are now crams med to their utmost capacity, necessi- tating the temporary storing of the grain | on tracks in the cars in which it was] received, Thousands of ears are no idle in Baltimore for this reason, and there is no speedy prospect of breaking the glufand freeing the loaded cars, A careful computation made on Friday! from figures in the Rock Island offices shows that over 27,000 cars are now on| their way to Baltimore, all of them] loaded with corn. This vast amount of] corn can be better realized when it is known that it wou'd make a corn cake a! foot hight a foot wide, and over 3800 miles long, These huge corn shipments are explanation of the fact that the Chis} cago east and west bound lines are do- | ing the largest business in their history. Enough traffic is being offered to more The roads are because they) compelled to refuse it upon them. mn A AI MSNA The Old and the New Journalist, The managing editor of a larpe daily! powspaper, a few days ago, gave a would be contributor permission to pre-| pare a two-column topie for his journal mate was that the article could be pre pared in on But] the writer declined the task, saving that it would require six weeks’ labor, The difference mates was the difference between the old on a given y editor's esti e, or at most two davs between the two esti and pew jourpalism. The contributor belonged to the old time when Hterary! snposition thought to be mighty and mysterious toil, using up the phosphorus of the upper regions of In that ponderous old school was ie the soul. { thought it was reckoned that a man’s brain would blow up if he applied any of high it, and if =» writer spent two hours in steady com-| wort pressure 1o position the proper thing was to go t« i. Fine times the newspaper would have bed and send for a doo in getting out if the old notions prevailed be ub TOUAY . f Lightning speed is the word alike for] and pressmen.) The speed at which editors and report-| ers prepare their matter for the modern) pewspaper would indeed blow up the) brain of the old fashioned literary and encyclopedic person. Mr. Murat Hal. stead has been writing a column an hour of newspaper matter for nearly forty wears, and his powers have not failed in the slightest. His former «di torial assistant, the late F. B. Plimpton, | wrote at the same rate. This is the reg- ular standard speed which all newspaper writers aspire to reach. Some other American editors have reached it, The local reporter whose work is in fino print can generally prepare a column in an hour and a half to two hours. Reporters are frequently paid by the column in the large cities, The one cent papers often pay no more than $3 a column, At that rate the reporter earns $20 to $20 a week and finds his own material. He must or he could not get his living, It is not apparent that either the quality of newspaper work or the health of the writers suffers from this electric speed. Many newspaper editors live to be old men, and they are the youngest old boys of their generation. Modern newspaper work is not so encyclopedic as that of the past was, but it is far more readable and contains far more of the life of the time, -— Writers, Comix MiloTs § In some parts of Kansas com is selling on the farm this year for 20 cents a bushel. A bushel of coal delivered on the same farms costs 21 to 23 cents a bushel. The Farmer's Alliance called the attention of the farmers to the fact that it might lessen the demand for coal, as well as perhaps raise the price of corn, to cease buying the coal and use the corn for fuel. Accordingly, corn is now looks wicked when Dakota farmers are said to be suffering for food. But the question is, Is it any more wicked to burn corn for fuel than it is to put the price of coal so high that a bushel of corn will not pay for a bushel of coal? It turns out that smokeless powder is, Homes for Oty Working People. ‘Whatever is British must have a long and dignified name, hence it is not strange that the ““ Allotments and Small Holdings’ associations” of England mean something much better than at first In fact, the association with the long name seems to be ane of the best plans yet devised to sound one might suppose. to city working people. The plan is ex- plained by Sydney Evershed in The New Review, He purchases a tract of land within a He divides it into streets and squares, and also divides few miles of a large city. each acre into plots of a quarter acre. On each quarter acre he erects a working at of al $750. man’s al cottages are bull pairs, making The one central wall « cottage fi cost ut in ie wo, for the sake of It is idea as that of the blocks of houses in cheapness in construct the same are only cities, except that here ther two houses together, Each cottager will thus possess a house to himself and a garden where all the vegetables he needs can be grown, and where he can gain health and recreation which will his renew him day by day for city toil. The feature absolutely unique in the plan is this: The working man will pay no car fare to or from his place of business in the city. That will his rent. the cottages contracts with the railway to much, fq a be included in The owner of transport his tenants yearly at s and he himself pays the sum un the money paid him by his tenants 1 the tenant can afford it, he is ul lowed to purchase his home at cost, The cottages are well built, have three bedrooms and thu drained. give all men, including the an ample water supply, is fenced ground and properly Mr. Evershed believes he can these advantages to working free pass, for a rent of about $1.25 per week, and still clear 44 to J per cent. on the money invested. That is twice as much as many investors now. They Mr. Evershed’s plan is in no in a humane Nineteanth century effort to feed and simply y the world's work ss well as pigs and horses are fed and shel tered, Unless something of this kind is done unless homes in the country are provided in which for working men to rear their families, the race wiil deteriorate rapid- ly. The deterioration is seen already fully in the pale faces and dwarfed i SOOO city born and Crowding in tens a min and third generations of bred working people is nature, which will in time destroy large ment houses against nnn ers of our population. Knights and Farmers Dec. 3 the National Farmers’ alliance met in St. Louis. It is an organization of agriculturists founded by Evan Jones, of Texas, in 1875. At first it was merely a combination of small farmers to resist the encroachments of the rich ranchmen. Then its scope enlarged and it took in all matters pertaining to the advancement of agricultural interests. The associa tion spread rapidly through the south. It is there that it flourishes most. By degrees, however, it is extending to the north as well. There is now a Farmers’ alliance, offensive and defensive, embracing a membership of not less than 2,250,000. Rumor is gradually taking the shape of fact that there is to be a union between the Farmers’ alliance and Knights of Labor. The Knights now nungber 250, 000 in good standing, dues paid up. They and the farmers have found that they have interests and aims in common enough to warrant united action. In addition, it is said that the Federation of Labor, the society of the united trades’ unions, will in time join the organiza tion. The three societies are not to be- come one, but will remain separate and act in concert on general questions. If the project succeeds, there will be formed the most powerful co-operative alliance of modern times. It can control any political party and make or unmake any politician at will. If the societies hang together, the question of labor and capi. tal and all the other great economic questions will be settled their way as surely as water runs down hill. 1t has come out at last that the Roths- childs are bebind the syndicate to buy American breweries with British money. From Europe, Asia and Africa money has rolled into the banking houses of the Rothschilds till they are embarrassed how to invest it. There is no safe and profitable enterprise in which to place such great amounts in Europe. War may open at any time. What then? The United States is a great, rich and grow- ing country. It is at peace with all the world, and likely to remain so. It bas THE WEEKLY PRESS, PRILADELPHIA, One Yearfor One Dollar. For 1590 will be es much better than The Week ly Press for 1580 as we can make it. With every sue during the new year i will be An Eighty Column Paper Each of the fifty two numbers will contain ten Pages, or eighty columns, with a total Sf #8he year of 5X pages, or 4190 polumns, Them, it will be “as big as a book,” as the saying 8 Paper of Quality, Not only will it be as bigas a book, but it will be 8 paper of quality as well as of quantity, It Will conleln the pick of everything good. Paper of Variety. The idea is that The Weekly Press shall be both clean and wide awake, Tt will discuss ail subjects of public interest snd importance. The writers on its list include: Julle Ward Howe, E. Lynn Lipton. Prof. N. 8 Shaler, Louis Pasteur, W mm Black, Edmund Gosse, Edgar W, Kye, Opie P. Bead, and, indeed. al. mos every popular writer of note in this coun try and quite 8 number of distinguished wri ters abroad, In Sction, an sitraction of the year will be “Esther,” by H. Rider Haggard; another serial story, already engaged, will be “Come Forth,” by Elizabeth Btaurt Phelps, A Farmer's Paper, The best conducted agricultural page in Amer! ca. llustrations, A Woman's Paper. The “Women's page” of The Weekly Press is sione worth the subscription price. Is {lus trations sre altracting attention everywhere, A Children’s Paper. The special department for children is now ad- dressed to the school children and school terchers of America. Let the children join the new Bainboy Club just s d. let them compe for the prizes—all in bright, whole- some, lastruct’ ve hooks, Important Clubbirg Arrangement. By special srrangement with all thé leading hily periodicels of America, sub ’ sn for euy (me or more of these Journals in connection with The Weekly Press at Buch low rates as virtually makes our grest fame F paper FREE to the subscriber for one year. Sample copies furnished free upon application. Terms of The Press. B Daily Dally (e Dally Dail & aLe mon uding Sunday’, one year. {including Sunday), one mont PRESSE, ODG FOAL... co.ocnossnnn Drafis, Checks, and other Remittances made payable 0 Lue order of THE PRESS COMPANY, Limited, Publishers, ae E SUN. FOR 1880. 100 should be TH Some poople ree with he Sun's opinions about men and things, and some people don't; but everybody likes 10 get hold of the newspaper which is never dull and never afraid to speak its mind, Democrats know that for twenty years The Sun bas fought in the front line for atic prin ciples, never wavering or weskening in its loyalt terests of the party it serves with feurioss intelligence and disinterested vigor. At times opinions have differed se to the best means of accomplishing the common purpose; it is not The Sun's fault if {4 has seen further into the mil gone. Eighteen hundred and ninety is the year that will probably determine the result of the Presis dential election of 1892, and perhaps the fortunes of the Democracy for the rest of the century. Vie tory in 1897 is a duty, and the beginning of 1890 is the best thine to start out in company with The Bun, Daily per year Sux ¥ Is vet apegmeairi ily and Sunday, year... Dally and Sunday, ord month, - Weekly Bun, ODE FORE cms mmsmvmmmrmmssssessonssse Address THE SUN, New York. sara pA When Vanderbilt bought Maud 8, 000 was a price for a horse that took he breath away. But we are far beyond that now. The present high-water mark is $105,000, which was paid for the §- year-old trofting horse Axtell, Instead of sending criminals to banish- ment in Siberia, it is said that Russia now proposes, in deference to American journalists, to scatter them about hereaf- ter through different parts of the em- pire. Dear, dear! The Parnell commission sat 120 days, and did not amount to anything. The only points scored were against itself and the British government. Five hun- dred witnesses were examined, twenty- eight of them being named O'Connor, twenty-four Walsh and twenty-two Mur-
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