BHUGKRT *v FOKSTKIt, Editors. VOL. 4. She Centre ;?mocrni Tarmi $1.50 per Annnm. In Alltbm. ♦ S. T. SHUOERT and R. H. FORSTER. Editor.. Thursday Morning, February 16,1882. Centre County Democratic Com mittee — 1882. WT*I'• Millh.lm A Msli.rs Ml! i.ln, Philips!"" * !.* >■• FHilt|-t.ur K . I'al.mtllU ' C Smith Fl-mlni. 11.-nt.-r I'rtnh Ht-n.r. IMll.iiiH>. !!..• A McLmnrhlin Mil..'",re Hurnsitl 1 Willi.n, III), I. I'm* HI. . Collg. Frank T.rl„r |." n - Curtin Frwlli. R,,i,h ||,.id Fitkum.u, o. I 1 - A J Or.tidort- PlssOru*. Mills N P...J. II llnhsrlfng K.sk Sprintcs. llr., I* P H. I. K,.|„.| prin Hills - N. P Ronj. Unilwrt lUlnrs M Kslstsr Asm"" „rg llallwiwu. ...A T, (Jr.. Ilslf H-wli 11.rr,. Jsni... iltllil.ml - H-ssls'""*- l|,,rd. I4|,l T.tnsr Howard. Iluaton J"liti Mil... Jul,.i.. Lllwrty W. II lisriliirr llUnrh.r,!. Marlon J J 11-v W'slksr MUm Us-iy- llsinr. Wolf . 1 I'.lton I> I. M.-k Buffalo Km, IVnn ...... II V. Dmk Mlllh.ln, Collar, S p 0 W Spanclsr ...Tu~.j*ill. O g. p J Wilmrr Wolf-.Cwiirs 11.1 l Rush William full.n Aanlr RMgs. Hnnsr Sims William ll*in-s.- Sn" Sh." H,,nne T M lUrnh*r.. IHI-loni.- Tai lor Vlntn IWkarlth Fowl.r. t'n'lnn Cliri.tln* Fl-mlnv Walk-r An.lr"Kro.Ti<. II I -rai ur*. Worth W li M. m.. n I'ort Vsii'Jn. It, 11. FORSTKR, Chairman. 11. A. M. Kil. Swr-Urr THE life of a babv elephant must be quite precious am! valuable, when Itanium can afford to obtain an insu rance upon the one recently born in bis menagerie, of three hundred thou sand dollars. The premium he pays is fifty thousand dollars for one year. TnF. tragedy enacted in Washing ton on the second of July last, does not seem to imffcso any restraint upou the gaiety ami disispation of its socie ty circles. These BTC unusually active, and are liberally patronized by the successor of the assassinated Presi dent. THE repudiation doctrines of Ma lione have been fully endorsed in the Wis latnre of Virginia, by the pas sage of the Riddleberg bill. Thus, by the aid and co-operation of the stal wart administration at Washington, the Old Dominion is disgraced and the integrity of public credit has received a wound that may infect other burden ed Commonwealths, if it docs not prove a source of annoyance to some of the money kings who invest so heavily in stalwart supremacy. The Montrose lirjmblican says that General Beaver i a " Providential can didate." If this le the rae, it is the first time, in a great many years, that Providence has interested himself in se lecting Republican candidates. Many people think the"other fellow" has gen erally made the nominations. — Doyle*- toicn Democrat. Thnt's so, and if Don Cameron and Matt Quay are not chain ed in some dark corner on the 10th of May, the "other fellow" will select the Republican candidate again. A PIHTOI, AFFRAY took place at Washington on Thursday evening last, resulting fatally to one of the attack ing parties. A. M. Soteldo, jr., who it appears was clerk to the Committee on Railroads in the Senate and also a correspondent of several prominent pa pers, with bis brother, A. C. Soteldo, made an attack upon Clarence M. Bar lon, the managing editor of the Na tional Republican for some articles published in that paper reflecting upon his character and standing. Both the Soteldoa appear to have been well ar med for conflict when they invaded Mr. Barton's office and were prompt iq making known the hostile purpose of their visit. The firing commenced and was kept up until Mr.' Barton and the elder Soteldo were shot, the latter fatally, the former severely, but not slangorously. It is supposed that the j bail which proved fatal to Hoteldo -was from the pistol of his brother and was intended for Barton. Ho far as ■we can see, there is nothing kindly to be said of the attacking party, and the offensive character of the articles that gave rise to it, leaves the other ■party with very slight claims to sym patliy. It is only another drawing in "lottery of assassination," and some greedy stalwart will draw a small prize through the committee on railroads. "■OCAL ASII KXACT JUSTICE TO ALL MM, OF WIIATXVICR STAT* OK PKMUASIOX, HJELIOIOOS OK FOLITICAL."— "State Larcenies." For a pome time past that able ami uncompromising Democratic journal, the Lancaster Intelligencer, has been waging an active, earnest ami aggres sive warfare against the extravagance* ami peculations of the ring of bold and adroit politicians who control the affairs of the State at Harrisburg. It is an old story. For many years it has been a well established fact, though a fact that lias never seemed to rnnke much impression upon the public mind, that not only open and reckless stealing has been the rule with the of ficials of the dominant party that has for so many venrs had the manage ment of the various departments of the State government. Through the loose practices that have grown up in the past years of Republican control, thousands of dollars have been filched from the treasury without warrant of law, and in ways and through cunning devices that can only be characterized as down right and unmitigated theft. Thc.-e ras cailv practices have long been known, but tbeexjKjsures that have been made of them, usually in the heat of politi cal campaigns, have never been of much consequence in the outcome of of the elections. They have passed over the heads of intelligent voters as an idle puffofair, and the ruling dynas ty of the Common wealth has nlways managed to maintain its power to plunder the public. We sincerely hope the work of the Intelligencer will bring forth better results in the near future than those that have followed efforts in the same direction in the past. The Intelligencer has an able ally in this cause in the veteran editor of the Clin ton Democrat, ami we think it is full time that every Democratic new-pa per in the State takes an unflinching stand upon the ground on which our friend and neighbor so firmly plants his feet in the last issue of his excel lent paper. U|mui this subject Mr. DeifTenbarh gives timely notice to all prospective candidates for legislative honors which they will do well to heed. We copy from the Clinton Democrat as follows: We mot cordially second the rugge#- tions of tlie InUlhgtnrrr nd now Rive for notice that we will support no in so f.r senator or represent ive from Ihts dis trict who will not pledge himself to do what he can to stop the.e "Stale lar cenies." not only by protesting and voting against every one. toil moving so to amend the app'Oprtslion hills as to cot them up by the roots and forever illiterate them, and by calling the yeas and nays upon all propositions in which the stealings are involved. In the cam paign of HJB the writer of this, with the assistance ol Maj. Forsier. now one of the editors of thef'tSTK* Rkmocrat, prepared elaborate statistics exposing thee thefts, had them printed in the papers, and sent condensed tables con venient for use to all the stump speak ers wo could reach. For a time the feature promised to become prominent in the contest and to have marked in Huence. hot Col. and the itepub lican leaders were adroit enough to adopt issues in reference to federal financial measures and the Ilemncratic orators were fools enough (generally ) to drop their own and accept the lie publican gige of battle. This year we hope to see the state larcenies made a prominent issue hv the Democratic leaders, orators and newspapers, and also hope they will not again permit themselves to he driven from it. The same sort of federal issues ought st the same time he made and driven home to the heart of every voter If the people mean to sustain thieve, let them know, at least, who the thieves are. It is for such reasons as these that we have nrged the selection a bold, aggressive, (lighting candidate for governor, of abundant ability and knowledge. With such a candidate and upon such issues fully exposed the Democracy can and must win. The Khode Inland legislature pro < (Ktics to enact n stringent law tor the prevention of bribery at elections in that .State. No particular movement seems to be on foot, however, to en franchise the citizens of Ilhode Island who arc deprived of a vote because of an unjust property qualification. It is all well enough to erect safeguards against frauds, but would be still bet ter to tear down the barriers that stand betweeu honest men and the polls. IiI.AfXK and the administration are having very interesting squabble over Houth American diplomacy. On the whole, we are inclind to tbinkJßlaine has the best of it. BKLLEFONTE, PA., THURSDAY, FEBIU7AKY IG, 1882. Tho Apportionment Bill. Speaking of the hill reported from the committee of the census to appor tion the Representatives in Congress, which calls .for 320 members, and is one for every 156,2*5 inhabitants, the Washington /'*' remarks: "If there were noKiate lines each Member would represent just that number of people occupying contiguous territory. Rut a- the a-isigiiiuonts have to ho made to States, there are fractions always left after dividing the population of u State by the number of inhabitants eulillcd to a Representative. Rv this plan obviously there nrc not a sufficiency of constituencies of the required size isi the different State* to include the whole number of Members to which all the States are entitled. The method heretofore pursued has heeu to assign the remainder of the Members, so far as they will go, to those States having tho largest fractions after the division referred to. Under the hill rejmrtod by Mr. Prescott, however, a new system of computation, calbnl after its author, the"ScHtoh method," has Ireen invoked. An attempt to explain it would take up too much space, to say nothing of the probable iilt|xMibility of making it clear even to the most intelligent reader, fiy it hut six States are af fected, California, Rhode Island, Flo rida, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois. According to the old plan tie first three States each retain a member, which, by the new method, goes to each of the last three. By as signing 320 members to 49,371,280 people, it is intended that every Con gre—man shall represent a constituency of 154,2*5, as near as may be. Under the old method, California, Rhode Is land, Florida. New York, Pennsyl vania and Illinois would have a mem ber for a population respectively of 114,1 Li, 138,26.1, 134,746, 154,020, 152,900 and 153,893, New York's rep rescntative population being within 259 of the number required, Pennsyl vania and Illinois close up and Flori da the farthest off, being 19,539 short. Rv the new scheme the Representative population of these Klates is as follows: California, 172,938; Rhode Island, 276,531; Florida, 269,493; Xin York, 149,496; Pennsylvania, 147,680, and Illinois, 146,565. These last three States are farther from the required number by this method than the other, while of the first'three California hss 93,261 inhabitants not represented at all, Florida, 115,208, and Rhode Island 122,246. The fairness of such an ap portionment is not particularly strik ing. Another peculiarity of the new sys torn i worth nothing. Dividing the population of New York, Pennsyl vania and Illinois by 154,2850tid the product is respectively 32, 27 and 10. Kach of these States have an extra Member, on account of the large frac tion remaining over in the division, which puts the representation at 32. 28 and 20; hut the improver! system | of calculation gives those .States each one more, making them 34, 20 and 21. The three extra members must repre sent the 330,715 inhabitants of Cali fornia, Rhode Island and Florida, who, hv this compound and complex arith metic, are left out in the cold, for Purely they speak for nobody in their own Stales. The aggregate popula tion of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois is 12,4-45,305, not enough for 81 members, yet the new method al lows them 84, requiring a population of 514,675 greater than they have. California, Florida ami Rhode Island are given only 7 Representatives, al though their aggregate population authorises 0. Ry the new method these three large Htatea obtain three Members to which they are in no way entitled, the luaa falling upon the three small Htatea; while by the old plan the three large Htatea have their pro per number of Representatives, the three small Htatea securing in the ag gregate only one extra member. Illustrations may be multiplied, hut enough arc cited to show that while the figures used by Mr. I'rescott's com mittee to holster up the Kenton method may not exactly lie, they do most em phatically prevaricate ami mislead. Absolute justice and fair dealing suggest another consideration. The first two and the fourth S'nte in popu lation can not gain much by the addi tion of one member each to their al ready large numbers, while the reduc tion of the representation of Florida and Rhode Island each from 2 to 1 will lie severely felt, especially bv the former, whose territory i- larger than either of her vastly more populous si-tors. No sueli result should lie brought about, especially when, in or der to accomplish it, a new plan has to he adopted so manifi -tly unfair and unjust." • Electoral Bill. Mr. Hewitt, of New lurk, introdu ced in the House on Thursday last, a hill designed to carry out the provi sions of the Constitution in the elec tion of President and Vice President. It provides that the electors shall meet and cast their votes on thesecoud Mon day in January, and that between the day on which the electors are chosen and the day on which they are to vote, the title of the office of elector of anv person claiming to have been elected -hall l>e determined and certified to the Executive of the .State by such State authorities, ministerial or judi cial, or in such manner as the State shall prescribe by the law. in force en the day of choosing the electors, and every such determination shall be con clusive on question of fact or of Slate laws in the counting by Congress. The bill makes regulations for the meeting of the two houses in joint convention, and provides that when an objection to any vote shall lie submitted in wri ting and signed by ai lent one senator and one member, the two houses shall separate and come to a decision there on, which decision shall l>e announced to the joint eenventiou, and no vote shall Ire received except by the affir mative votes of Ihi|Ji house*. The joint meeting shall not lie dissolved until the count of the electoral vote shall be completed and the result declared. Notwithstanding the decision or dccla tion provided f.r, the title to office of any person so declares] to be elected as President or Vice President and the title of any claimant thereto may lie tried and determined hy an action brought in the name of the United States, in the nature of a quo warran to, in any Circuit (•brt of the Unites! States, with a right of appeal to the Supreme Court. The hill was referred to a select committee. Nepotiam nt Washington. The soldiers' and sailors' league iti Washington the Iforrisburg I'atriot remarks, have effectually returned the fire iu their rear by expisiiig the nepo tism o some of the official advocates of the repeal of the penfion arrearages act. Their organ, the National f'rre I'rr*, has begun the weekly publica tion of lists to show the extent of the practice of nepotism in the civil ser vice. From these lists it appears that the meritorious family of Shermans draw fifty separate salaries from the government. Justice Harlan of the supreme court of the United States has a son in the post-office department, a nephew in the treasury, and a rela tive holding a war department clerk ship. Commissioner Rnum's zeal for maintaining the internal revenue tax es is partly explained by the fact that he has a brother, a son, and a nephew in the bureau. Almost as deserving a government family as the Sherman's is the French family, the names of eight of whom, headed by the Assis tant Hccrcfary of the Treasury, are published, who draw #17,4440 in an nual salaries in Washington. Not less than thirty of the French family ate said to be profiled for hy the pub lic treasury. Twenty names of the Kirk wood family \* 11 < > draw wilarie.* from the government ivre given which got* t.i show that the Ik a*eyKama whether *'•# gets twenty eight or twenty nine mem Iwrs, if her Legislative can so distribute the number as practically to doftan <-htse one-half of hercituens and leave them without representation ? Tina unfair distribution of members is. said the S|waker. no n> wot Tense in the ser vile satrap of the modern boss. No re |>ect is paid to the ratio of representa tion or the contiguity of territory. • Vun lies are torn into fragment! and dislri kuted by townships and half townships to meet the exigencies of the vilest partisan frauds Counties widely sepa rated are joined by narrow etnpa of land running through intervening counties, and thus connecvd. are called eontigu u> terrttorv and erected into districts. Take the Kleventh district in l'ennsyl vania. Here three democratic counlie* are taken in one section, all contiguous and containing about 4.000 democratic majority. Not satisfied with swallowing up this large surplus of the minority the leaders want more, and while there is abundant contiguous territory they do not take it, but run a niarveloulv constructed line over the two large in tokening counties, wr< stinc therefrom in the passage twenty and one half townshi|>a, containing 1,500 democratic majority, so as to strike and take in two other large democratic counties, with 3,00 democratic majority. "Thua we have, continued the speak er, a district, without a parallel in the famous history of fraudulent apportion inent, in the shape of a dumb hell, gathering up in its peculiar serpentine j 1 contiguous area at>ut nine thousand i democratic majority. This district, as i it appears in the |>olitical text book, coni|>osed of five cpuntie* end parU of 1 two counties, is bad enough, but as it j appears on the map and to the people of the Blate it is the ma-terpiece of that matchleas band of political conspirators who have run the machine in Pennsyl vania for years and Iteloie whose sublime genius lor Iraud their feeble imitators in all the other .States grow green with envy. It is the ideal which delights the dreams of the machine ruan as he \ contemplates it by day and the fetish before which he how* at night in adora tion of the marvelous woik of his mas ter hand. The Tenth district i another interesting work of the great gerrytnan derer'a hand. There we have two large continguous counties with sufficient imputation for a district with f> 000 iVtn ocratic majority. They are not satisfied with that, but go over into an adjoining county and wrest therefrom eleven townships, containing 2.000 democratic majority, and attach these to the dia trict, already large enough, making it run above the ratio, and with 8.000 democratic majority. This is done so that the remainder of the county, which is otherwise democratic, from which the eleven townships are taken, may become Republican, and being at tached to its adjoining county may se cure a Republican Congressman from what would otherwise have lieen a (air l>emocratio district. How do these things affect the representation of O.s great Common Wealth in which they are |>erpetrated T "In 18X0 the democratic party polled (07,(28 votes and elected seven mem bers of Congress. The Republican par- TEKMN: $1.50 JUT Annum, in Advinrp, . ty polled 410.704 vote. an'i elected I wen i v m*rnberi. It took .'l! *rt to eject a t'lerk of Assembly today, Mr. (ioddard, Repub lican, ot I.iurene, tn.de speech in * hicti he asserted that a number of lie putdicans, including hirji*elt. ti ad deter mined that about enough time had been wasted in the flickering for patronage between the Democratic factions, ar.d indicated ttiat it the difference* were riot soon selt'ed these liepublican. would, settle the matter for the Demo crats. It i* believed this warning will be productive of an early cessation of (he unseemly wrangle for office. 7 ll r report made to the Committee of '•ne Hundred yesterday by ita stub- Committee on the Prosecution of Kiec ' Own Frauds, i* an interesting document j to all classe* of ciiin-ns, and should be •penally instructive to the unpri-oned bail it thieves of the oily. The subcom mittee was appointed on the 221 of February, IKsi. with Mr. HDnkenburg us cb iirnian. aided by Messrs. Mcflrrsn . Morton. Corwon, Danish and Wood, an