VOL. XI. NO 4-5. CTo Buy Your Jewelry C XNothing in Town to Compare Withes the Quality that We are Giving 112 / You for the Low Price Asked. S \ Quality and moderate prices makes a force that 3 irresistibly draws into our store the best patronage r Cof this section. Many years here in business, always } N with a full line of goods above suspicion; chosen C ( with a care and judgment commensurate with its 1 \ desirability and adaptability to refine taste,-makes \ r our store a safe place to invest. C r Repair work done on short notice and guar«:n-Q \teed, by skilled workmen. Your orders appreciated. X S RETTENBURY, ) COLE. Saaa/M/S/w HARDWARE.? No Place Lil<e this Place For Reliable STOVES and RANGES, COAL OR WOOD HEATERS; ONE OP WINTER'S GREAT DELIGHTS. House Furnishiug Goods, Tools of Every Description, Guns and Ammunition. Bargains that bring the buyer back. Come and test the truth of our talk. A. lot of second hand stoves and ranges for sale cheap. We can sell you in stoves anything from a flue Jewel Base Burner to a low priced but satisfactory cook stove. Hot Air, Steam and Hot Water Heating and General Repairing, Roofing and Spouting. jiii iief The Shopbell Dry Good Co., -■ 313 Pine Street, WILLIAMSPORT, PA. New Dress Goods For Spring- ARE ON DISPLAY. Excell them ? Impossible! Equal them? Try! We are proud of our selection —eager f*r you to see them — confident ol your approval. I'or with a great care we have picked anil chosen ami purchased, and know that there arc not to lie found more worthy and beautiful representativesol the new est and best in Spring I'ress (ioods. Novelty and exclusiveness are t lie features of the rarest combination.*' of weaves collors find etlei't ever manufactured are included. Certainly the display is the su perior ol any in this section, arid you need jro no further in your search lor modish fabrics < t the moment. Make vour selections early when the fabrics, the weaves, the colur combination* and the prices are sure to delight you. Wide Material for Tailored Suit-. We are show ing an exceptionly large collection ol •">() to 56-inch fabrics for dacket Suits in the new stripes, ehecks and lancy miked materials, some excellent values at SHmiand £1 25 a yard. Plain and Fancy Panamas. Panamas are now recognized as one ol the very i>e«i materials made for service, and then they are stylish. We have them in all the plain colors and fancy mixed and over plaid checks. ALL WOOL BATISTE MIXED SUITING/ In all tl.r new dark and evening shades. We are ren.ly to show you the most Ihete is no better laliric maae lor inex- , ~ . *. . . pensive dressy wear .ban this all wool l">e ol lancy nuxed eu.tings and oatiste for plain fabric* you will iTnd anywhere for 50c- 50c Subscribe for the Newsltem Republican News Item. LAPORTE, SULLIVAN COUNTY PA. THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1907. | Commission to Revise School Laws. i (Ifan optimistic dissatisfaction is j the necessary condition to progress ) and reform, the flood of bills concern ing education now puzzling the brains of members of the legislature indicates that Pennsylvania is de veloping a state of mind that would make glad the hearts of Thaddeus Stevens and Horace Maon. In the course of the last fifty years almoct everything in the commonwealth has been reformed but the school system. As the schoolboard member in search of some item of informa tion vainly thumbs his way through successive amendments, addend.., qualifications and explanations more or less vaguely referred to in the jin dex of his "School Laws," lie is not at all sure that he doesn't need re forming himself. Both legislator and school-director may therefore be expected to look with favor upon a bill for the crea tion of a commission of experts who will shake the old"Be if enacteds" and"provideds"into printers pi and set them up again into a rational aid up-to-date system of school adminis tration- Within the last few years every state l>ordering on Pennsylvania has created its school system anew, and each in some of its provisions has given a model that Penneylvania could profitably follow if it did not have to appear as another darn of gusset on a thing of shreds and patches. If our state superintendent of pub lic instruction, a man of more than ordinary ability, did not occasionally use something else than red tape in liis needle he couldn't keep on mend ing. rnlike his neighbor in New York state, h<> lias no judicial power, no corps of school inspectors; no means of testing the relati%e etlici ciency of his schools. The life cer tificate which he issues to teachers not tr.ii.:< .v'-b, the normal school■> >. granted on recommendation of local examining committees which vary in the. requirements they demand, and is recognized by New York or New Jersey although they endorse each others life certificates. Legally his status islittle more than that of a mere statistican. There is woeful lack of correlation between the elementary schools, high schools, normal schools and colleges of our state. The normal schools are consequently compelled to provide preparatory courses, and so usurp the functions of high schools. Their final examinations are con ducted by temporary boards, which differ in their composition for each school and vary greatly in the de gree thoroughness with which they perforin their work. As a result, the normal school diploma can not IK* given definite and fixed recognition in determining the standing of grad uates entering colleges and universi ties. The county superintendents of schools are elected at a biennial con vention by local school l>oards not always beyond the reach of local politics. The minimum professional qualifications demanded of the sup erintendent is three years of any sort of teaching in any kind of school added to a "professional" certificate that any grammar school graduate should be able to earn. The fact that most superintendents are men of superior attainments is not due to the standard fixed by the acts of 1854 and 18<!7. Over the professional work of the county superintendents the state superintendent has no con troll whatever. Nor has he direct knowledge of its results except from incidental sources and from annual statistical or descriptive reports is sued by the superintendents them selves. The conception given by the Yellow Journel or the Comic "Week ly of a bank director's knowledge of his bank is the closest existing anal ogy to the information concerning Pennsylvania schools organization furnishes the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. What he learns for himself- -and he learns much—he can utilize only in reports that may or may not be read, and in legislative bills that may or may not result in adorning a piebald sys tem with additional legal patches. I Compared with the New York State department of Public Instruction with Its splendid corps of inspectors and examiners, our administrative machinery is like an old hand-fire engine in the shadow of a paid fire department. Not legislative tinker ing but expert reconstruction is what it needs. Opposed to Marriage. Superintendent of the.State Con stabulary has issued the following order forbiding the troops to wed: To maintain the efficiency of the force and owing to the fact that married men sleep out of.the barracks, and are not immediately available at all times for service, hereafter any member of the force getting married will be honorably discharged. By or der, of John C. Groome Superinten dent. John H. Clark Chief Clerk, commenting on the order of Superin tendent (Jroome said as follows: "1 know that this seems like a rather severe blow to our bachelor soldiers," said the captain Friday evening, ."but 1 have issued this order for the good of the State Constabulary. The constabulaiy was organized to be immediately available, to get where there is trouble before the National Guard may be started. "As a rule, married men do not sleep in the barracks, and when there is,a hurry call it takes time to get them together. Marriage is all right, but it will not do for our troopers. We do not enlist married men now, and it seems manifestly unjust that a inan may enlist as a single man and then go off and in a few days become a benedict and still remain in the ranks after his mar riage. The order issued by me is the same as one that is in force in the United States army, and if I were not convinced that the good of the service demanded it, I should never have issued it, as hard as I know it is on the fellows who are already contemplating marrying. The new rule will bar them, but does not ap ply to those in our ranks who are now married." Davill Tripp and Miss Bessie Granticr Have Romantic Wedding. Because of her superstition regard ing the postponement of weddings as an ill-omen, Miss Bessie Grantier, a graduate nurse, left her sick bed in the hospital at Williamsport last Wednesday and was taken to a church in a cab where she was mar ried. Immediately after the cere mony she was taken back to the hospital and put into her bed again. She entered the hospital the Sat urday before. Then the physician announced that she would be confin ed to bed for two weeks at least. As her wedding to I). G. Tripp of Can ton. had been scheduled for last Wed nesday, her physicians implored her to consent to a postponement, but she refused. On Wednesday she sur prised her friends by leaving her bed at the risk of her life from the ex posure and going to the Mulberry Street Methodist Church where Rev. Olivers. Met/.ler performed the ceremony. After returning to the hospital she was given special attention that her romantic wedding might not__endan ger her life. Cats lor the Pennsy. Cats are to be placed in every sta tion of the Pennsylvania Railroad, by order of President McCrea. Each station will be allowed one cat, and an appropriation will be made for its support. The cat will draw its monthly wages just the same as the baggage man or ticket agent. Its duties will consist of keeping the baggage room free of J rats and mice. Frequently baggage is destroyed by rats and goods gnawed in transit. It is President McCrea's idea that | one wide-awake tut in eaeh station ! will prevent this. He insists that every cat do its duty. Otherwise It is to be discharged and another one hired in its place. Some of the sta tions already have cats. A fierce forest fire which origi nated from a pile of buridng brush laid waste 200 acres of timber land ' near Bloomsburg, Monday. Much game was driven from the burning forest. GaJusha A. Grow Dead. ! Gnlusha A. Grow died Sunday at his modest home iu Susquehanna County, where he hud lived for three quarters of a century. Mr. Grow was a notable figure in Congress in the period immediately preceding and at the beginning of the Civil War. He was the youngest member when he entered the house in 1851, and he soon established him self as a man of convictions and courage. He was elected as a Free Soil Democrat to succeed David Wll mot, from a group of counties which early took Republicanism, and Mr. Grow naturally fell in with that sentiment. He was re-elected five times, the last three as a Republican and once had the unusual compli ment of a unanimous election. In the house he was familiarly known as the War Congress—called by Lincoln in special session—met in July 1861, Mr. Grow was elected Speaker. The choice wa9 well made for those tryingand disturbing days. His public career was ended for a time with that Congress, for a re apportionment put his county In a Democratic congressional district; but just thirty years later, when a candidate for Congressman at large was wanted to emphasize the best sentiment of Republicanism, he was nominated and elected by such a majority as had not been given be fore in the State. He was elected four times successively afterward and did not retire finally until he was nearly «0 years of age. He had an unaffected and straight forward character, and throughout his life he enjoyed the complete con fidence of the sturdy farmers who constituted the majority of voters in his old district; he was the political oracle and guide for all tb*t section of the northern tier. His was a real ly notable career, and he faithfully met every emergency. Clean U r , -Jean Up. At this time of the year the ques tion of cleanliuess is uppermost. With the coming of the heat of sum mer, when doors and windows are open and people are in the open air much of the time attention should be given to putting the premises in a neat, healthy condition, not only so a pleasanter*prospect inay be plac ed before the eye but in order that health may be spared. The condit ion of the premises is pretty clear indication of the character of the people that live upon them. When you see yurds neat and clean with flower beds here and there, you come to the conclusion that there is some refinement iu the family. On the contrary, when the yards reek with filth and the surroundings of the of the house are in an untidy con dition, you are apt to form an un favorable opinion of the tenants. It should not be necessary for the health officers to drum this lesson of cleanliness into (he people. For their own comfort and health they should engage iu the annual cleanin up with out compulsion. These remarks ap ply not only to tenants but to the owners of vacant lots around town. What a pretty sight it would be if all premises were made n eat and clean, the bare front yard plots sown with grass and with flowers and the back yards cleared of old cans and the illsmelling sewage. Who can estimate the good effect which t*- pleasant environment would have upon the growing children, whose natures unconsciously absorb the things which they come in contact with day after day! Let there be a general cleauing up. Fire Destroys Valley Record Office The office of the Valley Record, published by Joseph Murrelle, at Say re was practically destroyed by fire at an early hour Saturday morn ing. The flames which are of un known origin broke out ; just before ;j o'clock and in I' than a half hour afterward.' euure plant, includ ing type, presses, type setting ma chines, paper stock, office fixtures, and other material necessary in the printing of a daily newspaper, was a complete wreck. The plant itself was prolmbl> worth in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollors, and the loss it partially covered by insurance. 75C PER YEAR BERNICE ITEMS. Charles Jackson was a Siyre visit or on Saturday. lJr. J. li. Hrennan wis at Long Hrook on Thursday holding the in quest on the body of Horace Wilson. Mrs. James J. Connors of Mildred was a Dushore visitor on Saturday. C. E. Jackson was a Towanda visitor last week. L. J. Lowrey was a Kicketts visit or on Monday Robert Watson and Thomas Wal ters were Dushore visitors on Satur day. Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Dcffenbach were at Dushore on Thursday to pay their last respects to the Remains of Jack Hoffa who died at that place Tuesday interment was made at Pittston. lion. Joint C. Schaad is spending the Easter times with his family it Mildred. Mr. and Mrs. William Haley are visiting the formers parents Mr. and \\ illiam Haley of this place. William McOee of Pittston, I'M. is visiting his father Enos McCce of Mildred. P. J. Crawley of Say re is spending Easter with his familv on Seeggar hill. L. J. Lowrey and Dr. J. L. Bren nan were Dushore visitors on Satur: day. Twenty-four barrels of beer and over twenty gallons of whiskey is a pretty good showing for a town that doesn't want a wholesale licence. The business men of Mildred anil might just as well have the benefit of this amount of money as to have it spent out of town and there would not be any more drinking than there is at present but it looks like a case of dog in the manger, it wouldn't eat nor let any one else do so. The members of Fagan llall haw" been holding nightly meetings j o r the past week they have donned their war paints and with spears and dubs have went forth to fight any one who has the courage to stand up for justice and right either in churches, lodges, politics or business affairs. A unique case was placed on trial this week at Wilfcesßarre, Mrs. Mary Carr suing the Wilkesßarre and Wyoming Valley Traction Co. because a man spilt a quart of whiskey over her. She declared that while she was riding in one of the company's cars an intoxicated man carrying two quart bottles of whiskey-stood by her and as the car went around a curve fell upon her. One of the bottles was broken and her dress was damaged by the whiskey while her eye glasses wen broken and her face cut by tin glass. She claims the company was negligent in allowing a drunk en man to ride upon the car with out providing him with a •pat. A modern Solomon's judgment was rendered at Shamokiu Tuesday. Samuel Maiuin and Mary Alaska, neighbors, each claimed to own a chicken, which the woman was ar retted for stealing. "Release the fowl between their yards" said Justice J. P. McCormick. <e edict was obeyed, the chicken' ..ew to Mainin's side of the bound ary anil the "woman was held for trial at court. Governor Stuart and the Legis lature camein for a stinging relink at the hands of Judge E. C. New - coiah in the Lackawanna county court last week, for having passed the Homicide Fee bill, which di rects the county to pay a fee to lawyers assigned by Court to repre sent destitute defendants in min der cases. The fruit crop of some of the southern states has been killed by the freezing weather of April 1, and 2. Vegetation had become far ad vanced by the summerlike weather of March. Peach-trees in numerous instances were in full bloom whilt apples, pears and all other fruit trees were in such an advanced state that the total destruction of the fruit is believed certain.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers