PUBLICAN HEWS ITP.H. C!!A?>LES L WING, Editor. Published S'.'jry Thurjln/ A!tenm ' | By The Sullivan Publishing Co At the County Boat of dullivan County. LAPOKTE. PA. W. (J. MASON, I'lvbideii. TJlOrf. J. INtiUAM, See'y Treas. Kutered at the Post Office at l.aporte, ue second-class mail matter. CHECKING NOXIOUS WEEDS. Lino of Road Improvement That Should Not Be Overlooked. It Is encouraging to see the attention that is being paid to good roads all through the United States. Various state organizations are taking the mat ter up, national conventions are being held, and an International meeting was recently called to convene in France. Everything points toward better high ways, better facilities for marketing crops and better conditions for the farmer. A good road brings one nearer to his neighbors, nearer to his church and school and nearer to his market. The time will soon come when one will speak of a farm as being ten minutes distant from town rather than two miles. The popularity which the auto mobile Is rapidly acquiring among farmers will promote this good roads movement. There is a splendid opportunity for the Individual to help the good work along by taking care of the roads in front of his own farm. There is no surer method than to take pride In the road that goes past your door. There Is one line of road Improve ment—the holding in check of noxious weeds-—that is frequently overlooked. Every roadway can be kept free from these with comparatively little labor if the matter is taken up promptly. Each weed that matures bears a more prolific crop of seed than its prede cessor. If the fence corners and the roadside are kept free it will tie an easy matter to exterminate the unde sirable weed pests which are coming to be a decided problem. If you can not drag your road, you can at least have regard for your adjacent field to keep the weeds from growing along the roadside. MAINTENANCE OF HIGHWAYS. Features of the Patrol System to Keep Roads In Good Condition. The new state highway commission lias announced that it expects to adopt the patrol system for the maintenance of the state and county highways here tofore improved by state aid. This will involve the maintenance of a force of some ISO patrolmen, each with a horse and cart and each assigned to look after the repair of ten miles of road. This system Involves an ex pense of SOO a year per mile of road to be repaired. It has been success fully followed out in keeping in con dition improved highways in Massa chusetts and in certain foreign coun tries. and under the system the roads are kept in such a state of efficiency Hint much in the way of expensive re pair work is avoided. The commission has also voted to establish Immediately a bureau of re search for the purpose of Investigat ing the various methods of construc tion in vogue in neighboring states and for conducting experiments with a view to ascertaining the best form of construction which will be adapted to the present conditions, having In mind especially the great damage caused by automobile traffic. FLORIDA SAWDUST ROADS. Southern Expert Finds It Cheaper and Best Material to Use. They are making roads of sawdust mixed with earth on a new plau in l,eon county. El a. Two ridges of earth are thrown up with a road machine at the required width from each other, and Hie space between Is filled with a six inch bed of sawdust. This Is fol lowed with a smaller machine, which plows up and mixes the earth with the sawdust. This makes a roadbed on which the tires of the heaviest loaded vehicles make no impression. The contractor, G. 11. Averltt. has kept an accurate account of expenses In con nect ion with this section of sawdust and earth road and says the cost ag gregates $2'.)7 a tulle, showing it to be about the cheapest road material in use. It may be suggested that snwdust is not a durable material, but the Florida True Democrat meets this objection with the statement that one or two filch roads were constructed In a south Oeorgla county twenty years ago and arc still in good condition, showing Its durability. As is well known, Leon county soil Is clayey. Oil For Country Roads. A most Interesting experiment is be ing conducted In central Illinois near Springfield. The state highway com mission Is making a test of oil on country roads. While oil roads are no novelty In many parts of the United States, they are not known on the heavy black soil of central Illinois. The top soil of the road is being mixed with an asphalt oil to the depth of six inches. In tunny parts of the Sucker ■State stone roads are out of the ques Hon. Without the material near at hand the great prairie states cannot expect to have stone pikes, as do some of the eastern states. Good roads must I c set tired by drainage, special enre and possibly by the use of oil. This experiment will be watched with a threat deal of interest. COST OF POOP ROODS! Waste of Labor In Hauling Crops to Market. WHAT THE MUD TAX FIGURES. Six Hundred Million Dollars Is tha Price We Pay Annually For Our Impassable Highways—What Is Be ing Done to Improve Them. It cost a little over a billion dollars to hnul the farm crops of America to market last year. With good roads, roads such as are to be fouiid in eome parts of America and in all parts of France, the marketing of the crops would have cost $400,000,000. Six hun dred million dollars per year, then, is the price we pay in this land of the free for having impassable roads, says a writer in the St. Ixiuls Times. Did ever a nation spend so much for so doubtful a luxury before? With Amer ican roads lying open and fathomless before the eyes of our foreign critics, what monstrous Injustice it is to talk of American dollar worship! Most men of middle age can recall the annual picnic known as mending the roads. Just why it got that name no one has ever explained, for In prac tically every case the picnic left the roads in worse condition than before. The law in many states prescribed that each resident of a rural district must pay a certain road tax In labor each year. The payment of this tax was done under the supervision of a local officer, known as the pathmaster. The customary time of payment was in the early summer, Just before hay ing time, when there wasn't much else for the men and teams to do. The neighborhood turned out with horses and plows and harrows, ripped np diverse sections of highways which the year's travel had packed to a more or less navigable condition, rounded them up nicely In the middle and scratched them up smooth with the harrows. You were never expected to work very hard at these festive occa sions, and the pathmaster who insisted on real work soon found himself un popular. It was just as well, for, since nobody had any knowledge of road making, the more work the worse re sults. What some of these results were and are we have vivid testimony. Across lowa last winter the "racing" autos had to take to the railroad tracks be cause the common roads were simply Impassable. Last March some mis guided creatures began an automobile race from New York to Savannah, Ga. It was just at the opening of naviga tion on the country roads of the mid dle south, the time when the roads arc too thin for wheels and too thick for boats. Across Virginia each racing automobile had an escort of six mules to pull it out of extra deep mudholes and to haul its emergency rations of gasoline. Umially this was enough, but I when an auto was so thoughtless as to ■ stay in the mudhole all night the mule teams had to be doubled and all the negroes of the neighborhood comman deered to service before that particu lar contestant could proceed. The racers avernged four miles per hour across the Old Dominion—a perfectly stunning rate of speed, all things con sidered. And yet the roads of America arc vastly better than they once were, and the Improvement Is going on apace. The United States government is lend ing a hand by setting its spare scien tists to work teaching the people of different regions how to make the best roads at the least cost. The states are doing vastly more. New York in 1900 voted to spend siK>,ooo,ooo on her high ways, and, while no other state is In vesting in roads at that rate, all are doing something. Cities are finding it good business to improve the roads leading out into the farming region, the farmers are begin ning to tax themselves in a rational fashion for highway improvement, and many philanthropists have passed by the conventional college and library donation to spend their surplus funds on good roads. Historic mudholes are being slowly filled up, stone and con crete are replacing the crazy wooden bridges, and a hundred inventions have been made to help get the best results for the lowest expense. Some of the last deserve attention. Macadam roads have long been ac cepted as the standard of highway construction. But macadam roads of tho old pattern, with crushed stone eight Inches thick, cost from SG,OOO to SIO,OOO per mile. Now it has been found that three or four inches will do quite as well, and the cost is cnt squarely in two. In some parts of the central states, where crushed stone Is rafe, it has been found that the very clay which makes the roads almost lm pnssable Is the best trackmaltlng ma terial when burned. In yet other re gions the farmers have discovered how to make good roads by the simple expedient of rolling or dragging them after each rain, and In yet other places a mixture of sand and clay, costing S3OO or S4OO a mile, Is found almost as good as the best macadam. It is well that the roadmaklng ma terials are abundant and varied, for there are roads enough in the United States to reach eighty-six times around the earth at the equator, and nearly all those roads are bad. The advo cates of good highways will find ample room for their missionary enterprise for a generation to come. The Auto a Road Builder. Good country roads are already In sight Every prosperous farmer either owns an automobile or Is making in quiries as to the price of one. . 6hortTalKs»on IN irt c$ *&» No. ie. —— People generally read advertisements more than they did a ago. The reason is to be found in the advertisements themselves. Advertisers are more careful than they used to be. Tliey make thatadvertise ments mora readable. Some of them even become, in a ■way, a department of the paper, and people look for them ... - every day with as much xest and pleasure as they turn to any other feature. This is true of many department stores all over In many cities there Is just one man who appre- "j' j ciates the value of such interest. ft He breaks away from the old set style. He tells 1 1j something interesting in his space every fMrfti_**-_/ . ;?T l~]~r-9! There are lots of interesting things in ' business. Look over the miscellany page of v | any paper—look at its local news columns, J j and its telegraph news, for that matter, Ju I i and you'll see that the majority of the 1 V items are more or less closely related to S0 some business fact. Dress these facts up in a becoming -u, tlu f#m , d J^ ojr k{ , garb of words, and they will find readers, ftdistmi." even though they be in a "mere advertisement." Let the merchant come down off his pedestal and talk in his SHS uee^D t flippant—far from it, ' Ct DOt " te aS were a<^~ il*if hDS m a^°ut something at even a greater Hh| The newspaper goes right into its 11 WM reader's house—goes in and cits down m I ' s on ta ' 3 ' e when he eats, and 112 Wini»i li ' n k' s hands while he is smoking after ' rT T7TTfn t * lc rnca '- reaches him when he is in il 111 • an approachable condition. ' • \WmWmlm I^'■ 11 1 11 That's the time to teli dhiir about WffllSt/ your business—clearly, plainly, con vine- ' TO llnglllngly —as one man talks to another. J. M. WIHTON, MUNCY VALLEY, PA. Never Before Received 50 and 75 so many praises and heardSso v£ Boys' e ;Knee many flattering remarks^as [we Pants " eav >; weight have had this Season. Ifellllll Assorted style M -„ rir i mm jL Q n poial Were von one ot the vast thrc ntrsjMhat §y§ advertised? If not you should lITOHPi : SBr COnCHERE NO©m We are making new friends fast: selling more gOods than ever before EK But we still want more friends, want to sell our stock laster, ye we are spurred onto deeper price cutting. People wonder how —^ we can do it. To this we can answer, ttiat no other store in tin j " B^^ L section* has the wholesale buying facilities enjoyed by this es ta 1 lu^;2Lo. lishment. We can buy lower, we can sell lower, - "-""v Sweater Coats specials Men s corduroy pants Men's Shirts M. u (er Coats 38 From I. .9 to 2.50 Men's Negligeejshii-ts .'Wc Men 8 or Boys Sweater Coats %ot> «■» • Mens'sweater coats .75 CHILDRENS' SUITS Men'. Work Shirtt Mens sweater coats 125 From 9QC tO 3.C0 and £.50 ' * J,'" 1 " , . ,V ' C ' «7~ r »"** , i r.,. ' liicii\ Manuel overshtrts 1.39 Mens sweeter coats l-«' 11p ... r -rn/M irrnc Mens swealer coats 2.00 MEN S TRO_'Sfc RS Mens V neck sweaters 25 and 46c Frulll (">9C tO $4 75* Men's extra heavy cotton iviens U p« pc A ii C[)A | mixed socks 08c ■ Mhl\ b UVfcKALLN Men's, all wool sock? 19s Underwear Froni 39C tO 7"? C Boys and tlirls Stockings 09c a „ „ MEN'SODD coats I::;;:;: ribbed or fleeced 20 and 26c- All I ' All 1 fiC(S Men's ribbedjunderwear L>UCh and Corduroy Bto 2 2=. XUo bi K »»*»'« lumbermen a)1 co]o „ 39,. rubbers— Lambertville and* Ball Men's fleeced lined underwear Band. A big savins; lor you - Udies' FURS at, great reduction. Boys'corduroy knee pants, Jlined, il'g ptiCCS SI.6iJ for DrtSS BKI> BI.ANKKT.S from TjcJJup. throughout, fine ribbed quality Slloe. Ladies' IbS Shoes for 1.09 _,. ¥TVI , . „ . worth regular 75c Special 39c; MeilS Working Shoes 1.f»5 * vl '-' K,s nll r ">'» 1-50 up. Men's Suits L Douglas Shoes at reduced . Si: St $ Big Line or Men's and EE&ttS, £ STS" S! Children's Overcoats at re- , , , r . Mens Suits 11.75 14.50 LdUltfb V,Udlb B ; 15.50 16 25 UUOCU pi Ladies'Coats from 3.50 to 12.00 So Come to J. M. Wighton's to satisfy your wants. Remember sale only lasts this month. Railroad tare from Laporte and Nordmont for purchase of sio'oo or over. THE free TRI-WEEKLY * LAPQBTE GAZETTE and BULLETIN] REPUBLICAN NfWSITEM Tolls all the general news of the Best dressed and most respected world, particularly that of our newspaper in Sullivan countv. State, all the time and tells it Pre-eminently a home newspaper impartially. Comes to subscrib- The only Republican paper in ers every other day. It is in fact county and comes from the seat almost a daily newspaper, and of justice w\th new news from you cannot allord to be without the county offices, clean news it. We oiler this unequaled from all sections of the county ' paper and the NEWS ITEM and political news you want to | together one year lor read. This with Tri-w#eklys at ' $1.50 at $1.50 ' The REPUBLICAN NEWS ITEM and Tri-Weekly GAZETTE AND BULLETIN. J In every city there is one best a If you want to keep in touch psper, and in Williamsport with the Republican party | it is the Gizette and Bulletin. organization and be informed | It is the most important, pro- %» on all real estate transfers or gressive and widely circulated legal matters in general that paper in that city. The tirst transpires at the county seat to hold the lbrt journalistically. you must necessarily take the Order of the News Item. NEWS ITEM. \ jf <|—————B—«l»l I'll iliil WBBBBMMMCaMW——Wi WINCHESTER I e * MEW RiVAL" FACTORY LOADED SHOTGUN SHELLS No black powder shells on the marke* compare with the "NEW RIVAL" in uni formity and strong shouting qualities. L ire ii.c a;iil waterproof, (jet the genuine. WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS CO. .... Hew Haven, Conn. W——l ~iß »If 1H" •JU.OOtT SMmMB 1 MBBaHBa——I———WIHIIWB "The Jewel I Shop." Where ycur repair work | receives special attention | ;ind > on are sure to be pleas j cu. Wh re you c;:n g,t glass ! es correctly fitted, that make ! yoj r tyes see like young ; eyes. Where \uu can get high grade Watches, Cocks and iali kinds of Jewelery at the bargain prices you have long j ooked tor. LJ.Voorhees, SONESTOWN. Administrators' Notice. Notice is hereby given that Letters ot | Aor trie book \ i £ Opposite U. S. Patent Office| > WASKIINGTON D. J..locate Yonr Rowel* With CaacarotN. C.indy Cathartic, euro constipation forevnr •oc. i&c. It C. C C. tai>. druggists refund motion