REPUBLICAN NEWS-ITEM JOHN B. ENGLISH, Prop. LAPORTE PA. ———— Thus far Jt has been a hard year on baby emperors. At last accounts the man who wrote "The Beautiful Snow" was still In hiding. Getting cold feet may be slang, but there is more truth than fiction in it these days. Our Idea of a waste of time Is to fall In love with the hero of a mov ing picture film. The man who kicked on the 100 In the shade weather now sees where his judgment was at fault. The time may come when a man can be a good and great actor without having more than one wife. Generally, man proposes and Provi dence disposes, but this year woman proposes and man hasn't the heart to refuse. Eastern society woman tells us that the grizzly bear is not as naughty as its reputation. Isn't she the knocker! Kansas has a citizen who claims to be "the only hog dentist in the world." What's the use of casting gold fillings before swine? We are informed that Mars Is ex periencing a hard winter, but, then, there Is reason to believe that Mars has nothing on us. One good thing about the king of weather we have had this year is that it keeps your priceless chunk of but ter from melting away. A leading actress refuses to play In a theater that asks but one dollar for its best seats. This actress will yet be put on the retired list. A food expert informs us that there is as much nourishment in two eggs us there is in a good sized steak, but eggs were deceivers ever. Mile. Plaskoweitzkajakahie, a Rus sian dancer, is about to visit us. Lino type operators are in favor of the ex clusion of undesirable Russians. Paragraphers are taking sundry Jolts at the man who paid $27,000 for a Bi ble and does not read it, but how many paragraphers read the Bible? One of our financiers tells us that there is a scarcity of SIO,OOO men, but in our varied career we have not seen many SIO,OOO jobs lying around loose. Never be in your place of business when a person wants to borrow money of you, because if you are in you will be out, and if you are out you will be In. Chicago lawyer is responsible for the startling statement that a man will be on the safe side if he obeys the ten commandments. Another Solo mon! The queen of Slam breaks into print with the story that she has been robbed of her Jewels. We never knew there was a vaudeville circuit in Siam. One of the men "who broke the Monte Carlo bank" has been arrested on a charge of fraud. Maybe he spiked the wheel when the croupier wasn't ,'ooking. "A New Yorker was arrested for throwing money away on the streets." Don't be deceived; undoubtedly he was merely trying to entice suckers from the provinces. Government Investigators are try ing to find out what hash is, but a respectable family newspaper would not dare to print what the average boarder thinks of it. New York, we are told, has a mur der every thirty-six hours. And yet certain persons would have us believe that baseball is the most popular pastime in that city. The Turkish fleet has been destroy ed again. Either the war correspond ents are afflicted with frenzied imag ination or the Turkish fleet has a fac ulty of unscrambling itself. Franz Lehar, who composed the "Merry Widow" waltz, is coming to this country. Here and there he will no doubt bo able to find an old inhabi tant who remembers the "Merry Widow" waltz. We are told that English society women have adopted the fad of being photographed while asleep, but we fail to see how a woman can fall asleep when she knows she Is going to be photographed. Experts in care of infants in New York are warning mothers not to rock or cuddle their babies. Rut science cannot do everything, or it will have to make mothers over from the orig inal nature plan before It can stop the cuddling of babies. An office boy in Wall street has been made a partner in the firm. All of which goes to show that there are a few office boys left in the world who do not divide their time between read ing detective stories and whistliiig "AJtxaridoi's Ragtime Rand." PLOT TO STEAL $500,000 ESTATE Ex-Senator Gardner Accused of Conspiracy Against Recluse. MAN NURSE ALSO ARRESTED Nurse Arrested on Charge of Com plicity in Conspiracy to Gain Posses sion of Estate of Old Millionaire Says Testator Was Incompetent. New York. —The remarkable story j£ an alleged attempt to wrest from Samuel E. llaslett ol No. 13S Rernseu street, Brooklyn, his entire fortune, amounting to more than a hall million dollars, when the old man lay ill in bed, mentally and physically incompe tent, was revealed in detail when the verbatim testimony of George Decker, ■i trained nurse, arrested in connection with the case was made public. Deck er testified the rich man was incom petent when signing the wills drawn by Frank J. Gardner, formerly slate Senator, who is under arrest on a charge of conspiracy made by John B. Lord, attorney for Haslett. Decker told of the pitiful weakness of the old man, who, he said, was made to get out of bed to sign the documents and when in such a mental condition he would do anything he was aslted to do. The nurse said Haslett Knew practically nothing of what was going on when he signed the docu- j ments giving Gardner power of aitor- j aey and control of his estate. Other affidavits made public by Dr. j LI. B. Minton and John C. Stapleton, a ! Lrained nurse, both of whom are in j attendance at Haslett's bedside, dis- j closed also a story of self-inflicted pri- j ation, exposure and poverty endured j by the old man, who is rated a mil- j lionaire by many of his neighbors. Dr. | Minton said llaslett is suffering an j illness caused by lack of nourishment | and exposure to cold with inadequate apparel. Samuel E. Haslett is an old Brook- j lynite, the son of Dr. John Haslett, j who moved to Brooklyn years ago i from South Carolina. Dr. llaslett was wealthy when he came to Brooklyn, j and his money, invested in real estate, i greatly increased. Frank J. Gardner, former State Sen ator from Brooklyn, was arraigned be fore Chief Magistrate Otto Kempner, I on a charge of conspiracy to defraud j llaslett of property valued at upward j of $400,000, and was later released on $3,000 bail. Max D. Steuer, the lawyer who de fended Gardner when he was tried anu j acquitted on a charge of bribery in J connection with the anti-racetrack j legislation, said that Mrs. Gardner : who was known to the stage as May i Verba, had communicated with him ; and asked him to appear for her hus ; band. ENVOY INSULTS KNOX. Tells State Department He Would Not Be Welcome to Colombia. Washington.—The relations between the United States and Colombia, whicfc j have not been very amicable since 1903 j have been strained to a far limit by : an insult offered to Secretary Knox by : Senor Pedro Nel Ospina, the Ministei to this Government from the Colom 1 bian Republic. Senor Ospina, replying to the circular note announcing Mr j Knox's intended visit to the Latin ; American countries, has, on his own responsibility, made the reply that il would be inopportune at this time foi the American Secretary of State tc visit Colombia. In view of the Colombian Minister's note Secretary Knox probably 1 - wil" abandon his proposed visit to Colom bia. UNDER EITHER SIX MONTHS. Girl Now Reviving—Doctors Failed tc Remove Effect of Drug. Marquette. Mich.—After being un der the influence of ether for sij months on submitting to an operatioE on her foot in Chicago, Dorothy Gra bower, 16 years old, daughter of a leading merchant of this city, is now reviving from the anaesthetic, and ic two or three days it is expected that she will have fully recovered. BURIAL OF THE MAINE. Hulk Will Be Towed Out in the Guh of Mexico and Sunk. Washington. lmpressive lmpressive funera'. services for the bodies of sailors re covered from the wreck of the battle ship Maine and for the hulk of the bat tleship itself have been arranged by the United States and Cuba. Shortly after March 4 the twisted mass, which had lain fourteen years in Havana harbor mud, will be towec. out into the Gulf of Mexico ano" sunk. FISK'S WIDOW DEAD. Wife of Man Shot by E. S. Stokes Was Practically Penniless. Boston.—Mrs. Lucy D. Fisk, widow of James Fisk, Jr., who was shot more than forty years ago in the Broadway Central Hotel, New York, by Edward S Stokes, died of pneumonia in South Boston. She was 76 years of age. Mrs. Fisk had to pass the last forty years of her life in indigence and died almost penniless. She will be buried at Brattleboro. Vt., where her hus band's body lies. CALL HALT ON ALL WATER JOBS Impressive Protest Against 18 Schemes to Dam Rivers. EYES FIXED ON THE CLARION Two Thousand Residents, as Well as Corporations on the Ground, Give Warning—Most Potent Ob jector is Pittsburgh. (Special Harrisburg Correspondence.) riarrisburg.—The tendency to lay bold of streams lor commercial pur poses seems to be growing in Pennsyl vania. Many applications have been made to the Governor lor charters £or water power companies that propose to dam streams in all parts of the Blate; but these must pass the close inspection of the State Water Supply Commission, which is more rigid than ever in its investigations and seldom approves a charter unless it is fully *atisJied that the proposed company will not construct a dam that will in iure the public, now or hereafter. The A.usUn disaster has made the Commis sion very wary, and although its pow ers are not as large as they might be In preventing danger, nevertheless j they are exercised to the limit, and it j is proposed to ask the next Legisla- | ture to enlarge them. Since last March there have been j ou Hie with the Water Supply Com- j mission IS applications for charters j for rew watei companies, which pro- i pose to dam the Clarion River and control the waters of the stream with- j In 75 miles of its mouth. These com- ' panics have pre-empted everything in Bight in the way of water in Clarion, ' Jefferson, Forest and Warren counties, | so far as the streams are tributary to j the Clarion River, and as a conse quence the people along the streams have risen in protest, especially those ; living along the Clarion and Tionesta Rivers. The Commission now has on file protests from over 2000 people, and from companies that are now in existence and object to being depriv ed of their water rights. But the most potent objector of all is the Pitts burgh Floods Commission, which sees in the big dams in the Clarion, which is tributary to the Allegheny River, a menace to the cities and towns along the larger stream farther down, if the dams should burst. There have been a number of hear ings, at which the applicants and pro testants have' been heard; but no action lias been taken by the Commis sion, the opposition being so strenu ous. Meantime another company has applied for the right to dam the Clar ion and Tionesta Rivers, and against it already there have been lodged pro tests. Stste Loses Pollution Suit. In a jury (rial alleging violations of the act of 1905, forbiding pollution of the waters of the Commonwealth, the State Health Department has again lost out at Bloomsburg. A jury has ac quitted Elmer Shaffer, of Briar of the charge, after three days' trial. The costs were placed on Dr. S. B. Arment, county health officer, the nominal prosecutor, though the State Health Department had a small army of experts there to testify. It was tes tified by one of the Commonwealth's witnesses, Inspector Zeigler, who had served the formal notice to abate the emptying of blood and excrement from his slaughter house into Briar Creek, that Shaffer had informed him Dr. Dix on and the whole State Health Depart ment ought to be in hades, and he had concluded it was about time to see whether they could compel him to do as they desired. Probe Medical Colleges. Inspection of the medical colleges of ! Pennsylvania started at Philadelphia by the new State Bureau of Medical Education and Licensure, and two or three days will be devoted to an ex amination into the methods, courses and business of the medical institu tions in that city. The bureau mem bers >will goto Pittsburgh, where simi i lar inquiries will be made into the ! Western colleges which have the right to confer the degree of Doctqr of Medi cine. Institutions in the other parts of the State will be visited later. This investigation was authorized by the bureau at its recent meeting, and is intended to establish the stand- I ing of each medical institution and to ■ enable the bureau to formulate certain i rules to govern the issuance of de i grees and examination of candidates i Tor State licenses. It will be sweeping i in its character. Dies In Car Seat Beside Her. Miss Anna May, of this city, found tier sister, Mrs. Sarah Murray, dead in a seat in a Pennsylvania Railroad train just as it was entering this city. Auditors on Public Waste. Declaring the payment of $11,659 to j constables and $G,596 to Aldermen in the city upon discharged criminal j cases in the past year to have been a waste of public funds, the County Auditors, in a report submitted to I Court at York, recommended that the | jommissioners be vigilant and refuse ! payment in "trumped-up" cases. It was j shown that less than SI,OOO of the to i tal paid out for discharged cases went ! to Justices and constables outside the I Mty. Total paid constables and Magis j Urates for criminal cases Is $30,598. INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM WIN Supreme Court Refuses to De clare Them Unconstitutional. GREAT REJOICING IN WEST The Effect of the Decision is to Leave the Oregon Law in Full and Free Operation Unless Checked By Congress. Washington.—Only Congress, and not the Supreme Court of the United States, may object to the initiative and referendum method of legislation in the states, so the court itself de cided. That tribunal held that the question of whether a state still maintained a republican form of government, guar anteed by the federal Constitution, after it adopted the initiative a«id referendum method was a political problem for Congress and not a judi cial one for the courts. The decision was based on the claim of the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company that a tax im posed on it by the initiative and refer- j enduin method in Oregon was uncon stitutional. The initiative jind refer endum provisions in Missouri, Cali fornia, Arkansas, Colorado, South Da kota, Utah, Montana, Oklahoma, Maine J and Arizona hung in the balance. An j adverse decision would have affected j proposed legislation of that character j in many other states. Chief Justice White announced the j decision of the court. None of the jus- j tices dissented. The court also gave j a similar decision in reference to an I ordinance in Portland, Ore., for the j construction of a bridge. The decision in the case has been [ awaited with vital interest by the states j that have the initiative and referendum j and there is great rejoicing among I many folks from the West. Advocates j of this form of government say the j Supreme Court's decision will be of | great benefit to them in their efforts j to spread the propaganda. PITNEY SUCCEEDS HARLAN. Chancellor cf State of New Jersey Named for Supreme Bench. Washington.—Malilon Pitney, chan- j cellor of the state of New Jersey, has ; been appointed to the vacancy on the j Supreme Court of the United States j caused by the recent death of Asso- I ciate Justice John M. Harlan. The nomination was sent to the Senate by President Tat't. Trenton, N. J.- Both the Senate and the House adopted resolutions express ing appreciation at the selection of Chancellor Pitney as a Justice ot' the United States Supreme Court. The . House resolution congratulated the j Chancellor and the Senate resolution the President for the choice he had j made. Gov. Wilson, who was a classmate I of Chancellor Pitney at Princeton, was j doubly pleased over the selection. It is personally agreeable and it gives him the opportunity to appoint a Chan cellor, the highest judicial officer in the State. Mahlon Pitney"s father, Henry C. Pitney, was vice-chancellor of New- Jersey. His mother was Sarah Louise Halsted. He was born at Morristown, N. ,T., on Feb. 5, 1858. He was gradu ated from Princeton in 1879. He was admitted to the bar in 1882 and he i practiced in Morristown. In 1891 he married Florence T. Sheldon of Mor ristown. Chancellor Pitney is a Re publican in politics, is home is in > Morristown. 125,000 IDLE MEN IN CHICAGO. Mayor Will Appoint Board to Inquire Into the Problem. Chicago.—Chicago has 125,000 men out of work. They will do almost any thing, according to officials of the Unit | ed Charities and the Illinois Free Em ! ployment Bureau, yet scarcity of jobs | compels them to be idle. Their alter i native, according to officials in close touch with the situation, is to enter I the field of criminal activity. Maydr Harrison will appoint a com | mission to investigate. PICKED TEXT FITTING DEATH. Avis Linnell Killed After Copying Sermon for Richeson. Boston. —Avis Linnell, the Hyannis choir singer, who was murdered with i cyanide of potassium by the Rev. , Clarence V. T. Richeson, formerly her ! pastor, chose for her sweetheart the I text of a sermon he preached just be- I fore he killed her. The text was from j the book of Job —"Though he slay me, | yet will I trust in him." The sermon, j just found, is in the girl's handwrit ! ing. LONE BANDIT ROBS TRAIN. Gets SI,OOO in Cash and Much Jewel ry from B. & O. Sleeping Car. Baltimore, Md. —Flourishing a re volver in each hand, and his face cov ered with a handkerchief, a man boarded the Baltimore & Ohio Rail road passenger train. No. 1, eight miles west of Piedmont, West Va., and compelled the passengers to sur render their valuables, j The bandit obtained more than sl,- i 000 in cash and considerable* jew elry. NO AINSWORTH COURT-MARTIAL Adjutant-General of Army Re tired by Own Request. HAD CRITICISED SUPERIORS Accused of Impugning Motives of Sec retary of War Stimson as Well as of Chief of Staff Wood in Vari ous Memoranda. Washington.—Hopes of Washington sensation lovers that the Wood-Ains worth controversy would be aired in a court-martial of the former Adjutant- General of the army following his re lief from office were blasted by the announcement that Gen. Ainsworth ; had applied for and received retire ment from active service in the army. As far as the army is concerned this action ends the whole matter. (Jen. Ainsworth is now a retired officer and no longer under orders from the War Department. He will not be tried by court-martial and no charges are pend ing against him. He will retire with the rank of Major-General, with pay of SO,OOO a year instead of with the rank and pay of a retired Lieutenant-Gen eral, as was the Hay plan. General Ainsworth was removed by I Secretary of War Stimson in obedience i to an order by President Taft. ~ ~~~ MAJ. GEN. FRED C. AINSWORTH. Col. H. P. McCain, acting Adjutant General, was placed in charge aftei Gen. Ainsworth's dismissal from that j office. The charges against Ainsworth were j the outcome of a long smothered ill feeling between the adjutant-general and his former fellow army doctor, General Leonard Wood, chief of staff. ; Stimson and Wood, both Republicans, are violently arrayed against the Hay bill for the reorganization of the awny. Ainsworth, a Democrat, has been do • ing his utmost to socure its passage. Ainsworth's intimation that Stimson, j General Wood and other men high in I authority in the army are "incompe tent amateurs" particularly enraged the Secreary of War, and he conies | back with language almost as intern ! perate as that he quotes from the Ad | jutant-General. RESPITE THREE MINUTES LATE. Four Men Hanged in Chicago Just Be fore Court Granted a Stay. Chicago. Five murderers were j hanged in the county jail hero while j arguments which ended in the grant, j of a respite for four of them convicted ! of murdering one man were being ! heard in the Superior Court. Ewald and Frank Saiblawski, Philip ! Summerling and Thomas Schultz were j hanged for the murder of a Polish la ! borer. The four men were executed In j pairs. Three minutes after the first i two had been pronounced dead a bail- I iff rushed into the jail with a summons j for the jailer togo the court. The jailer accepted the service, but refus : , pj to delay the executions. When the respite was granted the ■ j four were already dead. They were ! convicted of murdering Fred Guilgow, I Jr., a farmer, in order to rob him. Thomas Jennings, a negro, the first j man ever convicted of a murder on j finger-print evidence in Cook County, was hanged on the same gallows. The | five executions took place within two l I hours. ENDS SUFFERING OF DYING. Doctor Chloroforms Trainman Pinned Under Wreck and Roasting. Portland, Me.—Pleading of Harry Corliss, a trainman on the Grand Trunk Railway, that something be done to relieve his suffering while 1 pinned under tons of burning wreck ' age at Yarmouth, caused a doctor to chloroform him. NEW ZEALAND SENDS BUTTER. Canada Imports It From Antipodes to Check High Prices. Ottawa. —High prices of butter caus ed, so dealers say, by a shortage have brought about an unprecedented con dition here in Montreal and in Tor " onto. One thousand packages of bnt ' ter. imported from New Zealand and shipped across the continent from Vancouver reached Montreal and were offered for sale there below the prices asked for Canadian butter which has reached 40 cents a pound. INTERNATIONAL SUNMfSOIOOL LESSON By ROY. William Kvans. I). I).. Director Blblo Course Moody Bible Institute, Chicago. LESSON FOR FEBRUARY 25. BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS. T.KRSON' TEXT—Mark 1:9-13; Matt. 4:1-11. MEMORY VEHSES-Matt 4:3-4. GOLDEN TEXT—For in that He Him eelf hath suffered being tempted, Pie Ist able to succor them that ara tempted.— Ileb. 2:18. Three things deserve special notice In connection with the scene of the baptism of Christ: The baptism it self, the descending dove, and the heavenly voice. The baptism of Christ Is connected with the fact that Christ was thirty years old. This was the age when Le vltical priests were set apart and con secrated to their office. The baptism, therefore, has reference to the priestly office of Christ. By submitting to bap tism Jesus Identifies himself with the world's sin. Christ's baptism then was not per sonal- —for he himself was sinless. The lesson tells us that while others, after their baptism, stood confessing their sins in the Jordan, he immedi ately went up out of the water, for he had no sins to confess —but official and representative. Christ submitted to the same baptism which the genera tion of vipers had received, not be cause he was one of them, but because he was their representative, and had come to take upon himself their sins. Christ, in submitting to John's bap tism, set his seal upon the divinely appointed ministry of John as the ful fillment of the Old Testament prophecy. He recognized In John's baptism God's plan for him, and he submitted to it without questioning. If any man in his own right did not need baptism, it was Christ. By thi3 act, Jesus set his seal upon the rite of baptism, a rite which may bo aban doned only when it no longer teaches any truth. Rebellion against customs and rites for rebellion's sake is vicioua individualism. The descent of the Tlolv Spirit indi cates Christ's equipment for his serv ice. In his sermon in the synagogue he referred to this truth w-hen he said, the spirit of the Lord God is resting Ufjon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel. Even Christ could not accomplish his life work without the aid of the divine spirit. Nor can we. The voice from heaven could-scarce ly have been heard by Christ without his associating it with the identifica tion of himself with the servant of thf* ; Lord in the prophecy of Isaiah (chap ; ters 42 to 60). The temptation is closely allied to the baptism of Christ; indeed, it is based on the proclaimed sonship of ; the baptism. From this we learn that | the greatest temptations ofttimes, in deed generally follow the greatest blessings. The temptation was a real event, and not a mere mental or soul strug gle. The personality of Satan is aa evident as the personality of Christ iin the narrative. Nor is there any thing in the story to indicate that it is an allegory, but everything predi cates a reality. All of the temptations were along the line of Christ's intention to estab lish the Kingdom of God in the world. Satan's suggestion to Christ was to I take a short cut to the obtaining of : the Kingdom The adversary did not i ask Christ to do a single wrong , thing; he did suggest doing right things in a wrong way and with wrong I motives. There is nothing wrong in j being hungry and satisfying hunger, but it is sinful to use wrong measures to satisfy even so natural an appetite. | Nor is it wrong to trust in the word i and promises of God for deliverance when we find ourselves in places of danger, but it is wrong to unnecessar : ily place ourselves in compromising ; positions because of the temptations of ! the evil one, and then presume to rely j upon the promises of God to extricate ' us from a position into which we have thus been brought. Such is not an | act of faith, but of presumption—it is | tempting the Lord God. Nor is it ; wrong to engage in the act of worship, ! but it is sinful to worship anything or anybody other than God. Christ's method of victory is signi j flcant. He does not resort to dazzling | Inventions or manifest any attempt at shrewdness in his answers. He does I not even try to be original. He goes | to the quiver of God's word, and takes I out an arrow that had been polished by much use, and hurls it at the ad versary. He exemplies the psalmist's expression: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin ! against thee." No doubt Jesus quoted | from memory. Herein lies the bless- I ing of learning gospel and of I storing the memory with scripture. Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are. We must not think that | these three temptations were the only | ones Christ endured, even in the wild | erness. The narrative says that "When I Satan had finished all the (whole i cycle of) temptations, he left him for a season." This implies that there were other temptations, and that his j whole life was beset by temptations, j There is not a single note in the great organ of our humanity, which, i when touched, does not produce a sym i pathetic vibration in the mighty scope I and range of our master's being ex sept tne Jarring discord of sin.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers