FREELAND TRIBUNE. -' rpm.ißßP bviuit i HON DAT AND THUKSIIAY. TIIOS. A. BUCKLEY. EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. OFFICE: MAIS Struct abovk Cxbtrb. ■ DBSCBIPTIOM BATES. One Year $1 GO SIX XttIttIHtMMNWMMMMM T5 Four Two Mooiin.26 Bubncrlbera are requested to observe tbo date following the name cm the labels of their papers. By referring to this they can tell at a glance how they stand on the books In this offloo. For instance: Grover Cleveland ZHJuiielfc means that Grover is paid up to June 28,1806. Keep the figures In advance of the present date. Report promptly to this office when your paper la not received. All arrearages must be paid when paper is discontinued, or oollection will be made la the manner provided by law. FUEELANI), PA., MARCH 14, 1895. One False Argument. Thorn is much unnecessary alarm felt in Freeland regarding the new county. The claim is made that if Quay county is established, with Ilazleton as the county seat, that the growth of this bor ough will lx- retarded, property will de preciate in value ami business interests in general will suffer. To begin with, Ilazleton is by no means certain of being the county seat. Freeland has a lighting chance to secure the courthouse, and but little active work is required to have the voters declare in favor of this town. Rut allowing that our neighboring city will become the county seat, In what manner will that injure Freeland's future prospects? The anti-new county people have poisoned many of the busi ness men here with that claim, because the latter did not stop to think whether the assertion was true or false. What argument has been presented to show that a courthouse in Ilazleton will prove inimicable to this town's growth? Noth ing but the bare statement, which the men who make it cannot support by a particle of proof. If Freeland is to be injured because t he county seat is to be located less than ten miles away, why have not other towns situated the same distance, or nearer, to other county seats been "blighted" and "ruined?" We need not go outside of our own county to prove the falsity of this ridiculous argument. As an example, take the borough of Nauticokc, seven miles from Wilkes- Rarre. Its population in 1880 was 3,884, in 1890 it was 10,044. Today it is said to be the best business town in north eastern Pennsylvania, and the court house Is not known to have any effect upon its business or property values. Another town is Plymouth, a short distance from tho county seat. Popu lation in 1880, 6,005; iu 1890, 9,344. That borough shows no signs of decay, which it should according to the arguments used in this town. l'ittston is another, near enough to Wilkos-Barre to be oft the map long ago if the claim that neighboring towns are destroyed by county seats held good. Its population in 1880 was 7,473, in 1800, 10,303. It became a third-class city a few months ago. The boroughs of Ashley, Edwurdsville, Luzerne, Miners Mills, Parsons and others located three to seven miles from Wilkes-Barre show corresponding gains in population during the years between 1880 and 1800, and their business inter est and valuations of property have increased in proportion. A similar state of affairs can be found by reference to tho dozen towns in the vicinity of Scranton. The onward march of the Electric City has spurred the little boroughs about it to become larger and more enterprising, and not one (if them considers itself located at a disadvantage because of tho county seat being a few miles distant. So it would be with Frooland, even should the courthouse go to Hazlcton. The claim that this town would suffer in any manner is unfounded and cannot be proven, and the men who are making themselves ridiculous by preaching "dis aster" and "ruin" for Frooland ought to learn whether or not their statements are reliable or come only from those who have axes to grind and desire to make themselves notorious in this new county contest. The TRIBUNE has no particular inter est in the new county fight. As its readers know, it favors the division, but it has respected the opinions of those who think otherwise. It will not, how ever. stand by and hear unprincipled men decry tho future of this town with out a shadow of proof for such prophecy. Frooland was built up by the hard-earn ed money of poor men, and it cannot be wrecked by one or a dozen courthouses which may be built in Hazlcton or else where. Frooland will stand and pros per while the mines and shops about it last, and perhaps after they are gone. If it retrogrades the cause will come from some other source, not because of a courthouse at Hazlcton, and the men who use tin*, argument that the town's future would be imperiled on that ac count set themselves down as enemies of the town who would injure its stand ing among others to serve their own sel fish ends. The attempt to frighten property owners and business people here by lying assertions is not creditable to those engaged in the work, but some people appear to have lost all sense of honor in their efforts to array Frooland against tho new county measure. i f the borrowers of local newspapers knew wnat a nuisance they are to legiti mate subscribers they might read and nay for papers of their own. Tlie House Provides for Additional Hours of Labor. TWO BUILDING ASSOCIATION BILLS. One Proposed to Bring All Foreign Associa tions Under the Control of State Ofllciuls. The Proposed County of Mouongahela. lieely Cure Investigation. (Special Correspondence.) lIARRISBURG, March 11.—The house has settled down to business in earnest, and if the members do not insist upon discuss ing evory bill on the calendar the promises of an early adjournment may bo fulfilled. Beginning tomorrow the house will hold three sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This is a stop forward, as night sessions have not been hold by past legislatures until a month or six weeks later in the session. The senate continues to hold one session a day and ndjourn on Thursday until Monday even ing. The records show that fchehouso is much further advanced than previous sessions. In 1891 the number of bills reported to March 1 was 333; iu 1893 thoro wore 366, and In 1895 the number was 419. Up to March 1, 1891, the house passed 11 bills; In 1893, 33, and in 1895, 43. Tho governor re ceived up to March 1 in 1881 two bills; in 1893 two, and In 1895 seven. The Fooht amendment to tho act of 1891 relative to intercounty bridges has been brought out by the senate committee on counties and townships. The measure pro vides that where bridges are erected over streams or rivers flowing between or form ing boundary lines of counties, that tho expense be borne by the counties in pro portion to population. The bill affects only three or four counties, and settles tho con tention between Northumberland and Union counties. Proposed New Counties. A bill which will probably bring about tho county of Monongahela has been read in the houso tho first time. If tho county Is created it will come from portions of Washington, Fayette, Greon and West morclaml counties. Charloroi is tho cen ter of tho proposed county, and may bo made tho soat. Tho bill provides that on tho petition of 1,000 citizens of tho district affected tho governor shall appoint throe commissioners, who shall, within sixty days, survey the lines and establish tho now boundaries, under the constitutional restrictions that no line shall run within ten miles of any county seat. Tho report shall be made to the governor and secreta ries of the commonwealth and internal af fairs. The governor shall order an olec tiou within sixty days, at which all tho qualified voters in tho district affected may vote on tho question. If tho voto is in favor the governor shall appoint tho of ficers, who will hold until after tho noxt regular election, at which time the loca tion of the county seat shall also be fixed by a vote of the electors. In tho meantime the county commissioners can spend $30,- 090 to secure quarters for the courts. Tho new courts are to bo organlzod by tho judge of bho county from which tho most territory was taken. This wook u petition will be filed with ! the secretary of internal affairs asking for a new county to be formed out of Luzerne | to be called Grow, after the illustrious congressman-at-largo from Pennsylvania. The new county will bo asked for under the Lackawanna county act, which pro vides for the division of counties contain ing a population of 150,000 or more. It is proposed to take in on the west side of the Susquehanna, Salom, Shlckshlnny,Union, Hunlock, lions, Huntington, Fulrmount, New Columbus, part of Newport, Conyng ham.Hollenback, Dennlsou, Slocum, But ler, Black Creek and Nescopeck. Two bills indorsed by the Building and Loan Association League of Pennsylvania have found their way into the senate. One brings all foreign building and loan asso ciations more directly and explicitly un der the supervision and control of the banking department. Before doing busi ness in the state they must deposit with the state 1100,000 to cover losses which cit izens of the stato may incur through their failure to meet their obligations, and re ceive from the banking department a cer tificate authorizing them to do business. They are also taxed for this privilege and required to make annual reports to the commissioner of banking. The second bill authorizes domestic associations to is sue different series of stock, and also to is sue all paid up certificates of stock in which permanent investments may be made and which may bo taxed as other moneys at interest. The Clarency amendment to the bank ing act to relievo building and loan asso ciations from making semi-annual reports to tho department has been made a special order for second reading next Wednesday and third reading tho following Tuesday. To Investigate tho Keely Cure. Tho houso has adopted a joint resolution for an investigation by tho state board of charities of tho Keely cure treatment. The board is to Inquire into and report to the next legislature as to tho scientific treat ment of drunkenness us a disease, and tho feasibility of applying the treatment in connection with the penal, churltable and reformatory institutions of tho state. The resolution was introduced ut the roquest of the Cuthollc Temperance league of Lu zerne county. A waggish member wanted to amend it so that "all old drunkurds in the stato bo sent to tho Kooly institutes at the expense of the state," but was ruled out of order by the speaker. Tho manufacturers are making a bitter fight on the new revenue bill. It provides for a tax of one mill on the stock of man ufacturing corporations. A committee from the Manufacturers' club, of Phila dolphin, was given a hearing last Thurs day night. Charles Heber Clark, secretary of the club, who was a member of tho stato tax conference which formulated the bill, but left in disgust, made a bitter attack upon the measure and Joseph I). Weeks, of Pittsburg, president of tho conference. Mr. Clark said President Weeks repre sented the railroads, and that the monoy to pay tho expenses of tho tax conference was furnished by the railroads. Ho charged Mr. Weeks with hnvlng traveled through tho stato with a flno tooth comb for three years, raking out something to tax, and declared ho really believed tho Pittsburgor was sorry not to be able to show in Ids report that tho railroads puid more than their shuro of taxes. Mr. Clark stated that the bill would not help the agricultural classes und that tho granger members of the conference,among them Worthy Master Rhone, were really helping the railroads. He argued that tho I manufacturers get no special privileges I from the state, as railroads did, and while the latter could make the public pay their taxes by incroasod rates the manufac turers had to compete for their business, lie said this bill would produce a deficit in Pennsylvania and drive capital out of the Itato. Tho Shortt education bill Is being pushed through the house. It has passed the senate. Tho measure provides that diplomas shall bo issued to graduates of high schools, seminaries and academies, which puts these pooplo on a better foot ing than those who graduate from state normal schools. Superintendent of Pub lie Instruction Schoeffer docs not liko tho hill because it puts too much work on his department, asido from its other bad fea tures. Ho will have to send out questions for the examinations and then go over tho papers when they are returned. Tills would necessitate the handling of 500,000 manuscripts annually and would involvo u great expense. A system like this is in vogue in New York. To Restrict Liquor Licenses. The people of Jefferson county have pe titioned the legislature for legislation pro viding all applications for licenses to sell liquor shall bo refused in any city, ward, borough, township, county or park when a majority of the residents of a lawful ago or of the property holders or tho holders of property of tho largost aggregate value unite in a remonstrance against them. Tho house has been flooded with petitions In favor of tho Ponnlwell local option bill. The Furr compulsary education bill has gone through tho house. It passed tho final stage last Thursday after the most exciting scenes in the house this session. The Republicans moved the previous ques tion boforo the Democrats had spoken on tho bill. This raised the iro of the minority and they declined to voto on the final pas sage of tho measure. Only thirteen votes were recorded against it. Tho Smith re ligious garb bill has passed second reading In tho house and will come up on third reading next Tuesday. The opposition to It comes principally from the Democrats and tho representatives of tho coal regions. Governor Hastings has affixed his signa ture to the Marshall pipe lino repeal bill. In giving notice to the house of bis ap proval of the measure tho governor accom panied his message with a statement giv ing his reasons therefor. "I am convinced that tho act of 1883, which tho bill repeals," says tho governor, "is directly tho reverso of its ostensible object. Instead of encour aging competition and fostering tho build ing of pipe lines to compete with each other, the fact that when the property bo comes unprofitable tho owners are prohib ited by law from selling it must neces sarily discourage investors iu such enter prise. All legislation, tho tendency of which is to control, hamper or restrain in dividual enterprise, should, in my opin ion, be closely scanned, and unless somo great public reason exists to tho contrary it is much better that all commercial en terprises should remain unfettered by legislation." The governor has vetoed the bill for an other edition of tho famous "bird book." His reasons are that whllo tho publication is useful and popular tho finuuecs of the state will not admit of another edition at this time. Following out this line of veto tho governor will soon have tho appropria tions within the limit. Governor Hastings will send to the sen ate during tho week, likely tomorrow, a list of stuff appointments. Among them will bo Colonel Ezra 11. Ripple, of Serau ton, commander of the Thirteenth regi ment, as commissary general, to succeed Colonel Richard S. Edwards, of Gwyncdd, and Major Everett Warren, of Scranton, president of the State League of Ropubltcan clubs, vioo Colonel DoWitt Cuyler, of Philadelphia. Jacob Greene, of Philadel phia, will be appointed color sergeant in place of Alex W. Bergstrosser, of this city. Greene was color bearer on the staff of General Hart ran ft when he was governor, and uftcrward held tho same rank on the division staff under him. The Coyle mining 1)111 creating mine in spectors galore has been submitted to a committee of eight miners, four inspectors and four operators, one-half of each num ber to come from the unthracite and bi tuminous regions respectively. The com mittee will meet hero noxt Wednesday. The Department of Agriculture. The governor has not yet acted upon the bill creating a departniont of agrlculturo. The applicants for the places created by the act are numerous. Thcro seems to bo no doubt of tho appointment of Secretary Edge, of the state hoard of agriculture, as chief of tho department. Tho board of public buildings and grounds has engaged Captain Louis R. Walters, of Phamlxvlllo, to work out a plan for the improvement of the acoustic properties of the hall of tho house of repre sentatives. Ho has made careful measure ments of the room, and is convinced that tho defects can bo remedied. A similar defect in tho capltol at Dos Moines was corrected by changing tho pitch of tho ceiling. Captain Walters says tho prob lem is a dinieult one and will have to bo worked out scientifically. He believes tho most feasible plan for the permanent im provement of this defect is to change tho ceiling. This would involve u greater ex penditure of money than tho board would care to authorize at this time. The heavy lambrequins havo been placed in tho windows have made a slight improve ment in tho acoustic properties of tho room. Senator Quay was a guest at the execu tive mansion last Thursday night. This Is the first time he has seen the governor since his olectlon, and his visit was purely social. During the evening tho senator had a conference with Chairman Gilkeson, of the Republican state committee, ami other politicians at tho state capitol. Mayor elect Warwick, of Philadelphia, was a guest of tho governor at tho mansion on Tuesday night. A now senatorial bill, similar to that vetoed by Governor Pattlson four years ago, has been read the first timo in tho house. It makes a radical change In tho districts in the western end of tho state. Allegheny's representation is increased from four to Ave, by making a new dis trict out of the territory north of the Ohio river uud the Island of Ncvillo and tho Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Twentieth wards of Pittsburg. In Philadelphia tho Thirteenth ward is detached from tho Sixth district and attached to tho First. McKoan, Potter, Clinton and Camoron are designated as the Thirty-soventh dis trict, and Clarion, Elk and Jefferson as tho Thirty-eighth. Hutler is detached from Armstrong and joined with Lnw roneo. Armstrong and Indiana are made a district to bo known as the Thirty-ninth. Venango and Mercer are made tho Forty ninth district, while Crawford and War run are joined to make the Fiftieth. Secretary of tho Commonwealth and Mrs Heeder will sail for Europe tho latter part of April, to be gone until September. The secretary has requested Deputy Sec retary Tilden, a hold ovor man from tho Pattison ml mini strut! on, to remain until ufter the closo of the session of the legisla ture. WAKUAUOIL A DAY WITH BAQY. The huby I'm acquainted with Knows uuught of battle's harms* j Although he's of tho iufantry, And often up In arms. ITo puts his grandpa's glasses en, Then imitates his frown, And roads the paper backward, while He holds it upside down. Sometimes he cries, und oh, so hard, I think he understood Tho good old doctor when ho said That it would do him good. With kitty oft upon the rug lie has a wrostling mutch. And kitty, it uauy he, will win lly fust the merest scratch. lie croons a little song that sounds Llko "Gum, oh gum with iuol" And, as he Is a minor, ho Selects a minor key. Each day nurse wheels him to tho park. So in his earriago thoro, A little son und heir may And A little sun und air. As in his crib he dozes off, With such a funny snore, Wo wish ho'd sleep till eight, Instead Of waking up at four. —Malcolm Douglass, in St. Nicholas. /J! \ fi.u HEN Gilbert talr'JW\VH Rawlins found Km 'WI himself in pos session of an MlShlmi umbrella which w/iimiiUilll/V not " belong V ll to him he intcr rogated himself severely as to his recent whereabouts and tried to lay the blame where It belonged. The acquisition of a wandering, lost or strayed umbrella was not of much importance in a general way, because umbrellas, like dogs, are not looked upon us property. Shakespeare says nothing about stealing umbrellas. By the way, the people of the day had Shakespeare, but they hud no um brella. That useful article had not 1 then eorae into use. This is aa after thought to verify my knowledge of history. This umbrella, which now lay so heavily on tho conscience of Gilbert Rawlins, was a very light affair, its actuul weight being a mere trille, but what troubled him was tho fact that it was a woman's umbrella, a dainty, gold-handled parachute, with the name of the fair owner—an unknown woman is always fair to a man's im agination—engraved in Roman letters | on tho handle, upon a small gold plate: * : MAUD, : ; C-2 Livewell AvENua ; 4 i Now Livewell avenue was ono of tho most aristocratic streets in the city, and the question at once arose: "Who was Maud?" And how did Rawlins obtain that umbrella? He had dined at the club with some of his friends had gone from there straight homo by the street car—ha! ho must havo as similated that umbrella in tho car. lie did not remember seeing anyouo in the car except a woman of very ordinary appearance, and he only re called her because she had weighed about three hundred pounds and had stepped on his foot in getting out. There was certainly no one there who answered to tho appearance of j "Maud" as she was represented by this dainty silk umbrella, which seemed to diffuse a faint perfume through Gil bert Rawlins' bachelor apartments. His first impression was one of im mediate restitution. He would call a messenger boy and send it to her num ber with a noto of explanation and apology. He wrote several such mis sives ou his metal tablet, but as they all began with "Maud" there seemed a boldness in the severe simplicity of his modo of addressing her. "Doar Maud" soundccaf Ooor at or Foils Tliem. The novelty of a telegraph operator who can scarcely hear a locomotive whistle working day after day at his ! instrument is one of tho marvels pre- I scntcd at a telegraph station near ' Pittsburgh. Tho man is about 2H years old. He has been deaf since he was 1 about 3 years of age as the result of an attaek of scarlet fever, being so ex- j trcmoly hard of hearing, the child's sense of touch was developed to the degree usually possessed by blind persons. The slightest tap upon a FEELING THB MESSAGES. j table or a wall, the rolling of a wagon wheel along the street and all similar sounds were conveyed to him by the consequent vibrations. When about 12 years of age he undertook the study of telegraphy, being a favorite with the operator at his home, he was given the run of tho office. All the mystic signs, dots and dashes of the profession were explained to him. Day after day ; he could be seen sitting at the table ' with his knees pressed against it or I resting his elbow upon it. He was lit- 1 erally feeling the messages as they were ticked off over the wire, being i naturally quick it was but a short timo j until he was able to correctly read any message coining into the office. Send- I ing came just as easy, and to-day, after ; sixteen years' service at the key and sounder, he is just as fine an operator ! as there is in the country. Of late ! years his hearing has improved to such | an extent that he can easily hear the ! sounder, but the old habit of listening ' Kvlth bis knee still clings to Ixim. HIRAM STARK'S STORY. A West Virginia Man Who Waa Do ad at Ono Tlmo. At Least nis Friends Told Him Ho Wm- Itut lie Was Only In a Trauoe— Since Then Ills llalr Changes Color livery Hay. The name, Iliram W. Stark, attracted little or no attention, and meant noth ing- to the many eyes that glanced over the register of a Walnut street hotel at Cincinnati, but the person who wroto his signature somewhat awkwardly ia one who possesses a physical peculiarity which has baffled the physicians of his neighborhood for years. Mr. Stark is an ambitious and well to-do farmer of West Virginia, and his little patch of 200 acres away up in tho mountains, near Morgantown, W.VVat. t hi a model farm. The peculiarity of Mr. Stark hi his hair. I£e never knows when he pulls off his heavy boots after a hard day's work, and gets ready to retire, what color his hair will bo when ho wakes up tho next morning. Sometimes it is gray all over; sometimes it is black; again it is half gray and half black, and per haps there will bcsoverul days in which there will no change at all. Again, ho will wake up after a good night's rest to find that ho possesses a head of au burn hair which any society bello would envy. "I oan't tell you the reason why theso changes of color take place," said Mr. Stark to an Enquirer reporter. "If I could I would be doing something which the physicians have boon worrying about for years, but I ciui tell you what brought it about —and there is quite a story connected with it. Up until I was fourteen years old, there was not a more healthy boy in the country than L I was a large and strong youngster for ray ago, and father used to say that I was worth any two men on the place. Well, about that time I was taken sick with epilepsy. I lingered between life uud death for several weeks, and final ly—l remember the circumstance well —at 12:03 o'clock Sunday morning, with the fuinily clustered around my bed side, I died. At least that is what tho doctor in charge claimed, and, as there was 110 sign of life about my body, the family had no reason to disbelieve his statement. All this time I lay thero and could see all that was going on about me. I wanted to speak and tell them I was not dead, but I could not JUST THEN HE BHIIIKItKIX breathd a word. I tried to move, but not a muscle would respond to my wishes. I could hear, but not very dis tinctly, the arrangements being made for my funeral. All that night I was alone laid out on the stretcher waiting for the undertaker to put in his unwelcomo appearance in the morning. I could hear my mother weeping in an adjoin ing room and now and then she would offer up a prayer for her darling child. It was in awful agony that I passed the night. Time after time I strived to extricate myself from the horrible fate of being buried alive, but not a finger could I move. "At ten o'clock the undertaker came. I heard him express to my father a desire to be left alone with me, and knew very well what that meant. ll© was always very particular not to bury anybody alive, and for that reuson ho always carried a small steel dagger which he plunged into his charge as a part of the preparation for buriaL 110 f came into tho room, took hold of my arm, and let it falL " 'lie's dead,' he said, half aloud, 'but it's only a matter of form,' and with these words ho removed tho clothes from my left breast and raised the blade above mo. Just then 1 shrieked. Tho dagger fell and stuck in the floor at my side. The family rushed in, but I was unconscious a sec ond after I cried. They worked with me for several days, and I finally re covered. They told mo the story of my death, but no one could describe tho death that I had lived—as I had ex perienced it. The sight of that dagger raised above my heart was a picture I can never efface from my memory, and tho misery in which I lived during those few seconds could never be fully told. "Ever since that (richness, that deuth, ami that resurrection, these changes of color have taken pluce in my hair. Thero is scarcely a week in which a change of some kind does not occur. My hair is black now and has been so * for two days. It will change soon, but to what color I can never foretell. It is no particular inconvenience to mo except when my hair is half black and half gray, and then I am stured at as though I were a perambulating mu seum. "No, I've never been dead since then and 1 don't care to bo until it's a real death." I.HHt of Ilor Trilie. A maiden lady recently died in Al lentown, Pa., after living as a servant in one family for a period of sixty seven years. It is impossible to deter mine which is the greatest curiosity—a servant who lives in one family sixty seven years or the family which is able to keep a domestic such a phenomenal period. Tho deceased was evidently thy last of her trjVfe