NEWS: Items from the Morning Tribune, February 8, 1878, Blair County, PA

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Items from the Morning Tribune, Altoona, Friday, February 8, 1878

TYRONE ITEMS.

  The public schools of this borough are crowded to such an extent that it 
is thought by many the question of a new building will soon force itself to 
a consideration.
  The T. & C. Railroad still continues to do a heavy coal business, and for 
a man to stand and look at the long trains of black diamonds being pulled 
through town daily he would think hard times had left.
  The new Building and Loan Association - Tyrone, No. 2 - is in a fair way 
of speedy organization.  The committee appointed to secure stock report 
success.  A meeting is to be held in the City Building on next Saturday 
night to compare notes and possible permanently organize.
  The financial exhibit or report of the Borough Council just pit out by 
Secretary Reilly is the most favorable report published for years.  The 
fight in Council does not seem to have had a bad effect on the majority of 
that body.  If it will continue to work so well better keep it up.
  W. H. Carothers, Esq., foreman, or rather master mechanic, of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad shops, is said to be a much happier man since he has 
been relieved of his outside duties.  Will always was a happy fellow, and we 
rejoice at his prosperity.  He is still "one of the boys."
  The pipe of peace reported to have been smoked between our Burgess and 
Council is said to have ended in smoke, as his Honor still refuses to sign 
those orders and Henderson and Webb are still anxiously waiting for their 
cash.  Judge Dean will likely make short work of this matter if it is again 
taken before him.
  The directors of the Blair County Banking Company held their annual 
meeting yesterday and the old officers were re-elected, E. L. Study, Esq., 
as president, and Gen. Robt. A. McCoy as cashier.  The directors of this 
institution in bringing Gen. McCoy to Tyrone not only benefited the town of 
Tyrone, but secured the residence of one of Pennsylvania's most faithful 
sons and estimable citizens for our county.  Mr. Study is well known all 
over our county, and to know Gen. McCoy is to respect him.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 1

NEIGHBORHOOD PICKINGS.

  The embargo in the Huntingdon churches has been raised.
  Boring for oil has again commenced on Kettle Creek, Clinton county.
  Lock Haven's floating debt is $20,596.87, with a bonded debt of $200,000.
  Eighty thousand feet of lumber were shipped from Lock Haven last week.
  The number of small-pox cases reported in Huntingdon up to the 6th inst. 
was 12.
  A daughter of I. T. Conrad, of Mapleton, aged one year, died of small-pox 
on the 4th inst.
  A tramp woman died in the Mifflintown jail recently, where she had sought 
temporary shelter.
  Peter Herdic, Williamsport's most enterprising and wealthy citizen, has 
gone up financially.
  Glendale, Cambria county, boasts of a 13-year old boy who weighs 170 
pounds and measures 6 feet and 3 inches in height.
  The residence of Israel Crowell, of Clearfield county, was burned down a 
few nights ago, with nearly all its contents.
  Prof. Guss, late of the Huntingdon Globe, is collecting material from 
which to write a history of the early settlers of Juniata county.
  The West Branch Camp Meeting association has decided to hold the annual 
meeting in August, from the 20th to the 29th, inclusive.
  The nest annual session of the Central Pennsylvania Conference will be 
held in Lewisburg, commencing March 27, Bishop Ames presiding.
  A four-year old daughter of Mr. Levi Wingard, of Conemaugh borough, was 
burned in such a serious manner on Monday evening as to leave little hope of 
her recovery.
  Mr. Henry Cryder, an old and respected citizen of Warriorsmark, died at 
his residence in that place, on Thursday evening of last week, at the 
advanced age of 75 years.
  Mrs. Martha J. Kepler, of Pine Grove, Centre county, Pa., has purchased 
the farm of Mr. George Dickson, in Sinking Valley, the consideration being 
$4,750.  The farm contains about 122 acres, 75 of which are cleared.
  Alex. Mills, an employe of Holtzworth store in Huntingdon, had no business 
to catch a thief in the cellar the other night toting away a sack of flour, 
for the thief struck him a severe blow with a heavy instrument, knocking him 
insensible.
  The annual report of the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad for 1877 shows 
the gross earnings to be $261,410, the expenses $151,333, and the net 
earnings $110,077.  The company during the year carried 17,362 passengers, 
and 388,396 tons of freight, of which 140,143 tons were Broad Top coal, and 
157,488 were Cumberland coal.  The entire freight tonnage was 5,780 tons 
less than for the previous year.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 1

CITY AND COUNTRY.

More Car Robbers Sentenced.

  Judge Pearson, of Dauphin county, the other day sentenced Seymour Hawk and 
Wm. Hetterman each to pay a fine of $1 and costs, and be imprisoned in the 
Eastern Penitentiary for a period of four years and one month; William 
Keagle to same fine and costs, and three years and one month imprisonment, 
and Joseph Moran the same penalty and two years and one month imprisonment.  
This gang is known as the "Pequods" and the Harrisburg people will now have 
a rest from their depredations for a few years at least.

Juvenile Pigeon Stealers.

  Two lads were before Mayor Gilland yesterday afternoon charged by a man 
named Swift, residing at Eighteenth street and Ninth avenue, in the Sixth 
ward, with stealing three or four pigeons.  The birds were confined in 
Swift's cellar and the boys alleged that they belonged to them, and that 
they had only taken their property.  Swift held a different view, and had 
the lads arrested for larceny.  The matter was fixed up by the parties 
dividing the costs, after which the Mayor read the boys a lecture and 
advised them to embark in other enterprises than pigeon stealing, and they 
were permitted to take their departure with a due respect for the majesty of 
the law.
  
Personal.

  Rev. Mr. Milligan, chaplain of the Western Penitentiary, passed through 
this city on his way to the State Capital on the Harrisburg Express night 
before last.
  Huntingdon Presbytery will hold a meeting in the Second Presbyterian 
Church here on the 26th inst., to consider the question of the dissolution 
of relationship with the church by Rev. W. J. Chichester.
  Mr. A. H. Slayman, for some time past clerk in the office of 
Superintendent of Transportation, has accepted a position in the office of 
J. H. Dysart & Co., made vacant by the retiring of Mr. G. C. Horning.
  Rev. William M. Dill, of Clearfield, a brother of Senator "Andy" Dill, of 
Union county, prominently mentioned in connection with the Governorship, 
dropped in to see the Tribune people last evening, and, of course, 
subscribed for the paper for a year.
  Mr. Kemp, an old-time resident and practicing attorney of this county, who 
has been residing in southern Kansas for a number of years, was in town 
yesterday.  Mr. Kemp is going to remain at his old home, about two miles 
from Frankstown, until some time next summer.
  The Hollidaysburg department of the Altoona Morning Tribune is under the 
charge of W. H. Schwartz, Esq., the talented and versatile local editor of 
the Hollidaysburg Standard.  Swartz fills the bill in every particular.  As 
a news gatherer, and as a pleasant and entertaining writer, he has no 
superiors and few equals in the Juniata Valley. - Huntingdon Globe.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 3

Run on the Waifs.

  We take it all back, every other man in Tyrone is not a Notary Public, 
only three persons wear that dignity.
  The Tyrone Herald says the busiest man in Hollidaysburg is Schwartz, of 
the Standard, Tribune and select school.
  The following letters are held for postage at the Altoona postoffice: 
Richard McCoy, Chest Springs; Frank Davis, Altoona, Pa.
  On Saturday morning, Mr. H. J. Cornman, with his wife and their little 
girl, came from Altoona to Tyrone in a sleigh.  When they arrived here the 
child was so cold as to necessitate placing her in a vessel of cold water to 
draw the frost out of her body from the waist down. - Herald.
  To Hon. M. Edgar King, we are indebted for a "Directory of the House of 
Representatives, with postoffice address and residence in Harrisburg, with 
names of heads of departments and Senators and committees of both houses."  
The little volume is prepared by John A. Smull, resident clerk of the House, 
and is a very convenient work.
  Those dark streets on the East Side were the cause last night of a Tribune 
reporter and another pedestrian having a collision.  The reporter was 
picking his way along the side of the street to avoid cellar doors when his 
head banged up against the head of the other fellow, and the sparks fairly 
flew.  Our fellow-unfortunate will please consider this reporter's apology.
  One of the most complacent smiles ever seen upon the countenances of a 
newsboy, overspread the features of a youngster at the Logan House 
yesterday, who had been carrying two Pittsburgh papers around for an hour or 
so, in the vain endeavor to sell them, as he finally inveigled an unwary 
traveler into the payment of five cents for one of them.  He was the very 
picture of happiness, because he had made two cents, he said, on the 
investment.  But, if you want to get rich you had better drop the dull 
dailies of the "Smoky City" and sell at the depot to intelligent passengers 
the Altoona Morning Tribune!

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 3

HOLLIDAYSBURG DEPARTMENT.

Little Facts and Fancies - Big Things Grave and Gay.

  Major Theo. Snyder, of Martinsburg, was in town yesterday.
  S. E. Henry, one of Huntingdon's most enterprising citizens, was in town 
yesterday.
  Broken benches, even though graced by lady occupants, are very annoying to 
pleasant and agreeable speakers.
  Ephraim Gerst, who represented Hollidaysburg's Grand Army boys at Lebanon, 
has returned much pleased with his trip.
  The justice shops have been grinding out no grist for the pencil of the 
reporter of late.  Our people are distressingly well behaved.
  Broken traces are not the most pleasant episodes of a wintry night sleigh 
ride.  So opine some of Hollidaysburg's fair damsels.
  Alex. McNight claims to own the fattest chicken within the boundaries of 
the town borough.  Just how fat that chicken is only Alex. can describe.
  Postmaster Lingenfelt with complacency survey's a handsome - robe, shall 
we say ?- made from the hide of the deer which fell before him last 
November.
  An aged lady named Swires, mother of James, John and Alexander Swires, 
well know to your people, is lying at her home in this place, seriously and 
probably fatally ill.
  Delegations from Williamsburg, Canoe Valley, Newry, Duncansville and 
Hollidaysburg, graced the Wednesday evening exercises of the Scotch Valley 
Literary Society with their presence.
  There was a little difficulty over at Gaysport on Monday evening, between 
a Hollidaysburg youth and two of your blooded young men, in which the latter 
seem to have got decidedly the worst of the bargain.
  Treasurer Rutledge will remove to the capital on or about the first of 
April.  In the interim his office business will be attended to by Joseph 
Baldrige, Esq., a most competent gentleman, as most of the Tribune readers 
know. 
  Jesse R. Crawford, Esq., of Gaysport, one of the most active school men in 
the State, is just now interested in county uniformity of text books, and is 
working in the matter with his accustomed energy.
  Having taken two handcuffed prisoners to the train the other day, and gone 
over town to attend to some business, policeman Houck failed to make the 
connection, much to the amusement of the animated statuary who ornament the 
depot neighborhood about train time.
  During the week just past more than one young person has taken the first 
step on the downward road.  The gaity of the season has been crowded into a 
brief week, and the young folks have striven to their utmost to make up for 
lost time.  In the excitement and temptation of the moment, associations of 
an evil nature have been found, the voice of temptation coming in the guise 
of present pleasure and happiness, has drowned the warning of conscience and 
overthrown reason in more than one instance.  Long years hence, as some 
battered, human hulk drifting upon the sea of time, finally makes an 
uncertain port, it will be remembered that on a certain February evening in 
the year of grace, 1878, the first insidious attack upon the moral soundness 
of the craft was successfully made.
  
The Road to Ruin.
  
  Sixteen year old young gentlemen can yet manage to find an occasional 
retailer of bug juice who helps them on to ruin by dispensing to them 
liberal potations of liquid damnation.  It is a sorry sight to see young men 
thus on the down grade, rushing on to destruction.  If there is any 
particular spot in the world of lost spirits where the wretchedness of the 
doomed spirit is greater than another, it seems to us that men who make a 
business of luring young men to their ruin must find their way to that spot.  
That there are men who seem to take a fiendish delight in this sort of work 
is but two true, and there are at least two of them in the two boroughs.  It 
is hoped and believed that measures will be taken in due time to suppress 
all places where the young are enticed to their utter demoralization and 
ruin.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 3

CITY AND COUNTRY.

Political Potpourri.

  There is going to be some kicking of political as-pirations at the 
municipal election.
  It is rumored about town that Mr. William Dillon will be a candidate for 
clerk of Council at the coming shuffle of the political cards. Mr. Dillon 
would certainly make a competent officer.
  J. R. McKnight requests us to say that he is not and will not be a 
candidate for School Director in Logan township on the Greenback-Labor 
ticket, and that the use of his name was unauthorized.
  H. B. Kendig, Esq., has consented to contest the election for Councilman 
with Mr. Bender in the Fourth Ward, on the Republican side.  Mr. K. is 
abundantly fitted for the position, and it would be telling the people of 
Altoona something to their advantage if our City Council was always composed 
of such men as he.

Departure of a Penitentiary Gang.

  The eleven persons sentenced to terms in the penitentiary last week by the 
court took their departure from Hollidaysburg yesterday morning in charge of 
Sheriff Stiffler and three deputies.  When the gang arrived at this place 
they were transferred to a special car furnished by Superintendent Reilly, 
and were in that conveyance taken to Pittsburgh.  Bill Murray said, on 
leaving, that there were a good many people left behind who, had they their 
dues, would be going along on the same trip.  The prisoners all seemed to be 
in good spirits, and as they departed waved their "ta ta's" to the crowd, 
and kissed their hands to lady spectators along Tenth avenue.  "The nasty 
fellows!"

A Comical Scene.

  A man, a boy and a pig were coming up Eleventh avenue yesterday afternoon 
in a sled.  At the crossing at Twelfth street the sled came to a sudden stop 
owing to the breaking of the hames.  The boy, who was driving, was doubled 
over the dashboard and nearly fell under the horse's heels.  The pig 
squealed, the man shouted, and the boy got out finally to mend the broken 
harness.  The man in the sled was astride the porker holding his pigship 
down, and he thought the pig would remain passive while he lent his aid to 
fix the harness.  But he found out his mistake when he made the attempt, as 
Mr. Pig made ready to bounce into the street.  A boy with a wooden leg 
hobbled upon the scene, and according to directions got a piece of rope from 
the candy stand on the corner.  The harness was repaired, and the two in the 
sled and the other pig went joyfully off up the avenue, a squealing, 
grunting, shouting crowd.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 4

The Late William C. Manson.

  The Mt. Gilead (O.) Sentinel, of the 6th, pays this tribute to ex-Sheriff 
Manson, who met with such a terrible death in this city on the 30th ult.: 
"He had a very extensive acquaintanceship in this, as well as adjoining 
counties, and possessed the confidence and esteem of all with whom he came 
in contact, whether in business or in a social way, and his loss will create 
a void which will not easily be filled, nor his place be supplied by such 
enviable qualities of heart and head.  As a citizen, none stood higher in 
the estimation of every one, for his integrity of purpose, his liberality 
towards all and malice towards none.  He died as he had lived - an honest 
man, the noblest work of God.  The funeral obsequies were conducted by Rev. 
O. Badgely, of the M. E. Church, of which the deceased was a worthy and 
consistent member."
  Mr. Manson was in his thirty-sixth year, and leaves a wife a few years his 
junior, and an only child, a daughter in her seventh year.  The deceased was 
an early volunteer in the rebellion, never known to shirk duty, always found 
in the front ranks, and was in some twenty-seven battles.  When the war was 
over he came home without a wound.  During the past year he was fortunate to 
fall heir to a legacy of nearly $50,000 in California, and during the past 
season he made two trips to that State and back, and on the fatal day was on 
his way to New York to make some disposition of part of his wealth.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 4

COURT PROCEEDINGS.

  The fourth day's session of the third week of our county court began at 
nine o'clock yesterday morning.
  There remained of the case of Mrs. L. P. Keller's use vs. Daniel K. Raney 
but for the court to charge the jury, which was the first business of the 
session.  As stated yesterday, this was an action in assumpsit to recover 
the value of a threshing machine belonging to plaintiff, and which was 
burned up with defendant's barn and other contents.  Payment was resisted on 
the ground that defendant, having leased the machine at a set price, was 
only bound to exercise ordinary carefulness, and was not bound to make good 
the loss where no ordinary care could have prevented the fire which 
destroyed the machine, with many of his own goods.  The jury found for 
plaintiff in the sum of $120.
  The next cases on the list were Thomas Fries vs. Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company, and Union Hardware Company vs. the same.  As the facts sought to be 
established in these cases were of the same general term, the cases were 
consolidated for the purpose of saving time.  The suits were brought to 
recover the value of household goods of Fries and stock of the Union 
Hardware Company which were standing on the siding at Osceola when that town 
was devastated by fire in 1875.  The goods were destroyed with the cars 
which contained them.  It was alleged that the goods might have been saved 
with ordinary carefulness or had efforts been made to do so.  This was 
denied on the part of the defense. The case is on trial as we close our 
report.

Morning Tribune, Friday, February 8, 1878, page 4