NEWS: Items from the Morning Tribune, November 17, 1879, Blair County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _______________________________________________ Items from the Morning Tribune, Altoona, Monday, November 17, 1879 Mr. Edison says that in about four weeks he will be prepared to demonstrate by experiment the success of his electric light. Parts of the United States House of Representatives and of the capitol will be lighted by electricity at the coming session. CITY AND COUNTRY. Bright Prospects for the Railroad Company's Employes. The lower shops of the railroad company will all resume working ten hours per day this morning, and some of them will make over-time. Planing mill No. 2 will employe a double force of workmen and run day and night. From present indications there will be a very lively winter for the workmen engaged by the railroad company in this city. Information of a very reliable character is to the effect that the company intend to increase their facilities for turning out work at their shops by large additions to their buildings and machinery. A Pittsburgh newspaper states that the trainmen on the Pennsylvania railroad in 1873 made fifteen round trips between Pittsburgh and Altoona for one month's work, or thirty trips each way for a month's work. Since 1876 they were required to make twenty round trips in the same time, or forty trips to the month. Up to the centennial year the brakemen received $3.20 per trip for a month of fifteen round trips, but since that time they are receiving $2.30 per round trip, or forty trips each month. This is a reduction of $1.10 per round trip and an increase of five round trips, or forty days' work to the month. Although there are some grounds for complaint no murmurings are heard, but the men feel confident that they will be properly cared for by the company in due time. Slight Fire on Tenth Avenue Yesterday. An alarm of fire yesterday afternoon called the entire department to the grocery establishment of Berkowitz & Son, on Tenth avenue, below Fourteenth street. The cause of the alarm was the burning of a flue, which, from all that could be learned, seems to have taken fire at the base of a stovepipe in a restaurant beneath the grocery. A couple of citizens were quickly on the roof and threw a piece of carpet over the mouth of the chimney, which cased the smoke to pour from the private residence over the store. The carpet took fire and was pitched into the street, and then a quantity of salt was thrown down the chimney. The flue was of brick and apparently perfectly safe, and as soon as all the dirt with which it was lined had been consumed the fire died out. There was no damage as far as known. Clerk Adams as a Hunter. On Saturday morning the spirit of the chase came over Bob Adams, the popular and gentlemanly clerk at the Logan House, and, armed with a shotgun, he took himself to the mountain top in the neighborhood of Gallitzin. After tramping the woods all day he succeeded in bagging a fine wild turkey, a very large rabbit and a pheasant. With these dangling at his belt he made his debut in the city on the Atlantic express, a jolly huntsman of no mean pretensions. Some of Robert's friends would not believe that it was a wild turkey until they had cut open the crop, when the presence of beechnuts therein attested the place of its abode. The question whether Robert had actually killed the game was not raised; the fact of a shotgun being in his possession was prima facie evidence that he did. A Singular Case. Rev. Marcus K. Ormond [Ormand in the 1880 Burgettstown, Washington County, PA, census] living at Burgettstown, on the Panhandle railroad, and who is well known in this city, having lectured here in the First Presbyterian Church on temperance, is suffering from a very peculiar misfortune. He some time ago met with the loss of his house by fire, and his library was destroyed at the same time. This weighed upon his mind to an extent as to seriously impair his mental faculties. He then became ill of fever, and when he recovered his general health he discovered that he had lost all his fine education, not even being able to read. He is now endeavoring to regain his lost knowledge by studying the alphabet, commencing at the very foot of the ladder of learning as a child would do. CITY AND COUNTRY. Things Briefly Told. The Altoona Ministerial Association will meet in the study of Rev. Henry Baker this morning at 10 o'clock. A full attendance is requested. The Bedford Inquirer has got rid of 50 of the 100 barrels of whisky it had for sale, and hence the decrease in the Democratic majority in Bedford may readily be accounted for. Some hard hearted sneak-thief entered the cellar of Rev. M. N. Cornelius on Saturday night, and received for his trouble only a roll of butter and a few sweet potatoes. He might have known better. Jacob David has been appointed postmaster at Trough Creek, Huntingdon county, and George R. Barr at Waterside, Bedford county. The name of the postoffice at Longville, Mifflin county, has been changed to Longfellow. The postoffice at Farmdale, Juniata county, has been discontinued. Rev. Father Donohue, of Indianapolis, Ind., delivered the sermon at St. John's Catholic Church yesterday morning. Father Donohue has been taking a vacation for some time past owing to ill health and is spending a portion of it in this city with Mrs. Kearney, wife of Conductor Dan Kearney, the lady being a relative of the reverend gentleman. Father Donohue has a fine reputation as a public lecturer in the West. Miss Katie Fettinger's 11th birthday was made the occasion of a surprise part at the residence of her father, Henry Fettinger, Sr., on Tenth avenue, on Saturday evening. A delightful time was had by the little folks present, whose names are as follows: Mary Kessler, Louise Shomberg, Mary Kahle, Katie Green, Alice Bonine, Ella Nixdorf, Jennie Kean, Nannie Freet, Katie Yon, Dora Yon, Sallie Hoine, Louise Jacoby, Mary Pfeiffer, Lydia Blumhardt, Annie Blumhardt. A Big Muskrat Caught. The dog belonging to Engineer Harry Bowers, who resides in the neighborhood of Eleventh avenue and Seventeenth street, distinguished himself yesterday by catching and killing in the cellar of his master's residence a huge muskrat. The rat created considerable racket in the cellar and had played havoc among the flower pots before the dog discovered the cause of the noise. The animal weighed about seven pounds and is supposed to have obtained entrance into the cellar through a sewer or drain. An Important Land Case Decided. The ejectment case of Hegarty, Blair et al vs. Fisher Brothers and Miller, of Huntingdon, Pa., and Berwind, White & Co., of Philadelphia, to recover four hundred acres of coal land in Clearfield county, said to be worth over $100,000, was decided on Saturday at Clearfield in favor of defendants. Dedication of the African Methodist Church. The auditorium of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sixteenth street, above Eleventh avenue, was crowded yesterday by an audience that was composed of more white persons than colored, the occasion being the dedication of the new church to the service of God. Rev. A. W. Wayman, of Baltimore, Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, preached the dedicatory sermon, which was a fine effort, interspersed with anecdote. Rev. Henry Baker, of the First Lutheran Church, also made an address, in which he alluded to his first mission in this valley and said that the first sermon he ever preached in this section of country was delivered thirty years ago in the church in which he was then standing. Rev. Mr. Sherlock, of the Third Methodist Episcopal Church, spoke a few appropriate words and notified the public that Bishop Wayman would deliver a lecture in the Third Church this evening in answer to the attack made on the Bible by Colonel Ingersoll. Re. Dr. Hamlin and Rev. M. N. Cornelius then took up a collection, from which about $78 in cash and a number of subscriptions toward paying off the debt of the church were obtained. Bishop Wayman preached again in the church last evening. There will be service every other Sunday hereafter, conducted by the pastor in charge, Rev. N. W. Evans.