PENNSYLVANIA. 



611 



A feud between the Italians and the Hunga- 

 rians cmploN.-ii in the mine* at llarlcigh and 

 Milncsville culminated in a fierce light, April 15, 

 in which four men lost their lives and several 

 other> were wounded. 



Tin- State <J range. This body held its 

 twenty-first annual convention at 1 larri-burg. 

 12. The reports showed that IN new 

 granges were organized during the year, and 

 .".(Kin new ineiiiliers added. About 500 granges 

 were represent eil. The whole iiniulier of graiii;'- 

 is 050. the aggregate membership ubout TAnni). 

 The legislative coininit tee declared in its report 

 against the construction mil upon the Hover act 

 by the 1 >epartment of Public Instruction and 

 many county superintendents, who contend that 

 the increased appropriation to the public schools 

 is for the purpose of lengthening the school term 

 and increasing the salaries of teachers. The 

 committee contends that the Boyer act was in- 

 tended to lessen the burdens of local taxation as 

 set forth in its title, and not to increase the 

 school term and salaries of teachers. 



Members of the Legislature who voted against 

 the Niles Tax bill and the measure changing the 

 method of electing members of the State Board 

 of Agriculture were censured. 



Resolutions were adopted demanding that 

 Secretory of Agriculture Morton retract the ut- 

 terances against the grange, alliance, and other 

 kindred agricultural organizations, made in his 

 speech before the World's Fair Congress. 



The Harmony Society. A bill in equity was 

 filed in February against the president and mem- 

 bers of this society, praying for the appointment 

 of a receiver to wind up its affairs, an injunction 

 to restrain the officers from selling or assigning 

 the property, an order to them to pay to the re- 

 ceiver trie amount of losses sustained under their 

 management, and an order for the dissolution of 

 the society and division of its assets. It is al- 

 leged that recently the society had property 

 valued at $4,000,000, but that a great deal of 

 this has been lost, and that the petitioners now 

 believe that the society is insolvent ; that within 

 six years Duss, the president, has sold two mil- 

 lion dollars' worth of valuable stocks, ostensibly 

 for the payment of debts, which debts were con- 

 tracted through his own fraud, neglect, and mis- 

 management. It is also alleged that the princi- 

 ples of the society have become obsolete ; that 

 Puss and Sieber, a trustee, are living in luxury 

 with their wives, whereas the main principle of 

 the organization is celibacy. 



It is further charged that Duss has given away 

 large sums of money to support one Cyrus Teed, 

 alias " Knresh." who claims that he is God, and 

 who is surrounded by certain deluded women 

 whom he calls his "angels"; that Duss has 

 heretofore purposed to introduce Teed and his 

 associates into the Harmony Society, and as a 

 preparation for this end has erected a large and 

 expensive residence on the lands of the society 

 at Economy for Teed and his associates, at a cost 

 of $12,000. The complainants also charge that 

 Duss has preached the doctrines of Teed, and 

 that he has courted sympathy with one Michael 

 K. Mills commonly known as " Prince Michael," 

 of Detroit, another pretender of divine at tributes, 

 who is now serving a term of imprisonment for 

 the commission of a crime. 



The Field of Gettysburg. A trolley elec- 

 tric road lias been built at Gettysburg, running 

 around the National ( Vim-ten and in i\.- 

 miUsburg Koad. The first trip was made July 

 i:j. During the progress of the work complaint 

 was made that the blasting and grading for the 

 road were changing important features of the 

 historic battlefield, and investigation was made 

 in .lime by a member of the Gettysburg liut tie- 

 field Commission, who reported to the Secretary 

 of War. lie said: 



\Vlu-n I It-it < H ttynburg, workmen were engaged in 



' 



blasting <>ut a trroii|> of Imwlili !>. <-i>\crin,' u r.pnec ~'> 

 by '25 feet, which formed u jM>rti<i of the dcfen.M-s in 

 front of the letl of the Third Arn.y Corps during the 

 second day's buttle. A variation of a do/en feet in 

 the line, which there was ample chance to make. 

 would have cleared those bowlders: out it was evi- 

 dent that they were being biased for material from 

 which to make filling for the road, which is swampy 

 at that point. 



The bowlders which covered the combatant* in the 

 desperate engagement lu-twecnthe Fourth Maine and 

 Fortieth New York of the Union unny untl the Fort\- 

 fourth Alabama and the right of Benninjr's brigade 

 of the Confederate army are already blasted, and the 

 fragments broken under the hammer are covered 

 with earth to form a roadbed, and it is this locality 

 which has been turned into a park, to which cheap 

 excursions arc to be run irom Baltimore and other 

 cities. 



This is the most wild and picturesque section of the 

 field. For the distance of over one mile before reach- 

 ing this locality the road cuts ruthlessly through the 

 scene of some of the most desperate encounters of the 

 battle, in which De Trobriund's, Tilton's, Sweitzcr's, 

 Zook's, K el ley's, Cross's, and Ward's Union brigades, 

 and Kershwel's, Sennnes's, Woolford's, Anderson's, 

 and Robertson's Confederate brigades contended for 

 hours. 



The damage already committed by the electric road 

 is very great, and can never be repaired; but the 

 present desecration is but the commencement of what 

 may be done if this company IB allowed to invade 

 other sections of the battlefield. 



Citizens of Gettysburg applied to the Attorney- 

 General of the State for a writ of quo warrnnto 

 to take away from the Gettysburg Electric Rail- 

 way Company its charter and exact a forfeiture 

 of its rights, and the case was argued before the 

 Attorney-General in August. 



Judicial Decisions. The question came be- 

 fore the court whether the Legislature can ap- 

 propriate money to pay an official not provided 

 for by statute. In the general appropriation 

 bill passed at the last session of the Legislature 

 $4.800 was appropriated for the payment ol an 

 additional clerk in the office of the prothonotary 

 of the Supreme Court for the eastern and western 

 districts, respectively. When the man who had 

 been serving as one of these clerks asked the 

 Auditor to draw his warrant for salary, the Audi- 

 tor refused, on the ground that In- had no author- 

 ity to do so. since the office had not been created 

 by statute. The judge decided in favor of the 

 Auditor. 



The Supreme Court upheld the authority of a 

 Sunday law, enacted in 1784, in a recent case, in 

 which the publisher of a Pittsburg Sunday paper 

 was convicted of violating the law. 



The Attorney-General having given n deci>i> n 

 that the Insurance Commissioner is entitled to all 

 the fees in his department, the predecessor of 

 the present incumbent applied for the amount of 



