Still commemorating the centenary of the war to end war.

Each of these items appeared in the Saturday, 15 August 1914 issue of The Patriot, published in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA.

Regiments Crumble Under Deadly Fire of Belgians

Roar of Warships' Cannon Come from the North Sea

Italy has mobilized great frontier army

GENEVA, Switzerland (via Paris) Aug. 13. Italy has mobilized between 200,000 and 250, 000 troops on the Swiss and Austrian frontiers as a precautionary me[a]sure. All the high passes over the Alps, such as the Theodule, above Zermatt, are strongly held and Italian patrols meet there and exchange their impressions of the war.

Proud of Battle Axe

In the office of Dr Ruffner on South Seventh street, lays a wooden battle axe, seven feet high.

Joseph R Ruffner, father of Dr Ruffner, used it to drill during the war of '61' with Company A, 260 Pennsylvania Volunteers, at that time Grant township, of this county, was the headquarters.

Mr Ruffner is very proud of this now harmless weapon.

A Menace to Our City

The town authorities started something Wednesday which should be productive of good results, when they cleared Main street, of all loafers on steps and 'the crow's nest', White's stone fence. For the past few months the town loafers have congregated on steps and every available place where they could sit down and throw remarks at passers by, several instances of women being insulted having been brought to the notice of the officers. In fact it was getting so bad that women were compelled to go out of their way to pass these loafers orf hear insulting remarks¹. Wednesday night the police made a raid on the loafers and they will continue until the habit is broken². Many people who live along the street and people who have business houses and stores, complain of finding the pavement in front of their properties 'beautifully' decorated with tobacco juice each morning. The habit of spitting on the pavement is very objectional³ and it might be a good plan for the officers to start a 'war' on this menace.

Man Fights a Bear

T.C. Shugarts, formerly of Richmond, this county, but now at Wallaceton, Va., sends the following account of a fight with a bear in the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, in the Marion Center Independent.

'One of my foremen, Mr Dillon, and myself were out looking over some timber last week and encountered a large black bear that tipped the scales at 300 pounds, which gave us a hurry-up fight for about fifteen minutes. All we had to fight with was a 32 calibre Smith & Wesson revolver and a small pocket knife. While we made every shot count the bear started to chase Mr Dillon around a large juniper stump, while I was shooting him⁴. But he had good wind like one of C.E. Richardson's race horses. I shot him eight times, but at last we had to catch him and cut his throat to kill him, he being about played out at this time. To prove our story to the people down here, we got a couple more fellows and they helped us take the carcass to the log train, five miles distant, where we transferred it to Wallaceton and had a bear roast that night⁵. We remarked afterwards that if we met any more bears, all we wanted was a 301 Savage gun and that would be the end of the bear fight.

Man Dead for 22 Years Predicted War for This Year

Towanda, PA, Aug.12. – While looking over books belonging to the family, George Fletcher, of Gillett, near here, found an old Bible in the handwiriting of his father, William Fletcher, a prophecy which says in part: 'In the year 1914 there will be wars in every corner of the earth.'

William Fletcher, who wrote the prophecy, was a great Bible student and a learned man. He based his prophecy on calculations made from a study of the Bible. He has been dead almost 22 years.

Many other prophecies have just been discovered in the Bible, yellow with age.

Ed Note: Alas, those prophecies are lost to us. But isn't it interesting how the people of Indiana, Pennsylvania, speak to us across time through the pages of The Patriot? We hope they all came through that war all right.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

09.11.15 Front Page

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