The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-07-01
Rideway Not a Borough.

4
aud making inquiries as to its business
prospects, and future chances for be-
coming an important town, expressed
the greatest surprise when informed
that the place is not Incorporated.
why they say "this is the only
county seat in the State unincorpo-
rated, while many much inferior vii
lagos, in point of population, wealth,
and enterprise, not county seats have
corporate state of existence" OF
course when this thing is thrown in
our teeth we are obliged to explain :
How the people have tried again and
again to have the grand jury recon-
mend the petition for incorporation ;
how the list of signers to the petition
for embraced nearly all the names and
property in the proposed borough,
while that against was signed gem
orally by men of little or no property /;
how several members of the grand
jury approached and almost entered
the gates of perjury. And all the
why's and wherefores of the long CON
tinued borough business. OF course
it would be much more satisfactory to
say the Borough of Ridgway. We
hope when the petition is again cir
culated our citizens will sign at
once and give the project such u push
that it will go through booming
Make up your minds now gentlemen
and sign your name, besides give all
your influence to the carrying out the
work to a successful end. All to.
gether then and we will remove this
certain stigma from our beautiful vii
lage. What the majority of the citi-
zens of Ridgway desire in this matter
shall be done. We believe majority
desire to have the place incorporated.
AS far as THE ADVOCATE is concerned
we are for it without compromise.
Mr.. Miller of the Democrat also as.
sures us that he is heart and hand for
the Incorporation. There is really no
opposition to the scheme among the
citizens of Ridgway, what Operates
against it is the political prejudice of Il
few short sighted men residents of
outside places and who really have no
business with the matter at ALL except
that they sometimes chance to be on
the grand jury. The idea that grand
jury should decide the matter is pre-
posterous, the law that allows such q
thing should be stricken from the
statute books and instead let an un
biased and unprCjudiced court decide
the matter. Ii the people of Ridgway
desire borough why should they be
denied what is clearly their right to
have? y plain fact stands, however,
it is that no grand jury, unless per-
jury forms part of their plan, can
justly on their oathS refuse to grant
the petition of citizens OF Il place for Il
borough where the requirements of
the law have been fulfilled. Let the
rebuke of Judge McDernott to for
mer grand jury stand as Il lasting re-
buke to all future grand iuries: Gen
tlemen," said the Judge, you have no
right to allow political prejudice to
bias your Judgment in the matter of
recommending the incorporation of Il
village into II borough" This point
We have quoted although the language
may not be the exact words used by
the Judge. How small those jurors
must have felt who voted against the
> measure solely on political grounds,
not only for the degradation of self
but for the stigma they cast by their
action on those faithful men, their
companions, who steadily voted in fa-
vor of Il measure all knew To be just.
This subject is only touched on now,
but The ADVOCATE will discuss it to
the bitter end, 80 long as majority of
1tidgway's citizens uphold our hands.
The following Caledonia, Elk
county, items, we clip from the Drift
wood Gazette:
One of the pioneer drivers, known
as Alex. Carr, was killed on Laurel
run on Wednesday of last week. An
old tree fell on him while he was
working on log jam and killed him
instantly. No blame Is attached to
any one. His remains were buried in
Penfield.
"A fearful accident occurred in this
quiet little village on Wednesday,
June 18th, and may be word of
warning to all who read this note.
Miss Lydia NJ. Swartz, aged about
fifteen years, was working for a Mrs.
Rideout, sister of the unfortunate
girl. Mrs Rideout was from home at
, the time and Lydia got dinner for Mr..
Rideout, and after dinner was going
to iron. Rising from the table she
put some wood into the stove and Mr..
Rideout went into the garden to work
as the fire did not burn fast enough
the thoughtless young girl took the
kerosene oil can and poured oil on the
fire (better had she poured oil on the
troubled waters.) The oil ignited, and
exploded the can, and threw the
oil all over the poor girl. She was i'll
stantly wrapped in flames. Her cries
brought Mr.. Ridout to her relief,
within two minutes. But it was too
late. The clothing was all burned off