Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-02

able designs, that will of itself amount to .
levy of war, although no actual blow has
been struck or engagement has taken
place.
One of the attorneys connected with the
prosecution said yesterday: "We hear q
great deal now about the persecution of the
poor Homestead men that is going on. II
the people of Pennsylvania are content to
sit by and let actions such as those at
how such proceedings would stand in the
light of the law, 1t shows . very
peculiar spirit We certainly have
the law on our side. Anything that
the State Legislature thinks proper for
the safety of the Commonwealth aud So
ciety can be defined as treason. The Sec
ton under which the informat1ons were
made appears in Purdon's digest in the first
section of crimes 1t reads: IT any person
owing allegiance to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania shall levy war against the
same, or shall adhere to the enemies thereof,
giving them aid and comfort within the
State or elsewhere, and shall be thereof
connected, on confession in open court, or
on testimony of two witnesses, to
the same overt act Of treason whereof
he shall stand indicted, such
person shall, on conviction, be adjudged
guilty of treason against the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, and be sentenced to pay
fine not exceeding $1,000, and undergo an
imprisonment, by separate and solitary
confinement at labor, not exceeding
II years.
A Far-Reaching Law.
eff any person, having knowledge Of
any of the treasons aforesaid, shall conceal,
and not, as soon as may be, disclose and
make known the same to the Governor, or
Attorney General of the State, or some
one of the Judges or justices thereof,
such person shall, on conviction, be adjudged
guilty of misprison of treason, and shall be
sentenced to pay fine not exceeding 81 900,
and undergo an Imprisonment, by separate
and solitary confinement at labor, not ex-
ceeding six years; provided always, that
nothing herein contained shall authorize
the connection of any husband or wife for
concealing treasons committed by them re-
spectively.' This last section is very broad
indeed.
The last case of treason tried in Pennsyl-
vania was one that grew out of the whisky
rebellion. 1t was tried in 1894 and, a strange
coincident, the action was on Braddock's
fields, not great distance from the scene
of the present difficulty. A man named
Fries and a number of others surrounded
General Neville's house and burned it
down. They were tried and sentenced to
death, but the penalty was never paid, as
the President pardoned the men.
Difference Between a Crowd and q Mob.
''The Distinguishing feature of mob and
a crowd gathered to commit reasonable Of
fences is the scope of the operations. At
Homestead the men were under what might
be termed military rule. They not only
armed themselves but were also entrenched
behind the piles of steel beams Judge
Stewart, of Chambersburg, recently said in
commenting upon the character of the
gathering at Homestead: 'It was not mob
driven by the quick impulse of passion to
execute destructive vengeance, not a stsrv-
ing multitude with the cry of bread or
blood upon famished lips; not rising of
oppressed bcndsmen to break the
shackles of their slavery, but an
armed and organized body Of men acting
under an authority-which they themselves
had created, independent of law, without
the excuse of hunger or oppression, with
out vengeance to execute, deliberately de-
flying the authority of the State, breaking
the public peace even to the sacrifice of
lives to enforce the demands Of their own
convenience and to compel obedience to
their unlicensed pleasure. Governor Patti
son in an address at the Crawford county
talr said the condition of affairs at Home
stead was not mob rule, but treason"