Mrs. Sarah BEARD, 40 years old, of East Vincent township, Chester county, attacked her husband, Jeremiah BEARD, on Sunday night with a hatchet and butcher knife while temporarily insane and inflicted injuries from which it is feared he may die. Mrs. BEARD had been known to be of unsound mind for the past two years, and in that time she had frequently threatened to kill her husband. Her attack on Sunday night came with such suddenness, however, as to find the husband unprepared, and his face, hands and head were terribly slashed by the sharp weapons. A large gash near the jugular vein is the most dangerous. The demented woman was taken to Phoenixville late the same night and lodged in the borough station house. Two local physicians examined her the next morning and ordered that she be taken to the county asylum at Embreeville.
The large swiss barn of Edwin W. REITER, of Trumbauersville, was totally destroyed by fire on Tuesday morning, at about five o'clock. the cause of the fire is a mystery. All the contents except the live stock was burned. The loss amounts to about $3,000. Both building and contents were insured in the Mutual Fire and Storm Insurance Company of Norristown. The barn was a new one, having been built on the site where a barn had been destroyed by fire through lightning, a few years ago.
As a result of a scene which he created in the First Baptist Church, Pottstown Sunday evening a Commission will inquire into the mental condition of John HAWS, of South Pottstown. During the services HAWS arose, and in a loud speech proclaimed his religious convictions. A hymn was sung, and the meeting was brought to a sudden close. HAWS was taken home, and his condition has grown so serious that his family is fearful for their lives. He has been carpentering and plastering in Philadelphia.
Worried because he failed in an examination of his eyes to be reinstated in his old position as an engineer on the Reading Railway, Henry F. REIFSNYDER, of Pottstown, committed suicide by hanging at his home on Wednesday morning. Although suspected of having suicidal intentions and watched for the past few days, he went to the pig-sty and, tying a rope to a board about four feet above the ground, strangled himself. For 43 years he was a Reading Railway engineer, and for 24 years ran the passenger and milk train between Barto and Philadelphia. He owned a fine home and a large farm in Berks county.
Some sneak thief one night recently stole some coal oil from a barrel in the basement of the Red Hill Hotel. The oil was taken shortly after the hotel was closed for the night, as Mr. BERGEY heard the noise but did not know what it was until the next morning when he noticed that his oil barrel had been tampered with.
Most of the members of the Montgomery County Bar attended the sixteenth annual banquet of the association on Saturday night at the Continental Hotel, Philadelphia. Col. James BOYD, general solicitor of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway presided. The guests of honor were Judges SWARTZ, WEAND and SOLLY.
A new set of books of the free library, supplied by the State, has been placed in READINGERS store, at Macungie. The selection is a good one and all who enjoy good literature can get access there.
Misses Edyth GRABER and Nora HILLEGASS of this borough spent Sunday with friends at Zionsville.
George FOLTZ and Clayton H. FRYER, of this borough, made a business trip to Allentown on Saturday.
Mrs. Geo. HUBER and Miss Flora GREULICH, of East Greenville, spent Saturday and Sunday at Allentown.
Mrs. Dr. W.H. HUNSBERGER, of this borough, visited friends at Philadelphia on Monday and Tuesday.
A.K. THOMAS, of Lansdale, Editor of the Doylestown Intelligencer visited his sister Mrs. M.K. GILBERT, of this borough, on Tuesday and also his father who is sick there.
Mr. and Mrs. Edgar A. KRAUSS, of Kutztown, spent several days this week with relatives and friends in this section.
Mr. and Mrs. Allen FRETZ and daughter of Reading, spent Sunday in this borough with the family of F.K. WALT and the family of Wm. SCHOENLY, of near East Greenville.
Rev. W. WERNER, of Schwenksville, will preach in the Pennsburg Reformed Church to-morrow morning.
The Pennsburg Reformed Church will to-morrow forenoon vote for student George W. LUTZ, as pastor of the congregation.
Charles TITLOW, of this borough, visited his parents at Trexlertown on Sunday.
The primary school, of this borough, was closed on Thursday on account of the teacher Miss Tillie XANDER being ill.
Emerson GOTTSHALK, of East Greenville spent Sunday at Allentown.
Mrs. Stephen ORTT, of this borough, spent Saturday at Egypt, visiting the family of her son, George.
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin STINE, of this borough visited his parents at Allentown on Sunday.
Clinton FAHRNEY, of Reading formerly of East Greenville, has again made his home in this section. He this week secured a position at the Red Hill Cigar factory.
Wellington KEPLER, of this borough, visited friends at Perkasie on Sunday.
The Board of Directors of the Perkiomen Railroad Company met in the Reading Terminal yesterday. D.K. GRABER and Jonathan P. HILLEGASS, of this borough attended the meeting.
Mrs. William KERN, of this borough, on Tuesday visited her brother at the Bethlehem Hospital who is a railroad man and was injured by getting under a train.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. REED, of this borough are both sick in bed with a cold and erysipelas for the past week.
Thomas MARSTELLER, of this borough, made a business trip to Allentown on Thursday.
Allen THOMAS, of West Point is critically ill at the home of his daughter Mrs. M.K. GILBERT, of this borough, where he had been on a visit.
The three-story brick building of William H. HOLL, of Perkasie, tenanted by tinsmith Nath. O'DONNELL, was on Wednesday morning destroyed by fire as well as the contents. The building was set on fire at different places according to the statements of people who first saw the flames. The property is insured in the Goshenhoppen Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Pennsburg, for $2,000 and the contents in a stock company.
Joseph HUTTEL, of Vera Cruz, at present clerk in the store of Schuler Bros., at that place, has leased the store property in the lower end of Pennsburg, known as the J.J. WALTER store, from Frederick YOUNG, of East Greenville. He will take possession in a few weeks. The stock will be appraised on March third and fourth.
Mrs. Susan SCHANTZ, widow of Charles SCHANTZ, of Vera Cruz, who died on Monday bequeathed to the Old Zionsville Lutheran church one hundred and fifty dollars. The conditions are that the church council must keep her burial plot in good condition.
The Eagle Hotel, of Pennsburg, was on Tuesday sold by Simon J. CROLL to Irwin RAHN, of Green Lane. Mr. RAHN will take possession on April first. He at present is clerk in the general store of J.R. ALLEBACH at Green Lane.
Burglars on Tuesday terrorized Spring City, and quite a few of the residents residing in close proximity to the office of S. DIEMER & Son, coal and lumber dealers, were awakened about 4 o'clock that morning by the discharge of nitro-glycerine used to blow the safe. The robbery occurred shortly after 4 o'clock, a rather unusual hour for burglars to be at work. An entrance was forced in one of the office doors, and three separate attempts were made to blow the safe open, none of them being successful. The safe was badly battered and twisted, so that it cannot be used. S. DIEMER whose residence is but a few yards from the office, hearing the explosions and seeing a light in the window of the office, fired at the office window with a shot gun. After the report a yell of pain was heard, and the burglars then dashed down Main street, talking loudly. Neighbors living near the office saw the thieves at work and state that there were three of them. One was in the office doing the safe blowing, while the other two remained on guard until after the explosion, when they went to the office also. It is the opinion of the neighbors that one of the thieves had been hit by Mr. DIEMER's shot. The reports of the explosion were heard by residents several hundred yard away.
Mrs. Reuben MUMBAUER, of near Milford Square, on Thursday fell down a flight of stairs at the home of her son-in-law Samuel WIEAND, Jr., where she resides, and fractured her thigh bone. Dr. WICKERT, of Milford Square, was summoned, but by the time he came her limb was swollen to such an extent that the leg could not be set that day. On Sunday the swelling had subsided and the fracture was reduced. Mrs. MUMBAUER was eighty years of age last week and is the mother of Aaron MUMBAUER, proprieter of the Palm Roller Mills.
Plumber Victor H. STECKEL, of Pennsburg, will on March first open a branch store at Siegfrieds Northampton County. Mr. STECKEL has of late had considerable work in that section and in order to convenience matters he has decided to open the second store. He expects to have a competent man at that place regularly.
For the purpose of improving his physical condition V.R. WILCOX, of near Harrisburg, will fast for sixty-days. For four weeks he has not tasted food. He drinks a quart of water a day in which a cerreal has been soaked, and has only lost thirteen pounds.
Death came without warning to Jacob EHRGOOD, a venerable resident of Pottstown, about noon last Friday. While reading a newspaper at his home he fell back in his chair and expired almost instantly. He was in his eighty-first year.
The employees in EISENLOHR's cigar factory at Boyertown, took up a collection among themselves, amounting to $18, to aid Wilson HARING, a fellow workman, who had a relapse from a recent sickness and is now confined to the house again.
Fagleysville has been connected by the Pennsylvania telephone from the Boyertown exchange. The line was extended from Swamp. The phone has been placed in J.M. SHIVE's store.
The youngest couple to wed in this county were married on Sunday at Pottstown by Rev. W.H. FORD, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The contracting party was Henry B. SMITH and Miss Jennie M. KNAPP, both of Pottstown and only seventeen years old.
At the wedding of Robert D. LUTZ and Miss Hermie JACOBY, at Lynnport, Lehigh county the bride wore a gown 117 years old, that had been worn at the altar by her great-great-grand-mother, Katharine SNYDER.
A memorial service will be held for the late Charles GREULICH, of East Greenville, tomorrow forenoon in the New Goshenhoppen Reformed church. The Rev. C.M. DELONG will preach the sermon.
With lusty voice and lively legs, Albert, the stripling son of Albert GERHART of Souderton, the former proprietor of the Reliance Hotel near Souderton put a doughty highwayman to shame at the southern border of that town. The lad laden with a tempting sum of money, was on his way home after a business trip for his father, and while he waited for a trolley car the robber attacked him. "Murder! murder!" yelled the boy, as he struggled loose, tearing his coat and running like a deer. The robber followed a little way; but the boy's screams were so shrill that rescue was bound to come, and so the pursuer turned and took to the woods.
H.C. DERSTINE, the creameryman and butcher of Morwood, whose buildings were destroyed by fire last week, sold his butchering business to Aaron LEWIS, of the same place. Mr. LEWIS about four years ago was in partnership in this business with Mr. DERSTINE and he is an able man to continue the business for he thoroughly understands it. He will start the business on Saturday next. Mr. DERSTINE will continue the creamery business. He will start to rebuild at once and expects to have the creamery finished ready for business by July first.
Senator Algernon B. ROBERTS, of Bala this county, has presented a solid silver whistle to a son of Postmaster W.R. MALSBERGER, of Stowe, who was born on the day ROBERTS was elected Senator and named for him.
Oscar BERGER, the saloon-keeper at the Continental Hotel Macungie has rented the WENHER farm, between Macungie and Alburtis, and will take possession in April.
Albert HASSLER, at present working on the FRITCH farm at Macungie, has rented the William GEHMAN farm near Vera Cruz, where he will start farming in Spring.
Public Sale of Valuable Household Goods. There will be sold at public sale on Saturday, March 12, 1904, at the residence of Mrs. Katie LEISTER, near St. Paul's Lutheran church, Montg. Co., Pa., the following household goods, to-wit: One bedroom set, one sideboard, one dozen new chairs, two rockers, two couches, one extension table, small table, 56 yards new carpet, queensware, and many other articles too numerous to mention. Sale to commence at 1 o'clock, p.m. Conditions to be made by Morris W. BADMAN. Ambrose KULP, auctioneer. Horace M. BUCK, clerk.
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