The Titanic Sinks: Loss of Life Heavy. 1525 Probably Dead in Iceberg Disaster. Only 675 are saved. Survivors are mostly women and children. The greatest marine disaster in the history of the world occurred last Sunday night, when the Titanic, of the White Star line, the biggest and finest of ocean steamships, shattered herself against an iceberg and sank with about 1525 of her passengers and crew in less than four hours. At first it was said that all the passengers and the crew had been taken off from the Titanic. Then A. S. Franklin, vice president of the International Merchant Marines made the admission that it “could not be definitely stated that no lives had been lost.” [It is reported that Rev. Stuart Holden, of England, the distinguished minister who has been in Montrose twice as a speaker at the Bible Conference, had secured berths on the Titanic on its fatal trip, but could not take passage owing to the illness of his wife. Later it was reported that Mr. Holden was, after all, on the ship and among the lost.]

HEART LAKE - Newell S. Harrison, aged 72 years, died at his home near here, April 12, 1912. Mr. Harrison was a veteran of the Civil War, enlisting in Co. F, 7th Regt., P. V. I., on June 13, 1861. He was captured at Spotsylvania, in the Wilderness campaign, May 5, 1864, and for eight months was confined in Salisbury prison, being released the following February. He was discharged from the service May 11, 1865, having served four years, and passing through such great battles as the Peninsula Campaign, Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness and numerous other engagements. Brother members of Four Brothers Post, G. A. R., acted as bearers.

MONTROSE - Bissell & Cooley, automobile dealers, have added the Chalmers line to their Reo and Buick agencies. They have recently received a Chalmers “36”, which is one of the newest models from their factory, and equipped with 4 forward speeds, and compressed air starter. Sells for $1935. ALSO At a special meeting of Rough and Ready Hose Co., No. 1, held Tuesday evening, a committee consisting of H. E. Taylor, D. R. Cook and R. D. Cruser was appointed to sell the entire property of the company and the money realized by this sale to be applied on the indebtedness of the company. An adjourned meeting will be held Friday evening, April 26. All members of the company interested in its welfare are urged to be present.

PROSPECT HILL, JESSUP TWP. - Harry Palmer and E. J. Stockholm are suffering with bruises caused by running off the bank near Russell Very’s while returning from election Saturday evening.

NICHOLSON - A correspondent writing for the Philadelphia North American says: Prompted by nickelodeon, no doubt, two Nicholson boys, Harry Moore and Howard Casterlin, with visions of fighting wild Injuns, left home but came to grief in Buffalo, where the police found young Casterlin in a hospital with a broken ankle and Moore staying with his pal. Moore’s father took them home and it is likely that they will in the future leave Injun fighting to the movies exclusively.

NEW MILFORD - David B. Taft, who was formerly a director in the North-Eastern Pennsylvania Telephone Co., died of heart failure his home in New Milford. He was born in Harford and spent most of his life there and at Gibson and New Milford. Mr. Taft was a genial man and his host of friends along the line of the North-Eastern will be sorry to learn of his death.

SOUTH MONTROSE - Percy Ballentine, of Louden Hill Farm, has presented his brother-in-law, Norman H. Parke, general manager of the Black Horn Leather Co., of Great Bend, a new 2-passenger automobile. It arrived two weeks ago, and is a Ford model of 1912.

HOP BOTTOM - On Friday evening, April 26, Mrs. Mollie Kent, of Montrose, will present “The Taming of the Shrew” in monologue, at the Universalist church, this being the first number of a series of entertainments to be given under the auspices of the Ladies’ Literary Club.

KINGSLEY - Machinery and laborers for work on the new cut-off of the Lackawanna are arriving, thus preceding the official purchase of the right of way from the property holders. ALSO In East Kingsley, Daniel Little, of Binghamton, has been spending a few days with his nephew, E. N. Hammond, and has been renewing his age by doing the stunt of his boyhood days, helping to make maple syrup. All men who were brought up on a farm, no matter what their business is in after years, have a longing for the woods when spring comes.

HARFORD - Monday last a party of friends tendered Mrs. T. Glenn Sophia a birthday surprise. The event was heralded by a magnificent electrical display and heavy cannonading. The party broke up just before midnight and the verdict was that birthdays should come oftener.

FOREST CITY - Miss Matilda Arrowsmith, of the Warren tract, and William J. Murray, formerly of Wellsley, Mass, who has resided here for some time, were united in marriage in Christ Episcopal church last evening. The couple was attended by Miss Lillian Wood and Wm. Arrowsmith.

ROYAL, CLIFFORD TWP. - George Hankinson has enlivened our town by furnishing a beautiful gas light in front of his hotel. Many thanks to George.

FRANKLIN TWP. - Our old friend N. W. Scott, who always takes a great interest in the farms, relates a visit to Michael Kane’s in Franklin, and in remarking upon Mr. Kane’s handsome herd of Holsteins describes his stables as “cleaner than the average kitchen.” Mr. Scott also tells us of making a purchase while there of a bushel of apples and says Mr. Kane’s bushel was so liberal that it was necessary to put the side boards on the measure.

SPRINGVILLE - School closed last week; the graduating class consisted of four young ladies, Misses Bernice Sheldon, Meta Greenwood, Irene Lake and Marian Lott.

NEWS BRIEFS: Their principal prejudice against the split-log drag is that it is cheap, but as a road maker it has no equal on common dirt roads. The best dirt roads in Pennsylvania are those on which these drags are used after every rain. When each farmer owns, and uses a log drag after rain, instead of sitting in the barn door waiting for the fields to dry off, then will the question of better roads be solved. Drag, brothers, drag your roads carefully for at least a half an hour, after every shower. ALSO Declaring that his wife Mary beat him on the head with a poker when he remonstrated with her for espousing the cause of woman’s suffrage, James Rideout, of Chester, Pa., had her arrested. Rideout displayed a gash six inches long in his scalp.

If you follow professional football, the news has been filled with stories about the New Orleans Saints creating a “bounty” system that paid a defensive player if he knocked an opposing player out of the game. Apparently, the “bounty” program was implemented by one of the coaches to improve the defense and make it nastier. As a lifelong (suffering) Philadelphia Eagles’ fan, I can remember the controversy that erupted when former head coach Buddy Ryan placed a bounty on a Dallas Cowboy kicker. So, this is not the first time that the “bounty” issue has reared its ugly head in the context of professional football.

On this occasion, the NFL reacted strongly by suspending the coaches involved in the bounty program for substantial periods of time. The suspensions were apparently augmented by the deceptive actions of the coaches when initially confronted by the NFL about the program, i.e., the coaches lied to the league about their knowledge and involvement. As a result, the NFL has handed down some of the harshest penalties it has ever imposed against coaches or players.

A reader of the column posed an interesting question: Could those involved in the “bounty” program have been charged criminally for encouraging players to hurt opposing players and then financially rewarding those players for crippling hits? The question is not an easy one to answer given the level of violence present in the normal confines of a football game. There are things that happen within the sporting arena that would be criminal on the street – but given the rules of the game and consent of the participants, those acts are accepted on the playing field.

When I was a kid, my father had season tickets to Binghamton Whalers games - and I cannot tell you how many simple assaults I witnessed (and cheered wildly for) in the context of hockey games. Back then, hockey teams often had the “enforcer,” also known as the “goon,” whose job description was often akin to something you would see in the Sopranos. We all loved the enforcers - they protected our stars and went after the other teams stars. Then there were the moments when each teams’ enforcer would end up squaring up with each other - they went about their work with a real professionalism.

On some occasions, we were treated to the proverbial “bench clearing brawl,” which resulted in a multitude of fights involving countless players with the referees attempting, often futilely, to restore some semblance of order. I can even attest that I have witnessed the true rarity: the goalies fighting each other during a bench clearing brawl. Admittedly, there is something absurd about a “goalie fight,” but it still fed into the overall frenzy of the crowd.

Looking back, I recognize now that there was a certain barbarity to it all, but it was also really exciting stuff for a young boy. Unfortunately, my friends and I tended to emulate that behavior when we got together on the frozen ponds - and we spent a lot of time fighting each other or breaking up fights between friends rather than simply playing hockey. On the other hand, we always walked away as friends - there never seemed to be any enmity in a hockey fight. We just took it as part of the game - which I guess is the point I am trying to make. There was no criminal intent; rather, it was simply all about playing the game.

Getting back to the context of putting a bounty on someone in football, the question of criminality probably needs to focus on the exact nature of the “bounty” itself. If the person offering the bounty is encouraging illegal hits or conduct specifically aimed at hurting or maiming an opposing player, the potential for criminality increases because the person is soliciting someone to step outside the legal rules of the game with the specific intent to hurt another player. If the “bounty” program is simply rewarding (and encouraging) legal hits, then you cannot say that there is any criminality attached to it. Such bounty programs cannot be condoned or accepted by the league, but they are not criminal in nature.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.

The Susquehanna County Library Friends invites you to their fourth annual Author’s Luncheon, featuring guest speaker Tawni O’Dell. Ms. O’Dell is the author four novels set in the coal country of western Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, “Back Roads,” was an Oprah Book Club selection and a New York Times best seller.

The program to benefit the Susquehanna County Library will be on Wednesday, May 16th at The Summit Tea Room on Route 11 in New Milford. The informal hospitality time will begin at 11:30 a.m., a sit-down luncheon will be served at 12:30 p.m., and Ms. O’Dell will speak at 1:30 p.m..

Registration forms are available at any of the Susquehanna County Library locations (Montrose, Susquehanna, Hallstead/Great Bend, or Forest City). They may also be downloaded from the Library’s web site at www.susqcolibrary.org/luncheon. Reservation deadline is May 10th.

A native of the western Pennsylvania coal-mining region that she writes about with such authenticity, Ms. O’Dell is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in journalism. Those who have attended programs in which she was featured have found her to be an extremely fascinating speaker.

She has written three other novels, “Coal Run,” “Sister Mine,” and, most recently, “Fragile Beasts.” Her debut novel, “Back Roads,” is currently in development to be made into a film. Her books have been published in more than 40 countries.

We hope that you will consider joining us and bring some friends with you. Enjoy this unique experience while helping to support the Susquehanna County Library.