Lenox – The neighbors stepped in Wednesday night and helped Van Loan Bros. husk their corn. Many hands made light work.

Uniondale – Must have been something doing Saturday night. A wash tub was on the flag pole of the school house and several similar happenings in other parts of town. But, of course, it was done by the hand of some witch as she passed over the town on her broom. Also the reliable Erie has done something to keep people awake. What? Why put in the bells. Sometimes they ring half an hour at once.

Kingsley – Considerable damage was done, Saturday evening, by some of the boys who were celebrating Halloween.

Clifford – A very pleasant Hallowe’en party was enjoyed by a large company of young people at L. E. Taylor’s, his daughter, Marion, being the hostess. There was fun and frolic without stint, you bet.

Hop Bottom – Joseph West, who for the past ten years has been the manager of Brown & Fassett’s feed and flour store, in Montrose, recently resigned his position and assumed his duties as General Manager and Treasurer of a newly incorporated company, to be known as the Foster Mill Co., doing business here. Mr. West is also a director of the new company.

Alford – On Saturday afternoon, Nov. 6, the train on the L & M road will cross the old bridge at Alford for the last time and when the evening train goes down it will land its passengers at the new depot on the cut-off, this side of the creek, and the passengers and baggage will be transferred by wagon to the old station for that one train only, while the railroad construction men are busy getting the switches, etc., on the new line, near the new depot, ready for regular operation of all trains on the new cut-off Sunday morning, when regular train service will begin with all trains going over the cut-off.

Richmond Hill – Thomas Kane, in discussing the questions of the day made no secret of the fact that he is opposed to the gentler sex having the ballot—and he don’t care who knows it. Mr. Kane evidently believes in the admonition: “Beware of a bad woman and put not your trust in a good one.”

Harford – The new high school building will be formally opened at the dedication on Nov. 12, at 1:30 pm. The new flag will be raised at 1:30, after which a program will be given.

Great Bend – The glove factory not receiving the support of the town, and owing to the scarcity of girls’ wanting to work, they have removed their machinery to a suburb of New York. Great Bend is nicely situated for factories, being on two trunk lines.

Jackson – The many friends of O. J. McDuff and wife tendered them a surprise party on Nov. 1. Mr. McDuff and family expect to move to Orson next week, where he has rented a store.

East Lynn – The horse of E. W. Bush, which contracted lock-jaw some time ago, is completely cured, so far as can be seen. Dr. Miller, of Brooklyn, was the veterinary in charge.

Flynn – Middletown Twp. is largely in favor of woman suffrage.

Susquehanna – Thomas Reddon, of Villa Nova College, [Villanova] Pa., is spending a few days with his parents, Thomas Reddon and wife.

Forest City – Andrew, the fourteen year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kolonski, of Dundaff street, found a dynamite cap and gave it a vigorous rubbing on a wall when it exploded, blowing his right thumb off at the first joint and badly mangling the index and second fingers. He was taken to Emergency hospital, Carbondale, where his wounds were dressed.

Friendsville – St. Francis Xavier’s Catholic church was the scene of a pretty wedding, Tuesday morning, Oct. 26, when Miss Anna Irene Ryan, of Friendsville and James Fitzpatrick, of New York city, were married by Rev. J. P. Dunn The bridesmaid was Miss Katherine Hickey, of Scranton, while the best man was Mr. Frank Kelly, of Brooklyn, N .Y.

New Milford – Hallie Lewis and family have taken possession of the Walker House.

News Briefs: The ladies of the county are rejoicing today, feeling greatly elated over the large vote for equal suffrage in our county. The vote for this amendment was 2680; against 1416. However, it was decisively defeated in all of the states where the proposition was submitted to the voters—New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Also Clarence VanDyke, of Binghamton, dealer in Miller automobile tires, is also making a specialty of “2-in-1 Tread” auto tires, which provide a great saving on tires. Two tires, old ones, can be made over into one by him, no matter how poor, which gives much service.

The Trial for the Murder of Jackson Pepper: Wednesday afternoon the Court House was crowded to the doors, many ladies being present [and a few babies]. Daniel Graham sworn. Resides in Rush. Commonwealth proposed to show that while Eagan was still living in Rush, he asked this witness to go with him to rob Pepper (and witness refused)—to be followed later by evidence by George Callahan, of Susquehanna, that Egan made similar suggestions to him. Objected to by defense as immaterial, incompetent and irrelevant, as no robbing has been shown and therefore it does not connect Eagan. Objection sustained by court. Seldon Munger sworn. Resides in Montrose; is deputy Recorder, and also newspaper correspondent; as a reporter he interviewed Eagan and Shew in jail. Com’th offered a statement purporting to be a confession by Eagan that he and Shew went to Rush to rob Pepper, and that Shew hit Pepper with the club. The matter was objected to and defense given a chance to cross-examine Munger. On cross-examination witness said that D. A. Ainey, Deputy Sheriff Leonard, Chief McMahon, who arrested Eagan, George Frazier, Chas. Ainey and Miss Ammerman were present. It was at jail, in Sheriff’s rooms, and the prisoners were brought up, and the confession made, and he [Munger] took it down. Witness was rigidly questioned by Mr. Davies, as tending to show that undue influence was used by the persons present to get a statement from the prisoners, and that the prisoner didn’t know that Munger was a newspaper correspondent or that it was for publication, or to be used against him. The admission of the confession was still objected to, as being a statement extorted by a jailer, policeman &c., in the absence of counsel or friends of Eagan. Objection was overruled by the court and the confession admitted as evidence. Mr. McCollum read the confession to the jury. It gave the history of the case substantially as outlined in the commonwealth opening. The confession said it was made without promise of reward. Daniel Graham, cousin of Susie Graham, was re-called and testified that at the Butterfield bridge, in Rush, one day in May, 1897, Eagan said to him, “Let’s go rob Jack Pepper and get his money.” On cross-examination he said he thought Eagan was joking. George Callahan re-called and said Eagan, three or four weeks before the murder, asked him to go with him to rob an old couple and would have no trouble in doing it. [Defense objects and court excluded it]. Wing Lee, the Susquehanna laundryman said Eagan came to his place and wanted a rope and gave him three to five yards; Several were sworn in and said they did not see either Shew or Eagan from Sunday till Thursday [after the murder]. Several more sworn in who saw both pass their homes or places of business on way to Rush. Thursday morning Miss Frances Ammerman (Mr. Ainey’s stenographer) is on the stand. It is expected Susie Graham will be called. To be continued next week. The above article is a murder mystery that took place in 1898 in Rush Twp., Susquehanna County, brought to you in conjunction with “Susquehanna County Reads” program. See details on the Library website. The Scavenger Hunt in the museum is now on. The museum will be open during regular hours.

A few weeks ago, I got home and my wife told me that there was a message from the IRS on the voicemail.  Before I even listened to it, I told her it was a scam.  She asked me how I knew – I said that the IRS does not call to threaten you over the phone.  I listened to the message – and it suggested that the IRS was about to sue me unless I made arrangements to pay delinquent taxes.  The con artists even left a telephone number for me to return their call coupled with the threat that immediate action was necessary in order to avoid costly litigation.  I simply deleted the message.

Last week, a friend emailed me to tell me that they had received the same recorded call which stated that it was “officially a final notice” prior to the IRS “filing a lawsuit against you.”  The recorded call gave the following phone number: 253-336-4964 to call to “get more information.”  If you were to call that number, the more information would be whatever the identity thief needed to access your accounts or steal your identity.  My friend likewise recognized it immediately as a scam, but expressed concern that others may not do so.  The friend encouraged me to do another column on these scam IRS phone calls – and to reproduce the telephone number – as a warning.  The last column came out in July – but my friend’s encouragement convinced me to repeat some of that column here. 

Prior to penning this column, I called the phone number.  It rang until it went to a busy signal – no voicemail, no automatic menu, and nothing to suggest that it was legitimate.  I suspect that the con artists have already abandoned that number and moved on to a new one.  Keeping moving is one way that they avoid detection and arrest.  These IRS phone scams are not limited to Susquehanna County.  In fact, the IRS website specifically issues a description and warning of the offending conduct:

“An aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, has been making the rounds throughout the country.  Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, but are not.  These con artists can sound convincing when they call.  They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers.  They may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling.”

“Victims are told that they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer.  If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license.  In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

“Or, victims may be told that they have a refund due to try to trick them into sharing private information.”

“If the phone isn’t answered, the scammers often leave an ‘urgent’ callback request.”

“Note that the IRS will never: 1) call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill; 2) demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe; 3) require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card; 4) ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone; or 5) threaten to bring in local police or other law enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.”

The IRS website has actually compiled a “Dirty Dozen” list of the scams to watch out for involving con artists utilizing the authority – and fear – of the IRS to steal from unsuspecting victims.  The numerous people who have reported these scams to me realized quickly that they were not dealing with the IRS – but they were all concerned that other people may not be so lucky and requested that I use the column to warn people to watch out.  At our household, we simply do not answer the phone unless we recognize the number – if it is a legitimate call, they will leave a message.  If they leave a message, it gives you the time to carefully think about what they are calling about and to research whether it is legitimate.  Caution is always the best policy.

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.

While America slept a giant passed from the scene. He stood for truth; he died in prison. Likely, he would have been released from prison many years ago had he simply recanted “The Truth” and agreed to the government’s version of “truth.” Irwin Schiff remained resolute to the end; to the end, that the rewards of freedom--hard work, thrift and self-reliance, in both spirit and substance--might be restored to American life. He could do no less because he knew it was not just for his children, but for their generation and future generations of Americans.

I came across Irwin Schiff’s 1976 book, “The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You,” in 1977 while I was living in San Diego. Much like a lost soul “discovering” the Scriptures’ message of salvation, I embraced Irwin Schiff’s floodlight of economic brilliance in a world otherwise black with misinformation and misunderstanding. Chapter 1 of his book opens with these words, “Money has ceased to exist in the American economy.” Those words are as true now as then.

His last book, first published in 1992 was actually banned in America, and ultimately led to his loss of freedom and premature death. But Irwin Schiff’s truth had primacy. He was intimately familiar with the tax code and the nature of Constitutional money. He also understood that the IRS and Federal Courts could not rationally square the tax code with the requirement for Constitutional money--except by imposition of the State’s coercive power. The iron fist of government came down with full force on Irwin Schiff. When America’s Liberty is one day restored, Irwin Schiff’s reputation as patriot and defender of freedom will likewise be restored.

Herewith, Irwin Schiff’s life is briefly summarized by his son, Peter Schiff. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read about this remarkable American who could not, and would not, compromise his convictions. He lived what he believed, and held to truth to the end. In short, he lived a life of meaning and consequence.

In a most unforgettable letter he entitled, “DEATH OF A PATRIOT,” Peter Schiff shared the life of a very special man he was graced to know so intimately: “My father Irwin A. Schiff was born Feb. 23rd 1928, the 8th child and only son of Jewish immigrants, who had crossed the Atlantic twenty years earlier in search of freedom. As a result of their hope and courage my father was fortunate to have been born into the freest nation in the history of the world. But when he passed away on Oct. 16th, 2015 at the age of 87, a political prisoner of that same nation, legally blind and shackled to a hospital bed in a guarded room in intensive care, the free nation he was born into had itself died years earlier.

My father had a life-long love affair with our nation’s founding principles and proudly served his country during the Korean War, for a while even having the less than honorable distinction of being the lowest ranking American soldier in Europe. While in college he became exposed to the principles of Austrian economics through the writings of Henry Hazlitt and Frederick Hayek. He first became active in politics during Barry Goldwater’s failed 1964 presidential bid. His activism intensified during the Vietnam Era when he led local grass root efforts to resist Yale University’s plans to conduct aid shipments to North Vietnam at a time when that nation was actively fighting U.S. forces in the south. Later in life he staged an unsuccessful write in campaign for governor of Connecticut, then eventually lost the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination to Harry Browne in 1996.

In 1976 his beliefs in free market economics, limited government, and strict interpretation of the Constitution led him to write his first book The Biggest Con: How the Government is Fleecing You, a blistering indictment of the post New Deal expansion of government in the United States. The book achieved accolades in the mainstream conservative world, receiving a stellar review in the Wall Street Journal, among other mainstream publications.

But my father was most known for his staunch opposition to the Federal Income Tax, for which the Federal Government labeled him a “tax protester.” But he had no objection to lawful, reasonable taxation. He was not an anarchist and believed that the state had an important, but limited role to play in market based economy. He opposed the Federal Government’s illegal and unconstitutional enforcement and collection of the income tax. His first book on this topic, (He authored six in total, self-published by Freedom Books.) ‘How Anyone Can Stop Paying Income Taxes,’ published in 1982, became a New York Times best seller. His last, ‘The Federal Mafia; How the Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes,’ the first of three editions published in 1992, became the only non-fiction, and second and last book to be banned in America. The only other book being Fanny Hill; Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, banned for obscenity in 1821 and 1963.

His crusade to force the government to obey the law earned him three prison sentences, the final one being a fourteen-year sentence that he began serving ten years ago, at the age of 77. That sentence turned into a life sentence, as my father failed to survive until his planned 2017 release date. However in actuality the life sentence amounted to a death sentence. My father died from skin cancer that went undiagnosed and untreated while he was in federal custody. The skin cancer then led to a virulent outbreak of lung cancer that took his life just more than two months after his initial diagnosis.

The unnecessarily cruel twist in his final years occurred seven years ago when he reached his 80th birthday. At that point the government moved him from an extremely low security federal prison camp in New York State where he was within easy driving distance from family and friends, to a federal correctional institute, first in Indiana and then in Texas. This was done specially to give him access to better medical care. The trade off was that my father was forced to live isolated from those who loved him. Given that visiting him required long flights, car rentals, and hotel stays, his visits were few and far between. Yet while at these supposed superior medical facilities, my father received virtually no medical care at all, not even for the cataracts that left him legally blind, until the skin cancer on his head had spread to just about every organ in his body.

At the time of his diagnosis in early August of this year, he was given four to six months to live. We tried to get him out of prison on compassionate release so that he could live out the final months of his life with his family, spending some precious moments with the grandchildren he had barely known. But he did not live long enough for the bureaucratic process to be completed. Two months after the process began, despite the combined help of a sitting Democratic U.S. congresswoman and a Republican U.S. senator, his petition was still sitting on someone’s desk waiting for yet another signature, even though everyone at the prison actually wanted him released. Even as my father lay dying in intensive care, a phone call came in from a lawyer and the Bureau of Prisons in Washington asking the prison medical representatives for more proof of the serious nature of my father’s condition.

As the cancer consumed him his voice changed, and the prison phone system no longer recognized it, so he could not even talk with family members on the phone during his final month of life. When his condition deteriorated to the point where he needed to be hospitalized, government employees blindly following orders kept him shackled to his bed. This, despite the fact that escape was impossible for an 87 year old terminally ill, legally blind patient who could barely breathe, let alone walk.

Whether or not you agree with my father’s views on the Federal Income Tax, or the manner by which it is collected, it’s hard to condone the way he was treated by our government. He held his convictions so sincerely and so passionately that he continued to espouse them until his dying breath. Like William Wallace in the final scene of Braveheart, an oppressive government may have succeeded in killing him, but they did not break his spirit. And that spirit will live on in his books, his videos, and in his children and grandchildren. Hopefully his legacy will one day help restore the lost freedoms he died trying to protect, finally allowing him to rest in peace.” Herewith ends Peter Schiff’s writing about his Dad.

While much of America sleeps, patriots alone or in numbers large and small toil on long into the night to restore the first principles of Constitutionalism that Liberty may not vanish from humanity‘s last best hope. Thank you, Irwin Schiff, for giving your last full measure of devotion.