Arrest and Escape On Thursday last Assistant Provost Marshal Heyer arrested a man named Shorthill in Wilmore, this county, on the charge of being a deserter. He (Shorthill) was drafted from Summerhill township in August last, and failing to report for duty, thereby rendered himself amenable to the penalties attaching to the crime of desertion. After his arrest, the prisoner was kept under guard in the Railroad House for several hours, awaiting the arrival of the train to convey him east. Free ingress and egress was afforded his friends and many came to see and converse with him. At a particular juncture when the door happened to be opened to its full width, the prisoner suddenly made one bound through it, bade a metaphorical adieu to both official and spectators and “skedaddled.” He must have proven a swift runner for pursuit was soon found to be useless. Marshal Heyer fired two loads from a revolver after the fugitive, one of which it is rumored took effect in the calf of his leg. This however did not check his speed, at least not enough to allow him to be re-captured, and up to the present time, Shorthill is “basking in the sunshine of personal liberty.” “Not a True Bill” The indictment pending against Capt. Wm. R. Hughes, of this county, charging him with aiding and abetting in the destruction of the Huntingdon MONITOR establishment last summer, came up before the Grand Jury at Huntingdon county last week and was promptly ignored by that body. Thus the long agony is over. Jottings from Washington - Extracts Washington City, Jan. 14, 1864 Since my last letter was written the Congressional vacation has ended and the Members have returned to their desks. During the recess many bills of importance were prepared which will be passed into laws with little delay. Perhaps the most important of these bills has already become a law – that extending the time for the payment of bounties to veterans from the 5th of January to the 1st of March. It passed the House last week and the Senate on Tuesday. It is worth noting that this extension of time was made the subject of a special message to Congress from the President, in which the policy of paying bounties to veterans after the 5th of January was strongly urged. The President in this showed at once his appreciation of the services of veteran soldiers and his desire to make the coming draft fall as lightly as possible upon the “loyal masses” who prefer to say at home. The bounty to veterans is $400 and to “greenhorns,” $300. Veterans and volunteers are coming forward with enthusiasm. Secretary Chase has stated that the Treasury can bear the large draft upon its resources which the adoption of this bounty policy renders necessary. So, for the present, and until that other draft is ordered, all will go merry as a marriage bell in the way of raising a new army. And what about the draft? In some of the States, it won’t take place at all. Vermont and Indiana have already filled their quotas; Connecticut and Wisconsin expect to do so within another week; New York and one or two other States hope to avoid the conscription in much the same way that the crazy miller got into heaven – by a very tight squeeze. Pennsylvania will certainly be visited by it. Where the draft does take place, we predict that these features will characterize it: there will be no exemptions, except for disability; all persons under forty-five years of age will be liable, as they always should have been; the $300 clause will be retained, as it ought to be. The draft will probably commence early in February. [Snip] It seems to be settled beyond all peradventure that Abraham Lincoln will be re-elected President of the United States. His only formidable competitor for the nomination by the Union National Convention is Secretary Chase. Gen. Grant and Gen. Banks are understood to have refused the use of their names in connection with the Presidency and Gen. Butler must wait. Grant will soon be made Lieutenant General and transferred to Washington, succeeding Halleck, whom nobody appears to think fit for the position he has held for eighteen months. The only straw that seems just now to point away from the President and in the direction of Secretary Chase is the Missouri imbroglio. Mr. Chase sides with the anti-Gamble, anti-Schofield party and the popular voice is assuredly with him and against the President. Judge Bates is undoubtedly responsible for the President’s unpopular course with regard to Missouri affairs. He is a brother-in-law of Gamble and his son is a Gamble politician and was a candidate for Judge at the late election. Of course Judge Bates has done his utmost to retain Gamble and Schofield, whose political views harmonize in supreme authority in Missouri and has so far had the ear of the President. Nevertheless, among politicians here, Mr. Lincoln’s re-nomination and re-election are generally conceded. The CHRONICLE of this city, the Administration organ and owned and edited by John W. Eorney is out this morning in a long editorial in favor of a second term. It affords me great pleasure to inform your readers that Major Francis Jordan of Bedford has been appointed Agent for the State of Pennsylvania at the National Capital. Governor Curtin could not have made a better appointment. The Major is in every sense worthy. His fitness for any position within the gift of his native State was long since proved; but, like your correspondent, Mr. Editor, his modesty has always militated against his advancement. He has resigned his commission as a Paymaster in the Army and will assume his new duties in a couple of weeks. The dreaded small pox is still spreading in this city. Senator Lemuel J. Bowden of East Virginia has died of it. The means of averting a threatened plague from this loathsome disease are being considered by Congress, the city government and the newspapers. We have no panic but there is general alarm. The anxious question, “Will Congress repeal the $300 clause?” has given place to the sympathetic inquiry, “Did your vaccination take?” Many very cautious people will not ride in the street cars or hacks for fear of the contagion. As yet, however, I do not hear of any timid Members of Congress having resigned their seats on account of the presence of that contagion in the city, although it might fairly be presumed that the disease would present unnatural terrors to them. The virtuous and the good, you know, Mr. Editor, are always taken first. [Signed] J. M. S. What Becomes of Dead Horses? Some people will no doubt be astonished to learn that large fortunes have been made every year since the commencement of the war out of the dead horses of the Army of the Potomac. The popular idea is that when Rosinante yields up the ghost, he is buried in some field or left to molder in mother earth in the woods somewhere. Not so. He has made his last charge and gnawed his last fence rail but there is from $20 to $40 in the old fellow yet. A contract for the purchase of the dead horses in the Army of the Potomac for the ensuing year was let a few days ago to the highest bidder at $1.76 per head, delivered at the factory of the contractor. Last year $60,000 was cleared on the contract and this year it is thought $100,000 can be made out of it. The animals die at the rate of about fifty per day at the lowest calculation. At the contractor’s establishment they are thoroughly dissected. First the shoes are pulled off; they are usually worth fifty cents a set. Then the hoofs are cut off; they bring about two dollars a set. Then comes the candal [as spelled in the newspaper] appendage worth half a dollar. Then the hide – I don’t know what that sells for. Then the tallow, if it be possible to extract tallow from the army horse, which I think extremely doubtful unless headie [as spelled in the newspaper] immediately after entering the service. And last, but not least, the shin bones are valuable, being convertible into a variety of articles that many believe to be composed of pure ivory such as cane heads, knife handles, &c. By the time the contractor gets through with the “late lamented” steed there is hardly enough of him left to feed a bull pup on. Hereafter, kind reader, when you see a dead “hoss” don’t turn up your nose at him, but regard him thoughtfully as the foundation for a large fortune in a single year. He may individually be a nuisance but “there is that within which passeth show” – $100,000 a year. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARRIAGES Martin-Coulson Married in Junction, Kansas, 20th ult., by Rev. Wm. Todd, Geo. W. Martin, formerly of Hollidaysburg to Miss Lydia Coulson of St. George, Pottawattomic county, Kansas. ----------------------------------------------------------------- DEATHS Fatal Accident We clip the following announcement from the CAMBRIA TRIBUNE of Friday: “On Saturday night last a man was found lying on the Railroad track below old Conemaugh Furnace by the watchman ahead of the Express train east. He was so badly injured that he was unable to give his name or tell how he received his injuries. He was brought to Johnstown on the Express, and conveyed to the Scott House where he was properly taken care of. He was found to be very seriously hurt about the head, in addition to which his hands and feet were badly frozen. It was subsequently ascertained that his name was Horace Dresser, a native of Maine and a workman in a shook shop near Ninevah, but he could tell nothing of how he came on the track or received his injuries. It is supposed however that he had fallen from the mail train west and was so badly hurt that he could not get off the track. In a few minutes more he would have been torn to pieces by the train from the west. He lingered until Wednesday morning, when death closed his earthly career He was a single man, about 23 years old, but was engaged to be married on the very day on which he died. His affianced bride accompanied his remains from the hotel on Wednesday afternoon to their place of interment in Indiana county. The editor of this paper was well acquainted with the subject of the foregoing notice, having known him from boyhood up. He was born and reared in our native town, Lovell, Maine. He had lived in this section for several years past and through his industry and economy was in a fair way of accumulating a competency. Kind, courteous, affable, he was beloved by all who knew him. We sorrow at his sad and untimely demise and keenly sympathize with his parents and friends, who, through this bereavement, will know their Horace no more on earth forever. _________________________________________________________________ Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_AE_Access_022009