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Edson, McCormick, Hartzell, Kopelin, McPike, Murphy and all the Bolsingers, penalized for various infractions of the rules.

At the regular meeting No. 367, held August 28, 1857, the debate of the day was on the question: "Was there animal existence for successive ages prior to the time of Adam?" Mr. King, Sr., led the affirmative, and General Potts the negative. It was the custom for each member to take whichever side he desired to argue after the inquiry was opened. On this occasion Messrs. Guss, Rea and Robinson were the judges, who decided, "No." The meetings being consecutively numbered, show that the association substantially met weekly during the seven years of its existence.

The Association flagged during the war and for several years following after, but in 1869 it was reorganized with all its old time vigor. It may not have been the same organization but it took its place as the Literary Society. On November 8, 1869, the following question was debated: "Should the Christian religion be explicitly recognized in the Constitution of the United States?" Rev. A. H. Thomas, the pastor of the Franklin M. E. church, led the affirmative, and General Potts the opposition and the question was left undecided by a tie vote. The next meeting was held on the 15th, when John P. Linton was the orator; R. H. Singer, the declaimer; General J. M. Campbell, essayist, and Abraham Kopelin and John F. Barnes, the debaters.

In the later sixties Miss Mary Woodruff, a teacher, organized a Literary Society composed entirely of pupils of the public schools. This society, which met every Friday afternoon, had the distinction of editing two papers, The Eagle and The Repository, neither of which, however, was printed.

After 1871 all the members of the Johnstown Literary Society were high school scholars, and the membership remained so thereafter during all the years of its intermittent existence. The entertainments given by it in Union Hall were events in the pleasure days of the boys and girls on its roll.

At the beginning of the school year for 1897, at the suggestion of William F. Long, principal of the high school, two societies were formed. The seniors and juniors united as one body, and selected the name "Tau Kappa Epsilon," or the "T. K. E. Society," while the sophomores chose for theirs the name, "Emerson Literary Society." To the freshmen was given the privilege of choosing membership in either. This of course

started a friendly rivalry which has made both successful. They celebrate the birthdays of Washington and Lafayette, either in joint or separate meetings, hold inter-society debates, and every winter each gives an evening open meeting to which the public is invited. An address was given to the Emerson Society by John Wanamaker, on November 8, 1898.

These societies founded The Spectator, and conduct it as the official organ of the high school. It is very creditable paper. The first number, consisting of eight pages, was issued December, 1898, while the current number, including advertisements, has sixty-six pages.

The cost of an edition of 500 is about $85.

CHAPTER IV.

ART, LITERATURE AND MUSIC.

The authors and artists of the mountain county have attained a worthy place in literature and art, since the day when the white man felled the trees and made himself a habitation there.

The first author was the Rev. Dr. Gallitzin, a cultured and convincing writer on theological subjects and public affairs, who began as early as 1808 to publish pamphlets on questions of federal and state government. Some of his works on theological matters have passed through two or three editions, and are still in circulation. His "Letter to a Protestant Friend on the Holy Scriptures" was published by F. Lucas, Jr., of Baltimore, in 1820, 156 pages, and the last edition from the Christian Press Association of New York and San Francisco was issued after his death. He submits it to "the Protestant Public" in preference to some particular Protestant minister, on account of his "ungentlemanly language" in some controversy. With mildness he denies the accusations against the church which appeared in a publication entitled "Vindication," and in his foreword offers this view: "The main subject of it is the Holy Scripture, which the Catholic church venerates as the word of God, and from which we draw the doctrine of salvation.

You will be surprised to find how ill-grounded the charge is which your minister makes against Catholic priests of concealing the scripture."

In 1837, F. Lucas, Jr., published "A Defense of Catholic Principles," 197 pages, which has also been recently republished. In a note the Doctor states the manuscript was prepared "nearly fifty years ago." It seems this work was first published in 1816. His last literary production, "An Appeal to the Protestant Public," was printed in 1834, six years before his death.

Rev. George Roberts translated from the Welsh language "A View of the Primitive Ages," by Theophilus Evans. His printers were Canan & Scott, of Ebensburg. It is well printed

and bound, containing 302 pages, 5 by 734 inches, and bears date of 1834. The translation is from the second edition, dated May 1, 1740. Mr. Evans dwells especially upon the Welsh people and their language. In his opinion no one can perfectly understand the Welsh language without a knowledge of the Irish language. He asks; "Who could comprehend the meaning of Traeth saith in Cardinganshire, unless he was acquainted with the Irish? Eithon is the name of a river in Radnorshire; the Irish word is Aith-afon, that is, a wild running river." He also makes the claim that "Madog ap Owen Gwynedd discovered America as early as 1170 A. D.”

William Barnard Conway came to Johnstown in 1835, (see article on Newspapers) and was probably the first lawyer to locate there. However, it appears he did not practice his profession but entered the field of journalism, possessing such ability as a political word caricaturist and the faculty of selecting fair words to express his exasperating sarcasm. In fiction or general newspaper writing his diction was cultured and graceful. He was not vindictive but tenacious in pursuing a political opponent with ridicule. He was the chosen defendant in twenty libel suits pending at the same time. It is probable his best production was the "Bribed Legislator" a philippic of a class of members of the Assembly whom he accused of voting for the rechartering the United States bank during the Jackson-Van Buren reign. The poem is quite lengthy, but the closing paragraph which follows, is a characteristic specimen :

"The Bribed Apostate! blot his hateful name
From each and every scroll of honest fame.
Let no man trust him:-None forbear to shed
Contempt, and deep dishonor, on his head,
Let Scorn still point her finger and her jibes
And say 'Behold the consequence of bribes.'
Let guileless children,-as he passes by,
Shrink from his touch, and shudder at his eye;
Let lovely woman loath him with disgust,
And shun him like the reptile in the dust;
And whilst he lives, let Infamy alone

Claim the Bribed Legislator as her own,
Until he dies-and sinks into the grave,

To poison worms that feed upon the knave;

There, 'midst the storm,- let hideous Furies foul,
Hold nightly revels-and in concert howl;

Let hissing reptiles make that spot their home,

And be the watchful guardians of his tomb;
And when he goes to Hell, let Devils stare,
And ask him, 'who the Devil sent him there,'
And feel the insult,-deep, severe and keen,
To see a fiend, pre-eminently mean,
Midst better Devils rudely ushered in,

A foul appalling prodigy of sin;

And in Hell's fiercest-hottest-furnace crammed!
Let him be damned,-superlatively damned!

And why not damned.-for such transcendant crimes
Yea, damned eternally,-ten thousand times."

In 1837, while he was editor of The Mountaineer, his young son died, and his grief, hope and speculation were expressed in a poem of which we give an extract:

"Farewell, my son, my hopes for thee were high,

I would that thou hadst lived to bear my name;

'Twas a bright vision, but flitted by,

And thou art happy; what is earthy fame?
Let those who've heard this noisy trump proclaim,
Those who have loved its intonations best.
If thou hadst lived, would glory or would shame
Have been thy portion? Doubt and Darkness rest
On all our earthly hopes: dignum et justum est.

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I think I am resigned: But still my heart

Clings-fondly clings to thee-my son-my son."

On New Year's, 1838, he had printed at Ebensburg, a novel entitled "The Cottage on the Cliff," a tale of the Revolutionary war. The scene of the story, which is that of a young Huguenot officer who falls in love with and marries a young Catholic maid, is laid on the Brandywine, the place of Mr. Conway's birth. At the time of his death he left uncompleted a novel whose title was to have been, "The Philosophy of Luck."

In his political warfare he attacked his opponents by ridiculous doggerels, such as "An Epitaph on a Dead Dog," which runs in this wise:

"Hic jacet canus, now, that is to say,

Here lies a dog-a dog that's had his day:
He barked for every Peter, Dick and Tom,
That chose to hiss him on."

In June, 1838, President Van Buren appointed Mr. Conway, secretary of the territory of Iowa, which position he held at the time of his death, which occurred at Davenport, in December, 1839.

Robert Montgomery Smith Jackson, a physician, was born in Alexandria, Westmoreland county, April 20, 1815, and died at Chattanooga, January 28, 1865. Dr. Jackson came to Cambria county about 1846, locating at the Summit, where and at Cresson he subsequently practiced his profession, and also engaged in the manufacture of fire-brick. He was distinguished for his scientific attainments especially in the field of botany and geology. Having an abiding faith in the medicinal properties of the mountain climate he undertook the management

Vol. II-28

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