Monday, February 3, 2014

SAID LIBEL SUIT AGAINST SAID PUBLISHER STROWBRIDGE



Macbeth Seeing Banquo's Ghost--T. Chasseriau


The Cortland News, Friday, January 7, 1887.
IS ANY ONE SCARED?
A New Chapter in the Libel Suit of Hayes vs. Strowbridge.
   About dark the day before our last general election, Lewis S. Hayes commenced an action in the Supreme Court of this State against the editor of the NEWS for libel, and thinking it was too late for the defendant to get bail that night and hoping to have said editor spend the night in jail, he procured an order of arrest from Judge Knox, who fixed the bond to be given by said editor, to obtain his liberty, at the modest sum of five thousand dollars. But the said editor got loose just the same by giving the bond required.
   One of the chief libels complained of in the complaint by the editor of the Monitor (Lewis S. Hayes) was the following charge made in the NEWS:—
   "There is a little transaction in Smithville Flats involving the attempt to hypothecate a railroad, in which Mr. Hayes is unenviably concerned."
   To this the defendant [Mr. Strowbridge] answered as follows:
   For further answer of said complaint and in full justification thereof, the defendant alleges:—That the articles mentioned and set forth in the complaint were published without malice during a heated political contest. That the plaintiff is and at the time mentioned in the complaint was one of the editors and proprietors of a newspaper published in the village of Cortland called the Monitor, the chief purpose of which as declared in its columns, is and was to pull down and destroy the Republican party.
   That the defendant is and at the times mentioned in the complaint was the editor and publisher of the Cortland NEWS, the organ of the Republican party in Cortland county, and published at Cortland village, in said county. That Caleb B. Hitchcock, another of the owners and publishers of said Monitor was at the time of the publication of the articles set forth in the complaint, in nomination for the office of Member of Assembly, on a ticket nominated by a self-styled temperance or prohibition party and his election was earnestly advocated by said Monitor, so owned and run by him and said plaintiff. That said Cortland NEWS was then and there seeking to defeat said Hitchcock's election, and promote the election of Wayland D. Tisdale, the nominee of the Republican party. That for that purpose and no other the articles set forth in the complaint were published by this defendant in his said paper, and the defendant alleges that at the time of such publication it was true as charged in said articles, that said Hitchcock was (1st) the confidential friend and associate of Lewis S. Hayes, the plaintiff herein, and in daily association and council with him. 2nd. The man who selected Lewis S. Hayes to run his canvass and edit his mud machine, to wit, said Monitor was said Caleb B.Hitchcock who was (3) the partner and business associate of Lewis S. Hayes, and that the said Lewis S. Hayes had then been time and again impeached in Court and by the findings and decisions of the Courts as a bad man and not entitled to belief and it was not safe to vote for a man who was run by said Lewis S. Hayes.
   Defendant further says that it is and at the time of the publication of said article set forth in the complaint, was true of the plaintiff, Lewis S. Hayes, "that there is a little transaction in Smithville Flats involving the attempt to hypothecate a railroad in which Mr. Hayes (meaning the plaintiff. Lewis S. Hayes) is unenviably concerned." That  about the year 1870, but the precise time this defendant is unable to state more definitely, the plaintiff Lewis S. Hayes, with one Morris Birdsall, and the other good citizens of the town of Greene, in the county of Chenango, were engaged in the business enterprise of building a railroad from said village of Greene to the village of Chenango Forks, to connect with the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York Railroad and thus build up the said village of Greene by drawing trade and business interest thereto.
   That to that end a company was formed of which said Morris Birdsall was President, and Lewis S. Hayes was Treasurer. That said Lewis S. Hayes was loud in his pretensions and apparently earnest and honest in his efforts in behalf of said project and active in causing said town and village of Greene to bond for the purpose of carrying out of said project and advised and aided in making surveys and establishing the route of said road between said points and ostensibly assisted one Hurley, the engineer employed by said company, in making the surveys and maps of said road, and in all things appeared to be actively and earnestly aiding said enterprise and said village of Greene, until on his proposing to get control of the buying of material for said road and letting the contracts thereon whereby he proposed to make money for himself at the expense of said town he was met by opposition, when said Lewis S. Hayes and said Engineer Hurley in violation of their duties as such treasurer and engineer and to the destruction of said enterprise and company and in fraud of said town and village of Greene and the taxpayers thereof, who had bonded said town for said enterprise had they, said Hurley and said Hayes, succeeded in said nefarious scheme, clandestinely went to the town of Smithville and the village of Smithville Flats, lying within said town, and but a few miles westerly from said village of Greene, and being in active competition with said village of Greene, and proposed to the inhabitants thereof that it they would bond the town therefor, in about the sum of $69,000 they would build a railroad from Smithville Flats to said Chenango Forks to connect with the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Rail Road, striking said line so surveyed for the Greene and Chenango Forks Rail Road at a point about two miles or more below the village of Greene and toward Chenango Forks and that they would destroy the surveys and maps so made by said engineer for the Greene and Chenango Forks Company, and which had not been filed in the Clerk's office of Chenango county, in which said proposed roads were located, and would make and file surveys and maps of said Smithville Flats and Chenango Forks Rail Road, including such road as theretofore surveyed and mapped for the Greene and Chenango Forks road, from a point about two miles southerly from said village of Greene to the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad at Chenango Forks.
   That to accomplish such nefarious scheme and deprive the people of the village of Greene, where said Hayes then resided, of the benefits which he had promised them, and knew they had been promised to induce them to form said company and elect him, said Hayes, as director and treasurer, and to bond said town for said enterprise, said Hayes (meaning said Lewis S. Hayes) and said Hurley, having such surveys and maps of said Greene and Chenango Forks Company in their possession unfilled, did willfully, unlawfully, and wickedly mutilate and destroy the same, so that they could not be filed, and did pull up and remove the stakes that had been driven under the direction of said Greene and Chenango Forks Company to mark and designate the line of their said road, and did make a survey and maps of the proposed route from said Smithville Flats to said Chenango Forks, including the survey and route of said Greene and Chenango Forks Company, of which said Hayes was then the treasurer, from a point about two miles from the village of Greene in the direction of Chenango Forks, to the Syracuse, Binghamton & New York Railroad at Chenango Forks, well knowing that there was not room for another railroad by the side of the route or road, thus confiscated, hypothecated or stolen, and that the building of such Smithville Flats and Chenango road would entirely defeat the Greene project and company of which he was. treasurer as aforesaid.
   That said Hurley and said Hayes and the people of Smithville, with whom they were clandestinely acting, made and caused such survey and maps of the Smithville and Chenango Forks Railroad to be filed in the office of the Clerk of Chenango county after the maps of the Greene and Chenango Forks Company were destroyed as aforesaid.
   That after inducing said town of Smithville to bond for a large sum for said Smithville & Chenango Forks project, and create an obligation upon the part of said town to pay about the sum of $69,000, said latter project was abandoned also, and no road was built from Smithville Flats to Chenango Forks, so that while said town is bonded and obliged to pay said large sum and interest for said railroad, they have no rail road at all.
   That said Hayes and said Hurley never intended to have any railroad built to Smithville Flats; but simply got up said project to induce the people of said town to bond said town therefor, and get said bonds into their hands and under the control of said Hayes and Hurley, and that in that attempt Mr. Hayes (meaning the plaintiff Lewis S. Hayes) was unenviably concerned and that was what was meant by defendant and understood by the readers thereof, to be meant by "the attempt to hypothecate a railroad" in said article set forth in the complaint.
   Wherefore, defendant insists that he was fully justified by the facts in publishing said articles mentioned and set forth in said complaint.
   The answer to the complaint was served something over three weeks ago, and after twenty days had nearly elapsed, and after having had ample time to learn that the editor of the NEWS had sent to Smithville, Greene and Binghamton and had possessed himself of the facts justifying said answer.
   Mr. Hayes, no doubt, deemed it prudent not to charge that he had been injured by the publication of that truth, and hoping to escape an investigation into the matter, last week caused an amended complaint to be served upon A. P. & D. C. Smith, attorneys for Mr. Strowbridge, substantially like the first complaint, but with the exception that all allusion to the railroad matter was very carefully omitted.
   Why this sudden change of feeling in regard to the Smithville Flats railroad business on the part of the plaintiff? We publish the whole of it above as we intend to show it in court in order to show to the public what kind of a man we are dealing with, and how such men usually act when they had the facts rightly understood.
   When a person is trying to recover damages for an injury to character, there must be some way in which that character may be shown up in its true light, even if all allusions to certain transactions are studiously avoided, and we now, here, give Mr. Hayes notice that though he thinks he has made it impossible for us to fully investigate that railroad transaction, we shall have some proofs in relation to it, and he will have a hard time to prevent some allusion to it being made at the trial. This main issue, like Banquo's ghost, will not down so easily.
   In the original complaint on which the order of arrest was granted, and the editor arrested, it was complained that the plaintiff had suffered severely by reason of this part of the article in the NEWS:
   "It is a matter of record on file in the Cortland County Clerk's office that in an action wherein Sackett L. Wright was plaintiff and Lewis S. Hayes was defendant, that an assignment made by Mr. Hayes was set aside, by the court, as fraudulent for the purpose of defrauding creditors, and without submitting the case to the jury."
   The answer set up the truth of this charge and in records of the Clerk's office show that the assignment was declared fraudulent and void for the fraud of Mr. Hayes in making it. Now see how he guards in his amended complaint against an investigation into that matter. In the amended complaint appears this ominous clause:—
   "But no claim or right to recover damages in this action is based or predicated upon the caption and first and second paragraphs of the aforesaid libel beginning with the word “a" and ending with the word "why " and the fourth paragraph (the one above quoted) commencing with the word "it" and ending with the word "jury," except only so far as the same serves to call attention to and designate the plaintiff as the person against whom the libelous matter contained in the article above set forth are charged by the defendant in the other portions of said libelous article."
   Can it be possible that the plaintiff expects to guard himself in this action from an investigation into the railroad transaction, at one end of his business career and his assignment at the other end?
   He takes great pains to guard himself from such investigations, but he will probably learn that when a person is sueing to recover damages for an injury to character there is some way under the law whereby a jury can be informed as to what that character was before it was injured, and where it stood as it was builded by himself and as it was seen in the colors with which he himself had painted it. Only one more amendment to the complaint is necessary to entirely cure his wounded feelings and prevent any investigation into his character whatever.

CORPORATE PROCEEDINGS.
   At a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Cortland, held at Firemen's Hall in said village, on the 3d day of January, 1887, at 8 o'clock, p. m.
   Present, G. W. Bradford, President; F. H. Cobb, Wm. H. Newton. A. M. Schermerhorn and Theo, Stevenson, Trustees.
   The report of the election of officers of the Cortland Fire Dept. was presented to the Board as follows: Chief Engineer, John Doud; 1st assistant, O. D. Raymond; 2d asst., John H. Phelps; sec'y, A. M. Delevan; Treasurer, A. Sager. A vote of thanks by the Board to the retiring Chief Engineer, R. A. Smith, was moved and adopted.
   The application of the Homer and Cortland Gas Light Co. for a renewal of their franchise for 25 years was renewed, and on motion such franchise was granted.
   The following bills were allowed and ordered paid:
   W. C. May, coal for engine house, $10.00
   George Cleveland, engineer, 50.00
   C. B. Strowbridge, boxes for hose carts, 2.00
   Maxson & Starin, supplies for engine house, 5.40
   F. S. Buckly, labor with steamer, 1.00
   Maxon  & Starin, supplies for highways, 4.65
   Frank Harvey, labor with steamer, 1.00
   Edward Blanchard, lighting street lamps, $22.00
   M. J. Schults,   “ “ “                                     10.60
   George Snyder, " " "                                     7.50
   A. B. Springer, Street Com'r, 48.00
   John Kane, labor on streets, 2.00
   James O’Day, cleaning walks,   1.04
   George Petrie, labor on streets, 2.40
   Andrew Stoat, " " "                      7.80
   Michael Garrity, "  " "                  3.50
   Michael Butler,   “ “ “                   1.00
   S. Twiss, extending bridges on North Main-st., $599.00
   S. Twiss, mason work for same, 12.00
   John Ireland, lumber for sidewalks, 96.03
   I. H. Palmer, service as attorney, 64.00
   J. L. Wartons, use of horse and wagon, 2.00
   Bills of the Homer and Cortland Gas Light Co. were referred to the President with authority to pay it, if found correct.
   It was moved and carried that a notice be duly published as required by law, for the opening, laying out and improving Elm-st. across the premises and right of way owned and occupied by the E. C. & N. R. R. Co., requiring all persons interested therein to show cause why the same should not be so opened and laid out, at a meeting of the Board on the 21st inst.
   A resolution was passed directing an order to be drawn on the Treasurer of the village for $25 each in favor of the Orris Hose Co. and the Emerald Hose Co., as the usual annual allowance to each of those companies.
   A proposition of the Cortland Water Works Company to settle the controversy of hydrant rental was submitted in writing.
   On motion meeting adjourned to Jan 21st, at 8 o'clock, P. M.
F. HATCH, Clerk.

Branch of the E. C. & N. to Homer.
   The Homer Republican of last week states that correspondence has been opened with the officers of the Elmira, Cortland and Northern railroad, with a view to inducing the company to run a branch or switch on the road to Homer. The rate on first class goods from Homer to New York is forty cents, from Cortland to New York, twenty cents, and the Republican claims that but for this difference Homer might have had the Crandall Rail and Cortland Manufacturing Companies. The plan is to run a switch from the Elmira, Cortland and Northern road near Mudge's mills, at the foot of the hill between Cortland and Homer, so as to avoid the expense of bridging the river, and to follow the hill and enter the village on the east side of the river. The railroad officials, it is said, have promised to consider any propositions which the citizens of Homer may make, and it is probable that if sufficient inducements are offered they will consent to build the switch. The business men, manufacturers and the leading citizens of the village have expressed their approval of the plan, and say they will subscribe liberally and willingly toward carrying it out. A subscription paper will soon be circulated, and before long a citizens' meeting is to be called to discuss the matter.—Standard.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.
   Somebody has said that the proper study of mankind is man. We offer the amendment that the proper study of mankind is woman.
   The graduating class at the present term of the Normal school have decided to be photographed by Overton, of the Evans Branch gallery.
   Cortland will soon be placed among those having the free mail delivery system,
President Cleveland having signed the bill to that effect recently passed by both branches of the legislature.
   The Keystone News, published at WilIiamsport, Pa., is a new candidate for public favor in that city. Elmer E. Burlingame, formerly of this county, is editor, and makes an exceedingly readable and interesting paper.
   Jerome Squires, Esq., on Saturday last, entered upon his duties as Justice of the
Peace, with rooms in Union Hall block. His honor wears the dignities of his position gracefully.
   Judge Alton B. Parker of Kingston, who was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Westbrook, and who was elected last fall without opposition, on Saturday began his fourteen years as Supreme Court justice.
   The Knights of Pythias are making great preparations for their second annual ball to be given at Taylor Opera House, Thursday evening, January 20. A pubic installation of the newly elected officers will also be held at the same time. Invitations to the number of 500 will be issued from the NEWS office next week. Music by Muncey's orchestra of six pieces. Bill $2.00. Supper will be served by mine host, Arnold, at the Arnold House.
   F. N. Harrington last week sold a pair of bay mares to parties in New York, for $1,000. Horse fanciers generally understand that Mr. Harrington deals only in fine stock and when in need of anything of that kind naturally turn to him.
   H. E. Freer, of this office, is making a trial trip for the Morgans & Wilcox Mfg. Co., of Middletown, in selling printer's supplies, with a view to accepting a permanent position with them. Mr. Freer writes us that he is meeting with success.

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