PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY, AND HASKELL MULTICHARGE DYNAMITE GUN

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, August 23, 1889.

PAGE TWO/EDITORIALS.

Democratic State Convention.

   The Democratic Electors of the State of New York and all other citizens who favor the principles of taxation, economy and retrenchment advocated by the Democratic party, and who are opposed to inequitable and oppressive sumptuary legislation are invited to elect three delegates and three alternates from each Assembly district to attend a state convention, to be held at Syracuse on Tuesday, the first day of October, 1889, at 12 o'clock noon, for the purpose of nominating candidates for State offices to be voted for at the coming election, and for the transaction of much other business as may property come before the convention.

   [Signed] EDWARD MURPHY, JR., Chairman.

   CORD MEYER, Secretary.

   The Republican State Convention will be held in Saratoga, September 25.

Syracuse politicians feel very much put out because that city was not selected and they charge that Senator Frank Hiscock did not exert himself in favor of Syracuse.

  

Postmaster John Wanamaker

    Postmaster John Wanamaker, talked to the Y. M. C. A. at Saratoga on the 11th inst. His subject was "Practical Christianity." It is to be hoped that he found time to explain the relation existing between his subject and the distribution of the $400,000 he raised for political purposes during the campaign last fall.

    Assistant Secretary Bussey now decides that "a dishonorable discharge" does not operate as a bar to obtaining a pension. This will be good news to the shyster soldiers who were driven from every camp on the tented field. Mr. Bussey and Corporal Tanner are yoke fellows and it would be a pity to see them separated.

   A rumor comes by way of a Saratoga dispatch to the New York Herald that

State Senator Hendricks will not be a candidate for re-election this fall. It is hinted that Hon. Carroll E. Smith, editor of the Syracuse Journal is anxious for the place. Why not give Cortland county some show? For years she has had neither Congressman nor State Senator. Now is her time.—Skaneateles Free Press.

    It is understood in Republican circles that a political combination has been formed to fill the offices in this county this fall and for all time to come. The parties to the combination are said to be Abe Smith, Rufus Peck and Floyd Stillman. The two former are to look after the interests of the boys while the latter will have charge of the moral element of the party. The result will be anxiously watched by everybody.

  

John L. Sullivan

   John L. Sullivan, who was arrested in New York two weeks since, charged with a breach of the laws of the State of Mississippi, and taken back to that State on a requisition from Governor Lowry, was tried last week, convicted and sentenced to one year in jail. His counsel appealed from the judgment and Sullivan was discharged on bail pending the result of the appeal. He returned to New York on Tuesday. Kilrain is on his way to Mississippi to take a dose of the same medicine.

Lyman-Haskell Multicharge Dynamite Gun

   A dispatch from Washington announces that the government has ordered one eight-inch Haskell multicharge dynamite gun, to be paid for upon delivery of the finished gun at the Sandy Hook proving ground. "The Multicharge Gun Company" is composed of Thos. C. Platt, A. B. Cornell, John F. Smythe, Arthur B. Johnson, Jas. R. Haskell, Levi P. Morton and Charles P. Young. The company was organized Feb. 17, 1882. In 1883, the company persuaded the war department, under President Arthurs' administration, to try one of the guns. The result of the first test according to the report of Capt. Rogers Birnie, Jr., ordinance department U. S. A., was as follows: "The firing was then continued with varying charges of powder and projectiles, up to the thirty-third round, when the tube was cracked over a length of nine feet from the muzzle to a point near the foremost pocket." The gun was then strengthened and a second test brought forth the following report from Capt. Birnie: "The gun was then strengthened by shrinking several steel bands over the chase—the only part where the form of the gun admitted the employment of this strengthening process. The proof was then continued up to the fifty-third round, when the cast iron body was cracked and the piece permanently disabled." The official report in full of the last appearance of the Platt multicharge gun, when loaded for other than political purposes, is to be found in the report of the secretary of war for 1885, vol. 3, pp. 145-152, with plate.

   It is a significant fact that no attempt was made by the company to sell a gun to the government or to have it tested during President Cleveland's administration. The company seems to have remained quiet during an honest administration of affairs, and has become active and aggressive only when a republican administration comes into power. It is a little singular that the war department should conclude to purchase and pay for a gun on delivery that has been proved to be worthless on every occasion when it has been tested. A business man would have required a severe test of the ordinance before purchase and payment and if this administration was to be conducted on business principles such a course would have been adopted in the present case. The secretary of war has $500,000 to spend for guns this year if he chooses to do so, but this is no reason why he should spend the people's money in purchasing worthless guns simply because by so doing he will put money in the pockets of his political friends.

A Young Balloonist.

Carried Out Over Lake Michigan by a Bunch of Toy Balloons.

   CHICAGO, Ill., Aug . 19.—Sophia Schwab, two years old, involuntarily became a balloonist yesterday, and was wafted high up over the broad bosom of Lake Michigan. A rifleman saved the child's life. The incident took place at Sheffield Park, and was witnessed by 1,500 picnickers.

   An Italian peddler of toy balloons attempted to serve two purchasers at once, and let go his string of bright colored globes. The cord got twisted about Sophia's left arm and also in her hair, and the buoyant rubber bubbles started heavenward, taking the child with them. The mother shrieked and fainted. The bystanders stood horror stricken, scarcely breathing as the balloons swept close to a large oak tree and the infant grasped a handful of twigs and checked her flight. A muscular young German ascended the tree in an instant and then crept out on the branch nearest the child.

    At this moment Sophia's puny strength gave out, and the balloons suddenly released went again upward at least 100 feet, drifting then out over the lake.

   Gust Koch, a sharpshooter who was attending the picnic with his repeating rifle, hurriedly jumped into a skiff with two companions pulled out into range. Koch succeeded in piercing several of the balloons, each successful shot helping the bunch to descend. Before it finally reached the water, the boat was at the spot and Sophia did not even get her feet wet.

HERE AND THERE.

   The village schools open Tuesday, Sept. 3rd.

   D. T. Bowdish has been appointed postmaster at Little York, in place of S. D. Perkins.

   Mr. E W. Tripp of Homer has purchased the hardware business of Paddock & Brown, in that place.

   William Jones, who had his foot smashed by the [train] cars last week, has been removed to the County [Alms] House.

   Last Wednesday Barnum's employees purchased money orders at the post office in this place amounting to $825.

   Cortland Union Bee Keepers' Association will hold their annual picnic at Floral Trout Park, Tuesday, Aug. 30.

   The subject of the evening discourse in All Souls Church next Sunday will be "The man who thinks he has outgrown the Church." Seats free. All are invited.

   Architect H. W. Beardsley, is drawing plans for the Cortland Wagon Company's new buildings. The company expect to commence work on the same as soon as the plans are completed.

   The Cortland Cart & Carriage Company will have a full line of their manufacture at the International Fair to be held in Buffalo. The Hitchcock Mfg. Company will also be represented there.

   Mr. Benjamin Chapman of this place has several Shetland ponies in the lot, corner Orchard St. and Monroe Heights, which he is training for the young people to ride at the fairs this fall.

   The E. C. & N. R. R. will run an excursion to the Thousand Islands by way of Camden, Friday, Aug. 30. The fare for round trip will be $4.00. Tickets are good for going that day and returning Monday, Sept. 2. Coaches will go through without a change. The Gen'l Agent, Mr. Palen, will accompany the party to take care of any ladies who may be without escort, and to give general information.

   Last week an attempt was made to settle the muddle over the appointment of postmaster at Marathon. Messrs. E. Clark Carley and C. A. Brooks are the candidates. Three citizens were appointed to decide the question. Mr. Pinckney, one of the referees whose decision would decide the question very naturally declined to take the responsibility. Such performances, over a matter in which the public has an interest, savors too much of boys play.

  

  

  

FROM EVERYWHERE.

   Broome County Fair begins at Whitney Point Sept. 3.

   The State Fair will be held at Albany this year, Sept. 12-19.

   Negotiations have just been completed by which the entire breweries of Chicago have been sold to a syndicate of English capitalists. The transaction involves millions of dollars.

   A special envoy of King Humbert of Italy yesterday presented Thomas A. Edison, the American electrician, with the Insignia of a grand officer of the Crown of Italy. Mr. Edison thus becomes a Count and his wife a Countess.

   Toledo, Ohio, recently bonded herself for $750,000 to provide natural gas to knock out the Standard Oil monopoly. The city got land at Van Buren and drilled a well. Last week a gusher was struck which will yield 20,000,000 feet of gas per day.

   Chauncey Hart, of the town of Summer hill, on Sunday last, found four fine grade Durham yearling heifers dead in his pasture, poisoned with Paris green. It is the meanest kind of meanness that seeks to do a man a private injury, and the guilty miscreant should be hunted out and punished to the fullest extent of the law.