PROPOSED POLITICAL ORIGIN OF CORTACA

Thomas Nast political cartoon published on front page of Cortland Standard and Weekly Journal, Nov. 4, 1892.

Cortland Standard and Weekly Journal, Friday, November 4, 1892.

Cortland at Ithaca.

   Nov.1.—About 150 enthusiastic Republicans attended the grand Republican rally at Ithaca last evening. At the Ithaca station they formed in line in the following order: Cortland City band, Republican First Voter’s club, Cortland citizens. The companies marched down the hill to State-st., up State-st., countermarched to Tioga and broke ranks. The boys then scattered, some going to Wilgus Opera House on State-st. and Library Hall on the corner of Seneca and Tioga-sts., where “Our Chauncey” and Hon. Whitelaw Reid and others were to speak, and some not being able to gain admittance to either hall walked up and down the streets of the town, many never having visited that obscure hamlet before.

   They did not walk long in peace, however, as certain Ithaca Democrats did not appear to relish the looks of white plug hats and American tin plate badges. Consequently many a Republican found his hat rolling in the gutter, while the perpetrator of this horse-play would run off at top speed. By constant repetition of this operation the miscreants grew bolder and soon commenced stealing the hats, and in case of remonstrance taking them by force. The visiting Republicans were thus driven to the cover of the hotels, where they stayed till they went out on a sally, the story of which is best told in the words of Mr. W. F. Seacord, the president of the First Voter’s club who headed it.

   “At the close of the parade Mr. Bennett and I went up on the hill to make a call. There was no disturbance then. On returning at half past 9 o’clock, both of our hats were knocked off on State-st. Being enraged Bennett threw his cane at one of the fleeing assailants, who picked it up and showed fight. We wrestled the cane from him and went to the Ithaca Hotel, where we found about thirty of the members of the club. Bennett who was marshal of the evening proposed that we go out in force and see if the streets were not free to us. The suggestion was acted upon. On turning off State-st. at Tioga, we were assailed by about a hundred roughs who threw mud,  sticks and stones and yelled, “Take off those hats.” It was word and blow, and the boys laid about them with their oak canes to a very good purpose. Bennett got struck on the head by a fellow with a cane and in turn knocked the fellow down. B. L. La Barr, another of our club, was almost knocked out by a blow back of the ear, but recovering put his assailant out of the fight. All of the other fellows were similarly occupied. The police coming up at this time, the two roughs who had been laid out were arrested at first but immediately released, and Bennett and La Barr were arrested in their place. Mr. E. E. Mellon went to the police headquarters immediately and secured the release of the boys on their promise to return for a hearing before the justice this morning.”

   In the meantime there was another row going on in front of the Republican headquarters. Mr. Jay C. Hopkins, who was standing there chatting, was struck by a loaded cane on the back of his head. His hat protected him however. Hopkins turned and struck the rough along the side of the neck and the jaw knocking him insensible. A general melee ensued, in which the Cortland men stuck together and rather had the best of it. The arrival of the police dispersed the roughs.

   When the return march up the hill was made, the visiting clubs were under the protection of the sheriff and special police, besides the Ithaca Escort club and a Cornell Republican organization. The colors of the clubs were guarded with drawn revolvers, as threats had been openly directed against this part of the organizations. No further trouble, however, was met with.

   A dispatch received from Mr. Mellon from Ithaca this afternoon states that the cases against Bennett and La Barr have been dismissed and the boys discharged.

Fast Time on the E. C. & N. R. R.

   The special on the E. C. & N., carrying Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, Whitelaw Reid and A. B. Cornell made fast time on its run from Ithaca to Elmira Monday night. Superintendent Albert Allen was in charge of the train. The run of 50 miles was made in one hour and eighteen minutes, including four junction stops and one stop to take on water. The actual running time was at the rate of fifty miles an hour, or one minute and twelve seconds per mile. The engine was No. 4, with Frank Byrne at the throttle. Pretty good time for the E. C. & N.

HOMER ABLAZE.

A Big Procession—A Great Meeting and a Great Speech.

   Nov. 3.—Long before dark last evening, notwithstanding the threatening rain, nearly all of Homer’s business places and residences were gaily decorated with flags, buntings, lanterns and lithographs of Harrison and Reid. About 6:30 o’clock the Republican league marched to the station where they met the Banner Young Men’s Republican club, with a drum corps of twelve pieces from Syracuse. They were the best uniformed and drilled club present, as they ought to be, as the club has been a standing organization since 1884. They presented a very neat appearance in their navy blue Prince Albert coats with brass buttons and trimmed with white, and their nickel helmets and tall tassels and lanterns. They were 88 strong and are one of the finest organizations of the kind in this part of the state.

   The Homer people were fortunate in securing their attendance. Five carloads of Cortland people arrived about 7:30 o’clock and the McGrawville delegation drove in about the same time. A light luncheon was served to the visiting clubs at the Republican league headquarters, after which the parade was formed and went over the line of march as published in yesterday’s STANDARD. They marched till nearly 9 o’clock, in the following order: Cavalry, fifty strong; Cortland City band, Banner club and drum corps of Syracuse, eighty-eight strong; Republican league of Cortland, forty strong; Tippecanoe drum corps of Cortland, Republican league of Homer, 150 strong; and the Junior Republican league, thirty strong. We have not space to give a list of decorations but every Republican residence on the line of march, as also nearly every business place, was brilliantly illuminated or gaily decorated. The streets were so ablaze with red fire and Roman candles that the electric lights seemed of small account in comparison.

   Shortly after 8 o’clock people began to assemble at Keator opera house and it was not long before every seat in the hall was taken. The meeting was called to order by Dr. E. W. Hitchcock, who presided. He made a brief but forcible speech, after which Hon. W. W. Hicks was introduced as the speaker of the evening. He had hardly gained the attention of the audience before he was interrupted by the parade returning from the march. He resumed his seat on the stage till all the clubs who could had entered. Standing room was at a premium and a much larger hall could easily have been filled. When the clubs were all in the hall, the City band rendered a very pleasing selection which received a hearty encore, but as it was getting late, the band did not respond. Mr. Hicks then resumed his speech, which is pronounced by those who heard it one of the clearest and most forcible ever delivered in this county. Mr. Hicks riveted the attention of his hearers, and as a Southerner he clearly explained the so-called Force bill. He denounced Stevenson, and described the manner in which politics is run in Jacksonville, Fla., congratulating the North on having honest voting. He closed with eulogies on Harrison, Reid, Blaine and McKinley, and when he said of President Harrison, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into—four years more,” the applause was deafening. “And when the voters,” continued Mr. Hicks, “press the button, you will find that Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid will do the rest.” His arguments were forcible, logical and well sustained throughout.

   In his whole speech he did not make a statement which he did not prove. His claim that the democratic platform as adopted at Chicago was treason startled some of his Democratic hearers, but when he showed that the statement was true because there was no difference between the nullification act and that platform he left no room for argument. He worked the audience up to a fever of excitement and enthusiasm and round after round of applause followed his telling hits and well-made points. Best of all he made every Republican who heard him feel that a personal responsibility rested on his own shoulders at the coming election.

   Before the meeting broke up, a vote of thanks was tendered the speaker and the visiting clubs, and three cheers were given for Hon. W. W. Hicks, Benjamin Harrison, Whitelaw Reid, James G. Blaine and William McKinley.

   One of the features which attracted considerable attention at the parade was Master Marvin Fowler, a one-year old Republican, dressed in the national colors and waving a flag in front of his residence on Cayuga-st. He received several cheers from different companies and looked more like Uncle Sam’s doll than anything else.   

David B. Hill in Cortland.

   Senator David B. Hill [former New York governor] will be in Cortland on Friday, Nov. 4, and will speak in the Opera House that afternoon at 2 o’clock. He will arrive on the 10 o’clock train from Syracuse in the morning, and the Democrats are making preparations to hold a large parade to welcome him.

A Brutal Outrage.

   One of the most brutal, unprovoked and shameful pieces of political rowdyism which has disgraced this section of the state in many years occurred at Ithaca Monday evening. A number of the members of the First Voters’ Republican club and of the Republican league of this village who went to Ithaca to attend the great Republican demonstration were assaulted, slugged, stoned, beaten and covered with mud by a gang of Democratic rowdies. One Cortland man was severely injured, and others considerably hurt. So vicious and determined was the assault that an extra force of police and sheriff’s deputies had to be called into requisition to protect the visiting clubs and to escort them to the railway station on their return to Cortland.

   The affair has created no little sensation in Cortland. Decent and law abiding Democrats are chagrined and indignant at the conduct of the Ithaca Ku Klux, and the reproach which they have brought on their party, while Republicans feel outraged that such proceedings should be possible. They recall the days when abolitionists were tarred and feathered, and men strung to a tree for being caught with a copy of the New York Tribune in their possession. If free trade doctrine makes those who hold it so sensitive that the sight of a Harrison hat enrages them to the fighting point, the less Ithaca, as well as other places, has of it the better, both from the standpoint of local peace and order and from that of national benefit.

   We do not wish to criticize harshly the conduct of Ithaca’s police force, but from this end of the line it looks as if they might have put in some of their time to better advantage in arresting local rowdies and assailants rather than peaceable and well behaved visitors who were defending themselves against cowardly, brutal and unprovoked assault.

   It is to the credit of the sheriff of Tompkins county that as soon as the matter was brought to his notice he swore in enough deputies to protect the invited guests of the Republicans of Ithaca from further insult.