Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, March
19, 1894.
BUSY FIREMEN.
Homer
Assisted by Cortland Department—Fire on Port Watson-st.
The firemen in Cortland and Homer did
gallant work Saturday evening in saving property, and both towns should feel
proud of their departments. The Homer
companies, although fully equipped with apparatus and constituting a competent
corps of firemen, were unable to manage their large fire and telephoned at
about 11:30 o'clock for assistance from Cortland. Officer Jackson pulled box
333 and after this had struck off the number a general alarm was given.
Main-st. in the vicinity of the engine house was crowded with firemen and
citizens who had turned out to see the fire.
It looked as if the whole town of Homer was
on fire, and one could have read a newspaper on Homer-ave. The hills were
lighted up far and wide and it was plain that Homer needed assistance and
needed it quick. Chief Peck ordered the Emerald and Hitchcock companies to
Homer. Part of the firemen went in liveries, while others drew the Emerald cart
part way, when they were taken in tow by a conveyance. Garrity's omnibus took
up a load and the street and railroad track were lined with pedestrians.
The Water Witch, Excelsior and Orris boys,
and the Protective police were left to take care of Cortland. They had cause
to, as the other companies had scarcely started when an alarm of fire was sent
in from box 334 in front of the Emerald building. Miss Emma Niver, who resides
on the corner of Church and Port Watson-sts., before retiring, looked out of the
window and discovered that a building belonging to Mr. E. B. Thomas of Brooklyn
was on fire.
The building is a two-story, frame wooden
structure, and is occupied down stairs by H. H. Salisbury as a blacksmith shop
and by Mr. A. C. Deusenbury as a wood and repair shop, and up stairs [sic] by Joseph
Talmadge as a paint shop and for manufacturing carriages on a small scale. It
adjoins Niver's livery stable on Port Watson-st. The fire was in the upper
floor, where it was confined by the firemen. It looked very much at one time as
if the livery stable would be burned. Part of the horses and vehicles were
removed, but the firemen soon had the fire under control and it was speedily
extinguished.
Mr. Salisbury was damaged about $50, A. C.
Deusenbury about $10. Mr. Talmadge told a STANDARD reporter this morning that
his insurance of $1,000 would not cover his loss. The others were not insured.
Mr. Talmadge gives as his view of the origin
of the fire that it caught from the chimney, which runs up through the garret
to the peak of the roof nearly in the center of the building, He stated that he
left the shop at about 6 o'clock, and there was a very low fire in his stove.
Other people in the vicinity of the shop give as their opinion that the fire
was incendiary. The fact that the companies which did not go to Homer, were
ready to respond at the first tap of the bell was all that saved the adjoining
buildings, as they had a stream of water on the fire within a very few moments
after the flames were discovered.
HOMER
DEPARTMENT.
Gleanings
of News From Our Twin Village.
The fire alarm which was rung on Saturday
evening at 11:30 aroused the citizens of this village to witness one of the
largest conflagrations that has visited Homer in many years. The fire was
located in a shed between the shops of the Homer Mfg. company and those owned
and formerly occupied by Gage, Hitchcock & Co., manufacturers of cutter and
sleigh woods. These buildings occupy almost the entire block bounded by James,
Fulton and Grove-sts., and the drive which leads from James-st. to the lumber
and coal yards of Maxon & Starin.
The fire department responded immediately
and were soon at work rendering sufficient service. Hose company No. 3 was the
first to attach hose to a hydrant and get a stream of water on the blaze, which
had gained alarming proportions. Had it not been for the south wind which
prevailed the plant of the Homer Mfg. Co. would have been destroyed. A stream
of water was kept constantly upon it. The flames soon enveloped the first of
the three large buildings of the cutter shops and the firemen saw that unless
heroic measures were used the adjoining property would also be destroyed. All
the available hose at their command was pressed into service and soon there
were fifteen streams of water pouring upon the burning structure. A request for
assistance was also sent to the Cortland fire department.
From the second building, which was closely
connected with the first, volumes of smoke had been issuing which soon gave
place to tongues of flame that consumed everything in their way as they shot
from under the eaves, through the windows and between the clapboards and ran
along the ridgepole. Until the walls of the first building began to fall in,
the two were like an open furnace, the southern breeze carrying the flames to
the north, filling Grove-st. for one block with a mass of fire so that the very
air seemed to be ignited. It was here that the fire reached its height—though
its progress was not stayed—and the grandest sight of the conflagration was
witnessed.
When the fire gained such headway as to
destroy all hope of saving the shops, a part of the men turned their attention
to the houses on the opposite side of Fulton-st., only one of which was
afterward seriously damaged. Showers of sparks were carried northward from the
burning pile and deposited on the roofs of houses and in the open fields where
the dry grass took fire and presented a weird sight. From the flames which swept
across Grove-st,, the third and last shop building caught fire at the south
end, and almost at the same time the north end also broke into flames. Two
pillars of fire rose from the extremities of the shop and approached each
other, destroying as they advanced, until there was nothing remaining save the
beams and rafters. Then, as if gently pushed by an unseen hand, the skeleton
structure leaned toward the north and fell, preserving its regularity of form
even to the last. Beyond this building was an open field, so that after its
fall the fire was fully under control.
During the hour which had intervened between
the first stroke of the bell and the fall of the third shop, Maxon &
Starin's lumber yard at the foot of Grove-st. and the Gage house on Fulton-st.
had repeatedly been in immediate danger. In the efforts made to save the
latter, there was some of the most heroic work ever done by a volunteer
department. Flying sparks several times threatened disaster to the houses of
Chas. Pimm and William Smith, as well as the old sawmill, all of which are in
the immediate vicinity.
The Emerald and Hitchcock Hose companies
from Cortland arrived at the fire after it was under control, and the
Hitchcocks attached to a hydrant and played a stream of water on the fire for
about half an hour. Both have the thanks of the Homer department for responding
to the call for aid and for their eagerness to assist. Homer may be justly
proud of her sons who battled against the flames on this occasion.
The burned buildings contained wagons and
gears of the Homer Mfg. Co. in the first and third shops, and in the second one
was stored partially finished stock of the W. N. Brockway wagon company. A
statement of the losses, with amount of insurance, is as follows: Gage,
Hitchcock & Co., loss about $20,000, no insurance; W. N. Brockway wagon
company, loss $25,000, insurance $16,000; Homer Mfg. company, loss $5,000, no
insurance; C. B. Rumsey, loss small, insurance $1,500; Charles Pimm, loss
small, insurance $1,350; Hiram Hazard, loss $1,500, insurance, $1,000.
The origin of the fire is thought to have
been incendiary.
ITHACA, N. Y., March 19.—The Tompkins county
grand jury re-convened at ten o'clock this morning, and is now considering the
evidence which the district attorney
has against the several students in the Cornell banquet poisoning case. Before
the judge's charge it was considered almost certain that they would not hand in
an indictment in the matter but this charge and the cartooning and editorials
which have followed it have had such an effect upon the grand jury that an
indictment against at least one or more suspected students is believed to be
inevitable.
Geneva's
Boom.
GENEVA, N. Y., March 19—Ground was broken
this morning for the erection of Smith opera house. It will have a seating
capacity of 1,200 and will have modern appliances. A contract will be made this
week for Geneva electric railroad to be put in running order within 60 days.
The line at first will cover about five miles of street though the franchise
covers as many more miles.
PAGE
TWO—EDITORIALS.
An
Astounding Paragraph.
The following editorial paragraph appears in
the last issue of the Cortland Democrat:
"While the Republican senate is engaged
in investigating the alleged frauds in connection with the recent election in
Troy they would do well to send a committee to Ithaca to investigate the recent
escapade of the Cornell students whereby a colored woman lost her life and
several students came near being killed. The killing of Robert Ross in Troy was
done under the sadden impulse of the moment and when great excitement
prevailed, while the deadly chlorine gas at Ithaca was administered with
premeditation, and undoubtedly with a full knowledge of the probable results.
The perpetrators of both crimes ought to be punished, but in the sight of the
law, the crime at Ithaca is of the gravest nature. The local authorities seem
to be entirely helpless in investigating the matter. In fact there seems to be
a desire all along the line in that city to hush the matter up for fear that an
investigation might injure the university. Failure to bring the guilty parties
to justice will probably work a greater injury to that institution. Justice and
law should prevail under all circumstances."
Such an illustration of lack of
discrimination, mental obliquity or absence of moral sense as is furnished by
the above paragraph it has never before been our fortune to meet. In a
reputable paper it is simply astounding. No one has yet charged—save the
Democrat—that the foolish and fatal practical joke which was undertaken at
Ithaca was entered upon with any murderous intention, or with any idea of the
possibility of such a result as followed. Had the gas been sent into the large
banquet hall into which it was the intention to send it, instead of into the
close kitchen of which the sophomores were unaware, the probability is that the
freshman banquet would have been broken up but no serious results have
followed. Had this been the outcome of the affair, little would have been
thought or said of it beyond the college town where it occurred. We do not
defend or apologize for the students who caused the death of a worthy woman by
their folly, but that they deliberately premeditated murder and manufactured
and used the deadly gas "with a full knowledge of the probable
results" is something which we do not believe and which no one else does.
The guilty parties are responsible for the
fatal results of their criminal carelessness, but not for malice. The case is
one to be investigated by a coroner and a grand jury and proper punishment
administered, but to ask that the state legislature take cognizance of such an
affair is as ridiculous as to ask that it send a committee to inquire into a horning
scrape.
The killing of Robert Ross at Troy, on the
other hand, was done wilfully, deliberately, in the coldest blood, and in the
most brutal manner. The man who committed it was a Murphy Democratic tough and
[voting] repeater. Governor Flower had
refused to sign the law which sought to give Troy fair elections and Murphy's
followers were left free to go from polling place to polling place, voting as
often as they pleased, winked at by the Murphy inspectors and backed up by the
Murphy police.
Things got to such a state that the
Republicans and the Whelan, or Anti-Murphy, Democrats in the 13th ward
determined to make a firm stand against the repeaters. Shortly before 1 o'clock
in the afternoon of Election day a gang of a dozen or so, headed by "Bat"
Shea, John McGough and Jerry Cleary, attacked the polling place in the third
election district of this ward. They presented themselves to the inspectors and
asked for ballots. The Republican inspector and the Republican watchers
objected. This was just what Shea and his gang wanted. It presented an
opportunity for creating a "row." The men stepped a few paces back
from the rail, and without a word of warning began to fire into the crowd of
bystanders and watchers. Robert Ross, one of the leading Republicans of the
Thirteenth ward, was seen to fall to the ground. His brother, William Ross, ran
to his assistance and stumbled and fell just as he reached him. Robert Ross had
been struck over the head by a club in the hands of one of the toughs. As
William Ross fell a bullet struck him in the back of the neck. While the two
brothers were lying on the floor "Bat" Shea, a thug, repeater and
general rowdy, was seen to step into the crowd, place his pistol close to the
back of Robert Ross's head, and fire. Within five minutes Ross was dead.
And this is the brutal and damnable murder
which the partisan zeal and blindness of The
Democrat leads it to rank as not so grave a crime as a student's practical
joke—which unfortunately and unexpectedly had a fatal result! "Sudden impulse,"
"great excitement," was it, when a brute went to the polls armed for
the purpose of shooting down any one who dared resist his attempts at
fraudulent voting and stepped up to a prostrate man, and like a coward as well
as a brute, put a revolver to the helpless man's head and sent the bullet
through his brain!
"Bat" Shea's crime, under the
circumstances, was one of the gravest that can be committed against the public
welfare. It was the bright, consummate flower of McKaneism, Sheehanism and
Murphyism. But it only went a step farther than the bossism of the man from
Gravesend who is now wearing prison stripes at Sing Sing. McKane made use of
fraud and violence to defeat the expression of the will of the people at the
ballot box. Shea attempted fraud and when he was balked committed murder!
The Democratic law officials at Troy are so
in sympathy with this murderer that the people will not trust them to manage
his prosecution, and Governor Flower is
compelled to assent to the employment of attorneys who will see that justice is
done. What better subject for investigation by a legislative committee could
there be than such a murder and the frauds and violence which led up to it and
are interwoven with it? If government of the people by the people and for the
people is not to perish from the earth, the crimes against the elective
franchise which have disgraced this state under the rule of David B. Hill's
machine must be stopped, and such punishment, sure, speedy and terrible,
inflicted upon his guilty tools as will guarantee to the people henceforth a
free and fair ballot, a just count and an honest declaration of the same.
The
Democrat cannot wash the skirts of its party of the stains of Gravesend and
Troy. If it were wise, instead of defending or apologizing for them, it would
protest against them and denounce them. It cannot claim that one party is no
worse than the other in this respect. Where can it point to Republican toughs,
armed with revolvers, going from one polling place to another and voting at all
of them on fictitious names or the names of other men? Where can it find a
Republican Gravesend, or a Republican "Bat" Shea? Its attempts to
apologize for or belittle the offenses committed against the common welfare by
leaders of its party and their tools during the past six months will only bring
discredit upon itself and help intensify the public indignation which is
already swelling like the sea.
 |
| Restored 1894 Lilienthal hang glider at the National Air and Space Museum. |
After many experiments Lilienthal had
confidence enough in his machine to build a tower upon a bluff 340 feet high.
He leaped from this boldly. At first he sank 50 feet, but was presently able to
rise till he reached a height of 1,000 feet. He says great muscular strength is
not required to fly like a bird, but only a knowledge of how to utilize the air
resistance and currents exactly. Mr. Lilienthal is already able to fly in great
circles and come back to his starting point.
BREVITIES.
—A full and graphic account of the Homer
fire will be found in the Homer letter.
—The extended obituary notice of the late M.
M. Waters, which we expected to publish to-day, is delayed for the purpose of
making it fuller and more accurate.
—While at Syracuse Saturday the City band
stopped at the Kingsley House, which is now being conducted by Mr. A. H. Hoxie,
who was formerly a resident of Cortland.
—The season for shooting ducks closed March
1. The season formerly closed May 1, but the law was changed by an act of the
last legislature, which went into effect this year. There is a heavy penalty
for violations of this game law.
—While Fred Terpening was running up the
railroad track to the Homer fire Saturday evening he had a fit and fell,
striking the back of his head on the track, cutting a gash about three inches
long. He was taken by his brother in a carriage to his home on Halbert-st.,
where Dr. Jerome Angel dressed the wound.
—The sacred concert given at St. Mary's
church last evening was a treat to those fortunate enough to attend. It opened
with a very brief address on St. Patrick by Rev. J. J. McLoghlin. The program
consisted of sacred and patriotic music by the choir, assisted by the full
orchestra. A great deal of the credit for the success of the concert is due Mr.
and Mrs. C. N. Hardy. The proceeds go to the treasury of the organ fund.
—The entertainment given by the intermediate
department in Normal hall Saturday
evening was a success in every respect. The program consisted of an an
international flag drill, a recitation by Hiley Bostwick, a cornet solo by
Martin McDonald, a song by Nina Seeber, a recitation by Robert Carpenter and a fairy
revel and rainbow drill. The entire program was rendered in a most creditable manner,
the drills making a specially enjoyable feature. Sixty dollars were netted for
the library fund.
—At a meeting of the Cortland County Bar
held at the surrogate's office last Saturday evening, to take action on the death
of M. M. Waters, Esq. Hon. J. E.
Eggleston was chosen chairman and B. T. Wright, secretary. Resolutions were
passed, and it was determined that the Bar attend the funeral, which is to be
held at Mr. Waters' late residence, Tuesday at 2 P. M. Members of the bar are
requested to meet at the surrogate's office on Tuesday, promptly at 1:30 P. M.
Full proceedings of the meeting will be furnished later.
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