LEXOW COMMITTEE'S LAST DAY

New York State Senator Clarence Lexow.

Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, December 31, 1894.

LEXOW'S LAST DAY.

Closing Scenes of the Now Famous Police Investigation.

   NEW YORK, Dec. 31.—A 8:50 o'clock Saturday night the Lexow committee adjourned subject to the call of the chair, thus closing a session of investigation which was brimful of startling revelations.

   The corruptness existing for years in the police department of this city was exposed thoroughly, and instead of beginning at the top the prosecutor, Mr. Goff, and his assistants began with the patrolmen and finished with the superintendent, who was the last witness to be called.

   Just as he was through answering Mr. Goff's probing questions, Superintendent Byrnes handed a letter to Chairman Lexow and said that it was a copy of one that he had sent to Mayor-elect Strong early this month. It was his resignation from the force, of which he had been a member for the last 32 years.

   The superintendent said that on two occasions since he was appointed in Superintendent Murray's place he was on the point of resigning, owing to the continual conflict between the commissioners and himself. The superintendent, he said, should have absolute charge of the discipline of the department, but all his efforts in that direction were frustrated by the commissioners. The department was honey-combed with abuses which had been growing for 30 years, and they could be remedied only by radical legislation. Local politics, he claimed, were the curse of the department and as long as politics was a factor in the force, such a state of affairs would exist.

   Although he had done his utmost to secure substantial information as to the corruption and bribery, he was unable to get it, and the whole department was impregnated with the belief that promotion had to be bought and merit was of no avail.

   He claimed to have done a good deal toward helping to bring about the exposures. He paid a tribute to Dr. Parkhurst, who, he said, manufactured public sentiment, without which it would have been impossible for the committee to have acquired the information it did.

   His wealth, which he estimated at $360,000, was made by speculation, he said, through the instrumentality of Jay Gould and his son, George Gould. His purchases of real estate were also very profitable, and he claimed not to have a bank account.

   Inspector McLaughlin, the chief of New York's detective force, was also on the stand and told the story of his financial progress. Starting in the trucking business in 1864, he claimed to have $6,000 when he was appointed on the force in 1868. Although he would not divulge his wife's business, he claimed that she made plenty of money.

   His great luck in the investment of $1,750 in a patent switch, which netted him $40,000 in less than five years, aroused considerable interest among the senators, but when pressed for facts in regard to his connection with the company, the inspector said that he had no papers of agreement or partnership, that he had never signed a note and, although he shared the profits, he had not interested himself personally in the enterprise nor had he ever been in Chicago where the business was carried on.

   His real estate transactions were absolutely gold mines, according to his testimony, as every purchase he made was fabulously successful. By his own figures he showed his equity in real estate today is worth $102,175. He strenuously denied ever having received a dollar for protecting gamblers or proprietors of houses of ill repute, and the levying of blackmail, he said, was unknown to him. Everyone who accused him of wrongdoing he declared to be accusing him falsely.

   The other events of the day were of little interest.

Charles Henry Parkhurst.

Parkhurst Criticizes the Papers.

   NEW YORK, Dec. 31.—Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst preached a sermon in Madison avenue Presbyterian church in this city in which he made indirect and incidental reference to the work of the past year. The people had learned, he said, that a politician was a man of expediency and that he might arrange things in such a manner that only a mighty uprising of the people could undo. In looking over the field of the future, he said, the people should look for an improvement in the character of the newspapers. The papers, he said, that daily serve up a mass of undigested matter without discrimination to their readers were rapidly becoming a public nuisance.

Turkish Mail and Press Censorship.

   BOSTON, Dec. 31.—The American board of commissioners of foreign missions has issued a statement with reference to the condition of affairs in Armenia where Christian missionaries are stationed. The statement shows that the Turkish government is attempting to assume authority over all mail of foreigners, letters having been opened by the postoffice officials. It is also stated that the official statement of the Turkish government, denying the Armenian atrocities, was ordered to be printed in all papers on pain of suspension, hence Christian papers were obliged to publish what they knew to be false.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Where the Money Went.

   The eyes of the country are on the Lexow committee that is unearthing the government of New York city. Last summer evidence came out that there was a regular system of police blackmail which in its fleecing operations took in everybody from the peanut vender to the steamship companies that wanted sidewalks for a place to store their goods. Saloon keepers, swindlers who ran unlawful games, disorderly houses and backers of prize fighting exhibitions were included in the great big police blackmail that outrascaled them all. Where did the money go? Those who paid the money testified that it went to the police captains. At the rate at which the money was squeezed out of the unfortunates the police captains ought to have become millionaires in a few years, but they did not, although they lived very comfortably, thank you.

   The dear public has at length found out why they did not get rich. It seems they had to pay for their appointments as police captains, and pay fabulously high sums. Captain Creeden's testimony that his place cost him $15,000 threw a whole searchlight on New York municipal methods. The police commissioners charged men high prices for giving them appointments as police captains. The candidates had to borrow the money here, there and everywhere. After one of them got his place he was obliged to blackmail criminals, violators of the law and even persons engaged in legitimate business to get the money to pay back what he had borrowed.

   This little explanation really explains. It shows how a police commissioner on a salary of $5,000 could build apartment houses, take a trip to Europe or even buy a yacht or fast horse if he wanted to. Then when he got all the money he wanted he was able to be appointed a police justice and sentence the people whose money had enriched him. Or if he had ambitions in the literary or artistic line or in the higher walks of politics he was able on the strength of his little savings to gratify this desire as well. Great is municipal government in American cities. No wonder the people of Europe conclude republican government is a failure.

The Terrible Year.

   Many people will be glad 1894 is over. In some respects it has been the most disastrous year within their experience. There is less actual suffering this winter than there was last, and we do not hear so much of the thousands of unemployed who must be fed by charity in the large cities. But it is not that work is plentiful yet. It is that everything has come down to the hardest kind of hardpan, and people are grimly economizing to the last cent.

   In our own country epidemics of typhoid fever, smallpox and diphtheria have raged with fury in many places. It is safe to say there have been more murders and suicides than were ever known in any one year before in the United States. The holding up and robbing of railway trains by armed desperadoes have prevailed to an unheard of extent. Even in the safest, quietest parts of the east the train robbing epidemic broke loose.

   The country was kept in a state of turmoil many months—first by the coal miners' strike, then by the Pullman strike and the consequent riots, bloodshed and wrecking of property. Fires, during 1894 have been unusually destructive to human and animal life. At a fire in Baltimore, on April 10, 130 horses were burned to death. In the destruction of the American Glucose works at Buffalo two days later 12 workmen lost their lives, and $1,200,000 worth of property went up in flame. How many people were burned to death in the awful forest fires in the northwest will never be known for certain. Whole towns were wiped from the face of the earth. It is certain that not less than 500 people perished in these fires, which themselves resulted from the most terrible drought this country has known in many years. Except, a portion of the southern states, drought prevailed over nearly the whole United States.

   The black plague in China early in the year swept off not less than 50,000 lives, according to the best information that can be obtained. Memorable, too, has 1894 been for terrible earthquakes. In February two such widely separated regions as Greece and Venezuela were visited by seismic disturbances, with heavy loss of life and the destruction of millions of property. In Venezuela two towns were annihilated. The shocks in Constantinople in July, while not so severe, were yet fatal to a number of lives. Early in November Sakata, a town on the northwest coast of Japan, experienced an earthquake shock from which it will take years to recover. Many houses and families were swallowed up bodily. Not less than 300 people were killed outright and 200 more severely wounded. The record closes with a violent and destructive earthquake in Hungary Dec. 19.

   It is remarkable that when one of these convulsions of the earth's crust takes place in a given locality the tidal waves from it extend underground to countries far remote from the scene of the original disturbance. Nov. 16, not long after the cataclysm at Sakata, came the earthquake horrors in southern Italy, whereby in Sicily alone 100 persons were killed.

   Nature seems indeed to have wreaked her vengeance on man in 1894. Besides the eastern war, which he brought about himself, she has visited upon him earthquake, plague, drought, fire and flood. The storms in the United States at least have been seldom excelled in fury and destructiveness. A tornado in Texas in March killed 16 persons and injured 50 more. A storm in May annihilated a million dollars' worth of property in Ohio, Michigan and some of the states westward. The months of May and June were signalized in various parts of the country by some of the most destructive storms ever known. Wherever they occurred they were peculiarly fatal to human life.

   On the whole, if we have come through 1894 with enough to eat and wear and a shelter over our heads, if no awful griefs have bowed us down and we have fairly good health, then, really and truly, we have much to be thankful for at the beginning of 1895.

AN INQUEST TO BE HELD.

Physicians Conducted an Autopsy Last Saturday Night.

   Coroner George D. Bradford and Dr. H. O. Jewett last Saturday night held an autopsy over the body of Christopher Benson, who was struck by the 7:20 train on the E., C. & N. R. R Thursday morning, and decided to hold a coroner's inquest next Saturday. The funeral was held yesterday afternoon and the remains were buried.

   Some criticism has been made at the failure of the railroad company to find the body that morning. The snow was blowing so that the engineer could not see an object five rods in any direction. The snow was very deep and the plow in front of the engine was throwing up such a cloud of snow that it was almost impossible to distinguish anything. The engineer thought he caught a glimpse of something black thrown from the plow. It vanished instantly and he didn't know as it was anything after all. He stopped the train, however, and consulted with the conductor. It was impossible to back up or to stand still many minutes, for a freight train was only ten minutes behind them and was likely to approach undiscovered in the storm and dash into their rear end as they stood. It seemed best to go on and at East Homer, the first telegraph office, a message was sent back telling of what the engineer had seen. A searching party went out on an engine and ran very slowly through the section of track mentioned by the engineer, but could see nothing. The authorities thought they made every effort to find what the engineer struck, if he hit anything at all, which was itself a question.

DIED OF HEART FAILURE.

William B. Moore Passes Away With Little Warning.

   A very sudden death occurred yesterday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Hardy, of 140 Main-st., when the latter's father, Mr. William B. Moore died after a few moments' illness. Between 3 and 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon Mr. Moore went up town for some medicine, stating that he was not feeling well. He was unable to get into a drug store and returned home. He was induced to go to bed, but had not been there more than fifteen minutes before he died. Drs. F. D. Reese and A. J. White were immediately summoned, but the old gentleman was past their aid. They pronounced his death due to heart failure.

   The deceased moved to Homer from Amesbury, Mass., in 1881 with Mr. and Mrs. Hardy and family and accompanied them to Cortland. He was born on the Isle of Wight, while his father was stationed there as an officer in the English army. He came to America in the forties.

   Mr. Moore was 75 years of age and during his sojourn in Cortland county his quiet unassuming manners have made for him many friends. He was a member of St. Mary's church and his regular attendance at mass every morning has often been spoken of. One of his greatest pleasures was his association with his grand children in whom he took a great interest.

   He leaves three children, all of whom reside in Cortland: Mrs. C. N. Hardy, Miss Katherine Moore and Mr. William A. Moore, and a brother in Massachusetts.

   The funeral will be held at 10 A. M Wednesday.

NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS.

The Standard's Calendar for All Subscribers in the County.

   The new year has come and The STANDARD extends to all its subscribers its best wishes for a happy and prosperous year. To the subscribers who live within the county the greetings will take the form of a handsome calendar which has been prepared with much care and at no little expense. Besides the calendar proper with the phases of the moon in each month, the calendar card contains the face of one of the STANDARD'S faithful carrier boys, the cut of the Standard building in which the STANDARD office is located and where it occupies three floors, the large Cox perfecting press on which the paper is printed from the roll, cut and folded at the rate of one every second, the splendid Huber book and job press upon which the finest of catalogue work is done, and the Otto ten-horse power gas engine which furnishes the power for all the six presses in the office. We are able to send the calendar to all our subscribers in the county, where the papers go in large packages which will insure the fact that the calendars will not be broken in the mails.

   To the subscribers in the village the calendars will be delivered by the carrier boys on New Year's morning. The STANDARD presents the calendars a free gift to the carriers. If the boys have been faithful in the delivery of their papers throughout the year, they will doubtless be thankful for any little acknowledgement to them for the service on the part of the subscribers. This is customary in the cities and was begun here with the first New Year's greeting issued by the daily STANDARD two years ago. Any acknowledgement made by the subscriber to the carrier will doubtless gladden his heart and make him more faithful in the year to come. It is in no wise compulsory, but we are sure it will be acceptable.

BREVITIES.

   —Wish you a happy New Year.

   —A special meeting of the Y. M. C. A. will be held at the rooms this evening at 8 o'clock.

   —No paper will be issued from this office to-morrow as it is New Year's day and a holiday.

   —The 1894 board of governors of the C. A. A. will hold their last meeting at the club house this evening to complete the business of the year.

   —A New Year's morning prayer-meeting will be held at the Presbyterian chapel tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, to which all are invited.

   —Binghamton has 221 manufactories making 90 different lines of goods and giving employment to 15,000 people, 2,000 of which are women.

   —The trucks have arrived for the new electric cars which are being built by the Cortland Omnibus & Cab Co. and the cars will soon be mounted upon them.

   —The milk traffic, which has been very dull the past month, on the D., L. & W., is increasing. The company carries more milk than any other road in the state.—Binghamton Republican.

   —The Cortland Omnibus & Cab Co. to-day shipped two exceedingly fine jobs which have just been finished. One is a carrette, which goes to Blackburn & Turnbull, Monmouth, Ill., and the other is a special omnibus which will seat eighteen persons. It was made to order for C. B. Lawton of Northville, N. Y.

    —The D., L. & W. will the coming summer, have the road bed on the entire line covered with fine broken stone. This will put an end to the flying dust [which] is very annoying to the passengers. The company has been making [steady] improvement for some time, and the whole line will be finished next season.—Binghamton Republican.