CHANGES IN THE GAME LAWS

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, March 22, 1895.

CHANGES IN THE GAME LAWS.

A NEW CODE OF LAW.

Radical Changes In the Seasons for Hunting and Fishing—Fierce and Destructive Animals Which Command a Bounty—Wolves, Bears and Foxes.

   The amendments to the game laws as finally submitted to the Senate committee provide changes so radically different from the laws of last season that they practically make a new code. To Cortland's sportsmen the revised code will prove of interest.

   Deer are protected for five years in Ulster, Greece, Sullivan and Delaware counties. One person may kill only two deer in a season. Transportation, except for one carcass with the owner, is forbidden. Sale is forbidden from October 31st to November 10th, except of venison killed out of the State in open season. Hounding is always forbidden in St. Lawrence, Delaware, Greene, Ulster and Sullivan. The killing of fawns, working and yarding, is forbidden.

   Ferrets for rabbit hunters are forbidden.

   The bounty on the fox is $3, on the bear $10, on a grown wolf $30, on pup wolf $15, on panther $20.

   Wild fowl shall not be pursued or killed between sunset and daylight, nor from "any other than a boat propelled by hand or floating device," nor bough house [blind] more than fifty feet from shore. Boats propelled by hand may be used on the Hudson river below the Troy dam.

   Quail shall not be killed in Genesee, Wyoming, Orleans. Livingston, Monroe, Cayuga, Seneca, Wayne, Tompkins, Tioga, Onondaga, Ontario, Steuben, Cortland and Otsego counties prior to March 1, 1898.

   Woodcock and grouse shall not be transported unless accompanied by the owners.

   Wild birds protected do not include the English sparrow, crow, hawk, raven, crane, blackbird, common blackbird and kingfishers.

   Mongolian pheasants are protected up to 1897.

   Ice fishing is forbidden in waters inhabited by trout, salmon trout or land-locked salmon. Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Hudson and Niagara rivers are excepted.

   Trout, land-locked salmon, salmon trout of less than six inches may not be taken. They may not be transported save when accompanied by the owner

   Black bass may not be taken under eight inches. The season for Lake George is close, except from August 1st to December 31st.

   The close [closed] season of the proposed new law follows:

   Deer, October 1st to August l5th

   Hounding, October 16th to August 31st.

   Squirrels, December 1st to August 31st.

   Hare, December 1st to August 31st.

   Wild fowl, April 30th to September 1st.

   Quail, January 1st to October 31st.

   Woodcock, January 1st to August 15th.

   Grouse, January 1st to August 15th.

   Snipe, May 1st to August 31st.

   Meadow lark, January 1st to September 30th.

   Trout, September 1st to April 15th.

   Salmon trout, October 1st to April 30th.

   Land-locked salmon, October 1st to April 30th.

   Black bass, January 1st to May 29th .

   Muskallonge [sic], January 1st to May 29th.

   Salmon, August 15th to March 1st.

   Pickerel, January 1st to May 29th.

   Pike, January 1st to May 29th.

   Wall-eyed pike, January 1st to May 29th.

   For purposes of comparison the close seasons of the present law is also published.

   This is as follows:

   Deer, November 1st to August 15th.

   Hounding, October 11th to September 10th.

   Squirrels, January 1st to September 1st.

   Hare, January 1st to September 1st.

   Wild fowl March 1st to September 1st.

   Quail, January 1st to September 1st.

   Woodcock, January 1st to August 15th.

   Grouse, January 1st to August 15th.

   Snipe, May 1st to September 1st.

   Meadow lark, January 1st to November 1st.

   Trout, September 1st to April 1st.

   Salmon trout, October 1st to May 1st.

   Land-locked salmon, October 1st to May 1st.

   Black bass, January 1st to May 30th.

   Muskallonge. January 1st to May 30th.

   Salmon, August 15th to March 1st.

   Pickerel, not protected.

   Pike, not protected.

   Wall-eyed pike, not protected.

HIS PENURY EXPOSED.

Hidden Wealth Found Upon a Miser Stricken with Apoplexy.

(From the Syracuse Evening Herald.)

   Tully, March 15.—Apparently near to death, Otis Hamilton, aged 75 years, a character known for many years as a homeless wanderer through this section, now lies at the farm house of Simeon Clark, on St. Johns hill, near the Truxton line.

   The old man was stricken with apoplexy and was carried into Clark's house yesterday afternoon and Dr. W. T. Bliss of Tully was called to attend him. In removing the clothing of the patient Doctor Bliss made some startling discoveries and proved the apparently poverty-stricken Hamilton to be a miser.

   Hamilton wore four pairs of cotton trousers and a pair of overalls. In the various pockets and in old pocket books were stowed bills and gold coin in profusion and some silver pieces. Most of the bills were of comparatively recent issue, but the gold was old and blackened. Doctor Bliss counted the treasure and found that it amounted to $1,158.44.

   The old man, though unable to speak, was conscious of what was going on about him and when Doctor Bliss asked him if he should take the money and put it for safe keeping in a bank, Hamilton nodded assent. This morning Doctor Bliss went to Syracuse and deposited the funds in a Trust Deposit company box.

   The advanced age of Hamilton and the severity of the paralytic stroke make his recovery very doubtful. Little is known here about his family, but he is said to have one brother who is a wanderer and two sisters, who live at Lafayette.

   Hamilton was not exactly a beggar, but by pleas of abject poverty and by frequently accepted hospitalities in this section he managed to exist upon very small expenditures. Many persons have for a long time believed him to be a miser.

THE RISE IN WAGES.

   The Scientific American says: Discussing wages in one of his lectures before students of Harvard university, Professor Thompson gives many facts of curious interest. In 1798 the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Canal Company advertised for workmen, offering $5 a month for the winter months and $8 for summer, with board and lodging. The next year there was a debate in the House of Representatives which brought out the fact that soldiers got but $3 a month. A Vermont member, discussing the proposal to raise it to $4, said that in his State men were hired for £18 a year, or $4 a month, with board and clothing. Mr. Wadsworth of Pennsylvania said: "In the states north of Pennsylvania, the wages of the common laborer are not, upon the whole, superior to those of the common soldier." In 1797 a Rhode Island farmer hired a good farm hand at $3 a month; and $5 a month was paid to those who got employment for the eight busy months of the farmer's year.

   A strong boy could be had at that time in Connecticut at $1 a month through these months, and he earned it by working from daybreak until 8 or 9 o'clock at night. He could buy a coarse cotton shirt with the earnings of such three months. The farmers could pay no better, for the price they got for produce was wretched. Butter sold at eight cents a pound and when it rose suddenly to ten cents, several farmer's wives and daughters went out of their minds with the excitement. Women picked the wool off the bushes and briers where the sheep had left it and spun and knit it into mittens to earn $1 a year by this toilsome business. They hired out as help for twenty-five cents a month and their board.

   By a day's hard work at the spinning wheel a woman and girl together could earn twelve cents. As late as 1821 the best farm hands could be had for twenty-five cents a day or twice as much in mowing time. Matthew Carey, in his letter on the Charities of Philadelphia, (1829), gives a painful picture of the working classes at that time. Every avenue to employment was choked with applicants. Men left the cities to find work on the canal at from sixty to seventy-five cents a day, and to encounter the malaria, which laid them low in numbers. The highest wages paid to women was twenty-five cents a day; and even the women who made clothes for the arsenal were paid by the government at no high rates. When the ladies of the city begged for an improvement of this rate, the secretary hesitated lest it should disarrange the relations of capital and labor throughout the city. Poor people died of cold and want every winter in the city and the fact seems to have made an impression only on benevolently disposed persons like Mr. Carey.

NEIGHBORING COUNTIES.

   CHENANGO.—The First National Bank of Oxford expect to get into their new and beautiful banking house some time during this month.

   Fred Skinner, an employee in a Norwich chair factory, had a thumb taken off in the machinery last week.

   Henry Van Valkenburg of Norwich was sentenced last week to thirty days in the Albany penitentiary for bruising his wife.

   Merrill B. Franklin of Norwich, has obtained a divorce from his wife, Lena M., and is given the custody of their only child.

   According to the Norwich Sun, Norwich has a professional beggar who though apparently in abject poverty owns a home and is well off.

   Out of 12,000 contestants and 96 winners, Fred Mitchell of Norwich received the fifth prize for the best window display offered by the proprietors of "Frog in Your Throat."

   MADISON.—Oneida's charter election occurs on Tuesday, April 2.

   William Carr of Oneida has sold his recently secured patent upon bicycle handle-bars to a manufacturing concern at Westboro, Mass.

   W. L. Beebe of Earlville has been appointed deputy grand patriarch of all the Odd Fellows' encampments in this county.

   TOMPKINS.—Caroline has the oil fever.

   Ithaca now has a colored evangelist.

   Preparations for an Easter concert are now being made at Varna.

   Trumansburg, according to the Free Press has a female athletic club.

   It is reported that the newly elected trustees of Dryden village are not tax payers.

   The Fish and Game Protective Association of Groton will hold its annual meeting Tuesday, April 2nd.

   C. R. Wolcott, a Trumansburg lawyer, has challenged Col. Bob Ingersoll to a debate on the question "Is the Bible the word of God?

   A Trumansburg correspondent writes: "L. H. Gould's 50 foot smoke stack was repainted last Thursday by a man who makes that sort of work a specialty, and the same man is about to restore to its upright position, the cross which surmounts the Episcopal church.

   Theodore Bundy, while walking on the Renwick division the other day was struck by a trolley, thrown into a ditch and had two ribs fractured. Mr. Bundy is very deaf and did not hear the car coming, while the motorman supposed that Bundy saw the car and would get out of the way.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.

   Charter election was held in Skaneateles last Tuesday and resulted in a sweeping victory for the democrats. The village is strongly republican and has been so for years, but bad municipal government filled the people with a spirit of reform and in order to secure good results they placed the democrats in power.

   The bill introduced in the assembly by Mr. Ainsworth, changing the law of libel, seems to be entirely in the interest of the daily papers. It provides that if a retraction be made within three days after the publication, an action will not lie. How would it be possible for a weekly paper to publish a retraction in three days? Seven days must necessarily elapse before a retraction could be published. The bill should be revised in this particular, but it is doubtful if the lawyers in the assembly permit any bill of the kind to become a law.

   About the best thing Tom Platt can do is to have his legislature pass a bill giving him power to oust Mayor Strong from office. There ought to be no very good reason why Strong cannot be legislated out of office as well as the Democratic officials of New York city.

   It was reserved for a republican [state] legislature to attempt to prescribe the exact size of hat a lady might wear at a public entertainment and now a bill has been introduced fixing the hours that barbers in New York city may keep their shops open on Sunday. If they are to be permitted to open at all on Sunday, why should they not be permitted to exercise their own discretion in regard to the hour of closing? Some people prefer to be shaved in the afternoon and these would be annoyed if they were not permitted to exercise their rights in this regard. Republican legislators seem to be unable to understand their duties. They were not elected to pass laws curtailing the rights and privileges of citizens, but to pass laws that do not interfere with the rights and privileges of American citizens. There is altogether too much special legislation at every session of the legislature. What the people need is less law and less law-making.

   The people of Onondaga county are terribly stirred up over Mr. Hendrick's efforts to hamper the work of the investigation of the departments of that city, which has been commenced. The business men are clamoring for a free and full investigation of the several departments, while Ex-Senator Hendricks is in Albany doing his level best to place stumbling blocks in the committees' way. He insists that the witnesses brought before the investigating committee must have the right to employ counsel to protect their interests. When the Lexow committee investigated the police department in New York last fall, witnesses were not permitted to be represented by counsel and the committee's counsel was allowed unusual privileges. This is the sort of an investigation the business men of Syracuse want, but as the city is controlled entirely by republicans, it is not the kind that the republican politicians desire. It was all right for New York because it is a democratic city, but it would never do for the republican city of Syracuse.

Killed While Coasting.

   Eddie Curtin, aged 12 years, son of Mr. Charles Curtin who resides about three miles north of Preble village, was killed last Friday evening. Eddie and a younger brother were riding down hill on a hand sleigh through an orchard taking turns, one riding down at a time. Eddie started down lying flat on the sleigh and as he did not return when expected, his brother went to see what had kept him and found him lying near an apple tree. He was carried home and Dr. H. D. Hunt was called. He arrived there about 8 o'clock P. M., an hour and a half after the accident and then he was dying. The skull on the left side of the head above the ear was fractured but the scalp was not broken.

HERE AND THERE.

   The saloon and hotel bars in this place were closed all day last Sunday voluntarily.

   C. F. Thompson has something to say about seeds in an advertisement to be found on our sixth page.

   Messrs. Kellogg & Curtis have something to say about carpets in an advertisement in another column.

   The Cortland City band have leased rooms in the third story of the Grand Central building for practice.

   Charles Mosher of this place has leased the Dryden house in McLean and will take possession April 1st, next.

   The Hitchcock Manufacturing Co. started up Monday with quite a large force of men in their wagon and carriage department.

   The bill fixing six dollars per month as the lowest pension to be paid to any soldier and raising all pensions granted for lesser amounts to that figure, became a law March 2nd, 1895.

   During the past three months the Syracuse Evening Herald has equipped its mechanical department with seven new Mergenthaler linotype machines and a $30,000 Goss "three-decker" press. It now issues a 10 or 12-page paper every evening, and a 16-page paper on Sundays.

   Dr. Higgins removed a cancer from the breast of Mrs. C. H. Barber of Homer on Wednesday morning at the hospital. Drs. Reese and Sornberger of Cortland and Dr. Robinson of Homer assisted.

   Mr. C. F. Thompson has just purchased a large double section cooler of Mr. B. A. Stevens of Toledo, Ohio. This cooler is one of the best made and will be put in Mr. Thompson's meat market about April 1st.

   Last Friday evening some of the promoters of the Citizens' movement organized a club to be called "The Good Government Club of Cortland, N. Y." If it adheres to the platform adopted it will be non-sectarian and non-partisan.

   About 100,000 brook trout were received in Cortland by Mr. C. F. Thompson on Wednesday from the State hatchery at Caledonia to stock the streams in this vicinity, making in all about 200,000 trout that have been placed in the streams in this section this spring.

   It is in order perhaps for the DEMOCRAT to say that on March 3rd, 1893, the Commissioners of Union Free School, No. 1, published a statement of expenditures incurred in building the City School, and that they were not influenced by partisanship when they appointed a good Democrat to the position of Superintendent and in so doing secured an admirable official.

SCOTT.

   Alvah Clark expects to go to Allegany County to work for his brother, Roscoe.

   Mr. Gransberry and wife of the Salvation Army were at church last Seventh day.

   Mr. Donovan of this town has hired to Oscar Fisher of Spafford for the season.

   There will be a maple sugar festival at the M. E. church in Scott on Saturday evening, March 23rd, 1895.

   Alfred Howard and not Alfred Harris will run a meat market in Scott this year, having rented the dwelling house of W. H. Morgan in Scott.

   The result of the charter election in Cortland shows what can be done when the temperance people make up their minds to work together.

   Austin Brown has bought the Avery Burdick house and lot located just below the Central hotel. Consideration $700. Mr. Brown will move from his farm on to it in the near future.

PREBLE.

   Dr. H. D. Hunt, our popular postmaster and merchant, has sold his entire stock of goods and drugs to A. H. Van Hoesen and H. J. Cummings, and they expect to take possession this week. Mr. Cummings has had quite a little experience in the mercantile business. Whether Mr. Van Hoesen will sell goods in the store I do not know. Dr. Hunt intends to give all his time to his practice.

   The case of the people against A. R. Randall was tried at the town hall last Saturday before Squire Collier and the charge was assault. About a week before, Randall (as the evidence and report would show) came to Kelley's with an old horse and wanted to trade horses. Randall, who is said to be quite deaf, claimed he did trade. Kelly said he did not trade, but allowed Randall to put his horse in the barn for the night as Randall said he had no place to put him. After Randall left in the evening the horses commenced to kick and Kelley took the horse out that Randall put in, and put him in a neighbor's shed with some colts. Randall came next morning before Kelley was up and took the Kelley horse out of Kelley's barn and took him 40 or 50 rods down in the lot, went and cut the horses throat and as Beaty testified then went towards Preble depot. A day or two after as Randall was going by Kelley's house, Kelley went out and called after him and Randall says he was shaking his fists, and Kelly denies that he was, but when Kelley was within 40 or 50 feet, Randall pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Kelley and told Kelley if he came a step nearer he would blow his brains out. Kelley stopped and went back, and Randall went on. The evidence showed that the revolver was a 32 caliber double acting revolver and was loaded at the time.