 |
| Oliver Curtis Perry. |
PERRY IS
CAUGHT.
THE LAST
AND MOST IMPORTANT CAPTURE OF THE MATEAWAN FUGITIVES, AT WEEHAWKEN, N. J.
Perry at
First Claimed to be "a Plain Tramp" Looking for Work, but Finally
Admitted His Identity.
HOBOKEN, N. J., April 16.—The arrest of
train robber Oliver Curtis Perry at Weehawken settles all reports of his having
been seen at many points between the Matteawan Asylum and Amsterdam since his
escape from Dr. Allison's custody on Wednesday in company with four other
convicts confined in the Matteawan institution.
Perry is now in the Hudson county jail,
Jersey City, awaiting the arrival of New York State officials. As he is a
fugitive from justice, extradition proceedings are unnecessary and he will be
surrendered to the proper officials upon application. Perry was discovered with
other tramps, standing about a fire near Weehawken in the yards of the West
Shore between four and five o'clock this morning by Edwin Clifford of the railroad
staff.
Something in the man's bearing lead the
officer to think of Perry, for whom all the Vanderbilt railroad detectives have
been on the alert. With the assistance of policeman McAleese, of the Weehawken
force, an attempt was made to nab the suspect who at once left the group around
the fire and started up the hillside in an endeavor to escape. The chase
extended for quite a distance up and down the rocky slopes surrounding the West
Shore yards, and the fugitive finally came to grief by stumbling over a ridge
above the tracks and then falling over some ragged rocks a distance of from
fifteen to twenty feet. The accident gave him a sprained ankle, and was
doubtless owing to his uncertain footing due to badly blistered feet. His
predicament gave his pursuers the advantage they needed, and he easily became
their prisoner.
Perry who had evidently had a hard time
since leaving the Matteawan Asylum, was at once taken to the Weehawken lockup,
where he passed into the custody of Chief of Police Simon Kelly. Perry was clad
in a soiled salt and pepper coat, a dark vest, brown trousers and a blue shirt.
On his feet were a pair of well worn, heavy brogans, which were broken out at
the sides and had been cut open to ease the wearer's weary feet. When examined by
Chief Kelley, he said he was John Morton or Martin, thirty-one years old, and
"a plain tramp" looking for work. Kelley advised the New York police
of the man's character and a detective from the Mulberry street headquarters
came to Weehawken with a photograph of Perry. The identification was apparently
certain, but was made sure at about 11:30 when the captive told chief Kelley
that he was Oliver Curtis Perry.
The Chief then wired Dr. Allison at
Matteawan that he believed his captive was Perry and asked that officers be
sent to make positive the identification.
As a result of his request, attendant James
Coyle was sent from the asylum.
As to his whereabouts since leaving
Matteawan, Wednesday night, Perry declined to say anything beyond admitting the
fact, that he spent Thursday night in the woods. New York reporters tried
without success to interview him. Perry finally did tell Kelly and Clifford,
however, that he was in New York Sunday night at Jerry McAuley's mission, where
he was given a card to a hospital to have his blistered feet doctored. The
reports at the hospital at which he was treated conflicted and he does not make
that point clear.
Fearing for the safety of his man in the
Weehawken jail, Chief Kelly transferred him to the keeping of Sheriff Toppey at
the Hudson county jail this afternoon. The transfer was made in a coach, the prisoner
being manacled to Detective Clifford.
Perry had $2 in money when registered by the
Warden.
PERRY'S
STATEMENT.
This evening Perry was allowed to talk to
the reporters. His story of the manner in which the escape was affected did not
differ from that of the other prisoners. He then proceeded: "We knew there
would be no chance for any of us if we attempted flight together. We separated,
therefore, at once, and I have not seen any of the men who escaped with me
since.
"As I was going away, the outside guard
called to me to halt. Next he set his dog on me. When the dog came for me, I
set him on another man that I saw ahead of me. I did not hear a single shot
fired.
"Where did you go next?" Perry was asked.
"Well, principally here," he said.
Perry raised out his hands deploringly and
looked at his tattered clothes.
"I am ashamed of just one thing,"
he continued, almost crying, and that is my appearance. I feel disgraced by
these clothes. I could have had tools, a gun, money and good clothes, if I had
wished for them. My friends are not all dead. I preferred, however, the garb of
a tramp and the hardships that garment meant for me. I could pass unnoticed
that way.
"I have changed my clothes several times.
I picked up several old suits. I was afraid some one would recognize the prison
shirt, and I rolled it back at the throat exposing my undershirt. In this way
my coat hid the shirt. I thought when Chief Clifford caught me he might think
the shirt was an almshouse shirt. He knew better than that, though. My chances
were gone when he saw that shirt."
"Where did you get the clothes you have
on now," some one asked.
"Oh, I picked them up," Perry
answered. "This blue and white tie I have on a woman in Jersey City gave
me. She also gave me two pairs of stockings and something to eat."
Perry was urged to tell how he came to New
York.
"Why should I tell that?" he said. "Who
knows? Perhaps some time I may have occasion to use the same route again. No. I
won't tell anything about that. We will say I reached New York some time on
Saturday night. That is enough. I walked up Jay street to the Hudson street
hospital, where I gave the name of John Martin and had my feet dressed.
"I crossed the Jersey Central ferry
Monday night. I walked through the freight yards and along the track to a
trestle. Here I changed my clothes. The suit I took off must be down there now.
As I said, these clothes I picked up, fire episode came next. The fatal mistake of the whole thing was my
going to that fire. I was cold and the fire looked bright and cheerful. The
company of the tramps, too, was not unwelcome, for I was lonesome."
"Well," Chief of Police Kelly said,
"You would have been picked up very soon anyway. Perry, you could not have
escaped from the country."
"That may be so. But while I was free I
had hope," Perry continued despairingly.
"Oh, you do not know what the long term
of prison before me means. Now I need some compassion and sympathy. I have been
brought to this position by leading a roving life when l was a boy. I know I
was not bad at heart.''
Perry complained bitterly of the treatment he
had received at Matteawan. "I should never have tried to escape." he
said, "if I had received decent treatment. There were friends who could
have interceded for me if I could have attracted their attention in any way.
One can do nothing in the isolation ward. Visitors to the Matteawan asylum are
taken through all parts of the institution except the isolation ward. They are
never allowed to come there. Men do something out of the way and they are
walked in the isolation ward. Sane enough when they go in, they become idiots
before long. The men at first are put there to get them out of the way, so they
wont tell unpleasant things they know.
"I have been there sixteen months. I have
never seen a padded cell. If a man displeased them at Matteawan, he is taken from his cell by three men. One man
stands on each arm while the third man jumps on the prisoner's stomach,
"There is s trick in this. They know where
to jump so as not to break any ribs. They do some times make a false step and break
one or two ribs. They never did this to me. I gave the keepers to understand
that if they did, I would get back at them some time. I wish to have it
understood that all my hopes are gone if I must go back there to stay shut up
until I am grey-headed."
The four who escaped with Perry were
captured not far from the asylum early in the week.
When the asylum officers went after Perry,
the Sheriff of Hudson county refused to deliver him over until the reward of
$2,250 offered for his capture was paid. The asylum officer left for Albany to
obtain a requisition on the Governor of New Jersey.
He's a
Tramp Now.
John Edwards formerly, as he says, editor of
the Cortland Journal, at present a
tramp, was arraigned in Police court yesterday. He said he came to town to call
on his old friend, Carroll E. Smith, of the Journal,
to get a job.
He made many apologies for being in Police
court, and was finally discharged.—Syracuse Courier.
No person of the name of John Edwards ever
edited the Cortland Journal.—Ed.
DEMOCRAT.
Too
Modest.
It is reported that a certain dealer in
millinery goods has been required to remove her display of hosiery from her
show window on account of immodesty. We are reminded of the young lady who
neglected to put pantalettes upon her piano legs—or the spinster who refused to
accept a legacy on account of the indelicacy of the term. Surely modesty is a
commendable virtue. But there are some small men who make a ridiculous and
damaging exhibit of themselves simply to attract public attention. Apparently
on the theory—"Better be damn'd
than mentioned not at all."
COM.
A Mail
Carrier Punished.
Morris A. Mulkin, driver of the Kings
Ferry-Auburn stage, must spend the next two years in prison. In United States
District court at Utica, Friday, he was convicted of embezzling from the mails
and the above sentence was imposed by Judge Coxe.
The crime of which Mulkin was convicted was
committed in November last. Mulkin
drove the stage from Kings Ferry to Auburn. A registered letter containing
about $90 was stolen from one of the pouches which had not been securely
locked. The theft was traced to Mulkin, who made a confession to the postoffice [sic]
authorities. He afterward denied his guilt and was tried with the result stated
above.—Ithaca Journal.
A
TRIUMPH OF SCIENCE.
A New
Discovery That Will Cure the Most Dreaded Forms of Cancer and Consumption.
WASHINGTON, April 11.—From Germany comes
the first official news of a great American discovery said to cure the most
dreaded of diseases—consumption and cancer. Consul General De Kay, at Berlin,
in a report to the State Department, says the discovery, which was announced
late in March in the most serious and trustworthy medical weekly in Germany, is
likely to receive considerable attention at the coming medical congress at
Munich.
The discovery was made by Dr. Lewis Waldstein
of New York, a brother of the famous archaeologist, Dr. Charles Waldstein. The
new treatment, which has been perfected by studies abroad, consists of injecting
minute doses of pilocarpine until the lymphatic system is stimulated and the white
corpuscles of the blood overcome the poisonous particles which produce disease.
Dr. Waldstein's researches have gone to the fountain whence those healthful
white corpuscles spring and by enlivening its action and productiveness
restores the condition of the blood destroying germs.
The importance of the discovery is thought to
be far beyond those of Pasteur, Koch and others.
PAGE
TWO—EDITORIALS.
The
Right to Labor.
(From
the N. Y. Post.]
We have obtained briefs and the judge's opinion
in the case of Tilt vs. Illinois, which declared unconstitutional the eight hour
law of June 17, 1893. Section 5 contained the gist of this statute, and was worded
as follows: "No female shall be employed in any factory or workshop more
than eight hours in any one day, or forty-eight hours in any one week."
The context of the other sections seemed to indicate that the restrictions of
the statute were limited to factories or workshops, or to dwelling houses or
other places where the inmates were engaged in the manufacture of wearing
apparel, artificial flowers, or cigars.
The decision of the Supreme Court of
Illinois, by Judge Magruder, intimated its opinion that if section 5 was to be
construed as applying to such occupations only, it would be unconstitutional also
for the reason that it effected class legislation. But the court's opinion does
not proceed mainly on this narrow view, but expressly decides that a woman is a
citizen, and that the right of a citizen to make his or her own contract for
labor or services is part of the protection of liberty and property guaranteed
by the fourteenth amendment of the federal constitution, by section 1977 of the
revised statutes of the United States, and by the constitution of Illinois,
article 2, section 1. The court also decides that the statute is not within the
police powers of the Legislature, for the reason that it is not shown that it
was passed with any sanitary purpose, and that, the occupations engaged in
being expressly lawful for women, the hours of each day which they should
devote to such work could not be limited by statute. The court intimates that
had the inhibition of the statute extended to minors only, it might, under the
police powers, have been sustained.
In all of the individual cases the employers
were fined under the penal section of the statute for employing women, of whom
all but one were over age, for more than the time allowed. The statute is a substantial
copy of that existing in all the New
England states, New York, and many other states. It does not in terms prohibit
a contract by a woman and her employer to labor more than eight hours a day,
but imposes a penalty upon any person or corporation failing to comply with any
provision of the act, which would, of course, include the employee as well as the
employer.
The appellants counsel contended, in the
main, that the act places unwarranted restrictions upon the individual's right
to contract, citing the above-mentioned provisions of the state and federal
constitutions, the dissenting opinions of Justices Bradley
and Swayne in the famous slaughter house cases, and the various decisions in
state supreme courts which have declared unconstitutional laws forbidding payment
by employers in goods or commodities other than lawful money, laws prohibiting
the manufacture of cigars in tenement-houses, laws prohibiting the sale or
disposal of articles with a gift or reward, laws prohibiting employers from imposing
a wage penalty for imperfect weaving, laws prohibiting the screening of coal
before the miners are paid, laws providing for a weekly payment of wages by corporations,
laws requiring contractors with a city to adopt the eight-hour day for their
labor, and laws forbidding or regulating special occupations.
Judge Magruder, in his opinion, cited many
of the cases in the brief for plaintiffs in error, and concluded that the act
was unconstitutional both as being applied to certain occupations and not to
others and upon the general ground. He said:
"Aside from its partial and discriminating
character, this enactment is a purely arbitrary restriction upon the
fundamental right of the citizen to control his or her own time and faculties.
It substitutes the judgment of the Legislature for the judgment of the employer
and employee in a matter about which they are competent to agree with each
other. It assumes to dictate to what extent the capacity to labor may be
exercised by the employee, and takes away the right of private judgment as to
the amount and duration of the labor to be put forth in a specific period.
Where the Legislature thus undertakes to impose an unreasonable and unnecessary
burden upon any one citizen or class of citizens, it transcends the authority
intrusted [sic] to it of the constitution, even though it imposes the same
burden upon all other citizens or classes of citizens. General laws may be as
tyrannical as partial laws. A distinguished writer on constitutional
limitations has said that general rules may sometimes be as obnoxious as
special, if they operate to deprive individual citizens of vested rights, and
that, while every man has a right to require that his own controversies shall
be judged by the same rules which are applied in the controversies of his neighbors,
the whole community is also entitled, at all times, to demand the protection of
the ancient principles which shield private rights against arbitrary interference,
even though such interference may be under a rule impartial in its operation."
"Liberty, as has already been stated,
includes the right to make contracts as well with reference to the amount and
duration of labor to be performed as concerning any other local matter. Hence
the right to make contracts is an inherent and inalienable one, and any attempt
to unreasonably abridge it is opposed to the constitution."
The court also cited the recent case of the
Supreme Court of Nebraska in which an opinion filed June 6, 1894, held the general
eight-hour law of that state unconstitutional, although this law was in general
operation throughout the state as to both sexes, and all classes of laborers except
agricultural and domestic. This decision in Nebraska is even more noteworthy than
the one we are considering inasmuch as it was a general law limiting the hours
of labor, and, so far as we are informed, the first that has been passed in the
United States which applied to men as well as women or minors, and undertook expressly
to deny the right of contract for a longer day than the law prescribed.
Judge Magruder expressly disapproves of the
doctrine of the Massachusetts case of Commonwealth vs. Hamilton Manufacturing Company,
and it is noteworthy that the great questions involved in this decision should
first arise in Western states, like Nebraska and Illinois, and not in Massachusetts,
and that these Western courts should be the first in our country to repronounce
boldly and clearly that old English principle which sets the freedom of the
citizen above state tutelage, even when the latter presents itself under the
new mask of the labor vote, with the old excuse that it is all for his own
good.
◘ Some of
the English papers are becoming quite saucy. They don't take very kindly to the Monroe doctrine and the "St. James
Gazette" intimates quite strongly that it will be ignored by England in
setting their claim against Nicaragua. Johnny Bull always did play a great game
of bluff.
◘ The legs
of the Chinamen have evidently given out and they have sued for peace which has
been granted on expensive terms. The Chinese soldier seems to believe "That
he who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day." They proved
themselves to be good sprinters whenever they met the enemy.
HERE AND
THERE.
Burgess, the clothier, has a new advertisement
on our last page.
Daniels' orchestra played for a dance at
Greene Wednesday evening.
Bingham
& Miller, the clothiers, have a new advertisement on our last page.
The Traction Company will issue tickets to
students of the schools at a reduction of 40 per cent to be used during term
time.
The village board of health holds its regular
meetings in Dr. W. J. Moore's office the first Monday in each month at 7 P. M.
Mr. A. L. Rose, who has been an inmate of
the State Hospital for the Insane at Binghamton for some weeks, was released on
Monday.
The trustees have notified all hotel and saloon
proprietors to remove all slot machines from their premises and most if not all
have taken them out.
The Fine Wire Drawers' Social club are to
give a social party in Taylor hall on Wednesday evening. May 1st. Daniels' orchestra
will furnish music.
A recent amendment to the act for the incorporation
of villages, of the laws of 1893, makes a woman of the age of 21 eligible to
the office of village clerk.
Messrs. C. F. Brown, A. Sager, F. E. Brogden.
G. W. Bradford and F. I. Graham of Cortland and W. H. Foster of Homer, have
been elected delegates to the Druggists' State Convention to be held in Saratoga
in June.
The Loyal Circle of King's Daughters will
meet with Mrs. A. M. Johnson, 54 North Main-st on Friday, April 19th, at 2:30 P.
M.
A
reception will be given to Dr. and Mrs. Cordo in the parlors of the First
Baptist church on Wednesday, April 24, from 7 to 10 P. M. All who would enjoy
meeting Dr. and Mrs. Cordo before they leave for their new home are most
cordially invited.
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