LIFE IMPRISONMENT

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, November 8, 1895.

LIFE IMPRISONMENT.

Mrs. Kellar Sentenced to Auburn Prison.

THE WOMAN BREAKS DOWN.

Sobs Hysterically After Hearing Sentence Pronounced by Justice McLennan.

   OSWEGO, Oct. 31.—Mrs. Harriet E. Kellar, who was found guilty last night of murder in the second degree for the killing of Albert Kempthorne, was sentenced by Justice McLennon for life imprisonment in the state prison for women at Auburn, N. Y.

    When sentence was moved Mrs. Kellar was called to the clerk's desk and in answer to the usual questions said: "My name is Harriet E. Kellar. I am 40 years old. I was born in North Scriba, Oswego county; my residence is New Haven; am a housekeeper by occupation; have been married and am a widow; have had a common school education; am temperate; have never been convicted before of any offence; have received religious instruction and am a Baptist."

   Justice McLennan said that the court had no discretion in the matter, since the punishment for the crime for which the defendant stands convicted is fixed by law. "I suggest that in the years during which you may be confined that you will come to think that the jury took the most lenient view of the evidence against you. I don't think I have anything further to say. The sentence of the court is that you be confined in the state's prison for women at Auburn for life."

   Mrs. Kellar stood with her face buried in her handkerchief and her frame shaking with half-suppressed sobs. As the last words of the sentence were pronounced she seemed to totter, and Mr. Mead put his arm around her waist to assist her back to the chair. His touch seemed to recall her and as she stepped quickly in the direction of her seat she cried in hysterical passion: "I think I have had it hard enough for killing that brute."

   Mrs. Kellar then resumed her seat, sobbing violently. Her sister, brother and three sons all sat around her sobbing and crying. The scene was very affecting and several ladies who had been ushered into the court room cried for pity.

   As she was leaving the court room with Deputy Cornish she again broke out in a frenzy of despair: "My God, I think I have been punished enough for that brute."

A CORTLAND BOY

BECOMES TOLEDO'S CHIEF-OF-POLICE.

His Exciting Experiences—Cowboy, Miner, Pinkerton Agent and Private Detective.

(From the New York Morning Journal, Nov. 6, 1895.)

   The life story of Edward E. Morse, who now lies in the surgical ward in Bellevue Hospital suffering from ulceration of bullet wounds, is a theme worthy of Gaboriau. Born in 1850 on a farm in Cortland county, N. Y., this man has been in turn cowboy, miner, chief-of-police, Pinkerton agent and private detective.

   Physically a giant in strength, six feet three inches in height and weighing 360 pounds, Morse has always been a unique figure, whatever his environments. He is possessed of a roving disposition, and drifted at the age of sixteen to Three Rivers, Mich.

   In 1874 Morse joined the Toledo police force, being promoted from time to time, until finally in 1882, he was appointed Chief of the department. The lake front had always been an eyesore to Chief Morse, and he at once turned his attention to the thieves and smugglers who infested it. He gained local prominence by the capture of a gang which had for years harassed the vessels which docked at Wilkes Point.

CALLED TO BUFFALO.

   This work having been brought to the attention of Buffalo shippers and lake captains,  Morse was called to that city.

   With the assistance of a number of picked men from the Buffalo police force, Morse was just on the eve of breaking up a gang when he was waylaid, robbed and left for dead in the hold of a coal barge at the Lake Shore Railroad docks. A bunch the size of a robin's egg on his head and an ugly scar three inches long behind his left ear remain as mementos of this adventure.

   After Morse left the hospital he joined, as their foreman, a party of laborers who were under contract with the Northern Pacific during the completion of the Western end of that railroad. In 1886 Morse joined an industrial expedition composed of eighty capitalists bound for Southern Mexico, then the EI Dorado of North America.

BESET BY HORSE THIEVES.

   Shortly after the arrival of the party on the Rio Grande they were beset by a gang of horse thieves, and it was while resisting an attack from the latter that Morse received the wounds which are the cause of his present trouble. Morse returned to Chicago on the eve of the great stock yard strike of 1887. He immediately joined the Pinkerton forces, and remained with them for three months after the strike was over.

   San Francisco was the scene of Morse's next adventures. While there he entered the employ of the Emporer Mining Company as private detective in their extensive smelting works in Grass Valley. Leaving the mining company in 1892, he went to the Sandwich Islands for Spreckles, the sugar king.

   In September of this year Morse reached New York on a steamship of the Pacific Mail Line. An unfortunate fall down a flight of stone steps in Jersey City brought on an inflammation of the old bullet wounds in his leg, which soon resulted in ulceration.

   Friendless and without money, Morse applied for treatment Monday night at the Hudson Street Hospital, and after remaining there over night was taken yesterday morning to Bellevue.

The McGraw-Fiske Mansion Sold.

   ITHACA, Nov. 4.—A contract was signed here to-night by Prof. Willard Fiske and John C. Gauntlett, representing their own interests and those of the Jennie McGraw Fiske heirs and by Edward E. Wyckoff, representing the Chi Psi Chapter at Cornell by which the Chapter named purchases the famous McGraw-Fiske mansion, and about five acres of ground for $45,000.

   It is believed that this purchase gives the Chi Psi's the handsomest chapter house in this country. The mansion cost more than $120,000 and $20,000 was paid to F. C. Cornell for the twenty acres included in the original site. The mansion has never been occupied save by a caretaker. Mrs. Fiske caused it to be built while she was in Europe and did not live long enough after her return to Ithaca to occupy it or even enter it alive. Her funeral was, however, held in it. The mansion is a very beautiful structure.

THE E. & C. N. Y. R. R.

THE NEW BRIDGE NEARLY COMPLETED.

Ballasting the Road—Nearly Ready to Commence Laying Track.

   The bridge over the Tioughnioga river on the Erie & Central N. Y. road is nearly completed and if the lumber arrives to-day, it will be finished inside of twenty-four hours. The timbers were delivered the first of the week, but as nine of them were defective they were thrown out and the contractor promised to deliver sound ones to replace them yesterday. They will probably arrive this morning. They are 8x16 by twenty-eight feet in length and the contractor has experienced considerable difficulty in finding trees that will furnish perfect sticks. When they arrive the bridge can easily be finished in a day. The track is laid nearly across the bridge now.

   A gang of Italians are at work ballasting the track between the E. C. & N. tracks and the new bridge so as to be ready for trains when the bridge is finished. Tracklaying will commence as soon as the bridge is finished and a construction train will follow carrying ties and rails and other supplies to the tracklayers.

A Farmer's Discovery.

   NORWICH, NOV. 4.—The remains of an unknown man was found in a piece of woods north of this village late yesterday afternoon. Stephen Titus, who made the discovery, supposed at first that the man was asleep, but upon making a closer investigation found him to be dead. Coroner Fernalld [sic], who was notified, had the body removed to Lawrence's undertaking rooms. No one can identify the remains. The man was well dressed in a dark blue double breasted coat and vest, brown pants, heavy shoes, colored shirt and black slouch hat. He wore a suit of warm gray underwear. He was evidently about 70 years of age, and his hair and closely cropped beard was snowy white. He was about six feet tall and well built and would probably weigh 160 pounds. In the dead man's pockets was found an empty pocket book, a knife, a pair of spectacles and an empty morphine bottle.

Grover Cleveland.

WASHINGTON LETTER.

(From Our Regular Correspondent.)

   WASHINGTON, NOV. 4, 1895.—The distinguished war prophets who have been on the rampage in New England, Washington, and other parts of the country should bare their heads and lock their jaws for a while. Instead of the red-handed ultimatum, demanding that we should either abandon the Monroe doctrine or fight, which these self-made prophets have declared was in the course of preparation by England, the English Ambassador has, through Secretary Olney, approached President Cleveland with an olive branch in the shape of a proposition that the United States should form an alliance with England for the protection of English and American citizens and interests in Turkey. True, this proposition has nothing directly to do with the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine in Venezuela, which has inspired all the war prophecies, but even a school boy can see that England would not be asking an alliance with a country that she soon expected to be at war with. Whether President Cleveland sees fit to accept this alliance or not the fact that it has been asked for should be sufficient to cause Senator Chandler and Hon. Don. M. Dickinson to stop sitting up nights to prevent Canada sneaking New Hampshire and Michigan away from us. Notwithstanding President Cleveland's known aversion to "entangling foreign alliances" the impression among those who ought to know is that he will accept this invitation to act jointly with England in protecting English and American citizens in Turkey, owing to the threatening aspect of affairs in that country.

   The Bath iron works, of Bath, Maine, the builders of the Ammen and Katahdin, are in a hole, so to speak. The naval trial board has reported to Secretary Herbert that the vessel fell below the speed required on her trial trip. According to the contract the vessel now stands rejected. The ground is taken by some naval officials that unless Congress comes to their release, the Bath iron works will have to sell the Katahdin wherever they can. But the matter is complicated by the fact that about $700,000 worth of armor belonging to the U. S. is on the vessel. No official action has yet been taken by Secretary Herbert. It is the belief that he will gladly accept the vessel if any legal way of doing so can be found.

   Attorney General Harmon is still getting letters from lawyers and business men in Indian Territory, endorsing Judge Kilgore and the manner in which he has conducted the business of the U. S. Court which he presides over in that territory. Judge Kilgore's answer to the charges made against him by Mr. Davis has been in the hands of Attorney General Harmon for nearly a week, and the impression is general that the explanation will be satisfactory as far as the Department of Justice is concerned, but it is understood that Mr. Davis will use the same charges to try to prevent the confirmation of Judge Kilgore's nomination by the Senate

   Senator Harris, of Tennessee, president pro tem of the Senate, is confident that the republicans will not control the Senate during the fifty-fourth Congress. Speaking of changes that must necessarily be made, he said: "I am in favor of the two parties appointing committees which shall meet and agree upon a just and equitable organization of the Senate with a view of conducting the business of the body properly. The vacancies on committees must be filled and the new Senators must be assigned to committee places. I would have the organization do full justice to the [populist] party, but I am not in favor of making a combination with the [populist] party, for the control of the Senate, by which their demands are to be met. I do not think the republican Senators will be willing to make such a combination. In a Senate where no party has a majority it is right and sensible for the two dominant parties, in fact for the Senate itself, to agree upon an organization just and equitable to all, and that I am confident the Senate will do in a manner creditable to itself as a legislative body."

   The attention of those who are suffering with the Cuban recognition colic is respectfully called to the following weighty words of Hon. John T Morgan, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations: "Any recognition of belligerency on our part would result in causing our merchant vessels to be subjected to search, and that would give a great deal of anxiety and trouble, and there is no doubt that eventually such a course would result in a war between the United States and Spain. It may as well be understood that when we recognize the belligerency of the Cubans we should draw the sword." Senator Morgan thinks that if the United States wants Cuba it ought to go about getting it in an open and manly way, not by provoking war with a comparatively weak power like Spain, but by offering to purchase the island.

NEIGHBORING COUNTIES.

   CHENANGO—The dwelling house of Charles Tarble, Smithville, was totally destroyed by fire Monday.

   The Bainbridge Republican which has been published semi-weekly for the past eighteen months will be changed back into a weekly with its next issue.

   The old bridge across Canasawacta creek at Norwich succumbed to the elements one day last week. It was quite a historical place, being built way back in the twenties. Very fortunately no one was crossing the bridge at the time it collapsed.

   Oxford wasn't in it with Norwich in the game of foot ball at the Driving Park on Saturday. The visitors were light and with two or three exceptions were not very familiar with the game. The home team did not play with its usual vim and the kicking for goals was wretched. The score was 52 to 0 in favor of Norwich.

   Mame Bliven and John Drew, cousins of McDonough, started Saturday morning to walk to Binghamton for a wager of $25 a side, the winner to take the money. It was to be a heel and toe walk all the way, with no running. They covered the distance in seven hours, Drew winning by a few feet. Miss Bliven says that Drew ran part of the way. Both of the parties are well known in Norwich.

   Railroad rumors are numerous in Chenango county. The Otselic Gazette, as announced  last week, predicts the building of a railroad to Otselic within the year, and now the New Berlin Gazette, not content with the Unadilla Valley road says that New Berlin is to have a direct route to Oneonta. The original route for the road was from Oneonta to Oneida but it is said Oneida has been abandoned as a terminal point and New Berlin selected in its place. This will bring the road through the village of Morris and make a connection with the Unadilla Valley road at New Berlin.

   TOMPKINS— The night school of the Ithaca Y. M. C. A. will soon be opened.

   Ithaca has a football team which is named "Aristocracy."

   The proprietors of the Ithaca Daily News offer their paper for sale.

   Last week a large consignment of dried tea from C. W. Conger & Co. of Groton went to Germany.

   It is said that six umbrellas were stolen last Sunday eveniug, at the First Baptist church, Ithaca.

   The fine pair of horses owned by J. G. Beach of Groton were sold by him the early part of the week to Mrs. McGraw of Ithaca. Consideration, $500.

   Daniel Lane of North Lansing had 456 barrels of apples from his orchard of four and a half acres. In addition he had enough for his winter use and a quantity for cider.

   Professor Rowlee of Ithaca has in his possession a portion of the trunk of an oak tree found at a depth of thirteen feet in a sewer trench in the lower part of the city. Although it is estimated that the wood was buried perhaps a thousand years, it is in a fair state of preservation and retains much of its original toughness of fibre. A piece of red cedar excavated from the same depth is much better preserved than the oak.—Ithaca Journal.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.

How It Looks.

   The slump caught the democratic party in this county last Tuesday as well as in most other parts of the country. There are many reasons why the democrats were so badly worsted. The most prominent reason was because they did not vote. The democrats of this county cast only 1611 votes last Tuesday against 3163 in 1888, in 1891 they cast 2886, in 1992 they cast 2906 and in 1894 they cast 2457. In 1888 the issue was squarely between the two parties and the democratic vote was undoubtedly all out that year. If there were 3163 democratic voters in the county in 1888 it is fair to presume there are that many in the county now. If so, it would indicate that about 1398 democrats failed to vote this year, which is to say the least quite remarkable.

   If the republican vote had increased it would show that perhaps some of these democrats had gone over to them, but that party cast a light vote. In 1888 they cast 4732 votes, in 1891 they cast 3984, in 1892 they cast 4134 and in 1894 they cast 4272. Last Tuesday they cast only 3740 votes.

   The fact that we had no candidates for Judge of the Supreme Court, for Senator and for County Judge worked against the ticket. There was only one candidate on the county ticket of any importance and this was not enough to stir the democrats up to go to the polls. There was no local excitement and no local enthusiasm and none could be aroused. It kills all interest in the ticket to endorse the candidates of other parties as well as to allow the nominations to go by default.

   It is also charged that some democrats voted the straight republican ticket in certain localities in revenge for some fancied injuries. If this is true we can hardly see where any satisfaction can come of such action.

   Too much credit cannot be given to chairman Rowley for his efforts in behalf of the ticket. He worked early and late and no man in the county could have done more than he did. The slump could not be avoided. He saw it in advance and did what he could to prevent it. With a good local ticket in the field the result would have been different. The committee did its level best this year to secure candidates but they were not to be had. Next year we must thresh the mountains as well as the valleys with the enemy. They will be flushed with victory and will be an easy mark. "Pride often goeth before a fall."

   All is not lovely in the ranks of the Cortland g. o. p. Two or three days since the Standard contained an article signed by Dr. E. M. Santee, announcing the fact that a republican organization had been perfected in the several election districts of the town, and that officers of these several organizations had been chosen and that the whole was to be governed by a grand central organization with headquarters in H. L. Branson's office, with that gentleman as head centre of the whole.

   At first it was suspected that the umquenchable and ambitious doctor had organized a party of his own with the idea of controlling nominations himself in the future, but it was very soon discovered that there were other and able heads behind the little doctor, and that he was simply selected to do the fuss work on parade. It is now charged that the real parties in interest are H. L. Bronson, R. T. Peck, C. T. Peck, "Nate" Miller, "Dick Duell," "Shell'' Bull and other lesser lights of what is called the Peck faction of the party. It is charged that the meetings were attended by only a select few in order that the faction named might select the officers they wanted without opposition. Those who were wanted were notified either personally or by postal card of the time and place of meeting and of course they had everything their own way. Five or six members of the other faction were elected to office, simply to have things look fair, but there are not enough of them to cut any figure whatever.

   The Clark-Mantanye faction of the party resent this movement to corral the party and deliver it, bound hand and foot, into the hands of Bronson & Co. It must be admitted that it would be advantageous to the Peck-Bronson faction to have the new organization succeed as with it the party would not be able to breathe when its owners refused to pump the bellows. The other faction claims that with this organization the Bronson party can not only control but command every nomination in the party for all time to come.

HERE AND THERE.

   The works of the Cortland Forging Co. are running day and night.

   The Normal Juniors meet the Ithaca Grammar school team on the fair grounds in this place to-morrow afternoon.

   The Central school boys defeated the Dryden team at football at the latter place last Saturday by a score of 8 to 4.

   The case of the People vs. Frank Bates, charged with selling liquor without a license, was tried last Thursday and resulted in a disagreement of the jury.

   The Normals beat the Whitney Point team at football last Saturday by a score of 23 to 0. This is said to be the first time the Whitney Point team has been beaten this year.

   The Clionians and the Gamma Sigmas of the Cortland Normal will present Howell's play "The Unexpected Guest" in McGrawville hall, Friday evening, Nov. 8. Later: It has been postponed.

   The new highway from Port Watson-st. to a point a little north of Hon. O. U. Kellogg farm residence has been opened to the public and the old road down the river side has been closed.

   The electric cars for McGrawville now start from the Messenger House corner instead of the Cortland House as formerly. The car leaves Cortland on the even hours and McGrawville on the half hours.

   Miss Mary Hooker entertained a number of her lady friends at her home on Tompkins-st. last Saturday afternoon from 2:30 to 6 o'clock. Duplicate whist was played and choice refreshments were handsomely served.

   Regular meeting of the W. C. T. U. on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 2:30 P. M. Reports from National Convention will be given and business of importance will also come before the union. Let there be a large attendance.

   The young people of Grace church will give a comic opera Dec. 16, 17 and 18. It will be the old favorite, "Mikado" and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dixie of New York will have personal supervision of the presentation.

   Some of the drawers belonging to Postmaster Wilson's safe, which was recently robbed and destroyed by burglars at Marathon, were found in an old hay barn on the side hill 2 miles north of that village one day last week. Some papers of value to Mr. Wilson were also recovered.

   Mrs. Florence Foster of Hunts Corners sends to this office a curiosity in the form of a cluster of 30 or 40 ripe field strawberries picked by her on November 4, 1895.  They look as fresh and tempting as did others last June, and are another testimony to the wonderful season we have had in 1895.—Marathon Independent.

   The offices of the Erie & Central N. Y. Railroad Co. have been moved from the Keator block to rooms in the third story of the First National bank building. Mr. J. Seaman Bull of this place has been appointed general manager of the road. Mr. Bull is an active business man and the appointment is a good one. The office has been connected with the long distance telephone.

   The Cortland & Homer Traction Co. commenced carrying freight from the D. L. & W. station over their road to McGrawville last Saturday. The first carried was a carload of lime for the McGraw Corset Co. We understand the trustees will not interfere with the traffic, but there is some talk of parties who live on the line of the road commencing proceedings against the company.