The
Cortland News, Friday,
March 9, 1883.
Temperance.
The honest temperance men who last fall were induced by the bolters and sore-heads
to throw away their votes on George Waters and thus defeat that true temperance
man, Charles W. Gage, and elect Dr. Nelson to the Assembly, will be satisfied
of the folly of following the advice of the kickers by studying the action of
Dr. Nelson on the whisky question this winter.
THE NEWS
raised the warning cry last fall that the action of the temperance men in
supporting Waters, was tending directly to elect Dr. Nelson, a well known
whisky man, and that his influence and vote would be given to whisky. It is now
proven that THE NEWS was right. The most infamous liquor legislation ever
enacted has been passed this winter by the Democratic party and as we predicted
Dr. Nelson voted for it. What will the Rev. Mr. Putnam say in
justification of his conduct last fall? He professes to have some principle on
the subject.
We do
not appeal to the Clark [publisher William Clark, Cortland Standard--CC editor] tribe. With them it is in vain to speak of principles. They would vote for a law to compel every man
to drink whisky and die a drunkard if they could thereby break "the ring”
and let their ring have place and power. But there are men who were fooled last
fall who will never be fooled again. The advice of the Evening Journal to
temperance men to select temperance candidates from the nominees of the other
parties will be heeded and the shameless conduct of the Cortland Standard in
defeating temperance candidates on the Republican ticket severely condemned. We
have full faith in the sober, sensible, second thought of the solid temperance
men.
The action of a few fanatics egged on by a
lot of political desperadoes in this county has given the temperance cause a
blow from which it will take years to recover. Think of the town of
Cortlandville, with an honest temperance majority of 350, giving a liquor
majority of 230, as a rebuke to the combined hosts of folly and "cussedness."
And yet that is human nature. Let true temperance men learn a lesson from the
past and be more sensible in the future.
 |
| George J. Mager |
From the Watertown
Daily Times.
Lowville has just lost one of her best and most successful business men,
and the village of Cortland fortunately reaps the advantage of his change of
residence and scene of enterprise. Mr. George J. Mager, who entered upon
mercantile pursuits at the former place in 1856 as clerk under Albert G. Dayan
and afterward under Dewitt C. West, and who from 1867 to 1882 was a member of
the firm of Stoddard & Mager, which was one of the most extensive in its
business transactions in Lewis county, has tired of the inactive life
consequent upon the retiring of the firm on sale of their establishment, and is
now opening on another chapter of busy prosecution of trade at the smart little
capital of Cortland county, having purchased the extensive dry goods and carpet
business of Fish & Walrad of that place.
Mr.
Mager, besides winning a fine reputation as an enterprising, prompt and
faithful business man, was a favorite in social circles in Lewis county, and
also figured creditably in newspaper literature. He for some time conducted the
Lowville Journal during the absence of its invalid editor, has been for
some years our local correspondent at Lowville, and occasionally written for our
columns from places abroad. He and his family are commended as well worthy of a
favorable reception at Cortland Village.
From the Lowville
Times.
Mr.
George J. Mager, who, with Mr. A. S. Stoddard, conducted for many years a very
successful business in this village, has just bought of Messrs. Fish &
Walrad, of Cortland, N. Y., their large stock of dry goods and carpets, and
will locate in that village for the purpose of carrying on the mercantile business
as the successor of the above named firm. Mr. Mager has the experience and
ability requisite for doing a large and profitable business, and we have no
doubt but he will meet with the success he deserves in the enterprising village
where he has finally concluded to make his home. We shall be sorry to lose Mr.
Mager from our village, but as he feels it is for his interest to locate
elsewhere we can only regret his departure from us and commend him to the
people of Cortland as an enterprising and honorable business man. Mr. Mager
will sell his house and lot in this village and Mrs. Mager will soon join her
husband in their new home.
CORTLAND AND VICINITY.
Mr.
Glen. A.Tisdale has been elected secretary of Orris Hose Company.
Orris
Hose Company are making preparations to give a grand entertainment in Taylor
Hall in the early part of April next.
M. H.
Kingman, proprietor of Central Hotel, gave his "farewell" hop last evening.
He moves to Cortland.—McGrawville Sentinel.
Mr. Geo. W. Edgcomb has sold his premises on
Washington street to Mr. Peter Strobeck for $2,200. Possession given on the
first of next month.
An
unusually interesting case [habeus corpus] was before Judge Smith all last week, the
particulars of which are sufficiently given in the Judge's opinion published in
this issue.
Thomas
Tillinghast, of Lapeer, has exchanged his farm for that of John S. Winters in
Cortland, and expects to remove there this spring.—Marathon Independent.
In the case of George J. Rice, ex-president of
the U. I. & E. R. R., on trial in New York last week, the jury were unable
to agree, and another trial will be had on the 26th of March.
The
pleasant weather of last Friday and Saturday induced a number of robins to make
their appearance in this section, but the storm of Sunday sent them flying.
They said they were orthodox and must go to a warmer climate.
Col.
William Lyman, a pioneer of Genesee county, and long a merchant of Moscow, Livingston county, died at Chicago [N.
Y.] last Friday at the age of 90. He was a brother of Rev. H. Lyman. The ages
of those of the family who survive range as follows: 93, 92, 80, 79, 76, 74.
Mr.
George J. Mager, successor of Fish & Walrad, introduces himself this week
to the people of Cortland and vicinity, in an advertisement to which we call
attention. We give also selections from papers published where he is well known
which show the regard in which he is held by people of Lowville and Watertown.
A pie
festival will be held by the ladies of the Congregational Society thin
Friday evening at Mahan's building, is the
rooms formerly occupied by the Standard. Pie served in every variety on
the European plan. Supper from 5:30 to lo o'clock. Prices reasonable. Admittance
free. Proceeds to be used for church furnishings.
Some
seventy persons were assembled at the Odd Fellows' banquet at Mineah's Hotel,
last Friday evening. The spread was one of Mineah's best, and gave the greatest
of satisfaction. Wright's orchestra furnished the music at the supper and at
the dance at Firemen's Hall, following the supper, at which some over thirty couples
were present.—Dryden Herald.
A commission to determine the mental condition
of Maurice Galvin, of Truxton, was held on Monday at the office of O. U.
Kellogg, Esq., before Eliot Glover, Esq., and a jury. The verdict of the jury
declared him to be unsound in mind and mentally incapable of governing himself
and of managing his affairs. On application a committee will be appointed by
Judge Smith to take charge of his affairs.
The
lecture by Prof. Hoose, announced for last Monday evening, was postponed until
Friday. His subject was "Evolution of the Institution of Marriage among
Primitive Peoples." The accumulation of curious facts showed deep and
extensive research. His arguments and conclusions, his interpolations and
comparisons were fruitful sources of mirth. Underlying it all was the evidence
of how much learning on any remote subject may be gathered by a careful reader
of history.—Pompey Cor., Syr. Journal.
Nearly one-half the report of the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction is taken up with a history of the Cortland
Normal School controversy which gave to Gilmour a very unenviable notoriety.
This and other aspects of the report may be referred to at another time. As a
whole, the report seems to afford evidence that Mr. Gilmour is conscious that
his term is near its end. The comparative tables are interesting, and the
subject of teachers' institutes is discussed with tolerable fullness, and an
appendix is to be published giving in detail this work. Some important
information is also given, relative to the Normal Schools, but otherwise the
report is perfectly barren and almost without suggestion or recommendation. It is indeed shown that the schools suffer
most from parsimony in the provision made by the state; in the inadequate
compensation paid to teachers and other school officers; but that is all. Syracuse Journal.
Too
much of Superintendent Gilmour’s report was taken up with a rehash of his
controversy with the trustees of the Cortland Normal school, in which happily
the superintendent was beaten by the court of appeals. This is an issue the
people do not care to have re-opened, and although the superintendent pleads
for a larger measure of power in supervising the Normal schools, the
legislature is not at all likely to grant it to him. Watertown Times.
After starting from Cortland to Mc Grawville, four teams in succession
had the misfortune to tip over within the corporation limits of Cortland
village, one day last week, owing to the miserable condition of the road. This
don't speak in praise of some of the officers of the town nor add to the wonted
praise of Cortland's industry.—McGrawville Sentinel. We had heard that
four sleighs were tipped over and the
occupants (residents of McGrawville and crazy
drunk) thrown out. You see the driver of the head team drove into the ditch by
the roadside, and the others were too much
muddled to know better than to follow their
leader. The parties should have drunk only
McGrawville whisky, as Cortland whisky has too
much lightning in it for weak-brained people, and the misfortune was doubtless owing more "to the miserable condition" of the
liquor than "of the road.” Advise your readers,
Mr. Sentinel, not to drink Cortland
whisky.
Tuesday and Wednesday were two unusually cold blustering winter days.
The Temperance Men and Dr. Nelson.
Those
extreme temperance reformers, who last fall placed separate tickets in the field
for Members of Assembly, and succeeded thereby, in most instances, in defeating
the Republican nominees and electing the Democratic candidates, are just now realizing
the practical result of their work. Last week the most sweeping and obnoxious
license law that was ever enacted in this State, passed the Assembly, and will undoubtedly pass the Senate
and be signed by the Governor.
Instead
of prohibition we are to have unlimited license. Instead of restrictive license
laws, we are to have a law that will place a saloon in every quiet neighborhood
and a dram-shop at every man's door. The license for a saloon on Railroad
avenue will enable its holder to set up business alongside the most respectable
dwelling on Church street. A commission to sell the ardent in Elmira allows the
recipient thereof to sell it anywhere in the city, and you cannot legally
object. He can move as often as he likes and set up shop where he pleases. He
may have a gilded palace, a mere hovel, or a wheelbarrow and a jug, it is all
the same. "He pays his money and takes his choice." The law protects
him, his trade is legitimate, and you have no redress.
Section
one empowers the commissioners of excise to grant licenses for sale of liquor
"to be drank on the premises," whether they be or are not inns, hotels
or taverns. At present the licensed places must contain accommodations for
travelers and their beasts.
Section
two makes the license attach to the liquor dealer instead of to his store, so
that he can remove his place of business anywhere within the jurisdiction of the
commissioners without renewing his license.
Section
three forbids arrests for violation of the law otherwise than upon a warrant,
except between the hours of 1 o'clock in the morning and 12 o'clock midnight,
on Sundays. Even then the violation must have been in the presence of the
person making the arrest.
Section
four provides that no city of this State shall hereafter be subject to any
provisions of the sixth section of the act, chapter 628, of the laws of 1857,
which required the applicant for a license to be of good moral character; that
he had the necessary accommodations to entertain travelers at the place where
he proposed to keep an inn, hotel or tavern; and that no such license should be
granted except on the petition of not less than twenty respectable freeholders,
and not then unless in the opinion of the commissioners such inn, tavern or
hotel was necessary and proper.
The
bill passed the assembly by a vote of ayes seventy-one and nays thirty-nine. Sixty-three Democrats and eight Republicans
voted for it. Twenty-three Republicans and sixteen Democrats voted against it.—Elmira
Advertiser.
The foregoing description of the Democratic license
bill which lately passed the Assembly ought to cause temperance men and all
lovers of good order and morality to pause in astonishment, particularly those
in Cortland county who were last fall hoodwinked by the Standard Ring
into voting against a consistent temperance man like Mr. Gage, of Homer, the
Republican candidate for Member of Assembly.
It
appears above that 110 votes were cast on the passage of the bill and that sixty-three
Democrats — seven more than the necessary majority of all the votes cast—voted
for it. Dr. J. C. Nelson, the member from Cortland county, was
one of the sixty three who voted for it.
The Standard
Ring was last fall very vociferous in its efforts to have temperance men
vote for Geo. Waters, and "principle," and even imported the
bummer, "Prof. Dixon," from the Pyramids of Egypt or elsewhere, at
great expense, to help the work along. They knew that every vote they got for
Waters was one taken from Mr. Gage, and helped so much to increase Dr. Nelson's
chances. Since the election the Boss of that Ring has substantially announced himself
to be the keeper of Dr. Nelson's conscience--the power behind the throne—which
of itself would be proof enough, if any were needed, of the demagoguery of his
temperance or moral professions.
No
Republican member from this county ever voted with the liquor men on temperance
questions and Hon. A. A. Carley two years ago voted with the temperance men on
the excise bills then before the Legislature. The following fall the Standard
Ring unsuccessfully tried to defeat Mr. Carley and elect Dr. Nelson, by
interposing Dr. Bolles as a so-called temperance candidate, in the interest of
Dr. Nelson and the free whisky men.
George J. Mager (Grip’s, pages 174-175): http://tcpl.org/local-history/documents/county-history-CNY/Grips_of_Cortland/grips172to187.pdf
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