Frog Legs, and Letter from Vacationing County Judge A. P. Smith

Taylor Hall, west side of Main Street between Orchard and Court Streets. Fire destroyed the upper floors in 1960.

The Cortland News, Friday, July 20, 1883.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   Mr. D. E. Kinney has bought the livery stable on Groton avenue.

   Glen Haven this summer is more crowded than ever, over a hundred guests staying there at this writing.

   Railroad street has never been in such excellent condition as now. Commissioner Davern has done a good work there in grading.

   Saturday forenoon last the employes of the Syracuse & Binghamton R. R. Co. were paid, the pay car being attached to the 8:41 accommodation train.

   Mr. S. M. Benjamin has just received one of the handsomest monuments of the most beautiful marble we have ever seen. It is from Lepanto, Greece, and is a gem worth going to see.

   Mr. Jacob Sanders, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Homer, died in that village on Tuesday, the 10th inst., at the age of 84 years. He was the father of our townsman, Mr. Delos Sanders.

   Mr. E. A. Fish, real estate agent, has sold the desirable property, corner of Port Watson and Pomeroy streets, to Col. Frank Place for a permanent residence. We congratulate the Colonel on having a good thing.

   The widow of Mr. John Malmberg sold her furniture and effects at auction last Saturday and with her son Hjalmar will return to the home of her youth in Sweden. Many of the articles sold were ancient and the bidding among antiquarians and curiosity seekers was quite lively.

   Mr. E. D. Mallery has bought of Mr. Warren Whitney the house on the north-east corner of Groton avenue and Adams street [Homer Avenue] and is placing it on one of the lots lately bought by him of Messrs. Fish & Walrad. On the lot thus vacated Mr. Whitney has begun the erection of a house.

   Messrs. Will Smith and Eugene Snyder have sold half of the lots laid out by them on the Smith purchase, and still have some of the best lots for sale. Parties wishing to buy can consult these gentlemen at the undertaking warerooms of Mr. R. B. Fletcher in the Barber block on Groton avenue.

   Owing to the fact that the extension of Taylor Hall from the second floor up over the alley in the rear would shut the light from Mr. D. F. Wallace's bindery, that plan for enlarging the Hall has been abandoned. But the owners have not decided to let the Hall remain in its present condition, the Standard to the contrary notwithstanding. They have under consideration other plans for the enlargement and improvement of Taylor Hall, of which the one most feasible will be made known in due time.

   What might have been a serious accident occurred last Monday noon near the Elm street entrance to Hitchcock's wagon factory. A horse driven by two young ladies became frightened at a passing train and whirling about threw the ladies out and turned the buggy over upon them. By the timely and prompt action of a clerk of one of our banks the horse was held in check until men from the factory secured it. The young ladies probably thank themselves (for the clerk was not thanked) that it was no worse.

   On Fourth of July night a goodly display of fireworks was made in the space between the Messenger House, Standard building, etc., the cost of which—about fifty dollars—was made up by the business men of the vicinity. Of this amount less than a tenth was contributed by the occupants of the Standard building and not a penny by Clark, and yet the Standard, in its account of the Fourth's doings, arrogated the whole thing to that building, of course greatly to the disgust of the movers in the affair. But the Standard is nothing if not cheeky.

   The Board of Education held a meeting Monday evening and made the following appointments for teachers: School No. 1 (cobble-stone), Misses May E. Knapp and E. F. Austin; No. 2, South Church street, not determined; No. 3 Port Watson, Miss Alice E. Burdick; No. 4, Owego and Park streets, Misses Adalenah Robison and Louise Street; No. 5, Schermerhorn street, the Misses H. L. Myers. The Board have purchased the desks and furniture and everything will be in readiness for the opening of the school on Wednesday, Sept. 5. The above appointments are all excellent, and we feel confident that we shall have the satisfaction of recording successful management and prosperous schools.

   On Wednesday Messrs. Ed. Keator, James Schermerhorn, J. F. Wilson and Horace Bronson, Esq., made things lively for the fish in Otisco lake. The "big" catch is recorded against Mr. Schermerhorn, it being a four-pound pickerel.

   In acceptance of an invitation from Mr. M. R. Smith, of the Messenger House, the Homer Cornet Band last Saturday evening occupied a platform erected at the corner of the hotel and played several of their choicest pieces of music. It was listened to by a large crowd which gathered in the vicinity, who showed their appreciation of the enjoyable treat by vigorous applause.

   The Cortland Wagon Company have bought a [water pump] steamer for their own use. It is of the piston style, and has been used by the city of Buffalo, but being too heavy for the quick time necessary to be made, the city sold it to the Wagon Co. It has been recently thoroughly overhauled, is in first-class condition, and is ready for shipment at the order of the Company, who will put up a building for its reception The negotiation was conducted through the La France Steamer Manufacturing Company, of Elmira.

   W. H. Clark, editor of the Cortland Standard, has been presented with a pair of extra legs. They are frogs' legs, and he says they are good ones. These ought to help him wonderfully in the game of leap-frog which he sometimes plays with the editor of the NEWS of that village. — Moravia Republican. You see, the party sending those legs to Clark had two objects in view. One was to show appreciation of his ability as a political jumping-jack. The other was in recognition of the principle that "every part strengthens a part," and as Clark fell short every time he undertook to leap over the editor of THE NEWS, the donor thought with you that the frogs' legs would "help him wonderfully." It was slightly "sarkustic" as Artemus Ward would say, but as that No. 5 hat covers a rather obtuse intellect, Clark didn't see the point and so took the joke in dead earnest. Oh, we have lots of fun with him, and it is all the more enjoyable, because, as the Irish say, he is so "innocent."

   In the afternoon of Saturday, July 14, 1883, Hon. George H. Arnold, who for several weeks had been suffering from an attack of typhoid pneumonia complicated with typhoid fever, died at his residence on Monroe Heights. Mr. Arnold was born in Truxton in 1839, where for many years he was engaged in the drug business. At the breaking out of the war he enlisted in the 44th regiment or Ellsworth's Avengers, as representative from Tully, where at that time he resided. He served three years in the army and received an honorable discharge. In 1871, after a partnership of a year or so with Mr. Tisdale in the Cortland Flouring Mills, he bought a half interest in the drug store then owned by Mr. Isaac W. Brown in Taylor Hall block, and two years later became sole owner. In 1879 he represented this county in the Legislature, having been nominated by the Greenbackers and indorsed by the Democrats. He disposed of his drug business to Messrs. Barney & Johnson in the spring of 1882, and from the summer following to the time of his illness was connected with the Cortland Omnibus Co. Mr. Arnold was a genial, companionable gentleman and a straightforward business man.

   One of the best kept and most popular hotels in this section of the State is the Cortland House in our lively neighboring village of this name. The proprietor, Mr. Delos Bauder, is a genial and experienced host.—Ithaca Dem.

Letter from Judge Smith.

Hotel Manisses, Block Island, R. I., July 15, 1883.

Editor, Cortland News:

   It you place your finger on the map about equidistant from Montauk Point, on Long Island, New London, Conn., and Point Judith, Rhode Island, it will rest upon a little speck called Block Island. It seems insignificant and never impresses even the inquiring and impressive mind of youth. On this Island we have now spent sufficient time to comply with your request to tell you something about it. From what we had heard of the Island and its appearance on the map, we were prepared to see a little rocky elevation above the water just large enough for one hotel and possibly a little lawn about it. Instead, we find an island nine miles long and about four miles wide, with a farming population of over 1,200, three or four hundred well tilled farms and about 300 miles of high stone wall. The houses, though old in style, shingled on the sides as well as roofs, are kept neatly painted, and we find here a little nation by itself.

   It is said that there are aged persons on the Island who were born here and have never been upon the main-land.

   As fifteen of us rode the other day to the northern lighthouse we passed a couple of mills where the grain of the island is ground for the inhabitants. They are none of your modern inventions run by steam, nor by the earlier appliances of water power, but the long arms and immense fans of the wind-mill, recall an age and a people which live almost alone in history. And this calls me to point out right here one of the chief attractions of this beautiful, sea-girt island, and that is its wind. There is scarcely a moment of day or night that we do not enjoy a breeze. None of your hot, sweltering land breezes that make us "land lubbers" seek our cellars for protection in summer, but a cool, invigorating sea-breeze filled with life and health and as agreeable as it is healthful.

   The poet Whittier long ago in speaking of this island did it better justice than I can hope to do. He says:

 "There is that lovely island fair;

And the pale health-seeker findeth there

The wine of life in its pleasant air.

No greener valleys the sun invite.

On smoother branches no sea-birds light,

No blue waves shatter to foam more white."

   R. T. Dana beautifully and truthfully says of it:

"The island lies nine leagues away,

Along its solitary shore,

Of craggy rock and sandy bay,

No sound but ocean's roar,

Save where the bold, wild sea-bird makes her home,

Her shrill cry coming through the sparkling foam.

But when the light winds lie at rest.

And on the glassy, heaving sea,

The black duck with her glossy breast,

Sits swinging silently—

How beautiful! no ripples break the reach,

And silvery waves go noiseless up the beach."

   I only regret that Whittier and Dana did not go in bathing and in their faithful verse describe the scene, sensation and effects. I have visited and bathed at Coney Island, Far Rockaway, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Long Branch, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Holmes' Hole, and thought I had seen most excellent sea-bathing, but I never before saw such perfect surf-bathing as for the last week I have experienced here, and the hour of the day is 10 to 11 A. M., when everybody—men, women and children, wend their way to the bath-houses at the beach and vie with each other in their struggles with the wild "white-caps" of the ocean itself.

   "There's life and health in every drop," and by careful estimate there are lots of drops in the ocean. We bathe on the east side of the island where the eye may sweep the horizon and see no land but that of this island. Far off to the east lie No Man's Land, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, but too far for human vision to reach. To the north may be observed a faint outline, which the experienced resident announces to be the main-land, while to the south and east is the ever restless and boundless expanse of old ocean. We feel here as though we were a nation by ourselves, and were it not for the daily arrival of the steamers Block Island from New London, and Danielson from Newport, bringing fresh arrivals, we should soon set up for ourselves and tax every foreigner who should venture here to breathe the ozone of our pure atmosphere.

   By the way, if this letter were not getting too long I would like to write of the peculiar characteristics of the air, the people, the island and their history. But, "brevity is wit," or rather, generally "the briefer the wittier," and so I forego. Let me say, however, that of all the places I ever visited, I think Block Island is the most desirable for the overworked brain and enfeebled body. There is something about the air which cannot be described but which must be felt to be appreciated. At all other watering places, whether inland or at the sea-shore, there are hot and debilitating land breezes. Here we never get them. It is cool all the time, not cold. It is not necessary to wear an overcoat, but just cool and refreshing.

   You may choose any of a dozen hotels from the Ocean View, with its harbor front of 350 feet of piazza, besides its annex; the Manisses, with its ornamental gardens, croquet and tennis grounds; the Surf House, jutting out over the ocean; and everywhere you feast your eyes upon the broad expanse of "ocean blue" and listen to the roar of the surf upon the beach, while Boreas continually fans you with the invigorating ocean breezes. When you add to this the splendid fishing and bathing, is it any wonder that "Block Island" is growing in favor and that yearly the number of patients sent here by physicians is increasing?

   I go fishing for sword-fish to-morrow morning at five, and may tell you about it—if we catch any.

Yours, S.