CUPID IN CORTLAND AND FRANK PECK'S POEM

The Cortland News, Friday, December 28, 1883.

Cupid in Cortland.

   In this village, on Saturday, December 22, inst., at 5 P. M., Mr. E. M.

Santee was united in the bonds of "lawful, awful joyful" wedlock to Miss Beulah H. Barber, only daughter of John S. Barber, Esq., one of Cortland's solid, best-known lawyers. Mr. Santee came to this place about two years ago from Hughesville, Pa., and rapidly acquired a reputation as one of the pluckiest, most just, yet generous business boys Cortland has ever known.

   A resident of this place during her life-time, Miss Barber ranks among the fairest and most accomplished, and at the same time amiable and unostentatious of Cortland's fair daughters. If there is anything in life to live for they have it, and we sincerely hope and firmly believe that their marriage life will be a direct contradiction of Rochefoucauld's maxim: "There may be good; but there are no happy marriages."

   The wedding was private, no cards or invitations of any kind were issued, and when the guests assembled on that evening to celebrate Mr. and Mrs. Barber's thirty-sixth anniversary, they were surprised at being presented to Mrs. E. M. Santee.

“I saw two clouds at early dawn.

Tinged with the rising sun.

And in the morn they floated on,

And blended into one."

Poem by Frank S. Peck.

   [The following poem, by Frank S. Peck, who is no doubt well remembered as a student of the Normal School three years ago and originator of The Normal News, and on account of failing health was obliged to leave, and died in a hotel in the Adirondacks, June 22,1881, will be read with interest by his many friends. It is believed that the beautiful and prophetic poem was the last of his writings.—Ed., THE NEWS.]

When the sunset's bars of crimson

Fall athwart my chamber floor;

When the voices of the night-wind,

From some wild, storm-beaten shore,

Chant their song of love and longings,

That I’ve heard so oft before;

When the evening shades surround me,

And like spectres grim and tall

Hover in some gloomy recess,

Where the half-transparent fall

Of lace curtains mystic outlines

Weirdly casts upon the wall;

When the silence of the midnight

Deeper grows; and deeper still

Falls the darkness like a mantle

Hiding river, lake and hill,

Quenching in its folds of sable

E'en the nightingales sad trill;

Then within my chamber sitting,

With the shadows round me flitting,

Flitting, floating, dim and ghostly, back and forth across the floor.

With my heart's tumultuous beating,

Counts the seconds in its keeping—

There's a footstep in the hallway, just outside my chamber door.

Back and forth, unseen, untiring.

Up and down relentless ever,

Up and back with zeal persistent

Falls that footstep, now,—forever,—

The reverberating echoes

Singing—ringing—silent, never;

'Till with doubtful, restless motion

Softly stealing to the door;

All in vain I jeer and wonder

As I've done in days of yore;

But that footstep, restless beating,

Rings and echoes as before.

And a dread comes stealing o'er me

As that footfall sounds before me.

And with haste, born of quick terror, backward starting in the room,

Clangs the bolt with sudden spring,

And while echoes round me ring,

All the ghostly forms and faces leer upon me from the gloom.

At the doorway of life's chamber,

At the dawn's bright sunny hour—

When the noontide sun's effulgence

Gleams' upon life's height of power--

When the evening dews descending

Fails upon life's withered flower--

When life's midnight hell is sounding,

'Mid the echoes then resounding,

While we wait and watch and wonder (list-'ning with abated breath),

Then that footstep's steady beating

Sounds a weird mysterious greeting—

To the weary soul, 'tis welcome, for the step is that of Death.

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   The Cortland, Library Association cleared $250 from their recent [art] loan exhibition.

   Orris Hose Company netted at least one hundred and fifty dollars from their entertainments.

   The person finding a seal-skin cloak button will confer a favor by leaving the same at this office.

   The Young Men's Debating Club cleared about seventy-five dollars from Joseph Cook's lecture.

   The receipts of the lumber department of C. D. Greenman's steam mill amounted to $600 week before last.—McGrawville Sentinel.

   A white fox has been killed on the Genesee river. —Ex. That's nothing, Cortland has in a cage a white fox caught "way down in Georgia."—Bing.Rep.

   At the annual session of the N. Y. State Dairymen's Association at Ogdensburg, Mr. M. C. Bean, of McGrawville, was elected one of the Vice-Presidents.

   The annual meeting of the Cortland Union Bee-Keepers' Association will be held in Cortland, N. Y., on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 1884, at 10 o'clock A. M., in the rooms of the Y. M. C. A., M. C. BEAN, Secretary.

   We notice that Maybury & Maycumber, agents for the company insuring the Cortland House property, paid the full amount, $19,000, as attested by the proprietor, Delos Bauder.—McGrawville Sentinel.

   There is here a society whose aim is "Christian endeavor." If editors Jones and Clark and Rev. J. W. Putnam can be induced to make application for membership, we, desirous of assisting in the purification of the press and the pulpit, will stand the initiation fee.

   Those who failed to hear Joseph Cook's lecture last Friday evening missed one of the greatest intellectual treats with which Cortland has ever been favored. Not only the subject matter of the lecture, but the manner of its presentation, was surpassingly excellent.

   Joseph Cook, in his lecture Thursday evening, at Lester Hall, said that "Mormonism was a twin relic of barbarism, and must go, even if war was necessary." And the large audience applauded. It carried many of the old men present back to utterances at the war meetings of 1861.— Bing. Rep.

   Detective Lee, of Cortland, is in the city, and stated last evening that Fox, who is in jail at that place awaiting trial for arson, is one of the most nervous and uneasy of prisoners, and sometimes acts much like a mad bull in a China shop. Mr. Lee visited Fox's residence' in this city yesterday, and was surprised to find such luxurious quarters. The trial is expected to take place at the March term of Court.—Bing. Rep.

   A large number of men have been thrown out of employment in the Cortland Wagon Co., showing that this manufacturing is not what it was a short time since in profit or in work. Quite a number of persons in our vicinity are adversely affected by the change.—McGrawville Sentinel. Be patient, Mr. Sentinel. The shops are only closed for invoicing, and next week they will again be open for manufacturing.

   Sunday morning the thermometer in this village marked from ten to twenty degrees below zero. Monday the weather became gradually milder, and since then we have never known pleasanter winter temperature or better sleighing. And everybody who had the time and the means has enjoyed it. Trade has more than doubled—much to the satisfaction of business men, who previous to the fall of snow had good reason to feel discouraged.

   We call the attention of our readers to the prospectus of the New York Times, which may be found in our columns. The Times is one of the great papers of the world; and though that is very high praise, it is fully deserved.

   At the annual election of the Cortland Fire Department held Wednesday evening, Mr. M. F. Cleary was elected Chief Engineer by a vote of 47 to 42 for Clarence Strowbridge on the first formal ballot; first assistant, T. W. Button; second assistant, A. Sager; Secretary, A. M. Delavan; Treasurer, T. Grady.

   We take pleasure in announcing that Mr. L. R. Hopkins, the well-known architect and builder [ credits: two Cortland school houses, Cortland Opera House and more--CC editor], will soon open an architect's office in Cortland. Mr. Hopkins' specimens of work in this place and vicinity are among the best in this section, and justly contribute to his reputation. A good architect has long been needed here, and it will be gratifying to our citizens to know that Mr. Hopkins has decided to locate in Cortland.

   Joseph Cook administered a deserved rebuke to a number of people who came in late to his lecture Friday evening, among them being some of our citizens who would doubtless resent an imputation that they are not ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Cook had been speaking perhaps five minutes when the annoyance of persons coming in became so great that he ceased and, when the house became quiet, announced that fifteen minutes had passed to the detriment and discomfort of the audience as well as himself, because of interruptions by "a few indolent people.'' "Better late than never, perhaps, but better never late." His remarks, he hoped, would benefit the next lecturer. And all, except the "few indolents," manifested their appreciation by applause.

   The death of Miss Minnie Braman, following so closely upon the demise of her sister Jennie, is an event that draws out the sympathy of all who are familiar with the case for the unfortunate parents. They were the only children of Mr. and Mrs. Braman, and had arrived at an age which makes their loss felt the more keenly. Having attended school at Marathon, at Lisle, and finally at Cortland, they had formed large circles of acquaintances among those with whom they were thus thrown in contact, and by whom they were without exception esteemed and beloved. The cause of their fatal illness, as we understand, dates back to the Cortland House fire; their boarding house being very close to the burning buildings, they exposed themselves to the night air and contracted colds, which produced the fevers of which they died. The funeral of Jennie was held at the Baptist church in this village last Tuesday, and that of Minnie at the same place on Saturday last. The church was filled by mourning and sympathizing friends. There was a large and beautiful display of flora tributes.—Marathon Independent.