WHAT WIND IS MADE OF

THE DEMOCRAT, Benton B. Jones, Editor and Proprietor.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, July 22, 1887.

EDITORIAL PAGE.

   Our neighbor of the Standard does not attempt to answer the knock-down facts contained in an article copied from the Homer Republican which will be found on another page. It could not do so and is therefore content to call the Republican a liar, while it proceeds to prove that its own character for truth ant veracity is not of the best.
  
   The Standard publishes this week Aesop's fable of the "Frog and the Ox." It will be interesting to the readers of that paper who must have become tired of reading Clark’s fables week after week. A little change is relished now and then even by Republicans. Old Aesop was quite a storyteller in his time, but our neighbor can give him odds and then beat him out of sight.

   Last Thursday, Judge Barrett sentenced Jacob Sharp, convicted of bribing the New York Aldermen in 1884, to f our years in prison and to pay a fine of $5,000. The prisoner is an old man, is considerably broken in health and it is doubtful if he lives to finish the sentence. There are many who sympathize with Sharp on account of his extreme age and because they think that the building of the surface railway on Broadway was a great public benefit. They seem to lose sight of the fact that Sharp knowingly committed a crime against the laws of this State and that he did not have the public good in view, and that his only object in committing the crime was to profit by the result. He is said to have made a cool million by the transaction. He danced and now he must pay the fiddler.

   The Standard makes no attempt to show that the figures published in the DEMOCRAT of last week, proving that the DEMOCRAT contains twice the amount of reading matter published in the Standard is not true. The only answer the editor of the Standard makes, is that we discarded his supplement and that if that were measured in he would have the most. The very same week that the type was measured, the DEMOCRAT published a supplement containing about five times as much reading matter as was contained in the supplement of our neighbor. Our neighbor's supplement was given entirely to puffing the wonderful Standard, and only interested its author. Facts and figures tell and there is no very creditable way of getting around them. Brother Clark can call all of his neighbors liars when he is caught fibbing himself, but it won’t work. Measure up the type brother, and keep as close to the truth as it is possible for a man to do who has always been travelling in an opposite direction.

 

WHAT WIND IS MADE OF.

(From the Homer Republican)

   In the last issue of the Cortland Standard which has of late been entertaining its readers with glowing descriptions of the phenomenal prosperity, enormous advertising patronage, unrivaled "get there" facilities and the infinite superiority of its own egotistic self over its modest and unassuming rivals in this vicinity, we notice one little circumstance which will no doubt account for the large number of inches of advertising space which the Standard fills each week. The circumstance was that the advertisements of the following firms were "doubled" or printed twice to the same paper, thus occupying twice the space they pay for.

   Rockwell Bros.' one column advertisement on the second and last pages. This advertisement is not the same in both places but the last change of "ad" was undoubtedly brought in after the first side of the paper was printed and therefore printed again on the last page without extra charge. M. Nathan Levy's and Warren & Tanner's one-half column "ads" appear twice. The one-fourth column "ads" of J. H. Gee, S. L. Wright and Ludane & Kavanagh; the one-eighth column "ads" of L. A. Miner and Hubbard & Buck and also a one-inch "ad" of the Rochester Savings Bank, appear twice. This makes a little over three columns of doubled advertisements for which the Standard receives nothing. It does this to fill up its extensive space and save the expense of setting the type to fill it.

   In telling the "Old, old Story" he loves to tell so well, the editor forgot to mention the circumstance or to say that the type in which the Standard is set occupies about a third more space for the same amount of reading matter, than the REPUBLICAN or Democrat. The plate matter, which is published for a supplement, is a story which can be bought anywhere for 25 cents in a much more desirable form.

   Quality and not quantity, Brother Clark, is what pleases the people and a little horn blowing and braggadocio goes a good ways with the average reader. Such unsubstantial wind is a poor substitute for news and good miscellaneous reading.

Congdon Nabbed.

   Maurice H. Congdon, for a few months a resident of Homer, and who is charged with the crime of incest, skipped for parts unknown before he was arrested. A Coroner's jury found that his daughter Nora's child, had been made away with [aborted—CC editor] and he was charged with being the father of the child, and also with being instrumental in causing its death, both Congdon and daughter left for parts unknown before the jury had completed its labors.

   Nora was found and arrested two or three weeks since, and is now in jail. Last Monday evening Congdon was found at the house of his father-in-law in Maine, Broome county, and was arrested by officers of that county and is now in Cortland jail. Congdon formerly resided in Maine village, but moved to Homer last spring from Marathon. The Binghamton Leader says of him:

   "Congdon is a tough citizen, and has given the authorities much trouble at various times. He was formerly arrested by Detective Black for forgery, and was, at one time, wanted at Syracuse for embezzlement. He was a sewing machine agent, and had misappropriated funds.

   "Some years ago he was arrested in the East on a charge of horse stealing, and while being brought to Syracuse he leaped from a flying train, and, all shackled as he was, managed to escape. He is a slippery customer, but he will now, in all probability, receive his deserts [sic]."

Hunting Evidence.

   A Cortland correspondent of two Syracuse papers gives a somewhat sensational account of an effort made by Mr. Frank Pierce and one H. L. Bronson to obtain a piece of the boiler that exploded at the Hitchcock Manufacturing Co.'s works on Decoration Day, for scientific experiments. Now these gentlemen are the attorneys for Mrs. Frank Scott in her suit against the Hitchcock Manufacturing Co. to recover damages for the loss of her husband.

   The facts, as near as we can learn them, are as follows: On Saturday last these legal gentlemen called upon the President of the Company and asked for a piece of the iron. Mr. Hitchcock replied that his side of the case was in the hands of his attorney, Judge Duell, and that he would see him and abide by his decision, which was a very proper thing to do. He called on his attorney, who advised that the attorneys be allowed a piece of the iron, which should be cut in half and one piece be retained by each party, which would prevent any fraud in testing the iron. The President told Mr. Floyd Hitchcock, who was in charge of the shop, to let Pierce and Bronson have the iron, but as they had reported that the same was very bad and could be broken off easily with a hammer, it would be well to make them do the work of cutting the same themselves, instead of employing a mechanic to do the work. If the iron was as brittle and worthless as they claimed it was, an expert would not be necessary.

   When Pierce and Bronson came after the iron they brought Mr. George Cleaveland, a mechanic, with them to do the work. They were informed that they could have as much as they wanted by cutting it themselves. A lawyer must have a monumental cheek who applies to the opposite party to supply him with evidence to win his case, but these gentlemen seem to be able to fill the bill. The report has also been circulated that the boiler has been melted up and that no traces of it can he found.

   The entire boiler is in possession of the Company, and the legal gentlemen can have as large a piece of it as they may need if they will cut it for themselves. Trying to create a prejudice against the Company by pettifogging the case in the newspapers before the trial is not a very lawyer like proceeding, and we only wonder that Mr. Pierce, whom we believe to be a fair man, should have anything to do with such a performance.

More Railroad Talk.

(From the Cincinnatus Register)

   Messrs. B. A. Benedict, of Cortland, and Eli Colegrove, of Cuyler, were in town last Thursday, making arrangements with our railroad commissioners for the completion of the railroad from Cortland to this place. It seems a syndicate of capitalists has been formed at Cortland, among whom are C. B. Hitchcock, Harrison Wells and B. A. Benedict, with a capital of $50,000, who propose to complete the old route as far as this village, providing the towns will give them a right of way. Our railroad commissioners, Messrs. Geo. Holmes, H. M. Kingman and F. M. Benjamin, signified their willingness to give the right of way through this town, provided the company furnish security, and probably the other towns would be willing to do the same.

   No doubt should the road be completed from Cortland to this place the DeRuyter branch of the old Midland would find it to its advantage to connect with the Cortland road by a direct route down the Valley instead of going over Crumb Hill, and give up its present litigation scheme. It is deemed probable that even should this road escape the present pending decision and be carried to the Court of Appeals they will finally be obliged to build the road, and if they could make connections at this place they would find it cheaper to build the road than to contest farther.