REV. J. M. SUTHERLAND

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, April 13, 1888.

Page Two/Editorials.

   Rev. J. M. Sutherland, who was better known as "Senator" Bob Hart, the negro minstrel, committed suicide last Saturday at the Magnolia House in New York. Morphine was the agent used to assist him in schuffling off his mortal coil [sic]. A few weeks since, he was assisting the pastor at Rockville Centre, not far from New York, in conducting revival meetings, and last week was charged by a fifteen-year old girl by the name of Stella Brightman with an aggravated assault. When the officers went after him it was found that he had suddenly left the place and when he was next heard of he had committed suicide.
   It is said that several other young girls of the place were ready to swear to similar cases of assault on their own persons, on the examination of Sutherland whenever he was arrested.
   Two or three years ago he was in DeRuyter engaged in revival work and became quite popular while there. He seems to have been a veritable wolf in sheep's clothing, and was admitted to the homes of the best people where he was petted and given every opportunity to despoil those of whose generous hospitality he partook. The door of many mansions were thrown wide open to admit the Rev. J. M. Sutherland, that would have been double barred against the entrance of Bob Hart, the minstrel, and yet they were one and the same individual.
   When the minstrel claimed to be nothing but a minstrel he was measured up for what he really was, but when the minstrel claimed to be a minister, the good people only saw the ministerial garb that covered the same old free and easygoing minstrel who still had an appetite for his toddy and good looking women.
   The complete reformation of rogues is not accomplished in a day or a night and a pretty safe rule for respectable people to adopt in their treatment of reformed drunkards and suddenly converted evangelists, is to allow them the same privileges that would be accorded to any other stranger of whom little is known, and no more. It is always well to become acquainted with the former habits, character and standing of all strangers before inviting them into the sacred confines of the home circle. If this rule were always strictly adhered to in every case, society would be the better for it and much sorrow would be avoided. Many scalawags masquerading in the garb of temperance and christian evangelists, have been invited to visit this place, whose true characters were afterward disclosed, to the great injury of the cause of temperance and religion. It would be far better to have no revivals at all than to have them conducted by frauds.

Binghamton’s Blaze.

   The offices of the Daily Leader and Sunday Dispatch, were totally destroyed by a fire which broke out in the Leaders composing room at 8 o'clock last Tuesday night. It was first seen by C. C. Wentzler, the city editor of the Dispatch, who in company with a reporter, was in the editorial rooms at the time.
   The fire department of the city were at once summoned and did everything in their power, but the flames had gained such headway that their efforts to save the building were futile. They succeeded, however, in confining it to the office where it originated, though some of the wooden buildings in the rear of the block were badly scorched.
   Besides the Leader and Dispatch offices which were on the second floor, the building was occupied by several families, all of whom escaped, though with the loss of their household goods. A. W. Carl, the proprietor of the Leader, will be the heaviest loser, as nothing was saved from his plant except a quantity of new type. His estimated loss is $20,000, on which there is $12,000 insurance. Other losses will probably aggregate from $20,000 to $30,000.
   During the fire a member of one of the hose companies fell to the ground a distance of 30 feet, but escaped with slight injuries. One man was also struck by a piece of cornice which had become loosened, but was not seriously hurt.

From Everywhere.

   There are 16,310 newspapers and periodicals of all kinds issued in the United States. This is a gain of 810 during the last year.
   150,000 Mackinaw trout were placed in Cuyuga lake last week.
   A city ticket composed of women for the council and a woman for mayor, was elected at Oskaloosa, Kan., Monday, by 66 majority.
   Mrs. Grover Cleveland was elected president of the Eastern Alumni Association of Wells College at the annual meeting of the association in New York.
   John A. Logan, son of the late Senator, who shot a riotous Italian striker at the Carbon, Pa., limestone quarries, of which he was superintendent, has been arrested and taken before a magistrate. He gave $1,000 bail for his appearance. The bullet from Logan's revolver carried away one of the Italian’s knee caps.
   The State Normal school at Terre Haute, Ind., was entirely destroyed by fire on Tuesday last. Eight hundred pupils were in the building at the time the fire was discovered, all of whom got out safely. The school was built in 1870 at a cost of $180,000 and was not insured. The fire was caused by a defective flue.
   Four thousand Irish emigrants sailed from Queenstown last Thursday for America.
   Passenger trains on the West Shore road will hereafter be heated with steam from the engine.

Wherein Is Labor Protected?

Philadelphia Call (Reformed Republican).

   The workingmen are reading and thinking for themselves, and one of the questions which they want the defenders of [civil] war taxes in time of peace to answer is whether these taxes, unnecessary for revenue, have any effect in raising wages. Comparatively few, in fact much less than 10 per cent, of those that are earning their living in this country are engaged in occupation subject to foreign competition, and the greater number of these are employed in cotton and woolen mills and in iron mining and smelting. Indeed, the whole number of protected workers is about equal to that of the domestic servants or the railway employees.
   If war taxes really protect the wage workers, the men employed in these so-called protected industries should be paid higher wages than is paid to men employed in the protected industries. Is it so? According to the census of 1880, the average wages of the unprotected railway employees was $450 a year, while the protected iron workers averaged only $312. Do miners and smelters get higher wages than the bricklayers? Do skilled workers in cotton and woolen mills receive more than carpenters? Everyone knows that they do not; but that, on the contrary, their earnings are much less.
   How then, do those high taxes benefit labor? It is an undisputed fact that workers in silver mines are much better paid than the men who delve for iron, yet on iron there is a high protective tariff, while in silver there is absolute free trade.