THE NORMAL SCHOOL QUESTION AND RAILROAD ENGINE STOPPED BY QUEER BUGS

James Hoose.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, June 5, 1891.

THE NORMAL SCHOOL QUESTION.

   The action of the Local Board of the Normal school in calling for the resignation of Dr. J. H. Hoose, deserves more than a passing notice. If the members of the board arrogate to themselves the right to act as they please upon every question in reference to the management of the school, simply because they are appointed for life, they greatly mistake the intent of the law, and the temper of the people of this village.

   The taxpayers are entitled to have their wishes and interests respected to say the least and when the board runs entirely counter to them, they are exceeding their authority and will sooner or later run against something solid. The school was never more prosperous than at present and in the midst of its prosperity, the man who has contributed most to its success is asked to step down and out. No reason is given for demanding his resignation except that the relations between him and the board are strained.

   The same relations have existed on the part of some members of the board ever since William H. Clark undertook to turn Dr. Hoose out of the school some ten years since. If there are members of the board who can't get along with Dr. Hoose, let them consult the interests of the school and its patrons by promptly handing in their resignations. The school can get along better without any or all of the trustees than without its present principal. It is the Dr.'s business to manage schools. The experience of the trustees in this direction, has been very limited and decidedly unsatisfactory to those interested.

   Mr. Clark announced some years ago that "he was going to have Dr. Hoose's hide on the fence if it took a lifetime to do it." He has been unsuccessful in his efforts for the past ten years, but he thinks he has a sure thing of it now. How he is able to control so many sensible and respectable members of the board is past finding out. It is his personal quarrel and it is a wonder that his associates on the board will dance every time he fiddles.

   Mr. Clark started out with the intention of putting his personal friends on the Local Board and then putting teachers in the school that would do his bidding. It must be admitted that the wind has been blowing his way for some time, but it is possible for him to take a header. Clark wants Dr. Hoose's place for a friend of his, whom he has every reason to believe he can control. He wants Dr. Sornberger's place for another friend, and he already has Dr. Smith's place for still another friend.

   A Normal school controlled in every particular by William H. Clark would be a fine institution indeed. It is about time the people took the thing in their own hands and had something to say about the conduct of the school. It is pretty safe to say that Dr. Hoose won't resign, and that the Local Board will have him, as well as a majority of the citizens, to fight.

   The happiest solution of the situation, however, would be for the Local Board to resign. Their places can be easily and satisfactorily filled, but it will be something of a task to fill the place of Dr. Hoose.

Looking For Better Roads.

   The matter of constructing and maintaining a better class of roads has received much attention in the rural districts as well as villages and cities during the past year. In some localities there has been a noticeable conformity to the law relative to removal of loose stones from the traveled paths, which is commendable, yet there are sections where even this is neglected.

   Time was when broken boards which served as covering for sluice-ways were speedily replaced by sound plank; the centre of the road ever kept higher than the line of sod that borders on either side, thereby permitting the draining off of water, all accomplished by aid of the time-honored plow and back-breaking scraper in the hands of persevering tillers of the soil. Now a change has been brought about. Four-wheeled road scrapers of various designs of construction have been put in the field, the versatile salesmen claiming innumerable points of superiority over the legion of competitors, to decide the merits of which a trial of several machines is demanded.

   For some time districts number 65, 17, 26, 43 and 44 of the town of Cortlandville have been considering the joint purchase of a machine. There was a divided preference as to the merits of the product from the Climax Road Machine Co., of Marathon, and that of the American Road Machine Co., of Kennett Square, Pa., (Champion).

   To amicably settle the question notice was given for a trial Monday morning in district number 26. Besides the two above mentioned the Western Wheel Scraper Co., of Aurora, Ill., was upon the scene, selected for trial upon the stretch of road leading from the forks of the highway off Tompkins street, westward past what is termed the Bett's school house. First a trial at plowing, next removing the earth toward the center of the highway, in as near equally hard ground as possible was given by the representative of each machine. At 12 noon it was decided that sufficient test had been made and after some discussion as to qualification of those entitled to vote the representations of each of the five districts marked for their choice, resulting in the following: Climax 1; Northwestern 11; Champion 11. The tie between the two latter was then broken after some spirited discussion by the Northwestern receiving 15, Champion 7 and Climax 3 votes, thus making choice of the Illinois machine.

   Considerable rivalry was manifest, from the opening of the trial to the decision by the resident friends of the two rival machines, which have for some weeks past been exhibited in this vicinity, and now that a selection has been made the public may reasonably expect a well kept drive southwest of Cortland.

Acquitted of Murder.

   SYRACUSE, N. Y., June 8.—Moses F. Walker, colored, formerly a catcher for The Syracuse Stars and later a railway clerk was acquitted by a jury in the Circuit court this evening of the charge of murder in the second degree.

   On April 9 Walker had some words with Patrick Murray, an ex-convict, and three of his friends, and Murray picked up a stone and hit Walker on the head. Murray followed Walker into the street, while the latter drew his pocket knife and stabbed him. He died the next morning. The court room was crowded when the verdict was announced and the spectators yelled like wild men in approval of the verdict. Public sympathy was with Walker who pleaded self-defense.

Is the Problem Solved?

   ALBANY, June 1.—Warden Brown of Sing Sing was here to-day. He said a new industry was started at Sing Sing prison this morning, about thirty men being employed in preparing raw material to be used in the manufacture of brushes. This is known as the brush fibre industry and consists principally in converting bales of tampica, horses tails, hogs bristles etc., into a proper condition to be sold to brush manufacturers. The raw materials are purchased from wholesalers in New York.

   This brush material, the warden says, is nearly all prepared in England and Germany and the material is imported principally in condition ready for the manufacturers. Mr. Brown said this was his idea and that if the industry was successful, it would be introduced into all the prisons and take the place of other industries which, it is claimed, now interfere with outside labor. He thought this industry, if successful, would solve the prison labor problem. He has secured the services of three experts, who are conversant with the details of this new industry.

Lethocerus Americanus.

STOPPED BY QUEER BUGS.

A Loaded Train Stalled by a Horde of Insects—They Snap Like Toy Torpedoes.

   SYRACUSE. N. Y., May 31.—A phenomenon of a piece with those reported from Mankato, Minn., and from South Carolina, recently, has manifested itself in this neighborhood, although instead of caterpillars the plague in this instance is an electric light bug. Southeast of Brighton Corners, between this place and Jamesville, on the D. L. & W. railroad, are extensive lime stone quarries, which have been in operation for many years and have penetrated deeply into the rock.

   Through the cut thus made and into the quarries a branch track has been laid from the Lackawanna road for the accommodation of the lime stone. Some night work being necessary a large part of the time, an arc light has been placed high over the track at the darkest part of the cut. Several cars were loaded with stone for shipment on Friday and left on the switch, pending the observance of Memorial day. To-night in preparation for drawing the cars out, the electric light was cut in and an engine with the necessary crew left the city for the quarries.

   What was the surprise of all hands upon reaching the scene of operations was to find the track beneath the electric light completely thronged with strange insects of immense proportions, some of them lying perfectly still, huddled in bunches, and some of them playing a sort of leapfrog over their fellow's back. They covered a space of not less than sixty feet along the tracks, though toward either boundary of the occupied territory they grew fewer, as the rays of the light began to grow dimmer. These pickets, or skirmishers, were one and all of a most lively disposition and scudded over the ground with that lightning-like rapidity which characterized the movements of the electric bugs which made their appearance all over the country soon after the system of electric lighting became of general adoption in cities. The locomotive continued its way, and as the drivers rolled over the insects the things gave up the ghost with a crackling sound like the successive explosions of the swarm. As the iron monster ploughed its way along, the bugs became more numerous and the cracking grew to a monotonous din, as though some fire cracker storehouse had been touched off in a hundred places until in the thick of the multitudinous swarm the engine was brought to a stop, the drivers refusing to catch on the now slippery rails, greased by the crushed vitals of the slaughtered.

   Examination of the peculiar species which in vandal hordes had invaded the peaceful precincts of classic Onondaga showed resemblance to the new insect commonly known as the electric bug, more than to anything else known in these parts, though the invaders are somewhat larger than those bugs, the outer shell of the back being about the size and shape of half a Shanghai egg shell. It was this turtle like armour with which the insects are equipped that made the crackling sound noted as the wheels passed over the outposts of the army.

   The shell is black, and partakes of the nature of stone, having a stately structure, and very brittle. This property of the shell set the more thoughtful people about to thinking and observing, and after a time search along the sides of the cut revealed innumerable small holes in the rock, which seemed to have been bored into it by some agency not that of man, and in them were traces of a peculiar oyula, some hatched and some apparently blighted.

   An erudite recluse, whose abode is in the neighborhood of the quarries, [had] by this time appeared, for news of strange events had spread rapidly, and his opinion was that the bugs which had blocked the track were the issue of a rare species of lithodome—a rock-boring mollusk—crossed with some kind of predatory insect.  Lithomancers hereabout predict a very hot and dry summer as sure to follow the event of these hybrids, and say the same thing was presaged by the early arrival this year of the regular electric light bug in other localities.

   To secure the shipment of the freight to-night it became necessary to let the loaded train from above in the quarry come down the grade of the cut. Gathering momentum all the time, its impetus when it came to the obstruction carried it by the bugs. The scene of the slaughter was not pleasant to people of sanguinary dispositions, though it will probably be worse when to-morrow's sun pours down upon the mortifying remains.