THE SWITCHMEN'S STRIKE

Men destroying rails and switches at Buffalo, N. Y.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, August 19, 1892.

RIOT AND INCENDIARISM.

THE SWITCHMEN'S STRIKE ASSUMES SERIOUS PROPORTIONS.

OUTRAGES BY THE STRIKING MEN.

Cars Are Burned, Switches Turned and Passenger Trains Derailed—Calling on the Sheriff.

   BUFFALO, N. Y., Aug. 14.—There is no further disguising the fact that the strike of the Erie and Lehigh Valley switchmen is a serious matter. Riot and incendiarism mark its tidal wave.

   Whether it would have proved so very serious to the railroads to have 150 or 200 men leave their posts of duty without warning is not now the question. Property belonging to the railroad companies has been destroyed by incendiary fires, men engaged in the peaceful performance of their duties in the company's service have been assaulted and sent to the hospitals, the movement of trains has been seriously interfered with, and the lives of innocent persons, who were in no way connected with the strike and had not even heard of it, have been endangered by the derailment of a passenger train on one of the roads. Such is the indictment up to the hour of writing.

   There had been more or less trouble Saturday between the strikers and their sympathizers and the men who were doing the striker's work, and a few desultory assaults had occurred.

   Things began to put on a more serious appearance at two o'clock this morning, when a series of incendiary fires broke out simultaneously in the Lehigh Valley yards. Eighteen or twenty freight cars filled with wool, cotton, hay and various other merchandise, two passenger coaches and two watchmen's houses were burned. The fires incurred at places where the firemen could not successfully stay the flames on account of absence of water, besides the difficulty of access to the fires. The water tank adjacent to the coal trestles was smashed, and an engine that was taking water there wrecked by a string of ten runaway coal cars that had been turned loose from the trestle. Fire was first discovered in the eastbound yards, east of Dingens street.

   Here a little office building and two or three freight cars were destroyed. At this time Yardmaster Mead discovered flames in two passenger coaches used for the conveyance of workmen, and turned in an alarm from William and Dingens streets. In the yards east of Dingens street, fire raged among the cars of merchandise. It took the hose from three carts to reach the flames from the nearest hydrant. The firemen, however, prevented the destruction of a great number of cars, and the loss of perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property. The cars destroyed were in the midst of a great number of other cars. The firemen uncoupled a number of cars and removed them from danger. A dozen or so of cars were thrown from the Lehigh tracks and a similar number from the Erie by misplaced switches.

   The first intimation of anything wrong, by the men employed by Mr. Mead watching the company's property, was when the coal cars were set loose and demolished the water tank. Then the fires broke out simultaneously.

   Captain Wurtz of the Eleventh precinct, put a force of a dozen officers in the yard as soon at the alarm was given. The officers were unable to find any suspicious characters.

   That, briefly, is what had happened up to daylight this morning. But that was only the beginning.

   The strikers, or their sympathizers, have pulled pins, turned switches and driven off crews. Three men are at the hospital badly hurt. One was assaulted at three o'clock this morning and another at three o'clock this afternoon. The man who was assaulted at Western New York and Pennsylvania crossing was on his way for the wrecker at the time and was turning a switch. The strikers had turned switches and thrown six cars from his train before that. He was struck on the head and when he was taken to the hospital he was completely dazed and did not know what had occurred. One of the men was assaulted at the passenger station and two at William street.

   One of the most cowardly things done was the throwing of switches under passenger train No. 17 at William street at 7:30 o'clock to-night. Two passenger coaches were thrown from the track, but the conductor does not think anybody was hurt, though many were badly frightened.

   Fifty men boarded passenger train No. 3 at eleven o'clock this morning and molested the employes, driving them off. The crew finally succeeded in getting the train to the station. The mob took possession of the Seneca street switches three or four times during the day and drove off the signalmen.

   In the Lehigh yards at Cheektowaga tonight, the scenes of last night were repeated.

   It is plainly intimated by the Erie officials that workmen from the east have been engaged to take the place of the strikers.

   Three stalwart policemen were stationed at the landing to the offices of Superintendent Brunn to-day. The strikers say they are determined to win the fight, and they assert the roads are losing heavily by not having men to perform the work of the strikers. They say the Erie is thoroughly demoralized on account of the strike, and that every side track of the Buffalo division is completely blocked.

   Two trains of freight cars standing on sidings in Cheektowaga, the railroad suburb of Buffalo, were burned tonight. The Lehigh Valley has called on the sheriff for protection. He sent six deputies to the scene and will swear in fifty more tomorrow morning. The police have yards in seven out of eleven precincts in the city to guard, and all the reserves are called out. The man arrested to-day for assault has been charged with rioting.

FREIGHT TRAFFIC AT A STANDSTILL.

   ELMIRA, N. Y., Aug. 14.—The strike of the switchmen inaugurated at Buffalo on the Erie and Lehigh Valley lines, has extended to Waverly and Sayre on the Lehigh, and all freight traffic on that line is at a standstill. A train of beef stands on an Erie siding there, the switchmen refusing to allow it to be switched to the Lehigh tracks to proceed to its destination. The division superintendent of the Lehigh has telegraphed to Owego for the sheriff to come to his aid, although the men are making no demonstration. Tomorrow it is expected that the Erie men will also go out and then all traffic through those towns will be at a standstill. The men are non-communicative and their future movements are unknown.

   BUFFALO, Aug. 14.—Later—At one o'clock fire has broke out in three places in the Lehigh yards again simultaneously. The fire department seem unable to quench it. The New York No. 1 (Erie) is held two miles out, because it cannot pass. New York express No. 4 has not been sent out for the same reason.

CARS FIRED AND SWITCH LIGHTS STOLEN.

   BUFFALO, N. Y., AUG. 14—2 A. M.—Word has just been received that a train of forty-two cars on the Erie road, filled with hue [sic] merchandise, a mile east of William street, is now burning fiercely with no protection.

   At the same time all the switch lights on the Erie, between Smith street and the Western New York and Pennsylvania target, were stolen. It Is impossible to tell how the switches were set. Superintendent Brunn started with an engine and two coaches to bring in the passengers from train No. 1 on the other side of the fire.

   At 2:45 o'clock the passengers on the two trains on the Lehigh and Erie roads which had been ditched at William street, near the city line, were brought to the station by Superintendent Brunn's special train. Nobody was injured, but the delay of four hours had been a dreadful experience, which none of them care to repeat.

   Superintendent Brunn reports the fire still raging among cars of merchandise in the railroad yards at Cheektowaga, and says the sheriff seems powerless to interfere, though he has called on him to protect the railroad property.

   BUFFALO, Aug. 16.—1 A. M.— The Sixty-fifth regiment has just been sent to Cheektowaga to guard the Lehigh and Erie yards the rest of the night.

   1:40 A. M.—The Seventy-fourth regiment has been called out to protect the Central and West Shore, it being feared that switchmen on these roads may go out tonight.

   BUFFALO, Aug. 16.—The situation in the great railroad strike has been comparatively quiet here to-day since daylight and up to noon.

   General Superintendent Bartlett of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg system was here to-day. The switchmen on that road had asked the same raise as the Lehigh, Erie and Buffalo Creek switchmen. Twice they had demanded a raise and twice had been put off. Today Superintendent Bartlett came here and held a conference. The men are still working and it is understood that he acceded to the raise—from 21 to 23 cents an hour to 23 and 25 cents. Grand Master Sweeney, in an interview on the strike, said: "It has spread to Waverly, and probably to Hornellsville and Bradford, where the switchmen are dissatisfied. It has not spread to any other roads in Buffalo. We have come to an agreement with the Western New York & Pennsylvania on the ten-hour basis, and we have no trouble with that road. A conference with the general superintendent of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg has been arranged for today. He is coming here and I expect that a settlement on the ten-hour basis will be made." Mr. Sweeney further said that the Erie and Lehigh switchmen here had not been treated in such a way as to keep them in good humor. Their advances had been spurned by those in high authority. "The matter could have been easily settled," Mr. Sweeney said, "if the officials had consented to reason with the men, but instead they tried to bulldoze."

   Mr. Sweeney condemned the acts of lawlessness and says that he has assurances from the men on strike that they are not responsible for whit was done, but it was the work of irresponsible individuals who could not be controlled.

   The only event that relieved the daylight monotony of events on the Buffalo & Southwestern was a little episode which occurred this afternoon next to Taylor & Crates lumber yard just east of the Elk street crossing. About 4:30 P. M. engine No. 9 was pulling freight train No. 138 into the city when twenty or thirty striking switchmen came up from behind the lumber yard, boarded the train, set the brakes, stalled the train, pulled the coupling pins, threw pins and links into the stagnant pools at the side of tracks and disappeared.

   The engineer ran down to the Seneca street crossing, got a new supply of pins and links, and at 5:30 o'clock hauled the train in with a policeman on about every fifth car. The event attracted a large crowd of men, woman and children at the Elk street crossing. A patrol wagon was also stationed at that place. One of the striking railroad men met a representative of the Associated Press near the Seneca street crossing a few minutes before 6 o'clock, and said he would before to-morrow morning prefer charges against these members of the police force, who had boarded a train on the Tifft farm and set the brakes to frustrate the work of the switchmen.

BUFFALO CREEK MEN ORDERED OUT.

   The two Buffalo Creek switchmen stationed in the vicinity of Buffalo Creek Junction were ordered out by the union and quit work, one to-day and one Sunday night. Others stationed at Seneca street adopted a like course of action. The only Lehigh Valley train that moved past the Buffalo Creek Junction to-day was a coal train, pulled by engine No. 276, which went out to William street about 3:30 P. M., guarded by eight policemen.

REFUSING TO HANDLE LIVE STOCK.

   The Nickel Plate succeeded in moving thirty-two cars of live stock from the Lehigh to the Lake Shore tracks, but when the men learned of it this morning they refused to make the cars up in the West Shore trains bound over the Central for New York. Then it was learned that 178 cars of live stock belonging to the Erie and Lehigh were standing on the West Shore tracks. The men thereupon refused to handle them.

   Each man was asked separately to go to work on these cars and each, upon refusing, was discharged and sent to get his pay. In consequence of this the Lake Shore switchmen stood in hourly expectation all day of being ordered out by the union.

   Everything was quiet all day to-day, up to night, on the island and out on the Tifft farm.  

   The roads [out] there are the Philadelphia & Reading and Buffalo Creek. The Lehigh Valley is with the Philadelphia & Reading. These are out on the Tifft farm. The Buffalo Creek railroad runs from Williams street to the "powder house" on the island. From there the Western New York & Pennsylvania runs to the connecting terminal railroad which runs down to the lighthouse. There was nothing doing to-day on the Buffalo Creek portion of the island. About twelve or fifteen patrolmen were on duty on the island and also on the Tifft farm.

 

THE POSSIBLE MOTIVE AND "DETECTIVE" HOLLISTER

Lizzie Borden.

Cortland Standard and Weekly Journal, Tuesday, August 16, 1892.

THE POSSIBLE MOTIVE.

Borden Was on the Eve of Making a Will.

LIZZIE WOULD LOSE BY IT.

It Is Alleged That She Knew of Her Father’s Plans, and Perhaps Killed Him to Insure Getting His Money.

   FALL RIVER, Mass., Aug. 15.—It seems that the hatchet believed by the police to have been used in the murder of the Borden’s was not an old fashioned one, as has been described, but one of recent manufacture. It was purchased by Mr. Borden about a year ago and was kept on a shelf in the cellar. When the cellar was searched on the day of the tragedy it was not discovered in its regular place. It lay on the floor near one of the axes used to split wood, a most unusual place for it.

   The hairs were easily detected on it, but the stains which looked like blood had first to be subjected to a microscopic test before their nature was established for a certainty. It was thought that they might possibly have been caused by rust.

Not Rust, but Blood.

   When the physicians held the glass over the spots they found there was no iron rust about them—that they were probably human blood. There was another weapon found by the police in their search of the house. It was a peculiar looking club, and bore marks of having been stained by blood. The doctors have failed to find any wounds that were in any probability caused by such a weapon of wood. Chief Hilliard stated that the hatchet was the only iron weapon which he thought had any connection with the tragedy, laying particular stress on the word iron. The club was found in the room where Mrs. Borden lay dead, the apartment in which John V. Morse slept the night before the murder. That it was well hidden is shown by the fact that it was not found until a most thorough and exacting search was made.

Lizzie Could Not Have Done It.

   Deputy Sheriff Graham said that with the ax hatchet or hatchet ax and its handle of two feet long, it would have been utterly impossible for Lizzie Borden to come up behind Mrs. Borden and strike her so as to bury the blade through her dress under the shoulder, for the reason that when she aimed and struck a blow the very weight of the blade would cause the hatchet to glance and it would swing off sideways in the nature of things. How a woman holds a hatchet and delivers a blow with it and how this hatchet must have been held, is a most interesting feature in this case.

A Possible Motive.

   Chief Hilliard said that Mr. Borden was about to make a will. This statement was made to the chief by a man whose name he declines to mention. He avers, however, that the old gentleman had been at work making an inventory of his property during the ten days preceding his murder. Mr. Borden had even departed from [his usual] reticence about his own private affairs and had told Chief Hilliard’s informant that he intended to devise his property “according to his own ideas.”

   Mrs. Borden was heartily disliked by her stepchildren, Emma and Lizzie. Mr. Borden, on the contrary, had a great affection for his second wife and was greatly influenced by her.

   John V. Morse knew of the fact that Mr. Borden was about to draw up the instrument, so did Lizzie and Emma. All three had the same dislike for Mrs. Borden. Mr. Borden resented on all possible occasions the attitude of his daughters toward his wife, and his object in making a will could be for naught else than to leave Mrs. Borden in better financial condition than she would be if he died intestate.

The Evidence Against Lizzie.

   The idea that a will was likely to be made any day will explain why Lizzie, if guilty, followed the attempt at poisoning made on Wednesday night with the brutal murder of the morning. She could not afford to delay or the will might be made in favor of the wife. This story of Mr. Borden’s intentions, given on official authority, supplies a hitherto glaring defect in the state’s case.

   The evidence that Lizzie committed the crime is purely circumstantial. She was in the barn twenty minutes on the morning of Aug. 4. She left her father alone when she went out, she says, and found him dead when she returned.

   Her failure to satisfactorily explain why she went in to the upper part of the stable and stayed twenty minutes in a room where, one physician says, the atmosphere was strong enough to overcome an ordinary person in five minutes, did not create a favorable impression at the inquest.

   No one saw her go out to the barn. The dust covered floor proved that no one had been in the upper part of that building. No one saw her return to the house, although Mrs. Churchill was sitting where Lizzie could not have escaped observation had she come and gone as she asserts.

   A strange feature of this case is the fact that Emma and Lizzie occupied the room in which their step mother was murdered the next night after the body was found. Emma still continues to sleep there.

[Popular skip-rope rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

CC editor.]

 

“DETECTIVE” HOLLISTER.

The Chase Was a Long and Hard One.

Rain, Mud, Distance and Time Prove Obstacles of Little Moment and the Thief and Stolen Bicycle Were Brought Back Yesterday.

   Aug. 18.—For the last three days a topic of absorbing interest to Cortland wheelmen and to all friends of Mr. C. H. V. Elliot has been whether his bicycle, which was stolen last Wednesday morning, would ever be found and the thief brought to justice. Just before the STANDARD went to press yesterday afternoon, the wheel and its purloiner arrived in town under the escort of Mr. T. N. Hollister, who had been...the two proceeding days and...to the matter, and we had time only to make the barest announcement of the fact. The story of the capture, and the difficulties Mr. Hollister had to overcome is, however, so interesting that we have secured the details from that gentleman and give them herewith.

   The wheel was a Century Columbia pneumatic, No. 6,231, was last [seen] Wednesday morning left unlocked in front of the drug store of Fitz Boyton & Co., of which firm Mr. Elliot is the junior partner. Mr. Elliot missed it at about 9:30. It had not been gone over half an hour. Mr. Elliot at first thought a joke was being played upon him and didn’t say much about it, expecting that there would be a good laugh upon him if he made a big stir about it, and should find the wheel later on. He quietly hunted about though. But when noon came and no trace of the machine could be found, he came to the conclusion that the wheel was stolen, and both he and the Cortland Wheel Club sent notices to all neighboring towns and cities, police captains and sheriffs and to all bicycle papers describing the lost wheel and giving its number.

   Meanwhile Mr. Fred Graham had heard of the loss and was pondering in his mind whether it could have any connection with the fact of his having missed a small Columbia air-pump two days before. He knew that a young man by the name of Charles Spear had been hanging around his store a number of times talking about wheels and the pump was missed shortly after one of Spear’s visits. He confided this thought to Mr. Elliot.

   Mr. T. N. Hollister, independently of others, was also turning over in his mind another circumstance that had come to his notice. The night before Spear had come into the store of Warren, Tanner & Co. and had bought a pair of bicycle stockings of Mr. Hollister. For two months this gentleman had connected him in his own mind with a peculiar fact. One day he missed his wheel from the side of the store where he had left it. At the same time he saw a wheel passing on the opposite side of Main-st. that he was willing to affirm very positively was his. Spear was riding it. Mr. Hollister called to him and asked if that was not his wheel. Spear replied that it was not, that Mr. Hollister’s brother had his wheel. Mr. Hollister went straight up to his brother’s and found that it was not so. Three hours later the machine was found behind another block on the street. Mr. Hollister always believed that Spear had had it, though he had no absolute proof of it.

   On this night when Spear bought his stockings, Mr. Hollister asked him if he had a new wheel. He said that he had. In reply to questions he said that it was a Columbia pneumatic, that he had bought it of his cousin and had paid $75 for it; that it was nearly new. He also volunteered the information that it had no mud guards upon it. When the loss of Mr. Elliot’s wheel became known Mr. Hollister at once in his own mind connected Spear with it. He resolved to earn that $100, if possible, offered by the Pope Mfg. Co. for the restoration of any stolen Columbia bicycle. Mr. Elliot had already fixed on Spear, as a result of the conference with Mr. Graham, and during the afternoon some one was sent down to some friends of Spear’s ostensibly to learn if he had a wheel to sell. The reply was that he was away from town, but that they didn’t believe that he had, as they thought he sold his wheel. When Mr. Hollister appeared to Mr. Elliot with his evidence their joint though independent suspicions were strengthened. Mr. Hollister at once started on the warpath. He learned from the express office that Spear had received no wheel by express. From relatives he learned that Spear had gone that afternoon on a wheel to visit friends at a place that was spelled out to him as “Onenday.”

   [Next long paragraph omitted by CC editor.]

   When Mr. Hollister reached Cortland he made another call upon the friends of Spear who had told him about “Onenday,” and found that it was really Onativia to which Spear was said to have gone. Mr. Hollister then retired from active life [pursuit] for a rest of a few hours. At 6 o’clock he called on other friends of Spear and proceeded to work up several other points of clue.

   Yesterday morning at about 4:30 he started on his wheel in a pouring rain for Homer. There he learned that Spear expected before he returned to visit cousin Lyman Hayes in Manlius. Mr. Hollister took the early train from Homer and went to Onatavia, and thence proceeded on his wheel to Lafayette. At this place Mr. Hollister made inquiries for one Addison Miller, whose name had been mentioned to him in connection with Spear. He found that he lived about four miles north. Thither he proceeded through the rain and mud, making frequent inquiries and getting no news of his man until within a mile of Miller’s he found an old lady, who had seen going by the house the day before about 1 o’clock a man whose description answered. She also knew of a lady from whom the man on the wheel made inquiries. If this man was the right one as he afterwards proved to be, the clue obtained in Tully and from the bicycle on the train was a false one. It seemed best to follow this up and he found a young man here at the house whose services he enlisted in his cause. The young man found out from the second lady above referred to that the wheelman was asking the road to Cazenovia. From the Millers he found that the young man had been there the day before, and that his name was Spear and that he had gone to visit relatives in Manlius. While the young man was making these inquiries Mr. Hollister with not a dry thread upon him was roosting upon a stone wall under an apple tree in a pouring rain, endeavoring not to be seen by the Millers. The young man was then engaged to carry Mr. Hollister back to Lafayette. The wheel was loaded into the buggy in front of the two men and they were soon back in the village.

   There Mr. Hollister called up the central telephone office at Manlius and inquired if Lyman Hayes lived there. An affirmative answer was given, and the operator was requested to find out if possible without letting Mr. Hayes know of the inquiry  if a young man named Spear was at his house, who had in his possession a Columbia pneumatic wheel No. 6,231. The operator was requested to call Mr. Hollister as soon as he learned the facts. Forty minutes passed and no reply came. Then Mr. Hollister called and found that the operator had lost his address. He had found out that Spears was there and had the wheel, that he was just on the point of starting for Cazenovia. Mr. Hollister told him that a warrant was out for Spear and asked him to get a constable and have him detained and he would get over there with all speed. Mr. Hollister had already engaged the best horse he could find in Lafayette and a man to drive, and within two minutes they had started for Manlius. The distance was fifteen miles and it was covered in one hour and a half. Men, horse and carriage were plastered with mud.

   Arrived at Manlius they found that Spear had confessed his theft and expressed his willingness to return to Cortland. The constable there evidently took [an] active detective for a constable for he took his address and told him that he had some business for him to do for him very soon. There was scarcely a stop of five minutes at Manlius, for Mr. Hollister wanted to get back to Jamesville in time to get the afternoon accommodation train for Cortland, so he could attend the Wallace party last evening. They had thirty minutes in which to make the seven miles through the mud. Spear got into the carriage with the driver and Mr. Hollister rode the wheel. After going a mile or so Spear expressed his willingness to ride the wheel and they changed places. Train, carriage and wheel drew up to the station at exactly the same time. Mr. Hollister had an opportunity of whispering a message to a friend on the train and at the first stop a telegram came over the wires to Cortland to Mr. Elliot telling of the capture. At Cortland Spear stepped off the train into the arms of Deputy Sheriff Richard Miller and was taken at once to jail. He was astonished, not knowing that a warrant was out for him, but he had believed that he would have an opportunity of settling for the offense.

   This morning at 10 o’clock the police court was well filled with wheelmen interested in the case of Spear which was set down for that time. Spear was not accompanied by counsel, but pleaded not guilty to the charge and waived an examination. He was held in $1,000 bail to appear before the grand jury and for want of that amount was committed to the county jail.

   Had it been any other machine than a Columbia that was stolen it is likely that both machine and thief would still be at large, as no other company that the Pope Mfg. Co. is known to have a standing offer for the restoration of stolen wheels, and it is hardly probable that any one from a solely disinterested point of view would take such a chase as did Mr. Hollister.

 

THE BORDEN TRAGEDY

Lizzie Borden.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, August 12, 1892.

THE BORDEN TRAGEDY.

An Awful Double Murder Still Enshrouded in Mystery—The Details of the Crime.

   FALL RIVER, Mass., August 7.—No clue as yet has been discovered in the cold-blooded double murder which was committed at Fall River, Thursday. At 11 o'clock in the forenoon of that day, while the members of that family and all their immediate connections were employed about the house or yard, the assassins entered the house where dwelt the aged banker, Andrew J. Borden, and his wife, and struck them both down, fearfully hacking and mutilating their bodies with a hatchet. Their daughter, Lizzie, was in the barn at the time and a servant in the yard within call. When Lizzie returned to the house the shock of finding her aged parents dead quite prostrated her, and she was unable to make an intelligent statement. Mrs. Borden was upstairs in the house at the time she met her death and her husband in one of the lower rooms. The deed was committed almost at mid-day in a populous street in the heart of a large city, but the murderer performed his work with such stealth and skill that he left not the slightest trace as to his identity.

MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY SUSPECTED.

   Theories have been advanced to prove that a farm hand, a servant, a daughter, an uncle and a brother-in-law were the assassins. A theory is put forward that the victims were in a state of insensibility when their bodies were clubbed and cut. So it is held that poison was first administered. In this connection it is stated that Lizzie Borden within 36 hours previous to the murder bought at the drug store of D. R. Smith a bottle of hydrocyanic acid, stating that she wanted it to kill moths. This is a powerful poison and being exceedingly volatile leaves no trace on the system. It causes no perceptible signs beyond unconsciousness or fainting previous to death. The nephew is also under suspicion.

$5,000 REWARD OFFERED.

   Lizzie Borden and Emma Borden, her sister, who was absent on a visit at the time of the murder have inserted this advertisement in the local papers:

   $5,000 reward. The above reward will be paid to anyone who may secure the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who occasioned the death of Mr. Andrew. J. Borden and his wife.

EMMA J. BORDEN.

LIZZIE A. BORDEN.

   Mr. Borden's wealth is estimated at over $500,000.

Dr. Webb's Road.

   NEW YORK, Aug. 2.—It was learned on the highest authority yesterday that Dr. W. Seward Webb's Adirondack & St. Lawrence railroad would be acquired by the New York Central and Hudson River road within 30 or 60 days. No papers have been signed as yet, but the details of the transfer have been arranged, and the close connection between the two interests involved gives assurance that there will be no break in the negotiations. The Adirondack road will be pushed to completion probably within thirty days, and will be, when finished, 178 miles in length. Part of it is already in operation.

Item.

   The New York Central Railroad has begun the erection of the houses and apparatus for the block system of signals from Albany to Buffalo. Seventy-three bridges will span the four tracks between the two above named cities. There will be twenty-eight stations between Syracuse and Rochester.

Are There More Big Trees?

   The location and description of 12 of the largest trees in the state of New York is desired by chief executive officer McNaughton of Albany. So far but two worthy of notice have been found, one in Cato, Cayuga county, a maple, six feet in diameter, and one at Balmvllle, near Newburg, a balm of Gilead, that in 1868 was 19 feet 6 inches in circumference. The latter is historical, it being on record that John Cosman, a "King's man," in the war of the Revolution, while an apprentice for William Bloomer, shod horses under it prior to the war of 1776, and it was then a large tree.

PAGE FOUR/EDITORIALS.

   The Syracuse Evening Herald, one of the so-called independent papers, after waiting two months to look over the ground, has finally come out for Harrison and protection. How much protection there is in it for the Herald has not yet been discovered. The Herald and Jim Belden are usually in perfect accord on political questions.

   If a high tariff on tin and other articles has the effect of reducing the price as the [Cortland] Standard claims, why not put an enormous duty on sealskin cloaks and diamonds? It might possibly reduce the price of these luxuries to such a degree that the editor of the Standard could lay in a supply for family use. Under the McKinley bill there is scarcely any duty on these articles. Hooray, for a 200 per cent duty for sealskin cloaks and diamonds.

   Judge Rumsey has decided that the reapportionment made by the last legislature is unconstitutional and the question will now go before the General Term and then to the Court of Appeals. Judge Rumsey is a light weight, but he is exceedingly anxious to have the Republican nomination for Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. Not, probably, that he expects he could be elected, but because he thinks it would give him some standing before the people as a man of prominence. It looks very much as if his opinion was a bid for the nomination.

Protection Paradoxes.

   That taxing an article makes it cheaper.

   That making an article cheaper enables its manufacturers to pay higher wages.

   That taxing raw material cheapens cost to manufacturers and lowers prices to consumers.

   That a tariff paying $175,000,000 a year into the public treasury does not increase the prices of the thing's taxed to produce this sum.

   That foreigners pay the duties and so largely support our government, but out of mercy to them the Reed-McKinley Congress spent only $1,000,000.

   That untaxing foreigners only is reciprocity.

   That high tariffs make high wages in the United States, but leaves wages in every protectionist country in Europe lower than in free-trade England.

   That our manufacturers produce staple articles more cheaply than they can be made abroad, but that we need a high tariff to enable them to do it.

   That the older the infant industries grow the more protection they need.

   That a party having more than 6,000,000 voters, nine-tenths of whom are workingmen, is an "enemy of labor."

   That the protected manufacturers pay large sums into the Republican campaign fund, and maintain lobby agents and subsidized newspapers to defend high duties solely to raise wages in the United States.—New York World.

HERE AND THERE.

   A new law raises the salary of Supervisors to $4 per day.

   Forepaugh's Great Show will exhibit in Cortland next Tuesday.

   The date of the annual Firemen's parade has been changed to Wednesday, August 31.

   The Brockway shops in Homer will shut down August 20, to make necessary repairs.

   Don't fall to see the races on Cortland Driving Park, August 23 to 26.

   The annual picnic of the Robinson family will be held in Wm. Tarble's grove near Marathon village, Thursday, Aug. 18.

   A little son of Michael Murphey fell from the back porch of his father's saloon in Homer last Sunday and was quite severely hurt.

   Messrs. L. D. G. Hopkins & Son are building three new and very large greenhouses in addition to those already on their ground.

   Teacher's examination for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade certificates will be held at the cobblestone school house, Cortland, August 16th.

   The editor of the Marathon Independent has discovered that "a raw onion chewed slowly and swallowed without undue haste will destroy the odor of ice cream."

   Mr. William Polley has sold his entire interest in the Boiler Cleaner invented by him to a stock company in Bath, N. Y., and will travel on the road in the interest of the company.

   Last Tuesday evening Mr. C. C. Spencer's horse became frightened in front of E. Dodge's liquor store on Main-st., and jumping side-wise threw Mr. Spencer out. The horse ran down Tompkins-st. Mr. Spencer was uninjured.

   Last Tuesday evening, while Dr. Ezra Bentley was doctoring a horse for Chas. H. Price, the animal kicked breaking his left arm. Dr. Angel was called and reduced the fracture. The horse had a severe attack of colic and was very uneasy.

   The Cortland City band and the Young Men's City club will have a picnic at Floral Trout Park in the afternoon and evening of Saturday August 20. Open air concerts, bicycle races, foot races, etc., will be some of the amusements provided to entertain their guests.

   The Cortland Wagon Company Mutual Aid will give their annual excursion to-morrow. This time Pleasant Beach on Onondaga lake will be the objective point. Fare for the round trip $1. Children 65 cents. Train leaves the S. & B. station at 8 o'clock A. M.

   Mr. George B. Waters, for several years past with Messrs. Burgess & Bingham, the well known clothiers, will have charge of the branch store to be opened by them in Tully to-morrow. The citizens of Tully may rest assured that they will have an opportunity to select goods from a large stock at less than city prices.

   While several Italians were loading iron rails on the D. L. & W. road south of Blodgett's Mills last Tuesday morning, one of the rails fell on "No. 73" breaking his right leg below the knee. He was brought to Cortland and Dr. Hughes reduced the fracture. The man was taken to the Syracuse hospital on the 4:30 P. M. train.

   The Cortland City band was out serenading Monday evening. A big crowd followed them from place to place. Among those who were favored were the following: Hon. W. H. Clark, Hugh Duffey, L. J. Fitzgerald, T. H. Wickwire, E. H. Brewer, D. F. Wallace, C. F. Wickwire, C. Fred Thompson, Edward Keator, F. Daehler, Alex. Mahan.

   The "Dave Hill" is a new craft launched on these waters, to be used by Cor. Burgess in his piscatorial labors. Only Democrat fish need apply, as Republican white fish and mugwump suckers will fight shy of that boat.—Marathon Independent.