A CLOSE CALL

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, June 24, 1892.

A Close Call.

   Last Monday afternoon, as Mr. A. G. Harrington of South Cortland was driving from the south across the E. C. & N. railway crossing on Owego St., his horse stopped on the track and began to dance. An engine stood on the side track west of the highway and thinking that this was what frightened her, he struck the animal several hard blows but she refused to move.

   Just then he heard a whistle blow near him and looking to the east he saw the 3:30 P. M. Express within two or three rods of him. He immediately jumped from the buggy and none too soon as a second afterwards the cowcatcher of the engine passed under the horse and tossed the animal and buggy into the ditch.

   Several men hurried to the place and extricated the horse from the heap, none the worse for the accident. The buggy was smashed into very fine kindling. The engineer reversed his engine and whistled down brakes as soon as he saw that the horse refused to move, and when the collision occurred, the engine was moving slowly and the train came to a stop a few feet away.

   Had the train been under full motion the horse would undoubtedly have been killed and Mr. Harrington might not have come off so easily, The mare is mortally afraid of the cars and has run away several times as a result of being suddenly frightened by them.

Struck by Lightning.

   Last Friday morning lightning struck the central chimney of the house formerly occupied by the late Rev B. F. McLoghlin opposite O'Leary & McEvoy's furniture store north of this village, and ran down the same into the ground. The north half of the house is occupied by John Heaphy and the other half by Alex Girard. Several stove pipes in Girard's side were bursted [sic] and the carpets were somewhat burned where the bolt went through the floor. No one was injured although four of the children were in a room on the second floor where the lightning burst into the room. The damage to the house is slight.

   At about the same time lightning struck the chimney of Mr. John Mack's house on the extension of East Railroad-st., east from River-st. Mrs. Mack who was standing near the kitchen stove was prostrated and remained in a dazed condition for some time. From appearances the bolt ran about the roof tearing up shingles and then passed off and into the ground although the hole where it entered cannot be found. Mr. and Mrs. John Mathews who reside in an adjoining house and about thirty feet away, were both thrown to the floor by the flash, but were not seriously injured.

NEIGHBORING COUNTIES.

   CHENANGO.—Sherburne has a new passenger depot.

   Veros Dye of Norwich, an O. & W. brakeman, had both legs cut off near Eaton Tuesday.

   One of Oxford's business men while flashing over in Smithville Friday was treed by a bull. The agility with which he crossed the field and shinned up the tree was a great surprise to old Taurus, who was in for the gore.

   An eleven horse team drew a large platform from the F. G. Clarke Blue Stone quarry to the Oxford depot last week, to be loaded on the company's special car. The stone was 14 by 14 feet, averaged a foot in thickness, and weighed over sixteen tons.

   Tuesday night, Merrit Dibble, a farmer about thirty-five years of age, who lives in the eastern part of the town of Afton, attempted suicide by swallowing two ounces of laudanum. Dr. Haynes was speedily summoned, and after a few hours of untiring effort, he regained consciousness. No cause is assigned for his rash act.

   MADISON.—Several Morrisville ladies are riding bicycles.

   Canastota has several cases of scarlet fever.

   The German Catholics of Oneida are breaking ground for a new church.

   The Oneida Dye Works were burned Wednesday night. Loss, $3,500, insured $12,000.

   Comstock's spring bed factory at Oneida has an order for 20,000 cots, which will fill twenty cars.

   E. P. Hinds won the Cornell University scholarship in the recent competitive examination at Morrisville.

   Reuben Stimson of Canastota has a bullet in his right leg that the doctors can't find, from fooling with a revolver that "wasn't loaded."

   Samuel Morris, tried at Morrisville last week for assault on one Fanchett in Lebanon, resulted in a verdict of not guilty. It will be remembered that Fanchett died of the injuries. No one is punished.

   At Morrisville last week, James Maynard was sentenced to nine years at hard labor in Auburn prison for abducting foolish Emma Putnam from the Peterboro Home, for immoral purposes.

   W. E. Webber, lodged in jail sometime since for stealing a horse, was released by Judge Kennedy, owing to insufficient evidence.

   TOMPKINS—A bust of Hiram Sibley was unveiled in the chapel at Cornell University, June 15.

   Landlord Freer has purchased fourteen acres of land adjoining his property at Taganic [Taughannock. His property was located at the falls overlook--CC editor.]

   Monday the first rails of the Tioga street extension of the Ithaca street railway were laid.

   Sixteen railroad trains bring mail into and carry mail away from Ithaca every day in the week, excepting Sundays.

   C. J. Van Auken went to Ithaca June 7 and Dr. Morris performed a successful operation upon him for the removal of the vermiform appendix. It will be several weeks before Mr. Van Auken will be able to be about.

   Sixteen surgical operations were planned for last week, Tuesday, at the Ithaca City Hospital, but as there were not beds enough for patients, one of the operations had to be done at a private house and thirteen were done at the hospital. Most of the cases were major ones and we doubt if any other hospital in the world is accustomed to such a day's record. There have been no deaths among surgical cases since the hospital opened. This is principally due to the modern antiseptic methods which are employed.

All Labor Honorable.

   A good many young men would rather be a clerk somewhere at $8 a week, than a plumber, a printer, a carpenter, a mason or a machinist at from $15 to $21 a week. The trades call for laborious work and companionship with dirt. Work is work, and one kind of it is as honorable as another. The fellow in overalls, who goes along with his face and hands of a color telling his trade, is just as much respected as the youth who has a crease in his trousers and is a clerk at half the salary. Pay is the incentive to work, and a good workman in the trades is seldom out of a job. A clerk is just as good as anyone else, and just as necessary in the makeup of the world as an artisan, but he has no monopoly of respectability. The clerk has less chance to run the store than the mechanic has to run the shop.—Utica Press.

The Nominations.

   The result of the deliberations of the National Democratic Convention held in Chicago this week, will undoubtedly prove satisfactory to the Democrats of the country. That Mr. Cleveland is the choice of a very large majority of the party is apparent from the large vote he received on the first and only ballot taken. Of course every Democrat had a favorite, but the will of the majority as expressed by ballot should be satisfactory to all and we believe it will be.

   The friends of Senator Hill is this state are many, and the delegates elected in his interests proved true to him, even after it became apparent that there was not the slightest prospect of his nomination. They were instructed to vote for him and could not well do otherwise. Senator Hill is a Democrat and we predict that he will be found working for the success of the ticket throughout the campaign and his work will tell. He has few equals on the stump and as a political manager he has no superior. His warmest friends can do him no better service than by following his example. The people have every confidence in Mr. Cleveland's ability, his patriotism and his fidelity and we predict that he will be triumphantly elected.

   His associate on the ticket, Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, is a sterling Democrat and his nomination is considered to be a strong one on all sides. He was 3rd Assistant Post-master General during Mr. Cleveland's administration.

   The ticket is strong at every point and must win.

PAGE FOUR/EDITORIALS.

   The ticket nominated by the Republicans is cold at both ends.

   Journalism is being brought into general contempt in these days by the sensationalism in which it indulges, and by the continued employment of men who prefer to lie rather than to tell the truth. So many falsehoods were circulated during the Republican struggle for the nomination that readers do not know what to believe or discredit. There was the false telegram from Mrs. Blaine, "Pa will accept," alleged to have been received by Emmons Blaine in Chicago; the letter from Harrison to withdraw his name "if he did not win on the first ballot," absolutely denied next day, and an alleged interview with Blaine, also absolutely denied. Many other instances could be referred to and, in fact, there scarcely seemed to be a grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff.—Kingston Argus.

   A notable feature of the exodus of the Republican Senators and Representatives to Minneapolis is the large number of private cars which have been placed at their disposal by the owners. This shows, as nothing else can, how close the Republican party is to the big corporations of the country. It costs money and lots of it, to maintain and run a private parlor car, and the railroad magnates are not doing it for fun—they expect to be amply repaid for all favors sown by these Republican Congressmen.— Kingston Argus.

Struck a Rich Salt Mine.

   DUNDEE, N. Y., June 19.—Operations have been progressing in this village looking towards the location of a gas or oil belt which is believed to exist directly underneath this section. George Barden, of Benton, contracted with expert drillers from Friendship, Allegany county, to sink a test well to a depth of 2,000 feet. Drilling has been continued day and night until yesterday, when at a depth of 1,925 feet an immense vein of pure rock salt was struck. The finding of this immense bed of saline matter has occasioned intense excitement throughout Western New York. The contractors state that this bed is the largest on this continent, if not in the world, and that they have never brought to the surface salt of so great purity and crystallization.