DEFENSE OF MR. BROCKWAY

Zebulon Brockway.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, April 13, 1894.

THE OTHER SIDE.

Defense of Mr. Brockway by Rev. Thos. K. Beecher—Reformatory Endorsed.

   ELMIRA, April 9 - The Rev. Thomas K. Beecher was interviewed by a reporter for the New York Times on the management of the Elmira State Reformatory. He said in part:

   "I can hardly trust myself to speak of the proceedings of the past year. An assault has been made on a man who knows more of the subject of prison work, prison discipline and prison reform than any other six men in the country."

   "Are you familiar with the charges of brutality against Mr. Brockway?"

   "I am. I know that he has been accused by ex-convicts of cruelties and inhumanity.  He has struck men, it is said, many blows. Of course he has. So has the surgeon, after fifty years of practice, made many ugly cuts and amputated many limbs.

   "It has been said that he, the superintendent, has inflicted all the blows. So much the better. He is like the physician who does not trust an apprentice to administer his medicines, but gives them with his own hand."

   "Are you familiar with the so-called paddling?"

   "Time and again I have discussed it with Mr. Brockway. I have seen the paddle. The method of inflicting corporal punishment has not been kept a secret. The Board of Managers has known of it. The Board of Charities has discussed it and approved it. I approve of it."

   "Either the stories of abuse were exaggerated, or the records of the hospital would show the results, if the physician did his duty. No charge of neglect of duty has been made against the physician, and he did neglect it unless there has been some lying about the treatment given those who were taken to the bath room."

   "What do you think of the investigation which has been made by the Board of Charities?"

   "I think it infamous. It began in a nasty fogbank and ends in a stink. The bank was the mass of testimony from convicts and ex-convicts, who were the worst of those who have been in the reformatory.

   "The stink is the final recommendation of the Board of Charities, and the requests for removal of those who have been responsible for making the institution what it is.

   "I do not know just what it is, but I am convinced there is a cat under the meal in all these proceedings. The methods which have prevailed and the whole procedure indicate this.

   "At all hours of the day and night I have visited the reformatory. I have on such occasions been given absolute freedom to go to any part of it unattended and talk with any of the inmates, and there were no complaints of these 'cruel and inhuman' punishments.

   "Those who were doing well at the institution spoke well of it, those who were doing badly spoke ill of it."

Suicide at Ithaca.

   SYRACUSE, April 8.—A special from Ithaca says that W. J. Brenzier, a dentist of that city, committed suicide by shooting last evening. He was found dead in his office. In the note he left he says that the cause of his suicide is an affair known only to himself, over which he has been worrying for some time. He states that he has been accused of the chlorine gas tragedy at the Cornell freshmen's banquet but that he had nothing to do with the affair.

   It is not known if anybody ever charged him with complicity in the affair, but his rooms were in the building where the gas was prepared and possibly some of his friends had jokingly accused him of it. His mind was evidently unbalanced.

The Book Concern.

   The Cortland Standard is running a Bookstore annex, and making an undoubtedly large profit for itself if not for its readers. The Standard furnishes the Encyclopedia Britannica for $1.98 per volume, while the same can be bought at D. F. Wallace & Co. for $1.50 per volume. Parties who care to have this work will of course see that it will be to their interests to purchase of a reliable bookstore. If the Standard is determined to run a book annex, it ought not to swindle its subscribers and the public by charging such a high price for books that can be purchased of a regular dealer for a much smaller sum.

April Storms.

   The severe snow storm that has been raging for the past three or four days seems to have been general. Binghamton reported 10 inches of snow yesterday morning, Oswego 21 inches, Pottsville, Pa. 15 inches and Frackville, same state, 28 inches. In the Genesee valley it was 23 inches on the level and still snowing. Baltimore, Md., reports 5 inches, Buffalo 12 inches, Batavia 24 and Elmira 22. Great damage to shipping is reported all along the Atlantic coast and much damage was done to property in Kansas and other points in the west by the storm and accompanying cyclones.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.

  

◘ The McKinley bill protects the wealthy manufacturer and the latter, not content even with large profits, imports pauper labor from Europe to compete with home labor, to still further augment his enormous profits The McKinley bill was the direct cause of the recent riots in Pennsylvania.

  

◘ The Troy Press says: "Several boxes of soap have been distributed among the soldiers of Coxey's army, in the hope that it would put a different face on the question" but it did not. Evidently Coxey's soldiers are not acquainted with the nature of such goods.

  

◘ John Graham, one of the most celebrated criminal lawyers in the country died at his home in New York last Monday. He defended Genl. Daniel E. Sickles for shooting Phillip Barton Key in 1859 and was engaged by the defence [sic] in many important criminal trials afterwards. He was a bachelor and lived at the Metropolitan hotel. Mr. Graham had been suffering with a severe attack of rheumatic gout and a few days ago gangrene set in and made it necessary to amputate his right leg between the knee and hip. He died soon after the operation.

  

◘ Times are not as easy as one could wish and business is not pushing as lively as we should be pleased to see it, but there is some compensation in the fact that we have the McKinley bill, that great republican panacea for all our financial ills, in full force and operation. Can any one tell why the McKinley bill is not starting the wheels of trade like a whirlwind as it was expected to do? For more than two years past this wonderful bill has been a law of the land and yet we are not happy. Can it be possible that the McKinley bill is a total failure?

  

◘ The "infant industries" of Pennsylvania have been protected so long that they have grown gray in the business and yet the workingmen of that state are not happy. If protection is a benefit to the laborer, why do the protected employers of that state keep cutting down the wages of their employes? There is more protection to the square foot in that commonwealth than in any other state in the Union and more strikes occur there than in any other state. The iron workers struck last year and the year before and now the men employed in the coke works are on a strike. Why don't protection protect?

  

◘ The great increase in the roll of pensioners under the administration of President Harrison was most astonishing. President Cleveland left a large amount of money in the Treasury in 1889, which was quickly disbursed by the Harrison administration, a large part of it going to pay the increased pension roll. There is no doubt but that a large amount of money has been and still is being paid to men who have no more right to a pension than persons who were not in the service at all. While every deserving soldier should be treated generously by the government, those who are not entitled to a pension should not be added to the roll. Some of the best soldiers in the army came home and striking out for themselves earned a competency. Other good soldiers were not so fortunate and no one will complain if these receive pensions provided they were permanently injured in the service. The Harrison administration undertook to make political converts by granting pensions to many who were not deserving and who could only obtain such through favor.

  

◘ The Kingston Argus says, the Republicans of the state Legislature have already nineteen investigations under way. The pretense, in every instance, is public interest and the cause of good government, but the real purpose in every case is to manufacture party capital. The various committees are equipped with full retinues of attorneys, clerks, stenographers, sergeants-at-arms, messengers, etc., for jobs must be found for party heelers. Some idea of the cost of these smelling committees may be had from the fact that the bills paid for investigations ordered by recent Republican legislatures amounted to $436,000. No one objects to Republican Senators making for their party all the capital that they can out of their accidental supremacy at Albany, but it is hardly the decent thing to saddle on all the people of the state the expenses of a Republican hunt for partisan material for Republican purposes.

  

◘ The republicans have not been idle since the election of 1892, when they met such a signal defeat. They are organizing everywhere. The republican editors of the state have an organization and will scatter editorial prevarications broadcast throughout the state during the next campaign. Last week the republican students in all the leading colleges in the New England states held a convention in Syracuse, elected officers and are preparing for the campaigns which are to follow. Republican corner grocery politicians are as busy as bees in every hamlet in the land, securing subscribers for leading republican journals, and what are the democrats doing? Absolutely nothing! How can they expect to win the battles that are to come without effort? Do they care to give the administration of the affairs of this government over into the hands of the republicans without making a fight to retain possession? If the democratic party expects to win it must begin to organize before it is too late. The next election in this state will soon be on and the enemy is determined to win if possible. Democrats should wake up and prepare for the battle. They can win if they will try.

HERE AND THERE.

   Arbor day, Friday, May 4.

   Pretty stout winter weather for a spring month.

   The trout season in this county opens April 15.

   Mrs. Kate E. Jones of Ilion, will deliver the decoration day address in this village.

   All the drivers of the U. S. Express company will hereafter wear blue uniforms with brass buttons.

   Parties who hold claims against the 45^th Separate Co., can secure pay by calling upon E. M. Santee.

   James S. Squires, the grocer, has an advertisement on our eighth page that will interest all of our readers.

   Burgess, the clothier, has a new advertisement on our eighth page. He is offering some grand bargains.

   The Grand Union Tea Co.'s store has been thoroughly renovated and repainted. It looks as neat as one could wish.

   The Normal Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar will give a concert tonight in Normal hall. Tickets are fifteen cents each.

   On and after April 1st, by order of the post office department the 'h' was dropped from names of places in the country ending in 'burgh.'

   One of manager Frohman's companies will present the new play "Jane" in the opera house to-morrow night. It is said to be well worth seeing.

   A large number of Homer and Cortland sports attended a "chicken dispute" held in Oneida last Monday night. The contest is said to have been between Utica and Oneida birds, the latter winning three of the five battles and the main.

   Mr. Allen Smith of Harford Mills is running a stage from that place via Harford and Virgil to Cortland. The stage will run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He will leave Cortland at 3 o'clock P. M. reaching Harford Mills at about 7 o'clock the same evening.

   The Cortland Hospital is crowded with patients and rooms in an adjoining house have been secured for some of them. These rooms need furnishing and pillows, pillowcases, sheets, towels, mirrors and small stands are needed. Here is a chance for those who are charitably disposed.

   Few persons know what is meant by a "size" in the matter of coats, shoes, etc. A size in a coat is an inch; a size in underwear is two inches; in a collar one-half an inch; in shoes one-sixth of an inch; trousers one inch; gloves one-quarter of an inch; hats one-eighth of an inch.

   The crowd inside and outside Messrs. G. J. Mager & Co.'s store last Saturday was immense and the sales were very large. All the extra clerks in town were impressed into their service and still many people could not be waited on for lack of help. They have still some great bargains left and the store is filled with customers every day.

   John H. Paige, timekeeper in the Howe Stove Works at Cortland, was arrested for crooked work last week and bailed in the sum of $200. He has since left for parts unknown. It is said that he connived with certain workman, crediting them extra time and sharing the proceeds. Some $900 worth of mica is also missing, and he is credited with shipping away stoves and pocketing the returns. Much sympathy is felt for his parents; his mother has known more sorrow than falls to the lot of a dozen ordinary mortals.—DeRuyter Gleaner.

   The columns of the DEMOCRAT are overcrowded with advertising this week, but as some of these contracts expire within the next two or three weeks, we hope to be able to give more reading matter hereafter. Business men recognize the fact that the DEMOCRAT is the best advertising medium in this vicinity and they are bound to have the space. We don't like to turn business away and if the rush keeps on we shall be compelled to add an extra page or two to the DEMOCRAT.

FROM EVERYWHERE.

   Work on the new Central station at Syracuse will be completed soon.

   The Moravia Foundry and Company closed their shops on Friday last, for a time.

   State Game Protector Carr was at Fair Haven a few days ago and fined a woman and two men $100 for catching trout out of season.

   In a fit of insanity Thursday Ben June of LaFayette cut off his left hand with an axe, and was preparing to strike another blow on the arm when he was prevented by his wife.

   A sucker weighing nine pounds and seven ounces was recently caught in the Cincinnatus pond, near Smithville Flats, by a boy of twelve years. It was the largest ever taken there.

   A range that is carefully cleaned out every morning and all the ashes and clinkers removed will consume a third less coal to do a given amount of cooking than one that is only cleaned in a half-way fashion.

   Henry Hoagland, a young man employed by the Walker Manufacturing Co. of Moravia, had a serious accident befall him late Tuesday afternoon. He was handling iron when a large bar fell onto his left leg mangling it badly below the knee. Drs. Edmonds and Cox were called and relieved the sufferer as best they could.

   Last December some student ruffians at Williams college broke into a new student's room, stripped him naked and set him in a tub of ice cold water until he was exhausted. They then wrapped a wet sheet around and put him to bed. He was taken with pneumonia and he died last week in Florida whither he had been taken to regain his health. His name was Vernon Van Deusen and his father is a Judge of Chautauqua county.

   John Lott of Warwick, Delaware county, who passed his 100th birthday last September, walked five miles last month to cast his 80th consecutive Democratic vote at town meeting, and boasts that he can outwalk, outrun and outwork any man in the county half his age.