Y. M. C. A. ANNIVERSARY

Photo copied from Grip's Historical Souvenir of Cortland.

Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, April 16, 1894.

Y. M. C. A. ANNIVERSARY.

APPROPRIATE EXERCISES HELD IN TWO CHURCHES.

Fifty Years Since Organization of General Association—Six Years Since Reorganization in Cortland.

   This is the jubilee year of the Young Men's Christian association. Fifty years ago it was founded in London by George Williams. That event is being celebrated all over the civilized world. Six years ago the association was reorganized in Cortland, and the anniversary was observed last night by appropriate exercises held in the Congregational and First Methodist churches, all of the other churches uniting.

   The services at the CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH were opened by a fine organ voluntary by Mrs. W. E. Wood, after which the congregation which packed the audience room to the doors united in singing "My Faith Looks up to Thee." Rev. W. H. Pound read the third chapter of Proverbs and Dr. H. A. Cordo offered prayer.

   A quartet consisting of Messrs. J. B. Hunt, C. F. Brown, W. L. Fox and E. L. Moran sang in fine style "The Beacon Light," and then Dr. F. W. Higgins, who presided, made the opening address.  The doctor began by a tribute to the ladies who were connected with the work of the association as an auxiliary. They had during the past year paid for the new piano in the rooms; they were always ready to assist at receptions. He would like to have them undertake the financial problem of the association, perhaps they could succeed better than the men had done.

   The doctor then reviewed some of the past history of the association, speaking nicely of all of the secretaries—Mr. Howe who is now one of the best known Y. M. C. A. physical directors in New York City; Mr. Kling, who went to Pueblo; Mr. Ingraham, who was called away by larger inducements to Watertown, and the present secretary Mr. Osterhout, who is doing very satisfactory and very successful work. He spoke of the new blood in the board of directors and hoped that it would bring new inspiration. The rooms [in the Standard building—CC editor] are being made more attractive and useful. A new heater is being put in the bath rooms. Evening classes are planned for the coming year. Since the second year there have been debts upon the association. Before Secretary Ingraham left he had procured pledges to wipe that all out, but the hard times prevented the payment of all the pledges. The association has lost forty members during the past year because the hard times have made it impossible for some young men to renew their membership. The lecture course this year left a deficit of $100. Only one year has this course paid and that was the year when Talmage was here. The debts of the association now amount to $377. This lecture course must be given up unless some new encouragement can be given it. The association must this year ask for $1500 beyond what will be secured by membership dues. And yet support of the Y. M. C. A. pays by improving the moral tone of the town, by keeping up an institution that week in and week out fights the saloon, by showing that young men are as valuable as fast horses, by establishing a room in which there is no creed and to which all creeds are welcome and by aiding an organization which labors for the upbuilding of mankind bodily, morally and spiritually.

   The next speaker was Rev. J. J. Cowles, pastor of the Presbyterian church at MeGrawville. His subject was "The Jubilee Year." The address was earnest, forcible and timely. He began by saying that he should take a text and announced the text as Isaiah ix, 22, "A little one shall become a thousand." This text, the speaker said, refers particularly to the church of Christ. At the time that Christ was on earth it was indeed a little one, consisting of himself and the twelve disciples—a handful of corn—now it extends over the whole world. We of this century and generation can see the fulfillment of the prophesy as no previous age can have done. The growth of the church from the day of Pentecost to the present is a proof that human and divine estimates differ, Man bases his estimates upon the outside. God's estimates are upon internal working. If God is in or back of an organization, it stands for enlargement, extension, success.

   There is a complaint abroad that there is too much machinery in the churches now-a-days. The church certainly was never so well organized as at present; it was never so powerful. Of all such agencies England's Grand Old Man says the Y. M. C. A. is one of the most powerful. It was a little one in 1844. It has become a thousand in 1891.

   The association was founded by George Williams in London in 1844. That same man, now a millionaire merchant of London, must look with joy upon the celebration of this jubilee year. Its most rapid growth has been in the United States.

   The first twenty years of its existence presented little resemblance to the later years. The chief aim was then to provide a place for religious meetings and a room open for young men. The aim of the association was to save men by direct religious instruction. Since then it has been found that souls ran be reached and saved by indirect method. This indirect methods [sic] are secondary to the Bible class and the religious meeting, but they help to bring young men within the reach of the latter.

   This is an era of Y. M. C. A. building and buildings. There are now over 5,000 associations in existence, employing 1,255 general secretaries, and having a membership of over 400,000. The Y. M. C. A. owns 397 buildings valued at $17,000,000. In the United States alone the membership is over 200,000. There are 217 buildings owned by the Y. M. C. A. with a valuation of $14,000,000. It was reserved for Chicago to erect the most costly building ever put up by a Y. M. C. A. It has just been completed at a cost of $1,700,000. Thorough organization and thorough consecration form a great combination for work.

   Seventeen years ago two special branches of the Y. M C. A. were organized which have borne rich fruits—work among college students and work among railroad employees. To-day there are associations in all the principal colleges. In Yale the association has 900 members. There are 450 college associations in America alone with 30,000 members.

   The first railroad association was formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1875. Now the railroad association is wedded to most of the railroad corporations and the wedded state is proving, as all wedded states ought to prove, a great benefit to both parties. Forty great railroad companies control nearly one-half the mileage of the United States. Not over five of them do not now recognize the Y. M. C. A. There are now 96 railroad Y. M. C. A's with a membership of 25,000. Last year these soulless corporations contributed $130,000 to defray expenses.

   One of the most important branches lately inaugurated is that of work among boys. The surest way to reach the young men is to make certain of them while they are boys, before their habits become fixed. The aim is to make the best boys, with the idea that a stitch in time saves eternity.

   A Southern man once pointed out with pride to the late Henry W. Grady a jail that had been erected in his city at a cost of $50,000. Mr. Grady said if $40,000 of that sum had been put into a Y. M. C. A., a $10,000 jail would have been amply sufficient.

   The Y. M. C. A. is a character building, soul saving, evil destroying institution, and as such should receive the hearty support of Christian men. God has raised up the Y. M. C. A. and given it most gratifying success. He has watched over it and blessed it. The measure of its success is the measure of its consecration. We may believe that the good accomplished in the past is but the first fruits of the great harvest of souls yet to be gathered in the future. Well may we rejoice together as Christian men and women in this glad jubilee year.

   General Secretary F. A. Ingraham of Watertown, formerly of Cortland, spoke briefly of his work here in Cortland. He told how he had been encouraged here in his work by the business men who has [sic] shown their appreciation of the Y. M. C. A. He asked the fathers and mothers if they were doing all in their power to support the Y. M. C. A. He exhorted young men to help young men and to sound the trumpet of the Y. M. C. A.

   [This edited article also includes additional comments about the Y. M. C. A. made at the First Methodist Church, which can be found on page four of the Evening Standard—CC editor.]

Speaker Charles F. Crisp.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Is This Democracy

◘ Saturday's dispatches giving the proceedings of the caucus of Democratic members of the house Friday afternoon contained the following remarkable paragraph: Amidst a burst of applause Speaker Crisp replied that he was a Democrat; that he would yield any conviction which he had to the voice of a Democratic caucus.

   And this is Democracy as enunciated by the Southern Democratic speaker of the house of representatives, endorsed by a "burst of applause" from his fellow members of the same party! To give one's political and personal conscience, gagged and bound, into the hands of a cabal of congressmen, whose sole apparent common conviction is that the control of the government and consequent spoils of office are got hold of somehow and hung onto anyhow!

   What a declaration of political principle is this! What an excuse for backing water and crawfishing! And yet what a photograph of Democratic conduct in both houses ever since the special session was begun! Men who swore they would never consent to the repeal of the silver-purchasing clause of the Sherman law consenting under the sting of the party lash and the compelling power of presidential patronage, and men who called all their fellows to witness that they would never endorse the socialistic, inquisitorial income tax, swallowing it, horns and tail and all, at the dictation of a party caucus! What a party to trust with the control of government!

   And how are the people ever to find out what the party really believes, if it ever believes anything, and how can any one calculate from its expressions of belief before election what it will do after? What a contrast this declaration of the leading Democratic politician of the house presents to that doctrine of the "higher law" of eternal right and individual conscience on which that great early leader of Republicanism, William H. Seward, planted himself and his party—a doctrine which justified the citizen in defying even the very law of the land which sought to make him a slave-catcher and the tool of slave owners! If Speaker Crisp represents truly the belief of his Democratic fellow members, as would seem to be the case, is it any wonder that the country has for months past been treated to such a spectacle of absolute destitution of any and all positive belief or principle as has been presented by the present Democratic congress?

  

◘ The intelligent translator of foreign cable dispatches announced that one of the main gifts to Bismarck on his birthday was a ton of bock beer and 500 crows' eggs. Most of us in America have had considerable experience in eating crow at one time or another, but we never got so far as to swallow crow eggs. Many wondered, therefore, if hens had become so scarce in springtime in Germany that the populace was forced to resort to poached crow eggs and to make crow eggnog. If that were so, then one felt inclined to pity Bismarck for having a birthday. Investigation, however, shows that it was not the crow, but the plover, that laid the eggs given to Bismarck. It was merely a case of bad break on the part of the translator.

  

◘ Talk about our ancestors, the noble pioneers of America, and exalt them as though there never was anybody equal to them! Some of them apparently did not have sense enough to go in out in the rain. If they had had, they would never have cut away the timber from the headwaters of rivers and brooks all over America as they did, thus drying up the streams and subjecting the land their descendants till to alternate flood and drought, biting frosts and destructive winds.

  

South Carolina.

   In 1890 Benjamin R. Tillman was first elected governor of South Carolina. He was re-elected in 1892. His present term expires this year. He was the candidate of the rural districts, and his election may, in a measure, be considered a victory of country over city. The feeling between the two factions has been growing in bitterness until now South Carolina has two political parties, Conservatives and Tillmanites. The Conservatives are those who support the old order of things that existed before Tillman became governor. The Tillmanites support the governor in what he and they conceive to be reformatory measures and plans for the good of the state. The legislature is with the governor. Both conservatives and Tillmanites are Democrats.

   One of the bills passed by the legislature last year was the state dispensary liquor law, much the same as that which Maine already had. It provides that only the state shall sell intoxicating drinks. At suitable places liquor stores shall be opened, where duly appointed state agents sell intoxicants at a fixed price. None is to be drunk on the premises. The law thus abolishes at one sweep all the rumshops and beer saloons of private individuals. This caused unspeakable bitterness and spirit of opposition. The feeling would not have run so high probably had not the opposing political party, the Conservatives, seen their opportunity and taken advantage of it. Governor Tillman in his recent speech charges his opponents with fanning the flames of rebellion against law and order in their own political interest. When the rumshops were broken up, private citizens began to sell liquor in their houses.

   Opponents of the dispensary law affirm that it is unconstitutional, and therefore they will not obey it. Governor Tillman retorts that, whether good or bad, it is the law, and they must obey it; that he will make them obey it, at least till the highest court of the state pronounces it unconstitutional. He has no choice, he says. The Conservatives on their side answer that this decision ought to have been rendered long ago, but that it has been unnecessarily delayed because the term of one of the judges, a Conservative, expires in July, and he will be succeeded by a Tillmanite judge, making two out of the three judges Tillmanites. The supreme and circuit judges in South Carolina are elected by the legislature.

Item.

   At Knoxville is an elevated ferry which is probably unique. It is an aerial cable reaching froth the heart of Knoxville across the Holston river to the bluffs opposite. These bluffs are 350 feet high. Upon them is a beautiful pleasure resort called Unaka park, and it was to facilitate the journey of visitors to Unaka park that the cable ferry was built. Two wire cables, each having a breaking strain of 60 tons, stretch from the top of the bluffs across to Knoxville. The propelling cable is half an inch in diameter and is wound and unwound upon drumheads in the fashion familiar on cable roads. The distance from the center of the city to the bluffs by this air ferry is a little less than one-quarter of a mile. The car would hold 18 persons properly seated if it were in a European country, but being in America it holds as many as can be crowded into it. In going from Knoxville up to the bluffs the car is wound up by the cable and requires 3 1/2 minutes for the passage. On the return trip it just runs down hill itself and takes half a minute.

Small Pox at Sing Sing.

   SING SING, April 16.—Small pox has broken out anew at Sing Sing prison. Three new cases developed yesterday and last night, all among the men working in the rag industry. The men first taken have recovered and returned to work.

Dangerous Anarchist Arrested.

   LONDON, April 16.—Detective Inspector Melville arrested in Farringdon road an Italian named Francesco Polti, who is well known as a dangerous anarchist. He had in his possession when taken into custody a bomb, which was wrapped in brown paper. Polti was a great friend of Bourdin, the anarchist, who was fatally injured some time since by the premature explosion of a bomb that he was carrying in Greenwich park. Inspector Melville went to Polti's lodgings and searched them. He found bottles containing sulphuric acid and liquid potash, while other bottles were filled with brown liquid, the exact nature of which is not as yet known. A number of valuable letters were seized.

   It transpires that the police received warning two weeks ago that an explosion would be shortly attempted in England. The authorities regard the capture as a most important one.

Found Dead in Bed.

   Mrs. Martha E. McGraw was found dead in bed at about 7:30 o'clock this morning by Mr. George McGraw, at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. M. H. McGraw, 6 James-st. Her body was still warm when found. The deceased had been in feeble health for several years. She was up and around yesterday, ate supper and went to bed about 8 o'clock. Her death is supposed to have been caused by heart disease. She was 77 years of age. Funeral will be announced later.

  

Died at Syracuse.

   Mrs. William Donegan of Cortland died at 9 o'clock last evening at the House of the Good Shepherd at Syracuse, aged 65 years. The deceased went to Syracuse four weeks ago last Thursday and on the following Monday had an operation performed to remove a tumor from her stomach. She was too weak to have a second operation and died as stated above. Besides her husband she leaves three sons, John, William and Daniel and one daughter, Mrs. Myron Mead of Fitz-ave.

   The remains were brought to Cortland on the 10 o'clock train this morning and were taken to the home of her daughter. The funeral with be held at St. Mary's church at 10 A. M. Wednesday.

BREVITIES.

   —Burrows & Webster received an Ariel wheel this morning which they sold before they had an opportunity to unpack it.

   —Mr. F. H. Shevalier has been elected a director of the Y. M. C. A. to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. H. T. Bushnell.

   —Messrs. William Nix and Edward Dowd have leased the Owego House at 40 Owego-st. It has been repapered and repainted throughout and the landlords will undoubtedly run a good hotel.

   —The Cortland wheelmen should bear in mind that a village ordinance prohibits bicycle riding on the sidewalks upon Main-st. between the Cortland and Messenger houses. If this is not complied with, the wheelmen are liable to lose privileges on other streets.

   —The "Jane" company gave a fine entertainment at the Opera House Saturday night. The play was funny in the extreme. All the parts were well sustained, and there was not a poor actor upon the stage. The audience was well pleased and showed its appreciation by frequent and hearty applause.

   —The United States Express company which now claims to operate more miles of railroad than any other express company has now entered into an arrangement with the Wells, Fargo & Co. express whereby through billing arrangements will be made with each other thus avoiding delays at transfer points caused by rebilling at each company's charges.

   —On Saturday evening at about 11 o'clock just as Rev. Dr. L, H. Pearce, pastor of the First Methodist church, was upon the point of retiring there was a ring at his doorbell and four young people presented themselves with the request to be married. The doctor was rather surprised at their coming at such an hour, but he was willing to accommodate them and the double wedding took place. They all came from Ithaca.

Tea Table Talk.

   The ownership of the summit of Mount Washington has passed into the hands of the Mount Washington railroad company, backed by the Concord and Montreal road. The price paid for the purchase is $56,000. The Summit house has proved a regular bonanza in profits. For ten years Walter Aiken of Franklin Falls, recently deceased, received $100,000 from that source, while the railroad's share was a much larger sum.—N. Y. Tribune.