AMERICANS SEIZED

Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, November 8, 1894.

AMERICANS SEIZED.

CHARGED BY JAPAN WITH A PLOT TO AID CHINA.

Had Agreed to Blow up Japans Entire Navy For the Celestials—Incriminating Documents Found on Their Persons. Were Experts in the Use of Explosives. Arrested by Japanese Military at Yokohama.

   WASHINGTON, NOV. 8.—An international episode of unusual interest is developed by the arrest of several Americans by the Japanese military authorities at Yokohama.

   The Cham Tam Moore, who accompanied the Americans, was until recently an official of the Chinese legation here and was officially designated as Charles T. Moore. The latter left some time ago and it was said at the time that his departure was due to trouble at the legation. This. however, was incorrect, as Mr. Moore left in pursuance of a mission.

   He went to Providence, R. I., where he secured the services of an expert on explosives, named Cameron, an Englishman, who had been employed at the Hotchkiss gun factory, and who had been on the dynamite cruiser Nictheroy, which went to Brazil during the revolution in that country.

   He also interested John Wilde, an inventor.

   The party then started for China via San Francisco, Cameron being known, it is said, as Courtney, and Wilde as Harvie. It is these two and Mr. Moore who have now fallen into the hands of the Japanese authorities.

   The cause of the arrest, as communicated by the Japanese minister to the state department, was that documents were found on the parties showing an agreement on their part to blow up the Japanese navy within eight weeks. The statement of the legation as communicated to Secretary Gresham is as follows:

   A Chinese official with two foreigners—an Englishman and an American—arrived at Yokohama on the steamship Gaelic. They were all under assumed names. The two foreigners were supposed to have entered into an agreement through the Chinese officials to take military service with China against Japan.

   They landed at Yokohama and then took passage on the French steamship Sydney for China. The captain of the Japanese ship Tsukuba, under orders from the army and navy headquarters at Hiroshima, thereupon exercised the right of visitation and search on the Sydney and found in possession of these two foreigners a number of official documents bearing on their service with China, among them an agreement to destroy the entire navy of Japan, within eight weeks, by the use of torpedoes.

   The three were taken prisoners and the ship released from temporary detention.

Japan's Terms of Peace.

   LONDON, Nov. 8.—It is stated that there are diverse opinions in Japan respecting her terms of peace with China. A leading journal declares that she will require the cession of the Island of Formosa and an ample money indemnity. Another journal says that Japan will demand the payment of an indemnity of £100,000,000 gold, with which to establish a gold standard. The progressive papers, however, demand that Japan shall insist that China yield all her warships, arms, ammunition and vessels of the China Merchants Steamship company. They also demand that Japan shall take possession of Shanghai and its customs revenues.

GREATER NEW YORK.

Two Days Before the Result Can Be Positively Known.

   BROOKLYN, NOV. 8.—The vote here on Greater New York as reported to police headquarters this forenoon shows that those who favored consolidation had lost by about 100 votes. There are still about twenty outlying districts to report and Sec. Shanks of the Consolidation league says private advices  received by him show that the consolidation carried by a small vote. The accountants who are tabulating the returns say it will be at least two days before the matter can be satisfactorily settled.

William McKinley.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

◘ Politics makes stranger bedfellows than even poverty. Verily the days when the lion and the lamb lie down together have come when McKinley, except Tom Reed, the most rampant Republican of the fall campaign, makes a Republican speech in New Orleans to 13,000 people and is enthusiastically applauded.

◘ Something will have to be done with Indian Territory and that right soon. It is coming to be the rendezvous for all the offscouring of the earth. Desperadoes nest in it and issue forth in the nighttime to rob and murder. The Indians under whom the territory is supposed to be take no measures to preserve law and order. Indian Territory is the haunt of outlaws from all sections of the Union. It is a menace and a terror to the whole United States. There are no laws and no military or police force to catch the villains who hold up trains at their convenience, riddle them with bullets and carry off the money from passengers and express cars. No wonder the express company whose chief route is through this dark and bloody ground refuses to carry any more valuables over the demon haunted road. That such a spot should exist in the United States is a blot on our nation. The situation is almost serious enough to call for an extra session of congress.

SYRACUSE'S SAPPHO.

The Woman Who Wants to Be an American Poet Laureate and President.

   Syracuse has an aspirant for the position of poet laureate of America. But, being a loyal member of the Union, she does not wish to be called by a title as suggestive of the effete monarchies as "poet laureate" and has therefore declared in favor of "national poetess." She is Mrs. Sarah Ulricht Kelley, and she modestly describes herself as hymn writer and prospective national poetess of the United States, nominated by a very large majority of editors.

   Mrs. Kelley is a remarkable woman. She proposes not only to be national poetess, but president as well. She intends to sing herself into glory, dominion and power. As poetess laureate of these great United States it will be but a step to the presidential chair, for by the act which congress must adopt her salary will exceed that of the chief justice of the supreme bench and will be inferior only to that of the president himself. Concerning this vital feature of her set plan, Mrs. Kelley said: "If I were national poet, I should give all my salary away. I will leave the question of compensation to congress, but I want it fixed at $12,000 a year."

   Mrs. Kelley has liberal notions as to the treatment of men when she is president. Her cabinet, she says, will not be composed entirely of men or women, but there will be a fair and equitable compromise. She thinks that Susan B. Anthony's great mistake lies in her attitude toward men.

   An example of Mrs. Kelley's poetry, called "Syracuse In a Rainy Day," has some gems of thought. She says, referring to a war claim which she has against the government:

   I hope dear congress kindly pays me my just war claim

   For what he spent for comrades when he gained hero's fame.

   I trust the Fifty-third will appoint me laureate.

   I made a great sacrifice. I ought to sit in state.—New York World.

MORE RESPECT FOR JAPANESE.

Held in Higher Popular Estimation Since Their Victories in Korea.

   A local effect of the war in the orient is the increased respect in which the Japanese in and about this city are held. For years their greatest complaint was that they were constantly confounded with the Chinese, whom they hate and despise as an inferior race. Now that the superiority of the Japanese has been brought to the public notice in the most unmistakable manner they have risen many degrees in the public estimation and are no longer hooted and jeered at as "Chinks" or "washee washees. " A young Japanese medical student, a graduate of an American college, who lives in a colony of orientals not far from the bridge in Brooklyn, spoke of this to a reporter.

   "Nothing could have been of so great benefit to the Japanese in this country,'' said he, "as our victories in the Chinese war. Our constant struggle here has been to get recognition as a separate race, but even your intelligent classes seemed to make no difference between us and the Mongols. 'Oh, he's a Chinaman or a Japanese or something,' people would say, as if it were all the same thing. But what we might not have been able to secure for a generation this war has done for us in a few months, and we find ourselves recognized as being on the same plane with intelligent Europeans who come over here. The fact is that no other race so soon learns the American customs and language."

   Then he related this illustration of the changed feeling toward the Japanese. He was walking along the street when he met two small boys. One of them shouted:

   "Get on to the Chink! Hi, Chink, got a washee—N—."

   "Shut up, you chump,'' the other boy said to him. "That ain't no Chink. That's a Jap. You'll git hurted if you fool with them. Them Japs is scrappers."—New York Sun.

General Oliver Otis Howard.

THE CHRISTIAN HERO.

GENERAL O. C. HOWARD GOES OUT OF ACTIVE SERVICE.

His Age Limit Reached Today—General Nelson A. Miles Mentioned as His

Probable Successor—Brief Review of the Long and Honorable Career of the

Oldest War General in Active Military Service.

   NEW YORK, Nov. 8.—Today Major General Oliver Otis Howard, "the Christian Hero," having reached the statutory age limit, was retired from the United States army to private life.

   There will be many changes in the army this year, but the withdrawal of General Howard from active duty is the most important from the fact that he outranks all officers except Major General Schofield, and his only equal is Major General Nelson A. Miles of the department of the Missouri, who is spoken of as the successor of General Howard.

   The retirement of General Howard will cause a vacancy in the grade of major general, to which Brigadier General Thomas H. Ruger of the department of the Pacific may succeed if his claim is respected.

   Oliver O. Howard was admitted as a cadet in the United States Military academy at West Point on Sept. 1, 1850, and graduated on July 1, 1854. He was stationed at arsenal, with the rank of second lieutenant for one year, and then was transferred to Kennebec arsenal as commander.

   During the Seminole Indian hostilities in Florida in 1857, he was chief of ordnance on the staff of General Harney and from 1857 to 1861 was assistant professor of mathematics at West Point academy. He took command of the Third Maine regiment of volunteers. His commission as colonel bears the date of May 28, 1861, and by Sept. 3 of the same year he was a major general of volunteers. He was twice severely wounded and lost his right arm.

   During the Pennsylvania campaign, June to September, 1863, he commanded the Eleventh corps of the army of the Potomac, and was highly commended by General Mead for choosing and occupying at the battle of Gettysburg, the position on Cemetery Ridge, for which action he also received the thanks of congress.

   Major General Howard was commissioned brigadier general in the regular army on Dec. 21, 1864. and on March 13, 1865, received his brevet major generalship "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of Ezra Church and during the campaign against Atlanta, Ga." After the close of the war, during the first year of the reconstruction, General Howard was appointed commissioner of the bureau of refugees, freedman and abandoned lands, and remained in that capacity until June 30, 1872. The mismanagement of this department—the Freedman's bureau during the time that General Howard was at its head is a matter of history, and it is the one thing which for a time threatened to be remembered to his discredit.

   But General Howard has lived down the adverse criticism, and refers now with pleasure and pride to his acts while at the head of that department. In February, 1872, he was appointed special Indian commissioner to the hostile Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona, and in September, 1874, was assigned to the department of the Columbia.

   Indian fighting from then until January, 1881, when he was assigned to the command of the department of West Point and superintendent of the United States military academy, has not changed General Howard's ideas as to the possibility of Christianizing the Indians, and despite his many encounters with them he is still of the opinion that under the proper influences, by the employment of correct methods, much good in the Indian may be developed.

   General Howard came to Governor's island from the department of the Platte, to which he was assigned in July, 1882.

   The foregoing is in brief the history of O. O. Howard's military career, which, if dealt with in detail, would fill a large volume. The empty sleeve attests his bravery, while numerous gifts and honorable mentions show that his services were appreciated. "Let him who merits it bear the palm; It is thine," is the inscription in Latin on a beautiful sword presented to General Howard by his men just after the battle of Bull Run. Another heavy sword was voted to the general at the close of the war in a contest at Washington, D. C., to decide who was the most popular commanding officer.

Election of Officers.

   At the regular business meeting of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor of the Presbyterian church held at the chapel on Tuesday evening the following officers were elected for the ensuing six months:

President—O. A. Kinney,

Vice President—A. L. Clark.

Secretary—Miss Ella A. McConnell.

Recording Secretary—Miss Cornelia L. Brown.

Treasurer—Miss Leah Wallace.

BREVITIES.

   —This evening is the regular assembly night of the Union Veteran legion.

   —A regular meeting of the Wheel club will be held in their rooms this evening.

   —Robbins' concert company give an entertainment Saturday evening, Nov. 10, at Crane's hall in Virgil.

   —The attraction at the Opera House next Monday night will be the great comedy-drama "My Wife's Husband."

   —The indications are that the first private party of the Cresent club to-morrow evening will be a very enjoyable affair.

   —Tickets for the Normal lecture course will go on sale at the store of D. F. Wallace & Co., Saturday morning at 9 o'clock.

   —In police court this morning J. P. Power and William Connell, who were arrested for being drunk, were discharged.

   —The Alpha Chautauqua circle will meet at the residence of Mrs. A. Graves, 88 Madison-st,, Saturday evening, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p. m.

   —The board of supervisors begin their annual session at their rooms in the county clerk's building next Monday, Nov. 12, at 1:30 P. M.

   —The supper that was announced for Saturday evening to be given by the Epworth league of the First M. E. church will be postponed for a week or two.

   —At a meeting of the lot owners of the Cortland Rural cemetery held last Monday night R. Bruce Smith, H. P. Goodrich and Fred Conable were reelected trustees.

   —The examination of Royal E. Every, charged with being one of the robbers of the Fair store, which was set down for this afternoon in Justice Bull's court, is adjourned until Nov. 15.

   —As a man named Braney was riding on horseback in Owego, two boys standing on the side of the road threw horse chestnuts at the horse. One of them struck Braney in the eye, bursting the ball.—Exchange.

   —The members of the Grace Episcopal church and society will hold a sociable to-night in the rooms of the Clover club. A, brief musical and literary program will form part of the evening's entertainment.

   —The Ladies' Literary club met yesterday afternoon with Mrs. W. A. Cornish at 70 North Main-st. The subject of the meeting was Harriet Beecher Stowe and a very interesting program was presented.

   —The regular meeting of the Loyal Circle of King's Daughters will occur tomorrow (Friday) at 2:30 p. m., at the residence of Mrs. A. M. Johnson, 54 N. Main-st. Let there be a full attendance. Winter is here.

   —A Marathon lady has been investigating and finds that in the town of Marathon there are 83 widows and 27 widowers. That is altogether too many widows, and the widowers should take notice of the fact.—Marathon Independent.

   —The works of the Ithaca Glass Co., were completely destroyed by fire at 9:30 o'clock last night. The loss was over $60,000. One of the stockholders is Col. Uri Clark, formerly of Cortland. The fire is believed to be of incendiary origin.

   —By reason of the sudden attack last night with pneumonia of the mother of Mrs. Benjamin Eells, the funeral of Mr. Eells which was to have been held at the house to-morrow afternoon at 2 o'clock, will be held instead at the same time at the Congregational church.

   —There will be a meeting of Republicans at the Republican league

rooms to-night at 8 o'clock to make plans for a grand celebration or the glorious victory to-morrow night. All Republicans, whether members of the league or not, are invited and urged to be present.

   —There is a Binghamton minister who can even discount Justice Dorr C. Smith upon the small size of the marriage fee tendered him. The justice was given a dollar bill and ten cents to try a five cent cigar with instructions to return the change. The minister was given twenty-six cents.

   —The case of the People vs. Thomas Flannigan was tried in police court today without a jury. A verdict of not guilty was brought in and the defendant was discharged. The case was an action which was brought on complaint of John Andrews for defrauding him of a board bill of seventy dollars.

   — A regular meeting of the directors of the Tioughnioga club was held last night. Routine business was disposed of. The list of periodicals for the readingroom for the coming year was decided upon. Messrs. F. B. Nourse, W. H. Newton and F. J. Peck were elected house committee for the coming month.

   —The transit of the planet Mercury across the face of the sun will take place November 10 and will be visible in North America, South America, Europe and other quarters. It will be visible from about 10 A. M. to 8 P. M. It will take the planet about 6 3/4 hours to move across the sun's disc.

MRS. WEBB AT HOME.

Her Friends Entertained From 3 to 6 O'clock Yesterday.

   Yesterday afternoon from 3 till 6 o'clock Mrs. B. L. Webb was "at home" to about seventy of her friends. She was assisted in receiving by Mrs. Frank J. Peck. The guests were invited to the diningrooms by Mrs. William H. Clark and Mrs. J. S. Bull. Mrs. J. L. Robertson and Miss Clara M. Keator and Miss Martha McGraw and Mrs. Herbert L. Smith presided over the two diningrooms respectively. Beautiful yellow and white roses, chrysanthemums and pinks constituted the decorations. The refreshments were exceedingly fine. All unnecessary formality was dispensed with and every one present had a most delightful time.

A Normal Window.

   The north window of the jewelry store of F. B. Nourse is filled with beautiful china ware of various kinds; each piece adorned with a photograph of the Normal school. A very pretty souvenir is produced. The picture is photographed upon the china and then the ware is fired in the usual way, so that it can never come off.

A Woman of Nerve.

   A few nights ago Mrs. Charles E. Griswold of 7 Water-st., happened to be left alone in her house. At about midnight she was aroused by the sound of footsteps outside. She looked out and discovered a man near by inspecting the house. She pushed up a window and ordered him to clear out or she would give him some cold lead. The man reluctantly moved away. Mrs. Griswold was convinced that his going was a bluff, and she stepped back to a drawer and procured a revolver which she fired twice into the air outside to assure the intruder that she was not bluffing. She had the satisfaction of seeing his footsteps perceptibly quicken at the sound before he disappeared in the darkness.