JAPANESE HISTORY MAKERS

Punch cartoon dated September 1894 depicting China defeated by Japan.

Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, March 21, 1895.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Japanese History Makers.

   As a map changer Japan has beaten all the nations of Europe in recent times and has made no fuss about it outside either. We Americans on our part may congratulate ourselves that both China and Japan turned to this republic to make peace between them because we had no ax to grind and they could therefore trust us. Ministers Dun and Denby are to be congratulated too. Korea stands in the position of gaining her independence without fighting for it herself. Japan did the fighting for her. As pay for the fighting no doubt Japan would like to appropriate Korea to her own use, only that Russia would not permit it, and great as Japan is she is not yet strong enough to lock horns with Russia. Japan, however, gains a great prize in the island of Formosa. This was one of the richest and most prized of China's possessions. It is an island nearly twice as large as the state of Massachusetts.

   If China will confiscate the wealth of 100 or so of the officials whose corrupt and rotten administration of their duties brought upon her her present great loss and humiliation, she can pay the $250,000,000 the able correspondents have agreed on as the indemnity to Japan without much trouble.

◘ It is expected that the trains on the new underground rapid transit railway which is to tunnel New York city from one end to the other will be run by electricity. If the power can be transmitted from Niagara, as is proposed, it will be a great triumph of mechanical science. With trains run by electrically transmitted power any city whose streets are congested can build an underground railway successfully. The objection of dirt, dust, soot and smoke which holds against underground trains run by steam will have vanished. The difficulties of ventilation will be lessened more than half. It is always the smoke from the engine that is the most annoying in passing through a tunnel.

◘ In a published letter a man who calls himself "an employer of labor" calls attention to the fact that in the troubles in Brooklyn there were only two presidents to 6,000 trolley men, and in the Pullman strike there was only one Pullman to 10,000 employees. Then he asks: "Does there never cross the minds of the presidents and Pullmans the faintest shade of a suspicion that the day will come when the thousands will be their masters and that these thousands will in even fewer words decline to arbitrate, but will subject their former masters to a harsher treatment than they themselves received?"

◘ Germany has hitherto not cut a great figure as a naval power. But Little Billee [Kaiser Wilhelm II] is going to change that. He will have, with those already constructed, 14 seagoing ironclads, besides one entirely new first class cruiser and seven cruisers of the second class.

◘ New York State has only 36 bills pending in its legislature relative to bicycling. Some of them apparently aim to destroy the wheeling industry. Almost the only one that bicyclists themselves approve is an act to tax wheels and use the money derived from this source for the building and keeping in order bicycle paths in Niagara county.

Let the Black Man Stop Whining.

   One negro, at any rate, the editor of The Age, sees that all his race have to do now is to go in and win. The law has done all it can for them, philanthropy has done more for them than for almost anybody else, yet still they complain that they are kept down. When they show they are capable of accumulating money, they will be respected as much as any citizen. Ordinarily a man in our time is gauged by the money he has honorably accumulated. If the negro will not or cannot acquire money, whose fault is it?

   The editor of The Age, in a paragraph that applies to almost as many white men as black, says:

   We have got to stop complaining about lack of opportunity and make the most of such opportunity as presents itself, and when no opportunity presents itself turn to and look up opportunity. The fact is that The Age has parted company for good and all with the calamity howlers. We are opposed to the eternal voice of complaint, which drowns the voice of such progress as we are making on the one hand and blocks the way of greater progress on the other. We devote so much time and energy to the work of complaining and waiting for somebody to do for us the things we should do for ourselves that we have little left for anything else. The man with a grievance is always shunned as a nuisance. We complain of having a lot of grievances which only exist in our own heads. We complain of lack of opportunity to make money when we squander millions every year on humbug. Dollars count, but we do not hold on to the dollars; hence we are constantly passing the mendicant hat to support our own institutions and receiving a small check and a kick at the same time. We do not support our own enterprises, and then we complain because white men who receive our patronage refuse to give honorable employment to our girls and boys. We have more opportunity and advantage than we know what to do with. The fault is in ourselves and not in others. Let us stop howling and saw more wood.

Maud Ballington Booth.

Policemen's Souls.

   Mrs. Maude Ballington Booth, that beautiful as well as good woman, is going to bring the force of the Salvation Army to bear on the saving of policemen's souls. She thinks they have had enough kicks and jeers and scolding, and now by kindness and sweet persuasion she hopes to reform them and bring them into the kingdom. Naturally enough, Mrs. Booth begins her work in New York city. If the Salvation Army can save the policemen of New York, what can it not save?

   The gentle, eloquent enthusiast tells us that five bluecoats have already been "saved." One of them indeed as soon as he is off duty slips out of his municipal blue into the blue of the Salvation Army and sings and shouts and prays it with the best of them. But neither they nor anybody else dare tell their names.  It is a comment on this Christian country, if it is a Christian country, that a police officer who has been converted does not dare let anybody know it for fear he would be guyed [teased] out of his senses.

   All good people must pray that Mrs. Booth's efforts will be successful. Think for one moment what a change would be wrought in a city that had policemen who were honest, especially a city that had policemen who always told the truth and who never took a bribe to let an evildoer escape, who never sponged on the street car companies or the beer saloons along their beat. Think of policemen who took a really humane and kindly interest in the poor, the outcast and the bad who came into their hands. Think, but no—it is too good to be realized. Mrs. Booth has only converted five out of the 3,000 policemen of New York city thus far.

SMOKED THE HAMS.

A WHOLESALE JOB AT THE CORTLAND BEEF CO.

More Smoke Than Was Desired and the Fire Department Had to Assist in the Work.

   The Cortland Beef Co. put 2,000 pork hams and 1,100 beef hams in their west smoke-house yesterday afternoon and started to smoke them. As a result they had much more smoke than was needed or desired and the fire department had to be called out to render assistance in the smoking process.

   The Beef company have two smokehouses, built of brick with iron doors and placed side by side. They extend from the ground to the roof at the top of the second floor of the building. Beginning about six feet above the ground wood scantlings cross each of the smokehouses. The scantling are placed a foot apart horizontally and the rows are 18 inches apart vertically. The fires are started with kindlings on the ground and then saw dust is used to produce the smoke. The nearest wood to the fire is at least five and one half feet above it. For between three and four years this manner of smoking has been followed with satisfactory results and no thought of danger.

   It must have been that a spark caught yesterday either in the roof at the top or in some of the scantling cross pieces. At any rate at just before 5 o'clock Mr. B. C. Winchell who was in the office on the first floor and Mr. A. M. Waterbury who was in the office on the second floor at just about the same moment saw a volume of smoke blowing from the ventilators in the roof at the top of the smokehouse. Investigation showed that the smokehouse was on fire. Mr. Winchell ran over to the D., L. & W. station and gave the alarm. V. R. Merrick pulled alarm box 332 at the station. Mr. Waterbury gathered up his books and valuable papers and took them to a place of safety, for it was feared the whole building which is of wood and perfectly dry might be destroyed.

   The fire department responded very promptly. Emerald hose got first water from a hydrant west of the D., L. & W tracks and poured a stream of water into the bottom of the smokehouse through the lower door. Water Witch also attached to the same hydrant. Orris Hose and Hitchcock Hose attached to the hydrant next the office of the Cortland Omnibus and Cab Co., and as soon as the hook and ladder truck arrived Orris took a stream up on the roof and poured it into the top of the smokehouse through the ventilator. Water Witch and Hitchcock played on the sides in the place most necessary.

   While the fire was confined to the smokehouse and the roof, it looked to the crowd assembled outside, as though the whole building was on fire for the smoke poured out of the iron doors on the side of the smokehouse and filled the entire building and was coming out of the roof and the joints of the building in the most remote parts. The prompt work of the department, however, soon put an end to the trouble.

   It was very fortunate, if a fire were to occur down there, that it was in the day time and that it was promptly discovered, as fifteen minutes more start in that wooden building would have put it beyond the hope of salvation.

   It is impossible yet to estimate the loss accurately. The damage to the roof and to the fixtures in the smokehouse will exceed $100.  The damage to the meat cannot yet be determined, but it will probably reach $250 and may be considerably more. At any rate the loss is fully covered by insurance as the Beef company has a blanket policy of $8,000 on the building and its contents.

On the Virgil Road.

   The streets look bare enough here in town, but back on the hills there are still big drifts. Yesterday Edward Ballard of Dryden tried to drive a light wagon over the hill to Virgil. After successfully surmounting numerous difficulties he turned one wheel inside out and gave it up. He then borrowed a pair of light bobs and went on.

Franklin Hatch Library on Court Street.

A Fine Entertainment.

   The Hatch library was filled to its utmost capacity last night upon the occasion of the entertainment given by the Ladies' Literary club and the Fortnightly club for the benefit of the King's Daughters. The two plays which have been previously given by these two clubs in private at their regular meetings were repeated. The Fortnightly club gave "The Story of a Mirror," and the Ladies' Literary club followed with "Chronothanatoletron." Both have been described in previous issues of The STANDARD at the times of their original presentations.

   The stage last night and the greater space used gave opportunity for better stage work and more pleasing effect than previously when the plays were given in private parlors. Both plays were very much enjoyed by all.

   The excellent music by Misses McGraw, Richardson and Stoker with guitar accompaniment by Miss Stoker added not a little to the pleasure of the evening.

BREVITIES.

   —The Loyal circle of King's Daughters will meet with Mrs. A. M. Johnson, 54 N. Main-st., Friday, March 22, at 2:30 P. M.

   —"When you actually feel meaner than you really are, you may conclude that you have the grip" is the way a business correspondent of The STANDARD diagnoses that prevalent disease.

   —The sun crossed the line at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon and spring then began. From now on the day will be longer than the night. Although winter is no more, it isn't advisable to don your gauze underwear and linen duster just yet.

   —The supper, under the auspices of the Sunday Evening Service club of the Congregational society, to-morrow night promises to be an enjoyable occasion. It will be prepared and served by the men, commencing at 5:30. A general invitation is given.

   —A gentleman who has recently returned to Cortland after an absence of some years says that in the old days he used to call South Main-st. by the name of "Slop-st." When he came back and saw the present condition of the street and the sidewalks he remarked that he felt perfectly at home again.

   —A Plymouth Rock egg which weighs 4 3/4 ounces and measures 6 3/4 inches in circumference the short way has been brought to this office as a sample of what Plymouth Rocks can do. The owner of the fowls requested that his name should not be used, but he thinks that a couple of such eggs will make a pretty satisfactory breakfast for most people.

HOMER DEPARTMENT.

Gleanings of News From Our Twin Village.

   F. J. Root of New York City is devoting a few days to his business at the wire cloth mill of the company of which he is president.

   Homer is to have another hotel. Geo. I. Crane, a former proprietor of the Windsor, has leased the Brown block on Wall-st. and will open a small hotel there about April 1. Repairs are now being made on the building; and it is expected to be in order by the first of the month.

   The interior of the Riggs block on Main-st. is also soon to undergo a change. The store now occupied by Carl Dillenbeck is to be divided by a partition and the two stores thus formed will be occupied by Jay Frier, who will move his meatmarket there and Carl Dillenbeck who will continue his confectionery business. Carl will occupy the north store and in the summer will serve ice cream in a room recently fitted up for the purpose in the rear of the store.

   The number of wheels to be seen on the highways are constantly increasing and doubtless before many days all the sleighs will be stored in the barn lofts to await the coming of another winter. The streets in town are almost entirely bare and the sleighing is confined chiefly to the gutters.

   The funeral of A. S. Gage was held from his late home on Cayuga-st. yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock. The Rev. J. L. Robertson of the Presbyterian church of Cortland officiated. The interment was made in Glenwood cemetery.

  

Mrs. Lamont's Busy Life.

   Of Mrs. Lamont [Juliette Kinney of McGrawville], the Washington Post says: "She is a constant source of wonder to her friends in regard to the amount of energy she exhibits in all departments of a very busy life. Her tact in receiving people who call on her, and her memory for names and faces, are almost marvelous, and though perpetually on the go socially, she seems to have more time than almost any woman in Washington for her religious and church duties. 'Why' said a lady last week, 'just think of this one day in her life that I know of and wonder with me how in the world she stands it. Her morning was occupied with her household cares and her children; at 2 o'clock she went to a luncheon; at 5 she received with Mrs. Cleveland; at 8 a dinner claimed her, and after that she attended the Chinese embassy ball. But what surprised me still more was that the next morning at 9:30 she was up and brought her little ones herself down to Sunday-school—and what is more,' she continued, 'she seems to find time to attend all sorts of church and missionary meetings, and that is surely a good example for us all,' she finished with a sigh, at her own shortcomings, no doubt."