PERRY STILL AT LARGE

Oliver Curtis Perry.

Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, April 12, 1895.

PERRY STILL AT LARGE.

None of the Escaped Criminals Yet Captured.

AN ATTENDANT UNDER SUSPICION.

Circumstances Point to Complicity of a Keeper In the Escape—Searching Parties Return to Matteawan Empty Handed

—Keeper Carmody Suspended.

   FlSHKILL LANDING, N. Y., April 12.—The attendants from the Matteawan criminal insane asylum, some 16 in number, who have been out scouring the country for Perry and the other escaped convicts, returned to the institution at sunset last night, none of them having been able to find any trace of the fugitives. It is believed by many that the escaped prisoners are in hiding in the woods or in some barn not far from the asylum, waiting for nightfall to continue their flight.

   Attendants were sent to Poughkeepsie, Dunbury, Newburg and as far south as Peekskill also, and the police of all the important cities have been asked to look for the convicts.

   When the alarm was given one of the escaped men was seen on the roof of the main building. He slipped down behind the gable and was not seen again. As there is a possibility, however slight, that the man may have returned to the attic and secreted himself, Dr. Allison has stationed a guard in the attic to capture the man if he appears.

   Though as yet no evidence has been adduced to show that Night Watchman Carmody had any hand in the escape, the circumstances point so strongly to neglect that Superintendent Allison has relieved Carmody from duty pending an investigation.

   "At this time we are so greatly in need of men that I do not deem it wise to make any large number of suspensions," said Dr. Allison. "I court the fullest investigation, and shall do everything in my power to bring the guilty to justice if he is within the institution."

   The asylum authorities are still unable to find out how the men left their rooms without forcing the doors. The only keys to the doors were in possession of Keepers Boyle, Altey and McNulty and Roundsman Carmody.

   All these men produced their keys except the roundsman, who says that his were taken from him after the prisoners had overpowered him and tied him to Perry's bed, where he was found.

   Referring to the insanity of the escaped men Dr. Allison said:

   "Quigley is the most insane of the lot. He has hallucination of hearing. He imagines he hears people plotting against his life. He does not sleep well and has frequently asked for medicine to make him sleep.

   "Perry's insanity is of a peculiar order. He is possessed of great cunning, but is of a low degree of morality, though he likes to pose as a man of good principles and as a martyr. He is said to have received injuries by a fall some years ago and bears the mark on his head. At times he has an idea that he is going to be killed and I am informed that he attempted to put out his eyes while in Auburn prison."

Prison Officials Determined.

   POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y., April 11.—State Superintendent of Prisons Austin Lathrop telegraphed Superintendent Allison to spare no expense to capture the escaped convicts.

Situation In China.

   LONDON, April 11.—The Times has a dispatch from Pekin, which was published today stating that the officials in the Chinese capital are largely ignorant of the situation in respect of Japan. Discussion of war questions is limited. The foreign office, especially the grand council, has few consultations with the ministers of the foreign powers. These consultations are now fewer than when Li Hung Chang was in Pekin.

   The Manchu people strongly resent the idea of ceding Manchuria to Japan. The former war faction is still strong and argues the danger of creating disaffection among the people. This faction is unwilling to yield to Japan, but fears that resistance is impossible. Prince Kung, the leader of the peace party, who has control of the foreign office and the military and naval forces of the empire, is still in feeble health and his sick leave has been extended.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Lack of Good Story Writers.

   An immense demand exists for good stories. There seems to be a revival of novel and noveletto reading which is remarkable in this hard, realistic age. It may be a reaction from the iron hard necessities that condemn us only to the real and practical.

   However that may be, the demand for good stories is not at all supplied. American publishers must go to British writers for their serials. We have few good story writers in America. Those we have have not distinguished themselves lately. There is no way but for American authors to keep on trying till they do strike the right gait.

   An editorial notice in Munsey's Magazine utters the universal plaint about the lack of good stories as follows:

   We want stories. That is what we mean—stories, not dialect sketches, not washed out studies of effete human nature, not weak tales of sickly sentimentality, not "pretty" writing. This sort of thing in all its varieties comes by the car load every mail. It is not what we want; but we do want fiction in which there is a story, action, force—a tale that means something—in short, a story.

   Good writing is as common as clam shells, while good stories are as rare as statesmanship. We get thousands of manuscripts, alleged stories, in which the "story" is not worth the telling—meaningless, flat, inane, and yet these "stories" are carefully, cleverly told. They only lack one thing, and that is the story itself.

   This magazine has published far too many such stories. It has published them because we have been unable to get better ones. But we have gone just as far as we are going on this road. We are going to stop, and stop short. After this issue there will be no more stories in Munsey's Magazine unless they seem to us to be worth reading. We realize that a story that will interest one person will not necessarily interest his neighbor, but we feel reasonably safe in assuming that a story of good, strong, human interest will appeal to the great majority of readers.

   Acting on this decision, we have gone to press without even a serial story in this issue. We went to press without it because we had none worth putting in.

An Aboriginal Inventor.

   One would almost as soon expect a Digger Indian to become a great inventor as that Mr. Granville T. Woods would be one. His case contradicts one of the most firmly established scientific theories—that mechanical genius is confined to the white races, and so called civilized ones at that.

   Some 30 years ago a boy went to blowing the bellows in a railroad repair shop in Australia. One grandfather was a full blooded Malay. The other grandfather and his two grandmothers were lower yet in the scale of human development, being full blooded Australian aboriginal negroes, those whom we are taught in our geographies to regard as the most inferior known type of humanity. We are left in the dark as to whether the boy had any white blood at all in him, but vanity makes one conclude that he must have had, or he could not have done what he has.

   The boy struck his gait when he went into that machine shop. He made himself familiar with every piece of machinery in the shop and paid the superintendent out of his small earnings for private instruction. He came to America and became a railroad engineer. Then he turned his attention to inventing, particularly in the electrical line. He has made many useful electrical inventions, the most important of which is a device for regulating and governing the speed of electric motors. Have we here a negro Tesla or Edison?

EASTER WINDOWS.

Cortland Merchants Make Attractive Displays.

   If there was no other way to tell, a walk up Main-st. and a glance at the gaily decorated windows would convince one that Easter was not far distant. Among the windows not previously mentioned are the following:

   The south window of the store of G. J. Mager & Co. is very attractive. A large goose, whose head moves quite naturally stands in the window. The back ground is formed of sacks of swan feathers.

   Mr. F. M. Quick has arranged the south window of the Grand Union Tea Co.'s store with the panel pictures, which are being given away. The pictures represent a little girl seated on a hen coop with a lap full of eggs and a very lifelike rabbit and hen near by.

   Candy eggs of all descriptions and realistic chickens of all sizes fill Beaudry's north window. A back ground of the Easter numbers of the popular magazines and a variety of beautiful Azalias plants in full bloom complete a very tasty display.

   One of the neatest decorated windows is the south one of Tanner Brothers' store. Three large pillars around which are gracefully draped the latest spring designs in dress goods, with a variety of trimmings to match are surmounted on palms, one of which almost touches the ceiling. Some fine Calia lilies and other potted plants in full bloom, dainty sun shades, delicately tinted gloves and ribbons and dress trimmings make a display at which almost every one who passes stops to look.

   Ament & Brazie have driven all the children crazy with their brood of little chickens, some of them only partly hatched.

   Warren, Tanner & Co. have a window display of Easter silks, summer parasols and spring goods.

   Case, Ruggles & Bristol, Kellogg & Curtis and A. H. Watkins have all made special arrangements of spring goods.

   J. T. Davern & Co.'s and Mrs. W. W. Gale's windows are blooming with spring millinery.

   F. Daehler has Easter lilies in his window.

   The window decorators of some other stores are busy this afternoon making displays for to-morrow.

Some Local Geographical Points.

   Some of our readers are much interested in the letters from county correspondents, but are unable to locate a few of the places represented. They have called at the office and we have pointed out the places in question upon the map, but lest the same questions may have occurred to others we will say that Brackle is situated upon a creek of that name in the extreme eastern part of Cincinnatus, and of the county. It is about two miles east of Cincinnatus village. Eaton Hill is in the town of Willet in the southeast part of the county. Galatia is in the town of Marathon, about two and one-half miles northeast of Marathon village on the road leading toward Texas Valley. Penelope is in Broome county close to the Cortland county line and at the extreme southeast corner of the county. [And Elm Stump is between Cortland and Virgil on the Virgil Road—CC editor.]

A Sign of the Times.

   There could be no surer sign of the growth of bicycling in the favor of young girls and old girls and girls all the way between, than the establishment of a paper devoted to the interests of female riders of the, at first, slippery, balky and head strong, but finally, exhilarating, inspiring and ecstatic "bike."

   The paper has been established. Its title is "The Wheelwoman,'' and its dwelling place is Boston. It is published monthly by The Wheelwoman Publishing Co. at 131 Tremont-st. at $1 a year, or 10 cents a copy, and its editor is Mary Sargent Hopkins. It is as beautiful in illustrations, typography, paper and press work as an 1895 bicycle is in lines and finish. It "fills along felt want" just as a wheel does with a male or female biped who has been wishing and scheming and working to get one, and is, at last, enjoying the first wrestle with bucking pedals and contrary handle bars, or crawling out from under the machine and thanking fortune that it was only shin and not bones that broke.

   Every wheelwoman will want "The Wheelwoman." Every woman who wants to become a wheelwoman will want it. Every woman who thinks she is old or stiff or nerveless to become a cyclist ought to read it—on the same principle that bad men sometimes read sermons, and wish that they—the men not the sermons—were better. And it is barely possible that the reading may make such readers younger, limberer, nervier, and reckless enough to practice in private and at last appear in public, so crazy over wheeling as to throw all their intensely proper associates into hysterics.

   There is only one objection to "The Wheelwoman." It does not advocate the adoption of bloomers by female cyclists and the riding of a diamond frame wheel straddle fashion. But progress, though slow, is sure even in Boston, A year or two may see "The Wheelwoman" publishing patterns and descriptions of bicycle bloomer suits.

MELTED LEAD.

One Man Badly Burned, Another Has a Narrow Escape.

   Late yesterday afternoon Mr. James A. Maynard started up stairs in Gleason & Lane's plumbing shop with a pot full of melted lead. He was carrying it on a pot hook, which broke just as he left his work bench. The pot struck right side up but the fall was so heavy that the seething liquid shot high in the air. Some of it struck Mr. Maynard in the face and badly blistered the left eye and left side of his face. Some of it went up his nose and it required a pair of pliers to pull it out.  Hot cloths and bandages were applied and Mr. Maynard showed his pluck by working to-day.

   Mr. James Gaffney, who was working on the floor at the time, also had a narrow escape. The sheet of melted lead slopped so high that it went completely over him.

Central School Class Election.

   The Central school graduating class of '95 met Thursday afternoon at 3:30 o'clock, for the purpose of electing officers and to decide upon class color, flower and motto. The following officers were elected:

   President—Miss Mary Edwards.

   Vice-President—Mr. Denera Cotton.

   Secretary—Miss Edna Gridley.

   Treasurer—Mr. Harry Todd.

   Poetess—Miss Nellie M. McGraw.

   The committee appointed to select class colors was: Miss Eva Jobe, Miss Nellie Stebbins and Mr. Harry Todd; to select class motto: Mr. Theodore Persons, Miss Rosa Goldsmith and Miss Nellie McGraw.

   The rose was selected as class flower.

BREVITIES.

   —Burgess is having a new sign erected.

   —There will be a meeting of the Y. M. C. A. bookkeeping class to-night at 8 o'clock.

   —The work of removing the mud from the cobblestone pavement was began this morning.

   —Mr. Edwin Robbins has added a convenient as well as attractive electric cigar lighter to his store.

   —The Candy Kitchen was this morning ornamented by one of the handsomest new signs to be seen in the village.

   —Mrs. Harriet N. Gibson of Norwich has just died and left to the Norwich Y. M. C. A., $10,000 to be devoted toward a new association building.

   —The fourth French class at the Normal, which has just finished its work under Miss Booth, presented her yesterday with a beautiful potted Easter lily.

   —John S. Wells and family have moved to Tully, where Mr. Wells will conduct a branch produce house for Springer & Tubbs.—Moravia Republican.

   —The meeting of the town board yesterday for the hearing in relation to the granting of franchises to the Cortland & Homer Traction Co., was adjourned to Monday, April 22.

   —The Little York Ice. Co will begin next Tuesday shipping ice to Binghamton to supply the immediate demands. That which has already been shipped will be held in reserve.

   —W. C Palmer has begun keeping his popcorn stand, on the corner of Main and Court-sts., open mornings as well afternoons and evenings. Harrison Raymond has charge of it during the forenoon.

   —Much matrimony makes mutable Moravia millinery. Marriage has changed the firm of Mead & Jennings to Van Etten & Jennings, and again to Van Etten & Storm, all within a year.—Moravia Register.

   —Amid the ruins of the great fire at Hamilton were found numerous pieces of china without a crack or blemish. They were taken from beneath tons of stone and brick, and iron pillars which were all twisted out of shape by the fire.

   —A regular meeting of the W. C. T. U. will be held Saturday, April 13, at 2:30 P. M. Consecration service will be conducted by Mrs. James S. Squires. The program for the after meeting will be in charge of Mrs. Anna Bentley, superintendent of the department of Sabbath observance.

   —The chief topic of conversation in every store, office, barber shop and business place this morning is the escape from prison of Oliver Curtis Perry, the train robber. One man said "I wouldn't like to meet him on the highway between here and Virgil. If I did and he wanted my team he could have it."

   —John Edwards, who said he was a newspaper reporter, lived in New York city, was 38 years of age and once owned a paper in Cortland, was arraigned in the police court this morning on the charge of being a tramp. He was discharged and told to go and find work somewhere.—Syracuse Journal, Thursday.

   —At police court this morning one man, arrested last night by Sheriff Hilsinger, who had not ten dollars in his pocket was given ten days in jail for drunkenness. Chief  Linderman made his first arrest last night. It was a drunk and his prisoner was brought before Justice Bull this morning, but as he was not yet sober he was sent back to the cooler.

   —What is known as the "common drunk bill" has passed the assembly at Albany. The bill provides that all habitual drunkards shall serve cumulative sentences on each arrest, and provision is also made for the identification of a person convicted of intoxication within two years of his last arrest. The second sentence is to be double that of the first, and so on.

   —We have many times called attention to the fact that news items or advertisements or anything designed for publication in any one of the three papers issued from this office should be addressed to the Cortland STANDARD or to the Cortland STANDARD Printing Co. and not to individual members of the company or to any employee of the office. They will then be properly opened up in their receipt and will be put immediately into the hands of the one having charge of the department for which the contents of the letter is intended. If addressed to an individual personally and that person is not in the office at the time that the letter arrives, it may lie around until it is too late for publication in the paper then being prepared. This particular exhortation to properly address letters is called forth by the arrival of an important news item which was addressed personally to an employee of the office and which waited a half day for his return. Meanwhile some one else had sent in another account of the same event which was at once published and which chanced not to be nearly as complete in details as the one which arrived first, but which was opened last and too late for publication.  

For the Volunteer Firemen.

   Members of the Cortland Fire department and friends of George W. Irish, who was elected president of the State Firemen's association when it met in Cortland in 1888, will read with interest the following from the Cazenovia Republican:

   Mr. Geo. W. Irish slipped away to Albany a week or two ago, presumably to shake hands with the boys. It seems to be in evidence that his grasp has lost none of its affectionate persuasiveness.  He was gone only two days and a night, but he set the mill grinding on a bill of great interest to volunteer firemen. It has since passed both houses and been signed by the governor. It provides that if a volunteer fireman losses his life at a fire or dies within a year from injuries received his heirs shall receive $500 from the city, incorporated village or if in neither, from the town in which the fire occurred, the same to be raised by tax in a manner similar to other expenses.