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| Charles Henry Parkhurst. |
DEPARTMENT
OF GOOD GOVERNMENT.
PROFESSIONAL
POLITICIANS.
If it chances that you are contemplating or
are engaged in any reformatory movement, let me urge you to pray to have it
delivered from the influence and participation of professional politicians as
you would pray to have it delivered from the devil. (Applause.) I am not
speaking jestingly; I entered into this work in no spirit of jest three years
ago, and certainly there is not anything of it in me now. We are dealing with
matters here that concern the deepest interests of ourselves and our children,
and that not only embrace the weal of the city, but extend out and forward and
intertwine themselves with the destiny of the nation. Everything in all this
business depends upon the solidity and the everlasting immobility and the
unmarketable righteousness of the men that you tie to. Therefore, never give to
the species of creature just designated your confidence; never repose upon him
any of the weight of the critical situation. Make none of them sharers with you
in your movement. If I were to
mention the hardest lesson I have had to learn during the past three years, it
would be that of the damnable dangerousness of the professional politician, and
you know what I mean by the term. (Applause.) We are in no need of bothering to
give a definition. You have specimens of your own. (Applause.) You have
specimens of your own that you can think about while this civic monstrosity is
being considered. And it makes no earthly difference whether he is a Republican
politician or a Democratic politician. One is just as bad as the other, if not worse.—Dr. Parkhurst, Academy of Music, Philadelphia, May 6, 1895.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
The reform that is next in order, if law and
the will of the people are ever to be heeded, must be such a change in court
procedure that a saloonkeeper, guilty of selling liquor illegally, may be convicted
upon circumstantial evidence. In other criminal cases if the jury can be
persuaded that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged, even though no one
has actually seen him commit it, he may be convicted. Upon purely circumstantial
evidence hundreds of murderers have been hung and countless burglars sent to
prison for long terms. In excise cases alone it is practically impossible to convict
unless one who is apparently a party to the crime becomes accuser.
The possession of large amounts of counterfeit
money and of plates for printing the same will convict the possessor. Why then
should not the keeping of liquors and all of the apparatus for law breaking in
public houses, where the only possible earthly motive for keeping them is to
sell them and break the law, be proof presumptive that the law is broken. That
men are constantly seen coming from such places showing by many infallible
signs that they have been drinking is not legal evidence that liquor has been
sold there. That one has actually seen it bought and paid for is not legal
evidence that it has been sold unless he can swear that he has had a taste of
the identical article and knows it to be intoxicating liquor.
Such a condition of things is a ridiculous outrage
upon common sense. It is as though a man known to be a highwayman were seen
with a gun lying in wait where men are passing, and a man against whom the
desperado has a grudge were found the next morning murdered and robbed, and the
desperado displaying the plunder taken from the murdered man, and yet he could
not be convicted, because no one had seen him shoot. In fact if any one had
seen him shoot, it would make no difference unless the witness could swear that
one of the buckshot from the same charge went through himself, and that on
account of his expert knowledge, derived from much experience, he was sure that
what he swore [to verily and truly was].
There is no reason under the sun why evidence
that will convict in a murder case should not also convict in an excise case.
If all who wish to see law enforced and security and order prevail will work
for this reform, then it will be more easily possible to shut up the dens of
iniquity that are now openly defying law and public sentiment.
OBEYING THE LAW.
The Liquor Dealers' association of New York
City have decided to obey the excise law strictly because it is law. No matter
how they came to this decision, no matter what may have been the stress of
necessity that was upon them, they have conceded the great principle involved
in the struggle and will hereafter help the police commissioners enforce the
excise law. They boldly proclaim that the law must be obeyed because it is law,
and no matter how urgent the law is in their judgment. The law must be obeyed
until it can be changed, is the correct and praiseworthy stand they now take.
We wonder how long their brethren in Cortland
will lag behind them in this matter. How long must we wait for the liquor-sellers
of this place to agree that they will obey the law? Their position now is, and
has been for years, that they will sell, law or no law, and whatever may
be the will of the people expressed at the ballot box. And this makes us wonder
how long the law-abiding, virtuous majority will allow them to do this. It
would seem that a storm of popular indignation would soon break forth against
this lawlessness.
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| Daniel Lamont. |
Half
Truths About Col. Dan Lamont.
(From
the New York Sun.)
The following asseverations in The Post-Express
concerning the present secretary of war belong to that dangerous and oftentimes
deceptive class of truths which fall short of being the whole truth:
"When Dan Lamont went to Washington he
was very poor; and Uncle Sam was very rich. Now Uncle Sam is so poor that he
cannot pay the officers and soldiers of the army the wages due to them; and Dan
Lamont is so very rich that he offers to pay the money out of his own pocket. This
brief history of Uncle Sam and Handsome Dan teaches that reform is a very good
thing for the reformer."
It is true that when Col. Lamont went to Washington
in 1885 he was not a rich man, measured in dollars; but he cannot be said to
have been at that time a very poor man, for he possessed the best kind of
capital, brains, industry and a shrewd perception of the main chance. That plant,
with opportunity, is the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice.
It is likewise true that Uncle Sam was very
rich then. The surplus of receipts over expenditures for the year ending June
30, 1885, as reckoned by the method subsequently adopted by the Cleveland
administration, was about $65,000,000. The gold coin and bullion in the
treasury, less certificates outstanding, was $126,000,000 on March 4, 1885,
when Col. Lamont and Mr. Cleveland took charge. The net balance in the treasury
at that time, including the so-called legal tender reserve, was $108,764,590.11.
Those were the days of surplus, not of deficits. It is also true that times are
so bad now, after six years of Cleveland in office, and four years more during
which he was out and trying to get back, that Uncle Sam actually lacks the
ready cash with which to pay the officers and soldiers of the army.
Furthermore, it is true that Col. Dan Lamont has so prospered meanwhile that he
is able to take $50,000 out of his own pocket and lend the money to Uncle Sam
for the relief of the suffering and deserving military. This the secretary has
very generously and patriotically done, or offered to do, if current report may
be believed.
But the inference that Col. Dan Lamont has
made money out of the government, or has grown rich directly or indirectly at
its expense, would be grossly and cruelly unjust to an honest and hard working
public servant. We do not understand our friend in Rochester as making such a
charge against the secretary; yet the language The Post-Express uses is a
little unfortunate, inasmuch as it suggests that idea, if it suggests any idea
whatever.
We do not know how much money Col. Lamont
possesses, or how he got it. That is no
business of ours, or of The Post-Express's, or of any newspaper or citizen, so
long as it was obtained by legitimate business operations, and not by cheating
either the government or individuals. No human being has ever, to our
knowledge, accused Col. Dan Lamont of misappropriating one dollar, or one dime
of Uncle Sam's cash, or of using his official opportunities in any way
improperly to his own profit.
The prosperity of the most eminent of all
private secretaries, and the most loyal [or royal] and politic of all steersmen
of statesmen, ought to be a source of gratification to the American people. He was
uncommonly unselfish during his period of self-effacement. He is having his
turn now. He is a conspicuous figure in public life. He has had a tugboat named
for him. He is about to distinguish himself as an orator upon an occasion
affording a noble theme for eloquence. He has seen the great geysers of
Yellowstone Park, and has discovered that the geyser which has spouted only
twice within the memory of man is not going to spout again this year. And he
has a claim upon the gratitude of Mr. Cleveland, which would not be paid in
full if half a million dollars should be transferred from the president's
private bank account to that of Daniel.
Chinese
Apply For Entry.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10.—The 200 Chinese recently
landed at Vancouver, B. C., as anticipated, have now made application to the
collector of customs at Ogdensburg, N. Y., for entry at that port. It is stated
that these Chinese are actors, etc., en route to the Atlanta exposition, and
while there is no good reason known for their rejection, the government has
taken the precaution to instruct the collector at Ogdensburg to make a very
thorough examination into the matter before permitting them to enter.
ARMENIANS'
PLAINTIVE WAIL.
Can See
no Hope of Assistance From God or Man.
NEW YORK, Sept. 10.—Horant M. Kirctchjian, general
secretary of the Armenian Relief association, has given the following to the
press containing a direct communication from the valley of Moush, being an
extract from a private letter, dated in August, not written for publication:
"The remnant of the people from the Sassoun
region have returned to their villages. They are rebuilding the ruins, but the
government is raising obstacles so that the rebuilding may be retarded. The government
has let loose the Bakrantsi Koords [Kurds] over the hills of Sassoun. Our people
who have returned to their ruined villages are in terror and dismay. Koords, who
are friendly with our village, have sent us word, saying: 'For the love of God,
arise and flee that you may save your lives. The government has brought the
Bakrantsi Koords for the purpose of utterly exterminating what is left of your people.'
This has thrown the people into great anguish. Last year they had some arms
with which to defend themselves; this year they have not that means of
protecting themselves and are in utter extremity of misery. We see no hope of
assistance from God or from man."
AMERICAN
PACKAGES DELAYED.
Turkish
Authorities Stop Consignments of Bibles and Other Books.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Sept. 10—The Turkish authorities
at various ports of Asia Minor, notably at Beyreuth and Samsun, are again
subjecting packages sent by the American Bible House of this city for the mission
stations in Anatolia to fresh examinations and delays at the ports of arrival notwithstanding
the fact that all packages are carefully examined by the customs authorities at
Constantinople and duly sealed by that body, so that a second examination at
the port of landing becomes quite unnecessary.
Not only are such cases of frequent
occurrence, but the customs authorities at Beyreuth [Beirut] have stopped a
consignment of 6,000 Bibles and other books duly authorized to circulate in the
Automan empire on the pretext that each book has to bear the stamp of the
ministry of public instruction, this being quite contrary to the convention
existing on the subject between the United States and the porte.
Mr. Terrell, the American minister, has addressed
a note to the porte protesting against this violation of the convention and
demanding the release of the consignment in question.
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| Cortland Normal School. |
BREVITIES.
—The Normal school building is being connected
with the sewer on Greenbush-st.
—All of the men connected with the Universalist
church are requested to be at the church to-morrow night at 8 o'clock.
—Cortland friends of Mr. Hubbard Marsh of
Groton will learn with regret of the death of his daughter, Miss Carrie, which
occurred last Sunday.
—The annual reunion of the Seventy-sixth N.
Y. regiment will be held at Newark
Valley, Wednesday, Oct. 2, instead of Oct. 4 as previously stated.
—At the Onondaga Republican county convention
held in Syracuse yesterday Horace White was nominated for state senator and Jay
B. Kline for district attorney.
—The I. O. O. F. basket picnic at Lake Como,
Sept. 19, under the auspices of Moravia lodge, promises to be a grand success.
All Odd Fellows and their friends are cordially invited.—Moravia Republican.
—Mr. E. L. Moran, for some time the bass
singer in the Baptist choir, has resigned as he is about to go to Sidney with
the Cortland Cart and Carriage Co. Mr. T. N. Hollister has been engaged as his
successor.
—Invitations have been issued for the marriage
of Mr. Charles E. Lee and Miss Lena Hamilton, which occurs at the residence of
the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Hamilton, 30 Maple-ave. on Wednesday,
Sept. 25.
—Mr. M. G. Johnson has two cabbages on
exhibition at the fair that weigh 20 1/4 pounds
each. The scales tip at exactly the same notch on each. They were raised in
that field on the Randall property on Port Watson-st.
—The C. M. B. A. is this afternoon holding a
picnic at the park. It was nearly 3 o'clock before they began to go, but every
car is now well filled. The football game occurs this afternoon and there will
be a dance this evening.
—The first meeting of the Alpha C. L. S. C.
will be held at Mrs. H. L. Bronson's, 66 Port Watson-st., Monday evening Sept.
16, at 7:30 o'clock. All Chautauquans, and those interested in Chautauqua work
are cordially invited to be present.
—The picnic sports at Lake Como, Sept. 19,
are to begin at 10 A. M. All should be on hand for the tub race at that hour.
Speaking at 1 P. M., dancing at 3 P. M. and 7 P. M. A day to be
remembered is guaranteed to those who attend.—Moravia Republican.
—The 20th annual reunion of the 137th Regt.,
N. Y. S. Vols., will be held in Ithaca, N. Y., Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 25
and 26, 1895. This regiment lost as follows: killed, 126; wounded, 363; died of
disease, 167; total, 656. The present officers of the Regimental association
are John Barnard, president; J. J. Rounseville, secretary, Ithaca, N. Y.
—A man named John B. McDonalds was struck by
the engine of a train on the E., C. & N. railroad at Horseheads yesterday.
He was thrown onto the cowcatcher, from which he crawled into the engineer's
cab. He was let off after being carried some distance. McDonalds is employed by
J. S. Van Duser of Horseheads. He was not seriously injured.—Elmira Advertiser.
—Eliza Corl, Frank Corl, and Clarence Corl
of Homer were brought before Justice Thomas H. Dowd last evening, on a warrant
sworn out by Miles Rood of Homer charging them with assault. The defendants
waved examination and each gave bail in the sum of $200 to appear for trial
Sept. 13, at 10 o'clock A. M., and
Sept. 14 at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock P. M., respectively.
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