UTAH CELEBRATES ITS STATEHOOD AND CORTLAND VITAL STATISTICS

Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, January 17, 1896.

UTAH CELEBRATES ITS STATEHOOD.

   Jan. 6, 1896, was a triumphal holiday for the people of Utah, as they met in

Salt Lake City to celebrate the entrance of the territory as the forty-fifth state of the Union. The booming of cannon and the ringing of bells was followed by an immense street parade. The new governor, Heber M. Wells, delivered the inaugural address congratulating the people of Utah, as well as the United States, upon the auspicious occasion which had called them together. The governor extended the hand of greeting to the women who are now under the state constitution admitted to equal suffrage with men.

   This triumph of woman suffrage in Utah is doubly important from the fact that women had already been voters for seventeen years in the territory from 1869 to 1886 when they were disfranchised by congress, an act contrary to the general wishes of both men and women. Accordingly when the men of Utah under the recent enabling act elected a convention to form a state constitution, woman suffrage was restored by an overwhelming majority. All four parties had previously declared in its favor in their state conventions. An effort was made in convention to reconsider the woman suffrage clause as endangering the admission of the state, but it was promptly voted down.

Whiskey at Fires.

   The Geneva Review in its account of the Trumansburg [New York] fire says, "The Friends of the firemen who opened bottle after bottle of whiskey and sent it to the firemen, may have been just as generously disposed; but they did more harm than good. Whiskey at such a time is a positive injury, as every old fireman will testify. It doesn't make warmth five minutes after. A gallon of coffee at that time is worth forty gallons of whiskey.

   "At the Trumansburg fire it did further injury. Liquor was dealt out in such quantity to the half frozen men that it soon incapacitated most of them, and a drunken fireman is as much in the way as the obstreperous bystander, who always goes to fires and tells how to put it out and never does anything himself."

Deaths of Centenarians.

   The Homer Republican has noted that during the year closed the Utica Herald tried to keep a record of people reported to have died in the United States at the age of 100 years or over. The total as reported was, curiously enough, says the Herald, just one hundred. Two-thirds of these were women, all but four being white women. Of the colored centenarians there were thirteen men.

   The oldest person to die was a colored male, who was 125. A white man died in St. Louis who had claimed to be 140, but there was no proof that he was over 121. Even at that age, however, he was the oldest white man to die during 1895. The oldest white woman was 120. There were fourteen people whose ages ranged from 110 to 125.

LEAP YEAR PARTY.

Thirty-six Couples Dance in Empire Hall.

   There was a very enjoyable leap year party in Empire hall last night which was participated in by thirty-six couples of young people. The hall was tastefully decorated with bunting and with the national colors. The young ladies as hosts of the evening were untiring in their efforts to make the male portion of the company have a good time, and the unanimous verdict was that they were wholly successful.

   There was one particular, however, in which it is alleged that things did not come out quite according to the expectations of the ladies. Signs were displayed in conspicuous places bearing these inscriptions: "Any gentleman asking a lady to dance will be fined ten cents," "The gentleman caught making love to a lady or asking for two-lip salve will be fined sixty-five cents."

   It was said by some that the ladies expected to realize a sum from fines sufficient to pay for the expenses of the party. This is doubtless the allegation of some bad boy who was not favored with an invitation. But at any rate if there was any truth in the claim the ladies were disappointed, for the young men conducted themselves in the most exemplary manner and there [was] not an occasion for the collection of a single fine.

   There were twenty four dances on the program and Miss Annie Cleary acted as floor manager and blew the whistle. Daniels' orchestra furnished excellent music.

   At 12 o'clock cake and coffee were served by the Misses Hardy, Cleary, Mourin, Ryan, Stillman, Goodyear, Dennis and Gleason.

   The guests from out of town were the Misses Lillian and Frankie Egan from Ithaca and Marion [Warne] from Preble.

   It was 3:30 o'clock this morning when the party broke up.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

The World's Final War.

   There is the possibility of a tremendous war in Europe. It has been predicted for half a century by those who recognized the tension of the relation between the nations there, and what is looked for a long time generally comes to hand at last. It is possible that the United States would be involved in such a war, if it came, though all Americans must hope we should not be.

   At any rate, if it should come this much is tolerably certain—it would be the last great war in which the nations of the earth as represented by the civilization of today would be involved. It has been many a year since Great Britain had a very important war all on her own account. The last great fight in which the British flag was carried—carried, too, to victory—was the battle of Waterloo. Where the next great fight will be it is possible the year 1896 will develop.

   The reason that there can never be more than one more great war, as society is now organized, is that the implements of fighting have reached such deadly effectiveness and precision that arbitration must perforce be resorted to unless the nations desire mutually to wipe one another off the face of the globe. Dynamite has never yet been used in a great war. It will be in the next one. The storming of a fort, which has heretofore constituted so picturesque and effective a part of warfare, can never be possible in the old way. Hereafter a part of the defenses of a fort will be torpedoes set round about underground.

   If a storming party approaches, a little child may press the button that will send them one and all to eternity. Or if, on the other hand, it is the force inside the fort that has the fortune to be blown up, the mines will be laid secretly underneath the fort, and a button pressed many miles away will send the fort and its inmates to destruction. Ships may be and will be blown up in the same way, no matter how thick their armor. The armor cannot be made that will withstand the power of dynamite.

   In the small arm service of the modern fighting hosts the rapid firing rifle has attained such deadly proficiency, in connection with the smokeless powder now in use, that it is a hundred times as effective as the old rifle was. The glory and romance of battle belong to the past. Wholesale destruction of life by sea and land will be the inevitable result of a great war.

   There are no more opportunities for picturesque daring and deeds of personal valor by which a hero makes his name immortal. Marching out to battle will simply mean standing up to be shot, with the chances two to one in favor of being shot to death. The personal valor of the future must be exhibited on the moral battlefield.

   The inevitable result of settling their differences by fighting them out will be such wholesale destruction of life by sea and land that the nations will never dare again to invoke the red demon of war. Yes, there may be one more great war in the history of the present world cycle. There will never be more than one. It will be followed by universal disarmament.

BY JOINT COMMISSION.

Probable Settlement of the Venezuela Matter.

OUR COMMISSION UNNECESSARY.

The Indications Now Are That the United States Will Have No Part in the Final Adjudication of the Boundary Dispute.

  WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—Aside from the leisurely manner in which the Venezuelan commission is arranging to prosecute its work there are other indications that the [Cleveland] administration has become convinced that this august body will not have the honor of settling the great boundary dispute.

   A settlement is likely to be found in an agreement between Great Britain and Venezuela directly, brought about through the good offices of a third party, not necessarily nor probably the United States, to submit to a joint commission the question of the title to all territory west of the Schomburgk line, with a proviso that if in the course of the inquiry of the commission evidence appears to touch the British title to the land lying to the eastward of that line, then the body may extend its functions to adjudicate such title.

   This arrangement would meet the British contention that the original arbitration shall be limited to lands to the westward of the line, while still conceding the justice of the contention of President Cleveland that the lines on the other side may properly be taken into consideration in fixing the boundary.

   Possibly a supplementary arbitration may be left to deal with the question as to the title of the eastward lines if the original commission dealing with the matter shall find that the title to the lands is a fit subject for arbitration, as shown by the evidence produced before it.

   To the newspapers of British Guiana the president's message on the Venezuelan boundary dispute came almost as a Christmas present, as the news of its contents reached Georgetown only a few days before that day.

   The Daily Chronicle at Demerara of Dec. 24 is full of comment upon the subject.

   Generally the criticism is harsh and very unfavorable to the president, who is accused of pandering to political considerations, while the Monroe doctrine itself is upheld as an English idea, twisted far from its original intent by demagogues to force it to fit the present controversy.

RECOGNITION OF CUBA.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee Considers the Question.

   WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.—The question of recognizing the belligerency of the Cuban insurgents absorbed all the time of the house foreign affairs committee.

   While it is by no means certain that a majority of the foreign affairs committeemen regard it as expedient to grant recognition to the belligerents at this stage of their fight, a feeling of dissatisfaction did crop out at the meeting because no apparent progress is being made by the committee toward reaching a decision on which it can make a report to the house. Some dissatisfaction was expressed because the state department has not yet furnished the committee the information in its possession on the status and progress of the war in Cuba.

   About two weeks ago the house adopted a resolution calling on the secretary of state to forward all the evidence in the case in his possession.

   The net result of the meeting was an agreement to intimate to the state department that the committee is waiting solicitously for the information in its possession.

   The Hawaiian cable matter was entrusted to a subcommittee consisting of Messrs. Hitt, Smith and McCreary.

BUSINESS ON CLINTON-AVE.

J. D. Doran to Embark in the Grocery and Meat Business.

   Mr. J. D. Doran, formerly proprietor of the Model market, is making preparations to open a full line of groceries and meats at his residence, [184] Clinton-ave. Two large rooms are being fitted up and early next week he will be ready to serve his customers with the best of groceries and the choicest meats. The business entrance will be on the west side of the house. Should the venture prove a success, as it undoubtedly will, Mr. Doran will in the spring erect a building 22 by 32 feet in size just west of the house.

   Mr. Doran is an enterprising business man and has many friends and will without doubt secure a large share of the patronage in that part of the village.

BREVITIES.

   —The Democratic National convention will be held in Chicago, July 11.

   —The Homer letter contains an account of the revival in progress in that village.

   —Grotonians would be pleased to have the Lehigh own the E., C. & N.—Groton Journal.

   —The Alpha C. L. S. C, meets at Mrs. A. Graves, 35 Madison-st., on Monday evening, Jan. 20.

   —New advertisements to-day are—F. Daehler, ready, page 5; G. J. Mager & Co., capes and jackets, page 8.

   —A pavement of pulverized cork has been introduced into Utica. The Herald says it is durable, noiseless, and cheap.

   —A bill has been introduced in the assembly providing that bicycles shall be deemed baggage by railroad companies.

   —The mechanical drawing class of the Y. M. C. A. will meet Saturday night at 8 o'clock. Prof. E. C. Cleaves, the instructor, will be in attendance.

   —In another column in to-day's issue will be found the complete record of births and deaths in Cortland for 1895, also the total number of marriages reported for the same period.

   —The congress of the Knights of Labor, Thursday, adopted a resolution providing for the introduction of a bill in the legislature compelling street railway companies to make all cars vestibule.

   —Attention is called to an article on the seventh page entitled "Sale of Country Produce" which was written by C. O. Newton of Homer and which appeared in the last number of the Country Gentleman.

   —As the cold weather strengthens and the snow deepens, rumors are afloat that the E., C. & N. is to be extended to the St. Lawrence. The question comes up annually during this season.—Camden Advance Journal.

   —John P. Lee, once a deputy sheriff in Cortland county under Sheriff Borthwick, died in Syracuse, Wednesday. The funeral will be held there this afternoon at 3 o'clock, and the remains will be taken to Marathon for burial.

   —An entertainment will be given in the Presbyterian chapel on Friday evening, Jan. 24, under the auspices of the Ladies' Aid society. Part of the program will include tableaux in which the cradle songs of the different nations will be introduced.

   —The recital attending the opening of the new organ of St. Mary's church will be held on Wednesday evening, Jan. 22. A fine program of instrumental and vocal music will be given. Prof. Renaud of Syracuse will be in charge of the organ at this time.

   —The children of Miss Van Bergen's room at the Owego-st. school enjoyed a sleigh ride to Homer and return this afternoon. Yesterday afternoon Miss

Allen's pupils in the Schermerhorn-st., and Wednesday afternoon Miss Mary S. Blackmer's pupils in the same school enjoyed rides to McGrawville.