SHAKESPEARE AGAIN

"Old man and child," a caricature found in a vintage edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, January 9, 1897.

SHAKESPEARE AGAIN.

HE IS ALL RIGHT DOWN IN PENNSYLVANIA.

His Father Writes to The Standard, and His Mother is About to Prosecute the Colored Preacher.

   Readers of The STANDARD will remember the account published last September of the coining to Cortland of an elderly gentleman, Adon W. Cramer of Drinker, Lackawanna Co., Pa., whose purpose was to recover possession of his son Shakespeare, who he claimed had been abducted by his mother when she deserted Cramer to elope with a colored preacher, Rev. Thomas W. Sampson.

   Cramer was interviewed by a STANDARD reporter at the time and said that after the death of his first wife he had read a pathetic interview in The Telegram with a woman named Elizabeth E. Woods, then about thirty years old who was selling papers at a newsstand on the Bowery in New York. She claimed to be a scion of nobility in England and that she had had an unfortunate marriage and had left her home with one little girl, Rosa, and had come to this country.

   Mr. Cramer's heart went out to her. He wrote to her in New York, sent her money to come to Scranton for an interview. He afterward married her and two sons, Byron and Shakespeare, were born to them. The boys were at this time 10 and 8 years old. She had a violent temper and after a little they separated and she lived in Scranton, supported by Cramer, while he continued to live at Drinker. The previous June she had eloped with the colored preacher, Sampson, who was described in appearance as a veritable Adonis.

   Early in September Cramer's attorney, E. C. Newcomb of Scranton, got an intimation that they were living in Cortland and Attorney Irving H. Palmer looked them up. It proved to be true that they were here. Sampson had been conducting a variety of religious services at Dunsmoor's park [on Port Watson Street, Cortland, N. Y.] which passed under the title of "Three Days in the Wilderness." Cramer came to Cortland and swore out warrants for the arrest of Elizabeth E. Cramer, otherwise known as Elizabeth E. Woods, and also Rev. Thomas Sampson, on the charge of abducting his eight-year-old son Shakespeare.

   Chief Linderman took the warrants and found the boy whom Cramer took back with him to Pennsylvania, but Sampson and the woman had skipped and could not be found. As the father found his boy he dropped the other matter.

   Nothing further was heard in Cortland of the couple individually or collectively until Chief Linderman received the following letter which explains itself:

UNION, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1897.

   Chief of Police, Cortland, N. Y.:

   DEAR SIR—As prosecuting attorney for the village of Union, in the case of the People vs. Thomas W. Sampson upon complaint of one Elizabeth Greenwood, I am in need of information, which will be gratefully received. This Mr. Sampson is colored and Mrs. Greenwood (as she calls herself) is white. She came from Cortland last September, where she says she had resided four or five months. She has a daughter about 12 years old named Rosa. She claims she kept house there and on Oct. 14 shipped her goods from your station to Vestal under the name of E. Greenwood. She says she did this personally at the D., L. & W. station.

   Now Sampson claims that he was in Cortland at the same time, and for a while run some kind of an entertainment there for some society and also some other kind of a show in which he figured as Uncle Dan, and that this woman took a leading part in these shows, and that they further lived together as man and wife, he supplying the house and providing for her, and that they remained there until the authorities began to make it too hot for them, then they left. He further claims that she has a husband by the name of Cramer, or something of that kind, and that she also has two boys, one by the name of Harry, which her husband took away from her while in Cortland, and further that Greenwood is an assumed name and that she goes by different names.

   Now I wish you would write to me what there is of this, if anything. She is rather tall, slim, white shiny skin, on the soiled dove order, black hair and eyes and about 35 or 40 years old. He is tall, straight as an arrow, athletic, large bright eyes, well shaped head and intellectually bright, not very dark and between 50 or 60 years old. He claims that he shipped the goods from Cortland himself personally.

   Any light you can throw upon this matter will be of great assistance to us and will be reciprocated at the first opportunity.

   Yours truly,

   RADCLIFF PARK.

   P. S.—We would like to know whether they were ever in Cortland together in any manner whatever.

   Yours respectfully,

   R. PARK.

   Just what the charge is upon which Sampson is now to be prosecuted does not appear, but Chief Linderman found upon inquiry at the D., L. & W. freight office that the woman shipped the goods, but the man called and took away with him the way bill.

   In this connection, The STANDARD quotes a letter received within a few days from Mr. Cramer, who came to Cortland to find his boy Shakespeare, and it will doubtless interest some parties here in town. It is as follows:

DRINKER, Lackawanna Co., Pa., Jan. 2, 1897.

   To The Editor of the STANDARD:

   DEAR SIR— I have a copy of your paper of Sept. 12, in which I observe some very remarkable statements. "Shakespeare Abducted" is correct, but your reporter has made us 75 years old, which is an addition of ten years. We wish this corrected, for we make great reckoning on the next ten years. Dean Swift said there were more rules than one for multiplication and possibly your reporter has learned the secret. We are, however, in no humor to scold after all the good offices tendered us by the good people of Cortland.

   We have traveled largely on sea and on both sides of the Rocky mountains and we have never met a people more to our liking. Our hotel was all we could wish and we congratulate the hotel upon having as waiters two young ladies whom for height, grace and beauty would, in our estimation, outrival Venus, and we would advise all strangers who require legal acumen to call on Irving H. Palmer, attorney-at-law. And your police force is immense. They were at our command and we met none that were above or below a gentleman and, at the suggestion of "tips," we were politely informed that they worked under a salary even to their typewriter, (a lady), and we think your people can say with Diogenes in his reply to Alexander that if he were not Diogenes he would wish to be, and we will say with Thackery at New Orleans, after being presented with a case of wine, that we hope to be snagged on the river if we ever say hard things against a people who have given us such good cheer.

   Shakespeare is all right, and we shall expect in the future a new play on Romeo and Juliette. Respectfully,

   A. W. CRAMER.

Copied from Grip's Historical Souvenir of Cortland.

WORK FOR ALL.

NO TROUBLE WITH THE INMATES OF STATE PRISONS.

Work for the State Ready to Begin at Once—The Contractors Who are out of a Job Squirming—An Interview With Prison Commissioner Mantanye.

   The special Albany correspondence of The STANDARD last night contained a criticism of the amendment to the state constitution which does away with the contract labor system, and a criticism upon the work of the state prison commission.

   A STANDARD reporter to-day called the attention of Prison Commissioner W. J. Mantanye [Cortland attorney] to the article in question and asked what he had to say about it. Mr. Mantanye replied that he had noticed the Albany correspondence in The STANDARD which purported to give the proceedings of the state commission of prisons at its last meeting held this week, stating that reports were received from the wardens of the prisons that the prisoners were idle and sullen by reason of it, and that the commission was seeking some way to employ them, but failing to find any that the commission was divided in itself, etc. The same statements appear in other papers as well.

   As a member of the commission, said Mr. Mantanye, I attended its last meeting and am familiar with its work and the condition of affairs. Your correspondent has been woefully deceived—"faked," as it were—and there is scarcely a word of truth in the whole report. The wardens did not report that men were idle or sullen and did not report at all, nor did anyone bring bad news of that kind. On the contrary, the state superintendent of prisons reported that everything was going on well, the new industries assigned to him by the commission for furnishing supplies to the public institutions of the state and counties had been taken up, and he was prepared to fill requisitions for supplies. He also suggested other classes of industries in the same line which he could take up in the state prisons, if not assigned to other penal institutions by the commission.

   The provisions of the constitution abolishing contract labor in the prisons and permitting the manufacture for use in public offices and institutions of all kinds were adopted in 1894, to take effect Jan. 1, 1897, so that two full years for preparation was given. The commissioners procured estimates last summer of the supplies needed by public officials and institutions for next year, and on the 1st of December assigned to the state superintendent the industries necessary to produce such supplies. The contracts in the prisons expired during the summer and fall and there was full opportunity to be prepared for work under the new plan January 1.

   It is unreasonable to suppose that it was delayed until now. The success of the new plan was assured. The labor contracts which were at such low prices that the state received no real net income while an unfair competition was created with other manufacturers and free laborers ought to have been abolished years ago. The penal institutions furnished shops and machinery and made laundried shirts at 30 cents a dozen, trousers at 75 cents a dozen, ulsters at 40 cents each, umbrellas 4 cents each, brooms 16 cents per dozen, iron bolts 40 cents per thousand, brass work at 1/2 cent a pound, shoes at 6 and 7 cents a pair, etc. Many free industries were driven out entirely and the price of labor was ruined, but contractors for labor and for furnishing supplies were getting rich. Of course they have bitterly opposed the new plan by which the state would have ample employment for convicts and receive the full value of their labor in reduction of taxation, cutting off the profits of the contractors.

   At first they denounced it as impracticable. However, it was proving to be a problem easy of solution and the commission was putting it in operation. Now, just as the legislature is commencing its session all this hue and cry is raised again and the commission is being denounced and misrepresented, and accused of failure, when the real trouble to those attacking it is that it is succeeding. The assignments of labor were made Dec. 1 and the commission at last meeting was engaged in the making up of its annual report to the legislature and the usual routine business.

   If the people and public officials generally co-operate, the new system which has come to stay will save the state hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. The prison officials were not in sympathy with the new provisions, because under the old way the contractors had supervision of the labor and the officials carried on the matter of boarding and care of convicts. The provisions of the law of 1889 for classification of convicts and compulsory education of them and teaching them useful trades was a dead letter.

   Now the officials will take charge of the labor and be required to put in operation the reformatory system, which makes good and useful citizens of a large number of those who have been incarcerated for breach of law and discharges them as such at the end of one or two years, instead of retaining them at state expense for long terms and then turning them out broken and dazed and unfitted for useful lives.

   The newspaper correspondents, said Mr. Mantanye in conclusion, do not get the information they are now sending out from those who know of the facts stated, but are evidently listening to hearsay and the highly colored sensational reports of those who are interested against the state and causing attacks on the commission.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Useless and Impracticable.

   The New England Free Trade league has announced itself in favor of a non-partisan tariff commission. The gentlemen composing this league are utterly opposed to protection, and the object of their organization is to advocate a plan of tariff revision which shall studiously ignore home industries and carefully avoid conferring any benefit on them by levying discriminating duties on competing products from abroad. In other words, their idea of a "non-partisan" commission is a commission of free traders who will see to it that no protection gets into the tariff.

   The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle notes that a limited number of Republican papers which believe in protection have also been advocating a non- partisan tariff commission. They are sincere friends of home industries and are above the suspicion of free trade leanings. They explicitly state that the duty of such a commission would be to keep steadily in view the protective principle and so adjust all duties on competing articles that they would cover the difference between the cost of labor and production at home and abroad. In other words, their idea of a "non-partisan" commission is a commission composed of protectionists who will see to it that American industries are properly cared for.

   It is hardly necessary to say that the former kind of commission would not suit protectionists, and that the latter kind would not suit free traders. Each kind would be denounced by the advocates of the other kind as a burlesque on non-partisanship, and there would be perfectly good ground for such denunciation.

   And so there you are. The tariff issue is inseparable from partisanship, in the sense that protectionists and free traders assemble themselves into parties for the purpose of electing lawmakers who will represent their respective views and convictions. A commission could not be non-partisan to the extent of being made up of men destitute of opinions and principles on the question at issue, because there are no such men among our intelligent population. A commission would have to have a working majority one way or the other, or an absolutely even division, and in the latter case a deadlock would prevent the performance of effective labor. And whatever the outcome might be, the whole question would finally revert to congress, the only body which has legislative power, and which would accept or reject or amend the product of a commission.

   The non-partisan commission idea coming from protectionists on the one hand and free traders on the other, opens up a prospect of confusion, conflict and uselessness. It is unnecessary and impracticable. The ways and means committee is a good enough commission. It comes directly from the people and represents the views of the majority. Let it perform its duty faithfully, fearlessly and with regard for the greatest good of the greatest number, and let congress proceed in the regular manner prescribed by the constitution. The present lawmaking power is sufficient. Neither on general principles nor in view of any special emergency is there need for loading it down with new and cumbersome attachments.

   ◘ The proposition to extend the presidential term to six years arouses languid interest. One reason is that when the average citizen contemplates the possibility of "two years more of Grover" he shudders at what might have been and thinks a four-year term is long enough.

   ◘ L'Electeur, a paper published in Quebec, declared that the bishops of the church had no right to dictate to voters in political matters. Thereupon the bishops of the province condemned the paper, and the editor had to suspend its publication. He will, however, appeal to Rome to decide whether his position that bishops had no right to dictate to church members in political matters was not the correct one.

   ◘ A farmer can have his house lighted by electricity by erecting a windmill, thus producing power which can furnish the current. The same power can be utilized to run sewing machines, saw wood or do churning.

BREVITIES.

   —A Western paper runs notices of marriages, births and deaths under the appropriate headings, "Bells, Yells, Knells."

   —Rev. W. P. Coddington, D. D. of Syracuse university will preach at the First M. E. church on Sunday morning and evening.

   —Five tramps and one drunk occupied the cooler at the police station last night. This morning they were discharged.

   —People who have little idea of what the task is to make a new tariff bill will get some information on the subject from the article on our third page to-day.

   —Mr. C. H. Gaylord received a telegram Friday afternoon from Washington, D. C., announcing the death of Mrs. Fred A. Gee, a former resident of Cortland.

   —New advertisements to-day are—C. F. Brown, Just Want to Tell You, page 4; Bingham Bros. & Miller, Big Sale of Clothing, page 8; Dey Bros., Dry Goods, page 4.

   —Mrs. Mary S. Banks, for some time matron at the Cortland hospital has resigned her position, the resignation to take effect Jan. 25. Her successor has not yet been chosen.

   —Mrs. Polly Powell Carpenter, wife of Volney Carpenter, died at her home at East River Thursday night, at the age of 76 years. The funeral will be held from her late home Tuesday at 2 o'clock.

   —Mrs. Lucy Gardner died this morning at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Hamilton, 65 Lincoln-ave. The funeral will be held from the house Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock and the remains taken to Marathon at 2:45 for burial.

   —There will be a special meeting of the board of managers of the Cortland Hospital association at the hospital on Tuesday, Jan. 12, at 3 o'clock. The advisory board is requested to meet with them, as matters of much importance will be brought before the meeting.

   —A regular meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A. will be held in the Y. M. C. A. parlor, Tuesday, Jan. 12, at 3:30 P. M. It is requested that all members be present, as plans for the convention to be held in February are to be laid before the organization.