SITUATION IN HAVANA AND HOSPITAL DEATHS

Captain-General Valeriano Weyler.

Consul-General Fitzhugh Lee.

Cortland Semi-Weekly Standard, Friday, February 26, 1897.

SITUATION IN HAVANA.

ALL AMERICANS ARE TRYING TO GET AWAY.

Expect War to be Declared by Spain—Working on Harbor Defense Day and Night—Assembling the Spanish Navy—Lee Stands Firm.

   New York, Feb. 25.—A dispatch to Herald from Havana says: The situation here is critical. Every soldier and every scamp in Havana knows of the threatened breaking off of relations between the United States and Spain, and they are preparing for it. The work upon defenses is being pushed on with great energy and it is rumored every five minutes of the day that [Consul] General [Fitzhugh] Lee has received his passports and that war is declared. Americans are flocking in from the country and if one-half the Americans who want to leave for the United States on the Mascotte to-day board her she will sink.

   The position of our citizens is most critical. The rumors whether true or false, have gone abroad that the American government would not intervene, that Americans can be murdered with perfect impunity so long as the trade interests of the country are not interfered with. Unless something firm and decided and strongly American is done by our government in Washington, Americans are in great danger of their lives.

   The murder of Ruiz and the demand for the release of Scott are the sole topics of conversation. The government and palace people here tried to change the subject of conversation by giving out late last night news of an alleged skirmish with Gomez but the attempt was a failure.

   The amusement and the great hilarity which were to be observed at the palace yesterday have changed to-day. Minister DeLome, always accurate as a news gatherer, has cabled the captain general that Lee will not be recalled, that his resignation is not accepted and that he may be sustained.

   The defenses of Havana have been the scene of phenomenal activity during the last forty-eight hours. Last night the work of mounting guns was carried on by electric light on the Moro, the Cabana and land batteries. Four torpedo tubes were mounted, and six of the new heavy guns of the Ordonez pattern. These Ordonez guns are expected to do very heavy execution among the poor fellows who may be compelled to serve them. They are built at one-half the cost of Krupp and Armstrong guns of the same weight and caliber and are expected to explode; still they will probably serve their purpose.

   General Navarro, head of the navy, has ordered all available war vessels to concentrate in Havana harbor. The captain general has cabled to Liverpool for 50,000 tons of Cardiff Welsh coal for the vessels.

   Hundreds of cablegrams are pouring in on Gen. Lee from every quarter of the globe, congratulating him upon the stand he has taken, those from the United States promising patriotic action in congress. General Lee views the question from a calm dispassionate standpoint and he authorizes me to express the hope that the situation created by the murder of Ruiz and his own determination not to submit to another similar atrocity will not be exploited by partisan advocates of any particular policy toward the afflicted island of Cuba. He has acted as dispassionately and without personal prejudice in this matter, as though the outrages had occurred in Crete of Corea and he trusts and believes congress will do the same.

   The issue, he thinks, is clear. It is whether law-abiding American citizens residing abroad are to be protected or whether we are to serve notice that they can be murdered and tortured with impunity.

   When General Lee demanded the release of Scott from the illegal restraint he was suffering he informed the department of the demand he had made. He told the Washington authorities of the gravity of the situation. He asked them to act promptly to avert bloodshed and incalculable losses. He asked that warships might be sent to Havana to sustain his just demands and he concluded by saying: “I will not and I cannot stand another Ruiz murder.” He wrote that about a week ago, and he has repeated it twice since by cable and by letter. Since Sunday night last both his resignation and request for removal have been in the hands of the state department in Washington, and President Cleveland has failed to accept the resignation or order his removal. The government in Washington has up to this day failed to announce its policy.

LEE HAS RESIGNED.

The Administration Will Not Back Him Up in Protecting Americans.

   New York, Feb. 23.—A special to The Herald from Havana, via Key West, says: Consul General Lee has resigned. His letter tendering his resignation under certain conditions goes by next mail. He determined some days ago to take such a step if he were not upheld in his efforts to protect American citizens in Cuba. The consul general ashed the state department that he be authorized to demand the release of citizens of the United States confined in Cuban prisons under the same illegal circumstances as was the ill-fated Ruiz. Such authorization has not been granted him. Spanish warships in Cuban waters have since yesterday been concentrating in the harbor of Havana. This is regarded here as very significant in view of the important incidents of the last few days.

A Newspaper Union.

   The Syracuse Post and Standard Wednesday morning announced that after March 1 they will be united under the name of The Post-Standard. The Post says:

   It is believed that this consolidation of two Republican morning newspapers of Syracuse will not only be wise business policy, but will advance Republican interests, strengthen the forces that are working for municipal reform, and promote the general interests of Syracuse and the large territory in which The Post-Standard will circulate.

   The Standard says:

   It has long been apparent in this community that no one thing obstructed its natural line of advance so much as the encouragement of factional divisions within the Republican party.

   The Courier says:

   The policy of The Post-Standard will be generally the policy of The Post at present. The new paper will be owned by a stock company, in which James J. Belden will be the principle stockholder. The change is a union not an absorption of one paper by another. “The policy of the Post-Standard,” said William A. Jones, editor of The Post last night, “will be practically the policy of The Post at present. The two papers will be united and the new paper will be for clean politics and the best interests of the Republican party.”

   The Post-Standard having Henricks stockholders will not, it is understood, fight the Henricks organization.

   All of which seems to mean that the two Republican morning papers in Syracuse have tired of fighting one another and losing money and have concluded that it is not only good business policy but a wise political move to get together and try to get the party together. Syracuse has been overburdened with newspapers, and one or two more consolidations would put matters on a still better basis, looking at the situation from a business standpoint—and from every other standpoint.

   Newspapers have felt the hard times as keenly as any other business, and deaths and consolidations have been frequent. Still the “smart Alecks” who believe there is both money and fame in starting a newspaper are by no means all dead. It has been roughly estimated that a fool is born every minute.

BREVITIES.

    —A boy to learn the printers’ trade is wanted at the STANDARD office. Apply at once.

   —The board of managers of the Hospital association will hold a regular meeting at the hospital next Monday afternoon, March 1, beginning at 3 o’clock.

   —W. W. Bennett has been awarded the contract for putting in the plumbing, steam and gas fittings in the new Samson block, and his workmen are now engaged in doing it.

   —Clark Sherwood of Marathon has been examined by Drs. Trafford of Marathon and W. J. Moore of Cortland, and on an order from County Judge Eggleston has been committed to the Binghamton state hospital.

   —Rev. Alexander McWhorter Beebe, D. D., the oldest professor in Colgate Theological seminary, Hamilton, died Saturday night of pneumonia, aged 77 years. He had been an active member of the faculty for forty-eight years.

   —About forty members of the Cortland Athletic association held a private dancing party at the club rooms in Taylor hall Tuesday night. Daniels’ orchestra of six pieces furnished excellent music. The party broke up about 12 o’clock.

   —Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Pomeroy expect next week to remove their stock of millinery and fancy goods from their present quarters in the Dowd building, 91 Main-st., to 14 West Court-st., first door west of the Palace Star laundry. The lower rooms will be fixed up in a convenient way for store purposes and the upper rooms will be used for living rooms.

   —The committee from the Cortland Monumental association has received word from the war department that the association might have two 8-inch howitzer guns to place by the soldiers’ monument when the same is enclosed by a new iron fence. Also enough cannon balls to make two nice pyramids. The guns are now in the arsenal in New York and weigh one ton each.

   —The number of ladies who wear hats during a performance at the Lyceum theatre is now very small.—Ithaca Journal. Ithaca is right up with the times. Many ladies in Cortland seem still possessed of the idea that people go to the Opera House for the special purpose of admiring their big hats rather than to see what is going on upon the stage. But one of these days Cortland will join the possession and conform to good sense.

New Fire Chief.

   The board of engineers of the Cortland fire department at its regular meeting Monday night elected Adelbert J. Barber chief of the department in place of L. A. Arnold, resigned. The board also reappointed F. A. Bickford as superintendent of the fire alarm system, and janitor at Fireman’s hall. These appointments are made subject to confirmation by the village trustees.

Died at the Hospital.

   Agustus Tyrrel, on whom an operation was performed Friday at the hospital for abscess of the liver, died Wednesday morning. The remains were removed to the undertaking rooms of C. F. Blackman. Funeral services were held Thursday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock by the Masonic fraternity, of which deceased was a member, at the receiving vault of the Cortland Rural cemetery.

Appendicitis Cases.

   Within the last five days Ithaca had three serious appendicitis cases operated on, in addition to two or three the week before. These cases would probably all have been fatal without the operation, and are cases that are called “inflammation of the bowels” a hundred years ago.

   One half of those so-called inflammation bowel cases died in the first week, and the other half dragged out a painful and miserable six weeks and were crippled for life—until another attack came along and put them in  the first half again.

   Ithaca and its guardian surgeons are quick to see appendicitis and eager to use the one good treatment, operation, and the customs of a hundred years ago, though prevalent in several of the towns near Ithaca, seem crude and barbarous in the extreme to us.—Ithaca News.