SAMUEL COLGATE AND OLD NEW ENGLAND TOWN MEETING

Samuel Colgate.

Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, April 26, 1897.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

Samuel Colgate.

   The death of Samuel Colgate, the generous patron of the university which is named after him, occurred in Orange, N. J., Friday. He was born in New York City in 1822, and was, at the time of his death, the head of the firm of Samuel Colgate & Co., which was established many years ago by his father, and is one of the largest soap and perfume houses in the country.

   Mr. Colgate was an earnest communicant of the Baptist church, and did much to advance its interests, holding a number of positions of trust and confidence in its councils. He was especially distinguished for the interest he has taken in the affairs of Colgate, formerly Madison, university, and his gifts to it cannot have been less than $1,000,000. He ranks among the princely patrons of higher education in the land with Packer, and Cornell, and Stanford, and Vanderbilt.

   He had also been engaged for many years in the collection of matter bearing on the history of the Baptist church, and had gathered more than 40,000 books and pamphlets bearing upon the subject. The collection will probably go to the university, which has already a very considerable theological library, for which it is indebted chiefly to Mr. Colgate. His loss will be a serious one to the university, although it may be assumed that it will receive still further recognition in his will.

THE OLD TOWN MEETING

Still Flourishes In Its Pristine Glory In New England.

THE SPIRIT OF TRUE DEMOCRACY.

A Legislature of Which Every Citizen Is a Member and Where Every Item of

Town Expenditure Is Fully Debated—Its Picturesque Features.

   Town meeting day is one of the most important events in the year to rural New Englanders. Coming as it does in the early spring, it may be glorified by warm, mellow sunshine, or it may be chilled by a delayed snowstorm. But, fair or foul, the New England townsmen turn out to attend to their public duty.

   Here you get the true democracy. Each voter is a legislator, and whether he uses his suffrage selfishly for his own interests, or wields it for the general good he is intensely interested in all the proceedings. Here is true equality such as the constitution promises.

   In no part of the Union save in New England can the town meeting be seen in all its pristine glory. The middle states have something akin to it, but it is a weak imitation. In the west and south the county is supreme and the township is a division noted only by the surveyor. In Yankeeland, however, the town is the thing and the county is a larger but inferior division. This has been so ever since the days when the Puritans settled towns for safety and convenience, when they fenced them about with stout palings and built a stockade in the center. Some political historians have tried to trace the origin of the England town meeting back to the ancient Roman comitia, or the factors of the old Hanseatic league of Germany, but deeper reasoners hold that while these were precedents they did not serve as models, and that necessity began the system.

   But the past of the town meeting is not nearly so interesting as its present.

Ten days or more before the annual spring meeting a call must be issued stating not only the day, hour and place of the assembly, but the business which is to be proposed. Special meetings may be called at any time by having a call duly signed by a certain number of legal voters, and at these special business of immediate importance to the town is discussed, but the bulk of the town's affairs as well as the annual election of town officers is submitted at the annual meeting, which is held either in March or April.

   The call is divided up into articles, and the items range in importance all the way from the one which calls for the election of a town clerk or the appropriation of $1,500 "to build a new house for Vigilant hose" to the one which sets aside the sum of $3.75 for retopping the schoolhouse chimney. According to the law, the call must be posted in some public place for at least ten days before the date of the meeting. It is usually written out by the town clerk on legal cap paper and tacked up in the postoffice or on the front of the town hall. Sometimes there will be 10 or 15 feet of manuscript, the articles numbered with Roman numerals in red ink.

   The local weekly generally publishes the call entire, but the average citizen has a weakness for standing before the official document and critically perusing the various articles, meanwhile debating the wisdom of the same with two or three neighbors.

   It is also customary to have the call printed in pamphlet form, along with the reports of the town officers for the year just ended, and in this shape it is distributed on town meeting day to the voters. With one of these documents in his hand the worthy citizen is prepared to throw off the garb of unassuming reserve which he usually wears and blossom out as a statesman.

   The whole town stops work on town meeting day. It is considered rather disgraceful to do otherwise, and the farmer who stays at home on account of bad roads or to finish cutting up his summer's stove wood is looked upon as an unpatriotic citizen.

   It is no holiday affair, however. There are gravity and fixity of purpose in the very manner of Farmer Brown as he hitches his team in the shed back of the town hall. He has not driven five miles over wretched roads simply for the fun of the thing. He has come to take a hand in the business of the town generally and specifically to protest against the proposed laying of 500 feet of sewer on Washington street, which same is going to increase the tax rate by at least 2 cents on the hundred. Dr. Jones, who has determined that the Widow Martin must worry along with her "rheumatics" alone for that day at least, stalks up to the town hall with the same look on his face. He is there to see that the sewer appropriation goes through, for he lives on Washington street himself.

   The purely political rivalry is seldom strong. The few offices which are to be filled carry with them small salaries, a good deal of work and a modicum of honor. Party lines are seldom drawn, and when they are it is with a slight tension. The town clerk is about the only officer who is paid a salary upon which he can live, and he is generally re-elected from year to year. In one Massachusetts town this office was held by members of one family for more than 100 years, father, son and grandson succeeding each other for three generations.

   The town meeting opens early in the forenoon, and little time is wasted in preliminaries. The first business is always the choosing of the moderator, or presiding officer. For this post some cool, clear headed citizen who has had some parliamentary experience is selected. An ex-member of the state legislature or even an ex-congressman regards it as a personal tribute to be chosen moderator of the town meeting. Beginning with article 1 the business indicated in the call is taken up in order.

   Article 4, for instance, reads as follows, "To see whether the town will appropriate $50 for the purchase of 40 feet of new hose for the engine company."

   When this article is taken up, the foreman of the engine company rises and explains how necessary to the equipment of the fire department the new hose is and incidentally relates how, When Silas Smith's house "took fire" two months ago, it was found that the hose on hand was barely enough to reach from the hydrant to the scene of the disaster. Then the town grumbler gets in his work.

   "Mr. Moderator," he says, addressing the chair, "I want to ask right here if the town didn't buy 100 feet of new hose only last spring. What's become of that, hey?"

   "Hose don't last forever," retorts the foreman of the engine company, "and that 100 feet took the place of what was busted muster day two years ago."

   "Then, Mr. Moderator, why don't the Neverreadys stay away from musters and keep their hose whole?"

   There is a good-natured laugh at this thrust, but the appropriation goes through. The consideration of such minor affairs may seem trivial and ludicrous, but the wise Old Puritans who established the system realized that when the business of the town was transacted in this public manner it was certain to be transacted honestly, and this is as true today as it was 200 years ago. He would be a shrewd politician indeed who could "run a crooked deal" through a New England town meeting, for every dollar expended by the selectmen must be accounted for and each appropriation is debated in open session before it is made.

   The selectmen are the town executives, and they number not less than three or more than nine. Their authority is limited, and if they spend money beyond the appropriation it is at their own risk. They draw no salaries, but are satisfied with the honor which accompanies the office. Besides the town clerk, who is often the treasurer, too, there are the tax assessors and collectors, the school committeemen and the trustees of the library and other town institutions to be elected.

   Then there are the fence viewers and the hog reeves or, as they are now more commonly called, the field drivers. The duties of these officials are now largely obsolete, but when the office was established it was not so. A hog reeve is the proper official to apply to when a citizen desires to have stray cattle, hogs, sheep or other animals driven from his property or the streets to the pound. Nowadays, although their services are not often required, the office is still filled annually.

   The hog reeves are generally elected by acclamation, and the nominations are made on the spur of the moment. In some localities the young men who have been most recently married are chosen for this office as a jest and occasionally some very prominent and dignified citizen has the same unexpected and doubtful honor thrust upon him. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Concord philosopher, once served as hog reeve in the little New Hampshire town where he lived for a time and appreciated the joke of his election as much as any one.

   The town meeting is a sort of primary school for embryo statesmen; it acts as an escape valve for the pressure of public sentiment; it is the bedrock upon which rest the principles of self government, and it is a safeguard against corruption in politics. Long may it survive.

   CYRUS SYLVESTER.

LEHIGH VALLEY.

Special Rates to the Grant Ceremonial in New York.

   On account of the Grant monument ceremonial at New York City on Tuesday, April 27, the rate of a single fare for the round trip has been arranged and tickets will be sold on April 26 good on all trains that day except the Black Diamond express, and will be limited for return until and including May 4.

   Take the Lehigh Valley to New York. Baggage checked direct to hotels or residences.

Gone to New York.

   Among those who have gone to New York to witness the Grant memorial ceremonies are: Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Newton, Ernest M. Hulbert, Prof. Welland Hendrick, Mrs. Edward Keator, Oscar Van Valkenberg of Truxton, Mrs. W. H. Seaman, James E. Edwards, G. L. Warren, Mrs. D. Becker of Cincinnatus, Mrs. H. L. Rogers, Mrs. O. K. George, Miss Ella Garrity, Mrs. Mary C. Stilson, James Dougherty, C. R. Rood, Miss Jennie Humes, Mrs. C. F. Wickwire, Mrs. R. T. Peck. Mrs. C. T. Peck and Mrs. F. J. Peck.

Cortland Opera House.

Roland Reed.

   The popular comedian, Roland Reed, will be the attraction at the [Cortland] Opera House on Saturday evening, May 1. The favorite actor will be seen in his latest success, "The Wrong Mr. Wright," which promises to be one of the greatest hits he has ever had.

   In Boston it was pronounced the hit comedy of its class seen in years and played to a succession of crowded houses. The play tells a highly amusing and entertaining story and its scenes and incidents cause almost incessant laughter. Mr. Reed has a strong role in Seymour Sites, and manages to plunge himself into some wildly amusing situations and complications.

   All the characters are strongly developed and are of natural and interesting types. Chief among them is Henrietta Oliver, portrayed by Isadore Rush, in her own inimitable way. She is a fin-de-siecle woman detective. Miss Rush has the opportunity and displays some marvelous gowns.

Normals Won from Ithaca.

   An interesting game of baseball was played at the fair grounds Saturday afternoon between the [Cortland] Normals and the Ithaca High school team, which resulted in a victory for the former by the score of 34 to 27. The game was a seesaw game, first one team being ahead and then the other. The game was remarkable for the number of scores made in some innings. The Normals had three pitchers in the box during the game, Smith, VanTuyl and Enwright.

   All showed insufficient practice, but showed that they are the right kind of stuff for a strong team.

BREVITIES.

   —Revival meetings will be continued at the Free Methodist church by Misses Deyle and Adair this week beginning with to-night.

   —The funeral services of Miss Clara Covil will be held at the residence of her mother at 50 Clinton-ave., Tuesday morning at 10:30 o'clock..

   —The Odd Fellows attended service at the Memorial Baptist church last night. An account of the service is found in the notes from that church in another column.

   —A party of young men rode to Whitney Point on their wheels Saturday afternoon to see the result of the fire and Mr. E. H. Richards took several photographs of the ruins.

   —A great many people in carriages and on wheels went to Whitney Point yesterday to see the ruins, and all got wet. The wheelmen and wheelwomen had great difficulty in getting home again, as there were no trains and the roads were very heavy, while the rain fell in torrents.

   —New display advertisements to-day are—F. E. Brogden, Corn Cure, page 4; A. S. Burgees, Business Suits, page 8; J. G. Foley, Edison's Projectoscope, page 5; I. Whiteson, Winding Up Sale, page 6; Bingham Bros. & Miller, Baseballs, page 7; Warner Rood, "The Wrong Mr. Wright," page 5.

   —Fred Hatch as attorney sold at mortgage foreclosure sale at the courthouse this morning 91 1/4 acres of land on the Norris O. Woodward farm about four miles from Cortland on the Truxton road for $4,000. The land was purchased by Elizabeth Woodward. He also sold 55 acres in Truxton to Samuel Wills for $400. This also was on mortgage foreclosure.

MARATHON.

   MARATHON. April 26. — Miss Isabella Parkinson is spending a week with her uncles, Frank and Ira Corwin.

   Mr. and Mrs. Seneca Smith of Groton visited Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Smith last week.

   Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Greene of Willet have returned from their wedding trip.

   Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Valentine have returned from their wedding trip to Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

   Mrs. J. H. Tripp has returned from a five months' visit to her daughter on Long Island.

   Mrs. A. C. Robacher has returned from a week's visit at Troy and Albany.

   Marathon chapter, O. E. S., on Tuesday evening entertained the following

grand officers: Most Worthy Grand Matron Miss Anna L. Brooks of Brooklyn, Right Worthy Grand Treasurer Mrs. E. J. Kissic of New York, Past Most Worthy Grand Matron Mrs. Eliza Demorest of New York, Past Most Worthy Grand Matron Mrs. Libbie Putnam and Past Most Worthy Grand Patron Professor H. L. Fowler |of Binghamton,  Past Right Grand Treasurer Mrs. Alice Barnes of New York, Right Worthy Assistant Grand Conductress Mrs. Eva Williams of Binghamton, and District Deputy Grand Matron Mrs. Ella M. Williams, also Dr. and Mrs. M. B. Aldrich of Binghamton, Miss Alice Fairchild, Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. A. D. Wallace of Cortland and members from Lisle and Whitney Point were present. The degrees were finely rendered and interesting remarks were listened to from the grand officers, Rev. E. R. D. Rriggs, Dr. M. B. Aldrich, Prof. Coon and others. At the close a banquet was held at Hotel Lynde, also the grand officers and out of town members entertained there. There were nearly one hundred seated in the chapter rooms.

   Your correspondent took a drive to the desolate town of Whitney Point yesterday, leaving here at 11 A. M. When past Killawog we began to meet the Cortland and town bicyclists returning and by actual count there were sixty-two. Ever since early in the morning there was a continual stream of carriages and bicyclists going and coming. As we reached the village or what once was a prosperous town we saw many more wheels packed in rows here and there. It seemed that every one who owned a horse or wheel was at the village to see the ruins and crowd of people. The burned village is a sad sight to look upon.