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| Japanese cruiser Naniwa. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Tuesday,
July 13, 1897.
TO RAISE OLD GLORY
At Once in Hawaii
If Japan Takes Aggressive Action.
NEW YORK, July 13.—A special to The Herald
from Washington says: Any aggressive interference on the part of Japan will
result in the landing of blue jackets and marines and the hoisting of the American
flag over the Hawaiian Islands with or without the ratification of the pending
annexation treaty.
The administration, realizing that some
crisis might arise while the treaty still hangs fire in the senate, has taken
steps to be prepared for any emergency. Rear Admiral Beardslee will have, when
the next steamer arrives in Honolulu, instructions giving him power to act in the
manner indicated above at the first sign of aggression on the part of Japan, or
trouble of any kind with which the local authorities are not able to cope.
It was not until after the receipt of the last
mail advices from Hawaii that the officials considered it necessary to issue any
specific instructions to the American minister and the naval commander at Hawaii
regarding the course to be pursued in the event of trouble. These advices were
of such a nature as to cause a conference between the state and navy department
officials which have resulted in the instructions, which contemplate the
landing of marines and the hoisting of the American flag over the government buildings
in Honolulu on the first sign of interference by any foreign nation.
While believing the reports concerning the
possible aggression by Japan were unnecessarily alarming, the authorities have
considered it prudent
to have the American
representatives in Hawaii clothed with all necessary authority to act promptly
and forcibly if the occasion should arise. They do not now believe that Japan, knowing
the positive purpose of the United States to annex the islands, will go beyond
a little diplomacy to prevent the consummation of that policy.
Rear Admiral Beardslee will be given sufficient
force to carry out any program that events may force upon him. It is definitely
settled that the battleship Oregon, now en route to San Francisco from Seattle,
will be dispatched to Hawaii as soon as she can be prepared for the voyage.
This will give Admiral Beardslee three vessels—the Oregon, Philadelphia and
Marion. Japan has at present only one vessel in the harbor at Honolulu, the
cruiser Naniwa. She has another cruiser at San Francisco awaiting orders which
may take her to the Hawaiian Islands.
Members of the senate committee on foreign
relations, having been informed of the purpose of the administration to assume
control of affairs in Hawaii in the event of Japanese interference, do not
consider that the annexation treaty is endangered by delay. The treaty will be
reported to the senate, but unless some unexpected emergency arises it is not
the present intention of the committeemen to press it to a final vote during
the present session. They are seemingly not at all worried by the protests and
threatening manner of Japan.
GENERAL BANDERA DEAD.
Noted Insurgent
Leader Meets Death During a Battle.
HAVANA, July 13.—Reports from Sancti Spiritus
confirms the rumor that General Quintin Bandera, who commanded the insurgents in
the engagement on July 5 at Papaya Heights, was killed during the fight.
Captain General Weyler, who left Sancti Spiritus
in the latter part of last week with the Asturias battalion surprised a camp of
the insurgents near Jarico, and a sharp engagement took place. Among the killed
was the well-known Dr. Hernandez.
The Yberia squadron, while reconnoitering
near Guanabana, on the north coast in the province of Pinar del Rio,
encountered a large band of insurgents, killed 19 and captured 2.
The Spanish destroyed the huts at the salt
mines and a sugar mill.
STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.
State Camp at
Peekskill in an Uproar.
CORPORAL M'DONALD
KILLED.
Many Other
Soldiers Are Badly Torn, Burned or Rendered Unconscious—
McDonald Was to
Have Been Married on Saturday Evening Next.
NEW YORK, July 13.—Lightning struck in the state camp at Peekskill. One man was killed, and many others were badly hurt.
The storm at Peekskill was a terrific one.
Rain fell during the entire day, and as a result, the men did not have many duties
to perform. A number of them gathered in the Young Men's Christian association
tent, which was commodious and occupied generally by those who had reading or
letter writing to do.
There was a blinding flash of lightning, and
in a moment the tent was down and in flames. A general alarm was sounded, and
the guardsmen and ambulance corps came at double quick.
Almost every man who had been under the
canvas was shocked by the lightning.
Corporal J. J. McDonald, of Company A,
Twenty-second regiment, was dead. Half a dozen more men were unconscious.
The body of Corporal McDonald was the first
taken from the ruins. The surgeons worked over it for an hour or more, but
their efforts were fruitless. Those who were knocked unconscious were revived,
some of them only with great difficulty and one or two of the men are still in
a serious condition.
Those who suffered the most are:
Private H. Pringle, Company E. The bolt struck
him on the right leg above the knee, badly marking it. The flesh at the ankle
was blistered and the shoe torn off. The whole leg was paralyzed.
Private A. Sylvester, Company I; struck on
the left leg, leg badly burned.
Private A. D. Schaffer; no visible marks but
suffering from shock.
Private J. W. Crawford, Company A, general
shock. He was seated beside Corporal McDonald, and was struck unconscious.
Private J. F. Lutz, Company C, burned along
the right thigh and ankle, was unconscious when taken out. He was suffering
from shock and nervous prostration.
Private J. L. Duncan, Fourteenth Separate
company, burned on the left forearm and hand; right wrist burned.
Private Wagner, Sixteenth Separate company,
right side and foot burned.
Private Fred Gerber, Forty-seventh Separate
company, shoe torn from right foot.
Walter Francis, negro, badly bruised and
left arm burned; Francis was thrown through the tent by the shock.
Manager Schefield of the Young Men's
Christian association, general shock.
Benjamin Steamer and J. Owen, both negroes,
waiters in the restaurant, suffering from shock and slightly burned.
Everything possible was done hastily to make
the men as comfortable as possible, and the most of them are progressing favorably.
For a short time the whole camp was in an
uproar and it was feared that the fatalities would number more than one.
Corporal McDonald's body was placed in a
tent and a guard assigned to do duty over it. The colors were placed at half-mast.
Corporal McDonald lived with his mother at
447 West Thirty-fourth street, this city. He was 22 years old. He had been a
member of the Twenty-second regiment since 1893, and was looked upon as an
exemplary soldier. He was to have been married next Saturday evening upon the
return of the regiment from camp.
The letter which McDonald had just written
was found. It was, as supposed, to the young woman whom he was to have married.
It was signed, "Yours until death, Jim."
He is said to have been in the act of
addressing the envelope, having just signed the letter, when the bolt struck
the tent.
Killed by
Lightning.
GENEVA, N. Y., July 13.—During the heavy
thunder storm that passed over this city Thomas Rue was struck by lightning and
killed instantly. Rue was employed as a laborer in one of the local nurseries. He
was lowering a window to keep out the rain when the lightning struck him near
his shoulders. The current passed down his legs and through his feet, burning
the flesh and tearing his shoes.
 |
| Walter Wellman. |
FLOTSAM AND
JETSAM.
Gathered From the
Sea of Washington News.
UNCLE SAM'S
DAMAGED STAMPS.
A Chickamauga
Belle—Attractive Southern Girls—Information For the Fair Daughters of the North
—Land So Poor That It Will Not Raise a Disturbance.
WASHINGTON, July 18.—(Special.)— Many
complaints have reached the postoffice [sic] department during the past month concerning
the quality of the adhesive gum used on postage stamps. In the excessively hot
weather which has prevailed throughout the country many business firms and individuals
have suffered loss or annoyance through the sticking of postage stamps to other
objects than the letters for which they were intended. Every one knows how provoking
it is to buy a lot of stamps at a postoffice or agency and to find them all run
together when they are wanted for use. It is believed that if a better quality
of adhesive glue were used there would be less trouble of this sort. The
postoffice department has authority to redeem spoiled postage stamps, and in an
average year $250,000 worth of damaged stamps are replaced by new ones. But the
authority to do this does not extend to "stuck" stamps—only to those
whose face has been ink-marked or accidentally canceled, so that they could not
be accepted in the mails.
Uncle Sam's
Finest.
Uncle Sam has a very nice little trust in
the postage stamp business, and he ought to turn out a more satisfactory
article. At the present time the cost of manufacturing and delivering postage
stamps to any part of the country is only 6 cents per thousand, and as a
thousand twos are worth $20 it is easy to see that the government has a wide
margin of profit. Notwithstanding the apparent difficulty of working off to advantage
bogus stamps, frequent attempts are made to produce counterfeit postage stamps.
The secret service makes a number of arrests every year for this offense. In a
single year the bureau of engraving and printing here turns out more than $80,000,000
worth of stamps, and about $12,000,000 worth of stamped envelopes are also
used. It is a remarkable fact that there is enough carelessness in this country
to make it possible for the government to sell in a single year $450,000 worth
of postage due stamps, principally ones and twos.
While President McKinley and his party were
at Chattanooga last month General Grosvenor of Ohio
was approached by a one armed Confederate veteran. The old fellow had for sale
bullets and other souvenirs of Chickamauga battlefield. He warranted them all
genuine. One piece of flattened lead he placed in General Grosvenor's hand,
with the remark that he had himself cut it from a tree on the battlefield.
"Was it a Federal or Confederate
bullet?" asked General Grosvenor.
"Federal," replied the veteran
promptly. "We didn't shoot at trees."
General Grosvenor bought the relic as a reward
for the old fellow's wit.
A Decided
Attraction.
Among the Chattanooga gentlemen who escorted
the presidential party over the field of Chickamauga it was discovered that of
nine in one group seven were from the state of Ohio, and all seven had served in
the Union army, most of them having been present at the battle of Chickamauga.
"How do you account for so many Ohio
soldiers coming back to Chattanooga after the war was over to find
homes?" I asked.
"Well, I guess it was in part because
we liked the scenery of this beautiful spot," replied one of the
gentleman, "but in my case I am willing to confess that it was a southern
girl. I met her while I was soldiering here, and I told her that after the war
was over and the rebels had been whipped I should come back to claim her. She said
the rebels never would be whipped, and that if they were and I came back here
she wouldn't speak to me. She was so much of a southern woman that one day she
was up there on Lookout mountain and she begged the artillerymen to let her
pull the lanyards of a gun. They consented, and she fired a gun at the Union
troops in the valley below, of whom I was I one."
"And you came back after the war was over?"
"Yes, and the girl said that inasmuch
as all the other Confederates had surrendered she was going to stay with them
and surrender too. We have been married now for a quarter of a century."
This little story brought out the
interesting fact that of the seven Ohio men who had returned to Chattanooga
after spending some time there as soldiers five had been hired back by the wiles
of Tennessee maidens whom they had met while doing duty as young soldiers in
the town between the hills. To this day one can understand why a man would be
willing to give up his home and his family and his party, and if necessary
conceal his convictions, in order to take as wife one of those fair southern
girls.
The Glories of
Dixie.
It is rather odd, though, and of the fact I
am assured by a good many people in Nashville,
Chattanooga and other southern cities, that the southern young men have a
weakness for northern girls. Whenever a northern girl goes south to visit
relatives, she may as well make up her mind that she is going to be married. It
would be ungallant to say that northern girls purposely hunt up southern
relatives and hint for an invitation to pay them a visit, but the large number
of matrimonial ventures indulged by northern girls and southern young men has
become a well recognized social tradition in Dixie.
Henry Clay Evans, now commissioner of
pensions and one of the most popular men in Tennessee, tried to explain to
President McKinley what a rich and productive country Tennessee was. After he
had dilated for some time on the glories of his native state Mr. Evans was a
little surprised to hear the president ask:
"Haven't you any poor land in Tennessee?"
"Oh, yes, Mr. President," replied
Evans, who well knows the value of apparent sincerity when he wants to have a
tall story believed. "Oh, yes. We have a leetle land in this state which
is said to be so poor that the people can't even raise a disturbance on
it."
WALTER WELLMAN.
SCHOOL
IMPROVEMENTS
Decided Upon by the
Board of Education Last Night.
The [Cortland] board of education held its regular monthly
meeting last night. The resignation of Miss Eleanor E. Miller as principal at
the Central school was accepted. Her successor has not yet been named. The
revised course of study was reported with the approval of the state
superintendent of public instruction, and was authorized by the board. The new
course provides for one more year's work in the Central school, that is, a
forty-eight count Regents' certificate for graduation, and also for admission to
the Normal.
Some of the school buildings and grounds
will be improved. A new porch will be provided for the Pomeroy-st. school, the
grounds about the Owego-st. building will be nicely graded, and minor improvements
and changes will be made in the other ward schools.
BREVITIES.
—There will be a joint meeting of the session
and board of trustees of the Presbyterian church at the pastor's study to-night
at 8 o'clock.
—A special meeting of the A. O. H. will be
held at Empire hall, Wednesday evening at 8 o'clock to make further
arrangements for the excursion to the Thousand Islands.
—At a special meeting of the Epworth league
of the First M. E. church last
night, Mr. C. F.
Weiler was elected president in place of Mr. J. G. Marshall, resigned on
account of leaving town.
—New display advertisements to-day are—D.
McCarthy & Co., University Bicycles, page 6; C. T. Brown, Ideal Photographer, page 4; A. S. Burgess, Summer Shirts,
page 8; D. E. Shepard, Life's Lessons, page 4.
—While "Hawk," the proprietor of
the Chinese hand laundry on Clinton-ave., was out on an errand Saturday
evening, some stranger entered his place of business and relieved the money
drawer of its contents, between $2 and $3 in change.
—The Congregational church and Sunday-school
who are to picnic at Sylvan Beach to-morrow will doubtless read with pleasure
the weather report to-day "Tuesday night and Wednesday fair." The
special train leaves the Lehigh Valley station at 9 o'clock.
—The funeral of Abram F. Lewis will be held
from the home of his nephew, L. Huguenin, 187 Port Watson-st., at 8 o'clock
to-morrow morning. The remains will be taken on the 9:48 A. M. train over the
Lehigh Valley and interment will be made at Tribe's Hill.
—The Northern Pacific Railroad company's
land car is at the D., L. & W. station to-day and is being visited by large
crowds. This is the same car that was at the Lehigh Valley station some weeks
since and which was then described in detail in The STANDARD.
—Miss Jennie Bell, who was so seriously burned
April 29 at Judge Eggleston's by her clothing catching fire from contact with
the flames while burning waste paper in the yard, was able to be removed
Saturday night in Beard & Peck's ambulance to her home near East Homer.
—The attention of baseball enthusiasts is
called to the table of standings of the State league clubs, which is absolutely
correct according to the president of the State league, and which agrees with
the record kept by The STANDARD, showing that the record has been correctly kept,
while that published by other papers has been incorrect.
McGRAWVILLE.
Crisp local
Happenings at the Corset City.
Floyd Ensign and Miss Florence Baker of
Centre Lisle were at Miss Baker's uncle's, A. A. Borthwick, on Sunday.
Mr. Ensign called on his grandmother, Mrs.
Alma Ensign, who is reported as no better.
Rollo Dibble returned Monday evening from a
brief trip to Binghamton and Westville. Mrs. Goodell
and daughter Julia will remain for a few weeks.
Mrs. Elizabeth Snyder Roberts of Syracuse
spent a few days with Miss Corey last week. She is arranging the program for
the Round Table at Tully [Lake] Chautauqua assembly which promises to be more
interesting than ever before.
Rodney Morse, who is having great success in
selling the Champion threshers, is in Stella, N. Y., on business connected with
that machine. Among those sold by him last week was one in Marathon.
William Gleason has just finished the erection
of a large barn for Watts O'Brien which speaks highly for the ability of the master
workman.
Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle of Syracuse are guests
of Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Harvey.
A. P. McGraw has in his grove in the rear of
his residence many fine trees which have reached a size to be enjoyed during
sultry midsummer days, but of all the varieties there is none equal to a
splendid magnolia tree now full of the most fragrant blossoms. Your reporter's
sanctum still bears the perfume of a large cluster with which he was recently
favored.
Rev. N. S. Burd and family left Monday for a
two weeks' visit to his mother in Hornellsville.
Merton Hammond of Bridgeport, Conn., who is
visiting his parents here, received a reminder of the friends left behind which
proved their remembrance of him as well as their ideas of art.
