BURGLARY AT MCGRAW, N. Y.

Cortland Semi-Weekly Standard, Friday, October 28, 1898.

BURGLARY AT MCGRAW.

Postoffice Robbed—Safe Blown Open—Money and Stamps Taken.

   The postoffice at McGraw was entered by burglars Monday night. The safe was blown open and stamps to the value of $600 and about $70 in cash were taken. Entrance to the office was effected by forcing open the front door with an iron bar and chisel. It also appears as though an attempt was made to gain an entrance through the front windows before forcing the door. The handle was forced off the door of the safe and some explosive, probably dynamite, was used to blow open the door. The safe door is a total wreck. Postmaster B. T. Burlingham knew nothing of the affair until he was summoned Tuesday morning. He was in the office until after 11 o’clock Monday night and so far as can be ascertained the deed was committed about 3 o'clock Tuesday morning. Miner’s bakery is in the building adjoining the postoffice on the east and Mr. and Mrs. Miner sleep in the building above the bakery. About 3 o’clock Tuesday morning they were awakened by a noise and Mr. Miner got up and went to the door but did not notice anything out of the way.

   Tuesday morning about 6:30 when Geo. Sutcliffe who is employed at the paper box factory came to the office to mail a letter he found the office door open and the shades drawn. He went inside and saw the condition of the safe and notified Mr. Johnson of the firm of Maricle & Johnson. Mr. Johnson at once hastened to the home of Postmaster B. T. Burlingham to notify him of the state of affairs.

   In addition to the money and stamps which were taken a five dollar pipe donated by E. Robbins of Cortland for the the coming Hose company fair, which was lying on the desk is also missing. The money order blanks were not disturbed. An electric light is left burning all night over the safe and the curtains of the front windows are always left up so that the safe is in plain sight from the street. Tuesday morning the shades were down and the light was turned out.

   Postmaster Burlingham was obliged to come to Cortland Tuesday morning to get stamps and supplies for his day’s business.

   McGraw seems to be a favorite place for postoffice thieves. It is only a little over four years ago, when Mr. Bean was postmaster, that the office was broken into and money and stamps taken, and forty-nine years ago, during the postmastership of P. H. McGraw when the office was in the same building where it is now located burglars also made a raid upon it. The postoffice inspectors have been notified of last night’s burglary but as yet no clue has been obtained to the perpetrators of the deed.

 

THE SCHOOL CLOSED

As a Precautionary Measure in District No. 15.

   Mr. B. B. Morehouse, a member of the town board of health, acting upon authority from the board closed the school in district No.15 on the McLean road Wednesday morning as a precautionary measure in the case of smallpox. The district adjoins the McLean district on the west and at a meeting of the board of health held Friday after the visit of the Cortland doctors to McLean it was deemed wise to close the school for a time although no cases had developed in the district. The children attending school and their parents are back and forth to McLean more or less all the time and it is thought that if the school is closed for a week or two there will be less danger of the disease spreading.

 

Cortland Opera House.

Washburn’s Minstrels.

  Washburn’s minstrels at the Opera House next Monday night. The Reading Eagle says: Washburn’s minstrels gave a good performance in the Academy of Music to a large audience. Many of the specialties were entirely new and original. The singing was up-to-date and the show all through was thoroughly enjoyed. A feature of the evening’s entertainment was the exhibition of the bioscope. The pictures were thrown on canvas on the stage and were excellent representations of real life. A fire scene in New York City, in which the fire engines are seen leaving their house, the liberation of animals from a burning stable, and the Black Diamond Express running sixty miles an hour were loudly applauded.

 

Thomas J. McEvoy, Alumni Editor, Normal News.

Entertainment at Virgil.

   Principal Louis Lindsey has arranged for a stereopticon lecture entertainment on the Spanish-American war for the benefit of the school. T. J. McEvoy of the Cortland Normal school will give the entertainment in Winslow’s hall at 8 p. m., Saturday, Oct. 29. This lecture, which is illustrated by over 100 views, has been given twenty-two times for the benefit of schools in Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Tompkins counties. It is a comprehensive and interesting review of the geography and history of all the islands and countries that have had a part in the late war. Admission for adults, 15 cents; children under 12 years, 10 cents.

 

McGRAW.

Breezy Items of Corset City Chat.

   This village never takes a back seat in political meetings and Tuesday evening was no exception. The speakers were N. L. Miller and George S. Sands of Cortland and E. I. Edgcomb and R. R. Ridel of Syracuse. The Corset City band furnished music and W. J. Buchanan acted as chairman of the meeting.

   Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Coe of Gilbertsville are guests of Prof. and Mrs. C. F. Place.

   Mr. and Mrs. Fred McUmber have moved to Blodgett Mills.

   Mr. and Mrs. Fred Turner are happy. It is a son, born Oct. 23.

   Miss Elizabeth Talbot, who has been home for a few days, has returned to New York.

    The funeral of Lawrence W. DeZeng, who died from brain tumor at noon Tuesday, Oct. 25, aged 28 years, 7 months and 8 days, was held at the residence of his mother on Academy-st. at 3 o‘clock Thursday afternoon. The interment w as at Redwood, Jefferson county. Undertaker Parsons accompanied the remains as far as Syracuse. Mr. DeZeng has been a patient sufferer for years, every one was his friend. For the past few months he has been confined to the house and his death was not unexpected. Mrs. DeZeng, his mother, has the sincere sympathy of the community.

   On account of a surprise given to the Standard reporter on Monday night, this column has been neglected for a day or two. While he appreciates the attention of his visitors he would like their address, as they evidently forgot to leave their business cards.

   Some one forced a window in the Thomas P. Taylor box factory Wednesday night and opened the outlet gate of the engine boiler so that the boiler was emptied. When Engineer Sutliffe arrived in the morning he glanced at the water gauge and was surprised to see no water. Upon investigation he found the gate open and a window on the east side forced. If a hot fire had been left the damage might have been great, but as it happened a quantity of straw board waste had been burned that afternoon and the fire was low. The matter will be investigated and if the parties are discovered they will find it a serious affair.

 

VILLAGE TRUSTEES.

Graham-ave. Property-Owners Want a Sewer—Plans for Disposing of Union-st. Surface Water.

   At a regular meeting of the board of village trustees Monday night, all were present except Trustee Nodecker of the Third ward. A petition from I. H. Palmer, Sarah F. Bull, W. J. Hollenbeck, Benjamin Smith and Benjamin L. Webb, property-owners on Graham-ave., asked the board, through the board of sewer commissioners, to construct a sewer 430 feet in length in Graham-ave., running north from Prospect-st. The petition set forth that the soil up on the hill is hardpan, and there is no natural way of disposing of sewage. The sewer board had acted favorably on the proposition and Clerk Hatch of this board explained that the sewer board under the present law has the power of extending sewers but no power to raise money with which to pay for such work. The petition was accompanied by a written statement from F. L. MacDowell, president of the village board of health and Health Officer E. A. Didama, declaring that for sanitary purposes the extension asked is necessary. The matter was referred to the board of health, and if this board adopts a resolution demanding that the work be done, the board of trustees will authorize it. The cost of the improvement is estimated at $172.

   The board audited the bill of R. A. Stowell for supplies for the enginehouse amounting to $7.86, and the bill of Dougherty & Miller for costs in the case of Mary Conway against the village of Cortland amounting to $23 was also audited.

   Owners of property on Union-st. presented a petition asking that the curb lines as now set entering that street from the new pavement be so changed as to make the street with those lines extended, 36 feet wide. The lines as now established would make the street 30 feet wide. The petition bore the signatures of Riley Champlin, Lewis Bouton, D. G. Corwin, S. N. Holden, Mrs. R. B. Smith, Julia E. Hyatt, Celinda Davis, Robert Purvis, H. F. Shirley, E. B. Grannis, L. C. Holton, A. B. Springer, Mrs. Helen Corwin, E. C. Cleaves, Henry Bays, Mrs. O. F. Allen, Geo. S. Sands, A. E. Buck, Mrs. S. Freeman, Mrs. H. Hamilton, Dr. E. B. Nash and Sophia A. White. On motion of Trustee O’Leary, the petition was granted.

   By resolution of the board, it was decided to dispose of Union-st. surface water by constructing an iron covered sluiceway across Main-st. at that point, and then south under the east walk through a wooden sluicebox to the Lehigh Valley tracks.

 

BREVITIES.

   —There will be a social dancing party at Vesta lodgerooms Saturday evening commencing at 8 o’clock.

   —The regular monthly meeting of Mr. R. J. Lucas’ Sunday-school class of the First M. E. church will be held at Miss Maud Grannis’, 25 Union-st, Friday evening, Oct. 28.

   —Mr. Devere Truman of Cortland and Miss Lucy Malone of Ithaca were married at Groton Tuesday. They have gone to Syracuse and Sandy Hill on their wedding trip, and will reside in Cortland at 6 Excelsior-st.

   —D. L. Bliss, the Clinton-ave. cigar dealer, was relieved of his pocketbook containing $85 Monday afternoon during the Republican rally. He carried the money in his inside coat pocket, and attributes his loss to some light fingered individual.

   —The excellent music for the celebration Monday afternoon was furnished by the Cortland City band and the Homer band. The two bands playing together, thirty-one pieces in all, rendered several selections with fine effect, especially Sousa’s Stars and Stripes, much to the delight of the large crowd upon the street.

   —Prof. A. B. Kingsley desires his Cortland pupils to know that none of them need fear catching smallpox from him because, by reason of the scare at McLean and Dryden, he has not visited those places this week to meet pupils there and consequently has not been able to bring back any germs with him. He will keep away from the quarantined districts till all danger of contagion, if indeed it exists now, is over.

 

UNIFORM TEACHERS’ EXAMINATIONS

For the Second Commissioner District of Cortland County.

   The uniform teachers’ examinations for the Second commissioner district of the county of Cortland for the year 1899 will be held as follows:

   First Grade—Jan. 12, 13 at Homer; Aug. 10, 11 at Homer.

   Second and Third Grades—Jan. 12, 13 at Homer; April 13, 14 at Preble; Aug. 10, 11 at Homer; Nov. 9, 10 at Truxton.

   Grade Examinations—Dec. 22, 23; Jan, 26, 27 and June 8, 9.

   Ninth grade examinations occur in January and June only and the questions for this grade will be sent to all teachers making application for them, but such application should be filed with the commissioner thirty days before the date of the examination.

   The Normal entrance examinations will be held in connection with each of the uniform teachers’ examinations upon the dates and at the places mentioned above. I. W. Van Buskirk, Commissioner.