The Cortland Democrat, Friday, November 4, 1898.
LEVER WINNIE CONVICTED.
The Mystery of the Lisle Fires Solved.
The trial of Lever Winnie and his conviction at Binghamton, the past week, has been watched with much interest by many Cortland people, as Winnie has several relatives in this village with whom he has frequently visited. Although his proper name is Winnie, he is known here as Joe Johnson, his father having died when he was quite young and he has since lived with his uncle V. M. Johnson at Lisle, and adopted the name Johnson.
The history of the circumstances which led to Winnie's arrest on the serious charge of arson discloses a chain of circumstances that is interesting reading. In February, 1897, the large and slightly known as the Hodskin house, just across the river from Lisle village, was burned early one Saturday evening and the work was evidently of incendiary origin. A few weeks later the barn of Mrs. W. H. Sparrow was set on fire and totally destroyed, the incendiary taking the trouble to remove a cow which was in the barn.
By this time the people of Lisle had become alarmed and the services of Detective S. F. Black were secured. Within two weeks, while the people were attending a temperance meeting one Sunday evening the third fire was discovered in the machine shop of O. D. Phillips. This was also entirely destroyed.
In some way suspicion fell upon Winnie, and a dummy detective, named Blake, was sent to Lisle, and he at once became on intimate terms with Winnie. They drank together, and it was during one of these debauches that Winnie confessed that he had set fire to the buildings. Blake's story is that to entrap Winnie in the act an arrangement was made to burn a barn belonging to Geo. H. Littlewood, and Detective Black and Constable R. H. Glover were notified to be on guard. On a certain night Winnie was caught lighting a match on the hay and was captured by the officers.
The above story was brought out on the trial, and while Winnie did not deny the story of Blake, his version of it was that he and Blake were telling stories while both were intoxicated, and that to match Blake he invented the story of his connection with the fires. He further explained his connection with the Littlewood barn by testifying that Blake told him there was a bottle of whiskey in the hay and he lit a match to enable him to find it. A large number of Lisle citizens were called as witnesses in the case. He will receive his sentence at the close of the term of court.
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| John Jay Chapman. |
Citizens' Union Meeting.
A small crowd attended the Citizens' Union meeting in Taylor hall Wednesday evening, and nearly all present seemed to be either Democrats or Republicans who went more out of curiosity to hear what the new party leaders had to say.
Edmund Titchner of Binghamton, the candidate for state treasurer, was obliged to preside over the meeting, and by way of introducing himself said he hoped that ere another campaign rolled around there would be such a revolution in Cortland that a local chairman could be selected. He made a brief speech eulogizing Col. George E. Waring, the candidate for state engineer who died last week, and closed by introducing John Jay Chapman.
Mr. Chapman characterized both political parties as boss-ridden and clothed with corruption. He said the Citizens Union party could not support Mr. Roosevelt because if he were elected the Platt organization will be brought into power and will do all it can to defeat the Colonel's honest intentions. Then, too, if the Republicans win, Platt will have the best of opportunities to strengthen his machine throughout the state.
The last speaker was Charles Frederick Adams, who made some very telling points against "Teddy" Roosevelt. Among other things he said: "Just now we are struck all of a heap that "Teddy" Roosevelt did what thousands of other men did do every year, and that was faced a gun up hill. Why, I know of a Mastiff dog who would go where Teddy wouldn't, but still I won't vote for that Mastiff. Has Teddy any dignity left that he goes about boasting of his war record, and also that he goes about talking such clap-trap as "vote for me, for I ended the war and only through me can you keep the Spaniards where they should be."
Ballots Delivered.
Though this was the first experience of the DEMOCRAT job rooms with ballots for the county, our efficient workmen and fast presses turned out the big job and had it all delivered to the county clerk two days earlier than it was ever done before. This materially lightened his labors, for it gave him plenty of time to inspect and prepare them for delivery to the town clerks.
Our job rooms are constantly turning out first-class work and we always aim to deliver it on time or a little before. If you are in the habit of going elsewhere, give us a trial for our prices are right.
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our Regular Correspondent.)
Washington, Oct. 31.—A leak in the Paris end of the administration has made it apparent why the Republicans were so anxious that the treaty of peace should not be concluded before the congressional election. We are to get the Philippine Islands. But we are to buy them—a new wrinkle, after capturing territory by force of arms, to pay money for it either by paying a large sum in cash or by assuming about $40,000,000 of Spanish bonds, or by both. It is not surprising that the Republican managers should dread such information as that going to the country on the eve of an important election, nor that they should now be trying to discount it by saying that nothing had yet been positively determined upon, except that we would demand all of the Philippine Islands. That demand was to-day officially made by our peace commissioners of the Spanish peace commissioners, but it was known in Paris several days ago, and known to the Spanish commissioners that this government had agreed to a position to buy the Philippines. A suspicious thing about this agreement is that a special issue of Spanish bonds of $40,000,000, alleged to have been issued for public improvements in the Philippines, which were floating [around] in the financial markets of Europe, from the time they were issued, all suddenly disappeared about the time the peace commission met, and to-day not one of those bonds can be bought. Where did they go? They were bought up by somebody according to the testimony of European bond brokers. Did that somebody have advance inside information that this particular issue of bonds was worth more than other Spanish bonds because of this agreement of the United States government to buy the Philippines? If so, who gave that information, and who is going to profit thereby? These are questions that will not down, and which may, if Mr. McKinley allows this agreement to be carried out, bring about a scandal that will make Algerism seem like a very small matter.
Secretary Gage has been giving away administration secrets, by publicly admitting that while he hoped for the election of a Republican majority of the next House, he would not go so far as to say that he looked for Republican success. The only difference between Secretary Gage and the other members of the administration is that he has publicly said what they all think and say privately.
MAKING TALKING MACHINES.
A Big Factory That Turns Out A Thousand A Day.
The talking machine is coming into such general use for home entertainment and for business purposes, that the making of talking machines is now counted as a permanent industry. The extent of the industry and its rapid growth are among the most interesting features of recent industrial progress in America. The great improvement in talking machines has made it a much-to-be-desired musical instrument for the home. In fact a Graphophone is all instruments in one as it will reproduce the music of any instrument as well as the human voice.
One of the largest factory buildings in the great manufacturing city of Bridgeport, Connecticut is devoted exclusively to the making of Graphophones and Graphophone supplies. It may be well to explain here that the perfected talking machine manufactured under the patents of Alexander Graham Bell and his associates is known as the Graphophone. In common parlance the talking machine is generally spoken of as the phonograph, but in the patent office vocabulary the name of phonograph applies only to the original invention of Edison, an invention which demonstrated the possibility of recording and reproducing sound but was not developed to a point that gave the instrument commercial value.
The American Graphophone Company's manufacturing plant at Bridgeport covers an entire square of ground and its large buildings are among the most conspicuous that meet the view of the passengers on the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R., as they enter the city going eastward. There are two long factory buildings connected by an "ell;" these buildings are each 60 feet wide by 400 feet in depth, and together with the "L" provide more than 160,000 feet of floor space devoted to the manufacture of Graphophones and appurtenances. The active and prosperous career of the American Graphophone Company may really be dated from its reorganization in 1895 and its alliance, made soon after that time, with the Columbia Phonograph Company. Now the two companies are practically under the same management, the American Graphophone Company being the manufacturer and the Columbia Phonograph Company the salesman. Through this arrangement the Graphophone industry is represented in many of the American cities, as well as in Europe, by large establishments fitted up as exhibition and sales headquarters. In New York city where the Executive Offices are located in the Bowling Green Building, there are also two largo stores or sales places. There are also handsome stores and exhibition rooms at Paris, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Buffalo and San Francisco.
The factory owing to the nature of its product, for the invention of the talking machine is so little understood that it has not lost the fascination of mystery, is one of the most interesting establishments that a person attracted by curious manufacturing processes could visit. A large part of the factory of course is devoted to the metal work involved in the making of Graphophone frames and which does not differ from the metal workers of other factories. The peculiar processes are those required to make the recorders and reproducers and the wax-like cylinders employed to receive the engraved records of sound. The recorders and reproducers are made of aluminum, glass and sapphire. The case is of aluminum, the diaphragm of French plate glass rolled to an almost inconceivable thinness, and the cutting style of the recorder as well as the reproducing point of the reproducer is fashioned of sapphire. Several lapidaries are engaged constantly in the work for cutting and polishing the little sapphire jewels. Machinery for the rapid production of the wax-like cylinders has been especially devised by the superintendent of the factory, as this was practically a new industry when the factory was established.
Much attention is given at the factory to the possible development of the talking machine art and a spacious laboratory is maintained where draughtsmen and skilled workmen are employed working out new ideas. In this laboratory are about all of the improvements that have brought the talking machine to its present efficient state.
The present capacity of the factory is about 1,000 machines a day, but in the busiest times of the year even this output is insufficient to meet the demand.
FROM THE FRONT.
A Letter Telling of Life with the Hospital Corps.
The following letter was received by Mr. Wilfred Kelley from R. G. Bryant, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Bryant of No. 4 Doubleday-st. He went to New York last spring, desiring to enter the navy and failing in this enlisted in the Tenth Infantry. Not long ago he was home on a furlough after a run of fever:
MY DEAR WILFRED: I know that I promised to write when I got back here but I have been so very busy that I forgot all about it. I have been transferred from the ambulance company to the Tenth U. S. Infantry hospital since I came back and have been kept very busy until three days ago when I was given charge of two lieutenants who were sick with fever. I don't get a great deal of time now as they are both quite sick and require a large amount of care but I can find time to write when I can get them both to sleep at the same time. I have to take their temperatures every three hours, crack ice for them, give medicine, keep my fire going and render such sundry service as they may require. The last item on the list embraces more than words can express. All this is more than counter-balanced by my success in pleasing both the doctors and the patients, a thing which is very hard to accomplish here.
I haven't been sick a day since I came back and am getting "as fat as butter." You would hardly recognize in me the worn out and battered skeleton you saw that night in Cortland, the "reconcentrado" as they called me.
I am hoping that I shall be able to get out to church next Sunday, a thing that I have been able to do but once since my arrival in Huntsville. An army in the field does not recognize Sunday in the way it is recognized by civilians, you know. There is a large amount of necessary work to be done on Sunday in a place like this, especially in the hospitals.
There is a Y. M. C. A. meeting about an eighth of a mile from here but I cannot leave my patients to go down there. I sometimes wish I could be back in Cortland again but there are grand opportunities for doing good here and I suppose that it is best for me to be here.
How is the Cortland Y. M. C. A. prospering? My prayers go with their efforts toward the uplifting, morally and physically, of the young men of Cortland. May much good be accomplished there during the coming winter.
Camps are being selected in Mobile for the troops encamped here, but I have been unable to find out when the movement south is to begin. We will not reach Cuba before December, probably. The weather has been quite warm and pleasant for the last two days but we have had several cold stormy days.
The soil is red clay which packs hard in dry weather, but becomes very slippery every time it rains so that it is like walking on ice—or worse—every time we step outside. I have had to get up three or four times since I started this letter but I am going to finish it to-night if it takes until morning. My hours, at present, are from six in the morning until nine at night but, of course, I do not work continuously during that time.
There are twelve of us here now besides two stewards and two doctors counting the detail which arrived this afternoon. We are eating with the companies at present but expect to start our own kitchen on the first of next month and will then be quite comfortable and will be able to straighten things out a little. With best wishes I remain
Your friend,
ROBERT G. BRYANT,
Hospital Corps, 10th U. S. Infantry,
Huntsville, Ala., Oct. 28, 1898.
HERE AND THERE.
A regular meeting of the Hospital managers will be held at the Hospital Monday night, Nov. 7, at 3 P. M. An adjourned meeting of the Hospital Association will also be held that afternoon commencing at 4 o'clock. A full attendance at both these meetings is desired.
The football game last Saturday between the Cortland Normal and Cazenovia Seminary teams broke up in a row, the visitors objecting to certain decisions of Prof. J. E. Banta. All spectators of the game agree in the statement that the Cazenovia boys were in the wrong.
The resignation Rev. N. S. Burd as pastor of the McGrawville Baptist church is sincerely regretted by his friends throughout the county. Mr. Burd has labored at McGrawville for more than six years and goes to Nunda, N. Y., preaching his first sermon December 4.
Mrs. H. E. Pulford received a present Thursday from her nephew, Hon. O. U. Kellogg of Cortland, of a handsome thoroughbred Holstein bull calf, three weeks old. Judge Kellogg, whose blooded stock is famous throughout the state, paid $500 for his sire.—DeRuyter Gleaner.
On Monday evening last Miss Ina Parmitor was surprised by a large number of her friends who came to spend the evening and to remind her of her birthday. Mr. B. A. Nichols, in behalf of her friends, presented her with a handsome music rack. A pleasant evening was enjoyed by all.
The paving job is practically completed from the hospital corner to the Messenger House, the asphalt being all laid between those points and the cement covering for the brick nearly finished. With fair weather the street south of the Messenger House can be completed within two weeks.
The Young Men's Debating club of the Normal school has issued the October number of the Normal News, a periodical devoted to the interests of the school. The editor-in-chief is Charles R. Lord, who has the following assistants: Michael McDermott, H. Stanley Ward, Clyde T. Griswold, Miss Mary E. Woodbury.
Mr. James E. Tanner of the firm of Warren, Tanner & Co., who has been in poor health for some time past, was operated upon at the hospital last Friday for a hemeroid [sic] tumor. The operation was performed by Drs. Dana and Higgins, Dr. Reese administering the either, and it is now thought that it was very successful.
Prof. T. J McEvoy delivered his lecture on the Spanish American war at Blodgett Mills Tuesday, evening and was given a warm welcome. The lecture and views are well worth hearing and seeing.
Justice K C. Parker was engaged last Friday in the trial of a suit between Wesley W. Bruce, plaintiff, and Edward A. Albro, defendant, brought to recover for services rendered. The plaintiff recovered a judgment of $33.81.
Cortland is to have another lawyer who will doubtless win fame and fortune, W. T. Yale having passed his examination successfully. He will appear before the appellate court at Albany about the middle of November to be sworn in as an attorney.
Rev. James W. Putnam, a former pastor of the Cortland Baptist church, has secured a verdict of $10,000 for libel against the New York World. The suit has received much attention in this village and several of our citizens were witnesses in the case.
On account of the absence of Attorney James Dougherty in Binghamton Tuesday the case of John Felkel against the town of Cortlandville was adjourned until December 1. The following jurors were drawn to serve on the case: George Stevens, D. C. Beers, John Ireland, John Hodgson, Cyrus Heath, George Allport.
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