 |
| Main Street, Cortland, N. Y., 1899. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Tuesday, November 29, 1898.
A COMMUNICATION.
An Old Resident Calls to Mind Certain Old Surveys.
To the Editor of the STANDARD:
SIR—Much has been said during the past few weeks about South Main and Union-sts. being low, being waterholes and about Union-st. seeming to be in a hollow. Doubtless some who make these assertions sincerely believe them to be true and for their information we offer a few figures taken from a book of sidewalk grades prepared in 1880 by Mr. F. E. Knight, at that time in the employ of the village and an engineer of unquestioned competency and accuracy. His figures so far as they relate to Main-st. are as follows: At the Lehigh track 22 feet presumably above some point at the river; at Union-st. 20 feet; at the Messenger House 17 50-100 feet; at Court-st. south side 15 60-100 feet; north side 15 40-100 feet; at the Cortland House 17 feet; Maple-ave. 15 40-100; and at the hospital corner 12 50-100 feet.
Main-st. was paved with cobblestones in 1860 and at least a part of the filling in at the Messenger House was done at that time or soon after, but we find that Union-st. even fourteen years afterwards was 2 1/2 feet higher than Port Watson-st.; 4 1/2 feet higher than Court-st. and 7 1/2 feet above the hospital corner.
Old residents know that water would run with a swift current from the hill to the Messenger House until its flow was obstructed by the changes in the street. The fall of Union-st. from west to east was greater still, as the grade of the east and west streets is sharper than that of those running north and south. If Union-st. seems to be in a hollow it is because it is probably the only street in the village that has until now escaped the ravages of the turnpike fiend.
During Mr. Knight's administration as superintending engineer he endeavored to get the streets graded after his ideal of what a village street should be, which was to remove the soft surface earth, which is for most of the year either mud or dust, and thus, together with proper attention to drainage, secure a firm, dry roadbed, leaving the adjacent lots above rather than below the level of the street. But unfortunately for our town too many of the citizens were wedded to the old elevated system, which reversed all of this, a system which caused a noted Englishman traveling in this country to ask "why do Americans always build their towns in such low places," the raised streets making all the rest relatively low. The property owners on Union-st., however, decided to try Mr. Knight's scheme of lowering the street and with the approval of the village trustees and the hearty co-operation of President Carmichael and Trustee B. B. Jones it was made at little expense the firmest, driest and best roadbed in the village, one requiring very little labor to keep in repair, and such it continued to be until the raising of Main-st. without making adequate provision for the drainage from Union-st. made a portion of it a water hole indeed. It is a matter of fact that for several years there was no outlet whatever for the water from that street, and the situation was aggravated by having water turned into it that would, if left to take its natural course, have found its way to the river through another street. A water hole could be made on the top of our highest hill if some one were suffered to build embankments about it and shut off all drainage.
The raising of Main-st. not only injured Union-st., but the street itself became water soaked, particularly in the neighborhood of the Messenger House from the filling in at that corner which obstructed the flow of the water and converted the lots and in some instances the cellars into reservoirs for the filthy sewage of the street.
From the facts and figures above given and which cannot be gainsaid it will be seen that South Main and Union-sts. are not and have never been lower than the rest of the village north of the Lehigh tracks, excepting of course Courthouse hill, and if portions of them have become water holes it has been through an utter disregard of the drainage of those streets on the part of those with whom the authority and responsibility have rested.
AN OLD RESIDENT.
 |
| Col. Theodore Roosevelt. |
LETTER FROM COLONEL ROOSEVELT.
Little Miss Florence Allen, the 7-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. O. F. Allen of 31 Union-st. has received the following letter from Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, the governor-elect of the state of New York, in answer to a letter she wrote him on Election day:
NEW YORK, Nov. 17, 1898.
MY DEAR LITTLE FRIEND—Of course I will write to you, because your letter gave me so much pleasure. I know that you are a good little girl, and I wish you a long and happy life.
Your friend,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
NEW CANDY STORE.
Mr. S. Chacona of Ithaca has rented from L. D. Garrison the store at 17 Main-st. and in a few days will open a retail candy store, where he will keep on hand a full line of homemade candies. The store will be known as Chacona's Palace Confectionery.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT.
George and Henry Corwin, the two boys who were early in the month charged with grand larceny in stealing horses from Erastus Short in the town of Cuyler, and who are in jail awaiting the action of the grand jury were on Saturday night caught by Sheriff Brainard attempting to make their escape. He discovered them picking bricks out of a chimney in the wall of their cell, and immediately transferred them to one of the lower cells, where they will find it harder work getting into a stone wall than they did in removing bricks.
 |
| William Rufus Day. |
SPAIN HAS ACCEPTED.
She Consents to Our Demands Without Conditions.
ACCEPTS OF OUR $20,000,000.
Will Accede to Us the Whole of the Philippines and the Sulu Group—The Secretaries Instructed to Draw Up A Treaty of Peace at Once.
PARIS, Nov. 29.—Spain has accepted the United States offer of $20,000,000, and at a joint session of the peace commissioners consented without condition to relinquish Cuba and to cede Porto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.
The document presenting this acceptance contained only 300 words. It opened with a reference to the final terms of the United States and said that the Spanish commissioners, after having taken cognizance of the terms proposed by the Americans, replied that their government had tried to give as equitable an answer as possible, but that they were not prepared to commit their government to the acceptance of the principles embodied in the American argument. Spain rejects these principles, the note continues, "as she always has rejected them."
Basing her attitude upon the justice of her cause, the note then says, she will adhere to these principles, "which she has heretofore invariably formulated."
However, the note adds, in her desire for peace she has gone so far as to propose certain compromises, which the Americans have always rejected. She has also attempted, it is further asserted, to have submitted to arbitration some of the material points upon which the two governments differed. These proposals for arbitration, it is added, the Americana had equally rejected.
These allegations, in Spain's reply, to attempted arbitration refer to her proposal to arbitrate the construction of the third article of the protocol and also to submit the Spanish colonial debt of Cuba and the Philippines to arbitration. The last proposition has been made in a written communication since its presentation, and in return for such arbitration Spain offered to cede the territory in dispute. The Americans refused both propositions for arbitration.
Spain's reply, in substance, continued by declaring the United States has offered, as a kind of compensation to Spain, something very inadequate to the sacrifices that country was at this moment and she feels therefore that the United States' proposals cannot be considered just and equitable.
Spain has, however, exhausted all the resources of diplomacy in an attempt to justify her attitude. Seeing that an acceptance of the proposal made to Spain is a necessary condition to a continuance of negotiations, and seeing that the resources of Spain are not such as to enable her to re-enter upon war, she is prepared, in her desire to avoid bloodshed and from considerations of humanity and patriotism, to submit to the conditions of the conquering, however harsh they may be. She is, therefore, ready to accept the proposals of the American commission, as presented at the last sitting.
The reading and the translation of the document occupied less than five minutes. At the conclusion of the translation the commissioners empowered Senor Ojeda, secretary of the Spanish commission, and secretary Moore of the American commission, to draw up articles which are to embody the relinquishment of Cuba by Spain and the cession of Porto Rico and the Philippines. These articles, which may be considered as constituting the conditions of peace, will be ready for submission on Wednesday.
A great deal of interest was taken in this meeting. The two commissions arrived at the foreign office in carriages in the rain almost simultaneously, and repairing to the conference room immediately opened the only business before them.
Senor Montero Rios, the president of the Spanish commission, has usually preceded the presentation of a Spanish communication in writing by verbally summarizing the same. But this time Senor Rios was silent and unusually grave. His face was deeper lined and he clearly showed the mental strain under which he was laboring as he approached the final relinquishment of Spain's colonial possessions.
Without a word Senor Montero Rios produced two typewritten sheets and passed them to the interpreter of the United States commission, Mr. Ferguson, who read them substantially as cabled, the outline of the Spanish document being furnished later to the press.
The commissioners left the foreign office immediately after the secretaries had been directed to prepare the articles of the peace treaty. There was scarcely any conversation between the American and Spanish commissioners after the adjournment.
Among the Americans only the most grave consideration for their Spanish colleagues was apparent. The Spaniards seemed to be relieved at having arrived at the conclusion of a long controversy.
Having embodied in the treaty articles all the protocol questions, the two commissions will now enter upon friendly negotiations regarding the matters suggested in the American ultimatum a week ago, matters subsidiary and incidental to the principal provisions which must form a part of the peace treaty as finally signed. These include the religious freedom of the Caroline Islands, as agreed to 12 years ago; the release of political prisoners now held by Spain in connection with the insurrection in Cuba and the Philippines; the taking over of the Island of Kusale or Ualan in the Carolines, for a telegraphic and naval station; cable station rights at other points in Spain's jurisdiction, and the renewal of certain treaties, previously in force between the United States and Spain which may have elapsed or been vitiated by war.
The American commissioners are naturally well pleased at the successful conclusion of their mission as to its chief point. The questions that remain are comparatively unimportant and admit of speedy settlement. The American commissioners will hasten matters with a view to having the treaty signed within 10 days or so and of sailing for New York by Dec. 17.
Judge Day said: "We have done the only thing possible regarding the Philippines. Our opportunity of giving them up was lost when Admiral Dewey did not weigh anchor and sail away."
Count von Minister, the German ambassador to France, was the first diplomat to call at the American headquarters and to congratulate Mr. Reid on the commission's successful work. He said the settlement would meet with the approval of Germany.
REVIVAL AT CINCINNATUS, N. Y.
The Chicago Drummer Evangelist to Hold Meetings There.
T. H. Osborn, "The Drummer Evangelist" of Chicago, will hold a series of meetings in the Methodist Episcopal church at Cincinnatus, commencing on Sunday, Dec. 11. Before his conversion, Mr. Osborn was a traveling salesman for a Chicago firm. He is a fine soloist and his singing is one of his strong points. He is the author of "White Wings," a book which has had a large sale and which he has lately revised and enlarged.
Mr. Osborn is well known throughout this state and Pennsylvania. He has recently closed a great meeting in Syracuse and is now in the midst of a great revival in Bellwood, Pa. He has held successful meetings in Genoa, Wolcott, Rushville, Weedsport and many other places, where he is held in the highest esteem.
Rev. E. H. King, the pastor at Cincinnatus, considers his church especially fortunate in securing the services of this distinguished evangelist. Mr. King and his church are actively engaged in preparations for a great meeting, and it is hoped and expected that great good will be done. A large chorus choir will lead in the singing. The following committees have been appointed to carry out details of work under Mr. Osborn's direction: D. J. Bolster is head usher, and will have about fifteen ladies and gentlemen to assist him. The following ladies have been designated as a committee on decorations and will attend to supplying the church with plants and flowers: Mrs. H. B. Boyd, Mrs. P. C. Wheeler, Mrs. D. J. Bolster, Mrs. F. M. Curtis and Mrs. F. L. Nichols.
Finance Committee—Messrs. F. M. Curtis, C. R. Warner, E. Blanchard, H. B. Boyd and B. R. Corning.
BREVITIES.
—The sun sets now at 4:35. It has only three more minutes to go to reach the shortest afternoon, which comes in about two weeks now, then the sun sets at 4:32.
—New display advertisements to-day are—McCarthy & Sons, Books for the Holidays, page 8: Baker & Angell, Jennees Miller shoes, page 7: Warren, Tanner & Co., Cold weather goods, page 4; F. E. Brogden, Hot drinks, page 7; M. A. Case, Garment selling, page 6; C. F. Brown, Christmas presents, page 7.
Died of Typhoid Fever.
Miss Mary Elizabeth Munro of Baldwinsville, who came to Cortland in September and entered the Normal school, died at 10 o'clock last night after an illness of four weeks with typhoid fever at Mrs. Bulkley's boarding house, 38 East Court-st.
Miss Munro was the only daughter and only child of Mr. and Mrs. K. C. Munro of Baldwinsville, and they feel very keenly their loss. Mrs. Munroe has been with her daughter all through her illness, and the constant care has seriously affected her own health.
Miss Munro was a graduate from the high school at Baldwinsville, and was taking the classical course at the Normal. She was an exceptionally bright student, and had formed many close friendships among her school acquaintances. The remains were taken to Baldwinsville on the 4:43 train this afternoon, where the funeral will be held and the interment will take place.
No comments:
Post a Comment