ILOILO SURRENDERED AND OLD DAYS RECALLED

 

Gen. Diego de Los Rios.

Cortland Evening Standard, Wednesday, December 28, 1898.

ILOILO SURRENDERED.

The Spanish Commander Very Indefinite In His Report.

   MADRID, Dec. 28.—General Rios, the Spanish commander in the Visayas islands, has telegraphed to the government from Iloilo, capital of the island of Panay, under date of Dec. 24, as follows:

   "Am preparing to embark on the steamer Leo XIII for Zambonanga, island of Mindanao, having yesterday (Dec. 23) formally surrendered Iloilo in the presence of the military and naval commanders, the mayor and the foreign consul. Have charged the German consul with the protection of Spanish interests. Shall arrive at Manila by the end of this month."

   Though the dispatch is ambiguous, it is assumed here that the surrender of Iloilo was to the Americans.

Emilio Aguinaldo.

 

IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Spanish Have Surrendered to the Insurgents—Now What?

   WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—Just before noon to-day the following dispatch from Gen. Otis confirmed the fears of the war department officials as to what had taken place at Iloilo:

   MANILA, Dec. 27.—Adj. Gen. Washington sent Col. Potter on a fast vessel to Iloilo on Dec. 24 to communicate with the Spanish General Rios. The latter had evacuated on the evening of the 24th and Col. Potter was thirty-nine hours late. The insurgents took possession of the city on Dec. 26th and Col. Potter found Aguinaldo's flag flying. We cannot now report the probable results. We shall not hear from there for four days as there is no cable communication. The Spanish forces have evacuated all the stations in the southern islands except Zamboanga, Mindanao, by orders as they say from Madrid. OTIS.

   It may now fully be expected that within a week important events will happen in the Philippines. It is presumed that Gen. Otis will demand the surrender of Iloilo into his hands and this demand may at once raise the issue between the insurgents and our government of the possession of the islands.

 

Great Consignment of Opium.

   SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28.—The steamer China, just arrived from the Orient, carried the largest consignment of opium ever entered at this port. There were 660 cases of the drug valued at $500,000. The total weight of the opium is 27,000 pounds and the duty amounts to $162,000 at $6 a pound.

 

CHINESE CAN STAY.

Important Decision Rendered by a Judge at Honolulu.

HAD PERMITS TO LAND THERE.

They Had Been Obtained Before the Island Was Transferred to the United States—The Steamer City of Columbia Has Reached Honolulu In a Bad Condition.

   SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28.—The steamer China, from the Orient and Honolulu, brings the following advices from the latter place under date of December 19:

   Chief Justice Judd has decided that Chinese who secured permits previous to annexation, may land at this port. The question was brought before the supreme court on a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioners were recently refused a landing by Special Agent Brown of the treasury department. The decision is long and recites all the briefs of arguments presented, as well as a number of authorities bearing upon the case. Referring at length to the present political anomaly, the chief justice says:

   "I feel constrained to hold that the clause of the resolution forbidding further Chinese immigration has virtually repealed the Hawaiian statutes."

   Special Agent J. K. Brown expressed himself as follows:

   "I am an administrative officer; my instructions are explicit and imperative. They are the instructions of the department of the executive branch of the government. Whether the resolutions will be modified when the decision is made known at Washington I cannot tell. But I cannot assume that they will be, and until they are I shall follow those I have."

   All the Chinese who were discharged by Chief Justice Judd had authorization to land issued prior to July 8, the day the Coptic brought the news of annexation, and of course prior to Aug. 12, the day the sovereignty of the islands was transferred. It is the opinion of those who have given the subject attention that the decision may not decide the right of those Chinese to land whose return permits were issued after July 3, when information of changed relations was first received, or after Aug. 12 when the authority was finally transferred.

   The supreme court is engaged in a similar case. Four Chinese who arrived by the Gaelic sued out a writ of habeas corpus.

   The steamer City of Columbia arrived from Hilo on the 12th. Captain Miller says he stands by his original opinion that she is as good as a total wreck. Captain Turner, the underwriter's representative, says temporary repairs can be made here which will enable her to go to the coast, where she can be put in as good condition as when she left Honolulu.

   The day after the steamer arrived she was attached by the crew for wages. In the meantime two additional attachments have been made by men who had provided provisions during the vessel's long stay in Hawaiian waters.

 

Nazim Pasha.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

   ◘ A correspondent of the London Times, who accompanied the German emperor on his visit to Palestine throws a rather sorry side light on that melodramatic journey. It seems that the English correspondents were treated outrageously from the start. They were not allowed to come within 200 yards of the emperor's camp and were placed under the directions of the notorious Turkish official, Nazim Pasha, the vali of Damascus, whose complicity in the Armenian massacres made his name infamous. This eminent assassin rendered it almost impossible for the correspondents to do their duty, and early in the journey he threatened them all with personal violence, for he had old scores to settle with the English press. That the emperor should have in any way accepted the services of this notorious person is commented on with anything but moderation by the British press and has even elicited guarded astonishment from the muzzled newspapers of Germany.

   ◘ There has grown up a curious popular notion that it is not by any means as flagrant to rob a corporation as it is to rob an individual. Men who conduct their private affairs with the most rigid respect for the moral law will take advantage of the government without hesitation, and ladies who are sticklers for the rights of property will beat the custom house with exultation. The existence of a conscience fund in Washington is ample testimony to the growth of hundreds of persons into a slow understanding that it is morally just as wrong to rob the government as to rob your neighbor. It is a very shallow and foolish notion that the wrong implied in taking what does not belong to you depends altogether on how much your victim possesses, but that is the pernicious notion that appears to lodge in weak minds. The ordinary shopkeeper does not need to keep a detective. The detective becomes a necessity only when the opulence of the store reaches the dimensions of a bazaar.

 

OLD DAYS RECALLED.

Some Strange Coincidences in the Round of Human Life.

   Monday evening Mrs. S. R. Carley of Marathon, who is now making her home in Cortland with her daughter Mrs. A. E. Brainard, wife of the sheriff of Cortland county, attended the Christmas festivities at the Universalist church. While the events of the evening were progressing Mrs. Carley suddenly recollected that the last time she had been present at a Christmas celebration at this church was fifty-six years ago in 1842. It was then on Christmas eve and Saturday night, Christmas coming Sunday as it did this year. During the course of that evening the pastor of the church, Rev. Thomas J. Whitcomb, sprung a surprise upon the people by unexpectedly to them all marrying his daughter to William B. Vedder in the presence of the crowd. He gave her a Bible as a wedding present. Mrs. Carley wonders if she is not the only one present here on Monday night of this year who was present fifty-six years ago.

   A curious coincidence connected with that other visit was that when she came to Cortland from Marathon that year to especially attend that gathering at the church she was then the same as now entertained at the sheriff's home. The sheriff was then her husband's father, Alanson Carley of Marathon, the grandfather of the wife of the present sheriff. Six couples of them drove up from Marathon, attended the festivities and spent the night at the sheriff's home, remaining, till after the Christmas dinner on Sunday.

   That Saturday night was the first time Mrs. Carley had ever seen a building artificially illuminated, but rows of tallow candles, "tallow dips" they called them, were placed across the broad windows on the inside so that the effect on the outside they thought was wonderfully beautiful. Mrs. Carley says the events of that night seem but a few years ago, so distinctly does she remember them.

 

Cruelty to Animals Charged.

   William Willis and John Neary were this afternoon arrested by Constable J. E. Edwards on the charge of cruelty to animals on complaint of Liveryman Erl O. Tinman, who alleges that that they overdrove and beat one of his horses Sunday. Before Justice Dowd, both pleaded not guilty, and the case was adjourned until 7 o'clock tonight.

 

Monkeys To-night.

   Ever since Prof. Flint first presented a scene of the monkeys, there have been at least a hundred requests for him to repeat the scene. Not until last night did he consent to do so, and has set the time for to-night. The professor will try to send "Jaco" up the same pole and leap into the upper box as he did last September. Instead of only using two or three subjects he will use the entire circle in the scene.

   The audience that ventured out last night in the snowstorm was well repaid and saw a funny entertainment. Those who want to see these funny entertainments should do so the remaining four nights, as this engagement is positively the last appearance in Cortland of the Flint company.

 

Christmas at Oxford.

   Mr. George W. Edgcomb has received the following letter from Comrade Lorenzo Bassett who is known to many Cortland people from his long residence here. He is now at the Soldiers' Home at Oxford, and his reference to the Christmas observance there will be read with interest:

   Women's Relief Corp. Home, Oxford, N. Y., Dec. 26, 1898.

   Mr. Edgcomb:

   DEAR FRIEND AND COMRADE—I will try and write a few lines in answer to your letter which was gladly received. We were pleased to hear from you and that you and Mrs. Edgcomb were well. It is pretty late to wish you a happy Christmas yet we wish you much happiness through the coming year.

   Well, we had a very happy Christmas here and all seemed to enjoy it and well we might. Mrs. Putnam did all in her power to make every one happy and why should we not rejoice when we can sit down to such a dinner as this card calls for. Our supper was composed of popcorn and all the sweet things that we could wish for. Furthermore each one received presents from the ladies of the W. R. C., such as aprons, socks and other things too numerous to mention.

   We should have been pleased to had you and Mrs. Edgcomb spend the day here and taken dinner with us. Comrade Bewley and wife are well and send their regards to you. My wife thinks she will go to Cortland in about a week and see to our things which we left there. She feels very thankful for the anchor you sent and trusts that we may anchor in heaven by and by.

   Please give our regards to Comrade and Mrs. Kellogg and to all of the dear comrades. We hope to hear from you soon. Excuse pencil writing.

   Yours in F. C. & L., LORENZO BASSETT.

   (Note—The card referred to above was a very handsome menu. Upon the first page beneath crossed flags were pictures of the charge up San Juan hill and of the Brooklyn heading off the last vessel of Cervera's fleet in the attempted escape from Santiago harbor. Inside the cover was the statement of the elaborate bill of fare which so appealed to the writer, and it does almost make one's mouth water to look at it.)

 

BREVITIES.

   —Moustache communion cups are now used by the Clyde Presbyterian church.

   —There will be a regular convocation of Cortland chapter, No. 194, R. A. M., this evening. The M. M. degree will be conferred.

   —The joint installation of the newly chosen officers of the G. A. R., W. R. C. and S. O. V. will be held in Grand Army hall next Monday night.

   —The Auburn Bulletin reports that horses in that city are having the grip. The disease in all its symptoms is similar to that which is afflicting the human race.

   —Jas, F. Costello, the superintendent of the fire alarm system, who has just issued the little booklet giving locations of all fire alarm boxes and keys, desires it understood that they are not for sale but are for free distribution and can be procured from him at Fireman's hall.

   —About thirty friends called on Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Randall at their home on North Main-st. Monday evening to remind them that it was the twelfth anniversary of their marriage. A very happy time was passed by all, and Mr. and Mrs. Randall were presented with an appropriate and substantial gift.

   —New display advertisements to-day are—Warren, Tanner & Co., Slaughter Sale of Jackets and Capes, page 8; A. S. Burgess, Happy New Year, page 8; Consolidated News Association, Legislative Information, page 7; Baker & Angell, The Shoe for Women, page 6; McKinney & Doubleday, Standard Diaries, page 6.

   —The total eclipse of the moon occurred last night between 5 and 9 o'clock. The sky was too cloudy to observe the eclipse, but every one who had occasion to be out between those hours was fully conscious that there was an eclipse, for it was corporation moonlight and the trustees who hold the keys of light and darkness had willed that there should be no light, and consequently it was dark—dark as Egypt.