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| Queen Regent Maria Christina. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, March 18, 1899.
PEACE TREATY SIGNED.
An Official End of the War With Spain.
QUEEN REGENT OF SPAIN ACTS.
Seven Months Hare Elapsed Since the Protocol Was Signed and Went Into Effect—The Next Steps to Be Taken—Volunteer Soldiers Not All Discharged.
WASHINGTON, March 18.—The first news of the signature of the peace treaty by the queen regent of Spain was conveyed to Secretary Hay and the officials of the administration through the bulletin of the press dispatches. The secretary was naturally gratified at the action which he had expected would follow the course of the cortes. The action makes it possible to exchange the ratification, and thus complete the treaty within the time set by the treaty itself as the maximum. The protocol was signed Aug. 13 last at the White House by the president and Ambassador Cambon. Dec. 10 the treaty was signed at Paris by the commissioners. Feb. 6 it was ratified by the United States senate after a considerable struggle. Feb. 10 the president gave it his signature, and now seven months and four days after the signing of the protocol the Spanish queen regent gave her formal assent and signature.
Official news of the action at Madrid was not conveyed to the state department before the close of the department for the day. M. Cambon called at the department about 4:10 o'clock and, in the absence of Secretary Hay, called upon Assistant Secretary Hill. He told the latter that he believed the treaty had been signed. It seems now probable that to the ambassador will be confided the honor of closing up the task which he set about seven months ago of bringing two great nations, then at war, to a state of peace.
Usually the rule is for a nation situated as is Spain, to send a special envoy charged with the duty of exchanging the ratifications. In this case the wish of the United States government will be consulted and there is little doubt in view of the kindly regard entertained for the ambassador by the president that he will elect to have M. Cambon to act for the last time as the representative of the Spanish government and make the exchange. A good reason also for accepting again the ambassador's offices in this last function would be the saving of time. It is presumed that the Spanish government is desirous to hasten the complete restoration of peace and this government is certainly equally anxious so that if time can be saved by accepting the services of the ambassador here instead of awaiting the selection and coming of one from Madrid, that course is likely to be pursued.
The signing of the treaty cannot in any manner affect the status of the Spanish prisoners in the hands of Aguinaldo for the United States government is doing all that it can to secure their release. Still it is apprehended that the Spanish government being able to address itself directly to the United States government as soon as the ratifications are exchanged will not neglect to press the matter upon the attention of the state department and perhaps will solicit authority to resume direct negotiations with the insurgents looking to the release of the prisoners. The hope is entertained, however, that it may be unnecessary to decline such a request for by that date the insurrection may have been quelled. If the Spanish government should insist, however, some disagreeable questions may be raised, involving the formal recognition of the insurgents by the Spanish, in which case perhaps it might claim the right to deal directly with Aguinaldo.
Contrary to an expectation that seemed to have obtained in some quarters, the signature of the treaty of the queen regent does not involve the immediate discharge of all the volunteer soldiers. It was stated positively at the state department that legally the treaty does not go into effect until the ratifications have been exchanged and it will further be necessary for the president to proclaim it, before the people of the United States, including the soldiers, can officially know that the war is over. In other all respects however the state department will treat the war as at an end.
It is stated here that the Spanish minister will come prepared, immediately after making the exchange of ratifications, to institute negotiations for a treaty of trade, commerce and amity the old treaty having been nullified by the outbreak of war and there being nothing in the way of a formal convention to protect trade between the United States and Spain. Also one of the first duties of the officials of the war department who are charged with the administration of the customs affairs of the insular possessions of the United States will be to prescribe regulations to give effect to the pledge of the United States to afford Spanish commerce with the Philippines and West Indies favored treatment.
Open Door Policy, Puck cartoon.
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
That Open Door.
A greater muddle than ever is the "open door" question in China. Events do not move in accordance with Lord Charles Beresford's programme. Russia objects to the English loan to China. Germany demands a share in the Anglo-German railway from Tien-tsin, and now Italy has put in a claim. Japan, it must not be forgotten, has an old claim on Fukien. What Americans claim or what their policy is nobody can yet make out. It is believed in England that a clear statement of views by our government would end the muddle at once—that is, if the statement coincided with the views of Great Britain. Events in China cannot long be held in abeyance. Russia continues to be energetic, quite irrespective of diplomacy, and the feeling in London is that the indecision of America is Russia's opportunity. This situation is made a little more tense by the news that the amir of Afghanistan is dying or dead. Definite news is very hard to obtain, for it is not the policy of the tribes to let the truth be known. But one has only to refresh himself with the Samoan imbroglio to see what is likely to take place in Afghanistan on a larger scale. Figure it as we may, the immediate "truce of God" in Europe and Asia appears to finite eyes to be very tangled.
◘ Under our laws an immigrant arriving in this country with no visible means of support is liable to be sent back. This worked badly for unmarried women, but they have met it at the barge office recently by consenting, then and there, to marry somebody and thus escape the penalty. There have been three cases of good looking Italian women undergoing the operation of matrimony rather than return to their native vine clad hills. No one ever thought of it before, but marriage appears to be one of the consequences of democracy.
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| John Truck. |
MRS. TRUCK TALKS.
HER STORY DIFFERS FROM THAT OF HER HUSBAND.
Discrepancies as to Time of Day—She Never Saw Truck Have the Black Clothes Before—She Knew He Had No Watch—Never Saw the Butter or the Pork—The Question of Money.
A STANDARD man yesterday interviewed Mrs. Truck, the wife of John Truck who is now confined in the county jail on suspicion of being connected with the death of Frank W. Miller. Mrs. Truck was found at what has been her home on Hudson-st. just outside the western limits of the village of Homer, on the road leading up to what were once the three farms of David Hannum. The house is the poorest one of a series of structures, none of which would be considered luxurious. The reporter called at a number of the houses in the neighborhood and in none of the others was there a total absence of an attempt at neatness. Usually things, though poor in quality, were brushed up with some degree of care and there was an evident desire on the part of the occupants to be clean. But the interior of this house beggars description. The floor was full of holes and the timbers rotten. There was filth everywhere. The few dishes on the table looked as though they were strangers to water and had been used again and again without washing. The furniture was piled up in heaps, for the Trucks were to get out yesterday.
As the reporter approached the house a one-horse wagon was brought up before the door to receive the goods. George Chapman, a half brother of Mrs. Truck, who was in charge of the wagon, sung out to a passing acquaintance that he was "moving the widow out." Mrs. Truck herself was just going into the house and invited the reporter to enter. She began to cry as she spoke, evidently feeling that every caller had come to add something to the trouble that hung so heavily upon her.
Things were so stirred up in the house that Mrs. Truck thought it would be better to go across the street and a little further up to her mother's, Mrs. Chapman, and the reporter quite agreed with her. So the adjournment was promptly taken.
Mrs. Chapman, the mother, is a tall, dignified woman with a strong face and a keen eye, and under some circumstances would be considered fine looking. She is evidently much better educated than her daughter. The latter, however, ought not to be blamed for her deficiencies. She was married to Truck, she says, at Preble seven years ago before she was quite 13 years old and has scarcely got out of her "teens" yet, though hard usage makes her look older. She is not so large in frame as her mother and has a little stoop in the shoulders.
"I ne-ever would have believed he would have done it," she exclaimed again and again as she sobbed in a heart-broken manner. "I ne-ever would have thought the man I married would have done such a thing."
"Never mind, you haven't done anything. He has done it all himself," replied the mother in an effort to comfort the girl.
The reporter intimated that it was not quite certain yet what he had done and that proof had yet been established that he had done anything.
After she had calmed herself somewhat the reporter said that he had come in search of certain information and desired to ask some questions to which he would like a perfectly truthful reply regardless of whom it hit or where. Mrs. Truck replied that she would tell the truth and the reporter believes that she did, for she did not trip at all in her replies as to facts though questions were asked along many lines leading up to the main subject.
She said that Truck was about home all last Sunday. During the afternoon he told her he wanted to go down to her cousin's, John Sager, who lives a few houses below and get John Sager to cut his hair. He also wanted to borrow a rifle from John as there was a cross dog between his home and Cortland which had attacked him several times and which he was determined to shoot. He returned after a while with the gun.
Monday morning he got up at about 8 o'clock and built the fire. They had breakfast about 9 o'clock and a few minutes after 10 o'clock said he was going to Cortland and would be back at about noon. She remembered definitely that it was just after 10 o'clock because she looked at the clock at the time and thought how much time he had before noon in which to go and come. He struck across lots to the back road to Cortland and that was the last she saw of John till Wednesday morning between 8 and 9 o'clock. She went to her brother Will Chapman's that afternoon and stayed till Wednesday morning.
John came up there between 8 and 9 o'clock before she was up and called for her. They went home and she got something for them to eat. Then they went down to Bennett & Starr's and Truck bought her a new pair of shoes which she had on and exhibited and for which he paid $1.25. At P. C. Kingsbury's he bought her a new dress ready-made for which he paid $1, and which she produced for examination. Then Truck told her they would go up to Leo Barrett's near Cardiff and hire a house as he thought he could get work there. Then she saw the gray horse and the yellow geared buckboard. Mrs. Truck said she exclaimed when she saw the horse "Ain't she nice?"
Truck didn't tell her where he got them except to say that he had bought them and she didn't ask any questions. He said he had bought the horse, harness, wagon, blankets and butter, but didn't tell where. She never saw the jar of butter before till she got home that morning. She didn't use any of it. She had had no such jar as that in the house before. He brought the pork in the pail too at the same time. He told her that a man and woman had parted and he had bought the butter and pork of them at Cortland. She said she never saw Truck drunk but twice. He was not a drinking man in general.
John had told her that he had $150 in a national bank in Cortland. He never gave her any money to buy her clothes with. She never bought anything to pay for it. She got goods at the store on a book account, but she couldn't read or write and couldn't count much and John was always afraid she would get fooled on her change. So he always bought things for her. She didn't see what money John had when he went away on Monday, but she was sure he did have over $1. He usually told her when he had money. He had a two-cent piece that he had carried for three years in a flat pocketbook. He had $3 and a few cents after he bought her shoes and dress. He showed her the $3 and she gave him five pennies that she had, after he bought her shoes. Truck hadn't worked for Blunden for two weeks, but Blunden sent over after him on Monday after he had started for Cortland and left word for him to go to work Tuesday. Mrs. Truck thought her husband had saved some money from his work for Blunden in the past. He had bought a wagon of Joe Fassett for $15 last fall and was to pay $1 a week on it, but had only paid a few dollars on it. This is the buggy they drove away in on Wednesday. Truck had a bay horse last winter, but he traded him for a mustang. The mustang got down in the barn four or five weeks ago and couldn't get up and Truck shot him. They had had no horse since.
"John joined the Volunteers at a meeting here in Homer two weeks ago Tuesday. He was trying to be a better man. He had prayed and testified. He slapped my face once and once he kicked my hip till it was black and blue."
Mrs. Truck said she saw the bags of feed in the front room at the house. Truck had brought them with him. His new black clothes, she said, were a mystery to her. She never saw them till he wore them away Wednesday. She never saw the overcoat before. She knew they had not been kept in the house before. He had only the old gray overcoat and his everyday clothes. He had talked about buying new clothes, but had not got around to do it. He had not possessed a watch in years. He had one some years ago, but he left it at a jeweler's in Homer to be fixed and never went after it. It wasn't worth the cost of repairs. Truck told his wife that he got this watch and chain from shaking dice, but he didn't say where.
Mrs. Truck said her husband acted strange to her on Wednesday. He seemed down-hearted and scarcely spoke to her all day long as they drove together. She reiterated the statement that she always knew when her husband had money as he always showed it to her when he was paid each Saturday night. She reaffirmed her statement about the amount of money he had on hand Monday and on Wednesday. She supposed he had drawn his money from the bank to pay for the horse.
After some other details in regard to the various places in which they had lived, and particularly as to the fact that she did not know Frank Miller at all though they had lived over there in that vicinity for two years, the reporter withdrew.
A Peculiar Prisoner.
Owen Jones was gathered in Thursday morning by Deputy Sheriff W. P. Henry of McGraw and was committed to the county jail till Monday by Justice Parker. The man seems to be out of his right mind. He is a man of intelligence and quotes freely and constantly from the Bible and from Shakespeare, in fact he turns almost all of his conversation into a series of quotations. He cannot tell where he came from, but tells of having been in a half dozen different jails in this state calling them by name. He seems to be harmless, but just out of his mind. The sheriff is in hopes of learning more about him and [is] having some friends come and take care of him.
Trout for Cortland Streams.
Mr. A. M. Schermerhorn received yesterday from the Caledonian hatcheries for the Cortland Sportsmen's club a fine supply of brook trout to be placed in the streams in this vicinity. There were in all 30,000 fry and five cans of yearlings and the lot was by far the finest ever received in Cortland. They were brought to Cortland by Mr. M. Craft, a former Cortland sportsman, who still maintains an interest in his former home. Quite a crowd collected in front of Thompson's grocery on Railroad-st., from which place the start was made to distribute the lot. Four double teams and a single rig starting out to make the distribution.
SHE IS NOT AUTHORIZED.
Statement from the King's Daughters Relative to Solicitors.
Mrs. Lyman Jones, who is in charge of the dispensing of charity for the local order of King's Daughters, tells us that information has come to her that some lady whose identity is not positively known to them has been soliciting old clothes, provisions and money from a number of people of Cortland, representing herself to be an emissary of the King's Daughters. She said that she was particularly anxious to help a poor family near the fair grounds. Mrs. Jones authorizes us to say that the matter has been brought before the King's Daughters and no one has empowered this party to do this. She is not doing it under the authority or with the approval or consent of the King's Daughters and the public is warned against her. If people want to give the lady the clothing on her own account it is all right, but they need not expect them to reach the King's Daughters. This organization has never sent solicitors around for a house to house canvass for charity and they do not expect to do so. They make their wants known through the newspapers, and the articles required are usually forth coming. It may be taken for granted that people soliciting aid at the houses are not King's Daughters representatives no matter what they say for themselves.
BREVITIES.
—Advance sale for "Tennessee's Pardner" is now on at Rood & Co.'s
—The funeral of Mrs. Daniel Van Hoesen will be held Monday afternoon at 1 o'clock.
—The funeral of Mrs. Patty A. Cole will be held from the residence of her son, Ernest L. Cole, 18 Dowd-st., Sunday at 2 o'clock P. M.
—Lincoln lodge will hold a social at the home of Sanford Baldwin, 20 Prospect-st., Wednesday evening, March 22. Every one invited.
—There is a strong likelihood that the famous Seidl orchestra, formerly conducted by Anton Seidl, will be booked for a date in Cortland between April 25 and May 2. Particulars later.
—The patent which has been granted Mr. George Chatterton on a rub iron for vehicles was obtained through Attorney M. B. Peck of Washington and not through Risley & Love of Utica as was stated yesterday.
—At the First Baptist church tomorrow morning the regular communion service, which was postponed two weeks, will be observed, Rev. Geo. H. Brigham conducting the service. No preaching service in the evening.
—Former State Senator John E. Smith of Madison county has been appointed by Governor Roosevelt and confirmed by the senate as county judge and surrogate of Madison county to succeed Judge Alfred D. Kennedy, deceased. The election for a term of six years will occur next November and it is believed that Judge Smith will then be nominated and elected as his own successor.
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