HONORARY DEGREE FOR FAMOUS MEN, CORNELL'S BIG CLASS, AND DEATH OF MRS. BURGESS

 

Admiral Winfield Scott Schley.

Admiral George W. Melville.

Major General Joseph Wheeler.

Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, June 23, 1899.

HONORARY DEGREE.

Georgetown University Recognizes the Heroes of the Recent War.

   WASHINGTON, June 23.—The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred by Georgetown university on Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley and George W. Melville, Major General Joseph Wheeler, Hon W. Bourke Cockran of New York, Dr. Samuel Bussey, District of Columbia, Dr. Daniel Brower, Illinois, and Hon. Thomas Herron, United States of Colombia.

   General Wheeler, Dr. Brower and Hon. Thomas Herron were unavoidably absent.

   The presentation occurred during the annual commencement exercises of the university.

   When the honorary degrees were conferred the rector of the university announced that for years it had been the policy of the institution to confer the honorary degree of doctor of laws upon certain of the nation's men who have honored their country and reflected glory upon themselves. He said it was fit and proper that Georgetown university shall honor one of the country's most noble sons, Rear Admiral Schley, the hero of Santiago. As the admiral stepped to the center of the platform men and women arose en masse and pandemonium reigned. Admiral Schley received the degree without remarks.

 

Death of J. Russell Parsons.

   SCHENECTADY, June 23.—J. Russell Parsons of Hoosick Falls died of heart failure at the home of his son, Hinsdill Parsons, in this city. Mr. Parsons was born at Hoosick Falls in October, 1830. He was a graduate of Brown university and spent the early part of his fife in the construction of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg railroad. Subsequently he became identified with and was one of the incorporators of the Walter Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine company of Hoosick Falls, with which he was connected at the time of his death. He is survived by five sons, one being J. Russell Parsons, Jr., of the state board of regents.

 

Alfred Dreyfus.

PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.

   All the world looks on with puzzled interest as France tries to rectify, with her sober second thought, the awful mistakes of the Dreyfus affair. It was sure to come sooner or later under the solid sense of President Loubet, and the moment a firm man stood solid for justice, with the weight of authority, how quickly Paris jumped from one extreme to the other. Yesterday it wanted to crucify Dreyfus. Tomorrow it will be taking the horses out of his carriage. Could it but summon enough detestation of such men as Du Paty de Clam and Esterhazy to make those personages wish they had never been born, the popular mood might for once point in the direction of justice. But whatever is done deliberately to rectify a monumental wrong, it will always remain on the page of French history as the most incomprehensible piece of public infatuation and official cowardice that has ever been written.

 

Maj. Gen. Elwell S. Otis.

TO REINFORCE GEN OTIS.

President Will Soon Authorize the Enlistment of More Soldiers.

   NEW YORK, June 23.—A special to The Herald from Washington says: President McKinley will authorize the enlistment of additional men for the Philippines when he returns to Washington. This is the understanding of well informed war department officials. The administration has at last come to recognize the necessity of reinforcing General Otis' command. It is apparent that some of the department officials are figuring on the advisability of enlisting sufficient men to form ten complete regiments.

 

CORNELL'S BIG CLASS.

Graduates of '99 Number 335, Besides Several Degrees for Post Graduates.

   The class graduated at Cornell university yesterday was a large one. Of its number 140 were from the academic department. Of these fifty received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, twenty-six Bachelor of Philosophy, five Bachelor of Letters and fifty-nine Bachelor of Science. The Medical college graduated eight, the College of Law twenty-five, the College of Agriculture twelve, the Veterinary college six, the College of Architecture eight, the College of Civil Engineering thirty, Sibley college fifty-five, and thirty-three received their diplomas as mechanical engineers in electrical engineering.

   In the graduate department sixteen degrees of Master of Arts were conferred, three of Master of Science in Agriculture, two Master of Civil Engineering, seven Master of Mechanical Engineering, and seven Doctor of Philosophy.

 

IT WAS A LIVE WIRE

And it Caused a Little Excitement Till the Tree Was Down.

   There was quite a little excitement on Main-st. at about 11:30 o'clock this morning. Men were engaged in cutting down the large tree that stood in front of F. I. Graham's drug store. Linemen had released a number of the wires that hung near to prevent their being broken. A telephone wire broke loose, hanging across a trolley wire. Officers and linemen ordered the crowd back and teams were halted till an expert got hold of that wire with a twist in the sleeve of his coat which he had previously taken off and drew it up out of the passageway spitting fire at its crossing of the trolley wire at every move. One team came forward at a rapid rate headed right for the live wire, and not heeding the shouts of the crowd to stop and to keep back till some one ran out and caught the horse by the head and called the attention of the driver to the wire. He then drove around it and passed on. The tree was soon cut down and the wires replaced without accident, but every wire in sight was a live one at that time.

 

WAS READING WATER METERS

And Was Carefully Escorted Through the House.

   Mr. A. C. Walrad is the bookkeeper and general assistant at the office of the Cortland Water Works Co. He was born and brought up in this place and fondly believed that be either knew or was known to most of the people in the town. But that happy illusion has been rudely dispelled. One of his duties is to visit the houses of the different patrons of the water company once in three months and read the water meters. He is now engaged in that occupation preparatory to sending out the July bills. Yesterday he was everywhere kindly received. To-day he finds a strange chill in the atmosphere and an inclination to gaze at him from behind a locked screen door or through a very narrow crack in the opened door.

   The secret of the matter is that most of the people in town last night read in The STANDARD the account of the crook who burglarized the Binghamton houses the previous day by pretending to be an agent of the gas company or of the electric light company calling on business relating to the gas pipes or the electric light wires, and who were prepared to heed The STANDARD'S warning that any one calling on such an errand should be identified or accompanied through the house.

   This morning Mr. Walrad was almost refused admittance to two or three houses and in about twenty cases the lady of the house or a maid escorted him to the cellar where the meter was placed, keeping a watchful eye continually upon him lest he purloin a few cans of fruit from the swing shelf. Mr. Walrad owns up that it is a joke upon him, and he has no complaint to make that the people are watchful in such cases, for they ought to be, but he says he has already called at all these houses three times before, and he feels that some of the residents at least ought to know who he is.

   But let no one, because a genuine party has appeared this time, be less careful in the future, for next time it may be a crook. Be sure of the identity of the individual. The genuine fellow will not complain.

 

Death of Mrs. Burgess.

   Mrs. Villa Peck Burgess died at 7 o'clock this morning at her home near Blodgett Mills after an illness lasting four months. She was 57 years and four months of age, and leaves besides her husband, G. B. Burgess, one daughter, Mrs. U. G. Weatherly of Bloomington, Ind., and two sons, Messrs. A. S. Burgess and Harris T. Burgess of Cortland. She is also survived by two brothers, Messrs. W. S. Peck of Syracuse and T. Z. Peck of Cortland.

   Funeral services will be held from the family home at 1:30 o'clock Monday afternoon, and interment will take place in the Cortland Rural cemetery.

 

BREVITIES.

   —The annual oratorical contest of the Delphic fraternity occurs at Normal hall to-night at 8 o'clock.

   —The annual reception of the five societies at the Normal to the alumni and to their friends occurs at the Normal parlors to-morrow evening.

   —New display advertisements to-day are—M. A. Case, Special, page 6; E. O. Dean, Saturday leaders, page 4; W. W. Bennett, Plumbing, page 7.

   —Attention is called to the account of the annual convention of the New York State Press association this year held at Niagara Falls, which is found on the third page to-day.

   —The Maccabees of Syracuse will hold a union picnic at Long Branch Tuesday, June 27, and has invited the Cortland Maccabees and the Cortland public in general to be present.

   —The Syracuse Telegram notes the fact that fourteen brides and grooms were registered at The Vanderbilt and at The St. Cloud in that city on Wednesday night of this week, and then proceeds to give their names.

   —Landlord Bush has ordered an automobile carriage for carrying passengers to and from the Clinton House and depots. It is said it will cost about $2,500 and is to be delivered to him In September.—Ithaca Journal.

   —The Syracuse Sunday Times was sold at receiver's sale yesterday to Jay B. Kline of that city for $50, subject, however, to a mortgage of $5,000 and costs amounting to $600 more. Mr. Kline announces that the management will be reorganized and the paper continued.

   —Cortland wheelmen who expect to enter the Y. M. C. A. roadraces may now set their aim for speed at Chas. Murphy who rode a mile on a bicycle behind a locomotive on the Long Island railroad Wednesday afternoon in 65 seconds, the fastest time ever made on a wheel.

   —Friends in Cortland have received announcements of the marriage of Mr. Charles B. Van Buren, formerly of Cortland, and Miss Jennie Elisabeth Thompkins, which took place June 21 at the home of the bride's parents at Barton, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. Van Buren will be at home at Ithaca after July 15.

   —''Keeping his hand in'' is the way the Whitney Point Reporter comments on the fact of Rev. Dr. Edward Taylor performing a marriage ceremony in Binghamton Tuesday. The Reverend Doctor has certainly had "his hand in" at such events for a very long time and as long as he lives so great is his popularity with both old and young, as Cortland can well testify, his hand will undoubtedly continue to be in.