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| 13th Minnesota Infantry Regiment at Manila. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, July 10, 1899.
PHILIPPINES FLOODED.
Raining and Storming Almost Continuously.
SOLDIERS SUFFERING SEVERELY.
The Thirteenth Regiment at Pasay is in the Worst Position, Being Practically Surrounded By Water—Sleeping Over Water Three Feet Deep. Roads Impassable.
MANILA, July 10.—It has been raining and storming almost constantly for two days and the country along the American south and bay lines is literally flooded. The soldiers are suffering great discomfort.
The Thirteenth infantry regiment at Pasay is in the worst position, being practically surrounded by water. The bridges that were used for getting supplied have been washed away, and some of the companies are now separated by streams six feet deep.
In many cases the men are sleeping with three feet of water beneath their bunks, which are elevated on cracker boxes. The company cooks when preparing the meals stand knee-deep in water.
Some of the roads leading to Pasay are simply impassable and the rice fields on all sides are one great lake.
A high wind blew over several tents of the second reserve hospital.
Manila bay is impossible of navigation by either launches or cascoes and no vessels are leaving the harbor.
The United States transport Centennial is ready to sail for San Francisco with discharged soldiers, but the latter have to sit around the water front all day, drenched to the skin, waiting for a launch to take them to the steamer.
The river Pasig and all the other streams are swollen and the city streets at all low places are covered with water.
CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL.
Ninth Annual Session Opened at Plattsburg, N. Y.
PLATTSBURG, N. Y., July 10.—The ninth annual session of the Catholic summer school of America opened in a heavy downpour of rain. At 3 p. m. a special train of eight coaches, containing 300 summer school people from Greater New York and Central New York arrived at Bluff Point and a few minutes later they were at the Champlain House, on the school grounds, at Cliff Haven. The party was in charge of D. G. O'Connor of New York, president of the club, and Rev. Father Lavell of New York, president of the school.
Earlier in the day a train containing 250 arrived from Montreal and there are now fully 700 persons quartered on the various grounds and cottages.
The regular sessions of the school will continue until Aug. 15. Among the notables who will visit the school during the present session are Governor Roosevelt, Cardinal Gibbons, Mon. Martinelli, the papal delegate at Washington, Vice President Hobart, Archbishop Corrigan and Archbishop Ireland.
BASE BALL.
Standing of Each of the Clubs In the National League.
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
Selecting Officers.
Governor Roosevelt visited President McKinley Saturday by the latter's invitation, and remained over night at the White House. During the afternoon and evening the secretary of the navy and Adjutant General Corbin were with the president and governor. Rumor quickly attributed to the conference offers of the war portfolio, or command of a brigade in the Philippines to Governor Roosevelt. The latter puts conjecture at rest by giving out the statement that he had been requested to discuss with the president certain questions affecting the new volunteer regiments, especially the selection of company officers. Cabinet changes were not considered.
The purpose of the president, as related by Governor Roosevelt, has been told in connection with the call for the additional troops. It is to give General Otis sufficient men to end the insurrection in the island of Luzon without unnecessary delay, and to select officers of the new forces purely with a view to efficiency. While it is the president's desire to apportion the shoulder straps among the several states, the first requisites to preferment are fitness and experience. Captains and lieutenants are to be appointed from the volunteers who saw service in the war with Spain.
The president wants to distinguish the best of these who desire to re-enter the service by issuing them commissions. Politicians are urging the appointment of favorites, but experience, the just demands of the people, and wise administration oppose. The best of officers are not too good to lead American troops. While such are available the preferment of any others would be justly censurable.
Governor Roosevelt has personal knowledge of the fitness of officers and men who served under him. He has the means of ascertaining the merits of others, connected with New York regiments other than his own. His heart is the cause. Soldiers and citizens have confidence that his recommendations will represent honest and competent judgment of the fitness of those he suggests for command.
The plan which the president is pursuing in fitting out these new regiments is most commendable. It was impracticable in the spring of 1898. The course then pursued is impossible now, in view of experience and the abundance of proved material. When ready for service these troops will know that their inexperience in camp is not shared by the men placed over them. They and the people will feel that their welfare off the firing line, like their efforts and sacrifices in battle, will be intelligently cared for and directed.
◘ The Spanish court martial, which was ordered to try Admiral Cervera and the officers of his squadron for their parts in the battle of Santiago, has acquitted the admiral and all but two or three officers of the Cristobal Colon. The offenses of the latter must be of a nature apart from the main issue; the outcome of the trial as to the admiral is the principal matter. The acquittal of Cervera of blame will gratify Americans, and indeed all lovers of justice. It is undenied that Cervera steamed out of Santiago harbor in obedience to orders from Madrid or Havana. He obeyed his superiors though he knew he was going to destruction. Whether he would have done better to send his vessels in different directions is a question of judgment; it in no way involves discipline or honor: The Spaniard did as he thought best; the result showed he could not have done worse. What would have happened had his four cruisers taken different directions must remain always a subject of which men can differ. Cervera had endeared himself to Americans and all chivalrous minds by his recognition of the bravery of Hobson and his companions, and his considerate treatment of them. His own part in the disastrous battle of July 3 was without blemish, as to the courage and seamanship displayed. It was feared that the Spanish court martial would try to shoulder upon him blame for a defeat that was inevitable, as a salve to wounded national pride.
ALCOHOL AS A FOOD.
Dr. Hinman Disagrees With Prof. Atwater's Scientific Findings.
To the Editor of The STANDARD:
SIR—In the Cortland STANDARD of June 19, 1899, there appeared a lengthy notice of a report made by Prof. W. O. Atwater of the Wesleyan university before a scientific association of Middletown, Conn., in which it is maintained that alcohol when taken in small quantities is appropriated by the system and used the same as food product and digested as completely as "bread, meat, etc., or any other food."
The STANDARD'S comments did not assume to approve or disapprove the statements of Professor Atwater, but gave it to the public as a question of public and of scientific interest, bearing as it does upon a question which has agitated the minds of the ablest scholars of all lands from time memorial.
We are apt to look with suspicion upon the announcement of such a declaration, even though it be put forth by the most profound and scientific scholarship of the present day; as it stands diametrically opposed to the determination of nearly all the investigators claiming scientific knowledge of every age. If proven, it must necessitate a change in our standard literature on the subject, and the sentiments and convictions of essayists, moralists and scientists would be revolutionized. It would clip the wings of temperance oratorical flight, and bring him down from his imaginative attitude and he would fall dead in his earnestness.
Dr. Alexander MacNicholl of New York in reviewing Prof. Atwater's statement says: "It is unnecessary to say that such experiments can hardly prove conclusive. The many factors entering into the problem make the most careful investigators' work liable to error. Many questions upon which negative deductions are made must be shadowed in doubt."
1. Three important results set forth by Prof. Atwater's report may be observed. He says: "Extremely little alcohol was given off from the body unconsumed." This is in keeping with the reports of the ablest French and English investigators. Then the subsequent statement, "Indeed it was oxidized, burned as completely as bread, meats, etc., or any other food." See here! "Because all of the ingested alcohol is not recovered in the excrements or little or no alcohol is found in the tissues of the subject when immediately killed would not prove alcohol food." Nitric acid, morphia [morphine], strychnine and many other toxic agents are useful in small doses and in certain conditions of the system. These cannot be entirely recovered in the excrements, therefore they are oxidized; they are food.
2. Prof. Atwater says: "In the oxidization all the potential energy of the alcohol was transferred into heat and external muscular power." The apparent increase in strength during the first twenty minutes after taking the alcohol may be chargeable to the energy derived from the mental exhilaration due to an increase flow of blood to the brain, together from the benumbing influence of the alcohol upon the nerve centers. If it be true that alcohol is productive of heat and muscular power, why should Nansen, the Arctic explorer, say of it, "Alcohol reduces the power of endurance; it exercises a directly injurious influence by lowering the temperature of the body. Alcohol destroys energy and lessens the spirit of enterprise." Athletes, bicyclists and every organization where endurance is essential to success banish alcohol as an enemy.
3. Prof. Atwater says: "Alcohol protects the body material from consumption." Dr. MacNicholl says: "In a series of experiments conducted by me during the winter of 1890 and 1891 it was demonstrated that alcohol did not protect the materials of the blood. It was shown that even in such small quantities as those employed in the Atwater experiments proved destructive to the blood corpuscles. By a strange affinity for water and albumen, alcohol robs the hemoglobin of the blood of much of its power to take oxygen from the air cells of the lungs; that it retarded all molecular changes in the several tissues."
Dr. Kellogg of Michigan experimenting upon nearly 2,000 cases found that two hours after taking one-half the quantity of alcohol used in the experiments conducted by Prof. Atwater, that muscular strength was reduced nearly 1.500 pounds.
Dr. Burt of medical renown says: "During the stay of alcohol in the system, less urea, less phosphates and less water is excreted from the kidneys, less carbonic acid by the lungs, and less digestion goes on in the alimentary canal, showing that the muscles, bones, nerves, etc., are not getting rid of their effete tissue, but retaining it." The body is not renewed because its effete particles are not removed, consequently the vitality must be recond [sic] at a loss." However, Dr. Burt gives a method, wherein alcohol may be used with benefit as a medicine. It should be observed that nearly all toxicants may be given with benefit under certain conditions of the system, when so administered in proper quantities and at proper intervals by a careful and experienced physician; but such is the pernicious, and destructive effect in its tendencies, alcohol should never be taken as a beverage and sparingly as a medicine and perhaps should be discarded entirely.
A distinguished politician who suffered from the effects of habitual intoxication describes thus:
"In that world of all that is high and noble, the human heart, that consecrated temple of glorious hopes and generous purposes and God like aspirations and countless joys known only to the heart of man, the alcoholic poison breaks up the fountain deep of human passion and converts the mind into a wild distorted receptacle of passions, lashed into monstrous and phantom forms, by flames which distill the fountains of human love and chastity and charity and kindness into the red lava of hell's worst hate. And that bright principle of the human intellect, that comprehends the laws that govern the universe and our own mysterious being blotted out in darkness, is transformed into the wild architect of a world distorted and ideal, peopled with fiends, such as perverted minds alone can conceive and fraught with sufferings and agonies, for which breathing nature furnishes no type or parallel."
S. Hinman, Cortland, N. Y., July 7, 1899.
[The Cortland County Homoeopathic Medical Society was organized at a meeting of physicians held in the court house July 16, 1879. The following doctors were present: E. B. Nash, Jay Ball, L. H. Babcock, R. A. Goodell, L. D. Eaton and S. Hinman. The first officers elected were as follows: President, Jay Ball; vice-president, R. A. Goodell; secretary-treasurer, E. B. Nash. Its meetings are held at the offices of its members. Its present officers are: President, L. W. Potter; vice-president, S. Hinman; secretary-treasurer, E. M. Santee. Ref: Grip’s Historical Souvenir of Cortland.]
W. C. T. U. Notice.
A regular meeting of the W. C. T. U. will be held on Tuesday, July 11 at 2:45 P. M. Consecration service will be led by Mrs. A. M. Waterbury. The usual business meeting will be followed by a program prepared by Mrs. L. S. Johnson, superintendent of literature.
At the Hospital.
Much of the success attending the work of Cortland hospital is due to the intelligent and faithful care of the surgeons and physicians who form the staff of that institution. Each member serves in the wards gratuitously for three months of each year, and it is in this way that the hospital is able to give skillful treatment at a low price.
For the next three months the wards will be under the charge of Dr. Reese of the surgical, and Dr. Didama of the medical staff. Many interesting and exceedingly difficult cases are found in these rooms, and nowhere in the hospital is skill more needed and exercised.
Died at Binghamton.
Theodore Gifford of 19 Hubbard-st., who was committed to the Binghamton state hospital for the insane some time ago, died in that institution Friday evening. His remains were brought to Cortland Saturday afternoon, and funeral services were held at the house at 1:30 o'clock this afternoon. Burial was made at Willow Glen cemetery, Dryden.
Improvements at Cincinnatus.
Proprietor A. K. Bennett of Hotel Bennett, Cincinnatus, N. Y., began soon after taking possession of the hotel in the spring to renovate and refit and in every way put it in first-class condition. He has taken matters one at a time till everything is in the best possible condition except heating. During the summer he is content to trust to the sun, but looking forward to the cold weather of next winter he has decided to adopt steam heating, and has let the contract for this to Cramer & Hollister of Cortland. The work is to be done during August. A large boiler is to be put in and a radiator of proper size in each room in the hotel so that the guests next winter can find summer heat in their rooms. The fact that Cramer & Hollister are to do the work is a sufficient guaranty of the fact that Mr. Bennett will be pleased with the job when completed.
Cortland County Ahead.
This county seems to take more kindly to cinder paths than Tompkins county, over 2,000 license tags having been sold in Seneca county while less than 500 have been issued in Tompkins.—Ovid Gazette.
Cortland county, though small in territory, has now in the neighborhood of 2,200 owners of license tags. Onondaga county has only sold about 4,000 tags and is supposed to have ten wheels to Cortland's one. It is doubtful if there is a county in the state with the number of wheels that Cortland has which has done so well. The more tags sold, the more and better sidepaths there will be. Let the good work go on.
BREVITIES.
—A regular meeting of the Royal Arcanum will be held at G. A. R. hall, Tuesday evening, July 11, at 8 o'clock. Important business.
—The round trip rate from Cortland for the Lehigh Valley railroad's excursion on July 20 to Atlantic City, Cape May, Sea Isle City and Ocean City has been reduced from $7.60 to $7 and may include a stop off at Philadelphia if desired.
—Take note of the code of whistle signals of the weather forecast found at the, head of this column. At 11:30 each morning the Cortland Forging company's whistle will he blown in accordance with the weather bureau's forecast telephoned from The STANDARD office.
—The entertainments at the park pavilion this week begin to-night at 8 o'clock and continue each evening and with Wednesday and Saturday matinee. The band concert Sunday night was declared off on account of the dampness in the woods and the cold.
—New display advertisements to-day are—W. W. Ayer & Son, Cornell scholarships, page 7; Daehler, Children's and boys' suits, page 6; Pearson Bros., Bedroom suits, page 6; Buck & Lane, Blizzard freezer, page 6; F. E. Brogden, Beef, iron and wine, page 7; McGraw & Osgood, Shoe news, page 5; Burgess, Fine shoes, page 8.
TWO GIRLS FROM ITHACA.
Their Gay Time Was lnterrupted by Officer Gooding.
A quintet of Ithaca maidens came to Cortland for the Fourth and incidentally to have a good time. Three of them returned after a day's stay, leaving two behind. These two have been having a good time, but were interrupted in the dark of last night by Officer Gooding, who found them wandering down Main-st. in company with some young men. The officer informed the young men that he would entertain the girls the remainder of the night, and took them to the lockup.
In police court this morning they gave their names as Kittie Griffin, aged 17 years, and Jennie Pfohl, 16 years, of Ithaca. They were remanded to jail until 10 o'clock Friday morning, until their records can be investigated. They will be charged with being disorderly persons under Section 675 of the penal code. In court the girls treated the matter as a trivial affair, giggling and chuckling to themselves, evidently not having an appreciation of the seriousness of the situation.
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