WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, AND $153,000 FOR PAVING

 

Paul Kruger.

Queen Victoria.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, October 13, 1899.

WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

British and Boer Forces Very Close Together.

SHOOTING EXPECTED VERY SOON.

President Kruger Holding the Boers in Restraint While the British Are Awaiting Reinforcements and Orders From the Imperial Government.

   While there has been no apparent change in the Transvaal situation, a state of war actually exists between Great Britain and the Boers. Great Britain is not likely to make a formal declaration of war against what she considers a dependent nation, the process being a mere issue of orders to the military forces to restore the state of sovereignty which she alleges originally existed. Were England similarly at loggerheads with a power recognized by her as her equal, pride and precedent would sometime ago have compelled her to break off diplomatic intercourse. It is this legend of suzerainty that enables her to palaver without loss of self-respect and, at the same time, to run a good chance of placing the onus of beginning hostilities upon the Boers or, failing in that, to delay action until she has in the held a sufficient force to overturn the Transvaal.

   This is the only ground upon which it is possible to reconcile the government's utterance, with its passive reception of palpably hostile acts on the part of the Boers; for it is now impossible to believe that the Transvaal forces are massing merely for defensive purposes. Thus war appears to be the only possible outcome. If the Boers are determined to precipitate it, hostilities are only questions of days. If England is allowed to take her own time, then two months may elapse before the first blow is struck. Needless to say, all signs indicate that the Boers will not tamely await the arrival of a British army corps.

   The British government, Queen Victoria assenting, has called parliament to meet Oct. 17, and ordered the mobilization of the reserves and the continuance in the army of all soldiers now serving who, in ordinary circumstances are entitled to discharge or transfer to the reserves. The reserve force to be mobilized not later than Oct. 17 will embrace 25,000 men.

   The dispatches from the front are mostly concerned with the movements of troops. There are several reports that the Boers are increasingly restless under restraint and because of the imperfect provision made for their welfare. It is said that they have threatened either to raid or to return to their homes. President Kruger, however, appears to have reiterated his orders commanding the exorcise of restraint.

   The British and Boers are so close together along the western frontier of the Transvaal, that their patrols meet nightly.

 

$153,000 FOR PAVING.

CORTLAND VS. KINGSTON.

A Live Town With New Pavements—Improvements Far In Advance of Other Places.

   The following clipping from the last issue of the Kingston Argus furnishes a good text for the comparison with less progressive villages and cities:

   The Cortland DEMOCRAT, speaking of that village, says: "Tell us another town of 10,000 with two miles of asphalt pavement." Give it up; but Kingston is a town of 26,000 population without a foot of asphalt street pavement. Where is the other town of like population of which the same can be said? And, yet, a great deal of money is somehow expended on street work—such as it is.

   The recent paving improvements in Cortland is the subject of much favorable comment all through the Empire state, and the village is receiving congratulations and many pleasant compliments from newspapers of prominence.

   That the people of Cortland have shown a progressive spirit is especially gratifying. Prior to 1896 the streets of the village were at certain seasons of the year in a very disagreeable condition, though possibly as good as in any town of the size. Although in the throes of a presidential campaign, the property owners on Railroad-st. petitioned the board to pave the street between Main and the D. L. & W. railroad. The board acted favorably upon the petition, and November 10 of that year saw the first paving job in Cortland completed at a cost of $18,780. The pavement is of brick, and it has not given the best of satisfaction because of its unevenness and the excessive noise. It, however, was such an improvement over the mud that the people of other streets became imbued with the spirit of paving, although owing to the depression in business during 1897 no attempt was made to do any work in that line until the summer of 1898, when the glorious work of improving Main-st., the chief business thoroughfare of the village, was undertaken and completed in November of that year at a cost of $71,592.

   This was one of the grandest improvements ever made in Cortland. Main-st., had for years been a disgrace to the village. Deep pools of water were seen for days after a rain storm, and huge cobblestones projecting above the surface rendered locomotion disagreeable. Tenants of business blocks justly complained of the injury to trade because of the condition of the street. Strangers in Cortland commented unfavorably upon it. But through the efforts of the board of trade, supplemented by a few energetic business men, the project of paving was pushed to a successful issue with the result that Main-st. is now one of the handsomest business thoroughfares in Central New York.

   This year the paving fever spread, and Lincoln-ave., Tompkins-st. and Port Watson-st., fell into line, and these streets now boast of smooth sheets of asphalt, the cost being respectively $7,942, $30,000 and $25,214.

   Groton-ave. will doubtless follow next year, the preliminary work of paving having already progressed to the point of official action by the board.

   In round numbers Cortland has expended $153,000 for paving, a record that few villages of its size can boast, and one which stamps its people as progressive, liberal and energetic.

 

NOW IT'S GROTON-AVE.

Board of Trustees Vote to Pave That Street With Asphalt—Paving Bonds Ordered Paid.

   The village board held two meetings this week, the regular weekly session Monday evening and a special meeting Wednesday evening. On account of the non-completion of the county clerk's verification of the signatures to the petition for paving Groton-ave., the board decided at the first meeting to defer action until Wednesday evening.

   An appropriation of $50 was ordered paid to the Orris and Excelsior Hook and Ladder companies, and it was also voted to request the people who desire to remove trees to notify in advance the superintendent of the fire alarm system, that he may see that the wires are properly protected.

   Main-st. paving bonds, owned by the Farmers' and Mechanics' Savings bank of Lockport, which were duo, were retired and paid as follows: series B, principal $9,220.91, interest $592.24, series A, principal $797.12, interest $474. 60.

   At the Wednesday evening meeting it was shown by the county clerk's search that a sufficient number of property owners had signed the petition for paving Groton-ave., and the board promptly voted to grant the request, and also decided that asphalt be the material used.

 

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.

   The Philippine war seems to be edited at Republican headquarters, and as the campaign advances, great victories for American arms will grow more numerous in the dispatches.

   Gen. Otis must have the Filipinos nearly subjugated. The latter only got to within four miles of Manila last Monday.

   At its meeting in New York on Wednesday the Democratic state committee passed resolutions endorsing W. J. Bryan.

   Registration days are October 13 and 14 and 20 and 21 in the villages and the 14th and 21st in the towns.

   Luke J. McEvoy has no other business ties which would prevent his giving undivided attention to the schools in the First district.

   Women have proven to be the very best school commissioners in the many counties where they have been tried. It is time for Cortland county to get in line by electing Miss Katherine E. Cobb of Homer. She is abundantly qualified for the office.

  

Political Notes.

   The Republican party managers are striving hard to decide upon the most available vice presidential candidate for next year. This evident anxiety that Mr. McKinley shall have an exceptionally strong running mate is significant. It means that they are aware of the waning popularity of the president. The great desideratum is some arrangement by which Mr. McKinley can be placed at the head of the ticket again and still be kept as much as possible in the background during the campaign.—Indianapolis Times.

   When Governor Roosevelt tells the Buckeyes in the campaign speeches he is making in Ohio that the sugar trust and the beef trust are specimens of monopoly which arc unaided by tariff premiums he shows that he needs to be put through a kindergarten course in the study of our federal system of taxation and make himself conversant with the a b c of it. The tax of two cents a pound upon beef, pork and mutton, 25 per cent on mess beef, 5 cents a pound on bacon, 25 per cent on meat cattle, and 20 per cent on hides affords a very effectual cover for the beef trust. The sugar trust is provided with a tariff shelter or less effectual. The tax on hides, as Governor Roosevelt ought to know, was imposed in defiance of the protest of the great leather industry upon the insistence of the speculative gentlemen who are in the beef combination.—Rochester Herald.

 

HERE AND THERE.

   The Warren Scharff Paving company will soon relay a strip of asphalt at the Court-st. crossing at Main St., a depression at that point causing much annoyance.

   If any one doubts that Cortland is a hustling town, let him take an observation of the amount of freight shipped and received over the three railroads entering the village.

   James E. Joiner, recent proprietor of the Cortland Business college, has bought a school at Holyoke, Mass., and will move his family to that place.

   C. S. Bull has accepted the position of billing clerk in the freight department of the Lehigh Valley road, and began his duties Monday morning.

   A. R. Mosher of Syracuse has again been secured as physical director of the Y. M. C. A.

   The old corset factory buildings in Miller-st. will shortly be converted into three dwelling houses.

   Mrs. Delasy Hardy, who claims to be the widow of Boston Hardy, formerly of Cortland, who was killed by a street car in Syracuse the past summer, brought a suit in supreme court to recover damages, and last week the case was put over the term because it was claimed that she was not the lawful wife of Mr. Hardy. The case was put over in order to give her attorneys an opportunity to investigate.