Cortland Evening Standard, Wednesday, April 25, 1900.
PLACE LOST TO QUAY.
U. S. Senate Refuses Seat To Pennsylvanian.
VEST Of MISSOURI VOTED NO.
Pettigrew of South Dakota Fails to Answer to His Name When Vote Was Called For—Daniel of Virginia Delivers Fiery and Dramatic Speech.
WASHINGTON, April 25.—Hon. Matthew S. Quay yesterday was refused a seat in the United States senate on the appointment of the governor of Pennsylvania by a vote of 33 to 32.
The day was devoted entirely to debate upon the question, many of the greatest lawyers and orators in the body delivering speeches. As the session wore on and the hour for the final vote approached, the galleries gradually filled until they were thronged with multitudes while other multitudes were unable to gain admission. On the floor of the senate every member of the body now in the city and scores of members of the house of representatives were present.
The great throng listened with deep attention to the brilliant argument of Mr. Spooner in favor of the seating of the former Pennsylvania senator, and to the dramatic and fiery eloquence of Mr. Daniel, who appealed to his colleagues to do what, on his oath as a senator, he deemed right, and vote to do justice to him who was knocking at the senate door.
As the big clock opposite the president pro tempore indicated 4 o'clock there was a hush in the chamber. Mr. Frye in the chair announced that the hour for the final vote had arrived and that the question was the pending motion of Mr. Chandler, to strike out of the resolution declaring Mr. Quay not to be entitled to a seat the word "not." Senators eagerly followed the call, for all knew the vote would be close.
The first sensation was caused by the failure of Mr. Pettigrew of South Dakota to answer to his name, although he was in his seat. When Mr. Vest's name was called he voted "No" in a clear, distinct voice, thus dashing the last hopes of the friends of Mr. Quay who had expected confidently that the distinguished Missourian would vote for his long-time personal friend.
In perfect silence it was announced that the senate had denied Mr. Quay the seat which he has sought for some months past.
In the House.
WASHINGTON, April 25.—The house adopted the Foraker emergency resolution to continue the present officers in Porto Rico in office until the appointments are made under the civil government act as amended by the committee on insular affairs. The amendments require that all franchises shall be approved by the president before they become operative and place certain restrictions upon chartered corporations such as the issuing of stocks or bonds except for cash.
The house, with the exception of Mr. Hill of Connecticut, seemed to be in favor of the amendments. He sought to have them ruled out on a point of order on the ground that they were not germane. The speaker held that they were not germane, but overruled the point of order on the parliamentary objection that the point came too late.
About 20 pages of the postoffice appropriation bill were disposed of.
QUAY AFFAIR.
News of Unseating of Pennsylvanian Causes Big Stir in Harrisburg.
HARRISBURG, Pa., April 26.—Matthew S. Quay's defeat in the senate at Washington fell like a bombshell in the camp of his followers gathered in this city for the state convention today. It was entirely unexpected as in anticipation of his triumphant vindication the regular organization leaders had come together from all over the state and extensive preparations had been made to celebrate what they expected would be a joyous occasion. Instead, however, of parades, fireworks and lively times by the bands, all is gloom and the adherents of Colonel Quay are gathered in groups in the hotel corridors and on the streets quietly discussing the action of the senate which has served to dash aside their hopes of victory.
Not all is sorrow in Harrisburg, however. In the headquarters of the anti-Quayites, or "Insurgents," presided over by State Senator Martin of Philadelphia and Flinn of Pittsburg, there is gathered a party of men who took an active part in the opposition to Colonel Quay during the fast session of the legislature and they are not slow to express their satisfaction at the turn affairs have taken.
The general opinion among the Quay lieutenants is that the result at Washington takes their leader out of the race for the senatorship. The positive declaration is made that Colonel Quay will no longer be a candidate. Naturally Governor Stone is spoken of as the party candidate in the event of Colonel Quay's withdrawal from the race.
The anti-Quayites declare that the governor would be equally as objectionable as Colonel Quay by reason of his close affiliation with that gentleman and say he would not command any more support than was accorded to Quay during the deadlocked session of the legislature.
Governor Stone was asked whether he would now call an extra session of the legislature, but he declined positively to have anything to say on the subject. It is not generally believed here that the legislature will be convened in advance of its regular assemblage in January, 1901.
Governor Stone has made the following statement:
"I am disappointed in the vote of the senate. I believed and still believe that the federal constitution empowered me to make the appointment. I have been sustained in this view by the best constitutional lawyers in the country and I regret that the vote in the senate was not solely upon constitutional grounds. I believe that the predominant sentiment in the country sustains the appointment and that the action of the senate yesterday will help Senator Quay's re-election to the senate."
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
The Puerto Rico Act.
The change in public sentiment regarding the Puerto Rican act, now that its principles and underlying motives are understood, has been remarkable. People who a month ago were clamoring for immediate free trade with Puerto Rico say frankly now that the act as passed is vastly better and for very important reasons. To have established immediate free trade with Puerto Rico would have taken away the easiest method of raising revenue which that island must have, and which it could otherwise only have had by an internal revenue act—a tax which would have been extremely burdensome—or by direct contribution from the treasury of the United States. This absolutely necessary revenue will now be supplied from the collections under the Puerto Rican act on all dutiable goods imported into the United States from Puerto Rico or into Puerto Rico from the United States. If this system of raising money is unsatisfactory to Puerto Ricans they can put an end to it within a few months if they desire, since the act authorizes them to elect a legislature and specifically provides that all tariff between the United States and Puerto Rico shall cease when that legislature shall provide the necessary funds for sustaining the government of Puerto Rico. An equally important result, however, of the enactment of this law, which retains a mere shadow of tariff duties between Puerto Rico and the United States, lies in the fact that the right to determine matters of this character as they are reached is retained by congress, and thus no precedent is established by which anybody could claim, or the Democratic party can successfully assert, that free trade with the Philippines or other possessions of that character must or would logically follow. It is only justice to the workingmen of the United States, whether on the farm, in the factory, the mines, or elsewhere, that congress should retain in its hand the absolute power to determine these matters one by one, as they may offer themselves for determination.
DEMOCRAT BUILDING SOLD
By the Jones Estate to Fay C. Parsons and Wife—Estate Settled.
The final settlement of the estate of the late Benton B. Jones, editor and proprietor of the Cortland Democrat, was concluded to-day and the administrators, Mrs. Jones and Mr. G. J. Mager were discharged, together with their two bondsmen, C. P. Walrad and Delos Bauder. The administrators were appointed on Feb. 1, 1897, and for two years Mr. Mager was the financial [manager] of the Democrat. Before final settlement he paid to each of the heirs over $5,000.
In connection with the settlement of the estate Fay C. Parsons, who is the present editor of The Democrat, and his wife, who is a daughter of the late Mr. Jones and one of the three heirs to the estate, bought from the estate the Democrat building on Railroad-st. which Mr. Jones erected shortly before his death. The purchase price is about $13,000.
Will be Buried in Cortland.
Miss Anna Dunham, a daughter of Rev. Hercules R. Dunham, who was from 1842 to 1856 pastor of the Presbyterian church in Cortland, died yesterday at her home in Ovid, N. Y. The remains will be brought to Cortland and will be buried beside those of her father in the Cortland Rural cemetery. They are expected to arrive on the freight and accommodation train on the Lehigh Valley R. R. from Ithaca at 3:05 o'clock Friday afternoon and will be taken directly to the cemetery, where a prayer will be offered and burial will occur. Friends of the family are invited to come to the cemetery if they desire to do so.
LETTER FROM DR. NELSON.
Intended to be Read at Anniversary Exercises of Presbyterian Church.
Among the letters received from former residents of Cortland which were designed to be read at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Presbyterian church last week and which were omitted owing to the length of the program and the lateness of the hour was the following from Rev. Henry A. Nelson, D. D., now of Wooster, O., a son of Deacon Seth Nelson, one of the early members of the church:
WOOSTER, O., April 5, 1900.
Mr. A. D. Blodgett:
MY DEAR FRIEND—Your pleasant letter of 2nd inst. is at hand. I thank you for it most heartily, and shall greatly enjoy thinking of the Cortland Presbyterian church and its near-coming seventy-fifth anniversary of which you have kindly informed me.
Just sixty-nine years ago this very week my parents and their family became residents of Cortland on the "South Farm" of General Roswell Randall. On turning back in the "Nineteenth Century Almanac" to A. D. 1831, I just now notice that the first Sabbath of April was the third day of the month. Probably our removal to the farm was in the preceding week, and that was our first Sabbath in the church, when we were hospitably seated in the general's rather conspicuous pew. Later our family pew was one of the large square pews, near one of the doors of entrance.
In the course of that summer, my parents and several of their children were received into the membership of the church on letters of admission from the church in Homer.
Rev. Luke Lyons was the pastor, but resigned the charge soon afterwards. I think he was the second pastor, Rev. Mr. Bacon having been the first. Rev. Mr. Nynde was the pastor of the Methodist church, and was greatly beloved by the Presbyterians as well as by his own people. I believe that his farewell discourse was preached in our church because it was larger than the other—a pleasing illustration of the fraternal spirit which 1 hope continues to prevail there.
That was in the period of remarkable revivals of religion in one of which Judge Stephens and Mr. Horatio Ballard were converts. I believe, however, that they became communicants after Mr. Johnson became our pastor. He was with us from the autumn of 1831 for three years, and I never listened to a more eloquent preacher than he. His subsequent fall into intemperance was to me as painful a shock as I ever felt, and the most impressive warning against any deviation from the narrow path of total abstinence from intoxicating drink, which he had advocated in as eloquent speech as I ever heard. He died in a hospital in Richmond, Va., but not without leaving us reason to hope that he was a sincere penitent—saved "so as by fire" through the Savior to whom he had led many others. We have to think of the thief on the cross for support of our hope for him, and cannot help recollecting how steadfast adherence to the total abstinence which he commended to others would have enabled us to compare him to the grand apostle who "fought the good fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith."
If I remember right, our next minister was Rev. Joseph Foot, some of whose impressive petitions in pulpit prayer, I am often reminded of by the Scriptural phrases in which he uttered them. I think that he was our pastor only one or two years. I have clearer recollection of Rev. Peter Lockwood, with whom I had somewhat intimate acquaintance in my maturer years. I remember well a Sabbath evening prayer-meeting in the lobby of the old church, when he had preached to us a few Sabbaths, and the session had invited him to come and be our minister. He was going back to Binghamton the next morning to consult Mrs. L., and probably to bring her and their children to Cortland. At the close of that prayer-meeting, he said that we might find his answer to our invitation in the twenty-second verse of Paul's Epistle to Philemon. I remember how eagerly I looked up that verse as soon as I got home. I leave you to do the same. I don't believe I was the only one who read that verse before going to bed that night. (The verse reads "But withal prepare me also a lodging; for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.")
I was very fond of Mr. Lockwood. His reading of hymns and Scripture was remarkable; his preaching instructive and persuasive, and his manner as good an example as his elocution. His youngest child was born at Cortland, and she is now, as you know, the wife of Rev. H. H. Jessup, D. D., of Beirut, Syria. I was their guest in 1885, the first year of her residence there. I was never in a happier home than that. I knew all the antecedents, and I felt that, if I had not known, nothing which I saw would have suggested to me the idea that the five or six children of whom she had become the mother by marriage to Dr. J. were not all hers by birth. By intimate acquaintance with that mission during the fifteen years since I visited it, I know that in all respects, in her home and in the mission, she has proved herself a help meet for her eminent husband.
Rev. H. R. Dunham became pastor of that church while I was teaching at Homer. He was a very different man from any of his predecessors, and I think that he and each of them was more useful than if they had been just alike. He certainly was unsurpassed by any one in industry, fidelity and earnestness. I have always regarded him as a Christian hero.
I have had some knowledge of and a very sincere esteem for the late pastors, but have lived farther away, and seldom seen them. I am sure that your church has been greatly favored in its ministers. I have known something also of its session. Elders Stephens, Ballard, Benton. Blodgett, Lucas and Nelson of earlier days were men of God, of either of whom one well might be thankful to be a son, as you and I and H. F. Benton are of three of them. We can heartily say with Cowper:
"My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From lives enthroned and rulers of the earth;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise,
The child of parents passed into the skies.''
"That matchless choir," one may well call it, of which you had the honor and happiness to be the leader more than two-score years. How vividly I remember it as I first heard it! Tall, erect, soldierly Major Webb was its leader, with snowy white hair, dignified carriage and resonant voice. His two daughters, Mrs. Edgcomb and Ursula (afterwards Mrs. Ballard) as erect, and proportionately as tall as he, and with as musical voices, were the most notable female singers. But they and their father could not but draw to their side the best singers of the congregation; and I have no experience of better or more suitable and rightly effective singing than that which sounds still in the ears of my memory from the voices of that choir.
Later we had Deacon Rollo to lead the choir with his talented daughter at the organ. I have scarcely had any position which it gave me more pleasure to occupy than it did, at that time, to blow the bellows of the organ while Miss Rollo played; and I coveted no other reward than her beautiful approving smile. I remember too, with what pleasure too, I looked down from a seat in the gallery upon her as she stood a bride taking upon her the vows of holy marriage. I am always reminded of her when I look on that masterly picture of Lincoln and his cabinet painted by her son-in-law, Frank Carpenter. But how my pen runs on! Give my love to all who remember my Godly parents, and sisters and brothers, and my hearty thanks to all who loved them and showed their kindness. "Lord deal kindly with you according to all your kindness to the dead and to me." I am the only survivor.
Affectionately and thankfully, H. A. NELSON.
A NEW TELEPHONE FRANCHISE
Asked for from the Common Council—A Purely Local Affair.
The common council held a meeting last night at the office of the city clerk and there came before it Dr. C. D. Ver Nooy and W. H. Jones who asked for the granting of a franchise to build and equip a new telephone plant in Cortland. This would be a purely local company, but would be closely allied to a new company that has just began operations in Rochester and to a company which is seeking for a franchise in Binghamton. Its machines are what are known as the central energy telephones, all the batteries being stored at the central office. There is no ringing up or ringing off. When the receiver is taken down the central operator is automatically notified by the act of removing the receiver from the hook. This same act cuts off all connection with all other lines or telephones, so that there is no possibility of people at other telephones on the lines hearing conversations.
The projectors are both interested in telephone companies elsewhere and they are prepared to offer to put in telephones in business places for $18 a year and in private houses for $12 a year and guarantee the service given. They would hope to put in from 1,000 to 1,500 telephones within a radius of five miles from the central office, and there would be no extra charge for talking with any person who had a telephone within that distance. This would enable subscribers at Cortland, Homer, and McGraw to talk at will without extra expense.
If a franchise should be granted a stock company would be formed and local parties would be given an opportunity to take stock if they chose. If they do not care for it Dr. Ver Nooy says he knows where there is an abundant supply of cash for all the needs. The capitalization would be fixed at about $35,000. An engineer would then be sent for to plot the city and show the location of every pole and wire. A canvass for subscribers would be made. The projectors would guarantee to begin the work of construction within six months from the time the franchise is granted and to complete it within a year.
The request for a franchise is made in good faith, the promoters say, and not in the thought of selling out to any other company, for they tell the common council they are perfectly willing they should make it a condition of the franchise that if they sell their privilege the franchise becomes null and void and wholly revoked.
The common council listened to what the promoters had to say, asked all the questions they wanted to and promised to take the matter into consideration. They gave no intimation of what their decision in the question would be.
BREVITIES.
Poor Bennie now is dead and gone,
We'll see his face no more,
For what he took for H2O
Was H2SO4.
—Vesta lodge will hold the last hop of the season next Saturday evening in the lodge rooms.
—A game of baseball is being played this afternoon between the Cortland\ team and the Normals.
—New display advertisements to-day are—Model Clothing Co., Every garment, etc., page 6; C. W. Cudworth, Optical talks, page 7.
—The two large safes used in the Cortland Savings bank were moved last night and to-day from the Randall block to the Keator block where the bank will be located about May 1. The safes were drawn on the pavement behind a dray cart.
—The Baltimore Herald of April 23 devotes a column to an abstract of the Sunday morning sermon of Rev. John Timothy Stone at the Brown Memorial church from the text Heb. xl:25—"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."
SCOTT, N. Y.
SCOTT, April 28.—Mrs. D. J. Cottrell has been to New York to attend the funeral of a brother-in-law, returning last week.
Mr. Ira J. Barber took advantage of the excursion rates to visit New York last week, returning on Thursday night.
Mr. E. W. Childs went to New York last week as delegate to the Republican state convention. Mrs. Childs went with him but staid to visit relatives after his return.
Winifred L. Potter of Alfred university and Carroll Potter of Homer visited their grandparents Mr. and Mrs. E. H. P. Potter, on Saturday April 14.
The sugaring season has been quite short, and farmers are running their plows on full time.
H. E. J. Potter took possession of a new team on Monday morning that he bought of Mr. Ashbel Williamson.
By invitation Rev. J. T. Davis preached a discourse to the lodge of I. O. O. F. in the S. D. B. church on Sunday evening.
Died of pneumonia on Tuesday, April 17, at 8 o'clock P. M. at her home in Scott where she had lived with her husband more than fifty-eight years, Roxana E., wife of E. H. P. Potter, aged 79 years, 11 months and 28 days. Funeral was held from the S. D. B. church on Thursday following at 2 o'clock P. M., conducted by pastor J. T. Davis. Four grandsons acted as bearers. She leaves a husband, two sons, H. E. J. Potter of Scott, and L. W. Potter, M. D., of Homer and two foster daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a large circle of relatives to mourn her departure, two daughters having died in infancy.
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