Semi-Weekly Cortland Standard, Friday, October 19, 1900.
A SERIAL STORY.
ROOSEVELT SPEAKS AMID BRYAN ENGINES.
“All Blow and No Movement”—Crowd Greets the Governor Before He had Breakfasted—Car Surrounded Before It Could Reach a Suitable Place for Speaking.
Akron, O., Oct. 18.—A big crowd was at the station here to greet Roosevelt this morning. Before the train could reach the station the crowd had surrounded it and a minute later Teddy, who had just arisen and had not breakfasted appeared and was introduced. Scarcely had he acknowledged the enthusiastic greeting when a train went by preventing his speaking. A freight train soon followed occasioning further delay. He spoke ten minutes in all giving most of his time to ridiculing the talk of imperialism. He said the surest way to bring about reduction of the army was for Bryan and his crowd to cease giving aid to the [Filipino] Tagals, [Chinese] boxers and that class. We have a right to appeal to you on the grounds of material prosperity (engine just opposite car blowing steam.) I told Col. Dick it was utterly impossible to hold a meeting in a place like this. Somebody stop that engine. The speech will be like a serial story (as engine stopped blowing off steam for a moment and then began again).
See here, we’ve got to get rid of that annoyance. (Irish voice in audience, “that’s a Bryan engineer, begorra.”)
Yes, all blow and no movement. Here comes another Bryan engine. This speech has been entertaining rather than instructive. (Curtis Guild, Jr., to local committee on platform, “This is easy meat compared to Colorado. We had a regular fight there. It’s a Bryan engine sure enough. It’s got wheels.”)
Two trains passed by without running over any one and the engine that annoyed went on down the track.
“Now” said Roosevelt, “I again appeal to you on two grounds: In the first place, see that the conditions at home are perfect. Do not take my word for it. Look at what Bryan said four years ago and compare it with everything that did not happen since. The Democrats have fused with nearly every thing else but never caught on to providence. (Dr. Curtis, ‘make it short, old man’) Bryan tries to frighten us with militarism. You remember the old adage in which the man says it strains him to kick at nothing, (three toots from an engine) That engineer is sound. Do you know how much of a soldier each one of you here would be entitled to? Just one ounce and a quarter. (Curtis Guild: that's my speech, he’s stolen my speech. I figured that out myself. That’s what I was going to tell them when he got through.”)
(Doctor—Cut her short Teddy; save your throat. They only want to see you anyhow”) whereupon Roosevelt said, “I appeal to you now once for all upon the threshold of the new century, to declare the old American doctrine, where once the American flag has been hoisted in honor it shall never be hauled down in dishonor.”
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| Prohibition cartoon. |
A COLD WATER DAY.
THE TENT BLEW DOWN ON THE PROHIBITIONISTS.
Three People Hurt—Adjournment to the Farmer’s Exchange—Prohibition Train Arrived, and the Speaking Proceeded.
Tuesday was a cold water day indeed for the Prohibitionists. It began with such bright skies and balmy air that the idea of rain was the most remote from all thoughts. But about 11 o’clock it began to cloud up and soon after noon there was a violent thunder shower which settled down into steady rain that lasted all the afternoon. And it grew cold too, so that overcoats were decidedly necessary.
Soon after 1 o’clock the large tent some 35 by 50 feet in size which had been erected near the Lehigh Valley station begin to fill with people waiting for the arrival of the Prohibition train which was scheduled for 2:15 o’clock. Just before 2 o’clock the wind got under it and blew it down on the heads of the people. C. R. Doolittle, L. L. Clark and a lady, whose name could not be learned, were all hurt by falling tent poles though it is not thought that any of the injuries will prove serious. It was a disagreeable job to get out from under the wet canvas, but it was done quickly.
An arrangement was then made with Peck Brothers for the use of the Farmers’ Exchange, Main-st. for the meetings of the afternoon and evening, and every man and woman who had been in the tent and who was not so wet as to be discouraged picked up a chair and started for the new place of meeting.
Just before 3 o’clock the special train came in from Rochester, having made two stops on the way, one at Geneva and one at Ithaca. Col. John S. Sobieski of Chicago was on the ground in advance of the train and was announced as the forerunner of the presidential candidates and spoke for three quarters of an hour before the arrival of the others. He should have been called the annex to the Democratic party, for he expressed the greatest admiration for Bryan and his party and his arguments took the line of those propounded by Democratic orators throughout the campaign.
On the train were John G. Woolley, candidate for president; Henry B. Metcalf, candidate for vice-president; Wm. T. Wardwell, candidate for governor; Oliver W. Stuart, national chairman; Samuel Dickie, editor of The Voice; Hon. Volney B. Cushing of Maine; Hon. J. S. Hughes, ex-governor of Arizona; Prof. A. A. Hopkins of Rochester and others.
The train went from Cortland to Binghamton.
Natural Gas Near Binghamton, N. Y.
Natural gas has been discovered on the Hickey farm in Apalachin, Broome county, and a boom is expected for farm property in that vicinity. A blaze went up several feet in the air when the vein was tapped Monday night. The drills are now down between three and four hundred feet and will be sunk still farther. A salt vein has been discovered, in fact, matters look rosy for the Binghamton capitalists who have lent time, money and energy to aid in reaching gas.
HOME TELEPHONE COMPANY
Plant Expected to be in Operation on or about December 1.
Messrs. J. S. Brailey and E. L. Barber of Wauseon, O., representing the Central Construction company which is building and equipping the plant of the Home Telephone company, were in Cortland Tuesday looking over the ground. They said that they were pleased with the way the work had progressed here in Cortland, and they hoped to have the whole plant in operation on or about Dec. 1. They have built, and equipped forty-two plants before this one. The general plan of construction in each case has been the same, and so far as they know or can learn the service in each of the other cases has been very satisfactory. The Central Construction company has an interest in this plant, but not a controlling interest, the bulk of the stock being held in Cortland, so that the name Home Telephone company is by no means a misnomer.
Mr. Barker said that an argument that had frequently been used against them here and elsewhere was that they were building a plant which would be conducted for a time and then sold out to the Bell Telephone company. The answer to this is that it never has been done and there is no expectation that it will be done here. In the other forty-two cases the home companies still own, control and operate the plants. The company has bought 400 telephones of the most approved pattern and expects at no distant day to have a call for them all upon the Cortland exchange. They purpose to make a special point of getting telephones in at private houses and they think that when it is understood that each house will have a full metallic circuit with an individual line and the whole at an expense of but $1 per month many people will want the telephones.
Mr. Barber expressed his belief that a settlement would soon be made of the difficulties which have stopped the completion of the line on Main-st., but if they are not settled they will simply abandon the line and go around some other way to reach the same objective points.
RURAL FREE DELIVERY.
Three Routes to be Recommended in Cortland County.
G. P. Conway, the special agent of the postoffice department in the matter of free delivery, has completed his investigations in Cortland county and will recommend the establishment of three routes—one from Cortland, one from McGraw and one from Marathon. There is little if any doubt about the acceptance of these recommendations, and the probability is that all of them will be established and will be in operation in a month or two. Each route calls for a mileage of about twenty-five miles upon which the mail will be delivered once each day. The postman conducts a moving postoffice. He furnishes his own horse and vehicle. In some districts the patrons have felt much pride in their post wagon and have clubbed together and bought a splendidly appointed vehicle which remains the property of the route. The postman is furnished with a complete outfit of supplies, including stamps, postal cards, paper wrappers, etc. These he sells as requested. He registers letters. He takes applications for money orders and the money for the same, brings them to the postoffice and next day takes back the money order to the applicant. Each patron is expected to provide a box for his mail which shall be so placed that the postman can deposit the mail within it and pick up letters to be posted without getting out of his wagon. In case a patron wishes to write a letter to another patron further along the line so that the postman can deliver it on his way without ever bringing it to the postoffice he is authorized and directed to cancel the stamp when it comes into his possession and deliver it.
The main roads will be followed and the cross roads as far as may be, but no attempt will be made to cover all the cross roads as many of them would be impossible in the winter. In fact, wherever these routes are laid out the patrons have to agree in advance to keep the roads open. One quite populous district in this town lost the possibility of having the delivery extended to it because the residents would not agree to keep the road open in winter. People on the crossroads may indicate a place where they would like to have their mail left and if they provide a suitable box it will be left there. At all the cheese factories upon the routes the patrons of the cheese factory may secure their mail if they desire by providing for themselves a suitable and approved box there, and it may be a lock box if they desire it so. Four or five regular letter boxes will be put up on each route in which mail may be posted for daily delivery.
Stage lines are avoided in the laying out of these routes, as with the new contracts for carrying the mail all stage drivers will be required to deliver free to all people living along their route the mail including papers, and to a certain extent the stage drivers will be required to do much the same work as the postmen.
The Cortland route extends from the postoffice to South Cortland, then up the hill to the east for a mile or more, doubling back to South Cortland, it extends into the town of Virgil as far as M. R. Wood’s; then up through Gracie to the Calkins place on the McLean road; following that to the brick schoolhouse on Groton-ave.; out to the Walworth corner on the Groton City road; following this up to the schoolhouse near Frank Sears’; over the hill to the region of the Kinney saw mill on the gulf road; then over the hill again past the old Lucas farm to the west road between Cortland and Homer, and back to Cortland by way of Fitz-ave. About one hundred seventy-five families will be served.
The McGraw route leaves the McGraw postoffice and comes first to Polkville, then straight down the river on the east side to the road almost on the Cortlandville, Virgil and Freetown town lines, up the hill to Freetown Corners, and back to McGraw by the straight road.
The Marathon route goes to Texas Valley by the usually traveled route past Homer Wightman’s. Thence it goes to Freetown Corners by way of Henry Seeber’s place, and return from Freetown by the way of Galatia. In one or more places the route also extends out along tributary highways and return.
These routes are to a certain extent experiments and if the people like them and will comply with the conditions it is possible that many more routes will be recommended in the near future.
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| Lt. Martin Edgcomb. |
EVERY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Since 1856 Has Isaac Edgcomb Voted for a Republican Candidate.
To the Editor of the Standard:
SIR—I would like to know how many in this city have voted for all of the Republican presidential candidates since the formation of the Republican party. I confess I have a little pride in that direction. I voted for John C. Fremont in 1856; Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and 1864; Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and 1872; Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876; James A. Garfield in 1880; James G. Blaine in 1884; Benjamin Harrison in 1888 and 1892 and William McKinley in 1896.
In 1864 the Union soldiers were permitted to vote in the field and send their votes home to be presented at the polls by the one who was instructed to vote them. I had three brothers in the army at that time who sent me their votes. If the poll list could be seen it would read as follows: Isaac Edgcomb, Martin Edgcomb, George W. Edgcomb, Clark A. Edgcomb. The four votes were all cast for Abraham Lincoln.
During the campaign of 1856 a male quartet composed of Alonzo D. Blodgett, Byron Mudge, Henry Woodruff and Sydney S. Hammond infused much enthusiasm in the cause of “Free soil, free press, free speech, free men, Fremont and victory.” Fremont married Jessie Benton. One song among the many the quartet sang had a chorus which ran thus:
“We’ll give them Jessie,
We’ll give them Jessie,
When we rally at the polls.”
And we did in the state of New York at the tune of 80,126 majority over James Buchanan.
My prediction is that McKinley will receive the same majority over Bryan in this state on Nov. 6. ISAAC EDGCOMB.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.
The Supreme Court.
The extraordinary language which Mr. Bryan has used against the supreme court calls for serious consideration. In his Madison Square speech he frankly declared that he would not apologize for “the exercise of the right to dissent from a decision of the supreme court.”
That, of course, is not absolutely necessary, but it would still be a matter of good taste and good judgment for a man in Mr. Bryan’s position to express his criticisms on that distinguished tribunal in a respectful and considerate manner. It would have seemed eminently fitting for him to have prefaced his criticism with some general expression of confidence in the supreme court or respect for it. He did nothing of the kind. In his Brooklyn speech Mr. Bryan observed rather lightly and with significant humor:
“The supreme court changes from time to time. Judges die or resign and new judges take their places.”
In his speech in Boston, Mr. Bryan referred again, in terms of light and flippant sarcasm, to one of the justices of the supreme court who had changed his mind in regard to the income tax, saying:
“My friends, it has been more than two months since that decision was rendered and how do we know but that he has got back on our side again.”
Is this proper comment to be made by a candidate for president upon the action of a justice of the supreme court, whose ability and whose integrity have never been questioned? There is nothing harder than to acknowledge a mistake—to endeavor manfully to correct one’s own error. The American people like to believe that the men that they have placed on the supreme bench are of that type. So it was that they accepted with respect the change in the position of Justice Shiras. It is only a sneer, however, that greets him from Bryan.
“It has been two months since that decision, and how do we know but that he has got back on our side?”
Taken to task for his unseemly gibes and fleers at the supreme court, Mr. Bryan tries to justify himself by citing occasions when distinguished Republicans, Lincoln and others, spoke sharply of the Dred Scott decision. Mr. Lincoln and other dissenters, who deplored that ruling, qualified their language of dissent by general expressions of respect for the court. Mr. Bryan does not. The difference is significant.
The present generation knows as a matter of history that in the furious tumult of the anti-slavery agitation, bitter things were said of the political bias in the Dred Scott decision. At other times in the heat of unusual political excitement, severe language has been used against the political doctrines of the judges.
It is true also that the judges, differing among themselves in regard to intricate questions of law, sometimes criticize each other’s opinions with a great deal of freedom. The people are glad to have it so. This is one of the assurances that in the complicated and difficult problems submitted to them, the justices will finally reach the very truth of the matter through free and full discussion. In these discussions, however, and in outside comment the language of criticism has been qualified by expressions of general and personal respect—expressions such as are painfully lacking in Bryan’s attack on the court.
It is at least unfortunate for Mr. Bryan that his unqualified sneers and slurs on the supreme court should be accompanied in the same speech by threats of extra-legal proceedings—of the people taking the reins in their own hands irrespective of the constitution, and he, himself as president, taking action based not on the law, but on the support which he hopes to get from “the hearts of the people.”
If Bryan’s expressions are not to be taken literally, they are still profoundly significant. If he does not contemplate any defiance of the court or practical nullification of its decisions, but intends simply to have its rulings reversed through the appointment of new judges, the issue is still one of grave importance. Giving Bryan the benefit of every doubt—supposing he intends not to disregard the decision of the court, but to reverse its doctrines by appointing new judges—the matter still remains serious.
The supreme court is one of the grandest features of our government, and each generation sees more clearly the importance of maintaining its rightful title to public respect. As Marbois said years ago, it is a power “which has no guards, palace or treasures, no arms but truth and wisdom and no splendor but its justice and the publicity of its judgments.”
A tribunal so constituted, and which yet has attained the rank of the most august in the world, must have popular respect as its breath of life. As the light of experience discloses more and more the importance of this great court and the necessity for popular confidence as its support, public men of all parties have become more and more guarded in criticizing its decisions, more and more careful to employ only the language of respect.
Bryan is the only exemption. He stands out the only prominent man who has assailed the court in this day and generation without a syllable of qualification—without a single expression of personal respect.
Within the next four years the supreme court must be reconstituted. Shall the appointment of the judges be put in the hands of a man who profoundly respects the character of that great bench and who never speaks of its members save in language of personal respect, or in the hands of one who assails it in the fashion of a demagogue?
Shall the appointment of the new judges be in the hands of a friend or an enemy of that great tribunal? In the hands of a respecter of law, or in the hands of an agitator of disorder?
A GOLDEN WEDDING.
Fittingly Observed at the Home of Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Vandenberg.
Tuesday was the fiftieth anniversary of the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Vandenberg of Scott. Relatives and friends to the number of about seventy-five gathered at their home. After a very substantial dinner had been served, Mr. W. W. Kelsey, in behalf of those assembled, with highly appropriate remarks presented Mr. and Mrs. Vandenberg with a purse containing $95 in gold. Mrs. Vandenberg made an altogether fitting response.
Among those present from out of town were Mr. and Mrs. Seward Hollenbeck, Mr. Merritt Hollenbeck, Miss Celia Hollenbeck, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Cummings and sons of Tully; Mr. and Mrs. Duane Vandenberg of Preble; Mr. George Warne, Mr. and Mrs. Geo. A. Warne of Little York; Mrs. Alice Robinson of Syracuse; Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kelsey, Mr. A. Hoffman, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Bierce and son of Cortland; Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Shirley, Mr. and Mrs. John Briggs, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Briggs and son Franklyn of Homer; and Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Foster and sons of East Homer. Letters were read from relatives who were unable to be present.
Mr. and Mrs. Vandenberg were completely surprised. The occasion was one long to be remembered. ONE WHO WAS THERE.
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| Ferdinand Smith. |
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| George J. Mager. |
GONE TO NEW YORK.
Superintendent and Commissioner to Attend an Educational Meeting.
Superintendent F. E. Smith and Commissioner G. J. Mager of the Cortland board of education are in New York City attending the fifth annual meeting of the New York state association of superintendents and school boards which convenes at the Hall of Education Wednesday afternoon. State Superintendent Charles B. Skinner and a number of other distinguished speakers and educators will address the convention.
BREVITIES.
—Invitations have been issued by the committee in charge for a dance at Vesta lodge rooms next Saturday evening.
—Mr. Peter Zahares, the hustling confectioner, is making arrangements to open a branch store in Norwich next Saturday.
—A regular monthly business meeting of the Epworth league of the First M. E. church will be held at the church parlors this evening at 7 o’clock sharp,
—A reception will be given next Saturday evening from 7:30 to 10 o’clock at the parlors of the Homer-ave. M. E. church for Rev. H. L. Rixon, the new pastor of that church.
—An extra sleeping coach for the exclusive use of passengers from Ithaca for New York will be added to-night on the Lehigh Valley 9:15 train, and be run every night thereafter.—Ithaca Journal.
—To-day and Saturday are the last days for registration in Cortland. Let no one neglect to register. If you haven’t done it already do it the first thing this morning. Registration booths open from 8 A. M. to 9 P. M.
—O. L. Crofoot, the liveryman on Groton-ave., is moving his horses and carriages to-day to 55 Elm-st. on account of the paving on the street, which cuts off the only entrance he has to his barns. He will return to Groton-ave. as soon as the paving job is completed.
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