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| Empress Ci Xi. |
EMPRESS NOT PACIFIED.
Only Waiting For a Chance to Resort to Hostilities.
VICEROYS TELL OF HER FEELINGS.
Administrative Reform in China Delayed Because Those Who Can Introduce it Have No Courage and Those With Courage Have No Power.
VANCOUVER, B. C., Jan. 10.—That the empress dowager is as bigoted as ever is the statement brought by the steamer Empress of Japan. The authority for the opinion is the Chinese viceroy, Tao Mu of the two Kwangs, who was received in audience by the empress dowager on Dec. 24. Tao Mu ascertained that her real opinions had by no means undergone any change since the outbreak of disturbances. Although the empress dowager concludes peace with foreign powers on unfavorable conditions, being obliged to do so under the pressure of existing circumstances yet, according to the viceroy, she will again resort to anti-foreign movements whenever the occasion offers.
Another viceroy, Chang Chih Tung, thus sums up the situation on the question of administrative reform in China. "Liu Kun Yi has entered on his dotage and lost ail his former energy, so that he has no courage to himself to undertake the work of reform. Li Hung Chang and Prince Ching are rich in reform ideas, but possessing no army, they cannot initiate the work. As for myself, I have, in conjunction with Yuen Shika, Sheng Suen Wai and others of similar caliber, been engaged for some time past in maturing a scheme of reform, but I regret that I have not been able to make much progress in the matter owing to the hundred and one hindrances arising from time to time in the way of carrying it out. Under the circumstances I see no way of effecting the desired reform but of establishing a mildly progressive central government with the help and under the protection of Japan, England and some other powers, well disposed towards China."
PHILIPPINE CABLE.
Cable Steamer Burnside Arrives at Manila Ready For Work.
VANCOUVER, Jan. 10.—The United States cable steamer Burnside, carrying a quantity of submarine cable, has arrived at Manila. She is to be engaged laying a cable between the Philippines, Manila and San Francisco. She had on board about 500 miles of deep sea cable and 250 miles of shallow water cable and she will commence operations from Manila, returning to New York about April next for a new lot of cable to continue the line to Honolulu and San Francisco. Several well known experts are on board.
The government of Japan, according to mail advices received yesterday, is about to open negotiations with the United States government availing itself of the opportunity presented by the assembling of congress regarding the question of compensation for burning down of 2,000 houses in the Japanese quarter in Honolulu, owing to the outbreak of plague some time ago. This question has remained in abeyance in consequence of dissolution of the prize court.
During the trial of Japanese Police Inspector Nagai Ko for bribery it transpired that the defendant was the real instigator of mob violence inflicted on an American missionary, Rev. Mr. Van Dyke, last June for endeavoring to rescue an unfortunate Japanese woman from virtual slavery.
Manila advices state that over 2,000 insurgent troops, tired of being hunted, half starved, from pillar to post, have surrendered.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Draft of Cuban Constitution.
The brief outline of the constitution for Cuba that has been drafted for presentation to the convention in Havana shows that it is modeled upon the constitution of the United States. It divides the general government into the legislative, the executive and the judicial departments and fixes in detail their distinctive features.
Before doing so, however, it describes the character and extent of the government and lays down certain principles upon which it shall be based. The new government is to be a free and independent republic and is to be co-extensive with the six insular provinces that belonged to Spain. The constitution provides for the protection of individual liberty, the inviolability of the home, the secrecy of correspondence, and the freedom of public meeting, association and the press. It recognizes as citizens all strangers resident in Cuba four months previous to the Spanish war that lent their services to the revolutionary cause.
The legislative department is to be bicameral, consisting of a senate and an assembly. The senate is to be made up of four representatives from each department; they are to be elected by the [ayuntamiento], or municipal assembly, of each department and are to hold office six years, two being chosen every third year. The senate is to be a tribunal for the trial of the president and of the governors of the provinces for malfeasance. It is to have the right to confirm or reject presidential nominations. Only Cubans over thirty years old are to be eligible to the senate.
The house of representatives is to be composed of one member for every 30,000 inhabitants. The members, who must be Cubans 25 years old, shall serve for two years. The house is vested with the right of impeachment of the president, whose trial, as already stated, is to be by the senate sitting as a court. To it is assigned the right to pass before the senate all laws and propositions for the government of the country.
Congress is to meet on the first Monday of November of each year and continue in session ninety days or longer. Extraordinary sessions of the body are to be called by the president. Its authority includes the designation of the persons that have been elected president and vice-president, the passing upon estimates of national expenses, the declaration of war and peace, the organization of the forces by land and sea, the regulation of financial, commercial and internal affairs, the formation of national codes, the establishment of amnesty and the management of public works.
The president must be 35 years old and a Cuban by birth or naturalization. In the latter case, he must have served in the Cuban wars for ten years. After the expiration of the six-year term, he shall not be eligible for re-election immediately. He shall direct the promulgation and execution of all laws, convene congress in extraordinary session, direct diplomatic negotiations and correspondence, submit to congress for approval or rejection the treaties that he has negotiated, and appoint supreme magistrates and other high officers of the government.
A vice-president and a cabinet are provided for. As the outline says little of the duties of the judicial department, we must pass to the organization of the government of the provinces. The assembly of each department is to be composed of one member for every 12,000 inhabitants. Its legislative duties embrace all subjects that are neither national nor municipal. Among them may be mentioned educational, charitable and health matters. Each department is to have a separate treasury and separate civil service and public works departments. The assemblies are to be convey for ninety days every year. Special sessions may be called by the governor.
The governor of each department is to hold office three years. As already intimated, he may be impeached for malfeasance and tried by the senate. He will then be succeeded by the president of the department assembly. It lies with him as well as with the president of the republic to suspend any of the acts of the assembly that may be contrary to the laws of the republic.
The account of the municipal governments is too meager to give an idea of their character and organization. The final feature of the constitution worth mentioning is the provision that no debts or contracts on the part of the republic of Cuba shall be recognized except those made in the interest of the revolution of 1895 by the revolutionary government or by its legal representatives in foreign countries. One of the duties of the cabinet is to pass upon all debts and to pay such of them as are legitimate.
WILCOX-OLMSTEAD.
A Quite Marriage in Rome—Parties Known in Cortland.
For several days there have been rumors and some newspaper reports of a marriage at Rome, N. Y., on the night of Jan. 3, in which the parties are known to residents of Cortland. The STANDARD did not care to publish this until it could verify the facts. The Utica Press in a dispatch from Rome under date of Jan. 6 gives the best account of this, and is said by one in a position to know to be authentic except that the residence of Mr. Wilcox is Ithaca and not Batavia. The Press says:
On the Arlington hotel register for last Thursday, Jan. 3, this appears: "W. W. Wilcox and wife, Batavia, N. Y." That's all right, but in connection with this entry there is a little romance of interest. On a late train that night there came here from the west —Batavia—"two hearts with but a single thought," that thought being one of marriage—a secret marriage—and it was a success so far as the event of that night was concerned, and it probably would have remained a secret had not there been noticed in the city about midnight on Thursday, by a young newspaper correspondent who now lives in Cortland but who for a time represented an out of town paper from Rome. He, too, registered at The Arlington as R. H. Davis, which is his correct name.
If this trio only had thought far enough ahead to have registered under assumed names, their little escapade here would have still been dead to the world. Rev. S. J. Greenfield tied the midnight knot, and tied it good and strong. It is due to the young couple, both probably being under 25 years of age, to say that they are about as fine a looking twain as ever stood before a dominie [sic], there to promise each other "to take each other for better or for worse."
It is to be hoped that it will be all for the better, and it undoubtedly will be so, for the groom is said to be a prosperous young business man in Batavia, and the bride, who is stately and beautiful, will make a good financial partner in the firm of "W. W. Wilcox and Wife," her name being Myrtle Olmstead, a student of Vassar college in Poughkeepsie. It was, of course, decided that the marriage should be a secret one, for the young lady partner is still attending school, where she expects to graduate in June, and then the marriage is to be "announced."
The day after the wedding the story was circulated in Rome, and so published, that the groom was from the western part of the State, and that the young lady "implicated" was a student of the Rome High school. The young ladies of the high school were all quizzing around Saturday to ascertain, if they could, who the "fortunate victim" might be, as one of the young ladies inquired of The Press reporter. The reporter had to, of course, acknowledge that he did not know her name, and at that time he did not, for the Reverend gentleman who married them said that he was pledged to secrecy and could not therefore reveal the names till the secret was released, and he kept his word. Mr. Davis, who planned the secret excursion to Rome, first telephoned to another pastor, who by the way is an acquaintance, and requested him to perform the ceremony; but the dominie, having retired, and probably being a little suspicious that all was not right, declined with thanks, therefore losing a nice fat fee.
The marriage is all right, legitimate in every way, and when the host of friends of the young couple learn of the facts, many will be the warm congratulations that will be showered upon them, and they are worthy of them. They are rather of a romantic turn of mind, the groom, being positively so, having about two years ago returned from the Klondike, where he was successful in speculation.
The bride left for Utica on the 6:04 A. M. train Friday, and there she boarded a flyer for the east, while her newly wed husband and Mr. Davis left Rome on the 5:35 A. M. train for the west, the groom living at Batavia, the bride saying that Batavia was also her home. She is a Southern girl and exceedingly handsome, coming from one of the best Southern families.
The bride was a graduate of the Cortland Normal in the class of '96, and is well remembered here. She is a daughter of Victor M. Olmstead, who was a director of the census in Cuba under the United States government and now occupies a government position in Honolulu. She is a blonde about five feet ten inches tall and is an attractive and interesting woman. Her tastes are distinctly literary and she has considerable dramatic ability. Her oldest brother is well known in Washington as a pianist of ability and has studied abroad for a number of years.
Mr. Wilcox was a student at the Normal at the time that his present wife, and he was one of the best athletes in the school and was a "crack" football player. He is about 23 or 24 years old and is more than six feet tall. He is now the general manager and superintendent of the Washington Glass Co. of Ithaca.
So far as known there was no objection on the part of the friends of either to the marriage, and the only reason for keeping it quiet was to avoid comment of any kind till the bride should complete her course at Vassar, but it leaked out as such things are bound to do in these days of energetic newspaper reporters. Many friends in Cortland will tender their best wishes to both.
W. C. T. U. MEETING.
The State Unions to Erect a Fountain on the Pan-American Grounds.
The regular meeting of the W. C. T. U. was held on Tuesday afternoon and opened with devotional exercises led by Mrs. R. J. Lucas.
A letter was read from one of the soldier boys now in Cuba thanking the donor for the comfort bag which was proving so useful to him.
Eight calls upon the sick were reported.
The name of one new member, Mrs. Wm. McElheny, was presented.
Mrs. Clark, under whose supervision gifts were prepared for the county house, reported the sending of forty-four boxes containing candles, nuts, etc., to the inmates.
In accordance with a recommendation adopted at the State convention that the State W. C. T. U. erect a fountain on the Pan-America grounds at Buffalo that shall in some way typify our work, it was moved and carried that our union contribute one dollar for this purpose; the plan being that all unions having twenty-five members or over should give a dollar, all under that number fifty cents. If the plan proves successful the State union is looking still farther and hoping to make the fountain a permanent feature of the State fair grounds at Syracuse after it has served its purpose at Buffalo.
Thursday, Jan. 10, has been set apart as a special day of prayer for the temperance work. Services will be held at the W. C. T. U. rooms from 2 to 4 P. M. under the charge of Mrs. R. J. Lucas, local superintendent of evangelistic work. There will be different leaders each half hour. The state superintendent of this department, Mrs. Mary J. Weaver, in her recent letter to local workers said:
"One of the distinguishing features of our organizations is the evangelistic work. Let us push this the coming year as never before.
''Ask God to give thee skill in comfort's art
That thou may'st concentrated be, and set apart
Unto a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ills in many hearts
And comforters are needed much
Of Christ-like touch."
SUPT. PRESS WORK, Cortland, Jan. 7, 1901.
FOR BICYCLE RIDERS.
Ordinance Against Sidewalk Riding on Paved Street.
There is an ordinance against riding on sidewalks on paved streets in the city of Cortland. Little by little some parties have begun to infringe upon it when they thought the police were busy or otherwise engaged, until it has come quite the common thing to take the walk in preference to the street on those streets. The chief of police takes this method of informing the public that complaints have been lodged with him in regard to the matter and that he has instructed the patrol men to enforce the law in every case, whether the instance is observed or heard of afterward. Bicycle riders should, therefore, beware of infringing upon the ordinance unless they have some spare shekels in their pockets that they would be pleased to contribute to the public treasury.
LIVELY FRACAS.
Involving Fred P. Coffin and Two Former Policemen.
There was a lively fracas a little before midnight last night in front of Hotel Burns on North Main-st , the participants in which were Fred P. Coffin, a painter and paper hanger, who makes his home at that hotel, and two former policemen of Cortland, S. N. Gooding and J. H. Corcoran. Coffin came out of it in pretty bad shape, though it does not appear that any bones were broken. He was scarcely able to turn in bed when a STANDARD man saw him this morning and then only with great pain.
The fracas seems to have been the result of an unfriendly feeling which has existed for some time. Last night Corcoran and Gooding asked for Coffin at the hotel and were told that he was in the front room. Coffin was considerably intoxicated, but staggered out with them upon their offer to go outside and settle the difficulties. About as soon as the sidewalk was reached, a struggle began. Coffin got several blows in the face and was otherwise bruised, when onlookers, who had gathered, stopped the row.
Coffin went back into the hotel and was followed by the other two who seemed inclined to continue the scrap. Beard & Peck's ambulance was called for the purpose of taking the injured man to the hospital but owing to the great number of patients in the institution just now, it was not made use of when it arrived and Coffin was carried up stairs in the hotel and put to bed and medical aid was summoned. His clothing, which was smeared with blood, as well as the blood on the walk and on the front part of the building, gave evidence of the character of the affair which he had been engaged in.
A STANDARD reporter went to Mr. Corcoran's home on East Court-st. this morning and was there told that he had not been home since last night and that he was probably in Syracuse. Mr. Gooding was them visited by the reporter and he stated that he with Mr. Corcoran went into Hotel Burns last night and gave Coffin the invitation to go outside. Coffin, he said, had called both of them low names and they went over to see him with the purpose of making him answer for what he had said. When they got outside, Gooding says Coffin made an attempt to hit him. He, Gooding, put out his hand and gave him a little shove and Coffin fell over. This was repeated. Coffin then made a move as though he were going to hit Corcoran, when Corcoran struck him several times in the face. He says he did not remember seeing Corcoran kick Coffin, although he might have done so. He, at one time, spoke to Corcoran and told him not to be too rough. He said he thought Coffin had been given a good lesson and that he would probably know enough now to keep his mouth shut.
Mr. Coffin was also seen at the Hotel Burns. He was in bed and said he was very sore. He said the two men came to the hotel and inquired for him and got him to go outside with them. He says that after he got outside he doesn't remember very much about what happened. He admitted that he was intoxicated. He doesn't remember the coming of the ambulance nor how he got to his room.
The reporter learned from the bartender at the hotel who was on duty at that time that just before the two came in and called for Coffin he had spoken to a man there about rousing up Coffin who seemed to be asleep in his chair and getting him upstairs to bed. He said that when Coffin went out upon the walk with the others he staggered and had to hold himself up with the chairs that he passed and with the door casing to keep himself upon his feet.
THE NAME "HORSEHEADS"
Proceeded From an Incident in the Revolutionary War.
Dr. William Elliott Griffis of Ithaca has an article in the December number of the New England Magazine which could not fail to interest every one interested in the history of this section of the Empire state. It is entitled "Sullivan's Raid," and tells of the march of General Sullivan and his army in 1779 up from Pennsylvania through this section of New York state destroying Indian villages and endeavoring to destroy the base of supplies of the British army and of their Indian allies. Many places well known are mentioned. In the course of the article he refers to Horseheads, giving the origin of the name. As this is probably not familiar to the majority of our readers who frequently have occasion to use it we quote as follows:
"The scoundrels we have with us always. There were rascally contractors who furnished "embalmed beef," "plugs" for war horses and lean cattle "blasted by the east wind" for sound oxen in these days as now. "Horsehead" which stands as a very oasis of naturalness amid the desert avidity of classical names in Central New York, gets its cognomen from the great number of poor pack horses shot there [Horseheads, N. Y.], their cephalic vestiges being afterwards arranged in rows by the superstitious Indians. Only 300 out of the 1,400 animals taken into the wilderness returned to Easton."
BREVITIES.
—A quantity of old muslins is wanted at the Cortland hospital.
—New display advertisements to-day are—E. M. Mansur, Groceries, page 5; W. Chamberlain, Concert, page 5.
—The Loyal circle of King's Daughters will meet with Mrs. Birdlebough, 73 Homer-ave., to-morrow afternoon at 3 o'clock.
The condition of Mr. O. A. Kinney, who is ill with typhoid fever, is about the same as for several days past. He is enough to be holding his own without any complications, though very seriously ill.
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