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| 1910 Photo of Wall Street & Broadway. |
The Cortland Democrat, Friday, February 1, 1901.
LAND $420 PER FOOT.
NEW YORK LETTER WHICH IS FULL OF INTEREST.
Lawyer Refused to Sell Corner at Any Price—Steal Overcoats in Spite of Detectives—Swearing Off Their Personal Assessments.
New York, Jan. 30.—At the southeast corner of Broadway and Wall-st., there has stood for many years a small brick building, now surrounded by giant skyscrapers which make it look by comparison like a toy house. Taking it foot by foot, it is considered to be the most valuable piece of real property on the western hemisphere and at this time a single foot of it is worth the price of several acres of good farm land. The death of the owner, an aged lawyer, which occurred last week, recalls an incident that several years ago caused much wondering comment. A capitalist being about to build the tall building which now overshadows the little brick building on two sides, made repeated attempts to induce the aged lawyer to part with the diminutive corner property. It was said at the time that the price he was offered was $525,000 which was at the rate of $420 per square foot, more than the highest price ever known to have been paid for land in this city, namely, that at the corner of Wall and Broad-sts. This tempting offer was refused by the lawyer, not once but on several occasions, his invariable answer being that at his age he did not care to be bothered with the investment of the purchase money. Now that he is dead, it in supposed that his next-of-kin will soon dispose of the property.
There is a restaurant on Park Row, the proprietor of which is of a decidedly pious tone of mind. Upon the walls hang various framed exhortations to follow the narrow path, so that he who eats may read such laudable thoughts as "Never weary of well doing" and "The beautiful rests upon the foundation of the necessary" greet the eyes of the patron as he disposes of his luncheon. But it seems that ungodly persons have made their presence felt in the restaurant, because some little time ago another sign, not of a strictly religious nature, appeared on the walls. It read "Keep your eye on your over coat." To the casual observer, such a caution would appear to be superfluous and so many mottoes conducive to devout feelings, but nevertheless overcoats have been stolen so frequently of late that the proprietor engaged two detectives to watch for the thief. A decidedly seedy individual walked into the restaurant at noon-time one day last week, removed an overcoat of antique appearance and uncertain color, hung it on the rack beside a brand new one belonging to one of the detectives, and then began to devour prodigious quantities of coffee and cakes. Just how it all happened is not clear, but while the detectives were watching the two overcoats instead of the seedy individual, a man in the front room yelled that his overcoat was gone. The defectives looked for the seedy man but he had gone, presumably in the company of the missing overcoat. Now the proprietor has disposed of the services of the detectives and does not know just what means he will adopt to prevent his patrons losing their over coats.
This is the season of the year when certain opulent citizens appear before the tax commissioners, and make strenuous efforts to swear off their personal property taxes. The commissioners do not, as a rule, facilitate the wishes of the citizen who seeks to persuade them that he is better informed as to the value of his personal possessions than they. They have prepared the tax budget to meet certain expenses and as they dislike having their calculations upset, the man who has been assessed at $100,000 and swears he had to borrow [trolley] car fare to reach the tax office, is not received with any marked signs of favor. The applicants for exemption sit waiting their turn for examination in long rows, displaying patience that under other circumstances would be extremely commendable. Three out of every four have taken particular pains to present the most object poverty-stricken appearances possible. A few days ago a fat citizen swore to the deputy who was examining him that he had not been eating regularly for several months and that he owned nothing but debts. This worthy citizen had neglected before he came down town to remove a two carat diamond that was blazing in his shirt front, and upon further examination it developed that he had made a big loan upon a mortgage a few weeks ago. The foregoing is but one of many instances of those who endeavor to shirk their just share of the burden of government.
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| Main Street, Cortland, N. Y. |
THE CITY CHARTER.
LEGISLATURE ASKED TO AMEND IN THE INTEREST OF—WHO?
More Offices For the Faithful, A Republican Scheme to Strengthen That Party—Terms of Office Lengthened–Other Objectionable Amendments to be Railroaded Through the Legislature.
Copies of the proposed amendments to the city charter have finally reached Cortland. The truth of the ugly stories which have been floating about for the past month seems to be confirmed by a scrutiny of the amendments proposed. It has been openly charged that the main intent in amending the charter was to enable the Republican mayor to qualify, and other amendments were to be proposed to draw attention away from the real purpose. It is certainly true, that the only radical changes proposed cluster about the change on the police board in the interest of the present mayor. In the original charter the mayor is chairman of the police board.
By a general law enacted in 1890, it was provided that no member of a police board could be interested in the sale or manufacture of liquors. Before the inauguration of Mayor Brown it was discovered that he could not be a member of the police board under the provisions of the aforesaid law, as he had not only a pharmacist's license permitting him to sell liquor under a physician's prescription, but also a store license which permitted him to sell liquor by the bottle, not to be drunk on the premises.
At the discovery of this ineligibility many suggestions were offered to relieve the emergency. It was proposed that the mayor need not qualify as a police commissioner, or that he throw up his license; but dangers were supposed to be in the way even then, and it was finally determined to change the charter and enable the mayor to conduct the city's business and the liquor business with impunity, if he so desired. How is it done in the proposed amendments? The mayor is not to be a member of the police board in name, but is to be the whole thing in fact, for he is given the absolute power of removal of police commissioners at his pleasure. To this newly constituted police board is given the power to change the whole police force, irrespective of civil service regulations that the policemen could be removed only on charges preferred and for cause. All that will be necessary in the future, when a change in the force is politically desirable, will be to add new members to the police board and call for a reorganization of the police force. A dangerous precedent, to say the least. Although one board in the large majority of the third class cities is sufficient to control the fire and police, in the amendments proposed there is a distinct board for the fire department, which is not only to give more places to political creditors, but from rumor, is to give the firemen a majority on the fire board.
Much as we believe in our fine fire department, it would be a fatal mistake to have on a board charged with the management of the fire department, the majority firemen. As well have the police demand that they be accorded a majority on the police board.
Another amendment limits the amount that can be raised for the education of the children of the city. One year, that was enough for a Democratic commissioner of charities, is one year too little for the Republican occupant of the same office. Other amendments of the same nature are noted.
We object to these amendments, first, on the ground that we do not favor changing organic law in the sole inter est of any person, no matter how excellent he may be. Secondly, the police board has never been tried as formed, so that it cannot be found whether it will work well or not. We do not believe in frequent and radical changes in the charter. Time should be given to test the present provisions.
These amendments were entirely unknown to the board of aldermen when introduced. That they were in part known to the mayor is evidenced from the fact that he has failed, in violation of the express provisions of the charter, to appoint the police board, which by the existing charter he was compelled to do before February first. We have been promised a public meeting and a hearing before the mayor, after the bill had been passed. What a farce would such a meeting be when only the mayor's approval is necessary, and he is the real beneficiary and the sole cause and source of the amendments.
Certainly the present charter is working economically. It has done all that was promised by its projectors. Let not the doors be opened to extravagance and partisanship. Multiplied boards generally mean multiplied expenses. Mr. Dickinson has added nothing to his reputation for fairness in crowding such a measure upon the legislature without its consideration by the common council. If it was needful a year ago, it would at least have been courteous now. The people demand a municipal government carried on in the interest of the people rather than in the interest of, or at the behest of, politicians.
Our City Police Force.
Perhaps our Cortland police force is not the "finest in the world, " as is frequently asserted of the New York guardians of the peace, but that they attend strictly to business is proven by the discovery during the past few weeks of three doors in the rear of business places which had been left unfastened at closing time late in the evening. The members of the night force frequently examine all doors in the various alleys in the rear of nearly all business blocks, and when one is found unlocked and unbolted, the patrolman hunts up the owner and notifies him of the fact, that he may properly guard his property against burglars. Two of the unfastened doors were found by Night Captain Day Baker, who is proving himself to be an efficient officer. The third was discovered by Policeman Cy Townsend.
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| John C. Spooner. |
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From Our Regular Correspondent.)
Washington, Jan. 28.—If an extra session of Congress has to be called to pass the ship subsidy, as now seems probable, the Republicans are going to make Philippine legislation the excuse for the extra session. After leading Republican senators had repeatedly said that there was to be no Philippine legislation by this congress, and Senator Spooner had abandoned his bill, which by the way gives the president about the same authority over a civil government in the Philippines that he now exercises under his authority as Commander-in-Chief of our military forces, and announced his intention to try to get a congressional committee sent to the Philippines, it was a little surprising and at first confusing for Mr. McKinley to send a report from the Philippine commission to congress urging the immediate passage of the Spooner bill, reinforcing it with the endorsement of Secretary Root and his own. Mr. McKinley knows the absolute impossibility of getting the Philippine legislation asked for in the short time left of this session, and only sent the report and message to congress to prepare the way for an extra session of the next congress, in which some of the most active opponents of the ship subsidy bill will not have seats, if it becomes necessary.
Democrats are not worrying over the extra session question. They can stand it if the Republicans can, and neither the fear of it, nor the desire for it, will influence a single Democratic vote, or lessen Democratic opposition to a single measure which is opposed on principle.
PEEP IN THE FUTURE.
A PROPHETIC VIEW OF CORTLAND IN THE YEAR 2000.
A City of Over a Million Inhabitants—Limits Extend from Marathon to Tully, and from Solon to McLean—Agitating the Removal of the State Capital to Cortland—People Travel in the Air.
The people of to-day have a limited realization of the possibilities of the city of Cortland during the century in which we have just entered, but presuming that the spirit of invention and the wonderful advances in science will continue at the pace enjoyed the past century, it is fair to assume that the inhabitants of this mundane sphere at the close of the twentieth century will, as they read history and listen to the tales of their grandparents, look upon the people of 1901, who just now believe they are giants in progression, as mere pigmies in the arts, sciences and inventions, and it will not be surprising if they consider us even old fogyish. And who knows but their estimate may be correct? Let us in imagination sit and listen to the local historian of the year 2000 and learn of him all about the Cortland of one hundred years hence. His story will read something like the following, told in his own way:
"The city of Cortland now covers an area of 114,585 acres, or 180 square miles, being near the size of Chicago as it was in 1901, and includes what were once the towns of Cortlandville, Homer, Preble, Scott and a large portion of Virgil. I have often heard my grandfather tell of the time when Cortland cast off its village clothes and put on city airs. That event occurred in March, 1900, and 'tis said that the clergymen and many others fought the adoption of a city charter with much vigor. It is related that a public hearing on the subject was held in a little building, called at that time an opera house, located about where our magnificent amphitheater now stands, and that the adoption of the city charter was opposed by several clergymen and lawyers. But the advocates of the city charter led by one Dr. Millen, or some such name, triumphed and Cortland took one stride forward in the line of progression.
''The first mayor of the city was one Sammy Holden, at that time a dealer in coal, an article much used one hundred years ago, but now rarely seen. The second mayor was Charles F. Brown, a vendor of drugs, and grandfather of the present pastor of the Decatur-ave. Baptist church of Cortland. The city had then a population of less than 10,000, while the federal census of the present year gives us something over a million.
''I am told that railroads and electric cars were in common use at the beginning of the present century, a means of locomotion which probably seemed near perfection in those days, but which to us would appear a waste of time when we can now be propelled through the air in electric carabines at the rate of three miles a minute. To go to New York, the largest city in the world, one has but to enter a magnificent cigar-shaped car and in something over an hour he will find himself in the metropolis. Nearly every citizen of means has his private air car in which he travels wherever he chooses at almost lightning speed, this method of locomotion placing the old slow way of bicycle riding completely in the shade. Of churches Cortland boasts of more than four hundred splendid edifices, each the religious home of a prosperous organization, one of the finest costing a million and a half, being located on a commanding eminence where 'tis said a park was once located.
"The people of Cortland have now one of the finest parks and lake resorts to be found in the world, out-rivaling the once famous Central park in New York city. Some fifty years ago the city bought one thousand acres of land surrounding what was then known as Little York lake, and millions of dollars have been expended in beautifying the premises. On pleasant days hundreds of carabines may be seen hovering over this resort, preparing to alight or enjoying a bird's eye view of the crowd below. While Cortland has grown rapidly in area and population, politically it has grown in grace, the Democrats usually carrying the city by from 40,000 to 50,000 majority.
"When Cortland was incorporated as a city in 1900 there were only two newspapers published, I am told, while now there are not less than one hundred, including 38 dailies. The Democrat was then the leading weekly newspaper, as it is now the most influential daily newspaper in our city, and in no one thing is the spirit of progression so marked as in the art of printing. At the beginning of the twentieth century the type for the Democrat was set by what was then considered a wonderful invention called a Simplex machine, operated by a young lady in a little ten by twelve room in the Democrat building, then located on a street known as Railroad-st., and now designated as Johnson's alley. The papers were printed on a Cottrell press, which had a capacity of some 1,500 impressions an hour, the pressman being Arthur Williams, grandfather of the present pressman Joel Williams. The Democrat of to-day, with its 32 large pages, bears little resemblance to the newspaper bearing the same name in 1900, neither does its circulation of that day bear any comparison to its present daily issue of 700,000 copies, printed on three Lightning presses at the rate of 300,000 an hour.
"Mail carriers are an unknown quantity in our day, and this is an innovation that saves time wonderfully. From our present postoffice, a mammoth government building, standing on a spot where the county fairs were once held, are thousands of aluminum tubes connected with nearly every house in the city, and the mail is distributed through these tubes with the speed of lightning.
"In the amphitheater before referred to, an elegant structure occupying an entire square, are given every variety of circus exhibitions, and political conventions are generally held here. Our hotel accommodations are ample, there being at least twelve structures, each eighteen stories high, besides hundreds of smaller hotels.
"It seems very probable that within a year or two the state capitol will be removed to Cortland, as it is the most centrally located large city in the state, and the crumbling away and consequent total destruction of the capitol building at Albany, erected more than one hundred years ago, makes it necessary to select a new location, and the general sentiment throughout the state favors this city. The authorities offer to donate sufficient land on which to erect the necessary buildings, situated at a point once known as Blodgett Mills. Cortland is the proper place for the capitol, and its people will hold a magnificent celebration when it is officially decided that this city has been chosen.
"Our houses are all heated by electricity furnished from huge dynamos operated by power from Niagara Falls. This power is used entirely within a radius of four hundred miles of the Falls, and thousands of dynamos all over the state supply heat at a moderate cost.
"If Cortland continues its growth for the next hundred years as it has during the twentieth century, the year 2100 will see a city as large as five Greater New Yorks of 1900."
HERE AND THERE.
Court week makes pretty lively times in town.
Look out for the ''cop." Night Captain Day Baker is acting as chief during the illness of Chief Smith.
Rev. Robert Clements was too unwell to preach Sunday, and his pulpit in the morning was supplied by Rev. G. H. Brigham.
Proprietor J. H. Mourin of the Messenger House has recently been making some very decided improvements on the second floor of that popular hostelry.
Did you realize that Cortland is a church-going city? On nearly every Sunday morning the large edifices are filled with worshippers of the different sects.
The Democrat's report of supreme court proceedings contains much interesting news not found in any other paper. Compare it and see if this is not so.
Prof. George Oscar Bowen has sold his interest in the Conservatory of Music to Profs. A. E. Darby and B. L. Bentley, who will hereafter conduct that institution.
Those half-tone cuts in the Democrat are proving immensely popular. What could be more life-like than the portrait of Dr. Benj. Kinyon last week, or that of Mr. Henry Kingman in this issue?
Within a few short months the name Pan American will be upon everybody's lips, and judging by the speech of the people a large share of Cortland's population will take one of the many roads that lead to Buffalo.
One can begin to see something at 7 o'clock in the morning, and at 6 o'clock at night, thus proving that the seasons are rolling around as usual, and that within a few weeks the "peepers" will sing their nightly anthems.
The freight office at the D., L. & W. depot has been under the carpenters' care for several days, the result of their labor being an entire transformation. Hereafter the entrance to the office will be from the west end instead of from the Railroad-st. side.
Scott lodge, No. 81, I. O. O. F., will hold its third annual ball in Roche's hall, Thursday evening, Feb. 21. Music by "Happy Bill" Daniels' full orchestra. We mistrust this will be a most delightful occasion for all present. The floor managers will be J. M. Cottrell, F. L. Slocum and Earl Grinnell.
For nearly the first time in a great many years the familiar face and form of Wm. Shirley was missed in the court room at the opening of court Monday morning. Mr. Shirley has served as janitor of the room and general utility man for over twenty years, we are told, but his place is now taken by George Thompson.
It is probably not generally known that Cortland has one resident who has nearly reached the century mark. Mrs. Martha McDonald, who resides with her daughter Mrs. Graves at 43 Groton-ave. was 97 years old on Monday last, and up to about four weeks ago she had been enjoying good health. Since that time she has been ill, but is now recovering.
For promptness in paying death claims, the Knights of the Maccabees seem to be in the lead. Eleven days after the papers in the claim of the wife and mother of Mr. Fay Millen were mailed in the Cortland post office, the treasurer of the Cortland tent, Knights T. M. received the check of the order, for $2,000, payable to the beneficiaries. That is promptness personified.
On Monday evening next Rev. Charles E. Ewing, one of the missionaries who was confined within the city of Pekin daring the siege of the Chinese Boxers, will lecture in the Presbyterian church. He will tell from personal experience the story of the siege. Admission 25 cents. Mr. Ewing was a college student with Edwin Duffey, ex-district attorney of Cortland county.
Cortland pupils take no back seat to any one in the matter of spelling, and among the finest spellers in the younger grades is Miss Jessie Wallace, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Wallace. At the recent regents' examinations in the Central school, Miss Mary Williams, one of the teachers, announced that she would give prizes to the two scholars whose percentage in spelling was the highest. Miss Jessie of grade eight, A division, won the girls' first prize, her record being exceptionally fine, and Harry Pease carried off the boys' first prize.
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