Cortland Evening Standard, Tuesday, July 9, 1901.
ILL HEALTH CRAZED HIM.
Frederick D. White Killed Himself at Syracuse.
SON OF AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY.
Typhoid Fever Wrecked His Nervous System and Neurasthenia Developed. Used a Rifle, Placing Muzzle in His Mouth, Discharging It With Foot.
SYRACUSE, July 9.—Frederick D. White, son of Andrew D. White, United States ambassador to Germany, committed suicide at 5:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon at his home, 609 James street. Prolonged ill health and a persistent and exhausting nervous disease is given as the only possible explanation of his act.
Mr. White appeared to be in usual health during the day and had attended to matters of business in the management of the White estate. He was alone in the house with the servants during part of the late afternoon, Mrs. White and his son being out. She returned shortly after 5 o'clock and sought him in his library. She found that he had been making out his usual monthly checks in the transaction of business and had evidently broken off abruptly.
She went through the house looking for him and to the bathroom on the second floor. There she found him lying dead on the floor. A bullet from a rifle had passed through his brain, and death had been instantaneous. No one had heard the shot.
Some 18 years ago, on completing his course at Columbia law college, Mr. White had a severe attack of typhoid fever, from which he never recovered. Stomach and intestinal troubles resulted. Later his nervous system became weakened and within a few years neurasthenia developed. About a year ago he suffered a severe attack of the complaint. During the recent hot spell another attack of the disease came on, leaving him in a state of acute nervousness.
Mr. White had been about town during the forenoon and appeared bright and hopeful, and nothing was further from the minds of his friends, than that he should take his own life. It is thought that Mr. White did not premeditate suicide, but that he acted on a sudden impulse. From the appearance of the body when found in the bathroom it is supposed that he placed a barrel of the rifle in his mouth and discharged it with his foot.
As soon as the body was found Dr. H. C. Locke, the family physician, was summoned but could do nothing, as death must have been simultaneous with the shot. Coroner D. F. Matthews made an examination of the body and it was at first given out that death was due to cerebral hemorrhage.
The announcement of Mr. White's death was received with great sorrow in this city where he occupied a prominent position in social circles. A cablegram announcing his death was sent to Ambassador White at Berlin. As yet no arrangements for the funeral have been made.
Frederick D. White was the only son of Ambassador White. He was born in Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec. 15, 1859. He was educated at Cornell university and also in the University of Berlin, Prussia. He studied in Columbia law college, New York, from 1882 to 1884. In the latter year he was admitted to the bar at Binghamton, N. Y., and afterwards practiced his profession in this city. Much of his time in later years has been devoted to the management of property owned by himself and his father.
In 1885 Mr. White married Miss Anne Bruce, daughter of General Dwight H. Bruce, the present postmaster of this city. Besides his wife he is survived by one son, Andrew D. White, Jr.
Mr. White was one of the most highly educated men in Syracuse. He was especially well informed on scientific and historical matters. During his early life he spent many years with his father in Europe. He was a brilliant writer sad conversationalist and a perfect gentleman in the best sense of the word.
Mr. White had large property interests in Syracuse, being interested with others of his family in some of the largest real estate holdings here, including the White Memorial building, the Empire House and other large blocks.
Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, N. Y.
DOINGS AT THE PAN-AM.
Anti-Cigarette League In Convention—Aquatic Sports and Military Features.
BUFFALO, July 9.—There will be a great deal going on at the Pan-American exposition during the next week or ten days, and visitors will find everything in full swing and plenty of excitement. Day by day the number of attractions increases and the gaiety of life at the Rainbow city reaches its height. Everything about the grounds presents a finished appearance and the landscape is now at its best.
One of the interesting features of the program during the present week will be the aquatic events on the beautiful park lake. The championship committee of the Amateur Athletic union has been conducting the contests for swimming championship and water polo games, and the scenes on and about the park lake during these events are most interesting to witness. They will continue for several days. The entries include expert swimmers from Columbia university, University of Pennsylvania, and other colleges and athletic organizations
Wednesday at the exposition is to be Maryland day, and Thursday will be Commercial Travelers' day. There are several conventions scheduled for the week, in connection with the exposition, among them the National Association of Colored Women and the American Anti-Cigarette league. The latter organization is quite unique, and it will surprise many to learn that it has a membership upwards of 900,000, mostly boys and girls. It is expected that with the delegations of this organization and their friends nearly 20,000 persons antagonistic to cigarettes will be present at the exposition. The proceedings are to be held at Convention hall, but a rally and patriotic demonstration will be held in the great Stadium at the Pan-American grounds. The speakers on the literary program will be composed of boys and girls under 21 years of age. These special days and special exercises help to give variety to life at the exposition and swell the crowds.
Now that Sousa's band has departed the popular musical attraction is the Mexican band under Captain Ricardo Pacheco. The exposition assumes also more and more of a military aspect, and the drills of the various military organizations attract greater and greater interest. This week the drills of the famous soldiers of the Seventy-first New York regiment, Company K, who arrived at the exposition grounds yesterday, are the leading topic of interest. These soldiers are commanded by Captain D. L. Hough, and they saw severe service during the Spanish-American war in Cuba.
Next week will also be a big week, from a military point of view, as the famous Armour cadets of Chicago will be here, and also several companies from well known regiments in the state of Virginia.
General Maximo Gomez.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Gomez and Annexation.
It is significant because it is corroborative of all that has reached this country of the best thought among both conservatives and radicals in Cuba, that Gen. Gomez and Gen. Palma should agree that the ultimate destiny of that island is annexation to the United States. That law of political and economic gravitation has been recognized by American statesmen since the time of Jefferson. It could not receive favorable consideration in Cuba, while that island was ruled by Spain as a source of revenue only. But released from bondage to the trans-Atlantic peninsula, the tendency of the island and its people toward more intimate association with the United States becomes daily more apparent.
There are two potent causes of this growing tendency on the part of the people of Cuba. One cause is political, the other economic. The taxpayers of the island have had before their eyes for two years the object lesson of American administration of public affairs. A military government is never popular, but ours in Cuba has been clean, efficient, honest. In direct contrast has been the local conduct of the municipal civil administration, entirely in Cuban hands. The result has been a dread by owners of property and by heads of families who wish to see their children educated, of the day when American protection shall be withdrawn.
The other influence is the desire to enter the American market. Perhaps this influence is deeper and will prove to be stronger than the desire for a clean and economic administration. But it appears already in the movement for concessions in duties on Cuban products.
It is probable that such men as Gomez and Palma understand well that as time passes it will become more and more evident that the desire for annexation is far more ardent in Cuba than it is in the United States. It must be the people of Cuba who will entreat admission into the family of the Union. Whenever that time shall come, it will before the United States to determine the terms and conditions of annexation. But that problem may safely be left to the future. The outlook for the present is visibly brightened by the warm expressions of gratitude and friendship uttered by the grizzled patriot, who declares once more that there must be a Cuba Libre, even if for a limited period, and who recognizes the essential dependence of the island upon its fostering neighbor republic—Mail and Express.
Dexter House, Main Street, Cortland, N. Y.
ARMY RECRUITING.
HEADQUARTERS ESTABLISHED AT THE DEXTER HOUSE.
Captain Finley and Captain Warren Compare the Old Volunteer Army and the New Regular Army—Men of Character Required as Well as Men Perfect Physically—Only Such Can Become Disciplined to Modern Methods of Fighting—Several Enlistments Already Made.
Captain John P. Finley of the Ninth infantry, United States army, has been in Cortland today as a recruiting officer to consider applicants for the army. Captain Finley was in The STANDARD office this morning when Captain George L. Warren of the One Hundred Fifty-seventh regiment, New York Vols., came in and a STANDARD man introduced them. The two at once entered into conversation respecting the old army and the new. Captain Warren had been a recruiting officer in '62 and '63 in securing volunteers for the Union army in the civil war. He referred to the bounties which the government was offering in those days and to the fact that many of the unprincipled recruits secured the bounty and then tried to skip across the border into Canada and escape service before they went to the front. Discussing the rigidness of physical examinations Captain Warren said that it was noticeable how much more careful the government was about accepting men in the earlier days of the civil war than in the later days when men were badly needed, and the examiners were latterly more lenient in regard to the physical condition of the applicant. As an evidence of this he said that statistics show that the great majority of the pensions go to men enlisted in the latter part of the war. True, men in the earlier days received wounds for which they draw pensions, but in the later days a larger percentage of men were so lacking in physical vigor that they were more prone to yield to disease and often without being wounded contracted diseases which have continued with them and as a result of which they now draw pensions.
Captain Finley assented to this and said that the examiners were very rigid now as to the physical condition of applicants for admission to the regular army. But he added that this is not the only thing they are strict about. They want men of morality and character. Formerly men who had made a failure of nearly everything else in life might be accepted into the regular army. Not so now, however. To one man accepted about eight on the average are regularly rejected, either failing physically or in the standard of education or of moral character. Both of these matters are looked up very carefully in the case of every applicant.
The open order method of fighting, said this officer, as opposed to the close order of the old days has also put an entirely new phase upon methods of warfare and as a result it is now impossible to accept into the army many men who would have been received a generation ago. Discipline is one of the great essentials in warfare, and it is impossible to impart discipline to a man lacking in morality or in character. When men were marching shoulder to shoulder in battle or were closely associated together in the routine of army life the presence of a few men of character among a host lacking in this quality would frequently act as a restraining influence on the others. But now with modern weapons the close order is abandoned and each man to a certain degree protects himself—and it is by no means an evidence of cowardice that he should do so, it is common sense. But it calls for greater discipline, for the army now becomes composed of individuals rather than a compact body. The Apache scout is the most perfect type of the open order style of fighter. He is an individual fighter, and he has learned, this through years of experience and discipline. It is a different kind of discipline from the old army discipline, but it is discipline just the same. He is evidence and a result of the survival of the fittest. The Boers of South Africa are trying the open order of fighting, but they lack discipline, and it is this lack which will eventually secure their defeat. The British have discipline to perfection, but they still cling to the close order of fighting. An attaché of the United States army who saw the British cavalry riding in close order, each rider sitting erect in his saddle, against an enemy that was under cover and that could not be seen said that it was one of the most ridiculous sights from the common sense point of view that he ever saw, as well as one of the best example of discipline. The riders were picked off one by one by the concealed sharp shooters and their bravery and discipline when employed in that manner of fighting counted for naught. But they are learning by experience, and when they become trained in open order fighting their discipline will count as against an undisciplined horde and they will win.
In the open order of fighting greater headwork is also required, greater accuracy in details. The victory of Admiral Dewey at Manila is an instance of both discipline and headwork. Dewey relied upon the discipline of his men. If he had needed to close in bull dog fashion in an almost hand-to-hand encounter with the Spanish he would have lost some of his vessels and many of his men. But he knew his men could shoot and he knew he could depend upon them and the world has seen the result.
Captain Finley then referred to the men who are applying for enlistment from Cortland. A recruiting headquarters is continued at the Dexter House in this city, and Sergeant John Donovan is continuously there for the present. Two young men have already been enlisted for the cavalry and have been sent to the Columbus barracks at Columbus, O., where they will begin drill. Four other men have presented applications, but the examinations have not yet been completed and the applications finally passed upon. The applicants are William M. Donovan, L. G. Baker, Henry Aldrich and Harry B. Park, all of Cortland.
Contest for Penmanship.
Some of the elderly men of the city have suggested that a contest in penmanship for men upwards of seventy years of age would be a novel and interesting feature for the Cortland fair next fall. The city in such an event would be represented by some able flourishers of the quill so practiced in days long gone by, and without doubt many from all over the county would be glad to show the skill that they have retained unto their old age. Why not have the contest?
PUBLIC SCHOOL DAY
TO BE OBSERVED AT THE COUNTY FAIR ON AUG. 28.
Every Teacher and Scholar in Cortland County to be Given a Free Ticket—Distribution to be Made on the Basis of Last Year's School Records—Secretary W. J. Greenman the Fairy Godfather of All the Children—How it is to be Done.
The annual fair of the Cortland County Agricultural Society occurs this year Aug. 27, 28, 29 and 30. All the school children of this county are to have a rich treat this fall at the hands of the officers of the Agricultural Society, who will dispense to each of them through the school officers a ticket that will admit the one receiving it to the fair on the second day, Aug. 28. These tickets will be issued by the fair association to Superintendent F. E. Smith of the city schools, to Prof. James A. Shea of the practice departments of the Normal school, to Commissioner Luke J. McEvoy of the First commissioner district, and to Commissioner Katherine Cobb MacDiarmid of the Second Commissioner district. These will make out the tickets according to last year's school rolls, and the name of each scholar that appears on the school records will be written on one of the tickets. In the county outside of the city the two commissioners will send these tickets to the several trustees who in turn will give out the tickets to the children. It is thought by the officers of the fair association that the tickets can be placed in the hands of the school authorities as early as the first of August.
But the children are not the only ones that are to be favored. The Cortland County Agricultural Society officers never do things by halves, and so the teachers also come in for a ticket and they will be quests at the fair on the second day. Of the teachers there are about 210 and a very close estimate of the school children by Commissioner McEvoy gives their number at 5,133, so the association will have a throng of visitors that day.
The school officers are very much pleased with the splendid offer of the Agricultural Society and will do all in their power to get the children to attend and receive the educational value that it will have for them. Mr. W. J. Greenman, the efficient secretary, who is planning all the good things for the children and the teachers, is already planning a school exhibit for next year in which every school in the county may take part. It was thought at first that the school exhibit could be given this year, but not sufficient time was left for it and so the plan for this year will be left as outlined above, with prospects for even better things next year.
BREVITIES.
—The regular meeting of the N. P. L. will be held tonight at 7:30 sharp.
—To date there have been 277 dog licenses sold by the city chamberlain.
—Ithaca last Saturday adopted the noon closing of the banks and half holiday which has been the custom in Cortland for a number of years.
—New display advertisements today are—C. F. Brown, Ice cream soda, page 2; M. A. Case, Drygoods sale, page 6; F. E. Brogden, Ice cream soda, page 6; Mitch's Market, Fresh meats, etc., page 5; Warren, Tanner & Co., Carpets, page 6.
—The Women's Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A. has received its check of $1,000 from the estate of the late Mrs. Thankful A. Price which is to go toward the building fund. The check came through the association and was receipted for this morning by Prof. W. A. Cornish, the president of the association.
—Cortland had no idea how law abiding it was till the matter of dog licenses came up. Every dog seems to be tagged and there is nothing for the dog catcher to do. He hasn't found one yet to gather in. There is a fair prospect of his becoming ill with ennui. The boys are expressing their deepest sympathy with him and are trying to help him hunt for any untagged, but they are all vanished.
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