NO NEWS FROM SAMAR, TO DEFEAT TAMMANY TIGER, HOSPITAL REPORTS, SCHOOLS OVERCROWDED, AND DEATH OF MRS. CONABLE

 

Major General Adna Chaffee.

Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, Oct. 24, 1901.

NO NEWS FROM SAMAR.

Typhoon Destroyed the Telegraph Lines. Troops Coming Home.

   MANILA, Oct. 24.—Nothing has been heard from the island of Samar for three days, owing to the typhoon having blown down the telegraph lines, excepting one cable message and some mail advices. Admiral Rodgers has received a report by gunboat. He has notified the troops at ports to be on their guard owing to the surprises and massacres of the company of the Ninth infantry at Balangiga.

   At Pambujan, island of Samar, all the buildings in the vicinity of the barracks were immediately razed, a newly made trench having been found bearing directly towards the quarters of the troops,

   General Smith, on his arrival at Calbayog, island of Samar, sent reinforcements to Weyler. They found the garrison of that place, numbering 15 men, besieged by over 100 bolomen.

   The United States transport Sumner left here last night with 350 men of the Twelfth infantry. The cruiser New York was delayed by coaling and taking supplies on board but she left Manila Tuesday night with 330 marines under Major Waller.

   There are 2,600 troops in the island of Samar. General Chaffee does not anticipate any further disasters. He considers that there is no cause for alarm. The garrisons have been increased and heavy precaution has been taken to prevent another surprise like the one at Balangiga.

   The central Filipino committee has issued a proclamation confirming Malvar as the successor of Aguinaldo. Copies of the document have been widely circulated.

 

COLOMBIAN FORCES WON.

Defeated Large Insurgent Army on Oct. 5, Killing 100.

   COLON, Oct. 24.—The Colombian government formally announces that  General Pompilio Gutterrez defeated Oct. 5, near Ambalema, on the Magdalena river west of Bogota, insurgent forces from the department of Tolima and Condinamarca, united under General Marin and General Duran, after a desperate engagement lasting three hours.

   According to the official announcement the insurgents retreated after losing 100 killed, among whom was General Vincente Lombana and several captured, together with a large supply of ammunition. The government loss exceeded 50.

 

Richard Croker.

TO DEFEAT THE TIGER.

Fusion Forces Have a Hot Battle Against Tammany Corruption. Croker's Candidate Shepard Has Swallowed the Corruption Which Formerly Nauseated Him.

   The campaign against Croker and his corrupt Tammany government in New York city is getting hot.

   The nominations are all made for the minor places on the tickets, and the several elements which have united are working harmoniously for the common object of overthrowing the gang which has been in possession of the city for the last four years.

   In most of the districts the anti-Tammany forces have united on candidates for assemblymen and aldermen, as well as on the entire borough and county tickets.

   Croker is making a fight for his life. He has two strings to his bow, and if he thinks at the last moment that his candidate for mayor is not going to carry through the county ticket in New York county it is fully believed he will sacrifice Shepard in the hope of carrying Manhattan and the Bronx and thereby putting his own men into the important offices of borough presidents and district attorney.

   This last might save several of his trusted lieutenants from a term in prison.

The Leaders.

   Seth Low, the fusion candidate for mayor, is leading the fight for the anti- Tammany forces. He is an experienced campaigner, full of energy, thoroughly familiar with the affairs of the city and a forcible talker. He has been speaking once or twice a night at mass meetings for the last two weeks and will keep it up until election day. His attitude is frank, and his attacks on Tammany crookedness are terrific. He has assured the people frankly that if he is elected he will at once remove the unspeakable Deputy Police Commissioner Devery and put an end to the blackmailing of gambling houses and all manner of vicious resorts which is now going on. The mass meetings which he addresses are attended by thousands every night, and the only limit to the size of his audience is the standing room space in the hall.

   Mr. Shepard, who has consented to abandon the position he held for so many years and help save Croker's scalp, has begun his campaigning. His course is something beyond the comprehension of intelligent men. Once he was bold, fearless and aggressive. Now he dodges, apologizes and excuses. His speeches are full of arguments, which he, as a bright lawyer, must know are sophistries. He refuses to say what he will do with [William] Devery if elected, because, forsooth, to promise to remove him would "violate the constitutional provision" which bars a candidate from making anti-election promises. Then the next day he forgets his position and promises specifically that he will, if elected, pay close attention to the removal of ash barrels from the sidewalks. His promise to remove ash barrels and his constitutional argument against a promise to remove Devery were made by him in all seriousness, but they have made him a laughing stock. For years he fought Croker and Tammany. The organization which has now selected him to save its life he called a "foul blot on civilization." Tammany he arraigned in the bitterest words in the dictionary. This year he has been the chief speaker in Tammany Hall itself. He has held secret confabs with Croker at the latter's headquarters at the Hoffman House. He has struck hands with Croker's toughest henchmen.

   In his speech at Tammany Hall Mr. Shepard promised to maintain decent government if elected. In the same speech he promised, if elected, to do nothing to disintegrate the Tammany organization. The two promises nullify each other. It would be an impossibility to keep both. Performance of one means breaking the other.

   Mr. Shephard's old friends try to think that he is honest in his purposes and his intentions, but can intelligent men think anything else than that Mr. Shepard has allowed his political ambition to becloud his intellect or to bring a process of deterioration to his moral fiber? If he is honest, he is the victim of delusions which disqualify him for the responsibilities of the office for which he is the candidate.

Croker's Henchmen Kick.

   Croker is none too popular even among many who have always supported him. That he spends his time and money in England, levying on "the faithful" here for the cash to maintain his own luxurious habits, does not please those on whom the burden falls. There was never anything like it. Croker has never been in any large businesses. He has never worked. He was once poor, and now he lives on an estate, spends money like lord and rolls in ease, while his henchmen here must hustle and take chances of a term in the penitentiary in their efforts to exact the tribute which the wigwam demands as the price of all kinds of vice, debauchery and wickedness.

   Croker has cast his eye up the state this year to learn if he may capture the assembly and thereby have power for trading purposes if he loses in the great struggle in New York. If his man Shepard wins this year, Croker will be on the high road to state control. It is Croker's programme to make Shepard first mayor, than governor, and finally president if there is no hitch and his man treats Tammany properly after election. Shepard has promised to do that in his assurance that if elected he would do nothing tending to break up the organization.

 

Cortland Hospital on North Main Street.

HOSPITAL REPORTS.

The Matron and Secretary Tell of the Work Accomplished the Past Year.

   The following are the reports of the matron and secretary of the Cortland Hospital association, showing work done this past year:

MATRON'S REPORT.

   Oct. 1, 1901.

   During the hospital year just closed 186 patients have been treated. Ninety-nine of these were occupants of private rooms, twenty-nine were paying ward patients and eight were sent by the city or county. Seventy-four surgical and eighty medical cases have been treated. There have been fifty-five operations performed, all but two of them by local surgeons. Fourteen deaths have occurred: Five from typhoid fever, two from tuberculosis, two from shock after accident, two from old age and paralysis, one, from uremic poisoning, one from obstructive jaundice, one from recurrent cancer. Of these, seven were regarded as hopeless when admitted, some of them being brought that they might have necessary care.

   The average number of patients daily has been a little more than 8 1/4. Had the capacity of the hospital been greater, more patients would have been received. During the typhoid season of last year surgical and operative work was necessarily turned away. Of the twenty-two patients received during December seventeen were typhoid cases.

   The training school consisted of eight nurses at the beginning of the year, four have been graduated, and six new members added, leaving a class of ten nurses at the end of the year. Their earnings outside the hospital have been $1,301.40 of which $112 is yet unpaid. During December and January additional help was required and $165.29 was paid to outside nurses at that time.

   During the greater part of the school year classes and lectures were kept up two or three times weekly. The lecture course was excellent and the percentage of examinations high.

   The two special needs of the class are a microscope and a skeleton. With these we feel that our work would be more satisfactory.

   HELEN M. WATERS, Matron.

SECRETARY'S REPORT.

   To the President and Members of the Cortland Hospital association and the Citizens of Cortland:

   The following report of the work of the Cortland hospital for the year ending Sept. 30, 1901, is respectfully submitted:

   The board of managers, which has direct supervision of all the hospital work, now numbers twenty-two members. Some changes in the membership have occurred. Miss Henry of Homer, Mrs. Jewett, Mrs. Bucklin and Miss Goodrich have resigned. Mrs. Newton Cone and Mrs. C. F. Thompson of Cortland and Mrs. Shuler of McGraw have been added to the board.

   It is with sorrow that we record the death of our honorary president Mrs. Mary R. Doud. Those familiar with the earlier years of hospital work will recall with pleasure and gratitude her zealous and efficient labors in behalf of the institution. Though failing health and strength had for a considerable time before her death prevented her taking an active part in the work, her interest in it remained unabated, and her counsel and sympathy were always prized by her co-laborers. Too modest and self distrustful to accept the position of president, which she was at times urged to do, she was given that of honorary president as a recognition of her valuable services. That her mantle may fall on one as earnest and devoted to duty as herself is the hope of those who mourn her loss.

   The hospital was opened ten and a half years ago and since that time there have been treated a total of 770 cases. The number during the year just closed has been 136. The number of days' occupancy was 3,001, a daily average of 8.5.

   The sources of income have been from patients' board, from nurses' services to caring for outside cases and from membership fees and small donations. The receipts of the Charity ball held in December were $250 and of the rummage sale in January $536. As one of the residuary legatees of the Sturdevant estate, $ 65 was received from the estate of the late Thankful A. Price $ 1,195.53, and from the heirs of the Edwin M. Hulbert estate $200. The amount previously received from the Brewer estate was increased during the year by the addition of $70.25.

   Following a custom instituted in 1899 the [hospital] house was opened an afternoon and evening in late November for the reception of all who wished to inspect the house and at the same time leave with us a Thanksgiving offering. It proved an enjoyable time to all and helped in filling storeroom and pantry, besides adding to our treasury. The board of supervisors, then in session, called in a body and left as their offering the sum of $40.50. From other callers was received 47.50.

   The donations which have come to us from month to month through the year have been gratefully received. These gifts of vegetables, provisions and household supplies of various kinds help greatly in lessening our necessarily heavy grocery bills.

   To the Home Telephone Co. we are indebted for the free use of one of their telephones for the year, this favor coming to us entirely unsolicited.

   Again we have been remembered by our Chicago friend, Mr. Wm. G. Hibbard. He gave us $25 for the purchase of necessary bedding for the wards. He also sent for the operating room a cabinet for surgical instruments and a steel and glass operating table, both of the most modern and improved pattern.

   A few years ago it was in Mr. Hibbard's mind to build and equip (or assist in doing so) a large addition to our hospital as a memorial to his parents who were formerly residents of our city. Extracts from letters recently received from him were published a short time ago and gave his reasons for abandoning his plan. If Cortland should show in the near future, a disposition to more generously and freely help in enlarging the usefulness of our hospital, whether by city legislation or by individual aid, this help might still come to us from the metropolis [Chicago, Mr. Hibbard] of the West.

   A gratifying evidence of the interest of non-resident friends came in a check for $25 and a piece of sheeting from Mrs. C. O. Newton of Homer.

   A payment of $1,100 has been made on the mortgage, reducing it to $1,400, and an outstanding note of $500 has also been paid.

   The training school is continuing its useful work with twelve pupil nurses employed. Four pupils graduated during the year. Since the school was established seven years ago fifteen young women have completed the two years' course and received diplomas. Mrs. Waters, as matron and head nurse, continues to be of this school its life and power for good, putting herself into the work heart and soul. It is now necessary to hire furnished rooms outside the hospital for seven nurses. During the year the call for nurses has been many times greater than could be supplied, and the hospital authorities are often unjustly censured by friends of the sick ones for not granting their request for nurses, and this only because they do not understand the situation. Calls are filled whenever it is a possibility, barely enough nurses being retained in the hospital, at any time to care for the patients there. There would be more pupil nurses in the training school, and consequently more of these outside calls could be filled, if it were not for lack of room in the hospital for their accommodation.

   Our renewed thanks are given to the medical and surgical staff for their continued uniform kindness and painstaking care shown to the nurses and for their devotion to and interest in all the workings of the hospital.

   The advisory board has rendered invaluable aid throughout the year in giving us of their time and advice on many important matters.

   As in previous years, our local press have been unfailing in their kindness and courtesies to us. To them and to our representatives of leading dailies in neighboring cities who have shown us favors, we extend our thanks.

   That the Cortland hospital is becoming more and more recognized as an institution supplying an imperative need in this community has been shown by its crowded condition during the year just closed. The capacity of the house has been taxed to its utmost, many patients being denied admission for lack of room. There are regular beds in the house for thirteen patients. There have been as high as eighteen cared for there at a time. How and where these others were accommodated only our faithful matron and self-sacrificing nurses could tell. The increasing growth and development of the hospital's sphere of usefulness makes it seem to the management that the demand for additional facilities for its work is an imperative one. These needs can be supplied only by the hearty co-operation financially of the people of Cortland with the work of the managers. How and where the necessary funds are to be secured is a problem which the public is invited to aid in solving.

   ELLA M. BUCK, Secretary Hospital Association, Oct. 7, 1901.

TREASURER'S REPORT.

   Report for the fear ending Sept. 30, 1901.

 

   Total $6.684.94

   ELIZABETH DOUBLEDAY, Treasurer C. H. A.

 

SCHOOLS OVERCROWDED.

RESULTS OF A PERSONAL INVESTIGATION OF EACH ROOM.

One Hundred Twenty New Pupils Received in Lowest Grade in September—About Fifty Usually Come at Beginning of Spring Term—No Place to Put Them—More Than Twenty-five Turned Away Already—Emergency Quarters Poorly Lighted and Ventilated.

   On Tuesday afternoon Mr. F. D. Smith, president of the board of education, and Superintendent of Schools F. E. Smith invited the following gentlemen to accompany them on a tour of inspection of the city schools where they might see for themselves the present condition: D. F. Wallace, former member and former president of the board of education, Alderman T. C. Scudner, F. C. Parsons of The Democrat and Edward D. Blodgett of The STANDARD. Every school and every room in each school was visited and the registration and seating capacity noted. If anything was required to convince the visitors of the need of more school facilities, that visit accomplished the result, and it is to be wished that every taxpayer in this city who is open to conviction might make a similar inspection and see for himself what our present school facilities are.

   The statement has been made on the street that there is a great amount of room in those schools and that it is all nonsense not to take in more pupils. Let those who make these statements and those who listen go and see. What will they find? Every foot of floor space in the different rooms utilized. In very many cases more pupils in the rooms than there are or can be desks, the extra pupils sitting on chairs placed in the aisles without a desk for books or a place to study, the chairs needing to be moved out of the way whenever the pupils sitting near by [sic] have to get out of their seats. In one case the room was so crowded that a child was sitting at the end of the teacher's desk.

   In the Central school, the north end of a hall on the second floor has been partitioned off and temporary seats put in. There are thirty-nine of these and they represent the overflow from the rooms of Miss Van Hoesen, Miss Conable and from those same grades in two of the ward schools. In this hall the children are packed like sardines in a box.

   On the third floor of the Central school part of a hall has been seated for recitation purposes. There is no way of heating this room in the winter except as heat rises through the stairway from the halls below, and this will be altogether insufficient when the cold days come.

   In [rented] Collins hall there are found thirty-six children in a poorly lighted and inconvenient place. This hall is a long narrow room, its only window being at the extreme east end where it faces the brick wall of the Democrat building across the driveway running back from Railroad-st. There is a small skylight at the foot of a well which goes up between surrounding walls to the level of the roof above, but it lets in very little light. This room was never intended for daytime use without artificial light and is at times too dark to see the pages of a book distinctly. The sunlight never enters it. The board of education has had to put in artificial lights and the children work by electric light all day long. It is too bad, but it is the best place in the city that could be obtained.

   When the schools opened in the fall there were forty-five children for this room and forty-five seats were put in and all were occupied. The next week the Normal school opened and three of those children succeeded in finding vacancies in their grades at the Normal and were admitted there. Six more children were taken out of school by their parents because they did not consider the place fit for use for that purpose, and they are now out. The result is that thirty-six remain.

   The following table shows the exact state of affairs as found at the several schools on Tuesday:

 

   It hardly needs to be stated that it is impossible to pack children into a school building in the same way that hay can be mowed into a barn or that potatoes can be put into a crate, utilizing every inch of space. Each room needs to [contain a] certain number of grades in it, [two in some cases, though in other instances] three. If a room cannot [provide for] all of three grades it can then [provide] two and the extra grade must be sent to another room. In other words children cannot be sent into a room regardless of grade till every seat is occupied and then the flow of children be simply turned into another room regardless of grade. An effort is accordingly made to fill the rooms as nearly as possible by so selecting the pupils with reference to their residence in the city that those about equally distant from two schools are sent to the school where they can best be used in evening up the rooms and still be retained in their proper grades. How successfully this has been done will be observed by a reference to the table above. For it will be seen that very few rooms have a surplus of seats though other rooms overflow to some extent.

   In September just 120 new pupils were received into the lowest grade of the city schools, thirty-one entering the room of Miss Park at the Owego-st. school; sixteen the room of Miss Woodbury at the Pomeroy-st. school, thirty-seven the room of Mrs. Benedict a t the Schermerhorn-st. school and thirty-six the room of Miss Van Hoesen at the Central school. At the end of the fall term there will be promotions in each room, and the number to be promoted in each room is noted in the table. Promotions occur twice each year, but only once each year is a class graduated. At the beginning of the winter term, following the precedent of past years, there will be at least fifty more pupils who will enter the lowest grade. There will be no one going out at the top, for only one class is graduated each year, and the graduating class of next June will number but ten. If there were no new ones to enter at the beginning of the winter term the classes though promoted in their grades might remain in the same rooms, but what shall be done with the incoming fifty?

   Before promotions can be made a forecast has to be taken as to where the children can be placed if promoted. In the table above the classes are all arranged in each school in the order of from the lowest to the highest. A sample of the problem of promotion is observed in the Schermerhorn-st., school by looking at the table as follows: Mrs. Benedict will promote nineteen into Miss Mead's room. Miss Mead already has every seat full and will promote but thirteen. How can the nineteen who come be arranged to occupy the seats of the thirteen who go?

   The pupils from the highest grades in the ward schools and from the corresponding grade in the Central school when promoted all go into Miss Flanigan's room. Miss Flanigan's room seats [sixty-four]. She will promote thirty, leaving thirty vacancies for those who come from lower grades. Into those thirty seats are to come fourteen from Miss Sharp, twelve from Mrs. Forrest, ten from Miss Mulligan, one-half of Mrs. George's two grades or eighteen from Collins' hall, and sixteen from Mrs. Perry's room at the Central school, making seventy in all to occupy the places of thirty. Is not this matter of promotion and seating a serious question?

   There is every reason to believe that there will be a full average of new pupils for the lowest grades at the winter term for, as stated yesterday, about twenty-five who wanted to enter school in the fall and were  but 5 years old were persuaded to wait another term because there was no room for them, and if fifty ordinarily come at the winter term when there has been no restraint in the previous term will it not be from sixty to seventy-five next term? And what shall be done with them? It will mean the renting of some other hall or rooms not suited for the purpose where children will be huddled in after the fashion of Collins' hall.

   The best proof of this matter is for every one [sic] to go and see for himself. Then there will be no taking of the word of any one concerning it. Our school houses are in first-class condition as far as they go, but we need more of them. We need to do away with these temporary quarters and this overcrowding.

 

DEATH OF MRS. CONABLE.

Long Time Resident of the Town of Cortlandville.

   Mrs. Fidelia Doud, wife of Frederick Conable, died of heart disease last night, Oct. 23, at 11:45 o'clock, aged 70 years, 9 months and 10 days. The deceased was born in Fabius, Jan. 7, 1831. She was married Feb. 4, 1851, to Frederick Conable who survives her, together with their four children, a daughter Mrs. Mary A. Shearer of Cortland, and three sons, Morris R. of St. Paul, Minn., Oscar F. of Fultonville, N. Y., and George W. of New York City, all holding important business relations. They were all with their mother during her last hours. The funeral will be held Saturday afternoon at 2:30 from her late residence.

   Mr. and Mrs. Conable removed from Fabius to Cortland in April, 1854, and have since resided on their farm just east of Port Watson-st. bridge. They were members of the Free Will Baptist church in Fabius, but after coming to Cortland, united with the First M. E. church, of which they have been acceptable members for more than twenty-five years, participating in the counsels, sharing in the labors, and earnestly promoting the interests of the beloved church of their choice. Mrs. Conable had been a member of the Foreign Missionary society since its organization, and had served for some years upon the parsonage committee, of which she was chairman at the time of her death.

   But it was in the home circle that the virtues of Mrs. Conable shone brightest; her gentle nature and charitable disposition endeared her to all with whom she came in contact. She was a good neighbor, cheerfully responding to every call of friendship, and of her it may be truly said, "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her" and "her children shall rise up and call her blessed." Mr. and Mrs. Conable last year celebrated their golden wedding. M. B. S.

 

BREVITIES.

   —There was a slight blaze in the woolen mill at Dryden last Saturday, but it was subdued before any particular damage was done.

   —Mr. W. H. Foster and Mrs. Mary C. Willis, both of Cortland, were married on Friday, Oct. 18, at the First Baptist church parsonage in Binghamton by Rev. J. W. Phillips.

   —New display advertisements today are—Cortland Howe Ventilating Stove Co., Testimonial from Prof. Francis H. Smith, LL. D., University of Virginia, page 8; Baker & Angell, Shoes, page 8.

   —And now it is to loop the loop on a bicycle. A former Ithacan has done it at Coney Island and has created great excitement. He has had numerous offers of contracts for next season to give exhibitions.

   —The Tompkins county fair at Ithaca will next year be held the second week in September, immediately following the State fair. The Dryden fair will be held later and a conflict between the two fairs in the same county will be thus avoided.

   —It has been practically decided to hold the State fair at Syracuse next year for two weeks instead of one week, the first week to have a great horse and cattle show and the grand circuit races to come in the second week. This will be the last week in August and the first in September.