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| Grant's Tomb, New York City. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, May 31, 1902.
MEMORIAŁ DAY SERVICES.
Exercises at Grant's Tomb—President Roosevelt Sent a Wreath.
New York, May 31.—Memorial services were held in the afternoon at Grant's tomb in the presence of 5,000 people. The exercises were conducted by U. S. Grant post of Brooklyn. "America" was sung and Lincoln's Gettysburg address was read. Judge Thomas G. Jones of the United States district court of Alabama was then introduced and delivered the oration.
President Roosevelt sent a wreath of roses and the Chinese minister, Wu Ting Fang, a bed of roses.
Patriotic exercises were held at night at the Metropolitan Opera House under the auspices of the G. A. R.
Rev. Father William A. Olmstead of Notre Dame university, South Bend, Ind., was the orator of the evening.
Rain Interfered With Exercises.
Utica, N. Y., May 31.—Memoriał dąy services were interfered with here because of rain which fell constantly throughout the forenoon. All outdoor demonstrations were omitted except the simple placing of flowers on the graves of veterans. Brief services were carried on in some of the post headquarters.
Wreck of the Maine Decorated.
Havana, May 31.—The officers and crew of the United States gunboat Eagle decorated the wreck of the United States battleship Maine on Decoration Day. [Cuban] President Palma and the Society of Veterans sent wreaths.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Volcanoes and the Isthmian Canal.
It is not surprising that the late destructive volcanic convulsions on Martinique and St. Vincent should have brought out vigorous warnings from certain quarters against an isthmian canal over the proposed Nicaragua route, which we are told is in the very center of the volcanic and seismic belt. When these warnings come from some promoters of a syndicate that has acquired an interest in the Panama canal who are anxious to dispose of the same to the United States for a consideration, they excite no wonder though they may indicate a motive of sordid calculation. When, however, persons notoriously hostile to any canal whatever draw up the awful catalogue of the "eruptions, quakings, cataclysms and catastrophes that have shaken and torn Nicaragua and Costa Rica since the dawn of history, in contrast with the lovely peace and tranquility of the Panama region," the familiar policy of employing the remote project to kill off the one that is near and imminent is distinctly revealed.
The isthmian canal commission, whose members have doubtless given as careful and competent study to the question as the eminent gentlemen who, owning and controlling transcontinental railroads, are sounding so loud an alarm against "the folly of building a canal under the belching craters that stud the Nicaragua route," reported that from the period of the Spanish conquest down to the present time there have been fourteen seismic and volcanic convulsions in the vicinity of the Nicaragua and twenty-eight in the Panama region. Touching the earthquake risk of the Nicaragua route, the commission said in its report:
It is possible and even probable that the more accurately fitting portions of the canal, such as the lock gates, may at times be distorted by earthquakes, and some inconvenience may result therefrom. That contingency may be classed with the accidental collisions of ships with the gates and is to be provided for in the same way—by duplicate gates. It is possible also that a fissure might open which would drain the canal and if it remained open might destroy it. This possibility should not be erected by the fancy into a threatening danger. If a timorous imagination is to be the guide, no great work can be undertaken anywhere. This risk may be classed with that of a great conflagration in a city, like that of Chicago in 1871 or Boston in 1872.
It is the opinion of the commission that such danger as exists from earthquakes is essentially the same for both the Nicaragua and Panama routes and that in neither case is it sufficient to prevent the construction of the canal.
Of course the human mind cannot forecast the convulsions of nature which may occur in the future either to Nicaragua or Panama or elsewhere on the earth, though it would seem that the recent eruptions in the Lesser Antilles were being rather overworked by the opponents of the isthmian canal project.
Cortland City Band circa 1900.
Open Air Concert.
The Cortland City band will give an open air concert Monday evening, weather permitting. The playing of the band yesterday elicited many favorable comments. The boys certainly presented a fine appearance, played unusually well and deserved all the complimentary things said about them. An open air concert will be a treat that will be appreciated by the citizens generally.
New Central School.
The foundation walls for the addition to the Central school are well under way. The work has been delayed by the difficulty experienced in securing good stone. The walls are being laid 2 1/4 feet thick on a bed of concrete 8 inches deep, making a very solid foundation upon which to build.
Change in Barber Shop.
W. F. Potter, formerly of Cortland and of the barbering firm of Chadwick & Potter with rooms in the Burgess block, has purchased the barber shop of Yates Clark, 118 Main-st., and has already taken possession. Mr. Potter has been in business in Homer during the three years that he has been away from Cortland. He will be glad to greet his former customers in his new place of business.
Soldiers' Monument and Normal School, Cortland, N. Y.
MEMORIAL DAY
Observed at Opera House, Monument and Cemetery.
DR. KEPPEL'S SPLENDID ADDRESS.
Original Poem by Mrs. Pitts—Singing by School Children—Veterans and Clergy Take Part—Monument and Soldiers' Graves Decorated.
Less than 100 veterans and members of the Woman's Relief Corps assembled on Memorial Day to do honor to the memory of the soldier dead. The number of surviving veterans grows less from year to year and as their number decreases the graves in the cemetery, to be decorated on Memorial Day increase correspondingly in number, and this decrease of the one and increase of the other is becoming more marked from year to year. Four have been added to this list since Memorial Day one year ago: Comrades Sager, Doran, Carpenter and Hoxie.
The day was cloudy, but the threatening rain held off until nearly 5 o'clock and only began to fall gently as the exercises in the cemetery were nearly at an end.
The exercises of the day were attended by a large number of citizens. The Opera House was crowded and many were standing. At the soldiers' monument a large crowd was awaiting the arrival of the procession as it came from the Opera House for brief services at the monument before proceeding to the cemetery.
At the Opera House.
The line of march formed on Main-st. in front of G. A. R. headquarters, shortly before 2 p. m. and headed by the Cortland City band proceeded to the Opera House, where the principal address of the day was delivered by Rev. Dr. David Keppel of the First Methodist church. Members of the G. A. R. and other veterans and the Woman's Relief Corps occupied seats in the body of the house. The platform was decorated with flowers, the national colors and banners of the G. A. R. and W. R. C.
A special and very pleasing feature of these exercises was the singing by the children from the public schools under the direction of Miss H. Elizabeth Turner. There were about 125 children who assisted in this part of the program and they occupied seats upon the platform. Their salute to the flag followed by the song ''There are Many Flags in Many Lands" was enthusiastically applauded as was each of their numbers upon the program.
Beside the school children there were upon the platform Rev. Geo. H. Brigham, Comrade B. T. Wright, Rev. W. W. Way, Comrade O. P. Miner, Rev. Dr. David Keppel, Rev. Robert Clements, Comrade J. F. Wheeler, Rev. C. L. Rice and Comrade Geo. W. Edgcomb.
The exercises opened with a selection, "The American Patrol" by the City band, then there was the salute to the flag and song by the children, followed by the reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg address by Comrade B. T. Wright.
The boys of the chorus marched to the front of the platform and sang with spirit, "When I am a Man," and prayer was offered by Rev. Robert Clements. The girls sang, "The Uncrowned King," and Comrade O. P. Miner introduced the speaker of the day, Dr. David Keppel.
Dr. Keppel's Address.
Dr. Keppel's address was an effort worthy of the occasion. It was patriotic, as befitted the day; it was eloquent and the large audience present listened attentively to all the speaker had to say.
The subject chosen by Dr. Keppel was "What our Soldiers Fought to Win." He reviewed briefly the principal events leading up to the civil war, the firing on Fort Sumter and the first call for troops. "No man," he said, "was more thoroughly representative of the great principles for which the soldiers fought than the great war president Abraham Lincoln, the kingliest of our uncrowned kings, whose fame grows with the passing years. The great principle which slumbered beneath the ripple and sparkle of his wit and humor governing every act and word of his public life and ringing like a trumpet blast through every speech and proclamation was the absolute necessity to our national existence and prosperity of the indissoluble union of the states.''
Lincoln's prime object, as he himself had stated, was to save the Union, and his personal wish was that all men might be free. His was the pen which wrote the emancipation proclamation but it was the valor of the soldier which made that proclamation possible.
The principles which influenced Lincoln had their effect upon the soldier themselves. The war songs of the union army show in a marked degree the extent to which these principles influenced the soldiers and Dr. Keppel quoted from a number of the more familiar songs to illustrate this point of his address. John Brown's Body, The Flag of our Country is Floating on High, The Union Forever, Marching Through Georgia, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are Marching, Through Many Years We've Waited to Hail the Days of Peace, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, When Johnny Comes Marching Home—such were the war songs of the union army.
The principles for which our soldiers fought may be summed up in a few words: the union of the states in one grand, unbroken nation over which floats the star spangled banner, and may it float there forever; the personal liberty of all who do not forfeit that inestimable blessing by crime; the protection of home, of all homes from the palace of the millionaire to the cabin of the humble negro; the brotherhood of the nation now so expanded that it includes our ancient foeman of the South uniting in one unbroken family, the gray and the blue, and last but by no means least, trust in Almighty God—these were the principles for which the union soldiers fought.
Referring to the decorating of the soldiers' graves, which was to follow the exercises at the Opera House, Dr. Keppel said in closing: ''Flowers for the graves of our union soldiers bring the rose for remembrance, the pansies for thoughts, the lily for purity, the amaranth for immortality. Scatter them deep on our soldiers' graves. But while you do so suffer me to drop in memorial of the graves of the brave Southern boys who sleep in their own sunny Southland, whose brothers are now our brothers, this white rose, the emblem of forgetting and forgiving love.
The whole congregation joined in singing America, and Rev. Robert Clements pronounced the benediction.
Monument and Cemetery.
The column then formed and marched to the soldiers' monument in the following order:
Marshal, J . R. Birdlebough.
Aids—J. W. Hinman, P. H. Lyon, Cortland City Band, Grover Post No. 98 Carriages.
Floral offerings were placed upon the soldiers' monument to Comrades G. W. Edgcomb and H. M. Kellogg. Prayer was offered by Rev. W. W. Way and a short address by Commander O. P. Miner and then the procession marched to the cemetery where flowers were distributed to the veterans to be placed upon the graves of all who served in the army or navy.
Members of the post then assembled around the Grover Post burial plot in the upper part of the cemetery, where Rev. Geo. H. Brigham read the poem composed for the occasion by Mrs. Emma D. Pitts, three volleys were fired by the gun squad, the bugler sounded taps, the column reformed and quietly left the silent city of the dead.
Mrs. Pitts' Poem.
Cortland Park.
THE CORTLAND PARK.
A Large Attendance at the Formal Opening.
The Cortland park promises to be more popular than ever this year. The formal opening for the season occurred yesterday, and while the day and evening were not all that could have been desired, there was a large attendance and the number of dance tickets sold was larger than upon any previous occasion in the history of the park.
A fine concert was given in the evening by the Cortland City band and there was praise on all sides for the remarkably fine music rendered by this organization.
The members appeared yesterday in their new uniforms for the first time. In fact yesterday was their first appearance in public since their reorganization. Their playing was excellent.
Music for dancing during the afternoon and evening was furnished by McDermott’s orchestra.
Owing to the change in elevation of the D., L. & W. tracks at the crossing it was impossible to run trailers, so that all business for the park had to be done with single cars. An attempt was made to get trailers across to bring the crowd back but this was found impracticable and the plan was abandoned.
This difficulty, however, will soon be obviated. Work on the direct line through Elm-st. is nearly completed and it is expected that the D., L. & W. people will put in the crossing at Elm-st. tomorrow when there will be but few trains running.
The park itself shows the results of work done in anticipation of opening day and improvements for the season. The first installment of animals for the menagerie arrived by express yesterday morning. These were eight members of the monkey family which will make their home in the park during the summer, consisting of five rhesus, two ring tail specimens and one baboon.
The number of fares registered on the park cars yesterday was 3,863.
BREVITIES.
—Grace church choir will meet at 7:30 o'clock tonight for rehearsal.
—A regular meeting of Grover Post, G. A. R., will be held on Monday, June 2, at 8 p. m. sharp.
—New display advertisements today are—Gas Light Co., If it's A with you, page 6: M. W. Giles, The busy store, page 7
—The meeting of the board of health which was to have been held last evening was adjourned until next Thursday evening.
—Many of the business places in the city were closed all day yesterday. Groceries, markets, clothing stores and drug stores closed at noon.
—The regular June meeting of the board of managers of the Cortland hospital will be held at the hospital Monday, June 2, at 3 o'clock.
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