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| SMS Vineta. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, December 22, 1902.
BLOCKADE IS IN FORCE.
Disposition of Vessels Along Venezuelan Coast.
SEIZURE OF SEVERAL VESSELS.
Believed In London That President Roosevelt Will Accept Position of Arbitrator, Though He Wants Question Referred to The Hague—President Castro Would Accept Him.
Port of Spain, Trinidad, Dec. 22.—The blockade of Venezuelan ports was begun with an effective force at midnight Saturday.
The British have the cruisers Indefatigable, Alert and Tribune, the special service steamer Columbine and the torpedo boat destroyer Rocket along the coast.
The cruiser Ariadne, the flagship of Vice Admiral Douglas, is here and will remain here. All the British operations will be directed from Trinidad.
The cruiser Vineta, the German flagship, left here Sunday morning for La Guayra to reinforce the German cruisers Gazelle, Panther and Falke and the training ship Stoch. The Charlotte, another training ship, has left here for St. Lucia, her presence on the blockade apparently being unnecessary.
Renewed efforts have been made to float the British cruiser Fantome, which is stuck in a mud bank near Barrancas on the Orinoco [river]. Little hope is entertained of their resulting successfully.
It is reported here that Mr. Haggard, British minister to Venezuela, has said that Great Britain acted only after great provocation and that the whole world must approve of what she did. The climax to Anglo-Venezuelan relations was reached when a Venezuelan gunboat captured a British merchantman on the high seas, shipped her crew and valuables and landed them at Margarita island. Then Great Britain determined to act.
Mr. Haggard and the German representative Herr Von Pilgrim-Baltazzi are said to have left Caracas secretly in the fear that they might be held as hostages by President Castro.
The United States battleships Kearsarge and Alabama arrived here Sunday afternoon.
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| Theodore Roosevelt. |
PRESIDENT AS ARBITRATOR.
Believed In London That He Will Accept the Office.
London, Dec. 22.—It is believed that President Roosevelt's answer to the proposal made by the allied powers that he arbitrate the Venezuelan issues mhas been received in London.
The strictest secrecy with regard to every phase of the negotiations is preserved, however, and it is impossible to make a definite statement, but such indications as are obtainable point to President Roosevelt's acceptance of the office of arbitrator.
A constant interchange of cablegrams is proceeding night and day between the United States embassy here and the state department at Washington. It is believed that the president's answer will be submitted formally to the foreign office today.
By Wednesday, unless some unexpected complications arise, it is believed the negotiations will reach a stage assuring a definite arrangement and obviating hostilities.
It must be said that the acceptance of the office of arbitrator by President Roosevelt would greatly surprise the foreign office, which always has been doubtful of the issue of the arbitration negotiations on account of the belief that President Roosevelt or the United States was not willing to undertake the responsibility thereby involved.
Judging from private American advices which have been received in London, President Roosevelt, as arbitrator, would be favorably disposed toward the temporary adoption of some such method as was arranged with the Venezuelan secret mission and communicated to the state department by Isaac Seligman.
With President Roosevelt acting as arbitrator the serious objections in the matter of guarantees which frequently have been mentioned at the foreign office and in these dispatches, would disappear.
The foreign office has repeatedly said that the great difficulty in its seeing a way to agree to a pacific settlement of the Venezuelan trouble was its inability to ascertain to what extent the United States was willing to go in the assumption of responsibility.
In spite of the fact that Sunday is usually sacred to leisure in London's diplomatic circles, the day was marked by activity at all the embassies, especially the American, where work was in progress all night.
The promptness with which Washington deals with those vital matters concerning which prolix pourparlers have been interchanged in Europe astonishes diplomats here and forms an interesting phase of an engrossing situation.
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| George Gray. |
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Cowardly Boycott.
Every man with a spark of the right kind of manhood in him will heartily endorse the praise which the press of the country is giving Judge Gray of the coal strike commission for his denunciation of the cowardice of the boycott.
It was time that some citizen of sufficiently high character and conspicuous position to give his words weight should speak out plainly in characterization of this especially abominable application of mob-law.
Every word used by Judge Gray in characterizing the boycott was justified. The ordinary blackmailer is respectable compared with the boycotter, and the American citizen who submits to the sneaking tyranny of the boycott is unworthy of his birthright of freedom. Among a thoroughly self-respecting people, free, jealous of their freedom and courageous to defend it, a boycott could not exist. The success of the boycott in this country is a disgrace to this country. How can any man who meekly takes orders from some utterly illegal, self-constituted authority, as to the conduct of his business or domestic affairs, claim to be free or even fit for freedom? The citizen who withdraws his patronage from a certain merchant, because he is ordered to do so by a boycotter, is just what Judge Gray called him—a coward. The merchant who, when some stranger walks into his establishment and orders him not to sell to certain citizens, meekly submits, instead of kicking the impudent intruder into the street, is just what Judge Gray called him—a coward. The proclamation of a boycott in an American community ought to impel every self-respecting member of the community to go out of his way to patronize and uphold the boycotted establishment or individual. The fact that it doesn't have that effect is sufficient evidence that this is a free country only in name.
Too many of the people of the United States are so preoccupied with silly fears of governmental tyranny, of which there isn't the slightest danger, that they are indifferent to the most outrageous invasions of their personal liberty by mob tyranny, of which the boycott is a most conspicuous example. The American citizen who, when he reads of displays of royal pomp in monarchical countries, congratulates himself that he is superior to all that sort of thing, while he shakes in his boots and daren't call his soul his own in the face of a boycott proclamation, with nothing to back it but some Tom, Dick or Harry's impudence, is a ridiculous spectacle, if he did but know it.
A few more such boycott-fiascos as that which was recently witnessed in this state [New York] and a few more such utterances as Judge Gray's should educate public opinion up to the perception that the strength of the boycott lies solely in the cowardice of the community, that the proclaimer of a boycott is an impudent invader of private right, and that the boycott needs only to be disregarded to be destroyed.
If the American people are fit for freedom, capable of self-government, able to defend their rights, they will do well to prove themselves so by throwing off the yoke of the boycotter which they have so long patiently borne, like dumb, driven cattle.
WILLIAM KIEHL INQUEST ADJOURNED.
Hearing in Kiehl Case Will be Resumed Monday, Jan. 29.
OTHER WITNESSES TO BE CALLED.
Relatives of the Deceased are Put Upon the Stand—Witness Denies a Statement Attributed to Mrs. Fenner—Exhuming the Body.
The proceedings in the Kiehl investigation were adjourned at the close of Saturday afternoon's session until Monday, Dec. 29. Members of William Kiehl's family were questioned Saturday afternoon concerning his condition before he started for South Onondaga. Ernest Lewis of Otisco denied positively a statement attributed to him concerning a remark said to have been made by Mrs. Fenner in reference to the Kiehl's treatment of Maude.
William's father and sister testified to having been present when the body was exhumed Nov. 3 and to identifying the body. Undertaker Wright of Cortland told of keeping the body at his undertaking rooms until the post mortem examination was made.
Henry Kiehl, a brother of William and Adam Kiehl, was called for by Coroner Santee and said: "I saw my brother at Otisco Center Feb. 1. I conversed with him for about fifteen minutes. He did not complain to me of being sick, and seemed pleasant and cheerful as he always was. He said he was going to the Hollow after his wife.
Charles J. Kiehl, also a brother of deceased, was sworn and said: "I am a resident of Otisco, and was living there in February last. My home was about 4 miles from South Onondaga. On the afternoon of Feb. 2, my brother William came to my house. We conversed about five or ten minutes. He said he felt sick to his stomach, and I noticed he looked pale. 1 urged him to stay all night, but he said he had to get back to the farm.
Joseph Nodine.
Joseph Nodine, a resident of Spafford, was the next witness to testify and said: "I knew William Kiehl during his life. On Feb. 1 last, I worked for Adam Kiehl with William Kiehl. We cut cabbage that day. William stopped about 3 o'clock and hitched up his horse to go to the Hollow after his wife. On Monday morning Adam came after me and said he wanted me to work for him as William was sick. I went with him and went into the room to see William. He was lying on a couch. He said he was sick to his stomach and asked me if I would help Adam do the chores until he got better. I did so until Friday night. I never saw William again alive. I was in the house again Friday morning; saw Adam and Maude Kiehl eating breakfast. I inquired after William's health. They said he was no better, if anything he was worse.
Ernest Lewis.
Ernest Lewis, a resident of Otisco, said he did not know the Fenner family until this summer. He had never said at any time that Mrs. Fenner told him if those Kielhs did not treat Maude better she would make away with them. He had never heard Mrs. Fenner make such a statement, and the rumor to that effect was untrue. He had heard at different times where he had been working, conversation in regard to William's death, and had heard gossip in regard to Mrs. Fenner threatening to make away with William but could not say who said it.
Saw Body Exhumed.
Frances Kiehl, a sister of William Kiehl, was called by the coroner, and said she was present on Nov. 3 last when the body of my brother William was exhumed. She identified the body as that of her brother. The casket and rough box was then placed in an undertaker's wagon and taken away. The comfortable was produced at this point and Frances identified it as the one which the coroner had taken and sealed.
Adam Kiehl, father of William Kiehl, said he was at the cemetery on Monday, Nov. 3, last when his son's body was exhumed, and identified it. The rough box and casket was placed in a wagon and driven to Cortland. The next day it was brought back, and placed in the same grave.
E. R. Wright, an undertaker and a resident of the city of Cortland, said that on Nov. 3 last he furnished a wagon, man and team to go after a body at Otisco. The coroner accompanied that team; the team returned in the evening with the body enclosed in a casket and rough box. The body was placed in his possession and he turned it over to the doctors who made the post mortem examination.
H. H. COLEMAN DEAD.
He Was Col. J. C. Carmichael's Body Servant.
All members of the One Hundred Fifty-seventh regiment and many others among the older residents of Cortland will remember H. H. Coleman, better known as "Quash," the colored boy, who was picked up by Col. J. C. Carmichael in the South during the war and brought back to Cortland by him after the war was over.
The boy was about 17 or 18 years of age and acted as Colonel Carmichael's body servant and took care of his horse. He could neither read nor write, nor did he know his real name, nor who his parents were. He remained with Col. Carmichael in Cortland for three or four years, was taught to read and write and in addition to caring for the colonel's horses, worked in the furniture store of which Colonel Carmichael was then the proprietor. After learning to read, the necessity for having a name by which he could be known occurred to him and he selected the name Henry H. Coleman. After leaving Cortland he went to Ithaca where he married and where he has since made his home.
The Ithaca papers of Saturday contain an account of his death by his own hand in that city on Friday night or Saturday morning last. The body was found about 10 o'clock Saturday morning in the colored Masonic and Odd Fellows lodge rooms at the corner of Albany and State-sts. The body was then cold and it is believed the man had been dead several hours.
In an adjoining room large pools of blood marked the place where he had cut his throat. A white handled razor, covered with blood, was found lying among some papers in the middle of the room.
Mr. Coleman had until six weeks ago been janitor of the First National bank of Ithaca for five years. Since losing his position in the bank he had become despondent and only a few days ago he told his wife that he wished be was dead. Coroner Judd took charge of the case. Mr. Coleman was about 60 years of age. He had no children and is survived only by his wife.
An Ancient Document.
Mr. E. C. Rindge has in his possession an ancient, time worn document which he regards as a curiosity and treasure as an heirloom. It is a deed dated Dec. 20, 1802, just 100 years ago Saturday, and is the record of the conveyance of the farm where Mr. Rindge now lives from John Keep of Homer to Isaac Rindge, the grandfather of the present owner.
BREVITIES.
—The Holiday vacation in the city schools will begin next Wednesday noon and continue until Monday morning, Jan. 5.
—The Cortland Business institute will close Wednesday afternoon for the Holiday vacation. It will open again Monday, Jan. 5.
—A regular meeting of the Royal Arcanum council will be held Tuesday evening Dec. 23 at G. A. R. hall at 7:30 o'clock. Officers for 1903 will be elected.
—Work on the new Central school building [extension on existing building] is rapidly nearing completion and will be ready for use at the opening of the second term of school during the early part of February.
—Soda water dealers who put a "stick" into their soda will have to pay the special tax of retail liquor dealers hereafter. The commissioner of internal revenue has sent out a notice to this effect.
—The new display advertisements today are—Smith & Beaudry, Christmas supplies, page 5; McGraw & Elliott, Suggestions for Christmas, page 6; McKinney & Doubleday, Christmas specials, page 7; G. H. Wiltsie, Handkerchiefs, etc., page 6; L. Randall, Christmas candies, page 6.
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