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| Cipriano Castro. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, December 18, 1902.
REALIZE THE DANGER.
Venezuelans Preparing to Yield to Demands.
HAVE DECIDED TO ARBITRATE.
Leading Citizens of Caracas Sent a Joint Note to President Castro Asking Him to Give Full Powers to Minister Bowen to Effect a Settlement. Blockade In Force.
Caracas, Dec. 18.—The awakening of the Venezuelan people to the present situation of their country is accompanied by feelings of bitterness and sorrow. Their fleet has been destroyed and their pride has been deeply wounded; they are now resigned to accept the affront which they consider has been offered them by the allies.
During the last 10 days President Castro has acted with extraordinary energy. He has transformed the entire country into a vast camp, having raised more than 40,000 men whom he has well armed, equipped and transported from every direction to La Guairá and Puerto Cabello, hoping that the allies would attempt to land at one or both of these points.
But there has been a change of feeling and the prominent men of Venezuela who were at one time ready to lead the people to the defense of their country now consider that justification to take the men of the republic away from their families and their work does not exist.
They have resolved to discover a means to bring about arbitration or at least treat with the allies. The means sought is thought to lie through the United States legation and satisfactory results are on every hand expected to follow the attitude of the United States.
A member of the ministry said to the correspondent of the press: "The United States has not prevented the allies from assailing us but it has obliged them to accept our terms."
Rumors have been in circulation here lately of the capture of the last Venezuelan gunboat, the Miranda, at Maracaibo, by the German cruiser Falke. It is now reported, however, that the Miranda has taken refuge in the Lake of Maracaibo and that all the guns and ammunition which were on board have been disembarked.
PEACE IN COLOMBIA.
Revolutionary Generals and 2,000 Men Brought to Panama.
BUT FEW ARMED REBELS LEFT.
According to a Presidential Decree, Elections For Members of Congress Will Take Place the Second Sunday in March Next—Export Duties to Be Gradually Reduced.
Panama, Dec. 18.—The Colombian gunboat Bogota has arrived here from Chiriquí towing five sailing vessels. She brings the former revolutionary generals, Morales, Berti and Gomez, and nearly 2,000 men to Panama.
There now remains but a few revolutionists at Montego and the gunboat Padilla has been sent to that point.
The situation in the interior of Columbia is becoming normal.
According to a presidential decree which was published Tuesday, the elections for members of congress will take place the second Sunday in March, 1903.
Beginning Jan. 1 export duties are to be diminished by 10 per cent each month until they are entirely abolished.
Photo of breaker boys, Pennsylvania Coal Co.
OPERATORS OPEN CASE.
Present Their Side of the Controversy With Mine Workers.
WAGE STATEMENTS CHALLENGED.
Counsel For Operators Declared Recognition of Union Was Not an Issue Before the Commission—Attorneys For Non-Union Men Called Witnesses.
Scranton, Dec. 18.—The anthracite coal operators opened their side of the controversy with the mine workers before the strike commission and the attorneys for the non-union men began calling witnesses.
The sessions were probably the liveliest yet held by the commission. At the morning session the miners' lawyers challenged the fairness of certain wage statements handed to the commission by the Pennsylvania Coal company and in the afternoon Lawyer Darrow had a spirited discussion with Chairman Gray as to whether or not the miners had a right to know who is paying the lawyers representing the non-union men before the commission. Mr. Darrow asserted they were employed by the coal operators.
Preceding this Simon P. Wolverton, counsel for the Reading company, who delivered the opening address on behalf of all the large coal companies, made the point that the recognition of the union is not an issue before the commission, which brought out a protest from Mr. Darrow.
The latter claimed that, if it were not, then the operators should be forbidden from presenting testimony that tended to show the union was responsible for all the alleged violence committed during the strike.
Ira H. Burns, one of the attorneys for the independent operators, presented the opening statement of the individual companies.
It was arranged that the attorneys representing the non-union men should first call their witnesses and five witnesses were produced who testified that strikers had killed one man and had more or less seriously annoyed two other men who worked during the suspension.
The first witness was Mrs. James Wenston, the wife of the murdered man, and the second was her son-in-law.
Mr. Darrow asked the son-in-law who was paying for the lawyers who are representing the non-union men and then ensued the liveliest tilt that has occurred in the sessions of the commission.
Counsel for the witness objected and Mr. Darrow insisted he and the commission had a right to know who were back of the non-union men, but Chairman Gray differed with him. The chairman said it made no difference if the operators were paying for the lawyers.
Mr. Darrow insisted he had a right to know because this was a peculiar case and ex-Congressman Brumm, also for the miners, claimed that the non-union men had virtually formed a union because they had asked the commission to recognize them in the award and protect them from losing their places and that they also asked for an increase in pay.
The colloquy was carried on for some time and finally Chairman Gray consulted his colleagues and as a result quietly answered that the commissioners thought it immaterial who was back of the non-union men. At 5 o'clock the commission adjourned until today.
NON UNION MEN.
On Witness Stand Before Anthracite Coal Commission.
Scranton, Dec. 18.—The Philadelphia & Reading and Delaware, and Lackawanna & Western railroads filed statements of wages and hours of labor of their employees with the commission at the opening of the session this morning.
Frederick Reynolds, a fireman with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western company, was the first witness called by the attorneys for the non-union men this morning. He said he had a family of seven to support and had worked during the strike. Reynolds said while returning from work one morning he met John Francis, a striker who with a number of others held him up. Witness said Francis said to him: "Reynolds if you don't quit work we will kill you."
Counsel brought out the fact that during the trial of Francis he was asked by what authority he stopped people on the street and Francis replied that he got the authority from his "local."
John Hoffman, a union man working at Drifton, was the next witness. He said he had gone on strike and become so desperate in need of food that he returned to work, the union having failed to do anything for him.
One night he said, a crowd visited him at his home and told him to come down. Upon his refusal, Hoffman said, the order was given to load firearms. Witness said he tore shingles from the roof and escaped through the hole and then ran for nearly 15 miles. On his return next day the house and furniture were destroyed. Hoffman said he was compelled to leave the neighborhood.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Handwriting Issue.
A problem which for several years past has perplexed public school authorities is that of handwriting. Is the style or system of penmanship likely to be most useful in practical life "vertical" or "slant"? Referring to this problem, the New York Sun in a recent editorial gives some interesting facts bearing upon it.
Two and one-half years ago the board of school superintendents in New York became convinced that the vertical system was not desirable, and they passed resolutions recommending the slant system in its stead. The board's recommendation, however, virtually left the question of adopting the slant system to the discretion of the teachers individually. Supt. Jasper said: "We found that business people were opposed to employing persons who had been taught to write by the vertical system. It is good enough for use in libraries, but not in commercial life. It is a fad which, like many others, crept into our schools, and it should be abolished."
A lively discussion of this question is now going on in Baltimore. Bankers and merchants and business men generally in Baltimore are up in arms against vertical penmanship, which has been taught in the public schools there for the last six years. The managers of the Baltimore business colleges say that they cannot find employment for graduates who have acquired the vertical style. The president of the Merchants' National bank of that city is one of many who believe that oblique handwriting is neater and more legible and capable of being executed with much greater speed than the other style and, moreover, that ability in a clerk to write only the vertical style is a serious objection to his employment.
The superintendent of Baltimore's public schools, Mr. J. H. Van Sickle, presents the most forceful argument we have yet heard in behalf of the vertical or, as he calls it, the "natural," hand. He has arrayed on his side Thomas A. Edison, reputed to be the swiftest penman in America; former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury P. A. Vanderlip, the managers of telegraph companies in many of our principal cities, who are familiar with the handwriting of expert telegraphers—men able to write legibly from twenty-live to fifty words per minute: prominent printers, manufacturers and dealers in various parts of this country, and even college professors and physicians.
Mr. Edison acquired the vertical style when learning telegraphy. By its use he is said to have averaged fifty-two words per minute and to have turned out copy "as legible as print" even at this remarkable speed. Supt. Van Sickle offers the following statistics: The average speed of 600 public school children in fifteen cities who have studied the vertical style for from two to five years is 130 letters per minute, whereas the average of nearly 200 slant writers, all adults, is only 103 letters per minute. Mr. Van Sickle sums up as follows in the Baltimore Sun:
"The vertical system is better than the slant system because the child naturally writes in that system, and also because it does not tend either to strain the eyes or to produce curvature of the spine. It is easier to write and easier to read than slanting script; it occupies less space and, under equal demands as to legibility, it can be written with greater speed than slant writing. We cannot get legible writing in the schools by the slant system. We can get it from ninety-nine out of every 100 pupils by the vertical system."
Vertical handwriting is commonly spoken of as a fad which has sprung up within the last ten or twelve years. In reality, however, this style of writing is shown to antedate by more than a century the sloping method. Dr. Edward Brooks of Philadelphia, who has written a history of the two systems of penmanship in question, says that the slant system was unknown in any language until the sixteenth century. Prior to that time all chirography was vertical. It was, practically, the only hand written by the ancient Romans. When, during the middle ages, the cultivation of a fine style of penmanship was at its height in Italy, slant writing was never practiced. That style seems first to have been popularized by Queen Elizabeth, who fell in love with the new type of a Venetian printer, afterward known as italic, and fashioned her handwriting after it.
CORTLAND COUNTY SUPERVISORS ADJOURN.
Work of the Session Completed This Afternoon.
REPORTS OF SEVERAL COMMITTEES.
Routine Work Taken up This Morning—Committee to Consider Question of Making the Office of Sheriff a Salaried Office, Bring in a Report—Other Matters of the Closing Day.
The committee appointed to look up the matter of making the office of sheriff a salaried office reported to the board of supervisors this morning as follows:
We, the undersigned committee appointed to investigate the possibility of placing the office of sheriff of this county on the salary system, would respectfully report that we have given the subject considerable thought, have studied the various methods as followed by several counties which have made the change, and have been in communication with those well qualified to decide the question.
Our conclusion is that while acknowledging that the system has considerable merit, we fail to discover any great financial benefit resulting from the change and that in all probability the efficiency of the service would be impaired. Therefore we recommend the continuance of the present system.
M. A. Mynard, N. F. Webb, A. H. Bennett, Committee.
On motion of Mr. Webb:
Resolved, That the clerk of this board be authorized to communicate with Dr. Cheney, stating that through press of business it will be impossible for the supervisors to accept his kind invitation to visit the Normal school during this session.
On motion of Mr. Johnson:
Resolved, That the thanks of this board are due and are hereby tendered to the publishers of the Cortland Standard, the Cortland Democrat and the Homer Republican for their courtesy in furnishing this board with their papers during the session.
On motion of Mr. Allen:
Resolved, That the committee of one, Mr. D. C. Johnson, appointed at last year's session of this board to have charge of the purchase of all coal for the use of the county buildings, be continued for the ensuing year.
At the session of the board yesterday afternoon, Elisha Williams, who was recently appointed county sealer of weights and measures, explained to the board that certain weights and measures of the outfit belonging to that office were missing and should be replaced; also that all of the weights and measures belonging to the office should be sealed by the state superintendent.
On motion of Mr. Bennett:
Resolved, That the clerk of this board be directed to investigate the matter and purchase new weights if necessary, pursuant to the request of the county sealer of weights and measures.
On motion of Mr. Allen:
Resolved, That the good roads committee as now constituted, consisting of Messrs. Webb, Kinyon and Rowe, be continued for another year.
At 4:30 o'clock this afternoon the work of the board was brought to a close, and an adjournment was taken sine die.
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CORTLAND FIRE DEPARTMENT.
Annual Meeting and Election of Officers for the Ensuing Year.
At the annual meeting of the Cortland Fire department at Fireman's hall last evening the following officers for the ensuing year were elected:
Chief Engineer—E. N. Sherwood.
First Assistant Engineer—M. V. Lane.
Second Assistant Engineer—Willard H. Gilbert.
Secretary—Eugene Eastman.
Treasurer—M. E. Sarvay.
Death of William Kelley.
William Kelley, who was about 90 years of age, died at 10 o'clock this morning at the home of John Cooligan on Railroad-st.
Mr. Kelley had until recently lived in Solon. He is survived by two sons, Henry Kelley of Solon and John Kelley of Minnesota, and by three daughters, Mary, Annie and Lizzie, all of whom live west. The funeral arrangements will be made later.
BREVITIES.
—Today's indications point to a white Christmas.
—Syracuse wants three-cent fares on the street cars.
—The Normal school closes tomorrow for the Christmas vacation.
—The semi-annual election of officers of Pecos Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, will occur at 7:30 o'clock this evening.
—The best creamery butter is quoted at 30 and 31 cents per pound and it costs as much to get one dozen eggs as it does to buy a pound of creamery butter.
—Without anticipating the action of the courts, it is quite safe to say that the investigation which is being carried on by Coroner Santee in Cortland county clearly indicates a crime.—Syracuse Post-Standard.
—The temporary dam built at the outlet of Dryden lake by the milk supply company, to raise the level of the lake about 2 feet, was carried away yesterday letting a miniature freshet down Virgil creek.—Dryden Herald.
—The new display advertisements today are—Baker & Angell, Sorosis shoes, page 6; Opera House, "Maude Hillman Co.," page 5; Baker & Angell, Shoes for Christmas, page 7; Hollister Hardware and Plumbing Co., Christmas demands, etc., page 8; G. H. Wiltsie, Holiday gifts, page 6; L. and K. Freeman, Homer, Millinery sale, page 8; Cortland Fish and Oyster Co., Fish and oysters, Page 7.
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