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| Theodore Roosevelt. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, February 7, 1903.
PRESIDENT DECLINES.
Will Not Arbitrate Question of Allies' Preference.
RECOURSE NOW TO THE HAGUE.
British Ambassador Announced to Mr. Bowen Arrival of Protocol From Lord Lansdowne—Similar Papers With Germany and Italy—Blockade to Be Raised on Signing Protocols.
Washington, Feb. 7.—President Roosevelt has declined the invitation of the allied powers to arbitrate the question as to whether they shall receive preferential treatment in the settlement of their claims against Venezuela over the other creditor nations.
He reached this decision shortly before 4 o'clock yesterday and instructed Secretary Hay to dispatch a note to the British embassy at once advising the British ambassador to that effect
The matter, therefore, now will be referred to The Hague tribunal. This will result in the immediate raising of the blockade.
The administration, it is stated in official quarters, was unwilling to approve the effort of the British government to eliminate Minister Bowen from the negotiations, and moreover the president could not have accepted the invitation of the allies, even had he been so disposed, without the consent of the other negotiator, Minister Bowen, and this the allies did not [obtain] or request in their note of invitation to the president.
Today preliminaries with reference to the signing of the protocol referring matters to The Hague for arbitration will be considered.
Immediately on receipt of Secretary Hay's note announcing the president's declination the British ambassador addressed a communication to Minister Bowen stating that he was suffering from an attack of grippe and would be obliged if Mr. Bowen would call on him.
The Venezuelan envoy went at once to the embassy, where the British ambassador explained that he had been too ill to call for several days and announced the arrival of his protocol, which he was prepared to submit to Mr. Bowen for signature.
Later the German minister, Baron Von Sternburg, called on Mr. Bowen and announced the arrival of his protocol. It developed that two protocols are to be signed by Mr. Bowen with the Italian ambassador, Signor Mayor des Planches, two with the British ambassador and two with the German minister, Baron Speck Von Sternburg.
The first protocol in each case will provide for the reference of the allies' contention for preferential treatment to The Hague and the raising of the blockade simultaneously with the signature of this convention.
It is doubtful whether the initial protocols between Mr. Bowen and the three allies will contain the same conditions, though all the negotiators are working to this end.
In these protocols the conditions precedent to the raising of the blockade will be clearly stated, namely, that 30 per cent of the customs receipts of the ports of La Guaira and Porto Cabello are to be set aside by Venezuela for the satisfaction of her creditors and that the question as to whether the allied powers shall receive preferential treatment, or as Great Britain terms it "separate" treatment, in the settlement, shall be referred to The Hague.
These protocols also will provide that Venezuela shall pay down to each of the three allied powers £5,500 as an initial cash payment. The differences between these protocols, it is said, will concern certain details, the nature of which is not yet known even to Mr. Bowen.
The German protocol will be submitted to him today by the German minister for consideration. Afterwards Mr. Bowen will go to the British ambassador, and there will see the protocol drawn up by Lord Lansdowne. The Italian ambassador, Signor Mayor des Planches, will bring his protocol to Mr. Bowen today for consideration.
Having arranged for the signature of these first protocols, the negotiators will take up the second protocols, which are to cover the manner of adjudicating the claims of the various creditor powers and the means for the administration of the customs receipts.
The claims of each claimant power are to be settled by a commission to consist in each instance of a representative of the creditor government and a Venezuelan and in case of a failure to agree the King of Spain will appoint the arbiter.
The plan agreed on for the collection of the payment provides that the Caracas government shall he entrusted with the administration of receipts unless 30 days are allowed to elapse without the prompt payment to any one nation of its share, in which event the Belgium government is empowered to appoint agents to take charge of the custom houses and administer the payments until the claims of all the nations are satisfied.
In administration and diplomatic circles the reference to The Hague is regarded as a victory for Minister Bowen. The findings of The Hague tribunal may not be handed down for some months. The tribunal will decide also the vital question to South American states as to whether blockades and bombardments entitle powers to preferential treatment at the hands of their debtors.
Alaskan Boundary Treaty.
Washington, Feb. 7.—Senator Lodge, member of the foreign relations committee, had a conference with the president during which they discussed the status of the Alaskan boundary treaty. The senator informed the president that he does not regard the ratification of the treaty as a hopeless task. It is said to be the purpose of the friends of the measure to press its consideration in the senate because some of the opposition is based on misunderstanding.
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| Adelina Patti. |
Patti will Tour America Again.
London, Feb. 7.—Adelina Patti has finally signed a contract for sixty concerts in America, commencing Nov. 3 next. She is to receive $300,000 for the sixty concerts.
PAGE FOUR—BRIEF EDITORIALS.
◘ Experiments in Germany have demonstrated the practicability of keeping railroad trains on the same track in instant communication with each other, and with the stations along the way, by means of a third rail, which acts as an electric wire connected with apparatus in the locomotive cab. This apparatus can be used as a telephone, and it also works automatically in signaling stoppages of a train. It is reported that the French government is to equip all the state lines with the system, which is known as the rail telephone, at a cost of $1,500,000.
◘ Mexico comes in with a little claim against Venezuela, too. The general rush of collectors reminds Mexico that Venezuela owes her about $90,000, and she wants the money. But Mexico has not the least idea of sending her navy to blockade Venezuelan ports.
◘ In the middle ages the most expensive buildings were the wonderful cathedrals, which were the glory of Christian Europe. In our time the most expensive buildings are the railroad stations. In New York, the proposed new stations are to cost $30,000,000 each, reckoning of course, the cost of the approaches.
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| Capt. William Saxton. |
WAR REMINISCENCES
By Captain Saxton of the 157th Regiment, N. Y. Vols.
THE ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA.
Scarcity of Arms at the Beginning—Ellsworth and His Zouaves—On to Richmond—General Scott too Slow—Movements of the Armies—Preparing for Bull Run and Its Disastrous Result.
(Chapter 4.)
To the Editor of The Standard:
Sir—Volunteers rushed forward so rapidly that, could the government have armed them, more than a half a million soldiers could have been placed in the field by the Fourth of July. As it was, many regiments had to remain in camp and drill without arms for some time.
The government depended principally on the armories of Harper's Ferry, Va., and Springfield, Mass., for its supply of muskets and rifles.
On the 18th of April, upon the approach of two or three thousand confederates, the officer in command at Harper's Ferry, set fire to the government buildings and destroyed 15,000 stand of arms, to avoid having them fall into the hands of the enemy.
The capacity of the Springfield armory was only about 25,000 muskets annually. It was at once enlarged, but it took time, so the government. and governors of states, and General Fremont, commanding at St. Louis, sent to foreign countries for arms and the result was we had a mixed "job lot" of small arms of different calibres, and some of these guns were about as dangerous to the ones who fired them as to those who were fired at . All of this, in due time, was rectified and our armies eventually were armed with the Springfield and Enfield (English) rifle muskets, caliber .58, the best arms then in existence.
Advance Into Virginia.
Events transpired so rapidly in those April and May days that it would take a historian to recount them. April 18, Harper's Ferry was taken. Southern ports were blockaded on the 19th. Norfolk navy yard was seized on the 20th. General Butler took command of Baltimore on the 27th. May 3, there was a call for more troops. Lieutenant General Scott, 76 years old, the hero of the Mexican war, was in command of the Union forces with headquarters at Washington, and on account of disability was unable to take the field in person, but he ordered an advance movement of the troops around Washington and on the morning of the 24th 10,000 Union troops crossed the Potomac river into Virginia and occupied Arlington Heights, opposite Washington.
Col. Ellsworth with his regiment of New York "Fire Zouaves" went down the Potomac by boat and took Alexandria, 7 miles below Washington, without opposition.
Death of Ellsworth.
Col. Ellsworth noticed a rebel flag flying over the Marshall House, went in, climbed to the roof and pulled it down, and as he was descending the proprietor of the hotel shot him dead, and he, in turn, was shot dead by one of the colonel's men.
When the news of Col. Ellsworth's tragic death reached us, it roused our already excited nerves to their utmost tension. We considered it assassination. Col. Ellsworth, although only 24 years of age, had gained a great reputation in the North by exhibiting his famous company in the Zouave drill in the principal cities of the North. The Forty-fourth New York, first called "The Ellsworth Avengers," was raised in his memory, one man being taken from a town, unmarried, not over 30 years old, nor less than 5 feet, 8 inches in height and of good moral character. This was one of the finest regiments raised in the Union armies. The total killed and wounded in this regiment during the service was 543, captured seventy-nine, died in confederate prisons ten. I had an esteemed friend in this regiment, Charley Bowen of Willet. I saw him several times during the war, visited him in camp and he me. The last time I saw him in the service was a day or two after Gettysburg battle. His regiment was one of the first to seize and hold Little Round Top, the key to the Union position, on the second day, where they lost twenty killed and eighty-two wounded. They were mustered out in September 1864, and he came to visit me at my father's as soon as I came home in 1865
Eager to Enlist.
General McDowell, in immediate command of the Union forces south of the Potomac, proceeded to fortify his position, and the army lay comparatively quiet along the Potomac until about the 1st of July. The spring term of school was out and it had been a hard time for the professors to keep our minds on our studies. I helped my father at cutting hay and other things during vacation.
Congress met in extra session on the 4th of July. In his message, President Lincoln recognized that civil war was upon us, that compromise of any kind was at an end, and he asked for 400,000 men and $400,000,000.
Congress and the people of the North could not endure General Scott's methodical way of arming, equipping and drilling the army, and they raised the cry of "On to Richmond," and the volunteers, most of whom had enlisted for ninety days, took it up and "On to Richmond" was the cry of every one, and day after day the daily papers with flaring head lines would announce "All quiet on the Potomac." The result was that the Union army was forced, by public clamor to make an advance before it was ready. We had a great deal to learn about war and it was taught us in the bitter school of experience.
The School of Experience.
Now turn to the map of Virginia and let us study it a little. Alexandria was 7 miles below Washington. Up the Potomac from Washington is Harper's Ferry, Falling Waters, and Williamsport, Maryland. The Shenandoah river flows into the Potomac from the southwest at Harper's Ferry. South of Williamsport in the Shenandoah valley is Martinsburg, and a little south of west from Martinsburg is Winchester. Southeast of Martinsburg is Bunker Hill and nearly east of that is Charlestown, near the Potomac river. Gen. Patterson had about 20,000 Union troops at Chambersburg, Pa. He marched through Maryland and crossed the Potomac at Falling Waters on the 2d of July. The rebel forces under Gen. Joe Johnston fell back to Martinsburg and then to Winchester. On the 15th Patterson marched to Bunker Hill. 9 miles from and on the direct road to Winchester, thus throwing his army between Johnston's at Winchester, and McDowell's, opposite Washington.
Gen. Scott had sent Gen. Sanford with reinforcements to Patterson, with positive orders not to let Johnston march around his flank and reinforce Beauregard at Manassas; but on the 17th, Patterson marched his army directly east, 12 miles to Charlestown near the Potomac, thus opening the door for Johnston, and he did not wait or hesitate to start his army.
The Orange & Alexandria railroad runs southwest from Alexandria through Manassas Junction on the Culpepper and Gordonsville. At Manassas Junction the Manassas Gap R. R. comes in from Front Royal south of Winchester running through Gainesville. Johnston rushed most of his troops to this railroad and was soon with Beauregard. There was but one result. [The battle of] Bull Run must follow. W. S.
Mr. Coon Buys a Place.
L. P. Hollenbeck, as referee, sold the Sinton property at 130 Port Watson-st., from the front steps of the courthouse this morning. Dellazon Coon bought the place for $3,100.
The sale arose from an action in supreme court in which Mary Sinton was the plaintiff and E. B. Coon, J. C. Stevens and Sarah L. Newton were defendants, and in which the plaintiff sought to recover dower rights which she claimed as the widow of Benjamin Sinton.
Improved Lackawanna Service.
Division Passenger Agent E. J. Quackenbush of the Lackawanna announces that new twelve section and stateroom Pullman sleepers have been placed in service between Oswego and New York for the accommodation of the New York travel out of this territory. These new sleepers leave New York at 9 o'clock in the evening reaching Cortland at 6:11 o'clock in the morning and will be used on the train leaving Cortland at 11:48 o'clock at night, arriving in New York at 7:30 o'clock in the morning.
Hung to the Reins.
Yesterday afternoon John Sweeney, proprietor of the hotel at Fair Haven, N. Y., accompanied by his daughter and two men, was driving on Main-st., Cortland. Something frightened his horses and they were going at a pretty lively rate though still under control. As they turned the corner into Homer-ave., the sleigh struck the car tracks and was upset and all were thrown out. Mr. Sweeney hung to the reins and was dragged for a number of rods, but contrived to steer the horses into a tree which stopped them. A few straps to the harness were broken, but otherwise there was no damage. The driver, however, showed excellent grit.
Fever is Genuinely Typhoid.
Prof. V. A. Moore of the bacteriological department of Cornell university has been making a number of tests of cultures taken from patients afflicted with the fever now so prevalent in that city [Ithaca, N. Y.] and he pronounces it unquestionably typhoid. Twenty-three new cases of fever were reported yesterday, bringing the total number of cases under care of physicians to 356. Fifty of these are Cornell university students.
BREVITIES.
—Mr. Geo. S. Bowes has moved from 10 Reynolds-ave., to 17 1/2 North Church-st.
—Dr. N. L. Andrews of Colgate Theological seminary, Hamilton, expects to leave in March for a trip through Syria and Palestine. Dr. Andrews has many friends in Cortland.
—Revival meetings will be held in the Memorial Baptist church beginning tomorrow evening and continuing each evening next week at 7:30 p. m. except Saturday. Everybody invited.
—The services at all the churches tomorrow evening will again be held at the customary hour of 7 o'clock, and all the young people's meetings which have been suspended during the revival meetings will be resumed at 6 o'clock.
—New display advertisements today are—M. W. Giles, Special prices, page 7; Beard & Peck, Dissolution sale of furniture, page 4; G. H. Wiltsie, Wash goods, page 6; Opera House, Miss New York, Jr., page 5; Haight & Freese Co., Stocks, etc., page 6.
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