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Cortland Semi-Weekly Standard, Tuesday, May 12, 1903.
THE COUNTY JAIL.
Report of Inspection to State Prison Commission.
JAIL FOUND IN GOOD CONDITION.
But Certain Repairs and Changes are Needed—More Sunlight Required for Sanitary Purposes—Changes in Windows' Bars Desirable—Baths on Lower Floor—Employment of Prisoners.
Albany, May 7, (Special).—At the meeting of the state prison commission yesterday Secretary McLaughlin submitted the following report of his inspection of the Cortland county jail:
Situated at Cortland, inspected April 30, 1903.
The population on the day of inspection was only three, all men, all serving sentence, one for intoxication, one for non-support, and one on a peace warrant. While it is quite common for sheriffs to class prisoners who are committed for non-support and for failure to give bond to keep the peace as criminals, it is doubtful if they should be so classed.
The highest number of inmates during the past winter was thirty-one, and the average from fifteen to twenty. The average in the summer is about seven. During the past year there have been two boys confined in this prison. A large part of the commitments are for public intoxication.
The sheriff’s office in this county is a fee office, and the board of supervisors usually allows 40 cents a day for maintenance.
More Sunlight Needed.
The jail is a two-story stone building, heated with steam and lit with electricity. There are ten cells on the first floor, each about 5 by 8 feet, opening on side corridors. The cell block is made of stone, as is also the floor, with no cellar or basement underneath. There is a closet in each corridor, but no bath on the lower floor. The cells have open work iron doors. There are two fair sized windows in each corridor, but they are so filled up with iron bars and castings that they are practically useless. In addition to this, the jail is surrounded by a closed board fence, 10 feet high, reaching nearly to the top of the lower windows, and 3 feet from the jail walls. This fence alone would keep most of the sunlight out of the lower part of the jail even if it had windows. Evidently whoever constructed this jail had slight appreciation of the value of sunlight in a prison.
In order to make the lower floor of this jail reasonably sanitary and habitable, the exterior fence should be cut down at least 2 feet. A fence 8 feet high would answer every purpose for which such a fence is needed. All the soft iron bars and metal castings now in the windows should be removed and be replaced with small bars of tool proof steel. No such barricade of windows is necessary for the security of prisoners, and no jail from which the sunlight is so entirely excluded, as is the case in this jail, can be sanitary. Windows of modern prisons are not so barricaded. In fact, this jail should have at least three windows on the side instead of two, so constructed as to admit the largest possible amount of sunlight. Even then it is doubtful if it would be sanitary without a cellar or basement. Certainly an abundance of sunlight, which costs nothing, would greatly improve the present condition. This part of the jail contains no bath; one should be provided for each corridor.
Improvements Needed at Once.
These improvements, which can easily be made at slight expense, should not be delayed. The proper thing for this rich and prosperous county to do would be to furnish this jail with a new interior, constructed on modern plans.
The upper floor is differently arranged, is of wooden structure, and is only intended for the custody of women and “trusties.” It is fairly well lighted, has a closet in each room, and is provided with a shower bath. The outside walls of this jail are made of a good quality of cut gray stone, and the structure is in good condition and presents, from the exterior, a very imposing appearance. If the inside of this jail were modernized, Cortland county would have a creditable jail, probably large enough for its need for some time to come. The prisoners have no employment; not even a jail garden to care for.
Respectfully submitted,
George McLaughlin, Secretary.
DEAD IN THE ROAD.
Charles Harrington of Cincinnatus Partly Under His Wagon.
At an early hour Thursday C. M. Smith of Cincinnatus, N. Y., coming along the road between Willet and Cincinnatus, found the horse and wagon of Charles Harrington who lives south of Cincinnatus, standing in the road. Mr. Harrington’s body was hanging out of the wagon, and life was extinct. There were no severe bruises on the body and no bones broken, nor did his head reach down far enough to touch the ground. Mr. Smith drove the rig at once to Dr. Halbert’s, but the doctor was not able to do anything for the life had already departed. The cause of death is not known. Mr. Harrington was 36 years of age and leaves a wife and two small children.
NO INQUEST NECESSARY.
Belief that Victim Fell from Wagon and Broke His Neck.
Coroner M. R. Smith of McGraw was summoned to Cincinnatus Thursday to view the remains of Charles E. Harrington who was found dead in the road lying partly in and partly out of his wagon. He found that his neck was broken and decided that no inquest was necessary as he believed that Harrington fell from his wagon seat while d riving and broke his neck killing himself instantly.
Died in Olean.
Word has come to Cortland of the recent death in Olean, N .Y., of Frederick Edmund Fisher, whose wife was formerly Minnie E. Peck of Cortland. Mr. Fisher was a prominent resident of Olean. He was the passenger agent of the Pennsylvania railroad, a knight templar and a mystic shriner. He had been ill but a short time with tuberculosis of the throat. He is survived by his wife and one child, Margaret Fisher, 8 years old. Mr. Fisher’s age was 35 years.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
A Wireless Newspaper.
An indication of what the future has in store for the public in wireless telegraphy is given in a little eight-page paper entitled “The Wireless,” published by the Los Angeles Times and issued daily at Santa Catalina, “The Enchanted Isle in a Summer Sea.” It is claimed to be, and probably is, “the only newspaper in the world publishing sure-enough dispatches transmitted by wireless telegraph!” Santa Catalina is an island in the Pacific ocean off the Southern California coast. The special dispatches to “The Wireless” are sent over the Pacific Wireless Telegraph line, across the channel dividing Santa Catalina Island from the mainland. The Los Angeles Times very properly plumes itself over this journalistic achievement, which is certainly a novelty and sensation in the newspaper line.
The installation of a system of wireless telegraphy between Whites’s Point, near San Pedro, and Avalon, was accomplished by the Pacific Wireless Telegraph company some months ago. Many messages, mostly private, have been flashed back and forth since the opening of the wireless “line,” but the people on the island in general had no means of benefiting by the service so long as there was no medium for presenting the news to them after transmission to the “Enchanted Isle.” It was to fill this “long-felt want” that the daily “Wireless” newspaper was called into being.
No event in the history of the island has created such a stir as the first appearance of “The Wireless.” The first edition of 1,000 copies was disposed of in less than half an hour, and a second edition was gobbled up with equal haste without succeeding in supplying the demand. As much as $1 was offered for single copies when the second edition was exhausted.
The regular pride of “The Wireless” is 3 cents a copy; by carrier, 15 cents a week, or 50 cents a month. It will be mailed from the office, enclosed in envelope, to any part of the United States, postage prepaid at 5 cents a copy.
The heading of the new daily is embellished with The Times device, crossed pen and sword and acorn, a cut of a tenderfoot in the act of catching a mammoth yellowtail, and a beach maiden in the swim. There is also an outline of the shore of Santa Catalina, a steamer headed for it from San Pedro, and the wireless telegraph mast at Avalon in the foreground.
The first wireless telegraph “line” in the world, in successful operation and doing a regular commercial business, is that operating between White’s Point and Avalon. The originator and owner of this system is the Pacific Wireless Telegraph company, of which Gen. A. L. New of Denver is president and general manager. The Pacific Wireless Telegraph system has no connection with the Marconi system, and never has had. While the same general principles apply to the operation of each, the Pacific Wireless Telegraph company uses apparatus that is entirely different from that employed by Marconi. The practicability of the system for which the Pacific Wireless Telegraph company holds patents has been demonstrated by actual use, and the plans of the company are to establish a system of\ wireless telegraphy that will cover the entire Pacific coast, and the islands adjacent thereto. The business of the White’s Point station has grown to such proportions that the company is about to establish a more central station in San Pedro to co-operate with the Avalon station. The general offices of the company are in Los Angeles.
NORMAL SCHOOL BATHS.
Now Completed And All Ready for Students to Use.
The work on the baths which are being installed in the Normal [School] is practically completed and the baths were ready for use Monday.
This will be a great addition to the Normal gymnasium and is something which has been much needed. The baths were included in the original plans and specifications under which the new part of the Normal building was constructed but for some reason—possibly lack of funds—were afterwards stricken out. An appropriation for the purpose was finally secured and the work of installing them was begun during the Easter vacation.
Several changes in the locker and dressing rooms were made necessary by the installation of the baths. The large room on the east side of the building, directly under the methods room, previously used for storage has been utilized as the boys’ bath and locker room. A door has been cut through the brick wall, giving direct access to this room from the main gymnasium.
The partition between the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms has been taken out and the whole space thrown into one large room for the use of the girls. A room, heretofore unused, directly off from the girls’ locker room has been fitted up as their bathroom.
The contract for furnishing and installing the baths was let to the LeValley & McLeod Co. of Elmira, for the sum of $2,356.50. The concrete and mason work was done by Beers & Warfield, the carpenter work by J. D. Keeler, painting by Loucks & Petrie, all of this city, and the slate work by the Schilling Tile & Marble Co. of Albany. The entire work was done under plans and specifications furnished by State Architect G. L. Heins.
The floor of the bathrooms is of concrete with a pitch of one inch in ten to insure complete drainage. The walls of the bath stalls are of Vermont slate. The spray heads are of triple nickel-plated brass, fitted with nickel-plated valves, galvanized iron pipes and mixing chamber, and each supply pipe is furnished with a check valve. The mixing chambers are regulated by wheel valves, and all danger of scalding is avoided as the cold water has first access. The spray heads can be set at any angle desired and the bather can take his bath without wetting the head.
Each bath stall is fitted in front with a nickel-plated brass rail from which is suspended a double faced white rubber curtain, thus insuring absolute privacy for the bather. In each stall are placed four nickel-plated brass hooks and a nickel-plated brass soap dish. There are six baths in each room.
The water is heated in a number 16 hot-water heater from The Thatcher Furnace Co. of New York City. Attached to the heater is a heavy iron boiler, tested to 300 lbs. pressure and capable of holding 500 gallons.
The furnishings are the best obtainable, and the work is thoroughly done and well finished in every detail.
These baths mark another step in making the Cortland Normal school one of the most complete and best equipped Normal schools in the United States.
BREVITIES.
— H. D. Keyser has moved his family to Cortland.— Dryden Herald.
— E. M. Yager has just disposed of three fine horses to a New York firm.
— The Presbyterian church of Dryden is to be quite extensively repaired.
— The Central school base ball team defeated the Homer school team on Athletic field in Cortland on Friday by a score of 22 to 5.
— Mrs. George P. Hollenbeck entertained a small company of ladies at a thimble bee and tea Thursday afternoon at her home, 10 Church-st.
— There was another death from typhoid fever at Ithaca Wednesday. Leslie Starr Atwater, a senior in Cornell, passed away after an illness of three weeks.
— The Ladies’ Literary club at its meeting Wednesday did not take up the scheduled program, but devoted the entire session to business.. The next place of meeting was not decided upon.
— Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lambert of Ann Arbor, Mich., celebrated their golden wedding on Sunday May, 10. They were for many years residents of Cortland, and the latter is a sister of David Dalton of Cortland.
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