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| Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R. train "SAM SLOAN." |
Cortland Standard, Semi-Weekly Edition,
Tuesday, September 19, 1893.
WANTED A
FREE RIDE.
FOUR TRAMPS TAKE POSSESSION OF A COAL
TRAIN.
Conductor
and Brakeman Badly Bruised—Two are Captured—Officers are Hunting for the Other
Two.
Sept. 15.—Just as coal train No. 39
which is due in Cortland at 1:40 P. M. was pulling out this afternoon Conductor
Charles A. Lawrence and Brakeman Frank
Knapp, who were on the engine, discovered four tramps on the third car back.
They went back there and ordered the tramps off. They refused, stating that
they would have to stop the train to put them off. The conductor motioned the
engineer to stop, but while the train was being stopped one of the men secured
a stick and a general scuffle ensued.
The four tramps overpowered the conductor
and brakeman. The former was struck in the right eye with a chunk of coal by
Barney Henrahan. The brakeman was thrown down and his face was buried in the
coal, while some of the tramps thumped him at a tremendous rate, The train at
last stopped.
A telephone message was sent to the sheriff
who went down and succeeded in arresting Barney Henrahan. The other tramp, A.
C. Clift, with the other tramps, took to their heels. Two are still at large
and the officers are hunting for them. Clift, however, ran from the scene to
Mr. Frank M. Johnston’s residence on Clinton-ave. He rushed to the rear of the
house and told Mrs. Johnston, who was in the kitchen, that he “wanted
protection” and unceremoniously rushed up stairs [sic] in the house.
Quite a crowd of men and boys, who were in
hot pursuit, arrived at the house. Chief Sager was also on hand and immediately
went up stairs. He at first thought that his bird had flown, but soon
discovered muddy prints of the man’s boots, where he had stood on Mrs. Johnston’s
white bed spread and gazed out of the window. The tramp was found under the
bed, was yanked out and taken before Judge Bull. Clift was committed to jail
for an investigation to-morrow morning on the charge of vagrancy, while
Henrahan was held on the more serious charge of assault in the third degree
till 1 P. M. to-morrow.
Police court was thronged with an excited
crowd when the tramps were taken up there.
Sentenced
to Onondaga.
Sept. 16.—“S. R. O.” (standing room only),
and little at that was a card that might have been hung in front of police
headquarters this afternoon, when the two alleged tramps, who with two others
attempted to take possession of a coal train at the D., L. & W. station
yesterday afternoon, were brought before Justice Bull. The room was packed with
a mass of humanity anxious to see what would be done with the prisoners.
Sheriff Miller first took his man, Barney
Henrahan, before Justice Bull. The prisoner pleaded guilty to the charge of assault
in the third degree in injuring Conductor Charles A. Lawrence and was promptly
sentenced to six months in Onondaga penitentiary.
Chief Sager then brought up Albert C. Clift
on the charge of vagrancy. He said that he was not a tramp, had money in his
pocket and was going to Syracuse. He was discharged and thanked the court very
earnestly, and then rose from his chair and started to leave the court room,
but Chief Sager stepped forward and arrested him on the more serious charge of
assault, on a warrant sworn out by Brakeman Frank Knapp, whose head and
shoulders were buried in the coal, while some one pounded him . The prisoner
pleaded not guilty and was held in $200 bail for his appearance Saturday,
September 23, at 10 A. M.
Nathan L. Miller appeared for the People and
T. E. Courtney for the defendant.
Washout
on the E., C. & N. R. R.
Sept. 16.—What might have been a serious accident
was averted yesterday afternoon by the watchfulness of the officials of the E.,
C. & N. R. R. and the special care taken by Conductor James R. Baty and
Engineer James Barlow of the local freight train.
Superintendent Albert Allen was yesterday in
Elmira. Hearing that there were washouts on the Erie and D., L. & W.
railroads, he wired Train Dispatcher W. H. Clark at Cortland to charge all
engineers to take unusual care, and to keep himself informed through all agents
of the state of the road in their vicinity.
It was about 4:10 P M. when the local freight
train left Park station, fifteen miles from Elmira and began descending the
hill toward that city. The heavy train had gone nearly three miles and was in a
place where the grade is seventy feet to the mile, when on rounding a curve
Engineer Barlow discovered a bad washout a little in advance. Instantly the
engine was reversed and brakes were applied and the train came to a stand
within a few feet of the break, which was about twenty-five feet wide. The
conductor went on to Erin and wired Cortland and Elmira.
Superintendent
Allen was just leaving for home on the 4:30 train. He got together a gang of
men and came on to the break. When they attempted to throw over the track to
get around the washout, the whole embankment sloughed off and made it necessary
to fill from the bottom. All the stone which is used on the road comes from
Perryville, but four carloads of cut stone were at Elmira, taken there to build
a culvert. Superintendent Allen sent for these and piled them into the track. A
reporter asked if this was not rather expensive filling. “It wouldn’t have made
any difference,” he replied, “if they had been gold nuggets. It was an
emergency case, and in an emergency we use anything we can lay our hands on to
keep our trains running.”
The east and west-bound trains had to
transfer passengers and express over the track, but at 10 o’clock last night
the track was again in shape and the freight passed over it and went on to
Elmira. By reason of the delay of transfer, the train due in Cortland at 7:08
train arrived in town just two hours late.
A LITTLE
MORE LIGHT.
A New
Scent Found on the Lake Shore Train Robbery.
Kendallville, Ind., Sept. 15—If indications
are true the last chapter will be added within 24 hours to the history of the
express robbery committed at Kessler Monday night. The detectives who have been
scouring the country to the west and south have been transferred in haste to
the north. Information has been received from Rome City, Ind., nine miles north
of here, containing the substance of a message from Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
Foos of Rome City, saying that five suspicious looking men had passed through
the Lake Shore and Michigan gravel pits two miles to the east of that village.
Several of the men had bundles which might have held the booty.
As soon as Chief Detective Byrne was given
this information last night men were dispatched to the place. Two of the
suspected men have been recognized as Chicago crooks and safe blowers, while a
third man has his home not far from here. It is believed the fourth is a notorious
western desperado. The fact that the men did not make their appearance around
here for several days previous to the robbery and the report that several men
made their hiding place in a swamp a short distance from the scene for several
days, foraging off the neighboring farms for subsistence, adds another link to
the chain.
PAGE
FOUR—EDITORIALS.
The
Point of Attack.
Democrats in this county every year select
some one Republican candidate on the county ticket on whom they make their
fiercest onslaught, allowing the others to run practically undisturbed, and
trading off recklessly every other candidate on their own ticket save the one
they are trying to elect. Indications point to the employment of the same
tactics this fall, and as is usually the case the member of assembly will be the
point of attack.
Above all things the Democratic party want
the next legislature—and shamefully as they have gerrymandered the state and
outrageously as they amended the election laws so as to make it possible for
almost any majority desired to be counted for them in New York City, they are still
fearful of such a tidal wave as will sweep them from their fraudulently
obtained power in the state.
The STANDARD has often had occasion to warn Republicans
of just such a concentration of Democratic effort against a Republican nominee
for the assembly. This year no money and no exertion will be spared to compass
Mr. Lee’s defeat; and with the fair chance which many believe exists of our
electing a Republican legislature, the Republican voter who for any cause
deserts him will be doubly a traitor. A deaf ear should be turned to every
persuasion and argument in behalf of his opponent, whoever he may be. This is
no year for so-called complimentary votes. The most complimentary vote to
himself which a Republican can cast will be a straight vote for the entire ticket.
Next to a vote for president or governor the
most thorough test of Republicanism is a vote for member of congress, senator
or assemblyman. These officers mould the policy and carry out the principles of
the Republican party, and no one who claims to be a Republican can vote against
either one without being false to his professions. Make up your mind now and
positively that Benjamin F. Lee will receive your vote and your influence.
The
County Nomination.
The Republican county ticket, nominated at
the convention last Wednesday, puts the party in excellent shape for this fall’s
campaign. The nominees are well and favorably known, and the claims of all save
Mr. Walker, the candidate for Justice of Sessions, have been referred to at
greater or less length in recent issues of the STANDARD. Mr. Walker’s fitness for
the place for which he is in nomination is no less conspicuous than that of any
of his associates on the ticket. A veteran soldier, an ex-supervisor, a successful
and respected magistrate, no better selection could have been made.
Locality and availability as well as fitness
have been consulted in the make-up of the ticket, and all parts of the county
are represented upon it. Mr. Lee is from the extreme north-eastern and Mr.
Perry from the extreme south-western town of the county. Mr. Walker comes from
central Solon and Mr. Foster from the Republican stronghold of Homer, which of
late years has not always received the consideration to which its big
Republican majorities entitle it.
Better than all, the ticket was nominated
without friction or the creation of any unpleasant or inharmonious feeling, no
one went home sore-headed, and Republicans all over the county can take hold of
the work of the campaign with unison and vigor. The Republican majority in “little
Cortland” this fall should be the largest since 1888.
BREVITIES.
—In the annual rifle practice of the Forty-fifth
Separate Co. every man who shot for a prize got one. This is something unusual,
—Johnson Bane, the guitarist, has been
engaged by some local management to give one of his refined recitals at Empire hall
on Monday evening, Sept. 18. Mr. Conway, the ever popular cornet-soloist and
Mr. Graham, saxophone-soloist, and others will assist Mr. Bane.
—There were just one hundred children on the
load which was made up to compete for the suit of clothes offered by F.
Daehler. The load attracted a great deal of attention in town yesterday. The team
belonged to Mr. J. L. Gillet, and was driven by his son-in-law, Mr. D. L.
Beardsley.
—At a meeting of the directors of the First
National bank of Cortland, held at the bank parlors on Sept. 12, a dividend of
five per cent free of tax was declared, payable Sept. 15, out of the net
earnings of the last six months. The balance of earnings was carried to
undivided profits account at said bank.
—A telegram from Utica this noon says that
Messrs. Edwin O. Alger and Thomas
Harry Dowd, who have been students in the office of Smith & Dickinson,
finished a hard series of examinations this morning and were admitted to the
bar and sworn in at the general term of the supreme court at Utica.
—So severe was the rain this morning at the
time that the students went to school that nearly every one had wet feet, and
all the ladies had wet skirts. In consequence all the pupils of the Central
school, and the primary and intermediate departments of the Normal, were
excused to go home as soon as the rain ceased to put on dry clothing, and all
the students of the Normal department who felt the need of dry clothing were
excused also, though recitations in this department went on as usual.
—We are told, says the McGrawville
Sentinel, that a young lady not a thousand miles away from McGrawville found a
package of old love letters written to her mother by her father before they were
married. The daughter saw where she could have a little sport, and read them to
her mother, pretending that they were of recent date and substituting her own
name for that of her mother, and the name of a fine young man well-known to
both of them for that of her father. The mother jumped up and down in her chair,
shifted her feet rapidly and seemed terribly disgusted, and forbid her daughter
having anything to do with a young man who would write such sickening and
nonsensical stuff to a girl. When the young lady handed the letters to her
mother to read, the house became so still that one could hear the apples ripen
in the orchard hard by.
