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| Oliver Curtis Perry. |
The Cortland Democrat, Friday, April 12,
1895.
METHOD IN
HIS MADNESS.
OLIVER CURTIS PERRY AT LIBERTY AGAIN.
Escaped
with Four Other Inmates from the Asylum—Robbed an Express Car Near Weedsport
Three Years Ago.
POUGHKEEPSIE, April 10.—Perry, the noted
train robber, whose exploits a few years ago while trying to rob the car of
the American Express company on the New York Central railroad, caused great
excitement at the time, with four other inmates of the Matteawan state asylum,
escaped from that institution at a late hour to-night. They assaulted a keeper
and escaped through the scuttle. The names of the men are McGuire, O'Donnell,
Quigley and Davis. All were dressed alike.
The escape was made about 11 o'clock. The
men were all confined in separate cells with double locks, and how they
succeeded in getting out is so far unknown to the authorities, an investigation
not having yet been fully made. They first passed into the chapel and thence to
the attic, where the windows are unguarded but fastened. The men were heard to
break the sash and two of them were seen to drop to the ground. Two of the men
were seen on the roof and may be there yet. Officers are patrolling the grounds
and will continue to do so until daylight. A general alarm has been sent out
and men are searching the country in all directions.
The bold robbery for which Perry is best
remembered took place on the American Express special between Syracuse and
Lyons, February 21, 1892. On September 30 previous, Expressman B. A. Moore was
held up with a pistol at his head between Little Falls and Utica, and compelled
to open the safe. Pinkerton's men failed to find the robber, known at the time
to be Oliver Curtis Perry, son of Oliver H. Perry, contractor, of Lake View
avenue, Syracuse.
Perry got aboard the express train at 5 A.
M. Sunday, February 21, as it pulled out of Syracuse, westward.
When near Weedsport, Perry put a revolver to
the head of D. T. Mclnerney of Syracuse, who had charge of the express car, and
as he refused to give up he shot him. The engineer and fireman heard the slight
noise as Mclnerney attempted to pull the whistle, and slowed up the train, while
one man telegraphed from Jordan of the attempted robbery, and then the train
went full speed to Port Byron.
Perry, who had stayed on the train, was recognized
in Port Byron by a trainman as a man he had seen in Syracuse. An attempt was made
to seize him. He held back the crowd with a brace of revolvers, drove the
engineer and fireman from the engine, which he uncoupled and then took to
himself, started off down the track until the steam gave out. Then he
terrorized a farmer and stole his horse, which he rode until it was ready to
drop. Then he fired on a German and stole his horse.
Deputy Sheriff Collins captured him in Benton's
swamp, near Lyons the same day. He gave his name as William Cross.
Perry was tried in the Circuit court at Lyons
and sentenced on May 19 to Auburn for forty-nine years, three months, by
Justice Rumsey. The indictments were for burglary and robbery, assault and for stealing
a locomotive, four indictments in all.
While in Auburn he attempted to kill his keeper
once, and once attempted to escape by terrorizing his keeper.
Last fall he was transferred to Matteawan. having
been adjudged insane by prison physicians.
COURT
PROCEEDINGS.
Several
Important Cases Tried at the Circuit Court and Court of Oyer and Terminer.
The April term of the Circuit Court and
Court of Oyer and Terminer opened at the Court House in this village last
Monday morning with Hon. Walter Lloyd Smith of Elmira presiding. Harrison Wells
of Cortland was appointed foreman of the grand jury and George J. Maycumber of
this village was elected clerk. There are forty-one cases on the calendar. The
following have been disposed of.
The People of the State of New York agst.
Frank Henry. Defendant resides in East Hormer. The action was brought to
recover damages for alleged illegal fishing. The case was submitted to the
court on a statement of facts which was agreed to by the parties. Decision
reserved. E. D. Crosley [game warden, lawyer and resident of Scott] for
plaintiff. Smith & Dickinson for defendant.
Howard R. Meacham agst. Cortland Standard
Printing Co. Plaintiff sues to recover $5,000 for an alleged libel published in
the Cortland Daily Standard some two or three months since. Plaintiff
was arrested on the charge of cruelly beating his horse on Church-st. On the
trial before Justice Bull and a jury, plaintiff was acquitted of the charge.
The Standard published an account of the transaction both before and
after the trial before the justice, and plaintiff alleges that some of the
statements published were libelous. The trial of the suit for libel was
commenced on Tuesday afternoon and plaintiff's evidence was all in when court
adjourned. The defence put in some evidence Wednesday morning and attempted to
prove justification. The court ruled that under defendant's answer the evidence
was inadmissible. Defendant's counsel then asked for leave to amend the answer.
Plaintiff's counsel stated to the court that if the new matter was admitted
under an amended answer, he would be taken by surprise and would not be
prepared to try the case. The court allowed the defendant to withdraw a juror
and serve an amended answer within twenty days on payment of plaintiff's
witnesses, fees, a term fee of $10 and $3 for the jury. N. L. Miller and James
Dougherty for plaintiff. W. J. Mantanye and T. E. Courtney for defendant.
WASHINGTON
LETTER.
(From
Our Regular Correspondent.)
WASHINGTON, April 8, 1895.—It looks now as though the administration had
won a very creditable diplomatic victory from Great Britain in that little
affair of Nicaragua, and that Great Britain had greatly modified that bluff
about bombarding Nicaragua's seaports. Nothing official has been given out
about the diplomatic correspondence on this matter within the last few days,
but there are good reasons for stating that Ambassador Bayard has been most
positively assured by the British government that nothing will be done in its
dealings with Nicaragua that can be properly construed into a violation of the
Monroe doctrine. This assurance was naturally very gratifying to President
Cleveland and the other members of the administration. It was saying in a round
about way that Great Britain never really meant to carry out that bombarding
threat, and it was also in a way a recognition of the Monroe doctrine. That
this assurance from Great Britain was the result of the courageous position
taken by the administration as to the maintenance of the Monroe doctrine is
certain. And nothing was lost by the knowledge on the part of Great Britain,
that the United States had a sufficient naval force in the South Atlantic to
back up the position assumed.
The arrival of the new Spanish minister is
anxiously awaited in Washington, as it is believed that he will have several
important communications to make to this government. The Allianca incident is
still open and the belief is growing that Spain is trying to play a double game
in connection therewith, notwithstanding its promise to make it satisfactory as
soon as it was in possession of the necessary information. As the new Spanish
minister is to spend a week or ten days in Cuba before coming to Washington he
will be expected to acquire all the needed information and if his government
then still delays making a satisfactory settlement he may find himself very
disagreeably surprised soon after his arrival. And his surprise is not likely
to be displeasing to the Cuban revoluntionists.
The projectors of the new silver party
profess to have encouraging reports from a number of States, but their
professions are largely discounted by their claims as to the States of
Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The only claim that these people make that is
backed by common sense and hard facts, is that a large majority of the voters
of the country are bimetalists. That claim is unneccessary because it is known by
everybody, but that doesn't mean that all the bimetalists are ready to drop their
party affiliations and unite in an assistant republican party, which is about
all the new silver party is.
The decision of the Supreme Court in the
income tax cases is disappointing to everybody, and probably to nobody more than
to the members of the court. The constitutionality of the law stands, not by an
affirmative decision, but because the eight justices sitting were evenly
divided. Incomes for rents, municipal and State bonds are exempted from the
tax. But what most disappointed the members of the court was the stealing of a
copy of the decision in advance of its being officially made. It was sold to
the correspondent of a Chicago paper and telegraphed to that city. The decision
will make lots of worry and litigation for the government, but Secretary Carlisle
is very positive that it will not make necessary the calling of an extra session
of Congress, although the exceptions will probably reduce the receipts from the
income tax at least one half. But even if not a nickel was received from that source
by the Treasury, Secretary Carlisle says there will be money enough and to
spare to carry the government until the regular session of Congress without any
embarrassment.
NEIGHBORING
COUNTIES.
CHENANGO.—An otter was recently seen at the McDonough
creek near the grist mill.
Sherburne liquor dealers hare a license for
the first time in about two years.
MADISON—Albany parties are trying to buy the
famous Remington farm near Cazenovia.
F. A. Crandall, a native of Cazenovia, has
been appointed superintendent of public documents at Washington. His salary will
be $3,000 per year. Mr. Crandall is a printer and journalist and for the past
year has been the editor of the Buffalo Times.
The coroner's jury in the case
of Mrs. Etta Ralfe, a colored woman, who died in Oneida the 25th, of injuries
inflicted by her husband, Vernando Ralfe, found him guilty of manslaughter in
the first degree. He broke a chair over her head, hit her once or twice with a
poker and kicked or otherwise misused her.
TOMPKINS—Ithaca's city budget
has been increased from thirty to forty- five thousand dollars.
By a change in the laws,
Cornell University will increase its number of trustees from twenty-three to
thirty-eight.
The Gregg Iron Works of
Trumansburg are filling orders for quite a quantity of mowers and reapers to go
to Russia.
 |
| Levi Morton. |
 |
| Thomas Platt. |
Notwithstanding the
fact that those republican papers that oppose Platt say that Gov. Morton and Platt
are out, they seem to be on decidedly too chummy terms to be enemies.
W. Jennings Demorest, editor
of Demorest popular magazine, died at his home in New York last Tuesday
evening. He had been prominently identified with the prohibition party for many
years.
Bob Ingersoll advises
Democrats to support the Republican candidate for president, but Bob, it must
be recalled, holds loose views on future punishment for sins committed in this
life.—Albany Argus.
Mrs. Francis M. Scott of New
York city made an admirable argument before the judiciary committee of the
Assembly on Wednesday in opposition to female suffrage. The arguments advanced
were all new and convincing and were couched in strong and forcible language.
She was easily too much for the chronic female suffrage advocate.
Oscar Wilde, the English dude
and writer, recently brought an action against the Marquis of Queensbury for
libel, claiming heavy damages. Lord Alfred Douglas, a son of the Marquis, had
become intimate with the dude and the father sought to break up the intimacy
because he believed it would prove disastrous to his son. He resorted to a
peculiar method of bringing about the result. He visited a club of which Wilde
was a member and left a card on the table addressed to that person, on which
were some strong and undoubtedly libelous statements, unless the truth of the
charges could be proved. Wilde brought suit against the marquis for libel and
the case was tried last week. The defendant had no trouble in proving that Wilde
was guilty of the very questionable practices charged and before the trial was
finished the plaintiff withdrew the action. A few hours later he was arrested
for the crimes charged and now languishes in jail, the magistrate who committed
him refusing to accept bail. He will be tried next month on these serious charges.
Wilde was until recently quite popular in the higher circles of society, and
when he was in this country a few years since, he created quite a sensation and
was the hero of the day. It is safe to say, that few American ladies, will now
care to remember, that they ever knew the asthetic Oscar.
HERE AND THERE.
The shoe stores are now open
evenings.
I. H. Palmer, Esq. [Democrat and a former two-term mayor], has been
appointed city attorney.
The floral display in the
window of the County Clerk's office is worth looking at.
The water in the Tioughnioga
river overflowed its banks in many places last Tuesday.
Very little maple sugar will
be made in the county this spring. The season is not a good one.
Prof. C. V. Coon broke the
great toe on his right foot while riding a bicycle last Thursday.
Burgess, the clothier,
advertises Easter hats for gentlemen. Get in the swim and have a new hat for
Sunday.
The Keyes sisters will appear
at Mahan's music festival In June. They are great favorites with Cortland
people.
Mr. C. N. Tyler has sold his
Elm-st. grocery store to Mr. W. J. Perkins. Mr. Tyler will have charge of the
business for Mr. Perkins.
After June 1st next, the
barber shops in very town in this state will have to be closed on Sunday except
in New York city, where they must be closed at 1 P. M.
Nothing has yet been heard
from Harry Beers and Fred Terpenning, two 17 year old lads who left good homes
in this place about two weeks since, bound for Florida.
Charles D. Burt of Texas
Valley writes us that on April 2nd. his registered Todd's improved Chester
White sow gave birth to twenty-one pigs, nineteen of which are alive and
sprightly.
Warner Rood, manager, and Mr.
Brayton, one of the owners of the Cortland Opera House, were in town Friday,
with a view of having Messrs. Tenney & Bennett refit the scenery at that
house.—Marathon Independent.
Mr. James A. Barry, formerly
of the Messenger House in this village, has sold the Vanderbilt hotel in
Syracuse which he has conducted for the past two or three years to Mr. George
W. Ziegler of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Possession given May 1st.
G. J. Mager & Co.'s show
window is attracting much attention. Sacks filled with live geese feathers
furnish the background and a dummy goose that looks very much alive, occupies
the front and keeps continually moving its head to avoid the blue stocking leg
that invariably denotes that plucking time has come.
Chief of Police James E. Sager
tendered his resignation which took effect on last Tuesday morning. The chief
says the president of the village requires him to do detective work which he
does not think is one of the duties of the chief. He has been a member of the
force for six years and has been chief for the past five years. Mr. W. T.
Linderman has been appointed to succeed him.
The Tioughnioga [river] has
distinguished itself the present week by getting very full and disorderly.
Yesterday while in this condition it committed an assault upon the basement
wall of Mayor Trafford's barn, tearing it out and taking it away. Incidentally
also it dropped in at the school house basement and tried to put out the fires.
Up to yesterday noon it had not been able to do so, but there is no knowing
what may happen. And the worst of it is it got full on water, too.—Marathon
Independent.
There was quite a large
attendance before Highway Commissioner Rindge yesterday, which was the day set
for hearing the application of the Traction Co., for a franchise to use the new
highway around McGrawville hill. The question was discussed by Mr. A. P.
McGraw, J. H. Kelly and H. L. Bronson in favor of granting the application and
by Messrs. I. H. Palmer and R. Champlin in opposition. The latter gentlemen
favored the town's joining the Traction Co., as suggested by the DEMOCRAT last
week, in building a new bridge at Elm-st. Good feeling seemed to prevail all
around. The hearing was finally adjourned to Monday, April 22, at H. L.
Bronson's office at 10 A. M.
FROM EVERYWHERE.
Cayuga Lake raised one foot
during the month of March.
A telephone line is to be built
from Bath through Avoca, Cohocton and Wayland to Dansville.
Wild ducks are being killed in
large quantities on Cayuga Lake and in the surrounding marshes.
The new dam across the Seneca
River at Baldwinsville was completed last week. It has been eighteen months
building and cost $63,000.
The old cheese factory in
Pompey Hollow is claimed to be haunted, and the neighbors witness weird and
uncanny things there after nightfall.
"Scratch a reformer and
you find a thief" was a maxim with the late Roscoe Conkling, and he knew
something about politics and politicians.
The cost of the city of
Brooklyn for the trolley strike will be over $200,000. The employes lost over
$750,000 in wages. The loss to the car company cannot be estimated.
William H. Brown of Tully has
brought suit against Devillo Norton of Spafford, claiming Norton assaulted him
and caused a permanent disability. Norton says he was only "fooling."
A very strange medical case is
interesting the scientific world. Lewis Wentworth, aged thirty-four, who was
formerly an employe of Offenheiser's fruit store of Binghamton, has undergone
an operation at Seney Hospital, Brooklyn, for what was thought to be
appendicitis, but was not. He was delivered of a child. The case is explained
in this way. Had this form developed when it should, it would have been his
twin, but nature was balked somehow and the germ, clinging to the side of the developing
child, slowly grew until this man reached the age of thirty-four, when it
caused so much pain that the operation had to be performed. Medical history shows
many instances of this sort. Two operations were necessary before the cause of
his suffering was found out, but now the patient is recovering and will
doubtless be soon fully recovered. [Hmmm…could this be an example of "fake news" published in 1895?]
SCOTT.
The premises occupied for so
many years by the late Hiram Babcock have been sold by the heirs to Archie
Gould of Homer. Consideration $450.
A Miss Rigby of DeRuyter has
been engaged to teach the north village school at $6.50 per week. School
commenced last Monday.
Rev. Mr. Armingdale is now
located here as pastor of the M. E. Church in this town. He appears to be a man
of energy and ability. May success attend his labors.
Riley K. Smith has
hired to George Springer on Scott road, and Frank Winchester to George Vincent,
Mr. Morehouse having left said Vincent.
The sick people seem to be
about the same. Dr. Potter of Homer was called to see Henry Hazard on Monday.
The snow has been vanishing
for a few days past at a rapid rate, but the sugar weather don't get here yet.
Nearly 100 invited guests
assembled last Saturday night, the 6th instant, to celebrate the golden wedding
of Mr. and Mrs. Dolphin Burdick of this town. The celebration took place at the
same house in which they were joined in marriage by Russell Burdick, father of
the groom, 50 years ago, and where they now reside. Among the presents were
gold spectacles for each and gold and silver coin. Mr. and Mrs. Burdick are
held in high esteem in this community and the large assemblage only showed how
they are appreciated by their neighbors They are still quite young looking, and
possibly another 50 years may roll around before they go hence, but not
probable. Only a few comparatively live together half a century. Of course we
all had something to eat up on the occasion and a presentation speech by
Rev. B. F. Rogers and a response by Mr. Burdick.
Word comes to us that Henry
Clinton Babcock, living in Cortland for two years past, has committed suicide
by shooting. He has always up to within two years resided in Scott. He was a
soldier and 59 years of age. He leaves a wife and one daughter, Mrs. M. H.
Crosley of Truxton, also four brothers, Wm. N. and Albert W. of Scott, Myron H.
of Homer, and Edgar of Minnesota. Also two sisters, Mrs. J. C. Atwater and Mrs.
Frank Hammond of Homer.
LITTLE YORK.
This is a poor year for maple
sugar
J. R. Hathway went to Ithaca
Wednesday.
Joseph Palmer is working for J. R. Hathway.
Plenty of water, plenty of mud
and plenty of swearing over bad roads.
Little York, although small,
is a hustling little body, and sends many of her products to the outside world,
as the shipments of merchandise [mostly ice] from this station during the past
three months will testify. They are as follows:
January, 3,710,455 lbs.
February, 6,450,970 lbs.
March, 1,241,710 lbs.
Total: 11,403,135 lbs.
I doubt there is a station
between Syracuse and Binghamton that can equal this showing.
Veterinary Surgeon.
Dr. J. C. Stevens of DeRuyter,
formerly of this place and a graduate of the Toronto veterinary and dental
colleges, has moved to Cortland and established headquarters at the Cortland House
stables where he may be found ready to attend all calls in the line of his
profession. Dr. Stevens has an enviable reputation as a surgeon and has performed
many difficult operations seldom attempted by other veterinary surgeons and all
with marked success. He respectfully solicits the patronage of the public.
