OVER NIAGARA FALLS

Carlisle Graham and his barrel.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, September 6, 1889.

OVER NIAGARA FALLS.

   NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y., Sept. 1— Last Sunday afternoon Carlisle D. Graham made a successful trip through the whirlpool rapids, the Maelstrom and Fosters' Flats before an assembled multitude of 15,000 people. That was preparatory to his effort to-day to pass over the falls, which according to Graham himself and a few eye witnesses, was accomplished in safety. The same barrel was used.

   At six o’clock this morning it was towed out into the river by Andy Howe and Garret Stanley, and at 6:45 A. M., it was let go at a point opposite Chippewa creek. Down the current it swept, plunging over reefs, often out of sight, till at 7:10 it approached the brink and dropped 300 feet into the abyss below.

   The barrel soon rose intact and was descried in an eddy. Elmer Jones swam out from the Canadian shore, caught hold of a rope fastened to the barrel and towed it in shore where at just 7:25 A. M., Graham was lifted out by Jones and M. Cahill. Graham was quickly brought more dead than alive to Holmes' saloon on this side.

   Graham himself says: "The first I knew was when some one struck the barrel and said, "Graham, are you alive?" He complained of terrible pains in the back and head from the racking he had received and could talk but incoherently. About a dozen people verify the statement that Graham was in the barrel, and many more will say that they saw the barrel go over. Graham was probably led to this exploit by the appearance here of Steve Brodie with the avowed intention of jumping the falls.

Big Fire in Sackett's Harbor.

   WATERTOWN, Aug. 29.—The business portion of the historic village of Sackett's Harbor was destroyed by fire last night, involving a loss of about $40,000. The telegraph and telephone office, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad ticket office, every saloon in the place, dry goods and grocery stores, hardware and general stores, and the warehouses containing the supplies of the Government contractors for Madison barracks, and the best part of the village below the railroad tracks were all destroyed. There was no organized fire department, and the efforts of the United States regulars at Madison barracks, with an old-fashioned hand pump fire engine, alone saved the entire village from destruction.

   The Watertown Fire Department were called upon and went to the assistance of the Sackett's Harbor authorities, but the fire was under control when they arrived at 4 A. M. Recently the taxpayers have voted down an appropriation to purchase a steam fire engine. This is the second big fire in the village within three years, the other one having occurred in January, 1887, when the loss was about $35,000. The fire originated in Bolton's building, which was vacant, and is supposed to have been of incendiary origin.

Our New Prison Law.

   The new prison law of New York completely revolutionizes the prison system of this State. Among its chief features are the discrimination and classification of prisoners and the adoption of the intermediate sentence. Prisoners are graded in three classes, the first of which includes such prisoners as are likely to observe the laws and earn an honest living after their discharge; the second includes those who appear to be incorrigible and those more or less vicious, and yet are so obedient to prison discipline as to render their work productive; and the third class includes those who are not only incorrigible, but by reason of their viciousness their labor is comparatively unproductive.

   The superintendent is given almost absolute power in employing prisoners. Under the section providing for the indeterminate sentence, instead of being sentenced to the penitentiary for a definite period, a maximum and a minimum period is named in the sentence, and the precise period to be served shall be determined by a board composed of the superintendent of State prisons, the warden, the chaplain, the physician and the principal keeper. This board may release a prisoner on parole after he has served the minimum sentence, but he shall not be absolutely discharged until the maximum period has passed. The law will have a tendency to put prisoners on their good behavior.

The President and the Workingmen.

   It is certainly unfortunate for President Harrison that his accepted altitude toward the workingmen is such that the labor organizations of Indianapolis refused the invitation to turn out and welcome him back to his old home. With the mills and factories of highly protected products failing in unusual numbers; with the wages of labor minced in nearly all our protected industries and with monopoly combines rapidly multiplying to increase the cost of the necessaries of life, it is not surprising that workingmen are unwilling to enthuse over the fruits of the administration that was to be the harbinger of increased wages and enlarged industrial prosperity.

   There is much good for Presidential reflection, while receiving the natural homage of old friendships in Indianapolis, in the fact that the workingmen are conspicuous by their absence in the welcome. The workingmen are the supreme power of the Republic, and when they feel the effect of grinding taxes and reduced wages there is revolution in the air. It is in the power of President Harrison to remedy this unpromising condition by demanding just tax laws and the overthrow of monopoly. Will he do it?—Philadelphia Times.

James Tanner

PAGE TWO/EDITORIALS.

   It must be gratifying to the admirers of Gen'l Sherman, to know that he was insulted by the Tanner crowd on their return from the National encampment at Milwaukee.

   Corporal Tanner signalized his last day at the Milwaukee grand encampment [G. A. R.] by opening his mouth so wide that he puts his foot in it—while pitching in about soldiers' widows' pensions.—Philadelphia Ledger, (Rep.)

   The appointment of Fred Douglas, colored, to be Minister to Hayti, is said to be meeting with considerable opposition from the "colored folks" of that country. They do not object particularly to the man, but to his color. The coons insist that President Harrison ought to send a white man to represent this country in the land of coons. It might be pleasant enough for the latter but what a poor old time the white man would have.

   There are some laboring men and mechanics in Cortland who are out of work and looking for a job notwithstanding quite a number left town last spring to find employment elsewhere. Last year these men all found plenty of employment here at good wages. Before election they were told to vote for Harrison, protection and high wages and many of them did what they were told to do. Harrison and protection are here but what has become of high wages? The republican party wanted the two first and the wage earners the last. The republican party got what they wanted and the wage earners got—left. Somebody was most beautifully taken in last fall, but it wasn't the republican party

   Corporal Tanner stopped at Elmira on his way to the Milwaukee encampment and was the guest of Judge Seymour Dexter of that city. While there he succeeded in stirring up a good sized hornets' nest and will undoubtedly live to regret his stupidity. Among other smart things he delivered himself of was the statement that "if Congressman Flood's brains were blown into the eye of a mosquito, the insect would not know it." Flood announces that he will proceed to Washington at once and demand of President Harrison the immediate removal of Tanner from the office of Commissioner of Pensions. If the President refuses, Flood insists that he will resign his office and allow a democrat to be elected in his place. The republican majority in Congress is so small, that such a change would virtually wipe out the majority. This would hardly please the administration. Let the good fight go on.

Where the Money Goes.

   The following list of Tanner's "reratings," for one day, August 3, in the New York World, shows where the money goes:

   Geo. W. Clark, who had for several years drawn a liberal pension was rerated, and pocketed the sum of $5,623.99.

   Lewis Malin's case was reviewed, and he received, as rerated pension. $6,035.72.

   Frank Rose got a pension check for $6,035.72 as his share of the surplus.

   Charles Lovely had his case reopened, and under Tanner's instructions, was awarded $6,042.12 in arrears upon re-rating.

   Philo Bierce, already generously pensioned for disability incurred in the line of duty, was rerated by Tanner and scooped in $6,354.72.

   Henry A. Kirsch's case was in many respects identical with that of Bierce, and he also caught on to the tune of $6,341.72.

TANNER MUST GO.

His Course Discrediting Veterans as Well as the Administration.

   It must now be clear to the President and the cabinet that Commissioner Tanner must be dismissed from the office he has so shamefully abused, and from the leadership of the veterans of the country upon whom he has brought consuming shame, and the sooner it is done and the bolder the action of the President, the better it will be for the administration, for the party, for the soldiers and for the country.

   It is now evident that if the meeting of Congress shall find Tanner in office, the Republican members will take the lead in demanding his dismissal, and it is not now concealed that the Republican house will refuse to honor Tanner's call for pension appropriations without first cutting up his abuses by the roots and reversing his general policy. Such an issue would not only seriously embarrass the administration, but would place it in a most indefensible attitude before the country.

   The time has come when the government must place the pension system on an entirely different plan from that lately given it by pension sharks and fraudulent pensioners, and if President Harrison would summon General Cox or General Boynton to the pension commissionership, he would at once end the whole speculative and fraudulent pension trade.

   Cox has been general, governor, cabinet officer and always a Republican. Boynton has been soldier and journalist and always a Republican, and both are men of eminent ability, integrity, and true to the honor of the soldiers of the republic. There are many other soldiers who would bring equal capability and honesty to the pension department; but the earnest, eloquent and patriotic appeals which have recently come from Cox and Boynton to the veterans of the country make them pre-eminently fitted to solve the grave pension problem at once and to the entire satisfaction of all true soldiers and all patriotic citizens.

   It is idle to assume that the administration can temporize with Tannerism in the pension department. He must be dismissed sooner or later, and soon at the latest; and why not solve the perplexing problem at once and for all time by calling such a man as Cox or Boynton to the commissionership?— Philadelphia Times. (Ind.)

FROM EVERYWHERE.

   Eleven bridges cross the Harlem River in New York.

   The anti-slavery congress at Lucerne, Switzerland, has been abandoned.

   Five hundred schools on the American plan hold daily sessions in Turkey.

   Col. Dan Lamont bought in the Broadway surface railway last week for $25,000, subject to mortgage for $2,500,000.

   The much talked of fight between Jack Dempsey and George La Blanche took place at San Francisco, the 27th inst. Dempsey was knocked out in the thirty-second round.

   H. P. Jacobs' new opera house in Syracuse was opened Monday night. The theatre was burned about a year ago and the new house is in every respect one of the finest in the state.

   The Remington sulphite mill in process of completion at Watertown will represent an outlay of $150,000. When completed a tree cut in the morning can be converted into pulp before night.

   Dempsey lost his fight with LaBlanche by a chance blow, which knocked him out in the thirty-second round. He admits that he was careless, and says he wants to fight the Marine again.

   The Ithaca, Auburn & Western railroad having passed into the Lehigh Valley's control, it is concluded that the extension to Ithaca will not be built. The Ithaca Journal says: "It is just as well now as later to recognize the ugly fact that Ithaca's location is at the bottom of a basin, presents natural obstacles to railroads impossible for modern engineering to entirely overcome. Twenty loaded coal cars constitute a train on the G. I. & S. requiring the same moving power as 60 cars on a level grade."

Carlisle Graham and other Niagara Falls' adventurers: https://dklevick.wordpress.com/tag/niagara-falls/