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Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library
1994.A Bit of Recent History
WHICH INVOLVES THE ETHICAL
STATUS OE A PROMINENT
SUMMER RESORT
And the Governor and Legislature of the
Empire State and which throws light
upon Questions of Good Government,
the American Theory and the Right of
Criticism.
VIEW IN CHURCHILL PARK.[The orientation which usually opens an histori-
cal exposition will be found at the end.]
[From “The Facts,” Elmira, N. Y., June 11, 1897.]
Stamford, N. Y,, June~4.—Stamford is
a village of about 1,000 inhabitants most
favored and beautiful for situation in the
western edge of the Catskills. For the
last dozen years it has been making accel-
erated progress in favor as a summer re-
sort. The corporation lies in the two
towns of Harpersfield and Stamford, Del-
aware County. Under the provision of
the Raines Law at the last town election
both towns voted no license on every ques-
tion submitted. The hotel men taking
particular pains to down the druggist li-
cense. This was the usual thing for Har-
persfield but a gain for Prohibition in
Stamford.
Every way imaginable has been can-
vassed by the liquor men for a way out of
their dilemma. The last resort was spe-
cial legislation. A bill was'prepared and
introduced by Senator Davis of Ulster
County providing for a special election by
the electors of the village of Stamford,
re-submitting the license questions. The
rules were suspended and the bill passed
to third reading without reference or
debate.
All this time the people of Stamford
were in peaceful ignorance of this intrigue
against the verdict of the people. There
was no speech nor language, their voice
was not heard. The bill passed both
houses and was in the hands of the Gov-
ernor before any intimation of its exist-
ence was noised abroad.
It is the impression of the writer as well
as of a large number of outraged Citizens
of Stamford and vicinity that the Ameri-
can idea of procedure in special legislation
is to begin with a petition from the people
especially interested in the proposed law.
This law has been railroad through at
the behest of one enraged hotel man in
Stamford backed by certain influence from
the U. & D. Railroad Company and aided
by others which circumstantial evidence
makes uncomfortably conspicious at this
date. No one can now be found in Stam-
ford willing to confess responsibility for
any feature of this legislation.
In the hands of the Governor this bill
was among those having the 24th of May
as the limit of time for his signature. A
formal protest from the Reform League
of Stamford, a local organization most
effective in moving the people to vote
right at the town election, had been sent
in, also a petition circulated by the W. C.
T. U. and signed by a number of worthy
citizens. A personal call at the Governor’s
office by a member of the R. L. obtained
assurance that the bill would not be signed.
On the evening of the last day, however
accompanied by rumors of the closeting
of Gov. Black and Lou Paine for several
hours during the day and under powerful
pressure of the liquor interest, word came
that one of the final bills receiving the
Governor’s signature was this bill.
Amid the consternation of all lovers of
good order and of the American ideals of
popular sovereignty, at the arbitrary aud-
acity of the citizens, who had promoted
this thing the village authorities appoint-
ed Saturday, June 5, as the day of special
election.
The enemies of good order had not reck-
oned with their host in the fact that the
Delaware County, W. C. T. U. was to
hold its semi-annual convention in Stam-
ford, May 26 and 27. Nothing could have
been more providential in giving impetus
to the fight.
A whole hour on Thursday was spent in
prayer in which the burden of righteous
indignation was fervently borne before
God and among the resolutions at the
close was the following.SOLEMN PROTEST.
“Resolved, As a W. C. T. U. convention
we express deep sorrow and enter a most
solemn protest against the action of our
Legislature and Governor in the passage
and signature of an act to grant the vil-
lage of Stamford special privilege in vot-
ing license or no-license. We look upon
this as humiliating and arbritaiy as well,
in view of the action taken at the last
town meeting in which the people gave an
emphatic No ! to the question of licensing
the rum traffic. Such action we regard
anarchistic in tendency, in that it destroys
the ideal form of Government for the peo-
ple and by the people, delivering it into
the hands of ill designing politicians. Gov.
Black had the power in his hands to carry
out the wishes of the people, yet makes a
surrender of right, honor and good will
to men. We make this record—his signa-
ture is a dark blot on his character as a
citizen and Chief Executive of this great
commonwealth. We include in this re-
solution of censure the representatives of
the people and those individuals through
whose agency this result has been se-
cured.”
As surely as that at this moment the
fair little nation of the Orient the memory
of whose ancient days puts a fringe of
glory upon the history of all bright ideas,
lies prostrate as the result of the dark in-
trigue of European diplomacy opposed to
which all true American ideals of govern-
ment are at antipodes, so surely is this at-
tempt to foist upon the unsuspecting citi-
zens of Stamford this calamity, the result
of the dark intrigue of a power that Mac-
aulay has indicated shall exist within and
shall rise from our midst to destroy the
very semblance of a form of government
that Americans have already shed rivers
of blood to establish.
And whatever the result of our petty
election, so surely must all true American
sentiment gather itself together to repel
this power that against the evolutionary
fruitage of modern history is as foreign
to American principles as the Orient to
the Occident, as opposed to liberty, en-
lightenment and good will to man as
Arctic to Antarctic.
[From the Outlook, New York, July 10, 1897.]
The temperance people of Stamford, N.
Y., have been deprived of the fruits of
their local option victory last spring, in a
way that demands attention. The village
of Stamford lies partly within the town or
township of Stamford, and partly within
the neighboring town of Harpersfield.
Both towns voted no-license, with the re-
sult of a marked improvement in the good
order of the community. liquor, of
course, could still be imported by those
who cared for it, but the suppression of
loafing and treating places greatly reduced
the amount of drinking and drunkenness.
The regular liquor element in the village
was naturally dissatisfied with the out-
come, and aided by some unscrupulous
boarding-house keepers and the president
of the local railroad, who wished at any
cost to make Stamford a summer resort,
they secured the introduction of a special
bill into the Legislature providing for a
separate vote upon the license question by
the village of Stamford. So quietly did
the allied interests back of this bill work j
and so powerful was their influence in the
Legislature, that both the Senate and the
Assembly had passed the measure before
the general public in Stamford learned of
its existence. The Local Reform League
at once sent a delegation to Albany to call
upon Governor Black and protest against
the signing of the bill. This delegation
received assurances, its members state,
that the bill would not be signed. On the
last day, however, that bills could be
signed, the temperance people of Stamford
were chagrined to learn that the Governor
had affixed his signature to the objection-
able measure. Indignant at the treatment
they had received, they set to work to win
the fight in the village, if that were in
any way possible. An earnest campaign
was conducted. The boarding-house keep-
ers were referred to the success of Lake
Mohonk as proof that many wealthy New
Yorkers were attracted to places free from
bar-rooms. Taxpayers were shown the
economic loss of licensing the waste of
thousands of dollars in the bar-rooms in
order to realize a few hundreds from the
State tax. All citizens were shown the
moral evils that would result from, the
license policy. But the ‘‘practical” ar-
guments carried the day, and the villagers
voted, 143 to 117, to license hotel bars, in
the hope of bringing to their village the
money of wealthy summer residents, and
of the drinking people of the no-license
townships round about. The vote of the
larger community to exclude the saloons
has thus been set at naught, by the special
act permitting the petty community to
conduct saloons to the injury of its neigh-
bors.3
[From the Stamford Mirror, October 19,1897.]
Editor of the Mirror :
Fearing that a false impression of the facts
involved in the little episode referred to in
your last issue, where it says that a “ member
of th9 Reform League was ordered and final-
ly forced off the grounds of the Hamiltou
House,” etc , may be lodged in the public
mind, I beg leave to use yoiir valuable space
for a few observations in the premises.
In the first place the fact is that the pro-
prietor of the Hamilton House ordered up a
horse and carriage and drove away while the
“member” was still starring where he was
found by the said proprietor on the so called
grounds of the Hamilton Houso.
Now in order to make a basis for what I
wish to observe, I will report that having
without purpose met a business man from out
of town, I had stopped on the roadway to talk
on a matter of mutual interest and presently
was gruffly accosted by th i said proprietor
wiMi these words : “I should think that a man
who has said as much as you have against me
and my hotel would not presume to occupy
my property to do business,” and ordered
me off. By this act he has offered insult to
me, personally, for which I care little, but
when, as I shall show, the people are respon-
sible, I care greatly and deeply resent it.
It appears, therefore, that the proprietor,
aforesaid, has a personal offense against the
writer. T.et it be assumed for the reason indi-
cated. I wish to make some distinctions.
For the person of said proprietor, prior to a
certain choice of activity, I have no ill-will.
For his business, as a keeper of a public
house for the entertainment of guests, I have
nothing but the approval of common cod sent.
For any intention of offense, therefore, which
strictly personal, I hereby make public ap-
ology. But for the man representatively in
the activities which distinguish him in the
business of a vender of intoxicating liquors, I
have most positive objections. This must
necessarily be understood as a “class distinc
tion,” and my observations must apply, there-
fore, to any previous as well as any succeeding
proprietor of the Hamilton House or of any
other house with saloon annex in the commun-
ity who conducts himself with the same ag-
gressive activity in the interests of the annex.
I am reminded of a story : Mike and Pat
were two young men reared devoutly in an
Irish home near Kilkenny. They started out
together to seek their fortune. Coming for
the first time to a great city they wandered
about Dublin all day, and being near the
cathedral at the hour of vespers and weary,
they entered and, with bowed heads, knelt in
a pew off the main aisle. As they were in
prayer Patrick chanced to glance along the
pew backs to the chancel and beheld the
lighted candles, the crucifix and an image of
the Virgin with an attendant glory never be-
fore immagined, and, moved with awe, nudg-
ed Mike and exclaimed in a whisper, “Look
there, Mike ! That bales the divil \ ” and Mike
replied, solemnly, “Hush, Pat, that’s the in-
tintion.” It is to circumscribe the intention,
Mr. Editor, that I covet this space.
There is a certain insect well known by ex-
perience or reputation to all mankind which
in the cabinet of an entomologist and
under his microscope reveals many things
of marvelous interest in its construction,
but, as compared with other insects, not
more so than a thousand other specimens. It
is only when you give this particular bug his
liberty, and watch his habits, and let him
propagate his kind that you can discover that
which distinguishes him apart and more no-
toriously from other bugs in the estimation of
mankind. It is this—the peculiar manner in
which he gets his living. The bed-bug is a
parasite among animals, otherwise he might
not be known outside the entomologist’s labor-
atory . The liquor dealer is a commercial
parasite whose traffic saps the life blood
of the nation, find thrives only upon wasted
lifo and energy that was designed for a higher
use. There are men engaged in this traffic
who have the privilege of membership in tlm
Gr A. R ; men who have presumably spilled
their blood on the field of battle, to the end
that the awful incubus of human slavery
should be lifted off the industrial and social
life of our nation ; in order that we, as a peo-
ple should leap into a period of prosperity
and advancing civilizition, with which there
is no similar history to compare. But, re-
turning from this commendable sacrifice,
what do they do ? They become the mixers
and dispensers of befuddliDg decoctions cal-
culated to dull the mental and moral keenness
of men’s souls and introduce disease into
every function of a man’s life. What evi-
dence of the truth of this ? The numerous
well filled Keely cures throughout the coun-
try, and the text books on physiology and
hygiene that pervade by statute enactment
the schools of forty states in this Union.i
And this is law. This is law 1 law 1 LAW !
And, as the old lady said who misunderstood
the subject of Wendall Phillips’ lecture—Tbe
Lost Arts—“The law starts.” It starts in the
rising generation such a judgement of alcohol
and the accumulated ages of superstition
about it as shall find intolerable all such
contradictory, crazy-quilt legislation as the
Raines law-and the Stamford patch.
Again they may become the arch-bef uddlers
of a whole state in the skill with which they
make nse of sacred obligations incurred on
, the field of battle, to wheedle a legislature and
; pull a governor into granting the means of
overturning the will of the people. By such
acts with one hand they strike a blow at a
political principle which, with the other, by
professed adherence, they would uphold.
Thus devotion to the principles of good gov-
ernment degenerates into the promotion of
anarchy where a tyrany of degenerating
forces is accomplished.
This may possibly suggest an explanation of
the gathering incubus that rests upon us as
a people, since the great period of prosperity
referred to has spent its force and has been
. succeeded by a prolonged period of depression,
hard times and political upheval, which is re-
lieved only slightly at the present time by the
unnatural advantage of good crops with us,
as against a prolonged famine in India, with
the money of the people cut in two by adverse
British legislation and the failure of potatoes
in Ireland.	*
O, my people ! How long will ye be asleep
and continue to vote upon you the incubus of
degeneracy ? I say “my people” because, with
my fathers,: I was. born here. It is my native
heath andT my .blood is common with many
who occupy the territory that is widely local
here.’ I have suffered insult from the man
who, by his own intrigue and a majority
vote, has’ become king among us, dictating
law and defying justice. Personally consid-
ered the circumstance is of small consequence,
but when the logic is inevitable that the peo-
ple are responsible for the insult, the thought
is appaling that such things can be tolerated.
If so, it simply proclaims that with us all
true American feeling, historically considered,
is dead. For I Wish to say that I can see
nothing at a century’s distance, in the cate-
gory of oppressions reiterated by Jefferson as
imposed by , George III, and the resistance to
which has foreyer defined what we mean by
Americanism,that can compare in tbe subtility
of its far-reaching significance with the pres-
ent tyranny.
“For among my people are found wicked
men : they watch, as fowlers lie in wait;
they set a trap, they catch men. As a cage is
1 full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit;
therefore are they become great and waxen
rich. They are waxen fat, they shine; yea,
they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they
plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless,
that they should prosper; and the right of
the needy do they not judge. Shall I not visit
for these things ? saith the Lord: Shall not
my soul be avenged on such a nation as this V
And now what glory fills the chancel of the
greater cathedral of our environment, as we
wearily kneel and woi ship and pray, peering
into the vista of the future as one thinks of
the ‘‘far off Divine event ? ” It is the greater
manhood that shall be by the sacrifice of the
brutish animalism of man, to give place for
the higher life, as symbolized in the crucifix.
It is in the purity that conditions the
triumph of a higher man, as symbolized in
the Virgin. It is the arc-light of eternal truth
that illuminates the mind of man, as symbol-
ized in the candles.
As in the progress of this century gas and
lamps have succeeded candles, and in turn
are outstripped by electric light; so by the
educational process now operating, alcohol
shall be forced to take its place beside other
medicinal poisons in the physician’s laboratory
and be dispensed- in quantities under the
warning device of the skull and cross bones,
while the event of an open bar for its sale in
compounds for beverage purposes shall be
looked back uptn, with slavery and the inqui-
sition, as relics of barbarism. And while we
look can we hot see the thrilling vision of a
thousand millions a year, now worse than
wasted in the direct expense of our people for
intoxicants, inverted into all that may be
imagined in the beneficent expenditure of this
inconceivable sum upon the materials, the
arts and the splendor of the comforts and
blessings of a better age, and all its civilizing*
influence and pbwer upon the vast areas of
darkness yet unformed into Christian civili-
zation ?
And what’s to hinder ? Nothing but the
machinations of Satan in the making of pres-
ent history.
I trust, Mr. Editor, that the intention is
manifest.	A. W. Terry.
Stamford, N. Y., Oct. 15,1897.5
ORIENTATION.
The village of Stamford as a resort for
city residents, during the depressing heat
which prevails in summer, has many na-
tural advantages which have been already
much enhanced by improvement. This
includes several miles of stone walks, a
gravity water system affording pure spring
water at high pressure and abundant fire
protection, a system of sewerage thor-
oughly sanitary, an electric light plant
and a telephone system affording sixty
' local and ’ indefinite inter-county connect-
ions.'*' Situated at an elevation of nearly
2000 feet and at a point where the higher
i Catskills are depressed into an open coun-
try affording numerous good roads leading
to various surprises of mountain views
and all enveloped with the purest and most
invigorating atmosphere and abounding
in springs of pure cold refreshing water,
this unusual combination of all the ele-
ments of a natural park, makes the region
most attractive to all seekers of physical
recreation.
Then to the eye of artistic taste, the old
stone walls now silvered with moss and
lichens, by which the early settlers, in
Order to clear their fields of troublesome
stones, plotted the farms into small
fields in excess of needed fences, add to
the bright June landscape an unmeditated
finish most pleasing to seekers of natural
beauty. Then add to all the graceful
mountain outline that prevails to a great-
er extent here than elsewhere in the Cats-
kills and the charm is complete.
Wherefore can it be assumed that the
attractiveness of such a place, so favored
by the Creator, can be enhanced by main-
7 taining the resorts of drunks and gamb-
lers, except the inspired lines of Bishop
- Heber are of significant criticism, “ where
every, prospect pleases and only man is ,
The attractions of Stamford were dis-
covered about twenty years ago by some
New York people, who were the members
of a driving party “doing*’ the Catskills,
Persuading the family of Dr. S. E. Church-
ill to take them as guests, they remain-
ed for some time, and beginning with
their report, the location has developed
along with the growth of Churchill Hall
to the capacity of BOO guests, while there
has been added from year to year smaller
houses ranging from the capacity of 25 to
100 guests, such as the Atchinson House,
Bancroft House, The New Grant House,
The Madison, The Westholm, Greycourt
Inn, Mountain View House, Simpson Ter-
race, Ingleside, Rosemont, Greenhurst, the
Cold Spring House and numerous other
private houses which have been enlarged
and improved for the reception of guests.
Last of all, built during the last year, is
Kendall Place. Of medium capacity the
beauty of its external appearance and the
elegance of its internal finish and equip-
ment is hitherto unsurpassed, while at the
present time in the winter of ’97 and ’98,
the intrepid Doctor has laid in the midst
of several acres of lawn in Churchill Park
the foundations and reared the frame of a
hotel, anticipated for years as The Rex-
mere.
This last evidence of “Progressive Stam-
ford,” as the name indicates, is to be mon-
arch of the lakes, and as to elegance every
evidence is to prove that it must be pro-
gressive, and when finished its owner will
be prepared to entertain at his own board
in Stamford, half a thousand guests.
But what lakes ? Why a series of water
terraces that the Doctor has constructed
from time to time during ten years—four
in number and comprising about a dozen
acres. To accomplish this, a succession
of stone dams have been thrown across
an arm of the Delaware, which courses
through the improvement, known as
Churchill Park, where Rexmere is to rule.
Looking northward from the Park into
the adjacent country we discern the build-
ings of Terry Homestead which at present
is the only outlying estate that has de-
veloped an attractive establishment for
summer guests, with appointments and
modern improvements equal to the town
houses, while it claims the added charm
of positive country life.
Beginning with a moderate sized brick
house, built by an ancestor in the early
part of this century and modeled after
the colonial houses of Philadelphia, a re-
cent enlargement with modern improve-
ments by means of a gravity water sys-
tem, afforded by the estate, brings the
house into harmony with the most recent,
while retaining a flavor of the older time.
This estate occupies a south slope which
faces all the array of natural beauty in
the mountains which surround Stamford.
An intervening ridge hides the village,
beyond which towers Mt. Utsayantha fif-
teen hundred feet above and surmounted
by a tower, accessible by wagon road,
from which the whole Catskill region and
an area of 20,000 square miles, including
territory in five states is visible.
In the immediate foreground to the right
nestles between wooded slopes,‘. the larg-
est and uppermost of the lakes in Church-
ill Park, suggesting, as remarked by a
retired army general visiting Stamford,6
the arm of a large body df water which the
imagination might extend far around
through the valley. To the left of this
and somewhat hidden by trees, looms the
towers of Rexmere while on the farther
slope are the Honeymoon and Craig-Gow-
an cottages. Following the ridge to the
left the eye encounters Halceter and far-
ther on the Chateau de Navarre and on a
still farther ridge Kirkner Villa, private
estates occupying choice positions among
many still open to the seeker of the most
favored summer home.
As yet no summer hotel or boarding
house in Stamford has maintained an
open bar. This feature has been confined
to Raines law hotels. These in turn are
symptomatic of a National disease. For
that which destroys life they stand over
against the forces of pure air, pure water
and the delightful envivonment of these
mountains, which attracts humanity for
its recreative power.
Science has demonstrated that alcdhdl
cannot enter the human system with
saf ety to its •well beihg except under the
iriimediate judgment of an expert in
physiological conditions—a physician find
necessarily one up-to date in physiological
chemistry.
The saloon, therefore, as an institutioii
where humanity is at liberty to go unre-
strained and indulge according to appe-
tite or whim in alcoholic compounds and
sustained by law is a National crime.
Our apology for thus setting forth the
attractions and detractions of Stamford
is the desire that the one may be more
widely known and understood and that
the other may here and everywhere the
more speedily approach its Judgment Day.\