Bound Volumes

December 21, 2023

185 YEARS AGO

Experience has shown that the tendency of all human government is, to corruption, oppression, and, finally, dissolution. Of course, no reflecting mind has hoped or expected that our government would, ultimately, be exempt from the common lot. Yet there were thousands—and we were among them—who had hoped, if they had not actually believed, that a government in itself so perfect and so well calculated to “secure the greatest happiness of the greatest number” as ours, might prove to contain within itself some extraordinary seeds of self-renovation. For ourselves however, we are obliged to confess that our faith in this respect has been sensibly weakened by events of recent occurrence. The danger to which we allude is the perversion and corruption of the Right of Suffrage—that right which is the fountain and the life-blood of all our other rights. The extent to which this corruption has been carried at last spring’s election in New Hampshire and the recent election in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in this state, is enough to alarm every friend of freedom. Fraud, perjury and bribery, singly or combined, have, in these states, have been brought extensively to the aid of one or both of the contending parties. Voters have been imported in some cases; in others, they have been actually bought and bribed, and public officers have not been ashamed to lend their aid to the fabrication of partial, mutilated and false returns.

December 17, 1838

110 YEARS AGO

The physicians in attendance upon Mrs. Margaret Cunningham, the aged lady who was so severely burned December 1st by falling upon the kitchen stove, have decided to resort to a skin-grafting operation should Mrs. Cunningham recover sufficiently from the effects of the accident to warrant that measure being taken. The back is so badly burned in two places that skin-grafting is believed by Dr. M.I. Bassett to be the only means by which the wounds can be induced to heal. When she arose in the morning of December 1st and went into the kitchen, in some manner unknown, she fell against the stove. It was supposed that she may have been overcome by coal gas, there being a strong odor of the gas in the house. She was found by neighbors sometime later.

December 17, 1913

60 YEARS AGO

The Cooperstown Pistol Team is tied for first place in the Schoharie County Rifle and Pistol League, having defeated Richfield Springs 1,043 to 1,035 last week. Cooperstown and Richfield Springs both have lost two of their 11 matches. The scores from the match at Richfield for Cooperstown: L. Boyd, 265; C. Talbot, 265; R. Davidson, 259; J. Mayne, 254. Scores for Richfield Springs: R. Dutton, 279; M. Smith, 255; D. Urtz, 252; and Sweet, 249.

December 16, 1963

35 YEARS AGO

Paul Fenimore Cooper, Jr. of Cooperstown, a physicist who was also an expert on the Arctic, died suddenly on Lord Howe Island, Australia, Friday, December 16, 1988 at the age of 58. A great-great-grandson of James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, Mr. Cooper graduated summa cum laude from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1948 and from Harvard College in 1952, majoring in both Physics and Greek. He was awarded a Doctorate in Physics at Harvard in 1958 and for many years worked with the Harvard Synchroton, which he had helped to build.

December 21, 1988

20 YEARS AGO

The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society will hold its annual Christmas Bird Count on Saturday, December 20. The event is one of nearly 2,000 similar counts throughout the Americas. These counts stand as the largest body of ornithological information in existence. Participants will cover an area 15 miles in diameter.

December 19, 2003