Thursday, July 5, 1917
The most we local people know about Russia is what geography taught us in the school and that was only a lick and a promise then, and has been mostly forgotten since that time. Then some cheerful idiot objected to the Russian because he dressed like Europeans and not like the Chinese. The poet laureate described him as the bear that walked like a man, about the time that he said that, the American was the scandal of the elder earth.
Personally, the most vivid glimpses of that great country have been derived from a more or less steady reading of Tolstory’s books for some thirty years and the acquaintance of some hundreds of native born Russians who come here, some to sell goods, and some to work.
Since they let their Czar go out and chucked him away like the butt of a cigar, we have tried to get some of our Russian neighbors involved in conversation about the politics of Russia but so far we have failed to get a single one of them to admit that he ever heard of such an official as the Czar, whom they recently turned out to grass…
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Fred Galford, U. S. Forest Ranger, of Woodrow, was in town last Tuesday to prove up a bear scalp for the bounty, and he told us about killing the big sheep killing bear on Spruce Knob. All spring the farmers on the head of Williams River have been losing sheep and lambs. Samuel Sheets alone having at least $400 worth killed. The stockman got together and Mr. Sheets guaranteed a reward of $40. Then, Mr. Galford got busy. Other people put six or seven traps in the woods and left them there, but Mr. Galford spent three days finding the bear’s going in and coming out place. When he had located this to his satisfaction he took a hambone from home and baited his trap. He then was in no hurry to look at it for the man who visits his bear trap often never got a bear, except by accident. But the bear must have sprung Mr. Galford’s trap soon after he had set it, for when he went to look at it a week later he found the bear dead a few hundred yards away from where the trap was set. The signs left make it very apparent that it was the bear that had been killing and eating the sheep. It was an immense three year old bear.
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S. L. Brown, local observer reports the following weather for June: hottest, 86 degrees on the 26th; coldest, 34 on the 17th. At Elkins, the weather bureau reports the hottest as 90 degrees on the 26th, and the coldest 36 on the 17th. The average temperature for the month was 65 degrees, the normal is 66.6 The hottest in 19 years was 95 degrees and the coldest, 33.
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Wheeling expects to be the first American city to have women street car conductors.
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War is putting the kibosh on divorce in West Virginia. At least this word comes from lawyers and judges, while license clerks say marriages are increasing.
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In this paper is published the call of the Town Council for an election for July 30 to vote on the question of issuing $20,000 in bonds for the purpose of buying the plant of the Marlinton Service Company. This paper is heartily behind the plan. We believe the plant is worth what it can now be secured for. In addition the town is bound by a contract to take so much water and light each year, and this contract has nearly twenty years yet to run. This contract was made when the town was much smaller than it now is, and was then necessary to secure adequate fire protection. Last year the bill against the town for light and water was in the neighborhood of $2,500. We believe that with economical and efficient management that the plant could be made to pay a profit, in addition to the amount derived from the contract with the town.
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No prisoners in Pocahontas county jail for the first time in many years.
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Theodore Moore, of Arkansas City, Kansas, is here to visit among his friends and kin. He is a brother of the late Aaron Moore of Marlinton, and he left here in 1863 to find his fortune in the West. Like so many men from Pocahontas, he has prospered in his new home. He reports a record breaking wheat crop in Kansas.
THE FOURTH
The Fourth in Marlinton was altogether a delightful day. The weather perfect, and the town filled with the best people in the world – well dressed, kindly disposed and willing to be pleased.
Two things are to be especially commented upon – the number of automobiles and the total absence of whiskey drinking.
The parade of decorated automobiles was very fine. Speeches were made by N. C. McNeil and F. R. Hill. There were a number of track events and a baseball game between Marlinton and Monterey, resulting in a score of 6 to 14 in favor of Marlinton.
The town was well decorated, flags and bunting to be seen everywhere.
The day was first of all one of special intercourses, when friends and acquaintances meet and exchange greetings.
The people made liberal response to an appeal for funds for the Red Cross Society. The subscriptions in all amounted to about $300.
HILLSBORO
Misses Anna and Minnie Wallace have returned from a visit with friends and relatives at Staunton.
Miss Margaret LaRue has returned from a trip to Ohio and Kentucky.
In six months, E. H. Moore has gotten 194 dozen eggs from a flock of mixed chickens, which numbered 55 at the beginning of the term but now have been reduced to 35. In the same time, he got 165 dozen eggs from a flock of 27 White Leghorns. For the first lot of eggs, Mr. Moore received an average price of 25 cents, and for the second lot, 30 cents.
A mixed shower was given at the home of Mr. George Edgar in honor of Mrs. Zed Smith, Jr. A most enjoyable occasion is reported.
DIED
Floyd Calhoun was born September 27, 1871, and died June 2, 1917, aged 45 years 8 months and 25 days. He leaves his wife, two daughters, and numbers of relatives to mourn their loss, but with hope of meeting him beyond.