Thursday,
September 13, 1917
The more we think of it the more firmly are we convinced that the most fortunate young unmarried men are those who have an opportunity to enter the army. He has a chance to see life and be educated and trained in the most stirring of all schools at the expense of the government and to receive a good salary besides. In most respects the draft-in man has an advantage over the volunteer in the enjoyment of his election, in that the drafted man has nothing on his mind about neglect of civil duties, for he has had no choice and can go with a good conscience.
We know how universal is the desire to send boys away to school and what saving, pinching, and scraping goes on in many a household to maintain a youth and have him well founded in the classics, sports and cards. And even in towns where there are great institutions of learning, a boy is not considered thoroughly educated until he is sent away among strangers and gets the moss rubbed off of him elsewhere than at home. This is a part of the fallacy of the elsewhere.
Change of Mobilization
As we go to press, the Local Board received a telegram from the War Department that the date of the mobilization of the drafted men of Pocahontas county had been changed from September 19th to September 23rd… The men who are to report are:
Hollie Robert Barrett, Spice; Earl Weiford, Buckeye; Page D. Waugh, Millpoint; Orman Day McElwee, Marlinton; Gay Campbell, Dunmore; Chas. S. Smith; Albert E. Harouff, Cass; Harlan Starcher, Lobelia; Albert R. Johnson, Hillsboro; Ben F. Kellison, Millpoint; Paul Brine Thompson, Arbovale; Andrew Foss Hill, Lobelia; Jesse Boryguard Shafer, Durbin; George Wm. Hartless, Marlinton; Frank L. Wickwire, Olive; Ernest Henry Curry, Jacox; Homer Scott, Spice; Edgar Tallman, Stony Bottom; John Madison Ward, Cass; Allen C. Young, Marlinton; Jacob R. Weiford, Hillsboro; Hubert M. Ervine, Huntersville; C. Dice Louk, Mace; Fred Lynch, Cass; Chas. Wm. Adkins, Seebert; Alex Burton Gregory, Boyer; Charles E. Simmonds, Durbin; Veney F. Dilley, Hillsboro; Rucker Arbogast, Durbin; J. W. Bryant, Winterburn, Wm. C. Cole, Marlinton; Earl M. Mann, Edray; Forrest W. Holliday; Everett W. Roderick, Cass; Luke Wilson, Slaty Fork; Marvin Lee Tyree, Seebert; Ona James Mullenax, Boyer; Attore Brait, Cass; Clifford Nelson Adkison, Buckeye; Clark Long, Hillsboro; Hubert M. Jordan; John A. Arbogast, Durbin; Lanty John McCoy, Spice; Augustus Henry Evans, Watoga; Harper Garen Thomas, Marlinton; Dan Swackhammer, Richwood; Dannis Scott, Cass; Jacob W. Sharp, Warwick; Hamp Cook; Buckeye; Luther Mace, Mace; James M. Bear, Marlinton; Edwin Price Garing, Sitlington; Wm. Fitzpatrick, Marlinton; Jesse Sharp, Mingo; Harley Elvister Brannon, Seebert; Harry C. Pritt, Minnehaha Springs; Clarles Clyde McLaughin, Hunters-ville; Andy W. Hefner, Seebert; Edgar E. McMillion, Cass; Charley Wilson Neathawk, Locust; Clyde Edward Wooddell, Greenbank; Otis McKinley Dilley, Dunmore; John F. Jordan, Hillsboro; Sherman H. Moore, Millpoint; Cody Herbert Bell, Seebert.
TIMBER OPERATIONS IN WEST VIRGINIA
By Andrew Price
A tree is a perennial woody plant, having a single supporting stem, the whole not being less than 20 or 25 feet in height.
When a good many of these plants are found growing close together, a certain large class of human beings take a sinister interest in their existence and commence to prowl through the forests seeking for something to destroy.
There is no family of trees so watched and tended but that there are thousands of eyes turned on them with a speculative look and thousands of lumbermen are wondering if by any chance they might pay the price asked for them and come out on the right side of the ledger.
In sizing up a lumber job, luck plays a great part, but, after all, the two things that go to make a successful venture in timber is good judgment in sizing up the standing trees and good management. It has been pointed out by a high authority that two businesses can start in the same neighborhood under the same conditions and one will become highly prosperous and the other will be on the point of fading away. Then the managers are changed, and the failing business picks up and prospers and the prosperous business goes into bankruptcy….
Every one of these timber operations has its story.
They have been in the main very successful in West Virginia, but there are some notable exceptions, and when a big company does bust, it is a terrific thing.
Pocahontas county has now in full blast nine lumber plants of the largest size. It has had as many as fifteen going strong at the same time. There are innumerable smaller operations…
The labor is not unionized but it demands and gets good grub and good wages. Permanent social life is built up around the mills, and many chapters could be written about the life in the lumber town.
In the woods where the men are kept in large camps, life is like that of soldiers in the army, and lacking the refining influence of family life, the tenderfoot is apt to find it a little boisterous…
Like soldiers, they suffer in some camps from pediculosis. Years ago I heard a remark like this: “See that gol darned dude! I don’t like his looks. I am going to louse him up good…”
But in the woods, a man gets so chock full of health and strength that when he comes out to relax, there was a whale of a time in town, or rather, was, for things have got so dry in West Virginia that my friend, the wood hick, is not good company any more…
GREENBANK
This part of the county had a fine rain last week, but too late for most of the corn and the crop will not be large. The buckwheat crop is fine – turning out in threshing better than was expected. Wheat and oats are also fine.
There are several cases of whooping cough among the children in the village at this time, but all are better.
W. O. Nottingham and family attended services at the Methodist church here last Sunday.
Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Sheets, of Cass, were in town Monday.
Tuesday morning, September 11 – a big frost and freeze. Corn was badly bitten, also gardens.
Wanted: School teachers of good reputation.
DUNMORE
Miss Jean Pritchard goes to Lewisburg Wednesday, where she expects to attend the Lewisburg Seminary.
Mrs. Wm. Cackley, of Ronceverte, spent a few days in town with relatives.
Roy Gum has bought an automobile.
Paul Mauzy and wife, of Crabbottom, Va., were the guests of Mrs. C. B. Swecker, Tuesday, after returning from their bridal tour to Washington, D. C. They will make their home at Deer Creek where Mr. Mauzy is manager of the Deer Creek store.