Thursday, December 6, 1917
Sol Workman, of Beard, reports the killing of a fine deer near his home, during the recent hunting season.
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Col. J. Gano Johnson of Mt. Sterling, Ky., noted horse fancier and scientific breeder, is spending the week with friends in the Levels. It had been advertised that a carload of horses from the plantation of Arlington Johnson would be sold at auction December 12, but as we go to press, we are notified that owing to government control of the railroads it is impossible to tell when these horses may be shipped, and the sale is postponed.
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Married, December 5, 1917, at the home of the bride in Riverside, John W. Moore and Miss Grace Daniels, Rev. J. M. Walker officiating.
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He sojourned far and wide at school,
Came home an educated fool,
And suffered as a consequence,
A total loss of common sense.
The woman’s literary club at this time is working on the subject of folk-lore. What the Rotarians are doing for the cities of the States, a band of cultured women are doing for this town. They are getting material accumulated that will make a valuable book in time and there is no reason why it should not be printed and circulated. They are educating the people including themselves. We had a mighty hazy idea what folklore was. Like the searcher after truth who sought far and wide for that thing that they call a man-about-town, and could not find him. Finally he got run over by an automobile, and the newspapers describing the accident, referred to him himself as a man-about town. We are chock full of folk-lore and never knew it…
Courtship and the long and serious consequences that flow therefrom, has a set of unwritten rules that would require many pages to do justice to. They are developed at great length in the pages of fiction, but fiction fails to give any idea of the importance that is attached to them in the minds of the young people directly interested. After these same young people have gone through the fire and come out considerably worsted by a thirty year war with old Father Time, they do not regard those niceties with the respect that they once showed to them…
As we remember it, the most fateful words in the ritual were to be pronounced with a stately grace, in public, after church. The young man had been pining for many weeks for some dear girl and the dear creature knew it. Then at the close of the church service the young man with more courage than it takes to walk to the cannon’s mouth, addresses her with these fatal words: “Will you accept of my company home?” and upon the answer hangs his whole future. If yes, he remains at home, honored and respected, a pillar of the church, and a foreman of the grand jury.
If no, then he becomes a wanderer of the earth, a hardened cynical sweeper out of barrooms, or setter up of ten-pins, it all depends…
This fills our space. We had thought that we could say something about salt-rising bread, deer chasing, horse trading, corn huskings, and the like. Get that work, folk-lore. It means common sense. Horse sense, some people call it. If you have not got it, you have no sure foundation.
PUT IT “OVER THE TOP”
The Marlinton Graded School is launching a campaign to raise a fund of two hundred dollars for the purpose of placing a library in the school. At present the seven grades have a working library of less than one hundred volumes. This is far inferior, by comparison, to the library of the average rural school in Pocahontas county.
Our teachers are handicapped by the very inferior quality of some of our adopted texts and the lack of supplementary material.
Because we have nothing better to offer, our boys and girls are reading books, which, for the most part, either leave them where they were; or, more often, lower their appreciation for the noble, true and heroic. In either case, the result is the same. If we are not moving forward we are moving backward: we cannot stand still.
As this season, the spirit of “Good will towards men” has always been a dominant factor with us; and although somewhat obscured by world conditions, it is yet. In launching this campaign, we have been mindful of this situation.
Not since the dark days of the 60s have the American people seen such strenuous times as these, and never have such demands been made upon their patriotism. The way in which they have responded is a just reason for the pride we feel in ourselves.
The sums of money that have been subscribed to the various causes which have arisen subsequent to the World War can only be thought of in abstract terms, and this is small indeed as compared to the sacrifice made by our young manhood…
Existing conditions have and certainly will tend to disorganize our schools from the grades to the university, but this only makes it more imperative that we meet this disorganization with increased efficiency…
It is with this in mind that we appeal to you at this holiday season to subscribe to a library for your Graded School, that the boys and girls of Marlinton may have placed in their hands the tools with which to carve their way “Over the Top” and through the obstructions which the future will surely throw in their path.
HILLSBORO HIGH SCHOOL
The domestic science class gave jelly to the Red Cross for the Christmas boxes for soldiers.
Interest in the Literary Digest is manifested by the call for six more copies. We believe the statement, often seen, “The Digest brings College to your door.”
DURBIN
Some of Uncle Sam’s boys have been in our town and when a young man with khaki clothes comes to town he is given all the street.
Lee Wilmoth was visiting his brother, J. D. Wilmoth last Saturday.
Tom Seigel has completed two new buildings for Pocahontas Tanning Company.
J. S. Burner passed through town Monday on his way to Marlinton to serve as a juror.
DUNMORE
Mrs. C. E. Pritchard, Forrest Pritchard and family, John Pritchard and family, June McElwee and family spent last Sunday with relatives in Marlinton.
Mrs. Bland Nottingham and sister, Mrs. Hull, spent Sunday with relatives at Sitlington.
Robert McQuain had the misfortune to get his leg broken just above the ankle. He was attended by Dr. Moomau and is getting along nicely.
S. R. Pritchard is preparing to build a fine house.
Three good houses in town to rent. Those wanting comfortable homes, come to Dunmore.
