Thursday, January 8, 1920
Outlaws put a bomb in front of Constable Stalnaker’s residence in the city of Elkins and blew off the front of that house and also greatly damaged the house on the opposite side of the street and shook up the town generally. There was no one hurt. Bootleggers are suspected as Mr. Stalnaker has been very active in enforcing the prohibition laws.
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Edgar Bryan Pownall, of Romney, was stabbed and killed in Cumberland last week by Mrs. Mervin Uhl, following Pownall’s refusal of the woman’s request to tell her husband that it was not her fault that he had been paying her attention. Pownall was the son of Thomas J. Pownall, and was about 23 years of age. His father was at one time in the employ of the Union Tanning Company and paid frequent visits to Marlinton.
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The American Forestry Association is compiling a Hall of Fame of trees. The two big corner white oaks at the foot of Marlins Mountain at Marlinton have been nominated for a place in that Hall of Fame. The reason assigned is that they are probably the oldest standing corner trees in the Mississippi Valley. They were marked by Gen. Andrew Lewis, October 6, 1751. There is no question about trees having individuality. In fact, there are no two trees exactly alike.
John Fox wrote a book about a lonesome pine. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. This was a big pine on top of the mountain that owed its prominence to the fact that it stood out by itself on a commanding site. In this county on the road up Swago Mountain, there is a Lonesome Persimmon, probably the only persimmon tree in Pocahontas County…
On Slippery Hill, on the Clover Lick road, there used to be a walnut tree that was known far and wide. It was about six or eight feet through and it rose as straight and true as a lance for upwards of one hundred feet to the first limb. It escaped the first round up of the walnut in this county by reason of its being a corner tree, but later the tree was sold by the owners and it has been gone for about twenty-five years.
A big walnut and big hickory on the west side of the river in this town were preserved during the Civil War when every other tree was cut for firewood for the winter camps of soldiers. These trees were spared by an order from the commanding officer who favored the petition of some children to let them stand for the never failing crop of nuts that the trees were good for.
There is a grape on the road between Hillsboro and Lobelia that a lumberman declares is big enough to make saw logs…
There is even one tree of mystery in these mountains. In the original survey of the 31,060 acres Smythe tract on Cheat River, a cypress is called for. This tree, common on the shores of the ocean, has never been known here. It has been looked for thousands of times for its location might play hob with boundary lines. It has never been found.
Then there are those trees with a sinister reputation caused by the fact that a man has been hung on them. Yes, the limb that he was hung on always withers and dies. You can prove that by us. We have seen two such trees. One in Highland County and one in Greenbrier County. And in both instances the limb died. Maybe this is the way that the lower limbs of trees do naturally in their growth…
WOOD ALCOHOL
Wood alcohol claimed its victims by the hundreds in new dry territory. So much for a name. If they had not called it alcohol, it would not have been on the list to fool people. It ought to have its name changed. Wood poison would be a good term for it. It is a deadly poison. Out of ten persons taking a half tumbler full of this stuff, all will be made sick, with terrible pains in the stomach. Four will recover. Two will live, but will be blind, and four will die. This is the average given out by a chemist.
It is to be regretted that this wood alcohol scourge is a part of every prohibition condition and it seems to be impossible to guard against. Old prohibition settlements remember passing through the wood alcohol stage of their education years ago. So long ago that the memory had faded and no specific effort was made to warn those communities in which the temperance movement is a new thing.
Both sides seize the occurrence as argument to prove their sides of the case. It does not prove anything except that there are men so reckless of human life in making money that they do not stop at murder, and that there are victims of the habit of drink, who will risk anything to purchase a moment’s voluntary madness…