Thursday, December 4, 1924
Quoad hoc taurum jaclo! As this account is to be about the University, I thought that a little homemade Latin might make it look a little more classy.
I have just returned from the place where the ideas sprout umbrageous on the Monongahela River. Every now and then I visit the lower levels. So, I dropped the half-dressed hide and let my business slide, and went down stream like a sucker to join in the football madness of the Thanksgiving season.
And those who have not seen Morgantown during Thanksgiving week do not realize the possibilities of West Virginians in the whirl. They swarm to the city for the annual contest between the fighting Presbyterians from Washington and Jefferson college north of the Mason and Dixon Line and the Mountaineers playing for the university. Within the last year, a great stadium has been built. A place to play games in. The kind of a place that the ancient Romans built to satisfy the popular clamor for free bread and free shows. A valley was taken for the purpose. The stream was covered over. The sides of the valley were built out of concrete. Fifty thousand persons can watch from these high serial lookouts. Mountain, valley and stream have been covered with the works.
In ancient times, when Falling Run was out of town, there were two homes on the run. On the bank of the little stream was a shoemaker and, on the height above, a minister. They were both aged men and there sprung up between them a deadly hate and they exchanged defiant words such as: “I can look down on you in your ignorance with contempt!”
And the reply: “And I can look up and see your dirt encrusted hide.”
ACCIDENTALLY SHOT
Alfred McNeel, aged 18 years, accidentally shot himself last Friday morning. He was out with a party of other boys at the Harper place east of Hillsboro and was standing on a stump with his hand on the muzzle of his gun. The gun slipped and the hammer striking something, was discharged. The thumb on one hand was blown off, a deep wound in one leg and eighteen shot in the breast were the more serious results.
The young man was given first aid by his companions and his father, Dr. H. W. McNeel, was called. He was brought to the Marlinton Hospital, and he is making a good recovery.
ABOUT THE COUNTRY
Talbott Waugh is a farmer after my own heart.
Eleven years ago, he bought some wood and brush land on the Drinnen Ridge from the Campbell Lumber Company. This land lies in a short grass section. There were a lot of folk who thought here was an industrious, well-meaning man who in this enthusiasm to own land was committing himself to a life sentence at hard labor and short rations. Just another case of working for nothing and boarding himself. The best they could see for Mr. Waugh was a modest home from where he could go out to public works. About ten years ago, Mr. Waugh cleared away enough of the trees and brush for a house seat. His friend and neighbor hauled the lumber and had difficulty finding enough space to put the material and turn his team to get the wagon out again. Today, there are more than thirty acres of fields and meadows without a stump, and, in addition, cutover pastureland to keep four cows…
PARIS D. YEAGER
Paris D. Yeager was born at Bartow February 23, 1878, and died at Clifton Forge, Virginia, November 26, 1924, in the 47th year of his life. He was the youngest son of the late Henry A. Yeager and Mrs. Bertie Beard Yeager, and in line of descent from two of the pioneer families of the Greenbrier Valley. In 1907, he married Miss Wawa Rucker, daughter of the late H. S. Rucker, who survives with their son, William.
For about eighteen years, he was a trusted employee of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad, the Chief of the Divisional Special Service with headquarters at Clifton Forge. A large delegation of his fellow officials and employees attended the funeral rites, which were held from the home of Mrs. H. S. Rucker in Marlinton. Interment was made in Mt. View Cemetery. Not too far distant are the graves of his father, mother and other relatives.
