Thursday, January 7, 1926
At the meeting of the Marlinton and Stony Creek Mutual Telephone Company held at Onoto last Saturday, E. F. McLaughlin was elected president, W H. Gilmore, vice-president, A. C. Auldridge, secretary and treasurer. The directors are W. M. VanReenan, Emmett Galford, and Lee Carter. The company has had a good year. The lines are in repair and the finances in good shape.
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On last Thursday night, James L. Baxter gave a turkey dinner at Odie Johnson’s Restaurant to the employees of his automobile business and a few of his friends. Among those present were J. L. Baxter, A. M. Baxter, William VanReenan, H. H. Barrett, Stokes Reynolds, Mason May, Doc Hannah, Sherman Moore, Cecil Woofter, A. O. Baxter, Clyde Bussard, Capt. Smith, Rev. H. H. Orr, E. H. Williams, W. L. Dearing, Dr. Wilson, Ward Barlow, Calvin W. Price.
THE ANT
Mark Twain in “Tramp Abroad”
It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be a strangely overrated bird. During many summers now, I have watched him, when I ought to have been in better business, and I have not yet come across a living ant that seemed to have any more sense than a dead one. I refer to the ordinary ant, of course I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, hold slaves, and dispute about religion. Those particular ants may be all that the naturalist paints them, but I am persuaded that the average ant is a sham. I admit his industry, or course, he is the hardest working creature in the world – when anybody is looking – but his leather headedness is the point I make against him. He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do? Go home? No – he goes anywhere but home. He doesn’t know where home is. His home may be only three feet away – no matter, he can’t find it. he makes his capture, as I have said; it is generally something which can be of no sort of use to himself or anybody else; it is usually seven times bigger than it ought to be. He lifts it bodily up in the air by main force and starts; not toward home, but in the opposite direction, not calmly and wisely, but with a frantic haste which is a waste of strength. He fetches up against a pebble, and instead of going around it, he climbs over it backward dragging his booty after him, tumbles down on the other side, jumps up in a passion, kicks the dust off his clothes, moistens this hands, grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then shoves it ahead of him a moment, turns tail and lugs it after him and gets madder and madder and presently hoists it into the air and goes tearing away in an entirely new direction… to be continued
MARRIED
At the Marlinton Methodist Parsonage by Rev. S. R. Neal, Teddy Jackson McElwee and Miss Julia Johnson Grove. Both are well known in Pocahontas and have a large quota of friends in the county.
BIRTHS
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Dumire, a daughter.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Forney Gibson, on Elk, a daughter.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Bush, on Beaver Creek, a son.
DIED
On Monday morning, January 4, 1926, the body of David A. Gladwell was found in a field beside the road near Hillsboro. There was a shot in his stomach, and he had evidently not been dead long. His gun was lying of the opposite side of the fence. A coroner’s jury was empaneled, and their verdict was death by accidental shooting.
Mr. Gladwell was a man of sixty years of age. He lived at Hillsboro, and he was widely known over the county. His business was that of a taxi driver. He leaves a large family to survive him. The body was buried at the Oak Grove graveyard, the service under the direction of the Modern Woodman of America.
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Harry L. Miller died January 1, 1926, at the home of his sister, Miss Moss Miller, near Buckeye. Burial in Oak Grove Cemetery. He was a son of Colonel Robert G. Miller, who had commanded the 127th Virginia Regiment of Militia in the Confederate service. Harry Miller had been an invalid for many years. The immediate cause of death was acute nephritis.
