Thursday,
May 13, 1915
The Lusitania is at the bottom of the sea with many of her passengers and crew. The German submarines torpedoed the great steamship after publishing warnings to passengers not to sail on this boat.
Germany is making its own rules of war as the occasion arises. Gen. Lee said that he made war only on armed men, and this rule of war is applauded fifty years after the war.
This event goes down on the books like some others that will be justified if Germany wins, but if that country loses there may be cause for bitter regret. We have not heard a soul advance any reason or argument in justification of the sinking of a passenger ship. Under such circumstances the feeling of neutrality is hard to maintain. In New York, a German reading a bulletin announcing the sinking of the Lusitania, threw up his hat and cheered. He was mobbed by the bystanders and had to be rescued by three policemen, and he went home much bruised and battered. We do not know what effect the destruction of the Lusitania will have upon our country. We feel the utmost confidence in the wisdom of the President and the others who have to decide and act upon the questions presented. But it will do no harm to recall to mind the words of Decatur and the spirit of one hundred years ago: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!”
WOOL
Absolutely the hardest winter that we ever came through and we rejoice that we got practically all the stock through to grass. Grass never looked greener or sweeter than this year and while the leaves on the trees are still pale and sickly looking, the great fields of grass are offering health and strength to the dumb brutes and they fill up quickly and lie down in the green pastures even in the day time. The first return that the county will get from the herds is the wool crop which is about ready for the harvest. It is the cleanest and best money that the stockman makes. Think what a blessing it would be if a man could wear a coat until it is worn out and then sell it for the top price. That is what old Mr. Sheep does. He needs his all wool garment in the winter but when the hot summer days come, he has to discard it. This he will do by a painfully slow process of tearing it out piece by piece on the brush, or he can submit to a barbering operation and be divested of it in about three shakes of a dead sheep’s tail in a neat and workmanlike manner.
“There, darn you, I told you I would cut you if you did not keep still.”
But when they put him down, he feels as good as a boy when he gets to go barefooted. Then the farmer comes to town with his wagon full of wool in the scarce season of the year and sells it for much gold. There is no tragedy in the wool business. The poor animals do not have to suffer death to benefit their owners…
ARBOVALE
Corn planting is the order of the day. There is more corn being planted than usual and the farmers are putting the ground in better condition than ever by dragging, discing, etc.
Sam Ervin got a horse badly crippled by cutting itself on a nail; the cut is about a foot long.
Misses Mabel Woods, Annie Conrad, Mabel and Winnie Gillispie went a fishing one day last week, but owing to the day being so cold, did not have much luck.
DUNMORE
The farmers are done planting; the next thing will be to sow oats and buckwheat.
A rattlesnake run an old setting hen off her nest for Mrs. James Watson and took possession of it. Had if been left alone we do not know whether it would have been snakes or chickens.
We hope that when the people get their houses and yards cleaned up nicely, they won’t forget the grave yards and clean them up and fix the fences around them.
HUNTERSVILLE
Withrow McClintic was here one day last week and bought some fine yearlings of Howard Barlow.
Rodney Buzzard planted a patch of Jerusalem corn this spring by way of experiment to see what it will do in this latitude.
O. E. McKeever and wife of Marlinton, have been here the past week gardening and looking after their interests here generally.
Editor’s Note: We have had several inquiries as to the location of the Sinks, which was mentioned a couple of weeks ago in this column. It referred to Charles Vandevender, “a native of the Sinks Country, a part of Pocahontas county, but which is so inaccessible that very, very few citizens of Pocahontas have ever seen it.”
Bill McNeel rounded up the information.
According to the West Virginia Geological Survey, the Sinks Country is located in the northern end of the county near the headwater of the East Fork of the Greenbrier River. A greater part of the Sinks is in Randolph County.