Thursday, September 7, 1950
And they murmured against Moses and Aaron.
Nagging, snapping, sniping, bickering politics in high places, dupes of and liars for mercenary interests, caused my friend, Honorable Louie Johnson, of West Virginia, to cuss and quit his cabinet office of Secretary of National Defense.
His quitting was not an act of hysteria. With patience of a Job, he stayed with his job until he had trimmed to pattern this great department of government. He hands to his successor an efficient department, trimmed of much dead wood, division of authority and duplication of effort.
Eighteen months since, another fine man of thinner skin and feebler fiber was driven to distraction and dogged to his death by machinations of this motely, unsavory crew.
Then Colonel Johnson was called to a duty of building an effective department for world defense. Of course, buffleheads were bumped, waffle bottoms bunted out and cockroaches run down the drain. Abuse was rained down on his head, but he pretty well cleared the road of snipers and bushwhackers.
As Assistant Secretary of War, Colonel Johnson is properly given credit for preparing us for successful waging of the Second World War.
FIELD NOTES
Mrs. Bedford Alderman and her sons, Walter and Lewis, got mixed up with a mess of copperheads on the Alderman place on Anthonys Creek near Neola. They saw a big copperhead near a pile of hay which had been left by the grass cutters. Turning this hay over brought snakes a plenty in sight. When the general killing was over, the dead copperheads numbered four big ones, 18 smaller ones – 22 in all.
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There has been a good deal of controversy as to whether or not panthers are still roaming the Alleghanies and nearby mountains. People who claim to have seen them are generally held to have mistaken some lesser animal for a panther.
The best evidence that the panther is still nearby, comes from Col. Graves H. Snyder, of the U. S. Air Force, who believes he might have seen one early last Wednesday evening while nearing the summit of Potts Mountain on Virginia Rt. 311, between Salem and Old Sweet Springs.
Col. and Mrs. Snyder were driving from his post in North Carolina to Lewisburg to spend the weekend with his mother. As they neared the summit sometime between 6:30 and 7 o’clock, while it was still daylight, the animal crossed the highway no more than 100 feet in front of their car. Both Col. and Mrs. Snyder got a broadside look at it. They are certain it was a yard or more long and its tail probably two feet or longer and rather bushy.
Mrs. Snyder’s frightened reaction was that it was a mountain lion. Col. Snyder is familiar with the shape and size of the wild cat and catamounts and is pretty sure it was larger than these.
BIRTHS
Born to Dr. and Mrs. Kermit Dilley, of Marlinton, a daughter, Elizabeth Buckley.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Clay Taylor, of Green Bank, a daughter, Rebecca Ann.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Monroe Bostic, of Seebert, a son, Glen Cale.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Wise Gabbert, of Renick, a son, Stephen Douglas.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Walter David VanReenen, of Marlinton, a daughter.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Owen Varner, of Boyer, a son, Jackie Michael.
Born to Mr. and Mr. Ralph Russel Lane, of Seebert, a son.
DIED
Mrs. Rebecca Jane Walker, aged 64 years, passed away at her home in Brownsburg August 29, 1950. She was the widow of Johnny Walker. She is survived by her children: Mrs. Mary Wheeler, Early, Lloyd, Norman, Guy and Samuel. … Mrs. Walker was a lifelong member of the Baptist Church. She was a daughter of the late Lacy and Sally Tibbs Stewart, who lived in the Levels.
