Thursday, July 18, 1901
THE DONKEY
(A Fable)
A Donkey belonging to a farmer who browsed about the Public Commons so long and had been so busy attending to his own business that he kept his Ears plastered close down to his head, and everyone Exclaimed when he saw him, “What a useful Citizen!”
Finally, the Party Leaders thought to fill an Important Office with him and running him as a Dark Horse elected him to an Office in the State. When the Donkey found himself placed upon a Pedestal, he could no longer conceal the Fact that he was a Donkey. His Ears stuck up and whenever he tried to Talk like Solomon, he Brayed.
His Friends even could not shut their Eyes to the kind of a Man he was and whispered among themselves, “It is an Ass!”
The moral of this fable is that few men can stand in the garish light of public office and escape detection.
STOPS THE TRAIN
Houston Fogus, who works for Withrow McClintic, came to Marlinton to celebrate the Fourth and became intoxicated. He left on the evening train. The cars were packed with excursionists. There was not even standing room. Men were even standing on the steps of the coaches.
When the train was nearing Buckeye, Fogus reached up and taking the cord which controls the hot air, applied the air brakes. This is only done in cases of emergency and the train came to a sudden stop.
Fogus jumped off and B. T. Dixon, trainmaster of this division, who was on the train jumped off and caught him. Fogus threw a whiskey bottle through the door. He broke and ran up the track. The engine was reversed and he was caught in a few hundred yards. A number of men on the train jumped off and were coming towards him threatening summary vengeance. Mr. Dixon deputized Geo. L. Clark, of Academy, to take the prisoner to jail while he held back the mob…
Fogus waived examination at court and was held on a felony charge and committed to jail, his bail being fixed at $500.
BIG FIRE IN TOWN
Sunday night at midnight the large stable belonging to Levi Gay and C. D. Kincaid was discovered to be on fire. The fire was first seen by E. B. Cox. B. M. Rayburn, who lives nearest the stable was roused. He ran to the stable and saw that the fire was just breaking through the weatherboarding from the meal room.
There were eight horses in the stable at the time, and they were kicking and plunging. Mr. Rayburn went around to the back side of the stable and opened the door. He went in to try to rescue the horses, but a wave of hot air met him and drove him back. As he came out, he got a pitchfork and this was the only thing saved from the wreck…
Nearly everyone in town had the disagreeable experience of being waked from a deep sleep by a night alarm of fire, and several hundred men gathered about the fire in a few moments, but nothing could be done.
A negro boy, who works for Johnson, Briggs and Pitts usually slept in the stable and nothing could be seen or heard of him. It was thought that he had been burned with building, but he showed up all right the next morning, having slept at Uncle Tom Thompson’s restaurant.
The stable was situated in the most populous district of the town but was sufficiently removed from any other building for the fire not to spread. The night was still. It is an object lesson on the necessity of water works for, there are other are many buildings which would go together if fires came unless we had plenty of water under pressure.
