Thursday, December 14, 1899
ODDS AND ENDS
The deer hunting season that just ended in the upper sections of the United States breaks all previous records for accidental deaths from shooting. Twenty-two hunt-ers were killed in the Adirondacks, and eleven killed and seven wounded in the Michigan and Lake Superior hunting grounds. Most of those shot were mistaken for deer. From this it looks as if the increase of population is making the hunting grounds more contracted year by year, while the distance at which a gun will kill is increasing and so deer hunting is becoming more and more dangerous.
An Important Document
The first mortgage of the Greenbrier Railway to secure a $3,000,000 bond issue has been recorded in this county. The mortgage is given by the Greenbrier Railway Company to the Colonial Trust Company of New York, Trustee for the benefit of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company.
This was too important a document to be entrusted to the mails, and Mr. Herbert Fitzpatrick, a Huntington lawyer, brought it, as a special messenger, from Lewisburg, where it is also re- corded. It is not the longest deed ever recorded here, but it represents the largest sum of money by far. It is printed on fine linen paper and contains forty pages of closely set type. Probably the most interesting thing about the document is the $1,500 worth of revenue stamps which it bears. There are thirty of these stamps of the $50 denomination…
JEROME KELLISON
Reports that Jerome Kellison, the murderer, has been captured have been circulated periodically ever since he shot and killed Mrs. Julia Simmons, a respectable middle-aged lady at her home on the mountain west of Buckeye. Last week it was said that he was captured on Spring Creek in Greenbrier county, but this was a fake report…
The police authorities denied having him in custody, which there can be no doubt is a melancholy truth… Kellison is not in jail here now. Secret incarceration belongs to countries like Spain and not to ours. The report should be generally contradicted, and a watch be kept for the fugitive who is in hiding probably not far away. A man who has committed such a crime as he is charged with is more apt to be passing a solitary life in the wilds of the mountains, than to be found in the haunts of men.
Kellison has always shown signs of degeneracy and as a child he was known as a marvel of wickedness and blackguardism. When a small boy, James McCollum, of Buck’s Mountain, took him to raise, but he proved incorrigible, and he sent him away in a month.
A NEW STAMP DUTY
“The back of the ox is shaped for the burden,” is the consoling South African proverb, and that is about the best way to take the impositions of the stamp law. We are constantly paying direct or indirect taxes in this country to be squandered by a government which does not regard expense.
The latest outrage of the stamp law is the recent order that, after December 15, each stamp of the denomination of 10 cents and over in addition to being cancelled by pen and ink, must be further mutilated by having three slits cut therein to effectually prevent its being used a second time. The greatest drawback heretofore has been the time it took to pay this kind of a tax. A check stamp only costs 2 cents, but a man has often to spend a valuable quarter of an hour trying to find one. You will go into a store and borrow a blank check, and you will buy a stamp. Then you search through half a dozen pockets for the price thereof. The merchant is busy but is anxious to accommodate you. He stands minute after minute while you finish up the search having found but one cent. Then you remember that you gave a cent to a child to put in his bank and your mind dwells on that awhile. Finally, you offer the merchant a five-dollar bill to change, which he does as rapidly as possible, and everybody concerned curses and rumbles about the stamp tax that is so troublesome and expensive.
Mt. ZION ITEMS
The weather is cold and frosty.
Christmas will soon be here, and the young are anticipating a hop. The shooting match at Edward Fenwick’s was largely attended, but the turkeys were too high for the sportsmen.
Ira Moore, the champion pheasant hunter, has killed fifty up to date.
Look out for your turkey roost. Morgan Grimes lost fourteen chickens and a fine turkey one night last week.
DUNMORE
Bill Smith moved out and Alex Butterbaugh moved in.
Billy Bussard has the best sawmill outfit we have ever seen in the county.
Sixteen wagons came in from Huttonsville Saturday loaded with goods and feed.
And then it rained and raised the water some. Most of the people have been drawing their water since about the first of June.
Andy Daugherty was in town Saturday for a burial outfit for Dr. Cyrus Guinn who died at his home Friday night. The doctor was nearly 79 years old. He was a good physician, citizen and neighbor and will be missed. He was buried at Washington Moore’s on Sunday. Peace to his ashes.
