Thursday, November 29, 1900
Dr. Ligon awoke Tuesday morning and found himself famous so far as to be President of the Board of Health, much to his surprise as he had never been informed of the appointment. His appointment seems to have been one of the court secrets.
– – –
The West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company is preparing to develop the timber on Leatherbark Creek. Seven miles of good standard gauge railroad with 60-pound rails will be built up Leatherbark and this will open up one of the grandest timber sections in the world. It is a plateau through which the headwaters of Cheat River flow. The town of Cass will be built at the mouth of the creek and will be an important place.
– – –
Miss Mary Hefner on Alleghany Summit, White Sulphur district, caught a bear cub in the yard while on its flight from fire in the woods. R. C. Montague procured it and sent it to Vice-President Roosevelt, and he seems more than pleased with the gift. In his note of thanks he said, the furry West Virginian is to be named Jonathan Edwards, as a tribute to a remote ancestor of both Mrs. Roosevelt and Hon. W. S. Edwards at whose insistence the gift was made to Governor Roosevelt.
– – –
Two children of Godfrey Geiger, of Stony Creek, were playing with a double action 32 caliber revolver last Wednesday. The pistol fell to the floor and was discharged, inflicting a dangerous wound on the child, a girl about ten years old. The ball entered the left arm and the chest over the heart and ranged back. Dr. Price attended to the wound but could not remove the ball.
THE ABTRUSE DOCTRINE OF LOVE
The scientific high priests of our latter day religions seem too busy with their isms and ologies to remember that He came to bring peace not the sword. The war of the churches goes on as merrily today as when the doctrinists burned people at the stake to emphasize their remarks. We see it today in the strife and jealousy of the churches, and in the armies that follow missionaries to foreign lands.
Leaving such questions as predestination, infant dam-nation and sanctification to engender hard feelings among theologists, let us moralize on the true end and aim of the Christian religion. It strikes us that there is but one essential in the daily walk of the churchman and that is charity. It restrains, ensures morality, for the truly charitable man is not an enemy of society, but a man who has a due regard for the appearances and the feelings of others. He even goes so far as to accept the tyrannical requirements of the local organization to which he belongs for the sake of peace.
CAPTAIN MATTHEW’S LETTER
We sincerely regret that we are not able to reproduce the letter of Captain Alex F. Matthews printed in the Greenbrier Independent. In it he takes the view that we have no longer a Republic and that we are living under an empire. The wealthy class has seized the government and by a bloodless revolution have transformed the republic into an empire, ignoring a part of the constitution and interpreting a part to suit their own ends. The sentiment which inspired our people in the war of the Revolution is dead, and the “full dinner pail” by the grace of Mark Hanna is the one and only end. That we who are responsible for the change will not be able to pass on to our children the free government we received from our fathers.
We do not take as gloomy a view of the matter as the able writer. It comes right on the heels of the election, and it has to a certain extent the sound of what is known as “cussing the court.”
We have watched the effect of this letter on the readers. The Democrats are delighted with it beyond measure even though it contains such dire forebodings, but the Republicans, bristle up as they read the arraignment until they fairly boil over.
CONCERNING THE SMALLPOX
Editor,
The present epidemic of smallpox is so mild (although presenting an alarming appearance) barely requiring medical attention, that I think the requirements of the law, based upon a more virulent complexion of the disease, should be modified accordingly, only requiring citizens who contract it to keep themselves apart, furnishing any needed help required, and in the case of foreigners, to segregate the cases, furnishing them an immune to look after and report any needed assistance, medical or otherwise; and getting the employers of labor to cooperate in proper precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. For the rest, the people should know that vaccination protects from smallpox and will be given free to them that are unable to procure it otherwise. There is no need of any panic.
John Ligon, M. D.
Pres. Board of Health
