Thursday, December 21, 1900
Col. John H. Popham, who was prominent in Highland and Bath affairs during reconstruction times, fell dead on a Richmond street Monday, December 3, 1900. It was several hours before he was identified.
The West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company has about finished the grading of the branch road which opens up the Cheat Wilderness country. The grade is pretty steep getting up the eastern exposure, but once on top, a railroad may be built almost anywhere. The ties are ready for the road, and the rails were at Ronceverte last week. The Cheat country around the head of Leather-bark is one of the best timbered sections in West Virginia. A great deal of the timber is spruce and the yield per acre will be enormous.
Congress may take off the stamp duty on checks and promissory bonds in reducing the tax. The nation paid more tax last year than in the 1860s when the war was going on.
Fifty cents will do a little shaver more good properly expended for Christmas than fifty dollars will after he grows up. The old folks had better go down into the treasury next week. We do not like to think of a bunch of little folks hanging up their stockings on a venture and finding them empty next morning.
Railroads in this State are allowed to regulate their passenger rates by the amount of money that they earn and the distance the ticket is sold for. The maximum for those railroads whose earnings are greatest for fifty miles or less is three and a half cents per mile, and for those whose earnings are least, five cents per mile.
A man gave us a 25-cent cigar the other day, and we sat down before the fire one evening after a day of drudgery and lighted it and began to smoke. We fell into a pleasant train of thought.
Unconsciously, as we smoked, we commenced to swell out and put on airs and felt like a railroad magnate. It is hard to describe the importance that we felt as we sat there not thinking of the unobtrusive cigar that was getting in its work. When the fire burned our fingers, we awoke with a start to find we had lived up to that cigar.
REGULAR TRAFFIC BEGINS
Monday, regular trains began to run on the new railroad. A train consisting of Engine 98 and two cars, a passenger coach and a combination passenger and baggage coach came up the line slightly behind time, having been delayed at Beaver Creek where a siding is being put in.
The depot agent for Marlinton, S. I. Fleshman, came up on the train and immediately took charge of the affairs. He set up a temporary office in the post office. By the aid of box cars, he expects to handle the freight at this point to the best possible advantage. Passenger rates are four cents a mile, a ticket from Marlinton to Ronceverte being $2.35.
An effort has been made to have the mail put on the train at once. The first train to leave Marlinton carried with it about 250 coloreds who had come down from Pitts camp at the head of the county. They filled the passenger coach and overflowed on the flat car behind, which was piled up with baggage. They were bound for the Sunny South. The white passengers had the smoker to themselves.
Mr. Fleshman, the new agent, comes from Backbone here. He is a Greenbrier man, having been raised in Frankford. About 17 years ago he carried the mail on the old stage line from Huntersville to Lewisburg. He is married and will make himself a home here as soon as convenient.
As soon as the carpenter force finishes the water tank on which it is now working, it will begin on the depot. It is rumored that we are to have a very fine slate covered depot, 40 x 132 feet…
