Thursday, January 3, 1901
HIS THEORY
Sometimes children show an instinctive sense of the finer relations of moral obligations that is surprising. The subtle analysis is given at the most unexpected moments and under circumstances that we had never anticipated; especially from them.
On such occasions, we are more than inclined to believe with Wordsworth that “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: and that the little ones have yet some of the truer impressions left over from the other side of existence.
An example of this kind was brought to notice the other day, when a boy was reciting his catechism with reference to the duty a child owed respectively to his parents. When he came to the part of the Ten Commandments that says: “Honor thy father and thy mother,” he paused a little, and then said:
“But you must honor your mother more than your father.”
“Why, how is that, Harold?” inquired his teacher.
“Oh, ‘cause your father is related to you only by marriage, but your mother is related to you by bornation.”
ACT OF A LUNATIC
John Beard, of the Levels, shot and killed Jim Phillips at his home on Droop Mountain last Saturday. Beard was an inmate of the Weston Insane Asylum for some years but was discharged. He has been acting strangely of late, and came very nearly shooting his brother, Hugh. A warrant for lunacy was taken out and was in the hands of the officer when the tragedy occurred.
He armed himself with a 32 caliber Winchester rifle and went in the direction of Hills Creek. When he reached the top of Droop Mountain he turned and walked along the crest of the mountain to Jim Phillips’ home. He lived on the McClure Place on the Marlinton and Lewisburg Turnpike. Arriving there, he asked for Phillips and was told that he was hauling fodder. Beard went in search of him but missed seeing him. Coming back, he called Phillips out of the house. Phillips’ wife and daughter cautioned him that Beard was looking wild and put a revolver in his pocket. When he came up to Beard, the latter asked him to walk up the road with him a little way as he had something to tell him. Phillips must have seen that something was wrong and refused and he tried to get Beard to go away. Beard attempted to enter through the gate and was opposed by Phillips. While struggling with the gate Beard shot and killed him.
After the shooting Beard went home and ate his supper and went to bed as if nothing had happened. He was taken while asleep and seemed to have no recollection of the occurrence. He said he had not seen Phillips for two weeks. He was brought to jail by special officers C. P. Dunlap and Henry Payne.
The insane man is a son of W. W. Beard, one of the leading men of the county, who has a fine plantation at the foot of Droop Mountain in the Levels. The slain man had been a tenant of his, but some time since had moved. He is about 50 years of age. The killing was witnessed by Phillips’ wife and daughter.
The prisoner was adjudged a lunatic by Justice Curry under the ordinary proceedings. He is about 30 years of age.
TERRIFIC EXPLOSION
Last Thursday, 13 Austrian laborers, working on the Coal & Iron Railroad, for Walton, Petrell, Mooman & Co. sat around a fire near their work eating a lunch. The men were thawing out dynamite and had 60 sticks around the fire.
One of them remarked, “This fire is not burning well; I will make it burn,” and he put on a stick of dynamite. Another one said. “I will make it burn better,” and he rammed the dynamite into the fire further and caused the explosion.
Three were killed instantly and three died immediately afterwards. Three of the remaining seven were expected to die. All that were around the fire were either killed or so badly hurt that the above is all the information that can be had of the immediate cause of the explosion.
The scene of the explosion was one and a quarter mile above Durbin on the West Fork of the Greenbrier River. Justice Gillespie held an inquest, and the jury rendered a verdict in accordance with the facts. The unfortunate men were buried near Durbin.
The accident recalls the old superstition about 13 persons eating together.
VACCINATION
The smallpox situation in Greenbrier on the head of Spring Creek is said to be distressing. The disease has entered a neighborhood where there is a great prejudice against vaccination, and the people are not only sick from the disease, but many are destitute of the common necessities of life. We cannot see why there should be such a deep-rooted prejudice against vaccination. If you want a sore arm and a short sick spell, you can get it from the ivory points which will leave cicatrix for life, and you will be protected and save yourself from being a factor in the spread of the disease…
Vaccination has become so general in the county that smallpox is practically driven out with the exception of some cases on Droop Mountain.
WEDDING
Last Wednesday evening at 5 o’clock, the pretty wedding of Frank Raymond Hill and Miss Delia Howe Edgar was celebrated at “Mount Airy,” the beautiful home of the bride’s father on one of the magnificent farms of the Little Levels of Pocahontas.
The bride is the eldest daughter of Capt. and Mr. Alfred M. Edgar and granddaughter of the late Paul McNeel.
