Thursday, January 31, 1901
On Tuesday evening, January 22, Queen Victoria passed quietly away, leaving a whole world in tears. There has not been a death in the history of the human race more sincerely and widely lamented than hers, and whose results may have been more sensible felt in shaping the trend of human history in any of the past centuries unless it was that of Julius Caesar.
The most thoughtful people of the day seem “dumb with silence,” feeling that in a peculiar sense God appears to be asserting himself in this grand and awful time in which we are living and dwelling. In his day, Caesar was the foremost man of all the world, and in her day, the Empress Victoria was the foremost woman. It seems to the writer that the best that anyone can now do is to hope for the best, yet endeavor to be prepared to see and hear of some of the most wonderful things that have ever yet happened in the history of human affairs. W. T. P.
CASS
What’s the matter with Cass?
Why, nothing at all.
We have not as yet given an account of ourselves, having forgotten that the outside world might derive some benefit from a little news. Our town is still on the increase, although little effort will be made in that direction until spring. Though no open demonstration was made on the day the railroad reached us, our people were none the less glad. The sound of the chime whistle on C&O engine 84 is music to every ear. We look forward to the inauguration of passenger service which will give us an outlet preferable by far to that which leads over Cheat Mountain and will also give us U. S. postal service.
The West Virginia Spruce Lumber Co. is making rapid strides toward the timberland. Their camp on Cheat is nearing completion and E. P. Shaffer, the superintendent expects to ship pulpwood to the Covington mill by February 1. Good weather is of course essential to accomplish this. The track on the Greenbrier and Elk River Railroad has been laid for nearly four miles which puts it above Whitaker Run.
Messrs. David Luke, Thomas Luke and Judge Moore, of the Pulp Co., arrived in town Wednesday. Thursday morning was spent inspecting the G & E RR, and the evening at the home of Harry Moore at Dunmore.
The Pocahontas Supply Co. has completed a large warehouse for the handling of hay, grain and coal. They will shortly enlarge their present store to accommodate increased trade.
The first sermon in the history of Cass was delivered by Rev. Henry McLaughlin on Sunday. Those present numbered about sixty.
One death has occurred near town. A horse owned by Pete Dougan, the masonry contractor expired Sunday night, not for want of breath, as a wag would put it, but for want of food.
THE SMOKING BILL
While at home last week from the Legislature, Mr. McClintic informed his friends that he did not introduce the bill to prohibit smoking, swearing and loud talking in public places, but that the same was introduced by the Rev. McClure, a republican delegate from the northern part of the state who is somewhat indignant that his bill should be reported as the work of another man.
There is another reason that the bill should have been attributed to the delegate from this county among his acquaintances, for it is well known that he does not use tobacco in any form and like James I, considers its use as a “custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
TERRIBLE TEDDY
Davenport, the cartoonist, is giving a good series of cartoons illustrating some of the terrible combats Theodore Roosevelt is having with the wild beasts of the Rocky Mountains. There, Terrible Teddy, who is soon to be known as the Grizzly Slayer, is causing a holocaust among the wild beasts of those regions, killing grizzlies single handed and unarmed because it is more strenuous than to use weapons.
A man on a street corner in Marlinton stated the other day that he had had a letter from a cousin in Colorado who stated that the state had been compelled to take bounty off the scalps of mountain lions, grizzlies and wolves since Teddy arrived, to keep the state from being bankrupted. Also, that Roosevelt was causing much complaint along the valley of the Hawala where the mountain lions have been reduced to captivity and trained as draft animals. When not at work, the animals are unyoked and turned out to hunt for their meals. Terrible Teddy recently passed over the valley and killed nearly all these work oxen. There is talk about having him prosecuted.
THE MYSTERIES OF THE ALPHABET
A little Marlinton girl, not quite three-years-old, was learning her letters, acquiring a speaking acquaintance with a new letter every day. When she finally got to “U” her mother told her, “That is U.” Nothing more was said until the next day, when her mamma pointed to “U” and asked what letter it was. The reply came quick as a flash. “Dat is Me, Mamma.”
