Thursday, June 3, 1878
A correspondent of the Wheeling Register, May 18th, speaks of an interview with Isaac Smith, a Wetzel County citizen, who has reached the ripe age of 110 years, having been born in Pocahontas County in 1788. He was in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, but says if his services are needed he is willing to report for duty in the pending war.
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The one hundred and twenty-second session at Hampden Sydney College, Prince Edward County, Virginia ends June 15, 1898. Hence, the first session must have closed in June 1776…
One hundred and twenty-eight students are enrolled in the current session… There are two students from Pocahontas, Messrs. J. A. Sydenstricker and J. S. Kennison; with twelve others from West Virginia. The names of the students represent many of the choicest people in the two Virginias.
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Even the proprietors of The Pocahontas Times have suffered by the advance of paper. This is due to three causes: the formation of a paper trust; more paper is consumed, there being more papers sold; and sulphur has been made a contraband of war. Sulphuric acid is a prime factor in the reducing of forest trees to pulp. Sulphur comes mainly from Sicily. It being a contraband of war has too many risks to run in passing through the Straits of Gibralter. There are sulphur mines in Louisiana and Nevada, but it takes a larger sum to produce it from American mines.
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Renick’s Valley is a peculiar town. It has three houses, all stores, and what is most peculiar is that each store seems to be a larger establishment than the one that used to be kept there. Falling Spring, the next place, has four stores, and claims to sell more goods than Lewisburg. The same set of fossils ornament the store porches. When passing to find these landmarks, if in the morning, look on a porch on the east of the road; in the evening, look to the west. They seek the shade, but are not what is generally known as shady characters.
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We must not fail to give the latest intelligence from J. W. Schisler, the keeper of one of the best wayside inns. He labors at a disadvantage of living at the top of Droop, as the air at that elevation makes a man ravenous. Schisler’s menu is all right in quantity and quality, and he is a public benefactor, as is every man who keeps a good hotel. He talks on all subjects from farming to philosophy. He has a famous raspberry patch; shows you the twin heifers, twenty-two months old, each of which has a fine bull calf, and his fish pond which has thousands of carp, some of which would weigh eight pounds.
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Harvey Francisco has erected a Memorial Chapel in honor of his venerated grandfather, C. L. Francisco, late of the Warm Springs. It is about three miles west of Warm Springs on the Huntersville road. It was to have been dedicated last Sabbath, May 29.
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Mrs. Minerva Beard, of Huntersville, is ill. Her son, Dr. Harry Beard, of Lewisburg, received a telegram Sunday evening about dark and rode to Huntersville that night.
WHO IS ‘UNCLE SAM?’
This query is suggested by the fact that no figure appears more frequently and conspicuously in the cartoons of the period than his, or whose name is ofterner repeated. Nothing seems to thrill the nerves or warm the blood like “Uncle Sam” and his favorite refrain, “Humanity, Patriotism and an Honorable Peace.” Uncle Sam is the metaphorical impersonation of all that is distinctively American. He is a part of all that he has ever met, as Tennyson would put it, “Hence, he is not Yankee, German, Irish, French, Hungarian, Slavic, Spanish, nor, which is best of all, English.
Uncle Sam is the genuine, cosmopolitan American, conglomerating and fusing into his make-up all nationalities and creeds, and hence he represents the stunning force of the physical and mental power of the civilized world at this period, the closing hours of the nineteenth century. He holds near his heart a flag that symbolizes the development of free thought and an unfettered conscience.
John Sherman, the old man eloquent of American politics, the Gladstone, so to speak, was about right when he said, “Spain threatens but doesn’t not mean to fight, England makes promises she does not mean to keep.”
Uncle Sam cannot afford to break his promises, for republics are founded on truth as the people understand it…
