Thursday, December 8, 1898
Old man Lawson has a pet mud turtle, which got froze stiff as a board last week; but after a night in the trough, Mr. Snapper returned to life again, and now luxuriates under the stove. He says a snapping turtle is the only thing that can get frozen solid and be thawed out again.
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We hope that football will soon be revived in this section. It is a noble game, which helps to stiffen the manhood of the people – a thing which constant rounds of stove warming and preaching will never succeed in accomplishing.
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A “horny-handed son of toil” gave a dinner party on “Guy Fawkes’ Day” at which several select brands of tinned soup put in an appearance. Unfortunately, the labels had got lost in the boiling, and the guests did not know if they were eating “mock turtle soup” or “chicken gum-boots!” We are glad to state that no one was poisoned, and all we can say is that the “Consommé Soup” was, at any rate, “consumed soup” – all o. k. at the end of the festival. Moral: Don’t mix the soups!
ACADEMY VS BUCKEYE
The Hillsboro Academy and the Buckeye Athletic Club football teams met in an exciting match last Saturday, and the Academy won by a score of 2-0. The day was very muggy and the ground muddy, and altho the players were soon wet and covered with mud, they played with great snap and dash. The large crowd on the sidelines could not be kept off the field, and so interfered with the players at times. A number of ladies witnessed the game, and their presence, no doubt, helped to animate the home team to those great feats of valor, which were being constantly displayed…
Buckeye players: G. D. McNeill, Captain; Harper Adkison, G. Jackson, Charley Young, J. Pennell, C. Armstrong, Geo. Duncan, George Kellison, Lete Young, D. T. McNeill, Winters McNeill.
Hillsboro players: J. H. Bird, Paul Smith, Charley Eskridge, Marion Burr, Lee Ruckman, Burley Williams, Yancy Ligon, H. Hannah, Frank Gladwell, Snoden Hogsett, Seymour Gladwell.
Norman R. Price, Umpire
J. W. Yeager, Referee
John Buckley and Professor J. W. Baxter, Linesmen
THE POSTMASTER
With that class of fortunate mortals who are favored with the sine care of a government office, and who handle our mail for a compensation, and are continually on their good behavior to save their official bonds and retain their office with its emoluments, this article has nothing to do. He is familiar to most of us. His natural worth, and his labors for his party, together with circumstance, has elevated him to a desirable situation, and he is forever balancing accounts, studying the Postal Laws and Regulations, taking care to keep down the percent of mistakes; selling stamps; postmarking letters by beating a tattoo; and locking himself up in his little postmaster’s castle to “change the mail,” and then handing forth the letters with their messages of love, hate or business, and all of them mysterious. That is the typical village post officer.
The post office at Last-chance was not so elaborate an affair. It had its home and official existence in Hugh Bradley’s sitting room, and all the mail received and the paraphernalia of the office was to be found on a shelf nailed against the wall. The office had been established to accommodate the farmers living in a fertile valley and on the adjacent mountains.
The mail arrived three times a week. Then the contents of the mailbag were emptied on the floor before the fireplace, and old Hugh, who had been postmaster since the memory of man, ran not to the contrary, (if that abstruse statement is permissible), would scrutinize each piece and pile it all tight again on the shelf, and place what mail there was in the bag for the return journey.
BIRTH AND DEATH RATES
The population of Pocahontas county in 1890 was 6,814. The natural increase of population is about 140. It is believed that in regard to persons moving in and out, the county has about held its own, or if anything, gained in numbers by it. But taking the natural increase of population, the county should have 7,934 people in it today. In round numbers, 8,000.
The birth and death rates have not been compiled for 1898. In 1897, 185 children were born. White, 178; colored, 7; males, 101; females, 84; born alive, 177. In the three largest districts, the honors were about even. Green Bank 52. Edray 52. Levels 51.
Deaths in 1897: males 16; females 20. Under the age of ten, 10; between the ages of 10 and ninety-six, 26. Average of adults, 54 years.
The death rate in Pocahontas is remarkably low. When the returns of the 1890 census were sent in from this county, this low death rate was noticed…