Thursday, August 10, 1899
The terrible drought was ended by fine rains last Sunday.
Uriah Hevener has sold his large tract of land near Linnwood for over $19,000.
William Hornbeck, of Valley Bend, was struck by lightning and killed July 22nd, while standing in his front door.
In some sections of Virginia, the drought has been so bad that all vegetation has burned up and the people are on strictly winter diet.
IN 1900
We have been taken to task by a number of men for criticizing Bryan in a way which reminds us how we got into trouble in 1893 by similar treasonable utterances concerning Grover Cleveland, with the same single-minded Democrats. Cleveland was even more of a popular idol then with the party than Bryan is now…
The party should reunite and the delegates to the National convention sent unfettered from an allegiance to any particular candidate or ism.
Bryan has laid himself open to criticism by his extreme views, by his dividing the people of this country into classes and endeavoring to array them against each other, and by other mistakes in his four years’ campaign. We believe that he will be defeated, if nominated… Many of Bryan’s admirers admit that it is expedient that a crown of thorns be pressed down on his brow for the good of the party.
BUILDING RAILROAD
The firm of Julian, Carzza and Co. commenced work on their section of the Greenbrier Railway last Saturday.
The writer went down to the river at Burnsides to see what was going on. Just where the road crosses the river the first camp is situated. It is a building 60 x 16 and separated into two compartments…
The contractors are natives of Italy, and Mr. Julian was found at the camp. He said he wanted teams and hands from this section if he could get them. The wages they offer are $1.25 for 10 hours’ work… They are preparing to build another camp or two on their section. A Baltimore firm, J. Levizi & Co., has two miles above their work. The seven miles extends from Isaac McNeel’s land to above the mouth of Stamping Creek…
The earth that was plowed up was being hauled and dumped to form the roadbed. The height of the fill gradually rose to make the road-bed perfectly level, the centre line of stakes gradually rising in height to indicate the height of the fill.
When one sees a gang of men picking at the mountainside for hours and making a hole hardly big enough to bury a horse in, he realizes something of the stupendous task it is to construct a railway.
THE WESTON ASYLUM
The charges of gross immorality preferred against the superintendent of the Weston hospital for the insane seem in a fair way to be substantiated. The affidavits of four of the female attendants of the hospital have been secured to the effect that Mr. Superintendent is a mulierose man with a great desire to violate the seventh commandment, and he is a married man with three children. If the charges against him be true, he should be relieved of his position as head of the greatest humane institution of the State. The affidavits mentioned seem to point to his early retirement into private life.
YELLOW FEVER
One of the most dangerous and dreaded diseases is yellow fever. Its occurrence at the Soldier’s Home at Hampton brings it close to us, and the main danger lies in the fact that when it was known that yellow fever had broken out, the people of the town of Phoebus, Hampton, Newport News and Old Point scattered to the four winds. The inmates of the Home are privileged old veterans who are abroad a great deal, and nearly all of them patronize the saloons. They belong to the indigent class, and it is an interesting coincidence that so many old veterans who have failed to provide for old age have been liquor drinkers. Nothing would be more natural than when the first chilliness and languor were felt for the old soldier to seek a stimulant and visit a saloon and spread the disease.
The section visited had a terrible scourge in 1855. One out of every three cases proved fatal… In the epidemic in Norfolk in 1855, not enough able bodied men were left to nurse the sick and bury the dead…