Thursday, April 9, 1897
APRIL, derived from the Latin word aperio – to open. With the coming of April, Mother Earth opens wide her portals sending forth her riches. I am opening up my goods, and will have them ready by Court to show you. I invite you to come and look at the goods. P. GOLDEN
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WE learn from our exchanges that three West Virginia towns have, through their councils, passed curfew regulations, going into effect March 22. From April 1 to October 1, the courthouse bells are to be rung at 9 in the evening, and the other months at 8.
The parent or guardian of any youth, male or female, that may be found on the streets will be fined five dollars for the first offense and twenty dollars for each subsequent offense. These fortunate towns are Union, Buck- hannon and Hinton. As moral ties relax, the necessity for stringent measures becomes needful for the protection of society from the hoodlum-ism of the times.
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A BAND of outlaws has been discovered at Montgomery. Several have been arrested and are now in jail. The details are so numerous that we forbear going into particulars. We would as soon send samples from a pole cat nest into the families that read THE TIMES as to repeat the doings of these detestable characters. A community that will tolerate saloons, gaudy, strange housekeepers and parties versed in the pasteboard history of the four Kings, as has been the case in Montgom-ery, need not wonder at the happenings of things that Satan himself is too nice to be caught at.
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THEY have a strange way of saying things in Tennessee. An editor received intelligence concerning the demise of a subscriber and thus comments upon the occurrence:
“Crockett Floods died last night owing this paper for ten years’ of subscriptions. It is reported that he said, just before he pegged out, that he felt like he was floating upward. No doubt of it. Crock had got so low down that he had to slide uphill to get into perdition.”
YELK
We are having lots of cold weather and plenty of snow. It looks favorable for sugar making again. The people have laid their plows by until spring comes again.
H. B. Sharp, Silas Sharp, Willie Morgan and Charles McCoy killed some fine trout last week.
L. D. Sharp says he is not quite able to whip Fitzsimmons yet – it’s a girl.
John Slanker, an old and estimable citizen of Linwood, was thrown from his horse last week.
Levi Gibson had his ears laid back Sunday. He went somewhere.
People on Elk will soon peel off – the ramps are up.
A man from Upshur County went over Gauley hunting a deer hide. He wanted it to patch his horse so it would last until money gets plenty.
Dr. Griffin has gone into the mill business.
Frank Gibson has been putting cream on his face for the cats to lick!
THE WEEKLY LETTER
Somebody suggested that when I was casting about for some new thing to thrust upon an unwilling public, to write about our Greenbrier river. It may be that I have mentioned this noble stream in these columns before, but perhaps the stream has never been immortalized in “The Weekly Letter,” so, O, river, of thee I sing; and, as a member of the legislature of Rome said, “flumen orationis aureum” (a golden tide of words) is now in order.
The apostrophe to our beautiful river must be written by another hand than mine. All I know to say in praise of our beautiful river is that I verily believe it is the finest stream in the world, with clearest, purest, coldest water, flowing thro the most magnificent mountain scenery.
There be some that say the river drains the county, taking out always and bringing nothing in, but we can hardly imagine our county without the Greenbrier. People of little counties may marvel when we claim over seventy miles of river frontage in one stream, and that not counting the winding or meandering of the same.
We have all seen it when its tide was so low with drought that the wayfaring man could pass over dry shod; and again, at another season, when the horseback rider could hardly choose a day for weeks at a time when he could ford this silent and swift flowing stream.
To the river the county owes its lumbering operations, which have been carried on so extensively in the past fifteen or twenty years, and which has led a good many men to become pilots on the river. These men undertake the dangerous work of rafting on a swift and rocky river; and from one of the most successful river men, I learned the other day the names of the various points on the river by which they can locate any occurrence on a trip to the C & O Railway. Those as remembered, given below, show a considerable wealth of language, and many of the names have, probably, never been recorded before.
These points starting at the head of navigation, about forty miles above Marlinton, to Ronceverte are about as follows:
Starting at Peter’s Landing on Back Alleghany, we come to Cunningham Rapids, the Whirlpool, Hevener’s Landing, Cassell Island, Lakin Island – this took its name from one of the very few mishaps of that old river man, Captain Lakin, who was quartered on it a day and a night after a wreck. Then to Leatherbark, Al Galford’s Ford, Deer Creek Islands, Ray’s Eddy, Stony Bottom, MacCalpin’s Islands, Beaver Pond, Clover Creek, Malcomb Eddy, Johnson Eddy, Bridger Place, Harper Eddy, Friel’s Crossing, Thorny Creek, ?, ?, ?, ?, (unable to read), Marlin Ford, Josh Kee Towhead, Duncan Rocks, Buckley Ford, Beaver Creek Islands, Cathole (a famous swirl), Smith’s Dam, Stamping Creek Towhead, Sister Rocks, Denning Landing, Breakneck, Side Suck Bend, Copperhead Rock, Perkin’s Towhead, Spice Run Bend, Davy Run Rapids, Glen Rocks, Black Pond Island, McClure Rocks, Pine Island, Bird’s Dam, Gamer’s Fields, Falling Spring Bridge, Jimison’s, Bush Islands, Horseshoe Bend, Miller’s Eddy, Tumbling Rocks, Three Island Ford, Free Bridge, Callison Islands, Slippery Ford, Dry Prong, Keisler’s Landing, Blankenship’s, Huff Dam, Side Suck on the Right, Sliding Bend, Bore’s Landing, Suck Lick Islands, Hickory Top, Chestnut Island, Caldwell Pond, Stone House Island, Cat Rocks (end of drive), Caldwell Bridge, Splash Dam, Iron Bridge, Head of Piers, Ronceverte…
To be continued…
