The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-04-14
Further Extracts from the wheeling
Repository.

Repository.
We have already given our readers
some extracts from a file Of old papers
loaned to Us by Mr., JAMES EWING, pub
lished in Wheeling Us lar back as 1907,
and known as tho Wheeling RepoGtory
Such q fle OF papers ought naturally to
be very interesting reading to those who
delight to go back and delve in the earth
for the small acorn out Of which the oak
has grown. Unfortunately, however, the
Repository was not much given to local
news, and the future historian Of Wheel
ing will, we fear, when he comes to rum.
age through these old files Tor material, be
forced to do as Sir WALTER sCorr did in
Scotland, or as DIEDRlCH KNICKERBoCK.
Err did in New York, invent a history to
suit himself. Although very small paper,
the Repository devotes much space to
literature, and to news from Europe and
distant points in our own country. Old
father ARMSTRONG was a diguiaed and,
very conservative and cautious man, and
did not lock upon local items as
worthy 10 occupy q space In his
select columns. In this be made
a mistake, as any one can plainly see
nova days. But those were not the days
Of live newspapers. The New York
dailles did not reach Wheeling in twenty.
four hours. We did not get the Cincin.
natl Commercial every evening. The
town was not full OF news depots where
apy kind Of apspcr, from Harper'S Week.
~ down to the Days IOings, could be had
for q few pennies. There was no library
room where tho leading dailies and the
principal magazines Of the country were
kept on file. On the contrary, newspapers
were rare and expensive. This little pa.
per, measuring ten by twelve inches, the
size Of common window pane, was sold
at two dollars per year, and two dollars
in thosc days Represented perhaps weeks
wages for q grown man. The stage
coaches did not run 10 Wheeling
in 1907; there was no National Road
as yet, and neither were there any
steamboats,. The mail facilities were
very poor and postage was expen-
sive Hence both newspapers and news
paper readers were not plenty. People
who could read and write did not abound
on every hand as they do now. The
Ward school boy Of those days was sim
ply "a potentially Oh the future" He
was the grandfather Of the present chap
who studies German and Algebra in thirty
thousand dollar school houses, while he
himself learned "readin, ritin' and 'rith-
metic" three months in the year in "log
house by tho hill side" Wheeling was a
frontier town in 1907. Ohio was q new
country, just opening up, and the river
that divided us from the great West was
like the Jordan that rolled between the
Ten Tribes on the one side aud the Two
Tribes on the other. The great bulk Of
population was upon one side, and pio-
neers bound for Ohio were Just as COM
mon as they have been for Iowa,
Wisconsin and Kansas in our own
day. Wheeling was village, and hardly
more important than West Liberty. In
deed the day was when goods were sold
at wholesale in Liberty 10 Wheeling mer.
chants strange as 1t may seem. Liberty
was once the Capital Of what Is now Ohio
and Marshall counties, and so feeble were
the pretenSions Of Wheeling even alter
she became the county seat that in 1907
it came near going to Moundsville. Mr.
ToMLINsoN, who settled Moundsville,
was wide awake man, and was after
Wheeling with sharp stick But for
PHILLIP DoDDRIDoE coming 10 our res
cue in the niche Of time, there was no tell
ing but that Nebuchadnezzar might have
carried our little town captive to Baby
Ion.
Coming back. to the dingy leaves Of the
little old Repository outspread before US,
VIC notice now and then In turning them
over, an article that reminds us very for.
chilly how wide is the gap that separates
the days that there were from those in
which we live. In the number dated 90.
tober 9Th, 1907, we read that
a@Ats meeting Of the citizens Of Ohio
county. Va, held at the Court House in
the town ol Wheeling on Saturday the
2@h oil August, 1907, agreeably to an in
vitatton previously given by Col. Moses
Chapline, for the purpose Of taking into
consideration the late dastardly attack
made by the British ship Leopard upon
the U. s. irigate Chesapeake, Col. Moses
Chapline was unanimously chosen Chair.
man, and Thomas Evans and Noah Zane
Secretaries. The business Of the meeting
was opened by the following address from
the Ohair:"
Then follows the speech Of COL CHAP.
LINE in regard to the character OF the
attack made on the Chesapeake; an at.
tack that every American school boy has
been accustomed to indlgnate over, and
that used to figure conspiCiously in ALT
tie book called 0lney's History Of the
United States. 1t seems very queer now
to,read oil it as present reality in paper
OF that day instead OF reading 1t as a mat.
ter OF history. The resolutions that were
adopted at the meeting are before us and
follow Col. CHArLlNE's speech, They
are full Of fight, and one Of them resolves
that the people Of Ohio county would
embrace war rather than submit to the