Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-09-12
HUNTINGTON LETTER.
The COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS OF
SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA.
Miserable Mail ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of the
World lust Now-land Ahead,
However.

miles from Cincinnati, and further away
from the Queen City by mail than are
Pittsburg, Cleveland and Chicago, and
rs far away most OF the time as Kansas
City, Nashville or Memphis. The ter
minus OF a railroad to Cincinnati
nearest here is at Portsmouth. Mails
from Cincinnati destined Tor Hunting
ton and the Z. x y. X. X. TO
Richmond 90 over the NJ. < c. K. X. via
Hamden to Portsmouth and thence by
boats to Huntington and the Chesapeake
4 Ohio Railroad. Up river mail boats
leave Portsmouth daily for Huntington
One boat leaves an hour or two too
early to get the latest mail by rail, and
SO leaves il grow mellow in Portsmouth
several hours before going up the river
bv the next boat, and SO with No. ,.
The thing is managed so that each boat
must carry up the river a cold mail.
To make the matter still worse, these
little mail steamers often manage to ar
rive at Huntington too late for the &. *
o. train East, and so deposit Uncle
Sans letter bags for repose OF six or
eight hours in HuntingtOn-that is, un-
iii the next mail train departs East.
Huntington people are tiercely impati-
ent of this state OF things, and though
they have sent up a procession OF hOwls
10 headquarters on the subject, ne'er a
howl has brought a response. IL Uncle
sam were only calaboosed an hour IN
Huntington, and had the scolds turned
loose on him for an hour, I'm sure he'd
improve the first train for Washington
to mend matters with all possible haste.
The Huntington people obey the laws
and pay subsequently, revenue
taxes. What can they have done to
merit this neglect? The two little
steamers run with reference to trade,
and their reuenue from carrying the
mails is too small to justify running in
any other manner.
Does anybody want to know what eX-
cuSe the town or city OF Huntington has
for existing? Well, 5000 people live,
love, and help each other and the rest
of mankind in that corporation. Ii was
a farm not many years ago, with the
West Virginia Normal School editice in
the background. I'll make break in
nv story here to say that West virginia
OF to-day Is stepmother To her State
Normal school. She has withdrawn her
support from ii and left II to SHIFT for IT
self
Ii isn't news to the intelligent that
Huntington is the present western ter
minus of the G.. X o. K. K. IL is some
thing to be that, and that is what Hunt
ington Is. She is mOre-namely, the
seat and site of the ear wheel and car
shops OF the said G. 4 o. Il. Il. But
this isn't the whole story, for she is des-
tined to be the site OF all the shops OF
the railroad aforesaid. Now these pres
ent shops employ 800 skilled wOrkmen,
men of brains and aspirations. Alter
awhile. not lar in the future, this 800
men will be 1000 or 100, and then
Huntington must have population OF
1000 people. The G.. & %. K. X. will
force an outlet south and west, and Is
hoping To get one within eighteen
months by connection 20 Mt. Sterling,
Nv. How they would like track down
alongside the Ohio River to Cincinnati,
The idea Oi such an enterprise dOeSn I
please river men-but il would II every
mans foresight was "as good as his
hindsight" quoting the expression OF
the cOlorrd preacherl, Tor then they
would see that business all along the
line would be SO intensified as to give
the river more then than at present.
Huntington now is a town OF stores
and shops and the dwelling place of
merchants, bankers, railrOaders, river
men, and mechanics. Don't turn up
your nose at the term merchant applied
10 business man in this now insulated
town Just think OF a wholesale grocery
firm in Galllpolis selling $50, 200 worth
ofgrocerieS last vear, and at least one firm
i'm Huntington in fair way TO do some
thing Of the kind this year, with still
brighter future ahead and visible 10 the
naked eyel The two hotels, owned by
one man. are always crowded, so long,
at least. aS Capt HOnShel's splendid
line Of steamers can ply the Ohio, con-
Meeting Cincinnati with the terminus of
the G. * q. II. r., and thanks tomodern
genius and enterprise, only the Ice OF
winter can prevent hat, and for but
few months.
One dav dropped down to the wharf
boat Ia see what was loading from the
freight depot onto the Chesapeake
steamer. and bound for Cincinnati.
There were bales of jute, destined for
It. Louis for making paper. Somebody
st the freight depot observed, with a
wholesome dread of the yellow fever,
and warm advocacy of a plenipoten-
tiary national board of health: These
bales have been quarantined and dlSln-
fected." | suspected he meant praC-
teal Joke, for several strangers were
present on the same errand as myself,
and one of them, a good looking, elderly
gentleman from Louisville, suddenly
dropped a TUT OF jute be had been in
speeding and made il a prudence TO
withdraw upon the first opportunity.
But there was tObaccO-whew, what a
cargo of plug. and how the packages
shOne with the gaudy colOrs OF the chro-
mo hthographer-the artist in the ser
vice of commerce! There, too, were
several awful big chunks OF real Yankee
granite coming all the way round Robin
Hoods basin, by the way of the classical
VALLEY of Virginia" to find dealer IN
Milwaukee, and finally to stand as
monument of the living for the dead in
some prairie graveyard on the shores OF
Lake Michigan. To one with a taste in
that direction it is interesting To watch
and study the currents, and their flow
i'm the channels of trade. The EIst has
been, and still is, the storehouse and
the shopping place for the West. The
West has been and now is more than
ever before the back garden for the
East. The flow of eatables is eastward;
that of luxuries, and of articles that
don't grow out OF the ground is west