Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-02-13
Local
Along the Line Of the G. & o. Road.

Along the Line Of the G. & 0. Road.
THE COAL MISREPRESENTATION OF THE
GOVERNMENT wORKs-NEw TOWN,
&C., &C.. sc. +
Correspondence of the staunton VINDIcAToR-]
BLACKsBURG, w. VA.
February, 10th, 1880.
Since l wrote YOU last week have NOV
ed westward $50 miles, and opposite Mr..
Charles Hoge's store, where L am now
writing, the mile post marks $50 miles
from Richmond. That makes it 220 from
Stanton, but the news boy as he passes
throws us VINDICATOR which is hardly
dry. and we read the home news before
you can send it ten miles out in the coun-
ty. Although the majority Of the popu
lation of this most appropriately named
place, are under the ground half the time
and the rest of them look as if they had
just come out, Except Sunday, they are
by no means out of the world. Shrieking
and rumbllng trains rush by day and night
regardless of hours, and whether. one is
watching for them or in the middle of a
yarn or half way through nice dream
with snoring accompaniment, it makes
no difference, you've got to be ready, stop
talking or turn over and growl all the
same. Then just back Of the house, rolls
the Great Kanawha, as blue as the sky
that hangs over it, and twice every morn
ing and twice every evening the splash OF
paddles and the hoarse boat whistle, an
nounces that the ''Modoc'' or the "Wild
Goose is passing and at odd times the
s.Lame Duck all willing to stop and take
on any thing from passenger or barrel
OF flour to letter or box of matches Any
way we are right IN The world down here,
and the children are educated. To prove
it, the yellow boy Henry, just out Of the
mines. the other day after helping drum
mer off the cars with his trunk and re-
ceiving bright one cent piece. upon care
fully examining it handed it back saying,
81 can't change it, SIR
The gentlemen who run the business at
these works are known to many of your
readers, Messrs. Mason. Hoge Dc Mason
propriet tors, assisted by Messrs. Jos. &.
Hubbard of Richmond. W. M. Talley, D..
M. Henson and Chas. e. Henson of Louisa
and TAYLOR G.. Hoge of Staunton. The
store does a fine business and the supply of
cars is not sufficient to meet the demand
for coal which is ready faster than it can
be shipped. Since I was last here the pro-
prietors have opened new mine up the
mountain side and opened up seam OF
coal which is growing in popularity as fast
lit is becoming known. It burns like old
Virginia lightwood as several stauntoh
householders who are using it will testify.
GOVERNMENT WORKS.
Yesterday evening went two miles up
the river to see the government works al
Enterprise. That is just about the Invest
mace on the G. & road, leaving the large
towns out. Five hundred hands are at
work there getting out stone from the
mountain, hauling it down to the river,
dressing it and building a lock and dam to
improve the navigation OF the Kanawha.
The granite is quarried high up on the
side of the mountain, lifted out by derrlcks
after it has been opened, blasted, then
hauled by horses on strong flats running
on narrow railway to the head OF an In
cline. where the brakemen take charge OF
the cars and grav1tation carries them
winding down the mountain and to the
river bank where they are unloaded and
the blocks handed over to the stone cut
tiers who shape them for the work. MI.
N. A. Baillie is the Superintendent of the
work. He is getting along well with 1t
and expects to have it completed by fall
This is one of the six locks ordered by con
press to be placed in the Kanawha River
between Cannelton and st. Adams, TO-
wards which $3.50, 900 has been approprla-
ted and for the completion of which a sui
hcient sum is promised.
While the advantages to this valley can
hardly be estimated. the expenditure OF SO
much money among the people here at this
particular time is most opportune. MT
Baillie tells me that he pays out from ~,
600 to SIS, 1000 a month in gold and silver
tn the laborers, who are mostly from the
surrounding counties. The ordinary Ia
horers get 121 cents an hour, the stone
enters q cents, and he pays 30 cents al
beur for be horses which are hired from
the ne,obb, ring farmers. Every twenty
workmen are entitled to boy to bring wa
for and RIM ezra uds for them. and they ge
five cents an hour. ALI are paid off regu
Iarly once every me nth and board and tlnt
themselves. The fin. ling is very convent
ent, as there are two " Nhe i2St appor
toned country stores III the place tnat
have seen, Messrs. Go och SHoseoa sS'aun
ton, who have recently open so s'lo aae ~. ~
ing good cash business, and ME- o. u
Jones, who is an older resident, ~ ana sol'
as much as $500 month last season.
Pretty much all the business done mere !!
cash, which is safe and satisfactory 20 oil
ENTERPRISE.
Enterprise" though a young town keeps
up with the age. Last Thursday the place
was all agog over an elopement. The Dung
and pretty wife of ''Doc" Vance, former
ly of the White Sulphur Springs. after Sit
ting up all night working on travelling
dress (which she misrepresented to doc
as being work for another party,) left on
the sunrise boat. il few hours later. MT
Williams, who had left his wife and chill
dred in Ohio, followed Mrs Vance by raj
to Charleston, where they disappeared to
eether, and the next morning the bereav
cd "Docn set out in pursuit of his wife but
at the latest accounts had been unsuccess
full in his search.
FATAL ACCIDENT.
Last Saturday morning Def ore Gay,
brakeman named Joe Dempsy, was kline