The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1880-01-07
1850.

| ~ 100Os 4
This is our first issue in the New
year, and it is the time when new
resolutions, are made, and old scores
forgotten, and a new beginning is
made by everybody. For a hundred
years and more, Point Pleasant has
been kept down, and her progress
has been slow. Cities and towns on
the Ohio, counting their inhabitants
by. the thousands, and their manu-
featuring establishments by the hun
dreda, and their railroads by the doz-
ems, have sprung up since Point
Pleasant was laid out and proclaim
ed town, and to-day it is doubtful
if we can claim to have a thousand
bona fde inhabitants. We have no
manufacturing establishments to
speak Of, no more than can be found
in almost any country village, of a
halfa hundred people.
A few years ago the town took a
stride forward, and all had hopes that
THE place would go ahead. But she
has settled back, and she has been
cast down; her people have lost
heart, her business men have gone
along in u slip-shod sort of fashion,
trusting in the future for something
to turn up" hoping for the. best, but
with gloomy countenances, as if there
was no better future for them. In
the beginning of 1880 things look a
little brighter. We have never been
of those who believed Point Pleasant
had seen her best days, but on the
contrary have belieyed.she would yet
bloom out as a large city, and our
faith is stronger to-day than ever
Our town has bright future in store
for her, only let us be up and doing
We believe that now her citizens
feel the life.blood stirring. To be
sure it is slow, but it is stirring. 1t
no longer lies like some stagnapt
pool under July sun. The evil
dences of prosperity are showing
themselves. She has broken the coils
Of the monster that SO long held her
down and has determined to see some
Of the outside world for herself,
through her own spectacles and not
through another's, if we are to be-
lieve the rumor Of enterprises that is
now current and freely talked Of in
our midst. Another thing that has
kept us back, and retarded our prog
ress to a very great extent, is the
spirit of fanaticism possessed by some
of our citizens, and their attempt to
control the morals as well as the APP
petitites Of all who reside in our
midst, by which means the honest
German and other people of foreign
birth, have been prevented from set
Ting amongst US. The other is the
lack of enterprise on the part Of our
monied men. Thus after hundred
years of fighting foes within and foes
/ without. step by step, those who are
determined TO e; and to build up the
town, are becoming Vie Hictors, and
the outside world is being lei in to
behold the advantages the town pos.
sesses for making money, without
having it doled out in pennies. If
we do right, men of other sections
will seek homes among US, and in.
vest their capital here, which will all
tend to build up our town and in
crease its wealth. Two railroads are
talked of to this point, the first from
Scary down the Valley to connect the
Railroad at Gallipolis, and the other
direct from Washington City, to this
point, and known as the Washing.
ton and Ohio Rrailroad; and with the
chances of the Pittsburgh, Wheeling
and Kentucky road passing our doors
within the next few years. Many
hundreds of dollars is invested in
real estate here that is paying but a
small return to the owners. Our la
Dor is not all employed, and to make
this real estate profitable, and to
give employment to labor, we must
give aid to every and any enterprise
that is calculated to help the town
and the people. We have the nat
ural resources to make this place one
of the grandest manufacturing towns