Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-01-12
STATE TOPICS.
Facts and Opinions from Our WASH
ington Correspondent.
Redistricting the State-weighty Opinions
Against Haste in the Matter-Ihe
Christiancy Divoce-Depart-
ment Clerks and their
Characters.
W. P. & c. RAILROAD PROSPECTS.
RetiistricfinE the State.
Ny,eriJI Ia The Refyifpr

Senator Vest, Proctor Knott, Col. Ben Will
son and other Democratic members OF the
House and Senate advised against the Con-
gressional redistricting of the Congression-
al districts of West Virginia in advance OF
the new apportionmeut of members now
under consideration by Congress. They
reason that while prospective law taking
effect in the future is not uncommon, and
is indispensable in numerous cases, q
distinction may be made between prospec-
tive laws that become operative by the
mere lapse Of time and those which are
based upon the presumptiye action OF other
law making bodies. The validity OF such q
law, too, would be passed upon by the
House; and, in plain English, these gen.
tlemen fear that if any room is
left on which to hang doubt the Repub-
lican majority, If there should be one, will
take advantage of it and throw any Demo
Gratis elected under an alleged premature
redstricting law, out OF the window. They
say the probabilities are that the new ap-
portionment will be made by Congress be-
fore the end of the coming session Of the
West Virginia Legislature, but that If such
is not the case, il would be better to have
Governor Jackson reconvenc the Legisla-
ture later than run any risk in the matter.
For my own part, l think the Legislature
is not going to be helped by the timely ac-
ton of Congress. There are too many plans
of apportionment proposed, and each one
has too many active adhcrents and adyo-
Gates, to permit Of an early settlement as
TO which shall prevail and the probabilities
are that the decision will not be reached
for several months to come.
Gen. Zoe johnson
has finally set at rest the story Of jeff Davis
getting away with the cash balance OF the
Confederacy Frank Burr, who used to
|. live at Martinsburg, and who once ran for
| Congress in the Second district, gets credit
for starting the story which first appeared
| in the Philadelphia Press, in the shape OF
an interview. Johnson claims that he
never said anything like the remarks i'm
puted to him, but then good many men
never knows what they do say until they
| see it in print, and then II looks so much
stronger than it sounded, that they get
| frightened and disown il. | had occasion
|
Gently, who did not talR more than fifty
words to the minute, aud between whose
sentences you could lie down and take q
| nap, and vet when his remarks appeared
| rerb1tinl ef HtcTdtin, he said he never uttered
them, and did not think anybOdy ever had.
| Ii is things like these which blight the lives
| of newspaper reporters, and change them
from philanthropists to misanthropes.
AWesi Yirginian's Haul.
| Speaking OF people who got something in
| the windup of the Confedcracy, the only
| reputed gamer by that collapse ever heard
| of, who never took the trouble to deny the
| assertion, was West Nirgnian, old Jona-
| than Raymond, formerly of Marion county
and relation of the present Judge Hay
| mond OF FairmOnt. Jonathan, who was
| quartermaster or something OF that kind IN
| the Southern army, had about $1,000 in
coin put into his hands to go and buy cat
1 tie in Texs.SS;, ;.vvut rnr civsc or the war,
! and finding the Confederacy bursting up
behind him, he kept on going and never
stopped until he landed in Mexico with
| $1,000 There he bought coffee planta-
ton, and as the nursery tale goes, 'he lived
in grease and died in peace and went to
heaven in warming pan.
The Christianry Divorce Case
comes TO the surface every few days on a
motion of some kind the last being a re-
quest for depositions of some of the Chris
tiancy family in Michigan. Charley Cole,
who used 10 be prominent attorney in
| Parkersburg, and who now has q good busi-
! ness here is associated with W. A. Cook as
counsel for Mrs. ChristianCy, and the prin-
4 cipal attorney for the ex-senator isa cousin
Of Bob Ingersoll's, who does not seem TO
have much of Bob's push and brightness.
4 To this trial and its discussiOn-is attributa-
| BILE a good deal Of the recent impression
prevailing TO the disadvantage of the class
| from which Mrs. ChriStiancy came, aud yet
there would be as much justice in rating
the legal fraternity by Guiteau, who was n
1 member of the bar as in holding female
department clerks responsible for Mrs.
| Christiancy's errors. The iacts seem to be
that chit OF q girl, the daughter OF re-
I spectacle German family, but with very
| little brains, discretion or refinement Of
| her own, married
An Ancient Curmudgeon
old enough to be her grandfather, and whose
meanness was only equalled by his antiqui-
ty, and the result would have been just the
| same il he had married her out of Sunday
School instead Of the Treasury Department
! Ii is admitted that there are some lven-
turesses in all departments, who neither
need nor deserve their places, but to con-
| denim the whole for small minority is abb
surd. Some Of the brightest and best wo-
men in Washington are TO be found in these
places. Mrs. Stephen A. Douglass was once
! treasury clerk. So were the wives Of
Gov. Chamberlain, Gen. Tyner, Cow Fair
child, and Attorney General Brewster. Mrs.
Pettigrew King and Mrs. Hoxie and the
widow OF ex.Goy. Ford OF Ohio came from
the postoffice department, and now, rs re-
cent writer in the RSpubiiGputs il, nowhere
in Washington can better, purer, more
deserving class OF women be found than
those who compose the great majority n
clerks in the services of the government.
The W. p. d G. Railroad.
Col. Selse Chancellor and George Thomp-
son. Of Parkersburg, we're here, yesterday,
consulting with Senator Camden, concern
ing the Wheeling, Parkersburg and Charles
ton road. They say the inclement weather
has interfered somewhat with the progress
of the surveying and right OF way parties:
but that the work goes on as rapidly aud
as satisfactorily as could be expected.
| Most of the facts shown by the survey were
contained in the recently published report
| of the Engineer but Mr.. Thompson said 70
me that in travelling over the line the esti-
mates, especially in the matter of timber
freights, seemed insufficient The policy
of the road will be TO popularize 1t as
cans Of
Local Travel,
and TO this end in securing rights OF way
such flag stations are provided as will be
convenient and accessible. With low fares
and convenient stations the road could
hardly fail to capture the bulk OF the local
passenger trade that now uses the river.
| So,na ;dea of what r.ay be accomplished by
accommodating the public was contained
in remark recently made 70 me by sena-
to- Camden, that the receipts from passen-
ger travel alone, under system OF cheap
fares and full accommodation for people
along the line of the little twenty-seven
mile narrow guage, between Clarksburg and
Weston, now averagedoyer fifteen hundred
dollars q month, Ehile the stage receipts
for a month under the old turnpike regime
would hardly exceed two hundred dollars
LAY.
View Jersey Legislature
Tha Can ot1