Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-11-29
MussEY's MusH.
The Inwardness Of His Letters on
West Virginia
The Result Of the Election Changes His
Tone and Abuse is All He
Can Think Of.

The veracious Fred D. Mussey. the de
lectabls son-inlaw Of Gov. Foster, in his
communications to the Cincinnati Com
mersial Gazette, cannot refrain from slur-
ing West Virginia Before the October
election, while Blaine and the Commercial
had hopes of carrying West Virgins, his
letters from the State all breathed hard OF
the glorious future of West Virginia. There
was no Solid South about her, thank you,
and she was destined to a high seat in the
producing and manufacturing circles OF the
Union. This was all before the election,
when Blaine dispensed honeyed words OF
the same temper, during his brief tour In
the State. When October IA came and
West Virginia disappointed these hopeful
Republicans, everything changed. While
Blaine swung the bloody shirt at Fort
WAYNE, the CommercialG Gazette began its
attacks on West Virginia and Mussey kept
il I'D ever since. In o letter from New
York, printed in Yesterdays Commercial,
speaking of the plague in the lower end OF
the State he says:
The only wonder in connection with the
plague reported is there is not more OF 1t
through that region of Southwestern Vir-
GINA, South West Virginia and Eastern
Kentucky. There is probably not another
section OF the country in which all laws OF
health and hygiene ore more completely
ignored or neglected. The people IN these
back districts are ignorant and uneleanly.
Their only bathing is confined to dips in
the brooks in summer for cooling Oh pur-
noses, and the same clothes are worn night
and day until worn out. Their cooking is
q terror. Their corn "pones are like iron
wedges and everything they eat swims IN
hogs fat and drips with grease. Sow
BELLY and green's is the great dish among
these people and they dip" snuff contin-
ually." -,
This is SANDER, pure and simple, and
would be resented by those people, IN some
way, but for the fact that the Commercial
Gazette is found in but few places in the
State. 1t is to be regretted, however, that
West yirginians are placed in such shame.
full and SANDER, us shape in the eyes Of the
outside world.
When Mussey gets on to the water we are
compelled to drink, he is more near the
truth. but even then it is a grave exaggera-
IoD. The letter proceeds:
The nuisance of Southern cooking ex
tends clear up to the western Panhandle
and even in Wheeling hotels you will note
he prevalence of grease; but of course it Is
from the water that the trouble comes
l~irectly. At Wheeling when the river Ii
low it is not reaSsuring to be told that the
water furnished for drinking purposes is
Irawn from that slowly-crawling, dirty
ooking mountain sewer, but that is in
Gnitely superior to what they have at Par.
kersburg. There they do not even have
! running water of the river, but draw their
supplies from wells which are merely drain
holes, and puncture the surface in close
| proximity to and in about equal number
with the privy vaults. The soil is in alter.
nate layers Of gravel and clay, making per-
feet mediums of communication between
The wells and the vaults, and science has de-
monstrated that water is the great commu-
meant of disease or medium for communi-
| eating it, and experiment and investigation
have shown that O well may be coutami-
mated by matter at a distance of a mile
even. This condition OF thiugs was not
certainly to tho credit of a lively city
| of from six TO eight thousand inhabitants,
and measures looking to. sewerage and wa
Ter works were being taken, In the midst
of that terrible drouth which made poor lit
lie Parkersburg look as though it had been
n a fiery furnace, the condition of the wa
Ter supply may be imagined. A gentleman
here told ME, that but a few rods from the
own pumps where everybody drank and in
he same l~ayersof gravel, was a vault that
had not been cleaned for many years, and
| IN the hot days the odors the rear of the
hotels were awful. / was once driven out
If the dining room of one Of them and
made FETCHED"
The hotels are able to fight their own
battles, bat a slur on the State is a matter
hat challenges the defense of all.