Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-03-15
KNOWS 4 coon THING.

To the editor o; The Chronicle.
DEAR SIR: For some TINE I have fell
ike telling You what nave been think
ing OF TIE CHRONICLE since ii arose.
Phoenix ike. from its ashes. It Is quite
evident that the fire improved II. not only
in appearance, but in quality. This is
rather singular. but it is true Of all news
papers that get burned out. 1t may be
said, therefore. that it is better for a news
paper to burn out than TO wear out.
Ny recollection of the BELMONT
CHRONICLE goes back to '56. and | can
say that at no time since has it been what
it is to-day. Of the hundred OF more week
ly papers that ccme TO this office, there are
few that present as neat an appearance.
and few that are as well edited.
1t is the local correspondence that
makes country papers popular. The peo-
pie want to know what their neighborS
are doing, and what is happening round
about them.
Here is something that will have to be
said in whisper, although it is nOtOTi-
Gus fact. The most interesting item one
finds in a paper is that i'll which ones
name appears. OF course we don't seem
D
Isn't it funny that we should be so vain :
tits fact also that the more CORE
! spOndence paper has the more popular
it will be. These correspondents write
about people, and these same people take
1 the paper to see what correspondents say
about them.
| To me there is nothing so interesting in
the Belmont county papers as the person
ais and the local correspondence. YOu
can scarcely imagine the satisfaction il
was to me to see that Tom Welsh and
Squire Caldwell had been in town; that
| Josh Glover's smOke-hOuSe had burned
down, and that McKelvey's smoke-hOuse
| had been burglariZed Not that there
was any pleasure in the destruction OF
their property, but that was glad TO heal
/ of them.
| The burning of that smoke house. III
some way or other, recalled the first time
! | ever saw Josh Glover. He came to ON
house to get boarding while he taught the
winter school at Pleasant Ridge. | was
/ too little to go to school in winter: in fact
/ | was MT big enough to go down to Lind,
/ seyS thicket to hunt rabbits. but had tC
confine my rabbiting to the garden. where
there were plenty of tracks, but no game
However, track was something.
/ MckelveyS smoke-hOuse had no Specia
/ interest, yet it was a smOke-house. and
naturally associate it with the one knew
| That one, about eight feet square. with nc
ceiling. Across the joists lay one small
stick, on which hung hickory withe hooks
on which the hams. shoulders. and a few
sides were hung after being taken out OF
the big pickle barrel that stood in one cor
ner. Hanging the meat was quite an i'm
pOrtant bit of spring work. 1t had TO be
done at a certain time of the moon.
which | do not recall. If it was Mt done
at such time the meat would get full OF
shippers, or all fry away, get strong, an(
l don't know what ali. 1t was my work
to provide the hickory withcs. and stanC
aroundsand be in the way while the hang
ing was going on.
You are not interested in this smoke
house. of course, but there is little story
connected with it. When us children hat
the whooping cough pap caught a big hoo
owl and put it in the smOke-hOuSe. FCl
a day or two it was sufficient for us Il
bundle up warm and go and peep through
the cracks at its big eyes. That became
mOnotOnOus after awhile, and ventureC
to open tie door little. Finally | ven
tured inside, whereupOn the ferocious birC
flew at me, swapping viciOusly We al
ran for dear life, and the bird sailed of
toward MillerS Run. and we never agaiI
caught it.
THE CHRONICLE of this week suggest
ed many other things. cannot tell then
all this time. ERASNCS WILSON.
PITTsBURG, March 8, 1888.