Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-09-18

clerk of Boone county, was struck on the head
with rock. thrown by Melvin Nelson, and was
fatally wounded.
IL is partially true that Mrs. JULIA
HALsTEIN is alleged to have poisoned her
son-in-law, and is, or was, under arrest for
the crime. Such evidence as has been
published, however, ia not sufficiently
strong to justify public declaration that
she did commit the crime, or that her SON.
in-law was poisoned at ell. Nothing less
than a blind desire to exaggerate
and defame could excuse in any
mind the perversion of the simple
facts of the case into an assumption OF the
woman's guilt. AS to the Boone county
case, WILLIAM THOMPSON was not fatally
wounded by MELVIN WILSON. He has
had over month in which to shufils off
this mortal coil but obstinately refuses to
do so. The next paragraph in this siDgu-
lar condemnation Of slanderous falsehood
reads as follows:
Gays t1duCJCk Guilty a. Aht SLY
Of an unprovoked murder. The victim was Jack
Lee, well known pugilist, and his murderer
was John Lasley. The murder was committed
in a shanty-boat called the Annie L.
The facts are substantially as stated,
but part of the truth may sometimes be
as injurious as q fslsehood. Justice to
West Virginia requires it to be said that
neither LEE nor LAsLEY were citizens OF
this State. Ooe was an Ohioan. the other
a Pennsylvania, and it was matter OF
pure accident that the crime was commit
ted in West Virginia. West Virginia soil
extends to the waters edge on the
Ohio side, and, beyond the fact that the
murder was committed on the river, it was
in no sense West Virginia crime. One
more scintillating jewel will be sufficient
to complete the crown which this king Of
SANDER and fslsehocd hss made for itself.
1t is as follows:
In the same county (Kanawha), on the 9th,
Seth Jones, white man, about % years OF age,
became involved in a quarrel with Bush Moore,
A negro. Moore struck Jones with a stone, ana
then procured an AK and struck him once in the
head and several times in the body, inn. cting
fatal wounds.
The paragraph has foundation in fact
too slight for any but second MUNCHAUs-
EN- TO have built on. JONES and MOORE
did quarrel, and the former was badly
bruised up in drunken fight. His in
iuries, however, were not fatal, and he
persistently refuses to die. In fact, Mr..
JONES is now as well and as capable OF dis
posing of three meals day as any man In
Kanawhs county.
The hteuigeaeer probably failed to
note the fact in its bald attempt to make
political capital by slanderipg the govern
ment of West Virginia, that most of the
crimes it cites occurred in counties where
officials have full control.
Is it not enough that lying, mercenary
correspondents should SANDER
the State in foreign newspapers.
that home journal, published
in the principal city Of the State, whose
editor has showed himself to the head of
the State immigration and Development
Society, should take up the false cry, and
do his best to irjure the State he is sup
posed to be particularly interested in boom
irg? The State Immigration and Develop
ment Society should lose no time in reliev-
ing its present president of his onerous
duties 30 that he may assume his proper
position ss the president of the State Defam-
alton and Slanderipg Society.