The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-11-17
COvINGTON.
News Of Special Interest to Clifton
Forge.

Forge.
From the Sentinel.
Among the attorneys in attendance OF
the court this week were Messrs. Ander
son, Moore, Williamson, James and Dun
can, of clifton Forge, Hickman, OF lror
! Gate, Haden, of Fincastle, and McAllis'
ter, of Warm Springs.
A CRAZY NEGRO.
An insane negro, named John Gilman,
| was placed in the Jail here on Tuesday
night Of last week to await the action of
the Court, and since that time he has
been rendering the days and nights
hideous by his ye!ls and cries. his Ia
yorite amusement seems to be to sit at
the bars and call imaginary dogs at the
top of his voice. He comes from Low
Moor and was considered an excellent
hand until two or three weeks ago when
he began to lose his mind. AS soon as
he became violent he was sent to the
Jail here.
THE LICENSE CASE.
A large number of the citizens of Cliff
ton Forge were present at the opening
of the court this week, being interested
in the motion to license bar-room in
the residence portion of the town. 1t
appeared from the evidence that the
license was wanted for q hotel which
was being built convenient to the bust
ness portion of the town, but the license
applied for only common bar-room IL
cense. There was a good deal OF Oppo-
sition to the motion and some rather
bitter feeling; this was tolerably we'll
hidden in court. Judge Chalkley, after
hearing the evidence, decided against
the granting of q regular bar-room H.
cense, and reserved his decision as to
granting license rs an ordinary, that
case not being before him.
SAFE BREAKERS AT WORK.
On Saturday or Sunday night last, safe
breakers entered the office Of E. NJ. Net
Teton s. Co.'s lumber mills and blew
open the safe in search of money. En-
trance was effected by breaking open
the door, and the safe was ruined. The
tools used were stolen from the lumber
mill and with them the knob of the
safe was broken off, a hole drilled
through and charge of gun powder
sed to blow open the door. The only
thing realized by the enterprising burg
lar was couple OF postage stamps which
had been left there accidentally by Mr..
HAY, who makes it rule to leave no
valuabies in the safe at night. The
workmanship of the crack is good, and
the burglars seem to be expert maehin
lists, as did those who robbed the post
office some time ago. It is uncertain
what night the robbery took place as no
one was there during Sunday.
THE WORKMAN FORGERY CASE.
The Workman forgery case came up for
trial this term of the conrt and resulted
in the acquiutal of the accused. This
case was continued several times for the
Commonwealth on the plea that the
friends of the prisoner had enticed away
the witnesses of the Commonwealth,
otherwise he would have been freed by
operation of law, before this term of the
court. In the trial OF the case the Com
monwealth stated that he had been I'M
able still to get his witnesses and wished
to enter a qlol1e prosequi, but the Court
directed him to proceed with the case,
and on his utterly failing to fix anything
on the prisoner the jury returned a YER
dict of not entity without leaving their
seats and the prisoner was discharged.
The Commonwealth claimed that he
had summoned the witnesses required
but had been unable to get them to at
tend the court and that the accused
could not be convicted without their
testimony, but the hardship of keeping
a man in jail because of the misconduct
of the witnesses for the State was too
apparent and he was given a trial. The
supposed forgery was shown after the
trial, and in the opinion of the Sentinel
the signature is in q different hand writ
ing from the body of the check, that
being witten by Workman, and it is not
Improbable that he is entirely innocent
of the crime.