The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-08-04
rHEs AND VOW
A Citizen Contrasts His First ESsef,
fence in Morgantown With That of
To-day.

A gentleman who moved to Nor
gantown nine years ago said yester
day at is wonderful what changes
have been made in this town since
i located here hine years ago. AT
that time only two stores in the
town had plate glass fronts, and
they were considered something
wonderful Look at the change; to-
day there Is scarce business house
in town that does not have plate
glass fronts fully as large as any to
be found in the cities, and the store
keepers keep their windows trimmed
in fin de steele style, too.
Then Morgantowners desiring to
leave town, and people who wished
to come to the place had to fide 20
miles in an old numbering hack or
pay a sum of money for carriage
that is now sufficient for the ex-
penses of round trip to Pittsburg
either on the railroad or by boat.
Nine years ago John Edwards
with an old dilapidated horse and
q barrel on wagon. fashioned after
the one that Noah used for hauling
his provend.r into the ark, supplied
the citizens with wash and scrub
bling water from the Monongahela
river at 10 cents barrel now we
have one of the best water works in
the country and rivers of water for
all purposes. When l came here an
alarm of FIRE caused every mother
son of us to make a wild rush for the
old fire shed gum buckets, slop
buckets, glass pitchers, in fact any
thing would do to carry water in.
Mark the change, the bell on Mu-
nicipal Hall rings out an alarm, the
members of two well drilled hose
companies dash down street with
the two reels and hook and ladder
wagon, and within ten minutes of
the first tap of the bell the hose are
attached to the plugs and the burn
ing building is being deluged with
water.
The old dilapidated court house i
gazed upon at that time has given
way to magnificent Temple of
Justice" and the weather beaten,
dark and ramshackled affairs called
business houses have been RACED to
the ground and on their sites now
stand handsomely painted, electric
lighted and solidly built imposing
structures. Where then stood cid
homesteads that had fallen into de-
cay, and on lots used for pasturing
''sooky" we now gaze upon modern
homes that are the delight of our
citizens and the admiration of all
visitors. The teamster who at that
time dragged so bushels of coal
through three it. of mud from coal
bank out in the country and dumped
it into the coal house has quit euss-
ing the mud, and the citizen who
fell over coal buckets in the dark
and used language that his minister
would have been shocked at new in
cold weather sits before his gas fire
and teaches his offspring their Sun
day School lesson or instills into
their young minds the comforts
arising from shaking off fogyism and
taking a few injections Of "git up and
git When l landed here slops
from the kitchen and wash tubs
flowed down the open drains, and it
flows down some of 'em yet. water
closets were a sanitary measure not
dreamed of and sewers were known
by name only.
Look at the difference A large
percentage of the Stops pass under
ground to the river, the old watts and
boxes have given way TO toilet rooms
and if the present progressive eoun
Gil has its way we will soon have not
only partial but a complete system
of sewerage. Nine years ago our
streets were macadamized with lime
stone, look we at the change! We
now haven't even the lime stone, as
it has long since been pulyerized and
the ashes that were spread over it
have been scraped off annually at a
great expense and carted back at an
equally great call upon the public
treasury, but mark ye! one more in
lection of that never failing remedy,
"git up and git" and before nine
years more have been numbered with
the years that have passed our
streets will have been paved with
brick, thing of beauty, an expense
no longer but joy forever.
When | hit the town and cast my
lot with it, the man who wanted to
have business communication with
a Clarksburger used the telegraph
or entrusted letter to the tender
mercy of Uncle Sam and Uncle Ka-
ney Bright, and then contented his
soul in peace for three or four days
till he received an answer, now, the
''crank" of that day who believed in
progress, public improvements and
modern conveniencies goes to the
telephone, turns the "crank" and
calls, "hello! central give me Jones
the real estate man, and then says,
"Jones | offered you that lot years
ago for $500, on six mouths time,
but as times are little dull and you
offer spot cash III accept The $4,000
come down on the afternoon train
and we'll close the bargain, ia, TIA,
yours truly, Git up and Git"
At this juncture dog flying tin
can passed by the small boy who
was washing the pavement with a
hose and he stopped to gather up a
'dornick," the stream from the hose
struck the citizen in the left eye and
he jumped four feet while the cry of
murder rang out on the still night
air, the reporter made dive for
door way, ran into a man carrying
watermelon, the size of which he on
ly dreamed of before the railroad
was built, the melon was squashed
upon the pavement and messenger
boy in making a dive for it spilled
basketful of vegetables from the
South, that came only in cans in the
long ago, the citizen slipped on
banana peel and as he sat down on
the small boy and truck patch ex
claimed, mine years ago, OH! y