Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-01-20
LETTER FROM PAGE.
Correspondence Alexandria Gazette.


LURAY, Va, Jan. 20.-Our new jill
finished and offered to our people six
,oonihs ago, stands alone and min hao-
ired. The builders, the Manly Manu-
f4cturins Company, OF Atlanta, claim It
10 he first class job and we'll worth
the price, some $4,000. The Board of
Supervisors decline to accept it. The
case has already gone through our home
courts and now rests in the Court Of
Appeals. There is no doubt the county
has been mjsled through its officials and
whatever The outcome in the courts
there will always remain feeling Of
disquiet and fear among the people
that the whole building may some day
collapse and carry the whole thing to
the ground. The great cause of un
eesiness is the roof-a mixture of
broken bricks, sand and cement. Its
weight is an immense one and the fact
that it already leaks shows that there
is something wrong.
Newton Kibler, the convicted mur
derer of his uncle, Willis Kibler, has
been granted writ of error by the
Court of Appeals. Should new trial
he granted the case will hardly be
heard before the late summer.
r. l.. Pritchard & Co., distillers at
this place, who were indicted in the U.
5. court at Harrisonburg, charged with
olleged illicit proceedings at their dis
tillery by some over Jealous revenue
agents. came out of the trial en-
tirely exonerated and innocent.
This firm is composed of three
Of our best countymen, and
70 one who knew them believed
for moment in their guilt. The trial
was a miserable failure upon the part
ofthe reformers and not one thing was
proved against them. After all this
their distillery has not been restored to
them, and these Jealous government
agents, not satisfied with signal defe,t,
seem to be determined to turn the affair
into one of persecution. These gentle
men have lost most heavily in money.
Their business interrupted, and yet
they have done nothing wrong or ille-
gal, and the outcome when reached
will show that this affair have be n one
OF designed and intended persecution.
The government should be careful how
it treats the innocent-tbe guilty should
suii-r-buJ there is no guilt yet proved
against Pritchard & Co., though the
government had its agents, the inform
ers, and al its witnesses on hand at the
Trail, and the result was an ignomini-
Gus aud complete failure. 1t is one
thing to prosecute the euilty-anoth' +
% prosecute the innocent. These gen.
tlemen have lost m ost heavily in actual
money value, and yet their distillery is
vet in the hands of the government,
and no charges against them. 1t is one
of those cases which shows how pow g
less are they whom the powers that ar.
have chosen to show how easy it is TO
do and undo when the spirit is willing.
rhe truth is this firm has been with
held from the enjoyment and use of s
property not because there is any
charge now against it, but because it is
hoped some offer in the way of com
promise, by the payment of a nominal
SUN, will be made by it in order that
its property may be restored. The case
calls for prompt and close scrutiny and
action upon the part of the revenue de-
partment in order that justice may be
done and the innocent vindicated