Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-23

Special Correspondence.
Martins Ferry, Ohio, @ ctober %
Comparatively speaking, times are
better in Martins Ferry to-day than
they are in any community in Eastern
Ohio"
The above was the reply Of prom
inent business man of this town to an
inquiry as to the condition of affairs
here. This man has business dealings
of considerable magnitude in all the
towns along the Ohio river from East
Liverpool to Bellaire, and is in position
to know whereof he speaks.
A look over the town led me to be-
lfeve that he was either afflicted with
local pride to such an extent as to i'm
pair his vision, or that things must be
in a bad way along the Ohio river
There are store rooms for rent all over
Martins Ferry, the town is going to
ruin for want of paint, there are LOAF
ers (not the habitual sort, but fellows
who seem sober, clean, and decent
men who apparently would like to have
work. on all the corners, fences are
down along the streets, here and there
are store room doors nailed up, and
the windows covered with sheet iron,
in short, the town seems to be in a
state of morbid hamilton.
| am told that what was two years
ago one of the biggest dry goods stores
in the town simply died for want OF
trade, and the proprietor moved away
One of the biggest drug stores was sold
last week to the other druggist, so the
total of the retail drug trade of the
town would be divided by a smaller
figure and a living might be secured by
those who remained in business. Even
doctors are moving away, and two I'M
dertaking establishments have closed
the past year. Rents have deprecated
thirty per cent, and the air of thrift
which manufacturing towns generally
wear is entirely lacking.
And still l am told Martins Ferry is
the liveliest town in the Ohio Valley
from Bellaire to East Liverpool.
McKiley has been elected nearly a
year, confidence has been restored, the
Dingley law is in full operation, Mark
Hanna is Senator, and wants to con-
tinue in office-all the preliminary con-
ditions which the Republicans last fall
declared necessary to the return or
prosperity have been realized-what
next is needed to stir up this old town?
and if this is the best town along the
Ohio river, what will it take to stir I'D
the others?
Martins Ferry has been terribly
pinched by prosperity" but it would
seem from what the gentleman quoted
above says, there are others.
A real estate man said, pointing to
a house on prominent corner: "Quite
recently, l was offered S. 900 for that
property and the owner refused to sell.
To-day, wouldn't give $4,000 for it."
There have been more sheriff's sales
of property in Martins Ferry the past
year than in any previous year in the
towns history. The Times has been
kept on firm financial footing, it is
said, by the legal advertising growing
out of forced sales of property. Wages
have gone down in every branch of In
dustry and how a great many people
have kept soul and body together is
mystery to well posted people here in
town.
AS a natural result Of so much en-
forced leisure, the people have had time
to talk politics, and they have done it.
4heii III 10 UlGSS6u, IL JuS 6A-
preston may be permitted, with more
than her share of politicians, in all par
ties, and it is a day far removed from
election on which no political discus
sion is heard in the market place or
in the public house. Just now, discus
SIGN is rife. There is good excuse for
it, for the working people, and near;y
all the people of Martins Ferry are
working people, or directly dependent
upon them, feel keenly the results of
errors committed by the voters last
fall. They have seen in a magnified
degree the i'll effects of the gold stand
ard, and have come to fully compre-
bend the heartlessness and insincerity
of those in high places who promised
SO much should the Republican party
be restored to power. There is another
reason for the sharp interest felt here
In politics this fall. Mark Hanna and
his methods almost overshadowed
everything last year; this time he is
the whole issue on one side. Men who