West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1897-10-21
A LYING CRI1IC.
Reading the Riot Act TO Fake
Newspaper.

ANNhNpaVtfs
OF all the hopeless idiots we ever
undertook to call down and correct
for making mis.statements calcu-
Lated to injure the good name of
Preston county, the jack ass at the
head Of the little hand bill. called
the "HOH0ngalian." and printed on
job press at Morgantown. and
calling itself daily paper, is en-
titled to the belt of Sapphiara and
10 the susponders OF Ananias, for
his reckless regard for the truth in
trying TO get out of hole, as Wit
ness the following specimen:
The Kingwood ARGUS says that
it was not Preston county justice
which sent diamond thief to the
penitentiary for one year, while a
man who broke in store and got
q cheap pair of pants had sen.
tence of five years penal servitude
imposed, and crIticises the Monon-
galian for saying, preston county
justice is not only blind, but deaf
and dumb" claiming it was a
Taylor county Judge who sentenced
the prisoners. The ARGUS seems
to forgot, if 1T ever knew, that there
are degrees, known as counts, in
indictments, the sustaining of which
by the jury regulates the sentence
the court has power to impose. The
ARGUS will surely not claim that
the petit jurors in the cases were
brought over from Taylor. SO it
is that the ARGUS fails to restore
sight TO Preston county justice.
In the first place, THE ARGUS
never made any such false and
foolish statement about the dia-
mond thief being sent up one year
and the man who "got a cheap pair
of pants" sentenced for five years. ="
The M0nOngalian knows better
than that itself, for it published the
facts correctly in a former state
ment criticising Preston county
justice. In our reply, we gave the
facts also, and in its reply, the
"Mongollan" flor its editor be.
longs to the Brown race). had no
excuse, therefore, whatever for
lying about it. The facts are, that
the diamond thief got two wears
and the other fellow three years, in
stead of one aud FIVE respectively,
as the "Mongolian" states, when
1T knows better.
AS we explained once before, the
Judge gave the former a light sen.
tence, because he WAS convicted
entirely on circumstantIal evidence,
and he was not convinced shat his
guilt had been proven. The jury
had nothing to do with the sen =.
tence or the degree of his guilt,
more than to bring in verdict Of
guilty or not guilty, according to
the indictment for felony. There
was no counts" or degrees"
about it. In the other case the
fellow was indicted for breaking
into store and taking an SO suit
of clothes, as the ''Mongollan"
explained in former criticism,
and, as we explained, 1T was not
the value of the suit Of clothes. but
breaking into the building that
made it penitentlary offense, and
as the culprit was caught IN the
act, it was no use to stand trial,
and he confessed and got his dose
from the Judge, who resides in
Taylor county. There was no jury
and "Preston county justice" had
nothing to do with 1T, and the
criticism in the first place and the
lying in the second place OIL the
part Of the Morgantown Almanac,
is 80 absurd and uncalled for that
we cannot allow it to pass unno-
ticed. If the other statements of
this fake paper are az foolish and
unreliable as these, we wonder that
anyone reads 1t at all.
-
The Directors of the Terra Alta
Bank had a meeting at that place
on Monday evening Of this week
and elected James s. Lakin, Of
Terra Alta, aud Hon. O. NJ. Bishop,
Of kingwood, members Of the
Board Of Directors to fill vacancies
caused by the death Of Senator p.
s. Hyde, Of Piedmont, and John
IL. Feather, of Bruceton. Mr..
Lakin is a member OF the large