Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-05-20

Special to the Register
CHARLESTON, w. Va, May 19.-
There is a large sized row on here be-
tween certain members of the Republi-
can party, known as the Hog Combine,
and other members who are not in IA
for of that organization. The begin
ming of the trouble antedates my pres
ent recollection, or has slipped my
knowledge and there is no use going
into the misty err musty past to drag
it forth. Suffice it to say, there is a
breach, or, more descriptively speaking,
a chasm. The chiefs of the opposing
sides seem TO be Judge c. w. Hail. of
the Kanawha county criminal court,
and Grant P. Hall, clerk of the circuit
court There was an open rupture be-
tween the two during the last primary
was a candidate for the nomination for
auditor, and Grant Hall was opposing
him with tooth and toe nail, and other
things.
The fight did not cease with the with
drawal OF Judge Hall from the audi
torial race, nor even with the November
election, but has been smoldering since,
ready to break into flame at the first
tanning. When the time came for
holding the January term of the GRIM
i
the bench, being i'll, it was stated, and
confined to his room at home. A spe-
cial judge was elected to take his place
and hold the court, and Immediately
upon the adjournment of the term the
faithful set UP a great cackle about the
number of convictiops secured, giving
the credit to the newly elected prosecu-
tor and sheriff-though their predeces-
sors had been Republicans also-but, by
implication, throwing odium upon
Judge Hall by comparison instituted be-
tween his terms of court and that held
by his substitute. Following this came
an open rupture between Judge Hall
and the newly elected prosecutor, S. B.
Avis, son-in-law of Ex-Governor Akin
son, in open court, when the attorney
grabbed up his books and started to
leave the court room because of some
ruling from the bench. This Is now
being made by charges, made in the
shape of innuendo by members of the
Combine, that Judge Hall was moved
to decline to hold court at the January
term and to make the excuse of being
i'll. because of the fear that, the Legisla-
ture being in session at the time, arti-
cles of impeachment would be filed
against him, the intimation being that
there was ample cause, though no spe-
cific instance was given. This talk Is
continually growing louder and louder,
and it cannot be kept much longer from
coming to such an issue that official
notice must be taken of it in some quar-
ter. In fact, it has already been threat
ened that grand jury may be sum-
moned in the circuit court, before
which an attempt will be made to pro-
cure an indictment against Judge Hall.
What the nature of the charges against
him is, or how well founded, | am not
prepared to say, but only make the as
sertion that such things are being said
by Judge Halls former friends now his
AhNot untOlA IOSS.
A limited spasm of reform has struck
the Kanawha section of the G. O. D., and
considerable noise is made about the
publication of the county administra-
tion and its restoration to a high moral
plane. l asked well known and we'll
posted Republican about it the other
day, and he said:
The moral reform business is all
eommyrot. The Republican leaders in
Kanawha county decided that it would
be a good political move to close up all
che speakeasies, the notorious road
houses and low dives that have called
forth so much criticism in the last few
years, and the county officials have
started out to carry the decision into
effect. Whatever is accomplished along
that line will be accomplished because
the leaders have decided that It is good
politics, and not from any feeling OF
morality at all"
l am inclined to think he is right. for
the gang that rules in Kanawha is
much more liable to be influenced bv
the good politics argument than by any
high moral idea.
There has been little doing around the
State House this week. The board of
public works is off on a tour of the
railroads of the State. making the as
sessment of their properties. The
members are travelling in the private
car OF the president of the Baltimore &
Ohio railroad. and whatever may be the
opinion of the people about the work
done, 1t is an easy money bet that the
railroads themselves will find nothing
in it of which to complain.
The auditor reports that the receipts
from corporation license taxes for the
months of March and April were $685.
600. This sum is far larger than was
ever before received from the same
source in the same time.
The Charleston Gazette is having fun
with the school board here during the
dullness that pervades other amusement
sources. The board at its meeting the
other night decided that its members.
eleven in number. its clerk. and the