Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-09-05


who do things and do them well
Cherry Point, around Cowart an,
Lewisetta, is a favored section. Som,
of the best people of Northumberland,
live there. There is every reason {,
believe that the mouth of Coan will
become populous and a busines
section. The late William p. Cowar
could have secured five thousan,
dollars for the Walnut Point propert,
had he cared to sell it at that price
Old Heathsville is somewhat th,
same, but l was surprised to know
that several lodges had been organ
lied and were keeping up. Th,
keeping up was the surprising par
to me. Heathsville could usual,
start thing and make quite cackl,
over it, but the great difficulty came
in keeping it a-goipg. The towr
gets a lighting system, and in "a littl,
while about two lights are all that
are kept up. But | am not making
fun of Heathsville. am o Heaths
william myself and | will stick it out
that we are not half as bad as W,
are painted, and that our baseball
team can lick almost any team when
We do not play on our own grounds
and have our home people to criti
clse us.
There are lot of folks who dc
not live IN Heathsville who amuse
themselves and exercise their con.
trariness by talking about the Heaths-
vile ring, the "bosses" aud the law
people of the county seat. When
happened to have the esteemed honor
of holding the Office of Justice of the
Peace there q never wanted any
other office, although some very
knowing people swore did and
worked themselves into quite an ex-
element over iD a defendant in a
misdemeanor case actually told me
that he did not believe he could get
justice if any body in Heathsville had
anything to do with his case. At
another time, when ! was using a
ut the courthouse, it was
circulated around aud came to INV
ears that the "people of Heathsville
made the laws for the rest of the
county" and even had machine
there to print them. was reluctant
TO believe that the county had such
Iridescent asses-in it, but had to.
1t just shows what silly title tattle
some Northumberland folks, who
ought to know much better, can get
- aL~-- Observation-Disclosures.
Northumberland is moving in the
right direction, but / believe her
progress is retarded by the lack of
some things greatly needed. Some
,f its people need to be educated by
the public press TO broader and
brighter views, to know what the
rest of the state and the world is
doing, to realize that Northumber-
land is small place and the world
a large place, that the world at large
knows very little about Northumber-
land Notwithstanding the annual
political speeches), and cares less,
that citizen of the county is great
and valuable only to the extent that
he does more for himself and for the
public good of the county; and fur
ther, that the future of Northumber-
land depends solely on its citizens.
/ have been wondering what the
new Constitution will do for Nor
thumberland. The county has al
ways been in sad need of enforcement
of law and the advertising of laws by
their enforcement. 1t wants about
fifty Heathsville Justice Johns
sprinkled around the four districts.
/ could advertise for a month that
on certain court day in full public
view at Heathsville, l would violate
a misdeamor law, and will warrant
that | could do it and would have
time to travel all around the world
before the grand jury would bring in
an indictment against me; that
could commit the misdemeanor and
stay in the county three months
without being arrested. unless got
tired of being talked about and sur
rendered myself to the sheriff, as Bee
and johnson did In the liquor cases
of 1898.
! have great respect personally for
many grand jsrors of Northumber-
land, and yet every one who wants to
know knows that the grand jury
system in Northumberland has beer
practically dead failure, so far az
seventy-five per cent. of offences go
Grand jurors are sworn to not only
report violations of the law bul
to diligently inquire" Who eve
heard of any diligent inquiring beins
dones A few years ago grand juroi
testified before the assembled grant
jury that he had been treated to