The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1903-05-06
BILL ARP.
Atlanta Constitution.

portions of long article by a
preacher describing the sad condi-
tion of a people he has recently
visited. Out of one hundred and
sixty eight towns in the state he
visited 70 of them that are off from
the railroad, and all of these have
decreased in population since 1890.
None of these towns have settled
pastors or preachers and the
churches are Abandoned or have
preaching at irregular intervals
and the attendance hardly ever ex-
ceeds % persons. The Sabbath
Schools are equally deserted. The
once busy plants of small indus
tries are dead and the people farm
only for the bare necessities of life.
Houses, barns and fences are go
ing to decay and the little mills
that were on the creek have tumb-
led down and the dams have wash
ed away. Here and there you will
see stately mansion sheltering
some degenerate family in the back
rooms while the vacant front greets
you with the silence of the tomb.
Sometimes you will find an old
man and woman alone in an old
ancestral home. I found mother
and her two sons and two old maids
in one house not one of whom
could read. The intermarriage of
nesr relatives or not marrying at
all is common and bachelors and
divorced men and widows have
housekeepers and they unblush-
ingly oohabit with them and young
girls become grass widows by the
time they are sixteen.
"Where is all thisp" said my
wife. 81 don't believe word of
it. 1t is some newspaper lie-a
fake made up by some reporter" /
read on. In one town 1 found the
usual Saturday night dance going
on in an old vacated tavern and
they dane ed and reveled and drank
until Sunday morning Sunday
Is no more observed than it is in
Chicago. for they hoe and dig and
gather hay all the same as on week
days. Illiteraoy, insanity and i'm
becility are very marked. 1 found
one family in which both parents
were idiots and had raised up
family of idiots. In another home
or house 1 found poor old father
taking care of three motherless
children, all idiots.
II don't believe word of it,"
said my wife. "There is no such
people in this country. What
paper are you reading FROM
One can hardly conceive of the
filth and vice reigning in these
country places called homes-a
barbarism differing from the city
slums only in it's stagnant iner.
tia and touched as little by church
influences as if in the heart of At
RIGA. The country people all over
the state are generally without am
bition, improvident, ignorant, not
able to read or write, loose in
their family relations, socially cor
rupt, given to drink, and some to
the opium 5abit. And these are
the towns where, half a century
ago, lived the best families of the
state. Among them the Fields
(Cyrus and his brothers,) the
Abotts. the Barnes and Donald G. |
Mitchell and others.
And now let me tell you, my
dear wife, ] am reading from The
Hartford Times and this is only
short portion of the report read
in New Haven recently by Rev.
MIR. Hutchins, Bible colporteur,
of Connecticut.
This report is fully accredited to
be true and the editors of The
Times tries to tone it down by
saying "The same conditions de.
scribed by Mr.. Hutchins for Con-
necticut are common to all the
older states" Rev. George Horr,
of Massachusetts,, is also a Bible
colporteur for that state and he
said in Boston the other day, 81
have driven all over new England
with my own horses and my con-
viction is there is no immortality
in any western mining town that
will compare with what you find
few miles from any New England
town. Mr.. Hutchins' observation
corresponds exactly with my own"
GEzz1. 80 q : E7zEsa