Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-03-02
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

vikulNlA yLfUISLAIUkE
The Torrens Land Registration bill
was defeated in the House after a
fierce fight.
$S50,00 was appropriated for ex-
Confederates. This is nearly double
the former appropriation, and comes
very near to the amount Governor
Swanson recommended.
DR.. Cochran, delegate from Fauouier,
died Friday. This is the second death
In the General Assembly since the ses-
sion began forty-five days ago. Sena.
tor Noblin, of Halifax, being the other.
The Sale-Holt bill redistricting the
Congressional districts of the State,
putting the Newport News section into
the First District, has passed both
houses and been signed by the Cover.
nor.
"Uncle Billy" Wilson, for thirty-sis
years librarian Of the State Senate,
died last week. When the Legislature
was not in session, he always took
great pride in showing visitors through
the capitol building. He was "a years
old.
Delegate Moncure is among the house
members who is mourning for a hop.
lessly side-tracked bill. He had a De,
measure-a bill to prohibit the spread.
ing of fishing nets within FIVE miles OF
the mouth Of any river in the State.
He, with Messrs. Curlett and Powers,
introduced it and it disappeared in the
vortex Of committee room whirl and
vanished from his view. Mr.. Curlett
is supposed to be sitting on it, or man
aged to have it disappear. After con-
vincing himself that he was WASTING
time in a will-o'the-wisp hunt, Mr..
Moncure has abandoned the quest for
the vanished bill.
With but ten days more of life the
Legislature has passed to the Governor
for his signature only about a hundred
OF the seventeen hundred bills intro
duced, and hardly a dozen of these
have been of statewide Importance.
Most of them are of local interest.
The next week will see a rush. NIGHT
and day, many bad bills getting through
and hundreds of meritorious ones per-
lshing- The Constitutional Convention
made many mistakes-among them the
matter of ineligibility of Treasurers
and Commissioner of Revenue = bat
many people think its cutting short the
legislative term was the worst. Others
think that the shorter the session and
fewer the laws, the better it is for the
State.
In speech Of about a half hour
Judge Mann replied in detail to the ar
guments of the opposition. The law
proposed by the League, he declared.
would not affect any cider made except
the man who sold the spurious article.
He was willing to make any conces-
sions to the manufacturers of the pure
cider. He also declared that the social
clubs, SO far from decreasing, were
growing in number. He believed that
nobody could object to increasing the
penalties for violation of the whiskey
laws, except men who intended to
violate those laws. The Nottoway
senator was very pointed in his re-
ference to the social clubs. sNobodv
deprecates more than do the necessity
of imposing the burden upon the bona
fide clubs. l have visited some of
these clubs occasionally myself. They
are conducted in a manner that could
call for no possible reproach. / have
been time and again at the Westmore-
land, and 1 have never seen there any,
thing that would have been ashamed
to see in my own parlor. But 1 here
and now appeal to the gentlemen who
are members Of these clubs to foreeo
some Of their privileges for the sake of
roofing out one of the greatest evils
that has ever appeared in this State.
The fake clubs must CO."
INTRODUCED.
BY Senator Walker: To authorize
the Board of Supervisors of Northum-
oeriand to establish public ferries
across Little Wicomico river, and
Lodge creek.
FISH AND OYSTER LEGISLATION.
An investigation of the depleted con-
dition Of the fishing waters of the State
will probably be ordered. The resolu-
ton offered in the house by Delegate
Gaines, Of Norfolk, calling for an in
quiry into the diminishing supply of
edible fish was considered by the COM
mittee on the Chesapeake and its trib-
utaries and reported with an amend
ment, which authorizes the new State
fisheries commission to make the inyes-
LEGATION.
Senator Walker, of the Committee
ON Fish and Game, offered in the Sem
ate a bill following the lines
agreed upon by the joint commission
from the Maryland and Virginia legis-
latures at its recent session in Rich
mond. The bill provides for concurrent
jurisdiction of the two States on the
Potomac river. 1t prohibits the taking
or selling of oysters Of less than two
and One-half inches II, laroxh. x,,.ox:s