The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1908-12-24
\ Happy StistorS.

Whatever the utterances Of John
j. CoruweIl ON the stump in heated
campaigns no matter how gloomy the
pictures he may have drawn OF the
future OF the State. provided pOliti-
cal conditions did not change, he is
an opHmfst. when he INDUCES in ret
rospection and honestly and happily
narrates history. which, however,
glowing he paints 1t, IS yet sur
prise to him scarcely to be guaSed.
In confederation of the assertions
just made attention is directed to
the following review by him of the
: progress of his own county. which
he prints this week in his Hampshire
Review:
This. the last issue for the year
seems an appropriate place for a
brief retrospect. 1t is now nearly a
score, TO be exact, just little over
eighteen years. since the writer,
fresh from the farm. became the
editor of this paper. A glimpse
backward seems but the contempia-
ton of n last nights dream. 1t IS
only when one calls the roll of his
associates and frie1 as of those days
and marks the number from whose
lips come no response: when he sees
the change that time has wrought in
the visage of those who survive or
note, sometimes with astonishment,
that another generation of men and
women has grown up around him.
does one grasp the significance of
such a lapse of time.
Bat 1t IS not of this We write. but
the change that has peen wrought in
our county and its people. The ma
terial progress made throughout the
greater part of it is not recognized
even by the people themselves.
Homes have been improved, bette
and more comfortable ones built;
better stock. better vehicles. more OF
them and with a very large per cent.
the hereditary debt to some money
lender has. been snapped for bank
account or an investment, profitable
or otherwise. a weekly or semi
weekly mail has been exchanged foT
aa daily one and the farms are con-
nected with telephones so that each
wife knows what the other will have
for supper or how many eggs she
gathered the preceding day. a bet
ter feeling pervades the county and
a sp!ri; of optimism is abroad among
the people. We hear less denuncia-
tion among our country friends of
the county seat and the lawyers.
which we're the chief topic of CONVEX
sation at the cross roads and country
postofices when the w.=ter was boy.
The reason is the people are more
prosperous and are busy. The man
who has business of his own has lit
tie inclination to speculate or gossip
about his neighbour. or course the
progress~has been more marked in
some sections of the country than
Others. but IL may be said to be gen
eral. And it has chiefly come in the
last decade. 1t ID just beginning
too The spirit is infectious The
microbe is at work and those who are
so lucky as TO live in Old Hampshire
a score of years hence will see II one
OF the most prosperous. contented
and intelligent rural communities on
the continent. when its mountainous
character is considered. The
alchemy which will convert Its dross
into gold, that has already lifted us
from despair to hope realized. is
fruit. We are nos bringing up Il
generation of boys on the noun
tains OF Hampshire who will not
hike to the cities as did their elder
brothers. but who will. by cultiyating
trees their fathers are planting.
make the mountains blossom as the