Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1921-02-18
FIENDISH CRIME
AT POCAHONTAS
COwardly Attempt at PocahOn
tas to Take Life of Baptist
Pastor and His Family by
Yet Unknown Sc0undrels

One of the boldest aand most flag.
rant outrages ever committed in Vir.
ginia, was perpetrated last Thursday
night about II o'clock. The Baptist
parsonage, occupied by Rev. w. R
Hickman, the pastor of tho Baptist
church, his wife and four-year old
daughter, was dynamited by some
miscreant who evidently sought the
life of the pastor and his family. No
one was injured except that Mrs
Rickman was rendered partially deaf
by the concusslon, from which she
has not recovered.
The dastardly deed was committed
about 12 o'clock at night, while the
inmates and the entire town was
asleep. A stick of dynamite was
thrown from the street through an
upstairs window. 1t fell and explod-
ed in the room near the bed where
the little girl was sleeping. Every
window was shattered. A large hole
torn in the floor, the furniture shat
tered and all the plastering knocked
down. The wonder is how the little
girl, as well as other occupants OF
the house escaped.
Mr.. w. c. Scott, who lives nearby,
the first one on the scene. He said
thS SNPiooioii Wdheu niIil up, ana his
first impression was that an engine
on the yard had blown up. He hurried
out, and found the situation about
as described above.
The opinion prevails that the deed
was the work of more than one man,
and not negroes, but the work of
conspirators, liquor men and gamb-
lers, n lawless element which has
afflicted Pocahontas for years, and
the motive, to punish the preacher,
who, as is well known, has fought
this element in his town for years,
increasingly and relentlessly, and
this cowardly attack is believed to
be the outcome of his fight.
1t is needless to say, that the good
people of Pocahontas are highly in
eensed as we'll as humiliated by this
disgraceful episode. Up to this writ
ing no clue has been found or de-
veloped warranting an arrest.
Pocahontas, as we'll as other sec
tions of this community and the en-
tire county, is cursed by Iawless
element which threatens the very ex-
istence of society. The duly accredit-
ed officers of the county seem unable
to cope with the situation. One OBJ
serving citizen of Pocahontas says
that for wears crime has been ram
pant in his section, and cultivated
rather than fought. The best people
he says, have been holding their
hands, doing nothing. Criminals
brought to court are not punished,
and become bold and defiant, and ac-
tually laugh in the face of the law.
Such high-handed acts as the Po-
cahontas affair, he says, is only a
elimination. What may we not ex-
pcct if the people do not rise en-
masse, and take a hand in the sup
preston of crime?
The Case of DIR. Moiratt.
1t will be recalled, that some years
ago, prominent Baptist minister of
Danville, Va, Rev. DIR. Moffatt, was
shot down in the street in Danville
one night, by saloon keeper. This
deed aroused the people to the en-
ormity and devilshness of the liquor
traffic. And SO, Mr.. Rickmans suffer
ing may be. and will be, the means
of arousing the people not only of
that community but of the entire
county and the state.