Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-09-01
MINISTER FLAYS
MlNGO OUTLAWS
IN STRONG talk
osNoUNCES MEN WHO USE
ARMS TO ENDANoER
LIBERTY.
UPH0LDS ACT OF OFFICERS

OF them fatally, all were shot IN the
back, and further that all the men
the State Police organization lost.
were killed in Mingo county. the Rev.
J. V. Carpenter. pastor of the Pres
byterian church in Williamson. in a
recent Sunday evening sermon, drew
a vivid picture OF conditions in Mingo
county
His text was from Leviticus a5:10,
And proclaimed liberty throughout
all the land to all inhabitants there
Off, the Rev. Carpenter paralleled it
with the clause OF the constitution
OF the United States guaranteeing to
every citizen the right to life, liber-
ty and pursuit Of happiness.
Take those two fundamental be-
liefs OF all good Americans, weigh
them together and then look at Min
go county" the pastor declared.
For year or more past we have
had a series OF horrors and blood
shed. that would make the blood of
even Mexican run cold. We have
the name now, the world over of
Bloody Mingo,' and we deserve IL.
because OF the way we have behaved
and the way we have allowed others
to behave.
Carrying firearms In this county
seems to be so deeply engraved into
the minds of some that many do not
seem to think that they are fully
dressed unless they have a couple
of guns belted around them. Passers
along the public highways have high
powered rifles on their shoulders and
yet there is nothing in the way OF
game in these hills that requires that
sort of gun. And when one goes out
with rifle of that character to spend
day. he is not hunting squirrels
| he is hunting men.
Officers of the law, sworn to en-
force the laws of the state for our
own good. have been fred on from
ambush while about their duties OF
seeing to the enforcement OF law and
order. Three State Police members
were shot and killed. the bullet from
the assassins' rifle being fired from
the rear, while he lay In ambush.
And finally another State Police Off
Ger was seriously wounded and for
while lay almost at the point OF death
because he was at the task assigned
to him by his superiors Of rounding
up for an investigation some Of the,
persons suspected of being perpe-,
traitors of this promiscuous shooting
and cowardly ambushing. And in
this effort to round up some of these
offenders, another man was killed,
out upon the hillside and away from
his home with a rifle in his hand;
with water and food and ammunition
that would last him day. The bar
rel of his rife was still hot when he
was picked up and an empty cart.
ridge shell was in his gun showing
that he was opposing the officers OF
the law and by his very opposition
was making himself an outlaw.
And then to cap all this, this man
who was killed while the officers were
trying to do their sworn duty and to
arrest and bring to the county seat
the men who had endangered their
lives; the lives Of our sheriff and our
assistants, this man who was shot
upon the hill and had with him evil
dence that he had gone out on the
hills to stay at least q day at his self
appointed and lawless task; this man
who had a high-powered rifle with
with him; this man who made him
self an outlaw by resisting arrest by
n rfn
man who used his gun to try to inHict
wounds II not to kill the duly elected
and duly sworn officers OF this county
and state. was given a heros fu-
neral.
''Oh, Americans Of Mingo, to have
that man preceded to his grave by
the American flag is gross asper-
sion on that glorious flag. That man
who died resisting the law Of the
land and who made himself thereby
an outlaw, honored by the symbol of
! the law and the government at his
grave. Oh. men. what would Lincoln
say to that Oh men, what would
those who sleep in Flanders field say
to such sighti We might 3ust as
well enshroud Benedict Arnold and
Aaron Burr and Grover Bergdoll in
the flag and lay them away. The prin-
ciple is just the same"
Rev. Carpenter said some were in
the procession because they did not
think; some were there because they
had been persuaded by propaganda
and some were there because they
wanted to be-because they regarded
the outlaw as a hero. The pastor
pointed out that he takes no part in
the difference between the miners
and operatOrs