A very large barn, belonging to A. Jackson Snider of Cedarville,
burned last Saturday at about 10 p.m. with all contents, including hay, grain,
wagons, buggies, harness, farm implements, etc. The only thing saved was a
mowing machine.
The building is supposed to have been set on fire, and early
Sunday morning bloodhounds were brought up from Lockney. They took a trail and
led off for a mile or two to a barn, where the parties are supposed to have
ridden away on horses. A young man named Chapman was placed under arrest, but
was adjudged not guilty at a preliminary hearing, Monday evening, before a local
justice. The loss is estimated at $1,200, with no insurance. Snider has been and
continues very ill at his home.
“Aunt Cindy” Vannoy, the aged and highly respected widow of the
late Ben Vannoy, died at her home near Stumptown on Friday morning.
The post office department has done it again! Here we are right
in the middle of another of those semi-annual upheavals in the postal system.
Routes are changed, torn up, new ones started, and postmasters, clerks, and the
public must again get used to a new way.
We are for progress in the post office department--don’t get us
wrong, but we are amazed at how expert that department is in doing their job of
mail distribution the hard way.
Here’s an example: Mail from Grantsville, destination Big Bend,
nine miles away, is sent out each evening by truck at 5:00. The carrier drives
directly to Big Bend, stops at the post office, goes in, gets a sack of outgoing
mail--but does not leave any mail there. Our mail, destined to go from
Grantsville to Big Bend, must instead go right by there, all the way to the
Parkersburg post office, be carried inside and handled by clerks there.
The next morning, the same carrier picks it up from the
Parkersburg post office, hauls it right back to Big Bend in the same truck.
Isn’t that the hard way? It is not unusual for mail going from one place to
another, located only a few miles apart, be routed over 100 miles around, and
handled in several different offices.
It should be remembered that postmasters, clerks and carriers
have no choice but to send mail in the way ordered by officials, yet they are
the ones who get all the complaints and are quite often blamed for delay of
mail. We have found that the county postmasters and clerks are anxious to
dispatch mail as quickly as possible, and we appreciate their cooperation.