The Gavelyte, September 1910

The Gavelyte. VOL. V. SEPTEMBER 1910. NO. 7. "The Clearing of the Shadows." BY WENDELL FOSTER. _<\.u thor of 'l'he LPtlt' r " . hich t ra ig h tenect ,i '!'a ngl e, 'l'he 'l'wo Aco rn ", l ' he 11, ll ol' t h e Wood, et c. Somehow- no one ever knew how or could understand what was the cause– all people ever knew was, that little ten year old Katie came running to "that Sunday School man"- - as the little dirty ragged street urchin would call him– crying as if her heart would break and what Hastings (who ·was the "Sunday School man") could make out between her sobs was- that Billy- her playmate was killed. You are wondering who Katie and all the rest of them are, where they live and what kind of people they can be. About the middle of the last century the great Kanawa and Michigan rail road was built. Extending across the state of Ohio from the North to the South and then following up the great Kanawha river into the mountains of West Virginia. Away back and up where the springs and trout streams come running and tumbling down over the cliffs and rocks- where the lofty pines send forth their soothing breath and the wind plays upon ten thousand pure toned harps of God's own making-where the crow and the eagle find towers of majestic height and beauty around which "The Great King" has thrown his arms of Heavenly protection-here on the highest summit they have made their homes and reared their young back through the ages of time. But now the mountains are desolate. The inhabitants have flown away to the sunny South land; for as the .moon lifts its smiling face above yonder lofty summits it beams the radiance of its creation down upon an imprisoned and slumbe ring world. The mighty forest is bending low under the yoke of Heaven's ffeecy down and springs and streams are firmly boond in the arms of the mighty ice King. On these sloping heights many an innocent deer has fallen by the hand of the crafty Indian hunter. Here is the place the Great Kanawha re– ceives its momentum and force which sends it down- down over countless holde rs and fall s till at last it ends its winding wonderings on the bosom of the ~ aceful Ohio. But it is not of these creations fulfiling the laws of nature we wish to ~peak. Lying in a protected nook along the banks of the Kanawha - up high in the mountains - back from civilization- surrounded by forest is Goes Bend- the town which mans the Boomer coal field of West Virginia. You would think