Pages from the Past

Pages from the Past 1860 Sentenced to death for selling newspaper A portent of the US Civil War appeared in the Westmeath Independent during September 1860, in the shape of an article that outlined how a man was under sentence of death by hanging in a city in the Southern state of Arkansas. The Civil War sparked by the decision of eleven Southern states, in early 1861, to secede from the United States and form the Confederate States of America. The tensions, though, were clearly evident from the Westmeath Independent story which outlined how a respectable trader of St Louis, named Henry A. Marsh, established a news depot in Texas, which subsequently expanded into other Southern states and cities. He subsequently received an order at his Camden depot for 50 copies of the New York Tribune, a radical newspaper which campaigned for the abolition of slavery. The Westmeath reported: "As a matter of business, Marsh undertook to fill the order, and the package arrived in due course of times, which he was at Memphis. "It having been noised about Camden that the Tribune was about being circulated, through the medium, indirectly, however, of Mr. Marsh, a committee of three me were appointed to go after Mr. Marsh and bring him back to Camden," he said. "When he was brought back he was arraigned on the charge of circulating seditious and incendiary documents, was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging." The New York Tribune justifiably remarked: "We have sometimes been taunted with the meagreness of our circulation in the Slave Sates, though we have more subscribers than almost any other journal, whether issued north or south. It is not the people's fault that we have no more. They want the Tribune, are willing to pay for it, but when the penalty of buying it is death by strangulation, they very naturally hang back." 1910 The decline and fall of Athlone Fair The Westmeath Independent asked: "Can anything be done to recover the reputation of the Athlone Fairs? Year after year they are deteriorating yet nobody seems to be very much troubled by the fact. That is not the spirit we would like to see live in Athlone. The fairs should be an important source of income to the town, but more than that they should form part of its general prosperity. "In a town where the fairs are failing, there is usually and unhealthy state of public life. We do not know of any reasons why our fairs should not be as good as they were in the past. All we know is that they are not. "We think we suggested before a meeting between the principal breeders in the district and the townspeople, to see if something was not possible to give new life to our fairs. If some action is not speedily taken, Athlone, in the near future, will be one of the town, without fairs, or any way, fairs worth talking about." The land war in Cam "The first blow to visitors has been struck by the people that has been granted in the Cam Grazing Case and the prompt action taken by the Estate Commissioners in reference to the St George Estate generally. The owners are plainly anxious to sell, but the agreements entered into have been upset by the fact that the that when the Estate Commissioners came to examine into their purchase they found that land they had agreed to buy as untenanted was held in large part by Mr. Martin who had a judicial tenancy established. That tenancy must now appear on the entire estate will fall back upon the hands of the owners, for not a penny towards the purchase money will be advanced by the Estates Commissioners. "It has changed the entire character oft he situation and has left practically no option now but a surrender that will allow this vast quantity of grasslands to be parcelled out amongst the people in this wretchedly congested area. In no part of Ireland, is there to be found a more hard working or industrious community than in the parish of Cam. They are obliged to live on little uneconomic patches of land, and how they have succeeded in keeping themselves together working up on such limited opportunities is difficult of explanation; that they have done so is a further testimony to their industry. The holdings are so terribly small and contracted that agricultural labourers cannot find employment there 1960 Road safety - a moral problem Some things never change - the following editorial included in the Westmeath Independent could be from any newspaper in the modern era. "As traffic mounts on the roads, the risks to life and limb increase accordingly, and the vigilance of all road users must be intensified to offset these fresh hazards. Although mischance and genuine efforts of judgement on the part of drivers and other road users contribute to the fatality and accident rates to an appreciable degree each year, there is no doubt that carelessness and lack of proper sense of responsibility on part of no small percentage of road users accounts for many of the sad happenings on our thoroughfare these days. The density of traffic engendered by the holiday periods of the year, together with the development of the tourist trade generally, have magnified the dangers of the situation, as it is noticeable that the toll of the road is heaviest during the July, August and September months."