Wheeling Sunday Register

The daily output of the mines in and about Fairmont is some 1,500 tons. Four hundred miners are employed and it has been calculated that their yearly wages amount to $212,000—that is reckoning at 40 cents per ton. This vast volume of money, circulating in a community of say 2,000 souls, has of course relieved them of the pinch and distress felt elsewhere; and hence they wear a more cheerful air and utter less complaints than those of other and less favored towns. The Fairmont mines are the New England, Gaston, Jackson, O'Donnell, West Fairmont, and the new mine opened up by the Newburg Co. Who that visits Fairmont can fail to notice the moral, quiet, and scholarly tone of the place, and the intelligent disposition of its people? It is a marked characteristic. The men and women you meet seem to be a little better dressed, more suave and affable, than in some other towns. Perhaps the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the wines they use, are purer, clearer, more choice, than in the average place. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. Be the cause what it is, the fact exists. It may be as safely ascribed to the moral influence and polishing effect of the State Normal School, as to any other means.

This institution, which is one of the most creditable of the State establishments, is the prominent feature of Fairmont, and its influence is far reaching and highly beneficial. By an apportionment, six hundred free scholarships have been distributed among the different counties of the State, which entitles the holders thereof to a perfect course of tuition in the Normal schools free of charge. The scholarships are distributed by the County Superintendents; or to be more explicit and correct, the Superintendents select the person from among the applicants in their county "who may be entitled to the privilege of the Normal schools."

The scope of the course of study at Fairmont, and the main design of the school is to furnish and send out teachers fitted in every respect to conduct all grades of our State free schools. That the Fairmont institution as it has been, and now is conducted, has accomplished this high aim, it is but necessary to examine and inquire into the history and struggles of that splendid body of men and women, coming thence who have devoted and consecrated themselves and their endeavors to the public school system of West Virginia. Since 1873, there has been enrolled in the list of students 2,348 names. Of these, many now grace the pulpit or shine at the bar. The greater number, however, mindful of their obligations, are making ample returns to the State, (as ten to one,) by following the profession for which they were educated. Of the Alumni Association, it is stated that four-fifths of the total number are engaged at school work in West Virginia and other States.

This is a splendid and creditable showing and one that the "powers that be" should not forget when they come to grant aid to the Fairmont school; forsooth the rumor is that the State has failed in its accustomed liberality in dealing with this most deserving establishment. In morals and government