For those in need of a touch of levity on a Friday afternoon, I offer the
following quotation from the Grand Jury Presentments of Cumberland County,
Virginia, September 1816:

        We the grand Jury impanelled in the Sept. Court of Law for
Cumberland County do present John Lipscombe for gambling & permiting
unlawing [sic] gaming in his Tavern in said County within six months last
past, on the information of John W. Nash, Atty. at Law of the County of
Cumberland who was called upon by the Grand Jury.
        We present as a public grievance the Act of Congress passed at the
last session of Congress commonly called the Compensation Bill by which a
considerable addition is made to the pay of the Members of Congress & an
annuity is substituted for a per diem allowance. We refrain from any comment
as the freeholders can apply the proper corrective at the Elections in April
next.
        Jerman Baker, foreman


Happy Weekend!
        John Hopewell, Archivist, Local Records, Library of Virginia

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