Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-10-31
Kentucky Correspondence.

The peace and quiet of an old COM
munity is luxury not realized by those
who enjoy it, and appreciated by others
as we miss it. Kentucky is a daughter
Of Virginia who has not yet grown up to
the sedate steady old age OF her mo-
Their, and her people are only too ready
to draw the pistol or the knife whenever
provoked. Robbers often resist the
officers of the law with threats or with
violence; every now and then we hear
of town marshal killed by fellow.
Since the first of last August, things
have been peculiarly uneasy. There
are several murderers and many robbers
for whom the State has offered re-
ward, walking openly in the streets,
attending public sales, lodging the
sheriffs, feared by the community and
defying arrest. If one man call another
a liar, they get their guns. 1 have
known Of two cases Of minister and Sum
day school being driven out of church
recently by rufians. In one case it
happened only two weeks prior to an
appointment of my own in the same
place, and many feared that my service
also would be broken up. Within ten
miles of my home is one place, and
within ten miles of Louisville Is another
place where policemen prefer not to go,
and where robbers find nest. I sup
pose that on election day there were
half dozen murders within fifty miles
of this place. and in the three months
since, perhaps dozen more have been
killed by violence. I freely grant that
this is an unusual season of violence,
yet l apprehen d that in this younger
commonwealth there is great deal OF
it all the time. Its ca use is three fold.
LIST. Want of religious teaching. The
worst neighborhoeds are those where
there is no Protestant church, and the
truths of salvation are not proclaimed.
1t is impossible for us to reach all points
with the gospel and peculiarly SO in
this neighborhood. l heard lately of
four county seats in Kentucky unblessed
with a church of any denomination.
2nd. The indulgence of temper. In
new countries we find it INDUCED to the
extreme, an here to a considerable eX-
tent.
3rd. The use Of whisky. Within
twenty miles Of this point, there are
nearly twenty distilleries. In town
Of Two thousand inhabitants, we have
five drinking saloons, and half a dozen
other stores that sell whisky. Accord
ingly there is large amount of drink
ing.
This suggestion shows the Importance
Murphy Temperance movement. 1t
has accomplished great good, securing
as signers large proportion of the
people of the communities visited. 1t
has no secret society connected with it,
and its pledge is simple. Il hereby
pledge my word and honor, God help
ing me,.to abstain from all intoxicating
liquors, and to use my influence to in
duce others to do 500
| paid visit the other day to the
new R. r. bridge of the Cincinnati
Southern R. R. over the Kentucky
river. The piers are about 100 feet
long by thirty Or forty feet wide and
sixty feet high. On these piers rest
wrought iron trestles 200 feet high,
eighty feet wide at the base and about
ten feet wide at the top. On these. is
placed the bridge truss all of iron. The
manner of building the bridge was this.
After erecting the trestles, they COM
menced at one bank of the river and
hung horizontal bar to the pier, then
a diagonal and vertical bar, which
being joined formed one section of the
bridge running out like an arm at right
angles from the pier. Then they ran
out upon this arm car with derrick by
which other bars were lowered to their
places, till a second section was added
at the end of the first. Thus section
after section was added from the pier
outward till they reached the first
trestle, completing one span of the
bridge. In like manner the whole
bridge was completed without the use of
any temporary scaffolding.
We have had the dryest summer this
year that has been known for a long
time. The springs are almost dry,
many ponds are dry and there is little
orno water flowing in the rivers. Still
our wheat crop was good and our corn
yields halfa crop. T. E. C.