The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1881-05-20
GROTESOUE PEOPLE.
A Number Of them Who Have Been Pouud
In the Interior Of Kentucky.

characters IN the novels OF Charles
Dickens is accounted as preposterous
and impossible by American readers.
The monotony of individual character
with us apparently makes the material
for literature meagre. Yet there are
quaint personages in every community,
and heroes and heroines of novels are
walking about among us every day. A
correspondent from New Haven, Nelson
county, in this state, writes to the Post
an account of a family wherein odd sur
names have run riot. In the family
Bible are written the names of "London
Judge" Revenue Belle" "China
Figure" "Reptile Kingdom" "Hebrew
Fashion" "Greek Wisdom" and Hell
in the Kitchen" These are the child
rem of Mr.. Hamilton, three of them girls
and three boys. The domestic occupa-
ton of Hell in the Kitchen" is obvi-
u from the appellation by which she
was consecrated at birth to the work her
name implies. OF course no living
creature coming under the control of
Mr.. Hamilton could escape the freaks of
his nomenclature, and when "London
Judge" and Revenue Belle" girls, go
about their ploughing, it is with such
oxen as "Buck" and "Bolly." Not
content with the original name of "Lon-
don Judge" Mr.. Hamilton has added to
her the nickname of "Squeezle Toilet"
Hamilton goes to Louisville oncea year
and purchases clothing similar to meal
sacks" says our veracious correspon-
dent, and these garments last the child
rem an entire year; the meal is then
scattered upon the garnet floor to the
depth of several feet to prevent it from
molding. Such is the outline of the
circumstances of a remarkable man. He
is not accounted peculiar in other re-
spects, and is master of his own house
hold, al intelligent man of comfortable
estate, and a good citizen. Nelson
county is one of the best in the state of
Kentucky.
All who are familiar with the talk of
any country town are able to recall
many similar histories. In Jessamine
county a man by the name of Bowen
would never enter his house except by
the back door, and never leave it except
by the front. He selected early in life
the spot for his burial, beneath ain old
oak tree, remote from all other graves,
in an open field, and there was buried.
Mackey Duncan of the same county,
whose occupation, that of a carpenter,
is altogether unfavorable to the pursuit
of knowledge, is one of the most learned
men, after a fashion, in America. He
knows the date of every important event
in thA world's history, year, month, and
day, aAd, when essential, the minute.
His knowledge of the family history of
all prominent people is something mar
velous.
One OF the best pictures painted by
Gen. s. W. Price, produced in his early
career, and, still in his possession, is
that of cold Solomon, the Grave
Digger" Years ago his bronzed and
hardened face was familiar in the streets
of Lexington, He wa rarely seen in
his tattered garments without the stump
of a cigar in his mouth. He was a con-
noisseur in this article and kept himself
supplied with fragmentary Havanas, the
refuse of the street. He was q grave
digger worthy of Hamlet, and being
possessed of both humor and senti-
ment, he was well capable of refec-
lions on the Yoricks of his day. Old
Aunt Mary, the colored ragpicker,
known as the judge, has been a
figure in that Athens of the West as long
the memory of a generation OF two.
Industrious in her pursuit, she has ac-
cumulated q few hundred dollars, but
Independent enough to live in a dry
goods box surrounded by her rags. 1t
is painful to say that this temporary
domicile was utterly consumed by fire
q winter or so ago, the Judge only
escaping with the rags on her back.
To return to the district were both the
and those who eat them are we'll
fed, if not fat. Was old man Billy Cook,
Nicholasville, ever known to drive q
horse of any other than q cream color?
There was Spriggins, also, who lived in
pugnacious days Of fist fights and
personal encounters, who was q man well
connected and educated. His general
course was in the middle of the street,
especially at night, a stone in his pocket
hands. When asked the reason of
this habit, he used to reply, go, a man
never knows vino is waiting around the
corner for him" In Woodford county
lives a man, the owner Of 1000 acres
Of the best land in the world, who ac-
enough money every year to
add 100 acres to his possessions, who
only buys what is absolutely essential to
existence. A few years ago he married.
his courtship he bought a
Starting to Lexington on his
first trip after marriage his wife spoke
1i buying some articles necessary to the