Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-08-02

oedutRes OI the kOA0-A 1OVn that
Changes Little-An Ancient Fame
-SuggestiOnS OF the Great Conn
mOner-The Prince of the Turf
Price meGrath-HIs Rare Luck
and Splendid HOspItaIity-HIs Fa-
nous Farm-The Paris Pfke-A
Foolish FaVOrite of Fortune.
LEXINGTON, KY, July 2S.-Whoever visits
this most ancient city of the bluegrass should
make his journey in the summer time, and con-
trive to enter its boundaries between the
lights From Frankfort to Lexington the
road is beautiful, and on either hand the eye
glances from lodge to lodge and mansion to
mansion, and recognizes in the owners names
familiar to the turf everywhere Indeed, from
Indian Hill, the stock farm of R. S. Veech,
Louisville banker noted for his fine trotters,
all the way up to Lexington, is, in sense, his
toric ground. AS we near the city, in that soft,
calm half hour that melts imperceptibly
into a luminous twilight, the dew gilt
ters upon everything; the cows, those
musical bell-Fingers, turn slowly from the
placid pools and fennel banks, and with much
lowing complaint fall into march for home
one feels like calling to them by familiar
names-Black Bess, and Glover, and Bonnie
Belle A plow boy, with mellow whistle on
his lips strides over the mea low path. crush
ing out the pungent odor of half-grown hemp
under his bare feet. A broad brilliant bar
of light runs around the horizon. with here
and there a tongue of scarlet and amber flame
leaping far up into the zenith, where sprinkling
of shining stars begin to flicker in the softened
blue.
There is no change in the familiar aspect
of the city; one might wander long and far,
and, returning. find all the outward
features the same, except few more
white heads and more wrinkles IN the
faces of the people, and perhaps more graves
in the cemetery. On a shady corner stands a
tiny cottage, whose roof is almost covered by
a walnut tree. Here lives a little old woman,
built on a small scale like the cottage, upward
of eighty, and it is said that fifty years ago
she lived in the same house and sold milk and
butter to the people who are dust and ashes
long ago, and whose descendants have risen
and hourished and vanished too since then.
Thus the seasons move and leave their traces
imperceptibly. There Is no tearing down OF
old buildings and running up new ones like
magic, no glare of white paint that dazlles
painfully, no upstart innovation-stop! as we
alight from the train voice shouts, Street
cars for the hotell' and hybrid arrange
ment on wheels, three parts omnibus and one
part car, a sort of compromise between
a Herdic ph8ton and a hearSe,
receives the unwary passenger into
its internal economy and swallows him up
until, after a highswung pitch and-tOsS jour
ney, it disgOrgeS him at the hotel This GER
tainly is an innovation for Lexington and indi-
Gates that the wheel of progress has made at
least one revolution. They are even talking
of pulling down the old court house-so they
have been this quarter of a century-and erect
ing a new temple of justice. Certainly new
one could hardly be better placed for the pre-
sent is one of the oldest landmarks in the city,
scanned and cracked with age, and has attain
ed hue Of indescribable dingineSs. The good
citizens have always hesitated to consent to
its demolition because Of the old associations
connected with it, Some OF the most brilliant
orr tionS and fiery eloquence of kentucky's
greatest men have been heard from
its forum, and some of the most famous
trials in the judicial history of the State car
ried on within its walls. year or two since,
while q begrimed and neglected corner was
undergoing repairs, in a nook where it had
lain for a generation, an old rusty iron spit
toon was unearthed which was recognized as
having once belonged to Henry Clay, whose
office years ago occupied this very corner.
What associations clustered around this vener-
able relic! Think of the numerous tobacco
guilds elected from the mouth of wisdom that
had found Judgement in this receptacle. The
site of another of Clays offices IS a shabby,
low browed building in Cheapside, and there
are those who proudly point out the indenta-
tions in the trunks of some sycamores on the
sidewalk made by the great mans boot heels
as he propped his legs against them while he
went off into fathomleSs speculatiOns. There
is monument, old and weather stained, in
corner of the court house yard erected long
since to William T. Barry, a citizen, who was
once our Minister at the Court OF st. James.
The question has recently been agitated in re-
gard TO erecting a similar statue to General
breckenridge as companion piece and plac-
ing it here, but the LeXiDgtonianS have cou-
cluded that the gallant soldiers grave in the
cemetery is the fitting place for such memorial
The town is still and peaceful One passes
through the quiet streets with echoing footballs
Masonic Tan1nip n
and standing in wide, grassy yard-past the
green campus of old Pennsylvania, through the
length and breadth Of Main street, from Ash
land at one end 10 the cemetery at the other
The residence of W. G. GoodlOe, erstwhile our
Minister at the Belgian Court, is closed and the
family abroad as is also Wickliffe Place, an ir-
regular, roomy double cottage, with dormer
windows and surrounded by acre or two of
yard, on Short street, the home of General
William Preston, who, with his family, is sum-
mering at the Virginia springs Senator Beck's
house, on High street, is also shut up, while
the Senator himself lodges at the Phenix, in
tent on political schemes.
Out in the cemetery in the shadow of the
Clay monument they have made a new grave,
and in iC laid away the form of him who used
to be lovingly called Uncle Price, by many
who were pensioners uDOn his unstinted boun-
ty, and ''The Laird of McGrathiana" by those
who enjoyed his lavish hospitality. Years ago
Price McGrath was a tailor in Versailles an
aristOcratic, exclusive village, where a trades
man was hardly accorded the privilege of sit
chanic was almost infamy It was an atmos-
phere in which no parvenus could breathe.
Nevertheless, Price McGrath, with the odum
of his calling still upon him, gradually
made his way into the haut ton and
soon found himself a favorite in it. Frank,
manly end sincere, liberal with whatever he
possessed toward every one, he was always
popular with men, and graceful and handsome
in person. with native instincts Of good breed
ing, and the happy art of telling good story
and making witty repartee. he was welcome
70 fEa
for when is it that a sparkling bon mot or a
brilliant jest does not make mans fame and
fortune at a leap, in comparison with the solid
merit that takes the quiet byWayS fer its plod
ding? McGrath went South and established
1Ourshing business in Vicksburg, and mingled
with the best society and most influential men
in that region. He still spent much OF his time
in Kentucky and developed a keen interest in
racing matters. He had also become an ex-
pert gambler. Indeed he had elevated gam
bling 10 fine art, and on his trips up and
down the Mississippi, and during his winter
abOdes in New Orleans, scored the fine old
Southern planters and came off with flying
colors always. He lived principally in the
Southern cities until the close Of the war when
he returned to Kentucky and purchased an
elegant farm just outside Lexington. He had
long since relegated the shears ana the goose
to others, and it was almost forgotten that he
had ever been anything but a cultivated and
elegant gentleman with plenty Of money and
leisure. Since the war his career as a turf
man outside of Kentucky has been identified
dlDuOSb altogether WIN D06 EdSDern courses.
and he has been prominently connected with
various elegant gambling concerns, notably
those Of John Morrissey's at Saratoga
and DelmonicO's in New York city
Upon purchasing his farm he ex-
pended enormous sums to make it. one of
the most beautiful places ia the blue grass
He was now permanently located. so far as
having fixed spot to call home, and he now
came cut as profess iOnal turfman. His man
sion crowns a gentle hill, and the sIables
roomy, airy, and elegant, are ranged at the
foot of the slope in the rear. Many gasping
inmate of a city tenement would look longngly
upon the abodes here provided for the dumb
creatures. The house is surrounded with wide
piazzas and balconies, and makes a beautiful
picture. mcGrath entertained at all times
with the most generous hospitality and kept
truly open doors for every one Here was tha
head-centre of all cabalistic turf secrets. and
what the master uttered was orecuiar for
the turfmen. Just before the sprinpy
and fall meetings on the Lexington course il
was his custom to give sumptuous dinner to
the assembled sportsmen, and not to them
alone, but all the surrounding country pantrv
for miles, all the brilliant public men, wits,
doctors-aye, even the D. DIS did not disdain to |
SIT down with the Laird and his friends and !
mlnge IN that rare and varied flow of brilliant
table talk that made the charm Of those occa- |
slons. III there was a great actor or a grand /
Diva stopping in the toWr as any season when 4
the master was at home, they received gra- |
cious invitation to a banquet or a reception at |
McGrathiana in their honor. and the great car
riage was sent into town 70 bring them out |
ia all imaginable state, and the Laird went |
with them over his lovely grounds and took |
them to his stables 10 inspect his world
famous beauties. Amongst his long list |
of racers Tom Bowling and Aristides were
the most renowned, and after Tom
won the silver punch bowl at Saratoga mas
sive thing fit for an Emperor-it wa ATccrathss