Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-08-28
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NrcHo.Asv1rIE, KY, Aug. "a. 1886.

NrcHosAsv1rLr, KY, Aug. "a. 1885.
To the EDITOR Of che Eagle.
Recently I visited the city Of Lexington
thu, ,tsid old town now considerably over
100 wears Of age, and which has not q sem
blance of It's former elf. ss I renember it in
my boyhood days before ths VA, away oack
in the sixties, but which was then and Is
now, the metropolis Of the blue grass re-
zion. then dark and bloody" ground and
now the land of "beAutifal women, Rne
bor,e, and good whisky" 1t Is said that
Texas took its name from the words stakes
u.s. as in the couplet:
"When every other land rejects us.
This is the land that freely stakes US. :"
And see no reason why Kentucky should
not sid the word whisky 70 her name, as
"Kentucky is autonomous with and IA
mons the world over for being the land Of:
The thoroughbred so ane and so risky,
OF beautiful women sad good old whisky.
But depression aside, must say that the
whirligig of time hiss wrought some wonder
full changes since the good old" days oil
slavery when tho dark shadow Of human
servtude hung over this fair land like pail
blighting in It's effects everywhere and re-
,ardiny the onward march Of the state in
progress, in intelligence and improvements.
Since those days the city has aroused IRON
her slumber aud has become q beautiful, en-
terpri-ing and thrifty city. The passing
years have taught her people lesson OF
self-relixncc and Independence, and her
handsome ladies no longer consider it q deg
relation to drive their carriages through the
streets, rs they once did when the ''nigger"
was of some importance in their eyes and
was prominently perched on his elevated
seat in front After the war and when the
negro became thing Of contempt he could
no longer be allowed to occupy his conspic-
uous place, but as his services were yet in
dispensible 70 former slave holders
be ws. given . little seat made for
him especially in tie rear Of the
vehicle holding the lines thst ran aSk-
wardly between the shoulders Of the occu-
pants before This lesson OF self-reliance
has at last taught them to dispense with this
despised being in the rear, but the seat still
remsins on many fine carriages made few
wears since, . last memento Of the folly OF
foolish sristocrxcy attempting continuance
Of the departing glory and grandure of old
slave times.
Lexington is also famous ~ having been
the home of the great and beloved Henry
Clay. Her citizens point out to the visitor
the beautiful woodland homestead, ASH
and" the home of the great ''commoner,
and with pride tinged with sadness to the
grand and towering monument erected to
bis memory, beneath which his ashes rest in
lse silent city Of the dead. 1t Is sad to
think, while viewing through the grated
door the casket that contains all that il
mortal of the great Kensuckian Of what mus
have been the anguish that could have
broken his great heart on learning OF The
tragic and untimely death of his fsvoritt
son, and the hope and pride of his declining
years, for of all his sons the gifted young
Henry alone gave promise Of q brilliant fu
ture. The blasting of h lifetime ambition
and the wrecking of fond hope of thu
bright future Of this son carried Henry Clay
brcken-hearted 10 the grave, mourned by
nation as sincere in its sorrow for its great
est statesman as was that of its sorrow on thu
suffering and death Of its greatest soldier, U
5. Grant.
But leaving the beautiful cemetery wher
also lies all that is mortsl of many gsllan
soldier, who fought for the life of that ms
ton whose preservation was so dear to tn
hearts OF that statesman and that soldier, W
went our way again towards the bustlini
city, Forgetting the ambitions and hopes, tn
JOYS and sorrows of the dead, amid the bus,
scenes of the living. Such is life.
G. NJ. HENpREN, NJ ID.