Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-06-30
FROM HIRAM.

III Is currently fepOrteu lnaJ ltcV'
Sam Jones, the great evangelist, will
visit this city in the fall, That he
will be greeted by teeming thou
sands 40 one who knows these peO-
pie will for moment question. For
while they are the clcvcrcst and
gentlest people on earth; yet they
certainly are very eXcitable-ever
ready to swarm, to turn out ell masse
either at frolic or a funeral. | have
watched them in times of great com
motions, watched them when the
lurid glare Of their homes painted
hell on the face Of midnight; stood
in their midst possibly the least eX-
cited man among thousands, while
the red flames were licking their
forked tongues round and about
homesteads that were reared only
after years Of hard labor. Again
have heard strong men talk only in
bated breath when tnat loaths0me
scourge, the smallpox, reveled amid
the choicest flowers in more than
one garden; but | have never seen
these people SO stirred up over any
thing as they were over the "Sham-
rock Oil" man and his dusky crew,
whose songs made the welkin ring
for nights. | am free TO say | am
passionately fond of negro min
slrel. The sparkling wit of the end
men, the tender pathos of the old
plantation melodies, the sweet strains
Of music, the song, the dance, the
builooncry, all keep time TO the
stormy music of my nature. | never
miss II show of this sort. Reared be-
meath the fostering shadows of Pond
river hills, fed in part like Elijah by
the ravens, in early life listening 10
no sweet mnsic save the gentle mur-
mur of a hundred rills or the wild
roar of the hurricane as it went tear
ing down the mountain Businesses,
losing only its fury when it struck
the fertile valleys whore the red deer
wanders and the child leaves to-day
beyond, caring nothing for the con-
ventiOnalities of civilized life. | have
ever taken my chances, dctied public
opinion, gone where and done as
pleased; but TO see so many people
crowd nightly into those streets
amused me. Did you ever see such
heterogeneous mass of surglng hu-
manity, all sizes, ages, castes aud
conditions were here TO hear those
ebony colored sons of Ham, chant
that grand old masterpiece of some
composer, around whose brow the
laurel wreath has long since en-.
twined, whose every foot, verse, line
and stanza was CLAN, ham, oh, do
give us good old ham, On the cor
her stood gray haired venerable
looking old man, ripe for deaths
reaper and trust ripper even still fol
Heaven, with nothing behind him
but the memory Of his life's deeds, be
they good or bad, with nothing be,
fore him but an open grave and {
vast and never ending eternity. On
the courthouse steps sat woman,
queenly, beautiful woman, beautiful
as childhood's dream Of Heaven, pu
rer than a snow flake ere it touches
the earth, the music of whose voic,
aud the luster of whose eye, hav,
made many heart throb, sent many
thrill through frames adamantn,
in their textures and gigantic il
their proportions. Oh beautiful ant
: guileless creature, how it must liav,
f made your tender fornftremble likt
the aspen before the storm god, whcl
that gifted medicine man told yol
the cholera morbus was abroad il
the land and you knew not the day
or hour when like the ghost in Mac
beth it would rise up before you. o.
, the other corner occasionally cOul(
be seen a minister of the gospel, (whC
. came down town to meet trient
and stopped only a moment to Sc,
, what the excitement was), might
men of God who teach us in the pul
.. pit TO shun the very appearance o
, evil, who follow in the footsteps O
| the guileless Nazarene, chosen an,
: dedicated and set apart for such no
: bic and lofty purposes, what inspira
= ton you must have received for tn
0 next sermon from that long disserta
n ton on the subject of dysentery fror
g the lips Of that "pertpatctic vende
f of patent nostrums" as a friend @
: mine would say. Gentle reade
4 don't understand me TO cast any re
It Election on anybody for attendin
= these concerts, l merely want to sho'
t. that poor human nature is the sam
In us all. | would sooner have th
arm to fall nerveless at my side tha
@ to say one word against a ministe
G The very tenderest recollections {
=, my lite are associated with then
s In fact | was cut out for minister
., but some how l was spoiled in ii
D making and went the other roat
+ But this is too long and l must clos,
g HIRAM.