The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-10-30
THE BLUE GRASS REGION.
The Cultivated People of This Section and
Their Happy Pastoral Life.

IheiT I2appy Allcs
Letter in the New York Evening Post.
That one may hear the English Ian
guage spoken here in purity; that the
best magazines are read; that Ameri-
can authors are discussed and intelli-
gently liked or disliked; that young
ladies know good music and are as we'll
dressed as those ofNew York; i'll short,
that there is here class ofpeople who,
in all that goes to make up culture
wealth, travel, manners, morals,
speech, etc.-are the equals of the best
Americans to be found anywhere, are
truths unsupported by many, and
doubtless Incredible to many others
with whom invincible ignorance or in
grained prejudice are obstacles to faith.
The pastoral life goes on nprosperously
and happily year after year in the
blue grass region. 1t is necessary that
discrimination be made at the outset
as to locality Between the dwellers
in this rich rolling plain and the in
habitants of the river and mountain
count les is all the difference, as re-
spects cultivation and peacefulness,
that one might reasonably expect to
find between different races. Undoubt-
edly by the stranger who should visit
this country for the first time, the
class of people first to be met and
studied are the more prosperous and
intelligent farmers. He need not go
among them armed to the teeth. In
the vicinity of the towns he will find
that some of them are men of busi-
ness in town-bank officers, profess
sors, lawyers, etc. And SO they are
men of ideas. They have private Ii
braries, they drive the most beautiful
of horses over the most beautiful of
level white limestone roads. The
grounds and the woodlands around
their homes are sometimes worthy of
an English park. OF course you will
expect to see the herds of Jerseys and
Durhams grazing over their fertile
meadows. One of them may showyou
the stables where famous trotters or
racers are being groomed. Anoth-
er may take you to the aromatic
shed where his men are pressing
the tobacco which has of late begun
to be so largely cultivated in this part
of the State. Another may open for
you the bonded warehouse, where "old
Bourbon" is stored away, barrel above
barrel, tier after tier, and, of course, if
you have a mind to, you can find out
what cold Bourbon lis when you return
to the shaded veranda- You walk to
some knoll, and from it's summit cast
your eye over the succession ofmead-
ow, field and forest. The negroes arefol-
lowing the ploughs down lifelong rows
of the young Indian corn The shuttle
OF the reaper is heard in the wheat field
on the distant hillside, and the faint
scream of a locomotive as it rushes
along the banks of the winding river.
A cool wind, sweet with the odor of
wild rose and elder bloom, with the sa-
lubrious smell of freshly cut clover, or
newly ploughed earth, blows from this
quarter and from that. Above you is
the deep, serene blue, with white clouds
drifting over. Under you is the deep
green of the velvet turf. Around you
is an atmosphere the most luminous
and crystalline. To you come the
coo of building doves, the notes of the
speckle breasted lark, the shrek ofthe
iIritated blue jay, the drowsy tattoo
of the woodpecker, driving his bill
against the top of a dying walnut.
You think OF the heat and dust and
din and WEAKNESS of the great city,
and thank your stars that you are In
the blue grass region Of Kentucky,