Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-11-06
RAFFERTY, AT BEDFORD,
An Irish Tourists Experience in q QuaiI
Kentucky Village.

An Irish Tourists Experience in a Quaint
Kentucky Village.
People in the East will hardly believe it
when they are told that Kentucky has a
county In which only one man was ever
killed, but 1t is fact Notwithstanding, says
a Bedford (Ky.) letter to the New York
Sun. A number of years ago two intoxi-
Gated men fought in the town and one was
shot to death. That was the only serious
crime ever committed in Trimble County.
Trimble is real Arcadia, Bedford, the
county-seat, being situated almost midway
between two large cities, forty miles from
Louisville and sixty miles from Cincinnati,
fifteen miles from the nearest railroad. Yet
the strife OF the outer world has never
reached here. Crime of any kind is prac-
tically unknown The people are all small
farmers and frult-growers, descendants Of
Virginians and Marylanders who settled
here hundred years ago, and are scrupu-
lously honest. The last lawyer who settled
in Bedford came near starving to death,
and went to Kansas half-dozen years ago.
There Is courthouse in this town, but IL
10 needed only for the preservation Of the
county records, title deeds and such things.
At the last term of the criminal court there
was only one case to be tried. and that was
on Q charge Of petty larceny, But it was
proven that the man was not guilty.
Every resident Of this county is Of pure
English or Scotch descent. There Is not q
foreign-born person in Trimble. Although
80 close to both Louisville and Cincinnati, q
German or Irishman would be a curiosity
in Bedford. Last spring an Irishman, Mike
Rafferty,, from Louisville, CANA to Bedford.
How he ever got here or why he came no
one knows, but soon after his arrival word
was circulated that foreigner had come to
town. Rafferty, went into the grocery to
buy fifteen cents worth Of cheese for din
ner. The proprietor stared curiously at
him, but gave him the cheese, and he sat
down In chair to eat 1t. In few minutes
q crowd Of small boys entered, and ranging
themselves in straight line In front Of the
Irishman, gazed at him with the most evil
dent curiosity. Rafferty, thought there must
be something the matter with his personal
appearance, and asked the proprietor If
there was any thing wrong. The latter re-
Piled in the negative. Mike then wanted to
know why ell the boys were looking at him
"Why. don't you understands" said the
merchant. GAS soon as you bought that
cheese sent out word that there was an
Irishman here. An Irishman don't come to
Bedford every day. In fact, its been ten
years since one was here until you came.
You are the first Irishman those boys ever
saw, end of course you are show to
them.
Rafferty, whistled and then grew indig-
nant. He said he was neither a heather
Chinee, nor did he belong to museum. He
left the store, followed by an increasing
crowd of smafl boys and some rather large
ones. At the street corner he met little
girl carrying q bucket of water The
weather was warm and he asked her for
drink. She looked up, for the first time
in her life saw strangers face, shrieked,
dropped the bucket Of water, and
fed In dismay, That was enough for
the Irishman. He set out for the nearest
railroad station, fifteen miles away, and
never stopped tramping until he got there.
For over mile crowd followed him at q
respectable distance. Since then Bedford
has not been troubled with stranperx