The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-10
A RHAPSODY ON KENTUCKY.
The Ten and Women, the Whisky, Horses and
Tobacco Of the Bluegrass Country.

Tobacco Of the Bluegrass Country.
Old Arts Throckmorton description of
Henry Clay, who, whether before the
courts of Europe or in the Senate of the
United States or at a card table, was al
ways Captainp' is typical of the species.
The bluegrass belt by no means limits
the Species though the typical Kentuck
ian fourishes there in greatest luxuriance.
But through the fat lands of the Purchase,
through the Pennyroyal of the Green River
Principalitinate, even to the Highlands of
the Big Sandy, where the squinch owl
squincheth and the whangdoodle mourn
eth, and the Hatsfelds and the McCoys
hold high carnival, he abounds, with vary
ing feature, but ever the same spirit.
Half Gascon and half Saxon. with a
dash of the Corscan, the Kentuckian
needs no placard upon his back as he
strolls down the Strand in London or along
the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. He carries
his letter of introduction in his face; his
passport is his very gait. That face is a
symphony in self.contidence; that gait
study in the art of locomotion. You rec
ognize him at once as a Kentuckan, and
you So y to him Excuse me, partner-but
[ m from Gods country myself-let's go
in and have something!" You would
never venture to take such liberty with
Il
shirted Virginian, even if by some pecu-
liar cut of his jib you CHANGED correctly to
place him.
Yet the Kentuckian is not man to be
lightly taken and indiscriminately slapped
upon the shoulder His clothes are OF the
sured position nowise lower than that of
the haughtiest Englishman. But there is
in his swagger an easy grace, like a Jockey
on thoroughbred, wholly wanting to the
dull uniformity of English swagger. There
is in his hauteur a ruddy but self-possessed
glow of good humor-an unsuspecting
geniality, upholstered by too many layers
of self-comp lacency and defended by too
full an arsenal of ready tact, and, in cases
of emergency, other appliances for main
tanning his personal dignity, to apprehend
unwelcome liberties-the sublimity of real
disdain-never attained even by the no.
bles of the Regime Ancien. He does not
in the least resemble an Irishman, and yet
he has much of Irish wit and imprudence.
He is just Kentuckian, sir,-dam- me! !
and he is not ashamed of it, sir! If you
think that he is, try him and see.
But the Kentucky woman who is
cards"a1. The Kentucky woman has has not not
her like on the face of the globe. Journey
through the blue grass country, and a
plain girl is the exception; an ugly one
impossible. There is something in the
blue of the grass that makes blue in the
blood; something in the limestone water
that vitalizes and beauties all physical
| life Look at the horses Look at the horse
men! But the women! There isn't
| farm house that can't produce a woman
who, if she should step thence upon
throne wouldn't stand there, or sit there
| as though she were born to it. They are
| quite as self-confident as the men, though
| after different pattern. They have
beauty and health; they have charm;
they have style; they have quick percep-
of the time they dress well, walk well,
ride well, and--if you think they were
| not born to reign as well as to shine-mar-
| ry one of them!
| The horses are all well enough. They
| set the pace the wide world over. The
| whisky is well enough. Drink with mod
Grafton and with sugar in your'n as we
| drink it; it yields liberal education.
The tobacco is well enough. They SNUG
| gle it into Havana, and while it has made
| Cuba's fame-a distinction we can afford
the Queen of the Antilles-it brings us an
income which makes the cotton planters
weep and the very sugar canes to bow
| their heads in homage.
Yet, after all. our crown of glory is the
| Kentucky woman; and whether she
| sweeps down Broadway on sunny Octo-
| Der afternoon, beating London and Paris
out of sight and binding Father Knick-
| erbocker's eyes with her radiance, or
whether she rides cross country taking
| Elkhorn at a leap, or bewitches the head
waters of Eagle in simple calico, she wears
| the blue ribbon Nor English rose, nor
Grecian statute, nor Star of the North,
nor bird Of Paradise can make her to take
the second place. Louisville Courier