Blue-grass blade., 1895-01-13
The Shelby--S -Shanklin--Moore
Hyphenation and What
the People and the
Press Say About it.

I have received many expressions OF
sympathy, oral and written, from men
and women, about the Shelby matter.
1t has been published generally over
the United States, and l republish, in
this issue, sample oe the utterances,
from the New York World.
The trend of these paper comments is
that I published something rejecting
upon the competency and integrity with
which the Breckenridge side of the Pol
lard-Breckinridge case had been man.
aged, using the name of Shelby in that
connection, and that Shelby came with
his friend Shanklin to see me about it;
that l was inclined to be conciliatory,
while Shelby was not inclined to be con-
ciliated. that he broke small cane over
my phenomenally heavy suit of hair,
without hunting me, and then pulled
nv beard, and that then caught him
and held him like child to keep him
from doing further damage, until the
excited little lawyer cooled down." as
one of them expressed it, and that was
an infidel and Prohibitionist, and more
than ordinarily forbearing, and had, III
this spirit, refrained from hurting Mr.
Shelby, being strong man, and he be-
ing small one, and that MIR. Shelby
left my Office apparently ashamed OF his
performance; making, in the whole
quite correct report of it.
The accounts nearly all mention the
fact that SHELBY is the man who struck
the attorney in the Pollard-Breckinridge
case in Washington" and seem to think
that Shelby's assault upon me was of &
piece with that in Washington.
So far as can now see, the episode
will not only damage Shelby, but Breck
inridge, and help me.
Whatever the details may be, the great
world will only see that Shelby was de
Tending Breckenridge, and that l was
trying to help a poor broken hearted
woman, admitting, as she does, that she
had done wrong but contending for the
"single standard" of sexual virtue.
What the world thinks about Breckin'
ridge is shown by the fact that al
Charleston, South Carolina, Breckin
ridge had an audience of only forty peo
pie, one being woman.
Breckenridge deserved great deal o.
punishment, and yet am sorry for him
and hope that some day, and some way
his clouds will roll by, and that his dis
tinguished genius may yet do good fol
his country; though say now, as l al
ways have done, that apart from his gif
of oratory, which is never anything
more than a kind of intellectual gym
nastics, Breckinridge is, in no sense, g
great man.
Mr.. Shelby is one of the last men in
Kentucky that ought to fight; not only
because he is not physically built that
way, but because he is intellectually
built so as to defend himself in a more
civilized way.
Even while was the subject of his
lampooning, could but feel some coun-
ty pride in him when saw how he go1
his adjectiyes together, to villify me, as
compared with the eunworkmanlike man
ner in which Bill Owens did the same
thing.
Any common rough, uneducated and
unrefned backwoods boor, could have
done much better what Mr.. Shelby die
on the "beak and claw" plan, or vi e.
armis, as they called it in Mr.. Shelby:
profession. But Mr.. Shelby belongs tc
one of the finest families of the State
and, instead of adding to the bad repu
tation of Kentucky, now so bad that
Cincinnati Judge will not extradite I
criminal here, because of the murderou:
reputation of our people, Mr.. Shelby
should act so as to redeem, as tar as pos
sible, our reputation.
If | had told mean and scandalous
lie about him, he is enough of scholar
and reasoner to know that there is nc
logical connection between what l salo
and what he did. There is nothing, ev
| ID ~o%;x,a oh a h1nxu
in question of veracity.
There is no newspaper in the worlo
that can make me want to fight because
it said lied.
If the fellow proves that have lied, hs
had right to say it. and the more l stu
it up the more l advertise 1t. But II
have reputation for being truthful
man, an unsupported charge OF that
kind, so far from hurting me, actually
helps me.
MIR. Shelby's caste and family standing
are such as would warrant him in treat
ing with silent contempt, any unjust
charge that might be brought agains
him.
/ suppose that what l said recently
about him was not so much "the heao
and front of the offending" as the straw
that broke the camel's back.
have, more than once, alluded to the
lack of legal acumen that was used in th'
management Of Breckinridges side o
the great case.
The only thing that kept it from bein,
comedy of errors" was that the,
made it tragedy of errors, and the big
pest two blunders in the whole business
were gotten off by Shelby. One was Il