Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-03-24
SOME FACTS ABOUT KENTUCKY
Lexington the Commercial and Social
Center of the Great Blue Grass
Sectional Big Busy City.

Correspondence of the Ledger.
HERALD OFFICE, LEXINGTON, KY,
March 20.-In compliance with your
request that I drop you a few lines
concerning myself and surroundings,
I take advantage of a few spare
moments to-day.
I see from the Mexico papers that
the Klondykers r sending back most
interesting accounts of their varied
experiences and I fear that, by the side
of the narration of their devious
windings in their search for gold, my
letter will pale decidedly. To a Ken
tuckian, however-and most Mis-
sourians are of Kentucky ancestry.
intelligence from his native state
never fails to prove interesting,
whether it be an account of a noun
tain feud, the result of a trotting or run
ming race, or an attempted description
of this incompatible bluegrass coun-
try of world wide fame for its fertility
and it's products.
Lexington, as you know, is the COM
mercial and social center of this rich
expanse. Indeed, Fayette county, of
which Lexington is the county seat,
has been called ''the asparagus bed of
the garden spot of the world" The
city has a population of some $1,000,
and is one of the most beautiful, as
well as perhaps the best known, places
of it's size in the United States. Eie.
CANT homes r numerous and the
business houses handsome and up-to-
date. Fifteen miles of brick streets
extend all owe the city and an excel
lent electric car line covers the 5er-
ritory well. Perhaps the handsomest
building in the city is the large custom
house and post Office of white lime
stone, quarried in this county. The
contract has just been let for a $780,
600 court house to take the place of
the very elegant one destroyed by fire
a few months since. There is also a
movement on foot for the erection of
a new city hall, although the present
one is lately built. In three or four
weeks a new brewery will be opened.
A hundred and fifty thousand dollars
have already gone into it and it is not
yet complete. Strange to say it is the
first brewery aver built in Lexington.
The people here, as a rule, desire
something stronger than the cool,
foaming lager, as the numberlsss dis
tilleries bear witness.
The churches are Numerous and
very handsome and the principal
opera house a thing of beauty.
OF course, the most notable features
of the blue grass region-always ex-
cepting the distilleries-are the num-
erous stock farms extending out on
every side, where the swiftest and
handsomest horses, both trotters and
thoroughbreds, pasture On the grass
which has given them their prestige.
| When one gets behind a spirited FLY
and speeds yer the pike at the rate
of fifteen or twenty miles an hour
through this most fertile of regions it
seems, indeed, as If he were in Goods
Country"
The young wheat, already several
inches out of the ground, tints the
land a rich green. The black, freshly
ploughed, loamy earth seems almost
to darken with very richness and gives
true promise of the large crops which
the mildness of a Kentucky SUI will
ripen into maturity.
Politics has been red-hot hera the
past few weeks over the famous
Goebel bill, providing for a committee
of three election commissioners to
count the returns from all elections.
1t has caused a wide breach in the
Democratic party. Mr.. Goebel, the
author of the bill, is State Senator
from Covington and an aspirant to
the gubernatorial nomination in '99.
Senator Chas. j. Bronston, of Lexing-
ton, the leader of the opposition, il
one of the most brilliant politicians
and powerful orators in the state. he
stumped Kentucky most ably fol
Democracy in 1896, but was defeated
in his fight against the GoebeI bill, al
it passed both houses over the Gov.
ernor's veto. The press was almost
unanimous against the measure. Ever
the Argonaut, the only free silver
organ in Lexington, opposed it bitter.
ly. Major P. P. Johnston, Chairman
of the State Central Committee, of the
Democratic party, was another of its
foremost opponents.
The Herald, on which I am engaged
is Lexington's only morning daily anG
thus has an unhampered field, which
it covers well. 1t is under the man.
agement of Mr.. Desha Breckinridge
the brilliant son of the famous Col
w. @. P. Breckinridge. The old col.
onel himself, who is now devoting all
his time to a large and lucrative Law
practice, has charge OF the editoria
department of the paper, and hence
in this respect the Herald is second te
III adliy AL Sho ctabC. IuucCOJ ~ IL
superior to all, other than the Courier
Journal, and even to the latter except
when Col. Watterson runs In one o.
his scintillating, fire-and- lightning
productions.
At the beginning of this week Mr.,
B~reckinridge did me the honor to
make me managing-e editor of the Her.
AIDS weekly, the Press Transcript. ]
shall, therefore, devote myself prici-
pally to it hereafter, though / shall
continue to do certain work for the
daily as well. The Press Transcript ID
already the best weekly published in
Central Kentucky at least. 1t has q
good circulation throughout the state.
1t is my purpose to make it the best
weekly in this part of the country.
1t is a great pleasure to see the