Omaha daily bee., 1900-02-11
SHORT STORIES OF The DAY
Widespread Influence of a Handsome Portrait
Printed in The illustrated Bee.
NATIVES OF THE HILLS OF OLD KENTUCKY
servnnt Girls Mishnp Cnuscs n nricf
scnsation-w. ~. Kent in the Role
OF u MuIti-NiIIion
EsteIIe once n Brakeman.

That the influence OF the publicity OF a
handsome portrait printed in The Illustrated
Bee extends to bounds few people wot of Is
shown by developments in the case wherein
the original became at once the recipient
OF various letters from numerous admirers
anxious to make her acquaintance. The Bee
printed one OF these letters not long ago
from an enthusiastic cultivator Of the fair
sex residing at Attica, Ind, which publica-
ton has brought out this protest from the
Ledger, the local Attica paper;
The Ledger would naturally have no re-
marks to make about this letter, for We
girl was a "stunncr.' But then 1t is not
patronizing home industry and we call him
down on that score. If we can in any
way assist the AttiCa young women in
winning the admiration of this amorous
young man we shall be delighted TO do 50
and shall take pleasure IN publishing the
portraits of any who wish to enter the
race against the omaha beauty.
The hint is a good one. What is the mat
ter with the Omaha men that they do not
pillow their own field?
at will be hard to convince the average
Kentuckian away from home that IL Goebel
was shot by a native Kentuckian it was not
done by an anti-Goebel democrat" said a
man from the dark and bloody ground
yesterday.
"Outside Of the larger cities, where the
influx of immigrants has destroyed local
traditions, there have been but few murders
on account of partisan politics, and you will
remember that the last murders in Frank
fort which caused such widespread common
were the result of a quarrel among mem
bers Of the same party.
THE character of the native of the hills
of Kentucky Is a peculiar one. Murder is
not looked upon with the same degree Of
horror as by people Of other parts of the
country and the punishment meted out for
the killing of an enemy Is regarded by the
people of other states as entirely inadequate
to the gravity of the crime: and yet under
conditions peculiarly Kentuckian the pun
ishment is generally justified by the facts.
Here in Nebraska it is a perfect self-defense
If the accused proves that the victim of his
bullet had threatened his life and that he
had knowledge of the threat, coupled with
the knowledge that the man making the
threat was a person who would carry out
his expressed intentions. Well, in Kentucky
it is always taken for granted that when
ever persons come to blows and no one is
killed at the time that each party has
threatened to kill the other at sight, ana
this conclusion is warranted by the fact that
no such encounter was ever known to result
otherwise in the state. So when the sur
NlNol VI "a ~
trial for murder he always has this assump-
ton in the minds of the jury in his favor.
This condition is the result of years OF
local traditions and training. The original
settlers of Kentucky were men of the strong
hand; men who fought Indians with Daniel
Boone and who had the disregard for law
that marked Dick johnson, the popular hero
of the Kentucky freside who is credited
with the killing of the famous Indian chief
Tecumseh. and who married one of his negro
slaves and afterward offered any white man
who would marry either of his daughters IL
bushel measure full of silver dollars. Not
that he found any takers among native Ken
tuckians, but he 'gloried in his spunk' in
setting at defiance the social laws which
denied a man a right to do as he pleased.
The descendants of these pioneers have
lived for 100 years in a land considered in
accessible to railroads and other influences
of civilization. Some bright minds have
been produced who have made Kentucky
famous in the union, but the large majority
care little about what is going on in the
world at large. Confined in the small area
Of their native hills they take interest only
in local and family affairs. They could tell
YOU very little about the war against the
Beers or even that in the Philippines, but
they can tell you the Christian name of
their ancestor who first settled in the coun-
try, and in many instances of all OF his
descendants; and that is the reason for so
many of the murders, accounts of which fill
the columns of the papers, for these men
remember and hand down from generation
10 generation the story of how these pio-
neers wreaked vengeance upon their enc
mics when better law was not at hand until
they come to believe that theirs was the
only manly way of Furnishing crimes COM
mitted against the person, and that the man
who fails to wipe out an insult with blood
is a degenerate son. | know of two cases
where men have been forced by their own
families TO leave the state because they re-
fused to declare their intention of killing
those who had injured them, and are now
exiles from home because they would not
be bound by the traditions of their race
Aside from their belief in the law of re-
venge these Kentuckians are good neigh
bors and friends, and many a man has beer
defended by them even TO the taking of life
for no other reason than that he was in the
company of a friend when trouble arose. II