The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1901-02-19
A Kentuckian on Kentucky.

asked me many questions about
Kentucky Many of them seem to
have al idea that a Kentuckian
must Of necessity be an out law
This idea Is erroneous and has its
origin in the sensational reports
sent out by lot of penny aliners
who connect every killing" no
matter what the circumstance are,
with Kentucky feud."
There are Kentucky feuds such
as the French -Eversole," the HAT
feld-McCoy," the "Baker-White, 7"
etc, but, happily, they were all con-
fined to one small section of the
State-the southeastern part-in
the eleventh Congressional district,
which gave Yerkes and Taylor, Re
publican candidates for Governor,
abent 1s 600 majority. The peos
pie of the mountains, generally, as
well as those Of the blue grass and
bear grass regions, are honest, cou-
rageous, hospitable, courteous and
civil, albeit any Kentuckian who
lays claim to being a gentleman
will resent an insult. His nature
is to treat people with respect and
requires the same treatments for
himself.
Nearly every Kentucklan goes
well armed every day-with a cork
screw, but comparatively few men
of courage carry deadly Weapons.
Snch a practice is cowardly and
when man of true courage feels it
to be his duty to box the ears of
one of those walking arsenals and
perform that duty, fire arms are
seldom called into action. An
Irishmrn, Pat Punch, one Of the
bravest and truest men ] ever knew,
was Chief " Police os the city OF
Mt. Sterling, KY, for six years
and never carried a weapon of any
kind, not even a "billy," during
his incumbency, although he pass
ed through Mt. Sterling's storm
lest period, and arrested some of
the most dangerous characters in
that section. l believe the song
which says, "You never knew a
coward where the Shamrock grows"
is about the size of IL.
The most disgraceful blot on the
pages of Kentucky history was
placed there by pretender VIM. S.
Taylor, now fugitive from justice.
The Goebel- Taylor election was
held under the election law which
bore Governor Goebel's name, and
by that same law Taylor was Civ
en- a certificate Of election, reciting
the fact that he tTaylor) had re-
ceived the majority of the votes
cast upon the face of the returns.
The contest was made under a
clause of the constitution as old as
the Commonwealth itself and not
under the Goebel law, as the Re
publican speakers and papers
would have you believe. The Goe-
bel law had no more to do with that
contest than Senator Johnson's
anti. high hat theatre law.
The Democrats proceeded along
legal and constitutional lines and
kept their temper They didn't
fight nor talk about fighting and
when pretender Taylor saw the
hand writing on the wall, that his
name must soon be mud, then it
was that the diabolical plot was
made to kill Governor Goebel.
Then from this dark corner of Ken
lucky were brought, on free rail.
road passes, eleven hundred feud-
lists and red handed murderers to
the capitol. The legisla-
ture was dispersed by the bayonet
to assemble in London, Laurel
county, an unimportant little town
where Taylor and his gang expect
ed protection. There has not been
such an outrage committed since
the day when the Pretorian Guard
of blood stained conspirators, red
with the blood of the virtuous Per-
tinax, rushed out on the ramparts
of their sordid camps and auctioned