The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-21
KENTUcKr,s AwFuL sc4rE.


Kentucky is undoubtedly entitled to the
primary among all the states of the
Union in its assertion of shotgun JUS
tiee Stories of utter defiance of the
agencies of law and order have been told
in the press from time to time in other
states and communities: but those which
have emanated in the blue grass state
are usually much more picturesque and
striking, more subversive of civilization,
as well as more numerous, than such re-
citals from any other section of the coun-
try.
The assassination of the governor of the
state, deliberately planned, and, as the
event has proven, executed in cold blood,
with the concurrence of other state Off
Gals, transcends in enormity any like
crime in the annals of the country, save
alone those which have resulted in the
death of three successive presidents
1t would be unjust to the people of Ken
lucky to say of them that they are in any
other portion of our people for the bless
ings and obligations of peaceful govern
ment. They are coneededly an excep-
tionally brave and high-mfnded race of
men. Yet the annals of the state are
month after month stained with human
blood, shed in the prosecution of personal,
political and factional feuds
The enormity of the crime against So
ciety represented by the murder in open
court IN a Kentucky community, within
a few days, of a citizen peacefully seek
ing the laws Intervention for his personal
protection, cannot be overstated In what
other state could such a crime be COM
mitted? What can be said in paniation of
it? What condition of society is it in
which such a crime is possible? 1t stag
gers the understanding of all Iaw-abiding
persons that such utter savagery could
find expression among any people laying
the slightest claim to civilization
The world has stood aghast at the mur-
ders and torturings of negroes which
have taken place from time to time: but
even among many of those who have
read of the awful recitals with the great
est sense of horror there has prevailed a
feeling that the crimes thus expiated
were such as needed exceptional punish
ment for their prevention. But in this
latest Kentucky atrocity. as in the case
OF Gov. Goebel, the crime was committed
in utter contempt of the law and it's
agents, was cowardly and unprovoked.
purely anarchistic.
There is no class or condition upon
which the awful obligation of this state
OF things can be made to rest While
the late president lay cold on his BIER,
the victim of an anarchist bullet, the
G e-quoted the testimony of the chief
daily paper in Kentucky, showing that
in Hopkins county, in that state, all SEM
blance Of law and order had been dis
| pensed with, and a state of anarchy pre-
vailed. Whether or not that state of
| things is now regarded as openly exist
ing in that county or elsewhere within
the state, the people of Kentucky can
not escape the imp0tation of standing
on a very abyss of anarchy from day
to day. They are nos mere sporadic
outbreaks which come; they predicate a
| state of society in that commonwealth
closely bordering on savagery.
| Are the men of Kentucky so crazed by
bloodthirst that it is impossible to apply
remedy to such conditions? Are there
no public schools, no churches, no meas
ure of culture or refinement prevalent
among the masses, none of the amenities
| of social intercourse operating among
! them, SO that the existing propaganda
of anarchy and assassination must thus
go on practically undistur5ed?
When the government of the state was
wrested from the hand of perjurers, bril-
bers and cowaroly assassins whom par
tisan Republican press throughout the