The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1902-04-24


loosa," Barboursville is as big as
can get unless it annexes the Cumber
land river and Sinking creek AM
counts the fish.
Barboursville was sprung on an un
suspecting public "befo' de waa"-il
fact, a long time before, judging b!
the appearance of many of the build
ings. 1t was laid out when land wal
scarce, and the streets are only q
feet wide. The two main streets arr
about so feet wide where they entel
courthouse square, but gradually mar
row down until they are only 20 fee
wide about eight blocks distant. The
hotels are built on broad-guage plan
however. The leading hostelry is bis
enough to contain about fifty rooms
but it has only twelve rooms for hire
They are about 20 feet square, and
have every convenience-eXcept lock
on the door and a few other little
matters like that. Meals are served
in a heap, and when you hear the bell
you want to get there, or your pota
toes will be cold.
s**
4NODOuy 10 III d hurry uO"h hCl VI
and Roustabout estimates that man
ought to live at least 200 years. He
would have to be here that long to
get as much out of life as the hustling
Yankee who shuffies off at So But
down here the sun seems to shine
brighter, the birds come closer, and
everything takes on lazy gait that
is restful if nothing more. The peo-
pie have time to be social, and they
make good use of their time. This,
of course, does not apply to the out
side oil men, who are crowding in
here at the rate of a score or more a
day. The natives enjoy the excite
ment, but are not investing very
heavily. 1t is too soon yet for them
to take hold. And maybe some of the
others will wish they had not picked
up the red-hot poker. Oil, in paying
quantities, is being found in all parts
of Knox county, and land values are
going skyward. One gusher of excel
lent lubricating oil picked up a farm
er who perhaps never realized more
than 5000 a year out of his sand hills
and has made him a "bloated bond.
holder" able to write his check for
poO,OOO. AlOuS Will JHt VII cAClIt-
ment, another important improvement
is in sight. Everybody in town points
with pride to "Jim Johnston's" new
house, the first that has been built
for 10! these many years. There is
now a paper published here. 1t has
been started fourteen times before, but
the morning Louisville papers get here
at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and that
is fast enough for any ordinary per.
son, except the untoward oil boomer.
"The Kentucky Colonel" is in evi.
1ence in this part of the country.
Gray hair on a bald head entries
every man to that distinction, and
every man to that distinction, and
everybody is Sirah with a big S.
THE Old Kentucky Home" is not
exactly what one expects to see, but
It is none the less romantic. II is
4 cabin made of hewn logs. with two
great fire-places and ckimneys, one at
either end, built outside the walls, OF
great slabs of native sandstone.
There are two rooms in the house,
and carpets or curtains are unknown.
The furniture consists of very plain
LdDlC, Will dbOuI lOul "OOuCh
and an improvised stool or box for
each additional child. But the people
are models of hospitality, and, with
out so many household duties to look
after, they have more time to 1--we
with nature, and out of the associa-
ton emerge freer and more contente1.
But, in choosing, give us decade Of
Iowa than a cycle of rustic Kentucky.
~.
Roustabout drifted into Middlesbor-
ough, Kentucky, the other day on the
same train with the Gentry Pony
Show. Whether this fact or his good
looks caused him to be taken for a
circus man all day is not yet clear.
Middles borough is town of perhaps
4 900 people, the surviving wreck of
q city of 10, 900 in 1892. 1t was not on
the map until 1889, when some Eng
lish capitalists opened up big iron
mill there. Within three years it
covered the whole southeastern part
of Kentucky. Suddenly the balloon
sprung leak and "down came the
meetin' house." The three daily
were laid to rest without
any ceremony, and the electric street
car line rolled up its belongings as
the proverbial Arab folded his tent,
and stored them away in the power
house, where they may be seen to this
day. The boom did one thing, how
ever; it left bout fifty fine brick bus.
mess buildings, some of them four
stories high. 1t left broad paved
streets, lined with elegant cement
aud stone walks, and hotel, "The
Middlesborough," that would do
credit to Des Moines. The survivors
bought the improvements for the
taxes, and with a firmer foundation
are now building town that some
day will be heard from. The sur
rounding hills are full of coal and
iron, and the mills are being started
again.
~
Middlesborough lies on the Ken
lucky side of the famous Cumberland
Gap, with the town of Cumberland
Gap on the Tennessee side, and old
Lookout Mountain on guard between
them. In making the drive from one
town to the other, one goes through
a corner of Virginia, thus entering
three states in less than two minutes.
When Shakespeare, or Dickens, oil
whoever it was, made famous the
"Rocky Road to Dublin" they had
never heard of this road or they would