The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-05-11
The Red II. nd in Kentucky.

| SaSSlndtlOn OF JAMES u. MAJ '"iii a.
Jackson, a mountain county seat or
eastern Kentucky, are given III l1Ii
| in our news columns. In this sec
| ton of that state il is by no means UNI
| common for men to be picked OH from
ambush by rifle ball, for Breathltt
| county. the scene of the tragedy is
one of The Dark and Bloody
Grounds" worst ".eudist' counties
and has for years been known by the
suggestive sobriquet OF Bloody
Breathitt." The cowardly murder OF
Marcum is especially notable in the
manner of its occurrence and in the
| light of the circumstances surround
| ing the assassination OF Governor
| Goebel at Frankfort, Ky, some three
! years since.
The victim was a well-lnown law
yer of eastern Kentucky, Unlted
| States commissioner. and prominent
! " identified with the turbulent poh-
| ties of his section. AS lawyer ana
politician he had incurred the MUIR
| derous enmity of a feudist faction IN
| Breathitt county, for months at
! time being required to barricade HIM
! self in his home or only emerge there
| from with a little child in his arms
or in the company of women. III Or
der to thwart the purpose OF the as
sassin watching his human target
| from cover Professional duty re-
| CURED him to go TO the court house
| at Jackson early Monday morning,
and Just after he had filed some pa
pers with the county clerk he was
shot down from behind while talking
with a friend in the doorway OF that
| temple of Justice OF course. no one
! knows who shot him or saw him shot
even though the corridor where he
stood was full Of attendants upon
court.
There is nothing clearer than that
there is political malta in Kentucky
and that its rendezvous is in the
mountain precincts. 1t is not likely
that one political party is a whit bet
ter than the other, so far as partisan
ship is involved in these barbarous as
sassinations. save to the extent that
the mountaineers are largely republi-
cans Attorney Marcum, it seems, be-
longed to the latter party, represent
ing the interests Of that party in
contested local election, and the Off
cial incumbents he was engaged in
trying to GUST happened 10 be iden-
titled with a feudst faction-the Har-
gises. Governor G0ebel, a democrat,
was assaSsinated as the result Of
cold blooded, maiia-like conspiracy,
involving. directly or indirectly, the
acting governor. who was republi-
can. He and the other suspects and
known actors in that horrible tragedy
were east Kentuckians, the convicted
murderer being notorious feudist of
that region The plot was Matched
around London. Ky. the home of the
refugee. Taylor.
The peculiar odium incurred by the
state Of Kentucky because of a quasi
political vendetta which Sicily would
/ hardly descend to does not justify
Wholesale condemnation Of a really eX-
cellent people, but there is the more
reason why Kentuckians should make
extraordinary efforts 10 hang an i'm
pressive number OF feudists. The
bushwhacking feuds of the hill coun-
/ try are an old problem to the com
monweath. but the outside world does
not comprehend the local conditions,
! and since the assassination OF Govern
/ or Goebel -cntucky has been in deep
disgrace
The pity is that the feuds of the
! Kentucky mountains were ever drag
ged into state politics to the scandal
ization OF the state The armed mob
that Acting Governor Taylor had
brought TO Frankfort from the eastern
/ counties gave the world some insight
into the manner Of people who were
his partisaus. ana the assassination of
! G0ebel was an inevitable equel in lieu
/ of bloody rioting. The basis of most
/ of the deadly tends Of eastern Ken
/ lucky is political and the outgroWth
( OF civil war issues. Indeed, in that
! remarkable section, hemmed by con
! stantly narrowing Gordon Of ciyiliza-
4 ton the civil war resolved itself into
a guerilla feud of determination, be
queathed from generation to genera
ton Goebel as matter of fact. was
/ the victim of this implacable old feuG
/ and Marcum. who fell, shot from be-
/ hind in that country court house Mon
day. went the same dark way
1t IS difficult problem that Ken
be imagined The men from whom
these political assassins come are
hardly amenable to the extreme force
| Of law-certainly not tQ-the ordinary
forms of judicial procedure. 1t is but
few years since one of these eastern
counties-Rowan- abolished by
act OF the legislature for the reason
that its inhabitants turned the court
mouse into an armed camp and per-
sisted in making the county officers
hide out" Not even martial law
could suppress the murderous activi-
ties Of many Of these outlaws who
simulate the functions of citizenship
to Kentucky's woe.
When the truth is known, the state
of Kentucky will not be so roundly
censured, unless for the reason that
hangings are too few and far between
up there.
The New Aromatic Theory
The report sent out. from Madison