Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-10-06
Tho Eeuds of Kentucky.


nous Kentucky murderer, aroused in
terest all over the country and there
was widespread satisfaction at the con-
viction of a man responsible for the
taking of so many lives. But it is by
no means certain that the execution of
the murderer will ever take place.
There are many ways to evade the eX-
IRENE penalty of the law, especially in
old Kentucky. r. l.. Mcclure, a
Journalist Of that state, is responsible
for the statement that there have been
79S known killings in Kentucky within
five years and only nine murderers
have paid the penalty of hanging. He
declares that Kentucky has annually
90 times as many homicides as the
great city of New York with it's slums
and it's large criminal element. These
conditions give him the teAt for an in
teresting article in the Independent
THE pistol toter." says Mr.. Mcclure,
sis found everywhere. The mountain
moonshiners, full of peach or corn
liauor, are ever ready to resent an in
suit or even to offer one for an excuse
to kill. The mankiller is lionized. 1t
is no uncommon expression to hear a
mountaineer called a 'mankiller.' The
leader Of a feud is often wined and
dined as a hero. The murderer may be
fairly showered with sympathizing let
tiers, and women crowd the court rooms
and admire the assassin, telling their
children how brave and handsome he
yers." The cause of feuds, according
to Mr.. Mcclure, is the absence of edu-
cational advancement moonshne
whisky, and a native personal preju-
dice in their favor; yet lax adninistra-
ton of law does more to foster and
keep feuds alive than any other one
thing. The courts fail to enforce the
law, and too often, there is 10 arrest,
although the slayer be well known and
the slain popular and respected. The
friends of the man killed know that the
conditions of the courts are such that
Il conviction cannot be had; and the
grand juries pass the tragedies by
without serious investigation. Often
the county judge, or the sheriff, or
both, are allied with one faction Of {,
feud, and, welding great influence in
the community, the circuit court
officials pass over the chronic local
sore, under penalty of defeat for re-
election if they are inquisitive in fer
reting out assassins or inquiring into
the conduct of the officers of the lower
courts"
Mr.. Mcclure gives a lot of causes for
the feudS which curse his state but it
seems to US that they are all summed
up in the first one, 'the absence of ed
ucational advancement The other
things which he mentions as causes
are in reality effects. They naturally
follow the lack of education. And by
education we do not mean so much
the learning of books or the teachings
of religion--for Kentucky has it's COM
mon school system and it is said that
most of the feudists are devout men,
and upright in their daily walks-but
the education which keeps men abreast
Of the worlds progress. Those feud
leaders are living the life of by-gone
ages. they are away back in medieval
accepted mode of redressing every
wrong. There was an Indian tradition
which gave Kentucky the name Of the
Dark ana Bloody Ground" and from
the earliest appearance of Boone and
the other pioneers there were deadly
conflicts on its soil. Through genera
ton after generation the old spirit has
lived, and so, today, we find Kentucky,
surrounded by goth century civilization,
yet harboring in it's mountain sections
the vendetta in as bad a form as
Corsica ever knew it. There must be
change sometime. Kentucky cannot
always live in the bloody past.