The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-10-09

Breathitt county to the I~awlessness
that the Cockrell nj Hargis differ
ences have brought about. Those on
either side who have become attached
to the n or the other have learned
to regard the feud as a matter quite
outside of the law, a matter to be set
tied, as their W private affair. be-
tween the two families. 1t does not
appear that at any time an arbitrator
has arisen, moved by a spirit of peace
and loathing for murder to bring about
an agreement to settle the vendetta
that can My be terminated, if pa
cific settlement is lot reached, by the
death of the last male survivor of one
of the families.
Yet these people move with apparent
u%nconcern about the streets and along
the roads, the children sometimes at
tend the same school, and Cockrell
and Hargises have been known to
gather in the same churches. But the
poison is moving in the blood all the
time.
1t sometimes, as has been mentioned,
kills the spirit of southern gallantry
that is supposed to regard with scorn
liz AuCo u ISAlIiS "olIISIl- Sdi4S
Hayes was not the only woman victim
Of the feud.
She was a Cockrell sympathizer and
eyewitness to the murder of Henry
Barnett. Another Barnett of the
Hargis side was charged with the muir
Ger of Granville Prater, but was ac-
quilted. During the month of June of
this year the body of Susan Barnett,
~ &c --1 tho
river, with wounds that showed the
cause of her death to have been other
than drowning.
Robert Sales, a Cockrell syInpathizer,
who was suspected of the murder, was
indicted. a fair trial in his case will be
as difficult to procure as when Curtis
Jet and White We're tried for the kill
ing of James B. Marcum.
The conditions are extremely diff
fcult to contend with. A cure may
seem easy and not difficult to those
who cannot realize that these murders
and woundings have scarcely affected
the currents of society or the business
affairs of the county.
Schools n churches go on as usual;
there is the exchange of the usual cour-
tesies families, with an oc-
casional meeting of distantly-related
members of both families to the feud.
But the feud is always in the minds of
the people.
To expect to secure juries of the
vicinage that will condemn the killing
of a Hargis is to expect that a jury
all made up of members of that fam
lily shall try the case. All feud killings
must be tried away from the county,
as the Marcum case had to be to get
a verdict.
1t is out of the question to hop to
get the Cockrells to leave the county
and take their bates and their vows
of vengeance with them. And the
Hargis family is too large and iniu-
entail to listen to such a proposition.
They have been the more active OF
the two factions to the feud and they
are both numerically and materially
more strongly established in the COM
munity. To remove the feud spirit,
however, would be to d%epopulate the
county, for in so years it's roots have
taken hold in other families.
There are people who say they are
Indifferent to the quarrel, and who
a wise silence when opinions
IL 0S DoA LIZ lllpdI IldlllN ia
these persons ought lot to be depended
in determining the guilt or mo
cence of a man tried for murder as the |
result of the feud.
immigration might effect an improve
ment in the state of public feeling.
Newcomers, ignorant of the origin Of
the feud or Indifferent to it, and also
to the causes given as JUS
tifying its continuance might stiffen
up the courts, and by imposing severe
penalties for feud crimes under the
practice of open OF covert murder.
But there is little TO invite such a
throng of immigrants as would be ne
cessary to leaven the lump of dead
public spirit.
Breathitt Will o reform itself. Its
reformation is a duty which the state
government should assume and under
take. Only such a cure. or the preva-
lence of a discriminating epidemic. will
Danish the use of the rifle and pistol as
the settlers OF family disputes.
This IS the country and these are the
people the Salvation Army expect to
conquer by gospel lessons.-New York
Sun.