Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-02-02
Chicago Inter Ocean.
LEXINGTON, THE HOME OF THE
THOROUGHBRED.
TBy D. w. Norris. of Grinnell[

| All my life I have wanted to visit the
blue grass region of Kentucky. licking
ton is in the heart of this region. At
last it seemed possible to crafty the
wish Before l left home 1 said to one
of my friends, a kentuckian: France,
l am going down to see the Kentucky
blue grass country This was his re-
ply: We'll, Norris, you will see no
such blue grass fields in Kentucky as
we have in Iowa" This astonished me,
but l found it literally true, and an
other romance is dead. Nowhere
| around Lexington did find such blue
grass as one sees west and south of
Grinnell. One acre of our blue grass
will feed as many cattle as three in
Kentucky. A trip thru the south will
destroy many deIusions.
If, when a boy, one was a reader of
the Seuthworth school of fiction. he is
sure to receive a jolt when he looks on
the real thing. My early IDEA of, the
south was something like this: The
country was one stretch of beautiful
fields and stately forest; the homes
were roomy mansions. approached thru
avenues of stately trees: the people
consisted of black servants and aristo-
cratic white men, with fierce, shaggy
brows and commanding presence; the
sons We're all educated at Harvard or
Yale, talked Latin like a Roman and
looked like gods, and in my minds eye
could see the beautiful Winnifried rid
ing up the avenue on n thoroughbred
mare with the speed of the wind, and
throwing herself into the arms of her
god-like lover, just in time to save his
rivals life from the gun leveled at him.
received my first jolt about twenty
years ago, when l contrasted the
stately mansions of Virginia and
houses. surrounded by whitewashed
shanties standing on unattractive
wooded knobs, with the comfortable,
thrifty farm houses of the west. Com
ing on to Washington ] was looking
thru the capitol, when a large, squatty
man with Alexander E. Orr whiskers,
and face purple and bloated with in
diligence and carrying a gold-headed
cane, came putting and blowing up to
my guide and requested to be shown to
a certain committee room. I asked the
old guide who this distinguished mar
was "Beverly Douglas. of Vehginny
sub Passing along we brushed an
other squatty man, with fierce mus
tache and beacon light on his nose.
That" said my guide, .'is Proctah
Knott of Kentucky sub" So l was
not wholly disappointed when I found
myself last Sunday in Lexington.
The blue grass Kentuckian is IL typ
ical Proctor Knott, squatty, and about
feet 6. One sees some fine looking
The kentuckians that we know in Iowa,
the tall, straight, handsome men like
those near Grinnell, are not from the
blue grass region at ALL They all came
from the hills. The boys of Lexington
are a sorry looking lot. l failed to see
an embryo statesman among them. l
mean the boys from Is to y. Nearly
all drink and nearly all smoke cgarets,
and | know no better recipe to sap
physical beauty. But Kentuckians are
not all drinking men. Slowly but sure
ly a feeling is growing among business
men that it is good thing to cut out"
| regret to say that another lifelong
delusion was dispelled. For years and
wears I had been taught that Kentucky
was the home of pretty women. I
didn't see one pretty woman or girl in
Kentucky.
Lexington is the home of the thoro-
bred When l say thoroughbred now.
use it in the Kentucky sense. | don't
want you Iowa people to make any mis-
take hereafter in the use of the word
In Kentucky farm is farm. A stock