The Topeka state journal., 1908-03-05

/ --~~~N~'
The fair, sweet girl will be on hand
To look the tosser Ger
And points out to her listless beau
The ones she'd fain adore
me gray-haired man, the six-year-old.
FANATICS large and small,
The umpire says play baiii' 'A
| Birmingham Age-HeraId.
Mystery of Bloody Feuds.
| The tragic end of James Hargis at
jackson. KY. calls attention once
again to the peculiar conditions of life
Wnich have marked a state long
known as "the dark and bloody
| ground That a man who had taken
several lives in the course Of a bitter
feud should die by the shots fired by
MS own son only emphasizes the
strangeness of a social organization
where life is held SO cheap and where
the guilty so often escape the punish
ment provided for by law
1t has been a puzzle which no one
has solved. Why these feud conditions
| should prevail in that one section OF
the country far more than anywhere
else is hard to understand. Why men
meet in public place and slash each
| other with knives or shoot each other
| as dogs are shot is a question which
has aroused the wonder of many q
| student Of American social life.
Some of them have traced the spirit
back to old Virginia, where the rough
! er forms Of English sport found early
lodgment. The fox hunting, horse
racing, cock fighting Virginian who
| loved to wrestle with his opponent OF
took delight in the game of gougine
where the fist ceased its attempt tc
push out the eye only fhen the cry
| Kings cruse." was heard may have
been the ancestor of the Kentucky
feudist as he was Of the Kentucky
pioneer.
The ever ready rifle of the wilder.
| ness hunter who crossed the noun.
tains, pierced the gaps, or fioated
down the streams into the western
| country may have been the legitima tt
predecessor of the murderouS gun o.
the later generation of Kentuckians
The facility in the use of firearms ant
| the common training to shoot straigh
and sure which were absolutely neces
sary in the days Of Boone and men O
his type may have brought its owl
natural development in the quicknes
in handling the trigger which ha
marked the fights of century
The contest of different race ele
ments as the men of the east of tn
old English blood met in the struggl
for the possession Of the land with tn
hardy pioneers of Scotch, Irish an,
German extraction who pushed thei
way southwark along the mountain
and through the valleys to turn asid
toward the attractive lands in Ken
lucky may offer some explanation.
The division of families brough
about by civil war may have added 1t
element of discord. The peculiar con
ditions which developed in the borde
states when the war broke out are wei
remembered. Neighboring familie
made different choices. One followe,
the flag of the union. Another wen
with the south. In many cases tn
breach was never healed.
In some one Of these theories, in
combination Of them, or in none O
them the origin of the Kentucky feu'
and the cheapness. of human life II
that commonwealth may be discover
ed. There is practically unworke
field for the future investigator of so
cial conditions. In a state whose his
tory from many points of view is NOR
} interesting than that of any other Il
the United States this unsolved prob
! lem remains one Of the most puzzlin
which have been presented to thos
who have tried to understand and in
} terpret the peculiar phases whfcl
have combined to make the story o
the American people.-Chicago Trib
, une.
The Other Side of Nature Falxing.
What about the effects of nature
taking upon the nature-faked? Onl
the spread of misinformation amon
humans has been touched upon. TIL
real peril lies elsewhere. Inspired b.
! the tales almost daily related of thei
! ferocity, courage, and lethal powers
the creatures Of meadow, wood an
stream are coming to think them
selves mightier than man. How els
explain the attack. last month, perpe
trated by flock of crows upon Pau
) Niles, of Freeport Ill? According t
, a widely circulated dispatch, the rau
! cous birds descended, en- masse, upo
) the luckless Mr.. Niles, who IVA
knocked down and pecked about tn
t face and eyes and beaten almost In
sensible" Shall we pick up our pape
} one day to read that the Hon. Grove
Cleveland, incautiously stepping into
: stream which he was whipping, had hi
l left leg bitten off by an angry trout
or that that mighty hunter, Theodor
l Roosevelt, while stalking the shy an
! timorous grizzly, disturbed sleepin
rIobit, which dashed him to tn
? ground with a loud roar, and fame
7 him to death with its ears? Gu
stricken fancy beholds the meadow
: resonant with the shrieks of helples
: agriculturists, fleeing in terror fror
hordes Of maddened butterflies, tn
coppices crowded with naturalist
seeking refuge from infuriated toads
while the fugitive who. pursued by
: rapid angleworm. Is fortunate enoug
to escape from the perilous open int
. his house, finds but a momentary res
: pite before being penned up in corne
, and trampled to a pulp by his own dc
mestic water-bugsl-Co.lfer's Weekly.