The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1908-12-25
MYSTERY OF BLOODY FEups.
Contest OF Race Elements at the Bot
tom Of Many Grimes.

The tragic end of James Hargis a
Jackson. Ky. calls attention ono,
again TO the peculiar conditions OF III,
which have marked state lonl
Anown as the dark and blood,
ground" That a man who had takeI
several lives in the course OF bite
teud should die by the shots fired by
his own son only emphasizes IN,
strangeness OF social organization
where life is held so cheap and wher,
the guilty SO often escape the pun
ishment provided for by law.
IL has been a puzzle which no one
has solved. Why these feud condi
lions should prevail in that one sec
lion OF the country far more than any
where else is hard to understand
Why men meet in a public place and
slash each other with knives or shoot
each other as dogs are shot Is Ques
ion which has aroused the wonder OF
many a 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
Judgment The fox-hunter, horse-rac-
ing, cock-fghting Virginian, who loved
TO wrestle with his opponent or took
delight in the game OF gouging where
the fist ceased its attempt TO push out
the eye only when the cry, King 5
cruise, 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 foated
down the stream into rhe Western
country may have been the legitimate
predecessor of the murderous gun OF
the later generation of Kentuckians.
The facility in the use OF firearms and
the common training TO shoot straight
and sure which were absolutely nee
essary in the days of Boone and men
of his type may have brought its own
natural development in the quickness
In handling the trigger which has
marked the fights of a century.
The contest OF different race ele-
ments as the men of the East OF the
old English blood met in the struggle
for the possession of the land with the
hardy pioneers of Scotch. Irish and
German extraction who pushed their
way southwark along the mountains
and through the valleys 10 turn aside
toward the attractive lands in Ken
lucky may offer some explanation.
The division OF families brought
about by the Civil War. may have
added its element of discOrd. The pc
,uliar conditions which developed in
he border states when the war broke
Dut are well remembered. Neighbour
ng families made different choices.
One followed the flag of the Union.
Another went with the South In
many cases the breach was never
healed.
In some one OF these theories. in
of them or in none OF
hem the origin OF the Kentucky feud
md the cheapness of human life In
hat Commonwealth may be discov-
sred. There is practically unworked
ield for the future investigator OF
social conditions. In state whose
history from many points OF view is
more interesting than that of any
'ther in the United States this un.
olved problem remains one OF the
most pulling which have been pre-
ented 10 those who have tried TO I'M
lerstand and interpret the peculiar
'hases which have combined TO make
he story OF the American people
'hicagO Tribune.