The Winchester news. [volume] (Winchester, Ky.) 1908-19??, 1909-01-22
mr. JOHN f. GARNER DISCUSSES
s PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Makes One Of The Hits Of The Evening At The Annual Banquet Of The
First Christian Church Of Louisville

vancing column of 'Has Been" and
you feel your subject slipping.
Earliest Settlement.
The 'Has Been" part of this sub
ject first was in the earliest settle
ment of this State Among the early
settlers, were some of the First Fam
lies of Virginia-tO start for Ken
lucky; some perferred to settle in
Kentucky rather than to settle in Vir-
ginia-with COnstables and other Of
ficers of the law some came from a
love of war, others from a desire Of
peace-only nature was raising cane
in Kentucky-at that time; to some
who came, living anywhere was
matter of geography, they were ready
to start when they had put out the
fire and called the dog; some came
because they thought the war of '76
was revolutionary " and they didn't
want to take no part" some came
who were not of the "FOur Hundred"
and did not have the divorce habit,
their modesty restraining them from
the nOtoriety of divorce proceedings,
preferring to be separated by dis
lance and wilderness rather than by
courts.
Search of Records.
A search of the records discloses
that there were some fierce, rough
times in the elias Been" An extract
from the testimony Of old Mrs. Hig
mite shows what the preliminaries
were that led up to fight. She was
asked to tell the court what she knew
of the difficulty. She said, "There
were a dance down to my house, an
Pete johnson and Jake Searcy both
axed my gradarter, Liza Ann, to
dance with 'em, one word fotch on a
mother, an Pete out with his knife an
slashed Jake cross the winpipe, an
Jake reched fur his pistil an shot
Pete in the he'd, and PeteS brother
Dan he up with the fire shovel an
nocked Jakes daddy down, then they
-menced fghtin an / left" Our
tastes and habits have changed some
since then; it isn't often now they
wait to get to the house before they
begin the fighting.
The Birth of Pee.
Day before yesterday was the one
hundredth anniversary Of the birth
CT Edgar Allen Poe. 1t was in the
fine of our. fathers or grand-fathers
that Poe's craven" was first pub
lished; and while its merit was recog-
nized it had a place in their affec-
tons second to "Old Crow" The two
birds were trained in different schools
One quothed "Nevermore," the other
"Neverless." One Derched on the
"bust Of Pallas," the other had
''busts" of its own and imagined the
palace. "Old Grow" was the arbiter
Of the "Has Been" When two
neighbors had "crow to pick" both
picked "Old Crow" The running of
time has assigned each to its proper
place. The Raven" still lives and
is a source of constant pleasure.
The "Old Crow stilP' is gone and is
of course, never ending regret.
Something is Environment.
There was something in the environ
ment of the elias Been" that produc-
ed some superb men and women, in
the days Of the log school house and
me cloud" school, when the concen-
sus Of option was that there were but
two ways to fix an idea in a boys
brain, one by the voice and the other
through his pants. 1t may have been
the influence of that gentlemanly
scholar, the Scotch Irish school
teacher, who observed and encourage
ed the bent of boys mind; who was
not trammelled by an arbitrary and
infiexible graded system, that re-
quires every boy to travel at the same
pace In the same direction and which
will ultimately develop a lot of ma
chine-made people, who will always
do and say the same thing in the
same way at the same time.
Had an Individuality.
In the elias Been" most individuals
had an individuality. Among them
some who Outgrew their fellows;
men of force, character and convic-
tons, who had the respect, confidence
and the ear of the American people,
and who never took a salary from
and fee against the government at
the same time.
The "IsentneSS" of the SIS"
In apology for the unpreparedness
of the "as is" division of my subject,
my time has been so occupied with
reading of the excursions of the self
appointed, mounted, crop regulators
and the Presidents messages that
there was no opportunity to think of
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