The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-04-26
SOMETHING Of
OLD KENTUCKY
From the Pen Of One Of
Her Famous Sons.
SALIENT FEATURES STAND OUT
State Has Something About Her
That Makes Her Different
From Others.
BLUE GRASS AND BEAR GRASS

-
tor of the American Magazine TIL
Herald is able to publish for tn
pleasure OF its readers a sketch o
their native State, written by one o
Kentucky's famous sons. 1t is on
of series of articles ON THE Glor
of the States" which The American
Magazine is running.l
(By Irwin S. Cobb
The State of Kentucky is shaped
like a camel lying down. The straw
that broke the camels back was thu
first time the State went Republican
That was in the nine ties, and to the
community at large the shock wa!
so profound tda: several gentlemen
of the old school fer time thought
seriously of taking their letters out
of the church. Since then the same
thing has happened so frequently
that the sight of a Kentucky Repub-
lican holding a State office no longer
shakes a conservatives belief in the
existence of an All-Wise Power; and
the camePs back is getting used to
the sensation of being broken. 1t
| underwent a severe strain no longer
ago than last November.
The eastern end of the State is
the mountainous or perpendicular
end. Here, from the beginning of
things, until comparatively recently,
resided the congential feudist and the
incurable moonshinist. The latter
still exercises his hereditary calling
in a cave on a creek up a cove, with
a measure of corn to feed his still
and a messy place under a tree for
the customer to lie down on after
ward; but the gentle bushwhacker
has almost vanished. Either he is
taking postgraduate course in
chair bottoms at the Frankfort PEN
itentiary, or he has been fatally for
ty-fOured and now sleeps in the fam
lily burying ground on the slant of
the Cumberland hills, with his still
booted toes sticking up at the lower
end of the mound to save cost of
foot stones. In his place, that hap
Ply child of optimism, the Eastern
capitalist, is boring for oil and delv-
ing for coal and hacking for hard
wood, and meanwhile dreams sweet
dreams of eighty per cent dividends.
Somewhat nor by nor'-east of the
geographical center of the Common
wealth, about where the camel
would wear his fourth stomach, is
the Blue Grass country. While in
the company of Kentuckians you
may have heard the Blue Grass
country mentioned. The native son
has little way of speaking of it cas-
ually in conversation. You gather
that he is not exactly ashamed of
having hailed from that particular
locality. He may refer to it as Gods
country. Undoubtedly, it is. Its
conformation is heaven-sent; its pol
itics come from the Other Place.
From time to time this district pro-
duces man who would rather be
right than President. See published
lives Of Henry Clay and John C.
Breckenridge.
Moving along farther westward,
you come to the Beargrass, where
Louisville. the metropolis of the
State, proudly stands with a halo of
soft coal smoke wreathing her brow
and millions of silently dropped
lower-case RS piled about her high
arched insteps; then, in turn, to the
Barrens, to the Pennyrile, and final
ly to the Purchase. having its toes
in the Father of Waters, and once in
a while, when Father gets rampa-
geous, climbing up on stills to avoid
having its Adams apple laved. too.
In the western portion of the State
is to be found Mammoth Cave, the
iai6 Not udtuidi Utility OH the COntl-
nent. with one exception. However,
the enc out at Lincoln moves about
considerably, filling Chautauqua
dates, whereas Kentucky's cavern is
practically stationary, and has been
doing business at the same stand
ever since the original cavern oc-
Cured. Every year thousands of
Fasteners who have never found
time to look at Niagara Falls go to
Kentucky to see the Mammoth Cave,
passing on their way many Ken
tuckians who Ravens inspected the
cave yet. but feel their education
can never be complete until they
have gazed upon the beauties of
Niagara. This is a double tribute to
the compelling eloquence of rail-
road passenger agents.
The western counties concede to
the Blue Grass supremacy in stock !