Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1916-04-22

The American Magazine is running
a series of articles on ''The Glory OF
States" each article written by a
prominent resident or nonresident ma
tive of the State. In the current issue
Of the magazine Kentucky is handled
in this distinctiveIy Cobbesque style
by the inimitable Irwin S. Cobb;
"The State of Kentucky is shaped
like camel lying down. The straw
that broke the camePs back was the
first time the state went Republican.
That was in the nineties, and to the
community at large the shock was SO
profound that several gentlemen OF
the old school for time thought Sc
riouslyo of taking their letters out OF the
church. Since then the same thing t'ii;;'isS.
has happened so frequently that the
SIGHT of Kentucky Republican hold
inc state office no longer shakes a
conservatives belief in the existence
of an All-Wise Power; and the camefs
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 congenital feudist and the incura-
BILE moonshinist. The latter still ex-
ercises his hereditary calling IN a
cave on a creek up cove, with q
measure of corn to fill his still and a
messy place under tree for Gus
toner to lie down on afterward; bu'
the gentle bushwhacker has almost
vanished. Either he is taking post
graduate course in chair bottoms al
the Frankfort penitentiary, or he has
been fatally forty-foured and now
sleeps in the family burying grounc
on the slant of the Cumberland hills
with his still-booted toes sticking uI
at the lower end of the mound to save
cost of foot stones. In his place, tina
happy child of optimism, the Eastern
capitalist, is boring for oil and delvinl
for coal and hacking for hard wood
and meanwhile dreams sweet dream
of eighty per cent dividends.
! Somewhat nor by nor'-east OF tn
geographical center Of the common
wealth, about where the camel woul
p wear his fourth stomach, is the Blu
Grass country. While in the con
pany of Kentuckians you may hay
- heard the Blue Grass country me-
toned. The native son has lit
, way of speaking of il casually in CO
e versation. You gather that he is a
exactly ashamed of having hailed ire
that particular locality. He may r
y fer to it as Gods country. Under
n ably, il is. Its conformation is heay'
81 sent; its politics come from the oth
W Place. From time to time this dl
IS trict produces a man who won
"a rather be right than President. >
n published lives of Henry Clay al
Is John c.. Breckenridge.
Moving along farther westwal
YOU come to the Beargrass, whe
Louisville, the metropolis OF the sta
proudly stands with halo of,soft c.
smoke wreathing her brow and n
= lions of silently dropped lower-c;
RS piled about her high-arched
steps; then, in turn, to the Barre
to the Pennyrile, and finally to
Purchase, leaving its toes in
fathers of Waters, and once in
: while, when Father gets rampageo
- climbing up on stills to avoid hav
its Adams apple laved too.
m In the western portion of the st
is 10 be found Mammoth Cave,
largest natural ori6ce on the co
nent, with one exception. Howey
the one out at Lincoln moves alb
considerably, filling Chautauqua ds
whereas Kentucky's cavern is pra
cally stationary, and has been do
business at the same stand ever 81
. the original cavern occurred. Ev
ia year thousands of fasteners