Year: 1871

q measure apathetic when overtures
are made to cut up her fair fields
with the avenues of commerce and
send the iron horse shrieking down
her valleys and through the bowels of
her everlasting hills? When it is
proposed to disturb the quiet that
has so long reigned over her verdant
fields and woodlands, and exchange
the plaintive cry of the whippoorwill
for the crash and clang and rattle of
the express train? 1t is asking a
great sacrifice of those whose memo
ries are green, and whose fancy an
ticipates pictures of the future and
contrasts them with the delicious
Innings of the peaceful past.


But the logic of events cannot be
withstood. Civilization is a great
tyrant and destroyer of idols. Per-
haps it erects new ones in their
places, but that is neither here or
there Those things and places, as
well as people, which are endeared
by time and association must yield
to the inevitable edict of mutation.
Old things pass away, and new
things, new ways, new habits, new
styles and new people take their
places In time, the new become the
old, and must abide the same order
of ineXorable fate.


And so we say to Kentucky: The
palmy days of your glory, your hap
piness, your hospitality-in short,
your mode of living and letting live
is passing quietly, but surely, away,
never to return. You must accept
the issue, whether graciously or not.
Man is not the absolute master of all
his title deeds define. He may plow,
and SOW, and reap, and enjoy the
fruits of his labors, but when the
great spirit oe progress foreshadows
improvements for the general good,
and says a canal must run through
here. railroad there, and telegraph
line at another place, and the termini
to be at such and such places, poor
man, whose garden has been desc
Grated, and proprietary rights out
ragged, must submit to the fiat, for it
is unalterable. It is waste of shoe
leather and an aggravation of corns
to kick against the pricks.


Now, the Cincinnati Southern
Railroad is an indispensable neces-
sity to one-half the Southern States
and to one fourth of the West. 1t
mast and will be built; and any at
tempt of the Legislature or people of
Kentucky to defeat it will but render
the majority more resolute in seek
ing their own interests. While we
appreciate, and, to some extent, SYM
pathize with the spirit which mista-
kenly places distractions in the way
of this great and necessary work, in
so far as they may only desire to en-
force their ancient rights and privili-
ges, we must at the same time con-
cede that the road will be of immense
value to the State itself, and there
fore wish to see it built, however
much it may at first blush seem to
outrage the sentiments of its oppos-
ers. We beg the people of Ken
lucky to look at the subject in the
light of the times, and we warn the
Legislature that they are doing their
constituents wrong in refusing to
grant the right of way. We hope to
see more progressive spirit evinced
at the next session at Frankfort, and
confidently expect to see, within two
years, cars arriving in Cincinnati
through from Tennessee without
change, laden with the products of
Southern Kentucky, Tennessee and
Georgia, and returning with the mer-
chandise which will be exchanged
for them in this market.