USA > Kentucky > The story of Kentucky > Part 13
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A Bureau of Immigration has been established
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at Frankfort, under the direction of Professor John R. Proctor, State Geologist, who answers with care all questions in regard to the material resources of the State. Since the war, at least three hun- dred thousand dollars have been expended by the State in careful geological examination. This has resulted richly in scientific as well as material discoveries.
The numerous mounds, with which some por- tions of the State abound, show that, ages ago, a race of mound-builders once inhabited this region. Professor Rafinesque in his Ancient His- tory ; or, Annals of Kentucky, endeavors to prove that these early inhabitants were people of a superior order of intelligence. But careful re- search has shown that these mound-builders were of the same class and order as the ordinary savage from whom the pioneers had to defend themselves in the first settlement of the country.
Mention should be made of the petroleum wells in Eastern Kentucky that have been in operation for years; of the wide variety of building stone to be found in almost every county - the brown stone having been awarded the highest medal at the Centennial Exposition of 1876; of the fine pottery clays, the value of which is only beginning to be appreciated ; the fine white sand of Muldraugh's Hill, from which the finest of glass is manufac-
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tured ; the salt wells; the natural gas; and the manifold other rich resources which have recently attracted the attention of so many American and European capitalists. In 1885-86 the mining and manufacturing investments reached $46,707,200. This total was $20,022,200 in excess of Alabama, the most progressive of the Southern States in mining and manufacturing.
The census of 1880 ranks Kentucky as the four- teenth State in the Union in the assessed value of property, and the thirty-fifth in the amount of taxa- tion per capita. " Although thirty-four States tax their people a higher amount per capita," says ex- Governor J. Proctor Knott, "only four others appro- priate anything like the same proportion of their revenues to educational purposes."
The first railroad west of the Alleghanies was the Lexington branch of the Louisville and Nash- ville road, begun in 1831 and completed in 1835 - running from Lexington to Frankfort, and finished to Louisville in 1851. Now, a perfect network of railroads traverse Kentucky in every direction. making connection with the entire railway sys- tems of the East, the South and the West; several new lines have pushed their way through the long- neglected mountainous regions in the eastern por- tion of the State.
A fuller account of the resources and develop-
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ment of Kentucky, and the commercial progress of her chief city may be obtained from The City of Louisville and a Glimpse of Kentucky, published by the Louisville Board of Trade in 1887. This volume gives the population of Louisville at two hundred thousand; the exact figures of the esti- mate are 195,910. The annual death rate per one thousand inhabitants is seventeen -lower than any other city of the same size in the Union.
There are one hundred and forty-two churches in Louisville; thirty-three public schools, with over four hundred teachers, and nearly seventeen thou- sand pupils ; four medical colleges, two schools of pharmacy and one of dentistry, besides numerous private seminaries and parochial schools. There are five social clubs, two of which are 216 elegantly established. The Board of Trade and the Commercial Club, occupy handsome build- ings, and their twelve hundred members rep- resent considerable wealth and enterprise.
The Young Men's Christian Association
THOROUGHBRED.
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has a large and active membership; it is supplied with libraries, reading-rooms and gymnasium, and has two branches - one for German-speaking citi- zens, the other for railroad employés. There are thirty eight charitable institutions, hospitals, infirm- aries, asylums, etc. There are also five theatres; numerous public halls; and two driving parks, besides the celebrated race-course on Churchill Downs.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. which removed to Louisville in 1877, is a prosper- ous and justly-celebrated school, numbering among its pupils the representatives of many other de- nominations. It now occupies a new building which cost about three hundred thousand dollars, and grows yearly in fame and prosperity. The Kentucky School for the Blind, under the skillful management of Prof. B. B. Huntoon, has become one of the finest in the country. The superior printing done by its pupils secured for the school the establishment of the Government Printing House, which furnishes books for the public schools for the blind throughout the United States. There is a State University for colored pupils with a theological and a law department attached.
The library of the Polytechnic Society which con- tains forty thousand volumes, is open to the public, except when the privilege of removing books from
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the building is desired, when a small annual fee is required. The society has also a free art gallery, and an extensive laboratory. There are an unusual number of extensive private libraries throughout the State; the historical library of Col. R. T. Durrett being the largest and most valuable in the West or South.
The Baptists were the religious pioneers of Kentucky. They still maintain the majority in membership and churches. The Methodist, Presby- terian, Christian and Episcopal churches have each a strong hold upon the State. The Catholics were mainly from Maryland. Bancroft says of them : " Bold, hardy, adventurous and strongly attached to their faith, but tolerant towards those of other denominations, the Catholic emigrants to Ken- tucky proved not unworthy of their ancestors, who had been the first to unfurl on this Western Continent the broad banner of universal freedom, both civil and religious."
The history of each of these churches is full of interest. It is illumined by some of the strong. est minds and loveliest characters that have helped to transform the fearful wilderness into a smiling garden of civilization. The Lutherans began later, but are growing rapidly in strength and numbers. In Louisville there are two Congregational churches and one Unitarian ; also three Jewish.
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The Freemasons form one of the strongest secular societies in the State. The Widows and Orphans Home established at Louisville is the only institution of the kind in the United States. It is excellently managed and has a national repu- tation. Its building is one of the finest in the city, and furnishes a comfortable abiding-place for many widows and orphans.
I have said nothing of the canal at Louisville. the first. great engineering work in the United States. It was begun in 1826. Governor Clinton of New York took off his coat and trundled the first wheelbarrow of earth. It was completed in 1831 and cost $800,000. The Government sub- scribed for $300,000 worth of stock, and received in cash and bonds 567 shares and $24,278 more than it invested.
The fame of the Kentucky thorough-bred i- world-wide. In beauty, strength and speed he i- not surpassed even by the " Arab steed " celebrated in song and story. And capitalists in search of charming homes have frequently come from a !! to settle contentedly down in the lovely blu grass pastures, where beauty and utility so agree- ably combine to make life both prosperous and attractive.
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CHAPTER XII.
"AFTER MANY YEARS."
HE rapidity with which In the Blue Grass Country Kentucky adapted herself to the new order of things after her slaves were free astonished even her- self. The results of the past decade had demonstrated to the entire satisfaction of all concerned that slavery was not only not indispen- sable to any one's comfort, but that it had been one of the greatest barriers to real progress that ever stood in the way of a people. Not only has there been an astonishing increase in manufactures in the State since the advent of freedom; the re- cent extraordinary developments in coal and iron mining, and the increased immigration of agricul- turists, promise still greater things in the future.
Nor has Kentucky's intellectual activity failed to keep pace with her material progress. The strength
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and brilliancy of her newspapers are but the reflection of the intellectual and industrial vigor of the State. Here Prentice lived and worked and made hi- fame; here the Louisville Journal was regarded a- a wonderfully successful newspaper ; but, could its. editor return to the scene of his former labors he would stand amazed, not only at its increased power and importance and the enormous outlay its pub- lication involves, but also at the rich returns which have helped to make the Courier-Journal one of the richest, as well as brightest, of American new' -- papers.
This unusual prosperity has been largely due to the financial ability of Mr. W. N. Haldeman, as well as to the editorial brilliancy of Mr. Henry Wattersop. one of the most conspicuous and influential jour- nalists of his day. Nor is the Courier-Journal the only ably-edited newspaper in the State. There are many other bright journals whose editoria. methods exhibit the same independence of thought and opinion that has characterized the Kentucki !!! from the pioneer times.
Beyond the newspaper, Kentucky has usually regarded literature as a pastime rather than a pro- fession. The long list of writers in the past whose fugitive poems and sketches surprise the reader ! their strength and beauty, serves to show that t !.. meagerness of her literary record is the rest .:
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neither of a deficiency in culture nor of limited intellectual power.
Among the few who have taken the trouble to fashion their thoughts into the form of a book, at least three repented that they had entrusted to an irreverent public so much of the precious product of their brain, and suppressed their work. To the genial, impulsive Kentuckian, art seems too slow, too tedious and too exclusive a process to be made a serious business of life ; no less does it seem too dependent on the uncertain favor of a fickle public. Yet a few have loved it well enough to sit down to the tedious task undaunted by the long array of reproachful faces which seem to look out from the past, as if to say, "We have piped to you and ye have not danced, we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented."
Although we still find few professional men of letters outside the editorial chair, the readers of current literature welcome with pleasure the contri- butions of Bishop T. U. Dudley, of Prof. N. S. Shaler, and of James Lane Allen. Robert Burns Wilson, the poet-artist, has secured public favor in two fields of art. The poems of Harrison Robertson and J. Madison Cawein have also won wide atten- tion ; and we find a critical English audience select- ing for a prize reading one of the well-known poems of H. T. Stanton. The "character studies" of
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Douglas Shirley show a promising fidelity to nature. Morrison Heady, also, who labors under the double disadvantage of total blindness and deafness, has given to the public some clever and ingenious work.
Since the long-ago time when Matthew Jouett - the handsome, popular young lawyer whose " briefs beamed with the faces of his friends" - forsook the profession for which he had been so carefully trained, and went up to Boston to study portrait- painting under the renowned Gilbert Stuart, there have been many artists in Kentucky who have loved Art for her own sake, and who have devoted their lives to the faithful representation of the true, the beautiful, and the good things of life.
Much of the dense, danger-haunted forest which lured the pioneers from the comforts of civilization into untold hardship and danger have vanished ; but there yet remain massive forests crowded with grand and impressive trees - the beech, the elm. the maple, the live-oak, and a thousand other varieties, that
" Wag their high tops and make no noise, When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven."
And the gently-rolling, blue-grass pastures with. their clear flowing streams, their ruminating cattle. their browsing sheep, their groups of splendid thor-
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ough-breds, standing beneath the shade of wide- spreading trees - all furnish alluring material for both pen and pencil. It was here that Fuller painted some of his most striking pictures.
In this Commonwealth the dignity and sweet- ness of the Christian life is rarely disturbed by the
Hear Frankfort A ) ketch by Robert B. Wilson.
various new schisms and heresies which come and go; false lights which flare up bravely for awhile, and then go out, leaving their devotees in darkness. Illiteracy which is faithful to its tasks, is far pre- ferable to a godless culture which only creates trouble. Kentucky's immunity from the flood of
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semi-cultured foreign immigration, which, while it has helped to make the North rich, brought also discord and danger, has been one of her chief blessings.
Whiskey distilling is still one of the large indus- : tries of the State. Many honorable, conscientious men are engaged in the business; men who hon- estly believe that in making whiskey they do good and not evil. It is not to be denied that whiskey has oftentimes served a good purpose; and the taxes on whiskey have contributed no little to the enrichment of the United States Treasury. But when we are told that in this American Republic three hundred million dollars are paid annually for drink, and that sixty thousand people every year die drunkards' deaths; when we count the cost to the country in ruined homes, deteriorated morals and increased pauperism, we are forced to the conclusion that the whiskey curse is one of the most terrible that ever befell a nation.
The change in public opinion on this subject has been as great in Kentucky as in other portions of the United States. In 1888 the manufacture of distilled liquors decreased in the State 10,774,254 gallons; the total amount, fermented and distilled. 836.774,977 gallons. Apart from the active pro- hibition movement, the cause of temperance reform has been greatly promoted through social and edu-
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cational influences: and the growing horror of drunkenness has well-nigh extinguished the drink- ing habit, which, like slavery, must soon cease to obstruct the path of civilization.
The public school system in Kentucky, especially in the cities, has attained an unusually high degree of excellence. "Ten years ago," says H. A. M. Henderson, formerly Superintendent of Instruction, "a man in the blue-grass country worth ten thou- sand dollars would as soon have thought of sending his children to the poor-house as to a public school. The public school was regarded as a charity de- vised for the education of paupers. But now the wealthiest counties are becoming the best friends of the public school."
The long list of colleges, universities and acade- mies in the State extends beyond the possibility of record here. Her theological seminaries have sent out some of the most eloquent and useful ministers of the times. Her law and medical schools have given to the country some of its most distinguished orators and most eminent physicians.
Hospitality is still cherished here as a fine art though the limitations of the present system of service have tended to restrain the old lavish prodi- gality of the ante bellum days.
The " woman's rights " movement makes scarcely more impression on Kentucky than does a foreign
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war. Although we hear little public mention of Kentucky women, except for beauty and social grace. these are by no means their only, nor their high- est attributes. The fact that there are twenty-five thousand more males than females in the State has tended to keep women out of the professions. Yet the quiet dignity and independence of the true home-bred Kentucky woman has sometimes made her a not unattractive feature even in the busi- ness walks of life.
For all his native shiftlessness, and his some- times inconvenient devotion to a "good time." Kentucky would not willingly part with her colored citizen. Beside his service in the field, the factory and the workshop, his musical and oratorical gift. are not to be despised; they add their share of interest to this unusually picturesque and pleasing State.
The recent agitation of the prison reform ques- tion, has not yet induced Kentucky to discard the convict lease system. The old idea that the pen- tentiary is a place for punishment, and not a reformatory, is still cherished here. It is thought only just and fair that criminals - the most expen- sive class of citizens -- should repay at least a portion of the enormous sum they cost the Gov- ernment. The prison at Frankfort, though often over-crowded, is kept in tolerably good condition by
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IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE. See page 287.
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convict labor ; there is a good library, and religious services are regularly held. But there is not, as yet, that organized effort toward the reformation of the convict, which is possible only through a knowl- edge of his character and needs, and due respect for his rights; for even convicts have their rights. For such as these Christ died. That the inter- ests of society are so closely bound up with those of the criminal makes it all the more needful to convert them, if possible, into intelligent, self- respecting citizens.
Kentuckians would consider incomplete a work on Kentucky which made no mention of the great Mammoth Cave. This marvelous "underground palace " is situated in Edmondson County, in the southwestern portion of the State. Bayard Taylor, that indefatigable traveler, admits that there is nothing in nature more wonderful than this cave - not even Niagara. The primitive char- acter of the great log hotel, and all its quaint envi- ronments belonging to a by-gone time, are carefully preserved. The spirit of the ancient regime lingers around the spot, undisturbed by the crowds of visitors who continually come and go.
Two routes traverse the cave - one seven miles long, requiring four hours, the other eighteen miles long, requiring nine hours. Both of these the tourist is expected to take. There is but one
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entrance. You descend a flight of steps, the guide unlocks a door, when (usually, though not always a rush of wind accompanied by the whir of bat- wings, blows out all the lamps. After groping .: short distance in a sort of twilight the party pause- to re-light their lamps. and soon you enter Audu- bon Avenue, named for the celebrated ornithologist. who for many years made his home in Kentucky. Near by are the remains of the saltpetre works and also. a sort of chapel where the miners used to worship in the old pioneer days.
You thread the succession of high-pillared done -. under "arches that swell sublime in lone and dim magnificence," and through "dim, awful aisles," a> the poet Prentice describes them, -
" With stars and flowers fretted like the halls Of Oriental monarchs - rivers dark And drear and voiceless as Oblivion's stream That flows through Death's dim vale of silence - gulfs All fathomless, down which the loosened rock Plunges until its far-off echoes come Fainter and fainter like the dying roll Of thunders in the distance."
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring of these vast. "high-pillar'd " apartments is the Star Chambe. from whose mysterious dome high overhead a thot. sand snow-white gems gleam out, amid the melan. choly gloom.
" Be seated, ladies and gentlemen," says the
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guide; and relieving the party of their lamps, he vanishes behind a jutting rock. Soon fleecy clouds begin to float mysteriously across the starry heavens, and you seem to be staring into an infini- tude of sky. Then suddenly the stars go out, and an awful " blackness of darkness " descends upon you. After an interval of appalling silence, the sky begins to light up with a faint glimmer of dawn. The rocks and hills take on a faint yellow light, and a most wonderful imitation of day-break ensues. Then, all too soon, the guide re-appears with your lamps and the gratuitous counsel, "Well, we'd better be gittin' along."
At Lake Purity you need to have a care lest you unwittingly stumble in, seeing no water there, so wonderfully clear is it. And so light and exhila- rating is the atmosphere, that a fair walker makes the eighteen miles without great fatigue. A large party greatly enhances the interest, while the pict- uresque dress also adds much to the charm of the scene.
There are many more grottoes and vast halls ; there are wild depths whose dense gloom even the most powerful magnesium lights fail to illumine ; there is an immense conservatory -two miles of flowers which never fade. No need to draw on your imagination for the flowers. There they are above you ; a garden of such perfect lilies and roses and
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fuchsias as no other conservatory has ever pro- duced -even the faint yellowish reflection of the stamens inside. There are three rivers and several cascades. As you float down " Echo River " some one in a boat far behind you starts a song, and forthwith the mysterious sprites presiding over these "fretted halls" take up the strain, and a burst of heavenly melody, as of angels singing. floats past you down the stream - vanishing with the gliding water beneath a solid wall of rock. I have mentioned neither the "Corkscrew" nor " Pur- gatory "; these to be appreciated must be seen.
We will take a farewell glance at the Peterson -. our representative Kentuckians, who instead of going abroad this season have come out to the old country homestead; the same from which the two brothers went forth a quarter of a century ago to fight for their country -on different sides. The beloved parents of that unhappy time have long since entered into their eternal rest. Harry himself is beginning to show on his face the record of a life given to earnest thought and patient, kindly deeds. He wonders a little over the keen interest with which his son and daughter read the new novels and poems as they appear in the periodicals of the day. There are no great novels, these days, hu says - nothing like "Vanity Fair," or " David Copperfield," or " Jane Eyre."
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Nevertheless, he glances smilingly at the two young people bending so earnestly over a great parchment spread out on the library table. This parchment contains the "family tree," over which Edmund and Cornelia have spent much time - patiently tracing the various branches "away back into the dark ages," as Cornelia (who is named for that literary great-aunt whom she never saw) calls the old pioneer times of Edmund Cabell. As all the old Virginia families carefully preserved their family records, the way from the Virginia Cabells back to the cavaliers was plain sailing. The West- lakes were more intricate; but far back, beyond a generation or two of black sheep, was a strain of deep-blue English blood. " The most aristocratic, and the least respectable branch on our tree," says the young man. " No, Cornelia, I am not going to whitewash that unsound branch; whitewash is out of fashion ; and, even the Plantagenets, the Stuarts and the Bourbons had their black sheep. James Tuggs and William Cobb Westlake were, I guess, two as worthless people as ever lived. They were anything but aristocrats while they lived ; but you see their high ancestry gives them precedence in the family records."
" There we have the advantage over the aristo- cratic countries," said Cornelia. "Eminence in art, in science, in literature, or in true Christian
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refinement, gives a social rank which even the stupid heir to a fortune, or to an aristocratic name cannot claim." Then there was much laughter over the story of a Kentucky girl who, while danc- ing with a titled Englishman, evinced some heat- tation at pronouncing his title. "I don't like to call you Lord," she explained. " It seems irrev. erent -like taking the name of the Lord in vain, you know." " Call me Ned, then - do," said his lordship. " That is what they call me at home." And the remainder of the evening the young pec- ple were vastly amused, and the proprieties un- utterably shocked at the spectacle of an English nobleman answering sweetly to the name of " Ned."
Harry and Cornelia, both graduates of the public schools, have been abroad a year or two. They are interested in art, in sociology, the labor ques- tion and the tariff (though I am sorry to say that Cornelia has never yet attained to the heights and depths of the latter abstruse question); and I think will use wisely and well such gifts as they possess. For all may have, if they choose, a beautiful and noble life.
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