Kentucky Progress Magazine
I I C
 e Glowing Tribute Paid Old Kentucky
al Response to Toast, "To Kentucky", by *Sam P. Cochran, at Dallas Rotary Club, February ll.
  1925, and at Kentucky Club of Dallas. Annual Meeting, March 5, 1932
 Q "Kentucky" hardy men and women of the middle class, not rich in
 I "'/he sun newer shone on. a country more fair Inatfirlal Wcaltlb bat great in c0umg€» with strong? Sense
Than lwautiful, peerless Kentucky; of Flght and Justice, truly loyal to state and nation, of
· l 7`here's life in a kiss of her rarified air, ¤}0d¢§!‘3.t€ 0I' €V€11 poor educational attamments, with un-
] Ifgntuckyf   Ke;iltuL·ky• yleldlng personal   and falinlly d€VOtlOn; on thC
., no sm tm- win"; (ma maze and origin, vthsr hwd. the "B¤¤1¤1¤a¤S»" mm ¤¤<1 w¤¤¤<;=¤7 <>f wcalth
i Hgy l)e(Lu[i[ful dalughtel-S aye just dbg"] yiyhp   degeneracy, of Cl.lltUY€ WlthOut Superclllouslless, of
1 I ,4,,,] gw babjgs_G0d btw; ;;“,,,,_r_.u,·{. (tmp patriotism above pleasure. and the refinements and graces
Ou; Of sight; of social excellence without haughtiness, with a love of
 _ THAT NOP ww,. fag]; .;,, K,,,,_;,,(-kv state and country making for any sacrifice or service; in
___B , `. 1 C . other words, the Hampdens of the Hills and the Lafayettes
g Ln .. ox. . . . ..
i i of the Meadowlands, a people of improbable possibilities
 I HE close of the American Revolution turned loose and of extravagant virtues, of innate courtesy and super- -
I a body of strong men who had demonstrated courage abundant sensitiveness and resentment. These two dis-
- and learned endurance during the trying experiences tinct yet coalescing classes of people have been most
~ 4 of that war, and were imbued with a spirit of adventure graphically delineated by those two greatest of Kentucky’s
  and. above all, of patriotic loyalty. Home ties had been literary geniuses of the last generation, james Lane Allen
 W severed. and in many instances local associations obliterated in his brilliant. classical love stories and descriptions of
  so that the glowing accounts of a wonderful land beyond “The Blue Grass," and john Fox. jr., in his laconic and
i   the mountains readily led many to seek new habitations pathetic tales of “The People of the Hills.” Of these peo-
. and try for fortunes in the unknown West. Puritan from ple Dr. Harvey VV. Wiley wrote: "Those Highlanders
i N ew England, Catholic from Maryland, Scotch Irish from are not degenerates. On the contrary they are the best
* New York, with sturdy Dutch and Quaker from Pennsyl— human specimens to be found in the country, and prob-
‘ vania, the Cavalier of Virginia and the explorer from ably in the world. They are the last remnants of the un-
i North Carolina pressed up the valleys of the streams flow- defiled." And Woodrow Wilson said, "In these mountains
~. ing to the Atlantic seaboard, crossed the Blue Ridge and is the original stuff of which America is made." Such
— through the passes of the Appalachians, and down into seeming contradictions of character have led to many
  the fertile valleys and rich forests and tablelands of the humorous and some censorious criticisms and comments
E Mid-west. The explorations of Boone and Kenton at- on Kentucky and the Kentuckians, especially with relation i
  tracted many of these to Kentucky, which lay in the to their feuds and the moonshining proclivities of the
 j natural pathway between the seaboard and the Mississippi Mountaineer, the love of the race horse and the adoration
 l River. Many of those who crossed the Blue Ridge stopped of their women, and the disposition on occasions to take
 l in the foothills of Eastern Kentucky, and finding it a con- the law into their own hands and settle their internal and
‘g genial country planted themselves there, and their de- private disputes with the pistol, the rifle or the knife. This
,‘ scendants, a hardy race. are still there. preserving many custom, it is pleasing to say, is losing some of its popu-
· of the traditions and peculiarities of speech of their an- larity. Friends from the outside have sometimes seen the
V cestors, reaching back even to Mother Countries beyond virtues and frailties of the people in clearer light than those _
. the Atlantic. Others came down the Ohio River and within, and have framed them in pictures for our view.
· pressed forward through the forest to the tablelands of sometimes humorous, sometimes pleasing, nearly always
 ;i Central Kentucky and on to the meadows of the West. instructive. A friend from Chicago once furnished this
l and from these varying and differing peoples sprang up "Diagnosis of Kentucky":
a race of fearless men and peerless women. The spirit of
 i the Revolution made them intensely loyal to state and "Kentucky’s hills are full of rills.
country. The dangers of the wild beast and more savage And all the rills are lined with stills,
i men, who had to be overcome to gain and retain posses- And all the stills are full of gills,
-· sion of the goodly land they sought, preserved the innate And all the gills are full of thrills.
courage of the pioneers and their descendants. The neces- And all the thrills are full of kills. '
A sity of individual defense and family protection bred the
spirit of personal independence, and the fellowship of You see the feudist dot the hills.
’  danger generated the sentiment of neighborliness, which And camp among the little rills,
gave birth, in gentler times, to that distinguished trait. C0n·z·en·ient to the little stills,
. "Kentucky Hospitality." The courage of the women in And thirsting for the brimming gills;
·: sharing the trials of pioneership with their fathers, And when the juice his system jflls,
brothers and husbands made a race of women, who. with Each feudist whoops aramid and kills.
. the advent of peaceful times and the comforts of pros- `
perity. developed into a race unrivaled for beauty and un- Now, if tl1ey’d only stop the stills
 _. surpassed for culture, virtue and grace. They’d cure Kentucky’s many ills.
y From these various elements of race, circumstances and M en would be spared t0 climb the hills
 _ conditions developed those distinctive classes, which I And operate the little stills
A have facetiously but lovingly denominated “The Kentuli— That linger on the little rills,
~ ans" and “The Benjolians"—the "Kentulians," those And numufacture gills and thrills.
.1
{ Page Seven