University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, North America English Language and Literature 1956 Bluegrass Cavalcade Thomas D. Clark Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Clark, Thomas D., "Bluegrass Cavalcade" (1956). Literature in English, North America. 20. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/20 Bluegrass Cavalcade ~~ rvN'_r~ ~ .,J\{.1' ~-.---· ~ '( , ~\ -'"l-.. r: <-n' ~1"-,. G.. .... UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY PRESS Lexington 1956 - Edited by THOMAS D. CLARK .'-" ,_ r- Publication of this book is possible partly because of a grant from the Margaret Voorhies Haggin Trust established in memory of her husband James Ben Ali Haggin. Copyright © 1956 by The University of Kentucky Press Paperback edition © 2009 by the University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8131-9275-8 (pbk: acid-free paper) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Dedicated to ]. WINSTON COLEMAN, ]R. Bluegrass Historian and Author This page intentionally left blank Tahle of Contents EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION page xi BOOK ONE: THE PROMISED LAND I John Filson, With Joy and Wonder 4 Felix Walker, A New Sky and Strange Earth 5 Gilbert Imlay, This Delectable Region 9 Bernard Mayo, Goshen of the Western World 13 Grant C. Knight, God's Very Footstool 24 Anthony Trollope, A Very Pretty Place 30 Charles Dudley Warner, An Orthodox and a Moral Region 34 J. Soule Smith, Near to Heaven 40 Ulric Bell, That Particular "It" 49 BOOK Two: THE LAND AND ITS HEROES 53 James Lane Allen, Bluegrass Kentuckians 56 John Bradford, A Most Singular Circumstance 62 John A. McClung, After Anxious Reflection 65 Theodore Roosevelt, The Covenanting Spirit 68 Daniel Drake, I Well Recollect 71 John Robert Shaw, Bottle Fever 82 Noah M. Ludlow, Actors Were Funny People 86 Horace Holley, Nothing for Profit 90 Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Appearance of a Gentleman 93 Basil Duke, The Bearing of a Soldier 101 James Lane Allen, Belated, Fruitless Efflorescence 103 George B. Leach, Something Never Forgotten llO Clement Eaton, This Appreciation of Leisure ll7 Joe H. Palmer, The Finger of Providence 120 Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS Bluegrass BOOK THREE: A JOY TO MAN 124 Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Buckskin Petticoat 127 James T. Flexner, A Heroic Choice 136 Jefferson J. Polk, Love Entered into Me 145 Cassius Marcellus Clay, A Moment of Supreme Bliss 150 J. Winston Coleman, Jr., Emergency 155 Thomas D. Clark, Belle of the Elkhorn 157 Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Morning Star 161 Irvin S. Cobb, Unreconstructed Rebel 173 BOOK FOUR: THE SPORTS OF GENTLEMEN 182 William Littell, Too Much Spirit 186 Henry Clay, A Genuine American Policy 191 Thomas N. Allen, The 4th of July 201 Anonymous, Left-Hand Doin's 209 A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Sonny Boy 213 Patrick O'Donovan, Let the Folks See You 216 James Lane Allen, County Court Day 220 William H. Townsend, The Sale of Eliza 237 Anonymous, The Mystery of Quarter-Racing 240 Anonymous, The Fastest Time Made 250 Basil Duke, The Art of "Horse-Pressing" 255 John James Audubon, The Management of the Rifle 258 George Dennison Prentice, A Trial of Strength 262 Thomas D. Clark, The Sign of the Cockpit 265 J. Soule Smith, Zenith of Man's Pleasure 269 Henry Watterson, The Bottom of the Glass 271 Thomas D. Clark, An Air of Mystery 276 Allan Trout, Abundant Life 278 Joe H. Palmer, Jelly on Her Biscuit 281 Cavalcade TABLE OF CONTENTS lX BOOK FIVE: THE TREADMILL OF LIFE 285 James B. Finley, Awful beyond Description 289 William Burke, Shouts of Triumph 292 Richard McNemar, Perfect Harmony 293 William Littell, The Said Distemper 298 Richard Carter, Morning, Noon, and Night 299 C. ·w. Short, That Awful Scourge 303 Robert Penn Warren, Lie for Lie 306 Calvin Colton, Prisoner on This Blessed Day 326 Joseph Hergesheimer, The Right Age for Neutrality 331 John Fox, Jr., The Low Sound of Sobbing 344 Henry Watterson, These Noble Sentiments 352 Hughes, Schaefer, Williams, Awful Deed of Wrath 356 Joe Jordan, The Folly of a Few 359 Henry Watterson, To Hell 377 This page intentionally left blank Edtior~ Introduction ONcE BLUEGRASS Kentucky was an Indian hunting ground. Here buffalo, elk, and deer flocked to its grassy meadows. In the latter half of the eighteenth century longhunters from the Carolinas and Virginia came seeking adventure in the country which both Indians and adventurers had described. Following them came settlers displaying energy never before seen in a new country. For almost fifty years after 1775, people climbed .through Cumberland Gap and trudged up the Wilderness Road to the rich meadowland across the Kentucky River. Flatboats drifted homeseekers downriver from the northeast to spread over the Bluegrass. Here was a land where obvious opportuni­ ties prompted quick exploitation. In this frontier vanguard imaginative authors were stirred to create a vigorous literature of pioneering. One was young Felix Walker, who helped Daniel Boone blaze the Wilderness Trail. He felt himself a missionary of empire building. His is a happy account of entering virgin country-happy, that is, until an arrow exposed Kentucky's treachery. Kentucky was the first long rest on the path westward. It became a place of new beginnings. Land was fresh, and every­ thing a man did made a mark. Felling a tree gapped the forest; a cabin in a clearing was a first house for miles around. A ripen­ ing field of grain was a first bread crop. By their firesides, pioneer women wove the first Kentucky cloth, knit the first stockings, and rocked first-born babes. Ken­ tucky was in fact a great loom on which a stout warp of pio­ neering was strung to be finished off with the brighter woof of civilized refinement. In early Kentucky, men boasted of their ability to tame the wilderness. They conceived being first to do things a particular accomplishment. Bluegrass literature is fairly sprinkled with "first" and "biggest" things. Achieve­ ments and possessions often became only comparatively im­ portant. A good horse, a beautiful daughter, a faithful wife, Xll EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Bluegrass had only limited significance. Only the "best" was worth pos­ sessing, and the world has been a small place when Kentuckians have assessed their values. A steep mountain range with its foothill barriers separated Kentucky from the older world. Love of that older world, however, was brought overland. Though George III and his crown officials embittered the pioneers with the encouragement of Indian raids, Bluegrass Kentuckians have always loved things English. In rolling vales they harmonized this ancient love of civilization with their new mode of life. Pioneering in Kentucky was indeed a great experiment in national expansion. The country was a conditioning place where a backwoods democracy readied itself for greater con­ quests. Proud authors wrote of their pioneering. Scores of visitors saw the country firsthand and wrote home to encourage immigration. Geography placed it on the foreigner's "Grand Tour" of America, and most major travel accounts include a description of the Bluegrass, thus comprising a considerable volume of literature. As sycamores grew tall along the Bluegrass streams, so grew some of the region's sons in popular estimation. But tallest of all Bluegrass sons was Henry Clay. This Virginia mill boy fol­ lowed the pioneers up the Wilderness Trail to begin a meager law practice in Lexington. As bright young lawyer, eloquent campaigner, persuasive warhawk and statesman, he succeeded in the Bluegrass. In time he typified Kentucky personality. He became a subject of street-corner and country-lane conver­ sation, and his name found its way into much Bluegrass litera­ ture. He became a Kentucky hero without benefit of military glory. In short, for almost a hundred and fifty years he has been one of the best biographical entries in the paddock for the main stake race of local history. While Henry Clay became the Bluegrass' statesman, slavery became its great source of controversy. It was pleasant to drive down country lanes between rows of flowering locust, and across Bluegrass meadows pregnant with spring harvest. Hemp, Cavalcade EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Xlll corn, and broad-leaved tobacco crowded up to promise future wealth. These smiling fields captivated Stephen Collins Foster in his famous song. His song, however, had a second and less happy stanza. So did Bluegrass slavery. Men questioned wheth­ er this land which promised freedom so abundantly should also nourish slavery. Schoolboy Cassius M. Clay, home from Yale in the early thirties, was later to raise a voice of protest in his newspaper, the True American. Perhaps Bluegrass slaveowners would have tolerated this attack had their courage not been challenged by the dramatics of editor Clay's well-stocked arse­ nal.