[5] In an admirable letter written in pioneer times to Bolling Stith, in Kentucky, by his Virginian mother, she says: "I hear you have become a notorious rattle and never open your mouth without an oath." To correct this vicious tendency she recommends the example of the "great and good General Washington." Excellent advice. The General's oaths were not so frequent as Bolling's. They were louder, deeper, "heartier."
The English traveler, Fordham, says that the Virginians of that day were "addicted to oaths."
[6] That acute and philosophic observer, Goldwin Smith, says in his description of the "Night-hawk" Kentuckians (1812): "In all his proceedings he showed a lawless vigor which might prove the wild stock of civilized virtue." Gens effrenatissima!
[7] The Norman People.
[8] When Otto, the Saxon, a remote kinsman of our race, became a Roman Emperor, he became the Conservator of Rome and all her works. When William the Norman became King of England and the leader of Gothic races, it was his chosen mission to undo, in part, the work which Rome had done. As a soldier and statesman, the Norman leader had been trained in the "school" of the Saxon King. Read Mr. Freeman's "Western Europe in the Eighth Century." It is an impressive introduction to that "realm of shadows" which forms the background of the Norman Conquest. It was the genetic period of modern civilization. The geographic outlines of great modern States were just beginning to appear.
[9] The Norman People.
[10] Kentucky. By N. S. Shaler (Harvard College), 1885.
[11] Don't Forget to Rest Your Horses. The observant traveler in Norway notes at the foot of every steep hill a sign-post with the inscription—"Don't forget to rest your horses." Possibly this Scandinavian consideration for the horse runs with the blood. The Kentuckian, however, has learned to "rest his horses" before he has learned to read.
[12] Mr. Bart Kennedy, London Mail.
[13] W. D. Hixson, the "Old Mortality" of Mason, is now a resident of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.