Chapter VIII: Part 8

No one acquainted with the situation in Breathitt at that time doubted for a moment that Jett and White were but the tools of men higher up. It is not our province to make charges based upon mere rumor, but this may be said without fear of contradiction--that the testimony brought out at the various trials which followed established utter corruption on the part of those whose duty it was to see to it that the guilty parties were brought to justice.

These "officers" stood idly by, permitted men to be shot down while calmly watching the proceedings, and made no attempt whatever to arrest them. When outside pressure and extraneous influence and help at last forced investigations and the criminals were apprehended and brought to the bar of justice, these "officers" visited the murderers in jail, supplied them with delicate food, money and counsel, consulted witnesses, hunted up persons willing to serve as defense witnesses for a consideration, drilled them, tutored them, and through intimidation and threats of death forced men to commit the crime of perjury to save the necks of the assassins.

Let us cite an example: A young man of previously good repute, a school teacher, was indicted in the Harrison Circuit Court at Cynthiana, where the trials of Jett and White occurred, for having sworn falsely as a witness for the defendants. He was found guilty as charged. When the judge pronounced sentence, the convicted man broke down completely and admitted his guilt, but pleaded in extenuation of his crime that high officials of Breathitt County, enemies of Marcum and Cockrell, had coerced him into becoming a witness for the defense and had drilled him for hours so he would make no blunders in the prepared testimony.

His story had the true ring about it. So pathetic was the story told by the young man, that both judge and State's attorney instantly released the man on his own recognizance, although he asked to be sent to the penitentiary, where he might be reasonably safe from assassination.

Let us see where the County Judge Hargis, and Sheriff Callahan were at the time of the Marcum assassination. Let us examine their actions; they speak louder than words. The reader may draw his own conclusions and arrive at them without assistance.

Both the county judge, Hargis, and Sheriff Callahan hated Marcum and had been his sworn enemies for a long time. The statements of Feltner made by him to Marcum from time to time implicated both these officials as the chief conspirators, although Mr. Marcum at the time he gave out his statement to the press, refrained from quoting their names. He had, however, done so to the writer on several occasions.

At the time of Marcum's assassination Judge James Hargis and Sheriff Callahan were seated comfortably in front of the Hargis store. (Probably the seats had been reserved in advance so as to be certain of not missing any scene or act of the tragedy.)

They had an unobstructed view of the court house door, were bound to have seen what occurred there, yet continued to sit unmoved, and never made the least effort to locate or ascertain the assassins. They appeared not in the least disturbed, certainly exhibited no surprise. Why should they? The conclusion is irresistible--but we shall let the reader draw it.

Capt. Ewen testified that he was standing at the side of Marcum when he was killed. Marcum was leaning heavily upon his shoulder. Just before the shots were fired Tom White passed by the two men, turned and gazed into Marcum's face. Marcum said "that's a bad man, and I'm afraid of him." The next moment the shots were fired.

As White passed Marcum the latter turned his back to the rear of the corridor and the witness Ewen turned with him. This put his face to the rear of Marcum and he recognized Curtis Jett and saw him standing there with a pistol in each hand.

Marcum having fallen to the floor, Capt. Ewen stepped out of doors to save his own life. The position of Jett and of his gun made Ewen believe that he would be shot next. A few moments later Jett appeared at the side door of the court house, looked out, then walked calmly down the steps and mingled with the crowd.

Tom White, so the testimony of other witnesses shows, was standing in front of Day Brothers' store just before the murder. An acquaintance invited him to take a drink. He refused, saying he had not time, that he was looking for a man. He caught sight of Curtis Jett, motioned to him, and the two entered the side door of the court house. White then passed on through the corridor to the front door, and in the manner detailed attracted Marcum's attention, while Jett took his position behind him. White immediately turned to the side of the front door to escape the bullets he knew would be coming.

After the murder Jett and White came immediately together again at or near the jail and walked down the street unmolested.

Tom White had come to Jackson several days before the murder, ostensibly to secure work, but only one man was introduced to prove that he made any sort of attempt to obtain employment. Jett and White were seen together before the shooting and immediately afterwards.

It was the contention of the Commonwealth that the defendants had been hired to do the murder. One need only read the statement of Marcum to see with what hellish coolness and deliberation these plots had been arranged.

The defense was precluded, of course, under the circumstances, from relying upon the plea of self-defense, so it proceeded at once to hatch up an alibi. This, however, proved so transparent a fabrication that the jury ignored it altogether and promptly returned a verdict of guilty against both of the accused. The sentence was for confinement in the penitentiary for life. But for the persistency of one juror, who refused to join in a death verdict, they would have been hanged, perhaps.

Curtis Jett was a sworn officer of the county at the time of the murder of Marcum, _a deputy under Sheriff Callahan_. He was proven guilty also of the assassination of Cockrell by shooting him from the court house, the temple of justice, prostituted and turned over to the service of murderers by those in control of it.

Jett's record previous to these assassinations was bad. Twice he had been accused of rape, had repeatedly been confined in jail on various other charges, for shooting at persons with intent to kill, for malicious shooting and wounding and had been indicted for the ruin of a young girl. He was a moral degenerate. His very appearance proclaimed to the physiognomist the cruel, heartless nature of the man. His chin was short and receding, the cheek bones prominent, hair bristly red, eyes deep set and countenance scowling and bad.

Jett had been for a time confined in the Louisville jail until his trial at Cynthiana. While in prison he had given the jail officials no end of trouble on account of his violent disposition toward the other prisoners. One and all feared him.

After his removal to the penitentiary he pursued similar tactics for a time, but there they broke him. He is still confined and is now said to have become a model prisoner. It is said he intends to preach after his release,--it must be remembered that a life sentence in Kentucky does _not_ mean confinement for life.

Judge Hargis and Callahan were in due time arraigned for various murders in connection with the feud. Although Curtis Jett, John Abner, John Smith and Mose Feltner (who figures so prominently in the Marcum statement), confessed in one way or another that the accused were the leaders in the assassinations of Dr. Cox, Cockrell and Marcum, the chief conspirators, for whose benefit the murders were done and who had furnished the sinews of war--money and ammunition--they were acquitted.

The widow of James B. Marcum, regardless of the verdicts of acquittal rendered in the various murder trials of Hargis and Callahan, brought suit in the civil courts and secured a judgment against them for several thousand dollars for having been the instigators of the murder of her husband. The judgment was paid without appeal.

RETRIBUTION.

"He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." This threat was fulfilled to the letter in the cases of both Judge Hargis and Sheriff Callahan. Both men died with their boots on.

Judge Hargis was shot and killed at his store in Jackson in the winter of 1908 _by his own son_, Beach Hargis. The young man was indicted for murder February 18th, 1908, tried and found guilty. He escaped the death penalty, and received a life sentence, but is already at large, having been paroled 1916.

The judgment of the court was appealed from and strenuous efforts were made by the widow of the slain man to secure a new trial and save her son from conviction for the murder of her husband. Hers was indeed a pathetic situation. Mrs. Hargis employed the best counsel obtainable. Senator William O. Bradley, a lawyer of national fame, argued the case exhaustively before the Court of Appeals. The judgment of the lower court was affirmed.

The case was one of widespread interest. The facts and circumstances attending the murder appear at length and are commented upon in an opinion of the Court of Appeals, written by Judge Hobson, and reported in 135 Kentucky Reports.

Judge Hobson, in his statement of the case, says:--

"The proof for the Commonwealth on the trial showed in brief these
facts:--

"On the night before the homicide Beach Hargis had gone to his
father's store and asked one of the clerks for a pistol. The clerk
declined to give him a pistol out of the stock, but told him that
his father's pistol was there in a drawer of his desk and he could
take that. The defendant secured the pistol, but said nothing to
his father, although he was then in the store. The next morning
between nine and ten o'clock the defendant was sitting in the
barber shop. His face was swollen. He told the barber that his
father had hit him in the mouth and hurt him there. A man who
looked like his father passed. He raised up in the chair, threw
his hand back and said: 'I thought that was the old man.' About
an hour later he drank a bottle of Brown's Bitters, and said to a
bystander: 'Did you hear about the old man mashing my mouth?' and
added that it was hard to take. Some two hours later he appeared
at a drug store kept by his brother-in-law, Dr. Hogg, drew his
pistol, and was waving it about, pointing it in the direction of a
bystander and his brother-in-law. From this drug store, after a few
minutes, he went to his father's store. It was a double storeroom.
His father was in one room and he entered the other and took a
seat in a chair not far from the front door. While he was sitting
there in a chair, a man in the other room asked his father where
Beach was. His father pointed him out to the man and said: 'There
he sits. I have done all I can for him and I cannot go about him or
have anything to do with him.' A few minutes later his father said
to another man who was in the room: 'I don't know what to do with
Beach. He has got to be a perfect vagabond, and he is destroying
my business, and if Dr. Hogg let's him stay there he will ruin his
business.' After saying this to the man the father walked in the
direction of where the defendant was sitting. There were a number
of persons in the store. As his father approached, the defendant
got out of his chair and walked around behind a spool case that was
setting on the end of the counter. No words were spoken. The first
sound that anybody heard was the report of a pistol. His father was
then about three feet from him. A struggle ensued between them,
during which the pistol was shot four times more, all five of the
shots taking effect in the father. Persons in the store ran up,
and when they got to them the father had the son down and had the
pistol, which he handed to one of them, saying: 'He has shot me all
to pieces.' The father died in a few minutes.

"The proof for the son was in substance that the father came up
to him, struck him in the face, and began choking him. When he
felt his eyes bulging out, he drew his pistol and shot him, and
his father continuing to choke him, he fired the other four shots
in the struggle; the last two being fired from the floor. The
proof for the defendant also showed that the father was drinking.
Taking all the evidence, we think it reasonably clear that the
father was unarmed and that he was shot by the son while he was
approaching him, and before he had touched him. Two witnesses who
were on the outside of the store, were looking through the windows,
and their testimony, as well as the testimony of persons in the
store, confirms this conclusion. We think it also reasonably clear
that the son was maudlin drunk, and but for this the unfortunate
homicide would not have occurred. He showed that he was under the
impression that his father had left the store, and that he went
there to meet an uncle, but expecting no difficulty. He also showed
that about a week before his father had beat him unmercifully with
a ramrod, that previous to this he had whipped him with a rope, and
on the last occasion had struck him in the mouth with his fist,
and got upon him on the floor and churned his head against the
floor; that he had taken his pistol from him, and had threatened
to shoot him with it and had been prevented from doing this by the
interference of bystanders, and that he had then declared he would
kill him. There was also evidence that the son had said that the
old man had beaten him up, but that he would never get the chance
to do it again. Also that he had declared when his father had taken
the pistol from him when drunk, that every time he got drunk and
was having a good time, they had to do something to him, and that
he aimed to kill his father and certain other persons whom he named.

"The defendant offered to prove by his grandmother and others that
his father had taught him to carry a weapon, encouraged him to
drink whiskey, and had caused him to associate with disreputable
men, thus rearing him in a manner calculated to bring about the
result which followed."

The lower court refused to permit this testimony and the Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling in this as in practically all other respects.

To the opinion of the court Judges Barker and Nunn dissented. Certain excerpts of Judge Barker's opinion are of prime importance here and corroborate what has been said concerning Judge Hargis in even stronger language than we have employed.

This opinion says (in part):--

"James Hargis is shown in this record to have been a savage, cruel
man; that he had a high, vindictive temper, and allowed neither
fear, nor remorse, nor pity to come between him and the objects of
his passionate resentment.... James Hargis was a man of violence
and of blood. He had established in the county of Breathitt a reign
of terror under the influence of which the law was paralyzed and
its ministers overrun. He is pictured as a man of gigantic frame,
savage temper and indomitable courage. He had surrounded himself
with armed mercenaries, whose minds he inflamed with drink, and
who seemed to be willing to do his bidding even to the point of
assassinating his enemies without fear of the consequences of their
crimes and without remorse or pity for the result.

"He had not only broken down the law and terrorized its officers,
but he had made the temple of justice itself the rendezvous for
assassins who, sheltered behind walls, reddened its portals with
the blood of its votaries. _He literally ingrafted upon the
civilization of the twentieth century the savagery of the fifth,
and introduced into a community of law and order the merciless
ferocity of the middle ages._"

ED. CALLAHAN GOES UNDER.

The other leader of the Hargis faction, Ed. Callahan, died as violently as did the victims which he has been accused of sending to their deaths.

The assassination took place Saturday, May 4th, 1912, in the middle of the forenoon, at Crocketsville, a village some twenty miles from Jackson.

Some two years before a similar attempt had miscarried, although Callahan was then seriously wounded.

It has already been stated that Mose Feltner, John Smith and others had in their confessions implicated Ed. Callahan and Judge Hargis in various murders. After the confession John Smith had been released from custody on the murder charges against him, and he became the bitter, unrelenting enemy of Callahan and Hargis. John Smith was accused with several others of shooting and wounding Callahan from ambush. Callahan escaped death then by a narrow margin. From that time on he felt that his end was near. He had been heard to say on several occasions that his enemies would eventually get him, and they did.

After this attempt on his life he fortified his home and yard with a palisade. It was so arranged that he could pass from the store to his home under the protection of this stockade. But just two years later even these precautions failed to save him. He was shot from an ambush across the narrow valley while in his store. He stood practically on the same spot when killed as he had been standing two years and one day previous when he was shot from the same place and seriously wounded.

After the murder the Commonwealth found much difficulty in ferreting out the murderers, or to secure proof which would convict them in a court of law. Rumor readily pointed out the guilty men, but the State could not rest its case on rumor alone. It must have competent evidence.

In the difficult task of securing it the Commonwealth was ably assisted by a daughter of the murdered man. She, in fact, had taken the initiative in the matter, rode fearlessly and untiringly night and day making inquiries, listening, watching, employing spies to assist her, until at last a number of men were arrested and held in the toils of the law.

The men indicted were "Fletch" Deaton, Dan Deaton, James Deaton, Dock Smith, Elisha Smith, Asberry McIntosh, Andrew Johnson, Abe Johnson, Billy Johnson, Abe's son, Willie Johnson, John's son, "Red Tom" Davidson, John Clear and Tom Deaton, Bill's son.

The story of the conspiracy which resulted in Callahan's final removal from earthly activities, is a long one. It reads like a dime novel. The setting of the story is dramatic. The court's opinion traces almost step by step the various movements of the conspirators.

There are about seven principal places that figure in this tragedy (quoting in substance the opinion): The home of Ed. Callahan on Long's Creek, about one mile from the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River; Abe Johnson's residence on the same river, about three or four miles above the mouth of Long's Creek; the town of Buckhorn on the Middle Fork River, about two miles above Abe Johnson's home; the home of John E. Deaton, at the mouth of Caney on the North Fork of the Kentucky River; James Deaton's home on Caney Creek, about two miles above its mouth, and the town of Jackson, the county seat of Breathitt County, located further down the North Fork, are the principal places referred to.

Fletch Deaton resided in Jackson; Callahan conducted a general store next to his residence on Long's Creek, twenty miles from Jackson.

Two years and one day before the killing of Callahan he had been shot and dangerously wounded by unknown persons concealed on the hillside directly across the creek from the store.

The palisade built after that extended from his residence to the rear of his store so that he could pass from one to the other without being seen from the mountain across the creek.

The murder occurred on Saturday, May 4th, 1912, about the middle of the forenoon. On the Sunday before he went from his home in a gasoline boat in company with Clifton Gross, his son-in-law, to Athol, a railroad station on the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, and thence on the following Monday he went to Jackson, which was the home of Fletch Deaton and of his codefendants, Red Tom Davidson and Govan Smith. Callahan was seen on the streets of Jackson on that day by several people. He left Jackson on the train at 2.20 P. M. for Louisville to buy a spring stock of goods for his store. His presence in Jackson, as well as his departure for Louisville and the purposes of his visit, were well known in Jackson. Several of the defendants who lived on the Middle Fork, had gone down the stream on timber rafts and on their return by way of Jackson saw Callahan at the railroad station at Beattyville Junction on his way to Louisville. It was Callahan's habit to ship his goods to Elkatawa, on the Lexington & Eastern Railroad, where he would place them on freight boats and take them up the river to the mouth of Long's Creek, thence on wagons to his home. He usually accompanied the goods in person.

Several years ago Fletch Deaton's brother, James Deaton, was killed at the mouth of Long's Creek in a fight, and Ed. Callahan and several other persons were jointly indicted for that killing, but with his usual luck escaped punishment for he was acquitted. Fletch Deaton aided in the prosecution of Callahan, and bad blood had existed between them since that time.

Furthermore, shortly before the killing of Callahan in May, 1912, John Davidson, a nephew of Fletch Deaton, and a brother of "Red Tom" Davidson, and Levi Johnson were killed at Buckhorn, in Perry County. Four men were jointly indicted for these murders. Fletch Deaton and several of the others indicted with him for murdering Callahan assisted and took an active part in the prosecution of the men charged with the murder of Davidson and Johnson. Callahan was accused by them of complicity in those murders and of aiding the defendants to escape punishment. Fletch Deaton had been heard to say on various occasions that it would be impossible to secure the conviction of the slayers of Davidson and Johnson so long as Callahan was alive, and that he must be killed before those cases came up for trial.

Again it developed in the proof that Jase Deaton, Fletch Deaton's nephew, and Red Tom Davidson, also accused of killing Callahan, were tried in the Bourbon Circuit Court on the charge of killing John Abner in the town of Jackson several years before, and that Callahan had been active in the prosecution against them, employing counsel and supplying money.

It further appears that Jase Deaton referred to above had been killed at the home of Anse White, some while before the killing of Callahan, by Anse White. White was tried for this killing in the Montgomery Circuit Court and also acquitted. This acquittal had been attributed to the activity in behalf of White on the part of Ed. Callahan.

The proof on the trial of Fletch Deaton and of Andrew Johnson showed that Callahan came to his death at the hands of three men, who had concealed themselves on the mountainside across the creek from Callahan's store. One of the witnesses for the prosecution testified that he recognized Dock Smith and Andrew Johnson as two of the assassins, that he saw a third, but failed to recognize him. Dock Smith himself testified that the third man was James Deaton of Caney Creek, a son of Fletch Deaton.

All the trials of the men accused of the murder of Callahan were held at Winchester, Clark County. In each of the cases, with the exception of the one against Red Tom Davidson, the defense relied upon alibis, claiming that they were in Jackson on the day of the killing.

Dock Smith and Govan at the critical moment, realizing their situation, made a full and voluntary confession of all they knew regarding the murder of Callahan.

As heretofore stated, Callahan was shot on Saturday forenoon. On the preceding Wednesday, about two o'clock P. M., Dock Smith met Andrew Johnson on the Middle Fork just below the mouth of Gay's Creek. Johnson there told Dock Smith that James Deaton wanted Dock and Andrew Johnson to help kill Callahan, and for Dock to go to Deaton's house that night. Smith says that Johnson asked him if he had a gun, and he told Johnson that his gun was at his father's; that Johnson then told him he would go back home to Granville Johnson's, and would meet Smith there that night; that Smith went to his father's, got his gun, ate his supper, and then went to the mouth of Orville's branch and there met Andrew Johnson, Willie Johnson, Tom Deaton and Billie Johnson. From that point Smith and Andrew Johnson proceeded to the house of James Deaton on Caney Creek, which they reached late in the night, finding James and Dan Deaton there. That night the four discussed the proposed killing of Callahan. James Deaton told his confederates that on the next morning he would go to his father's at Jackson, and learn from him, Fletch Deaton, what definite plans had been made about the killing of Callahan, and would get "Red Tom" Davidson's Savage rifle. The next morning, Thursday, James Deaton and Dan Deaton left James Deaton's house and went down Caney Creek towards John E. Deaton's, Dock Smith and Andrew Johnson remaining at James Deaton's.

Late on Thursday evening James Deaton came home from Jackson riding "Red Tom" Davidson's mule, and brought along a gun which he said belonged to Red Tom. After supper Smith, Johnson and James Deaton left the latter's residence, Dock Smith riding and carrying the gun, Johnson and Deaton on foot. They proceeded to the home of John E. Deaton, where they met Bob Deaton, another of the accused. Here Bob joined them in the expedition. The four then went to Abe Johnson's, on the Middle Fork, about three miles above the mouth of Long's Creek, arriving there after midnight on Friday morning.

Friday was spent around Abe Johnson's. At noon they sent for Dan Deaton, whom they had left at the home of James Deaton on the morning of Thursday. Dan responded, and all of them again discussed plans for the murder of Callahan. James Deaton told Abe Johnson and Billy Johnson that his father, Fletch Deaton, wanted them to come to Jackson on the train Saturday morning, so they could be there as witnesses to prove the alibi, and that Willie Johnson was to come with them. It was arranged that Dock Smith, Andrew Johnson, Bob Deaton and Dan Deaton were to go down to the Grand Sire Rock on the Middle Fork, below the mouth of Long's Creek, to watch for Callahan and Anse White, who were expected to come up on Callahan's boats on that day. This arrangement was carried out.

Before starting, however, they procured two quarts of whiskey, and drank about half of it before they left Abe Johnson's, about two o'clock on Saturday morning. Abe Johnson, Billie Johnson and Willie Johnson went to Jackson; and the other five men, Dock Smith, Andrew Johnson, James Deaton, Dan Deaton and Bob Deaton, went toward Long's Creek. All had guns. Before leaving Abe Johnson's they procured a bucket of provisions, and went by the home of Granville Johnson, where they procured another bucket of provisions. There they boarded Granville Johnson's boat and started down the river, but the boat began to leak, and being too small to carry them all, they procured another boat. At the mouth of Long's Creek the boats were abandoned. From there they went to the home of Willie Deaton, son of James Deaton, to inquire whether Callahan had returned home, and were told that Callahan had left the boats and gone home the evening before. After borrowing a gun from Willie Deaton, Dan and Bob Deaton went to the Grand Sire Rock for the purpose of watching for Callahan's boats and to kill Anse White, who had remained in charge of them.

In the meantime Dock Smith, Andrew Johnson and James Deaton went to the hillside across the creek from Callahan's store, arriving there shortly before daylight on Saturday morning. They placed themselves at a point where they could see the front of Callahan's store. Two of them prepared forks about 18 inches long, which they drove in the ground to use as rests in shooting, one of them piling up some rocks upon which to rest his weapon. They watched for Callahan until between nine and ten o'clock, without catching sight of him.

The front of Callahan's store contained a glass window, and they could see the outline or form of a man passing behind the window on the inside of the store. Concluding that the shadow thus cast must be that of Callahan, they fired six shots through the window, three of them taking effect and mortally wounding him. Then the assassins became panic-stricken and left the places of concealment hurriedly, going through the backwoods to the home of Abe Johnson, where they got their dinner.

After dinner "Trigger Eye" Deaton carried them across the Middle Fork River, and from there to John E. Deaton's home, where they arrived shortly after dark. By devious routes the three assassins reached Jackson and the home of Fletch Deaton shortly before daylight Sunday morning. There they found a number of the men present who were to serve as witnesses to establish an alibi for the slayers.

The alibi was, however completely broken down by witnesses for the Commonwealth, with the result that a number of the conspirators are now doing time in the State penitentiary. This closes the chapter on the Hargis-Cockrell-Marcum-Callahan feud, one of blood, terrorization, Dark Age savagery in the twentieth century; in the very midst of our country which prides itself upon a civilization superior to that of other countries.

But for the blunder the despots committed in slaying Marcum, whose prominence and the peculiarly atrocious circumstances of his murder at last forced a thorough airing of conditions, they might have gone on unmolested, continued the record of assassination, and have added many more pages of blood to the county's history.

The prosecution of the slayers of Marcum, Dr. Cox, James Cockrell, Judge Hargis and Ed. Callahan was prompt and energetic. It shows a return of a more healthy public sentiment. Yet, murders are entirely too frequent in Breathitt, and in Kentucky at large, for that matter.

Breathitt has been termed "the plague spot of the Commonwealth." It cannot wipe out the past; what has been done is done. But it may yet redeem itself by making such horrors as we have depicted here, impossible in the future.

There is a fine citizenship in the county. It has suffered much, and deserves sympathy along with censure. It is up to the good people to see that peace and order return and is maintained henceforth and forever. We trust they will never more submit to unbridled crime and anarchy. It is up to them to prove themselves American citizens by exerting true patriotism at home.

CONCLUSION.

It would be erroneous to conclude that the history of Kentucky's famous, or notorious feuds is completed here. The material at hand has, unfortunately, not been exhausted by any means.

While the Hatfields and McCoys fought to the death in Pike County, Kentucky, and along the borders of West Virginia, a bloody drama was being enacted in Rowan County. While the French-Eversole war raged in Perry County, many other counties suffered similarly during identically the same period. The eighties were a decade of blood, for during those years Harlan was in the clutches of murderers and anarchy reigned supreme. Letcher, Bell and Knott passed through like bloody experiences. In Clay County feudal wars raged for years and never disappeared completely until the close of the last century. The list of counties drenched with the blood of their citizens might yet be extended. To describe all the feuds in detail would, however, prove repetitive, even monotonous, and be only cumulative. To lengthen the list of assassinations could serve no beneficent purpose.

Some years ago we published an edition of Kentucky's Famous Feuds and Tragedies. We closed the volume in the belief that feuds had ended once and for all times. But the worst period in all the bloody history of Breathitt was since then.

At the time of the publication of the first edition (from which some writers have quoted freely without giving us credit), we were charged with defaming the State, although it was admitted that the truth had been faithfully portrayed. It was not our intention then to malign the State, nor is it now.

We have simply compiled from facts a history of past events. Of what use is any history but to record past events that future generations might take lessons therefrom and be guided thereby?

Ignorance of true conditions does not, and never did bring about correction of evils.

The crusade against commercialized vice, the liquor traffic and other body and soul destroying evils can succeed only through full and complete publicity.

This history furnishes a study for the psychologist as well as for the criminologist. We cannot study crime and its manifold phases or point out remedies by studying the lives of saints. To find the original causes of social and political diseases we must go where these have existed or still exist. It would be silly to attempt to prove the result of the drink habit by the lives of teetotalers.

There are those who would be overcautious, who believe in the policy enunciated by the proverb: "Never mention a rope in the home of a man that has been hanged." Had this principle at all times been adhered to, reforms would have been few. People will not rise to battle against evils until they are first made acquainted with the fact that the evils exist. It was due to the publicity given by the newspapers of conditions in Breathitt County that a thorough clean-up was inaugurated there.

If it be proper and right to publish nothing of a criminal or degrading nature, then we must of necessity put the ban upon the Bible.

What was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ but a bloody tragedy. The Bible gives us a detailed account of the awful, cruel, lawless conspiracy to do murder upon an innocent being. Judas prepared the ambush, as it were. He had the decency to go and hang himself, although he had nothing to fear from the authorities who had hired him to betray the Master.

The story of David and Absalom is the bloody history of a family feud on a large scale.

The murder of Abel by his brother Cain is taught the children at Sunday school, not for the purpose of entertaining them with bloodshed, or to encourage them to go and do likewise, but to make crime odious.

The history of the Moabites and other races and tribes is one long chapter of outrages. Crimes of unnamable character are recited at length in the Holy Book.

The history of the reformation is one of blood and crime. To exclude secular or sacred history because they narrate crimes and bloodshed and horrors, would mean the withdrawal of the greatest weapons with which modern progress fights its battles in shaping the minds of men.

We may gain invaluable lessons from this history if it be read with that intention. It is an appeal to people everywhere to be true to their citizenship. That Kentucky has furnished suitable material with which to illustrate and demonstrate the results of a weak, unpatriotic, disloyal citizenship, is not the fault of the historian. The facts were at hand, they were apt, and were used.

Just now there is a nation-wide appeal made for a true Americanism. The fact that the appeal is being made, seems to us an acknowledgment that true Americanism has deteriorated and needs ingrafting anew.

We join in this appeal, and shall add that had true Americanism prevailed in the feud-cursed sections of Kentucky, this bloody history could never have been written--there would have been a total absence of material for one.

What is true Americanism? It is not place of birth. It is nothing more, but nothing less, than undivided loyalty to country.

What is loyalty? When is a citizen loyal to his country? Waving his country's flag and cheering it on a Fourth of July is but an outward demonstration of loyalty. A citizen is never loyal until he becomes and is faithful to the law; when he upholds and assists others in upholding the lawful authorities unswervingly. That is loyalty. There is no other definition for the word. So the citizen who refuses to obey the law himself in the first place, and makes no efforts to assist others in its enforcement, is not loyal to his country. When he has ceased to be loyal he becomes disloyal, and disloyalty is treason.

The true American, therefore, is loyal and has the courage to prove that loyalty whenever occasion arises.

One need not put on a uniform and fight battles against a foreign enemy to prove his patriotism. The patriot--the truly loyal citizen serves his country well by exercising that loyalty at home.

Good citizenship carries with it more than the simple right to vote. That right has obligations attached to it. The chief obligation is loyalty.

The moment loyalty weakens, a wedge of social and political corruption enters; once that wedge is driven deeper government must totter and fall, and anarchy steps in its place.

During the Civil War hundreds of thousands of Americans gave up their lives "that the nation might live." The nation is an aggregation of States, the State a union of communities, and communities are formed by families.

To preserve a nation healthy that it may live, the States must also be so. But a State cannot be so if portions of it are diseased with social and political corruption. When a sore spot appears it ought to be cauterized at once without waiting for it to develop into an eating, destroying cancer.

The spirit of loyalty must be revived and kept alive in the minds and hearts of all citizens. Only through it can the evil impulses of the criminally inclined be controlled.

The citizen who is loyal should always reflect, when he begins to lose courage, that the good citizens are in the majority, and that the vicious element is almost universally cowardly. The criminal has the fear of the law although he defies it for a time.

We have narrated at great length the stealthy preparations made by the murderers of Callahan. The cool and apparently deliberate manner with which their plans were executed would lead one to believe that they feared no law.

Yet we have seen how a moment after the crime had been committed and its perpetrators realized that they were murderers in fact, they "stampeded," the proof shows; they trembled with fear, though no one was on their tracks then. Their hearts turned to water. What did they fear? Punishment.

The bloody dictators of Breathitt County had abrogated the law, as they believed, yet feared the law they pretended to despise. This is clearly established by the methods with which they killed off their enemies. They resorted to secret assassination in each case because it would make discovery and punishment difficult, if not impossible. Each assassination had been shrewdly and carefully planned. Notwithstanding their temporary power and supremacy they lived in constant fear and dread, believing that punishment would and must sooner or later overtake them. This belief was strengthened by the fate of other criminals elsewhere.

If, then, the criminal fears the arm of the law, it requires very simple reasoning to come to the conclusion that the criminally inclined can, by the sure guaranty of swift, condign punishment be intimidated and forced into abstaining from following that inclination, and be so put in fear that he will think twice before he gives his atavistic tendencies free rein.

This history was written to teach a moral. The remedies suggested here for lawlessness and contempt for the law, may be applied with equal benefit where mob spirit is rampant. The mobist, to coin a phrase, that starts out to do murder upon a defenceless prisoner, is on a par with the bushwhacker--even inferior to him in courage. For mobs are courageous only through mass numbers; or when under strong and aggressive leadership. Mobs have been known to slink away ignominiously when confronted by one or two loyal citizens.

Disloyalty has been at the bottom of all great social disturbances.

Let the spirit of true Americanism, which is loyalty to country, return and with it will come the courage to uphold the law at whatever cost. Then and not till then is our flag the true symbol of American liberty; then and not till then will the phrase "American citizen" cease to be a banality, as it now is with many, and become what it is intended to be, a badge of honor, the most precious a man can wear on this earth.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Collin's "History of Kentucky."

[2] Roosevelt's "Winning of the West."

[3] "Rowan County Feud," Chapter 2.

[4] Documents (Ky.) 1888.

[5] Records Pike Circuit Court, Commonwealth versus Val Hatfield, etc., opinion of Court of Appeals, No. 9, 1889.

[6] These reports corroborate my own investigation and statements in every particular.--Author.

IS THIS YOUR SON, MY LORD?

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Attention and Interest.
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Will-Development.
Forethought.
Will and Character.
Suggestion and Instinct.
Memory Culture.
The Constructive Faculties.
Fascination.
The Subliminal Self.
Paracelsus.
Last Words.

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Transcriber's Note:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
possible, including some inconsistencies in hyphenation. Some minor
corrections of spelling and puctuation have been made.

Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
Bold text has been marked with =equals signs=.
OE ligatures have been expanded.