Several bloody feuds, innumerable assassinations, demoralized courts,
the purchase with money of slayers, anarchy in its most atrocious and
hideous forms--such has been the history of Breathitt County since the
days of the Civil War.
Breathitt County is not a remote section, out of touch with
civilization, where ignorance might be pleaded in extenuation of the
shameful lawlessness. Breathitt County has furnished men of brains, of
power, and of the highest integrity.
In Breathitt County, as well as in all the other feud-ridden sections,
the good citizens are in the majority.
Yet there, as in the other lawless communities of which this history
treats, the good element suffered itself to become intimidated to such
an extent as to eliminate it as a factor to be employed and relied upon
in restoring order.
It may also be stated that Breathitt's chief feudists, murderers,
conspirators and perjurers have counted men of brains among them,
who, however, delegated their work of bloody revenge for real or
fancied injuries to persons of a lower degree of mentality. Ignorant,
half-savage tools serve better.
The murder lust has been rampant there for many years, and it is there
yet. The outside world has heard only of the most important tragedies,
that is, tragedies which involved men "of brains and power." The
"little fellow" is murdered without much attention being paid to it.
Within eleven months during the years 1901 and 1902, nearly forty men
had been slain in cold blood, and for which crimes not one has suffered
the extreme penalty of the law.
Why is it, then, that since the good citizens are in the majority, they
are willing to submit to terrorization by a few? Why do they stand idly
by instead of rising in their might and punish?
Will the reader answer another question: Why is it that an entire
train load of men will tremble and shake in their shoes, throw up
their hands, and allow one or two bandits to take possession of their
property?
It has happened in a few instances that bandits have come to grief
through the intrepidity of an individual who acted in spite of any
fear of impending death. We remember an incident of that kind during
a hold-up on a western road a few years back. The engineer, fireman,
conductor and brakesmen were lined up and held under the guns of one
of the bandits. Two of his confederates went through the coaches.
The engineer, a small but determined man, watched his chance, made a
sudden lurch forward, with his head butted the bandit in the stomach,
crumpled him up and put him out of commission. The train crew then
possessed itself of the guns and started for the coaches, firing a few
shots as they went. This disconcerted the robbers within. They made for
the doors to see what the shooting outside meant. It was their finish.
Several of the passengers who had been standing, trembling, with their
hands in the air, believing help had come, regained their courage,
sprang upon the outlaws, disarmed and securely tied them. No one was
hurt.
It is the fear of the bushwhacker that prevents concerted action of the
law-abiding element in a community where assassinations from ambush
are the common methods employed to rid one's self of an enemy. And it
is no idle fear. For one man to set himself up as the champion of law
and order and to defy the outlaws to do their worst, is equivalent to
signing his own death-warrant. He is liable to be picked off as an
undesirable citizen.
Assassinations from ambush are always difficult to prove and alibis
are manufactured at small cost. Perjury, too, is common. It is the
favorite weapon of the defense in such cases.
Then the successful assassin is shrewd enough to conduct himself
usually, though not always, in such manner as to have friends among all
classes of people, even among the best.
Many of the worst men have used the cloak of religion, or
church-membership, to hide their black hearts. The masonic lodge has
been prostituted by such men of shrewd deceit.
It is no assurance of a man's goodness to find him sitting in a church
pew on a Sunday, with the Bible in his hand, for even within the holy
sanctum of the Lord the foulest conspiracies and crimes have been
hatched in the brains of men. This does not apply to Breathitt County
or Kentucky alone.
Some of the most noted feudists never fired a gun themselves, but in
their daily intercourse kept themselves unspotted before the world,
and used willing, paid tools to accomplish their bloody ends. Such men
always indignantly deny any imputation of wrong-doing. They have been
known to condemn in the loudest and the most emphatic terms outrages
against the peace and dignity of the State, the result of their own
planning.
The writer once pointed out to a gentleman from another state a certain
chieftain of murderers. He shook his head. "That man a murderer?" he
said. "Why, he is the most amiable person with whom I have come in
contact with in a long time. That man has brains, he has education.
That man is wrongfully accused, I know. No red-handed murderer could
look you in the eye like that, or counterfeit the innocence imprinted
upon his countenance."
The truth was, this particular outlaw had never murdered any one with
his own hands, but he had been the directing, managing spirit of foul
conspiracies and of wholesale assassinations.
This adoption of the mask of deceit serves another purpose. Since you
can never tell by a man's looks what is in his heart, citizens grow
suspicious of one another, and fear to express their opinions. That
this vastly increases the difficulty of concerted action looking toward
the eradication of crime, is apparent.
Reverting again to the murder lust: What is it's origin? What keeps it
aflame? What inspires it? Is it that the savage of the stone age is not
yet dead? That the veneer of civilization has in all those thousands of
years not become thick enough to prevent its wearing off so readily?
Perhaps. At least, it seems so.