Editor’s Note: We are republishing excerpts from the 1917 Woodford Sun. The United States entered the First World War by declaring war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917. The Clippings will tell how Woodford County responded and was impacted by “The Great War.” We will return to 1891, where we have been since November, for a few weeks in July and August for the ratification debate and vote on the 1891 Kentucky Constitution. For historical purposes, we reprint the Clippings “warts and all,” and so the presence of derogatory and racist stereotypical words are reprinted.
The Woodford Sun
June 28, 1917
[BRYAN IN WOODFORD] The great and celebrated Col. William Jennings Bryan, ex-Secretary of State and three times presidential nominee for President, is now in Kentucky on a speaking tour in the interests of the Democratic Forward League, and spent Monday night at Woodburn House of this county, the home of Dr. A.J.A. Alexander, chairman of the League in one of his automobiles. Bryan spoke to a crowd of not less than 8,000 persons at Woodland auditorium.
[NATION IS MENACED] Mrs. A.M. Snow’s address on Mormonism at the county courthouse on Wednesday night of last week was quite able. She charges that in spite of the laws of the United States, the Mormon “Kingdom” teaches polygamy and that its prophets and priests practice it; that Mormonism sets itself up as a temporal kingdom and that it has either political control of, or appreciable influence in, eleven states; and, that Mormonism proposes to overthrow this republic and establish a polygamous empire. If these statements are even partially true, or to a very limited extent, justified, certainly the people of American ought to be up and doing.
[STOCK AND FARM NEWS] The cutting of the wheat crop will begin this week. Thomas Dunlap sold in Cincinnati last week 130 black-face lambs out of a flock of 235 at $18.50. This was 60 cents above the top market. Schobarth & Williams also sold in Cincinnati last week, shipping three carloads of lambs bringing 15 cents a pound. The court day crowd Monday was a small one, with Auctioneer Bolivar Bond able to sell 12 yearling steers at $28 and a horse at $160.
[A COUNTRY EDITOR’S THOUGHTS, ATCHISON BOWMAR] A witty editorial in last week’s Lexington Leader (a Republican paper) quite neatly emphasizes the important fact of the divorce between the Democrats and booze in Kentucky. The days of Booze being able to “put over” certain politicians may not be long past, but it is past. Sensible men of all stripes are being drawn together to fight Booze. And the Democratic party will pass on to victory in Kentucky, while the Republicans, having flirted alternately with the water wagon and the booze barrel will meditate sadly on Senator Joe Blackburn’s favorite quotation, “He who dallies is a dastard/He who doubts is damned.”
LOCAL NEWS ITEMS] Mr. J.L. Taylor, of Kansas City previously of this county, sent a check for another years’ subscription to the Sun, wrote, “We would feel lost without the Sun each week.” On High Street on Monday, a colored man named Redd, driving Mrs. A.B. Cotton’s milk wagon ran into a spring wagon driven by Lucy Lee (colored) and her sister, Rebecca Lee, overturning the wagon and throwing the women out. Both were bruised and the wagon and harness damaged.