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John Fox Jr. 181 John Uri Lloyd from Stringtown on the Pike John Uri Lloyd (1849–1936), a local-colorist of note, took as his literary domain his home turf of Boone and the surrounding counties of northern Kentucky; he was by profession a pharmaceutical chemist. Indeed, he was a prolific writer of scientific books and papers, but it was his Stringtown cycle of books, which chronicles the folklore and history of Florence and Boone County, that merits him a spot in this anthology. The following excerpt from Stringtown on the Pike (1900) sets the stage for the love stories and Civil War tales he told. h Stringtown is situated eight miles from the “county seat” of Stringtown County, where stood the county jail. In order to reach this important spot, the traveller from Stringtown follows the Mt. Carmel pike to Mt. Carmel Church, and then branches to the Turkey Foot road, which follows a creek bed four miles to its source. On the summit of this rise stands the village honoured by holding the court-house of Stringtown County. Like other county seats in Kentucky, at the time under consideration this was subject several times a year to the flow and ebb of a human tide. The tide was high in Court week, but during the intermediate periods stagnation prevailed. At the time of Quarterly Court, in June, from every section of the county, on the first day of Court week, men on horseback could be seen “going to Court.” These as a rule started in pairs, or parties of three or four; but as they journeyed onward the byways merged into main roads and the isolated groups upon them coalesced until, when the village was reached, a steady stream of horsemen came pouring into its main avenue. In this county seat, even to the very day before Court convened, stagnation ruled supreme. The two grocery stores were open for traffic between Court periods, but attracted none but home patrons; the two taverns were ready for business, but even their bar-rooms were quiet and the long rows of shed stalls adjacent to each tavern were empty, and the horse racks in front of the groceries and the taverns were vacant.The court-house, built like a church, excepting that it was the proud possessor of a second story and four whitewashed round brick pillars in front, stood, the day before Court, with closed 181 182 The Kentucky Anthology eyes; the iron gate was locked, the pepper-grass and shepherd’s-purse grew high and luxuriant between the flat-rock paving stones, and the dog-fennel covered the edges and far into the street unmolested even about the long rows of horse racks that bounded “Court-House Square.” In the early morning, each hot summer day, a little business was done in each store; the barkeepers found occasion to wash a few glasses and bruise a little mint; the barefooted boy drove his cow to and from the pasture, and a smell of frying ham or bacon and browning corn-bread or biscuit hung at breakfast time about each residence. But as the sun mounted into the sky a universal lethargy settled over the scorching village, and not until the slanting shadows of evening fell did life reappear. The idle sojourner might spend his time in this lazy village, and between Court periods, even to the day before Court, find nothing more exciting than an occasional dog fight, unless, perchance, it were a quarrel between the owners of the dogs. Lazily the sun came up the day before Court; lazily the inhabitants of this sluggish village moved, when they did move; lazily the stray pig meandered along the side of the unpaved streets, picking up an occasional morsel; lazily a flock of gabbling geese waddled through the dusty road seeking the nearly dried creek bed adjacent to the village; lazily the unshaven barkeeper, with closed eyes, sat before the inn on the flat stone pavement in his tippedback chair. One could not easily have found a creature in this village that was not infected by the lazy sun, which, day after day, crept through the sky and leisurely sank toward the earth into the tree tops, glowing a second through the branches, seemingly undetermined whether it were not best to pause awhile upon earth’s edge before dropping over and rolling out of sight. Opening of Court day brought a change. Bustle in and confusion about the tavern.The...

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