Colonel Edmund W. Starling was born 5 October
1875 in Christian County, his father wore blue during the war in one of
occupied-Kentucky’s Vichy regiments. Edmund began his career in railroad
security and policing with the Louisville and Nashville, and served in
the secret service detail for five presidents from Woodrow Wilson to
FDR.
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"
www.cfhi.net
Kentucky Gentleman Exceeding the Legend:
“The Kentucky gentleman is part of American legend, cousin alike to the Southern beauty and the Yankee trader, the Western cowboy and the city slicker. But whereas these latter have been known to deviate from the purity of their archetypes, so that on occasion Southern girls have turned out to be homely, Yankee traders have been outwitted, Western cowboys have shot themselves in the leg trying to beat dudes to the draw, and city slickers have directed innocent maidens to the YWCA, the Kentucky gentleman is true to his macrocosmic progenitor.
In his own environment Kentucky horses are beaten by colts and fillies raised in other parts of the land; Kentucky beauties are outshone by the products of Montgomery and Fort Worth; but he himself, sipping his bourbon, betting his hand in a stud poker game, or pacing a lady through the infinite sprints of love, is neither equaled or outdistanced. In any season, in any weather, his blood is red and he bows from the waist.
The late Heywood Broun was fond of the notion that nature imitates art. In the case of Kentucky gentlemen it was probably a desire to outdo the legend about them which prompted nature to create Colonel Edmund William Starling.
He was the sort of man who wipes his feet on the door mat before entering a house, whether it is raining or not. Sometimes he had to go in search of the mat, which had been kicked aside, but this neither disturbed nor deterred him. His voice was so soft that it seemed to come from an immaterial source, like the sounds in dreams. His eyes were never without the molecular arrangement which causes a twinkle. He bowed as solemnly to a seven-year-old girl as he did to a seventy-year-old lady; he listened intently to fools; he kept wise men from stumbling when they forgot absently to step up at a curb.”
(Starling of the White House, Thomas Sugrue, Simon & Schuster, 1946, pp. ix – x)
Bernhard Thuersam, Director
Cape Fear Historical Institute
"Documenting Cape Fear People, Places and History"
www.cfhi.net
Kentucky Gentleman Exceeding the Legend:
“The Kentucky gentleman is part of American legend, cousin alike to the Southern beauty and the Yankee trader, the Western cowboy and the city slicker. But whereas these latter have been known to deviate from the purity of their archetypes, so that on occasion Southern girls have turned out to be homely, Yankee traders have been outwitted, Western cowboys have shot themselves in the leg trying to beat dudes to the draw, and city slickers have directed innocent maidens to the YWCA, the Kentucky gentleman is true to his macrocosmic progenitor.
In his own environment Kentucky horses are beaten by colts and fillies raised in other parts of the land; Kentucky beauties are outshone by the products of Montgomery and Fort Worth; but he himself, sipping his bourbon, betting his hand in a stud poker game, or pacing a lady through the infinite sprints of love, is neither equaled or outdistanced. In any season, in any weather, his blood is red and he bows from the waist.
The late Heywood Broun was fond of the notion that nature imitates art. In the case of Kentucky gentlemen it was probably a desire to outdo the legend about them which prompted nature to create Colonel Edmund William Starling.
He was the sort of man who wipes his feet on the door mat before entering a house, whether it is raining or not. Sometimes he had to go in search of the mat, which had been kicked aside, but this neither disturbed nor deterred him. His voice was so soft that it seemed to come from an immaterial source, like the sounds in dreams. His eyes were never without the molecular arrangement which causes a twinkle. He bowed as solemnly to a seven-year-old girl as he did to a seventy-year-old lady; he listened intently to fools; he kept wise men from stumbling when they forgot absently to step up at a curb.”
(Starling of the White House, Thomas Sugrue, Simon & Schuster, 1946, pp. ix – x)
No comments:
Post a Comment