uth. But its people were good people, on the whole, although
they permitted saloons, and went wild over horse racing. And, best of
all, they reverenced their women. A lady on the streets of Macon had
respectful right of way. It may have been that they were duly proud of
these three things, for they knew full well that nowhere in the world
were nobler or more beautiful women, faster horses, or better whiskey.

The nabobs of central Kentucky were a distinct and exclusive class in
the years preceding the great Civil strife which freed the colored race.
They had friends about them constantly, near and from a distance. They
gave large banquets and more often drank immoderately; they dressed in
expensive and fashionable clothes, and had body servants galore. Each
gentleman had a personal valet, to shave him every morning, attend to
his wardrobe and be always within call. Another servant groomed his
favorite horse, brought it around and held the stirrup while his master
mounted, and was always on the spot when his master returned to have the
bridle reins thrown to his waiting hands.

Then came the war scourge, and the old order passed. Homes were broken
up; houses were pillaged and burned, bought and sold. Of the several
stately homes surrounding Macon, but one or two remained in the family
after the war.

The Dudleys were an old family, proud as could be, and holding manual
labor a disgrace. This faulty doctrine was due to heredity and training,
and detracted in no way from the sterling manhood and womanhood which
ran with the name. They had been wealthy people generations gone, living
freely and without stint. Then came the days when one of them became a
black sheep and killed a man while in liquor. It took most of the vast
estate to save him from the gallows. When the war ended Major Thomas
Dudley found that he had little left save a wife and child, the
homestead, a half dozen horses of purest racing strain, and an eighty
acre farm which would grow with equal abundance hemp, tobacco, corn or
wheat. He would not work; he could not work. Had a Dudley's hand ever
touched the handle of a plow? Never! Welcome genteel starvation rather
than ignoble toil! In the meantime the family had to live in befitting
manner. One by one the servants, enticed by their new-found freedom,
drifted away. At length only Peter and Aunt Frances were left, and the
Major knew that his body servant would never go, for between these two
was that subtle