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CHAPTER VI |
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IN OLD KENTUCKY
'The sun shines bright."— "My Old Kentucky Home."
—Stephen Foster
I.
THE air and manner of Cincinnati included something of the old South. Kentucky was just across the river,1 and leading Kentucky families had a marked influence in the social life of the Queen City, as did its Virginia element. Typical was the diary entry of Margaret Rives King: "Our home on Race Street, above Fourth, was noted for its Southern hospitality, gracious ways and all the indescribable elegancies of a well appointed table.2
To Cincinnati as a starting point came travellers bound for the East and these numbered many from Southern towns, cities and plantations3 as far away as New Orleans. When the New Orleans and Louisville packets puffed up the river, the young employee of Irwin & Foster, agents for these packets, had abundant opportunity and business occasion to go aboard and observe the fashionable Southern ladies and gentlemen who journeyed as passengers. Stephen was alert to the flavor of aristocracy; he used it in his romantic baL |
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