474 



KENTUCKY. 



KOCH, ROBERT. 



Authorizing the State to sue for delinquent taxes. 



Prohibiting the sale or gift of cigarettes to persons 

 under eighteen years of age. 



Making it a felony for a person to point a loaded or 

 unloaded weapon at another, and imposing a special 

 penalty for shooting at a person from ambush. 



Increasing the power of the railroad commissioners. 



Appropriating $9,956 for completing, and $10,500 

 for furnishing, the new building for the Institution 

 for Feeble-Minded Children. 



County Debts. The total debt of Kentucky 

 counties 'in 1890 was $5,741,636, a decrease of 

 $582,766 in ten years. Of this sum, $5,479,677 

 is bonded and $261,959 floating. Nearly one 

 third of the counties are without debt. 



Constitutional Convention. The members 

 elected on Aug. 4 to this convention assem- 

 bled at Frankfort on Sept. 8, and were called to 

 order by Gov. Buckner Hon. George Washing- 

 ton was selected as temporary chairman. For 

 permanent chairman or president of the conven- 

 tion Cassius M. Clay, Jr., was chosen. There 

 was much delay before earnest work was begun, 

 and at the end of a session lasting more than 

 three months the new Constitution was far from 

 complete. On Dec. 19 a recess was taken until 

 Jan. 6. 1891. 



Knott and Perry Counties. In these coun- 

 ties the lawlessness of the people has been such 

 as to prevent any administration of justice since 

 1888. They are mountain counties, accessible 

 only on horseback. In the autumn of 1888, on 

 the representation of Circuit-Judge Lilly, Gov. 

 Buckner sent a detachment of troops to Perry 

 County, to enable him to hold court in that 

 county; but as he refused to allow the troops to 

 proceed to Knott or Letcher Counties, no court 

 was held therein. Of the condition of affairs in 

 these counties, Judge Lilly says : 



In the fall of 1888 I failed to hold the regular fall 

 terms of the Letcher and Knott circuit courts, and in 

 1889 the regular fall terms of the Perry and Knott 

 circuit courts, ^fhe counties of Knott and Perry are 

 absolutely dominated and terrorized by savage and 

 lawless bands. All respect for justice and the peace- 

 ful and orderly administration of the law is not only 

 set at defiance, but the most high-handed outrages are 

 perpetrated in the presence of the court, and with the 

 purpose and object of terrorizing and intimidating 

 the officers of justice. At the peril of my life, fre- 

 quently narrowly escaping death, I have held the cir- 

 cuit courts in tliese counties. Before the fall terms 

 for 1888 in these counties came on I had knowledge 

 of feuds existing in both the counties of Knott and 

 Perry of the most deadly and malignant character. 

 Hostile, armed bands in these two counties constantly 

 menaced each other. Deadly conflicts between the 

 opposing factions were of almost daily occurrence. 

 The circuit court drew together at the court house the 

 factions from all sections of the county. A collision 

 with unnecessary fatal and demoralizing results was 

 inevitable. 



Believing that the local authorities, if they 

 should make proper efforts, could cope with the 

 difficulties, the Governor has refused since 1888 

 to cause expense to the State by calling out the 

 troops. 



Green River Island. The United States 

 Supreme Court, in the case cf State of Indiana 

 vs. State of Kentucky, rendered an opinion on 

 May 19 in favor of the claim of Kentucky to the 

 ownership of Green River Island, in Ohio river. 

 This island, nearly five miles long and more 

 than half a mile wide, embracing about 2,000 



acres, lies on what is now the north side of Ohio 

 river, and, according to the description of her 

 boundaries, would now belong to Indiana. But 

 it was shown that when Kentucky became a 

 State the main channel of the Ohio ran north of 

 the island, and the jurisdiction and boundary of 

 Kentucky then extended to the low-water marie 

 on the north side of the channel, embracing the 

 island within that State. These facts, as well 

 as the long-continued jurisdiction of Kentucky 

 over the island, were deemed conclusive. It was 

 declared that the boundary line established at 

 the time of the admission of Kentucky could 

 not be changed by any subsequent changes in 

 the conformation of the river. 



Political. The elevation of Congressman 

 John G. Carlisle to the United States Senate 

 caused a vacancy in the Sixth Congressional Dis- 

 trict, to fill which a special election was called 

 on June 21. The Democrats, on June 11, nomi- 

 nated Worth W. Dickerson, after a remarkable 

 contest in the nominating convention, which 

 lasted through 207 ballots. The Republican 

 candidate was J. Rairdon. The Democratic 

 nominee was elected by a majority of about 

 3,500. The only State officer to be elected this 

 year on a general ticket was a Clerk of the Court 

 of Appeals. At a State Convention of Prohibi- 

 tionists, on May 15, at Lexington, Mrs. Josephine 

 K. Henry was nominated for this office. The 

 Democratic State Convention met at Louisville 

 on May 28, and nominated W. W. Longmoor on. 

 the twenty-fifth ballot. No Republican State 

 Convention was held, but in June the Republican 

 State Committee named J. H. Tinsley as the 

 party candidate. The election, on Aug. 4, re- 

 sulted in the success of the Democratic candidate 

 by the usual majority. At the same time an 

 election was held for members of the Constitu- 

 tional Convention, which would meet in Septem- 

 ber. A large majority of the successful candi- 

 dates were Democrats. A few representatives of 

 the Farmers' Alliance and a few Republicans 

 were chosen. On the same date Judge Lewis, of 

 the Court of Appeals, was re-elected without op- 

 position by the voters of his appellate district. 



At the November election 10 Democratic and 

 1 Republican Congressman were elected. 



KOCH, ROBERT, bacteriologist, born in 

 Clausthal, Germany, Dec. 11, 1843. He is the 

 son of an officer in the department of mines, at- 

 tended the gymnasium in his native town, and 

 from 1862 to 1866 studied medicine at Got tin- 

 gen. He became an assistant in the General 

 Hospital at Hamburg: began practice in 1866 

 at Langenhagen. and then settled at Racknitz, 

 in Posen. From 1872 till 1880 he was district 

 physician at Wallstein. He studied bacteriolog- 

 ical diseases, including wound infections, septi- 

 caemia, and anthrax, or splenic fever, with great 

 success and in 1880 was appointed a member of 

 the Imperial Health Office. In 1885 he became 

 director of the Hygienic Institute in Berlin. 



About 1878 he made a report in reference to 

 the bacterium that had been found associated 

 with anthrax, or splenic disease. His investiga- 

 tions went to show that the potency of this or- 

 ganism lay in the spores, rather than in the de- 

 veloped bacterium. He found that, when no 

 spores were visible in the dried diseased blood 

 with which mice were inoculated, the power of 



