BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Blades o' Blue Grass_, by Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892); _Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_, by J. S. Johnston (Chicago, 1896).
[From _The Spirit of the South_ (Boston, 1909)]
On the road, the lonely road, Under the cold white moon, Under the ragged trees, he strode; He whistled, and shifted his heavy load; Whistled a foolish tune.
There was a step timed with his own; A figure that stooped and bowed; A cold white blade that flashed and shone, Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown-- And the moon went behind a cloud.
But the moon came out, so broad and good, The barn cock woke and crowed; Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood, And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood, That a dead man lay on the road.
Josiah Stoddard Johnston, journalist and historian, was born at New Orleans, February 10, 1833. He is the nephew of the celebrated Confederate cavalry leader, General Albert Sidney Johnston. Left an orphan when but five years old, he was reared by relatives in Kentucky. He was graduated from Yale in 1853; and the following year he was married to Miss Elizabeth W. Johnson, daughter of George W. Johnson, Confederate governor of Kentucky. Johnston was a cotton planter in Arkansas from 1855 to 1859, and a Kentucky farmer until the Civil War began. He served throughout the war upon the staffs of Generals Bragg, Buckner, and Breckinridge. Colonel Johnston was editor of the old Frankfort _Yeoman_ for more than twenty years; and from 1903 to 1908 he was associate editor of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_. In 1871 Colonel Johnston was Adjutant-General of Kentucky; and Secretary of State from 1875 to 1879. He has been vice-president of the Filson Club of Louisville since 1893; and he is now consulting geologist of the Kentucky Geological Survey. Colonel Johnston's knowledge of plants and mammals is very extensive and most surprising in a man of literary tastes. His tube-roses and flower gardens is one of the traditions of the old town of Frankfort. Colonel Johnston has published _The Memorial History of Louisville, Kentucky_ (Chicago, 1896, two vols.); _The First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Louisville, 1898); and _The Confederate History of Kentucky_. Colonel Johnston is one of the finest men in Kentucky to-day, dignified, cultured, and deeply learned in the history of Kentucky and the West.