One hundred years ago
A NEW YORK correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post relates a story which could hardly be paralleled in Europe. Two families, or rather clans, in Kentucky have for years maintained a feud which has disturbed two coun- ties, and has cost numberless lives. It was supposed to have died away; but recently a girl belonging to the McCoy faction betrothed herself to a relative of the other, or Hatfield family. The McCoys at length gave up their opposi- tion, but the Hatfields did not, and when bride and bridegroom appeared in church to be married, they fired through a window, and bridegroom, bride, and clergyman all fell dead be- fore the altar. The McCoys armed and pursued them to the mountains, where a skirmish was expected; and by the latest advices, the Sheriff with an armed posse was hunting them both, to pre- vent further bloodshed. Yet they say hatred is extinct as a factor in modern life, and a vendetta seems to English- men an unnatural and preposterous motive for a sensation novel.
The Spectator, 12 October 1889
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