UK Brigade of Kentucky Colonels

The Kentucky Colonels' Toast

Several members have asked us about the Kentucky Colonels' Toast used at our meetings. The Toast was written by Colonel Arthur Kudner of New York in the 1930s. For the avoidance of misunderstanding, it should be noted that it is today taken to refer to both Gentlemen and Lady Colonels. Here is the full text of the toast:

I give you a man dedicated to the good things of life, to the gentle, the heartfelt things, to good living, and to the kindly rites with which it is surrounded. In all the clash of a plangent world he holds firm to his ideal – a gracious existence in that country of content “where slower clocks strike happier hours”.

He stands in spirit on a tall-columned veranda, a hospitable glass in his hand, and he looks over the good and fertile earth, over ripening fields, over meadows of rippling blue grass. The rounded note of a horn floats through the fragrant stillness. Afar, the sleek and shining flanks of a thoroughbred catch the bright sun. The broad door, open wide with welcome... the slow, soft-spoken word... the familiar step of friendship... all this is his life and it is good. He brings fair judgment to sterner things. He is proud in the traditions of his country, in ways that are settled and true.

In a trying world darkened by hate and misunderstanding, he is a symbol of those virtues in which men find gallant faith and of the good men might distill from life. Here he stands then.
In the finest sense, an epicure... a patriot... a man.

Gentlemen, I give you the Kentucky Colonel.

The Mother Country Chapter
of the Kentucky Colonels

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