Could Lick Their Weight in Wildcats By Dy ELMO SCOTT WATSON I WEVER NEVER numerous may have been the faults of the American frontiersmen modesty of the shrinking violet olet variety was not one of them cular reckless daring bumptious boastful boastful he he hein in his prowess and he told the world about it ical deal of his self-esteem self was the characterization he le riflemen who marched with Andrew Jackson to t. t I leans late in 1814 to repel the attempt of a British V capture that city applied to themselves Every According to his tell was half a horse and half Sator ator o 0 when Old Hick Hick- d id his frontier rifled rifle- rifle d won that amazing over Old HOld General Pakenham red coats the fame backwoodsmen was cross the land Then Woodworth yes the themuel muel Woodworth who he Old Oaken Buck- Buck at t himself down and ond led ed their feat in a aich ich he called The Theof i of Kentucky First Firsta J a New Orleans the the- it was published ie e little book of songs ads four years later Iso printed in Boston adside and it became ble hymn of faith frontiersman on ev- ev frontier whined out by cowboy the real not radio kind campfires or on night It was roared out by ells in their bunkhouses in mining loons And today it is isK K in n any a mountain the Appalachians s not every frontiers frontiers- bled ted that he was hall half a half an alligator Per- Per stated a little m more mar o r e that he was the kind who could whip his i wildcats So when decided to to ether a collection ol Df f olds old- old es s which would make age ge or pattern that might he e sprawling fecundity v human drama of the Itier ier he chose for the theis his is book the highly highly-ap- Their Weight in Wilde Wild- Wild e tried to call up the ages the wild he the swift swIt fierce action and all this ith th a tiny brush a scrap a pot of ink and a he says in ex- ex of the illustrations BO e drew for the b book ok these illustrations are ore led ed cd with this article by of the Houghton publishers I immense lor lore e behind tales and sketches is to me a vast Iliad and andin andin andin in the raw says Mr ly y further From it and painters and be taking themes and up glorious songs and and colossal carved and friezes and facades and nals as long as the geh geh ge- ge gh h cantankerous spirit of endures se e Mike Fink the King Boatmen el so perfected perfect- perfect Jed ed this tough cantan- cantan t of the men who hip their weight in wildis wild wild- is appropriate that his 4 l 7 1 t S S PAUL UL BUNYAN taster Blaster Woodsman J should be the frontis- frontis m the book and that one of ties ICS les about him should be t one in m it It is The ed Scalp lock taken the rhe live Hive of the Hunt Bee Sitten Wen Itten by T. T B. B Thorpe and led ed d back in 1854 Listen Mike Mke as he talks big st 9 I will walk tall Into varand vard var- var var- var and d Indian its it's a way a I ut ot ii and it comes as flats nat nat- P s grinning to a hyena I regular tornado tornado tough tough winded long as I ester wester I can strike a like a falling tree tree and and every lick makes a gap In the crowd that lets in an acre of sunshine Whew boys If It the Choctaw in them ar woods would give us a abrush abrush abrush brush Just as I feel reel now Id I'd call them gentlemen I must tight light something or Ill I'll catch the dry rot rot burnt burnt brandy wont won't save met me The fact that the Choctaw devils in them ar woods were peaceable Indians didn't deter deter deter de de- de- de ter Mike Fink in the least To demonstrate his skill with the rifle for which he was famous and of which he was inordinately proud he shot the from the hea head of a Cherokee named Proud Joe To avenge this insult Proud Joe and a party of his friends followed the flatboat on which Fink was working down the river attacked it one night and in the fight which resulted one of the th boatmen and two Indians Indians Indians In In- one of them Proud Joe himself were killed More l Admirable Qualities Such is the picture of the more ruthless and brutal side of these frontiersmen who could whip their weight in wildcats More admirable are some of their other other other oth oth- er qualities as revealed in the tales which Mr Daugherty has collected in his book For instance the backwoodsman's backwoodsman's backwoodsman's backwoods backwoods- mans man's resourcefulness is illustrated illustrated illustrated illus illus- by the amu amusing ing anecdote from John M. M Pecks Peck's Life of Daniel Boone published in 1817 1847 which tells how that fa fa- fa- fa j i if f t i d r rr r N j r how Davy Crockett Kept Warm pioneer outwitted the band of Indians who tried to capture him one day in the cabin where he was curing tobacco Boone pretended that he was glad to see them offered to give them some of his tobacco and then when they were completely off off- guard crushed the dry leaves in his hands and hurled the stinging dust into their faces Then he sped for the safety of his cabin The story of The Captivity of r i 4 T L- L tJI v J T i r J d I MIKE FINK KIN KINJI OF TilE THE KEEL Simon Kenton as reprinted from Henry Howes Howe's The Great West 1855 is not only an il illuminating illuminating illuminating il- il example of the amazing amazing ing endurance and indomitable will live of the typical frontiersman frontiersman frontiersman fron fron- but as a later biographer er of Kenton has said for its momentous succession of perils transitions and hairbreadth escapes escapes escapes es es- es- es capes has no parallel in all the thead ad adventurous venturous annals of western border history Equally thrilling is the story of The Fight in the Canyon from The Adventures of Foot Big Wallace the Texas Texas Ranger and Hunter by John C. C Duval 1870 It reveals also the chivalrous side of the frontiersman's frontiersman's frontiersman's frontiers frontiers- mans man's character in that Wallace gave his Indian foe a Christian burial after he had killed him And for a variation on the whip I their weight in wildcats theme is another story of this hero of the Wallace Wallace Wallace Wal Wal- Lone Star state state Foot Foot Big lace Whips His Weight in Wolves Wolves truly truly an Homeric feat IF it can be believed in all its details Where Fact Leaves OtTo Off The trouble is one never can be sure where fact leaves off and fiction begins in these tales For closely allied to the frontiersman's frontiersman's frontiersman's frontiers frontiers- mans man's boastfulness of his his- own prowess was his fondness for telling telling telling tell tell- ing tall tales Davy Crockett may not have originated this pleasant American American Ameri Ameri- can diversion of telling whoppers whoppers whoppers whop pers but he was one of the earliest and most skillful exponents exponents expo expo- of the art For who else but this immortal hunter bear-hunter a and n d coonskin congressman could have invented and made believable such an ingenious method of keeping himself from freezing on a cold night as the one lone he tells about in A Narrative Nar Nar- native of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee Tennes Tennes- see Written by Himself Here is his version My 11 blood was now getting cold and the cl chills coming allover all allover allover over me I was so tired too that I could hardly walk but I thought I would do the best I could to save my life lIle and then if U I died nobody would be to blame So I went to a tree about two feet through and not nota a limb on it for 30 feet and I would climb up it to the limbs and then lock my arms together er around it It and slide down to the bottom again This Tills would make the insides of my legs and arms feel mighty warm and good I continued this till daylight in the morning morning- and bow often I up my tree and slid down I dont don't know but butI I reckon at least a hundred times Two Immortal Liars Whether Jim Beckwourth rth or Jim Bridger was the biggest liar in the West has never been settled Both men are dead these many years but SS w t tM ts M s 4 Y JOHNNY ESEED APPI-ESEED the art of telling tall tales did not die with them It lingers on onto onto onto to this day in the yarns which the lumberjacks tell about that master woodsman Paul Bunyan Dunyan and Babe Dabe his big Blue Ox and andin andin andin in the songs which the negroes sing about John Henry who was the steel man that ever lived It survives in the tale of The Big Bear of Arkansas Arkan Arkan- sas first told by T. T B B. Thorpe in The Hive of the Hunter Bee in 1854 and still repeated in many manya a cabin home in the Ozarks For these folk tales are a part of our frontier heritage They are as much that as are the tales of legendary feats by such heroes heroes heroes he he- roes as Daniel Boone Doone Simon Kenton Davy Crockett and Kit Carson yes Carson yes even Johnny Apple- Apple seed for his story is also included in this book One wonders what the gentle genUe Johnny would think when he found himself in such company with company with Mike Fink the ruthless rifleman and Lewis Wetzel the brutal Injun killer One reviewer of this book has suggested that Johnny would have licked his wildcat by prayer pray pray- er I They are the kind of ot stories stories stories sto sto- ries that never grow old and they will be repeated over and over as Mr Daugherty suggests so long as the genial tough lough cantankerous cantankerous can can- spirit of America endures en en- dures dures 6 e Western Newspaper r Union