they y could C ouid B 8 B lick hicl 8 their TB S hear W weight B in in wildcats i 3 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON numerous may have been the faults of the hviolet i HOWEVER american frontiersmen modesty of the shrinking violet variety was not one of them muscular reckless daring bumptious boastful lie he gloried in his prowess and he told the world about it typical of his self esteem was the characterization which the riflemen who marched with andrew jackson to now new orleans late in 1814 to repel the attempt of a british army to capture that city applied to themselves every man according to his tell was half a horse and half on an alligator and so when old hickory and his frontier riflemen had won that amazing victory over old packenham general pakenham and his red coats the fame of these backwoodsmen backwoods men was spread across the land then samuel woodworth yes the same samuel woodworth who wrote the old oaken buck et sat himself down and celebrated their feat in a song which he called the hunters of kentucky first sung in a new orleans theater in 1022 1822 it was published in a crude little book of songs and ballads four years later it was also printed in boston as a broadside and it became a veritable hymn of faith of every frontiersman on every american frontier it was whined out by cowboy singers the real not radio kind around campfires comp camp fues fires or on night herd duty it was roared out by lumberjacks lumber jacks in their bunkhouses bunk housos or by gold seekers in mining camp saloons and today it is still sung in many a mountain cabin in the tha appalachians perhaps not every frontiersman boasted that lie he was halt half a horse and half an alligator perhaps he stated a little m more 0 r e modestly that ho he was the kind of fighter who could whip his weight in wildcats so when james daugherty decided to bring together a collection of old time tales which would make some image or pattern that might suggest the sprawling fecundity the vast human drama of the old frontier lie ho chose to for tho the title of his book tho the lieghty ap prop their weight in wild cats 1 1 11 I have tried to call up the robust images the wild groces signals sio nals the swift fierce action and encounters and all this feebly with a tiny b rush brush a scrap of 0 paper a pot of ink and i a large enthusiasm he says in hi explanation ot of the illustrations which lie he drew for the book some of these illustrations are reproduced with this article by courtesy of tho the houghton kluun company publishers alic immense I 1 lore 0 r e behind these few tales jalcs and sketches is it seems to me a vast iliad and odyssey in tho the raw says mr daug daugharty irly further from it writers ina and painters and sculptors will bo be taking themes and building up glorious songs an and d dramas and colossal carved and painted friezes and facades and processionals procession als as long as tho the g genial ie tough cantankerous spirit of america endures because mike Milie fink the king of 0 the keel boatmen so perfectly tyni fled this If tough cantan kerous spirit of the men who could whip their weight in wildcats it is appropriate that his tn I 1 to I 1 VT av A ak PAUL BUNYAN master woodsman picture should be the frontispiece of the book and that one of the stories about him should be the iho first one in it it is the disgraced scalp lock taken rom the hive of the bee hunt er written by T B thorpe and published back in 1851 1051 listen pow now to mike as lie he talks big bigi well lvell I 1 will walk tall into var mint anil and indian its a way ive got and it comes as natural as grinning to a hyena im it M a regular 0 tornado tough as a hickory longwinded long winded as a norl wester I 1 can strike a blow like a falling failing tree and every lick licit malics makes a gap in the crowd that lets in an acre of sunshine whew boys if the choctaw divins in them lar ar woody woodi would give us a brush just as 1 beel feel now id call them gentlemen I 1 must light something or ill catch the dry rot burnt brandy wont save me the fact that the tha choctaw devils in them ar woods were peaceable indians deter mute mike fink in the least to demonstrate his skill with the rifle for which he was famous and of which he was inordinately proud lie he shot the from the 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 boatmen and two indians one of them proud joe himself were killed more alore 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 qualities as revealed in the tales which mr daugherty has collected in his book for instance the backwoods mans resourcefulness is illustrated by the amusing anecdote from john M pecks life of daniel boone published in 1817 which tells how that fa I 1 f how davy crockett kept warm pioneer outwitted the band of indians who tried to capture him one lay day in the cabin where lie 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 oil off guard crushed the dry leaves in ills his hands and hurled the stinging dust into their faces then he sped for the safety of his cabin the story 0 of the captivity of A of V b w MIKE AHKE FINK KINS KING OF THE KEEL HEEL BOATMEN simon kenton as reprinted from henry howes the great west 1855 is not only an illuminating lumina ting example of the amazing endurance and indomitable will to live of the typical frontiersman but as a later biographer of kenton has said for its momentous succession of perils transitions and hairbreadth escapes has no parallel in all the adventurous annals of western border history equally thrilling is the story of the fight in the canyon from the adventures ot of bigfoot big foot wallace the texas ranger and hunter by john C duval 1870 it reveals also the chivalrous side of the frontiers mans character in that wallace gave his indian foe a christian burial after he had killed him and for a variation on the whip their weight in wildcats theme is another story of this hero of the lone star state bigfoot big foot wallace whips his weight in wolves truly an homeric feat IF it can be believed in all its details where fact leaves off the trouble is one never can be sure where fact leaves off on and fiction begins in these tales for closely allied to the frontiers mans boastfulness of his own prowess was his fondness for telling tall tales davy crockett may not have originated this pleasant american diversion ol of telling whoppers but he was one 0 ol 01 the earliest and most skillful exponents of t the he art for who el else s e but this immortal beni 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 he tells about in A narrative of the life of david crockett of the state of tennessee written by himself here is his version my aly blood was now getting cold and the chills coming all over me I 1 was so tired too that I 1 could hardly walk but I 1 thought I 1 would do the best I 1 could to save my life and then if I 1 died nobody would be to blame so I 1 went to a tree about two feet through and not a limb on it for 30 feet and I 1 would climb up it to the limbs and then lock my arms together around it and slide down to the bottom again this would make the insides of my legs and arms feel mighty warm and good I 1 continued this till daylight in the morning and how bow often I 1 up my tree and slid down I 1 dont know but I 1 reckon at least a hundred times two immortal liars whether jim beckwourth Beckw or jim bridger was the biggest alarin liar in the west has never been satisfactorily settled both men are dead these many years but 6 Q JOHNNY the art of telling tall tales did not die with them it lingers on to this day in the yarns which the lumberjacks lumber jacks tell about that master woodsman paul bunyan and babe his big blue ox and 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 first told by T B thorpe in the hive of the bee hunter in 1854 and still repeated in many a cabin home in the ozarks for these folk folic tales are a part of our frontier heritage they are as much that as are the tales of legendary feats by such heroes as daniel boone simon kenton davy crockett and kit carson yes even johnny apple seed for ills his story is also included in this book one wonders what the gentle johnny would think when he found himself in such company with mike fink the ruthless rifled rifleman in and lewis wetzel the brutal injun killer 1 one re reviewer of this book has suggested suggest bd that johnny would have licked his wildcat by pray erl they are the kind of stories that never grow old and they will be repe repealed aed over and over as mr air daugherty suggests so long as the genial tough an tan cankerous tank kerous crous spirit of america endures 0 western newspaper union