Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-20

A. Eunliahunn'g Fnrrtnee of = Moeles
"A writer in Saia's Fsp,pis Br Magasius,
observosi
! had spons some days IN Shat pleasant
city, Richmond, Virginia, 90 redoleut Of
tobacco, whose brown and spear.shaped
lesves tapestry, indeed every vel and ever
fair, and stared my OIL a bear batting. We
performing mice from Jspan, ant the SMALL
est man In the world from Madagagcar.p
had beheld with, trust sufficient odmira-
tlon The large bulbous swett-p0latUog, the
rosy "Ruffump apples, the brandy. peaches,
and The gigantic orange. globes Of pumpkinas
Tired Of these not unsaila.Ing pleasures.
nyoung mans best companion In q wild
country, a good Bowie knife, I that day
entered about noon the ellop of Hiram Pea
body in the High-arest Of TIE Virginia
City.
one met carried, or ''toted5 as they pnrase
Il, either BOwie-knie or . "hye-shooter.D
had been assured that in cass Of o Dispute,
however trifina (say abcdt the slave qness
tion, OF the then pendinG PRESIDENTIAL elec.
tionl il i travelled without arms, should
be certainly shot down before ! could stfike
blow. Though having myself strong
opinion that the praotico q carrying arms
unless in tho time OF immedihte peril, is un-
wise in the traveller, as providing him 70
rather seek TRAN avoid qaarrels, kgave way
ct last 70 the repeated uf6ihgs Of prudence,
and, entering Peabody . shop, aaksd to look
at some of his best Bowls knives,
take q seas Ynistef, p aid Hiresa biandiy,
as If be was goiBR 70 sell me only cosmeticB
and soft-soap, Hand III l0ok out tAssort Of
Bowel think you would Ike 70 tote
Hannibal, get down that a tease nom the
Hannibal, rising from a dire novel which
the Syracuse Da;lH Aealancls insuficisntly
concealed, rose and brought me The csse Of
Imagine a rathershoft and broad carving
| knife, with buckhsSn handle and dagger
hilt of the ordinary eross-forru But, re-
shaping II partly on, the forge Of your fancy
do not leave it a thin polished slip of steel
SO high-tempered ard brittle that II would
snap iike glass if you pEisd open with It the
| lid of lewel-box, OF dabbed it with an
l obliaue stab into the soft deal of q Kitchen
| dresser; no. but rather weld two 0T three
such knives together untif you have back
bone teit nassive as that of Q wocdman's
bill heck; 20 that, II camrihg out in the
woods, you eoaId lop IN two with IL at s
stroke, the aromatic boEghB of the red cy-
press, the knotted shafts Cf,swamp-canes, or
cleave in two like carrots young hickory or
maple saplingRt thick as thowrist Of your boy
at Eton.
The irst wea1on Hiram hsnaed to me wes
double-edRed sOwaEd the point which did
not resemble that Of q spear head, but
rather that Of y Turkish scimitar, or the
Crusaders fhlchOD; the tyre of which our
armorers probably derived from the East.
1t was a weapon TO cleave a bears head
with, to stab dying panther still dangerous
with his claws, 10 sllt open an alligator, or
with whicRto break uP q dead~deer as he
lay crimsoaing the dun leaves ofsa Carolina
pine-wood. In weight it was heavier than
the heaviest. Oriental hAnd-jer or poniard
and in its whole character it strongly re-
minded me, of the short heavy Roman
gladium with which Caesars soldiers prob
ably fought IN Gaul and Spain.
objected that it wac too heavy, upon
which Hiram said sOlsmnly:
mo, mister; / guess it is a mere tooth
pick to the Bowie a Missouri gentleman,
who was in here yesterday to buy revolver,
'toted.i"
"You must have substance in these ar
ticles." struck, in the quick eyed, Journal
loving Hannibal, "or what use are they in q
fuss Yes, sisI when your turn comes to
saii in
A negro, whose white teeth when he
grinned looked as il his mouth was full Of
rice, came deprecatingly and looked over
our shoulders at Colonel B0Wie's invention.
Eyes, sir" said Peabody, "Colonel AU-
gustus Twiggs, who led on the Palmetto
Regiment at the battle of Chapultepec, in
the Mexican War bought his Bowie-knifo
in this identical store, and no European
could wish for better article than that.
Upon this we fell into conversation about
Bowie-knives in general, and the various
attempts made 10 improve them for close
conflict, in which they have been found so
deadly. The most ingenious of these was
| one in which the back OF the knife was hol-
! lowed and partly filed with quicksilver.
This fluid, of course, fell to the handle when
the weapon was.raised and when it struck
| it ran down toward the point, weighting it
at the end and giving greater impetus to
| the blow. This, invention, / at once OBJ
served to Peabody, was not original. The
medieval aTmorers, for the same purpose,
attached a running weight TO their two
handed swords-a sort of steel apple, as far as
| l remember-that when the weapon was in
| its sheath remained near the pOmmel, but in
striking ran down the blade.
But the true Yankee, with many virtues,
| is not modest, in his selfassertiVeness so
| Peabody only spat twice, cut fresh plug of
niggerhead, and waived the objection, OBJ
| serving that the NEST of the best Bowie
| knives came from Sheffield, and remarking
that after some of the Mexican battles, the
'Greasers," as the Yankees called them, who
had fallen by the Bowie knife, were found
with their skulls olOven almost to their
| teeth.