, 1872-11-27
THE SOUTHWEST.
albert Pike, Sam. Houston, lent Telald,
David Crockett, Burr and Nilkin.
SOD, Solon Borland.
Anecdotes and Memorials Of !Then-- Blood
and Politics Texas -Way--Lives
ofthe Filibugters.

From Our 0,on Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Nov. -18 1872.
4 letter which I sent you yesterday on the
Southwestern Substantially Arkansas, Texas,
and the Indian Territory suggests that also
furnish some personal story upon tho skeleton
there delineated
The chief literary spirit Of the Southwest is
Albert Pike, who long resided in the Indian
country and al Little Rock, but nov lives IN
Washington City, and practices before the In
dian Department. He is an author, lofty Ma-
son, an Indian by adoption, and skilful 1aW-
YER whom large wants turned aside from author
ship at an untinely period
He sayg, in baRhfu preface to his book
now long out OF print,-such as . man might
write removed from mankind: I" It is some tine
since have seen the works Of any poet; and
the things OF my memory have become so con-
fused with those Of my OWL Imagination that I
am at times, when an idea flashes upon me, M
certain whether it be my own. These
poems have been written in desertion and loneI-
ness, and sometimes in places OF fear and dan
ger. 1y only sources Of thought and imagery
have been my own mind, and Nature. Who has
appeared to me generally in deaolate fashion
and utter dreariness, and not unfrequently in
Che guise Of sublimity. have acquired, by wild
and desolate life, q habit Of looking steadily
IN upon my own mind, and Of fathoming its re-
sources; and perhaps solitude has been the cre-
,ator Of egotism*"
The reader may be reminded, by the above, of
the apology Of Joaquin Miller, s'the Poet Of
the 6ierraa," who follows Albert Pike, after
thirty years, in a similar track OF desert itera
ture; but Pike was classical exile seeking to
.econcile an educated taste to wild regions and
wild d-felow-men- The politician, the Indians
lawyer, and the poet are produced alternately in
his book. The first and longest piece IN it is
called Narrative Of Journey in the Prairie" )"
and is descriptive Of g party which left Arkan-
sas in 1881 for Santa Fe, and wandered On the
desert In the Narratlve ne come to this pas
cage. showing an instant conclusion like eome
Nimrod's On the historic trail: s'It vas on
the heads Of the Del Norte that Gen.
erl Pike, then Lieutenant, Was taken
By the Mexicans. Has it ever been satisfac-
torly known why he WAS there? I think not,
.Hs could not have been mistaken in the river
He knew it not to be the Arkansas, and he knew
himself to be in the Mexican Territory. Was
he not seeking place for the army OF Aaron
Burr to enter and subdue Mexico? He was no
traitor, know; and neither, in my opinion.
was Burr. Neither ever ained to raise hand
against our Own country"
1produce this extract, which IVES not germane
20 Albert Pike; meantime, to show that this
6libuster in the Southwest has been both the
poets and the politicians he1o there since the
days Of Burr. As close as the aIchemist stood
to chemist or the Mississippi River gambler
stands to the modern mining operator, stand Burr
and his tai6uslero poeterity to the Jefersonian
statesman. The one was the overreacler seeking
toanticpate the reacher, the political adyenturer
in 3 hurry to get in before authority. Bu1r's
line includes jackson, Houston, Quitman, and
Walker. The lawlessnegs they performed on the
grander scale found 8 popular constituency in
that less than seml-acrupulouEness which took
the land Of the Indian and the Spanlard as far
as the Bio Grande, but has left the curse behind
it Of posterity which will not brook the law g
delay nor the inaoience Of Office. To so ahead
and grasp province, is old and easy; to civilize
the spirit which grasped it, is the problem be-
tore us to-day in Texas and Arkansas.
FIXES PARTY.
Now see, directly after the above patient and
minute narrative in hunters prose, the same In
dian spirit of Albert Pike, with one foot in New
England and one amongst the CheroEeeB sing
to robin redbreast CO the only one that ever
heard there ~:
Hushi where art thou clinging,
And what art thou singing,
Bird Of my Own natlEe 1and3
Thy song Is as sweet
AS fairy feet
Stepping On silver sand
Or this pantheistic spirit celebrating his foe
man in the song Of the Nabajo:
Up, then, and AWAY! Let the quiver be full!
And soon the stars make the mountain air cool
The IRE Of the harvest shall make Hearen pale,
And the priesthood shall curse and the coward shal
w2u,
And there VIII be counting Of beads then to do,-
And the Puehlos shah mount and prepare to pursue;
But when could their steeds mulefooted and SLOW,
XsnYnra with the birds Of the tree NabAjOS
Through the prose Of Albert Pike one sees the
acute trapper's spirit, and IN his poems the samt
melancholy y-eyed man sitting in the "ilds Of tht
Southwest, relieved from the stimulus Of his
new-found friends, saying even at Little Rock
and doubtless with monentary sincerity:
Once more unto the desert! There
ask nor wealth, nor hope, nor praise,
Nor gentle ease, nor want OF care
On my dark ways;
Out to the desert! from the sway
OF falsehood, crime, and heartlessness;
Better free life for day
Than years like this.
We owe to Pike the only poetical picture o1
one of those deep, mild, silent sunsets Of the
Southwest:
-Eastward You trace
No stain, no spot Of cloud upon sky
The Winds II M % lave folded up their quick wings now
And all asleep high up within cloud-c1ad1es lie.
Beneath the trees, the dark and 1nazsy g1oons
Are growing deeper, more material
In wlndless solitude; the dower-b1ooms
Thic1ly exhaIe their thin and unseen plumes
OF odor, which they gare not at the call
OF the hot sun; the birds all sleep within
The shaken nests,-An but the owl who bocns
Far of his cry, like one that uorrns strange dooms
And the wild WishtonEish with lonely din
There is deep, calm beauty all around
A massive, heavy, melancholy look,
4 unison Of lonesome sight and sound,
Which touches uehl hardly brook
Our own sad feelings here;
1t cannot wiring from out the heart tear,
But gives heavy hearts, like reading some sas
book.
SOUTHWEST HU11oRIST.
made some inquiries at Little Rock about
character of whom had read this description
in an Arkansas household book:
ssErery reader Of the Spirit Of the Times,
said the description, "must have occasionall,
laughed over certain highly humorous pieces tia
have from time to time often appeared in thu
paper, over the signature of Pete Wetstone
OF the Devils Fork The author Of the afore
said exquisite Wit is Kent Toland, OF Botesrille
Ark, in every way one Of the most remarkable
men in the West: for such Is the versatility o
his genius that he seems equally adapted to ey
,rr, Syac,ns of pffnrt iDtrllactt1n1 or 1tfyHica1