Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1890-08-01
THE REAL KIT CARSON.

Fieiha ehh III tdo hHNhtalu1t kll OAI4ou
was the prince. par excellence. HE ma
turs vas sompossd Of the nsblsst attribu-
tss; hs was brave, put net reckless like
Caster, unselfsh, Veritabls, sxpsnsat of
ehrisiisn atruEm, and a. true
70 his friends as the needle 10 the pole.
Fer some tins he slept peacefully under
the gnarled and knottsd old sstton woods
at Fort Lyon on the Arkansas the Nile
Of America where he died in 1868.
while ON bis way to nay home at Fort
Harker, to make me long promised vis-
it. Only a short time ago, relatively, his
REMAINS we're remoyad to Taos, his former
New Mckee home, and an appropriate
monument erected over them. In the
plaza Of quaint and curious Santa Pc,
there Is a cspotaph which records his deeds
and memory.
He was a man under the average
height, rather delicate looking in bis phys
ical makeup than otherwise, but in real
ity a Wtry and quick, though cautious,
man, possessing nerves Of iron and an i'm
rerturbability in the moment Of supreme
danger that was something gfand to con-
template.
BE was fond Of cards and horse racing
and the most expert player eli ''seyen.u up .
| have ever seen, though he was fond Of
poker as we'll, He WAS a famous horse
man IN his younger days, having ridden IN
many contest with the Indians, who are
generally passionately deYoled to trials Of
speed between rival ponies. have my
self seen, in the long ago, as many 500
horses bot by contending bands on the
four-lnila race, among those tribes whose
wealth was counted by tue number OF pom
ies they possessed
Ki.onee, years before he had become
famous, fought duel, mounted; be escap-
ed with bullet wound behind bis right
ear, the scar Of which he carried to his
grave but he winged bis youthful antago-
mist II the contest.
How true 1t is. as Loogfellow de
clAres, that the thoughts Of youth are
long, long thoughts" | remember that
nap is the biographies of forty-dve yeurs
ago, depicting The Great American Des-
ert, over winch porad IN the Ilittle log
school house at the crossroads III the
couutty. u lad l4avar yet. heen thirty
miles from my heme in one Of The extreSne
sasifarn middle states. How saenlber
seeing "Bynt's old fort marked on the
western edge Of the desert on that
quaint map; then, in 'the long. long
thoughts OF mJ 10y hood 5 fancy, 1t seem
ed to me to be away cut an confines Of an
other world. have slept under its oacs
hospitsbls roof many limos since, bat long
ocfare the era Of railroads, wherr gather
ed around ITS huge adoLe fire. places, up
waose cavsrnous threats tbe yellow flames
cracked and roarod, were the mighty men
Of the Ute nation and Kit Carson, Lucieu
B. Maxwell, bent anu other famous char
asLers Of the "berder, coRversing in the
beautiful, but silent, sign languages that
IS 80 perfect Ia its y symbolizauen.
But OF those wbe gathered there, ali,
except myself. are long since dead.
Those SCENES are now only hidden pic
lures in the storchouse of my brain, TO bc
called back in the quiet of the cleaning
with their host of accompanying pleasant
memories Of shadswy past. remem-
Der, too, that meat exciting and sensational
Of all the miserably executed Illustrations,
in the old geography-to my boYish mind,
at least-of Santa Fe traders attacked
by Indians" TLen there comes to my
mind, as | write, my own boyish concep
ton Of KIT, who at that tlina had Just be-
came famous. The boys, by the thousand |
probably, had the same long thoughts,
Ter boy nature is the same everywhere.
believed honestly, taat Carson was at
least eight feet tall that he always dress
Vi in the traditional baekskin, fringed at
tine ssawI, aud beaded and 'psreupined"
all over; that he carried innumera5ls
bowie kniyes, his rife Of huge Dimensions,
50 large aud heavy that, like Wsrrirk's 5 |
sword, ne ordinary man could syen lift it,
believe bis ordinary neal an entire buf-
ialo, which hsraised with both hands to
bic mouth and picked lis immenss bones
as easily rs the average mortal does
shicksn 5 wiHg, and thst h0 drank cut OF
aOthing smaller than a river.
He was the most retieent aan cencerA-
Rg bis own adventures have met; it re-
luirsd the greatest strategy TO get him
10 sOnverss on the subject at all, though
ae WAS splendid company. except when
Tou wanted him to talk about hinsslf
la reminded. while thisking Of hun. Of
N aneedete characteristics Of bis rslicsHes
concerning his exploits: II was in July
1866, Maxwell, thsn proprietor Of the IA
aouS rancho in New Aeueo that still
,sars bis name, and who was the oompssr
md comrade Of Carssn. on tho 4th Of
hat mosth determined to celebrate the
lay al his magnigcent home. By ths pre-
aature explosion Of an old eanaon,
'rought into requisltion at the time Max.
veil 80 injured bis hand that the surgeon
Il Fort TInion who attended him docf4 |