San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-02-17
AN UNRELIABLE SAVAGE.

1t is no wonder that Texas is called
wild and woolly in the East, wher
she is unknown, when she is habit
ually misrepresented by those VIII,
claim intimate acquaintance with he
and ner people, and to whom thu
East would naturally look for correct
information. 1t does seem as though
certain persons had a mania for mis-
representing every section through
which they travel or in which they
temporarily abide, when they return
to the places from which they de-
parted and move again among the old
familiar scenes. These people evil
IDENTIFY think that their own i'm
portance is enhanced in the eyes of
the public by representing the people
among whom they have been as I'M
couth, bizarre, and as we term it in
Texas, "wild and woolly." Texas
offers a particularly inviting field for
this kind of misrepresentation. 1t is
not only far away from the great
thoroughfares of eastern and western
travel between New York and San
Francisco, but is down on the Mex
lean border, concerning which all
sorts of wild tales are believed, and
as consequence any improbable
story goes. There is every excuse for
the man who knows nothing of Texas
believing these mupchausen tales and
repeating them, but there is no man.
ner of excuse for the man who has
travelled in Texas and knows Texas,
or claims he does, to invent such inn
probable yarns and palm tn en- of for
hard, cold facts. In the first
place, it does Texas no good,
and in the second place it
develops q facility of lying in the
narrator that is utterly unnecessary,
nature having amply endowed him
with all needed gifts Of mendacity
without any cultivation.
Under the head "Mr. Potter In
Texas" the New York World gives
the impressions Of Texas received by
the narrative of Col. r. H. Savage.
This gentleman claims to have served,
after a very varied western army
as a staff officer, as q
of the commission sent out
by Gen. Grant to inquire into the
Texas claims against the Comanches,
md in conversation reported in the
New York World of a very recent
late, ridicules the idea of any one
that the character of MIR.
Potter is not drawn to the life and
declaring, that it is mot a bit exagge-
ated." In this conversation Col.
Savage said:
/ know q half dozen 'Potters' in
Texas now. There's Milton Kennedy,
the Pennsylvania Quaker, who was
partner of Captain Dick King in the
ownership OF the whole steamship
fleet on the Rio Grande and two hig
'anches besides. Kennedy is worth
millions today, but he wears his
check shirt and brogans and uses his
in speech as he did when
, day laborer. Captain King himself,
who sold his ranch for So, 00O, 900 to an
English syndicate, was regular
Potter desperate, cool, rough and
ready, king at home and the equal
Of any man anywhere. He began life
in Texas as q steam boat hand and has
devoted his whole fortune to making
his daughter happy. And Captain
King retains his Irish brogue to this
day.
The Milton Kennedy referred to is
no doubt Captain Miflin Kennedy,
whose form is familiar one in the
corridors of the Menger hotel, al d
who was the power behind the throne
in the building of the Arkansas Pass
road. Col. Savage evidently knows
as little about the gentlemen himself
as he does about his name. Capt.
Kennedy is quiet, unassuming gen.
tleman, very neat in his dress, and
answers Col. Savage's descrip-
ton as thoroughly as a little
nigger's portrait represents a dark
night. If the colonel was tC
offer his cheek as a reward for the
brogans and check shirt and Potter
ism of Cap. Kennedy he could not find
it. The statement is not true. 81
also concerning Captain King; one o
the Potters whom Col. Savage knows
NOW, and who "RETAINs HIS sIRIsE
BROGUE TO THIS DAY" ,.notwithstand
ing he has been dead four years. The