The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1893-06-07
THENorcHED BOWIE KNIFE


-JIsass Bhanalsb Risy
THE NOTCHED BOWIE KNIFE
It's all according 10 where a man is. II
you loose your character in the east It il
a good thing to 90 vest, either with the
wish to regain il OF the desire 10 be in q
place where lost character are not Of much
account Bgt there Is such q thing as
getting character in the west which
necessitates either your going farther west
Or going east to lose yourself ia a crowd
There's a good deal Of probability that
the elder sam Flood went back 10 New
York because he found the west, as he
knew II, great deal zoo hot for him.
For young sam, when he in after years
went west, heard strange tales about a
certain sam Flood. He didu't know for
dead certain whether it was his father or
not. Too much time had passed 10 iden-
tify him by looks, and the old man had
kept his own counsel. But the sam
Flood that young sam heard Of was a
very bad man indeed. He was something
Ike Ben Thompson, who would shoot IN
unarmed man. lie was pretty near as
bad as Wes' Harding, who aroused public
opinion 70 the terrific extent Of putting
him in the penitentiary when he shot e
man in his sleep. That was going too
far, even for the people round about Cal
weston in those days. Flood was such a
man. lie had killed seven-and a great
many more; but young sam knew moth
Ing Of this. He had no absolute kn0El-
edge of il. Il was only a sort OF "kinkle, T"
As they would have put ii-iust a notion
on his part. And when he got west be
wasn't at first particularly anxious to
claim acquaintance with the memory OF
a border FuiiiAn such As this sam FloOd
must have been for fear he might let the
old man in for something. Bat be knew
that bis father was a man of strange
character. Though living in a pretty
tough part Of New York, ne had never
carried arms.
' / reckon" said old Flood, Il won't
put temptation in my way"
His son had heard him say that and
there was something in old Floods voice
and MS manner, and his trick Of looking
his eye-that prevented people at
tempting to jump Oh him. But be
brought his family up in a God-fearing
way that is, he taught them religion
Occasionally he laid especial stress on
the sixth commandment. Ia thelight of
after experience and inward knowledge
Of himself young Flood gan 70 under
stand. Once when he was no more than
3 boy Of - he came across an old bowie
knife in box IN his fathers house. Boy
ike, he took the weapon out and delight
ed 10 handle It. He noticed seven notch
es on the butt. He showed it to his
father and asked for an explanation.
There was a curious CLEAN in the old
mans eye; he seemed TO grow brighter
and more alert.
Belonged to an old partner of mine,
said Flood ~he gave it me when he
died.
That was not strictly true. He hadn't
give it to him when be died Flood took
il when ne was dead-which is a differ
ent thing. The other man had died Of
exposure, as the western jury said-ex-
posure to bullets. They we're Floods
bullets. But Flood took the weapon
from his boy and hid it-young sam
never saw it again till be was Il.
Nov, it is the way with boys in Ameri-
ca to get up and get alta certain age
or at any age when they find parental
and family restraint little too
much for them. Their pals can always
put them up to beating train out Of
New York and they start to 90 west. The
courage Of some Of them 'petes' long be-
fore they get 10 the middle states-the
west looks too big and too wide. They
to stay where they have got to
or go back.
But sam was persistent; he went right
forward he had s. aud the notched
bowie knife. After two months train
beating and grub-begging, and sleeping
in eulverts and box cars, he landed up
in Texas, having done very well indeed.
tie ran the whole distance through to
at one flight He got 'laid Off
on leaving Chicago at Hannibal, bat be
went over the whole K. & T. without a
hitch, and got to Fort Worth, finally
landing at Painted Rock in the south
Of the panhandle" and there he went
to work on cattle ranch. He started
right in as q cowboy, and he picked it up
well. He was smart on horseback from
the word go and heeyen had a notion
of holding on when they gave him
buckjumper-at any rate, he didn't come
of quite so soon as the ''tenderfoot" usu-
ally does, and in few months he was
very fair rider indeed. As he rode
around on his pony, with his mesquite
leggins on, he began to think he was
hi Of a man. lie began to feel that he
was somebody-began 10 think he had
arrived, had got there. He didn't feel so
crushed as he did in the east. He had
got room 10 spread, for in the east, wheth-
er il be the Americao<east or more east
still, human beings are like bag of sea
siush Of humanity, with
no individuality and no beauty about
them. But in the west, the open west,
where man is not 50 crowded and the
law is not SO oppressive, there's certain
reasonable chance of being yourself pro-
vided you have got any money or any
natural capabilities for taking other peo-
pies without asking for it.