The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-04-28
THE REAL DAvY CROCKETT.

Gently published, it is asserted that in
stead of being the rough backwoods-
man of tradition, he was really a well
dressed, polished gentleman
The assertion is not wholly true, but
there is some ground for it since
Crockett, after his service in congress
and his tour in the east, did aspire to
the reputation of gentleman, and did
make attempts as political satirist in
emulation of the then celebrated Maj
Jack Downing. He published several
books which attracted wide attention,
but, although his account OF his east
e n trip and his burlesque life of Van
Buren, have some value as showing the
| spirit of politics in his time, they are
worthless otherwise. while his auto
biography has in it SO much both OF
originality and interest that it is GER
tain to be read as long as there are any
| who are interested in the primitive life
| of the United States
Crockett wore his ''store clothes"
| when he had his portrait taken to
serve as frontispiece for his books.
He wore them in Washington and on
his visit to Boston, but when he went
back to west Tennessee he put on his
coonskin cap, which was his strong
point in the politics Of the district.
West Tennessee was good deal fur
Their west than western Kansas is now,
and when Crockett was elected to con.
gress the sections which prided them
selves on their superior culture took
much the same interest in him that
they do now in Hon jeremiah Simp-
son, of Kansas. Whatever may be the
success of that attempt, it is certain
that Crockett's coonsl1in cap and deer
skin suit are authentic and no fiction.
1t is also certain that in connection
with a flask and a faculty of story tell
ing they elected him to congress
The histories of the United States in
use in the schools thirty years ago had
a picture of Crockett in the angle Of
the Alamo, with q bowie knife in his
hand and large pile of dead Mexicans
in front of him According to the text
which accompanied the picture, he was
killed only after a desperate resistance,
but it has been since asserted that he
was one of six who surrendered and
We're afterward butchered in cold blood
by order of Santa Anna. Except that
two or more Mexicans were killed for
every defender of the fortress, what
took place in and in front of the Alamo
on the day it was stormed will never
be known with certainty, and it has
never been proved that Crockett sur
rendered The original version is more
cot &C. q
are free to hold 10 it.
Crockett left Tennessee for Texas for
the same reason he attempted litera-
ture-because he had ventured to OPP
pose himself to the overwhelming pop
ularity of Andrew Jackson After his
visit to Boston, where they made a
great deal of him as the only Ten
nesseean who dared to stand up for
sound finance" against Jackson,
Crockett had greatly enlarged ideas of
his own Importance; and when he
found that he could not induce west
Tennessee to endorse him as a greater
statesman than Jackson, he went to
Texas and ended his career At the
Alamo
His father, an Irish soldier Of the |
revolution, kept a tavern on the road |
from Abingdon to Knoxville. He at |
tempted to give his son such education |
as could be had in the log school
houses Of the mountains, but David |
ran away and hired himself to team
sters, who carried freight between
Baltimore and the western settlements.
In this way he travelled through Vir-
GINA and Maryland, and be fore he was
of age acquired knowledge of the
world greatly superior to that of the
average backwoodsman- Nevertheless,
it was not until he was nearly grown
and had already made up his mind to
marry that he learned his letters.
He had only six months regular
schooling, but in one way and another
he afterward picked up enough from
books TO enable him to risk French
phrase occasionally in his political
writing, published at the time he had
set up as a rival of Andrew Jackson,
and was anxious to convince the east
that he was something more than
Crockett, the bear hunter.
at that period of his career he
ceases to be interesting because of the
facility with which he had
adopted the hackneyed style of the
average politician he met at Washing
ION, but before Washington society
md Boston hattery spoiled him he
-eally deserved his national reputation
Is one of the most interesting and
original characters in American poll.
les
During the Creek war he was a nine :
y-day man, and as he had the faculty
IT recognizing everyone he had ever
cen and a good many he had never
cen at all, the militiamen elected him
/ colonel, and it was by this title that {
lie always liked best to be known, even .
when he was a member OF congress
In his electioneering methods Crock Q
tt greatly resembled Lincoln, as is not
{ all strange, since these methods
we're very general in the baciSwoods, E
nd southern Illinois when Lincoln Q
vas a young politician was at about Q
he same stage of development as the
vestern district Of Tennessee wher y
rocket ran for congress He was s
opular with the bsckwoodsmen, not b
My because he lived in canebraks q
nd was genuine bear hunter, but
ecause he either knew or appeared To q
now everyone he met. and had grea; II
und of anecdotes on which he was al q
rays ready to draw.
Bu. be did not trust 70 stories alone ct
1t is related that when campaigning. .
e carried twist Of tobacco in one
Ockct and a bottle of whisky in the Il
Their When trying - get a vote be 81
'ould first offer the voter the bottle u
he voter would necessarily remove
Is ''Quid' when drinking from the "