Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-04-13
oAvY CROCKETT.

S wbolly a BaciIswoodmaa Nor a
 nude in Stoe @ Clothes
 aneedote of David Crockett, re " yas,s. a,,blished, 1t is asserted that in Nd of being the rough baekwooas' ],
 S.n of Tradition, he was really a well
 ysssed polished gentleman.
 >srbs Assertion is not wholly true, but
 2 some ground for it, since
 ssLaft after his service in congress
 vs b;s tour in the east, did aspire to
 ran.,tation of gentleman, and did
 S,ke attempts as political satirist in
 Tnlation of the then celebrated Maj
 -sal, Dawning. He published several
 ssa.a which attracted wide attention,
 a1shough his account of his east
 r trin and his burlesque life of Van
 {,.sn have some value as showing the
 -yr;t of politics in his time, they are
 yrthless otherwise, while his auto.
 ,s,oraplay has in it so much both ot
 -Sg;nalifv and interest that it is cer-
 fo be read as long as there are any
 No are Interested in the primitive life
 ythe United States.
 Ssroekett wore his s'store clothes"
 Sen he had his portrait taken to
 Sye as frontispiece for his books
 < wore them in Washington and on
 v;sft Id Boston, but when he went
 yelx to west Tennessee he put on his
 yonskin cap, which was his strong
 1int in the politics of the district
 1est Tennessee was a good deal fur
 Ier west than western Kansas is now,
 Jd when Crockett was elected to con- 1ess the sections which prided them
 lives on their superior culture took
 heh the same interest in him that Iev do how in Hon. Jeremiah Simp- 7n. of Kansas. Whatever may be the 1ccess of that attempt it is certain lat Croexett's coonskin cap and deer
 In suit are authentic and no fiction. is also certain that in connection Ith flask and faculty of story tell 1y theyelected him to congress.
 Tha Histories of the United States in 1e in the schools thirty years ago had picture of Crockett in the angle of 1e Alamo, with bowie knife iu his trid and large pile of dead MeXicans front of him. According to the text 1hlch Accompanied the picture, he was -lled only after desperate resistance, lt 1t has been since asserted that he ns one of six who surrendered and Here afterward butchered in cold blood order of Santa Anna. Except that vo or more Mexicans were killed for
 cry defender of the fortress, what
 ok place in and in front of the Alamo the day it was stormed will never known with certainty, and it has sver been proved that Crockett sur sndered. The original version is more Stisfactory, and those who prefer it e free to hold to it.
 Crockett left Tennessee for Texas for he same reason he attempted litera- because he had ventured to op- ose himself to the overwhelming pop larity of Andrew Jackson. After his Isit to Boston, where they made a reat deal of him as the only Ten esseean who dared to stan3 up for sound finance" against Jackson, roekett had greatly enlarged ideas of is own importance; and when hs ound that he could not induce west tennessee to endorse him as a greater tatesman than Jackson, he went to lexas and ended his career at the Ilamo
 His father, an Irish soldier of the evolution, kept tavern on the road rom Abingdon to Knoxville. He at empted to give his son such education s could be had in the log school louses of the mountains, but David an away and hired himself to team ters, who carried freight between Saltimore and the western settlements. Il this way he travelled through Vir- mia and Maryland, and before he was f age acquired knowledge of the world greatly superior to that of the verage backwoodsman. Nevertheless, [ was not until he was nearly grown nd had already made up his mind to harry that he learned his letters.
 He had only six months regular chooling, but in one way and another e afterward picked up enough from 'ooks to enable him to risk French hrase occasionally in his political vriting, published at the time he had ct up as rival of Andrew Jackson, nd was anxious to convince the east hat he was something more than 'rockett the bear hunter. At that period of his career he eases to be interesting because of the nfortunate facility with which he had dopted the hackneyed style of the verage politician he met at Washing on but before Washington society nd Boston fattery spoiled him he ealiy Reserved his national reputation $ one of the most interesting and riglnal characters in American poli- ics.
 During the Creek war he was a nine- y-aay man, and as he had the faculty T reeognizing everyone he had ever cen and good many he had never cen at all, the militiamen elected him colonel and it was by this title that 'e e aiways liked best to be known, even Vnen he was member of congress. n hls electioneering methods Crock v greatly resembled Lincoln, as is not ' all strange, since these methods Vere very general in the backwoods, nd Southern Illinois when Lincoln vas young politician was at about ne same stage of development as the vestern district of Tennessee when 'rockett ran for congress. He was 'opular with the baclwoodsmen. not my because he lived in a canebrake na was genuine bear hunter. but 'ecause he either knew or appeared to 'now everyone he met, and had a great una of anecdotes on which he was al- Vays ready to draw.
 But he did not trust to stories alone