The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-07-05

was q common attribute thereabout.
What gave the young sawyer distiac
tor was another story.
Several sorts Of another story, ia
fact. He could not merely shoot deer
running, but lasao them in fair chase
over the prairie, give them q fall, and.
if it pleased him 90 to do, fetch them
in alive and unframed. He could like
wise lasso q horse from the wild herds
mount him without anybody's help,
and stay upon his back. no matter
what was done, until the terrified beast
had run himself tame. By way OF va.
riety, sometimes the lasso was cast
over q big bull alligator waddling from
swamp 10 swamp. When it had been
drawn taut, holding tail and jaws in
Iesh, young Bowie mounted the scaIy
book and rode there, laughing and
shouting, while the astounded saurian
went believing with rage toward bis
swampy haunts.
The United States had not long sup
pressed the slave trade. There were
plenty, still, of lowlaud planters, with
money in both pockets, ready to buy
whatever OF "black ivory" other men
would fetch in. Lafitte, the Louisiana
pirate, kept up the business of such
fetching in. His haunts were no great
ways from the Bowie habitat; more
over, young James was in the way OF
coming upon the pirate whenever the
business of board-rafting took him to
New Orleans. He was too shreWdly
American not to grudge such fair
profits to q pack Of foreigners. In
company with his brother, Rezin Bowie
junior, and two others Of like adven-
turous minds, he undertook to get q
fair sharing u it.
Money was needed to begin. Bowie
sold his land to get it. Then the four
entered into treaty with La6tte. He
sold them sound and likely blacks off
his slave ships at the rate Of q dollar a
pound. That made the average price
something like @ hundred and forty
dollars the head. In the open market
the blacks would fetch from five hun
dred to q thousand each. But there
was another and q better chance Of
gain, which the trading were
quick to seize upon. Under the laws
then standing, all Africans brought in
violation of the statute we're con6sca
ted and sold to out ofhand, one half the
price going the authorities the otherto
the informer. Bowie and his com
rades made a practice Of informing
upon themselves; then when the slaves
were seized and sold they bid them in,
poCketing half the money they paid,
and found themselves free to offer
their purchases wheresoever they
chose. For the blacks were now law
fully within United States boundaries,
and q commodity as a staple and as
marketable as cotton.
The profit was enormous-nobody
ever bid against the partners at the
forced sales, though there were q lively
crying and a swift mounting Of prices
|~@
at the latter weddings. Altogether the
company realized a profit OF some
sixty-dve thousand dollars within a
couple of years. But the business in
volved such mummery and fummery
Of false names, pretended disguises,
and pretended seizures that the Bowies
pretty oon tired of it. They dissolved
it, and at least set about spending as
strenuously as they had gone about
making.
JAMES BOWIE AND HIS KNIFE.
Upon q fine summer day James Bow
lie found himself unarmed, yet attacked,
shot and left for dead. It was in what
was upon the surface a political quar-
rel. Bowie was not ambitious for him
self, but had an inveterate habit OF
backing and defending friends of his
own party. Most likely some tang Of
personal affront or grievance gave edge
and acridness to the clash of opinions