Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1898-01-27
TOM STARR.
A COLLECTION OF ANECDOTES OF
NOTORIOUS CHEROKEE
CHARACTER.
A SimpIe Child of the Forest, he Made
His Impress Fet Until n Treaty ana
Amnesty Resulted.

Amnesty Resulted.
There is something in human
nature that instinctively admires
success, especially if it be of an un-
usual degree, and has been achieved
by overcoming great and formida'
BILE obstacles.
1t is doubtless on this principle
that the name of Tom Starr has
been enabled to live so long
among the popular traditions OF
this country for it will hardly be
claimed that he ever did anything
to lay posterity, in other ways,
under obligations to at all perpetu-
ate his memory. He was sue
cess. simply a success. He was
the only outlaw the great south
west, so fruitful of desperadoes,
ever produced that bad the genius
to battle all pursuit and bring fin
ally a long and lawless career
to a triumphant, that is to say, a
respectable concla sion.
Tom was a Cherokee Indian
with a small admixture of white
blood IN his veins. He was man
without any special culture. but
upon whom nature had been par
ticularly lavish in the bestowment
of great qualities. In statue, he
was considerably above the aver
age, approaching indeed somewhat
to the gigantic. His mind TOO
seemed to be framed upon the
same great plan. His intelligence
Vas strictly native, yet exceeding
bright and comprehensive.
Is sympathies were very much
par with those of other great
good men wherever his great
bust of human nature would
6w them to be reposed, they
Ire always warm and generous.
is manner was uniformly gentle
Ind unassuming, standing In
karked contrast with any concep-
on of the man that the ready
puld be likely to get of him from
perusal of his biography. His
|ords were naturally slow and de-
fiberate; his expression, generally
as soft and winning as that of a
cultured woman. He was nodded
in a glow of good humor that new
er grew cold. His fund of anus
ing anecdotes was exhaustless.
With a great black eye ever
twinkling in the reflections Of
mirth, his jokes were measured
of in endless succession, all in
variably tipped with a singing
point which, when it struck, never
failed to make its victim writhe,
and yet, at the same time, to covet
another thrust merely for the fun
of it.
There was something in Tom s
character withal which, to the eye
of an ordinary observer, looked
very much like superstition; but
which at the sa ne time, consider
ed with reference TO actual results,
seemed rather to be something of a
supernatural prescience.
Tom 5 own account of the mat
ter was curious and not little in
teresting. He denied the charge
of superstition, and also disclaim-
ed everything In the nature OF a
divine favoritism. He ascribed
all his good luck to natural causes.
He claimed to be on terms of the
most intimate friendship with all
the forms of animal life, except
man. He had nothing to fear
from wild beasts and reptiles.
The only enemies he had belonged
to his own species. His many
hairbreadth escapesf rom the fatal
clutches of the national police that
were ever on his trail, he after
wards said, were due to the time
ly warning brought to him by
some friendly bird, or animal, or
movement, in the material world.
However this may have been, il