The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-06-07
MADE THE BOWIE KNIFE.
ADVENTUROUS LIFE OF INVENTOR OE
THE WEAPON.

THE WEAPON.
There are men who seem especially
created to fill a certain place in the at
fairs OF their time This has been par
ticularly true in American history.
The man that is most needed has always
come to the fore at the supreme mo-
ment. If ever this was demonstrated
by circumstances it was in the early
history Of the Texas republic-that
stor m-born State evoked from the To-
cal revolution of 1886.
In his remarks concerning the early
history of Texas that President Nc
Kinley made in the recent tour, he ref
erred most felicitously, though briefly
to the four men who, under Providence,
had been most prominent in the early
days, when the greatest State in the
Union, in the matter of territory. was
a young and struggling republic
Houston, Travis. Crockett and Bowie.
He spoke on classic ground, too, for it
was at the Alamo, where he then stood
that three of the tour crowned with
their lives their devotion to the young
State, whose foundations they had laid
deep and wide and sanctitied its cor
ner stone with the seal of their own
blood.
OF this group of heroes, rs worthy of
place in song and story as any who so
gallantly died under the shield before
Troy, the least known of them all, and
yet in many respects the greatest, was
James Bowie, famous only by reason
of the world renowned knife called by
his name. A few words touching his
ancestry may not be out Of place. He
was not from Maryland, as has been
so often stated; but he was born in
Burke County, Georgia, in 1870. In
1902 his father emigrated to Louis,
lana.
EARLY DAYS IN LOUISIANA
That country was then still under
French domination. There had been
large tracts of land granted by the
French Crown in the territory named
for Louis XIV, and one of these, in
the parish Of Catahoula, was acquired
by the elder Bowie. He was man of
substance, owning nearly 100 slaves.
He soon had his estate well opened
and was growing superb crops Of cot
ton and corn. His son James he sent
first to famous private school at
Natchez, Miss, and afterward to the
Jesuit college then located in New
Orleans.
James Bowie, in 1927, was chal-
lenged to a duel with Norris Wright.
The pocket pistols of that day were
uncertain. 1t was long before the
percussion cap had been brought into
common use, and the flintlock arm was
the only firearm known. 1t was liable
to miss fire just when it ought not to.
Bowie determined to rely upon a
knife he had caused to he made just
for such a contingency. He had taken
a faurtean-inch long file, such as was
then used to sharpen cross-cut SAW !,
and the upright saws used for turnin ),
out planks from logs. He had the file
marks carefully ground off the file and
the smooth piece of steel skilfully re-
duced by the grindstone until it was
about the thickness and weight he de-
sired. Then he took it to Spaniard
in New Orleans known as "Pedro, the
skilled cutler" a man who had learned
his ant in Toledo where the finest
sword blades in all Spain were forged.
He tempered and finished the knife
fitted it with cross-piece and haft.
When it was done James Bowie had a
weapon eft to fight for mans life
WITH" as he said to Gov. Wells. 1t
was beautifully balanced, and the artist
had hollow ground it like razor, with
a double edge for three or four inches
from the point.
THE ORIGINAL BOWIE KNIFE.
The knife was fitted with wooden
scabbard, covered with leather, and
was sharp enough to shave the hair off
the back of ones hand. This was the
original Bowie knife, though somewhat
modified subsequently in shape
Bowie, while a student in New Orleans
had studied other things besides the
humanities, as the dead languages OF
Greece and Rome were then called.
By accident he found in his fencing
master a map who could not only use
the sword, but was master in the use
Of the cuchillo, the Spanish fighting
knife, weapon not unlike the bowie
Our young student entered enthusias
tically into the training and science OF
Old Spain in that nations nation
al weapon. And he was so much bet.
ter equipped for the deadly fight that
was so near at hand.
Natchez Island, where the fight was
to take place, was midway between
the Louisiana and Mississippi shores
Of the great Father of Waters. There
fore it was favorite meeting place fol
gentlemen who had to adjust affairs
that might have fatal ending, as the
authorities of neither State could in
terfere. 81 stayed all nigh: with
James Bowie" said friend ofhis, who