The suburban citizen., 1901-07-06
BOWIE AND HIS KNIFE
MADE OF AN OLD FILE, HE KILLED
SIXTEEN MEN WITH IT.

| Worthy OF the Highest Place In Song
and story-The Thrilling Fight In the
Alamo with the NIexiSans.
There are men who seem especially
created to ill a certain place in the
affairs of their time. This has been
particularly true in American history
The man that in the storm and stress
of the period was most needed has
always come to the fore at the SUI
prome moment. If ever this was
demonstrated by circumstances It was
in the early history Of the Texas Re.
public-that storm-born State evoked
from the local revolution of 1886,
In his remarks concerning the early
history Of Texas that President Nc
Kinley made in his recent tour he re-
ferred most felicitously, though brief.
", to the four men who, under Provi-
dence, 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 lie then stood, that three of the
four crowned with their lives their
devotion to the young State, whose
foundation they had laid deep and
wide, and sanctifed its cornerstone
with the seal of their blood.
OF this group of heroes, as worthy
Of place in song and story as any who
so gallantly died under shield before
Troy, the least known of them all,
and yet in many respects the greatest,
was James Bowie, famous only by rea-
son 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 stated, but was born in Burke
County, Ga, in 1900 In 1902 his
father emigrated to Louisiana.
That country was then still under
French domination There had been
arge tracts of land granted by the
French Crown in the territory named
for Louis XIV, and one of these, in
the pc-ish Of Catahoula, was acquired
| by the elder Bowie. He was a man
Of substance, owning nearly 100 slaves
He soon had his estate well opened
out and was growing superb crops Of
cotton and corn. His son James he
sent first to a 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. It was long before the per-
cussion cap had been brought into
common use, and the fiintlock arm
was the only firearm known. 1t was
liable to miss fire just when it ought
not to. Bowie determined to rely upon
n knife he had caused to be made for
just such a contingency He had TAX
en- a fourteen-inch long file, such as
was then used to sharpen cross-cut
saws and the upright saws used for
turning out planks from logs. He had
the file marks carefully ground off the
Ole and the smooth piece of steel skill
fully reduced by the grindstone until
1t was about the thickness and weight
he desired. Then he took 1t to Span
lard in New Orleans, known as 'Pe-
dro, the skilled cutler" q man who
had learned his trade in Toledo, where
the finest sword blades in all Spain
wCre forged. He tempered and finished
the knife, fitted it with a cross piece
and haft. When it was done James
Bowie had weapon eft to fight for
a mans life with" as he said to Gov
ernor Wells. 1t was beautifully bal
anced, and the artist had hollow.
ground it like a razor, with n double
edge for three or four inches from the
point
The knife was fitted with a 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 it Vas
somewhat modified subsequently in
shape. Bowie, while a student in New
Orleans, had studied other things be-
sides the humanities, as the dead Ian
guages OF Greece and Rome were then
] NSA~u' Dy ACNlueuL he lOuuu u his
fencing master a man who could not
only use the sword but was O master
in the use Of the cuchlllo the Spanish
lighting knife, Il weapon not unlike the
bowie. Our young student entered en-
Enthusiastically into the training and
science Of old Spain in that nations
once national weapon. And SO he
was much better equipped for the
deadly fight that was SO near at hand.
Natchez Island, where The fight was
to bh was midway between the Louis
lana and Mississippi shores OF the
great Father OF Waters. Therefore it
was faYorite meeting place for gem
tlemen Who had to ADJUST aTahs that
might have fatal ending as the au-
thorlties of neither State could inter
ferc. Il stayed all night with James
Bowie" said friend Of his who died
over twenty years ago in his nlnetieth
year. ION the night before the fight
was to take place never saw man
sleep more sOundly than he did, nor