Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-03-29
Denver, March 20, 1902.

To Capt. Jack Crawford, the poet
scout" is due the thanks of Denver for
it's first spring poem. 1t was written in
three minutes and the inspiration
came to the poet as he stood last even
ing in the writing room of the Ameri-
can house and saw the rain falling.
Spring." said Captain Jack. at may
be spring in Colorado, but it's spring
all the time in New Mexico which
was also a poetic sentiment.
Capt. J. w. Crawford is tall, gray
haired, his hair falling to his shout
ders, and he wears a sweeping gray
mustache and imperial. He stood with
his hands in his trousers pockets, his
long black frock coat, sweeping behind
him. On the writing table lay a SON.
brero.
The famous frontiersman who writes
verses is on the road to wealth. He
came from San Marcial, N. NJ, where
he is living, with a car load of
saddle horses for the British army.
which he turned over to Goulding &
Co.. He is engaged in ranching. stock
raising and is doing considerable min
ing. One of the reasons bringing him
to Denver is to talk with Denver CAPT.
talists who have been looking into his
COpptf anu ltdu pIODtItltS.
Il am also figuring on a big con
tract with the government" said Cap
tain Crawford, land have no doubt /
will place it, shipping this summer a
thousand tons of native New Mexican
'grama' hay to the Philippine islands.
Army officers on the frontier acknowl-
edge That the 'grama' hay, which grows
luxuriously, Is the most nutritious of
all except the highest cultivated hay.
And we will have plenty of it as the
rains have been plentiful and all pros
poets are very bright. | have been out
in the fields all winter. On December
II, last, in shirt sleeves | was direct
ing the cutting of fifty tons of the hay,
which | find a ready market for at SIS
a ton.
81 am not doing much writing now,
not that, as | grow older, l am losing
the fever, but experience is a great
teacher, and poetry does not pay as
well as 'grama' hay. | have written
little since came back from the Klon-
dixie, a year ago, disguised that my
name had been used to foist upon the
public a wildcat mining scheme. en-
gineered by some scoundrel promoters.
| starved in the Klondike, when, by
keeping silent, l could have made
800, 900. But my reputation was worth
more than that to me, and | feel good
whenever l think of that starving
period. OF course, when | returned,
my finances were in bad shape, so that
is why l have turned farmer for good
Captain Crawford has much good
material on hand, notably a play, Tat
or the Veterans Daughter" a drama
of frontier life that ran for W weeks
last year at the Alta theater. San
Francisco, and which he read to Daniel
Frawley. This he has reason to be
lieve will be produced in the east very
soon.
81 went to the theater tonight for
the first time for a year." said the
poet, land it is something of a coinci'
dence that l should see at the Tabor
Dan Frawley and his company. | saw
him at Los Angeles a year ago, the
last time | went to the play" He is
thinking of writing two or three books
of prose, one of which will be a ro-
nance of the Klondike; another, Pick
les" the story of a wait.
Captain Crawford has a fine ranch at
San Marcial with a $1,000 residence on
it. He is So years of age, n gained
prominence by writing bits of verse
and cowboy songs during the Indian
campaign in 1876, when he was chief
of scouts for General Crook in the Da
kotas. He then served under Generals
Hatch and Lawton in the southwest