The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-05
BOWIE, G KNEE FAME
Fighting Terror Died with Blade in Hand and Seven Dead
 Around Him,

No man in America, before or since. has, 1t is said. had the skin with the knife that was possessed by Colonel James Bowie, whose name Is perpetuated in, designating the weapon he wieided with So deadly effect, says The washing. ton Post.
 Certain qualities in men are made nec- essary by the local conditions existing in community. Thus in the newer States of the South and Southwest, when the territory occupied by the conquering American had to be won by his prowess and courage. personal valor was a very important element. Up to 1860 the South was the controlling influence in territo- rial annexation. Texas eariy offered un usual opportunities for the enlargement pf Southern influence and the profitable extension of slavery From 1880. and even before, the emigration to Texas was tremendous. Particuiarly was this true of the old Southern seaboard States. Land was cheap and very rich, 90 the planters from the older States went to Texas by the hundreds and thousands, carrying their farming implements and slaves with them.
 At the time this movement was going on there were living in Louisiana, in the Parish of Lafourche, two brothers named respectively Steven and Rezin Bowie. They were quiet, well-behaved sugar planters, each owning about fifty slaves. They were sugar-cane growers on small scaleA to be sure, but they made fairly good crops each year. and their standing in the community was good.
 The African slave trade direct had been forbidden a few years before. but there was some contraband running in of ne- groes directly imported from Africa, or first brought from Cuba and Porto Rico States where there was demand for them. But the business was not at all approved by the more respectable class of planters. In the first place. it de- creased the value of the slaves they owned. which was reason enough for the extinction of the business.
 A few years after the Bowie brothers had settled on the Bayou Lafourche they were joined by third brother. named James. He also came from Tennessee. as had the others. If they had lived anywhere else before coming to Tennes- see 1t was not generally known. It was not considered the correct thing in the social ethics then governing society in the newer sections of the South to be too curious touching your neighbours ante cedents, and much Inquiry and curiosity in relation to their affairs were likely to become unhealthy. So though there was the usual interest the incoming of a stranger generally produced in a sparsely settled community, yet no curiosity was shown respecting the advent of the thir Bowie brother, or what had brought him there. He had acquired modest home stead and was understood to be unmar- ried.
 A few months, however, after his ap- pearance it was whispered about the countryside that if planter wanted a few negroes cheap and would not ask questions James Bowie would be good man to communicate with. Then ire quently schooners. with brown, foreign appearing crews, were seen tied up at James Bowie's wharf. They generally appcared a little before sundowr, and the next morning they would be gone. Somehow the United States deputy mar shal who was directed by the then Atto-- ncy General to investigate and inquire into the nature of the traffic that was heinz conducted from Bowie's wharf, on the Lower Bayou Lafourche' could hnd nothing wrong, as he reported that the cargoes consisted chiefly of red wines from Bordeaux. on which the duty had been duly paid. and of French comesti- bIes, for both of which there was large lccal demand, the community being chief ly of French extraction and large con sumers of Bordeaux wines and foods from France.
 Then there were other reasons. The killing of Colonel Grain in one of the most desperate hand-to-hend fights that ever occurred In the South's early days by James Bowie. on Natchez Island. in 1877. had been rumored all over the country. The pistols of the period. being flintlocks. were noc very reliable. and Bowie had used a peculiarly constructed knife with an awfrlly deadly effect. having at ono clash across the back of Colonel Grain s neck, well~nigh severed his head from his