Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1909-01-22

bluu TellleWUcr NAJOr MoSc i1dA'AS, who formerly lived in this section but who now makes his home at San An- tonic. Texas. and many of them will read with interest the following spe- cial which was recently sent out from Austin. Texas. and in which Major Harris relates an incident which is still fresh in the minds of pioneers of Arkansas:
 Major Nose Harris, the veteran 6rontiersman and newspaper editor, who now makes his home in San An tonic. but spends much of his time In Austin, was ruminating the other day on the narrow escape which 8 part of Pine Bluff, Ark, recently had from being washed away by the Ar kansas river. Maj. Harris knows every old town south and west of that stream. He followed the fringe of civilization when It drifted west ward through Arkansas and Missouri and extended into Kansas, Indian Ter ritory, Texas, New Mexico and Ari- zona. Wherever the gambling and riotous element was the thickest Mai. Harris unloaded his little store of type and old hand press and began the publication of newspaper. Times almost innumerable he had to leave town between suns to avoid the pen atty that had been laid out for him by men whose sensibilities he had of fended In his writing. It was in Hot Springs, Ark: many years ago that two of his friends and companions be- longing to the gambling fraternity were shot and killed while seated in hack which he had left only the moment before. Maj. Harris saved himself from a similar fate by barri- cading himself in his office, where he was held in state of siege for many days. and was finally forced to sur- render to the vigilance committee and was escorted out of town by a mob.
 
 But all that is another story.
 Fate of Napoleon, Ark.
 The encroachment of the Arkansas river upon Pine Bluff and the escape of that town from being washed away reminds mo of the fate of the town of Napoleon, Ark" Maj. Harris said the other day. "In the early days Napo- leon was noted as being the toughest town between Cincinnati and New Or 1eans--it was even ahead of Cairo in That respect. The old-time rivermen who knew Cairo in those days know where to class Napoleon How many people of this day and generation even ever existed? Not many. venture to say; and yet 1t was in it's time one of the liveliest spots in the South. Yes, Napoleon was a tough town. In the halcyon days of long ago landed from river boat and walked up the street of that new town. l had
  pied type and an old Washington hand press. l dumped my printing outfit into vacant room and went to publishing a paper--the first the town ever had. Napoleon was located where it empeties into the Mississippi. where Is empties into the Mississippi. hot jy, teresting business. I essayed the role of reformer, evangelist, but not pro hibitionist. It was rollicky town, where booze flowed as freely as water in the bordering Arkansas and Miss issippi rivers. But the quality! Sacri- fced Israel, but 1t was vile! As a river town it was q distinct type of its own. It was the gathering place for men of all sorts, Gamblers who made business Of plying their voca- tion upon the steamboats of the Miss issippi and Arkansas rivers would stop off there for an indefinite stay when the picking prospects were good. lHpu llGIc WdS diN Il Sdih element who could not compete with the river gamblers. so they were more Or less permanent bahitues of the town. It was in Napoleon that I met many young men who afterward be- came famous in one walk of life or another when they went further west. It was sort of clearinghouse for all grades and conditions of men. It was primary school for the men who afterward became noted for their lawlessness in the region further west. Some of these so-called bad men had splendid qualities, and I numbered most of them among my most intimate friends. guess there were not many of the noted characters