The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-04


EN- an they chased me. We run an
we run, an my boss war killed an I
clumb sort % butte. Thar war a
leetle split or canyon in II. an I run
up this. One big red rascal KEEP right
on my heels: my gun war busted, but
had my knife. Tho split narrered an
narrcrcd, an got smaller an smaller.
an suddenly IL pinched out; an thar ]
war at the end. SO I turned with my
knife, an when he come on / struck
at him. But the walls o. the split war
so near together that I hit the rock. an
busted my knife squar' Off at the hilt.
When he seed that he give a big yell,
for my scalp, an at me he jumped"
The General paused; gazed, refiec-
lively. afar. The interrogation waited,
brcathless, until the suspense could no
longer be endured.
he demanded.
Wall" drawled General Kit, then
the Injun killed mel"
Perhaps tho dialect" is a little bit
uverdone. Or perhaps It Is not. But
there seem to have been two Kit Car
, sons Before the war he was not only
, illlteratc but quite without ambition to
he otherwise; when he became n COM
mlssioncd officer associating intimately
with men OF some taste and education.
, he improved" in speech, dress, manner
and bearing Always unaffected truly
mode ST. no more n self-depreciator than
a Wanting boaster, he mellowed with
, the years and with the broadening ex-
pericnCe of travel through the cities Of
the East. lie never became an easy
, writer. or even reader; but they were
solid, respectable citizens, these men of
the plains, and not without a certain
zcst for the contents OF books once that
new trail opened before them. Old Jim
, l}ridgcr traded a yoke Of oxen for
Shakespeare, and then paid a boy $40
month to read 1t to him. Capt. Archi-
bald records n remark Of Kit Carsons
that In ali that had been read to him
, there was nothing that described fairly.
life on the trail or the experiences OF
hunter The captain quoted few lines
from The Lady of the Lake" The
, stag at eve had drunk his fill." and Kit
, insisted that n copy OF the poem must
be got Every night for three weeks the
: captain read ii 20 the old scout: HE
= regarded 1t as tie finest expression Of
, outdoor life that nc had ever heard, and
frequently afterward quoted with gem
, uine approval several stanzas from It,"
william Carson, Scotch Irishman,
came over in the first half of the
eighteenth century. settling in Pennsyl
vania. With the southwark migration
Of the Protestant Scotch Irish he went
; into North Carolina. and in 1851 got a
, grant Of 692 acres along Third Creek in
lredcll county. He had five children. OF
whom one. Lindsay, pushed on to Ken
/ lucky. Lindsay Carson married Milly
Boone of the Kentucky Boones. and they
"a
, second wife Rcbecca Robinson, Vlr-
ginil woman. he had six sons and four
daughters: Christopher was the Attn
, child of the second marriage, born
Christmas Day 1909. ION meeting an
, other man born on the twenty-fifth day
y of a December. Kit is said to have re-
marked: I've never known of but three
[ poodle born on Christmas" The
, biographcr takes the trouble TO expllin
, that this remark was made without In
tent of irreverence) Iredell county ira
: dition hath II that Kit was born. not in
Kentucky hut while Mr.. and Mrs. Car
son were visiting the folks back home
I also that he had for middle name Hous-
ton, after the Christopher Houston who
was prominent in Iredell in the Revolu-
: tion.
5 In 1895 or 1877 Daniel Boone moved
y ably by reports from his settlement. in
. 1911 the Lindsay Carsons moved on TO
D what is now Howard county, about 200
| miles west Of ST. Louis This was the
= extreme frontier. Beyond lay the I'm
Y dian Country" st, Louis a metropolis
% Of $500 souls" was headquarters OF
= the FUR trade. This trade. which had
- been carried on by individual enterprise.
$ was now being organized. The Mis-
y souri, Fur Company was a. strong con-
5 Germ. and John Jacob Aston was giving
energetic opposition with his American
G Fur Company.
= Kit was years old when his father
- died. crushed by a falling tree limb.
o When he was l6 his mother apprenticei
{ him to a saddler in Franklin. This,
Y says Mr.. Sahn, was locking the cat in
o with the cream" for Kit was a typical
Il settlers boy and Franklin was AN
e. eddy where two trails joined" that OF
y the trapper 10 the Northwest and that
p. Of the trader to the Southwest the
n Santa Fc trail; and from both direc-
s tons came stories OF high adventure
r, precisely calculated to destroy the peace
= Of mind of any mettlesome lad. And
4, Kit Carson heard the call of the trail
:. and ran away. The grief of his be.
p trayed employer is measured by his
Y offer of reward of one cent for the
|. return OF the runaway missouri yn'eIH-
: 0cnccr. October. 1926. II was the
@ hard desert southern trail he took; and
o it was a momentous choice that turned
4 him in this direction instead of to the
II northwest, for Taos, New Mexico, be.
d came his home or at least the resting
- place of his lares and penates through
1 his nomadic career. and II seems nm
g likely that, settled" in Oregon insteat
n of Nueva Mejico, he could have hat
quite so varied. exciting and Influential
o n part in history. IT was his New
II Mexican reputation that commended
=. him to Fremont and made him the asso.
e cinte Of that adventurer in the "con
r quest and reconquest of California and
V comrade In arms with officers wnC
- served with distinction in the war with
o Mexico.
Y When Kit Carson first went over tn,
n Santa Fe trail the Indians were not ar
" organized menace to the desert travers
= ing caravans OF white men: their war
=. fare was of the "sniping" variety. Then
&c l,A