El Nuevo mexicano., 1917-03-15

(Chrlstian Science Monitors

ttiAt ~ ~ VA Wt VIVA DIN
Texas jack and California Joe, known
familiarity from the sos down as Captain
jack" Or the Poet Scout" was q native
Iof the County Donegal, Ireland, and claim
|ea~direct lineage. on his maternal side,
from Sir William Wallace. when the lad
was about four his father iemigrated 70
America; later the wife and mother followed.
The father, having contracted habits which
untitled him for his responsibilities, Mrs.
Crawford set about making her own way.
and soon was able to bring her four young,
children to MinersyilIe. Pa. This bit OF
family history is not without important
bearing on the career Of the mar who gave
up all his latef Years to tho work Of re-
claiming Maynard youths, and who number
ed q membership OF $4,000 in his juvenile
total abstinence organization The Boy
Heroes of the. World He often recalled
how, at the close of d hard day'B march
during Clusters Campaign on the yellowstone
while officers were sitting around the
camp fire trying to extract some warmth
from the smoldering brushwood, one of them
produced from his saddlebags a canteen OF
liquor, and, with the remark, This is the
soldiers best friend passed 1t to him. De-
clining to rartake OF it, the officer whose
sociable advance had been discouraged, with
several Of his comrades, demanded an ex-
PLANTATION. "That stuff you are drinking"
said the Poet Scout, robbed me OF a good
father, made him forget his own flesh and
blood, and changed him from a man to a
brute. This is not my only reason; / prom
ised my mother that I would never touch
liquor. Tregard that a sacred vow, gentle
men. ! have never known the taste Of al
cofol; ] do not intend to know<it.n
For years Captain Jacks lines werei
thrown among perhaps the most careless
'cnafacters in all America, yet he held firm
his pledge. In the Civil War he enlisted
in the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers
serving under General Haftranft, aftefward
OF that state. AT thes Battle OF
'Spottsylvania, May II, 1854, he was among
the wounded. Recovering. he Joined his
regiment and served until again wounded
at Petersburg, Va, near the close of the
war. 1t was through the recommendation
of General Hartranft and Sherman that he,
was Introduced to military lie on the West
ern border. One of the first white men to
enter the Black Hills, he was instrumental
in the founding OF Custer City, Gayville, and
Spearfish, in the Dakotas, and wa one of
the original projectors of Deadwood In the
Indian campaign of 1876 he was second in
command of General Crooks scouts, and
superseded Buffalo lBill-as chief scout ON
August "a Of the same year. Colonel Cody
having resigned to, enter a theatrical ven
ture.
A man Of very fine physique, wearing his
mass of jetblack hair long, and appearing
IN fbn cncff,r1a ~ ~ c1z,,f I.n ,.r,u - -sak,,
esque figure. He had the reputation of being
one OF the finest horsemen on the frontier,
and as a courier, he won high distinction.
Among his famous rides was one accom-
plished in July, 1876, when he rode from
Medicine Bow, on the Union Pacific. to the
Bud and Little Big Horn, a distance
of nearl y400 miles, in five days. 1t was
his ability as a courier that prevented him
from being involved in the Custer Massacre.
He was on his way, after a Tong journey,
to rejoiff~ Clusters command when the dis
aster occurred. Like Buffalo Bill and Wild
Bill, and In fact all Of the successful plains
men Of his time, Captain Jack possessed
the faculty of winning the friendship and
confidence OF the Indians/ Among the
chiefs who most admired the. handsome and
dashing white scout was Oura, the Ute. The
Poet Scout came to him from
the fact that he possessed naturally a talent
for verse writing. 1t cannot be said that he
any poetry OF real merit, but he
wrote many pieces. that APPEALED to the
early Western frontiersmen. Strange to say
he took greater pride in his reputation as a
than in his fame As a xrout and
warrior.
When all had become. quiet on the Rose
bud and Little Big Horn. when the Sioux
had been driven into Canada or inclosed In