The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1928-06-08

ible account Of the typical product Of
that heroic age when trick cowboys
and professional humans were as yet
unknown. -. As research mops
up the corners and corrects the errors
Of the earlier accounts of his career,
1t is more and more clear that the
legend needs rechecking. II
is time to retell the adventures of
this great little man,
And that is what Mr.. Vestal has
done-retold Kit Carson's adventures
and projected the action Of the epic
story against an authentic background
of the Old West In which Kit Carson.
lived. In the first chapter he offers
an Interpretation of Kit Carson. the
man and the frontiersman, which
sums him up as follows:
Dispassionate comparison will dem
onstrate how worthy he is of rank
even with the best OF legendary heroes.
Kit Carson's encless journeys through
the wilderness make the tabled Medi-
terranean wanderings Of Odysseus
seem weekend excursions OF a stay
Hoods, in readiness to fight and in
chivalry to women he rates a siege
at the Round Table; his courage and
GOODNESS against hopeless odds may be
matched but not surpassed by the old
Morse heroes; while his prowess in In
Vulnerable battles-all quite without
the aid of invulnerable armor or the
announcement OF induigent goddesses
makes Achilles look like wash-out!
This is no idle boast; any candid read
er will admit ft.ns
Yet Kit was no seeker after re-
nown. Shy and mattersof-fact, ne went
about the business of his life with no
notion that he was to be the archetype
of the American pioneer Before Hor-
ace Greeley thought of his celebrated
advice, Kit had already gone West and
grown up with the country. And be-
cause he did grow up with II, he left
all the other mountain men behind him
pathetic survivors of dead epoch.
1t was this adaptability, this superior
competence, which made him the
figure he remains in the history of the.
frontier.
when fame, came, it abashed him,
and he never betrayed any of the
showmanship which has SO cheapened
the western adventurers of later
day. Kit was no boaster, no outlaw.si
no charlatan, no gunman. Only the
willfulness of youth flung him into that
endless series of scraps, expeditions,
sprees, battles, adventures of every
Sort. making him chief actor on the
largest stage whereon a heroic age
ever went its swift and roaring way
to law and civilization He looked his
part so little that on one occasion some
emigrants on the Oregon Trail, hav-s
ing paused to stare at the famous
scout, went back to their wagons.
hooting and laughing, too smart to be
hoaxed by those who had pointed out
that Misunderstanding little man.
When fame could no longer be de-,
MED, the myth-makers went to work.
They piled their legends about Kit
until the man himself is hardly seen.
They concealed and ignored the wild
deeds of his YOUTH though he killed
more men than Billy the Kid; they
said nothing OF his adventures with
women, though he Is known to have
married three times, and twice With
out the blessing Of the church. Not
knowing how to present such a man.
they manufactured a monster. On the
one hand they failed to exhibit the3
winning humanity OF their victim; on
the other they magnified his exploits.
laying 1t on leetle too thick. to
use Kits own sly comment on the
authorized Life"
The high lights in the life of Xii
Carson have been told. so often that
they are familiar to most Americans
how, when Kit was year old, the Car.
son family left his birthplace in Madi-
son county, Kentucky, and went to
Missouri; how as small boy Kit ran
wild with the neighbors' children,
hunted coons and did chores about
home; how he was apprenticed to
saddIer at Franklin, No., but ran away
seeking adventure as a trapper. Then
followed his first trip to Santa Fe.