The Coolidge examiner., 1934-01-19

obviously fictitious. AS to the end of his career,
Blair and Meme write:
Death. meodramatic, violent, caught up at
last with Mike Fink in the winter OF 1929 in
remote trading post by the mouth OF the Yel-
owstone river In the western wilderness
Just how he died. it is no longer possible to
discover. For something about the life, and more
especially the death, OF the king of the keel
boatmen attracted the fancy of western pioneers.
and so many tales were told about the end OF
his picturesque career that now the truth of
his death is so tangled with legend that no one
can untangle the skein. Although Mike Fink
lived but once according to the legend he died
at several different places and In a number of
different ways. At least fifty times the
story OF the end OF his life has been told in
print, and at least eleven versions have been
the sources OF these numerous and varied narra-
tlves. The first Of these original versions ap-
peared a few months after the boatman died
and the last 1t seems, appeared in 1860. During
the interval the story must have been told
orally hundreds OF times"
Reduced TO It's simplest terms. the story con-
Germs three men-Fink, man named Carpenter
and another named Talbot or Tabeau. Fink and
Carpenter quarreled but agreed, as a pledge of
their friendship and confidence in each other, to
observe the traditional rite OF shooting cup of
whisky Off each others heads. Carpenter shot first
and grazed Fink's skull When 1t came time for
Mike to shoot, he drilled Carpenter through the
forehead and for doing this Talbot later killed
Fink. The relationships of the three men Tin
some of the stories Carpenter Is the adopted
son OF Fink and in others he Is the brother of
Talbot the reasons for the quarrel between
Fink and Carpenter and the exact manner and
time OF Fink's death at the hands Of Talbot all
have come in for establishment and contradIc-
tion in the different versions of the story.
1.-THE bare facts-and they are very unsatis-
factory facts, in way, for they leave many
important things unexplained" say Blair and
Meine, "are to be found in the government report
concerning the fur-tradng party of which Fink
in the year of his death, was a member-'Volume
XXXXII, Record Book Containing Copies Of Let
ters from Indian Agents and Others to the
Superintendent of Indian Affairs at ST. Louis,
| September 10, $780, to April l. 1892 Here grudg-
| ingly, unimaginatively, In section, deaths Of
men caused by accidents and other causes not
| chargeable to Indians a few stiff sentences
| brstling with drama tell that In 1892 Mike
| Fink shot Carpenter-Tabot soon after shot
Fink, and not long after was himself drowned
at the Tetons.' This report was written after
September 10, 1890; it not printed, it seems,
| until 1902 Meanwhile. many versions of the
story had been published.
"A slightly more detailed version the first. in
| fact, to reach print, appeared in the Missouri
Republican of July IS, 1923:
by letter received In town from one of
General Ashley's expedition we are informed that
a man by the name of Mike Fink well known in
this quarter as a great marksman with the rife
/. . was engaged in his favorite amusement of
shooting tin cup from the head of another man,
when aiming too low from some other cause
shot his companion in the forehead and killed
him. Another man Of the expedition (whose name
we have not heard) demonstrated against Finks
conduct to which he, Fink, replied, that he
would kill him likewise upon which the other
drew pistol and shot Fink dead on the spot
Here, one might say, is an account which may
well be the true one. 1t comes it would seem,
from man who either saw Mike die or who
soon after the event heard the tale from those
who had seen the death. 1t was printed further
more, before the story had been muled over,
twisted and embelshed by inventive spinners Of
tales who yarned dramatically by hundreds Of
| wilderness campfres."
cby Western Newspaper Union.