Evening star., 1935-10-27

almost the sole reaQlng material IN
many a home This one was intended
for the sparsely settled Southwest. In
many o log cabin it lay beside the
Bible. Children learned to read with
it. and when the weary frontiersman
wanted Q good laugh he picked up a
tattered copy and tried to read 1t.
The almanac was published by the
heirs of Col. Crockett" whosoever
they may have been. Besides the Gus
tomary astronomical and weather
information, 1t contained only
Crockett anecdotes. Always they were
told In the first person. The hero
of the Alamo Is supposed to have re-
lated them himself 10 his kin folks.
OF course, he did nothing of the sort.
1t is probably all purely fictitious.
These old almanacs constitute the
richest possible storehouse of the
broad humor of the old frontier.
Very few copies remain in the world.
But q few of them have just been
rescued by Volta Parma, custodian of
the Rare Book Division of the Library
of Congress, and stored away for the
use of students of American folklore.
Otherwise, 1t Is probable, even the
memory Of the almanac would have
been lost-and with it the source OF
some of the best frontier legendry.
EVEN the love-making of the people
of whom Crockett served as a
prototype was on an heroic scale.
The North woods had its Paul Bum
van. but the Kentucky frontier had
Davy's girl friend zipporina. Story
after story is told of this redoubtable
young woman.
The frontiersman hated nothing
not even Indians or rattlesnakes-so
much as the educated, stylishly clad
fastener who tried to make an i'm
preston with his polished manners
and ready tongue on the romance
hungry maids of the log cabins. But
Zipporina was loyal to her race and
knew how to deal with such fellows.
As Crockett supposedly tells the
story:
II wonst had an old flame that ]
TUX something of shine to bekase
other game war skarse that season
of the year, and she lived rite along
side the path where I used to go TO
hunt for bears. When I coodn't find
nothing else that was wurth tendlng
to I got on the trail Of Zipporina.
She was a partikerler skreemer and
I named her the wildcat of the forest
She noed how to talk good keer OF
number one, and never cook a piece
of meat that she hadn't kilt with her
own hand. She Good jump up and
strike her heels togither twice whilst
a rifle was taking. time to fash. She
Good ride a krokadile till he sweat
She was a most butiful piece Of wom-
an flesh and when I lookt at her
used to feel as If sumbody was run
ming of with my rifle and I didn't
ker nothing about it.
But somehow it so fell out or tell
in that I found out q new hunting
ground whar the bears war as thick
as mullasses, and so somehow I didn't
20 that way where the girl lived
Maybe I got the bag, but If any pesky
he what warks on two legs war to tell
me so. would put him right in my
pocket. Shortly after I shifted my
tracks THAR war a fellow cum down
in them parts to chawlk down f1ggurs
and keep accounts at the Wisskonsir
mines. The way he didn't noe nothing
was most butiful, and he poked snuff
into his knows like he war going tc
charge it and fire it of. He got
squint at Zipporina and lookt at hel
through his green spectacles. and Sc
I spoSe he TUX her to be green. jest
bekase she lookt so through the greer
glass.
But zipporina squatted low anc
picked up her ears like squirrel wher
he sees rifle looking at him endways
One mite he went to her fathers dort
and rapt and the dore opent of itself
as all the dores in old Kaintuck is tori
to do when a stranger kalls. zipp!
sort a had a notion what he war kun
arter, and she put up her hair with
an iron comb that had Civ her. ane
put on her bearskin shawl to look a!
grashus as she Good. He set down anc
begun to tork to her about the sur
and the moon and about her eyes thai
he sed was like the seven stars. Sht
noed that war lye, because her eye:
were like her muther's. Then he wen
away, but he kept kolling all the tim.
and stuck to her like a buzz to 6
sleeps wool. At last he got as furct
as bear with his tail choppt of ant
swore he wood put his arm round hel
neck If she wood talk off that ruff
bearskin that she wore. This war q
little too much for zipporina and she
intarmined not to bare it.
0NE day he axed her to talk wall
with him. She shouldered hel
rifle and slung her powder horn ane
went out with him. He was pesky
perlite and offered to carry her rift
for her, which she thought was a great
affront, and so she war intarmined tt
pay him for it. She TUX him to 6
place where thare was bears nest
and by this time it had got to bt
darkish. She pretended she wanted Il
60 leetle ways off and telled him tt
wait until she cum back So she wen
down to the bears nest and begun tt
stir up the bears with a branch. They
made a terrible noise and the younl
spark run for his life.
"He wandered about the woods al
mite and the next day he found the
house. He telled Zipporina that hs
heard q noise as If Of wild beasts
shortly after she left him and thought
she was in danger and hunted aftel
her but got lost in the dark. She
knowed how much Of this to belle!
but squatted low and did not say 9
word. He went on courtin' and she
pertended to be mighty tickled witt
his fine speeches.
"At last he got rail saucy. He pro-