tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29195305643961684302024-03-27T19:52:50.317-04:00Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters & Fighting Techniques. . .. . . Everything I Couldn't Fit in the BookPaul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.comBlogger284125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-88190912843450995322024-02-06T18:24:00.001-05:002024-02-06T18:24:05.691-05:00"The Cult of the Jambiya: Dagger Wearing in Yemen"I came across this article by Shuyler V. R. Cammann in my files. Not a bowie knife article, but knife related. Click on page images to get a more readable size.
<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6cIhCFGuvQjjSAm8j8g24Z5VxcSymw4LhkhkMQiaWVDZkCad-C1USq2yOaphrrCoVXQ703fTPhcoSI2c2zyK_eZCIDUYomAuXTubwy3rMShUP4sscgf9J8Pzc-mJvhAezTomvuKqyvExxGAUB8Z-CUc3F_QLNCVF6D2GYhyphenhyphenFcOfKzBVuTvFNuJbYXFg/s3312/Jambiya_1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3312" data-original-width="2565" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk6cIhCFGuvQjjSAm8j8g24Z5VxcSymw4LhkhkMQiaWVDZkCad-C1USq2yOaphrrCoVXQ703fTPhcoSI2c2zyK_eZCIDUYomAuXTubwy3rMShUP4sscgf9J8Pzc-mJvhAezTomvuKqyvExxGAUB8Z-CUc3F_QLNCVF6D2GYhyphenhyphenFcOfKzBVuTvFNuJbYXFg/w496-h640/Jambiya_1.jpg" width="496" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip0pHR2I-jwHsdxwldYEVLU64IALStdYqCH1FKaFAgFQq2mKpt5DYI8dSCVDF8unMlPNdWCBAPFpRVN7T7LSn9SLSXMR7XYBLgfcUWEqsLd7HbYMiNYPaXjOzTbqH9Nr20NYrou98iaFMwkJ5BZK729MClY6jAsYCPoXZMIKSWZ2mqJikGk0heKYj1KUk/s3314/Jambiya_2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3314" data-original-width="2568" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip0pHR2I-jwHsdxwldYEVLU64IALStdYqCH1FKaFAgFQq2mKpt5DYI8dSCVDF8unMlPNdWCBAPFpRVN7T7LSn9SLSXMR7XYBLgfcUWEqsLd7HbYMiNYPaXjOzTbqH9Nr20NYrou98iaFMwkJ5BZK729MClY6jAsYCPoXZMIKSWZ2mqJikGk0heKYj1KUk/w496-h640/Jambiya_2.jpg" width="496" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLKe22TxYBDwdaZNJ8NS7CFl2rrfJKf62j5N58r8G2Be4_qAwtpVLDwVx_NlcQQFWwVSo91HAep6H0WQrmavtxGftBv4ILPe6VXaM6LRR-hfSVLli8QmgoVXYfGSCFnSm99_PmLynIa6LuT7NbAoYMtoubDoFkoOHxCr_Vh534VcrXmpJfDPXMzeMtPw/s3300/Jambiya_3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnLKe22TxYBDwdaZNJ8NS7CFl2rrfJKf62j5N58r8G2Be4_qAwtpVLDwVx_NlcQQFWwVSo91HAep6H0WQrmavtxGftBv4ILPe6VXaM6LRR-hfSVLli8QmgoVXYfGSCFnSm99_PmLynIa6LuT7NbAoYMtoubDoFkoOHxCr_Vh534VcrXmpJfDPXMzeMtPw/w494-h640/Jambiya_3.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPvzg4LU9FUiNmTasUT0znmZLF0bPKqqxx5LqUzsbadLuRbQKWPKtEq7I1z0_zg5ZWLBax1jksC28AXM06l0inFlvAIvgtyhxchNvvx-FTMwZUvZWep5CkmPWT_VOhtqL7F6ZraOqLXBBgBii9KwGAux_IVntOSsK5erch4Ig3dNk2GzEzJu4-2v5WWRM/s3300/Jambiya_4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPvzg4LU9FUiNmTasUT0znmZLF0bPKqqxx5LqUzsbadLuRbQKWPKtEq7I1z0_zg5ZWLBax1jksC28AXM06l0inFlvAIvgtyhxchNvvx-FTMwZUvZWep5CkmPWT_VOhtqL7F6ZraOqLXBBgBii9KwGAux_IVntOSsK5erch4Ig3dNk2GzEzJu4-2v5WWRM/w494-h640/Jambiya_4.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhskndkO1MpvIJXxrGUCZocy7PUP0q_kbDU2tZekJhVjj55bDRhGgtqWgFvFzNlqswNexEmbtZE8Ge8yPakxjA9ThyphenhyphenUbkpuNr4rZ4FgNPdqEBRr7J_3KgJxYpRAR2U92rXp01kXiZ52TjuRLnVoIBfJXobiAVba9pJniBg3FYfSEKOH0xtcFy7M8lcbXzw/s3314/Jambiya_5.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3314" data-original-width="2568" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhskndkO1MpvIJXxrGUCZocy7PUP0q_kbDU2tZekJhVjj55bDRhGgtqWgFvFzNlqswNexEmbtZE8Ge8yPakxjA9ThyphenhyphenUbkpuNr4rZ4FgNPdqEBRr7J_3KgJxYpRAR2U92rXp01kXiZ52TjuRLnVoIBfJXobiAVba9pJniBg3FYfSEKOH0xtcFy7M8lcbXzw/w496-h640/Jambiya_5.jpg" width="496" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwLOoqN6OVVRdjOwsxL1E37V61_l0OYbLpl1DXJU-UExRb_eIYi-j1oRQhreQ-2it1JRPXp0UdlE05vY3N9hLS5EWTChhxFBQptaOfkHO-VxYzbM-53MJWa4hy43i4EPGY2peE9t8gePMQlfVqTunEvwl6GatFIdgAqHl6z0at327RzFM09kmeHZiQJM/s3300/Jambiya_6.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSwLOoqN6OVVRdjOwsxL1E37V61_l0OYbLpl1DXJU-UExRb_eIYi-j1oRQhreQ-2it1JRPXp0UdlE05vY3N9hLS5EWTChhxFBQptaOfkHO-VxYzbM-53MJWa4hy43i4EPGY2peE9t8gePMQlfVqTunEvwl6GatFIdgAqHl6z0at327RzFM09kmeHZiQJM/w494-h640/Jambiya_6.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXa8g8I3Q4JC66rdFRmqs0TC8A4IWQvVTgNL9e1JxvygCLDtK2TsEjwOoN4J31-CXuDA7Yvz8FM7YbnsXlaMC9rBFrbnsCLP6O7Wy1H_G7wyZmcYMlJOLgKTwqR4XMl1ilG68Q8W3Fr6nYb8G8FdsJJ3v6K9RMPFAMY83Hlsyy6004YBn0uLdM-pxdM0/s3327/Jambiya_7.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3327" data-original-width="2585" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQXa8g8I3Q4JC66rdFRmqs0TC8A4IWQvVTgNL9e1JxvygCLDtK2TsEjwOoN4J31-CXuDA7Yvz8FM7YbnsXlaMC9rBFrbnsCLP6O7Wy1H_G7wyZmcYMlJOLgKTwqR4XMl1ilG68Q8W3Fr6nYb8G8FdsJJ3v6K9RMPFAMY83Hlsyy6004YBn0uLdM-pxdM0/w498-h640/Jambiya_7.jpg" width="498" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAaNcPd0dym2T0HWSzH2-dsrXptIk5F8UdLPbLTX1Hz5G225-BBUwPzj2xDr0AYr_OCttcoyjLUd6Z_sRr6GqvisCmmUaWiOCoPOfI42VvkBes4wQZd3X3jZPOreYLNJg1SEyI3tKnwPhMXBLMveN_nRxqlBoKFF2k8UuiKAsbMNIrEnHz3Rckq6xutc/s3300/Jambiya_8.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGAaNcPd0dym2T0HWSzH2-dsrXptIk5F8UdLPbLTX1Hz5G225-BBUwPzj2xDr0AYr_OCttcoyjLUd6Z_sRr6GqvisCmmUaWiOCoPOfI42VvkBes4wQZd3X3jZPOreYLNJg1SEyI3tKnwPhMXBLMveN_nRxqlBoKFF2k8UuiKAsbMNIrEnHz3Rckq6xutc/w494-h640/Jambiya_8.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-8037706740463514032021-08-23T14:35:00.001-04:002021-08-23T14:35:21.827-04:00Chauncey Thomas on the Bowie Knife<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: times;"> I recently came across an article in my files titled "The .45," by Chauncey Thomas, who wrote frequently for <i>Outdoor Life</i> magazine. This particular article was published in the September 15, 1922, issue of <i>Arms and the Man. </i>Though writing mostly about the Colt Single-Action Army revolver, Thomas makes some observations about the Bowie knife, and even if many of them are flat-out untrue, I found his thoughts on how the bowie would be used in a fight to be of interest.</span> </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: times;">The bowie knife was just one kind of a knife, just one shape and size. It had the clip point commonly seen today in hunting knives, but the curve on the top of the blade was sharpened to an edge, thus making it double edged part way back from the point. The blade was 9 inches long, the handle 6 inches, total length was thus 15 inches. The bowie varied in only one item—weight. It was never less than two pounds, and often even three pounds in weight. The grip had a swell—usually of buckhorn or wood or horn—on the lefthand side of the handle as one looked down on the back of the knife. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;">The knife was always used with the longer edge, toward the user, thus this swell in the grip fitted into the hollow of the right hand. The hilt was always very heavy, at least 3 inches or more from point to point, and always pointed top and bottom. The butt or end of the handle was also of heavy metal, and the three iron points thus projected from the outlines of the hand, so that the handle or the hilt could be used somewhat like a pair of brass knucks. Thus with a bowie knife the hand-to-hand fighter could strike downward with the end of the handle on the top or against the side of a foe's head, and as the edge was always held inward and the knife used with a long side sweep, the knifer could thus stick it into his foe's right side, or into his back, if in a clinch, or if a bit farther away, then could disembowel him with one sweep. If he missed his stroke, he could backblow with the end of the handle, as just mentioned, on his foe's skull. Or a back stroke of the shorter incurved edge on the top of the blade could be raked like a claw across the, foe's belly, face or throat. The genuine bowie combined the fine points of the dagger and the razor. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;">It is said to have been invented by a negro slave of Col. Bowie, who saw it accidentally, and at once, appreciating its fine points, had a better one made, with which, traditions say, he promptly disemboweled a man with one stroke. The legend goes on to say that that one stroke made such a terrible wound that the knife became immediately popular, and thence its fame spread. The .45 put the bowie out of business. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;">The bowie was used mostly in the South, later in Texas, the Southwest, and somewhat in the Rockies and on the Plains in the good old days before the cowboy, but it flourished most on the old Mississippi river steamboats, particularly among the gamblers. In the confined spaces of a paddler's cabin there was no room for the long cap and ball revolver; besides the weather was too hot and the climate too damp to make a revolver a thing of comfort or reliance. It would not always go off, and it was too easy to grab in a closed-in free-for-all over marked cards. Hence the river gambler's favorites, the tiny little muzzle-loading single-shot derringers, weighing but a few ounces and about .50 caliber, loaded even to the muzzle of its 2-inch or even shorter barrel, with a lead slung driven in tight with a hammer, and the more reliable and far deadlier bowie knife. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;">Outdoor, in the rain and saddle, the cap and ball guns were none too reliable, and slow to reload. So of the more or less free fighters on both sides, usually with mixed uniforms, in the Civil War on the Western edge of civilization, especially in Kansas and Missouri, carried no rifles or sabers at all. They depended entirely on their revolvers, and often carried from four up to a dozen of them, swung from the belt and from saddle horn. These revolvers could be reloaded, too, almost as rapidly as we can reload today on horseback by simply changing a fired for a loaded cylinder, and often a supply of these extra </span><span style="font-family: times;">cylinders, all loaded, were carried handy. And with them always a bowie knife, that because of its point could pierce like a dagger, because of its long, thin edge could slice like a razor, and because of its length and weight would chop like a hatchet. When the guns wer</span><span style="font-family: times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">e </span><span style="font-family: times;">wet or empty it was his last load and hope.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;">Then came the cartridge revolver, and it put the cap and ball on the nail just as quickly and forever as the cartridge rifles hung the muzzle-loading rifles on the pegs. The .45 also made the bowie not only needless, but nearly worthless, so that pleasant instrument of quick extermination also vanished from Western clothes, so much so that today the bowie knife is almost unknown, except to a few old timers who, like myself, have seen long ago, before the rails and the cowboys came, the wild buffalo and the free feather heads. </span></p></blockquote><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p></blockquote>Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-50264039721352791842017-09-17T17:31:00.000-04:002017-09-17T17:31:32.418-04:00Kentuckians And Their Knives
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">During his visit to Kentucky in the 1830s, Sir Charles Augustus Murray, a Scotsman, was dismayed at seeing the residents there carrying knives. In</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>Travels in North America During the Years 1834, 1835, & 1836</i> </span>
(1841), he expressed concerns similar to what we still hear from the British today regarding knives, which are illegal to carry in those isles. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The character of the Kentuckians has greater merits, and
greater faults; their moral features are more broadly and distinctly marked.
Descended, as I before said, from the western hunters, and some of them from
the more wealthy planters of Virginia and North Carolina, they are brave, generous,
proud, frank, and hospitable, but apt at the same time to be rough,
overbearing, and quarrelsome. They are extremely vain of their State, and
inclined to play the braggart, as well in her praises as their own; the former
fault, I, for one, can freely forgive them, as the want of local or home
attachment is one of the least agreeable features of American character. They
are, moreover, pretty strongly imbued (probably through their Virginian
descent) with a taste for gambling, horse-racing, &c., which is perhaps
strengthened by their frequent intercourse on their northern and western
frontier with the numerous gamblers, or "sportsmen," who come up the
river in spring and summer to avoid the heat and malaria of New Orleans and the
adjacent country.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In
addition to the above traits of character, there is one of which I cannot speak
otherwise than with unqualified reprobation — I mean the cowardly and almost
universal practice of carrying a dirk-knife. This instrument, which, like the
Italian stiletto, is only fit for the hand of an assassin, is displayed upon
every occasion. It has ordinarily a blade about six or eight inches long, sharp
on both sides towards the point, and comes out of the handle by a spring, which
also prevents its closing on the hand of the owner. I have seen several
well-dressed Kentuckians, who would probably think themselves much injured if
they were not considered gentlemen of the first grade, picking their teeth with
these elegant pocket-companions, in public; and I have repeatedly seen them
while engaged in conversation employ their hands in opening and shutting this
dirk-spring, as a London dandy on the stage raps his boots and shakes his watch-seals,
or sometimes in real life, for want of manual employment, draws his glove on
and off, or smooths down the felt of his hat.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Now, I
would ask any candid Kentuckian, from what "chivalrous" precedent
(which epithet they are very fond of applying to themselves), or from what
principle, just, noble, or Christian, is this habit derivable? Man is
sufficiently irascible, and when angry, prone enough to inflict injury on his fellow-creature,
without deliberately furnishing himself</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> with a
weapon calculated to occasion death, or permanent mutilation, upon the occasion
of the slightest dispute or ebullition of temper. I believe it is Virgil who,
in describing a savage popular tumult, says, "Furor arma ministrat"<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span></span></span></span> [</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"Their
rage supplies them with weapons"], and surely experience
attests its truth; but this people determine, that the voice of reason or
reflection shall not have one moment to whisper a suggestion, but that their
passions (naturally hot and ungovernable) shall never want a sudden and deadly
minister. It might be supposed, that the coarse and brutal method of fighting,
still frequently adopted in this State under the name of "rough and
tumble," is sufficiently savage to satisfy the parties concerned. In this,
as is well known, they tear one another's hair, bite off noses and ears, gouge
out eyes, and, in short, endeavour to destroy or mutilate each other; but this
is not considered sufficient, and Birmingham
and Pittsburgh are obliged to complete by the dirk-knife the equipment of the "chivalric Kentuckian." ....</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">They may
formerly have had an excuse for constantly carrying a weapon, when their houses
and families were hourly liable to be surprised by the war-whoop of the Indian:
but against whom is the dirk-knife now sharpened? against brothers, cousins, and
neighbours!</span></div>
</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-87384191522606723052017-09-17T17:11:00.000-04:002017-09-17T17:11:03.852-04:00Travelers on a Mississippi Steamboat
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">An Englishman traveling through the American South in the mid-19th century gave an account of his conversation with a few travelers on a Mississippi riverboat in <i>Odd Neighbors</i> (1865):</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"You seem
to know New Orleans well, gentlemen," said I, after listening to two or three<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>anecdotes, the scene of which was invariably
laid in the metropolis of the Western Delta. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"No place like it!" cried one of the younger men, with a sort of enthusiasm;
"it's right down, thorough going, and slick through, the cream of all
creation. Life goes faster there than in other places." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"So I
have heard," said I, with a smile, but rather diffidently; "life, I
understand, goes a good deal more abruptly than is pleasant. In duels I
mean," added I, seeing that I was not understood. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"Sir,"
said another of the party, "you have been misinformed. Not that I
insinuate that our free citizens will tamely brook affront. No, sir! But there
is great exaggeration prevalent on the score of duels and fatal affrays,
pretended to be of continual occurrence down South. We have chivalry, sir, we
have fire, but we air not the monsters we air depicted." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I told
him I had always understood that the state of Mississippi in especial was
renowned</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> for its
lawless condition, and for the slight value set on human life by its
inhabitants. The four gentlemen shook their heads with one accord. </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"These
air slanders," said one of the seniors of the party, whose name I
understood to be Alphonso P. C. Jones—"these air slanders, I give you my
sacred word of honour. We live, it is true, in a land where the blushing bloom
of Eden has not yet wholly faded</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> away; in
a land where the luxuriant beauty of airth sometimes attracts the spoiler and the
rowdy, and occasional difficulties will happen. But peace is our idol, and the
olive- branch ---" </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Here some confusion was caused to the orator by the
trifling circumstance of his bowie-knife tumbling from its concealment
somewhere in the roll-collar of his waistcoat, and coming with a bang on the
mahogany table. He turned very red, and was shuffling the unwelcome implement
away, when I stretched out my hand, saying, "Would you allow me to look at
it ? I have often wished to inspect a bowie-knife." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Mr.
Alphonso P. C. Jones solemnly handed over the weapon in its shagreen sheath, and
I</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> looked
with great interest at the sharp and heavy blade, the strong cross-bar to
increase the
purchase in close conflict, and the silver mountings of haft and scabbard.
Meanwhile,</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> Mr.
Jones muttered something about the necessity of self-preservation, and the
number of Irish
and Germans about. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"You must often have found this sort of thing useful in your mode of life,"
said I, poising the heavy dagger as I gave it back. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">"What
way of life? What might you mean?" </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Such
were the questions rather fiercely propounded, and every brow was overcast. </span></div>
</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-18308048201346622492017-09-16T10:55:00.000-04:002017-09-16T10:55:00.968-04:00Bowie Knives and Pistols in Congress
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A report on ante-bellum violence in the nation's capital appeared in The New Monthly Magazine, published in London in 1856. Again, the English are appalled with what goes on in their former colonies.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">There are not
infrequently scenes on the floor of the House which threaten to end in
personal violence. On a Saturday afternoon when I was present, members were
questioning the candidates for Speaker as to their sentiments on various
points in relation to slavery, and a Mr. Kennett "begged to add to the
questions that had been put two others: Did they believe in a future state?
and, if they did, did they think that state would be a free state or a slave
state?" </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A southern gentleman named
Barksdale thought these questions were meant to ridicule his own, so he jumped
out of his seat, rolled up his coat-sleeves, and advanced towards Kennett,
declaring that he "repelled the insult with scorn, and derision, and
contempt," and much besides. He appeared as though he must annihilate at
least half a dozen men before he could be pacified, but at last his friends
succeeded in convincing him that he was mistaken. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Kennett told him he
was not to be frightened by him or anybody else, nor did he appear to be. Some
Congressmen are known to carry pistols and bowie-knives about with them. The
latter is a formidable weapon, the blade about a foot long, slightly curved at
the point. It is kept in a case, and sometimes worn thrust down the back inside
the coat, with the handle at the nape of the neck; so that the wearer can put
his hand behind his head and draw it out in an instant. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I saw an
advertisement offering a reward for the recovery of a silver-hilted
bowie-knife lost in the Capitol. In the session before last, the present clerk
to the House, General Collum, who was then a representative, during debate was
involved in a personal dispute with another speaker, when a pistol was drawn
forth by one of the parties, and only the prompt interference of friends
prevented bloodshed. I am sorry to say that out of doors, too, physical force
arguments for subjects of opinion are often resorted to. One day, while at
Washington, my English sense of legislative and literary propriety of
behaviour was shocked by a public fight on the Avenue between a Congressman
from Virginia and the editor of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evening
Star</i>. The man of the quill got worsted, and had his finger bitten by the
honourable member.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A few days before I
left the city, in the last week of the contest for the Speakership, Horace
Greeley, the notable proprietor and editor of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Tribune</i>, was grossly assaulted in front of the Capitol,
after the adjournment of the House, by Mr. Rust, member of Congress from
Arkansas. Mr. Greeley, being an ex-M.C., is entitled to a seat on the floor of
the House, and he had been in the city, since the assembling of Congress,
corresponding for his paper. A paragraph of comment in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribune</i> on a speech of Mr. Rust's was
the only provocation this enlightened representative of the people of Arkansas
had to knock Mr. Greeley down with a loaded cane, repeating his blows, and
inflicting serious injuries on the unfortunate and almost unresisting editor.
Horace Greeley is a mild, amiable-looking old gentleman, and, merely from his
appearance, you might guess he was of the peace sentiments of the Quakers. He
declined to prosecute his brutal assailant, though some weeks after, at the
instance of a gentleman of New York, who came forward of his own accord, Rust
was arrested and held to bail to answer for the assault at the Criminal Court.
When I heard of the assault, I thought that Rust must be blackballed
everywhere, and that if he ventured into the House next day the affair would at
least become the topic of indignant comment. "No, indeed," said a
friend, "his party will think him a fine fellow for it: there will be
plenty of men giving Greeley a cow-hiding now they see he's so tame." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">And truly I was
mistaken. Nothing disgusted me so much with political cant about liberty on the
American side the Atlantic as this occurrence, and the matter-of-course sort
of way in which it was looked upon, — not by all, but at the least by a
political party which in England would have hasted to purge itself of the
disgrace of connexion with such ruffianism. John Bull before Jonathan still,
for fair play and freedom of opinion. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The following is a
newspaper account of this transaction: "Yesterday afternoon, about four
o'clock, soon after the adjournment of Congress, the Hon. Win. Smith, M.C.
from Virginia, met Mr. Wallach, the editor of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star</i>, on the Avenue, near the corner of Eleventh Street, and
accosting him, pronounced a statement in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star</i> of the day previous, in relation to himself, to be false. Mr.
Wallach replied, that if Mr. Smith made that assertion, he pronounced his
assertion false; whereupon Mr. Smith struck Mr. Wallach, and both combatants
grappled each other, and contended manfully for the mastery. At length, they
fell to the ground with a mighty shock; and by the force of the fall, as we
are informed, Mr. Wallach's bowie-knife fell out of its hiding-place, and was
thrown to some distance. When the parties fell, Mr. Wallach was uppermost, but
Mr. Smith turned him, and maintained the upper hand until separated. After a
minute or two of severe thumping and scratching, the belligerents were
separated; Mr. Smith with his face badly bruised and marred, and Mr. Wallach
with one of his fingers 'catawampously chawed up.' We have not heard that
either of the parties concerned in this fight have been arrested. </span></div>
</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-24012986292172451532017-09-16T10:36:00.002-04:002017-09-16T10:36:53.240-04:00Bowie Knives in Texas, 1839On the last Sunday of the year 1839, Francis Sheridan, an elegant young
Irishman in the British diplomatic service, sailed from Barbados for the
Republic of Texas. His mission in the new nation was to contribute the
opinion of an eyewitness to the deliberations going on in London
concerning proposed recognition of Texas. His observations were published in <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="fn"><span dir="ltr">Galveston Island, or, A Few Months off the Coast of Texas</span></span>: </i><span class="subtitle"><span dir="ltr"><i>The Journal of Francis C. Sheridan, 1839–1840</i>. Here are some of his impressions:</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="subtitle"><span dir="ltr">
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</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="subtitle"><span dir="ltr"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Murder and every
other Crime is of great frequency in Texas and the perpetrators escape with
the greatest impunity. Many Murders were committed in the Island of Galveston
and in the Country during my stay on the Coast, and I could never learn that
one offender was brought to justice. It is considered unsafe to walk through
the Streets of the principal Towns without being armed. The Bowie Knife is
the weapon most in vogue and it may not be uninteresting here to state that
the greater number of these weapons are manufactured in Sheffield and
Birmingham and brought over in British Ships as a profitable Speculation. I
have seen one manufactured by "Bunting & Son" of Sheffield, the
blade of which was 18 inches long and ornamented in beautiful tracery on the steel
as "The genuine Arkansas Tooth Pick" and I have been offered another
for sale also of English make the vender of which hinted that I ought to pay
him a Dollar more than he demanded, as he could assure me it had tasted Blood.
</span></div>
</span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="subtitle"><span dir="ltr">
</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="subtitle"><span dir="ltr"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-23578263783701935432017-09-14T13:37:00.000-04:002017-09-14T13:37:38.447-04:00Bowie Knives in Little Rock<span class="gstxt_hlt">Nineteenth-century English readers enjoyed tales of savagery among the frontiersmen of their former American colonies and a number of travel writers were happy to supple them. The following is from a review of <span style="font-style: italic;">Excursion </span><span style="font-style: italic;">through </span><span style="font-style: italic;">the </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Slave </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">States, </span><span style="font-style: italic;">from </span><span class="gstxt_hlt"><span style="font-style: italic;">Washington </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">on </span><span class="gstxt_hlt"><span style="font-style: italic;">the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Potomac </span><span style="font-style: italic;">to </span><span class="gstxt_hlt"><span style="font-style: italic;">the </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Frontier </span><span style="font-style: italic;">of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Mexico; </span><span style="font-style: italic;">with </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Sketches </span><span class="gstxt_hlt"><span style="font-style: italic;">of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Po</span><span class="gstxt_hlt"><span style="font-style: italic;">pular </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">Manners </span><span class="gstxt_hlt"><span style="font-style: italic;">and </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Geological </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Notices, </span>b</span>y G. W. <span class="gstxt_hlt">Featherstonhaugh</span>, published in the <i>Foreign Quarterly Review</i>, volume 34, 1845, p. 117 - 120. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let us invite the reader to follow us into the territory of Arkansas, where the system of duelling is practised, at the height of all conceivable transatlantic ferocity. The blood-thirsty circles of society in this place carry off the palm of butchery. If you desire to see murder cultivated as a pastime, you must visit the pleasant town of Little Rock, situated at the bank of the Arkansa. Little Rock is the principal town of Arkansas, a territory lying on the confines between Texas and America, which, not being yet sufficiently populated to be admitted to the dignity of a federal state, remains under the immediate protection of the general government, as a quasi colony. In consequence of this peculiar condition of independence, Arkansas has become a sort of Alsatia for all kinds of thieves and gamblers, forgers, horse-stealers, and the like, who, flying from the inconvenient inquisition of the laws they had outraged, take refuge in this happy district where they may enjoy the luxury of lawlessness to their heart's content. <br />
<br />
This is precisely the spot to draw out in full the national genius for gouging, stabbing, and shooting, elsewhere more or less restrained by the presence of a larger population. Arkansas is the headquarters of Bowieism; and Little Rock, the centre from whence the 'code of honour' radiates over the province. The town is tolerably well laid out, with a few brick houses, and more wooden ones, a great number of lawyers and doctors — the one to fan the litigious spirit of the people, and the other to dress their wounds — with a total population of five or six hundred souls. The great sign of American civilisation — the cheap newspaper — is here conspicuous; for, with a population which, in England, could not support a printer of occasional hand-bills, this town of Little Rock has no less than three cheap journals, which, says Mr. Featherstonhaugh, are not read, but devoured by every body. Yet these people who consume such an enormous quantity of scandal and political vituperation, are never known to indulge in any other species of reading. Probably there is no such thing in the whole territory of Arkanas as a Bible. Mr. Featherstonhaugh never saw one. <br /><br />
The newspaper-office is the grand rendezvous. The worthy person who edits the principal gazette, is also a store-keeper and post-master; and at his store the bloods and bullies of the town constantly assemble — broken tradesmen, refugees from justice, and travelling gamblers. The lively emotions these gentlemen contrive to produce in the town of Little Rock, may be partly comprehended from the following passage: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"A common practice with these fellows was to fire at each other with a rifle across the street, and then dodge behind a door; every day groups were to be seen gathered round these worthy bullies, who were holding knives in their hands, and daring each other to strike, but cherishing the secret hope that the spectators would interfere. At one time they were so numerous and over-bearing that they would probably have overpowered the town, but for the catastrophe which befell one of their leaders and checked the rest for a-while." </blockquote>
The congregation of these desperadoes at the editor's store became at last an intolerable nuisance to him; for, although American editors are not quite so particular upon points of quietude and temperament as their European brethren, yet they require some exemption from the vulgar lot of the street-stabbing uproarious commonalty to whose passions they minister so satisfactorily. Our Little Rock editor determined to put a stop to the tumultuous encroachments of the gang of sanguinary dandies. Of course he was dared on the threshold of his own house, a scuffle ensued, and he killed his man.<br /><br />
The public favoured the editor on this occasion, and at the time of Mr. Featherstonhaugh's visit, he was one of the most popular men in the place. It is quite a matter of luck how a gentleman gets out of a murder in America. Sometimes he is massacred by the mob — but more generally canonised and elected into the States' legislature. <br /><br />
Out of the whole population there are hardly twelve inhabitants who ever go into the streets without being armed with pistols or large hunting knives, about a foot long, and an inch-and-a-half broad. “These formidable instruments,” says our author, “with their sheaths mounted in silver, are the pride of an Arkansan blood, and got their name of bowie-knives from a conspicuous person of this fiery climate.”<br /><br />
Amongst other illustrations of the red-hot temper of the people, Mr. Featherstonhaugh relates a story of two persons who, without any quarrel, except of that brutal kind which originates in pure wanton aggression, fought a duel after a fashion which, even in America, must have been regarded as something extraordinary. They were placed in a room totally dark, from which every glimpse of light was carefully excluded, stripped to the skin, except their trousers, their arms and shoulders well greased, and a brace of loaded pistols and a bowie-knife given to each. A signal was to be given from the outside before the butchery began; but a quarter of an hour elapsed after the signal before the slightest noise was heard. The two men were cowering and glaring in the dark, suppressing their breath, and watching their advantage. All of a sudden a pistol went off, then another, then two more. The survivor afterwards stated that becoming faint from loss of blood, he stumbled against the wall and fell. The other approached stealthily with his bowie-knife to despatch him. The prostrate man clutched his knife, raised himself, listened, but could hear nothing. At last he saw a pair of cat-like eyes gleaming through the darkness — he lifted his knife with a desperate effort and stuck it into the heart of his opponent. When the door was opened and the seconds entered, they found the survivor still holding his knife up to the hilt in the dead man's body! [Stories such as this were common and most probably apocryphal. --P.K.] <br /><br />
Such horrible examples of unmitigated ferocity ought not to be quoted against the morality or social civilisation of any country, unless, as in the case of these States, they are not exceptionable, but ordinary illustrations of the habits of the people. Extraordinary duels in former periods have taken place in England — such as the duel between Buckingham and Shrewsbury — surrounded by circumstances of peculiar heartlessness or bravado; but, in no instance in our annals, or in the annals of any country in Europe, can there be traced, even standing out solitarily from the chronicles of the most brutalised chivalry, an example of that fierce and reckless spirit which is common to the duels of America, in greater or lesser degrees of intensity. <br /><br />
There is another peculiarity worth noting in these duels; over and above their mere criminal ferocity. It is this, that they generally take place in the open streets, and ordinarily on the Sabbath day, because we presume, it is the idle day when the victim is to be sure to be met with lounging at his door, or smoking in perfect unconsciousness of impending danger. This would be incredible, if we had not the best authority for the facts themselves in the daily papers of the Union, and if the character of the society out of which these atrocities spring, were not authenticated by a cloud of witnesses. Gamblers and swindlers of the most notorious description, pouring out of such districts as Arkansas and the neighbouring state of Texas, to both of which the hunted criminals of America in turn fly for shelter, spread themselves over the face of the country, and are to be met at all the fashionable watering-places, and in the principal towns and cities, passing themselves off as officers in the British army, sometimes as Spaniards or Germans, but always as something superfine, with a strange dazzling title to catch the grovelling circles upon whose credulity they trade and thrive. A clique of these ruffians went on board a steamer at Arkansas in which Mr. Featherstonhaugh had taken his place. His description of them will enlighten the English reader: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Rushing into the cabin, all but red-hot with whiskey, they crowded round the stove and excluded all the old passengers from it as much is if they had no right whatever to be in the cabin. Putting on a determined bullying air of doing what they pleased because they were the majority, and armed with pistols and knives, expressly made for cutting and stabbing, eight inches long and an inch-and-a-half broad; noise, confusion, spitting, smoking, cursing, and swearing, drawn from the most remorseless pages of blasphemy, commenced and prevailed from the moment of this invasion. I was satisfied at once that all resistance would be in vain, and that even remonstrance might lead to murder; for a sickly old man in the cabin happening to say to one of them that there was so much smoke he could hardly breathe, the fellow immediately said, 'If any man tells me he don't like my smoking I'll put a knife into him." </blockquote>
</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-6144943758412529552017-09-14T12:44:00.000-04:002017-09-14T12:44:19.553-04:00Bowies Along the Border
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<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">From page 54 of Samuel Sydney's <i>Emigrant's Journal</i>, second series, published in 1850.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I crossed the San Antonio by a bridge of some twenty
yards' span — the water below bright, limpid, and running with great velocity
— and rode up through the principal street of the town. The Mexican houses
presented a very novel aspect, by their more substantial and somewhat
antiquated look, as compared with American cities in the west, which seem
like the wooden structures of strolling players, always ready to be moved to a
new locality. The street was crowded with a mixed population — bronzed
Mexicans in a bandit-looking costume, descendants of the Indians of unmixed
race, and much darker than their northern brethren; Mexican girls, many of
them having considerable pretensions to beauty, and more or less tinged with
Indian blood; several Negroes; and, congregated about the doors of
bar-rooms and drinking shops, were Texan rangers, returned Mexican volunteers,
Mississippi gamblers, and others of the scum of American society, carrying
rifles, pistols, and bowie-knives, and attired in costume partly military,
partly Mexican, partly in the skins and accoutrements of the savage. Passing
from the street into the public square, I halted at a most wretched looking
inn, filled with a most unpalatable modicum of western vagabonds. Here I
found my Virginian friends in a state of inexpressible disgust at the moral
condition of San Antonio. All that we had ever heard or met with in the
administration of the "wild-justice" of the bowie-knife and
repeating pistol appeared to be here intensified and concentrated. Murders
were so common that they were scarcely subjects of comment. The latest
amusement of this nature was shooting three bullets through the hat of a
dissenting minister, as he walked down the street, because the Texan did not —
as he declared with many oaths — admire the shape of it. Fortunately the
marksman was good, and the hat only suffered. One "gentleman" was
said to have slain three men in the course of a year. The last was of recent
occurrence, and originated in a quarrel which took place in a store close,
where an officer of the returned volunteers from Mexico — a notorious
scoundrel, and the leader of a gang of desperadoes — rode in on horseback and
presented his pistol amidst a group assembled there. A scuffle ensued, which
resulted in his own death, being stabbed through the heart with a bowie-knife.
The successful combatant, with the prudent intention of preventing any further
danger from his adversary, stabbed him six several times after he had fallen.
The victor was "bound over to keep the peace." My comrades and
myself had been sufficiently familiar with the darker features of the Far
West, but here we found a "lower deep;" our imaginations had ventured
to picture somewhat of this remote corner of the Union, but we found the
colouring paled before the reality. They determined to shake the dust of this
iniquitous city off their feet, and the next morning saw them on their way to
Lavarra, leaving me to make my comments at my leisure upon this strange state
of society. I should not readily be persuaded that any town in the universe,
of like extent, could have furnished forth so many utterly depraved and absolutely
reckless scoundrels as San Antonio exhibited every day in her streets. The
whole place was in the hands of these desperadoes, and every iniquity
practised with the utmost impunity. They were the law, and they were the
public opinion. It was with a similar interest to that with which we inspect a
menagerie of wild beasts, that I strolled through the town amongst those white
savages, as they drank, swore, quarrelled, and gambled together. </span></div>
</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-57745984160030103982017-09-13T14:38:00.001-04:002017-09-13T14:38:17.688-04:00An Argument For the Stick Over the Knife
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">From <i>The Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, 1837, v. 1</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">, p. 33:</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Carrying a walking stick or hand cane is a good custom, and may be
useful. If you get into a row and find it imperative to do a bit of
gladiatorial, fight your way with your cane; but if you value the character
of a gentleman, never draw a knife — it is the act of an assassin, and betrays
the worst of cowardice. Stabbing has become popular, I admit, but its glories
will be evanescent. The good sense of the people must see the brutality of
the custom, and the cutting and carving of live bodies will be left to the
surgeons. Pugilism is a pretty amusement, but its public practice is not
congenial and if you fall amongst blackguards you cannot ensure fair play.
If you must fight, and a Quaker may occasionally be forced into a scrimmage,
use your stick; and if you expect mischief, carry a green hickory cane, about
the size [thickness] of your middle finger; or a sprig of English ash. Let it be quite
straight and devoid of the curl at the thick end. When you have made up your
mind to go to work, catch hold of your stick about a foot from the thick end; you will have more government over your weapon that way than any other;
and, in case of a miss, you can recover your guard directly. The short end
will give you the use of an additional weapon — an effective spur for the
ribs of your adversaries. You will be enabled to present one of them with a
poke and favour another with a thump almost at the same moment. It is useful
also to peg with at close quarters. If you see one of your friends drawing his
toothpick against you, hit it a crack with your shillelah and knock it to
smithereens. You may do a very decent fight with a stick of this sort; it is
quite as detersive as the Bowie knife, and destitute of its blood-thirstiness. Murder is a terrible anti-soporific, and the daily sight of your
victim's widow and three fatherless children will not assist dyspepsia. Stick
to sticks, and cut knives. </span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-49642248716732899642017-06-07T22:51:00.000-04:002017-06-07T22:51:06.029-04:00Noah Smithwick and the Bowie KnifeHere's an article on the bowie knife from <i>Arms Gazette</i>, March 1979, volume 6, number 6.<br />
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<br />Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-82911087617396449182017-06-07T22:44:00.000-04:002017-06-07T22:56:42.618-04:00'Old Zack' and the Bowie KnifeI'm cleaning out my files and came across this article from <i>Arms Gazette</i>, September 1973, volume 1, number 1. I thought I'd make it accessible for others who might be interested.<br />
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<br />Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-11182424205540499352016-04-27T12:18:00.000-04:002016-04-27T12:21:20.283-04:00Bowie Knives 1820-1870 A very interesting video on bowie knife history, 1820 - 1870. I thank Barry Needham for directing me to it.<br />
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<pre><span class="quote1"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgDLPTAGw-k&spfreload=10" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgDLPTAGw-k</a></span></pre>
<pre><span class="quote1"></span></pre>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-27178322683625022092016-02-07T20:58:00.002-05:002016-02-07T21:11:04.731-05:00Bowie Knife Show at the Historic Arkansas Museum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wasn't able to attend last year's exhibition of bowie knives at the Historic Arkansas Museum. Jon Moore, a knife maker whose company is <a href="http://sharpdecisionknives.com/" target="_blank">Sharp Decision Knives</a>, attended the show and was kind enough to send me photos. He originally contacted me months ago, but his message languished in a secret folder at my facebook site. Anyway, here are some of Jon's photos, which will give you an idea of the scope of this exhibition, which displayed about 200 bowies.<br />
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Here are some beautiful knives made by Jon and photographed by John Cooper. You can view more of his work <a href="http://sharpdecisionknives.com/knives.php" target="_blank">in the gallery at his site</a>.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJFSc5Gks4AXdT4MXSjAQ-_70PNY50ysesElvIZ6V2JkarkHpo1UT2q1h6oEpj_mEZie_36BiUglo5qiJoO2oKlV5drZoCCJrUeGw-gd8q5bo8otCutj1347jwkcmTrHpjdIg7zoRmKww/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJFSc5Gks4AXdT4MXSjAQ-_70PNY50ysesElvIZ6V2JkarkHpo1UT2q1h6oEpj_mEZie_36BiUglo5qiJoO2oKlV5drZoCCJrUeGw-gd8q5bo8otCutj1347jwkcmTrHpjdIg7zoRmKww/s400/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-7341264356315091562015-01-16T11:52:00.001-05:002015-01-16T11:52:48.276-05:00Bowie IllustrationsI just got an email from Clayton Blanchard, who is related to the Blanchards who participated in the Sandbar Fight. He forwarded to me two excellent illustrations that I thought I'd post.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEHkQHP9zsOJ3N_7RAfJTYFOtebEfN54GW-AvzxSlFXfbiGEfhF2qJTAY32qaKA6-hR0gvT6MQn1J4S1HgPRFlEHsLyh8LTOCS6kx1_sNb11_O4e_ik4plC52tyBASG8izf6VFSonOmI/s1600/SandBar1%5B2%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNEHkQHP9zsOJ3N_7RAfJTYFOtebEfN54GW-AvzxSlFXfbiGEfhF2qJTAY32qaKA6-hR0gvT6MQn1J4S1HgPRFlEHsLyh8LTOCS6kx1_sNb11_O4e_ik4plC52tyBASG8izf6VFSonOmI/s1600/SandBar1%5B2%5D.jpg" height="246" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>The moment when Bowie plunged his knife into Major Norris Wright</i>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cEn6kXr2gitHeqslnsukqTfxH5KvwqGL6GGUiZ-Evul146gMQorsafuZS6LgYYTXaw7JeruwZdFQsdLSnH_p2RxltDJgbtXZ9oTwqJofBsQHYWf72pRIOh3yJ4y-GR4upy9GALX0M6M/s1600/golbeybowie%5B2%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cEn6kXr2gitHeqslnsukqTfxH5KvwqGL6GGUiZ-Evul146gMQorsafuZS6LgYYTXaw7JeruwZdFQsdLSnH_p2RxltDJgbtXZ9oTwqJofBsQHYWf72pRIOh3yJ4y-GR4upy9GALX0M6M/s1600/golbeybowie%5B2%5D.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
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<i>An excellent visualization of James Bowie.</i></div>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-77998552642205227412014-10-29T13:26:00.001-04:002014-10-29T17:05:04.363-04:00Alamo Memorabilia Donated by Phil Collins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWyAdZXRNsP8IG3IDUT6CCXQIjJudZl5Ts3MKPU61Ql0eoQ8v-IVsXT5MIeyvyp23GT0Z5mRhUqiHiVk9ULY4-dtE8u_P1YTXI-TgHB5nO8efMIJ-LANYNR39vZ2VfKhIWXZENMWhla4/s1600/txsae102-1028_2014_000000_high.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWyAdZXRNsP8IG3IDUT6CCXQIjJudZl5Ts3MKPU61Ql0eoQ8v-IVsXT5MIeyvyp23GT0Z5mRhUqiHiVk9ULY4-dtE8u_P1YTXI-TgHB5nO8efMIJ-LANYNR39vZ2VfKhIWXZENMWhla4/s1600/txsae102-1028_2014_000000_high.jpg" height="262" width="400" /></a></div>
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The above photo is from a press conference discussing the singer Phil Collins' donation of collection of Alamo memorabilia to the museum at that San Antonio landmark. It was captioned, "Phil Collins holds a Bowie knife that belonged to Jesse Robinson who fought under Jim Bowie at the Battle of Concepcion and the Siege of Bexar on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014 in San Antonio."<br />
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The video attached to the news article linked below starts with Collins holding the knife and saying it was probably made by James Black in Arkansas. At first I thought he was joking. The knife shown is typical of those made and sold around the time of the movie "The Iron Mistress" (1952) and "The Alamo" (1960) and is not authentic to the 1830s. I hope the other articles in Collins' collection have a better provenance!<br />
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Here is what bowie knife expert Bernard Levine wrote about this style of knife: "The earliest positively
dated example of this type bowie is the one on the cover of Harold
Peterson's 1958 book, <i>American Knives</i>. That knife was made in 1955. Since
then, hundreds of these knives have been made. Actually thousands. One
maker, Allan Hitchen of Southport, England, has made 100s since the late
1950s -- all unmarked, all 'aged' with acid and soot. . . . No antique knife (bowie or otherwise) looks like
this. . . . If you like this style of "knife," check out the Carvel Hall versions. They are cheap and well made." <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20141028-phil-collins-remembers-the-alamo-with-donation-of-artifacts.ece" target="_blank"><b>Phil Collins remembers the Alamo with donation of artifacts</b></a><br />
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By CHRISTY HOPPE
choppe@dallasnews.com<br />
Austin Bureau<br />
Published: 28 October 2014 10:54 PM<br />
Updated: 29 October 2014 06:41 AM<br />
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SAN ANTONIO — British rocker Phil Collins watched from a few feet beyond the north wall of the Alamo as wooden crates the size of large amps were hydraulically lowered from a truck.<br />
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The songwriter of “Against All Odds” believed he had struck the perfect note by bringing home historical artifacts once owned by the defenders of the Alamo.<br />
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“I’m not sad,” he said Tuesday as the largest collection of Alamo memorabilia in the world was delivered. The 200-piece collection is worth between $10 million and $15 million. It took him two decades to assemble.<br />
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“I’m really happy that it’s going here, because this is the place where it should be,” said Collins, who gained worldwide fame in the band Genesis and as a solo performer. “This completes a journey for me.”<br />
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The collection will eventually be a key component to a museum. Some pieces returned to the Alamo for the first time in 178 years. They were scattered on March 6, 1836, when the garrison’s remaining force of 200 men fell to the overwhelming army of Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna after a 13-day standoff.<br />
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Collins said his fascination with the battle and the legends who fought it — Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, William B. Travis — began when he was about 6 years old, growing up in England but watching the American TV show Davy Crockett.<br />
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“From that moment, I was hooked on this story. It just stayed with me all the way through the music years,” he said.<br />
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It seemed a worthwhile obsession. “I decided to spend my money on that instead of Ferraris,” he said.<br />
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His collection also includes mementos from the Battle of San Jacinto, where Texas secured its independence, and a trove of historical documents.<br />
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There is Jim Bowie’s legendary knife and one of four existing rifles known to have belonged to Crockett, as well as his fringed leather musket ball pouch. There are letters from Alamo commander Travis, Santa Anna’s sword, the hats of Mexican officers and cannonballs.<br />
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Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, whose office oversees the historical mission and who formalized the agreement with Collins, said the artifacts will be publicly displayed only a few at a time for the near future.<br />
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A foundation has been created to help raise $100 million toward a museum and visitors center to display the complete collection and present the story of the Alamo. Patterson estimated the project could take another five years.<br />
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Collins, 63, said finding a permanent home for his collection became important to him within the last year as he began organizing his estate.<br />
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Last February, he was visiting San Antonio, as he does frequently, looking for a museum that might be suitable. His friend Jim Guimarin, who owns the History Shop next to the Alamo, arranged for him to meet Kaye Tucker, the point person for the Alamo in Patterson’s office.<br />
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“Jim asked if I wanted to go to dinner with Phil Collins. I wasn’t going to pass on that,” she said.<br />
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Tucker said that over a meal of tacos and enchiladas, Guimarin told Collins there was something that Tucker wanted to ask. And so she ventured that the Alamo would love to have his collection.<br />
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“I was gobsmacked,” Collins recalled. “The idea of it coming back home…”<br />
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Arrangements were quickly made. Collins oversaw the shipping and delivery from his home in Switzerland.<br />
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Collins said holding little pieces of history — hats, guns, spurs of the Alamo fighters — connects him with the frailties and courage of the people who owned them.<br />
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“I would have some sadness and maybe thinking it was a mistake if it were going to a museum that didn’t have any emotional contact … with the Alamo,” he said. “This is the best thing that could happen to it.”<br />
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Collins, who has sold more than 100 million records, said that he has kept the passion of collecting and music separate in his life. The Alamo did not consciously color any of his songs.<br />
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“They’re all about my ex-wives,” he said with a laugh.<br />
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But maybe, he said, one song title came subliminally to him: “Do You Remember.”</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-6771500666544857172014-07-30T20:12:00.002-04:002014-07-30T20:30:30.060-04:00Bronze of James Bowie by Michael Trcic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3s_Yrv1ggU0AytFrjcSEaL4jWUIZuqMKuuO85At9wou9ViumkyTe1T_vre4e6TkZb_Yi4JR2MNWcfjxpPQ-LSQ_ESK-XaISpusooA6WKvUBkllCqt0VzBpmQqUiiGz0nkMHqeQYiIxyE/s1600/Bowie+by+Trcic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3s_Yrv1ggU0AytFrjcSEaL4jWUIZuqMKuuO85At9wou9ViumkyTe1T_vre4e6TkZb_Yi4JR2MNWcfjxpPQ-LSQ_ESK-XaISpusooA6WKvUBkllCqt0VzBpmQqUiiGz0nkMHqeQYiIxyE/s1600/Bowie+by+Trcic.jpg" height="640" width="465" /></a></div>
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I am very impressed with this magnificent <a href="http://trcicstudio.com/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=47536&subkeyvalue=1434200&page=WorksZoom" target="_blank">bronze bust of James Bowie</a> created by sculptor Michael Trcic, for sale at his website. He really caught the spirit as well as the likeness of the man. Beneath the bust are scenes from the Sandbar Fight.<br />
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Trcic's other sculptures on Western themes are also quite striking.<br />
<br />Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-87151412509013436302014-07-20T19:57:00.002-04:002020-08-09T20:13:29.217-04:00Knife-Fighting Classes in New York City in 1842!One of the subjects that intrigued me when I was researching my bowie knife book was whether there actually was any organized knife-fighting instruction available in 19th-century America. I did come across a few references, and just today was informed of another. The following advertisement, which was published in the <i>New York Herald</i> in 1842, offers among other things instruction in the "hunting knife." This advertisement was uncovered by <a href="http://www.martinez-destreza.com/school" target="_blank">Maestro Jeanette Accosta-Martinez</a> of the Martinez Academy of Arms in New York City and passed along to me by Phil Crawley.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHERBZprvd7ieo7AIUTbvbsY0jYEWnf2TZ5EQ009OqbKTUCnDtAfAH_1nK4w-_pe7M80zoQ7WZKPz1Og5FB8pvPIFKHntcdj7tcgqQW4RTjBEQyqZHiYgcw0d32bbzYNafMmRuzmRYNOg/s1600/mees.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHERBZprvd7ieo7AIUTbvbsY0jYEWnf2TZ5EQ009OqbKTUCnDtAfAH_1nK4w-_pe7M80zoQ7WZKPz1Og5FB8pvPIFKHntcdj7tcgqQW4RTjBEQyqZHiYgcw0d32bbzYNafMmRuzmRYNOg/s1600/mees.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Fencing Saloon & Shooting Gallery was run by a "K. Mees," on whom I have been unable to discover anything more. He offered instruction in "Fencing; also in the use of the straight, crooked, and Turkish sword, hunting knife, musket and bayonet, staff, and every species of weapons."<br />
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The facility was located at 413 Broadway, just below Canal Street in lower Manhattan. The "210 yards" shooting range seems like a misprint, especially as the focus is on pistol shooting. Perhaps 20 yards was intended.Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-16961441880986230032013-12-08T22:32:00.001-05:002013-12-08T22:32:33.466-05:00World's Largest Bowie Knife Exhibit<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><a href="http://www.historicarkansas.org/whatsnew/newsDetail.aspx?id=273">Coming Soon! World's Largest Bowie Knife Exhibit</a> </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIFwVpWXU-sgUIO21Ot3BjWOPmJHobEFCnbizF3S_zm9eT5hilcq36eo2q7iZeNnMb6Qf-vkSErEgLTGBCIXqGp8Yt78nMzXxidoUoNOTZmX5LXUj9Kma_aBscgl3b59wcSAqHuIWEVww/s1600/Knife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIFwVpWXU-sgUIO21Ot3BjWOPmJHobEFCnbizF3S_zm9eT5hilcq36eo2q7iZeNnMb6Qf-vkSErEgLTGBCIXqGp8Yt78nMzXxidoUoNOTZmX5LXUj9Kma_aBscgl3b59wcSAqHuIWEVww/s320/Knife.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America</span> </b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
December 13, 2013 through June 22, 2014 </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Horace C. Cabe Gallery </div>
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“This exhibit is the largest and most important ever done on America’s iconic contribution to the world of blades,” said Historic Arkansas Museum Director Bill Worthen. A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife in America will trace the history of this country’s most famous knife from just before its birth in a rough melee on a sandbar above Natchez, Mississippi in 1827, to the skilled craftsmen who keep the classic blade alive to this day in the form of hand crafted reproductions and modernized versions.<br />
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Visitors to the public exhibit will have the opportunity to see knife designs associated with Alamo martyr James Bowie and his less famous brother Rezin, and to examine bowie knives once owned by such historic figures as Davy Crockett, Theodore Roosevelt, General Winfield Scott and John Fox “Bowie Knife” Potter. The role of the bowie knife in the Antebellum era is explored along with the Civil War and the opening of the west, and there’s a special focus on the role bowie knives played in the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.<br />
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Among the 19th century knives featured will be those attributed to Arkansas’s own James Black, known knifemakers to the Bowie brothers Henry Schively and Daniel Searles, master silversmith of Texas and Tennessee Samuel Bell, and the highly skilled makers of the California school including Michael Price and Will & Finck. Fine English Bowies are also well represented with knives by such makers as Samuel Wragg, W. & S. Butcher, J. Walters and Charles Congreve; as are some of the finest known Northern and Southern blades from the Civil War. Visitors can also expect to see a superb group of folding bowie knives, and a variety of other knives that served as backup weapons during the Bowie knife era, such as push daggers and dirk knives.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7_ZVxbn5NsOVvJf840UQgsBgcfNVX34cxU8NVU5ES3bBpqTbVsPOTC6Iw1j4lnnx5wveHiwlgoQf6R5JaRqdnBCW8Tz-Tp29Yx0vDTrnrl9BrF4OJMnIS4YizeL9NXH9XqW7xaUowKI/s1600/SoldierWithKnifeinTeeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7_ZVxbn5NsOVvJf840UQgsBgcfNVX34cxU8NVU5ES3bBpqTbVsPOTC6Iw1j4lnnx5wveHiwlgoQf6R5JaRqdnBCW8Tz-Tp29Yx0vDTrnrl9BrF4OJMnIS4YizeL9NXH9XqW7xaUowKI/s1600/SoldierWithKnifeinTeeth.jpg" /></a></div>
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In total, more than 200 knives are included in the exhibit. A full color catalog documenting this historic exhibit is planned, and will be available from the museum’s gift shop and online store.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Historic Arkansas Museum </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
200 E. Third Street, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Little Rock, AR 72201 </div>
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Ph: 501-324-9351 - Fax: 501-324-9345 </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
info@historicarkansas.org </div>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-78968969557768970462013-06-05T18:37:00.001-04:002013-06-10T00:13:26.942-04:00Is It Pronounced "Bow-ie" or "Boo-ie"?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3A_dl4O6dv8cDoIWSmUCFVN-_qeokNjfux2p_hGy6YZ6i5ihyZBYr80-PXX-n_Y7gNFHgJ-MbnT_5us74BajmcFDhsT9vOAATrI-ceLK4Z-Ml43wplHSjR3nzC2n2dKLQaWX2fCsaVY/s1600/for-whatever-reason-its-a-boo-wie-knife-in-texas-and-dc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3A_dl4O6dv8cDoIWSmUCFVN-_qeokNjfux2p_hGy6YZ6i5ihyZBYr80-PXX-n_Y7gNFHgJ-MbnT_5us74BajmcFDhsT9vOAATrI-ceLK4Z-Ml43wplHSjR3nzC2n2dKLQaWX2fCsaVY/s400/for-whatever-reason-its-a-boo-wie-knife-in-texas-and-dc.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of 22 maps featured in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6#for-whatever-reason-its-a-boo-wie-knife-in-texas-and-dc-3" target="_blank"><i>Business Insider</i></a> showing the way words are pronounced differently in different parts of the United States.<br />
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Below the map there is this update from a Texan: "It's pronounced Boo-wie because it's named after
Jim Bowie (pronounced Boo-wie), who played a major roll in the Texas
revolution. That explains why we're the only ones who pronounce it
correctly."<br />
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The Texan is correct. The name Bowie--referring to either the man or the knife--have always properly been pronounced to rhyme with Louie, not Joey. It's a Scottish name and that's the correct pronunciation. The 1950s TV program "The Adventures of Jim Bowie" got it right in its <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxJ0_DW9mCc" target="_blank">theme song</a>.</div>
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I suspect the other pronunciation arose when the singer David Jones changed his name to David Bowie so as not to be confused with the lead singer of the Monkees.</div>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-10309294905848889932013-05-27T21:28:00.000-04:002013-05-27T23:07:09.925-04:00A Collection of Interesting KnivesMy friend Charles Riggs (whom I know mostly from email, having met him only once) recently sent me a heavily insured package containing five knives from his collection.<br />
<br />
He wrote, "You'll have something to occupy your martial mind for awhile with
these, I think. All but the Crowell/Barker are FIGHTING knives, but very
different expressions of very different techniques and philosophies.
The Steele knife is suited to a soldier, the Mamba to someone fighting
Filipino style, the Hissatsu excellent against heavy clothing and armor
and the Bowie? Well, it can be any damn thing it pleases at that size!"<br />
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Alas, they are not mine to keep, but only to fondle for a while and return. I am an honorable man and Charles is a formidable one so of course I will do so.<br />
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Charles is very knowledgeable about knives and I am reprinting his comments from his cover letter. I don't have much to add, but I put my impressions in italics.<br />
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<br />
<b>1. Hissatu</b><br />
Weight: 8 oz<br />
Blade Type: Trailing point<br />
Length Overall: 12 inches<br />
Blade Length: 7.25 inches<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.bugei.com/hissatsu-873-prd1.htm" target="_blank">Hissatsu</a> is based on what is most likely the most ancient design, being the brainchild of the owner of the Bugei Trading company, James Williams and taken from Japanese traditions. If you haven't already looked at his bio and web site it's worth a reading. The knife features a blade made for slashing, but the tip is very strong for thrusting against hard surfaces because of the manner in which the spine reinforces it. This version is an inexpensive one made by CRKT, but usable nonetheless.<br />
<br />
<i><i>The appeal of a knife is totally subjective. </i>This is a practical knife but it just doesn’t excite me. </i><br />
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<b>2. Crowell/Barker Competition Knife</b><br />
Weight: 1 lb, 1.6 oz<br />
Blade Style: Hollow ground, drop point<br />
Length Overall: 15 inches<br />
Blade Length: 9 inches<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003RV8HJA/ref=s9_simh_gw_p200_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1XVFHR61GTPSEBJGTDHE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846" target="_blank">Crowell/Barker Competition Knife</a> is expressly made for slashing bundles of manila/sisal rope in cutting competitions. You can see demos of these cuttings on the Cold Steel web site. These competitions haven't really taken off or attracted too much public attention, but the knives are interesting. The guys who designed this are two champions who collaborated on it for Browning. While it might not be the best fighting knife of the bunch, it allows the user to focus great cutting power and might be likened to an American Kukri. I sent it because it's another unique expression of the large knives that have been used in the USA since the 18th century. Like many well-designed large knives, its size makes it fearful but it's far quicker than you'd think.<br />
<br />
<i>It doesn’t have much personality, but it’s well balanced, well made, and packs a lot of power. Considering that it's available from Amazon for under $100, it's well-worth consideration for anyone in the market for a heavy duty chopper.</i><br />
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<b>3. Blackjack Mamba</b><br />
Weight: 9.9 oz<br />
Blade type: Hollow ground, swaged, spear point<br />
Length Overall: 13 inches<br />
Blade Length: 7.25 inches<br />
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The <a href="http://blackjack.0catch.com/pages/mamba.htm" target="_blank">Blackjack Mamba</a> is a classic collectible, made when the company was still in the USA and turning out high quality knives. The design's features are obvious, especially the belly of the blade that allows the knife to dig in as it's drawn back or across in a slashing attack. It's very light, almost too light, but that makes it fast in the hand and dangerous if the user has the reflexes to guide it quickly. Both it and the David Steele knife came out when <i>Soldier of Fortune</i> was pushing a new surge of interest in edged weapons in the 1970s. The sheaths aren't much, but I'm going to get Kydex made for them someday. I would also tell you that there are some new US-made Blackjack knives being sold at gun shows now, but the quality control of the knives I've handled is only so-so and I wouldn't bother with one.<br />
<br />
<i>I agree with Charles that this knife seems too light for its design. The original version was two inches longer and probably heavier. </i><br />
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<b>4. Fer-de-Lance</b><br />
Weight: 9.9 oz.<br />
Blade type: Double-edged hollow-ground spear point<br />
Length Overall: 12 inches<br />
Blade Length: 6.25 inches (5.5 inches sharpened)<br />
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The <a href="http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/David-E-Steele/aid/4787275#" target="_blank">David E. Steele</a>-designed and Balisong-produced Fer-de-Lance is a pure fighting knife, much in the same vein as the Applegate-Fairbairn dagger of WW2. It's a utilitarian design cut and ground from bar stock, but the handle scales are nicely shaped and when you spend time holding and working with it, its attributes become apparent. It's also very collectible, so don't let it out of your hands. It's another knife made by a company that's shifted around their production, this one being from the higher quality stuff coming out of Japan in their early years.<br />
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<i>The designer, David E. Steele, has written a lot of articles on knives as well as the book</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0317940376" target="_blank">Secrets of Modern Knife Fighting</a> <i>(1975).
I like the look and feel of this knife a lot—it’s my favorite of the bunch. It’s light and lively in the hand. If it were mine I’d want to dehorn the sharp edges of the quillions.</i><br />
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<b>5. Hell’s Belle</b><br />
Weight: 1 pound, 0.4 oz<br />
Blade Type: Hollow ground, clip point with sharpened false edge<br />
Length Overall: 17 inches<br />
Blade Length: 11 inches<br />
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The last knife is for you to compare to your Cold Steel Bowies. It's a "Hell's Belle" made to stringent specs by Ontario and no longer in production, carried in a "Southern Comfort" Kydex sheath made by River City Sheaths. The Bowie knives designed by bladesmith <a href="http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/defensive-knives-other-weapons/7274-story-bill-bagwell.html" target="_blank">Bill Bagwell</a> are meant solely for fighting, based on the research that he did in New Orleans in the archives of old fighting schools from the French tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries in that era when a gentleman was expected to know how to duel. They're not camp or utility Bowies, and they have blades that appear much more slender than most of the commercial designs that one finds turned out these days. But when you see the thickness of the spine you'll appreciate that these knives have great power when wielded strongly, and the tips aren't fragile. The sharpened 'false' or top edge allows you to make the snap cut which is part of the Bagwell Bowie repertoire, and that works, believe me. The hilt allows you to trap an opponent's blade, and if you're really good the Spanish notch allows you to break a blade or wrest it from him. The long haft allows for a sabre grip that can be shifted to place the butt in the base of the wielder's palm to allow a thrust that gives the fighter an extra 2-4 inches of reach when done properly in the classic fencing style. The coffin shape gives a good hold without being abrasive to the hand. It's almost more of a short sword in some ways, but it can be carried concealed quite handily in that sheath by simply slipping it into your waistband, and letting the stud keep it from slipping down too far. I'll be interested to see what you think of it versus the Natchez or Laredo Bowies. I have a shorter 9 1/2 inch "Gambler" Bagwell/Ontario Bowie that's expressly intended for concealment, but I thought you might get more of a kick out of this one.<br />
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<i>This is an excellent bowie and the sheath too is top quality. Of the bowies I own, my favorite is the Cold Steel Laredo, but I have to admit this feels livelier in the hand. I’m skeptical about the utility of the hooked quillions, though they might prove of some use in a knife duel. (I’m doing my best to stay out of knife duels.) As far as the Natchez, that's just too heavy for me to wield comfortably. I should have done more weight lifting in my youth.</i><br />
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<i>Thank you, Charles! </i>Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-2866059170995548742013-05-19T23:25:00.000-04:002013-05-21T14:40:05.734-04:00Bowie-Knife Fighting Classes in the 19th Century<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Col. Thomas Hoyer Monstery</i></div>
<br />
When I was researching my book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bowie-Fights-Fighters-Fighting-Techniques/dp/1581607423" target="_blank"><i>Bowie Knife Fights, Fighters, and Fighting Techniques</i></a>, I came across a number of modern references to bowie-knife fighting instruction that was available in the 19th century. Yet in my own research, which involved searching thousands of digitally scanned newspapers and books, I was able to find only a single mention of a fencing instructor who also offered classes in the knife.<br />
<br />
One of my readers, Phil Crawley, recently wrote to recommend I read <a href="http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/captain-frederick-whittaker/the-sword-prince-the-romantic-life-of-colonel-monstery-american-champion-at-arms/paperback/product-1284135.html" target="_blank"><i>The Sword Prince: The Romantic Life of Colonel Monstery, American Champion at Arms</i></a>, which profiled another man who offered such training. Written by Captain Frederick Whittaker and originally published in 1882, Monstery's biography has recently been reprinted and made available through Hulu by <a href="http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/bartitsu-today/tony-wolf-profile/" target="_blank">Tony Wolf</a>. This long out-of-print book is so obscure that it is not searchable through Google books, which explains how I missed it. It is a fascinating read.<br />
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Monstery, who died in 1902, was a sailor, soldier of fortune, boxer, fencing master, and duelist extraordinaire. His biography describes a number of scrapes he got into, several of them involving the knife. While ashore in Rio de Janeiro as a young sailor, he got into a fight with a slave and killed him by throwing a knife that struck him in the chest. [p. 15] Monstery is said to have been an expert knife thrower, whose technique was different than that used by most. While others held the knife by the point and spun it through the air toward the target, he preferred to hold it by the handle and throw it point first, and "would send it into a board so deep that it required a man's full strength to pull it out." [p. 47]<br />
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After he had studied boxing and fencing, he traveled to Italy and Spain to learn to fight with the knife. According to his biography, he found he could beat those from whom he sought instruction; not so surprising, as boxing and fencing provide an excellent foundation for knife fighting. His secret, according to his biographer, was "economy of motion." That is, "In fencing with any weapon, including the fist, that parry is best which takes least time and causes the least amount of motion from the position of 'guard.'"[p. 22]<br />
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In 1851, Monstery was set up for an assassination by a love rival and his two cohorts, the three of them armed with daggers. Monstery had only a hickory cane with which to defend himself, but his fencing skill enabled him to fend off the three men, though in warding off their thrusts he suffered three stab wounds in his left arm. [pp. 49-50]<br />
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Many of the incidents in the biography are impossible to verify, but Monstery's career as a boxing and fencing instructor is well documented in newspaper articles from the 1860s on, when he ran fencing academies in San Francisco, New York, and Chicago. There were several references to his ability with the knife.<br />
<br />
This is from a description of an exhibition bout that appeared in the
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</style><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;"><i>Daily Alta California</i>, (28 November
1863):</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Professor of Arms of the Club [the
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">San Francisco Olympic Club]</span>, Colonel T. H. Monstery,
then gave an exhibition of the use of the sword and dagger, with the aid of
three of his pupils, Messrs. Mel, Johnson and McComb. The bout was opened with
a simulated duel with foils, by Mel and Johnson,— Colonel Monstery and Mr.
McComb acting as seconds. Two thrusts each were recorded, and then the seconds
engaged with the same weapons: the Colonel thrust his adversary twice, and
allowed him to make one in return. Then Mel and Johnson were respectively
challenged by the Professor to attack him with broadswords, while the dagger
only was used to defend, and all the blows were successfully parried by the
Colonel with his apparently insignificant weapon.
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">T</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">he
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</style></span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i>Daily Alta California</i> (31 July 1864) carried an </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;">advertisement for an exhibition bout in which Monstery and his students would demonstrate "</span>Fencing with Small Swords, Daggers, Rapiers, Broadswords,
Sabers, Bayonets, and with Sabre against Bayonet."
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<br /></div>
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Newspaper advertisements for Monstery's <i>salle d'armes</i> state<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> "Instructions given in the
use of the Broadsword, Foils, Bayonet, or any weapon of offence or defence," as well as boxing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">It is in an advertisement in the
<i>
</i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Daily
Alta California</i> (4 January 1870) that we first see knife-fighting lessons specifically mentioned: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
FENCING AND BOXING ACADEMY. No. 412 Pine street, near
Montgomery. Col. Monstery, instructor in fencing with foil, sword, bayonet,
knife, etc. Boxing taught in twelve lessons, by a system that will give
efficiency. Classes in colleges or elsewhere attended to. N.B. A select
assortment of fencing apparatus and boxing gloves for sale.</div>
</blockquote>
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In his afterword in the Monstery biography, Wolf reproduces a brochure for Monstery's "School at Arms" in Chicago around 1890. Among other courses, there is a "Complete Course in Knife Fighting" offered for $15.
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">More on Monstery <a href="http://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/monstery_thomas.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2012/01/colonel-thomas-hoyer-monstery-1824-1901.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </span>
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Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-42704067235716992142013-05-06T19:29:00.000-04:002013-05-08T12:34:39.226-04:00Inside a Sheffield Knife Factory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you've ever wondered what it looked like in one of the great English knife factories of the 19th century, this silent video should give you a pretty good idea. Titled "<a href="http://yorkshirefilmarchive.com/film/made-sheffield?destination=search%2Fapachesolr_search%3Fpage%3D1%26filters%3Dtype%253Ayfa_film%2520title%253ASheffield%26solrsort%3Dscore%2520desc%252C%2520sis_cck_field_film_id%2520asc%26highlight%3DSheffield%26q_op%3DAND&highlight=Sheffield" target="_blank">Made in Sheffield</a>," it is 13:23 minutes long and was filmed in 1954. Don't let the date fool you--the machinery and manufacturing techniques look very 19th century, as does the tremendous amount of hand labor involved.<br />
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We see a craftsman making a small blade for a pocket knife, and later, another assembling dinner knives. Many of the methods would be the same for bowie knife production.<br />
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Because the film is silent, it is hard to understand some of what is going on. The website provides the following explanation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is a film made by Mr Ibberson when he was Master Cutler at Sheffield. It shows aspects of the Master Cutler’s Hall and the process of making hand-made cutlery in a small factory.<br />
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The film opens with a view over Sheffield Town Hall and the city centre, showing trams and City Hall. In the industrial area of Sheffield, the smoking chimneys of the factories can be seen along the skyline. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10mOEsJckbLN4fT7ppexa72tZw4uHzJd6oIpfN7-gQWga2bc23CwtmDv-IBHWFXHCKI4uGx9mRf5QsQG5tfhhdRw2iQJqoSdeT7_fBJkmneBmi9teuOmMGiFegbAvJX45j_MRJO76Y90/s1600/Sheffield+skyline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10mOEsJckbLN4fT7ppexa72tZw4uHzJd6oIpfN7-gQWga2bc23CwtmDv-IBHWFXHCKI4uGx9mRf5QsQG5tfhhdRw2iQJqoSdeT7_fBJkmneBmi9teuOmMGiFegbAvJX45j_MRJO76Y90/s320/Sheffield+skyline.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is a close-up of an emblem with a figure of an elephant's head. Inside the Cutler’s Hall, a young woman descends the staircase, knocks on the door of the Master Cutler, and enters. The Master Cutler shows her a book of old records and then a plaque on the wall of previous occupants of the post, going back to 1624 with Robert Sorsby. They look through another old book with records belonging to the previous Master Cutler, showing the 315th Cutler’s Feast of 17th April, 1951. There is a signature of ‘Elizabeth R’ and ‘Philip’. They then look at a collection of coins mounted on a wall and a letter of thanks to M Hunter, Master Cutler, signed by ‘Palmerston’. The two of them go to the main meeting room. </blockquote>
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In the next scene, an elderly man works an old forge. Here he bangs a red hot piece of metal into shape on an anvil. He stokes his furnace and works a bellow. There is a close-up of a pen knife blade.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwyp6mGs0hPdpuztf75U8SD_cUXnQtTcVvVWJfOA5AQJqZzonRhwKOPQKHWKd79T40efXoxnBmbEW9eiLknOPvph1fSrT5-u7iB13QoOX-N6sjTI1Xlojd7Xz4T27WzyAi-6wlUbLGTw/s1600/Hammering+blade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVwyp6mGs0hPdpuztf75U8SD_cUXnQtTcVvVWJfOA5AQJqZzonRhwKOPQKHWKd79T40efXoxnBmbEW9eiLknOPvph1fSrT5-u7iB13QoOX-N6sjTI1Xlojd7Xz4T27WzyAi-6wlUbLGTw/s320/Hammering+blade.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNDwq1s6mf0wLxcgQUKLGIkzstQ9UgrrAHRU1P5k4_sBFk0C_zb9LFxtvByTG4v6aU37iV2xplckQXs3aTa8JoUlPYV-IduatxeiG4prV_Qx2ntCw-B65kdAhRiuCGv5739t5W9IesPk/s1600/Blacksmith+blade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNDwq1s6mf0wLxcgQUKLGIkzstQ9UgrrAHRU1P5k4_sBFk0C_zb9LFxtvByTG4v6aU37iV2xplckQXs3aTa8JoUlPYV-IduatxeiG4prV_Qx2ntCw-B65kdAhRiuCGv5739t5W9IesPk/s320/Blacksmith+blade.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The woman is then shown around by another man, stopping to watch a workman sharpening a blade on a grindstone. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgizLS4TJbnjWxrf3coEhP3gzybmixDA8k9xdN4twfZnu5pA_XnAWG500-WY_Wto53dLxpgCayWibOmBMeN53uKRTPzVBF_k6alyQUpNujbwXRrDHzEAi4jqb-Dp3-A6S8cJ8UMpJfeqmA/s1600/Blade+shaping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgizLS4TJbnjWxrf3coEhP3gzybmixDA8k9xdN4twfZnu5pA_XnAWG500-WY_Wto53dLxpgCayWibOmBMeN53uKRTPzVBF_k6alyQUpNujbwXRrDHzEAi4jqb-Dp3-A6S8cJ8UMpJfeqmA/s320/Blade+shaping.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixu23II2vWZJgZU14ZylMZpK0jj4UR4PAXdMFZVhdTauheSFK7mV53jEvG3cfLPGvuzTjd9vYCoRBrxlbYSjpsqcJskh50fmrgOoIW78u2nziQgqH6tAaAhgfvsDEDdC3-rdb3U2Jf2YQ/s1600/Blade+shaping+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixu23II2vWZJgZU14ZylMZpK0jj4UR4PAXdMFZVhdTauheSFK7mV53jEvG3cfLPGvuzTjd9vYCoRBrxlbYSjpsqcJskh50fmrgOoIW78u2nziQgqH6tAaAhgfvsDEDdC3-rdb3U2Jf2YQ/s320/Blade+shaping+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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They walk through the factory and watch another workman using an implement with a bow and string. He holds this against his chest to make a small indentation into a piece of metal. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfULOqDBfvE2IIn3ZHLF2ZjdStGt1gK0p9aQ-Xqz_K6c82yYEcJXGlibFsVyX5KxYdbtwvunAU3w-DIm-F2nnhYT7GxOQqWJjdv59sI4BRnvOktClfYNG0qha4J3Tp3-yTfxewKLLOEs/s1600/Scale+making.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfULOqDBfvE2IIn3ZHLF2ZjdStGt1gK0p9aQ-Xqz_K6c82yYEcJXGlibFsVyX5KxYdbtwvunAU3w-DIm-F2nnhYT7GxOQqWJjdv59sI4BRnvOktClfYNG0qha4J3Tp3-yTfxewKLLOEs/s320/Scale+making.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>This worker appears to be working on the cases for case knives. </i></div>
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The woman then views a selection of finished pen knives. A workman fashions a blade from red hot steel using a mechanical hammer, and another uses a grinder. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZR_tixC4xp9q4mA6BI7eeZN97CRRFe_YWW6nym3wKX4nZSwK9yaSncikyt3-YciJQx5aeXaJRiC5jKGLN4LBSj8P6GnyQnfE8HUd35-TUNrM1LHAixZCVyMIGsZNqoDgUxJkIlQVWZr0/s1600/Metal+shaping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZR_tixC4xp9q4mA6BI7eeZN97CRRFe_YWW6nym3wKX4nZSwK9yaSncikyt3-YciJQx5aeXaJRiC5jKGLN4LBSj8P6GnyQnfE8HUd35-TUNrM1LHAixZCVyMIGsZNqoDgUxJkIlQVWZr0/s320/Metal+shaping.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then a woman polishes blades in one machine, and another uses a machine which holds many blades at once. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcWVw10sODyM_FNJMhsXfHlkQzwYe4lVtpX8vqE1_TtrGXy0V33f619eGGMOb15U3nOs7sAQvcn5lrx5gl84H6Sl2OtHbcg-lMP45mFB7hsY8f0MJGPpUc3qmvzlm5iNIjKRyqqV03Yg/s1600/Blade+sharpener+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcWVw10sODyM_FNJMhsXfHlkQzwYe4lVtpX8vqE1_TtrGXy0V33f619eGGMOb15U3nOs7sAQvcn5lrx5gl84H6Sl2OtHbcg-lMP45mFB7hsY8f0MJGPpUc3qmvzlm5iNIjKRyqqV03Yg/s320/Blade+sharpener+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Worker pushes blades between two spinning buffing wheels.</i></div>
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<i> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2r8lgHcpZM-vAYNnc86i1LrDZ6bt5e-A7-jnlLN_W-j9BFrFyiuInPHCviaiGzuD0Ql7-oDDFzLG_HuKdJ0FkiBokPSA-Hyqa19vNnY1IVs7b2iw7qrGZsvVwNhAmzYW2f2vkFc1-ONU/s1600/Blade+Polishing+machine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2r8lgHcpZM-vAYNnc86i1LrDZ6bt5e-A7-jnlLN_W-j9BFrFyiuInPHCviaiGzuD0Ql7-oDDFzLG_HuKdJ0FkiBokPSA-Hyqa19vNnY1IVs7b2iw7qrGZsvVwNhAmzYW2f2vkFc1-ONU/s320/Blade+Polishing+machine.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-lYY47ITkAthTtfi8zT4Wm53usU5QzBrjvfyhBl77CBaObbbM3n6gfdOUp51Nh7RgxW-xMgp-mJjjUPctpLXKkEjOkwpIgIVJ0P8RQrfwRz9VKtYR3p8W7A26sYWT1WBiMcD2GGiaDFA/s1600/Blade+polisher+cu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-lYY47ITkAthTtfi8zT4Wm53usU5QzBrjvfyhBl77CBaObbbM3n6gfdOUp51Nh7RgxW-xMgp-mJjjUPctpLXKkEjOkwpIgIVJ0P8RQrfwRz9VKtYR3p8W7A26sYWT1WBiMcD2GGiaDFA/s320/Blade+polisher+cu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i> In this close-up, worker appears to be adding rosin powder to a machine that polishes many blades at once.</i></div>
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In another room, a workman attaches handles to the knives, one at a time. These he then checks to make sure that they are straight. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGNBlNUkTV-okAVLOKoHTiZhXK6y7fo0pWZ3Nhy9KQzsUilBQtW7LJn18RNu4rQJAw9R11_Vciw_VK2o7wNsmsGoMzb9iOSDEht4VxdymNuPHJmk4MkktwkompowxkNw_Esefl3G9BfA/s1600/Placing+knife+in+press.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGNBlNUkTV-okAVLOKoHTiZhXK6y7fo0pWZ3Nhy9KQzsUilBQtW7LJn18RNu4rQJAw9R11_Vciw_VK2o7wNsmsGoMzb9iOSDEht4VxdymNuPHJmk4MkktwkompowxkNw_Esefl3G9BfA/s320/Placing+knife+in+press.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZbNaVuxGrkuztkMPKVLONwRIqx_ms0Zsdiqip7as3Tsv5nnSAi0Yy_0jWluhTVIOj5lYwNN-ZkA2SH6ggShhOXSwT2GFdfFj01R8bHjbjxb58hmJUEHanWqqR2NnUv53tUB8J4pmpTQI/s1600/Two-hand+handle+fitting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZbNaVuxGrkuztkMPKVLONwRIqx_ms0Zsdiqip7as3Tsv5nnSAi0Yy_0jWluhTVIOj5lYwNN-ZkA2SH6ggShhOXSwT2GFdfFj01R8bHjbjxb58hmJUEHanWqqR2NnUv53tUB8J4pmpTQI/s320/Two-hand+handle+fitting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Fitting a handle to a spike-tanged knife blade with a hand-operated press. </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTqSedyNW0H-_6sDkocLinwzbR-I5YqEv0RjgK7stpq52hMmx0dQxNJ5PD-4tL5cxNCBucr2MsyQxLiqZxpQ73PAcFm3gPwFJ1mpMFqJuOSvc4ewVjI5x1AxwxpTrJhGZytwLih9kNcx8/s1600/Fitted+blade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTqSedyNW0H-_6sDkocLinwzbR-I5YqEv0RjgK7stpq52hMmx0dQxNJ5PD-4tL5cxNCBucr2MsyQxLiqZxpQ73PAcFm3gPwFJ1mpMFqJuOSvc4ewVjI5x1AxwxpTrJhGZytwLih9kNcx8/s320/Fitted+blade.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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An engraver uses a machine for engraving the maker’s name, and ‘Made in Sheffield.’ This machine engraves several knives simultaneously. </blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFghrkm4LJFEmfoVGRi3GCRuq1HIp2bCDNcULeQKKgaxkLPG-wsa3SMzhudmAd3hqw6M5sIgMPXFd1ZL3ekQRMfQjMH90CahsKmixlezArRMXX8J3yHse4CYF-ZbNQoix_RUk-a0_Y1M/s1600/Blade+engraver+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFghrkm4LJFEmfoVGRi3GCRuq1HIp2bCDNcULeQKKgaxkLPG-wsa3SMzhudmAd3hqw6M5sIgMPXFd1ZL3ekQRMfQjMH90CahsKmixlezArRMXX8J3yHse4CYF-ZbNQoix_RUk-a0_Y1M/s320/Blade+engraver+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_FvQM1t_KQpgWqlU_Lfpd5obxFt3LUWp90yMeI7Jz22XWXjqRY5POuUFfL6MCwvYUERR9eSSOedzXUKQ8kqmPSICL6YfN887rkLQat2ZpIVPWatK8f1d1jj7z3bwtjNKX32G23qbnlA/s1600/Blade+engraver+cu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL_FvQM1t_KQpgWqlU_Lfpd5obxFt3LUWp90yMeI7Jz22XWXjqRY5POuUFfL6MCwvYUERR9eSSOedzXUKQ8kqmPSICL6YfN887rkLQat2ZpIVPWatK8f1d1jj7z3bwtjNKX32G23qbnlA/s320/Blade+engraver+cu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjz7nHHLiMj9SOKCqOn3VjCO9aUrjpFs2yIwbuWpwQtmian9oBlDlvA1LjF8EnfBhWQRm4_med9fyMpfbuciRK_C_nlruSV9tIX1ZXqDDUURfSh4aaw-36B5YGtqrU1RqVRyNvjU-zCM/s1600/Pantagraph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjz7nHHLiMj9SOKCqOn3VjCO9aUrjpFs2yIwbuWpwQtmian9oBlDlvA1LjF8EnfBhWQRm4_med9fyMpfbuciRK_C_nlruSV9tIX1ZXqDDUURfSh4aaw-36B5YGtqrU1RqVRyNvjU-zCM/s320/Pantagraph.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>As a worker traces the template, it is engraved on a number of knives simultaneously through the pantagraphic process.</i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mr Ibberson and the young woman move into a dining room where they are shown different types of cutlery, from the very small to the very large, possibly by Mrs Ibberson. The film closes with a shot of the table laid out with cutlery.<br />
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Title - The End<br />
Written and Produced by Arthur Swinson </blockquote>
<i>Thanks to Kenneth Pantling for directing me to this site.
</i>Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-66576567581120437312013-03-07T09:25:00.000-05:002013-05-08T12:29:49.558-04:00Señora Candelaria's Account of the Death of Jim Bowie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdY4x5_bHF8ggKVlnbUWeTsdBDb1XBr-g4JxtG7kNZo9Zy0_53sBH5azpZap4vskfYoag_aeiDUMgDoxBW-gZjUqUcwEely-_fy8243J-UYXv2N7kxGinaNE0wSCRVSEV2BN7kPocjRo/s1600/Remember%2520the%2520Alamo,%2520San%2520Antonio,%2520Texas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdY4x5_bHF8ggKVlnbUWeTsdBDb1XBr-g4JxtG7kNZo9Zy0_53sBH5azpZap4vskfYoag_aeiDUMgDoxBW-gZjUqUcwEely-_fy8243J-UYXv2N7kxGinaNE0wSCRVSEV2BN7kPocjRo/s320/Remember%2520the%2520Alamo,%2520San%2520Antonio,%2520Texas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
March 6, 2013 was the 177th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo and the death of Jim Bowie.<br />
<br />
I have come across several newspaper articles featuring interviews with Señora Candelaria Villanueva, who claimed to have been nursing Jim Bowie at the Alamo at the time of its fall. Until her death in 1899, Señora Candelaria made a small income by recounting her story and posing for tourists' photos. As the website of the <a href="http://www.tshaonline.org/day-by-day/31063" target="_blank">Texas State Historical Association</a> puts it, "Since evidence of survivors is sparse, her claims may never be confirmed, but in 1891 the Texas legislature granted her a pension of twelve dollars a month for being an Alamo survivor and for her work with smallpox victims in San Antonio."<br />
<br />
The following account of both those events is from <a href="http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA456&lpg=PA456&dq=senora+candelaria+alamo&id=KWMfAQAAMAAJ&ots=BpjdFRE9dh#v=onepage&q=senora%20candelaria%20alamo&f=false" target="_blank"><i>Hero Tales of the American Soldier and Sailor</i></a> (1899), by James William Buell.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>FOR TEXAS INDEPENDENCE.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Story of the Most Terrible Battle ever Fought on American Soil.</b></div>
<br />
Senora Candelaria, A Witness.<br />
<br />
SENORA CANDELARIA, who died in San Antonio, Tex., on February 10, 1899, at the great age of 114 years, was the sole survivor of the Alamo. She alone could tell how Travis, Crockett, Bowie and 114 other heroes defended the old mission house for fifteen days against 5,000 Mexican regulars, led by the ferocious Santa Anna; how they held the Mexicans in check so that the Texans might rally to the defense of their homes; how they fought until they were overwhelmed and annihilated, and won this immortal legend for their monument:<br />
<br />
<i>"Thermopylae had its messenger of defeat, but the Alamo had none.''</i><br />
<br />
Three days before her death Señora Candelaria told the tragic story of the fiercest fight ever waged on American soil. Notwithstanding the great age of this extraordinary woman her mental faculties were singularly clear, her memory was unimpaired and her powers of description were remarkable, as the story taken from her lips and recorded here shows, constituting one of the most valuable contributions to history that was ever made.<br />
<br />
"Yes, it is true that I was in the Alamo during its siege and terrible fall, and I am the only survivor of that awful struggle.<br />
<br />
"Colonel Bowie died in my arms, shot dead by a Mexican bullet that grazed my own chin. Good old Davy Crockett died fighting like a wild beast within a few feet of me, and brave Colonel Travis within a few feet the other way, while all around in heaps lay the dead bodies of every man who had defended the Alamo, tumbled together with three dead Mexicans to every one of them.<br />
<br />
"I was in the fort as a nurse for Colonel Bowie. I was living in San Antonio, near by. Five days after the cannonading began in the fort—I can never forget that frightful, incessant rumble of guns!—five days after it began I received a letter from General Sam Houston, which I took as an order and obeyed immediately. It read: "' Candelarita,' as General Houston always called me, 'go and take care of Bowie, my brother, in the Alamo.' It was signed 'Houston.' Bowie had typhoid fever."<br />
<br />
Mme. Candelaria briefly recalled the events that led up to the tragedy and sketched the heroic men that figured in it. The commander of the garrison, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Barrett Travis, was a native of North Carolina, twenty-eight years old, six feet tall, a lawyer. He was on the proscribed list of Santa Anna. The second in command was Colonel James Bowie, famous as the inventor of the knife which bears his name. He was a native of Georgia. David Crockett was a native of Tennessee and a typical frontiersman, famous as a mighty hunter. He was elected for two terms in the House of Representatives, where he figured as a sort of eccentric. Failing a third term, he went to Texas. With twelve Tennesseeans he arrived in San Antonio three weeks before the siege of the Alamo.<br />
<br />
Determined to subjugate Texas, Santa Anna had pushed on through Mexico to San Antonio, appearing before the Texas city on February 22, 1836. After consolidating with Cos and Sesma, Santa Anna's army numbered between six and seven thousand men. This force had been depleted to about five thousand during the hard winter march.<br />
<br />
The small Texan garrison at San Antonio was taken by surprise and it hastily retreated across the river to the Alamo, Lieutenant A. M. Dickenson catching up his wife and child on his horse on the way.<br />
<br />
Santa Anna's demand for immediate surrender was answered by Colonel Travis with an emphatic "No" from a cannon. The blood-red flag of "no quarter" was hoisted on the tower of the church of San Fernando and the siege was begun.<br />
<br />
The mission of the Alamo was established by the Franciscan friars where it then stood, and still stands, in 1722. The buildings consisted of a church with walls of hewn stone 5 feet thick and 22 1/2 feet high. The church faced the river and the town. The central portion was roofless at the time of the siege, but arched rooms on each side of the entrance and the sacristy, which was used as a powder magazine, were strongly covered with a roof of masonry. The windows were high, close and narrow, to protect the congregation from Indian arrows.<br />
<br />
Adjoining the church was the convent yard, a hundred feet square, with walls 16 feet high and 3 1/2 feet thick, on the inside embanked by earth to half their height. At the further corner of the convent yard was a sally port, defended by a small redoubt. The convent and hospital building, of adobe bricks, two stories in height, extended along the west side of the yard 191 feet. The main plaza in front of the church and convent covered nearly three acres. It was enclosed by a wall 8 feet high and 33 inches thick.<br />
<br />
To defend this place Travis had fourteen pieces of artillery, but none of the Texans had been drilled in their use. It was impossible to perfectly guard so wide a space, so the defence was concentrated about the church and convent. Travis had been careless about provisions. Only three bushels of corn were found at first in the Alamo, but some eighty or ninety bushels were afterward discovered in one of the houses. When it took refuge in the Alamo the garrison numbered 145 men, which was increased during the siege to 177 men. Few as they were in number, the men were without military organization and were held together only by a common heroic purpose.<br />
<br />
Santa Anna erected batteries and prepared to make a long siege, rather than trust the results of an assault upon the stronghold. The defenders were equally cautious, and, husbanding their ammunition, made little use of their cannon, placing their reliance in the rifle, which they knew so well how to handle. General Castrillon attempted to build a bridge across the river, but the constructing party was within reach of the rifles of the Texans, and in a few minutes thirty were killed and the survivors withdrew.<br />
<br />
Little by little the Mexicans advanced, fighting during the day and pushing forward during the night, until the investment was nearly complete. On March 3 Travis sent his last message to the government. In it he said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am still here, in fine spirits and well-to-do. With 145 men I have held the place against a force variously estimated from between fifteen hundred to six thousand, and I shall continue to hold it until I get relief from my countrymen, or I will perish in its defence. We have had a shower of bombs and cannon balls continually falling among us the whole time, yet none of us have been injured. ... A blood-red flag waves from the church of Bexar and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels. . . . These threats have had no influence upon my men but to make them fight with desperation and that highsouled courage which characterizes the patriot who is willing to die in defence of his country, liberty and his honor, God and Texas, victory or death.</blockquote>
The Mexicans had effected little by their cannonade, their guns being only field pieces of light calibre. The Texans, however, were worn by constant vigilance and frequent alarms in expectation of an assault.<br />
<br />
After the last of Santa Anna's troops had arrived, on March 2, they took three days to rest. On the fifth the Mexican general held a council of war and determined on an assault the next day. In the meantime, Madame Candelaria had entered the Alamo to nurse Colonel Bowie.<br />
<br />
"After fighting like a demon for ten days," continued the centenarian, every muscle in her wrinkled face twitching as she warmed up to the most tragic part of her story, "brave Colonel Travis got word that no more men could come to his aid. He knew then that there was no hope, but he never thought of such a thing as giving up the Alamo; no, not he. He called his men together at night, told them how matters stood, and drawing a line on the ground with his sword, said: 'Those who want to fight it out with me come inside that line, and those who have had enough and think they can escape go outside.' All stepped over the line to Travis' side but one Mexican. Some say he escaped. I do not know what became of him.<br />
<br />
"All day and all night long there was shooting with cannons and with rifles. Sometimes the Mexicans got brave and advanced in small parties, but they were always driven back. God must have been with the Texans up to the last day, for not a man was killed until then, although bombs and cannon balls came thick and fast inside the fort at times, and bullets kept whizzing through the air.<br />
<br />
"All this time I was taking care of good Colonel Bowie. Besides his fever he was suffering from a fall from a platform. He was not able to get out into the yard to fight, but he would stay with his men, and I nursed him as well as I could.<br />
<br />
"With so many in the fort, and with working and shooting going on all about, it was not easy to take care of a man with a fever. But it made little difference, well or sick was all the same after Santa Anna's savage men broke into the fort. All were shot, clubbed or bayoneted to death together.<br />
<br />
"Between three and four o'clock in the morning of March 6, Sunday, the Mexican forces were formed for assault. The troops were divided into four columns and each column was supplied with scaling ladders, crowbars and axes. The cavalry were drawn around the fort to prevent any attempt at escape, but, laws! there wasn't any need of that!<br />
<br />
"Through the gray light of the morning the bugle sounded, and the bands began playing the Spanish air of 'Deguelo' (cut throat). It was the signal of no quarter. The troops came on a run. The men in the Alamo were ready for them, and they were received with a fire from the artillery and rifles which must have killed scores.<br />
<br />
"The column headed for the northern wall was driven back in a hurry by Davy Crockett and his men. The attack on the eastern and western walls failed, and then all four columns hurried around to the north side of the Alamo and were driven forward like cattle, by the blows and curses of their officers.<br />
<br />
"There was an awful drove of them—more men than I had ever seen together or ever have since. Once again the Texans drove them back, but on the next trial they scaled the wall, tumbling over it twenty at a time, while the retreating Texans shot them at a frightful rate. The Mexicans carried the redoubt at the sally port and swarmed into the convent yard, driving the defenders into the convent and hospital.<br />
<br />
"It was an awful scene—Mexicans and Texans all mixed up. The range was too short for shooting, so they clubbed their rifles and fought hand to hand. The terrible bowie knife did great service. Some of the enemy turned the captured cannon against the soft adobe walls and began firing. Soon all was bang! bang! smoke, swearing and general confusion. Crazed men were fighting everywhere, bullets rattled against the stones and blood spattered all about. Oh, there was never anything so bad before and I know there never has been since.<br />
<br />
"The Texans fought from room to room in the convent, using their clubbed rifles and their bowie knives so long as they had life in them. Colonel Travis and Colonel Bonham fell dead early in the struggle near the door. Twice the Mexicans fired a howitzer loaded with grapeshot into the big room of the hospital. Fifteen Texans were found dead in that room and the bodies of forty-two Mexicans lay just outside.<br />
<br />
"The last of the fight took place in the church, into which the Mexicans poured in droves, having got through the stockade. Seeing that it was all up with the defenders, Major T. C. Evans started for the powder magazine to blow up the building, as agreed upon by the defenders. But as he entered the door he was shot dead. I shudder when I think what would have happened if he had succeeded. I wouldn't be here, that's certain; no, there wouldn't have been even one survivor of the Alamo. Poor Davy Crockett was killed near the entrance to the church, his rifle in his hands. He was the last to die.<br />
<br />
"I had hard work keeping Colonel Bowie on his couch. He got hold of his two pistols and began firing them off, shouting all the while to his men not to give up. He was raving. I had moved his cot to the arched room to the left of the entrance to the church.<br />
<br />
"Finally a bullet whizzed through the door, grazing my chin—see, it left a scar which is there to-day—and killed Bowie. I had the Colonel in my arms. I was just giving him a drink. Mrs. Dickenson and her child had gone into the room opposite the one I was in. A wounded man, Walters, I think was his name, ran into that room with Mexicans after him. They shot him and then hoisted his body high on their bayonets until his blood ran down on them.<br />
<br />
"At nine o'clock the Alamo had fallen. Not one of its defenders was alive. It seemed to me that the fighting lasted days instead of only a few hours.<br />
<br />
"The Mexicans spared all of us women and the children in the fort. The survivors were Mrs. Dickenson and her child; Mrs. Alsbury, a niece and adopted daughter of Governor Veramendi, and her little sister, who had gone to the Alamo with Colonel Bowie, their brother-in-law; a negro boy, servant of Colonel Travis, and myself. They all died long, long ago, and poor old Señora Candelaria cannot live much longer.<br />
<br />
"After the fighting was ended, five men who had hidden themselves were found by the victors. By this time Santa Anna had left his shelter and come to the shattered fort. The five men were brought before him. A kind officer asked that they be kept prisoners, but Santa Anna laughed and ordered his soldiers to kill the men with their bayonets.<br />
<br />
"Then, by order of Santa Anna, the bodies of all the dead Texans were piled in a heap with brush and wood and burned. That was the end of the heroes of that great struggle. Is it any wonder that the old senora's thin blood runs a little faster whenever she hears 'Remember the Alamo?'"<br />
<br />
Señora Candelaria did not tell the story as connectedly as it is here set down. She was very feeble then, but possibly realizing that her end was near she threw all of the fire left in her worn old brain into the telling. Sitting in the sunshine in sight of the Alamo she loved so much, she unfolded the narrative slowly, with frequent intervals for rest. She spoke mostly in Spanish, with occasionally a sentence in broken English. Her voice had lost its force, but her hands had not. Her gestures were eloquent. Much of the story was told by gestures, for which words have been supplied.<br />
<br />
Apart from her wonderful experience in the Alamo, Señora Candelaria's life was full of incident. She was born amid turmoil. Her parents, Don Jose Antonio and Señora Castanon, led a party of settlers along the Rio Grande in 1785. They halted for a night on the bank of the river where Laredo now stands. That night they were attacked by Indians. During the panic which ensued, while the settlers were shouting, clapping their hands and swaying the bushes in order to lead the savages astray as to their number, the future Madame Candelaria was born. After soldiers from Rio Grande had driven the Indians away, the settlers returned and founded the town of Laredo. There the battle-born Mexican child grew to womanhood, noted for her beauty. When she was eighteen she married and moved to San Antonio. Her first husband was killed by Indians while on a surveying expedition. She married again, and her second husband met an equally violent death. She had three sons, only one of whom lived to manhood.<br />
<br />
The State of Texas long ago voted her a small pension, and she lived in a little cottage near the Alamo. Toward the end she grew blind, and tottered the last few steps of her long road to the grave in darkness.<br />
<br />
Texas will see that her memory is kept green.</blockquote>
Many authentic accounts of the Alamo's fall can be read <a href="http://www.fold3.com/page/1157_the_fall_of_the_alamo/" target="_blank">here</a>.
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-14101209136685668662013-01-22T15:05:00.001-05:002013-05-20T10:11:51.266-04:00A Tale of James Black and the Bowie KnifeThe following is excerpted from an article titled "A Survey of Historic Washington, Arkansas," written by Francis Irby Gwaltney and published in the <i>Arkansas Historical Quarterly</i>, Winter 1958. Unfortunately, the material is drawn entirely from Raymond Thorp's book <i>Bowie Knife</i>, which includes many apocryphal tales. It is presented here as for historical interest, as one of the many legends surrounding the birth of the bowie knife.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>THE BOWIE KNIFE</b></div>
<br />
James Bowie, born in Logan County, Kentucky, enjoyed a rather wide reputation as a knife fighter long before he gave his name to the famous knife made in Washington. He was the principal in the so-called "Battle on Vidalia Sandbar," in which no less than a dozen men were killed. <b>[PK: This is of course an exaggeration.]</b><br />
<br />
But the principal character in the story of the Bowie Knife is not James Bowie of Vidalia, Memphis, and the Alamo. It is James Black of Washington, Arkansas.<br />
<br />
James Black was the man who both designed and forged the Knife. It had a curved forward blade, a short dagger-like backhand blade and it was made from steel which was tempered by a secret process known only to James Black.<br />
<br />
Bowie, already a famous man, won everlasting fame when he died at the Alamo. Black died an old man, blind and insane.<br />
<br />
James Black was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, May 1, 1800. His mother died when he was four; and shortly thereafter James had a stepmother. He didn't like the woman and when he was eight years old he ran away to Philadelphia. Picked up by authorities, he refused to tell who he was and where he lived. According to the custom of the time, he was apprenticed out to a manufacturer. He was of strong physique and he was thought to be eleven years old.<br />
<br />
The man to whom James Black was apprenticed was a manufacturer of silver plate. Black became an apt pupil. When he was officially twenty-one but actually eighteen, his apprenticeship served, he decided to follow the tide of the western migration.<br />
<br />
After some wandering about, he landed at Fulton, Arkansas Territory, on the Red River in Hempstead County, and found his way to Washington in 1824. The town had recently been staked out by Elijah Stuart and others.<br />
<br />
Black applied for and received employment with a blacksmith named Shaw. It was agreed that Shaw and his two sons would assume responsibility for the rough work, shoeing horses, etc., and Black was to devote his time to the manufacture of guns and knives, an agreement which afforded Black the opportunity he wanted, that of working with precious metals.<br />
<br />
Because of Black's skill, the business flourished and Black was taken into partnership. It was a friendly arrangement and Black and one of Shaw's sons became inseparable friends. And Black fell in love with Shaw's daughter, Anne. Nobody knows why Shaw objected to the match. He was, however, violently opposed to the possibility of a marriage.<br />
<br />
Black, discouraged but willing to try a plan, made a settlement with Shaw for Black's share of the business and then he moved further into the wilderness. He intended to return because, not understanding, Shaw's real character, he reasoned that the man would relent and the marriage would be approved.<br />
<br />
But when he returned to Washington, he discovered that Shaw not only refused to allow the marriage, he also refused to pay Black that part of the money he still owed on the dissolution of the partnership. Disillusioned but not necessarily wiser, Black pressed Anne to marry him over her father's objections. They were married and Black had incurred Shaw's almost manic hatred.<br />
<br />
The marriage was happy enough. And Black prospered. Orders for knives were so frequent that Black took his friend and now brother-in-law into the business. But Black never allowed young Shaw nor, for that matter, even Anne to witness his technique in making the knives. He worked alone, allowing only a boy, Daniel Webster Jones, later governor of the state, to enter the curtained-off portion at the rear of the shop.<br />
<br />
According to Governor Jones, in whose home Black spent his tragic, declining years, Black didn't consider a knife worthy of carrying his name until it passed what Black called "the hickory test." The blade, when finished, was used to whittle on a piece of seasoned hickory for a period of an hour. If, after having received such punishment, the knife failed to shave the hair from a man's arm, the blade was thrown away."<br />
<br />
Of course such skill and devotion to the making of a good product caused Black's knife to become known all over the South and the Southwest. And then, in 1830, James Bowie headed for the plantation belonging to his brother, Rezin (or sometimes spelled "Reason"), stopped in Washington to order one of the knives he had heard about.<br />
<br />
Some accounts state that Bowie cut the model for his knife out of a cigar box top, others says he drew a picture of it on a piece of paper, and another merely says that he whittled out a model. Any of the three versions will do, for the model wasn't used.<br />
<br />
Bowie, when he returned to Washington some four weeks later, found that Black had made the knife as ordered, but he had also designed and made another knife. Black, knowing of Bowie's reputation as a knife fighter, delicately said that he thought a knife should be made for peculiar purposes.<br />
<br />
The knife designed by Black was the one Bowie chose to buy. Soon thereafter, on a journey to Texas, Bowie was set upon by three ruffians who had been hired by one of Bowie's enemies for the express purpose of killing him. They attacked from ambush. Bowie was slightly wounded on the leg, but the wound didn't stop him from killing all three men. The knife was used to completely sever the head of one man from his body. A second man was disemboweled by a vicious upthrust. The third man made an effort to flee but Bowie, his leg wounded, overtook the man and, with one blow, split the man's skull to the shoulders.<br />
<br />
The incident became, of course, a piece of lurid news which was printed in almost every paper in the country. James Black became famous. The knife was the most terribly bloody devise of its kind ever made. Orders poured in for a "knife like Bowie's." Then, as more knives were made, it became known simply as "The Bowie Knife."<br />
<br />
Even intrepid Davy Crockett, in his Autobiography when he met Bowie and had occasion to see Bowie draw the knife, remarked: "Colonel, you might tickle a fellow's ribs a long time with this little instrument before you'd make him laugh; and a many a time I have seen a man puke at the thought of the point touching the pit of his stomach."<br />
<br />
Black became the father of three boys and a girl. Anne died in 1836, Black had tried, but he had failed in his efforts to appease his father-in-law.<br />
<br />
It was in the summer of 1839 that the tragedy of Black's final days began, although he was to live many years. Black was very ill and was being cared for by his children. It should be pointed out, however needlessly, that the children present were the grandchildren of Shaw.<br />
<br />
Shaw, seeing his opportunity, attacked the sick Black with a heavy club. Black's death would have come then had it not been for his dog. The beast rushed in and seized Shaw's throat. Shaw tore himself loose from the dog and fled.<br />
<br />
But the damage had been done. The beating administered by Shaw and his club caused a severe inflammation of Black's eyes. He became almost totally blind. As soon as he was well enough, he traveled to the east in an effort to find a doctor who could help him. A quack in Cincinnati ruined what vision Black had left. He returned to Washington, his finances damaged by the search for help, and there he discovered that his father-in-law had somehow managed to liquidate all of Black's property and had fled with the proceeds from it.<br />
<br />
The remainder of the tragedy can be best told by a manuscript written by Governor Jones and published in the book, <i>Bowie-Knife</i>, by Thorp:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dr. Isaac N. Jones was my father, and at the time James Black came to live with us, I was an infant just beginning to Prattle. My father used his best skill in an effort to restore Black's sight, but all to no avail. Being honest, he told his patient that it would be futile to torture him with further treatments. "But said my father," you need have no fears. You shall live with us always."<br />
<br />
My father died in February, 1858; but Black, with the full consent of the family, remained with us. Following the decease of my mother in January, 1867, I took him to my home, where he lived until his death, which occurred June 2, 1872. Altogether, he lived with us some thirty years.<br />
<br />
Black was always a welcome member in our family. His kindly mien and fatherly advise to my brothers and myself endeared him to us all. He was especially attached to my eldest brother, Isaac, and after Isaac's death at the age of fourteen, the old man transferred his affection to me. While he lived in my father's house, the doctor's office was his room, and I slept there frequently, read to him, and led him about the premises.<br />
<br />
Mr. Black was a man of extraordinary memory, and was always made the referee in controversies among the older settlers when they failed to agree concerning some occurrence of earlier times. Time and again, when I was a boy, he would say to me that notwithstanding his great misfortune. God had blessed him by giving him a good home among friends, and that one day, when I reached maturity, he would disclose to me his secret of tempering steel.<br />
<br />
I did not press him as to this, although naturally very curious, and it was not until my mother's death, when he moved into my home, that it seemed he was getting ready to trust me with his secret.</blockquote>
On May 1, 1870, which was his seventieth birthday, Mr. Black told me that, since in the ordinary course of nature he could not expect to live much longer, he had decided that the time had arrived.<br />
<br />
He stated that I was old enough and sufficiently well acquainted with the affairs of the world to properly utilize the secret, and that if I would procure pen, ink and paper, he would communicate his knowledge to me.<br />
<br />
I lost no time in bringing the materials to him. After sitting in silence for awhile, he said: "In the first place"---and then stopped and began rubbing his brow with the fingers of his right hand.<br />
<br />
He continued in this way for some minutes, as if trying to reconstruct something in his mind, and then, still rubbing his brow, said: "Go away and come back in an hour."<br />
<br />
I did so, but remained close to the open door where I could see him, and not for one moment did he take his fingers away from his brow, or change his position.<br />
<br />
At the expiration of the hour I went in and spoke to him. Without a perceptible movement, he said: "Go out again, and come back in an hour's time."<br />
<br />
This I did, and the same process was again repeated, and again. When I came back to him at the end of the third hour Mr. Black burst into tears, saying: "My God! It is all gone from me! All these years I have accepted the kindness of these good people in the belief that I could partly repay it with this, my only legacy. Daniel, there are ten or twelve processes through which I put my knives---but I cannot remember even one of them. A few hours ago, when I told you to get the writing materials, everything was fresh in my mind. Now it has flown. I have put it off too long!"
I looked at Mr. Black in awe and wonder. His forehead was raw and bleeding, where the skin and the flesh had been rubbed off by his fingers. His sightless eyes were filled with tears, and his face expressed utter grief and despair. I could only say: "Never mind, Mr. Black. It is all in the wisdom of God. He knows best; and undoubtedly He had His reasons for allowing the secret of the Bowie-Knife to remain with You.<br />
<br />
The inventor of the Bowie-Knife lived with me slightly more than two years following this scene---but from that moment he was a hopeless imbecile. The struggle to impart the secret had destroyed his mind. God gave him the secret for His own purposes, but was unwilling for him to impart it to others.<br />
So the old artisan, "a hopeless imbecile" because, indirectly, of the hostility of his father-in-law, was buried in the old cemetery at Washington.<br />
<br />
It is called The Old Presbyterian Cemetery today. It has gone unused since pioneer days. The grave is unmarked because wooden headstones were used in those days and soon rotted.<br />
<br />
Few authentic Bowie-Knives can be found today. Certain people do own knives they call Bowies, but the shape of the weapon was characteristic enough that the real thing is unmistakable.<br />
<br />
For the artisan Black was the only one who made the real Bowie-Knife. Millions of knives were manufactured, mostly in England, and employed the shape of the blade, but the authentic Bowie-Knife was made by James Black at Washington, Arkansas.<br />
<br />
To all but those who are interested in the true history of the Bowie-Knife, James Black is forgotten. Recently, however, since the publication of a popular novel <i>The Iron Mistress</i>, by Paul I. Wellman, and the subsequent motion picture, Black has become slightly more widely remembered.<br />
<br />
Bowie himself, of course, died a death spectacular enough to match the life he had led. Killed at the Alamo, along with another one-time visitor in Washington, Davy Crockett, he used his Washington-designed and Black-made knife as a last melodramatic gesture: the knife was still with him, its blade bloody, and the sentimental Mexicans, appreciative of both the talent of the man and the effectiveness of the weapon, tossed both man and Knife upon the pyre. Bowie and his knife, along with the corpses of the other defenders of the Alamo, were burned. The knife has lived on, both in legend and history, and possibly for that reason, Bowie himself is remembered.</blockquote>
Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2919530564396168430.post-82569189478933777582013-01-12T14:39:00.001-05:002013-01-12T14:39:38.474-05:00Knife vs. Fixed BayonetThe following article appeared in <i>The Critic</i> in 1888. The author, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Forbes">Archibald Forbes</a> (1838 - 1900), a British war correspondent, was responding to a letter published previously by someone identified only as "C.B." Forbes makes the case for the fixed bayonet over bowie knives, kukris, or other stabbing implements.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A Good Word for the Bayonet.
[Archibald Forbes, in <i>The Pall Mall Budget</i>.]<br />
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BOTH in Afghanistan and in Zululand it befell me to see something of the use of the cold steel, and I cannot agree with your correspondent 'C. B.' that against foes armed with stabbing implements as their main weapon, any advantage would be gained by discarding the bayonet for the short swords, the Ghoorka kukrie, the American bowie knife, or any other kindred instrument. Napier was right; the bayonet is the 'queen of weapons'—that is, of all varieties of <i>l’arme blanche</i> [bladed weapons]; of death-dealing instruments that one man can wield, the repeating rifle is unquestionably the most lethal.<br />
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Let me clear the air a little before coming to 'close quarters' with ' C. B.'—not, I hope, with 'tiger-like ferocity.' Hand-to-hand fighting is a thing of the past, except in campaigns against savages such as our three latest—those in Afghanistan, in Zululand, and this one on the Red Sea coast. The bayonet was but once used in the Franco-German war—in a street-fight in the village of Villiers-le-Bel; and only once to my knowledge in the Russo-Turkish war, at Skobeleff's final capture of the redoubt outside Plevna on the Loftcha road. Our men occasionally used the bayonet at Inkerman, where ' C. B.' thinks a shorter weapon would have been 'serviceable.' Why? They were fighting with men armed with bayonets like themselves, and in the single combats it was the man who was handiest with his bayonet who won. Those men of ours at Inkerman who were armed with shorter weapons—namely, the officers with their regulation swords—had rather a bad time against the longer-reaching bayonets. The Prussian infantry did, and perhaps still do, carry a short, straight sword, without a guard, which is never used in fighting; and in the Russian army the Guards and Grenadiers carried a similar weapon, concerning which Lieutenant Greene truly observes that the 'only use to which this antiquated weapon was put was in hacking twigs and wood for campfires, for which it is not adapted, and it will probably soon be abolished.'<br />
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We come then to 'special service'—our combats against savages. If there is one certainty in war it is this, that no beings armed with the white weapon—be they Zulus, Afghans, Arabs, or demons incarnate—can get within striking distance of, let alone break into, a resolute square armed with breechloaders. As an old dragoon, I make bold to hold that a cavalry charge ridden home can make a fiercer and weightier onslaught than any footmen in the world, yet the bayonet-fringed square with but muzzle-loading muskets remained intact against the most furious cavalry charges. Even a square of Persian infantry—poor creatures as the Persians were—held its own against our Indian cavalry till Malcolmson rode at it as if it had been a fence. I fear there was very little bayonet work done at Isandlana, where the cause of the catastrophe was simply the absence of close formation. At Ulundi no Arabs could have 'meant it' more intensely than did the Zulus, yet not a Zulu got within twenty yards of Lord Chelmsford's close-locked square. Again at El Teb, while the square was maintained, no Arab fell but by the bullet; nor at Tamanieb could the furious fanatics get up to within striking distance of Redvers Buller's firm-gripped square formation from whose faces streamed the deadly hail. The Arabs did not break the square formed by the 2d Brigade at Tamanieb, nor could have broken it, had it been true to the square formation. The charge of the front face—I do not now care to inquire how that charge came about—dislocated the square, and then the gaps thus made gave the Arabs their opportunity. The square, it is true, is not a handy offensive formation, but I have the strongest conviction that savages can always be made to take the initiative with teasing and patience.<br />
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It is only if they will not do this that close-quarter fighting can come into requisition, and now I, too, close with ‘C. B.’ On the one hand, you have the Arab armed with a driving, stabbing spear, with a shaft six feet long. For the sake of the balance, he cannot grasp it at the butt, but the length of his reach, including his aim and thrown forward body, makes up for this. You have the other Arab armed with a cutting sword, short and one-handed, or longer and two-handed. Opposed to either you have Tommy Atkins, with his bayonet, a stabbing weapon with which he can lunge well on to six feet. If he knows how to use his bayonet the swordsman Arab cannot reach him, that is surely clear enough. In fighting the spearsman, given the two men of equal physical calibre, the bayonet-wielder should have the best of it. Both Arab and Briton are tied to stabbing practice; neither has a striking weapon while they are at ‘out-fighting’; but the bayonet has advantages not possessed by the spear. It has greater strength for the parry; by reason of the weight of the rifle, which is its shaft, it has greater force for the lunge than the spear, which, even when lead-weighted at the butt, can accumulate no such impetus of penetration. It is for these reasons that in the school of arms the skilled footman with the bayonet has the mastery of the smartest mounted lancer; with him the dismounted lancer is simply ‘not in it.’ But there is no question that, spite of all I have urged, the Arab with his spear has the advantage of the British soldier with his bayonet. Why, then? Simply because in the one case you have a man inured to suppleness by constant exercise, lean and lithe and sinewy, an acrobat in agility, keen of sight, awe-inspiring of aspect, utterly unhampered by vestments. On the other, a man mostly of moderate physique, not in the best of condition, cramped inside a tunic, constricted by belts, weighted with ammunition and appurtenances, and, above all, not a master of his weapon, superior as that weapon is; unused to bayonet play in contradistinction to the formal bayonet exercise, and none too much practised even in this latter. I should like to see the champion Arab of them all stand up spear in hand against such a man as Corporal Macpherson of the Blues armed with the bayonet. Some of your readers may have witnessed the Corporal-major’s exploits at the Agricultural Hall Tournaments. As to 'C. B.’s’ ‘trap’ argument against the bayonet, that applies to every stabbing weapon, but less to the bayonet than to any other, except the rapier. Its shape renders it more easily extricable than lance or sword, to say nothing of the pulling-out purchase afforded in the greater weight of its shaft—the rifle.
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Paul Kirchnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03426412455102496912noreply@blogger.com0