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Show I DAW CIBCTETT I -, f J Stm "EDE AHEAD"! n n ' : rf &y- ? ft N a - II rr f't f1tf PV; T4 ?' III llUM'cJ 1 lr m Ki 'J v ' '"f i a f " -n - fl Col.CrocKett Beat at If WMk a Shootinq McrtCh ivV). W Davy Brinqs. Home a Turkeu liffllil lltllJjf "Remember the Alamo!" Notes on the pictures: Photograph of the Alamo and portrait of Crockett, courtesy Howard C. Smith, San Antonio, Texas. "Davy Brings Home a Turkey" and "Davy in School," drawings draw-ings by Capt. John W. Thomason, Jr., U. S. M. C, In "The Adventures of Davy Crockett," courtesy Charles Scribner's Sons. "Remember the Alamo!" drawing by James MacDonald in "Davy Crockett," Crock-ett," courtesy Harcourt, Brace and Company; "Colonel Crockett Beat at a Shooting Match," an old wood-cut reproduced In Blair and Meine's "Mike Fink: King of Mississippi Keelboatmen," courtesy Henry Holt and Company. The Alamo i By ELMO SCOTT WATSON A FULL century has passed since he, I 8 typlcal "r0lfih-and-ready" fron- tiersman, was being lionized In YTYi half a dozen eastern cities as ' hi tflfl most-talked-of American of his day ; It has been 98 years i V since he died magnificently, In a (TO tSi manner that was a fitting climax Vj to his turbulent career; close - lwjr upon his moccaslned heels as 'iL SqJijjlJ) he flashes across the page of .piJ history come pressing a whole line of "Wild West" heroes whose renown might easily have eclipsed his; yet. In this year 1934 the name and fame of Davy Crockett still "goes ahead." Down In Texas they are getting ready to celebrate, cele-brate, two years hence, the centennial of Texan Independence from Mexico and during that celebration cele-bration the dominant figure In memory will be, of course, Sam Houston, the George Washington of the Revolution of 1836 and the first president of the Lone Star republic. But there will also be occasion to "Remember the Alamo I" and to recall re-call again the names of Its heroic defenders Bowie and Bonham and Travis and, most of all, Davy Crockett. For In the minds of most Americans Davy Crockett Is the ap-otheosis of the Alamo and he Is second only to Sam Houston as the most memorable mem-orable figure In the fight by Texas for freedom from Mexico. Why? Perhaps the best explanation can be found In the book "Davy Crockett" by Constance Rourke, published recently by Harcourt, Brace and company. com-pany. In the foreword to this volume, the author auth-or says: "When a country Is young it discovers Its heroes, and these are not always leaders In battle. bat-tle. They may only be men who have had the adventures others long for. They may show admired ad-mired traits, or strange ones. They may talk or laugh In a fashion which others enjoy. Always 6torles are told about them. "Davy Crockett knew wild life as few have known it, and he became the most noted hunter of his time. Even when he was an obscure backwoodsman back-woodsman comical tales and high talk could be heard about him, and his own humor had fame among the people of his region. When he emerged from the wilderness and appeared in the East as congressman, he suddenly seemed to the popular Imagination all that had been known or guessed about life In the western woods or on the western waters. There was truth In this ; even In .the most soaring of the many tall tales about Crockett there was truth. "About' no single American figure have so many legends clustered. After Crockett's death whole cycles of legendary tales were told about him that form a rich outflowering of the American imagination. . . ." In those words is a definite clue to the reason why the figure of Davy Crockett is still green in the memory of his fellow-Americans though a hundred years have passed since he stopped living and laughing his way into the hearts of a people. The fact that he "had adventures others long for" is not enough to guarantee his immortality. immor-tality. Daniel Boone had those adventures. He also could "show admired traits." And these, taken together, were enough to make him the outstanding symbol of pioneer life, of the American Amer-ican frontier. But Davy Crockett had something also which Boone had not that gift of humor which gave him "fame among the people of his region" a fame that soon spread to other regions re-gions as well. He was both a teller of "tall tales" and an actor in them. So the legends began to cluster about his name, for frontier America loved Its "whoppers." And, for that matter, because this so-called "modern" America Is still so near to the frontier phase of its national na-tional life, it still loves them. Perhaps another reason why this fact-and-Cction hero, Davy Crockett, Is still such a vivid figure in our national consciousness is because of two words which we associate with him: "Go ahead !" We Americans love mottoes, slogans, catchwords and all such things. Almost all of our popular heroes have tagged to them some phrase that has become historic. Repeat the words of that phrase and Instantly the figure of the man who uttered them rises in the mind of the hearer. So Davy Crockett, unconsciously perhaps, was guaranteeing his immortality when he adopted as his motto "Be always sure you are right, then go ahead." It was a particularly apt motto for his time. In Crockett's day America, and particularly partic-ularly the American frontiersman, was "going ahead." He had but recently surged over the barrier of the Alleghanies. He was engaged In the conquest of the great interior basin of North America, the Mississippi valley. He was already gazing longingly across the Father of Waters toward to-ward the western plains and another huge barrier, bar-rier, the Rockies. Lewis and Clark had proved that that barrier could be scaled, so nothing less than the Pacific ocean was his ultimate goal. And he was sure of his Tightness In doing all this. The mere fact that the original Inhabitants of all this country, the Indian, opposed him wasn't enough to change that belief. From that period of our history dates our "Indian policy" of taking the red man's land by any means, fair or foul. For tills was the beginning of an era of treaties made only to be broken and of "Indian Sc hool it with a wealth of ready argument. . . . His bill was defeated, as was an important amendment amend-ment of his to another measure bearing on the same question. . . . None the less Crockett stands head and shoulders above the average thinker of his time, even above many in high places, because be-cause of his grasp of a fundamental principle and his willingness to fight for it. The cause was lost, but it was a great cause." Thus it may be seen that Davy Crockett was something more than a "coonskin congressman," something more than a picturesque bear-hunter from the wilds of the West who, by some political po-litical accident, had a chance to participate in shaping the beginnings of our democracy. But if later Americans have failed to appreciate his significance in that period, his own people apparently ap-parently were also blind to his true worth. Because Be-cause he dared oppose Jackson, who was then rising on his high tide of popularity, on both the land question and the Indian question, they denied de-nied him re-election in 1831. But two years later he was again elected and more than before he became an outstanding figure fig-ure in congress. He was now an out-and-out anti-Jackson man and an increasingly dangerous danger-ous obstacle to Jackson's plan of handing the Presidency to Martin Van Buren when "Old Hickory" should retire from the White House. In the spring of 1834 Crockett started on his tour of the eastern cities which became a veritable ver-itable triumphal progress to Raltimore, to Philadelphia, Phil-adelphia, to New York, up into New England, then through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. He made such an impression wherever he went that there was even talk of running him for President. Then came the anti-climax. At the end of the summer he was a candidate for re-election. But his enemies were busy. The full strength of the Jaeksonian partisans in Tennessee was unleashed. un-leashed. Playing upon sectional prejudices, they used his journey to New England against him. In a bitter campaign in which personalities outweighed out-weighed the real issue at stake Crockett was defeated de-feated by a narrow margin. "Crockett had reached a turning point. In the six or seven years just past his entire course had been changed; he could hardly return to hunting and farming. ... All his life he had been on the move and he had repeatedly gone from one frontier to another. He made a quick decision. 'I'm going to Texas,' he said." It was his last journey. The end of It is one of the classics in American heroism. In the epic drama of the Alamo, as elsewhere back along the trail of his life, Davy Crockett held the center of the stage. "In the wild confusion Crockett seems to have been everywhere at once," writes Miss Rourke. "A story was told afterward that as he leveled and fired his famous 'Betsey' he sang invitingly to the Mexicans : 'Won't you come into my bower?' This would have been like him; perhaps he was heard singing this song in the earlier days of the siege. But when the final attack began there would have been no time for song, nor could any tune have been heard in the terrific din." The Mexicans could kill Davy Crockett, the man, but they couldn't kill Davy Crockett, the hero, half man and half myth. "Stories about Crockett are still told in Kentucky and Tennessee Ten-nessee and in the Ozark mountains," says Miss Rourke. "Even now people in the Ozarks talk about him as though he were still living just over the next ridge." The other day a newspaper book reviewer began be-gan an article thus: "Twice In two weeks Davy Crockett crashes through, once In his own story, once in this brilliant biography by Constance Rourke." The reference to "his own story" Is to the fact that Charles Scribner's Sons had Issued "The Adventures of Davy Crockett: Told Mostly by Himself," which Includes Davy's Autobiography," Autobiog-raphy," first published In 1S34, and his "Texas Exploits and Adventures," first published In 1S36. In it Davy Crockett speaks from his unmarked grave in the "Thermopylae of America." Out from between the covers of these two books steps the typical American frontiersman. Davy Crockett still "goes ahead." by Western Newspapor Union. $ wars" which seem always to have "broken out" just after the white man had discovered another bit of particularly desirable country. If Davy's motto was an apt one for his times, it seems to be equally so for the America of to-. to-. day, even though we may have lost sight of its true meaning. For a belief, amounting almost to a certainty, in the Tightness of our country in all things seems to be an essential part of the American credo. We like to think that we are the greatest nation on earth, that we have "gone ahead" of every other nation. We have translated trans-lated Davy's "go ahead" into "get ahead" and that we have done sometimes as ruthlessly as did the frontiersmen of his time. But whether we have Interpreted his motto wrongly or rightly, right-ly, the fact that he gave it to us and that we associate as-sociate the admonition in it with his name is perhaps another reason why he is so well remembered. re-membered. When did Crockett first use this motto? Miss Rourke In her book dates it from shortly after the close of the War of 1812. Crockett, home from service under Jackson against the Creeks, had settled on new land near Shoal creek In western Tennessee. It was wild country with dangerous characters, both red and white, roaming roam-ing through it. A regiment of militia was organized organ-ized by the settlers and Crockett was elected colonel. A little later they decided to set up a form of local government and urged Davy to accept ac-cept the position of magistrate. Says Miss Rourke : "Finding that he would be obliged not only to write his name but to make out warrants and keep a record of his proceedings, Crockett began to read whatever he could find and to practice the art of handwriting. This was slow work, but he made progress. It was at this time that he began to Inscribe a motto at the end of documents. docu-ments. 'Be always sure you're right, then go ahead. " Having proved his ability as a local magistrate, magis-trate, Crockett was next prevailed upon to become be-come a candidate for the Tennessee state legislature. legis-lature. He was elected. Next they sent him to congress. And It is In regard to his career there that this new biography brings out a part of the significance of Davy Crockett In American history his-tory that other biographers seem to have missed. Commenting on his role as the champion of the settlers as against the speculators, In what was then the West, Miss Rourke says: "Crockett achieved a homely statesmanship. His bill dealing with this question was carefully thought out and well phrased, and he supported |