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Show j "Who "Was 1 Who? S P By Louise "'. Comstock BECKY THATCHER WHEN that "red-handed chief of the Black Avengers of the Spanish Span-ish Muin," more commonly kuown to readers of Mark Twain as Tom Sawyer, Saw-yer, Indulged in moments of un-plrate-llke tenderness, little Becky Thatcher, Tom's schoolmate and sworn sweetheart, sweet-heart, was the cause. Thus the great American humorist Immortalized s love of his own youth when little Sam Clemens courted Laura Hawkins, who lived just down the street from him In Hannibal, Mo. Out of their own school days came much of the similar material in "Tom Sawyer." The schoolmaster was a Mr. Cross, for whom Sam composed an elegant couplet: "Cross by name, and cross by nature, Cross Jumped over an Irish potater." From him Sam once actually did accept ac-cept punishment for something Laura had done. Sam Clemens left Hannibal at the age of eighteen, and Laura married and became Mrs. Frazier, went to live at Palmyra, Mo., and enjoyed at least one adventure that never got into a book. During the Civil war her husband, hus-band, an outspoken Secessionist, was forced into hiding from Union troops commissioned to capture and silence him. With a woman's instinct for the right things to do, Laura during her husband's absence invited the Union commander, Gen. John McNeil, to dinner din-ner and filled him full of southern cooking and flattery. Some time later, when her husband had been captured and condemned to death, she made a personal plea for his life, which was granted by her former guest ! BUFFALO BILL A SK the average American "Who was Buffalo Bill?" and he will answer an-swer "Why, Col. William F. Cody, of course!" Therein he will be only partly part-ly right for there were two other men who bore that title before Cody did. In 18C0, a year of drought fn Kansas when the grasshoppers darkened the skies and ate up what crops were planted, a certain William Matthewson of Wichita, Kans., went out to kill buffalo buf-falo and sent back several wagon-trains wagon-trains of meat to feed the starving settlers. set-tlers. They were so grateful for this that they nicknamed him "Buffalo Bill." During the Indian war on the southern south-ern plains in 18G7-C9 William Comstock, a celebrated guide, hunter and one of the favorite scouts of Gen. Phil Sheridan, Sher-idan, gained such renown as a buffalo hunter that army officers at Fort Wallace. Wal-lace. Kan., dubbed him "Buffalo Bill" Comstock. In the meantime William F. Cody, who had been scouting for the troops at Fort Ellsworth and Fort, Fletcher, Kan., had also won a great reputation as a slayer of bufTaloes. He increased that reputation when he took the contract to furnish meat for the laborers who were building the Kansas Pacific railroad west So a hunting match between Comstock Com-stock and Cody was arranged by their partisans and In this match Cody was victorious, killing sixty-nine buffaloes to Comstock's forty-eight within specified time. From that time on, Cody was the undisputed (even though he had not been the first) Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show later spread his fame throughout the world. BARBARA FRIETCHE HEROISM met Its just reward for the Barbara Frietche of Wblt-tier's Wblt-tier's famed poem of that name. Forth from her attic window in Frederick, Fred-erick, Maryland, leaned the courageous old woman, waving her bullet-torn Union flag and shouting down at the Confederate soldiers who had fired at It the famous lines: "Shoot if you must this old gray head, But spare your country's flag ." And Stonewall Jackson, over his sunburned sun-burned features a "blush of shame," replied in the equally famous couplet: "Who touches a hair of yon gray head. Dies like a dog, March on ." Fame has dealt less kindly, however, how-ever, with the real Barbara Frietche. Although Whittier believed and investigation inves-tigation since has established that a real woman of that name did Indeed reside in Frederick at the time, we have her own nephew's word for It that Dame Barbara was ninety-six years old, bedridden and living In a house some distance from Jackson's line of march. There is even reason to suspect that Whittier's Barbara was in reality another woman, May Quan-trell, Quan-trell, who did live where the troops passed by and wave a defiant Union flag at them. Nevertheless, the Barbara Bar-bara Frietche legend lives on, the Whittier club only recently dedicated ber restored "original" home, and In Sigmund Romberg's operetta "My-Maryland" "My-Maryland" was proudly waved what was claimed to be the "original" flag! (. 1932. Western Newspaper Union.) |
