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Show Stories of Great Scouts By ELMO SCOTT WATSON I- 1921. Western Newspaper Colon.) CAPT. JACK CRAWFORD, THE SCOUT WHO WROTE POETRY When a bit of sunshine hits ye After paesln' of a cloud. When a fit of laughter gits ye An' yer spine is feelln' proud. Don't fergrit to up and tllng II At a soul that'B foelln' blue, Fer the tnlnit that ye sling It It's a boomerang to you. That -.vus the philosophy of Cnpt Jack Crawford, the poet-scout. A poet and a scout ! A strange combinadon, but he excelled as both. Jolm Wllaee Crawford was an Irush boy wh came to this country hortly befure th CStII war began and siilhsted in the Uulon army when he was oaly sixteen yaare old. While lying in a hospital, a slstar oJ mercy taugbt klm to read and write. After the war Crawford drtftod West and becams a miner in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When tho Black Hills riuxars were organised to protect th miners from hostile Sioux and bands of highway robbers. Jack was chowac chief. Ia one fight he killed three desperadoes. At the ootbrei of the Sious sr la 1878 Captain Jack enlisted as a scout and rose te tha position f ciief t saouts for tha Fifth cavalry. After the battle of ailm Buttes. 8. D, whr Chief American Horse wss killed. Captain Jo-cV, who was also correspondent corre-spondent tor the New Tork Herald, gave tha world the first story of this fight. Crawford rode to Fort Laramie, 850 miles away. In three days and a half, outriding five relays of couriers, but ha killed two horses doing it. During the Apache wars In Arizona Crawford -was again in the saddle as a scout for Gen. Edward Hatch. In 18S1 he took the trail of the notorious chief, Vlctorio, and after a scout of 1Q days, located his camp In the Can-deleria Can-deleria mountains in Mexico. Captain Jack then made another remarkable ride to the nearest post As a result of his news, Victorio's camp was attacked at-tacked by Mexican troops and the old chief and many of his warriors were killed. When the Indian wars were over, Certain Jack began writing down the verses which he had recited to tts comrades around many a catupfire on the Indian campaigns. He went on the lecture platform and in a short time the "Poet-Scout" v, ns one of the best-known of the old-time scouts in the country, second only to his old comrade of the Fifth cavalry, Buffalo Bill. In a little over a month after Buffalo Bill's death, Captain Jack followed fol-lowed him on the Long 'J.Yail. He died in New York February 28, 1017. |