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The Poet Scout

The Poet Scout image
Parent Issue
Day
13
Month
July
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Captain Jack Crnwford, the poet scout, bas been a great deal in He w York and other Atlantic coast cities during the past toree years, and lio crcates a sensation rherevcr ho goes. Ue is quite a handsome fellow, has an immense suit of brown halr, tvhicti ialls gracefully over his shoulders and iar down his back. He wears the huge whito sombrero of the ideal scout and cowboy, and dresses in picturesque garments constructed of buck9kin. At times, however, he wears a superb " Prince Albert" Bult of black, but never discards his sombrero, and hls huge iuune he has alwajs with hlm. Of course his scoutrlike appearance always makcs him conspicuous in a crowd and turns mauy cyes toward him, soxne admiringly, some curiously, and yet others sneerinly. He lites the conspicuity and is fond of admiration, but seems to caro very little about the sneers, elther one way or thé other. In fact me apparently se dom sees the attempts to " guy " him, btlt when he does see thcin the offendcr is always wit-hiu reach of bis long, muscular arm at tho moment, and is liable to nced asBiBtance in assuminf? the perpendicular th next moment. Captain Jack is, moreover, a great ladies' man, and makes numerous friend among the fair sox. His poetry is sometimos vcry good and f requently very bad, but all of it is spontaneous and comea without special eftort. Indeed he can carry on his ordinary conversation in rhyme if he chooses to do so. His faculty for gingling being as natural as his vernacular. Frcquently in social gatherings he is asked to exhi'tit this gift, and displays his powers of versiflcation by rhyming, extemporancouBly and in unceasing flow on sny and all subjects prescnted by these around him. This poet scout has had a curious career, no attempt to present which will be given here, further than to remark that as a small boy who had never been to school a day. He culis ted, early in the civil war as a drummer in a Pennsylvania regiment and was wounded at Spottsylvania. In tho hospital, to which he was taken, he was taught by his nurses, the Sisters of Charity, to read and write, and after the war he went West,where he quickly bccame noted as a daring and valuable scout, and during this time he wrote and priuted large (juantities of his poetry. One remarkable fact connected witb Crawford is that, notwitbstanding his rough associations on the border and the ■training hardships and exposure of his Ufa as a scout, he nevcr tastod intoxicating liquor in any shape, and doubtless wouldn't know by the taste the difference botwoea sherry wiue and Bourbon whisky. At the time of tho gold discoveHes in the BlackH ills Captain Jack was sent f rom that región to Chicago to take specimens of the ore to partieseis terested with the prospector? and discoverers, and he was also made the bearer of certain dispatches to Genera) Sheridan. Crawford had uever been in o gTeat city before, or at least he kad nevei stayed at a big hotel. Bo, arriving at one ol the great hotels of Chicago late one evening, he asked to be shown to his room at once. v nat louowed is Dest toia in ais own language: " A kld grabbed my grip," ho said, "and itarted off towanl a little room with a dooi to lt like a cage, and I followed him in and sat down. The boy stopped to skylark witb BOino other boys, and I took to looking around ior the bed, not knowlng but what tha) piecc of furniture hut up In the wall somt way like I had sometimos seen exhibited in a theater as the way they have them íd small rooms in Franco. Besides, I thought the room was small cnoughto furnish agood excuse íor having all the necessary belongings shut up lnto the walls. Just at this time the boy gave the rope whlch ran through the room a y ank, and blast mo il the whole hing didn't start toward the rooi with me and tb boy in it. I commenced to try to find somcthing to hold on to, thinking ■omething awful was goingto happen, when the boy stopped the affair, and I tumble to the fuct that I was in a sort of dumbwaiter, which I af tor ward became familiar with as an ele vator." Since those days Captain Jack has been aeveral years an actor; has become acquainted with numcrous distinguished mea througheut the country, and is decidedly tn rejU and an fait, whatever that is, la polite society, and is a living exemplificotion of the fact tbat contact with the world is the best school to learn of the world, and to become world-wise in the ways of toney society, the tricks of the toughs or the mannen of the mlddlings. Crawford Is now lecturing in the East, making nis headquarters at Boston, and he is engaged for next scason as the star in a drama called "The Trappers' Dream," written by Sam Smith, the author of "StruckOil" and other sucecssful plays. The play will be under the management of Sheridan Corbyn, famed years ago as a manager, especially with the lirst appearance of the Vokes family in this country, and latterly as manager for Frank Mayo. Later on Crawford will play a drama of his own called " Tat." Triu. V'issciur. "

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat