returning once more to the forest settlement, became famous along the frontier as the best shot in the section. In 1821 he became a candidate for representative in the Tennessee legislature, and by his skill in shooting and in telling jokes, more than by his knowledge of political conditions, he secured the election. He was twice re-elected; for, despite his evident lack of training, he showed himself an honest, fearless, and often capable leader of men.

From an obscure hunter in the backwoods to a United States Congressman in six years is a quick stride; but Crockett accomplished it by the year 1827, and, moreover, was re-elected. He was long a notable figure on the streets of Washington; for he rather scorned fashion and wore his hair and clothing in a manner more suitable for the wilderness than for the national capital. Strange stories about his origin, life, and deeds were circulated, and Davy, in sheer self-defense, felt called upon to take up a weapon very cumbrous to him-the penand write his Autobiography (1834). Surprising indeed was the success of the unique book, and the hunter-statesman-author soon brought out another volume, A Tour of the North and Down East (1835). In the same year, however, he began to oppose his old friend, Jackson, and, finding that this act had weakened his influence in Tennessee, he removed to Texas and aided that State in the struggle for independence. In 1836 his Exploits and Adventures in Texas appeared, and with this his career ended. At the surrender of the Alamo in that year, he and five other prisoners were shot by order of General Santa Anna.

Whatever may be the defects of this man's work, it is at all times strikingly original. His grammar was of a unique species; his spelling was at times wonderful in its simplicity; but his strong mind and

plain common sense aided him in couching his words in a telling way. And his independence in literature was as marked as his fearlessness in hunting.

"I don't know of anything in my book to be criticised on by honorable men. Is it on my spelling?-that's not my trade. Is it on my grammar?— I hadn't time to learn it, and make no pretensions to it. Is it on the order and arrangement of my book?-I never wrote one before, and never read very many; and, of course, know mighty little about that. Will it be on the authorship of the book?this I claim, and I'll hang on to it, like a waxplaster. I would not be such a fool, or knave either, as to deny that I have had it hastily run over by a friend or so, and that some little alterations have been made in the spelling and grammar; and I am not so sure that it is not the worse of even that, for I despise this way of spelling contrary to nature. And as for grammar, it's pretty much a thing of nothing at last, after all the fuss that's made over it while critics were learning grammar, and learning to spell, I, and 'Doctor Jackson, L.L.D.,' were fighting in the wars."

The collection of narratives, which he entitled an Autobiography, is good in its dramatic quality. The stories are exciting and compel interest; they have the directness, the virility of a man of fearless deeds. Bear hunts, Indian fights, thrilling adventures of many kinds, these are the substance of the book. For instance, he describes a bear hunt taken at night. The bear is "treed."

"I commenced loading for a third fire, but the first thing I knowed the bear was down among my dogs, and they were fighting all around me. I had my big butcher in my belt, and I had a pair of dressed buckskin breeches on. So I took out my knife, and stood, determined, if he should get hold

of me, to defend myself in the best way I could. I stood there for some time, and could now and then see a white dog I had, but the rest of them and the bear, which were dark coloured, I couldn't see at all, it was so miserable dark. They still fought around me, and sometimes within three feet of me, but at last, the bear got down into one of the cracks that the earthquake had made in the ground, about four feet deep, and I could tell the biting end of him by the hollering of my dogs. So I took my gun and pushed the muzzle of it about, till I thought I had it against the main part of his body, and fired; but it happened to be only the flesh part of his foreleg. With this I jumped out of the crack, and he and the dogs had another hard fight around me, as before. At last, however, they forced him back into the crack again, as he was when I had shot. I made a lunge with my long knife, and fortunately struck him right through the heart; at which he just sank down, and I crawled out in a hurry."

Such a form of literature was not without its use in those days. It kept the cultivated East in touch with the untamed West: it stirred the imagination of young readers; its tendency was to give virility to succeeding literature. In the somewhat epic primitiveness of its scenes and deeds there is that which may serve as splendid material for the hand of a future master.

III

It has been mentioned that one source of humor in the South was the "poor whites," the most ignorant and yet probably the most well-meaning people in the United States. In many ways they show themselves a class left far behind in the forward. movement of civilization,—a people who, through

their privations, remoteness from centers of population, and lack of incentives, have failed to advance in those characteristics which help man to cope with the ever-changing problems of the present-day world. Perhaps in no other way is this fact shown so forcibly as in the language of this strange people. It is a peculiar dialect, inclining, in its use of words and in its phraseology, back to the speech of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, while in the inflection of its nouns and verbs it not infrequently holds memories of the English of Chaucer and Langland. A strange, quaint tongue it is,-unprogressive, lingering beyond its day, symbolical of the people that speak it.

Augustus
Baldwin
Longstreet

In Georgia where they are known as "Crackers," they have always been very numerous, and consequently some of the best descriptions of them ever written are to be found in the Georgia Scenes (1835) of AUGUSTUS BALDWIN LONGSTREET (1790-1870). Longstreet was born (1790-1870) at Augusta, Georgia, and, as a boy, studied at Richmond Academy, a school which he so thoroughly despised that only with much persuading could he be induced to remain for even a few months. Yet it was in this very school that the first important arousing of his intellect occurred; for a room-mate, George McDuffie, who was an intense student, caused him to note his own ignorance and long for a broader knowledge. He became a member of a South Carolina school taught by the famous Dr. Moses Waddell, advanced rapidly, and in 1811 entered the Junior class at Yale. The two years spent in that institution he always referred to as the happiest days of his life. After graduating, he studied in the law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, and in 1815 returned to Georgia. Six

years later he was a member of the State legislature and the next year became a Judge of the Supreme Court.

Year after year Longstreet's fame as a jurist increased, and with his establishing of The Augusta Sentinel in 1838 his opportunities in politics seem to have been most encouraging. But in that year a notable change occurred in his life. The death of a relative called his attention to the claims of religion; he studied the question deeply; and, in the end, he decided to give up his ambitions as a statesman and enter the ministry. He was made pastor of a church in his native city, and henceforth he was a religious power. In 1839 he became president of Centenary College, Louisiana; later, president of the University of Mississippi, and in his last years, president of South Carolina State College. He was again president of the University of Mississippi when he died.

Longstreet wrote much, among his most popular works being Letters from Georgia to Massachusetts and William Mitten (1858); but by far the best piece of writing that he ever attempted is Georgia Scenes, Characters, and Incidents. These sketches first appeared in newspapers, later were gathered in a volume in the South (1835), and finally were published in New York in 1840. In after years Longstreet, the preacher, became very much ashamed of the pieces and in fact considered them such sinful efforts that when a second edition appeared in 1867 he absolutely disowned it. And yet he has caught the very spirit of the people whom he brings before us. The pathetic and yet humorous sameness of their life, the long conversations over trifling affairs that other people would dismiss with a word, the ridiculous narrowness of their views, the ina