David Crockett: His Life and AdventuresAbbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
History
David Crockett: His Life and Adventures
Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Crockett, Davy, 1786-1836
"My dear fellow," shouted out Crockett, "you don't call this
electioneering, do you? When you see me electioneering, I goes fixed
for the purpose. I've got a suit of deer-leather clothes, with two big
pockets. So I puts a bottle of whiskey in one, and a twist of tobacco
in t'other, and starts out. Then, if I meets a friend, why, I pulls out
my bottle and gives him a drink. He'll be mighty apt, before he drinks,
to throw away his tobacco. So when he's done, I pulls my twist out of
t'other pocket and gives him a chaw. I never likes to leave a man worse
off than when I found him. If I had given him a drink and he had lost
his tobacco, he would not have made much. But give him tobacco, and a
drink too, and you are mighty apt to get his vote."
With such speeches as these, interlarded with fun and anecdote, and a
liberal supply of whiskey, Crockett soon made himself known through all
the grounds, and he became immensely popular. The backwoodsmen regarded
him as their man, belonging to their class and representing their
interests.
Dr. Butler was a man of some culture, and a little proud and
overbearing in his manners. He had acquired what those poor men deemed
considerable property. He lived in a framed house, and in his best room
he had a rug or carpet spread over the middle of the floor. This carpet
was a luxury which many of the pioneers had never seen or conceived of.
The Doctor, standing one day at his window, saw several persons, whose
votes he desired, passing along, and he called them in to take a drink.
There was a table in the centre of the room, with choice liquors upon
it. The carpet beneath the table covered only a small portion of the
floor, leaving on each side a vacant space around the room. The men
cautiously walked around this space, without daring to put their feet
upon the carpet. After many solicitations from Dr. Butler, and seeing
him upon the carpet, they ventured up to the table and drank. They,
however, were under great restraint, and soon left, manifestly not
pleased with their reception.
Calling in at the next log house to which they came, they found there
one of Crockett's warm friends. They inquired of him what kind of a man
the great bear-hunter was, and received in reply that he was a
first-rate man, one of the best hunters in the world; that he was not a
bit proud; that he lived in a log cabin, without any glass for his
windows, and with the earth alone for his floor.
"Ah!" they exclaimed with one voice, "he's the fellow for us. We'll
never give our votes for such a proud man as Butler. He called us into
his house to take a drink, and spread down one of his best bed-quilts
for us to walk on. It was nothing but a piece of pride."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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