The Arakansasby Clyde Brion Davis

The Arakansas by Clyde Brion DavisReview by: Horace AdamsThe Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Mar., 1942), pp. 74-78Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40019295 .

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THE ARKANS AS. By Clyde Brion Davis. ("The Rivers of America." Edited by Stephen V. Benet and Carl Carmer.) New York: Farrar and Rinehart. 1940. Pp. x, 340. $2.50.)

74 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

BOOK REVIEWS

Old man river is a legendary figure. Slipping along between curving, tortuous banks, he tends to lend a legendary character to the deeds of mortal men until the true course of human events is twisted beyond recognition. The Arkansas has fathered a plethora of myths beside which Sir Walter Raleigh's coat, Isabella's jewels, and Pocahontas's rescue of John Smith pale by comparison. Many of the most famous of these anecdotes have been included by Clyde Brion Davis in his book "The Arkansas." These stories comprise the major part of the book, although brief excursions into the field of history are occassionally attempted in order to obtain the neces- sary filler with which to support such a mass of un- correlated incidents.

The narrative starts breezily with brief references to De Soto and Coronado, two of Spain's mightiest con- quistadores, whom Davis irreverently terms a "precious pair." Emphasis is placed on the gold hunting pro- clivities of these early Arkansas travelers. Then the author dons seven league boots, covering the three centuries which separate Spanish gold seekers from Colorado Argonauts in four pages. In order to span this yawning chasm the author chronicles some of the chief events in European history during that period. Short paragraphs, frequently containing only one sentence, are piled on each other much in the manner of Biblical narration. Once ensconced in the middle of the nine- teenth centruy, the narrator takes his stand near the



BOOK REVIEWS 75

headwaters of the Arkansas and unlooses a torrent of yarns which sweeps the reader half through the book.

Around the figure of Horace Tabor, a Colorado Croesus, Davis assembles a collection of colorful stories. Disaster threatened Horace and Augusta Tabor many times before success was achieved. Eventually the tribula- tions of the Tabors were rewarded and the gold hunter reckoned his wealth in millions. He built an opera house which opened with Emma Abbot enacting the mad scene from "Lucia di Lammermoor" before an audience encumbered with "approximately sixty-eight pounds of diamonds." While he was building, Tabor planned a palace for his second wife. His architectual enthusiasm manifested itself in the following boast: "By God I'm even going to build the privy of solid mahogany."

Other fabulous incidents of Colorado's boom days include the story of a prostitute, known as Red Stocking, who grossed $100,000 in one season during the gold rush. Later she announced her intention of "reforming and settling down to enjoy the fruits of her summer's ordeal." Then there is the account of Broken Nose Scot- ty, an ex- jailbird, who hit it lucky. Amply supplied with money he stalked into the jail and announced: "I want to pay off the fines of every son of a bitch in jail. Call the judge right now." Soon Scotty "strutted into Harrison Avenue followed by twenty-odd ex-prisoners." Most preposterous of all is the story of "Cannibal Plateau," which has a Candidean flavor. When Alfred Packer and five other miners were trapped in a blizzard without food, Packer survived by eating "the best parts" of his companions. After the miner had been convicted of murder, the judge is reported to have said: "I shall pass lightly over the other sickening details of your crime. Enough to say, Alfred Packer, God damn your soul, you have eaten up the Democratic majority in Hinsdale County."

After exhausting his supply of Colorado anecdotes with their lurid background of hectic mining activity, railroad wars, and bloody labor strikes, Davis follows




the Arkansas into Kansas and Oklahoma. Three chapters, which contain material relating to such items as the Dust Bowl, Chivington's massacre, Dodge City, and the open- ing of Oklahoma to the Indians and whites, are devoted to this lengthy stretch of the river.

Obviously the author is eager to drop anchor in the Ozarks where an endless fund of tall stories awaits the narrator. Forthwith an Ozarkian of the Bob Burns variety is presented - a whittling rustic seated near a ten-acre watermelon patch, relaxing in the sun with a half a dozen hound dogs lying nearby. The melons are eaten by the family, headed by grandpap, who has eighty- seven "grand children" and "no end of cousins and all." At a single sitting of the clan one hundred and fifteen melons were consumed. Also the usual list of Ozark superstitions is rehearsed, one of which will serve as an illustration: "If a damsel's skirt flies up it means her boy friend is thinking of her."

The last third of the volume criticizes Arkansas for duelling, ridicules local historical accounts of certain bat- tles fought during the War between the States, describes activities of the Ku Klux Klan, and pictures the de- vastation of several severe floods.

The book closes on the highly controversial subjects of lynching and share-cropping. Arkansas is charged with 226 lynchings between 1882 and 1937. Davis ad- mits that statistics show lynching is decreasing, but hints that this may be due to the fact that southern newspapers no longer report all of them. The interview with the Negro sharecropper, Remmie Dunlap, displays the narrative style of the author at its best. Obscure angles of the racial problem are clearly presented, although some readers will deny that Dunlap's contentment with his Arkansas habitat is typical of all Negroes, as the story seems to imply.

While these sensational subjects make good reading outside of the state, they are anathema to Arkansans. Furthermore the picture of General Albert Pike presiding over an iron kettle of stew, stirring the contents with



BOOK REVIEWS 77

one hand, while holding a "great bowl of brandy" with the other, will not please prohibitionists. Another Western hero besmirched by Davis's iconoclastic pen is Sam Houston, familiarly known to the Indians as "Big Drunk." The portrayal of Houston as a devotee of Bacchus, wor- shipping to the extent of casting of his clothes into a camp fire as a sacrifical offering and then riding Godiva-like into a neighboring village, will appear to some patriots as little short of treason.

The most serious criticism of the book is that it amplifies the erroneous conceptions non-Arkansas have of the state. Indeed Arkansas seems to be forever cursed with writers who make its citizens the butt of their jokes. According to popular opinion Arkansas is teeming with barefoot hillbillies, numerous children, dogs and hogs. It is true that the position of a minority of the population is pitiable and creates a condition unhealthy to democratic society. This situation doubtless deserves the unfavorable publicity it has received. But it is highly objectionable for public opinion to make Arkansas the scapegoat, when all states have the problem of an under- privileged class, even though the romantic literary tradi- tions of some localities tend to obscure this fact.

Manifestly this monograph should not be classified as history. It abounds in historical errors as Professor C. C. Rister of Oklahoma University has pointed out in the "Mississippi Valley Historical Review," December, 1940. Doubtless Davis is the last person to become perturbed over these inaccuracies. The author is a novelist and news reporter who surely did not intend to write a history of the Arkansas River which would bear the close scrutiny of scientific historical criticism. The work is not docu- mented, while the woefully inadequate bibliography is noteworthy chiefly because of authorities excluded.

To judge "The Arkansas" by scientific historical stand- ards, however, is to do the book a grave injustice. The book should be classified as folklore. This approach would simplify matters greatly and eliminate much dis-




cussion. Historians have always been suspicious of history written by anyone but historians. Since Davis's book is a veritable Comstock Lode of far-fetched fables, the very thought of placing it in the realm of history con- stitutes a "casus belli." The author wrote a readable, racy account of this fabulous river which was intended for the layman, not for historiographers. An adequate history of the Arkansas River, based on painstaking re- search, remains to be written. Those who seek entertain- ment will find "The Arkansas" enjoyable reading; those who seek enlightenment concerning the history of the Arkansas River must look elsewhere.

Interesting illustrations by Donald McKay add to the book's attractiveness; a frontispiece map and a fair index increase its value.

Arkansas A. & M. College, Horace Adams. Monticello, Arkansas

SOUTH STAR. By John Gould Fletcher. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1941 Pp. 117. $2.00.) The recently published book of poems by John

Gould Fletcher, entitled "South Star," may well be con- sidered an important contribution to the artistic litera- ture of Arkansas. It is not only a scholarly and entertain- ing piece of work, composed by a recognized poet of power, who was the Pulitzer Poetry Prize- Winner of 1939, and a book put out by a top-notch publisher, but it is of particular interest and value to Arkansans because of the local color of its subject matter and from the fact that the author is an Akransas son to the manor born.

This 117-page volume consists principally of a series of verses relating to the history of the Territory and State, originally written in honor of the state centennial.



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The Arakansasby Clyde Brion Davis