God will help you, If you think of Mother's Prayers.

Another one of Captain Jack's poems (See Previous post >> Wednesday, April 29, 2009 @ Joy),
Mother's Prayers,
made a strong plea for abstinence:

Oh, my brother, do not drink it,
Think of all your mother said;
While upon her death-bed laying,
Or perhaps she is not dead;
Don't you kill her, then, I pray you,
She has got enough of cares,
Sign the pledge, and God will help you,
If you think of mother's prayers.

John Wallace "Captain Jack" Crawford (1847-1917) , known as "The Poet Scout", was an American Civil War veteran, an American Old West scout, and a poet of western lore. He was a scout for General George Crook and General Phil Sheridan, friend of Wild Bill Hickok and co-actor, performer and scout with William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). In 1875 Jack was appointed as a Captain of the Black Hills Rangers of Dakota.

John Wallace Crawford
"Captain Jack"
(1847-1917)

"The Poet Scout"

 He was one of a very few “teetotalers” among the army scouts, and the only man on the frontier who could be entrusted to deliver an unopened bottle of whiskey, according to William “Buffalo Bill” Cody. In his autobiography, Cody described a meeting with Jack in July of 1876...Crawford replaced Buffalo Bill Cody as chief of scouts for the 5th Cavalry, "only two months after the Custer massacre at the Little Big Horn, and a mere three weeks after the murder of Wild Bill Hickok in
Deadwood." He joined Buffalo Bill Cody's show, and the article reports, "The partnership with Cody ended in Virginia City, Nevada, in the summer of 1877 when, in a combat scene staged on horseback, Crawford accidentally shot himself in the groin and blamed the event on Cody's drunkenness.

Custer’s death at the Little Big Horn	Death by shooting down of Wild Bill Hickok
Did I hear the news from Custer? Well I reckon I did, old pard. It came like a streak o’lightning, And you bet, it hit me hard. I ain’t no hand to blubber, And the briny ain’t run for years, But chalk me down for a lubber If I didn’t shed regular tears.	Sleep on brave heart, in peaceful slumber, Bravest scout in all the West; Lightning eyes and voice of thunder, Closed and hushed in quiet rest. Peace and rest at last is given, May we meet again in heaven. Rest in peace.

After becoming Chief Scout for the 5th Cavalry under the command of Eugene A. Carr, Crawford made a famous horseback ride with urgent dispatches from the Battle of Slim Buttes to Fort Laramie, a distance of 350 miles in 4 days. This battle took place on the 9th and 10th September 1876 and was the first victory that the U.S. army had over the Siouxs after the Little Big Horn. This thumb-nail sketch describes Jack Crawford's appearance at that time: "...about 6 feet tall and of fine build, and dressed in a nicely fitting artistic buckskin suit, very much resembling Wild Bill."

In 1879 Jack relocated his long-suffering family from Pennsylvania to the New Mexico territory and began scouting for the army again, this time in their war against the Apache nation. He also became a post-trader at Fort Craig New Mexico and engaged in ranching and mining. Ten years later he was acting as a Special Agent for the Justice Department investigating the illegal liquor trade in the Indian Reservations of the Western States and Territories. He continued for the following 30 years to travel the length and breadth of America as an actor, lecturer, special government agent and adventurer and always paying careful attention to any silver or gold strikes. Jack Crawford's written accounts of life on the frontier are noted for their true representation of the real dangers that pioneer life entailed.

Deadwood Magazine ~ http://www.deadwoodmagazine.com/archivedsite/Archives/CaptJack.htm

Teetotaler Captain Jack Crawford had no illusions about the legendary Calamity Jane he had known. The April 19, 1904, Anaconda Standard quoted him: "She (Calamity Jane)never saw [military] service in any capacity under either General Crook or General Miles. She never saw a lynching and never was in an Indian fight. She was simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish, but possessed a generous streak which made her popular."

"Feel sorry for yourself rightly by feeling sorry that you have a self."
Vernon Howard

You are a great judge of character. Your perfect judgment, which leads you to call forth the best in man, must be trained in demonstration by your constant repetition of this axiom:
“Only the good is true and only the true is good.”
ECH