BOWIE KNIFE BOWIE.

Evening Post, Volume XIII, Issue 36, 12 February 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

BOWIE KNIFE BOWIE.

The New Orleans Times says : — " The followiug obituary appeared -in last night's, city papers : — .' Bowie — 1 On Thursday, the 24th, at 6a.in , at '< the residence of Eugene Soulat, in ' this- city, Mrs. Margaret Frances 1 Neville, relict of the late Colonel 1 Rezin P. Bowie, aged 85 years. The 1 venerable deceased was the -widow of > that renowned fighter, Rezin 'Bowie, r the brother of the famous James > Bowie., whose name was bestowed I upon that tearful instrument known r as the bowie knife. In a few months I the widow would have survived her k husband half-a-century. After a life * of startling adventures and innumer- " able bloody combats, James Bowie J fell at the Alamo in the Texas war in k 1836. with his bowie knifo clenched * in his right handj and with the gory r victims of his valor and his prowess - strewed around him. He fell with - Travis, Crockett, and others at the head of a small body of Texans who 3 defended that fort against the whole I force of Santa Anna's army. The . others of the slain defended theml selves with guns and pistols. Bowie, however, preferred his favorite and j trusty knife, and it was said that a i dozen slaughtered Mexicans attested its efficiency. Rezin Bowie was, as 5 well as bis brother, a representative { man ot his era. Intelligent and genef ruus, and even well educated, his ' whole life had been passed in the f Valley of the Mississippi, where men > engaged in active pursuits were compelled to rely upon personal courage : and prowess to maintain their rights 1 and secure the respect and confidence f of the masses. The Bowies were regarded in that day as the chief of the men who relied upou these qualities. They were utterly insensible to fear, but though always fighting to the * death, they were not usually aggresf sive, but generally managed to place ' themselves in defensive attitudes in I all their quarrels. They were geneJ - rous and faithful in their friendships, 3 and kind and liberal in their natures. * The invention of the bowie knife, and > its adoption in personal combats, was ' justified by them on the ground that ' it .made combats more terrible and '' decisive, and thereby prevented the * frequency of durls and other less de- ' cisive m>>des of settling personal quar- " rels. There are many stories illustrative of Rezin Bowie's desperate ' courage. His relict, the venerable ¦ lady whose death occurred last week, ' through her long and peaceful widowhood, clung to her early love and 1 memory with a tenacity Bnd warmth 1 of. affection which were the highest proofs that Rezin P. Bowie was a man of heart and of these qualities that never fail to inspire a true woman with deep and undying love and devotion. :