A ROMANTIC STORY.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 46

A ROMANTIC STORY.

Captain Jack Crawford, the " poet scout," whote visit to Mr Gecrge R, Sims tbat gentleman so pictureequely described recently in " Mustard and Cress," has come over here to try and prove himself entitled to a great part of the big Wallace e&tate, now held by tbe State and City of New York, and tbe property is estimated to be worth £4,000,000. The trip to Scotland was undertaken upon the advice of New York lawyers, who believe that he may - bore find links of evidence which will substantiate bis claim.

The story is a romantic one. In the early days of New York City, William Wallace, a Scotchman of peculiar traits, settled on Sttaten Island, and with traditional Scotch thrift and Bhrewdnese, acquired not only a vary large portion of the island, but also much land and many houses in the heart of the Knickerbocker town. On his broad and rich acre* he kept herds of cattle, and wealth flowad into" his coffers until he was known aa "King " Wallace. Iv his remarkable prosperity, however, the ecceatric bachelor did not forgot those whom he had left behind in old Scotia. He wrote to Kulh Ann Wallace, bia Bitter, to go to New York and take her family of six children, urging that he would care for and educate them in a way that they could not be provided for in the old country. The slater immediately wrote, that she would come to New York, and waited eagerly for the passage money. Week after week, passed without bringing her word from her brother William. She endeavoured to get news concerning him through correspondence with others, but without results. After the lapse of about a y«ar she learned that he had suddenly died, without leaving a will, before her letter reached him.

In 1864 an uncle of the poet scout went back to Scotland to settle the .family estate, and while there the little old leather trunk containing the letteis of "K\ng" Wallace was burned, thus destroying the most direct evidence in possession of the family to prove its claim to the. immense properties left by William Wallace. The uncle soon returned to America disheartened and discouraged, and without sufficient money to prosecute the claim to the estate. About three years later this undo suddenly disappeared in the coal regions ol Pennsylvania. Although vigorous efforts have bean made to find this uncle, no trace has been discovered.

Few men now living can boast of a more varied and romantic career than can Captain Jack Crawford. Whea a boy in" bis teens he worked aa a slate-picker in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. After tho outbreak of the oivil war, while still a boy, he ran away from home in order to enlist in the Union ranks. Soon after his enlistment he was seriously wounded, and while in the hospital he was taught bis tatters by the Sisters of Charity who attended him. After the close of tha war he went, to tfce Far West and engaged In the Uci^-ed States service. His bravery aa a scout caused him to be promoted to the position of chief of scouts, in which capacity he led tbe Black Hills Rangers at the openiug of that country.

Captain Jack was with General Crook through the Sitting Bull campaign of 1876. Ha alto carried the New York Herald despatches from Slim Buttea to Fort Laramie, a distance of 350 miles, making the ride through a country peopled with hostile In* dians in less than three days and a-half . In thi« ride he killed two horses. From 18 TO to 1881 he was chief of scouts under Genersls Hatch and Baell in the Victoria campaign, during which over 500 mcD, women, and children were slaughtered by the Indians. — Weekly Sim.