True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 241
244 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HOUSTON AND HOUSTONIANS 241
It was a week or two before Christmas when they started with
him and as they drove off he rattled his chains and called out to
Captain Boyce, telling him goodbye, and also informing him that
he intended eating his Christmas dinner in Houston. 'The captain
laughed at him, but Kirkendall was telling the truth, for a
day or two after Christmas officers from the penitentiary came
to Houston looking for him and told how he had mysteriously
escaped a few days before Christmas.
After that Kirkendall left the country and was seen afterward
in California, where he had evidently gone direct from Texas.
As everybody was glad to get rid of him and to have him brought
back would have consumed both time and lots of money, no
effort was made to catch him and he died there several years ago.
TWO REMARKABLE HORSE RACES.
T is quite evident, to me at least, that many of the other
old Houstonians are beginning to look on me as a kind of
historian since I have had the pleasure of writing a few
articles for The Chronicle, recalling some of my memories of
the past. My daily experience with these old Houstonians is
amusing and at times very amusing. I seem to have struck
a chord which has aroused their latent memories and I am every
day asked about men and events that lived and occurred long
before I was born. Then, too, there are the critics. These I
always welcome, for, being conscious of the fact that I am not
infallible, I am desirous of being corrected whenever in error.
It is amusing, though, to hear some of the corrections. For
instance, I met one of my old-time friends the other day: "I
see, old man, your memory is bad," he said. "You get the general
drift all right, but I see breaks here and there."
I owned up to my fallibility and asked for particulars.
"Well," he said, "I noticed the other day you said something
about a thing happening on Saturday, when I know it happened
on a Thursday."
I promptly admitted the probability of his being right, though
I had reason to know that he was wrong. I asked for other "bad
breaks" I had made.
"Well, you made one that made me nearly fall out of my chair
when I saw it," said he. "You spoke of old man Jack Kennedy
as William Kennedy when you wrote about those bomb shells."
I cleared myself easily on that point by telling him that I had
written "Mr. Kenedy" and that probably my bad writing was
responsible for the change of "Mr." to "Wm." by the printer.
Such encounters as these amuse me, but there are others that
are not quite so pleasant. I don't mean to say that any of them
is disagreeable, but some are rather boresome. I have been approached,
personally and by letter, by people who want information
about early Houston on all conceivable subjects.
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/241/?rotate=270: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.