Jack Bourke

Texan by the grace of God! Devoted anti communist Air Force veteran devoted to freedom and small government!

[Facts About Texas @FactsAboutTexas]

Mineral Wells is decimated 😢

[Jack Bourke @Jackobyone]

@PatriciaHeaton It’s always too soon to quit!

[Jack Bourke @Jackobyone]

@catturd2 And rinos

[Jack Bourke @Jackobyone]

@SenFettermanPA @giselefetterman @UPMC I can relate

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇺����FLOATING FIGHT CLUB: CARNIVAL GUESTS GO FERAL AT THE BUFFET

A full-blown brawl erupted aboard the Carnival Sunshine - allegedly over chicken tenders.

About two dozen passengers went full WWE at 2 a.m. while the ship was headed back to Miami, slamming each other to the floor as security scrambled and one officer literally ran for backup.

“Where the f–k is security?!” a bystander screamed - a fair question as shoes flew and chaos reigned.

Welcome to Carnival, where the midnight buffet comes with a side of combat.

Source: NY Post

[Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr]

Happy Birthday America 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[AmericaReal @AmericaReal3]

HOLY 💩 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike Tobin @MikeTobinFox]

On the summit of Mount Everest, Tuesday, May 27, I did 22 pushups in recognition of Veteran/First responder suicide. To troubled warfighters and public servants: I hope it shows someone gives a damn.

[Patricia Heaton @PatriciaHeaton]

Syrian forces are killing Christians. You won't find this in mainstream news.

[Traces of Texas @TracesofTexas]

Legendary actor Eli Wallach spent four years in Texas as a student at UT-Austin, from which he graduated with a degree in history (yay!) in 1936. Eli, who was from New York City, learned to ride a horse while he was at UT, which served him well later when he played the role of Tuco (shown here) in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Of his time in Texas, Wallach later said, "It opened my eyes to the word 'friendship'. You could rely on people. If they gave you their word, that was it. It was an education."

[Traces of Texas @TracesofTexas]

I mentioned that Jack Abernathy, who was born in Bosque County in 1876, caught more than 1,000 wolves alive. Not only did he do so, but he did it in the presence of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who was deee-lighted (to use Roosevelt's parlance) to witness it. How he did so is the subject of today's Texas Quote of the Day:

"The year was 1904. Teddy Roosevelt was President, Archie Hahn was the world's fastest human, Jim Jeffries was the heavyweight champion, the New York Giants under John McGraw had won the National League pennant, and down in the Texas cattle country Jack Abernathy was catching wolves bare-handed.

Which seems a rather interesting occupation and one not to be taken lightly. There had been nothing in Abernathy's background that gave a hint he would become involved in so risky a pastime. Abernathy was born in Bosque County. At nine, he was a working cowboy and by 15 he was breaking horses in the Texas Panhandle on Charles Goodnight's JA Ranch. But for those times and that country this wasn't particularly unusual. The only clue that Abernathy might be subject to aberrant whims came at 17 when he decided to be a musician.
The question that comes to mind is why he wanted to catch a wolf bare-handed or why ANYONE would want to.

Abernathy caught his first wolf without giving much thought to danger. It was a mistake, done, he said later, in a hasty moment. When he was 15 he was working as a cow-puncher for the JA ranch. Working cattle one day, two greyhounds of which he was very fond jumped a wolf. After a chase the wolf turned and bayed. By the time Abernathy rode up, one dog had been disemboweled and the other was being chewed. Abernathy had no gun and, without thinking, jumped from his horse and started for the fight. He was a young man noted for his exceptional quickness and agility, but, even so, a big wolf—and this one weighed about 125 pounds, almost as much as Abernathy—has canines an inch long and jaws that can crush bones. Abernathy later wrote that his only concern was getting the wolf off his dog, and that he expected the beast to run away.

Instead, the wolf attacked Abernathy, lunging for his throat. Instinctively he threw up a hand, thrusting it sideways into the wolf's mouth. He then grabbed the wolf with his free arm and threw it on its back, and he discovered that as long as he kept the animal's lower jaw open it could not bite him. They struggled, the animal scratching and clawing. Once, Abernathy lost his hold and had to retake it. The scramble ended in a standoff with Abernathy on top of the wolf, holding on to its jaw for dear life, and the animal sulking beneath him. Abernathy was cut and bleeding when his brother, who had missed him, rode up. Abernathy later told his son that his brother said, "Well, what have you got there, Jack?" and he said, "I've got something captured I can't get loose from." His brother wanted to shoot the wolf, but Abernathy decided that since he'd got that far he was going to take the animal back alive. He made a running hitch with cord around the wolf's jaws, jerked his hand out, and with a quick pull tied its mouth shut. Then he slung it over his saddle and took it back to camp.

They say Abernathy caught a few more wolves at this time, but it was more for the sport of the thing and it wasn't until years later that he got serious about wolves. Instead, he decided to become a musician, got married, began selling pianos and raising a family, including two sons. It's important to take note of these two sons because they figure in the story later and they were just a bit unusual, too, maybe even more so than their father.
After Abernathy quit being a musician and piano salesman he returned to cowboying and catching wolves. Only this time he discovered that he had a real knack for wolf catching and he began doing it full time, selling the animals to zoos, circuses and traveling shows for $50 each. His fame spread and Teddy Roosevelt heard about him. Teddy, of course, couldn't let something unusual and outdoorsy go uninvestigated.

A month after he was sworn in for his second term as President, Roosevelt arrived in Frederick, Okla. to watch Jack Abernathy catch a live wolf. That made everyone nervous, including the governor of Texas, S.W.T. Lanham, who sent Texas Rangers to provide Roosevelt with added protection. According to newspaper accounts, Roosevelt was immediately taken with Jack Abernathy and with Abernathy's famous wolf-hunting horse, "Sam Bass." The President and Abernathy posed for pictures, the two looking bully and the Secret Service men looking apprehensive.

The first morning, Roosevelt joined the 10-mile chase over broken and rocky land. He later wrote: "...just as they crossed the creek the greyhound made a rush, pinned the wolf by the hind leg and threw it. There was a scuffle, then a yell from the greyhound as the wolf bit it. At the bite the hound let go...and at that moment Abernathy, who had ridden his horse right on them as they struggled, leaped off and sprang on top of the wolf. He held the reins of the horse with one hand and thrust the other, with a rapidity and precision even greater than the rapidity of the wolf's snap, into the wolf's mouth, jamming his hand down crosswise between the jaws, seizing the lower jaw and bending it down so the wolf could not bite him...with his knees he kept the wolf from using its forepaws to break the hold until it gave up struggling. When he thus leaped on and captured this coyote it was entirely free, the dogs having let go of it; and he was obliged to keep hold of the reins of the horse with one hand. I was not 20 yards distant at the time.... It was as remarkable a feat of the kind as I have ever seen."

Of course, they had trouble with Roosevelt because he wanted to catch a wolf, too. The Secret Service finally talked him out of that, and he turned his attention to killing rattlesnakes, one as long as five feet, with his riding quirt.

Roosevelt wasn't the only one of the party who wanted to try catching wolves. It was reported in the Daily Oklahoman that two others attempted it and had their hands badly mangled. When Roosevelt asked Abernathy about his technique, he said, "Well, Mr. President, you must remember that a wolf never misses its aim when it snaps. When I strike at a wolf with my right hand I know it's going into the wolf's mouth."
During his career Abernathy caught about a thousand wolves. He wrote: "Usually I wore a thin glove, the thinner the better. I wore this glove merely to prevent the sharp canine teeth of the wolf from splitting open the skin of my hand. In thrusting my hand into the mouth of a biting wolf, sometimes the sharp teeth would scratch the skin if I didn't have on a thin glove." In a book he wrote called Catch-'Em-Alive Jack, Abernathy talked about trying to teach others the process. "Nearly all were able to make the catch so far as letting the wolf have their hand. But when the savage animal would clamp down on the hand, the student would become frightened, fearing the hand would be ruined forever. Instead of holding fast to the lower jaw, the student would quit. Consequently the wolf would then almost ruin the hand."

One of Abernathy's sons, Temple, talks of witnessing such an instance as a small boy: "Dad was trying to teach a Mexican cowhand who was around the camp. The man got the wolf all right, but then he got scared and let go and the wolf bit him viciously. He died a few days later. Loss of blood or some such."

In his book Abernathy claimed that the only time he was badly bitten was when he was catching wolves for a Colonel Cecil A. Lyon near Sherman, Texas. He had caught several wolves successfully, but then he had a few drinks of whiskey and the next wolf bit him. He later said the whiskey had ruined his timing.

Temple says the worst bite his father got was from his very first wolf. "Dad told me he was surprised at how easy he got that wolf down and thought he had a good chance of getting out of a bad spot unharmed. So he went to jerk away, but when he did, the wolf got him by the wrist and bit him pretty bad. Dad pried open his mouth and took his hold again, but the wolf had severed the artery in the wrist, and he was losing blood pretty fast when my uncle rode up. When they got back to camp, that big vessel was sticking out about half an inch and spurting blood. Dad tried to shove it back in under the skin, but it wouldn't go. Finally, he just stretched it and cut if off with some shears they had around the wagon, tied it and stopped the bleeding."

When Roosevelt returned to Washington, he sent for Abernathy and asked him what federal office he would like to hold. Abernathy said he'd like to be the United Slates marshal for the Oklahoma Territory and Roosevelt appointed him on the spot at a salary of $5,000 a year. Later, the President wrote:

My Dear Marshal:

I guess you had better not catch live wolves as a part of a public exhibition while you are Marshal. If on a private hunt you catch them, that would be all right, but it would look too much as if you were going into show business if you took part in a public celebration.

Give my regards to all your family.

I am sure you are doing well in your position.

Sincerely, President Theodore Roosevelt."

Shown here: Jack Abernathy, President Theodore Roosevelt, and the wolf.

[Jack Bourke @Jackobyone]

@musk_news13 4

[Jack Bourke @Jackobyone]

@ElonMuskAOC I don’t really want or need one but I would raffle it off for our church and other charities. We appreciate the work you and your team are doing for us. Keep it up!

[Traces of Texas @TracesofTexas]

Traces of Texas reader I. Cameron's father, Eddie Goodman, was a photographer for the San Antonio Express News back in the 1950s. In 1956, he took this OUTSTANDING photo of Fess Parker (who was also a Texan, by the way) as David Crockett outside of the Alamo. I reckon he was on a promotional tour for the Davy Crockett TV show.

Thank you, I. Cameron. I love it!…

[Traces of Texas @TracesofTexas]

Lordy ... every once in a while y'all send in a shot that floors me. Check out this great St. Paddy's Day photo of the legendary Hondo Crouch in Luckenbach. Traces of Texas reader Keven Donohue took this 51 years ago today, in 1974, and it's simply fantastic. Hondo's expression, his "Kiss Me I'm Irish" badge, his beer ... and then the guitar framing it because, after all, this is Luckenbach. Hondo, as everybody surely knows, was the man who "imagined" Luckenbach. Before that he'd been an All-American swimmer at the University of Texas and the author of a weekly newspaper column. He was a raconteur of the first order. So good it makes me want to go out and get a head start on my St. Paddy's day festivities 😀☘️☘️☘️😄

Thank you, Kevin. RIP Hondo Crouch!

[The Salty Dog Galveston @SaltyDGalveston]

The Battleship Texas docked in Galveston.

[Traces of Texas @TracesofTexas]

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

In 1969, while staying at the Fort Worther Motel in Fort Worth, Waylon Jennings saw an advertisement in a newspaper that was promoting Tina Turner as a "good hearted woman loving two-timing men", a reference to Ike Turner. Struck by that phrase, Waylon went to talk to Willie, who was in a middle of a poker game, about writing a song based on that phrase. Joining the game, he and Nelson expanded the lyrics as Willie's wife Connie Koepke wrote them down. They literally wrote it while playing poker. The song reflects the dynamic between a free-spirited man and the steadfast woman who loves him, a theme that resonated deeply with the working-class audience of the time.

Waylon recorded the song for the first time as the title track of his 1972 album "Good Hearted Woman" and the accompanying single peaked at number three on the Billboard's Hot Country Singles. In 1975, Waylon remixed the song, adding vocals from Willie Nelson (and adding fake crowd noise to give it a live feel) for the album Wanted: The Outlaws!. The album crystallized the pair's outlaw image, and went platinum ---- the first country music album to ever do so. The remixed version of the song peaked at number one on Billboard's Hot Country Singles and at number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also won the Single of the Year award in the 1976 Country Music Association Awards.