by
Frank Hatton

Let me tell you a story,.... it is true, and there is a possibility that you may have read about it, but, even so, it will do you no harm to read a different account. It concerns a Red Indian Chief called 'Long Wolf', (I believe these good folk are now referred to as 'Native Americans') who died in 1892. First of all, let's give you a little of the history of this man. He was born at a time when the Sioux nation were a tribe of warriors, and while little is known of his early years, he took a very active part in the battle of 'Little Big Horn', which as you know involved the wiping out of General Custer's 7th Cavalry in 1876. It seems that rather than join the shattered Sioux tribe in subjugation after Little Big Horn, Long Wolf joined 'Buffalo Bill' Cody's Wild West show, and with his wife, and 12 year old daughter Lizzie, he travelled around with the show, and eventually finished up in England, where the performance was given at Earls Court, West London. Unfortunately, poor old Long Wolf contracted pneumonia, and died. The year was 1892, and the autopsy was carried out in a West London Hospital, where the report described a body covered in the scars of gunshot wounds and sabre cuts. Now, because Long Wolf's wife was unable to afford the expense of taking the body back to America, Cody had Long Wolf buried in Brompton Cemetery, in London, and there he has lain for the last one hundred years or so, with the actual location of the grave forgotten by all. It would seem that Long Wolf's family did make some efforts over the years to find out where he was buried, but, were unsuccessful. We now move forward to the early 1990's, when a Worcestershire housewife (Worcestershire is a county in England) by the name of Elizabeth Knight, found an old book at a local antique market, written by an adventurer and politician called Robert Cunningham, and, in the book, she found a lament on Long Wolf's tragic life, and it described how the Chief lay in a 'neglected grave, in a lone corner of a crowded London cemetery'. Mrs Knight was moved by the story, and decided that she would try to track down the descendants by placing adverts in American Journals. After many false leads, she eventually made contact with the family, who were, John Black Feather, who is the son of Jessie, who in turn is the daughter of Lizzie. Lizzie was the daughter of Long Wolf. Jessie is now 87, and she and son John, came to England recently to take the body of her grandfather, back to America. Long Wolf will now be buried in the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, near the site of the Wounded Knee massacre. This is the ancestral burial ground of the Oglala Sioux tribe.

There now,.... isn't that a lovely story?

In fact, if you are not sufficiently cheered by that little story, then I have another one for you, again true. This concerns a lady with whom I communicate via the internet, her name is Chrysti and she lives in San Francisco, she was recently telling me of an occasion, when she and her family were out around the Fisherman's Wharf area on New Years Eve. As the clock came up to midnight, Chrysti noticed an elderly lady who was pushing a handcart, which obviously contained all of her worldly belongings. I don't know what you call these poor old folk in the U.S., but, over here, we call them 'Bag ladies'. They sleep in shop doorways, and beg a living from whoever will spare them a little money. Anyway, as I say, the clock chimed midnight, and of course everyone started to hug each other, and shake hands or kiss, but, Chrysti noticed this poor old soul standing there in the middle of it all, looking a bit bewildered. The lovely Chrysti told her family that she would not be a moment, and she went over to the old lady, and gave her a great big hug and a kiss, and wished her a "Very happy New Year". This little act of kindness brought tears to the eyes of the old lady, and I feel sure that some of her faith in her fellow beings was restored.

Now,.... if Long Wolf, and the New Year story have not made you happy, then I fear you are beyond the powers of this little column. However, on the assumption that you are now smiling, we will proceed with the business. We in this little island are going through a rather peculiar period with our brand new Labour government. Quite aside from all the new ideas on giving Scotland and Wales a form of local administration, they are making a lot of frightening noises about getting a large proportion of our automobiles off of our very over crowded roads. It would seem that the way in which they intend to achieve this objective, is to double the price of our petrol, (we are already paying around $5.25 a gallon) so we are looking at around $10.50 a gallon ! It is reasoned that we would therefore not do so much driving, but, we have to remember we will still have to pay for our car to be insured, (our family car is $256 a year, that's with a 70% no claims bonus, so we are looking at $853 gross per year). We will still have to pay the annual Road Fund License, (currently $232 a year), plus all the other 'bits and pieces' like maintenance, and the annual test certificate cost. I imagine you might be getting a little shiver running up your spine? However, the story does not end there ! There are quite a few people who live out in the rural areas, you know, little villages and remote spots. Now, some years back, these folk still had their small 'corner shops' where they could buy their shopping quite close to their homes. But, the growth of the supermarkets on the outskirts of the towns, has forced these small shops out of business, and they have closed. Hence, these country folk still very much need their cars to get the groceries from the supermarket, (the local bus service in these areas is almost non existent) and, if this rise in petrol prices does come about, they are going to find a big increase in the cost of living. My view on the subject is,.... if they want to get some of our cars off the road, then they should find a fairer way to do it, not by forcing the folk with the least money to stop using cars. I wonder how many squeals we would hear if it were decided that only one car per family household was permitted?

On a happier note, you may, or you may not know that we have a National Lottery in the U.K.. It has been running for a couple of years now, and of course twice a week,(on Wednesdays and Saturdays ) we all get a little excited, thinking that this may be our turn for the 'Big One'. There are 49 numbers to choose from to make a six figure choice, it is said that there are 14,000,000 combinations of six figures, so, you can imagine what the chances of winning really are. However, occasionally, we get what are called 'Roll overs', this is where the winning line is not held by anybody, and the prize doubles up on the next draw. Just recently, we had a 'Triple rollover', where the first prize was at the sum of £28 million, ($44.8 million). Well, it was in fact shared between five prize winning lines. Now, quite aside from the fantastic odds against picking a winning line, we had an almost miraculous situation, where a syndicate of guys in a pub, made a mistake on their entry ticket, and put one of their lines down twice by mistake. Yep, you've guessed it, the mistake was the winning set of numbers....... So, they got two first prizes of £5.6. ($9) million. More than enough for me to achieve my last ambition,..... and what is that, I hear you ask. That my friends is to follow the old Pony Express route from St, Joseph, MO, right through to Sacramento in California. What a fascinating chunk of American history that was !! It only ran for 18 months, but, the adventures that came out of it. The number of books written on the subject is pathetically few, but, I have been able to glean sufficient detail to plot the route the riders followed. To do it properly, one would need to use a horse for much of the time,...it just makes my mouth water at the thought of it. Soooo, if ever I do manage to win that lottery, for those of you that live near that route, you can look forward to Frank Hatton galloping past your door. Who knows, I might even dismount, and call in for chat and a cup of coffee.....if invited.

If this should reach you in time, can I also wish you all a very Happy Xmas.

I would love to hear from you so email me.

You can find more articles in the archive under From Over the Pond