Last of the Mohicans Rifle

[Iron Jim Rackham]

Twain is fun to read because he’s a curmudgeon. He’s a precursor of Menken. Iconoclasts are driven to destroy the monuments of heroes, and as successful as Twain was, he couldn’t create a character as heroic as Hawkeye. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn while popular literary characters, never exerted the cultural influence of Hawkeye. Twain resented the fame of Cooper because he felt that author’s recognition was undeserved, without ever understanding what people found so compelling about the Leatherstocking Tales. Twain’s criticism of Cooper would be like Tony Knight criticizing Jacob Dickert. Just as a modern muzzleloader will assert the superiority of an inline over a traditional muzzleloader and shrug off the architecture, balance, and decoration of a longrifle as immaterial to ballistic performance so does Twain’s criticism of Cooper overlook the importance, on balance, of the Leatherstocking Tales.

Cooper’s dated literary style is analogous to traditional muzzleloading. It’s heavy, outdated, cumbersome, and slow. Critics complain performance is anemic and can’t fathom the continuing interest in a pursuit that has long since been superseded by technological or literary improvement. Just as many people will prefer a modern semi-automatic to an antique or antiquated muzzleloader, many people will prefer a 20th century movie to a 19th century book about fictional 18th century characters.

I like both Cooper’s Last of the Mohican’s and the 1992 film adaptation of it. Modern audiences prefer to see the “good guy” get the girl, rather than have her marry the English officer as Cooper wrote. However changed by Hollywood, the characters invented by Cooper are still central to the movie presentation, thus any criticism of Cooper’s literary style are immaterial to the enduring interest in the characters he created.

The Iliad and Odyssey contain many repetitive descriptions that don’t diminish either the originality of the storytelling, or abiding fascination the public has with these great tales. Homer refers to “rosy fingered dawn”, “black prowed ships” “deathless gods”, “swift footed Achilles” “wine dark seas” “strong greaved Achaeans” with far greater monotony than Cooper refers to dry twigs snapping. This does not however, detract from the enduring beauty, originality or importance of Homer. To criticize Homer for repetitiveness would be to overlook the significance of these foundational epics.

To criticize Cooper for his cliché’ d descriptions likewise overlooks that authors contribution to American literature by the creation of its most enduring hero. Whether you enjoy Cooper’s prose, or prefer Hollywood’s portrayal, or even a comic book depiction, Hawkeye is the quintessential American hero, and thus his creator is arguably America’s Homer.

 

[George]

Modern audiences prefer to see the “good guy” get the girl, rather than have her marry the English officer as Cooper wrote.

We must have read different editions of the story. In the one I read, Cora is killed.

Spence

 

[Iron Jim Rackham]

You're correct. Cora does die, in the book, but Alice, is the love interest of the British officer Duncan Heyward, who get's the girl in the end, because unlike to movie where "Nathaniel Poe" shoots him, Natty Bumppo and he are good friends, rather than romantic rivals. Cora on the other hand dies. In both the book and movie Uncas and Magua also die. The movie is inspired by the book, but doesn't follow it. Film directors can take as much artistic license as they believe will make their product successful. The movie maker thought it would be more compelling to create a love interest for Hawkeye absent from the book, and decided to make Cora rather than Alice the object of Duncan's attention.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Besides in the book, Cora's affection was directed at Uncas not Hawkeye, who was well over forty years old and past being a romantic interest. It is interesting that Cara is described as 1/8 African born to Colonel Munro's Jamaican wife who died before Munro returned to England with Cora and married Alice's mother. In order for Cora to be attracted to Uncas, she needed to have a racial tendency to be attracted to a native American.

 

[Nazgul58]

The author of "King Solomon's Mines" was H. Ryder Haggard. Not only did he write a good story he gave name to She, Who Must Be Obeyed.

Love Haggard's writing. Read most of what he put together. His adventure scenes are wonderful for an old guy with a kids imagination.

Don

 

[Notchy Bob]

Besides in the book, Cora's affection was directed at Uncas not Hawkeye, who was well over forty years old and past being a romantic interest. It is interesting that Cara is described as 1/8 African born to Colonel Munro's Jamaican wife who died before Munro returned to England with Cora and married Alice's mother.

Thank you for bringing this up. Many readers, if not most, miss this detail, which is in fact a critical issue in the story.

Cooper was not a "hack" writer. He was a thinker, and while his books tend to feature a lot of adventure, love interests, pursuit and evasion, and so forth, Cooper also tackled important social issues in his stories. In The Last of the Mohicans, he challenged his readers' attitudes toward racism, and the effects of nature versus environment. The book states very plainly that Magua learned his evil habits from white people at the forts. Munro accused Heyward of prejudice because Heyward wanted to marry Betsy (whose mother was white) rather than Cora, whose mother had some African heritage.

The Deerslayer challenged readers to think about persons with disabilities (Hutter's younger daughter), as the mentally handicapped were generally not well treated on the frontier. The Pioneers is often considered America's first environmental novel, not just describing the advance of civilization, but the rampant destruction and over consumption of natural resources. Readers are also confronted with the issue of what to do with the elderly, and toward the end of the book, there is a very clear description of an elderly veteran, who was highly respected in his day, but had slipped into obscurity and near end-stage dementia. In The Prairie, Cooper takes the issue of losses experienced with aging even further.

What I'm reading in this thread suggests many readers are put off by Cooper's prose. He was writing in the style of his time. I like Iron Jim Rackham's analogy, comparing writing to rifles.

I first read the Classics Illustrated "comic book" version of The Last of the Mohicans when I was maybe ten years old. I got so caught up in it that I walked up to the local library and found the "real" book, which was illustrated with the incomparable N.C. Wyeth paintings. When my mom saw how interested I was, she bought me a set of all five of The Leatherstocking Tales with library (cloth) bindings for my birthday. I still have them.

However, Cooper isn't for everyone. I respect that.

Notchy Bob

 

[Pete G]

Film directors can take as much artistic license as they believe will make their product successful.

Like the guy in the red hat peeping out from behind a tree in the opening scene

 

[Tinhorn]

I'm an inveterate gear-head, so I get totally absorbed in manuals !! I even have the original Johnathan Browning Mountain Rifle .50 Caliber (whew!) in my rifle bag. Who carries THAT around?? Tinhorn

 

[beardedhorse]

The rifle that Nathaniel Bumpo carried, not from the movie but literary sources. Was it a Pennsylvania made long rifle, flinter with half-round and octagon barrel that was rifled or smooth bored? Was La Long Carabine his nickname or the name of his rifle or smooth rifle? Somewhere in the past I read a blurb on the rifle and possibly the county or maker in Pa.

 

[Bill hughes]

the gun was made by a gunmaker turned furniture maker as their was a lot more money in furniture. he made two rifles for the movie set. both the same as the other. he charged them 10,000 for each rifle. i do not anymore about the rifles. in the movie it is said that a silk patch would let the bullet fly faster and further. dont try it it wont work. in fact i may have tried it way back then. silk burns easily. it is no good as a patch. the best patching material is pure linen tigh weave medium weight or the same in hemp material. they dont come apart or burn at all. dont cut either. back to the gun of the movie, dont know anymore about it. some of the indian actors in the movie were from the rez i was working at at the federal hospital there. ive met many of the indian actors and extras over the years working in federal hospitals on reservations. some go back to old movies with clark gable. i think the movie was across the great divide. so much for that, keep us informed if you build this rifle. the stock seems to be a plain type maple with a honey color finish. most likely a very strong stock. i built a half stock mountain man rifle with plain maple and it to was honey colored. really a nice looking stock. very strong.

I recall seeing one of the rifles in the San Antonio Planet Hollywood...

 

[Old Hawkeye]

Was La Long Carabine his nickname or the name of his rifle or smooth rifle?

Smooth rifle?????

 

[oldwood]

A good many copies were precarved from the original pattern piece so souvenir rifles could be built of the movie gun. The only location of a souvenir gun , I know of for sure , is the one made for Daniel Day Lewis. Couple of years ago it was supposed to be hanging in his home in UK. ...........oldwood

 

[Grenadier1758]

La Long Carabine was the name the Mingos (Hurons) gave to Hawkeye. All of J. F. Cooper's descriptions of the gun "Killdeer" refer to it as a rifle.

 

[Zonie]

Smooth rifle?????

Although the name is a bit confusing, yes, there are original muzzleloaders that people call a "smooth rifle".

These guns look just like a rifle. The stock is like a rifle and it has both a front and rear sight and almost always, a patchbox. The barrel is also thick and usually a full octagon, like a rifle would have.

No one knows if these guns were once rifled and have had the bores bored out to repair them, or if they were originally made with a unrifled barrel.

 

[tenngun]

The rifle that Nathaniel Bumpo carried, not from the movie but literary sources. Was it a Pennsylvania made long rifle, flinter with half-round and octagon barrel that was rifled or smooth bored? Was La Long Carabine his nickname or the name of his rifle or smooth rifle? Somewhere in the past I read a blurb on the rifle and possibly the county or maker in Pa.

I think in the book it was an anachronism. Cooper was writing a story not a gun history. I doubt Cooper would have had much ability To research mid eighteenth century rifles then. He would have seen long rifles maybe even some fifty year old ones around and just assumed that how they looked in Natty’s day.
Alan Ekert wrote a great set of narratives about the early frontier. I bet a large portion of us have read those. As well researched as they were he often said rifle when a musket or fusil was what was being used.
I recall seeing a stained glass from a cathedral that showed Moses parting the Red Sea. Moses and the Jews are dressed like European Jews from the thirteenth century while the Egyptians look like knights and men at rms.
When I read Cooper I see a Federal period gun in Natty’s hand

 

[Cattman]

ZONIE, before deadwood s.dak become just gambling i was up their for a week end. their at that time was a small museum that held about 300 guns or so from the gold rush days. 99 percent percussion. what i was surprised was their was no school. just guns put together from many gun smiths. most were in very good shape and took good care of. their was also a lot of large cal. smooth bores. that really surprised me. they looked almost new. either very well taken care of or not used much. indians was the problem back then as well a criminals roaming those black mountains. dont know what ever happened to all those guns but when gambling came the museum closed and was remodeled. i remember on that was very well made. had a 1 and 1/8 octagon 26 inches long. looked brand new. was a 50 cal smooth bore. gon barrel. up in the n.dak state museum their is a real hawken rifle it was used to hunt buffalo. it is in very good shape except for one thing. the muzzle. it has ramrod grooves all around the muzzle. every thing else is in good shape, even the nipple. its stock is walnut. it is too heavy to shoot from the shoulder. it is a 60 cal or so. i cant figure out how they could get any accuracy with deep ramrod grooves in the muzzle. they must have gotten real close to the buffalo. also they should have use a bore guide but most likely their was none in those days. a abrasive wood ramrod really cut into the muzzle in several places. must have put down hundreds of buffalo. guns barrels hads to be of much softer metal in those days.

 

[Old Hawkeye]

Although the name is a bit confusing, yes, there are original muzzleloaders that people call a "smooth rifle".

These guns look just like a rifle. The stock is like a rifle and it has both a front and rear sight and almost always, a patchbox. The barrel is also thick and usually a full octagon, like a rifle would have.

No one knows if these guns were once rifled and have had the bores bored out to repair them, or if they were originally made with a unrifled barrel.

Thanks! I figured it could be something I've never encounter, which is why I put all the ????? after my response.

 

[tenngun]

Smooth rifle?????

In some old works they are called rifle mounted fusils

 

[Grenadier1758]

... up in the n.dak state museum their is a real hawken rifle it was used to hunt buffalo. it is in very good shape except for one thing. the muzzle. it has ramrod grooves all around the muzzle. every thing else is in good shape, even the nipple. its stock is walnut. it is too heavy to shoot from the shoulder. it is a 60 cal or so. i cant figure out how they could get any accuracy with deep ramrod grooves in the muzzle. they must have gotten real close to the buffalo. also they should have use a bore guide but most likely their was none in those days. a abrasive wood ramrod really cut into the muzzle in several places. must have put down hundreds of buffalo. guns barrels hads to be of much softer metal in those days.

Are you certain these are ramrod wear grooves. There was an early method of coning the muzzle by filing the grooves deeper then tapering the lands. Not only would the rifle be easier to load, the funneling would provide some bore protection.

 

[Cattman]

no coneing, deep ramrod grooves.