Westerns

Subject: Re: Westerns Sun 13 Jan 2008, 10:24 pm

I have to confess that I have yet to read a Larry McMurtry novel; paid only passing attention to his 'Lonesome Dove' when it played out as a mini-series a decade or so ago. But tonight, the sequal to 'Dove' -- 'Comanche Moon' -- is showing on tv. I'm not watching it at present, though my husband is. The reviews of the new production don't seem to be good:

http://tinyurl.com/2w3aaa

... but the thing is quite stirring .... at least from a distance pale

The cry of a man in agony flows forth again and again from the audio.

Conversation:

"What's wrong? Is he being scalped?" (Me)

"No, he's being skinned." (The Guy in Front of the TV)

My gosh. Is it possible to aquire post-traumatic stress disorder through your genes? If so, I suspect that I have it. And I would have been a darned mean little lady had I been pushed onto the Texas frontier (as were my ancesstresses) 150 years ago. Always armed .... rifle grafted to shoulder? Yes. Shoot to kill to defend my family from terrorists? You better believe it.
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Re: Westerns Sun 13 Jan 2008, 11:01 pm

By the very nature of its physical environment and the conflicting interests of the people who lived and roved upon it, the West was a seedbed of far more than the distanced and easy philosophy of life and government which characterizes our society today. There was little idle speculation on the frontier. One's views and actions all-too-often had life-or-death consequences.

A pierced Holy Writ ... bearing an arrow through its heart? Yes, that was the stuff of the true old West, in the company of perhaps the greatest courage and most horrendous actions ever poured into our soil. And unlike in the War for Union sepremacy, women and small children were active and often combatants for the control of the frontier.

Etta Pegues' poem about Jacob Moffett :

THE BIBLE AND THE ARROW
(Ballad of Parson Jacob Moffett)

The sky was blue that Sunday morning,
As Newark skies are bright
When air hangs feather-light with promise
With not a cloud in sight.

Parson Moffett rode alone,
His Bible for a mate,
As step by step he traveled west
To meet a dreadful fate.

The oriflame of ministry
Was borne with joy and pride
As he spread glad tiding of good news
Around the countryside.

He reached the Trinity Rivier
And stopped to rest a spell,
While he reviewed his sermon theme,
A test on grace and hell.

Comanches swooped down unaware
With murder in their heart,
They poised the bow and took their aim,
Let go to the poisoned dart.

His head was severed from his neck,
His scalp became their own...
No friend was there to weep for him
Or hear his dying groan.

The people on the hilltop heard
And were paralyzed with fear,
As hour by hour the terror grew,
So no one ventured near.

Until Sam Hyas, a friend indeed
Who raised a lustrous dome,
Though not alone, God went with him,
To haul the body home.

His wife placed a sapling at his grave
To form a canopy
Like a parson bowing long in prayer
In its lonely liturgy.

More than a century has passed
Since all the Indian raids,
But the tree still stands steadfast and strong
As the man whose grave it shades.

They searched the site where Jacob died
And froze at what they found:
An arrow pierced the sacred Book
And pinned it to the ground.

His congregation waits for him
In the regions of the sky,
Where murders will never ride
And arrows never fly.

By Etta Pegues

From Tammy Wilson:

It comes from the History of Wise County Volume II.....
I really think it fits this cemetery of very early pioneers of Wise County.
Etta Pegues may have put this in the History of Wise County.

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:
Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours,
and their works do follow them.
Revelation 14:13

~~Taken from the web-page devoted to the Teague Cemetery (Wise County), which is linked to elsewhere here, but again ...

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/%7edrycreek/teague.htm
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Re: Westerns Mon 14 Jan 2008, 12:42 am

Wikipedia says this in its plot summary of Larry McMurtry's novel, 'Comanche Moon':

"Texas Governor Elisha Pease sends a small troop of Texas Rangers, under the leadership of Captain Inish Scull, in pursuit of the celebrated Comanche horse thief, Kicking Wolf. This bold Indian steals Scull's famous horse and takes it to the Sierra Perdida to give it to the notorious Mexican bandit king Ahumado, feared for the horrible tortures that he inflicts upon his victims."

Would the character, Ahumado, have been modeled on one of the Comancheros ... the sometimes violent, renegade traders who plied their wares from the high plains of Texas to the mountains of New Mexico?

Also, has anyone read 'Comanche Moon' or 'Lonesome Dove'?
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Re: Westerns Sat 22 Mar 2008, 10:49 pm

As Owl mentioned reading a novel by Zane Grey, I was wondering whether anyone could direct as to the best books written by this classic author. I do have a few copies of his books -- have read part of 'Riders of the Purple Sage' -- but that is all.

Thanks.
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves

Subject: Ralph Compton Tue 01 Apr 2008, 9:30 pm

As the Texas cattle trails were mentioned here recently, I was reminded of Ralph Compton's The Trail Drive Series. Has someone out there read any of these novels? I began The Shawnee Trail, but never completed it.

Thanks for any perspectives on his work.

http://www.iblist.com/author13523.htm

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/western_collectibles/88658
_________________
The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves