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Post by stuart on Apr 24, 2008 10:17:22 GMT -5
Stuart really did give a witty, inspiring and above all humble acceptance speech for his award. I don't know if he prepared for it, but it sure sounded off-the-cuff and genuine. The official presentation was actually at a dinner in Nacogdoches earlier in the month which I couldn't make for obvious reasons. I thought I was going to be given the award privately as a result, so that acceptance speech was very much off the cuff - well not even that because as usual I was wearing a short sleeve shirt without cuffs. But yeah, it was a great symposium - and I really enjoyed Doc's book
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Post by Jim Boylston on Apr 24, 2008 11:57:15 GMT -5
Welcome back, Stuart, and congratulations on the well deserved accolades. Jim
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Post by Jim Boylston on Apr 24, 2008 11:59:35 GMT -5
Well, Steve, I know but one solution to your dilemma: order another copy! That action will leave both shelves perfectly satisfied. I'm glad you liked it--and thanks for the note. SLH Okay, doc, you got me. I ordered another copy as a gift for a friend of mine who's a Houston native. You can buy me a drink at Joan's next year! Jim
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doc
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Posts: 88
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Post by doc on Apr 24, 2008 20:34:20 GMT -5
Gee, alamo54us, everyone should have such a good friend!
I'd be proud to buy you a drink at Joan's party--assuming the TSHA does not schedule its annual meeting at the same time. That's why I missed this year's party.
And remember, Mother's Day is coming up! What mom wouldn't love her own copy of TEXIAN MACABRE?
On second thought . . . that's a really bad idea.
SLH
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doc
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Post by doc on Apr 25, 2008 8:20:09 GMT -5
Stuart, I greatly enjoyed our visit in Houston. I am also happy to hear that you liked TM.
Did you read it on the plane?
SLH
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Post by sloanrodgers on Apr 25, 2008 11:02:56 GMT -5
Did you read it on the plane? I read my copy at bus stops and bus goes. ;D
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Post by stuart on Apr 25, 2008 14:34:19 GMT -5
Stuart, I greatly enjoyed our visit in Houston. I am also happy to hear that you liked TM. Did you read it on the plane? SLH No, it was so good I sat down and read it all the way through (for the first time) while I was still in the hotel
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 3, 2008 23:51:41 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this dark book, but especially the chapter dealing with dueling and the Code Duello in America. The seperation of Anglo classes that drove the trials of Jones and Quick appears really bizarre to me. It seems like the so-called gentlemen of the South created the rules to protect themselves and display their status to the the cowed poor, but often had no qualms about abusing their code of honor.
I've read several accounts where noted men have boldly murdered poor fellows below their class without the constraints of the code duello. The claim is made afterward that the killing was justified because the victim allegedly threatened someone. On November 19, 1842, the Houston Morning Star reported that future Texas governor James Pinkney Henderson borrowed a gun from a San Augustine shop, walked up to an un-armed rowdy, and shot him in the back. Henderson was arrested for the murder, but apparently got away with it because the victim supposedly made some threats. I guess it was more honorable to be a back-shooter in the wild west.
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Post by Allen Wiener on May 6, 2008 8:58:51 GMT -5
I recieved my copy a couple of days ago and read more than half of it in one sitting. This is terrific storytelling and a fascxinating, unique look at the characters who populated Texas at the time of its birth as an independent republic. Can't wait to get back to it later today after my chores are done!
AW
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doc
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Post by doc on May 6, 2008 13:07:37 GMT -5
RangerRod, there is a certain logic to Henderson's conduct--but only within a 19th-century context. One could expect a "gentleman" to behave according to form. He would issue a formal challenge and the meeting would follow the Code Duello--which provided fair play for both parties. On the other hand, the riff-raff did NOT follow society's rules. So, if a rowdy loafer threatened a gentleman, the gent was pefectly within his rights to shoot him out of hand.
That's what the lower orders did. Case in point, David James Jones. If Jones had killed Wood in a fair fight, he would have walked. Wood would have been just as dead, but his killer would have observed the proprieties. In the Texas Republic, it wasn't that you killed a man, but HOW you killed him that mattered.--SLH
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doc
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Post by doc on May 6, 2008 13:14:40 GMT -5
AW, I'm glad that you like what you've read so far.
Finish your chores and get back to readin'.
Check in when you reach the end. BTW, don't ignore the notes. There's another layer of sick, twisted weirdness in the endnotes.--SLH
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 6, 2008 15:42:16 GMT -5
I guess there's exceptions or excuses to every code. A few months earlier in a reversal of roles a fellow shot Governor Boggs of Missouri through a window while the executive was lounging in his home. Toward the end of the Civil War, I'm sure you're aware of the disgusting incident in which social equals, Gen. John A. Wharton and Col. George Baylor got into an arguement. Gen. Wharton slapped or tweaked Col. Baylor's nose, which were a couple of recognized ways to challenge someone to a duel. Baylor defied the rules and pulled out his revolver, he then viciously murdered the unarmed general.
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Post by Allen Wiener on May 8, 2008 11:01:03 GMT -5
A fascinating and easy read -- thoroughly enjoyable, enlightening and entertaining. It's an eye-popping revelation of the dawn of Houston, it's near-Dickensian characters and its caste system. It does what history ought to do -- takes us to a different time and place and gives us a feel for what it was like to live there.
I have to agree that Jones probably deserved to hang for murder, but he and Quick clearly were sacrificial lambs on the altar of "civic improvement," which proved elusive anyway.
I suppose one could use the story to make a case for big government! Maybe Texas should have staked the veterans it had abandoned to enough money to get farms or ranches going on all that free land it gave them. Or a jobs program? Of course, the government seems to have been broke and, anyway, no one thought that way back then. Would those guys have been the least bit interested? Too bad the cattle drives were still years away -- some of these guys might have become drovers.
Who knows? As Dr. Hardin cautions, it's a bad mistake to put our thoughts into the heads of those who lived so long ago, or to apply our standards to them. One thing that comes through is the amount of grit these people must have had to stick it out in such a place and their persistence in trying to make something of it and themselves. The lost souls, or "rowdy loafers," really do appear as the discarded waste of those of privilege, wealth, education or just better luck, even if a number of them were ghouls who would have been good company for Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in their heyday.
I've always felt very sorry for Susannah Dickinson and her daughter, Angelina. Their story indicates the limited options women had at the time. There weren't many choices beyond marrying up or whoring. Like the abandoned veterans, they were victims of a society that closed most doors to them. At least Susannah's story had a happy ending, after 5 husbands.
I did make a point of reading through the notes, which were interesting in themselves (gotta try that eggnog recipe! In all my years of visiting Williamsburg I don't know how I missed getting a taste of the stuff).
AW
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Post by tmdreb on May 8, 2008 20:10:49 GMT -5
Things haven't changed much in Houston, according to the Houston Chronicle: May 8, 2008, 2:45PM 3 accused of using corpse head to smoke pot
By BRIAN ROGERS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Two men and a juvenile are accused of digging up a corpse, decapitating the body and using the head to smoke marijuana, according to court documents.
Matthew Gonzalez and Kevin Jones have been charged with the misdemeanor offense of abuse of a corpse, said Scott Durfee, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorneys Office.
According to documents filed in the case, Gonzalez, Jones and an unnamed juvenile on March 15 went to an Humble cemetery, dug up a man's grave, left with the head and turned it into a "bong."
Gonzalez told authorities about the incident Wednesday, and showed officers the defaced grave, including a 4-foot hole. Because of a heavy rain, officers were unable to determine whether the casket or the body had been disturbed. I doubt these fellows were inspired by the good doctor's book, so I bet they don't know how much they have in common with the early residents of our fair city.
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Post by Jim Boylston on May 8, 2008 22:11:08 GMT -5
Good Lord! Dr. Robert Watson would be proud.
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