doc
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Post by doc on May 9, 2008 12:42:25 GMT -5
Gents:
I am shocked and saddened by the news from Houston. I honestly believed that grave robbing there was a vestage of the past. I pray these lads did not get the notion from TEXIAN MACABRE.
Probably not; they don't strike me as big readers.
Not only did this go down in HOUSTON, but one of the boys is named JONES. How weird is that?!
Oh well, the more things change . . .
SLH
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doc
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Post by doc on May 11, 2008 16:54:32 GMT -5
A.W., I'm glad that you liked TEXIAN MACABRE--and happy also that you picked up on the Dickensian themes. As I wrote the book, Charles Dickens was always in the back of my mind. The same year (1838) a Houston jury sentenced Jones and Quick to hang, Dickens published OLIVER TWIST. His books are remarkable for their memorable characters and for the variety of the humanity (mainly lower-class) that they portray. His attacks on abuses in orphanages and schools, courts and prisons, greatly contributed to their reform. In OLIVER TWIST, especially, he seems to ask if criminals are not a product of their poverty and lack of opportunity more than their innate criminality. English judges were saying, "Hang the scum!" Dickens was saying, "Feed and educate the scum!" I often asked, "How would Dickens have viewed the Rowdy loafers?"
Houstonians were grappling with issues of crime and violence. Half a world away, Londoners, were trying to deal with the same problems. As a historian, I can't invent characters and circumstances, but I did attempt to bring a Dickensian sensibility to the telling of the tale. I wanted readers to "know" these people and experience a sense of sadness and loss when they met their fate.
On a brighter note, I've tried the eggnog recipe--and it is AWESOME!
Thanks again for the kind words.
SLH
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Post by mustanggray on May 11, 2008 21:14:37 GMT -5
"Too bad the cattle drives were still years away -- some of these guys might have become drovers. "
Actually there were drives going on at this point already. Some small number of ROT vets were involved in the government sanctioned driving of cattle in to army camps to feed the soldiers still in the service of the republic. It got to the point where there were so many "loose/unclaimed" cattle being rounded up and driven in for the government that the government then outlawed the practice. One more instance of the ROT government turning it's back on the men that served her!
SMc
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doc
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Post by doc on May 20, 2008 10:39:42 GMT -5
Right you are, Mustang!
Texian volunteer Robert Hall described the tedium of camp food. "We were there [Camp Johnson] nearly four months," he asserted, "and during that time never saw a piece of bread." The cash-poor government fed its soldiers with one of the few commodities that Texians had in abundance: meat on the hoof. "We lived entirely on beef," Hall protested. Southern boys reared on buttermilk and cornbread found that the high-protein diet grew wearisome in short order. "The best of us," Hall avowed, "would have traded our interest in the fortune of the Lone Star Republic for a good big skillet of cornbread."
Although most folks are unfamilir with the book nowadays, Hall's memoirs constitue a treasure trove of information on early Texas. "Brazos," LIFE OF ROBERT HALL, intro by Stephen L. Hardin (1898; reprint Austin: State House Press, 1992). By the way, the book is still in print and available through State House Press.
SLH
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Post by TRK on May 20, 2008 11:34:06 GMT -5
I'll second your recommendation of LIFE OF ROBERT HALL, doc. I bought a copy for Hall's recollections of his service with McCulloch's Spy Company at the Battle of Buena Vista. He has a few good stories in that (all too brief) chapter.
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Post by stuart on May 21, 2008 0:36:10 GMT -5
Right you are, Mustang! Texian volunteer Robert Hall described the tedium of camp food. "We were there [Camp Johnson] nearly four months," he asserted, "and during that time never saw a piece of bread." The cash-poor government fed its soldiers with one of the few commodities that Texians had in abundance: meat on the hoof. "We lived entirely on beef," Hall protested. Southern boys reared on buttermilk and cornbread found that the high-protein diet grew wearisome in short order. "The best of us," Hall avowed, "would have traded our interest in the fortune of the Lone Star Republic for a good big skillet of cornbread." SLH The same of course was true during the revolution. Grant's fight with Dimmitt had more to do with getting flour than with politics; the Goliad volunteers complained of living off nothing but fresh killed beef and both they and Grant's men would clearly have killed for a good cup of coffee.
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doc
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Post by doc on May 21, 2008 20:47:10 GMT -5
A. W., many thanks for your remarkably perceptive review on Amazon.com!
SLH
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 21, 2008 22:58:44 GMT -5
Right you are, Mustang! Texian volunteer Robert Hall described the tedium of camp food. "We were there [Camp Johnson] nearly four months," he asserted, "and during that time never saw a piece of bread." The cash-poor government fed its soldiers with one of the few commodities that Texians had in abundance: meat on the hoof. "We lived entirely on beef," Hall protested. Southern boys reared on buttermilk and cornbread found that the high-protein diet grew wearisome in short order. "The best of us," Hall avowed, "would have traded our interest in the fortune of the Lone Star Republic for a good big skillet of cornbread." Although most folks are unfamilir with the book nowadays, Hall's memoirs constitue a treasure trove of information on early Texas. "Brazos," LIFE OF ROBERT HALL, intro by Stephen L. Hardin (1898; reprint Austin: State House Press, 1992). By the way, the book is still in print and available through State House Press. SLH Robert Hall sure looked like one tough hombre in that scratched-up photograph on the book's cover and his boone companion in the last chapter was no slouch-hat either. I just wonder, who the writer "Brazos" really was. He obviously knew his subjects pretty well.
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doc
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Post by doc on May 26, 2008 11:10:51 GMT -5
Rod, that makes two of us. I turned the Texas State Archives and the Center for American History upside down trying to pin down the identity of "Brazos." I found a few leads, but none that panned out.
Even so, I'm convinced that the key to this mystery lies hidden in some archival document. Keep lookin'--and let me know if you find anything!
SLH
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Post by sloanrodgers on May 26, 2008 17:05:02 GMT -5
Rod, that makes two of us. I turned the Texas State Archives and the Center for American History upside down trying to pin down the identity of "Brazos." I found a few leads, but none that panned out. Even so, I'm convinced that the key to this mystery lies hidden in some archival document. Keep lookin'--and let me know if you find anything! SLH I do have a theory that the first publisher of Robert Hall might have some connection with the first publisher of A. J. Sowell's Life of Big Foot Wallace, which was published the next year. I believe they were both published in the same pamplet newsprint form. It seems possible that the publisher of Robert Hall might want to test the waters a bit. He may have thrown in the Big Foot piece at the last minute in preperation for accepting a contract to print A. J. Sowell's little biography on Wallace. It's just a theory, but the archival route might be the way to prove it. This research would probably take a lot of time and effort with little public interest.
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doc
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Post by doc on Jun 18, 2008 9:46:42 GMT -5
Gents: Fans of TEXIAN MACABRE may wish to read Mike Cox's review on Lone Star Books. This is a wonderful site for Texas related books. Check it out at: www.lonestarbooks.blogspot.com Doc
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Post by sloanrodgers on Jun 18, 2008 18:56:09 GMT -5
Gents: Fans of TEXIAN MACABRE may wish to read Mike Cox's review on Lone Star Books. This is a wonderful site for Texas related books. Check it out at: www.lonestarbooks.blogspot.com Doc I posted the blog link for Mike a few days ago on the Pertinent Links thread, but somehow skipped the Macabre article. Nice write-up Doc. I also just noticed the strangely titled biography, Captain Ransom, Texas Ranger: An American Hero by his grandaughter, Pat Goodrich. I believe most folks have a different opinion of Henry Ransom's heroic status. I'll comment on him elsewhere though.
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Aug 17, 2008 20:32:42 GMT -5
As usual, I arrived late at the party, and just checked out this thread yesterday. So, what did I do last night? Ordered this book and Mark Lemon's book from Amazon. Can't wait to get my hands on both, and dig into them. "Texian Macabre" should be quite interesting.
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Post by Jim Boylston on Aug 17, 2008 21:05:45 GMT -5
Money well spent!!
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Aug 18, 2008 7:01:10 GMT -5
I suspect so. The book will arrive home before I do, though. I'm on detail in Texas, but flying back to New Hampshire for Labor Day weekend. They will be waiting for me (and I'll have something great to read on the flight back to Dallas, too!).
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