The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 155

Book Reviews

man, and mining engineer, many of the old-timers who had settled
that country right after the Civil War were still alive and sharp
of memory. There were still a few ancient Mexicans around who
remembered the bloody conflicts with the Comanches and Mes-
calero Apaches and the coming of the first Anglos to the Presidio
country in the 185o's. It was not easy to get these people to talk,
even then, until they knew and trusted one. Today they and their
kind are long dead.
For ten years Carl Raht spent his spare time collecting the
lore, legend, and myth of the old days in the Big Bend and Davis
Mountains. In addition, he took time out to study history at the
University of Texas and learn the processes of historical research.
He consulted old Spanish records, studied the archaeology of his
region, and traced out the history, ancient and modern, of the vast
arid land he had come to love. The result of his labors was the
most complete and readable regional study produced in Texas
to that time. It stands today, head and shoulders above the run
of such productions.
Raht gives credit, in both editions, to the help of such
trans-Pecos historians as Barry Scobee of Fort Davis, Ranger
Captain J. B. Gillett, Lieutenant H. O. Flipper, and Judge O. W.
Williams of Fort Stockton. Particular credit should be given the
late Judge Williams, who was an outstanding historian of his
region and a writer of genuine talent. The chapters on the flora
of the trans-Pecos and on the Mexican legends and lore lean
heavily on direct quotations from Williams.
Texans owe much to Carl Raht for his massive collection and
superb interpretation of material on this least-known section of
the state. The debt is multiplied by his republication of this now-
scarce work in a popular updated edition.
R. HENDERSON SHUFFLER
Humanities Research Center
The University of Texas
Home on the Double Bayou: Memories of an East Texas Ranch.
By Ralph Semmes Jackson. Austin (University of Texas
Press), 19g61. Pp. xviii+136. Illustrations. $3.50.
In 1961, the University of Texas Press established a new book
series, Personal Narratives of the West, under the general editor-

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