The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 38, July 1934 - April, 1935 Page: 75
312 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews and Notices 75
Buffalo Bill's wild west show; returned to the Plains again to
gamble and ramble; and was killed during the rush to Deadwood
in 1876.
I-e was a wonderfully efficient killer; his marksmanship without
doubt was superb; and his courage seemed ample for his time and
crowd. But his alleged modesty seems incompatible with his well-
known showiness, his long hair and affected attire, which, as the
author claims, may have been "a badge of manhood and courage,"
but which the frontier has always doubted.
As Mr. Connelley admits, he was of the breed that left few
written sources, and hence of necessity is largely reconstructed from
oral ones. At times he is written broadly and appropriately into
his historical background; again the reader may wonder if many
of these tales were not taken with slight critical choice. Cer-
tainly among all the historical and all the be-legended characters
of the West, none slaughtered the hapless redskins with half the
facility that was Bill's. I-e killed them on horse and on foot; he
shot them from front and behind; and he carved them right well
with his Bowie knife. In one short adventure he kills ten Indians;
again he is charged by seven and leaves them dead in one pile;
and they fall by twos and threes now and again. Unfortunately,
in this day of statistics, his total of dead Indians is not computed,
but by 1871 he was said to have forty-three white men to his
credit, and it is good to know that he "never killed without cause
and justification."
An interesting chapter on cowboys details something of Hickok's
debated efficiency as a marshal, though it is strange that such a
palpable error as one herd "of two hundred and seventy thousand
head" should have trailed in. The fact that Wild Bill was shot
in the back of the head and that his loyal friend, Calamity Jane,
rounded up his slayer bare-handed, has enhanced the bloody tradi-
tion of the man.
J. EVETTS HALEY.
The Naylor Company of San Antonio has published, under the
title of The Perote Prisoners, the Diary of James L. Trueheart
(1842-1844). It covers the experiences of the prisoners from the
capture of San Antonio by General Woll, in September, 1842, until
Trueheart's release in March, 1844. The Diary is introduced by
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 38, July 1934 - April, 1935, periodical, 1935; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117143/m1/83/?rotate=90: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.