The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 44, July 1940 - April, 1941 Page: 395

Book Reviews

Lake Charles, Louisiana, some of which relate to the Mexican
War; and a miscellaneous collection of originals and reprints
by de la Harpe, Green de Witt, Houston, Travis, Fannin, Briscoe,
Mary Adams Maverick, Ashbel Smith, Jack Hays, Wm. G. Cooke,
C. H. Guenther, and others.
This volume contains a large number of letters, each of which
is interesting in some way or other. They throw light on many
phases of Texas history, and they bear testimony to the Yana-
guana Society's purpose "to encourage the publication of authen-
tic and documented records." Since only 250 copies of this
volume were printed, the supply should soon be exhausted, and
perhaps a second printing will become necessary.
R. L. BIESELE.
The University of Texas.
Captain Lee Hall of Texas. By Dora Neill Raymond.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1940. Pp. ix, 350. Illus-
trations, photographs, a map, index. $2.75.
Dora Neill Raymond's book, Captain Lee Hall of Texas,
adjudged the best book of 1940 by the Texas Institute of Let-
ters, is a grand story, brilliantly told, of a colossal, though
magnificent, failure. The story begins with Hall's dusty journey
from North Carolina to Texas in 1869 and ends with that tragic
March evening in 1911 when death stalked at the door of Santa
Rosa Hospital in San Antonio and claimed Lee Hall.
On his arrival in Texas in 1869, Hall, in rapid succession, and
in the brief space of ten years, served as teacher, assistant peace
officer, city marshal, deputy sheriff, sergeant-at-arms of the
Twentieth Legislature, second lieutenant in Captain McNelly's
company of Special State Troops, commander of Special State
Troops, sergeant-at-arms of the Democratic State Convention
in Austin, 1878, and commander of a new company of troops
for service in the Southwest. While on duty in this last capacity,
and while stationed at Corpus Christi, he married Bessie Weid-
man of Pennsylvania.
Hall's marriage was the turning point in his life. Bessie
Weidman refused to marry him unless he would renounce his
life as a ranger-the only life for which he was fitted. As a
ranger he seemed to lead a charmed life-in civilian pursuits
gaunt misfortune dogged his steps. He served as the manager

395