The adventures of Big-Foot Wallace, the Texas ranger and hunter Page: 6 of 323
xv, 309 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.View a full description of this book.
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viii
PREFACE
Pioneers, or frontiersmen, are a class of men peculiar
to our country, and seem to have been designed
especially to meet the exigencies of the occasion. With
their "iron nerves," great powers of endurance, and
indomitable "go-a-headativeness," they have been
essentially useful in clearing the way through the wilderness
from such obstacles as would have been perhaps
insurmountable to those coming after them.
Their mission has been very nearly accomplished.
Like the flatboat-men of the Mississippi, who have
entirely disappeared as a class since the introduction
of steamboats on that river and its tributaries, their
numbers are steadily decreasing before the extension
of railroads and the area of civilization. Only here
and there one is still found in our midst, whom disease,
wounds, or old age have rendered incapable of further
contests with the Indians and other denizens of the
forests and plains, and of enduring the hardships and
exposure of a life in the wilderness. As a class, frontiersmen
are observant and knowing in all that pertains
to their peculiar mode of life, and as deeply
versed in all the mysteries of woodcraft as the wily
savage himself; but they are guileless and unsuspicious
as a child, and whenever they come in conflict with the
shrewd, calculating man of business, they are as helpless
as a "stranded whale." For this reason, they
seldom accumulate property, and those who follow
after them generally reap the reward of all their
perils, toils, and hardships.
Wallace is no exception to this rule, and the best
days of his life were freely given to the service of his
country.
THE AUTHOR.
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Duval, John C. The adventures of Big-Foot Wallace, the Texas ranger and hunter, book, 1870; [Macon, Ga.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth5831/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .