The wide range of
human interests leaves ample room for downright, straightaway
narratives of the careers of strong men. If the literature of
the range ever matures, however, it will include keener
searchings for meanings and harder struggles for human truths
by writers who strive in "the craft so long to lerne." For
three-quarters of a century the output of fiction on the
cowboy has been tremendous, and
it shows little diminution. Mass production inundating the
masses of readers has made it difficult for serious
fictionists writing about range people to get a hearing.
The code of the West was concentrated into the code of the
range--and not all of it by any means depended upon the six-
shooter. No one can comprehend this code without knowing
something about the code of the Old South, whence the Texas
cowboy came.
Mexican goats make the best eating in Mexico and mohair has
made good money for many ranchers of the Southwest. Goats,
goat herders, goatskins, and wine in goatskins figure in the
literature of Spain as prominently as six-shooters in Blazing
Frontier fiction--and far more pleasantly. Read George
Borrow's _The Bible in Spain_, one of the most delectable of
travel books.
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