Black's history is badly botched,
but reading him is like listening. "It took two coons and an
alligator to spend the summer on that cotton plantation. . . .
Cowpunchers were superstitious about owls. One who rode into
my camp one night had killed a man somewhere and was on the
dodge. He was lying down by the side of the campfire when an
owl flew over into some hackberry trees close by and started
hooting. He got up from there right now, got his horse in,
saddled up and rode off into the night."
John Alley is--or was--a teacher. His _Memories of Roundup
Days_, University of Oklahoma Press, 1934 (just twenty small
pages), is an appraisal of range men, a criticism of life
seldom found in old-timers who look back. On the other hand,
some pamphlets prized by collectors had as well not have been
written. Here is the full title of an example: _An Aged
Wanderer, A Life Sketch of J. M. Parker, A Cowboy of the
Western Plains in the Early Days_. "Price 40 cents.
Headquarters, Elkhorn Wagon Yard, San Angelo, Texas." It was
printed about 1923. When Parker wrote it he was
senile, and there is no evidence that he was ever possessed of
intelligence.
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