Heads of state are notoriously ill prepared for their mature careers; think of Adolf Hitler (landscape painter), Ho Chi Minh (seam...an), and our own Ronald Reagan.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Worn down by the hoofs of millions of half-wild Texas cattle driven along it to the railheads in Kansas, the trail was a bare, bro...wn, dusty strip hundreds of miles long, lined with the bleaching bones of longhorns and cow ponies. Here and there a broken-down chuck wagon or a small mound marking the grave of some cowhand buried by his partners "on the lone prairie" gave evidence to the hardships of the journey.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When offense occurred, Slaughter took the trail, and seldom returned with a live prisoner. Usually he reported that he had chased ...the suspect "clean out of the county"; these suspects never reappeared in Tombstone--or anywhere else.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At the Denver House, a hastily erected log structure roofed and partitioned with canvas, described by Horace Greeley in 1859 as "T...he Astor House of the Gold Fields," orchestra leader Jones and his spirited men were interrupted by sporadic but not unforeseen bursts of gunfire that sent them diving for shelter behind a low iron-plated enclosure. Before the smoke had fairly cleared away, they were up again desperately playing and singing: Ha, boys, ho! Ain't you glad you're out of the wilderness, Ain't you glad you're out of the wilderness? Ha, boys, ho!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
St. Joseph in 1859 had the bustling appearance of a great fair, with excited travelers preparing to make the plains journey in pra...irie schooners, "rickety old farm wagons," and even small two-wheeled push carts. many bore such mottoes as--"Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady," "I Dare," "For Pike's Peak Ho." Before long many were to return, disappointed in their search for gold, hungry, ragged, and dispirited, their brave wagon boasts changed to "Prodigal Son," "Pike's Hell," "A Fool Is Born."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known--it was used pri...marily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is "the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy's pony."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambus...hed and raped. A Black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
That night ended the day when history was written in Abilene. August 14, 1865 was the date. That was the end of the first drive on... the Chisolm Trail. It was just the first of thousands of such drives bringing beef to the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As I sat at the cafe, I said to myself, They may talk as they please about what they call pelf,... They may sneer as they like about eating and drinking, But help it I cannot, I cannot help thinking How pleasant it is to have money, heigh ho! How pleasant it is to have money.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »