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I picked this book for two reasons. I like Westerns, and I needed a title for a little challenge I am doing where I read one book published in each year from 1912 to 1923. This was my choice for 1912. I had not heard of George Pattullo before, but it turned out that he was a Canadian-born writer who at one time was Sunday editor of the Boston Herald newspaper. But he left that job in 1908 and went west, traveling with a 'cowboy photographer' and writing Western stories for such magazines as McClure's and Saturday Evening Post. I hope that Someday Project Gutenberg posts more of his work, because this one was really entertaining.
Not to mention that it takes place in my old stomping grounds, the Arizona/Mexico borderlands. Pattullo mentions names of and describes many mountains, valleys, and other landmarks that made me know exactly where all the action was taking place. This is great fun when the information is accurate, and in this book it was. I have not decided for certain which town was masquerading as Badger, though. It doesn't really matter, just a bone to gnaw on while I read about Lafe Johnson and his life after he arrived in town.
The story is told by an at first anonymous "I". This was my other bone to gnaw on while reading. Who was this narrator?! He starts off by saying that contrary to popular opinion, not everyone out west wakes up everyday and goes to shooting. A few paragraphs later he says "Lafe started man's estate as a cowboy. What his antecedents were I don't know and don't care, nor did anybody else in our country. We have so many more important matters to engage us."
So right from the start we know this story teller must have known our man Lafe, must have seen or heard first hand the tale he was about to spin, but not until Chapter 8 do we see them riding together and learn that our narrator's name is Dan. Then he fades away again, only to show up here and there in person later on. Again, not that it mattered all that much, since the focus of the book was Lafe himself, but I couldn't help being very curious about this guy Dan.
I liked Pattullo's style. There is a lot of dialogue throughout the story, and just enough description in places to set the scenes or show what speech could not. With 336 pages and 45 chapters, I expected to be spending much more time in Badger, but the book reads quickly and is quite exciting, with scenes such as the unusual gunfight between Lafe and Steve Moffat, which led to Lafe's being chosen as Sheriff.
I also learned of a few things that I had not known cowboys did. I am assuming these things happened while Pattullo was riding the ranges with that photographer buddy of his and that he incorporated them into his stories, but I was surprised a time or two. Such as the night the crew rides up a certain mountain to fight a fire that has been seen. The country is rough and rugged, the trail barely there. One rider's horse falls and the cowboy breaks a collarbone, another gets separated and has to holler like crazy to find his way back to the group. Because they could not wait for sunrise, they had to keep going, Lafe decided "it was necessary to raise the cry of the night trail in broken country." And he sings out 'Here I go!", then each rider following along does the same in turn, and this way the string stayed together. It makes sense, but it still seemed odd to me.
The one thing I did not like about the Sheriff was that "Lafe held that superiority of race should ever be maintained." This topic was not rampant in the story but it did jolt when it appeared. Typical attitude of a transplanted Texan cowboy of those years and sadly still an attitude to be met with all along the border, over one hundred years after this book was published. I've said it before and I suppose I will always wonder: Will Man ever grow up?
I loved the way the author knew the old expressions of cowboys, good and bad. This is a fairly long book but I enjoyed every minute. I was raised on a cattle farm/ranch in the 1940s &'50s when people went to town in muledrawn wagons. We had a family named Lee whose members were our sheriffs for three generations. One being a tackle for Green Bay Packers.They handled bad guys just like Lafe did. The old Dr. who delivered me was still practicing when I got old.
Due to eye issues (blindness) Alexa reads to me, a will written western novella. The characters are interesting and will developed. The story line is interesting about a 🚹man's life in the southwestern United States. The man 🚹growing to a respected sheriff to a rancher. I would recommend this novella to readers of westerners. Enjoy reading 🔰2021 😊
Each chapter tells a little more about Lafe, but they are really just a group of short stories. Theses stories can give a person the wrong idea of the old west. They were a lot harder and worse on the people and animals.
These old time writer's knew how to writes book. I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. For me this how the west really was and not sine cheap dime store novel