Casey Ryan

Casey Ryan #1

by B.M. Bower

Excerpt from Casey Ryan
From Denver to Spokane, from El Paso to Fort Benton, men talk of Casey Ryan and smile when they speak his name. Old men with the flat tone of coming senility in their voices will suck at their pipes and cackle reminiscently while they tell you of Casey's tumultuous youth - when he drove the six fastest horses in Colorado on the stage out from Cripple Creek, and whooped past would-be holdups with a grin of derision on his face and bullets whining after him and passengers praying disjointed prayers and clinging white-knuckled to the seats.
They say that once a flat, lanky man climbed bareheaded out at the stage station below the mountain and met Casey coming springily off the box with whip and six reins in his hand. The lanky man was still pale from his ride, and he spluttered when he spoke:
"Sa-ay! N-next time you're held up and I'm r-ridin' with yuh, b-by gosh, you s-stop. I-I'd ruther be shot t-than p-pitched off into a c-canyon s-somewhere a-and busted up!"
Casey is a little man.

Genres: Westerns

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1921

About the author

Bertha Muzzy Sinclair or Sinclair-Cowan, née Muzzy, best known by her pseudonym B. M. Bower, was an American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. Her works, featuring cowboys and cows of the Flying R Ranch in Montana, reflected "an interest in ranch life, the use of working cowboys as main characters (even in romantic plots), the occasional appearance of eastern types for the sake of contrast, a sense of western geography as simultaneously harsh and grand, and a good deal of factual attention to such matters as cattle branding and bronc busting.

Born Bertha Muzzy in Otter Tail County, MN and living her early years in Big Sandy, Montana, she was married three times: to Clayton Bower, in 1890; to Bertrand William Sinclair,(also a Western author) in 1912; and to Robert Elsworth Cowan, in 1921. Bower's 1912 novel Lonesome Land was praised in The Bookman magazine for its characterization. She wrote 57 Western novels, several of which were turned into films.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casey Ryan drove stagecoaches for twenty years in various places from Montana to Nevada. But we meet him at that awkward time when the automohbile was taking over the roads, even the rough tough roads Casey was used to running his team over at full speed. Casey Ryan does everything full speed, you know. But he has a good heart:
I don't suppose Casey Ryan ever started out to do something for himself— something he considered important to his own personal welfare and happiness—without running straight into some other fellow's business and stopping to lend a hand. He says he can't remember being left alone at any time in his life to follow the beckoning finger of his own particular destiny.

The very day Casey was heading downhill (at full speed) and met a Ford coming uphill (not at full speed but fast enough) Casey and his destiny are set on a collision course and the story follows him through his adventures. Casey decides to trade in his horses and get a Ford of his own. But Casey at full speed in a machine is even scarier than Casey at full speed with a team of horses, and not surprisingly his business drops off. He sells off and heads out into the wide world.

Casey Ryan is not stupid, not at all. But he is a little naive, way too trusting, and never seemed to learn to doubt other people. This can be a good thing, but it can also be a bit stupid (sorry, Casey). "But Casey could meet Trouble every morning after breakfast and yet fail to recognize her until she had him by the collar." At some point you really need to learn to see what you are looking at, dude!

A Bower story would not feel right if there were not at least one equine with a personality stomping around. In this case it was William the mule. Casey acquired him from an old prospector who was giving up the game. By that point Casey is disgusted with the garage he has been running and heads off into the desert, chasing a long-ago dream of a hidden gold mine. One night they are pushing on towards camp and they see a strange light where no light should be. Casey is curious and wants to track it down, but William has other ideas:
"And whenever William saw the light he brayed and tried to swing around and go the other way. But Casey would not permit that, naturally. Nor did he wonder why William acted so queerly. You never wonder why a mule does things; you just fight it out and are satisfied if you win, and let it go at that."

Did Casey ever learn what caused that light? Did he ever find his gold mine? These are excellent questions and I wish I knew because the book ends at a certain point with a fairly hopeful message about the one and nothing at all about the other. I was very surprised and was not at all ready for the book to end that way, practically in the middle of a dramatic episode that might have been Destiny calling!

I had three other titles left on my Bower list from Gutenberg so went rushing off to see which of the three would feature my man Casey. Cow Country, published in 1921, the same year as Casey Ryan? Nope. Sawtooth Ranch, also published in 1921? Nope, and it turned out to be the British edition of The Quirt, a Bower book I've already finished. That left The Trail Of The White Mule, published in 1922. I opened the link, read the first few lines: Yay And Hooray, there was Casey Ryan! So now I'm off to find out how, when or if Casey ever meets his destiny. See you at The End!

[Larry Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

3*-, actually. I like Bower quite a lot, but this was one of her weaker efforts. A bit disjointed.

[Gemma Fasheun · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very disappointing book. I thought it was a western but it turn to be something else. Boring and confusing.