New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-07
THE GOLDEN WEST
Stories of Life in the Days of
the Pioneers.


BY Hamin Garland. Frontispiece.
limo. up. sol. Harper & Bros.
THE CITY OF SIX. BY Chauncey L. Can
field With five illustrations BY John
w Norton limo. pp. SOS. Chicago:
A. c. McClurg & Co.
THE EM1GRANT TRAIL. BY Geraldine
Bonner. Colored frontispiece. limo,
PIP. 1876 Duffield & Co.
SKID PUFFER: A TALE OF THE KAN
KAkEE SWAMPS. Illustrated by F. J.
wifi, $50. Henry Holt & Co.
History is placing the word fms under
the chapter in her annals devoted TO the
Old West. the West that was still a part
of our life twenty years ago, the inspira-
ton of a literature of vast numbers and
an inffnitude of shades of artistic merit,
from the dime novel upward. That
chapter has been written many times
within the last decade, from many points
of view, the cowboys, the prOspector's.
the soldiers, the railroad builders; it
has remained for Mr. Garland to add the
closing paragraph in "Cavanagh, Forest
Ranger" The West that once was wild
is not going in a final blaze of reckless
glory; it is dying unconsidered, I'M
ne6utu. WIFI IT'S DOOtS OLp
it is true, yet in its bed, pushed aside, to
remain there until it's inevitable hour
strikes, by the new order of things, by
the growing town. the farmer and the
forest ranger in the wide, free range
that 1t once claimed for its own. Mr.
Garland's picture of the transition that
has taken place within the last ten years
is admirably drawn, picture of we'll
selected, tellingly posted contrasts. The
picturesqueness, the romance, the chlV-
airy. the glamour Of the cowboy and his
life have faded into slovenliness, indif-
ference, boorishness. His traditional
virtues have been adopted by his con-
uuering successors; his shortcomings
alone linger, intensified by contrast.
The cowman wreaks his last savage re-
venge upon the sheepman, then turns in
impotent hatred against the ranger
The book is an important contribution
to the chronicle of the West in our f1c-
ton.
The late Chauncey L. Garfield was the
son of one of the Argonauts. and spent
his boyhood among the claims and mines
Of Ariposa County. He published his
"reminiscences of the life of those days
In 1.-THE Diary of a Forty-Niner, utilized
them as material for number Of short
stories and finally set about the writing
of THE City of Six" which, in the guise
of novel, offers us the sober facts of
the gold mining period of California from
which Bret Harte and his followers ex-
adventure. THE City Of Six Is claim
that is developed during a severe, lonely
winter of hard work. whose description
Is not unlike those we have had more
recently of the hardships of the Yukon
region. From a claim the spot develops
into a mining town, and ultimately
company is formed, the six original own
ers selling out or staying in according to
their inclination. Mr.. Garfield has re-
duced the gigantic figures of the ro-
mantle fiction dealing with that period
and life to human proportions. The ad-
venture and the danger, the chivalry
and the llumor, the lawlessness and the
need of order and security, the gambling
and drinking and dancing and shooting,
are all presented in their proper per-
spective and proportional least. that is
the impression one receives from this
quiet recital whose keynote is hard
work. endurance and perseverance. So
briefly and matter-of- faCtness. The f1ot-
sam and ietsam. the immovable Mr..
John Oakhurst and the profane Duchess,
''greaser' bandits claim jumpers and
sluice robbers, hoodlUms, the criminal
and semi criminal element lose thus
much of the prominence and a great deal
of the picturesqueness bestowed upon
them by romance.
In THE Emigrant Trail Miss Bonner
has given US an uncommonly interesting
story of the great overland migration of
the fourth decade of the last century.
The long familiar material of tales of
this kind-the dangers from Indian raids
and Mormon massaCres-she does not
utilize at all, and the hardships of the
trip she employs for the psychological
purpose that gives her book its distinc-
ton. She presents to us the mental and
emotional changes produced in young
woman by the new life on the road
among primitive conditions, with its
endless demands upon the resourceful-
ness. the endurance, the courage of the
men. The young hero of the prairie, who
did not falter in the face of the Indians.
dwindles in stature in her eyes when the
desert tests him and proves him to be
wanting in the browning strength OF
will and body of the true conqueror.
Her conventionality is gradually Slapped
by this existence in the rough, she re-
turns daily more closely to primitive
feeling and thought, is drawn daily more
potently toward the really strong man,
the adventurer of mountain and plain,
the master of this dangerous environ
ment. savage he is, but a splendid
savage, bending her to his will and max
ing her his own. The incidents Of the
caravan life as told by Miss Bonner, are
interesting in themselves, but are made
to serve throughout in the development
and revelation of character. The book
is a novelty in an apparently Outworn
field, and deserves attention.
The name of Mr. Francis F. French
the author of skid Puffer" in which
he himself figures as the Colonel" does
not appear on the title page, but is
signed to a modest and quite unneces-
sarily apologize preface. The book is.