The Coolidge examiner., 1935-01-25

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heightened by the almostcertain
knowledge that discovery meant n stern What's
this Reading n dime noyel.l!. :" from
dlsapproving parent or teacher
Those OF a later generation who get their
vicarious thrills from watching movie meio-
dramas or listening 10 radio murder mysteries.
are likely 10 be ncornful of the blood and thunder
heroes whose desperate deeds and halrbreadih
escapes 80 euthralled Dad. ~Aw. bunk :" they
say. Il be,cha there never any such fella
IS Daredeath Dick. the King Of the Cowboys
or Captain Cool Blade the Man-Shark of the
Mississippi"
Maybe not, But ask Dad about some Of the
other dime novel heroes
Dldn't be smuggle a copy of Buffalo BIN. The
noreer King up 20 bed with hlm one night and
there. BY the dim iighf % the old coal-oIi lamp
read how with one leap the Border King sprang
up behind his disguised pard. back 10 back. and
opened IRE with bis ,rusty revoivcrs on the yelp-
ing rcisklns"1 And. a few months later. didnt
he 90 down 10 the county seat town and with
his own eyes see that same Border King" enter
the arena of Buffalo Bllrs Wild West show ush.
cred Ia by a hlarlng band and the excited yells
a several hundred young Americans Ike him.
self7 That tall. long g-haired, buckskin-clad tx.
urc. sitting on his white horse with regal grace
wasn't he a story book hero come TO lfeT Yes.
siri
Despite the fact that many Bloody Pete and
Dead Sho; Dick and Reckless Ralph existed only
In the fertile Imagination Of old Erastns =. Bid
dies scrlbblers some OF the characters immor-
tailzed In that prolific publishers Dime Novels"
"Half-Dlme Library Pocket Novels Boys
Library were real persons. even though they
never had one-tenth OF the adventures ascribed
TO them Chief among them. OF course. this
same Border King"
william Frederick Cody. youthful guide for
army officers In Kansas In 1s6567 and hunter
who supplied meat for builders OF the Kansas
Pacific railroad. may have been dubbed Buffalo
BIZ" by the grateful X +. workers. he may
have won that sobriquet In buralo-shooting
match with Billy Comstock. But II remained for
two dime novellsts. Edward Zane Carroll Judson.
who wrote under the name OF Ned Buntllne."
and Col Prentiss Ingraham TO make II world
famous
other dime novel heroes rho had counterparts
In real life were "w!ii BILL" California Joe"
Texas Jack" -Pawhee Bill" Capt Jack" "Ari-
roma Joe "Buckskln SAM" -Roving joe" "Fan-
cy Frank" ~Deadwood Dick. diamond Dick"
Calamity Jane" The Evil Spirit OF the Plains"
and ~old Grizzly"
James Butler Hlckok. a native OF Illinois
soldier and scout In the Union army In Missouri
during the Civil war Overland stage driver. mar
shall OF roaring Kansas cow towns, gambler and
gunman par excellence, already famous as
wild BiIr before ever Buntilne multiplied his
adventures tenfod In the little yellow-back books
Even after his assassination In Deadwood 5. D..
In 1876. he was still good copy" for the dime
novelists. as he has been for the more serious
historians. several OF whom have tried TO sort
ont the fiction from fact and write authentic
biographies OF him In recent years
However. Texas Jack" was a name OF Bunt
lines manufacture for John b. Omohundro a
native OF Virginia who emigrated TO Texas be
fore the Civil war. became a mustang-break
and rancher soldier In the Confederate army
and afterwards hunter. scout and Indian-hghter
until his death In Leadyille Colo. In 1880.
In 1876 Buntllne brought Cody. Hickok and
OmOhundro to Chicago. wrote a play. Scouts of
the Plains" for them In less than four hours
(which prompted the classic remark of one re-
viewer: "One wonders why II took him so longl"l
and presented them in II to the public next day
The case OF California joe is similar to
that OF wild Bill" in that he was famed under
that name before ever the dime novelsts took
him up. Although one OF Ingraham's novels char
acterized him as The Mysterious Plalnsman. An
Unknown Man. whose real identity like that of
the Man OF the Iron Mask is still unsolved"
there was no real mystery about his identity
He was Moses T. Miner Kentuckian who first
crossed the Plains in TIE Golden Days OF 40. was