Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest, with a Few Observations by J. Frank (James Frank) Dobie
page 60 of 247 (24%)
page 60 of 247 (24%)
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Louisiana State University Press, 1940.
SAXON, LYLE. _Fabulous New Orleans; Old Louisiana; Lafitte the Pirate_. _8_ Backwoods Life and Humor THE SETTLERS who put their stamp on Texas were predominantly from the southern states--and far more of them came to Texas to work out of debt than came with riches in the form of slaves. The plantation owner came too, but the go-ahead Crockett kind of backwoodsman was typical. The southern type never became so prominent in New Mexico, Arizona, and California as in Texas. Nevertheless, the fact glares out that the code of conduct--the riding and shooting tradition, the eagerness to stand up and fight for one's rights, the readiness to back one's judgment with a gun, a bowie knife, money, life itself--that characterized the whole West as well as the Southwest was southern, hardly at all New England. The very qualities that made many of the Texas pioneers rebels to society and forced not a few of them to quit it between sun and sun without leaving new addresses fitted them to conquer the wilderness--qualities of daring, bravery, reckless abandon, heavy self-assertiveness. A lot of them were hell- raisers, for they had a lust for life and were maddened by tame respectability. Nobody but obsequious politicians and |
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