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This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

LhE DEPICTIUN OF THE COWBOY
IN SELECTED NINETEENTH—CENTURY
AMERICAN POPULAR DRAMAS

presented by

Kay Marcella Robinson

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph. D. degree“, Theatre

 

\N

/ WM

Date June 28, 1983

MS U is an Aflinmm’vc Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0 »1 2771

THE DEPICTION OF THE COWBOY
IN SELECTED NINETEENTH—CENTURY
AMERICAN POPULAR DRAMAS

By

Kay Marcella Robinson

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Theatre

1983

7012'

/va-

ABSTRACT
THE DEPICTION OF THE COWBOY
IN SELECTED NINETEENTH-CENTURY
AMERICAN POPULAR DRAMAS

by

Kay Marcella Robinson

The influence of the cattle-frontier (cowboy) myth on
Americans is a far—reaching one; in fact, it is the most
deeply embedded of any of the frontier myths. That the myth
lacks a significant basis in reality is also true; neverthe-
less, the myth exerts a potent influence.

The actual cattle frontier existed only from 1865 to
1886, but the legend it inspired provided the basis for the
"Western" in all its various manifestations. A good deal has
been said about the cowboy as he exists in modern Western
novels and in film and television. However, the character of
the cowboy as he initially existed in the popular art forms
has not been much examined. Thus the focus of this paper is
the cowboy as depicted in selected late nineteenth—century
melodramas. Included are an examination of the influence of
the frontier on American character, and the emergence of the
cowboy, both in actuality and in mythic form. This is
followed by definitions of popular culture and theatre and

description of the appearance of the cowboy in the two forms

Robinson

from which the popular theatre borrowed the character: dime
novels and the Wild West Shows.

Eleven plays featuring cowboy characters provide the
major basis for the paper; internal evidence groups the plays
as having been written and produced from the 1880's into the
first decade of the 1900's (pre-dating Owen Wister's The

Virginian and Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery).

 

 

Examination of the plays in light of knowledge about popular
theatre forms and about the legendary cowboy's first
appearances in popular culture forms reveals the debt owed to
dime novels and to the standard melodramatic structure of the
period.

Even though the plays with cowboy characters were not
especially "Western", or, indeed, very different at all from
melodramas with Eastern settings, the cowboy heroes of these
dramas are an integral part of the growing myth, a myth which
would be somewhat re-shaped in the twentieth century, but
which owes its essential character to the nineteenth-century

cowboy hero of the dime novels and popular melodramas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Hess Collection, Walter Library,
University of Minnesota

Special Collections Library
Michigan State University

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

CHAPTER I. THE AMERICAN WEST AND THE COWBOY: FACT
AND FICTION . O O I C O O O O O O O I O O O O O O 8

CHAPTER II. POPULAR CULTURE AND THE COWBOY HERO . . . . .36
CHAPTER III. THE COWBOY HERO IN SELECTED NINETEENTH—
CENTURY AMERICAN MELODRAMAS . . . . . . . . . . .62
CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

iii

INTRODUCTION

In retrospect the cowboy became not simply an employee
who got a dollar a day, plus beans and bacon, for
exhausting work. He was enshrined as the mountain man
who rode free--tough, alone, and unmarred by civiliza-
tion. . . .He enthralled a nation which wanted to
believe that power could be exerted without paying the
price in lost innocence. In many ways, the cowboy of
fiction and film, less interesting than his counterpart
in fact, was the most striking creation of America's
last frontier.

The influence of the cattle—frontier (cowboy) myth on
Americans is a far—reaching one; in fact, it is the most
deeply embedded of any of the frontier myths.2 That the myth
lacks a significant basis in reality is also true. Neverthe—
less the myth exerts a potent influence: as a result of the
teachings of such noted historians as Frederick Jackson
Turner, Americans are generally convinced that it was the
settling of the gradually extending frontier which made
America great. They are further convinced that life on the

frontier created the unique American character—-individualist,

democratic, energetic, optimistic, pragmatic, and materialistic.

 

1Bernard A. Weisberger, The Age of Steel and Steam
(New York: Time Inc., 1964), 55.

 

2Charles W. Harris and Buck Rainey, eds., The Cowboy:
Six Shooters, Songs, and Sex (Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press,‘1976),SISK; and George D. Lillibridge, Images of Ameri—
can Society: A History of the United States (BBSton:
HOughton Mifflin,’1976T, 85.

 

 

 

 

Drama has always been a repository of the significant
myths of various periods,3 so it is to be expected that
nineteenth-century drama would reflect this frontier myth,
including the cattle frontier mythic hero. To investigate
the role of that cowboy hero in the popular drama of the late
nineteenth century became the goal of this dissertation.

The cowboy who provided the original model for that
role was spawned by one of America's many advancing frontiers,
this one the cattle frontier. The actual cattle frontier
(the period of the open range and the long cattle drives)
existed only from 1865 to 1886, but the legend it inspired
provided the basis for the mdoern Western, whether live
drama, film, television, or novel. Because of his enormous
popularity in this century (on the rise again after waning
briefly in the last decade), one might assume that the cowboy
also dominated Western popular arts in the late nineteenth
century. This is simply not so. The cowboy in nineteenth—
century popular arts, particularly in the dime novels and
drama, was a minor character

. . .introduced to lend authenticity and background
color to stories set in the Southwest. . . .even in
his heyday he never seriously rivaled the popularity

of the plainsman or the outlaw to gay nothing of that
ageless veteran, the backwoodsman.

 

3David Mayer and Kenneth Richards, eds. Western
Popular Theatre (London: Methuen, 1977), 272.

4Daryl Jones, The Dime Novel Western (Bowling Green,
OH: Popular Press, l9787,‘99.

 

 

An examination of the titles of dime novels published by the
Beadle brothers (the most famous and successful of the dime
novel publishers), and of the titles of the popular dramas
written about the West, reveals that the vast majority of
their heroes are Indian scouts, trappers, and colorful law-
men. However, the nineteenth—century fictional cowboy had
all the attributes which would become a part of the important
twentieth-century myth as it evolved. Therefore, he is
indeed significant.

A good deal has been written about the cowboy as he
exists in the twentieth-century novels of writers such as
Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, and as he exists in the film and
television Westerns. However, the cowboy character as he
initially existed in the nineteenth-century popular arts
forms, particularly the pOpular drama, has not been thoroughly
examined. All the frontier types are surveyed in Stuart
Wallace Hyde's doctoral dissertation, "The Representation of
the West in American Drama from 1849 to 1917,"5 but not in
any great detail; in-depth studies of the trapper, the miner,
and the Indian in the drama, however, are fairly prevalent.
Since there are no intensive studies of the cowboy character,
the goal of this dissertation is to examine the cowboy and

his appearance in the pOpular drama.

 

5Stuart Wallace Hyde, "The Representation of the West
in American Drama from 1849 to 1917" (Ph.D. Dissertation,
Stanford University, 1953).

4

In order to understand the role of the cowboy in the
nineteenth-century drama, it is helpful to understand how the
cowboy came into existence and how he relates to the frontier
concept in general. Thus this paper begins with an examina—
tion of historian Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis concern—
ing the American frontier, and the enormous influence of that
thesis on the thinking of Turner's time (end of the nineteenth
century) and of later periods. Because Turner thought the
frontier such a significant influence, the fact that the
cowboy emerged out of it is also significant; description of
the characteristics of that "real" cowboy is followed by
examination of the emergence of the mythic cowboy. It was
the cowboy of myth, not the real one, who would become the
melodramatic cowboy hero who, though minor when he first
appeared in the last decades of the nineteenth century, grew
more and more important in the twentieth century. It is
important to understand both the real and the mythic
ancestry-—not to do so is to miss not only the connection
between the reality and the myth, but also the significant
connection of the myth to the drama and the popular arts,
since it is through those pOpular arts that the myth was
propagated.

Chapter II defines pOpular culture and popular
theatre; it examines the birth of the dime novel cowboy,
direct ancestor of the popular theatre cowboy, and the birth
of the Wild West Shows, the other major influence on the

develOpment of popular dramatic literature about the West.

Examination of eleven melodramas featuring cowboy

characters comprises Chapter III: The Girl from L Triangle

 

Ranch, The End of a Texas Trail, Rose of the Range, My

 

 

Western Girl, The Cowboy and the Lady, A Fight for Honor,

 

 

 

Ranch 10, Dad Carter, The Ranch Girl, The Cowboy and the

 

 

Tenderfoot, and Burley's Ranch. The examination of the plays

 

 

includes commentary on the characteristics typical of the
cowboy myth which exist in each play, plot summaries, and
performance notes and history.

The sampling of plays is limited; few scripts for
nineteenth—century popular dramas still exist.6 It is not
possible to accurately date all of the plays, but internal
features indicate that they were written and produced between
the 1880's and the 1910's. A cut-off date of 1903 was
originally established, since that year marks the largest
sale of Owen Wister's quintessential western novel, The

Virginian (first published in 1902), and the appearance of

 

Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery, the first cowboy

 

 

6After compiling a list of plays with apparently
appropriate titles (drawn largely from the U.S. Copyright
Office's Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United
States, 1870 to I9167, I sent'InquIries to a number of
Iibraries and speCIal collections across the country. (See
appendix for this list of plays.) About three-quarters of
the libraries responded, and their responses were generally
negative--they either had none of the plays at all or had
only one or two plays. In addition, the various libraries
tended to have the same one or two plays. Of course, many
scripts were never copyrighted; those which were copyrighted
did not necessarily become a part of the Library of Congress
Collection; and correspondence with the Library of Congress
revealed that such scripts as were included in the Collection,
if dated before 1900, have now been destroyed.

 

 

movie. Since both so thoroughly affected the development of
the twentieth-century cowboy myth, it seemed logical,
considering the limits of this dissertation (the focus here is
the nineteenth century, as enormous amounts have already been
said about the twentieth—century cowboy myth), to deal only
with plays preceding these two landmarks of popular culture.
Although some of the plays discussed here post—date 1903, they
are included because they do not yet reflect the influence of
Wister or Porter.7

Only two of the plays were ever performed in New York.

The Cowboy and the Lady opened on Christmas Day 1899 at the

 

Knickerbocker Theatre for a run of 44 performances.

Ranch 10 Opened at the Windsor Theatre on 28 May 1883, and
also appeared at Haverly's Theatre for two weeks, beginning
August 21.9 (Ranch 10 premiered in Norristown, Pennsylvania,

in 1882, and is known to have been performed in the Denver

 

7Two other limitations have been observed in the
paper: (1) only straight melodramas were selected for
inclusion; a number of late—nineteenth—century "musicals"
with cowboy characters exist (perhaps the ancestors of Gene
Autrey's films?), but are not considered here since I wished
to deal only with the standard melodrama; and (2) because
the available scripts tend to be scenarios rather than fully
developed scripts, there is limited information within the
scripts describing settings, costumes, suggested blocking,
and special technical effects; therefore only limited comment
can be made on possible production values.

8Ima H. Herron, The Small Town in American Drama
(Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, I969T, 156.

 

 

9T. Allston Brown, History of the New York Stage, from
the First Perofrmance in 1732 to 1901 in Encyclopedic orm,
3TVOls. (New’York: DodH, Mead and Co., 19037,'Ti: 364, 484.

 

10) No record exists

and Rocky Mountain area in the 1880's.
indicating New York performances for any of the other nine

plays. They were grist for the various regional and travel—
ing repertory companies; five are known to have been part of

tent—show repertory: Dad Carter, The End of a Texas Trail,

 

 

A Fight for Honor, My Western Girl, and Rose of the Range.

 

 

 

These plays do not have particular merit in and of
themselves; they cannot be described as great dramatic
literature. However, they attain significance as a group
because they reveal how nineteenth—century popular drama
perpetuated the cowboy myth which was becoming so important
to America, and because they reveal how readily playwrights
adapted contemporary trends into the incredibly popular
melodramatic structure. Although a limited sampling, these
plays can be considered representative of other plays with
cowboy characters for a number of reasons: (1) the plays are
so similar in structure that it seems unlikely that other
plays with cowboy characters would be radically different;
(2) the fact that these particular scripts are still
available indicates that they were important enough and/or
widely produced enough for the scripts to appear in various
collections, and are thus representative of popular drama;
and (3) the internal features fulfill extensively the

characteristics of popular drama.

 

10Eleanor M. Gehres, Head of the Western History
Department of the Denver Public Library, to Kay Robinson,
15 September 1980.

CHAPTER I

THE AMERICAN WEST AND THE COWBOY: FACT AND FICTION

An understanding of the cowboy character in nine—
teenth—century melodrama begins with an understanding of the
emergence of the "real" cowboy and how both he and the mythic
cowboy based on him reflect the uniquely American character
as defined by Frederick Jackson Turner.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the American West
from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean was a vast
unknown, and Americans could believe that "free” land
(uninhabited land) would be available forever.

The appeal of the undiscovered is strong in
America. For three centuries the fundamental
process in its history was the westward movement,
the discovery and occupation of the vast free
spaces of the continent. . . .To [earlier genera—
tions] it seemed inevitable. The free land and
the natural resources seemed practically
inexhaustible.

Only a few years later, however, the 1890 Census Report made

a significant observation:

 

1Frederick Jackson Turner, Frontier and Section;
Selected Essays of Frederick Jackson Turner IEnglewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-HaIl,’I96lT} 100.

 

 

'Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier
of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has
been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement2
that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line.
This report led an obscure historian from Portage, Wisconsin,
to propound to the American Historical Association meeting at
the 1893 Chicago World's Fair that the end of the frontier
marked the end of an era in American history. Frederick
Jackson Turner, then a 32-year—old professor of history at
the University of Wisconsin, eloquently conveyed his frontier
thesis to the assembled historians:
He would be a rash prophet who should assert that the
expansive character of American life has now entirely
ceased. . . .But never again will such gifts of free
land offer themselves. For a moment, at the frontier,
the bonds of custom are broken and unrestraint is
triumphant. . . .And now, four centuries from the
discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years
of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone,
and with its going has closed the first period of
American history.

Although none of Turner's listeners were completely
converted by this address, within a decade his thesis was
well-known and respected. Its implications formed the basis
for re-evaluation of America's history, sociology, literature,
etc. What Turner had to say was not radically new, but he
was the first to coherently pull together a number of popular

beliefs and then express them in a manner so poetical as to

be very nearly mystic.

 

2Fon Wyman Boardman, America and the Gilded Age,
1876-1900 (New York: H.Z. Walék, 1972T, 83.

3Turner, Frontier and Section, 61.

 

10

What Turner expressed as one element in the complex
character of America, his more ardent disciples (many of them
his students at the University of Wisconsin, one of the most
distinguished being Dr. Carl Becker, John Stambaugh Professor
of History at Cornell Universitya) magnified into E23
explanation for America's personality. Such fanatacism was
bound to cause rebellion; the attack on Turner's thesis
occurred in the 1930's, at which time Turner's every point
was held up to ridicule.5 Since then, reappraisal of
Turner's thesis and its criticism has brought a return of
respect for the thesis. What many of Turner's harsh critics
missed, of course, was that although his assertions were not
infallible, he gag expressing popular beliefs, and what a
nation believes is true affects its growth and character, no
matter what the actuality may be.

Turner shared several misconceptions common to his
day, especially concerning the frontier as a "safety valve

to drain off the dispossessed Eastern workers in periods of

 

4Frederick Alexander, Moving Frontiers; an American
Theme and Its Application to Australian’Histopy (Port
washington, NY: ’Kennikat Press, 1969), 4.

 

 

5The following are major articles of criticism:
Murray Kane, "Some Considerations on the Safety Valve Doc-
trine," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 23 (1936—37):
169-188; Carter Goodriéfi and SoI Davison, "The Wage Earner in
the Western Movement," Political Science Quarterly, 50 (1935):
161-185; Carter Goodrich and SoI’Davison, "The Frontier as
Safety Valve: A Rejoinder," Political Science Quarterly, 53
(1938): 268-271; Carl N. DegIer, "The‘West as a SOlution to
Urban Unemployment," New York History, 36 (1955): 63-85; and
Fred A. Hannon, "A Post Mortem on the Labor—Safety—Valve
Theory," Agricultural History, 19 (1945): 31—37.

 

 

 

 

 

ll

depression."6 However, because Turner's thesis did collect
and organize a number of popular beliefs about the frontier,
it provides important information about the mentality of
nineteenth-century America. As we shall see, that mentality
affected the popular arts, including the theatre, just as it
affected other aspects of life; therefore, an examination of
that mentality is in order.

A major factor in nineteenth-century America's
”mentality" was the country's shift from a pre-industrialist
ethos to an industrialist one.7 Accompanying this value
shift came the shift from rural to urban habitation.

In 1860 four out of every five Americans lived in
places with less than 2,500 people. In 1900 just
about every seventh American lived in a city of more
than 250,000 inhabitants. And every 12th American
lived in New York, Philadelphia or Chicago.8
Despite this heavy urban polarity, most Americans believed
in the American frontier as a "safety valve," one of Turner's
main arguments in support of his thesis. Turner subscribed

to the idea that the frontier allowed disillusioned and job-

less Eastern workers to leave the city (to "go West, young

 

6Ray Allen Billington, The American Frontier Thesis:
Attack and Defense (Washington,’D.CT: *AmericaanistoricaI
AssociatIOn, 19587, 20.

 

 

7G. Edward White, The Eastern Establishment and the
Western Experience: The West of FredericIRemfngton, Theodore

ROOSGVéIt, and Owen—Wister (New Haven: ‘Yale Uanersity Press,
I968T, 20.

 

 

 

8Bernard A. Weisberger, Reaching for Empire (New
York: Time Inc., 1964), 33.

 

12

man"), thus raising wage scales in the East and discouraging
radical political phiIOSOphies from emerging.

The concept of the frontier as "safety valve"
encompassed four quite different aspects: (1) a direct valve
allowing the escape of unemployed Easterners to the cheap
Western lands during depressed periods; (2) an indirect
valve through which Eastern farmers displaced by Western
agricultural competition went West rather than competing for
factory jobs; (3) a resources valve "through which the
sequential exploitation of natural resources kept wages high

9 and (4) a socio-

and slowed the growth of radical unrest;"
psychological valve which operated in the sense that as long
as Easterners believed they could escape to the West, they
were less discontented than if they had no such hope.

Turner's critics attacked the first two aspects in
particular. A major argument was that Eastern workers could
not become Western farmers because they simply could not

10 In addition, statistics show (as indicated

afford it.
above) a steady move 52 the cities, not away.
Later critics11 believe, however, than an indirect

safety valve did indeed decrease pressure on the Eastern labor

 

9Billington, American Frontier Thesis, 21.

10A minimum of $1500 (to pay for the land, transporta-
tion to it, and equipment to work it) would be needed to begin
a farm—~and Eastern laborers rarely earned more than a dollar
a day.

 

11Such as Norman Simler in ”The Safety-Valve Doctrine
Re-Evaluated," Agricultural Histopy, 32 (1958): 250—257; and
Ellen von Nardoff In "The AmerTCan Frontier as Safety Valve-—
'The Life, Death, Reincarnation and Justification of a Theory,"
Agricultural History, 36 (1962): 123-142.

 

 

13

market, particularly before the Civil War, by luring workers
to jobs in Western cities and attracting Eastern farmers to
the West. Although the population shift certainly was from
rural to urban, at the same time (between 1860 and 1900) the
nation's rural population also increased——by some twenty
million12—-thus providing modest relief to the Eastern labor
market. In other words, the safety valve actually did
operate, albeit on a small scale. (If it did not do so, the
rural population would not have increased at all.)

Most important of the four aspects of the "safety
valve" was its sociopsychological function. Nineteenth—
century Americans believed that they could escape to the
frontier whenever they chose. This wasn't actually so, but
America accepted the rags-to-riches tales about the West as
reality, tales significant because they emphasized the
American ethic of upward mobility. Turner's thesis accurate—
ly pointed out this phenomenon. A number of the plays
discussed in Chapter III feature heroes who have come West
for the express purpose of making their fortune, as well as
proving their manhood, thus reflecting the upward mobility
ethic so prevalent in the country at the time the plays were
written. The plays in which this is most clearly portrayed

are The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot, The Ranch Girl, My Western

 

 

Girl, and Rose of the Range.

 

 

12Billington, American Frontier Thesis, 23.

 

14

Along with his main thesis about the frontier as
safety valve, Turner also developed the argument that the
American character owes its uniqueness to the influence of
the frontier:

American social development has been continually
beginning over again on the frontier. . . .The result
is that to the frontier the American intellect owes
its striking characteristics. The coarseness and
strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness;
that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find
expedients; that masterful grasp of material things,
lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great
ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant
individualism, working for good and for evil, and
withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with
freedom——these are traits of the frontier, or traits
called ouf elsewhere because of the existence of the
frontier. 3

Starting with Andrew Jackson's simple frontier credo
as a basis (suspicion of the rich, and the firm belief that
anybody can do anything), Turner and others developed a
complex theory explaining the American ”personality."
According to these theorists, the frontier experience created
a national character with several special qualities:
individualistic, nationalistic, democratic, equalitarian,
energetic, socially mobile, optimistic, pragmatic, and
materialistic. In the following section, these national
characteristics, as outlined by Turner, are discussed along
with the arguments made against Turner's assertions.

Americans tend to admire the idea of individualism,

which in the nineteenth century was often associated with the

image of a "pathfinder." Certainly frontiersmen had to be

 

3Turner, Frontier and Section, 38, 61.

 

15

self-reliant, for life on the frontier was difficult. This
self—reliance appealed to the American public, particularly
Easterners, leading to wide acceptance of the philosophy that
an individual should be able to act economically, politically,
socially, or whatever, without interference. Individualism
clearly has negative attributes as well. Violence, conflict
with authorities, selfish indifference toward the problems of
others, are all by—products of the hardships of frontier
existence. "Lynch law" and the "law of the six—gun” could
only emerge in an individualistic society. The heroes of
several of the plays examined in this paper subscribe to this
philosophy of enforcing personal justice, particularly in

The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot, The End of a Texas Trail,

A Fight for Honor, and Rose of the Range.

 

 

Like that of so many other countries, America's
nationalism promoted the idea that America's culture and way
of life were innately superior to all others. Turner saw the
frontier as a "crucible," in which "'immigrants were American-
ized, liberated and fused into a mixed race, EngliSh in

14 The difficulties

neither nationality nor characteristics.'"
of life on the frontier compelled a more national outlook
than had been possible in the more differentiated Eastern
colonies. This nationalism had both benign and malignant

aspects. The benign aspect-—based in the assumption that

American society and government were superior-—we1comed waves

 

14Alexander, Moving Frontiers, 7.

 

16

of immigrants as new citizens and promoted the adoption of
American institutions by other nations. The less benign
aspect saw growing efforts late in the century to exclude
"less desirable" immigrants-~a manifestation of a smug belief
in racial superiority. Unfortunately, the plays discussed

in this paper depict heroes with just such an attitude of

smug racism. This is especially true in Rose of the Range,

 

The End of a Texas Trail, Dad Carter, and My Western Girl.

 

 

Residents of the frontier wholeheartedly supported
the idea of democracy as they set up governments in the new
territories. Turner went so far as to assert that the West
democratized the East. An integral part of this democratic
attitude was the equalitarianism necessitated by life on the
frontier. Because of the hardship, what was important was
to survive and to help others survive——exigency is a great
leveler. Minor differences could be tolerated, but major
differences still caused problems because there was such a
need for everyone to work and contribute-—there was no room
in Western tolerance for impractical intellectuals, for
instance. No advantage accrued from ancestry, social status,
or education. The plays examined here reflect this: having
an Eastern education proves to be no advantage to the heroes

of The Cowbpy and the Tenderfoot, The Ranch Girl, and Dad

 

 

Carter.
To survive on the frontier required energy and
optimism, a sort of buoyant confidence based in the ethic

that those who work hard get ahead, an ethic which permeated

17

American society. Turner was convinced that the opportunity
symbolized by the frontier was in no small part responsible
for the optimism. Many of the heroes in the plays featured
in this paper are strong believers in this work ethic, and
indeed have come to the frontier because of its opportunities
for getting ahead. This is especially true in Burley's

Ranch, The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot, Ranch 10, and Rose of

 

the Range.

 

Finally, the frontier character manifested a good
deal of pragmatism and materialism. What worked in the East
often became irrelevant in the quite different world of the
frontier West. So the frontiersmen became a practical
opportunist who assumed his share of the West's seemingly
indefatigable resources of land, timber, minerals, precious
metals, etc., often in a wasteful, extravagant, and selfish
manner. Since hardly anyone believed the resources would
ever run out, no one exhibited much concern about the
extravagant consumption of America's riches.

Turner's evaluation of the effect of the frontier on
American character was not immune from attack, of course.
Critics point out that although the typical Westerner was
regarded as individualistic, he was at the same time
dependent on the help of others to combat Indians, deal with

natural disasters, build roads, protect land rights, etc.

18

15 So much for

The frontiersman was also generally in debt.
rugged individualism.

As for democracy, although the West was freedom-
loving, that freedom did not encompass everyone. For
instance, anyone could vote--so long as he was twenty—one,
male, white, and not an idiot or felon. Everyone (male) had
the right to seek wealth, but sometimes there wasn't quite
enough to go around: unscrupulous entreprenuers acquired
large amounts of money while their employees barely survived.
Such circumstances are typical of Eastern capitalism rather
than of an ideal democracy. Freedom from typical government
interference frequently resulted in violent altercations and
the lawless justice of vigilantes.

The selfish consumption of natural resources
unfortunately was an Eastern as well as a Western habit. Not
until after the 1890 census report did Easterners call for
conservation and demand that Westerners practice it as well.

Above all, to call the frontier experience the ”most
American" of experiences seems inappropriate when one
considers the fact that at no time did the frontier West
account for as much as ten percent of the nation's

population.16

 

15Thomas Andrew Bailey, Probing America's Past; A
Critical Examination of Major Myfhs and'Misconceptions,72
vols.‘ILexington,TMass.: ’Heath, I9737, i: 242.

 

 

16Patrick Gerster, Myth in American History (Encino,
CA: Glencoe Press, 1977), 75.

 

19

However, Americans have always believed that the
rugged adventure of claiming and taming the frontier is what
made America great, so ultimately Turner was right. Every
generation recreates and revitalizes the myth of the West.
The "West" as an idea and an ideal still appeals to the
restlessness of a mobile nation:

'But I reckon I got to light out for the territory
ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going
to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it.
I been there before.'17

One of the most pivotal of America's western frontiers
was the cattle frontier, which gave birth to that signifi-
cantly American hero—-the cowboy. The cowboy character in
the plays forming the core of this paper was not based on
observation of real cowboys. Instead, that melodramatic
character owed his nature to the mythic cowboy character
created by writers in the nineteenth century, primarily the
dime novelists. An understanding of the creation of that
myth and the reality which spawned it is necessary for proper
appreciation of the melodrama's cowboy character. Consequent-
ly, the next section describes the genesis of the real
cowboy, followed by an explanation of his transformation
into myth.

To appreciate properly his fine, manly qualities,
the wild rough-rider [cowboy] of the plains should be
seen in his own home. There he passes his days; there

he does his life-work; there, when he meets death, he
faces it as he has faced many other evils, with quiet,

17Hans Galinsky, ed., The Frontier in American Histogy
39d Literature; Essays and InterpretatIan (Frankfurt am
Main: M. Diesterweg,71960), 78.

 

 

20

uncomplaining fortitude. . . .Hard and dangerous
though his existence is, it has yet a wild
attraction that strongly draws to it his bold,
free spirit.
This romantic description by Teddy Roosevelt (an ardent
admirer of the West) appeared in a late 1880's edition of

Harper's Magazine. Roosevelt's glorification of the free and

 

courageous spirit of the cowboy sounds very much like the
twentieth—century concept of the cowboy, but was actually a
defense of a type of American who did not enjoy wide respect
when Roosevelt wrote. And, at the same time that he wrote
this paean, the cattle frontier which spawned the American
cowboy was already closing.

The cattle frontier had its start immediately after
the Civil War. Early Spaniards had introduced cattle in
Texas; those herds multiplied at a rapid rate to a total of
some 5,000,000 by 1865, the vast majority of them "mavericks"
which could be claimed by anyone caring to apply his brand.
When Texas ranchers discovered that steers worth three or
four dollars a head could be sold for ten times that price in
the upper Mississippi Valley, they determined to capitalize
on that fat market. The problem, of course, was how to get
the cattle to market. The answer was the Long Drive. In the
spring of 1866, the first drive brought cattle from Texas to

the Missouri Pacific Railroad at Sedalia, Missouri. The

 

18Thomas C. Jones, Shaping the Spirit of America;
Articles from Harper's and Century Magazines RecaIling Events
and Times ThatIHeIped Determine fhe Present NationaI mage o
the United States of America (Chicago: J.G. Ferguson
Publishing Company, 1964), 251.

 

 

 

 

21

trail was a difficult one and a good number of cattle died

along the way. However, enough profits accrued so that

further drives were planned. The cattle frontier's first

entrepreneur appeared: Joseph McCoy, a stockman from Illinois,

chose Abilene, Kansas, as the railhead at the end of the

trail, and congenially laid out a trail from the Red River

north to Abilene. This trail avoided hills and wooded areas

and thus reduced losses. Since it connected at its lower

end with a trail blazed by the half-breed Indian trader

Jesse Chisholm, it became known as the Chisholm Trail,

perhaps the most famous road-to-market in America. McCoy

built stockyards, pens, and loading chutes in Abilene and

that city quickly established its preeminence. Although

other cow towns Sprang up as the railroads crept westward

(including the infamous Dodge City), Abilene served as the

guide for all that followed. From 1867 to 1872, nearly

1,500,000 head flowed through Abilene into cattle cars

headed east.19
The long drive, romantic as it was, did not survive,

for it was uneconomica1—-beeves lost weight on the trail,

Indian tribes charged tolls for invasion of their lands, and

the market was glutted by the arrival of dozens of herds

simultaneously each spring. Since the custom of letting

¥

19Foster Rhea Dulles, The United States Since 1865
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1969f, 43—44;
Ray Allen Billington, The Westward Movement in the United
States (New York: VanTNostrand, 1959), 78-79; and WilIiam
Peirce Randel, Centennial; American Life in 1876
(Philadelphia: wChilton B06k Co., 1969), 140.

 

 

 

22

cattle graze on buffalo grass near the railheads was already
established, cattlemen soon started experimenting with keep-
ing cattle on the range all winter long. The cattle proved
hardy enough to withstand the climate, and thus herds were
driven northward to stock the ranges of the Great Plains.
The cattle frontier swept swiftly northward——into Wyoming by
1868, Montana by 1871, the Dakotas by the mid-1870's.

This rapid growth held the seeds of destruction for
the wide-open cattle frontier. There was so much profit to
be made in the cattle business that money and adventurerers
poured in from all over the world. Speculation soared as
Easterners and Europeans read reports in magazines and
newspapers stating that 40% to 50% annual profits were to be
expected.

Not surprisingly such tales brOUght hundreds of
young men to the West, either with their savings strapped to
their waists or ready to borrow-—at interest rates varying
from two percent a month to one percent a day. Prices
skyrocketed as a result of wild bidding: cattle selling for
$8 a head in 1879 brought $35 in Texas in 1882, $60 when
resold in Wyoming. Land that was marginal at best was
turned into pasture between 1880 and 1885, but an unusually
wet weather cycle during those years kept the business alive.
The summer of 1886 broke the wet cycle. Endless hot and dry
weather withered the grass; seasoned cattlemen sold their
weakened herds in a panic rather than face the winter with

them. That proved to be a wise move, for the winter of

23

of 1886/87 entered the record books as one of the worst ever
and cattle died by the thousands. Humanitarians and profit—
seekers alike agreed that winter feeding had to be the rule
in the future. Ranchers fenced their fields (barbed wire
had been invented in 1873) and planted hay; well-tended
pastures replaced drifting herds as the cattle kingdom's
wide-open days ended. In only twenty years, the cattle
frontier had been born, burgeoned into an enormous industry,
and destroyed itself through overstocking and greed. The
cowboy, however, still had a job, even though not so
"romantic" as it once had been. One old—time cowboy
reminisced about the early days of the cattle frontier:

'I remember. . .when we sat around the fire the

winter through and didn't do a lick of work for

five or six months of the year, except to chop a

little wood to build a fire to keep warm by. Now

we go on the general roundup, then the calf round—

up, then comes haying-—something that the old-time

cowboy never dreamed of—-then the beef roundup and

the fall calf roundup and gathering bulls and weak

cows, and after all this a winger of feeding hay.

I tell you times have changed. 0
It is of interest to note that cowboy characters in the
plays studied in this paper seem to have duties more like the
ones described above rather than working long drives. There
is, in fact, little reference to the work duties for the

hero in any of the plays. In the one play which does make

much reference to the hero's cowboy work—~Rose of the Range—-

 

the hero presents himself as a "cowdoctor" who advocates

fencing and controlled breeding of stock, both of which are

 

20Billington, Westward Expansion, 689.

 

24

quite distant from the romanticized long-drive duties of
the twentieth-century myth.

The cowboy was not an invention of the cattle
frontier era--Mexican vagueros ("cow people") had herded
cattle in the Southwest for at least two centuries, and
they provided the pattern for the American cowboy as well as
much of the terminology. The big—horned saddle (introduced
originally into Spain by the Moors), bridles, spurs, rawhide
rope, etc., were all Mexican and Spanish in design and
origin. The cowboy's vocabulary incorporated Texas English

versions of Spanish words: cincha (cinch), caballerango

 

(wrangler), chaparejos (chaps), la reata (lariat), caballo

 

(cayuse), jaguima (hackamore), and estampida (stampede).

 

The cowboy's costume also owed its heritage to the
vaguero, although American cowboys wore less decorative
outfits than their Mexican counterparts. Denim jeans,
sombreros or wide—brimmed black wool hats, and high—heeled,
sharp-toed boots were standard features, all of them
functional, as was the whole costume. Jeans were strong and
long wearing, yet comfortable; the wide-brimmed hat pro—
tected the eyes and the head and neck. The heels of the
boots prevented the rider's feet from slipping through the
stirrups and helped the cowboy brace himself in quick turns
and stops of the horse; the sharp toes meant a cowboy could
thrust his feet into the stirrup quickly and easily. The
leather chaps covering his legs protected the cowboy from

brush and prevented chafing of the thighs. Also part of

25

the costume were the vest (a carryall for tobacco, watches,
paper, pencils, matches) and the bandanna (a neck shade and a
dust filter). Cowboys seldom wore coats if they could avoid
it, as coats hindered arm action. Many cowboys added
cartridge belt and holsters to their costumes. The revolver
served several functions: stopping the charge of a maddened
steer, killing a rattle snake, turning back stampeding herds,
self-defense against rustlers and Indians. However, the gun
added weight, and ammunition was expensive, so many cowboys
seldom carried guns. Because of the expense of ammunition,
those who did regularly carry guns could not afford the
practice necessary to become "sharp-shooters."

The cowboy worked hard for his pay of $30 to $50 a
month. A range rider spent much time alone, cooked for him—
self, and slept on the ground. He drove cattle back onto
home ranges, branded calves, ran off strays, rounded up and
counted grazing herds, all the time keeping a lookout for
Indians and rustlers. If he worked a long drive he faced the
additional problems of unfamiliar territory, erratic weather,
unknown Indians, and the ever-present horrifying danger of a
stampede. Breaking and training horses was hard and
dangerous work, and many of the horses never surrendered
completely to training. Because of the strenuous nature of
the job, the cowboy's working years rarely numbered more than
half a dozen. Odie B. Faulk explains why:

Broken bones, crippling, and death were constant threats
to the cowboy. To be thrown from a horse meant bruises

at the least; often it meant a broken leg, usually set
improperly, and could be fatal. One kick from a

26

temperamental horse could kill. . . .A terrified herd
stampeding at night could bring injury or death to the
cowboy in a hundred ways. . . .Equally a hazard was an
unexpected blizzard in winter which could trap a cowboy
on the range where he might freeze to death. Sleeping
on the hard ground brought arthritis to many a cowpoke,
and the simple act of roping could result in the loss of
a finger or two if the hand was caught between the rope
and the saddle horn. Little wonder that the average
working life of a cowboy was only seven years.

The cowboy played every bit as hard as he worked and
received full treatment at the hands of the saloon keepers,
gamblers, and dancehall girls in the railhead towns. Dodge
City and others welcomed the cowboys, whether they arrived
there at the end of a long drive or on a monthly spree from
a nearby ranch. Hard—earned cash in his pocket, the cowboy
hit the streets and saloons and didn't leave until his money
ran out--generally in less than 24 hours. But while the
money lasted, he enjoyed all those things he couldn't find
on the open range-—especially booze and women. The only
women most cowboys knew were the dancehall girls, since the
cowboy profession did not encourage normal patterns of
courtship, marriage, and family; married cowboys were
definitely the exception. So the cowboy had little contact
with "decent women;" the women he did associate with earned
their money by dancing with the cowboys (seventy-five cents
for ten minutes) and getting a part of the cost of the drinks

their cowboy "escorts” bought for them at the bar.

Prostitution was rampant, and since there was no form of

 

21Odie B. Faulk, Dodge City: The Most Western Town
of All (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977i, 65.

 

27

medical inspection, so was venereal disease. The women who
appear in the plays studied in this paper are not representa—
tive of the types of women real cowboys came in contact with.
In the plays here the women are virtuous, whether young or
old, with only one exception--a Mexican villainness in

The Girl from L Triangle Ranch. It may be significant that
the only "bad" woman who shows up in these plays is not
white.

Later sections of this paper discuss the general
depiction of the cowboy in the popular arts as white. An
editor of a cowboy pulp magazine has explained why:

'It is understood by us, and should be understood by
everyone, that we are dealing with the popularity of
Western stories as concerns readers who are white, who
may be called Nordics, using this term advisedly. The
white race has always been noted for being hard—
drinking, hard-fighting, fearless, fair and square.
The heroga of Western stories have these character-
istics.‘
If the creators of nineteenth-century popular art had adhered
to reality, however, the white cowboy would have been joined
by Mexican, Indian, and black cowboys. (The heroes of the
plays forming the basis for this paper are all white.)

Considering the Spanish heritage of the cowboy, it is
not surprising to find Mexican cowboys; Indian cowboys got
high marks from contemporary observers; and estimates of the

number of black cowboys range as high as one in four.23 One

 

22Walter Prescott Webb, The Great Plains (Boston:
Ginn, 1931), 467.

23Faulk, Dodge City, 66.

 

28

of the most notable of the black cowboys wrote an autobio—

graphy, The Life and Adventures of Nat Love Better Known in

 

the Cattle Country as "Deadwood Dick"——By Himself, which reads

 

much like white cowboy autobiographies from the same period.
Evidence indicates that the highest population of
black cowboys occurred in the years immediately after the
Civil War. In that period, the hard work tended to level
racial differences. Occasionally a saloonkeeper would require
blacks to drink at one end of the bar, whites at the other,
but overt racism did not appear until the cattle frontier
closed. As the West became more populated, the black cowboy
was forced into other occupations: Nat Love became a pullman
porter in 1890.
The racism that grew throughout the period, and which
is witnessed in the pOpular arts, did not limit itself to
blacks. Teddy Roosevelt noted it matter-of-factly in the
late 1880's:
Some of the cowboys are Mexicans, who generally do the
actual work well enough, but are not trustworthy;
moreover, they are always regarded with extreme
disfavor by the Texans in an outfit, among whom the
intolerant caste spirit is very strong. Southern-born
whites will never work under them and look down upon
all colored or half-caste races.

So much has been said about the travails of the Indian, both

in his treatment by whites and in his treatment in the

legends of the West, that no more will be added here.

Unfortunately, as Thomas Gossett points out, the nineteenth

 

24 Jones, Shaping the Spirit of America, 226.

 

29

century

. . .was obsessed with the idea that it was race which
explained the character of peoples. The notion that
traits of temperament and intelligence are inborn in
races and only superficially changed by environment 25
or education was enough to blind the dominant whites.
It is clear, of course, that the qualities Frederick
Jackson Turner posited as our frontier heritage exhibit
themselves quite nicely in the cowboy: he is individualistic,
nationalistic, democratic, equalitarian (at least in the early
part of the era), energetic, optimistic, and pragmatic. As
such he was prime material for myth-makers, and it is an
interesting process through which the cowboy transmuted from
the rough laborer of reality to the strong, silent mythic
hero with the six—gun.
In 1891, Prentiss Ingraham, author of the first dime
novel with a cowboy as hero, still felt it necessary to

defend cowboys from their bad public image. In Buck Taylor,

the Saddle King, Buck (the first dime—novel cowboy hero)

 

explains:

'I know well, that a great many wicked men have crept
into the ranks of our cowboy bands; but there are plenty
of them who are true as steel and honest as they can be.
. . .We live a wild life, get hard knocks, rough usage,
and our lives are in constant peril, and the settling

of a difficulty is an appeal to revolver or knife; but
after all, we are not as black as we are painted.‘

How the cowboy made the transition from desperado to

hero cannot be precisely determined. Right from the

 

25Thomas F. Gossett, Race: The History_of an Idea in
America (Dallas: Southern Methodist UnIVersity Press, 1963),

26White, Eastern Establishment, 50.

30

beginning, the cowboy had defenders, of course, and, as early
as 1887, one British traveler observed that the cowboy was
already assuming mythical qualities:
The cowboy has at the present time become a personage;
nay, more, he is rapidly becoming a mythical one. . .
the true character of the cowboy has been obscured,
his genuine qualities are lost in fantastic tales of
impossible daring and skill, or daring equitations
and unexampled endurance.

As the British traveler pointed out, at about the time
the cattle frontier closed, the cowboy began to take on the
characteristics of myth rather than reality. That conjunction
cannot be considered coincidental. Once the actual cattle
frontier died, it could become a place of perfection in the
past and a useful "never—never-land" for the writers and
performers who popularized it. Those hero makers, however,
would never have created the myth if there had been no
demand for it. Significantly, that demand came from Eastern—
ers, not Westerners.

Any number of theories have been put forth as
explanations of the need for the Western myth, and, in
particular, the cowboy myth, but it is not within the realm
of this paper to deal with that extensive area of study.
Suffice it to say that the cattle frontier offered as hero a
rugged individualist answering to no one and carving his own
path, free of Eastern socio—economic rigidity, and that such

a rebel naturally appealed to an Eastern audience ready to

reject its industrialized, anonymous existence.

 

27John Baumann, "On a Western Ranche," Fortnightly
Review XLVII (1887): 516.

 

31

Several frontier characters momentarily reigned as
hero; ultimately the cowboy would surpass them all. However,
the cowboy the Easterner idolized would have only a super-
ficial resemblance to the real cowboy. The transition from
reality to myth occurred rather rapidly. Early journalists
reported news about the West and the cattle frontier quite
realistically, but by 1880, correspondents began to romanti-
cize cows and cowboys in their reports. Magazines such as

Harper's, Scribners, and the Century extolled the gallantry

 

of the cowboy and his "code":

There had arisen a person in a big hat. . . .This
type loved horses, respected good women, and when
working at his trade performed heroisms that must
evoke powerful admiration in the Eastern breast.
He was muscular, he was brave, he told the truth,
he stuck to his pardner, he scorned to shoot an
unarmed enemy. . . .

The cowboy myth owes its existence primarily to
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Shows and to late nineteenth-
century dime novels. They served as the "troubadours" so
necessary for the propagation of a myth according to Mody
Boatright:

Their function is not merely to publicize the hero.
More importantly it is to deve10p myths about him

and to assimilate these myths to the archetypal

myths of the culture. A myth cannot flourish

without a congenial climate of opinion. In con-
temporary civilization the troubadours are historians
biographers, journalists, novelists, script writers. é

 

28Bernard DeVoto, "Birth of an Art," Harper's
Magazine CCXI (December 1955): 8.

29Mody C. Boatright, "The American Myth Rides the
Range," Southwest Review XXXVI (Summer 1951): 158.

 

32

More will be said about the Wild West Shows and the dime
novels in later chapters, but for now it is important to
note that the writers for both, as well as the writers of
the plays considered in Chapter III, were Easterners, that
their prime goals were to provide entertainment for their
audiences and financial rewards for themselves, and that only
a very few had any direct experience with the cattle frontier.
Despite the fact that writers knew little about the actual
cowboy existence, they certainly knew that the cowboy
provided a unique and glamorous subject for adventure tales.
And, as little as the writer knew, his audience knew even
less. The writer did know his audience, however, and knew
it wanted excitement, action, and adventure for vicarious
thrills. That's what he provided. In so doing, he actually
perpetuated the traditional hero myth——the chivalric loner
whose background is somewhat mysterious, who fights his
battles alone, and who ultimately is rewarded with a wife
and riches. The cowboy is recognizable as

. . .one who in other times, other costumes, other

dramas has struggled in the valleys of the Euphrates

and the Nile, in Greece, Spain, Scandinavia, and

Camelot. He is the Hero. In the western legend he

has exchanged his shining helmet for a ten-gallon

hat, his breastplate for an embroidered shirt, and

his lance for a pair of 'six-shooters'.

The mythic cowboy hero, although based on the

reality, quickly became idealized into an easily recognized

 

3OWarren J. Barker, "The Stereotyped Western Story,"
Psychoanalytic Quarterly XXIV (1955): 271.

 

33

stereotype, with specific traits. First, he is young, of
impressive stature and inevitably handsome, with a natural
nobility which sets him apart from his scruffier companions.
Accompanying his good looks are natural courage and strength
as well as a plethora of skills such as trailing, marksman—
ship, and hand-to-hand combat. Every cowboy hero in the
plays examined in Chapter III displays these qualities.

The cowboy hero exhibits above-average cleverness—-
he always outwits his adversaries. His cleverness never is
used for less than truly virtuous ends, of course; the cowboy
hero demonstrates "acute powers of moral perception" that
enable him to "ferret out evil and destroy it." An
intriguing dimension of his strong morality appears in the
hero's "willingness to subvert the law, or to violate it

31 The cowboy

outright, in order to realize true justice."
hero follows a "higher" law than that dictated by man, and
he often waxes philosophical about his lonely, but correct
path in the world. If rewards eventually follow--as they
inevitably do—-then that's proof that he made the morally
right decision. Two of the plays discussed in Chapter III

provide particular examples of this: The Cowboy and the

Tenderfoot and The End of a Texas Trail.

 

Real cowboys might chuckle at the mythic cowboy's
gentility. He speaks in refined and elegant--if somewhat

stilted--language, neither smokes nor drinks, and professes

31Jones, Dime Novel Western, 116.

 

34

to be a Christian. He treats women chivalrously, but only
if they act in traditional "womanly" behavior patterns: the
cowboy hero will only marry an old-fashioned girl. Cowboys
apparently know very few, if any, older women—-no one's
mother, old-maid aunts, or the like, ever appear on the
scene. These characteristics are evident in the plays
analyzed in this paper.

For all his gentility, the cowboy hero has a savage
streak. If he believes he is right (as he always does), then
he proceeds to do what is "right," often at the cost of
others' lives (especially Indians and nasty white villains,
but often innocent bystanders as well.)

Despite his essentially virtuous nature, the cowboy
hero is also a racist. The myth—makers ignored the mixed
racial heritage of the cowboy and made the mythic hero
bright white. Blacks appear only as occasional cooks or as
good-natured but stupid retainers. None are depicted as
heroic; most are depicted as rank cowards. Mexicans appear
equally infrequently and are generally villains if they do
appear-—stupid, cowardly, uncouth, and treacherous. They
receive much physical abuse from the white race, often from
the hero. Indians have the dubious distinction of appearing
frequently, dubious because unfortunately they tend to be
depicted as villains or the ignorant dupes of white villains.
If they are good, they generally fit the Tonto image—-a stoic,
not too bright, but endlessly faithful companion to the hero.

Even the good Indians die with alarming regularity in the

35

popular art forms, and bad ones rarely make it out alive,
illustrating the widely held nineteenth-century belief that
"the only good Indian is a dead Indian." The plays chosen
for analysis in this paper clearly depict this racism on the

part of the heroes, as Chapter III's discussion illustrates.

SUMMARY

By the end of the nineteenth century, the character
who serves as the focus of this paper--the cowboy--had
acquired most of the qualities we associate with the
twentieth-century version. Although he would not attain his
full stature as the quintessential American hero until the
appearance of the modern Western novel (starting with Owen

Wister's The Virginian), and the leap from the written page

 

to the motion picture screen (initiated by E.S. Porter's

The Great Train Robbery), all the essential characteristics

 

had been provided by nineteenth-century mythmakers. The myth
is based partially in the frontier mentality so aptly
delineated by Frederick Jackson Turner, and partially in the
reality of the cattle frontier. But the largest contribution
to the myth comes from the romantic version of cowboy life
presented to Eastern readers by Eastern writers, writers who
often knew little about the facts of cowboy existence. In
any case, the nineteenth—century mythic cowboy, with his
characteristic good looks, courage, nobility, virility,
racism, etc., was firmly established as an important

American hero.

CHAPTER II

POPULAR CULTURE AND THE COWBOY HERO

To discuss the phenomenon of the cowboy in nineteenth-
century theatre demands first of all a definition of popular
culture and then identification of the particular
characteristics of the nineteenth—century popular literature
and theatre. The word "culture" started out describing
growth, as in cultivation; in the nineteenth century it
changed to a noun signifying "acquaintance with and taste in
fine arts, humanities, and broad aspects of science as
distinguished from vocational and technical skills." In the
twentieth century, the term transmuted to "the customary
beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial,
religious, or social group."1 This proliferation of
meanings led to many individualized definitions of culture,
reflecting the segmenting of culture into such divisions as
high culture, low culture, mass culture, and popular culture,
with the inherent snobbism that comes from labelling one
culture "high" and another for the "masses."

Researchers of popular culture have defined several

characteristics. They point out that popular culture is an

 

1Webster's New Collegiate Dictionagy (Springfield,
Mass.: Merriam, 1977), 277.

36

37

inherently urban phenomenon. Not until the great population
growth of the nineteenth century, and the subsequent
concentration of the pOpulation into urban or near-urban
areas was "pOpular" culture possible.

Between 1880 and 1900 alone the urban population had

more than doubled, rising from fourteen to thirty

million. New York and Brooklyn accounted for over

two million in 1890; Chicago and Philadelphia for

over a million each; Boston, Baltimore, and Washington

for about half a million apiece. There were in all

twenty-eight cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.
One result of urbanization was the "creation of a huge
market for entertainment, with identifiable desires and
responses."3 With the formation of modern mass society and
the development of mass media forms (print and live theatre
in the nineteenth century), came the possibility of a mass
culture which could be widely transmitted and which appealed
to an audience that had never existed before; popular
culture is essentially middle class.

Popular theatre and the other popular arts take forms
characterized by clear and simple delineations of good and
bad, strong and weak, etc. This characteristic guarantees
the "accessibility" (intellectually) of the forms to large,
relatively unsophisticated audiences—-another characteristic
of popular culture. Popular arts remain "popular” only so

long as they do not deviate from conventions accepted and

endorsed by the majority. Once the conventions of a popular

 

2Norman 1. Cantor and Michael S. Werthman, eds., The
History of Popular Culture (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 456.

3Russel B. Nye, The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular
Arts in America (New York: Dial, I970), 2.

38

art form are established, they cannot be lightly ignored,

for ". . .predictability is important to the effectiveness of
popular art."4 P0pular art forms must be widely and easily
available as well: mass-production means wide and rapid
distribution, and quantity is often associated with quality
in popular culture.

The nineteenth century saw the birth and thriving
growth of a number of popular arts. One of the most important
to the cowboy's appearance in the drama was the dime novel,
from whose pages dramatists lifted, with barely any changes,
the cowboy hero.

In 1860, a small firm owned by Irwin and Erastus
Beadle and their partner Robert Adams, began publishing the
inexpensive novels which were to make the name of "Beadle
and Adams" famous. The exciting stories (each about 30,000
to 50,000 words) with their splendid heroes appeared weekly.
They not only provided good entertainment, but also offered
escape from the monotony of urban life in the machine age--
and readers bought them by the thousands. These dime novels
fulfilled the qualities typical of all popular culture as
described earlier: mass—produced, selling largely in urban
environments, saluting common men (with uncommon attributes)
as heroes, relentlessly supporting middle-class morality and
virtues, and unfailingly following the conventions established

for the form.

 

4Nye, Unembarrassed Muse, 4.

 

39

Although Beadle and Adams instructed their authors not
to write about fields in which they had "no intimate know—

5 the authors felt no compunction to obey that

ledge,"
directive. Easterners who had never ventured West experi—
enced no qualms about writing exciting adventures celebrating
life on the Western frontier. If they knew little about that
life, their urban audiences knew even less and enjoyed the
vicarious thrills, however inaccurate. The same was true

of Eastern dramatists who wrote about cowboys.

Several types of dime novels appeared, including
those with detective heroes, those set in large cities, and
those with women as main characters. By far the most popular
of all dime novels was the Western. Frontier heroes appeared
by the 1870's, and the cowboy-hero conventions established in
those dime novels were the ones adopted for the stage.

The cowboy's role in nineteenth—century dime novels
was minor in comparison with other frontier heroes. Though
he achieved hero status by the late 1880's, he never
achieved the same level of success in dime novels as did the
trapper, the plainsman, and the outlaw. The same is true in
drama, where miners join the list of popular frontier heroes.
The cowboy never achieved major status on a nationwide scale
until he was discovered by the film-making industry. That

does not diminish his importance, however, for the

 

5Albert Johannsen, The House of Beadle and Adams: and
Its Dime and Nickel Novels; The Story of a Vanished Litera-
EUre, 3 voIs. (Norman: University of‘OkIahoma Press, 1950),

I757

40

nineteenth-century hero established most of the characteris—
tics we associate with the twentieth—century prototype.

The real cowboys who served as models for fictional
cowboys were not the stuff of dreams; the drudgery and
routine of their lives would hardly have made typical dime—
novel fare. Consequently the cowboy had to be romanticized.
Although there were passing references to the actual chores
of real cowboys, dime-novel cowboys most often appeared as
border-ranger types who fought Indians, confronted rustlers,
and chased law-breakers--much more exciting than branding
cattle-—so that at first the cowboy of the nineteenth—century
dime novel was hardly distinguishable from other frontier
heroes, except in his distinctive dress.

The first dime-novel cowboy hero, Buck Taylor,

appeared in Buck Tdylor, King of the Cowboys, by Prentiss

 

Ingraham (1887). In that novel, Buck (a "real" cowboy in
Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show for several years and
nicknamed for his ability to tame wild horses) had to pass
several tests of strength and skill in order to become a
Texas Ranger. No "cowboying" (such as driving herds,
rounding up strays, repairing fences) took place; Buck
captured and tamed a beautiful horse, killed some Indians,
saved another Indian's life, was attacked by Indians and
Mexican raiders, etc., then returned to his ranch, where
life was much quieter.

Ingraham tended to dandify Buck and his other cowboy

heroes, yet in this first appearance as hero, the cowboy

41

already was the strong, silent type so familiar in twentieth—
century Westerns:

They beheld a man six feet in hight, [sic]
hardly over twenty-five or six, and with broad
shoulders and a form as erect as a soldier's.

He was dressed in fringed buckskin leggings,
stuck into top-boots, and a gray merino shirt and
hunting—jacket completed his attire, while a black
sombrero sheltered his head.

His face was one to command respect, cast as it
was with a perfection of feature that was striking.
Darkly-bronzed was his complexion, and his
brown hair, worn long upon his shoulders, and a dark
mustache made up a face at once handsome, resolute

and commanding.

He carried a Colt's repeating—rifle, and a
pair of revolvers in his belt. . . .

Dramas featuring cowboy heroes provide descriptions nearly
identical to this one (see Chapter III), another indication
of the debt dramatists owed to the dime novelists.

While Ingraham depicted the cowboy as a dandy,
Frederick Whittaker, another prominent dime novelist,
tended to portray the cowboy as an uncultured, lawless, but
attractive, ruffian:

Then, up to the door of the Metropolitan Hotel
dashed a score of mounted men, on small, wiry horses,
covered with foam and dust, and James Arthur, for the
first time in his life, saw the spectacle so familiar
to the citizens of Muleville--'cowboys on a tear.‘

. . .[W]hat impressed the nervous stranger most was
the fact that these men seemed all crazy with excite—
ment or drink, and were firing recklessly all round
them into the windows of the houses, as if careless
what damage they did, which was the fact.

 

6Prentiss Ingraham, "The Wild Steer Riders; or, Texas
Jack's Steers," Beadle's Dime Library #834 (17 October 1894):
2.

 

7Frederick Whittaker, "Parson Jim, King of the Cowboys;
or, The Gentle Shepherd's Big 'Clean Out,'" Beadle's Dime
Library #215 (6 December 1882): 3.

 

42

The third major writer of dime novels featuring
cowboy heroes was William George "Gilbert" Patten; Patten's
cowboy heroes were noble and courageous, not at all "dandies."
Patten's manly cowboys provided the major model for
nineteenth-century dramatists as well as for Owen Wister's
"Virginian,” the archetypal twentieth-century cowboy.

Despite the differences from author to author, the
formula of the cowboy hero was quickly standardized into
several typical characteristics (all also true in the
melodramas): (l) the cowboy hero is aristocratic in bearing,
if rustic in choice of dress; (2) he is incredibly virile
and good looking; (3) he is brave, though not foolhardy, and
he rejects violence until he apparently has no other
recourse—-then he is ruthless; (4) he never seems to have
anything to do with cows--in fact, seems to be a man of
leisure; (5) he is unerringly accurate, a sure-shot no matter
what the weapon or the circumstances; (6) he is a teetotaller
or very nearly so; (7) he is a "clean" fighter and will not
take unfair advantage; (8) he recovers almost instantaneously
from wounds; (9) he is a loner with no apparent near
relatives or dependents--he is also unencumbered by material
possessions, seeming usually to own only his horse, his guns,
and the clothes on his back; (10) he is a racist--the "fair
fight" ethic exists only for other whites; blacks, Indians,
and Mexicans are dispatched with brutal regularity; (11) he
associates mainly with men——the "code of the West" is a male

ethic; (12) he is sensitive to Nature and understands it; and

43

(13) he is inevitably highly moral; if the situation demands,
he will decide what is necessary to accomplish justice, even
going beyond the bounds of law to do so. The examination of
the plays in this paper reveals how neatly the melodrama's
cowboy hero fulfills these characteristics.

The cowboy-hero dime novels display a number of
additional characteristics which would make their way into
the dramas: deaths of villains (or unfortunate good types)
are "c1ean"--no lingering, no suffering; many Indians,
Mexicans, and a few villainous white men typically die.
Sensational violence prevails--showdowns and confrontation
scenes are required. It is invariably pointed out, however,
that the hero does not enjoy violence and killing, while the
savage heathen outlaws enter combat "with.akind of manic
glee to fulfill an uncontroled lust for blood."8

Women in cowboy-hero dime novels and melodramas are
the hero's reward for his courage and steadfastness in the
face of villainy. As mentioned earlier, there are generally
two types of women in these novels and plays; both are young.
(Older women rarely appear; the heroine's father usually
seems to have brought her up alone.) One type of woman is
good, genteel, often blonde; the other is the familiar fallen
woman with a heart of gold. The latter type never gets the

hero and often is caught in the line of fire before the story

 

8John G. Cawelti, The Six-Gun Mystique (Bowling Green,
OH: Popular Press, 1971), 60.

44

ends; the ”good girl" usually wins the hero's hand in
marriage. This, of course, exemplifies the high moral tone
of these dime novels and the plays patterned after them: the
traditional role of woman is upheld, sexual transgressions
are punished (usually with death), and the sanctity of

marriage is reaffirmed. Happy endings are de rigueur.

 

Although most of the dialogue in the dime novels is
excruciatingly naive, no one seemed to mind. Nor did play-
goers object to similar dialogue in the melodramas. Some
passages are quite entertaining, however, for most of the
novels--and the plays as well-—have at least one humorous
character to leaven the action. To a modern reader, such
characters are often the most charming:

'Chain up right thar!‘ exclaimed Ben. 'You're
jumpin' from the point.’

'Like the boy who sits down on an inverted tack,
eh?' grinned the stranger. 'That is another chestnut.
It's remarkable how many stale jokes there are afloat
in the world. Did you ever stop to think-—'

'Holy smoke! You give me pains, old man! I'm
fishin' arter your name.‘

'I used to go fishing myself, when I was a boy.
It's really a great sport, isn't it. Especially when
you catch a licking. If I didn't catch any fish, I
could always depend on catching a licking when I got
home, so I was not euchered. Now-—'

'Now, will you give us that name?'

'Really, I fear that is impossible. It was given
me when I was very young, and I have kept it ever
since. You must have ope of your own, and so you can't
actually need another.‘

While the dime novel took its place in popular

culture history, other popular culture forms also thrived,

 

9William G. Patten, "Cowboy Steve, the Ranch Mascot;
or, The Bond of Blood," Beadle's Half Dime Library #806
(3 January 1893): 5.

45

including theatre. Although not enjoying as spectacular a
development as the dime novel, the "popular" theatre in the
nineteenth century appeared for the same reasons, and, as
should be increasingly clear, the cowboy hero made a direct
leap from the pages of dime novels onto the stage of pOpular
theatre's melodramas.

A major factor in the popular theatre's development
was the nation's rapidly expanding population. The
tremendous growth in nineteenth-century cities meant that
theatres had much larger potential audiences, especially in
the middle and lower classes. Astute theatre managers
determined to find the proper inducements to draw those
crowds to the theatre; the result was segmentation of the
audience. Up until about the 1870's, theatres (along with
other urban cultural institutions) integrated urban
society. "An undifferentiated urban audience crowded
together to experience drama, visual art, or music."10
This was partially due to economic necessity: large
operating costs necessitated equally large audiences to
offset expenses. Only when the urban population expanded
and public transportation improved, did producers have a
large enough potential audience that they could afford to

appeal to only one segment.

 

10Alan R. Havig, "American Historians and the Study
of Popular Culture," Journal of Popular Culture XI, 1
(Summer 1977): 183.

 

46

From mid—century on, a shift occurred as theatre
expanded to encompass those larger audiences. No longer
was there one heterogeneous audience which viewed a
miscellancy of forms (tragedy, comedy, farce, melodrama,
dance, opera) in ”proportions that, if they did not satisfy,
at least attracted all classes."11 Instead, theatre managers
began to take advantage both of the existence of a large and
affluent middle class, which wanted its own kind of theatre,
and of the subtle snobbism of the upper classes, who wanted
a theatre where patrons dressed well and came for "culture"-—
and where the lower classes would be excluded by the ticket
prices.
[The theatre] expanded and divided-~into legitimate
drama, foreign-language drama, farce, vaudeville,
circus, burlesque, minstrelsy, Opera, symphony--each
with its separate theatre and separate audience. One
roof, housing a vast miscellany of entertainment each
evening, could no longer cover a people growing
intellectually more disparate.
Two major theatrical traditions develOped out of this segmen—
tation: one was a "serious” theatre patronized by the upper
and upper-middle class; the other, "popular" theatre
appealed to the middle and lower classes (artisans, farmers,
shOpkeepers, factory workers, etc.)

This popular theatre, like all popular culture,

necessarily responded to its audience's demands. Since the

 

11David Grimsted, Melodrama Unveiled; American
Theatre and Culture, 1800-1850 IChicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1968), 75.

 

12Ibid.

47

theatre offers the opportunity for immediate evaluation, the
audience has a great deal to do with what is presented.
Hewitt quotes from the contemporary chronicle of a French

journalist who describes the American style of showing

approval:

'I must mention here the Americans' strange manner of
applauding a favorite actor of a good scene. In France,
and everywhere else in Europe. . .we clap and sometimes
shout bravo, and whistle only when we are disgusted. . .
But with Americans, whistling is an expression of
enthusiasm: the more they like a play, the louder they
whistle, and when a San Francisco audience bursts into
shrill whistles and savage yells, you may be sure they
are in raptures of joy.’ 3

Theatre-goers delighted in the power they exercised-—what
could be more democratic than to have the majority rule in
the theatre as elsewhere? This popular theatre audience got
what it wanted: plays that "spoke directly to their
nationalism and egalitarianism and new stage characters that
made heroes of 'common' white Americans."14 The attendance

at such plays was huge.15

 

13Barnard Hewitt, Theatre U.S.A.; 1665 to 1957 (New
York: McGraw-Hill, l959),7166.

14Robert C. Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in
Nineteenth Centugy America (New Ydfk: Oxford UhiVersity
Press, I9747, 13.

15A 1915 survey of attendance at theatrical amusements
provides some astonishing statistics: Milwaukee, with a
pOpulation of 373,857, had sixty-two playhouses with total
Capacity of 42,232—-average weekly attendance was 349,673.
Detroit, population of 465,756, reported average weekly
attendances of 547,409. Kansas City reported weekly atten—
dances of 554,064, more than twice the city's population--
RiChard Henry Edwards, Popplar Amusements (New York:
Association Press, 1915), 32—33.

48

When the spread of the railroads made travelling
companies financially feasible, America's small towns also
were able to view a broad spectrum of live popular enter-

tainment:

Beaver Dam, Wisconsin's Concert Hall, was typical
of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of similar theatres
that dignified small towns across the nation in the
late nineteenth century. . . .Empty it did not look like
too much more than a ninety-foot-long, flat-floored room
with a raised stage at one end, the only glamour being
the grand proscenium arch that towered twelve feet over
the stage. Empty, that was all the room was. After all,
it also served as the town's lecture hall, athletic
arena, ballroom, city council chamber, political head—
quarters, skating rink, and National Guard drill room.
But when the folding chairs were lined up in neat rows
and filled with people, when the curtain with its
beautiful painting of the Bay of Naples dropped, when
the kerosene footlights cast their warm glow, when the
anticipation of the crowd electrified the room, it
became a real theatre, as good-—well, almost as good--as

any other.

Several characteristics distinguish popular theatre
in all periods: (1) the author (if known) is indifferent to
his reputation as a "high-class" writer; (2) those who
produce the play have little interest in the author; (3) the
literature is not the sort to be either noticed or praised
by'critics; (4) scripts often do not survive in written form,
or: can be located only in memoir collections, diaries, etc.;
(55) scenario takes precedence over script—-that is, movement,
SCNJnd, and technical effects are more important than words;
H5) much highly visible action is essential and the action

iii sequential rather than consequential (often dependent on

_

16Robert C. Toll, On with the Show (New York:
OXford University Press, 19767, 141.

49

the ease of making scenery shifts); (7) scripts offer
vicarious escape and sentimental nostalgia as well as sensa-
tional effects which often are dramatically unnecessary but
exist only as exciting momentary experiences; (8) the struc-
ture of the scripts is standardized and easily recognizable,
following well-established formas; (9) the characters invented
in the popular drama "tend to generate and to develop mytho-
logies and traits of character that extend far beyond the
life given to them in the dramas in which they first appear,"17
and who thus pass from the theatre into popular folklore;
(10) high morality reigns--it's obvious who is good and who
is bad and it is expected that virtue will triumph over vice
and that the good will then receive suitable material
rewards; and (11) comic relief eases the high moral tone.
Perhaps most essential is that pOpular theatre
reflect the values and needs of the society which produces it:
More than any other art form [theatre] has to say
clearly what its audience already knows in its
heart of hearts, to reveal prerexispgnt truths that
require but words to be recognized.
Nineteenth-century popular theatre appealed to an audience
distressed by the technological advances and disruptions of

the age. Although that audience delighted in the special

stage effects made possible by technological achievements,

 

17David Mayer and Kenneth Richards, eds. Western
POpular Theatre (London: Methuen, 1977), 263.

 

18David Grimsted, "An Idea of Theatre History: An
Informal Plea," Educational Theatre Journal XXVI, 4
(December 1974): 426.

 

50

they found the rapidly growing technology outside the theatre
threatening. The popular theatre had to offer reassurance
that traditional values still operated.

The popular theatre in the nineteenth century offered
several forms of entertainment to its audiences, including
foreign-language drama, farce, burlesque, vaudeville,
minstrelsy, and above all, melodrama. Such fare was available
at cheap prices-—from ten to thirty cents-—to large urban
audiences at such New York theatres as the Bowery, the
People's, the Windsor, the Third Avenue, the National, and
the London; Chicago's Alhambra and Madison Street Opera
House; Boston's Grand Opera House; and the People's Theatre
in Philadelphia. Smaller cities patronized traveling shows
at the same cheap prices in their own "temples of amusement.”19

By far the most popular of the popular entertain-
ments was the melodrama, widely criticized then and in later
periods as "claptrap" or worse, but "which meshed so exactly
with public taste that no amount of critical abuse affected

20 Most nineteenth-century American

its popularity."
melodramas are four-act plays arranged in ten to twenty
scenes and featuring spectacular stage effects. The major

theme is vice vs. virtue, and, of course, virtue always wins,

but only after enduring countless ordeals and surmounting

 

19Cantor and Werthman, Popular Culture, 457-458.

 

20 ,
Tamara K. Hareven, ed., Anonymous Americans.
Explorations in Nineteenth-Century SociaI History (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ? PrenticeIHall, l97lI, 87.

 

51

endless obstacles. Honesty, chastity, personal integrity,
and other such Christian virtues are properly rewarded; vice
is punished.

The plays forming the spine of this paper all possess
the characteristics typical of melodrama, the major structur-
al characteristic being ”Action": the standard nineteenth-
century American melodrama consists of scenes of pursuit and
capture, imprisonment and escape, false accusation, numerous
setbacks, several near—disasters, rescues, and recognition
and reunion--all tumbling one after another in rapid
progression.

As is true of all popular theatre forms, the charac—
ters of melodrama tend to be stereotypes. Five major
character—types appear in the nineteenth-century American
melodrama: (l) the hero, entirely good; (2) the villain,
entirely bad; (3) the heroine, entirely good; (4) the father
figure, essentially good; and (5) the comic character, often
silly, but essentially good-natured.21 It is important to
remember that main characters are either wholly good or
wholly bad, never a combination of the two. Chapter III
reveals how closely the plays selected for analysis here
follow these five stereotypes.

The hero is courageous, faithful, protective of all

women, perceptive of evil, noble, and an instinctive natural

 

21Toll, On with the Show, 147; and Thomas Herbert
Dickinson, An Outline of'Chntemporary Drama (New York:
Biblo and Tannen, I927), 23.

 

 

52

man (that is, he is in tune with nature and listens to the
voice of nature). It's interesting to note that being noble
and following his instincts are apparently the hero's only
career-—little mention is ever made of how he earns his
living. When a career is specified, we rarely see the hero
carrying out the duties associated with that career. Such
is the case with all the cowboy heroes in the plays analyzed
in this paper.

The hero's antagonist, the villain, embodies lust,
vice, lack of conscience, avarice, excessive ambition, cold—
bloodedness, and deceit; he is frequently a serious threat to
the heroine's chastity. The villain inevitably meets defeat
and usually dies, generally pointing out a moral before
expiring.

The heroine is often fair-haired (an outward sign of
her inner beauty), always virtuous and chaste, but in danger
because of her feminine weakness. Much of the excitement of
melodrama results from the threat to the heroine's virtue-—
the villain can be very attractive and a much smoother talker
than the hero; if he has his way with the heroine (even if by
rape or by tricking her with a false marriage), her destiny
is tearful repentance, madness, and death. If she remains
strong in her virtue and recognizes the hero's worth, she is
rewarded with marriage to him. The heroines of the plays
covered in this paper follow this pattern without deviation,
and in all cases the plays end with the heroine joining the

hero in blissful matrimony.

53

The father figure (often the heroine's father) is
good—hearted, but not as instinctively wise as the hero——he
can be fooled by a glib villain. He provides moral lectures
and elevated sentiment and is always seen as deserving of
supreme filial piety. Mothers hardly ever appear in melo—
dramas except as sacred memories. This proves true in the
plays studied in this paper, the majority of which have
father figures to guide the heroines.

With all these wholly good--and thus sometimes
unfortunately boring——characters, it should not surprise us
that melodramas need comic relief. In nineteenth-century
American melodrama, this is provided by comic servants of
both sexes. All of the plays studied in this paper feature
one or more such comic characters. These characters are of
humble position, naive but possessed of natural canniness,
good—natured, and lively. They often represent ethnic,
racial, or regional stereotypes. Not only do they lighten
the seriousness of the play, but they also provide more
"human" foils for the impossibly pure hero and heroine.

A number of references have already been made con—
cerning the high morality espoused by the melodrama. A
morally edifying conclusion is essential because the world of
the melodrama revolves around

. . .a clear moral order in which reward depended
on the righteousness of one's conduct: if one

obeyed the code, happiness lay ahead; if one
violated it, destruction must follow.

 

22 .
Hareven, Anonymous Americans, 83.

 

54

The language used in melodrama varies from section to
section: in the serious portions, the language tends toward
the artificial, very bloated and contrived ("humble garments"
and "beauteous finery"), containing archaic poetic
expressions such as "whither” and "yon", and making much use
of metaphor (the heroine is apt to be a rose or a violet
while the villain is a serpent or a wolf). The comic
sections, in contrast, use much simpler language, which is
individualized to the character, sometimes with highly
exaggerated diction and dialect. It is much more vigorous
and concrete than that of the serious sections, and, of
course, provides an effective foil as a result. The plays
examined in this paper are typical in their use of language,
for they include both the serious and the comic styles.
Chapter III provides several illustrative passages of
dialogue.

Among the most pOpular American melodramas of the
nineteenth century were those featuring frontier heroes,
Davy Crockett reigning supreme for years. As Hewitt points
out, Frank Murdoch's Davy Crockett presented

. . .for the first time not only the frontiersman as
hero but also the theme of Western strength and
essential goodness triumphant over Eastern weakness
and corruption. The United States had grown old
enough and big enough so that the conflict between

West and East could replace thg conflict between
America and England or France. 3

 

23Hewitt, Theatre U.S.A., 226.

 

55

Late in the century, the American public became acquainted
with the cattle frontier and the prairie West, primarily
through the dime novels and the Wild West shows. Stage
shows featuring cowboy heroes appealed strongly to a public
eager for excitement. Making many Of the Western dramas
even more exciting was the appearance in them of real-life
heroes: "Texas Jack" Omohundro, "Wild Bill" Hickok, and,
above all, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, whose various shows helped
shape America's concept Of the cowboy and thus influenced
the depiction of the cowboy on the stage.

A hack writer named E.Z.C. Judson, better known by
his pen name of Ned Buntline, often receives credit for
"discovering" Buffalo Bill. Donald Russell's excellent
biography Of Buffalo Bill convincingly explains that such
credit is something Of an exaggeration. Whatever the actual
situation (and the apocrypha are legion), Buntline did
publish the first story about Buffalo Bill, who quickly
became a national dime-novel hero; in all, 557 dime novels
about him were published.

Because of the success of Buffalo Bill in the dime
novels, he soon appeared as a character in plays. Substan—
tive popular culture history wasn't made, however, until

Buntline convinced Cody to appear as himself in The Scouts Of

 

the Prairie, a pastiche created by Buntline in less than four

 

hours. Scouts of the Prairie Opened in Chicago on

 

56

16 December 1873, to a complete sellout.24 When the curtain
went up on Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack, and Buntline, the heroes
froze. The ever-resourceful Buntline asked Cody a question
about a recent hunt; Cody began talking about it, got a
favorable audience response, and the show went on——almost
totally adlibbed, which did create some interesting problems:

As Buntline saw his hastily written dialogue lost
forever, he was at his wit's end how to bring the
curtain down on the first act. Finally he signalled
into the wings for the phony Indians. They came in
screeching, looking like badly made-up tramps from

the railway yards. Following their mentor's example,
Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack seized the hostiles. One
by one the stage Indians went down, to the very last
man. Never was there a show like this. As can happen
in the theatre, a play intended to be serious was
taken as a rollicking comedy. What the audience beheld
was an adolescent's fantastic dream of the Wild West.

The second and third act Offered more of the same.
The Chicago Times was not tremendously impressed by

this opening performance:

'On the whole it is not probable that Chicago will

ever look upon the like again. Such a combination

of incongruous drama, execrable acting, renowned

performers, mixed audience, intolerable stench,

scalping, blood and thunder, is not likely to be 26

vouchsafed to a city for a second time--even Chicago.‘
That critic had grossly underestimated Buffalo Bill's appeal,

however; the show was a huge success, playing six performances

 

24Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright, Buffalo
Bill and the Wild West (New York: Oxford University Press,
1955), 100.

 

ZSIbid.

 

26Donald Russell, The Lives and Legends Of Buffalo
Bill (Norman: University of OElahoma Press, 1960), I96.

57

in Chicago before leaving on tour. Scouts of the Prairie

 

played seven Eastern cities on its way to New York, including

Cincinnati, where the Daily Gazette Offered a much warmer

 

appraisal Of the show than had the Chicago paper, perceptively
mentioning several features ultimately essential in Buffalo
Bill's popularity:

'[The play] has in it all the thrilling romance,
treachery, love, revenge, and hate of a dozen of

the richest dime novels ever written. . . .[I]ts
novelty is so striking, and its subject is such a
popular one with so many readers of thrilling border
tales, that the temptation to see the real actors in
those tragedies can not be resisted.‘

Scouts of the Prairie Opened at the Bowery Theatre in

 

New York on 31 March 1874, and continued its successful run.
Over the next eleven seasons, Buffalo Bill appeared in at
least twelve of these dramas, all Of them exploiting his
personality and his "authenticity as frontier scout and
Indian fighter."28
Ned Buntline did not have the vision to foresee all
the possibilities in Buffalo Bill's future, but Cody soon met
a man who did: John M. Burke (later "Arizona John"). Burke
idolized Cody and had the imagination to see the kind of
national hero Buffalo Bill could become. He tirelessly

promoted Cody, serving as a superb "press agent" before the

term had even been invented.

 

271bid., 198.

 

28Mayer and Richards, Western POpular Theatre, 139.

58

During the years Of ”thundering melodramas," Cody
dreamed Of an outdoor show, telling Burke over and over:
'Take the prairie and the Injuns and everything else
right to em' [the audience in the East]. . .'That's
the idea. There ain't room on a stage to do anything
worthwhile. But there would be on a big lot where
we could have horses and buffalo and the Old Deadwood
coach and everything! That'd be something they'd 29
never seen before! That'd be showing them the West!‘
The idea for such an exhibition did not originate
with Cody, nor with his famous Wild—West—Show partner, Nate
Salsbury (whom he met early in 1882). Nineteenth—century
audiences already could see outdoor exhibitions of Indian

activities and other aspects of Western life.30

And perhaps
Cody would never have gotten his Wild West show Off the
ground (because Of financial problems) had it not been for a
Fourth of July celebration put on by the citizens of North
Platte, Nebraska, Cody's home. The citizens asked Cody to
take charge of their "Old Glory Blow-Out," and take charge he
did. Instead Of the rodeo and bronco busting contests
originally envisioned, Cody tried out his dream of a Wild
West show. The show was a great success, leading Cody to
organize a touring show for the next season: "The Wild West,
Rocky Mountain and Prairie Exhibition" Opened in Omaha,

Nebraska, on 17 May 1883. Despite discipline problems and

growing dissension between Cody and his partner, "Doc" Carver,

 

29Se11 and Weybright, Buffalo 3111, 130.

 

30P.T. Barnum exhibited Indians as early as 1841, and
in 1876, Indian agent John B. Clum organized a touring Indian
show whose playbill looks remarkably like many of those
presented by Buffalo Bill.

59

the show was a hit with crowds:

The Wild West show was an instant national mania.
Cody's show. . .coincided exactly with current
popular interest in the romantic West, and could
hardly have been better qualified to appeal to the
great American public.

Cody and Carver soon split and Nate Salsbury joined
Cody, the beginning Of a long and profitable partnership.
Together they established the formula so successfully used
year after year in the Wild West Shows:

a) An Opening scene in which most of the
characters are introduced

b) Individual scenes which display the skills
of individual frontiersmen or cowboys

c) Scenes Of Indian life and the customs of
the frontier

d) A battle, chase or escape scene

e) The exploits of Buffalo Bill

f) A final scene of a natural disaster or of
Indian treachery which is concluded with the triumph
of the white man.

The urban Easterners who made up the primary audience
for these Wild West shows were often joined by such distin-
guished visitors as Governor David B. Hill, Mark Twain,

Henry Irving, and Prince Dom Augusta Of Brazil. Twain wrote
to Cody to express his delight:

'Down to its smallest details the Show is genuine. . . .
It brough back vividly the breezy wild life of the
Plains and the Rocky Mountains. It is wholly free

from sham and insincerity and the effects it produced
upon me by its spectacles were identical with those
wrought upon me a long time ago on the frontier. . . .
[Y]Our bucking horses were even painfully real to me

as I rode one Of those outrages for nearly a quarter

Of a minute. It is Often said on the other side of

 

31Nye, Unembarrassed Muse, 192.

32Mayer and Richards, Western ngular Theatre, 139.

60

the water that none Of the exhibitions which we send
to England are purely and distinctly American. If
you will take the Wild West Show over there you can
remove that reproach.
Cody did ultimately take his show to Europe, where it proved
equally popular.
The most elaborate Of the Wild West shows, a huge

production Of The Drama of Civilization written, designed,

 

and staged by Steele MacKaye, was performed at Madison
Square Garden in 1887. Descriptions Of it (an especially
comprehensive one appears in William Bransmer's "The Wild
West Exhibition and the Drama Of Civilization"34) suggest an
unbelievably extravagant event. As might be expected, such
peaks are achieved only once, and Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Show, along with its many imitators, began a gradual decline.
The importance of the show, however, in the history of
pOpular culture and in the history of the cowboy in popular
culture, cannot be overestimated, as Russel Nye points out:

Brief as its history was, the Wild West show
exerted a powerful and lasting influence on the
American imagination. It embedded in the popular
cultural tradition, as nothing else did, the great,
romantic legend Of the American West. The Wild
West parade. . .was a picture indelibly impressed on
the memory of millions of Americans who saw it. And
at the head of the parade sat the man who personified
it all; Buffalo Bill, straight in the stirrups, with
flowing white hair, fringed buckskin jacket, and
broadbrimmed Stetson held aloft, his big white horse
prancing to the music, symbol Of a lost era.

 

33Se11 and Weybright, Buffalo 3111, 151.

 

34Mayer and Richards, Western Popular Theatre, 133-156.

 

35Nye, Unembarrassed Muse, 193.

 

61

Thus the cowboy hero, epitomized by such figures as
Buffalo Bill, established his place in all the major popular
culture forms of the nineteenth century. As the next chapter
will make clear, his appearance in the drama is heavily
patterned on the dime novel cowboy and the style presented by
Buffalo Bill, as well as on standard melodramatic hero

characteristics.

SUMMARY

Though a relatively new field for investigation,
popular culture studies have revealed a number of traits
found in all culture forms labelled "popular." The
important popular culture forms Of the nineteenth century
featuring cowboy heroes were the dime novel, the Wild West
Shows, and the standard melodrama. Common to all these
forms were the characteristics of being essentially urban,
concentrating on common men as heroes, celebrating middle—
class morality, and strictly following the conventions
developed for each form. By the end of the nineteenth
century, the importance Of the cowboy hero and his particular
characteristics were firmly established in the three popular
culture forms discussed here: the dime novel, the Wild West

Shows, and the melodrama.

CHAPTER III

THE COWBOY HERO IN SELECTED NINETEENTH—CENTURY
AMERICAN MELODRAMAS

With the American predilection for melodramas and
the fascination with the "real" characters Of the Wild West,
it is unsurprising that a large number of melodramas featur-
ing Western heroes appeared in the late nineteenth century.
The majority of these plays never received performance in
New York, but instead provided fodder for the nearly
insatiable traveling repertory companies. The scripts in
many cases were never copyrighted and many have been lost or
destroyed; those scripts which are still available are
widely scattered and difficult to locate——this is to be
expected since popular theatre literature is not usually
readily accessible. The melodramas forming the basis for
this paper fulfill the criteria Of popular theatre as
defined earlier in several other ways as well: (1) the
authors, with the exception of Clyde Fitch, are not particu-
larly well known and in the cases where any advertising
material accompanied the script, the author's name had no
significance in efforts to persuade producers to do the show;
(2) the writing style of the plays is clearly pedestrian and
varies little from script to script; (3) action and effects

are generally more important than words, though clever

62

63

passages do appear; (4) a substantial amount of action--fist
fights, gun fights, etc.-—occurs in each play; (5) sentiment
is a strong element; (6) the structures are essentially
alike; (7) all the scripts promote a high moral message; and
(8) all incorporate comic relief.

As mentioned earlier, melodramas usually have five
recurring character types: hero, heroine, villain, father
figure, and comic. This is true of the eleven plays examined
here.

The heroes in the eleven plays fit very closely into
the criteria established in previous sections; it is nearly
impossible to distinguish them from the dime novel cowboy
heroes or from traditional melodramatic heroes. All of the
heroes in these dramas are young-—in their twenties. All Of
them are good looking and virile (they also exhibit the
typical heroic ability to recover incredibly quickly from
wounds), and all are admired by men and women alike—-this
admiration Of the hero by men as well as women is typical Of

melodramatic heroes. The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot features

 

two heroes, and the tribute one pays to the other is typical:

You've got plenty sand, and the way you handle your—
self is a caution. Don't be scared 0' me; as Ole
Popeye used to say, 'a branded steer ain't never
goin' to run after a hot iron.' My name is Vinton,
Joe Vinton, but the boys call me Snapper. I kain't
be handled without a buckin' strap, and never could;
but that's nature; and was branded into me the first
time I saw daylight. I put up a good wrastle, but
it was slow compared with your'n. I liked you the
minute you began to strip, and that's why I'm yere

64

now-—I'm sorry I made a monkey of myself, an' I'd
like your name and your hand along with it.

With two exceptions, all the heroes wear traditional
cowboy garb. As mentioned earlier, the scripts do not con—
tain extensive character descriptions, but when they do, the
hero gets full cowboy regalia:

Steve Tuttle, a broncho buster, is a good looking,
smooth-shaven man about twenty-five years Of age.
Wears flannel shirt, with bandanna handkerchief
tied around the neck, the knot at back. Broad,
leather, fringed, saddle trousers, over his leather
boots. Spurs are fitted to his boots; corduroy
vest, cartridge belt, with holsters on either side
containing Colt revolvers, completes costume.
Clearly the author knew what real cowboys actually wore, and
he added the all-important firearms that the mythic cowboy
inevitably carried. All the heroes featured here know how
to use a gun and feel it gives them power:
The law? There's no law west Of the Pecos and

you know it. This is the only law. (TAPS GUN.)
And3if you want to try it out with me, let's

go.

All eleven plays include instances of the use of a
gun to threaten, wound, or kill. There is a savage streak
in many Of the heroes, and they either kill the villain or

condone someone else's doing so. Gun wounds are part Of the

 

1Franklyn Whitman, The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot
(Manuscript, Library Of Congress, 1902), 6-7.

 

2Anthoney E. Wills, Burley's Ranch (Chicago:
Dramatic Publishing Co., 1907), 3.

 

3Bob Feagin, The End of a Texas Trail (The Texan)
(Manuscript, Rosier Tenthhow Repertory COlIection, Michigan
State University Special Collections Library, n.d.), ll.

 

65

action in Burley's Ranch, The Cowboy and the Lady, The End Of

 

 

 

a Texas Trail, A Fight for Honor, The Girl from L Triangle

 

 

Ranch, and Rose Of the Range. Death from a gun shot occurs

 

in eight Of the plays: Burley's Ranch, The Cowboy and the

 

Lady, The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot, The End Of a Texas Trail,

 

 

 

A Fight for Honor, The Girl from L Triangle Ranch, Ranch 10,

 

and Rose of the Range. Knife attacks are also frequent,

 

appearing in five plays--Dad Carter, A Fight for Honor,

 

 

Ranch 10, Rose of the Range, and My Western Girl--with two

 

 

 

deaths resulting from such attacks--Ranch 10 and My Western

 

Girl.

 

Often the hero's use Of a gun is for the protection
Of the rights of women, whether they are Old or young, white
or ethnic, as is illustrated by this typical passage:
CLAXTON
By what right do you meddle with Mrs. Wesley's affairs?
LOGAN

By the right of American manhood, which is always ready
to rescue a lady from the insults Of a ruffian.

The heroes Of these plays are not tempted by "bad"
women, as is sometimes true in the dime novels. They all
seem to possess some sort Of natural ability to quickly
recognize the "good" woman who is meant for them. Sometimes
that woman does not immediately return the hero's love. If

that happens, and if the woman mistakenly believes herself

 

4Frank Dumont, The Girl from L Triangle Ranch
(Manuscript, UCLA Libraries, 1908), I6-l7.

 

66
in love with another, the hero stoically accepts the
situation, as long as the other man is white:
JIM
I've got a bit 0' bad news ter give you.
STEVE
(APPREHENSIVE.) Bad news? What is it, Boss?
JIM

You were right about Margie-—she's goin' ter be
married to another.

STEVE
Another?
JIM

(BROKENLY.) Yes—-she's engaged to the Lieutenant.
(PATTING HIM ON SHOULDER.) But there, my lad, don't
take on so. It's hard, I know--but what are we to
do? She's chosen fer herself--and there's no way of
undoin' it--that I kin see.

STEVE

Neither would I have it undone. I've loved Margie

since she was a little bit of a tot--so high--

(ILLUSTRATES.)—-and had hopes Of makin' her my own;

but now that it's all settled—~and she's lost ter me-—

I've got ter brace up and make the best 0' it, I

suppose. But I wouldn't want to mar her happiness;

no, no——I wouldn't want ter do that fer the world.

This nobility toward women is echoed in the heroes'

behavior toward all "good" people; the heroes of these plays
are eager to do what is righ . It is significant that these

melodramatic heroes—~just like their dime novel ancestors——

feel no doubt that they know what is right. In fact, they

 

5Wills, Burleyfs Ranch, 22.

67

Often seem fired with a kind of pristine righteousness, and,
in cases where they've been wrongfully accused of crime,
they are filled with faith that their innocence will be

proved, for such is God's justice:

 

Stop! For I swar in the name Of the man that made
them stars, there shall be nO fitting about me
while we are standing hyar with our feet in the
blood Of this dead indian. I surrender myself to
be tried by the laws Of God and man and if thar's
a warm spot in your souls an inch square, you'll
feel for the poor devil, who stands hyar accused
of this awful crime and Of which he swears in the
name of the Great Jehovah he is innocent.

Although most Of the language is rather stilted, the
hero's righteousness can lead him into eloquent outbursts:

Your Honor, I shall not attempt to stir your blood
with any ornamental rhetoric, nor wet your eyes with
any pathetic appeal. I wish to trust my life not to
your emotions, but to common sense. I am innocent,
and knowing that, I have been and am not now afraid
tO trust myself alone and otherwise undefended to
your unprejudiced judgment. I could have brought
famous lawyers from the East tO defend me, but I
didn't feel I needed them. Out here in the great
West it is truth we are looking for and we know it
when we see it. . . .It's the truth that I Offer in
my defense, and that I can do without help from
anyone.

None of the heroes drink. Many of them are loners,
with no noticeable ties to close relatives or material
possessions. Such is the case with each Of the following

heroes: Steve Tuttle in Burley's Ranch; Joe Vinton in

 

The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot; Tom Dawson in The End of a

 

 

6Harry Meredith, Ranch 10; or, Annie from Massachu—
setts (Chicago: Howard and DOer, 1882), 2T7

7Clyde Fitch, The Cowboy and the Lady (New York:
Samuel French, 19087] 106-107.

 

68

Texas Trail; Jim Radbourne in A Fight for Honor; Jack Lester

 

 

in Dad Carter; Harry Logan in The Girl from L Triangle Ranch;

 

 

and Dan Davis in Rose Of the Range. As mentioned earlier,

 

if the hero is close to anyone, it is probably to a male
companion. Teddy North has such a friend——Bill Ransom-—in

The Cowboy and the Lady; the double heroes of The Cowbqy and

 

 

the Tenderfoot quickly become fast friends; in The End of a

 

 

Texas Trail, the hero, Tom Dawson, is accompanied everywhere

 

by a mute Mexican named Pinto; the double heroes of Ranch 10,
Al and Tom McClelland, both treasure the friendship and
loyalty Of a local doctor, Theopholis Robbins; and Dan Davis,

the hero in Rose of the Range, is best pals with his sure-

 

shot partner, Sleepy Peters.
Although most Of these heroes are cowboys (in My

Western Girl, the hero is an army Officer who works in the

 

West; in The Girl from L Triangle Ranch, the hero is the

 

newly elected sheriff), and there are cowboy characters in
all the plays, there are only passing references to the
duties entailed in such a career. Just as in the dime novels,
the hero's work duties have little, if any, place in the
action of the play. The play which makes the most reference

to the hero's work responsibilities is Rose Of the Range.

 

The hero of that play, Dan Davis, pretends to be a "cow-
doctor," which is a rather modern concept, and he understands
the necessity for fencing and controlling the breeding of
stock, all of which suggests that the playwright knew some-
thing about actual cowboy duties late in the century, and was

not entirely dependent on the myth.

69

The heroes are all honest, chaste, filled with filial
piety, and highly moral. They are also all racists, which
is emphasized by the ethnic backgrounds Of the villains they
confront. In the plays examined, the majority of the
villains belong to one ethnic group or another. The most
frequently appearing type is the Mexican, who is usually
called a "greaser" and is portrayed as truly despicable. The
following passages are typical Of the racism expressed in
the plays: (1) in reference to a Mexican: "1 don't give a
hoot if he can trace his lineage back to the apple tree in
the garden Of Eden. His skin is tOO dark for him to get any
ideas about a daughter of mine."8 (2) After being addressed
as a "worthless nigger" by a Mexican: "That's all right
about the nigger part Of it. I'd rather be a real nigger than
a half breed Mexican greaser trying to pass himself Off as a

white man."9

(3) ”CLAXTON: Can you trust that Indian?
WESLEY: Sure! If he and his redskins are shot down, it will
be a small loss to the community."10 Mexican villains show
up in eight Of the plays: Jose Rotaro in Burley's Ranch; a

band Of Mexican ruffians hired by the white villain in

The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot; Sanchez in The End Of a Texas

 

 

8Bob Feagin, Rose of the Range (Manuscript, Rosier
Tent Show Repertory Collection, MiChigan State University
Special Collections Library, n.d.), 2.

9C.A. Phillips, Dad Carter (Manuscript, Rosier Tent
Show Repertory Collection, MiEhigan State University Special
Collections Library, n.d.), 18.

10

 

 

Dumont, L Triangle Ranch, 26.

 

7O

Trail; Manuel Gonzaga in A Fight for Honor; Texas Burns in

 

Dad Carter; Miguel Mendoza in My Western Girl; Nathalie (a

 

 

villainness) in The Girl from L Triangle Ranch; and Don

 

Esteban in Rose of the Range.

 

Indian villains figure in two Of the plays: Roaming

Bear and Black Eagle in Burley's Ranch and Quick Foot Jim

 

in The Cowboy and the Lady. A Portuguese villain appears in

 

one play: Joseph ”Red Bullet" Kebook in Ranch 10; and in
four plays white men are villains: McClinchy in Burley's

Ranch; Ezekial and his son Stephan Arnold in The Cowboy and

 

the Tenderfoot; Mad Dog Ginsey in The End of a Texas Trail;

 

 

and Harvey Wesley and Tom Claxton in The Girl from L Triangle

 

Ranch.

 

Not all the ethnics who appear in the plays are
villainous. Good Mexicans appear in three plays: Pinto, the

hero's sidekick in The End Of a Texas Trail; La Chuza, a

 

duenna in My Western Girl; and Pedro and Chiquita, servants

 

in Rose of the Range. Even where good Mexicans appear,

 

however, there is a clear element Of racism present:
ROSE
Well, I've got to give you credit. You are the only
one I ever saw that could make those Mex's move
faster than a walk.

DAN

They're lazy devils. They would lay down on the job
completely if I didn't keep after them.1

11Feagin, Rose of the Range, 24.

 

71

Good Indians show up in four plays: Wakita in

Burley's Ranch; Pepita in The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot;

 

 

Silver Bud in Ranch 10; and Starlight in Dad Carter. All Of

 

them are female, none are comic, and in Burley's Ranch, The

 

Cowboy and the Tenderfoot, and Ranch 10, they are in love

 

with the hero.

One play, Burley's Ranch, features a Chinese charac—

 

ter, So Long, a comic male. Three plays include Irish

characters: Mrs. Wheeler in The End Of a Texas Trail; Widow

 

O'Kelly in A Fight for Honor; and Neeley Barrett in Ranch 10.

 

Three plays have blacks in the cast, all males and all comic:

Skunkton Peters in Dad Carter; Eclipse in The Girl from L

 

 

Triangle Ranch; and FOOdle in The Ranch Girl.

 

 

This analysis clearly indicates that these eleven
plays do not deviate from standard practices for the treat-
ment of ethnics followed in the composition Of late nineteenth-
century melodramas. It is unfortunate that such treatment
created (and perpetuated) racism as an intrinsic part of the

cowboy myth.

THE PLAYS

 

In the remainder of this chapter, the eleven plays
are treated at length. Plot summaries are included (1) to
allow the reader at least a superficial acquaintance with the
action of the plays; (2) to illustrate the familiar melo-
dramatic story lines used in the plays; and (3) to permit
reference to the play's action in the commentary following

each summary.

72

The plays are grouped for discussion when they have
sufficient similarities. Commentary on each play discusses
its fulfillment of the criteria established and the possible
staging techniques used.

The chart on the next page depicts the most fre-
quently appearing characteristics of the plays and indicates

which plays possess them.

73

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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r114
Traditional ,
cowboy garb X X X X X X X X X
Use of a gun X X X X X X X X X X X
Death from a
gun shot X X X X X X X X
Knife attacks X X X X X
Death by knife
attack X X
Few ties to relatives
or possessions X X X X X X X
Close male companion X X X X X
Mexican villain X X X X X X X X
Indian villain X X
White villain X X X X
Good Mexicans X X X
Good Indians X X X X
Irish character X X X
Black character X X X
Father figure X X X X X X
Older woman X X X X X
Hero from East X X X X
Secondary love story X X X X X X X X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

74

BURLEY'S RANCH

 

Of the eleven plays, Burleyfs Ranch is most like a

 

dime novel. At the same time, it has a twentieth-century
flavor--the Indian attack on the ranch and the lengthy
siege which ends with the arrival Of the cavalry are

familiar features Of film Westerns.

BURLEY'S RANCH

 

by Anthoney E. Wills

Major Characters:

 

Jim Burley (father Of heroine)

Steve Tuttle (hero, cowboy)

General Blanchard (Commander of Fort Macon)
Lieutenant Robert Thurston (stationed at Fort Macon)
Willie Warren (comic character, juvenile)
McClinchy (villainous character)

So Long (comic character, Chinese)

Jose Rotaro (villainous character, Mexican)
Roaming Bear (villain, Chief Of Ute tribe)
Black Eagle (villain, son of Roaming Bear)
Margaret Burley (heroine)

Mira Wiggs (soubrette)

Wakita (daughter of Roaming Bear)

Uriah Burley (comic character, mother Of heroine)

75

Settings:

Act 1: Interior Of Burley Ranch House
Act II: Same
Act III: Same

Plot:

 

Act I. Jim Burley wants his daughter Margie, the

apple Of his eye, to marry his ranch foreman, Steve Tuttle:
I can't ferget what a help the lad's been ter me all
these years. I never had a better foreman and we've
made more money on the ranch since he's taken hold 0'
things-—with his new ideas and all that--than ever
before. He's done right by me and I intend ter be
squar' with him. (WITH FEELING.) He loves yer, gal-—
as you must a seen afore this. He'll make you a good
husband and it'll be a happy day fer your maw and me
when the Parson announces——the ceremony's over.

Margie is in love with a Lieutenant from a nearby fort,

however.

Burley has been trying to mediate between other
ranchers, including the villainous McClinchy and Rotaro, and
the Indians, in a boundary dispute. Wakita, daughter Of
Roaming Bear, Chief Of the Indian tribe, is friends with the
Burleys and warns them about McClinchy and Rotaro's plan to
kill Burley.

A contingent arrives from the fort (along with a
comical young reporter, Willie Warren) to meet with the
ranchers and the Indians. Along with them is Margie's

Lieutenant, Robert Thurston. Steve tells Margie that he's

always loved her, but he manfully gives her up. Thurston

 

12Wills, Burley's Ranch, 11.

 

76

abuses Steve, however, and is revealed as a bit Of a cad.

Act II. Thurston is discovered tearing up an
incriminating letter. Distressing word arrives that Indians
are assembling in large numbers.

Wakita gives Margie the scraps Of Thurston's letter,
which reveal that he already has a wife. Margie breaks their
engagement.

The conference between the ranchers, soldiers, and
Indians takes place, but no peaceful settlement can be
reached—-the Indians will fight for the land taken from them
by McClinchy and Rotaro.

Rotaro tries to leave but is shot and Wakita arrives
with news that the Indians are about to attack. When the
General calls for a volunteer to ride to the fort for help,
Thurston cravenly refuses and accuses the General of being
too cowardly to go either. Steve volunteers and Margie notes
his bravery.

Act III. A week Of siege has passed and provisions
are running low. Margie realizes how she's wronged Steve.
Willie Warren and Mira Wiggs spoon.

Roaming Bear comes to parley with the ranchers; he
wants them to unconditionally surrender but they refuse, of
course. He berates his daughter Wakita for befriending the
white man and tells them not to hope for help from Steve——
Black Eagle (Roaming Bear's son) shot him before he could

even leave the ranch.

77

Just then, a bugle is heard in the distance and it's
clear that help is on the way——in the form Of the cavalry.
When Steve arrives, he explains that he was only stunned
by Black Eagle's shot; the soldiers rout the Indians, and
Margie and Steve declare their love for each other.

AAAAAAAA

Burley's Ranch is clearly Of the nineteenth-century

 

melodrama genre in several ways: (1) it features a father
figure, one Of the five recurring character types of the
melodrama; (2) it features a comic love affair which mirrors
the more serious one between the hero and heroine; and (3) it
contains other comic relief scenes featuring the comic
juvenile, the Chinese servant, and the heroine's mother.

The appearance of the heroine's mother is unusual since, as
noted earlier, the heroines usually seem to have only a male
parent or father—figure. Even here she appears as a minor
character with no major part in the action.

This play Offers the most detailed descriptions Of
characters, costumes, settings, and lighting and sound
effects, along with specifications for the use Of dialect.
These features, plus the inclusion of detailed blocking
instructions, may indicate that this play was fairly widely
known and produced--at any rate, well enough known to be
published in a standard script (as Opposed to scenario)
form.

As is typical of many nineteenth—century melodramas,

this play incorporates some "modern" elements, specifically a

78

telegraph and a camera. Although neither is critical to the
resolution Of the action (as is the camera in Dion Bouci-
cault's Octoroon), they both add to the excitement. Use Of
the camera provides many Of the comic moments, as most Of the
characters do not know what a camera is and are startled when
the comic juvenile (owner of the camera) says he wants to

"shoot" them.

THE COWBOY AND THE TENDERFOOT

 

THE RANCH GIRL

 

The next two plays, The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot and

 

The Ranch Girl, have several common features: (1) each has

 

two heroes, one of whom is a Westerner and the other an
Easterner; (2) both have heroines from the East; (3) both have
a secondary love plot; (4) both have a scene set at a rail—
road station; and (5) in both, one of the heroes is an
Easterner who has moved out West to become a better man. The
idea of the West as a crucible in which a man may test his
worth appears in several Of the plays. In The Cowboy and the

Tenderfoot, the hero who has come West to test his mettle is

 

a better man almost as soon as he gets Off the train. In the
first act of the play, he asserts his goals:

Nevertheless, I'm going to strike it, and I'm going

to strike it hard. I've lived a mighty easy life so
far, but I suppose I couldn't appreciate it, and not
long ago Dad called me into his Office, and looking

at me sternly said, 'Young man, 25 years ago today,
you were brought into the world. Up to the present
day you have done nothing. As this is the beginning
of what we may term your fiscal year, it might not be
a bad idea to take stock Of your qualifications. What
are they?' I said, 'Well, I am an active member of

79

the N.Y. Athletic Club, I'm able to box and fence and
pull a tolerable oar. Rather good at football, but a
rank amateur at polo and golf. A number one horseman
and a crack shot—-add to these a little general informa—
tion gained at college and the brilliant inventory is
made complete.‘ He said, 'What kind Of a structure can
be reared on such a foundation?‘ I said, 'That's a
poser, Father.‘ Then he said, 'I am going to see if
there is any Hunter blood in you; I'm going to put you
thro' a course Of heroic treatment. Away out in
Arizona there is a gold mine. I understand that it has
done what a great many other gold mines exploited in
the East have failed to do, and that is, produce gold.
I have been credibly informed that $5000 will put the
property in good condition and place it on a paying
basis. The name of the mine is The Blue Devil. Here,
my boy, is a deed to the property and a certified

check for $5000. Now, then, let's see what's in you!’
That's what I came to Arizona for, Snapper, and I'm
going to pull success out of these mountains if it
costs my--well, I won't cast any bluffs, but I mean
business.

THE COWBOY AND THE TENDERFOOT

 

by Franklyn Whitman

Major Characters:

 

Joe "Snapper" Vinton (second hero, cowboy)
Randolph "Purty" Hunter (hero, tenderfoot)
Ezekial Arnold (villain)

Stephen Arnold (villain)

Bob Galloway (comic character)

Bess Chester (heroine)

Kate Vinton (Vinton's former wife)

Pepita (Indian, companion to Bess Chester)

 

13Whitman, Cowboy and the Tenderfoot, 11.

 

80

Settings:

Act 1: Railway Station, Phoenix, Arizona

Act II: Shaft of the Blue Devil Mine

Act III: The Chester Home, Near the Blue Devil
Act IV: Cave Creek Canyon

Plot:

 

Act I: Randolph "Purty" Hunter, the Tenderfoot Of
the title and a graduate Of Yale, arrives in Eastern garb at
the railway station. Because of his apparel, he is teased by
Joe "Snapper" Vinton, the Cowboy of the title. Purty shows
that he is no lightweight and defeats Snapper in a fist fight,
thus earning Vinton's respect. The two become fast friends.
We also meet Bob Galloway, a traveling salesman who provides
comic relief.

Purty reveals that his father has sent him West to
make a success of the Blue Devil Mine as a sort of test Of
his manhood. The former owner of the mine was a man named
Chester, who is now dead. His daughter Bess is in Phoenix,
and is supposedly engaged to Stephen Arnold.

Arnold and his father trick Purty (a letter from his
father leads Hunter to trust the Arnolds) and sell him a
number Of worthless mines, taking all the money he'd brought
with him to get the Blue Devil Operational. Purty and his
new pal Snapper go Off to the Blue Devil to do what they can.

Act II. Bess Chester and her Indian companion
Pepita arrive at the Blue Devil. Bess never got the money

for the sale of the mine and thinks she still owns it. They

81

meet Snapper, who used to work on the Chester ranch (as a
cowboy) and who once saved Pepita from drowning. Purty is
quite impressed with Bess and lets her think she's still the
owner Of the Blue Devil while he tries to trace the check
his father had given to Bess's father for the mine.

The Arnolds arrive and Purty swears them to secrecy
about the true ownership of the Blue Devil. He also refuses
to sell back the phony mines. (His attitude is that Of
"I'll have to take my medicine.") Bess and Stephen Arnold
quarrel, so Purty thinks perhaps he'll have a chance for her
hand. He romantically burns the Blue Devil deed, so that
the mine is indeed once again Bess's property.

Act III. Snapper reveals that he was married once,
but his wife was tempted away from him by another man. He
still seeks her and the man.

The Arnolds Offer Bess a loan to work the mine.

When Purty refuses to shake Stephen's hand, Bess angrily
banishes him.

At this point, a stage coach arrives, bearing an ill
woman who can travel no further. She turns out to be Kate
Vinton, Snapper's wife, who is dying Of tuberculosis and is
trying to find Snapper to beg his forgiveness before she
dies. When Stephen Arnold hears who the woman is, he leaves
hurriedly; it's clear that he's the man who took her away so
many years before.

Snapper wants Kate to reveal who the other man was

before he'll forgive her; she's reluctant. However, Snapper

82

figures out the truth from papers and letters in her satchel;
he forgives her and she dies in his arms. Snapper then goes
Off after Arnold to get his revenge, but only after a fight
with Purty, who tries to hold him back. Snapper bitterly
attacks Purty:
Curse you and your false hearted friendship. If you
stood in my place and I in your'n, I'd have throttled
the cur--I'm done with you, do you yere--By the Lord,
I'm jest beginnin' tO find you out. . . .(KNEELING BY
KATE'S BODY.) Sleep, sweetheart!. . .I never prayed
in my life before, but I'm goin' to pray now; an' I
ask you, Almighty Gawd, to give me the life Of the
hound who brought her low, an' do with my soul--damn
it, kill it--whatever You will. Only give him to
me—-tO me.14
This passage is typically illustrative Of the cowboy hero's
assumption that he knows what is "right," and that he must
assume the task of meting out justice to villains.

Act IV. Purty is recovering from injuries incurred
when he was attacked by Ezekial Arnold's "Greasers" (Mexican
hired hands). Galloway tells Purty that the Arnolds have
discovered that the real vein Of gold lies not in the Blue
Devil Mine but in one Of the "worthless" mines they had sold
to Purty.

Ezekial Arnold comes to try to buy back the mines
(with no intention Of letting Purty know the truth about the
vein of gold, Of course). He tries to threaten Purty
through Bess Chester's position. However, Purty now has

evidence that Arnold falsely endorsed Bess's check for the

sale of the mine.

 

14Ibid., 18.

83

After Arnold leaves, Bess arrives. After a quarrel,
the truth is revealed, and Bess and Purty declare their love
for each other.

Snapper enters and asks forgiveness from Purty for
the rough treatment he gave him. He still wants to kill
Arnold, however; Pepita also wants him to do so. It becomes
clear that Pepita and Snapper are sweet on each other and
will end up together at the end of the play.

After much action and the entrapment Of a number of
Mexican villains, Stephen Arnold appears and Snapper kills
him (with Pepita's rifle). A special effect is called for
here, as Arnold is supposed to tumble down a waterfall and
end up dead at Snapper's feet-—sweet revenge. The final
tableau reveals Snapper with Pepita and Bess with Purty.

‘k‘k****‘k*

The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot requires the most

 

complicated technical effect Of any Of the eleven plays.
References to sound effects, suggested costumes, and
suggested blocking are relatively general, but the printer
has included quite a bit of information about the necessary
creek, although that description is still sketchy. In the
Act IV preface we read the following: "Cave Creek Canyon by
moonlight. Real water. Creek at back Of padded run,——tank

15

of water. Plank thrown across at center in back." Since

apparently even the printer recognized how vague this is, a

 

151bid., l8.

 

84

hand-printed note has been inked in: ”See author for
further description of water effects. Very simple."16 We
get a better idea Of the construction when we reach the
climactic moment:

[Arnold] turns, runs across plank, turning throwing

plank into water. Runs up trail, appears on Rock.

Snapper runs up on bank; Pepita hands hims a

Winchester. Snapper pulls up Winchester-—shoots--

a blinding flash of lightning——a dummy figure falls

from rock into creek and is washed down to tank at

Snapper's feet. In the meantime Steve has come

around to side of tank and gets in position to

appear. Snapper reaches over, pulls him up and

drags him by collar, head first, down to center.

Steve hangs limp as though dead.17

This script is a particularly rough copy with a
number of errors which have been corrected by hand some time
after printing. A major error is the mislabeling of the
heroine. For large sections of the original script, she is
called "Lil" rather than "Kate." How this error occurred can
only be surmised; perhaps some sections were lifted nearly
intact from another acript, where the heroine's name was Lil.
A final interesting note about this play is that one

of the heroes falls in love with an Indian girl. It is
highly unusual for a hero to have more than a passing interest
in non-white heroines. In this case, there may be two miti-
gating circumstances: (1) the hero in question is the lesser
of the two heroes in the play--the more important hero does
end up with a white girl; and (2) this will be the second

marriage for the hero, and his first wife (who dies during

the play) £3 white.

 

16 17

Ibid. 18. Ibid., 24.

 

 

85

THE RANCH GIRL

 

by George L. Raymond

Major Characters:

 

Harry Merriman (hero, Easterner)
Layton Lorn (hero, rancher)
Thomas Gall (Alice and Betsy's uncle)
Foodle (comic character, black)
Winnie Lorn (heroine)
Alice Alwell (heroine)
Betsy Blinder
Settings:
Act 1: Near Railway Station, Southwestern Texas
Act II: Interior of Layton Lorn's Ranch House
Act III: Same as Act II
Act IV: Same as Act I

Plot:

 

Act I. Alice Alwell and Betsy Blinder arrive to
visit their Uncle Thomas Gall. Harry Merriman, a young and
somewhat unserious fellow engaged to Betsy, has tagged along.

Layton Lorn and his sister, Winnie, appear. Winnie
is visiting Layton's ranch to recover from after—effects Of
measles; she wears a veil to protect her still-sensitive
eyes.

Betsy and Harry meet Layton and Winnie and mistakenly
believe that Winnie is Layton's wife. Harry and Winnie

immediately like each other and engage in some rather

86

sparkling dialogue as he tries to get her to lift her veil
and show her face. This is unusually good dialogue:
HARRY

I wonder if I have seen you. You have an advantage-—
that veil--

WINNIE

I think it was on the first base.
HARRY

You are right. You saw me?
WINNIE

And heard you.
HARRY

Humph! Somebody must have done well! If I yelled so
loud that you heard me?

WINNIE
Why, yes, if I heard the club.
HARRY
The club!——That is good—-when it made a hit at the ball.
WINNIE
It was not at the ball that I heard it sing.
HARRY
But how could a ball-club sing except-—
WINNIE
But I mean the glee club.
HARRY
First bass on the glee club! Humph! Humph! The only
bass bawling of mine was on the bass—ball-nine. There
was a Merryman, though, on the glee club, but he was

much darker than I. If you lifted your veil, you
might see it.

87

WINNIE

Have no curiosity, thank you. I heard you, perhaps
at commencement.

HARRY

Still wrong! None heard me speak there. Not a man of

such standing, you see; but of understanding, looked

out for my bass, apg the ball at my feet put my whole

p213 into my work.

After Harry and Betsy tell Alice that they think
Layton and Winnie are man and wife, she despondently reveals
that her only reason for coming West was to try to see
Layton. She and Layton had been in love, but were separated
by their parents because Layton did not seem serious about
his future. Layton went West to prove himself. Alice is
devastated to think he's married, for she had hoped. . . .
Act II. At his ranch, Layton and Winnie chat and it

becomes clear that Winnie is enjoying the West. News arrives
Of a raid by a Mexican band Of thieves; Layton must go after
them and leave Winnie pretty much alone. After he leaves,
Harry shows up and Layton's cowhands plan to hang him since
they think he's a thief and End! he's a dude. Winnie saves
him by talking the hands into putting him into women's
clothes. (They get his clothes——their major goal.) Harry
suspects who Winnie must be, but he goes along with the gag
and there is much comic business arising from Winnie treating

Harry as a female servant. Harry's presence comes in handy—-

he keeps the ranchmen from getting into the booze supply.

 

18George L. Raymond, The Ranch Girl (Manuscript,
Library Of Congress, 1901), 15-17.

 

88

Act III. Betsy, Alice, and their uncle Gall arrive
in a rain storm. In the succeeding conversation, Betsy
bitchily reveals that she's only interested in Harry because
he's a good catch (wealthy). She's extremely rude to Harry
(still in his female servant disguise). When he's had
enough, he reveals his true identity.

Act IV. Betsy, Alice, and Harry are all getting
ready to leave for the East. The engagement between Betsy
and Harry is definitely Off. Winnie appears to say goodbye to
Harry; it is Obvious that they are well on the way to
matrimony.

Betsy's uncle tries to make her see her shallowness.
Since he is something of a misogynist, this is an unusually
strong passage, and it reveals how "good" women ddghp to
behave, according to acceptable modes.

GALL
There are some society women; and you are one of them,
Betsy, who in character Often seem just what they are
in appearance. Three fourths of their substance is
dress; and all Of the soft sleek satin and silk is on
the outside.

BETSY
And what on the inside, pray?

GALL
Well, very extensively, pins.

BETSY
You are cruel.

GALL

A cry is much better than never washing the rouge Off.

89

BETSY
And barbarous!
GALL

Wish I could make your soul as clean as a barber can
make my face!

BETSY
You know I have always been good and religious.
GALL

And so were those who stabbed and killed the martyrs
of old. They were all of them very religious. But
not even their daggers could wound like the sting of

a woman's tongue. For that can kill the soul. If
ever you marry, Betsy, your husband's hand may be hard;
and his face have a beard like a bear's but, simply
because he is human, his heart may be soft as a babe's;
and the one needs a woman's love as much as ever the
other. He would never have asked for this love had he
failed to need it, Betsy. Most young men, too,
imagine that the woman they love is an angel. She is
not, of course; but they think so. And if, when you
get then married, and they come to you for rest, with
as holy a feeling as if they were coming to heaven
itself,—-if then, you sting, merely sting them, the
devil himself could not match your driving them down
to hell; and when you have driven them there, your
prayers, your meetings, your psalm—tunes, your beads,
your Bibles, your prayer-books, your charities, and
your virtues can never conjure one charm to keep the
devil away from them or from you.

BETSY
You are losing your self-control.
GALL

Are you frightened?-—I wish I could frighten the devil
that lives inside of you, out of you. I have just had
a note here, Betsy, and all of your friends, at home,

are talking about this match as the one bright hope of
your life. I know what has broken it now; and I mean

you shall learn a lesson.1

 

191b1d., 61—62.

 

9O

Layton and Alice enter; Alice has discovered
Layton and Winnie's true relationship and so she and Layton
have sworn their love to each other once again. Layton
feels that now their future is happy; he has proven his
worth and manliness and nothing should prevent his marriage
to Alice.
********

The Ranch Girl is the only one of the plays to be

 

written in verse, and does include a few songs. However,
the author has attempted to make those musical interludes
somewhat realistic by having them performed by an itinerant
group of musicians who arrive on the same train as several
of the major characters.

As noted above, The Ranch Girl contains some of the

 

best dialogue, displaying considerably more wit and style
than the other plays. Another in which this play differs is
that it does not have a villain who appears in the action;
however, there are several references to off-stage villains.

This script provides brief character and costume
descriptions and some general blocking notes, plus a fairly
detailed description of the interior in which Acts II and
III take place.

One of the heroes in this play spends nearly two
full acts attired in a woman's dress. Although such a
"disguise" allows him to discover the truth about his
fiancee, it is a highly unusual occurrence. It is probably

significant that it is the Eastern hero who dons women's

91

apparel; the manly cowboy hero would hardly compromise his

masculinity in such a fashion.

THE END OF A TEXAS TRAIL

 

A FIGHT FOR HONOR

 

In the next two plays, The End of a Texas Trail and

 

A Fight for Honor, two major similarities pertain to female

 

characters. Both feature as heroine an ex-Easterner who has
come West to try to make a go of running a ranch. Neither
heroine's parents are alive, but both have a parent figure
in the play. As discussed earlier, such a figure is usually
male, but in these two plays, that figure is female. Both
of these older women are feisty, frank, and plump.

Other similarities include (1) the presence of a

second love story--and in A Fight for Honor there are actually

 

three love plots, two of them comic (the older woman mentioned
above is involved in one of the plots); and (2) problems
caused by the use of liquor on the part of secondary

characters.

THE END OF A TEXAS TRAIL

 

by Bob Feagin
Sflajor Characters:
Tom Dawson (hero, cowboy and Texas Ranger)
Skippy (comic character)
Pinto (mute, Mexican, hero's companion)

Mad Dog Ginsey (villain)

92

Sanchez (villain, Mexican)
Marion Moore (heroine)
Molly (soubrette)

Mrs. Wheeler (comic character, Irish)

Settings:
Act I: Exterior of the Moore Homestead in the
Pecos County in West Texas
Act 11: Same

Act III: Same

Plot:

 

Act 1. Marion Moore is trying to make a go of her
ranch with the help of Molly, Mrs. Wheeler, and Skippy. A
band of villains are trying to drive everybody off the land
and they murdered Marion's father (a homesteader) before the
action of the play begins.

Skippy and Molly provide a comic love interest. Much
of their dialogue centers around food--there's been no money,
so they've all had to eat great quantities of beans and
nothing else. Molly is particularly sick of them.

Sanchez arrives and tries to kiss Marion against her
twill. He is stopped by Tom Dawson, who propitiously arrives
‘vith his mute companion, Pinto. Skippy explains Marion's
situation to Tom.

Marion is further threatened by Mad Dog Ginsey (the
\Jillanous sheriff) and again Tom intervenes. The following
[Dassage reveals the typical righteousness of the cowboy hero

find his unfailing regard for the rights of good women:

93

TOM

Then look up there on the mesa, right there at that
clump of purple sage. Do you see anything?

GINSEY

Not a thing-—Wait a minute. I saw the sun flash on
something.

TOM

You saw the sun flash on the barrell of a 30-30 rifle.
That rifle has got a bean on the back of your neck.

GINSEY
Oh, like that, eh?
TOM

Like that. Now go back and tell your gang of killers
that they aren't just frightening a girl anymore here.
They're up against someone that can shoot as fast and
as straight as they can.

GINSEY
What's your game here?
TOM

Just interested in seeing fair play, that's all. This
girl's Dad filed on this homestead legal.

GINSEY

This here's cow country. No cussed nesters are gonna
come in here and ruin this range by farming it.

TOM

You mean the Government has let you run cattle free
here so long that you think you own this range. Well,
you don't. This is still Government land, and this
section has been filed on.

GINSEY

This section won't stay filed on. If you're smart
you'll pull your freight right now. If this place ain't
clear by Monday we'll burn it clear. (ENTER MARION
FROM HOUSE.) There you are young lady. You needn't

94

think that hiring a couple of gunmen is going to save
you. I can bring ten to your one.

MARION
What do you mean? I have hired no gunman.
TOM

Oh, yes you have, Miss. Me and Pinto are on your pay
roll.

GINSEY

You better take my advice and fan the breeze outer
here. I ain't gonna waste time warning you again.

TOM

You don't scare me at all, Ginsey. I've faced worse
men than you and I'm still here.

GINSEY

You're pretty brave when you've got a man covering me
with a rifle.

TOM

I don't think I need any help in dealing with you. I
think you're a tin—horn just throwing a bluff.

GINSEY

Why, dam you——(STARTS FOR GUN. REMEMBERS. FLINCHES.
RUBS THE BACK OF HIS NECK.) O.K. You win this pot,
but the game is just starting. You ain't the only one
that can get killers to do their work. I'll be seeing
you.

TOM
I'll be looking for you. (GINSEY EXITS.)
MARION

What on earth did you do to him? That's the first
time anyone ever backed him down.

95

TOM
I just showed him my ace in the hole, that's all.20

Act II. Tom has given Marion and the others money
for "real" food (no beans) and he has been out searching for
Marion's widely scattered cattle. He plans to build fences
to contain them.

Tom explains to Marion how his own father had been a
homesteader twenty years earlier. One night, his father
disappeared with a man; later he was found dead, shot in the
back. Tom has been searching for the killer ever since; he
heard the man's voice and thinks he'll be able to recognize
it if he hears it again.

In a comic sequence, Skippy is chased out of the
house after knocking over all the supper fixings. Then he
knocks Molly's lemon meringue pie into the well. She sends
him down the rope after it. Sanchez interrupts and ends up
with the pie in his face, courtesy of Skippy, and a bang on
the head from a lead pipe, courtesy of Molly.

Act III. Although it is the deadline day for Marion
to leave her ranch or be burnt out, Tom and Marion have gone
off riding. While they're gone, Sanchez and Ginsey arrive
to threaten Tom. We find out that Tom is a Texas Ranger.
When Tom and Marion return, life looks fairly rosy—-it's
Tom's job to break up gangs like Ginsey's. However, there

is a dark lining to such a silver cloud; though Tom and

 

20Feagin, End of a Texas Trail, 11-12.

96

Marion profess love for each other, they know that Tom must
continue his search for his father's killer. Tom notes
that there is something vaguely familiar about Ginsey. It
can be observed that this passage seems very familiar, for
passages like it abound in nineteenth—century melodrama.
MARION

Oh, Tom, it all seems like a dream. To think that

all my troubles are over and this place will be mine,

mine to build into a home, free from trouble.

TOM

You won't be free from trouble until we are rid of
Ginsey.

MARION

Oh, Tom, I'm afraid for you to meet that man. He's
a killer and they say he's as fast as lightening
with a gun.

TOM

Don't let that worry you. I've done nothing but
practice with a six-gun ever since the day I found
my father lying in the trail. I'm faster than
Ginsey, because he's afraid.

MARION
Afraid?

TOM
Yes, afraid, By this time he knows who I am. He
knows that, in line of duty I've downed dozens like
him. That fear will ride his hand when he goes for
his gun.

MARION
But I'm afraid for you. Maybe he won't come back.

TOM

Oh yes, he's got to come for me. Everyone knows that
I backed him down. He'll be laughed out of the country

97

if he don't face me. But even if he didn't come, I'd
go looking for him.

MARION

But why?
TOM

It's my job. That's what the Governor has hired me

to do, to stamp out men lke him so that this country
will be a good place for people like you to settle.
Texas needs new blood. Besides I owe it to my father's
memory. A man like Ginsey shot my father in the back—-
gave him no more chance than a mad dog. Mad dog-—
Ginsey-—I wonder?

MARION

You wonder what, Tom?
TOM

This Ginsey, has he always lived here?
MARION

I don't know; I haven't been here long myself, you
know. Why do you ask?

TOM
There is something hauntingly familiar about Ginsey,
and I don't place what it is. I wonder if he could
be--but no, that's too fantastic.

Later, Ginsey arrives with a threat——"Get out of town
txy'sundown"-—and pulls out a watch to punctuate the threat;
Trcnn recognizes it as his father's watch. In the ensuing
scnaffle, Ginsey tries to shoot Tom in the back, but a shot
from off-stage (Pinto) knocks the gun out of his hand. In

trilez manly sportsmanship, Tom gives Ginsey a half—mile start

and then goes after him.

‘

211b1d., 27—28.

98

While Tom is gone, Sanchez returns and in a comic

sequence forces Skippy to drink tequila with him. The tequila

gives Skippy enough courage to bop Sanchez over the head,

impressing Molly mightily.
Tom returns with the news that Ginsey is dead, and he

goesiJIto propose to Marion. Skippy and Molly go to the

bench as Skippy also prepares to propose, but once again he

gets in trouble when he sits down in Molly's precious lemon

meringue pie.

AAAAAAAA
The script of The End of a Texas Trail offers only

general blocking suggestions and a few technical effects
The author does, however, Offer quite a

(very limited).
the lead pipe and

thorough description of two pivotal props:

the lemon meringue pie. The business incorporating the pie

is broad slapstick.
The End of a Texas Trail employs a revenge theme, as

rnelodrama so frequently does. And there are also some

iiiteresting similarities to "The Lone Ranger." The hero of

'tlie play is a Texas Ranger as well as possessing cowboy
Slcills, and he is accompanied by a mute ethnic companion

(111 this case Mexican rather than Indian) who proves as

lob’al and stalwart as Tonto.

99
A FIGHT FOR HONOR

by Miron Leffingwell

Major Characters:
Jim Radbourne (hero, cowboy)
George Gordon (hero's half-brother)
Byron Turner (comic character)
Manuel Gonzaga (villain, Mexican)
Widow O'Kelly (comic character, Irish)
Miggles (soubrette)
Marian Converse (heroine)

Settings:
Act I: Yard of the Converse Ranch
Act 11: Interior of the Converse Ranch
Act III: Same as Act II

Act IV: Same as Act I

Plot:

 

Act I. At the Converse Ranch, everyone is waiting
.for the arrival of Marian Converse with the foreman, Jim

ILadbourne. Marian's father had been very wealthy and then

lxost everything in a crash; however, he had deeded the

reinch to Marian before then and now she is coming West to try

CC) make a go of the ranch. Waiting for Marian's arrival are

Mrs. O'Kelly, the housekeeper; Jim's ward, Miggles; Jim's
Weak half—brother, George Gordon; an itinerant who speaks

111 :rhymes, Byron Turner; and a Mexican hand, Manuel Gonzaga,

Who often leads George astray.

100

George buys a ring from Gonzaga which he gives to
Migglesixlorder to make up their most recent spat. (They
care for each other, but bicker constantly.)

When Jim and Marian arrive, they bring news that
Marion's stagecoach was held up on the way and she lost a
treasured ring to the bandits. Jim explains what will
happen to the thieves when they're caught, causing Marian
distress. This passage illustrates the view propagated by
the Western myth that the West and the East Operated under
different legal codes:

MARIAN
And in case these unhappy men are taken—-
JIM
Well, in a case like that, we organize ourselves
into a court of law where there's mighty little
learning, but a heap 0' justice, and over that
court presides a judge named Lynch, and--and--
well, these particular individuals are never
seen again.
MARIAN
Monstrous! And would you take part in such savagery?
JIM
I am of the Southwest, ma'am, and I must do its work.

MARIAN

Why, if you should do SUCH work, I would never want
to see you again.

JIM

(AFTER A PAUSE.) This is the West, ma'am, and we

101

look at these things differently from the folks
you have been brought up with.

Jim goes on to explain all the adventures he
experienced on a previous trip to New York (the trip in which
he saved Miggles from her life of poverty and brought her
West). And, he emphasizes that he's a simple kind of fellow:
I don't call myself civilized-—I wouldn't have the
nerve to do that. Some one would call my bluff. I
haven't any education except knowing something about
men--good and bad. I want to do what's right, what's
honest, what's just, and so, Miss, I must follow the
light as God shows it to me, that's all.2

Such a passage is typical of many of the heroes discussed

here and emphasizes their "simple" nature as well as their

firm belief that they know what is right.

Jim swears George to marry Miggles--he has stolen
her heart and he must do right by her.

Miggles shows Jim the ring George gave her. Jim
realizes it must be Marian's; he tries to force George to
reveal where he got the ring. (He knows George didn't steal
it himself, for he was on the ranch at the time of the
robbery.)

Act II. Marian is encouraging Miggles to go East to
school; Miggles is upset when she discovers that George is

encouraging this plan-—she feels that he's trying to get

rid of her.

 

22Miron Leffingwell, A Fight for Honor (Manuscript,
Rosier Tent Show Repertory CoIIection, Miéhigan State
University Special Collections Library, 1897), 8.

231bid., 1o.

102

Marian is subpoenaed to give evidence about her ring.
Miggles tries to get George to tell the truth about where he
got the ring, but he refuses and they argue.

George, through mistaken loyalty to a "friend,"
warns Gonzaga to escape; Jim also suggests that Gonzaga
absent himself.

Marian must immediately dispatch some important
papers which will clear her father's name and restore his
holdings. George is to be the messenger, but Jim accuses
him of being untrustworthy, and George leaves in a huff
(after making up with Miggles). Turner is selected as
messenger, but he doesn't get far--Gonzaga overheard the
plans and Turner gets ambushed. He explains that Gonzaga
and George stole the packet, and Jim goes after George,
though Marian begs him not to.

Act III. Marian and Mrs. O'Kelly wait at the ranch
for news. When Turner appears, they hide him in the cellar
so that he won't be able to testify. George then appears
and Marian hides him in her room.

When Jim returns, he confronts George. George has
explained to Marian that he took the papers to the right
people; she believes him, but Jim doesn't and he gives
George a gun to shoot himself with and thus avoid the shame
of hanging. Miggles arrives with proof that George is
telling the truth. When Jim calls George out, George doesn't

trust him; in the ensuing scuffle, Jim is accidentally shot.

103

Act IV. Turner and Mrs. O'Kelly, who are now engaged
to each other, are baking Miggles' wedding cake. We learn
that Jim is blind from the wound he received in his fight
with George.

Marian enters to tell how Jim just kissed her—-there
are stars in her eyes.

George has reformed and is returning this evening
after being away on important ranch business.

Jim and Marian get engaged; while Jim is in the house,
Gonzaga shows up and attacks Marian. When Jim comes out,
Gonzaga attacks him, but Jim's bandage falls off his eyes
and he can see. Jim overcomes Gonzaga, but then lets him go.
When Gonzaga shiftily tries to shoot Jim, Turner kills
Gonzaga with the revolver he's propitiously been carrying
ever since he was robbed. George arrives and everything
ends happily with a triple wedding in sight.

*****‘k***

The copy of A Fight for Honor is extremely rough,

 

being poorly laid out and containing a large number of
typographical errors. However, it does include some blocking
notes and is one of only two plays included in this paper to

have floor plan drawings. (The other is The Girl from L

 

Triangle Ranch.) Those drawings offer no more than a very

 

roughly pencilled sketch with a few suggested dimensions for
set pieces. The sketches clearly indicate the use of
wing-and—drop sets, although one has some suggestion of being

a box set.

The Wild
as the soubrette
other characters
This is the only
any of the plays

The play

104

West Shows receive a reference in the play,
character dresses up in a costume which the
describe as being like Annie Oakley's.
direct reference to the Wild West Shows in
surveyed.

provides a very strong defense of the "lynch

law," articulated by the hero in a passage with eerily

modern flavor:

JIM

The people have been roused by his crimes. McKandlass
robbed and murdered men and women,anuithen juggled
with the law. The red tape of the courts freed him

every time.

MARIAN

Mob law can never be justified.

JIM

There are times when mob law IS justified. If men

like McKandlass are not destroyed quickly, they live

to laugh at our law, and the whole scheme of justice.

We must strike terror to the hearts of these criminals

if we don't want to be overriden by a band of cutthroats.

All this is

MARIAN
savagery.

JIM

Be that as it may, Miss Marian, we must fight fire

with fire.

 

24

 

Ibid., 30.

105

THE COWBOY AND THE LADY

 

RANCH 10

The Cowboy and the Lady and Ranch 10 have been

 

grouped together because they both contain courtroom scenes
in which the hero must defend himself against a false
accusation of murder. The hero is his own defense attorney

in The Cowboy and the Lady while a close friend represents

 

the hero in Ranch 10. The flavor of the two trials differs

markedly. That of The Cowboy and the Lady is serious in

 

tone with several dramatic features: (1) the heroine
declares her love for the hero from the witness stand (the
declaration is a happy surprise to him); (2) the hero is
actually found guilty by the jury; and (3) he then is saved
by a last—minute confession forced from the true villain.
The trial in Ranch 10 is far less serious: (1) the judge is
one of the comic characters in the script; (2) the hero's
friend must serve as both defense attorney and court clerk,
and the judge's assistant agrees to be the prosecutor,
because no one else can or will show up for their duties;
and (3) much of the testimony is nothing more than very
funny passages of dialogue, quite irrelevant to the case
being tried.

These two plays are also, as mentioned earlier, the
only ones of the eleven known to have been produced in New

York.

106

THE COWBOY AND THE LADY

 

by Clyde Fitch

Major Characters:

 

Teddy North (hero, rancher)

Bill Ransom (hero's sidekick)

Weston (character, heavy)

Quick Foot Jim (villain, Indian)

Mrs. Weston (heroine)

Midge (soubrette)

Molly Larkins (proprietress of dance hall)
Settings:

Act I: Teddy North's Ranch

Act II: The Dance Hall

Act III: Silverville Courtroom

Plot:

 

Act I. Several plot threads are revealed in the
exposition. Quick Foot Jim, a half—breed Indian cowboy, is
sweet on Molly Larkins, proprietress of the Silverville
Dance Hall. However, Weston (a dude) has been courting her
(successfully, as we discover later). Jim threatens Weston.

Midge, charming and sprightly champion rifle
shooter, is coming to live at Teddy North's ranch. (Her
father is a "wrong 'un" and is lynched that same morning.)
North means to make Midge his sister.

Mrs. Weston appears in the distance; all the ranch
hands discuss how flirty she is, but Teddy defends her and

it's clear he thinks she's very special. When Mrs. Weston

107

arrives, she teases Teddy about his clothes (he dresses in a
very dandified style). Mrs. Weston makes cocktails for
everyone (badly) and invites them all to a dance.

Bill Ransom (Teddy's partner) reveals to Teddy that
he loves Midge, but Midge loves another cowboy, Joe. Teddy
tells Midge his true feelings about Mrs. Weston.

When Mrs. Weston leaves, she takes a dangerous route
(despite warnings) and slips over a ledge. Teddy saves her,
but swears everyone not to tell her who her rescuer was (she
was unconscious). Only after Mrs. Weston has left for home
with a cowboy escort does Teddy discover that he broke his
arm in the rescue effort. The following passage reflects
the manner in which the heroes of these plays deal with
pain:

PETE

Shake, Boss! (TEDDY WISHES TO SHAKE HANDS, BUT FINDS
HE CANNOT RAISE R. ARM.)

TEDDY

Why! Hello! I—-I can't--
PETE

Can't you raise your arm, sir?
TEDDY

And it pains——I didn't realize—-I didn't know! (HE IS
WHITE AND SHOWS THAT HE SUFFERS.)

MIDGE
You're hurt! You're hurt!
TEDDY

Oh, no, only--

108

PETE

(TOUCHING HIS ARM SOFTLY--TEDDY WINCES.) You've
broken your arm!

TEDDY

What! The devil! I believe I have!
PETE

It ought to be set at once.
MIDGE

But there ain't no doctor for miles!
TEDDY

Oh, never mind! It ain't so much—— (HE IS GETTING
WEAKER.)

PETE
Yes, it is! It ought to be tended to this minute! I
ain't exactly a doctor, but if you don't mind my bein'
a bit rough I kin set it somehow or other for you. It
ain't the £3333 time. Shall I try?

TEDDY
Oh, yes, have a go at it.

MIDGE
It'll hurt! It'll hurt!

TEDDY

No, it won't. It'll be fun.25

And Teddy bravely grits his teeth as Pete sets his broken
arm.

Act II. It's the evening of the dance. Jim

jealously threatens Molly and warns her to have nothing to do

 

ZSFitch, Cowboy and the Lady, 42.

 

109

with Weston. When guests arrive, Weston gives a warm kiss,
warmly received, to Molly-—and is seen by Jim from his hiding
place. After general frivolity and a sequence in which each
of the ranch hands asks Teddy to put a good word in for them
with Midge, Midge runs in, distressed because Weston has made
a pass at her. Teddy is very upset, but Mrs. Weston calms
him and then confronts her husband angrily.

While everyone else is out of the room, Weston and
Molly embrace again; Jim, who's watching, has stolen Mrs.
Weston's pistol from Teddy's jacket and now uses it to kill
Weston. When Teddy and Mrs. Weston come into the darkened
room, each thinks the other committed the murder. When the
Sheriff comes to arrest Mrs. weston, Teddy confesses to the
murder.

Act 111. At his trial, Teddy is defending himself
and is surprised (but very happy) when Mrs. Weston declares
before the whole court that she loves him. Just as it looks
as though Teddy will be found guilty, Molly rushes forward
to testify and Jim shoots her. Jim is told (untruthfully)
that Molly's dead, and he becomes distraught since he did
love her, so he confesses to the murder of Weston. Teddy
and Mrs. Weston swear their love to each other, and Midge
and her cowboy Joe are united.

****~k***

The Cowboy and the Lady is unquestionably the best

 

known of the eleven plays, and, in fact, is still available

from Samuel French. Because it is from that publishing

llO

agent, it has quite thorough descriptions of sets, sound and
music effects, character personalities and dialects, costumes,
and blocking. The French script also includes photographs of
an early production. The exterior set appears to be a wing—
and—drop system with some large set pieces; the interiors of
the dance—hall and the courtroom are clearly box sets. The
costumes in these photographs indicate a dandified cowboy
garb (not realistic) and a highly stereotyped and stylized
costume for the Indian villain.

This play tends to be a bit more sophisticated than
the others studied here. Several contemporary dances form
part of the action in Act II, the heroine prepares cocktails
for the men and carries a ladylike little pistol (the only
one of the heroines to do so), and, more seriously, adultery
serves as a major theme. The hero falls in love with a
married woman and is sorely tempted by her; however, in
keeping with the myth, he never lets her know how he feels
until after she is free. The heroine falls in love with the
hero while her husband is still alive, but escapes our
condemnation because her husband is so clearly unworthy of
her and because she does not declare her love until she is
forced to do so under oath. An adulterous affair does take
place in the play, between the heroine's husband and the
villain's wife. The wife, Molly, seems a fairly typical
fallen woman whose heart is still in the right place, for
it is she who saves the hero after the jury has found him

guilty of the crime her husband actually committed. It

111

would seem that the villain had good cause for killing the
heroine's husband and in a modern play might receive some
sympathy. Here, however, the rampant racism of the time

allows no such compassion—-the "half-breed" will be hanged.

RANCH 10: OR, ANNIE FROM MASSACHUSETTS

 

by Harry Meredith

Majdr Characters:

 

Al McClelland

:} (heroes, twin brothers, cowboys)

Tom McClelland

Theopholis Robbins, M.D.

Joseph Particular Prose (comic character)

Barney Holt

Parson Jim Scripture

Coriander Lucretia Smalley (comic character,
heroine's aunt)

Annie Smalley (heroine)

Neeley Barrett (comic character, Irish)

Silver Bud (Indian)

Joseph "Red Bullet" Kebook (villain, Portuguese)

Settings:
Act I: Exterior of Ranch 10
Act 11: Interior of Corrall

Act III: Rocky Mountain Pass

Act IV: Courtroom--Cheyenne

112

Plot:

 

Act 1. Annie Smalley has come out West to her Aunt
Coriander's Ranch 10 to recover from a lung ailment and has
fallen in love with A1 McClelland, a cowboy on the ranch.
When Annie tells her aunt about her engagement to Al,
Coriander expresses a wish that it were Tom instead of A1.
Tom is Al's twin brother, who's been mining in Colorado and
not seen at Ranch 10 for over ten years.

In the exposition we also meet Neely, the house-
keeper; Doctor Theopholis Robbins, a local good guy; Silver
Bud, an Indian girl who works as a servant in the kitchen;
and Joe "Red Bullet" Kebook, a wealthy but nasty Portuguese
who lusts after Silver Bud.

In a comic passage, circuit judge Peter Particular
Prose arrives with his assistant, Barney Holt, to take a
census of Ranch 10's inhabitants. Prose is a great admirer
of florid adjectives, as this humorous passage illustrates:

PROSE
Well, here we are at last, Ranch 10. This is the
last until we reach the up river Ranches. Why, is
there no one here to receive me? I--a circuit Judge,
as well as a government official! Do they think a
census taker is nobody?

HOLT
It looks like it.

PROSE
It's an unambiguous, deleterious, infectuous,
predestinationest! A delightful smell, however, comes

from yonder kitchen. It's stupendous, futricious,
meretricious, delicious!

113

HOLT
I'll tell you better after I've tasted it.
PROSE

You are all together too irrational, irascible,
detrimental, contemptimental. (TURNS TO HOUSE.)
Is there anyone alive in that house? If so, come
forth and pay your respects to the representative
of the grandest government under the gun. If you
don't, I magnify you--bull—doze you.2

During the census taking, Annie finds cause to defend Al
from aspersions cast by Prose:

Stop, sir! I must correct you when you speak ill

of A1 McClelland. I know the truth regarding the
circumstances of which you speak. Joseph Kebook is
the owner of a number of wretched tenements in
Cheyenne; from one of these a sheriff was expelling
a poor family, Kebook was assisting in his brutal
way, and was using unnecessary force against a young
girl, a cripple, who could not move as quickly as the
rest. He pushed her roughly and the poor girl fell
to the ground. McClelland was passing and he saw it
all; in the glory of his manhood he fell upon the
pitiable monster and punished him as the lion would
the coward wolf. This is the man whose character
you would blacken; this is the man of whom I would
say to you: Go do likewise.

Such passages are quite typical and tell us much about what
makes these heroes so attractive to the heroines.

Al has written his brother Tom to come for the
wedding; while the others eat dinner inside, Tom arrives and
goes into a cabin to clean up and rest before meeting Al's
bride-to—be.

Silver Bud loves Al and begs him to take her along as

ea servant when he marries Annie. Al cannot refuse her plea;

_¥

26Meredith, Ranch 10, 6.

27Ibid., 11.

 

114

he then exits to shoot a hawk so that Silver Bud can use the
feathers to make a fan for Annie. Joe has observed the
scene and enters to confront Silver Bud, who admits that she
loves Al and hates Joe.

Silver Bud is shot from off stage and dies. When A1
offers a reward to whoever can identify the killer, Joe
rushes in to accuse Al, whose shotgun has just been fired
(at the hawk). Al escapes so as to have the freedom to clear
his name. Just then, Tom awakens, comes out of his cabin,
and is mistaken for Al. He tells Annie his true identity
and then decides to take Al's place and go to trial.

Act II. Tom is a prisoner at Ranch 10, with Joe
Kebook and his aides as the guards. Dr. Robbins has
arranged to be named sole guardian and he plans to release
Tom on his own recognizance.

Tom and Annie talk about the future; Tom is obviously
in love with Annie. Tom figures that Al went to Tom's cabin
in the Colorado Rocky Mountains; Annie decides that she must
go after him and bring him back in order to save Tom. She
will dress in men's clothing. Joe enters and boasts to Tom
that it was he (Joe) who really killed Silver Bud, and the
two men fight. When Dr. Robbins arrives, he dispatches Joe
and the other outlaws, but tells Tom that Joe's confession
means nothing without witnesses.

Annie comes to say goodbye to Tom. When the others
from the ranch come looking for her, she hides in Tom's

cabin. When he is forced to open it. Annie is in her male

115

attire and pretends to be Tom and Al's younger brother
Phil.

Act III. Annie has found Tom's friend in Colorado,
Parson Jim Scripture, and they are seeking A1, who is fear-
fully wounded from a fall off a cliff. When they find Al
(by tracking his bloody footsteps), Annie tells him how
Ranch 10 was burned and how Tom saved her life, and that
Tom is imprisoned in Al's place.

Al begs the Parson to marry them, which he does. Al
tells Annie to tell Tom that he must love her as Al has and,
indeed, take his place. Then Al dies in Annie's arms; Annie
swears to find out who's really responsible for Silver Bud's
death-—and, indirectly, for Al's, too.

Act IV. The act begins with a comic passage between
Judge Prose and Dr. Robbins. Since no other court officers
show up, Prose's assistant Holt is named prosecutor and
Robbins takes on the duties of defence attorney, court clerk,
and stand—in for the defendant.

Tom arrives late with testimony that Joe Kebook tried
to bribe him to escape East.

During the trial, most of the major characters testi-
fy, some in comic passages, some in serious ones. When
Robbins calls Joe to the stand, we learn that his nickname,
"Red Bullet," comes from his penchant for using copper
bullets, which are large and poisonous.

Since Annie is still missing, Joe accuses Tom of

killing her. Things look bad for Tom, but Annie appears at

116

the most propitious moment for a tearful and loving reunion.
She urges him to stay Al and not reveal his true identity.

Dr. Robbins then reveals that he and Annie disinterred
Silver Bud's body the night before and discovered that she
was killed by a copper bullet(!).

Tom confesses his true identity, the jury immediately
finds him not guilty, and Joe is arrested for killing Silver
Bud and for destroying Ranch 10. Annie and Tom rejoice in
each other's love.

********

A rather special feature of Ranch 10 is its use of
twin brothers as the heroes. The play is set up so that a
single actor would have no trouble portraying both roles
(there is plenty of time for costume changes, etc.). The use
of twins of course allows for the mistaken identity business,

which seems to owe something to Boucicault's The Corsican

 

Brothers, although Boucicault's technique shows a more
delicate touch.

The script contains only the most rudimentary set
description and very few blocking notes. Interestingly,
however, it does contain a number of pencilled—in notes,
indicating that this copy actually served as a production
script.

Ranch 10 is the only one of the plays to include a
"breeches" part. The heroine spends two acts attired as the
hero's younger brother so that she can go off to seek his

twin in the mountains.

117

As was discussed earlier, Ranch 10 features a court-
room scene. One of the typically melodramatic elements in
that scene is the unmasking of the villain by identification
of the murder bullet. The exhumation of the body and
subsequent analysis of the fatal bullet give a rather modern

twist (with a flavor of "Quincy" about them.)

DAD CARTER

 

MY WESTERN GIRL

 

Dad Carter and My Western Girl have been grouped

 

 

together Since both include scenes taking place in a large

Eastern city and heroes who come from the East. Dad Carter's

 

hero was brought up in the East, but was sent West by his
father so that he might acquire some maturity. So, although
he's proud to be a cowboy, he's eager to return East and go
back into the business world. Thus the final act of the play
takes place in Chicago, where the hero has once again

assumed the role he was trained for——that of a businessman.
It's intriguing that once he's back in the city and no longer
so much in touch with nature, the hero loses his ability to
spot the villain.

My Western Girl's hero is not a cowboy, but travels

 

widely in the West as a part of his military duties; among
his many skills are those of the cowboy. Two acts of this
play take place in Washington, D.C., in the hero's family

home. Though there are confrontations with the villain in

Washington, the major clash occurs in the West. It is there

118

that the hero seems most natural and comfortable with his
surroundings. The heroine too is more at home in the West
than she ever is during her sojourn in Washington, where

she goes to be "educated."

DAD CARTER

 

by C.A. Phillips

Majdr Characters:

 

Dad Carter (father of heroine)
Rube Whatte (comic, actually Pinkerton detective in
disguise)
Jack Lester (hero, cowboy)
Dummy Boyd
Skunkton Peters (comic character, black)
Texas Burns (villain, Mexican)
Starlight (Indian)
Nell Carter - "Little Sure Shot" (heroine)
Settings:
Act I: The Yard of Dad Carter's Ranch House
Act II: The Cattle Rusters' Cabin
Act III:
Scene 1: Same as Act I
Scene 2: In a Woods
Scene 3: A Rocky Pass

Act IV: A Parlor in Chicago

119

Plot:

 

Act I. Jack Lester arrives at Dad Carter's ranch
looking for work. Rube Whatte tells Jack that Carter is a
rustler, but a fair man. Carter and Jack hit it off and
Jack is hired.

The character Dummy Boyd is introduced. Boyd's
parents were murdered when he was still a child, and he lost
his hearing and ability to speak after that. He lives a
hermit-like existence in a cave on Carter's ranch.

Texas Burns, Carter's rustling partner, comes to find
out about Jack. It's revealed that Burns has had his way
with Starlight, a young Indian girl who works on the ranch,
but he refuses to marry her. Starlight thinks that Burns is
after Nell, Carter's daughter, a sharp-shooter and a somewhat
rough soubrette type. Before the act ends, Nell defends Jack
from a sneak attack by Burns.

Act II. Skunkton Peters (whose first name is abbrevi-
ated by nearly everyone, naturally) is standing guard at the
rustlers' shack while the others are out on a raid. Burns
comes looking for information he might use to blackmail
Carter. When Carter steps out of the cabin, Burns says he
wants to marry Nell, which Carter absolutely refuses to
consider.

Starlight has overheard this conversation and when
she confronts him, Burns tries to strangle her. He is
prevented by Rube Whatte, who scares Burns off. Dummy Boyd

comes through tracking Burns, and is sent after him, but

120

only following extensive comic deaf-and—dumb
business.

Jack and Nell appear and are obviously spooning.
Carter pumps Jack, who reveals that he's a Harvard graduate,
his father is rich, and that he (Jack) had gotten too big
for his britches. He confesses:

After I came out of Harvard, I went home and my father
took me into business with him on the board of trade
and the stock exchange and it was not long until I
had more money than I knew what to do with. I joined
the 'Royal Order of Smart Alec's' if you know what
that is, and in a year's time I was going so fast I
burned the wind. I tried to smoke all the cigarettes
and drink all the booze that was made but the odds
were too big and I went down and out. The Governor
stood it as long as he could and then he told me that
I was out of it and that I would have to look out for
myself, and now that I look back and see what he put
up with, I don't blame him. . . .He told me to leave
Chicago and if the time ever came when I could come
back and look and act like a man, that my old place
was open to me. I've done it, Dad, and I'm going
back and I want to take Nell and you with me.

Jack proposes to Nell and they exit. Burns enters,
finds Jack's dropped knife, and uses the knife to threaten
Starlight. Dummy Boyd shoots the knife out of his hand
before he can injure her. When everyone re-enters, Burns
accuses Jack of the attack (because of the ownership of the
knife), but the unconscious Starlight is still clutching
Burns' hat, so the truth is known.

Act III. Scene 1. Carter has gone straight and is

keeping Starlight on the ranch to protect her. He has

 

28Phillips, Dad Carter, 28.

 

121

received an offer for the ranch, which Nell wants him to
accept.

Burns abducts Starlight (she knows too much about
him) and Skunkton follows him.

Carter decides to sell the ranch.

Act III. Scene 2. Several characters pass through
(a front—of-the-curtain scene), including Rube Whatte and
Skunkton, Burns and Starlight, and Nell tracking Burns.

Act III. Scene 3. In a rocky pass, Starlight is
discovered tied up; Dummy Boyd tries to free her but is
clubbed over the head by Burns. In the ensuing passage,
Burns admits that he's the one who killed Boyd's parents.
(Starlight already knew this——one of the reasons why Burns
had to abduct her.)

Burns goes upstage to Boyd, talking and threatening
and revealing his guilt--he feels safe doing so since Boyd
is deaf. While this goes on, Nell sneaks in and replaces
Starlight under the blanket.

Boyd suddenly speaks—-the blow to his head restored
his hearing and speech. He and Burns fight and Burns gets
the upper hand, but Nell leaps to the rescue.

Act IV. Jack has taken everyone to Chicago and now
it is the day before Jack and Nell's wedding. Skunkton,
Starlight, and Nell don't trust a Mr. Mardo, who Jack thinks
is all right.

A gentleman named Farrell arrives—-it's Rube Whatte

without his disguise. Then Mardo enters and we discover that

122

he's really Texas Burns. Farrell confronts Mardo; Mardo
poisons the wine, but Farrell sees, and so does Starlight,
who replaces the poisoned decanter.

Boyd, Nell, and Jack all enter, as does Farrell, who
has once again donned his Rube disguise. In an exciting
passage, he accuses Mardo of poisoning the wine, which
Starlight corroborates. Then he reveals Mardo's true
identity and has him arrested. This passage is typical
melodramatic fare.

NELL

What is the matter, Mister Mardo, are you not going
to drink with us?

TEXAS

Oh the toast does not interest me, why should I
drink?

DAD

Why should you drink? By the eternal you should
drink because my girl done you the honor to ask you.
See here, Mardo, you've acted strange since you
first came here, and I've got about enough of it and
I want to know what it means.

NELL

There, don't be angry, father, I presume Mister
Mardo has good reason for not wanting to drink.

RUBE
You can bet a horse he has.
TEXAS
May I ask what you know about it, sir?
RUBE
Yes, you may ask and I'll tell you, sir. The reason

you won't drink is because the wine has been poisoned
and you are the only one that knows it.

123

ALL

Poisoned! (ALL PUT GLASSES WHEREVER MOST CONVENIENT.)
RUBE

That's what I said, poisoned. And he knows who did it.
TEXAS

Maybe you'll go far enough to say that I did it myself.
RUBE

Yes, I'll go just that far, you did it.
TEXAS

Mister Carter, am I to be insulted in your house in
this manner?

RUBE

Insult you! No, I tried that the first time I ever met
you and it was a failure.

TEXAS

My friend, at the proper time and place I'll make you
prove this. (STARTS TO GO.)

RUBE

Don't be in a hurry; this is the proper time and place.
I'll do it now.

TEXAS
Now?
RUBE

Right now. There were two people in this room who say
you put the stuff into the wine.

TEXAS
I say it is a lie.
STARLIGHT

And I say that it is the truth. I saw you put something
into the wine from a white paper and when your back was

124

turned I came in, changed the decanters, took away the
white paper, and here it is. (HOLDS IT UP.)

TEXAS
And your other witness?

RUBE
Was me. I sat right there in that chair and saw all
that went on behind my back in that little hand mirror
on that table.

TEXAS

(TURNS AWAY, GETS GUN OUT QUICK.) There is only one
way-— (TURNS ON RUBE WITH GUN HALF RAISED.)

RUBE
(AS TEXAS TURNS AWAY, GETS A LARGE REVOLVER OUT AND
WHEN TEXAS TURNS, IT IS RIGHT IN HIS FACE.) And that's
the wrong way, now put that thing on the table before
you hurt yourself with it. Now I think your string is
about played out, Mister Tex Burns.

ALL
Tex Burns!!!

TEXAS
Yes, Tex Burns--but who the devil are you?

RUBE
Well, to you and these good peOple I've always been
known as Whatte, but to the Pinkerton detective agency
I am known as Farrell the Chicago detective.

By the time all this has transpired, it's past

midnight and Jack and Nell embrace as they realize it's

their wedding day.

*7‘:~k‘k*‘k*7‘€

 

291bid., 54—55.

125

This script of Dad Carter offers some rough

 

description of settings and makes specific reference to the
use of drops. It also includes a brief prop list, one of the
few scripts to list props separately from the body of the
play. The costume descriptions are fairly extensive and
point up an interesting distinction between the dress of the
hero and the villain: the hero is to be attired in
relatively realistic cowboy garb, but the villain wears
dandified cowboy garments, including angora chaps.

Blocking indications are sketchy, but the script does
give fairly thorough notes for Special fight sequences and
for one or two other special scenes. One bit of business
which is quite pivotal to the resolution is very carefully
described. In this bit, the Pinkerton detective sits in a
chair so that he is hidden from the villain, but is able to
watch every move the villain makes (poisoning a decanter of
wine) by holding a hand mirror at such an angle that the
villain's actions are reflected in it.

The presence of the Pinkerton detective is quite
unusual for these plays. The cowboy hero here is not as
pivotal to the action of the play and the capture of the
villain, suggesting that this play was written late in the
period covered and is thus a transitional play between

plays with frontier heroes and plays with detective heroes.

126

MY WESTERN GIRL

 

by E.C. Filkins

Major Characters:

 

Gabe Husks (comic character)

Shep Shangles (comic character)

Mercedes (heroine)

Miguel Mendoza (villain, Mexican)

La Chuza (Mexican duenna)

Tom Rathbone (hero's brother)

Capt. Philip Rathbone (hero, military)

Mrs. Rathbone (hero's mother)
Settings:

Act I: Peaceful Valley Ranch

Act 11: Mrs. Rathbone's Home, Washington, D.C.

Act III: Same as Act II

Act IV: Same as Act I

Plot:

 

Act I. The exposition begins with a humorous
dialogue between Gabe Husks and Shep Shangles, who's a local
judge. This passage is quite a bit of fun and certainly
wittier than many of the plays offer.

SHEP
Evenin' Gabe.
GABE
Evenin' Shep. (PAUSE.) Finished holdin' court?

SHEP

Yep!

127

GABE
Much that was excitin'?
SHEP

Not much. The last day was rather quiet. Except
that the county attorney shot Editor Tolliver in
the knee, because he smiled satirical like during
his last argument. The jury all tried to get into
the fracas, but I knocked the foreman down with my
mallet. That was good idea of yours, Gabe,
suggestin' I should use a bung—starter for a gavel.
It gives weight to my decisions, so to speak.

GABE
How did the matter end up?
SHEP
I finded them all for contempt of court.
GABE
The newspaper man, too, and he was only smilin'?
SHEP

Of course if he hadn't of smiled it wouldn't have
provoked the county attorney to use his artillery.
Besides I don't allow as how the game laws protects
newspapers anyhow. Well we was proceedin' peaceful
like when Jim Joskins and his red—headed wife, they
started somethin'; she had him up for wife beatin'
and I had only fined him fifty, seein' as how she
had started things at the dinner table. Well she
paid his fine, then she turned on me with a buggy
whip. Is's always the wimmen that start things
anyway.

As their conversation gets more serious, Gabe and
Shep commiserate over the fact that their ward Mercedes (an

orphan) is going East to get educated.

 

30E.C. Filkins, My Western Girl (Manuscript, Rosier
Tent Show Repertory CollectiOn,7MIChigan State University
Special Collections Library, n.d.), l.

 

128

A neighboring rancher, Miguel Mendoza, arrives and
we learn that Mercedes' mother was Mexican. Mendoza
intends to marry Mercedes, even though she's poor, because
he believes she will inherit her Mexican grandfather's
fortune. (Mercedes knows nothing of this.)

Captain Philip Rathbone rides up to the ranch house
and Mercedes at first mistakes him for the man she believes
herself in love with (who's a member of a gang). Later,
we'll learn that Philip and Tom, Mercedes' "lover", are twin
brothers. There is an instant rapport between Mercedes and
the Captain, but he must leave, not before promising to
return, however.

Tom Rathbone enters, but Mercedes is cold to him, for
he's been drinking. He wants her to go away with him, and
then casually reveals that he's already got a wife back
East. When Mercedes orders him to leave, he seizes her with
rape in mind. In the ensuing struggle, Tom is killed and
falls into the well. Mendoza has been watching and tells
Mercedes that he will never reveal what has happened.
Mercedes leaves in distress for the East that very night.

Act II. In exposition between Mrs. Rathbone and
Philip, we learn about Philip and Tom's kinship, and Tom's
perpetual escapades, which Philip has had to bail him out of,
time after time. Mrs. Rathbone wants Philip to marry her
ward, who turns out to be Mercedes! When Philip and Mercedes
re-discover each other, they are blissful. Gabe and Shep

arrive to visit and bring news of Mercedes' inheritance,

129

which has been suppressed by a shyster lawyer so far, and
they reveal that they're trying to find the mother of a
murdered man (Tom).

Mendoza visits Mercedes regularly and proposes
marriage to her, during which he accidentally drops a piece
of paper which incriminates him as a traitor. Shep finds it,
confronts Mendoza, and gets the will (relating to Mercedes'
inheritance) away from Mendoza.

Act III. During a ball at Mrs. Rathbone's, Mendoza
accidentally reveals to Philip that he is indeed a traitor.
Before the ball is over, Philip is called away on urgent
military matters. Mendoza tells Mercedes that the man in
the well is Philip's brother, and that if she won't marry
him, he will tell Philip that she murdered his brother.

Although Mercedes tries to break off with Philip,
she finds it too difficult and decides to tell him the
painful truth. Just then, Shep enters and says that he
killed Tom.

Act IV. Much has happened since the night of the
ball. Mercedes' duenna, La Chuza, has discovered that her
son was betrayed to the Mexican government by Mendoza; she
swears to get revenge for her son's death. Philip arrives
at the ranch and reveals that his mother has died. Gabe and
Philip discuss the likelihood that Shep did not kill Tom and
is covering for someone.

Mendoza arrives and argues with Philip:

130

MENDOZA
Captain Rathbone, I saluted you just now!
CAPTAIN
Yes,——I saw you.
MENDOZA
And you ignored my courtesy.
CAPTAIN
I certainly did. I am an American soldier and can
only feel contempt for a man who has not only acted
the coward's part, but to line his own pocket basely
betrays the misguided creatures whom he had enlisted
in what he claimed to be a patriotic enterprise,
and then led them into a trap to be butchered like
sheep that he might save his own neck. I forbid you
to ever recognize me again.
When Mendoza tries to shoot Philip in the back, Gabe and
Shep stop him and try him in a sort of kangaroo court.
When Mercedes enters from the ranch house, Mendoza
accuses her of Tom's death. She admits her guilt and takes
the blame, telling Philip how she accidentally shot Tom in
their scuffle. Gabe reveals that Tom was knifed, not shot,
and he produces the knife. La Chuza identifies it as
Mendoza's. She acts out what really happened the night of
Tom's death and then stabs Mendoza several times, thus
getting her revenge.

********

As in so many of the plays, My Western Girl's heroine

 

has a father figure to care for her. What makes this play

a little unusual is that the heroine actually has two such

 

311bid., 50.

 

131

guardians, and they are far more comic than the typical father
figure.

Another special feature in this play is the presence
of twin brothers. Unlike Ranch 10, however, which also has

twin brothers played by one actor, the twins in My Western

 

Girl are not both good men. One is decidedly a "wrong un"

 

and is killed early in the action. His relationship to the
hero allows for several plot twists: (1) although the
heroine is mistakenly fond of the bad brother for awhile,
when the good one comes along, she quickly recognizes his
worth and gives him all her love, typical of the melodramatic
heroine; (2) the fact that the man killed and dumped in the
well is the hero's brother sets uptjuaprofusion of con-
fessions—-several characters trying to protect one another——
which would not have been necessary if the dead man were a
stranger; and (3) the need to identify the murder victim sets
up the final confrontation and revelation.

My Western Girl is a very rough copy with extensive

 

pencilled—in editing and blocking notes, plus references to
various bits of business. Many of these pencilled-in pieces
of business are referred to only by name and are not
explained at all. There are (as is typical of most of the
plays), however, some fairly lengthy explanations of

necessary business in the script.

132

THE GIRL FROM L TRIANGLE RANCH

 

The Girl from L Triangle Ranch is unusual in that it

 

has a female villain, the only one of the eleven plays to do
so. The play includes a large number of villains, many of
them Mexican (the female villain is half—Mexican). Several
other ethnic types makes appearances as well, making this the
play with the most ethnics in it. It is the only play with

a Hebrew character.

THE GIRL FROM L TRIANGLE RANCH

 

by Frank Dumont

Major Characters:

 

Harry Logan (hero, sheriff)

Harvey Wesley (villain)

Tom Claxton (villain's sidekick)

Solomon Donahue (comic character, Hebrew)
Caleb Push (comic character)

Eclipse (comic character, black)

Franklin Barton (heroine's father)

Ethel Barton (heroine)

Bolivar (soubrette)

Nathalie (villainess, Mexican)

Mrs. Caleb Push (comic character)

Settings:
Act 1: Mining Camp in New Mexico
Act II: Outlaws' Den in Mexico

Act III: Franklin Barton's Ranch

133

Plot:

 

Act I. The play begins with exposition about the
gang of outlaws led by Harvey Wesley. We learn that Wesley
had been engaged to Ethel Barton back East, but that she
jilted him. He has come out West and located near Ethel's
father's ranch, hoping Ethel will visit and he'll be able to
get her back or get revenge.

Ethel enters with her father, Franklin Barton, owner
of the L Triangle Ranch. She hdd come West to visit him,
even though the area is dangerous. Wesley confronts her,
declares his love, and seizes her with rape in mind, but is
stopped by the young sheriff, Harry Logan. Wesley's outlaws
gang up on Logan, but he is saved by the intervention of
Ethel, Barton, and several of the comic characters of the
play, which include Solomon Donahue, a wandering Hebrew,
and Caleb Push, a hustler and a photographer. At this point,
we also meet Mrs. Push, who is trailing her husband, and we
are treated to the first of several reunions which involve
much kissing, slapping, fainting, and Mrs. Push being shoved
into somebody else's arms by Push.

In a moment a more serious event takes place as
Wesley challenges Barton in the street and shoots him. Since
there are no witnesses, Wesley accuses Logan of the murder.
Harry swears his innocence--and is believed by Ethel, of
course—-but must prove his innocence in court.

Act 11. At the outlaws' hideout, we discover that

they have taken Harry into Mexico while pretending to take

134

him to jail. We meet an Indian Wesley has hired to raid
Barton's ranch and kidnap Ethel. What's important about
this Indian is that he's really Barton—-who wasn't killed,
only wounded-~in disguise.

A comical interlude follows with Bolivar and Eclipse
(Barton's ward and a black servant from the ranch, respec-
tively), who are tracking Logan; this is followed with more
comedy as Donahue, Push, and Mrs. Push (still tracking her
husband) enter. When the outlaws return, Push and Donahue
manage to hide in the cabin.

The outlaws have kidnapped Ethel and she is threaten—
ed by Nathalie, queen of the cattle thieves, but Harry has
freed himself and stops Nathalie. Harry and Ethel declare
their love for each other just before a big fight with the
outlaws. Despite surreptitious help from Push and Donahue,
Harry is overpowered and it looks very much as though the
cabin--and Harry and Ethe1-—will be blown up. Mrs. Push
saves the day with help from Push, Bolivar, g£_gl. In the
ensuing battle with the outlaws, the good guys overpower
the bad.

Act III. At Barton's ranch, Wesley has come to try
to court Ethel's forgiveness and says if she does forgive
him, he'll prevent a big raid on the ranch. When she refuses,
he threatens her life. Harry stops him (again), but is in
turn stopped by Tom Claxton, one of Wesley's associates.
However, before Harry and Ethel can be hurt, Barton, still in

disguise, intervenes.

135

In a comical sequence, Bolivar and Donahue discover
that they rather like each other, and Mrs. Push is passed
from arm to arm, this time ending up in Eclipse's arms,
where she revives from her faint.

MRS. PUSH
My dear husband!
ECLIPSE
Go 'long. I ain't nobody's husband!
MRS. PUSH
I'm so glad you support me.
ECLIPSE
I can't support myself.
MRS. PUSH

(SHE SEES ECLIPSE'S FACE AND SCREAMS.) Oh! You are
black in the face!

ECLIPSE
Yes, ma'am! I'm black all over.

MRS. PUSH
You are mortified.

ECLIPSE
I'm multiplied-—and pacified.

MRS. PUSH
Where did you get that face?

ECLIPSE
It was a birthday present.

MRS. PUSH

Why don't you wash it?

136

ECLIPSE
It would only make it worse.
MRS. PUSH
(SCREAMS.) You are not Caleb Push!
ECLIPSE
Who said I was?
MRS. PUSH
Why, you are a colored man!
ECLIPSE
No, I was born that way.
MRS. PUSH
How came I in your arms?
ECLIPSE
I don't know, ma'am. You just blew in.32
The outlaws re-enter and Nathalie reveals the reason
for her bitterness toward Ethel: she is Ethel's older and
illegitimate half—sister (by Barton and a Mexican woman).
When Logan once again intervenes, Wesley accuses him again
of Barton's murder. Barton reveals his true identity and in
the resulting melee, Nathalie is accidentally shot by
Wesley, and the outlaws are overcome.
********
The script for The Girl from L Triangle Ranch pro—
vides quite complete costume descriptions. As in several of

the other plays, the hero's garb is fairly realistic while

 

32Dumont, L Triangle Ranch, 49—50.

137

villain's is more flamboyant. The script also describes a
stereotyped Indian disguise as well as several other
"disguise" costumes.

Floor plans are included with the script and
indicate a system of drops and set—pieces. There is some
description of what the drops should depict. The script
also includes fairly extensive blocking notes. Among the
special effects described is the gunpowder used to threaten
the cabin in which the hero is trapped. The notes call for
a combination of black sand and real gunpowder, the real
gunpowder being used for the first few feet of the "fuse."

There is a great deal of slapstick action in this
play, plus many ethnic jokes. This action is much broader
than in any of the other eleven plays, and includes numerous
nagging—wife bits, jokes about the black skin of Eclipse,
business of hitting people over the head with sausages,
and Hebrew jokes. Since one of the characters owns a
camera, there are also a number of bits of business where
ignorant ethnics are frightened by the promise to "shoot"
them with the camera. (These are very similar to such

instances in Burleyjs Ranch.)

ROSE OF THE RANGE

 

Rose of the Range offers the most modern view among

 

the eleven plays of a cowboy's duties. The hero understands
the need for fencing and is familiar enough with the care of

pure—bred cattle to pass himself off as a "cowdoctor."

138

The hero of this play differs from those of the
others in that he is actually an itinerant performer who
accidentally gets "cast" in the role of cowdoctor and
foreman. Like all the heroes, however, he proves admirably

suited for his duties.

ROSE OF THE RANGE

 

by Bob Feagin

Major Characters:

 

Colonel Coleman (father of heroine)
Sleepy Peters (comic character)

Dan Davis (hero, cowboy)

Don Esteban (villain, Mexican)
Pedro (comic character, Mexican)
Rose Coleman (heroine)

Chiquita (soubrette, Mexican)

Settings:
Act 1: Yard of the Coleman Ranch in New Mexico
Act II: Same

Act III: Same

Plot:

 

Act 1. Rose Coleman has been keeping company with
Don Esteban, although nobody else approves. Her father,
Colonel Coleman, has sent East for an educated "cowdoctor"
to assist him as foreman; this doctor's name is Davis.

Dan Davis and his sidekick Sleepy Peters, a pair of

down-and-out entertainers, arrive at the ranch. Rose

139

mistakes Dan for the new foreman. Dan accidentally inter-
cepts a telegram for the Colemans in which the real Dr. Davis
cancels his contract because of illness. Dan sees this as a
golden opportunity and decides to pretend that he is the
doctor; since he was raised on a ranch in Texas, he thinks

he has the know-how to do a good job, and he only plans to
carry on the masquerade until he's proved his worth, at
which time he'll tell the truth.

Don Esteban tries to bribe Dan to let the Coleman
herd be stolen; thus the Colonel would fail and would have
to accept the rich Esteban as a son-in-law. Dan indignantly
refuses. Here we see the moral righteousness typical of
cowboy heroes:

ESTEBAN
I will lay all my cards on the table. Miss Rose and
I are very much in love. The Colonel does not favor
me as a son-in—law. He has sunk his whole fortune
in this new venture. If he fails, he is broke.

DAN
How will that help you?

ESTEBAN
Once the Colonel is broke, things will be different.
I am the richest man in this state. A rich son-in-
law, in his position would then be desirable.

DAN

What are trying to do, hire me to poison them or
something?

ESTEBAN

Nothing so crude as that. We are but twenty miles
from the border. Just across the line, in Mexico,
is the bandit leader El Lobo. I can get word to him.

140

DAN
And then?
ESTEBAN
Then, on a night he shall name, you will leave the
entire herd in the south pasture, unguarded. The
next morning the herd will be gone, and you will
find yourself the richer by ten thousand dollars.
DAN
You dirty, slimy crook!
ESTEBAN
What?
DAN
You heard me. If you think you're going to get your
greasy paws on that girl thru any help of mine, you're
crazy.

ESTEBAN

Careful, you fool. You are speaking to Don Esteban.
I have killed men for less than what you have said.

DAN
Well, you don't scare me. Get going, and the next
time you make me a dirty proposition like that, I'll
knock your teeth down your throat.
Act II. The help (all Mexican) at the ranch discuss
how hard Dan works—-and how hard he is working them.
Dan admires Rose, but she is headstrong and Dan is

heavy-handed in his courting, no competition at all for the

smooth—talking villain;

 

33Feagin, Rose of the Range, 20—21.

 

141

ROSE
Don Esteban is fascinating, charming. But he has never
tried to make love to me seriously. What my reactions
would be if he did, I don't know.

DAN

Then it shall be my job to see that he doesn't make
love to you seriously.

ROSE

Oh, so I'm to have another guardian, am I?
DAN

You shall as far as Don Esteban is concerned.
ROSE

Indeed? And may I ask why you are so interested in
the outcome of my friendship with Don Esteban?

DAN

I should think the answer to that should be obvious.
I am a white man.

ROSE
(GETTING MAD.) And what would you call him?
DAN

He calls himself a Spaniard, but I'd call him just a
plain greaser.

ROSE

Oh, you're just like father. Just because the man's
skin isn't as white as yours—-

DAN
No--yours.
ROSE

Don't quibble. Neither of you have the slightest
justification for your hatred of Don Esteban.

142

DAN
I didn't say-—

ROSE
And both of you are downright insulting to me. You
seem to think that I am a low-grade moron without
enough intelligence to select my own companions.

DAN

Well, excuse me, Miss Rose. I didn't mean to make
you mad.

ROSE
Don't flatter yourself. I'm not 'mad', as you term
it, simply annoyed. I don't care to discuss the
subject further, and, if you wish us to remain
friends, it would be a good idea to avoid it in the
future. (EXITS IN HOUSE.)

DAN

Whew! I sure kicked over a hornet's nest that time.34
Don Esteban comes to see Rose and proposes to her,

but more as if he were selecting a breeder cow than a wife.
"The time is here for me, Don Esteban, to take a wife, a
woman worthy of carrying on my noble line. I have selected

35 Rose is incensed and sends Esteban

you for that honor."
packing, which enrages him.

In a comic sequence, Sleepy courts Chiquita and brags
of his courage, which Chiquita says is good since Pedro
jealously kills all her sweethearts.

As the act ends, El Lobo raids the ranch, steals the

prize herds, burns the corrals, etc. In the fracas, the

Colonel is wounded.

 

34Ibid., 26—27. 351bid., 34.

143

Act III. Dan and Sleepy are exhausted after having
tried to track El Lobo all night.

Rose and Dan make up and declare their love for each
other. Their love scenes are paralleled with comic love
scenes involving Sleepy, Chiquita, and Pedro.

Don Esteban arrives and accuses Dan of giving
information to El Lobo so as to help him successfully raid
the ranch. He then reveals that the real Dr. Davis is still
in Alberquerque. Just when things look their worst, Sleepy
arrives. He had gone to Esteban's ranch to arrange to
borrow fresh horses. While there, he discovered the stolen
cattle--Esteban is El Lobo. As Esteban tries to escape,
Sleepy picks him off with his rifle. (Sleepy has been
established earlier as a sharp-shooter.) There is general
relief and rejoicing, especially on the part of Sleepy, for
Pedro and Chiquita have made up and Sleepy's skin is safe
once again.

******~k*

Rose of the Range is the only one of the scripts to

 

include a prefatory drawing suggesting some of the flavor of
the play. This line drawing gives a fairly realistic
depiction of Western garb on the cowboy and his heroine.

The cover also includes a sales pitch for purchasing the

rights to the play:

144

This play has everthing that a good Western SHOULD
Have. Action-~Thrills--Heart Interest--Glamour--
All WOW Curtains-—Good Leads-—A Suave Spanish Heavy--
A Good Love Story-—§nd A WOW HILL BILLY COMEDY that
can be played Toby. 6
The script includes only extremely brief descriptions
and very few blocking suggestions. According to the prefa—
tory material, either an interior or exterior setting can
be used, but the action of the play seems to call for an
exterior.
Like so many of the plays this one includes a

secondary love story and a father figure (the heroine's

actual father in this case).

SUMMARY

Analysis of selected nineteenth-century melodramas
with cowboy characters reveals that the cowboy hero in
popular drama follows the guidelines for such characters as
established in popular literature. The plays are identical
with other melodramas of the period in structure, use of
stereotypical characters, language style, etc. It's evident
that the cowboy character was simply a convenient and popular
”dressing" for the traditional melodramatic hero. Typical
traits exhibited by the cowboy heroes in these plays are the
same as those in other popular forms: youth, virility, good

looks, traditional cowboy garb, strict morality, strength,

belief in the power of the gun, respect for women, belief in

justice, chastity, and a high degree of racism.

 

36Ibid., preface.

CONCLUSION

The focus of this paper has been an examination of
the cowboy hero in nineteenth—century popular drama.
Appreciation of the develOpment of that cowboy hero necessar—
ily begins with an understanding of the contribution made by
America's frontiers in general in the development of
American character. Frederick Jackson Turner, in his famous
thesis concerning the frontier's influence, identified the
intrinsically American characteristics as individualism,
nationalism, democracy, equalitarianism, energy, social
mobility, optimism, pragmatism, and materialism. The
American cowboy, who certainly fulfills Turner's set of
characteristics, emerged as a feature of one of America's
many succeeding frontiers: the cattle frontier. This
frontier which spawned the cowboy existed for a period of
only twenty years, beginning immediately after the Civil War;
the character it produced, the American cowboy, worked hard
and lived a decidedly unglamorous life barely resembling
the myth which was soon to evolve.

The cowboy began to take on mythic qualities simul-
taneously with the closing of the actual cattle frontier.
This development occurred mostly in the widely popular dime

novels and Wild West shows, where the cowboy seemed to fulfill

145

146

a national need. Eastern writers created a hero who offered
excitement, adventure, action, all kinds of vicarious thrills,
embodied in an archetypal character: the cowboy hero has the
characteristics of heroes from all periods-—youth, handsome—
ness, natural nobility, strength, courage, virtue.

The mythic cowboy hero was born and grew toward his
quintessential twentieth—century form in popular art forms
of the nineteenth century, specifically in the dime novel,
the Wild West Shows, and the popular theatre. Each of these
forms exhibits the typical characteristics of popular
culture: urban in appeal, essentially middle-class, simple,
accessible, moral, and predictable. The cowboy hero appeared
first in the dime novel, in the 1870's, and then in the
popular theatre as it segmented into a "serious" and a
"popular" theatre, exhibiting a number of standard charac-
teristics, whichever form he appeared in: virile, brave,
having little to do with cows, handy with a gun, a teetotal—
ler, a loner, a racist, following the male ethic, in touch
with nature, moral, and protective of women.

Melodramas featuring cowboy heroes exhibit standard
characteristics of that dramatic genre: the theme of vice
vs. virtue, with virtue inevitably winning; extensive
exciting action; and stereotypical characters. Buffalo
Bill's appearances in such melodramas and later in his
outdoor Wild West Shows helped further establish the cowboy

hero in the popular drama.

147

Chapter III's examination of a selected number of
nineteenth-century plays featuring cowboy heroes shows more
specifically the characteristics typical of the nineteenth—
century melodramatic cowboy heroes. Although there are some
minor differences from the cowboy hero as he appears in the
dime novel, his depiction in these plays reveals what a
debt the plays owed to the novels. Here again is the
handsome, courageous, virtuous young man we have met before
in other popular culture forms.

It should be clear that these cowboy heroes, deriving
as they do from the dime novels and Wild West Shows, have
little to do with reality. Playwrights recognized the
country's interest in this new American hero and added him
to stock dramatic structure, specifically the melodrama.
However, even though the plays with cowboy characters were
not especially "Western", or, indeed, very different at all
from melodramas with Eastern settings, the cowboy heroes of
these dramas are an integral part of the growing myth, a
myth which would be somewhat re-shaped in the twentieth
century, but which owes its essential character to the
nineteenth-century cowboy hero of the dime novels and
popular melodramas. Those popular art forms served as major
propagators of the myth. It is that function of perpetuating
the myth which gives the forms their major significance,
since they are neither good literature nor good drama in the

traditional sense.

148

The identification of the cowboy as hero and the
subsequent rapid inclusion of him in various popular art
forms reflects a recurring pattern in popular culture; the
pragmatic recognition and adaptation of characters and ideas
popular with the public is essential to the survival of any
popular form. Although he was not the most important of
nineteenth—century melodramatic heroes, employment of the
cowboy as hero reflects the perceptiveness of writers who
realized quickly that here was a character with national
appeal who neatly fitted into the already popular melodrama-
tic structure. There is no essential difference between
nineteenth—century American melodramas with cowboy heroes
and nineteenth-century Americn melodramas with other types
of heroes, such as miners (particularly in Bret Harte's
plays), scouts and trappers (epitomized in Frank Mayo's
depiction of Davy Crockett), "noble savages" (Edwin Forrest's
Metamora), and the detectives who became popular late in the
century (Dick Brummage and the English Hawkshaw and Holmes),
usurping the cowboy's place. It is also interesting to note
that there is no essential difference between nineteenth—
century American melodramas with cowboy heroes and twentieth—
century American melodramas featuring such heroes as those
depicted by Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and Jan Michael
Vincent. These twentieth-century heroes continue the
nineteenth-century pattern of rugged individualism, the male
ethic, and the administration of personal justice; they

certainly all follow the "Code of the West."

149

It seems unlikely that examination of more plays such
as the eleven included here would reveal any significant
differences from the observations made in this paper.
However, an investigation of plays with cowboy heroes written
after 1910 ought to reveal the growing influence of Owen
Wister and Edwin S. Porter, since research solidly indicates
that both were major factors in the development of the
modern Western. Other research might include an examination
of the occurrence of older women in these scripts: perhaps
the rather frequent appearance of these older female
characters in the plays (they do npp appear in the dime
novels) reflects the composition of the companies who
performed the plays. All touring companies would include an
older woman to handle character parts such as Juliet's
nurse. Use of all the company members in all the productions
would seem to be the most "cost—effective." Perhaps this is
the explanation for the existence of the older women in the
scripts.

One of the less attractive characteristics of the
mythic cowboy hero in both the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries is his racism. It is not entirely clear why this
racism developed in the myth so early, since, as was stated
earlier, the West's population of real cowboys included
numerous Indians, blacks, and Mexicans. Undoubtedly, the
racism reflects Eastern attitudes toward non-white ethnic
groups, and because the myth was being propagated by Eastern

writers and performers, those Eastern attitudes permeated

150

the myth. The role of the Indian in nineteenth—century
popular drama has been extensively investigated, as has that
of the black. It does, however, seem likely that further
study of the role of the Mexican in such plays might be
worthwhile, especially since the real cowboy owes so much of
his heritage to the Mexican vaguero. It would be of interest
to compare the depiction of the Mexican in different types
of nineteenth-century melodramas, since such a study should
reveal whether the racial prejudice against Mexicans existed
across the board or was limited to the dramas about the West.
Since the vast majority of the dramas were composed by
Easterners, it seems quite likely that all or most of the
plays with Mexican characters would exhibit the same Eastern
racial bias as is revealed by the plays examined here.

Perhaps another area for study would be an examina—
tion of the West as a sort of "baptism by fire", or
"proving ground", for spoiled young Eastern men. Several of
the plays included in this paper feature a hero who comes
West to prove his manhood and to grow up. The idea of the
West as a crucible, or testing ground, was an essential part
of Turner's frontier thesis, and these plays provide
evidence that such an attitude was familiar and quite widely
accepted.

Study of the cowboy is unlikely to cease, for he
continues to interest Americans:

Among the gimcracks and knickknacks of three centuries

of American popular culture, the figure of the cowboy
surely occupies a unique position. He is anomalous

 

151

and contradictory, a trifle which, unlike other trifles,
suggests substance. His one-dimensional image implies
both height and breadth, but of depth there is none.

He is the subject of no great work of art or literature
or music, but his status among the ephemera of popular
culture elevates him to the lofty levels of myth and
legend. His mark—-his brand, if you will-—is everywhere
on everything. His place in the American mythology, as
expounded from drugstore to network and points between,
is somewhere above the President and below the Christ.
Now, approximately a century after his birth as a cult
object, he is what is known as heritage; and, no matter
what one makes of him as an item in the intellectual
baggage of the American people, it is certain that he
cannot be taken lightly.

Because he cannot be taken lightly, the cowboy will not soon

disappear as a subject of investigation in a wide variety of

fields of scholarly interest, including popular culture,

sociology, psychology, and history. His is an enduring

legend.

 

1Harris and Rainey, Cowboy, 154.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

LIST OF PLAY TITLES SEARCHED FOR

Burley's Ranch (1907) Anthony E. Wills

 

Cattle King (1885) Marie Townsend Allen

 

The Cattle King of Texas (1888) Maggie Boyd

 

The Cowboy (1896) Charles H. Hoyt

 

The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot (1902) Franklyn Whitman

 

The Cowboy from Dakota (1899) Albert Carr

 

A Cowboy Minister (1903) Lewis Praue

 

The Cow-boys (1895) Joseph Bolsterli

 

 

The Cow-puncher (1902) Harry Van Demark

A Fight for Honor (1897) Miron Leffingwell

 

A Gentleman Cow—boy (1900) Eudora Cauthorn

 

The Girl from L Triangle Ranch (1908) Frank Dumont

 

Horse Thieves of Bar X Ranch Frank B. Coigne

 

Jess of the Bar 2 (1901) Forbes Heermans

 

King of the Cattle Ring (1891) James Halleck Reed

 

Little Maverick (1891)

 

My Friend, the Cowboy (1902) Alf Hampton

 

Only a Cow—boy (1885) Henry Tomkins

 

Pet of Parsons' Ranch (1886) Farrand Felch

 

The Queen of the Ranch (1900) George Kennedy

 

The Ranch Girl (1901) George Raymond

 

152

153

Ranch Hero (1900)

 

Ranch King (1896) Joseph D. Clifton

 

Ranch 10 (1882) Harry Meredith

The Round-up Anthony E. Wills

 

Scotty, the Cowboy Frank Dumont

 

Silver Spur (1885) Scott Marble

 

 

Taming a Cowbdy (1893) William Carver

Tenderfoot (1903) Richard Carle

 

A Tenderfoot in Texas G.M. Scarborough

 

Ten Mile Crossing (1882) Scott Marble

 

That Cowbpy (1892) Mary Keeler

 

The Texan (1893) Tyrone Bower

 

The Texas Avengers

 

Tigress of the West (1874) Fanny Herring

 

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VII (Fall 1955): 291-301.

 

Emery, F.E. "Psychological Effects of the Western Film: A
Study in Television Viewing." Human Relations
XXII, 3 (1959): 195-232.

 

Eutlain, Richard W. "Frontier, Region and Myth: Changing
Interpretations of Western American Culture."
Journal of American Culture 111, 2 (Summer 1980):
268-284}

 

Feldman, David N. "Formalism and Popular Culture." Journal
of Popular Culture IX, 2 (Fall 1975): 384-402.

 

Fishwick, Marshall W. "The Cowboy: America's Contribution
to the World's Mythology." Western Folklore XI, 2
(April 1952): 77-92.

Goodrich, Carter, and Sol Davison. "The Frontier as Safety
Valve: A Rejoinder." Political Science Quarterly
L111 (1938): 268—271

 

Goodrich, Carter, and $01 Davison. "The Wage-Earner in the
Western Movement." Political Science Quarterly L
(1935): 161-185.

Grimsted, David. "An Idea of Theatre History: An Informal
Plea." Educational Theatre Journal XXVI, 4 (December
1974): 425-432.

 

Hanratti, Jerome. "Melodrama--Then and Now: Some Possible
Lessons from the Nineteenth Century." A Review of
English Literature IV (April 1963): IDS-114.

 

 

Harvey, Charles M. "The Dime Novel in American Life."
Atlantic Monthly 7C (July 1907): 37-45.

 

164

Havig, Alan R. "American Historians and the Study of
Popular Culture." Journal of Popplar Culture XI, 1
(Summer 1977): 180-192.

 

Hutchinson, W.H. "Virgins, Villains, and Varmints."
Huntington Library Quarterly XVI (August 1953):
381—392 .

 

Jones, Daryl E. "Blood n' Thunder: Virgins, Villains, and
Violence in the Dime Novel Western." Journal of
Popular Culture IV (Fall 1970): 507-517.

 

 

Jones, Daryl E. "Clenched Teeth and Curses:. Revenge and the
Dime Novel Hero." Journal of POpular Culture VII, 3
(Winter 1973): 652:665}

 

Kane, Murray. "Some Considerations on the Safety Valve
Doctrine." Mississippi Valley Historical Review
XXIII (1936-37): 71691188.

 

Munden, Kenneth J. "A Contribution to the Psychological
Understanding of the Origin of the Cowboy and His
Myth." American Imago XV (1958): 103—148.

 

Nolan, Paul T. "When Curtains Rise, Scouts Fall Out."
Southern Speech Journal XXIX (Spring 1964):
175-186.

 

Nussbaum, M. "Sociological Symbolism of the 'Adult Western.'"
Social Forces XXXIX, 1 (October 1960): 25-28.

 

Shank, Theodore J. "Theatre for the Majority: Its Influence
on a Nineteenth-Century American Theatre."
Educational Theatre Journal XI (1959): 188-199.

 

Shannon, Fred A. "A Post Mortem on the Labor-Safety-Valve
Theory." Agricultural History XIX (1945): 31—37.

 

Simler, Norman. "The Safety-Valve Doctrine Re—Evaluated."
Agricultural HistorwaXXII (1958): 250-257.

 

Slout, William L. "Popular Literature of the Dramatic Tent
Show.” North Dakota Quarterly XL, 4 (Autumn 1972):
42-55 0

 

Smith, Harry James. "The Melodrama." Atlantic Monthly
XCIX (March 1907): 320-328.

 

Von Nardoff, Ellen. "The American Frontier as Safety Valve—-
The Life, Death, Reincarnation and Justification of a
Theory." Agricultural History XXXVI (1962):

123—142.

 

165

Waldmeir, Joseph H. "The Cowboy, the Knight, and Popular
Taste." Southern Folklore Quarterly XXII (September
1958): 113-120.

 

Willett, Ralph. "The American Western: Myth and Anti—Myth."
Journal of Popular Culture IV (Fall 1970): 455-463.

 

Williams, John. "The 'Western': Definition of the Myth."
Nation CXCIII (18 November 1961): 401—406.

PLAY SCRIPTS

 

Dumont, Frank. The Girl from L Triangle Ranch. Manuscript,
UCLA Libraries, I908.

 

Feagin, Bob. The End of a Texas Trail (The Texan).
Manuscript, RoSier Tent SHOW Repertory Collection,
Michigan State University Special Collections
Library, n.d.

 

Feagin, Bob. Rose of the Range. Manuscript, Rosier Tent
Show Repertory ColIecinn, Michigan State University
Special Collections Library, n.d.

 

Filkins, E.C. My Western Girl. Manuscript, Rosier Tent
Show Repertory ColIection, Michigan State University
Special Collections Library, n.d.

 

Fitch, Clyde. The Cowboy and the Lady. New York: Samuel
French,’1908.

 

Leffingwell, Miron. A Fight for Honor. Manuscript, Rosier
Tent Show Repertory ColIection, Michican State
University Special Collections Library, 1897.

 

Meredith, Harry. Ranch 10; or, Annie from Massachusetts.
Chicago: Howard and Doer, 1882.

Phillips, C.A. Dad Carter. Manuscript, Rosier Tent Show
Repertory CoIlecfion, Michigan State University
Special Collections Library, n.d.

 

Raymond, George L. The Ranch Girl. Manuscript, Library of
Congress, 1901.

 

Whitman, Franklyn. The Cowboy and the Tenderfoot. Manu—
script, Library of‘COngress, 1902.

 

Wills, Anthony E. Burley's Ranch. Chicago: Dramatic
Publishing Co., 1907.

 

166

DIME NOVELS

 

Forrest, Edwin Brooke. "The Cowboy Duke; or, Lasso Louis's
Strange Mission." Beadle's Half Dime Library #532
(1887).

Harbaugh, Thomas Chalmbers. "The Silken Lasso; or, The Rose
of Ranch Robin." Beadle's Half Dime Library #411
(1885).

 

Ingraham, Prentiss. "Buck Taylor, King of the Cowboys; or,
The Raiders and the Rangers." Beadle's Half Dime
Library #497 (1 February 1887).

 

Ingraham, Prentiss. "Roy, the Young Cattle King; or, The
Texan Sport Unmasked." Beadle's Pocket Library
#197 (1887).

Ingraham, Prentiss. "The Wild Steer Riders; or, Texas Jack's
Steers." Beadle's Dime Library #834 (17 October 1894).

Ingraham, Prentiss. "The Young Cowboy; or, The Girl Trailer's
Triumph." Beadle's Pocket Library #204 (1887).

 

Patten, William G. "Cowboy Steve, the Ranch Mascot; or, The
Bond of Blood." Beadle's Half Dime Library #806
(3 January 1893).

Patten, William G. "Hustler Harry, the Cowboy Sport; or,
Daring Dan Shark's General Delivery." Beadle's Dime

Library #545 (1889)

Whittaker, Frederick. "Parson Jim, King of the Cowboys; or,
The Gentle Shepherd's Big 'Clean Out.'" Beadle's
Dime Libragy #215 (6 December 1882).

 

LETTERS

Burdick, Elizabeth, Director of the Theatre Collection,
International Theatre Institute of the United States,
to Kay Robinson, 18 August 1980.

Ceibert, Mary, Assistant Rare Book Room Librarian, University
Library, University of Illinois, to Kay Robinson, n.d.

Davis, Marcia, Colorado State University Libraries, to Kay
Robinson, n.d.

Gehres,

Jensen,

Jordan,

Kachur,

Newlin,

167

Eleanor M., Head of the Western History Department of
the Denver Public Library, to Kay Robinson,
15 September 1980.

Mary Ann, Curator of the William Seymour Theatre
Collection, Princeton University Library, to Kay
Robinson, 26 August 1980.

Pamela C., Yale School of Drama Library, to Kay
Robinson, 18 September 1980.

Barbara A., Research Associate, Theatre Research
Institute, Ohio SEate University, to Kay Robinson,
26 August 1980.

Jeanne T., Curator of the Harvard Theatre Collection,
to Kay Robinson, 26 August 1980.

Pietz, Jean 2., Cleveland Public library, to Kay Robinson,

Rachow,

Reiber,

1 September 1980.

Louis A., Curator and Librarian of The Walter
Hampden—Edwin Booth Theatre Collection and Library,
to Kay Robinson, 20 August 1980.

James T., Librarian, Literature Department, The Free
Library of Philadelphia, to Kay Robinson,
11 September 1980.

Swerdlove, Dorothy L., Acting Curator of The Billy Rose

Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library, to
Kay Robinson, 19 August 1980.

Whiting, Brooke, Curator of Rare Books and Literary

Wright,

Manuscripts, University Library, University of
California, Los Angeles, to Kay Robinson,
29 August 1980.

Walter W., Chief of Special Collections, Dartmouth
College Library, to Kay Robinson, 19 August 1980.

Yasui, Holly, Archive Assistant, Wisconsin Center for Film

and Theater Research, University of Wisconsin, to
Kay Robinson, 19 August 1980.

 

MICHIGAN smTE UNIV. LIBRARIES
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