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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 3, 2020 10:33:17 GMT -5
 “No, the founders of Texas had little idea of making a separate Republic out of the vast lands they wrested from the Latins. Old Hickory sent Sam Houston to Texas to add that country on to the United States, and most of the Texans clamored for admittance into the Union. But some of the far-sighted ones, Houston among others, held in their minds that lost dream of empire – well, it wasnt to be.” —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 1930 Much has been written about the relationship of Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston and the real reason Houston came to Texas. There are many books, like the one pictured above by Paul Wellman, which suggest a major plot to claim the territory for the United States. There are many who hold on to it, while many historians tend to downplay it, like the author in the video below. So, what is the truth? We'll probably never have a firm idea at this point, but my guess is the truth lies somewhere in the middle and that, in a way, they are all right. In some ways, that is kind of the same perspective Howard takes in the quote above. The interview of Marshall DeBruhl, upon the publication of his book Sword of San Jacinto was asked this common question. See how he answers it here, jumping to the 6 minute mark: www.c-span.org/video/?40390-1/sword-san-jacinto-life-sam-houston www.c-span.org/video/?40390-1/sword-san-jacinto-life-sam-houston |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 4, 2020 11:07:16 GMT -5
 “I’m glad you found my ramblings regarding Texas not too boresome. It is almost an empire in itself, and I look with real fury on the suggestion of dividing it into several states, though probably it would be an advantage to the Southwest politically.” —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 1930 People often mistakenly get the idea that Texas is authorized to secede from the union with its authorization to divide into five states. Called Texas Divisionism, Texas is statutorily permitted by a provision included in the resolution admitting the former Republic of Texas into the Union in 1845 to divide further into 5 states. Andrew Shears, a geography professor, looked at the many points in American history where proposals to break up existing states further occurred and imagined what would have happened if all of them had actually taken place. What he came up with was the 124 states of American. When he first put up his website, it crashed from too many people viewing it. He updated it from time to time, but at some point took it down. It still circulates around the web. For instance, this version from 2011 is missing the Free State of Freedonia, the proposal to develop Nacogdoches and the surrounding area of east Texas into its own state. Howard apparently did not like the idea of dividing Texas further, and although politics have shifted since his time, all it would merely do is water down the current power of the state of Texas. Here is the link for the map and a detail listing by year of the many times states were considered in our American history. It makes for fascinating reading: www.mapmania.org/map/65545/what_the_united_states_could_have_been |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 5, 2020 10:42:48 GMT -5
 “I can think of no more striking one than the sight that meets one’s eyes when entering the Rio Grande valley on the Falfurrias – Edinburg road. The way lies seventy miles through level monotonous waste-land – an arid, sandy desert, grown scantily with grease- wood bushes and chaparrel, unrelieved by any hill, tree or stream - then without warning you ride out of the desert edge into the irrigated belt. Abruptly the whole scene changes; green fields, with broad irrigation ditches winding through them lie smiling in the sun, and blossoming orange-groves wave in the soft breeze; the road becomes an avenue of palms, flanked on either hand by the tall straight trees with their broad leaves whispering in the wind - and the little towns are so thick you can see from one to the other, almost, looking straight down the unwinding road - at least, that was the Valley six years ago. I hear it has changed a great deal since then, but I am sure that the great floods of people pouring in, have not changed the general scenery much. Gad - I realized when I first saw it, how the Israelites must have felt when they first looked on Canaan after their wanderings in the desert.” —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 1930 The "six years ago" would make Howard's reference to approximately 1925. Here is a film of the Rio Grande Valley from 1927, showing both the desolate areas, the irrigated areas, and the road Howard describes. It makes for a nice time-piece. Though pick a piece of music to play while watching it as there is no sound. texasarchive.org/2009_02291?b=0 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 9, 2020 12:50:52 GMT -5
 “There is another interesting but rather depressing phase of Texas in that region between San Antonio and Eagle Pass. In a certain section they raise little but onions and they plant onions as upper country farmers plant cotton - by the hundreds of acres. They have no water on top of the ground and a great many small oil promoters from my part of the country have gone there with their ‘spudders’ - movable rigs for shallow wells - and made a bit of money drilling for water for irrigation. Ye gods - what a country! It isn’t exactly flat, but rather rolling and bald as any desert, minus the sand. You can stand on a slight rise and see exactly the same thing stretching out to the horizon on every hand. It creates a most bewildering impression - its surprizing how easily you can get turned around and completely lost, in a country where you can see for forty miles. Its worse than a level desert; besides it all looks just alike - you get mixed up in directions and things you see at a distance don’t turn out to be where they seem. No fences, no trees, no cattle; just a few houses here and there baking in the hot sun and a few rigs pounding away - it gives an impression of utter desolation, worse than a desert, because buzzards fly over a desert and horned toads and snakes wriggle in the sand. Yet almost all of that dreary and lonely land is sown with onions! They werent up when I was there and the landscape didn’t look like any human being had ever laid a plough to it. There a mesquite tree looks like an oasis.” —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 1930 Between San Antonio and Eagle Pass lies the town of Uvalde. Uvalde is famous for their onions, which I have to say are pretty fantastic onions. The 1015 Sweet Onion. If you ever had a bloomin' onion, you probably had a Uvalde onion. Here is a video that talks not only about the onions, their harvesting, and how good they are, but I like how the interviewee ties the onion industry back several generations. Who knows, maybe his grandfather was there when Howard passed through the onion fields. |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 22, 2020 14:39:43 GMT -5
 "Corbett in 1897 met an ex-blacksmith from New Zealand—Irish and a rugged fighter, named Robert Fitzsimmons (pictured above). Result: A new champion." -Robert E. Howard to the Forth Worth Record, July 20, 1928 The fight Howard is referring to took place on March 17, 1897 in Carson City, Nevada, where Fitzsimmons knocked out Jim Corbett, recognized at the time as the legitimate World Heavyweight Champion, in round 14. The year before, however, there was a controversial fight in Langtry, Texas, in which Fitzsimmons defeated Irish fighter Peter Maher for a disputed version of the World Heavyweight Championship. Because boxing was declared illegal in Texas at the time and not wanted in Mexico, the match took place on a sandbar in the Rio Grande River. The Texas Ranger "one riot, one ranger" Bill McDonald got involved (this is the incident in which that famous line was delivered), as did Bat Masterson, and the rather famous Judge "Law West of the Pecos" Roy Bean. Justice Ken Wise covers this odd piece of boxing-Texas history in episode 8 of his informative podcast series "Wise About Texas." Give it a listen - it's a hoot! Listen to the podcast here: wiseabouttexas.com/the-secret-fight-of-the-century-episode-8/ |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 23, 2020 12:36:58 GMT -5
 "Not long ago they passed an ordinance prohibiting hogs from running wild in the Austin hills, and now I hear that the snakes are increasing an an alarming rate and even wriggling down into the city itself. Hogs eat snakes . . . [and] a rattler can bit a hog all day without hurting the hog." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, January 1931
Well, it seems that ordinance didn't work out so well, as the feral hog problem continues to grow in Texas to this day. Where I live, we have problems of them coming into people's yards and rooting up their entire lawn in one night. A neighbor down the street had his yard torn up recently, so up went more fencing.
The following video is the best I could find that gives some history to the problem, indicates they are not native to this land, and talks about the various ways in which they are so destructive. It is a bit more Oklahoma-centric, but the problem is no different here in Texas.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 25, 2020 11:07:07 GMT -5
 "Yes, my trip to Santa Fe proved satisfying, though less extensive than I had planned. Vinson and I left Cross Plains early the morning of the 19th, June, and followed the Bankhead Highway westward to the Pecos, along the same route we took last summer." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, July 1935
We all know that once Howard purchased a car, he loved to go on long drives with friends and especially his girlfriend, Novalyne. His second vehicle, the 1935 Chevy Standard, is featured above, although by most accounts, his was black in color. In the letter to Lovecraft, he mentions traveling the Bankhead Highway. Though portions of this still remain, kind of, it is a term no longer much heard today. The video below talks about the history of the Bankhead Highway and talks a little bit about the Texas portion of the road. |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 25, 2020 15:14:08 GMT -5
  “The day was hotter than a promise of Purgatory. We sat on the sea wall, with our backs to the gulf where a keen breeze was blowing, but the tiers of benches were so packed that not a breath of coolness could drift through . . . Truett swore with an energy that I could not muster on account of the heat. We glared at each other without optimism. We had sat—and sat—and sat. Had we been merely waiting for some national hero to appear, we would have given it up and started a general slaughter as a diversion. But we were there to see legs, and legs we were going to see if we sat there till Hell froze over and the Devil took sleigh rides on the ice . . . Bathing girls from all over the world. Their native lands had nobly sent them across the sea. Some were pretty, some had shapely forms. But as far as we were concerned, the weather was the only thing that was heated.” —Robert E. Howard, “The Galveston Affair” Working my way through the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press's new publication Post Oaks and Sand Roughs & Other Autobiographical Writings (2019) for a second time, I came across this autobiographical essay by Howard detailing Truett Vinson and his trip to attend the second annual International Pageant of Pulchritude and eighth Annual Bathing Girl Review in Galveston, Texas, May 1927. The panoramic picture above shows the bathing beauties from the third annual review held in May 1928, again in Galveston. The first video gives some specific facts about the review that Howard and Vinson attended, while the second video shows the bathing beauties from one of the first caught on camera, in 1930. texasarchive.org/2016_01348?b=0 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 26, 2020 12:33:44 GMT -5
  SAN JACINTOFlowers bloom on San Jacinto, Red and white and blue. Long ago o'er San Jacinto Wheeling vultures flew. Long ago on San Jacinto Soared the battle-smoke; Long ago on San Jacinto Wild ranks smote and broke. Crimson clouds o'er San Jacinto, Scarlet was the haze-- Peaceful o'er calm San Jacinto Glide the drowsy days. -Robert E. Howard "If I could choose the age in which I was to live, I can think of no better epoch than this: to have been born about a hundred years earlier than I was, to have grown up on the Southwestern frontier, to have fought through the Texas Revolution and taken a part in San Jacinto." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 1931
Howard mentions the Battle of San Jacinto on a number of occasions, including the letter to Lovecraft and when he sent the poem to Tevis Clyde Smith on June 23, 1926. The battle took place on April 21, 1836, and was the decisive battle in the Texas Revolution, paving the way for Texas to become its own nation. Judge Wise in his Wise about Texas podcast, covers the Battle of San Jacinto, which you may listen to here: wiseabouttexas.com/bonus-episode-the-battle-of-san-jacinto/ |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 29, 2020 15:49:29 GMT -5
 "I hope to some day write a history of the Southwest that will seem alive and human to the readers, not the dry and musty stuff one generally finds in chronicles. To me the annals of the land pulse with blood and life, but whether I can transfer this life from my mind to paper, is a question. It will be years, at least." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, January 1931Just another reminder of Howard's intent to write "An Unborn Empire," the history of Texas and the Southwest. I only wish he had stayed around long enough to do just that (and write some more Conan, and Kull, and westerns, and Bran, and horror tales, and . . . .) |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jun 30, 2020 11:09:26 GMT -5
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jul 1, 2020 10:32:04 GMT -5
 "The flowers and palms of the streets are the best feature of a rather dingy town [Galveston], fading as a sea-port since they brought deep water up to Houston." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, January 1931
The Houston channel is believed to have been used to transport goods to the city since as far back as 1836. Over the years it was dredged some, but after the Galveston Hurricane in 1900, Houston seemed like a safer place to be, so the channel was dredged deeper to allow for larger transport ships. The postcard above shows what the channel looked like in the 1920s.
The first 21 minutes of the following video provides the history of the Houston shipping channel up to Howard's death in 1936.
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jul 2, 2020 13:58:17 GMT -5
“We have an organization down here known as the Texas Rangers which is not without some reputation. And the men composing it are not valiants imported from some 'civilized' section to keep the lawless natives in order. Without exception, they are native Texans.”
—Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, September/October 1933
I hate to correct Howard, but not all of the Texas Rangers were native born – naturalized, yes, but not native born. For instance, out of the Four Great Captains—James Abijah Brooks, Bill McDonald, John Hughes, and John Rogers—only one was a native Texan.
The video above is a recently released episode of Discovering the Legend titled "The Four Great Captains."
Note in one of the displays they pan in on, it mentions the Maher-Fitzsimmons prizefight I wrote about the other day--Bill McDonald was the "one riot, one ranger."
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jul 3, 2020 13:41:29 GMT -5
 “Sometimes I feel as if the shotgun blast from the brush that mowed down Belle Starr, forecast the doom of the wild, mad, glorious, gory old days of the frontier. She was more than the wicked woman pious people call her - more than merely a feminine outlaw - she was the very symbol of a free, wild, fierce race.” —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 9, 1932 Although Belle Starr (February 5, 1848– February 3, 1889) was born in Missouri, come the end of the Civil War her family moved into Texas, which is where she began her (in)famous career. She eventually moved to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma) where she married Sam Starr. Her husband pretty much was the one who influenced her life of crime—hiding outlaws, horse thieving, etc.—but after he died, her outlaw days came to end. She apparently still had a number of enemies for while out riding on February 3, 1889, she was ambushed and killed with her own shotgun. The perpetrator was never caught. The following is short video that gives an overview of her life: |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Jul 6, 2020 11:01:32 GMT -5
 “Will Rogers, in jest, spoke of erecting a monument to Belle Starr. Oklahoma could do worse. Whatever she was or was not, she symbolized a colorful and virile phase of American evolution.” —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 9, 1932 Howard's last comment on Belle Starr evoked the humor of Will Rogers, who, though an Oklahoman, was widely regarded in Texas during Howard's day. Rogers (November 4, 1879 - August 15, 1935), started his show career as a trick roper with "Texas Jack's Wild West Circus." He migrated to vaudeville and develop his own show of roping and telling jokes. Eventually his focus was on the humor he found in reading the newspaper (he'd have a field day reading today's newspapers). Rogers made a number of movies in the 1920s, mostly silent, had a weekly radio show, and was active in politics, once supporting his friend Henry Ford for president. He is memorialized in Fort Worth at the Will Rogers Memorial Center and with an equestrian statue on the campus of Texas Tech University (assuming it hasn't been torn down). Here is a video of Will Roger's roping ability. It is from his silent movie "The Ropin' Fool" and has a commentary explaining each of the rope tricks Will Rogers is performing. |
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