From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Chris Mark wrote:   
      
   > But also keep  in mind the sheer hard work required to survive ranching,   
   mining   
   > or logging, even as late as the 1930s.  In the 1870s, with only manual or   
   draft   
   > animal power, the life must have been brutal.  And when it got dark, if you   
   had   
   > the energy to stay awake, would you read--or would you mend something that   
   > needed fixing and make something that you needed?  And while you were doing   
   > that if you were not alone, you would tell stories to pass the time, about   
   that   
   > mule Old Jim used to have, or the time Aunt Sally spooked a bear in the berry   
   > patch.   
      
   Good point. Homes were often extremely primative, and dark meant   
   sleeping or maybe sitting up outside awhile. And the point about endless   
   work strikes now and then in some story. One that J. Frank Dobie related   
   in his book on lost mines and treasures comes to mind. It recounts one   
   rancher having heard something that made him believe a particular place   
   was a hot prospect for some buried gold. It wasn't far from his place,   
   but it was three years before he could find a day to go look.   
      
   In the 1950's in Texas, the descriptions of most folks and homesteads,   
   outside of the few cities and the German settlements, suggests that,   
   even though they had little to do between periods of gathering loose   
   cattle, they weren't the sort to crave a read. At the same time, the   
   Germans northeast of San Antonio brought books and educations with them,   
   often being cultured people displaced by the political climate at home.   
   In 1855, Olmstead found New Braunfels the first place he had seen where   
   children went to school and where windows had glass. He was much taken   
   with one man near Sisterdale who had a considerable library.   
      
   And books, especially before the publishing business shifted to large   
   runs, cost cash. It's easy to forget that there were many times and   
   places where cash was seldom seen. Some big, early Texas cattlemen might   
   not handle a total of $100 cash in a year. In a place where wheat flour   
   and sugar were difficult or impossible to come by most times, books   
   wouldn't often be found for sale. Who would haul books to sell? There   
   were better things. One fellow made a very good thing with a load of   
   clocks, trading them for cattle.   
      
   For that matter, those whose jobs take them into a lot of homes today   
   know that many, many have no books in evidence.   
      
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)