From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   Cal Dia wrote:   
      
   > In article , firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
   > says...   
   >   
   > Hi Gerald,   
   >   
   > Nice of you to reply with your usual factual   
   > information.   
   >   
   >   
   >>Smith & Wesson or Colt's *decorated* by   
   >>Tiffany & Co. for presentation at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair or   
   >>various Colts with Tiffany grips.   
   >   
   >   
   > I haven't a clue beyond what was written in the   
   > intro to the book. In the story it says the entire   
   > butt of the gun is solid silver, thereby making   
   > it very heavy. In the intro Latham says, "I   
   > gave my American knight (the hero in the story) a   
   > special gun made by Tiffany. Yes, Tiffany really   
   > did make silver six-shooters once upon a time."   
   > In the story the gun is said to resemble those   
   > made specially for the Chicago Columbian Exhibition   
   > of 1892, for Smith and Wesson (not Colt, as I   
   > mistakenly said in my first post).   
   >   
   >   
   >>the author is married to Leslie Stahl   
   >   
   >   
   > I wasn't aware of that. I'd never read anything by   
   > him until now. But that explains the cryptic   
   > dedication in the front of the book, which reads,   
   > "When I invent a new heroine, I'm just reinventing Lesley."   
   >   
   > As for the book having any relationship to   
   > authenticity, it's more like "reading" a disaster   
   > movie that is written to entertain, which I   
   > believe the book does a great job of doing. And   
   > while doing so, it does echo the legends of the   
   > Texas "old west" in the same sense that many of   
   > J. Frank Doby's books do.   
   >   
   >   
      
   Okay. I'd buy the notion of silver grips. Not an entire solid silver   
   frame, which would be too soft to hold up well. Seems like I saw an   
   auction price or auction estimate on one of these from the Chicago Fair   
   somewhere high of $300,000.   
      
   Well, Dobie always said that history was best conveyed through stories   
   that weren't required to stick to literal fact. And he was a pretty fair   
   borrower himself.   
      
   --   
                          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)