The quirt and the spur. Vanishing shadows of the Texas frontier.

Chicago: W.B. Conkey Co., [1909]. 8vo. 363, [1] pp. Photo frntsp., 10 plates by Carqueville. Beige cloth, arts & crafts illust. of cowboy, w/ spurs & lariat in red & gray on frnt cvr, red & gray lettrng (slght bmpng hd & ft of spine, crnrs, slght fryng), still VG bright copy, w/ bkplate on frnt pstdn of Willie M. Christopher. First edition of this fascinating work about the wild and wooly days around Fort Griffin, Texas in the 1870s and 1880s, containing accounts of John Selman (spelled as Sillman in the book), and John Larn. Rye (1848-1920) was a western journalist and cartoonist who founded the Tomahawk Newspaper in 1879, and then worked for the successor papers, the Western Sun and the Albany Sun until 1882. While working for the Albany Weekly News from 1889-90, he published a series of articles entitled Old Times in Texas, and Character Sketches, which were incorporated into this work. Although Rye had intended the work to be full of exaggeration and tall tales, apparently one prominent ranching family took it very seriously considering some of the book slander, and set about buying and destroying as many copies as they could find -- leading to is relative rarity. Howes, R559; Rader, 2864; Herd 1982, Six-Guns, 1923.