Show A Southwestern Cowboy Became 1 Novelist of the Cattle Kingdom In The Hired Man on Horseback the Widow of Eugene Manlove Rhodes Tells the Fascinating Story of His Hs Eventful Career and a Well-Known Well Critic Pays Tribute to His Literary Importance as the tho Ablest Interpreter of Life on the tho Desert Range C e Western Newspaper Union By Dy ELMO ELl SCOTT WATSON lIEN HEN Eugene Manlove WHEN W Rhodes died in Call Call- fornia on June 27 27 1934 they took him back to New Mexico and buried him in a grave dug in the white gypsum gypsum gyp gyp- I sum on the summit of his beSan beloved beloved be be- loved San Andres mountains s. s At its head they erected a aI simple marker which bore I only his name and the words Paso por par Aqui Paso por Aqui that Aqui that is the Spanish Sanish for He passed by here and it was the phrase used by the Spanish Conquistadores who visited El EI Morro Inscription Rock I and carved their names on this landmark of the South South- west But it has more meanIng meaning mean mean- ing than its simple phrasing suggests suggests especially especially when it itis itis itis is applied to Gene Rhodes That grave with its unpretentious marker in the mountains mountains moun moun- of New Mexico has become become be be- come a shrine for thousands of Americans who have read the novels stories and i. i 4 Gene Rhodes Cowboy poems written by the man who passed by here They are the only body of fiction ftc ftc- tion lon devoted to the cattle kingdom which is both true to it and writ- writ written written ten en by an artist in prose Surely that hat is a great deal to have given fiction its sole mature expression In n one era in our past one portion of the experience that has gone to tomake tomake tomake make up America Such are the words words' of of Bernard De Voto one of Americas America's leading literary critics in his introduction to the book look The Hired Man on Horse Horse- I back My tack My Story of Eugene Manove Man- Man Manlove love hove ove Rhodes written by his wife May Hay Davison Rhodes and published published pub- pub recently by the Houghton company of Boston The story of Eugene Manlove Rhodes as told In this biography is s the tale of a cowboy who by his its own efforts became one of Americas America's known best writers More Wore than that he is one of the loved best for there is a veritable Gene Rhodes cult of American readers Born in a log house in Tecum Tecum- seh Neb January 19 19 1869 Gene Rhodes was the son of Hinman Rhodes who served as colonel of the Twenty-eighth Twenty Illinois Volunteers Volunteers Volun Volun- teem in the War Between the States and who pioneered in Kansas Kan sas and Nebraska after the war In En 1831 1881 Colonel Rhodes was appointed appointed appointed ap ap- ap- ap pointed Indian agent for the Mescalero Mescalero Mes- Mes calero Apaches in New Mexico and there young Gene grew up On the Trail of Geronimo At the age of thirteen he bought a saddle with soap coupons and became a horse wrangler for the McDonald cow outfit at Carrizzo Carrino Springs By the time he was seventeen he was acting as a guide and government scout during during dur duro ing the Geronimo uprising of 1888 1886 When he was twenty one he borrowed 50 from his father and started to school at the University University Uni Uni- of the Pacific at San Jose Calif He remained there two years ears until his money ran ran out Then he went back to New Mexico co and after a short period of teaching school became a cow cow- boy He lie became known as a reckless rider with a. a positive mania for pitting his skill against that of bad ad horses Ills His fellow cowboys said of him that he could ride anything that wore hair but he once modestly admitted that In more than 25 years ears of riding he had been thrown three times But for all this riding prowess he was most noted for his reading read read- ing Even when riding bronco he hei i read writes writes' s his wile wife He car- car 4 tr 0 v vh h aeda i w m 4 i V S S V S i SS- SS r 1 S n Eugene Manlove Rhodes left talks over frontier days day with lIh another chronicler of 01 the he Old West Stuart Lake right biographer of 01 Wyatt Earp Arizona marshal ned ried magazines in his saddle pockets For every time he turned a page there tere is a probability the bronc would swallow his neck One horse was given a special reading breaking When the bronc went over backward with an shaking earth thud Gene having thrown himself clear as usual raced to the animals animal's head before it could make a move to get up and sat down on it Sitting on the bronc's head Gene pulled a volume of Browning from his Jumper pocket and lost himself in communion with the immortal poet Nor did he confine his reading habits to the hurricane dick of ofa ofa ofa a bronc When books and magazines mag mag- names were not available Gene read even the labels on cans commending as especially enjoyable enjoyable enjoyable enjoy enjoy- able English the label on Worcestershire Worcestershire sauce bottles which he read a countless number of times Small wonder then that he should turn to writing His first work short stories and poems appeared in the Out West magazine in 1902 but within five years some of his short stories stones were appearing in half haU a dozen of our leading magazines B Beginnings of f a Romance Incidentally it It was one of his poems which led to a correspondence correspond correspond- ence with a young widow back in New York state and and their romance romance ro ro- ro mance developed into the marriage marriage mar mar- of Eugene Manlove Rhodes cowboy and May Davison recently recent ly graduated from a nurses nurse's trainIng training train train- ing school In Philadelphia The Hired Man on Horseback is the story of their life together in pov pov- verty and in prosperity in Rhodes' Rhodes beloved Southwest and during a long period of exile which he spent in the East Admirably supplementing that human interest document is Bernard Bernard Bernard Ber Ber- nard De Dc Voto's Veto's introduction to the book which bears the title of The Novelist of the Cattle Kingdom In discussing Gene Rhod Rhodes Rhode's s writer of horse operas as a serious serious seri seri- ous Otis literary artist De Do Voto declares de de- de clares dares He lie was a realist not only of ot the externals of life in a vivid brief era but a realist of the beliefs beliefs be be- and aspirations that gave it vitality And the historian 1 must conscientiously point out that during the when the more anyone does They talk in a blithe way that no other fiction writer has made c cowboys talk unless O. O Henry be excepted Mr Rhodes knows literature and while he will not have one of his cowboys sacrifice fidelity to his own speech in order to say a good thing only O. O Henry and Alfred Allred lien Henry Lewis among the fictionists fictionists fiction fiction- of the West can vie with him himin himin himin in the grace of literary allusion It seems perfectly natural for Pres Pres' Lewis in The Trusty Knaves after biting off a chew of tobacco to say You keep your four voice down brother If It you bellow at t me any more Im I'm liable to 0 prophesy against you you When you got any communications communication lor for me in I J want em em sweet and low like Uke the wind ot of 0 the we western tern sea lea What I A cowboy quoting Tennyson Ten Ten- I Yes they did it and heres here's why a great many of them tt S L May Davison Rhodes smoked a popular brand of tobacco tobacco tobacco to to- bacco that came in little cloth bags and with them cigarette papers papers pa pa- pers with which to roll your own This tobacco company once distributed with the tobacco paper-bound paper reprints of the classics classics classics clas clas- of English literature Gene Rhodes the reading cowboy wasn't the only one who absorbed literary culture I from those little paper-bound paper books 1 A Born Story That reading helped make him the literary artist that he was was was- plus the fact that he be was a born 1 F S SS S V 55 S S S 'S i m r I I A Hired lUred Man on horseback la In the country which Rhodes loved lond and wrote about important part pari of Rhodes' Rhodes work was done it was not fashionable in American literature to assert the tenets of ot democracy nor to affirm the dignity of common life and the worth of native American ways and values Ills work ran exactly counter to the main mainstream mainstream mainstream stream of fiction and criticism during that museum decade 1 which may be another reason why criticism ignored it In other words this cowboy cowboy- writer was an American patriot patriot pa pa- triot in the truest sense of ot the word It seem seems strange that we have had to wait until after his death to realize that fact and pay tribute as Mr De Voto has done to him for it What is there to distinguish Rhodes from other writers of cowboy cow boy life It is his authenticity For as Mr De Dc Voto observes Rhodes people t talk like living men Confirmation of that fact act actis is this statement of J. J Frank Doble who knows blows his West U 11 story He lIe wrote stories for forthe forthe or orthe the plain people people not not the intellectuals to to read and he he wrote about plain people They were were simple people and it followed that their virtues were simple courage loyalty fortitude helpfulness sympathy humor endurance the ability to disregard themselves themselves themselves them them- selves when facing the need of others the ability to work with others an unconquerable decency and dignity an unthinking but basic assertion of the worth of human l life e Thus Mr De Dc Voto's tribute to them As for or Dr his tribute to Gene Rhodes it is summed up in this one paragraph lIe He passed this way He lie lived in a hard country in a laborious time loving that country and its people In the fullness of his love he wrote about what he knew So he scratched his name on Inscription Inscription tion Rock neck An honorable time will have passed before the wind and andS S sand cart catt erase it Why the title The Hired Man Manon on Horseback for or this biography of Eugene Manlove Rhodes Its It's because literary critics in commenting com corn upon one of his novels suggested that he made the cowboy cowboy cow cow- boy a much too romantic figure The is simply typical cowboy a II said James Stephens in the International Book Review and his words were echoed In statements which appeared appeared ap ap- on the editorial pages of the Minneapolis Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle to the effect that The cowboy after alter all was never anything more than a hired man on horseback Thereupon Rhodes sat himself down and wrote THE TUB ShRED lURED MAN MAIN ON HORSEBACK With ape of to o 0 C. C K IC aid aad Pen Don JUDD Juan of t o. Austria Harp and flute Oute and violin throbbing through the night Merry eye and nd tender eyes eye dark head bead and bright Moon shadow on the sundial to mark the momentS fleet The magic and enchanted hours hour where moonlight lovers lovera meet And the harp barp notes nole come all U brokenly by night winds stirred stirred- But the hired man on horseback U is sing line tag Ing to 0 the herd berd I t HI little J o y 70 o. o-o. ay ml I Doggerel upon his lip Ups lips and nd valor In hi hla heart Marl Not to 10 flinch and not to tail fall not to shirk nil hll part Wearily and wearily be he sees lees the tars stars wheel by And ADd he know hU hll guard pard 1 Is 11 nearly done b by the great ereal clock in the sky lie He hears hear the Last Guard coming cumin and he heirs burs their on song begun A foolish aon song he win will forget when be he forgets forell the sun Iun o ll HI Utti yo-o. yo 0 ay ml m We got em em now you sleepy leepy men so 10 pull puli your our freight to bed And pound your ear an hour bour or two belore before before be be- fore lore the east Is red II to a hit hi dreams rIma a I lace MCI c m. m may corn com come Ah Ab turn your eyes eye away Nor guess what face lace may my come by dream that never comes by day I Red fled dawn breaking through the desert murk The hired man on horseback goes laughing laugh ing to his work The broke brokers broker in his office before the stroke of 01 ten He lie buys buy and smiles and he sells ell and smiles mlles at the Ibe word of other men But be gets lell his Utile little commission flat whether they buy or sell So be U It drouth or storm or flood the brokers broker's crops do well wU They are short hort of 01 Katy Common they are long on Zinc Preferred Preferred- But the he hired man on horseback Is 18 swimming swim ming mini with the herd I IWhite White horns borns gleaming where the flood flooeS rolls brown Lefty fighting the he lower point as II the current sweeps them down Lefty fighting the stubborn steers that tha will not turn or slow Ilow They press prel beside belld him they swim wlm below below be be- low him Come him Come out and let lei them got But Lefty does not no leave luve them and Lefty tries Irles once more He lie U Lu swinging the wild leaders In toward to 10 ward the northern shore hore Hell He'll do to ride the river with I Bridging tag ing the years yean between Men shall use those thole word words again and again and wonder what they mean Ha lie Is back to 10 turn lUrD the stragglers In to follow the leaders through When a cottonwood snag comes come twisting down with long arms lashing hate On wearied horse born and wearied man man and and they see It come too late latel latelA I IA A A brown hand lifted In the splashing pray Sun upon a a golden head bead that never will wW willbe willbe be gray Iray V A low mound bare until new grass IrU is grown grown- But the Palo Plo Pinto trail tran herd berd has bar crossed I the A little littie midnight supper lupper when the play ply is Ia done Glancing lights lIghta and and sparkling eyes I the th nl night bt 1 Is Ia Just I begun bt O 0 cf alibi 1 tl In Youth loveS I Youth and Joy are met mel I Shin Si en on our ni I Sweet your eyes are wet wel Dear they sing for us UI alone I Such the lovers lover's creed But Bu But the hired man on horseback is 18 of oft with the th stampede There 1 U 11 no star in the pit black night there ther U ta none to know or blame And AneS a hundred bundred yards yard to left teft or right there is safety ety there there and and shame shamel A stone slone throw out on either side with none to 10 guess or tell- tell But the hired man on oil horseback has baa raised the rebel yell yeU I He U. has hal turned to loosen loolen his hi saddle addle strings he be has baa fumbled his slicker lIcker free U He De whirls It high and he snaps snap it I wide wid wherever the foremost be He lie slaps slap It Into a longhorns longhorn's eyes till WI he falters In his stride An oath and nd a shot hot a laugh lauah and a shot hot and his wild mates mate race beside A pony puny stumbles no he is i. up unhurt and running still WI I Turn em em turn em turn em Charlie Good boy BIU Bill They are crashing through the cedar mottes they are skating the rimrock rim rim- rock slick Uck They are thundering through the cactus flat flats where the badger holes boles are thick Day is 11 breaking clouds are lifting leaden leaders lead lead- en ers turn to mill mili- mili Hold em cowboys cowboys' Turn em Charlie God Coil BUliN 1 The proud Young Intellectuals a cultured cultured cul cul- folk are these They scorn acorn the lowly Babbits and Ind their hearts hurll are overseas ovene They turn their backs backa upon us ua us and andI If ii we ask ak them why They smile mUe like Ilk Jesting Pilate and the stay tay for no reply They smile at faith and honor and they smile at shame and crime- crime But the he old Palo Pinto man mn Is II calling for his bis Ume time for or a i. i beard bitti old olt voices rolen sad aae bt be boo boo tin bolt Song Sal that loC bag no cc win we gay fay C to m. gIm lIb wita let luti eI Beat Bul back bd n aid lai Hat dim eyes grow cow row rice Tb It |