You came here to learn what really went on 150 years ago. I was there. You be fortunate in readin’ my diaries. I bet Sue converted ’em to prose, ‘n then Derek gits them published fer you to read. So don’t be thankin’ me. Be thankin’ them.
Books, They re-open long-closed frontiers fer you to explore. The Wild West be gone, but books? Books bring it back alive.
So, me havin’ been one o’ the original fakers in the charade we call “movies”, I kin tell you flat out thet movies simply be tossed together like saddle salad with liniment dressin’. It don’t have to actually work, it jest has to look like it might.
When we be in a pinch fer, say, an extry revolver ’cause the clumsy oaf we hired to be a cowboy actor dropped his gun down a crevasse, we jest grab whatever gun we have on hand. Thet cowpuncher might be shootin’ a 44 Colt in one scene, in then a 32 Remington the next. Funny thing is thet the movie be goin’ so fast thet nobody notices.
Not so with a book. You kin think “Now, wait jest a gol-durned minute there…” You turn the pages back ‘n see what he were shootin’ ten minutes ago.
The beauty of a book be thet you set the pace. Fer example, let’s say Sweet Sue been tied to the railroad tracks. Actually, come to think on it, it be nearly impossible to be tied to the tracks in real life. So instead, let’s say she been tied to dyn-o-mite, ‘n the fuse be sizzling down the last precious seconds of her sweet life.
Well, a book you kin set down, go fix dinner, eat, go to bed, wake up in the mornin’ knowin’ full well thet dyn-o-mite ain’t gonna explode until you be darned good ‘n ready to let it blow.
