Page
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1960.
Page
UNMASKED!
The Great Frontier
Frauds If your husband
has a sixgun hero then let him
`in on this.......
New York.
THE autumn in
by Peter Chambers
1865 to 1888, yet it gave rise to as a "So long, honey" to Mattie, a tolklore as herole and un- Deserted, she committed suicide changing as King Arthur and a few years later after Hving his Knights of the Round Table. 28 a prostitute in an Arizona
Is the picture true? Or have mining camp.
with a fraud? the legend-builders fobbed us
American researchers have
nsavoury
him dead one moonlit night t Fort Summer, New Mexico.
But such is the Inaccuracy of the popular history of the West that Billy turned up on an American programme this week as a sheriff's deputy. His boss? None other than Pat Garett, the man who 'drilled him, ·
Famed Jesso James, the SO called "Robin Hood" of the out-
jaws, never Kave a nickel to anybody. He robbed 11 banks, seven trains, and killed 16 men, two of thei warmed clerks.
other royal flush hero of the gambling dens, Bot. Masterson, didn't even have
this reputa- tion.
"He was aly, cunning, cautious ...a poor shot;" says Peter bank Lyon, a deep and sceptical
delver into fables of the West.
At his funeral the was shot in the back of the head by tellow thug) his mother led the singing of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." Then she made a steady living on the side sell- ing phoney Bouvenirs of her
་
bandit son to tourists.
Those "romantic" giris of the "Romanlie" gun-slinging days! Calamity Jane was a trousered alcoholle who loved booze more than the soldiers bandits she lived among.
America is quite easily distinguished from the summer. It is the time when cowboys start putting the drop on each other in the new TV Westerns.
The
gun - slinging
Classic case is Wyatt Earp. starts afresh in most of so-called tamer of Dodge City the 30-odd Western He did not look a bit like Hugh
O'Brian, who plays hku on TV. for most of the shooting storing another and died of a
series on U.S. television.
Yessir, now we can ali hil the trail again--with a welcome for Marshal Dillon. And, yep, they are slugging it out aga in "Cheyenne," "Wagon Trzin," and "Wyatt Earp,"
been taking a long, hard look at the "real-life" heroes of the West lately. And they have come up with some disturbing facts,
pocket's and he wore a droop ing. Keystone Cop's moustache,
appear But his unromantic
dis- unce is the least of our illusions about Mr Earp.
No hero
You can bet your boots and saddle that nothing will change much in the good old
As a professional gambler he Wild West. Heroes will be tall, was described by 1 contem- simple, clean-shaven men, slow
porary as "up to some dishonest of speech bul fast with a six- trick every time he played." Kun.
business. Gambling was his He served very briefly us as- sistant marshol of brawling he could Dodge City so that better run the rockets and the less red-light district. from
3
to
a
The "baddies" it is easy pick out. They always need shuve, and they
their go for
guns frst, the fools.
The Wild West lasted than
a quarter-century,
TARGET
LAY
SIR
Luty many words ot Tour triter of more en FDD ŠE from che letters in
0
The aqua
the left
maklan
the words,
Titers
I used unce only Euch
pettes, aut Hire
the large
WORTH MUST be at least. we ten-letter word in the HT." No uuri : triguelly ; 10 propFT DISHES, TODAY'S FANGET en wirds good! SM wards. Be good: 23 words. excellent Malufion an Aonday YESTERDAY H SOLUTION 7 Menelit extremt fret leul ext meet mell, tuele mettle ex Het Pitie met veil sellee seitle SETTLEMENT vleet ymeli Ripei stele slew feem teniet tense fed text
Londun Express Bervice
IL
he
A fast man on the draw? is certainly on record that and his police moo shot up the Clanton gong and killed three. According to eye-witnesses they had their hands up at the time.
Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Wild Bit Hickok ...they are tall in the saddle when you see them on TV or in movies. Bul examine the facts and they fell a bit short of their reputations eyed crack shots.
as fearless
Preposterous is a mild word
,blue-
cowboy's Colt .44 clumsy weapon nearly a foot .43 was a long and weighing over 3lb. At 20ft. you could hit a man. At 20 yards you could miles his horse.
P
Billy the Kid, B narrow- shouldered psychopath with denoids and buck teeth, killed about 20 men during his brief
carcer
an and unsavoury outlaw. But Billy did not tool around with the "walk down the sun-baked main street" nonsense, he shot most of his victims from ambush.
Uglier
even
and
even
Seamy
But let us face up to the six- shooting truth--the cowboys of 1870 ore a lot nicer on the TV screen than they would be if you actually hact them in the living room.
Tough, uneducated, hard- living inen, their campfire dlet of meat and beans made a mess of their teeth and they died oft in droves with T.B.
Us
of
Yet the legend of the West will persist and grow, because She was 1 anything
until we cross the frontier ugler than Belle Starr who space the West was Our last went from one outlaw lover to irontier.
bullet
We switch on the TV Western possibly fired by her son.
Ed because I takes back to Reed, with whom she had in-
the simple absolutes of the cesiucus relations.
nursery, when virtue so cosily In
called triumphed over vice publication
by direct "Anerican Herliage," cppro-
Letion. author priately,
Peter Loon
The simple ethic of the Wild sums up two other heroes of the West doesn't square up with the West,
facla of history. Hollywood's white-toolbed six-and-a-half footers, the typical heroes of TV Westerns, are not the reality of the West.
a
W
Wild Bill Hickok: “A liar, a frequenter of bawdy houses and
professional gambler. Most hours of most nights he had business in Abilene's Ned Light district."
Hickok, in his satin-lapeiled sult and ringiel haircut, took money off the cowboys at poker while allegedly maintaining law
urder and
us marshal of Abilene.
Billy got his when an implac- able sheriff named Pat Garett pursued this juvenile delinquent He was famed as a crack shot, neross several Slates and shot on no reliable evidence. That
The Modern
The legend of honourable- ness towards women," finally bites the dust when you consi- der what happened to Earp's "wife" the
never probably
married her), Mattle Blaylock. Our hero Wyatt lit out on the
trail one day without so much
Chess News
man gives
Armstrong
by LEONARD BARDEN a run for
Solution NO. 5902: 1 P
KIS, K-Q3 (PxP: 2 P.B6, PXBP: 3 P-R51; 2 P-B8. KIPXP: 3 PXRP wins.
London Express Serpico.
A British Crossword Puzzle
12
5
16
?
110
12
13
14
15
[16
19
18
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
128
130
ACROSS
1 Claw partly metal once (0)
-4 Spots before your eyes? (0),
8 Sound account (0)
10 Emulate the brave (5)
12 Repeated alternation (8)
14 Where they bung the beer?
(7).
17 Dog In tiptop contuition? (4). 19 Fell bock (7),
20 Put on the wrong track (7).
22 Do some paper work (4).
23 Shortly and to the point(7).
27 Remote body (B).
29 Move silently (5).
30 Was sympathetic (8).
32
DOWN
Not a PC's beat (5). 2 Sup (0).
3 Sister-to-be? (6).
5 Satisfy the question-master?
(4).
@ Used "1 Across" (0),"
7 Had a little drink (0),
Row of houses? (7).
11 Cut by the frollesome (0).'
13 A little oyewash? (7).
15 Sudden attack (4).
18 Started flagg.DE (0).
10 Nautical base (4).
20 Business get-together (0).
21 Iteral parallel (8).
31 Cathedral town in France (6). 24 Certainly not Scotch (5).
32 Stay hora (5).
28 Gild the Uly? (8).
20 Lift up your voice (5).
28 They play together (4).·
his money
By Robin Douglas-Home RECENTLY for the ties he had
blossomed under GIRespie and Parker to become first time a unique leading light of the new bap musician-some say movement
D
And today? After A few genius-arrived in Bri- years in the wilderness ០. tain. His fees are around money troubles, narcotics, and -health, Mlles has re-emerged £1,000 a night. He owns as the new star in the jazz flrmament, beating both Arm- top
honours in the jazz polls. strong and Gillespie for
a gymnasium, drives £4,500 Ferrari, reads the daily stock market re- But as his musical popularity soors, so does Miles's personal ports avidly. His suits reputation sink, In fact, he has have been described as become the Jekyll-and-Hyde of "what the well-dressed jazz
On the one hand his fragile, man will be wearing beautiful musicianship. On the other, his reputation as a wasp- next year."
Ish braggart, with the manners He is Miles Davis, 34. of a verish hedgehog, who
the speaks only under dures
then in profanities, who refuses to acknowledge applause, who embies disinterestedly off stage during his side-men's solos. THE REASON
trumpet-playing czar of cool school and the most colour- fut character in modern jazz.
His arrival will spark off heated arguments wherever the hipsters gather. For there are no middle-rolders where Davis figures. You either dig him the
and
most, or you dig him nothing. His few close friends refute
He is either the bug from Bugs- ville or the drig from Drags- ville. Either the greatest liv
this image holly and claim that
once ha likes and trusts you,
no more warm OF generous
ing jazz man or just another friend could exist, They shy bopster.
Part of the reality died in Los Angeles when Wyatt Earp. rich from properly deals and fictionalising his scamy past.. succumbed to old age in 1930.
Tom Mix went to the funeral. They burled the 'truth about the West there. The legend lives on
his occasional bursts of spleen Why does this twice-married are reserved, Sinatra-fashion, son of an Illinois dentat gen- only for those who he feels are erate such electric controversy? kicking him around, wounde his down-and-out daya Two influences halp explain is from almost mystical position
under the fists of hoodlum night-club owDETE.
FORBIDDEN
One was
his high school It was then he took to music teacher who forbade him narcoties; but, his friends say,
Miles is one of the few who managed to break the habit completely without any ment.
treat-
to play his trumpet -- a 13th birthday present from his father In the warm vibrato fashion of Armstrong or Roy Eldridge, Hence Davis'a uníqua tone: They say the real reason be sparse, fraglie, tonely, and in- hind his reluctance to talk is freepoctive.
his consitivity about fils*volce. a throat operation in The other was his chance Ha had hiring in the early nineteen--1057, and was told by the forties by then band-leader doctors not le speak at all for Billy Eckaline when the third several days, Someone annoyed trumpeter fell ill. There in him and out came on expletive. the same band sit Dizzy The damage was done and now Gillespie and Charilo Parker, he speaks" in a woled, rasping future high priests of the mo- tono strangely resembling him demi jazz cult,
tight muled trumpet.
YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD—Across: 2 Freckles, a ond 9 Alantion. 11 Wrestler, 13 Adds, 18 Actuales. 18 Serenade, 10 Term. 21 Colander. 23 Mandarin, 20 Sep, 27 Treasury, Dowa: 1 Draw, 2. Bane. 4 Rell, 5 Cher. 6 Laird, 7 Bongs. 9 Alas, 10 Bewer. 12 Ruche. 14 Dodge. 10 Tenor, 17 Bedan. 19 Tempt, 120, From then on Miles nover 80 the contrizerky |__ rages. | Range, 21 Caps 23 Liar. 23 Dyer, 24 Ropa
Tocfeed back. By the late for». Which is the real Kilies DaYIST.
דיו.
-{London Herpraxi Service).
Beware of counterfeits- buy only from
sulhorized dealers.
Lost in an cestasy of living
Hot,gorgeous live tile,
With great big ruses
And fura..."
And cars, waiting,
And men, delectable men, waiting .
What did she need with the time?
It was horrid, precise and completely unnecessary
detail.
i won't feminine...
But one mED.
Who had the superbly manlike ability..
To calculate, sometimes, that the thing a woman.
says she doesn't want in the one thing she does, · Drought her a Rolex watch..
it wasn't feminine
to know
the time
-until she had
a Rolex
He was different from all the others,
He came out of a cloud of admirers-who all looked
the stor
With somelbing dow
A Rolex watch
And suddenly it was a better idea than any the
others had had.
It was more personal than mink-and very beautiful.
It was more fonfinine than car-even though it
www.precision perfect.
· It was completely hers.
And she loved iz
ROLEX
Landmark in the history of Time measurement
FLY PAN AM BIG JETS
FROM HONG KONG TO:
BANGKOK
ISTANBUL
RANGOON
ROME
CALCUTTA
PARIS
NEW DELHI
FRANKFURT
}
KARACHI
MUNICH
TEHERAN
VIENNA
ANKARA
U.S.A.
BEIRUT
From Hong Kong-Frequent Jet Clipper service
to the major cities in the Middle East and Europe. Stop over on route at no extra fare.
You'll travel aboard the famous Boeing 707 Intercontinental Jets-world's largest airliners. On? every Jet Clipper flight, you can enjoy a choice of first-class President Special or low-fare Rainbow. service.
For expert trip plannizig, call your travel agent or vid
Pan American; Alexandra House, Hong Kongu
PAN ZAVI
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.