The Line from Here to There: A Storyteller's Scottish West Texas (review)

274Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober ment. In both cases the defendants killed their victims in front of witnesses and then claimed self-defense. In neidier case was the modern notion ofself-defense— being in imminent danger of being killed—present, but the killers relied on die Old West code of defending their honor and protecting themselves against men who had publicly threatened their lives. In the first case, which occurred in 1913, a prominent landowner and rancher gunned down a well-known bad guy who was awaiting trial for killing his brother in cold blood. The killing occurred in a public washroom where the witnesses were preoccupied with other matters. The jury acquitted the popular cattleman. The second case, which went to trial in 1923, involved two suspected catde rusders who shot two lawmen in a hotel parlor in front of prominent individuals in the community, including ajudge, a sheriff, and the several attorneys.Juries convicted both men, despite their claim of self-defense. The basic facts were the same, but the situations were quite different. No one can say for sure, but if the second case had been tried in 1913 and the first case in 1923, die same verdicts may have been returned. From Guns to Gaveh is not a scholarly legal or historical treatise, but it does colloquially relate an interesting period in Texas history diat readers of the Old West genre will find fulfilling. PflugervilleAlfredo E. Cardenas TL· Line from Here to There: A Storyteller's Scotthh West Texas. By Rossana Taylor Herndon. (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2008. Pp. 148. ISBN 978o8g6726307, $24^5 cloth.) Rosanna Taylor Herndon, professor emérita of oral communication at Hardin Simmons University, expanded her academic field into the perhaps less welldefined , though still entirely valid, communicative art of storytelling. About the same time, she inquired into Scottish history, particularly as it relates to her family 's presence in West Texas, fanning out from Fort Wordi toward the High Plains. Accordingly, she introduces her book with a well-taken historical summary to set the stage for her stories, which give expression to Scottish culture, values, and historical experiences. She takes pride in her Scottish ancestry and the Scots' lifestyle and values— hardworking, resourceful, independent, thrifty, and hospitable. She claims no Scottish monopoly upon these essential traits (whether brought in as cultural luggage or learned on the scene) for coping widi the harsh environment of West Texas. Scottish personal characteristics and experiences are implicit in the author's characters, who are funny, tragic, stern, courageous, lighthearted, and all interesting. Most are the author's family members, both immediate and extended, and persons from the surrounding communities. A few examples: George Kempton Ashburn struck out from Fort Worth in the late 1870s to survey West Texas for a homestead. He found his place with school and church reasonably nearby (at his wife's insistence), and proceeded to build his home. 2oogBook Reviews275 Three daughters, however, feared traveling to the distant school in a land devoid of landmarks. To guide them, Ashburn plowed a single, straight-line furrow six and one-half miles long from house to schoolhouse, hence die book's title. Sam Taylor of North Carolina had a youthful vision of becoming a Texas rancher, but under parental pressure became a professor of mathematics instead. He came to West Texas, taught, saved money, married, and realized his boyhood dream with notable success. There is also the story of EuIa Taylor, the author's mother, and the Ku Klux Klan. Mrs. Taylor, on her way to meet her husband and walk home with him from his work, stumbled upon and in fear hid from a procession of Klansmen, many of whom she recognized. One of the best stories is that of Richard Taylor, the author's father. Cowboy first, then World War I veteran, lawyer, and devoted company man ofInternational Harvester, whose farm machinery was a select item on the black market in World War II. In clever disguise, Taylor went underground, identified black market dealers , and built evidence of their sorry dealings. A number found themselves unemployed after the war ended. Finally, Professor Herndon's recollections of a Dust Bowl childhood will find...