Windsinger by Gary M. Smith (review)

Reviews 79 A mass of detail, some relevant and some inconsequential, is presented without discernible purpose. The material is simply not organized. Soule’s style at best could be classed as journalistic, but it is not even good journalism. For instance, on page 26 there are twelve paragraphs. Of the twelve, eight contain only one sentence, with six of those sentences being simple sentences. The other paragraphs, somewhat longer, contain many simple sentences also. Page 26 is typical, not unusual. The overall result is deadly. A major defect of the book is its historical inaccuracy. Soule admits that he always went back to The Trail Drivers of Texas to check his facts. Although Hunter’s work is the best book yet published on the trail drives, the oldtimers whose reminiscences it contains did not always get their facts straight. Although I did not search for errors, they were readily apparent, A few examples will suffice. On page 28 Soule gives the now discredited theory that “gringo” is de­ rived from the first two words of “Green Grow the Lilacs,” a song sung by the American army during the Mexican War. On page 102 he places Williamson County Texas, between Cameron and Hidalgo counties (they adjoin one another) and then later (accurately) north of Austin. On page 144 he has 5,000 cowboys herding 30,000 cattle near Abilene on May 15, 1871; that is one cowboy for every six cow brutes. On pages 237 and follow­ ing he presents the usual inaccurate “history of Billy the Kid” that dates back to Garrett’s book, ghost written by Ash Upson. On page 279 he pre­ sents the folk idea, not factual, that the XIT brand stood for “ten in Texas.” These examples are typical. I suppose that a book on the cattle trails is needed, but Wayne Gard’s The Chisholm Trail (1954), listed in Soule’s bibliography, is much more readable and accurate. And I prefer to read Soule’s chief source, The Trail Drivers of Texas, which, incidentally, has been reprinted with a good index. There is life in the old trail drivers’ accounts which Soule’s haphazard approach has obscured. I believe that the editors and the publishers were remiss in not rejecting this book. ORLAN SAWEY, Texas A&l University in Kingsville Windsinger. By Gary M. Smith. (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1976. 175 pages, illus., $7.95.) Gary Smith is alarmed by the self-destructive process in which Modern America is engaged. Although the process is named Progress, it may not be: we hasten our consumptive pace and want to live with more. Windsinger sings of the man who w'ants to live with less and enjoy life more. Smith views man as part of an ecosystem where all life and processes involved are 80 Western American Literature regarded as a community and not a commodity to be used for man’s present goals and wants. Initially Smith’s song is a prose ballad of unsung folk heroes whom he met in his travels within the United States and in the Far East. These men and women, although they live in different environments and face different daily routines, all share the same point of view of life: living with the land. The reader meets folks who carve wooden birds, whittle chairs, and brand cattle. They live simply and separately as best they can. In addition to praising the individual, the author celebrates the vestiges of yesterday’s cultures. For example the Basques, a people who still retain their identity as happy, generous sheepherders, celebrate the unity of life in daily song and dance. Smith also respects and depicts the Native American cultures from the Anasazi to the present. Windsinger is a memoir addressing universality. Smith consistently reinforces the necessity of man living with nature by describing through his prose, lyrical poetry, and photographs those who have and those who don’t have this lifestyle. His prevalent use of contrast makes Windsinger unusual. Perhaps one of the more powerful contrasts is the episode of the U.S. Marines in Okinawa who scheduled an ammunition test in an official wild­ life sanctuary, the home of Noquchigera, endangered species of woodpecker...