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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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Just found this. I've read it a few times many years ago. My copy got ruined when my apartment flooded. Anyway, it's a very good read. https://archive.org/stream/Hell_I_W...There_Elemer_Keith_Autobigraphy_djvu.txtHere is one of my favorite passages from Elmer Keith talking about his childhood. It gives me a good laugh every time. One evening Si and I had herded the cattle through town, put them in the stock- yard, and we had just shut the gate when a big Negro came running towards us. He scared us. My brother could run like the wind, and I never could run good, so Si soon left me. Well, the big black man kept right after me. I seen that I couldn't outrun him, and I had a slingshot in my hip pocket with some good dime rubbers I'd bought at the drugstore. In another pocket I had a bunch of .36 caliber Colt round balls. To get them, we had dug the babbitt metal out of the boxes on the axles of the Santa Fe freight cars and run it in this old .36 Colt mold.
Those .36 Colt round ball molds made very good ammunition for the slingshot. One day I killed three cottontails and a quail with this outfit. Seeing that the man was going to catch me, I jerked the slingshot out of my pocket, unwound it and put a bunch of .36 balls in my mouth, put one in the bed and just as I figured he was going to get me, I whirled around, pulled it to my ear and let him have it, right in the face.
I saw his two front upper teeth go. They clicked quite loud. He grabbed his face with both hands hollering, "Oh, lawdy" and stag- gered around behind a spring wagon.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Sorta gave me a chuckle too.
"The number one problem with America is, a whole lot of people need shot, and nobody is shooting them." -Master Chief Hershel Davis
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Fun. Thanks for the link.
Ernie
George Washington - �Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,�conscience.�
God save the Republic
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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It's worth bookmarking.
Interesting fact,...Elmer Keith's family is from Cynthiana, Kentucky.
I was born at Hardin, Ray County, Mis- souri, March the 8th, 1899, the son of Forrest Everett and Linnie Neal Keith. Mother was a Merrifield and her mother was a descendant from Benjamin Merrill, who started the first revolution against the British four years before the American Revolution. His small army was crushed by the British. He was captured, hung, and drawn-and-quar- tered on the scaffold. My Grandmother Keith was Druzilla Ann Cummins before her mar- riage to Silas Keith in Cynthiana, Kentucky in 1850.
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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I know what ill be doing this weekend. Thanks
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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Also, I just noticed that if you click "see other formats" in the upper left of the page, the book appears as photo copies of the original.
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
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What do you reckon an autographed copy #396 out 500 is worth? I've got one and have never read it.
Last edited by 257Deland; 09/12/14.
Retired and Loving It!! ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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I have no idea, but I'd say a lot of people would want to buy it.
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants.
If being stupid allows me to believe in Him, I'd wish to be a retard. Eisenhower and G Washington should be good company.
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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I've sat here and read the evening away.
I started thinking about how my copy of the book got ruined in that little flood episode when I lived in the apartment,...then I started thinking about what year it was that I lived in the apartment,..and realized that it was 19 years ago.
I'm enjoying reading it again,...even though I've been through it several times.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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I picked up this autographed copy at a gun show in Kalispell for $35.00...
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Thanks, snagged kindle version
Dave
�The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.� Lou Holtz
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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I have no use for the blowhard. I'll give him the shrewd businessman wink though.
Conduct is the best proof of character.
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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I have no use for the blowhard. I'll give him the shrewd businessman wink though. Well,...I can understand why some people look at his writing and think that. But, it was written by an 80 year old man relating a life that was lived in a different era. It wouldn't be a very entertaining book if it had been written by somebody who was humble. In fact, an unassuming fellow wouldn't have lived Elmer Keith's life. It's unrealistic to expect somebody who has lived that life to write about it in an unassuming manner.
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Campfire Outfitter
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I know an older man who lives near Boise. He was a friend of Elmer Keith when he lived in Salmon. He fished and hunted with Keith, plus was an assiduous gun collector.
He told me that Keith was as good shot as he wrote about in his books and Guns & Ammo Magazine columns.
L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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I got a good laugh out of this, too.
One fall day I rode down to Winston to get the mail and was over at Valentine's saloon talking to some of the neighbors when Bert Lanning's mule came in to town, kicking and bucking for all he was worth. Con Sweeney and Tom Miles jumped their saddle horses and roped the mule. They threw the mule and stretched her out.
The saddle was under her belly, but part of the sack went back up to the top of her back. There was something moving in the sack. I couldn't figure what it was so I pulled the .45 out and put two slugs through the sack just so it could clear the mule's belly. They hit the hard ground and howled away. That limbered up whatever was in the sack. So I undid the cinches, got the saddle off, and bless Moses, there was a bunch of long black claws hooked right around the mule's back. I took my knife, cut the sack open, and there was a big old golden eagle he had in there. I cut the eagle's leg off at the joint, but I still couldn't get the claws out. One of the boys came out of Valen- tine's saloon with a pair of pliers and we got hold of the heads of the cords and retracted the claws and got the foot clear of the mule's back. Ross Degan came out then with a bottle of moonshine, poured that on the mule's back and she sure did bray. We tied the mule up and went back in the saloon.
About an hour later Bert Lanning came limping in. His whole backside was frosted with prickly pear. He had a tale of woe. He'd caught this eagle in a trap and he had it sold for $25 to the zoo, so he put it in a sack and tied it on behind the saddle. Then the eagle worked one foot around, got a-hold of the mule's back, and all hell broke loose. She bucked Bert off in a pile of prickly pear, and took off. We laid Bert on the pool table, got his pants down, and the boys picked the prickly pear spines out with pliers. They barb like a porcupine quill, and are very painful. When we got Bert's backside pretty well cleaned out, Ross Degan came around with a bottle of moonshine and doused him with that. Poor old Bert just about went through the roof. He was certainly mad. He says, "Keith goes and shoots my eagle, I get bucked off in the prickly pear, and then, Degan, you damn fool, you pour whiskey on it."
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Campfire Ranger
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A sip of trivia for what it may be worth to anybody �
The word Hell in the title of his book was his editor's insertion (to make the title "saltier").
It infuriated salty old cowboy Elmer, who carefully eschewed salty language that ladies and children could hear or read. He considered it unfit for public expression. He didn't even use "bad words" that Lorraine might hear him say.
And of course he didn't see that insertion until after the book was published.
� the only thing that I ever heard that quiet old man rant about.
"Good enough" isn't.
Always take your responsibilities seriously but never yourself.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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A sip of trivia for what it may be worth to anybody �
The word Hell in the title of his book was his editor's insertion (to make the title "saltier").
It infuriated salty old cowboy Elmer, who carefully eschewed salty language that ladies and children could hear or read. He considered it unfit for public expression. He didn't even use "bad words" that Lorraine might hear him say.
And of course he didn't see that insertion until after the book was published.
� the only thing that I ever heard that quiet old man rant about. Thanks, Ken. I appreciate you taking time to make that post. Hope all is well up your way.
"The number one problem with America is, a whole lot of people need shot, and nobody is shooting them." -Master Chief Hershel Davis
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