Ultimate Collection

The countryside is unusually picturesue—broad, rolling hills, thick with mesquite and scrub oaks, with the river winding its serpentine course through its narrow valley. On the slopes cattle and sheep graze and over all broods a drowsy quiet. But it is easy to resurrect the past in day dreams—to see the adobe walls rise out of dusty oblivion and stand up like ghosts, to hear again the faint and spectral bugle call and see the old corral thronged with lean, wicked-eyed mustangs, the buildings and the drill grounds with blue-clad figures—bronzed, hard-bitten men, with the sun and the wind of the open lands in their eyes—the old Dragoons! Nor is it hard to imagine that yonder chaparral shakes, not to the breeze, but to crawling, stealthy shapes, and that a painted, coppery face glares from the brush, and the sun glints from a tomahawk in a red hand.

But they have long faded into the night—the reckless, roistering cavalry men, the painted Comanches, the settlers in their homespun and buckskins; only the night wind whispers old tales of Camp Colorado.

A half mile perhaps from the Sackett house stands another remnant of the past—a sort of mile-stone, definitely marking the close of one age and the opening of another. It stands on a hillside in a corner of the great Dibrell ranch—a marble monument on which is the inscription:

BREEZE 21ST 31984

HEREFORD COW

BORN 1887 DIED 1903

MOTHER OF THE DIBRELL HERD

DIBRELL

This monument marks the resting place of one of the first registered, short-horn cows of central West Texas. When Breeze was born, west Texas swarmed with half-wild longhorns, descendants of those cattle the Spaniards brought from Andalusia; now one might look far before finding one of those picturesque denizens of the old ranges. Fat, white faced, short horned Herefords of Breeze’s breed and kind have replaced them, and in the vast pageant of the west, the longhorn follows buffalo and Indian into oblivion.

Letters

Table of Contents

Letters to the Editor:

Robert E. Howard to Adventure, Mar 20, 1924

Robert E. Howard to Adventure, Aug 20, 1924

Robert E. Howard to The Californian, Summer 1936

Robert E. Howard to Claytons Magazine, Jun 13, 1933

Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, Dec 1933

Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, Jan 1934

Robert E. Howard to The Fantasy Fan, May 1934

Robert E. Howard to Fort Worth Record, Jul 20, 1928

Robert E. Howard to The Ring, Apr 1926

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, ca. Jan 1926

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Jun 1927

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, May 1928

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Nov 1929

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Apr 1930

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Jan 1931

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Mar 1932

Robert E. Howard to Weird Tales, Jun 1936

Personal Letters:

To Robert Barlow

To August Derleth

To Harold Preece

To E. Hoffman Price

To Donald Wandrei

Letters to the Editor:

Table of Contents

Robert E. Howard to Adventure, Mar 20, 1924

Table of Contents

I am writing for information in regard to the tribes of Mongolia.

1. What is the Mongol word for "wolf"? For "tiger"? For "sword"?

2. Is the language used by the Mongols similar to that of the Tartars?

3. Do the Kirghiz inhabit Mongolia or Chinese Turkestan?

4. Are there any Baskir tribes in Chinese Turkestan, and are they allied to the Turkomans?

5. Am I right in supposing that swords or simitars still form an important part of a Mongol or Tartar warrior's armament?

6. Do the Mongol or Tartar tribes worship Erlik, Bon or Buddha? Or all three?

7. Is it still customary for the tribes to meet at some place an engage in wrestling, horse-racing and other contests?

8. Is polygamy practiced?

9. What are the different forms of punishment by law and tribal custom?

10. What are the powers of the khan of a tribe?

11. About what is the population of Mongolia?

Robert E. Howard to Adventure, Aug 20, 1924

Table of Contents

1. At what period did the feudal system flourish most highly in central Europe?

2. What were the rights of the feudal lord or baron?

3. Did not a privilege known as maiden rights exist under feudal rule?

4. I have heard that until 1889 or 1890 there was in Germany a law which permitted a man to whip his wife. Is this true? If so, were there any limitations to his authority?

5. What are some of the marriage customs of Poland, Germany and Austria?

6. I understand that public whipping was one of the punishments by law formerly in use in the countries of central Europe. In what manner was this done? Were women ever whipped?

7. About what is the population of Czecho-Slovakia?

If this letter should be published in Adventure, please do not publish my name.

R. E. H.

Cross Plains, Tex.

Robert E. Howard to The Californian, Summer 1936

Table of Contents