Friday, August 31, 2007

Asbill book

"Last of the West"

My uncle had a copy of a book written by one of the Asbill brothers. You know… the One that killed his wife with a frying pan and decided to write his memoirs in prison. It was hand type copied. They didn't have photocopiers back then. I also read that book. It was a complete exaggeration of everything. One of the passages I remember was: “Before the Whiteman showed up, the wild strawberries were so thick that you couldn’t ride your horse around the hillside without slipping off” and “There was so many acorns that they would fill the creek bottoms”, probably exaggeration, but you got the Idea that there must have been more than we have now.

There was a lot of talk about; “When Men Were Men”, I guess he
yearned for the days when men were allowed to kill their wives.
He also talked about “Heathen Chinies” (spelling intact). I guess discrimination didn’t start with us. The book was not a great work of literature but it was well worth reading for what little historical value could have been gleaned from it.

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