First, Two-Bits from the Author
Dear Readers: Welcome to the introduction of Mannysmoke. Reading this section is optional, if you like, wait for episode one. Our story takes our couple back to a different time and place and I hope you will fall in love with them as we watch fate take its course. This is a historical romance set in the old west. There are some similarities between the venerated television show, Gunsmoke and this loose adaptation. Indeed, after reviewing some of the old shows, this writing task seemed more difficult. The old show was very funny and it included all of the elements that make us love Manny: romance, drama, angst, adventure, danger and intrigue
Mannysmoke is also a tribute to the old west. Many of the America's legends come from tales surrounding the settlement of the American west. Today many of the nobler attributes of the old west are fading away. There are fewer horse and cattle ranchers each year. It is hard to learn ranching skills and there are fewer veterans around these days to break in new younger people to this fulfilling yet backbreaking work. As the ranches go by the wayside so dies the last of a breed of unique men and women who are often revered but usually misunderstood. Luckily, traditions die-hard and the picture books of history have helped to foster the legends until now. We must all do what we can to appreciate what these people did and try to preserve their heritage. The cowboys of today know that the trade they work is part legend and part reality.
Why pay homage to the vintage cowboy and cowgirl? If for no other reason than that this industry, this occupation is one of the few things that technology cannot improve upon. The changes within horse and cattle wrangling are negligible within the last 100 years. The saddles, the chaps, the boots, the hats, the reins, the tethers, the tacks all remain unimproved.
In managing the handling of these animals, the old way is still the best way.
The American west opened up in the middle 1800s and today on authentic horse and cattle drives, nothing has changed except for the fact that there is less open space, fewer scenic vistas and smaller quantities of rainbows.
The idea that rodeos are the redeeming feature of the American west is an insult to those who settled this land more than 100 years ago. Rodeos target very specific skills for cattle and horse handlers, such as bronco busting and roping and working the cattle and horses. If you think that this is what defined the American west, you are missing the key points of what defined cowboys and cowgirls, the day-to-day skills necessary for survival in a brutal and beautiful country. Rodeos are just exhibitions of the old west not an accurate portrayal of how these people lived.
So too must we look at the other side of the coin and see the negative effects of our desire for manifest destiny in the American west. In our zeal, we came close to eliminating all the traditions and ways of those people who had already settled the land but in a calmer more peaceful way. Your author will not dodge this issue.
Readers please know that in a small attempt to preserve the heritage of the old west, historical fact appears wherever possible in this series. The writer has done her best to weave these facts into the stories so you can learn and enjoy.
Now, imagine if you will the sound of cow and horse hooves hitting the ground so hard that it penetrates the silence and breaks through the quiet of your existence like the roll of distant thunder coming up through a green valley.
This is the mystique and the beauty of the American west.
Now let us go find out about Dodge City and meet some of its residents in the year of our Lord, 1873.
Around Dodge City and in the territory in the west, there is just one way to handle all the killers and the spoilers, and that is with a US Marshall and the smell of gun smoke.
This is Mannysmoke, the transcribed story of the violence that moved west with young America and the story of a man who moved with it. I am that man, Danny "Matt Dillon" Santos, United States Marshall. The first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It is a chancy job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Today's Lesson:
Gunsmoke was an appropriate title for an episodic television series set in the 1870s because back then, smokeless gunpowder did not exist. After you fired a weapon, the gun smoke was so thick that it impaired the accuracy of your second shot at ten paces.
A Bit of Trivia About Dodge City and Our Cast
Brief Overview: Our story revolves around the exploits of Danny Santos in the frontier town of Dodge City from 1873 to 1876. He and Doc are drinking friends who spend hours chugging beers at the saloon operated by the shapely Drew Kitty.
Long Overview
Dodge City is the regional seat for Ford County in the state of Kansas (statehood granted in 1861). The town's major economic force was cattle drives (8 million head of cattle went through the town in 1884). Dodge City's first commercial business was a saloon built in 1872. The town incorporated in 1875. The city is 5 miles away from Fort Dodge, named after Union Colonel Dodge (the fort was founded in 1864). Dodge City has 1000 residents within its 3-mile radius and 16 saloons (today the city has 18,000 residents).
Most of the land surrounding the town is prairie grass. If you sit under a tree outside of Dodge, you are probably sitting under a cottonwood. The closest rivers are the Arkansas and the Cimarron. In the 1870s, you paid about $3 for an acre of land and $5 for a head of stock. Water was a problem back then as it is today and there was a constant battle between those who wanted to farm their land (sodbusters) and those who wanted to raise cattle.
A horse and wagon (or a stagecoach for example) traveled about 9 miles an hour.
It is 576 miles from St. Louis to Dodge City, a stagecoach or wagon could make the trip in five or six days as long as a wagon wheel didn't break or an axle bust or a horse going lame. Wichita, Kansas was 153 miles from Dodge City, a good 2 days away. Times were dangerous as well. Although shoot-outs were rare, petty thefts and random shootings were commonplace.
Today, Kansas bears the nicknames of the Jayhawker and the Sunflower State. A jayhawker was a guerrilla raider during the Civil War era in Kansas. Although there were few buffalo left alive when Dodge City incorporated, the state animal is the buffalo. In 1900, there were 500 buffalo left alive in the entire American west. At one time, estimates placed the number of buffalo in the west at 7.5 million and this was a conservative guesstimate. After the Civil War, the white man slaughtered most of these peaceful animals in just a few years. Thanks to conservation efforts, Buffalos are no longer an endangered species. Strangely, one animal that the newcomers were unable to tame or kill-off were wild horses. Today there are thousands upon thousands of these wild horses and in certain parts of the west; these animals are not just the fancy names for domestic automobiles such as Broncos and Mustangs.
In Mannysmoke's Dodge City, prominent businesses include:
Buzz "Morris Collar" Cooper's Dry Goods Store
The Dodge City Times Newspaper (a weekly publication)
The Mahler's General Store
The Great Western Hotel
The 1900 Club AKA Long Branch Saloon
The Towers/Saratoga Saloon
Lady Selena Saloon/Gay Saloon
Eleni "Ma Smalley" Cooper's Boarding House
The Tonsorial Parlor owned by a father and son near-do-well team of the Bill Lewis's
The Dodge R Us Savings and Loan Bank owned by Ben Warren
The Livery Stable owned by Matt "Quint" Reardon
Bennie "Percy Crump" Dietz's Undertaker and Furniture Store
The Dodge City Depot Stage and Transfer Station
The Dodge City Cattle and Agricultural Exchange Association and Library
Characters:
--US Marshall Danny "Matt Dillion" Santos was appointed to his position by the War Department. He views himself as an officer of the law and a symbol of frontier justice. As Marshall of the city, a small town in the middle of harsh territory, he brings law and order to a lawless frontier where lynch mobs are the norm. He has a reputation for being a quick draw and a fair man. Cattle rustlers, fugitives, stagecoach bandits and gunslingers are the variety of villains that populate Dodge City and the surrounding territory.
Therefore, he is busy. Santos likes to take criminals into custody and deliver them to the authorities for a fair trial but if you resist him, you will end up at over at Bennie "Percy Crump" Dietz's. The Marshall is famous for saying that he does not hang people, the law does. Santos speaks Comanche, Cheyenne and Sioux Native American dialects and speaks fluent Spanish. His weapons of choice are a Sharps 50 and a Patterson 40.
--Mrs. Drew "Kitty Russell" Jacobs is the proprietress of the Long Branch Saloon AKA the 1900 Club, the most popular saloon in town. She is a perceptive businessperson with a tough exterior, which hides her soft heart. She employs one bartender, Sam, and a variety of young women to make pleasant conversation and look attractive for the men. She must be doing pretty well as she seems to be the only one in the city of Dodge who changes clothing regularly and can afford to replace all the furniture in her saloon on a regular basis after it is constantly destroyed in brawls. She and the Marshall are friends, just that. Every once in a while someone mentions something that happened in the past with a bottle of tequila but it is in the past and the two of them do not discuss it.
--Doc Rick "Galen Adams" Bauer is the town surgeon. He has a bit of a deity complex and thinks that he knows everything, ornery is a very good word to describe his disposition. Some of the townsfolk sent away for a mail order bride for him in hopes it will improve his bedside manner. He spends much of his time at the 1900 Club. Doc's idea of performing medical procedures includes digging bullets out of the wounded and using whiskey for anesthesia. He prescribes morphine for headaches, laudanum for women's complaints and cocaine for bad tempers. Recently the Marshall has been sharing some native remedies that seem to keep the townspeople awake and coherent. He has started to give White Willow Bark (aspirin is its synthetic derivative) and Valerian Root (Valium is the synthetic derivative) for head pains, aches and nerve soothing. He is still not too sure of these two prescriptions and when in doubt returns to the morphine, laudanum and cocaine (MLC) route. Doc does not consider himself above administering aid to animals. An interesting fact is that it took Doc eight years to get through the usual three-year medical school program back east.
--Jesse "Chester Goode" Blue is the town's deputy Marshall. He talks with a twang and brews up a mean pot of coffee. He is a kind and thoughtful man who earnestly always wants to make his life a little bit better but cannot seem to put all the pieces together.
--Miss. Abigail (Abby) Blume is the mail order bride that the towns folk ordered for Doc to improve his bedside manner. She arrives in episode 3. The problem is that Abby cannot stand the sight of Doc so there will be a few problems.
--Miss. Michelle "Adams" Bauer is the new schoolteacher who begins her journey to Dodge City in Episode 1. She is Doc's younger sister and he is very nervous about her arrival in Dodge. He spends great amounts of time telling the townsfolk what to say about his behavior and that he never frequents the local saloons. Miss. Bauer is an independent and headstrong young beauty that thinks nothing of putting a gunslinger, her brother, or even the Marshall in their place if she sees fit.
--Ray Santos is a cattle drive boss and a ranch owner. He has the largest; some would say hugest spread in all of the western territory. Ray is the Marshall's cousin and the two men are close friends.
--Mick Santos is Ray's identical cousin. Mick is not very nice and the strange thing is that no one has ever seen the Mick and Ray together. Even the Marshall remembers playing with only one at a time when he was young.
--Mrs. Cassie Layne Jessup is new to the territory; she arrived in town in our prologue. She is a woman who married and quickly lost her new husband to what could best be described as post wedding jitters. She intends to settle on the land and turn it into a farm. Ray Santos is eyeing her spread.
--Mrs. Holly Read is the Dodge City paper editor and town telegraph operator. She is not married, her last husband ventured into the Arizona territory and no one has heard of him for years. The Dodge City Times Newspaper is a weekly publication with a circulation of 250 copies. The daily paper from St. Louis arrives three weeks late by stage.
--Matt "Quint" Reardon is the town blacksmith. He is an extremely handsome man and one most of the women in town have eyed for years. He prefers the company of one of Mrs. Drew Kitty's women and says he wants to wait until he is 35 before he marries. The women in town are keenly interested as he is now 34 years of age and cleans up nicely.
--Jim "Newly O'Brian" LeMay is the town gunsmith. He went to medical school but could not hack it. When he first came to town he pretended to be a doctor but Doc figured it out in two years and now he is back to gunsmithing. He is a widower with a teenaged daughter who wants to be a cowgirl.
--Ross Mahler is the owner of the general store and is a part-time legal advisor. Back east, he was a lawyer but there is little call for preaching the law here in this lawless country.
--Mrs. Blake Mahler is the happily married and oft pregnant wife of Ross. They have a brood of 10 children now and are the primary drivers for getting the new town school marm.
--Ben Warren is the one of the town's bank presidents (he owns and operates Dodge R Us, Savings and Loan) and a resident gambler. He is a regular at Mrs. Drew Kitty's establishment.
--Bennie "Percy Crump" Dietz is Dodge City's Undertaker and Furniture Maker. No one hears much from him or sees him very often, actually.
--Sam Kershaw is the barkeep for Mrs. Drew Kitty. He plays the fiddle, makes wood carvings (boxes a specialty), reads lots of interesting literature and talks a lot about losing a brother to both sides during the Civil War.
--Mrs. Selena "Lady Gay" Davis owns another saloon in town called the Lady Selena Saloon. Like Mrs. Drew Kitty, Selena also hails from New Orleans. She names all her cats after Mrs. Drew Kitty and seems to have an unnatural affection for the younger woman.
--Miss Vicki Brandon operates the Great Western Hotel; a top-drawer establishment with bathtubs in most of the rooms and each room has its own chamber pot. It is the nicest hotel outside Wichita.
--The Cooper Gang includes; Buzz "Morris Collar" Cooper (who also owns the dry goods store and keeps the prices pretty steep, some say he charges an arm and a leg and they wouldn't be that far off the mark), his son Frank, Jr., David Grant, a former US Army buffalo soldier. The gang also includes eight ranch hands and helpers.
--The Spaulding Gang includes Alan Spaulding, his son Philip Spaulding (who is on his way back to the ranch with his wife and two children) and quite a few hired hands.
--Duke Edmund Winslow and his brother Duke Richard Winslow are professional gamblers passing through town in episode five.
--Bill Lewis, Sr., Bill Lewis, Jr., the tonsorial parlor in town and they pull teeth, do barbering and shaves, run a legitimate bath house and oh yes in their spare time they pan for gold. The two constantly are trying to dig elaborate underground tunnels right in town so that they can mine for precious minerals. The problem is that one of them usually takes to music, women or drink (or all three). Then a tunnel caves in and well you can imagine the rest. It would be unkind to say that these two are the town clowns but it would be true.
--Mrs. Eleni "Ma Smalley" Cooper runs the town's only legitimate boarding house. She was married to Frank Cooper, Jr., about nine years but recently left him due to his snooping, eavesdropping on others conversations, horse stealing, lying and overall down and dirty cheating ways. He is trying to woo her back but she is just glad to be out in the open again and not taking care of a bunch of kids. Most of the townsfolk think she will keep the business for a while.
--Hawk and Meta Shayne run the Dodge City depot stage and transfer station in town. This unusual couple came to the area from St. Louis and neither will discuss their past or their relatives. The Sante Fe Stagecoach line passes through town from St. Louis via Wichita.
--Mrs. Lillian and Beth Raines are a mother and daughter duo who operate the unusual Towers/Saratoga Saloon. Everyone has tried to close down this saloon for the better part of a year but no one kind find the right way to do it. You see the Towers Saloon is up on top of the town's water supply tank and it makes for a treacherous trip up and down the ladder for the drinkers. Still the two curvaceous blonde-haired women pull the men up into the establishment every evening and this saloon is Mrs. Drew Kitty's main competition.
--Mrs. Vanessa Chamberlin Lewis and Mrs. India Von Halkein run the town's newest business, Dodge City's Cattle and Agricultural Exchange Association and Library. These educated and well-traveled women hope their association will make the farmers and ranchers one big happy family. Currently the women are at work stacking books in preparation for the library's grand opening in the late fall on a holiday that is only 10 years old, Thanksgiving.
--Doc Bradford's and Nurse Dutton's Traveling Medicine Show, these two women tour the western territory selling a unique brand of tonic that smells an awful lot like grain alcohol, peppermint and anise root. They claim that it will cure everything from baldness to teeth rot to the egg gout (trust me, you don't want to know what this is). They can also hypnotize folks upon request.
The town includes quite a few other folks known for different reasons. There is frogmouth Kate, squirrel tooth Alice, mole face Fran and wart nose Nancy. They work for Mrs. Drew Kitty. Freddy, Clem, Red, Rudy and Claude are 1900 Club regulars. Introductions to other story characters will occur on an episode-by-episode basis.
Come join in this small celebration of a somewhat true story of the old west.
