Phyliss

A native Texan, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Phyliss Miranda still believes in the Code of the Old West and loves to share her love for antiques, the lost art of quilting, and the Wild West.

Visit her at phylissmiranda.com

Cattle Rustlin’ and Hangin’

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In the Old West, the terms rustling, and rustler had several meanings. Livestock who forged well were called rustlers by cowmen; meaning the animals could graze or “rustle up” nourishment on marginal land. A horse wrangler or camp cook was also a rustler, but the most widespread and notorious use of the word referred to a cattle thief.

On the vast open ranges of yesteryear, rustling was a serious problem and punishable by hanging. At its peak, one of the largest ranches in the Texas Panhandle had over 150,000 head of cattle and a thousand horses. Obviously, thieves could drive stolen livestock miles away before a rancher learned he had animals missing.

The vast distances to town, hence law enforcement, often prompted ranchers to take actions of their own. Court convictions for rustling were difficult because of the animosity of small ranchers and settlers toward big cattle outfits. Many times, “vigilante justice,” hang ‘um first…ask questions later, was handed down by organized stockmen. Like horse thieves, cattle rustlers could be hanged without benefit of trial, judge or jury.

Today, even with detailed brands logged in books, registering with state officials, inspectors, and the meticulous paperwork involving transportation, not to mention a new era of branding technology to keep track of animals, ranches still face cattle rustlers…those dishonest people who want to profit from selling cattle without the bother of raising them.

No longer is a single head of beef stolen for food or an occasional Native American slipping off the reservation to provide for his family… it is big business. Modern day rustlers often sneak onto rural ranches at night, or on weekends when the owners are away, steal and sell cattle. An average calf can bring thousands of dollars on the open market; so multiply that by a trailer, or even a truck load, of cattle and you can see why it’s a profitable business for thieves.

Amid warnings that cattle rustling is on the rise in Texas, recently the state Senate passed a measure that would stiffen penalties for stealing farm animals, making theft of even one head of livestock a third-degree felony drawing up to a ten year prison sentence and a fine. Until the proposal is signed into law, a rustler can steal ten or more head of livestock and the punishment is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the law of the Old West … hang ‘um high and fast. Cattle rustling wasn’t the only crimes of the 1800’s and earlier. Train robberies closed in on it.

But was hanging always fast and efficient? Maybe you can decide from the following!

I delved into the subject of cattle rustling and the methods of rustlers while researching for one of our anthologies where my Pinkerton Agent comes to the Panhandle to break up an outfit of rustlers. But I became interested in “vigilante justice” from my mother-in-law, who passed on ten years ago at the age of 92. A story teller, she was reared in Clayton, New Mexico. One of her favorite tales was about the outlaw Black Jack Ketchum, the first man hanged in the town. His execution turned into a big town event, with the lawmen actually selling tickets to the hangin’. As history has it, the sheriff had to use two blows of the hatchet before the rope broke. Probably because of their lack of experience in “structured” hangings, coupled with the lawmen misjudging Ketchum’s weight and stretching the rope during testing, he was beheaded. Ketchum was buried at Clayton’s Boot Hill on April 26, 1901.

But my mother-in-law’s story only began there. Three decades later, when she was in grade school, Ketchum’s grave was moved to the new cemetery. Because her father was Clayton’s mayor, she witnessed the reburial. According to her, they opened the grave and she and her cousin touched the bones of Ketchum’s little finger. I’m sure in those days a casket did not weather well.

Do you have a family story you’d like to share? What are your thoughts on vigilante justice of the 1800’s and earlier?

To one person who leaves a comment, I will give you a choice of an eBook copy of Out of a Texas Night or a gift card to
Bath and Body Works.

1800’s Frugal Frontier Housewife

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THE AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE.
DEDICATED TO
THOSE WHO ARE NOT ASHAMED OF ECONOMY.

When I began my novella for Be My Texas Valentine, some nine years ago, I had to do some research on how laundry was done in the late 1800’s, so I went to my bookcase literally filled with reference books not only on the craft of writing, but books about everything anyone would ever want to know about the 1800’s. I’d totally forgotten about a CD I’d purchased with a number of works on it, including one written in 1832 and simply titled The American Frugal Housewife by a woman only identified as Mrs. Child. After reading a while, I decided in today’s economy it might be fun to visit some of Mrs. Child’s philosophy and guidelines from yesteryear.

The author’s premise is simple: “The true economy of housekeeping is simply the art of gathering up all the fragments, so that nothing be lost … Nothing should be thrown away so long as it is possible to make any use of it, however trifling that use may be … every member of the family should be employed either in earning or saving money.”

Here are some of her tips. Please note that I left much of the spelling and punctuation as it was originally written to truly reflect her authentic voice and the era.

• In this country, we are apt to let children romp away their existence, till they get to be thirteen or fourteen. This is not well. It is not well for the purses and {4} patience of parents; and it has a still worse effect on the morals and habits of the children. Begin early is the great maxim for everything in education. A child of six years old can be made useful; and should be taught to consider every day lost in which some little thing has not been done to assist others. They can knit garters, suspenders, and stockings; they can make patchwork and braid straw; they can make mats for the table, and mats for the floor; they can weed the garden, and pick cranberries from the meadow, to be carried to market.

• Provided brothers and sisters go together, and are not allowed to go with bad children, it is a great deal better for the boys and girls on a farm to be picking blackberries at six cents a quart, than to be wearing out their clothes in useless play. They enjoy themselves just as well; and they are earning something to buy clothes, at the same time they are tearing them.

• ‘Time is money.’ For this reason, cheap as stockings are, it is good economy to knit them. Cotton and woollen yarn are both cheap; hose that are knit wear twice as long as woven ones; and they can be done at odd minutes of time, which would not be otherwise employed. Where there are children, or aged people, it is sufficient to recommend knitting. Run the heels of stockings faithfully; and mend thin places, as well as holes. ‘A stitch in time saves nine.’

• Patchwork is good economy, but it is indeed a foolish waste of time to tear gppd cloth into bits for the sake of arranging it anew in fantastic figures; but a large family may be kept out of idleness, and a few shillings saved, by thus using scraps of gowns, curtains, &c. 

 

ODD SCRAPS FOR THE ECONOMICAL

• Look frequently to the pails, to see that nothing is thrown to the pigs which should have been in the grease-pot.
• Look to the grease-pot, and see that nothing is there which might have served to nourish your own family, or a poorer one.
• See that the beef and pork are always under brine; and that the brine is sweet and clean.
• Preserve the backs of old letters to write upon. If you have children who are learning to write, buy coarse white paper by the quantity, and keep it locked up, ready to be made into writing books. It does not cost half as much as it does to buy them at the stationer’s.
• The oftener carpets are shaken, the longer they wear; the dirt that collects under them, grinds out the threads. Do not have carpets swept any oftener than is absolutely necessary. After dinner, sweep the crumbs into a dusting-pan with your hearth-brush; and if you have been sewing, pick up the shreds by hand. A carpet can be kept very neat in this way; and a broom wears it very much. When a carpet is faded, I have been told that it may be restored, in a great measure, (provided there be no grease in it,) by being dipped into strong salt and water. I never tried this; but I know that silk pocket handkerchiefs, and deep blue factory cotton will not fade, if dipped in salt and water while new Keep a coarse broom for the cellar stairs, wood-shed, yard, &c. No good housekeeper allows her carpet broom to be used for such things.
• Suet and lard keep better in tin than in earthen. Suet keeps good all the year round, if chopped and packed down in a stone jar, covered with molasses. Pick suet free from veins and skin, melt it in water before a moderate fire, let it cool till it forms into a hard cake, then wipe it dry, and put it in clean paper in linen bags.
• The covering of oil-flasks, sewed together with strong thread, and lined and bound neatly, makes useful tablemats.
• Never leave out your clothes-line over night; and see that your clothes-pins are all gathered into a basket.
• After old coats, pantaloons, &c. have been cut up for boys, and are no longer capable of being converted into garments, cut them into strips, and employ the leisure moments of children, or domestics, in sewing and braiding them for door-mats.
• An ounce of quicksilver, beat up with the white of two eggs, and put on with a feather, is the cleanest and surest bed-bug poison. What is left should be thrown away: it is dangerous to have it about the house. If the vermin are in your walls, fill up the cracks with verdigris-green paint.1
• Eggs will keep almost any length of time in lime-water properly prepared. One pint of coarse salt, and one pint of unslacked lime, to a pailful of water. If there be too much lime, it will eat the shells from the eggs; and if there be a single egg cracked, it will spoil the whole. They should be covered with lime-water, and kept in a cold place. The yolk becomes slightly red; but I have seen eggs, thus kept, perfectly sweet and fresh at the end of three years. The cheapest time to lay down eggs, is early in spring, and the middle and last of September. It is bad economy to buy eggs by the dozen, as you want them.
• If feather-beds smell badly, or become heavy, from want of proper preservation of the feathers, or from old age, empty them, and wash the feathers thoroughly in a tub of suds; spread them in your garret to dry, and they will be as light and as good as new.
• Feathers should be very thoroughly dried before they are used. For this reason they should not be packed away in bags, when they are first plucked. They should be laid lightly in a basket, or something of that kind, and stirred up often. The garret is the best place to dry them; because they will there be kept free from dirt and moisture; and will be in no danger of being blown away. It is well to put the parcels, which you may have from time to time, into the oven, after you have removed your bread, and let them stand a day.

I don’t know about you, but I became exhausted by just reading about the do’s and don’t of a frugal frontier housewife. May of her tips are still used today.

So, what chore do you find the least pleasant and which might be fun?

I will be giving away a copy of my newest contemporary romance “Out of a Texas Night” to one lucky commenter, but if you have already read it, I bet I can find one of the others to give away in it’s place.

 

Phyliss Miranda’s Game Day Winners!

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Thanks to everyone who participated in my Game Day! It was lots of fun.

The Winners of the Bath and Body Gift Cards are………..

SABRINA TEMPLIN

PATRICIA B.

Congratulations, ladies! Look for my email to obtain your mailing address.

As promised, here are the correct answers to the match ups. 

1. Albert – A short chain connecting a watch to a buttonhole
2. Bangup – Overcoat
3. Boiled fabric – Clean
4. Dandy – Meticulously groomed man
5. Doctor’s Clothing – Goldheaded canes, wigs with long black
6. Calico – Cowboy’s nickname for a woman
7. Cordwainer – One who makes shoes
8. Cornette – Bonnet tied under the chin
9. Gallowses – Suspenders
10. Knickerbocker – Men’s loose breeches ending at the knee
11. Hawker – Street Peddler
12. Unwhisperables – Inexpressibles
13. Pagoda – Parasol
14. Rationals  – Women’s bicycle bloomers
15. Reticule – Small handbag made from fine fabric
16. Saratogas – Huge Trunks (we have one)
17. Spun truck – Knitting work or yarn
18. Tinker – Repairs or makes tinware 
19. Wright – Skilled workman or craftsman

Thanks again for playing!

It’s Game Day!

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It’s Game Day and I thought it’d be enjoyable to march up some of the essentials and the name they were known by in the 1800’s. They are in no particular order … so have fun.

1. Albert                                                     ____ Repairs or mades tinware 
2. Bangup                                                  ____ Parasol
3. Boiled fabric                                          ____ Street Peddler
4. Dandy                                                   ____ Skilled workman or craftsman
5. Doctor’s Clothing                                  ____ Overcoat
6. Calico                                                   ____ Women’s bicycle bloomers
7. Cordwainer                                           ____ Inexpressibles
8. Cornette                                               ____ One who makes shoes
9. Gallowses                                            ____ Clean
10. Knickerbocker                                    ____ A short chain connecting a watch to a buttonhole
11. Hawker                                               ____ Bonnet tied under the chin
12. Unwhisperables                                 ____ Cowboy’s nickname for a woman
13. Pagoda                                              ____ Knitting work or yarn
14. Rationals                                           ____ Suspenders
15. Reticule                                             ____ Meticulously groomed man
16. Saratogas                                         ____  Men’s loose breeches ending at the knee
17. Spun truck                                        ____  Huge trunk
18. Tinker                                               ____  Small handbag made from fine fabric
19. Wright                                              ____  Goldheaded canes, wigs with long black coat

To two readers who leave a comment I will send you a $10.00 Bath and Bodyworks Gift Card. I will post the winners along with the answers next Sunday, so you all can have some extra time to work on the game, since we’re mostly shut-in’s these days.

Have fun and check back next Sunday!

A Century of Cosmetics

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Elizabeth Arden changed the face of cosmetics in 1915, making makeup respectable in an age when it was considered tawdry. Arden and her company produced the red lipstick worn by suffragists on their 1912 march down Fifth Avenue, in New York City, and was heralded as one of the overall best-known American brands in the world by the 1930’s.

Although Arden cosmetics are still very popular today, one of my go to brands is Mary Kay. Mary Kay Ash of Hot Wells, Texas, was an executive in an era unfriendly to women in business, something I can attest, too! By the late 50’s, after being passed over for promotion yet again, she decided to create a paradigm shift for herself, and others like her, by creating a direct marketing company designed to resonate with the women that would become its sales force.

Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is a global success by any measure…not just by the iconic pink Cadillacs awarded to top saleswomen.

Of interest, a museum is located in the company’s world headquarters in Dallas, Texas; thus, securing its place in history. Visitors can hear Mary Kay’s motivational speeches and enter the Keepers of the Dream Independent National Sales Director Hall of Fame. I, for one, had no idea she has a Hall of Fame for her sales ladies.

To be honest with you, although I love my Mary Kay cosmetics, for my foundation I still use Cover Girl and my hairspray is still AquaNet.

Covergirl is certainly a cosmetics leader, celebrates authenticity, diversity and self-expression through their makeup. Developed six decades ago, they opened up their flag-ship store in Times Square in New York City. They offer affordable and easily accessible makeup for all generations.

One of the interesting facts I found about them is that Covergirl, in 2018, became the largest makeup brand to be Leaping Bunny Certified by Cruelty-Free International, which means all of their products are certified cruelty free, regardless of where they are sold.

                           What cosmetic could you not do without?

 

To a lucky winner who leaves a comment, I will give you a choice between receiving a Bath and Body Works gift certificate or an eBook of my latest Kasota Springs Romance “Out of a Texas Night”.

An Eccentric Texan

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Texas has it’s share of eccentric millionaires, but there was one in my hometown who raised the bar for others…not just for his philanthropy, but because of the art work and creativeness he gave to our community even after his death.

Stanley March 3, notice not a Roman Numeral III. He said the III was way too pretentious for his liking.  He was well-known for his outrageous art projects. The one that earned him national notoriety is the 1970s Cadillac Ranch. If you’ve ever driven on Interstate 40 just west of Amarillo you can’t help but notice the Cadillacs planted nose-down in a field to the south of the highway. The trunks and tail-fins of these former gas guzzler’s extend above ground, like whale flukes that become visible just before the big mammals dive…all colorful and personalized by millions of travelers and locals.

Although Marsh had to move the project to stay clear of our urban sprawl, Cadillac Ranch is still open to the public. In fact, visitors are encouraged to participate in the project by spray-painting graffiti on the rusted hulks. Periodically, some are painted in a solid color, so new art work can be added by travelers. It’s a must see when visiting our area.

I can’t help but post a picture of my youngest grandson, who is now in high school, at the ranch in front of one of our famous tumbleweeds a/k/a Russian Thistle. This proves everything in Texas is bigger than life.

Another roadside sculpture closer to Amarillo on the Frying Pan Ranch, one of the original ranches in our area, commissioned by Marsh is the “Two vast and trunkless egs of stone”. It was inspired by the work of British poet Percy Shell, in his 1818 sonnet, Ozmandias. It consists of two legs–one 24 feet tall, the other 34 feet. Like Marsh’s Cadillac Ranch, this art project on their ranch is subject to the occasional gratuitous paint job, and the feet have been seen adorned with sports socks.

The third unique thing that Marsh added to our city are hundreds of bogus highway signs proclaiming surprise announcements or posting questions, such as “What is a village without village idiots?”. They showed up unexpectedly in people’s yards, as well as public places, although many are gone now. Marsh was quoted as saying, “Art is a legalized form of insanity, and I do it very well.”.

Do you have anyone in your own who is eccentric enough to leave their footprints all over the area?  I’d love to hear about them.

To two winners who leave a comment, I will give them an eBook of my latest Contemporary Romance Out of a Texas Night.